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I accompanied Montreal's TOTAL NADA on their recent US tour as roadie/designated driver. Rather than a tedious "tour journal," what follows is a compendium of brief scene reports from everywhere we went (to the best of my recollection) as well as some overall impressions from this slice of American punk in it's current state. Philly Does Philly really need a report? The show was at the speakeasy/dive bar Cousin Danny's next to the elevated train line, and I was delighted to learn that Cousin ...

This tape was given to me at Latino Punk Fest by someone who had heard of The Counterforce and was looking for a copy (sorry I was out!). It's a two song promo but I was told 'record soon on Iron Lung' so I hope we get to hear more. It's hardcore punk with a bit of the weird Oregon/Washington twist: a little something on the guitar, not just typical raw punk, but some weird guitar effect nerdery that reminds me of NASTI. A subtle addition but really distinguishes it. Everyone in this band probab...

Anonymous submission squatted shows and diy shows have been an essential part of the history of punk in "so called" nyc. for years there have been consistent diy spots that have been holding up the scene. unfortunately in these last few years most of those places have been stripped away from us. in a post-covid lockdown dystopia of hyper inflation, resulting in a housing crisis, diy spots are the front lines of demolition for gentrification/yuppie condos and businesses nobody asked for or can e...

Contributed By CrimethInc. Ex-Worker’s Collective A few legendary, long-running, DIY festivals dominate the summer tour circuit for hardcore punk in Europe: K-Town Hardcore Fest in Copenhagen, Fluff Festival outside of Prague, and Monteparadiso in Croatia. However, there is one towering midsummer festival that punks often overlook despite its grandeur—Fusion Festival in Lärz, Germany, near Berlin and Hamburg. With an attendance of 70,000 and a crew of 10,000 Fusion is Germany’s largest techno f...

The second print edition of The Counterforce zine is out, compiling everything on the site into a pdf that you can print and distro yourself!! Just check out the zines page to get the PDF. Get in touch if you want to contribute something to the site and to be included in the next issue! We would like to see submissions from friends who share our mission from all over. Reviews, scene reports, how-to guides, letters... any pitch or submission or idea is welcome....

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When we rented extra smoke machines for our last show, we just kept blasting THE NOT until they were completely wreathed in that foul cotton candy shit. It fit them perfectly - lead singer stalking the stage imperiously cutting through the fog looking roughly 6'11", drowned in squalls of feedback and pounding bass and drums. You know, a fucking band, right? THE NOT have been crushing sets in town recently, and now that they have recordings up we can hear the extremely solid songwriting underpin...

Every year, I organize a March Mixtape Swap where two-dozen or so of my friends contribute new mixtape and receive different mixtapes in return. This year my friend Jay submitted the "Ancient Texts" mixtape. This mixtape has an origin story. Montreal's DEADBOLT had recently played a set at 2024's Montreal Madhouse that include a cover of WARZONE's "As One". The crowd response for the cover was so disappointing that the singer, Julia, admonished the crowd: "You all need to go study your ancient t...

NO FUTURE from Perth, Australia have put out a masterpiece of noisy hardcore punk with their Mirror LP. The bass and drums are way out front on this mix and its well deserved, the noisy guitar tracks cut through perfectly when they are needed and the vocals are super powerful with maybe the perfect reverb balance. The lyrics are poetic and center around struggling through life in this corrupt immoral capitalist world. This LP rips and I hope I get to see them live cause if it's anything as ragin...

This was day 1 of the Noise Not Borders curated shows at the Suoni Per Il Popolo fest. This was a fun goth punk dancey show in the sweaty Sotterenea basement. LAURA KRIEG opened and I have never seen her perform before. It was a very 80's vibe, dancy synth tracks with vocals, and the occasional guitar lead. HRT set up on the floor and played a new set tonight. Super powerful industrial influenced noisy beats and hard vocals. Their set started a bit rough, but it all came together once the sound ...

This was day 2 of the Noise Not Borders curated shows at the Suoni Per Il Popolo fest. This was a big weekend for shows in Montreal, with multiple shows Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Just a regular Montreal summer-kickoff weekend. I didn't want to miss any of it so I got there early and had a nice time hanging out out front of the venue. This venue has a sub stage that gets set up on the floor for smaller shows and it was placed in front of the main stage, like a short runway jutting out. It mad...

Contribute by F.A.R. Company The term 'noise not music' gets thrown up these days like a cheap beer full of cigarette butts and usually by bands you can still hear the riff in a coherent way. Which is always kinda annoyed me, the amount of records I have taken home expecting the 'raw noise punk' label to actually produce a proper fukin racket just to chuck it on the player and find out it was actually a 'well cooked coherent punk' record done in a studio made by a music chef of some fancy sough...