Venue/Gig Review : FX Music

One of the biggest problems with independent music scene in Jakarta is the lack of venues. It’s even more problematic for hardcore/punk scene who doesn’t attract as many show-goers as say, the metal scene due its low-profile, DIY nature. Delight in Kemang was one of very few venues where hardcore shows consistently being held on. I personally think it was just an alright venue, but it’s better than having no shows at all. Unfortunately the owner decided not to extend their contract and thus, since mid-year of 2010 Delight is gone.

The last few punk/hardcore shows I’ve been to had been held at FX Music studio. FX Music is a hip music store who sells music instruments, band merch, as well as providing studios for practice or recording purposes. They also have a bar with a small stage directly across from it for bands to play. It gives them a really café-esque vibe. To make it even more bizarre, FX Music is located in FX Senayan, a mall in one of Jakarta’s busiest central-business-district area.

Despite all the unpunk qualities FX Music possess (hahaha), the reality is that they provide a really nice, well-equipped studio that’s big enough for a hardcore/punk show at a very reasonable rate. I too, would rather go to a warehouse show that smells like piss and beer with no lights on, but hey, at this point we’ll take what we can get! Plus, the venue is very accessible from every part of Jakarta (easy public transportation access, etc) which is a huge plus.

I went to the show with the intention of capturing live action of the bands, one song per band. However, I did miss Sense Of Pride set due to hanging outside the studio for a bit. I also didn’t get any recording of Moz Is The Reason, Degenerate and Hellowar despite staying throughout their sets. I was keen on getting some Hellowar footage, but they decided to play in the dark instead. No bueno.

I’m not doing a review of band-to-band performance. I’ll let the videos speak for themselves. I've also put myspace links for every band on the bill just in case you’re interested enough to check them out. I will mention that most of the bands playing are in the hardcore variety with the exception of Grave Dancers (thrash/crossover), Hellowar (metal/crust), Ninja Hattori (power violence/fast shit) and Moz Is The Reason (guess what they play :p). Grave Dancers got the best reception that night, and their set was the most fun.

Overall, the show went really well!

Clicky :

Final Attack myspace
Braveheart myspace
Grave Dancers myspace
Hellowar myspace
Raincoat myspace
Still Resist myspace
Sense Of Pride myspace
Moz Is The Reason myspace

I couldn't find myspace for Degenerate and Ninja Hatori. Maybe they don't have one?

On to the videos :

Final Attack


Grave Dancers


Ninja Hatori


Still Resist


Raincoat


Braveheart


Enjoy!

Youth Korps

Youth Korps were a blazingly fast 80’s hardcore punk outfit from Conneticut. This ep was recorded in 1982 but wasn't officially released on vinyl until 1991.

Their delivery is pretty monotone and straight forward, much in the veins of S.O.A. They also do the start-stop start-stop riffing thing (this was before Siege did it!) that later would be used by a lot of power violence bands. Most of their songs clock under a minute, except for last song, a four minute track that eerily sounds like it was taken straight from Black Flag’s ‘Damaged’.

This ep is fantastic, and definitely one of many many hidden gems that the 80's has produced. Fans of Koro,S.O.A, Negative Approach and Deep Wound should be into this.

Enjoy!

Youth Korps - '82 7" EP

Descendents - All (1987)

Descendents official site

Descendents myspace

I managed to get a copy of I Don’t Want To Gwo Up a few years ago. After a few listens, I was disappointed. I thought it didn’t have the pop brilliance that Milo Goes To College does. NeedIess to say, I refused to listen to Descendents post-Milo Goes To College material thinking they would suck.

Right before I left Australia for good, my buddy Rob gave me a copy of Descendents All which I didn’t listen to until about 2 weeks ago. And let’s just say I will be the first one to admit that Descendents made at least two good albums in the 80’s, All being one of them.

The first noticeable difference between All and their previous releases is the obvious hard rock/early metal influence. Songs like “Schizophrenia” and “Uranus” even shows a leaning towards prog-rock with its atypical song structure, tricky rhythms, and impressive musical chops. Fear not, elements of good ol’ Descendents still present on this album. With songs like “Clean Sheets” and “ALL-o-gistics”, you know these guys haven’t lost their sense of humor. “Coolidge” and “Pep Talk” in my opinion ranks up there among their best and is about as catchy as any songs off Milo Goes To College.

All shows a musical adventure of the band and experimentation to some degree. Some would even say it was a rather natural progression of the band, having a new guitarist and bassist on the board. Well whatever it was, I personally think it was a successful one. If you thought that pop-punk and hard rock/metal don’t mix, listen to this.

Fun fact : this was Descendents last album with Milo before he left to study biochemistry.

Why Brisbane Rules : To The North & Quiet Steps

To The North myspace














Quiet Steps myspace

To The North and Quiet Steps are independent bands from Brisbane, Australia. Why 2 bands on one post? Well, they share a lot in common, hell they even share a bassist. They've been around since 2006(?) or maybe even earlier, don't quote me on this. During my stay in Brisbane for roughly about 3.5 years, To The North and Quiet Steps were the bands i get to see the most. They played shows pretty frequently and have played with probably almost every single other Brisbane bands as well as other national and international acts. I've seen them play with punk bands, hardcore bands, metal bands, indie bands, singer-songwriter, solo artists and anything in between as well as playing at different venues, clubs, houses and studios.

To The North plays jazzy-indie music (terrible description, but i've got nothing better) with a lot of tempo changes, clean and yet complicated guitar lines and semi-shouted vocals. If you're a fan of any Kinsella's bands, Hot Cross, Minus The Bear, This Town Need Guns or anything along those lines then you will probably enjoy them.

Quiet Steps plays a dynamic, at times sparse mid-tempo indie-punk (i know, i know) with screamed vocals. Their early stuff is more stripped down and focused while the newer songs that they've been playing seem to show more "progressive" ideas and directions. If you like Sinaloa, Suis La Lune, Tiny Hawks then this band is for you.

I won't say much more about their music because it won't do them any justice. One thing that equally as important as their music, in my opinion is their attitudes towards their music, arts, listeners, venues and the community. These things matter. These are the reasons why independent music is wonderful and for some people, more than just music. I learned about these things from Brisbane music scene, and mostly these two bands. To me they are not just friends, but also a source of inspirations.

Quiet Steps ep are still in print, so i won't post them. If you would like a copy, go contact the band on myspace since the Yellow Ghost online store page is all fucked up. Their new LP should be out really soon.

Here are some To The North goodies :

Landscapes EP
"Harms Way" (their side of split with Ohana)
Live Audio Set @ DIY Fest Ahimsa Hall (1-2-2008)
House Show video

Their new LP ...to Work and Not Feed is already out, fresh from the oven. If you like what you hear, please buy it.

Texas is The Reason/The Promise Ring split

Texas is The Reason myspace
Texas is The Reason website














The Promise Ring page on Jade Tree

Texas is The Reason (taken from a line of the Misfits song "Bullet") and The Promise Ring, both hailing from the states did a split in 1996, with each band supplying one song. The split, in my opinion contains some of the best materials both bands have written. When I first listened to the record, i noticed that TITR and The Promise Ring songs shared a lot similar qualities, sonically and musically which is funny since if it wasn't for the split i wouldn't have made any sort of connection between them.

Texas is The Reason were founded by the guitarist of a hardcore band, Shelter and drummer of another hardcore band from the mid 90's, 108. They existed from 1994 to 1997. The Promise Ring started off as a side project of guitarist/vocalist of Cap'n'Jazz in 1995 before turning into a serious band. They ended the band in 2002. Both bands did a few reunion shows in 00's ever since without any intention of reforming.

Texas is The Reason plays a brand of really catchy, personal mid-tempo punk rock and at the time it was fairly something new and fresh especially coming from a band on a hardcore label, Revelation. They got slapped with the tag "emo" and "post-hardcore" a lot (also goes for The Promise Ring and most of indie bands from the mid-west at the time) which i find to be about as useful and informative as twitter. I don't consider those mid-west bands as "emo" anyway. When i think of emo in the 90's, i think of Ebullition, Gravity and later, Level-Plane. It just makes more sense since emo is essentially hardcore punk and a lot of midwest bands seemed to embrace a more poppier, radio-friendly side of punk (this is not a bad thing, i assure you).

I personally find all Texas is The Reason materials to be gold, not that they have a huge discography to go through or anything. They released a 7" ep, a full-length and a few splits. As for The Promise Ring, well i haven't listened to them as much but from what i've heard it's okay. They're just a bit too poppy/upbeat for my taste and the vocals get a bit too much for me (same problem i have with Mineral). Their song on the split with Texas is The Reason "E. Texas Avenue" is a bit different than most of their stuff. It's hard-hitting and not as poppy which i like.


















Texas is The Reason/The Promise Ring split

Here's another treat :

Texas is The Reason live at Coney Island High (NYC) - 03/24/96

Black Flag

I'm sure most of you know who Black Flag is. But for the purpose of being informative, here's a little background of the band. Black Flag was formed in 1976 in California. They were considered to be one of the first hardcore punk bands ever (yeah yeah The Middle Class was formed in 1976 as well, save the argument for next time). Greg Ginn, the founder, main song-writer and the guitarist of Black Flag set up his own independent label, SST Records in 1978 in purpose of releasing Black Flag's material. Since then SST has also released albums by other bands such as Husker Du, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, etc. Black Flag was one of the first punk bands who tour throughout the states and basically play anywhere they can. A lot of other bands later follow their path and play places that Black Flag had been to.

Black Flag to me, until this day remains as one of the best punk/hardcore bands ever. I've discovered a lot of great bands in recent years (Die Kreuzen, Articles Of Faith, Siege, Zero Boys, Rorschach are among my favorites).But the fact is Black Flag did it first and better. The thing that boggles my mind is how the band went through so many member changes and yet kept producing quality materials. I can safely say that i actually enjoy all Black Flag releases (yes, even Family Man, Loose nut and The Process of Weeding Out).

This post is about Black Flag bootlegged LP 1982 demos and more. This demo features a short-lived lineup of Rollins, Ginn, Dukowski, Dez Cadena on second guitar and Chuck Biscuits of D.O.A fame. It was recorded secretly back when Black Flag was having a legal dispute with MCA /Unicorn and wasn't allowed to release any record with their name on it. The band released a compilation record Everything Went Black shortly after, crediting the individual musicians and thus not having the words Black Flag anywhere on it. Unicorn found out and take Black Flag to the court resulting in Ginn and Dukowski as co-owners of SST spending five days in jail.

The first 10 tracks are songs that would end up on My War, Slip It In and Loose Nut except for "What Can You Believe" and "Yes, I Know" which did not appear in any official Black Flag releases until this day. The last 4 tracks are live songs taped at Radio Tokyo studio in Los Angeles. One of the tracks is a 8-minutes interview from the same session with the band whom at the time were Ginn, Rollins, Kira and Bill. Let me just say that regardless whether you're a fan of the band or not, this is the best Black Flag recording out there. The band is at it's prime here with Rollins really intense vocals performance and Ginn riffs destroying everything sonically (listen to the intro to "My War" on this, crazy shit).

Ps. Kira was/is gorgeous.

Black Flag 1982 Demos and more