Enrico Pallazzo, the new French solo project of Lost Love’s Olivier Thériault, releases his first single. The power-pop track is called ”Comment maquiller une scène de crime” (How to cover up a crime scene) and is available on all digital platforms.
Every year at the end of October or early November, there is an annual in memoriam gig in Prostor Čakovec for all our fallen brothers and sisters that we have lost through the years. This year was no exception. The line-up this year was made of punkrock bands and when we arrived to Prostor just around 10 pm when the gig should start according to the schedule, there was enough people in front of the club and inside waiting for the gig to start. The first band of the evening were TAHIJEVI KMETOVI from Karlovac. These veterans are playing for four decades and with some lineup changes they endured until today. I saw them about a little more than year ago in Varaždin and they were not my cup of tea there. Now, I changed my mind when I was able to hear their set on good pa system, so the guys and girl delivered about half an hour of nice punkrock mixed with, that is only my opinion, some garage punk and hardcore influences. Their singer has great voice and sounds original, different than many of her peers in the world punkrock scene and that is great. They played mostly songs from their debut album, but I think there were four new unreleased songs in their set, and I love the new material, in my opinion much, much better than older stuff. They finished their set with Kud Idijoti cover Jebem ti rat.
BKD from Varaždin played our hometown not long ago, also here in the Croatian and Slovenian area a lot, but it is nice to see the trio expanding in the region having recently played great gigs in Serbia and Macedonia. Who heard this band and saw them play live knows what to expect from them. Jokes on stage, then punk oi songs about friendship, drinking, more drinking and then some drinking, a bit more jokes. I love this band and I know most of their lyrics so I sang along and had fun listening and watching them play. The finished their set with Kud Idijoti cover too, hehe.
I last saw MAŠINKO from Zagreb play live on Zmajevo fest in Zagreb last year, I think that they didn˙t play much gigs and paused afterwards because singer Šulc went to China or something similar. Now, they are back and they sounded better than ever. Their gigs are a challenge for every soundman because they have five men singing and they do it divinely. Vocalist sings his parts, the three guitarists and bassist sing different harmonies, every men something else and I loved every minute of their hour long set of street melodic punkrock and we all sang every chorus and every verse with them. Their set was made of the hits from all of their releases plus couple of covers by Mikrofonija and KBO! at the very end of two encores they triumphantly ended their set and party continued with hardcore and punk hits deeply in the night.
What to say? Another nice memory, another nice tribute to our brothers and sisters who are no longer with us. If they watched, they would be proud.
Mini Meltdowns premiered their video for “I Wanna Die,” a song from their Destined For Disaster EP via Milwaukee Record today. According to director Nick Sommer (who also stars in the video), “The song is sort of tongue-in-cheek and suicide is such a serious subject, so I wanted to figure out a way to show the idea of ‘I Wanna Die,’ but make sure the audience knows the main character doesn’t actually want to kill himself. Playing off the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray kills himself repeatedly until he finally wakes up with the girl of his dreams, our video does the exact opposite.”
Sommer manages to soften the video’s dark motif through the use of illustrations from John Mcguire and visual effects from Dave Keihl, which the director says “help push the dream sequences to a work of imagination.” There’s also some great live footage, some of which was filmed underwater. It’s also worth noting that this video also manages to pick up right where the “Number On Me” video left off.
Mini Meltdowns’ Jon Phillip had a rough 2018. You’d never know it from the ever-sunny disposition exhibited by the Mini Meltdowns frontman, who’s also a respected and prolific drummer; having been a part of such groups as Limbeck, the Paul Collins Beat, Ben Weasel, and the Replacements’ Tommy Stinson’s rotating cast of backing musicians, to name a few.
After having settled into an exciting new life on the outskirts of Nashville, Tennesse, just a few years back, Phillip was dealt a handful of life challenges that brought on some heavy anxiety and the urge to give up completely…most significantly having to grieve the sudden loss of his beloved father, who encouraged little Jonny to play music from a young age, and dealing with a few toxic relationships.
Phillip has since found love, received his undergraduate degree, and on October 4, his own Good Land Records will release Destined For Disaster, the second EP from Mini Meltdowns, the band he started with the Promise Ring and Dashboard Confessional’s bassist, Scott Schoenbeck. The EP was produced by All-American Rejects guitarist Mike Kennerty, who also laid down some lead guitar and backing vocals for good measure.
Since he’ll never show it in his face, our window into Phillip’s immense pain is in black and white for us all to see on Destined For Disaster. The four song titles say what needs to be said: “Gonna Miss You,” “I Wanna Die,” “Afraid of Everything,” and “You Bring Me Down” deliver their messages clearly with quick, riff-tastic blasts that show off Phillip’s growing comfort in performing front and center. The EPs influences shine through, thus proving that the Road To Ruin can lead to a promised land.
To celebrate Destined For Disaster (and restored happiness in general), Mini Meltdowns will play its first ever full-band show, a stacked release party on Friday, October 18 at the new X-Ray Arcade in Cudahy that also features Telethon and Graham Hunt (of Midnight Reruns infamy).
DESTINED FOR DISASTER
Side A
1. Gonna Miss You
2. I Wanna Die
Side B
3. Afraid Of Everything
4. You Bring Me Down
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 