Self Defense Family / Goodtime Boys
Split EP
Palm Reader Records
11 November 2013

by Alex Andrews

Self Defense Family are a strange one. They’ve changed their name so many times you can never be sure what they’re actually called; they’re wildly prolific yet they’ve only managed three albums in 10 years; and despite the fact that they practically live on social media, their inane chatter and lack of a proper website means that Wikipedia remains the best way of keeping track of their discography.

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This weekend would’ve been the fifth Hevy Festival…but as you no doubt know by now, the festival was forced to cancel their event this year. They tried to schedule a replacement all-dayer at the Brixton Academy here in London, featuring some of the biggest bands on this year’s (cancelled) bill…but as you also know by now, they had to cancel that too.

It’s not been the best year for Hevy Festival, truth be told.

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South By Southwest is a wonderful place where Foo Fighters play on the patio of a bar and Kvelertak play five shows in three days and we see them all by dumb luck. While the big picture says SXSW is about bands for radio, the underground says it’s all about metal. That’s why the pizza shop on 6th St is called Hoek’s Death Metal Pizza and has a dozen metal bands playing in its backyard every day. There are also some excellent bands flying over to Austin from the UK. Here’s a rundown of the seven that we could find.

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When influential Italian screamo-types, Raein, announced they would be playing their first UK shows for over six years, longterm fan Tom Doyle made sure he was one of the lucky few that crowded into the Old Blue Last to be reminded as to just why they’re such a big deal.

Six things we learnt when Raein (finally!) came back to London…

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We reckon we’re pretty good at finding new bands. Over the past few years we’ve championed Turbowolf, Bastions, Wolves Like Us and loads more before the rest cottoned on. That’s why you probably want to know what new bands we liked the most in 2011.

Maybe some of them will go on to become your favourite band of 2012. Maybe you already love them and this just reinforces the fact that you’re awesome. (If so, come and join us.) Just give the bands a listen. They’re worth it.

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