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SEPTEMBER 2018 UPSETMAGAZINE.COM
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ALL TIME LOW MUNCIE GIRLS DILLY DALLY FIDLAR IDLES
SEPTEMBER 2018 Issue 36
HELLO.
Generally, we’re used to bands wanting to get away from their home towns. The big pop punk rulebook seems to say it’s the sort of thing you need to escape to progress - a weird sense of self-depreciating pride in where you’re from. Not with Boston Manor, though. To celebrate the release of their new album ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood’, we’ve gone on a trip to the seaside for this month’s cover. And no, there’s not a kiss me quick hat in sight. It’s a bumper month for ace UK bands - with Muncie Girls, Idles and more all dropping brilliant new albums. Maybe home isn’t so bad after all?
RIOT 4. READING & LEEDS 12. FIDLAR 16. DILLY DALLY 18. ALL TIME LOW 20. ARCANE ROOTS ABOUT TO BREAK 22. PVMNTS FEATURES 24. BOSTON MANOR 36. IDLES 42. MUNCIE GIRLS 48. MENACE BEACH 50. WSTR REVIEWS 54. IDLES 56. SLAVES 58. 2000TREES TEENAGE KICKS 62. THE JOY FORMIDABLE
S tephen
Editor / @stephenackroyd
Upset Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Scribblers Dan Harrison, Danny Randon, Dillon Eastoe, Jamie MacMillan, Jenessa Williams, Jessica Goodman, Rob Mair, Steven Loftin Snappers Danny Payne, Sarah Louise Bennett Cover photo: Sarah Louise Bennett P U B L I S H E D F RO M
W E LCO M E TOT H E B U N K E R.CO M U N I T 10, 23 G RA N G E RO A D, H A S T I N G S, T N34 2R L
All material copyright (c). All rights reserved.
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Riot_
THIS M O NTH IN R O CK ...
FIDLAR
With a new album on the way, it’s time to strap back in with Zac and co.. p.12
EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN ROCK
GET READY TO ROCK. IT’S
READING LEEDS DATE: 24TH - 26TH AUGUST LOCATION: RICHFIELD AVENUE, READING / BRAMHAM PARK, LEEDS WHO’S PLAYING?: FALL OUT BOY, PANIC! AT THE DISCO, WOLF ALICE, CREEPER. SWMRS, THE USED, LA DISPUTE, SUM 41, MIKE SHINODA, TRASH BOAT, DEAF HAVANA AND MORE
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It’s time for this year’s August Bank Holiday of mayhem.
DILLY DALLY
Everything you need to know about the Canadians’ second album. p.16
UNDERØATH T HE LO C K UP // F R I DAY R E ADI N G, SATU RDAY L EEDS
Hello Aaron! How’s it going?
planned for your set?
It’s going great. I’m on a plane to Chicago from the west coast next to a sweaty lady and a newborn.
Obviously playing lots of new stuff from the new album. As far as the stage set up, I have zero clue.
Have you enjoyed 2018 so far? It’s been a whirlwind year. Underoath on the radio for the first time, lots and lots of travelling, lots of firsts.
You’re playing Reading & Leeds this summer, which of your songs typically goes down best with a festival crowd? Honestly, overseas I don’t know. It’s different everywhere.
Do you have anything special
If money and time were no object, what would be your dream stage prop I’m not a big fan of fire and stuff like that. Maybe a giant Mountain like Kanye had?
Which would be the worst possible band you could clash with from this year’s bill? If Bring Me The Horizon was playing, that would be the worst.
ALL TIME LOW
Why are the princes of pop punk sending people birthday cakes? Find out. p.18
Which of the headliners is your fave? Kendrick. True hero and visionary, with as fucked up as our country is currently, he’s standing in the gap.
Who would you like to see headline in 2019? Umm, I dunno. A few years ago I was playing drums for Paramore, and we headlined one night and Queens of the Stone Age the other. I love Queens of the Stone Age.
Do you camp at festivals, or avoid tents at all costs? I love to camp, but festival camping is a no go for me.
What’s your number one tip for surviving a weekend in a field? Beer. P
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In the three years since FIDLAR last put out a record, a lot has changed - but a charged up Zac Carper is ready to let the fire burn again. Words: Dillon Eastoe.
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There’s no place like home.
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With a second album imminent, Boston Manor are finding their seaside roots. Welcome to the neighbourhood. Words: Danny Randon. Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett.
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No false
Idles are important. We won’t be the first people to tell you, and we certainly won’t be the last. With new album ‘Joy As An Act Of Resistance’ imminent, though, there’s more to the Bristol punks than a weighty message. Words: Jamie MacMillan.
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Idles
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Perfume, Politics and
Fixed Ideals
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Muncie Girls never really thought about their debut album being a success. With second full-length ‘Fixed Ideals’ here, they’re happy just being themselves. Words: Ali Shutler.
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what a
WSTR
Having taken on the UK pop punk haters and come out the other side swinging, WSTR are ready to show their true face. Words: Steven Loftin.
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Rated_ THE OFFICIAL VERDICT ON EVERYTHING
** ALBUM OF THE MONTH **
I IDL ES
JOY AS AN ACT OF RESI STAN CE PARTISAN
eee ee
IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’L L LIKE... BANDS WITH SOMET HING TO SAY, BASICALLY.
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t can be hard to be human sometimes. When things
are really bad, it can feel like a long, cruel joke, ricocheting between an uninspiring 9 to 5, the openmouthed despa ir of the daily news cycle and the consta nt fear of loss, heartbreak and morta lity that so often clouds our consciousness. To temper that, there are the good parts. A kind act from a stranger, a job well done, a piece of art created out of the darkness that reaches out like an old friend. IDLES are a band who have never minded showing their scars, and on their second record,
‘Joy As An Act Of Resistance’, any remaining fourth wall crumbles to dust at their feet as they celebrate their stark intent to thrive, held up by the support of their community. Any album that opens with the relent less juggernaut that is ‘Colossus’ is one that is unlikely to come quietly, but while the hefty riffs and comedic turns of 2017’s ‘Bruta lism’ are still very much in place, ‘Joy…’ is the sound of a band who want to use their voice for a greater good. While ‘Never Fight A Man With A Perm’ ruminates on Love Island, Topshop Tyrants and past boyhood with the
ALKALINE TRIO IS THIS THING CURSED? eeee
A lot has happened in 18 years for Alkaline Trio. Now veterans in their scene, in between today and 2000’s ‘Maybe I’ll Catch Fire’ - the record they describe new fulllength ‘Is This Thing Cursed?’ as the companion to - more than the music has changed. Five years since their last fulllength, and with Matt Skiba’s Blink-182 call-up sitting large in the background, it’s reassuring to find the three-piece still in fine form. From the introspective to the worldweary, there’s a trademark thread that runs through every move. In a more sinister, scarier world, Alkaline Trio are battling the darkness to the bitter end. P Dan Harrison
IDLES blend of wisdom and silliness that made their name, ‘June’ is somet hing else entirely, a heart-stabbing memory of a still-born daughter that worries away in your head days after listening. It’s the softest thing they’ve ever done, and all the more haunt ing for it. Telling the tales of immigrant friends (‘Danny Nedelko’), the demonization of council estate occupation (‘I’m Scum’) and the true cost of toxic masculinity (‘Samaritans’), over break neck, spitba ll melodies, it would be easy to peg IDLES as gobby left-w ing punks on a soapbox, but what they offer is so much
more than that. Admitting their flaws but hoping for better, they lay out every thing that it means to be a man, to be a minority, to be a huma n in a screw y world, to be flesh and blood with real feelings and fears and hopes and anger. Vulnerabilit y has never been so imminently loveable, inspiring, and best of all, presented in a manner that means just as much alone in a quiet bedroom as it does in the middle of a moshpit with all your best friends. If joy is indeed an act of resista nce, then this is the band you want at the helm of the new age. P
Jenessa Williams
MENACE BEACH BLACK RAINBOW SOUND eeee
Menace Beach’s brand of fuzzy slackerpop has always felt like it might break its earthly chains and blast into space, and on ‘Black Rainbow Sound’ they deliver on that promise. Alongside the familiar buzzing guitars and laconic vocal lines, the band have beefed up their synths and there are some truly eerie alien sounding effects across the album. When paired with extraterrestrial lyrics as in ‘Satellite’, the record finds its own space, sounding like the video game arcade music on the first punk cruise to the moon. Coupled with smart use of film samples, the album displays a confident identity, with dual vocalists Liza Violet and Ryan Needham totally at ease. It’s every inch the real deal. P
Dillon Eastoe
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TREES
UPCOTE FARM, CHELTENHAM. 1 2 .07.18-14.07.18 ENTER
SHIKARI,
MARMOZETS, AMORÉ,
AT
BOSTON
NERVUS,
THE MANOR,
DREAM
WIFE,
Words: Ali Shutler, Dillon Eastoe. Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett.
W
hile most festivals have spent the summer bringing in little chunks of everything to their line-ups, 2000trees knows exactly what it is. For two and a bit days on a farm in the middle of Nowhere, Cheltenham, the festival brings together a whole bunch of bands who share a common ethos. Bands who celebrate community, know the power of other people and will happily have a chat over a pint of warm cider. While it doesn’t say it at the gate, it’s an (almost) dickhead-free zone. Because everyone is on the same level and seeing eye-toeye, it lets the bands be who they really want to be for an afternoon. Arcane Roots fully embrace their cinematic edges, blending moments of stadium indulgence, big riffs excess and crowd-pleasing promise with something more delicate. There’s empathy and quiet beauty in blockbuster scenes, a desire to connect from title card to end credits. Elsewhere, Black Honey are more than happy to star in a movie of their own lives. Rattling through twisting anthems of swaggering heartache and desert adoration, they let their beating chests lead the way into the
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DRIVE
IN,
BASEMENT, BLACK
TWIN
ATLANTIC,
CREEPER,
FOXXES
AND
TOUCHÉ MORE.
spotlight. Brutus don’t even look up, as they crash through the best of ‘Burst’. The record sees the band play with the trick of the light and live, all that shadowy promise and blinding dash feels welcoming, mesmerising and otherworldly. Boston Manor are weeks away from releasing ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood’ and that potent excitement charges through their set. Older songs of longing and despair are flecked with refreshed hope, but it’s the new songs that are already stealing the show. Black Peaks are in a similar boat. After a year away, the band are back and on the road to ‘All That Divides’. Of course, ‘Glass Built Castles’ and ‘Saviour’ still sound gargantuan, trembling with the same raucous energy that took your breath away the first time you heard them, but the likes of ‘Home’, ‘Can’t Sleep’ and ‘Electric Feel’ distil, dissect and re-imagine that brute excitement as the band toy with magic. Marmozets are still on the victory charge following the release of their ‘Knowing What You Know Now’. All those electric risks making perfect sense on the big stage, all that everyday belief connecting in the pit, the band seem more unstoppable than ever, and they’ve never really been a gang you’d willingly stand in the way of. Label mates
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