It’s refreshing to see a “hardcore” band branch out into territory that is rarely explored in the genre.  Their new song Ballots/Stones, which I wouldn’t classify as hardcore, reminds me of a mixture of the clash, the smiths and wham – mixed with a bit of punk.  Sounds interesting, right?  Check it out HERE.

There’s also a sweet cover of The Get Up Kid’s song Holiday by Final Fight.

+ 57,000 dollar bed

+++++

This made me puke in my mouth a little bit…

This made me envious

If you have the chance to go see them live don’t hesitate – they blew me away.  Oh, and they’re coming back through Baltimore with Trash Talk and Alexisonfire at the Ottobar on April 24th.

They turn on lights about 2 minutes into the video – I wish my camera was able to capture better in low-light.

La Dispute – Such Small Hands & Said the King to the River

Click here to view the embedded video.

La Dispute – Bury Your Flames

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well it looks like Refused is getting back together and playing some fests.  How can I get to Europe on the cheap?

Download The Shape of Punk to Come and be reminded of how influential this album was.

Janine Conway filmed,edited and produced this short documentary on the beloved Charm City Art Space – a well known punk/hardcore/indie/whatever music and arts venue in Baltimore, MD.

It’s neat to hear from the venue organizers and attendees on why this venue has been/is still a really important space in Baltimore for musicians and artists.  It’s cool that she was able to conduct the interviews before the venue moved into the new Charm City Art Space building – which is actually right next door to the old space.

Tigers Jaw’s sound is reminiscent of bands like The Get Up Kids or early Taking Back Sunday – not so much musically as in the overall “feeling” of the album, which I know is a very generalized statement but just trust me – after you listen, you’ll know.

I catch myself listening to The Sun way too often and repeating “What about your friends? What about your friends?  Do they make you happy?”

p.s.  Their singer’s voice is the definition of melancholy.

Download: Tigers Jaw – Tigers Jaw

Read: A Full Review

Look at that album cover and try to convince yourself you don’t want to listen to what these dudes have to say.

Andrew Jackson Jihad are a duo from Arizona who play a polarizing form of folk-punk acoustic jams.  Some people can’t get into the vocals – and that’s  understandable – but I can’t get enough of them.  I posted about their full length People Who Eat People are the Luckiest People in the World a while ago – which I also highly recommend.

Download Andrew Jackson Jihad – Operation Stackola

+ LURKIN

It just keeps getting better and better all the way down.

via THIS IS PHOTOBOMB

Converge Myspace

Download Axe to Fall

My external hard drive crashed so I lost the video of David that I used at the ending of all the videos I post.  Bummed about that – but I replaced it with something equally as awesome.  I just wish I had a funny noise for Eddie’s dance of seduction.

Sorry this video came out so monochrome.  Low Light + My Camera = very dark images or tons of blur.  I usually opt for the first and try to clean it up a bit in editing.  Anyway, enjoy.

Suffix – Oh; Hey Der, Margie

Related Post:  Download Suffix’s Demo

I completely forgot to post about this album.  While on tour Jacob, a guy that runs a venue out of his house in Wisconsin, turned me onto these guys.  It’s punk influenced folk with a bit of bluegrass thrown in for good measure.   The vocalist is a bit off-kilter which makes me enjoy this album all that much more.  I would liken his vocals to mixture of equal parts Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel) and David Combs (Spoonboy, The Max Levine Ensemble).

Someone out there has already reviewed this album better than I can so here’s what a random internet dude on sputnik has to say:

“Sometimes there are some bands who someone will play for you, and your ears instantly reject it. A headache ensues, you feel a rush of disgust, it’s almost a self-induced migraine. Well, having never heard of “folk-punk” or Andrew Jackson Jihad for that matter, I was more than a little put off by the style of music they were putting forth. Given to me by my friend who was “finding their true identity in college” I had a bad feeling about it anyway. That probably tainted my willingness to accept this album. Sean Bonnete’s voice was too much to digest at first; particularly over acoustic guitar. Needless to say, I left this CD to collect dust for a good five to six months knowing that maybe my tastes would shift enough to accept this into my library with open arms. Well, six months soared by and I gave it another spin. This time around I didn’t even have to listen for 45 seconds to see the genius behind this band. People Who Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People is a fun, happy-go-lucky yet somehow ironically melancholy record that is perfect for any kind of day.”

Read the Full Review HERE.

Download Andrew Jackson Jihad – People Who Eat People Are The Luckiest People in the World

Myspace HERE.

Last night’s show sucked.  We played with a punk band made up of 13 – 15 year olds completely decked out in their most punk rock clothing.  Every kid there had some sort of stud-ladden jacket or patch covered pair of pants.  We played to a crowd of maybe 9 people – all of which were the parents of the aforementioned band.  It was the most akward show I’ve ever played.

The punk kids stood outside the entire time then completely avoided us while we loaded out.  I know they are only kids but I think if you are going to put on this punk-as-fuck image then you should at least have the respect to watch the band that is playing the show with you.

The show was really awkward for us, but I felt far worse for the parents of these kids.  The punk band’s front man had a gotti-boy haircut, a cut up danzig shirt, a metal studded belt, and was wearing creeper shoes (shoes with 6 inch bottoms).  He started off their set with a song called “I love sex.”  The song was about 2 minutes long and he just repeated the line “I love sex” over and over.  Then they played a song about having morning wood and not being able to get out of bed in the morning which they segwayed into with this joke:

“This song is about waking up, and not being able to get yourself out of bed in the morning… because you’ve got a BONER!”

Their parent’s faces were beet-red for the entire set.

I have videos of their set that I can’t wait to upload.