As Australians we all know that our cricket team are not the friendliest people to compete against. They will use sledging as a tool to get ahead whenever they can. Some claim this is one of the main reasons we have been the best in the world for such a long time. After the infamous Sydney test match a lot was said about how the Australians conduct themselves on the field and how they should just take some of their own medicine. I was reading all this at the start of the year and was thinking that this is just wrong. If an Australian player was found guilty of racially abusing an Indian player he would have been suspended and made to apologise. When the Aussie team accused an Indian player of doing this what happened?
Monthly Archive for April, 2008
The good guys at Bombshell have hooked up a sweet looking double header tour for No Use For A Name & Strung Out.
The fat wreck chord boys will be heading off on an extensive Strangers In The Outback Tour on the 2nd of July and will see them hitting a number of rare locations (Cairns, Jindabyne & Geelong to name a few) until they finish up on the 30th.
No Use For A Name recently released their 11th album The Feel Good Record Of The Year and showed that they’re still capable of belting out some great punk rock tunes 17 years on. I think NUFAN was the first punk band I ever saw.
Empireonline are currently featuring a list of the best TV shows of all time as voted by the people.
It’s definitely worth a look as they give a brief rundown of some truly memorable shows as well as listing a favorite episode & some trivia (Did you know that Deadwood used the word fuck & it’s derivatives 2,980 times during it’s 3 seasons?).
I covers a variety of genres and a good selection of old & new shows that will bring back the memories. It’ll probably come as no surprise which took the top position (Hint:Animation), but I was happy that five of my favorite were in the top 10. Go The Wire!
Goldfinger are currently giving a sneak peak of their upcoming album Hello Destiny, which will be released next week (22nd). The whole album is being streamed on their myspace site so check it out.
I’ve given it a quick listen & initial thoughts are very good. Very punk pop sounding, but they’ve brought back a bit of the ska style and the songs are still as catchy as ever. Overall it looks like they haven’t lost the golden touch & things are looking good for their upcoming tour.
A Band In Hope sees The Matches diverge from the previous pop punk sound heard on their last two albums (Decomposer & E.von Dahl) into a style that may be unfamiliar to old fans. This diversity was achieved by recording their latest album in a total of nine studio’s with seven producers ranging from John Feldmaan (Goldfinger) to Tim Armstrong (Rancid). This influence has lead to plenty of creative experimental songs that push the band into some new areas. However it’s initially hard to wrap your brain around this album as it has a bipolar nature with plenty of bleak mournful songs mixed with upbeat tunes. Even the title of the record can be interpreted two ways, a band in hope or abandon hope.
Are you ready to be excited?
Offspring have announced the release date of their upcoming album Rage & Fall, Rise & Grace (Does anyone else get the feeling that they’ve ripped off the name from the Foo Fighters last album?).
It’s been a long time between album’s (5 years) but their new record is set for release on June 17th. Offspring have stated that each of their records have always reflected the state of punk at the time. I guess it was a real bad year when Splinter was release, but it will be interesting to see what their interpretation will be this time around.
Now this is how you make a punk album! Anti-flag received a lot of flack about joining with a major record label on their last release (For Blood & Empire), but all doubts should be forgiven with their newest album The Bright Lights Of America.
This powerful record has plenty of heavy hitting numbers and rousing sing along choruses that will have the blood pumping and the fists raised in the air. Chris Head (guitar), Chris # 2 (bass/vocals), Pat Thetic (drums) and Justine Sane (lead vocals/guitar) all get their moment to shine with plenty of short guitar & drums solo’s that reveal a tight knit band in top form. The introduction of wood block, harmonica, trumpet, piano, violin and some choral backing vocals also contribute towards Anti-flags most diverse sounding album yet.
While the last albums I reviewed (Panic At The Disco’s:Pretty Odd and Millencolin’s:Machine 15) showed a dramatic or a subtle change in sound, the 8th album from Pennywise shows absolutely no change from the music that they were playing back in the 90’s. They even unashamedly reference this on the intro song, with the lines “Competitive, narcissistic you know we’re not going to change”.
I was originally going to say give Pennywise some credit for how they’ve released this album for free over myspace. However, I was left with a slightly bitter taste in my mouth after finding out that you have to sign up to myspace & add the mobile phone parasite company Textango as a friend (just think of all those annoying ads on TV).
While music festivals are currently winding up, the gigs announcements are still rolling with Goldfinger, Against Me & Gyroscope recently announcing tour dates.
Now it looks like A Wilhelm Scream will be heading over to OZ in June to promote the release of their latest album Career Suicide. AWS have recently found a new guitar player & will be headlining their very own show for the first time in Australia at the Arthouse in Melbourne on the 8th June. Supported them will be A Death In The Family, Lungs & MDK.
Australia was actually the first country to receive the machine (just like Pennybridge Pioneers & Home From Home) & we’ve been lucky enough to hear it weeks before anywhere else. They must really love our country as they also decided to kick off their album tour here first.
Machine 15 is Millencolin’s eight album release and refers to the Swedish punk rockers racking up an impressive fifteen years together. As such, the album seems to contain a general theme of reflecting on life and moving on to the future. After departing from their ska musical style in early years, Millencolin have undergone little change over the years but their latest record pushes their punk rock music into a more melodic area.
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