The Scars Heal In Time

(Photo: Southern Envy)

    In the heart of the Houston, the largest city in Texas, you'll find two young musicians doing what bands twice their age have yet to accomplish. The Scars Heal In Time, which had their first practice in late July, 2010, have played over a hundred shows since forming, have opened for Bad Company in front of over 10,000 people, and have released an album titled Twisted Truth. What makes all of this even more impressive? They've accomplished all of this before their 18th birthday.
    The band consists of sisters 16 year old Kayla(guitar/bass/vocals) and 13 year old Tayler(drums/screams) Smith. Their young age comes at an advantage and a disadvantage. "Being a young two piece, people don't want to take a chance on us playing at their bars and clubs. But once we get in we are always asked back. People tend to underestimate us because we're young and look cute and innocent." Says the band.

(Photo: Southern Envy)

    The girls are influenced by Nirvana and many female fronted bands. Joan Jett is a huge inspiration for them and the girls also look up to local Austin band, One-Eyed Doll. "They have helped us out a lot and are really great people."
    When asked to describe their sound, the band had trouble coming up with a straight forward answer. "That's hard... Cause we are so many different things. Something along the lines of Alternative / Rock / Punk / In Your Face."
    The local Houston scene is very metal, according to the girls. "There are a few bands around who don't fall into the category but the majority of them are metal. Strangely, the metal crowds love us. We are very involved in the local music scene. In order to gain respect and support you have to give it. We go out to other local shows whenever we can. We love our local music scene."

(Photo: Rhonda Austin Meredith)

    Recently, the band released their album, Twisted Truth, in April 2011. The band talked a bit about the album.

"If you ask ten people what our sound is you will get ten different answers. We once got "Heavy Mellow" Not quite sure what that means but we like it! We write from the stuff we see and hear about daily. Since we are so young we don't really have a lot of life experience so we put ourselves in other peoples shoes. 

The songs on Twisted Truth are mostly about relationships but not what you would expect from us. We've had grown men come up to us and tell us they can relate to our songs which is an awesome feeling.

So far we haven't taken it online. We should be doing that soon though. We have sold quite a few actually. We have received a lot of airplay on internet radio shows. One of the songs "Love Or Death" (Which is a Romeo and Juliet type story) is the fade out song on the internet TV series "Cyphers" starring Debrianna Mancini.  She is that actress that was in "Crazy Hearts" with Jeff Bridges."

(Photo: Rhonda Austin Meredith)

    Clubs, concerts, festivals and even motorcycle rallies, the girls play it all. "We've played over 100 shows with as few as 20 people and as many as 15,000.  Obviously, we enjoy the bigger shows more, but we just love playing." Their shows are loud and awesome. "Expect it to blow you away. And definitely expect the unexpected."
    The band is really itching to get back into the studio "We have some new songs we want to get recorded.  We are starting to play more dates out of town. Some not too far like Dallas, San Antonio but we are also going to Colorado and in December we will be in Nashville."
    Be sure to check out the band's Facebook!

Sleeze

    In December of 2009, through herbal influences, the band Sleeze joined forces to create a hard and mostly dangerous sound. This Rockford band has been around for over two years and have still managed to keep their music honest and BS free.
    The band describes their sound as disgusting, careless and violent. The band prides itself in it's performance. "There is no typical band performance with sleeze, expect the unexpected." Says the band.

    The band's upcoming Ep is different from their previous releases due to member changes as well as improved drumming and more soul. The band insists that "it's still Sleeze." "(We've) just taken the next step up, we're growing."
    Through their music, the band gives off the message to "Live your life with no limitations and to live like you're dieing, slip her the tongue." Check out the band's Facebook!

The Sweet Nothings

      If you look past the blast beats and excessive breakdowns in the La Crosse, WI music scene, you'll find the fun, laid back band that calls themselves The Sweet Nothings. The band's been around for over a decade and continues playing their brand of what can only be described as "party punk."
      The band came together in 1999, as young musicians, they aimed to mimic bands like Blink 182 and Green Day. Since then, the band feels as though they have really bloomed into their own sound. "When you're young you just want to sound like your heros. As time passed, we grew. We would kick around new sounds, new ideas, and new ways of writing."
      "In the first few years of being a band we were so obsessed with being 'the next big thing' we really didn't allow ourselves to take a step back and say 'Wow! We sound like 5000 other bands, we should try to do our own thing".  Today, we're just having fun.  We sit down as a group of friends, as close as family and just start jamming.  Whatever we feel at the time that's what we write.  We don't feel we have to be held down by one particular sound.  It's one thing I love about our band now, we are just having fun and writing what we feel."

      Since the formation over ten years ago, the band has learned numerous lessons. "First and foremost, you cannot take yourself too seriously. Remember that this is supposed to be fun!  When it stops being fun and starts being a "job" quit.  Now, if it's still a "job" but you're having fun, keep on keeping on!  If you take yourself too seriously, it's not worth it, it takes the fun out of it.  Another huge lesson we learned is unity. You have to be willing to put yourself out there and help other bands. This 'out for yourself' attitude has to stop!"
      "(We) remember when bands would trade shows and it didn't matter if we were playing to 5 or 500 people, we were just happy to be playing a show.  Now it seems as though every band we contact says 'well, we can get you a show in our town (that you've never played) if you can draw 50 people.'  Seriously? We've never played your town before and you want us to bring the crowd?  You are the local band.  Isn't that the point of doing show trades?  To inject new bands into your scene?  Or sometimes you just get bands that just flat out refuse to help you get shows.  That, to us, is just sad." Says the band.

      The band has several influences such as bands like Rufio, Strung Out, Rise Against. "Really we draw influence from everywhere.  I know we all carry a big torch for Four Year Strong.  We also love Andrew W K, Set Your Goals. When we are road tripping, we listen to and pull ideas in from tons of different bands.  In one four hour drive we could go from listening to MC Lars or Weerd Science, to Pantera or Blackguard. We will listen to Bad Rabbits, Hank III, Descendents, NIL8, Against All Authority, Blacklist Royals, and The Exposed.  We played with Bobaflex and those guys killed it so I'm sure we'll be listening to them.  There are so many bands that have influenced us over the years and that continue to be a source of inspiration we could probably easily list 500 bands.  But we do have to give a shout out to our boys in GUFF please come back to La Crosse, we miss you!"
      With this whirlwind of influences, the band's sound has fused into a sort of party punk/rock and roll type genre. They include heavy guitar riffs and keyboards, with lots of gang vocals."Just funmusic you can throw on and rock out to."

      When it comes to playing shows, the band tries not to stay in one crowd. The band enjoys branching out and playing for new crowds. The band has played with bands like Fall Out Boy, Motion City Soundtrack, Brand New, and ska punk favorites MU330. "We have also played shows with Four Letter Lie and some heavier local bands.  We played with Bobaflex, not really our style but it was a hell of a night!"
      "We are working on setting up a show called "La Crosse Mindf*ck"  or something to that effect. Basically, we are going to have a little bit of everything there. Orwell, an amazing metal band from La Crosse, Another Exoneration, an incredible local indie rap/hiphop crew, and ourselves and possibly more bands all want to do a show together to try to bring all of our fans and friends together. We think it will be a blast!  Another thing is we will play pretty much any venue.  A sweaty dank nasty basement can be just as awesome as packed concert hall.  We are always looking for new places to play and we always trade shows.
      When performing, the band tends to stay away from anything too tacky or scripted like synchronized moves. "We play with our hearts and whatever comes out comes out, even if that's our keyboard player running to the front trying to get people to clap or our singer pounding on his chest like a freaking ape. We definitely feed off the crowds energy.  We could be having the WORST day of our lives but if the crowd is giving it to us, we're gonna give it back times 10!  We try to get the crowd as involved as possible, it could be with singing some gang vocals, clapping or our favorite yet, good old fashioned mosh pits. Not this new breed of mosh pit, we mean the good ole 'lets move around get into it dancing together a little push and shove but if someone falls you pick them up' kind of mosh pit."

      So what's next for the band? "We're going to be writing a ton of new material, playing shows, recording a new record.  We are really trying to make a push to play some dates of next year's Warped Tour.  We really want to try to bring our music to as many new people as possible.  We don't need to be the next Rise Against or Foo Fighters, but we would love to be able to share what we do with the world.  We've met so many amazing people both bands and fans and we just want more."
      You can download 3 free songs on the band's Bandcamp! "If you want to play a show with us or want us to come to your town, we do our best to get everywhere we can, email us at sweetnothings@sweetnothingsrock.com"

This Obsession

      This Obsession, the punk band from Chicago formed over 2 years ago in July 2009. Mark Kronenberg (vocals/guitar) was in a heavy metal band called Poi Poi Poi, and was in desperate need of bandmates after his band members quit to play punk rock. Mark was interested in playing heavy metal and soon recruited Jessica Otto (bass). Then, they recruited Jordon Otto on the drums even though he had no prior drumming experience. "We pulled Jordan into the band because he was able to play a basic beat on his electric drum set he bought off of eBay. After that, we jammed with Jordan and it kind of just worked." Says Mark.
      After a few jamming sessions, the band decided to start playing punk rock. "I was losing so much interest in metal that I couldn’t keep doing it. The lyrics we wrote were cheesy and funny, and that also had to end. There was no way this band would make it anywhere with these kind of lyrics." In turn, the band decided to change their name to This Obsession.

      In the last two years, the band has matured in a way, they aim for a bigger sound and their musical abilties have definitely improved. They're playing bigger shows with bigger bands, and Jordan can even keep on time with his drumming.
      The songs are fairly straight forward and stay away from being too whiny and sappy. With such songs like "The Girl That I Work With" and "My Chevy Impala" the band isn't expected to be winning any Nobel prizes. Occasionally, the band will write something personal like "The Easy Way Out" which touches base on touchy subjects like suicide.
      "All the messages are just everyday things that I deal with." Says Mark.

      The band is influenced by some bands like Jimmy Pop, Alkaline Trio, NoFX, Green Day and Blink 182. Mark is especially influenced by the support of his sister, who has always kept his spirits high and attends as many shows as she can. "My sister has always been my number one supporter, coming to shows, and promoting my band. She has always told me I will make it."
      The band enjoys jumping into the middle of a show's lineup to insure they will get people listening. "we know bands bring their friends, and their friends only stay for the bands they come to see. Every show we play is always energetic. We always see people jumping around, going nuts, and having a great time."

New Clear Threat

      Representing Chicago, IL, hardcore punk/thrash band, New Clear Threat doesn't quite fit in. With so many genres in the Chicago area and each with their own respective scenes, the lack of a pure, raw punk scene makes the band that much more interesting. "We have punk rock, but it's usually watered down to the point where it's almost embarrassing to call it punk.  I guess that's true for most music nowadays though. We've never been a band about being in your face just for the f**k of it, but I think we do pride ourselves in being a bit louder or faster than people would like." Says band vocalist, Eric Williams.

      The current line-up consists of Aaron Jaramillo (bass/vocals), Charlie Medina (guitar/vocals), Eric Williams (vocals), James Kolasinski (drums/vocals) and Warren Mendoza (guitar/vocals).

      The band, influenced by Minor Threat, Bad Brains, and other D.C. hardcore bands, has always been politically charged. Although they stay away from getting down to specifics, only occasionally mentioning issues by name, the band often criticizes politics in general. The band's sound has been compared to Suicidal Tendencies, Municipal Waste, and Exodus. "I think it's refreshing to be a band that is as hard as punk is supposed to be and metal enough that we're not just a bunch of punks. We're not doing anything new, but somehow I think we have a sound that can't easily be compared to any other band." Says Eric.

      The band has been around since 2001, a lifetime when compared to the average unsigned band lifespan. When asked about what keeps the band motivated, Eric's reply was unexpected. "The band isn't motivated. I think that's what keeps us going. 10 years of working to make it big would be exhausting. 10 years of making music and having a good time is just that, good times.  If we make it big, we'd like it to be because people like what we're doing. Not because we've successfully marketed ourselves."

      With over 200 shows, the word 'experienced' would be an understatement. The band has played small locals shows, as well as, large shows, like the Chicago Peace Fest in 2010, with Genral Patton & His Privates, where over 600 people were in attendance. Most bands would find it hard to play small shows after playing a huge crowd, but the band had this to say, "The size of the show doesn't seem to make much of a difference. What really makes a good show is a crowd of any size that gives and takes just as much energy as we do."

      The band will be at the Chicago Peace Fest Camp-Out in Elgin, IL on Friday, July 29th through Sundy, July 31st. They're currently recording a new EP that is due out in late July.

~joeEFFINGmayo

Put Her In The Trunk

      Imagine this, the band Slipknot is driving down a busy road blasting The Misfits on their way to a Motley Crue concert. They are coming from seeing a George Romero zombie movie and the car crashes. That's how the death metal/punk band from Milwaukee, Put Her In The Trunk, describes their sound. "(We're) heavy and pissed off, with some punk elements and a few breakdowns." adds the band.

      The name, Put Her In The Trunk, came from a conversation between band guitarist, Jon Brem, and a friend at a bar. When the band was brainstorming for a band name, the conversation was brought up and the rest is history. It helped that the band was having little luck finding a name that had not been used yet.

      The band formed when the band Floating Face Down broke up. Brothers Jon and Doug Brem and their former bandmate, Scott Sweet wanted to continue making music together. The band then recruited Dan Kubinski of Die Kreuzen and Decapitado and started writing. The band went on without a singer. When the time came and the band wanted to put music online, they still didn't have a singer, so they turned to cookie monster.

      "We didn't want to put up an instrumental song, so we used a cookie monster toy for vocals. It turned out pretty cool and the cookie monster thing stuck with us for quite awhile. We (even) have some shirts with him on it." says the band. When Matt Schmitz, of Sleestak, joined the band, they started playing shows.

       Matt was a huge fan of horror films, like Doug, and their first CD, Guinea Pig, was based on four seperate japanese torture/horror movies. After Matt's departure, the lyrics got more violent and the band ditched the movie themes (but kept a few references). The band's overall influences range from death metal to The Beatles, giving the band an "anything goes" pass. The band tries to stay heavy, but they make sure that they have just as much fun as the listener.

      The current band line-up consists of Doug Brem (drums), Jon Brem (guitar), Anthony Kuehl (guitar), Scott Roth (vocals) and Mike LeBeau (bass).

      The band is very proud to say that Kane Hodder, actor who played Jason Vorhees in Friday The 13th 7, 8, 9, and 10, is a fan of the band. Doug, being a huge horror film fan, often goes to horror film conventions where he met Kane on several occasions. Doug gave him several band t-shirts and the actor once told him that he enjoyed the stares that people gave him for wearing the shirts. Coincidentally, one of the band t-shirt designs has the mask Kane wore in Jason goes to Hell.

      "Devil's Experiment", the song by the band is featured in the film, Brutal, directed by Nuna Minch. The band also has songs pending in upcoming indie horror films Night Of The Living Dead 2012, Midsummer Nightmares, and possibly, The Zombie Movie. They accomplished this feat, again, through Doug.

      "I give our CD's to indie movie directors at conventions. I'm constantly looking for new independant horror flicks to watch. I have some friends that act in indie horror films. I'm a horror film junkie." Says Doug. "When people see your stuff at lots of conventions and online, the word spreads. We never get paid for any of it, but thats not why we do it. When you watch a movie, and hear your song play during a scene, thats payment enough for me"

      Check out the band who has stayed alive in an overcrowded scene on Facebook and check out their latest release, They're Coming To Get You.
    

~ joeEFFINGmayo