Reviews...

Basement boys. 4 song demo. 3 original songs. 1 cover. Best demo I've heard all year. There are a lot of oi! elements but there is a bit of harder punk thrown in as well. Very cool. "You're a saggy tit" is, by far, the best song on here, very melodic and memorable. Musically, it reminds me of something from OC circa 1981. Excellent band. Order this demo. I'm thrilled that there is a new local band that has quality music that isn't just songs based around some "super brutal heavy moss part bro" bullshit. Anyways, excellent demo.

Rev...

Recently I was discussing the merits of all the fantastic mid 90s punk bands. Said friend recommended the Ten Foot Pole record called "Rev". I finally tracked it down today. Man, I'm kicking myself for not discovering this one sooner. I loved this style so I'm lost as to why I overlooked this one. I know I have even seen this band a few times. Great melodic and fast punk band featuring Scott Radinszky of some major league baseball team. Also singer of great 80s hardcore band Scared Straight. Anyways, every song on this is great, completely creative and packed with memorable hooks. A+++
There are some shows coming up, each one filled with all the same bands that play every show around here for the last couple of years. So much for anything new, right?
I saw a kid skate into the road this morning and he was nearly leveled by a bus. He had an Adolescents shirt on and I thought that was pretty cool.
Breakfast today was good.

Exploding Head...

I meet people who have been into hardcore for years, like 5 or 6 years, and they have never hear bands like the Circle Jerks or Blitz or NOTA or Agent Orange or Adolescents or Government Issue. Shit! I remember buying every punk and hardcore related item that I could find, trying to hear as much of everything that I could. Now it seems like not a whole lot of people care about that stuff. Just download the shitty Bridge 9 back catalogue and you are set. You are a hardcore all star now! Idiot. Next topic...
At that endless summer jam show aka show with at least 7 or 8 too many bands, I heard someone make fun of some young guy because he wasn't dressed to fit the current lame hxc dress code. Perhaps its time to check out when the sheep are more concerned about what people are wearing at shows instead of wondering why the music isn't that good. Oddly enough, when I got into this whole mess, it was about doing your own things and getting away from the highschool douchebags. Now its about being the highschool douchebags. Imagine this... You are in school. You are pretty much a loser, no friends, etc. But you find punk and its filled with cool people just like yourself. You think, "hey I like it here, people are just like me here". So you stay. You get some friends. You see some bands. You travel around a bit. Hell, you might even meet a girl. Then you get an ego. You start thinking you are much cooler than you actually are. You start to judge people and look down on people who you don't think are cool enough for your hxc hipster crowd. Imagine that... the guy who got into punk and hxc to get away from that type of people because honestly you were never cool enough to hang with them but now you act exactly like them. The joke's on YOU!!!

The Heat Factor...

I have this friend. He has worked at various cleveland area show venues over the last 10 or so years. I asked him, "what's the shadiest thing that goes on at those places?". His reply... "Man, the heat. They always wanted the heat on, get the place all nice and warm. Then everyone shows up and the temperature triples. People are getting all worked up over bands, you know, getting all sweaty. Of course they are going to get thirsty. Not everyone drinks or is even old enough to drink, right? So the place would be blazing hot and we would sell water! Cups or bottles of water, $1, $2, whatever. At the end of the night we would literally have piles of money from people buying water, people paying $2 for something that was free at the sink in the bathroom. About an hour before a show, we would turn the heat up, even in the summer. Of course it was shady but from a business standpoint, it was genious.".
:)

Dun Dun... We're Back!

I thought no one read this but over the months that I have not posted anything new, I have received random emails and messages requesting new posts. So here we go...
Ninety seven percent of current bands are just a poor imitation of something from the past. There are record upon record of worthless music that is tuneless garbage. There is nothing memorable about any of it besides how shockingly average it is.
Another joke... Bands that have more shirt designs than they have songs.
Yet another joke... Touring bands who whine and cry their way onto shows. Maybe there is a reason that said bands were not asked to play shows? Shall I list bands... The Pledge comes to mind. Or the endless stream of bands that get added to shows last minute. Booooooring. People learn to use the word "NO". Example:
Band X: yo, my band has a demo and 9 shirt designs. Can we get on this show you are doing? Please. Listen, I know we are really bad but we really want to play your show and kill the energy and annoy everyone who came to see good music.
Dude Putting On The Show: No! See, its as easy as that! Now get to work show promoters!
A lot of people will criticize everything that they are not a part of.
A lot of people wish they were like the people they hide behind.
Fireworks at shows is not new, is not innovative or exciting. People condemn people who throw fireworks but then throw lumber at people? The world is confused, I think.
Keep trying son, you will get you hxc fame anyday now.

Unquestionable Presence...

I was lucky to get into non crappy music at a very very very very young age. And additional circumstances allowed me to be able to see a lot of these bands. There was one band that I loved that all my friend always made fun of me for. Atheist. Yes, the very talented Florida Death Metal band. A lot of people didn't like that band too much because they just weren't "brutal" enough. Why listen to Atheist when Obituary, Autopsy, Entombed or Massacre records were much harder? Whatever. I loved Atheist. So, eventually, Atheist was playing around me and I wasn't going to miss it. Luckily, they were touring with some other death metal legend, so I had no problem obtaining a ride. I think it might have been a show with Massacre (who I also loved), but I can't remember for sure. Shit, I barely remember ten years ago, much less the early 90's. Everything blends together. I was so sure Atheist would be the best thing I had ever, or would ever, see live. And they were amazing! It was funny though, no one moved when they played, just stood there and watched. I remember that well. Of course, Atheist was like the first technical death metal band, but shit wasn't called technical death metal then. That came later. Such a great band. Well, they went over like a lead balloon. Later on, chaos erupted for Massacre. But to me, the highlight was Atheist.
Side note: I had money somehow then, maybe from doing chores, haha, and I wanted an Atheist shirt and all they had were XL and those were huge on me then, but I wasn't not getting one, so I had an Atheist shirt that was huge on me. Kind of like a dress. I wore that thing everywhere for months.
Atheist. Great band.

Flyboys...

SoCal punk source #1 recently sent me a CD the great old Flyboys ep with both songs from their Crayon World ep on it, as well. This is fantastic stuff, super melodic punk, with hooks and memorable vocal lines. Fuck, the ep is so good, it has a fantastic gloomy edge to it, kind of like how a lot of early OC HC bands bad. I've listened to this multiple times in the last few days and you are mistaken if you do not do the same!