Thursday, December 25, 2008

Kids of the black hole

So lately I've thought about if I was younger again how I would do everything different. I feel I missed out on a lot of opportunities. Then I realized I spend too much time worrying about how I would have made my past better than trying to resolve my current problems.
Oh well fuck it.

Florida is an abysmal pit. Seriously this place seems pretty void of all life. I went exploring the other day and came across a couple record stores, mostly catering to the mainstream alternative. Random Radiohead albums for $30 and re-presses of every Replacements album for $25. The coolest/ only thing that really interested me were the new Avskum LP and the World Burns to Death LP, both of which I can find back home. I then went and checked out Ybor City which is a nice little part of Tampa that has a lot of shops and you can walk around. It was pretty cool, relaxing. The weather was in the 80's and breezy so I enjoyed a nice stroll while checking out some vintage clothing places and another record store or two. One had a load of good older 45's, lots of Beach Boys and Alice Cooper. Sadly they were asking way to much to justify buying a 45 that was scratched to hell and probably wouldn't play and also contained one previous owner's name written from top to bottom on each label.

Today is Kayaking and then packing up and heading back. I should be back around 12-3 am on Saturday. I think I'm hanging in Charlotte for the weekend and heading back Sunday night. Let me know if you want to get together or hang out.

I've been kind of stuck lately not listening to music, I have been having a hard time getting some personal space/time here.
When I went on my exploration of Tampa I really had the urge to listen to west coast bands though, maybe it was the sunshine and beaches. So lots of Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, Avengers, my one 7 Seconds song I don't hate, and other awesome tunes.
It kind of bummed me out because I sold my copy of Not So Quiet on the Western Front the other day.
One band that I think doesn't get enough credit is Code of Honor. I first heard this band on the Not So Quiet comp, their song What Price Will You Pay starts off slow, sounding more like a speech and then the guitar kicks back in and the song takes off, only to come back to a awkward slowdown again with more talking. The song reminds me of a more punk Bla'st with all the time changes but aren't as weird.
That song can be heard thanks to the good people at Alternative Tentacles HERE

After that I looked into the band a little more and downloaded their split with Sick Pleasure. I was sad that the Code of Honor side wasn't really solid as I had hoped. It reminds me of some of those weird Faction songs that are almost good but just a little too weird to like. One song though is a complete punk rock banger. Fight or die kicks you in the back of the head with the insane little guitar parts and the killer bass line. This song is a classic.



Also check out the user that posted that video for more awesome stuff.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Don't care about nothin' not even my girl

So I ripped this the other day, a good split with cool artwork. Definitely more for the garage fans.

THE MUMMIES VS THE WOLFMEN!

Double 7" split put out by Sympathy for the Record Industry in 91. Included a fold-out with artwork by Coop

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Ok now that that's over with here's what to expect from the music.
The mummies start off their 7" with a cover of Chris Kenner's Land of 1000 Dances. I never knew who actually wrote the song. Basically typical early rock song with the Mummies blend of blown out vocals. According to Wikipedia the "nananana" parts were added when Cannibal & the Headhunters covered the song. Every band in the world seems to have done a cover of this song. Some make sense (ie little richard, bill haley and his comets) other's don't (broken social scene, and vinnie jone??) but this song definitely fits for the Mummies.
Next is Victim of Circumstances, which I assume is also a cover but I don't know who did the original. It's a little slower not as rock and roll as the first song. It's very somber and features lots of organ. I really like this song but it feels slightly depressing compared to the other song but I think shows the contrast The Mummies are able to produce, making fun light hearted songs on top of dark songs. I think this may be my favorite though on the split.

The Wolfmen tracks make you feel like you should have a pomp and some wingtips on while listening to it. Straight rock. Insane in an Insane world seems to drag on a little long. But then again so does the other song, Don't want no one to love me but you, who's name even drags on too long. Still they're good songs. I think if Insane in an Insane World was a minute shorter it'd be a great song but still it's a solid track otherwise.

Here's a zip with all 4 songs and all the artwork

DOWNLOADDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!



EDIT: Ok i notice now that the pictures are too big............... it will take me forever to fix them..... so fuck it just download it.

Blame the ratings for his crime

This 7" has been a favorite of mine lately.... I found a bootleg copy of it when I was in NY. It's hard to stop listening to it.




The only layout for this is The Victims printed on the front similar to the original (but of course on an actual cover nice and centered). The track listings aren't on the back though. The labels are spot on to the originals though.

Television Addict is such a catchy song... you can listen to it again and again without getting tired of it. This song is rawer and a little more edgier than most of the other Aussie releases of its time.

(I'm) Flipped out over you is a little more weirder and poppier. It's increadibly jittery and fast paced. It's a fun song but doesn't warrant the multiple plays that Television Addict does.

You can download the tracks from kbdrecords.com and make your own decisions about them. Still two top notch songs though.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Freak Scene

Lately I've been up late surfing youtube when I can't sleep. I came across this user called butterknifeltd. I had seen the videos he had put up of Die Kreuzen playing a cable access show. He has about 1000 more videos up of full live sets of a million amazing bands. I suggest checking it out.

Some Jams to check out


If you like stuff that's super fast and angry then you'll love this. Winded is probably one of my favorite songs right now.










If you have somehow not heard this band then crawl out from under your rock and go buy this 7". Perfect blend of poppy and punk. I have a hard time putting this away because I usually just want to spin it again.


The B-Side Cold Touch Of Death will get stuck in your head. Another one that gets a good handful of plays before leaving the turntable.




Unlike most bands Dinosaur Jr.'s newest album is not a letdown. Been one of my favorites to listen to lately. Definitely check out Been There All the Time.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

So you want to be a Rock & Roll Star

So I'm at my parents at the moment... home alone. Due to TV not being that interesting (although they have like 400 channels) I decided to check out the Sirius Radio stations they have on their TV (It's part of their satellite plan). I found one called Underground garage and so far it's been pretty solid. I had it on a little last night and heard Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Radio Birdman, the Ramones, the Sonics, and The Undertones. While just sitting here writing this I've heard The Kinks - I need you, The Replacements - Bastards of young, and the Byrds - So you want to be a Rock & Roll Star. I wonder if you can subscribe to just one sirius radio station because every other one is crap, especially the one labeled Punk/hiphop. That one had low expectations anyway though. But this station is pretty close to my taste in music (minus all the hardcorepunkmetalfreaky shit).

On other notes Logic Problem is playing Monday with ANNIHILATION TIME!at Volume 11 in Raleigh along with Double Negative and some others.




Also on one final note

Friday, November 21, 2008

I've got an urge... i've got a surge and I'm outta control

So Rockband 2 has one of my favorite DEVO songs on it. I'm not a big DEVO person but I love the song Uncontrollable Urge.
This reminded me of a 7" I forgot I had.



This is the 90's Budget rock band The Mummies covering Uncontrollable Urge and Girl You Want by DEVO.
The record isn't really on Sub Pop. The Back cover explains with a letter from sub pop asking the Mummies to Release a sub pop single and then next to it their response. (I'll see if i can scan the back cover because it's a pretty funny response)
Both tracks are live and I think actually better quality than some of their other releases.
Pure Fun records put it out (apparently one of their two releases)

There's a blog with both tracks available to listen to ------> here

Also here's a video of the show the song was recorded at (the sound is not as good quality as the 7")


The record was limited to 1000 copies on pretty purple marble vinyl.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Heading for Hell

So to start off, today has been awesome due to waking up early and not be freezing and fear getting out of bed due to it being 20 degrees in my room. I am very thankful for friends willing to help me out.

So with that good start I set off to get some stuff done today. I got most everything done except for one thing which was selling off my old hockey skates (really nice skates) since i never use them and will more than likely never use them again. So for my nice skates and my basically brand new gloves they offered me $18....... talk about a rip off. So after denying their offer I got in my car and started to head out of the parking lot. I notice at the light leaving the parking lot that there's a cop behind me but I don't sweat it because I'm doing nothing wrong. I barely pull out of into the intersection before the cops lights come on. So I pull into a parking lot out of the way. Apparently my registration is out of date. I've forgotten about this before and gotten a warning for it. This time was different though. This cop decided that this deserved a ticket. And not just a little ticket. Including court costs it comes out to $150. While I know I was in the wrong I still don't think that it warrants a ticket of that magnitude. So yeah again instead of getting money selling my stuff I got stuck with a ticket. Luckily the court date isn't till January so I have some time.

Logic Problem plays in Charlotte tomorrow with bands. I'm excited about it and still have room for one more person.

Sadly I have had no new records lately. I have the new Bukake Boys 7" but it's in cameron's car.
I need to find out a way to get free records.
Oh well I'll be fine just listening to Wind Of Pain on repeat i think.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Cold Waste

I can't feel my fingers or my feet....

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Young Adult Riot

So yesterday I went with Dave to the Proposition 8 protest. I myself don't believe too much in protesting, especially on something from another state that has no possibility of being changed by the protest. But I do believe in equal rights and felt like it'd be better to go out and show some support whether it changed anything or not. We kind of couldn't find where everyone was supposed to meet so we kind of hung out at the capital building to wait till everyone walked by. We grabbed some shelter from the rain while we waited. We suddenly heard chanting coming from the other side of the building and went over to see a line stretching way down the street of protesters holding signs and chanting, typical protest kind of stuff. So we kind of stood off to the side watching hundreds of people walk by us unaffected by the fact that they were soaking wet and probably cold as hell. Most everyone had the usual signs saying something like love is blind or saying something about "proposition h8." After the end of the line we took a short cut and ended up towards the front with some of the more die hards (the chanting towards the back was weak... like two people would be chanting something, not even with each other in feeble shaky voices). Finally we ended up at what I assume was the Governor's Mansion. There was someone with a bull horn leading on the chant of "What Do We Want?" "Equal Rights" "When do we want them?" " Now". This kept going on for a while. There were two other chants one was "Gay Straight Black White all deserve Civil Rights" and the less popular "Out of the closets, Into the streets." The last was chanted by one other person. I'm sure all of the meathead college guys there thought it made them sound like too much of a fag if they chanted it. I was waiting for someone to come out of the Governor's Mansion and yell something about them having absolutely nothing to do about proposition 8 and to go to hell and leave them alone. It was around three when everyone started moving from the governor's mansion so we decided to head back to our cars and get out of there. As we're getting ready to walk back we notice some people trying to hoist a rainbow flag on the flag pole outside the mansion. Right as they were about to two cops pulled up and the people automatically fired back to the cops' glares with "Ok we're taking it down."

The rest of the night involved music of some sort and pizza. It was a good night.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Oh Rats....

So me and my roommate Will were sitting in the living room.  To get to my room in the house you have to ascend a treacherous staircase that's in the living room.  As I am saying something to Will I notice behind him that there's something hopping up the steps.  Of course it was one of our beloved rats that we share our house with.  I proceeded to chase it up the rest of the steps with a tee-ball bat but to no avail because it had already escaped into one  of the closets in my room.

Rats 1 - me 0

Also there apparently is a party somewhere on my street.  Luckily I have a shit ton of ear plugs to drown out the people yelling/singing rap songs.  

Also this is probably my new favorite music video ever.

Monday, November 3, 2008

How things go

So we have had a lot of candy in the house lately to celebrate Halloween.  Saturday morning I was up in my room snacking on a Cookies and Cream bar when all of the sudden I bit down on something hard.  I got it out and it was a little chunk of metal.  I thought I had just hit gold.
The sad realization I just came to is that it's a filling that I thought had fallen out long ago.
And this is the story of my life, instead of getting money I have to pay.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Teenager In a Box

So to put this post in context I am currently watching VH1 Classic's "Totally 80's" on mute while listening to records. Watching Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like a Lady" video while listening to Government Issue is just weird. God it reminds me that i fucking hate Aerosmith.

I changed the layout. The old one was kind of depressing.

I have a lot to write about but am not quite sure where to start.

I Guess Atlanta would be a good starting point.

Thursday night I hung out at Devour practice and listened the them write a new song that is absolutely killer. After that I loaded equipment into the car and crashed at Cameron's. Me and him woke up in the morning and met up with Daniel and Kelly to head to Big Jerm's studio to approve some final mixes of stuff we recorded with him. For those that don't know Big Jerm recorded common characteristics and Mk-Ultra from the 7". After that we headed to pick up Nick in charlotte. After a lot of traffic and a lot of distractions we stopped at a rest stop in Georgia to stretch our legs and get something to drink. While standing around I notice a van behind us that says on the side "Department of Homeland Security" and then under that "Immigration and naturalization enforcement" or something to that sort. I point it out to Nick and we laugh neither of us really thinking much more of it than a joke. Then the two people in the front of the van proceed to escort about 10 people out of the back of the van, and by this i do mean the doors in the back. We could only assume these people were being deported, except for the fact that they were all dressed nice and were smiling. The real weirdness of the situation didn't hit any of us until we were back in the car.

Finally around 7 we got to Atlanta. The Holy Crows dropped off due to Stan being sick (even though I think he was the only person in the band to still show up to the show) so everything wasn't going to start till 9 so we had some time to kill which meant to us getting food since all of us were starving. We ended up in a place in what I think was little Five Points called... damn the name has escaped me... anyways it was good even though I was so sleep depraved that I swear to god I ordered a taco and yet apparently said burrito. Not sleeping does funny things to you.

After that the show started. First up was Die Ficken younger dudes from Atlanta. Very ripping hardcore. After them was Predator which included to members of Beat Beat Beat. Very poppy but kind of spastic and weird, but in a good way. I can't wait to hear something recorded. Next up was us. We pulled out a destructive and sloppy set of about a dozen songs. People's lives were destroyed as were lighting fixtures (seems to happen a lot while we play). To finish off the night were the Bukkake Boys, sketchy name but they were awesome. They have a 7" coming out soon I believe on Danger Records so look out for it, their demo was really good so I have high expectations for the 7".
After the show we hung out and I met Danny that was in Neon Christ and his wife Shelly for the first time. Daniel and Nick had already met them from previous excursions into Atlanta. They were some of the coolest people I had met in a long time and then they invited us to come over the next day to play their house! We headed back to Stan and Rachel's to get some much needed sleep (for me atleast).

The next day we split ways, a group was going to the museum of atlanta while the rest of us were going to Filenis? for pizza. I suck at spelling. Anyways it's fucking awesome pizza. Something happened where the other group got lost or something and just ended up meeting with us at the pizza place. We all hung out there for a while and then went to go record shopping. I bought nothing since I'm more so trying to get rid of records not buy more.

After record shopping we packed up our stuff and headed over to Danny and Shelly's. The food and beer never seemed to end. It was the coolest house I have been to in a while. Everyone there was awesome and incredibly nice and accomodating. After several hours of hanging out we headed downstairs to the basement to bust out a couple jams. We played 4 or 5 of our own and then butchered a handful of covers. Here's a video of us making a mess of a weirdos song(we hadn't practiced it in a long while)

After that we were asked to be interviewed for a documentary on punk or something. Basically asking us why we thought punk was appropriate for us right now. All of us sweaty and half gone probably look like a bunch of morons.
After that we hung out more.
A couple hours later Die Ficken played a rocking set. The end kind of ended with failed covers but it was all a fun time.
Here's two songs from them.



Finally at like 1:30 or 2 in the morning we decided to make the drive back to NC. We ended up there around 6am getting to sleep just before the sun came up.

It was a great weekend and thanks to everyone who made it a blast, I'd list names but there are just too many. I'm sure Atlanta will see more of logic problem in the future.

Time to take a break from writing and do some job hunting.

More to come later.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

off-site post

My internet is out and doesn't look like it's getting fixed for a while. Especially since most conversations with verizon go a little like this.
5-10 minutes of inane bullshit questions.
Customer Service - "Sir we are showing no problems on our end are you sure it is not your computer?"
Me -"Yes no computer are getting internet and the internet light on the modem isn't on."
Customer Service -"Sir have you tried restarting your computer?"
Me - "FUCK YOU"
end of conversation.
Apparently it's verizon's policy to always tell you it's a problem with your computer when it is clearly a problem on their end. It took me a couple of days of yelling and asking to speak with different people to get my internet fixed last time. Which again i got the same "It seems to be a problem with your computer." speil. What ended up being the problem last time was that the genius who hooked up our internet didn't hook it to the telephone pole or whatever. so basically he just didn't hook up our internet. So far i have hung up on 3 customer service reps due to all three of them asking me about my computer when it's clear the problem is with the modem. bleh.


Anyways here's a couple of Logic Problem updates.

1st this weekend we will be in Atlanta.

We will also for the first time have records and shirts.

Cover-cover-cover

2nd Is that our record is for sale all over the internet.
I highly suggest going HERE and buying it directly from sorry state records and also checking out the other great bands on the label and all the awesome distro/rare records on there.
It's elsewhere too but that is definitely the place to get it from. OR you can just see us play.

3rd We're Playing on the 22nd with DEVOUR!!! and REPROBATES! and the gutfux who are from winston i think.

I'll post more about the 22nd show later.

Go buy the record and if you life in/or atlanta go to the show friday.


Also i went and saw Pineapple Express today. It was awesome. James Franco should never play a serious role.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Waste of time

So I took some time with my boxes of 7"s and got through listing pretty much all of them.
I still have a lot of LPs to do but that'll wait till another day.
http://www.recordnerd.com/lists/sethbeard/

Sunday, July 27, 2008

It's a nice day for a.....

I started work on a blog for my sister's wedding and for the pictures.
http://joshandbritthoward.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Used Bin Bonanza

So I grabbed a small handful of LPS from chaz's today.

He had just gotten some stuff out used.
I picked up









Then Chaz let me listen to this and it was so good I had to get it


Not a bad little haul. Now I just have to compel myself to take the Gentleman Jesse LP and the Devour LP off long enough to listen to these.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Awesome record days

So I have gotten my hands on the Logic Problem 7", the Devour Test Press, the new Gentleman Jesse LP, and all three Fucked Up - Year of the Pig 7"s within the last 24 hours.

The logic problem layout turned out awesome (i'll put up scans of the cover and what not later).
DEVOUR!!!!!! Holy fuck...... those are the only words to describe it.... I don't want to ruin it for anyone but prepare to have your mind blown. Seriously... this record sounds close to perfect. I can't wait for the real version and for lyric sheets. From start to finish it just destroys everything though.
The Gentleman Jesse lp is good. There doesn't seem to be the catchy hooks like the 7" or the split 7" but still it's really good. Haven't had a good enough chance to really get through it though. I have noticed that it's apparently cool to write half of the song title and then the other half in parenthesis.
Haven't listened to the Fucked Up 7"s. Really I bought these to hear the B-sides, and decided the worse that could happen would be that they suck and I put them up as a lot on ebay. I'm guessing it's year of the pig split into three sections and each section is an A-Side for each 7". Again I haven't had a chance to listen to them yet so this is only speculation. I wouldn't put it past the band to do something weirder and less logical.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

We Won't Get Fooled Again

Tonight is the debut of the VH1 Rock honors featuring a set by The Who. Most people who know me know I love The Who but I am skipping out on watching it tonight to go out and watch the Dry Heathens play a free show in Raleigh. Still if there's anyone who has nothing to do tonight I do suggest flipping over to VH1 at 9pm.

VH1 Classic has been showing documentaries and other little shows about The Who all day and last night. It made me really want to drag out a couple of albums to listen to.

First up


I am glad I picked this up. Really an amazing collection of songs. The album starts out with I Can't Explain. Everyone probably knows this song a great poppy hit. Hidden behind the catchy rememberable vocals are some really great guitar tracks. Next up is The Kids Are Allright. Another catchier pop tune, pretty straight forward song, you can hear the aggressiveness in Keith Moon's drumming. Third is Happy Jack. I never was much of a fan of this song since it was a little too playful and silly for me. Though I really don't like the song too incredibly much it's worth listening to just for the drums. The drums are going crazy through what is otherwise a rather mild song, very rough very loud, brought up above everything else. Next is I Can See For Miles another big hit. Again growing up with this song it's easy to focus on the vocals I'm so familiar with missing the other components of a song. Listening to this song is a completely different feeling on vinyl than on the radio. You can here the intensity of the drums in the background with the high droning noise of the guitar, the guitar solo isn't much of a solo, it's more of a disintigration of the music into chaos and feedback, something Townshend was amazing at. He could play so little yet make it sound so big. Yet this song ends with a fade out.... something I cannot stand. After a slight silence Pictures of Lily starts in. This song is weak up until it starts getting to Townshend and Moon start in with a harder heavier part unfitting to the vocals. After this is My Generation, probably one of the Who's biggest hits. Everyone shines in this song, especially Entwistle's bass playing. Everyone should know this song. I wonder if I'm the only one who is waiting for Daltry to say "Why don't you all f-f-f-fuck off". Side A ends with The Seeker. Again another slow starter. The song stops with the lyrics "I'm a seeker i'm a very desperate man" and then after a brief silence goes into a very bluesy solo. I think a poor choice to end the A side with.

God the B side. What an amazing start. First up is Anyway Anyhow Anwhere. An amazingly ripping song. So much distortion, the middle break just sounds like destruction, the drums are going crazy and the guitar is making ungodly noises while the bass keeps the pace. Then with two hits of the snare it's right back into the song, snapping straight back to the order of things. Towards the end it starts building up towards what sounds like more chaos but ends with the guitar fading off into the distance and clicking. After that comes in Pinball Wizard, starting out with the lone guitar and then busting out into the heavy riff we all know. When ever I hear this song I wait for the little drum roll at the "Sure plays a mean pinball" part. I don't know why but that is the part I always think of. This song definately shows the Who's talent for composition since so much seems to be going on throughout the whole song. Again a fade out.... lame. A Legal Matter is the next track. Townshend apparently is the lead vocalist on this track. I hadn't heard this song till I got this album. It is very different from most Who tracks. I can't exactly put my finger on it. Anyways next is Boris the Spider. Unlike Happy Jack i do like how childish and fun this track is because it has a weird ominous darkness about it. Consisting mostly of bass it has a very low sound to it. Entwistle wrote this song which is why it focuses mainly on the Bass. The creepy crawly part makes me laugh every time. Next is Magic Bus... one of my lesser favorite Who songs. Substitute is next. a lighter pop song that still keeps at a pretty upbeat tempo. Nothing too amazing or special about this song to me. The album ends with I'm A Boy. A good closer. The song goes through a couple periods of droning on kind of seeming to wait for something to happen. The vocals don't entirely do it for me. They seem too happy. The song discusses a family wanting a girl yet getting a boy, so they treat the boy as a girl. I feel the lyrics are a little too high and poppy for the song and for the subject matter.

Aside from a couple songs that are snoozers this is a great album. It's one of my favorites to listen to since it collects a lot of my favorite Who songs.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Punk's Dead When John Lydon Says It Is

So out of boredom and nothing to do today I watched "The Punk Years." It was pretty enjoyable (i admit i did skip some parts). One of my least favorite parts aside from the constant images repeated over and over in the background along with the same like 5 clips of live shows being shown repeatedly was John Lydon. He doesn't say anything good about any band. Otherwise there were lots of interesting people interviewed. They seem to have a weird obsession with Atari Teenage Riot though, and Chumbawumba. They brought up some interesting bands that rarely get the light of a documentary. What was kind of weird was the lack of pre-punk influences who are still alive not being on there to speak. They talk about Iggy Pop and David Bowie and many other iconic figures of the time and yet have none of them on to speak of what they were doing. The look at zines and the record companies is great too. I'd say it is for the most part a good watch. Nothing in it is too amazingly great, like no amazing live footage (and if there is it's only seconds of it) but it is inspirational in a way. The power the sex pistols had to play a show and then inspire people to the next day go out and form a band is amazing to me. I feel like there's people in the area who have the ability to play music but don't take that and apply it. I'm hoping within the next couple of months there will be some more bands coming together. It would be awesome to have more locals only shows and have them be awesome and not the same bands over and over.

Speaking of mostly local shows come out monday to Bull City HQ in Durham to see DEVOUR with Sex/Vid and my band logic problem.




Expect a more informative post tomorrow, I'll probably try to write reviews of some of the records I've picked up lately.

Small update

I'm running late for work. It's been a weird week.
These are a couple of the things that have been getting me through.


Sunday, June 29, 2008

Big Bang

So today I visited Dr Strange Records out in Alta Loma.
On top of a good new section they had a back room that was just used/rare records.

I didn't have a ton of money (and spent more than I really wanted to) but still picked up some cool stuff.

7"s
Statues - Broken Hands (includes a cover of you must be crazy by the pointed sticks)


Beat Beat Beat - Live at rob's house


The Estranged - EP


12"s

Invasion - LP


MRR Presents - Not so quiet on the western front

Saturday, June 28, 2008

No Way Fest pt 2

So I don't have time for an in-depth analysis for day 2 so here's some highlights.

Every band that played the second day was awesome.
The Reprobates and Citizens Patrol Definately ripped
Wasted Time with TWO GUITARS.... simply amazing.
Double Negative - Saturation Tank
The Mad Men

Again every band was great but these ones stood out.

Here's a video of logic problem playing a song off the new 7"

Monday, June 23, 2008

No ass No head

NO WAY FEST!

DAY 0
Friday started out with me having to do some running around and getting ready for the upcoming night. It was finally time for the festivities. The turnout wasn't as good as last year's pre-no way show but it was still good. Most of the pictures taken didn't turn out good. I was having trouble getting in a good place to take pictures where i wouldn't be wrecked by big john.

The night started off with double negative. They started out with the jacket which basically involved kevin just screaming and them coming into it. It was awesome. They played a short but killer set including lots of great new songs and ending on the devastating song saturation tank.
DNSCOTT523
DNFULL620
dnfull2620

Next up was brain handle. The rumors about this band are true. They are some of the weirdest people I have met in a while. And they played a killer set. Lots of energy. Lots of crazy between song banter. Only one good picture.
brainhandle620
Random Girl - "What's the name of this band?"
Ed from Brain Handle - "We're Lifetrap. No really we're Barn Candle."

Tooth and Claw played next.

Lifetrap showed up late and finished off the show with a very fast very brief set of pure intensity.
Sadly I had allready put away my camera.

After the show it was off to cosmic cantina where we basically filled most of the place and then back to my place where way too many people were staying and basically taking whatever section of floor they could find.

DAY 1

The next morning everyone got up and got their shit together and we headed out the door. Brain Handle went off to whole foods for some nourishment while lifetrap were up for some cookout. After cookout everyone kind of went their ways..... to the same place.

We got to the fest to find that there wasn't the line there was the year before. After some wandering around we finally ran inside to grab some records (the direct control LP sold out before the doors were even open) and to grab a spot for the Sorry State Distro and the 50 logic problem test presses.

First up was Empty Grave. They were pretty good. Played a much tighter set than when I last saw them. Have some fine tuning to do but are on their way.
I missed the next couple bands due to running the Sorry State booth and also trying to find some food. I did get to catch Bad Reaction doing an awesome cover of Creatures by the Adolescents.

PMRC and Total Abuse both had to cancel so up next was Brain Handle. This set blew the set from the night before out of the water. It started off with a 5-10 minute rant while equipment was trying to be fixed. Mind blowing stuff was said. Great heckling from the crowd was also going on. Finally everything got fixed and they were off. The whole time the crowd was bombarding the band with beer cans, bottles, and anything else they could pick up and throw. The band also assaulted each other while playing, hitting and kicking each other while being hit with flying objects.

Next was Warkrime. I think Brace knew that it was going to be hard to top how Brain Handle started out their set. He spent the intro sitting on a guitar cabinet on the side of the stage just swinging the microphone waiting to start. Once their set started it was just crazy. Watching the drummer play just makes me sick. Of course more great stage banter about drugs, cigarettes and "This is about a relationship WITH BOMBS".

Time To Escape i think played before brain handle. (it's hard to remember the order off the top of my head). Definately the best set I have seen them play so far. Nicktape, who you might know from such bands as Coke bust, filled in on bass. Lots of talk of the south rising again and Parson's being hit with beer cans.

Lifetrap's set was again better than the one the night before. Longer and more blistering.

Direct control. Fuck. This is the first time I've seen them since Dennisfest so it was highly anticipated. They started off and ripped through maybe three songs and then they went into War All the Time and the place blew up. Suddenly people were just flying everywhere and the energy in the room remained for the rest of the set, even into the outro. Not as monumental as the set last year but pretty close.

Annihilation time was everything you'd ever want them to be. Straying away from the newer songs and sticking with the hits they played a wild set. Things were being thrown and broken and everyone was going wild. The singer took the end of a mic stand and proceeded to beat it on the stage. Finally someone threw a giant fan on the stage which proceeded to be destroyed and then thrown into the crowd who after destroying it some more threw it back on stage where a beer was poured onto it and then the bottle was thrown at it in an attempt to break it. After three attempts of trying to break the bottle on the fan it was finally just shattered on the stage eventually resulting in blood and lots of it. Their set was pure destruction while still being able to maintain their composure and rip out song after song.

After an announcement about not breaking things Career Suicide got up stage. Well kind of. It's hard to explain what actually happened in the first couple minutes of their set. They started playing while this older guy who seemed to definately be french-canadian from his accent sang the lyrics (well tried to) to should i stay or should i go by the clash. It definately sounded more like a lounge singer singing it. Finally they decided that it was enough of that and their singer rushed on stage and they broke into "You Call This a Life?" one of my favorite songs. They went through an increadibly sloppy but good set ending with quarantined in which it was just a rush of people stage diving. Of course they came out for their usual encore of Todd Killings.

Out cold was intense. It was great to see them. Not much to say about the set. Most of the crowd had sadly left, but it was more so their loss. Everything about their set was completely on though.

The afterparty was kind of crazy. Tons of people just standing outside someone's house. And then finally the cops coming... well two cops... they looked like they had no clue what to do about this many people. We decided it was a good time to find a place to sleep when the cops got there, we apparently missed out on moped jumps over a fire and other crazy things.

I have errands to run now but will make a post about the second day later.

Friday, June 20, 2008

chronic seizure

cs2
cz1

It's been a while

So the last 2 weeks or so have been kind of crazy. For once since i've been out of school I've been super busy. There's been a lot so i'll just give the highs and lows.

Charlotte - June 5th through the 9th

An awesome trip. Got to see lots of people including Joe.
joeanddansmith

The first night I got in me and Nick went to the milestone to see Greg Ginn of Black Flag fame play with two bands.
It was great for a little bit, but after the first 30 minutes of "jamming" it got pretty boring and lost the novelty of it.

Friday we went and saw yardwork play which was a fun experience. I also saw lots of people who I hadn't seen in forever. Sadly no pictures from this.

The rest of the weekend was spent kind of here and there. Monday was my last day there and I decided I had to go cliff jumping. The ride there was fun, the Ipod was passed around the whole hour long trip letting everyone get their say in what we listened to. We stopped by a grocery store near the cliffs to buy some sodas and snack and some flotation devices.I thought that maybe since it was a monday there wouldn't be as many people there. I was wrong. We jumped about 3 times each and kind of just floated around. The water was a little warm for me, but if you swam out a little further it was progressively colder.
summer
After Cliff Jumping I went to Moe's and grabbed dinner with Stephanie Keller, who is always a pleasure to hang out with.
After that i proceeded to make the journey back to Durham.

Charlotte - June 10th
I had just gotten home the night before at around 11pm. There was no A/C and it was well near 100 degrees in my apartment. I had a million things that needed to be done but all i wanted to do was sleep. I had no more energy to spare and had to be to work at 9 the next morning. I got little sleep and managed to get to work late as usual. After a horribly long day at work I met Cameron, Dave, and suprisingly Anna who was supposed to be Hank (who apparently bailed on the trip for understandable reasons). After much arranging we fit everyone and all the equipment in the car. The ride down was rough due to my Ipod being frozen and unable to be listened to, so we listened to the 3 cds I have, each about 2 times. Finally we got there and were kind of early. So we all proceeded to walk down to snug harbor. Everyone else got a couple of drinks. Finally it came around time for us to play. Everyone else in the band nailed it and were awesome.... my performance was somewhat lacking. But not much i can do about it now. I can make excuses till the end of time but i really think i just didn't have any energy at all and was running on fumes. After us was Planet Piss who were entertaining, it was funny seeing scott play drums. I got a couple picture of them but they're on a roll i haven't finished off yet. Total Abuse was cool but since we had two more opportunities to see them me and a few others decided to walk down to the common market. Obstruction was last and played one of the better sets i've seen them play. The turnout for the night was pretty awesome, I hadn't seen that many people in Charlotte go to a legitimate show in a while. Again afterwards we stopped by Common Market to get a few drinks and relax for a second before the drive home.
lp1
check my flickr for more pictures from the show courtesy of Neal Mims.


Wednesday I got a chance to meet up with Risa Patterson who I had gone to highschool with. We went to Lilly's to sit down and grab some food and catch up. It was a great night and crazy how much we have in common, we never really talked much in highschool. She now plays in a band and basically makes a living off of it. I will admit that I am completely and utterly jealous.

Raleigh - June 12th
Again another long work day proceeded by a show. The show started out at GSS house. First up was Total Abuse. This set seemed to be a lot better than the one they played in Charlotte. They got through their set and then it was time for Condominiums to play. They got their equipment set up and got through 1.5 songs before someone ran in and told them to cut it short because the Cops were there. After about 20 minutes of confusion and everyone kind of just milling around someone finally said that the show was being moved a couple blocks down the road. So everyone packed up equipment really quickly and drove over there. The living room was rearranged and equipment was set up again and the show was back on track. All the bands were to play quick 3-5 song sets. Condominiums played 3 awesome songs and then stepped off. Up right afterwards was Wasted time. They picked a quick set of the hits which was amazing. Even though a majority of the crowd had been lost after moving houses it was still great. Logic Problem finished out the night basically playing the 4 songs off the 7" and then a Scream cover. It was awesome that the show still went on even after the cops coming. What wasn't awesome was my glasses falling off while playing and stepping on them a few hundred times basically destroying them. They have since been fixed up some. I had to run to the practice space to unload equipment and then run home because i had work in the morning (which i was of course late for).
Sadly no pictures.... I'm trying to track some down from this show. If you have them let me know.

June 13th - now
Since last thursday not much has happened. I worked all weekend, but got a chance to go see forgetting sarah marshall with Daniel and Kelly. I thought it was great.
Also it was great for getting to see this trailer.

Also Monday was dinner with Risa again and again it was great.
Tuesday was a show at GSS house, I only caught Cold Tony who were good minus some possibly questionable lyrics and the Drowsies who were awesome. The rest of the night was spent out front talking and hanging out and discussing the merits of Troll 2 as possibly the best worst film ever. I was planning on leaving but then convinced to go the Jackpot to shoot some pool. After that we made it back to kent and hung out more while Freddy VS Jason and then Waiting were playing inside. Finally I decided it was time to get home like i had planned hours before.
Wednesday was a failed attempt with Daniel to make logic problem shirts..... It was fun hanging out though.
Thursday was work and then me and Jessica went to see Risa's band play. It was at the 42nd street oyster bar. It was very odd. Me and Jessica were both trying to fend off being groped by drunken old people. It seemed to just be an endless crowd of older people grinding on each other... whether dancing or "trying to get by". In front of us were these two girls who did not look over 21 being supplied endless amounts of alcohol by someone who did not look under 51 and definately did not act like a fatherly figure, except maybe like a step dad with boundry issues. VERY CREEPY. The band was fun though, going through the hits. Sadly we had apparently missed them playing Under Pressure which was strung into Ice Ice Baby due to the "shared" bass line. around 11:30 it was time to leave since the two of us were definately scared and traumatized from the things we saw going on around us.

Right Now - Tonight
Right now i'm laying in bed about to get up after typing this horribly long account of my last couple weeks. I have a lot of errands to run including going to the practice space to practice by myself and then grab equipment.
Then it is off to see BRAIN HANDLE



and then tomorrow we leave for NO WAY FEST!
I'm sure i'll take tons of pictures and try and post about all that happens.

ALSO
i can't wait for this to actualy come out

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Is this real?

So the penguins may not have won but they fought till the last second. Probably one of the best stanley cup series i've watched in a while.

In better news Hillary Clinton LOST!

Tonight's selection for sleeping music

Side-A of

GO PENGUINS!



An awesome commercial for this years playoffs.

Game 6 just started. I have high hopes for the penguins and feel like they have come together since the beginning of the series and have a chance. Fleury did an amazing job monday night/tuesday morning. The game is not even 2 minutes in and is allready intense.

again GO PENGUINS!

Crucify Me

So today's plan is to do a massive overhall of my room. Completely cleaning it and trying to get rid of things i don't need. I have the bad tendency to be a pack rat always thinking ahead to the situation i would need a certain item. I stepped outside to toss a bag of trash in the trash can to find a package sitting on the porch. I open it with much anticipation to find my copy of Jerry's Kids - Is this my world? I cannot explain the excitement of actually owning this record. This is one of my favorite hardcore albums and to actually be able to sit down and listen to it on record is exciting for me since listening to a record is more so an activity in itself rather than just background noise. I feel like i pick up things when I sit down and listen to a record I would have never noticed otherwise. Hell even raise the curtain sounds good and listenable in context to the album, usually when it pops up on my Ipod i skip over but it somehow gives a good close to the A-side. So yeah if you like hardcore listen to that record, it's amazing.


Also tonight is game 6 for the stanley cup. Monday night's game was amazing and I have no clue how either team will have the energy to play tonight. If you missed it i'll sum it up for you, 3 overtimes, arrant stick leading to bleeding, four minute minor for detroit, GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLL pittsburg. It was a great game, both teams played amazing, especially the goalies, fleury put forth an amazing effort.

Ok back to cleaning

Monday, June 2, 2008

Tonight we burn responsibility in the fire

It's a great day out. Not too incredibly hot in the shade. I decided it'd be a nice time to sit outside on the back porch with a stack of 7"s and some soda and get some writing done. Considering writing is what i believe i want to do with my life, for the most part, I attempt to do some additional writing on the side, usually things that will never see the light of day. I feel it keeps me from getting stale and helps keep my mind open. Mostly it's thoughts and theories involving sociology. Nerdy stuff for the most part. If anything seems interesting enough I might start posting them in here. Most of the writing doesn't even get saved though due to many reasons (mostly this weird habit i have of hating anything i produce after enough time looking at it, whether it's art or writing or music). Anyway on to more interesting things.

Over the last few days nothing horribly interesting has happened. Yesterday me and my roommate decided to go out to dinner (after my failed attempt where I got to 9th street only to find I had forgotten my wallet). So we ventured out to go to Chili's for some appetizers and desert. On the way we were discussing what to eat when suddenly I noticed two deer on the side of the road. They seemed like they would be fine because the person in front of us was almost past them and we were slowing down to an almost stop. I was wrong. One of the two deer got scared and made a mad dash for the other side of the road, apparently not seeing the SUV right next to it. It made a head first leap straight into the side of the SUV. It was a horrible noise. Sadly the deer did not receive a fatal blow but was laying on the side of the road twitching and suffering. It started to try and drag itself further into the road. Knowing we couldn't do anything we drove on because neither of us could watch this going on. We called the police though so someone would go put it out of it's suffering. Dinner was good, southwestern eggroles and buffalo wings and fried cheese followed up by desert which were little things called sweet shots which were layers of cream and chocolate pudding and cake in a shot glass. Definitely amazing.

Today again no excitement up until my decision to be outside.
Due to my lack of other things to write about i might as well write about what I'm listening to since I believe today's selection of records are all classics and should be heard by all.

First up
The Jam - Funeral Pyre

Great 7". Funeral Pyre is a very dark song in comparison to many of the Jam's songs. It's reminiscent to a more natural Joy Division, minus all the fancy effects. It still maintains some of the brightness of the Jam though. The song is based around the bass guitar and the snare and bass drum, the drums are kept very minimal and stick mostly to the snare and the kick. The guitar seems more of an accent to the music rather than being part of the structure of it. The vocals are typical for a jam song until the end where the line "in the funeral pyre watch the flames go higher" is repeated in a very dark an ominous tone with very quiet and dark vocals in the background. The song ends with only the snare and the kick drum in a sort of snare drum solo again with very indistinct dark vocals in the background. A great song. The B-side is rather lacking in comparison. The song is disguises and lacks very much in comparison to Funeral Pyre. It starts out with an effect on the guitar making every note ring out and sound very reverby (i know next to nothing about guitars and have no clue what effect it is). Again the song is based more so around the drums with the guitar only accenting what everyone else is doing. The vocals again very standard for the Jam. The drums are still very minimal using no cymbals. It's not a bad song but not a good enough reason to flip the record over instead of just listening to Funeral Pyre again.

#2
Masshysteri - s/t

Simply amazing, it deserves the huge picture of the cover because it's so good. I won't go into as much detail. Just think the Vicious......... but a million times better and in swedish. If you live under a rock and haven't listened to this yet go to their myspace and listen to them. They have both songs from the 7" and a song from their demo and one from a very limited one sided 7" released not too long ago. MASSHYSTERI

#3
Wasted Time - No Shore e.p.

A great 7" for any hardcorepunkmetalfreak. I'm very excited to get to see these guys the 12th. One of my favorite live bands. If you like hardcore punk or metal and have not listened to this get off your ass and do it now.

#4
Observers - Where I Stay
Not as good as the Walk Alone 7" but better than the Lead Pill 7".  I really love the B-side of this record.  There's something about it that seems different than most other observers songs that I just can't figure out but I like it.  It definately sounds a little more in the direction of some of the Red Dons songs on the 7".  Where I stay is also one of the songs that translated pretty well onto the Revisions LP.  I missed out on this for a long while and just recently got a copy thanks to Nick.  If you've never listened to the Observers(even though i'm sure most of you have) then i suggest you do, the LP is a good start especially since the first track is their best song.  


That's enough of that.
Other records for today that you should listen to ASAP.
Tranzmitors - Bigger houses, broken homes
Carbonas - Euro Tour EP
Autistic Youth - Empty Eyes

Go outside and enjoy the day. (I have no A/C and it's almost hotter in my house than outside in the shade so i have little choice)

And if you live in the greater raleigh area and have nothing to do then come hang out with me tonight at this