2009-A Year In Review

Ah, 2009. It's unbelievable how fast you went. Thankfully, you left a trail of great music and even some decent television shows! My favourite album of the year is almost a toss up. Decibully's World Travels Fast is near perfect, but at the same time The Lawrence Arms's Buttsweat and Tears is pretty amazing. It's too tough to call, so I'm going to call it even. I waited such a long time for both and listened to them way over 10 times in a week.

In 2009, I discovered a band that has been around for a while. Tegan and Sara. One night, they played the Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien and rocked their new single "Hell". It was very Alkaline Trio-ish and I had to dig deeper to see what else they can do. My guitar player is a huge fan, and ripped me his favourite songs. All of them catchy and brilliant.

This year I didn't go to too many shows due to my wife and I purchasing a house in March. We did go to two great shows. Maritime+ The Smoking Popes at Turner Hall in April, and most recently, Decibully in December. Both shows were very memorable. After the Popes show, Jill because a big fan of them, and for the first time in many many years, Bryan and I got to go to a concert together.

And now, some of my favourite songs of 2009

The Slowing Drink At the Saddest Bar On the Snowiest Day in the Greatest City

-The Lawrence Arms

Somewhere in the World

-Decibully

Hell

-Tegan and Sara

Best God in Show

-NoFX

Airport Security

The Bouncing Souls

Hurricane Season

The Emergency Room

As far as television is concerned, Modern Family wins for best sitcom. We watch it every Wednesday, and it's pretty hilarious. Even the idiot from Married With Children is funny in the program.

2010 should be a pretty good year. Alkaline Trio has a new album coming out. I've already heard a few songs from it on youtube from live performances and they sound pretty good. Ted Leo has a new album coming out. Obviously that'll be awesome. So here's to another year, and cheers to 2010.

Decibully @ the Bayview Brew Haus

Friday, December 18th was a rare moment in time. Like when there is a solar eclipse, or if the planets all line up for a brief moment...So what WAS this rare moment? Bryan and I got to see a concert TOGETHER for the first time in roughly 9 years. Not just any band...Decibully, one of the best bands around headlined a show at the smokey Bayview Brew Haus. Fable And The World Flat and Invade Rome joined them that night to celebrate Decibully's record release of World Travels Flat. As Invader Room played, my brother, my wife and I shared a "Java Beer" which was 1/2 coffee and half beer. It was dark, strong and pretty good. We almost looked out of place with the rest of the crowd drinking PBR and Shlitz. Fable and the World Flat opened. They weren't too bad. Had some catchy grooves here and there. I chatted with Aaron Vold of Decibully for a bit during their set. I stupidly forgot to introduce him to 82. Oh well. Invade Rome played second. They were quite forgettable, but covered Decibully's "Rid of Me At Last" which wasn't too bad. Vocals could have been better, but the overall sound was good. Decibully went on around Midnight. They opened with "World Travels Fast" off their latest album with the same name. William sounded perfect singing acapella at the beginning of the song. His voice is very soulful which makes this unique band that better. Other sounds they played off the latest album were "Live By The Lake", "Don't Believe The Hype", "If I Don't Work", "Little White Girl" and a few others. "Broken Glass" sounded amazing live. I can't even describe how the opening song from WTF blew me away. They played their single off the record as well "Somewhere in the World". They played a few classic D-Bully songs as well including "Penny Look Down", "Sing Out Sing Out Sing Out" and "Meg and Magill". My wife started to get kinda nauseous while we stood in the crowd since it was basically like standing in a completely filled ash tray. We headed out after "Meg and Magill" (which was around 1:15am). The fresh air was a wonderful welcome to the quiet streets of Bayview. As far as the new ablum is concerned, I've listened to it way too much lately. But unlike other artists, you have to turn this up loud so you can hear all of the well-detailed layers. Like a painting, Decibully is well enjoyed by listening, relaxing and taking it all in. When you see Decibully live, it's like watching art come to life. All of the notes, rhythms and vocals are the brush strokes. If you haven't seen them live, you probably should go to their myspace and check the tour dates.

Singers/Actors who need to cover Holiday songs

82 posted the most dreadful holiday songs. I totally agree. But now it's time to list some artists or actors that should release some covers for kicks and "jollys"...

Christopher Walken-12 Days of Christmas

William Shatner-Frosty the Snowman

William Shatner With John Lovett-Mr. Grinch

Dr. Dre with Jimmy Buffett-Deck The Halls

Tenacious D-Feliz Navidad

Rivers Cuomo & Henry Rollins-Jingle Bell Rock

Happy Holidays!

The Fall-The End of Madrid. & The Last show @ McCaullifes Pub

I knew it wouldn't last forever. Almost from day one, I knew deep down Madrid. was a downward spiral. Saturday, the 5th of December, we called it quits at our last gig in (of all places) Racine. A few weeks before the event, Alex the bassist announced (after Nick, the guitarist couldn't practice a day) that he was going to leave the group to play in a metal/prog/rock project. Nick and I were actually pretty pleased because we knew he was irritated for quite some time. Nick wrote 98 percent of the songs we played. Alex couldn't handle the basic bass parts that were pretty much cemented in. Nick and I didn't like having to drive out to Racine to play in dinky small bars for people who weren't even watching us (thanks to the UFC fight last Sat.) So, we were pretty stoked to finish off Madrid. But we wanted to end our year-long group on a high-note.

Saturday, we played Blank Fest 3 at McCaullife's, which went decently well. We played second after a bar-band called Rest of Yesterday. They were solid, but that's about it. Drumming was very basic, despite the guy having a very expensive set of hi-hats (which I ended up drumming on). After the first song, I got really exhausted because I hit the skins with so much intensity. After that song, I thought "man, I've got like, 9 more to go!" The rest of the set went swimmingly despite losing a drum sticks during "Oliver's Army" and breaking one on our closing song "The Fall". Overall, the night went pretty well and I thought I played the best I could. Thunder Driver was next and they were metal-esque. So obviously, my wife and I left at the drop of the first few notes.

I'll keep the blog posted on my new project with Nick and our new keys/bass player

Worst x-mas songs ever

Here are the very worst non-traditional Christmas songs ever, in no particular order:

* "Same Old Lang Syne" - Dan Fogelberg

Ok, this song is on every single year at Christmas time, but the incident in question just takes place at Christmas at a grocery store. Apparently, he has the time to go out drinking with an old flame unbeknownst to her husband. Nice one, buddy. The lyrics are just crap.

* "The Christmas Shoes" - NewSong

Seriously, shoes for his dying mother? Does she have everything else? And of course, the kid is out on the street all alone. Maybe it's Maccauley Culkin.

* "Last Christmas" - Wham!

He gave away his heart last year, just to have it thrown away. But this year, he'll give it to someone special. Didn't he do that last year? And look what happened!

* "Grown Up Christmas List" - seemingly everyone...

Yes, it's so nice and selfless to ask for world peace and hunger to just vanish into the ether, but can't you do it with better lyrics? See John Lennon for tips.

* "Baby, it's Cold Outside" - specifically, the Brian Setzer version because it's especially creepy.

Ok, date rape is not cool. We can all agree. And basically, the female (in the sheet music, referred to as "the Mouse." The male is "The Wolf." What does THAT tell you!) wants to leave and the male attempts to talk her out of it, basically, refusing to take no for an answer.

To spare you, I'll not post mp3 links. Look 'em up yourself if you're curious.

The Twilight Vampires Are Just Plain Stupid

So this is totally unrelated to all things music, but it's getting on my nerves. The world is obsessed with the Twilight saga, as well as those series involving the emotional vampires that hardly look like some intimidating creatures of the. The main vampire character from the upcoming Twilight movie looks more like the distraught kid who just doesn't "fit" in school. I was always under the impression vampires were supposed to install fear and scare people into a run of terror. So with that in mind, I've come up with a list for your entertainment of infamous vampires that could easily take out the emotional "Edward".

The classic Dracula played by Bela Lugosi could easily frighten anyone. He's not hideous, but his eyes could scare you quickly & was hardly attractive compared to the teen vampires of today's movies and television shows.

Nosferatu. By far the scariest of monster creatures and he was made famous in SILENT movies! His face is just creepy by any standards. He's nasty, ugly and everything a so-called monster should be. The images of his silhouette on the wall with the long creepy nails is frightening! If it was possible, I'd love to see him take out the vampires in Twilight.

Count Chocula. Seriously, he's terrifying. Why? have you read the ingredients? His sugary breakfast food could easily rot out your teeth. He may not go after your neck, but he'll take out your teeth!

So there you have it. I have never read any of the Twilight books or are following the True Blood series. They can sit in the parking lot late Thursday evening awaiting for the movie to come out. I'll keep nice and warm in my warm bed.

Jazz for punks

It took me a while to get into jazz. Mostly, it was because I absorbed it thru my musical education in college. It was sorta forced upon me. I resisted for as long as I could until I was able to meet it half-way.

Being a fan of aggressive music, I thought jazz was easy-listening stuff. But if you seek it out, study its development in the 20th century, there are so many parallels of it to punk rock.

Jazz evolved from the blues in the early part of the century. White musicians - as usual - co-opted black blues and watered it down until it became rag-time, then swing and big band.

Just like how rock and roll came from the blues and became more and more sanitized as the 50s progressed to the over-indulgent 70s.

Along came be-bop. Derided as utter crap, just like punk rock 30 years later, be-bop became the counter to white jazz and eventually, the accepted true jazz form.

Be-bop begat modal jazz, represented by Miles Davis' amazing "Kind of Blue" album (released in 1959), which is the best selling jazz record of all time.

Miles eventually continued exploring modal jazz, taking it to something called "free-bop" which is some of the most aggressive jazz I've heard.

That said, here's a brief list of jazz tunes that should appeal to punks with an open mind:

John Coltrane

* "Blue Train"
* "Giant Steps"
* "Afro Blue"
* "My Favorite Things"
* "Syeeda's Song Flute"

Miles Davis

* "Seven Steps to Heaven"
* "Four"
* "Footprints"
* "ESP"

Charlie Parker

* "Bloomdido"
* "Now's the Time"
* "Yardbird Suite"
* "Chasing the Bird"

Thelonious Monk

* "Straight no Chaser"
* "Well, You Needn't"
* "I mean you"

Wayne Shorter

* "Speak no Evil"

Oliver Nelson

* "Stolen Moments"

McCoy Tyner

* "Passion Dance"

There's a Fine Line Between Keeping the Beat, & Looking Like You're Having a Seizure

I know that if a lot of drummers read this post, I'll get angry comments, flaming bottles thrown at me or perhaps egged. I'd take simply the angry comments, but with that in mind, here's my thoughts on drummers and some of the so-called "greats". For the record, I've never been a major fan of drummers like Travis Barker, Lars Ulrich (of Metallica), or that clown Joey J. from Slipknot. Why, right? They're worshipped by many drummers. Some even pray that they could develop the skills and techniques to play like their Gods. Well, this drummer prefers drummers who can be creative while still holding down the beat in a less then obnoxious way. With that, I really dislike Travis Barker. Woah! Yes, I said it. I know he survived a plane crash, & played the drums with one working hand, I just don't dig his style. Who needs to literally bang the hell out of the drum kit? really? Is it really adding much to the song? He is far from visually interesting. He just looks like he's convulsing.

Then there's drummer Lars from Metallica and Joey J. from Slipknot. Both drummers equally worshipped. They're "double bass masters" and have a massive amount of followers. Double bass drumming is silly. Especially since it sounds like a machine gun. How is this exciting. "lets see how fast we can drum!" I just can't see anything exciting about it.

In conclusion, the drummers out there can continue trying to twirl the drum stick while hitting 150 beats a minute. I'll continue hitting my drums and cymbals without trying to shatter and destroy my cymbals.

Buttsweat And Tears-Well Worth the Wait

It's been over 3 or so years since Chicago band The Lawrence Arms released Oh!Calcutta! so as you can imagine, this was a great breath of new material for the fans. Buttsweat and Tears is the first "digital" release for the group, (they also released it on vinyl). This morning I grabbed my laptop and headed to Panera to use their free wi-fi to download this new gem while enjoying a tasty bagel and O.J.
The first song is Spit Shining S**t. It's very catchy, upbeat with some Oh!Calcutta! style. "The Slowest Drink At the Saddest Bar On The Snowiest Day in the Greatest City" is a fast song sung by Chris (opposed to Brendan singing the first one). "Demons" is defiantly my favourite song at the moment. It's got a little Falcon (Brendan & Neil's side project) in it as far as tempo is going and it's super catchy as well. If you're a fan of them, I'd pick it up. $3.99 for 5 songs are well worth it. Especially because I had an iTunes gift card left over. HA! I look forward to a new album in the hopeful near-future.

Madrid @ Racine's McAullife's Pub

Last week Saturday, my band Madrid. played our 2nd show ever, & our first show in Racine at McAullife's. The night looked grim when we walked into an album empty bar. "This can't be good" I told Nick, our front man. We arrived around 8. People were watching college football. How exciting!! We immediately set up my drum kit. It's been quite some time since I brought it to a live show, since it's not that great, but the sound crew mic'd it and it sounded pretty good and loud. The opening band (that originally was going to headline) was called Before Dawn. They were an electro-dance-pop group on tour and stopped out in Racine for a very small crowd...They were very enjoyable. Nick kept telling me "I just love these guys!" They were influenced by The Killers, Talking Heads and that sort of music....
Around 11:20, we went on. We opened the set with "Everyone Again", which is kind of a hard song to play for me. It's crucial not to lose time on it, and since the vocals weren't coming in too well on my monitor, it was even harder. Somehow I nailed it. It was actually more fun for me to play the song on my kit. Second song of the night was "So Real", which follows up well to the first one because it's more mellow for me to play on drums. Pat was actually singing the falsetto parts too, which gives the song more in my opinion.
We ended up doing the song me and Nick didn't plan on doing. "Modern World", but instrumental. It worked out okay because Pat played the melody on guitar. It also went straight into "Eyes and Butterflies"

Without going too far into every song, the night went quite well. Even though the monitors weren't giving us much, and I am low on sticks since I busted one at the show, AND my wife and I got lost on the long way home, we still had a great show. We actually had some people digging the music and looking for some CD's. Drat.

Need a shot of pop-punk back when it was good?

Milwaukee had some really great bands "back in the day" (TM).

In the mid to late 1990s, a show at the Rave Bar or Globe featured some opening bands that did not suck.

One show, I saw a band called Slurr. I don't remember much about them. I knew they had a tall singer and that a GF's roommate was dating the drummer.

Well, thanks to the archive at http://www.mkepunk.com, one can listen to them and discover them for themselves.

I recommend No Jon.

attaching value

I don't have it with me, but in "Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer," Joe makes a comment about how all contemporary rock music is crap and you have to dig deep to find the good stuff. Which makes the good stuff have a much-higher value.

How very true.

Rock music has devolved back to the over-produced, over-stylized crap sung by the prettiest boys (and sometimes girls; would Paramore be famous if not for their jailbait singer?).

Same with punk rock, these days. It's all image. It's all about self-loathing and screaming about it.

Gone are the days (for me, the mid nineties) when GOOD punk bands came out of the woodwork.

Now, we are having to search them out. I'm 31. I don't have the bloody time to browse myspace, while being bombarded by the movie ads.

I'm going back into my library and listening to the bands I've loved many years. And going with a few of the bands that have been around for a while.

That said, here are my top-10 still-active bands:

1. Less Than Jake

2. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists

3. (The International) Noise Conspiracy

4. The Bouncing Souls

5. Decibully

6. Maritime

7. NOFX

8. Alkaline Trio

9. The Offspring

10. Green Day

Monday, Aug. 24, 2009

On Monday, Aug. 24 I had the pleasure to see one of my all-time favorite artists, songwriters and bands at San Francisco's best live music venue.

(Bottom of the Hill - 17th Street, San Francisco)

I discovered Ted Leo & The Pharmacists mostly by word of mouth. I've heard his name a bit and finally saw the "Me & Mia" video on HavocTV.

Naturally, that x-mas, I had to have "Shake the Sheets".

Fast-forward to last summer. I see TL is playing with Against Me! at the Warfield in San Francisco. I ordered a pair of tickets at $30+ each from Ticketscammer. The day of the bleeding show, Ted announces his show is cancelled due to a personal emergency. My appeals to Ticketscammer were nil, since he wasn't the headliner.

So, round June, I discover he's coming to SF for two shows at the BOTH and I immediately buy a pair of tickets for the show.

I'd not be disappointed. It was easily the best show I've ever seen. Even my friend - a Ted Leo neophyte - agreed that the energy was unmatched. From the moment he hit the stage playing "Little Dawn" to the 90 minutes later when he played "CIA" he was still playing at the same intensity.

Ted, I should mention, will be 39 next month.

From Bullying the Jukebox

(bass player... no idea of his name, maybe Marty Key? "Jason?")

Ted played most of his best-known, best-written songs along with a slate of new ones, which all were really, really good.

I was disappointed that there was no performance of "Sons of Cain," "High Party," or "Ballad of the Sin-Eater." However, the surprise of songs like "The One Who Got Us Out," "Heart Problems," "Under The Hedge" and "CIA" totally worked.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how the place exploded when he played "Counting Down the Hours" and "Biomusicology." "Me & Mia" brought a wave of "hey, I know this song" from the crowd.

He played until about midnight and that included THREE encores. For the first one, he didn't even leave the stage. He set his guitar down, then turned around and said "you guys aren't going anywhere, huh?"

The band took a break so drummer, Chris Wilson could get a bandage and Ted played a cover of a recently passed "punk pioneer" (sorry, can't remember the name!) song.

He kicked into "Timorous Me" and the rest of the band joined him for a couple more songs before they closed with new song "Last Days."

Right around the time when I thought it was time to leave, the band jumped back onto the stage to play one more song which was a request. Suitably - since there's all kinds of news regarding the CIA's torture program - he played "CIA:"

And when we were late in getting in,

We couldn't say where we'd been.

But maybe you knew,

Like you sometimes do -I've got no need to pretend.

But C.I.A.,Only you
know what you've done.

(the only photo I got of Ted himself, that looks like a person.)

Farm Fest 2009 Featuring Madrid.

It's rare that I get the opportunity to review my very own show. But here I go! August 15th was a very sticky and warm day. My band members and I met out in Franklin, WI around 11:30 to set up the drum kit, mics, amps and monitors. We also did a quick sound check too to get the correct levels on everything. Our bass player's kit came with his piccolo snare which is fine for our practice sessions, but it wasn't near loud enough for this outdoor venue. So my new Mapex 14 x4 snare was the perfect solution.
After running through a few songs, I was already pretty sweaty. How am I going to blast through 30 songs in this 92 degree heat!? Luckily, when it started to get slightly darker, the heat died down a little and a light breeze swept Farm Fest.

The opening band was Mohr. Ave. They started later then they were supposed to, but it wasn't too big of a deal. A good buddy of mine arrived for our set just before we were starting so he would have missed just about everything. Mohr. Ave played a few covers along with their originals. We played second. The mosquitos were horrendous and feasted on all of us throughout the night. It was extremely difficult to keep time on a drum set while the bugs were draining whatever blood they could find in the back of my ear! During our first song "Everyone Again", the hi-hats started acting fishy and I couldn't open them towards the end of the song. Luckily, I fixed it in time for our ska number "Modern World". This song started well, but on the outro, I accidental counted incorrectly and slowed it down, but luckily, I kept the time and the song ended decently. "So Real" was the next one I believe. No problems there. Everything sounded good. "When The Glitter Fades" followed that. That's our song resembling "Why Did We Ever Meet?" by The Promise Ring. Thankfully, it worked out quite well. It's also one of my wife's favourite songs. Along with our originals, we also tackled Elvis Costello's "Oliver's Army". Unfortunately, Pat, our second guitar player's mic wasn't turned up very much so the crowd had a rough time hearing him. Of ALL songs!! I haven't seen the video tape my sister made of the night yet, but I imagine he's hard to hear. The last few songs went alright. The Lobster Boys followed us. They played jam-style songs, Phish covers etc. etc.

So overall, our first show went alright. I think if the bugs were out of the picture, the night would have been a little better. I look forward to the next show we play, and working on adjusting the ska song.

Les Paul

I was going to blog about how important Les Paul is to modern music.

But it's so easy to just post photos of some of the most well-known guitarists with LPs.

And it's even easier for me to look at this from a punk-rock angle and post photos of some of the most influential punk guitarists - from top-4o pop punk, to hardcore - with Les Pauls.

These are in random order:

Kris Roe from the Ataris is left-handed, so he plays an upside-down Les Paul.

Steve Jones - Sex Pistols
Mick Jones - The Clash
Nate Albert while with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Bille Joe Armstrong - Green Day

Brett Gurewitz - Bad Religion

Lyle Preslar - Minor Threat

All-time best lines in punk rock #1

I think my two favorites are:

- The Vandals, "Anarchy Burger (Hold the government)"

"America stands for freedom
But if you think you're free
Try walking into a deli
And urinating on the cheese"

***

- Alkaline Trio, "You're Dead"

Cause if assholes could fly
This place would be busier than O'Hare

More bands on Hiatus or deceased

Guess it's my turn. Here are a few songs from bands I love or like that are either on hiatus, or six feet under:

Slapstick-Eighteen

The Smiths-This Charming Man

The Promise Ring- Why Did We Ever Meet
(although a few TPR members are in Maritime, I still feel it's important to include them in this selection)

Common Rider-Classics Of Love

Ben Folds Five-Philosophy
(despite having a successful solo career, BFF also belongs on this list)

Bracket-Don't Tell Miss Finley

Hiatus and the dead

I've noticed recently that many of my all-time favorite bands are no more.

And several are on "hiatus" or on some unspoken leave from music, maybe to return.

I'd like Mikey to do this with me - Here's my top five dead bands (not playing shows or recording or anything similar. I'm looking at you Bosstones and New Bomb Turks!) with my favorite song from each.

1. Rhythm Collision - "Happy as a !@#$ Clam"

2. Blue Meanies - "Tread"

3. Operation Ivy - "Knowledge"

4. The Clash - "Garageland"

5. The Stereo - "Devotion"

Top five breakup songs of all time...

Berkeley Pier - Tilt

"Wish Me Well (You can go to Hell)" - Bouncing Souls


"Long Distance" - All

Stupid Kid - Alkaline Trio

My Girlfriends Dead - The Vandals

More Punk Logos

82 added quite a few important punk rock logos. Here are some more:


Simple as that. The Clash logo is as important as anything else from that decade. One of the most influential bands of all time.


NOFX's simple logo is pretty easily recognized. They started the fast skate-punk movement and haven't stopped since.


Probably the most tattooed logo on the East Coast. Although it hasn't been around as long as the band has, it's simply a rad logo.

Logos

Some knucklehead decided to come up with a list of the greatest punk rock logos. Well, aside from the obvious (Bad Religion, Pennywise, Blag Flag, 7 Seconds) he dropped some seriously obscure bands on us just to show how punk he is.

Well, here's the deal: If you create a logo and it's good and people like your product, you tend to lose your obscurity. Check McDonald's, Starbucks, Target, Apple, etc. I'm not saying that every good logo brings success to a band, but still I'm sure there are millions of businesses that have failed because they've failed to have a potential customer at hello.

That said, here are the logos I'd have included on the list, in no particular order.

So many people have this Screeching Weasel logo tattooed on them. Many more, I'm sure, than have the Flipper logo on them!

A classic, this logo pre-dates the current incarnation of the Vandals. This was from way back.

Jeez, I don't know if anything more can be said. Operation Ivy had such a huge impact for the short time they were in existence. Obviously, the logo is ubiquitous, as well.

The characture of singer Milo, adorned nearly ever album cover and most of the merchandise.

Probably the most-tattooed band logo on Earth. Even I want one!

Hard to argue with the impact of this one. The snarling bulldog seemed to perfectly represent Dickie Barrett's voice.

Summerfest is here, but will I go?

Well, the biggest festival in the world is upon us here in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Summerfest that features a long list of local to major bands is going on. Some of my favourite bands are in town as well. Rancid and Rise Against played last week, Offspring, last Friday, Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys & Elvis Costello are all coming up this week. So am I going this year? Nah. Probably not. I wrote off any shows after the epic Smoking Popes and Maritime at Turner Hall because my wife and I are trying to save some cash. But that may not be the only other reason. Summerfest is typically only fun during the actual performance of a band. Seriously, there is very little to enjoy during the day. Expensive beer, pricey food and typically humid nights can be irritating. Plus, if you want a decent seat or standing position, you have to get to the stage super early. Like, 2 or 3 hours early!! Who wants to do that?! I guess it's better then drunk out of shape cowboys singing about tractors and farms at Country Fest or whatever is up in northern Wisconsin. This year, no Summerfest. Not enough bands to drag me to the Lakefront. Sorry friends.

Maritime+The Smoking Popes @ Turner Hall

First of all, forgive my late-writing on this epic show. I have moved recently and have not had the opportunity to write a review of the show. With that out of the way, Here's how the night went down. Upon arriving at the show, my wife and I ran into Maritime singer Davey Von Bohlen before the show. Every time we see Maritime, we always run into Davey, so it's always nice to catch up with him. He was graduating from college the day after show. So after a brief chat, I grabbed my tall can of Pabst and chilled during the opening band's set. THEN I ran into one of my favourite drummers of all time. Niel Hennessey, the drummer for The Smoking Popes/The Falcon/ The Lawrence Arms. We had a good chat about what's next for some of the bands he drums in. He told me TLA will release some new material at the end of the year...I was pretty stoked to hear about that. Anyway, The opening band were from Chicago and had some fun playing. Maritime was next. They had a nice-sized crowd for their set which is great because the last time we saw them in Waukesha, probably 15 people were standing there. Including us. Anyway, the set was heavily influenced by some new material they were testing on the crowd. All very upbeat songs. They opened with Guns of Navarone which is exactly what I thought they would play. Ha! Other songs they played were Tearing Up the Oxygen, Parade of Punk Rock T-Shirts, Protein and Poison, German Engineering, Calm, For Science Fiction, With Holes for Thumb Sized Birds and probably a few more. During For Science Fiction, Davey started out singing on the wrong key and the song went slightly down-hill from there, but they recovered and finished out the song. Overall, they played a relaxed set with some fun bantering and it was a great time. Next: The Smoking Popes.

I haven't always been into these Chicago musicians, but upon hearing Destination Failure, they quickly have become an influential band. They played a very strong set hitting some of the new material off Stay Down and older material. Some of the songs included Off My Mind, Rubella, Need You Around, Writing A Letter, It's never to late (For Love), I Know You Love Me, Midnight Moon, Welcome To Janesville, Grab Your Heart And Run, Meghan and others. Josh, the lead singer came back on stage to do some solo songs including, First Time which the crowd sang the back up vocals on. He also did fan-favourite "Pretty Pathetic". The ended the night with Brand New Hairstyle, which was the perfect ending to an amazing night. My wife and I left very happy that night. We knew we were moving early in the morning, but the show was well worth the late night packing.
So if by some luck the Smoking Popes roll through your city, try to catch them live.

Are you caught in the middle?

In finding sanctuary and sanity in music, I revisited one of the best rock bands of all time.

Few people noticed their passing, but fortunately for those of us jaded on the world of modern rock, they left us a CD/DVD that anyone who digs real rock 'n' roll must, MUST pick up.

Here's a snippit:


It's just raw, pure, barely-filtered energy...

They called it

During the Pezcore album show in London in September of 2007, Less Than Jake singer, Chris, said "Blink 182 will be back next summer."

He was only off by a year.

My belief was that they'd be back as soon as the money ran out and whether or not that's actually the case, they are back and they stand to make boatloads of money.

I used to be a Blink fan. Unfortunately, the addition of Travis Barker kinda ruined them for me. They turned away from being a straight-up skate-punk band to a prog-rock band just by putting a studio-quality drummer behind the kit. BLAH.

LTJ

(apologies for the crappy cell-phone photos)

Mikey's post on meeting LTJ is appropriate, as I saw them in San Francisco on April 1.

It had been nearly nine years since I last saw LTJ and before that, it was 12 times from 1997-2000.

It's been four albums and one b-sides comp since I last saw them play.

So, as one of the sole representatives of the 30-and-over crowd, I thoroughly enjoyed the show.

"Just standing in this crowded room still makes me feel alive"

-- This One's Going to Leave a Bruise
Less than Jake -- GNV FLA

I felt so alive. An LTJ show has to be experienced for its energy and fun. It really is all about having the fun - singing along to every word, hearing the band members talk crap about each other.

I felt like I was 20 again. We got to the Warfield probably, right after LTJ started off with "Happyman" and I went straight to the front of the stage.

I was just overcome with the memories of having seen them way-back-when and fought my way to a dancing spot where I could jump along with the crowd and sing every word.

I looked around and saw a crowd of people who must have looked as young as me at my first LTJ show in 1997. There were still some as old as me, who had stuck by the band over the years.

And yes, knowing that I first saw Less Than Jake when Losing Streak was their current record - 12 years ago - makes me feel considerably old.

I met LTJ that night. They were opening for Guttermouth at the Rave Bar in Milwaukee. It was the lineup that included Jessica Mills and the interview included her telling Pete that after every question, he had to remove an article of clothing.

I got the entire band to sign my Pezcore CD cover, which will remain an artifact, because that lineup ceased to exist later in 97 when Jessica left or was fired or whatever. Derron left following the Hello Rockview tour.

I met LTJ so many times in '97 and '98 that it lost its lustre. I watched as members of the band became less accessible or friendly towards their fans. But I felt for them and their privacy, too.

In the end, I feel that I'll always be an LTJ fan. I don't care about their individual lives or personalities. I care about the music, which has improved with every single record.

Meeting Less Than Jake-circa 1998

And now, one of the oldest stories I have to share with meeting a band. On a warm day in my freshmen year in High School, I was asked my my older brother if I'd like to go to The Exclusive Company in Brookfield to meet some members of Less Than Jake. I was thrilled and off we went driving to one of the better places to buy albums and cds. Hello Rockview was their most recent release so the store was packed. It was actually an "after school" style with snacks, Capri Suns and a slew of good treats on the tables plus plenty of stickers. I think I still have one sticker in a folder. Not all of Less Than Jake were there, but Buddy, Pete, Vinnie and Derron were walking around the store. It was an honor to meet some of the members of the most influential band of my lifetime. They were all super nice and fun to talk to. They signed a very old, stained and vintage Less Than Jake shirt. It's absolutely a mess, and barely survived a flood in my closet back at my old house in Wales. That day was by far one of my favourite moments meeting a group. Even with a major crowd of people, it was a blast.

And now, another story I'll never forget...

This story gets told quite often. In fact, my wife was just telling her Dad about it over the weekend in Illinois. While I still 'worked' for the Carroll College newspaper The New Perspective, I had set up an interview with punk rockers No Use For A Name at The Rave in Milwaukee. My wife and my brother came with. I was supposed to meet the group, do the interview on the tour bus, then go to the show right after. Simple. I called the tour manager and he said meet outside the tour bus. Waited. No one came out. Eventually Matt Riddle, the bassist came out. I asked him if I was interviewing him and the rest of the guys...He said "well you can interview me, let's go inside the club". Okay. So we went backstage. He offered me a beer and we did the interview. It was a great lengthy interview, and then he pointed to these mysterious doors. He said they busted the lock on them after sound check and explored a little bit, then asked if we wanted to come with him and the guitar techs to go explore some more. So of course we went. So me, my wife and my brother got to see the famous "haunted" pool that rarely anyone gets to see unless you perform there and can break the lock. They had said a girl haunts it who drowned some many years ago. There was graffiti everywhere from previous explorers. It had that awesome old smell to it. Some don't know that The Eagles Club used to be a gentleman's club with the ballroom on top, a ring for boxing and a pool with lockers. We crawled all over the place. The creepiest thing we saw was a chair and keg in the corner of a barely lit area. No ghosts, but it was an awesome experience. After that, I said thanks for the interview and we headed inside. After the show, I was fortunate to catch singer/guitarist Tony Sly outside where I got him to sign my copy of Keep Them Confused. I probably should have had Matt sign the album booklet too. Oh well.

It was an amazing night that neither my wife or my brother will ever forget.

And now a story...

I'm a story teller. I love to share stories no matter what the subject: work, music, how I proposed...etc For the next few posts, I'm going to share some great stories on how I got the pictured autographs. Today's story is the day I met Chicago punk rockers Alkaline Trio. My brother Andy, sister Cheryl and I belong to their Blood Pact, a fan club that allows fans to get first dibs of tickets and a possible chance to meet the group at their sound check. So driving to Milwaukee's Eagles Club with Hell Yes EP and drum stick in hand, I headed to meet them. We got into the sound check as "Back to Hell" was playing. After a few more songs, they came out to talk. I got Derek Grant to sign my drum stick and had Dan and Matt sign my Hell Yes vinyl EP. While I was talking to Derek, I asked if he'd like to do an interview. He said if he had time after the show he would. I decided to ask Matt Skiba. He said he'd be happy to. Good thing I had my tape recorder with me. So after the show, I waited for Matt to talk to his avid fans. He spotted me and we got to do a 25 minute interview. After the interview I walked to my car behind The Rave, and found police tape around it. I dropped my jaw. The policeman told me my car was involved in a hit and run. I was thinking "whattt?" then he said "oh I'm just kidding. Apparently a taxi was hijacked up the road and crashed into The Rave (the backside). What a way to end a day.