Racial difference + religion + Ignorance

Hey so I have been thinking over the last few weeks about the EDL (English defence league) and if you don't know who they are here's a bi-est information opposing them: http://www.uaf.org.uk/search.asp?search=edl and here's bi-est information supporting them: http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/

Why have I decided to post something about this? well because 1 there coming to my town on Saturday to protest and 2 everyone should be aware of it anyway. So what do I think of it? well I'm confused mainly, Im confused about why they describe themselves as a 'counter jihad movement' and also that 'all races and religions are welcome in the edl' when there has been factual proof that there are many racists in this group, and if you are not a racist yet your in this group because you are scared/angry about extreme terrorism and you know that there are racists in the edl, why do you affiliate yourself in this group? Ive read about protests and the aftermaths of these protests, vandalising, spray painting racist remarks on mosques, members of the edl giving nazi salutes and not talking about what they stand for. just marching about shouting EDL and destroying things.

There's so much I don't understand with this group. for example I don't understand how your supposed to stop terrorism from mainly another country by marching about in your own. yes there are people from all sorts of nationalities and religions in the UK but The edl states that everyone is welcome in the group. so how would these protests stop anything? I'll tell you what I think, because this isn't just about terrorism if at all. there are many reasons why I think people have joined this group. I think its made up of people With immigration issues, bonehead racists and BNP/ukip voters.

To the people there because 'you want them out of YOUR country taking YOUR tax money' and all that shit I say your totally contradicting yourself because its costing 30 grand just for the police protection not even counting all the damage which WILL be made by the bonehead racists. So take that away and you just have the racists and to them, well the whole world should say that racist attitude is fucked up and its not welcome on this planet.

And if you are in it because you are scared or angry about terrorism and the war with iraq. then why not just enrol in the army, im not trying to promote it but if your so keen to 'fight terrorism' then you can actually go and fight it face to face, its free aswell!

in conclusion this march is fucking up everyones day in my town, and will probably make future racial tension where I live just so they can get their day or glory.

peace and thanksx

SHOW REVIEWS 2 IN 1: big takeover 5 and Voorhee's reunion show, nowhere fast's and braindead's last show in leeds

So as these events were in the same weekend I decided to put them in the same review, the big takeover 5 was on friday and the Voorhees show was on Saturday so lets start on the first!




If you didn't know big takeover put on arguably the best hardcore punk shows around and in London, usually in squats and underground venues and big takeover 5 did not fail to please! first ill start with the venue that was situated in hackney. from the outside it looked like some sort of catholic church style building and as I entered I was even more impressed, A huge floor, no stage and lots of different kinds of people. you'd think by the huge space (about four fully sized basketball courts) that it wouldn't make for ever good crowd to band communication and reaction but you'd be completely wrong! from crusties to arty kids to punks to usual London hardcore show-goers it featured a lot of different faces and a awesome mix of different types of people.

The bands!

CLEAN SLATE
so I think this was their first show, new band featuring Dirty moneys vocalist. Admittedly I did catch these guys halfway through their first song but I caught the rest of the set, they bought a very surprising sound. a mix of old school think negative approach mixed with pissed off angry mid tempo beats. Front man Graham Delivers an energetic angry performance that gets you Just as involved emotionally I found myself clenching my fist and nodding furiously without realising, keep an eye on them.

DEAL WITH IT
After a break Deal with it started and the regular London hardcore show-goers as I mentioned above started moving a lot to their set which was easy to understand. catchy melody's with lots of funky rock n roll chords. lots of moshy nyhc style beats and sing melodic singing a lot like cro mag's alpha - omega. As it happens they also cover World peace by cro-mags in their set which gets at least 70% of the room moving and singing along which was great, a good set

ARK OF THE COVENANT
Ark of the covenant Are the third band up And bring a type of music I haven't seen before - a mixed sound of 90's hardcore and death metal mix unbroken and disembodied and you'd have a similar sound to this band, there from Wales and there pretty recently formed expect to see new things from them soon, people are reacting to the band well. kids are throwing fists and feet in every direction they can, its violent and heavy and I think they do it well. they also did an arch angel cover to finish off.

NOWHERE FAST
Finally its nowhere fasts turn to say goodbye to London as its their last show down south. I have to say that this set in particular was maybe one of the best sets I've witnessed a hardcore band play ever. its in the top 5 at least! the band take no time in setting up and get straight to playing their angry straight to the point 80's influenced hardcore. The crowd are responsive in a mad chaotic blur or kids flying about, shouting lyrics back to the band. they include three songs in their set, ss decontrol - boiling point , minor threat - I don't wana hear it and void - my rules. each of these covers adds to the anger and energy you only get with that 80's hardcore sound, the drums are falling apart, the singers red in the face with anger, frustrated and pissed of kids are just as involved with the band as the band is involved with the kids, I looked around at the venue im in, the band playing and the kids here and I realised that this was truly a hardcore punk show. the real deal, no bullshit, straight from the 80's. Amazing.

In general I loved this show, make sure you get to future Big takeover shows they are not to be missed! http://www.bigtakeover.co.uk/





Voorhee's reunion show was at the well in Leeds. I had seen Braindead a long time ago in high Wycombe and decided I had to make it for the last show, Also it had a great line up and I was still stoked from nowhere fast's set the day before, this was to be their last show as well so I wasn't missing it!

The bands!

TORN APART
I had seen torn apart only a few weeks ago in high Wycombe and was impressed then as I was again this time, delivering ultra fast power violence with screaming vocals the crowd looked bewildered and confused as a wave of pure anger and hatred washed over them but they had some guys at the very front liking it and head banging Their set was tight, super fast and aggressive Judging by the night that followed I think the crowd might of been a little more responsive but that's the curse of being the opening band, but they pull of a good set and I'm left with the same positive thoughts about them I came in with.

NOWHERE FAST
Nowhere fast were awesome, again bringing the 80's fast paced 3 - chord play as fast as you can energy as the night before. the crowd were a lot less into it compared to last night and with that in comparison it wasn't as good to me personally. But don't get me wrong they were still excellent. once again bringing out the ssd, minor threat and void covers they put on a good show and it was a good send off for the band. the singer and guitarist has a new project called amateur video so look out for them!

DEAL WITH IT
Once again deal with it give us a entertaining and good set. they got lots of kids moving and singing along. again they covered world peace by cro-mags half way in their set which once again got the majority of the room moving and singing. I also found the front man entertaining, gyrating his hips and slagging off art students. its good to see a band have fun on stage when playing serious sounding music.

MOB RULES
I hear a lot of good things about this band so I was keen to watch their set. they started their set with a collection of pissed off and very dark sounding songs with aggressive low tone vocals. the lead singer seemed to be extremely angry as he told camera men to fuck off while pacing around the stage like a tiger in a cage. I don't blame him the cameramen at this show where just shoving their lenses in bands face's.
they then, halfway through their set played a song that lasted for about 8-9 minutes which varied stuff up a bit, reminded me of black flag, it was a slow song littered with chaotic solos and chords. At the end of this song the sound engineer decided to add a little strobe lights and the whole band stopped. the front man shouted abuse at the sound man and then the band continued . overall their set was a dark angry powerful set and also entertaining. sucks to be that sound man!

BRAINDEAD
Braindead hadn't been playing for a year or two admittedly and their snare drum was also stolen by an idiot but that didn't stop them from being what I thought the best band of the night. Their whole set was an awesome rush of blast beats and doom-y riffs. the crowd were as violent as the music and I was impressed how this band pulled off such a good set after not playing for so long, they also included a DYS song which was awesome. A great last show for a great Uk band

THE HORROR
I didn't catch all of the horror's set but I heard the majority of it, They play a fast paced angry hardcore type of hardcore with a few rock n roll chords chucked in as well. I don't know if it was from me being tired from the trip to leeds or whatever but I wasn't into this band as much as most other bands of the night, never the less they played a good set and it wasn't bad at all

VOORHEES
Voorhees took a long time setting up and I was getting really tired But everyone was sticking it out to see them. They had a mixed audience of young and old as this band had been going since the 90's. Closures bassist was filling in on bass for them at this show. so they started playing but only slightly, the drummer played a beat on the lower tom for a long time, about 2 minutes and then a guitar riff was played a long with it for about 2 more minutes then the vocalist appears from somewhere and they begin their set. the set is fast, a lot like negative fx, they had a very old school sound with elements of power violence as well personally I wasn't that amazed and I also heard the singer smashed a beer out of a guys hand into his face which is kind of stupid but yeh everyone goes nuts for them and they have a good reunion full of angry kids singing along.

PEACE AND THANKS!

SCHOOL: A PLACE OF LEARNING OR A PLACE OF DEGRADING?

So me, like many other people was a student at school who found it incredibly hard to fit in and be 'successful' in the eyes of teachers. I've recently Just realised how mad school is. they put you all in the same uniform, order you to abide by the same rules and if any disagreement or even a question about the way things are in the school is raised to a teacher you are automatically assumed to be a trouble maker or the '2% or students who leave here with nothing' this, to me is mad. they stamp out any sort or creativity and label it as failure, apparently to the school system your all meant to fit in to the same mold. the same uniform. the same person. your supposed to leave all being the same, the perfect mold for society, apparently. but I disagree, how they can expect for every kid to fit into the same way of learning is beyond me, yeh the majority do but for the minority who don't there's no other option than to crash and burn and as your doing this in the four years from year 7 to year 11 you just constantly get E minuses and 0 out of a 100 and being told that you'll amount to nothing until you star believing it yourself. so in the end you leave with no or little grades and some fucked up mental attitude that your just a dumb person and unsuccessful. For me personally to this day when someone says to me something like 'Ah im working my ass off right now cos im going to uni next year' I automatically reflect on myself and think hmm im not going to uni, im not having any tests right now so Im less successful and not living my life properly - fortunately this motion only lasts a second with me because I have awesome friends around me to remind me of who I am and what the real deal is. but I fear for the kids, the 2% that were a 'failure' in school. will they go a whole lifetime in self doubt? hating themselves? Im sure some do. now and then I even do if im being honest, and THAT is not right.

so what could we do to stop this? well I think an obvious one would be to make classes more varied, its so obvious that some people would learn so much better in a creative way then just sitting in a row listening to someone and writing down in their text book. I suppose schools and teachers would probably argue that, that would take up time and money. but it should be the schools duty to ensure that the kids learn in anyway or form and they have failed at that. They should Stop the rows, throw away the uniforms and should not employee staff who tell kids they will amount to nothing. it would be really awesome to see kids learning like this. fuck if they did learn like that I would probably want to be a teacher. for all the 2% reading this I just wanna say don't loose hope, don't give up on something, don't compare your life to others, concentrate one what is important to you, set your own goals and live at your on pace. and you are NOT alone. peace and thanks

UPCOMING SHIT!

ok so for the people that do actully read this heres some things i hope to do with gorillabar in the upcoming months

may/june - i hope to get interviews from Death is Not glamorous and deny everything

Im also guna ask if abolition(www.myspace.com/xabolitionx) and Neverxagain(www.myspace.com/neveragainxxx) want to be interviewed for it too, there all nice guys so there probs down for it but nothings 100 percent right now. will be in a few months. all of this will be printed on a physical zine instead of on here as that was my main goal in the first place. although ill probs feature a lot of it on here just for the hell of it. the zine will also feature random stuff, like on this blogspot, some of the stuff used in this blogspot might be put into the zine, maybe not, who knows. they'll be on sale for 50p. im gunna ask all ages records in camden,london if theyd sell some for me(http://www.allagesrecords.com/) again, they'll probs do it cos there all cool, so they should be on sale there and also ill be selling them at any shows im at, and you can find that out by emailing me at tommynormanx@hotmail.co.uk

BUT remember non of this is for 100 percent certain yet, just wanted to give you something to expect ! peace and thanksx

why the descendants rule!

So its 3 in the morning. im an frequent insomniac so I decided to try to convince you(if you dont already) why you should listen to the descendants Why not!?

So this is descendants, there is so much to say about this band. some people say there over-rated but I say there under-rated as one of the best early punk/hardcore bands and as one of the first punk bands to introduce an element of pop into their punk! when you listen to this band's first records i.e 'milo goes to college' and 'I dont wanna grow up' next to other classic 80's American punk bands your immediately hear a difference, its like the other bands accept it has some crazy chaotic melody to it with lyrics which were a a lot more singy compared to your angry pissed off bark you got a lot from bands around then(which isnt a bad thing!) Dont get me wrong I consider the earlier lps hardcore punk records, it dosnt sound different enough to be labelled pop punk with these albums but defiantly has enough difference in it to tell these guys were bringing something new to the table of punk rock....nerdcore! And if your one of those people, (like i am) that needs to be able to relate to a band to really get into it them and fall in love with the music well if you've ever felt like an underdog been bullied or felt out of step then these guys will be the anthem for you! to demonstrate my point here the song 'im not a loser' from milo goes to college!

This is one of the more 80's sounding tracks And not a great example of the chaotic melody-ness i was on about but fuck I love this song. i wish i saw it live just so i could shout IM NOT A LOSER! with the all nerds haha. Later on as the years passed the band developed more on the melody punk singey -ness and basically released records which are way more pop punk, with the odd old school tracks thrown on them. records like 'everything sucks' and 'cool to be you' are basically these records, i mean they had records out before this like 'enjoy!' and 'ALL' but I find em kinda odd, enjoy is basically the descendants fucking about which is fun to hear ha and ALL as some crazy songs on it but there's a few that are my favourite, I think 'clean sheets' off that album might be my favourite, you should check it out cos it is awesome somewhere in the middle of punk rock, pop punk and some bits even sound like the smiths? ha thats just my opinion you may disagree! BUT yeh went off track a bit there, the two records cool to be you and everything sucks are defiantly best described as pop punk, to new listeners of the band it will proberbly sound pretty cheesy to you but once you get your head round that there just songs which make you feel good and posi. as all pop punk should!

The band still randomly play shows but theres always off an on and have been for years. also if you do like these guys check out the band ALL, a side project of the descendants, it basically sounds like them accept a few albums has the dag nasty singer fronting for it, which is awesome! so basically if you love pop punk, if you love old school hardcore punk get into these guys cos there really something! here an awesome video of them playing their later stuff and a interview so you can make a comparison of the video before PEACE!

THE WORD FAG OR FAGGOT OR DYKE

nowadays I see these stupid moronic word being used really casually and I really dont get it. I mean it is a discriminating slur you call a homosexual a fag, you call a lesbian a dyke and you are degrading them, labelling them and segregating them from what is conceived as a 'normal' person And not even if you say it to a homosexual or a lesbian, if you call anyone this word you might as well say its ok for the word to exist in the first place. and to be honest I know a lot of people will say these words and have no hate for gays or lesbians but still everyone should think about what comes out of their mouth and how it can hurt and discriminate others. Faggot and dyke are just fucked up words that are used to discriminate others for what they are very much like the word negro, and im sure lots of people who use these words wouldn't use that term lousily as a joke. Im not trying to preach but simply point out what is plain wrong. I hope that anyone reading this upon hearing anyone using this word in any situation will stand up and tell that person(s) to stop promoting homophobia its fucking lame were all just people trying to exist the way that's right for us.

A movie to check out! - the time machine (1960)

So im not usually a fan of movies this old. I dunno why, maybe its cos next to the graphics and filming of advantages of today it makes movies this old look dull and boring on sight, but this movie is actully pretty good and an interesting concept. basically a scientist makes a time machine and travels way into the past and future of the planet earth, sounds like a basic idea right? but its actually pretty interesting. I saw it today after I woke up on channel four. because during weekdays channel four does usually randomly play these old movies. basically after meeting his best friends father and future son and documenting things which are happening to the world. like future wars and new technology he gets stuck in a cave in, I cant remember why (bad reviewing!) but he has his' travel machine in this cave also, so he decides to travel so far in time that the rocks around him erode and he is free. anyway he ends up going into the year 8053495 or something rebellious and sees the whole world he knew destroyed and turn into some sort of paradise-jungle. eventually he finds some sort of of what seems to be a society. but its different as noone works because they have no need to. mankind has reformed into some sort of caveman stage except not as primal and uneducated (probably because that would fuck up the story line as he falls in love with a member of this new society and it would probably be impossible for a modern man to fall in love with a cave-women because of obvious differences ) he then after asking questions like 'is there a government here?' and 'is there a form of money in this time?' finds out that there are two groups of people on this earth. these neo cavemen/women and 'morlocks' which are basically humans that live underground. the whole movie climaxes to questions about the society we live in today. how in the future the sacrifices of man, the legends and heroes of our time wont even be memories as all documentation will be destroyed along with our civilisation, has this already happened? was there a society before our history records it that did great, amazing things which have gone forgotten? maybe. I say probably. Anyway check out the movie. I wont tell you the end but it involves lots of fire!

A band to check out! - psyched to die

Psyched to die are a 80s punk influenced band with a skate punk and very slightly garage sound from jersey and also features mickey from the ergs! the bands been around 2008 and since then released an e.p - 'sterile walls' which was bought out last year in July on dirtnap records and a demo from 08 and also a full lenth- 'the impulse of international' and another e.p - 'scatterd brained' I seem to have a nack for finding bands out just after they've broken up so im really happy I found out these guys before they died. but yeh awesome band. if I had to compare them to any 80's American punk band, which I have to do cos these guys have that sound down so well! it would be the circle jerks, the vocals are definitive enough to stand out and combined with the awesome fast passed angry 3 chord play-as-fast-as-you-can south coast sound this band is not one to be missed! but not only have they got that sound as well it also has some of those classic songs with sing a long punk anthems like black flag's Jelous again or ssd's police beat. So yeh If you combined cloak/dagger with circle jerks throw in some style songs of the songs mentioned above then you'd get this band and if your a fan of any of the bands just mentioned your gunna love this band! you can buy their releases here: www.dirtnaprecs.com

and heres a video of them supporting the germs last year!

First post. what is gorrilabar?

Hey my names Tommy Norman and I was going to start a fanzine called gorrilabar about general things like music, band reviews, show reviews and just random columns about idea and thoughts I had about...well anything I thought was important or I found interesting. So a few things you should expect when you read this is the obvious stuff about music I think everyone should check out and columns about shows I went to and thought were awesome but hopefully the rest shouldnt be so obvious becouse I hope to cover something different a few times every week or so I hopefully this will lead to a good read that hopefully makes you think, induces a few cool bands to you. Im based in the south of the U.K so expect a lot of the show reviews to be from around there but hopefully I should vary it in time. If you have any questions or anything you think would be cool to cover in this email me at: tommynormanx@hotmail.co.uk thanks for your time!