slow it down, rock it out

I stole this video off of of Punknews.org. So yea, it is the Menzingers doing a pretty cool, slowed down, acoustic-y version of "I was born" off their new album.

It is a great listen.

The Menzingers "I Was Born" from Panic Pulse on Vimeo.

new blacklist royals album came out yesterday...

I want to write up how I feel about the new Blacklist Royals album "Semper Liberi" (available on iTunes or in physical formats from various places, including their label Paper + Plastick but I need to listen to it a little more before I feel I can truly write something that I feel fits it well. I will say that this is not something I can easily say happens often. I can traditionally get a good feel for something right off the bat and to me this feels like mid-west punk laced with some street punk and then tossed with a little new jersey care of The Gaslight Anthem.

If that does not get you interested in listening (which it should), check our this video. Makes me want to play with fireworks...

Things that are getting me excited for the summer...

I hate summer as a rule. In Chicago it's hot, humid, sunny, and usually really wet and rainy/swamp-like for part of it, followed by extremely desert-like oppressive heat at the end of the summer. However, there is also lots of music, food and outdoor shit going on.

BUT BUT BUT

There are a few things coming up that have me pretty excited:

Albums:
June 8th: Against Me! ~ "White Crosses"
Off With Their Heads ~ "In Desolation"

June 15th: The Gaslight Anthem ~ "American Slang"

Shows:

June 17th, @ The Beat Kitchen, Polar Bear Club and Moving Mountains

July 27th, @ House Of Blues Chicago, The Gaslight Anthem

Bonus* July 4th, @ Milwaukee Summerfest, Against Me! (pretty sure I am not going to make this one, but you should still)

It is a good thing when people who really care do something

So, last week I went to The Lawrence Arms' show benefiting the 2 girls who were robbed and brutally beaten, near death, in Wicker park. Neither one will probably ever be like she was once was as they have limited brain activity, despite starting to recover.

So yeah, The Blind Staggers, Dead To Me, and The Lawrence Arms all agreed to play for free and help raise some cash and Subterranean in Chicago. It was a Wednesday night and despite being during the week, and the show starting at 9pm, the tickets sold out within a week of going on sale. Honestly, I am not surprised, great bands, great cause and overall an awesome thing.

The show was great, The Lawrence Arms continue to be rad guys when I get the chance to talk to them, their music just gets better and better and they continue to solidify themselves as one of, if not are, my favorite band(s).

The whole reason for the show was that Brendan Kelly, bassist/co-singer/co-lyricist for The Lawrence Arms was angry that something like this attack, which was planned out, could happen in his neighborhood and that someone would decide to stake out the street, looking for drunk people to rob and nearly kill just for the contents of their purse. Yeah, I know this happens everyday, all over the place, and on Brendan's blog he addressed the trash talkers etc, so I am not going to talk about that here. No, I am talking about the fact that something terrible happened, a person realized that it could have just as easily been them, or any of us, walking home with friends after a night of drinking in a neighborhood bar, and decided to do something to help. This is the best part of the show. Not that it was an amazing night, which it was, but the reason behind it. It is a fact that people seem to forget about all of the time lately, that we are all in this together.

Just this morning, I was talking about how I hate that it has come down to the fact that people are almost afraid to help people, afraid to speak up. No one seems to offer to open a door, help with something heavy, lend a hand, because, you never know if that person is going to try to "get" you afterwards or rob you or something. People seem to be afraid to even just speak up about things that they can actually impact. Its like people who bitch about the government but don't vote, complain about where they live, but don't try to clean up after themselves. It is this self-centered mentality that seems to be everywhere, I am guilty of it. You are too. You can not sit there and deny that you are not. We all are. More than half of the people I told about the show did not even know about the girls and how they were attacked. The reasons ranged from "I don't watch the news" to "I only listen to NPR" to "If it is on the liberal news networks, I don't watch it."

The story made national news. One of the girl's parents flew all the way from Ireland to be here with their daughter.

This brings me full circle. The "punk" community (i am not here to try and disseminate the various sub-genres and what not, it is all punk really) seems to me to be, and has always been, about things like this. It seems that a bunch of 20 and 30 somethings can come out full force and jam into a small club and sweat and stand shoulder to shoulder together all to see great live music, have fun and support a good cause is an amazing thing. It is a great evener music is. It seems to balance the scales. Everyone there was singing along, moving around, enjoying themselves regardless of who they are or where they are from. Sure, every show has its negative person here and there, but overall, punk shows seem to a pretty communal event. I am not saying hippies and shit like that, but I am saying that for the most part, we all have the same goal and are not trying to ruin it for anyone else. Most music does this to most people, but I think that we all need to stop thinking me me me and help an old lady with something in her car, open a door for someone at work just stop bitching about what is wrong and try to do something about it and inspire others.

I have been a really negative person lately, I am going to start trying to turn that around into something positive.

Brain Fallon KEXP In Seattle, acoustic

Brian Fallon from The Gaslight Anthem has recorded some acoustic songs off the new album "American Slang" that comes out in a few weeks. You can listen to the tracks on the KEXP 90.3 fm website and let me tell you, i am continuing to get more and more excited about this.

Tom Gabel explains it all

Tom Gabel from from against me! has a blog with a pretty cool post about their new single and the video i posted a few days back.

New Sundowner Album coming August 10th.

Chris McCaughan from the Lawrence Arms has confirmed on his facebook page, as well as through other sites, that his followup to his outstanding 2007 release "Four One Five Two" will be released on August 10th through Asian Man Records.




I had a chance to see Chris play as Sundowner quite a few times, but a month or so back, I was at the Beat Kitchen in Chicago for the most recent Sundowner show. It was a great mix of old songs, a few covers and a slew of new songs. Based on that show, I am SUPER excited for the new record. I still listen to the old one on a weekly basis, so this August should be something worth waiting for.

Broadway Calls new video for all of you

Broadway Calls have posted the video for "Basement Royalty" from their side one dummy album "Good Views, Bad News"




Basement Royalty

Broadway Calls | MySpace Music Videos

you'd think my being sick i would be posting more, but all i want to do is sleep

Free Riot Before B-Side

Hey, so I have mentioned before haw bad-ass the new Riot Before album "rebellion" is. Well, now you can get a free b-side here. Have not listened to it yet, but if it is anything like the album, it should be rockin'

you can buy the album, for pretty cheap, off amazon MP3 by clicking the album below.

Tom Gabel, to me, looks like a man who is having the time of his life doing what he is doing

Honestly, every interview i have seen, every show, every time i have seen him do anything, lately that is, Tom Gabel looks like he is having a blast. I wish I felt like that more often.

Today AM! released their video for "I was a teenage anarchist" and to be honest, i think it rules. It is simple, it is to the point, it is not some overt film student's "vision" and most importantly, it fits the damn song. Which if MTV still played music videos, would probably mean they would need more neon and whores.


"I Was A Teenage Anarchist"

Against Me! | MySpace Music Videos

From the ashes of Jena Berlin

There once was a little punk rock band called Jena Berlin. The put out 3 official releases, "Quo Vadimus," "Passion Waits as the Program keeps going," and "this is yours as much as it is mine" which is a little harder to find




Jena Berlin were a strong band that seemed to be under most people's radar. They had amazing musical arrangements with powerful and rough vocals. The vocals were almost shouted, but not like a scream, more like a forceful discussion. Check out there stuff, if you like what I have written about so far, then you will probably dig this band.

Sadly, Jena Berlin called it quits last year. But, out of the ashes comes a new band called Restorations. I was finally able to find their ep, "strange behavior" this morning and I am not disappointed. To me, it feels like a punk/country/americana album. There are some female vocals. It really is an interesting listen. Catchy, makes me want to listen to it over and over to really get s strong feel for it. The guitars and instrumentation feel familiar, but old familiar. There is almost a classic southern rock feel to it. Like Lynard Skynard, but in a good way. A really good way. Please do not take that in a bad way. Lucero has a similar kind of instrumentation. Yeah, let's use Lucero as my comparison. That is less likely to scare the rest of you off.

Keep listening to the album, it has something to it. There is no weirdo synth or bouncing around parts. No guy coming out of nowhere with some stupid screamy shit or rapping over music. There is no girl waking up in a bathtub like street-trash. This is American rock 'n roll. These guys could down the street from you and you would walk down there to take a listen. There is something to that. Think about it. When was the last time you heard something faintly that grabbed you enough to stop by and listen? That was what happened with Broadway calls last weekend when i saw them. That is what this band would do. I think my dad would even like these guys.

RESTORATIONS, I WANT MORE

The lyrics to this song really fit my mood about my job lately

"The Redness In the West"
The Lawrence Arms


Wasting away, never felt this way before
I played all the ditties they were hollerin' for
Then they shot at my boots and told me to dance
And I didn't really want to, but before I had the chance

To say my piece, everyone was laughing in my face
Safe to say I hate this place

Do you want to get lost, 'cause I can't stay found
I've done my time killing days in this town
I got a little itch and I'm thirsty
All I want to know is who's coming with me

Fuck you, you're cool, fuck you too
The last goodbye is simple and true
I got a fever for the cowbell, boys
I fell for the beat but I stay down for the noise

Break into something that's beautiful now
Tell me that it's gonna be okay
Or exalt my friendships and line up these bottles of Beam from my crib to my grave
I wrote it to end it this way

Let's get lost 'cause I can't stay found
Hell, anywhere is fine if we drift out now
I'm so tired of doing my dying here
We'll fuck 'em all, we're gonna fuck 'em all when we get there

There, there, there, there
This time we're gonna roll where only fools dare
We're gonna lie, lie, lie, lie, lie tonight
Then we'll disappear

Cobra Skulls, Broadway Calls, Dear Landlord....2 bands i missed

Sooooooo... Last Saturday, I went to the Beat Kitchen in Chicago to see Cobra Skulls, Broadway Calls, Dear Landlord and 2 bands that I missed: The Reganomics and American War. I had a cancer fundraiser to go to prior, and the last time I saw the Reganomics, I was not really that into them, so it all worked out.

To start off, the Beat Kitchen is this little bar/restaurant that has shows in the back. Typically, really badass shows. The bar area is small, with some booths, good prices on drinks and good food. They are really good about keeping underage kids from the show out of the bar area too. The band area is just a large room in the back with a stage at the back end and a little bar/merch area on the side that goes into the main bar.

The show was awesome. I got there just as Reganomics was finishing up. The room was pretty full, but I had no problem getting up into the crowd and ended up getting to talk to Toby Jeg from Red Scare Industries, who just happen to be the Cobra Skulls label and was hosting the show. Toby is a super cool guy and seems to be kind of surprised that the label and what not have taken off like they have. Even gave me a high five for saying I liked what they were doing. You should check out Toby and Brendan Kelly's show on JBTV called Static Age

Dear Landlord went up and completely torn it up. They went from song to song with pretty much no stops and really impressed the whole crowd. They are somewhat of a supergroup with guys from Rivethead and The Copyrights and they music akin to Polar Bear Club, Hot Water Music...kind of a poppy-er sound at times. You can definitely hear the influences from each band. If you ever get a chance to watch this band, take it.

Broadway Calls were next. They actually acknowledged that following Dear Landlord was a tough band to top. Alot of the crowd went out of the band area before they started playing and did not really come back before they started. However, once they got a few songs in, their strong songs and super catchy choruses drew a HUGE crowd back in. I think a lot of people were unfamiliar with their songs, but that whole room was moving with them by the last half of their set. That was quite a feat considering the room was probably over 85 degrees at this time, pushing close to 90. I love Broadway Calls, i have seen them a few times by now, they have never disappointed.

By the time Cobra Skulls went on stage the place was PACKED. Brendan Kelly, Chris McCaughan and Neil Hennessy from the Lawrence Arms were all there, and they are all super nice dudes.

For those of you that have never heard Cobra Skulls, my brainchild explanation at 1:30 am on the way home was that they are almost like Against Me! and Tiger Army had a baby. High energy, galloping beats, bouncy bass lines, jangly guitars and somewhat gruff vocals. It was a blast, even some '80s covers made their way into the set.

I need to start remembering to bring my camera.