Waxed Scene Mixtape: A South African Food Relief Fundraiser by We Did This Records

This mixtape was made in support for Food Not Bombs Jozi, and Locked Out! who will split the proceeds equally.

These food relief programs operate in Johannesburg and provide much needed support for people in dire situations, all made worse through the pandemic and recent unrest.

We deeply thank each artist who contributed material for this project.

And thank you for donating to this initiative, or sharing it online!

Food Not Bombs Jozi operates in Durban Deep- a region cut off from water and electricity for more than 10 years. We prepare delicious healthy meals for the community every Saturday, and conduct mobile runs to the homeless, and suffering communities. We try to answer the call for aid and solidarity where we can, but we need supplies, brave and committed volunteers, and spare cash for petrol and vehicle maintenance in order to keep this operation going. - www.facebook.com/groups/foodnotbombs.jozi

Locked Out began during the Covid19 lockdown to assist the homeless facing both police brutality and starvation. We are committed to providing food to these vulnerable individuals, to tell their stories, and to inspire you to do the same. - www.facebook.com/lockedoutjhb/

Cover illustrations by Sandy Little

Featuring:

Shameless Band SA / FUZIGISH / haunts / Her Stems Spiral / The Dumpies / Julia Robert / Seru / Hated Related / Monday Morning Justice / Guilty Survivor / THEE SMØGS / Fake-bit PoZeurs / Laserchrist / All These Wasted Nuts / Omen Harm / Doom Scroll / Virtual Bird / Contort / Make-Overs / Apostles / Soundz of the South / Aragorn23 / SNOWFLAKE / Return to Worm Mountain / Jon Shaban / Da Beach Boyz / Write Off / Brickface / The Lebowski / Ugly Boyfriend / Gassfella / Vampire Slumber Party / Wolfgang Marrow / A Reptile Dysfunction / Matt Vend and the Tender Ten / 2 Cardigans & Bowtie / The Loose Ends / Colour Bone Black / Crumbs / isadora​:​dustmite

This mixtape features mostly local artists, but with significant support and solidarity from abroad!

South African DIY Punk Rock Touring with We Did This Records and The Dumpies in RaZorcake #117 / Covid-19 Lockdown and Folk Punk Tour Meltdowns in South Africa with Brett Newski and Jon Shaban

Kevin Dunn [author of Global Punk] interviews The Dumpies and Sacia [drummer of The Dumpies] interviews WDTR in RaZorcake #117 [a prolific non-profit DIY punk zine]. The article photos are from The Dumpies South African tour. Top: The Dumpies at Zoolake Bowls, Johannesburg by Christelle Duvenage. Bottom: Shaun & Conley representing We Did This Records and performing as All These Wasted Nuts [folk punk] at Pool City, PE by Pitts Holli.

We Did This Records had the amazing opportunity to be included in an article for the new issue of RaZorcake magazine. RaZorcake is a total institution in D.I.Y punk. This was all thanks to The Dumpies, a punk rock band from Texas. The article as a whole is Kevin Dunn, the author of Global Punk, interviewing The Dumpies (Joel, Mark, and Tim... minus Sacia, because she was busy working in the ER) about their various back water tours, and then Sacia, asking us some questions. Below you can read an excerpt from the article, followed by a podcast chat between Cape Town folk punk musician Jon Shaban and Brett Newski from Milwaukee.

Kevin: That's hilarious. You mentioned South Africa, which you guys just got back from a couple of weeks ago. How was that different from the rest of the tours?
Mark: It was racially the most intense place I've ever been because Apartheid only ended in 1994. You could pretty much feel it everywhere we went. They always say, "It's touchy." Before I went, I was like, "You just don't want to talk about it. That's your cop-out." After I went there and we went to the Apartheid Museum, we talked to so many people at length about it. I was like, "Wow, this is touchy, Holy shit."
Tim: That's why Shaun and Conley were great. They're very cognizant of that. They will point that out, even little things you'd see on the street. They would connect things, showing us where apartheid is still continuing, but it's more of a financial racism now. It was definitely something which seemed much more prominent than in all the other countries.
Joel: I'm still trying to wrap my head around why it felt so drastically different. Tim was talking about income inequality. It's not that dissimilar to what the situation is here, but there is a different flavor. There's something different about the situation there. It was a really intense learning experience being there.
Tim: In America, we got this picture of, "Apartheid's gone. Everything's great. Everybody loves each other. We're past that." You go there and it's still raw, and it's still very much a part of the country.

Kevin: Can you just say who those two people are that you were talking about?
Tim: Shaun and Conley from We Did This Records which is a D.I.Y collective throughout the whole country. They put out a lot of politically motivated music, playing in a couple of bands. (All These Wasted Nuts, Monday Morning Justice, Sloppy Folk, and so on.)

Kevin: I've been there many times and it's probably my least favorite country to visit because of that income inequality and the institutionalized racism. It's just so in your face and it's so hard to navigate coming from the outside. How is the D.I.Y punk scene dealing with that in South Africa, based on what you guys saw?

Joel: They're just as affected as the rest of the country. In fact, it was a big point of contention. On all these bills we're showing up on, we realized ninety percent of the bands were white. We were talking to Shaun and Conley about it and it's a very segregated scene. There's the Soweto scene and then there's the white scene. Once we realized that was happening, we tried to reach out to a bunch of bands and try to get the shows more integrated - with varying degrees of success - but it was noticeable. I can't imagine living and booking shows in a scene like that.
Tim: The openness is what's different in the U.S. In every show there'd be one or two black musicians and people would be, "Oh, there aren't enough black people here," or, "These bands are all white." In the U.S., you don't really say that. We did have a show in Soweto, but we realized that the bill was all white bands. Shaun was saying, "This really isn't that cool. We can't do this."

Kevin: You didn't play the show?
Joel: No.
...

Sacia: How did you guys get into punk?
Conley: Local ‘zines had a massive impact on exposing us to punk rock, both local and international. Me, growing up in a rural area, even I got a chance and went to my first show when I was fourteen just because of a local zine called Blunt that used to put out comps and list gig guides. It changed my life forever! It made everything I loved tangible and attainable.
Shaun: My cousin Kim was a metal head and when I got my first Walkman at the start of middle school she copied some Nirvana, Green day, and Face To Face albums for me. The chain stores Look and Listen, and CD Warehouse would also stock Epitaph and other biggish label releases. After going to some of my first local shows I learned about Croak Room Records, that was stationed in Pretoria, which used to do mail orders for some local punk records as well as some bands from Canada. Some kids at my high school were also doing distribution for Profane Existence magazine.

Sacia: how connected is the South African punk scene to the rest of Africa?
Conley: Numerous bands from the southern parts of Africa do frequent South Africa. Some festivals hosted in neighbouring countries like Mozambique and Swaziland have South Africans involved in the organizing as well. Most of the African underground scene is dominated by metal, which we aren’t that involved with so I can’t offer much more, unfortunately.
Shaun: There was a film produced called Punk In Africa that focused on some of the apartheid-era punk bands, then took a massive leap to the big names in early 2000s ska punk, and ended with a few minutes about bands in the rest of Africa. I don't know if any of those bands mentioned are still going or if new ones have popped up. I haven't heard of any since.
From my introduction to the local scene, there has been some sort of a connection with American, European, and Australian scenes. We've had numerous bands tour here on there own steam, from hardcore to crust and garage rock. Many bigger bands tour here with support from festivals like OppieKoppi or from groups like Punk Safari, who existed in the early 2000s and were all about bringing Fat Wreck Chords bands over. When i was in high school in Cape Town christian hardcore was massive and church groups were helping little local and overseas bands tour churches and high schools. We even had Underoath here. Though it's debatable weather any of that is "punk", it was probably the height of people being involved in the scene, whether that be with gig attendance or people making zines and stuff. A number of local punk bands have done European and Southeast Asia tours.

Sacia: can you explain the split between the Soweto scene and the rest of the country?

Conley: The rest of the scene had a huge jump start on the Soweto punk scene, or at least the one we are familiar with. This established scene enjoy privileges such as fully equipped venues, accessible location, and active booking agents, to name but a few . In our involvement in Soweto shows, it's amazing to see how any effort for a show or rehearsal always involves family member, neighbours, and friends regardless of the genre which is unfamiliar to the big city scenes. Racism and fear does play a role and keeping these scenes apart, but we have been actively trying to combat that by playing each other’s venues and houses.

Shaun: A few years ago some friends of ours helped start up Soweto Rock Revolution, after hearing about and chatting to folks in Soweto who were into punk and metal. This resulted in the first punk gigs at a skate park by Dube Station. The shows were a mix of acts from Soweto, Joburg, and the addition of some touring bands. There was quite a bit of publicity surrounding these shows from the get go, with numerous videos and articles being produced.

 Not long after the first handful of shows did we hear about interest in the Soweto scene from the likes of Afro-Punk, and later Red Bull Music, Vans, and Converse. For a little while we had another collaborative effort in Maboneng, a gentrified arts street in town, called Punk Fridays. Unfortunately the last few Soweto Rock Revolution shows have been a white invasion of Soweto, as the sponsors and corporate interests had made it difficult for the Soweto scene to represent itself there.
As of recently, there's been a bigger fallout between Soweto Skate Society, who manage the prominent Soweto bands, and Soweto Rock Revolution. Currently, we're finding it difficult to collaborate with the Soweto scene due to not wanting to cross battle lines and due to our shows being DIY unsponsored shows where we split the cash made at the door between the bands, with no guarantee or pre-payments.

Sacia: Is there a presence of white nationalists within the South African punk scene, like we see elsewhere like Eastern Europe?
Conley: Yes there is, but I wouldn’t say it’s proud and in the open. Most people get called out or get ostracized by the scene, so they don’t have much of a presence at shows or in bands, but every now and again a right-wing nationalist punk band would show its ugly face. In the '80s, we had quite a few bands that would wave the flag of the white nationalist party, but I’m proud to say that venues, agents, and bands are all on the same front when it comes to getting rid of this kinda trash.
Shaun: I had the unfortunate experience of playing a show once with a band from Pretoria called Chaos Christ, who i did not know at the time. They turned out to be a Christian chaos punk band who were LARPing as members of the SS. Aside from that, a globally known anarchist author (Michael Schmidt) from Johannesburg, who had books published by AK Press, and who had frequented shows, was exposed for being an undercover white nationalist and having a Stormfront account in 2015.

Sacia: What are some of the things bands and punks in the U.S. and Europe can do to help out scenes like theirs?
Conley: Just come and visit us! Folks are always welcoming and excited to do things with touring acts or fans. Download our mixtapes and open up to what we have going on down here. There's so much talent and unique and interesting expressions of art and music.
Shaun: I think that for many people overseas, there's some aversion towards the idea of a South African punk scene, outside of the resent popularity online regarding the Soweto scene. Leftover Crack, for instance, were flooded with comments like, "why are you going to white Africa?" when they came here. It's kind of a tricky thing and i think many white people in bands here, especially punk bands, struggle with being white and South African. The legacy of apartheid is still very visible and a lot is unchanged due to the post-apartheid government's devotion to neoliberal capitalism over and above societal and structural change.

Sacia: You guys have a very DIY ethos that seems to intertwine with every aspect of your life, music, and label. Where did this come from?
Conley: South Africa has a very small music scene mostly dominated by country and goslpel music punted by Sony and BMG, so the alternative scene was forced to establish itself by means of  DIY. this sprouted into zines, independent labels, and a lot of groundwork . This being intertwined with skateboarding, surfing and so on.
Shaun: While I do think we do DIY out of principle, it's also the reality of the alternative music scene in South Africa.

Copies of RaZorcake issue 117, featuring the full article, will be available at shows post pandemic. Alternatively you can book one in the comments section and we can send one to you... if things don't get better...

Strangely enough, Brett Newski was on tour here at the same time that The Dumpies were. We helped him out with one of his first shows in Johannesburg years ago, but this time, The Dumpies and Brett had a show booked the same day, in Melville, just a street apart, and we missed each other. Jon Shaban and the Shabs, as usual, did some shows with Brett, and while The Dumpies and Brett both finished their tours here, and made it back home, the Shabs finished up with Brett and went to Europe for a tour that got pulled out from under them by COVID-19

Brett Newski's podcast.

SOUTH AFRICA part one | full lockdown, tour meltdowns in S Africa, life of an artist in Cape Town

Jul 28, 2020

Jon Shaban (the SHABS) sits in to discuss the intense lockdown in Cape Town, as well as what it's like to tour and make a living as a South African indie artist. 

More on the SHABS: https://theshabs.com/

If you would like to do something to help out the South African punk and alternative scene during this pandemic please follow, stream and share our new Spotify playlist

Deja View Split LP & Tour By The Shabs & Rambling Bones!

So this is a bit late but The Shabs and Rambling Bones have put out a split record and are currently touring to promote it. The split has five new songs from each band and overall is a pretty great record! Both bands have a very unique proudly South African folk punk aesthetic and the songs are all very catchy sing along numbers with lyrics about hope, love, the passing of time, removing your presidents and changing the world. They play Sundowners in Alberton tonight! Don't miss it!

Post by: Shaun Richards

Jon Shaban August 2016 Tour

So for the past little while The Shabeen (Jon Shaban and Ryan McArthur) have been in Europe on a tireless quest of singing songs. While they had a blast in Europe there was a major downer to the whole thing:

"I was so excited to meet and share the stage with one of my biggest musical influences in less than 2 weeks. Unfortunately the universe had other plans. At least I got to pay tribute to you as one of my favourite songwriters in Manchester a little while ago. I will never forget that gig. RIP Erik Petersen. Thanks for the music." - Jon Shaban. July 15.

They were scheduled to perform at one of Mischief Brews European tour dates and our little patchwork of a family fully comprehend the massive suck of such a thing as Erik's music means the world to many of us.

Jon is back and wasting no time on running head first into another tour. Let's make this something special! Here are his tour dates with possibly more to follow:

Wednesday 17th Aug - MITH - Hilton

Friday 19th Aug - Khaya Records - DBN

Saturday 20th Aug - The George Hotel - Eshowe

Sunday 21st Aug - Spiga - DBN North

Tuesday 23rd Aug - PMC - La Casa - PMB

Wednesday 24th Aug - The Good Luck Bar - JHB with Naming James and Adventure Man

*Friday 26th Aug - Schivas Rock - PTA with Satanic Dagga Orgy, Monday Morning Justice and Skinnee Sunrise

*Saturday 27th Aug - The Bohemian - JHB with Rambling Bones, South Shore Ramblers and All These Wasted Nuts

Sunday 28th Aug - TBC

Wednesday 31st Aug - Your Truly Loop Street - CT

The following are flyers for two shows (above with *) that we are throwing together under the We Did This Records banner.

Post by: Shaun Richards

Jon Shaban - Fortune Favours The Brave & Folk Is Dead

So we have finally put up the solo album Fortune Favours The Brave that Jon released last year. The image above is a flyer from one of the launch tour shows. The recordings on the album are more on the folk side as to add contrast to the more fast paced full band recordings that we have uploaded a teaser for. There were a few mosh pits however on the solo album tour as keeping things chilled is not really Jon's style at a show.



The recently released full band album is not for donation as the band needs tour money but we have a teaser single for free download and you can get the CD at shows or pay for a download from The Shabeen's music page. The album is a great collection of well written songs with a lot of energy. Jon writes amazing thought provoking lyrics. The band is Jon Shaban on guitar & vocals, Ryan McArthur on Upright Bass and Thomas Glendinning on drums. The teaser we have for you is the opening song of the album.



All 12 songs on Folk Is Dead are really great but I want to close this post with the lyrics from track 11 titled Our Father's Sins. They are very relevant to being a South African (A particular white male South African's perspective yes... but still) and writing songs that are relevant is not a common thing with local musicians. So this sort of thing always impresses me when you learn to expect an attitude of disregard "Don't be a downer just be fun" bullshit.

Our Father's Sins by The Shabeen

I was born with blood on my hands to a home built on another man’s land
Tucked into bed at night by foreign hands I was too young to know my place
I was raised in an amusement park which was built to be efficient but the queues were long
The people stood in line all just to be a part
Of something that would not take place

You can ask for forgiveness
And you can say that it won’t happen again
But my forgiveness is useless
And your guilt is a waste of everyone’s time

If I’m not to blame and you’re not to blame
Who’s the one who’ll be responsible
Who’ll be accountable
We died for our father’s sins today

I’m willing to accept what fate decides
Having proven to myself that I have qualified
To deal with the good
To deal with the bad
And make the most of living in a foreign man’s land

You can ask for forgiveness
And you can say that it won’t happen again
But my forgiveness is useless
And your guilt is a waste of everyone’s time

If I’m not to blame and you’re not to blame
Who’s the one who’ll be responsible
Who’ll be accountable
It’s not ok just to say it’s ok
When it’s clearly dysfunctional
It’s irrational
We died for our father’s sins today

Our country
Needs us
Don’t give up

Please will you stop acting stupid
You can never say that it won’t happen again
But my forgiveness is useless
Your guilt is a waste of everyone’s time

If I’m not to blame and you’re not to blame
Who’s the one who’ll be responsible
Who’ll be accountable
It’s not ok just to say it’s ok
When it’s clearly dysfunctional
It’s irrational
We died for our father’s sins
We died for our father’s sins
We died for our father’s sins today

Post by: Shaun Richards

A Folk Punk Abduction Presents Jon Shaban Live @ Rumours (2012)

Cape Town folk punker Jon Shaban on tour in Johannesburg, ZA

Recorded live by We Did This Records

A Folk Punk Abduction Presents Jon Shaban Live @ Rumours (2012)

Download

Brass Bell Bootleg by Jon Shaban

Recorded bootleg style after missing most of the show, at The Brass Bell in kalk bay, due to arriving late...
http://we-did-this-records.bandcamp.com/album/brass-bell-bootleg

A Folk-Punk Abduction Presents Jon Shaban & All These Wasted Nuts @ Rumours Lounge, JHB

The recordings from the gig Jon Shaban played in Jozi a few weeks back are up on Last Fm!
Check them out! He is AMAZING!
Like a South African Andrew Jackson Jihad / Paul Baribeau but different!!!

There are some All These Wasted Nuts ( Shaun from Sloppy Folk ) songs at the end also.

 http://www.last.fm/music/Jon+Shaban/A+Folk-Punk+Abduction+Presents+Jon+Shaban+And+All+These+Wasted+Nuts+At+Rumours+Lounge,+JHB

Here is Jon playing at the 2012 White Mountain folk fest just outside Durban

Bootleg recording of Jon Shaban and All These Wasted Nuts playing open mic at Armchair 
(November 2012)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?363f7f3r904o0wc