Monday 31 May 2010

Festival - Noc Walpurgii, Warsaw



"Noc Walpurgii festival started in 1996 in Warsaw, Poland and is organized every two years.

It's a pioneering event in Poland taking struggle against sexism and homophobia and promoting girl-fronted bands and activities.

These issues are often not taken seriously inside of the punk, DIY or antifascist scenes and we felt the importance to show that most forms of discrimination like racism, sexism, homophobia are linked and that fighting against these forms of oppression is basic for antifascist, leftist, anarchist and hardcore/punk movements.


As a pro-feminist and pro-women festival, we support anarchist-feminist activities as well as other forms of feminist and anti-patriarchal struggle. We were also supportive to any kind of all female and female fronted punk and hardcore bands, as it was clear back then that local scenes used to have small amount of women involved. It was even worse with openly queer, gay or lesbian participants in DIY culture. We worked with queer, lesbian and gay activists, spoken word artists, drag queens, drag kings, djnes and other activists.

The event achieved its goals as it became an attractive mixed crowd of females and males, queers, lesbian, gays or straights, punks, HC or others who wanted to be a part of it. Its impressing feeling is to see so many different people having fun on the dance floor or during the shows. We respect the need for self-organization and need for space for all those discriminated or oppressed, but the festival idea is not to create a separated place fot just one certain type of people. Noc Walpurgii is more about connecting each other and building fundamental structures for strong and diverse DIY culture - free from any kind of discrimination and prejudice.


It's open to anyone interested in supporting the issues of the festival; bands or artists. It's important to us to connect people to each other, to speak about matters that are political or personal.

We felt the importance to make events friendly so that everyone is involved, to have fun and feel welcome in a safe environment so we're standing in opposition to all kinds of violence at the shows, violent dancing or macho behaviour. It was important to us all to see more women taking up the space or having fun during the shows.

Throughout the years the festival became one of the most important events in Poland related with DIY underground hc/punk scene. Each festival there is around 400-1000 visitors.

Every time there is more and more visitors from other countries, foreign bands or artists.

Noc Walpurgii its now the oldest DIY orientated hardcore/punk festival in Poland.


Throughout the years many international bands/artists were guest at the festival like LYNNE BREEDLOVE (TRIBE 8), HARUM-SCARUM, RE-SISTERS, ACTIVE MINDS, INNER TERRESTRIALS, SCATTERGUN, DAISY CHAIN, BEYOND PINK, GREG BENNICK (TRIAL), HIGHSCORE, THE TANGLED LINES, SHORT FUSE, LORENA, THE BOBBITS, DE FATWAS, LADY! DIE, OIL, AMANDA WOODWARD, AGATHA, USAISAMONSTER, LIFE CYCLE, DIASPORA, N.K.D. , DEATH BEFORE WORK, CINDER, VICIOUS IRENE and more.

Also we were honoured to have at the fest many great local bands at the fest like POST REGIMENT, HOMOMILITIA, GUERNICA Y LUNO, ZLODZIEJE ROWEROW, SANCTUS IUDA, EYE FOR AN EYE, EL BANDA, REGRES, EXMISJA, DULDUNG, SILIKONFEST, WHITE RABBIT and many others.

We had always lots of non-musical activities during the fest like workshops, performance, exhibitions, spoken word, Drag Kings, Drag Queens, DJ'anes, movies or demonstrations (Take back the night, Gay Pride) with people from Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, UK, USA, Argentina involved.

Noc Walpurgii since the beginning was organized by Emancypunx Records (who remained from anarcho-feminist collectives KDP and Emancypunx) and Refuse Records.

Our goal was that Noc Walpurgii would me more than annual festival but an event who can give inspiration for new projects, bands and activities with girls and/or queers involved, but also any kind forms of DIY activism."

Some pics from this year's fest...

Zine - Crucified Freedom


"The idea of starting Crucified Freedom was born as consequence of my strong desire to do something more or less creative..

At first I was very skeptical about all this internet thing (you know, I'm a part of this generation of hand written letters and ordering stuff from distros, listening to records on tapes and so on..) but then I realized that the internet can be used very well so you may consider this blog like some kind of web fanzine..

There are some interviews published with bands that I like, also some gig reports and some news connected with diy underground scene and everything related to it..

The reason why I'm doing it? There isn't any special reason, just my good will and strong wish to share anything with people from all around the globe.. at first it was just for my own pleasure but when I realized that people actually read it and comment on stuff that I post, it all gets to another, bigger dimension..

At the beginning (some 9 months ago) there was plan to do a paper 'zine when material was collected for the blog, but because of my lack of free time all that exists is this online form..

If anyone who is doing a paper 'zine would like to use some materials from this blog just let me know and we will work something out 'cause I think it's a shame that all the material exists only in online form.. also if someone wants to contribute somehow please feel free to write at crufreedom@gmail.com."


..crucified freedom..

Saturday 29 May 2010

Festival - Monte Paradiso, Pula, Croatia



Reposted from ..crucified freedom..

"Monte Paradiso is legendary festival going on for 18 years already.. every year there are represented great bands from various genres of hardcore punk music, so that's probably the main reason to big number of visitors from all over Europe and world, as well.. here is the line up for this year.."

Chilles kids

Brivido

One Step Away

Corrosive

Minkions

Debeli Precjednik

Visions Of War

S.M.C.

Scuffy Dogs

Declaration

Socijalna Služba

Children Of Technology

Citizens Patrol

Unutrasnja Emigracija

Uncurbed

Brat Pack

Social Chaos

Fakofbolan

Festival - Balkanika Core meets Krastival, Komen, Slovenia



Reposted from ..crucified freedom..

Due some problems with the police in Kranj at Balkanika Core festival at first 2 years this festival is connecting with Krastival festival in Komen.. those two are d.i.y. festivals represented already traditionally great crust and hardcore punk bands from all over Europe and fckn' worldwide..

PATARENI -Croatia

FILTH OF MANKIND -Poland

SOTATILA -Finland/Austria

UNCURBED-Sweden

RIISTETYT -Finland

BLOODY PHOENIX -U.S.A.

KLINIKA -Poland

CZOSNEK -Poland

ARGIES -Argentina

O.S.D.S. -Italy

DICKLESS TRACY -Slovenia

ANAEROBA -Slovenia

BAKA YARO -Slovenia

HOMO HOMINI LUPUS -Croatia

Wednesday 26 May 2010

Ukraine 2



Ukraine 1

Here is a brief overview of most popular bands from Ukraine.

Humble Opinion RIP
One of the first and most popular Ukrainian hc bands. Played melodic hc. Kiev city hardcore.
Released demo. Most of the members still play hc in different bands mentioned below.

Feelings Betrayed
First Ukrainian straight edge band, from Odessa. No myspace and recordings. At the moment members of FB play in Still, Aspire, Gorgona, Leviathan.

Bread’n’Battery RIP
Youth crew from Odessa. Members of Feelings Betrayed. Released demo. All members, except vocal, later played in Still and Clearsight.

Still
Mouthpiece, Judge and Release influenced straight edge band from Odessa. Released demo and is preparing to record an album this summer.

Clearsight RIP
Youth crew from Kiev and Odessa. Released demo on CD and tapes on I Drink Milk from Hungary. Died last year.

Aspire
Maybe the first 90-s new school band in Ukraine. Vegan straight edge message. Members of FB, B’n’B, Still. Influenced mostly by Outspoken. Released EP on Self X True records from Moscow. xStuck In The Pastx made a post about this band.



xDeviantx RIP
Straight edge tough guys from Kiev. Influenced by xTyrantx, Hatebreed, Terror. Released album. Died last year.

Time of Defeats
Metallic hc. Members of Deviant. Recently released album on Incarnate records from Petersburg.


Gorgona
Members of B’n’B. Holly terror-styled metallic hc from Odessa and Kiev.



Leviathan
Quite young band. Members of Gorgona, xDeviantx and B’n’B. Metallic hc from Odessa.

Hell FM
Modern melodic hc from Kiev. Recently released album on Carpathian records.



Undercurrents RIP
Emo pop punk from members of Clearsight, Humble Opinion. Released album several months ago and died.

Woundead
Members of Humble Opinion. Metal-hardcore, influenced by Metallica, Cro-Mags and other.

Monday 24 May 2010

Italy - North sXe


In the city I live in, Milano, the scene is rich of bands.
Among the most recent and most prolific projects in the city is Milano Hardcore Crew, a group of people who driven by a common passion for hardcore, have joined together with the objective and hope of helping the city’s scene to go back to its former glory which sadly in recent years has been gradually declining. Very often they organise shows or help in whatever way they can, giving the chance to both local and international bands to play in the city.



A lot of us are Straight Edge and have been for either a long time or only a few years, and it’s a positive thing as it’s a choice that we share and that brings us together, besides the fact that it makes for a better atmosphere at shows. Sadly, however, the number of Straight Edge bands which promote such a message have drastically declined: right now, in all of Northern Italy, there are only a handful of bands left among which newer bands such as,

Set Me Free (my band)



and Inner X Reason, from Vicenza.



However, we must not forget about other bands in which Straight Edge kids play who have recently released new records

Fumbles In Life - Everyday You Can Improve


True Spirit - True Spirit


Traces Of You - The Last Triumph


Breaking Apart

One of the most important labels, created with the objective of helping this scene that has existed for more than 10 years, is Youth Crew Records.


Indeed, one of the most recent releases is Fumbles In Lifes’s MCD, Milan’s own old glory Maze’s (who have been active since 1987) new album or Inner X Reason’s and Set Me Free’s new records, the latter of which has been produced by a collaboration between Youth Crew Records and Vraja Records together with Best Of Times Tattoo, a brand new shop owned by our drummer which specialises in traditional old school ink.

Sunday 23 May 2010

Zine - New Directions


New Directions is an italian Straight Edge Youth Crew webzine dedicated to the drug free Hardcore movement.

We want to share our love for this music, attitude and lifestyle, giving our best attentions to the younger side of the world's scene and to the rising new sxe bands in each corner of the planet. Our webzine will pick up interviews, reviews and articles linked to the scene.

This project started in April 2010, and we hope that it'll continue for a long time.

XXX

Gianluca, Bob

Wednesday 19 May 2010

Italy - Toscana

In Toscana as in the rest of Italy in the 80's a lot of hardcore bands were born. The most important were:

Auf’schlag (Viareggio)

Wardogs (Lucca)



Holocaust (La Spezia)


Senza Sterzo (Pisa)


CCM


and together they formed the so-called "Granducato hardcore".


Unfortunately I didn't experience these years because I was born in '83 but I know these bands by old vinyls and re-recording cd's found in various flea markets and by the stories of older "kids".

Today these bands do not play anymore but the "scene" is not dead.

The scene of Toscana today isn't as big as Lombardia's or Lazio's, but there are some people with attitude who want to do something concrete. Especially in the main town, Florence, there are some squats and often they organize some hc shows.

Nowadays, these are some bands playing:

Alfatec (Firenze)


Carlos Dunga (Firenze)


Watch Your Step (Firenze)


Disease (Prato)


PxRxMx (Prato/Siena/Grosseto) - this is my band


Since 2004 I've written a 'zine, called PO-GO. This year I hope to press the number 10.


With my friends Chiara and Christian I "manage" a little diy label called Beggar God Records.

Tuesday 18 May 2010

UK - Devon


The scene is Devon is comparitively small, only in recent times have there been more hardcore shows that are not just big u.s touring bands. I started promoting in 2004 mainly doing punk shows then and since 2006 have worked with bands of all genres.

The mentality of people in this part of the country is very small minded and simple, therefore hardcore ideas and having your own mind would be too much for people to understand. I promote shows all across Devon, currently mainly using Exeter Cavern and various other venues if a show suits. I still look to bring u.s bands to the area as well as the venues themselves tending to put on in-house, as it keeps hardcore kids interested.

It is difficult to put on upcoming uk bands who deserve to be seen, but with a lack of local bands it is only alldayers and sometimes support slots that they can be given exposure.

There is a new hxc promo comp in plymouth that seems to be doing a lot of good work by running underground uk bands on already busy free entry weekend nights, giving exposure.

As for zines etc, there arent any! Some guys who work in The Cavern I think have put out zines a few years ago , but they were more punk/alt based.

With the lack of local bands I cannot say any one band represents the area in hardcore.
However, thankfully we now have some new bands who are playing shows, and give me hope we can make a better scene by having the bands getting more people out to shows.


For example, I recently had This Is Hell and More Than Life in Exeter and had to have metal bands supporting, because I know and trust these bands can bring people to shows who are into hardcore. For anyone reading this from the southwest, please come out and support local shows... we have Sworn Enemy + TRC / Ruiner + Carpathian / and 50 Lions + Gravemaker shows all coming up in Exeter.

Glen Poyner
Torch The House Promotions
torch_the_house@hotmail.com

Osmium


Depths

Sunday 16 May 2010

Czech Republic - Brno (Part 4)

As I spoke about some alternative spaces, the situation got slightly better in the last year. JOLANDA was a sort of tiny bar/club ran by a group of students mostly from Slovakia who rented a house for living, which also had a former bar in the ground floor. Except for some acoustic shows there used to take place various thematic evenings, discussions, projections, parties, they planned to open a small info shop there. After a year they had to shut the place down due to a high rent they had to pay, but it seems some new people took over in spite of the money troubles and are going on in a similar vein.


Last spring two older punks/activists from Brno opened a vegan/vegetarian restaurant called VEGALITE where you can get vegan menus and other veggie food during the day. With the evening it turns into a wild bar with projections, discussions, parties, small DIY concerts. Very nice place to go!


But still, this town misses a real DIY space that anyone could get involved with and take an active part in its running. Since summer 2008 a collective of people from various ‘corners’ of the local DIY scene has tried to find some suitable place where they could start this centre. They got a possibility to use a part of an old factory, were negotiating with the owner and getting prepared. At the moment it seems to have gotten to some kind of a standstill. Let’s see what happens with DIY FLEK in the near future. You can get in touch through diyflek@email.cz.


And last, but not least, Martino from MAD PIGS has opened a brand new shop in Brno at the beginning of this year. It’s called Voltage Shop and apart from selling music, fanzines and clothes, it should also become a sort of a punx meeting point and info-centre. They also have an e-shop if you wanted to order something. That’s quite cool, cause Lumber’s shop, an older shop in Brno where I used to come and meet people and get great tapes and zines some 9 years ago, has turned into a boring emo-gothic-metal-punkrock boutique.


Fanzines... there are not many of them here and they are mostly written in Czech, so you won’t probably be lucky to read anything... But still… A fixed star is “Hluboka Orba”, made by Filip of SEE YOU IN HELL – after 16 years (since 1993!) It is rather a book than a fanzine – completely excellent reading. 27th issue just came out. Filip also wrote a book mapping out Czechoslovakian punk/hardcore before 1989. It contents also many photos, an exhaustive list of all known recordings and also an English summary.

Miruus (kiljusystem@seznam.cz, FESTA and RISPOSTA bass player) has his cool fanzine called “Smrt” – third issue came out as a split zine with “ZLO” written by Kuba of MASS GENOCIDE PROCESS. Raw/punk/hardcore/crust... interviews, reviews, reports from gigs... cool cut’n’paste graphics and especially a great style of writing – very clever, but also ironic, funny, sarcastic. I love it!

“Spalena ramena” (‘Burnt shoulders’) is a punk/HC zine done by a Hungarian guy who lives in Brno. His name is Erik and he’s also been publishing a rather metal/grind zine called “Shrunken and mumified”. His new zine is written in English and is really interesting. Contact him at shrunky@freemail.hu.


My fanzine is called “Drunk nach osten!!!” and it’s 100% concerned about East European diy punk/hc. The zero issue was only in Czech, just a long report from the travels of my friend and me around the south-eastern Europe, about meeting punks, going to shows, squats etc… The first regular issue has two language versions – Czech and English one. There are some interviews (DISTRESS/KOMATOZ, FxPxOx/THIS HOME IS PREPARED, ADIEKSODO, reviews, tour reports, lots of lyrics etc…). I’m just finishing the English version of the second issue (you will find it in pdf at http://dno.maskcontrol.com) and I’m more than interested in anyone who gets in touch, shares info about their local scene, helps with distribution (trades are welcome!).


Out of the labels/distros, the biggest one is without any doubt Ultima Ratio which is run by Mirek (SCARTO, KORUBO). He’s released many good and really well-done tapes and vinyls, and has cool records in his distro. The shame is, that he releases most recordings with huge delays... or finally not at all. Lots of (for me usually boring, but sometimes also good) punkrock is being released by Papagajuv Hlasatel Records (www.phr.cz) a full-time “professional” distribution, but still with a nice attitude. Then there’s Hluboka Orba recs.– Filip’s small label releasing only in cooperation with other labels. I’m copying and distributing some zines and stuff that I trade, but there’s not much of it, really. However, if you want to trade something for my zine or whatever, get in touch!


In summer 2008 a compilation LP called “Spalte Brno na prach” (Burn Brno to ashes) was released. It contains 27 unreleased songs from 12 bands from our town: EVIDENCE SMRTI, SEE YOU IN HELL, MAC GYVER, AGE OF DEATH, THE LOUDEST SILENCE NEVER HEARD, FESTA DESPERATO, MAD PIGS, RISPOSTA, PRIPYAT, CORE BASTARDS, REAKCE NA ZMENU and ZEMEZLUC. It contains a huge booklet with info about the bands, local gig organizers, fanzines political activities etc. It was co-released in cooperation of the bands and 14 labels, search for it on the net, someone should have it! Plans are slowly being made for a second number of this compilation.

Some anarcho/eco/animal rights/antifa/etc activities seem to be quite low here at the moment or at least not very obvious. But maybe I’m just not paying enough interest. Food Not Bombs grew up to four more or less independent groups who give away free vegan food every weekend, also NESEHNUTI is still working – local grassroots organization, founded by some local anarchists/punks in the late 90’s, nowadays unfortunately less radical, but still somewhat cool. It is concerned with stuff like human/animal rights, refugees, environment, feminism...


Every year there’s a kind of an outdoor protest movement meeting/street party called “Protestfest”.


The collective around this also organises some other actions during the year. A new small group of animal rights activist appeared, organising protests against fur shops, Christmas fish-eating tradition, etc., organising discussions and projections, publishing flyers…


Talking about the nazi scum… while the situation in the past few years was pretty peaceful here in Brno, it seems to be changing right now. Influenced by their fellows from Germany the Czech nazis have generally adopted the image of what they call “autonomous nationalism”, widely using the tactics of the autonomous/left/anarchist movement. In autumn 2008 a nazi demonstration that was aimed against the local Gypsy community took place in a small Czech town of Litvinov. It ended up in big riots, the cops trying not to let the nazis enter the Gypsy neighbourhood, Gypsies in the streets ready to protect their homes and families from a pogrom, many local people demonstrating alongside with the nazis. To draw a parallel, I’d say that this demo was something like the battle of Seattle for the Czech nazis. Now they seem to have got the feeling of having the power to do “something”. With the upcoming crisis some people in Czech began more hardcore in their attitudes towards Gypsies and immigrants. There is even an official NS political party trying to get into the parliament. In Brno there have also been some attacks by nazis in the last year (one alternative/hippie bar was attacked, some people were beaten on the street, a homemade smoke bomb was thrown to a show in Vegalite that had a Good Night White Pride logo on the poster).

On the other hand, the state is starting to panic and cops are making crazy doubtful raids against Czech nazis, jailing them for nonsense and trying to suppress them with power (= I’m not crying for the nazis, but if cops do this to them, it’s just a question of time, when they do that to anyone else…). Let’s see how this all turns out in the following months.

OK, I hope I didin’t forget anything that was worth mentioning...

Cheers!!!