UK SUBS - Auld Lang Syne

Cheers!

Best and Worst of 2013 (The 1,2, Fuck You List)

I believed last year that 2013 should be the year of many good punk rock records. And in some ways it went that way. Dropkick Murphys. Asta Kask, Bad Religion, Vänsternäven, Alonzo Fas 3 and Gatans Lag did release rather good records. But THAT record wasn´t made, the one that stood out a bit more than the other, the undisputable, already classic, record wasn´t made. As many band that didn´t got their shit together and released theirs, there was as many that didn´t. Most notable the failure of the next Rancid album. Do they work on their version of Chinese Democracy or what?.
Tim Armstrong did however set some crazy record in releasing most singles or something?


Live, there were few surprises, the West Coast Riot was taking a pause, which made the summer a bit dull. Antisocial stepped out of the shadows and became the best live music punk club in Stockholm.

The sad news was that Lou Reed died and DERBY STHLM drummer Turbo have to quit because of illness. And that Ligisterna was spending more time in the crowd than on the stage.

Best ConcertTopper at Snövit (Jan)
Strawberry Blondes at Tegelhögen in Vällingby (Nov)

Runners up; DERBY STHLM, Ligisterna, Stiff Little Fingers and Sham 69, Hyper Actives and The Manics

Best Concert Promotor/Festival/ClubAntisocial (Club)

Best AlbumVänsternäven – Välkommen Hem (Swe)
Gatans Lag – Från Fest Till Arrest (Swe)
Alonzo Fas 3 – Alonzo Fas 3 (Swe)
Asta Kask – Handen På Hjärtat (Swe)
Booze & Glory – London Skinhead Crew (UK)

Best Single/EP (Vinyl, CD or Digital)
Saturday´s Heroes – Don´t Tear it Down (Swe)
Vänsternäven – King Of Störd (Swe)
Head Ons – Head Ons På Svenska (Swe)
Smash It Ups – Billy and Rudy (Swe)

Records of other interests???

Best bands (Different reasons)Topper
DERBY STHLM
Ligisterna
Gatans Lag
Alonzo Fas 3
Asta Kask
Troublemakers
Booze & Glory
Vänsternäven
Strawberrry Blondes

Positive new discoveriesBastards on Parade (Spa)
Jeunesse Apatride (Can) 

Best SingalongsDERBY Psybryt
Topper
Sham 69
Stiff Little Fingers
Asta Kask
Köttgrottorna
Dropkick Murphys
Alonzo Fas 3 

Best Revivals
Tredje Könet
Klägg

HeaviestStrindberg  Som Tortyr

Hardest

Ultimate Punk HerosPussy Riot (Rus)
Lou Reed (US)

Worst DisapointmentThat I fucked up attenting Pretty Shitty Kjell for free.

Worst Let Down
Bad Religion at Gröna Lund

Worst Fuck Up
Dislocated booking a nazirelated band. (Canceled by the pub owner.)
Worst Pseudo Happening

???

Lita Ford and Cherie Currie of the Runaways will be onstage together!

http://www.daysofthedead.net/atlanta/

 

 

Lita Ford and Cherie Currie will sing together at the Days Of The Dead convention in Atlanta, Feb 7-9 2014!

As Close to a Runaways reunion as possible at the moment?

 

 

 

 

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We are not Pussy Riot now

http://www.nme.com/news/pussy-riot/74613


As a result of the imprisionment of the three women of punk activist gtoup Pussy Riot, the band and art Project is put on halt.
As an result of the degrading treatment they experienced in the Russian prisons they will now work for better and more fair conditions in the Russian prisions.

What ever the ruling dictators in Russia thought, it will not shut up the cause.

The Punk might been silenced but hopefully not their voices.


FREE PUSSY RIOT FOR REAL
AND GIVE THEM AN APPOLGY!

Lemonade is for Pussies

Pussy Riot out of jail but not free

All of the three members of the punkband/art group Pussy Riot that got sentenced to jail acording to Russias Holigan laws applied on any political protests or try to perform fredom of speach that is granted in the civilized world is being released from prison.

It is all part of a strategy for the authoroties in Russia to avoid the question of political oppression and lack of democracy in Russia. Especially when the Olympic games will be held in Sotji in Russia.

The women of Pussy Riot might got out of jail, but are in reallity not free.

Now Pussy Riot want's us to boycott tha games. And I will.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/video/2013/dec/23/pussy-riot-nadezhda-tolokonnikova-free-prison-video

http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2012/aug/14/pussy-riot-trial-russia-video


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Julpunken 2013 Doberman Cult, Ligisterna and Psykbryt a Review

Julpunken 2013 at Kafé 44

The place and Doberman Cult

The annual Christmas Punk at Kafé 44 was held in Friday Dec 20. A great line up, but gosh how early they started. I arrived at 8pm and found that I missed two acts already. Matriarkatet and Reidar Assine, too bad.

So my starting point was Doberman Cult, a Hard Core band that I can stand. It happens that I go to the Loo or hit the bar when the hard Core bands play. Not when these geezers played. In my mind they let enough old school punk and rock vibe into it so it won´t be ridiculous. Fair sound and one of a hell energetic singer, that literary was climbing on the walls and being all over the place, that did set the standards for the night.  And the rest of the bands didn´t dare to go below that. Unfortunately didn´t the crowd go wild to it, maybe they was to busy watching what the singer was going to do next?

The place and event

The night was due to Swedish alcohol laws a no beer event. That didn´t stop people drink their own beer outside the place. I got a vibe of my youth from it. But because the no alcohol policy young punks could see it as well. Not just old farts like me.
The crowd was a mix of very young skins and punks and the punk and skins regulars where some of us are closer to our fifties.
It wasn´t packed but fair enough with people to get a good atmosphere. Boy, did I miss a cold beer between the acts?


Ligisterna

Ligisterna haven’t been onstage that much this year so they was really fueled up for a rocket ride.
To make it short, I was a true mayhem onstage. The sound was far from perfect, partly because the amps of Kafé 44 have seen its better days, partly because Niklas the singer and rythm guitarist was playing around with the volume knob in between the tunes. Playing the songs, he was like the Doberman Cult singer, all over the place.  Mostly old material was played, mostly to satisfy my taste, haha, I can´t get enough of their older tunes. But bass player Cabbe did sing a new tune that was a bit different than the other tunes. Time will tell if it survives on their set list.
Ligisterna did live up to their reputation as an unpredictable, entertaining and wreckless band.  If you want a mainstream comecial band for your wedding, don´t call Ligisterna. For a moment it looked like they were going to wreck their equipment as well as the whole stage. But that was just an artistic statement or a moment of divine inspiration. Ligisterna did get the young and old in the crowd to get going in a violent mosh pit. And in the encores they had turned both the stage and crowd into a mess of chaos. This was old school punk in it´s prime. Actually on of the most entertaining gigs all the year.

Psykbryt

Closing the event was the youngsters in Psykbryt. I never seen them better. And they had to be. There were no room for a shamble then. They didn´t wreck and jumped around as much as the previous bands. But they got the crowd going. Wildly and madly punk dancing that might been remembered in the Saturday morning as bruises all over the young punks. Well, the old ones might certainly have a few bruises as well.  The sound was better than Ligisterna´s sound. Their wit and charm did reach out when the sound system was fair enough for us to hear their lyrics. They have developed alot as performers this year. They were so focused on what they did so kick drum problems was fixed in a moment.  They crowd seemed to love every second of it and so did I.
As an encore Psykbryt, Ligisterna as well as DERBY STHLM (try to keep them off stage if you can) did cover KSMB´s “But We Have No Bananas”, together with the crowd. How many can sing in the same microphone? Call the Guiness Book Of Records, this might make it.

WOW! Is my only reaction, what a start on the night. It ended too early though. Then we deserved a beer to make the rest of the night as good, so we went to a place for some of that and lost DERBY STHLM on the way. God knows where they disappeared.
Keep looking for the lost geezers of DERBY STHLM, we just lost them. Call 112 (199)!

So
I don´t remember what I did pay to get in, and it was irrelevant. It was great in all the ways it could be, even if they didn´t served beer.

The Great Rock n Roll Swindler Ronnie Biggs dies at age 84

The British train robber Ronnie Biggs, notable for the "Great Train Robery" in Britain in 1963 , have died of illness at the age of 84.

After Johnny Rottens departure in 1978 from the Sex Pistols, manager Malcolm McLaren worked for train robber Ronnie Biggs in his Brazilian exile to replace Rotten as the new singer. All this in the Julian Temple´s Movie the Great Rock n Roll swindle. Of course this was a publicity stunt aimed to provoke the British public.

However Mr Biggs did record a tune with what was left of the Sex Pistols, Steve Jones and Paul Cook, "No One is Innocent".

He also recorded a track with the German punk band Die Toten Hosen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25426914


.,,

Artist - Josefin Rasmuson

 

Josefin Rasmuson (Swe)
Ball pen on paper.

The Wheelz - Wanna Get Drunk

The Wheelz - Wanna Get Drunk (US)

Taken from the compilation - Music In The Streets vol. 1 (2013)

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The Punk Rocker Vs The Christ Democrat over Jesus

http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/hagglund-i-brak-med-punkare-om-jesus/
Swedish punk singer Johan Johansson have gotten into a Twitter feud with Christ Democrat leader Göran Hägglund over Jesus. The punk singer claim that Jesus would bitchslap Hägglund because how his politics treats the poor in Sweden.
Hägglund have now blocked Johansson. The feud have however reached the news paper that have asked Hägglund for an statement.

Attentat - Skyltsöndag i GBG

Attentat - Skyltsöndag i GBG (Swe)

EP (2013)

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Strawberry Blondes, Stiffy Jones at Snövit and Tegelhögen

Strawberry Blondes, the Wales answer on Rancid, was in Stockholm for three gigs in three days. I came to see two of them and was impressed with what I saw. To support them Stiffy Jones came along from the Stockholm suburbs.

Wedenesday, November 27at Snövit

The Crowd

Wedenesday at Snövit, not much people. As I written before, if there is a dedicated crowd at a gig, it doesn´t matter if it´s not a big crowd, because most punk clubs in Stockholm are so small it seems crowded anyway. The people gathered in the Snövit basement on wedenesday was mostly Strawberry Blondes fans and they were there for a good time. Some told me that SB been one of their favorite bands for some time and the support band Stiffy Jones thought it was surreal to be playing on the same stage as their favorites.

The Bands

Stiffy Jones

As I written before I promised to give the lads a chance that I didn´t gave them while I impatient was waiting for Topper some weeks ago. This time I gave them the chance to prove themself as a band to be counting on. In many ways they did. Good songs and a good show. But it all drowned in a massive treble noice that did cast a shade on the songs. It was hard to hear the vocals and even the bass guitar most of the time, it affected my imprssion of them. I have often noticed the same phenomena, the support band doesn´t pay the same amount of attention to all the details as the main band, wich often is the main difference between being the headline and not. Lower the volume a bit, especially the treble and you will stand out as much greater. Besides that they were quite good, with good tunes. If I should put them in a genre or compare them with some others, then it must be the Civilians but with a bit more indy touch.

Strawberry Blondes

The only thing that I can hold against the Wales band (with a Canadien bass player) Strawberry Blondes, is that, on the records they are a bit too much Rancid, Dropkick Murphys, Stiff Little Fingers and the Clash. Even if they do really good records.
Live the band played it a bit harder, a bit more playful and with their own touch, which made quite an impression on me. I didn´t expect to see such a living band. Frontman and singer Mickie Stabs was all over the stage, jumping, dancing and singing so the saliva showers anything around. The intensity was striking. Live, they didn´t have the double guitars with its fat sound like they can have on the records. But that made them more Strawberry Blondes than anything that they can be compared with. They used the dynamics of ease it down a bit before the songs erupts into loud punk rock for instance. A throbbing bass, played by Stew Page, and a drummer, Jay Rebel, that seemed convinced that his drums was something that deserved a good beating.

It was a hard working band leaving nothing to chance in the stage apearance. 100% pure punk energy that was amazing. Sorry I meant 110% punk energy.

Any band that will improve their stage presence, go and see Strawberry Blondes, watch and learn! And even when the strings broke on both the bass and the guitar they went on as the high class band they appeared as.

On Wednesday night the crowd responded with singing along in the songs and spontaniously jump on stage and grabs the mic´s and help out. The band seemed a bit surprised over it and very pleased. The crowd did go, aaaaoooaawwhh etc.

Best songs? It´s hard to pick some of their songs because the high quality of all their songs. But my favorites were ”Fight Back”, ”No Pasaran”, ”Goodbye Inspiration”, ”Social Control”,
And the genius of having a real trumpet, played by Emma Jones, in some of the songs like ”Manners and Respect” was adding on to the good feeling I got from it. The trumpet that cut in between the distorted guitar and the bass, that made them stand out in their own way.

I can truly say that I got a hole in my heart when there wasn´t any Rancid record this years as promised or any West Coast Riot festival in the summer. Strawberry Blond pretty much filled that hole in my heart with their two shows that I witnessed in Stockholm.

So

Worth the money? I paid 60+20 SEK for this and are more than pleased. Even more pleased over the fact that I was going to have another chance to see them next day.

 

Thursday November 28
at Tegelhögen, Vällingby

The Place

For once I just had a 7 minures walk to the gig.
Tegelhögen is a youth recreation centre in one of the oldest Suburbs in Stockholm. Vällingby. Vällingby was rolemodel for building good suburbian towns all over the world after the WW II. But the ideas from witch Vällingby was based on got diminised in the city plans and the European suburbs got to be dead end places full of despair. Even Vällingby in itself have lost some of it´s fame and glory.

One of the things that was important back in the fifties when Vällingby was buildt, was something for the youth to do and a place to do it in. Tegelhögen was such a place, At the place the Swedish metal scene later have had some important moments here.
In the early eighties the local band Taboo reigned here, Jocke that played in Taboo is now in Topper as well as he is working on restore the musical pride of Tegelhögen and in the area, as well as he is an recreational leader.
My girlfriend was a taboo fan back in the days and used to hang out at Tegelhögen. Which could be pretty wild gatherings sometimes. In the early days of Swedish punk those centres was very important to all punk bands that wanted to make an impact och the young punks. (My girlfriend got a nostalgia flashback of epic proportions while smoking a cigarette outside the building. Telling me stories of the wild years.)

This wednesday it was almost empty, Most punks today are grown ups, not kids.

A bunch of lost imigrant kids where there, I recognized some, dead end kids as they sometimes poetic is described in punk lyrics. A few leather jacket clad girls in their younger teens show up, as well as some girl friends of the Stiffy Jones, me and my girlfriend. It was so far from the club the night before.



There was no bar or fashionable punks, no fancyness, just boring everyday things, Brick walls, a stage that was too big for the few that are there to see it. This could been what Iggy Pop refered to as No Fun.
But that was just an illusion.

The Bands

Stiffy Jones

Stiffy Jones first gig was at the same place 9 years ago, now they were back. And treated the situation like they were playing for an overcrowded club.

OK, there was a bit too much treble this time as well. Not as bad as the night before however. But their performance was better, more intensed. I guess they learned a bit from SB the night before? Stiffy Jones convinced me that they are a good band.
The suburbian kids might got a bit of a chock with high volume, or at least they looked a bit chocked by it. This was not their average hip hop dreams about fake gangsta escapism. This was punk rock. And I could see the music reached them. Some just shook their bodies spontainiosly along to the high volume music.

Strawberry Blondes

Strawberry Blondes were in the midle of their European tour. I guess they could be a bit fed up with it, I guess they could be taking a day off just relax through this gig. But no. They really proved why they are a truly great band, a band who gained all my respect.

Actually I think I saw one of the best performances all year. Not even a week after Sham 69, the same year Stiff Little Fingers, Dropkick Murphys, Bad Religion, Asta Kask and Alonzo Fas 3, been raiding the country. They did delivered for real. Not being on stage as rockstars, but as speaking voice for all the underdogs. Being a true to the heart is in my eyes not about being a cool rock star on stage, Dr Marten boots and some fashionista haircut. It is about the social bit as well. Being there, supporting the underdogs.
I think you guys just outscored them all, all the rock stars.

My tears came during ”Goodbye Inspiration”. Shivers down my spine, total sober. A dull thursday their music took me to a emotional place where only good bands, great music and a some special occation takes me. But that moment was short, because a bass string broke and cripple it. OH NO not now, she said! The situation was brilliant rescued by the bass player and Stiffy Jones. But the magic moment was gone. Standing there in the suburb surronded by the underdog kids listen to a punk rock band singing ”Goodbye Inspiration”, well, something was shaken inside me. Shaken, in a good way. I will probaly never forget that moment. It was something outside the average punk club experience.
I loved every single moment of it. Then it was over.
The bands got their gear. While collecting them, Jocke encouraged one of the kids to enter the stage, grab the mice and do his rap. Which lead to a big applause from both the other kids, us and the bands.

That was it, the band Strawberry Blondes continued on their European tour, with another gig in Stockholm, at a sold out Klubben at Fryshuset.

 

So

The entrance was free, it was a total shame that the kids didn´t showed up in big numbers when they could get a glimpse of the real world, real rock stars from the real world. But as the drummer of Strawberry Blondes said. -The kids today is into all that crappy music, I agree.

Some extra cred to Jocke H that made Strawberry Blondes and Stiffy Jones do this.