We’ve made a Spotify playlist of all the best punk rock bands we’ve seen live this year, just for you. Want to discover your new favourite band, or relive the best music festivals of 2019? Look no further.
Live music is the best barometer for new bands. No matter your budget, it’s impossible to capture the energy of a good gig on vinyl. Watching a band live is the fastest way to fall in love with them.
Writing in August, I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy a plenty of punk gigs and festivals already this year. Feisty bands like Not On Tour, The Penske File and Nosebleed have consistently got me dancing. I’ve been impressed by old favourites like The Bronx and Consumed, who haven’t lost their edge. And I’ve caught new acts like Cryptic Street and Daves and had my mind blown.
Here is a Spotify playlist of the best punk rock bands of 2019 so far. Who would be on your list?
A review of MPF from Sarah, who volunteers at the event. Friends, frantic dashes between venues and some top-class hardcore, including Not On Tour, Adrenalized, Svalbard, Consumed, Fair Do’s and Snuff.
Although there will be reviews aplenty, at Shout Louder we want to offer two unique perspectives on the fifth year of Manchester Punk Festival. Mark Bartlett’s given us is highlights as an MPF virgin, where as Sarah Williams is an MPF veteran who volunteers at the festival. In this edition, Sarah gives us a unique perspective from behind the scenes.
Excitement for Manchester Punk Festival begins long before the doors open to the public. Unfortunately, excitement can easily be mistaken for stress.
Weeks before the main event, I’m inundated with messages asking about guest list, accommodation, press accreditation and band recommendations. I’m only a volunteer, I’m not even one of the organisers – I can’t begin to imagine the sheer insanity of their inboxes. How they manage to keep it together in the days leading up to the festival, I will never know.
Thursday
The hard graft starts in earnest on Thursday – the eve of the festival. I drive to Moston to join a five car convoy; our best method of transporting all the festival merchandise in the absence of ROPTM’s van. I’m blasting out Ocean Wisdom round the M60 like some boy racer on the way, which is harshly interrupted by a phonecall about a bounced band payment and a confusing artist hotel booking. We get it sorted in seconds, like pros.
Delivering the merchandise is the first time I’ve seen MPF’s brand new venue: The Union. It’s a huge, modern student building fittingly decorated in Manchester’s signature yellow-and-black. I’m shocked to see the size of the main hall. As we climb ladders to hang banners, it starts to look like a ‘real’ festival venue. It’s fucking huge. Continue reading “Gig Review: Behind-The-Scenes at Manchester Punk Festival 2019”
Here are some thoughts about my first ever trip to the Manchester Punk Festival over the long Easter bank holiday weekend.
My first ever MPF can only be described as a completely heartening, life nourishing experience, which was briefly prodded by the occasional anxious freak out.
By the time the weekend was done, my notions of what punk is or isn’t was challenged by the massive breadth of genre variety on offer. Ultimately, I felt that the living spirit of punk rock is the ethos, outlook, morality and community of the few thousand individuals who make this annual pilgrimage.
Incisions @ Gorilla. Photo: Josh Sumner
I fully expected to feel awkward a lot of the time. I’m a real loud mouth once I get to know a person properly, but alone I’m very shy around strangers, and that’s further exacerbated when I’m around people who I think are talented (no shortage of that here). I naturally assume that people dislike me and in groups I always feel very visible and awkward. It’s a behaviour I have to work quite hard to deprogram myself of.
If I’d had somebody to go with, I would have loved to have come to any previous MPF, but the general feeling of being lonesome and weird was insurmountable. Last year, I felt the pangs of jealously having heard about all the fun everybody had, and I was resolved to go no matter what, come rain or shine. Luckily for all of us, the weather was completely glorious and, even as a solo traveller, I didn’t feel alone for any significant portion of my weekend. Honestly, I was surprised to find out that so many people I met have so many of the same social hang ups. I enjoyed the weekend from a social perspective every bit as much as what was on offer musically. It’s a brilliant atmosphere and it was great to finally get the chance to meet some long term social media pals in the flesh, as well as catching up with some old friends. Continue reading “Gig Review: A First-Time Experience Of Manchester Punk Festival”
Now that we’ve completed our round-up of 2018 (check out our top albums, EPs, festivals and live bands) it’s time to look ahead of the future.
The DIY punk scene is thriving in Europe currently; it’s feels like we’re on riding the crest of a wave that’s growing into a tsunami. Online connections are enabling us to share recommendations and enthusiasm across continents, so word is spread quickly about exciting new acts.
It’s easy to find new music nowadays, however I’ve believe there are two methods that stand out above the others: watching support acts at gigs and listening to recommendations from your friends. In 2019, I implore you to get out and see as many new bands as possible. To get you started, here are Shout Louder’s top recommendations:
Wolfrik
Canadian thrashers Wolfrik are unlike any other band I’ve heard… although it’s safe to say they’re fans of Alexisonfire, A Wilhelm Scream, Protest The Hero and Belvedere. I’ve been keen to get their EP SkeletonCity into the ears of anyone I can find and, so far, everyone’s been bowled over by their awesome sound.
Fortunately Skeleton City also found its way to the ears of the Manchester Punk Festival promoters, who pretty much instantly added them to the bill. If Wolfrik are as good live as they are on record then they’re going to tear the faces off the whole UK punk scene when they arrive in England in April. Erring on the metal / rock end of the punk scale, they combine a variety of genres, but it’s all fast, raucous fun with a healthy dose of experimentation. Continue reading “7 Punk Rock Bands To Stalk In 2019”
Be the first to hear the raucous new album from Incisions.
Who do you think is going to explode in 2019? Our money’s on Incisions.
It’s refreshing to see a newer hardcore punk band with so much energy and anger. They’ve outgrown their Manchester hometown and they’re primed to kickstart a revolution around the country. That’s why we’re so excited to be the first to share their new album Incisions with you, ahead of its release on TNS Records on December 7th.
There’s still time to grab the album on brilliant white/black splatter vinyl or on CD, direct from TNS Records.
In the meantime, listen up, listen loud and don’t forget to tell your friends.
Incisions are a fresh, no-nonsense, blast of fury from Manchester, who’ve just announced that they’ll be releasing their self-titled debut album via DIY legends TNS Records in December.
Incisions’ QuitNow was one of our Top 5 Releases of 2017 and their new material promises even more exciting things. Seen live, their fast, take-no-prisoners approach captivates audiences. We spoke to vocalist/guitarist Jordan Lloyd to get the latest on their new album and their plans to conquer the scene.
Hey Jordan! How would you sum up Incisions for someone who’s just discovering you?
Hey! We are heavily influenced by all the hardcore bands and Slayer but like to try and bring a bit more melody into the songs. We try to play everything as fast as we can. We recently were told we are ‘the audio equivalent of a brick through a window’. I liked that.
Tell me a bit about how Incisions came to be – how did the band form?
I moved to Manchester a few years ago ’cause I wanted to start a band and there place where me and Steab (guitarist) grew up had no music scene at all. I found a really good drummer. We put an ad out for a bassist and met Mandog. We then met up at the first Manchester Punk Festival and obviously MPF is enough to make anyone want to start a band… we were both pretty overwhelmed by the whole weekend as is the case for everyone that goes, so we were much more serious about what we wanted to do after that.
Our drummer moved back to Spain before we really got going, but Tom joined straight away and then took it up a level. We’d written our first EP after a couple of weeks. Tom left just after we finished recording Quit Now. Stefan has been playing live with us since the second EP.
You’ve undergone some line-up changes since then, too. Give us an update – what’s the line-up looking like now?
Yeah, Archie (a.k.a. Betty Egg) from Clayface is playing bass for us now which is ace cos I love him and he’s pretty easy to influence when I want to go out and get drunk.
Andy is now playing drums for us he plays in Animal Byproducts as well, he’s from Barnsley so none of us can understand a word that he says but he seems friendly.
Stefan is still killing it on his snide Gibson and they all still have to put up with me!
I was completely gripped by the Quit Now EP you released last year, in fact it was in our Top 5 EPs of 2017. How does the album differ to the EP musically?
Yeah, thanks for that. We were really proud of making that list!
I think we started to find our sound when writing the last EP but we had come to terms with it when we wrote the album, so this was a bit more focused in that sense. Someone said it sounds like Minor Threat had been dragged through every bar in Manchester. I think it’s a bit more direct lyrically than the EPs have been and there are more riffs. Continue reading “Incisions: The Sound Of Young, Working-Class Anger [Interview]”
We talk DIY, dogs and new music with Manchester’s tallest promoter.
As DIY giants Manchester Punk Festival have just announced the first installment of their 2019 line-up, we thought it was time for Ian ‘Tree’ Robinson to join us on the podcast.
Tree’s a staple of the Northern punk scene, known for booking regular gigs through the Anarchistic Undertonescollective and tours via AU Tour Booking. He’s got years of experience in DIY bookings, plus a Northern attitude that makes him quite an entertaining guest.
We discuss Manchester Punk Festival’s changes, what he’s learned from 10 years of booking punk shows and some of our current favourite bands and labels. We also talk about Propagandhi. A lot.
P.S. The star of tonight’s show is our cover model, Bernie, who you can follow on Instagram @dci_burnside.
![Incisions: The Sound Of Young, Working-Class Anger [Interview]](https://shoutlouderpunk.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/incisions-cold-front-photography.jpg?w=960)
