Robyn Writes

Review: New Alaska – The Memoir Sings

Remember the old days? Long before MTV presented punk in the form of ultra-glossy mega hits containing juvenile profanity spouted by chubby dudes in ridiculous baggy pants grasping with every morsel of energy onto the fast-fading days of their twenties. Punk, in its various guises, used to reflect the grit and everyday drudgery of reality’s often grim and banal existence. It was an outlet into which every disaffection could be spewed out in a barrage of out-of-tune guitars and phlegm-ridden shouts of anti-right-wing socio-political slogans. New Alaska are not of the current era of well-groomed Topman clothes-horses – these so-called ‘punk’ bands with all their questionable energy drink sponsorship deals and hideous Youtube lyric videos. Snotty in the extreme, the West-Midlands troupe specialise in a brand of unapologetically brash punk that clatters and splutters its way forward showing scant regard for the odd bum note or rim shot mis-hit. The Memoir Sings, their five track battle cry, very much has the distinctly scuzzy feel of being recorded live in a garage on an old crusty four track.

All five tracks boast a flurry of skewed, angular guitar riffs that characterised much of the late 80’s DC scene whilst the lead shouter sports the kind of gobby, everyman-accented vocal delivery that harks back to the days when punk was at its most subversive, outwardly obnoxious and overtly anti-authoritarian. It’s resplendent in blasts of feedback and an uncompromisingly raw production style that would get Steve Albini a little hot under the collar. ‘This Is How To Start Fires’ is a savage opener, rollicking along at blistering pace with guitarists thrashing away at their long-suffering axes. Refusing to stop their unrelenting furore until the closing squeals of feedback at the tail end of ‘International Currencies’, New Alaska come across like noise rockers Unwound reeling off Minor Threat covers. You can almost smell the stale beer of toilet venues flowing through the speakers as they deliver their collections of tumultuous barrages in quick succession, without the slightest pause for breath.

The Memoir Songs is a brilliant, no holds barred reworking of off-kilter DC punk played at a furious and commendable pace. It would fit snuggly amongst the classic Dischord catalogue, in fact it sounds as though it was recorded in the legendary basement of Dischord house rather than the confines of Stourbridge. It’s as earnest and pure as any punk record you’re likely to find. A little caustic beaut.

4 out of 5 high fives!

Review: Of Us Giants – Nova Scotia

Of Us Giants are an ambitious bunch. They may have only just dropped their debut record, Nova Scotia, but the Californian trio have their sights set on the big leagues, eyeing up the hallowed territory of Brand New’s paradoxically arena-sized intimacy. Here, you’ll find everything that usually propels a band from lower-tier act, to the top of radio playlists and the headlining slots of pop-punk package tours sponsored by energy drink companies.

You’d be forgiven for thinking the band was comprised of a few more members than a trio such is the density and power afforded to them by some rather polished high-end production. Distorted power-chords arrive in great walls of noise, with the producer obviously taking cues from Butch Vig’s Nevermind style explosive chorus formula- throwing layer upon layer of guitars and overdubs to make an impenetrable slab of noise that seems mixed exclusively for radio play. Laying the foundations for the melodically-inclined fretwork exists that ridiculously over-processed and de-humanized drum setup, eradicating any dynamic nuance in favour of a robotic punch found ubiquitously in the world of generic metalcore. Even in more subtle tracks such as ‘Stone Hands’, there’s that humungous snare, punching its way through the mix like a classic Simple Minds 80’s power ballad, robbing songs of any delicate touch.

From the pop-punk riff that opens the album on ‘Liars’, Of Us Giants lay down the gauntlet. They want to be your favourite band. In fact, they pretty much demand it. How can you resist? Tracks like ‘Liars’ are chock full of every signifier of pure emotional vitriol associated with anthemic pop-rock. Firstly, there’s the crowd-favourite “woah-ohs”, a standard pop-punk exponent and tried-and-tested gimmick that’s sure to make any track sound epic, right? Secondly, there’s the huge emphasis on every chorus, found most overtly in ‘Take It Home’, which all but makes the verses redundant such is the amount of energy and passion exerted during those overwrought climaxes. Thankfully, there do exist some intimate moments such as the tender intro to ‘Dying’ or the folky strumming of ‘Nova Scotia’ but ultimately these somewhat inevitably segue into those huge choruses these Californian lads are so fond of. On two tracks- ‘Iron Boat’ and the title track, vocalist Dustin Andrew’s duets with the rather soothing voice of Lindsey Pavao, semi-finalist on the US version of The Voice, by the way. The result is largely successfully affecting vocal trade-off with some rather lovely harmonies although Pavao can’t resist a bout of fittingly overblown vocal showboating at the conclusion of ‘Nova Scotia’.

Despite their best intentions, there’s something a little too contrived and self-consciously anthemic about their sound. Every chorus is treated as a moment of hands in the air euphoria. It’s a bold move, treating your first album like the gateway to stadium rock hierarchy. But what Of Us Giants seem to be ignorant to, is that the allure of most of these stadium bands is the journey they took to get there, the grind of the toilet circuit and the character building it asserts, the struggle to find that unique aspect that only arrives through constant development and evolution in songwriting. Biffy Clyro went through a decade of transmuted weirdness before they started to gain even the slightest prospect of achieving the arena status they very much deserved. Brand New faced torturous writing sessions and a complete reworking of their sound before they arrived at the level of rabid devotion they now instil in a legion of sensitive souls. On Nova Scotia, Of Us Giants have prematurely declared themselves stadium bound and unleashed their big breakthrough album. In sidestepping the growing pains that define bands worthy of their arena status, Of Us Giants arrive devoid of an endearing charm.  Although there’s no doubting their ability to pen some truly monstrous and memorable rock tracks, here they’re simply trying too hard and employing every enthralling device of their heroes in a manner that is intrinsically false.

2.5 out of 5 high fives!

Review: Mark McCabe – A Good Way To Bury Bad News

Mark McCabe‘s second record, released earlier this week, is the sort of album that you take with you when you go for long walks with the dog in the bracing wind and you want to feel a little bit sad. A melancholic and mostly acoustic affair, A Good Way To Bury Bad News is profound and lovely, yet totally accessible, and resonates with all of the times you’ve ever hidden under the duvet while providing a glimmer of hope through the end of it all.

A Good Way To Bury Bad News is an album of contradictions. McCabe’s songwriting style is intricate, and yet simple. The subjects of the songs are sad, but at the same time, each track tends to have an uplifting moment. McCabe’s lyrics are honest and raw throughout, a trick perhaps picked up through his association with the punk scene rather than the “new-folk” scene, and often, surprisingly witty. There are stories about clinical depression, relationships that fail due to geographical affinity, and tales of growing up. The record is filled with subtleties, from the quiet cymbals in ‘Easy For Me To Say’ to the slide guitar in ‘Crutches’, but it’s also loud and proud when it wants to be, featuring beautiful strings throughout that rise and fall perfectly with McCabe’s soft Scottish tones. For the most part, it all seems to flow nicely until it reaches the end – ‘My Disguise Is Better Than Yours’, ending on a wonderfully optimistic note, would have been better suited to the final track rather than ‘Join The Crowd, but this is neither here nor there. It just simply is, and that’s a feeling that carries on all the way through the record.

I’ll be honest, if you’re feeling fragile, this might not be the record for you. But otherwise, McCabe has a grasp on human emotion that is very rarely paralleled in this kind of genre. As frank as Elliott Smith and with far less pretension than Frank Turner, A Good Way To Bury Bad News is a beautiful and moving record.

4 out of 5 high fives!

Review: Moving Brooklyn – Intervals [EP]

Moving Brooklyn seem like nice chaps. When you click onto their Facebook page, their header picture features them, being all smiley and flannel-shirted. Muted colours are abound throughout the bits of Facebook that you can customise, they list Celine Dion and cats (and dogs, because it’s unfair to discriminate) as their interests, and it all feels nice and cosy and safe.

Intervals is a very safe record, one that doesn’t take any big leaps or jumps into the stratosphere. Instead, it sticks to what it knows: pop-punk styled guitar picking, lyrics about pretty much nothing and the occasional, very tame, gang vocal section. And it does this for six whole tracks. It’s not that the record is bad – Moving Brooklyn can obviously play music – it just all sounds very similar. Moving Brooklyn also list their influences on their Facebook, and you can hear it all spilling out in there, just lacking the edge which made those influences great in the first place. Anberlin, Northstar, Taking Back Sunday… it’s all in Intervals, but it just doesn’t reach the lofty heights of those bands. Moving Brooklyn might have the potential to, but they need to take more risks.

The slick production of the EP doesn’t necessarily do them any favours either. Each song blends into one another with very little distinction. The only song that sounds vaguely different is closing track ‘Good Thing I’ve Learned’, which decides to step away from sunshine rhythms and instead, tries out a few minor chords. The verses feel like they’re building up to something, but as soon as the chorus comes back, it’s back to the same old, same old.

If I could describe Intervals in one word, it’d be “nice”. But sadly, nice just doesn’t cut it. Easily forgettable, Intervals bobs along in a sea of similar records, clutching onto its rubber ring and waving timidly at the shore.

2.5 out of 5 high fives!

Interview: Plane Crasher

Lock up your Tube Amps… It’s PLANE CRASHER!!

Described by Terrorizer Magazine as “a Wild fusion of The Jesus Lizard, The Ramones and Shellac”… Hereford noise merchants Plane Crasher are keeping the spirit of playing REALLY FUCKING LOUD alive and well out in a damp corner of middle England. DIY to the core, with a triple single, a live release and a six-track studio EP under their belts, if you like your punk super-analogue, super-heavy and Steve Albini-filthy, then these boys deserve your attention.

Edward Ling asked the questions, answers supplied by a gestalt entity of the whole band (Edd Tipton – Guitar & Vocals, Matt Rees – Guitar, Ben Davies – Bass, Rich Allen – Drums) and channelled by Rich. Who happens to look an an awful lot like a young Iggy Pop.

So… It appears from that Facetube that you’ve been recording some new material… how’s it all going? A bold new direction into acoustic folk the offing?

Yeah, we recorded some demos in October at our drummer’s house with a view to go into the studio in April. Don’t ask us for a release date though – that’s way too hard a question. Musically it’s probably going to be a bit slower than what most people have come to expect from us, at least in parts. We’re trying to avoid repeating ourselves where possible, and bringing the tempo down a bit gives us way more space to explore new ideas. We’re still writing for it though so we’re bound to change our minds a few more times before we record. Whatever the case, it’s going to be noisy. Noisy acoustic folk.

The Welsh Marches are not widely celebrated as a harsh spawning ground for edgy, underground punk. Though maybe with the exception of T’Pau and that band that did that song about Breakfast at Tiffanys. How do you find it plying a trade of cataclysmic krunk and chugging – so very far from the bright lights of western civilisation?

We get asked to turn down quite a lot. In a decent sized city (or any decent venue) nobody bats an eyelid at a band all using tube amps through half-stacks, but by the reaction we get from some sound guys around here, you’d think they’d never seen a 4×12 before. We had the power turned off on us half-way through the set at a gig for ‘Malvern Rocks’ festival this year. Evidently whoever booked us hadn’t checked out the band at all, and put us on at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon, opening for some acoustic jazz folk bands. You get the idea…
The whole ‘networking’ game can be pretty difficult when you’re from around here – try offering a band from London or Birmingham a gig swap in Hereford! All that said, the lack of similar bands can often be really rewarding. When you’re playing shows with such varied lineups you get to see and make friends with great bands you’d never normally dream of checking out.

I was being facetious there, by the way. There does seem to be something of a “scene” sending out a few shoots recently in the Hereford and Worcester locale of late… Has this always been there, growling away amongst the apple farms, monumental ecclesiastical architecture, blue remembered hills and childhood home of Fred West – or is something new building?

There’s always been people making heavy, noisy music around these parts. The rise and fall of the ‘scene’ seems to be mostly reliant on the presence of (or lack-of) an audience. Any musician with a scrap of integrity will keep doing ‘their thing’, because it’s what they enjoy doing, regardless of whether anyone pats their backs or not. Shred Perry is the only promoter who seems to be putting on heavy/alternative shows worth playing or attending in Hereford. We’ve recently started playing Worcester quite a bit and there’s a really good crowd over there – big shout out to Tone Monster Promotions and Embrace the Chaos, who are both putting on tons or great gigs right now.

Genres can be a bit troublesome. A good way for the music industry and press to either sell or write off new bands, some say – but also a way of knowing where a band is coming from and a good guide for new fans… How would you define your sound – if at all?

No band likes to be pigeonholed. Well, at least, not any bands worth listening to. Never trust a band that openly and deliberately categorises themselves. More often than not they’re just repeating clichés from that genre, which generally means they’re going to suck. We’ve been described as all kinds of things, from “stoner rock” to “driving speed-metal”. “Heavy punk” seemed to fit the bill quite well. For the benefit of potential fans, when we have to, we usually describe ourselves as “alternative noise rock” or something similar. “Loud” always helps too.

Social Media, platforms like Bandcamp and Soundcloud and the cottage industry pressing vinyl in greater volume than ever does seem to be make it easier for serious DIY outfits to get their stuff out there, either digitally or physically. What’s your experience of doing it yourselves in this brave, new age? Any too good to be true offers from “labels” tempting you away from DIY?

While the whole social media thing is undeniably useful for building and maintaining a fan-base, as far as record sales go 99% of it so far has been at shows, plus a few through record shops & distros. The best way to get yourselves out there is to get yourselves out there (i.e. playing gigs).
We haven’t been approached by any labels – most labels don’t really offer us anything we can’t do ourselves anyway. Maybe a big stack of cash. That would be nice. If a label offered us money to do what we do already we’d consider it. But they haven’t yet. And they probably won’t.

While we’re on this kick… for a garage band you work up a well-produced sound – who’s the sound geek? And you seem to be using the microphone in the lav trick for the demos, from what I hear…

We’re all the sound geek! All of us have plenty of sound engineering experience, we know what sounds good and how to get it and we’re all massive control freaks, so DIY is for us the way to get the best results. It’s much harder to keep your vision pure on a major label. Look at Elvis, he died on his toilet trying to perfect his vocal sound.

Beautiful. You clearly know you hardcore history – there’s a lot of Ginn, Albini, WM Sims going on in your stuff. Who do you think your influences are… And what do you listen to in the “van”?

If we had a van, we’d probably be listening to someone complain about the music that’s playing. We have a lot of common ground, most of which is pretty evident in the music, but there’s also a shit-ton of things we don’t agree on (clue – don’t mention the Beatles to Matt). We always bring our full backline to shows, so several vehicles is the only option. Edd’s car is usually mostly huge compilations of 50’s and 60’s music with the occasional Shellac song thrown in. Ben’s car is mainly host to noise and stoner-doom. Rich listens to free-jazz. On his own.

And to put you on the spot: Big Black or Black Flag?

Big Black. Black Flag are great but since Greg Ginn fucked it all up Big Black seem a lot more relevant.

Speaking of scenes and bands – Any bands currently playing really excite you right now – or that you want to give a shout?

We’re really enjoying the current offerings from Red Fang, Lamps and Pissed Jeans right now. Also, the latest Future of the Left album is a welcome return to form. As far as bands that we know/have played with, the following have the Plane Crasher seal of approval: Fetus Christ, New Cowboy Builders, Gag Reflex, Workin’ Man Noise Unit, Mansize, Evolution of Man, Grant National, Torpor, and Mangle.

New material aside, what’s next? Any plans to venture further afield to brutalise the bourgeoisie of the big cities here or abroad?

We’ve got an Ireland and Northern England tour booked for March 2014 (promoters – give us a shout, we still have a few gaps). We’re also putting together a UK tour next year with the aforementioned Evolution of Man, plus we have some dates with US band The Bismarck on their UK tour. We’ve had various offers of gigs in Europe but they’re all way too far apart to really justify a tour at this point. As far as England goes, we’ll play anywhere for petrol money and free lasagne.

Thanks guys – anything else we need to know about you or the fine cathedral city of Hereford before we go?

We’re supposed to be getting a Nando’s at some point, however at the time of writing we still don’t have a Burger King.

So there you go. Times are indeed hard on the road to Abergavenny.

You can find Plane Crasher in the ether at:

https://www.facebook.com/planecrasher

www.planecrasher.com

Or even better, catch ’em live.

This piece was also published in analogue ink and paper in Issue #25 of Lights Go Out – copies available at http://www.lightsgoout.co.uk/