Santa Cruz hardcore greats Scowl have been very busy the last few years. They released their awesome debut album, How Flowers Grow, in 2021 and have toured consistently behind it. They have a heavy touring schedule for 2023 too, including appearances at festivals like Coachella, Outbreak and Furnace Fest as well as a lengthy tour with Show Me The Body, Zulu and more that kicks off on 2/9 and which will hit Brooklyn Steel on 3/24.
As if they weren’t busy enough, they have now announced a brand new EP, Psychic Dance Routine, which is certainly exciting news! It will release in full on 4/7 via Flatspot Records and they have shared the first single, “Opening Night.” This one sees the band less in hardcore territory and veering more towards a cool alt-rock indie vibe.
Vocalist Kat Moss shares via press release: “‘Opening Night’ is a song I’m particularly excited about because I really worked on this song’s structure with the boys in the band,” continuing “I felt inspired by early 2000’s indie rock songs written by bands like The Strokes and Vampire Weekend. Lyrically this song takes a pretty literal stab at my experience of feeling jolted from stage to van, and back again, every single night. I also had experiences on tour where I was seeing faces in the crowd that belonged to people from my past, and it was pretty shocking.”
Scowl at Brooklyn Steel, 2022 (photo by Kate Hoos)
The song comes paired with a video that was directed by guitarist Malachi Greene. Lauded producer/musician Will Yip produced the new EP.
Listen to the song below and check out the album art and tracklist. Pre-orders are available now via Flatspot.
Scowl Psychic Dance Routine
Shot Down
Psychic Dance Routine
Wired
Opening Night
Sold Out
Levitate Music and Arts Festival is returning on July 7-9 in Marshfield, MA and this year marks their 10th anniversary as a music and arts festival and 20 years for the Levitate Brand. The organizers share: “Levitate began as a beloved community surf and skate shop, the apex of East Coast surf culture and has now grown to not only Levitate Music Festival but a year-round live music venue, clothing manufacturer, youth summer camps and their own non-profit that helps to connect kids with arts and outdoor education in communities where accessibility may not be possible.”
Levitate Co-Founder Daniel Hasset elaborated further saying, “We set out to provide a different kind of festival for our town, and New England, back in 2013- championing our local musicians and artists and building a community who believe wholeheartedly in making the world a more creative and connected place. We’re excited to use this milestone to dig into our roots and expand our arts and mural programming, partner with more local vendors than ever, doubling our kids programs and expanding our greening efforts.”
The lineup is packed with heavy hitters and will feature headlining sets from celebrated 9 time Grammy award winner, Brandi Carlile, who is making her first appearance at the festival, along with co-headliners Trey Anastasio of the legendary jam rockers, Phish, and hometown favorites, American reggae band Stick Figure. The festival will also include sets from Celisse, Goose, The Heavy Heavy, Lucius, Peach Pit, Rebulition, Ziggy Marley and many others. Tickets are on sale Thursday 2/9 at 9am.
Co-Founder and Artist director of Levitate, Jess Hassett shares “I couldn’t be prouder of what Levitate has become. The line-up is full of amazing female artists including Brandi Carlile, Lucius, Celisse, and Melt. Pro-skater Nora Vasconcellos will be exhibiting her incredible skills and our arts and mural program will feature a bigger and more diverse group of brilliant artists than ever before. It was thrilling to design the poster this year knowing how far Levitate has come and how the community has been behind it and has made what Levitate is today.”
Philly hardcore greats Soul Glo will soon embark on a headlining run around the East Coast and into the South. The tour is unfortunately not stopping in NYC, but will see the band hitting dates in their hometown, DC, Gainesville, Tampa, Miami and more as they continue to support their excellent 2022 release, Diaspora Problems, which was one of our favorites of 2022. This tour comes in addition to several festival dates including Adjacent, Coachella, Outbreak Fest and Primavera Sound.
The tour will include support from Cloud Rat and Backslider. See below for all US dates.
Soul Glo Spring 2023 Tour Dates:
3/3- Millersville, PA @ Phantom Power
3/4- Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
3/5- Gainesville, FL @ Loosey’s
3/6- Miami, FL @ Bar Nancy
3/7- Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum
3/8- Orlando, FL @ Conduit
3/9- Atlanta, GA @ Boggs Social & Supply
3/10- Richmond, VA @ Warehouse
3/11- Philadelphia, PA @ Cousin Dannys
3/12- Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
4/14- Indio, CA Coachella
4/21- Indio, CA Coachella
5/28- Atlantic City, NJ Adjacent Festival
Black Eyes, the influential experimental/art punk/post punk band, announced late last year that they were re-uniting and re-issuing their 2003 self-titled debut on Dischord to celebrate its 20th anniversary. They also announced that they would be playing a short run of re-union shows, including one at Market Hotel on 4/8, which is one of our most anticipated shows of the first half of 2023.
They have now revealed the other acts for their run of shows which will include the experimental jazz/drone duo, Blacks’ Myths on direct support for all shows, as well as openers Ecstatic International in DC and Trophy Hunt in Brooklyn, along with Pissed Jeans in Philadelphia, who will co-headline.
Additionally, the band has announced a zine, Speaking In Tongues, as well as archival recordings of demos for each album along with live recordings from two 2003 shows. They share about the zine and recordings:
“Speaking In Tongues: Black Eyes 2001-2004″ is a 44 page zine that features an extensive oral history of the band, reflections and essays from friends and organizers in DC who we worked with, interviews by the band members with groups we played with and more. It first will be on sale IRL at our shows, then online afterwards. You can preorder it on BC now.
As part of this work, we’re also putting up some archival recordings on Bandcamp: demos for both albums and live recordings from SF and Amsterdam in 2003. They’re available for preorder now as well and will be released after the shows. A purchase of a zine comes with a free download of all four albums.
This one is a labor of love, can’t wait to share it with you.”
Pre-orders are up on Bandcamp, and for only $19 with shipping for the zine and download of four albums worth of material, it’s quite the steal. Several of the the tracks are available to listen to now, two per release, including the demo of “Deformative” which is the band’s most well known song.
Scroll down to see artwork and more detailed statements on each release and head to Bandcamp for pre-orders.
“These recordings were done in preparation for our S/T album in July of 2002. Ian [MacKaye] had offered to work with us on a full length and wanted some demos of the songs as they stood. As you can hear, a number of these didn’t make the cut or got radically reworked (or recycled…the number of tracks with lyrics that ended up with wildly different music/songs is substantial). But it’s interesting to hear how things evolved and where we were as a band such a short time before heading into the studio. Any songs that are on the S/T that weren’t recorded here were written after discussing these demos with Ian and deciding that we needed some new songs to go with the ones that made the cut. Regarding the songs with just numbers as titles:as a band we referred to our songs in chronological order while we sorted out lyrics and titles. Thus 1 was the first song, 2 the second, etc…This was how we referred to these songs and how we wrote them on our setlists. This can be seen/decoded in the liner notes of the S/T LP and on the cover of “Cough” as well. The tracks that didn’t make the cut only are known by their numbers,though we did keep a few with the numbers as the actual titles as well (Nine and Ten).
Recordings were made in Hugh’s studio in his parent’s basement and were engineered/mixed by Hugh with tape op help from Paul Jickling and Matt Vanek.”
Cough Demos
“This session was done in the Summer of 2003 between our first full U.S. tour and our Fall U.S./European tours. These recordings were not originally intended as demos but were made as possible recordings for a split 12” we were planning with the band Need New Body from Philadelphia. They were another percussive and strange punk-adjacent art band who we had met and connected with when we played at MacRock in Fredericksburg, VA in the Spring of 2003. For one reason or another that record didn’t end up happening and these songs turned into the bulk of “Cough,” which we recorded in January of 2004. These recordings were done in our practice space (Daniel’s parents basement) and were engineered and mixed by Hugh. It’s hard to recall if the instrumental tracks were purposefully done as instrumentals or if they were waiting for vocal overdubs (most likely). Either way it is interesting to hear them in a different form than what they became,and closer to how we would have played them live.”
Live in San Francisco 5/23/2003
“This is a rough and raucous live set from just about the midway point of our first full U.S. tour. We had already been playing very regularly live throughout 2003 and were “road tight” by 2 weeks into the tour. Songs were played at ferocious tempos with almost a telekinetic tightness. Even though we were touring shortly after the release of our first album, more than half of our sets were made up of songs that would later become “Cough.” We immediately integrated any new material into our sets often as soon as it was ready to be played live. This show took place in a short-lived, cramped storefront gallery on Valencia Street in the Mission.”
Live in Amsterdam 11/5/2003
“This was the first show of our European tour, which started less than 2 weeks after the completion of our 7+ week North American tour. It was a live-on-the-radio recording session/show for 3VOOR12 with an interview component as well (sadly not archived). We spent our first day/evening in the Netherlands recovering from jet lag, adjusting to unheated squat life and traveling to Rotterdam to see Enon perform. This show took place the next night, when we were mostly fully recovered and ready to go and we hit the ground running with this energetic set. Also joining us on the bill that night was Cave In who was being tour managed by a former member of the DC band Scream who we chatted with about DC hardcore scene things over dinner (not sure if we asked about Dave Grohl but it would seem possible). Anyway it is nice to have such a well recorded live document of our road tightened set. Unfortunately there are a few digital glitches on the master of the recording, including one that cuts the end of Deformative short. Nonetheless, we’re happy to share this one.”
Chicago post-punk art rockers, FACS, have just announced their fitfth album, Still Life In Decay, and shared the first single “When You Say” along with a video. This album includes the final contributions from bassist Alianna Kalaba, who has since amicably parted with the band; founding member Jonathan Van Herik has returned to the band on bass for the first time since 2018. The band shares that Still Life In Decaymeant to serve as an “addendum” or “post-event review” to their 2021 album, Present Tense.
The rhythm section is on fire for this first track, Kalaba’s hypnotic, heavy bassline driving the song while drummer Noah Leger hammers the beat to bolster the rhythmic framework Brian Case’s spartan, ethereal guitar and anxious vocals sit upon. The band says via a press release that Case “utilizes his lyrics like a person suffering from anterograde amnesia, repeating phrases and holding onto old memories in a desperate attempt to avoid the slide into oblivion. Freeform poetic missives touch on themes of resignation, cynicism, class warfare, and a search for identity and meaning in a crumbling society; A primal desire to hold onto anything in a post-pandemic barrage of sensory overload.”
Still Life In Decay releases in full on 4/7 via Trouble In Mind. Listen to “When You Say” and check out tour dates, album art below.
2/12- Cincinnati, OH @ MOTR
2/14- Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool
2/15- Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
2/16- Troy, NY @ No Fun
4/6- Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
4/7- Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
4/8- Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
5/15- Pittsburgh, PA @ Government Center
5/16- Washington, DC @ DC9
5/17- Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA
5/19- Providence, RI @ Fete Lounge
5/20- Montreal, QC @ La Sotterenea
5/21- Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
7/28- Indianapolis, IN @ Post. Festival
Still Life In Decay album art and tracklisting
Constellation
When You Say
Slogan
Class Spectre
Still Life
New Flag
There’s so much going on in any given week in the music press/world of pop culture/the world at large that I can’t possibly keep up with it all. That being said, there are definitely things I see that I want to comment on and that being the case, I thought it would be fun to share some thoughts/anecdotes/snarky observations on a few things and get a little cheeky each week on things that I either liked or scoffed at that happened in the world of music/pop culture. I always love a chance to be sassy, sarcastic, and a bit over-the-top-gay, so here we are! Welcome to me serving up my aging punk nerd thoughts—not all of them polite—on some pop culture moments and music news from the preceding week. A little Sunday Brunch if you will.
A pigeon was found earlier this week in Madison Square Park in Manhattan that had been dyed pink and many quickly surmised that it was probably done so for the sake of a gender reveal and then abandoned. To which all I can say is….oh god, the normie cis-hets are at it again!
As the saying goes, there’s a lot to unpack here, what with the animal abuse and— if true that this bird was in fact dyed for the purpose of a gender reveal—the archaic clinging to heteronormative gender roles. I’m of the notion that this bird definitely and unfortunately was violated for this purpose and you know this led to me letting out a very loud scoff.
This is another “are you for fucking real right now?!” moment and I just need a minute to cue the pissed off Leia pics….
I’m also of the notion that oh I don’t know, maybe parents should back the eff off and let their spawn decide for themselves how they want to live their lives and express themselves, something that genitalia has absolutely nothing to do with. For the third week running, I have turned to Matt Bernstein’s excellent and witty takedown to emphasize my point. (Seriously, if you are not following their account already then I just don’t know about you.)
But really, this does beg the question, are straight people okay? Why does it matter what genitalia your baby is being born with? And also why does it warrant telling everyone AND abusing an animal or going to such lengths that you end up starting a fucking wild fire in the process of telling everyone?! This trend has always been cringey to begin with and has only gotten more out of control as time goes on with people keep trying to up the ante for attention/the hope of going viral on social media platforms. If my regular, normal ass, not-exactly-right-wing-but-definitely-not-left-wing-radical middle of the road parents could deal with me prancing around as a child as a miniature proto butch dyke during the Reagan era, then surely these objectively better educated and more worldly prospective parents of 2023 can get a grip.
As for the fate of the bird…it has since been named “Flamingo” and is reportedly struggling to recover as it deals with a myriad of issues including poisoning from the dye, ingested through a bird’s natural preening process. No one is likely to come forward to take responsibility for this cruel and selfish act, with Anthony Genise, a man who owns a bird rental company, being quoted in a Curbed article (that runs down more specifics on wild vs domesticated birds) “You ain’t gonna find where that bird came from.” I certainly feel for this little feathery friend and hope it makes a full recovery, but perhaps the scarier thought for me is that whoever the person who did this is, they are soon to be responsible for the life of a human child and well…that isn’t a comforting thought at all.
And on this day, sapphic screams of joy were heard round the world! Long the object of fantasies of queer women everywhere, Gillian Anderson made us collectively gasp this week when she asked women to send her their sexual fantasies on Instagram which immediately drove us into a gay tizzy. And even more than that, let’s get a hell yeah for some sex positivity for women of all sexualities! There’s absolutely nothing wrong with talking about desire, no matter who you are, but too many of us who aren’t cis men have been socialized that there is and it is somehow “taboo” or “wrong” to discuss what you want in the bedroom. Kudos to Scully…er um GILLIAN ANDERSON…for using her platform to really nail it home that this is normal, healthy and very needed.
Anderson, famed for her role as skeptical FBI agent Dana Scully on 90s cult hit The X Files, and who currently plays sex therapist Jean Milburn on the Netflix show Sex Education (I, among many other queers, choose not to acknowledge her role playing a certain Tory Prime Minister who may or may not have been in office from 1979-1990), says she’s “launching a major exploration of women and sex,” and has requested that women send her letters containing their “most personal desires” for a book she is said to be “curating,” that will feature anonymous tales detailing sexual fantasies of those among us who are not male. “Wherever you come from, whether you’re 18 or 80, you sleep with men or women or non-binary individuals or all or no one at all. I want to know your most personal desires. Let’s open up this conversation together and create something revelatory.”
Watch the video below, I’m just going to go grab my notepad and a pen………..
I also couldn’t miss the opportunity to filter this through the lens of punk (and no, I’m not talking about Anderson’s punk phase in the 80s), because I will always take any and all opportunities for that, so I would be remiss if I didn’t direct your attention to F. Emasculata, the world’s premier X Files themed hardcore band. They are one of my personal favorite bands and are based in Cornwall, UK where the band members are active in the DIY scene in this project and several others. It is unfortunate for me that they are so far away, because I rarely get to see them play live, BUT they will soon be heading to the hellfire shores of Murica for a West Coast tour in March and I may or may not be currently contemplating the purchase of a plane ticket to meet up with the tour.
Their latest release, Hail Mulder, came out in early 2022 (and made my favorites of 2022 list) and I had this to say about it at the time of release: “My favorite track is the closer, “Foxglove,” which is about one of the all time best X Files episodes ever aka also the one where Eve 6 got their name from. The riffs are heavy, the screams are severe, and the truth is out there.” Take a listen below.
I probably won’t comment all that much on the Grammy’s overall which are taking place right now as I write this. They are definitely cool, and a great honor, but just this other stratosphere of the world that is beyond me and I’m happy in my punk rock side of the world, so I generally don’t even tend to pay them much mind. But hey you never know, let’s see how the ceremony goes and perhaps I’ll have something to weigh in on this year (though surely every much more prominent music outlet will have done it before me). But sincerely, congrats to IDLES on their nomination! I love Crawler (and everything else they’ve done) and as I said in my coverage of their most recent NYC show in Sept, 2022 (see pics) “I have laughed, I have raged, and yes, I have cried” to their music. They are as deserving a group of artists to receive this honor as any.
Today I mainly stopped in here to say I love guitarist Mark Bowen’s style and the dress he is wearing to the event! I really am not up on any kind of fashion in terms of designers, so I have no clue who designed it or what label it is, it’s more the fact that I love each and every smashing of heteronormativity that ever occurs in this world in general, and love to see him owning his style in particular. Be it in his underwear or a suit and cowboy hat as I’ve seen him wear at shows to a flowery dress for press photos or a fancy, bright magenta frock at a major awards ceremony, he has a unique “fuck you this is who I am” approach to clothes that I very much admire.
I for sure can’t rock a dress that hard and I’m living for his destruction of traditional notions of hard edged masculinity throughout his work in the band, be it through his fashion choices or taking a paternity leave and having a woman fill-in for him during a major US tour. Neither thing something any male rock star of yore would have ever had the grace or confidence in themselves to do.
Suffice it to say, we need more ex-dentist rock star role models like Mark Bowen. (Yes, he is in fact a dentist and was practicing in the UK before the band blew up. Something I have spoken to him about and that he took great delight in sharing.)
