Category: 1

Singing For You - Deadhand

08/29/2011

Wow. I had soooooo much fun this weekend. The past week as well. The practices with S.F.T. are coming along nicely, although they're already saying I'm playing the songs too fast, which is pretty much what every band I've ever been in has said to me. Go figure, right? :-) I didn't make it to the Mapes gig @ the Motor City Cafe on Friday because I threw my back out after band practice, but luckily I have an amazingly rad chick who's a Masseuse as a Friend, so I told her I had an emergency and she fixed me. Straightened me out and worked me out and because of her I was able to make it to the gigs on Saturday. Thanx Babe! XOXO I owe ya one! ;-)

And the gigs on Saturday? FUN!!! Going back and forth from the inside lobby area to the pool area outside to check out some diverse bands was cool. There wasn't any drink specials at the bar, which sucked, because the booze was waaaayyy over priced, but it didn't matter, because they were letting everyone walk in with whatever they had stashed in their car in the parking lot. Security didn't seem to mind the smoke sessions out there either, which is always a plus in my book. The Sound dudes were on the ball, everything sounded great, and with the weirdly eclectic turnout of people for this event, which was for the 107.9 radio station Birthday party, gave the place a nice chill vibe and people were just hanging out and walking around like it was a backyard kegger party or something. Very fucking cool. And the Bands? Oh, the Bands were killer! Well, most of them were anyways. ;-) The People's Whiskey just blew me the fuck away with their set, just fucking amazing shit. Am I the only one hyped on this band right now or what? They're so exceptional as to what's going on out there right now in the Vegas scene and I just dig their sound, I dunno. Ministry Of Love were easily the most entertaining band that I saw. They have this kid Ryan who's like a monkey on speed when he plays, throwing his guitar around with reckless abandon, jumping on top of everything he possibly could and shredding away on it, and doing complete back flips in the middle of a song. Seriously. And, of course, he jumped in the pool after the band ended their set. Pulsar and Meg followed him right in. Rad. :-) I saw this band called The Lips who were really fucking Ace, playing this infectious Indy Pop New Wave music that was really New Order / Cure like, and I dug the shit out of it. Really impressive stuff. They were like the Killers if the Killers didn't suck. :-) And Guilty By Association played their second to last gig ever with Bingo Billy behind the drum kit. And it was definitely something to see... hahahaha I'll save the details for the Show Review I wanna write about it. ;-)

After Guilty By Association finished up their set, I made a beeline for Yayo Taco for a carnitas taco plate and tequila shots. Yummmmm! The place was packed with the dinner crowd, and the wooden tables were sitting out, not to be moved the entire night. Whatever. Permanent Failure played a set full of Punk Rock tunes that sounded like every Punk band you liked when you were 16! LOL So fun to watch, but I had to leave when they played that Bad Religion cover mid way through their set. Is it too much to ask a band to play their covers at the end of the set, like Guilty By Association did @ the Royal Resort with that Billy Joel song? Is it also too much to ask a band to KNOW their cover before they play it? LOL Awwwww... It was Permanent Failure's last gig, and it was a good way to go out. People dug them, and they showed all us old guys in the room what being Young and Punk Rock was all about! Surrounded by Thieves have turned into a MONSTER with Brandon from Betting On Tomorrow on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. They sounded soooooooo fucking good it was frightening. They have this, 'don't give a fuck - let's just play and rock out and have fun' attitude that's contagious to everyone in the room. The songs are outstanding, and Brandon is the perfect fit for Surrounded By Thieves. They just rocked the salsa out of Yayo Taco, and it was the Guitar player Andy's Birthday too, and there were chocolate and vanilla cupcakes being handed out to everyone who wanted one. I took 3. :-) And, of course, you know what happens when you give a room full of drunk Punx stuff to abuse or throw around - a cupcake fight broke out, with everyone in the place getting pelted and marked with sickly sticky sugary frosting. Yeah, it was that kind of night. Anyways, check out Surrounded By Thieves each and every time you can. You won't be disappointed.

The touring band from Reno, Machine Gun Vendetta, were pretty fucking good. They had that sound that reminded me of like, every band that was on any of those Maximumrockandroll compilations from the 1980's, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible! LOL Lightning fast Punk Rockage that was pretty cool stuff. After their set they were handing out business cards with a Link to a free download of some slamscene.com compilation album they were on, which is always good. Bands - download cards are the new way to get your music into the hands of the fans. Just saying. ;-) And Guilty By Association ended the event by playing their 2nd set of the night, and Officially their last one with Bingo Billy. I took video of the last song they played, and I'll post it up on here sometime soon. It was a melancholy way to end the evening, that's for sure.

Speaking of video, here's one I forgot to post up on here from the night of Vandalism @ the Cheyenne Saloon. :-) It's blurry, shaky, off centered and hard to see, but I think it suits the music well. It's Dead Neon performing Advisory (Go To The Boneyard), Downwinder and Cratered. They were soooooooooooooo fucking on that night. Their music makes me wanna give up on the world and just head out to the desert and grow my hair out while waiting for the Apocalypse to come. Yeah, it's that moving... to me anyways.

I got more Videos to post, but I need to get a hold of the Bands to ask them what the Hell the song is called that I filmed! hahaha Keep your eyes on the Videos page to see whats what. Everything is updated. Yeah, I added the Pictures of the Happy Campers and Ministry Of Love from that Royal Resort gig, and as soon as I finish writing this shit up I'm gonna head out to more S.F.T. band practice and maybe to Artifice for a night cap. Who knows. What's everyone doing for Labor Day? Me? I'm heading Home... <3

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Outside The Trains Don't Run On Time

10/04/2010

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Check this out - It's for a documentary on the life of Lemmy from
Motörhead, which, of course, is sorely overdue and much needed in musical times like these. Ain't nobody playing in a band right now that's gonna be respected and revered in 30 years like Lemmy is now. Nope. You hear that, Bono? You hear that Jack White? You hear that every other pretentious douchebag playing in your Screamo - Metal Alternative ghey ass bands? Yeah, fuck the whole lot of you. The question that comes to mind after watching this trailer is this: Is it me, or does the trailer suck?Or does the movie suck? Or is it both?

Yeah, I thought so too. So yeah, what's going on? First Friday was ghey as usual, but with the added presence of a bunch of Bikers and Tattoo people in town for their separate conventions / meth runs, things were definitely interesting around the City this weekend. And oh yeah, there was that Record Label thing happening at a casino somewhere too, but I could care less about that. It was streamed for free on Myspace, where I watched it free of the feeling of pretentiousness and snobbery and without the least bit of the feeling of "trying to be different waaaaay too hard" infiltrating my psyche. It all sucked anyways. Everything I heard just bored me to tears, and I couldn't but fail to see what the big fuss about those bands and that event was all about. I listened to it while looking at my new favorite website, Look At This Fucking Hipster, a website full of different pictures of people that I assumed were wandering around the concert hall trying to out cool each other and be more eccentric than anyone else. Lame. After practice on Friday I took N.J. Pete's advice and headed downtown with Jeremy where we went to the Brass Lounge to shake our tushy's with everyone else at this 80's dance party thing. Well, I shook my tushy, and Pete and Jeremy just drank, because they're manly men like that. The bass player from the Killers was the guest DJ, and watching him try to work the iPad thing they were using to play music was laughable, and his crappy set was just boring everyone in the place to tears and having them heading towards the door, showing that he has no musical taste as well as no musical talent whatsoever. Phooey. Watching The Serving Tray get picked up by the bad guy from Die Hard was fun for a bit, but then it got boring, so Jeremy and I headed off to some bars along the way home, which set the precedent that I would continue to follow all weekend, which was basically just me hitting up as many shitty dive bars as I could find, looking to either get blind drunk or thrown in jail or if I'm lucky, maybe both. Didn't happen, but it was fun trying.

It was in my dive bar hopping pursuit and search for Nevada City Tire on Saturday that I ended up at the Red Label Lounge, where I caught DJ Buckshot, aka Dean, on the 1's and the 2's, and by "1's and 2's", I mean his left and right butt cheeks, both of which were firmly planted on a stool at the bar, getting drunk and hanging out with pals. Apparently, anyone can be a DJ nowadays. ;-) While there I ran into Larry from Panic Inc., a man who musically must be part Jamaican, because he's in like 3 bands all at once, and he gave me the latest releases from his label by Die Laughing, Sheep On A Cliff, and Life's Torment, all of which, is just some amazingly sick shit. Just raw, fast, angry, brutal, truly old school punk rock that just makes me wish I still did Music Reviews just so I could heap loads and loads of praises on all 3 of the CD's that I got, because they're all really that good. Check out Panic Inc. on Myspace by clicking here, and check out Die Laughing's Myspace page by clicking here, and check out Life's Torment Myspace page by clicking here, and last but not least, check out Sheep On A Cliff by clicking here to go to their Myspace page. 3 good bands worthy of supporting, regardless if they're Locals or not. You should befriend them all, if you haven't already. And make sure to support Panic Inc. too. They're a real label that actually gets things done, as opposed to all the other Punk "labels" around town... fucking douche bags.

Is it Hockey season yet, because I think I got better things to do than watch my beloved Raiders just go out of their way in finding ways to beat themselves each and every time. We should not of lost to the Cardinals, and we should not of lost to the Texans, plain and simple. And with injuries just killing us left and right, I think it's a pretty sure bet that the Chargers are going to anally rape us next Sunday, no doubt about it. Anyone wanna jam that day? LOL

Happy Birthday to Spaz from Monster Zero. He turns approximately 2300 years old today, which is pretty good for a creature such as him. He doesn't look a day over 1750, tops.

Anyways, there's tons of gigs happening this week, like that Nails gig @ Yayo Taco on Thursday, and, of course, the Punk Rock weekend thing happening @ Area 702. I think a certain shitty band is no longer playing that gig, so I'll probably be there. Plus I think I'm supposed to go to a certain special wedding this week too. I'll have to look into that and see exactly when it is. I hope some Cure songs will be sung... heh heh heh. Everything's updated. See you around!

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Automatic

09/20/2010

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I'm sitting in the turn lane at Desert Inn and Paradise when my car just goes dead. No warning lights, no rough running, just instant Death. Phooey. Thankfully my band mate Jeremy rescued me and helped me get my car towed to the rehearsal studio, where it sits awaiting to be taken to a garage and get repaired. The fuel pump went out. Apparently it happens. All of these shenanigans kept me from making it to the 400 Blows gig on time @ the LVCS on Friday, but I walked in just as 400 Blows was finishing up their set to a crowd of about 20 people in the place who could give a flying fuck less at the noise blaring from the stage area. 400 Blows was dying a slow death on stage, and I found myself strangely attracted to watching them do it. The band on stage looked like a bunch of dour L.A. douche bags all dressed in black, with the Singer looking like Brendan Flowers from the Killers if he decided to dress up like a cop. The guitar player looked like he should be playing for Venom and the drummer looked like Stewart Copeland and was just as good a player as he is. The drummer made watching 400 Blows bearable. The dude was just fanfuckingtastic. There was no bass player, but I think the guitarist was making bass noises on his guitar and sending them through to a bass cabinet that was set up directly behind the drummer, resulting in a huge clusterfuck of sound that just wasn't working for me. There was no one watching the band play but me and like 3 other dudes - they seemed to be enjoying it, though, so what do I know. The drummer and guitarist would lock into a groove that would make Jesus Lizard jealous, and then it would get ruined by the Singer's pretentious lyrics and ham handed stage posturing. Phooey. 400 Blows was a huge disappointment, not matching up in any way, shape or form to the band I enjoyed on the Black Rainbow and the Angels Trumpets And Devil's Trombones releases. Maybe I caught a bad gig? Hope so.

I thought the gig was over after 400 Blows, but apparently, the Black Jetts flaked out on playing, perhaps scared of the awesome rock infused power that Pigasus generates, and so all bands played early, and the Tinglerz were left to play clean up to a crowd that was more interested in watching girls ride the mechanical bull than by anything the Tinglerz were playing, which was a shame. They missed out on a guitar laden, energy filled, adrenaline infused set of Rock N Roll that was just vicious to watch. Kei is the guitar overlord Master of his instrument, cranking out thick, crunchy riffs that were perfectly complimented by a bass player that was conjuring up images of Mike Dirnt in both playing and performing. The drummer was young and not a very hard hitter, and even with his drum kit mic'd up, I could barely hear him, and I was standing right against the barriers in front of the stage! LOL It didn't matter one bit, because the Tinglerz played a killer set that had me wondering out loud why more people are not into this band. Was Joe Perv's association with the Tinglerz that bad of a thing? Apparently so. Kei has a lot of work to do if he hopes to over come that tremendous mistake in his musical career. Funny, you think he would of learned his lesson the first time around, when Kei was an original member of the Pervz. Oh well. The highlight of the evening was listening to Jeremy and his friends Brad and Glenn doing this round robin exercise with telling the story of how they got involved with a drunken bar brawl at Hennessey's Tavern downstairs from the LVCS during the Darby O'Gill And The Little People gig, where they skipped out on a bar tab that was well over $100. It would start out with one of them saying, 'And then, a Ninja popped up, and started throwing ninja stars around', and then the next one would say something like 'Yeah, and then I caught one of the ninja stars with my teeth, and I threw it at the waitress, killing her instantly', and then without missing the beat the next one would say, 'And that's why we couldn't pay our bar tab'... hahaha It was funny listening to the camaraderie going on between the 3. Having Friends to fuck around with like that is just the best, and it was a good way to end what could of been a really shitty night.

The rest of the weekend was all about Xbox and Football. Looks like Jesse was right in saying that we needed to get the Pollack in as quarterback, because as soon as the Raiders put Gradkowski in, we actually started looking like a good football team! LOL Granted, it was only against the Lambs, but still, in the NFL, a win is a win, so we'll take it. Next weeks game against Arizona will be interesting, to say the least. Does Gradkowski start? Is the Campbell era over? We will see.

There's a gig with Life's Torment @ the Divebar happening tonight, for those of you who don't care about tonight's Monday Night Football match-up between New Orleans and San Francisco. The Queers are playing @ the Divebar in November. It will take me at least that long to work up the nerve to drag my ass down there... heh heh heh

Yeah Yeah... it's at the Divebar... I know, I know...

There's a house party happening on Wednesday with The State Streets, Away We Go and Start, 2 bands I know nothing about. The State Streets are a Local band creating quite a buzz with their English working class Oi! musical styling. Keep an eye out for these guys (and one girl) and check them out when you can. You can check out the band's Myspace page by clicking here.

Everything's updated. Nothing new has been added, but soon will be. I have 2 out of 4 KISS cups from 7-11, so if you see a Peter or an Ace cup, please let me know where, and I'll swoop them up with the quickness. I don't know what it's all about, I assume it's some sort of tie in with Dr. Pepper, but I love those KISS cups from 7-11. Yeah, I know. Ghey. ;-)

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Body Count

09/07/2004

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It wasn't funny when it was first told to me, but hours later I'm laughing at it. Seriously. If you go to The Loud Pipes message board, you can find some really amusing stuff posted there about me. It's also very slanderous and very libelous, but we'll get to that later. So after everyone and their mother is telling me about this stuff being posted and commented on about me, I check it out after a bit. I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I didn't get the poll or the title of the post. I haven't bothered going to their website in months. Hell, I only found out about the Thrasher Magazine interview being out while me and Debra were shopping at Albertson's one night, so I haven't been keeping up on what my former band has been up to. If it wasn't for Brendan from Absent Minded and Brian from Infestshit, I wouldn't even know they were playing a few upcoming shows. But then, I run into some people I haven't spoken to in a while, and they told me that THEY were the ones who posted it. The funny part is that someone edited what they originally posted, which was something along the lines of Roxie and her oral talents. So instead of just deleting the post, someone edited it to slag me off, and it lead to troubled waters. Funny huh? That people who said they were my friends just turned on me and didn't even have the decency to allow me to explain or defend or just outright dismiss any qualms and tribulations they had about me. What pals. Oh well, like I said, I think it's really funny... sorry if you don't think so. I guess the moral of the story is, people who believe that bullshit posted about me are no longer my friends, and the people who know me don't believe a word of it and are still my friends. Oh well. It's all in the Lawyers hands now... heh heh heh. Anyways, new stuff posted on the Music Reviews page (Social Distortion - Green Day - The Killers - The Hives - Guttermouth - IMA Robot), my Message Board is up and running, and there are some cool shows happening this week. Go to the updated Gig Listings page for all the details. Hope everything is going well with you... I know it is with me!

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Champs

06/30/2004

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True story... I've been sitting here listening to the 45 Grave - Black Cross 7" on repeat now for like an hour... and it's great. I listen to this shit and I remember how good we had it in L.A. "back in the days". So many gigs and different styles of bands that it was sickening. You could go to a show and see a crazy band like 45 Grave on the same bill with the Angry Samoans or Fishbone or even Bad Religion. And I'm not gonna even get into how many touring bands came through there... U.K. '82 anyone? All those glorious shows at the Olympic Auditorium? Fuck we were stupid. We bitched about how the scene sucked and this club was lame and this promoter is an asshole... blah blah blah. Pretty much like I hear people complaining about the scene here in Las Vegas. Same bitching, different plane of existence. But at least I have the sense to appreciate it now. Things are great here in Sin City... there's a ton of diverse bands out and about now... it's summer so that means that a shit load of bored kids will be starting up bands... desert shows are coming back as a force to be reckoned with... house parties as always are fun, just as long as it doesn't happen at your house of course, and that piece of shit bar The Boston is crashing and burning. Woo Hoo! Hopefully the people that read that Mercury story from last week will aid in it's quick and timely demise. And did anyone even bother to read the City Life's Local Music Issue? The Killers? The Luv-Taps? WTF? Lame. So yeah. I have no idea what's going on band wise, and all I've been doing is sitting at home listening to 45 Grave and the fucking AMAZING new album by The Dragons! Holy Jesus... this shit just rocks like fuck, and it literally blew my fucking mind. Go here to read what I thought about it. Gigs Page is updated... if anyone still cares or gives a fuck I posted the next installment of the Tour Diary, and you can go here to read about me passing out drunk in the streets of Oakland... it's late, I'm tired... I'm going to bed.

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Grey Matter

05/23/2004

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OK... everything is running normally once again... although I have no idea how long it will last this time around, so lets just enjoy it for what it's worth, OK? I give you people something to read, and I get... to quote someone who shall remain nameless, a delusional narcissistic view of self-importance. Hahahahahaha... chicks... you gotta love them. Alrighty then, lets get to what's going on in the band camp... which is basically the same thing as last week, which is long hours and a huge amount of work for the Tour. We've been mailing out press packs, promo posters, flyers and other assorted goodies, printing up merch that will keep us well fed and very drunk while out on Tour, buying extras of everything we can afford to, like drum skins, amplifier tubes, strings, picks, cymbals, sticks, etc., but hopefully we won't have to use any of that stuff, cuz we're gonna be nice to our equipment and not bash into them or beat them with great vengeance and furious anger like we usually do. Yup. That's the plan anyways, but I highly doubt that it's gonna work out that way. Just like our show at Jillian's on the 27th didn't work out that way... they double booked the place, and instead of dropping the lame Emo show that's gonna draw like 20 people, they drop our show instead 'cuz we draw too many rowdy punk rock people... booooooo. Oh well, I wish them luck with their sucky show. And speaking of sucky, I posted 3 Reviews of the newest and in some cases only stuff from local faves Sin City Ghouls, The Dirty Babies and The Killers, and you can click here to go to read what I think about them. It's pure bullshit, I assure you. So uhm yeah... can't wait for this Tour to start... can't wait to see some old friends in new places... can't wait to see some new friends in old places... can't wait to see how other people react to us. Gonna be a load of fun.

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