BWB #6

Barely back from our team away day down in the South West and we're already coming in hot with a quick fire bulletin to try and combat the Monday Blues. This past weekend, NO RELIEF and DAMBUSTER made a quick trip to Torquay for Burn It Down Festival (among other Brighton representation); valiant attempts were made to pierce the crowd of grungers with true hardcore spirit, and maybe a few kids left with a bit more HC in their hearts (we hope) and a DIE Fest flyer in their pocket. I think one kid might've gone home with a pirate hat after the DAMBUSTER set too… Who knew that afterwards our stopoff on the way home at the Beaulieu Motor Museum would enact such intensely autistic scenes, perhaps only comparable to digging through a bin of cheap hardcore 7's at a distro stall and pulling out obscure, miscellaneous heat. This was then followed up by forcing Mattbuster to listen to Doppelganger by THE FALL OF TROY for the first time while driving us back to Btown (he dug it). Anyway, I'm here chugging a tea out my epic Harley Davidson mug1and rushing to get this newsletter out before the sun goes down. No ReliEthan graciously gifted me a copy of 25 TA LIFE's 'Friendship Loyalty Commitment' last week, so that's spinning on the platter right now as I carve these words into the screen. Shoutout to that guy in Finland that has the album artwork tattooed on your stomach, you are a lunatic. This week's maunder goes out to you (and also to Athol's busted nose I guess). BURNING WATER UPDATES Looping back on double drop day last week - we're elated to declare that our wares were well received, and thank all those who are commercially and/or socially engaged. Burning Water LLC shareholders will be very pleased this quarter… ok no but seriously, first off cheers anyone who picked up a ELICIT tape last week, the white tapes have sold out and the dark blue ones will hopefully follow in due course. If you aren't familiar with their demo maybeyou should familiarise yourself…(I have not bothered to upload it to the Burning Water bandcamp yet… DIY). Last few tapes uphere.Word on the street is that their first show will be announced soon. Secondly, leftover TURN OF PHRASE tapes from their release show arelive on the webstore NOW. Hopefully this will deliver a little respite for my DMs/inbox… We were sadly not present for the release show due to our aforementioned beach trip, but those we knew in the trenches said the show was awesome, spoke very fondly about MIL-SPEC's zip-up hoodie on the merch table, and then had to leave early due to some messed up trains home. Instagram story footage of TURN OF PHRASE looked biblical, but as we all know hardcore is best experienced in person, so I can't write much more on the matter. To say the least, it's invigorating to see people up front, singing along, stage-diving, and all that other timeless spirit-meter-filling stuff that turns a good show into a great one. Feel free to write in with your show report if you were there… DIE FEST SATURDAY NIGHT AFTERPARTY Those who survive the THREE KNEE DEEP pit on the Saturday night of DIE Fest are warmly invited to attend this afterparty hosted by HELLRIDE RECORDS… the venue is on the beach less than 5 minutes walk from the main fest… man the vibes are so strong I can almost taste them. Get a crispy can of Rio and a bossman shop samosa in my hands ASAP. You can all look forward to enjoying some Hillsy-hosted Karaoke and other similar nonsense until the small hours… see you there. As a little treat for forging your way past my retail spiel: here's a short interview with my friend MELINE GHARIBYAN that I conducted recently. Meline is an Armenian photographer, archivist and HC veteran who has seen shows on many different continents and has probably had a hand in a lot of records you love. I've admired Meline's composure and output in hardcore for a long time and wanted to pick her brain a little about hardcore, photography and Armenia - enjoy. Hey dude what's good! Please introduce yourself, and what's your favourite HC 7'? Hello I'm Meline and my favorite hardcore 7' is changing every week based on what I listen to, so right now it's:Release - The Pain Inside (1989), but more often its Bad Brains - Pay to Cum! (1980) I wanna skip the standard questions about 'how did you find hardcore/punk, what was your first show' etc, and I'd rather ask - what actually made you stick around in hardcore? What got you into the photography side of it? Sticking around is a double edge sword in a way, I feel like a complete fucking loser but at the same time I feel like a archaeologist/historian of some sort to the subculture. I guess I love telling stories and I love hardcore and most importantly I love meeting new people to pass this strange oral history down. That's a really generic reply but if you don't love hardcore what we are doing here then? I had always wanted to be in a band but for one reason or another never got to do it. I learned how to play bass and I have maybe 2-3 journals worth of potential lyrics but it just never happened. So very early on I decided I need to participate somehow because I hate just standing there. I started taking photos around 2007/8 and never stopped since. The median was already something I was very interested in so it almost came naturally, also the scene in Orlando, Florida back then didn't have a single photographer so I filled a gap that needed filling. You are a worldwide show veteran, I feel like every time we hang out I hear a great story about a HC set/show/fest etc that you witnessed somewhere on the planet. Please hit us with a dope story or two, anything crazy or funny you've seen. I think if you stick around long enough, you just automatically have a good story to tell. This is why I think older people are more interesting than young people. But that's not to say young people suck, we all have our place I think in a community. Older people also have so much to say and so much that they've experienced. I'm very old values when it comes to respecting the elderly hahaha. I mean, everything's really important to me. I believe I never really value one memory from the other, even the dull ones. I find them super interesting to have, like clearly we need to be bored as fuck to appreciate the important moments. But maybe a funny one to mention would be this one time I was watching a band when I was really young maybe 2007/08 (right before I took up photography) called Make or Break in Tampa Florida. And someone stage dove directly feet first into my head and their foot left an imprint on my right eye/cheek area. But the guy that did that came up to me later and made sure I was okay and that I got home safely. I think Down to Nothing and Know the Score also played that show. Anyway that left an imprint (no pun intended), also it wasn't like the metalcore or ska shows I went to before it, like people were really kind compared to other scenes. So I was just drawn to that weird music-audience relationship and how people cared about my well being and didn't just dismiss it, also the complete erasure of band vs audience, I can't emphasise how cool that is when you're like 15. I really thought about this and I think most of the stories I've told you in the past have been triggered by something in our conversations, so maybe to save myself from saying too much I'll end it here. I've admired your photography for a long time. You've taken a lot of iconic pics within hardcore and it seems every week I find out about a photo/shirt/record cover etc. that originated from your lens. What are your standout photos/sets that you're proud of over the years? Thank you. I am so flattered ! I have a strange belief that no set is better, I try my hardest to take the best photos of everyone I see. Obviously if I am friends with the band, or if I have listened to the band a bunch of times I will probably have a better dynamic with them since it's easy to predict when they will do jumps or turns or have time to fidget around the stage. I guess the only sense of pride I ever have is when I get to shoot like 20 bands in one day and somehow not all the photos turn out crap. Also with now living away from anywhere where there are stable hardcore shows and a scene I am proud of myself for not just giving up and showing up as much as I physically and financially can and listening to relevant bands. It's a never ending battle within me to become a better version of who I am. What inspires you in photography? While I think most of us know you for your show photos, you obviously take photos of a lot more than just hardcore shows. Photography comes in waves, I am either wanting to shoot everything and anything or I don't pick up a camera for 6 months at a time. I think my creativity plays a major role. I am either 100% inspired and I want to create non-stop tirelessly without a stop, or I am completely discouraged and might as well join an assembly line in a car factory. I think Nina Simone said it best:'...an artist's duty as far as I'm concerned is to reflect the times. I think that is true about painters, sculptures, poets, musicians. It's their choice. I chose to reflect the times and the situations I find myself in, that to me is my duty. At this crucial time in our lives where everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help but to be involved.' So knowing I might change at least one person's opinion, or expose one person to something they might not have any connections to. I choose to speak and yap sometimes maybe too often and too long, but it's better than ignoring it all completely. I see a lot of people trying to take photos in hardcore, for better or for worse... Do you have any advice for young photographers looking to get involved in the scene? Reflecting on the past almost 20 years I believe taking hardcore punk show photos is a humbling experience, don't think of it as you're THE center of attention, you are a tiny piece of a puzzle and your consistency will only make things better for you and everyone around you. Also, just like hardcore, photographers are in two camps: lifers or the tourists who only come in and complain. You really have to do it for the love of the game. If it turns into a career, great, and if it stays exactly where it is, well that's also great. Documenting something like a subculture is more important as a body of work and probably won't be rewarded unless you live in like New York or LA. Your personal progress is inescapable. So just enjoy your time, don't make it a step ladder dickhead. Lastly whether you like it or not, you become a very important networker within the scene, the connections I have seen photographers make across city lines, state lines and internationally is fucking undermined and looked past like it's nothing, but so many of the bands, shows, and record labels would never happen if it wasn't for the expert networking skills of these photographers who I emphasise are lifers. You're originally from the great country of Armenia - a place that I think a lot of us in 'the West' (for lack of a better term) are not very familiar with. I know about it mainly thanks to bands like System Of A Down and Integrity, but I know that's only one side of it, and I've been grateful to be exposed to more of it recently from your output online. It seems like a beautiful landscape with lots of history and culture. So I know this is a broad question, but what's Armenia like and what should we check out about it? Armenia is a funny place, I think we strive to be western since a lot of our ideologies align, but at the same time our neighbor Iran has had a lot of cultural influence on us over the past two-three thousand years. Armenia is the perfect middle place to have a little bit of everything. We have a very diverse nature, incredible food, rich history… so depending where you are there is something interesting to do. I will say it's not as urban as some metropolitan cities, so if you enjoy whatever is opposite of a concrete jungle or a mini tuf (the stone we built most of Yerevan with), you will find it here. We have a lot of history to show, but not a lot of 'cool' luxurious things, so if that's something you like, it's worth a visit. Please hit us all with some Armenian music recommendations. I created this list with the help of my friend Areg who is a local punk and a historian of some sorts who created a compilation CD of Armenian Punk, available primarily in Armenia. Incest- Incest was Armenia's first all-female alternative punk-rock band, active in Yerevan from 1999 to 2004. The group was co-founded by musician, composer, and guitarist Tsomak Oga, only material I was able to find on them is a few videos on youtube. NATO- NATO (also known as N.A.T.O.) is an experimental punk rock and Russian-language punk band from Armenia, which emerged in the early 1990s. They are best known for their 1994 underground release titled Ռուսական Ռոք: Շիշավոիված Է Հայաստանում (Russian Rock: Bottled in Armenia) LSD- a cult underground psychedelic hardcore punk rock, grunge, and experimental band from the early 2000's from Armenia known for raw, chaotic live performances and a prominent place in the local alternative scene. Ass Kissers- a notable underground punk rock band from Yerevan, Armenia, emerging during the 1990s rock and experimental music revival spearheaded by the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art (ACCEA) Much of their material remains part of the rare, tape-traded Armenian underground cassette culture I'm also fucking claimingSystem Of A DownandIntegrityas Armenian bands, fight me! Other really great notable mentions that are not really punk would beCher,Tigran Hayastan,Charles Aznavour, andRouben Hakhverdyan(live early demos). You've recently started an online project archiving your uncle's photography. How did that come about? Oh man this was wild, okay for those who dont know my Uncle Aram was a photographer and towards the end of his life he kind of became very anti-social, this is kind of a very sad and separate story but I inherited a lot of his creative things like most items in his apartment, books, paintings etc and while trying to look threw it all and mind you this is like three bedrooms full of stuff I found his negatives, about 7-8 thousand if not more. Basically his life's work, and I am now in the process of scanning them all in and digitizing them. Follow the Instagram page@aramgharibyanarchive The last words are yours... talk as much or as little shit as you want. Remember everything good and bad comes to an end, live in the moment but also don't be a dick, care for one another. Check out Meline's work onher websiteandher Instagram. CURRENTLY LISTENING: 25 Ta Life - Friendship Loyalty Commitment Every Time I Die discography (RIP ANDY WILLIAMS <3) Cold Decay - What Skin Holds The Flex - Wild Stabs In the Dark Turn Of Phrase - Out In The Water Temperance - S/T 7' Rekrucify - Demo I have never owned and likely cannot ride a motorcycle.