"But, that's the way Life is - Luck of the Draw, you know? There's no dancing around it. It's Luck. It's like, you can't plan your Life. Doesn't work. So you might as well be ready for anything. Ready for anything."
                      
                                        - Lemmy Kilmister Dec. 22nd, 2015.

Yeah, I got no cool "I met Lemmy" stories. I mean, I met him numerous times, had some drinks with him, and bugged him with stupid questions, about Punk and Metal and he would always inevitably leave me in favor of some drunken bimbo with big boobs. Classy guy. I would of done the same thing. ;-) And besides, I was more of a "Philthy Animal" Taylor type of guy anyways. That's where all the good drugs were being done. ;-) Fucking drummers. But still, Lemmy always took the time to talk to me, and that always struck a chord with me. I loved the man.

I knew about Motörhead before I ever heard a note they played. I read about them in various fanzines, magazines, etc., which was usually a tale of drunken debauchery somewhere on the road, accompanied by a picture of 3 of the ugliest guys I had ever seen. They looked scary. They looked dangerous. They looked fun. I first saw Motörhead in the summer of 1980 when they opened up for Ozzy Osbourne at the Long Beach Arena. Ace Of Spades tour. First U.S. tour too, I believe. Yeah, you can say that my life was forever changed from that night onward, although I didn't buy a Motörhead shirt that night. I bought an Ozzy Osbourne one because it was cooler. After that, I made it a point to try to see them every time they played the L.A. area, growing to love the band more and more, seeing them play no matter where, and no matter with whom. I saw them in '83 - Another Perfect Day tour with Brian Robertson! The shorts! The shoes! hahaha - at Billy Barty's Roller Rink in Fullerton, where Billy Barty himself drunkenly sat on a stool by the door and told people walking in Hope you kids brought your ear plugs - these guys are loud!! LOL I saw Motörhead in '86 at Fender's Ballroom (with the Cro-Mags, Dayglo Abortions, and Raw Power) on the Orgasmatron tour, where I drunkenly stuck my head into a side fill cabinet and listened to the entire Motörhead set like that the entire night. I tell everyone that it's the reason for my deafness / tinnitus to this day. My hearing was never the same after that night. Nope. About this time is when the band started getting super popular, and I sort of dropped out from seeing them. The albums were sub-par pseudo-Metal at this point and held no interest for me. I last saw Motörhead when they played the House of Boooooo's a year ago and I had to walk out of there about 3 songs in. The band sounded terrible. Lemmy looked like an animated corpse, and he sounded like shit when singing, always a step behind, and having a hard time getting the lyrics out. They were playing sooooooo slow. The fact that the clueless people liked it sickened me. The Viciousness was gone. The Danger was gone. So was the Spirit. It was sad to see.

But I digress. This isn't about how much Motörhead sucked towards the end of their career. It happens to every band I'm told. Rather, this is me ruminating on the passing of a Legend. A God. Gods never die. Legends live forever. The beautiful thing about Lemmy was that he was an outlaw, a rebel, a bad guy, and much like Al Pacino in Scarface, he was an unrepentant bad guy that we are never going to see the likes of again. Ever. Last of a dying breed.  I'm so fucking bummed. Not sad, per se, but just, again, feeling bummed for selfish reasons. I mean, if Lemmy can die, what chance do the rest of us have? His passing just means that I'm one step closer to Death, and with my recent medical diagnosis, I'm feeling my mortality today, and I'm a little worried about it. Life's too short. It really and truly is. I'd say rest in peace Lemmy, but there's no rest for the wicked - right? So instead, I'll say you should snort some meth or Jack Daniels and play some Motörhead LOUD AS FUCK and bang your head until it falls off. Just don't stick your head into the speakers. You'll probably go deaf. Stone Deaf Forever. ;-)

I think it was appropriate that on the anniversary of Joe Strummer's passing, I spent it with friends drinking my face off until wee hours of the morning, listening to old dusty Clash singles. <3

Yeah, after showing up to the Pints With Punks show with a case of cider, 20 shots of various pre-packaged sickly sweet girly shots with names like 'Ginger Snapz', 'White Rhino' and 'Red Hot Apples', we, that is us 3, that is, Matt, Bob, and I, pretty much got drunk on the air and had a great time doing the show, grubbing down on some amazing food that was left behind for us by the lovely ladies who do the radio show before us. After that bit of fun business was done, we all came back to the Dojo for some much needed R & R and a little early Christmas celebration. It wasn't a "Miami, Bitches!!" kind of shindig, but it was still a good time. It felt needed. It felt deserved.

Punk Rock Warlord. Can't believe it's been that long since his passing. I'd say Rest In Peace, but we all know there's no rest for the wicked, and Mr. Strummer was a very wicked man. Salud!

What a fun time was had in Pasadena!!!

Thanks to The Generators for inviting us out to play their annual Chaos For Christmas toy drive benefit gig. It was a blast!! The Old Towne Pub in Pasadena was once an old fire house (or so someone drunkenly told me) that's now a bar that has gigs, and in order to get there you have to walk down the cleanest, most well lit alley I have ever seen. Space was tight inside, but that just made things more intimate and better. It was a windows fogging up kind of night. Remember when Against Me! played @ the Skillet Cafe back in 2003? Probably not, but it was THAT type of night. Sweaty drunken fun. Thanks to Sean for being the cool guy that he is, Doug Generators for doing the interview for the Pints With Punks show, which will be aired very, very soon. Teddy, Chris, and everyone else in The Generators for being such gracious hosts, and to the drummer of The Malchicks for letting me use his kit. The Malchicks just recently got back together after a 16 year hiatus, and if you're into the whole Droogie / A Clockwork Orange schtick, then they were the perfect band for you. Think The Adicks or Lower Class Brats and you'll have The Malchicks. I watched them from outside. Matt dug them. Other people there did too. I stood around outside drinking and shmoozing and catching my death of cold while The Generators played. That tiny bar was sooooo fucking packed there was no way to get in there. They sounded pretty good though. Played a few choice cuts from Welcome To The End, my favorite album of theirs, as well as a Cock Sparrer cover. I think. Like I said, I was pretty out of. The place had such a good vibe going all around it. Everyone was just chillaxed. People kept giving me beers, people kept knocking them over, people would give me more free beer. Totally funny. When that last call rolled around, all we had to do was walk back through the well lit alley right across the street to where our hotel room was. Easiest load out ever!! ha ha ha Sticking around the next day and watching the Raiders lose to the Packers wasn't worth the aggravation, so we headed home halfway through the 4th quarter. Ugh. Ugly way to end a season.

See you Saturday Pasadena!! The Civilians are coming for you... ;-)

Broloaf! ha ha ha Yeah. Fuck those putos. I've played with a lot of bands over the years, some more professional than others, and I think I know a bunch of bullshit Cockstar posturing when I see it, and man, I gotta say that those flat brimmed sporting, wearing their hats sideways frat boy mentality ass grabbing chodes in Broloaf just reminded me of how much that shit sucks. It's been awhile. I didn't know bands still did that shit. They set their gear up right in the friggin' middle of the stage at the Beauty Bar, and when we told them to move that shit to the back, they said 'No, we can't move it. Agnostic Front wanted the gear right in the middle of the stage (I think they were back lining but not sure). So we, well not me actually, because I plenty of room in the back of the stage, but for the rest of The Civilians up front, between the huge ass monitors near the front of the stage, and the dooshbag Broloaf equipment in the middle of the stage behind them, well, there wasn't much room to move around at all. Pity. And then they play after us, and it's comical. Schticky, unoriginal pablum puke soft as baby shit Punk band. They had confetti cannons. Enough said. One of the front men had a wrestling belt he was displaying as he was talking like a brain drain steroided out wrestler of some sort, and I dunno, it got old real, real fast. Their friends, who all got in for free because Broloaf took it upon themselves to use all the passes for the other bands +1's to get in, seemed to enjoy the mediocrity though. They sang songs about smoking weed and going to raves. Whatever. They couldn't end soon enough. And what does Agnostic Front do when they finally get on stage? Bitch and complain because they had to move the equipment to the back of the stage where it belonged in the first place. Dicks. So yeah, the award for Biggest Douche In The Universe goes to Broloaf. Fuck those clowns.

Other than that, it was a pretty OK gig. After The Civilians played, the 'nickel fucking beer night' officially got under way, with people giving the bartenders a quarter and getting back 5 cups of Pabst, and then immediately looking around for 2 or 3 people to give free beers to. I didn't pay for a single beer all night! LOL The antifreeze was much needed, as it was freezing balls cold outside, and those damn space heaters the Beauty Bar had spaced around the outdoor gig area weren't doing shit to keep people warm. Loved hearing scene chicks in barely there booty shorts bitching to their boyfriends that they were cold and wanted to go home. Who wears shorts when it's obviously going to be freezing cold outside? Very dumb people obviously. Oh, and Roger from Agnostic Front. He was sporting cut off sweats while he was pouncing around up on the stage... heh

Agnostic Front were shockingly bad. Seriously. They came out playing almost everything from the Victim In Pain album, but they were playing the songs at like, half speed or something. The fast parts were played slow, and the slow, breakdown parts were played fast. Weird. The bass was non-existent, and Vinnie Stigma's amps wasn't even turned up, which is par for the course nowadays. He's fucking great at getting a crowd going though. He had those way-too-fat-and-way-too-old-to-be-Hardcore-dancing guys up front going nuts with his fist pumps and forward leaps. Agnostic Front was all shitty drums, badly played guitar, and mumbled vocals with missed lyrics. Sad. I had to get out of there, because I was so shocked at how bad the band sounded, and they definitely weren't worth standing around in the cold for, so I grabbed Erika and Bob and packed up the gear and went Home to defrost. If I would of known that Jeff was going to get up on stage with Agnostic Front and sing a few songs, I would of made the effort to stick around and videotape it or take pictures or something. Or at least tried. My fingers weren't working too well, so I didn't take any pictures of any of the bands. At least that's the excuse I'm giving myself about it. Thankfully Bricktop made the effort of standing around in the cold worth it though. They played a great set full of sing-song fist pumping Street Rock / Punk / Oi! anthems. Not as good as the set they played at Gary's Place, but still, pretty impressive.

Gather 'round Brrroothherrrrs and Sisterrrrrs, it's viddy time, so viddy well these viddy's from some friends of mine in bands.

First up, is the new video from The Mapes. Rumor around the campfire is that they're finally calling it quits after 16 straight years of drunken debauchery, but I believe that about as much as I believe that Clay stopped drinking for real reals and not for play-play. The video was directed by Lloyd Kaufman, who, if you don't know who he is, then you suck. It's an odd video. Personally, I can't stand it, but people seem to like it, so I dunno. It took me repeated viewings just to make it to the end, and I still don't get it, but whatever. Check it our for yourself and see what you think of it.

My friends in Walk Proud have a new video out for a song off of their new album called Too Much Is Never Enough, which I gave a write up for a while back. Click here to read it. The song is called Regret, and the video is pretty PFR. Loved the swarthy Pig Man, and loved the running away from the Devil footage. Cool stuff. Check it out and see what you think. :-)

And this is the video we talked about on the Pints With Punks radio show that I know you're all listening to, right? Yeah, whatever. This is some cool footage of The Civilians tearing up and having fun @ Triple B's during that Biker Fest thing we played there a few months ago. You know, the one where the FNG Matt almost got the crap kicked out of him? LOL This footage was shot for some company called Dynamic Business Video, being worked at by The Jimi 2's - Jimi Sullivan and Jim Stone, who used to do a YouTube show with a couple of major losers, but don't hold it against him. He's in a much better place now with a better class of people. ;-) Anyways, Jimi Jim does video work for Local bands (check out some of the cool videos they've done for Be Like Max by clicking here) and they put this incomplete video together for us - mucho Thanx! The song is called I Ride On and again, Thanks guys. :-)