Drink, play, drink, record, repeat

Blackout Brigade has been hard at work building its gig resumé and prepping its debut album
Don Beat (Street Beat)

Uptown Magazine Online
October 9, 2008

Twelve street-beatin' weeks ago, I informed U street beaters about the debut gig by Blackout Brigade (ex-Knockarounds, ex-Crackdown). Since then, the band has played a bunch of hi-energy street-rockin' punk gigs, including a bizarre mid-high-profile slot as openers for Cancer Bats with Port Amoral.

"That was a strange one," says guitarist Graham Riddle in between "drinking and laying down vocal tracks" for the upcoming BB debut disc/downloadable album. "People just stood there, and they clapped politely in between songs."

The Brigade didn't care if the audience was static. The Blackout boys drank, played, drank, played some more, got the job done - then drank. Another gig - and a bunch of drinks - down. Next!

"We're finishing recording the album this week," says bassist James Hoard. "Then it'll be mixed and mastered, and sent off to Toronto to Insurgence Records. It's been a year and a half; thankfully he's still putting it out. It'll be available digitally as well as on disc. Just go to the Insurgence Records site and download it there when it's ready, which should be soon.

"It's called Death and Dishonesty."

"John Paul Peters is mastering it. He's amazing," Riddle adds. "He used to work at High North Studios where we recorded The Knockarounds album. He's worked with High Five Drive, Landshark of the Forest, Evil Survives. Everything he touches turns to fuckin' gold."

U street-rollicking streetists can check out pre-album release Blackout Brigade blasters such as Fight for Your Life when the Brigade play with The Horrorpops at the Royal Albert on Oct. 9.

"We're doing Evil by the 4-Skins for the album, an acoustic song called Call Off the Dogs, and a song called Open Scars," Riddle informs. "There's still a couple of songs that we don't have titles for yet. I actually just threw Open Scars up on MySpace just to show people what the new album sounds like."

Riddle says he's also booking the Punk Rock Sundays gigs at the Cavern.

"As I know the story, it goes like this," he says of the PRS series' origin. "Ray Gyot (ex-Outrage 204) was working there, and he thought up the idea. We kind of started it, so I go and book a whole shitload of bands from now until December.

"Then I find out that Ray doesn't work there anymore, he's moved on, so it all kind of fell in my lap. It's pretty cool. Blackout Brigade played. We had Spread 'Em play and the Deaf Wish Crew is great. Greg Kraj (G.R.O.S.S) is this amazing guy who runs A-1 Records. He's a true reggae guy, and he's one of the most creative and entertaining guys I've met here."

With all this exterior stuff going on, you'd wonder how the Brigade finds time to get their act on the road, but they intend to - just don't tell your friends out west to expect any upcoming Blackout Brigade shows.

"We'll probably go out east in the spring," Riddle says. "We'll use some of our contacts that we made when we were in The Knockarounds. Going out west is fucking useless, it's too much driving."

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