Photo Entry - Chicago 'Burning Fight' Weekend

The weekend of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of March, 2009, is one that will stay in my memory forever. While I don't consider myself a photographer, the pictures I post here document a few moments in a time that I found to be very important. This weekend in Chicago saw a convergence of people of all ages, locations and lifestyles to experience hardcore music in a context that really claimed back its true meaning. Hope Con did not play the Burning Fight fest, and those photos are from a benefit show they played the evening prior. The rest of these photos are from the fest, and while I didn't get shots of every band (due to opportunity/unwillingness on my part), what I have posted here are the ones I found to be worth a damn.

The Hope Conspiracy; May 1st, 2009, The Subterranean.

Damnation AD; Burning Fight, May 2nd 2009, The Metro



Betrayed; Burning Fight, May 2 2009, The Metro



(During) 108; Burning Fight, May 2nd 2009, The Metro

Life Is Hard Enough As It Is - Have Heart, 2008

The interview this article was written from took place a long time ago now, on Have Heart's first tour of Australia with our own Parkway Drive. However, I feel that this article covers a lot of ground with vocalist Pat Flynn on a personal level that hasn't necessarily been touched in other interviews. Maybe. Either way, they are now gearing up for their second visit to our shores in late May, and in lieu of having any print media to publish this piece, I thought it was apt to post it here.

Since the release of their debut full length, The Things We Carry, Have Heart have been riding a wave as the forerunners of the new generation Boston hardcore scene. Have Heart are a band that wears their influences on their sleeves, and tries to keep alive those inherent elements that defined a genre in the late ‘80s and through the ‘90s, whilst ever breathing new life into the style. Their new album, Songs To Scream At The Sun is sure to further this view of the band as a progressive yet honest and always powerful force in hardcore. Frontman Pat Flynn’s lyrics are always relentless in their focus and tear through false preconceptions with their insight. For this reason, coupled with the fact I had just seen him play his part in one of the most energetic sets I had ever seen from a hardcore-punk band, I was very excited to speak to Flynn on the band’s first visit to Australia.


“Barriers are this huge disconnect, and it’s so off putting” Flynn leads off, commenting on the distance between the Tivoli’s stage and the crowd. “We started this band going against the barriers. We’re not a barrier band – we’re a basement band, a CBGB’s or Gilman Street band. We can work with it, but for someone like me, especially when I’m sick, it’s really aggravating because I sound like shit and I can’t get into the zone.” Out of breath and clearly worked up, Flynn still seems strangely energized for a set that he deemed as being sub-par. “It’s also mind-boggling - it’s kind of hard to get into the zone; to be in Australia and have kids sing along. It just doesn’t make sense. I started the band when I was 16 and I just wanted to play a couple of shows and we always just did what we wanted to do, and if we had an opportunity we’d take it.” Clearly overwhelmed, even after having toured the states and Europe multiple times, Flynn’s astonishment is the perfect example of the extent of his, and subsequently his band’s honest approach to shows and the music they make.


Having been involved in the band for nearly seven years, and in the past two starting to have visible impact worldwide, I ask Flynn if he can still see himself doing the band far into the future. “No” he replies, simply. “I love this, but I’m not gonna lie to myself and say I wanna do this for the rest of my life. This is my life right now and I love it, but there are other things in my life I wanna do that don’t necessarily consist of Have Heart. This is the greatest thing in my life right now and I am seizing the opportunity. I am really happy to be a part of creating this music, and it’s a great platform to express myself. I do wanna teach, that’s been a goal of mine since I was a kid. It’s a challenge to myself, and I want to accomplish that” He explains that while he sees many figures in hardcore still up on stage, giving it their all way into their mid-thirties, the 23 year old says he can’t see himself doing that, despite the respect he holds for those figures. However, he qualifies his statements; “We’re not done by any means, we’re not going to break up soon or anything... I feel like Have Heart started out as a band that I want to keep special and I feel like in my lifetime, the things that have been done for so long kind of lose their specialty. I wouldn’t want to ever – ever – take a chance at tainting what Have Heart was, because it is so unbelievably special.”


On the topic of older personalities of the hardcore scene, as well as that of what the band holds dear, Have Heart have been lucky enough to foster a career-long relationship with one of their musical role models, Pete Maher (or Sweet Pete) of the band In My Eyes. Maher was on tour with Have Heart in Australia, doing merch of all things. “Pete’s been such a great support” says Flynn, “especially in regards to the hardcore scene. He’s a genuine supporter of the hardcore community… He’s been around for a while – he started going to shows in ’83, but he can still be that guy who can see potential in younger bands. He’s not one of the millions of jaded, clichéd dudes who think hardcore died when they left the scene.” It’s clear that Flynn is not generalising, but speaking from actual experience. “I’ve been going to shows for almost 10 years now, I’ve been in a band and I’ve seen a lot of the ugly parts of our country’s hardcore scene. We’ve played with a lot of shitty bands that are just there to break things. It gets very easy to become disillusioned with the hardcore scene. It takes a lot of strength to be inspired and have a positive outlook. I sound like a cheesy posi guy.” He continues “[Pete’s] definitely someone who helps me keep the faith in the potential and the good that hardcore can bring to so many kids. In My Eyes was definitely one of the first hardcore bands I really got into. When we first started out he was genuinely interested in us, it was the coolest thing… He overheard that we needed help with money to get a van. Our parents weren’t going to help us, and we really needed a van ‘coz renting it was too expensive. He loaned us the money, and we just payed him back. We ended up paying him back relatively shortly, but it was a huge thing. He’s helped us out in a number of places. He’s just a big supporter of Have Heart.”


The current era of Have Heart is shaping up to be the most defining since those early beginnings. Songs To Scream At The Sun has been released to mixed reactions from fans and press alike, not to mention good-spirited practical jokes on the part of label mates Ceremony. “We’re good friends with Ceremony, we play jokes on each other” explains Flynn, exasperated. “Oh my god – he made that announcement so long ago and it’s just spread like wildfire. When you’re a Bridge Nine band you can log in, and you have special access to make announcements about your own band. Toast made the announcement that our album’s going to be 41 tracks. All these kids have been asking us, and it’s been bumming some kids out – like ‘I don’t want 41 songs!’ It’s just funny because I just made a bulletin on myspace today saying that our record is not 41 songs long.”


By the time of printing, the album will have been out for a while, but at the time this interview was conducted, the song Bostons was being flagshipped in promotion for the record. The song still stands out against the other nine, however, with it’s pointed yet vast lyrical dealings. “I took a second and I thought about my life and my father’s life and my grandfather’s life, so the song is really complex. It’s about three generations of Flynns.” Pat offers an explanation that seems to give back story to more than just this one song. “I wrote that song The Unbreakable [from The Things We Carry] about my Grandfather. When my uncle passed we had a Flynn family gathering and I was talking to my other uncles, asking them a little more about my grandfather, ‘coz I only had the stories my father had told me. My father always told me that my grandfather – his father – was this great man who worked a million jobs a day to help raise his family, and he always had this great sense of humour. These were my father’s memories of his father that he wanted to keep, and he kind of blocked out any other ones. My father left Boston to join the army and change his life around a bit. I talked to my uncles who stayed in Boston and they told me stories about my grandfather, who I wrote The Unbreakable about. Turns out, he was a hard working man, but he definitely suffered from the Irish tradition of getting drunk all the time, neglecting the wife and spending more time in bars than just ‘being there’ and that really affected my father. That’s something that always troubled me ‘coz I wrote this song about this great man before I found that out. I started saying it was about my own father, so I guess it works out. I just wanted to bring some closure to that.
“I grew up in the city right outside Boston, then I went to college when I was 17. I moved to Boston and have been living there since I was 17. My college is literally right across the street from the high school my father went to, which was a hard high school to get into when you were a kid from the ghettos of Boston. I’d walk down the street at night and I’d think about how I get to go to this school ‘coz my father, when he was a kid younger than I am worked his ass off to get into that school, so he could change his life and so I could have a different life and a different youth than he had. I thought about that and I felt really guilty. To me there was like two eras of Boston. That’s how I wrote that song and why I called it Bostons, ‘coz it’s like there are two Bostons. My father goes there, and we drive by Hyde Park and he sees it and has some bad memories of that place I go there and do my running at night and I walk around during the day and it’s such a beautiful place to be and I love it!
“The end part is actually from my friend, Leo, who grew up in the ghettos of Boston. He has a song with the line ‘You’re friends say Boston’s beautiful’, that’s the one line I borrowed. He’s actually a hip-hop dude. That line stuck to me, ‘coz I do think Boston’s beautiful, and that line is supposed to be my father speaking to me. It’s funny ‘coz people have been interpreting that song in a million ways, which is fine, they should find different meanings as much as they can.” The epic nature of this tale and this one song seems to act as a metaphor for the entire album, with the notions of family, displacement and belonging. It provides an obvious reason as to why this track was chosen as the lead in to the record’s release.


In terms of the stylistic shift on the new record, however, both press and fans have been meeting it with mixed reactions. Flynn readily acknowledges the band’s conscious decision to change their sound. “We started to change our sound on the last record, and kids like wrote us off and whatnot, and I think that’s a shame ‘coz they’re missing out on so many great styles of hardcore. That has always bothered me…” When one takes into account the attitude Have Heart take to making music, it doesn’t seem so hard to reconcile the obvious changes they have gone through on Songs To Scream… “I just want to be myself” Flynn explains. “That’s the number one aspect of this band, that we all try to do what we want to do, whether or not people like it. I think people catch that; we’re just doing what we want. I remember being a kid and I could always tell the bands that were doing what was ‘in’, and then the bands that were doing what they wanted to do. Like Modern Life Is War” he refers to the copies of the magazine on the table in front of him. “I remember when I first saw them forever ago, when they were starting out, and they were just dudes from Iowa. It was really inspiring to me, ‘coz the sound they were playing wasn’t ‘in’, and I saw them at Posi Numbers 2003 which is a really youth-crew oriented fest.”

He looks down somewhat self-consciously at his Youth Of Today t-shirt. “I feel like a doofus ‘coz I’m wearing this shirt,” he says. “I love Youth Of Today but they’re not the be all and end all of hardcore. There are so many other forms of hardcore that are just as inspiring. There are so many sectors of hardcore now – so many fucking genres. That youth-crew scene is so closed-minded. We felt that, ‘coz when we started out we were just a straight up youth crew band. It bugged me ‘coz everyone expected me to be this posi kid or something. I’m a pretty natural guy, I get real bad mood swings and I get pissed off very easily, I just try to control it and be as mature as I can.” Flynn offers some insight as to why the band felt the need to separate themselves from the current crop of positive hardcore bands. “The idea of ‘being positive’ has been so raped and lost it’s meaning over the years. I think bands like Bad Brains or Youth Of Today didn’t write songs to ‘be positive’, they just did it ‘coz there was an importance behind it, and there’s so many avenues of just being negative. I think a lot of bands have run it into the fucking ground, and it’s become a really bad parody or caricature of itself. It really bums me out, ‘coz it’s an important aspect of hardcore, to strive for better things. That’s why I’ve always kept an open mind, in terms of being holistic and being inclusive. That’s important, ‘coz I’ve seen things that I love about hardcore get run into the ground. It’s stupid ‘coz [hardcore] has such a great meaning and can do so much for people. At least I know it did for me.”


Flynn brings up another aspect of hardcore that he has found hard to reconcile, and that is the current assimilation of it into popular culture. “I don’t think hardcore should be confined only to ‘hardcore kids’. It’s hard enough, and if you do that it’s just gonna fade away. At the same time, I don’t think hardcore should become this big mainstream thing, I’ve always been against that. A big part of what made hardcore unique was the fact that it was run by the kids. That business aspect was never there, and that’s what I loved about it. You put the business aspect into it, and you have these fatcats at the door looking all professional, and these huge fests where a water is sold for $9. You lose the idea of some 15-year-old kid saying ‘I can do this myself’. That’s always driven me nuts, the fact that people try to capitalise on the money that can be made in a hardcore scene. It’s a fine line, because I don’t want it to become this big, mainstream, Warped Tour thing, but I don’t want it to stay in the hands of people who think it’s ‘just for them’.” However, large tours such as Warped, amongst many others these days, are a major meal-ticket for bands. Flynn considers this; “I wouldn’t play it ‘coz I don’t believe in it. I think Warped Tour ruined punk rock. I think it was the nail in the coffin. It was already really big after Nirvana got big, but then it just became this huge corporate thing – I guess it always was, but now it’s just silly. I went to Warped Tour when I was 12 and I saw 7 Seconds and Blink 182, and I loved those bands. I just wouldn’t want to see hardcore take that route.” He acknowledges another significant point, and that’s that this cultural shift has created a division between what is considered ‘punk’ and what is ‘hardcore’. “It’s weird” he says, “‘coz hardcore and punk for me has always been the same thing.”



Happily outspoken and opinionated, I was very interested to hear what Flynn had to say about the other side of Have Heart – that of the straight-edge lifestyle. With so much confusion about what is straight-edge and how it should be represented, not to mention social rifts even between straight-edge people who interpret it differently, Flynn showed some clarity by explaining how he and his band mates approach the philosophy. “I think a lot of people perceive us as a super-straight-edge band and that’s all we know about. We’re definitely very well rounded people, we have other interests in life. Straight-edge to us is just a part of us – it’s like my arm, just part of who I am, and I have accepted that.” Sensing the opportunity to vent, Flynn admits some of his feelings about interviews; “It’s become really alienating for me over the past 2 years because I’ve been downsized to being nothing more than a kid with an X on the back of his hand. I understand we’re a straight-edge band, but we don’t listen just to other straight-edge bands.” In admitting he doesn’t actively think about straight-edge all that much, Flynn still makes clear how he feels about it in relation to the band. “We’re a straight-edge band, and I still have ethics and ideals about that. If we broke up and our guitarist went and broke edge, I wouldn’t give a shit. We’re a straight-edge band now, so I have some type of idealism – even though I’m not militant or anything.”


This perspective on the straight-edge philosophy shows through on Have Heart’s recordings too, as Flynn explains. “We have one song that is literally about straight edge, and that’s Something More Than Ink [from The Things We Carry]. Straight-edge runs fluidly through me, and it affects the way I see things and how I deal with certain things. So totally, on the new record there are things that are products of me being straight-edge. There’s a song on the record about promiscuous sex, but it’s not like ‘That’s wrong.’ I talk about an experience I had and how it just left me feeling miserable and alone. That’s definitely a product of me being straight-edge. Even the song Something More Than Ink isn’t an outright straight-edge song. All my friends drink, and whenever we play a Boston show they’re all singing along ‘coz they’ve found meaning in it. That’s something I was really careful about, because for someone who doesn’t know about straight edge or loosely knows about it, they’re not going to read those lyrics and think ‘Oh that’s a straight edge song.’ I’ve never wanted to be in a band that says straight-edge is the be all and end all, but I don’t want to oppose that, it can be really fun, like Down To Nothing who are our best friends. It’s good to have bands like that who are promoting straight-edge and keeping that tradition alive. The thing I love about DTN is that they’re fun with they’re straight-edge, they’re not closed-minded and you can tell that when they play and in their lyrics.” The flipside of this, Flynn explains, also has much to do with Have Heart’s approach. “I can tell you straight up that that band Embrace Today really pissed me off. They were doing the militant edge thing. It was just retarded - it was like a joke. That’s half the reason Have Heart started, ‘coz I wanted to represent straight edge in a good way. Also, straight edge was turning into a joke in the Boston scene coz everyone was breaking edge and it had no meaning to it.”


It’s clear, in the way he speaks, that Flynn is as much a fan of music now as he ever has been. “People always just downsize me to this kid who only listens to the first 20 releases on Rev. It gets annoying coz people in the hardcore scene wanna talk about music, but no one wants to talk music with me ‘coz they think I’m this corny dude who doesn’t listen to the ‘right’ music. It just sucks, coz I love talking music with people.” His love for older bands like In My Eyes and Youth Of Today is clear, but he also refers to Dischord and the mid-nineties D.C. scene. “Soulside are one of my all time favourite bands. End Of A Year are really good too. I love a lot of the DC stuff, I feel a lot of music from that era was very forward thinking.” In terms of current hardcore scenes, Flynn cites fellow Bostonians Verse as one of his favourite bands. “It’s really weird to play with them, and now they’re like our brother band. We play with them so much, and I love everything they do. They’re like our best friends and we hang out all the time, I almost wish they weren’t my friends ‘coz it would be a different experience – we wouldn’t see them so much or tour with them all the time. I feel clichéd saying Verse are one of those bands – but they really are one of those bands. Shipwreck AD too, they’re also our friends, and we tour with them. It’s really fucked up, there are a lot of great bands that we’re just friends with – Ceremony as well. It’s like we play with these great bands and become friends with them, it’s not like being a 16-year-old kid and thinking a band is mind-blowing.” He pauses; “I actually think Modern Life Is War were one of the best bands in the world. They were always doing their own thing. That last record was mind-blowing, I think it was their best record – the music and the lyrics, it all just came together. That doesn’t take away from everything else they did either.” He goes on to explain that he is very picky about hardcore these days, but maintains that all the bands he has mentioned keep him excited about being involved in hardcore, regardless of whether they are personal friends or not.


Flynn also shows a lot of passion for music outside of the hardcore-bubble. “I listen to a lot of folk music and country. I have been listening to a lot of R.L. Burnside and Muddy Waters. I like old Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly.” This eclectic taste in music doesn’t really come as a surprise when considering the poetic nature of Flynn’s lyrics. He continues; “My sister has always loved Tom Waits, and she’s got every record and it’s always been in the background of my life. The past two years I started listening to him a lot more.”

The central theme and point Flynn seems to revolve around in this interview is that of honesty, in any situation. He applies this viewpoint once again “The whole New York hipster scene is so lame and cliché. Here’s what happens; kids in New York or Boston or LA or wherever in the country, usually they’ve left a hardcore scene, they get jaded on everything and think it’s a good idea to go live in a closet. They’ve raised the cost of rent in New York and kicked the other people out to other spots of NY that aren’t so under the microscope as part of the city. So these kids have their parents pay for this tiny little closet and their false reality. It was like that in Boston for a little while, around 2000, there were all these hipsters and every girl looked like Amelie. It was so annoying - I hated that. That time sucked, especially in Boston. Everyone was just so arrogant.”



It seems apt that our 50-minute conversation seemed to land where it took off – at Flynn’s hometown. With the seismic rumblings of Parkway Drive still beneath us, we wrap it up. Pat Flynn seems content and free of any stress regarding misunderstandings or pigeonholing. His hyper-consciousness and acute observations on the cultural worlds we live in are affecting, and represent why Have Heart are named as such. Just as they played this night, so has Pat Flynn spoken earnestly and energetically about those things close to his.

Check out the 2009 tour dates and go see this band, or kick yourself in the head;

May 20 - Perth, Rosemount Hotel
May 21 - Perth, YMCA HQ
May 22 - Adelaide, Underground
May 23 - Melbourne, The Arthouse
May 24 - Melbourne, The Castle
May 27 - Canberra, Tuggeranong Youth Centre
May 28 - Sydney, Annandale Hotel
May 29 - Sydney, The Fitz St Ives
May 30 - Brisbane, Princess Theatre
May 31 - Byron Bay High School

*All photos taken from band's Myspace, www.myspace.com/haveheart (with permission) and Bridge9.com

SXSW 2009 JOURNAL. PART TWO.

Day Three. Give Them Enough Rope.

Ruiner, Red 7.
I know this photo is kind of shit, but for some reason I like it.

On day three, I planned to see a few more of the unofficial shows during the day, as by this stage they had proved to be where the gold was. Shirts For A Cure (a charity company involving punk and metal bands to raise money for cancer research) where holding a show with The Bouncing Souls headlining. I needed to get over to see M. Ward as well on this day, but I caught Ruiner and Darkest Hour. If I could only choose one word to describe Ruiner, it would be fast. If I had more, I would say sweaty, angry and intense. Their vocalist made his spiel about the woes of SXSW, and made some good points in terms of what this particular show was in aid of, and whether he had intended to or not pointed out some fundamental flaws in the way the music industry (or music industries operate). In the middle of this conference/festival was one little show with a dedicated focus and noble cause, all the while around it were people concerned with finding the next acts to build their business and make them money. Darkest Hour let their politically charged death-thrash speak for itself. With a new guitarist, they definitely haven’t lost any of their charisma onstage, however I can’t say they have drastically changed or improved since I saw them in Australia a few years ago.

M. Ward, La Zona Rosa.

Over on the other side of town (and this was when I realised just how much walking today was going to involve) I walked into something entirely different. The venue in which M. Ward was playing was nothing like how I had imagined seeing him play. It was a huge room, crowded with people whose intentions in being there I just couldn’t tell. It seemed like a huge corporate function, however the types there didn’t necessarily give off that same vibe. Either way, M. Ward’s intimate and incisive style didn’t seem to connect like it should and could in this venue. Without a doubt he played an amazing set, of mainly old songs, maybe to throw off a crowd that was expecting the bulk of songs to be from his latest album Hold Time. Sad Sad Song (from his debut) was most definitely a highlight. He left the stage earlier than planned and I honestly do not blame him.

Trash Talk, Club 1808.

After this it was on to my next trek – to the eastern neighborhood and a tiny club called 1808, about an hour’s (or so) walk from where I already was. The trip was definitely worth it, as I got to see Pygmylush (the remnants of ‘90s best hardcore bands such as P. 99 and Majority Rule) and Trash Talk (Sacramento’s greatest thrash-punk destroyers). Pygmylush were a band I never in my wildest dreams thought I would get to see, and they played an ambient set of country and folk with some experimentation in between, and it was, for lack of a better word, perfect. Trash Talk was also perfect, in a totally different and ugly-as-fuck way. A huge dustcloud was present for the duration of their set as kids essentially exploded as each song began. Their songs are short enough that they provided a good cross section of all their releases, including one song off their new East Of Eden EP. They shun the standard metal sound and go for a more lush, but still heavy sound based in tone rather than gain, with a spread of vintage and custom gear. Vocalist Lee was very rarely on the stage, making the spectators just as much a part of the band as the four official members. Trash Talk are a band that need to be seen live, and as I am from Australia, I am urging anyone who is also to go see them when they tour out there soon.

Cage, venue unknown.

The end of Trash Talk’s set was my cue to walk back downtown. On my way there, I realised that I was walking right past the venue where one of my all time favourite rappers was playing. Completely by chance I got to see Cage performing with his guitarist Sean Martin (ex-Hatebreed) and his DJ Big E (who I am only familiar with from the live version of Converge's Locust Reign and the Every Time I Die DVD). He played a set comprised of entirely new (and very exciting) material, which he had assured me prior to his set that was extremely different to what he played when he visited Brisbane a couple of years ago. This proved to be true, and it was fresh and original and still clung true, lyrically, to what Cage has always been known and loved for - aggressive, introspective and at times extremely vulnerable. The trio incorporated the punk/hardcore influence in an original way that didn't just seem like a bad hip-hop mash up. Any fans of Cage should be very excited about his new album.

Kylesa, Red 7.

After I had caught my breath, I continued on to the venue where two cult metal acts were scheduled to get real. The first was the epic and revered Kylesa. Two drummers and three sets of vocal chords and a whole lot of heavy, they took the stage as a viking army would take a castle, and the set was everything their records would suggest. Dirty, sweaty, crushing and at times hypnotising. The second band I was seeing here tonight was the far younger but no less accomplished Skeletonwitch, who take elements from a range of metallic styles (death, black, thrash) and make it something entirely their own, with a good sense of tongue in cheek humour to go along with it. Their set was complete with deer skulls adorning the guitar amps and leather wristbands with appropriately large chrome spikes. Their set brought the fun back into a genre that often becomes a little too serious and parodied, and man are they fast. The political concerns that had seemed to plague the minds of many artists during the week seemed to be absent here, making way for pure, unadulterated metal.

Skeletonwitch, Red 7.

Day Four. Sleep Is The Cousin Of Death.

Young Widows, Radio Room.

My final day of shows at SXSW dawned, and straight up I managed to catch a full set of Young Widows (survivors of noise-core staples Breather Resist). Their range of equipment was nearly as awe-inspiring as their performance, as both bassist and guitarist played throw two amps and three cabs each. As for the performance, they played mostly songs from their recent and second album Old Wounds, which made for an intense, droning and energetic set. They managed to maintain a solid charisma without having to address the crowd, and also seemed to engage every person there, letting their songs truly speak for themselves. At the same show I was also lucky enough to catch Pygmylush again, who played a similar set to the previous day, with maybe a few more upbeat country numbers thrown in. The indoors venue definitely suited them better, and they seemed more consolidated as a band at this show.

Pygmylush, Radio Room.

The main event of today however was a huge ‘party’ at Waterloo Park, where most artists who had showcased during the week were playing. I made my way over in order to see Cursive (who played an entire set of songs from The Ugly Organ - amazing), Trash Talk and The Bronx, all of whom were well worth seeing twice, and not just for the amount of blood lost by Lee from Trash Talk. As fun as the ‘Mess With Texas’ party was, my friends and I were getting a bit tired with the dust and the heat, so we headed over to a huge lounge-type area that had been built during the festival by Levi’s. I had to finagle my way in, but once in there, it was announced that Kanye West was to be playing a secret show at the stage (called the Levi’s Fader Fort). I stuck around as long as I could, and managed to catch the opening strains of Amazing as well as a sea of over-excited camera-phones, but I had to leave to catch the Strange Famous showcase.

Prolyphic, Scoot Inn.

Since I was a teenager, Sage Francis has played a large part in my musical and political ideals, and his label has grown from strength to strength, many of which were performing this evening. First up was relative newcomer Prolyphic (performing without his second half, Reanimator) who rapped on the floor, surrounded by those who knew well enough to get there early. The best thing about Prolyphic has been the earnestness of his lyrics, and the sense of responsibility he obviously accepts for anything he says on record. He matched this with his live persona, and while it was a fairly small crowd, it was still a special set. Next up was B. Dolan, of whom I had heard much, but never properly seeked out. His set was profound, hilarious and entertaining to say the least, equal parts hip-hop and poetry, with a dash of satirical performance art thrown in for good measure. As cynical as he is, it is obvious he approaches his art with a good humour, and just the right amount of self-deprecation as well. This can really be said for all the Strange Famous artists – the anti-elitist ethos ran strong throughout the night.

B. Dolan, Scoot Inn.

The great Buck 65 was up next. Acclaimed ‘avant-garde’ emcee and poet, the French-Canadian has been doing the rounds for years now, and seems to have found a suitable home with Strange Famous. His tales of sexual escapades and hobo adventures, all told in the true spirit of Kerouac was a sight to behold, however his monotonous tone did get tired after a while, especially since the entire show was without DJs to give that truly live aspect. Not all the artists suffered due this, however, least not the final two. Sleep was definitely the most anticipated act tonight, from speaking to various people in the crowd, and I felt somewhat ignorant having no idea who he was. When he entered the stage, the sight was nothing like I had expected – this stout, unassuming fellow in a cabbie’s hat proclaimed how sorry he was that he had lost his voice during the week and could only perform two songs. After he had finished, I could only imagine what it would be like if he was on top of his game. One of the fastest and at the same time most eloquent rappers I had ever heard, his laryngitis did little to contend with his amazing skill.

Sage Francis, Scoot Inn.

Finally, it was time for the coup de grace; Sage Francis. He took the stage wrapped in a Strange Famous Records flag, and ran through the crowd, trying to crash into as many people as possible. He leapt into a set that consisted of songs old, new and very new – some not even recorded yet. He performed remixes and collabs with B. Dolan, poetry in between all this, and laid waste to the ‘rumours’ that Kanye had signed to Strange Famous. Seeing and participating in songs like Bridle, Makeshift Patriot, Crack Pipes and Escape Artist, and many others was a truly amazing experience, and I can only hope to see this unmatched artist in a setting more suited to his personality. With a live DJ or band, I could only imagine Sage could rule the world for 30 minutes. His finale saw a large portion of the crowd join him onstage, along with all the other artists from the night, which may seem corny to read, but at the time seemed like the only logical conclusion to a fantastic show.

Sage Francis stage invasion.

To try and wrap up the entire four days at once seems like a bit of redundant task. That may be the fundamental flaw of SXSW, that people attending it view it as a whole rather than a large group of talented individuals. It, for the greater part is viewed as a market rather than a series of opportunities to experience many different types of music and performance. A sense of ‘hype’ is prevalent for a number of artists, as is shameless self-promotion from different companies, many of which have nothing to do with music whatsoever (I received more energy drinks than I care to remember). At this type of festival, however, the place of independent artists, or sub-genres and cultures that are maligned in the greater world seems to be clear. They can provide an oasis of sanity in the madness of business that too often overtakes the true effort and art of music.

Thanks Austin!

SXSW 2009 JOURNAL. PART ONE.

It is currently the night of Sunday, March 22nd, and I am sitting in my hotel room just south of the Austin downtown area. The past five days can only be described as chaos. Hot, steamy, sweaty chaos. For about 12 hours every day since March 18th I have been running back and forth across a foreign city trying to see as many great bands as possible. So now I prepare to leave for a colder climate (Seattle) and nurse my sunburnt, hayfever ridden head, and recount my experience with one of the biggest artist and industry events in the music world.

I arrived in Austin from Los Angeles operating on literally one hour of sleep, and headed straight for the convention centre for the cluster fuck that is conference registration. After receiving my truckload of flyers and SXSW information, and having all of my possessions tagged as ‘press’ I was finally deemed as ‘ready’ to hit some shows. One thing that gradually became clear throughout the week – even in the first couple of days – was the general disdain (at least amongst the bands of more maligned sub-genres) for the industry focus of the week. Free day time shows that were not SXSW sponsored generally found these sentiments on the sleeves of a lot of the hardcore or punk bands playing, notably by The Bronx, Ruiner (who were not playing any official showcases) and Gallows. Concerns regarding the playing of all ages shows and supporting artists rather than the industry beaurocrats seemed to be at the forefront of the criticisms or at the butt of jokes.

Welcome to Texas, asshole.

Day One. These beads of sweat feel like a flood.
My very first stop was the famous Emo’s venue on Wednesday afternoon for a Solid PR party, (which is what they called the day time shows with no cover charge - something to do with licensing laws in Texas) which featured Trash Talk, The Bronx, Young Widows and Annihilation Time. Thanks to the infallible Austin traffic, I only got there in time to catch the last few songs of Young Widows and then the tornado that is The Bronx live. Despite missing a couple of amazing bands, The Bronx still made for a great start to my week, and played relentlessly in the stifling heat of the venue. By that night, the dichotomy between these free, unsponsored day shows and the ‘official’ showcases was clear, the biggest difference being the number of stage dives at each kind of show. I didn’t get to see another show in the Emo’s small room, however I can’t imagaine it ever looking quite as energised or chaotic as The Bronx had that afternoon. Later on I headed to the Suicide Squeeze showcase, where These Arms Are Snakes would later headline, and I would miss due to my extreme fatigue. At this early hour, however, I was lucky enough to catch hip-hop act Champagne Champagne. Their beats were equal parts analogue and digital, powered by various pedals, a mac, vocoder and melodica. Lyrically the song centred around girls and sex, but not with the usual braggadocio or misogyny usually found, at least in mainstream hip-hop (which this definitely was not). Technically, their verses weren’t noticeably skilful, but the overall sound was original enough to provide an engaging and energetic set.

After this I headed over to Emo’s main room, were my SXSW experience may have peaked a little early. My first night there, I had the fortune to see two punk rock legends. H.R. of Bad Brains playing a set of punk and reggae informed rock with his young band, followed by Circle Jerks. During CJ’s set, vocalist Keith Morris was another musician to question the true motives or priorities of the festival, and praised U.K. band Gallows for their non-bullshit attitude towards music. Whilst not being overly aggressive in his statements directed at any business minded individuals attending the conference, his implications were clear. H.R. on the other hand was much more blunted (obviously), and cruised through his set despite the cries of dissent from Bad Brains purists in the crowd. Both sets, whilst being unquestionably amazing, seemed to be a little lost in the context of a festival that seemed to be preoccupied with the ‘next big thing’, rather than the musical foundations that were built by living legends.


Day Two. The Truth Is Here.

Cursive, Radio Room.

Day two saw the true Austin heat bear its wrath on the town, and luckily I had chosen to go see These Arms Are Snakes and Cursive at a free show (or ‘party’) at Radio Room, meaning a 40 minute queue in the sunlight. This was also my second and final failed attempt at catching TAAS, sadly. On the other hand, Cursive provided a set completely proportionate to my anticipation about seeing them. Playing a solid combination of songs from their seminal album The Ugly Organ and their newest, Mama, I’m Swollen, with a few Happy Hollow tracks thrown in, it was definitely a brilliant and understated performance for them.

Gallows, Dirty Dog.

I accidentally stumbled into the Red 7 venue and caught someone I had only recently been introduced to, The Tallest Man On Earth, a solo artist from Sweden. Seeing his songs played live was a truly transcendent experience. I can only hope his understated performances and Dylan-esque songs did not get lost in the sea of new artists playing at the night time showcases. I had a bit of downtime on this day, and thus was able to wander around catching random sets here and there, and after TTMOE, I stumbled across the UK’s Gallows, who had set up on the floor of a bar with fans crowded around them in no particular order or frame. As I said, they had some unfavourable opinions on the industry-types doing the rounds at SXSW, which were zealously expressed at this non-SXSW day show. Their show was electric and organic, with the combination of their no bullshit, say-what-you-think attitude and all the sweat and blood (actual blood) that punk has been missing recently, and that often is completely non-existent at events like this.

Eyedea & Abilities, Habana.

Later on that night was the event I had been hanging out for on a very personal level. It was the Rhymesayers showcase, featuring such Midwestern acts as Brother Ali, POS, Eyedea and Abilities and a host of other fantastic, left of centre emcees. One such guy, who I had been aware of for years but never searched out was I Self Divine, whose set was as inspirational as it was seething with earnest anger. His energy was almost tangible in the air, and technically he was faultless. He was followed by a personal favourite of mine from a few years ago, the emcee-DJ duo Eyedea and Abilities. I hadn’t heard a thing of these guys for about four or five years until tonight, and things have certainly changed for them. While still remaining stooped in the art of DJing, there are obvious influences of soul and indie rock coming through in their newer material, and Eyedea’s verses are becoming more complex and poetic. Their set definitely planted the seeds of anticipation for their new album.

POS, Habana.

Soon after, Minneapolis’s POS busted the show wide-open. I have been speaking of a sense of energy a lot in this piece, but POS truly displayed a level unrivalled by any other act I saw during the week. He earnestly showed a concern with properly connecting with the audience, in between tirelessly bounding round the stage, spitting breathlessly and playing live guitar for a few songs. His new album has been critically lauded recently, and this night he showed he has the skills to back it up in a live setting. I think the only thing that prevented the night’s headliner from being upstaged was the pure anticipation of his set. Brother Ali carries around a certain charisma and respect from fans and peers alike that can’t quite be articulated, but there was tenseness in the air moments before he took the stage. He played many of the recent classics from his The Undisputed Truth album, as well as teasing us with a song and a verse or two from his upcoming release – one of the most anticipated new hip hop albums for the coming year. Overall, the Rhymesayers showcase could only be described as an event overflowing with success, and I wasn’t the only happy face walking away from the temporary stage that night.

Brother Ali, Habana.

Looking It In The Mouth - The Gifthorse

This is the first published version of this article (essentially unedited - good or bad, I don't know). Look for it all nicely laid out and pretty in the next issue of Death Before Dishonour magazine! Wherever you are, make sure you check these guys out when you have the chance. They are definitely one of Australia's best bands!

Scottish expatriate and local tattooist Stevie Scott, guitarist and one fifth of The Gifthorse, Brisbane’s new saviours of melodic punk-rock is adamant about how his band is represented. A strong worded and strong willed individual, I first met with Stevie (on his fifth cup of coffee) for this article towards the beginning of this year. Due to various delays on this piece, we caught up again more recently so he could add to our already in depth conversation some specifics about their debut album, which is out now on Poison City records.

Moving to Australia in 2005 and taking up residence at Brisbane’s Wild At Heart Tattoo, Stevie proclaims a lifelong love of the genre that The Gifthorse happily fall into. “The first gig I ever went to was a Leatherface show, and I was 12 or something – my dad took me to see them. All my life I’ve been a huge fan of Leatherface and Frankie’s work.” Working with Wade Larkin (drummer), it wasn’t long before the two bonded musically. “Wade was the first guy I ever met in Brisbane, three days after I got here.” Stevie recounts. “I guess a year after being here I met Shane [Collins, vocals], ‘coz he came into the shop. He and Crispy [Chris Anning, guitar] were putting a band together, and we decided we were all into the same kinds of music, and we thought ‘Why not try it? Just have a go and see what comes of it.’ We didn’t expect anything from it, we just thought we’d do it for a laugh.” When bassist, Adam Brady joined the fold, the unit was complete. Stevie looks back on the band’s relatively short existence; “The type of music we’re playing isn’t revolutionary, it isn’t new ground at all. As things have progressed… it’s just gotten easier and better and we’ve become closer. I guess because it’s not popular, what we’re doing, we kind of have to stick together in a certain way.”


Despite not being ‘popular’ in the wider sense of the word, there has been a lot of underground murmurings and anticipation of The Gifthorse’s debut, not least by the band themselves. “We had a lot of fun recording this album,” says Stevie of the long, and at times arduous process of putting together their debut. “Jimmy [Balderstone (A Secret Death)], who tracked the album really encouraged us to try everything we could to get the best out of the songs, which was great. We used lots of instruments we hadn’t in the past, like slide guitar, violin, and glockenspiel.” Stevie explains how the band had a very solid idea of what they wanted the overall product to sound like. “Our friend Sam Johnson (Coué Method, Lead Sketch Union) mixed it for us. I flew down to Melbourne and started mixing with him at 11am and at 5:30am the next day it was finished! Without breaks! Sam’s a fucking machine! Seriously, he went above and beyond for us and we love what he’s done!” By the time this article goes to print (provided there aren’t any more hurdles for the album) you will be able to hear just what Stevie means. Always brutally honest, he acknowledges one of the questions musicians often ask of themselves with new releases; “I guess we could always do better. I think the minute you believe you’re ‘the shit’, you’re fucked.” It’s this type of positive spin on their experiences that continues to define The Gifthorse.


Of course, the other major defining aspect of the band is their live show, which has proven to be consistently fun and energetic, from the small local shows to big international support slots. “We have a good connection with people live because I think people can relate to five big drunk dudes spilling their guts! People trust our imperfections!” He says this with good humour. “It’s impossible to capture that kind of energy on record. In the past we have kept it simple and did exactly what we do live - mistakes and all! We realised this time we had to add more to make up for that lack of energy.” Stevie gives a little insight to what exactly people can expect on the new album, and how he feels the band has progressed from their early demos. “We have explored the types of chords we use more; one of the things that makes The Gifthorse sound a little different from other punk bands is our use of drone notes. Chris and I tend to hold on to a note and move the chords around it. As the guitars are never totally in tune, the note we are both holding pulses and becomes almost hypnotic allowing the listener to hear melody that isn’t really there! Haha, the secret’s out! That sounds a lot more pretentious than it actually is. Just as Stevie and Chris have mastered their own sound in the world of their chosen genre, so has The Gifthorse provided strong, honest and heartfelt lyrics – almost a prerequisite for this style of punk rock. Stevie offers to shed some light on what their vocalist, the infamous (or infamously good looking) Shane Collins has explored with his words on the album. “This is by no means a definitive answer but I feel he tends to point out what is wrong with the world by singing about his own shortcomings. He leaves them open enough so people can apply their own situation to the lyrics. I get the sense – from his lyrics – that life is hard but we can all do better.”

With this release, the band will finally be hitting the road on a formal tour, having up until now focused mainly on their hometown and Melbourne, flying between the two and fostering a camaraderie with many of the bands down there. “We are really excited about this tour because we are going out with our friends from Melbourne, Daysworth Fighting, who also have a new album coming out” Stevie explains. “Melbourne has been really good to us. The people there have shown us so much kindness. It feels like our second home! We were lucky enough to do a small east-coast tour with A Death in the Family, which was the drunkest – I think – any of us have ever been!” he laughs. “We kind of had to keep reminding ourselves it was really happening. They are one of our favourite bands and it was a real honour they even asked us to join them. We would come of stage feeling pretty good about how we had just played and then those guys would get up and blow our fucking minds! We would look at each other stunned and just mouth ‘fuck’. They are that good!”


Having played in bands for quite a few years now, in a very different cultural environment to what we have in Australia, Stevie offers an interesting perspective on what this country’s punk scene has to offer. “I guess being in Australia... there’s just not enough places to play, or that are not viable to go to. When I played in bands in Europe, we travelled. Say you went for a week, you’d go to 7 different countries.” This, however, isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and in fact is what gives our scene its unique strength. “In the UK, it’s taken more for granted” he says of the scene he grew up in. “Kids here, it seems like they want it more. There’s a real hunger for it here, because it doesn’t happen all the time. So there’s just a feeling of sheer excitement when something does happen, and it’s a joyous occasion. It just seems like more of a big deal when there’s a good show on. In the UK it happens every night, in every town, with big bands as well, so you don’t get the real want and hunger for it, that you do here.” This is especially true for Brisbane’s small scene, which, while enjoying some growth recently, often has revolved around recognisable groups of individuals who attend shows or play in bands. Stevie recognises this aspect as neither a positive nor a negative, rather, just another element of our own musical community. “Even in the eighties, in America, you’d have these scenes like Washington, Florida, LA – wherever - you’d have these scenes where there was nothing there, they couldn’t do anything else. No one else would put [their bands] on, they wouldn’t get big shows; they’d have to make something for themselves, which is where these DIY ethics come into it.” There is sense of worldly experience in his voice. “If you’re not given these things, you have to make it yourself and what you put into it is what you get out of it.”

This statement seems to represent well The Gifthorse’s work ethic – with the band working from a wealth of experience. Rather than let this experience jade their eyes or gestate into resentment towards a more youthful scene, the band, as Stevie explains, are ready to open themselves up to more possibilities or opportunities that they may have passed on in their formative years. “We didn’t set out to achieve anything, but at the same time, we want to achieve everything. If something comes our way then we won’t turn it down, we’ll just do it for the experience. There have been a lot of things we’ve done that a lot of people have questioned and a lot of people have made fun of us about, which is fair enough, I can understand that. I would have said the same things five years ago when I was an angry punk kid.” He speaks about the band with a level of confidence that speaks to the resolve the band has to be true to itself. “I think we’ve made a conscious effort to take ourselves out of our comfort zone, like playing with big bands. Most of the time we’ll look back on those shows and go ‘Why the hell did we do that?’ We don’t really gain anything from those shows, we’ve never made money from this band, we’ve never gained any extra fans or anything – it’s not like we’re that band. If anything we’ve had more bad experiences from these shows than anything else.” He explains all of this with no sense of bitterness towards what he is describing. “What we’re doing,” he continues, “isn’t popular, or it isn’t fashionable. When people start offering us these big shows or opportunities we’re going to take them to see what it’s like. We don’t really believe it can go huge or anything, but we just like to see where we can take it and the kind of situations we can put ourselves in.”


To give these allusions to experience some specificity, it’s important to note that the members of The Gifthorse have been involved in a multitude of bands that have been very significant to the Australian underground. These include Just Say Go!, Crimson Hellkite, From These Wounds, Asleep At The Scene, Razorhurst to name a few. “We know the past mistakes we’ve made with our bands” says Stevie. “I can only really speak for myself, but in Santo Caserio [Scotland], we’d turn down things and we would really be obnoxious about things and if it wasn’t suited to our politics, we wouldn’t do it. It got me nowhere. I was always playing to the same people. It was the same message every night to the same people who had already heard it a thousand times from a thousand other bands. This time I think we’re conscious of that, and we’re more open minded to try these things out. We’d never change anything about ourselves or anything about the type of music we play – we’ve still got that. That’s the best thing we could have taken from the DIY punk scene.”

With the contemporary preoccupation with aesthetic in hardcore and punk, Stevie’s comment regarding fashionableness, and conformity in its various disguises, is a significant one, especially at the grass roots level. “We’re very aware of the state of a lot of the hardcore bands here. There’s a lot of metal masquerading as hardcore. It’s like faux hardcore, that really irritates me – there seems to be a lot of that here. It’s something that I held dear for a lot of years, growing up, and to see it bastardised like that really upsets me. I guess we kind of do what we do as a response to that, by cutting the bullshit and just being regular dudes that play melodic rock music.” As a band that bases a lot of importance on honesty, and in correlation to this point of view, I asked Stevie if The Gifthorse held a conscious message. “I think our biggest message is that we don’t have a façade and there’s no bullshit with us. We don’t really want to have to try and fool anyone – we don’t want to buy into a type of fashion for kids to think we’re cool, or anything like that. I think the message is just that, really. There’s no bullshit.” Despite having the assumption that, at least immediately, the majority of kids would turn there noses up at bands holding the values that The Gifthorse does, there is a rising popularity in this style of punk rock (defined in part by bands like Leatherface and the No Idea label). Stevie weighs in on this too; “I think kids just need something to sing along to. Everything before this last couple of years has been really emphasising the screaming and the discordant music, which isn’t a bad thing. I don’t have a problem with that, I used to play in a band like that. I think kids just need something to sing along to and make them feel good about themselves sometimes.”


Throughout our conversation, Stevie has stressed the fact that the band carried no expectations in their conception, and still don’t, as well as their collective consciousness on the cultural and aesthetic obstacles their music faces. It is probably this consciousness that has made all that The Gifthorse has achieved that much sweeter, and what is communicated to those that have become their fans; the fact that, no, this isn’t what’s cool, but it is exactly what they want to do. Stevie tells me about their first show. “It was the first time I’d ever been able to have that outlet of doing something I really, really love. I’d never played in a band like this before. That goes for all of us, it was the first time we got to do that kind of band and do it live and have our friends there.” The Gifthorse manage to bring back a sense of community to the local punk scene, something that hasn’t been as present in the past couple of years. This is a testament to the power of honest music and a band refusing to operate on a different social tier to the people who come to watch them. Stevie leaves us with this simple, but often overlooked notion. “I think my favourite thing about The Gifthorse is probably how we’re kind of a unit. Like, no one would fuck with us, because there’s something else there. It’s not just a band, it’s a group of friends. I see it as not just being the five of us as well. There are so many other people that are involved in that, people who were there from the start.”