Night Birds - Mutiny at Muscle Beach

Things have been a little quiet around the D.C. Sniper Headquarters due to vacations and work and overall laziness, but we're back. Not too long ago we saw an invitation to get an advanced copy of the upcoming Night Birds album and review it. Naturally, we jumped all over that invitation like a fat kid to a candy bar. And boy was that candy bar delicious!

The boys come out with both guns blazing on the opening track "I'm Wired" and transition right into "Life is Not Amusement For Me". Both songs make me want to circle pit around my car at red lights. So. Fucking. Good.



Anyway, after a week of listening to this album I would have to say that "In The Red/In The Black" is probably my favorite song on here, but that was last week. This week my new favorite song is  "Left In The Middle" and I can't get enough of it. I'm a sucker for sing-alongs. Songs like "King Kong" make me wish that I had the lyrics to this album because it sounds silly and great at the same time. Initially "Son of Dad" was a clunker to me, but I've warmed up to it real quick.

Overall this album is all around kick ass and as we've said before, this band seems to do no wrong. Everything from their cover art to their fun videos to their energetic shows and obviously the music, just show how lucky we are to have them around. Losing their drummer and moving on to a new label has not slowed these guys down one bit. They will be playing shows near you all somewhere and if I were you, I'd be going. Quite frankly, I plan on buying them a round or two of beers when I go to see them. - Malvo

D.C.S.

A skatepark at the Kennedy Center? I gotta see this...

From time to time I will go into downtown Washington, D.C. and hit up a museum. You know, so I can look all sophisticated and stuff. This past weekend was no different. Except that I was going to a skate park that was built in front of the Kennedy Center. That's right, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The place where you can see The Book of Mormon and where famous people go to receive a prestigious award. Anyway, I took some photo's and figured I'd share them with you guys and gals out there that are into skate boarding.  

People Watching 

The weather was gloomy and rainy and they weren't letting anybody in to skate or sit on the bleachers. Mind you, the bleachers were about 30 ft away from the action. I fail to see anybody was gonna get hurt way over there. Oh well, no big deal to me, I could wait. However, the little whippersnappers that were there to skate could not stand to wait. This is a little of what I had to suffer through for about 45 minutes.

Young punk #1: This is bullshit man! They won't let us skate or even watch! I don't have all day to wait!
Young punk #2: Man, my mom said that she was gonna pick me up around 3:30 and I won't have much time to skate. These guys suck!
Young punk #3: Why are those old guys allowed to skate and not us?! Look at them, they suck!
Young punk#1: No shit man, look at that dude, he can't even grind the lip for more than 2 ft.
Young punk #3: If they don't open this shit up, I'm just going to sneak in

45 minutes of whining from these little shitheads. I moved away from these kids because I was sick of the bitching, but they somehow managed to follow me around the whole place. Fuck me... Thankfully, the staff opened up the gates and let us all in. After all that bitching these kids better put on a show since they were talking so much shit about the "old guys" in there. And to be fair, they were good. Not great, but good. Not good enough to be saying that these older guys "suck". But that's just my opinion. Anyways, enjoy. - Malvo

D.C.S.

Interview - Connor Donegan

Some time last year we came across a 7" by a local band called Protester and the two of us were blown away. It was crazy good and we wanted to know more about the band since it showed only one person being responsible for it. After a few months of laziness (on our part) we decided to find the man responsible for these crucial jams and ask him a few questions.That man is none other than Connor Donegan. Enjoy the read.

1) Name, age and bands that you're in. 

Yo! My name is Connor, I'm 21 years young, and I make music with Protester, Red Death, Genocide Pact, and Semper Eadem.

2) What attracted you to hardcore? And who is your favorite band?

Punk was the first type of music that really clicked for me as a kid. Before my cousin showed me Green Day, I didn't really have much interest in music aside from liking a few Beatles songs that my mom would listen to. When I heard bands like Green Day, Rancid, Good Charlotte, and NOFX I immediately loved how intense the music was and how it made me feel like a lunatic. I got obsessed and started digging deeper and deeper and got into bands like The Ramones, Dead Kennedys, and The Clash, then eventually stuff like The FUs, Jerry's Kids, Gorilla Biscuits, etc. Green Day has remained my favorite band for 10+ years. No other band has had more of an impact on me, and I love almost every fucking song they've ever written and still listen to them more regularly than almost anything else. 

3) You came onto our radar with the Protester 7" (which rules by the way). Correct us if we're wrong, but you did the recording all on your own. Writing, singing and playing of the instruments. Right? How did that all come about? 

 Yeah, I play everything on the recordings. That whole thing came about because when I started writing the Protester demo I was living in North Carolina and people there arent really as into the X-Claim/early Rev stuff, plus nobody I knew was straight edge and I really wanted Protester to be an edge band. I decided to stick with the one man band recording formula just for simplicity's sake. It was easier to just get everything recorded as fast as possible before I started to hate the songs, ya know?

4) What's your favorite part of touring? And what was the best thing you ate while being on the road? 

I like everything about touring man. Getting to see new places, meeting tons of cool people, eating badass food, and obviously playing sick shows is the kinda shit I love to do. It's hard for me to pick a favorite thing about touring but for me it's probably all the sick food haha. My favorite places I've eaten at on tour are definitely La Reyna in LA, Pappy's BBQ in St. Louis, and Yambo in Miami. All of those spots are fucking ACE.

5) You guys get into any trouble on the road? Trouble with the law, fucking around at stores, houses, rest stops etc...

Haha not really. We're a pretty tame group of punk rockers I'd say.

6) What's the craziest thing you've seen on the road? 

I saw a guy die at a Wendys in Austin once. That was pretty fucked up. Me and my friend Ace saw this dude chilling in the bushes outside of the Wendys, then we went in and came out 10 minutes later and he was getting zipped up in a body bag. Super weird. 

Let me interrupt this interview for a second to say HOLY SHIT! Saw a guy die?! Fuck! 

7) What's the groupies situation like? Who's the ladies man?

Haaaaaa, nobody. Unfortunately I don't think playing Hardcore and Death Metal is really a super attractive thing to a lot of people... Haha.  

8) What do you listen to when you're not listening to hardcore? Maroon 5? One Direction? Taylor Swift? 

As of late, Oasis, Accept, and Trap shit like Zona Man and the new Boosie record have been in constant rotation. Oh and the new Royal Headache record. That shit is amazing.

9) If you could tour with any band that you haven't toured with already. Who would it be? 

Easy answer. No Tolerance.

10) Do you follow the Redskins and what do you think their record is gonna be like this season?

I like Football, but I'm honestly way too much of a space cadet to really follow sports. I used to be way better about it and I'm trying to get back in the game but we'll see what happens. I definitely hope the Skins have a good season but after watching a lot of the games last year I'm really not too hopeful... My guess is they go 5-11, which is better than they've done the last couple of years so lets see what happens.

11) What do you do for fun?

I've never had fun in my life. 

 

(Who couldn't have fun being in these bands?)

 12) What bands should two shlubs like us be listening to? 

Locally I think Stand Off, Pure Disgust, Turnstile, and Give are all killing it right now and if ya'll haven't checked those bands out yet I'd definitely recommend it. As far as out of town stuff goes, I think Blazing Eye, Fury, Chain Rank, Ajax, Barge, Impalers, Depths Of Reality, and Blood Pressure are all really great new(ish) bands doing cool shit. 2015 is a great time for Punk and Hardcore no doubt about it.

13) Any last words or shout outs?

Thanks for the interview! DC Hardcore rules. Shop at Joint Custody. Peace!

Many thanks to Connor for taking the time to talk to us. If you all haven't heard the bands that he's in, just mosey your ass on over to Bandcamp and look them up. Then drop a couple of bucks, download the music and be prepared to rip your face off. Props to another swell guy from the D.C. scene for keeping it real.

D.C.S.

A sweet score of videos

Adult Crash here and I'm staring at my computer screen wishing that I was anywhere but here. This feeling I have is made worse by the fact that Malvo is sending me pictures of his hairy legs on the beach. Who does that? Bastard...

Anyway, I have been scouring social media to pass the time and I came across something that I've seen before and completely forgot about. I wanted to share this gem with you all a few months ago, but I got sidetracked and forgot. The website is called DC 85 and it's a site with videos of bands playing in D.C. from 1985 - 1988. No idea who filmed them but according to the page, they're going to be uploading more in the future. So far I see Government Issue, Marginal Man, Gwar, Jerry's Kids, Gang Green and a couple more. I can only hope that they put out some more sooner rather than later.

DC-85 VIDEOS

The quality is not the greatest, but what do you expect from back then? You gotta take what you can get when you get it and this is just fine for me. The band I wanna see the most is Jerry's Kids because I think I've only ever seen like one or two different shows by them on YouTube. The site mentions other videos of bands like Justice League, Descendents, 7 Seconds and Inside Out to name a few. I'm stoked to see that stuff see the light of day. Hopefully the Inside Out that is mentioned is the California one and not the one from New York.



If you enjoy watching shows from way back when, check this page out. You won't be disappointed. And if you all could join me in wishing that my partner suffers a pesky sunburn for flaunting his vacation in my face, I would be in your debt.

D.C.S.

New band with a demo...

Things have been pretty slow over here at D.C. Sniper Headquarters. Malvo has been on "vacation mode" for the better part of July. He's getting ready to go to the beach with his lady friend and I'm sure there is no one happier than the trash/recycling guy that picks up the collection of beer cans that he drags out to the curb every week. Come to think of it, I'm sure his recliner will be happy to get its form back from his fat ass sitting in it all the time playing video games. But I digress...

I was on the look out for some new tunes and thanks to a friend of a friend, I was given a heads up about a new band from PA called Nation Of Wolves. Not sure who they are since there's no info about that on the Band Camp page, but I can safely tell you this much...this demo is the swift kick to the nuts that I was looking for. I was floored when I first heard it and then I listened to it another 6 or 7 times and loved it more and more each time. They remind me of Floorpunch, Raw Deal and Negative Approach. Quite frankly, the singer sounds a little like John Brannon and Jeff Perlin put together. And that's not a bad thing.



According to their bio on Facebook, they are "4 dudes in their late 30's playing hardcore ala Cro Mags, Raw Deal, Floorpunch, No Warning, Negative Approach Bad Brains, Outburst, Breakdown." Looks like I wasn't far off on my description of them. And it's awesome to see some older guys keeping it real with their love of hardcore. I recognize Matt Smith of Rain On The Parade, Hands Tied fame, but I'm not so sure about the other guys. No upcoming show info, but it looks like they were at This Is Hardcore. I can only hope that somebody gets them to come down to D.C. sometime soon so I can check them out. In my opinion this demo is a sign of fantastic things to come. Do yourself a favor and pony up a couple of bucks and download this thing from Band Camp ASAP! - Adult Crash

D.C.S.

A soap opera within the scene? Let me get my popcorn!

You know it's a slow day at the office when I'm reading the comments section of anything I see on the internet. Usually, comment sections are filled with mind numbing things like misspelled words to posting "facts" based on a meme to verbally attacking someone for whatever reason. So where am I going with this? Well, I'm glad you asked.

In what is sure to be one of the more bizarre forms of trolling, there is a G.I. Facebook page that is totally bogus and they are posting some weird shit as if they're the band. Stuff like, Stabb being kicked out of G.I. and being replaced by someone else and how he's now a Republican candidate in West Virginia. From what I can see, it might be a former G.I. drummer that is the source of this page and it's material. If this is true, then this might be one of the more interesting soap operas within the hardcore scene. Check these screen shots that I got recently and see the weirdness for yourself. 

I've gotta admit that it is somewhat entertaining, but I can understand why John/the band are not thrilled with it. Stabb is trying to put the word out that it's a bogus page and to disregard what you see on there, but it may not reach the masses. Hell, I wouldn't of known about his post on Facebook had a friend not shared it.

I'm surprised that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. I mean, people are trolling twitter, message boards, Instagram and Facebook all the time looking to get a rise out of people. This situation reminds me of the time that somebody started a thread on the Mullet Board (or was it the Livewire Board) saying that Jesse Standhard was going to be the new singer for Kid Dynamite. If memory serves me right, the Kid Dynamite
guys didn't have a sense of humor about it at all. I guess some people totally believed it and were asking the band members about it and they were annoyed. In our opinion, they made it bigger deal about it than it had to be.

Anyway, if you want to see what these imposters are up to, just look for the Government Issue page on Facebook with this big titty chick wearing a Government Issue shirt.

Speaking of imposters...

D.C.S.

New Night Birds song streaming

Adult Crash here and I'm enjoying a slow day at the office. I'm also enjoying this new song that the A.V. Club is streaming by the Night Birds.

The Night Birds are currently working on a new record to be released by Fat Wreck Chords later this year and we're stoked to hear it. This band just keeps on trucking with endless material. Malvo and I are in agreement that this band has done no wrong in our eyes. We both like everything they've ever done. Which is impressive since we almost never agree on something like that based on bands that have put out so much music. As far as I'm concerned, they could go on for another 10 years and probably still be relevant. These guys are that good. Anyway, enough of my praise. Check out the link below and enjoy.

NIGHT BIRDS - LEFT IN THE MIDDLE

12 Hits From Hell and being tone deaf

If you follow us on Instagram, you know that Malvo recently got a new record player with a USB connection. We've spent the last two weekends ripping records to his computer that we don't have on MP3.  (My wife is not happy about ditching her with the kids two weekends in a row. Oops) I'm still laughing at some of the records that he wanted to have digital copies of though. The Borderline 7" immediately comes to mind. HAHAHAHA I thought he was joking. He wasn't. What's next? The Intensity 7"? They were intensely terrible...

Anyway, one of the records that we ripped was the Misfits - 12 Hits From Hell LP that came out some years ago. I remember when he got it from Smash! and you would've thought that he had just gotten laid for the first time. (He freaks out on just about anything from the Misfits and Samhain.) But he's never had a digital copy of that album, so he ripped his copy and that seems to be all that he's been listening to for the last two weeks. That, and the Violent Reaction LP. (If there is a way to wear out MP3's on your phone, he will find a way, because it seems that the Violent Reaction album is on repeat with nothing else in between. Jesus...)

I, for one, wasn't that big a fan of 12 Hits From Hell. It was okay, but I wasn't crazy about Bobby Steele's guitar sound. I couldn't get past that. I can see why Danzig wasn't a big fan of that recording. Give me Earth A.D. or Walk Among Us or Collection II and I am going to be singing along like I was in the studio doing backups. Speaking of doing backups, Malvo does that all the time when he's driving. On more than one occasion, I've had to tell him something like - hey man, they sing it so you don't have to. That guy is one of the most tone deaf mofo's I've ever heard. Seriously, I'd rather hear my kids screaming. He's that bad.

On a related note, I can't believe that 12 Hits From Hell is selling for so much on eBay? I saw that cd's were selling for $68? Really?  The LP is going for around $150 and it's not even the rare green cover. This thing could be his Project X or Floorpunch on gold! Come to think of it, I should try to trade him something average for it so I can sell it and have a night out with the wife. Gotta smooth things over with her somehow.

D.C.S.

Punk credit cards?

 

Malvo here, it's been a while since our last entry and all I can say is I'm sorry for slacking off. Anyway, I just came across this photo this morning and I thought it was a joke. But so far, I don't see anything that indicates that this is a gag. It looks legit and all I can do is laugh. 

It's absurd, but what's even more absurd is the outrage over it. I mean who fucking cares? It's the Sex Pistols! I hate to use the term "sold out" but let's face facts here people, they 'sold out" YEARS AGO. Is this really so bad? How is this any different than buying one of their shirts at Hipster Heaven aka Urban Outfitters? 

At this point, is anyone really surprised about punk bands appearing on things like this anymore? I mean you can get (insert band name here) coffee mugs, boxer shorts, action figures, wallets, bra's etc etc. And this sort of merch has been around for years! It is hardly a nail into the coffin that we call hardcore punk.

Reading the comments section is entertaining and depressing at the same time. Here are some of my favorites. 

"Not a real punk band anyway. Let em"

"Punk is truly dead"

"Yeah nothing says punk rock like fucking credit cards, SMFH"

These guys are being a bit too dramatic. Just remember, Frankie Say Relax! It's not the end of the world guys. It's just another item with a punk bands name on it, in a sea of other items. And why can't any of you cry babies be more creative with your bitching? I glossed over the comments section of a couple different pages on Facebook and for the most part, the comments all sounded like the ones above. Get over it!

Quite frankly, I'd get one of these cards if I could get a better interest rate. God knows I'm getting bent over the barrel pretty good by my current creditors. I can only hope that there is a slogan for this card like - Never Mind The Cash Back.  

D.C.S.

Steve Hansgen of Minor Threat - Interview on Noisey

If you haven't seen or heard about this interview with Steve Hansgen of Minor Threat, then you are doing yourself a great disservice. We love the godfather's of harDCore and can't get enough of them. This interview is definitely interesting because it gives a perspective about the band that is not really talked about. Yeah, there was friction within the band about random things, but we never got specifics about them. We love to read stories about our favorite bands and Tony Rettman delivers with this interview. Props to him for putting this together.

 
Steve Hansgen of Minor Threat 

D.C.S.