A blog about my personal favorite vinyl records, expect mostly Punk/HC albums from the past, present and future, reviewed from a musiclover/collector's personal view.
HOMER consist of members of the other 'Hageland' band PN, previously known in the 90's as PORTIE NOOTJES. Since their love for punkrock didn't get the attention they thought it deserved in their more HC oriented band PN, the birth of HOMER was evident in '98- '99. To celebrate the newborn band they released a split CD with longtime pals BILLY LIAR. Next to releasing new material with PN they did another split CD with BUCKLE UP in 2002 after playing live all over.
HOMER 3 x LP
The first solo release comes in 2005 with The Punkrock Verses. A mature HOMER enlightens the scene with their hardcore punk sounds. Next to playing all over the country and abroad sharing stages with many local and international bands such as IGNITE, NO USE FOR A NAME, and STRUNG OUT, the HOMER outfit even found some time to record the follow up in 2009 dubbed Wasteland Reflections. They went all out on this one with the mastering being done in the famous Blasting Room Studio by Jason Livermore himself. 2012 brings us another release of their latest brainchild The Politics Of Make Believe.
HOMER Belgium's finest punkrockers
I witnessed the energy of HOMER live last year during their show which headlined STRUNG OUT @ the reborn and relocated Lintfabriek in Kontich. During the show HOMER vocalist Johan's own recordlabel FUNTIME RECORDS was present with some vinyl goodies. That's where i picked up this limited rerelease of the three albums Punk Rock Verses - Swan Songs For Broken Voices - Wasteland Reflections all in one handy 3 x LP in a limited edition of 150 pieces. Each album on a different colour. And to top off the colaboration between FUNTIME RECORDS and fellow friends LABL RECORDS they even made a run of 50 very limited pieces of this 3 x LP on gold coloured vinyl. I couldn't resist picking up this version of three great Belgian punk rock albums on gold.
Gold Record by HOMER
These three albums show how the band has progressed along the years. From Punk Rock Verses, where the overall sound is more punk rock due to the more melodic styled music and vocals. Crossing over to a slightly more hardcore driven sound in Swan Songs For Broken Voices. And to end it all in the most aggresive album of the three and the last of this re-release, being Wasteland Reflections. Hard, heavy and full of screams they deliver one of their best albums to date.
Triple gold
Overall i can only advice you all to check out this great band from Belgium. It has some for all, punkrock verses, melodic parts, hardcore screams and all brought to you by a fantastic outfit of brothers that been have been the flagbearers of their Hageland scene for almost 20 years now.
HOMER is true hardcore punkrock band and is a warm welcome next to the more alternative hardcore styled PN (RIP). Go give this guys a visit when their performing close to you. It's worth it, i can assure you.
Show them some love, visit their label, FB, website or show now or miss out on Belgium's best kept secret.
Now it's time for me to visit the FUNTIME RECORDS website and pick up their latest release, cause all this talking about HOMER has left me with the feeling i'm still missing out on something in my collection.
Named after the chemical substance used during the Vietnam war to deleave trees in the jungle, AGENT ORANGE, a three piece band, deliver their unique style of punkrock fused with surf influenced guitar.
This recording dates back to my own birthyear, being 1981. Their distinct sound of punkrock blended with surf guitar provides a very nice sound to the darker inspired lyrics of Mike Palm (vocals, guitar).
AGENT ORANGE are one of the original Orange County bands and left their mark on many bands coming from the California punkrock scene. One of the songs that many may recognise as an AGENT ORANGE original is 'Everything Turns Grey', most will recognise this track in the LAGWAGON version.
Their first release happened to be this 'Living In Darkness', released on POSH BOY RECORDS, a record that has been rereleased througout the years on many different labels for all of us to discover.
AGENT ORANGE has released three studio albums, a live album, some EP's and a few singles in more than thirty years of on stage banter. The guys still perform from time to time but never really seemed to hit the big audiences they deserved to play for.
Lyrically MIKE PALM writes away his fears through songs dealing with dark themes. Titles as Living In Darkness, Too Young Too Die, Bloodstains and A Cry For Help In A World Gone Mad show a darker side of looking at society and oneself than we'd except from the happy tunes played by this outfit.
Typical Californian 80's punkrock as made famous by Descendents is mixed up with Surf guitar.
As if Dick Dale and Milo teamed up one day and shared their knowledge with AGENT ORANGE who performed their ideas on stage.
With lyrics such as 'Look at me now, I've got no reason to be like everybody else, So dumb, so happy, I like things that bite, Things that creep at night,.... ' they give you an insight in their own personal hellhole.
Amidst the songs there's one cover of Dick Dale's 'Miserlou'. A song that many kids may know as it was brought to attention again in the 90's by the cultmovie 'Pulp Fiction', and eventually picked up again and raped by 'The Black Eyed Peas' in their (s)hitsingle 'Pump it'.
Go out and discover this band today, they can use some support.
THE OTHER F WORD is a documentary that was released in 2011 and features the story of many well known punk rock heroes. The concept of the movie is about what happens when anti-authoritarian punkrockers become parents themselves and need to become authorities themselves through fatherhood.
Punk Rock was never meant to grow up... But it did
The idea for the documentary is based on the book written by PENNYWISE vocalist JIM LINDBERG who depicts his own experiences of being a punk rock dad with an offspring of three daughters in his book PUNK ROCK DAD : NO RULES, JUST REAL LIFE. The duality that rises when one stands on stage in front of hundreds of punk rock kids chanting along with songs like FUCK AUTHORITY and then coming home to your kids and telling them not to swear is one of the main topics here.
Sleeve back
ANDREA BLAUGRUND NEVINS was one of the many readers of JIM's tales of being a punk rock dad and thaught that it would be great material for a documentary on this subject. Together with OSCILLISCOPE laboratories ( an independent film company) they commenced on a quest to make a full fledged documentary narrated by JIM LINDBERG himself. Together they invited many fellow punkrockers and friends of JIM to tell their awkward situations of acting out on parenthood while being a punkrock hoodlum themselves. Next to JIM and the PENNYWISE crew, we get testimonials from LARS FREDERIKSEN (RANCID), FAT MIKE (NOFX), TONY ADOLESCENT (ADOLESCENTS), RON REYES (BLACK FLAG), DUANE PEETERS (US BOMBS), TONY HAWK (PROSK8BOARDER), FLEA (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS) and many more.
Jim Lindberg showing of his latest tattoo
The documentary shows us many up close and personal scenes where the punk rock dads speak of their own experiences and ideas on parenting. Some of these confessions are emotional, honest and raw and handle about owns one experiences through life with their own abstent parents, while others speak of the hilarious situations that arise when they step up to being a parent themselves.
Imagine LARS FREDERIKSEN taken his 3 year old son to a playground in his homecity, dressed in red and black bondage pants and a shirt saying 'I hate people...' on the front and '... And They hate me' on the back. Together with the panther print hairdye and SKUNX tattoo on his forehead this leads to hilarious situations when arriving there. All the other playground visitors grab their kids when the punk menace arrives and leave for safer grounds. Leaving the playground deserted for LARS and son, just the way they like it.
Emotional moments are included too by the means of contemplating about the change in life that parenthood can cause. FLEA discusses his pounderings with this teenage daughter, openly discussing his abstinence of drugabuse due to the fact that he felt the need to be there for this kids. The ultimate tearjerker is when DUANE PEETERS starts showing his grief for the death of his son CLASH and the horror of outliving your kids. This is to give you an idea of what this movie beholds. It's a must see film if you happen to love punk rock and / or happen to be a parent yourselves.
Fold out box full
I've had the luck to see this film in 2011 before the official release since it was in the program of the 2011 GHENT FILM FESTIVAL. I instantly fell in love with it and when the official release was announced i knew i had to get this on DVD.
The main actors with respective offspring
The DVD release is brought as a cardboard foldout DVD box packed in a cardboard sleeve. Inside the fold out case we find many pictures of the included punkrockers, some on the road, some with their kids. All in all this is a nice way of packaging for a documentary with the artwork being everywhere, even the inside of the DVD sleeve is imprinted with pictures.
Inside the sleeve
Next to the main documentary some special features are included on this DVD release.
There's a feature length audio commentary with JIM and ART ALEXAKIS (EVERCLEAR) amidst others narrating through the film. Some outtakes are included that didn't make the movie of MARK MOTHERSBAUGH (DEVO) and DR. DREW. A few music videos by JIM's new band THE BLACK PACIFIC, acoustic performances by ART and TIM MCILRATH (RISE AGAINST) and the theatrical trailer.
So next to the 99 minute documentary we get a shiny well packed DVD chockfull of hours of viewing pleasure.
