de Heideroosjes

In what seems like another life I use to swim for Bingley Amateur Swimming Club. We had links with e Dutch club, de Watervrienden Lisse, with whom we did an ‘exchange’ each year. One year we would go to Holland, the next year they would come to England. I made a few good friends from those trips who I am still in touch with, even though I’ve not swam properly for over a decade! In, I think, 1996 there was one lad called ‘Rob’ who introduced me to the Dutch punk band de Heideroosjes – I was instantly hooked! Their older stuff has a very raw, aggressive sound but in the late 90′s they were signed to Epitaph and their music, although still similar in style, has a more polished sound to it. Most songs are in English but there are quite a number in Dutch (various dialects), German and Flemish.

Lekker Belangrijk (from ‘Chapter Eight, The Golden State’)

Nothing For Free (from ‘Fifi’ & ‘Smile… You’re Dying’)

Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden (from ‘Choice For A Lost Generation?!’ & ‘Smile… You’re Dying’)

Regular Day In Bosnia (from ‘Schizo’)

Ring Of Fire [cover] (from ‘Ode & Tribute’)

Green Day

I think, for anyone who knows me, this will be an obvious choice for ‘G’. I’ve been a fan of Green Day since I first heard Basket Case back in 1995 when I was 15. I’ve pretty much grown up with them and been ‘with’ them while they’ve dabbled with different genres and styles – but they always make great albums. They’re certainly not ‘punk’ any more, but they’ve grown older and their style has changed. But see them live and you’ll see they still have all the energy – particularly when they surprise you with a very old song mixed in with the more recent stuff. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen them and they are, by quite a long way, my all time favourite band. As such, this Music Monday will be slightly different. Instead of simply listing my 5 favourite tracks (that’s too hard!) I’m going to list my favourite song from each of Green Day’s major album releases.

1,000 Hours (from ’1,000 Hours EP’)

Paper Lanterns (from ‘Slappy EP’)

Road To Acceptance (from ’39/Smooth’)

One Of My Lies (from ‘Kerplunk!’)

In The End (from ‘Dookie’)

86 (from ‘Insomniac’)

Prosthetic Head (from ‘Nimrod’)

Church On Sunday (from ‘Warning’)

Homecoming (from ‘American Idiot’)

Murder City (from ’21st Century Breakdown’)

It must be a tough life being a tech blogger / tech news reporter. I mean, there’s hardly any new technology or products being developed at all that can be written about. No one even uses existing technology for anything interesting and newsworthy either. Things are so bad on a daily basis that they must start to report rumours as news. Oh, wait, hang on. Actually, there are a tonne of new developments that could be written about… But that would be too much hard work, right?

Instead we get to see stupid rumours about Apple things that have so little substance that they are laughable. It doesn’t happen with any other company – I’ve never read a blog/news post about Company A sending an email to Company B therefore Company A must be developing product XYZ but that’s what I see on an almost daily basis with so called news reports for Apple.

Five Iron Frenzy

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: ska-punk FTW! Five Iron Frenzy were a great, lively ska-punk band (also defined, by me as ‘trumpet-punk’; i.e. not so much actual ska on a lot of songs!) – one of many that have since disbanded. What set them apart, for me at least, was their brilliant lyrics – witty, deep and with the occasional bad rhyme. Some samples include: “I’m 29 years old still wearing my wallet chain like I was 28; I’m wearing my Vans so that high school kids will think that I can skate”, “I don’t care if we’re punk or ska or hardcore enough for you, it’s sad but true; you can call us names till your face turns blue; Our assurance comes from God, it’s nothing new, we’ll never care ’cause we’re never cool enough for you.” and “Wizard needs food, badly.”

At Least I’m not Like All Those Other Old Guys (from ‘The End Is Near’)

American Kryptonite (live) (from ‘The End Is Here’)

Cool Enough For You (from ‘Upbeats and Beatdowns’)

A Flowery Song (from ‘Live – Proof That The Youth Are Revolting’)

Farewell To Arms (from ‘The End Is Near’)

Elviss

Elviss are an obscure UK punk/rock band who have been a cause of great frustration to me over the years! When I first heard them on Radio 1 in 2002 I fell in love with their sound – similar to that of The Wildhearts but not a ‘copycat’ band. As soon as their single ‘D-Change’ was released I bought it. The following year they released their second single, ‘Radio (Kill It)’, which I also bought. As far as I’m aware they never released an album. They had some cracking songs on the singles but nothing seemed to come of them. Even googling it doesn’t pull up any meaningful information – just lots of dyslxic fans of ‘The King’…

D-Change (from ‘D-Change [single]‘)

Protocolic (from ‘D-Change [single]‘)

Radio (Kill It) (from ‘Radio (Kill It) [single]‘)

Common Thread (from ‘Radio (Kill It) [single]‘)

Orange Glow (from ‘Radio (Kill It) [single]‘)

Dance Hall Crashers

Everybody loves happy, bouncy music full of gorgeous harmonies. Or, rather, everyone should love happy, bouncy music full of gorgeous harmonies. Dance Hall Crashers hail from California and were originally formed by Matt Freeman and Tim Armstrong (Operation Ivy / Rancid) although they left shortly after their first gig. Owing to the two female vocalists (Elyse and Karina) bouncing their harmonies off of each other, the whole sound tends to be more ‘poppy’ than most other ska-punk bands. This isn’t a bad thing, it gave them a pretty unique sound (sometimes akin to No Doubt’s “Tragic Kingdom” era) and a they are a joy to listen to as well.

Cat Fight (from ‘Purr’)

The Truth About Me (from ‘Honey, I’m Homely!’)

Will Tomorrow Ever Come (from ‘Honey I’m Homely!’)

The Real You (from ‘Purr’)

Lost Again (from ‘Honey I’m Homely!’)

Cephas

Cephas, wow, what can I say! A relatively unknown band hailing from the South of England although relatively huge in the UK Christian Punk scene. The four-piece started off with Green Day-esque 3 chord ‘basic’ punk with hard-hitting lyrics. Over the years they went more alt-punk sounding more akin to bands like The White Stripes albeit with a bit more aggression! They never pulled a punch with regards to their faith and would regularly cause a bit of a stir while playing live. Their highlight in the secular scene was probably being invited as the main support band for Reuben at, if I remember correctly, The Garage in London (resulting in some rather varied comments on Reuben’s discussion forum). In the Christian scene they headlined the Green Belt Festival with a set of Punk Worship as well as making a number of appearances at the Meltdown Hard Music Conference. My personal highlight was getting a mention in the thanks list of their final release, ‘This Is Real Revolution’. While they are no longer together, they let a lasting legacy in the UK Christian Punk scene and I’m sure with a bit of digging you can get hold of some of their music. Failing that, drop me an email and I will check with John (ex-singer, now videographer) whether I can share some of their recordings.

Disregard (from ‘Happy Go Loser’)
It’s OK (from ‘Fool On Show’)
Quiet Cancer (from ‘Happy Go Loser’ / ‘This Is Real Revolution’)
Pursuit For Purity (from ‘This Is Real Revolution’)
The Torment (from ‘New Wave’)

Blink 182

Blink 182 are an American punk/rock group active since the early 90′s. I first got tickets to see them just before their popularity exploded with ‘Enema Of The State’. The gig, at Manchester, consequently got upgraded from The Hop & Grape (Academy 3) to the MDH (Academy 2) and ended up being at the Academy (Academy 1). It was, needless to say, full of drunk 13 year old kids – that provided some good entertainment, especially watching them being picked up by their angry mums and dads afterwards! The only other times I’ve seen them was at festivals where poor sound let them down. They tend to layer a lot of guitars on their albums and they simply can’t get the ‘depth’ live as a 3-piece. At least Green Day take extra guitarists on tour with them! You’re probably wondering why, after all the complaints, that they are my Music Monday this week? Well, their albums are great. They’ve had such a range down the years with their self titled album being rather atmospheric at times. Other albums are straight forward fun punk rock. While I’m not keen in them live they have some scorching tracks!