Serial Killer - Pyst

01/06/2012

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Year End Lists - you know I love them! ;-)

Seems like everybody and their Mothers were putting out lists, either about the best musical releases of 2011 or the best gigs they saw that year or the biggest shits they took or whatever, and after reading the Las Vegas Weekly's pathetic attempt at year end lists (which you can read by clicking here) I was inspired to attempt my own lists, so here they are!

Top Ten Best Releases of 2011:

1.    Jesus Lizard - Club
One of the most frightening live shows ever recorded. All killer no filler. The sound quality on this is phenomenal!  Nothing released this year even comes close to how powerful and amazing this record is. Nothing.

2.     Deadhand - Deadhand
The song writing, musicianship and emotions on display in this release still give me the chills. Scary good, and it still makes the hair on the back on my neck stand up every time a song off of this comes up on shuffle on my iPhone.

3.    P.J. Harvey - Let England Shake
Simply astounding in it's musical brilliance. The best thing she's done since Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. The woman is a genius.

4.     Naked City Romeos - Naked City Romeos
If this CD came out in the classic Punk Rock era of yesteryear, it would be considered a legendary record alongside other releases by the Sex Pistols, 999, The Dictators and the Damned. Yeah, it's that fucking good.

5.     Unfair Fight - A Constant Struggle
Again, if this CD came out in the classic Punk Rock eras of yesteryear, it would be considered an essential part of any Hardcore music collection alongside other releases by Agnostic Front, SSD, or the Cro-Mags. This release is incredible - enough said.

6.     The Dwarves - The Dwarves Are Born Again
The fact that the Dwarves are still around is to be commended. The fact that they put out this CD full of such kick ass music is just icing on the cake. A great release that gives you exactly what you'd expect and deserve from this seminal band.

7.     Jane's Addiction - The Great Escape Artist
Going back to their Nothing's Shocking drawing board, the band juggled bass players while coming together to create what is undoubtedly the best thing they've done in a long, long time.

8.     The People's Whiskey - Eight Tracks And Dub Sacks
This CD came straight out of Hendertucky to hit a home run with this raw, melodic presentation of some of the better songs the band has been playing around live for a while now. The impassioned vocals and musical stylings on here are just fantastic.

9.     Faith - Subject To Change Plus First Demo
This often overlooked classic band finally gets the recognition they deserve by having all of their material remixed and remastered, and it sounds better than it ever did. For this material to come out this year is a godsend.

10.   Napalm Raid - Trail Of The World
One of the heaviest, crustiest recordings to come out this year. This 4 song EP highlights the bands musical muscle in short, brutal blasts of fiery anger. Amazing stuff.

And while I'm in the mood for it, here's another one:

Top 10 Best Gigs of 2011:

1.    Melt Banana @ The Bunkhouse
If you were there, then you know why this gig was the best one to go down this year. How amazing was the band? And the crowd?? Wowsers!! Definitely in my Top 10 list for the best gigs I've ever seen in my Life. Seriously.

2.     Shellac @ The Beauty Bar
I don't know why they played, but I'm glad I was there! I stood directly in front of the band with my mouth agape in bewilderment as they just pummeled the crowd with one incredible song after another. This gig was soul cleansing. Fucking brilliant.

3.    Freddie McGregor @ Reggae In The Desert
Wowsers. I still can't believe I witnessed the King of Lover's Rock deliver a set of musical brilliance to an amorous and appreciative audience, who were hanging on every note the Man sung.

4.    Deadhand @ Hypnotic Lounge
The band played a residency at this pool hall in September that highlighted their just released self titled EP, and to be able to see them perform live every weekend was a mind blowing treat.

5.    Barrington Levy @ The Bunkhouse
To watch this dance hall Legend up close and personal in this downtown dive bar, 2 days in a row no less, was akin to seeing Peter Tosh at the Double Down. Just. Fucking. Incredible.

6.    Manic Hispanic @ Diablo's
To see Jefe, fresh out of the hospital, lead El Hoakie Loco and their primos through a blistering set of old and new material was incredible. One of the best bands to play live you'll ever see.

7.     Zeke @ The LVCS
The high revving, nitrous burning Rock N Roll machine known as Zeke just fucking slayed everyone in the place when they played here, leaving no doubt that these guys are no one to fuck with when they play. Sheer genius.

8.    Napalm Raid @ Yayo Taco
These crusty Canadians played the most brutal set of D-Beat Noise Not Music that Vegas ever witnessed, and there wasn't more than 10 people in the room when they did it, and the intensity level was through the roof. Fuck yeah!!!

9.    Descendents @ Punk Rock Bowling
I only watched a little bit of it from the outside, because I wasn't stupid enough to pay to get in, but what I saw was pretty impressive. Not from the band, who have definitely lost a few steps along the way, but more from the crowd, who just showered the band with nothing but Love L-U-V while they played nearly every song that the people wanted to hear. Pretty great to see.

10.    The People's Whiskey @ The Royal Resort
I love these guys, and on this particular day they delivered a set of songs that was so fucking punk rocking, so memorable, that it was stuck in my mind for months afterwards. It was like seeing Nirvana when they played Al's Bar to like, nobody. This was one for the History books.

Yeah, that's pretty good for off the top of my head. :-) While I'm reminiscing about the last month of the year, lemme publicly acknowledge one of the worst kept secrets in all of the Las Vegas Music Scene by Congratulating Ministry Of Love on their signing to Negative Progression Records. The band certainly deserves it, and I look forward to hearing their tales of no label support, no money, shitty touring situations and all the fun, fun times they're gonna have. :-) Their debut for the label, Party Animals, will be released in February. Again, Congratulations to Ministry Of Love for finally getting signed. Gives me hope that a record label out there might actually 'get it'.

Yeah, First Friday tonight. I'm thinking about going down to see Pigasus and The Dirty Somethings tear shit up, but I dunno if that's gonna happen. Obligations, ya know? ;-) Tomorrow night it's all about The People's Whiskey / The Dirty Panties / The Quitters @ the Motor City Cafe, after I take care of some personal business in the morning. I don't have anything to do on Sundays now that football is over for me. :-( I was gonna go to a birthday party but it got cancelled, so, anyone wanna hang out and jam on Sunday? heh heh heh Everything is updated, I finished off all the Pictures for 2011, with the last sets being from The People's Whiskey, The Mapes and the Naked City Romeos. You can find them all to the side here. I also added all the photos to the Me And My Me And My Me And My Me And My Me And My Friends page as well as the Vegas - The City I Live In page too, which is weird, because those pages get a lot of views for some reason. I can't imagine why. ;-)

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As They Toys Go Winding Down

07/25/2011

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I have been watching this at every chance possible. Mike Judge was a Guest Speaker at Comic Con this year, and he unveiled some brand new footage from the upcoming Beavis & Butthead cartoon series. I haven't laughed this hard in years. Oh my fucking GAWD it has been too long without these guys. <3
Amy Winehouse died this weekend and the less said about that the better. I believe the term I lovingly adhered to her in Death was "piece of shit junkie alcoholic no talent LOSER", which I thought was pretty spot on, but apparently having and airing an Opinion is enough to get you called 'heartless' and 'a piece of shit'... hahaha Oh Interznets, how I love you! XOXOXO

See this picture? It's a shot of the lead singer of the band Ringworm, who played at the Bunkhouse this past Sat. They sucked, BTW.
Ringworm @ The Bunkhouse
It's also the ONLY picture I was able to snap off, because just as I was snapping this pic some fucking dooshbag purposely slammed into me and sent me flying across the room. Fucking jackoff. I love how these pussies will only come near me when I'm not paying attention to them. When I'm standing there waiting for them to come around, ready to lay a fist or a knee into them, they suddenly don't come anywhere near me, but when I'm focusing on taking pictures and not paying attention to them, then the cheap shots ensue. Cowards. Same thing was happening to me at the gig @ Yayo Taco this past Thursday. Some people are respectful, some aren't, but whatever. If I'm getting nailed by cheap shot artists while trying to take pictures of a band, then I'll just walk away. No skin off my nose, but it sometimes limits me to how many pictures I can take. That's what happened with those Life's Torment photos I took that night. I spent most of the bands set watching out for the cheap shot faggots who were slamming around while the band was just killing it. I'm sure if the band would of been paying attention, they could of said something, but they didn't, but after watching the dickless hardcore dancing assholes completely ruin everyone's fun time by doing those gay ass dance moves and handing out cheap shots to anyone who was just trying to watch the band, I got to thinking.

The Bunkhouse was where that last bit of Drama involving 'That Band' (and yeah, you guys are considered EXACTLY that - deal with it) happened at. Big fight went down, it was some friends of the band, or at least somebody they knew of, because whenever anyone posted a bragging comment on their Facebook page, comments that included names of those involved or statements of what they did or what happened, they quickly deleted it off of their page. Reminded me of that Adicks shit that went on with the LVCS a while back. Officially, 'That Band's' stance was that "they couldn't control what their fans do", and I have to call shenanigans on that. Of course you can control what's going on in the crowd! The thought that you can't is just ludicrous! I've seen waaaaay too many bands do exactly that, stopping their set by calling out some assholes fighting in the crowd or for being obnoxious and ruining everyone's good time. If you, as a Band, don't think you have that ability to control the crowd, well, that's not saying much for your band now, is it? It was while watching Ringworm thrash about on stage from the safety of a bar stool that I was putting all this together. I had to do something. They weren't a very good band. LOL But it was while watching the crowd ebb and flow from the few asshole dancers ruining things for everyone that I was thinking all this through. The homo hardcore dancers would start picking up the change, throwing out errant kicks and shoves to people who were just trying to watch the gig, and the band just played on, either ignorant of what was going on, or apathetic with that lame "we can't control the crowd" rhetoric like 'That Band', which is a bit of a Cockstar thing to do when you think about it, or perhaps maybe even endorsing it a bit. Is this what it's come to? Really? I hate to sound like That Old Guy, but dancing used to be a fun thing to do at gigs - even slamming. And the rule was that you never got anyone involved with it if they didn't want to. It stayed in the area and that was it. Yeah, of course it got out of hand from time to time, but for the most part, it was just good, sweaty fun. Nowadays it seems like a macho jock shithead little dick thing, but whatever. New Rule: Cheap shots being thrown at me - I'm gone. I got better things to do at a gig, like get drunk and put onethirtyeight.org stickers up on everything! ;-) Bands, learn to control your crowd of Friends or start to act like you give a shit. It's not that hard to do.

Yeah, Saturdays gig was pretty weird. The atmosphere was heavy with tension, due to the turnout being a total sausage party, which most gigs are, but the abundance of flat brimmed baseball hats, basketball jerseys, and jailhouse tattoos on suburban white kids from affluent neighborhoods just ensured that Drama was going to ensure, and of course it did. There was even some Baby Momma Drama going down, which was just like the icing on the cake! LOL Kudos to Pulsar and Josh and the other Security dudes for keeping the fighting down to a minimum. No knives were pulled on anyone, not even the Soundman! ;-) I gave it a bit of a Review, same with the Napalm Raid gig, and both of them will be up by the end of this week, I hope. The Pictures of Napalm Raid, Humilitate, and Life's Torment were all posted, and you can click here, or here, or even here to see them all, or you can click on the images to the right of these words to check them all out as well. Same with the Demon Lung photos from this past Saturday night @ the Bunkhouse. For me, the highlight of the evening was hanging out with George, my former heterosexual lover / band mate / partner in crime. Now THAT, was fun! <3 Real busy this week. It's almost 9 in the morning and I got band practice in a few hours, so I better get some shut eye. Looking forward to getting shit done and moving on and putting stuff behind me where it belongs. Some of you out there know what I'm talking about, and the rest of you probably wish you did. All you gotta do is ask. ;-)
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Stupid Songs (Whoa-Oooh Oooh)

06/21/2011

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There's a reason why I stay away from certain bands, and that reason is Drama. Drama usually associated with a certain member of the band, or with the people who support certain bands. Sometimes it's both. Locally, there are bands here in town that I will have NOTHING to do with, just because of the past actions of a few of their members and their support / condoning of them and their actions. I think this has always been obvious to most of you, and my friends and I all make jokes about it, because it's no big thing - always Business, never Personal, ya know? I usually just ignore said bands and they either grow up or grow out of the Scene, showing themselves as the true Poseurs that they always were, but a few of them stick around and start and join other bands, which is a shame because sometimes the new bands are really fucking ace, and I can't get behind them and support them because of who's in the band. Phooey. I don't keep up on the bands and again, just ignore them and hope that they go away. I really can't be bothered. I really don't care what they're doing or what they're up to. I only know about it if someone tells me about it, which leads me to this.

A fight at a bar gig. Big whoop dee doo! Since it involved a band that I don't support, everyone felt the urgency to tell me about it and to ask what I thought about what happened. Look, I really don't care about it, and I know EXACTLY what happened, but so what? Big fight / Drama started by fans of a certain band. Shit got scary, and the Soundman got a knife pulled on him - that sux but what do you expect at THAT type of show with THOSE type of bands and the crowd that THEY bring in. Violence is almost inevitable when dealing with them, and for those involved who claim taking part of it like it's something cool, like some ignorant jock would, well, that's just fucking laughable. And bragging about it on Facebook and naming the names of those involved is always a laugh as well. Fucking retards, I swear.

Had a great trip to Cali this past weekend. Hung out in a Heroin den. Played at a Tweeker bar. The only thing missing was the chicken wire strung out in front of the stage! LOL Ate and Drank. Took pictures of stuff. Posted onethirtyeight.org stickers on everything. Had fun. It was a lot better than I'm making it out to be, I assure you. ;-) Came Home to Romance and Relaxation, which is always a good thing. My toothache pain is gone, which is weird, because I don't think toothache pain just goes away. Oh well. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Everything is updated. The Pictures I took of Sloka @ the Tropics Lounge in Fullerton are up, and you can click here to go check them out. That new camera of mine is awesome! There's lots of stuff going on this weekend, starting off with that Napalm Raid gig @ Yayo Taco, then there's some great bands playing at the Double Down on Fri. and Sat., and that Las Vegas Summer Punk Fest is also going down this weekend too. Should be interesting to see how THAT little thing plays out. There's the G.P.B. CD release party going on @ the Sanctuary on Friday, Unfair Fight is playing with Ringworm @ the Bunkhouse on Sat., and Ty Segall @ the Beauty Bar on Sunday. Should be a cool weekend. :-) I leave you with this heartwarming video of a whale being saved from some nylon netting he got trapped in while swimming around. The way he shows his gratitude is just the coolest thing ever. <3 See you around.
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