Album Review: Scared Of Everything by The Run Up

The Run Up are a five-piece punk rock band from Bristol. In December 2015 they released a brand new EP titled Scared Of Everything via Paper + Plastik, with 100% of the money raised being donated to the humanitarian crisis that is ongoing in Northern France.

The opening song is Feels Like Yesterday. It's a mid-tempo, gruff-voiced punk rock song that is about reacquainting with old friends and remembering the good times. Like all of the best punk rock songs there are plenty of "whoa-ohs" throughout the song and a nice breakdown before the final chorus. The second track on the EP is Stormy Nights. From the very start I know I love this song. With just some guitars and the gruff vocals lead singer Larry sets out the story of the song with the lyrics "Remember How We Used To Chase, Chase The Lightning Like Secret Assignments Using Thunder To Mask Our Escape" before the song really gets going and we are treated to a fantastic song about chasing lightning storms. Everything about the track is done with a lot of intensity and it really grips the listener. Up next is a song named Knocks And Tears, which is a song about being there for your friends. Being a shoulder to cry on when times are tough. There is a maturity about the song, similar in style to Manchester's Stay Clean Jolene. There is plenty of passion in the vocals but they never sound like they are being pushed to their limits. After a bit of a breakdown the song it set up for a big finish with some whoa-oh harmonies thrown in by the rest of the band. The lyrics "my friends are my heroes" really stood out and is how I see a lot of my dearest friends. The fourth song Lately is about realising you're not happy with where you are in life and wanting to move on. The song starts out slowly with some distorted guitars before the gruff vocals kick in. There is quite a sombre feel to the song and Larry sings with some real emotion and pulls at the heartstrings. The last song on Scared Of Everything is titled Deservers. It's a song about taking what you think is yours to make yourself a better person while you still have the chance. I particularly enjoyed the breakdown again with some more whoa-oh, they give the song an anthemic feel before the last big chorus.

Scared Of Everything is a mature punk rock EP with songs about friendship and growing up. The production is rough and raw which suits this style of punk perfectly. It's a great release and it's for a great cause so go get yourself a copy!

Stream and download here: https://therunupuk.bandcamp.com/album/scared-of-everything

Like The Run Up here: https://www.facebook.com/therunupuk/ 

Album Review: And Then Came The Tourists by Paper Rifles

Anyone who has read this blog or spoken to me will know that when it comes to Paper Rifles I am a massive fanboy. I was already a big fan of his music after Avon introduced me to it last year and after I had the pleasure of meeting him at Book Yer Ane Fest last year I also became a big fan of the man. This March he releases a new EP titled And Then Came The Tourists on Struck Dum Records. I'll try and review it objectively and not gush too much about the man. I'll try…

The opening track is named Faith Healer. It's Paper Rifles attempt at a love song, which ended up as a love song to the welfare state and its creation after 1945. The song starts slowly before Paper Rifles’ passionate vocals really come to life. The track is played at a good, fast-paced tempo and gives out a huge amount of energy. The chorus is nice and catchy and will definitely get a room full of people singing along. The lyrics are superb as well - "I Won't Need To Put My Faith In Prayer, If I Fall Down I Know That You'll Be There". The title of the second track, Am Ende Kommen Touristen, is German for And Then Came The Tourists. This song is about a German concentration camp that has become somewhat of a tourist attraction over the years and how strange that seems. Paper Rifles’ passion for the subject is clear as soon as the track begins with some big and powerful vocals. The song again has a good, fast-paced tempo, which is a feature of many of Paper Rifles’ songs - he doesn't hang around and there is a fantastic less-is-more element to his music. The third song is called Books Our Father Handed Down and it begins with some mesmerising guitar work before switching to a slightly more aggressive style. Paper Rifles puts everything he has into the song and it is evident that every word sung and every chord strummed is really meant. And Then Came The Tourists is concluded with the song Postscripts. On this track the brilliance of Paper Rifles’ voice really comes to the forefront. Switching between a more melodic and sincere style and a big, loud, belt-it-out style. I really loved the opening lyrics of the song - "I'm Not A Writer, An Author, But I Believe In Words More Than They Can Let Me Say, Faith Comes To Anyone Who Closes Their Eyes, But The Truth Knows That There's A Price To Pay". 

I admitted at the start of the review that I'm a big fanboy of Paper Rifles but I honestly loved everything about this EP. All four songs are brilliantly written pieces of acoustic/singer-songwriter/punk music. I mentioned in the review about the less-is-more approach to the music and that's a big part of the charm of the EP. I really liked the rawness in the production of the EP; it really adds to the passion of the songs and make them feel more real. If I were you I'd go and pre-order this EP right now, it's fantastic and you'll be supporting a brilliantly talented and lovely man. Also, if you buy the EP you get ten (TEN!!!!) bonus tracks featuring some radio recordings, some live tracks and some demos. Brilliant!

Pre-order And Then Came The Tourists here: https://paper-rifles.bandcamp.com/album/and-then-came-the-tourists-ep 

Like Paper Rifles here: https://www.facebook.com/PaperRifles

Album Review: Off With Their Heads by The King Blues

Not a lot surprises me in the world of punk rock anymore but when The King Blues announced their reformation in November of 2015 that was definitely an "oh my god" moment. By all accounts the break up had been very messy so for many it seemed unfathomable that the band would reunite. Since their split the people who are "running" the country keep making bad decision after bad decision, and it’s this that has helped bring The King Blues back together. First some support slots with Enter Shikari were announced, then a few smaller headline shows of their own and finally a brand new EP titled Off With Their Heads was released. This is my review of that EP.

When the news first broke about The King Blues getting back together the headline was "Guess Who's Back And Pissed Off Again" and this is very evident in the opening song, title track Off With Their Heads. Opening with that very headline, the song is in the same angry style as the King Blues classic We Are Fucking Angry. The song starts with the words "Guess Who's Back And Pissed Off Again (the lines from the Kerrang headline), Bastards In Power Nobody's Stopping Them, So I'm Ticking My Shit List Off Again, Now Who Do We Kill, Blood On Our Hands, Man History’s Evil, God Save The Queen, Bald Headed Eagle, We Bomb Innocent People To Save Innocent People, This Ain't Just Stupid It's Stupid The Sequel". The King Blues are clearly back with a bang and are only just getting started as this leads into the repetitive chorus of "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" Few other vocalists do angry as well as Jonny "Itch" Fox and still manage to get their point across. The anger and aggression in the track transmits into a lot of energy that could really empower people to help make a change. Incredible song writing! The second song makes a big shift in sound and is more like traditional King Blues. Starting Fires does something the band do incredible well: intertwining love songs with politics. I honestly can't think of another band that have ever done this well. Itch's vocals are much softer here and the song has much more of a storytelling feel to it. I loved the section towards the end of the song where the tempo of Itch's vocals quickens and acts as a build towards the final big chorus of "Starting Fires, Starting Fires, Starting Fires, To Light Your Way Home, To Me". Poems & Songs sees The King Blues go to their most lovely and sweet side. Whether singing about politics or love, Itch always manages to hit the nail right on the head with his lyrics. He's easily one of the best writers this country has to offer in any medium. The uke-led song is about showing somebody how much you love someone despite not having any money. The song paints a fantastic picture in my head of Itch standing outside his girl’s house playing the song before eventually being joined by a choir to help sing the end of the song. For a song to create such a strong image in my head is again some really impressive song writing. The song is actually beautiful.

The fourth song is named Opposable Thumbs and sees the band really amp the anger back up. The song is about human beings regressing rather than evolving. The line "Look How Far I've Come With My Opposable Thumb" is an ironic dig at modern culture. The King Blues accuse people of becoming greedy and selfish and only looking out for themselves on the track. Musically the song is again very catchy and you can imagine the track going down very well at a King Blues live show. Up next is a piano lead song called Words. On my first listen I was pleasantly surprised with how varied Off With Their Heads is; I was fully expecting a full-on angry and aggressive record and none of the sincere and lovely track that are also included. I really loved the simplicity of this song, really allowing the listener to focus on the lyrics of the song. The song is about the power of words and trying to find the right ones for the right occasion. This is a really interesting song for King Blues to do as it's far from punk and could really do well in the popular music charts if given the chance. Maybe this song might not go down so well with the hardcore punks but the King Blues have always been about doing their own thing so you have to respect them for that. Taxi Driver is a full speed ahead punk rock song. Musically it's hard and fast and Itch's rapping really amps the energy up. The song is about the life of a taxi driver and the political conversations that you often have with them. The song talks about the often racist and sexist views you will often find when you get chatting to your driver. Itch is on top form throughout the song with his snarling raps and snotty chorus. Off With Their Heads is completed with the song Pure Fucking Love. Things are switched up again with another stripped back acoustic song. The song starts with just Itch's vocals, his uke and some gentle drumming before Fruitbag and Jamie Jazz join the song with their acoustic guitars. Itch is in storytelling mode, talking about finding the special someone in your life. The lyric that goes "Because You Always Say Never Follow The Map, And You Always Say Be You That's Enough" is absolutely brilliant and is one of my favourite Itch lyrics. Which is really saying something!

I'm really intrigued to know how long The King Blues had their reformation planned before going public with it. If it all happened in a short space of time it really says a lot about the talent of the band to get a record of such quality written and recorded and put out in such a short space of time. Off With Their Heads has everything you would expect from a King Blues record, it has politics, it has love and it has smart, meaningful and catchy lyrics. This feels like The King Blues have never been away and I hope they don't go anywhere anytime soon. The country needs them.

Stream and download Off With Their Heads here: https://thekingblues2016.bandcamp.com/

Like The King Blues here: https://www.facebook.com/thekingblues

Girls Like Punk Rock Too (by Emma Prew)

Did you read Colin’s recent column about buying and wearing almost solely band merch? I did. I read it and thought: ‘This is great. I bet a lot of punks can relate to this.’ But then I realized that I can’t relate – because I’m a girl and I struggle to find any band tees that will actually fit me.

In my experience a lot of bands, dare I even say most bands, don’t have smaller t-shirt sizes for us ladies – or ‘skinny-fit’, as I think they are known. I’m sure some girls are happy to buy men’s shirts, but for me even a ‘small’ is huge and looks a bit ridiculous. I’m a short, slim, 20-something female punk fan and I know I’m not the only one – I see plenty others ladies just like me at shows. That’s not to say that I haven’t bought men’s small sized shirts in the past. As I write this, I am wearing a Frank Turner t-shirt from his 2011 UK tour. It is a man’s shirt and to make myself feel a little more comfortable wearing it I have cut the sleeves off and given it a deeper neckline but, even so, it’s not ideal. (Why do men’s t-shirts have such high and tight necklines anyway?) I’ve done this with a couple of other shirts in the past as well, but I’m still reluctant to buy loads of large shirts and cut them up!

I currently own a total of 5 ‘skinny’ band t-shirts (so this doesn’t include man-sized tees, whether I’ve customized them or not), none of which I’ve bought in the last 2 years:

• 2 x The Gaslight Anthem t-shirts bought at gigs. I guess this is an example of a more popular band being able to cater to a wider variety of fans. Plus I guess they have a fair few female fans, compared to other bands within the punk rock world.
• 1 x The Menzingers t-shirt that I had to buy online from the US merch store as the UK store (let alone a live show) had no skinny options. Also it was the only girls tee, so there was no choice. Good thing I actually liked it – because that’s another thing: sometimes the designs on ‘skinny’ tees are rubbish compared to men’s choices. I guess that’s a matter of opinion but the designs could be the same for both, couldn’t they?
• 1 x Crazy Arm t-shirt that I bought directly from the band over Facebook. Now this is an odd one because for a more underground band you wouldn’t expect them to necessarily have ladies t-shirts. It’s not the most ‘fitted’ of skinny shirts but it’s small and certainly wouldn’t fit a man!
• 1 x The Clash t-shirt that I just got online someplace. So firstly this goes completely against Colin’s rule of ‘only wear the t-shirt of a band that you've seen live’ – as I sadly haven’t seen, and never will see, The Clash live. Also I guess this could be seen as akin to those t-shirts with whatever band logos that you can get in high street shops… but at least I actually listen to The Clash. I still like the t-shirt anyway and wear it with pride.

Unlike Colin, I don’t mind a bit of the high street fashions – although I’m far from trendy and I still dress like a teenage greebo-come-hippy. Even so it really would be great to be able to have some more band tees, especially at gigs when loads of other punk fans are wearing them. As I mentioned, I didn’t buy any of those band shirts that I do own recently. I think I’ve ended up always assuming that when I go to gigs there won’t be any ‘skinny’ tees available. I’m not sure how much this is the case for every band and every gig within punk rock – it’s not like I’ve carried out extensive research – so I’m just talking from personal experience. I’ve had a little look online and not had much luck either. Against Me! have a couple of ladies tees which is great, though this is another example of a band with a larger fanbase being better able to cater to all of their fans. Of course Against Me! are a band with a female singer but there are plenty of other bands with female members that don’t have girls t-shirts on offer. That strikes me as disappointingly ironic.

I’ve been trying to avoid turning this into a massive rant because I know that the majority of punk fans are male and I know it’s not exactly cheap for bands to get tees printed in all shapes and sizes but, honestly, it does suck not to be able to sport my favourite band’s merch. I’d be interested to know if bands consciously choose not to print skinny-fit t-shirts for money reasons or whatever and if any female punk fans feel like me! If so, maybe we can do something about it?

Top Tens: Escape Artists Top Ten Punk Rock Influences

Austrian pop punk band Escape Artists give their top ten punk rock influences.

FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND
It was the first love of our guitar players, and the founders of ESCAPE ARTISTS were overwhelmed by their powerful guitar riffs and their scream parts. A song of theirs “ESCAPE ARTISTS never die” gave us a name for our project. The new CD came out 22nd of January is called ”…never die”.

JBO
This is a cover band from Germany who write their own lyrics. Their creative minds in writing about funny stuff but never getting lost of the real song is absolutely unique. How they transfer the music to Punkrock on CD or live will blow your mind.

PENNYWISE
Of course one of the biggest Punkrock bands ever. Their booming guitars combined with a melodic but also rough voice has absolutely taken a place in our hearts.

USELESS ID
An Israeli Punkrock band worth mentioning. Smooth parts as well as fast-paced power chords are just two types of song-writing from their extensive repertoire. I have seen them performing in front of a huge crowd and I have seen them performing in front of 50 people. Guess what was the difference - nothing, just perfect!

NO USE FOR A NAME
Rest in peace Tony Sly. This band had just a huge impact by performing Punkrock in their very unique style. A band I saw several times live because it was worth it. I will never forget the appearance of Tony on stage. So calm, so cautious but when the song starts everything changed to pure enthusiasm.

MATCHBOOK ROMANCE
I can't give a reason why they influenced me so much. Was it their emotional style? Was it the diversity of one song? Was it their way performing with abandon? Make yourself a picture, I can't write it down.

WIZO
They are one of the most famous German underground Punk bands. All of us listened to them. It was the sound of revolution, the sound of rebellion and the sound of hating those racist brown pieces of shit. It's impossible to compare them with any other band it's something special. Yeah that's WIZO.

GREEN DAY
Ok now they’re not a Punkrock band anymore but in our very young youth they were. Our base player honoured the base lines of Mike Dirnt in their old songs. Maybe many of you will say: “Green Day are not punkrock, they’re a Pop band“ and you are right. But I can't ignore that they fuelled inspiration in our youth.

ASTPAI
An Austrian Melodic Hardcore/ Punkrock band I always looked up to. I like their songs because in the one hand they are smoth and on the other hand they some kind of aggressive. A combination worth mentioning. You are gonna go far!

RX BANDITS
Different genres in just one song as well as the old Punkrock songs. Great! But the most impressing piece of their music: the lyrics. I will never forget the lines of “overcome”. Never!

Like Escape Artists here: https://www.facebook.com/escapeartistsvienna

Album Review: Wasted Already by Contra Code

Wasted Already is the new album from Vancouver based punk rockers Contra Code. Originally released in September of 2015 it has just be re-released through Florida's Bird Attack Records.

The opening song on Wasted Already is called Screwtape and is a very fast, technical, melodic punk song. The vocals really stood out on this song; more gruff and aggressive than I'm used to hearing with this genre of punk rock. A fun way to kick the album off. Road Rash shows of the bands skills with guitars, playing some ridiculously fast and technical guitar solos throughout the song. There is so much intensity in this music and it really gets my heart going. The use of gang vocals at the end of the song really gives a great feeling of everyone being equal and will get a audience shouting back at the band as loudly as they can. The third song - Pickabar - sees lead singer Paul Sarrazin lay down some incredibly quick vocals to begin the song. This really made the song catch my attention from the beginning and from then on I loved the song more and more. If I were to go to gyms this would be the song I'd put on my playlist. The energy omitting from the track is infectious.

Red Ass had me throwing my fists in the air pretty much instantly. The vocals are delivered in more of a held back style than on the previous songs and the music is not played at the breakneck speed I've become accustomed to so far. It still manages to pack the same punch though, a testament to the bands song writing skills. The fifth song on Wasted Already is See Saw. The rapid fire drum roll at the start of the song before the gruff shout of "A Punch To The Face" starts the song. Lovely, metaphorical lyric intended or not. The passion and energy that comes from Sarrazin really stands out and the gang vocals for the finale "Home Is WHERE THE HEART IS!" is brilliant. Iron Herd sees Contra Code return to the 100mph technical punk rock. It's only a short song but is very memorable. No second is wasted as they burn through the track. The eighth song is titled Kill and takes you on a ferocious musical rollercoaster. Amongst a master class of musicianship there is a lovely mix of vocal styles, giving you a sense of what's coming next. In the same song Sarrazin manages to go from soaring skate punk to hardcore howl and everywhere in between.

The song Concrete has a great stop start approach with the opening vocals, switching between gang and single vocals. The track is a positive song about taking control of your life by not taking things too personally. There is a fantastic shift in key during the chorus giving the song a pop punk sound amongst the aggressive skate punk. Up next is Snap Crackle. Snap Crackle is a track that features a whole load of tempo changes throughout, giving it a fun and interesting sound. I'm completely in awe of the bands musical ability here, playing as fast as they do and switching between styles so effortlessly is really impressive. The penultimate song is titled Time Lapse, beginning with even more fast paced technical guitars, I'm more and more amazed with every song. This is one of the more accessible songs on Wasted Already, leaving the shouts at home and focussing solely on the melodic vocals. I like the lyrics "Rise Up, Take Back The Airwaves, Reach Out For Tales Of Our Lives". The final song on Wasted Already is named Impressed. I was very "Impressed" with this track; it’s a good way to finish the album as it gives you a bit of everything from Contra Code without ever feeling clustered. 

Contra Code are a very talented band. Punk rock musicians are not given anywhere near enough credit for the skill that they play their instruments and that's a great shame. If you want an album that will get your heat pounding, your fists flying and your head banging whilst being truly amazed by some musicianship you could do much worse than checking out Wasted Already.

Stream and download Wasted Already here: https://birdattackrecords.bandcamp.com/album/wasted-already

Like Contra Code here: https://www.facebook.com/contracode