Tag Archives: ska punk

(record review)WE ARE THE UNION-Self Care

We Are The Union just released their fourth full length album and I listened and reviewed it for this zine.

cover

These guys are from Detroit, Michigan area and they have been around for a while, just launching their fourth full length record out.

The record contains 12 songs. The music is melodic punkrock with skapunk, pop punk and skatepunk parts in the song structures. From the skatepunk fast opening of Post-Ironic Sinkhole this band show us the listeners all the richness of their music style. A Better Home is a ska reggae punkrock anthem filled with brass instruments, punk aggressiveness and melody.

One of the best songs on the album for me is My Death, half a minute acoustic miniature, short but sweet, followed by The Way It Was, full blooded punkrock hymn, when I listen to this song it brings me back under Summer starry sky, having a blast with my friends and enjoying punkrock freedom! There is a guest performance on The Long Way by none other than Stacy Dee of Bad Cop/Bad Cop and she fit in with her voice nicely in this song. Not to discover just everything, you will have to listen to this album and check the other songs and discover your favorites for yourselves. All I can tell you that I had a blast listening to this one!

8,5/10

Links:

Follow the band on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/wearetheunion

Bandcamp:

https://wearetheunion.bandcamp.com/album/self-care

 

 

(news)Reel Big Fish drop surprise new single “You Can’t Have All of Me”; ‘Life Sucks…Let’s Dance!’, band’s first new album in 6 years on December 21 via Rock Ridge Music.

Reel_Big_Fish_October_2018_Jodie_Cunningham__jodiphotography

Reel Big Fish are back with the surprise release of their boisterous new single titled, “You Can’t Have All Of Me,” and have announced plans to release ‘Life Sucks…Let’s Dance!,’ their first LP of brand new material in 6 years, on December 21 via Rock Ridge Music.

The single, a high energy skank-athon that is sure to please both longtime fans and new converts, is one of 14 new tracks that makes up the upcoming album.

Grab the new single on Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Music: smarturl.it/ReelBigFish-Single.

A music video for the track is premiering today on Alternative Press: https://www.altpress.com/tag/features/reel-big-fish-you-cant-have-all-of-me-new-song.

RBF-LifeSucks-Cover

Founding member and frontman Aaron Barrett says, “I have an unhealthy obsession with my dog Walter and I started singing little songs to him about how cute he was. Then I realized I had written some pretty catchy songs. So I changed all the lyrics because I didn’t think anybody would want to hear a rock opera about my dog.

We started recording the album in January 2018 and really took our time with it. Our friend and engineer David Irish just finished building his new studio “Pot of Gold” in Orange, CA, and we loved how everything sounds there, and there’s just really good energy and good vibes there and there’s a really adorable studio kitten named Iggy Fluff there, so we may have accidentally made a positive, happy record instead of a pissed off, hateful record, oops…well, there’s a little pissed off-ness in there and some sarcastic, funny lyrics as usual!

Also, I just got married so there might be a few sappy love songs on the album too! Yuck!

Recording the album with this line up was really fun, we all get along really well these days and everybody was excited to make a new record. Everybody had lots of great ideas and really got creative with everything and I really think it shows.

The new single is a danceable sing along, catchy, hooky good old Reel Big Fish song.

We didn’t reinvent the wheel…
We just painted more checkers on it!”

Regarding the video, Barrett adds, “We just wanted to keep the new video simple, just the band playing in the studio and rocking out…mostly because all of us were out of town after warped tour till the night we left for this current tour so we only had a few hours to shoot a video. Tunnel Light pictures did an awesome job making a quick video and it was easy and a lot of fun.”

The long-running ska heroes, fresh off a summer-long stint on the final cross-country Vans Warped Tour, and appearances at Scallywag! Fest (with Bad Religion, Pennywise, Less Than Jake and The Interrupters) and Sammy Hagar’s Hightide Beach Party, are back on the road, headlining the The Tickle My Tiki TOURch with support from Ballyhoo! and We Are The Union. The tour will be followed by a UK co-headline run with their old pals in Less Than Jake.

About Reel Big Fish:

Reel Big Fish was one of the legions of Southern California ska-punk bands to edge into the mainstream following the mid-’90s success of No Doubt and Sublime. The band was distinguished by their hyperkinetic stage shows, juvenile humor, ironic covers of new wave pop songs, and metallic shards of ska. The group cultivated an underground following that broke into the mainstream in summer 1997, when their single “Sell Out” became a modern rock radio and MTV favorite. Their appearance in the movie “Baseketball” as the halftime band also gained them more fans and helped the bands popularity to grow. Still fronted by original lead singer and song writer Aaron Barrett, they continue releasing albums and touring relentlessly, playing more and more countries and bigger venues all over the world.

Visit http://www.reel-big-fish.com/ for more information.

http://www.reel-big-fish.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ReelBigFish/

 

(news)Vinyl Subscription Service Table-Turned Adds Burger Records (“Garage Rock”) and Asian Man Records (“Ska-Punk”) as label partners!

Chicago-based vinyl subscription service Table-Turned announces the addition of Burger Records and Asian Man Records to its constantly expanding list of label partners.

Garage Rock subscribers will be guaranteed a record from Burger Records while Ska-Punk subscribers are guaranteed a record from Asian Man.

Table-Turned sends its subscribers new records in the mail each month. Instead of telling them what to enjoy, though, the service empowers subscribers to select the genre from two options. The records they receive each month will not only include some of that genre’s best, but will also expose them to bands and albums they might have missed.

For previous rounds, the service has offered genres including Pop-Punk, Emo Revival, Post-Rock, Grunge Revival, Americana-Punk, and Noise Rock. Table-Turned partnered with several independent labels to find the best music for their subscribers, including Sub Pop, Relapse Records, Topshelf Records, Bloodshot Records, Temporary Residence, Constellation Records, Southern Lord, The Native Sound, Victory, Deathwish Inc.and more.

Subscriptions are available in limited quantities for a limited time.

For more information about each package and how to subscribe, please visit Table-Turned’s website.

Garage Rock

For Fans Of… Best Coast, Surfer Blood, and Jay Reatard

Rock the way it’s meant to be played: sincere, pained and impassioned—imperfect. These noisy albums echo with reverb, bristle with sentiment, and thrum with a palpable energy. Sometimes lo-fi, sometimes, dreamy, but always raw and real.

Ska-Punk

For Fans Of… Less Than Jake, Streetlight Manifesto, and the Interrupters

Quick streaks of guitar glinting against catchy horns, a restless bass quick-stepping beneath a rocksteady drumbeat—these albums combine cues from the second and third waves with pop-punk’s rowdiest, most honest melodies.

Subscribe here.

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