Robyn Writes

Top 10 Punk Rock Beards – The Band Edition

It’s time. Our punk rock beard list finally returns. Some of you may or may not remember a piece that I wrote in 2008, compiling some of my favourite dudes and their super rad beards. I didn’t expect it to be a big thing, but somehow now, when you search ‘punk beard’, we’re the first thing on Google. It’s been a big year for facial hair, so it’s time to get serious. Get ready for the band edition.

DISCLAIMER: this might just be a list of sweet bands who have a couple of members with beards, either currently or just ‘tour beards’. But who gives a shit, there’s beards involved!

10) Summerslam 88
Summerslam 88 very rarely have facial hair but when they do, they look like skeezy 80s dudes. They also do sweet skatepunk that sounds like the Offspring when they were good.

9) North Lincoln
Beard punk. What a genre. Were North Lincoln ever really ‘beard punk’? Probably not, but they were kind of brilliant. And look at that full beardage going on there.

8) Fights and Fires
Worcester ‘geekcore’ lads like sitting on cannons, apparently. They also like beards a lot because their current logo is a guy with a massive beard. And most of them have one in some way or another!

7) Every Time I Die
Do you remember that time when all of Every Time I Die thought ‘fuck it, we’re all gonna grow beards and look kinda dirty?’ I sure as hell do. It was awesome. And if nothing else, Andy Williams has enough beard for everyone.

6) The Menzingers
Quintessentially rugged and responsible for some of the finest punk records of the 21st Century. You know it.

5) The Lawrence Arms
I don’t care if they’re not real moustaches. Nobody cares if they’re not real moustaches. And now these dudes have signed to Epitaph, which is not the home of the beard, but, along with another band further down on our list, they’re making it a classier place.

4) Darko
Darko’s beards were unexpected and highly surprising. But excellent. Skatepunk probably shouldn’t involve beards but I’m very glad it does.

3) Bike Tuff
We did a feature on these guys a few months ago, and while Into Shore is probably my favourite emo-revival-esque record right now (and possibly forever), these dudes all have pretty sweet beards.

2) letlive.
Jason Aalon Butler’s beard is a thing of beauty. Furious, furious beauty. Nothing else needs to be said.

1) Arliss Nancy
LOOK AT THE MAJESTY OF THOSE BEARDS. Arliss Nancy probably couldn’t function without said beards. Americana blended with punk aesthetic to create something kind of beautiful, Wild American Runners is deep and heartfelt with a touch of jaded gruffness that can only come from beards that excellent.

Honorable mention: Enter Shikari
Can one class Shikari as punk? I suppose that imposing trance on post-hardcore and trying to make people more aware of the broken society we live in through their lyrics is pretty punk. Not usually known for the beard, this new video reveals a different side to them…

Shout out: new Last Night’s Victory EP out now!

Hey music fans, do you like stuff with synths and guitars all blended together in a glorious mess with gang vocals and massive drops?

Of course you do.

So Last Night’s Victory have a new EP out RIGHT NOW. You can check it out on their Bandcamp and download it for free, or order a T-shirt and CD bundle (which you obvz should) for a humble tenner. I’ve been listening to it pretty solidly for the past couple of weeks in between all my AFI fangirling so you know that’s a recommendation.

Happy Friday!

xoxo – Robyn

Review: Bangers – Crazy Fucking Dreams

When Bangers release a new record, you always know what to expect. Big riffs and big rants. Crazy Fucking Dreams is no exception. Like a gruffer, British Descendents but with more references to the ocean and the government, Bangers rip through ten absolute… well, bangers.

That’s not to say that Bangers don’t have a few surprises up their sleeve. From the strange, psychedelic solo filled with weird panting in ‘Part Animal’ to the unexpected horns in opening tune ‘A Curious Mix’, Bangers are stepping into new and dangerous territory. However, it all comes together smoothly and it’s barrels of fun. Not enough bands incorporate horns in some way or another these days, but that’s a conversation for another time. Possibly my favourite thing about a Bangers record is that it always feels like a conversation. They’re brilliant storytellers, and ‘The Woods’ is the perfect example of this – in the muted verses, Roo embarks on a story about existence and being before they all launch into an absolutely massive chorus. But even throughout the story, there’s always a question to be asked, a thought to be probed, and you can’t help but give in. Lyrically, the record’s as great as you’d come to expect from Bangers – my personal favourite being the entirety of ‘Blind Hindsight’, as in its message to ‘fuck nostalgia’, the song itself sounds like a complete throwback to 90s skatepunk, and Bangers’ keen sense of irony and self-effacing humour is well and truly in play. And of course, there’s a lot of bloody good rants all over.

What else is present is gleeful, unabashed punk rock fury. I told you there were big riffs, and I wasn’t lying. If there was one track that could sum up the whole record, ‘Captain’s Log’ pretty much does it. It’s got some punk-as-fuck bass, furious drumming and about a minute of vocals before the instrumental takes over and they take it down a notch. And this is why Bangers are better than most people ever, because they’re unafraid of kicking out sweet jams and killer solos while still maintaining an enviable freneticism. Good stuff indeed.

This might possibly be the best Bangers record yet. But I still maintain they should have named it Miley Cyruz.

4.5 out of 5 high fives!

Review: AFI – Burials

Burials is AFI’s ninth album, and as with every record they’ve released since Sing The Sorrow, it sounds distinctly different to its predecessor. In the case of Burials, AFI have left behind the 80s twinged pop-rock and instead, have come forth with something far darker, rawer and utterly compelling.

It can be said that if nothing else, AFI know how to do a bloody good intro, and it’s fantastic to see that make a return. The Sinking Night unifies all of AFI’s talents, with Adam Carson’s pounding drums, Hunter Burgan’s rumbling bass, Jade Puget’s bleak guitar and Davey Havok’s outstanding vocals creates a sonic landscape of utter despair, all while giving you full-body shivers before jumping into lead single ‘I Hope You Suffer’. It sets a difficult precedent, but AFI keep it going through all thirteen tracks. The Crash Love vibes haven’t totally disappeared – the dark pop of ‘A Deep Slow Panic’, ’17 Crimes’ and ‘Heart Stops’ could fit comfortably on that record. However, there’s a heavier electronic presence, no doubt influenced by Havok and Puget’s side project, Blaqk Audio, and industrial-style synths permeate throughout, touching songs like ‘No Resurrection’, ‘The Conductor’ and ‘Wild’, but never taking the foreground. Instead, AFI lay down some of the most punk rock riffs that they’ve written in recent years. ‘Wild’, for example, starts with Carson laying down some serious beats before Puget kicks in with pure punk pageantry, followed by some proto-punk synths for good measure. And of course, in typical AFI fashion, final track, ‘The Face Beneath The Waves’ is atmospheric, inimitably dark and arresting, with as much despair as you can muster. Beautiful.

It’s worth noting that the rhythm section of this record is probably the shining star – Burgan and Carson are the ultimate dream team, and neither have sounded better than on Burials. Nevertheless, this is the most coherent AFI have sounded in a long time. Despite taking a different approach yet again, Havok and Puget have laid the foundations for thirteen solid tracks, and while Crash Love was so disparate in its style, Burials is totally complete, despite its innovation. That’s as a unit as well – the band haven’t sounded so in sync for a long time, and it’s great to finally see all those elements coming together properly.

Burials, as Havok has stated in multiple interviews since it was announced, is the tale of a broken heart. AFI’s music has always been very emotionally led, usually veiled in Baudelaire-esque metaphor, but that veil has dropped slightly in Burials. While Havok’s lyrics can’t avoid the poetic all the time, Burials is a lot more personal. In ‘The Face Beneath The Waves’, he asks if his former love can “Tell me what it’s like to hold a heart while it shatters, ” and you can feel the vitriol and the pain as he sings. ‘I Hope You Suffer’ can’t be any plainer in its lyrical content. It’s this and more that makes Burials, in its personal nature, perhaps the most genuine AFI record in a while. But for all its misery, this record is catharsis – it’s a chance for Havok to rise out of the ashes, and Burials is where he’s at his finest.

To say that Burials is the best thing that AFI have produced since The Art Of Drowning might seem a bit ambitious. “But what about the lyrical genius of Sing The Sorrow or the slick pop hooks of Decemberunderground?“, you might be thinking (but you probably won’t be, I’ve come to accept that I actually don’t know that many AFI fans). Burials combines both of those, plus Crash Love‘s sense of style to create an effortlessly enduring record, one that will resonate with fans and newcomers alike. From a personal standpoint, it’s been a long time since an AFI album has evoked me with the same kind of rush that I had when I first stumbled upon them, all that time ago. So yes – it is their best work since The Art Of Drowning. It’s also the best album to grace my stereo for eons and will no doubt hold that title for a very, very long time to come.

5 out of 5 high fives!

Review: Panic! At The Disco – Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!

It’s always been hard to quantify Panic! At The Disco. They’re not really a rock band. They’re definitely not pop-punk. Based on the current definition of ‘pop’, looking at the typical chart fare, they certainly don’t fit in with that either. However, whatever they are, I don’t think anyone minded when Ryan Ross left and they stopped doing that Beatles rip-off shit. And after the work of genius that Vices and Virtues was, it seemed almost impossible that they’d be able to top it.

But they did.

Admittedly, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die! didn’t seem it was going to be a huge hit at first. Lead single ‘Miss Jackson’, was a huge departure, even for P!ATD, sounding too similar to Fall Out Boy’s ‘My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark’ to be a coincidence. It didn’t quite have P!ATD’s usual charm, either, and stands as the weakest song on the record. Thankfully, following single ‘This Is Gospel’ seemed far more promising, with a blinder of a chorus and a very fun video, carrying just the right level of quirkiness that we’ve come to adore P!ATD for. However, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die! is far more mature than any of their other records. Fuelled by a love of 80s synthpop, tracks like ‘The Vegas Lights’ and ‘Girls/Girls/Boys’ won’t fail to get you dancing with their tales of Vegas style hedonism, whereas ‘Nicotine’, my personal favourite, is every bit as infectious as ‘Camisado’ or ‘Time To Dance’. Everything goes on this record, and any ill-founded doubt that may have been in place over the lyrics after Ross’s departure are firmly blown away, as P!ATD get deep as well as sexy. None of it is particularly complex, but in this, lies its brilliance, much like its predecessor.

It’s worth noting that Brendon Urie’s vocals have never been more accomplished than on this record; while he’s always been an incredible singer and a true frontman, he’s given free reign on this record to experiment with a number of different styles and he never seems out of his depth. It seems that adding Dallon Weekes as a permanent member of the band was an excellent decision too, as this record is funky as. There’s basslines here so filthy that you need two showers straight after listening to them. Spencer Smith is as solid and skilled as ever – despite the album’s heavy electric influence, there isn’t an overreliance on programmed drums, and it’s impossible to listen to the album without noticing a clever fill or a pounding and commanding rhythm.

While Panic! At The Disco might have always had the free reign to do what they want, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die! is more bold and brilliant than I ever could have imagined. Ten tracks is all they need to steal your heart. Don’t be afraid to let them.

5 out of 5 high fives!