Long time no see.

It's been a long time since I updated this blog, I can't really be bothered checking right now but I'm sure it's been a couple of weeks.  I thought that maybe I should post here so anyone who actually does care about my life/my posts on here can see that I haven't fallen off the planet completely. 

It's currently 3:25AM and I'm sitting here at the computer, watching an episode of Whale Wars (Animal Planet's 7 part TV show about the Sea Shepard Conservation Society's campaign in Antarctica last summer), checking my shit on the internet and just doing this blog post. I don't know why I'm up so late, I stayed up really late finishing a book I was reading and then I guess I couldn't sleep. This is probably all a bad idea considering I have my sisters University Graduation in literally 7 and a half hours and I have to go into uni in the morning and then make my way to South Bank. 

I've been so busy of late that I think I completely forgot this blog even existed. In between working 2 jobs and doing a University course I guess there's not that much more time to go around. I literally clocked in over 24 hours worth of work over saturday and sunday last week. Fuck. I went to uni the last 2 mornings and spent both afternoons at work and came home both nights to finish a uni assignment (thanks to the lecturer taking ages to teach us the work required to finish the assignment, cheers mate haha). 

Most of my thoughts these days seem to be about planning/setting up for my trip to America next year or more future university career and hell, going overseas seems so exciting at the moment (and my university future is so much in my head right now) that the two have combined themselves in my head and I'm even contemplating trying to head to the states again in 2o10 on student exchange.  It's an idea I wanted to do in the past but bailed on it because I didn't want to spend half a year in the states alone/ didn't know if I could afford it. Hopefully I can raise the money in 12 months and hopefully Sean would be able to get a US work visa and come hang. I dunno, it all seems pretty up in the air right now, but maybe I'll make it work.

Also, Sean made a pretty detailed breakdown of our planned trip to the states on his blog a few days ago, which has just stopped me from doing a similar post on here (as there's no way I can compete with the effort he's gone to haha), check it out here. 

I think that's all I have to say for now, I'm out. I should really go to bed but this episode of whale wars is half over now and it's also getting quite exciting haha.

Undertow

Our American travel plans changed yesterday after the announcment of a second Burning Fight Book Release show in the US. We're now moving our 2 week trip back another week so we are able to see a show in Pomona, California with Unbroken and Undertow. I'm excited because Undertow were meant to play the original Burning Fight show but were then never announced. 

Listen to this band. They are probably one of the toughest, raddest straight edge hardcore bands of the last 20 years. They have a discography called 'Everything' out on Indecision Records (the same label that did the Unbroken discography discs and released early material but Bleeding Through, Death by Stereo and Throwdown), it's well worth your time.

http://www.myspace.com/undertowhxc 

wow.

just listened to Carpathian playing live on JJJ. Sounded fucking rad. Sucks if you missed it, I'm sure it'll be floating around the internet soon enough anyway...

You know you've done too much maths when...

you see someone write 'directionless vector' on their blog and you instantly get annoyed at how it really makes no such at all haha. (For those that don't care enough for mathematics to understand what I'm on about, a scalar is just a number but a vector has a direction. for example, speed is a scalar quantity (ie. 30km/h) but velocity is a vector quantity (ie. 30km/h NE), meaning a vector without a direction is really not a vector at all). /end smartguypost

Decent weekend.

It seems I only ever update this blog when something somewhat negative happens, but I had a fairly good weekend over the last couple of days so I thought I should probably document it before it's lost forever. It was also a pretty tired weekend because I had work at 5am Friday morning, 4am Saturday morning and 6am Sunday morning. Ouch. But my nights were pretty good so I guess it all evens out.

Friday night we went out to dinner for Sean's birthday. I bought him a Violent Minds picture mud cake from Michel's Patisserie. It was rad. Even though Sean barely ate any of it he was still pretty damn excited by it haha. I'd put up a link to it but for some reason blogger doesn't want to let me do links at the moment? Who knows. Suss Sean's blog (Skullfucked. yeah, nice name I know) in my blog list if the idea of a Violent Minds logo on a mudcake excites you.

Overall dinner was rad, we got to hang with a bunch of rad dudes at a rad restaurant called Garuva in the valley. It's pretty damn rad. Would definitely recommend it to anyone else looking for a nice place to eat mad food. The rooms are like cordoned off so you have your own personal space, I think that's cool for a restaurant. Like alone in a crowd type stuff haha. My vegetarian stir fry was rad, hangouts were rad, cake was rad, Sean got the waitresses phone number haha and the dinner only cost $30 each. Good life. We went and sussed dollar peeps after dinner, where in my usual tradition, I managed to unintentionally greatly offend a member of the female species. Good life GB. We headed home afterwards, Scrad got thrown in the boot for a bit, Thomas crashed on our couch for a few hours, Sean crashed on the other side of my bed (and we ended up discussing my issues instead of sleeping) and I headed to work at the amazing hour of 3:45AM. Only one good thin came of that morning and that is this picture, the view from my car after I parked at work: (Note the fact that it is still fucking nighttime haha and that my phone camera sucks)

Saturday wasn't the most interesting night but it went alright. I went home and slept after work with the intention of waking up about 5, hitting up my housemates girlfriend's 19th in the city for like an hour before heading over to the other side of the city for a friend from uni's 18th. Turns out I slept in till about 6 and had to bail on going into the city beforehand. I felt a little bad about it, but thought they wouldn't mind. I don't think they did that much, but I got a msg about 9:30PM asking me where the fuck I was haha. Oops.

Anyways, like every other party I have ever been to in my life, this one felt quite frustrating. Just like every other party I have ever been to in my life, the only people I talked to were the people I knew before the party and to make things worse, I didn't even know those people and I had fuck all to say to them. There was probably a lot of awkward silences, but I wasn't really keeping count. The only person I really knew there was the girl whose party it was, and I daresay she had better things to do doing at her 18th than talking to me haha. I stayed for a couple of hours, enough to see all the formalities (cake cutting, people saying speeches, family made powerpoint presentation etc.) and then headed home. I felt maybe I should have stuck around for the final hour anyway, but hey. I jammed Gaslight Anthem all the way home and somehow managed to get myself into bed before midnight.

Now today (Sunday) Scrad, Sean, Jimmy, Dan and I may have just headed to the raddest show ever, the maybe final show at QLD's best venue, Sam's Shed. Seriously, it's literally a tiny industrial shed that bands play in. Like the size of a bedroom. Rad kids show up, rad bands play, good times are had. Kids went mad for pretty much every band that played. Skyway, Street Youth from Byron Bay, Ghosttown, Third Strike, the War and Against. (I'd put in links to all thoe bands myspaces, but as I said, blogger is hating me at the moment, plz go suss them yourself). It was crazy to see so much mosh and stagedives in such a small area haha. Scrad got on the wrong end of the craziness and now has some teeth issues, but I hope it turns out well. I was particularly blown away by Street Youth, fuck, probably the best Byron Bay band I have heard in forever. So heavy, so fast and the singers voice is crazy. I wish they'd had demos there tonight, I'm still kicking myself for not buying one when I saw them in Byron last month. I got to shoot the shit with some dudes I hadn't seen for a while during the show as well so I was siked for that. I picked up Ghosttown's new EP but as my PC has no CD drive atm, I haven't been able to listen to it yet. Hopefully I'll get a chance to jam it tomorrow.

I think that's enough blog for one day, phew haha.

cats are rad pt2: the fluffening

cats are rad

Capsized

Someone on my myspace friends list posted a bulletin with the amazing lyrics to this song, which got me listening to it again and now I feel like posting the lyrics on my blog too.

'Capsized' by Samiam.

I hate you still
yet i imitate you
you're in my dreams
pushing me around
i move my mouth
i watch her cry
its killing me
and you wonder why
always said i wouldn't be that way
i always said i wouldn't be that way
capsized
cut down to size
Capsized
like colors bleed
now they're all the same to me
i feel his hand
and i know
i'm damned
a puppet on a string
and the man behind the screen
this is the last time i treat you like that
this is the last time i act like a man
this is the last time i drink myself to sleep
this is the last time i act before i think
oh, but the things kids say

the song is off the Samiam album I wrote about a few posts ago. Here's the filmclip for anyone who is interested:

Fuck it's a great song. The emotion in the vocals, the intensity of the instrumental buildup in the middle, the desperation of that last chorus. Fuck.

Anywayz, I should get back to studying. 

Still Ill

I had a dream last week that kind of haunted me, I guess I don't really write/talk about this kind of shit very often, but I was reminded of it tonight, so I thought I may as well share it. 

I think it may have been Wednesday morning? During my early morning snooze (ie. waking up to my alarms and then falling back to sleep haha), I had a car accident in my dream. I was driving through an S bend, going a bit too fast, I lost control and crashed into the front of a barrier on the side of the road. A girl I used to like was sitting in the passenger seat. Time stopped for a second, I said to myself 'what the fuck have I done?' and I woke up. It was almost 8AM. There was no point getting up and going to my 8AM lecture. It was weird, I've never had a dream where I've seemingly killed someone before and I'd never dreamt of that girl before either. I'm sure it means nothing but it annoys me a little bit when I drive sometimes. I looked a barrier on the side of the road on my drive home from work tonight and I kind of shivered. Weird. /end emoness

also, go listen to this:

What a fucking killer set of tracks. A sterling example of a sterling band. 

Genimi

Says he will, meaning he might.
Takes his pills, doesn't swallow.
Medicate double rations.
Passes out, candlelight.

Appetite,
nausea
Paralyzes him.
Yeah.
Gemini,
heart beats fast.
Double time,
breaks like glass.

Solitary, socializing.
Covers bets, wakes in ___.
Built to kill, hosts a mansion.
Give a choice, he'll choose both.

Trust no one,
screen all calls.
One on one or
none at all.
Gemini,
follow through
Just a sign.
It's only true.

Masturbates, then feels guilty.
Scrubs his hands 'til they relent.
Smile expresses strong resentment.
Shakes until morning next.

Appetite,
nausea
Paralyzes him.
Yeah.

Gemini,
heart beats fast.
Double time,
breaks like glass.
Gemini,
follow through
Just a sign.
It's only true.

I thought I might take a few minutes out of my day to give props to one of my favourite Jawbreaker songs, Gemini. It's a bit of an obscure track, only ever released on their final LP 'Live 4/30/1996', an LP that was extremely limited at the time of it's release (although it has since been re-issued by drummer Adam Pfahler's Blackball Records, you can check it out here if you're interested. Anyway, Gemini is a rockin' little number, the live recording gives it a really 'raw' feeling, kind of like Jawbreaker's pre 'Dear You' material and I think the song benefits from it immensely. It's got a really punk vibe to it, decently fast,a bit heavy, catchy and with a lot of cool bass work going on (or it might just be a bass heavy live recording). The lyrics seem pretty hopeless, but that is typical Jawbreaker. Blake's voice seems to give out in a few places, but that's half the fun. GEMINIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.

Lyrics provided by the amazing Jawbreaker fansite, loosecharm.

blahhh

my good friend Sean has a new zine out, I think he's picking them up tomorrow? I'm gonna organise some big plot to make sure I get one as soon as possible haha. He tells me it's better than the Sharpend zine, I'm sure it will be great. here's the 'advertisment' for it, in true cut'n'paste stylez:

I really should have done more study today. I went back to the coast last night to see my family and I didn't get back till about 1:30PM. I had work at 3. So I fucked around, ate some food, printed out some shit to study and went to work. Got home at 9, downloaded/watched porn, watched Garden State again, fucked around a bit more and now here I am, listening to the Garden State soundtrack that I downloaded the other day (even though the only two songs I seem to really like on it are the Shins songs anyway haha. I've been told the Iron & Wine song is good though) and fucking around. I've got a couple more things I want to read through and then I'm going to bed. Here's to a more productive day tomorrow. Over and out...

Yesterday was an alright day.

Yesterday was my last real day of university for the year. It feels amost surreal that the year has gone so quickly. Shit, I can remember the very day that I moved out of home... that was like 8 months ago now. It's crazy. I have next week off to study, 2 maths exams the week after that and then thermodynamics and mechanical engineering exams the week after that. So pretty much, the unimportant part is over and now the important part has began haha. I don't need to do well on the maths exams to pass, I've passed the course for my last exam (the mech engineering one) already, so the thermodynamics exam is the big issue. I need to study it hard.

I went into the city yesterday afternoon with Sean to buy shit. He bought a heap of stuff, he actually posted 3 blogs about the shit he bought today haha, click on his name to check it out if you really care. I really wanted to go pick up the Dirty Money/Trapped Under Ice 7"'s Kill the Music were meant to have for us, but they didn't arrive so I am still recordless. I picked up another Promise Ring album though, they didn't have either of the albums I really wanted ('Electric Pink' or 'the Horse Latitudes') but I bought 'Very Emergency' anyway. It's supposedly similar, I wouldn't know, I haven't listened to it yet as my computer has no CD drive at the moment and my laptop ran out of battery as I was trying to rip it. Dang. 

I managed the to get I think my favourite purchase of the last few weeks from a massive secondhand CD store in the city. I finally got a real copy of 'Clumsy' by Samiam (the album with Stepson and Capsized), that is far superior to the album most people usually seem to jock/be familar with 'Astray'. As far as I know, 'Clumsy' has been out of print for years, so I'm siked to finally own it. Also, for those that don't know, Samiam were an amazing 90's emo band. Really melodic, really emotional, with a bit of a rocky edge. They're still around today, but supposedly the new material isn't anywhere near as good. Look up the filmclips for Stepson and Capsized on youtube, you won't be dissapointed.

We were going to go to the movies in the city but instead we decided to go home and watch Pulp Fiction instead (because while I own a copy of it, I had still never seen more than half of it before yesterday haha). It was fucking rad. So many amazing sketchy parts/one liners. We then to get dinner and ended up getting free fish and chips (thankyou random people with too much food, the chips were great). 

We also watched a movie called Garden State, written, directed and starring Zach Braff (JD from Scrubs), I'd been told to watch it by a few people because I love the Shins, and there's a couple of Shins songs in it, so I bought a copy yesterday from Target and we watched it. It was rad. Kind of romantic, but with lots of quirky parts and I guess a really cool serious but also not serious vibe. And Natalie Portman is a babe. Even hotter when she's listening to the Shins and saying 'this song will change your life...', while she hands her headphones with New Slang playing to Zach Braff. Overall, it was rad.

Anyway, I'm out, I gotta head back to work for another 2 hours. I think I might end up being late, oops.

I need to go to bed haha

it's about 20 past 2 in the morning. I've been up tonight reading through some uni shit and for the last half of an hour I've been hanging out, listening to some Modest Mouse (I got their last album for 10 bucks this afternoon) and for the first time in a whjile, some Guns Up!, 'Outlive' is a rad album. I also managed to pick up a The Promise Ring album at JB Hi-Fi on sale for $13 as well. I was siked. I haven't had a chance to listen to it but here's hoping it's great. Someone at the store had drawn something funny on the plastic the CD was wrapped in, I actually took a photo of it on my phone so I could post it up on here but I cbf'd right now, so it can wait for another day.

I just ordered an Only Living Witness album compilation CD off the JB Hi-Fi webstore a few minutes ago. They were a band from the 90's. Even though I just linked to their myspace in the line above, I still can't say I've heard the band yet, but I've always been intrigued and when I found a disc with both their albums on it for $16 (plus $2 postage), I couldn't pass it up. They didn't actually have any copies in stock when I ordered though, so here's hoping I get it sometime in the near future haha. For those that care, only Living Witness vocalist Jonah Jenkins was actually the guy who did the amazing melodic guest vocals on the latest Converge album. I bet that got a few people interested.

Anywayz, this Guns Up! album is over in a minute and then I'm going to bed. Peace.

I'm an idiot

I managed to delete my whole list of blogs people should read just before trying to add another blog to it. I was gonna fuck around and try and find all the shit I lost but I think I'll just put them all back in in time. After I this fucking around, I finally managed to add the blog I was intending to add. The blog of the amazing pornstar Stoya. She is beautiful, seems intelligent, likes to fuck girls, has a 'goth' sort of vibe but it's not over the top etc. Check out this picture of her here, she is so beatiful, I don't think I even want to look at her naked again haha.

I'm hanging out at the moment, listening to some the Promise Ring songs I downloaded ages ago. They're really good, yet another 90's emo band I need more shit by. I might pick an album up at Kill the Music on Friday night, no doubt Paul will have ensured they have some Promise Ring shit in there. Looks like Rockinghorse have a couple of secondhand albums too, even if they are fairly expensive ($18 for a secondhand album? Not very cool).

You can check out the MP3's I'm currently jamming (and a few filmclips too), here is you would like. Fans of Jawbreaker and Texas is the Reason should be siked. There's a decent bio there too, I was gonna copy it into here but I can't really be fucked, just click on the link if you want some history.

THE FABLED RETURN OF... EPIC BEEF

I think it's time to pause my stupid emo shit and boring life crap to bring back something that my writings have been missing a bit lately: the good ol' Sick of Goodbyes beef. And what occasion has inspired this you ask? My official least favourite band in the world(TM), a band that have never released anything more than a demo and have never done a proper Australian tour (but still have a filmclip haha), a band whose singer told me to 'shut the fuck up' from the stage for singing the first line to a song they were about to cover (yeah, I think I'm still bitter about that), a band that does 'bree's' but calls themselves a 'hardcore' band, a band that is just really, to be honest, ridiculously terrible (I gave you a link, you can check it out for yourself, if you like the songs, chances are you arrived at the wrong place by clicking on this blog, your little brain might have more fun here), are touring New Zealand. Supporting 2 international bands. What the fuck? Does common sense mean anything to these peoeple? Do they realise how playing in a 'hardcore' band works? Start band, play shows, release demo, tour, release EP, tour some more, release album, tour more, maybe tour NZ, tour more etc. Do they realise how stupid a NZ tour before you've even toured the whole of Australia is? Fuck this band and fuck promoters stupid enough to let these things happen. Seriously, I still don't believe it. Letting a band from Australia who don't even have a proper release out or any proper touring experience have the support for 3 massive NZ shows that I'm sure local bands would love to have. Is there anything inside any of your heads?

I think I can remember seeing something on the singers myspace about starting a record label called 'Give Blood' records  once, after I knew that he knew about my zine (Give Blood) because he once messaged me asking if he could contribute, funnily enough after he'd written me off on stage without knowing who I was. I don't know why it annoyed me at the time, but I was pissed off, I even contemplated changing the name of my zine if he went ahead with it, I don't mean this in a high horse sort of way, but more a 'who the fuck does that; kind of way?, who knowingly uses a phrase for a record label when someone who lives literally 20 minutes away from them has a zine called the same thing? Mate, do you have a brain?

Wow, it looks like I'm talking shit again. Here's a closing image to make this as controversial as possible:

Boom Boom Bye

I got this shirt in the mail today, I was pretty siked. Good band, edgy print etc. Check out the rad coathanger I put it on haha.

I also gave my room a quick tidy because we have our 3 month inspection for our house tomorrow. It's crazy how much cleaner it looks. Pitty about the desk. I may do that later. Sorry that the picture sucks, this camera is half fucked and my hands wobble like hell.

I'm currently jamming the new Cold World album. I listened to it a fair bit in the first couple of days after I got it but I kind of forgot about it after that. It's not bad. It's heavy and it's aggressive, but I think they may have gone a bit too far with the rap vibe? I'm not sure. I guess time will tell. They were always a bit more subtle about it with their older material and I think I liked that more. Anyway, to anyone who wants an introduction to the band, I suggest heading over to 1917 Records and buying a copy of their collection disc 'No Omega' before you check out the new album 'Dedicated to Babies Who Came Feet First'. 'No Omega' even comes with a bonus DVD featuring some live footage, a documentary I never watched (well tried to watch once, but feel asleep haha) and some cool filmclips from other bands including Iron Age and some other rad band I've currently forgotten. The opening track 'Gods and Earths', from their split with War Hungry is hard as.

Im in ur blog, writin ur updatez

Hello to the one guy who reads this blog (sean) David Crane is in the building and after subduing chris (with porn) i have taken over his blog and no longer will you be subjected to his emotional crap about music, from now on all this blog is about is how much i hate the shins.

they suck and their lyrics make no sense. they sound like they are on weed or something.

Something better to read

while I was browsing through the hallowed tome (haha) that is BGO earlier this afternoon I uncovered this little piece of information. Another user on the forum recently started a wordpress blog called sickofgoodbyes, they've only done one post so far but you can check it out here if you would like. So yeah, now that their is a better Sick of Goodbyes blog doing the rounds, you don't really have any excuse to keep reading mine haha.

Also, if you may be this other SOG, hello my similar friend.

Blacklisted interview

Here is an interview with Blacklisted that I did at the start of this year for Death Before Dishonour magazine. A slightly shortened version of the following text was printed in the 8th issue of DBD, this is the full script but I think it drags on a bit (ie. a couple of questions have quite short, boring answers). I guess you could say my intro name dropping No Warning and AN/GUTG is a bit wanky but fuck it, I like the new Blacklisted record.

Plz do yourself a big favour and rush out and buy every record Blacklisted ever put out or at least track down their split with First Blood (or the Aus release of 'The Beat Goes On...' that has the split as a bonus track). Nowhere USA and Eye for an Eye. Fuck, they're 2 of the hardest songs ever. DON'T THINK CAUSE OF WHERE I'M AT, I'LL PACIFYYYYYY! etc.

Also, this interview has a couple of questions talking about the Blacklisted blog, a blog that I'm pretty sure has been deleted now? It's a pity, I thought their blog was a great read.

When a hardcore band decides it's time to change, they can often be the architects of their own demise. Look at the Linkin Park like antics of No Warning’s ‘Suffer, Survive’ or the more progressive attack of Give up the Ghost’s ‘We're Down Til We’re Underground’. Both albums were met with mixed reactions by their fans and coincidentally, both bands broke up soon after. 
When Blacklisted’s ‘Peace on Earth. War on Stage’ 7” dropped last year, it was certainly something that divided people. In the weeks preceding the release of their new album ‘Heavier than Heaven. Lonelier than God’ I can remember seeing George post on the Blacklisted blog that, “People will say “Its no Eye For An Eye” on the local message board but that’s okay.” A lot has changed in Blacklisted in the last year and it’s allowed them to come into a league of their own. They haven’t really got any peers at this point. Blacklisted has changed and Blacklisted has evolved but the simple fact remains: when you’re listening to their new album, you just can’t fuck with it. Modern, intelligent hardcore boiled right down to its essence. Every impurity removed. An album that feels familiar and progressive at the same time. If you're looking for the future of hardcore, here it is...

Firstly dude, ‘Heavier Than Heaven…’ has just dropped. Tell us a bit about it.
It came out April 1st. Mixed reviews. Things have been really good for us so far. We started a tour March 31st in support of it, So far the shows have been great. The album is intense, that’s all I can really say to describe it.
 
Personally, I think the new album definitely has that Blacklisted feel about it. Like, so much changed musically, but the core of your identity is still there. Is that vibe something you were going for? Something so different but also familiar at the same time?
It was just an expansion of everything we have done so far. A step forward in the progressional fold I guess you could say. We didn’t set out to be different, we sat down, hung out and wrote what was natural to us. Its way blacklisted has always worked. It’s a band that runs more on emotion then musicianship or proper/normal song structures etc etc. It’s a feeling.
 
How do you feel about your older material now? How much of the older stuff
do you still play live?
I have been playing some of those songs for 4 or so years, I am still into them, but I am glad we have new songs to play. We play a mix of everything, Recently we have been mostly playing the new record and our last 7”, But we always make sure we play something off of everything during the course of a set.
 
You re-recorded ‘Memory Layne’ and ‘Canonized’ from ‘Peace On Earth...’ for
the new album, why did you choose to re-record those songs?
Blacklisted tends to write songs quickly, we rarely ever try new songs out live or all together as a band before we record them. After playing ‘Memory Layne’ and ‘Canonized’ for a good 8 or so months things changed in the way we played them, naturally. We decided we wanted to record them that way, so we did.
 
The artwork for ‘Heavier than Heaven...’ has a very unique feel for a hardcore
record. Is there a concept behind it? How do you think the artwork ties into the
feeling of the album?
There isn’t a concept really. Each song has a photo to go along with it that was taken specifically for that song. Melissa Farley (www.melissafarley.com) did all the photography. She was given the lyrics and the album and took the pictures accordingly. The only concept behind it otherwise would be its Melissa’s personal take on the album after reading the lyrics and listening to it. I guess that is why it has such a unique feel.
 
 
One of your common lyrical themes seems to deal with how the people close to
you view you, (ie. ‘wish the ongoing theme about me wasn't “he's just crazy”’ etc.), sorry if it's a bit too personal, but what do most of your family think about you and your life in Blacklisted?
I have no idea. I never really talk or talked about it. I’m sure they are happy that I am doing something with my life? I am not really sure.
 
Blacklisted almost broke up in 2006, after a couple of shitty tour moments (ie. The Warriors and Ignite tours) and the loss of original member, Tim, what made you keep going in the end?
We just felt that up until that point we didn’t create our best songs. There was still a lot more that we wanted to do as a band. After talking about it we decided to write some songs and see where it was going to go. We did that and never stopped going since.
 
Looking back on it now, I’m guessing that you think you made the right decision to continue the band? 
I would say yes. 
 
I've read a lot of writing about Blacklisted being such a full on thing. Like I can remember you saying on the Blacklisted blog that you don't even know why you still own records anymore because you're never at home. Can you paint us a picture of what life is like in Blacklisted? What are the ups and downs of life in a full time hardcore band?
As long as we are on tour playing live things are going to be good. The only down is when there is downtime and you are home with not much to do. You get so used to a schedule of eat, sleep, wake up, play. It takes a toll on you, it’s a constant forward motion that everyday leads to the same thing, getting on stage and playing.
 
So much of your time is spent doing the band, would you say that you even have a life outside of Blacklisted? 
Yes. But a lot of my life is based around Blacklisted also.
 
Where in life do you think you would be if you hadn't started Blacklisted 5 years ago? 
I have no idea, probably working some job that I absolutely hated.
 
The blog that you started in October of last year seems to have become a pretty big part of Blacklisted as a band now. What were your original motivations behind starting a blog for your band?
My original motivation was to just have an open forum where I could talk about being in Blacklisted. Not to have so much of our words being controlled by what people said on message boards and random internet sites. The blog comes straight from the people in Blacklisted’s mouths. Its good way to blur the line that I feel was being drawn between people who play in bands and people who see shows. I started the blog in hopes of getting that distant musician/fan element as far away from my band as I could.
 
Do you think having your history, ideas and ramblings so readily available has been a good thing for the band? 
I think so? I really don’t know. Anything you want to know will be or has been posted. It’s kind of vulnerable and no holds barred, I think it is great.
 
What's planned for the future of Blacklisted? The band seems to have had a
pretty turbulent past, how much longer do you think Blacklisted will last?
I have no idea how long we will last. As long as we all feel the need to make this music I suppose. The future just looks like calendars full of shows.
 
I'm outta ammo man, any last words? 
Thanks for the interview, see you soon. Please take care of one another, peace.

SOUL SICKNESS

Homewrecker are a fucking rad band from Sydney. I guess you could say they sound like an Australian version of American Nightmare/Give up the Ghost. They recently put out a split with another band from Sydney called Rex Banner, I finally bought a copy of the split the other day (which is probably why I am writing about it now) and it's fucking rad. I can't tell you much about the Rex Banner songs as I haven't listened to them much, but the 3 Homewrecker tracks are great. Fast, heavy, angry and just really fucking cool. The coverart is fucking cool too.

I did a small piece on the split where I interviewed Billy from Homewrecker and Kelly from Rex Banner for the next issue of Death Before Dishonour, so please check that out when it goes to print...

If you're interested, you can buy yourself a copy of the split (and maybe a copy of Third Strike's new album 'Tempest' as well while you're at it haha) here.

failed day

haha, my luck just sucks sometimes. I raced into the city tonight so I could grab both Wisdom in Chains albums. I bought their new album 'Class War' from Kill the Music and went down to Rockinghorse to get their first album 'Die Young' (the one I originally wanted). All went fine, $60 later I was done with my shopping (I also got a Morrissey greatest hits CD for $10, bargain). Turns out the girl at Rockinghorse had gone to get 'non display copies' of both the CD's I bought and she gave me the wrong CD. I didn't realise till I was on the train almost home, but she gave me another copy of their new album. Fuck. The one thing I went into the city to buy and through no fault of my own I ended up coming home without it. Bugger. She even put it through as the right CD so I don't know what I can do. I guess I'll have to go in on Monday and see if I can get it sorted. (I do not have an hour free during the day the next 3 days, hence why I rushed in tonight). /end boring rant.

Die Young

'Die Young' by Wisdom in Chains

Maybe this is out of line but I envy the dead sometimes.
It's hard to say cause I've had close friends that passed away.
But they never have to feel again.
They never have to be in pain.
They never have to struggle just to be denied.
Maybe I'm the one who's cursed, condemned to walk the Earth, to grow old and lose my grip on everything that's close to me.
But I don't know.
I'm just thinking.
The more you know the less you know.
I'll find out eventually.
I hope it's not to late for me.

I've never been a lucky one.
I was born face down, a forgotten son.
I've never been a lucky one
Cause if we were lucky,
We would all die young.

You can rest in peace or live in violence.
Conflict, disease, this world don't make no sense.
When you come from the bottom, life's a joke.
All your hopes and dreams go up in smoke.
It makes me wonder what's the better day, the day you're born or when you go away.
Lately, I've been thinking about this loveless world and all the evil shit I've done and all the times that I've been wrong.
I've never met a righteous face.
Heaven must be an empty place or else it's full of people life me.
I guess I'll have to wait and see.

I first heard this song a couple of years ago when a now defunct band from NZ called the Warpath toured Australia and covered this song. I went home and downloaded it after one of the shows and I've been a fan of it ever since. I guess I really love the song because I feel like it's something I can relate to, like not in a corny 'oh I want to die and this song is kind of about death' kind of way, but more in a shared opinion sort of way. I often believe that life is nothing more than a struggle and the song seems to illustrate that extremely well. I guess it brings up the fact that life is decent most of the time, but that you always wonder about how much simpler it would probably be if everything was over. Wow, that sounds awful haha.

I was always too slack to check out any other Wisdom in Chains stuff but I might get off my arse and buy some of their shit today. I might head into the city around 5 and pick up both albums, we'll see how I go, I probably can't afford it but I'll probably do it anyway haha.

I guess today has been an alright day. 2 of my uni classes this morning were cancelled so I got to sleep in, I finished my last maths assignment so I'm now pretty much done for uni assignments this semester and I think I made some people laugh as well, so I guess that's alright. I bit of a cloud of loneliness was hanging over me as I walked home from the bus but I guess that's life. I guess I just realised all I was going to do when I got home was probably, look at porn and go to sleep. What a shitty unfulfilling life. Maybe I should just go watch videos of people hugging or something instead of watching porn? It would probably make me feel just as lonely.

wowz.

I cleaned up the desktop on my computer today, I think it's the cleanest it's been since I bought the thing a year ago. It's so exciting that you, my humble reader, can have a picture of it:

Now if only the rest of my room was that clean...

Into Oblivion

This is an interview I did with Bjorn from Rise and Fall last year for the 3rd issue of Give Blood Zine. All you need to know really is that Rise and fall are from Belgium, they have a very 'clevo' vibe and they will probably rip your face off. Their last album is called 'Into Oblivion', it's mixed by Kurt Ballou, tuff as etc. Plz do yourself a favour and pick it up. BEST BAND IN HARDCORE.

They also just posted a vid about their new album on their myspace, my net is capped so I can't watch it, but no doubt it's worth your time, watch it here.

Firstly Bjorn, what's going on with Rise and Fall lately? You guys recently completed another tour of the US, how did that go? Who did you play with on the tour?
Well we've been pretty busy the last few months, we pretty much toured all summer. We first did a 6 week tour with Converge and Animosity all over Europe. Six weeks on a bus, seeing the best live band out there every night. It was pretty mindblowing. After that we had 4 days off and then we head to the States to do another full US tour with Have Heart. Death Before Dishonor, Sinking Ships, Meltdown and Trash Talk all joined us for a bunch of shows along the way too. The US treated us real well again, the highlights of the tour were definitely both fests we played over there: Sound & Fury in Cali and This Is Hardcore in Philly. So right now we are playing a few shows here and there and we are trying to come up with riffs, ideas and manuscripts for the new album that we are currently writing.

You also recently toured the UK with the Hope Conspiracy, what was that like? Any good stories from that tour?
The UK trip with Hope Con was last January, so it's been a while but it was definitely a great time. We only knew a few of the Hope Con dudes before that tour and not all that well so I was relieved to find out they are all awesome, down to earth dudes. The shows were mostly good, with the stand out show being London. Good stories? Well, everyone getting all excited about hitting some strip joint in Scotland, looking for the damn place for hours and getting there just as they closed doors was pretty funny. There were a lot of beards on that tour too. And I got nicknamed Bjorn The Cannibal on that trip, for reasons unknown to me.

I understand that Rise and Fall began as a side project of your old band the Deal, can you tell me a bit about the Deal? I've never heard them before, what did they sound like? How long was the band around for? Etc.
The Deal was a more traditional sounding straight edge band that Vince, Cedric and me were in at some point. The band was around from late 2000 until late 2003. We did a few smaller tours and put out a few records on labels like Sober Mind and Reflections. Nothing worth getting too excited about honestly.

What were your goals when you started Rise and Fall? What bands did you want Rise and Fall to sound like?
We wanted to do a band that was heavy and in your face, with a bunch of friends... Just to record a demo and play a few shows. I also wanted the band to sound like Integrity meets Madball, and nothing else. Look how all that turned out...

Was Rise and Fall planned to always be a side project? What events led to Rise and Fall becoming the serious band you are today?
Yeah at first it was definitely a project just for the fun of it. When the band caught on and our other bands broke up or dwindled down we were like “fuck it, let's do this for real now”. I don't remember one specific reason, but it just felt right and logical at the time.

Rise and Fall have had a lot of opportunities in your short life, you're signed to established US and European labels alongside a lot of other amazing bands, you've toured the US and you've been able to record an album with Converge's Kurt Ballou, why do you think you've been so lucky? How did you hook up with Deathwish and Reflections to release ‘Into Oblivion’?
We have definitely been lucky and we owe the people we've worked with a lot, but on the other hand we did bust our balls and work hard for the band as well. Everything just grew gradually. After the demo, Join The Teamplayer was hooked on us and wanted to do our CD. They did and they happened to be the same people that run Avocado Booking so we got hooked up with a few good tours, next to the early tours I booked myself. Later on that record also got a US release on SA Mob which was cool. From there on we just kept
playing, working and writing. Played a bunch of shows with Converge. Talked to Jake. Deathwish seemed interested. When they heard the finished recordings for ‘Into Oblivion’ I guess they decided they wanted to work with us. We arranged everything and paid for everything concerning that record ourselves which was kind of a risk. Worked out a deal with Reflections and Deathwish. Reflections had wanted to work with us for a while, plus we’ve known them for years. Everything just kinda worked itself out and snowballed. Once Deathwish put the record out, touring the US was the next logical step. It's been a manic ride but it's been awesome.

What was it like recording ‘Into Oblivion’ with Kurt Ballou? Were you amazed by how it turned out? It sounds fucking massive.
Thank you for the kind words. Thing is, we actually recorded ‘Into Oblivion’ in Belgium at the CCR Studios. The mix of the record however was done by Kurt at God City and he definitely did an awesome job. He totally nailed the sound that we had envisioned. When we first heard the finished mix we were all baffled. I had a hard time believing that was us. We are planning on recording our next album in God City though, I can't wait to see what that’s going to be like.

How do you think it compared to recording ‘Hellmouth’ a couple of years earlier? Which one was a better experience?
Both recording sessions were cool experiences, but I think we were a little more focused when we recorded ‘Into Oblivion’. We were also a little older and more experienced. We knew what we were going for. Looking back on ‘Hellmouth’ I think it still is a decent record with some good songs, but the overall sound is a little lacking and flat.


On your new 7”, you cover the Alice in Chains song ‘Them Bones’, a bit of a weird cover choice for a hardcore band. Why did you choose to do an Alice in Chains cover and why did you choose the song that you did?
One thing about Rise And Fall is that we all have very different tastes in music and when we discuss cover songs it takes us forever to finally agree on something. For this 7” we were stuck as well and couldn't find a band or song we all agreed on. We wanted something surprising, something people wouldn’t really expect from us. So one night while we were in the van listening to Alice In Chains everyone was singing along, and we were like... Fuck. Why don't we just cover this? So we did. We picked ‘Them Bones’ because it’s one of the heavier songs and one of our favourites as well. Not to say the other songs aren't heavy though.


You also re-recorded the song ‘Bottomfeeder’ off your first album for the new 7”, why did you choose to do that?
Since the 7” is a Deathwish exclusive and will mainly be sold in the States we figured it made sense to re-record that song. A lot of people in the States are not familiar with the ‘Hellmouth’ tracks and ‘Bottom Feeder’ is the one song off that album that we always play live, so that's why.

Rise and Fall recorded a cover of Integrity’s ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ for an Integrity tribute compilation that came out earlier this year, why did you choose the song you did? Are there any other songs you'd have liked to have done?
Again, we wanted to do a song that wouldn't be too obvious or easy yet one that we loved. I feel like the songs Integ recorded with that drummer (the two on that split with MayDay and ‘Eighteen Wheels’) are some of their best ones so that's why we picked that song. Plus it's hard as fuck. Other songs we considered were ‘Tempest’, ‘Jagged Visions Of My True Destiny’ and ‘Eighteen Wheels’. ‘Jagged Visions’ is probably my favourite Integ track these days.

What's your favourite Integrity album? What do you think of the material Dwid released under the Integrity name after Aaron Melnick left in the late 90’s?
The ‘To Die For’ record on Deathwish is decent. Most of the other post-Melnick stuff isn't really my thing. I guess those records shouldn't have been Integrity records. My favourite album is ‘Those Who Fear Tomorrow’ for sure. Everytime I listen to it I get the chills. So sick. It’s unreal when you think of when that record came out... The impact must’ve been immense.


Your lyrics are fairly dark and angry, what influences you with the lyrics you write?
Life and everything that comes with it. My lyrics basically tell the story of me trying to deal with this world that I don't always seem to understand very well. In return, it doesn't seem to understand me either.

Now more specifically, pick your favourite Rise and Fall song lyrically and tell us what it's about…
One of my favourites would have to be ‘Live In Sin’. It deals with how throughout my life as I got older, I started to realise that I was not like most people I knew. Even though I was never anti-social or a straight up weirdo, I just never felt at home or at ease anywhere. As much as I tried to fit in and do what was expected from me, it never seemed to really work out. So ‘Live In Sin’ deals with breaking out and living the life that's right for you, no matter what the cost.

As someone who has toured through both the European and American hardcore scenes over the last few years, what do you think of the worldwide state of hardcore at the moment? What are the good and bad parts of hardcore in 2007?
I think hardcore worldwide is doing quite well right now. For myself, I know there’s a whole bunch of bands out there right now that I love and that inspire me, both in the States and in Europe. Some of the worst things about hardcore these days are the lack of real guts and originality. I would love to see some more bands and people in general think outside the box and do some things they truly believe in. We need more creativity and real passion. Too many kids and bands seem to be happy to go with the flow and do
Whatever’s considered “cool” at the time. Another thing that bothers me is how the internet has made people so complacent, lazy and jaded at times. It’s like everyone already knows, has seen or has heard everything. At least that is what they think. But then again, at the same time I see a lot of bands that are genuinely doing their own thing and following their hearts without feeling too good for hardcore if you know what I mean. Some of the bands that I'm really into these days, bands that really matter because of what they do and how they do it are: Blacklisted, Union Town, Converge, Fucked Up, Shipwreck, Cold World, Justice, Ringworm, Bitter End, World Collapse, Terror, 108, Rhythm To The Madness and Vogue.

How does the hardcore scene in the US compare to Europe? Who's got the better bands? Haha Do you feel that European bands get a fair go in the country that is pretty much the mecca of hardcore?
Both scenes are not THAT different from each other I'd say. Shows are a little different in the States, a little more “freestyle” and kids seem to be a bit younger too. Kids also seem to more eager to go off over there too, while European crowds generally are a little more reserved. Bands play shorter sets there too which is cool. In Europe you'll always get fed and set up with a place to stay, in the States that rarely happens. As for European bands getting a fair chance in the US, I think that has definitely changed for the better in the last couple of years. With the quality of European hardcore that vastly improved and more US labels working with European bands, US kids get exposed to or hear more about European bands. Once you make it over there and gig around the country, kids will check you out whether you're from Tulsa, Oklahoma or Ghent, Belgium.


What is hardcore like in Belgium at the moment? Any Belgian bands that kids should be checking out?
Justice is still doing real well and working hard as always. They just did a Euro tour with Blacklisted and will be recording a new EP at the end of the year. Rhythm To The Madness just recorded their EP and believe me when I tell you that it sounds pretty fucking mindblowing. Vogue just put out a 7" full of raging Negative Approach styled hardcore. Losing Streak is good too. Reproach is still trashing all over the place and will do a split 7" with Gehenna sometime next year. True Colors is an energetic and outspoken straight edge band, their ‘Focus On The Light’ album is highly recommended. There could be more but this is what comes to mind right now. Belgium's good. Lots of shows, lots of bands, lots of quality dudes.

What do you know about hardcore over in Australia? Is there much talk of Australian bands in Europe?
I don't know enough about hardcore in Australia to be honest. We've played with Parkway Drive a bunch of times and they are really blowing up over here. Like... they're huge. Best dudes as well. I heard the latest No Apologies album and dug what I heard. I know Miles Away 'cause they're on Bridge Nine. I’ve seen Carpathian but don't remember much. I want to hear that band 50 Lions 'cause I hear they’re really good. Some of these bands definitely are talked about over here and I’m sure if they made it over here and toured that they would do well.

Lastly, what can we expect from Rise and Fall next year? When can we expect a few Rise and Fall album? I'd love to see you guys come to Australia, but that seems like nothing more than a dream at the moment :(
We would love to tour Australia 'cause everyone that’s been over there has told us it is an awesome place to tour. When the new record is out we want to make that happen and have someone release it over there as well. We’re working on that. We plan on recording the new album in November and having it out in the Spring of '08. Fingers crossed.

That’s all from me dude, any final comments for the land down under?
Mind over matter. Thank you for this interview.

Ruins

I guess it's been a decent amount of time since I updated, so I thought I probably should post something. 

Life has actually been pretty great the past couple of weeks. I meant to make a post last week about my mid semester break, but it never happened. I spent my week off seeing Shipwreck 4 times. It was fucking rad. I got to hang out with rad dudes I don't see as much as I'd like, go to Byron Bay, drive a lot haha, eat rad vegetarian chinese after a show etc. Probably one of the best bands/tours I have ever seen. Shipwreck being heavy as fuck, Ceremony being mental, new Carpathian being pretty rad. Kids's being decently siked. I wish more people had of been into Shipwreck but what can you do. I hope they impressed a lot of people at least. 

I had my birthday during the holidays too. I hung out during the day, did some shit around the house, did some uni work, mates came round during the arvo and we hung out then went out to dinner on the gold coast. It was rad. I even got ice cream afterwards and bought a porno at a servo with a chick I went to school with on the front cover haha. Good life. 

Last week was alright, a lot of uni work and work work happened but I managed to go to a rad show around that and that was cool. The Gifthorse, a band I've now forgotten and another Brisbane band named In Sepia. In Sepia were a 90's emo band kinda like Mineral or something like that, I only saw a few songs of the band I've now forgotten and they were alright too and the Gifthorse rule. Rad melodic emo/punk, they even play a Samiam cover! So many rad dudes were at that show, Scrad, Luke RVK, Ryan Sim, Nick Taco, etc. etc. The list goes on.

Turns out I didn't end up getting a referral to see a psychologist like I mentioned in the last blog post. I guess a combination of having a decent week and really being too pussy to bring it up with the doctor let to that, but I think I made the right call for now. I have another referral to see a hearing specialist now, I just gotta work up the guts to actually make the call. Closure can be pretty fucking scary I guess.

I've been listening to Rise and Fall a lot tonight, so I've decided to put the Rise and Fall interview I did for Gb#3 on here, expect it up very soon.

another pointless update...

just another song I've been listening to a lot lately. 

"New Slang"

Gold teeth and a curse for this town were all in my mouth. 
Only, i don't know how they got out, dear. 
Turn me back into the pet that i was when we met. 
I was happier then with no mind-set. 

And if you'd 'a took to me like 
A gull takes to the wind. 
Well, i'd 'a jumped from my tree 
And i'd a danced like the king of the eyesores 
And the rest of our lives would 'a fared well. 

New slang when you notice the stripes, the dirt in your fries. 
Hope it's right when you die, old and bony. 
Dawn breaks like a bull through the hall, 
Never should have called 
But my head's to the wall and i'm lonely. 

And if you'd 'a took to me like 
A gull takes to the wind. 
Well, i'd 'a jumped from my tree 
And i'd a danced like the king of the eyesores 
And the rest of our lives would 'a fared well. 

God speed all the bakers at dawn may they all cut their thumbs, 
And bleed into their buns 'till they melt away. 

I'm looking in on the good life i might be doomed never to find. 
Without a trust or flaming fields am i too dumb to refine? 
And if you'd 'a took to me like 
Well i'd a danced like the queen of the eyesores 
And the rest of our lives would 'a fared well.

There seems to be a few official filmclips for this song floating around, but this is the one I like the best, watch it if you want.

I'm off to NSW for a few days tomorrow. I guess it's really just a 'see both sides of the family' for my birthday type occasion. I guess it's kind of ironic that we'll probably have 2 big, meat filled dinners to celebrate the birthday of yours truly, the only vegetarian in the family. I don't really know how I feel about that haha, but I guess it's not really a big deal... they'd all eat meat regardless of what they were celebrating. It seems to be what people do.

I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday when I get back and I guess that scares me a bit. It's not the going to the doctor bit that scares me I guess, it's what happens after. I'm going their primarily for two things: to get a referral to see a hearing specialist again because I was told to return in 6 months or so if none of my hearing problems had improved and they haven't, so I guess there's not much more I can do except try again and two, the scarier of the two, to get a referral to a pyscholigist. After an incident last weekend where I almost punched one of my housemate's in the head over something stupid, hit myself in the head about 8 times to try and calm myself down and then immediately burst into tears, I guess I decided that enough was enough and maybe I can't deal with everything in my life alone. It's weird, I sit here now and I feel fine, not great, but fine, like I don't think the person sitting here right now needs professional help, but then something bad happens and everything just seems to fall apart and I guess while the thought of paying someone to try and deal with your problems is scary as fuck, maybe it's all I can do.

I guess I'll let this one stew while I'm gone... 

to the one or two people who actually read my blog, good night.

blah pt2.

I think I've half lost my voice (well at least I always seem to sound like a retard lately anyway haha), is it kind of bad that I kind of wish it was completely gone for a while? I swear sometimes I can't go one day without my words getting me into some kind of trouble. 

In other news, life has been alright. I just had pizza for dinner because I'm a slack cunt. I'm going to NSW for a few days tomorrow, then it's my birthday when I come home. I guess I'm not looking forward to my birthday that much, but I'm going out to dinner with friends so that should be alright. I've been listening to the Shins a lot this week, but I guess not much different to every other week at the moment haha. I'm about to leave now to go a show in Woolongabba, a friend of mines band is playing and since I manage to miss them every other time they play, I guess this is a good time to go see them. Sometimes they cover Black Flag. That can't be a bad thing.

good CD

I used to hate on this band all the time, but now I love this CD, the best Cure worship band around. Is 7894789327894237984 times better than DOC's last EP.

For fans of Dan Smith and the Cure... Probably not for fans of DSM and Day of Contempt haha.

Give Blood Zine RIP

I guess I've been sitting on this one for a while, I was originally planning to announce this in the next issue of Sick of Goodbyes, but since I don't know when that will be either, I thought maybe I should say it while it's still fresh. Give Blood Zine is over.

After a couple of years, 3 big issues that I was proud of and a lot of generally good times, circumstances in my life have left me in a position where I can't really continue. I guess it's kind of funny, I spend 2 years having a love/hate relationship with the zine, contemplating throwning in the towel after every issue because I thought no one cared or that the work was a waste of time and money but now that it's over, it feels like I lost something I didn't really want to let go. I may do a more in depth post in the near future about the reasons why the zine is over but I don't know. Anyone who read the second issue of Sick of Goodbyes could probably take a guess at the reason why.

I would have really loved to do a final issue and originally, that was what I was hoping to do, but I guess as time went on I realised I probably wouldn't be able to pull something off like GB#2 or 3, I was really proud of those zines and I guess I don't want to do them an injustice by releasing something I didn't really care for.

Doing this zine gave me so much and I guess it's a pity to see that ending. I have friends in Brisbane hardcore, friends interstates, friends in bands and running labels and places to stay a lot of places in Australia mainly because of doing this zine so I guess I owe it a lot. There's a lot of people to thank for their support over the time this zine ran but I think that can wait for another day. I hope to do a fairly comprehensive list in SOG#3

As I mentioned earlier, I still plan on doing another issue of Sick of Goodbyes because I have some loose ends to tie up, a couple more bands I want to interview and some final things to say, but I'd say it's doubtful that it will continue past the third issue.

I guess nothing gold can stay.

Chris

Blah

I had a bit of an epiphany today as I was walking back to my car after one of my exams:

You feel just as lonely in two hundred dollar jeans as you used to feel in thirty dollar ones.

Here's some pictures of the sunset in Byron Bay that I said I'd put up on here like 39348344 years ago. There's even a picture with Scrad and Jimmy in it (!!). That was a good day.

Gone Sour

After making a post about how amazing the lyrics are on the album below, I thought I should probably give you an example, here's the closing song 'Gone Sour':

Dead at the gate, inspiration cut short. All there is jaded kids, no heart, no core, it's sad to see the shine go dull, to what you wear, to who you know, let go, let go, what the fuck happened ? where did it go ? when did we change ? it doesn't have to be any certain way. Speak your mind, give your heart, no fame to gain, battles lost, all bonds undone. Now, it's all gone, I won't let it go sour. I'll stay until the fight is won. Enough problems, we want answers. It's not lost, it's just begun. It's just begun.

PITY FOR NONE, HATE FOR ALL.

I don't have much to say today, I guess I don't think I have the time to do an in depth analysis of this album anyway, but I thought it was worth a mention, if only to just remind me to give this album some more time in the future. 

For me, the Promise's 'Believer', along with Judge's 'Bringin' it Down', are probably the two quintessential straight edge albums,  two albums that have so much more depth than just some stupid 'fuck you, we're edge' sentiment. Where 'Bringin' it Down' dealt with anger, frustration, mental illness, 'Believer' dealt with a hatred of what hardcore was becoming: Spinelessness and kids in it to get big, but it also had hope. They were frustrated, but they wanted to be proved wrong. It also seemed to be underpinned by a strong feeling of not fitting in with the rest of the world. Two amazing straight edge albums that mean just as much, whether you're edge or not.

It stands out on the musical level too, tough, heavy hardcore but without relying on sounding tough or heavy in the 'usual' way. There's a really metallic vibe, a lot of cool melodic runs and thick, heavy riffs but without resorting to overused chugging. I think it's at it's most powerful when they're not just being a traditional heavy hardcore band. 

'Believer' was released in 2002 on California's Indecision Records, the label that released early material by bands like Throwdown, Bleeding Through and Death by Stereo, and also the label that was behind the re-issue's of Unbroken's discography that were down a few years back. 

If you're interested, you can get yourself a copy of the album here, here or here. You can get an MP3 from their label site here, or you can get a few other songs off myspace here. (Where you can check out an unreleased track too).

As they said themselves, 'words are just words... without heart.'

Oh yeah, anyone wondering where the name 'Trust Comes Tough' comes from? Just listen to opening track on this album and you'll soon know where...

Bane interview

I was looking over some of my old interviews trying to find something cool to put up and I guess this is probably the place to start, this is the first interview I ever did for my first ever zine, the first issue of Give Blood zine (whose name was of course taken from the bane album). Looking back on it over 2 years later, I still think it's one of the best interviews I've ever done and I still think that the interviewee (Aaron Bedard, vocalist of Bane) is one of my most respected people in the hardcore scene. He was such a rad dude to talk to when they toured, shit, I asked him what they were going to play one of the nights and he literally said 'what do you wanna hear man?', I was so dumbfounded that I just said the 2 most stereotypical Bane songs I could think of haha.

Bane has been a part of the hardcore scene for a long time, you’ve seen the rise and fall of a lot of great bands but you guys have stood the test of time. (You’ve been going for 10 years or so now I think?) What do you think has made Bane last as long as it has? And how do you feel about the changes in the hardcore scene that have happened since you started doing Bane? 
I think the reason we've lasted as long as we have is that we've just managed to have enough other things going on in our lives that it never became like a job or the one thing we were all focusing on...we've just tried to keep it fun for ourselves and just stay creative and excited about things...never really loosing sight of why we started the band to begin with 
As for the changes there have been so many, the scene and the kids are changing all the time which is totally natural with a scene that is made up primarily of younger kids who are always changing themselves... some of the bigger changes are just how popular and marketable this sound has become...people can play really aggressive/heavy music these days and headline big tours and make a lot of money so that’s sort of strange...to see kids we know, kids who are basically HC kids on Mtv or in magazines...and another thing is just the popularity of message boards and sites like Myspace where it is so much easier for the masses to get information around...which can be both good as far as a great way to hear new bands/find out about shows and whats going on but can also be bad because its so easy to talk shit and spread rumors and just tear things down 

Carrying on from the last question, I read in an interview with you in Australia’s Blunt magazine 
that you struggle with the idea that Bane is closer to the end than the start and you know its going to have to end sometime, does this mean that you feel Bane wont be around much longer or that you just know the band can’t be active forever? 
well there is no definite end in sight right now...we leave for a tour to Europe tomorrow and will tour this summer with Modern life is War, outbreak and This is Hell early this summer...we are already discussing what we'll do in the fall and have talked a little bit about possibly trying to write some new songs next year..we are all still excited to be in Bane and love playing shows and being on the road and hanging out with new people...but the reality is that we're all getting a little older, 3 of the members are married and have houses and it just feels obvious to me that its going to have to end sooner rather than later...but we haven’t spent much time discussing that and the way it looks now we should still be a band into 2007 and we'll see where it goes from there 

I have heard that Bane has a very active stance against violence at shows, what does this involve? And what do you guys do if kids start dancing too violently or a fight breaks out at one of your shows? 
its tricky because there is a rumor spreading that Bane is anti-dancing which actually couldn’t be further from the truth we love when kids go crazy at our shows and dance hard and dive and sing-along..that is all such a big part of why we still love doing it is that energy and aggression and release... we just have a problem with people intentionally hurting one another...people who come out just to felx how tough they are or intimidate younger, smaller kids...just that whole meatheat mentality that has become so acceptable at shows today...that has nothing to do with dancing or relating to the band in anyway, its just macho bullshit that we do try to stay outspoken against while onstage..we just want to create an environment where EVERYONE can have fun..not just the select few who are the biggest or kick the hardest 
As for fights, we just stop playing and warn everyone that we're not gonna put up with that bullshit and will walk off stage before being the soundtrack for a bunch of idiots beating on kids...it always shocks me that people are surprised or impressed that we do that because honestly it just seems so fucking obvious and like something every band who cares about hardcore or the kids who come to their shows should be doing 

I know Bane touring Australia has been rumored for a long time and you mentioned in the reply to my original interview request that you hope to get down here sometime this year, anymore specific details on when us Aussie kids can expect to see Bane? And also if you can, what has kept Bane away from Australia all these years? 
still no real details on that we keep getting different information and it keeps getting moved around...i know the booking agency is just trying to find the time that will best for us...but yes we are very excited to come there and see for ourselves what its like, every band that goes there goes back with nothing but the most amazing things to say and we really would like to see it all for ourselves...none of us have ever been...right now the rumor is maybe in September, but we've been hearing different things for so long that i'm not gonna believe anything until i see our name on some fliers down there.. but I’ve got my fingers crossed 


Also another last comment about the Australian tour, can we expect to see ‘Can We Start Again’ in your set list if you come over? Cause I know its old but I can’t be the only person wanting to be able to help you sing that singalong! 
yeah we'll definitely play that..its one of 3 or 4 songs that we play pretty much every night and is just so unbelievable to all of us that we have this song that kids seem to connect with and enjoy singing everytime we play it...we are very lucky to have a song like that and still enjoy the hell out of playing it wherever we go (you should hear em in japan!) 

Bane spends a lot of time on the road, how does this life contrast to normal life? And when a tour ends and you get a break are you glad its over or are you eager to get back out there? Also any good tour stories you can share with us? 
the tour story question is always so hard to answer cuz there are so many of them and they are either really long or don’t translate that well on paper but yeah through the years of touring we have had our fair share of cool/crazy/scary/unbelievable things occur...one that leaps to mind is in 2002 we went to Europe and played a squat in Hamburg Germany and Billie Joe and Tre from Green Day just showed up...Green Day was in town promoting some album and they read in the paper that a US hardcore band was playing at this squat where they used to play when they were first starting out so they decided to come check it out...it was a surreal thing seeing Billy Joe just out there in a crowd of about 75 Germans and totally rocking out to us.. afterwards he hung out and was real down 
to earth and had some very nice things to say about our band...that Tre guy was pretty fuckin crazy though 
As for getting off tour you are always happy to be home and with your girlfriend and friends and sleep in a real bed and eat your favorite foods and do all the shit you missed when you were on tour...but for me that lasts about 2 weeks before i start to get restless again and anxious to leave it all behind to get back out there and tour..i guess it must be pretty much the same for all the other guys cuz it seems like every time a tour comes around we're all pretty much ready to crawl back in the van and go...we'll see how much longer that will last

I know that your bass player Pete came up with the concept (and colored in the illustrations) for the artwork for your latest album the note, do you know how he came up with the concept? Cause I have to say I love it, the contrast of the 2 sides, one with the destruction and the other with everything perfect.
yeah he's an incredible artist and we're so lucky to have him and not have to go to any outside sources for our graphics. he and i knew we wanted it to be a very visual layout  
real different from Give Blood but just as ambitious...so we kicked around different ideas trying to find some sort of simple little ominous story we could tell through a series of pictures...we came up with that dark little tale and had our buddy Dave Maganero come up with the drawings and then pete went to work doing his magic with computers and colors and all the subtle things he does and i think it really came out better than i ever imagined...for another great layout of petes check out his other band Silent Drive...their lp Love is Worth It is absolutely breath taking to look at as well as listen to...one of my favorite records of the last 10 years

The artwork for your album before that (Give Blood) was done completely by you guys. Were there any reasons why you wanted to move away from having a separate design company do the artwork for your albums? 
yeah the guy who did the layout for It All Comes Down to This completely fucked it up and ripped us off and it was a complete nightmare that ultimately ended up severing old friendships...the thing just came out looking like a disaster and it still makes me sad every time i look at it because it could have been a really powerful layout if the fuckin idiot had just listened to our instructions...so after that tragedy we just sort of made a pact to not put ourselves through that shit again...to keep the graphics in house and anything we did or failed to do would be on us..we would have no one else to blame or congratulate and i would recommend more bands take the same route and just do things themselves...the tools are out there and its such a sad time when soooo many records look exactly alike because the same 2 or 3 guys are doing all the art work...its really not that hard to just come up with an original idea and execute it...i feel like if i see another skull or blood stain i'm going to throw up 

You entered Bane when the other Aaron (Aaron Dalbec of at the time Converge) had already been playing around with the idea for some time, what made you become so interested in Bane to start off with? And did you ever think it would take off like it did? 
we just wanted to make a hardcore band...Aaron wasn’t too thrilled with the amount of creative input he was given in converge and he was a very talented kid who had a lot to say musically and was looking for an outlet, something that would be a little more hardcore and free form and fun so when he layed that concept out for me and played me the batch of songs he had been working on naturally i got very excited i was excited to see what we could make of it. I honestly had no idea that we would ever be around for as long as we have or had the great fortune to tour as heavily as we have or make the amount of great and lasting relationships we've made simply because of this band...somedays i still have to just stop and shake my head when i think of how it has all turned out 

Speaking of Aaron Dalbec and Converge, I noticed that he was in the credits for Converges Jane Doe album as one of the guitarists. When did he leave Converge to focus on Bane? And how did it work when he did both bands? 
well when he was doing both bands we just toured a little less and sort of always knew that Converge was his main priority and when they needed him he had to go but fortunately they didn’t tour all that much back then and his being in both bands never really posed much of a problem at all...im really not sure what records he played on or didn’t i stopped keeping up with that band after Halo in a Haystack 

On The Note Bane seemed to move in a more experimental direction in some ways (spoken parts, a singing section, and even a piano section) did you guys intentionally try and steer away from just straight up hardcore on the record or did the songs just turn out that way? 
well i dont think we've ever been a typical HC band who played by the rules and did things in a very A-B-C style...as far back as our demo it feels like we've been taking a few chances melodically and just sort of following our instincts as opposed to doing what we thought the scene expected from us...with Give Blood we did a lot of untypical things and Brian Mcternan our producer really brought that out in us and just made us feel comfortable doing whatever the fuck the song needed to be its best...and seeing that record come out as good as it did and people being as impressed with it as they were when it was time to do another record we just had a little bit more of a fearlessness or sense of adventure to how the songs would come out...we were definitely excited to try some new things and just push ourselves in different directions...while at the same time still staying a hardcore band and not trying to get on the radio or sell a bunch more records or anything...we really have always just done what feels right to us when it comes to song writing and never once worried about what 
anyone else would think or say or expect... it always felt like if we were just honest with ourselves then people would see that and respect it 

Banes lyrics have always inspired me in many ways, the themes you touch on in your lyrics are great and written in a really honest way without many metaphors to get in road of the message, how do you manage to write lyrics like that? What inspires you? And what do you try and cover as far as your lyrics go? 
i really just try to work out issues that i'm wrestling with...demons or fears or disappointments...all this stuff starts to build up inside me as i'm sure it does in everyone and i sort of just know i need to work it out somehow...find a way to articulate what’s going on deep in my brain and in doing that it sort helps me to sort all kinds of stuff out...gets me to a better place... its a lot like the way we write songs...i just try very hard to be honest with myself and let it all out on the page...not holding things back or hiding behind some safe image or say a bunch of shit that’s been said a million times before.. 

Any bands in the hardcore scene at the moment that really have you really interested in what they will create in the future? (or even just bands you think are great now?) 
fuck yes...there are so many young bands i'm hyped on right now...it feels like a very exciting time for hardcore with so many cool young bands who seem really passionate about what they are doing...it feels like the phase of looking pretty up there and singing about heartbreak and suicide is finally passing and we're getting back to a place where we are not afraid to stand up and speak out and fight for something other than the cost of fucking hair dye 
i will forget a bunch but heres a short list of bands i'd encourage anyone who loves hardcore to check out: Have Heart, Guns Up, Verse, Sinking Ships, Cold World, Justice, Ruiner, FC5, Down to Nothing... I also got a listen to the new Terror lp the other day and that sounds amazing also 

Lastly before we go I wanted to ask something that I have always wondered since I got a copy of the Give Blood album, who does the full on screamed and almost indecipherable vocals present on a couple of tracks (the big gun down is one of them) on the album? 
thats Zachy J...he's been doing screams on pretty much all our releases and then he went and shocked everyone by actually having this amazing singing voice as you can see on the Silent Drive album (also some great screams) and the verse he sings in Swan Song 

Thanks so much for your time man! Any last comments/thanks/shoutouts? 
nah man, thanks for the interview, sorry it took so long, i hope the answers aren’t too long and that don’t have too many type-o's hopefully we'll see you under very very soon 
peace

Trapped Under Ice

I know it's probably already been said about 405088080 times by various hardcore blogs/zines in the last 6 months, but I'm going to say it myself too: Trapped Under Ice are a fucking great band. Definitely a shining light of hope for modern hardcore. One of the hardest bands getting around these days.

Their 'Stay Cold' 7" of April this year is easily one of the best releases of2008 so far. 10 minutes of  pure anger and hatred, NYHC the way it's meant to be played. Short, violent and with a lot of groove. The intro to the last track sounds like the bastard child of the Murdario Stomp, what more needs to be said?

Please do not sleep on this band. They have a split coming out with a great UK band called Dirty Money in the very near future, check it out.

In other news, life is alright. In the middle of all my uni exams so I guess life is a little bit hectic, but them the breaks. Today has been a pretty generic day really and I doubt it'll get that much better but hey. Gonna sit around and listen to a couple of 7"'s I still haven't listened to now, read over some more maths work and then I might head into the city to buy shit a bit later, not sure if I can be fucked. It just started raining too, good life.

Fuck it I Quit interview

This is an interview I did with Cheyne from Fuck it I Quit when he was up here with 50 Lions for the Blacklisted tour in July. It was originally published in SOG#2, but since that zine is pretty much gone (and I doubt will ever be reprinted), here it is.

One of the big themes with the band seems to be fucking things up, when was the last time you think you fucked up?

You mean lyrics wise?

Yeah, you felt you fucked up a situation.

I dunno, it’s pretty gay but, I got dumped this year from a really long relationship. I guess that fits. But I haven’t written about that.

Not yet?

Nah, most if it is about fights with my mum and stealing shit from my mum and stuff. That’s what most of the stuff’s about like fucking up wise.

Was that what ‘Wishing for the World to End’ was about?

Yeah.

‘I’d just like to say that I’m a fucking cunt…’ etcetera

Yeah, that’s about just fighting with my mum. Mum’s are important ya know.

Mums are a bit better when you move out and don’t have to see them as often I think.

Do you write often? Like is it a kind of catharsis?

Nup, I only write either when we’ve got a new song to do or when I actually have nothing else to do and have something to write about, but I don’t write like everyday or whenever something pops into my head.

I’ve wondered about this a few times, so I thought I may as well ask, the passage in Change about getting in your car and just fucking off, did that actually happen or was it just a metaphor?

Yeah, I was out past Ballarat and I live in Essenden which is over a hundred k’s away, hence the line. That actually happened.

Why?

I lost the plot. I lost the plot, had a bit of problems with my head. It’s been sorted now recently, but that’s what most of the songs are about. I guess I could I say it’s a cathartic sort of thing, but not in the way you think it is. Like singing the words does make me feel better, so in that way, yeah.

What’s been happening with the band over the last few months? Considering the fact that you do nothing…

Ahhh nothing. We played a show while Mickey was over in Europe and we had a fill in drummer. We did that last time when Nightmare was overseas, we had like fill in guitarists and bass players. Other than that, fucking nothing. We just keep talking about jamming and recording but it never happens. I dunno, I don’t think anyone can be fucked. It’s just sort of, we keep getting booked for shows and we’ll play them or whatever.

Do you get asked to play many shows?

Not really, nah. We used to, but we had to say no so much because of the other bands, we’re a bit of a backbench band…

That they just stopped asking?

Yeah, like the same sort of people used to ask all the time and now they’ve stopped sorta thing. Like all the same sorta promoters and what not.

Once you start playing more shows they should jump back on though.

Yeah.

When are you gonna tour?

Dunno. We were supposed to go to Adelaide, but King Brown ended up playing because Poy didn’t wanna go. So King Brown played a reunion show… in Adelaide. We don’t have the money. After all we’ve done we’ve got like 500 bucks and all we wanna do with that is record again and nothing after that.

Sean: Where did you get the money for the last split?

That was our own money and then Nigel paid for everything else.

Was it expensive? Because you recorded with Roman…

We’re mates with him, he hooked us up because he had no work on at the time. So we did the whole thing in a day for like 200 bucks or something like that.

Sounds fine for a days work.

Sean: and what Nigel had it all pressed and stuff or…?

Yeah, Nigel paid for the mastering, pressing, artwork, all that sorta stuff.

How much did the artwork cost? It’s simple as shit…

No, actually, we paid a dude 50 bucks to draw whatever he drew. Nigel paid for it to get printed and everything, we just had to give him a high res version of it.

Do you like the artwork?

Yeah, it’s what I wanted on the demo, but we ended up going with the dude with the grenade thing.

The pin in the mouth?

Yeah, gaffa taped on. I wanted something more like that for the demo but it never got done. H remembered, it’s one of H’s bogan mates or something, I dunno.

How’d the band form? Just talkin’ shit one day?

Nah, I showed Mickey and H Ruiner and they were all over it, but we were still in King Brown so they didn’t want to do anything with all the same dudes, but Mickey told me once that he was gonna start doin’ it and I go ‘ya know I have to sing in this band’ and he goes ‘yeah, alright, come down’ and that was it. Then we just got dudes to just start playing bass and the other guitar and that was it.

Has it been harder since Mickey has been playing with 50 Lions?

Yeah, that’s when we were actually active as a band I guess, but now we’re just like… like I told you before, we haven’t practiced since September, that’s nearly a year now. We’ve played a few shows but nothin’, I think last time we practice we had 4 new songs, but I’m pretty sure we’ve forgotten them now.

What do you wanna do next? Like, you’ve done the 7”, you’ve done the demo…

I wouldn’t mind doing a 7” with just us. I dunno. Nigel wants to put something out again from us.

Really?

Yeah, he really likes us but we just don’t have enough time to write for a full length and he doesn’t like putting out EP’s, but I think if we put out a record he’d be interested in it. I dunno. I wanna put out another record with just us, like I don’t really like records, but it’s cool to have your own band on a record.

Is it kind of intentional to have the stuff hard to find like that?

Is it hard to find?

Nah, when it’s on 7”, tonnes of kids haven’t got record players so it kind of limits the audience a bit.

Yeah, well I dunno. Like, with the demo I put that up for download and I always intended to put our songs from the split up but I sorta forgot. That’s sorta when we started getting lazy, like just after the split came out, that’s when we got lazy. Like I put up the songs on myspace but that’s about it.

Do you ever think of just breaking up? Throwing in the towel?

Yeah, well I said that. Like we played a show, I think we played the FC Five show, with Miles Away and stuff at the Arthouse and I said to the dudes like a couple of days before that, I go ‘wadda ya reckon, last show?’ and they’re like ‘urhhh whatever’ and then I said it on stage, I go ‘this is our last show’ and then after the show, all the other dudes that I’d already asked and they were like ‘yeah whatever’, were like ‘ ohhh wadda ya mean? wadda ya mean last show?’. I go like, ‘I fuckin’ asked ya like 2 days ago and you said ‘yeah sweet’’. That was when we sorta just decided that we’ll just play whatever shows we get asked to play and that’ll be it.

I guess, last question, what’s one reason why you wake up everyday?

Me personally?

Yeah, personally.

Fuck, I dunno. That’s hard.

I was reading a Blacklisted interview online a few weeks ago and I saw that question and I was like ‘that’s a fuckin killer one’

Yeah, I was expecting all the other ones, but I dunno. Dunno these days. I’ve got a lot of shit coming together I guess, working, school, I dunno. I don’t really know. That’s hard.

Too hard to answer?

Nah, I dunno. Other than just getting up and doing shit and getting my life in order, nothing really. I think doing something study wise probably gets me up, because I haven’t done anything like that since I finished high school, but yeah, I dunno. That’s a fucking hard question. I’m just gonna stick with what I said.

Are you excited to finally get to uni soon?

Yeah. Yeah, I am now. I never used to be. I was doing a trade but now it’s better, I’m doing something more academic. Yeah, I dunno.