Monday February 13th, 2012 - Washington, IL

We woke up early and hit the road hard. We hadn't toured or done more than a few shows in over two months before this and we were beyond anxious to get on the road...

1.Ceremony - Open Head (Bridge 9 Records)

2.Torch Runner - Holy River (Communitas Records)

3.Liars - Plastic Casts of Everything (Mute Records)

4.Strange Boys - Omnia Boa(Rough Trade Records)

5.Whirl - Blue (Self-Released)

6. Thee Oh Sees - Ghost in the Trees (Recorded Live by Read and Write)

7. The Swarm - XOn Your KneesX (No Idea Records)

8. The Swarm - Upside Your Head (No Idea Records)

9. Low Sky - Palace Flophouse (Head First Records)

10. The FlyTraps - Love Disease (Agi’s Tape Collective)

11. Davila 666 - Tu (In the Red)

12. Trentemoller - Blue Hotel (Trente Moller)

13. Ty Segal - Happy Creeps (Bruise Cruise Music)

14. Rye Coalition - Baby Puts out Old Flames (Trouble man)

15. Some Girls - Sex and Glue (Deathwish Inc)

16. Pygmy Lush - Red Room Blues (Lovitt Records)

Hardcore can often be a gateway to other genres of music, and what we have here is one of the best examples of that ever.

We asked some of our pals to give us their best and worst of 2011. Without further ado...

Set Your Goals are currently living the “American Dream” of starting and being in a band. The band started back in 2004 in a garage in Walnut Creek, CA, and were packing venues all over the Bay Area within a year of their inception. The first time I saw the band was opening for the second Lifetime reunion show in San Francisco in 2007. Anyone who knows me can testify to my love of Lifetime, and while Lifetime were awesome that night, Set Your Goals totally out-responsed them at that show. Lifetime had their fans there singing along, but Set Your Goals turned the floor of Slim’s into a complete warzone. It was that night that it became clear that Set Your Goals were arguably the biggest band in Bay Area Hardcore.

Set Your Goals deserves to be where they’ve rose to. They write catchy songs that still stay true to the edge and passion that separates hardcore from the rest of the music world. Frontmen Jordan Brown and Matt Wilson sing lyrics that inspire hope and positivity but without sounding overly idealistic or cheesy. As a band, they love all aspects of underground music and have shared the stage with bands like First Blood, Animosity, Turmoil, Less Than Jake, and Paramore. In turn, Set Your Goals has put bands like Comadre, Trash Talk, This Time Next Year, Title Fight, The Story So Far, and Polar Bear Club on tours and shows with them, helping these bands get a push up that ladder of notoriety. Even in the face of acting how any true hardcore band should act, the band has caught flack for signing with Epitaph Records and doing Warped Tour. The impression with a lot of kids is that working with the music industry means convictions go out the window and art takes a back seat the business. This couldn’t be further from how Set Your Goals runs their band. I recently caught up with singer Matt Wilson to ask him exactly what it means for a hardcore band to work with the music industry, and what the reality of signing to a big label and a management team is like.

Convulsions - Nero & Doryphoros from Glory Kid Ltd on Vimeo.

Gwenn Clement has created a beautiful and yet eerie music video for Convulsions' "Nero & Doryphoros" track, off their split LP withBlack Kites. Check it out, share it. Love it and pick up this record if you have not had the chance! http://hellfishfamily.com/stores/featured-glory-kid-limited

In May of 2010, my former band found ourselves playing a show at Chain Reaction with Disembodied, The Mistake, Monuments To Thieves, and Mourningside. Since it was a band I was involved with, we were going to need to borrow a substantial amount of gear to play the show. Javier (of The Mistake) put me in touch with The Mistake’s new guitar player, Adrian Castillo, about working out the finer details of what gear we were going to need to use. Jav told me that in addition to being in The Mistake, Adrian fronted another band called Children Of God that would totally blow me away. Needless to say, I was intrigued...

As I got to know Adrian, it turns out I had met him years ago when The Mistake had played a show at his house with Goodbye Forever. Due to poor life decision-making skills, I had absolutely no recollection of any of this. Luckily, Adrian was forgiving of my dumb choices, and we have since become great friends. He sent me the Children Of God demo and Javier was absolutely right (there, I said it for once, dude): I fucking LOVED their demo. Children Of God are a rare band that makes music so incredibly dark, angry, and ugly that one can’t helped but be moved while listening to it. Their breakneck fast rhythms and chaotic guitars when paired with Castillo’s visceral, anguish laden vocals take one to place that only bands like Black Flag, Swing Kids, or Born Against can. I recently caught up with Adrian and badgered him regarding all things Children Of God. Read on if you enjoy interesting interviews.