Zealot R.I.P. started years ago when life-long friends, Jason Hamacher (Frodus, Battery, CombatWoundedVeteran) & Mike Schleibaum, decided to collaborate and write music that’s fast and heavy. Between Schleibaum’s relentless touring in Darkest Hour and Hamacher’s extensive documentary work in Syria, it took a few years for them to settle into a sound that’s somewhere between Entombed, Dead Kennedys and Born Against. The band was solidified with the additions of Pig Destroyer’s Blake Harrison and Fairweather’s Peter Tsouras. This metal amalgam, upon forming, went immediately into the studio and recorded a handful of brutally unhinged songs, released as a self-titled EP on Three One G in 2019. As a bizarre and radical opening reception to the world, Zealot R.I.P. played their first show at the Swedish Embassy in Washington D.C., as The Embassy hosted a concert and panel discussion around the history of Swedish metal.
 
With the release of the Zealot R.I.P’s debut LP, “The Extinction of You” has every bit of the energy one would expect from these beloved, brutal and ripping musicians. And yet, by their own admittance, the band is also a deviation for most of its members. Mike Schleibaum explains that from the band’s formation, “I’ve taken a different approach from any other project or band I’ve been in. Zealot is sort of a return to my early days in music. We write songs pretty quick and usually end up keeping the first takes. I’ve always appreciated Jason’s creative raw energy on the drums and this project is a direct reflection of that. Combine the unique perspectives of Peter and Blake, and the result is explosive visual energy personified in song form.” Blake Harrison adds, “Moving to DC, I wanted to start another project that was a little more ‘punk’ and ‘live’ than Pig Destroyer. Lo and behold, I did not start a new project, but fell in with Zealot RIP, whose energy is bombastic.”

ZEALOT R.I.P.  "The Extinction Of You"

ADULT. & PLANET B - self-titled split 7”

Justin Pearson (Dead Cross, Deaf Club, The Locust), Luke Henshaw (Sonido de la Frontera), Kevin Avery (Field Day, Retox) and Scott Osment (Deaf Club, Glassing, Volente Beach) formed Planet B with the shared purpose of creating music subversive in sound and sobering in message. Their music lays somewhere just out of reach of genre, with aesthetics rooted in hip hop, hardcore punk, turntablism, and 70s-80s horror movie scores. It is catchy, heavily percussive, and eerie all at once, much like the creative output of dark dance duo ADULT., a pair that seek to harness “the perverse aspects of the late '70s analog dystopian post-modernism.” These artists’ bodies of work mirror one another in form and function, and both “Release Me” and “Glass in The Trash” encapsulates the ethos of both, allowing the duos’ similar mindsets to collide. Nicola Kuperus’s hypnotic vocals add an occult aura, mysteriously alluring and supernatural, pulsating and equally intense alongside Pearson’s aggressive style. Henshaw and Adam Lee Miller’s sampling, sequencing and synthesizing entangle and diverge seamlessly, providing dance-driven soundtracks fit for an apocalypse. Both tracks ebb and flow, pull and push, begs to be released and yet remains throbbing in your head long after it ends.

ADULT. and Planet B "Release Me"

Dropped down amongst the knobs and dials of Penguin Studio in San Diego, rogue avatars Justin Pearson and Luke Henshaw have created a new project in the form of Planet B, with the shared purpose of creating music both mischievous in sound and sobering in message.
The first artifact from the preternatural duo comes in the form of this “Wrong Utopia” 7” single. Featuring two tracks, both can be heard almost as otherworldly anthems: catchy, heavily percussive, and eerie all at once. Pearson sneers lyrics that present the viewpoint of an outsider looking on at his surroundings: “Sell a good bad luck charm/ watch them hurt their own arm/ shaking their bloody fist/ in the world of the nihilist,” seemingly uninterested in taking part and instead deciding that “’Tween the moth and the web, I’ll make a new landmark.” This is interspersed with Henshaw’s fantastical sci-fi accompaniments: whistling UFO vibrato, dark and distorted electrical hums, and marching band drum beats. Basically, “Wrong Utopia” has all the makings of your next interdimensional earworm.
Side 2 of the single, “Join a Cult”, has a more foreboding sound, a sort of thunderous and creepy call to arms. This is in large part due to the booming drums, live wire buzzes, and digital echoes that brings to mind an oncoming swarm of mechanical insects headed straight for the song’s settings of burning houses and dry fields, “the one without a view”. This is all punctuated by whimsical bells that are unsettling in the context of the song, much in the same way that hearing a child singing in a horror movie is.

Available from www.threeoneg.com


PLANET B "Wrong Utopia"

Cover of Ministry’s “Just One Fix” 

Available on limited edition cassettes at select record stores, Saturday 4/16, for Record Store Day.

'A New Wave of Violence' out 5/13 on VICE.
Preorder here: http://smarturl.it/hwc-it 

On tour with Savages this May
Dates and tickets here: headwoundcity.com/tour

Follow HWC on the web:
headwoundcity.com
facebook.com/headwoundcity
twitter.com/headwoundcity
instagram.com/headwoundcity

Just One Fix (Ministry Cover)

Host Jason Schreurs talks to Justin Pearson, owner of Three One G Records and member of a bunch of amazing punk bands. Retox, The Locust, Dead Cross, Head Wound City, Some Girls, Swing Kids and Struggle immediately come to mind. Justin explains how punk rock has helped him get through tough times in his life. He details his struggles with post traumatic stress disorder, due in large part to the childhood abuse he endured. 

http://threeoneg.com

http://retoxrules.bandcamp.com

http://thelocust.bandcamp.com

http://deadcross.bandcamp.com

Featured songs:
Retox -"The Inevitable End" from  Beneath California (Epitaph Records, 2014)  
Suicidal Tendencies - "Institutionalized" from Suicidal Tendencies (Frontier Records, 1983)

Photo: Becky DiGiglio

About this podcast:
Scream Therapy explores the link between punk rock and mental health. My guests are members of the underground music scene who are living with mental health challenges, like myself.

Intro/background music: 
Submission Hold - "Cranium Ache"
Render Useless - "The Second Flight of Icarus"

Artwork: Luke Ramsey - http://lukeramseystudio.com

Contact host Jason Schreurs - jasonschreurs@telus.net

Episode 10: Justin Pearson of The Locust and Retox on childhood trauma and PTSD

Host Jason Schreurs recaps the first 10 episodes of Scream Therapy. He also announces a very special guest for episode 11. Hint: He has the best hairdo in underground music! 

About this podcast:
Scream Therapy explores the link between punk rock and mental health. My guests are members of the underground music scene who are living with mental health challenges, like myself.

Intro/background music:
Submission Hold - "Cranium Ache"
Render Useless - "The Second Flight of Icarus"

Artwork: Luke Ramsey - http://lukeramseystudio.com

Contact host Jason Schreurs - jasonschreurs@telus.net

Episode 10.5: Host Jason Schreurs recaps the first 10 episodes


Three One G is in a sense, a family owned business…and basically a family in itself. I started the label in hopes to better the quality and creativity of things  that I was part of, as well as the music culture that I am part of. Three One G quickly developed into a family of artists who were all intertwined, or on the same page as one another. For me, it is the truest definition of family; people who are of the same breed and people who are from the same way of life. In the beginning, I started off by releasing music by Swing Kids and Unbroken, both of which shared a member, and were part of a musical community that I was submerged in. It was something that I was really a part of and more so, something that was obtainable, tangible, and real. Over the years, Three One G has loosely been related to a band that I’m part of, and better known for, The Locust. The relevance that The Locust had to Three One G brought amazing artists into the picture, either through meeting them on tour, musical collaborations, or other various things that The Locust was doing. This really helped to diversify the label and the sounds that it encompasses up to this day. To me, having bands under the Three One G umbrella like Cattle Decapitation, Arab on Radar, Quintron, Zs, Black Dice, Orthrelm, and so on, all makes sense, regardless of how different any artist's approach to music or their sound may be. We could all conceivably tour together, even sometimes collaborate and share members. To me, this is interesting, bringing so many new avenues of creativity, which are things that the music industry in general has since forgotten. 
The family members who currently make the wheels spin for Three One G, aside from the actual bands and artists are; Sal Gallegos (who also played in Some Girls, which were comprised of members of other label mates such as The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, and Unbroken), as well as myself. Over the years we have expanded, not only musically, but geographically as well. Even though Three One G is below the radar of the who’s who of labels, the bands manage to grow and reach out beyond the label’s grasp, giving a glimpse into the all too interesting underbelly of an unrefined culture. The bands manage to amaze, challenge, inspire, and essentially blow minds. The labor of love here shows sincerity, as well as integrity. The family here is solid, legitimate, and is here to stay.
 
- Justin Pearson