Hey... is it safe to come out? Are the touristy dooshbag Punks gone yet? Are the Locals who support that farce not fatter and older and more content in their 'Punkiness'? LOL I certainly hope so. Seeing all the videos and photos of the event just go to certify what a snooze fest that thing was, for those of us on the outside who didn't drink the Kool-Aid like all the rest of you fools. Hank shared a post this morning that was so dead spot on that I have to repost it, even if it's just to show that someone else gets it, that someone else sees things for what they are. Click on the following link to read what I'm talking about. Dan Ozzi, fellow Punk Rock curmudgeon, I salute you! XOXO

Gawd, vindication feels great, especially after hearing everyone's BS justification of their attending of the event. For the shoddy way they treat Local bands, Punk Rock Posing should be run out of town on the rails, but instead, the Local bands fawn and gush over what an Honor it is to be a part of it, even if it means playing for 20 minutes to an empty parking lot in the middle of the afternoon to a bunch of sheep queuing up to get a good position to view whatever Punk rock cover band is limping it's way through a set of songs they've long forgotten the meaning behind, and that they can barely play with the speed of youthful exuberance they used to, or with the power in which they originally recorded their hit musical opus back in the day. Le sigh. And the way Squid Hat Records was crowing about 'dominating' the festival this past weekend left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I got news for you guys over there at that label - you didn't Dominate, what you did was Perpetrate. Big difference.

And speaking of perpetrating, whatever happened to bands working for what they wanted? When did virtual begging become the raison d'être for lazy bands who don't wanna do their part to further their 'career'? If it's not 'buy us a tour van', it's 'help us record our album', and now, it's 'help send us to Japan'... WTF? Yeah, hugely disappointed by the Dirty Panties whoring themselves out on the Interwebz to pay for their trip to Japan. Click here to check it out, and if you got some cash you have with nothing better to do with it, then support them and buy something or donate or whatever. The Black Jetts went to Japan twice on their own dime. I don't know why the Dirty Panties can't do the same.

Everything's updated. The Seriouslys @ the Double Clown tomorrow night, with Agent 86 and a few others. Sat. if you're not at the Doom In June fest checking out Demon Lung playing songs from their amazing upcoming release The Hundredth Name (click here to read my Review of it), go to the Poker's Tattoo Party with Unfair Fight, Mersa, and No One Listens, whoever they are. A skate ramp is being provided by Blue Tile Lounge, naturally, and BBQ and Booze and BJ's will be given out for free around there somewhere, guaranteed. Later that night Authority Zero and Shotguns N Gasoline are playing at the Time Out Sports Lounge, which used to be known as Jimmy Murphy's (I think) when they were having gigs there back in the day. Might be interesting. Aluminum Falcon is playing with TheCore @ The Dive on Weds. night. I know, right? LOL

Is it me or has this month seemed to drag on forever? Come on June. I'm so sick of May... heh heh See ya around somewhere... hopefully by the BBQ grill or poolside. ;-)

So I spent the majority of the day flaming Trolls on Facebook, chastising them for their poor choices in supporting or attending Punk Rock Posing this weekend. I love that they get soooooooo butt hurt about me pointing out the absurdities of the thing, like the points I raise aren't valid, and that the lyrics to that seminal Dead Kennedys song Halloween isn't basically foretelling the whole 'Vegas vacation - Drunken debauchery - Dance while Rome burns' aspect of it, not to mention the fact that it's basically emulating the whole 'Cock Rock Festival' thing that Punk Rock was supposed to be against, but whatever. I only mention the Halloween song thing because it came on while I was flaming the Trolls this morning, and the lyrics are so dead spot on that it's scary. Exchange the word 'Halloween' with 'Punk Rock Bowling' and it fits just the same. Check it out...

Sung to the tune of Halloween by the Dead Kennedys

Yeah, fuck you and fuck your Punk Rock Posing bullshit. It's nauseating that you're all soooo eager to be a part of the Problem, and not a part of the Solution. Enjoy your weekend you doosh nozzles.

Hi! How are you doing? Me? Oh, I've been fine. Never felt better actually. Playoff Hockey has me all wound up and ferocious, and my wonderful sexy girlfriend keeps me in check by reminding me how amusing everything in Life is, no matter how terrible things appear on the surface. There's always a brighter side. There's always Hope.

So yeah, I've been hiding out as of late, enjoying the calm before the storm that is Punk Rock Posing. I'm sooooo sick of people I know ranting on and on about their lane assignments or about how wasted they're going to get this weekend and about what bands they're gonna see play and whatnot. You fucking sheeple are no worse than Shriners when they go to their conventions, except for those cool hats the Shriners wear, of course, but other than that, you're just like them. You all are a bunch of ass clowns sucking on that Stern dick who dress up in your required clothing format to stand around and congratulate yourselves on being so fucking 'Punk' and 'Cool' and 'Alternative' while some karaoke cover band that used to stand for something and now just wants to get paid plays on in the background while you post pictures on Instagram to show your friends how hip and rad you really are. Gawd you all make me sick. I'm almost embarrassed for you at this point. The sycophantic adulation to a farce of this nature, one that only wants to separate you from your money, and one that's pretty much the antis of everything that Punk once stood for and rallied against, is nauseating. I hope you all die a slow and agonizing death. I hope an outbreak of salmonella breaks out at your precious festival and sickens you all. You all already sicken me, so I guess that's fair.

Speaking of sickening, the flogging of a dead horse continues on unabated in the world of the Clash with yet another repackaging/reprocessing of their already spread thin musical output with the release of another box set, this one presented in a vapid yet pretty boom box looking enclosure, due to be available for mass consumption on Sept. 10th. It contains almost all of their recorded output (with the continuation of the whitewashing from memory of the Cut The Crap release), all albums remastered and remixed yet again, and it contains all the demos and live stuff that were already released on the Clash On Broadway box set, and it contains all the 7" versions that were included in the Clash Singles box set, and it contains all the videos that were on the Essential Clash and Live Revolution Rock DVDs. There's also some recycled and previously unseen footage from Don Lett's Westway To The World DVD in there as well, but if it wasn't used for that release, how good could it be, right? So what's the point in all this? What's the incentive to buy this, you ask? Well, I guess it's the fact that it contains reprints of all the original Armagideon Times fanzines the band did back in the early 80's (which I would give my eye teeth to have copies of once again), and a new one just put together for the box set, and all the badges and stickers that came with the singles when released, like the dog tags from the Straight To Hell/Should I Stay Or Should I Go 7", or the stickers that came with the Magnificent 7 release. Yeah, for $250 you can just shove all that shit right back up your ass where it fell out of. I've got better things to do with my money, but apparently, the Clash do not. Here's an Interview with all 3 surviving members of the band discussing their latest cash cow entrepreneurial endeavor.

Gosh, such a negative vibe in here. I'm going outside and get some sunshine on my face. :-) Everything is updated. New photos of the Gears, the Seriouslys, and the Aggravators just added, and you can click here to see the Gears, and click here to see the Seriouslys, and click here to see the Aggravators pix. I guess I'll be back on here to post something when this whole Punk Rock Posing debacle is over, when the stench of Punk Rock Greed is blown out of the Downtown area... heh

Gilbert, stop being a grumpy old man! Kate jokingly yelled at me from across the MDV rehearsal room we were inhabiting this past Mothers Day weekend, and I yelled right back at her - 'But I am a grumpy old man!' LOL Yeah, it's sometimes ridiculous that I have to explain to people who I am, what I do, and what I've done before getting involved with them in new musical projects. Some people get it, some people don't. Some people could care less, and others put waaaaaaayyyy too much importance in what I write. Whatever. It's good to be creative with people who enjoy the satisfactory feeling one gets when working on songs together. It's quite the rush. I hope you know what I'm talking about...

So yeah, it's been a pretty quiet, uneventful past few days, a few minor incidents aside. Another Punk gets thrown in the Hendo jail (say Hello to Bob while you're in there Cody! LOL), more people have Birthday celebrations (Happy Birthday Joker!), Band Drama continues on unabated (broken guitars and shattered glass... how cliche!), and the Lady and I stroll through it all unapologetic and blissful. It's fucking great. It's our 2 month anniversary, which is about a month and a half more than I thought she would put up with me... heh Plus, of course, it's Hockey playoff time, with the Sharks getting ready to annihilate some L.A. poseurs to the California Hockey Crown, now that the Anaheim Schmucks have limped off to their off season shame and destitution. So yeah, things are going great around these parts. I'm in such a great place right now it's not even funny.

Everything's updated. New photos of Galaxy Express, taken a while back when they played with the Gears at the Bunkhouse, are posted and available for your viewing pleasure, and you can see those by clicking here. I did a Review on the latest from Demon Lung, and you can click here to check that out. I'm not the best person to be commenting on a musical genre I'm not too comfortable with, but I did my best to convey in words what an absolutely stunning piece of music their latest release really is. It's called The Hundredth Name, and it's pretty fucking heavy, like epically heavy, and I've been listening to it for days straight now. Like I said, click here to check it out and, as always, comments are appreciated. ;-)

Oh, how sweep it is! :-)

Who's the first team to advance into the 2nd round of the NHL playoffs?
Oh, why that would be the San Jose Sharks, that's who, and they did it in a decidedly dominant fashion, destroying the lackluster Vancouver Canucks in a 4 game sweep that, hopefully, will result in the burning and looting of that city by a bunch of crybaby Canadians with nothing better to do with their poutine stained appendages. I dated a chick from Vancouver once, and the less said about that the better! Yeah, fuck you Vancouver. Enjoy your golf game, you bunch of cheating fucks you. 

This weekend's past excursion to the Reno/Lake Tahoe area of Nevada was quite the event. It was weird being thanked for playing gigs up there, and told how nobody ever plays around there and stuff. Whatever. We ran into some Scene Drama with some Promoters up there as well, but did our best to avoid getting involved with it. The scenery was gorgeous. Winter chill was heavy in the air, even when it was 80 degrees outside. The Autism Matters Benefit we played on Sat. got cancelled because it started raining and the wind was blowing like crazy, and various points it was lifting the entire stage that it was anchored to up off the ground. Crazy. Only 3 bands got to play - Vegascendents, The Liver Scars, who were a pretty sloppy Punk Rocking group, and the Riptide Bandits, an instrumental Surf band that did Black Sabbath covers. Gee, where have I heard that shtick before? LOL The bands that didn't get to play - The Deadly Gallows,  a local Beardcore band, Infecto Skeletons, local Skunk Punx extraordinaire, and Melvin Makes Machineguns, local Punk Rock Legends that we heard all sorts of crazy, drunk ass stories about. Even if only half of them were true, it would still be impressive. Yeah, Sat. night was alright. There are worse ways to spend an evening in Reno, that's for sure. 

Fri. wasn't any slouch in the Fun Dept. though. Nope! After a nice and leisurely 8 hour drive up North, we arrived in Lake Tahoe just in time to check into our rooms, do a little sight seeing around town and then some pre-gig dinner grubbing at some fancy pizza place. Whatever. After a round of mini-golf with the Blues Brothers (don't ask), we headed back to our hotel rooms to watch Hockey and relax. Jeremy's flight out of Vegas had been delayed for a few hours, which gave Mike and Tyson fits, of course, but when he arrived in his douche bag red Mustang convertible, with the top down mind you, in 40 degree weather, well, we knew then that everything was going to be alright. :-)  It was a good turnout for the gig, with even Danny, who I hadn't seen since the Ditch Dust BBQ with J.F.A. a few months back, in attendance. He had just moved back to Lake Tahoe a few days before, and didn't even know the Vegascendents were playing. He just saw me standing around in front of the bar while he was riding by on his bike. How cool is that? LOL We played 2 sets for some reason, and the 1st one was a dazzling display of musicianship from 4 fat guys who had nothing better to do on a Fri. night than rock the fuck out of some Descendents tunes, and the 2nd one was a chaotic mess that is best avoided being remembered. After the bar closed at like, 1 in the morning, we headed to some place called Mont Bleu, which the Locals told us was the happening after hours hot spot. The only problem was that it was a casino, and being from Vegas, we weren't impressed with this small, dumpy place. We grabbed some food and killed time by Bro watching and laughing at the Bro-ho's that were stumbling around drunk. Keeping it classy in Lake Tahoe!   

The drive Home on Sun. was quiet for the first few hours, as I think everyone was a we bit, oh, how shall we say, "under the weather". After passing a lake in the middle of nowhere that host submarine testing for some reason, and checking into a creepy clown motel in downtown Tonopah, we got back to Vegas just around sundown, unloaded, unwound, put things back the way they were with the van, and headed off to our respective vehicles and called it a day. Reno is a cool place to play. I'm looking forward to going back there again sometime soon. 

Everything is updated. I'm going back to bed. Smell ya later. 

I had first met Jeff Hanneman through my friend Mike Boetl. He was knee deep in the Thrash scene in L.A. in the 80's, and he took me to see Slayer play at the Troubadour on a Thurs. night after our band practice. 'You'll like these guys - they're kind of Punk.' he told me on the drive up there, and after seeing them play, in all their Hollywood make up / pleather clad Judas Priest glory, I decided they were OK and went and saw them again a few weeks later at a VFW Hall across the street from where I went to Elementary school, and after seeing a room full of Metal maniacs and drunk Punx just fucking shit up while Slayer raged on in the background, I knew I had a new favorite band. :-) The picture to the side here shows pretty much the Jeff Hanneman I knew and hung around with -  a really cool kid who could party with the best of them. Jeff Hanneman brought the whole Punk credibility to Slayer, and he wrote most of the crucial material for the band. Think of your favorite song by Slayer, and I bet Jeff H. wrote it. His passing yesterday is just hard to get around. The guy's the same age as me. If he can't make it to 50 then what hope is there for me? LOL He was in bad shape towards the end there, but his performance at the Big 4 concert in Indio a while back had me optimistic he was gonna pull through and play/record/tour again, but years of alcohol and drug abuse curtailed what was an extraordinary musical adventure for an Oakland Raiders fan from Huntington Park. Just shocking, sad, and stunning. Today is a day to just reminisce about my friend Jeff and all the good times we had together a long, long, time ago, in a world that no longer exists, blasting Slayer at a ridiculously loud level while doing so. Rest in Peace my Friend. You definitely earned it. Entlassene Soldaten.