This is the sixth studio album of the long going scottish anarchist punk band Oi Polloi (ancient slang for “The Common People”) – 15 new songs recorded in 2014 with a retrospective of the many musically influences of previous Oi Polloi records. Here you find the anarcho charged sing-a-long Oi!Punk mixed with D-Beat-Crust and of course classic UK Anarcho Punk.
“Saorsa” means “Freedom” in scottish gaelic and “Freedom” or “Liberty” is the lyrical main subject of this album. Lyrics are mostly sung in English with little excursions into Gaelic, Spanish as well as Yiddish. With all the heavy political content, Oi Polloi never exclude humor in what they do and this is what makes them so sympathic in my eyes.
Responsible for the beautiful artwork was Sonia L. who already contributed to previous Oi Polloi records such as “Fuaim Catha”, and this album artwork has now been used to manufacture these amazing picture disc versions of the LP. Pressed in colour (350 copies) or black and white (a very limited 140 copies only!) Things of beauty they are, get one while you can!
THE A-HEADS album Ash to the Soil secures a limited edition vinyl re-release later this month, courtesy of the German Mad Butcher Records label.
The twelve-track album was originally a DIY vinyl and CD release and was first issued in 2009. A total of 250 copies of the album will be re-pressed by Mad Butcher Records.
RELEASED TODAY (8 MARCH 2019) TO mark International Women’s Day, No One’s Little Girls is a compilation offering “an eclectic mix of 16 songs from hardcore punk to melodic poppy punk and acoustic tracks by female-fronted and/or female musicians.”
Release by Grow Your Own Records and available in digital download, CD and vinyl formats, No One’s Little Girls features tracks by Hagar the Womb, Bratakus, Dogshite, Louise Challice, The Menstrual Cramps and many others.
No One’s Little Girls
A compilation to celebrate the explosion of talented women in bands for International Women’s Day 2019, with all profits going to grassroots women’s charities. Contains an eclectic mix of 16 songs from hardcore punk to melodic poppy punk and acoustic tracks by female-fronted and/or female musicians.
BENEFIT COMPILATION FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY VARIOUS ARTISTS ALL PROFITS AFTER COST WILL GO TO VARIOUS GRASSROOTS ORGANISATIONS
Released March 8, 2019
KISS ME KILLER/THE MENSTRUAL CRAMPS/HAGAR THE WOMB/THE BLACK DEATH/WERECATS/CALICO/BRATAKUS/ALEX FRANCIS/DOGSHITE/COMBAT SHOCK/SHITSICK/MINDFRAME/LOUISE CHALLICE/THE FLEAS/PUNK CON FUSION/PUSSY LIQUOR
SLICE OF LIFE have released a new official video for new song S.A.D.
Annoucing the news on the Louder than War site, Carole Hodges explained: “S.A.D is a song very close to Steve’s heart. Written with a definite nod towards its Seasonal Affective Disorder namesake, the lyrics plead with the listener for “some kind of love”, always indecisive as to whether such a gesture will be accepted or rejected by the sufferer.”
The black-and-white video was shot at Union Mills in Bolton, and was filmed and produced by RKidMedia.
Slice of Life are currently working on a new album, with a released date penciled in for this summer.
Built around the enduring nucleus of Sid Truelove and Zillah Minx, Rubella Ballet formed in 1979 when Crass invited their audience to use their equipment and finish the gig. The newly formed group took to the road with Crass and the Poison Girls and quickly established a unique niche, standing out from the multitudes in black combat wear with their day-glo visual image and a diverse range of material that encompassed elements drawn from across the sonic spectrum.
Having made an initial impact with their groundbreaking Ballet Bag cassette pack in 1981, Rubella Ballet gigged heavily, presenting a celebratory spectacle of ultraviolet defiance that was driven relentlessly onward by Sid’s mighty rhythms and given context by Zillah’s unmatchable siren-song vocals. After their debut, Ballet Dance EP and subsequent 42f single impacted on the Independent Top Ten, the group continued to release new material intermittently across the decade.
The group returned to the studio in 2014, releasing Planet Punk, their first full length album in almost 25 years. A hit with critics and the group’s faithful following, the album drew upon a lifetime’s opposition to oppression and exploitation, emerging as what many cite as the band’s crowning achievement. The album also saw Sid emerge from behind the drumkit to demonstrate his prowess as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and engineer.
Now, four years on, Rubella Ballet have built upon the edifice of resistance defined within the grooves of Planet Punk, recording their latest studio LP, Danger Of Death, which will be available via Overground Records from late Summer 2018. Heralded by the singles compilation, Day Glo Daze, issued on Last Hour Records, Danger Of Death throws the pure light of reason on a modern world torn asunder by forces that seek to control, obfuscate and exploit. A lambent beacon of pure ultraviolet truth, shining vividly against a backdrop of fake news and government lies, Danger Of Death features material that confront today’s issues with honesty and defiance.
THE CRAVATS begin a three dates mini-tour-ette this evening (5 April), with a gig in Bristol at The Thunderbolt, with gigs in London (6 April) and Brighton (7 April) to follow, playing alongside Folk Devils
Overground Records are now accepting advance orders on the vinyl re-release of The Cravats’ debut single Gordon (backed by Situations Vacant). This repressing, limited to 500 copies comes with a special. insert. This seven-inch of aural loveliness was originally released in July 1978.
INTERROBANG‽ RELEASE THE band’s self-titled debut album today, and kick off the album launch tour with the first date in Todmorden.
Interrobang‽ was formed in 2012 by ex-Chumbawamba members Dunstan Bruce and Harry Hamer and “former enfant terrible in the London louts, Regular Fries” Stephen Griffin. Their album is released in vinyl, digital download and CD formats. All The Mad Men Records sold out of all pre-release copies ahead of the release, but vinyl and CD copies will be available from the band on tour, and from many of the usual (and some unusual) outlets.
The eponymously entitled Interrobang‽ album is vocalist Bruce laid bare, torn open asunder, as he finds himself deep in those 50-something blues. Lyrically the album is an exploration of his determination to never give up the struggle despite his own malaise. He questions and rails against his own demise with song titles such as Curmudgeon, Mad As Hell and Am I Invisible Yet? whilst still full of that anger about the state of the world in songs such as Are You Ready People? and Here Now. He veers from the personal to the political, from the poignant to the pithy, never pulling any punches, always being brutally honest but with an ability to laugh at himself as well.
The music of Griffin and Hamer is short, sharp and urgent. Interrobang‽ pride themselves on their tightness and economy in these rapid-fire assaults and with their crisp, cutting backing vocals the band have created an album that is pointed and precise, exciting and exhilarating. This is an album’s worth of hard hitting songs for hard hit people with Griffin’s guitar technique building layers of scorching sonics which when seen live will astound.
...is the online accompaniment to a variety of writing projects on the history, culture, politics and practice of British anarcho-punk, 1977-1984
Most recent work…
Rich Cross. 2018. 'International Anthem - Gee Vaucher [review]', Punk and Post-Punk, 7(3), pp. 453-457. doi:10.1386/punk.7.3.447_5.
And All Around Was Darkness
Rich Cross. 2017. 'Fifteen shades of grey', in Greg Bull and Mike Dines (eds.), And All Around Was Darkness, Itchy Monkey Press, pp.218-227. ISBN 978-1-291-74025-7.
The Aesthetic of Our Anger
Rich Cross. 2016. '"Stop the City showed another possibility": Mobilisation and Movement in Anarcho-Punk', in Matt Worley and Mike Dines (eds.), The Aesthetic of Our Anger: Anarcho-Punk, Politics, Music - 1979-1984, Minor Compositions: Colchester / New York / Port Watson. ISBN 978-1-57027-318-6 [ Free eBook download | Print copy available to buy from Minor Compositions ]
Some of us Scream
Rich Cross. 2016. '"Why do you think that they are laughing?", in Greg Bull and Mike Dines (eds.), 'Some of Us Scream Some of Us Shout': Myths, Folklore and Epic Tales of the Anarcho, (Itchy Monkey Press) [ Buy from Active Distribution or Situation Press ]
Shawna Potter’s Making Spaces Safer: A Guide to Giving Harassment the Boot Wherever You Work, Play, and Gather comes out in May and she’ll be doing some east coast release events to celebrate! Mark your calendar: BOSTON: Sunday, May 19 at 4pm @ Armageddon Shop Boston—https://www.facebook.com/events/303908616971896/ NYC: Monday, May 20 at 7pm @ Strand Book [. […]
AK Thompson’s newest book Premonitions: Selected Essays on the Culture of Revolt is back from the printer and available for purchase. It’s a powerful text, full of useful strategic and analytical insights about how our social movements work…and how they don’t. We had a short conversation with him to get him to share some of [...]
This review of Keywords for Radicals is an excerpt from a longer review recently published in the International Journal of Communication. The full review (by Jack Bratich of Rutgers University) also included another title—you can read the review in its entirety here. And you can find out more about Keywords for Radicals here. This splendidly sprawling tome a […]
This is a guest post from Shane Burley, author of Fascism Today. Shane has the last event of his east coast tour this evening in Washington, DC—see here for details! White nationalism is implicitly violent, it cannot exist without it. The proposition is, by its own merits, steeped in the most expansive and profound sorts [...]
Shane Burley, author of Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It, will be on the east coast for a few days giving talks in three cities on, you guessed it, understanding today’s fascist forces and how to defeat them. Here’s the low-down, along with links to the events on Facebook: . . [...]
