It’s that time again, our Year-End Top Ten Issue, with 2016 best-of lists by everyone from your favorite band, column, or label. We’ve also got hand-picked show photos from Angela Owens and Farrah Skeiky, and art throughout by Sarah Sequoia. Plus, we talk with Boston goth femme punks DAME, Glasgow’s ANXIETY teach us about “wimpy hardcore,” FUCKING from Minneapolis live up to their name, then we delve into Filipino Oi! with the EXSENADORS and Finnish post-punk with APATHETICS. All this plus letters, columns, and the record, book, film, and zine reviews you love. Start the new year off right with Maximum Rocknroll!
OUT OF PRINT.
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“New Blood” is our weekly feature spotlighting new bands from around the world! See below for info on how to submit. Now, check out some killer new shit…
Band name:
VOG
Date & location formed:
February 14, 2016 ~ HAPPY VOGGINTIMES DAY ~ in dreary Portland, Oregon.
Reason for forming:
Well after the brutal divorce and losing the kids to the international phenomenon known as Pokemon Go, I had no idea who I was anymore. My identity as a “Family Guy” had been ripped apart and no amount of import car buying or leaving nasty comments on lady strangers’ Instagram accounts was going to get me through this putrid wasteland called life. I finally called up the ole gang from the Hot Topic stockroom, and we all agreed that the best thing for 4 sexy, rock ‘n rollin’, middle-aged studs to do was to either try improv comedy or get the band back together.
What are your lyrics about?
The Mall. Confronting The Man. Avoiding Taxes – not as a rich person, but as a very poor and lowly mall rodent. Many of our songs are also just shout outs to all the cool dogs and innocent babies out there.
How would you describe your sound?
Make Amps Crate Again.
Fog (photo by Erika Elizabeth)
What’s in the future for this band?
We’re working on some more one-minute hits, and we’re planning on touring East + West Coast in 2017. No word yet on an interior continent tour, though we’re pretty fond of the Mall of America. And just to let all you silly “punx” know: We’re tired of “all ages” shows filled with BORING ADULTS and APATHETIC TEENS. We will not rest until those sweet, innocent babies get their rightful place at the show. BABIES TO THE FRONT! P.S. If you work at the Hot Topic in the Mall of America, please help us get a show there. Thanks.
Date & location formed:
Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Sometime in 2015? Maybe February.
Reason for forming:
Fuck the boys club! As a reason for the four of us to hang out and drink champagne every week. Some of us had never been in a band before and thought it was about time.
What are your lyrics about?
They are read off an iPad at live shows. Kayla reads Amazon reviews for sex swings, gross texts from straight white boys on Tinder (she has a lovely partner named Chris who is in a great band called Melted Mirror, so they are not from experience.) They are read from this website called straightwhiteboystexting.org which is definitely NSFW, and is updated often with horrifying messages. So the song kind of changes every time, but we think the recorded version turned out really great. And then there’s a song that educates us on how a pet rat can help you through depression.
How would you describe your sound?
A little post-punky, but also poppy. Someone called us “twee” recently which is confusing but fun.
What’s in the future for this band?
Playing shows around Calgary and supporting the local music community. Gwen, one of our members, is one of the founders of a cool new all ages venue at the local bike co-op, The Good Life Community Bike Shop. It’s something that Calgary needs so badly. They just had their first show and it was awesome — we hope to be involved with and support more stuff like that.
Date & location formed:
We started jamming this band early January/February 2015 and played our first show later that month, in Boise, Idaho.
Reason for forming:
Since the summer of 2010 when we started playing punk, we’ve always been influenced by early 80s hardcore and that was it. We did bands like 1d, Grocery List, Flanders Ned, & our main inspiration was always my dad’s band State of Confusion, and Negative Approach. Strictly real style hardcore and not much else. Things went weird with lots of our friends and we weren’t really doing much music at the time. Ingrown started as a last minute “ah fuck let’s just form a new band and play that show next month” kinda idea, then we just stopped doing what we always did and wrote different stuff.
What are your lyrics about?
Mostly about hating bullies and racist bastards. Boise’s scene is dramatic as hell and lots of people are shit talkers so I just write about how I don’t like anything about them and want to hurt em really badly.
Ingrown (photo by Angela Owens)
How would you describe your sound?
We started writing differently than we ever had and kinda didn’t know what we were doing. We realized Dave can blast insanely well. Then I just wanted to strum as fast as I can. We started caring less about following the same guidelines we always had, so we went for something new. It was like hardcore with a lot of blasting poured all over it then a few breakdowns stuffed in the middle. We realized two stepping kicks ass too.
What’s in the future for this band?
Continuing to live the dream. We’ve recorded, put out a tape, played OHC, and toured. That’s everything we’ve ever wanted to do and it’s all we’re gonna continue to do over and over! We’re gonna do some cool little stuff within the next few months then wanna do a tour in the summer that’s gonna be way too long for us to handle. We’re gonna go to olympia in a month and record 5 or 6 brand new songs then see how that gets put out.
Date & location formed:
We formed in Apr. 2015 from Tokyo,Japan.
Reason for forming:
Spreading the heavy and brutal sound.
What are your lyrics about?
Hate,anger,depression,death and human stupidity.
How would you describe your sound?
Modern Powerviolence mixed with 90’s metalcore like Disembodied,early Zao etc.
What’s in the future for this band?
Our bassist might quit the band next year when he graduates from University. If so, our activity would get a little slower.
Reason for forming:
We (Dave and Chris) have talked about starting a project for years, and finally teamed up with like minded friends (Joe and Kevin) for some fast, straightforward hardcore.
What are your lyrics about?
Social commentary- not exclusively political. With all that’s been going on this year it’s hard to not fall into that.
How would you describe your sound?
We have multiple members bringing songs in and the results are usually pretty fast and short. US hardcore style with some Euro/Japan influence.
What’s in the future for this band?
Our debut 7″ (remixed version of our demo) will be out very soon on Fair Warning. New songs, more shows… Hopefully some touring in 2017!
Do you have or know of an awesome new band*? It’s easy to submit to be in MRR’s New Blood feature — just email us the following info, and keep keeping’ it real…
1) Band name:
2) Date & location formed:
3) Reason for forming:
4) What are your lyrics about?
5) How would you describe your sound?
6) What’s in the future for this band?
7) Links and contact info:
Along with the answers please send a band photo at least 600px on the longest side (with photo credits), and a logo if you have one, to:
*By “new band” we mean a band that formed within the past year or year and a half.
Here’s the December 2016 issue of Maximum Rocknroll, #403 — the all-China issue! We’ve got a Chinese punk history primer, scene reports from Bejing, Wuhan, and Guangdong, an annotated discography of Chinese punk, and reprints of MRR features on Chinese punk straight from our archive. We have interviews with experimental indie band SUBS, noise punkers DIDERS, and heavy metal influenced street punks DEMERIT. We’ve also got photo spreads from Toronto’s Not Dead Yet Fest, along with the Slovakian crust band BETON’s photo tour diary of Brazil. Plus, a guest column by Arina Moiseyenko as well as all of our regular columns and reviews. Don’t miss out!
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MRR #402 is here, the November 2016 edition of the most comprehensive fanzine in punk. This issue features an interview with the official archivists of Dischord Records: Ian MacKaye and Nichole Procopenko. On top of that: interviews with HALLELUJAH! from Italy, Melted Ice Cream Records from New Zealand, French Oi! powerhouse RIXE, melodic Mexico City duo CREMALLERAS, Portland post-punkers LITHICS, and LAS VENAS from Madrid. Plus: features on renowned drummer Charles Hayward of THIS HEAT, Japanese-style hardcore by way of Greece DIRTY WOMBS, and Philadelphia D-beat band DRONEZ. We’ve also got photo spreads featuring AMERICAN HATE, LUMPY AND THE DUMPERS, and LEMONADE on a steamboat in Omaha, Nebraska, selections from the Toronto Women in Punk Calendar and shots from Olympia Hardcore Fest by Angela Owens. All that plus all your favorite columnists and the biggest reviews section in punk, don’t miss it!
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Here it is, Maximum Rocknroll #401, October 2016. This special edition is our ART ISSUE—how much can you take? We’ve got an interview with Olivia Gibb, who came all the way out from Kansas City as our very first MRR artist-in-residence to design this issue’s cover, and conversations between Tokyo photographer Chiro Yoshikawa and Los Angeles artist/designer Sonya Sombreuil (of Come Tees renown) as well as between Toronto’s Lia Lepre and Sebbe Melbourne. Plus: interviews with Los Angeles-based artist Jess Scott, New Orleanian comics artist Ben Passmore, and Indiana’s Alex Micallef; a convo between Osa Atoe and video artist Perry Holstein; and a feature on the “This Record Changed My Life” exhibition at Copenhagen’s K-Town Hardcore Fest. Other artists represented in this issue include Sarah Sequoia, Ashley Hohman, Apolo Cacho, Sam Wallman, Shitboy Face, Trevor 32, Mónica Di Francesco, Luke Kislak, Aaron Demuth, Cecilia Calidera, Joseph Heuermann, Keith Caves, Josh Feigert, and Rael Brian Rau. On top of all that, we’ve got a photo spread from a gig at the Casa Club Ramones museum on the outskirts of Mexico City, the latest dirt from our columnists, and more reviews than you can handle.
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You can SUBSCRIBE to MRR for as little as $26 and have over 120 pages of punk sent to you every month! Hundreds of record reviews, exclusive features and interviews, all your favorite columnists and much, much more.
Out now! MRR #411 • Aug 2017
Pinoy Punk Special featuring the SF Bay Area’s Aklasan Fest, Manila infoshop Etniko Bandido, the Flowergrave Collective, Quezon City’s Chuck Baclagon, NYC’s Gary Kadena, autonomous spaces and infoshops in the Philippines, Bamboo Girl zine, zinesters elena corinne of Brown Recluse Zine Distro and Honey Andres, MATERIAL SUPPORT and NAMATAY SA INGAY from NYC, Manila’s VEILS, THROW, the Bay Area’s HAFNER, Filipino grindcore, and a massive Pinoy punk scene report.
Band name:
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