Tag: hardcore
Janky Fresh Friday: New Albums From AFI and Snõõper
Danny Ryan
October 3, 2025
Welcome to Janky Fresh Friday- the busiest day of the week for artists and labels to drop newly released music. Check in every Friday for a fresh squeeze. AFI: Silver Bleeds The Black Sun… (released October 3, 2025): Run For Cover Records AFI has recently been in music news more than they have been in decades. A major aspect of this is frontman Davey Havok drastically changing his physical appearance recently, looking like he’d be more likely to front an indie folk group than a goth or hardcore or alternative band. Are those AFI‘s genres? It’s hard to pin them down to a specific sound, as they are constantly evolving and reinventing themselves throughout their career. related: Cruel World 2024 – A Legacy Forms at The Rose Bowl Today’s release of “Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…” marks the beginning of a new era for them, shifting much more into synthesizer based goth music and darkwave rather than their roots as a rock band. This shouldn’t be a surprise considering Havok’s side-projects Blaqk Audio and Dreamcar were hinting that he’s wanted to head in this direction for a long time. Even AFI’s last couple of albums were heavily incorporating goth and
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Janky Fresh Friday: New Albums From John Maus and PeelingFlesh
Danny Ryan
September 26, 2025
Welcome to Janky Fresh Friday- the busiest day of the week for artists and labels to drop newly released music. Check in every Friday for a fresh squeeze. John Maus: Later Than You Think (released September 26, 2025): Young Records John Maus’ new album Later Than You Think is a huge deal. Like a really huge, massive deal. Personally, his last release in 2011 We Must Become the Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves was a formative album during my high school years and one of my first introductions to goth music or synth pop outside of the mainstream. Almost 15 years later and he’s back with a vengeance; a deeply changed man on a spiritual level, but still bringing the lo-fi dark and gloomy atmosphere to the dancefloor. Don’t miss John Maus live this October: Observatory OC – October 20, 2025 The Belasco – October 22, 2025 The lyrical themes have certainly changed quite a bit from 2011’s “Cop Killer” to today with “I Hate Antichrist” and this tone of religious awakening can be felt throughout his newest release. As early as the second track we get lyrics like “Satan, Satan, Satan lies. Turns everything into fucking spite”. You could
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Take This: Win Two Tickets To See The Armed at The Roxy 9/20
Janky Smooth Central Command
September 16, 2025
The Armed is playing the legendary Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip on Saturday, September 20. You can buy tickets now or see below to enter our ticket giveaway. The Armed are wrapping up their September U.S. tour in support of their most recent album, the critically acclaimed The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed. With Prostitute opening, the two bands have put together a fierce lineup for fans of experimental underground music across hardcore and post-punk genres. related: Desert Daze 2022: 10 Years in the Evolution of a Music Scene We are giving away a pair of tickets to see The Armed and Prostitute at The Roxy Theatre To Enter: Like and Tag A Friend On Our Armed Ticket Giveaway Post on any social media platform Make sure you both follow Janky Smooth Winner Will Be Announced on Friday, September 18th at Noon Pacific. The Armed is a Detroit-based experimental post-hardcore collective made up of rotating members including Tony Wolski and Cara Drolshagen. With their 2025 album The Future Is Here and Everything Needs to Be Destroyed, the band explores themes of war, media, and social purity. Known for wild shows, the group often surfs
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Midnight And Ghoul at The Poor Kids Mansion
Janky Smooth Central Command
August 22, 2025
If you’ve never been to a sanctioned or unsanctioned show or event at The Poor Kids Mansion in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of L.A., can you even consider yourself a part of the punk and metal scenes of Los Angeles? Of course you can. But if music scenes were like levels on a video game, this would be one of the challenges along the way to some abstract street cred needed to complete the level. On top of a dead end, hilltop street just off Broadway, is an address that has been made public over the years but I still hesitate to mention. In a somewhat dilapidated 120 year old, 4 story estate whose windows have one of the best views of downtown in the city, is a residence and clubhouse called the Poor Kids Mansion. In the backyard you can see punk rock, thrash and sometimes, backyard wrestling- complete with a pro wrestling ring. There is also a ring inside the house- three of them, in fact. And the ring master of this circus is Russ. He and his brother Dougie are the Poor Kids. There are more Poor Kids but if you say that name, Russ and Dougie
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MSPAINT and Lip Critic at Lodge Room- Disturbing The Peace
Danny Baraz
August 14, 2025
On an undersold Thursday night at the Lodge Room on a quiet night in Highland Park, MSPAINT made their tour stop in Los Angeles to support the No Separation EP. They brought with them Pat and the Pissers and a band that caught my attention at the end of 2024, Lip Critic. I really love MSPAINT but I traveled cross town to see what the fuck this weird, experimental band Lip Critic would sound like live and how the fuck they made the sounds that had been coming out of my speaker the last 6 months. I arrived in time for a REALLY great band out of Indianapolis- Pat and the Pissers. They are a interesting Descendents punk mix of confrontational, charismatic and borderline technical players. Bass player Kilmer stood out immediately but I quickly realized that the entire band was tight and lead singer Alex Beckman was born to sing at people. related: Model/Actriz- Pirouette New Album/Bend Bodies/Break Brains At the end of an extended schmoke break between sets, we heard strange rumblings and sounds coming from the venue. We rushed upstairs to find the 4 Lip Critic lunatics thrashing about the stage, 30 seconds into their set with
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Sound And Fury 2025: Everybody Spin Kick!
Danny Baraz
August 1, 2025
“Everybody spin kick!” was the order given in the first 4 bars of the first breakdown by Mindforce frontman Jay Petagine,Saturday headliners at the Cream Stage at Sound and Fury 2025. featured image- Basement: Joe Calixto It was the first time I was IN the pit at Sound and Fury 2025 on Saturday at Exposition Park and not backstage or out on the periphery- the difference between a nice view of the ocean or swimming in it. I use boxing’s “crab defense” during these explosions. I recommend it highly. It’s allowed me to play defense and even though the best defense is a good offense, I don’t like physically hurting people as much as I used to. It made me think of the meme about hardcore dudes in the pit past 40 and the tendency toward excessive violence toward children… and this feels like the perfect platform to explain this cultural phenomenon… related: Relive Every Sound and Fury for the Last 10 Years The first time I got hit in the head with an errant fist for fun and not fighting was in my late 30’s- not old for the world but certainly old in a music scene. Old enough
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Death or Glory Fest Giveaway-Guess The Mystery Headliner???
Janky Smooth Central Command
May 7, 2025
Death or Glory Music & Tattoo Festival is the newest kid on the festival block and its buzz has already made a huge splash. With the very first San Diego performance of Detroit hardcore legends, Cold as Life, they are going to host a performance West Coast Hardcore Kids have dreamt about ever since the band reunited. Hosting one of hardcore’s most notoriously badass bands isn’t all that’s causing chatter in the scene though. The festival already has a diverse lineup of bands within the hardcore and hardcore punk genres, giving audiences a taste of every vibe out there today. Add a tattoo convention and San Diego Harley Davidson for the venue, and you have one of the most insane and hardcore cocktails that will ensure this fest will go down in So-Cal history. Oh but that’s not all. One of the headliners of this baby hasn’t even been revealed yet. Followers on the festival’s instagram got a sample of the fest’s lineup but came away with more questions than answers. Namely, who else is headlining Death or Glory??? Well, fans will find out eventually but if you can predict who’s going to be on the next lineup announcement in
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Scowl At 1720 Sell Out The Venue But Not Their Souls
Danny Ryan
September 22, 2023
One of the biggest Catch 22’s of being a punk rock fan is wanting the artists you love to succeed and reach a larger audience, while also wanting them to avoid selling out and the inevitable softening of their edge that comes with popularity. While bands that maintain a consistent sound are often doomed to become dull and uninteresting after a couple of releases, there’s always a lingering fear of bringing in new audiences that don’t “get it” when an artist experiments with new aesthetics or explores other genres. Scowl and Militarie Gun have both had some of the most talked about punk releases of the year, and their recent show at 1720 proved that neither artist has sacrificed their unruly hardcore spirits in the evolution of their sounds. While tough-guy hardcore purists may be complaining online about the alternative direction that these artists have been taking, it’s clear that they haven’t witnessed the chaotic party that Scowl creates up close in-person for themselves yet and it’s only a matter of time before everybody starts to embrace the “Psychic Dance Routine”. related: Scowl Interview- Talking Limp Bizkit, Kevin Smith and Hardcore 1720 has established itself as one of the best
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Metal Injection Festival Will Conquer Orange County September 16th-17th
Rob Shepyer
September 12, 2023
Having served the global extreme music underground since 2004 when they were launched by co-owners Frank Godla and Robert Pasbani, Metal Injection has become the premiere source for heavy metal and hardcore news, reviews, humor and more. To celebrate the magazine, its contributors, readers and the bands they love, Metal injection has evolved into a festival with just as much power and style as they’ve always put out. Since their inception, what’s made Metal Injection stand out from the rest of the flock is the exceptional curation and vision held by its creators and family of contributors. The very first Metal Injection Festival features that same sort of expert eye for talent and timing with two nights of metal and hardcore heavyweights, old and new. At the top of the first night’s bill, Saturday September 16th’s Observatory Orange County opening night features Max and Igor Cavalera returning to their first albums, Morbid Visions and Bestial Devastation. Those who experienced their more recent Arise/Beneath the Remains tours and their Roots revival before that, know this regression in form only adds up to more volume, brutality and mosh pits because these songs, though you might not know them like the back of
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Touche Amore Play 4 albums in 2 Nights at the Regent Theater.
Taylor Wong
March 27, 2023
Touché Amoré brings a certain level of nostalgia for most, myself included. When I was in high school I had the chance of seeing Touché at our local teen center. They were pretty much my intro into something a little more hardcore than punk music. I was blown away. Flash forward 15 or so years and here we are- Touché Amore is headlining 2 sold out nights at the Regent Theater and playing 4 albums in their entirety. This has been a new trend with bands over the past year as they hit 10 to 20 year anniversaries. I love these kind of shows because you know what you’re going to see. So many times I’ve gone to a show and been disappointed by a set list. For the show I attended on night one they played Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me and Lament. The only thing that could have made this a better show for me, would have been trading Lament for Stage Four which was played the next night. Touché came out heavy starting out with “PSBBM” with the first song- which may be my favorite Touché song. They played straight through the first two songs then
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PHOTO RECAP: Drain at 1720
Janky Smooth Central Command
March 8, 2022
SOS Productions should stand for Sold Out Shows because they are on fire with their recent events, most notably Drain‘s appearance at 1720 which brought every kid and their boogie board out of the wood work to surf the crowds all night during this hardcore banger for the history books. If you’re not familiar with Drain by now, they’re one of the dopest sounding hardcore bands with a crossover edge at the moment. Their Sound and Fury set is so legendary, crowds keep trying to recreate the magic. Along with No Pressure and Ingrown, this was a night LAHC won’t soon forget. We stan for Drain here at Jankysmooth, so here are a bunch of photos from the night. Photos by: Manuel Arredondo Drain No Pressure Ingrown
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Photo Recap: Madball at 1720
Janky Smooth Central Command
March 8, 2020
NYHC legends Madball were in the house at 1720 and gave the entire venue a lesson in how much style and bounce you can pack into hardcore. These guys are OG’s in this game and by the sound of their set, it shows because hardcore this heavy and ass-kicking could only come from the mind and guts of a pack of guys who’ve been around the block. Accompanying the band for this show was Death Before Dishonor, Section H8 and Stone Cold Stunner. Every band’s hardness and brutality shined on this night. Check out our pics from the show: Photos by: Veronika Reinert Madball Death by Dishonor Section H8 Stone Cold Stunner
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