photos by Jason House

Oi! is a melodic type of punk-rock which originated in Britain around 1980 and has since spread throughout the world. The forefathers of Oi! (Sham 69, Menace, The Lurkers, Slaughter And The Dogs, Cockney Rejects, Cock Sparrer, Angelic Upstarts, etc.) played what some of the smarter press of the time dubbed, "real-punk" (i.e. punk-rock with a message/theme of "social realism"). A lot of the press who courted the original wave of punk-rock, wholly ignored or wrote-off what was soon to be called Oi! as "thug-rock," and thus insured unfair treatment of the genre right from the get-go.

Around 1980, bands like the 4-Skins (East London), Infa Riot (North London), The Last Resort (Herne Bay), Red Alert (Sunderland), The Business (South London) and Blitz (Manchester) began to pop-up all across Great Britain. This phenomenon of strikingly similar-minded, yet unrelated bands was quickly clumped together as "Oi!" by Sounds journalist Gary Bushell, taking the name from the classic Cockney Rejects song, "Oi! Oi! Oi!" Bushell not only gave Oi! its name, he compiled and gave the world the first Oi! compilation, "Oi! The Album" (released by EMI injunction with Sounds magazine). "Oi! The Album" -- though not a truly stellar record or even completely representative of the Oi! genre of the time -- set the precedent for the compilation as an important part of the Oi! movement, as witnessed by the release of countless Oi!-focused compilations world-wide ever since its release. Musically, Oi! is generally distinguished by anthemic melodies, terrace-style backing vocals and a pace/tempo more suitable for pogoing and singing along, than slam-dancing and stage-diving. Together with ska and reggae, Oi! forms the musical focus of the traditional skinhead subculture, and together with hardcore and classic punk-rock, it forms the musical focus of the punk subculture. [FAQ for skinheads]

Continue reading "The Business brought the skinheads to Mercury Lounge (pics)"

photos by Vincent Cornelli

Ska band The Pietasters played a Rocks Off Concert Cruise on July 29th with DJ 100DBs. A set of pictures and videos are in this post.

The Pietasters will return to the area for a weekend of East Coast dates in October. They'll kick off the short run of shows at Maxwell's in Hoboken on Oct 7th. Tickets are on sale. All dates are listed below.

D 100DBs will also be on the 1s & 2s when ska band The Slackers play a Rocks Off Cruise on August 20th. Tickets are still on sale. The Slackers also play a boat show in Boston one day earlier with iLa Mawana.

In somewhat related news, Oi punks The Business will hit Mercury Lounge on September 2nd as part of a larger East Coast/Midwest tour before they loop back for a another leg of dates that will include RiotFest 2011. Tickets for Mercury are on sale. The Business released their last LP Doing The Business last year via Sailor's Grave.

Pics, videos, and all tour dates below...

Continue reading "pics from the Pietasters boat show, more dates & The Business & The Slackers too"

We previously discussed Phily's Riot Fest East that will feature an appearance from the mighty Descendents and The Suicide Machines who they also play with in NYC. Riot Fest East, an offshoot of the Chicago festival, happens on September 24th.

The Chicago version of the festival, October 5-9, previously announced that Weezer, Social Distortion, Descendents, 7 Seconds, ALL (two different eras!), Helmet, and X (playing Los Angeles) were all on the lineup, but left one big announcement for today...

On Friday October 7, 2011 Danzig will headline Riot Fest and perform a career spanning show featuring sets of Danzig, Samhain and Misfits songs with none other than Doyle joining on guitar the Misfits set. We've waited years for this and we can't wait to see the inside of the Congress Theater turn into a churning sea of humanity.

Tickets are now also on sale for the Descendents show at Roseland Ballroom that Suicide Machines and H20 are opening.

X are performing Los Angeles at both Riot Fests AND on two nights at Irving Plaza in NYC. Tickets are on sale for those shows too.

Riot Fest show flyers and some videos is below.

Continue reading "Riot Fest Chicago completes lineup with "Danzig Legacy"! Descendents East Coast shows on sale too"

Black Lips @ Brooklyn Bowl in March (more by Gabi Porter)

Rock Off have updated their summer schedule of NYC Boat Cruise shows, which, like always, has focus on punk & garage (though there are other genres too). It includes Jello Biafra on May 29th, Electric Six on July 15th, Murphy's Law's annual Jimmy birthday show on August 12th, The Bouncing Souls on September 13th, and an August 2nd show with the Black Lips (who are in town much sooner a free but full RSVP-only show at Knitting Factory on April 29th with Pierced Arrows).

Other gigs includes Dam-Funk on April 24th (TONIGHT), Budos Band on June 11th, three NY Night Train parties, and The A-Bones on June 23rd. Tickets for most of the shows are on sale. No ticket info for Bouncing Souls yet. Black Lips go on sale Friday, April 30th.

Punk and punk-like boat shows are listed below...

Continue reading "Bouncing Souls, Black Lips, Jello Biafra & other boat shows "