Out of the van and into the sun November 30
Well once again my website updating efforts have been lax and three shows have gone by with not a peep on the website news front. I'm sure you're all wringing your hands in anguish. Well fear not! Here's an update from the DR camp, deep fried in batter and covered in salt (hmm, kinda like a Belchers record).

Firstly to the most important thing! The Disconnect Records Street Team mailing list thingamy whatsit is alive and floorpunching! That means all you tasmanian, australian and international punks can sign up and get the news and stuff direct to your inbox. There'll be competitions to win copies of the EP and other things rather soon.
Do yourself a favour and sign up, then do us a favour and get 5 of your mates to sign up as well. The more people in the loop, the more people will know about shows and the more people that know about shows, the more people will go to shows. And we all know that lots of people at shows means the bands have a rad time, the venues sell lots of beer, and most importantly, everyone at the show has a fucking awesome time.
So sign your life away, and hassle your mates into doing the same. Then send us an e-mail and hassle us about the next show and find out how you can help us out by promoting it to your friends and at your school/college/uni/skatepark/drug rehab clinic/local brothel/christian childrens group/etc.

!!! JOIN THE DISCONNECT RECORDS STREET TEAM HERE !!!

Right, now onto other stuff!
It's difficult to write about The Nation Blue show. It was almost three weeks ago, yet I'm still kinda spinning out over the intensity of it all. Target Practice and The Scandal both played awesome sets and were definately doing the local scene proud. Matt Weston (of TNB) warned us that we'd be blown away by the Black Level Embassy lads and he wasn't wrong! Jeez can those guys put on an awesome show. No surprise that they've been playing the whole tour with TNB. As soon as they started they had the attention of everyone in the venue. Mightily impressive for a band that very few people had heard of before.
They were the perfect warm up for The Nation Fucking Blue (they've earned that 'fucking' in there as well, I can tell ya...it's the only way to do them justice). These guys came on stage and unleashed all their fury onto the 200+ crowd. It was chaos from the word go, with guitars thrown with an intensity that could spontaneously combust. Everyone one of the 13 tracks these guys blasted onto the crowd was drunk up and swallowed with a desperate fury by the thirsty crowd. The Nation Blue may not have played a show in Hobart in 5 years before this one, but they returned with a vengeance, and let everyone know about it.
Thanks a shitload to both The Nation Blue and Black Level Embassy for making the trek down and blowing the roof off of The Venue, as well as Target Practice and The Scandal for showing that the locals can still kick shit with the best of them. Biggest thanks goes to all you people who rocked up and made it such a rad show, cheers!

The weekend after The Nation Blue saw Stand Defiant and The Scandal pile into a few cars and make a massive trek up to the North West coast for Smackfest, a rather cool sailboarding competition. We arrived to the awesome hospitality of the man with the plan, Quentin Bye who got all the boys refuelled and ready to rock out. The Marrawah Pub was chock full of sailboarders and other sorts, including a few who'd made the trek from Devonport just for the show.
The Voyeurs played a set before vacating the stage for Stand Defiant, who ripped the shit out of the place in the midst of a smashed up pile of sailboarders and surfers who seemed more than happy enough to spear tackle and beat each other to death. Good fun for all involved!
The Scandal took the tag and proceeded to follow up with another intense set, the crowd dancing and yelling for more. Without a doubt the best night the Marrawah Pub's seen in years (well, since the last time The Scandal were there at least).
Everyone who went up had an fucking mad time, and it was light outside before the final cans were crushed and sleeping bags unrolled.
Massive thanks goes out to Quentin for providing us with the best weekend we've had in ages (and we've had some good ones!).

The 26th and 27th arrived and with it brought the bright eyed boys from Melbourne, Away From Now on their first ever Tassie tour. These guys didn't let low crowd turnouts phase them at all and Friday night saw them giving The Polish Club in North Hobart a severe thrashing! Talk about a tight and tehcnical band. These guys blew me away, and I was 30 metres away! Unfortunately the Polish Club was a bit too far away, or Hobartians just aren't curious enough to check out a band they haven't heard of, and not a great deal of people came through the doors to appreciate the brilliance that these guys brought down with them. Never-the-less, the people there left sockless and cockless! Stand Defiant and Launceston up-and-comers Burning The City provided the flat-out energy support that AFN deserved.
Everyone piled into vans and cars on Saturday and headed up to meet the drunken old guys at the Devonport Workers Club. Who said you needed to be able to talk coherently to serve alcohol!?
The show kicked off late to allow a bit more time for the venue to fill up (another small crowd unfortunately...where were you folks!?) but once it started, it didn't stop! Burning The City again took to the stage, warmed up nicely from the previous night's set and showed the north of the state what kind of talent comes out of their area. And I tell ya, it's good! The Scandal then stepped up and brought their usual raw and desperate fury to a hometown crowd, doing what they do best and rocking out, balls to the floor.
Ready to smash the fuck out of everyone in the place, Away From Now upped the ante and took the fight the floor. Mics were moved forward and AFN joined the crowd on the dancefloor before opening into a set that wont be forgotten by anyone who was there! Mic stands and beer went flying and everything was kicked up a notch as the boys belted out a furious show.
It's safe to say that everyone left knowing they'd seen something special that night. And the Away From Now gents are keen to get back here and remind us how much they kick arse in the near future, so if you missed it this time, keep your ear to the gound (and your hand on your mouse).

So yeah, the last few weeks have been pure madness in the Disconnect camp. No complaints though, we love you all!

Rock on folks, and support your scene! You're the ones that keep us alive and make it possible for us to bring down bands. Punk rock was and is built on live music, and without it, it dies. You may not think you'll make a difference, but each and every body that comes through those doors means the world to us, and can make or break a show! Show your colours, support your local scene, and don't be afraid to check out something you've never heard!

Never let the music die!

Cheers!

The true state of the Nation November 11

Well I must admit I've been rather shit with the website lately, so appologies to anyone who comes here to read news! Busy times both in the past and the future.
A massive thanks to all the crew who came to the Mindsnare shows. Anyone who was there will vouch that they were fucking epic. Definately two of the most intense shows Tassie has seen in a while. Huge thanks to the support bands as well, fucking impressive as always. It's rad to see local bands with so much energy and talent, rocking out with the best of them (Mindsnare). Cheers to The Venue and The Republic Bar, and sorry about the smashed windows. Chicken Hawk Down are obviously too hardcore to handle.
Photos from the shows will be online soon, as well as some shots from various other DR shows taken by a guy called Peter who's hooked us up. Nice.

Hopefully we'll see every one of you rowdy bastards at The Nation Fucking Blue on Saturday night (Nov 13). These guys are finally returning to the motherland after 4 years of smashing the rest of the country into tiny little pieces, and this show's going to be off the scale.

In other news, Melbourne melodic hardcore band Away From Now are coming to Tassie later this month! These guys are fucking awesome and reportedly have a bloody amazing live show (reported by Liam Disconnect, so we're liable to believe that bastion of musical taste). Presented by Disconnect Records and Pee Records. More details on the shows page.
www.awayfromnow.com
www.peerecords.com

Stay tuned for more interesting stuff.

Consume consume consume! October 21
There's a brand new Scandal t-shirt available now! Check out the shop page or head along and grab one at Mindsnare tomorrow (Oct 22nd) or Saturday (Oct 23rd)! Choose your side, and battle on!
Disconnect band merch...all the cool kids are wearing it.

Hard pressed! October 20
I've just uploaded a few new press articles and a review from PHAU, so check them out on the press page!

And don't forget Mindsnare this Friday and Saturday! More info on the shows page of course!

Get this up ya date! October 14
Aha! An update!
I've finally got around to resizing and uploading a shitload of photos from the Against Me! show. There are a heap of awesome photos by our mate beppy, as well as Disconnecter Mischa Pringle and Launceston lad Simon Hancock.
I've also finally uploaded the tour diary from the Disconnect Records/Split EP launch tour, written by none other than Nic Scandal.
You can find all these goodies on the brand new Diary page, get to it!

Cya at Mindsnare!

Are you ready for some Death? October 7
Mindsnare. Yeah, Mindsnare. You've heard of them. Of course you have, they're fucking legends. They've been showing the Aussie hardcore scene how it's done for years, and they're showing no signs of stopping. Hell, they're getting faster!
And yes...they're hitting Hobart for not one but TWO shows! Mindsnare are currently doing a national tour to launch there brilliant new album, The Death. These are going to be fucking insane, brutal, sweaty pits of brilliance. If you miss it, you'll regret it!
There are also a bunch of amazing Tasmanian bands supporting, just to rub your face in it a bit more.
Start stretching now, cause this is going to be full-on!

(Click the flyer to download a 830k PDF. Print it and copy it, spread the word! Handbill PDF here.)

Everybody Had a Real, Real Good Time september 24

Against Me! @ The Venue, 2004. Photo by Beppy!

Wowee. What an amazing show.
The Venue sold out in around two hours, we had kids lining up for about 50 metres to get in the door, all the bands were crazy good, and everybody had a real, real good time.

If you have no idea what we're talking about, Floridian punkers Against Me! played in Hobart on Saturday night, along with Newcastle hardcore fellows Conation. The show sold out, which means there were over 300 kids through the door to support what became the biggest punk rock show Hobart has seen for years. And my god, did we sing our fucking throats out.

Kids were swinging from the rafters, invading the stage, grabbing the microphone, pointing, dancing, singing, sweating and screaming and having an awesome time. The bands were stoked, and it looks like this won't be a one-off. Tassie's put it on the line: we can support shows like this.

So thankyou. Thanks to everyone who came out, thanks to Resist Records and Graham putting faith in the Tassie crew, and a massive thanks to the Conation and Against Me! lads.

For and Against Me! september 12
Right! This Saturday is it folks, the day we've been waiting for. Yep, Against Me! finally hit our shores and are no doubt going to put on the show of the decade. Here's all the details!

Friday September 18th @ The Venue, Hobart

With support from Newcastle hardcore champions Conation, and local Hobart punks Stand Defiant and Up To Our Necks.

Doors open at 8pm.

A ticket will remove $18 from your pocket. Which is fuck all for an international band. They are available at the door, and at the door only.

This is a LICENSED ALL AGES event, so if you're underage you can come along, and if you're over 18 you can still drink.

This is a fucking huge gig for anyone in Hobart who's a fan of punk rock, and music in general. If this show goes well in regards to numbers, we could start seeing many, many more big name national and international punk bands making the trip down to Tasmania.
Even if you're not the hugest fan of Against Me! (god knows how this is possible), come along. They have one of the most intense live shows ever and almost everyone who sees them is an instant convert.
Bring your friends, help us show that Hobart can kick up a storm and show their support for a band that makes the effort to come down here. Help us show them the strength of the scene and the passion of the crowds.

Cya there folks, it's going to be epic!

Gebs, Drunks, and Rock 'n' Roll september 12
Bloody oath!
What a success! The Disconnect crew hit the road last weekend, accompanied by The Scandal, Stand Defiant and a bunch of other ruffians, ready for three days of chaos! And what a brilliant three days it was. Shitloads of people showed up to all the shows and everyone had a kick arse time.
Thanks to everyone who came along, you made it a kick arse tour. Nic from The Scandal is busy writing up a bit of a tour diary so keep an eye out for that one.

If anyone went to any of the shows and has photos of any of the bands (supports included), drop us an e-mail so we can chuck them up on the site. Photos from the tour and August 27th are on their way too!

You can also grab copies of the Stand Defiant/The Scandal split EP from The CD Centre and Wills in Launceston, and Red Hot CDs in Devonport.

In other excellent news (which I'm sure many of you already know), Aussie hardcore legends Mindsnare are hitting Hobart in October for two shows (22nd and 23rd) that are sure to be fucking amazing. The first one's an 18+ show and the second is all ages.
And there's more! Ex-Hobartcore champions The Nation Blue are also coming down to rock our socks on November 13th! This is going to be another amazing show so chuck the date in your diary. Check the shows page for more of that good shit.

I think that's all for now. I'm off to consume massive amounts of coffee and try find the bits of my head that are lying on the floor. Rock on gebatrons.

Safe Like Venues! august 31

Disconnect Records Launch, August 27 2004. Photo by Beppy!

The venue for the Saturday afternoon show in Devonport (Sept. 4th) has finally been set! Stand Defiant and The Scandal will be playing a free in-store show at Red Hot CDs in Devonport, so all you poor cunts can come along and check out the bands and still be able to afford beer for the weekend.
It'll be a quick one between 3 and 4pm, so get in fast and grab a copy of the split EP before they sell out.

Details on the shows page.

But wait, there's still more!
If you head to the media page you can now grab an unreleased recording from The Scandal, Safe Like Vampires. This one was recorded over summer 2003/04 and is unmastered, but sounds fucking awesome as is to be expected. Go grab it all cause it's free and cool as fuck.

No free steak knives this week, use your fingers.

The kids are alright august 29
Thank you!
On Friday night we had D-Day, the Disconnect Records launch party. I can honestly say it was more than we could have ever hoped for. We had so many people come through those doors and check out the bands, it was unbelievable. I don't think we've ever seen a crowd come out and support a local punk rock gig like the did on Friday. We spent half the night exchanging looks of bewilderment at the number of people who came along.
So thank you, all of ya. You helped build on of the best punk rock shows Tassie has seen in years. Lets hope this is a sign of things to come!
Every single person we talked to had positive feedback and all the bands had an awesome time playing to such a good crowd.

Thanks also to everyone who bought a copy of the Stand Defiant/The Scandal split EP. We sold way more than we expected too and recieved a lot of promises from people with no cash. So good! If you're after a copy just head to the shop page and drop us an e-mail, or rock up at a show and grab one from the merch desk. We'll also have more t-shirts (and in smaller sizes) by the end of the week so keep an eye out for them.
You can also grab a copy of the CD at Aroma Records or Tracks Music in Hobart, and we'll be putting some in stores along the north coast this coming weekend. I think everyone who's bought a copy will agree that they look and sound amazing!

Coming up this Friday and Saturday we have three shows in Launceston and Devonport to launch the split EP so if you're in the area (or keen for a road trip) head to the shows page for all the details.

A big thanks also goes out to Stu at Triple J for the great interview and support on Wednesday's Short.Fast.Loud show. It's so great to have so much interest from people across the country.

I think that's all for now. Cheers guy!

Cya at the shows!

Radio, Radio august 23
Listen in to TripleJ's Short.Fast.Loud this Wednesday night (August 25th) from 11pm onwards when Disconnect will be having a bit of a chat to Stu Harvey about what's kicking in the Tassie scene.
Short.Fast.Loud is the second coolest punk rock radio show in Australia, so don't miss it!

short.fast.loud

It lives! august 7
Well here we are, finally! It's been a slightly blurry road but there's finally something to keep you amused (and hopefully informed) at disconectrecords.com.
The website's going to be evolving over the next few weeks as we integrate fancy stuff like news scripts and mailing lists and such, but we felt it would be best to get something (anything!) up for all you good folks to have a gander at. Please excuse any dodgy bits and any strange changes that may happen in the near future, we'll be working through it!

Now, for the news!
The first Disconnect release, a kick arse split EP featuring The Scandal and Stand Defiant is getting closer and closer to release! All the tracks are down, and mastering is in progress. Artwork has been mailed off and the unveiling is getting closer!
D-Day is August 27th in Hobart, check out the shows page for more details! Then we're hitting the road for an awesome cd launch tour with shows in both Launceston and Devonport! Once again, check out the small print for these ones on the shows page.

Of course we've got Against Me! hitting the island in mid September for what is without a doubt going to be the biggest punk rock show in Tasmania this year (hell, it's going to be bigger than any punk rock show in the last 4 years at least!). These guys have one of the best live shows on the planet and it's going to fill up fast, so don't miss it! This one's a licensed all ages show, so the old bastards can get pissed and young tackers can still rock out with the best of them. Too good!

In early October we've got one of Australia's greatest hardcore bands coming down for a ripper of a show in Hobart, but you'll have to wait a bit before to find out who it is (details are still being ironed out).

We've also got a heap of Disconnect t-shirts, stickers and badges coming soon so start saving your pocket money. Everything's going to be dirt cheap and top quality. Watch the shop page for details.

Also, don't forget that Disconnect Records is a distributor for that rockin Adelaide-based punk zine, Pee. It comes with free CDs and stuff, and is filled with articles and interviews and reviews and other random stuff. Definately worth grabbing a copy. Check out the shop page for info.

That's it for the moment, but keep your eyes open because stuff's really starting to hot up down this way and there's going to be plenty of news over the next few weeks in regards to tours and bands and more!

-The