Trouble with a(n anti-)capital ‘T’

This was one of the first sites I came across when I had my first go on the ‘world wide web’ many many years ago. The clever and comedic protest projects had me in stitches… and that’s all I can be bothered to type. Check the site for some really fun anti-capitalist subversion, protest and direct action… Space Hijackers!

Interview – A War Against Sound

Who the hell are A War Aginst Sound? Well, int their own words:

Basically… 4 crazy idiots residing around the Blackburn/Manchester area. AWAS play fast, heavy & technical Ska-Core and have an insanely good time doing so. We will play in your grandmas kitchen if you ask us to! We love doing what we do…

Still don’t understand? “Let’s get deeper”:

Let’s do the standard bit first, can you give us some background information on yourselves (how you met, band members, where you’re from, previous releases etc)?

Well, all the string folk in the band met on a really crappy music course at Blackburn College, we ended up never turning up anymore cause we had loads of mid week gigs and booked really silly tours. We practiced there at first. Then the drummer situation is sort of Legend with us… we’re on our 5th drummer now aha. But we got Graham who drums for us now (and who will drum for us the rest of our time as a band!!!). He’s from an old metal band called ‘Leading The Charge’, they we’re just splitting up and we we’re in need of drummer so the situations met. We don’t have too much of a back catalogue to be honest, we released 2 crappy demo CD’s which are no longer anywhere apart from the 2009 one that’s on www.skamutinyrecords.co.uk. We just brought out a new CD on TNS records, which we’re really happy with!

Tell us about your influences both musically and personally?

We love music, touring, recording and meeting loads of new people, there’s no sort of influence based objectives we just love it all…

Having listened to your to some of your tracks there’s ‘a real amalgamation of punk energy, frenetic ska, dub and even rock’, did you set out with a sound in mind, or has it just been a natural evolution?

Hmmm, I don’t really know in all honesty. There’s a lot of music being brought to the table, there’s 2 fully-fledged metal heads in the band then I’m really into my underground ska-core then loads of ska pop punk skatepunk, there’s groove and hip-hop sorta influence in there somewhere. Its just the respect and appreciation of each others tastes that helps us write together.

Ideal Ramp Jam – Next Friday!

Photo © Sam Lee

According to Gnargore there’s gonna be a jam at the Ideal ramp on Friday the 12th of February:

Ideal Ramp, Birmingham, B9 4AA
12/02/10 | 6pm
Sponsored by DC Shoes & ****** Energy Drink

“Jam session with the DC Team and Brum locals fuelled with ******* Energy.”

There’s some pretty rad footage from the Ideal ramp here…

And a video of the last jam at Ideal:

Witness some shredding next Friday…

*Shitty hypercaffeinated artificially-flavoured ‘energy’ drinks don’t get free publicity here. Get thyself a decent espresso and a croissant, that’s all the energy you need right there.

Three Way Dance 2009

It may have been over four months ago but we haven’t forgotten about the Three Way Dance that happened in Oct 09 up and down British shores. Four awesome bands played – Comply Or Die, Nana’s Revenge (now known as The Human Project), Mouhwash, and Random Hand. While these photos are erm, shit, the bands were awesome. All photos belong to threebasics.co.uk.

Comply Or Die

Nana’s Revenge

Mouthwash

Random Hand

Mike Scott – Free Album Download.

Mike Scott, Phinius Gage says…

My debut CD from 2007, ‘MASSACRE SONGS’, is now  completely out of press – and there won’t be another CD pressing, so I thought I’d give it away from FREE…

My debut CD came out in October 2007 on Fond of Life records of Germany.

It’s now sold out and I don’t really see the point in re-pressing it (so those who do own a CD will seem more elite). It’s probably my darker, slower stuff – more Elliott Smith sounding than Frank Turner.

So, please feel free to come download it – it’s 10 tracks and the .zip file you download has all the track listing, artwork and everything attached.

The direct link to get it is:
http://www.mediafire.com/?gkwioctyzjy

I’ve set up a facebook event for spreading the word – so please pass on the link:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=217549336901&index=1

SICK

Inner Terrestrials – 19th of February – FREE!

For your information, there is scheduled an organization of a group of mans in a triangular formation, mans who call themselves the Inner Terrestrials, involving themselves in the facilitation of the transformation of kinetic energy via the strumming and beating of sound-making implements with an obvious variation; this will result in the creation of airborne oscillations which, by rough translation, exist as musical vibrations that will enter your brain and you feel no pain. Remember this one is a free one, so you’re bound to want to get yourself down to town, ride up to Digbeth and pay no pounds to hear the reggae-influenced skanking punk sound.

At the Adam & Eve on Friday the 19th of February. If you can tolerate the shite beer, get thyself in the place, and I would never advocate bringing ones own beer/other alcobeverage into a publichouse, but sometimes it’s got to be done if you want cheap fun.

TONIGHT! Vibronics + more @ The Rainbow

FRIDAY 22ND JANUARY 2010>>>>

After the success of NICE UP THE DANCE with Tippa Irie and Demolition Man, Whomanity bring you the second in the series of rootsman parties with a cultural mix of dubstep, jungle, dancehall, reggae, heavy dub and intelligent dnb.

We are specially bringing outernational dub specialists VIBRONICS to the courtyard along with JAH MARNYAH upon the mic, to showcase a night filled up with future sounds of dub.

Also, the conscious selection of DJ DOUBLE H will be blazing up the fire with Nice Up residents Whomanity Sound and Lewe Irie hunting down babylon in a ruff stylee.

In the front room we have Skeleton and Dolhasz from the Beat Suite who will be playing enuf Dubstep, Jungle and Electronic music madness as we ease into 2010 and NICE UP THE VIBES!

FEATURING:

•VIBRONICS FEAT: JAH MARNYAH (Scoops Records)

•DJ DOUBLE H (Conscious Rootsman Vibez)

•WHOMANITY SOUND (Nice Up)

•SKELETON AND DOLHASZ (Beat Suite Electro Dubsteppaz)

•HOSTED BY LEWE IRIE (Ma-Kaya Sound)

10.30pm-4am, £5 entry all night

THE RAINBOW PUB, DIGBETH, 160 High Street Deritend, Birmingham, B12 0LD

SchNEWS DIY Guide

No info about putting up shelves or building decking for your back garden, no. But SchNEWS’ DIY guide contains plenty of useful and informative stuff for protestors and activists, such as How To Campaign, The Defendant’s Guide To Arrest, and the Guide To Public Order Situations.

My favourite, though, is the Billboard Subvertising guide:

“The billboard artist’s goal is to throw a well-aimed spanner into the media’s gears, bringing the image factory to a shuddering halt. We work to unmask the real corporate activity behind the glamorous image. Our actions reclaim these billboards and use them as our own canvasses. After all, it’s our walls that are being rented out for business propaganda.”

Check the version on Urban75 for more info.

Also relevant – The Essential Guide To Flyposting on U75, and the main Protest & Direct Action page on the same site…

A Guide: Birmingham DIY Punk and Ska!

In case you haven’t noticed, Three Basics comes with a sexy new page…Brum Punx. It’s situated just above this post and gives details of the going ons in Birmingham Punk and Ska. Now it must be said that this isn’t some elitest thing. In an ideal world we’d have one for each town, city, country and continent (we draw the line at inter planatery infromation sharing, call us racists but we just don’t like the look fo those damned Martians) but we just don’t have that knowledge. If you want to or have done a simiar ting for your home town, feel free to share!