CPRW Playlist: February 2021

CPRW Playlist: Here's what Brett, Chris, Dan#2, Emma, Lara, Lee, Marcus, Omar, Richard, Robyn and myself have been listening to in February.

Album Review: Force Feeding Unhealthy Cereal Knowledge by The Cereal Killers

The Cereal Killers are a new pop punk band out of New Jersey. I was lucky enough to discover them thanks to the Punk Rock Radar Instagram account – if you’re passionate about finding great new punk bands then I seriously suggest following them. In January, the four piece band released their debut EP titled Force Feeding Unhealthy Cereal Knowledge. From that title and looking at the artwork for the EP, which features the four members of the band dressed as a Dracula, a rabbit, a tiger and a frog forcing cereal upon a tied up child, it’s obvious they are a band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Another clue on that is that they’re called The Cereal Killers. The EP features six songs that put a big smile on my face.

The EP begins with Magically Delicious. The track starts out with an audio clip of a bowl of cereal being made before it jumps into a drum roll and some guitars. Soon enough the vocals come in and we’re treated to a melodic pop punk song about the band’s love of Lucky Charms cereal despite knowing how bad they can be for you. It’s a mid-tempo song with a catchy melody that will certainly get you tapping your toes. Next is Hey Mikey Likes It which sees The Cereal Killers play a ska style. I was not expecting this but I really enjoyed it. This sound doesn’t hang around for long as the band soon hit the chorus where they revert back to a pop punk sound. The song is about a cereal named Life (something we don’t have in the UK) and the bands love for its simplicity. During the pop choruses I’m really reminded of the song Life, Hey Mikey by the McRackins. Batman Bank starts out with a much higher tempo than the previous two tracks giving the EP an injection of energy. On this track, the band talk about classic Batman cereal and bemoan the fact that they kept making Batman sequels but stopped making the cereal. It’s hilarious how passionate the band are on this subject.

The second half of the EP begins with Perfect Saturday. The track has a quiet and slow build that eases you into the song. As it progresses, the track does get more expansive without really hitting any massive highs. The song’s lyrics are the real highlight. They paint a perfect picture of a dream Saturday, eating cereal, watching cartoons and playing Nintendo. Sounds like a top quality day to me! The penultimate song is titled Silly Rabbit. My immediate thought on the song was that it has a darker tone than anything previously on the EP. The track has a couple of really interesting and catchy guitar riffs that really stand out, giving the song a really serious feel. Obviously, it’s not serious at all, it’s about cereal. Last up is Young Frankenberry. Things get heavy here – heavy for The Cereal Killers anyway. Sonically there is a hardcore vibe but the song manages to keep a great melody throughout. I’m probably going to get slated for this but it actually reminds me slightly of very early AFI and I love it. We don’t have Frankenberry cereal in the UK but after a little research I discovered that it is only sold in America around Halloween and the song is about how the cereal mixes four different flavours together to create something else. Frankenberry – Frankenstein, I get it!

Obviously this is an EP to take deadly seriously and to live your life by all the messages that spill out of it. Force Feeding Unhealthy Cereal Knowledge really made me jealous of all the different types of cereal that they have in America. We’re missing out on a lot of sugary goodness over here in the UK!

Stream and download Force Feeding Unhealthy Cereal Knowledge on Bandcamp here.

Like The Cereal Killers on Facebook here.

This review was written by Colin Clark.

Album Review: South Loop Summer by Hospital Bracelet (by Emma Prew)

I’ve recently been listening to Beach Bunny’s latest EP, Blame Game, a lot (I recently reviewed it as well if you want to check that out) and it was through Beach Bunny that stumbled across fellow Chicago-based band Hospital Bracelet. Hospital Bracelet are a three-piece emo band consisting of Eric Christopher on lead vocals and guitar, Arya Woody on bass and Manae Hammond on drums and I was blown away by their latest release. South Loop Summer is the band’s debut album and it was released by Counter Intuitive Records on 17th January. Here’s what I have to say about it…

The first of seven tracks on the album is its title track, South Loop Summer. Opening with a melodic and slightly fuzzy guitar riff, this first song serves not only as a great introduction to the record but also an introduction to Hospital Bracelet’s own brand of emotional pop punk. The track is about feeling stuck in your life, missing your friends who are miles away and simply wanting to be anywhere else but where you are right now – ‘Why are all my friends in Ohio? I’m 6 hours away from everywhere, I wish I could be, I can’t keep telling myself to be a better version of me’. There’s a bitterness in Eric’s vocals that really shows the frustration with their situation. Sober Haha Jk Unless is up next and here Hospital Bracelet take their emotion on display to another level. It’s a quieter sounding song and there is a real sense of fragility in Eric’s vocals that manages to be both soft and powerful at the same time as they sing about battling with sobriety. The songwriting and delivery of the vocals do an incredible job of making you realise just how difficult giving up alcohol (and other substances) can be.

Kicking things off with a bold, reverberating emo-style guitar riff before the pounding drums and deep bass line come in as well, Happy Birthday is a faster paced ear worm of a tune that has a great sense of building throughout its verses. It kind of reminds me of Camp Cope – which is no bad thing. The chorus of ‘Happy birthday to you’ is far from the cheery tone that you might typically associate with that phrase, as the song is about wanting to forget someone whom you don’t hold fond memories of in your mind. If big fuzzy, almost grungey guitars are your thing then you may well like the breakdown section of this track. The repetitive but super compelling emo-style riffage continues into the fourth track, Feral Rat Anthem. Like Sober Haha Jk Unless, this is a slower paced tune but it packs no less punch than some of the louder songs on the album. Eric grows angrier and angrier throughout the track’s four minute duration while singing about a particularly despicable and toxic human being. The culmination of all that pent-up anger results in a stunning bridge section that sees out the song – ‘None of this is fucking tight, None of this has ever been right, ’Cause everyone knows you’re a lying cheat, And I hope you’re always feeling incomplete, And you can go rot in hell, And I really hope you learn and never forgive yourself, Because everyone knows you’re a lying cheat, And I hope you’re always, always feeling, always feeling, always feeling, from everyone you hurt, I hope you’re always feeling incomplete’.

I may have mentioned already that this is an emotional album but with Sheetz vs Wawa Eric truly lays bare some of their most intimate and troubling thoughts and feelings – ‘I'm tryna figure out where I went wrong, Have you been this person all along? The couch wasn't good enough for you, Climbed into my bed when I begged you not to’. The song is about dealing with being at your absolute lowest low and struggling to define what it is that is expected of you. It’s difficult to know what more to say about such a deeply personal song so I’ll just suggest that you listen to it (and the whole album) yourself instead. The penultimate song on South Loop Summer sees the volume and pace cranked up for a relentlessly catchy, relatively short Dungeons & Dragons themed track. With Sour OG RPG, Hospital Bracelet cleverly have a song that is seemingly about being an unsuccessful character in everyone’s favourite role playing fantasy game but could quite easily translate to real life relationship problems. Musically, I’m reminded of Paramore but you wouldn’t ever find Hayley Williams singing ‘I’m a small rogue with no self-control, Chaotic neutral who, Can’t find a home, And you’ve got the people lining up at your door, You’re a bard with a guitar with a voice for the scoreboards’. I love this song so much and, damn, I miss playing Dungeons & Dragons. Bringing the album to a close is Summer Friends. I always think it’s fairly important for a closing track on an album or EP to sound like the last song and that’s certainly what we have here. Summer Friends feels like a combination of all that came before it – and then some. It’s emotional, of course, but it also feels more hopeful and resilient than some of the preceding tracks on the album. Lines such as ‘And I will keep on playing shows, And writing music no one knows, Because it’s worth a shot.’ make me want to throw my fist in the air in unity and agreement. The song, and indeed the album, feels like end of a certain chapter in Eric’s life before they move on to bigger and better things.

Is this my favourite album I’ve heard so far this year? Yes, I think it is. It’s been a little while since I’ve been this excited about a new band and/or new album – I literally discovered this band two days prior to me writing this review – and I want everyone I know to check this out. Please.

You can stream and download South Loop Summer on Bandcamp and like Hospital Bracelet on Facebook (although it looks as if the band is more active on Twitter and Instagram so maybe find them there instead?).

This review was written by Emma Prew.

Album Review: Blame Game by Beach Bunny (by Emma Prew)

Beach Bunny are an emotional indie rock meets power pop band from Chicago, Illinois, who, until coming to write this review, I didn’t realise were quite as ‘big’ as they are – they have their own Wikipedia page and over 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify! The band started out as the bedroom-based solo project of Lili Trifilio in 2015 and, after releasing a number of solo EPs, the band expanded to a four-piece. In February 2020 – on Valentine’s Day no less – the band released their debut album on Mom + Pop Music, Honeymoon, which was highly rated not just in indie rock circles. It was not long after this that I discovered the band and Honeymoon was on regular rotation for me throughout the Spring last year.

At the beginning of this year, 15th January to be precise, the band released a new four-track EP titled Blame Game. I must have missed the initial release of the EP as it’s now early February (at the time of writing this) and I’ve only just checked it out thanks to one of the songs popping up on my Spotify Release Radar but I am absolutely loving these four new songs.

First up on Blame Game is Good Girls (Don’t Get Used). Lili’s vocals take centre stage right away with the rhyme of ‘Say you miss me, Say you wanna kiss me’ immediately grabbing the listener’s attention. It’s a catchy tune from the outset and is oozing in feel-good vibes as Lili sings of being fed up of being messed around by a guy and saying that enough is enough. Rather than being a woe-is-me tale of heartbreak – something that I feel a lot of the tracks on Honeymoon could be described as – this is an empowering anthem that declares ‘I don’t need people like you in my life and I’m going to be just fine without you’. Love Sick is the name of the second track on Blame Game and it opens with a brilliantly infectious indie-style guitar riff that instantly has me grooving in my seat. You might think from the title of the song that Love Sick is about pining over someone but it’s actually more about being sick of love and the pressures to be ‘in love’ for a young twenty something year old woman – ‘Sick of love, I’m tired of the bullshit, Fed up with subtracting names, Need someone that isn’t an equation, Only adding up to pain.’

There’s a feeling of bitterness seething underneath the opening lines of third track, Nice Guys. After starting out fairly slowly and stripped back for the first few lines of the song, it’s not long before some crunchy guitars and pounding drums come in and build up to a hard-hitting chorus. Lili displays some of her finest lyrical work thus far with ‘I’m sick of nice guys, I want someone who actually wears hearts inside their eyes, And isn’t only interеsted in what's between my thighs, You win me likе a trophy, not a consolation prize.’ The track is a fuck you to so-called ‘nice guys’ who are far from as genuine as they seem. Bringing the EP to a close is its powerful title track, Blame Game. Musically it’s a fairly slow-paced and pleasantly melodic tune but it was the lyrics of the track that really made me stop what I was doing and pay attention when I first heard this song. Blame Game is about how people often try to justify sexual assault by saying things like ‘they were asking for it’ because of how they were dressed. The ‘blame’ is shifted to the person who has been assaulted rather than the actual abuser – ‘Guess it’s my fault my body’s fun to stare at, Sorry my clothes can’t keep your hands from grabbing, Yeah, it’s my problem, I’m asking for it, Guess you’re the victim and I’m the suspect’. It’s crazy that in 2021 this is still a problem and songs like this are needed. As Lili says, we should ‘Teach them why they shouldn’t do this, Instead of telling us [women] to hide.’

Although I enjoyed Honeymoon a lot at the time, this feels like a leap forward in terms of Lili Trifilio’s songwriting, as well as the subject matter she’s writing about. The songs feel more mature and, I guess being a good few years older than her myself, I feel like I can relate to these songs more so than the band’s previous material. With Blame Game, I feel like Beach Bunny have gone from adolescent heartache and superficial insecurities to really taking charge of their identity. These songs are passionately defiant and are the perfect combination of catchy indie punk melodies and lyrics with plenty of bite. If this EP is anything to go by, the next full-length Beach Bunny record is really going to pack a punch and I cannot wait to hear it.

You can stream and download Blame Game on Bandcamp and like Beach Bunny on Facebook.

This review was written by Emma Prew.

Album Review: Bone IDL by Bone IDL

On a recent hunt around Bandcamp, I discovered this great band from South Wales named Bone IDL. I was immediately impressed with what I heard from the band and was gutted when I discovered I’d found them too late to see if they wanted to be on CPRW Records’ Hidden Gems 2 compilation. Not to worry as I have a blog, you’re reading it now, where I can showcase great underground bands. In December Bone IDL released their debut self-titled EP and here’s my review of it.

The first of the five tracks on the EP is named Kaleidoscope. As you would expect from all great pop punk EPs, it begins with a flourish. The opening guitar acts as a siren, the drums and bass build up towards the vocals which hit you like a brick when they come in. They are absolutely ferocious and I was not expecting it. I love them though. This is the type of aggression in music that I really enjoy. The song is about the break-up of a relationship and how usually it’s not just one person’s fault. Next is The Local (Anaesthetic). This is a song about using alcohol to try and solve your problems and the effect that has on you. Vocally the song is more melodic, though there are times where that angry monster does come out. Perhaps that’s a metaphor for what the alcohol is doing? The song is less urgent than the previous track, this really allows for the storytelling element of the lyrics to really shine through.

Synonymous is the title of the third track. This song shows off both sides of Bone IDL. The first half of the song is super melodic, the opening two verses are full of great hooks and it just builds wonderfully. When we reach around the halfway point of the song we are treated to a great guitar solo (that really shreds) before that intense vocal comes back and the song finishes in this heavy manner. This is another song about the ending of a relationship. The penultimate song is 1992. I think that this is a song about holding on to your youth and your dreams when everyone around you tells you to do otherwise. This is a song a lot of people I know will relate to. The opening verse has this great walking melody that gives the song a great energy and will get you moving. And, as soon as the chorus hits, it’s time for a big sing-along! The final track on the EP is Second To One. This is where Bone IDL really turn up ready to rock. The track had me headbanging the entire way through and I loved how it again got more intense as the song progresses. The song ensures that the EP finishes much like it began, with a ferocity that feels like getting hit by a brick.

Bone IDL are a new band that I can already see getting quite a following. They have a sound that I don’t hear that often anymore and that has me excited.

Stream and download Bone IDL on Bandcamp here.

Like Bone IDL on Facebook here.

This review was written by Colin Clark.

Album Review: Dark Hands, Thunderbolts by Crazy Arm (by Emma Prew)

It’s been seven long years since Devon roots punks Crazy Arm released their last album, the somewhat stripped back alt-country Southern Wild. A lot has changed in that time and I feel more in need of new music from this band than ever before. Dark Hands, Thunderbolts is the name of Crazy Arm’s fourth album and, as one of the UK’s most-loved DIY punk bands, there’s no denying that this release has been highly anticipated. Originally recorded back in 2016, with the final finishing touches having been put in place over the summer of 2020, the album has been a long time in the making.

Dark Hands, Thunderbolts sees the band return to the loud, fast riffs and Americana twang of their first two albums which, to be honest, is the Crazy Arm I want to hear. It might have been a long time coming but I have no doubt that this album will be well worth the wait. Darren was kind enough to send me an early preview of the album which, as a long-time Crazy Arm fan (they were literally the first DIY punk band I discovered), was incredibly appreciated. At the time of writing this, the album has not been released yet but by the time this review is published you’ll be able to check it out for yourself – so go, go, go!

Dark Hands, Thunderbolts certainly gets off to a flying start with the volume levels seemingly cranked up within the first few notes of the album’s opening track, Montenegro. It’s a dramatic sounding 30 seconds or so of instrumentation before things ramp up further for a fast and furious first verse. The track was written after a touring mishap in which the band were travelling to Slovenia, refused entry to Serbia, took a ‘shortcut’ through the Albanian mountains and ended up driving along a stunning Montenegro coastline only to arrive at the show with a small audience in attendance and minutes to spare. In summary, it wasn’t worth it but it was a lesson learnt and a story to tell – plus it makes for a fine album opener. Blessed And Cursed starts more slowly than the previous track with Darren’s powerful vocals declaring ‘There's hope for you and there's hope for me, But there's no hope for us, We washed our hands of these troubled lands, And left without much fuss, with no-one left to trust’. It’s a bold opening that leads us into a bluesy punk rock tune with slower paced verses intertwined between hard hitting, err, other verses. It’s hard to specifically categorise one section of the song as being a chorus or a bridge, instead the whole song seems to build triumphantly throughout its duration until a rather abrupt but suitable ending. Fun fact: This is the first Crazy Arm track to feature a trumpet (Simon Dobson) but hopefully not the last. (Spoiler alert: There’s more coming up.)

The foot-stompingly energetic and awesome ball of energy Brave Starts Here is next up. It’s a track I’ve been listening to a lot over the past few months, since the band released it as the first single from the album in November, and is also one I’m pretty sure I’ve heard live – although who knows when the last time I saw Crazy Arm live was! Described as ‘occupying that sweet spot between bluegrass and punk rock’ and featuring some suitably earwormy riffs and lyrical content, it’s easy to see why this was chosen as the lead single from Dark Hands, Thunderbolts. I can already imagine this song being a crowdpleaser alongside classics such as Still To Keep and Tribes, maybe it’s something about those soaring whoa-ohs towards the end of the track. One thing Crazy Arm have always been very good at is creating hugely atmospheric sounding songs that feel like the pages of a novel brought to life. That’s exactly the feeling I get from the fourth track, Fear Up. Something about the way the song switches from gentle finger picked guitars to a chugging rhythm section and onto an almost eerie, resonating guitar part which is later completed with a distinct trumpet melody, just feels so cinematic. Lyrically, the song is a dark one (‘Lonesome and tender, broken and gone, Death loves a cold heart, death wait your turn.’) and the title itself is US military slang for silencing citizens through the threat of violence. A powerful and thought-provoking track if ever there was one.

Dark Hands, Thunderbolts features two instrumental interludes and the first of which, Dearborn, is up next. The violin (Samantha Spake) takes centre stage and the track feels very much like a continuation of the cinematic feelings I was getting with the previous song. It’s a beautiful piece of music that seems to allow the listener to pause for breath and contemplate. As the violins fade away we are soon thrust into a distortion heavy and bassy introduction to the sixth track on the album, The Golden Hind. Injecting political themes into their music is certainly nothing new for Crazy Arm and with The Golden Hind they take aim at the band’s Brexit-voting hometown – ‘So please be kind to The Golden Hind, And say oh-oh-oh-oh, It’s not our fault that we’re deaf, dumb and blind, We say oh-oh-oh-oh.’. The passion and frustration is clear throughout the track’s three and a half minute duration – this is definitely a song to be played loud. Starting out with an attention-grabbing bass line and simple drum beat, Loose Lips is another song that is begging to be played really loud – basically, this whole album needs the volume cranked right up! The song is a truly powerful ode in solidarity with refugees. In fact, for much of the song, the lyrics seem to be from the point of view of the refugee – ‘Personification of dependency, I’m the one who knocks upon the door of need, Demystification got a hold of me, Watch the scales fall from my eyes and set me free.’. I imagine most Crazy Arm listeners are decent human beings who already sympathise with refugees but, on the off chance there are some who are less kind, maybe this song will win them over. It’s an incredible track either way.

Mow The Sward takes a slightly different turn musically, reining in a notch on the post-hardcore vibes of the previous couple of songs and instead going for a more straight up melodic, almost heartland rock style. There are parts of the song that wouldn’t sound out of place on Crazy Arm’s debut album, Born To Ruin, but that definitely doesn’t mean that this is a rehashing of old material. In fact, wedged in between the heavier sounding tracks, it sounds uplifting and fresh. Mow The Sward also features one of my favourite bridge parts of the album – ‘Fuck your views and fuck your advice, Think good thoughts and live a bad life, Gotta move fast, gotta work hard, Gotta knuckle down and play the right chords, Not comatose, not under-dosed, You gotta push ’til you explode, It's all the same, it always is.’ The ninth song of Dark Hands, Thunderbolts is titled …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Meds. It’s a frantic sounding song and, at less than two and a half minutes in length, is a pretty short one by Crazy Arm standards. Both of these elements further emphasise the theme of the song: mental health. In particular, the song focusses on the taking of medication – hence the title – to deal with ongoing depression. It’s a hard hitting track, both lyrically and musically, but is one that some listeners no doubt will be able to relate to. Paradiso is the second of Dark Hands, Thunderbolts’ two interludes and it somehow manages to feel even more cinematic than the first. The star of the show here is the almost dreamlike trumpet playing which is subtly backed up by gentle guitar strumming. It’s a melancholic interval that once again provides the listener with a moment’s pause before we get back into the last part of the album.

The eleventh song of the album comes in the form of the anthemic Epicurean Firestorm. The band were apparently trying for an Arcade Fire style song here which I guess they’ve achieved in that it sounds like a song that could be played in front of a large arena audience, with plenty of ‘Oh oh ohs’ for the crowd to sing back at the band. Overall, the track feels like a call to arms for like minded folk to stand up and be the change that they want to see. Let’s face it, we are living in dark times with the pandemic and climate change just two of the world’s biggest problems – ‘An epic plague, an epic fire, A new disease, a new desire, An endless flood, a killer swarm, We'll have to learn to save ourselves.’. As the album begins to draw to a close, don’t think for a second that Crazy Arm are about to tone things down. Howl Of The Heart is a passionate, reverberating punk rock number that has just the right level of Americana twang for it to be instantly recognisable as a Crazy Arm song. With the chorus mentioning open roads, lonesome crows and hungry wolves, I feel instantly transported to some far off North American mountain range… Did I mention that Crazy Arm have a knack for creating music that feels like you’re reading a book?

The penultimate song of Dark Hands, Thunderbolts is Demonised, channeling feelings of existential dread. Beginning slowly with a repetitive and firm guitar riff, there’s a feeling of building throughout the track’s duration which feels appropriate given that we are almost at the end of the album. Relatively speaking this is one of the more slow paced songs on the album but things do pick up, in terms of pace and volume, for a memorable chorus of ‘Call a doctor, chiropractor, Troubled waters run deep, Call a doctor, call a lawyer, Note to self: don't forget to breathe.’ and beyond into the track’s frenetic bridge. It’s a stark contrast when we come to Dark Hand, Thunderbolts’ closing track which kicks off with a distinctly bluegrass-sounding riff. Health Is In You! is perhaps a case of saving the best for last as this is one hell of a song. It’s catchy, it’s fiery and most importantly it is defiantly pro-feminist. The track is described as being a ‘rejection of patriarchy, a celebration of sensitivity, and a refusal to stay silent in the face of everyday sexism’ and I’d like to say that we don’t need songs like this in 2021, but we do. So, thank you Crazy Arm. ‘Just don't say it if you can't defend it, Just don't do it, we can all see through it, Just don't say shit if you can't defend it, I don't wanna, I don't wanna hear it, Just don't say it if you can't defend it, Man, don't say shit if you can't defend it.’

I’ll be honest, I am not used to reviewing albums that have more than ten songs on them – and Dark Hands, Thunderbolts has fourteen – but this is such a complex and well thought out, wide-ranging collection of songs that no song sounds out of place or unnecessary as part of the whole package. It’s an ambitious fourth album, that’s for sure, but I certainly think Crazy Arm have pulled it off.

Dark Hands, Thunderbolts is out now on Xtra Mile Recordings and you can find it in all the usual places, including on Bandcamp where you can pre-order the vinyl (which is due to ship in mid-March).

Like Crazy Arm on Facebook.

This review was written by Emma Prew.

Album Review: TNSRecords Volume 4: Cheap Cans, Broken Vans and Basement Bar Bands

The much loved and respected Manchester based DIY record label TNSRecords is just about to put out their 100th release. This is an incredible achievement and, before we delve deeper into the release, I just want to congratulate Andy and Bev for this huge accomplishment. Well done guys, it’s amazing!

When I discovered that TNS were closing in on their 100th release, I speculated to myself as to what it would be. I assumed that it would be a compilation but figured it would be a kind of TNS best of, featuring Andy and Bev’s favourite songs that the label has put out over the first 99 releases. Or perhaps it would be the current active bands on their roster covering songs from classic releases – that would be cool. Instead they decided to release a compilation featuring 33 bands that are a combination of the newer bands that TNS has released music by, as well as up and coming bands that they like and want to give some exposure too. TNS has always been about being progressive and looking forward and this is a fine example of that.

I probably should’ve mentioned by this point that the compilation is titled TNSRecords Volume 4: Cheap Cans, Broken Vans and Basement Bar Bands and it’s being released on vinyl and CD on the 19th of February. Buy it here.

Now on with the actual review. We don’t normally do compilation reviews for the simple reason that there are lots of bands – and to try and go into detail about each song will break me and also probably bore you. So, for this review, I’m going to try and give a running commentary on my thoughts of the compilation as I listen through it. I’m going to set myself a rule of only listening to each song three times to stop myself getting too detailed.

First up is Incisions and their song New Day. The Manchester based hardcore act have been carving out a big audience for themselves amongst the UK DIY scene over the past few years and their upcoming new album, Bliss, looks set to continue their momentum.

Jodie Faster play short and fast punk rock songs. The band have been together since 2016 and have already found a massive fan base for themselves. Don’t Take It Bad opens with a hyperactive guitar riff and the vocals add much ferocity to the track.

Midlands based four piece Brassick provide their song They Say. The track welcomes you in with a great melody before lead singer Nicola McCarthy’s powerful vocals take you through a hard hitting and political song that will unite a crowd.

Faintest Idea are long time friends of TNS and really HAD to be on this compilation. Stomp ’Em Down is the first single from their long awaited next album. If this single is anything to go by then it’s going to be fantastic. Mixing street punk with ska to incredible effect, Faintest Idea continue to be one of the best bands in the UK.

Fun fact: Nosebleed were the penultimate band I saw live before gigs stopped. They’ve gained a reputation for being one of the best live bands in the UK and are also pretty damn good on record too. Playing an amped up version of garage punk, the Leeds based three-piece are one of the most exciting bands in the UK at the moment and their song I Got You shows you exactly why. Fast paced, catchy and will have you getting your finest dancing shoes on.

Another of the UK’s most exciting new bands are Aerial Salad. Despite their young age, Aerial Salad seem like they’ve been around forever now and it’s been absolutely wonderful seeing them progress with each release. 2020’s Dirt Mall saw them take another giant leap forward with their grungey take on pop punk. Mainstream attention deservedly awaits Jamie, Mike and Matt.

In Evil Hour are a melodic punk rock band from Darlington, UK. The track 2050 is my favourite I’ve heard from the four piece. It begins slowly and builds and builds. The further you go into the song, the angrier it gets and it does a great job taking you along for the ride. Alice’s vocals are superb throughout, one of the best voices in UK punk rock.

DIY punk legends The Restarts provide the song Freedom From. Delivering a slice of thrashy hardcore punk rock from London. The song is unrelenting throughout and goes by like a tornado. Fast guitars, thumbing drums and snarling vocals.

Hastings’ punk act Haest are another new band quickly making a name for themselves. There seems to be an affinity between Hastings and TNS so it wasn’t surprising to find Haest on this album. The Turtle In The Handbag is a hard rocking punk song that has a bit of a throwback feel to it.

Another long time friend of TNS are Warrinton’s folk punks Roughneck Riot. The band took a short break in 2019 and were due to make their triumphant return in 2020. Unfortunately all of the tragedy of 2020 happened and they were unable to get back for any live shows but it seems they were able to get into the studio at some point to record some songs. The track, A New Day Is Dawning, is an uplifting song about better times being on the horizon.

Knife Club are a TNSRecords supergroup. There was a lot of mystery surrounding the band before they eventually revealed their members last year. Sadly they haven’t been able to play any shows yet but they did put out a phenomenal album in the form of We Are Knife Club last year. Fronted by Andy Davies (TNS/ROTPM) and Zoë Barrow (Casual Nausea), You Can Only Try Your Best is a new and unreleased song that is really empowering. This is perhaps my favourite thing from the band so far.

A lot of people have been talking about Bobby Funk in the past year and their song I’m A Cat has been proclaimed by many as the best song of 2020. Hailing from Falmouth in Cornwall, Bobby Funk play fast and straightforward punk rock that’s a lot of fun.

Harijan were one of the first bands that TNS released music by and, at the end of 2020, they finally released their debut album. Paranoid is one of my favourite tracks on the album. It’s an upbeat song that showcases lead singer Mike’s distinctive voice brilliantly. This is another song that you’ll need to get your dancing shoes ready for.

Youth Avoiders bring back the angry hardcore with their song Steel Concrete. A very apt name for such a hard song. There are no wasted moments in the song as the French band storm through the song. Steel Concrete actually comes from an album named Relentless which is the perfect way to describe this song.

Pi$$er are another super group who feature current and ex members of bands such as The Domestics, Revenge Of The Psychotronic Man, Doom, Beat The Red Light and many more. Playing d-beat hardcore with a saxophone, they are one of the more unique bands to have emerged in recent years and certainly one to look out for.

Bristol’s Martyrials offer up a synthesized take on the punk rock genre. This is clearly a band not afraid to venture outside of the box and they’ve managed to create something quite wonderful. Sonically Parachute will have you dancing away, there’s a great energy that gives the song an urgent feel and vocally there is plenty of bite.

Dundee gruff punks Uniforms have been a big favourite of mine for years now and I was very pleased to see them featured on the compilation. Searchlights comes from the EP Reasons To Breathe which was co-released by TNS and Make-That-A-Take Records in 2018. It’s an absolutely banging song from one of the UK’s best bands.

I can remember seeing Wales’ Grand Collapse at MPF 2 in 2016 and they seem to have had a relationship with TNS ever since. The four piece play blisteringly fast hardcore that will get a mosh pit moving like a hurricane or make a room full of people aggressively bang their heads in unison. Calvin’s vocals really make you pay attention to the song and the band show considerable skill with their instruments with some really technical riffs and drum lines.

Casual Nausea are a five piece from Ipswich. Casual Nausea are one of the UK’s most interesting sounding bands. Mixing street punk with hardcore, they feature great dual vocals that work incredibly well together. The song Empty Rewards is a real ear worm of a song that really stands out amongst all of the other great songs on this album. It’s really infectious.

Sandwiching Casual Nausea in a Welsh hardcore sandwich are Pizzatramp. Pizzatramp showcase the trashier side of hardcore, playing three chord punk rock as fast as they possibly can. I Got Work In The Morning tells a tale of not being able to live the life you really want to because you have your rubbish day job the next day. Something we can all relate to!

Everyone’s favourite folk punk band Stöj Snak are up next. The Danish band have a long running history with TNS dating back to lead singer Niels’ old hardcore band, Mighty Midgets. If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t discovered Stöj Snak yet, they play passionate and angry folk punk and can inspire alongside really tugging on your heartstrings. A firm CPRW favourite.

Manchester’s The Sewer Cats are a duo who play fuzzy, distorted punk rock. On the song Rich Cheaters, I really enjoyed how the song manages to jump between an almost poppy garage punk sound to some really angry, visceral hardcore. This is a political song that’s very fitting for the current age.

The Domestics are from Suffolk and featured is the song Don’t Tell Me What Love Is. This is a rapid-fire hardcore track that never stops for breath. The vocals on the verse are so fast it’s quite hard to make them out but I’m guessing that the song is about not conforming to what THEY tell you love is, it can be whatever you want it to be. Have a listen to the song and see what you think is going on.

Former Bootscraper member Tim Loud throws a fantastic sonic curveball into the record. The long time associate of TNS provides a country tinged rock track that showcases their brilliant ability to tell a story through a song. This is the first physical release of Anyone Else But Me as it’s only been released digitally in the past.

Skinny Milk are a duo from Brighton. Playing fuzzy punk with a shoegaze element to their sound, Skinny Milk are a new band to me and already sound like one that could make a big splash on the DIY scene as well as a more mainstream one.

Daves are a band I’ve been excited about since Sarah from Shout Louder suggested them for Do It Together Fest in January 2020. Unfortunately they were busy playing another show that weekend so we were unable to book them and I am yet to see them live. I love their fast, gruff sound. This is the type of punk that gets me singing along with my fist firmly punching the air.

If you’ve been following TNS over the last few years you’ll be very aware of Follow Your Dreams. I always feel like hardcore is one of the hardest genres under the punk umbrella to make sound original but Follow Your Dreams found a way. Using a wide array of pedals to make some fantastic guitar tones, you never know where a Follow Your Dreams song is going to take you and Kaz is a superb frontperson for the band. When you can, check them out live.

Like their fellow folk punk comrades Roughneck Riot, Matilda’s Scoundrels recently took some time off but now they are back. The Hastings bands are another with a long standing relationship with TNS and their popularity has grown massively over the past few years. They are now one of the must-see touring acts on the circuit.

Falmouth’s Rash Decision are a long running band in the DIY scene, known for their fast and thrashy hardcore punk rock songs. Their track The Martockian has a nice long intro that really builds the song up before launching into an unrelenting minute or so that is full of everything you would expect – energy, aggression, urgency, passion and ferocity.

German hard rockers Christmas are a band TNS have been championing for a while. The song Push Fast is from the TNS released album Hot Nights In Saint Vandal. It’s a heavy slab of melodic punk with vile fuelled vocals and loads of whoa-oh harmonies that really pull you into the song.

Throwing Stuff’s no-nonsense approach to punk rock has long entertained me. It was quite a surprise when they released A.C.I.Y.H.A.B. out of the blue digitally last year. Its appearance here is its first physical release and I can’t think of a better place for it to be. The song is about changing your attitude towards what you’re taught about the police and realising what they can really be like. Sadly, not all police people are good eggs.

The penultimate track comes from who I think is the newest band on the compilation but they do have a long history with TNS. Redeemon are a band birthed from the ashes of Beat The Red Light who were one of the first bands on TNS’ roster. On the track Anaphylactic, Redeemon take the skacore and metal that BTRL were so loved for an add even more influences that shouldn’t work as well as they do.

The final song is from Speed Dinosaurs. Stegasaurid is the perfect song to finish the compilation with. It’s a softer, ukulele lead song about the dinosaur Stegasaurid. It’s fun and silly and really fits the TNS sense of humour that’s been apparent over the years.

Cheap Cans, Broken Vans and Basement Bar Bands is a fantastic showcase of the amazing talent doing fantastic things in punk rock at the moment. It’s a varied collection of tracks that has something for everyone. The different and diverse styles of punk rock will allow listeners to check out new styles that wouldn’t be their usual go to – I’m a big fan. The compilation is a fitting 100th release for such an important and influential album from the UK’s DIY scene.

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This review was written by Colin Clark.