A distinct sound is made when freshly polished Dr. Marten boots crunch through the snow in northern Canada’s frozen tundra. When the hum of traffic is low Dr. Marten boots make a hard rhythm on the cold concrete. Welcome to HOME FRONT, a beat, a sound unique to a working class city like Edmonton, Alberta. For seasoned DIY Punk musicians Graeme MacKinnon (No Problem//Wednesday Night Heroes) & Clint Frazier (Shout Out Out Out Out/Wet Secrets/Physical Copies) Home Front is the place, the medium, the perfect clash of Oi! Punk with 80s Synth Pop to create the new style of shoe gaze, or in this case, Boot Wave. GAMES OF POWER, Home Front’s debut full length on North London’s LA VIDA ES UN MUS DISCOS is the document, the main course to 2021’s Think of the Lie six song appetizer, the summation of making music during a global pandemic and political unrest. In a province like Alberta, Home Front is the alternative, a focus for a different kind of future. With the help of Polaris Prize winning producer Jonah Falco (Fucked Up/Career Suicide/Jade Hairpins) and Canadian Juno nominated Nik Kozub (Shout Out Out Out Out), Games Of Power has become an instant hit, beloved critically, smashing into an unassuming public like a scud missile. Meshing “Second Empire Justice” BLITZ, early NEW ORDER & THE CURE with their geography, Home Front’s sound is beautifully flawed- a new wave of Boot Gaze.
NEIGHBORHOOD BRATS
The Bay Area punk scene was the perfect launching point for Neighborhood Brats, and it all happened really fast amidst the madness of intense partying, hypocritical scene politics and wildfire gentrification.
Founded by vocalist Jenny Angelillo, and guitarist George Rager, Neighborhood Brats hit the ground running, recording their debut EP with just 5 rehearsals under their belt. The urgency of “just going for it” became standard practice, with notoriously wild live shows and an almost as crazy reputation for off-stage behavior.
Neighborhood Brats wrecked shop everywhere they went; Angelillo’s commanding stage presence, the ultimate secret weapon, allowed the band to slither in-and-out of various sub genres inside the punk community. After playing clubs, squats and parties around the Bay Area and beyond, the band became geographically split between Southern and Northern California, an on/off recurring theme reflecting the tumultuous whirlwind of Angelillo’s and Rager’s personal lives.
Still managing to write, record and tour with little support outside of the DIY punk community, the release of the band’s first proper LP, Recovery (2014), was a miracle in its own right. The mounting pressure of managing a full-time DIY band, which relied almost entirely on help from friends and family for any sort of functionality, put the band in a vulnerable position that inevitably led Rager to call a 7 month hiatus in January, 2015.
Recalling the break, Rager states, “Between record pressing plant delays, our personal lives being wrecked, a tour cancellation, lack of support and the band being broke, I needed to be anonymous and not fuck with music for a while. Too many posers. Fuck.”
Neighborhood Brats unintentionally fell victim to modern music business realities, until phone calls with longtime manager Michl “the Boss” Krenner, of German record label Taken By Surprise, convinced Angelillo and Rager that Neighborhood Brats needed to be a band; they needed to keep going. With Krenner, it didn’t sit right that they had stopped playing.
Initiating the end of hiatus, Angelillo stated, “I miss playing music with my best friend.” Unable to deny their close friendship and desire to write, record and tour together, Angelillo and Rager started over from scratch. A back-to-basics approach had the band focused on the things that brought them together, rather than the music industry pressures that quickly descended the band into maelstrom.
After testing the waters with a string of US West Coast and Europe dates in 2016, the chemistry which brought Angelillo and Rager together was more obvious than ever. With drummer Gabe Katz and bassist Tony Teixeira joining as full-time contributing members, Neighborhood Brats are delivering insane live shows, with a wall of sound and Angelillo’s powerful stage presence dominating their performance.
