Although Tel Aviv (and Israel in general, for that matter) has quite an intimate punk and hardcore scene, there has been a lot of new bands popping up lately. Not just ones with members of already established bands but actual NEW BLOOD. One of them is possibly one of the youngest hardcore bands EVER - Social Virus. With an average age of about 15, these 4 friends have already been getting attention for their age alone but as their debut self titled EP proves, the hype is not totally unwarranted.
Social Virus might be young but they have some actual hardcore chops. Consisting of 3 songs in English and 3 in Hebrew, the music on this EP incorporates the musical simplicity and aggression of old school hardcore punk mixed with the more lower tones and breakdowns of more modern tough-guy hardcore. Sticking to what hardcore should be, the songs are all quite personal and from the honest point of view of a teenager, as opposed to just being random songs about hardcore, unity and other such clichés.
Although the song HaShomeret Bat Zonah (The Bouncer is a Bitch), written about an incident involving the boys being refused entry to a punk show, has already gained a huge following alone, I personally wouldn't consider it the EP's stand out track. The 30 second long Still Here might be super short but is the best song by far, from its frantic intro by drummer Guy right to singer Atir's "Bleh!" (which is a bit of a cliché but I'll let it slide). I Was A Kid is also a highlight, not only for the catchy "So much different, so fucking different" chorus but also for the relatable content. Even at the age of 15, you start to realise that life isn't all that easy.
The overall production is more "demo" quality than sounding like an EP. In a way, it works well with the material as it makes the songs sound a little "gritty" but you can't help but think that they could sound even better and fuller with a higher quality mix.
Social Virus as a band are definitely going places but have a bit to learn. One suggestion I would like to make (not that my word really means anything) - you don't need to swear so much to sound "punk" or even more "adult". Obviously, it helps accentuate our frustration but if it gets overused, it can get less effective and cheapen everything. That was advise I was given which I've learned to appreciate more with time.
After a brief European tour, the hardcore punk trio, Copout, return to Tel Aviv for their 7" release show at Levontin 7. With them, they bring powerviolence noise makers MooM and "straight out of the 80s" hardcore punk/thrash super group Spit. As all the bands play really short songs, this is going to be a quick read!
MooM
As can be seen in previous reviews such as my review of their EP (see here), I absolutely love MooM. They play powerviolence and sludge, similar to the likes of Despise You and EYEHATEGOD. As great as they are on record, they are always more fun to watch live. Sima, like in everything she does, shouts her heart out on stage while the rest of the band play at breakneck speed. There might be a lot of bands out here that play this kind of style but it is MooM who show the most promise and come off sounding as if they could already be forefathers of the genre. The whole band is just fully into it and it makes for a more enjoyable viewing. Bass player Gad is still a delight to watch due to his stances and faces but it really is a group effort. It's such a shame that it's early days and they just have a super short set. They basically play the whole of both their First EP and the recently released and cleverly titled Second EP along with 2 brand new song (Lord Of Drug Lords and a currently untitled song) yet the set is still only about 15 minutes long tops. Ancient Scripts is still the most memorable of tracks for me but it's really difficult to soak everything else in when it all goes by so fast. The Nature Of Death and The Death Of Nature somehow manages to have an epic sounding first half and a counter-acting frantic second half and only be a minute long. Its' slow heavy pounding groove mixed with full throttle riffage is just the kind of thing that keeps me on my toes. I'm hoping things look up for them as they are set to embark upon a European tour during the summer. 5/5
Spit
Leaning more towards old school hardcore punk and crossover thrash, local super group, Spit, take the stage next and yet again zoom through their Poison In Your Head LP from beginning to end. Normally, singer Nadav tends to go crazy and do a lot of weird shit, but tonight he just gets down to business. This only makes the performance a tad less entertaining as he still runs around on stage and the band still play until they sweat buckets. There's a temporary line-up change tonight, as Not On Tour/City Rats drummer Gutzi "sits" in for local vocalist/drummer legend Corey. Despite sometimes starting the wrong song or momentarily forgetting how something goes, Gutzi's drumming is still on point and ridiculously impressive for someone who only had a short amount of time to learn an entire album.
A few crowd members, like myself, are familiar with the material now and are singing along and causing a lot of commotion on the dance floor. I guess that's a job well done, lads! Stand out songs for me are Restart, R.A.M.B.O, Christchurch, Kill The Cancer and the epic set closer Flag II. 4/5
Copout
With Levontin 7 still not as full as it could be, brothers in arms from Rosh HaAyin, Copout, take stage.
For anyone who hasn't checked out the band's debut record, Spray Paint (see review here), Copout walk in the shadow of bands like Kid Dynamite, Lifetime, Gorilla Biscuits and Black Flag, playing short songs mixing both technical musicianship and punk aggression. The songs are catchy, especially the likes of Oh No! and Where Is Your Mind? which are good sing alongs. The others might still need time to sink into people's heads because they're not as simply structured. As the band plays through their set, we hear every song off of Spray Paint, including their cover of the Black Flag song of the same name which is met with a great reception, but also play some currently unreleased tracks. The newer songs such as Disconnect and I Don't Care sound a tad heavier than their other material, almost touching upon Kids Insane-like hardcore in places, which actually works quite well.
In general, the songs do go by quite fast so it's difficult to take everything in. Nevertheless, Nir's tight and heavy drumming, Omer's solid bass lines and Uri's riffs have me nodding my head and tapping my toes while others are dancing at the front and getting pushed around. The boys in Copout are definitely doing something right. Having already gone on tour so early on in their career, their future looks bright.
Formed by 3/4 of the original Fourfunzies line-up, Copout from Rosh HaAyin, Israel, have recently released their first 7", Spray Paint. As much as I loved the guys and did enjoy a few Fourfunzies' songs, there was always something a little bit too experimental with them which I didn't always get. With Copout, long term friends Uri (guitar/vocals), Omer (bass/vocals) and Nir (drum/vocals) still keep the essence of interesting, non-typical punk chords and slight jazzy arrangements but somehow wrapped up in a more hardcore punk package. With 8 tracks in total, this record runs for a little under 8 minutes. The songs are short and mostly pretty fast, with the whole band joining in on vocals and putting all their blood and sweat into the playing. Oh No! kicks things off with a joyous ditty about time wasting. Anyone who hates having deadlines for either college papers or work will relate to this track. It might not be long enough to really be considered an "anthem" but its "Procrastination is the one thing I do great" chorus is catchy enough to be memorable and sung at shows. There are other melodic parts throughout which could be considered hooks, such as in Where Is Your Mind? and closing track Tied Down. The latter is the longest, most melodic and most structured song here. The others are all still good short blasts of punk, which I guess is what they're going for. The song writing is at least relatable and doesn't touch too much on politics. Personally, that's great. The record as a whole needs to be listened to a few times for the songs to get inside your head, but they will.
Copout take the style and structure of acts such as Lifetime/Kid Dynamite/Paint It Black/basically anything with Dan Yemin, mixed with the energy of old school hardcore like Black Flag and Minor Threat and try and put a more technical spin on it. The band even include an impressive cover of Black Flag's Spray Paint, hence the record's title. They speed it up a bit more, utilise switching vocals and generally play it a whole lot tighter than the original. The tightness might lose the tracks initial intensity but only a tad. It's pretty hard to out-angry Henry Rollins.
I'm certainly looking forward to hearing a full Copout album but I've not been totally blown away by this. As a side note, they are a tight and impressive band to watch live, so if you ever get the chance, go do so. 4/5
I've been meaning to post this for the passed week. This year marks the 20th anniversary of one of the first albums (if not THE first album) I ever got: Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill. YouTube channel, CBC Music, asked a few Canadian artists to cover songs from said album, including beloved hardcore punk outfit Fucked Up.
The band cover the album's opening track, All I Really Want. As a 9/10 year old who was already into quite rock based music, this was an absolute killer track and most possibly my favourite until my tastes matured and I started paying more attention to songs like Not The Doctor and Wake Up.
Of course, the song sounds pretty different. The song's repetitive riff is still in tack but there is an over all harder tone to the whole thing. This is definitely strengthened by front man Damien's snarling vocals.
At times I wonder if he's actually heard the original, like the way he does "AWOO AWOO.." in the parts where Alanis tends to do that weird yodelling type thing she does. However, his dramatical improvising near the end shows that the message of the song is not lost on him.
If you, like myself, are a fan of both Alanis and Fucked Up (I'm more into Alanis. Haven't quite found anything of FU to really grab my attention), then this is certainly worth a listen.
Congrats on the 20th anniversary, Alanis, and good job on the cover, guys!
While speaking to some of the members of Zaga Zaga a while back, the name Dangers got mentioned during a discussion of great bands to check out. I took their advice and checked them out. Although crazier than what I normally like, they had some great, raw hardcore energy which impressed. Thing is, I put them on the back burner for a while, never thinking I'd hear of them again. Then, lo and behold, it turns out they've booked themselves a mini Israel tour. This had to be witnessed.
Zaga Zaga
First band tonight, unsurprisingly, is Koro's resident band (practically), Zaga Zaga. This band are just working nonstop until everyone in the world has heard their frantic and technical noise punk/hardcore/whatever one wishes to call it. Taking on influences from the likes of Charles Bronson, SPAZZ and even The Locust, Zaga Zaga's style might not be everyone's cup of tea (yes, I'm British and I use that analogy) but the live shows are still just full of that energy every band should have. Every member is moving and shouting along and they are just one tight (mental) unit. Like myself, I think more people are beginning to familiarise themselves with the band's material, both from their EP and their split with the amazing Joliette. The band also have a great sense of fun, as proven by the teasing of what sounded like a Title Fight song right at the start of the show. As the band sweat through their set, there are people up the front singing along and getting into a bit of a frenzy. Set closer, Industrial Estate, has been my favourite for a while due to it's groovy breakdown from the middle of the song onwards, which always makes me go bat-shit bonkers.
4/5
City Rats
Aaaah City Rats. The epitome of Israeli street punk. Saying that, there's a very fine line between Israeli street punk and Russian street punk, seeing as the scene out here is quite Russian-dominant. When it comes to talking about long running punk bands in Israel, City Rats' name will always come up alongside Pussy Shel Lucy and Mahleket Hanikot Shotrim.
After Zaga Zaga, I went to get some cash to buy merch and got back as City Rats had pretty much just begun. It seemed as though quite a lot of didn't realise they had started and were starting to flow in. The pit was still already underway, with drunk punks both young and old running around, convulsing by the mere sound of a D-beat. There's one nutter here tonight who started licking things at one point. Not entirely sure how that came about, but he was licking the PA and monitors amidst his dancing as if it was perfectly normal. Well, this is a punk show; there is neither no normal or abnormal. Music makes you do things, sometimes without thinking or any logic behind it. That's the beauty and magic of it. City Rats definitely take their sound from early crust/hardcore punk bands like GBH, Conflict and The Exploited. The musicianship is a cut above the rest where this kind of punk is concerned. The guitarists have some great riffs between them and even the vocals are fairly coherent. I think the band definitely made a good move taking on Gutzy (Not On Tour/BEST) for drumming duties. Not only has he got the D-beat down, but he puts some other interesting things in there too. In the song 2012, I hear something a little out of the ordinary and look over to find Gutzy playing the hi hat and floor tom with the traditional crossed arm technique. This turns out to be his adaptation of the double kick sound, which actually comes out sounding and looking so much more impressive.
City Rats are certainly fun and punk to the bone. The Hebrew/Russian lyrics don't always sit with me but the music kicks arse, nevertheless. 4/5
DANGERS
So here's the main point of the evening. LA's DANGERS have got themselves quite a crowd to entertain tonight, and quite a mixed one. We've got the crowd who came down primarily for City Rats, we've got those who generally know and love DANGERS and then we have those who had nothing else to do on a Saturday night. The band starts things off with some nice and humorous introductions from frontman Al and guitarist Justin leading into We Broke The PA; possibly one of the best opening numbers you could ever have. It's actually the conversational lyrics of things like "Hello, How have you been?" which make it a perfect introduction. In addition, the explosive groove gets everybody piling on one another almost immediately. The pile-ons are pretty much non-stop throughout the show. Not only are those more familiar with DANGERS' work shouting along and grabbing the mic to songs such as the thought provoking Opposable and the insightful Half Brother, All Cop but also some DANGERS virgins find themselves singing along to some of the more coherent refrains in songs. One of the new unrecorded songs, Kiss With Spit, got me shouting the title and Al even grabbed my head and we practically shouted at one another. (See evidence below.)
Although their style could be considered pissed off hardcore, they're not one of those bands whose songs all sound the same. A majority go along the disjointed hardcore vein, but then there's songs like I'll Clap When I'm Impressed, the most metallic song in their repertoire, and Five O'Clock Shadows at the Edge of the Western World, one of the most (if not the only) diverse song of theirs, with its mixture of 60s style guitars, sexy grooves and dynamic changes. Because of this, I am pretty sure that everyone here tonight has heard something that they really dig. Along with the sea of bodies down at the front, almost everyone in the place is nodding their heads and grinning from ear to ear; I sure know I was.
DANGERS definitely have that traditional spirit of hardcore that I like, sharing wisdom and social/political commentary with the crowd between songs. Their lightheartedness and humorous jibes help it all not come off too preachy but just as a gateway into how they think. The whole band (including Anthony on drums and Tim on bass) play to perfection, although due to Al's charisma and stage presence, I'm sure even they'll admit that they sometimes disappear into the background. There could have been a bit more movement all round.
Unfortunately, a visit by the police cuts the show a wee bit short, but the fact the crowd cry out for more is a good sign that DANGERS have done their job. I can certainly say that I have gone from being someone who only knew a bit about DANGERS to now being a fan. Got the T-shirt and everyt'ing... 4.5/5 All photos by David "Doh Doh" Rosen
Once again, a travelling band comes to Tel Aviv on their final leg of their Israeli tour. This time, it's The Blue Screen of Death from Germany. Support tonight came from local bands The Driers and Zaga Zaga. Both bands feature local legend Ben (Tversky) and both have been reviewed on this blog a number of times. Both bands are on top form as always and even play new songs in the set.
The Driers
The Driers play a set full of their catchy and easy listening 90s style alternative rock, beginning with one of their newest songs, Squeeze, as mentioned in a previous review. The song has a great Weezer-style chorus and sounds like a future hit. Throughout the show, there are a few dedicated Drierees (will it catch on?) dancing around and singing along to songs they recognise from the last demo and other shows. Other new songs, Heartworms and The Slides, are along the rockier side of the band's style and I was incredibly impressed. They seem to have compiled a set of their "heavier" songs to fit in with the rest of the night's lineup. It paid off.
4/5
Zaga Zaga
I've written about this band so many times that I'm going to make this as short as possible. Zaga Zaga - shouting - guitar picking - frantic drumming - energy - new songs - same amazing set closer as always.
Although I have managed to write about them before, I've come to the realisation that they are more of a band you need to experience than just read about.
LOVE ZAGA
HATE ZAGA
4/5
The Blue Screen of Death
Besides hearing some of their stuff on Bandcamp, I knew nothing about Germany 8-bit punk band The Blue Screen of Death prior to tonight's event. What I heard I enjoyed but in person it is a whole different ball game. I was surprised to only see three people take the stage; front woman Claude, bassist Manu and drummer Öm. I thought there was at least a keyboardist too or someone playing guitar with a lot of effects. Instead, the 8-bit sounds come from a laptop by the side of the drummer. As trios go, they still make an amazing racket. The style is frantic, shouty punk, or "nintendocore", as some people might still say. Every song is crazy and performed with perfect energy and enthusiasm. Claude is one of the most charismatic performers I have seen. Not only does she use the entire stage, she secures eye contact with the crowd (it's like she's singing just for you) and interacts with her band mates, proving herself to be a worthy leader. She's mesmerising. Manu and Öm are a very tight unit. They are not too serious and bogged down in what they are playing that the fun gets lost. Manu even comes off stage at one point to connect with the crowd. This is the kind of thing I like to see.
As well as tracks from their record There Are Just 16 Steps Down To Hell and a few new songs (Megrim, Kokology and One Of Them), the band also covered To Hell With Good Intentions by Welsh based band Mclusky (ex-Future of the Left), once famous for their collaboration with the website rathergood.com on the video for their song Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues. The band played To Hell... with even more passion and conviction than Mclusky, along with the added computer noises, and came off sounding like it could have easily been an original. 8-bit/chiptune/nintendocore/whatever one wishes to call it has always been fun, with bands like Horse The Band and Anamanguchi helping to make it more popular. If you consider yourself a fan of this kind of thing, The Blue Screen of Death are not a band to ignore.
When it comes to punk in Israel, there are certain bands who have the talent, songs and potential to be an almost worldwide success. From the moment I discovered the music for video Silly Thoughts around 4 years ago when I moved to Israel, Not On Tour stole my heart. I have always had a soft spot for female fronted bands but Not On Tour go beyond just being a female fronted band. Along with Sima's strong vocal delivery, the rest of the band are able to play at breakneck speed and harmonise during their super short but catchy songs. They are certainly the most popular band in the more pop punk/skater/hardcore scene in Israel and have also made waves in Europe in the last few years. The band did a Europe and UK tour a couple of months back in light of the new album Bad Habits and the band are about to head out for another tour this summer. Hopefully, the good word has and will spread further.
Being a regular gig goer, I have seen the band a countless amount of times, both at packed shows and at shows a bit light on numbers. Along with classics from the self titled debut, the N.O.T On Tour Ep and second album All This Time, the guys have also played songs which feature on the new album, some of which have been in the live repertoire for quite some time. Album opener, Flip, is a track I think I recognise, although I could just be confused as it is similar in places to a previous track, I Wanna Be Like You (from All This Time). After more listens, the half tempo "This ship is sinking. Save yourself. There's nothing left to see here.." chorus really gets stuck in your head. 4th track, Write It Down, I definitely know from shows. As is common of Not On Tour, the song is short (although at 1:32, it's nowhere near the shortest on the album) and catchy, with its chorus that suggests repeatedly that we'd better..well...write it down. It is one of their songs which is at a nice enough tempo to be able to really appreciate the song fully as well as dance to. I have heard Gut Feeling (track 2) before as they are meant to be bringing out a video for it soon. At 1:19, it is still not the shortest on the album. While listening, I tend to often expect (and hope) that the song goes on for longer. It also has one of those choruses that can easily get stuck in your head, which has sort of been Not On Tour's specialty over the years and there's a fair bit of it here. In Rumours (track 3), they have us singing "This can be over when we say the word..", especially the anthemic singalong part right at the end. Without checking the name of the track, I have been singing one of the songs as "Cos it's a different kind of weapon...Cos it's a different kind of reign." Turns out the song is called Different Kind Of Weather (track 6). Ooops! Close, though. In Stuck In A Rut (track 10), you'll be sympathising with how front woman Sima "Never got things done" and was "Stuck in a rut" but has since "Found a way out." I can relate to this song's concept of having once been lost in life and putting things off but am I completely on track now? Hmm. I don't know. I think I am more akin to seeing myself as "Failing to succeed", as sung in Failing (track 15).
Not On Tour essentially play hardcore punk but the addition of Sima's melodic (although still raw and aggressive) vocals and the band's backing harmonies give their music that pop punk quality. Most songs, with the aid of Gutzy's awesome drumming, are super fast, such as thrashiest song No Communication (track 11) and title track Bad Habits (track 9), but there are still those which go along the more pop punk vein, such as Black Coffee (track 7) and Sick Of This Mess (track 8). The 16 songs on here range between 0:42 (Waiting In Line, track 14, possibly my favourite on the album) to 1:44 mins long (Sick Of This Mess), so you can hear the entire album in one short bus journey. It kind of leaves me wanting more but also wanting a little more diversity. The band have songs in their early repertoire which are more chaotic, have breakdowns and generally show the band's versatility. Bad Habits could do with a lot more variety, in my opinion, but it is certainly not a disappointment. 4/5
Sometimes I post new videos separately but other times, like this, I like to just take a bunch of them and put them in one post. Now...I've noticed that sometimes I post stuff I like but this is a bit of a mish-mash.
Comeback Kid ft Poli Correia - Losing Sleep
Comeback Kid are one of those hardcore bands I always wonder whether I should have been more into. I remember seeing them at a really small show in London (at The Verge, I think) and I bought their Turn It Around album. At the time, I think I barely listened to it, so from thereon in, I never really paid much attention. A couple of years ago, due to a badly organised "hardcore"/metalcore show, Comeback Kid ended up stuck in Israel without a show until local heroes Kids Insane got in contact and hooked them up with a show at Koro, Tel Aviv. Instead of headlining, they were the first band and the place was absolutely packed and sweaty as hell. Great show, though, and since I've given the band more attention. This track from Die Knowing is heavy and groovy. Is it groundbreaking? Probably not, but I like it. The video is simply a mix of live and studio footage but shot incredibly well.
36 Crazyfists - Swing The Noose
Another band that I haven't really cared about over the years since about the release of their second album Bitterness The Star on Roadrunner. I was doing some street teaming for RR at the time and I think I had to hand out stickers for that release. I have to say, if it wasn't for a facebook friend still being really into the band (you know who you are) I probably would not have even known about this video and the new album Time and Trauma. Thing is, judging by Swing The Noose, their sound and even music video cinematography hasn't really developed since the early 2000s. Frontman Brock's vocals are a little off putting. It's similar to vocalists I do like, such as Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria and Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw etc., but he sounds almost constipated. It's certainly not the worst thing I've ever heard; chorus is pretty decent and the last minute has some good moments. Then again, it's not brilliant, either. The video is a tad confusing although at the same time captivating. What do you lot think?
New Found Glory - One More Round
NFG's Resurrection album has been out since October, but has it been getting as much attention as earlier works? If not, I don't really know why it shouldn't. I haven't heard the album in its entirety yet, but the singles have so far been impressive. One More Round is standard NFG; it has those cool riffs and pop punk vocals mixed in with some gang chants and some heavy grooves. Video is pretty fun, with the band getting smashed to pieces. Seems to be in keeping with the song's notion of perseverance. I totally have to get this album at some point. Hell...I think I should just get the whole discography. I seem to be doing that a lot lately with a lot of bands i should have been into a long time ago.
The Offspring - Coming For You
Another comically violent video comes form yet another legendary (pop) punk band, The Offspring. Coming For You is the band's first release for 2015, with an album expected for later in the year. The song starts off with drums that sound not too dissimilar (to me, anyway) to those of Howlin' For You by Black Keys but we're then greeted by Dexter Holland's unmistakable voice. The song as a whole sounds like a number of their more commercial sounding songs from the last few albums. It's sort of hard for me to decide whether i like it or not. I was one of those people who actually didn't mind Days Go By on the whole as an album, so hopefully the next album might have some more hardcore punk stuff to go with this sort of thing. I don't want to give too much of the video concept away, but if you don't like clowns or mimes, watch with care!
Teenage Bottlerocket - Haunted House/They Call Me Steve
Punk rockers Teenage Bottlerocket are releasing new album Tales From Wyoming on 31st March and it's already kind of sounding like it's going to be a good one. They already released a video for Misfits style song Haunted House back in February and this week premiered the Minecraft inspired song and video They Call Me Steve. The latter has that ever-so-slightly-slower-paced Bouncing Souls type vibe which I kind of dig. Even the vocals make me think of Bouncing Souls...but I guess the two bands are not that different.
Blur - Go Out/There Are Too Many Of Us
Yeh that's right! I'm moving away from punk and hardcore and going back to my Britpop roots. The legendary Blur's new album, The Magic Whip, will be out 27th April. We have so far been treated to two songs and videos; Go Out and There Are Too Many Of Us. The former has an almost new wave punk feel just with Damon Albarn's distinctive vocals over it. It's a little bit like On Your Own, a personal favourite of mine, but stranger. And then there's the video which is basically just an instruction video on how to make homemade ice cream. Incidentally, I used to have that same tupperware container... There Are Too Many Of Us is also a bit creepy in its sound but has more of a serious tone. The video is purely a performance video that looks very DIY. The band themselves look like they haven't changed a bit. It's quite solemn and I can imagine this song being used for serious scenes in film and TV.
Sleater-Kinney - A New Wave
Admittedly, this post is about a month late but I just had to post it. Sleater-Kinney are one of those bands I've always known OF, possibly since about the age of 13, but I never properly got into them. They have released their eighth studio album, No Cities To Love, on 20th January after a ten year hiatus. First single, A New Wave, has, funnily enough, a hint of new wave about it but is also essentially a catchy alt rock hit. I first heard the song as a live performance and was into it, but along with the video, I was converted. And I never really liked Bob's Burgers...
