#20 - Down Under

A quick check in from Australia.

What’s up, family? I don’t have a real post for you guys this month as I’m on tour in Australia right now, but I did wanna get out a little something to hold you all over.

Australia is one of the craziest, coolest places I’ve ever been in my life. I am as far as I could possibly be from home, all because the homie Karll rhymed “switch more” with “bitch store”. Crazy.

Quick thoughts on Australia:

The first sneaker store we hit when we arrived was Highs & Lows in Perth. They had a pretty dope selection of stuff and the store had a home section and record store built in. Right off the bat I noticed a lot more emphasis on Adidas than you normally see in a US store like this, and very little Jumpman representation.

We hit a dope vintage store called Cold Wave that was owned by a ‘Coreman and we chopped it up for a while. He had some cool HC gear as well as vintage sports stuff and sneakers. I copped a ‘93 World Series Phillies shirt for next to nothing.

StreetX was an essential visit and did not disappoint.

I don’t remember this TN collab dropping…

Fremantle beach: postcard vibes.

Neon display at a JD. They’re coming…

Subtype in Melbourne was also dope. A lot of the same stuff as the Perth shops, but even the Aus GR stuff is really cool.

Dope Gundam Neon.

The coolest shoe store we hit was Laced in Brisbane. They had such a good variety of shit and the price on everything was crazy, with lots of stuff WAY under retail on top of the fact that the conversion rate worked very heavily in our favor.

New HC Round Up for January 2026.

We’re barely into the year and we’re already off to a crazy start. Here’s some dope new shit:

The Difference - Stay Away 7”

I coulda told you this was gonna be one of the best records of the year before it even dropped. Shared members with Start Today. These kids can do no wrong. Six tracks of full-steam straight edge hardcore, early 00’s style. Mostly reminds me of Shark Attack with some Right Brigade and Desperate Measured vibes peppered in for good measure. I NEED to see this band live, man. Rebirth Records army grows…

Burning Lord / Collateral split 7”

Two absolute titans of modern hardcore linking up for a split 7”, the old way. Some of the best material from each band, both pioneers who very much shaped the way for the current landscape of hardcore. I like that both bands are different enough to feel like the release isn’t samey but have enough shared DNA to ensure that fans of one side of this slab will rock heavily with the other as well. If you don’t fuck with this, you probably just don’t like hardcore.

Blockade - Where We Stand 7”

This one surprised me with how much I liked it. Tampa HC band that has stepped up massively from their demo. I’d like to pick these kids brains and see what they were pulling from when writing it, because the things that I hear are probably way too unc-coded to be on their radar. With that said: It’s good! Reminds me of Midwest hardcore in an era where there was a very different connotation attached to that than the association that is there now. I don’t think they necessarily sound like these bands, but Blockade could’ve easily played shows with bands like Picked Clean or Spine. Really wanna see ‘em live and see where they go from here.

Blood & Tears - Brotherhood Demo

This demo was explained to me in advance: It sounds like Death Threat and Madball and has all 3 Samayoa brothers singing. That’s legit all you need to know. It is simply just that and it’s just as good as you’d imagine.

Lose Sight - Richmond Straight Edge 7”

I love this one cause it reminds me of Richmond shit from an era where it was a powerhouse for HC and it’s bands had so much regional pride and identity. This is a perfect fit for Fortress records.

That’s it for now, thanks for hangin’ in there while I’m on the road. I got some more stuff coming your way upon my return including an interview with a Wilkes-Barre all time style king. New issue of the zine in the works. I’m gonna go eat some Tim Tams now,

Peace!