Counter Revolution

So the fallout of the cancelling of Soundwave Revolution is settling and the details of what's replacing it is emerging.

First off, I got a beautiful email telling me that every cent I spent will be refunded in the next 7 days, including postage and booking fees. A nice touch to dampen the blow. If you haven't got your email yet, or changed banking details since you bought the tickets, get a hold of Oztix.

AJ Maddah, the guy behind all things Soundwave related, has been answering a lot of questions on his twitter. I was keeping an eye on it, but it got out of control. It seems some bands are going out on a mini-festival tour, some are doing their own headlining tour, some our doing club tours and a lot are coming out for Soundwave 2012. It's too much for me to keep track of with my currently busy schedule, but the guys over at AltMusicHub are doing a good job of updating with up to the minute news.

So the big announcement yesterday (which has already gone on sale!) is the Counter Revolution festival! Two stages, no clases and 19 of the bands that were going to be on Soundwave Revolution. These include:

Panic At The Disco
All Time Low
Yellowcard
Story Of The Year
Face To Face
The Damned Things
Set Your Goals
Funeral For A Friend
Hellogoodbye
D.R.U.G.S
The Pretty Reckless
Young Guns
This Providence
Go Radio
Make Do And Mend
Alesana
The Swellers
We Are The In Crowd
Terrible Things

Tickets are ~$103 and it will be at the Riverstage on the same day Soundwave Revolution was going to be (September 24th).

My thoughts? It's basically now a pop-punk festival. Most of these bands I didn't want to see at the original revolution, with the exception of Make Do and Mend and Face to Face (who I've at least seen before twice). So, without the draw of anything major like Van Halen, I probably won't be in attendance. Now I'll just wait for the other announcements to come trickling through...

Free Music Friday 27!

Big thanks to Chris for this one.

Today's Free Music Friday is what I imagine all pop-punk to be. In my head, when I hear the words pop-punk I imagine this kind of music: a bunch of guy's making happy punk music about all things good in life and just having a ball. I don't imagine what gets passed off for pop-punk 98% of the time these days: either whiny teenage heartbreak crap (generally from 30-40 year old songwriters) or weird-ass breakdown not quite crap post-hardcore stuff.

Oh no, the Hotel Year is the damn good kind of pop-punk.

I went to google some pictures, but only got pictures of hotels. And some weird band that dresses like girls and plays weird ass pop-punk that I mentioned I hated above (tokio hotel I think).

Anyway, I'll shut up. You go to Bandcamp and download their album and enjoy the shit out of it. You can donate or there's a mediafire link there for you if you're real cheap.

Man Overboard

If you've gone to any punk-related gig in the last year or so, I guarantee you've seen a plethora of these shirts:

Heck, I even took a photo of the ever lovable Adam Vass, bassist of La Dispute, wearing a similar one at the Zoo.


So if you're like me, you've probably wondered "Who the fuck are Man Overboad? And what exactly are they defending pop-punk from? Bad riffs? Shitty hair styles? Breakdowns and bad x-core style music?"

I'd imagine the answer is all of the above.

In my opionion, they're not the best, but no one can really beat New Found Glory's Sticks and Stones for the ultimate in pop-punk. But they're not the worst, they're definitely miles ahead of any of that generic mix-in-hardcore-crap-music that's being passed off as pop-punk these days.

I'll get a chance to defend pop-punk myself soon, when they play the Globe on September 3. 18+.

Wait... the Globe? How odd. Doesn't seem like a good match. Neither does an 18+ tour. Weird.

MySpace

Free Music Friday 18!

Today's free music Friday is posted on Saturday morning for multiple reasons: I'm lazy, I was busy all day/night yesterday and it's a lot of music to digest.

Anyway, it's Rhubarb.


Rhubarb are Brisbane pop-punk rockers, who emerged on Triple J way back in 1999. You may remember them for a very catchy song called Exerciser. Heck, it was one of the first songs I ever downloaded.

They put out 3 fun albums before breaking up around 2006 (according to a quick Google search). I have no idea why, but now they've decided to put out their music for free. Every album. I'm pretty sure they're not coming back, but hey, you can't complain. It's free.

Download it all here.

I Don't Even...

Well, here's a tour for you to scratch your head over.

The Mix n Mash tour, coming through Brisbane on May 18 at the Riverstage, will combine local and international hardcore and pop-punk bands. This mixture blows my mind. On one hand, you'll have the mosh heavy Bleeding Through, Confession and Parkway Drive; which most of the pop-punk children will just shake their heads at and cover their bleeding ears during. On the other hand you have pop-punk the Wonder Years and You Me At Six, which I'm sure the hardcore kids will use quite inappropriate slurs for homosexuals to deride, all while yelling during their sets.

It's a clever concept, the bands are obviously all friends. But what will the crowds be like? Ticket prices are apparently under $50, so if you like any 2 of these bands (or more) check it out.

Personally, I'd go almost for Bleeding Through. We don't see them much any more, and their album Truth is still one of my favourite heavier albums.

No Trigger/Such Gold

I had only started listening to one of these bands mere minutes before this tour was announced.


Both Such Gold and No Trigger are doing this genre crossing thing, where they mix pop-punk with melodic hardcore punk. And both do it pretty bloody well. Better than a lot of other bands (especially ones I saw at Soundwave, no names here).

If you can't see the poster, catch them at the Step Inn on January 27. The day after La Dispute. Make it a trifecta of great punk/hardcore shows! Unfortunately, it's 18+. Which is a pity, I'm sure a lot of kiddies will love this.

Such Gold
No Trigger

Rufio/Mest tour cancelled

Were you looking forward to getting your 90's pop punk groove on with Rufio and Mest? While unfortunately, you can't. Due to some visa issue (I think it's more the promoter messed up with applications) they can't get approval into our country in time for their tour! So it's been postponed.

So, here's a great cover Rufio do:

Pop punk tour (10 years too late?)

If you dig your pop-punk from the late 90's and early 2000's, you would be very familiar with two of the bands in this tour, Rufio and Mest.

Rufio, hot off a reunion and the release of a brand new album Anybody Out There (which isn't half-bad, but it sounds like nothing has changed in years) will be playing a run of shows in Australia. Rufio were a band my mates listened to when I was just starting high school, that I never really took a shining to. Except this cover, which was one of the first songs I learnt on bass guitar.

They will be playing the Globe on the 4th of November.

There's a bit of debate whether it will be supported by Mest or Mest's lead singer's other band, Kisses for Kings. Either way, they'll be playing a lot of the old Mest songs.

Mest

Hot Water Music/Bouncing Souls tour

In my old blog (before it got taken down for copyright infringement) I mentioned this tour, as Chuck Ragan had let it slip during his Revival Tour when I was in Perth. But yes, the Bouncing Souls and Hot Water Music are coming down under! And I am pretty much the 2nd most excited person about this (Bek is even more excited).


The Bouncing Souls, now in their 20th year, are one of my favourite pop-punk bands. Their album How I Spent My Summer is the album that got me into pop-punk. It's an album full of up-beat, happy punk, which at the time I identified with as a 16 year old during the summer. Still remains one of the CDs I listen to while driving around in summer with the windows down. Manthem is the first song I heard on a compilation I had and it's still one of my all time favourites. Their new album, Ghosts on the Boardwalk, is one of my favourite albums of 2010 already.

Hot Water Music is a band I've only recently started listening to, probably 8 years too late. But if the full band is anything like the acoustic set done by their lead singer, Chuck Ragan, it will be absolutely amazing.

This is the punk tour of the year.
December 11th, the Zoo. 18+

The Bouncing Souls
Hot Water Music

Paramore tour

"To post this tour or not" was an internal debate I had for about 5 minutes. I'm not the biggest fan of their music, but the lead singer is cute. And orange.

It's pop-punk.
October 17 at the Riverstage.

You can stream their entire new album here: http://www.paramore.net/album/brand-new-eyes/