Lawijtstrijd 2024 – De kop is eraf!

SINT-NIKLAAS. Afgelopen zaterdag vond de eerste voorronde van Lawijtstrijd 2024 plaats in De Nest (Jeugdcentrum De Eglantier). Pink Mantra, Titans, Cracks en Simon Le Ma namen het tegen elkaar op. Het werd een gevarieerde voorronde in aanwezigheid van 200 kijklustige muziekfans en sympathisanten. En het ging er bij momenten zeer stevig aan toe!

Cracks en Pink Mantra, met leden uit onder meer Lokeren, Stekene en Waasmunster, wisten de jury te overtuigen om door te stoten naar de finale op zaterdag 11 mei in De Casino Concertzaal in Sint-Niklaas. In Cracks zag de jury veel potentieel gezien de jeugdige leeftijd van de bandleden die bijzonder veel kabaal veroorzaakten en De Nest tot een heuse moshpit omtoverden. Het hek ging volledig van de dam toen de energieke frontman het publiek indook tijdens hun stuivende show. Ze speelden een strakke set met catchy songs waar het enthousiasme afdroop. Pink Mantra wist te enthousiasmeren door hun samenspel, straffe backing vocals, een hoog fun(k)gehalte en de charismatische frontman die bij wijlen snedig uit de hoek kwam als Zack de la Rocha.

Cracks ging bovendien aan de haal met de publieksprijs. Hun aanwezige fans wisten maar liefst 114,7 decibels te produceren. Zij gaan alvast naar huis met tickets naar keuze voor De Casino Concertzaal.

De jury bestond naast leden van de diverse partners ook uit Isaac Roux, voormalig winnaar van o.a. De Nieuwe Lichting  en de publieksprijs van Humo’s Rock Rally.

Zaterdag 13 april om 20 uur vindt de tweede voorronde van LAWIJTSTRIJD ’24 plaats in Jeugdhuis Okapi in Lokeren waar Dammit, Ide Snake, Mellecrack en Vision het tegen elkaar zullen opnemen.

www.decasino.be

Even voorstellen – RONKER – album announcement

RONKER, the speed noise band hailing from the heart of the swamplands of Belgium,
release their new single ‘Slow Murder’ on FEB 20th. It’s the first song of their upcoming album “Fear Is A Funny Thing, Now Smile Like A Big Boy’ or “FIAFTNSLABB” in short.

The album is set to be released on May 10 on Labelman.

Febr 24
About ‘Slow Murder’
'Slow Murder’ acts like a hand grenade sized song full of dissonant aggression, fueled by the
ability to put things in perspective. The song is the ideal appetizer for the upcoming record. It kickstarts a new campaign for RONKER in which the goal is simple: take on all naysayers of crossover.
RONKER - Slow Murder (Official video) (youtube.com)

April 24 RONKER - HIIT (Official Video) (youtube.com)

With ‘HIIT’ RONKER test the limits of standard tuned guitars. Stupendously aggressive and surprisingly filled to brim with hooks. From 80’s trash to noise, post metal and back in the scope of three minutes. Lyrically, it collects accusations against consumer society. Pointing it’s finger at the mirror, knowing well enough that everyone shares the blame. “Feast on the carcass of culture, you want it” make sure you wear a bib already.

New album “Fear Is A Funny Thing Now Smile Like A Big Boy”
The new RONKER album - for short “FIAFTNSLABB” (pronounced FIAFT’NSHLJAB) - is not only an ode to celebrating naivety, the album is deliberately kept unpolished and playful.
It’s a kind of DUPLO-metal, opting for simplicity and a broad color palette.

While RONKER’s anger was initially internal, it’s now more extraverted and outspoken.
Self-hatred has given way to the fear of growing up. Throughout the album, the band shifts the narrative and mocks the need for rat racing and conformity in beige tones.

On their debut album, the band sounds hungry, nervous, and indulges in its bipolair nature: the carelessness of post-punk and the concrete character of 90’s alternative metal both contribute equally to the bands DNA. In their concoction there are bits of hardcore, blend with noise, indie, prog and punk. No house is sacred anymore.

”FIAFTNSLABB” will be released on May 10th through Labelman.
Tracklist
1. Professional Facebreaker

2. Kennedy
3. Slow Murder
4. Fear :)
5. Denderslijk
6. Boys In The Elevator
7. HIIT
8. Black Toast
9. Wallswallswalls
10. Hools
11. Ballad Of The Big Boys
    
    About RONKER
    Formed in 2020 in the heart of the swampland of Belgium, RONKER comes naturally weathered and screaming bloody murder. Their music can be described as a mix between Danzig-era, Misfits and Helmet. Equally influenced by the earliest of hardcore-punk and 90’s alternative guitar music.
    Since its inception RONKER can mainly be found on the road. Carving out an audience in the most old-school fashion: by playing live. Always visceral, urgent and frantic, RONKER is a prime example of being committed to rock and roll athleticism, trowing shapes and taking names.

Even voorstellen – Thou – Umbilical

THOU ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM UMBILICAL, DUE 31ST MAY VIA SACRED BONES

 "I FEEL NOTHING WHEN YOU CRY”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xduNsuJVxGs

SELECT DATES ANNOUNCED, INCLUDING THE NEW ORLEANS PALESTINE BENEFIT ON 13TH APRIL

"They've called us anarchists, criminals, foreign meddlers, lunatics, dispossessed, relativists, utilitarians, egoists, passion maximizers, ascetics, negators of everything. Clearly, the "Thou" experiment is never going to appeal to audiences who demand that art rigorously enforce a coherent and righteous worldview.

And yet, are we not ourselves constrained by our own rigid morality? In those quiet moments of deep contemplation, when the bargains and concessions are thoroughly examined, when we yield before the Judging Eye--what is the summation of our choices? If the unspoiled self beyond the immensity of time were given voice, what pronouncements would be made? What would such an internal audit yield? What undeniable character would be revealed?

This record is for the radicals, the crackpots, the exiles who have escaped the wasteland of capitulation. This record is for the militants and zealots refusing to surrender to comforts, to practicalities, to thirty pieces of silver. And this record is most especially for the weaklings and malingerers, burdened by capricious indulgence, hunched by the deep wounds of compromise, shuffling in limp approximation, desperately reaching back towards integrity and conviction." – THOU

Thou has always been a force of raw energy and unapologetic dissent, defying easy categorization and challenging listeners to confront the complexities of existence. Their forthcoming album, Umbilical, is their firmest nod to the latter - a record filled with mosh-ready riffs, heavy breakdowns and scathing vocals. The band’s aesthetic and political impulses have always been punk and like anyone embroiled in the subculture Thou have been exploring what it means to exist within and without a rigid morality. That exploration takes thematic center on Umbilical and their self-assessment is as harsh as that of the world around them.

Thou share their seething lead single and album centerpiece, “I Feel Nothing When You Cry.” Quote?
Umbilical is Thou's first full-length release of original music since their 2018 Sacred Bones debut Magus, and 2020 collaborative split with Emma Ruth Rundle, May Our Chambers By Full. 
Umbilical will be released across all digital platforms and available in stores May 31 via Sacred Bones.
All vinyl editions come with a black 7” featuring the tracks "I Feel Nothing When You Cry” and "Unbidden Guest”, which are also available on CD and digital products.

Umbilical album cover

UMBILICAL DIGITAL + CD TRACK LISTING:

1  - NARCISSIST'S PRAYER

2 - EMOTIONAL TERRORIST

3 - LONELY VIGIL

4 - HOUSE OF IDEAS

5 - I FEEL NOTHING WHEN YOU CRY

6 - UNBIDDEN GUEST

7 - I RETURNED AS CHAINED AND BOUND TO YOU

8 - THE PROMISE

9 - PANIC STRICKEN, I FLEE

10 - SIEGE PERILOUS

UMBILICAL PHYSICAL TRACK LIST:

LP SIDE A

1 - NARCISSIST'S PRAYER

2 - EMOTIONAL TERRORIST

3 - LONELY VIGIL

4 - HOUSE OF IDEAS

LP SIDE B

5 - I RETURN AS CHAINED AND BOUND TO YOU

6 - THE PROMISE

7 - PANIC STRICKEN, I FLEE

8 - SIEGE PERILOUS

7" TRACKS

1 - I FEEL NOTHING WHEN YOU CRY

2 - UNBIDDEN GUEST

Even voorstellen - John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davis - Lost themes IV: noir

03/05 (sacred bones/konkurrent)

JOHN CARPENTER, CODY CARPENTER & DANIEL DAVIES
- Announces ‘Lost Themes IV: Noir’
- Out 3rd of May on Sacred Bones
- March 2024 single & video “My Name Is Death"“my name is death” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDBnBdNyYiM
- April 2024 single & video “he walks by night” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRphPPz5i9U
- Starring Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood), Staz Lindes (The Paranoyds) and Misha Lindes (SadGirl)

John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies announce details of forthcoming album ‘Lost Themes IV: Noir’, set for release on the 3rd of May. Along with the announcement, they share a first single from the collection, “My Name Is Death”, and accompanying video starring Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood), Staz Lindes (The Paranoyds) and Misha Lindes (SadGirl).

It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become 'Lost Themes', his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. In the years since, Carpenter, Carpenter, and Davies have released close to a dozen musical projects, including a growing library of studio albums and the scores for David Gordon Green’s trilogy of Halloween reboots. With 'Lost Themes IV: Noir', they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Sandy [King, John’s wife and producer] had given John a book for Christmas, of pictures from noir films, all stills from that era,” Davies says of the lightbulb moment for Lost Themes IV. “I was looking through it, and I thought, ‘I like that imagery, and what those titles make me think of. What if we loosely based it around that? What if the titles were of some of John’s favorite noir films?’”

From that seed, the music the trio was working on began to shape itself into an album. Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs.

The lead single and scene-setting album opener “My Name Is Death”, shared online today, feels like new territory for Carpenter. A driving, almost punkish bassline initiates the action, before being joined by washes of atmospheric synth, pulsing drum machine, and, at the song’s climax, a smoldering guitar solo. If the goal of the Lost Themes project is to create music that’s as cinematic as anything we can picture in our heads, “My Name Is Death” might be the group’s most successful effort yet.

The accompanying video, starring Carpenter, Carpenter and Davies alongside Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood), Staz Lindes (The Paranoyds) and Misha Lindes (SadGirl) is a miniature noir movie in itself, directed by Ambar Navarro. John Carpenter comments: "Noir is a uniquely American genre born in post-war cinema. We grew up loving Noir and were influenced by it for this new album. The video celebrates this style and our new song, My Name is Death."

Watch “My Name Is Death” here: https://youtu.be/TDBnBdNyYiM?si=O4c9hPqEk4-o-p5G

Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes the songs on Lost Themes IV “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone. The noir quality, then, is something you understand instinctively when you hear it. “Some of the music is heavy guitar riffs, which is not in old noir films,” Davies notes. “But somehow, it’s connected in an emotional way.”

A recurring theme in talking about the Lost Themes IV process was how easy, intuitive, and natural it felt. That’s owing not just to the decade that this trio has been recording music for public consumption. Their collaboration dates all the way back to the younger Carpenter and Davies’ childhood. The two of them jammed constantly, and they cut their teeth in high-school rock bands together. (“I just listened and appreciated,” John says.) It helped that they grew up in a musical environment. Daniel’s dad is the Kinks’ Dave Davies, and he would pop by the L.A. studio – the same one the Lost Themes records are made in today – to jam, or to perform at wrap parties for John’s films. Steve Buscemi was an occasional guest drummer, and on one memorable night, Hammer Horror composer James Bernard stopped by to show the youngsters how he wrote his Dracula themes.

“We were always watching movies and talking about music,” Davies says of his and Cody’s shared childhood. “How does music work in movies? Why is a movie scary? What is that movie about? What is the underlying theme? We were always talking about that kind of stuff, all the time.”

By the time they got together to make the first Lost Themes, the Carpenters and Davies were, at least informally, decades deep into their collaboration. That album helped formalize a way of working that has largely gone unchanged 10 years later. “It’s always been pretty much the same,” John says. “We all jump in. We all have ideas. Sometimes the ideas don’t work. Sometimes they do. But it’s a democracy, in that sense. It’s a sense of, ‘Oh, I don’t like that. Let’s do it again.’ We usually police ourselves. We usually decide whether our performances are no good. And then we just do it.”

“We’re all bringing something different,” Davies adds. “I think you’ve got to let that person express that idea, and then, if it’s not working, then we all kind of know it’s not working. But it’s really rare that that even happens.”

That kind of free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.

“This is who we are, I think,” John summarizes. “Daniel’s the adventurer. He pushes for new sounds, new directions. He tries things that I haven’t thought of. He’s a lot more daring than I am, and he enriches the whole thing. Cody’s the musician. He’s a savant at music. He understands music. We depend on him to rescue us.”

And what about John’s contribution? With characteristic understatement, he concludes: “I’m the experience. I’ve done music for movies before.”

‘Lost Themes IV: Noir’ track list:

1. My Name is Death - official video
2. Machine Fear
3. Last Rites
4. The Burning Door
5. He Walks By Night
6. Beyond The Gallows
7. Kiss The Blood Off My Fingers
8. Guillotine
9. The Demon’s Shadow
10. Shadows Have A Thousand Eyes