Rock – Page 7 – One Percent Productions

Although the name Napalm Death has existed since 1981, as the band’s first line-up plundered the post- and anarcho-punk scenes for inspiration, it was 1987’s seminal Scum album that would ensure their place in the grand pantheon of heaviness. A visceral dismantling of conventions, it effectively kick-started the entire Grindcore scene, gaining Napalm Death something approaching household name status for their insane speeds, animalistic screams and uncompromising political stance. From that moment, the band became synonymous with both proudly-held ethical principles and the relentless pursuit of new ways to terrorise people with riffs and noise. The Melvins are one of modern music’s most influential bands. Having formed in 1983 Montesano, Washington, the group – founded by vocalist/guitarist Buzz Osborne, with drummer Dale Crover joining a year later – has been credited with merging the worlds of punk rock and heavy music, forming a new subgenre all their own. Over their 40-plus-year career, they’ve released more than 30 original albums, numerous live records, and far too many to count singles and rarities. Recent releases include 2024’s Tarantula Heart, a really good collection of what the Melvins do, what they can do and what they want to do, and Five Legged Dog (2021), an ambitious 36-track acoustic collection that reimagines their heaviest songs alongside covers of their favorite artists. — Throughout their discography, the Melvins have collaborated with Jello Biafra, Mudhoney, and Fantômas for individual releases and toured the world many times over. Remarkably, they had the misfortune to be in both Christchurch and Tokyo for their 2011 earthquakes. In 2012, the Melvins completed the “51 States in 51 Days” (50 states +DC) tour, which was chronicled in the film “Across The USA in 51 Days.” The current incarnation of the band is Osborne, Crover, and Steven McDonald (Redd Kross). Previous line-ups included a pairing of Osborne and Crover with Jared Warren and Coady Willis of Big Business, a four-piece featuring the current trio plus Butthole Surfers’ Jeff Pinkus, as well as Melvins Lite, which partners Osborne and Crover with Mr. Bungle’s Trevor Dunn. Sometimes, if you’re extra lucky, one version of the Melvins will open for the Melvins.

Up The Irons: Iron Maiden Tribute

CANCELED – The Get Up Kids

In the two and a half decades since the release of their landmark second album Something to Write Home About, the four core members of The Get Up Kids —Matt Pryor, Jim Suptic, Rob Pope, and Ryan Pope —have explored side projects, helmed solo ventures, and held stints in high-profile bands. They’ve also started businesses, found spouses, and raised kids. Still, run into them on the streets of Lawrence, Kansas, these days, and you’ll find that —perhaps beneath a beard —each has retained the high-spirited, unwavering authenticity that fans stood feet from at basement shows before the band’s sophomore breakthrough. Something to Write Home About has landed in a similar place: recognizable as the same electrifying, scrappy album it was upon release, but also transformed by time into one of the most seminal records of the band’s scene. And to mark 25 years since itsarrival, The Get Up Kids will perform the album in full throughout a lengthy North American headline tour. Released in September of 1999, Something to Write Home About has been established as an important late-millennium rock-and-roll document; a convergence of power pop, alternative rock, and punk, it provided the parameters for emo’s Midwest-centered second wave. Youthful yet assured, the album expands and refines the sound of the band’s 1997 debut Four Minute Mile. Amplified and acoustic guitars by Pryor and Suptic are coupled with keys and synths provided by former member James Dewees. Throughout, strings and celeste mesh with pop-indebted harmonies as the Pope Brothers’ rhythm section propels each song. The lyrics, carried primarily by Pryor’s pugnacious vocals, use relationships as a springboard to explore betrayal, conviction, and ambition. His plainspoken poetry is in turn direct and oblique, all kindling for fresh fires in addition to those already burning for decades of faithful listeners. The upcoming Something to Write Home About anniversary tour will be a chance for fans to rediscover the album or to revel in a classic they’ve never forgotten, and experience it live with the brash, big-hearted band that loves it as much as them. “Anybody can start a band when you’re 20 and go on tour and have a couple of years of fun with that. But what it became, at least to us, is the reason that we can still do this now,” says Pryor. “We are doing this as a celebration, and we’re going to have a party every night on stage.”

Citizen Soldier

Citizen Soldier was born in 2016 when frontman Jake Segura penned the lyrics to “Let It Burn” from a psychiatric hospital. Now practicing as a clinical therapist, he implements intensely emotional lyrical themes on mental health into their music. The band presents an accessible message that combats stigmatization and provides a group therapy dynamic. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Segura is joined by guitarists Matt Duffney and Kooper Hanosky, bassist/keys Wonitta, and drummer Kyle Persell.