I will witness the fall

I've been very very busy in the last two months, so I didn't have the time to update the blog. I was working on issue 3 of damn.good.coffee. since I decided to leave the 4-sheet fanzine behind and make a larger one with about 30 pages. Actually I wanted to release it by the end of January but I was neither finished nor satisfied with the output back then. Plus, copying this needs a lot of money which I didn't have. Tomorrow I'm going to send in the PDF-data to a copy shop and hopefully I can pick them up next week. I will keep you updated!

About music: A lot of new records found their way into my "collection" but I can't find the time to listen to them. But there's still one album that follows me whenever I go for a walk with my dog by night:


Owsla by Fall Of Efrafa.
This record definitively is the most atmospherically piece of work that I've listened to recently. If you can't link the name of the band with something: It depends on the book Watership down by Richard Adams. It tells the story of a few rabbits that leave their usual warren and start a long and dangerous journey because of a obscure and threatening prophecy one of them had before. Efrafa is the enemy warren, a totalitarian kind of society lead by brutal and tyrannical rabbits. Fall Of Efrafa manage to create the atmosphere that comes over you when you're reading Watership down - threatening, dark, but also with a glimmer of hope sometimes. The music is very heavy and like I've said atmospherically crust, so you can expect a lot of guitar intros, waltzing ranges of riffs and a desperate, angry vocalist. Usually, I'm scared of songs over 5 minutes (salute the last.fm generation), but FOF combine so many different and powerful aspects in their songs that I'm willed to even listed to songs beyond 10 minutes. The song writing is also an interesting aspect of Fall Of Efrafa. Generally it's based on the novel, trying to interpret the chapters of it. Nevertheless, it's written in a very universal way, so that you can transfer it to the here-and-now human society as well.
This is more a short overview over the band itself than a real review about Owsla. I can't really describe it song by song because it's a connected and growing album. Get it somewhere and read the book besides!
Ah yes, they played one of their last shows at Fluff Fest 09 and I didn't watch them ...

Love always

I’ve just finished reading „The perks of being a wallflower“ by Stephen Chbosky and I must admit that I’ve never read such a touching and emotional book. I can’t put the atmosphere into words right now. Nobody else describes a chapter of the big process of growing-up that directly and obviously as Chbosky does with his protagonist Charlie. Charlie’s a person that is so unique in his way of honesty and intelligence that some dialogues seem even surprisingly direct. He’s in a constant battlefield between his own world of self-discovery and the environment he always tries to what he calls “participate” in. With finding real friends he discovers the good aspects of growing-up as well as its dark sides. Love, drugs, first sex, domestic violence, music, etc.. This book is definitely a timeless manifestation of puberty and the young days. It’s very hard to get out of Charlie’s head now.

Instead of writing sentences that would not even roughly describe the magnificence of this book I just recommend it to anybody. I finish with a quote that was marked by the owner of the book who borrowed it to me:

"So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons.
Any maybe we’ll never know most of them.
But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them."

For you, a better world ...

The Holy Mountain / Black Tusk - Split 7''

Although this split 7'' only includes two songs by Florida's The Holy Mountain and one by Black Tusk from Georgia it's so damn good! About THM: Imagine Tragedy mixed with singalongs, way more melodical riffs and crazy guitar solos and you'll receive a pretty good impression of what The Holy Mountain are doing. Plus, the lyrics are very concise and critical dealing with society issues like sexism and patriarchy. At the beginning I wasn't that sure about the seriousness of the band because they had a shirt design showing a Hamas fighter which is from my point of view nothing else than a fascist. But by writing with the guitarist Tyler via myspace I got to know that there's no connection between THM and any radical islamist movements. I quote:
"the intention of the design is simply to be striking and look badass. it was our best selling shirt so i guess it worked. "
But really, check them out if you're into mad crust/hardcore bands. They already had just recorded some new stuff and some of the members live in Hannover now ... so?
Alligators, pickups, beards, tattoos, burning barrels, denim jackets, cigarettes, Baroness and a lot of power. Put it all together into a blender and you get Black Tusk. It's a pity that there's only one song on the 7'', however, this one is so diversified. I count 4 different song parts and a lot of other musical details. If an injury caused by a black tusk tastes like this I'm thrilled to get some more (just to package my words more poetical..)

"An endless struggle to create a better world. For you, a better world.
History, a curse upon you. Modern man, a curse upon you.
Racism, a curse upon you. Sexism, a curse upon you."

The Holy Mountain myspace
Black Tusk myspace

I am mountain

FEED - Demo Tape 2008

Yes! The tape was finally in my mail box today. I asked Dominik of mindxmatter records (check his blog: mindxmatter) to send it to me after I have listened to the myspace-tracks for days. To give you a little description of what FEED is I just quote mindxmatter:

Members and (ex-) Members of Iron Age, Bitter End, Lie And Wait whorship the lonestar state. Heavily influenced by Alice In Chains, Only Living Witness and the desert. A 2 song demo lasting 11 Minutes. You know what that means.

First of all I have to admit that FEED isn't that sort of band I usually do pay attention to. It's very melodic and way different from what I have expected when I heard of ex-members of Iron Age and Bitter End playing in there. But the songs have so much honest emotion and a soundrange that I was really taken by suprise. While "Saving face" lets us guess the hardcore-influence, "Grove" is a 7 minutes-long and moving ballad. I wanted to make some photos of the tape itself because i think it's layouted/produced with much love and passion for the music; perhaps I'll do it in a few days...
Unfortunately they broke up (2009, I guess), so there's no chance to see them live anymore. But at least their only record "Human engine" is available for free download on their myspace, so go for it!

FEED myspace

A sausage dog´s blood

On Saturday, you will be able to celebrate the final (at first) show done by Tanzbär Records. It´s a pity that Fabian, the dancing bear, is going to study in Berlin this year (although Berlin is the best city!). I got to know him and his label last year, we did the Carpathian-show in Sulzbach together and we even made a trip to Scotland in summer, so I can truly say that this would be a great loss for myself and of course for the "scene". It seems like a character trait of him to always keep an eye out for more special and alternative things like when he puts out records of bands I´ve never heard of before. And so, the show on Saturday also offers a lineup of very untypical bands (but nevertheless good ones!). So come to Regensburg, hang out at the "Alte Mälzerei" and have a good time celebrating the Tanzbär!
(Btw. I did an interview with Fabi as Tanzbär Records for my first fanzine-issue; I´m gonna publish it here soon, I just have to translate it)

I am extraordinary

Blacklisted - No one deserves to be here more than me

Wicked! I know that Blacklisted always did their own unique stuff and the new record is just again the reconfirmation for this. "Heavier than heaven, lonier than god" had already been something fresh; this album, however, goes few steps further! They have been experimenting, they did an acoustic song, a female songpart and even a trumpet-intro. I must admit that I felt asleep when I first listened to the record (which was perhaps down to the fact that it was right after school ...). But I also know that really good records that you keep in your mind for a long time do need time to unfold their whole expression. Just as I said, the record finally overwhelmed me after having listened to it thrice. The songs have more rock and groove than ever and the songwriting shines again through the almost creepy honesty and the lovely tendency to cynicism. So it doesn´t even bother you when George isn´t quite able to hit the notes of the "ballads". I entrust the record to everyone who´s interested in innovative and honest hardcore and I really hope that the announcement for the euro-tour follows soon. I already saw them live and they really don´t disappoint you. However, George represents his lyrics in a perfect way, which means that he´s just like this introverted and cynical.

Blacklisted myspace

I was the calm before the storm, I am the calm before the storm!

As long as I don't take the time to write some new reviews and stuff, I'm going to upload two "old" interviews out of my mini-fanzine damn good coffee. First of all the interview with the Irish hardcoreband Famine. I saw them live in 2009 when they played a show together with Bitter End in Lichtenstein. I really did like the gig, because in my opinion Famine do catch one's eye in the today's modern-hardcore-wave. So read the interview and check out their myspace!

First of all introduce yourself and the band
I´m Robbie Kirwan.
Stephen Cruise, Ian Kelly, Lee Byrne and Jonathan Boyce make up the rest of Famine.

Your former band name was "Forging friendships" - why did you become "Famine" (perhaps any link to the movie?)
Forging Friendships was originally supposed to be the name of our singers zine. So when it came to coming up with a name I don't think there was any other suggestions. After nearly 2 years, we grew to not like the name anymore. We felt that it didn't really suit us anymore and then while recording the record, Stephen suggested it and we just went with it.
I've never seen the movie.

Your sound is very unspecific and it isn’t easy to find a drawer for your music (which is good), but can you name some bands that influenced you the most while writing on your songs?
We all listen to different stuff so when it comes to actually writing songs it's just parts put together. We all just write at home and then eventually show it to each other. If we all like it, then we'll go with it.
To be honest, I can't think of which bands to list here.

I’ve been in Scotland this summer and it was very difficult to figure out some kind of "hardcore scene". Of course there’ve been some flyers but there are big distances of time between every show. Is there some kind of "hardcore scene" in Ireland or is it hard to find people with these same interests?
About Scotland. We played there last June and the show itself was okay but it was a very low turnout. It reminded me of when I started going to shows in Dublin. We are playing in Dundee on our next tour.
The local scene in Dublin is great. Shows are regular, new bands are starting and current bands are putting out records and touring. And thanks to people like Mac Kell (Demented Promotions), Look Back and Damo, more and more touring bands are coming over than I can ever remember.
Bands worth checking out from Dublin would be Frustration, Crowd Control, Forced Out, Find a Way, Tunguska, Sort it Out and The Blind.

You did a little trip to the "mainland" this year and you did shows in Germany as well. What do you think are the main differences between shows (like the people, the location, the meal etc.) in Germany and shows in Ireland ... or are there any differences?
Those shows we came over and played were so good. It was our first time on the mainland and we couldn't have been treated better. The shows were a lot more packed than we'd ever played either here or in the UK, which was great. All the places we played and travelled to were awesome too.
Seriously, it was such a relief playing shows over there and knowing you would be looked after.
It's very similar to how bands get treated when they come over to Dublin.

It seems that you don’t like Dublin that much. The first song I would write for my band would also be some kind of "hate song" for my hometown. Do you know why so many bands want to burn down the cities they’re born in?
IAN KELLY - I guess it's because it reminds you of all the hard times that you go through in your life. I have a love hate relationship with Dublin. I always miss it when we are away. I miss the city but I don't miss the people.

Do you have any definite planes for the future (except for releasing the LP-version of "Every road leads back here")?
We're doing a 2 week UK/EURO tour with a band from Dublin called Frustration. It starts on September 21st and ends on October 6th. All the dates are on either of our Myspace pages.
We decided that we're going to do a 7". Writing for it has begun.

Anything to add?
Thanks again for asking us to do this. Pick up the Crowd Control and Frustration records and check out Hurry Up! Records.
Peace.

Links:
Famine
Frustration
Crowd control
Forced out
Tunguska
Sort it out
Find a way
The Blind