DEFTONES
upsetmagazine.com Editor: Stephen Ackroyd (stephen@upsetmagazine.com) Deputy Editor: Victoria Sinden (viki@upsetmagazine.com) Assistant Editor: Ali Shutler (ali@ upsetmagazine.com) Contributors: Alex Lynham, Corinne Cumming, Danny Randon, Emma Swann, Emily Pilbeam, Giles Bidder, Heather McDaid, Jack Glasscock, Jade Curson, Jessica Goodman, Kathryn Black, Kristy Diaz, Marty Hill, Nariece Sanderson, Ryan De Freitas, Sarah Louise Bennett, Steven Loftin, Will Richards All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of Upset. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which Upset holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Upset or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally. P U B L I S H E D F RO M
THE BUNKER W E LCO M E TOT H E B U N K E R.CO M
IN THIS ISSUE RIOT 6 WEEZER 10 J O H N N Y F O R E I G N E R 12 F U N E RA L F O R A FRIEND 14 B O S TO N M A N O R 15 M AX RA PTO R 16 A RC H I T E CT S ABOUT TO BREAK 18 CHEAP MEAT 19 KATIE ELLEN
41 DEFTONES 43 THREE TRAPPED TIGERS 45 FRIGHTENED RABBIT 48 FUTURE OF THE LEFT 49 TRACKS OF THE MONTH LIVE 50 TWENTY ONE PILOTS 52 CREEPER 53 MUNCIE GIRLS 54 ENTER SHIKARI
FEATURES 20 DEFTONES 28 BLACK PEAKS 32 RUN FOR COVER RECORDS 36 THE WONDER YEARS
COMING UP 57. ON THE ROAD
RATED 40 WEEZER
VS THE INTERNET 62. PVRIS
FESTIVALS 58. 2000TREES 60. HANDMADE FESTIVAL
EDITOR’S NOTE You can talk
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about legendary bands all you like, but very few deserve the title as much as Deftones. Actually incapable of putting out a duff album, with their latest ‘Gore’ they’ve ridden a bit of internal conflict like that famed white steed into battle to produce one of the most interesting records of their career. They’re not the only veterans showing they can still mix it, either. Weezer are back - and not just in a ‘have a new album out’ way, either. Maybe all those long nights praying finally paid off, because the White Album is exactly the full-length we’ve all been waiting for. Smart, perfectly pitched, dorky and melodic - even for those of us who maintain that, bar ‘Raditude’, it’s never been that bad - it’s like the last fifteen years x didn’t happen.
S
RIOT
E V E RY T H I N G H A P P E N I N G I N RO C K
“I GUESS YOU PROBABLY HEARD ABOUT TINDER?”
EVE RYO N E H AS A N O PI N I O N O N W E EZ E R , BUT WITH THEIR NEW ALBUM THEY’RE B A C K AT T H E T O P O F T H E I R G A M E . WORDS: ALI SHUTLER
ABOU T TO
BREAK
THE BEST NEW BANDS TH E H OT TEST NEW MUSIC
CHEAP MEAT
L
ondon-based trio Cheap Meat aren’t wasting time. Having recently released single ‘Sweetness Take Me Back’, they’ve quickly returned with debut EP ‘The Parts That Show’. “We’ve recorded four songs,” guitarist and singer Ross Drummond explains, “and then we’re going to go back in [to the studio] during the summer to record some more. We’ll have singles to release while we do it, so we can keep some momentum for when an album comes out.” As for the time frame, “it just depends how well things go with the EP coming out. We’re still relatively unknown so it’s a bit more of a slog to try to build a fan 18 upsetmagazine.com
base for anyone to give a shit, because once it’s out, it’s out, you know what I mean? You can only get to the top of the mountain once ’til you have to come back down again. I’ve got so many songs I’ve written to craft and set up this perfect kind of first album. I know I want it to have ten songs on it, but it’s like, what ten songs?” The band initially started as a duo, a plan Ross briefly believed foolproof. “We recorded the EP originally as a two-piece and added bass afterwards, because originally we thought that if we were a two-piece then it’d be cheap to do and we thought we were super fucking original. I remember we went to rehearsal one night and Matt [Rebeiro,
“WE FOUND PETE ON G U M T R E E . I T WA S H I M A N D A FRIDGE FREEZER.” WORDS: STEVEN LOFTIN.
drums] was like, ‘Oh have you heard this band called Royal Blood?’ I was like, ‘Well we’re fucked now then’. That’s that done. There hadn’t been a two-piece in a while and then all of a sudden every fucker’s in a two-piece.” The third dimension was added with a simple online ad. “Pete [Hakola] our bass player is from Finland, we found him on Gumtree. It was him and a fridge freezer,” Ross explains laughing. The addition of Pete was pivotal in forming the powerful and melodic sound that makes Cheap Meat so pleasing. “When it came to us playing live I was trying to have this massive wall of guitar and if you come to our show you’ll hopefully hear that, it’s pretty fucking rad. Pete and I
spent a lot of time on our guitar and bass tone to get that proper like power trio, I felt like it was kind of missing.” Of course, no band can truly get going without a good live show, something that Ross is a major advocate of including utilising their mutual love of wrestling. “We’ve been coming up with different songs to come onstage with. I think when we go onstage on tour we’re going to come on to Stone Cold’s theme tune or The Rock’s theme. Matt’s got an Octapad with triggers and he’s finding all wrestling one-liners to trigger in between songs and shit.” Continuing his explanation of their live mentality, he says: “When we play live we don’t really take ourselves very seriously, there are so many fucking poser bands. When I was growing up and seeing bands playing and looking like they’re having fun, to have that dynamic, makes you want to be in a band. It makes you want to go out and play guitar, and when we play live that’s what we want to do.” “Matt and I have this bad double act,” he adds, “Pete’s just this stone cold, one-liner dude, but Matt has a mic and he just talks shit all the time and it fucking winds me up.” It’s clear from the jubilance in his voice that there is a chemistry between the two that can’t be faked. “So I call him out on it constantly. Matt thinks he’s stuck in [Blink 182 live album] ‘The Mark, Tom & Travis Show’.” For the next year, what they are all about is documenting a musical journey of experimentation, taking life as it comes and then slapping it on a track. “Last year, I had a really bad stint of mental health and this is like an anniversary of getting through this last year. That’s what the start of this is about, and the opportunities from it. We’re basically just going to do as much as we can, try and get to as many places as possible play as much music as we can.” P
FACT FILE Band members: Ross Drummond, Peter Hakola and Matt Rebeiro Hometown: London (UK) Formed: 2013 Signed To: Hassle Records Did you know? Ross is on a oneman mission to own all of the ugliest guitars in the world.
KATIE ELLEN W O R D S : R YA N D E F R E I TA S
O
ften when a band breaks up and its members go on to start new projects, there’s a particularly trite adage that gets thrown around: ‘Like a phoenix from the ashes’. Thankfully, in the case of katie ellen, the new project from former Chumped members Anika Pyle and Dan Frelly, there was no fire from which ash could form - just a group of musicians accepting that it was time to do something new. “I wanted to find autonomy,” Anika explains. “Personally, musically and emotionally. Starting katie ellen was all about challenging myself to be better and stronger. I really wanted to lean more heavily on my songwriting and to draw inspiration from artists and genres that I cherish but didn’t necessarily fit in my last project, like Billie Holiday and 60s girl groups and Patsy Cline and Judy Garland.”
That’s lead to a pretty bold and drastic step away from Chumped’s pop-punk on katie ellen’s ‘wild <3 demo’. In its place is something more akin to Waxahatchee or Radiator Hospital. “These songs have a different energy to them, more of a melancholy, soulful reflection rather than a sense of chaotic urgency,” Anika states. “But, I’m no less candid or vocal about my feelings or my politics.” Anika and Dan are in the process of making a record with the aim of putting it out by the end of the year. She does admit however that “there’s a ton of work to do still”, but, in keeping with the ethic that saw Chumped earn the undying respect of peers and fans, “regardless, we’ll definitely be sharing music, playing shows and doin’ the damn thing.” On this evidence, whenever it ends up coming along, new music from katie ellen is going to be one damn thing worth waiting for. P
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D
Deftones have never released a bad album. From ‘Adrenaline’ all the way back in 1995, right through to previous effort ‘Koi No Yokan’, they’ve absolutely refused to put a foot wrong. Nobody chimes into a conversation about the legendary Sacramento outfit to lament they ‘prefer the early stuff’. In an age of cynicism, this is one band who still provoke near-universal enthusiasm. They’re now back with eighth studio album ‘Gore’ and, predictably, it’s bloody great. There aren’t many bands who can say, over twenty years removed from the release of their debut record, that they’re still looked to with such unmoving expectation; that what they’re about to put out will stand shoulder to shoulder with what’s come before it. And there are even fewer bands still that can say it while having as diverse and unapologetically experimental a back-catalogue as Deftones’. With all that in mind however, ‘Gore’ might require some patience. Where ‘Koi No Yokan’ offered up the blistering ‘Swerve City’ as its opener, this album presents the unhurried swirls of ‘Prayers/Triangles’ as an introduction – and it serves as a particularly succinct indicator of what’s to come.
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This isn’t a record of immediacy. It’s not hit after hit – that a song as relatively subdued as ‘Prayers/ Triangles’ became the first radio single gave that away already. Instead, ‘Gore’ is a rich, considered body of work in which one can, given time, find themselves wholly immersed. The result of that, as vocalist Chino Moreno is happy to attest, is that it’s a bit of a slow burner – and that’s fine by him. “I don’t think that it’s a first listen,” Chino concedes off the bat. “And honestly that wasn’t the idea going in to make this record - there wasn’t actually any idea going in to make this record - but that’s what ended up coming out. But in the end, as not even the person who created the record but as a listener of the record, I enjoy ‘Gore’ more today than I did the day we finished it. I honestly think that every time I hear the record I get something more out of it. I like that. Most of my
favourite records do that, too.” And of course, there’s nothing wrong with an album being a grower, but at a time where instant gratification tends to reign supreme, could that affect the commercial success of the album? Sitting as Chino is now, in the West London offices of Deftones’ record label, it’s a question that can’t be too far from his mind. “Possibly,” he considers.
“But probably not, cause I feel it’s got longevity. “I feel like this record - as opposed to some of our other records especially has staying power. The more you listen to it the more you enjoy it. I have a short attention span so if I hear something and I figure it out really quick, I lose interest. That’s just me. But things that I don’t understand right away, that
require me to take time to wrap my head around, are things that interest me. That’s in music and that’s in… almost, in life. That’s something that’s part of my character, it could be a flaw, could be whatever, but it’s just the way I’ve been for my whole life.” The reason for this is rooted in more than just Chino’s personal taste, though. When it comes to Deftones there’s a 23
O U T R U N N I N G T H E I R O W N H Y P E , B L A C K P E A K S H AV E M A N A G E D T O S U S TA I N A S E N S E O F E X C I T E M E N T A R O U N D T H E I R D E B U T A L B U M , D E S P I T E T H E D E L AY S . W I T H ‘ S TAT U E S ’ O U T S O O N T H O U G H , T H E I R S T O R Y C A N R E A L LY B E G I N .
WORDS: ALI SHUTLER P H OTO S : C O R I N N E C U M M I N G
A
year ago Black Peaks were one of the most talked about bands following their early unveiling of ‘Glass Built Castles’. After a number of singles, relentless touring and leaving their album be, the band are now primed to drop ‘Statues’. A dark fairytale of a record that deals with control, revenge and a longing to be remembered, it’s set to start the conversation aflame all over again. That’s not to say the band have spent the past twelve months trying to recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle magic that was ‘Glass Built Castles’. Quite the opposite, in fact. Their debut was recorded back in November 2014; they’ve been sat on it for a year and a half. “We’ve definitely done the naughty thing and tweaked, chopped and cut little bits that don’t work after listening to it for six months, but we tried not to,” explains vocalist Will Gardner. “We’ve gone back and mixed and remixed, that was the delay in the album. Just for mixing, nothing more than that,” adds drummer Liam Kearley. “There’s nothing really to spill,” he protests. “It was just mixing.” Despite the ever-growing weight on their shoulders, there are not really any nerves about release. “It’s happening and there’s nothing that’s stopping this train anymore.” ‘Statues’ is “quite dark, and there’s a sense of urgency about it because we were so determined to put a big piece of music out into the world,” adds guitarist Joe Gosney. Recorded over an intense two-week time frame, the record “just happened. We didn’t have any time to think about or talk about ‘let’s make a song that sounds like this’.” “We grew up a lot in that time. We got more professional,” reflects Liam, before Will adds: “We definitely developed a lot as people over those two weeks. It was such a mixture of sitting around and being really involved in helping other people be creative.” “It was all fourteen, fifteen hour days. Even for the people who weren’t recording, they were still there discussing things, listening to guitar tones and drum takes,” continues bassist Andrew Gosden. “It’s such an important thing. I felt quite a bit of pressure because it’s our first major statement and I feel we had to get it right. We have to be happy with it.“
“THERE’S N OTH I N G STO PPI N G THIS TRAIN ANYMORE.” Because of this desire to create something brilliant, “a lot of the tracks were perfectly regimented, structured and done” before the band went into the studio; months of jamming, writing in living rooms and building on each other’s ideas paying off. “We were so prepared going into the studio. We still knew we needed one or two more tracks, there were a few things we were unsure on but for the most part it was just go in and paint by numbers. We knew what we wanted and we knew what we were aiming for. We just found what we wanted and recorded it. We had a very strong vision for what we wanted and the album is very much that.“ “We’re four very opinionated people but it’s good because we’ve always needed it to be right. I don’t think that’s a bad thing in our group of four,” explains Liam, reasoning you only get one shot at a debut. The waits and delays for ‘Statues’ have been a bigger deal to the band, “’cos you play it over and over in your mind. It’s your first album and it really sucks to be pushed back.” But all good things… There’s a fantastical element to ‘Statues’. From the engulfing musical storm tossing your attention in all directions to the lyrical storytelling, the record is one of escape. “I think all four of us as characters have elements of escapism in us and if that’s being translated onto the record, then that’s cool,” explains Joe. Taking influence from the likes of Mastodon, The Mars Volta and Led Zeppelin, the band “wanted to make one piece of music that you can listen to, start to finish.”
More than simply a run of eleven tracks though, ‘Statues’ also contains a story broken into four parts (‘Crooks’, ‘Hang ‘em High’, ‘Glass Built Castles’ and ‘Statues of Shame’) and scattered throughout. “As with everything we do, we wanted to do a little bit more. We may have written those four songs in order and Will may have started piecing the story together but when we started putting the album together, we realised that that can’t go there,” explains Joe. “It was never meant to go from start to finish musically or lyrically,” adds Will. “In my head it was always going to sound better dotted around and with other stuff in between.“ ‘Statues’ is full of these little flourishes of the band doing something just because it feels right. Despite their constantly shifting sound, none of Black Peaks are tech heads. “We try to push ourselves musically as a group but we never sit down and work out what’s in 7/8,” offers Andrew. Writing is “such a freeing and creative process. Knowing all that music theory and knowledge is great but it can pen you in.” Instead the band work by the rule “if it sounds good, it’s good.” If it so happens to be a diminished seventh, well that’s just lovely. “This album, I pushed myself. I pushed boundaries that I didn’t know I had just because it felt right. I just wanted to do stuff,” offers Liam. That excitement of self-discovery was channeled by every member of Black Peaks and can be felt in every daring twist and daunting turn of ‘Statues’. Not that the band know that. “We’ve had no outside perspective view of what people are expecting. We’ve been in 29
TA K E
C OV E R ! M E ET RU N F O R C OV E R R EC O R DS , H O M E T O M A N Y O F Y O U R F AV O U R I T E B A N D S . W O R D S : R YA N D E F R E I TA S
“THEY’RE BASI C A L LY T H E O P POSITE OF E V E RY T H I N G I GREW UP BEIN G A F R A I D T H AT L ABELS WERE.” – SEAN HUBER , MODERN BAS EBALL
S
tarting out in a boarding school dorm room sometime in 2004, Run For Cover Records came into existence at a time when trust in labels was at an all time low. The bands that current RFC flagship Modern Baseball would’ve grown up listening to were entrenched in legal battles for unpaid royalties, breaches of contract and just about everything else. It makes 32 upsetmagazine.com
sense then that when Jeff Casazza, a high school hardcore kid from Boston, decided to start a label to put out an EP by his friend’s band, he’d be doing so with the intent to do things the right way. Today, Run For Cover is at the forefront of their genre. If you look at the timeline that runs through these pages and the records on it, it’s almost hard to believe that this is an independent label essentially run by Jeff and a few of his mates. The impact RFC has made, the
artist-first ethos and honest approach that they’ve stuck to the entire way through, show that there truly is an alternative way for record labels to operate. A way that puts to bed the myth that you have to be a bit of a bastard to succeed in the music industry. It wasn’t easy getting RFC to this point, though. While it may have been a manageable start back when Jeff was “pretty much just putting out 7”s for a bunch of hardcore bands I knew,” reflecting on it now in a West London
FROM G R E AT . A P A R T LY L A E R N E E B S “IT’ S S I O N A L LY , H THEM PROFE WORKING WIT RIENDS. E A L LY G O O D F R O S L A E R ’ Y E TH THEY’RE AW E S O M E W H AT LY L A E R S ’ T I I THINK R BAND SEVEN ELIEVED IN OU B Y E H T . G N I O D HEY NEVER EY STI L L D O. T H T D N A O G A YEARS NGE O U L D YO U C H A C Y E H “ , D I A S O N C E H AV E ETTER OULD SOUND B W S I H T “ , R O ” , THIS D THEY ESE BANDS AN H T D E N G I S Y I F. . . ” . T H E E AT . ” I N K T H AT ’ S G R H T I . M E H T T S TRU J AW THE RU LLINS, TIG ERS N - BRIANNA CO FOR CO VER cafe, it’s clear that the early success of the label became something of a double-edged sword. “In 2010 RFC was still in my apartment,” Jeff recalls. “We had just put out the Title Fight 7” six months earlier, and put out the Man Overboard, Transit, Hostage Calm, Fireworks, Tigers Jaw, Wonder Years LPs when the label was still just me. This could have gone way worse from a label standpoint all considering - the orders all got sent out in a relatively timely manner which was a feat in itself - but the company was growing so quickly mainly due to all these bands gaining a lot of traction all at once, that it became obvious that we didn’t have a lot of resources, especially to the bands who were touring a lot. “So when bands started signing to Rise, and Triple Crown and these big labels who actually had money and an office and employees, instead of this friend who’s in college with a hobby and boxes all over his bedroom, I think it made sense. I somehow handled all those releases myself to the best of my ability, and the next year is when we hired Tom [Chiari, former guitarist of RFC band Hostage Calm, who has since become Jeff’s right hand man at the label]. At that point we made it a goal to do what we needed to do to provide more resources to our bands and keep bands on our label, which
TIMELIN
obviously included getting a staff, an office, etc.” At this point, in 2011, the label had finally left behind the dorm room it’d long outgrown. Instead, Jeff, Tom and Tay (Sullivan, Jeff’s longtime friend and star of the label’s megapopular YouTube series, ‘Tuesdays With Tay’) had now set up shop in a friend’s apartment. Boxes still filled the hallways and the living room was dominated by the label’s merch stock, as well as a few Tetris-packed desks, but it was still a significant step up. “Luckily,” Jeff explains, “it was the apartment of Kevin Duquette, one of the guys who ran Topshelf Records, so he understood the mess.” It was in that apartment where things really started to take off for the label. Riding the momentum generated by Tigers Jaw’s ‘Two Worlds’ album coming out just before the move, the living room office saw the release of Basement’s breakthrough ‘I Wish I Could Stay Here’, as well as its follow up ‘Colourmeinkindness’ and an unpredictably wellreceived split EP between the then-unknown Citizen and Turnover. (“I think we got about a thousand pre-orders for that, which was insane for bands of their size,” Jeff recalls.) Things went so well, in fact, that the label moved into its first ‘real’ office after only a year and a
E
2004
THESE D AY S – D E AT H SENTEN CE 7” – RFC 00 1
2006 FIREWORKS - WE ARE EVE RY W H E RE E P – RFC 005 CRIME IN STEREO – LOVE – RFC 007
2009
TITLE F IGHT – THE LA ST THING Y OU FOR GET – RFC 0 14
2010 THE WONDER YEARS – THE UPSIDES – RFC 018 T I G E R S J AW – S E L F -T I T L E D – RFC 023
“WE’LL E D U C AT E IN OUR O W N WAY ”
T H E WO N D E R Y E A RS A R E H E R E TO M A K E Y O U T H I N K . O R N O T. W H AT E V E R M A K E S YO U H A P P Y.
WORDS: ALI SHUTLER
P H OTOS : SA R A H LO U I S E B E N N ET T
RATED WEEZER WEEZER
Atlantic
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Hooking up with Jake Sinclair, the man who helped Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco take over the airwaves, they’ve finally found the formula that matches classic, critically acclaimed Weezer with their postmillennial, mainstream chasing successors. Sinclair, it should be noted, used to front his own Weezer tribute band. It’s really no surprise he had the answers. The formula is all there. Dorky lyrics, the direct line to California’s other great harmonisers The Beach Boys, an understanding that a little bit of musical gravel can go a long way. But they’ve not simply tried to return to 1996. It’s 2016, and they know it. So when ‘LA Girlz’, the White album’s standout track, comes woozing out of the traps, swooning with grit and lazy melody, it sounds like the band who released ‘Buddy Holly’, rather than a band who wishes they did. More polished, more realised - it’s not in any way better, but it complements what came before. ‘Do You Wanna Get High?’, likewise, chugs to a soaring chorus that would make any ‘Pinkerton’ convert smile a little.
IT’S NOT ‘PINKERTON’, IT’S NOT BLUE, BUT ON THEIR TENTH ALBUM, WEEZER FINALLY SOUND LIKE A BAND BACK ON THEIR VERY BEST FORM.
“I
t’s gonna be alright if you’re on a sinking ship, the California kids will throw you a lifeline.”
So goes the refrain of ‘California Kids’, the opener of Weezer’s fourth self-titled, colour coded record. That’s your review, right there. With the ‘White’ album, Weezer have saved themselves. The signs were there for a while. ‘Hurley’, a somewhat underrated record (no, really - Ed), sparked at points. ‘Everything Will Be Alright In The End’ took it a step further; a confession that taking the band back to their roots might be the smart move. Here, though, 40 upsetmagazine.com
Rivers Cuomo and his band of merry men have nailed it. This is redemption. No, this isn’t ‘Pinkerton’ or ‘Blue’. But then, it never could be. In the 20 years after Weezer delivered one of the great album one-twos, things have changed - not least the protagonists themselves. Since returning from their between albums break with the ‘Green’ album, they’ve been a band under fire - but they’ve learned from that. Every Weezer album - even ‘Raditude’ - had at least one song that showed the magic was still there. Now, they’ve packaged it all up and brought it home to make - arguably - the album ‘Green’ should have been.
But elsewhere, Weezer are still trying new things. ‘Thank God for Girls’ is every bit as deep-fried as anything from ‘Red’; ‘Wind in Our Sail’ is a truly brilliant piano led pop song - this isn’t a band reverting to type, but finding their stride once more. Coming full circle, there’s a scene in the video for ‘California Kids’ where Rivers Cuomo digs himself out of the sand, before disappearing. His trademark glasses fall to the floor, and the recently exhumed Rivers puts them on. As metaphors for Weezer’s current standing go, it’s a good one. They’ve finally found themselves, they’ve retaken their place, and now they’re ready to go once more. After all, the ‘Black’ album. What’s the worst that could happen? Stephen Ackroyd
BRITISH THEATRE
ONCE UPON PARQUET A DEAD MAN COURTS
Self-Released
Self-Released
Rough Trade
.A TRULY DESPAIRING SOUND OF JOY.
.SIMPSONS ASSEMBLE!
.BRASH BUT CONSIDERED.
When music runs through your veins, there’s little that can get in the way of creating. And when it runs in the family, that means no matter how much else you have on your plate, it’s the perfect time to start another band with your brothers and a close pal. Well, if you’re the Simpson family, that is. So what do you get when you’ve gone through the poppy end of rock to the post-hardcore realms and then mellowed out with some acoustics? Well, there’s always throwing an electronic twist on what you create. ‘Concepts and Phenomena’ is often a safe and comfortable journey, and enjoyable along the way, but those moments that Once Upon A Dead Man decide to kick it up that last notch are what make this EP feel that little bit bigger. Heather McDaid
When Andrew Savage talks of “mid-sentence tremors” and his mind being “at its weakest” on the title-track of his band’s latest album, it becomes hard to ignore that something has changed. Parquet Courts are known for locking into garage rock grooves; their alacritous, repetitious off-kilter racket doesn’t give them time to think too much. ‘Human Performance’ changes all of that. ‘I Was Just Here’ is a menacing blast of self-deprecating post-punk, ‘Steady On My Mind’ unexpectedly recalls Elliott Smith at his most soul-destroying, and closer ‘It’s Gonna Happen’ is a fittingly eerie send off. Few bands introvert so arrestingly. Parquet Courts have written a record that maintains their brash charm but takes more time to consider itself. Marty Hill
MASTERY
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‘Mastery’ is full of uncertainty; an electronic soundscape delivering as both upper and downer in its own heady way. It has an energy which sounds like it hasn’t been overthought, nor attempted to be overcompensated with structural ideas or grandiose attire. An album of two halves, opener ‘Blue Horror’ steers towards the groove of an off-beat fluoro optimism, continuing seamlessly through the first few tracks until the instrumental ‘The Coldest Of Shoulders’ turns to a darker place. ‘Newman’ is a hard listen but, like the rest of the record, the investment in the listen is part of the pay-off. In all its confusion and struggle, ‘Mastery’ longs for darkened corners. A truly despairing sound of joy. Giles Bidder
CONCEPTS AND PHENOMENA
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HUMAN PERFORMANCE
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DEFTONES GORE
Warner Bros
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NEVER STANDING STILL. ‘Gore’ is a bit of a strange one for Deftones. With their own guitarist, Stephen Carpenter, being open on the fact he wasn’t really on board with the direction the band was taking at the time, it’s not exactly the hype you’d hope for ahead of the album’s release. But worry not. Yes, there are moments that feel like they’re building up to a bang that doesn’t always come, but it’s not all about that explosion. The further you travel into its depths, the more you find that the album doesn’t need to shout to find its hook; bit by bit these whispers start to be heard. ‘Prayers/ Triangles’ is raggedly ethereal, leaping into Chino’s strangled yells and back again, ‘Xenon’ pulses, a power almost trying to break through its many layers. ‘Doomed User’ goes all out, heavy and commanding, where ‘Pittura Infamante’ is a well-needed puncture in the gloomier atmosphere. ‘Gore’ is familiar, but not the same. Enough to stamp the hallmarks of Deftones but allow them to sidestep and try something new. A band who will never churn out the same album twice, this is their declaration not to stay settled in their comfort zone. Heather McDaid
LIVE TWENTY ONE PILOTS O2 BRIXTON ACADEMY, LONDON
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Words: Ali Shutler. Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.
A R E N A S B E C KO N A S T W E N T Y
Ignoring the ceremony of the evening, Twenty One Pilots treat the venue like their very own playground. Venturing in, out and on top of the crowd, darting about the stage, pulling a kid from the crowd for the ‘secret handshake’ and even taking to the upper balcony for the final flourish of ‘Car Radio’, there’s a playful abandon to the show. Tonight, Tyler and Josh are everyone’s mate.
O N E PI LOTS M A KE B RI XTO N F E E L I N T I M AT E .
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hen Twenty One Pilots announced their biggest UK headline show yet, it felt like a reach. A big, looming target to aim for. The band’s peak. Yet here we are at the second of two shows at Brixton Academy and it’s completely sold out. It’s been a similar story across the UK. The stage looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland, desolate and doused in red smoke before Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun appear and slide straight into the rapid-fire of ‘HeavyDirtySoul’. Every word is instantly and furiously shot back at the pair. From the off, Twenty One Pilots make Brixton feel small while their audience stands tall. The piano-led ‘Stressed Out’ sees Twenty One Pilots’ grip tighten before ‘Guns for Hands’ sends the room spiralling out of control. It’s a playful exchange of chaos and control that the band threads throughout their set. A stripped back medley sees Tyler and Josh hold court with nothing but the bare essentials while ‘Lane Boy’ is dialled right up and, sparked by the ol’ crouch and jump, turns Brixton into a euphoric rave.
Jarring and all over the place, ‘Blurryface’ has created an anything-goes culture around Twenty One Pilots. Their live show is just as angular, just as united under their control and just as gladly received. “I wish I could have a conversation with each one of you and ask why you’re here, how you got here and what this music means to you,” starts Tyler at the evening’s close. “You guys have been the most amazing source for inspiration for writing songs and we’re so confident because of you.” Despite the boundless swagger and enthusiasm that the pair performs with, the set still contains some very human moments. Both Josh and Tyler blush when the crowd chants their names and as they step forward to take a bow at the end of the show, the applause goes on and on as the pair look on with disbelief. It further amplifies the connection they share with the crowd. The final cry of “We are Twenty One Pilots and so are you,” rings true. Tonight, everyone mattered. “You have the most beautiful house and you should invite us back,” teases Tyler but let’s be honest, after the comfort of Brixton Academy, arenas beckon. P