måndag 29 december 2014

Diverse scenkaraktärer summerar 2014 - Ecke (Contra Records m.m.)

Paco avrundar 2014 med att låta scenkaraktärer från Sverige och utlandet enligt ett standardiserat formulär och ur ett subkulturellt perspektiv utvärdera 2014. De "intervjuer" som är gjorda med icke svenskspråkiga har jag låtit bli att översätta, såväl för att spara tid som för att inte omedvetet färga svaren.

Contra har etablerat sig som en maktfaktor på den internationella, men främst kanske tyska punk/snäll-oi!-scenen. Med uppenbar näsa för vad som går hem i stugorna har de knutit en rad band till sitt stall, däribland svennar som On The Job, Oldfashioned Ideas och Projekt 9.

Music Release of the year: Hard question. of course we all expected a lot from names which everybody seem to love: like BISHOPS GREEN, BOOZE & GLORY or NOI!SE and they all "delivered", but for me i was so happy that we really got the possibility to release that new single of THOSE UNKNOWN. Damn i loved this band since the 90ies and now they are back. This record and that demo of Pittsburgh NO TIME which was pressed on vinyl are my music releases of the year. Plus the SHANDY debut 7" on Bootboys Cove records!

Best gig of the year: No doubt this was the Beach Beer Chaos Festival in Barcelona end of august. Good people, a brilliant line up, a great city, many drinks, pretty ladies - how can you beat that? besides this i also enjoyed the "90is Oi! Club" Party in Berlin when legendary german Punk band PÖBEL & GESOCKS played a only songs of their debut album when the band was still known as BECKS' PISTOLS.

Biggest disappointment of the year/worst release: huh…even harder question. Maybe i have expected a bit too much from RANCID as i am a total die-hard fan, but for some reason their new album wasn't running that much on my player. Maybe i was a bit tired after all the side-projects of Lars and/or the millions of TIM TIMEBOMB singles. I don't know. But i am complaining on a high level if you understand. No, it shouldn't be on a "disappointment/worst release" list! To be honest, i never buy bad records, haha!

Some other thoughts on the scene of 2014? Did something special, bad, sad or spectacular happen? This is not easy, especially when i have to answer not in my own language. It's all the same shit again since 30 years, well, i miss songs with an message like "National Insurance Blacklist" or "Coventry" (both THE BUSINESS) or "Solidarity" by the UPSTARTS. For me too many new and even old bands just sing about their hard life as Skinheads (and most of them really have no hard life according to their Facebook and stuff), this sounds sometimes like tales from a comic book for me. But it's not typical for 2014. And - also not really new - it's really disturbing how many people behaving like idiots by taking pictures with "famous scene people". Hope you understand what i mean. Embarrassing. "Look, thats me and Han / Lars / Jenny Woo / Robert from AntiPati"

What's your plans for 2015? Well, as a promoter i will do some smaller shows here like i did all the years, a few bigger shows too and of course another Endless Summer Festival. With Contra we have a crazy release plan for 2015, so many great and good bands around and we really looking forward to 2015. A new 7" by HEADWOUND, a split of SAINTS & SINNERS & GRADE 2, a new 7" by SUBCULTURE, new records of SECRET ARMY, BONECRUSHER, 45 ADAPTERS and many more. Busy months! Thanks for the Questions and have a successful and happy new year! Ecke

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