As soon as you hear the opening riffs of Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol‘s Doom-Wop on the first track, “Shoo In,” you know you’re in for a wild ride. The heavy thump of the fuzzed bass, Sean St. Germain‘s crashing cymbals, the crunchy guitars, and the slightly post-punk vocals all combine for a crazy party mix.
The vocals on “Fly Super Glide” are almost frantic cries for love. “Chew” chews up the room with bass that growls like a hungry lion and angry vocals of telling a lover to pound sound – and that’s mildly putting it. Leo Lydon‘s eight-string guitar work on the title track chugs along like a steam engine one moment, and then tears down the road like a Hemi ‘Cuda the next. “Just ’cause you feel, doesn’t mean that you’re not the heel,” they sing / wail on “Heel” – a song about realizing you’re not the one screwing up a relationship, the other person is.
“The Room” has this heavy grind to it that reminds me of a thunderstorm rolling in from over a mountain. “I’m the Fuckin’ Man” slaps party-bros across their smug faces with Aaron Metzdorf‘s sledgehammer bass. “Jesus Was an Alien” is a funny, fuzzy cut about, I think conspiracy theorists and / or religious fanatics. “The Bog” brings their love of 1970s garage rock to the forefront, and then slaps a thick layer of doom upon it.
The album has just nine tracks, but it packs enough wallop for eighteen. Give it a spin and get rockin’!
This was my second time seeing Chicago queercore punk band Bev Rage and the Drinks, and it was, so far, the loudest set I’ve seen them play.
First up in the small Brass Rail dive bar in downtown Fort Wayne, were The Namby Pamby, who I hadn’t seen before now. Their stuff reminded me of some of Nirvana‘s mellower tracks with harder-edged R.E.M. thrown in for good measure. It’s an interesting sound that feels familiar and yet kind of exotic.
The Namby Pamby
As I mentioned before, Bev Rage and the Drinks came out and proceeded to blast the Brass Rail’s bar out onto Broadway. I don’t know how much of it was the place’s acoustics, how much was their amps turned up to eleven, and how much of it was Ms. Rage and her band’s blazing fury, but the power of their set was palpable. They ripped through tracks from their last two albums, ending with a hard-hitting version of “Permanent Receptionist.”
Bev Rage and The Drinks
Necromoon played after them, but I was exhausted after a long work day and had to leave to make it home safe that night. It was a fun night, however, and Bev Rage always puts on a great show.
The first thing you learn about The Bobby Lees upon playing their new album, Bellevue, is that they don’t waste time. The title track, which opens the album, explodes like ambush machine gun fire. It’s hard to determine who is going fastest. Is it Sam Quartin with her frantic vocals, Macky Bowman with his raging drums, Nick Casa with his blazing guitar, or Kendall Wind with her bonkers bass?
They only stop to breathe for the beginning of “Hollywood Junkyard,” which soon grows into a savage beast of a track that has Quartin ripping apart fame and all the trappings and expectations that come with it. “Ma Likes to Drink” ups the punk (and the funk on Wind’s bass). “Death Train” brings in monster surf elements and Quartin tells us to “shut up and dance.”
“Strange Days” takes a strange left turn, reminding me of some early tracks by Yeah Yeah Yeahs with its haunted house piano, rock star swagger, and air of mystery. “Dig Your Hips” lights a new fuse under your feet with some of Bowman’s hardest snare slaps on the record. I love how the whole band sings on the chorus of “Have You Seen a Girl.” Casa’s guitar solo on “In Low” is jaw-dropping. It sounds like the rest of the band told him, “Just go nuts.”, and he took them up on the offer.
“Little Table” might be a song about human furniture fetish, or a song about the interdependency of relationships. It could be both. “Monkey Mind” has Quartin protesting her inability to stay present. We can all relate to this, and to Wind’s dance bass groove. “Greta Van Fake” is, as you’d expect and hope, a brutal takedown of Greta Van Fleet (“I watch you from the crowd as you fake it, now watch us from the ground as we make it.”). The album closes with “Be My Enemy,” which has Quartin telling her detractors that she’s biding her time as they push her down so she can grow in strength and then smash them to pieces.
Bellevue is named after the upstate New York mental hospital, and Quartin has mentioned that she wrote many of the album’s lyrics while undergoing great stress during the pandemic. The album is manic, for sure, but there’s a tightness to it like a straitjacket that’s tearing at the seams.
The Stooges, who would become known for their fierce punk garage rock, could’ve been one of the greatest psychedelic rock bands of all time if they had chosen to go down that road.
Take the opening track (“1969”) of their debut album, for example. It’s loaded with psych-fuzz guitar from Ron Asheton that sounds like he just walked in from San Francisco instead of Detroit, and Iggy Pop‘s vocals are almost spoken word poetry rambled from a dingy coffee house. “I Wanna Be Your Dog” almost induces bad acid trip panic.
The third track, “We Will Fall,” is over ten minutes of floating down a lazy river while monks wearing saffron-colored robes chant and play hand percussion instruments along the banks. “No Fun” brings back the grungy fuzz with Dave Alexander‘s distorted bass leading the romp. “Real Cool Time” has Asheton jamming like a damn sawmill of sound tearing through your house.
Pop’s vocals on “Ann” blend right into Asheton’s guitar squalls while Alexander and Scott Asheton lay down a hypnotic rhythm to further trip you out of your headspace. “Not Right” has Pop feeling frisky, but his lady friend isn’t “feeling right,” so he’s stuck again frustrated, and then even more so when she’s finally in the mood and he isn’t. “It’s always this way,” he moans while the rest of the Stooges proceed to melt our faces. The album closes with “Little Doll” and its swirling, scratchy, savage guitars fading the album, and us, into oblivion.
Everyone knows how important The Stooges are to music, but their debut album is a forgotten psychedelic rock classic.
One of the many fun things about The Chats‘ new album, Get Fucked, is that its title can have at least three different interpretations: 1. The Chats (say), “Get fucked.” to all their critics, ticket inspectors, tobacco sellers, stuffed shirts, politicians, and anyone who doesn’t like a good pint or a party now and then. 2. The Chats get fucked over by those mentioned in option #1. 3. The Chats get laid. My theory is that the first option is the closest to their original intention, judging from the album cover and the middle fingers being flipped to everyone – including those of us picking up the album. The cover is supposed to shake you out of your current reality, and the whole record pretty much throws a pint of lager in your face.
The album’s opening track, “6LTR GTR,” gets us off to a gas pedal-stomping start as they rip off a track about a hot rod being driven by a douchebag idiot who doesn’t deserve it. “Struck by Lighting” is even faster and brings to mind both AC/DC and The Ramones with its punk ferocity. You’re almost out of breath by the time we reach “Boggo Breakout” – and that’s only the third track. “Southport Superman” is barely over thirty seconds and feels like a mosh pit erupts in your head.
The build-up of “Panic Attack” gives you a brief respite from the chaos, but soon the vocals are coming at you like a belt-fed machine gun. “Ticket Inspector” has the band railing against a jerk who flaunts power he doesn’t really have. “The Price of Smokes” starts off with blues-like lyrics about not having enough money for rent and smokes and slowly builds into a rager about the Australian economy in general. “Dead on Site” and “Paid Late” keep the fire burning, and “Paid Late” has some of Eamon Sandwith‘s funkiest bass licks. “I’ve Been Drunk in Every Pub in Brisbane” is a great track that we can guess is based on true events.
Not much of your face is left by the time you reach “Out on the Street,” because most of it has been shredded off you by now. New guitarist Josh Hardy has a burning solo on it, and across the whole record. It’s difficult to choose which is best. “Emperor of the Beach” could be an early King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard track with its groove that evolves into a wild, psych-surf punk banger. Matt Boggis‘ cymbals wash over you like ocean waves by the end. The album ends with “Getting Better” – a pep talk of a track that turns into a drag race between nitro-burning hot rods that have time bombs attached to them.
Get in, sit down, shut up, and hold on with this album.
There’s a sick irony to how a country that extols rhetoric of individual freedom, in the same gasp, has no problem commodifying human life as if it were meat to feed the insatiable hunger of capitalism. If this is American nihilism taken to its absolute zenith, then God’s Country, the first full length record from Oklahoma City noise rock quartet Chat Pileis the aural embodiment of such a concept.
Having lived alongside the heaps of toxic refuse that the band derives its name from, the fatalism of daily life in the American Midwest permeates throughout the works of Chat Pile, and especially so on God’s Country. Exasperated by the pandemic, the hopelessness of climate change, the cattle shoot of global capitalism, and fueled by “…lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of THC,” God’s Countryis as much of an acknowledgement of the Earth’s most assured demise as it is a snarling violent act of defiance against it. Within its over 40 minute runtime, God’s Country displays both Chat Pile’s most aggressively unhinged and contemplatively nuanced moments to date, drawing from its preceding two EPs and its score for the 2021 film, Tenkiller. In the band’s own words, the album is, at its heart, “Oklahoma’s specific brand of misery.” A misery intent on taking all down with it and its cacophonous chaos on its own terms as opposed to idly accepting its otherwise assured fall. This is what the end of the world sounds like.
In just a couple of years, Chat Pile have made nothing short of a profound impression on the underground music discourse. Formed in the spring of 2019 by Raygun Busch (vocals), Luther Manhole (Guitar), Stin (Bass), and Captain Ron (Drums), the noise-rock quartet would release two EPs that same year, titled This Dungeon Earth and Remove Your Skin Please. Spurred on by both a hearty run of live performances and a swiftly growing online fanbase, Chat Pile became a staple name among its genre contemporaries thanks to its hellish synthesis of noise rock, sludge, industrial, and mid 90’s nu-metal. In 2020, the band would sign with San Francisco underground music label, The Flenser, to put out its upcoming full length debut. That following year, Chat Pile kept its roll going, with accolades including composing the score for the indie film, Tenkiller, as well as releasing a 7” split with portrayal of guilt in the summer.
Now, the world braces itself for the release of Chat Pile‘s Flenser debut God’s Country on July 29th. The album is available for pre-order here and Chat Pile will play select shows this summer and fall.
Chat Pile, live:
July 29 Oklahoma City, OK @ The Sanctuary (Records Release Show)
July 30 Austin, TX @ Chess Club
September 15 Oklahoma City, OK @ The Sanctuary
October 21 Brooklyn, NY @ St. Vitus *
October 24 Brooklyn, NY @ St. Vitus *
*w/ Scarcity
Keep your mind open.
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“This place is like the Borg cube of music venues.”
That’s how my friend described the Andrew J. Bird Music Center in downtown Cincinnati. It’s an interesting performance space with good acoustics, but the interior “has no personality,” as she put it. It has a stark industrial feel, and hosting some industrial or goth shows in the place would be ideal. The only fixed seats are in the multiple balconies. The main floor is open, but rows of seats were added for The Psychedelic Furs and X.
This was the second time I’ve seen the Psychedelic Furs. The first was on their “Singles Tour” and this one was promoting their latest record, Made of Rain. First up, however, were L.A. punk legends X. Bassist John Doe mentioned how they’d been playing in a lot of beautiful theaters, but “I keep expecting Tina Turner to come out and tell us we’re in the Thunderdome in this place.” They put on a fun set, with Billy Zoom still shredding both guitar and saxophone, Exene Cervenka blessing the crowd, and D.J. Bonebrake playing both drums and xylophone. People were dancing in the aisles the whole time, and one guy was pogoing front and center for nearly their entire set. Billy Zoom came back out after their set and signed a few autographs.
I knew we were in for a good set from The Psychedelic Furs when they opened their show with “I Wanna Sleep with You” – one of my favorite tracks that I wasn’t sure I’d ever hear live. “Mr. Jones” followed and then the first of many great tracks from Made of Rain, “You’ll Be Mine.”
“Dumb Waiters”
Other sharp new tracks included Made of Rain‘s opener, “The Boy Who Invented Rock and Roll,” “Wrong Train,” “This’ll Never Be Like Love,” “No-One,” and “Ash Wednesday.” “Their new songs are beautiful,” my friend said. She’s right. Guitarist Rich Good puts more emphasis on the psychedelic part of the band’s sound on these new tracks.
They played plenty of classics, of course, with “The Ghost in You” being the loveliest and “Love My Way” being even more popular with the happy crowd than “Pretty in Pink.”
“Imitation of Christ”
The encore included a solid version of “Heartbreak Beat” that had everybody dancing and a stunning, beautifully chaotic (as they’d describe it) version of “India” – the first track on their first album. It was another song I wasn’t sure I’d ever hear live, and it was a killer end to a great show. Saxophonist Mars Williams played so hard and with such frenetic passion that we all thought he was going to pass out on stage at one point.
Another highlight is how Richard Butler‘s voice never seems to age, or perhaps it just gets better. He’s still on top of his game, as is the whole band. His brother, Tim Butler, still has that rockstar style and slight menace about him, and the bottom end of his bass is the band’s secret weapon. Keyboardist Amanda Kramer doesn’t go overboard with her playing, which means she’s secretly doing a lot of stuff you can barely comprehend – and she adds a mystery to the band’s stage presence behind her ever-present shades (as does Tim Butler). The band’s new drummer, Zack Alford, has serious chops and ups the volume with pure rock beats.
Aussie punk trio The Chats release a new single/video, “I’ve Been Drunk in Every Pub in Brisbane,” from their new album, GET FUCKED, out August 19th on Bargain Bin Records. Clocking in at just 89 seconds, the rip-roaring track is an entirely unironic celebration of frontman Eamon Sandwith’s first year or two in his new home city. The accompanying video was shot under the influence by the band and their house mate, Rick, who is also in a band with Eamon and Josh called Rick and the Sickos.
“Brisbane is quite a bit hotter than the rest of the country,” says Eamon, “so it’s one of those places where it’s more acceptable to start drinking earlier. I reckon there would be 900 or so pubs that you would have to hit, and I have actually been to a good chunk of them, but if you were go to all of them, it would be hard to even remember which ones you’d been to, and which ones you hadn’t, especially if you’d got fucking pissed.”
GET FUCKED is an incendiary, hyper-adrenalized blitz from punk heaven, showcasing an electrifying all-killer-no-filler 13 tracks which perfectly capture the band’s explosive energy. The album, while tackling umpteen eminently relatable beefs ranging from surfer-dude racism to the usual dire impecunity, feels like a classic high-velocity punk-rock party album like they just don’t make ’em anymore – think early Ramones, think MDC’s debut, think invite your mates over and rock hard all weekend. It is, quite simply, another laugh-out-loud, pogo-through-the-floorboards stroke of motherfucking genius.
This fall, The Chats will open for Guns N’ Roses on a Australian and New Zealand tour. A full list of dates can be found below.
San Diego trio The Schizophonics share the video for “Won Your Love” from their forthcoming fourth album today via Punk News. Watch and share “Won Your Love” HERE. (Direct YouTube.)
The band previously issued the lead single “Desert Girl” via YouTube, Spotify and all other DSPs.
The band just recently wrapped up an extensive tour of Europe, and will be very busy for the next year with tour dates around the world. Please see current dates below.
Over the last few years, The Schizophonics have built up a formidable reputation around the world as an explosive live act. Tapping into the same unstoppable combination of rock ‘n’ roll energy and showmanship that fueled The MC5 in the heyday of the Grande Ballroom, their wild live show is heavily influenced by artists like James Brown,Iggy Pop, Jimi Hendrix, Little Richard, and The Sonics.
Singer/guitarist Pat Beers and drummer Lety Beers formed the band in San Diego in 2009 and have worked tirelessly since then, playing hundreds of shows around the globe. In 2013 they were recruited as the backing/opening band for El Vez, which helped the band make a name for itself in Europe. Since then, they’ve played in numerous countries, and supported tours by like-minded acts like Rocket From The Crypt, Little Barrie, The Woggles and have opened for the Damned, DEVO, The Hives and Cage The Elephant. Shindig Magazine described their live show “Like watching some insane hybrid of WAYNE KRAMER, JAMES BROWN, and the Tasmanian Devil.”
The band is more than just a live act; they’re also committed to writing great memorable songs. Their new album Hoof It on Pig Baby Records due in Fall 2022 was recorded by Dean Reis at Singing Serpent studio (Plosivs, RFTC) and mixed by Steve Kaye at Sun King Studios.
Hoof It will be available on LP, CD and download on September 2nd, 2022 via Pig Baby Records. Pre-orders are available HERE.
THE SCHIZOPHONICS LIVE 2022:
07/22 & 23 Saint Paul, Quebec, CA – Le Festif! De Baie Saint Paul
09/07 Boise, ID – Neurolux
09/08 Yakima, WA – Punks Bar
09/09 Seattle, WA – Substation
09/10 Portland, OR – Dante’s
09/11 Eugene, OR – Old Nick’s
09/13 Albany, CA – Ivy Room
09/14 San Jose, CA – The Ritz
09/15 Santa Cruz, CA – Moe’s Alley
09/17 Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon
09/23 San Diego, CA – The Casbah
10/21 Los Angeles, CA – Permanent Records Roadhouse
Australian punks The Chats announce their new album, GET FUCKED, out August 19th on the band’s own label, Bargain Bin Records, and share a new single/video, “6L GTR.” The announcement arrives in the midst of their North American tour (tickets on sale now). Their debut full-length, High Risk Behaviour, dropped just as the pandemic struck, and The Chats have duly been through the same frustrating two years of broken dreams and shredded itineraries as every other combo. Undeterred and now stocked to overflowing with frustration and fury, they strike back with GET FUCKED, an incendiary, hyper-adrenalized blitz from punk heaven, showcasing a rockin’ new guitarist, and an electrifying all-killer-no-filler 13 tracks which perfectly capture the band’s explosive energy. It is, quite simply, another laugh-out-loud, pogo-through-the-floorboards stroke of motherfucking genius.
The Chats took lockdown as a chance to plan their next move, which is when they enlisted Josh Hardy after the departure of their last guitarist. Sometime in ’21, Eamon Sandwith, Matt Boggis and Hardy decamped to southern Queensland to write at their friend’s place, Vinny’s Dive Bar. Once they’d worked up a rollicking batch of new tunes, they had actually planned to record again near Melbourne, with Billy Gardner, who produced High Risk Behaviour, but due to pandemic border closures, they nailed it instead in six days at Brisbane’s Hunting Ground facility with Cody McWaters, who’d worked on a single for Eamon’s other band, Headlice.
“They weren’t like hardcore working days,” Eamon reveals, “we would start at 11 and finish at 4, and in the middle of that we’d go to the pub for lunch for two hours, and have a few beers. Then we’d go, ‘Oh shit, we better go back and do some recording!’ Our work etiquette wasn’t great.” Consequently, GET FUCKED, while tackling umpteen eminently relatable beefs ranging from surfer-dude racism to the usual dire impecunity, feels like a classic high-velocity punk-rock party album like they just don’t make ’em anymore – think early Ramones, think MDC’s debut, think invite your mates over and rock hard all weekend.
GET FUCKED opens with “6L GTR,” a swingeing takedown of a speed-crazed status-symbol driver – a critique piqued when Eamon spotted the titular licence plate in an airport carpark. “I don’t even know if the car itself was actually a six-liter GTR or anything,” he chuckles. “To be honest with you, I don’t even know what a car like that would look like! I can’t drive! That was the thing, we were just trying to get into this dude’s head.” The video was made by animator and illustrator Marco Imov who spent days creating the band in character form. “They hinted that it would be cool if instead of being directly about the car, it should be about the band wanting the car,” explains Marco. “From there it kind of wrote itself down.”
The more you listen to it, the more you realize that there was only one plausible title for this second Chats album. After all the incarceration and boredom, The Chats are in peak match fitness to deliver the excitement we all crave for the months ahead.
GET FUCKED TRACKLIST 1. 6L GTR 2. Struck By Lightning 3. Boggo Road 4. Southport Superman 5. Panic Attack 6. Ticket Inspector 7. The Price of Smokes 8. Dead on Site 9. Paid Late 10. I’ve Been Drunk In Every Pub In Brisbane 11. Out On The Street 12. Emperor of the Beach 13. Getting Better
THE CHATS TOUR DATES Mon. Jun. 27 – Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie Tue. Jun. 28 – Brussels, BE @ La Botanique Fri. Jul. 1 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter 2022 Mon. Jul. 4 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg Tue. Jul. 5 – Berlin, DE @ SO36 Wed. Jul. 6 – Hamburg, DE @ Moltow Backyard Thu. Jul. 7 – Cologne, DE @ Gebäude Fri. Jul. 22 – Adelaide, AU @ Adelaide Showground Fri. Jul. 29 – Luxembourg, LU @ Rotondes Sat. Oct. 8 – Sacramento, CA @ Aftershock Festival
Keep your mind open.
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