Nick Johnson
Nate Gangelhoff
Corey Ayd
Danny Elston-Jones

I was beyond stoked to get the chance to speak with Banner Pilot.  I’m a little late on the train, just catching wind of these dudes when they re-released their Resignation Day album on Fat Wreck Chords. I feel like I’ve missed out on a few years of some solid punk rock. Who knew Minneapolis could produce anything but a shitload of snow? I SURE DIDN’T.

I caught up with Nick and Nate at The Blue Star in downtown Los Angeles.  Check out my photos and interview, which also includes live footage from the show!

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Banner Pilot Twitter

Banner Pilot Facebook

Banner Pilot Official

Jack Terricloth
Rebecca Schlappich
Matthew Landis
Leslie Wacker
Sandra Malak
Mora Precarious
Francis Morin

PWV sat down with founding World/Inferno member, Jack Terribloth, at the start of their tour with The Adicts.  We dove into everything from literature to Cadilacs to my awesome make believe band, Slutknot.  Check out the photos by Chad Elder and meeee (Denise Borders for the new viewers/raging alcoholics that can’t remember anything).

Facebook Album of More Photos

 Check out the interview cut with some live footage from the show! 

WIFS Official Site

WIFS Twitter

WIFS Facebook

It’s all good doe, if da booty smell good doe.

Words to live by, my friends. Terror drummer, Nick Jett, has started a booty-sniffing empire: BOOTY SMELL GOOD DOE. With a new website launch, merch line and booty for days, BSGD has had a busy six months.  On top of smellin beautiful behinds, touring and working on multiple music projects, Nick has his hands full… literally.

BOOTY SMELL GOOD DOE, DA INTERVIEW

If you’re interested in getting involved, check out the website and sniff some booty, get yo booty sniffed, take a picture of yo booty or buy some merch and just support the shit. What Mr. Jett mentioned in the interview is true; people take too much stuff in this world too seriously, and it’s nice to have something that’s just for the hell of it.  Relax a little, people. Appreciate some good ass and go on with your day.

Check out some behind the scenes photos of a BSGD promo video!

BSGD Official

BSGD Twitter

Tim Shaw
Nate Gluck
*others TBD 

That’s right, fuckers! New Jersey harcore/punk rockers Ensign are back.  They’re working on new material and hitting the road again! It’s refreshing to have new old school stuff in my face, so I totally back this happening.  With so much crap floating around in this industry, it’s awesome to hear this band is breaking into it again.

I was stoked to talk to vocalist Tim Shaw, who’s been in the hardcore world long before Ensign came around.  Working for bands like Sick of it All and Rancid, Tim’s a busy man! He wasn’t in the area, so we compromised with a Skype session to talk about the band’s upcoming plans.  Check it out!

Ensign Facebook

Ensign Twitter

Ensign Official

While on the road with Touche Amore, La Dispute and Pianos Become the Teeth, the young bucks in Seahaven sat down with PWV to talk about the tour, the new album and their allergies. Check it out!

Here are some of my photos from the set.

Check out more on the Facebook album

Seahaven Bandcamp

Seahaven Facebook

Barely a month after their latest album, Big Kiss Goodnight, hit stores, Trapped Under Ice is making their rounds on their first full US headlining tour.  I first heard TUI when they toured with hardcore dominators, Terror and Stick to Your Guns, but I never really listened in-depth until this latest release.

In my opinion, hardcore can pretty much be divided into two categories: PMA vs ANGRY.  You’ve got bands like H20 that rant and rave about PMA this and PMA that (PMA = positive mental attitude), and then bands like Terror that often write lyrics about how they’ve stayed on top despite what a shitty world we live in… and so on. Trapped Under Ice isn’t necessarily one or the other, and I don’t want anyone to try to relate being angry with being negative.  The hardcore scene isn’t negative at all, in fact it strives to be the opposite in most cases.  I like to say…. realists.  Society is pretty shitty as a whole, but you stick by the people that rule and hope they do the same for you.  Either way, when I talked with TUI, we dove into such topics among other things… like butt tattoos.

Justice (vocals), Brendan (drums) and Sam (guitar) and I at their 11/11 stop at Rock City Studios on Camarillo, CA.  The interview also includes live footage and even a private jam session. BITCH.

Check out some photos from the set courtesy me (Denise) and Chad Elder.

Check out more photos in the Facebook Album.

TUI Facebook

TUI Twitter

Rob Arnold
Austin D’Amond
Matt DeVries
Mark Hunter
Emil Werstler
Sean Zatorsky

PWV slummed over to the strip and landed at the Key Club to watch kids push each other around and bang their in-need-of-a-trim hair.  Luckily, whilst I was there, I spoke with Mark, Rob and Sean of Chimaira.  Forming in the late 90′s, Chimaira is no stranger to the metal scene. While the name is derived from Greek mythology, the band hails from Cleveland, Ohio. Yup… where Drew Carey was!

We dove into the tour, the new record and even gossiped about Kevin Talley. WATCH THIS SHIT.

Sean, Rob, PWV and Mark

Check out some photos by Denise Borders and Chad Elder:

Check out more photos in the Facebook album

Chimaira Facebook

Chimaira Twitter

Official Site

Catch the end of the tour with Impending Doom and Revocation!
10/28 Dallas, TX @ The Door
10/29 Houston, TX @ Fitzgeralds
10/31 Orlando, FL @ Firestone
11/1 Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
11/3 New York, NY @ BB Kings
11/4 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Smalls
11/5 Columbus, OH @ Al Rosa Villa

When I first moved to Los Angeles, I was interning at Vagrant Records in Santa Monica.  Part of our daily crap was to sort through the demos sent in and give them a whirl, blah blah.  Sorry to out Vagrant and all, but by “whirl” I mean throw them away and send a generic email back saying we weren’t signing any new bands at the time. Well good ol’ Denny pants over here felt a little repentant about all that so if they grabbed my attention enough to make me think   Literally, I never liked ANYTHING.  However, one sunny day, I opened up a package that had a total DIY-looking album cover with some punk dudes on it, and I was like “Okay… I’m already into it.”

DOLF

Dan-E: Drums
B-Dawg: Bass, Vocals
Tuc: Guitar, Vocals
Coon: Guitar, Vocals

How could you NOT wanna listen to this album? 

DOLF is sort of a mix between a 90′s Fat Wreck Chord’s band and garage punk band full of boys that don’t speak fluent English.  It’s endearing. Honestly, I listen to their debut album more often than a lot of other records I own.  It’s catchy and unique, but has a familiarity to it that makes you feel at ease. I LOVE YOU, DOLF. xo.

Moving along... Christian Kuhn (aka, Coon, vocals) was nice enough to do a little interview with me so I could get the answers to come questions that my little heart was just exploding to know. Check it out!

PWV: When the fuck are you coming to the US?

Next summer hopefully! We were always looking forward to do so but
could´nt manage to make it to the U.S.

PWV: I saw some footage from an unplugged session. Was it weird playing punk music in that setting? Is it something you look forward to doing again?

No, actually it was fun doing our music in different styles. There
was and still is a lot of space for creativity in doing our music unplugged. We´re actually doing it quite a few times a year.

PWV: Are all of you life-long friends or did you just meet up from forming the band?

Yes, we are kind of life-long friends. Our friendships were influenced and inspired by our common love to punk rock music when we were like 15 or something.

PWV: Did you play in other bands before Dolf?

Some of us did and still do but DOLF has always been our No.1.

PWV: Is there somewhere online to buy Dolf merch?

Bad question. We used to have some merch stuff but we´ve been a bit lazy about it recently.

PWV: What broken-up/retired punk band would you most like to see reunite and play?

Good Riddance and Terrorgruppe (german band, you might know ‘em from the punk’o'rama samplers)

PWV: You’ve been telling us via the wonderful world wide web that you’re releasing a new album this year. Is that still accurate?

It hopefully is! We´re planing to release our album this december.

PWV: Does your writing/recording process involve a lot of alcohol consumption?

Not only alcohol…

PWV: How is everyone’s English? Obviously your album is recorded in English
but is the entire band pretty fluent?

Kind of…Everyone is able to speak at least some english, even though there´s some differences.

PWV: What else are you into besides music? Avid sports fan or anything?

We´re kind of focused on the music but we´re also are into skate-, snow- and longboarding, having long nights and sleeping long afterwards, playing poker and stuff like that.

PWV: What were some of the first punk bands you were into?

Obviously bands we got to recognize on MTV or the radio like The Offspring and Green Day. But then german bands like Slime, Terrorgruppe, WIZO, Die Ärzte and other bands like NOFX, Good Riddance, Rancid, Sublime, Frenzal Rhomb and stuff like that.

PWV: What’s your day job? (assuming you have one)

We´re all doing pretty different stuff. Like delivering furniture, working as a sound engineer, working in a retirement home…

PWV: If you had to give up your job to tour the world tomorrow, would you?

Of Course!

PWV: What’s coming up next? Are you focusing on writing, touring, or taking a break?

We’re always doing all of that. At the moment we´re trying to finish our new album, we´re touring a bit and we´re always taking a break at the same time.

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I’M NOT FUCKING KIDDING, PEOPLE. I know you hear this a lot, but this is more important: If you haven’t checked these guys out yet, do it now. Head over to their facebook to keep up with them!

Tommy Kloss: Bass
Mike Garelli: Drums
Rob Vannice: Guitars/Vocals

While [JuiceheaD was] on tour with D.I., The Dickies and The Misfits, I sat down with JuiceheaD vocalist, Rob Vannice, at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. We talked about their new album, the stupid internet, and pooping. Check it out!

photo by Chad Elder

photo by Chad Elder

Check out my review of How to Sail a Sinking Ship

BUY JUICEHEAD SHIT!

Juiceheadmusic.com
Misfitsrecords.com

D.I.

The Misfits

Facebook Album of more Photos

photo: Jeremy Saffer

Robby Baca: Guitar
Jonathan Carpenter: Vocals, Keyboards
Joey Baca: Percussion
Cameron Maynard: Guitar
Christopher Tilley: Bass Guitar

With one of the best band names I’ve heard in a while, The Contortionist is a breath of fresh metal that you needn’t miss! These midwestern boys really know their shit, and I was stoked to get to talk to them plus get to see them play recently at the Key Club on the world famous Sunset Strip.

Jonathan Carpenter (vocals/keyboards) and Robby Baca (guitar) dove into the Indy metal scene, what’s on their iPod and what’s in the near future.  I tried my best to get them to pep-it-up but it was DIFFICULT GODDAMNIT. I’M YELLING AND I COULDN’T GET THEM TO YELL AT ALL.

Robby, PWV, Jonathan

Robby (guitar) and Jonathan (vocals/keyboard)

live @ the Key Club

live @ the Key Club (photo: Chad Elder)

live @ the Key Club (photo: Chad Elder)

live @ the Key Club (photo: Chad Elder)

 Check out my more of the great work of Chad Elder on his Photography Facebook Page

TC Facebook

TC MySpace