"Stop stealing our shoes!"
After almost ten years fighting for attention on UK metallic hardcore (“Metallicore”!) scene, Stampin’ Ground have quit their ‘day jobs’ to pursue fulltime music careers. It seems the time has come to sink or swim.»
Articles
emellett has written the following articles:
mypetme at London Astoria 2 formerly Mean Fiddler, Sat 23 Apr
Following an exchange of guitarists and some time away from gigging mypetme make a re-energised and re-organised return to the stage; visibly proud and excited their performance tonight is refreshingly confident and well organised. The crowd are ecstatic, they have found their new local heroes.»
Fingathing at Manchester Academy 2 (formerly MDH), Fri 10 Dec
Audiovisual jazz funk hip-hop hybrid Fingathing return to Manchester this evening for a homecoming show of moderate attendance. This time around the Fat City signed trio are supporting old school favourites and Richard Whitely haters Hexstatic, introducing long term vinyl junkies to their individual mix of electric jazz-influenced basslines and b-boy styled beats and tunes.»
Pitchshifter, SikTh at Manchester Academy 2 (formerly MDH), Mon 11 Oct
With an album almost finished and due for release early next year, it would be no mistake if someone was planning this to be the tour to bring Sikth out of the shadows and into the limelight.»
The Izzys - The Izzys
The trouble with the garage sound to which The Izzys undeniably belong, is that it was a good idea to begin with, but its early popularity has caused ‘market forces’ to step in resulting in a premature saturation of the genre. Shame.»
The Icarus Line at Manchester Roadhouse, Tue 04 May
The striking black shirt and blood-red tie uniform which became The Icarus Line’s image first time around has noticeably been replaced by a nothingness of style. This is not a problem in itself, but the loss of the something that set the band apart from their peers does characterise The Icarus Line’s live performance this evening.»
Liars, The Blood Brothers at Manchester Roadhouse, Wed 05 May
The Blood Brothers' post-punk operatic screamo balances an exceptionally theatrical performance with the succinct vocal delivery you would expect from classically trained musicians.»
50 Leaves - Give Me The Weekend E.P.
If you thought all bands with a singer called Liam and a love for Northern soul would sound similar, then perhaps you were right. 50 Leaves are significantly just at the post-conception stage of their career and rather than creating a sound that is entirely their own, they are building up a repertoire through emulation rather than originality.»
Profane - Untitled
It would be wrong to call Profane’s 2004 untitled demo melodic post hardcore. They are in fact both hardcore AND melodic - just never at the same time.»
Sparehed 3 - Fences and Windows
The trouble with punk is this. It’s all about not conforming, but after so many years of non-conformity, the punk industry has formed a musical franchise that few bands can step away from.»
Winnebago Deal - George Dickel EP
The George Dickel EP may be more polished than previous 'Deal offerings, but it retains the pure-rock pungency and stench of sweat and grease that we've come to expect from the two guys called Ben.»
The Longcut at Manchester Life Cafe, Wed 18 Feb
Without even trying to be retro sheik, The Longcut have captured the essence of the mid-'80s ‘Manchester’ vibe whilst simultaneously developing a remarkably individual and unconventional modern day sound. If algebra was a form of music played by a rock version of New Order with intricate guitar riffs based around subtle changes in tempo and time signature, it might sound a little like this.»
Dashboard Confessional, The Crimea at Academy 2 (formerly MDH), Manchester, Greater Manchester, Fri 07 Nov
Dawson's Creek. You heard of it? American teen drama - imagine five high school kids sat round some bonfire on Santa Barbara beach smoking moderate nondescript amounts of pot and drinking moderate smallish bottles of non descript label less beer. Wicked...Party. The soundtrack to this would of course be Dashboard Confessional.»
How did we get here?
Another Welsh band. Another set of slackers from South Wales dressed in black and trucker caps. Another emo-core, (post) hard-core, expressional-core ‘expra-core’ band of the moment with ten thousand swooning teenage fans (more girls than boys would you believe) ready to sing and buy and dress in black and trucker caps, and why? Why do Welsh bands create this furore? What made Funeral for a Friend so massive before they’d even released their first album?»
The Holiday Plan, Billy Talent at Manchester Roadhouse, Sun 02 Nov
It’s one for the kids. In what seems to be a home town opportunity to repeat the crazy hedonistic days of this year’s Reading and Leed’s festivals, a Mothercare-sized bag load of knee high, prepubes, cider swilling rock and roll tykes have turned up at the Roadhouse...»
Six By Seven, Groucho, The Favours at Manchester Roadhouse, Sun 19 Oct
At the Manchester Roadhouse the drinks are expensive, although the bands are usually pretty cheap. Perhaps that's why no one has really bothered to come tonight, leaving the venue fairly sparsely populated. More than likely though, band nights with a higher than average residue of northern soul and indie britpop circa 1991 just don't sell so well as they used to. It's freshness, it's vibrancy - well, it just doesn't exist within the genre anymore. That's why perhaps we should just leave it alone, let it die, and walk on to bigger and better things.»
Stampin' Down
With the good comes the bad... The good news: Stampin Ground, the nicest boys in hardcore music, have finally finished recording their new album "A New Darkness Upon Us". Set to be released later this year, the Andy Sneap produced project has been touted as what could be the band's »
Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Blood Brothers at London Highbury Garage, Fri 29 Aug
Who knows where all the ladyeees have gone?! Are there any about? At all? Possibly? Here chick, chick, chick...? Do you know there wasn't a single girl on the Main Stage at Reading this year? Ladykind is certainly suffering from a lack of musical representation, and although it looks like Courtney Love is about »
Reading Latest: Prophets Pull Out!
In true Limp Bizkit stylee, The Lostprophets have withdrawn from this year's Reading Festival due to 'recording commitments', which, to be frank, is just plain bollards! The Pontypridd pretty boys have also cancelled a string of warm-up shows in Newport, Birmingham and Manchester, choosing to remain in the»
"This time it'll be a world-class album"
I’ve been given the chance to interview Stampin Ground and to be honest I’m a little scared. In the band photo before me five angry, grizzly and (possibly more worrying than anything else) very, very stacked human beings give me evils whilst I try to scribble together a few questions on a dog-eared piece of pape»
Mr Shiraz - Sleeping with the Enemy
Huddersfield eight-piece Mr. Shiraz certainly have a lot of experience when it comes to the art of punk. Since their conception in 2000 they have toured with punkers Reel Big Fish, the awesome Skindred, Therapy?, Alkaline Trio, Hell is for Heroes and the Voodoo Glow Skull»
Chris Tye - Paperclip Heart E.P.
Without even opening the slightly dog-eared plastic case before me I can see that both time and love (probably with a greater emphasis on the latter) have gone into this record. A perfectly hand crafted green paperclip has been gently placed in the back of this little package. It fits the mood of the CD perfectl»
Feeder, Stereophonics, The White Stripes at Manchester Heaton Park, Sun 04 May
Due to torrential storms yesterday’s line up of big name DJs were left playing live to a vacant arena, evacuated amidst fears of crowd safety. Today, Radio One has done their best to rectify the situation by spreading all types of straw, sawdust and wooden boards over the waterlogged site. The sun even manages to pe»
The Music, Kings of Leon at Blackpool Empress Ballroom, Fri 02 May
It feels good walking into the Empress Ballroom from the disgusting April showers that lurk outside in the wind tunnel that is Blackpool. Within the impressive venue at least a thousand people stand expectant; smoking, drinking and creating a buzz of suspense for tonight’s long awaited return of The Music»
Poison The Well, Hondo Maclean at London Camden Underworld, Sun 27 Apr
Hondo Maclean have come to fuck shit up and they know how to do that pretty well, even if British audiences still need to get to know them. They’ve toured with Steve-O from Jackass alright?! So no wonder their performances are pretty mental. We’ll get to the music later, half the immensity of Ho»
Soulfly at Manchester Academy 2 (formerly MDH), Sun 23 Mar
One day you wake up and you're 14; and you want to dress in grunge. Remember that? You want a mad-core metal chain to hang from your hips; a massive one that clanks and breaks things it knocks into and gets caught up with your knees and those wide-core trousers you’ve got on when you run… away from scallies possibly. I»
Mad Capsule Markets at Manchester Academy 2 (formerly MDH), Fri 21 Mar
I’m giving this band a great review. The 60 minute techno-punk-metal-hardcore-grindcore-firedup-fuckedup-grating-adrenaline-fuelled-machine-gun-shooting-Japanese industrial set deserves no less than a write up of the utmost respect. Breakneck beats and basslines that I’m pretty sure could destroy the transport infra»
Shadows Fall at Manchester Roadhouse, Tue 04 Mar
My God his hair is long! Can it really all be his? He could sell it for a fortune, to wig makers and rope sellers and the like. Wow! Now he’s swinging it about! EVERYWHERE! Check it out! Is this guy Medusa? He’s about 6ft 3, so they must be… 6ft ginger dreadlocks! Shadows Fall have all the aggression, exp»
Mudvayne, SikTh at Manchester Academy 2 (formerly MDH), Wed 19 Feb
Shit! Who’s that? It’s Fred Durst! No wait! - he’s way cooler - there’s no camp baseball hat for a start! Man… that’s a Mudvayne t-shirt he’s wearing! It’s Mudvayne! And that’s how I spotted Mudvayne from the safety of Manchester’s larger HMV. Weird. For metalheads they seemed quite gentle»
Rachel Stamp, Halo at London Astoria, Sat 16 Feb
Looking like a tempered down Smashing Pumpkins, completed by bald front man/guitarist, and sounding like a Muse at half-mast devoid of Matt Bellamy’s soaring vocals, Halo have a long way to go before they will actually be headlining venues the size of the Astoria. Even as the new shinning hope»