Category: punk rock

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Philly’s Vixen77 Shares a Gritty and Defiant Rocker

Philadelphia-based guitarist Caitlin D’Agostino has dreamt of playing in an all-women rock band since she was in high school. And after playing in the City of Brotherly Love’s punk scene for a handful of years, she decided to put in dream in motion in late 2018 when she started Vixen77, her latest band, which references female energy and the influence of the ’77 punk rock revolution. Fittingly, the band specializes in a loud, aggressive, rebellious and downright fun take on rock ‘n’ roll that’s nostalgia-inducing — and necessary.

The band re-emerged from pandemic-related lockdowns with a new lineup featuring D’Agostino, Elizabeth Cartwright (bass), Jaz (bass), Sarah Novack (drums) and Samatha Joan (vocals, harmonica), and since then have released a string of attention-grabbing singles, which has lead to packed, headlining shows in the Philly area and an opening slot for Wayne Kramer on his current MC5 tour.

Building upon a growing profile, the Philly-band punk outfit’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Easy Access is slated for a Friday release through Megaforce Records. Recorded in a breakneck 72 hour recording session at Retro City Studios, Easy Access‘ 12 songs navigate life through love and rock ‘n’ roll. And so far, the album has earned support from KEXP, Sirius XM, WXPN and others.

Vixen77 shared the last pre-album release, “Royalty” earlier today. “Royalty” is a gritty and defiant AC/DC-like rocker centered around D’Agostino’s bluesy power chord-driven riffage, a locked in and chugging propulsive rhythm section paired with Joan’s self-assured, snarl. The new single sees the Philly-based outfit adding their names to a lengthy and growing list of women-led acts who boldly and unashamedly kick ass and take names.

“‘Royalty’ is about feeling a sense of purpose in playing music and doing it on your own terms,” the band says. “It’s about loving and playing music your whole life and centering so much of your energy on it. It’s also a good memento mori and reminder to live in the moment because we’re here for a short time, so do what you love.” 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays Otoboke Beaver Shares a New Ripper

Kyoto, Japan-based garage punk outfit and JOVM MAINSTAYS  Otoboke Beaver(おとぼけビ～バ～ in Japanese) — Accorinrin (vocals, guitar), Yoyoyoshie (guitar, vocals), Hirochan (bass, vocals) and Kahokiss (drums, vocals) — can trace their origins back to when the band’s members met at Kyoto University‘s music club. 

Otoboke Beaver quickly built a profile both locally and nationally for their unique pairing of incredibly dexterous musicianship with Accorinrin’s confrontational stage presence. When Damnably Records released the Okoshiyasu!! Otoboke Beaver compilation, the Japanese punk rockers began to receive international airplay from BBC Radio 6′s Gideon Coe and Tom Ravenscroft, XFM’s John Kennedy, as well as praise from the likes of Pitchfork, NPR, i-D and The Fader.

Building upon their rapidly growing profile, the Japanese punk rockers made critically applauded, attention-grabbing appearances across the global festival circuit that included stops at SXSW, FujiRock Festival, and 2018’s Coachella Festival, as well as a lengthy UK tour with a sold-out show at London‘s 100 Club.

2019 saw the release of ITEKOMA HITS, an effort that featured “Anata Watashi Daita Ato Yome No Meshi” and “Don’t light my fire,” two feral rippers that possessed elements of noise punk, no wave, prog rock and riot grrl punk, as well as the breakneck “I’m tired of your repeating story.” 

In early 2020, the Kyoto-based punk rockers quit their day jobs in order to embark on a highly-anticipated world tour to support ITEKOMA HITS. They were able to complete the two-week European leg but they were about to embark on their first Stateside tour ever when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, forcing the band to quickly return back home.

With touring out of the question, the band worked on new material, which they recorded between lockdowns at Osaka-based LM Studio. The end result is the band’s latest full-length effort, Super Champon. Released earlier this year through Damnably Records, the album’s title is derived from champon, a Japanese word that means a mixture or jumble of things of very different types.

“It’s a mixture of songs from love to food, life and JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers),” the band explains. “Our music is genre-less and has various elements. We hope that it will be our masterpiece of chaos music. It also sounds like champion.” Thematically, the album sees the band pushing band on the societal pressure to reproduce, calling out ridiculous judgements on what gives a woman value, and reacting to uninvited advice and comments from patronizing idiots and more.

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I managed to write about two album singles:

  • “I am not maternal,” a defiantly feminist, breakneck, mosh pit friendly ripper meant to be played as loudly as humanly possible.

  • “PARDON?,” a feral, tempo-shifting thrash punk ripper, full of furious riffage and howled lyrical refrains in English and Japanese. The song is a playful retelling of situation the band often finds themselves in: unrelenting, unsolicited and fervent points of views. 

The acclaimed Kyoto-based punk rock/garage rock outfit will be embarking on a highly-anticipated, rapidly selling-out North American tour that includes a sold-out October 5, 2022 stop at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tour dates are below., and you can purchase tickets and check out more information here: https://www.otobokebeaver.com/tour/

Interestingly, the band’s latest single “Chu Chu Song” can trace its origins back to 2009 — and was the first song that they wrote together. Originally, only previously heard at live shows and as an exclusive to crowdfunding supports in 2017, the track derives its title from the Japanese onomatopoeia for “kiss kiss.” Unsurprisingly, the song is yet another furious ripper featuring scorching riffage paired with rapid-fire key changes and intricate vocal harmonies that thematically discusses the seemingly endless push and pull of relationships.

Before the band shared it as a standalone single, the track was featured on Adult Swim‘s Japan is Loud compilation curated by Toonami‘s Jonny Rej.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays METZ Team up with IDLES’ Joe Talbot on a Towering Ripper

Toronto-based JOVM mainstays METZ share two stand-alone tracks on all DSPs “Come On Down,” featuring IDLES‘ Joe Talbot and the previously unreleased “Heaven’s Gate,” which only appeared in the Cyberpunk 2077, the video game released back in 2020.

METZ’s Alex Edkins says, “‘Come On Down’ was originally recorded during the Atlas Vending sessions but never fully finished. During the pandemic I really gravitated towards the idea of collaboration as a way to fill the void left by the loss of live music. I reached out to friends from far and wide in order to get that feeling of community that gigs provide. Joe Talbot (IDLES) is a longtime friend who METZ has shared the stage with many, many times, and this song was a very natural and fun way to catch up with him and do something positive with our time off the road.”
 
“METZ have been a band we’ve looked up to since they came into our lives and made things better,” IDLES’ Joe Talbot adds. “I will never forget the first time I saw them or any of the other times. Allowing me to sing with them is a gift and I hope you like it. I love it and I love them. Long live METZ.”

“Come On Down” is a classic METZ ripper: Towering fuzz and distorted-fueled power chords, thunderous drumming, mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses. Prominently featuring Talbot’s snarling delivery and Edkins’ shouting, “Come On Down” has a gritty and crusty-old school punk quality while retaining the Toronto-based outfit’s enormous sound.

Directed and edited by Arturo Baston, the accompanying, animated video for “Come On Down” features a series of different birds — a hawk, geese, ducks, an ostrich and the like — flying and walking through flames.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Aussie Punk Outfit CLAMM Wrestle with Impatience and Yearning in “Something New”

With the release of 2020’s full-length debut Beseech Me, the Melbourne-based punk outfit CLAMM — Jack Summers (vocals, guitar), Maisie Everett (bass, backing vocals) and Miles Harding (drums, backing vocals) — quickly exploded into national and international punk scenes. Originally released by the band on cassette, the album received airplay and praise from Aussie radio stations 3RRR and FBi. Reissued by UK-based label Meat Machine last year, the album earned best punk nods from the likes of Spin, Bandcamp Daily and KEXP.

Adding to a growing profile, the band has played with Wolf Alice, Civic, Amyl & The Sniffers, The Chats, Vintage Crop, and The Murlocs — and they’ve made their way across the Aussie festival circuit with stops at Boogie Festival, Melbourne Music Week, and Meadow.

The rising Aussie punk rock band’s sophomore album Care was released last week through Chapter Music globally — with the exception of the UK, Europe and Asia, where it was released by Meat Machine.

Recorded during any free moment they had last year in one of the most locked down cities in the world, the band’s sophomore album was tracked at Rolling Stock Recording Rooms and Sound Park Studios with Nao Anzai. The album also features Anzai playing synth — and he has joined the band on stage at recent shows. Mangelwurzel‘s Anna Gordon (sax) contributes sax on a number of the album’s songs.

Care, much like its predecessor sees the band exploring the confusion — and perhaps seeming hopelessness — of being a young person trying to live an honorable life in a fucked-up, mad world. Thematically, their songs are frequently about trying to navigate systems of power and oppression while retaining a healthy sense of self and mental health. Community, creativity and catharsis are what they hope to achieve through their work.

Care‘s third and latest single “Something New” is an urgent, mosh pit friendly ripper centered around enormous power chords and thunderous drumming, propulsive basslines paired with rousingly cathartic hooks and choruses, Summers’ urgent, yearning delivery and some sax wailing from Anna Gordon. The song manages to capture and evoke youthful impatience, the subtle and creeping recognition of mortality just over your shoulder, and the yearning desire for meaning and peace in such a mad, fucked up world in a visceral way — so visceral that it hurts, because we’ve all been there. Or maybe we’re still there despite age and perceived wisdom.

“‘Something New’ is a song about searching or yearning,” CLAMM’s Jack Saunders explains. “It is about impatience and time, and its title refers to the process of facing seemingly new stimuli throughout life.”

Frequent visual collaborator Oscar O’Shea directed the accompanying video for “Something New.” Shot on Kodak film, the video follows the members of CLAMM storming around Melbourne and its surroundings, starting with a house near the train line, a lakefront, an abandoned warehouse and the beach with the city just over the horizon.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 70th Birthday, Joe Strummer!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 70th anniversary of Joe Strummer’s birth.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 58th Birthday, Adam Yauch! (MCA Forever!)

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 58th anniversary of Adam “MCA” Yauch’s birth.

women who kick ass by William Ruben Helms

Melbourne-based punk rockers and JOVM mainstays Amyl and The Sniffers recently wrapped up their first Stateside tour in three years, a tour that saw the Aussie outfit playing some of their largest shows to date, including sets at Coachella, Shaky Knees and Brooklyn Steel, as well as their late night, Stateside TV debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Photo credit: Jamie Wdziekonsk

The JOVM mainstays will be turning to the States this fall to play the biggest venues they’ve ever played. The tour includes a September 23, 2022 stop at Terminal 5 and one of my favorite venues in Chicago, The Vic Theatre on September 28, 2022.

I caught them at Brooklyn Steel last month and the band is a must see. So if you live near any of these tour stops — and even if you don’t — cop some tickets y’all and catch Amy Taylor and her Sniffers destroy your eardrums. Ticket presale begins June 15, 2022 at 10:00am local time and the general on-sale begins June 17, 2022 at 10:00am local time.

As always, tour dates below. And you can get those tickets here: https://www.amylandthesniffers.com/shows

Tour dates

9/18/22 – Primavera Sound – Los Angeles, CA

9/20/22 – Brooklyn Bowl – Nashville, TN

9/21/22 – Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA

9/23/22 – Terminal 5 – NYC

9/24/22 – 9:30 Club – Washington, D.C.

9/25/22 – Big Night Live – Boston, MA

9/27/22 – Majestic Theatre – Detroit, MI

9/28/22 – Vic Theatre – Chicago, IL

9/29/22 – First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN

10/1/22 – Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO

10/2/22 – The Depot – Salt Lake City, UT

10/4/22 – Knitting Factory – Boise, ID

10/5/22 – Sessions Music Hall – Eugene, OR

10/6/22 – Showbox Sodo – Seattle, WA

10/9/22 – Ohana Encore Weekend – Dana Point, CA