Tagged By punk

WATCH: Chelsea Bleach – ‘Shedding Skin’

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Chelsea Bleach

Chelsea Bleach are B U S Y. They’re writing, recording, mixing, mastering, playing all of the shows, figuring out how they can fit more guitars into the fold (there are three at time of writing). They’ve also made a film clip for ‘Shedding Skin’, the opening track off their debut EP ‘Decent Connections’ which they released at the end of 2016 and you can watch it here on this website so don’t say we never do anything for you!!

If you’ve been consumed furiously making new years resolutions and worshipping jesus and binge drinking over the past few weeks I’ll give you the lowdown on the good thing the kind folks of Chelsea Bleach have gifted us. Their guitar riffs and vocal melodies are heavy on a cool nonchalance that brings to mind the Seattle-based garage rock of Chastity Belt, but with rougher edges. It’s not as hard or fast as Melbourne mates Cable Ties or Wet Lips, and actually the sparser elements call to mind Hobart rock dogs (they said it so it’s fine) Naked.

Decent Connections keeps the take-no-shit lyricism of lead single ‘Public Safety‘, neatly packaging what it’s like to be not-a-white-guy in public: “Watch my back / leave no tracks,” and applying this sentiment to personal growth and relationships, gradually working through the 20-something feeling of not knowing why or what you are doing at any given time. Each track abruptly shifts between pretty different components, flipping the song’s mood back and forth multiple times during the lifespan of each track. ‘Daydreams’ could have been produced by Courtney Barnett with its sunburnt slide guitars and vocals sliding up and down a three note melody, until the switch is flicked to an agitated chorus speeding through wilful indifference: “Everything changes yeah / nothing really matters to me.”

‘Shedding Skin’ carries the same menacing guitar line as ‘Public Safety’ and Chelsea Bleach’s three guitarists (Prani, Bridget and Em) really feel like they’re in sync on this one, working towards six-stringed symbiosis. The overall sound teeters on punk, threatening to topple over into all out mosh but instead channeling all their thrashy energy into sections of tight, virile bar chords. The tension works a dream.

The video for ‘Shedding Skin’ is an assortment of cameras in the direction of the Chelsea Bleach crew, and possibly others. The tangle of limbs makes it hard to discern the exact number of bodies BUT it does look like fun. I think maybe too much of my view of Melbourne comes from DIY music clips but to me the video looks like your average Tuesday arvo in a Melbourne sharehouse? Chelsea Bleach are DIY til they DIE, with guitarist and backup vox Prani the mastermind behind the video and drummer Jay mixed, mastered and recorded the whole heckin’ EP too.

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If you’re in Melbourne go and check Chelsea Bleach launch this thing into the stratosphere with Cable Ties, Palm Springs and kandere @ The Tote on January 20, Facebook event here.

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MAP: October 2015

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cairo

Our submission for this month’s edition of the Music Alliance Pact comes from ‘fresh to death’ Adelaide four piece, Fresh Kills. The guys have just released a double album comprising We Are and The People – what they describe as a “sprawling collection of 22 genre-pashing soul-punk anthems”. It’s loose. Real loose. And don’t just take our word for it.

Click the play button icon to listen to individual songs, right-click on the song title to download an mp3, or grab a zip file of the full 18-track compilation through Dropbox here.

Listen to the full list below.

(more…)

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INTRODUCING: White Dog

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white dog

How angry is that name? How aggressive is it? It’s a snarl, a bark, not afraid to tear out your throat. This Sydney band is vicious, rabid, brutal – all things that punk bands should be. Like the great Siberian husky of olde, White Dog will bleach your soul with a song so ferocious, you’d swear Freddy Krueger was directing your personal nightmare into a grotesque orchestral maelstrom.

Whether blaring away on record or putting on one of their fierce live shows, White Dog can’t help but impress. They give off the same aura of primal carnivorousness that made bands like Lubricated Goat, Cosmic Psychos, and The Birthday Party so exciting. You get the overwhelming feeling that WHITE DOG are going to explode out of whatever speaker system you’re listening to and immerse you into their cult of noisy oblivion.

Although they only have three songs to their Soundcloud, the standout, ‘No Good’ points to a band that will soon lord over Australia’s basements and pubs. A combination of the hardcore stylings of Red Red Krovvy and the immersive ockerism of Low Life, White Dog extend upon that with lunging bass lines and snarling fuzz. Furthermore, the band aren’t afraid of an aneurysm-inducing guitar solos, adding a Stooges-esque flavour to their Jesus Lizard/Pissed Jeans indebted growls.

For the fans of uninhibited punk that refuses to drop below a bludgeoning, White Dog are your new favourite band.

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INTRODUCING: Kids of Zoo

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kidsofzoo

Not to be confused with kids at zoo, a search for which will inevitably lead to compilations of kids laughing and pointing at a chimp that hates itself, Kids of Zoo are a Melbourne punk band that sound like something your mum would absolutely hate. They’re loud, brash and more sneering than I imagine Tony Abbott would’ve been when making his cuts to those hippies at the ABC and SBS.

Kids of Zoo have been around since early 2009, when their first 7″ was released, and they’ve had a constant stream of material since. They’ve just put out second album Welcome to Parrot Eyes on legendary punk label Every Night is a Saturday Night Records (Batpiss, the Spinning Rooms, Bad Vision).

But classic Green Day puns are not all that’s amazing about Kids of Zoo. Welcome to Parrot Eyes boasts one-and-a-half-minute punk bliss, straight up ragers – like Refused compressed to an even more frantic pace. If Eddy Current Suppression Ring wanted to be Die! Die! Die!, they would’ve tumbled into what Kids Of Zoo are now. They fit in well with the current scene of thrashers in Australia, such as Us the Band, Heads of Charm and Super Best Friends.

Songs like ‘Drop the Penny’, ‘A Clean Shave’ and ‘Young Children’ are punk rock revellers, brutal and impassioned, but still incredibly fun. For those who have their necks switched to permanent headbanging position, Kids of Zoo are perfect.

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INTRODUCING: Yes I’m Leaving

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yilsl

For those who are punk-inclined, I have found you a Fugazi. In a context where everything else resembles an actual fugazi (variously defined as a fake or a fucked up situation), Yes I’m Leaving is the brutal and efficient slap of sense that Australia has been missing. The new album is direct, punchy, cathartic and chaotic; it feels like a bandaid being ripped from the hairiest part of your skin, over and over again.

On their fourth LP, Slow Release (which is being released via Homeless Records), Sydney’s holy trinity sound dirtier, scummier and more savage than ever before. The production values have been extensively upgraded, with every scrape and bellow of their instruments being picked up and intensified. But rather than creating some sort of squeaky clean parody of themselves, the studio treatment has ensured that Yes I’m Leaving’s usual maelstrom is even more pronounced.

Opening track ‘One’ is especially fearsome. As all members link into a staccato pounding of the hooves, stampeding doom seems an impending reality. The finale is sheer ferocity, frontman Billy Burke screaming ‘One!’ in his banshee cry with enough force to rip the hair right off your head. Latest single “Fear” has a similar effect. It’s basically an expanded Drive Like Jehu track that’s been embellished with a particularly foreboding melody and a strong Australian accent.

Yes I’m Leaving may be more cynical than a Scrooge who’s been through the Vietnam War and create a more gnashing atmosphere than a Tasmanian Devil going through withdrawals, but that’s exactly what separates them from the rest and places them in a higher domain of punk music. Slow Release is an essential listen for anyone who likes to get their heads thumped in by carnivorous punk. And for those who haven’t had the pleasure of such an experience? The perfect introduction.

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EXCLUSIVE: Trust Punks – ‘Prone Hold’

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Trust Punks

True to form, ‘Prone Hold’ from Auckland’s Trust Punks sees the band continue to forge their sound; a dissonant marker between punk and skewered pop.

‘Prone Hold’ is the first track to be released from the band’s debut LP, Discipline. The seven track LP follows a series of singles previously released on Bandcamp.

Both blissful and confronting, ‘Prone Hold’ is a perplexing journey. While each section boasts enough content to carry an entire track, it all passes in seamless procession. The chaos is counteracted by extended angular guitars and long drawn vocal lines. The track peaks with the inclusion of horns over gradually rising and multiplying vocals, before devolving once more into a harsh enveloping wall of noise.

Trust Punks perform at Homies Cosy Teahouse on October 18th in Wellington, and 10 South Street on October 25th in Auckland. A larger New Zealand tour and the band’s second tour of Australia will happen this coming Summer.

Discipline is set for a November 14th release date via Spunk Records.

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LISTEN: Batpiss – ‘Burn Below’

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batpiss

There are plenty of punk bands out there with revolting names; Saliva, Cumstain, Begging For Incest. But hey, those bands kinda suck. Breaking the vile name, shit band category are Melbourne locals Batpiss. Kicking around in Collingwood since around 2011, Batpiss have honed their craft of sluggish oblivion into something that would make Buzz Osborne from the Melvins blush. Although the band released a self-titled cassette in 2012 via Popular Favourites Records, the true gnash of their sound is most apparent on last year’s debut LP, Nuclear Winter.

Starting with a gyrating riff accompanied by a close imitation of Black Flag’s ‘My War’, Batpiss’ ‘Burn Below’ is a punch to the face. It starts with gnashing guitar and buckling bass/drum combinations all come to a halt halfway through the track. It’s only a brief moment of respite though. The band are intent on ploughing through with the incendiary goal to blow out your brain cells – and they’re close.

Batpiss will turn heads, rip off those same heads, stamp them into a bloody mess all over the stage. More please.

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