UK - South Wales

The hxc scene in South Wales is very healthy. I have only recently started going to gigs again and it is taking a while to get to know the bands and some of the history that makes the scene what it is right now but I've got to say that my first impression is that we are all very lucky to have such a busy and active hxc community. This does not happen without a lot of hard work from certain individuals and a massive amount of goodwill to protect what has been achieved.

We have regular gigs at a venue in Newport called Le Pub which has become part of the UK hardcore circuit because of the open-minded booking policy of the management and also the collective energy of the people and bands associated with CCHC (Cardiff City HC).


There's an excellent sense of community amongst the bands and you will almost certainly see them watching each other's shows and regularly supporting in other ways, such as mentions on websites, selling each other's merch and playing at gigs around the UK together. Recently all of them played together at a show in Birmingham which will hopefully become a regular event in other cities in the UK in the future.
Live clips:
Crossbreaker
Ironclad



The bands that represent the scene well are:

Wiretap!

Ironclad

Crossbreaker

Brutality Will Prevail

Harbour


The hXc scene does not actively fight for change although there is the occasional gig for charity (in fact there was one this week) and some members of the community are supporters of sXe. Le Pub recently hosted one of the few screenings of XEdge which was put on by the owner of Freestyle Skatestore in Newport, who makes an active link with the South Wales skate scene too. CCHC promotions have a strictly no fighting policy and it is very impressive watching this being enforced. All community members have a very strong sense of pride about their scene and will always be respectful to those who show respect.

More information about hxc from South Wales can be found at CCHC myspace and SouthWalesMassive. I used to write a blog about the scene here (swukmorethanmusic) but any updates will now be posted on this site instead.

Peace
Brian

Poland

The city where I was born and raised is totally off the scene/gigs except for two bands: Zlodzieje Rowerow (ZxRx) and Oreiro. The first one is really old and is the most popular band from 'East Wall' (east side of Poland). But no one is interested in putting on gigs in my town and probably there are just a few people who know something about the hardcore scene, young people in small towns usually listen to rap.

I'm studying in Warsaw. The scene here is quite strong, if there's a gig with a famous band such as Integrity or Bane, the place is full of hckids. Local bands usually gain a small audience. Gigs are put on in such pubs as 'Dobra Karma', 'Radio Luxembourg', sometimes in 'Centralny Basen Artystyczny', 'Progresja' and 'No Mercy' or a squat called 'Elba' etc. This usually happens about once a week.

Once in a year, near Warsaw, in Piaseczno there is hcfest called Open Hardcore Fest where you can meet people from all around Poland, try vegetarian food, take a look at art galleries, buy something from merchandisers and listen to music.


Something about the community is that there is new phenomenon, rich 'hckids' who want to show how tough they are! It's such a funny thing!

My opinion is that there is strong sense of community, but people need some ignition to unite. A few weeks ago, there was a sad situation: a child of one gigs organisers got really sick (some kind of cancer as far as I know) so people all around Poland organised about 20 gigs just to raise cash for medical care for this young boy. Brilliant, bands were playing for free.


For factual information, take a look at www.hard-core.pl

Cheers,
Albert

Belarus

There are two main cities in the hardcore scene of Belarus. They are called Minsk and Grodno. Minsk is the capital of my country and most of the hardcore shows are playing there. But there are many gigs in Grodno too.


Almost all Belarussian bands are antifascists, because there are many boneheads, especially in Minsk. In Grodno almost no fascists, because we fight them. This is not a very serious problem, but this struggle makes us all stronger and more united. Hardcore shows are played at least once a month. There are shows with local bands and with the bands from the world (for example Death Before Dishonor, Ignite, Vitamin X, Death Is Not Glamorous, Dead Vows and other).



There are two main labels
CRIMECHORDS (Minsk)

Street Beat Records (Grodno)



I see that scene getting bigger with every new band and every new show. I see that people are interested in hardcore, in its values.

Here are some bands from Belarus:

Fuckitall (Minsk)
old school hardcore


Manhood (Grodno/Lida)
Just starting out. Firstly they played modern-melodic-hardcore (their first demo) but now they are recording new songs and are playing youth crew hardcore



Appleshout RIP (Minsk)
thrash-hardcore-punk band

My Dog's A Cat (Minsk)
hardcore

Pull Out An Eye (Minsk)
thrash-hardcore

Try One's Luck (Minsk)
metal-beatdown hardcore

Face Forward (Minsk)
modern hardcore

Romania - Iasi

Romania 9/1/10

The hardcore scene in our area... it doesn't really exist haha. I mean me and a couple of other friends used to put up shows for about 3 years, almost every month, here in Iasi but we had a crowd consisting of 15 persons coming to the last shows, usually friends of ours, which wasn't bad, but the feeling that we had a private party going on wasn't very satisfying. And for some of us putting up shows was a pretty big effort, so we decided to give it up for now and concentrate on other activities.

In Cluj or Timisoara the situation isn't that bad. usually there are about 60-80 people coming to shows but they have their "failures" too. The good part is that the crowd is always very energetic there and the bands are often very impressed, saying it's the nicest show in their tour (and I'm not just trying to persuade bands into coming here haha). So yeah, maybe that would be the "local flavour". People are trying to have a great time at shows even if they are very few, because it really is an effort to keep this thing going on so having a really good time once a month outside a society that doesn't represent us, making 10 people (and sometimes hopefully more) feel they are a part of something and encouraging some diy bands to keep on transmitting their thoughts and dreams is leaving you with a nice feeling in the end.

About hardcore being more than music... if a band has nothing to say, I'm sorry but I don't really think that's a hardcore band. Of course, there are some bands in Romania pretending to be hardcore bands although they have absolutely nothing to do with hardcore. Concerning sound, maybe they have a percent of hardcore influences, but, for me, and for most of the people who put up shows a band that has nothing to say and eventually brings up subjects they don't even believe in or know anything about just to seem tough guys, is definitely not hardcore. And of course, you can sing about your broken heart, hardcore was always emotional, but if that's all you've got, I doubt that's music about social change anymore.

Some pictures from different shows in Romania:

Pavilionul 32

Hardcore Street Photography

Zine - The Light Between

ezine - The Light Between 6/1/10

With the ezine and print zine, how has progress/development been?

We started the ezine in April 2008 with the intention to do a zine that was a bit different from other zines. I love reading interviews and articles, but it seemed to me that the interviews are all the same, it's always the same questions, so you learn nothing new. It's not like hardcore bands are rockstars, but I think a lot of bands put so much effort into every detail. That fascinates me, Shipwreck is the perfect example, they really want a record to be something more than music, so there is a whole concept that includes, music, lyrics and the artwork. So, therefore we decided to start something on our own and to ask the questions that we want to ask, no matter if i'm the only one interested in the answer or not.

Anyway, we started in 2008, and slowly grew. Another issue that we wanted to tackle was the international aspect of hardcore, so we started working on a sampler called "the sun never sets", that features 9 bands from South America and 9 from Germany. A total financial disaster but a success nonetheless as we got in touch with some really good people in South America. (I want to mention Reconcile/Varsity Records from Argentina and Step Down Records form Bogota, Colombia here).
Afterwards, the whole zine slowly evolved and we tried several things for example to include a section about books, but I have trouble with reviewing something, I love talking about books and music but it's hard to write about them. So, I actually focused on doing interviews. And then in July 2009 we released our first print issue, that contained mostly interviews that were already on the website.

What issues or areas of interest will you focus on in the future?

We started out with two areas of interest, politics and international aspects of hardcore. I still think the international side is important but it takes a lot of effort to really find interesting bands and to come up with good interviews, so I actually always hoped to do something like you are doing, getting scene reports from all over the world.
While I was compiling the interviews for our printissue #2 I realised that talking about politics doesn't give me much satisfaction anymore. I still believe it is very important that bands talk about politics and I love political hardcore. WIthout the political aspect hardcore would be useless, but the problem is that we all are relatively aware and all have a similar mindset. We all think about capitalism and the environment but we don't have any solutions or extraordinary alternative ideas, so I had the feeling that I've asked all these questions before and got the same answers before. Maybe the fault is that I'm asking the wrong questions... but anyway I kind of stopped talking too much about politics.

Also, the interviews change as my interests change, so I think some interviews in issue #2 are more philosophical (that's too big a word though), more about ideas of life, happiness etc. That really interests me, to hear how people think about their lives and how they try to make sense of it. So, maybe it will go more in that direction in the future, but then it might get really hard to find someone who is willing to talk about that... and I can't put all the effort and time into doing interviews ... ;)

Why do you do both types of zine?

A ezine is rather easy to start, it doesnt take much money and effort to get something going. And I think it is perfect that way, so you can see if you enjoy doing it and maybe it grows into something bigger. But I felt that it doesnt give me much satisfaction. You upload a new interview and that's it. You don't get any response. You can check the statistics of your website, but that bores me too. Also, we had a lot of "sun never sets" cds that we didnt know what to do with, so we thought we have to get them out to the people in some way, so we decided to do a printversion and include them. And that is a lot more satisfying (and exhausting), you have something in your hands and you can be creative... Therefore the printzine. I don't know how much longer the ezine will exist in that form. Or if there will ever be an issue #3 for that matter...


How did you go about producing the compilation The Sun Never Sets? Was it difficult?

No, I wouldn't say it was too difficult and if we can manage it everybody can. At first we only had the idea to promote some bands from South America here in Germany. My friend Henning, with whom I started the zine, speaks spanish pretty good, so that was one reason why we chose South America. So, we had the idea, then we checked if it is possible for us to finance it and then we did a couple of days of "myspace research". We contacted the bands and especially the South American ones were very enthusiastic. So, it took a while to get all the music together but we managed that and we pressed the CDs. Actually it wasn't that hard to make the sampler but I doubt that I would want to do that again. Not in that format. And you have to be better organised when it comes to distribution than we were.

tobi

www.thelightbetween.com

Indonesia - Bogor

Before I talk about the Indonesian HxC scene, first of all let me talk about my local scene, bcoz the Indonesian HXC scene is huge and hard to explain ;p

Here I'm living in a small town called Bogor, but, bcoz it's always rainy, we have got a nickname "raincity" ^_^ it's only 1-2hours from Jakarta by car/train/bus. Even the scene here is smaller than Jakarta but the positive thing is we can know each other closer, and it's not only hxc music, but for all of the DIY music scene.

Nowadays I think hxc scene in Bogor is getting bigger, seeing as there are a bunch of new potential HxC bands rising. They play so powerfully and are ready to release their EPs or full lengths about now. And bcoz we're living in a so-called small scene, it's the reason why we can keep in touch, helping each other to make DIY shows...

There have been lots of worldwide DIY HxC bands that have to come to our city, like Everybody's Enemy (Japan), Meaning (Japan), Punishable Act (Germany), Channel X RIP (Malaysia), Kids On the Move (Malaysia), Pazahora (Sing), Steve Towson (Aus) and many more..or maybe other bands wanna make part of their tour here? Just contact me! ;)

It's not only music we have, sometimes we do lil' things other than just music, like making a DIY movie show. We are watching movies together at the weekend every 1-2 months, not only hxc movie, but a bunch of genre movies that, after we have watched them, we can discuss together.

Other things that we sometimes do are Garage sales, Earthday movement - such as spreading leaflets, pamphlets about positive movement to save the earth, from our own personal campaigns to Food Not Bombs, and many more...
We have had a big response about that, some positive, some negative but I think that's normal. We live with a lot of argument around, but we know what is the best we can do, right? ;)


For more info about indonesian HxC/Punk scene, you can visit:

SUPERSOUL
*this blog made by me, it's for Indonesian hxc/punk/indie music downloadble



WE ARE BOGORIAN
*another blog about the Bogor scene that is made by my friends


United Blood
*hxc webzine from Jakarta, Indonesian capital city


In Our Hands
*hxc webzine from Malang, a small town far from Bogor/Jakarta, but has a big hxc/punk scene

Jogja Berdikari
*Yogyakarta (a big city with big hxc punk scene) hxc punk music downloadble

Soon, in March the One Voice Asia tour will be in Bogor, it's not a band but its like a hardcore family around the world that is based in Asia, the founder of One Voice Asia, Anis is gonna celebrate his birthday in Bogor...maybe we can write a report then ;)

One Voice Asia

You can contact with them to get some scene reports from Singapore, Malaysia, Philiphines, Thailand, and more ;)

Regards!

Titan Scroat


If you wanna download my band's songs check this out:

JavaxMacha - 4 waysplit indonesia-japan

Revolt - promotape 2000

revolt - mosh!mosh!mosh! we're only young once (unreleased)

Finland 1

Here the scene is quite big and organised. There are many gigs in the capital city Helsinki. But there are also lots of gigs in Lappeenranta, Jyväskylä, Lahti and Tampere.

Notable bands from Finland:

Breamgod (Pori)
"metal influenced moshable brutality"

Another One Dead (Lapeenranta)
"influences are old and new hardcore alike, one that you can't avoid hearing is metal."

Worth The Pain (Lapeenranta/Helsinki)

Down My Throat RIP

Security Threat RIP

Abduktio (Tampere)
Punk/indie sound "a bit like the self-titled album by Metallica, except that the music is good."

Bolt

Cutdown (Helsinki)

Endstand RIP (Riihimaki)

Eye For All (Helsinki)

No Heroes (Lapeenranta)

No One Is Safe

None Would Remain (Lapeenranta)

On A Solid Rock RIP (Jvaskyla)


And many more..

A few huge bands have visited small venues in Lappeenranta and Helsinki and many other places.

For example Have Heart did a gig at Helsinki and Lappeenranta. Blacklisted were at Semifinal. Madball & Comeback Kid at Nosturi (venues in Helsinki).

Chile

The scene is fine, there are about twenty local bands playing constantly. A few labels, still fanzines... but not so many people... Santiago is the capital of Chile, there are about 10 million people living here.. and, in the local shows there are about 200 people.

There are regular shows... maybe once a week... and 3 or 4 hardcore bands from USA especially playing here... I went to local shows 4 or 5 years ago, but actually not now, because I like punk music more... but in the last few years I have seen bands like Bane or Have Heart... and they played with cool local bands.

Entrefuego is one of the most important bands here... and oldschool bands like Fuerza de Voluntad.

There are so many local bands playing and singing in English, and our language is "spanish"... so, i think that we are totally influenced by North American bands. There are a lot of bands releasing material... do it yourself bands... they don't have much money for sure...they just do it for love of their music and hardcore.

Amendment Records


Deadline Records

See ya!
Matias

US - Oxnard & Ventura County

The biggest band outta here is The Warriors.

We still have some bands keeping it going strong. Here are some links:

Retaliate

Vendetta

Crucial

Cadence

We have a local hardcore scene, we like to call nard core (oxNARD hard CORE). The first two bands still rep this hard.

Older bands that started this were:

Ill Repute

Dr. Know

Agression

Stalag 13

Just a month ago one of Oxnard's best or favorite hardcore band had a reunion show which was really awesome. Everyone had a good time and it was in my opinion the best local show in a very long time.
This band is called In Control
Gig photos



The show was mainly all Oxnard bands with the exception of Downpresser (from Santa Barbara which is about 30 mins from Oxnard and in the Ventura County area) and Take Offense (from San Diego).


Angel