Beginning on July 6th, intriguing duo Wreck and Reference head out on a West Coast tour with the degenerate doctorshopper. Catch these visceral acts at the following venues:

July 6th San Pedro, THE DOOM ROOM
July 7th Santa Cruz, THE WITCH HAUS
July 9th Eugene, Oregon THE HATE CASTLE
July 10th Portland, Oregon PLAN B
July 11th Seattle, WA THE COMET TAVERN
July 12th Olympia, WA HOUSE SHOW (ask the punx)
July 13th Salem, Oregon THE BURIAL GROUNDS
July 14th Oakland, CA REC CENTER STUDIOS

Having both released full lengths this year – W&R self-released the beautifully strange No Youth and doctorshopper put out the disturbing Degenerate Utopia – these two bands are poised to bring destruction and despair to the live arena. Don’t miss this.

Wreck and Reference
doctorshopper

Flenser Records
Cult of Melancholia

ASH BORER // MENACE RUINE WEST COAST TOUR MMXII
Support : Servile Sect
Presented by Pesanta Urfolk

ASH BORER – COLD OF AGES to be released by Profound Lore Records on August 14th.

One band that has really fucking shown and proved this year is Washington D.C.’s VESTIGES. This band has done everything on their own terms, and in the process released some kick ass music. What I really want to bring to your attention is that they are on an extensive European tour right now. We want all of our readers on that side of the world to support this band when they come to your country, city or town. Just so you know what you are in store, for peep this amazing live footage below and check out the tour poster after the jump!


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Remember that bad ass Sonic Cathedrals Vol. LIX Curated by Hordes and our review of the Hordes- Abarognosis EP?

Well this crushing band from Southern California’s Inland Empire will be starting their west coast tour this weekend. Their kickoff date will start on June 23rd at Gnarmageddon Fest with NEGATIVE APPROACH, Stalag 13, Coke Bust, ACXDC, Magrudergrind, Knife Fight and many more. They will then commence tour with Arizona’s Urban Struggles, a band that combines all the best parts of 80s fast hardcore with no bullshit!

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Now this could break your neck: our comrade in heavy, Southern Lord, has curated an edition of our label mixtape series. What you have is 20 songs that will make you realize why this label is on some next level shit and it’s packed full of some extra heavy gems! The Southern Lord tour kicks off today in Seattle featuring Black Breath, Martyrdöd, Burning Love, and Enabler. The SoCal horde has it good, because our stop on the tour is a free Southern Lord/Scion Showcase (click to RSVP) happening this Saturday in Pomona…peep all of the tour posters after the jump! Read what the Lord himself has to say about this comp, and stream and download below!

2012 has been been an incredible year for us so far. We have had the amazing opportunity to work some great bands. Although its only half way through the year, I’m going to say that this is probably the best year in the entire existence of the label! From legends like Sleep, Poison Idea, High on Fire, From Ashes Rise, Pelican and Earth, to up-and-coming bloodthirsty butchers: Black Breath, Martyrdod, Burning Love and Enabler. Speaking of which…I personally booked an entire US tour myself of those 4 bands, that kicks off on June 19th in Seattle.

Why in the hell would I be crazy enough to do that? I felt it was absolutely crucial for these bands to be seen, so I took matters into my own hands. Along the way, those 4 bands encounter other Southern Lord alumni like: Poison Idea, Noothgrush, Pelican, 2 new bands from Texas were working with – Power Trip and Wild//Tribe – Dead In The Dirt, and on the East Coast, The Secret from Italy join in on the madness.

The first half of this comp. is bands from the tour, and the second half are choice cuts from other recent Southern Lord releases. CRANK IT UP!

Stream CVLT Nation Label Series Southern Lord Mixtape

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I recently had the chance to sit with Christina during the current Contorture tour while at the ABC fest in Lille France. Christina sings for Agrimonia who Embers played with in Gothenberg and she plays bass for Contorture which Embers played with in Hamburg. Moving away to a quiet part of the expansive space being used for the festival to discuss whatever comes to mind.

Timm: Tell me your name and where you’re from.

Christina: My name is Christina and I’m from Gothenberg in Sweden.

T: And your bands are?

C: I sing in Agrimonia, and I play bass in Contorture.

T: So, we are playing tonight at the ABC fest in Lille with Contorture, and from what I can tell from playing with you in Hamburg, Contorture has political roots.

C: Yes, that’s true.

T: Can you tell me a little about that? Is there some underlying message that is always there, or is it changing?

C: No, I mean it’s basically the same message all the time, but I guess it’s that all the songs have different political messages, but it’s all the same kind of topics, day to day related stuff. It can have to do with the scene and how people treat each other, and how it’s just a reflection of the regular world, or whatever you say, and sexism and homophobia; all these regular punk topics.
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Aalborg, Denmark.

By the time we reach Aalborg, we are past the hallway point of the tour. Many exhausting days of early ferries pushing the hurry up and wait feeling. We arrive in Aalborg several hours early with little idea of what to do while we wait for someone from the venue to arrive. Find a spot to park the van along the river, break into a few different groups with different ideas of how to pass the time. Jerry and I find ourselves sitting along the river bank shooting the shit, talks of tours past and present, people we have met along the way, women we have had instant crushes on along the way (sometimes the same women…), and general conversation of how we are each feeling currently. Jerry drinks a beer as I watch him drink and long for the moment I can do the same. None of us miss the contrast from the last time we played Aalborg 3 years prior. We were on our way north to Oslo and it was our tour manager and good friend Jani’s last stop with us, so he and I were having quite the epic drinking fest. Upon arrival, we started drinking straight away, being told by the bartender that the beers we were drinking were the strongest beer they had (sounds like a challenge!). The night picked up very quickly from there, burning one another with cigarettes, breaking “doctored” bottles on heads, urinating onto possible skinheads from a rooftop, and passing out in the only shower available to the bands for a bit. Those were definitely the highlights of the evening. I honestly don’t even remember playing that night. I do however remember that we played with Beneath The Frozen Soil from Sweden.
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Larry Wolfley, a well known Bay Area photographer of underground culture and punk music, has been an Embers fan and friend for several years now. He’s 72 years old, and jumped on the road with us on the first day of our tour. He met us at the venue in Bologna, Italy, and rode with us for 10 days. He was a pleasure to travel with, and handled the chaos and drunken mayhem of touring life like a trooper. The following is an interview with him on his final journey with us from Aalborg, Denmark to Hamburg, Germany.

Kelly: So Larry, when did you get into punk rock underground music? Do you remember what the year was, what was going on in your life, or how old you were at the time, how long you’ve been into it?

Larry: Well, I always listened to the music, and I listened to it when it started in San Francisco in the late ‘70s early ‘80s, but I wasn’t active. I just went to a few shows, a few clubs. I wasn’t involved. I didn’t know a lot of people at that time. And then in the ‘80s I started a new career, so I wasn’t really involved in it.

It really started in the ‘90s for me. I got interested in photography in the early ‘90s, and I sort of needed a subject, and I was living next to Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. I started going up to Telegraph Avenue, going up to the campus town, a few blocks, every afternoon, and hanging out with the street kids, and I spent a good part of the ‘90s photographing the street kids, gutter punks, squatters, and so on around Telegraph avenue.

Full interview after the jump…
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6/2/12: Gothenburg, Sweden. Fucking Epic!!!

Back in ’08 I think it was, a group of travelers showed up at my house that were friends of an old roommate I lived with in Berkeley, CA. They were from the Gothenburg/Malmo/Stockholm areas in Sweden. I was immediately charmed by their genuine good nature and their interest in my housemates and our ways of life. Ever since our meeting up, we have had a connection that is constantly evolving. At my house, we have the Swedish connection that is enriching our way of life for all parties involved. Obviously, one aspect is our mutual interests in hardcore/punk/metal. Vicious Irene from Gothenburg stayed at my place for a while and had a mini tour in the Bay Area, and it was kick ass to have them play and hang out with us. An all-female hardcore band, Vicious Irene have been rocking it, at least to my knowledge, for about three or four years, and have different side projects happening now. The drummer, Maria, is in a band called Contorture with the brutal vocalist for Agrimonia, and we play with them tonight!

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The following is a video and photo tour of a couple of the squats Embers have visited so far in their European travels – Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen and Rote Flora in Hamburg…

Photos and videos after the jump…
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