>>Nostalgia For Infinity

I don’t have any reviews queued for this week as I spent my spare time last weekend making a website for my band.

It’s WordPress-based since that’s all I know, but I think it’s come out pretty well. Credit where it’s due: I’m using a modified version of this theme.

Minor detail for the techgeeks: at the moment the domain name is just forwarding to a subdirectory on nostalgiaforinfinity.com, with the content framed so the domain name always displays in the address bar. At some point I’m going to try and figure out if it’s possible to have the domain properly route to the subdirectory and still look as though the site is properly hosted, i.e. links appear as  wrecktheplacefantastic.co.uk/about/ and not nostalgiaforinfinity.com/wreckthis/about/. If only they’d taught this in A-level IT instead of some twattery about business studies.

My Postalicious install has broken itself somehow and I don’t have time to figure it out. Curse you, PHP or something!

I don’t mean to blow my load too early in this here review, but Old Pride may be some of the finest screamo I’ve heard in a while.

As the pastoral, old-timey cover suggests, Pianos Become The Teeth are from the dynamic and distraught school of emo rather than the full-on balls-out self-destructive side of things. Case in point: opening song ‘Filial’ starts with simple clean strums and quickly builds into a huge, epic, tumultuous screamo-slash-alt rock tune with emotion seeping out of its pores. Some of the chord progressions deployed sound more like something moody post-rockers like This Will Destroy You would deploy than a more traditional screamo sound (ala. Saetia, Still Life, whatever reference points you want to use). At over five minutes long the song is quite a journey in itself; it’s very cool indeed and sets the bar high from the outset.

Other highlights for me are ‘Pensive’, a slow-builder which takes time to build to a ferocious crescendo, and the guitar work which opens up ‘Sleepshaker’; deceptively simple, it’s an intro to die for. And then there is ‘Young Fire’, a slightly country-esque post-rock number which wraps up the album.

But above them all is ‘Cripples Can’t Shiver’, which features a heartbreaking spoken story about the decline of the orator’s father, who suffers from multiple sclerosis: “it’s been hard to see him, as a man who loved baseball and golf, to go from standing upright, to walking with a cane, to going to the walker, to the scooter, to the wheelchair, to bedridden.” The song overall is fairly low-key and slower-paced compared to the rest of the record, and is probably one of the moments where Pianos Become the Teeth stray furthest into post-rock territory. Beneath it all, though, there’s the ever-present threat of emotional and musical intensity, that ferocious bombast that the best screamo can deliver. It might be seen as cheap or cruel to use a personal story of suffering and hardship – as a shortcut to powerful emotion – but there’s no cynicism here, just honest, earnest passion and pain. Like all the best screamo and emo music, Old Pride convinces most of all as an act of catharsis. And this is not only true of ‘Cripples Can’t Shiver’; there is not a weak song on this album, not a moment which rings hollow or false or insincere.

I’ve found it really hard to review this album because whenever I listen to it I find it such an intensely emotional and involving experience* that I entirely forget to take notes. I’m sure that fact says more about this album that I could ever have managed: “album too good, too affecting to be reviewed”. Yeah, if you don’t listen to this record I will come to your house and beat / scream / cry on you.

MySpace | Facebook | TopShelf Records

* Yeah yeah, emooooooooo. Get a new joke, fucker.

Review cliches: deployed! The Holy Mess play breakneck hardcore punk rock songs that mostly clock in at around the two minute-mark. The drums have that taut, somewhat flat sound that’s the style in a lot of of DIY hardcore punk. Forgive me if you don’t get what I mean; I know fuck all about drums.

This is a really enthusiastic, fun record, full of fast-paced simple-melodies and aggressive rhythms. The vocals rarely let up with two vocalists trading duties; there’s the somewhat traditional split between one guy who has the extra gruff, snotty voice and spits, barks and screams his vocals and the other guy with the cleaner and more melodic voice but with the smaller vocal range. Every so often the rest of the band throw in some “woah-oh-ohs” too. The lyrics are awesome in that too-fast-to-think singalong way; the themes are common punk rock motifs, all records and fucking up and drinking and the place the band live and not taking shit seriously (probably at least in part to cover up the fact of taking shit seriously).

Oh yeah, and there’s a cool Propagandhi hat tip in ‘CRAZY HORNY’ with the sample from the end of ‘Back to the Motor League’ from Today’s Empires dropped in. I figure The Holy Mess are fans of Propagandhi’s snotty punk rock era and get that there will inevitably be some comparisons between the two bands, so they tried to head that off at the pass. Well, there’s no politics here but there’s plenty of kickass snotty hardcore punk that will accidentally elbow you in the teeth, buy you a beer and then steal that same drink.

Dismount won’t win many prizes for originality but who gives a shit when the tunes are this fun. One for fans of, hmm, let’s say early Propagandhi, Dear Landlord, Gatorface, Grabass Charlestons and the Lawrence Arms. Pow! Punk rock!

MySpace | Twitter | Bandcamp | The Holy Mess

Del.icio.us links for September 14th through September 19th. Delicious.com or my Chrome plugin seem to be struggling lately – I’m getting a lot of bookmarks listed as “500 Internal Server Error”. Anyone else seeing this? Oh well, here’s a couple of things I had time to read this week.

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Thank fuck it’s Friday.

For your listening pleasure, head to Banner Pilot’s bandcamp page to listen to a stream of their wholly re-mastered 2008 album Resignation Day. It’s totally awesome; previously I felt that it didn’t hold a candle to 2009′s Collapser but with some canny production work it’s every bit as good. Not to be missed if you dig melodic punk rock as much as I do.

You might also want to check out this PunkNews stream of Pacer’s (ex-The Steal) debut 10″. I’ve not listened to it yet but I caught them live a few weeks ago and they kicked a few asses with their driving hardcore punk.

I’ve also been listening to Gallops today and Holy Roar are streaming all 5 tracks from their excellent self-titled dance / rock EP. (Holy Roar stream a lot of stuff which is very cool indeed.)

I heard that some elderly apologist for paedophilia is here in the UK at the moment. Well, we’re all annoyed about that but remember he’s involved in even worse things. Easy to lose sight of that. Fucking papacy.

A split release supported by UK scene stalwarts Holy Roar and new Brighton-based label Tangled Talk, this EP from Welsh hXc kids Bastions has all the hallmarks of quality contemporary hardcore: ferocity, rage, control and intensity, backed up with the songs to prove it. This is their first release via a label according to the press release; the band’s DIY pedigree is supported by a clutch of self-released EPs and Radio 1 sessions.

On my first play I’ve got to admit I wasn’t blown away, making the mistake of not giving it my full attention and thinking it was decent but unexceptional hardcore of the sort we’ve all heard a thousand times before. However on subsequent listens I realised that there’s plenty of talent here that makes Bastions more than worth your time. All three songs on this short EP are distinct, highlighting the band’s songwriting range. Opener ‘Island Living’ is a fast-paced hardcore tune with touches of, dare I say it, that metalcore sound. There are some cool high-pitched guitar licks worked in – no solos, none of that shit, just really cool little licks that contribute towards rather than detract from the song’s pace. ’Soar’ is more of a straight-up hardcore punk song built around a solid rhythm and melody, with the hoarse, violent vocals rarely letting up throughout. It’s a pit hit, for sure.

The third and final track, ‘The Great Unwashed’, is a slower and doomy tune, feedback and sparsely picked guitar notes masking distant vocals before the volume leaps back in with slow, crushing power chord riffs. For me it’s the weakest of the three but I love that as the song wears in a haunting, siren-like sound is dropped into the mix, making the song sound as dark as those audible lyrics suggest.

As I’m reviewing this from a bunch of MP3s rather than the actual release I’ve got no idea what most of the lyrics are, which is kind of a shame since Bastions are clearly pissed-off about something, but from the song titles and hardcore screams I’m fucked if I know what they are. Still, the music is really good, so give this a listen via Bandcamp and buy the record from either label if you like it!

MySpace | Bandcamp | Tangled Talk Records | Holy Roar Records

Come On Gang hail “variously from Brighton, Hastings and the Scottish Borders”, which must make practices a bitch! Ha ha ha. So they all live in Edinburgh now, which is a shame since I live in Brighton and now they”re at the wrong end of the UK for me.

Playing dancey pop music can be a tricky business; there’s a fine line to walk between the risks of being too dull, too disposable, too methodical and too disgustingly hip*. Happily on the strength of ‘Fortune Favours the Brave’ Come On Gang appear to dodge all of these metaphorical bullets, with this single being peppered with hip-shaking hooks and crooning vocals that everyone on the dance floor will fall in love with, provided they’re not too busy requesting shitty Kings of Leon tunes.

The song kicks off with an earworm of a verse, all twitchy post-punk guitar and bass with rolling dancefloor drumbeats – the latter being extra impressive live, no doubt, considering that the fantastic vocals are coming from the drummer. Lyrically the song is about the struggle of pushing oneself onwards and upwards despite facing problems and falls, handling it in a way that manages to be simultaneously uplifting, honest and catchy : “if this is being young, it isn’t easy / the sun is in the sky but it’s still raining”. Good work all round.

The b-side is a bit disappointing as it’s a remix (the “HaHaHa rework”) that doesn’t really interest me at all; its best bits are the best bits of the original mix made less good. Boo. Still, don’t let that bother you, the a-side is an awesome tune and should be listened to widely.

MySpace | Blogspot

* Oh but we all hate hipsters now don’t we.

UPDATE: I neglected to mention that as of last Friday 10th September, this single is a free download and can be found here. Feed your ears!

Check this out. Pretty tragic story, if true: a woman, recently widowed, neglects her young children and lets her pet dogs starve to death because she becomes utterly obsessed with a social network-based boardgame. It says a lot to me about loneliness and isolation and heartbreak and tragedy, and whilst that’s no excuse it’s saddening that this woman apparently had so little support from friends and family.

What’s chock full of fail, which will be obvious to most anyone who has ever played a videogame, is that the Daily Hate Mail have seen fit to include a screenshot of an entirely different game for their scaremongering. Apparently the cutesy graphics of the boardgame-style Small World weren’t enough so they’ve dropped in a screenshot from Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning instead. It has a scaaaaary ork warrior in it! They’ve even added a fake source URL to make it look more convincing.

This looks like deliberate obfuscation to me. Although I suspect the excuse will turn out to be that the screenshot was intended to illustrate, uh, some other addictive online fantasy games, but someone forgot to use the right caption, and the Photoshop guy just added the same URL to all the pictures, and damn man you can’t expect someone to keep these things organised when underpaid overworked journos are shitting out a dozen articles like this every morning.

I’m going to direct link to the image they use to see if they change or delete it any time soon. Mad skillz!

UPDATE: This gets even better. Apparently there is no online version of the Small World boardgame, and yesterday the same Mail article was reportedly accompanied by screenshots from this game – which as it’s also developed as a Facebook app seems much more likely to be the game in question. Of course, given that someone has retroactively altered the article so that it appears to be about two different games entirely, the truthfulness of the entire original story could be called into question.

UPDATE 2: Kieron Gillen at Rock, Paper, Shotgun has used his journalistic powers to investigate this issue and has pretty much gotten to the bottom of it, so head over to RPS if you would like to know more. I’m leaving my original post up, complete with my correct & incorrect assumptions (the original story was written by an agency and farmed out to the Mail rather than written by a Mail writer or contractor). Thanks to everyone who has linked over here, the resultant hit count has made a dull Monday morning marginally more exciting…

Oh yes, and the Mail have removed the image from their article at the request of Games Workshop’s legal team, although the image itself is still on their servers as indicated by its continued presence above. (If it gets replaced with a picture of a cock we’ll at least know that someone on the paper’s IT team has an internet-savvy sense of humour.)

Del.icio.us links for September 6th through September 12th:

(Apparently I haven’t had time to really read anything that interesting this week… bummer.)

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