PUNKTASTIC 13.05

After chilling out with our previous compilation (an acoustic set - find it at www.pnkts.tc/comp1304), we’re back again with the some full band banger. And we’ve got a hunch that this might just be 2013’s best comp yet.

We’ve got exclusive downloads for you, brand new and nev-er-heard-before music from some of our favourite bands in the UK, and one track from across the pond.

From Marmozets and The James Cleaver Quintet, who we’ve been following closely over the last few years and who we count amongst the UK’s loudest bands, to As It Is and Home Advan-tage, who are flying the flag for the UK’s new generation of pop-punk.

Speaking of which, we’re sat on the cusp of this year’s Slam Dunk festival, which means we can call the 2013 festival season in full swing very soon, and there’s a few bands on this month’s compilation you can expect to see over the summer.

We hope you enjoy 13.05 as much as we enjoyed putting it to-gether, and we’ll see you next month!

– Tom and the Punktastic Team

PS. If you head over to http://pnkts.tc/comp1305 you can down-load the whole thing! Also you can sign up so we can tell you when all our future comps are out.

INTRODUCTION

01 Gnarwolves - ‘Melody Has Big Plans’02 Lower Lands - ‘Canvas’03 Eager Teeth - ‘It’s Deceiving’04 Mixtapes - ‘Bad Parts’05 Laughing In The Face Of - ‘Wronga’06 Home Advantage - ‘Short Termism’07 Marmozets - ‘Born Young And Free’08 Stillbust - ‘Tastes Like Asbestos (From Little Richard Came)’09 Rough Hands - ‘Toska’10 The JCQ - ‘Ghosts Diffuse’11 As It Is - ‘Often’12 Lay It On The Line - ‘Therapia Lane’13 Bloody Mammals - ‘Timber’

TRACKLISTING

01. GNARWOLVESMelody has Big Plans

We’ve been longtime fans of Gnar-wolves here at Punktastic. We first saw them towards the tail-end of 2011 at Brighton’s Green Door Store on the recommendation of a friend, and promptly made them our tip for 2012 after getting to grips with their debut ‘Fun Club’ EP.

With a new EP on the way in the very near future, we couldn’t resist getting the band involved in this month’s compilation, and in ‘Mel-ody Has Big Plans’ they’re true to form.

Swerving from a darker Weez-er-esque sound to an update on

90s skate punk, the band’s style is immediately recognisable, with a staggering number of crowd-sur-fable moments.

If you’re a bit late to the party with Gnarwolves, don’t worry. You can still catch them in their natural environment of no-barriered, pub venue shout-alongs. But judging on how the last 18 months have gone - that might not last for long.

facebook.com/gnarwolves

02. LOWER LANDSCanvas

We were introduced to Lower Lands last year with their ‘Reality In Routine’ video, and we’ve been super keen ever since, keeping a close eye on what they’ve been doing.

‘Canvas’ is the title track from the band’s forthcoming EP, and we asked them what the track is about. “It’s a fast paced doc-umentation of the beginning of Lower Lands and how we sculpt-ed the band into exactly what we wanted.”

That statement is pretty apt as it goes, as in the last year Lower

Lands have become much more comfortable in their skin. ‘Can-vas’ sees them with a bit more meat on their stylistic bones, and they’ve definitely benefited from the bigger production and getting the guitar sound bang on this time out.

They’ve come on leaps and bounds, and the new EP should go along way to setting them apart from the crowd over the next few years.

facebook.com/lowerlands

03. EAGER TEETHIt’s Deceiving

One of this month’s exclusives: a never-before-heard track from Brighton’s Eager Teeth.

We’ve been hooked on the band since they released their creepy ‘Lights Out’ video a while back, and ‘It’s Decieiving’ takes a slightly different direction from that debut.

They told us that they have “been busy plotting and planning our next move for some time now, having been writing pretty much since the day we finished record-ing our debut record at the start of 2012.”

“This is a taster of what’s to come

- recorded with Neil Kennedy at Ranch Productions, it’s a noted shift towards the poppier side of things, but still with enough curve-balls to fuck with people’s heads just for our own personal amuse-ment.”

It’s certainly a slight departure from the band’s original sound, but it shows they that know what they want to make. There’s no news on when a follow up to the band’s debut can be expected, but for now you can enjoy this super early look into what that album might sound like.

facebook.com/eagerteeth

06.HOME ADVANTAGEShort Termism

When we were putting together this month’s compilation, one of the first thoughts that sprang to mind was “Surely the only option is Home Advantage.” The band duly obliged and sprung us an ex-clusive first listen to a track from their forthcoming EP.

Vocalist Ross gave us the break-down on what the tracks about. “We’re all in our mid 20s and old-er, so a lot of what we write about is getting older and balancing out the idea of having fun and enjoy-ing yourself whilst you’re still rela-tively young, but also facing up to the responsibilities of real life.”

“Short-Termism is about the idea of being too busy to make seri-ous plans for the future but then getting caught up in the now, letting that time fly by and finding you’re still in the same situation as before.”

Home Advantage have only been together for a short amount of time, but you can expect to see plenty more of them over the coming years. You can catch them this summer on their August tour.

facebook.com/homeadvantage

07. MARMOZETSBorn Young and Free

A few years ago I was checking out bands in the ‘Recommend me a band’ section of the Punktastic forums, and I saw a post plugging a new mathy band with a female singer.

It wasn’t something you’d hear that often in the UK, so I thought ‘why the hell not’ and checked them out. I was instantly blown away by Marmozets (despite only having music on MySpace then), and I’ve been a massive fan since.

Like Gnarwolves, they’re a band we’ve tipped since 2011, and we were bang on because Marmozets are now household names in the

UK scene. ‘Born Young And Free’ is the band’s new standalone single.

In their own words – “Born Young And Free is a song we wrote and recorded recently with the awe-some Larry Hibbitt (Uncle Larry) of Hundred Reasons while we were demoing for our debut album.”

“It kind of sums up our attitude to the band and life – a lot of people told us we would never make it, but we kept on going because we knew we could do whatever we wanted.”

facebook.com/marmozets

08. STILL BUSTTastes like asbestos (from little Richard came)

We’ve only just been introduced to Stillbust recently, but on hear-ing their new album ‘A Few Things We Might Agree On (A Few Things We Might Not)’, we couldn’t resist getting them involved with the compilation this month. We spoke to them about the song.. and I’m not sure they took us as seriously as some of the other bands.

Us: So what’s the song about?

Stillbust: “It’s a surreal Kaf-kaesque conversation between an anthropomorphous penis and the curator of a mental hospital in which it is being held.”

OK let’s work with this. Guys - for one, a penis itself is anthropo-morphous unless it isn’t a human one human, and we’re pretty sure that the mental hospital curator (curator?) might want to consider checking himself in.

Anyway, hah, Stillbust are an incredibly promising prospect for the mathier end of the UK hard-core scene, and we’re stoked to have them on the compilation after streaming their new album with us recently.

facebook.com/stillbust

10. THE JAMES CLEAVER QUINTET12. LAY IT ON THE LINETherapia Lane

New UK hardcore upstarts Lay It On The Line feature one of the most enduring members of the UK punk scene in Mike Scott. We’ve been keeping an eye on them since their first EP.

The track we’ve got for you is called ‘Therapia Lane’, and they explained that their song held a deep connection for them: “It’s about our friend Ben Gardner, who was murdered in Sutton on Hal-lowe’en in 2009.”

The band don’t seemed particular-ly fussed with any of the gimmicky approaches to hardcore that plague the scene in the UK (the

subject of the track itself even sets them apart), and they come off much better for it.

What you have here is straight-up hardcore punk, and the band have really stepped it up since their last release. They still have that scuzzy backroom sound, but with the ad-dition of new members they sound more confident and capable, and the split is an excellent listen.

We can’t wait to see what they move onto in the future, but for now, soak up and enjoy ‘Therapia Lane’.

facebook.com/layitontheline

10. THE JAMES CLEAVER QUINTETGhosts Diffuse

Back when I lived in Brighton, I used to be a promoter. I put on The James Cleaver Quintet a few times with plenty of UK mathcore scene, and they’ve been one of the enduring bands from the south coast that stick around to this day.

The track we’ve got for this month’s compilation comes from their soon-to-be-release second full length on the label, ‘Mechani-cal Young’.

‘Ghosts Diffuse’ is, in the band’s own words “a statement of intent for the rest of the album, big riffs,

big hooks, lots of dirty guitars and scuzzy organs”, and that really hits the nail on the head.

The band have always been about the giant riffs and manic stage show, and though there’s been a few line up rejigs along the way, they’ve been going from strength to strength.

It’s never too late to get on board with The James Cleaver Quintet, and you get the feeling they’re about to move on to pretty mas-sive things with the new record.

facebook.com/thejcq

11. AS IT ISOften

When I was told that pop-punkers As It Is are based in Brighton, I was a little confused as to why their singer sounded SO Ameri-can.

I was a worried they were falling into the same trap as many oth-er UK pop punk bands, but as it turns out... vocalist Patty is Amer-ican. It’s a bit of a weird set up, admittedly, but As It Is have been releasing some of the best new pop-punk tunes of 2013, and a support slot with Allister has done them no end of favours.

‘Often’ is a cut from a recent EP, and should grab the ears of any

self respecting pop-punk fan.

The band are definitely up there with our favourite new UK pop punk bands, and we’re really look-ing forward to seeing what they move onto next.

facebook.com/asitisofficial

04. MIXTAPESBad Parts

There’s no way we could turn down an exclusive new track from the Mixtapes gang ahead of the release of new album ‘Ordinary Silence.’

‘Bad Parts’ is exactly why we fell in love with the band in the first place.

Last Summer, Mixtapes were set to headline our Punktastic Presents event, and although it fell foul to illness, Maura gave us an awesome acoustic effort.

They’ve been a massive Punk-

tastic favourite for a few years now, and we couldn’t be more excited to have them on the compilation this time out.

With the band’s new album just weeks away, there couldn’t be a better time to get involved with No Sleep Records’ Cin-cinnati favourites. ‘Ordinary Silence’ is set to be one of the best records of the summer.

facebook.com/mixtapesohio

Wronga05. LAUGHING IN THE FACE OF

Laughing In The Face Of have been kicking around the UK scene for more than a little while, and frontman Steve Lowry has been a regular PT forum user since way back in the day, so when they got in touch saying that they had some new material, we couldn’t resist getting some on 13.5.

‘Wronga’ sees the band taking on a much more technical direc-tion than their early material, but retains the same routes in skate punk that make them so great to listen to.

The track is so hot that the version you’re hearing today has come

straight from the mixing desk on the night before the compilation was released - that’s how we like to do things here!

You can expect the track to be released as part of the band’s forthcoming Lockjaw Records EP release, expected later this sum-mer!

facebook.com/laughinginthefaceof

09. ROUGH HANDSToska

Rough Hands gave us the longest response we’ve ever had when asking for info on a track, so here’s the skinny on ‘Toska’ in the band’s own words:

“Toska is a track about struggle. certain members of Rough Hands that have grown up with barely any food to eat and had the hand of life throw some of the darkest shit at you that most people won’t experience in a lifetime, yet at the same time it’s about trying to keeping your head up high, fight-ing off your demons not letting your past effect you and doing whatever it is you need to do to stay happy.”

Which is fair enough really... the track is lifted from the band’s just released self-titled Holy Roar Re-cords EP, and if you like it, there’s multiple colours of the 7” version available from the label.

We think Rough Hands are one of the most exciting UK Hardcore bands around at the moment, and it’s another tick for Holy Roar’s fine record of picking up great new bands.

facebook.com/roughhandshc

Timber13. BLOODY MAMMALS

Punktastic recently streamed the new EP from Bloody Mammals, and we couldn’t help but take a slab from the release to feature on this month’s compilation. The band’s have a fine grasp of the finer points of UK mathcore approach, and manage to bring a fantastic dimension of melody to their sound as well.

“Timber! is one of our bassist Rob’s creations, and as a result it’s probably the trickiest/most com-plicated song on the record. It’s a short, sharp shock of a track that veers wildly through several differ-ent ideas and riffs throughout. It’s a band favourite to play live too!”

‘Timber’ is a great closer for this month’s compilation, and we think Bloody Mammals are going to have a great few years following the EP release.

The EP is called ‘Eventually Your House Will Burn Down’, and is available now through the band’s bandcamp page.

facebook.com/bloodymammals

Thank you for taking the time to read this magazine and listen to our fifth compilation of 2013.

If your band would like to be on one of our monthly compilations, then please email a song and a bit about

yourselves over to tom.aylott@punktastic.com.