Hardcore punks Holy Shit! have released a new album out on Vinyl Smash Records (US) and Snuffy Smiles Records (Japan). The longtime band and lovable friends deliver eight songs that come at breakneck speed with songs fueled by drunken antics, rowdy humor and uproarious catharsis. With blazing riffs that stop and go, vocals that scream in your face and drums that clatter with velocity and dexterity, “USED PUNK” is fast, frenzied fun from Holy Shit! – go dive in!
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ARTIST SPOTLIGHTS: Primrose, Curbsitter
It was a stacked night of punk at Bremen Cafe Wednesday night, featuring Holy Shit!, Curbsitter, Primrose and San Diego’s Human Issue.
Primrose are a noise punk duo consisting of drummer-vocalist Sam S and guitarist-vocalist Bruno Vitols. Wednesday was only their second show although they’ve been working with bands such as Curbsitter, Ballstomper and Mind Harvester to break into the punk scene.
They formed out of high school, as Sam explains. “We were really good friends in 7th and 8th grade and we were in a really bad pop punk band. I switched schools so we weren’t really friends for like two or three years, but then once we graduated high school, I texted Bruno and we started talking about punk and hardcore and getting a band back together. We’re both one year out of high school.”
On where the band’s name came from, they continued, “There was a band called Rhododendron that we were really into; they’re like an Oregon technical metal/progressive punk type band. I started looking up obscure flower names because I thought the name “Rhododendron” was sick because it sounds metal but is also a flower; I wanted something both soft and hard-sounding, I guess.”
The band released a four-song demo this past April and have new music on the way. Sam said, “This next week we’re planning on recording our next EP and hoping to get it out by September 21st for our next show. Other than that, we’re actually in the process of trying to book a Midwest tour for November.”
“Sometimes our songwriting comes naturally; sometimes it comes kind of clunky,” Vitols added. “It’s kind of all over the place.”
You heard them – Primose play on September 21st at JJ’s Bar and Grill.
Curbsitter are a hardcore punk band consisting of vocalist Brain Rott, guitarist Kevin Stenseth and bassist JP Young; they don’t have a permanent drummer at this time but Eric Mayer played with them Wednesday. They formed four or five years ago, as Rott explains.
“They all got together and had a different drummer at the time plus two guitarists; my friend Jim was the second guitarist. Jim hit me up because they were looking for a singer and I hadn’t been in a band for a while so I tried out and it was cool. The band’s gone through some minor changes here and there.”
They released an EP titled “Grip on Reality” at the end of May. Rott said, “Half of the songs were written before the pandemic but we weren’t really doing band stuff for a while, so then we wrote some new ones too. We could’ve made it longer if we wanted but decided to go for the six songs. I like the lyrics on that one…”Mold” has some of my favorite lyrics; it’s just a song that tells you all about mold. “Me and My Friends” is about cooperation and collectivizing. We’ve got a song called “Packaging” which is about waste and capitalism and how having a job sucks.”
Curbsitter are focused on getting a full-time drummer and don’t have more shows planned as of now.
Artist Spotlight: Mortgage Freeman
Lakefront Brewery held an extravaganza at Cactus Club Thursday evening, raising money for the Sojourner Family Peace Center. Each artist/band on the bill either has been or is an employee of the brewery. James Ozminkowski (of Audible Kink), Gold Steps, Deep Femme, Pete Freeman and the Fritos, Resurrectionists, Mortgage Freeman, Garden Home, Holy Shit!, and Fuzz Summit all played sets.
Mortgage Freeman is an art rock band consisting of vocalist Treccy Marquardt-Thomas (MT), vocalist/keyboardist Adam Gilmore, guitarist Mike Walker, bassist Chuck Zink, and drummer Clark Stamm. They have been a band for about a decade now and take vast influence from classic rock, hard rock, jazz, new wave, and 90’s alternative music.
Stamm explains the band’s name.
“The word “mortgage” is French for “pledge to the death” … so it means “pledge to the death to be a free man.” Some of us do actually have mortgages, so you could say we broke the promise of our namesake.”
The band dropped a new record called “It’s All a Wash” in September. Gilmore describes the recording process.
“It was lengthy. In 2015 we really started getting caught up in our regular lives and it became harder and harder to get together, write, and record. It was an arduous process, but we got it done. Basically it was us trying to make a break-up album with a big, theatrical space vibe. We actually kind of benefited from the five-year process; it gave us a lot of perspective on the lyrics of some of the songs. The last song we played tonight “A + B” we wrote the music for right off the bat in 2015; we didn’t have those lyrics done until mid-2019. Having four years to look back on previous experiences and growing in life gives you a lot of perspective you just don’t get sitting down and venting it all out in thirty minutes – you’re getting a very narrow perspective that way. This allowed us to capture those feelings from a huge range.”
Stamm elaborates on the record’s title.
“When we think of relationships in the past, saying “it’s all a wash” kind of sounds like it was all for nothing or it’s all gone in the past. There’s one interpretation that it can be for nothing or that it was some cleansing process that we came out of it refreshed and stronger. That’s the conceptual basis of the whole album but I think another important part of it is the recording itself. Through the five years we recorded it, we were in three different recording studios. We kept moving and finding new and better spaces to practice. We found ourselves having to re-record stuff from years before…I would listen to something I recorded right when we started and three or four years later I felt I could do it better.”
“I don’t think there’s anything on the album aside from maybe one track from our first studio,” Gilmore added.
Mortgage Freeman are working on demos for a new EP they hope to get out by summer, before Stamm embarks on a bike trip.
“After five years of working on an album, we would love to come up with something quicker and faster. We’ve been playing these songs for so long and we’re ready for something fresh,” Walker said.
Artist Spotlight: Holy Shit!
An explosive night of different rock flavors occurred at Bremen Cafe Thursday night, featuring rock and roll duo Saebra & Carlyle (who normally play with a full band), long-running punks Holy Shit!, and NYC jazz-punk band Patti.
Holy Shit! consist of vocalist Tab Conard, guitarist Andy Junk, bassist/backing vocalist Octavious Farnsworth, and drummer Eric Apnea. Formed in 2001, these guys are one of three bands originally from Green Bay (along with Aluminum Knot Eye and IfIHadAHiFi) that migrated to Milwaukee in the early 2000’s and are still active today.
“We formed right around this time of year, actually,” Conard said.
“Green Bay was quite a lot of fun and then started to suck and rolled out the red carpet,” Junk added. “We moved down to Milwaukee because there was more energy down here, for sure.”
Junk shares his thoughts on the scene as it has evolved throughout their run.
“The underground scene has always been amazing here,” Junk said. “Basements have kept it active. We’ve always had consistent basement shows ever since we moved down; we’ve lived in them before all our bandmates were old enough to bartend. I always feel it’s going in a good direction. We got it good here…shut the fuck up about it.”
“It’s only gonna get easier with the new laws for all-ages venues,” Conard added. “That’s a big step forward.”
Their new record “Not My Tempo” came out this past April – their seventh full-length album on their own and eleventh including splits they have done. The title comes from the movie “Whiplash.”
“We were all on a flight to Japan and were all watching the movie at the same time,” Conard explained. “It just kind of became a running joke with us throughout that tour, then it evolved into that. We recorded it at the Ground Zero basement with Eric Mayer; it couldn’t have gone better as far as ease and comfort go. It definitely exceeded my expectations. We had to rush to get it pressed for our Japanese tour, so we sacrificed a little bit of quality, I guess.”
The band was on this Japanese (and Vietnamese) tour in April around when they released the record.
“It went amazing,” Conard reflected. “It was our fourth time in Japan and first time in Vietnam. Our friend Matty booked the shows in Vietnam – he booked one in Ho Chi Minh City…that was really crazy and awesome and eclectic. He got food poisoning and couldn’t come with us to Hanoi the next day.”
“It’s funny that no matter where we go we somehow seem to attract people that think they can out-drink us,” Junk laughed. “Especially in Asia, whether it’s our old buddy Matty or some random dude out there.”
The band hopes to tour Europe eventually.
“We really want to,” Junk said. “We’re waiting for the opportunity. Eric just toured there in a band called Trampoline Team – he played drums for them out there a couple months ago, and he said there’s a lot of people that want us to play in Italy. I have my vacation days open next year, if something can be arranged.”
Holy Shit! says they will continue writing songs and hanging in the basement for the next few months. They play High Dive with Beach Burial and Peroxide on November 14th.
AUDIO: Holy Shit! – “Not My Tempo”
Local hardcore mainstays Holy Shit! are back with a new album, which just recently made it’s way to the internet. “Not My Tempo” has only one song that surpasses the 1:06 mark, and most don’t even make it to a minute. However, when you play as fast and aggressive as Holy Shit! does, you don’t really need a lot of time to get the job done, and that’s proved on this record. If you have a spare nine minutes, and you really need to get some aggression out, this release (as most Holy Shit! releases) is for you. Check out “Not My Tempo” below:
