Brutally fun powerviolence / fastcore Beijing punks STRUGGLE SESSION are obviously having fun doing their thing and they are about to transfer more wild energy to the audience. Today, we’re unveiling a power pack of 33 ultra fast micro songs about their last year’s South American tour, with each song written about a different city they played every night! “Sudamérica Ruido y Amor” comes out on July 5th via Chinese label Genjing Records, but you can hear it in its entirety right now!
33 shows in 37 days, the numbers seemed unreal as we set off screaming through 7 countries, crossing an entire continent. It was a tour we’d dreamed about, some of us for years others for just the past six months, excited about new places to explore and new people to meet, different languages and different cultures. An utterly DIY tour that we’d planned and booked ourselves; we slept on floors, played in houses, in squats, in burnt out buildings, anti-fascist boxing gyms, and on the street. We played with amazing bands in cities we’d never even heard of before. We shared food and philosophies of life. We got free tattoos, free CDs, and free beer. We didn’t sleep for days on end. We ran out of clean underwear. We got tired and worn down, we fought and got sick, yet had no choice except to continue. We met amazing people and fell in love, with new friends, and with life. We may have even learned something about the world, each other, and ourselves. As the days flew by, each felt like a lifetime, each city a whole world onto itself. The tour became too much to take in all at once, it’s totality became a blur, while each individual memory burnt itself into our minds and our hearts.
Sudámerica Ruido y Amor is about that trip. 33 songs speed by in under 10 minutes, one for every city we played. Each track recounts a unique moment, a shared joke, or a crystallized emotion inspired by the people we met, the bands we played with, and the cities we visited. Styles clash and collide as the days bleed together and cities come and go, yet through the chaos, a common theme appears, one of the kindness of strangers and the power of community. We hope that this EP will stand as a document, not only of what we’ve done but also of those who helped us along our way. We also hope that it serves as an inspiration for others to seek out all the vibrant scenes supporting DIY music both on and off the map, in South America or wherever the music takes you. Above all these are love songs to all those we met on our tour. Sudámerica ruido y amor!
Recorded January 2019 / Engineered by Kan Tong at Tiger Gate Studio, Beijing CHINA / Mixed by Fredrik Lyxzén at Parasite Studio, Umeå SWEDEN / Mastered by Garrett Haines at Treelady Studio, Pittsburg USA / Additional vocals on Panama City by Luo Xiao, Kan Tong, Gui Mu, Yu Yang, and Jin Bo / Additional vocals on Chitré by Kan Tong / Artwork by Riot29
STRUGGLE SESSION are coming to North-America to climb the world’s new Great Wall! In under three years, the band has struck out from their Beijing home to perform for audiences all over Asia, Australia, Morocco, Spain, and South America. Now they are taking on continent number six with twenty-five shows in July 2019 stretching from Seattle to Guatemala City. Joining up with friends new and old, the band will bring their brand of brutally fun hardcore to both sides of the world’s new “Great” Wall proving that DIY punk will not be divided.
7/3 Seattle, U.S.A. @ Kraken
7/4 Tacoma, U.S.A. @ TBA
7/5 Portland, U.S.A. @ Core House
7/6 Sacramento, U.S.A. @ The Colony
7/7 Oakland, U.S.A. @ TBA
7/8 San Jose, U.S.A. @ Trash House
7/9 L.A., U.S.A. @ Rec Center
7/10 Tecate, MEXICO @ Licores La Esmeralda
7/11 Caborca, MEXICO @ El Danubio
7/12 Hermosillo, MEXICO @ Foro B
7/13 Agua Prieta, MEXICO @ Lucky Fest / CUM
7/14 Mexicali, MEXICO @ Bar Tio Nacho
7/15 Tijuana, MEXICO @ Lycanthro Pub
7/16 Irapuato, MEXICO @ Alternativo Micheladas y Bar
7/17 Morelia, MEXICO @ Cactux
7/18 Manzanillo, MEXICO @ Quilombo
719 Guadalajara, MEXICO @ Palindromo
7/20 Aguascalientes, MEXICO @ Varil Fest / Emporio Rock
7/21 Mexico City, MEXICO @ El Mudano
7/23 Merida, MEXICO @ Delorean Bar
7/24 Playa del Carmen, MEXICO @ Le Lotus Rouge
7/25 Cozumel, MEXICO @ Sindicato de Hoteleros
7/26 Bacalar, MEXICO @ TBA
7/27 San Ignacio, BELIZE @ TBA
7/28 Guatemala City, GUATEMALA @ Retro Road
More about the band:
STRUGGLE SESSION is born from a love of all kinds of hardcore-punk from the 80s, 90s, and 00s mixed with the intensity of extreme metal. It is fast, it is chaotic, it is fun! They live by the motto “no stage is the best stage,” feeling more at home out in the audience — and more comfortable with most of their clothes on the floor. STRUGGLE SESSION is “self-criticism-core” at its most intense, soundtracking any room with maximum destruction, putting all they have into each performance and leaving the audience a sweaty, heaving mess.
The vocalist Oliver leaps on and off the stage in a frenzy, working up the pit and screaming out every last breath of air he’s got. Guitarist Nevin wonders into the crowd, getting lost, sometimes losing his guitar. He’ll climb or jump off anything. Bassist Alfie is constantly losing his pants and performing strange dance moves. While the drummer Aaron seems to be continually drinking beer while smashing drums. He stands up or walks away from his kit but never seems to miss a beat. Their show is like some twisted struggle session where the members stand accused and denounced by the audience, and are forced to recite their crimes.
Based in Beijing, STRUGGLE SESSION features members of Chinese hardcore punk band Fanzui Xiangfa, Australian synth-grind band Scrotal Vice, Moroccan hardcore band W.O.R.M., and US band Handed To The Thousands. From four corners of the world, they united over a shared affinity for fast music, reckless abandon, and tasteful public nudity.
Since forming in late 2016, STRUGGLE SESSION has averaged one performance every five days, regularly brutalizing audiences in Beijing’s Temple and School bars as well as festivals, clubs, and DIY spaces across China. They’ve released splits with Guangzhou’s Die!ChiwawaDie!, Seoul’s “dance violence” act Arryam, and Brazilian DIY grindcore duo T.E.S.T while performing in 12 countries across the globe: China, Korea, Morocco, Spain, Australia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Panama.
Showing no signs of slowing down, STRUGGLE SESSION is set to tour North America, their seventh continent, in July 2019. Playing 25 shows in four countries, they’ll bring their cathartic performance to bars, punk houses, and festivals across the U.S., Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. The tour coincides with the releasing of a new 7” featuring 33 micro songs each telling the tale of one show from their 2018 South American tour.
STRUGGLE SESSION is anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-homophobic, pro-positivity, pro-diversity and accepting of all.
