Thursday 31 December 2009

EDGE the movie: 2009 Retrospective



So, here is a little update and recap of what's going on at the EDGE headquarters. After the US tour, we took a little vacation from everything EDGE related, simply because as awesome as touring can be, its also quite exhausting to wake up in your sleeping bag on a different floor every morning, preparing for another long distance drive.
However, our break did not last for too long as we had to organize the upcoming european screenings. From Nov 28th till Dec 18th we did a series of weekenend screenings in England, Wales, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. We got a lot of positive feedback and had some really interesting discussions.

Recently, we've taken on our next challenge - the EDGE DVD. I'm not sure if we mentioned this before, but we have quite huge plans for the DVD that we're planning on releasing around March/April 2010. It will include full interviews, cut scenes, making of, audio commentary and a number of subtitles. If you want to help us out translating subs, please let us know! At the moment EDGE will most likely have subtitles in Spanish, Italian, French, Russian, and German.
The DVD will be availabe in Europe and in the US and there will be a limited pre-order package availabe one month before with some exclusive extras. We'll keep you posted on here as well as on facebook, myspace, and twitter.

Oh and we also have a bunch of statistics for you: By the end of 2009, we screened EDGE 37 times in 7 different countries, and around 1985 people have watched it so far. The trailer had about 68.000 hits so far.

We are still working on a number of screenings in 2010, but as you might realize our funds and time are limited. As much as we would love to go to Asia or South America to screen EDGE there, its unfortunately not possible for us at the moment.

Thanks to everyone who supported us so far by setting up screenings, making interviews, buying our merch or who came to our screenings! We hope you'll have an awesome 2010!

Thanks!
Marc and Michi

South Africa - Durban




In the last year three of my favorite local HXC/punk bands have broken up like Colin Grove and The Rising End. Our "scene" here is super small and very much "clicky," in the sense of Christian Kids who dig the Christian type hardcore and the other genres of hardcore.

But of late there is a lot of hype about a new band that is up and coming which I'll forward you in time when they have some material down. Very much youth crew/posi kind of stuff, very cool.

Durban as I said is very niche to a degree, like these kids will go watch one band yet won't support the non edge bands... very lame, man. I was actually at a show on Tuesday were there were perhaps 150 kids and 6 bands playing. Cool thing is here in Durban HXC bands will play with a Punk or ska band just as the scene is so small they like to help each other out as bands. I just wish people would support them unitedly. Bands very much promote themselves and organise shows etc. There are regular venues of which 3 are mostly used , two of which are small bars which really have a rad atmosphere to them, the other is a sell out goth/"alternative" "club" which really only gives a damn about alcohol sales and has a shitty sound etc.

To be honest it was very much more about music and more about friends having a good time in the pits and sing a longs, don't get me wrong it still happens but to a lesser degree. Bands like Go! Go! Broncho are keeping it real and have a lot of passion in their music.

I'm not sure if you will be able to see this video but this was our scene like a year ago

Rising End's last show

What I will say is that HAVE HEART and SHIPWRECK were here earlier. They totally fucking destroyed this place and made a huge impact on ALL of us here. Pat Flynn one of the raddest dudes in hardcore today (IMO).

Have a cool day. It's New Years Eve here tonight so have a cool party (if you do so) yourself whilst we keep it clean here.

Stay Safe
Laters
Tyrone

Germany - Berlin



I live in Germany's capital, Berlin. Since it's a huge city, we have a big scene here. As in all the places with a really big scene there is not really a strong unity between all of them. It's more diverse, I'd say.

I think you can seperate the scenes here by the kids who grew up with 90's and maybe even 80's hardcore and the new kids, who came into the scene through metalcore and especially that new deathcore thing in the last couple of years, which is really hyped up among the youngsters. In between those different scenes the kids stick together as it seems.

The older generation definately does. They put on shows, they help out each other and that's where the attitude is at. The youngsters mostly don't really care about the underground scene and its contents and values, I guess. They just go to see the big shows and tours or whatever the fuck is cool.

All the big tours like Never Say Die, Hell on Earth or Thrash and Burn are coming through Berlin, the same goes for most of the regular and smaller tours. Well...it's a huge city, so we're definately spoiled when it comes to this.

Lately the diy scene has been growing again, so through the last two or three years it seems like more squat shows take place again. Those are mostly promoted by kids with a strong left winged background, so you can be sure you will always find info and flyers about political activism, antifascism, veganism and stuff like that at those shows.

In Berlin and eastern Germany in general the hardcore scene is strongly active against right winged people and nazi scum. If some of those people show up at shows and get recognized, they literally are in serious trouble. Most promoters have lists with photos and names of known right wing people at the doors, and everyone is sharing this information with each other to keep them away from the scene. It's working out pretty well, I'd say...but it's getting harder and harder to recognize people from the right wing scene, since they totally fit in with the hardcore dresscode nowadays.

A really great venue perfectly represents the scene and the hardcore and punk attitude to me. It's called The Cassiopeia and everyone working there and putting on shows is just great. The Cassiopeia started with putting on really small hardcore shows, but they were able to establish the venue and now even some of the bigger tours are coming through this venue and they promote a lot of shows lately. So it definately is a place, where the older and younger hardcore kids and generations come together to see shows.

Bands that represent our scene pretty well are:

FINAL PRAYER
Hardcore in the vein of hatebreed with a strong socio-political background and sophisticated lyrics. They play a lot of shows all over Germany and some abroad and also get to tour every once in a while. In 2009 they've been on the road with Walls of Jericho for example. (GSR RECORDS)

WAR FROM A HARLOTS MOUTH
Often mistaken as a deathcore band those dudes are mostly inspired by bands like Coalesce, Botch or the Dillinger Escape Plan. Older farts than you would think ;) They have a strong hardcore background as well and their lyrics deal with social and political things. They might be the most famous export of the Berlin hardcore scene, as they played countless smaller and bigger EU tours and even tours through the US, Russia and so on. (LIFEFORCE RECORDS)

MAKE IT COUNT RIP
This band just broke up unfortunately. They played positive and powerful oldschool hardcore, released several splits and a full length record before disbanding. Same social sphere as Final Prayer and WFAHM, they are all friends and even toured Germany all together once under the banner "Berlin Angst" in 2008. (GSR RECORDS)

PREDICT RIP
Another band that just disbanded. Their sound has been inspired by the swedish 90's hardcore scene...bands like Section 8, Abhinanda and Breach for example. Very good band.

THE OCEAN
I guess I don't really have to introduce these guys. I would call their music post metal. The main brain of the band lives in Berlin, the rest is a collective from all over Europe. Their old singer is now in WFAHM. (METALBLADE RECORDS)

FALSE FRIEND
Nice punk band with some hardcore influence, pretty melodic and fast forward. Good guys...

HENRY FONDA
Those guys play powerviolence, they've been around for a while now. Strong diy-ethic.

CRUEL EYES
Heavy hardcore that reminds me of bands like Integrity at times.

SLEEVE
Young band, inspired by stuff like the Dillinger Escape Plan. Those guys released some ep's and demo cd's / free downloads and are recording something new at the moment, as far as I know.

FAT MANS WAR FACE
This band is playing deathcore. Good dudes, no hipsters. They have a decent following of younger kids in Berlin lately.

So that's what's coming to my mind about the scene in Berlin. As mentioned, we really have loads of shows here and are spoiled as hell. Sometimes it seems that it's not good for the scene, especially for the youngsters...they lose their interest and move on to the next cool thing, but the core of the scene sticks together and continues to contribute to the hardcore and punk scene as it seems. All in all it's pretty cool I'd say...

peace.
simon

Sweden 1



Thanks to Martin...

Well, for starters I live in the biggest Hardcore/Straight Edge town in Sweden which is Gothenburg atm (in my opinion at least). The Straight Edge/Hardcore scene here just keeps growing and growing. It started out with not that many people at the gigs but now it's often very crowded. Always new faces at the shows nowadays which is a good sign. We've got pretty regular gigs but sometimes it slows down...

We've got 2 venues in Gothenburg (Nordengården and Fängelset) but most of the gigs are at Nordengården. The promoter in Gothenburg is called Gothenburg Straight Edge which is setting up all the gigs in this area.We have also got a smaller one called TRW. Don't know that much about the scene in Stockholm and southern Sweden but its popping up sometimes.

The whole of Sweden is like one big community, most people know eachother (since people travel all the time to different shows) and we've got a hardcore forum aswell.

As for the community in Gothenburg, well we do a lot of activities together like footballgames, every wednesday there's "movie/gaming night" at Nordengården and we have meetings etc. Some people are working alot with getting bands over here.

Bands:

Stay Hungry (Goteborg)
One of the biggest in Sweden with some of the "oldies" of the hardcore scene here! Recently made a Europe tour and is doing one soon again together with UK's Never Again.

Anchor
Don't really need a presentation, I think most people have heard em.

Forever Young (Umea)
Got their song for the credits in Edge the Movie.

Harda Tider (Malmo)

Balance (Lund)

Values ( Jönköping)

Big Deal ( Jönköping)

Sista Sekunden (Malmo)
Some oldies who toured the US etc!

Played Out (Stockholm)

Conviction (Stockholm)

South Africa 1


Thanks to Tyrone for this...

l'll provide you here with some local Hxc bands from here...

From Durban

The Rising End RIP

Go! Go! Bronco

City of Gates

Crossingpoint

Show and Tell

From Johannesburg

Truth and its Burden

Reasontolive

Among Friends

Bloodline Ltd

Facing the Gallows

From Capetown South Africa

New Altum

Tuesday 29 December 2009

Ukraine 1



Thanks to Spoon for this...

I live in Zaporozh'e, South of Ukraine. The hardcore scene is doing badly over here. In the city with a population of 800 thousand people only 10-15 people are involved. There are no shows in Zaporozh'e at all. There are no hardcore bands either. I'm a musician myself by the way and I'm trying to start a band but there are almost no musicians interested in hardcore. In a neighbouring city Dnepropetrovsk things are going much better. The scene there is comprised of approximately 500 people maybe even more now. The shows are happening regularly and there's a local band Double Trouble that plays NYHC. Very good scenes can be found in Kiev, Odessa, Simferopol' and Khar'kov. Most of the shows are taking place in Kiev of course since it is the capital of the country. The most recent band that played there was Death Before Dishonor.

As for the spirit of unity and community, I can't tell you much but I know that where there's a scene of some sort things aren't going too well. The most prominent Ukranian bands are:

xDeviantx (Kiev)

xDeclarationx (RIP)

.aspire. (Odessa)

Double Trouble (Dnepropetrovsk)

Humble Opinion RIP (Kiev)

Keep On Fighting RIP (Sebastopol)

Opozicija RIP

Spunky Yank

Still (Odessa)

Uprise

For me personally hardcore is more than just music. I can't say I'm heavily involved but I'm not a bystander either. I think for many people this is just something new, something cool to stick with and that's it.
By the way a Ukrainian based International Hardcore Punk Archive was launched recently.

Argentina (Part 2)

El Camino Mas Dificil (Rosario)

Reconcile (Buenos Aires)

Trust (Buenos Aires)

El Eterno Enemigo RIP (Buenos Aires)

Reminder (Buenos Aires)

A Mis Espaldas (Buenos Aires)

Las Palabras Queman (Buenos Aires)

Enquirer

Mil Caras (Buenos Aires)

Mostomalta (Mendoza)

Knockout (Rosario)

Orientacion (Buenos Aires)

Otra Salida (Buenos Aires)

Nueva Etica (Buenos Aires)

Down Never (Buenos Aires)

These are some of the small labels :

Vegan Records

Varsity Hardcore

Waking The Dead Records

Regards from Argentina
JUANx