Happy New Year! As we say goodbye to 2019 and welcome in the new year and new decade, it’s time to take a look back at what we have been up to with Disconnect Disconnect Records, in what must’ve been our best year to date! We had 12 releases this year, working with bands from all over the globe, with some of my favourite bands of all time and some of the hottest newer punk rock bands around.

We kicked off the year in style in January with Radar State‘s debut full length ‘Strays‘. This was a particularly special one for me, with the band featuring both Matt Pryor and Jim Suptic from one of my all time favourite bands, The Get Up Kids, along with Josh Berwanger (The Anniversary, Berwanger) and Adam Phillips (The Architects, The Gadjits). The album showcased the members love of the punk rock and indie rock bands they grew up with, along with 70’s power pop, to create an excellent debut full length. With the first pressing quickly selling out (on our exclusive Easter Egg Yellow variant), we have a limited number of the second pressing on Hot Pink vinyl left.

In February we were part of the team of labels around the world releasing Spanish punk rockers Blowfuse‘s breakthrough third full length ‘Daily Ritual‘. Mixing their skatepunk sound with some 90’s alternative vibes, the record saw the band push up from DIY touring to sell out headline tours of their homeland and big tour dates with Good Riddance and Sick Of It All, the Punk In Drublic tour (NOFX, Bad Religion, Less Than Jake etc) and multiple festival appearances. The band even flew over to blow away the crowd at their first UK show at Polite Riot Fest – we hope to have them back here ASAP. We have limited numbers of the album on both CD and Vinyl.

March saw the label debut for hard hitting Aussie punk rockers Blind Man Death Stare and their second full length ‘Comin’ In Hot‘. The band continued their journey of heavy touring all over their homeland and Europe to support the release, bringing their wild fun time shows to anyone and everyone who would see them. Whilst the vinyl release never quite happened (to date) with the band ultimately going on hiatus, the album saw the band gain a load of new fans and we hope to see them back in the UK ASAP.

As if three releases in three months wasn’t enough, we really ramped it up in April, with three full releases in the calendar month, A Time To Stand‘s ‘Light Years‘, Thousand Oaks ‘Bound For Destruction‘, and the ‘Bridging Oceans‘ split between Bare Teeth, Down Memory Lane, Nerdlinger and Shames. Kicking off the month with A Time To Stand’s long awaited debut album, these German punk rockers brought us a perfectly honed album combining skatepunk, melodic hardcore and pop punk which gives a nod to bands like Lifetime, Kid Dynamite, Set Your Goals and Saves The Day. The album was released on three variants of vinyl and CD.

I was really excited to work with the Italian shredders Thousand Oaks again for their second full length, and fourth DD release (following Monsters Begetting Monsters and splits with One Hidden Frame and Too Close To See), with ‘Bound For Destruction’ being their most complete work to date with ten tracks of their brand of fast, intricate and atmospheric skatepunk.

Our third release of the month was the epic skatepunk split of ‘Bridging Oceans’ with bands and labels from four continents spreading the word of punk rock around the world, (or should I say Fast Around The World)?! With Bare Teeth (France), Down Memory Lane (Canada), Nerdlinger (Australia) and Shames (Japan) we teamed up alongside label mates Thousand Islands Records (Canada), Pee Records (Australia) and Attractive Records (Japan) to bring you three exclusive awesome tracks by each band. Having grown up and discover a lot of my favourite bands through compilations and splits, this was a great release to be involved in, and hopefully helped spread the great tunes of these bands to new fans all over the world.

In May we did our second release with our favourite German 90’s punk throwbacks Primetime Failure for the release of their second LP ‘Memory Lane‘. With 8 more tracks of super catchy and fun punk rock tunes, the band certainly didn’t disappoint with their second LP, and coupled it up with an awesome record on red or yellow vinyl with awesome screenprinted B-Side.

We rounded out May in a big way, with the comeback album ‘Escalating Quickly‘ from Californian punk rock legends Ten Foot Pole. Having grown up with albums like ‘Insider’, ‘Unleashed’ and ‘Bad Mother Trucker’, it was a true honour to be helping out one of my favourite bands with this album. Not content with recycling tunes from years gone by, the band experimented with sound to create what producer Ryan Greene called ‘the Bohemian Rhapsody of 90’s punk‘. The result was an album full of melodic punk gems the band are known for, along a few new sounds from metal to pop to electronic influences popping up.

In June we brought you the comeback EP from Danish punk rockers Kill The Rooster ‘And Then What Happened Was…‘. The band features Leo and Troels from label faves Forever Unclean, with KTR getting back together for this EP and a bunch of shows whilst FU had a rare few months of downtime. The EP brings 4 tracks of riff heavy melodic punk rock which has gained a band a whole bunch of new fans. Look out for KTR around Europe and the UK in 2020!

July saw the release of the long awaited second full length by Dutch skatepunk/metal crossover act Drunktank, with the aptly titled ‘Return Of The Infamous Four‘. These guys combine skatepunk with more than a dashing of 80’s thrash metal and have created an album which is as fast and riff heavy as it is fun. Having gained a whole host of new fans with this release, the band have been hitting the best of 2019 lists with this epic record.

Our penultimate release of the year came in August with The Decline‘s ‘Flash Gordon Ramsay Street‘. These Aussie punk rockers have been steadily gaining in popularity over the past few years and this, their fourth full length, sees their best work to date and has firmly cemented their place as one of the best skatepunk bands around. With 17 tracks of excellent fast, melodic punk rock, do yourself a favour and make sure you don’t miss the limited edition euro transparent blue vinyl!

With the birth of my daughter in August, we had time for just one more release before taking some (hopefully much deserved) time off, with the release of another album alongside our mates from Australia, Pee Records, this time for pop punk band Stone Lions‘ debut LP ‘Necking On  And Kicking Off‘. Bringing a real throwback to the early 2000’s pop punk sort of sound I grew up on, this is a great summertime feel record and came out on two really nice vinyl variants, translucent aqua blue and opaque neon pink. I’m hoping we’ll see these guys in the UK in the near future!

Whilst that was it for the releases, October brought around our annual charity festival, Might As Well Fest. This year (the fifth edition) raised money for Heads Above The Waves and was hosted over the two days at South London’s finest venue, New Cross Inn. The lineup this year was brilliant and I genuinely loved all of the acts, from openers like Party Boss and Megaflora through to seasoned headliners Beezewax and Crazy Arm, every act was excellent (and I somehow managed to see every act)! We’ve got exciting plans for next years fest, so keep an eye on our website and social channels for more news!

So that was it for 2019 – a bit of a landmark year for the label with so many great releases and seeing a lot of bands get to play big festivals, tour with high profile bands and with tonnes of great festivals and tours already lined up next year, I’m sure 2020 is going to be great. If there’s something you like that we’re doing, please check out the stores, pick up a record, shirt or just pass on the word to a friend – it all really helps us to keep putting out these great releases.

Thanks, and see you soon!

John

Disconnect Disconnect Records

Webstore: https://disconnectdisconnectrecords.bigcartel.com/

Bandcamp: https://disconnectdisconnectrecords.bandcamp.com/