Seen It>> Fucked Up & Titus Andronicus at Electric Ballroom, May 30 2013

Three of North American punk’s most exciting young bands teamed up for a UK wide tour, spanning Bristol, Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester and finally London, in between dates at both Primavera Sounds.

First up was Toronto’s METZ, who garnered comparisons to the likes of Melvins and Drive Like Jehu with the release of their debut self-titled album last year. The power trio threatened to destroy the eardrums of everyone present with their relentless loud-fuzz anthems such as “Wasted”, “Headache” and “Wet Blanket”, making a similar racket to their forbearers like Sonic Youth and Big Black.

New Jersey’s beer brawling Shakespearean punks Titus Andronicus followed, who are a combination of The Pogues, The Replacements and with a dash of Springsteen for afters. Opener “Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ” had everyone awaiting to chant “FUCK YOU!”, before “A More Perfect Union” had everyone launching into a moshing frenzy. The sweaty atmosphere inside saw frontman Patrick Stickles remove his top to unveil a Lil Wayne t-shirt he’d purchased from Camden market. “Titus Andronicus vs. The Absurd Universe (3^RD Round KO)”, from last year’s third album, Local Business, took on a hardcore flavour, reminiscent of early Replacements, whilst the self-titled loser anthem “Titus Andronicus”, saw Stickles go into the crowd, with everyone in unison chanting “Your life is over”, like it’s a badge of honour. The 14-minute epic “The Battle of Hampton Roads”, earned a brief rest bite, before the climatic and chaotic ending. The quintet ended on Neil Young’s classic “Rockin’ in the Free World”, which was dedicated to the Canadian friendly line-up, and saw members of Metz and Fucked Up join in.

Third and finally, Toronto’s hardcore punks Fucked Up closed the show. If you were expecting the audience to be knackered by that point, then opener “Let Her Rest” paid rest to those fears, as a giant pit opened up, with frontman Pink Eyes joining them, before “Queens of Hearts” had everyone singing along. The growling Pink Eyes (or Damian Abraham to his mother) gave a shout-out to Camden’s finest punk record store All Ages Records, before dedicating “I Hate Summer” to anyone who’s ever suffered from tormentors about weight issues or else. They closed with “Police” and “The Other Shoe”, the latter leading a chorus of “dying on the inside” from the crowd. They returned from the encore with “Two Snakes”, which Pink Eyes dedicated to the audience member who shouted out “I hate weed”.

A carnage and chaotic triple bill that delivered on its promise, it will be hard-pressed to find a better line up for a gig this year. 

Seen It>> Primavera Sound 2013, May 22-26 Parc Del Forum, Barcelona

Thursday, 23 May>>

Tame Impala>>The Australians were at Primavera promoting Lonerism, which was one of 20102's most acclaimed albums. Their psychedelic fuzz set included "Elephant" and "Apocalyptic Dreams" on the Heineken Stage.

Dinosaur Jr>>The American alternative legends were back at Primavera, but without drummer Murph, after the release of I Bet On Sky in 2012. They gave a tour round their impressive back catalogue, including "Lung", "Watch The Corners", "Fell the Pain", "Freak Scene", and rounded off their set with an appearance from Pink Eyes of Fucked Up, to cover Last Rights, a Boston hardcore band.

The Postal Service>>Tears aplenty were at the Heineken Stage, to witness the return of The Postal Service. Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard's electronic side-project had reformed after 10 years from their only album Give Up was released, which was played in full. 

Grizzly Bear>>A later than scheduled appearance meant only a glimpse of the Brooklyn indie rockers, which included songs from 2012's Shields, including "Speak in Rounds" and "Sleeping Ute". 

Fucked Up>>On the more intimate Pitchfork Stage, were Toronto hardcore band Fucked Up. With no new album to promote, the band were just here to show everyone how to rock out with fury, the set included opener "Queen of Hearts", "The Other Shoes" and "David Comes to Life".

Friday, 24 May>>

The Breeders>>The Ohio based band, featuring Pixies bassist Kim Deal and her twin sister Kelley, were playing their 20-year-old classic The Last Splash in full, which meant crowd favourite "Cannonball" made an early appearance in the set. 

Shellac>>Steve Albini's band are regulars at Primavera, and the show just why with a loud, blistering set that included "Ghosts" and "Watch Song".

The Jesus and Mary Chain>>The Scottish alternative rock band were a rare sight on the festival line ups of 2013, and they were a big pull for the Primavera audience. Their set included "Halfway to Crazy", "Some Candy Talking" and "Just Like Honey", where they were joined by Bilinda Butcher from My Bloody Valentine. 

Blur>>The Britpoppers are headlining festival all over Europe this summer, with a stomping and atmospheric delve through their back catalogue, including "Tender", "Parklife" and opener "Girls and Boys".

Titus Andronicus>>New Jersey's beer brawling punks Titus Andronicus were back at Primavera, after last year's release Local Business. Their manic beer-fulled anthems such as "No Future Part III" and "Titus Andronicus" got the repetitive fist pumping chants that they deserve, "You Will Always Be A Loser" and "Your Life is Over" respectively. The rowdy crowd were treated to new tracks such as "Still Life With Hot Deuce and Silver Platter" and "In a Big City", along with classics "Upon Viewing Bruegel's 'Landscape with the Fall of Icarus'" and "My Time Outside the Womb". 

Saturday, 25 May>>

Thee Oh Sees>>The quarter from San Francisco had a fast paced and eventful set, that saw frontman John Dwyer arguing with security guards over their handling of the rowdy crowd. Their psychedelic garage rock featured the new release of Floating Coffin, including "Strawberries 1+2" and "Minatuor". 

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds>>Nick Cave was at Primavera with his Bad Seeds in tow. They gave a pulsating delivery through his ethereal back catalogue, including "Jubilee Street", "Jack the Ripper" and of course, "Red Right Hand."

My Bloody Valentine>>Festival and Heineken stage closers My Bloody Valentine, drew a somewhat modest crowd. Their loud guitars had blocked out Kevin Sheilds' vocals, which caused a problem. Their set included songs from the new record, mbv, "Only Tomorrow" and "Wonder 2" and their first EP You Made Me Realise, "Slow" and the self-titled track. 

Incoming>>Titus Andronicus - "The Dog"

New Jersey punks Titus Andronicus, have given us a slice of summer thanks to their Record Store Day split, "I've Got A Date Tonight/The Dog". The latter is a two minute punk jam, with vocals provided by drummer Eric Harm. It is more lo-fi than their recent third album Local Business, with an 80s punk sound similar to the likes of Cock Sparrer and The Replacements.

The five-piece will be hitting the UK at the end of the month, alongside Fucked Up and Metz, so make sure to catch them. Dates are:

Sun 26 May 2013, Bristol, The Fleece

Mon 27 May 2013,  Leeds, Brudenell Social Club

Tue 28 May 2013, Glasgow, SWG3

Wed 29 May 2013, Manchester, Soundcontrol

Thu 30 May 2013, London, Electric Ballroom

Seen It>> Fang Island at Birthdays, 14 April 2013

When Fang Island are in town, you’re bound to have a good time. The sunshine was out for the first time since the pre-historic age, which seemed the perfect time to greet the Brooklyn party-metal trio. Formed in 2005 whilst students at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, whose alumni includes members of Talking Heads, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Les Savy Fav and others, they describe their music as “everyone high-fiving everyone” complemented with stomping drums and metallic stadium-ready guitars.

Opening “The Illinois”, from the self-titled debut, got the party started, before “Careful Crosses” and “Sideswiper” saw frantic head-banging and delirious bouncing. “Sisterly”, from last year’s sophomore release, Major, got so heated it blew the sound, literally! The band had to stop from a few minutes to fix the problem, whilst vocalist/guitarist Jason Bartell organised an a cappella sing-along during the wait. Once the sound returned, the band continued from where it had been halted.

“Welcome Wagon” and “Asunder” contained the aforementioned stomping drums and heavy riffs, whilst “Daisy”, probably their most famous ‘hit’, saw the crowd singing along into the mic and moshing like hell. They returned for a brief encore of “Davey Crockett”, which the drunken fans in the front were yelling for all gig. Bartell was then carried off by the crowd as the hero of the night.

It was an energetic, fun-filled show, where everyone did indeed high-five each other!

Features>>25 years of Surfer Rosa

“I wanted to rip off the Pixies.” Kurt Cobain
“It was the one that made me go ‘Holy shit.’ It was so fresh. It rocked without being lame.” Billy Corgan
“It blew my mind.” PJ Harvey
“They changed my life.” Thom Yorke
“The most compelling music of the entire 1980s.” David Bowie

March 21, 1988, three months after its completion in a Boston recording studio, Pixies’ Surfer Rosa is released on English independent record label, 4AD. At the time, who would have known the impact it would have or the legacy and influence it would leave, still a quarter of a century after its release. Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Weezer, Pavement, Modest Mouse, Blur…the list may read of a who’s who of 90s alt rock, but that’s precisely how influential Surfer Rosa became to that movement. Without the impact of college rock staples such as the Pixies, we may not have been so lucky later on to hear such names. Whilst its quiet-loud dynamic may have been regularly imitated, Surfer Rosa has simply not been equaled or bettered since its release, still sounding as fresh and raw on regular plays as it was 25 years ago. 

It cost just $10,000 to make, with producer, former Big Black front man Steve Albini, receiving $1500 and no royalties from its sales, which would eventually end up going Gold in the US in 2005, around the time of their reunion. Albini’s abrasive and lo-fi punk noise added to the pop dynamics and surf rock influences of the Pixies, which made them stand alone and pushed them away from the hardcore punk scene of 80s US alt rock. The surrealism element that has always been the cornerstone of the Pixies’ sound was also present, with themes including mutilation and voyeurism  “Gigantic” is supplemented by its burst of distorted guitar noise and welcoming bass intro,  “Cactus” is a slow burning mood changer and the Pixies’ most famous hit, “Where is My  Mind?”, a one-take ode to insanity and ecstasy. 

Surfer Rosa’s impact helped push the US college rock scene into the mainstream, with Pixies’ follows up eagerly anticipated and more accessible to commercialisation, concluding with appearances on MTV’s 120 Minutes, The Late Show on BBC2 and a headline set at Reading Festival in 1990. By the late 80s and early 90s, alternative rock began to incorporate more airtime on radio stations, rather than being secluded solely to college radio, which in turn saw the breakout of grunge and alternative rock to a much wider audience than before. 

Its legacy is compounded with its appearance at 315th Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, whilst it was also Pitchfork’s seventh best album of the 1980s, who incidentally had the follow up, Doolittle, placed above Surfer Rosa. They would later beef up their production for Doolittle with Gil Norton, with Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis in the belief that Surfer Rosa “sounded way better than the other ones.”

Features>>NIN are back and why it's important

Just when it looked as though Trent Reznor would be expanding his resume with the debut EP from How To Destroy Angels this year, his brainchild and main focus, Nine Inch Nails, announced a surprise live return with sets at Fuji Rock and Rock n Heim already confirmed, alongside their UK exclusive appearance at Reading and Leeds.

Formed in 1988 in Cleveland, Ohio, Nine Inch Nails released a total of seven albums in total, plus an EP titled Broken. Reznor brought industrial rock from underneath the American underground into mainstream rock conscious. Whereas artists like Ministry or Big Black never received such mainstream exposure in the eighties, NIN were regulars at festivals such as Lollapalooza and received several Grammy nominations. Their impact helped their peers gain more recognition, with Ministry’s Psalm 69 becoming platinum three years after its release, so much so that David Bowie compared their impact to revered art rock band, The Velvet Underground. Their second LP, The Downward Spiral, a tale of a man’s destruction and suicide attempt, based around Reznor’s heroin addiction, went 4xPlatinum in the US and Silver in the UK as well as being named on several “Best Albums” lists. It spawned the track "Hurt”, which was covered by country legend Johnny Cash, before his death in 2003. The double LP The Fragile was released in 1999 as a follow up in a midst of hype, and went to number one on the US Billboard. Their most recent album , and seventh in total, The Slip, was released in 2008 and Reznor has promised work on a follow up in the next year.

Reznor has also been making a name for himself in Hollywood, after winning the Oscar for Best Original Score alongside his HTDA band mate, Atticus Ross. Their dark ambient mood for The Social Network added dramatic tension that drove the film’s urgent climax. They were later asked by the same director, David Fincher, to do his remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which saw them later nominated for a Golden Globe.

Their return to touring has been mouth-watering for many reasons. Their live reputation has grown off of the back of their phenomenal performance at Reading in 2007, with “Hurt” among the highlights. After their so called ‘farewell tour’ in 2009, which included a co-headline stop with Jane’s Addiction on the NINJA tour, it seemed always likely NIN would be back on the live front. They are simply too good to retire. Now they are back in Berkshire and Leeds, make sure you DO NOT give them a miss, they will be the set of the weekend. 

Seen It>>Desaparecidos at Electric Ballroom, 11 February 2013

Eleven years after the release of Read Music/Speak Spanish and their subsequent break-up, Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst finally brought his hardcore band, Desaparecidos, over the pond, playing three shows in London, Manchester and Glasgow. After the efforts of Detour and Songkick, Desaparecidos were able to head to the UK for their first ever shows, including the tour finale at Electric Ballroom, which was packed to the rafters to see the band who had reunited in 2012, to play a local festival in Omaha.

Oberst appeared clad in long black hair and indoor sunglasses, neither what you’d expect from punk activist, nor appropriate attire for the incumbent weather. However, new song and opener, “The Left is Right”, saw a crowd push of excited fans eager to get their first glimpse of the Nebraskan quintet. Another newbie in “Anonymous” is greeted with the fist pumping anthem “you can’t stop us, we are anonymous”, whilst “Greater Omaha’s opening chords are greeted with excited loud cheers. The relentless set vary rarely offers an opportunity for a rest, just an enthralling political noise on stage, supplemented by a passionate following within the crowd.

“MariKKopa”, written after their reunion in 2012, about a racist sheriff of Phoenix, Arizona, seemed to be Oberst’s vocal calling. They returned after the encore with a cover of The Clash’s “Spanish Bombs” and set closer “Hole in One”, which saw guitarist Denver Dalley, diving into the crowd.

Even some eleven years after they first came to our attention, the passion and message of Desaparecidos is still there to see. With youth unemployment and disillusionment still at rife, this is their time to speak. Perhaps Oberst means the truth, when he says they will see us again. This isn’t a reunion to pay the bills.