Saturday 14 December 2013

NO SOLUTION



'No Solution' is now up for sale at the Hardware Records shop- http://www.hardware-records.com/catalog/

10 songs, 12" vinyl, 500 copies (100 Green, 400 Black). Here's what Hardware have to say about it…

'Embracing influences from a wide variety of worldwide Hardcore, JACKALS dropped a bomb on their debut 12". The 7" already was a blast, but this one nails it to the cross. Fierce, negativity-ridden, stop'n go hardcore and top-notch artwork make this a sick release.'

You can also stream it on our bandcamp or the Hardware bandcamp, and download it for a couple of quid (or look for a blog which has it for free obviously). The records themselves come with lyrics, and I've posted some explanations of the ideas behind the songs on here as well.

We'll be doing a few weekenders and a release show at the start of next year, details of that will be here when they're sorted. We'll have our own copies up for sale around then too and if any UK distros want copies, let us know as we can get them all sent over from Germany in one go to save on postage. 

Thursday 26 September 2013

Our LP is being released by the excellent Hardware Records before the end of the year. Artwork is being organised at the moment, once that is sorted the record should be out within about a month. We'll then put more songs online from the LP as well and will look to play a few weekenders in the UK.

http://www.hardware-records.com

We finally got the van back last week, so I've updated our bandcamp with all the leftover merch. Tour shirts, patches, and the final few copies of the tour tape we had made are up for sale now.

https://jackalshc.bandcamp.com/merch

Friday 9 August 2013



Our van broke down halfway through our tour on the motorway in Croatia the other day, about three hours from Zadar. We managed to play the show that evening after it got towed to a garage in a town called Karlovac, and we found that there was a coach going to Zadar that evening. After arriving at about 10.30, getting picked up from the coach station and borrowing literally everything from the other bands, we played on a basketball court right by the sea. The van wasn't properly fixed in Croatia though when we got back the following afternoon and despite managing to drive it to Ljubljana (instead of Bosnia, where we were supposed to have the next show) that evening it still wasn't ok to drive any further. We got it towed to another garage, but they were unable to fix it at all, meaning we had to leave it there earlier today taken elsewhere to be fixed and eventually returned to the UK.

We have spent most of today looking into trying to hire a van, but our breakdown insurance won't cover nearly enough of the costs to make that a possibility given the short notice, where we are and the fact that the van will need to be returned from the UK, which means we have to fly home tomorrow afternoon and cancel the rest of the tour. 


We are really sorry to anyone who helped us book the dates on our tour that we have to cancel/have cancelled already or anyone that was planning to come and see us. I think most/some of the shows might still go ahead, so please go and make them worthwhile for the people involved!  Thanks to anyone who tried to help us out of this shitty situation in any way and everyone we've spoken to over the last few days, and also to everyone that made the first week of the tour great.


I'll put our remaining tour tapes and t-shirts online whenever I get home.  

Hopefully we can come back and do things properly as soon as possible.


Saturday 27 July 2013

TOUR TAPE


As I mentioned in the last blog post, we'll have some tapes with us in Europe featuring 4 songs we recorded a few months ago for our LP. We didn't get stuff sorted in time to have records but hopefully they'll be organised not long after we get back. We got 55 tapes sorted, any leftovers we'll put online. 


We also have some new patches and t-shirts Same deal with those as far as leftovers go. 







Friday 21 June 2013

EUROPEAN TOUR



We're coming to Europe in August. If you can help us with a show on any of the dates we don't have filled get in touch at jack.pitt@uea.ac.uk

Thursday 9 May 2013

We recorded some new songs this weekend. More news soon.

Friday 8 March 2013

The gigs we played this week with Lich and Cloud Rat this week were great. If you get a chance to see them in Europe over the next few weeks (or Cloud Rat + Resurrectionists later this month) you definitely should. 

We are recording again at the start of May and are still writing some new songs for that which looks like being the main stuff we will focus on for now.

We don't have any more gigs planned as yet until July, when we are playing with DESPISE YOU and loads of other UK bands. Hopefully we'll have a few more gigs sorted before then, including a weekend somewhere maybe.




Finally, we're currently in the early stages of sorting out coming to Europe again for a couple of weeks this August. If you want to help us out, you can email jack.pitt@uea.ac.uk


Tuesday 12 February 2013

INTERVIEW

I was recently interviewed for a Spanish 'zine, which you can buy from http://www.dejavuhardcore.blogspot.com.es/2012/12/uhp-n-10-diciembre-2012recien-salido.html


Here's the English version.


1./ short story of the band... 

We are JACKALS; we formed a couple of years ago with a slightly different line-up to now. We are based in Norwich which is a city in the East of England, a couple of hours away from anywhere.



2./ to start up i would like to know which stuff you already recorded and also released.... aaand how do you release? I mean if you use diy labels?

So far we have released a 7” which was basically a demo, and three split 7”s which came out in 2011. This year we released a tape titled Survival Instincts and a new 7” called Everyday Fabric which is, in my opinion, the best stuff we’ve recorded by far. Survival Instincts was released by our friend Sean’s label, Youth Camp Records and Everyday Fabric was released by two of our friend’s labels, Boslevan Records and Parade of Spectres. All three are DIY labels and I’m fairly confident that this is the only way we will release any music in the future, as it suits our ethics and politics more than any other method.


3./ how do you define a do it yourself label or band?

I’m sure this has been better defined by other people in the past, but for me DIY is about self sufficiency and the realisation that having total control over your band’s output and only working with your friends and people (whether it be labels, people who put on gigs, or anything else) who share your ethics is the best way of operating. To me it seems that anything other than DIY results in the possibility of compromise, ripping people off, being co-opted for other purposes and putting up with bullshit getting in the way of the reason we are a band in the first place- to play gigs and to make music.



4./ do you know something about spanish scene? would we see you on a future to play alive on my country??

Pretty much everything I’ve heard about Spanish punk is great although I wouldn’t claim to be an expert or anything. In the last year or so I’ve seen SUDOR, LA URSS, GLAM, and UNA BESTIA INCONTROLABLE in the UK, all were great. Also, bands like INVASION, CRIMEN DE ESTADO, ATENTADO, FIRMEZA 10, ABSURDO and DESTINO FINAL have released some of my favourite records of recent times. I think my absolute favourite of the last 5 years or so is OTAN- Sociedad Despreciable, what a fucking great record!! I of course also appreciate the older bands like MG 15, ANTI/DOGMATIKSS, GRB, HHH etc. etc. I love how the best Spanish punk is really stripped back and raw but still absolutely ripping. Even though I don’t understand the lyrics most of the time, the link with anarchism is really inspiring when you’re seemingly surrounded by apolitical people and bands who throw around the term ‘PC’ like it’s about anything other than not being an ignorant dickhead. We’d love to come over to Spain and in fact we’ve recently started talking about trying to play some gigs there next summer as part of a Euro tour.



5./ how do you define your sound....? do you like to think your music is different or you prefer to think it s just the old punk with some new ideas?

I prefer to leave any definition of what we sound like to other people, but we aren’t exactly ripping up the rule book as far as punk and hardcore goes. That said, I do think we manage to combine a fairly diverse range of influences into something that might not be our own, but at least escapes obvious comparisons to whatever else is currently popular.



6./ what do you think about people like me that still love to do an fanzine on paper?

I did the same myself up until a few years ago and have plans to do the same again, so I’d always look to support someone doing a fanzine on paper. The internet is great for many things, but there’ll always be a place for people doing paper fanzines, providing the writing is worthwhile of course.



7./ what could be considered your mainly influences??? musically and lyrically...

Usually whatever I’m listening to a lot at the time, so currently it’d be bands like DISCHARGE (as always), RUDIMENTARY PENI, UNITED MUTATION, CITIZENS ARREST, UBR, WARHEAD, NO TREND, NEGATIVE APPROACH. But I’m sure that’s different for every member of the band. Lyrically we tend to just write about whatever we think is relevant politically or socially. On the most recent record for example that has included nationalism and militarism, how conspiracy theories are generally bullshit which detract from real issues worth protesting about, how healthcare companies are inevitably focused more on profits than human lives and the end result of that, the way that states deal with crime and punishment and how sexual violence is often a product or escalation of the modes of everyday interaction and normalised misogyny, which is where the title Everyday Fabric comes from.



8./ what do you think about the use of drugs? do you think must be a link between punk and drugs?

Tom, who plays drums, is straight edge, but the rest of us are not. I think current drug laws and attitudes towards them in the UK and beyond are completely outdated, but I don’t think drugs are important to punk as good music can be made with our without their influence.



9./ are the people of the band interested on politics?

I’d consider politics as very important to the way the band operates and to us as people. To start with the lyrics were not expressly political, but as we have got older and become more informed I’ve felt more strongly that the lyrics we write should reflect this, to the point which political issues are the major source of inspiration. I personally would generally align myself with anarchism and the rest of the band all believe in ‘leftist’ causes such as feminism, environmentalism and equality.


10./ how is the scene on your area??

I put on gigs in Norwich fairly regularly which are usually well attended and I manage to get some good bands to play here. It would be good if there were more active local bands but that is nothing new and definitely not unique to Norwich. Considering its size and location I think Norwich has a strong scene, the only reason that would ever change is if people started becoming apathetic.

11./ Next plans?

As I mentioned before we hope to play again in Europe next year for a longer stretch so that it something we will be organising soon alongside some more gigs in the UK. We’re also (as always) writing songs for our next release which I think we will aim to record early next year.

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Our Next shows are with Cloud Rat and Lich at the start of March.



We've not played many shows over the last few months and have spent the last few months working on some new songs, which will be the case until we record again, although plans for that are a little way off yet.