Showing posts with label Deranged Records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Deranged Records. Show all posts

Thursday, May 19, 2011

GROWN-UPS WELCOME AT TOTAL FEST.


I know we've said it before, but Alberta and Western Canada in general have become quite the breeding grounds for some quality, noisy punk rock these days. I don't know what it is about that little chunk of the world, but it's birthed some awesomely creative and interesting music lately. Total Fest got a taste of it last year with Lethbridge post-punk outfit Fist City and this year we're looking forward to a visit from Friendo, The Shrapnelles and now, Calgary punkers, Grown-Ups. This young trio brings a smile to my face with their stripped down, slightly distorted scuzzy punk, some bits and pieces of classic SST love and just enough pent-up energy and quirkiness that could only come from the Great White North.


In their little lifetime as a band, they've done a heck of a lot... touring their little butts off all over Canada with the likes of Fucked Up, White Lung and B-Lines (and are playing what I believe are their first ever US shows this weekend in OR and WA), getting all viral with their homemade 'Bieb Flag' shirts, releasing a couple solid tapes and singles, and are gearing up for the release of their appropriately titled, first full length LP Stopped Caring (out this summer on new Portland label Modern Documents). While you wait on that slab of wax and their set this August at Total Fest, here's a fun little live video and a download of everything that they've released to date.


Monday, May 2, 2011

MAKE WAY FOR THE MEN.


The Men are without a doubt a fresh breath of punk rock or whatever-you-want-to-call-it coming out west to Total Fest this year from New York. Part of an new wave of creative, young DIY punk/hardcore-rooted bands from the Empire City (that brings to mind ABC No Rio in the late 80s and early 90s), The Men offer up a smattering of in-your-face, blown-out, feedback-soaked post-punk, not afraid to throw in some elements of sludge, shoegaze, and even some completely left-field, twangy, country-tinged bits here and there. A bit of My War-era Black Flag? Yes. A bit of My Bloody Valentine? Yes. A bit of the Birthday Party? Perhaps. In the tradition of Total Fest and all that is damaged, desperate and weird (and by weird, we mean incredibly awesome!), we welcome and look forward to The Men knocking us all on our asses this August in Missoula.


Compliments of the band, here are some free downloads of their out-of-print Immaculada LP (which is soon to be reissued by Deranged Records) and "Think" single (featuring a cover of Devo's "Gates of Steel"), plus a TOTALLY raw live vid below: