This is Peterborough Goes Forth – Compilation

"This is Peterborough Goes Forth" is, cleverly, the fourth compilation in the series by Rowdy Farrago Records featuring active bands from Peterborough. If you don't know where Peterborough is, grab a map of England, and head north from London... or just ask Google maps.

"This is Peterborough Goes Forth" is a very eclectic compilation, so there's a good chance of finding something that will appeal to almost everyone. Popular Oi! band The Black Marias contribute "Havoc", a high-energy fist pumper, while A Story to Tell cover the more melodic indy side of things, and Thee Ancient Mariners deliver a Power-Pop flavored Punk. 

Overall, this compilation serves as a great catalog to the variety of music coming out of a city too often overshadowed by the London and Manchester scenes. So if you're looking for some new bands, but aren't ready to commit to a full album, give this comp a try. You can pick up your copy HERE

 

-Jo Problems-
Big Wheel Staff Reporter
 

 

 

 

                                           Go HERE to see all the latest record reviews

 

 

Send your comments to the editor HERE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alkaline Trio – Bayside – and Off With Their Heads – at House Of Blues – Anaheim, CA

The House of Blues Anaheim, CA musical played host to a sold out venue for the final leg of Alkaline Trio’s most recent tour; with the support of bands like Off With Their Heads and Bayside the night proved to be one worth attending. However, for those who did not get to attend here is a quick break down of the night’s festivities..

The first band of the night was Off With Their Heads. Signed to Epitaph Records and based out of Minneapolis, MN they have been playing together for ten years. Opting to set up for their performance behind the stage curtain they were able to begin playing as soon as the curtain rose. They opened up with the hardcore guitar riffs and intense vocals they are famous for. The band would play several of their hit tracks, and at one point thanked Alkaline Trio for “[letting] me and my dumb friends tour with them for seven weeks with them."

After their amazing performance Off With Their Head’s Ryan Young (lead vocalist for the band) took time to speak with Big Wheel about his band and what they’re currently doing. “We started playing together in a basement out of Minneapolis ten years ago. Since then our music has somehow allowed us to travel the world, play for packed houses and open up for every band we have ever wanted to. In a few months we will be touring with Frank Turner all over the east coast. Where, we will have a chance to play some of our new album “Home” [that was release March 2013] to a whole new crowd of people.”

Bayside was the next band of the night and for an Alkaline Trio concert the shear amount of diehard Bayside fans in attendance was astounding. A band from Queens, NY bayside has been playing together since 2000 has since gained a huge fan base; it is no wonder why so many people have found a way to relate to the band’s music on some level.  Bayside fan Jenny had this to say “I have been following this band for a long time. In 2008 I was in a bad place in my life and the band’s music helped me get out of that dark place.” Illustrating to those not familiar with Bayside exactly what brings people to become fans of this New York band.

Taking the stage in the mists of the audience’s attentive anticipation the band opened up with no statement, only a wave to the audience; as soon as their first guitar cord was struck Bayside quickly got the crowd singing along with them. Playing tracks like “Duality,” “Montauk,” and “Dear Tragedy.” Bayside would finish off their set and tour with Alkaline Trio by thanking them for “allowing us to tour and play for audiences like the one here tonight.”

Prior to Alkaline Trio’s performance fans Andy and Angela spoke with Big Wheel about the show that would soon unfold. “We have been listening to them for ten years, and have been waiting for this show for a few weeks now and can’t wait to hear them play some tracks off of their album ‘Maybe I’ll Catch Fire’ at some point tonight.”

Alkaline trio, a band out of Illinois that has been playing together since 1996 and is currently set to be touring Europe, would be the final band of the night. Entering the packed concert room in the House of Blues, Anaheim to the rampant cheers of the audience Matt Skiba (lead vocalist of the band) took the stage wearing a black polka dot tie and sunglasses and immediately began playing.

Their set was marked with total audience participation as they played songs like “”She Lied to the F.B.I.,” “Radio,” and “Calling all Skeletons.” They ended their set and their tour with thanking the audience for being so energetic.

            More photos of the show can be seen HERE

-Ryan R.-
Big Wheel Staff Reporter

 

 

 

 

Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews

 

Send your comments to the editor HERE

 

The Full Eight Fest Featuring: The Dickies – Wrong Beach – Narcoleptic Youth – Cheap Sex and many more – at The Vex – Los Angeles, CA

This was the "Full Eight Fest" brought to you by GITBAM Records at the Vex Arts Center. GITBAM is putting on a lot of really good shows in the L.A. area! You should really go and support these guys. This was an all-day and all-night fest with ska and classic Punk bands.

 

The first band up on the indoor stage seemed to be whoever wanted to go up and play. And it seemed to be amongst friends. (Later, I found out that the band scheduled to open were stuck in traffic and couldn't make the show.) This opening band played a few covers and actually did quite well. It reminded me of when I first started playing (heck ... we, and they, were kids having fun). 

The first band on the outside stage was Cannabiscuits, an 8 piece Ska band. There has been an explosion of Ska/Punk bands in the L.A. area lately (especially in East L.A). These guys (a 3-piece horn section and a percussionist) were pretty good. A *very* cool band to start off the event with. 

A young band that plays good ol' Hardcore, Dirty Rebels started playing inside and got the crowd going. The guitar player showed some class, as he started playing Lynyrd Skynyrd and  then went into a hardcore tune. With songs like No Freedom/Final Solution/and Civilized Disorder, these youngsters played a really good hardcore set. 

Rundown Kreeps was next. A nice "Punk'n Roll" type band with a bit of Ska thrown in for flavor. This is a power trio, with the guitar player playing and singing. At times, they reminded me of Stiff Little Fingers. Check 'em out, they are good. 

After Rundown Kreeps, I went outside to see Blanco Y Negro play. They bring with them a very nice blend of Ska, Reggae, and Soul. With a strong vocalist and horn section, these guys did some really good jams. Honestly, the vocalist made this band with his powerful soulful voice. If you have a chance to see these guys, please check em out. They're good! 

Local favorites, Corrupted Youth, played next on the inside stage. This band is great "in your face" angry Punk Rock! Every time I see Corrupted youth, they just get better and better. The singer, Nacho, gives it his all. During this time on the outside stage, East Side Agents (a 7-piece ska/punk band with a female vocalist) started their set. They had a nice horn and rhythm section. 

Back on the inside stage, The Bad Samaritans started their set with their great 80's style Punk Rock. These guys were older than the previous bands and it showed in their music. My favorite was "I Was Born Old". The singer, Eric, is one of the best front-Punkmen I've seen in a while (and he kept his clothes on!!).

On the outside stage, another Ska band was just about to start. This was a 6-piece band called Nino Zombi, who have very danceable tunes with nice changes; a strong vocalist and good musicianship round out their sound.

Wrong Beach started playing the inside stage and started with "Pipeline". This band is an all-star Punk band which features Rikk Agnew, AJ (Das Klown), and others from the late 70's/early 80's punk scene. They did classics such as "Cherry Bomb" and "Creatures", just to name a few. You can't go wrong with the great Rikk Agnew on guitar! 

Red Store Bums, traditional ska sound with no horns,  played next on the outside stage. Red Store Bums was the fan favorite so far, as the crowd really got into them. Good latin-style Ska.

Narcoleptic Youth was next and did their usual good "Dickies-style" set. Joey Bondage is a great frontman. Even though it was a short set, they played extremely well!

On the outside stage "South Central Skankers",  6-piece, very hopping, Ska band played. This band was a bit different than the other ska bands--some of their songs get heavy and hard, and then switch to a steady Ska beat. Nice touch guys! After that, 8 Kalacas was the last Ska band to play, which was comprised of two vocalists with horns. Again, a very latin-style Ska band. The crowd seemed to really get into them!

The great DICKIES finally hit the stage! They did their classic's such as "Rosemary", "Fan Mail", I'm OK, You're OK"," Got it at the Store", and my favorite "Give it Back". Lenard and Stan have to be the oldest Punk rockers still rockin it! They had really good players with them, as every song sounded perfect.

The Dickies have to be one of the funnest bands to go see! They always put a smile on your (well, at least my) face. The crowd went crazy as they went into "You Drive Me Ape" and "Gigantor". This band has too many classic songs--they even did a segment from "Tommy". Great stuff! The Dickies still have it, as though there was any question about that. 

Cheap Sex played last and got the crowd pogoing! Mike Virus and the boys played a really good and solid set. Most of the crowd was here to see Cheap Sex. They don't play too often, so when they do, you should check them out!

Over all, a really good, well-worth-the-money fest. I'm looking forward to more GITBAM shows. Please support promoters and shows like this, as these are the shows put on by the fans themselves, and not big money-hungry corporations.

 

             More photos of the show can be seen HERE

-Mike Vallejo-
Big Wheel Contributor

 

 

 

 

Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews

 

Send your comments to the editor HERE

 

Chaos In Tejas Music Festival 2013 – Day 4 – Austin, TX

Day four of Chaos. We got back to the sleeping spot in the late night after Los Crudos and Framtid and watching a yuppie puke on the Night Owl bus. I watched as the sky opened up into rain. Hot summer rain. I remember thinking I could travel forever.

 

Never go home again. Exhaustion had caught up with me but it also felt like renewal. We had rode the greyhound all the way from Vegas and had not really slept in 2 weeks. I remembered talking to Martin Crudo and telling him he did right in his lifetime. I remember listening to my travel companion tell me, as we walked, about his inner life and telling this guy things i've never told my best friends. These moments to me are spiritual Anarchism. We lived without fear. The reward was verbal freedom without judgement. I then tried to force sleep so I could see the Final Conflict and Infest show at 11E5 that Sunday night. 

Woke up. Missed the day shows again at Beerland, Holy Mountain and Red 7. Day and night had blurred together. Did laundry at the Lavanderia. More Guisada.

I took the city bus back downtown and started walking to 11E5. We walked down the alley which was at a steep slant behind the venue, and actually came up high enough that when you peeked through the fan vent, could see Austin's own Hatred Surge playing down below. There we met Canadian Punks from Vancouver and we all made a pact that we would be at Distort Fest in Canada this September. 

I actually caught all the bands that evening. Hatred Surge, Strange Factory, and Hoax. I quietly sat on a beam, reflecting and people watching from the back. I stepped out during Mind Eraser for air. And talked to some girls I overheard discussing their first jobs when they moved to Austin. We talked about canvasing jobs that are not what they seem when you sign up. A lot of Austinites including myself went through this right of passage. 

Next was Left For Dead. 1990's Powerviolence still in its prime, Left For Dead was the perfect band to wake up a sleepy Sunday. The 90's in my humble opinion were the best decade of Punk. So any band that I can catch from that time period, I'm excited. Left For Dead put on a really good set. Its always awesome when a band is just as excited as you are to be there. 

Final Conflict is another band that at some point, you had them on a mix tape in the 80's and 90's. In fact I remember one of my closest friends, who passed away recently, loved Final Conflict. So seeing them I imagined how many people have passed who loved them as well. And that I was seeing them for those people. When I think of 80's Punk they come to mind. And especially being from Southern California as well, they were played at every party I went to as a teen. With Ron Martinez on vocals and Shane McLachlan, vocalist of the Grindcore uber-politicized Phobia on bass I reverted to a teenage girl, and even with my brutalized foot, pushed to the front. They sounded just as good as they ever did, and did not let the crowd down one bit. 

I made the decision to stay where I was for Infest as I knew if I went outside I would not be able to get back in. Which was actually the fate of my Road Dog. So I had the right idea in staying put. Or not. Infest have been a Powerviolence staple since the late 80's and like so many other bands playing Chaos this year, have no doubt influenced so many people and set the standard for their genre. I know most of the bands from my town from my generation started playing music because of bands like this. 

I was far away enough from the stage to avoid the pit on account of my foot (it made it this far) yet close enough to, hopefully, get pictures of the band. I noticed there was no pit but just a solid crowd forming. Doubling in size like a tick ready to explode. I was slowly being crowded forward, a solid wall forming behind me. The room was quiet and void of speaking. At least it seemed that way to me as I tend to feel more than observe. A guy behind me says to his friend he just saw them play somewhere else in the country and "it's not so much the pit to worry about, but the people flying at you." So obviously I was beyond excited to see these powerviolence Gods and watch everyone kill each other. Just at that moment they took the stage and everyone began to scream and as the first song began, all hell broke loose. Up to that point, in my 28 years, I never thought I would be scared of getting hurt at a show. A feeling I had not felt since I was 12 in 1997 at my first Punk show at Jerry's pizza in Bakersfield, Ca. The crowd at Infest went insane and I had not felt a collective energy like that in a long time. Like I had mentioned before, this is our Gladiator game. Our snake handling, our jump over the fire. I was swallowed into the wall of angry bodies, a sea of hate and intense jarring movement. Wet humid bodies, stench and breath. No control over where I was or where I could move, I started laughing and somehow shoved my camera into a pocket. Maybe not even mine. It did not matter. I somehow faced backwards and grabbed people, shoving them behind me back tward where my body had left a gap. Human bodies turned into liquid as I swam upstream to air. I came out smiling and laughing and those around me were bloody and covered in sweat and we all laughed together as a small girl said "I lasted exactly 8 seconds." It felt like an eternity.

At this point I watched again from my support Beam. Observing everyone have a moment they will remember forever. A sea. Bending and contorting. Space and time stopping. Nothing mattered but this moment, this weekend. We may not have anarcho-Punk gatherings anymore. We may no longer sleep in mass together in fields and abandoned building at night. But we can devote time and energy to the basic human need of congregation. Pagan rituals of dance and reproduction. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of Hardcore Hell 

I found my Road Dog directly at the door. In less that six hours we would be parting ways to separate destinations so we hurried away from the venue. We decided to splurge on a cab with another punk heading in the same direction. And upon arriving at the sleep spot, I decided to stay up since we would have to vacate it in two hours anyway. Hyped like kids at a slumber party, we reenacted the craziest moments of our sojourn. I slept for an hour and we left to catch our greyhounds before the sun came up. I was on my way to the Big Sleazy. New Orleans.

Thus ending the yearly ritual of Chaos in Tejas. Until next year.

            More photos of the show can be seen HERE

-Natalie Leeann.-
Big Wheel Contributor

 

 

 

 

Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews

 

Send your comments to the editor HERE

 

Show Preview: The Full Eight Fest Featuring The Dickies – Wrong Beach – Narcoleptic Youth – Cheap Sex and many more – at The Vex – Los Angeles, CA – June 8, 2013

Gitbam Records is proud to present an insane afternoon and evening of classic Punk and Ska. The Full Eight Fest is an all ages music and art festival with featured art by House of Hooligans. Headlining the show will be The Dickies, Wrong Beach, Narcoleptic Youth, Cheap Sex, Nino Zombi, South Central Skankers, Red Store Bums and 8-Kalacas. 

-Mike Vallejo-

 Big Wheel Contributor

 

 

Check out more show previews HERE

 

Send your comments to the editor HERE

 

 

Chaos In Tejas Music Festival 2013 – Day 3 – Austin, TX

Day three of Chaos. A walk through downtown Austin to the Drugstore to find a foot wrap. We ducked into tourist shops for the air conditioning and to find collectable spoons for my friends mother. A man with a clip board asks us to donate money to the children. "What children?" we ask. "Money to provide basic needs to children such as food and shelter." After the third go around we decided this man was too vague.. 

We stopped to enjoy our beverages in some shady bushes by a canal. Staying away from the eyes of the public we meet new friends from distant states and decide to head to the Los Crudos and Framtid show at 11E5. 

 

After looking through the merch tables I catch Vaaska, raw d-beat from Texas and Infernoh, Hardcore from Sweden. I had seen Vaaska prior to this show and have always been impressed with their noise shattering rock. Infernoh harkened back to bands like Mob 47 and Avskum with their brutal scandinavian Hardcore. Next was Sudor, who have been destroying Spain for years now with their bare bones Punk.

Next up was Kromosom once again. I had not been able to catch enough of them at the bridge show. Kromosom has only been around a few years and is destined to leave a mark in Punk one way or another. Whatever "it" is. They have "it". Kromosom played while day turned to night and their set was an energetic ritual of raw throat echoes as the crowd once again lost their minds to the songs they chanted along with.

My travel companion and I then left as No Tolerance and Criminal Damage went on. We toured 6th st to find the other Chaos shows that night at the many other venues. Just then we saw a huge parade of people wearing neon and carrying signs and flashing lights marching the street. Chanting and singing. We took shortcuts around them under the freeway back to 11E5. Where the people had joined others in a Warehouse next to our venue. It was a QueerBomb. An impromptu pride parade that ended in dancing to electronic witch house music. We could hear their party across the tracks. Once again, a normal sight in Austin, Tx. The poetry of every day life.

Los Crudos was set to go on next. The crowd had almost doubled in the time we were gone. As we stood in line t became obvious they were not letting anymore people in. Our crowd grew restless as one of our idealized bands started to play. A band all Punks would be honored to see. Beginning in 1991 Los Crudos was an all latino band in an otherwise white music scene. Singing about chicano rights, racism, homophobia, xenophobia and economic issues in the western world, thus paving the way for future politicized bands and earning their way into hardcore/crust punk infamy. Los Crudos is a band you respect, because they live what they sing about. And are passionate about world issues. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of Hardcore Hell

We began to protest the maximum capacity rules at the door. Punks pushing from behind calling out to the doorman "We're getting in no matter what! You can't stop us!". He was letting in ticket holders but not wristband holders. I protested to him the fairness of this act. He then had a snotty attitude about our impatience as we heard Los Crudos go into another song. At this point we had had enough. And it was obvious something had to happen, or the situation would break. He then let some of us in and we rushed to the crowd inside. People were leaping from the stage and the rafters. Pogoing in unison and destroying each other in the pit. Because my ankle was still hurt, I watched from the speaker stack as my tribe engaged in the spiritual ritual of shoving and kicking and throwing themselves at each other, working into a frenzy. This sight to see and be a part of, is why we're Punks. This is our Church. This is our gladiator game. Straight, Queer, Black, White, Male, Female. Nothing matters in the pit, because we are all one. Members of Los Crudos are also in Limp Wrist. A Queer-Punk hardcore band with as much energy and excitement around them. Martin Crudo stopped to talk in between songs in true 90s anarcho-Punk fashion, and commented on the QueerBomb across the street. The beauty of unity and not living in shame. Everyone cheered and screamed as they played their last song. It was a moment you had to be there to feel and see. And I am one of those lucky Punks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of Hardcore Hell

Then came Framtid. A true raw d-beat band from Osaka, Japan. Who, ever since America caught wind of, have been in everyones record collection. But what we had not yet experienced was Framtid live. And we were in for it. Framtid's distorted black sound rose up and punched us all in the face. A moment we had all waited for, for years now. In almost hypnotic fashion we watched as Framtid raged. The pit almost seemed in slow motion even as loud as it was. Perfection in it's imperfect state. Static and electricity in the air. At that moment all our collective consciousness knew we experienced one of the greatest shows we had ever seen.

            More photos of the show can be seen HERE

-Natalie Leeann.-
Big Wheel Contributor

 

 

 

 

Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews

 

Send your comments to the editor HERE

 

« Previous Page