For the last two years, Horsebites (aka Richard Minino) has created the official logo for The Fest. Along with running his own design company, Minino has provided album covers for bands like Dead To Me, Strike Anywhere, and New Mexican Disaster Squad. Below, he gives us the dirt on how he hooked up with Tony Weinbender and The Fest crew. Enjoy.

I was lucky enough to do the art for the Fest 6 last year and it was a really great learning experience on how to brand a music festival. I thought I did a pretty decent job last year and I wanted to top it for this year’s Fest. Tony Weinbender told me since it was Fest 7 and it started on Halloween that he wanted the art to have something dealing with gambling (i.e. lucky #7) [along with] a Halloween feeling.

Read more after the jump

[Read more →]

Tags: Horse Bites, Tales From The Fest, The Fest, The Fest 6, The Fest 7, guest column, tour dates by Matthew
No Comments »

For this installment of the Record (Re)Collection-Fest 7 Edition, Chris Vandeviver of Sakes Alive!! writes about Crime In Stereo’s 2006 full-length The Troubled Stateside. We highly recommend that you check out SA!!’s brand new 7-inch Act I and that you go see them at The Fest 7. They will definitely be one of the highlights. Read on. 

Crime In Stereo - The Troubled Stateside
By Chris Vandeviver

I know it seems like an older record would make sense for a Record Re-Collection. And honestly, D4’s Midwestern Songs and Circle Takes the Square’s As the Roots Undo immediately jumped at me. However, these monumental albums are obvious tomes. Crime In Stereo’s Nitro effort, though, doesn’t strike me as obvious as the aforementioned. My life, however, was brought back full circle due to this brilliant album.

Imagine the image of this modern (young) man: forty hours a week at shitty, near minimum wage hell; walking half an hour each morning at 5:30 a.m. to work, and 2:30 p.m. home to being tired as hell; no direction, and musical efforts imploding to ego-maniacal twenty year olds; your roommate fucks up and sends your rent money to his school loan collector, and by the time you find out you are being served an eviction notice, thus forcing you to return to the parents that you try so hard to avoid. Did I mention life sucked? Cause it did.

Read more after the jump.

[Read more →]

Tags: Record (Re)Collection, Sakes Alive!!, The Fest, The Fest 7, guest column by Matthew
3 Comments »

When I was trying to figure out which band to feature first in our Fest 7 segment, Leatherface was the obvious choice. I am insanely excited to these punk rock legends in the flesh down in Gainesville. I recently asked the band to talk about a record that meant something to them when they were growing up and guitarist Dickie Hammond sent me a story involving the Stiff Little Fingers’ classic Inflammable Material. We’ll have some more from the Leatherface crew in the next few weeks so be on the lookout for that.

Band: Stiff Little Fingers
Record: Inflammable Material
By Dickie Hammond

It was November 1978. I had just moved with my family from Morpeth, Northumberland, England to Ryhope, which is a village outside Sunderland. The school I went to was Ryhope Comprehensive [and] it had the worst record in the North East. I was twelve and my only saving grace was the Sunderland Football Club, who I supported from the age of six. They had a school disco at dinner time and punk was the music being played. That’s when I first heard “Alternative Ulster.” It was the greatest intro and song I’d ever heard.

I had a paper round and saved up two weeks money, £5 at the time, and went to HMV and there it was. “Suspect Device,” “Wasted Life,” “Barbed Wire Love,” “Alternative Ulster,” “State Of Emergency,” and “Breakout” were the first ones that stood out. I wore the grooves out on it. It still sounds as fresh today as it did thirty years ago. Pure fuckin class!

Tags: Leatherface, Record (Re)Collection, The Fest, The Fest 7, guest column by Matthew
No Comments »

The Fest 7 is just over three weeks away. I’m itching to head south to Gainesville, Florida for three days filled with amazing bands, beer, no sleep, and friends. In preparation for this year’s events, LNWF will have a ton of Fest-related coverage leading up to October 31st. You can expect a bunch of guest columns, interviews, band spotlights, stories, and much more. Stay tuned and of course, if you haven’t bought your pass yet, or for any other info on The Fest, check the official site.

Tags: News, The Fest, The Fest 7 by Matthew
1 Comment »

Our friends in The Measure [SA] are streaming their fantastic compilation, One Chapter In The Book, over at the ‘Org. The band have a ton of shows coming up, including Dillinger Four’s record release show in Brooklyn with The Waste and The Ergs. Oh, and The Fest, of course. Check out the dates after the jump.

[Read more →]

Tags: Dillinger Four, Municipal Waste, News, The Ergs, The Fest, The Fest 7, The Measure [Sa] by Matthew
No Comments »