Fuck, I haven't even felt the urge to write anything as of late. Dunno what's up with that. Weird.

The Pints With Punks radio show went pretty good last night. A lot less beer than we had last week, and that was good I think, but the music selection still really sucks. I guess it's better to play 40 year old songs than something new that came out this year. Whatever.

Raiders beat the Titans on Sun., but I slept right through it. Even though it was a supposed easy win, they said the same thing about the Detroit and Minnesota games... ugh!! These growing pains really suck. At least the bandwagon is a lot emptier now... heh heh

Karl B. turned in a write up on the Good Grief cassette tape that's making the rounds of our fair city, and you can click here to check that out. Personally, I wouldn't walk across the street to piss on them if they were on fire, but meh, what do I know?

Sat. was that Small Business Saturday bullshit. I did my part by hitting up 11th Street Records and Moondog Records, both of which were just outlets to sell over-priced vinyl to clueless Dipsters, although it was cool that both places sold actual record players. I don't recall Middle Earth or Lovell's doing that. I didn't buy anything from those places, but made a killing buying up all sorts of cool collectible normal priced vinyl from Cash For Chaos - Thanx Mel!! :-)

I gave a write up to the latest and possibly greatest thing that Unfair Fight has ever done, and that's release a flexi with 5 (6 if you count that 2 songs in one thing they did, There Is Still Time / Gleaming The Cube) of the most intense, in-your-face Hardcore songs you're ever gonna hear, and you can click here to read the ass kissing review I gave that thing. It's not for everyone, but that's good. You're not liking it only serves to validate me... lol

I posted some pictures I took of Fuzz SoLow playing @ Triple B's a while back. You can click here to check those out. I posted the few photos I took of Sham 69 when they played @ The Dive a while ago, and you can click here to check those out, but I wouldn't bother. They suck. The pictures, not the band. :-) I also posted some pictures I took of The Swingin' Pedestrians (click here) and Lil' Mo And The Dynaflos (click here) playing at that Enchantment Under The Sea thing that went down a few weeks ago. Don't ask what I was doing there...

I also gave that new Leather Lungs release a write up too! The new release from them is called Are Human Too, and you can click here to check it out. They're one of the better bands gigging around in Vegas right now and you'd be doing yourself a favor by checking them out. Great band.

Band practice this week. That's going to be "interesting"...

Sometimes, do you ever feel like killing someone you love?

I did, last night.

The audacity and arrogance displayed had me seeing red. The fact that it was coming from a "friend' made it even more unbearable.

Embarrassing, to say the least.

Maybe I need a vacation? Maybe I should just stay away from people and these annoying situations?

But other than that, the Pints With Punks show is going really good... LOL

Never a dull moment, that's for sure.

Seems like every time The Civilians come back from Arizona, we get into some sort of a weather related calamity. Last time when we went to Cottonwood, we almost died in a white knuckler of a blinding snow storm coming back from there, and this past weekend, we got caught in a visually striking but time consuming desert rain storm, making the seemingly 7 hour drive home from Tuscon stretch out into more than it should of been. Ugh. But we passed the time singing Tom Jones songs and bad 80's Metal tunes, as well as quizzing each other with Top 5 Favorite lists and debating the merits of various musical classifications. The weekend itself was lots of fun. Lots of eating and lots of fun. We ate at this amazing place called the Iguana Cafe, which was full of Mexicans and Indians drinking beer out of cans, and us. Chicago Music Store, Hotel Congress, we hit all the touristy spots. I got to play The Simpsons Pinball Party pinball machine at some cool pinball place called D & D Pinball in Tucson, as well as the Captain Fantastic machine, aka the legendary 'Pinball Wizard' game featured in The Who's cinema classic Tommy. Made it to the Surly Wench Pub, which was right around the corner from the pinball place, and which is still just as awesome as it always has been. Love that bar. Never made it to Toxic Shock Records, or Toxic Ranch Records, as it's calling itself nowadays, but that's OK because I spend waaaaaayyyy too much money in that place every time I'm there. Never made it there because by the time we were done shooting pool and drinking at the Surly Wench Pub, it was time to head to the park for the gig. Phooey. The gigs themselves were just glorified drunken practices, with the gig @ Gary's Place on Fri going down at some industrial part of town, using stolen electricity from the storage rental place right next door. Punk Rock Old school thievery, I like it. The venue was like East Side Joe's, but actually dangerous. Sat's gig ran a bit late because the gazebo the bands were supposed to play under had a Quinceañera going on that was running a wee bit late, and we all know that it's bad luck to bum rush a quinceañera, so we wisely waited until everyone left before the festivities began. I had to play on a slanted piece of concrete, using a car trunk liner to keep my drums from slipping away from me while I played, which made things... interesting. We did an interesting thing too with the Civilians set list for the park gig; writing every song we know down on a piece of paper and letting people from the audience pick the songs out of a hat and then announce them on the mic before we played them. It kind of backfired on us though, as all the first songs that were pulled from the hat were all our fastest and hardest hitting songs. Kudos to FNG Matt for not wavering one bit when Dane Unstable Youth's daughter asked for a CD. Do you have $10? Matt said with no hesitation, and that's why he's the most excellent Merch guy... LOL Every band we played with was cool. Extra special Thanx! to our 'Brrrruuthherrrrsss' in Bricktop, who were an excellent band and even more courteous hosts. See ya next month with Agnostic Front! :-) As always, Thanx! to Dane and James and everyone in Unstable Youth for kicking ass and being so righteous to us. And Thanx! to Creepy Don from We Might Be Wasted and Tommie from The Dime Museum for making the trek out to hang out with us. They were staying in the same hotel that we were, which made our stay... interesting... heh. Oh, and Thanks to Downstroke for playing both gigs with us. They were a really good energetic young band with a kick ass drummer who played his kit low slung along the ground. Cool to watch. We never made it to the spot in downtown Tucson where Dave Mapes was hit by a train, but other than that, it's never a dull moment in Tucson. Had a blast. <3

I was too burned out to make it to the Timmy's Organism / Leather Lungs gig @ the Dive on Sun. Too much fun, lack of sleep, and hours spent on my ass in the van just had me all kinds of 'Meh' and feeling like staying home and relaxing. Sorry guys. I'll make the next gig - promise.

Every. Fucking Time. <3

Anybody who has ever played in a band with me knows, that when I first sit behind the kit, the first fucking thing I play, the song that I warm up my broken down, dying legs, and my battle scarred feet with, is the Motörhead classic Overkill. What a fucking song!! The thunderous double kick drum work of Mr. Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor on that song is one that still makes me go 'Wow' each and every time I hear it, and I definitely feel the burn each and every time I play it. It's Tribal. It's Brutal. It's all encompassing. It's the stuff that has influenced millions of Drummers around the world to try to play like that, to ride that riff, to emulate, and that's just one of the many wonderful ways that Motörhead and, in effect, Philthy Animal Taylor, have changed the world for the better. What a Legacy. I, like everybody else, have a few "I met Philthy Animal from Motörhead" stories, but they're just as boring as everybody elses story. I've seen Motörhead more times than I can even remember, and standing there watching him play, laughing my ass off at just how ridiculously easy he made it look, powering through all those classic Motörhead songs one right after the other, with a mouth full of gum to keep his tweeking jaws active, was truly one of the greatest things I'll have ever seen in my miserable Life. The man lived large, like a Warrior, and I don't even feel sad, really, but more like, I feel like standing up and giving applause, saying 'Well done! What a Life! You've earned your rest lad. All Joy in the world belongs to you now. Enjoy.' What a fucking great Life led. If anyone can say that they did it all, and that they did it their way, it's fucking Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor of Motörhead. Did it all, and had one Hell of a time while doing so. Gawd damn. I'm feeling my mortality today. I'm gonna go cue up some classic Motörhead, to be played at a sickly loud volume, and sit behind my kit and proceed to bash the living fuck out of it to every Motörhead song that I know, doing it until my fingers bleed, doing it until I can't no more, doing it because Philthy Phil would of wanted it that way. The man truly was an animal on the drums. Someone cue up Overkill. I feel the need to Rage. :-)

R.I.P. Rock In Peace Philthy Phil. God bless you for everything you gave to Punk and Metal music. You will DEFINITELY never be forgotten. Salute!

It's official. Brandon didn't make it.

The entire Punk music scene he was a member of has come together big time in a massive outpouring of Love to carry with him on his journey, and to let those he loved and left behind know just how much we respected and loved the man. And now that he's gone, it's time to come together and help to make things easier on his family. We take care of our own. Click on the link below to donate any amount of money you can to help offset the medical and funeral costs. This one is gonna sting for quite a long time.

RIP Brandon Lee Carlisle 1978 - 2015

My deepest, heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

No words... numb.

I knew from the beginning that it was the end. Statistically, logically, it's the only conclusion possible. What kind of Life would it be? And would it be a Life? Probably not.

Another tragedy through drugs is a sad way to go, but it's Rock 'N' Roll, so what the fuck. PFR, right? No it's not. Fuck you! It fucking sucks and I fucking hate it. Gawd damn it...

But when you get right down to it, it doesn't fucking matter the how's and why's of how he died, what matters is the Legacy he leaves behind, with everyone he met and touched having nothing but kind, heartfelt words about the man. It won't be like that for you or me when we pass away, that's for damn sure. I don't know a drummer anywhere who watched Brandon play and wasn't completely impressed right out of their shorts by him. I stood there completely floored and flabbergasted while watching him play, and always walked away from a Teenage Bottlerocket gig feeling less of a drummer than when I walked in. Easily one of the best drummers I've ever seen in my Life, and I've seen some of the best drummers ever play, so make of that what you will. I make an effort to tell those around me how I feel about them all the time, because unfortunately I know just how fragile the gift of Life is, and I don't wanna die without them knowing exactly how much I love them and how I really feel about them, and something like this is the reason why. Nothing is guaranteed. Tomorrow sometimes doesn't come for some of us. My deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the Teenage Bottlerocket family and friends and fans of the band. This is such a fucked up situation. I don't even know what else to say. Gawd dammit...