Wes Hoffman was a name I hadn’t heard in years, at least since I left the Lou in 2013. It was during an interview with the American Thrills guys last month where Hoffman’s name was mentioned, and that spurred me going down a rabbit hole and researching just about everything there was to know about […]
Wes Hoffman was a name I hadn’t heard in years, at least since I left the Lou in 2013. It was during an interview with the American Thrills guys last month where Hoffman’s name was mentioned, and that spurred me going down a rabbit hole and researching just about everything there was to know about the guy, including the significant hiatus he took up until 2017.
For years Hoffman was well known in the St. Louis punk community, and although he wasn’t too active around the time I was discovering the local punk that STL had to offer, his name was one I was fairly familiar with. But time marched on. I moved to Nashville and fell out of touch with the local bands of my former residence … until now. Come to find out, Hoffman has emerged from hiatus and has a shit-load of killer pop-punk anthems released under the moniker Wes Hoffman and Friends.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with the man himself Wes Hoffman, along with bassist extraordinaire Jacob Boyd and we covered a ton of ground, everything from what spurred the hiatus, what to expect from their debut-full-length due out later this year, and a whole bunch more. Attached below are the two singles from their debut record, and if I’m being honest, they’ve been playing nonstop on my Spotify. There’s no concrete date for the record yet, but these two tracks both intrigue and excite the hell out of me. Thanks again to the guys for sitting down with me, and be sure to check them out at one of their upcoming dates in a city near you. Cheers!
(Editor’s note: The following has been edited and condensed for clarity’s sakebecause a good chunk of this interview was just three guys shooting the shit.)
Dying Scene (Nathan Kernell NastyNate): I appreciate you guys taking the time. Yeah I heard your name [Wes] from the American Thrills guys, I did an interview with them last week, week before and they mentioned you guys. And your name was one I hadn’t heard in a long time, I used to live in St. Louis about 10 years ago. So I was looking through your profile and I saw you had a record coming out, I thought it’d be a cool interview to do.
Wes Hoffman: Hell yeah man well we’re excited to be here. Yeah Jacob and I have been playing music together for almost 23 years now, it’s 22 1/2 years no 21 1/2 years so I really wanted like incorporate the other guys that are in the band and have them do interviews and stuff like that so this is the first one.
I’m always pumped to have more guys on the interviews. I think the last few I’ve done it’s been like more than just one guy and I like doing it, the more guys the better I think. So yeah kind of the first thing I want to talk about, I know Wes you kind of took a hiatus from the music scene in St. Louis. I wanted to see if you could walk me through kind of your music career I guess from beginning to end. I know you had a pretty good presence starting out and then you took this hiatus and I wanted to see if you could just walk through, beginning to end, what groups you played with, what everything looks like?
Wes: Well you know I was in high school, I grew up like an hour away in Vandalia IL, about an hour away from St. Louis. I actually met Jacob our senior year in high school after we graduated. We both played a show, it’s really silly *laughs*, but it’s the County Fair in Fayette County, Illinois. Both of our bands were playing and we both kind like recognized each other, like you know when you see a person and just they have a vibe or like the way that they’re dressed or something, you’re like “oh man I kind of want to talk to that person, like I have something in common”. And so we became friends and both of our bands that we were in in high school just dissolved because we moved on. And then we had a band called, we started out as Samus, like Samus from Metroid *laughs*. That’s what it was called the first like few months. Then changed it to the Livingston project and this probably would have been late 2001, early 2002. Then I moved to Texas for a little while, but Jacob stayed in the band and they kind of changed the sound a little bit. At the time bands like Thursday were really coming up, like kind of that melodic hardcore, metal core sound with like screaming and singing you know. So then I kind of came back in 2003 or 2004 and I had a band called the Citation and we played around off and on until about 2006. And then, at the time, I met my ex-wife and I kind of put music on the back burner for a while. I kind of went through that whole phase of when you’re in your like mid 20s of “Okay well I have a job and I bought a house”. And you know we ended up getting married and everything and I was like “well I don’t really have time for music anymore”, which I think a lot of people that play in bands go through that. And, sadly, maybe they just lose passion for it and they don’t stick with it. But it was like 2015, I came back and started playing again; played in a band called Why Not. And then my buddy at the time he was like “hey, let’s get a practice space”. He played drums and so we started playing, and then Why Not, it was kind of like winding down a little bit. I really caught the spark again to play music and I wanted to keep this going, no matter what, so I’ll just name this Wes Hoffman Hoffman. For a long time it was Wes Hoffman Positive Punk, now it’s Wes Hoffman and Friends. I just kind of thought, no matter how I do this, I know I’ll always wanna keep playing music so I’ll just use my own name with it. So shortly after that, we brought in Jacob and we’ve been going pretty strong now for over five years, since 2017.
Okay cool. Yeah so I really wanted to kind of hammer on the St. Louis punk scene because I don’t feel like it gets enough credit sometimes. Like I know you’ve got like Dan Vapid, the Methadones, and I’m big fan of the Fuck off and Dies; I love those guys man. But I don’t feel that some of those bands get enough credit from anywhere outside St. Louis. I want to know what some of your favorite local bands are, tell me a little about the St. Louis scene, how it’s doing. I know you’ve got 314 punk which I wanna talk about a little bit later too, but I wanna get your guys’ take on the scene itself.
Wes: I definitely agree man, there are some pretty good bands here right now. There are a lot of good bands and there are a lot of shows happening. I think post Covid everybody was like “alright we wanna play some shows, we wanna get our names out there and start doing stuff”. I would say some of the bands that we really like, that we play with a lot are the Chandelier Swing, kind of a newer band, they’ve been around for about a year. But a lot of those guys have been in other bands and they kind of remind me of like Four Year Strong, like that early 2000s pop punk.
Jacob Boyd: Yeah literally I was gonna say Chandelier Swing, they’re so good. What’re some of the other bands we’ve played with? Dialogue is fantastic. Like Wes and I pretty much like all the same bands so whatever he says, I’m gonna say
Wes: There’s a band, we haven’t played with them yet, they’re called Inner City Witches and they kind of have a little bit of like progressive, a little bit of a little bit heavier sound. They sound a little bit like Turnstile. So yeah there’s a lot happening right now and it’s really kind of an exciting time. I feel like the St. Louis music scene kind of ups and downs. We’re definitely on an upswing right now. There are a lot of people coming out to shows and there are a lot of bands that are doing a lot of stuff. Some of the bands here are starting to go out of town, ourselves included, so I’m really excited about it.
That sounds a lot like Nashville too. Some bands are starting to go out of town and we were kind of on an upswing right before Covid. Then Covid killed it with some of the local bands and some of the local shows, but it’s finally starting to come back. It’s real nice seeing some of the local bands start to gain some more momentum and they’re starting to tour out of town.
So yeah, I wanna hit hard too on the new record, try to kind of promote it a little bit. So what’s the background on the new record, is this kind of like a compilation of songs you just collected over time or did you kind of set out like “alright let’s come up with a new record, let’s write enough songs for new record”? Are these songs that you’ve compiled over your career are they all brand new?
Wes: These are all pretty much brand new. It’s gonna be called ‘How it Should Be”. I have two of the songs that are gonna be on the record out on Spotify right now, two singles, ‘Where Summer Never Ends’ and ‘A Second Too Soon’. And yeah I mean we put out this EP, it’s been almost a year now, ‘Rewrite the Story’ and I wanted to put out a full-length and take my time with it. So over the course of, I mean it’s been over a year now that I’ve been working on this record, finally next week it’s gonna be starting to get mixed and mastered. So I’m really excited about it; the tough thing is you know, like I said, I’ve been working on this for like a year now and I’ve continued writing. So now the new stuff that I’ve been writing I feel like is so much better than that. I mean the record is already gonna be great, you know what I mean, but I feel like the new stuff I’m writing is already better *laughs*.
Jacob: Yeah totally. The songwriting progression it’s really hit a pace now and like even the stuff that we’ve had around for like 7-8 months that Wes wrote and we recorded for this new record, it’s like Wes has already written 10 more tracks that are so phenomenal; it’s like “wait can we sneak one of these on to the record”, like they’re just getting better and better and better. And it’s like we already wanna release another EP after this record, but obviously you gotta pace things a little bit. But like the songwriting is just really hitting a new level and it’s really fun to be a part of.
Wes: Yeah man it’s kind of like the more you do something, the better you get at it, you know. I have tons of songs that will never seen the light, that no one will ever see except for probably me and Jacob because I send him usually most of the stuff [I write]. And I think it’s just that the syncing has helped me become so much better of a songwriter I’ve just written so many songs, not all of them are good, but now I’m at the point where like most of what I’m churning out is pretty good
Then is most of the songwriting primarily you Wes or is it a like collaboration type thing with all the guys you’re playing with?
Wes: Yeah so most of it has been me up until this point. Especially with the EP, I really wanted to put out something that really had my fingerprint on it all the way around. But I can’t play drums so everything on the EP and on the upcoming record, I played all the guitars and bass and our drummer did all the drums. Then we did have the guys come in and do like some vocals and some other stuff too. Like I’m just one of those people, I wanna be prolific and I’m constantly writing and trying to throw stuff out there and constantly trying to better myself. At this point, being at our age, it’s hard enough to get all the guys in the room for practice for an upcoming tour or something like that; we all have girlfriends or wives and careers and other things that are happening in our lives. I almost have another like five songs for an EP demoed out. But I really would like to, who knows when this will be because the new record hasn’t came out yet, but I really would like to do a few songs where everybody kind of collaborates a little bit. Maybe go away for a weekend and kind of figure out “hey how do we wanna write these songs”. Everybody in the band is super talented at what they do, it would be really interesting to kind of see what we could come out with as a collective effort.
I wanted to ask about ‘Where Summer Never Ends’. What’s kind of the meaning behind that song, walk me through the writing process; just kind of background on that songbecause that’s a killer track.
Wes: Yeah so with that one I kind of wanted to have more of an aggressive Hot Water Music kind of feel to it. And the song itself is about like you know if you’re ever in a situation that you don’t want to be in, do you hold out to try to see if it’s gonna work out or do you just take the easy way out and move on. That song, it’s probably one of my favorite songs to play live. We just had a really big show here in St. Louis and when we played that everybody just went ape shit, it was awesome *laughs*.
Jacob: Yeah when Wes first sent me the demo for that song, I was like “holy crap, this is a single”. Like that song had me more excited than almost any other song we’ve done and I love most of our songs. But like that song just blew me away; I was like “that has to go on the new album”. So that’s the lead track on the new album
That’s one I’ve been hooked on and then I’ve also kind of been hooked on ‘Far From Yesterday’, so I really wanna talk about that one too, see what the meaning behind that one was too because that’s been one I’ve kind of had playing nonstop.
Wes: Oh dude, thank you man. Yeah you know, that’s a really high-energy track too. We usually play that second and people are usually jumping around; that’s one that I feel like a lot of people know the words to as well. I wrote that song in the summer of 2020 so even though people are just now discovering these songs, they’re kind of old you know, a couple of years old. But that song specifically was about me going through a pretty major life transition. I moved out of my house, I closed my business, I started a new job, just kind of the anxieties and the feelings of like “hey this is a whole new thing”, and I’m basically rewriting my story.
Do you kind of have a timetable like “we might do another single in two months, six months, maybe try and have the full length out in a year”, what’s that look like?
Wes: ‘Thunder’ I think will actually be the next single off of it and we’ll probably put that up with like a lyric video or something as soon as it’s mixed and mastered. So I would say maybe a safe estimate would be early March. And then I wanna put out one more, ‘Paper Hearts’, with a video as well and that might not be, I like to space things out a little bit, maybe May or the middle of May, something like. Then hopefully we’ll put out the album either in the summer or the fall depending on how everything shakes out.We’re talking to a few labels about possibly partnering to put it out, but nothing solid yet.
This is kind of a question for both of you guys. So in what I’ve heard from you guys, I kind of hear the melodic side, I know you did a show with A Wilhelm Scream, I kind of hear that melodic side. But then I also hear the pop-punk side, like you said with Four Year Strong, I kind of hear that too. I want to hear what both of you guys think, what are your influences?
Jacob: I kind of grew up on like the Get Up Kids, like pop punk, kind of safe pop punk because you know my parents weren’t cool with anything too out there; like MXPX and all that stuff. I was in a punk band in high school and I grew up around a lot of like indie punk, early 2000s pop punk. And that’s like a lot of what I even still listen to. Like that time period, like early 2000s punk, pop punk specifically, is a huge influence for us I think. The older you get, you’re exposed to more and more influences, but there’s something about those early bands you listened to, you know, they really stick with you, whether you like it or not. They really kind of shape the way you look at music.
Wes: Yeah I couldn’t agree more. I think the bands that you really embrace in formative years when you’re like 13 through early 20s, those are the bands that really leave their mark on me. Yeah MXPX, the Get Up Kids were another one that people compare us to quite a bit recently, not knowing that that’s like one of our favorite bands *laughs*. But also, I mean I love A Wilhelm scream, I love like fast, technical punk. I’m definitely nowhere near the guitar level of those guys, but we try to throw little flashy riffs into our songs and stuff like that; that’s always fun for me. Face to Face is another big one for me.
Wes: And No Use for a Name, I think he was doing No Use for a Name also. Yeah I mean No Use for a Name and Face to Face, they just kind of had more of that melodic sensibility. Then I would say like more modern bands, the Menzingers, I’m a huge fan of the Menzingers. They kind of have that like Midwest style, that kind of Bruce Springsteen songwriter-type feel. I like them a lot and Bayside, I know Bayside’s been around forever, but they just put out an EP and a new single and their new stuff is some of the best stuff that they’ve ever put out.
So how was that show with A Wilhelm Scream over at, where was it, the Ready Room?
Wes: It was supposed to be at the Ready Room, but it was at the old Rock House. It got moved, the Ready Room has not quite opened yet. They’ve done a few shows there, but I think there have been like some issues with like permits and things like that. But it was awesome man, we’d never played there before. I wanna say it maybe holds 200 people and there were probably around 100 people there. It’s a Tuesday night in St. Louis and Four Year Strong was also playing in town that night too. And In Flames. St. Louis, the tough thing about our city is we’re a big city, but we’re not like Chicago; if there are a couple big shows happening in the city like A Wilhelm Scream, Four Year Strong, and In Flames, like they don’t all succeed. We’re just not big enough; whereas that happens in Chicago, it’s fine because there are like several million more people there to go to all those shows. Here it’s just a little bit different. But it was great, those guys ripped and they’ve been one of our favorite bands for years, for decades.
Yeah I finally got to see them a few years ago here in Nashville at the End actually and there were maybe 75 people there, it was unbelievable. But we ran into that same problem the other day where we’re not a huge city, but we had a bunch of shows going on the same night. I think we had like Counterpunch and A Vulture Wake which is Chad Price from All, Lagwagon was playing the night before so everyone was there, and then we had I think Clutch, so like nobody showed up for A Vulture Wake which kind of sucked but it was such a killer show.
So then what about Punk in the Burbs up in Chicago with Bollweevils and Much the Same, how was that show?
Jacob: Oh it was a lot of fun, yeah. It was a dope event, we were really lucky to play there and get a good time slot, never played Chicago before. We got to meet a lot of bands…
How many bands played that show?
Jacob: There were two days and probably like 12 to 15 bands each day, maybe that’s too many…
Wes: The first night I think there were maybe like 7, but the second day there were definitely like around 15. It started at noon and it goes, I think we were there until midnight. So really like 20-plus bands probably. But it was really cool, Much the Same was another one that was kind of lumped in with A Wilhelm Scream back in the day, like that fast, technical punk. And then the Bollweevils were awesome, and Bumsy and the Moochers, a ska band, they were a lot of fun too. We had a good crowd and I think we gained some new fans. It’s always nice to make connections. Actually one of the bands that played the night before us are from Chicago, Bad Planning, and we’re gonna go on a little like four-day run with them coming up here in February. We were just really thankful for the opportunity, it was a lot of fun and we’re excited to go back to Chicago now.
What day are you guys playing up there, do you know the date for that?
Wes: February 17th, it’s a Friday at Subterranean.
So what’s your guys’s upcoming show schedule look like, I know you said you’re doing an out-of-town run?
Jacob: Yeah it’s like February 16th through 19th, we’re doing Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, and then back in St. Louis again. And then the very end of March, early April, we’ve got another three-day run with our buddies from Stay the Course from Wichita. We’re doing a three-day run with them, the 31st of March and 1st and 2nd of April, KC, Lincoln, Nebraska, and then Columbia, Missouri Columbia
Wes: Yeah so with both of those tours, of course we’re going out with like awesome bands on the road, but at all of those shows, the Bad Planning run and the Stay the Course run, we picked all the local bands that are playing those shows. So, in the past, we maybe went to a city and a promoter has found locals or you know the venue has maybe found a couple locals to play; we’ve researched and found all the locals bands in those cities that we thought would be a really good fit for us, stylistically but also feel like they’re into it, they wanna get people out to the shows, where it’s not just “oh, we hopped on the show four days ago”. On the Stay the Course run, Kansas City, Lincoln, and Columbia, I booked all of those myself as well, so I really liked the behind the scenes part of it also. Like I like the booking and the the business side of being in a band too. And with those guys, we did like a little three day run with them earlier this year in April of 2022 and we just like hit it off with them as like friends. Of course we like each other’s music, but they were so much fun just hanging out with and we just had like an instant connection with them. If we could have it our way, we’d probably do a little weekend run with them every year just because there our guys
So the last thing I really wanted to hit on was 314punk, the group you started Wes. And I did some research, but can you kind of tell me about it, I don’t really know a lot about it.
Wes: Yeah man, absolutely. So actually I sent Jacob when we first started releasing music in 2021 the songs that are on the the EP ‘Rewrite the Story’. I was doing a lot of interviews with places covering the underground pop punk scene as a whole, but there was nothing in St. Louis that I could see that was like “oh hey if you wanna get your music out to people in St. Louis, here’s where you do it”. So at the time, Covid was kind of still in full swing and people weren’t going to a lot of shows, there was like limited capacity and all that. So I went on a really long walk, during Covid I’d go on these really long walks and just kind of think and talk and I sent Jacob a really long message about like …
Jacob: Yeah it was like 30 minutes long *laughs*
Wes: I was like “we need to start something that showcases punk rock in St. Louis”, partly so that when we have songs out people know about them. But if we’re in a band and we’re wanting something like this, then other bands are probably wanting some centralized place where people can go to see what’s happening in the St. Louis punk scene. So I started an Instagram account and I started just reaching out to bands that I knew and said “hey can I feature you on this page”. That was April of 2021 and so I’ve been doing it for like a year and a half now and then I started having bands from out of town come to me because you know they’re probably going on Instagram searching punk in St. Louis or something and 314punk is maybe the first thing that comes up. So I’ve had a lot of experience in booking shows for my own band, but also bands in the past and I was like I can start booking shows here. The first show that I booked, they’re called You Vandal, they were coming through and they had actually just gone on tour with Bad Planning and they were like “hey one of our shows dropped, can you get us a show?” And I have a pretty good relationship with a small venue here called the Sinkhole and I sent them a message and got a bunch of local bands on it, we probably had close to 100 people show up to the show on a Wednesday night, it was a really decent show. I want people to come out and see shows here, I really just wanna help showcase like punk in St. Louis. And I’m not gonna lie, it’s a lot of work, I’ve taken a little bit of time off here around the holidays. I don’t think people realize it’s a lot of work booking the shows, promoting the shows, posting stuff online. I’m not in this to make a profit, I’m just doing it because I want people to know about punk rock in St. Louis.
East Bay ska-punks Omnigone have announced their new album Against the Rest, due out March 31st on Bad Time Records. The 15-song LP is the band’s second full-length release, following their 2019 debut No Faith. Check out the music video for the lead single (the album’s title track) below and pre-order the record here. Omnigone’s […]
East Bay ska-punks Omnigone have announced their new album Against the Rest, due out March 31st on Bad Time Records. The 15-song LP is the band’s second full-length release, following their 2019 debut No Faith. Check out the music video for the lead single (the album’s title track) below and pre-order the record here.
Omnigone’s core lineup includes two former members of Link 80, guitarist/vocalist Adam Davis and bassist Barry Krippene. Against the Rest sees the duo joined by a cast of musicians from bands like Rx Bandits, Flying Racoon Suit and Kitty Kat Fan Club. Suicide Machines singer Jason Navarro makes a guest appearance on track #2 “Communities in Collaboration”.
1. Against The Rest 2. Communities in Collaboration (feat. Jay Navarro) 3. One More Minute 4. In The Grey 5. Are We Ok? 6. Destroy Hymn 7. Tonight 8. Flip The Magnet 9. No More Looking Back 10. Relentless 11. Control 12. Kill Your Ego 13. Refusal 14. Web We Weave 15. Who Knows?
Dying Scene was at one of the final stops of the 2023 Bad Time Records Tour in Chicago at the Bottom Lounge, and boy was it a ska party for the ages! This show featured We Are The Union, Kill Lincoln, Catbite and J. Navarro & The Traitors…plus an epic ska-riffic on stage dance party […]
Dying Scene was at one of the final stops of the 2023 Bad Time Records Tour in Chicago at the Bottom Lounge, and boy was it a ska party for the ages! This show featured We Are The Union, Kill Lincoln, Catbite and J. Navarro & The Traitors…plus an epic ska-riffic on stage dance party to conclude the night.
Another sweet treat on this tour is the forthcoming documentary This Is New Tone that followed the entire Bad Time Records Tour. Here is the synopsis of the film:
“’THIS IS NEW TONE’ will be a concert film and documentary centered around the 2023 Bad Time Records Tour, featuring We Are The Union, Catbite, Kill Lincoln, BAD OPERATION, Omnigone, J. Navarro & The Traitors, and more. Much in the spirit of the film “Dance Craze”, the film will primarily center on multi-camera live performances from throughout the tour, but will also document the the bands and crew as they embark on this full-US venture. Featuring interviews from current band members, scene veterans, new fans, and ska legends, the film will also attempt to examine the current state of the modern ska punk scene, how it fits into the broader arc of ska’s history, and try to discover if the perceived “resurgence” is accurate or inflated. With many of the Bad Time Records bands rapidly growing, now is the perfect time to document the trajectory of the bands and the impact of the community.
The modern ska scene has never been captured in this way, and one of the main goals of the film is to make the live show experience accessible to those who are not able to attend the tour or shows in general. We will attempt to make the film as immersive as possible, to show the full scope of the high energy live experience and community aspect that one can find at one of these shows, while also giving a better picture of what the bands are like as people on and off stage. Bad Time Records is a completely DIY effort, and we aim to show that anyone can build up their own scene or collective and accomplish something significant without the support of major labels or corporations.
In the process of making the film, we will have a camera and sound crew documenting all 22 dates of the 2023 Bad Time Records tour. Hours of interview footage has already been captured, and the majority of the remaining filming will take place during the tour in March, June, and July of 2023. We are currently aiming for a December 2023 release of the film.”
A Kickstarter for the film has been launched and features tons of cool rewards. Make note to see this film when it releases!
Kill Lincoln brought their infectious energy next, including their own hype-man that danced the entire night.
We Are The Union released Ordinary Life on June 4th, 2021. Their song “Boys Will Be Girls” is incredibly catchy.
Closing out the night was the infamous Catbite. They recently released a cover with Brian Fallon from The Gaslight Anthem of “Yes It’s True” by The Slackers. You can listen here! Also consider buying the vinyl from Bad Time Records; all proceeds support Play On Philly, an organization the helps underserved youth in Philadelphia get music education.
Did you miss out on the Bad Time Records Tour? Not to worry- you can catch these artists back on the road soon (including Catbite touring with Anti-Flag and Bouncing Souls!!). Check out the rest of the photos below!
Greetings, and welcome to the Dying Scene Record Radar. If it’s your first time here, thank you for joining us! This is the weekly* column where we cover all things punk rock vinyl; new releases, reissues… you name it, we’ve probably got it. Kick off your shoes, pull up a chair, crack open a cold […]
Greetings, and welcome to the Dying Scene Record Radar. If it’s your first time here, thank you for joining us! This is the weekly* column where we cover all things punk rock vinyl; new releases, reissues… you name it, we’ve probably got it. Kick off your shoes, pull up a chair, crack open a cold one, and break out those wallets, because it’s go time. Let’s get into it!
Check out the video edition of this week’s Record Radar, presented by our friends at Punk Rock Radar:
New MxPx record!Find A Way Home is due out August 25th. There are a bunch of color variants, including one with a die cut cover, and a picture disc. Pre-orders are live now on mxpx.com and they seem to be shipping immediately (mine did, at least). Check out the new single “Stay Up All Night”:
The Suicide Machines are celebrating the 20th Anniversary of their 2003 album A Match And Some Gasoline. In addition to playing the album in full on a brief tour with Against All Authority and Kill Lincoln this December, they are also releasing it on vinyl for the first time ever!SideOneDummy has a few color variants on their webstore, and Zia Records has an exclusive blue galaxy variant limited to 300 copies.
Reel Big Fish‘s Candy Coated Fury is getting a Deluxe Edition reissue, with five bonus tracks and a gatefold jacket with glow in the dark cover art. Enjoy the Ride Records pressed a bunch of sweet color variants, but the only one still in stock is the Alternative Press exclusive variant, limited to 200 copies. Get it here before it’s gone, too.
On an unrelated note: word on the street is Turn the Radio Off will be getting a repress of its own in the near future. Stay tuned for more on that!
Austrian punk veterans 7 Years Bad Luck are back with a new album. No Shame is due out August 4th on Monster Zero Records. Their last album Great, Big, Nothing is a hard act to follow, but the first single “I’ll Forget You” makes me think they’re up to the task. Check that out below and get the record on aquatic blue colored vinyl here.
The Gaslight Anthem announced their new album History Books will be released on October 27th. This is the band’s first new record in almost a decade. There are like a trillion color variants of this thing and I’m not gonna bother trying to name them all. Here‘s where you can get some of them.
Five Iron Frenzy is releasing a full-discography box set called Put Your Waste In Its Place. You get 10 records for $250 in a box that looks like a flaming dumpster. That’s a value that can’t be beat, folks! Get it here (you can also grab the individual records here).
SACK‘s Get Wrecked is getting a new pressing from Clearview Records, limited to 300 copies on canary yellow colored vinyl. This goes up on the label’s webstore Wednesday, July 26th at 6pm Eastern Time.
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes‘ latest album Are We Not Men? We Are Diva! is getting its first new pressing in nearly a decade. There are an undisclosed number of copies on red w/ black splatter colored vinyl (as seen in this very poorly cropped image). Get yours here.
Asian Man Records is reissuing the Taxpayers‘ God, Forgive These Bastards: Songs From The Forgotten Life Of Henry Turner. The 2xLP on red and black swirl colored vinyl features b-sides, demos, and interviews with band members. Get it here.
Agnostic Front‘s Victim in Pain is back in print, with a fancy new embossed cover. There are a bunch of variants exclusive to different retailers, including Generation Records (red, 200 copies), Revelation Records (yellow, 1,000 copies), and Revolver Magazine (black platinum swirl, 500 copies). Bridge Nine has the blue and silver color variants on their webstore.
Well, that’s all, folks. Another Record Radar in the books. As always, thank you for tuning in. If there’s anything we missed (highly likely), or if you want to let everyone know about a new/upcoming vinyl release you’re excited about, leave us a comment below, or send us a message on Facebook or Instagram, and we’ll look into it. Enjoy your weekend, and don’t blow too much money on spinny discs (or do, I’m not your father). See ya next week!
Wanna catch up on all of our Record Radar posts? Click here and you’ll be taken to a page with all the past entries in the column. Magic!
Greetings, and welcome to the Dying Scene Record Radar. If it’s your first time here, thank you for joining us! This is the weekly* column where we cover all things punk rock vinyl; new releases, reissues… you name it, we’ve probably got it. Kick off your shoes, pull up a chair, crack open a cold […]
Greetings, and welcome to the Dying Scene Record Radar. If it’s your first time here, thank you for joining us! This is the weekly* column where we cover all things punk rock vinyl; new releases, reissues… you name it, we’ve probably got it. Kick off your shoes, pull up a chair, crack open a cold one, and break out those wallets, because it’s go time. Let’s get into it!
Check out the video edition of this week’s Record Radar, presented by our friends at Punk Rock Radar:
We’re starting off this week’s Record Radar strong with new pressings of not one, but two classic Suicide Machines records! Asbestos Records has repressed Destruction By Definition and Battle Hymns for the first time in a decade. Head over to their webstore to grab a copy of each record on one of three color variants (or succumb to your addiction and buy three copies of each!).
And hey while you’re over there, Asbestos also reissued the Suburban Legends’ Rump Shaker for its 20th birthday. One of the variants already sold out and the red swirl colored LPs are almost gone, too. Get your copy here.
Continuing our ska-heavy start to this week’s column, Asian Man Records is next up to bat with the first ever vinyl release of the 1999 MU330 Christmas album Winter Wonderland. Limited to 500 copies on green vinyl – get it here.
And Less Than Jake will put a bow on the ska portion of this Record Radar, with the latest batch of color variants for their 25th Anniversary Hello Rockview reissue. Three new variants of the 2xLP deluxe reissue were announced last week and they’ve all sold out. However! LTJ also just announced a 2024 leg of their Hello Rockview anniversary tour, so perhaps those who missed out will have a shot at another tour variant? Here are all the color variants so far:
Blue w/ White Splatter & Yellow w/ White Splatter (2023 Tour Variant)
Half Silver / Half White (300 copies, Fest Exclusive)
Red inside Yellow & Brown inside Blue Vinyl (500 copies, Smartpunk Exclusive)
Blue w/ Red Splatter & Yellow w/ Pink Splatter (1,000 copies)
Pink/Yellow Cornetto & Red / Blue Cornetto (1,000 copies, Band Exclusive)
Oh wow, a new release! Portland Ramonescore troupe Mean Jeans will be releasing a new album in February, 2024 on Fat Wreck Chords. It’s called Blasted and the first single “I Don’t Give a Shit Anymore” is streaming now. Get the record here.
The non-Jello Biafra sanctioned “2022 Mix” of the Dead Kennedys’ Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables has a new color variant exclusive to our friends at Newbury Comics, home of the $35 record. They pressed 750 copies of this new Clear Smoke color variant for some reason; wait a few months and you’ll probably find this in Newbury’s $9.99 section along with the rest of their landfill fodder.
Speaking of expensive records, this one’s a doozy. Screeching Weasel‘s Kill the Musicians has been released on vinyl for the very first time, 28 years after its original CD release on Lookout! Records. Here’s the catch: this is a long-ass record (the runtime’s a little over an hour). So you’d expect it to be a 2xLP release, right? Wrong. They’ve split it across two separate “volumes”, each of which is $30. So the choice is yours, get a CD copy off discogs starting at $9 or fork over $60 for two separately released large, colorful etched plastic discs.
SBÄM Records continues the trend of old albums getting first time vinyl releases, announcing a very limited colored vinyl release of Authority Zero‘s 12:34. The 2007 album is available on two splatter variants, each limited to 150 copies. Grab yours here.
Short-lived Dan Andriano fronted Chicago punk band Tuesday’s lone album Free Wheelin is back in print once again thanks to Asian Man Records. This 4th pressing is limited to 300 copies on random colored vinyl. Get it here.
German punk veterans Wizo have a new album called Nichts Wird Wieder Gut (I believe this means “nothing will be good again”) coming out in January. Check out one of the singles below and get the record on clear vinyl (Ltd to 500 copies) here.
Bad Time Records has announced a 2xLP compilation featuring live recordings of We Are the Union, Kill Lincoln, Joystick & more from the 2023 Bad Time Records Tour. In addition to featuring four exclusive tracks, the records come in a gatefold jacket with a poster included. They’ve got three color variants up for pre-order here.
An official repressing of the Misfits’ Collection has been announced, just in time for Halloween… er Christmas… uhh I mean next Easter! This Record Store Day Essentials release on glow in the dark colored vinyl will hit store shelves March 22nd, 2024. You can pre-order it here or from your local record store (assuming you have one).
Chris from the Lawrence Arms’ acoustic side project Sundowner’s debut album Four One Five Two has gotten a new pressing for the first time since its original release in 2011. I don’t know how many copies of this white vinyl reissue Red Scare pressed but it looks like it’s almost sold out – get your copy here.
Australian melodic punks The Decline are bringing up the rear on this week’s Record Radar. Their 2019 album Flash Gordon Ramsay Street is back in print on a beautiful new color variant. You get get a copy from these labels: Thousand Islands (North Amurica), Disconnect Disconnect (UK), Bearded Punk (EU) & Pee Records (Australia).
Well, that’s all, folks. Another Record Radar in the books. As always, thank you for tuning in. If there’s anything we missed (highly likely), or if you want to let everyone know about a new/upcoming vinyl release you’re excited about, leave us a comment below, or send us a message on Facebook or Instagram, and we’ll look into it. Enjoy your weekend, and don’t blow too much money on spinny discs (or do, I’m not your father). See ya next week!
Wanna catch up on all of our Record Radar posts? Click here and you’ll be taken to a page with all the past entries in the column. Magic!
Violent Femmes, the legendary folk punk group out of Milwaukee, WI, returned to Chicago’s Riviera Theatre. The band is celebrating the 40th Anniversary of its self-titled debut album Violent Femmes. Lending support was Elizabeth Moen, originally from Iowa, now of Chicago. Violent Femmes, founded in Milwaukee WI in 1981, originally consisted of Gordon Gano on […]
Violent Femmes, the legendary folk punk group out of Milwaukee, WI, returned to Chicago’s Riviera Theatre. The band is celebrating the 40th Anniversary of its self-titled debut album Violent Femmes. Lending support was Elizabeth Moen, originally from Iowa, now of Chicago.
Violent Femmes, founded in Milwaukee WI in 1981, originally consisted of Gordon Gano on lead vocals and guitar, Brian Ritchie on bass, and drummer Victor DeLorenzo. Gano and Ritchie remain part of the present line-up, with multi-instrumentalist Blais Garza and drummer John Sparrow joining in 2004 and 2005 respectively.
As mentioned above, this concert tour celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the band’s self-titled debut, Violent Femmes. The group kicked off its set with what is arguably its most famous and likely most popular tune, “Blister in the Sun.” It seems not often that a band will play its biggest tune right out of the chute. But when those iconic first notes hit, the crowd was immediately thrilled and that feeling appeared to never let up. Gano’s unique voice is as strong as ever.
Violent Femmes is immensely suited to sing-alongs by the audience. Sure, audience members singing along is pretty much standard operating procedure at many concerts. However, at a Violent Femmes show, the art is a bit elevated. Seemingly every word is sung in great unison by, often sold out crowds. At one point Brian Ritchie, if I recall correctly, raised an arm in the same manner as association football aka soccer, players do, to urge fans on. It might not technically fall under the call-and-response definition but was pretty cool to witness.
Speaking of Brian Ritchie, he was a charismatic presence throughout the show. Moving to the edge of the stage several times, he delighted those in close proximity. If there was a leader on stage among the band members, it was clearly Ritchie.
Zooming through the track listing, the energy level from band and audience never waned. The crowd did understandably appear to skew older, many likely discovering the debut album when it actually debuted, or soon thereafter. It was refreshing, however, to see younger fans scattered throughout, a family affair for some. Highlights included the aforementioned “Blister in the Sun,” “Kiss Off,” “Gone Daddy Gone,” “I Held Her In My Arms,” and “I’m Nothing.”
All of the band members are adept at playing multiple instruments, as is the case with many groups. Gordon Gano, for example, plays the violin along with the guitar. However, some of the instruments are, to say the least, non-traditional. Ritchie plays not only bass, but a conch shell as well, and a box he slaps as he sits upon it. I don’t know of any other punk bands in which a conch shell is used. (It also made me regret not taking home one of the beautiful conch shells I saw during my time spent in Belize years back.)
But eliciting cool sounds from unusual sources is just one of the things that makes Violent Femmes music unique.
John Sparrow, plays an instrument more unusual even than a conch shell. As in a Weber Grill in the role of one of his drums. Yes, that American barbecue grilling classic. The first sight of it is always amusing, but it’s played it to great effect.
Sparrow plays roughly along the same onstage line, as Gano and Ritchie. With the exception of briefly trading box slapping duties with Ritchie, he performs standing, slightly hunched over a simple set-up. Sparrow was one of the most animated of the performers on stage.
Also, because he was not obscured by a combination of factors: distance from the photo pit, blocked by an expansive kit and/or a high stage, and poor lighting in the back area, it was refreshing to be able to actually grab some pretty decent drummer photos. His deft playing was fun to witness as well, especially when he was let loose for an occasional solo. On stage, Ritchie described Sparrow as a “Grill Master.” Fitting. Hey Weber Grill, give this guy a sponsorship if he does not have one already.
When attending a Violent Femmes show, it is hard to not immediately notice another thing set toward the rear of the stage. A giant saxophone, known as a Contrabass Saxophone.
Played by Blais Garza, the instrument made its first appearance with the group in 2004 and has been used on subsequent Violent Femmes recordings.
The manner in which Garza plays the instrument, towering high above him, leaves no doubt he has complete command of it, evoking lovely and compelling sounds.
At first glance, those unfamiliar with Violent Femmes’ music and shows might dismiss instruments such as conch shells, Weber Grills, and supersized saxophones, as gimmicky. And yes, there are many gimmicks to be found in punk music. Way too many for me personally. Schtick Punk is not really my jam. Violent Femmes are not that at all.
However quirky Violent Femmes is, the band is not given to cheap and easy artifices. This is a band, decades on, with some personnel changes, which remains, at its core, a band of great musicians. They put on a clinic of how to stage a show the attendees will long remember and leave, looking forward to the next time Violent Femmes hit their towns.
I would be remiss if I failed to mention that Violent Femmes is also backed by a formidable horns section, integral to the show and the music. Add it up (hey, I had to do this at least once) and the show was a blast. All of the band members seemed to be enjoying themselves if the wide smiles they sported during much of the performance were any indication. Gano, in particular, kept a never-fading look of joy on his face. The smiles of those in the crowd indicated the same. I might have grinned a bit as well.
Oh, and a quick note, one of songs off that debut album, “To The Kill,” references Chicago and a certain legendary mobster. The Riviera Theatre sits across the street, just yards away from the historic Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, where Al Capone held court in his booth, facing the entrances of course. Having myself enjoyed a night of jazz with friends in that very same booth, though no fan of the murderous Chicagoan, I found myself trying to contain slight chuckle.
Ending the show with “American Music” the second of a two-song encore, made for a rousing capper to a kicker of an evening.
Violent Femmes U.S.tour continues through November 18, 2023, closing out in Huntington Beach CA.
Opening up for Violent Femmes was Elizabeth Moen, from Vinton, Iowa, but now of Chicago.
Moen and her band provided the crowd a terrific start to the evening as her powerful vocals spread through the venue.
Elizabeth Moen’s most recent recordings include the album Wherever You Aren’t, from 2022; and For Arthur in 2023. That latter is an album of covers of Arthur Russell‘s music. Moen has pledged all of the Bandcamp proceeds from “For Arthur,” to One Iowa, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ Iowans.
Moen will be headlining at Lincoln Hall in Chicago, on November 4, 2023.
Please check out more photos from the show. Thanks & Cheers!
The Gaslight Anthem made their triumphant return to Boston, Massachusetts, last week, on the tail end of their widely anticipated resurrection tour. I know that it might be a bit of a tired journalistic trope to use a phrase like “triumphant return” but I’m nothing if not a tired journalist and the event legitimately felt […]
The Gaslight Anthem made their triumphant return to Boston, Massachusetts, last week, on the tail end of their widely anticipated resurrection tour. I know that it might be a bit of a tired journalistic trope to use a phrase like “triumphant return” but I’m nothing if not a tired journalist and the event legitimately felt like nothing less than a triumph. Gaslight’s last stop in the area was their hiatus-interrupting 2018 The ‘59 Sound anniversary show; their last pre-hiatus Boston show was on the Get Hurt tour in September of 2014. Both of those shows happened at House Of Blues, a modern 2200-capacity venue on the iconic Lansdowne Street in the shadows of Fenway Park’s Green Monster. Obvious Red Sox/Yankees bitterness aside, it was the type of venue that Gaslight had settled into somewhat nicely prior to putting the machine on pause for a few years; big enough to demonstrate that they’d long-since outgrown the sweaty basement punk rock clubs of their earlier days, but not so big as to totally lose that feel. So when news of Gaslight’s return to being a full-time working band in 2022 brought with it the announcement that the Boston date wouldn’t be at House Of Blues, yours truly found it a little curious; even more so when it was announced further still that the gig would take place at the brand-new, even-more-modern MGM Concert Hall facility, which, at 5,000 capacity checks in at well more than double the capacity of its across-the-street neighbor House Of Blues (and also shares a common wall with Fenway Park itself).
And so it was that we found ourselves at the massive and pristine if slightly frustrating MGM on a rainy early October Tuesday night while the Red Sox were winding down another wildly underwhelming season mere feet away. The band took the stage to the sounds of the Aerosmith mid-career classic “Crying” and, as they have been for the bulk of the shows on the resurrection tour, the band kicked things off with “Have Mercy,” a b-side from the Get Hurt sessions which has also become a bit of a favorite amongst the diehards in the fanbase. It’s a slow, powerful and atmospheric song which, to me, is a bit of an awesome choice to start a set with and, I think, a sign that the band are genuinely back ‘for good’ and not just ‘for now.’
From there, the remainder of the encoreless nineteen-song set (encores are silly anyway when everyone knows you’re coming back out…) was culled from the band’s four most recent studio albums (2008’s breakout success The ’59 Sound, 2010’s American Slang, 2012’s Handwritten and the 2014 masterpiece Get Hurt). Touring as a six-piece unit with the core foursome being joined by “fifth Beatle” Ian Perkins on guitar and Bryan Haring on keys/backing vocals, the band not only sounded great but also looked like they were enjoying being back in the saddle.
Standouts from the set included a killer rendition of “Old White Lincoln,” massive guitar sounds on “Get Hurt” and “Stay Vicious,” crowd favorites like “The Patient Ferris Wheel” and “Great Expectations,” and a slowed down, melodic take on the normally up-tempo, riff-heavy rocker “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” making its first setlist appearance since the before times. Standout banter moments included riffs on Batman supremacy (I agree, Brian…Christian Bale is vastly overrated) and Mark Wahlberg and Bring It On (the epic 2000 cheerleading movie, not the Gaslight song of the same name) and Not Another Teen Movie, the Jets sucking for forty-plus years and how much the crew enjoy Boston. The one-two punch of “45” and “The ’59 Sound” brought things to an epic close. It’s really great to have The Gaslight Anthem back on a personal level, but also I think it’s great for the scene.
Support on this leg of the tour came from none other than Jeff Rosenstock. In the interest of full disclosure, because of the aforementioned traffic perfect storm of rain, Red Sox game and, frankly, Boston and because of the chaotic check-in procedure at the new venue – methinks there are some kinks still being worked out – we made it into the actual concert hall in time to shoot a grand total of one song. Together with his longtime Death Rosenstock bandmates John DeDomenici (bass), Kevin Higuchi (drums), Mike Huguenor (guitar) and Dan Potthast (guitar, keys, saxophone), the band ripped through about a dozen uptempo singalongs including “State Line” and “Hey Allison” and of course “We Begged 2 Explode.” The set was well received, inspiring the first of what became a surprising number of over-the-barricade crowd surfers.
Check out a bunch more pictures from both bands at this immensely enjoyable evening in the slideshows below!
For a long time, it wasn’t “cool” to say you like ska, but that never deterred me; I’m not cool anyway. I see Less Than Jake more often than I see my parents. I get through long days at work by listening to The Toasters, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Against All Authority, Buck-O-Nine, and my favorite […]
For a long time, it wasn’t “cool” to say you like ska, but that never deterred me; I’m not cool anyway. I see Less Than Jake more often than I see my parents. I get through long days at work by listening to The Toasters, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Against All Authority, Buck-O-Nine, and my favorite hometown band Victims of Circumstance. In recent years, ska has enjoyed quite the revival, and the old guard is starting to make way for some new blood. Ska Tune Network has brought the genre to a new audience, with fun ska-punk covers of pop songs and video game music garnering over 12 million views on YouTube. The Interrupters are breaking into the mainstream and have even performed on national TV. The tide is turning, and for the first time in a long time, ska is cool again.
Naturally, with the revival of a genre comes a new wave of bands. New Jersey’s Joker’s Republic is part of a growing crop of ska-punk up-and-comers. Their new album Necessary Evil was recorded and produced by Less Than Jake’s Roger Lima at his Gainesville recording studio The Moathouse. If you’re a fan of the poppy “fourth wave” ska-punk formula played by bands like We Are The Union and Kill Lincoln, these guys are right up your alley. The production on this album is top notch, and the songwriting isn’t too shabby either. Necessary Evil, the band’s third effort, offers up a mix of pop-punk and ska, with a hint of skate punk. The album-opening title track is my favorite song, but the blazing fast “Talk To Me” is a close second. “Gin and Tonic” is cleverly built around a fun early Blink-182 sounding guitar riff that doubles as a bassline during the song’s second bridge. “Anxiety” and “Dead Man Walking” are both very skankable tracks with some really catchy hooks. The album wraps up with “Anchor”, a grooving mid-tempo ska song that reminds me a lot of “The Science of Selling Yourself Short“.
As much as I like this album, I have to say that Joker’s Republic and Necessary Evil would benefit greatly from the addition of a horn section. The opening track features a guest appearance from LTJ’s Buddy “Goldfinger” Schaub on trombone, laying down some awesome horn parts. This added a much needed extra layer of depth to the song’s melody, and rounded out the band’s sound very nicely. After this, on the album’s remaining nine tracks, there are no brass instruments to be found. How could you do this to me? I feel deceived, hustled, betrayed, and utterly bamboozled! Let’s Face It, ska just isn’t as good without horns; unless, of course, your band is named Operation Ivy. In other words, it’s time to start auditioning for your horn section, fellas!
These guys are a promising young band, and I look forward to watching them continue to evolve. Listening to their previous releases on Spotify and comparing it to their latest work, it’s easy to see that Joker’s Republic is progressing pretty quickly. Necessary Evil is by far their best work to date. Listen below and click here to grab the CD. If you prefer digital, visit their Bandcamp to download the album.
Camp Punksylvania has announced their third wave of bands for this year. Kill Lincoln, DOA, Working Class Stiffs, The What Nows!?, PWRUP, Mvll Crimes, Cardboard Homestead, One Revived, The Chemical Imbalance, Meanderthal, Sweet Anne Marie, and Dr. Frankenstein’s Monsters will be playing at the festival. They join the previously announced lineup which includes Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Laura Jane Grace, We Are The Union. The Venomous Pinks, Codefendants, Skaing Polly, and Diesel Boy. Camp Punksylvania will take place July 5-7 in Gilbert, PA.
