Tuesday 30 November 2010

Poland - Trójmiasto

Poland - North 1
Poland - North 2

I'm from Gdansk in northern Poland, it's the part of area called Trójmiasto (Tricity - because it consists of 3 cities that are nearby each other: Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot).

But the scene is not that big at all. It's still underground and the audience at the shows is generally always the same, from 50-120 people.

We have 2 main venues which are Anawa pub for small shows and Ucho which is much bigger, it has been used for festivals and other bigger events. We have an annual DIY hc/punk fest in this venue every July.


At the beginning of the year we decided to make a place for shows and we've transformed an old garage into nice place but it has only held 2 shows in January and February this year.

You can see the photos from it at the myspace of (I think) the best known local band Calm The Fire.

The other band worth mentioning is Strong So Far!


There are also some other bands from this area but not all are still playing. Check these…

Filth of Mankind

No Reason Why


One Foot Japan

There are also at least 2 new bands coming, one newschool hc band and the other is my band, we are about to record a demo tape after the new year.
We have here, I think, one of the biggest straight edge communities in Poland and a big crew of kids that travel the whole country for shows, just like the Boston crew used to do in the 80s :D

Monday 29 November 2010

Photography - BMHC


"I first got into photography, specifically live music photography after a trip to England (This is when I was still living in England) about four years ago. I had a little spare cash towards the end of the trip and my Dad, who teaches photography, suggested I buy myself a camera. So I did. At this point I had been going to hardcore shows for a while but was still a kinda fresh face so to speak. I thought 'why not start bring my camera to shows' and possibly give something back to this music community I was becoming a part of. And so I created BMHC Photography.

Lots of people ask what 'BMHC' stands for, in short I came from a town called Blue Mountains in N.S.W (AUS), so it stands for Blue Mountains HardCore. Blue Mountains was a smallish town outside of Sydney, BMHC was also the name me and a few of my close friends called ourselves, as we always banded together to take the long train trips into Sydney to go to shows every weekend. Since then BMHC has kinda died out but the name has stuck.


While In Aus I developed a kinda of name for myself, shooting hardcore bands nearly every weekend and seeing my images used on bands merch and on show fliers which gave me more drive to pursue this passion. As time went on I made some good friends, went on a couple of tours around AUS and had some amazing opportunities outside of shows as well, such as shooting the Sydney Tattoo and Body Art convention 2009.

Later that year I moved to England, a totally new environment for me, and I was forced to start from scratch and again try make some kind of name for myself. Since then thanks to the hardcore music scene, I have been welcomed into the U.K scene, made many friends and seen so many amazing bands and taken some of my best pictures yet, all within the space of a year it blows my mind. The hardcore scene has given me so many opportunities and made me so many friends no matter where I go in the world. Despite there being some egotistical and big headed, small minded people in the scene it is still something I have a lot of love for and will always play a majorly part of my life.


Future-wise I strive to keep experimenting and learning new techniques to improve my photography. I'm going to start to put my head down and try to make some kind of career out of this passion. I'm going to keep going to shows and contributing to the scene through providing images for bands as well as zines and magazines as I do now, (Check out A Short Fanzine About Rocking).

I've recently made a website where I put some of my better work, you also can follow my blog which is more up to date with what I'm doing or check out most of my photos from the last few years on my flickr."

Austria

I am from Linz, last year’s european capital for culture. There are some great concerts put on by ann and pat.


I think Vienna is the big area for hardcore music. Every week some great bands perform their shows. Check out shows in the Arena Wien or Shelter

Austria has only 8 million people, so I think there aren't enough hc kids outside of Vienna. Another aspect is that straight edge isn't common in Austria.

Here are some hc bands from Austria (but they are very underground :D)

anchors X up


Worlds Between Us RIP


Nautilus


Alpha & Omega

K.A.I.N.


Nothing Gold Can Stay



I also think there are too many metal fans here so the hc scene doesn’t have space to get bigger.

Saturday 27 November 2010

UK - Leeds Zine Fair


"The first ever Leeds Zine Fair (that we know of) brought together hundreds of people from Leeds and all around the country in a celebration of self publishing, resistance cooperation and all things DIY.

The day was buzzing as people met, browsed, found new zines and shared ideas and enthusiasm for projects ranging from the profoundly political to the patently puerile and the queer and quirky. There were over 40 stalls with individual zine stalls, zine distros, handmade crafts, campaigns and radical collectives, art, vegan cake and veggie burgers, anarchist books and a record player playing aural oddities from the Black Dogs art collective.

At the zine reading we were moved to tears by stories from protest camp evictions (Scale Trees Distro) and people suffering from homophobic abuse in prison (Bent Bars). We laughed at theories on the influence of facial hair on revolutionary thinkers (Godhaven Ink) and Venn diagrams describing the optimum pub quiz team (The Venns), and gasped in horror at the tales of severed hands sticking out of the rubble on a building site on Burley Road (Necronomicon).

Workshops took place throughout the day. Talky workshops discussing setting up workers cooperatives, guerilla gardening, and taking direct action, and practical workshops putting together a zine-in-a-day and making collaborative comics. Dissident Island went around the event and interviewed stall holders about their projects. You can check out the interviews with Footprint, On’t Road, Urban Harvest, Wor Diary, Bent Bars, Last Hours and the Print Project.

Thanks to all the workshop leaders, stall holders, volunteers, caterers, cake bakers, zine readers and people who came along for making the event such an inspiring day and to Leeds University Union and Green Action for hosting the event.

The event was inspired as a celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Footprint Workers Coop and it was really motivating to all of us, ten years on, to see all of the amazing projects and people that we work with meeting and sharing ideas and inspiration.

Thank you all."

source: Footprint Worker's Co-operative

Reblogged from ..crucified freedom..

Hungary - North West

I live on the north-west side of Hungary in Csorna, a small town close to Győr.

Győr is the 5th biggest city in our country (I think) but the scene is very small. Every week there is a show in our local pub, Red Rocket Underground and other promoters do gigs in an another pub, Rómer Ház. These clubs are home to other underground projects too, like hiphop shows, electro etc…

This area has more cities too - Csorna, Mosonmagyaróvár, Győr and Komárom.

The bands that represent the area the best are:

watchMybag - hardcore punk guys


Rosa Parks - awesome post-rock from Győr


Dealer Bt. - five anti-social punk guys from Mosonmagyaróvár who do a pissed off drunk punkrock


Gyalázat - crust grind attack from Győr


Do You Think I Care - unholy d-beat attack from Győr


Holy Man's Glory - math rock from the members of Kevés from Győr and Komárom


Mind Your Step - fuckin fastcore bastards without control from Savaria and Csorna


Suicide Pride - raw newschool with hopeless lyrics


Youth Violence - veg anarchist fast hardcore from Savaria and Csorna.


Grow Up Fuck It Up - fast and angry thrashcore


Thirty Second Trend - members of GUFIU and Gyalázat, unholy punkhardcore and there are many more fuckin' great bands. Check this bands top friends!!! :)


Győr has one DIY label called Pizza Days Records. It's my little label, I can promote my bands, and I can help my friends with promotion and releasing.


Path We Tread is a zine done by the drummer of GUFIU - interviews with Hungarian bands


Harc Áldozatok Nélkül (Fight Without Victims) - a zine for the people who care for animal liberation


Street News is a great zine about the real skinhead culture and has some interviews with ska, rocksteady and reggae bands.

Hope the blog goes well in the future. Keep this shit alive!!

D

Sunday 21 November 2010

Germany - Hamburg

I am from Hamburg and there is a punk and hc scene but it's not so pronounced as in other parts of Germany!


The concerts take place in the Rote Flora or in the Hafenklang but not many go there, it depends on the band who plays!


One band who stands for Hamburg is Just Went Black.


One blog that I know is Our Turn Concerts. They arrange most concerts in the Rote Flora.


hc is an important thing for me. I connect it with sxe and being vegetarian/vegan! But here in this town there are not so many hc people but some times I like it because in some cities or parts of Germany it's too big and people call themselves hc but they don't know anything about the roots of hc that makes me sad!


On Thursday Youth Brigade are playing in the Hafenklang. Not many people know this band! That's a little bit sad but I will go there and support them! :)

Peace

Tuesday 16 November 2010

Label - Last Warning Records



Straight from Lublin Last Warning is a old school hardcore label created with a lot of heart, faith and courage to support our local scene. Basic idea is not to do much, but with a good quality that gives you the essence of hardcore. Polish Hardcore. Music, Friends and Fun! Bringing back the glory from the old days to your ears.

...this is just the beginning!


In 2010 Heritage released their demo tape on Last Warning Records with a new master that you can download for free on their myspace.

Heritage was a project but 3 of them wanted to start something that is old school hardcore band with long term prospects. So with a new vocalist from Świdnik hell Johann and an old bastard that came back to Lublin Igor they created what you can hear on their myspace. They mixed inspiration from Cro-Mags, Integrity and Ringwom to release a demo tape in 2010 on Last Warning Records. Check them out!

Desperate Times

All Artwork by Dziki (thanks!)

Live from debut at Rzeszów 1/2/3/4/5

Posi peace yo!

Poland 5

Poland 4

This is really awesome idea to reach people over the world and put info about their local scenes in one place.
If I find some time I will send you more bands/labels/places etc :)

For starters here are few good bands:

Drip of Lies


All Day Hell


Panacea


Pain Runs Deep


Heritage


Wszaniek

Monday 15 November 2010

Poland 4

Poland 3

There's a topic on the polish hc message board about polish bands on myspace so you can check it...

This blog with videos from shows in Poland is made by a polish guy: After the Storm


And these guys take awesome pictures :)

Keep This Moment


ALLXAGES


Miesko Chmielarski


Unfortunately it's hard to find something about polish hc in english!

Sunday 14 November 2010

Poland - South


Wroclaw/Wroclaw 2/Silesia

I'm living between Wroclaw and Bielsko-Biala so here you have some good bands from my region:

Identity/We Are Idols/Eye For An Eye/Infekcja/Dead Yuppies/Creeping Corrupt/Hell is Heaven/Guantanamo Party Program

Here's some labels:

In Our Hands Records

Zaraza Productions


Drop Out


NIC


These guys are doing shows:

PMA Booking


Hardcore Shows Bielsko-Biala


Coreporation


And there is a place called Centrum Reanimacji Kultury (in English it would be Culture Resuscitation Center or something like this). It used to be a squat but now it's already legal I think. A lot of shows are there and guys from there make a lot of other activities.



I saw that you have mentioned Daymares :) Iron to Gold is the new straight edge band with Pat from Daymares on voc.