Speaker Categories: Punk in drublic festival

WHO: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are the consummate punk rock supergroup. If underground music had an all-star game, these guys would lead the league in voting every season. Beginning with vocal duties, we have Spike. Spike got his break in the Fat Wreck Chords warehouse, where he was notorious for his violent outbursts and singing along to Prince records. His sweet voice and charisma could not be overlooked…the rest is history.

WHAT: What the hell were they thinking? Good question. As you know, or as you goddam-well-oughtta know by now, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are a punk rock cover band that covers only the very best pop songs from every era!

WHERE: These boys are from San Francisco of course, a town that encourages both progressive thought and crossdressing.

WHY: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes formed in 1995 in an effort to breath some punk rock life back into classic radio hits made famous by rock pioneers like Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond. Getting together with friends and playing thoughtless music was the motivation for the Gimme Gimmes. The Gimmes have broken down the barrier between the golden moldies and punk; finally a band that can be enjoyed kids and parents alike.

Get ready for some “H – Town Thrassgrass”!  “Heum…what do you mean”?  Well…”HTT” can be described as folk-punk dabbling in crust punk and bluegrass, mixing in accordion, ukulele, trumpet and acoustic elements into a perfect mix.

 

We couldn’t think about a better band to do this than DAYS N DAZE!  No doubt they’ll fire up the place with a kick ass show.

Prick your ears and get ready to sing along with songs as “Goodbye Lulu” which refers to history’s lamest street kid, “Post Party Depression”, whose title belies a defiant hopefulness and of course their hit “Misanthropic Drunken Loner”. No doubt they’ll bring some NOFX covers to the party spot as well.

DAYS N DAZE demonstrates a keen appreciation for the messy spectrum of human interaction with songs dealing in terrorism, gang violence, environmental issues, parties, “how the fuck did we end up in jail” issues,…

Some other nice stuff to mention is that DND featured on Left Over Crack’s latest album “Constructs Of The State” and was honored to be awarded best Punk Act in 2015 by The Houston Press.

“It’s more DIT—’Do It Together’—instead of do it yourself,” explains Flynn. “The way we function with Days N’ Daze, everyone we go on tour with, everyone we work with, everyone who does merch or art, we’re not paying strangers. We’re not doing this with people we don’t know. We’re doing this with people we trust, and I think that mentality makes you go further in life than just being like, ‘No, I have to do this myself,’ or, ‘No, I’m just going to pay everyone to do it for me.

For certain, without other people, Days N’ Daze wouldn’t have anything to sing about. And, sure, in the big cosmic scheme of things, you can say the same about every other band, ever”

The Baboon Show started out in Stockholm in late 2003 and was formed by Cecilia Boström (vocals), Håkan Sörle (guitar) and Niclas Svensson (drums). In 2004 they released the DIY 6-track EP This is it! and started touring Sweden and made themselves a reputation of being one of Sweden’s best live acts. They were played frequently in national radio and television and have been nominated for several awards.

In 2004 The Baboon Show signed to the Swedish indie label National. They released their three first albums within one year and seven months (Wow! That’s fast!) The Baboon Show kept on touring and soon they were asked to play abroad as well.

From the beginning, until this day, The Baboon Show are a frequently touring band and their fan base are growing bigger and bigger for every show they make. The Baboon Show are mainly touring in Scandinavia and Europe, but they have also toured in countries such as China and Cuba. The Baboon Show are a socialistic band and have a special love for Cuba, hence they returned to the tropical island for four times. In 2015 the band also went into a studio in Havana to record earlier released songs, but this time with Cuban musicians. A mixture of punkrock’n’roll and Cuban rhythms and beats.

From the fourth album Punk Rock Harbour (released in 2011) and forward, all The Baboon Shows albums have been released in Germany by the German label Kidnap Music. Since the Punk Rock Harbour release The Baboon Show work together with the producer Pelle Gunnerfeldt (The Hives, Randy among others). Their latest album Radio Rebelde was released in 2018 together with a Spanish edition.

Frank Turner is an English folk/punk singer-songwriter who has been active as a musician since 2001, he is also the frontman of Möngöl Hörde. Frank Turner has an innovative way of blending the genres of folk, punk and rock with his intelligent lyrics to create quietly anthemic music.

Apart from his exceptional writing talent, Frank Turner and his band The Sleeping Souls, are most known for delivering amazing live performances. They manage to turn the crowd into a community that screams along every word.

After the stripped-down, live-sounding Positive Songs…, Turner wanted to try a new approach for the record. Originally, he contacted Jenkins and Block at their Niles City Sound studio in Fort Worth, Texas with the idea of recording a white soul album in the vein of Dexys Midnight Runners. He found they were equally enthusiastic when he changed his mind and decided he wanted to record a more rock-led album with tints of electronic-pop. “I have an obscure corner of my music taste where I’m into glitch electronic music and Warp Records,” says Turner. “It’s not an electronic record but I got into arpeggiator synths.” Positive Songs… was cut in nine, intense days whereas Be More Kind was made over a period of seven months, giving Turner the opportunity to turn songs on their head, try different versions and shake up the dynamics within his band.F

Formed in the South Bay of Los Angeles—a neighborhood with a rich punk-rock history—Pennywise began in 1988. The band went on to amass an international following with their relentless touring and a melodic, high-energy sound fusing classic punk, surf punk, and blistering hardcore. Through the years, Pennywise have solidified their place in punk history with iconic songs like “Fuck Authority,” “Alien,” and “Bro Hymn” (their timeless ode to brotherhood and departed friends).

Pennywise have released 11 albums over the last three decades, including: Pennywise (1991), Unknown Road (1993), About Time (1995), Full Circle (1997), Straight Ahead(1999), Land of the Free? (2001), From the Ashes (2003), The Fuse (2005), Reason to Believe (2008), All or Nothing (2012), and Yesterdays (2014). Resolutely working outside the margins of the mainstream, the band has emerged as an enduringly vibrant staple on SoCal radio airwaves and the worldwide festival circuit.

NOFX formed in Los Angeles back in 1983, a helluva year for new bands and one that gave birth to Testament, The Cult, White Lion, and any number of bands that are completely defunct and irrelevant in this day and age. That alone says something about NOFX‘s enduring popularity. Maybe they lasted this long because they were forged in the same fiery furnaces of the L.A. hardcore scene that gave us Bad Religion, Suicidal Tendencies, The Germs, and Descendents. NOFX sharpened their teeth in that tumultuous talent pool until they joined forces with Epitaph Records in 1989 and went on to release a string of crucial skate-punk albums. Their first major breakthrough came in the form of 1990’s Ribbed, still a fan favorite, they then followed up with now-classics White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean and Punk in Drublic, the latter selling well over a million copies. That was a wildly successful decade for NOFX as the band popularized the Warped Tour and was the flagship band for the skate/surf/snow culture of the 1990’s.

Now with their own label, Fat Wreck Chords, their third decade was even more fruitful, which again speaks to NOFX‘s indomitable longevity. The band’s career-long ban on doing the mainstream press and media was lifted as they sought to actively share their dissent for the Bush Administration and speak out against the invasion of Iraq. And once the floodgates were open, NOFX and their “Rock Against Bush” movement were everywhere: Newsweek, Rolling Stone, New York Times, Howard Stern, and network television. All that high profile interest and hype was reflected in the success of their 2003 record, The War on Errorism, which was the #1 independent record in the country at the time if its release and topped Billboard’s indie chart.

Everyone knows about the band’s irreverent onstage banter and wild antics that land them on TMZ, but If there’s anything someone should take away from this band bio it’s that NOFX is a genuine punk rock band who, despite their size and popularity, have managed after all these years to still adhere to DIY values like booking their own shows and releasing their own records. They still take out young bands on tour and they still employ the same road crew. They’re not only an anomaly in terms of their success via the underground, but also in how they choose to run their band and stay loyal to their roots.

True to form, NOFX will be continuing onward and upward as they have tours and travels already planned through 2021. For a buncha drunken old punks, NOFX function at a surprising level of efficiency. They just wrapped up yet another tour in the States and next on their list is Europe and an extensive tour of Canada. They’re currently in the midst of filming the second season of Backstage Passport, their reality TV show that takes the band all over the world and films them doing all the unspeakable, wackadoo things that you’d expect from these dudes. It’s more than your usual “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll”