Author Archives: natalie

New Bleed From Within Video ‘Uprising’

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I’ll be honest, this one gets massive props from me just for the vague (and possibly unintentional) Crow film reference. See the flames? Bleed From Within clearly have some good movie collections..

Anyway, this is the title track from the Scottish metallers new album, due out on March 25. Even better news is the fact that you can download the single for free now, from the Century Media website. Oh, and did I mention the band are on tour with Heart of a Coward (groove metal, apparently) this April?

As usual, dates and locations are on Facebook.

Enjoy!

RC xx 

Film: The Runaways

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Tonight I’ve been having a quiet night in, watching The Runaways. The film, starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning is based on the early life of Joan Jett (played pretty well actually, by Stewart) and her first band The Runaways.

It’s quite a good insight into the lives of bands in the 1970s, particularly the rise of female bands in rock and working the publicity machine. Not to mention the soundtrack is amazing. Its definitely inspired me to check out some of The Runaways and Joan Jett’s early work.. Especially for tracks like this:

RC xx

Friday Classic – HIM ‘Buried Alive By Love’

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I’ve been a fan of Finnish ‘Love Metallers’ HIM since my early teens. It must’ve been one of my first un-adult accompanied gigs when I went to see them at Portsmouth Guildhall. Thanks to a brief sound problem (causing many over 18s to head straight to the bar) we managed to squeeze our way close to the front. Lead singer Ville Valo prowled the stage, cigarette in hand, rich baritone voice echoing the room like some untouchable rock God.

All the way home they were the only thing we could talk about. Did they wander about Portsmouth before the show? Had they stood where we were standing now? Years later, when I briefly moved to the city, walking past the Guildhall on a night out would still bring back happy memories.

‘Buried Alive By Love’ has to be my favourite song of HIM’s (and one that I used to have playing on repeat on the bus to college). It features the beautiful Juliette Lewis (of Natural Born Killers fame).

What are they up to now?

The band are releasing their eighth album ‘Tears On Tape’ on April 29th. They’re touring pretty constantly from April onwards. More info on their facebook here.

RC xx

Happy Birthday Kurt Cobain

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I was going to write about things to buy today, like I usually do on Wednesday. Today though, its the birthday of one of my favourite musicians, taken far too long before his time: Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain, the frontman of Seattle grunge trio (and hugely influential band) Nirvana would’ve been 46 today. I can’t think of a better example to remind people of what a loss his tragic suicide at 27 was than this cover of ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night’, a traditional folk song.

I guess the lesson we can all take from this, is to seek help if you have a problem. Call the Samaritans (or your country’s equivalent). Don’t deprive the world of what you have to offer it.

Happy birthday Kurt Cobain. 19 years on, you are still greatly missed.

RC xx

Album Review: Pure Love ‘Anthems’

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I’ve been desperately trying to keep up with Pure Love. Last year, having seen Gallows at Reading festival and become a vague fan, I decided to go to their Valentines day gig in Shepherd’s Bush. It wasn’t to be though. The friend I was planning to go with was running late at work. We’d made plans, I couldn’t go alone and leave her with nothing to do on the most romantic day of the year (debatable). Not when we were both single.

To cut a long story short, we spent the evening drowning our sorrows in wine and chocolate. It wasn’t a bad night, but I couldn’t help feeling that I’d missed out. This year I missed out again as I already had plans. Safe to say, I’ve been pretty determined not to miss out on their album release.

purelove

As the name suggests, the album is full of anthems, dedicated to the lost young people today. The band manage to sum it up pretty well, sauntering through dark relationships in ‘She’. There’s even a quick reference to singer Frank Carter’s departure from Gallows two years ago on ‘Bury My Bones’ as he growls ‘I’m so sick of singing about hate..’.

‘The Hits’ is a straight-up punk song, with ‘Anthem’ adding an underlying bluesy tone, almost reminiscent of The Gaslight Anthem. (Even if I can’t help thinking of the ‘down and out’ song from Bugsy Malone).

The record really picks up with the more joyful ‘Beach of Diamonds’ and rock’n’roll esque ‘Handsome Devils Club’. The entire record’s intended outreach can be summed up in the track’s lyrics ‘we are the wrong and the guilty, we are the young and the unimpressed’.

‘Riot Song’ is an instant classic, starting off a little slow, only to channel The Clash with the ear-worming chanting ‘there’s a riot on the streets of England’. ‘March of the Pilgrims’ is a more than fitting finale to the record, building up to a roaring crescendo

I wouldn’t quite associate the songs with the name Pure Love, but this record definitely fits the band members’ description of being a more positive take on life than the savage angst of Gallows. Its definitely a fitting anthem for the so called ‘lost generation’, almost becoming what you wanted Greenday’s American Idiot to be; churning the hopelessness of today’s recession-clad society into a cry for change.

‘Anthems’ is out now.

RC xx

New Music Monday: Napoleon ‘Brought Here To Suffer’

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Hey you! Yes you! Like a bit of melodic-hardcore? Then stop what you’re doing and listen to this..

Napoleon are a 4-piece unsigned hardcore rock band from Exeter. Unfortunately, vague youtube comments tell me their singer is leaving, but hopefully that won’t stop them from being awesome tunes like this to the public!

Check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/Napoleon.Devon

RC xx

Anti-Flag Join ‘Toast To Freedom’ For Amnesty International

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I love hearing that bands I admire are involved in something that I really care about. This is a perfect example: Anti-Flag are the newest bands to team up with Amnesty International for their 50th Anniversary.

The song, ‘Toast To Freedom’ was written by Carl Carlton (Robert Palmer, Eric Burdon, Keb Mo) and Larry Campbell (Levon Helm Band, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello), as well as  Jochen Wilms and Art for Amnesty founder Bill Shipsey.

Nearly 50 artists collaborated on the recordings, including Marianne Faithful and Kris Kristofferson. More have joined in later to record their own versions of the track, ranging from students at the Institute for Music of the College at Osnabrueck to Russian rapper Basta.

Proceeds of the song will go to benefit Amnesty International, a charity campaigning against human rights abuses.

You can listen to Anti-Flag’s cover below:

For more info, check out http://toasttofreedom.org and http://www.amnesty.org/

RC xx

Kerrang Tour, Brixton Academy 15/02/13

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After two weeks of ransacking the UK, the now infamous Kerrang tour finally reached the capital. I went along, just to see what the fuss was about..

Arriving late, I breezed through security and rushed straight into the main standing area, just in time to catch Tonight Is Alive performing their last few songs. There’s a nice moment where the crowd get their lighters out (only in London would there be more lighters than mobiles). It’s only slightly ruined by a friend of mine telling me how much the band like to run around naked backstage. Constantly.

Tonight Alive

The Aussie’s slick pop-punk tunes go down nicely. Its just a shame the venue isn’t more full. It might be the downstairs age limit, or the early start time, but for a tour so huge, its surprisingly to see so many empty spaces.

The arrival of Chiodos is heraled by Taylor Swift’s ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ blaring out of the speakers. The crowds reaction is overwhelmingly positive. There group of barely clothed teenage girls behind me scream and dance around. They scream even more as the band come onstage.

The band growl their way through the set, inspiring a few ‘hands in the air’ moments, but overall its nothing spectacular. By the time they start to clear the stage, the crowd are already chanting..

‘Black Veil Brides’. ‘Black Veil Brides’. ‘Black Veil Brides’.

The sound echoes off the dusty ceiling. Swarms of kids in face paint and black skinny jeans push past us, racing to the front. Its clear who everyone is here to see.

Black Veil Brides

There is a thunder of applause and screams as Black Veil Brides appear. Playing at about 10x the volume of all the other acts might give them an unfair advantage, but its one that they don’t need. They tear through the set, mostly comprised of tracks from their mind-blowing new album ‘Wretched and Divine’.

Wil Francis joins the band for a brief moment, but the real star of tonight is vocalist Andy Biersack. Strutting about the stage in jeans so tight they may as well be painted on, he exudes a confidence far greater than his rakish frame would suggest.

Wil Francis with Black Veil Brides

The banter between songs is short, but the performance is immaculate. There’s two brief, and slightly unnecessary disappearances from the stage, but the audience doesn’t seem to mind.

Black Veil Brides are clearly a band on the way up. From what I’ve seen tonight, there’s going to be no stopping them..

RC xx

 

Friday Tune – Fightstar ‘Paint Your Target’

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Ok, so I’m not leaving you guys with a classic tonight. Its more of a great tune to start the weekend off to.

Fightstar were born out of the flames of singer / guitarist Charlie Simpson’s first “band” Busted. Possibly the only popstar to credibly re-invent themselves into the rock sphere, much respect goes out to the guy for even braving to try it in the first place.

I think my best memory of Fightstar is watching them on the Radio 1 stage at Reading festival the first year that they came out. There were a lot of bottles being thrown. “Busted” being chanted. They didn’t shout anything back though. Simpson just lowered his head, closed his eyes and screamed into the microphone like his life depended on it.

After a while, the barrage stopped. People actually listened to the music. It was good. Very good.

RC xx