Travels With Nate

It will come as no surprise to you that I like a good burger and beer. Beer and beef are two of my favourite things. I had drank at The Sir Garnet a few times. It’s a nice, welcoming pub with plenty of seating both inside and outside; nicely situated right next to Norwich market on one of the main shopping strips, Gentleman’s Walk. Image from: http://www.vintagenorwich.co.uk/2012/07/a-sneak-peek-at-the-new-sir-garnet/

Stealing Axion was formed in the winter of 2009 by guitarists Dan Forbrich, Josh DeShazo, and Phil Willmarth. The three friends would get together to hang out and write riffs. Slowly, actual songs started coming together. By early 2010 they self-recorded and released their EP which rapidly spread across the net and garnered them tons of praise from fans and critics alike. With these songs as a solid foundation, the band maintained a steady regiment of writing and developing their sound and soon had enough material to serve as a full length album. Stealing Axion is yet another band whose name I instantly recognised when I was sent Moments and yet again, I can’t for the life of me think where. I just knew I’d heard some of their music previously so I had to check the album out.

Hellhound brewery near Ipswich in Suffolk is looking for a new brewer. They're only a small brewery that produces 3 permanent bottle and cask conditioned beers: Dirty Blond - 3.9% - An exceptional blond ale using local malt and the finest new world hops. Thunderstruck - 3.5% - Immensely quaffable wheat beer. Light, refreshing and naturally cloudy. Black Shuck - 5% - Deceptive dark ale, very dark, matured for twice as long as our other beers with a sweet malt finish. I've had Dirty Blonde and it's wonderful. They also have a pilot plant which they're experimenting on too. If you or anyone else you know has brewing experience and is looking for a job as a brewer, contact me or @HellHoundJack on twitter. Must be based in Suffolk or willing to relocate. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/HellHound-Brewery/219231871432941 Have a good weekend! Nate http://www.twitter.com/NateDawg27

So I’m doing fantasy (American) football with the NFL in Norfolk guys. Thought it would be a fun thing to do. I’m blatantly going to fail, I am thinking; now that I’m looking back at my picks. Fuck it. It’s all fun, right? Wanna criticise my team? Go ahead...

Chris Helme is a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist who first rose to prominence as the front man of John Squire’s post-Stone Roses band The Seahorses. His new solo album, The Rookery , was impressively recorded in just 9 days at a place called The Rookery, funnily enough.

Beardfish is a Swedish progressive rock quartet that formed in 2001. They are often compared to bands such as King Crimson, Yes and Genesis & while those are the kinds of bands that influenced them, they really are doing their own thing. The Void is their seventh release to date and the band say that fans will be surprised by the ‘twists and turns’ of this album...

Sanguine are a four-piece female fronted alt-metal rock band from the UK. They were formed by singer & songwriter Tarin Kerrey whilst studying at Exeter University. Since then, they have performed at the Hard Rock Hell Road Trip in Ibiza, Download Festival and have supported Thrash Metal legends Megadeth. I was sure I had heard of Sanguine before I received the press release but I couldn’t work out where. Intrigued by my own confusion, I thought it would only be fair for me to review their self-titled debut album and their live E.P.

It’s interview time again! This time, it’s Graham ‘Pin’ Pinney from Aliases and Sikth. Oh how I miss Sikth. I remembered last night that I actually met Pin in 2006 when Sikth played in Norwich. I remember watching Lord of the Rings on their tour bus. I reviewed Aliases debut mini-album, Safer Than Reality yesterday and bloody good it was too. Now, they’re currently working on their debut full length album but Mr Pin was nice enough to take a break from his busy schedule to talk about Booze, Beats, Bites & other such bizarre things.

Aliases are a metalcore band based in Manchester, England; I say metalcore but their facebook page suggests their genre is ‘brutiful’. I’ll roll with that. Last week, the band announced that sadly, their vocalist Jay Berast has had to leave the band for personal reasons.

  *EDIT* Dripback apparently got a better offer so they've had to pull out - don't worry, thought, we're not cheating you out of bands as Terakai are replacing them. What the fuck are you doing on Saturday 8th of September between 2pm & 10:15pm? Probably the same shit as every Saturday. I have a better idea... You're coming to the Siege of Amida Records & Basick Records all-dayer. I mean, why wouldn't you?

I had heard rumours of a new brewery popping up on Scottish shores but I knew not of the name. I heard they were doing something different to what most new breweries in the United Kingdom are doing so I was instantly interested. I then got followed by a brewery on Twitter called Old Worthy , i hadn't heard of them before and there wasn't a great deal on their website ; in fact, it was just one page with a few pictures and a email address sign up box saying that they'll alert me when the beer is available. I don't remember whether or not I signed up, in all honesty. One day I signed in to Twitter to find a tweet asking if I would like a sample... 'why not?' i thought and sent the email.

Yesterday I went to The Great British Beer Festival . Originally, I wasn’t going to go but a friend from twitter offered me two tickets to the Trade Session so I thought it would be rude not to go. It would give me the chance to put a face to all of these 140 character personalities. So I did it. I embarked on a 3 hour coach journey from Norwich and met my mate Tom. Was it worth it? Oh hell yeah it was.

And it's not the Olympics. In fact, I figure that the amount of alcohol in my system by the time I leave at 7 o'clock tonight will render me unfit to partake in any sport. Hell, I will probably have trouble getting back to Victoria. It's the Great British Beer Festival and it's on all week until Saturday at The Olympia in London. Today is the Trade Session and I will be there between 12pm & 7pm (it opens to the public at 5pm) I will be wearing a Carling polo shirt. OMG THE IRONY LOLZ. No, fuck off. But seriously, if you see me, you should come over for a cuddle or a high five or something. If not, I hate you and you should go cry somewhere. Have fun and I hope to see you all there. I love you. Nate http://www.twitter.com/NateDawg27

Anna MacDonald is a singer and songwriter of folk songs which reflect the stronginfluence that different strands of Scotland ’s traditional musichave had upon her. A multi-instrumentalist, she is able to play the piano,guitar and clarsach which she beautifully intertwines with Scots, English andGaelic songs. As well as performing regularly at folk clubs and festivals, inMay 2011 Anna began work with Fraser Fifield on her second EP, Paper Flowers. The first track is the title track, Paper Flowers which opens with beautiful pianos before Anna Macdonald’s beautiful voice kicks in along with some pipes. It’s a slow and enchantingly sad song. Absolutely beautiful. The next song, Matty Groves is a lot faster, more upbeat and features an acoustic guitar too; this one is more Gaelic in style and her voice definitely sounds Scottish on this one. You’d think that’s not something that needs to be pointed out but hearing the album, it’s definitely worth mentioning. This is more my kind

When I was asked if I could review this album, I instantly laughed at the name. Alright, I’ve had my rant about terrible band names but this one is actually hilarious which makes it awesome! I have no idea why I laughed so much but I did. Anyway, dropbunny is a seven-piece metal band from Melbourne, Australia that formed in 2009 with members Xero & John Barrymore recording their first album, “Hypothesis” with the aid of session drummer Matt Leiber. After six months, they’d added a permanent guitarist and began performing live. If they’d have distributed their album through more mainstream channels, it would’ve been at #50 in the ARIA charts which is bloody impressive for a first album, especially as they were self-promoting! I’d never heard dropbunny before, so I wasn’t quite knowing what to expect... I really love getting sent an album having not heard the band previously. The first track, Plummet , starts out with static noise and a nice, heavy bassline which isn’

It's that time of year again... it's International IPA Day ! Now in its second year, this day is an international event where we all come together, regardless of physical distance, in order to share with each other what IPAs we are drinking. There are many events going on in pubs and bars all over the world but sadly I'm stuck in Norwich tonight which is not a very IPA-centric city. As I'm not likely to be able to get my hands on any IPAs tonight due to having other commitments, I decided to grab a bottle of Adnams Innovation from Co-Op last night and review it for my drinking - and your reading - pleasure. I have had this beer many times before but not for a while so I wonder if it has changed?

Image taken from here: http://gbbf.org.uk/ I went to The Great British BeerFestival last year (2011), all alone because I have no friends. It’s hardly surprising, is it? I am joking; of course, I have lots of friends but none who like beer so much that they’ll travel 120 miles to drink it. Even though I went alone, I had a bloody good day out. I drank some wonderful beers (don’t ask me which although I was wearing my Dark Star ‘Don’t Drink Hophead’ t-shirt that I won through a twitter campaign but I drank Hophead anyway, being the rebel that I am) and met some awesome new people who I’m still in contact with through the wonderful world of twitter. I also got to show off my awesome shoes that @BeeryMatt loved a lot (I may have to break them out for this year’s affair, actually).