Lovvers/Male Bonding @ Cowley Club

Too late to be an album review, so it's now a gig review. A couple of weeks ago I went to Brighton to see Lovvers and Male Bonding. The gig took place at the hip hangout The Cowley Club. Seemed like the Brighton version of The Smell or something. I got the impression it's like a secret club when there's not a gig there, and they have a book section and they have food available on thursday evenings. Only thursday evenings. The venue had loads of naked barbies hanging from the ceiling too, and I'm pretty sure I was stood next to the Blood Red Shoes drummer.


The Human Race kicked shit off by creeping everyone with a constant high pitched feedback noise which didn't stop at all, on top of some sweet lo-fi post-punk jams. The vox dude stood in the audience doing his spoken word like he was not in the band and walked around staring at the floor. They were actually pretty good except for said feedback, it hurt a bit.


After not much waiting around at all, Male Bonding came along, fiddled about with some really echoy microphones and started. They seemed to play a lot of songs, i knew about half of them. A lot of people seemed to dig them. I overheard the guy next to me saying that all he knew about Male Bonding was that they were signed to Subpop. I guess it's a good thing that they signed to them, as they are now a discussion point, or something. They were also pretty tight, unlike a lot of other lo-fi noisepop bands, who just seem to wing it. They always seem to have some cool screen printed merch. I picked up a tote bag.


Another short wait and Lovvers were off, vocalist Sean fell around in front of me and pushed himself backwards into the crowd and did a little crowd surfing. They were admittedly a little more messy than Male Bonding, I noticed quite a few mistakes but it was FUN. I was hoping that the singer would do some of the creepy YEEEEEAHs he did at the end of every song at Reading this year (I didn't go, I just saw on the videos), but he didn't. Not much else to say about Lovvers except they were awesome.

MP3: Male Bonding - Nothing Will Change (Live)
MP3: Lovvers - Society Jam

BUY: Male Bonding/Fair Ohs - Split Live Tape
BUY: Lovvers - OCD GO GO GO GIRLS 12" via Norman Records

De La Hoya

I’m feeling rather inspired tonight so I thought I’d write a post on one of my favourite bands of all time you’ve probably never heard of. I’m not trying to come off as a “massive hipster” when I say that, and you probably know frontman Aaron Scott’s latter bands and projects if you’re in to decent punk rock anyway, but what you may not know is the existence of De La Hoya: a straight-up punk band from Brooklyn, NY who burst on to the scene in 1997 all the way through to 2002. To quote the bio on their MySpace; “Oscar Rodriguez asked singer Aaron Scott to start a band just 10 minutes after meeting, neither of them had any idea they were initiating what would become of the most respected bands in the Northeastern DIY hardcore/punk scene. They joined up with bassist Carly Guarino (owner of Crap Records) and drummer Jaime Villamarin (ex-I Farm) to form De La Hoya in the heart of New York City.”
And they’re incredibly rad. Seriously.

Their first EP, 1999’s “Has No Credibility” is without a doubt the record of that year. De La Hoya were giving the finger to the government years before it was cool, with the angsty youth of Aaron Scott spilling his thoughts on how to change the world and why we need to take down the institutions, why it’s so important to “do what you want to do” and “fulfill your dreams” and why it’s okay to say “fuck you too”. It’s damn good down-to-earth songwriting that anyone is bound to find relevance in. The energy packed into this record is phenomenal - nations are under gun, passport control lines spewing national hate and there’s even time to tell how “last night sucked” and that you should never throw your life away all packed into 11.6 minutes.

Then there’s the full-length, 2001’s “DANCE! Techo Mega-Mix Vol. 42”, the record which proved it’ll never snow in New York again and that the only good thing about childhood was running home so that you wouldn’t miss your Optimus. This is pretty much the birth of modern melodic punk rock and everybody’s missed it. Catchy hooks, angsty lyrics, rad vocals – it’s all you’ll ever need from a band and Aaron delivers.

I think you’re going to want to need this.

There's even a record I haven't fully heard yet - in 2002 they released "Wipe The Slate Clean... Now Let's Begin", an EP featuring the song "Charles" I've uploaded below. As De La Hoya matured, they lost their DIY lo-fi garage punk roots but started forming melodies you'd assosicate with the likes of Million Dead and Rise Against. But the magic is still there. Pamphlets, factories, art - Charles wants to know how to sing the song and he definitely sums up this band entirely.

If you're even remotely interested in the early nineties emo/punk/hardcore scene, you NEED to listen to this band. It's where it all began. It's fist-punchingly good. In the air, of course.

MP3: De La Hoya - Charles
BUY: Their records are currently out of print but I'll update this post with a link to their discography CD when it's released!

Maths - Descent

Maths are a band I have adored for years now, I have followed them as they slowly progressed into the band they are now. Last year they released a much acclaimed split EP with Throats which brought them to the public's attention, they even gained a feature in NME putting them firmly in the “bands to watch out for” section for anyone who likes decent music. However after the release of the EP, a tour and a bunch of spread out dates over the country the band seemed to disappear into the woodwork, apparently determined to finish university/ other boring life stuff. After a few months of inactivity the band announced they were writing for their first full-length, something which had me jumping over the moon. The band opted to go the full DIY route and record it all themselves which only attracts me more to the record.

The album itself is a grower. I've only had it in my hands for a few days now but it hasn't stopped playing in my ears since then. Every time I listen to it I understand and enjoy it more. From the harrowing volume swells of the opening few bars of the first track “Belief In Sorrow” to the sobering piano melodies that introduce the closing track “Belief In Hope” I believe Maths' latest offering “Descent” is simply the best thing to happen to screamo in a long time. The record doesn't stop between songs and is better heard as a whole rather than the 12 separate tracks, that way you can hear how the album progresses and how the songs intertwine. Compared to the EP, musically ,you can hear some definite progression, conceptually-the EP is no comparison. The heavy parts are heavier, the melodic parts are more melodic and you will undoubtedly have certain phrases of songs stuck in your head for ages. The guitar work is a lot more proficient, it's still the frenetic chords sliding all over the fretboard and the drumming is even more chaotic yet still regimented. The thing that makes this album for me and what makes it a step up from the split EP is that it's so much more than just techy-screamo, it's unbelievably epic as well. Tracks like “To Be Frozen” and “Branches” have a certain quality to them that makes the hairs on your arm stand up and make you truly fall for the band.

“Descent” certainly does live up to expectations and I genuinely hope it takes them far especially as it has an appeal to far more than just a screamo audience. This one hasn't even hit the shops yet but I'm excited for any future releases. It comes out on Holy Roar Records on the 9th of November, until then you can hear a couple of tracks from the album on their Myspace and make sure you check out their dates as well!

MP3: Maths - Boundless
BUY: Maths - Descent CD for £7

Southsea Fest 2009

You've probably read all about this on all the other blogs, but it just looks so good, I can't help but write about it. It's an all day, multi-venue festival taking place down Albert Road, Southsea (Portsmouth) on 19th September (next Saturday).

Essentially, there are two awesome stages. A couple of the other stages have a couple of good bands but really, the places to be are The One Eyed Dog for Meat Pie Promotions' stage and the Edge of the Wedge for Awesome Noise's stage. As you can on the flyer see above, Meat Pie's stage hosts Tubelord, Tellison, The Xcerts and loads of other great bands. There's also gonna be some Meat Pie Southsea fest fanzines available too, all with free CD. Edge of the Wedge's stage hosts Blakfish, This Town Needs Guns, The Tupolev Ghost and a load of other good bands. Edge of the Wedge's stage apparently finishes a couple of hours before Meat Pie's stage, so hopefully yr favourite headliners won't be clashing.

There are hundreds of other bands playing, so it's definitely worth the tiny entry fee, which you exchange for a wristband which gains you entry to all the venues.

Tickets cost £8 for child and £12 for adult if you buy them before, get them here. Or you can get them on the door for £15.

Rapturefest 3 Review

On 15th August, Rapture Promotions put on an awesome gig in Reading for the 3rd year in a row. This is the review. Dig it.

After getting off a completely packed out train to Reading, we wandered around following an obviously outdated map, which told us that The Face Bar was right in the middle of a block of flats. It wasn't. Then we spotted a girl in a Beatcast shirt so followed her hoping she would lead us to the venue (the whole event was being filmed by them) but turns out she was just going to get some food. Then we spotted a guy in a Tired Irie shirt, so we joined forces and found our venue. When we got there we were still early, and only a few of the bands were there, still getting stuff out of their cars.

After a bit of waiting outside or something we got in and Pharaohs started. They were okay, but their songs need some more lyrics I think, they seem to use a lot of the same lines. Also, I was confused by the frontman's jeans, they looked slightly tie-dyed and I couldn't quite tell if they were leggings.
7.2/10

Next up was Instruments (Make Music). If you've read this blog before then you might know that this band were written about briefly before here, so I was definitely looking forward to seeing them. And they didn't disappoint, they played a set consisting of a couple of songs from their self-titled EP and a couple of new ones. I was staring at both guitarists as they did things with their fingers I could only dream of. The drummer was pretty impressive. Bassist was great too, didn't want to leave her out. She looked nice too. I'm sad my photos of them didn't come out well. Or at all. Amazing band.
8.6/10


[Photo of Talons by me]
Hereford Six piece Talons followed. See Tom's post on them here. They impressed my friends who hadn't heard them before with their unique brand of epic post-rock/violins combo, and impressed those who had heard of them before. Their set ended with the guitarist jumping off the stage and falling around a bit, which I really wasn't expecting him to do but I still managed to get a photo of him. I would've bought one of their 7"s if only it wasn't £4. That's just too much for a 7". Who else remembers when HMV used to do those 'All 3 formats for £4' or whatever it was? They were good.
7.9/10

By this point we were a bit hungry so we trecked off down to Burger King and had some Whopper meals. Best thing about Whoppers is that they have 4 gherkins in them. When we got back we realised we had missed On Histories Of Rosenburg, and we were a bit sad because they sounded interesting, but at least we had eaten. Although when we got back in there, Hold Your Horse Is were playing, and we really wished we'd timed our eating so that we missed them instead. I thought they might've been okay, considering they were named after a Hella album, but they just seemed a big weak, and the bassist was wearing tracksuit bottoms which confused me a bit, and after about 3 seconds of their first song his bass strap fell off which made him look even more silly. Not great, sorry.
6.6/10


[Photo of Brontide @ Edge of the wedge, Portsmouth by me]
Brontide's set was plagued with technical difficulties that included loop pedals that wouldn't stop looping and basses that wouldn't start working. They still powered on, and the guitarist did his creepy nodding thing he does when he plays, and everyone nodded along with him. Having seen this band so many times now, I'm getting a little tired of the same setlist, a couple of new songs would be nice, but excluding what damage the tech problems caused, a good performance.
7.6/10

If this line up so far looks a little different to the flyer you saw around the internet, that's because about 6 of the bands ended up dropping out for one reason or another. The next band was one of the more pleasing replacements to me; Cats And Cats And Cats. Having never really given them a proper listen, seeing them at this gig really persuaded me to give them another go. They had a real twee indie pop vibe to them which was completely different to what i had imagined. Their violinist looked about 14 too, just another confusing thing about this day.
7.5/10

Danish band Mimas were the first of the two foreign bands playing, playing in a timeslot unofficially branded the foreign hour. I'd never really listened to them much before and never really registered the fact that they were a BSM band and I guess this was when i realised they're a really odd band to be on the label, but they sat nicely in the middle of a bunch of mathy bands as everyone seemed to dig the bouncy post-rock tunes. I hate the word tunes. But saying songs sounds a bit boring. Eh.
7.9/10

The second foreign band were Mutiny on the Bounty of Luxembourg. I'd seen them before and they were impressive so this was a bit of a treat. They did their mathy post-hardcore stuff which was a bit too loud for a few people, and it was pretty loud but if you know the songs then I guess loud music is good. The guitarist was really happy, probably because he was a bit drunk. Most of the bands were drinking a bit by this point, this dude was probably the happiest/drunkest. He was wearing a cowboy hat for a bit and another one of them was wearing a transformers mask. Dunno why.
8/10


[Photo of Shapes/Blakfish dude by me]
Shapes followed, I'd seen them the previous week on their tour with Brontide. They were energetic and explosive, mathy and intricate, etc etc. The dude with the beard from Blakfish did vox in one of their songs, see the photo above. Another photo of Shapes here. They played their new song from the BSM/Holy Roar split, but i'd still seen that exact set a week before, would've been nice for something a little different? Maybe I was just tired from standing around so much. Getting very excited for Blakfish by this point.
7.7/10

I was pessimistic about Youves; I liked them when they were Mirror! Mirror!, and had listened to their mini-album under the new name and wasn't sure about the change. But from what I saw of their set, they looked like they had a good time. The singer knew he was attractive and seemed to want everyone to know by dancing in the crowd with his shirt off. There was this really good moment where there was a pause in the music and he stamped on a balloon behind the audience. I didn't even realise he was there until he did it.
7.4/10


[Photo of Great Eskimo Hoax by me]
By the time Great Eskimo Hoax came on, a lot of people were leaving. I spotted the singer from This Town Needs Guns in the audience, was pretty cool that even though they weren't playing he still came along. GEH were really gentle and relieving, a bit of an odd thing to listen to before Blakfish. I really liked how I didn't know any of the songs they played, it made me pay a bit more attention I guess. I picked up a 7" they were selling. It cost £3, okay. It's from a couple of years ago, a split with a band called The Cape Of Good Hope, and they sound really good, which was a really nice surprise. Email me some of their songs please bros.
7.9/10


[Photo of Blakfish by me]
Whoever was still around for Blakfish were really hyped, and you could tell. They came on, the two front men obviously pretty drunk at this point. I'm guessing the skinny guy is a bit of an angry drunk. He had a go at everyone for staying around and when checking his tuning, simply strummed really hard and was like "That sounds like it's in fucking tune, doesn't it!". They only played about 6 songs from their debut album Champions, but they were all awesome. Loads of people singing along to pretty much all the songs, mostly on the amazingly titled 'Jeremy Kyle Is A Marked Man'. At one point the angry skinny guy got on his knees and pretended to suck off the dude next to me, for about a minute, got a bit weird. Later on, both guitarists attached sparklers to the end of their guitars, the dude next to me picked one of them up and held it in my face, that was annoying. Both their guitars seemed to get broken, at one point one the bearded guy's guitar completely went and one of their friends put another guitar in front of the guitar that he was already playing and put the strap on. Then he just kinda jumped on a table and had about 7 people playing his guitar.


[Photo of Blakfish by me]
The skinny dude was bleeding all over his vest by this point, and was like "Who wants some of my blood? If anyone wants any of my blood, come and see me afterwards". This show was messy. They ended on 'Ringo Starr - 2nd Best Drummer In The Beatles', with everyone chanting "it could be worse, you could be dead, I don't know how we survived but all I know is we did". It was a nice ending to an awesome gig, and everyone left the venue worrying about how they were gonna get home having stayed on and missed their last train home.
9.4/10

All my photos from the gig here.

MP3: Mutiny On The Bounty - 1, 2, 3, 4, I Declare a Thumb War
BUY: Mutiny On The Bounty - Danger Mouth CD

MP3: Youves - On Probation
BUY: Youves - Cardio-Vascular CD

MP3: Blakfish - Scotland's Worst Invention
BUY: Blakfish - Champions 12" or CD.