Polar Bear Club are a band I came across one night back in 2008 while I was sitting in my room at my old house on 8th St. in West Oakland snatching up a random records off iTunes for an impending two week vacation to New York City. I had been downloading anything that would fall under the general pop punk/melodic hardcore catagory, and the iTunes music store suggested I check them out. I remember thinking "what the fuck kind of name is Polar Bear Club?" I ultimately said "fuggit" and bought Sometimes Things Just Disappear on a whim. Needless to say, I was blown away. Growing up during the golden age of what some, but not all people call "emo" in the mid-90s, it had been a very long time since I had heard any band nail that sound since The Promise Ring broke up.
As (mis)fortune would have it, Polar Bear Club happened to be touring California when I was going to be in New York, so I totally missed seeing them on their first US tour, but ended up seeing them about eight months later with Living With Lions in San Francisco, where their live show actually moved me to stagedive for what could have been the first time in 2009. After that gig it was sealed: I was a diehard Polar Bear Club fan.
Their previous full length, Chasing Hamburg was good, but as the album progressed, it lost the overall intensity and ferocity of their earlier releases (not to say that there weren't some bangers on it though). I don't fault the band for that. Writing an album is incredibly difficult. I was definitely curious to hear Clash Battle Guilt Pride, but after not loving Chasing Hamburg, I was expecting the record to lack the intensity that drew me into the band in the first place. Like so many other times in my life, I couldn't have been more wrong. If Chasing Hamburg shined grit and ferocity for pop sensibility, Polar Bear Club managed to blend both elements flawlessly on Clash Battle Guilt Pride. The opening track, "Pawner", is one of those opening tracks that sets the tone for an entire album, triggering that excited, antsy feeling in your gut when you just know you're in for one hell of a good time. Polar Bear Club dance on that fine line between accessibility and intensity for the remainder of the album, delivering stand out songs like "Killin' It", "Life Between The Lines", and "I'll Never Leave New York". Pop punk and melodic hardcore continue to be watered down by so many subpar Warped Tour bands or by kids who got tired of playing mosh metal and want to try their hand at "making it big". Polar Bear Club evoke the overall feel of an era of hardcore and emo that remains a not too distant memory for some of us, but continues to fade further in the rearview mirror as each year goes by. Clash Battle Guilt Pride is outstanding, and highly recommended by us at Freelance Fiend. It drops later this month on Bridge 9 Records.
Oldman is back. He was busy being a father and a normal person so it took him a minute to do his next round of totally awesome hip hop video reviews. He still is sitting on some, but here's a few we've had kicking around the inbox for a minute.
Young L "Loud Pockets"
I appreciate that the new breed of hip is attempting to innovate with the stripped down digital 8 bit sound, but it seems that innovation has not made its way to the lyrics. Young L has no business holding a mic. As Ice Cube accurately called out to Dre on No Vaseline,"Yo L, stick to producin." The lyrics are garbage and why is he trying to sound like he is losing his voice? I've heard him interviewed and he is articulate and his voice sounds nothing like it does when he raps. I hate when people put on an affect to sound hood. I get the sense he is pulling a Will Smith on us. In private its "pardon me can you pass the Grey Poupon" on the mic its "swagged out errday."
By the way what's the over/under on when "swag" will officially die as a phrase? It's already tired and if you have to tell me you have it, you don't. I see it going the way of "shizzle" pretty soon. I give it a few months before you hear a character on your favorite sitcom use it.
The girl in the video is hilarious though. Not attractive and no rhythm. Why is she there? Was he paying homage to LL Cool J's Going back to Cali video?
DJ Khaled "All I Do Is Win Remix" (with like 10000 other people)
Can someone explain what it is that DJ Khaled does? He isn't a rapper and all of "his" hits are produced by other people including this one. So what is it that he does? He reminds me of the kid on the block who was the only one to have a PlayStation and everyone went to house to play even though they thought he was lame.
As for this song and video, I thought there were a couple of cool verses. Can't think of a guest feature type song where the female had the best verse but I think Nicki actually did on this one. I'm convinced Puffy paid to get on this track just to promote his vodka. He might be the worst MC of all time and I'm glad I now know Ciroc is his so I wont accidentally buy it. Clearly the video producer knew Puffy and Fat Joe had the worst verses. Notice how he prominently featured the video models during their parts? Dudes would have fast forwarded otherwise.
I like DJ Khaled's "I'm on One" better, which of course he didn't produce either.
Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oly Sykes says "Sup" to legions of kids from the 'burbs.
For a band that often gets picked on for haircuts or style, Bring Me The Horizon are actually pretty brutal, and unfairly get shit from a lot of the metal world for reasons not understood by people who regularly engage in sexual activity. They write catchy mosh parts, frontman Oly Sykes is a rather interesting frontman to watch bounce around a stage, and their air of controversy (drug use, alcoholism, sketchy stories) make them sound like they're great dudes to party with. In fact...they even got booted offstage at Wembley Arena for bringing the mosh too hard:
Apparently shit got too "out of hand". Apparently Wembley Arena doesn't know what "out of hand" actually is.
The Sheffield boys brought their general regard for crowd safety, as well as Architects UK, Deez Nuts, Of Legends, and consequently a bunch of dumpy teenagers to the Fillmore in San Francisco Saturday night in what ended up being the end of summer blow out for Bay Area metalcore youth (Parkway Drive was supposed to be on the bill but someone who works for their management didn't get the work visas together and is probably on unemployment now). It remains unknown if some underdog, protagonist, young dude finally kissed the crush he had all summer while throes of awkward high schoolers epileptically moshed around them to "The Sadness Will Never End", but the short lines at the bar and questionable fashion choices improved our mood so much that we're going to assume that little Johnny Fauxhawk finally got a piece. But enough about the crowd, lets talk about the bands...
Slamming the mic stand into the stage is always a hard stage move.
To be honest, there wasn't much expected from any of the openers on this tour, so when we rolled up the stairs at the Fillmore hearing what sounded like a "not quite as European Meshuggah" blasting through the the doors of the main room, we were piqued with intrigue. Of Legends are apparently a side project of one of the guys in The Secret Handshake who has recently decided to go off the heavy deep end and take his show on the road. After checking out The Secret Handshake (you can do so here), we at Freelance Fiend would like to say "GOOD JOB DUDE". Of Legends pummelled kids for thirty minutes with bouncy, off time breakdowns and the confidence and enthusiam of frontman Louis Dubuc, who's time in The Secret Handshake clearly made him feel more at home onstage opening a big tour than a lot of other bands that have been in that position. Dubuc was able to get the crowd to do whatever he yelled at them to do, which is something newer bands struggle at. Couple that with music that was surprisingly heavy and interesting and we had one of the highlights of the show. We are going to investigate these guys some more, but we highly recommend checking them out if they roll through your town.
We usually try to stay away from negative reviews (because they're a drag), but sometimes you can't avoid it. Deez Nuts play heavy, New York style hardcore with a corny hip hop influence that could be considered the absolute polar opposite of what Cold World do. Instead of subtle homages to Public Enemy or Wu-Tang Clan blended with a unique mix of NYHC and late-80s crossover thrash, Deez Nuts pull every corny, psuedo-violent and unfunny woman-hating line from every played out Tupac or Biggie single and spew them over riffs Madball or Throwdown retired seven or eight years ago. The only thing worse than watching them was their small yet enthusiastic group of people who were there to see them. Thanks but no thanks, guys.
After Deez Nuts, we were ready for anything else musically to happen on that stage. Literally anything. So if for no other reason, Architects UK sounded fucking SWEET. Musically, these British dudes brought forth the better than average metal hardcore, and motherfuckers were WAITING to get loose during their set. They weren't the second coming of Buried Alive or anything (however they did have a few parts that reminded me of them), and we probably wouldn't bump their record in the car, but they were a decent live band who were definitely interesting to watch, and if you like the mosh metal, they are definitely worth checking out (that sort of thing just isn't our bag for the most part).
EEEVVVEEEEENNFFFFLLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW...THOUGHTS ARIVE LIKE...I MEAN BLARRGGGHHH
By the time Bring Me The Horizon came on, the Fillmore had filled up and it was very apparent that this is why the kids crawled out of the woodwork. The house lights dropped and singer Oly Sykes started the set standing on the barricade, inciting a stream of very well mannered and organized crowd-surfing for the mic. They opened with "Diamonds Aren't Forever", which if you haven't heard it, is one of those songs that was made to open a set with. The band set the energy bar high, and the crowd kicked into such high gear that they kicked all of us photographers out from behind the barricade before the first song even ended due to the steady stream of teens flopping over the barricade. The band spent the next hour churning out tracks from both 2008's Suicide Season as well as their newest record, There Is A Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It, There Is A Heaven, Let's Keep It A Secret, assault the crowd both sonically as well as with a rather impressive lighting set up and a well timed balloon drop from the ceiling. Oly Sykes is an impressive frontman, but guitarist Jona Weinhofen (ex Bleeding Through, I Killed The Prom Queen) brought his own unique panache to the band's live show, often taking some of the focus off of Sykes while showing the crowd that he's more than just a dude who can shred on guitar. It wasn't the most ravaging set we've seen Bring Me The Horizon bring to Northern California, but it was still one of the most blazing shows we saw this summer. This tour runs through October across a lot of North America, and is well worth the $20 if you like shows where plenty of mosh is brought.
