I get by with a little help from my friends

I’m thinking of taking on a few new staffers at PT. I need a) gig reviewers, b) CD reviewers, c) interviewers and d) people who can source news items and post them between 9am – 5pm (ie when I’m busy on the day job).

If you’re interested in a) or b) you must be energetic, enthusiastic, like different styles of music and be prepared to listen to A LOT of shit bands. If you’re interested in c) you must be interesting and knowledgeable about different bands. If you’re interested in d) you need connections. I can copy and paste from absolutepunk already.

If you think you fit the bill email me at paul AT punktastic DOT com and explain why giving any relevant info you feel I should know. Don’t send me sample reviews. I don’t wanna read ‘em. I’m more interested in commitment and energy than how well you can write…

All Time Blow

Maybe I’m just getting old, but I can’t be the only one to be a little uncomfortable by the sound of members of All Time Low telling an audience of 14-year-old girls they’d quite like to ‘ejaculate’ all over them while on stage of their recent UK tour. Now I want to stress I’m not writing this blog because I’m upset the band managed to get away with the fact they got booted out of a hotel on the night of a planned Kingston DJ set and the police were called. Nor the fact that I think they’re really lame for flaking out of a scheduled appearance which fans had paid to see because ‘they’d eaten a big meal’. Nope, this is just a rant because I’m astonished, in this day and age, no-one else has picked up on it. I’m no prude. I’m not a member of Mothers Against Brokencyde either. But I do have a level of taste and decency. If I stood outside the school gates and accosted teenage girls and told them I wanted to do rude things to them the likelihood is I’d either a) be arrested, b) get a smack off someone’s dad or c) be labelled a nonce. Or maybe even all three. So how can a group of grown men not only get away with it, but seemingly be loved for it too? As all of Saturday evening’s “arrest” nonsense was going down ATL became a hot topic on Twitter. The sheer number of youngsters talking about them was staggering. I knew they were big in the scene, but i didn’t realise just how big. Nor did I realise just how young their fanbase was. I’ve heard and reviewed a couple of their records and thought they were reasonable at what they did. Good but never great. And lyrically they’re a clean-cut band singing songs about teen heartbreak that everyone can relate to.

So where’s the need for the on-stage filth? I spoke to a couple of friends who went to the ATL tour over the last two weeks and they were pretty surprised at some of the on-stage banter. They don’t exactly discourage underage girls from flashing and they (apparently, I wasn’t there) made more than the odd reference about wanting to ejaculate on the crowd, amongst other things. And yeah I know Bink 182 made jokes about fucking dogs and the like but this seems to be a little weirder. I just find it odd no-one else finds it weird. Of course they’re Kerrang’s premier band on the mag’s tour next year so don’t ever expect a bad word to be said about them there. Maybe someone can find an interview where someone’s asked them about their on-stage habits. i’d be interested to find out how they justify being, well, sick.