The last few days have seen two bands from UK’s punk scene drop videos so scorching hot they more than make-up for the utterly dismal summer. Continue reading
punk
Hot Flab Debut Single Nails Bristol
Hot Flab’s first single ‘The City’ is a scorcher: punchy, fast; a rampant ride of punk burning with to-the-point socially aware lyrics. Continue reading
empress piru: i DECiDE
i DECiDE retains the Spanish/Persian flavour, cyberpunk feel of previous empress piru releases, while also taking on a more urgent, in-the-present, grittier edge.
Opener ‘Ni una meanos !’ would sound perfectly at home in a Tarantino movie, particularly if he ever decided to make one centred on crazed prowling cats. Continue reading
Zpangled Henz: A Punk As F**k Tour De Force
Zpangled Henz self-titled four-track EP rips an even bigger hole than the massive one left by the cell-phone-recorded-demo of last year.
Exploding with a vibe similar Continue reading
T.A.T. (There’s Always Time)
T.A.T. (There’s Always Time)’s debut EP Breathe prowls into life with the track of the same name; darkly moody and Bauhaus-esque in tone it stalks like a cold shadow carrying a jagged-edged knife. Sharon Watts—who vocally touches on Polystyrene-levels of pitch and passion—sings of escaping a coercive relationship with a conviction leaving no doubt the lyrics come from experience; a feeling of personality erosion and suffocation captured perfectly in the focus and obsessive mantra of Breathe that’s sung in the name of believing in the self to ride out the storm of anxiety the manipulative obsessive can force to run rampant in the innocent. Continue reading
Just For the Hell of It! Punk Times Bristol Nov 2023
One thing that doesn’t go unmissed by me when writing about Bristol’s punk scene is that in claiming so many bands are so good there’s risk of it sounding like Continue reading
Down with Split Dogs at Dean Lane
When first heading to punk gigs in Bristol and following the relevant social media, I fast became aware of a buzz around local band Split Dogs.
Such was that buzz my first attempt to see them live ended in failure when arriving at The Plough only to find a long line-up outside of people waiting for others to leave—which was unlikely—so they could get in.
It wasn’t until some time later that I managed to catch them at the Chelsea Inn. There they delivered a set of slick frenetic punk exploding with an energy knowing no bounds, producing so much joyous sweat the flood warning for Bristol seen earlier in the day online and making no sense at the time—the weather was fine—suddenly did in bounds. Continue reading
Empress Piru: normalize yourself
‘all man panel’ opens with a solitary guitar that initially sounds Spanish before the rest of the band come in and things take on a Persian flavour. The incredible sound is in part thanks to Empress Piru having two bassists, and puts in mind the likes of Kourosh Yaghmaei, Faramarz Aslani and Omar Khorshid; a vibe of the latter in particular permeating the album despite each track having a distinct character. The picture painted is one of night, heat and sand; real fires for light and the shadows they cast dancing large across the side of tents a cat moves stealthily next to. Continue reading
Death Pill: the ferocious all-female face of Ukrainian Defiance
Monday the 12th saw a first visit to the Louisiana, Bristol. Knowing nothing of the headliner, it was another case of a flyer grabbing attention in the timeline and hitting interested on the event from there.
Then came a surprise a couple of days beforehand when finding an article on the BBC website singing the praises of Death Pill’s cause; this I didn’t know about.
Death Pill’s story is phenomenal; so much so, it’s humbling writing now to think I got to witness part of it. Continue reading
Girls Like Us: Bitter ‘Til The Bitter End; a review
Girls Like Us (GLU) released Bitter ‘Til The Bitter End the same weekend I caught the band live at the Chelsea Inn, Bristol.
It was a blistering set, part of another top night there (In With the Inn Crowd), during which I was about to turn to a mate and say, ‘killer bass line’ only for him to beat me to it with the exact same words.
The debut album certainly lives up to its name with lyrics plenty raw enough to suggest lived experience fuelling its theme of two-timing, dickhead boyfriends/blokes more often than not from entitled backgrounds. Continue reading
N. P. Ryan 