Just like any reputable slasher series, Static Shock Weekend is returning again for the fourth time! Once again, we've been working hard over the last 9 months to bring you this year's instalment and feel convinced that this could be the best yet. Expect close to forty of the best punk / hardcore / whatever bands around the world right now, no punishingly long all-dayers, no obligation to see everything (but we hope you'll want to of course), no shows of bands who all sound the same, in other words, it's a good time.
This year's instalment is happening over November 3rd - 6th over a number of shows in different venues. No clashes will happen and nothing is happening back to back. So, without keeping you waiting, here's the first round of bands playing this year:
IRON LUNG (Seattle / San Francisco)
Iron Lung are a long running two piece hardcore band currently based between Seattle and San Francisco. After releasing countless killer records and touring the world, and not to mention running one of the best punk record labels in the world, Iron Lung are finally coming back to London. This will be their first time back here in three years and their only UK / European date this year.
BELGRADO (Barcelona)
Barcelona's Belgrado return for the first time in close to three years! The band melds dark and dreamy goth and post punk with a stunning and clear production. The bass leads and drives each track into the batcave whilst the vocals yearn and ache on top. They have a clear 80's English influence (Killing Joke, Vex, A Touch of Hysteria, Blood and Roses etc) but it also very modern day Barcelona with the reverb as important as an instrument and totally DIY. New LP coming soon!
DIAT (Berlin)
Brought together by a shared enthusiasm for bleak UK punk and a history of playing in hardcore bands, Berlin based DIÄT have created a sound that they have described, perhaps not entirely seriously, as ‘tough new wave’. Fans of Crisis, Killing Joke and The Mob should be pleased by the band’s unlikely synthesis of depressive drift and cranked, accelerated energy. Diät have boldly attempted to create a sound of their own - the sound of checking your account balance to see if you’ve been paid yet…but you haven’t. Releases on Iron Lung and Adagio 830 Records.
RIXE (Paris)
Paris based Rixe hark back to the glory years of Bologna's finest NABAT mixed with the classic 80's French Oi! sound via RAS or L'INFANTERIE SAUVAGE and a heavy BLITZ vibe. The sound is rough, direct and angry and driven by a distorted bass and a vocalist that chews on glass for fun. Like the now defunct CRIMINAL DAMAGE, newbies Pittsburgh's NO TIME and Brest's SYNDROME 81, RIXE are the new voice of a Generation.
THE LOVE TRIANGLE (Berlin / Barcelona / Camberwell)
TLT have a unique position from having played every one of the SS Weekends so far, and pretty much nothing inbetween. Now spread across three countries, this will be the only chance to see TLT play again any time soon.
ARMS RACE (London)
A volatile collision of their British ancestors (Chaos UK, Ultra Violent), and those from across the Atlantic pond (YDI, Life's Blood, Agnostic Front). Raging debut LP out soon on LVEUM.
URANIUM CLUB (Minneapolis)
"Uranium Club play kind of minimalist, agitated, catchy punk rock... Havoc's references to the Fall and Wire are not without merit, but this doesn't sound quite so retro to me, and hardcore is part of the equation here in a way that those references don't make clear. There are a few bands I think would be a better point of reference... the Shitty Limits, the first Total Control 7" (i.e. before they started really incorporating post-punk and electronic influences)... or maybe even a more compact and punker Parquet Courts. Needless to say, though, this thing is right up my alley in terms of style and the execution could not be better. If you like your punk simple, minimalist, and catchy then you absolutely need to check this out."
APOSTILLE (Glasgow)
DIY mainstay and Night School label owner Michael Kasparis brings his industrial strength synth-punk project Apostile to SSW for the first time! You may know him as a member of Anxiety or perhaps The Lowest Form but anyone who has stumbled upon his releases for Clan Destine and Goaty Tapes will be aware of the Apostile’s inherent might as a entity within itself. Apostille taps into Kaparis’s chosen field with new insights, giving the de-composted slurry of Suicide-esque trash punk aesthetics a new lease of bewildered life. Kasparis’s intense live performances are a testament too his continued mission to bridge the gap between audience and performer.
IDIOTA CIVILISATO (Berlin)
Full on Italian hardcore worship for fans of Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers and Chain Reaction. Debut 7" out soon!
ANXIETY (Glasgow)
https://lavidaesunmus.
Formed in August 2015 Glasgow's ANXIETY have achieved quite a reputation locally thru their stage presence. A fully formed band which irradiates personality from the very first play and is not afraid to look at hardcore punk from outside the box. This their first release sees the band delivering nine tracks of discordant hardcore with layers and layers of distortion and vocal effects in barely 20 minutes. Pinpointing a band like ANXIETY is really hard. While they play hardcore based music their approaches are as broad as you can imagine with members coming from bands as different as HERBERT POWELL, PENNYCRESS, THE LOWEST FORM or APOSTILLE. So think of a way more aggressive BUTTHOLE SURFERS mixed with the less pompous SONIC YOUTH and a hint of contemporary Barcelona and NYC hardcore bands and then you may or not be close to describe ANXIETY's sound. The entire atmosphere of the record is hectic and oppressive with quite existential lyrics creating an overall feeling of uneasiness and internal confrontation pivotal to understand the band. Basically the band name says it best.https://lavidaesunmus.
MURDER (London)
From the ashes of DiE comes bloody Murder. A noisey assault of distortion driven hardcore FFO: Posion Idea, Cro-Mags, Chaos UK.
CULT SYNDROME (London / Berlin)
London/Berlin primitive noisey hardcore punk. Members of Nailbiter.
ES (London)
FB Event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/585408501619822/
Questions? staticshockrecords@gmail.com
