Youth Avoiders from France are one such band.
Blending Hardcore and Punk into a very seamless sound that holds the passionate fury of early hardcore while having enough jangly guitars and attitude to make No Hope For the Kids & Autistic Youth feel a bit envious; Youth Avoiders come straight at you, hit you, and keep on rolling throughout the all too short 7 song, 14 minute offering.
Sometimes less is more, and after a near 3-month infatuation with this band, its still holding a firm place in my playlist (as is their split with the equally great Zombies Are Pissed!); so we'll cut right down to it-
Youth Avoiders take everything that distinguished a band like No Hope For the Kids from others just rehashing HC Punk worship (those melodic leads, furious guitars with that ever so clean sound instead of over driven distortion) and funnel it down through a near garage punk sound while including those nearly dueling vocals that some times shout, sometimes sing, to give them similarities to some of my personal favorite Autistic Youth songs (such as "You Can't Take It All Back" & "Find Me Here")- all the while doing it in a way that does not sound borrowed or emulated.
While there isn't a bad track here, the songs "Joy" & "Acid Feedback" get the most attention at the moment. The "breakdown" or temp change near the end of Acid Feedback is simply fucking incredible. Simple, but with a real punch. Enjoy!
The demo is currently available on vinyl as well as their newish split 7inch with Zombies Are Pissed!
For more info and some other equally good French/European bands, check out their website:
Youth Avoiders Website
DOWNLOAD: Youth Avoiders - "Demo 2010"
I also did a short interview with singer Chris, who I had contacted after first being blown away by the band; who was more than friendly and helpful with running copies of their stuff.... Thanks again, Chris!
1. How did Youth Avoiders come together?
Youth Avoiders started in October 2009 with Bastien, who played in a band called Youssouf Today and moved to Paris to train to be a male nurse, Christoph who's German and moved to Paris to study politics, he used to play in a band called Drop The Bomb, and finally Marlon and I used to play in a band called Toad Flanders until we quit in 2008 when I moved to Liverpool, UK for a year. When I came back home in 2009, I met Bastien and Christoph at 2 different gigs in a week time or so. As we were all looking for a band, we decided to book a rehearsal studio and we started from the guitar riffs Christoph had composed at home.2. What does the band name mean?
3. What have you done as a band so far (recording/shows) and what do you hope to do in the future?
We played about 30 gigs, mostly in the Paris area, but also in the UK and in other areas in France. We are playing a festival in Germany in June; we're excited about that and eager to play there.
4. At this time, what are things like in the Paris/French Punk and Hardcore scenes?
5. Is it easy or hard to go to other countries such as Italy, Espana, England, Belgium, and other surrounding countries? I ask, because it is something a little different for us here in the US where the country is so big and travel from state to state is fairly simple most of the time.
6. Any smaller or new bands from France/Europe people should listen to? Any good zines?
Some really good upcoming bands from France at the moment:
- Sport from Lyon, they play a mix of American Football and Latterman-like emo punk
- There is also Cycle To from Paris who are also in this kind of music style
- Haute Couture, with Seve from Autistic Youth (Portland, USA) on drums, Max (who also plays with Black Spirals and us on 2nd guitar), Hervé (who used to play with Miles Away), and Julien (No Guts No Glory). They play early Poison Idea-like hardcore punk.
If you are an English-speaking fanzine amateur, I would suggest you read Just Say Yo! made by Nabil, he just released a new one, it's well made and very interesting, check it out:http://justsayyo.
We've got loads of other fanzines in France but almost all in French, simply because we're not very good at writing in English :)
7. Any last words, comments?
Hey, I don't know if you know, but Youth Avoiders will be touring the West Coast this month with Big Kids & Autistic Yout. here are the dates:
ReplyDeleteUS WEST COAST TOUR.
14/04/2012: Oakland
15/04/2012: San Jose
16/04/2012: Santa Barbara
17/04/2012: Riverside
18/04/2012: San Diego
19/04/2012: Long Beach
20/04/2012: Santa Cruz w/ Acid Fast
21/04/2012: San Francisco w/ Acid Fast
22/04/2012: Santa Rosa w/ Acid Fast
23/04/2012: Portland w/ Acid Fast
24/04/2012: Olympia w/ Acid Fast
25/04/2012: Seattle w/ Acid Fast
26/04/2012: Bellingham w/ Acid Fast
27/04/2012: Portland @ The Know w/ Acid Fast, Autistic Youth
28/04/2012: San Francisco w/ Acid Fast