Editor-in-Chief | Lisa Root |
---|---|
Editor | Brett Matthews |
Design Editor | John Joh |
Categories | Music |
Frequency | Monthly |
Circulation | 80,000 |
Publisher | American Music Press Magazine |
Founder |
|
Founded | 2002 |
First issue | September 2002 |
Final issue Number | November 2012 112 |
Country | United States |
Based in | Martinez, California |
Language | English |
Website | ampmagazine |
OCLC | 64709668 |
AMP Magazine (short for American Music Press Magazine) was an American music magazine founded in 2002, by Brett Matthews, Lisa Root and John Joh. [1] [2] It featured interviews, album and live reviews and band journals. Online, it featured exclusive videos and audio, as well as video game reviews. It closed its doors on February 26, 2013, with its 112th issue having been published in November 2012. Root went on to form New Noise Magazine . [2] [3]
AMP was published monthly by American Music Press, with a print run of 80,000 copies. [4] It focused primarily on punk, hardcore and metal music. Some of the prominent editors were Lucas Andrews, John Joh, Johnathan Marshall, Lisa Root, Jake Round, Tony Shrum, Sean Stepp, Chris Taravella and Nick White. [5] [6] [7]
Matthews' beginning in music journalism started in 1996, with a fanzine he wrote titled Hit List. It lasted three years. AMP Magazine came together in 2002, [8] when he partnered with Lisa Root and John Joh. [1] [2] The trio eventually formed the sister publications Loud Fast Rules! Magazine (covering old school punk music) in 2005, and Hails & Horns Magazine (covering heavy metal music) in 2007. [2] [3]
AMP broadened focus from the underground music scene, which allowed for coverage of bands not featured in its contemporaries Maximumrocknroll and Alternative Press . He notes in an interview with Metro Post-Telegraph , that eventually "AMP started getting out of its sector and started getting too big." [9]
In 2012, NOFX lead vocalist and bassist Fat Mike funded the magazine.[ citation needed ]
AMP ceased publication in 2013. [10] An official notice from Matthews read, "we thank you for your more than a decade of support, and undying love and celebration of that which is our underground. It has been an amazing ride, and we can't wait to see what awesome magazines arise to tell the story of the shape of punk to come." [6]
Between 2002 and 2011, AMP released over two dozen CD samplers, as well as five genre compilations titled AMP Magazine Presents, including material from Atreyu, Every Time I Die, Madball, New Crash Position and Sick of it All. [11]
A review by AllMusic for the first compilation, Hardcore, Vol. 1, says "it's a solid mix of tracks all the way through, perfect as a mix tape for scene veterans, but even better as an introduction for newbies," adding that "for them, it probably should have come with earplugs." [12] Two DVD video albums were also released.
Grindcore is an extreme fusion genre of heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, extreme metal, and industrial. Grindcore is considered a more noise-filled style of hardcore punk while using hardcore's trademark characteristics such as heavily distorted, down-tuned guitars, grinding overdriven bass, high-speed tempo, blast beats, and vocals which consist of growls, shouts and high-pitched shrieks. Early groups like Napalm Death are credited with laying the groundwork for the style. It is most prevalent today in North America and Europe, with popular contributors such as Brutal Truth and Nasum. Lyrical themes range from a primary focus on social and political concerns, to gory subject matter and black humor.
Hardcore punk is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk scenes in San Francisco and Southern California which arose as a reaction against the still predominant hippie cultural climate of the time. It was also inspired by Washington, D.C., and New York punk rock and early proto-punk. Hardcore punk generally disavows commercialism, the established music industry and "anything similar to the characteristics of mainstream rock" and often addresses social and political topics with "confrontational, politically charged lyrics".
Crust punk is a subgenre of punk rock influenced by the English punk scene as well as extreme metal. The style, which evolved in the early 1980s in England, often has songs with dark and pessimistic lyrics that linger on political and social ills. The term "crust" was coined by Hellbastard on their 1986 Ripper Crust demo.
Rufio was an American rock band from Rancho Cucamonga, California, United States, in 2000. They released four studio albums: Perhaps, I Suppose (2001); MCMLXXXV (2003); The Comfort of Home (2005); and Anybody Out There (2010).
Pro-Pain is an American heavy metal band based in New York City, formed in 1991 by vocalist and bassist Gary Meskil and drummer Dan Richardson, both former members of Crumbsuckers.
Kirk Windstein is an American musician. He is the frontman, vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and sole constant member of the sludge metal band Crowbar. He is also a founding member of the heavy metal supergroup Down, playing guitar with them from 1991 to 2013 and later rejoining the band in 2020. In 2005, Windstein formed Kingdom of Sorrow with Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed. Their debut album was released in 2008. Windstein began his musical career in 1985 as a guitarist for a cover band called Victorian Blitz, and in 1988 joined a hardcore punk band called Shell Shock as a vocalist and guitarist.
Russ Rankin is an American musician, best known as the singer for the punk rock bands Good Riddance and Only Crime.
Camden Underworld, London – 16 November 2001 is a split live video album by Gainesville, Florida-based melodic hardcore band As Friends Rust and Richmond, Virginia-based punk rock band Strike Anywhere. The concert was filmed on November 16, 2001 at the Underworld in Camden Town, London, England. The event was part of a five-week European and United Kingdom tour shared by the two bands while promoting their debut full-length albums: As Friends Rust's Won and Strike Anywhere's Change Is a Sound.
Damien Done is an American post-punk/gothic rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Formed in Gainesville, Florida in 2002 as a semi-eponymously-named solo project by frontman Damien Moyal, the group has since been expanded to include other band members and co-songwriters. The current lineup features Moyal, Laura Jane Leonard and Tyler Kane.
Minutemen were an American punk rock band formed in San Pedro, California, in 1980. Composed of guitarist/vocalist D. Boon, bassist/vocalist Mike Watt, and drummer George Hurley, Minutemen recorded four albums and eight EPs before Boon's death in an automobile accident in 1985; the band broke up shortly thereafter. They were noted in the California punk community for a philosophy of "jamming econo"—a sense of thriftiness reflected in their touring and short, tight songs, and for their eclectic style, drawing on hardcore punk, funk, jazz, and other sources.
Ice Nine Kills is an American heavy metal band from Boston, Massachusetts, who are signed to Fearless Records. Best known for its horror-inspired lyrics, Ice Nine Kills formed in its earliest incarnation in 2000 by high school friends Spencer Charnas and Jeremy Schwartz. Charnas is currently the only remaining founding member.
Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! is a French rock band formed in 2007 in Paris. The band consists of vocalist Bertrand Poncet, guitarists Éric Poncet and Paul Wilson and bassist Mathias Rigal, with founding drummer Jonathan Donnaes leaving in 2014 to be replaced by Bastien Lafaye.
Timothy James Kirkpatrick is an American drummer. Originally from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Kirkpatrick played in punk band Shaft and emotional hardcore bands Roosevelt and Burgundy in his teens. After a brief stay in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he played in the hardcore band Bloodpact, Kirkpatrick moved to Gainesville, Florida in 1997, and joined metallic hardcore band Culture and melodic hardcore band As Friends Rust, both with vocalist Damien Moyal.
Pure Noise Records is an American punk rock record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded by Jake Round in 2009 while he was an editor at AMP; the previous fall, friends of his in the band No Bragging Rights told him they were looking for a new label, and Round expressed interest in releasing the album himself. Prior to this Round had a short stint as an intern at Fat Wreck Chords. While the label began as a home operation, and had only put out five albums by the end of 2010, by 2014 some of the label's roster were main-stage acts at Warped Tour, and others had sold nearly 50,000 copies of their albums. Overall, the label's catalog had sold over 280,000 records as of March 2014. Among the label's signings are Vanna and Hit the Lights. In March 2017, Pure Noise Records partnered with Sony Music to create a new music label called Weekday Records.
Hardcore Lives is the eighth studio album by New York hardcore band Madball. It was released on June 27, 2014. This was the last album to feature guitarist Brian "Mitts" Daniels before his departure.
I Prevail is an American rock band formed in Southfield, Michigan, in 2013. They released their debut EP Heart vs. Mind (2014) and rose to popularity from releasing a metal cover of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" as a single, which eventually was certified platinum in the US. The band has since released three studio albums: Lifelines (2016), Trauma (2019), and True Power (2022). The band found success with their original material as well, with the singles "Breaking Down" and "Hurricane" performing well on rock radio, the single "Bow Down" being nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2019, and Trauma being nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album the same year.
Trash Boat is a British punk rock band formed in St Albans in 2014. The group consists of Tobi Duncan, Dann Bostock, Ryan Hyslop, James Grayson, and Oakley Moffatt (drums).
Forever is the third studio album by the American hardcore punk band Code Orange and its first on a major label, Roadrunner Records, following a stint on the indie label Deathwish Inc. It was released on January 13, 2017.
Sharptooth was an American hardcore punk band from Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Formed in 2013, the band released two EPs and two studio albums, entitled Clever Girl (2017) and Transitional Forms (2020), before disbanding in 2023.
New Noise Magazine is an American music magazine that focuses on artist news, band interviews, album reviews and underground culture. It was founded in February 2013, by Lisa Root, who had previously been the co-founder and editor-in-chief of such publications as AMP Magazine, Loud Fast Rules! Magazine and Hails & Horns Magazine. New Noise Magazine's managing editor, Addison Herron-Wheeler, has written for Decibel, Exclaim!, Invisible Oranges, MetalSucks, Metal Rules, CVLT Nation, San Diego CityBeat, Westword, RVA Magazine, High Times, Culture Magazine and Bust, and is the editor-in-chief and co-owner of Out Front. Musician Cheetah Chrome once wrote a political column for the magazine.