Fall Offensive 2019 – Hamilton – Thursday October 10 – Video

At the moment, words can’t express just how fantastic the past few days spent with Urban Vietcong have been … those words will come … so many people to thank … a considerable community of friends and comrades came together to make the Fall Offensive 2019 portion of Attacco Tour a success on so many levels … a truly international effort, steeped in a love for left-radical punk and politics, based on / in mutual affinity and affection, respect and regard, camaraderie and cooperation.

One of those people we have to thank is Steve from Stronger Than Ever Videos … he’s at every show, documenting the bands and the scene for posterity.

Here’s his footage from the Hamilton stop of Fall Offensive 2019 … thanks Steve … thanks Urban Vietcong, Reckless Upstarts, Barbed Wire Braces and Bring The War Home.

URBAN VIETCONG

RECKLESS UPSTARTS

BARBED WIRE BRACES

BRING THE WAR HOME

Attacco Tour / Fall Offensive 2019

UPDATE: Urban Vietcong will be making a couple of stops in Germany prior to their arrival on these shores …

First up is Postsdam on September 20th where they’ll be playing a solidarity concert for people in that city who have been affected by state repression.

Solikonzert Mit Urban Vietcong

Then, on September 21st, the band is in Kiel for Fire And Flame’s fifth annual “International Convention Of Revolutionary Solidarity And Antifascist Counterculture”

The Workers Have No Fatherland — Fire And Flames Festival 2019

In conjunction with comrades from RASH CDMX (Mexico City), RASH GDL (Guadalajara) and Dure Realitie (Montreal) we are just so incredibly chuffed to be bringing Urban Vietcong over from Livorno, Italy for a few shows in Mexico / Ontario / Quebec … look for a couple of shows in Mexico ( October 4th and October 5th ), 4 or so shows in Ontario and a show or 2 in Quebec … the band will be playing for sure at Revolution Fest VII in Montreal on Saturday, October 12th …

Stay tuned for more info!  Stay tuned for more dates!

The people are  on the march and must have songs to sing!

Siamo tutti Vietcong!

We’ll add show info below as it becomes available … here’s what we have so far …

Urban Vietcong – Attacco Tour – Guadalajara – October 4th

Urban Vietcong – Attacco Tour – Mexico City – October 5th

Here’s some promo for the Mexico shows happening October 4th and October 5th!

And, here is some info about the 3 shows in Ontario and the show in Quebec …

Urban Vietcong – Attacco Tour / Fall Offensive – Toronto – October 8th

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Urban Vietcong – Attacco Tour / Fall Offensive 2019 – Hamilton – October 10th

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Urban Vietcong – Attacco Tour / Fall Offensive 2019 – Waterloo – October 11

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Revolution Fest VII – 2019 – Montreal

And, here are a few tunes from a few of the bands playing the Attacco Tour / Fall Offensive 2019 … a work in progress …

Interview With Mike From Reckless Upstarts and Rough Cuts

We’re stoked to have Reckless Upstarts (out of Windsor) playing Spring Offensive 2019 on the Sunday. We’re equally stoked to have Rough Cuts (out of Toronto) making their debut on the Friday. Both bands feature the dulcet tones / vocal stylings of Mike. Without further ado, here’s a bit of a back-and-forth with Mike regarding these two outfits…

Image may contain: textFor those who might not be familiar with the Reckless Upstarts, how about a bit of a history?

Reckless Upstarts started as a hobby project between myself and Curtis. I had met Curtis at a feminist rally I was attending in 2013, we started talking about music, had a few too many whiskies, and the rest is history. The band had a relatively slow start, and didn’t really start gaining momentum until around 2016 or 2017 when Matt joined the band as a second guitarist. We’ve cycled through a few drummers as well… Corey is our fourth drummer and is hands-down the most talented one in the band. In the last couple years we’ve put out a couple EPs, done some touring, shared the stage with some of our heroes, and made tons of new friends in the process.

You’ve also started a new band in Toronto, right? What is going on there?

I moved back to Toronto in August 2018 for work, which was bitter sweet for me. On the one hand, Toronto is where I grew up so it was familiar and exciting to be returning. On the other hand, Windsor has a special spot in my heart. The people in that city are some of the most genuine, down-to-earth, hardworking individuals I have ever met. Windsor was, and always will be, a main reason why Reckless Upstarts exists.

That being said, I don’t get to practice with the guys in Reckless Upstarts as much as I would like now that I’m in Toronto, and I needed a new outlet. Rough Cuts came about pretty organically after reconnecting with some friends. It features Zack from Dirty Work on guitar, Scott, ex-Dirty Work and Bare Bones on Bass, and Andrew, ex-Bare Bones on drums. We felt Toronto was in need of a proper Oi! band, so here we are.

Reckless Upstarts were recently part of an excellent split 7″ with Streetlight Saints on Insurgence Records, how’d that come about?

Steve, from Insurgence, contacted us one day saying that he liked what he was hearing and there was the opportunity to work together. He mentioned doing a split 7”, and we found Streetlight Saints from Calgary to hop onboard with us. I think there’s a lot of similarities between our bands in terms of what we write about and what our values are, so it was a pretty natural fit. The timing for this release was perfect as well. Both bands were lined up to play the 2018 Montreal Oi! fest, so we were able to do a mini-tour and promote the release. Working with Insurgence has been a great fit for us and we’re proud to be a part of that family.

You’ve got a track called “$78 Million” on the “Never Alone A Benefit Album For the International Antifascist Defence Fund” … clearly no fence-sitting here …

Politics are such a sensitive subject, and even more so in the skinhead scene, but they’re a part of everyday life. I won’t speak for my bandmates on their political affiliations, but I will say that I’m strictly SHARP (skinheads against racial prejudice) and that includes anti-fascist, anti-homophobic, and anti-sexist. I’ve never been one to tell people how to vote, but I’m not going to shy away from voicing my views either. The fact is we have a soap box, and as much as I love singing about getting drunk at the pub with my friends every weekend, there are important issues that should also be given their share of attention.

A European tour happened just a bit ago … any highlights?

Reckless Upstarts did a run of shows in Europe in September and October of 2018 and it was a surreal experience for all of us. I don’t think any of us thought we’d get to this point. We did a straight run of 9 shows between the Netherlands and Germany, and loved every second of it. Having the opportunity to drive around those countries really drives home how beautiful they truly are. And it’s also a totally different experience touring Europe than North America… their hospitality is on a different level. My personal highlights were the shows in Hannover and Hameln; the energy and camaraderie at those shows was top notch. We had skins from Hannover take the train to Hameln to catch our set again towards the end of the tour, so that meant a lot to us. But every city was special… Essen we made new friends in an awesome band from the UK called Criminal Mind, in Dresden we played with the mighty East End Chaos, and in Berlin we drank too many Mexikaner shots and took in the Ramones museum. We also managed to snag a couple days off in Amsterdam to bookend our tour, so that was a riot as well.

What’s next for the bands? Recording? Touring?

For Reckless Upstarts, we’ve got a busy year ahead of us and we haven’t even really started planning everything. We have a bunch of one-off shows lined up, including the Rebel Time Spring Offensive matinee blowout in Hamilton on March 24th. As far as touring goes, we have 2 days lined up in Alberta with our pals in the Harrington Saints for early May, we will be playing the Midwest Live & Loud festival in Chicago in late August, with a short Midwest tour around that fest. And we’re trying to make it back to Europe again this year.

With regards to recording, we have an EP scheduled for release this year on Insurgence Records (North America) and Contra Records (Europe), so watch for that to come out. We have started writing our next release as well which will be our debut full length. We hope to get that recorded this year and released in 2020.

For Rough Cuts, we just finished recording our debut EP, and are just starting to book shows. Our first ever show will be March 22nd for the Rebel Time Spring Offensive show in Toronto, but we’ll be booking more shows to fill out the year.

Please check out the Reckless Upstarts facebook page and the Rough Cuts facebook page to stay up to date with all news, shows, music, etc.

Here’s Reckless Upstarts doing “Rose City”:

And, here’s Rough Cuts doing “New Breed” :

Spring Offensive 2019 – The Soundtrack

… Spring Offensive 2019 … three days of peace, love and anarchy … we’re putting together a bit of a digital soundtrack featuring (hopefully) all of the bands taking part in this extravaganza …

… here’s 5 of the bands / artists anchoring this event …  an eclectric and eclectic mix of punk rock, oi,  hip-hop and revolutionary oi/folk … songs for agitators, instigators, malcontents and mischief-makers …

… stay tuned for more tunes …