Red Dons

Red Dons

The Dead Hand Of Tradition

Deranged

Five years after their seminal Fake Meets Failure LP, Red Dons return with their junior album The Dead Hand of Tradition. A lot has happened in that half-decade. Two of the band’s core members, Douglas Burns and Hajji Husayn, left their hometown Portland, Oregon (for Chicago and London, respectively), and recorded and released a slew of singles on labels like Grave Mistake and Dirtnap (including a collaboration with TV Smith of UK punk legends The Adverts). Despite the distance between them, they’ve toured regularly in North America and Europe. In early 2015, Red Dons reconvened in Portland to record The Dead Hand of Tradition at Buzz Or Howl Studios, the same establishment where they recorded the album’s predecessor. It features ten new tracks of their signature dark, driving, melodic punk rock. The duo’s distinctive songwriting hasn’t changed, but shows the maturity of five more nomadic years under their belts. These new experiences have only added to the themes of alienation, emigration and loss in their music.

Red Dons

Fake Meets Failure

Deranged

***BACK IN PRINT ON VINYL!!! “Lightning. Pure, white-hot, hot-streaking, sizzling, punk lightning. It’s punk that people who’ve ‘given up,’ ‘don’t get,’ or ‘moved on’ from punk have the highest percentage of liking. It’s just so obviously scorching, beautiful, and crackling music, regardless of genre. And I was reluctant to admit that lightning could strike twice. One of the driving forces behind RED DONS is DOUG BURNS, the lead singer and guitarist of the untouchable every-member-made-it-greater band, THE OBSERVERS. The Red Dons first LP, Death to Idealism, while it had its bright spots, sounded covered in blankets, a little restricted and restrained, a little awkward, a little tentative. Getting used to new skin. Not so with Fake Meets Failure. The burka’s ripped off, faces are revealed, and those faces are screaming. Analogous to the transformation of the Vicious to Masshysteri or Sexy to Future Virgins, it took a little time from the dusk of one band to the dawn of another, but the newer band, exhibiting similar genetic code to its predecessor, has developed its own personality, its own habits, and has accomplished what many, including myself, didn’t think was possible: release more music that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of their own legacy’s finest work. One of the best punk records of 2010, hands down.”—Todd Taylor (Razorcake)