Sammy Ciaramitaro, frontman for Bay Area hardcore heroes Drain, made a surprise appearance in my living room not long ago. I was watching Freaky Tales, the fun anthology-style movie about a fateful night in Oakland, and there's a scene where a hardcore band covers Negative Approach at Gilman St. I didn't realize that the hardcore band was actually Gulch until my man showed up on drums. (Ciaramitaro used to split his time between Drain and Gulch, and the latter band actually filmed its appearance after their epic final show.) I was like, "Oh shit, is that Sammy?" It was, in fact, Sammy. Anyway, there's a new Drain song out today.
Drain will release their new album ...Is Your Friend later this fall, and they've been cranking out singles for months: "Nights Like These," "Stealing Happiness From Tomorrow," "Who's Having Fun?" On "Who's Having Fun?," they jumped into the realm of bouncy pop-punk, but they're back to making anthemic mosh-music on the extremely fun new single "Scared Of Everything And Nothing." It's still bouncy, though. Drain have the rare gift of making music that's hard and uncompromising but also somehow welcoming. Watch the Eric Richter-directed video below.
While I'm on the subject of hardcore, I should note that Boston deviants C4 just surprise-released their fast, furious, utterly deranged new album Payback's A Bitch. I would've posted it in the main site, but I don't think I can be responsible for that album cover showing up in people's social media feeds. It must be a 28 Years Later reference, right? Anyway, the record spanks. Stream it below.
…Is Your Friend is out 11/7 on Epitaph. Payback's A Bitch is out now on Triple B.
