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. ;-)

Gawd, the things I would do to PJ Harvey. Gawd I love that woman. You know what else I love? I love waking up on the American day of Independence to read some horse shit message on Facebook from some cock sucking Kraut thief trying to educate me on the merits and meaning of words like Libel, Slander, and Defamation. Hey fuckwad, I will say anything I want about anything I see fit to comment on, especially if it's on Facebook. You can't really expect to receive any amount of Privacy on there, can you? Especially on what is essentially a public airing of opinions? I don't think you can do that because of something called Freedom of Speech. It's in the Bill Of Rights, it's in the Constitution that Americans fought and died for, to break free from British tyranny, I think LOL. You think your idle threats are any deterrent to me? Think again dude. If my own personal Lawyer Robert Walsh doesn't spank you, then I got a team of Lawyers who work for my Tribe in California who have got nothing better to do than bury your ass in Legal papers a mile deep. I've seen them do it. It's ugly. And BTW, you should of read that stuff you copy and pasted from somewhere on the Internet. At the end of it all, it explained Why Commencing A Defamation Action Is Not Always A Good Idea. They're 95% non winnable, and never worth the $$$ spent on Lawyer fees, and I know your broke ass can't even afford a good place to live in, or a nice car to drive around in, much less extravagant Lawyers fees. So just man up and hush it, OK? Don't make me be the bad guy. Please. It's not worth it. If you would just take responsibility for your chickenshit actions then maybe I could see fit to take you seriously. As it is, your just a scared little boy who likes to play games, and you get soooooo butt hurt when things don't go your way. Boo fucking hoo. Go chase after the pussy you lost like you always do, like you have before, and like you obviously are again. Pathetic. Does it really bother you so much that she's lost interest in you? Guess so, if you're talking crazy like you are to me... hahahaha Anyways, next move is yours kid. Send me those lawsuit papers so I can feed them to my Shark Lawyers. I guarantee you will regret doing such an asinine thing. Don't you got better things to do? Seriously? I know I do.

Yeah, my Life is never dull, that's for sure! hee hee hee Hey! Happy Birthday to Battle Born, one of the best bands to ever come out of Vegas. It was 4 years ago yesterday that they all got together to play a backyard BBQ party thingy, and it seems kind of appropriate in hindsight. Battle Born. Independence Day. That whole Revolutionary War thing. Work with me people. Anyways, big ups to Battle Born for setting a fine example of how a real punk band gets things done nowadays - by busting their asses and playing some amazing punk tunes, and not by how many pyramid studs they can fit on their denim vest or by how many shitty punk band patches you sew on your pants. Substance over Style. You pathetic cookie cutter punk bands here in Vegas could learn a few things from Battle Born, that's for sure. Now where's that new album at dammit? LOL

Man, I don't know why I got such a bee in my bonnet over that Adicks gig @ Wasted Space last night, but I did. It just didn't seem right that so many people were hyped on that gig. It was the 4th of July! You mean to tell me that with all the parties going on around town, and all the other things you could of been doing on that Holiday, the best thing you could come up with to do was to pay some over-priced cover at some douchey club where they're only gonna herd you out like cattle when the gigs over so they can get 'the beautiful club people' (their real bread and butter) in there, just to see some British band play on the day of your American independence? You should of gone to the LVCS to see that Johnny Cash tribute band play. Now that music is as American as it gets, not some posturing from some Limeys shouting out revolutionary slogans in Spanish that they neither mean nor support. The last time the British tried to do anything 'Revolutionary' didn't end so well, did it? hahahaha Fuck that. I mean seriously, didn't the Adicks just play that same venue a few months ago? It sucked then too, memmer? You memmer. I memmer not going to that gig because one of a certain someone's icky musical projects was playing that night, and I don't have any idea who opened the gig last night, but I'm almost positive it was someone who didn't deserve it! LOL Gawd, the Apathy that just seems to thrive here in supposed 'Sin City'. Oh Vegas, my Love/Hate relationship with you just grows and grows. Hey, if you had fun @ the Adicks, God Bless ya. I think I'm just over it.

I've been missing out on a lot of Birthdays this month. From people I care for dearly who try to pass poisonous fish to me, people that I just get drunk and play them at pool all night, to people who spend too much time skateboarding in search of dead hookers, I've been hugely slacking in the birthday wishes department, and for that I apologize. Heroin is a Hell of a drug... heh heh. I'm slowly snapping out of it, coming back to reality, dealing with the ugly facts as they are presented to me, and again, I apologize, so if you see me out and about, just slap me in the head and remind me that I got you nothing for your birthday and I'll buy you a couple of rounds of drinks at least. It's not like I don't do that for you anyways, right? LOL To all of you, a belated Happy Birthday! Hope you got what you wished for.

Ya know, seeing the video for Jenn. O. Cide's birthday bash @ the Double Down almost makes me wish I could stomach going to that place. It was impressive that she drank a whole bottle of ass juice (out of a goblet though, and not straight from the bottle... boooooooo) but even more impressive was her eating glass, and trying to light a cigarette using sparks from a grinder applied to a hatchet. Don't know what I'm talking about? Click here and here to see that shit for yourself. It is funny, to say the least, if only to hear Turbo from the Vermin cackling like the Joker. :-)

Again, I know there's loads more I wanted to talk about, but I gotta get back to my newest addiction - Red Dead Redemption for the Xbox 360. Such a great game. I just opened up the Tall Trees area, so I'm looking forward to killing me some bear and hopefully some beavers, so I can get that stuff to that guy who's building the airplane... hee hee hee I'm sure none of you know what I'm talking about and that's OK. Par for the course around here. See you at the gig on Thurs. Why is CJ Ramone playing a bunch of Ramones tunes? Don't know, don't care. All I know is that I would be there regardless of whether or not my band was opening. American Punk Rock motherfuckers. You should be supporting his gig instead of that Adicks gig. CJ Ramone doesn't play here every few months, and he ain't playing at a club where Pink and 5 Finger Death Punch are considered 'Hard and Extreme'. It was the Ramones who turned the British onto the whole Punk Rock experience, and I don't know whether to Thank them or Curse them for that... hee hee hee. To quote Glenn Danzig: Fuck the British! The British Suck!. Yeah, couldn't of said it better myself. See you around.