x4298x

Grind the system!

2012-01-12T02:48:00.000-08:00

Woke up thinking about my overseas grindcore buddys Injakmati this morning, dirty dirty riffs that punch you in the gut and make you wanna bang your head into oblivion - thanks so much for joining us on tour guys!

from our South East Asian tour this summer

rehearsal with me on vocals

the line-up which recorded the split with Black Sister

check the band out at: http://www.facebook.com/injakmati

All about the dances.

2012-01-04T02:05:00.000-08:00

Elgin Rock City 200? - This is how they do it up in the Highlands!

Cancerous Munkys play Saxon

2011-12-23T05:43:00.000-08:00

Go on my son!!

Black Leather Terror and the Hammer of Hell

2011-12-18T01:46:00.000-08:00

The latest lp from Syphilitic Vaginas, Alpha Antichrist, is a total belter and I've been been rocking it a lot while tearing around town on my bike, no red light is gonna stop you with White Line Black Fever rattling through your skull. As a band I think their releases have constantly improved and this rocker just keeps stoking the japanese thrash worship locomotive. get on it!

here's the only interview I've ever seen with the band, from way back in 2008, nicked from metal maniacs web page, enjoi!

Metal Maniacs: Since little to no info on Syphilitic Vaginas exists, how about some — when did you guys form, what were your initial goals, etc.?

Syphilitic Vaginas: SV start in late 2005 to spread gospel of black engine motor punk like HIV virus. We are: Yusuke Flamethrower — Goat Horn On Wooden Coffin, Haruko Outlaw – Chainsaw & Black Lung, Masaru Iron Bitch – Loud Thunder & Chief Satanician. SV rule the planet with iron fist you no need any band else, we are god of metal.

MM: So far, there’s quite a bit of mystery surrounding Syphilitic Vaginas. The (mostly) Japanese titles, the ridiculously small pressings, the obvious G.I.S.M. reference in the band moniker, rumors that you guys are involved in Netjajev SS, perceivably seeming Japanese yet releasing (most of) your records on an American label…is this all by design? Or do dudes care too much about such (sorta-) periphery things and not enough about the music?

SV: We have nothing to do Netjajev SS. He asshole. RFL Records send us custom part for our bikes in trade for songs, why that SV record in USA mostly release. Yes, design is placed big important for us. Satanic is essence of Nippon hardcore never die.

MM: Still, wouldn’t you agree that the context in which something is placed does help dudes understand something a bit deeper or more fully? Meaning, if they new your actual country of origin or what other bands you played in, etc., that they’d have a more qualified appreciation of what SV is doing?

SV: No, we no allow to perception people our power in a free way. Our majestic tyranny is to imposed for maximum effect, not pussyfoot!

MM: Now, about that music: Total ripping Jap-punk/speed metal, obviously nodding to the evil undertones of G.I.S.M. and Ghoul, but I also detect some mid-’80s English Dogs and Losing Control-era Broken Bones. Maybe even cooler: you’ve posted a Bathym cover on your Myspace page. Discuss the role of punk vs. metal in the Syphilitic Vaginas sound.

SV: Is devil hardrock sound = metalpunk. We make no big difference between, metal is punk, punk is metal.

MM: However, do you think the Jap-punk fetishizing goes overboard in SV? I mean, the HUGE hair, which may or may not be your real hair – and of course, the (mostly) Japanese titles, which may or may not make any sense.

SV: SV only use real hair, not wigs like Toxic Holocaust. Yes, we are fetish band. Everything out of control now no return. Fight for imperial Japan or die, we have no choice. Try join shield society but no take we’s punx, too bad.

MM: In other words, is SV a tribute or a parody, or maybe both? If both, isn’t that getting a bit too postmodern, like some university thesis or something?

SV: SV is real deal, Nathan-san. Forget G.I.S.M., Ghoul, Zouo, the other all because SV the only true Japanese metalpunk avalanche!

MM: What’s really cool about SV, though, is that you dudes are really drawing out the proto-black metal in that quintessential Jap-punk sound. Do you think the aforementioned likes of G.I.S.M. and Ghoul were aware of Bathory, Venom, Sodom, and Sarcofago back in the day and that they, in fact, integrated some influence from those bands?

SV: Who cares? They all passé. Quorthon is dead. Sakevi paint with crayons. Michiro Endo is pubrocker.

MM: The 12″ is being reissued by Hardcore Holocaust. But why now? Does this mean that unlimited-edition releases will soon be forthcoming? Maybe a discography CD? Or will you guys forever keep it “cult”? I know that SV will always be an underground thing, but I’d like to think your music’s worth hearing to more than 155 people…

SV: Hardcore Holocaust offer us multi million contract for the record plate. Yes, all upcoming record will press in five-digit edition to pay for our big gasoline cost, jail bail, alcohol and hooker. Discography CD later with many unrelease bonus track for fucker.

MM: Lastly, what does the immediate future hold for SV as far as releases go? And as for the band’s sound, how do you see it developing? Gnarlier, or more tuneful? Hell, maybe something like early Tokyo Yankees…?

SV: New split 7″ EP and repress of s/t cassette EP with bonus tracks. Also t-shirts, and headline Wacken Open Air.

The Earth is our mother...

2011-12-14T07:14:00.001-08:00

Christmas, and all the hysterical shopping that goes with it is upon us again. Why not take a second to consider what this festival to the glory of capitalism means for the world around us? This statement by Chief Seattle from 1854 whilst extremely profound was also, unfortunately rather prophetic.

Mindless consumption really doesn't show how much we love one another, but how much disdain we have for the world, and its precious resources, which are part of us all.

How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the
land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the
freshness of the air and sparkle of the water, how can
you buy them?Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.The white man’s dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man.

We are part of the earth and it is part of us.

The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the
horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers.

The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body
heat of the pony, and man–all belong to the same family.

So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that
he wishes to buy land, he asks much of us. The Great
Chief sends word he will reserve us a place so that we
can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father and we will be his children. So we will consider your offer to buy our land.

But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us.

This shining water that moves in the streams and
rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors.

If we sell you land, you must remember that it is
sacred, and you must teach your children that it is
sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear
water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the
life of my people.

The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father.

The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst.
The rivers carry our canoes, and feed our children. If
we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach
your children, that the rivers are our brothers, and
yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the
kindness you would give any brother.
We know that the white man does not understand our
ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the
next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and
takes from the land whatever he needs.

The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when
he has conquered it, he moves on.

He leaves his father’s graves behind, and he does not
care.

He kidnaps the earth from his children, and he does
not care.

His father’s grave, and his children’s birthright, are
forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his
brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered,
sold like sheep or bright beads.

His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind
only a desert.

I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways.

The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red
man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage
and does not understand.

There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No
place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring, or
the rustle of an insect’s wings.

But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not
understand.

The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is
there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of
the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around
a pond at night? I am a red man and do not understand.

The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting
over the face of a pond, and the smell of the wind
itself, cleaned by a midday rain, or scented with the
pinion pine.

The air is precious to the red man, for all things
share the same breath–the beast, the tree, the man,
they all share the same breath.
The white man does not seem to notice the air he
breathes.

Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the
stench.

But if we sell you our land, you must remember that
the air is precious to us, that the air shares its
spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that
gave our grandfather his first breath also receives
his last sigh.

And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart
and sacred, as a place where even the white man can go
to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow’s
flowers.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we
decide to accept, I will make one condition: The white
man must treat the beasts of this land as his
brothers.
I am a savage and I do not understand any other way.

I’ve seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie,
left by the white man who shot them from a passing
train.

I am a savage and I do not understand how the smoking
iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that
we kill only to stay alive.

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were
gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit.

For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to
man. All things are connected.

You must teach your children that the ground beneath
their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that
they will respect the land, tell your children that
the earth is rich with the lives of our kin.
Teach your children what we have taught our children,
that the earth is our mother.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the
earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon
themselves.

This we know: The earth does not belong to man; man
belongs to the earth. This we know.

All things are connected like the blood which unites
one family. All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the
earth.

Man did not weave the web of life: he is merely a
strand in it.

Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him
as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common
destiny.

We may be brothers after all.

We shall see.

One thing we know, which the white man may one day
discover, our God is the same God. You may think now
that you own Him as you wish to own our land; but you
cannot. He is the God of man, and His compassion is
equal for the red man and the white.

This earth is precious to Him, and to harm the earth
is to heap contempt on its Creator.

The whites too shall pass; perhaps sooner than all
other tribes. Contaminate your bed, and you will one
night suffocate in your own waste.

But in your perishing you will shine brightly, fired
by the strength of God who brought you to this land
and for some special purpose gave you dominion over
this land and over the red man.

That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not
understand when the buffalo are all slaughtered, the
wild horses are tamed, the secret corners of the
forest heavy with scent of many men, and the view of
the ripe hills blotted by talking wires.

Where is the thicket? Gone.
Where is the eagle? Gone.
The end of living and the beginning of survival.

Unholy Grave / Black Sister split 7"

2011-12-13T07:16:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite releases from the Problem? Records days, thanks to whoever took the time to upload this.

"over the top into the machine-gun fire, your going to die"

2011-12-04T11:44:00.000-08:00

"Englander!

Dè ghnothaich a bh’ aigesan ri Englander?

Carson a bha e a’ cogadh?

Cha robh càil ann a-nis ach cluiche chairtean gun sgur, gun sgur, anns na rumannan beag ìosal ud mar bhogsaichean, gun fhios cuin a bhuaileadh am peilear.”

bho Bùrn le Iain Mac a' Ghobhain

"Englander!

What business did he have with the English?

Why was he at war?

There wasn't anything to do now but play cards endlssly, endlesly, in those little low rooms, like boxes, without knowing when the bullet would strike."

from Bùrn with Ian Crichton Smith

These words from Smith's classic anti-war story Bùrn leapt out at me as I lay reading them in the bath tonight. What business do we have with this government, with the banking system, with capitalism? Why are we all so scared about their possible collapse? why are we fighting so hard to keep them afloat, when in the end we are just sitting alone and afraid in our little box waiting for the cold midnight knock.

The world belongs to us all, lets take it back!

moustacheOwar

2011-11-30T03:23:00.000-08:00

gone but never forgotten, the true moustache of steel.If your not into facial hair, you are not my friend.

Ploppy's Pantry presents....

2011-11-29T12:18:00.000-08:00

Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake

the only thing I had sitting in the fridge earlier today was half a carton of soy custard, so i decided I better make a chocolate sponge to go with it. A quick internet search got me a vegan spong recipe and I adapted it to fit with what I had lying around, enjoy!

cake:

175g self raising flour

3 level tsp of bicarbonate of soda

125g of marg (melted)

25g cooking chocolate

100g muscavado sugar

325ml soy milk

prep:

mix everything together and tip into two 7" cake tins evenly, oven at 190 degrees centigrade for 30 mins

icing:

150g icing sugar

150g marg

50g coco powder

a splash of strong espresso

prep:

whip up the marg with a fork, sift the other stuff on top, blast it with a hand blender till its nice and fluffy

stick the two bits of cake together with icing and put more icing on the outside.

Warning: after 1 slice you will be a bit like this...

Would you gamble with your life?

2011-11-21T22:38:00.000-08:00

War All The Time in my mind are still a 'new' band, but they've actually been going at least 5 years. Musically they aint trying to re-invent the wheel, just a rock solid mix of Totalitar, Discharge and Doom, but lyrically they punch way above their belt. No worn out clichés about war and, er, war for these guys but some cryptic poetry that actually makes you stop, think and consider, something our average 'd-beat' band lost the ability to do a long, long time ago. I sent singer Rob a question about the first song from their 12" LP on Yellow Dog records, La Resaca, as it's become a bit of an anthem for me over the last year - enjoy. Also check out the download for the bands full discography at the end.

Hi Rob,I guess I just wanna know what the first song from the War All The Time LP, La Resaca, is all about? I myself have found the lyrics to be pretty powerful and a bit of internet research pulled up a novel with the same name which seems to have some similar themes to my interpretation running through it (if it is touching on the novel is there an English translation?) or am I way off the mark and it's just a song about table football.

Rob: Firstly I've never heard of the book, so that's a coincidence. that song, like some of the others has a double meaning. Resaca in Spanish means undertow (as is when the tide meets land etc), but in colloquial Iberian Spanish it means hangover (from booze/drugs). This was the start of my writing these words. So the song itself is about people who have lived a life on the fringe - whether it be activists, artists, life long doleys or whoever – and then change as they get older. It basically asks if it is possible to resist burnout and stay true to ones beliefs and dreams. The other side of my thoughts as I was thinking about this was the effect that substance abuse has on this process of burnout - and on my own life in this respect. As with many WATT songs there is layered meaning (hence our thoughts in naming the band - WATT in the big bad world as well as WATT personally.)

La Resaca.

would you gamble with your life

to leave this pit of iniquity

the flame is doused,

drugged and doped

as the rip drags us under

would you take me

under with you

War All The Time 2006-2008

We are just same boy like you!

2011-10-27T01:40:00.001-07:00

Arthur posing with a couple of Scottish fans

I first heard FireyJak from a compilation tape sent to me by my good mate Mr Dolly Patchaos back in 2005 of different Jakarta Bands. The comp was ok but the real stand-out group for me was FireyJak, great sing-along melodic punk rock in the true '82 style that quickly had me, and everyone else who was forced to listen to it, singing along too. It was a dream come true when we got to play together with these guys earlier this year in Jakarta and you can see a clip of their riotous performance at the end of this post.

I mailed FireyJak's lead singer Arthur and asked him a few questions about the history of the band, their connection to their beloved football team FC Persija and the history of the punk scene in Jakarta in general, here's what he had to say.

The band started in late 97 early 98, basically we'd known each other growing up in the same neighbourhood, we'd always meet in the afternoon to play football together. We played punk rock when we 14 years old and started the band called Subculture, it was me, O'net, and Delont together with other mates covering Sham 69, Blitz, a little bit Sex Pistols. We also appeared at a local gig once, but things didn’t go quite right that day!

When Ossy the guitar player died, me O'net and Delont were still in love with the punk rock things so we decide to go on, then we met Edot, he's been my mate since kindergarten, and Edi(Pitik), he's also our mate. we took the name from the Toy Dolls song Fiery Jack, but in mid 2003 changed to FIREYJAK. so yeah that was our first line-up.

me(Arthur) on front,
Delont on melody,
O’net on guitar
Edi on bass
Hedot on drums.

In 2004/5 O'net was replaced by James, he's still our members in the Meruyaoi!punk scene/ Meruya barmy army. He's a good melody player and guitarist, he also had a band called Red Suspender but they are not active now. We also now have Peter(P-brown) on keyboards and this formation still stands right now.

Unfortunatley now we cant play with the complete line-up of the band cause Delont works in Kalimantan, a different island from us, and Edi's got stuck with a job to feed his wife and son so we use additional members.

The thing with oi! music is we don’t need to change ourselves for it, we grew up together, having football as our local culture and also punk rock music. Fighting for our existence and having a laugh, dya know what i mean? The fact is we're the first band that stand for the club itself, not much of the Persija fans knew the oi music in the early days, but now they do through the rumours and the time they have followed us because we're the original one. We just carry our attitude and now it spreads all over the scene. Some of the fans started wearing boots to follow us and now they start dressing casual too. The passion for our club is what brings us together but we don’t mind to hangout with ordinary kids, hc kids. football hooligans/ultras, in Fireyjak gigs we're one for Persija.

To be honest Jakarta was the first city where the scene started. When we started going to punk rock gigs in Jakarta, we'd love to see Hustler playing. They were a skinhead band cause the members were skins, but they played Menace, Sham 69 etc. I guess Hustler was the one group that inspired us to play like them, There was Sixtols,The End ect on the skinhead side, and there was Ina Subs,Error Crew and Out Of Control on punk side, but still a little gap for skins and punks, i mean when the band that members of skinhead play not much punk to it, it goes both ways. That was face of oi! scene before 1998. Today it's a mix of hc-punkrock-skins - everything. In 1998 there was a compilation of Jakarta punk bands that appeared with Overcast(Hustler’s break up) Error Crew and Out of Control. I think the golden era was when Hustler were playing, much into the classic sound, now there is too much of the America sound, but today is quite interesting as there's an oi! band from Jogjakarta who can rock like AC/DC. I'm sure that band was the reason we become like we are today. And then there's a wave of Boston ruck 'n' roll pioneered by the band called Tenholes(also ex-Hustler). But some of the people said that the Fireyjak era was the golden years cause it mixed alot of skins, punks, hooligans, and herberts.

To me Fireyjak is my second home, my family. It feels a lot of different right now when we play with the additional players but the fans and the city is the reason that we carry on. In the early years we're not gonna play when one of us cant join in. We've been through all the phases together, from the start smoking in the backstreet, watching the blue film together, drinking in a holy month, but now we cannot all play cause the wives don’t give us all the time. To me Firejak was the original spirit, the birth of the real oi!music. It’s a family celebration, and of course a party of Jakarta kids. From Doc Marten to trimm trab trainers, from bootboy music to top boys culture – that’s us.

grind, mince, simper, Moray or Malaysia, all just 3 chords and an angry loon

2011-10-26T04:49:00.000-07:00

Not sure if its a reflection on the style, or music in general that you can take any two very distinct corners of this ball of hot rock we call earth and find and find any number of bands playing music which to the average listener might very well have been written and performed by the same group of Muscians. Art imitating art imitating art imitating life?

Be this as it may I still love listening to raw grindcore, maybe its the comfort in familiarity, maybe its the addict like need for a fix of more and more aggressive and violent music taken to its logical extreme, maybe its the enjoyment in seeing DIY artistic expression in action, or maybe its the simple thrill of the existence of something so ridiculous - I guess it's a mixture of all these factors put together.

The first link here is for a project of Atomgevitter bass man Munky Munkhouse's one man show Corrupt Humanity. I love the raw energy here and spur of the moment feeling, without the sense that its all gonna collapse into a total mess. I also love the fact that everything was written and produced and recorded by Munky himself, taking the idea of the simplicity of the genre and DIY ideals to their logical conclusions.

Q. Could someone like Munky produce a series of records which people would genuinely believe were written and performed by a full band. A. Syphilitic Vaginas.

Corrupt Humanity - Grind Against Humanity

Second group is Hatred Division. The Unholy Grave rip-off/tribute artwork should give you an idea of where these lads are coming from (always lads in the raw grind world eh!) I love the rehearsal tape as a demo mentality of these guys in an age of (relatively) cheap studio recordings, praising the tape machine recording as an aesthetic in itself. I also really like the fact that the singer Sham is also the singer of enigmatic and habitually overworked SMG, themselves also well known for use of the lo-fi productions. How much expression through the medium of grind does one man need, obviously more than you might first think!

I'd also like to say what an honour it was to share a stage with SMG at our first concert in Kuala Lumper - that steamroller of a live experience is one I will never forget, thanks guys!

more noise punk for the masses

2011-10-26T00:11:00.000-07:00

Right, the hour is fast approaching where I need to leave my nest, jump on my iron horse and "get my ass to mars" (read: college) but before I rock it here's one last ramble.

Mark from The Wankys has been accused by many of bringing the word FUN back into the DIY scene in the UK, and I definatley wouldn't disagree with that, he's also shown what it really means to be involved in the DIY scene by self releasing a lot of his own material, a lesson a lot of self professed DIY bands, eg. all the crap internet bands who spend all day e-mailing poor bastards like me saying please release our badly recorded crap, there is not enough landfill in the world, could do with learning. A word to you guys - It costs about £400 to release 200 7"s, if the 4 members of your shitty band don't have faith enough to invest £100 in it then why should anyone else? Anyway my love of the Wankys is well known and it was my absolute honour to join them on their USA tour last year and to release their "Please For Fuck Me" flexi disc (still available from a lot of Distros - google it!) but to have been able to write and play together with Mark and the equally infamous Beryl in our own noise punk combo Formby Channel for me will always be my most FUN memory of this man .

If you've yet to hear our racket here's one song from our debut 7", also released by Mark (not because he had to I might add, we turned down 2 lucrative record deals to release this DIY) and if you want to complete your Formby Channel discography you better track down a copy of the fantastic Down Town Noisepunker volume 3, I think I've seen it uploaded on blogs somwhere..

if you like what you hear contact Mark directly through the Noise Punk Records website http://noisepunkrecords.blogspot.com/

speak Finnish or die!

2011-10-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

This link turned up in an e-mail during the week, nice surprise! I met Harri from Perikato this summer in Brighton, and we enjoyed a tasty if over priced vegan lunch together courtesy of the Cosmic Commander's Loving Hut (Londons pay according to how much you respect my crazy world philosophy system is much better, and cheaper.) Anyway I knew Harri and his partner played in some kind of sludge band but I was very surprised and happy to get sent this link 4 months after the fact with a little note apologising for not sending the physical cassette. No problem Harri, I'm selling all my records and tapes anyway, and I know money is tight at the moment, all that kilju wont pay for itself!

anyway not sure what the lyrics are about here, but I think one song definitely has fuck fuck fuck as a chorus (that's about as far as my Finnish stretches)

Enjoy!

back with a bang!

2011-10-25T23:12:00.000-07:00

"I'm coming back, I'm coming back, I'm coming back to you......"

Been a while since I updated the old bloggeroonie, life's been a bit mental since getting back from my jollies in South East Asia, six of the craziest, exciting, full-on, most fun filled weeks of my life. To be honest, it's 3 months later and the dust is still settling from that trip, but hopefully I'll be able to form my experiences into some kind of coherent, meaningful prose in the near future.

Ploppy Pants issue 14 is in production, it's gonna be the final issue. It will have a lot of stuff on South East Asia (interviews, articles, reflections) plus a look back on 10 years in the DIY h/c scene, and hopefully it will be 'interactive' with this Blog (does anyone bother to follow web links out of zines?) Ideally I'd like to make up a couple of mixes of bands we played with on the tour and have streaming here on the Blog, if anyone knows how to make that happen shoot me a mail!

Ok, enough of my rambling, here's some good stuff to keep ya interested.

Fist up is Vaarallinen, pretend Fin's from sunny Singapore, the land of soya ice creams and cigarette free streets (ha!) We didn't play with these guys but main-man Hafiz Bastard did come and hangout with me, Munky and the Injakmati boi!s while we were budget rocking it on the airport floor (for such a hot country their airport was a bit on the nippy side!) Respect to that man and his worldy-wise noise punk!

Next is Daighila, another band we also didn't play with (can't remember why?) but we did get to hangout with the singer Duan and guitarist Amir a lot, thanks for the hours behind the wheel guys, it's not a real tour unless your driver is A. Drunk and B. asking you to explain what dogging is! I also had the pleasure of catching their live show when I was lording it up in Malaysia with Scenery is Free's Matt Norr for a week before the tour, killer live show all the way, their drummer especially had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Good news for Plop fans is that these guys are 100% down for a Euro tour next summer, reversing the book expensive plane - go tour trend, so go support them. If you like intense, well written, moving hardcore sounscapes then you will not be disappointed!

Chef of Atomgevitter fame has also bigged these fellas up on one of his many here today gone tomorrow blogs, you'll find a few download links there so you can rock out S/E Asia style on yer ayepod

http://seadiy.blogspot.com/search/label/Daighila

Enjoy!

the Wankys : Please For Youtube Me

2011-05-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'm down to less than 30 copies, and not taking any more orders as I've gotta get ready for me summer hols, so try yer local distro instead :)

Interview with the Indonesian grind bulldozer Injakmati!

2011-05-15T03:00:00.000-07:00

Originally published in issue #11 of Ploppy Pants, this interview is with Dolly Guitarist and mastermind behind the Indonesian crust/grind outfit Injakmati. My band Atomgevitter will be touring with them in July through Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia so it seems like a good time to re-publish our chat from late 2009 - enjoy!

Dolly, my brother how are ya? How is the Indonesian summer? We’re freezing our asses off over here right now!! So lets start with introductions, who are Injakmati, when did you start, who plays what and what does the bands name mean in English?

Hey Roddy my blood brother! ciamar a tha thu?! How’s the Black Sister and Atomgevitter doing? I’m good. Summer has just begun here so get ready to feel the most extreme heat as hell! Injakmati started in the middle of 2000’s by me on (G)uitar and insults, Benny(V),Gamebell (B) and Ade(D). Today the line up is me/Dolly Patchaos(G+insults), Adit Riot(B) and Ranggaukkus(D).When the time most people read this we will have a new singer. The band’s name means step/tread you till death. It supposed to be with space : Injak_Mati, but that’s not looks cool hehe…

Injakmati is based out of Jakarta Indonesia so lease tell us a little about the scene over there, how did you guys come to be exposed to punk in the first place, how and when did the Indonesian scene develop?

Scene in here existed in early 90’s.At that time only a few local bands were playing around but lots of squats and kids who are into punk and hardcore. The scene is getting bigger everyday, especially when we more connected to other punks around the world by the internet (MySpace?).We can get more info about punk activities, stuffs, bands and doing communication and sharing each other more intense. All of them are easier than a few years back. And the good news is there are many good responses towards the Indonesian punks.

What does it mean to be a punk in Indonesia, do you get a lot of trouble from ‘normal’ people on the street? Does playing in the band help you guys deal with your daily lives over there??

I think every person have their own opinion why they decided to be a punk, but for me punk is like a place where I can get more freedom, happiness, love, peace and comradeship/brotherhood. All the shit things I see in this shitty world where always full of war, lies, repression and greed which made a bad situation and destruction to our earth has attracted me to be a punk. So maybe through the band I can spread and scream our anger and peace messages to the world and hope to make a better change. I know it’s quite a hard work but at least we can give a little contribution. Most people who are not really understand yet about what punk is maybe only think and see that punx are just a bunch of scumbags. This is really their big mistake when they only judge a book by the cover. So I think as long as we keep our attitude without harming anyone else we will never get any trouble because that’s not what we wanted.

You describe yourselves as oldgrind/fast punx bulldozers and I would definitely agree that you manage to create a pretty raw assault that sounds like a bulldozer crushing your house but what does this slogan mean to you, who were the bands that you had in mind when you started the band, were you aiming for a certain sound or did it all happen organically?

Well I put this slogan after I heard the result of our first recording in 2009.Old grind/punk fathers and some freaky bands I have in mind like Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Heresy, Assuck, Phobia, Cripple Bastards, Gride, Unholy Grave, Agathocles, Fighting Cougars, Disrupt, Mindflair etc.. Has extremely poisoned me to get a ride an old bulldozer with full speed then crushing/destroying all the shit things in front of our face and keep the DIY punk flag flying high! The music created just that flow at the time we played with our minimalist skills and instruments.

The lyrics of Injakmati cover typical punk topics like war and the DIY scene but the lyrics to the song Disgrace where you seem to be attacking students really stood out for me, could you please explain what this song is about? Are there any issues in particular that you feel strongly should be represented in your lyrics?

Disgrace is a portrait of some stupid Indonesian students behaviour who shown a barbaric entertainment on the street or at their school/college. You can see it almost everyday! They fight each other just because some irrational reasons. This is ridiculous for me! I don’t discredit them but I just don’t understand why the intellect people like them acts like they have no brain. And ironically when some of them become a successman after they graduated or become a part in power authority they use their power to fool other people. They only think for their own greed and never give a fuck to the poor who supposed to be supported by them. This is so sad! Education in here is so expensive and so fucked up! My only message of this song is please stop this madness!

Your first release was a split 7” with Black Sister and I know you have a few other releases lined up, is this an important part of the band for you guys, to be able to release a lot of different records in different countries? Have you had any feedback on your releases so far?

This is exactly what we wanted as a DIY underground band! By sharing records it can be helps us to get connected to other DIY bands/punks around the world. Create communications, doing a trade which definitely can make a beautiful friendship! That’s what I’m feeling. Yeah, so many responses like trade or split offer coming to us since our 1^st release with our black brothers metalhead!

Injakmati has only just played your first live show and as I understand it ended in a drunken riot, why did it take you so long to play a live show and what was the trouble on the night? Is this kind of chaos typical at shows in Indonesia?

I think this can be happened in every gigs anytime, anywhere. But actually riot at the shows has almost never happened again in here, we just the lucky bastards who got a throwing boots from that fuckin drunken master while we play that night, haha.. Line up changing and other activities outside the band such as looking some money to take care our arses and family have make us run slowly so we have to look the right time to play a live show.

And speaking of live shows a lot of DIY bands from Europe and the USA seem to be touring Southern Asia these days, what has been the reaction to this within the Indonesian scene, are folk happy to see these foreign acts coming over?

Yeah, touring bands from abroad has always get a good welcome from the kids in here and we’ve been really enjoyed their shows!

Ok this one is for you Dolly, we first made contact through your patch making business and I think this possibility for 2 people from the opposite sides of the world to build a relationship is one of the best aspects of the DIY underground, what do think, have you had a lot of positive experiences through your patch business?

I got a lot of positive experiences and even something that I think it’s not only a business but also a true friendship. This is also the way for me to know/meet other people from the other part of the world and make a brotherhood. This is amazing and beautiful for me! I remember the first time you contacted me when you were in Fighting Cougars and played a show with Avskum then you got a patch from them with my DIY hand writing on the back. It’s been a long time a go! From patches to our split 7” to this interview! Wow! We make a fantastic relationship until now! And finally to be meeting you face to face soon in 2011!!

There seems to be a hell of a lot of bands in Indonesia right now (I certainly get enough messages coming to the Problem? Records MySpace looking for a record deal!) but the quality of a lot of these bands is not exactly the best... which bands should we be looking out for from Indonesia right now, which bands are setting your stereos on fire??

Yeah, lots of damn newer bands almost born everyday here! Some of them are really dead serious to play! But this sounds stupid because I don’t know which bands I should tell since we have a different taste and since my tape and cd player is broken since a long time a go so I can’t play lots of records these days and I don’t have the time to hear those bands properly. Sorry!!!

As you guys know, in Ploppy Pants zine we want to hear your stories of pant shitting disasters so please, I hope the Injakmati boys will not disappoint!!

Hahaha! This one I like! I’m happy to get my turn to tell my own. Well, I got a diarrhoea disease a few years ago. At the last days when I feel getting better I ran to the toilet but I didn’t make it to put my underwear down so the shit blew out faster than when I saw it I was really happy! You know why? I got my shit gets normal again ;)

Ok guys that’s it, thanks for answering my questions and please take this space to add whatever you like!!

I thank you so much for doing this interview for the bastards like us. I hope you understand my English. I also wanna thanks for all your kindness and help and support to me and Injakmati since the beginning. You are my DIY hero Roddy! I’ve been really learn so much from you about true friendship, DIY, English and anything that I can’t say here. Thanks for the people who read this! Please get in touch for Injakmati merch, trade, split offer, friendship, insults or to get some patches done or T-Shirt printing from me, just write for my DIY price list!

Friendship gu brath!

Visit us at: www.myspace.com/injakmati

e-mail: injakmati@rocketmail.com

or contact me at: www.myspace.com/dzpatchaos

e-mail: dpsprinting@ymail.com

Cheers & Peace from Indonesia!

Dolly Patchaos//Injakmati.

The worlds greatest vegan chef?

2011-05-12T01:33:00.000-07:00

in the sign of seitan!

more about veganism here

we're all going on a summer holiday.....

2011-05-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

www.atomgevitter.blogspot.com

Eat Yer Greens - Total Noisography CDR out now.

2011-05-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

13 tracks comprising 2 demos and a live track from Dundee's first all vegan anarcho-punk band, all recorded way back in 2003. The CDR is packed in a fold out A3 sleeve with lyrics, pics and 2 different reports on The Eat yer Greens / Voice of Aggression Irish 'tour' taken from fanzines printed at the time.

The release has been prepared as a benefit for the Vegan Prisoners Support Group, with all money from the release going to benefit their work, find out more about the group here.

£2.50 post paid in the UK, about 80 copies made. contact dirty_little_punk@hotmail.com to order a copy

Please For Fuck me Flexi

2011-05-07T02:13:00.000-07:00

to quote the great bard, Mr Sheriff Wanky himself:

We are really pleased with the audio reproduction from these discs (we made a special recording and took care mastering the songs) however, as these flexis are new technology (yes I know they are as old as the hills, but Pirates Press have sort of re-invented them) they are not without problems (no pun intended) and the chances are if you have a cheap USB turntable your copy might skip or jump. To compensate for this we are offering this release as a download, click on this link to get the songs for free http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8ZOHXRZE enjoy.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8ZOHXRZE
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8ZOHXRZE
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8ZOHXRZE
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8ZOHXRZE

2011-05-06T04:51:00.000-07:00

Friday = cake day, this was meant to get published in a Polish zine, but I don't think it ever came out, so here's my tried and tested super easy brownie recipe for your cake scoffing pleasure.

Hey kids, Ploppy Pants here with more hints and tips to help you enjoy your non-stop fun filled DIY lifestyle! Ok, as everyone knows, there is nothing more DIY or punk fucking rock than shitting your pants, but in order to make sure you can fill your dung hampers up good and proper you need a full stomach. It’s also common knowledge that chocolate brownies are the most punk-tastic lip-smacking body-fattening jobby ammunition know to man, and so this issue I offer you, dear reader, my quick and easy chocolate brownie recipe!

Stuff wot ya need:

250g flour

200g brown sugar

65g cocoa powder

1tsp baking powder

1tsp cinnamon

tsp salt

225ml water

225ml soy milk

150g vegan margarine

10ml vanilla extract

A baking tray (mine is about 9” x 13” - ooh er missus etc!)

An oven

A brain

How ya does it:

Wash you hands you crusty fucker.
Stick the oven on at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Mix all the dry stuff together in a bowl.
Melt the margarine and add together with the soy milk, water and vanilla extract, give it a good old mix up till there’s no lump bits and pour into yer baking tray.
Shove it in the oven for 25/30 minutes till the top is no longer shiny, it’ll take ya 5 minutes to do the dishes leaving another 20 for you to post on facebook about what a bad-ass baker you are.
let the brownie cool 10 mins before cutting into squares
Eat brownies until you feel sick and launch a barrage of explosive skitters into your wips.

So there ya have it kids, you maybe don’t even need a brain for this one. Guaranteed to increase your popularity with the opposite sex and keep you running back and forward to the shitter for the next 2 weeks, these sugary snack are about as DIY as it gets. 100% vegan too, and as everyone knows vegans make better lovers (if you need a demonstration get in touch) – enjoy!

Its a Punk Rock Life, that is to say better 6 months late than never.

2011-05-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

Finally, it's here, better late than never etc etc etc,

Issue 12 of Ploppy Pants fanzine complete with the Wankys flexi disc

Issue 12" of Ploppy Pants fanzine (last 6 issues all made MRR top ten) features a full report on The Wankys 2010 USA tour, interviews with Chaos Destroy and Lotus Fucker and features on Dawn of Humans, Who Killed Spikey Jacket and Metalucifer, all together its 28 pro printed A4 pages of Noise Punk goodness.

The Wankys flexi disc has been specially recorded to accompany this issue of the zine, and features 2 tracks: Please For Fuck Me and It's A Punk Rock Life. More classic Noise Punk from these scene veterans, paying homage to their roots through the flexi disc format

500 pressed, less than 90 left and selling fast - £4 UK/£5 Europe postpaid - USA contact - whydotheylive@yahoo.com

Atomgevitter - Thrash Ritual CD

7 years in the making, our 'debut' album Thrash Ritual is out out now. 40 tracks from various different recording sessions over the years, over half unreleased, all remastered, re plastered and rethrashtered for your bed room circle pitting pleasure. If your more of the chillin out in a chair with cup of herb tea whilst listening to 3 Scots and a Kraut thrash themselves senseless persuasion you can enjoy the 24page full colour booklet full of lyrics, explanations, humorous tales, badly lit pictures of us falling over on stage in far away lands etc whilst blastin this little beauty

300 pressed, less than 80 left - £5 UK / £6 Europe postpaid

Ploppy Pants t-shirts

I have one small and one medium left, be the coolest cat at the gig this summer! £7.50 post paid in the UK

Eat Yer Greens - Noiseography CDR

compilation of the demos of my first band 'Eat yer Greens', rudimentary 'political' and noisy hardcore punk with male and female vocals - dont expect a polished studio sound! Comes in an A3 fold out cover with lyrics, photos, tour reports etc - released as a benefit for Vegan Prisoners Support Group www.vpsg.org.

80 or so copies pressed - £2.50 UK / £3 Europe - All money from this release goes to the benefit

to order stuff e-mail dirty_little_punk@hotmail.com

stand up and sprout!

2011-04-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

sprouts are a great way to get lots of good vitamins into your diet, but I'm no nutritionist so read up on the health benefits here.

some happy sprouted brown lentils, ready to munch!

making a sprouts at home is a doddle, you don't need any fancy kit. A shop bought sprouter like the 3 tray sprouter like in the picture below is pretty handy if ya want lots of sprouts but when i first started sprouting seeds I used a metal sieve and an old peanut butter bucket, its really not rocket science, or even pushbike science, its dead simple.

mung beans, alfalfa seeds and brown lentils

sprouting seeds basically involves choosing your seed, soaking them, draining them and then a repeat cycle of rinsing and draining at regular intervals. how long you do the initial soak (if at all) and how many times you rinse and drain depends on factors like the type of seed and how sprouted you want 'em (a wee spicy tail or a long juicy one?)

here's a more detailed description of how to get started sprouting

sprouted buckwheat, not actually a grain but from the same family as rhubarb,
a good slow release carbohydrate, get 'em in yer smoothies!

hygiene is the key issue you crusty soap dodgers. Make sure you keep all the equipment you use for your sprouts spick and span, and make sure you drain your sprouts properly so that no moulds can get set in - remember as well as being super nutritious sprouts are also super cheap so if in doubt, chuck 'em out!

some sprouted mung beans, ready to munch

having said that if your sprouts are well looked after they should keep happily for days in the fridge ready to jump into your salads, smoothies, wraps, soups, sarnies etc etc

some of my faves for sprouting are:

mung beans
adzuki beans
alfalfa seeds
brown lentils
chickpeas
buckwheat

cheap nutritious and tasty, its time to stand up and sprout!

Super Simple Raw Veggie Wraps

sauce/paste:

handful of spinach
handful of pumpkin seeds
handful of sprouted buckwheat
1 clove garlic (more or less depending on your taste)
juice of half a lemon

wrap:

two large cabbage leaves (I used spring greens)
handful of grated carrot
handful of grated red cabbage
handful of sprouted brown lentils
1 chopped beef tomato
a little olive oil or hemp seed oil for dressing

Method:

zap all the sauce ingredients together with a blender and spread over one side of the cabbage leaves, put all the other stuff on top, fold the cabbage over, eat!!

disclaimer: I have no idea if Dio liked sprouts, but I like to listen to Dio while I'm sprouting.

more information about a vegan diet can be found here

mon the fish!

2011-04-23T02:43:00.000-07:00

defending the faith?

2011-04-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

K.K. Downing press release - taken from K. K.'s site

Dear friends,

It is with much regret that I will not be with you this summer. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your concerns about my health. Please rest assured that I am O.K.

There has been an ongoing breakdown in working relationship between myself, elements of the band, and the band's management for some time.

Therefore I have decided to step down rather than to tour with negative sentiments as I feel that this would be a deception to you, our cherished fans.

However I would urge you to please support the Priest as I have no doubt that it will be a show not to be missed.

All my love and respect,

Who the fuck wants to see Judas Priest without K.K. ?? I mean he can actually still play, unlike Halford who lost his voice donkeys ago. Anyone else think its a bit off that he/Priest waited until they had all the concerts of their farewell tour booked in the biggest venues around the world and sold a nice chunk of tickets before making this announcement?

Its all ok though Priest fans, the official Priest site informs us that thy have some whizz kid guitaist stepping into K. K.'s shoes... so fuckin what! Jurgen Downing anyone?

I'm a massive Priest fan, but there's no way I'll shell out for this Over the Halford crap when I can go see Junior Priest anytime, or just play Unleashed In The East really loud in my bedroom. RIP Priest.

the soundtrack to my life.

old school

2011-04-03T08:24:00.001-07:00

the woman behind the counter was wearing a Slapshot hoodie

Filthpact!

2011-03-31T07:49:00.001-07:00

mitch and 'the new guy'

Are well and truely back! The gig at the 13th note on the 19th, their third since the ressurection, saw them on top form, blasting through all the classics and getting to grips with some new numbers, some of which are slated for a split 7" with ex-Filthmonger Ben's new group Debacle. The 7" is set to be released on a bunch of our favourite DIY labels this summer and I'm sure it will be reeking it out stereos all over, more info here when I go it!

like Status Quo, but smellier!

In the mean time check out the Moshpit Tragedy (yeah, it is a terrible name) website, where all of Filthpacts previous material is available for grabs in 2 tidy doses Plague carriers of the Crust Apocalypse' and 'Total Crust Violence' (the latter previously released on ma own Problem? Records comes highly recomended!)

total crust violence

To round this Filthy five minutes off nicley, here's an interview with guitaist T-bags from way back in 2004!

see ya on the road/at the gigs

www.filthpact.com

Interview with a Jeeves!!

2011-03-25T01:32:00.000-07:00

The first time I met Jeeves was back in 2003, he was either driving Karloff or Voice of Aggression down for a gig I'd organised in Dundee, he was without a doubt the crustiest man I'd ever met and one of the first things he ever asked me was if I'd like to organise a Scatha concert! ( I had no idea who Scatha were!) I've learnt a lot from Jeeves over the years and I think he is one of the true pillars of Scottish DIY scene, hope you enjoy the interview!

[originally published in Ploppy Pants #10 but long since sold out]

one of his better sides

Ok Jeeves lets go right back to the beginning, you’ve boasted to me about seeing Saxon and Motorhead within weeks of each other at Dundee’s Caird hall but also talked at length about your love of early punk bands like Johnny Mopehead, The Valves and Slaughter and the Dogs so what were ya, a punk or a metalhead? What was it that first drew you to the noisy side of music?

Aye start with an easy one. In my heart its punk, I was about 14/15 when punk first reached the east coast o Scotland. I was already pretty well into stuff like Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy and Led Zepplin, but not - an I know this will come as surprise to you - Deep Purple and Rainbow- could nae hack the keyboards, I guess I had already developed a leaning to the noisy side from the glam rock of the early seventies, and bands like Slade, Alice Cooper, The Sweet and T.Rex. they kind of pathed the way to the heavy rock bands above. So by 76 pretty much everything I was listening to was from the past, not the present, Listening to the music of older kids in a way kind of felt a little like having to wear hand me down clothes. Towards the end of 76 I was given a copy of the first Damned LP, its one of the few things I have managed to hold onto over the past third of a century, its battered to buggery and jumps like a jack rabbit, but it’s not an understatement to say that album changed my life and I would be quite happy to have it as a gravestone. Over the next 18 months there was a wave of fucking awesome new music flooding out. Me and my other 'Punk' friend would cycle from Carnoustie to Monifieth every weekend, dump our bikes at another 'punk' friends house walk to Barnhill to catch a city bus to Dundee for 16p return and then hot foot it to Brucies records in Reform Street. Brucies was one of a wee chain of independent Scottish record shops, think there was one in the Deen and two in Eburg. between them they would rotate 4 new punk releases over the course of a month, each week a different one from that months selection was in the Dundee store, 45s for 45p they were called I think, it was all small label stuff from Rough Trade, Rabid Records, Illegal, Chiswick, Stiff, Depford Fun City, Step Forward. So as well as the bands like the Pistols The Ramones and the Clash who of course were on major labels you got access to bands like The Panik, Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds, The Cortinas and of course the Valves, who were from Eburg. In fact Zoom records who put out the first Valves single 'For Adolf’s only' was set up by Brucies records shop. There were a good few record shops in Dundee then, some better than others of course , me and my mates would trawl round them all looking for anything vaguely punk but king of them was Grouchos record exchange out the Perth road. It smelt of hippies and they always played Steely Dan, but it became a Mecca for rare small label punk stuff. It was from there that I bought the 12'' Motorhead Motorhead single. Before the NWOBHM was invented how else could you categorise Motorhead? They kinda seemed punk in a way to me anyway, they admittedly didn't have the 'proper punk look' with their long hippy hair but then neither did the Ramones. They were loud and noisy and Gaye Advert and Johnny Moped both wore a Born to Lose badge so that was good enough for me. Yeah the Caird Hall, what a shit place for rock bands! There were other venues but mostly licensed, which was problem being so young, and looking it! But I did see quite a few brilliant shows there toward the end of the seventies. The Clash, The Buzzcocks, Richard Hell and the Void Oids, Joy Division, Adam and the Antz, As the NWOBHM appeared bands like Girlschool, Anglewitch, Iron Madien, Praying Mantis, Saxon and of course Motorhead began playing there as well. I wasn't fussed as long as it was loud and fast I would go. However the metal bands weren’t really known for their social awareness, an as the eighties wore on and the metal bands became more spandex and poodle haired I kind of lost interest in them for a bit.

another of his many talents

As far as I know you weren’t involved seriously in any bands in the 80’s and early 90’s but were quite active in the traveller/free party lifestyle. What was it that drew you to this way of life and do ya have any favourite stories from this time?

I first became attracted to the free party/traveller thing because of the live split album by Alternative TV and hippie free anarchists Here and Now, 'What you see is what you are' On the back of the cover was photograph of various members of the bands standing in front of a hippie bus in a field. It looked pretty cool to me, In fact following on from above I felt the DIY ethic of punk had stronger echoes in the whole free hippie thing than most of the metal bands of the time. In 1984 myself and my flat mates - the self styled Arbroath Road Aardvark Physic Youth - headed down to what was to the last big Stonehenge free peoples festival. It was nothing like anything that exists today in the UK A makeshift town of up to 60,000 with its own bakeries, coffee shops, and bars. Forget T in the park and all that Rock Ness shite this was the real deal as far as festivals go. No cops, no private security, no corporate sponsors. As well as the main stage there was a heap of smaller stages dotted all around the site. I remember one band called Eat Shit, who had managed to blag their way onto a hippie stage, they kind of sounded like a bunch of guys who had just decided to start a band on the spot, it certainly didn't sound like they were doing anything rehearsed, just noise and swearing, it was funny watching the hippies trying to get them off stage, that one night I must hae seen them getting turfed off 3 or 4 different stages. Of course the fun kind of came to an abrupt halt by the next year, when Thatcher said no to dirty people and the riot cops, still pumped up from cracking the skulls of the Miners- tore into the men, women and children of the Peace Convoy at the Battle of the Bean field. They had been hit on route to try and take the henge site at the start of June that summer, by the time the part timers like myself got down the remnants of the convoy were parked up in Snavernake forest trying to repair their trucks and buses. There was bit of a strange atmosphere like a refugee camp really, very subdued, not surprising really. Eventually the site moved over to Westbury and we spent a couple of weeks parked up on top of the White Horse hill. Things picked up there despite the hill being ringed by cops, eventually it became more like a festival and Hawk wind with Nic Turner played under a tarp stretched between a couple of buses, other good memories from around that time include Culture Shock play on a makeshift stage at 'anging Langford, and stealing trout from the nearby fish farm which was said to be owned by Roger Daltry. That summer I 'retired' from proper work and spent the next couple of years picking fruit and hops, cashing in scrap metal and other various black economy activities. I spent some time in Amsterdam and London as well as a series of chaotic travelling sites around Scotland including the infamous Dam in Leven Fife where there were around 18 other guys each with two dogs and a taste for the golden carlies! Had some nice old motors around then, a 1963 Ford Thames 400E , a couple of BMC FG's and a 'so ugly it was beautiful' 1959 Guy Vixen ex mobile library. But as you know I am more of a Transit man these days.

Edinburgh Punx Picnic 95/96

You were also involved in the festival in Lethem in the early 90’s (sorry Jeeves I’ve no idea how ya write the name of that hill!) which came to an abrupt halt with the criminal justice bill in 1994. Can you tell us a little about your experiences with this, how you came to be involved and how you felt after the festival was effectively banned?

That would be Dunnichien Hill, the Pictish free peoples festival. Held around the 20th of May each year to mark the of the battle of Nechtansmeer 695AD. That was when the Picts defeated the Angles and drove them back down the country to what is now the North of England. I was there the first year when it was held on the 1300th anniversary. That year known Skye bridge campaigner and road tax avoider Robbie the Pact, put on some bands in Letham village hall. It was free gig if you already had a Pictish free state badge, an if you didn't you could buy one for a quid . There was camping organised in the village green but that wasn't hard core enough for the Arbroath Road Crew, so we set up camp on the hill itself. No music that first year just a bonfire and a ghetto blaster which was fine enough really. The next year we done the same and a few more people we had met the year before joined us. I missed the third year as I was staying in London then but in 88 we set of in convoy under the cover of dark from the Dam in Leven and took the hill. Robbie the Pict had steeply increased his prices for the bands in the hall who were in the main pretty tired sounding pub rock type bands. Another crew came up from Fife and we got our first live bands playing up the hill that year, Patrol for sure and as far as I can mind Backlash as well. In 89 a wee crew of us got more organised with a better PA and stage, each year we got more and more sorted by the early 90's we were getting a hard core of around 150 to 200 regulars coming from all corners of Scotland. Robbie got more and more pissed off as the hill festival grew and eventually gave up the village hall gigs. One year we hired the hall ourselves for a benefit gig in support of the local villagers campaign to halt a proposed super quarry that would see half of the west hill disappear. After the hall gig which on police insistence had to finish by 10.30pm we managed to break down all the gear truck it up the hill and got the stage up there running again just after midnight! We were cooking in those days! There was real mix of bands used to play, folk rockers like Pure Blind Panic and the Nyah Fearties as well the likes of Sedition and Japs Eye. As well as Dunichien we were organising a number of other fairly regular festivals around Scotland from early May to Late October, -yeah man Beltane to Samhain. Initially these were concentrated around Angus, Rossie Muir outside Montrose being one of the largest in early July, Gallowshill around the summer solstice, Balumbie at the back of Dundee early May (Beltane) and the Froickhiem freekoot one Samhain. People who came from the West coast started to hold festivals as well giving birth to Midgie Death at Clunie Dam, The Glenuig sheep worrying trials, and a few down Lochgilphead way in Argyll- at one of which we by chance bumped into Julian Cope who agreed to come along and do a set on our stage in the woods by Kilmartin standing stones.

By the mid 90's there were at least 4 or 5 festivals to look forward to over the spring/summer months. They became a pretty major part of my life, almost everyone I knew around then I pretty much knew from the festivals, it was good social buzz. As word spread of the festivals more people of course began to come along. It wasn't too bad to begin with, the new faces were being introduced by someone who was already going, so there was a sense of mutuality if you know what I mean. As the numbers grew the owner of the hill, did try to stop us by building a earth embankment along the side of the road to block access to the site, but we dug it out. The new owner tried the same the next year but much bigger with a ditch on the other side which again got dug out and filled in to allow the motors on. I think in all we dug out three barricades in total. One year when the cops tried to get tough, we blocked all the access roads up and around the hill with vans trucks buses and caravans. The cops drafted in support from Dundee to try and gain control but people were walking up the hill with shovels and pick axes, I think it was around 1am when the word came down that the barrier was dug out and cops had to submit and let us all up the hill.

What helped in a way was the media had a total black out about the festivals, especially Dunichien. However in 95 or 6, the year John Smith the labour leader died, some freelance guy who was up covering the funeral in Eburg had got wind of the festival that weekend. he turned up on the hill on the Thursday when we were taking the site and next morning it was in the local papers about the 'Picts' up the hill. That year we doubled from a fairly stable attendance of around 350 to over 700. it was still good but the writing was on the wall, the site was too small to really deal with those numbers, there was only a very narrow, steep and twisty single track road leading up to the site and it got pretty jammed.

In 97 the shit really did hit the fan. With more and more people going and space at a premium it was becoming necessary to take the hill earlier and earlier. There were a few competing stages by then a couple of techno stages and a reggae one as well as our punkathon stage. it started off a good year, Oi Polloi, The New Town Grunts and Beergut 100 were a few band i can remember from then. We had set up a good 10 day before normal. The local papers started making a bit of a thing by and then it was picked up by the nationals and tabloids. Most of the stories centred around the fact we were not real Picts just dole scrounging layabouts that kind of thing. The daily star had the best take i think with the headline HIPPY HORROR on their first page. People started swarming in, including a series of techno crews from the south with ridiculously large PA's and the then popular rave drug special K, ketamine Over the course of the third weekend of the festival the volume must have gone up from around 3/4 k in total to around 30k plus there were a lot of seriously deranged people stumbling about. Over the weekends there were around a thousand people wandering about the hill site. The close mutual bond that had existed was gone, The cops attitude which had been pretty relaxed up to around the second weekend, totally changed. They stormed the site at the start of the third weekend and seized the PA of a dodgy bunch who had turned up from London and set up at the edge of the site. Things got a bit messy really, and there was a bit of stone throwing battle. The cops closed the site down, if you went off you were off, no return, Plus they checked you against a photo album they had taken of the stone throwers. A lot to the Travellers up from Englandshire moved on mass to a coastal town and all hell broke loose over the next few weeks with even more cops being drafted in from as far as the Thames Valley. I think for those of us who had been involved over the years we knew it was all over. Right enough the next year the cops wasted no effort in stopping the show and used the Public order act to the full. They spend a reported 250 K on the operation which included road blocks, night sights, listening devices, dogs and tow trucks. It’s sad that from the 1000 odd the year before only 30 or 40 people made any attempt to take the hill that year. We camped out in the village square after the cops closed the pubs. A thunder storm started and there was a power cut, I think the cops thought we would fuck off but we stayed, the locals were coming out and giving us cups of tea and letting the people with kids in to their houses to dry off. That was a total contrast to the aggressive attitude the cops were displaying for sure. The festival in fact brought a lot of business to the village shops and pubs and the vast majority of the locals welcomed us. Anyway under the cover of the torrential rain and dark myself and 7 others did manage to sneak through the field up to the hill that year. Again the next year only a handful of people made it up. A group of us tramped the 5 miles form a mates house in Forfar, it was a kind of symbolic thing really just to get up there at that time of year and have few beers and a bonfire. The whole festival circuit fell apart after that with the exception of midgie death, which is still going on I believe, at least it was the last time I was there a couple of years back, but it is 100% techno now. Perhaps it’s time to reintroduce the punkathon stage again!

Your first band Fudrot developed around this time out of this festival scene, how did the band come together and why did you go through so many name changes (bastard son of fud, fastard etc) what was the general reaction to the band at the time and what are your feelings about the band now looking back? Were you the only constant member?

Although the Public order act was in force the cops never really used it much to begin with but a good few bands around at the time were too scared of having their gear impounded to bring it, some seemed totally nervous about even playing at an open air illegal festival anyway. In the early days we did struggle to get bands who were prepared to play, apart from a few headcases from Fife of course! it wasn't too bad at Dunichien or even Rossie Muir (where one year we had 17 different bands on over the weekend) as they were pretty well established and kind of had set dates and locations. But at some of the other ones we would often end up just having various people jamming or just end up playing tapes. Fudrot w

as born at one festival where we had built a stage equipped it with a pa and some back line and yet hardly any bands turned up. It was there I met a bunch of people from Aberdeen including Mark Fud, We were talking about how good it would be to have a 'house' band for the festivals, like a bunch of people who were going to be at the festival anyway but played in a band, would work the stage and were happy to play anytime of the night or day. It turned out Mark played guitar in a band with his house mates, they had all the ge

ar including a drum kit but no drummer. I had not really played the drums for around 10 years at that point but suggested we have a jam together, that is kind of how Fudrot were born. We played every festival after that as well as a few gigs in Aberdeen, Fife Dundee and Eburgh . We were very basic and messy probably not much good really but it was fun. I think still think our coupling of Tube disasters with Doh a Dear from the Sound of Music was inspired. Fudrot kind of fell apart around the same time as the last Dunichien festival. Styme the guitarist and myself then teamed up with Puggy and Louise to form Bastard son of Fud . We did do a few old Fudrot songs to begin with hence the name. We certainly played far more gigs than with Fudrot I think the name change helped a little but not much! We brought a couple of demo tapes, 'Attack of the skeletal shirt lifters' and 'rural revolt' which began my long term relationship with Captain Tom's recording studios in Aberdeen. Fastard were born when Styme fucked off to NYC to drink beer and break his leg. At our last gig as BSOF we met Pete who had newly arrived in the Deen from Oz. We started jamming together with Puggy. In the first three months we got a set together, recorded a demo and played our first gig - with Code 13 in Leven Fife. Pete then left the Deen to go touring around Europe with his girlfriend and when they returned that winter we picked back up where we had left off. Fastard was fun and intense, in 12 months we done a lot really. Playing all around the UK and Ireland, as well as gigs in the Deen, Skye, Eburgh and Glasgow, and we got as far as Finland where we played the Puntalla festival. We even got a couple of 7 inch splits out. We split at the end of 2000 after out UK tour with Pax Americana as Pete had to go home for his tea.

Around this same time you started to get involved in driving bands such as Oi Polloi and Bloodshot in mainland Europe. What was it like touring the punk circuit at this time, especially the more eastern countries, what were the things that struck you most at the time and how would you compare the situation then with the situation today? Any good horror stories from these early tours?

I had always done a bit of driving for bands so when Bloodshot bought themselves a Merc 508 they asked if I could drive it for them. I knew Bloodshot as Duane the bassist was putting on gigs at Cellar 35 in the Deen, he sometimes let Fudrot play but i suspect we weren’t really PC enough for him! I also suspect he was a bit intimidated by the size of the bus he had just bought. I was used to big motors and found it a dream to drive, i loved that bus. We took her to Poland on that first tour. I believed Duane when he told me he had all the necessary tackle you need to keep a motor like that on the road. Unfortunatly he didn’t! We were heading north to Poland through Germany when we started to hear a nose from the back wheel, turned out the wheel nuts were coming slack. Duane had changed the tyres before we set off but didn't know you should retighten the nuts after a few miles. Anyway he jumps out and before I was able to stop him he was cranking up the nuts without jackin the bus up. Of course he had snapped off a wheel stub before I managed to stop him. I asked him for the jack and he pulls out this puny little bottle jack which was no way capable of lifting the fully packed bus. I had to drive really carefully till we got the first gig and managed to get all the right gear sorted out. Duane sold the bus as soon we got back to Oi Polloi and I kind of was included in the deal. I really enjoyed my days - and nights- in the old battle bus with Deek, Calum, Matt and Ade, aka the Luuurve Doctor. I think we done around 4 or 5 tours, all round northern europe. The merc was a lovely old bus, she kind of let you fix her when she was broke, by that I mean when something went wrong it was always something simple to fix and it was always the first thing you looked at as well! Having said that some of the drives were horrendous. I was the only driver and the Oi Polloi schedule wasn’t that forgiving. Hearing things like 'it's a 750 km drive to the next gig and it’s an afternoon show so we should head off after the gig tonight’ were a bit too common from Deeks mouth- apart from the usual filth!

The most mental night I think we endured was the gig in Estonia where Oi Polloi were sharing the bill with the two Finnish bands we were touring with - Speedapple and Ollittila- mas well as three local bands. One of these bands turned out to be out and out Nazi’s. Yeah and so were most of the audience. The night descended into chaos by the time Oi Polloi took the stage. Fights were breaking out left right and centre. We decided to beat a retreat but first of all had back the bus out of a narrow courtyard. The Finnish van got a window stoved in but we faired a bit better and got out unscathed. it was bizarre though, one guy was at the driver’s window thanking us for coming and giving me a bottle of vodka where as on the passenger side one of the Nazi skins was trying to kick his way through the door! Bar staff were out with big sticks beating fuck out of the skins which was helpful. I remember one of the skins standing in the road of the bus holdin a bottle which I was sure he was going to chuck at the window- I mean if I was him I would have! I aimed the bus right at him and put my foot down, that made him shift alright!

There was also the time I reversed the bus over what I thought was a pavement in Germany and the slabs broke under the weight of the back wheels, Turned out that part of the path was in fact a cover for the sewage pipe which came flooding up out the hole as the back wheels slipped further and further into the pit. We did get it out but was pretty messy I can tell you!

Comparing countries like Poland then and now it’s obvious that the standard of living has become far more Westernised. I remember speaking to people there back then, there was still a sense of optimism that a new third way could be found, an alternative to the corrupt communism they had known as well as to the even more corrupt capitalism of the west. I suppose it was kind of inevitable really but we all have Tesco’s now. The thing that struck me most at the gigs in Poland with Bloodshot was the huge cross section of kid types at the gigs not just punx, but 'normal' looking kids as well. There seemed to be less factionalism, people were going simply cause there was a gig on. There was a very strong energy there then, lots of activity going on. Lots of good bands, Homomilita, Disgusting Lies, Post Regiment, to name a few. I guess as the EU has opened its doors this energy has been let out. Eburgh for example over the past few years has seen a large influx of people from that area which has re-energised the scene a lot.

After the free party scene slowed down you seem to have got involved in organising gigs in Aberdeen, especially around the Dr Drakes venues. What drew you into becoming a bigshot promoter, dreams of money and fame, repaying favours to folk that had given Fastard gigs, a desire to develop the Aberdeen scene or what?

Need to go back to Bastard son of Fud for the start of that. As mentioned before Duane from Bloodshot was putting on the gigs in the Cellar 35, some good stuff as well, DropDead, Cress, Active Minds. I think it started to get a bit too wild for the bar owners and eventually they said no more. When BSOF came along the only way we could really get any gigs in the Deen was to put them on ourselves so Puggy and I began Good News to the Sick and started putting bands on in the East Neuk which is well known to your good self Ploppy. This was before the interweb had creeped its way into our everyday lives Gigs were sorted out by the phone or the quaint practice of writing a letter and sending it by post, how old school is that! We put gigs on there for just over a year before finding out about a place called Drakes in the Castlegate, a tiny little bar which seemed rammed with only 30 people, it was free entry had a house PA and the bar gave us £80 for two bands or £90 for three. With a raffle of merch donated by the bands playing as well as distros we could pull in another 30/40 quid so everyone got looked after. As BSOF developed into Fastard people in the Deen still didn’t like us enough to offer us gigs so we just had to continue with Good news to the Sick. There was a good bunch of bands who played the 'old Drakes' Cress, Scatha, Debris, Bus Station Loonies, Harum Scarum, Petrograd, Dread 101, Molotov Cocktail. Disorder, Zemzesluc, Oi Polloi, Active Minds, In Decades Decline, Cold War. Ruthless, Radioactive toys, Runnin Riot, Sawn Off, Unkind, Pax Americana, The Dangerfields, Swellbellys, Assert, Beergut 100, to name a few. I think had been putting on gigs at the old Drakes for around four years when the owner, Fabizio retired, his daughter and a couple of others took out a lease on a place down by the harbour which became known as Dr. Drakes, so it was pretty much business as usual there as well. The money and glamour of being a big shot in the Deen scene was of course a big attraction but it never seemed to work out that way. Certainly putting on bands keeps you in touch with other like minded people and as we all know DIY is all about connecting with those kind of folk. But the bottom line was really I wanted to be able to go to gigs and hear stuff I like without having to travel to Eburg or wiegie-ville and I have always felt it would be worthwhile to be able to offer touring bands 4 or 5 well attended good paying gigs around Scotland. As you know I am more involved with gigs up in Elgin now, which can be a pretty good gig, an I am also keen to do more stuff in Inverness

The next band you were involved with were Filthpact who formed in 2004, and they became pretty ‘big’ within the scene pretty fast, what was the secret? As a member of your touring entourage I know there were a lot of on-tour antics but what were some of your favourites?

I don't know if we were that big really but we certainly got out there and got ourselves known. We crammed a lot of gigs into a short time really. Guess it was just the right point in the lives of those involved and we were all able to put the time in to the band that it needed plus we always had transport so were able to take up almost every gig that was offered to us. You get out what ya put in. Favourite memories include the naked homo erotic calendar photoshoot up on the Isle of Lewis, Capt. Skubba's antics in Berlin after the afternoon we spent in Halfords rock bar, being blasted by a fire extinguisher by French ned kids, Mitch gettin lovin drunk in Finland and of course the wine bottle up T-bags arse in Slovenia

Filthpact split up a few years ago now and your now battling away behind the kit in Gusto Mastivo who play a slightly more metal style than your past bands, was it time for something new? Whats on the cards with Gusto and where dya want to see the band going?

I think since Fastard there has always been that metal edge, there certainly was in Filthpact, but still with a punk core. I think it’s pretty much the same kind of mix with Gusto, except with a little more Rhinocore thrown in. Yeah it was time for something new after Filthpact, there was some personal stuff going on there towards the end, plus some of the newer stuff we were doing was sort of moving more towards the grindcore style that has I guess since developed into Ablach. I am a man of simple tastes and limited talent so the metalbreezeblock that is Gusto suits me just fine. We have recently just moved back up to being a 5 piece again with the addition of our third bassist. Iain. We 'broke' him the other week with his first public performance at the Island of Punk on Cramond island which what with all the gear carrying palaver and general drunkenness that involves is not a easy ride. However as I said that was the other week and he's still not packed us in, so looks like he could be a keeper! We had to do our first trip across to Europe earlier on this year without a bassist after Puggies (our first bassist) replacement left us a couple of days before we were due to leave! So it’s good to have a bassist again as it really fills out our sound, we just need to cure him of his travel sickness!

It’s been a pretty quite summer for us gig wise but for the future we have a few wee plans, hopefully back to Europe again next spring, and a few gigs towards the end of this year around Scotland and anywhere else we can sort out. We are also writing some new songs for recording including 'Cruzin wif da buzi boyz' our tribute to those all school monster legends of hipity hopity, Step On It.

Ok it’s pretty clear that you’ve attended a lot of gigs over the years so who are some of the worst bands you’ve had to endure, ya don’t need to name names but….

Fuck I can't even begin to remember... I am honestly not just being polite here, I am sure I must have seen some howlers, band who perhaps not quite ready to gig, or who are just having a bad night but I can't think of any! If I find a band are really not my cup of tea so to speak I tend to go and sit in the van an put the kettle on, I am not one for endurance really.

Also I know you have a boxer load of pant filling tales so if you’d like to enlighten my readers to one or two of yer brown eye disasters I’d be delighted to print them!

For sure I've got a shed load of those kinda tales, mainly follow throughts, you know early morning piss and wet fart that’s a bit too wet...but the best full blown shitting explosion has to be a good few years back in Auld Reekie. Had spent a pleasant few hours on the Guinness and had scoffed a few too many Asian sweets. I had gone for wee afternoon nap in the back of my truck which was parked up on Leith Walk not too far from my mates flat. I woke in dire need but of course I couldn't simply nip out an dig a hole as I might in a more rural location. And as I was entertaining a young lady friend...who was still sleeping... I decided against the old shitting in a bucket of water type evacuation more normally used in urban environs...or rainy days. So bare footed I nipped up the road to my mates place. He lived, of course, on the top floor of the tenement. The action of running up the four flights of stairs was putting a serious strain on my nipsy, every step constricted my poop tubes that little tighter, but I thankfully managed to reach the top floor without incident. After a few seconds of frantic hammering on the door I began to realise that my mate was out. So I hopped around on the landing for bit, to work out a plan, the only alternative I could come up with was to try the back green, so set off back down the four flights once more. The rapid decent was too great for my straining rectum and so by the time I managed to get to the back door the tortoise was well and truly emerging from hibernation. So there I was standing in the communal back green over looked by tenement windows on all sides with a pant load of poop. As I wasn't wearing any undercrackers my strides had taken the full blast, so I had no option other than take them off turn them inside out and give them a good shake. I cleaned up as best I could before putting the shitted up inside out trousers back on for the quick dash back up Leith Walk. I got back to the truck, took off the shitty strides and set about unblocking my trench, it was around then that my lady friend woke up. Obviously it was not a pretty site that greeted her and one I feel that was instrumental in the short lived nature of our relationship.

Ok Jeeves not to make you feel like a real old man but you have basically been into punk since almost day one, how have you seen things change over the years? Was there a ‘golden age’ for you or has each era had its good and bad points? Do ya wish it was ’77 all over again

Ah the golden age of punk, did it ever really exist? With so much new music coming out the summer of 77 was certainly a good time to be around, Perhaps more so if you were a teenager in London, but not as exciting on the east coast of Scotland though. Too young to get into pubs, getting kicked in by the barnhill soul boys every other weekend, still being at school, developing plukes, being shy and insecure around girls. No thanks I think I will leave the past where it is for now! Things were much more clear cut in those days though, punks were punks, metalers were metalers and so on, you knew where you stood I guess but it caused divisions, everything is much more mixed up these days and its better for it.

Finally, what does the future hold for Jeeves, are you a Lemmy type that’s gonna go on forever?

Auch, am sure I will die one day, hopefully not for a bit yet though.

Right man thanks for the interview, please write anything ya like below!

Think I have said more than enough, but cheers for givin me the space to ramble on

www.filthpact.com

The Swordsman!

2011-03-23T01:57:00.000-07:00

The Baron recognised as a 'interesting person' in the local paper, a nice read for all Amebix geeks, I persoanlly can't wait for the new lp after hearing the 'Redux' 12", like Rob says himself, way ahead of their time.

Earth Movies

2011-03-23T01:29:00.000-07:00

well, last weekend was a 4298 riot, and I'll post about it once I get the photos and video's sorted, but in the meantime why not checkout www.earthmovies.org. This website is run by two friends who helped organise the activist stalls at the 13th note last saturday and as you can see from the selection of videos available they are involved in the Glasgow and wolrdwide activism movements. I'd especially recomend their own productions, some very interesting pieces to inspire you to get involved.

enjoy!

Animal Abuse Court Case- Scotland from Earthmovies on Vimeo.

An t-Uabhas - Togaibh Ur Guth! + Ploppy Pants #13!

2011-02-23T00:41:00.000-08:00

Want some rocking Gaelic language punk rock without a wiff of bagpipe, tartan or whiskey? Want to know how to curse like a sailor in Gaelic? check it out here : www.soundcloud.com/an-t-uabhas/sets/togaibh-ur-guth/

also got some hard copies of this record to hand out, first 100 or so folk through the door at Equal Fest will get a free copy together with issue #13 of Ploppy Pants.

had to reject the first test pressings of the Wankys flexi-disc so it will be a few weeks yet till issue #12 hits your bathroom floor.

some awesome t-shirts and other news

2011-02-16T02:04:00.001-08:00

Check out the hunks from An t-Uabhas modelling these sweet ass limited edition shirts, only 20 of each design available, limited amounts of each size (s,m,l,xl), £7 postpaid in the UK shoot me a mail to make an order dirty_little_punk AT hotmail DOT com

support the worlds shittiest fanzine!

cumhachd glasraich - vegetable power!

this one no amount of money can buy.... it does mean the finished product
should be ready soon though noise fans!

Plop Your Pants Volume 3 - home taping is bringing back NWOBHM

2011-02-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

A selection of NWOBHM classics compiled by me and sent out to some pen-pals during summer 2010, now being offered out the rest of the big bad world in preperation of summer 2011.

bang your head!

I really like this album, and i wanna tell you why #1 Discharge - Massacre Divine 1991

2011-02-11T06:19:00.000-08:00

For many, Discharge ends with the 1985 'Ignorance' 12", the dividing line drawn by the1986 attempt at hair metal with 'Grave New World' lp creating a legacy of indiference or at best extreme caution toward all recordings under the name Discharge that followed after.The 'Grave New World' lp itself is a subject for another day, but right now I wanna talk about the 1990 lp 'Massacre Divine', which in my opinion has sat in the (admittedly fucking lengthy) shadow of 'Grave New World' for far too long.

Firstly, I quite freely admit it doesn't sound like anything Discharge recorded in the early 80's, but so what, every early 80's punk band and their sister was going through a metal phase by the end of the decade. For the critics who moan that they should have kept playing in the old style, how many 'dis' bands can you name that actually write solid memorable tunes, there's only so many ways to thump a d-beat, and if you think it would have been any different with Bones thrashin away on guitar just take a listen to what Broken Bones were doing during the same period.

If we look at this album for what it is and not what we would like it to be i think there are a lot of positive qualities to it. The song structures are quite simple giving an nice punky feel over which they've layered some chunky, memorable riffs, coupled with some nice lead flourishes without slipping into full on solo territory. The rhythm work is also excellent, pounding drums that pummel at all the right points and the much mocked 'funky' bass work works really well in my opinion adding another dimension to the over all sound of the album. Cal's 'Brian Johnson' vocals on this release are another favourite punch-bag amongst Discharge fans, what can i say, they're a damn site better than his high-pitched wailings on Grave New World! The main downside for me though is the lyrics themselves, no lyric sheet came with the lp and its often hard to work out what Cal's ranting about, but in general they seem to quite poetic and abstract. Song titles like Sexplosion and White Knuckle Ride are pretty bad though, especially when Cal's belting them out on the chorus. On the other hand, songs like City of Fear and Terror Police have a great shout-a-long chorus to shake yer fist in the air to.

Perhaps my favourite thing about this lp though is the instrumental E. 2.30 (sounds like its maybe a bass solo?), which reminds me of tracks like Stonehenge by Black Sabbath that leads into 2 remix tracks F.E.D. (F 2 Mix) and Terror Police (F 2 Mix). These remixes bring in a lot of elements, a little dub, a little bit of industrial and hark back to the 'extended versions' they released on the 'Ignorance' and 'The More I See' 12"s, but also brings to mind what Italian thrash band Bulldozer were doing with their 'Dance Got Sick' ep from 1992 - if only Discharge had taken their sound as far as that!

Of course no dissection of this album would be complete without a mention of the cover art, I doubt its any coincidence that they went for the robot version of the Discharge logo the same year Terminator 2 hit the cinemas, or maybe Arnie was a massive Discharge fan? personally i think the cover is ace and captures the move toward a more 'metallic' sound perfectly.

Disinator? Arncharge?

Unsurprisingly after the 'Grave New World' disaster (check here for more on that) it seems from the available live footage of the period that the band stuck to only the old songs at their gigs, which seems a real shame. I can totally imagine the band playing the instrumental E. 2.30 over the PA as an intro before blasting into City Of Fear and closing the night with Dying Time. If anyone seen them during this period or has recordings of the gigs get in touch!

OK kids, remember that punk rock is supposed about having an open mind and the world is not always as black and white (or patch ridden) as your 7" collection would have you believe, put your prejudice to one side and give 'Massacre Divine' a listen, I think you'll be screaming down the road on yer bike screaming along to Terror Police in no time!

As far as I know the album is out of print but I got my copy of ebay for £10 inc p+p and of course there's always google...

Saturday March 19th, a big day out in Glasgow!

2011-02-08T14:04:00.000-08:00

ok ok, so i couldnt get Seein' Red or Hard Skin this time, still gonna be not just a great night, Atomgevitter bringinga new bassist and some new tunes, Tree of Sores from Leeds bringing the doom, Filthpact bringing the stench and Clocked Out bringing the mic eating singer!

It's also gonna be a great DAY! We've got the 13th Note booked from 2-5pm, and are organising a load of distro, craft and info stalls so you can actually see the records and zines you want, support local crafts folk and have a chat without having to scream in the other persons ear, imagine! If the afternoon segemnt works out we'll try it again in the future so come down and support it!

If you want to sell stuff during the afternoon shoot me an e-mail dirty_little_punk AT hotmail DOT com

the bands:

Atomgevitter

Tree of Sores

Filthpact

Clocked Out

spread the word - see ya at the gig!

CIDER Appreciation over England, 2011

2011-02-07T12:24:00.000-08:00

Cider are a killer hardcore band from the USA, they literally had the crowd tearing the venue apart when i saw them play with the Wankys last summer! My partner in crime Mr Wanky has organised a wee tour round England for these Cleveland miscreants so if ya like it hard fast and obnoxious get yer arse along to one of the gigs!

However, if like me you live in the arse end of beyond, check out this video, and look out for their latest 7" ep which should be hitting Distro's anytime now.

"this is real hairy arsed country, you'll no find any tofu here"

2011-02-05T15:03:00.000-08:00

so i caught a bit of TV this weekend including a show with the worlds second most famous Scot (after Mel of course) Billy Connoly - what a fucking tosser! In his program he went to Canada to cut down a tree and said something along the lines of "this is real hairy arsed country, you'll no find any tofu here." I'm assuming the implication here is that vegan/vegetarians would not be 'manly' enough for this 'hairy arsed' work and veganism and vegetarian is a byword for physical weakness, which is of course utter horseshit, but horseshit that still seems to carry enough weight to get aired on prime-time television. For the record Billy, I, and many like me, have chopped up many a tree in our time and we didn't have to eat a bacon sandwich to get the job done either.

Choosing compasion for our fellow species is what makes us strong, not how hairy are arses are.

so Billy:

Wellie Boot song - ok

Super Gran theme - ingrained in my brain

The Boondock Saints - unintentionally funny

everything else - fuck off!

why vegan?

PROB017 - Frankdrebin - play that thrashcore music white boy 7" ep

2011-01-30T13:50:00.000-08:00

After what seems like an eternity of angry phone calls back and forward with pressing plants in foreign lands, fucked up test pressings, damaged sleeves, lazy artists, useless mastering people and the final insult, the actual pressing going missing, the Frank Drebin 7" is out! A word of advice, never try and get a record pressed in Romania.

limited to just 2 copies (the only test pressings i got which actually play) This Record features blazing thrashcore versions of songs by the likes of Metallica, Nirvana, Chuck Berry and, er, David Haslehoff, played like only Frank knows how.

not surprisingly this is sold out, so download it here instead.

Why Vegan?

2011-01-17T09:57:00.000-08:00

Taken from Ploppy Pants issue #11. - still available for £1.50 post paid e-mail dirty_little_punk (@) hotmail (.) com

“Welcome to the moral high ground” is how one friend responded when I asked them for dietary advice after deciding to go back to a vegan diet after 6 years of vegetarianism, and I have to say it made me feel a little uncomfortable. Now I’m sure my friend was having a wee bit of a laugh in her e-mail, but there was probably more than a grain of truth in the words, and this sort of ghetto attitude had definitely been one of the factors that had pushed me away from veganism all those years ago.
For me the decision to follow a vegan diet has to be something very personal and not looked at like a ticket to some kind of ‘righteous’ club. I think for me my main reason for making the commitment to a vegan diet was being in frequent contact with ‘vegetarians’ who were eating fish and arguing with me that it was ok to be a ‘vegetarian’ and eat fish. This kind of fucked up reasoning of course got me thinking about my own ethics, if its wrong to eat an animals flesh, why is it ok to drink its milk? The next logical step of this is of course to look at the dairy industry, and yeah it’s easily as barbaric as the meat industry, and if I don’t support the meat industry why would I want to support the dairy industry? This logic seems pretty black and white to me now, but I had other reasons (excuses?) why I was only following a vegetarian diet. I’d like to talk about some of them here and hopefully any of you pant ploppers out there who have been having similar trials of the conscience can find something that will help you reach your own conclusions.
Probably my main argument to myself against veganism was distance or isolation, that it would be too difficult to get all the things I need to follow a varied and healthy vegan diet, living as I do 15 miles from the nearest shop and an 80 mile round trip from the nearest wholefoods shop. Well as I have proven to myself over the last few months this was of course absolute bollocks. Now obviously I’m not in a situation where I can nip down the shops and pick up engevita flakes or tofu wieners for me dinner on a whim, but as long as I make sure I know what I need when I go to the shop and buy enough to last me a while then there really is no problem. One thing that perhaps works in my favour here is that my local shop is a Coop, and upon closer inspection I found that they have pretty much everything that you would need to follow a vegan diet, perhaps not at the cheapest prices (we’ll come to that in a minute) but the selection of wholefoods and dairy free products is definitely far better than what you would find in a similarly sized Tesco or Asda shop. By going to the shop once a week I have no problem getting all my veg and vegan staples like soy milk, the distance argument was a non starter.
Of course not everything I would want is available in the local shop, and the prices of some things are very high, like £5 a kilo for organic brown rice or the nuts and seeds which are only available in expensive ‘snack packs’, and this was another argument I used with myself, that it would be too expensive to follow a vegan diet. This argument at least has a little more backbone to it, if I didn’t physically have the cash to support this change in diet then it would be extremely difficult to make the change. The fact that I was also getting heavily subsidised meals in the college canteen through a scholarship also weighed in this decision, by choosing to buy and cook my own food I would effectively be turning free food away. Well it seems this argument had a lot more basis in truth than that of distance. The simple fact is that while the college would give me vegetarian slop for ¾ of the price in the college canteen, they weren’t ready to bank roll my new vegan diet. I had to face up to the fact that I was gonna have to spend some spondoolies to make this happen.
It didn’t take much brain power however to figure out how I was gonna get round the Coop’s high prices on basic stuff like rice, nuts, muesli etc – bulk buying. By buying stuff from wholefood suppliers I can get the same stuff that’s in the Coop at a much cheaper price and enjoy the full vegan diet I’m after without running me ploppy pants into the red. To do this so far however has involved carrying 30+ kilos of stuff several hundred miles on public transport, which is of course not very practical or comfortable. Apparently though, if I make a large enough order I can receive a free delivery, so I just need to team up with a few locally like minded souls to get stocked up for next term – remember the immortal words of Active Minds here kids ‘Cooperation is the Key.’
I think I should mention here something which was not really a reason why I wasn’t vegan, but that ties in with the factors about distance and price already mentioned. As I had followed a vegan diet for 2 years in my early 20’s, I was well aware of the fact that a full and varied vegan diet is not only cheaper but healthier than a the typical UK processed food diet, but also that part of this saving/benefit came from the preparation of your own food. For example preparing your own humus allows you to create something much healthier and a hell of a lot cheaper than any shop bought version. I think the preparation of your own food is a very important part of veganism, basing a diet around pre made stuff like veggie sausages and shop bought humus is not only unhealthy and expensive but also boring. The myths about cooking being difficulty are entirely unsubstantiated. If your lucky enough that you have a friend who can teach you go for it, but if not there are a million websites and cook books out there which will show you the way.
So yeah, while the monetary cost to myself is undoubtedly higher than when I was following a vegetarian diet, that is entirely down to my circumstance, not the actual cost of the food and through a bit of creative purchasing and effort (something which was worryingly absent in my previous diet) I can easily follow a healthy and varied vegan diet despite my isolated location.
I think the thing that’s most upsetting to me looking back at this report is that my choice for not being vegan seems to have revolved entirely around the fact that I couldn’t be arsed and worries about money. To see that I was putting apathy and capitalistic concerns before the unnecessary suffering of thousands of animals has been a pretty sharp wake up call to me.
One further factor I should mention here I should mention here is definitely peer support. I cant argue that the main wake up call for me was a vegan friend moving to the local area and showing me that the possibilities were there. Choosing to do something that is completely at odds with what the mainstream shoves down your throat daily is always going to be difficult. If your considering following a vegan diet see if you can find some vegans in your local area, their support and advice will be invaluable.

For more information on veganism check out these links:

www.vegansociety.com/become-a-vegan/why.aspx

www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/

coming to a bathroom near you soon.....

2011-01-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

just waiting on the flexi discs arriving..... Footprint is the number one place to get your fanzines printed!

dont forget The Wankys gigs!

2010-12-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

yes yes yes its fucking chritmas, but dont forget:

Saturday 8th January, Bannermans with Toe Cutter, 69 Dessous, Happy Spastics and Spat

Sunday 9th January, 13th Note Cafe with Toe Cutter, 69 Dessous and An t-Uabhas

nosie, disorder, chaos and fun fun fun!

The Filth and The Fury

2010-12-25T03:58:00.000-08:00

Looks like we'll be partying like its 2005 all over again in 2011 if the Resurrection of Filthpact and Atomgevitter's rapidly expanding gig schedule are anything to go by. The 4298 Filth are gonna be going for gold next year! The Filthpact 'reunion' gig last Saturday was a belter, the guys were animated on stage and played a solid set. When they told me before hand they were gonna do 45 mins I laughed in their face 'that's way too long your gonna put everyone to sleep!' but the 45 mins zapped past in what seemed like 10, just relentless crust of the finest Aberdonian order! the only disappointment I'd say was the noticeable absence of a lot of the Aberdeen regulars, too busy polishing their baubles or hiding inside coz there's a wee bit of snow on the pavement I guess. Still those that made it along put in a fine effort - probably fueled in no small part by the copious amounts of pharmaceuticals that were doing the rounds - and when I left The Moorings at 2am there was a massive snowball fight in full swing outside and a lot of nudity focused in the direction of on-coming traffic - good old Aberdeen! anyway here's a video of the Filth boys rocking it total crust violence style.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=173389836026708&comments

In other 4298 news....

Ploppy Pants #12 is printed, just need to get the flexi-discs sorted, expect it to be available from February. I should have Some Ploppy Pants and Gaelic Vegan t-shirts for sale in the new year too, pics of them when they arrive, they'll be £7.50 each postpaid.

I still have some Problem? records stuff for sale, but not much. I'll start archiving the out of print stuff in the new year. The final release will be the Eat Yer Greens discography cdr which will be a benefit for Sea Shepherd so please support it!

your ear plugs wont do any good!

2010-11-23T13:32:00.000-08:00

Abigail / Black Sister / Paganfire split tape

2010-10-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

after inumerable delays the split that the world has been holding its breath waiting for was finally arrived! Taking the best bits of dirty underground metal from Japan, Hungary and The Philippines, recording it live on a tape machine in a damp cardboard box in a room outside the venue and then mastering it all back to unholy perfection, this is the live album that all the big mags are raving about this summer, 30 mins of metal punk madness for just £3/€5/$8 postpaid e-mail dirty_little_punk (@) hotmail.com for more info!

oh yeah its limited to 100 copies and I've got less than 50 left!

Prob022 - v/a Only Stupid Bastards Don't Like DIY

2010-08-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

like it says on the back of this little beauty:

"Twenty diy punk rock songs all called ‘DIY’ played by twenty different international diy punk rock bands, celebrating the diy attitude and raising money for The 1 in 12 Club, Bradford, England."

The 1 in 12 is a self-run, autonomous social centre run by its members, established in the early 80's which is still going strong, but is right now in desperate need of a new roof which is going to cost something in the region of £10,000.

more info about the 1 in 12 club here

100% of the money raised from this cd is going directly to the 1 in 12 club, I'm paying all the production costs myself, so please support the club and check out some cool international hardcore at the same time!

First press is 100 copies, it has a fold out sleeve with info about the bands and the club and comes with a couple of inserts. Hopefully it will sell well and a second press will follow rasining even more cash.

the price of the CD is £2.50 postpaid in the UK, for orders outside the UK get in touch first for the price.

e-mail me at dirty_little_punk (@) hotmail (dot) com to order your copy

heres a list of the bands on the comp, they're all on myspace if ya wanna check them out.

1. Dog On A Rope [England]

2. Betercore [Netherlands]

3. Cannon Fodder [Russia]

4. Cress [England]

5. Golden Starlet [England]

6. Keller Assis [Germany]

7. Chix ‘N Dix [Canada]

8. Lepeselony [Hungary]

9. Murder Disco X [Germany]

10. Over The Top [Germany]

11. Dislecksick [Canada]

12. Jumbled [USA]

13. No White Rag [Italy]

14. Opstand [France]

15. Atomgevitter [Scotland]

16. The Bollocks [malaysia]

17. Crippled Fox [Hungary]

18. Throwdown [Australia]

19. Yogyakarta [Singapore]

20. Oi Polloi [Scotland]

Atomgevitter – European Tour 2010

2010-07-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

Atomgevitter – European Tour 2010

Well 2010 has proven to be another busy year for the Atomgevitter crew, celebrating our 6^th year of diy thrash with a massive 2 date European tour, which unfortunately for those who missed it looks like it will be our last! Don’t start crying into your bandanas though. This year should see the release, after 4 years of fucking around, finally, no-joke, bollocks crossed, of our album ‘Thrash Ritual.’ All the songs we ever did plus some other shite to pad out a 70 minute cd – value for money kids! Also if ya live out in Indonesia, Phillipines, Malaysia, Borneo or Singapore you can come catch us on our 2011 ‘farewell’ tour (we should really play one more Euro gig then we can call it a world tour right?) Anyway, here’s my thoughts on our weekend away, em, I mean European superstar tour.

Friday 16^th July 2010 – Dublin, Lower Deck

We arrived in Dublin just after midnight Thursday, and had all been working/travelling all day and were all proper fucking tired. Still, a short taxi ride later, and €40 lighter, we arrived at chateaux Moose, where we were welcomed by the Moose himself with cans of Dutchgold (none of that Galahad muck at this Gaff!), who was also crazy tired, and within 30 mins we had all crawled into our fart sacks and started the snoreathon. Passing out first meant that I got the use of Moose’s wank‑chariot, and I felt refreshed and ready to go after 9 hours cradled in its snug embrace. A quick trip to what seemed to be the Irish version of Marks and Spencer’s (all though now that I think about it the only similarity was the green colour scheme, and perhaps that really isn’t so odd in Ireland...?) we were sitting down to a hearty half ‘n’ half English/Euro Squat breakfast (Fried mushrooms and boiled Eggs = UK, healthy salad and fresh bread = Euro) – sorted!

While our primary objective for this trip was obviously to rock the Lower Deck to its foundations, our secondary mission was to take in some sights and be touristy bastards, and Moose stepped up to the plate, offering to show us around town before the gig. Dublin town on a Friday afternoon was indeed a very enjoyable experience. We hung around in the Dubh Linn gardens, which according to Moose (and Wikipedia) is where the whole Dublin thing started years and years ago when Fionn and the lads were still around. Anyway, as nice as the gardens were in an architectural and horticultural sense, it was all the bees flying around that did it for me. As far as I’m aware bees are still dying out like crazy all over the shot so it was cool to see the little fellas going about their business in amongst the flowers! After rounding up our roadie Mickey who’d gone walk about (we don’t call him Mick Dundee for nothing!) Moose took us on to the Science Gallery at the Trinity College where there was an awesome exhibition called Biorhythm running. It’s an interactive exhibition with loads of cool machines that produce sounds in different ways, everything from the classic theremin (I can’t speak for the others but I know I was doing my best attempt at the Doctor Who theme tune), a Lego set that produced different effects depending on how you put it together, to €20,000 table that could be programmed using different 2 dimensional barcodes to play just about anything! There was also a super relaxing vibrating bed which I fell asleep on – it was awesome. Not much else to say about this really, the exhibition is running till October, if yer in Dublin ya need to check it out! We finished off our afternoon of hijinks hanging out at a cafe with Sarah from Estel, where Moose was exhibiting some photos. However since none of us had a spare €100 we just stuck to the hot black stuff.

Now then, after a top dinner of chili burritos ala Lidl, it was down to the Lower Deck to get on with the rocking. The First band up was Evidence of Decay, which I suppose is some kind of Irish super group since they’ve got Kenn of Easpa Measa et al. on the drums and Daniel of Only Fumes and Corpses on guitar (maybe the other lads playing guitar and bass are famous too, I dinnie ken!). Anyway musically I thought they came across somewhere between Tragedy and Wolfbrigade, you know the style, solid hardcore riffs and beats mixed with lead guitar harmonies and solos. They played really well even when the guitarist that wasn’t Daniel was drunkenly spazzing allover the shot upturning microphones and band members in the process. I think at one point only Kenn was still plugging away on the drums before they all dropped back in – tight!

Next up was Fag Enablers, who have Cormy of Nuclear Death Terror on vocals. Seems like these guys have been around for a while but this was the first I’d heard of them. Their sound is kinda hard to pin down, it has a post-punky feel but it is also sounds really tough and quite hypnotic sometimes. Cormy was spazzing all over the shot pushing folk over and stuff which i thought took away from the music a little but I still enjoyed them a lot. One of the Family Man lads said they sounded like every second band that was playing in Berlin last year, but I was only in Berlin once last year and all the bands I saw were playing fastcore, so I can’t comment on that. Cormy still had some demo tapes in his wee bag at the end of the night so hit them up for a copy, it’s pretty rocking!

photo by Moose

After The Fags it was our turn to take to the stage. The crowd had swelled quite a bit by now and I was actually feeling a little nervous about playing. The rest of the guys set up really quickly so I had to go and shout at the majority of the crowd, who were outside smoking, to come back in and enjoy the rock. My words of encouragement seemed to do little in encouraging the smokers inward however which in turn made me even more nervous about playing. Do they care we’ve come all the way from Scotland? Do I care? Should either of care? There was only one thing to do – rock. Despite playing our set pretty much unrehearsed, and the last time we had even played together was back in November, we rocked surprisingly hard. The songs flowed well and we only had to deal with one broken string. The crowd reaction was a little tamer than I’d expected, which I took as me not working them up into enough of a frenzy, maybe I was a little out of practice? Anyway despite the venue not being an inferno of flailing limb chaos when we played, if the number of hand-shakes and ‘well done’s’ we got after we played are anything to go by I guess we did ok!

photo by Moose

The next band, Putrefaction, were obviously the local heroes, and probably shoulda played last since they had everyone going mental to their Celtic-Frost meets brutal crust sounds, the perfect crust party music, right? My memory’s getting a little fuzzy now but Eric Easpa Measa was defiantly on lead vocals and i think guitar and the bass player might have been in Evidence of Decay, I dunno, I was still buzzing from our set dancing like a twat along with the Irish kids for their whole set.

Putrefaction getting such a good response of course meant that when Family Man hit the stage there was probably about 20 people watching them, the place did fill up but I think most folk were totally knackered after the earlier crust onslaught and so it was up the drunkest of the drunk to boogie down to the Family Man, I know I was definitely doing all I could just to stay on my feet by this point. Family Man played a set pretty well balanced between their 2 lp’s, old classics like ‘Pig Champion’ and ‘I wanna be a Surfer Jock’ sitting snugly next to soon to be kraut-core classics like ‘The Turning of the Key’. Unfortunately the gig was running overtime and the guys had to cut their set short, but hardcore always works better in short doses anyway!

After-show antics amounted to little more than an hour’s walk to Moose’s gaff via the chipper for the Atomgevitter crew and an hour and a half wait for the family man guys outside the venue waiting for a lift to a chaotic crust party at some massive gaff with a swimming pool. I kinda wish I’d headed there too, but it would have been too difficult to get back the next day – touring without a van is never easy! (ask Ablach!)

Saturday 17^th July 2010 – Day Off

Due to completely foreseen (at least by me anyway from the moment he said he would organize a gig for us 2 or 3 months ago) the ‘promoter’ of our Belfast gig had failed to deliver the goods (more on this later, creeps like this have no place in the DIY scene) so we instead took a relaxing day off travelling back to Glasgow. We got a top notch vegan breakfast from Cornucopia in Dublin, including some delicious ‘cheese’ cake, checked out the Road Records closing down sale where i got a couple of Irish classics (1^st Runnin Riot lp and Mouthpiece lp) for a few euros and went for a drink in Dublin’s smallest pub, which was indeed pretty small, but I’m sure we’ve played smaller places on the mainland... After that it was a leisurely flight back to Glasgow for the Atomgevitter lads, ‘Hot Shot Part Deux’, and then off to Bed.

For the Family Man guys however it was a completely different tale. They had been offered an early gig at the ‘Limelight’ in Belfast, and the promoter of the orgional, cancelled Belfast show, Phil Hamilton had agreed to meet them at this gig and let them stay with him that night. Rather unsurprisingly, Phil did a no-show, and after going round every hostel in Belfast to no avail, dragging not just their luggage and guitars but guitar heads as well, they phoned us around 10.30pm asking what we could do. Thankfully Mandy, Tom G Vitter’s wife, had an old friend in Belfast who was willing to help out a bunch of complete strangers from a foreign land at close to midnight on a Saturday. Like i said, more about Phil Hamilton later.

Sunday 18^th July 2010 – Glasgow, 13^th Note Cafe

So as I said right back at the beginning, at some point on this tour we came to the common consensus that tonight was gonna be the final Atomgevitter European show. It would also be our first time playing in Glasgow in over 4 years, so I was more than a little nervous about how things would go. On the one hand, the performance side of the band is what I’m not getting the same enjoyment out of anymore, but on the other hand if this was gonna be our final show i wanted to make sure we went out with a bang. There was also the worry, since Gama Bomb were headlining, of the place being full of metalheads who wouldn’t give two shits about some crappy thrash band they’d never heard of. Of course all these worries and more were all founded on nothing and the gig was unreal, but more on that later. First we had to take advantage of the four of us being in the same place at the same time and hit the studio to lay down some new tunes (ok we wrote them 2 years ago but still....) The studio kinda hit home what we were putting behind us, all the songs down perfect in two takes, even a cover we didn’t ever really know how to play. If Atomgevitter was one thing it was fucking tight!

Anyway, on to the gig itself. The 13^th note was absolutely rammed, I think we reckoned on 140ish people in the venue, a little over capacity, and as you might imagine, it was totally crazy. Fist band on was Uber Schweinhund, who feature Atomgevitter’s very own Kaiser Panzerfaust on Bass. They’d been described to me as sounding a bit like Captain Beefheart before but in reality they were more like a hardcore punk band with good players. I think there were 2 lead vocalists, (it was hard to see from where I was standing) and their little flourishes of rap and songs about fish suppers had some longhairs up giving it laldy. They definitely got the night off to a good start.

Next was Family Man, who after all the crap they’d had to deal with in Belfast were hungry to do some rocking, and rock they did. They rocked so hard I had to get someone else to do the door so I could join the rest of the room in thrashing about to their hardcore power. Tonight was possibly the best I’ve ever seen Family man, they really killed it – if you still don’t know who these lads are you need to check them out NOW!

photo by Serranon

A quick turnaround (time was tight tonight) and it was Atomgevitter’s time to rock. I don’t think I’ve felt so nervous about being on stage since our first gig way back in 2004. The place was jammed to the back and all eyes were on us, but we pulled it off as if there was nothing to it. I might not be so excited about playing on stage anymore but when I looked out at the crowd and saw so many friends, old and new, with smiles spread across their faces, dancing like crazy, it made me feel like we were creating something special, not the band alone though, but everyone together. Someone said to me after the gig “you guys were wicked” well we couldn’t have done it without everyone else, this is DIY punk rock, there shouldn’t be ‘the band’ and ‘the fans.’ Anyway, things were so wild while we were playing it was hard to keep track of what was happening on stage, and despite my best efforts to talk about the politics of our songs, since the crowd had so many people new to hardcore punk in it, the best i could come out with was crap like “fuck magazines, they’re shit. Join the library and read a book” or trying to talk about direct action and anti-fascism before our cover of ‘Bomb the Embassy.’ Hopefully it didn’t all go in one drunken ear and out the other.... Oh yeah nearly forgot, we even had some kid naked screaming along with us at one point, and the crowds of people I’d never even seen before in my life who were rushing the mike to sing-along on my songs was pretty fucking awesome.

photo by Serranon

Irish thrash metal band Gama Bomb provided a thundering end to the night. They played loads of classics and were tight as hell. The crowd were getting so rowdy pipes were getting pulled from the ceiling. I went up on stage and told them to stop, which they did – pretty cool i thought! In the end I was up on stage singing ‘Zombie Brew’ along with the lads, my body still buzzing with endorphins from when we played earlier (whether you enjoy playing or not, jumping up and down and screaming for 30 minutes non-stop is gonna get get yer blood moving!) This was the first time I’d seen Gama Bomb since I’d booked a tour for them back in 2004 or 2005 where they played this same venue to like 10 folk so it was awesome to see them play the sort of gig i always knew they should have been.

Post show celebrations were held at the Kaisers gaff but most of the Gama lads were out for the count after an hour on the green stuff, but most of the GVTR crew and the Family Boys were up till 4am talking shite and enjoying the short time that we had to spend together.

Not that much more to say really except thanks to everyone who made this weekend happen, you know who you are and we genuinely appreciate everything you've done for us!

oh yeah and since it won’t be on the forth coming 'Thrash Ritual' album, here's our demo from 2004, recorded at maybe our 5th practice. Forward With Atomgevitter

downloads from the old site

2010-07-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

I am preparing some new stuff, honest....

in the mean time here's some stuff that was uploaded on my old webshite, all killer no filler. Download and enjoy!

V/A - Plop Your Pants Volume II - Plopping All Over The World. (2009)

30 track international DIY hardcore compilation that originally came free with issue 8 of Ploppy Pants zine.

Tracklisting:

Ablach – Na Fuadaichean (Scotland) [exclusive track]
Bud Krou – Silence (Belarus)
Magnicide – Senseless Despise (Singapore)
Active Minds – Blind Acceptance [live] (England) [exclusive track]
Wardead – Our Murderers (Scotland)
Low Fat – Migi Muke Migi (Thailand)
FxPxOx – Drink It, Smoke it… (Macedonia)
Piazza Dropout – Know What Happened/Switch It Off (Germany)
L.E.A.R.N. – It’s Time to LxExAxRxNx (Italy)
Slapendenhoden – Picktons Pigs (Holland)
Happy Spastics – G8 (Scotland)
Kansalaistottelemattomuus – Anti-Fash (Finland)
Afgrund – Obrutna Monster (Sweden)
Haywire – Sea Shepherd (England)
Carlos Dunga – Punizione Dal Limite (Italy)
Alcoholocaust - Freedom (Indonesia)
Scum SystemKill – Call To Arms (Australia)
Step On It – Bib Fortuna (Hungary)
Krap Nek – Krypte Nek (France)
Atomgevitter – Blah Blah Blah (Scotland) [exclusive track]
The Day Man Lost – Run For Your Money (England)
Idiots Parade – Kolobeh Zahuby (Slovakia)
Motherspeed – Nuke (USA)
Afterbirth – Prophecy of Doom (Scotland)
Bandanos - Justiça das Ruas (Brazil)
Calimoxto - Pensamos Diferente (Puerto Rico)
Sakatat - S?n?rlar Bizi Ay?rmaz (Turkey)
Festa Desperato - Èerné Mraky (Czech)
The Wankys - Vomit (England) [exclusive track]
Disleksick – Xenophobia (Canada)

Plop Your Pants Volume II

Cobra The Enemy - Demo 2005

2005 raw hardcore punk band featuring me and Tommy from Atomgevitter, Scott from Los Destructos on Bass and Mark Ism on Guitar. Aside from this demo I think we did 3 or 4 gigs including a set at the infamous 2005 Glasgow punx pinic! Shame the band fizzled out, I think we had some decent songs.

Cobra The Enemy Demo 2005

Step On It - Allschool Monster (2006)

Third full length from Budapest legends Step On It. The band, who have now sadly called it a day, present a sound which mixes up all different styles of hardcore/punk and metal into short, sharp blasts to the head - a style which is often attempted, but only perfected by a few select groups. For me this pulling together of wide and varied influences is best exemplified on Allschool Monster, probably, which to me is their best release, but also the only release from their massive back-catalog which never received a physical release! So don't feel bad about downloading this one, it was free then and its free now!

Step On It - Allschool Monster

2010-07-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

Ploppy Pants #11 is oot and aboot, already shifted 50 Stateside, got another 300 to flog over ehre so dinnie be shy! its got interviews with Terveet Kadet, Injakmati, Carlos Dunga and Metralleta - all interantional hardcore bands! loads of other shite too like demo and zine reviews, veganism, folk shitting their pants, G-beat, Dio - 40 A5 pages in a font so small it'll make your eyes water and all for a mere £1 plus postage, bargain eh?

e-mail dirty_little_punk AT hotmail.com for ordering info.

also I'm putting on this gig in 2 weeks, get yer arse along, its gonna be killer!

I've got a couple of releases that are gonna be out real soon too, but more info on them when they're ready. I've got loads of snaps and gossip from the USA to go up as well, soon!

Releases on Problem? Records - sold out!

2010-05-29T02:00:00.000-07:00

Prob020 - Black Sister / Injakmati split 7"

3 new blasts of Celtic/Hungarian 80's thrash from Black Sister, this time chucked in a cement mixer with some Iron Maiden b-sides and on the flip your brain gets crushed by 4 tracks of 1980's earache worship from the original Indonesian bulldozer Injakmati. 250 copies only £3.50/€7/$8 postpaid

Prob015 - Ablach 'demo + 1' 7"

Ablach are a new grind band out of Aberdeen with ex and current members of Filthpact and Bonesaw. Soundwise they take the Terroriser/early Napalm Death approach and a little more melody, but only a touch! For those who already have the demo this feaures a bonus cover of Nasum and is pressed on a limited run of 250 coloured vinyl copies! £3.50/€7/$8 postpaid

Prob012 - Unholy Grave / Black Sister split 7"

3 brand new tracks from The Japanese grind masters Unholy Grave, 2 new thrash metal hymns from Black Sister including an Anti-Cimex cover in Gaelic! 500 only, first 200 with free band logo patches £3/6euro/$7 post paid

Prob009 - Filthpact / Step On It split 7"

6 tracks of metal thrashing thrashcore from Hungary’s very own ‘allschool’ hardcore legends Step On It backed up with 4 more crust anthems from the Filthpact lads. £3/6euro/$7 post paid

Prob007 - 'Gaidhlig Na Lasair' comp cd

15 tracks of Gaelic punk/hardcore/electronica with tracks EXCLUSIVE to this release from Atomgevitter, Oi Polloi, Nad Aslingean and Mill A h-Uile Rud £5/10 euro/$12post paid

Prob002 - Fighting Cougars - demo cdr

mongo thrash punk from Dundee scotland, all the worst bits of SOD, The Exploited, DRI etc. Members of this band went on to be in Atomgevitter, Gama Bomb, Threshold Sicks and Try Hards amongst 1 billion others. We probably made max 100 of these.

Prob005 - Ceol Gaidhlig Mar Sgian Nad Amhaich - comp 7"

all gaelic language 7" comp which kicked some serious ass, got good reviews and flew out the door. 500 copies are all gone! features Oi Polloi, Atomgevitter, Mill a h-Uile Rud and Nad Aislingean.

Prob??? - Filthpact Discography cd

cool comp with all the shit Filthpact put out with Ben on guitar, inlcluding live tracks, comp stuff and even some techno re-mixes (very 90's!) co-released with 1 zillion other labels, probably 500 pressed?

more later when i get me shit together!

Releases on Problem? Records - Available

2010-05-29T01:15:00.000-07:00

Prob014 - Krupskaya / Black Sister split 7"

Black Sister play crossover thrash, Krupskaya super fast grind, both bands offer cover songs of 80's thrash legends in their own style on this limited 7" – 250 copies only £3.50/€7/$8 postpaid

Prob006 - Atomgevitter / Filthpact split 12"

9 tracks of noisy crust from the Filthpact boys that will rock your dreadlocked bonce HARD! Atomgevitter step up to the plate with 9 thrashcore blasts that’ll tear off your eyebrows and leave a lengthy stain in your pants. vinyl now in second press £6/12 euro/$14 post paid