Ian Christe's Blog, page 56

NYHC: Sheer Terror and Cro-Mags Unite w/CIV, Wisdom in Chains to Crush Cancer

G.B.H is not the only hardcore punk band fundraising for good causes these days. NYHC stalwarts Sheer Terror and Cro-Mags have just announced a benefit show at Highline Ballroom in Manhattan on Sunday, May 29,to raise money for three-year-old Alexander Owens.Joining the two NYHC legends are Wisdom in Chains, Nine Lives, and Extinction AD.

Alexander Owens, thepoor kid,suffers from Neurofibramatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow within the nervous system. Hehas been battling th...

SARCASM Is the Swedish Death Metal Band of the Week

Foryou connoisseurs of carnal leftovers, this week’s addition to the critically-acclaimed SDM Band of the Week series hails from the beautiful city of Uppsala. Known for the Fyris River which flows wildly through the city andthe very large “Town Forest” central park, Uppsala is also home to tons of hardcore bands and a number of notable metal acts. Among those are the rabid wolves in Watain;Swedish Death Metal author Daniel Ekeroth’s own project Usurpress; and the now defunct creme-de-la-crem...

NYHC: Youth of Today To Join Gorilla Biscuits, Burn, Killing Time, Breakdown at This Is Hardcore 2016

Great news for Youth Crew believerson the East Coast—wind up your Swatch X watches and find your Side by Side shirts, because Youth of Today will reuniteforthis summer’sThis is Hardcore Fest in Philadelphia on August 4–7. The band isno stranger to reunion shows, having played several over the years, but the latest rebirth of Youth was aboutfive years ago. Also appearing are NYHC heavy-hitters includingGorilla Biscuits, Burn, Killing Time, and Breakdown; plus a wide-ranging roster including In...

CITY BABY: Entire G.B.H 1983 UK Gig w/Discharge & English Dogs Available

Cvlt Nation has pointed us towardssome fantastic early footage of author Ross Lomas’ band G.B.H performing a gig with Clay Records labelmates Discharge and English Dogs at Victoria Hall in Stoke-on-Trent in 1983. The forty-minute punkbarrage is filled with great-big hair, grievous bodily harm, and Great Britain hardcore.

“Good evening! I’m a sick boy!” shouts singer Colin Abrahall, and the band plunges right into aset of crushing wall-of-sound UK hardcore. The energy is nonstop, the spikes ar...

NYHC: Tony Rettman Talks Moshpits, Mass Murder, and Amon Duul with AP

Our beloved NYHC: New York Hardcore 1980-1990, by Tony Rettman author Tony Rettman was recently interviewed by Alternative Press about hardcore punk in 2016, his history in radio, his musical inspirations, and more. Highlights include a story about Rettman seeing Black Flag play at age 11, days after a mass-shooting at a McDonald’s. As he recalls:

“This might not make me sound like the most sane person in the world, but I remember the first hardcore punk show my brother ever took me to. I was...

SUB POP USA: Bruce Pavitt & the Birth of Grunge in UK Q Mag

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Nevermind, Britain’s Q Magazine has conducted an exclusive interview with our author Bruce Pavitt (Experiencing Nirvana, Sub Pop USA) about Nirvana and the times that spawned them.

Kerrang.com has posted a segment of that interview, including a quote about the uneven quality of Nirvana’s early music, and Bruce watching them develop as a band after signing them to his label, Sub Pop. Other interviewees include Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, Matt Cameron of S...

Bloody Roots of Sci-Fi Thrash and Speed Metal on Sirius XM

Bloody Roots of Sci Fi Thrash and Speed Metal on Sirius XM
Week of April 16, 2016

Sat 4/16, 6PM ET
Sun 4/17, 1PM ET
Mon 4/18, 9AM ET
Tues 4/19, 4PM ET
Thurs 4/21, 9PM ET

The futuristic forces of high-speed thrash metal reach warp ten this week on Bloody Roots, as Ian Christe (“Sound of the Beast”/Bazillion Points Books) straps on the spacesuit and surveys the spectacular landscape of science-fiction inspired thrash and speed metal. Log into the matrix for tracks by Vektor, Voivod, Funerot, Sp...

Flashback: Billy Milano Wanted to Vote for Donald Trump for President…in 1988!

Today is Presidential Primary Election Day in New York State, so here are a choice few words about the loudest mouth on the campaign trail, Donald Trump, coming from one of the loudest mouths in NYHC, Billy Milano. The catch is that this conversation happened almost thirty years ago!

A couple decades before the launch of Bazillion Points, our publisher Ian Christe was already busy with printed matter via his IAN fanzine. In late 1987, just after the release of M.O.D.’s U.S.A. for M.O.D., he c...

CITY BABY: G.B.H Raises Thousands for UK’s Milestone Hospice

The weekend of March 25, G.B.H played the annual “Punk for Pam” festival, a concert honoring the memory of Pam Edinburgh (sister of GBH’s Jock), who passed away in 2011 after a decades-long fight with HIV. In the years since, the band has played in Pam’s name to raise money for Milestone Hospice, “the UK’s largest provider of support to people suffering blood borne illnesses.”

As he band explains: “they provided care and support to Pam and the Blyth family…and receive no government funding.”...

Friday 4/15, Seattle: Laina Dawes Takes Metal to the 14th EMP Pop Conference

The upcoming 14th annual EMP Pop Conference is shaping up to be a jam-packed four days “bringing academics, critics, musicians, and dedicated fans into a collective conversation.” The free conference is open to the public, April 14-17 at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, and will include intriguing panels such as “The Racial Publics of Siouxsie Sioux” and a talk on “Good Bad Singing and Bad Good Singing.”

Notably, the “Noise Breeding Silence-Heavy Metal Voices” roundtable will be mode...