You know when things aren't updated on here that I'm up to something. Sometimes it something Silly, sometimes it's something Stupid, and sometimes it's something Serious. These past few days have been amalgamation of all that. Doesn't matter though. I'm always there when I can be, and I know my Friends are the same way. <3 That's why they're my Friends, and that's why some people are not.
 The other night @ Jesse & Roxie's Jesse asked me if I had ever heard of a movie called Searching For Sugar Man. I told him No, and he proceeded to show me this flick about this 70's recording artist named Rodriguez, who recorded a few LP's in the 70's and then faded into obscurity, except for in South Africa, where he was considered a Legend and his records outsold the records of Elvis, Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined. No one, not even his record label, knew what happened with the artist named Rodriguez. Some said he killed himself on stage after being heckled, some said he committed suicide by setting himself on fire, and some said he was doing life in prison after killing his lover. Lots of rumors but nobody knew anything definite. This movie is about 2 guys from South Africa who go on a mission to find out just what exactly happened to the Artist and the Man named Rodriguez, and it's one of the most enthralling movies I've ever seen. I love stuff like this. Everybody should see Searching For Sugar Man. It's been nominated for an Academy Award. It's that good.
 So yeah, it's my Birthday this Sat. It fucking sucks getting Old, but much better than the alternative. To add to the morbidity of the event, I'm playing a gig at the fucking Double Clown. Holy Jesus. What did I do to deserve this? I always seem to play a gig on my birthday. Last year it was a gig with The Heroine at the Bikini Bar, where I woke up the morning after with mashed potatoes in my underwear. This year it's at the Double Clown with a couple of bands called Soto St. from CA. and Skull Drug, from AZ., who I've never heard of or know nothing about, and I'm too lazy to Google and find out about. Besides, I like to find out about bands when I'm actually standing there in front of them and watching and listening to them, not from some shitty YouTube videos. Oh well. Should be a fun and interesting night. I'm gonna be there, some of my Friends are gonna be there, and I guarantee that it's going to be a much better performance than the last time the Vegascendents played there, where I ended up in the hospital immediately afterwords. Not happening this time. Nope. :-) Everything is updated. I'm off to dream. Hopefully...
OK - you wanna know the REAL reason why nothing's getting fucking done around here? It's because of this - that damn Simpsons - Tapped Out iPhone game. It's consumed my whole Life as of late, and I can't seem to stop it - even if I wanted to! LOL If I'm not setting up the balloons for the Thanksgiving day parade, or making sure that Apu is feeding the quintuplets, or that Willie is working on his manifesto in his little shack, then I'm collecting money to buy doughnuts and more junk I don't need for the game. If you play it, and I hope that you don't, then you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. Damn you Simpsons creators for making such an addictive game! LOL Yeah, between this and sexy time with my girl, or the constant band practices my insecure band mates foist upon me, I'm really getting nothing done website wise, and that kind of sucks. I totally blame Her. ;-) Oh well. It's not like nothing is getting done around here. I mean, Bob turned in a Show Review for some gig he went to @ the Double Clown last weekend that The People's Whiskey played. Click here to read that. It's Bob's usual nonsensical drivel and I'm certain that a few of the bands he's discussing will have their feathers ruffled and be bitchy towards him, like some bands in town are, and I find that amusing. Being Honest about someone's music/passion/art/whatever is always tricky, and I could give a fuck less. Lighten up people. Life's too short, ya know? I think there's some disparaging words in the Show Review Dean turned in for that Horror Business gig @ the Bikini Bar that went down a few weeks ago, but I'm still trying to decipher/decode/disentangle his gibberish and make some sort of sense out of it, so that's coming soon. Oh yeah, I finally posted that Music Review of King Tuff that I did a while ago, and you can click here to read it, and for some reason that write up I gave Unfair Fight's new EP came out wrong, so I need to fix that before I re-post it. Marijuana is a Hell of a drug. ;-) Yeah, Life's pretty sweet right now, and I hope things are with you too. There's a couple of cool gigs happening tonight -- one @ Artifice, the other @ the Double Clown. Choose wisely for something to do tonight. Me? I got a date. ;-)
Shellac last night was AMAZING!! You missed out big time if you weren't there. :-)
See ya Saturday! <3
Youth. Gone. MAD.
The panic text messages went out early on Saturday night. The Brother of the Promoter was letting everybody know that the Promoter took all the money made from the appropriately named Las Vegas Shakedown and left town with it, heading off to hide in Los Angeles with his tail firmly ensconced between his cowardly legs. The Brother of the Promoter was spreading the word that nobody was getting paid - not the Bands, not the Stage Hands, not Security, not the Staff - Nobody - and that he was officially washing his hands of all responsibility associated with the shady Shakedown festival. Like rats fleeing a sinking ship, it was every man for themselves. Bands played for free, and most of the workers simply walked off the job, and I don't blame them. I would too if I knew I wasn't going to get paid! LOL And with that chickenshit move, the Shakedown came to an anti-climactic end, and I say good riddance to bad rubbish. The lineup was terrible, but that was because quite a few bands didn't even wanna work with the Promoter, because of past experiences and stuff they had heard about him. The promotion for the festival was terrible too. Nobody knew anything about what was going on, and the gigs all definitely had a Poseur slant to them. All I saw when I was down there on Fremont Street was Rockasilly faggots walking around with their Chubby Page girlfriends. If it wasn't for Zeke, Custom Made Scare, Flexx Bronco and a few others, there wasn't a Punk band to be found anywhere. Phooey. I hope that the words 'Las Vegas' and 'Shakedown' never come together ever again, and if they do, I hope people aren't stupid enough to support it, and that bands aren't stupid enough to play it.
 And what was I doing down on Fremont Street on Saturday? Why, attending the Occupy Las Vegas protest, of course! LOL I got there @ 4 pm, right when it was supposed to start, and there was nobody there. I checked the website and it said to meet in front of the big pint glass at Hennessey's, and so I grabbed a pint, ordered some grub and took a seat at a table outside of Hennessey's to watch the festivities. There were NHP bikes all lined up along the streets, film crews from Local TV stations were standing around looking stupid, and undercover police officers walked around talking into their lapels, but there was no crowd whatsoever. A few stragglers showed up, some idiot kids were walking around with anonymous Vendetta type face masks on the top of their heads, leaving their faces fully exposed, and a VW van kept driving around the area, with a poster board full of Anti-Big Business slogans and rhetoric scrawled on it, prominently affixed to the side of the van for all the world to see.
Yes, the driver of this van was wearing a Tye-dyed Grateful Dead shirt. :-)
After 15 minutes the Cops started clearing out, the TV crews started breaking their gear down, and the 4 or 5 people who bothered to show up for the Protest just kind of congregated around looking foolish while the Tourists just milled about doing whatever it is they do. I paid up my tab and took a stroll up and down Neonopolis, thinking that maybe I had missed out on it, or maybe the gathering had moved, but I found nothing. I heard someone speaking on a megaphone, but when I followed it to the source all I found was a guy selling and demonstrating toys. After about an hour I gave up and called it a day. As I was crossing the street to leave I turned around and snapped a picture of the Protestors, just for documentations sake. I don't know why nobody showed up, but after this piss poor example of how everybody talks a good game on Facebook, but nobody ever follows through with what they say, I think I'm officially done with all this silliness. This whole Occupy thing might be working in other places but here in Vegas, it's a fucking joke.
The striped pants are a nice touch, don't ya think? ;-)
Jason Campbell... broken collar bone... fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck... Is this the end of our Season? Gawd I hope not. With the Sharks craptacular start this year, Football is the only thing I got going to cheer for! LOL Bring in Pryor! hahaha
I started the 2 a day practice sessions early last week. I'm building up my endurance as well as familiarizing myself with the material... the new material that is. Songs like Ode To Darby and Oki Dog I know like the back of my hand from playing them so much back in the day. If Ena shows up it will be an almost full classic line up reunion, but if not, it's still gonna be an amazingly fun time. Youth Gone Mad @ Rookie's in La Mirada (of course) this Sat. It's a benefit for the Wolf, one of the guys responsible for turning me onto the whole Punk Rock thing when I was a wee lad, and there's no way in Hell that I would miss out on this. No way. Lots of old Friends will show up, and lots of Pictures will be taken. I can't wait. :-)
Everything is updated. New stuff added, old stuff being worked on. Shellac on Weds. @ the Beauty Bar is gonna be AMAZING! See ya there!
I am sooooooooo in Love with Deadhand right now that it's not even funny! <3 I finally saw them play last night @ Hypnotic Billiards (in the same shopping center as Tony's, which makes some of the bombest Mexican food in the City!) and it's almost 24 hours later and I can't stop thinking about what a great performance they put on! Hypnotic Billiards sucks as a venue, because the stage is almost dead set against the front of the circular bar, leaving pretty much the entire prime viewing area directly in front of the stage non useable, forcing everyone to watch from either the left or the right of the stage, and the room's a bit bright as well, sucking up all the bottom end and making everything sound a wee bit trebley, but as far as a viable option for bands to play in a City that sorely needs one, Hypnotic Billiards will work! LOL Plus it's All Ages as well, which is always a plus here in town. I got there just as Ministry Of Love started to play, because the gig MOL was playing before the Signals Midwest gig was running late, and they were sounding really good for the first half of their set, but then I think technical difficulties killed the momentum midway through. It was either that or it was the slower, mid paced songs that they played towards the end of their set. Either or, but Hey! What do I know, right. The kids dug them. That's all that matters. :-)
Signals Midwest were pretty good, with a drummer that was absolutely KILLING IT while the band played their energetic punky pop music!! I love watching good drummers and this guy was really, really good. The rest of the band were no slouches either, but the drummer was the Star. Seriously. I wish Signals Midwest would make Las Vegas a regular stop, because I'd definitely go check those guys out again. Good stuff. I've forgotten how great TheCore are, what with Sal and his whole 'Beardcore' thing keeping the band from playing as often as they should, but man, those guys haven't lost a thing since the last time I saw them play. Just fucking fantastic, although I think they played pretty much the same set as the last time I saw them. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, just saying. :-) They're one of my favorite Local bands and one of the bands I point out to others as a perfect example of what a good band is supposed to be like. I tried to take pictures but there were a couple of dooshy "professional photographer" types (1 of whom was Steve from punksinvegas.com... LOL) running around and getting in the way of my shots, so I just gave up and enjoyed the rest of their set from a distance. Soooooooo good TheCore are. :-) Oh, and did I mention that Deadhand were fucking AMAZING! hahaha Playing a great selection from their debut CD and a bunch of stuff they haven't even released yet, they were just fucking stellar and I seriously couldn't be prouder of Brendan. I've been with that kid through thick and thin, and with this latest release he's just beginning to hit his stride with his songwriting. Just fantastic stuff and they sounded sooooo good last night. Deadhand. Fuck yeah. Buy their new CD immediately and become a fan on their Facebook page by clicking here.
I was gonna go to Saturday's Krum Bums / Dead Neon / Blatant / Toxic Holocaust gig, but I didn't have the $$$ to get in, and by the time Pulsar got back to me and said I would be on the Guest List, I had already made other plans. Sorry. I heard nothing about the gig though, if it was good or not. I'm sure it was though. I heard good things about that Hemlock / Klunk gig that happened @ the Cheyenne Saloon, which is cool. Hemlock has been around forever. Everyone in town has a Hemlock story, either good or bad, and who can forget those classic freeway off ramp wooden board gig announcements, huh? LOL Friday's birthday party for the Prince of Pinche Drummers was splendid. We didn't kill the keg because we were all concentrating on smoking ourselves retarded and shooting whiskey and chugging tequila! LOL There's Pictures of the night in the usual place, but the funny thing is, I don't remember taking or being in any of them! hahahaha Oh Tequila, how I Love thee!! <3Everything is updated. I don't know if I ever said anything about it on the website, but I'm back to playing drums in Youth Gone Mad, and we have a great gig block party thing going on this Sat. in Torrance, CA. with the Yeastie Boys, Million Kids, the Von Steins and a bunch of other cool bands. Yeah, not only am I a Drum Whore, but now I'm doing it in different states! LOL It's an All Day, All Ages extravaganza that is not to be missed! I'll be taking lots of photos, that's for sure! LOL And speaking of photos, the Hell Ride Music Festival posted a bunch of Pictures of the Vegascendents in action when we played there in Fullerton a while back, and you can go here to check them out on their Facebook page. They're pretty good and Thankfully, not centered on me! LOL The guy in the Double Down tee shirt dancing around and singing along was just some random drunken dude having fun. I thought the shirt was ironic, to say the least... heh heh. I'm not gonna make it to tonight's Black Jetts / Tinglerz / Unko Atama gig @ the Bunkhouse because I gotta go help a friend set up their Etsy.com web account, but if you got nothing better to do than please go support a couple of great Local bands and some band who's name translates to 'Shit Head'... heh heh heh It's gonna be a great week! Can't wait to see all my Friends and Family in CA. again!! Woo Hoo!!  A pretty P.F.R. flyer, right?
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