Our PropertyOfZack the Decade feature has been incredibly fun for us to launch over the past few months to celebrate ten year anniversaries of some of our favorite albums. Today’s feature is going to be a little different though. Anti-Flag are not celebrating a ten year album anniversary this year, but they are celebrating a 20 year anniversary as a band. We’re helping them do that today.

We have commentary from Anti-Flag themselves, Man Overboard, Code Orange Kids, Pentimento, Skinny Lister, The Braces, The Architects, Blacklist Royals, and Modern Baseball on multiple aspects of AF’s career over the past 20 years, and we think it’s pretty special.

SideOneDummy Records is also being incredibly rad and offering POZ viewers 20% off on their entire webstore until Thursday, May 16th with the code “POZ.” So check out the webstore here, AF’s 20 year anniversary tour dates here, and the whole Decade feature below!

Skinny Lister on Anti-Flag’s influence
Anti-Flag has a way of inspiring not just their fans, but their friends as well. I fell in love with Anti-Flag in high school and for years they were the anthem of my youth. Later while playing in The A.K.A.s, I got to meet them and tour with them and was happy to learn that the quality of people in the band ran just as deep as the quality of their music. Anti-Flag will always be a band for the people, and I am honored to call them friends. - Michael Camino (@skinnylister)
 
Code Orange Kids on A New Kind of Army
The first punk CD I ever owned was Anti-Flag’s A New Kind of Army. One of the first shows I went to was getting to see Anti-Flag in Pittsburgh. Both of these experiences shaped my musical palette as a lil’ guy. I read up on social issues and got in the push pit. It was tight. – Jami Morgan (@codeorangekids)

If there is one thing you wanted people to know about AF that they do not already know, what would it be?
Chris #2: We have fun. A lot of fun! We believe that being in a band should be fun. Not everything is about the politics of the band. That’s why we chose music. Because we are humans, we enjoy life, we want others to as well. In conjunction with that we believe that having a social conscience is important and making a statement is necessary to create change in the world. The truth is that people can have great lives and reach success without fucking over each other and the planet. 
 
Modern Baseball on Chris #2’s bass riffs
My first exposure to Anti-Flag was when I was about 12 or 13 and I first discovered Fat Wreck’s Rock Against Bush comps with the band’s “School For Assassins” on it. After hearing that track, they quickly became one of my favorite bands because they were playing cool punk rock and singing about stuff they were super passionate about, which is a trait that was somewhat lacking in punk bands at the time. It’s crazy to think that I’ve been listening to Die For Your Government and The Terror State for about eight years now and even crazier to think they had been a band for twelve years before that. Not too many bands have it in them to put out records with such energy for so long. When I first started playing bass, Chris #2 was one of my favorite bassists and hell - he still is. Dude rips awesome bass lines left and right in a way that no one else can, which totally sets Anti-Flag from other punk bands like them. I mean, just listen to “Turncoat.” That last chorus is like insane bass riffage. I wish I was that good. Anyway, my point is I love that band and I’m super stoked that they’ve been around this long and I’m even more stoked to see them again at Bled Fest this year. – Ian Farmer (@modernbaseball)

If you could change one thing about your career what would you alter?
Chris #2: That’s interesting. I don’t like to really entertain scenarios like this because no matter what you’ve done, unless its harm someone physically, most of what happens in a music career is based on creative instinct and what is right for you at the time. So, it’s easy to have hindsight, but the butterfly effect of that change could alter everything else. One thing that nags us is that we should have trimmed the fat on some early songs. Some are way too long! 

What do you feel is your biggest accomplishment over the last 20 years?

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SideOneDummy Records are currently looking for interns to help out their great staff. Check out details below after the jump.

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Restorations have released a new album called LP2. Stream it ;below by clicking “Read More.”

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Let’s be honest: when Take This To Your Grave or Ocean Avenue got released a decade ago, did anyone expect to still be talking about them in 2013? But here we are, reminiscing on the good ole’ days like the hopelessly nostalgic music fans we are. But what albums will hit classic status in the 2020s? We dusted off the old POZ crystal ball to make some predictions about what albums we might still be discussing a decade from now. Feel free to reblog with albums that will still be on your mind come 2020!

The Menzingers - On the Impossible Past
This is the punk-infused heartland rock ‘n’ roll sound The Gaslight Anthem has tried to bottle since The ’59 Sound but hasn’t. For hailing from Scranton, the Menzingers do a great impression of the blue collar Midwest. There are no flashy guitar chords or sweeping sentiments about the world in Greg Barnett and Tom May’s lyricism. Heck, it’s mostly an album about being young, fucking up, getting drunk, and learning from it. But its simple poetry — about American muscle cars, shitty opening bands, and bad graffiti — gives the record its charm. Thomas Nassiff said it best: “I’ll be damned if I won’t still appreciate a line like ‘…when you get old enough to know that happiness is just a moment’ in another 15 years when I’ve stopped caring about the things I care about right now.”

The Horrible Crowes - Elsie
Remember what I said about The Gaslight Anthem post-59 Sound being predictable and formulaic? The Horrible Crowes, Brian Fallon’s “night music” side project, is anything but. Some songs sound pretty Gaslight-esque (here’s looking at you, “Behold the Hurricane) but for the most part, Fallon channels his Tom Waits-ish spirit and really tests his range as a performer. He goes from love-struck schoolboy on “Crush” to vaguely threatening on “I Witnessed a Crime” and batshit insane on “Mary Ann” seamlessly, and it’s an album that demands repeated listens. To say all the songs aren’t Springsteen clones like The Gaslight Anthem’s are isn’t entirely fair. But on Fallon’s best work as a songwriter, he challenges the Boss in terms of emotional depth and vocal fervor.

The Wonder Years - The Upsides
“I’m not sad anymore” just about says it all. When “head above water this year, boys,” stopped cutting it as a battle cry, Dan “Soupy” Campbell spilled his heart into The Upsides, a twelve-track confessional about standing your ground and not backing down when the world tells you to put your head down. Short on ballads and long on energy, The Upsides sprints from one anthem to the next, from breakneck fuck-you’s (“Dynamite Shovel”) to tour diaries put to a soundtrack of crisp guitar riffs and gang vocals (“Hostels & Brothels). The record hit shelves in January 2010, when none of us had any idea what to do with ourselves in the new decade. Campbell and company reminded us to stay defiant and keep smiling, and that message won’t fade any time soon.

fun. – Some Nights
Aim and Ignite is heads and shoulders above Some Nights, but the latter sent fun. catapulting headfirst into stardom. With mainstream radio still a pretty soulless, vacuous black hole of mediocrity and thumping dubstep grooves, fun. achieved the almost impossible by keeping their flair for the theatric and not fitting the role of Top 40’s one-hit-wonder-indie-band. Instead of playing it safe and churning out bland, but radio friendly hits, fun. went for broke, pumping the ambitious “Some Nights” and bombastic “We Are Young” to their mainstream pipelines and catching fire overnight. But careful listeners might be more likely to recall 80s-vibing “Out On the Town” and soulful “All Alone” in ten years than the surefire hits.

Transit - Listen & Forgive
What happened to the Boston pop-punkers who put out the fast, furious, and thoroughly heartbreaking Keep This To Yourself? Well, they grew up, and fans should pray rosaries that they did. Listen & Forgive is a grown-up album with a young heart, layering songs about loss and love with richly textured guitarwork. There are no frenetic jams like “Please Head North” or “Footwork,” but Transit traded angst for subtlety, and the result is breathtaking. If you’re late on the Transit bandwagon, try taking the record for a spin and not shedding a tear over Tim Landers and Joe Boynton’s collective heartaches. Songs like the title track and “Skipping Stone” are as timeless as they are flawless. 

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Restorations’ SideOneDummy Records debut is complete. Check out a picture and message from the band below by clicking “Read More.”

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It’s been a long road for Title Fight. Since its formation in 2003, the PA quartet have toured with everyone from pop-punk legends New Found Glory to fellow Keystone State upstarts Balance & Composure, all the while issuing a steady stream of EPs, splits and 7”s showcasing an ever-shifting sound. What began as straightforward pop-core had, by the release of last year’s debut full-length Shed, evolved to encompass sounds ranging from 90s emo to the new wave of hardcore to the grungy punk of Seaweed and Quicksand, whose Walter Shreifels produced Shed).

But if Shed defined the band’s core aesthetic, Floral Green refines it down to its essence. It hones in on what worked best the first time out and amplifies those bits while weeding out the last remnants of the band’s pop-punk genesis. This time around, the pretty bits are more lush, the sad parts more dour, the angsty moments more churlish and all three benefit from an extra dose of melody that serves well to counterbalance Ned Russin’s gruff vocals. It’s a formula that’s proven solid for acts like Hot Water Music and Polar Bear Club and Floral Green rivals the best work of either.

Tracks like the chiming “Leaf” and pummeling “Secret Society” feature what might be the two catchiest riffs Title Fight have crafted to date, even as the band refuses to compromise on the vocal front. The lonely electric guitar curls that comprise the spare intro to “Head In The Ceiling Fan”’ intro become a hook of their own, as instruments around them explode into the sort of warm, grindy swoon that hallmarked 90’s emo acts Christie Front Drive and Mineral. The sequencing smartly plays up these contrasts; “Calloused” bashes and brawls with the best of them, but is immediately followed by the pensive, sober “Lefty”. Throughout, there’s a clear openness to experimentation that extends to Will Yip’s production, opening the door to moments of surprising beauty, like when hard-charging “Like A Ritual” shifts into half-time before decaying in peals of feedback.

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The Smoking Popes are reissuing Born To Quit via SideOneDummy Records on October 23rd. Check out the band’s tour for the album in its entirely below by clicking “Read More.”

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Restorations have signed to SideOneDummy Records. Check out a message from the band below by clicking “Read More.”

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SideOneDummy Records have confirmed that Title Fight will be releasing a new album called Floral Green in September. Check out a message from the label and the album artwork below by clicking “Read More!”

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It looks like Title Fight may be releasing a new song called “Floral Green” in September. The band has not confirmed new music, but the image the band revealed could very well be single artwork. Check it out below by clicking “Read More.”

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Anti-Flag played the second day of The Bamboozle Festival this past May, and PropertyOfZack had a chance to catch up with Chris #2 before their set. Chris #2 and I discussed the band’s recent touring endeavors, the possibility of the band parting ways before their last album, going back to what they do best, ideals, and the future. Read up on the great interview below!

So you guys just got back from a European tour with Hostage Calm. Can you talk about that? That’s the first of a run of tours for the new album.
Yeah. We started the year; we did southeast Asia. That was kind of the beginning of us getting ready to release the record. Then the record came out in March. It’s called The General Strike. I mean, we’ve been a band for a long time and when you’ve been a band for a long time, you kind of do two things. I don’t mean to sound negative right off the bat but you either do what you’re supposed to do or you say, “Okay. How do we sustain being a band for this long and still actually enjoy it? Not just put out records and tour.” So that conversation was had probably a year and a half ago amongst ourselves. We decided: “Let’s just go play the places we enjoy. Let’s go play with bands that we really like and let’s do some things that will keep it exciting and new to us.” 

Were there thoughts of stopping the band? It is hard to keep things fresh.
I mean, no one has asked me that, as upfront as that. But yeah. We’ve always said that as long as it’s something that we love and enjoy, we’d keep it going. It got to the point, especially when we left the major label. We went from Bright Lights of America right into People of the Gun because we were so happy to be able to put out records with our friends again. But it was like a year apart. We never stopped touring. We were just putting out records because we got this cycle in our head of what we were “supposed” to do. I think we’re in a fortunate position where we can go out and tour and play songs from Die for the Government and The Terror State and For Blood and Empire and people will come to those shows. Is there a need for us to make a new record? You know? So after coming back and saying, “We still want to do this. How do we do it right?” We went to China for the first time, we’re going to go to South America later this year; Costa Rica for the first time; doing the clubs we played in Germany, in a place that has historically supported Anti-Flag more than anywhere else in the world. We went into 400 cap rooms with our great friends Hostage Calm and just blew them out. That’s the kind of shit I want to be doing, you know?

So you guys are happy with the decision to keep going?
Yeah. As of today. We only have 30 minutes tonight so there’s a chance that we’ll get to tomorrow. 

With bands that have been around a while, the original fans don’t necessarily want a new album. How has the reception been?
The reception has been very good. I don’t know if anyone is buying it or if everyone is just listening to a Youtube rip or what’s happening. But, again, I found myself getting concerned with that stuff the last few years and I just had to remove myself from it. I never expected to leave Pittsburgh or leave my mom’s garage playing music. Whenever you start worrying about Soundscan and worrying about…
POZ: Facebook likes.
Chris #2: Yeah. It’s like, what am I doing? This is not why I play music. We’re going to play a show while My Chemical Romance is playing songs. It’s not going to be earth shattering. But I know that there’s going to be a few hundred kids in front of this stage that A) are there because they love punk rock, B) they’re there because they believe in equality and ending racism and sexism and homophobia. That to me, is bigger than a band or a record or a t-shirt or a record sale or a like on Facebook. I’ve just been trying to shake some of the things that have been in the back of my mind for a little bit here and really focus on the things that are genuinely important. 

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Title Fight released a documentary for the making of Shed on VHS last year. It can now be watched in its entirety below by clicking ”Read More.”

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We Are The Ocean have parted ways with vocalist Dan Brown. Check out a statement from the band below by clicking “Read More.”

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It’s officially May 29th, and there are a few great releases that are out today. Click “Read More” below to check out the album details and download information for all the great records coming out this week!

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PropertyOfZack is stoked to be releasing our new Session with Chris Farren of Fake Problems. Chris was kind enough to play a stripped down version of “Songs For Teenagers” for the site in the middle of the band’s tour with Say Anything and Kevin Devine. Watch the Session below by clicking “Read More!”

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