POISON THE WELL LIVE IN NORWAY

Nerdy (aka best Poison The Well song ever)

You can view more live clips from that show here.

TRAP THEM

Seizures In Barren Praise is THE hardcore album of 2008 in my opinion. I haven't stopped playing it all week!

United Nations MySpace Deleted

New York 'emo power-violence' supergroup United Nations have involuntarily had their Myspace page deleted.

This isn't the first time this has happened either, as earlier in the year they had their Facebook profile deleted. Looks like the Government can't handle a little harsh criticism any more...

The band features Glassjaw/Head Automatica's Darryl Palumbo, Thursday's Geoff Rickley and Converge's Ben Koller. They have released a self titled LP (through Eyeball Records) and the 'Never Mind the Bombings, Here's Your Six Figures' 7-inch (soon to be released through Deathwish).

The LP is brilliant and features one of the most clever song titles ever ('The Shape Of Punk That Never Came').


They are also a band that seems to be shrouded in controversy, and not just for their name. The official lineup is unknown due to the contractual obligations of the members' other bands; the self-titled debut's artwork features essentially the same photo used for the iconic cover of The Beatles' Abbey Road, with the exception of The Beatles engulfed in flames and walking to the left rather than the right; and the follow-up 7-inch faces similar potential copyright infringement issues due to the title and artwork parodying the Sex Pistols' Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols.

Paramore - Decode

I love Paramore, but this song is REALLY excellent! It's probably one of the most listened to songs on my iTunes at the moment.

Lily Allen Apreesh

SO EPIC!

After 50 years as an industry leader, LEGO has become a staple in any kids toy box. In more recent times the mini-figs and legendary building blocks have been used to recreate famous landmarks, classic photographs and now: 20 Classic Hip Hop Album Covers Recreated in LEGO.

You can see the whole 20 over at Kanye West's Blog (I don't know where he stole them from) but below are a few of my faves!

Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty

Common - Be

Nas - Stillmatic

Outkast - Stankonia

Thrice - Alchemy Index Vinyl Boxset

I WANT THIS!

Thrice have announced plans to release a special edition 'Alchemy Index' vinyl box set in February 2009.

The box set will be limited to 3000 copies and will feature both albums 'The Alchemy Index: Volumes I & II: Fire & Water' and 'The Alchemy Index: Volumes III & IV: Air & Earth' pressed on four EPs.

All 4 EP's will be pressed on 10" colored vinyl -the Fire EP is red, Water is blue, Earth is brown and Air is on clear vinyl. Each coming with notes, lyrics and commentary from the band.

Digital Sea

New Alexisonfire Album

Popular Canadian punk band Alexisonfire will be banding back together to work on their fourth studio album in 2009. Guitarist Wade McNeil spoke to Metal Hammer about it...

"For the first time ever we have too many songs. We usually come off the road. Kiss our girlfriends, do our laundry, write a record in a month, record it in a month, then leave for tour."

McNeil also promised that the new album will be "fucking heavy."

The band last released 'Crisis' in 2006.

Hey, It's Your Funeral Mama

Thursday - In Silence

Thursday are one of my favourite bands ever, and to me they just seem to get better and better with every album they do. Their most recent effort is a Split EP with Japan's Envy (if you don't know Envy you REALLY should scope them out – it's INCREDIBLE, hardcore tinged post-rock that just blows my mind). Thursday have morphed their sound again and the result is a heavier, yet more experimental sound that raises the level of anticipation for their new album (released February through Epitaph) so, so high!

The video below is for an instrumental, experimental track from the EP called In Silence. Even if you don't like the band, the clip is a little weird and a little interesting and it definitely piqued my interest!

Guitar Hero: Metallica

The trailer for the game is available for your drooling pleasure over at Metallica.com

Already, I can see many a weekend which shall be spent with Craig and I duelling it out. I can't actually play guitar, but I rule at Guitar Hero ... I don't know how that works! ... But I'm excited at the prospect of being Kirk Hammett!


ANYWAY... Here's the dudes playing Blackened live in 1989

Vans Warped Tour '09

Some of the bands that will be on the 2009 tour have been announced over on the site. They include the likes of Alexisonfire, Anti-Flag, Thrice, Underoath, The Architects, Bayside, Silverstein and The Devil Wears Prada.

You can see the whole list here.

Cancer Bats - French Immersion

Sticking with tonight's Canadian hardcore theme!

I especially love Liam's rendition of City & Colour's Save Your Scissors at the beginning, and that there's BMX involved requires major props also!

Fucked Up

Right now I'm really enjoying this band IMMENSELY! And with rumours of an imminent tour (I don't know how credible these rumours are, but I've heard them in a few quarters so maybe there is some truth to them) now is probably an awesome time to get interested in them.

To me, they're very similar to The Bronx in their rock & roll swagger, but they're lot more experimental in their sound giving them a slightly indie edge that reminds me a lot of the likes of Les Savy Fav.

Scope out "The Chemistry Of Common Life" or "The Hidden World" – both are great albums!

Read a full bio at AllMusic.

And with members with names like Pink Eye (aka Father Damien), 10,000 Marbles, Concentration Camp, Mustard Gas, and Mr Jo (aka Guinea Beast) you can't really go wrong!

Triple J Short.Fast.Loud Best of 2008

And the final list is...

1. Carpathian - Isolation **
2. The Amity Affliction - Severed Ties **
3. Rise Against - Appeal To Reason
4. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
5. Bring Me The Horizon - Suicide Season
6. Have Heart - Songs To Scream At The Sun
7. City And Colour - Bring Me Your Love
8. Deez Nuts - Stay True **
9. Underoath - Lost In The Sound Of Separation
10. H2O - Nothing To Prove
11. Confession - Cant Live Cant Breathe **
12. Misery Signals - Controller
13. Mary Jane Kelly - Our Streets Turn White **
14. Extortion - Sick **
15. Alkaline Trio - Agony & Irony
16. House Vs Hurricane - Forfeiture **
17. Verse - Aggression
18. Cancer Bats - Hail Destroyer
19. Polar Bear Club - Sometimes Things Just Disappear
20. Irrelevant - New Guilt **
21. Robotosaurus - Manhater **
22. New Found Glory - Tip Of The Iceberg
23. Ceremony - Still Nothing Moves You
24. The Bronx - III
25. Escape The Fate - The War Is Ours
26. Pennywise - Reason To Believe
27. Rex Banner/Homewrecker - Split **
28. Her Nightmare - Come Anarchy Come Ruin **
29. Break Even/Something More - Split **
30. Bleeding Through - Declaration
31. The Broderick - Illusion Over Despair **
32. Fucked Up - Chemistry Of Common Life
33. Dillinger Four - Civilwar
34. Paint It Black - New Lexicon
35. Bayside - Shudder
36. Millencolin - Machine 15
37. A Secret Death - Secret Death **
38. Ill Brigade - The EP **
39. Dropsaw - Victims Or Killers **
40. Antagonist A.D. - We Are The Dead


** indicates an Australian artist

Verse - Old Guards, New Methods

Skip forward til about two minutes. Sean Murphy has a rant at the beginning, but the song is so fucking AMAZING!

An Update Of My Hectic Life!

So it looks like I got a mention on Focalpoint so I have to at least attempt to update this thing more often (thanks Coop!)

Firstly, I've been rushed off my feet with shows over the past week or so.

The most important thing is I saw Gorilla Biscuits ... TWICE ... over the past week. It was pretty much the greatest experience of my hardcore life. It was rad to talk to the guys in the band, especially since they've been one of my favourite hardcore bands since I knew what hardcore was!

If you missed out on seeing them, sucks to be you! But you can scope out some rad pics from the Annandale show last Wednesday on Craig Nye's Flickr.

I also saw Jim Ward perform a solo acoustic show (Jim Ward was in At The Drive In and is in Sparta and Sleepercar). It was great to hear him play his own stuff as well as acoustic versions of some epic Sparta songs (Air anyone?)

The Bronx were another highlight. Dudes, there is absolutely no words to describe the raucous these guys put on, onstage! It was tight, amazing and so much dirty rock n roll fun that it was necessary to indulge in a vodka or five!



I've also been ridiculously busy getting everything up and running with Issue One of No Heroes. I've done three interviews this week, and for an online music magazine this first issue is going to be absolutely epic! I've got an awesome team behind me that are contributing their talents (and they're all very talented individuals) and I have the help and support from some amazing people in the music scene. I'll post more updates on it as we go along, but I'm hoping to have the website organised by mid-January and the first issue up by the end of that month! If anyone has any suggestions feel free to post them in the comments.


There's so much coming up to look forward to as well:
- Lupe Fiasco BDO sideshow @ Enmore
- Boys of Summer: COMEBACK KID AND VERSE! Verse are AMAZING and if you don't know them you need to scope them out!
- Misery Signals @ Manning Bar with Amity Affliction
- Bleeding Through with Between The Buried And Me, As Blood Runs Black and In Trenches
- SOUNDWAVE (Dillinger Escape Plan and Poison The Well)