'The Screever' issue four

'The Screever' issue four

Oh my days, will wonders never cease?! Issue four of our lil' zine is complete, a mere few months after the last, and it's a staggering, unprecedented 48 pages long! This one features interviews with the mighty Constant Waves, the lovely Lou from 13 O'Clock, the rather incredible Tasha from A Zine Thing, and the unspeakably amazing Minus Tree, as well as pieces on Trees for Cities, Globe on Screen, and 'green graffiti', as well as the usual reviews, puzzles and recipe; what's not to love?!

You can grab yourself a copy for a mere quid from Glass of Spit at:

http://glassofspit.bigcartel.com/

and don't forget to 'like' our Facebook page over at:

https://www.facebook.com/thescreeverzine

Thanks a lot! :D

xox

The Red Heroes - 'It Fills That Void For Me' review

The Red Heroes - 'It Fills That Void For Me' review

So, The Red Heroes from over in the States are putting an album out in September, and I got a lil' exclusive blast of the thing prior to release. Here's a lil' review of said album...

"So these guys play pop-punk in a very modern, Western style in the vein of bands like MAN OVERBOARD and THE WONDER YEARS, and despite being similarly and unashamedly saccharine both musically and lyrically (though there IS some pretty miserable subject matter), THE RED HEROES play in a more straight and direct fashion, with less of the flare and superfluity of such bands. However, such a statement shouldn't be perceived in a negative light; here we have twelve tracks (plus an acoustic version of one of the album tracks) that are bright and, though quite catchy on the first and second listen, have a surprisingly uncanny knack for sneaking into your subconscious, and popping up in your head on arbitrary subsequent occasions, especially on the vocal side, thanks to some really quite memorable vocal melodies in both verses and choruses, and some pretty sweet backing harmonies. It invariably strolls at a steady mid-tempo, but the varied song-structures, song-lengths, nice drum time-changes, and use of contrast between full drive and some quite lovely mellow, acoustic sections keep the whole thing interesting enough, and I must say, the bass on this is pretty sweet, jazzing it up with some awesome picking and licks that add a lot of life to the straight chord-work. Stand-out tracks for me on here are 'Letters to a Christian Nation' largely for the hooky drumwork, the rather amusing and snotty acoustic number 'Martha', and the wonderfully chorused 'Valentine's Day (Hannah)', but the key tune here has to be the second track, 'Untouchable'; killer bass, catchy melodies, and the most infectious chorus on the whole album, and as if that weren't enough, there's an acoustic version right at the end that is just beautiful, and whoever Meagan Smith is, she has a wonderful voice that harmonises with the male lead perfectly, and her additional lines are a real treat. A consistent release that fuses the tempo and drive of old-school DIVIT and the melody and pop sensibilities of THE RED JUMPSUIT APPARATUS and THE ACADEMY IS with the modern pop-punk stylings of MAN OVERBOARD; a pretty promising prospect."

You can find The Red Heroes in the following places:

http://theredheroes.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/theRedHeroes

http://www.youtube.com/theRedHeroes

http://www.twitter.com/theRedHeroes

Cheers! :D

xox

MaximumRocknRoll: 'The Screever' issue three review...

MaximumRocknRoll: 'The Screever' issue three review

I assumed that Maximum Rocknroll, being the punk and hardcore Unholy Grail that it is, upon receiving our lil' zine might raise an eyebrow, chuckle, and then fold it up to use as a door stop. Instead, Alison wrote this lovely little review of issue three; how wonderful of her...  (oh, and yes, NAT IS ALIVE and will be returning for issue four...)

https://www.facebook.com/thescreeverzine

xox

Texas Is The Reason - 'Do You Know Who You Are?: The Complete Collection' review

Texas Is The Reason - 'Do You Know Who You Are?: The Complete Collection' review

So, I'll hopefully be seeing Texas Is The Reason at the start of August, and in celebration of such an astounding prospect, here's a review from The Screever issue three of their retrospective release that came out on Revelation this year; apologies for the gushing:

"Well, what can really be said about the album that, for me at least, defined and pretty much epitomises an entire genre? On the rare occasions that some uninformed, genre-confused person asks me what I think 'emo' is, I tell them to listen to TEXAS IS THE REASON. 'DYKWYA' originally came out on Revelation in '96, and with apologies for the use of such a cliche, it's as current, and I believe relevant today, and perhaps even more so in this time of such apparent aforementioned genre-confusion, than the time of it's first release. Collected here are the original nine tracks remastered, plus their first e.p, a couple of single tracks that featured on splits in the 90's (including an alternate version of 'Something to Forget'), and two further songs that were written subsequent to the album's first release, and literally every song on here is pure joy to experience; the two newer songs make a nice addition to the original lineup, and for those that don't own their first e.p, here's a chance to witness their cracking, faster, more melodic-punk rock beginnings. The song 'Blue Boy', from a split with THE PROMISE RING is incredible, consistently brilliant with the album tracks, and 'Something to Forget Version 1' is a worthy addition for the surprisingly different song structure and rawer vocal track, including some awesome vocal harmonies in the chorus that I'm surprised didn't make it to the later version. Whether you love TITR, haven't heard of TITR, love emo, or don't really know what emo is, this is absolutely worth getting; an astounding, genre-affirming and defining, and ultimately beautiful collection of songs that I really hope brings to this band all of the attention and credit that they somehow may have missed the first time around, that they so rightly deserve. A masterpiece; pure and simple."

Go and find them on Facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/TXisthereason

Thanks a lot! :)
xox

Glass of Spit Recordings now on Facebook...

So, our Leeboy has been running a not-quite-a-record-label called 'Glass of Spit' since 2009, putting out his band Sperare's stuff, as well as a bunch of solo projects, and for some reason they never made a Facebook page. Well, now they have, and Lee will absolutely love you if you head on over to the following link and give it a like:

https://www.facebook.com/glassofspit

And here's some other links that already existed:

http://www.youtube.com/user/glassofspit

http://glassofspit.bigcartel.com/

http://glassofspit.bandcamp.com/

Thanks a tonne! :)

xox

Tegan and Sara - 'Heartthrob' review

Tegan and Sara - 'Heartthrob' review

So, after waiting a good few years for them to come back around, I saw Tegan and Sara for the first time last week, and they were, unsurprisingly, quite brilliant. In the wake of that, I figured I'd post the review I wrote of their latest album 'Heartthrob' in The Screever issue three:

"Ah, TEGAN AND SARA; these girls can literally do no wrong in my ears. I've yet to hear a song that I dislike by them, and on this album, though their sound differs slightly compared to that heard on previous albums, leaning far more into dance-pop territory, this collection of tunes also features no such thing. The opener, 'Closer' (to which the video is hilarious and wonderful), is a killer party-pop tune, as catchy as anything you're likely to hear this year, and it literally goes from strength to strength from there, flowing through a bunch of some of the catchiest and most infectious chorus driven pop songs you'll ever hear, that are melodically perfect, both vocally and instrumentally. There's little point listing favourite tracks when such an endeavour would result in largely writing out the entire track list, and though containing less variety than I'm used to hearing from them, this is probably T&S' most consistently brilliant release to date. If I had to compare this to anything, you could draw similarities to bands like METRIC, THE TEMPER TRAP, and ROBYN's better, catchier stuff, but as long as you like decent music, you should love this. An incredible achievement in song-writing, it's going to take some seriously magic releases to stop this from becoming one of my favourite albums of 2013; perfect really."

Tegan and Sara are on Facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/TeganandSara

Cheers for reading! :)

xox

Constant Waves - 'Pity Claps and Hearty Handshakes' review

Constant Waves - 'Pity Claps and Hearty Handshakes' review

Constant Waves are easily one of my favourite Midlands bands right now; I thought I'd just share this review from issue three of The Screever of a two-track demo(?) I picked up of theirs some time ago, just in case you missed it in print. Awesome stuff:

"When I saw these guys with NASDAQ last year, their instrumental force absolutely blew me away. They combine elements of funk, punk, post-rock, and ambience in a similar style to that of THE SHOGUNS DECAPITATOR, NASDAQ, and even WELL WISHER, with some truly fantastic guitar interplay throughout and sublime bass lines that hold everything together wonderfully. I loved the drumming on this, with a lot of pace and energy in the cymbal work, and song structures for the two songs on here are spot on, switching in and out of beautifully melodic clean sections and catchy, energetic funk effortlessly. However it's in the heavily distorted, louder sections that they really shine for me; both driving and sweeping, melodic and ambient with emotive chord changes, they really carry this style forward for me, and make up the most memorable parts. I know I'll be coming back to this again over the next few months, and if it's a sample of what to expect from future recordings, then anticipation will be high for the next release; a band that have contrast nailed to perfection."

You can find Constant Waves on Facebook 'ere:

https://www.facebook.com/constantwaves

Cheers!

xox