FOR A LATE PENNSYLTUCKY ANARCHIST – REMEMBERING ERIK PETERSEN IN 7 SONGS

Posted on July 20, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged Amadou Diallo, American Revolution, ballads, boycotts, Centralia, erik petersen, featured, folk, folk-punk, hardcore, John Gentle, mischief brew, morality, music, NYPD, operation ivy, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, police violence, political music, punk, Punk News, radical music, Ska, songwriting, The Orphans, three mile island, USA, West Chester.

by Chris Jarvis

Content warning: mentions police violence, state violence, alcoholism

July 14 is a day of mourning and remembrance for the punk community. Two years ago on that date, the folk-punk pioneer Erik Petersen passed away. Founding member and frontman of the iconic Mischief Brew, Erik Petersen was one of the most gifted songwriters of his generation. His music will long be remembered for its infectiousness, its unique storytelling, its wit, its rawness and its inflammatory radicalism.

Two years on, we remember Erik Petersen through seven of his greatest songs.Continue Reading

HOLD A DANCE TO SOLIDARITY – LIGHTS DOWN, IN EVIL HOUR REVIEW

Posted on August 18, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged album review, angry, bandcamp, bitter, Blinding Ropes, Build it Up, Built on Our Backs, capitalism, Darlington, Divide and Conquer, Don't Wake Up, Enemy Within, free press, government, Grenfell, hardcore, In Evil Hour, journalism, Lights Down, Modern Detachment, MTM, music review, music that matters, My Excuse, neoliberalism, Paveway IV, petrol girls, poetry, political music, progress, protest song, provocative, punk, radical music, refused, revolution, rise against, We are the Lost.

by Chris Jarvis

Following up on the incendiary Built on Our Backs EP in 2015, Darlington’s darlings of hardcore In Evil Hour are back, this time with their second full-length release – Lights Down. In the age of an emboldened far right, intensified hawkishness in the international military arena, and revelations of the worst excesses of neoliberalism with the likes of the Grenfell disaster, Lights Down is a much needed and timely response.Continue Reading

MUSIC THAT MATTERS – ICYMI: STÖJ SNAK INTERVIEW WITH NIELS SØRENSON

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged Aalborg, acoustic, Billy Liar, concert, Copenhagen, danish, denmark, DIY, electronic, Frank Turner, gig, grand collapse, grindcore, Guns'n'Roses, hardcore, hip hop, icymi, interview, kollapse, Lemlæstet Fosterbræk, metal, Mighty Midgets, MTM, music, music that matters, NIELS SØRENSON, Pizza Tramp, punk, reggae, rock n roll, screamersongwriter, series, Ska, STÖJ SNAK, streaming, underground, venue, vocalist.

by Sara Harrington

Part of a series exploring great music from the DIY music scene that you may have missed.

Hi Niels, thanks so much for letting me bother you with lots of questions! How are you doing today?

No worries. My pleasure. I’m pretty good today – currently in an airport, waiting for a plane to Copenhagen where I’m going to visit an old friend and see a Guns ‘n’ Roses show. Ten year old me is stoked.

So, I’m pretty late to the game and only just stumbled across you and your musical endeavours – Can you tell me a bit about ‘Stöj Snak’ and how it started and who is involved?

Stöj Snak is a ScreamerSongwriter band from Denmark. I started Stöj Snak as an acoustic solo act around 4 years ago – basically just me recording songs in my apartment as a hobby project. It was never meant for anyone to hear.

Since then the band has grown to a four piece with drums, washboard, upright bass and other trash instruments but the attitude towards the music is still very much the same – we do everything ourselves and because it’s fun. It’s basically the antithesis to Guns ‘n’ Roses.Continue Reading

THE 20 BEST RADICAL MUSIC RELEASES OF 2016

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged a tribe called quest, Against Me!, anohni, austerity, b-real, chris t-t, chuck d, climate change, cypress hill, drone warfare, dubstep, enter shikari, far right, fascism, folk, folk-punk, fugazi, gentrification, Green Day, hardcore, hip hop, Kate Nash, Lobster, Martha, michael kiwanuka, mischief brew, Muncie Girls, obama, OPS, petrol girls, pop punk, post-hardcore, post-punk, prophets of rage, public enemy, punk, racism, rage against the machine, rap, refused, reggae, reggae punk, Saul Williams, Ska, ska punk, sleaford mods, slyvia plath, Solange, Sonic Boom Six, soul, suffragettes, surveillance, taj weekes, The Selecter, The Tuts, tom morello, war.

By Chris Jarvis

Yes, yes, we all know that 2016 has been an unmitigated cluster-fuck, with rising fascism, worsening humanitarian crises and intensifying conflict. In moments of darkness, many of us turn to the arts world – especially music – for comfort, for release, for explanation. With David Bowie, Prince, George Michael, Glenn Frey, Paul Kantner, Maurice White, George Martin, Phife Dawg, Erik Petersen, Leonard Cohen, Nick Menza, Greg Lake, Sharon Jones, and too many others all having passed away, many have found music to have also fallen on dark times.

That notwithstanding, 2016 has been a year of some undeniably and uniquely brilliant music too, especially music that espouses messages of a better world, of political analysis, of radical alternatives. Here are the 20 best of those radical releases from the past year.

WOMEN AND PUNK: SHAPING THE GENRE 40 YEARS ON

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged #WomeninMusic, Ace Bushy Striptease, Adore Life, album, autonomads, Baby Ghosts, BME, British music, Built on Our Backs, Chekhov’s Hangnail, Colour Me Wednesday, DIY, EP, From Caplan to Belsize, Goldman’s Detective Agency, hardcore, hc, In Evil Hour, Kate Nash, Kerrang! Awards, King Prawn, Laila K, Leftover Crack, Lily Allen, LP, Martha, math-rock, media, Middle Ones, MSM, Muncie Girls, music, music journalism, music that matters, No Ditching, No Man No Right, Okinawa Picture Show, Perkie, petrol girls, pop punk, post-hardcore, punk, Radiator Hospital, Resolution 242, rock, Savages, Ska, ska punk, Sonic Book Six, split, T-Shirt Weather, Tellison, The F-Bomb, the king blues, The Selecter, Treading Water.

by Chris Jarvis

Last week, Music That Matters looked at the 40^th anniversary of punk and how our understanding of its history is typically one which erases the efforts and achievements of women musicians and people of colour. Today, the scene is often still seen as a male and white space, with punk shows frequently having male dominated crowds queuing up to see white men thrashing on guitars in shabby venues.

But it looks like things are changing. 2016 feels like it is becoming a rebirth of women in punk, and critically, as if it is women of colour who often are leading the way. More women are touring, more are getting bigger stages and longer sets, and more are getting the media coverage that they deserve. Among the nostalgic reflection, this year, dozens of punk albums will be released. Some will become instant classics, others will fade from memory as quickly as they came. Here are 10 bands leading the British punk scene this year, and the women that are making them shape the future of the genre.Continue Reading

REVOLUTIONARY MUSIC – AN INTERVIEW WITH MATT OF DEAD CITY RIOT

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged arts, dead city riot, dub, hardcore, music, music that matters, pumpkin records, punk, rebel time records, reggae, riot ska records, rodent popsicle, Ska, skacore.

by Chris Jarvis

Describing themselves as “more than simply a group of musicians” and as “part of an ever growing, international, revolutionary movement continuously moving towards freedom, justice and peace, Dead City Riot are one of Bristol based Riot Ska Records’ greatest imports. Blending hardcore, ska and reggae, DCR’s imagery, sound and lyrics ooze their political values and beliefs. A brief look at their Facebook page is illustrative of this, with its “Refugees Welcome” images, calls to celebrate International Workers Day and the description of their genre as “revolutionary music”.Continue Reading

MOVING OUTSIDE THE BUBBLE – AN INTERVIEW WITH ANDY DAVIES OF REVENGE OF THE PSYCHOTRONIC MAN

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged Andy Davies, autonomads, bass, DIY, faintest idea, Green Party, hardcore, ideology, independent, interview, John Lydon, Labour, mainstream, MTM, music, music that matters, politics, protest, punk, punk rock, Revenge of the Psychotronic Man, Rising Strike, strike, teaching, tony blair, vocals, X Factor.

by Chris Jarvis

Manchester hardcore punks Revenge of the Psychotronic Man are no stranger to politics. Their music is released through TNSrecords, home of the likes of Faintest Idea, Autonomads, and Rising Strike, all known for their uncompromising and explicitly political works. Revenge of the Psychotronic Man bassist and vocalist Andy Davies helps to co-run the label, and he took the time to talk to The Norwich Radical about how he sees his politics, its relationship to the music he produces and the relationship between this and the wider world, as part of our series Music That Matters.Continue Reading

NOT YOUR PUNK – AN INTERVIEW WITH NIKOLAI JONES OF KING PRAWN

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged asian dub foundation, Babar Luck, babylon whackers, bob marley, crass, dead kennedys, east end trinity, hardcore, hip hop, King Prawn, music, music that matters, politics, public enemy, punk, rage against the machine, Random Hand, Ska, the king blues.

By Chris Jarvis

In 1993, a new icon was born. King Prawn’s incendiary sound emerged from London, and paved the way for countless other bands on a burgeoning and ever developing scene. Over the next decade, they would lay waste to notions of genre as album after album would reinvent punk, ska, hip-hop and hardcore blazing a trail for many others to follow. Sonic Boom Six, Random Hand, The King Blues all built upon the legacy of King Prawn. So diverse and innovative, they coined their own label to define their music – Wildstyle, and their rebel rousing songs combined with their flagrant disregard for musical convention led to comparisons with American rap-metal pioneers Rage Against the Machine.Continue Reading

VOICES OF HOPE COMING OUT OF THE DARKNESS – AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHNNY DOOM OF POLICE BASTARD

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged conflict, crass, crust punk, doom, enter shikari, hardcore, johnny doom, king blues, metal, music, music industry, music scene, music that matters, musician, police bastard, politics, punk, subhumans, thrash metal.

by Chris Jarvis

For anyone of my generation who group up in the Midlands with a taste for alternative music, Johnny Doom is something of an icon. Tuning into Kerrang Radio (when it was still broadcast on FM), it was the dulcet tones of this Brummie legend that would really excite, much more so than even the anarchic Tim Shaw or the esoteric Nick Margerisson. Unsurprisingly, he has won accolades for his wry radio conversations, being named Brummie of the Year in 2008.

But Johnny has a long history within music outside of his radio work. Becoming active initially in the late 1980s in the influential Crust Punk band Doom, Johnny went on to form the less acclaimed, but equally important Police Bastard, who fuse a raw and brutal aggression with thrash metal riffs and hardcore compositions. Encapsulated within that sound is an anti-authoritarian politics which is evident even from the band’s name. Because of this, we decided to talk to Johnny Doom about his politics and the role it plays in his music as part of our series Music That Matters.

UNDENIABLE INTERACTIONS – AN INTERVIEW WITH WILLEM OF ANTILLECTUAL

Posted on February 7, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged activism, anti-flag, antillectual, arts, bad religion, hardcore, music, music that matters, pennywise, politics, Propagandhi, punk, rise against, strike anywhere.

By Chris Jarvis

Dutch trio Antillectual are known for their fast, thumping, melodic hardcore, which they have toured extensively across the globe since their debut album in 2005. Bringing together influences and sounds reminiscent of bands varying from Bad Religion, Strike Anywhere and Rise Against, they have held onto one of the central tenets of punk rock, socially conscious lyrics and a progressive political outlook. Songs such as No Human is Illegal, Another Guide (To Comprehensive Capitalism) and To All Members of Parliament illustrate this attention paid to political issues and their attempt to address them through their music. Given this context, The Norwich Radical spoke to frontman and guitarist Willem about their political outlook, why Antillectual chose to fuse music and politics, and the impacts they believe political music can have as part of our series Music That Matters.

hardcore

FOR A LATE PENNSYLTUCKY ANARCHIST – REMEMBERING ERIK PETERSEN IN 7 SONGS

HOLD A DANCE TO SOLIDARITY – LIGHTS DOWN, IN EVIL HOUR REVIEW

MUSIC THAT MATTERS – ICYMI: STÖJ SNAK INTERVIEW WITH NIELS SØRENSON

THE 20 BEST RADICAL MUSIC RELEASES OF 2016

WOMEN AND PUNK: SHAPING THE GENRE 40 YEARS ON

REVOLUTIONARY MUSIC – AN INTERVIEW WITH MATT OF DEAD CITY RIOT

MOVING OUTSIDE THE BUBBLE – AN INTERVIEW WITH ANDY DAVIES OF REVENGE OF THE PSYCHOTRONIC MAN

NOT YOUR PUNK – AN INTERVIEW WITH NIKOLAI JONES OF KING PRAWN

VOICES OF HOPE COMING OUT OF THE DARKNESS – AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHNNY DOOM OF POLICE BASTARD

UNDENIABLE INTERACTIONS – AN INTERVIEW WITH WILLEM OF ANTILLECTUAL

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