Who Asked Ya?

Spazz Records Reborn!!!!

2010-07-20T16:49:00.007-05:00

Hey!! Its been awhile since I have posted. I opened my record store back up and no longer feel the need to blabber on this here blog as much since I can do it to peoples faces now. Come visit POPshop and Spazz Records here:

http://popshopspazz.blogspot.com/

Or, if you just happen to be cruising across I-20 through Louisiana, we are right off the highway:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS365US365&q=spazz+records+west+monroe%2C+la&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Cya later!

Ebay Misfits Record

2010-01-04T09:58:00.004-06:00

Being a record nerd, I kept an eye on this Ebay auction just out of curiosity. This record below is the only 10" Misfits record that exists, they decided to release a full 12" record instead, naming it Horror Business.

Oh yeah, it sold for a measly $3,751.01!!!!

Dio vs. Carla from Cheers

2009-11-20T13:45:00.001-06:00

Guest Post: Vegan Loves Metal

2009-10-20T15:37:00.003-05:00

Hello br00tal readers! This is a cross-post from the unmetalest place ever, Pixiepine vegan blog. I've put on a hold on sunshine, daisies, and the like today to bring you so super evil sweets and treats.

Hail Seitan! Many dark and defiant vegans enjoy the subversive meat substitute that is seitan. Seitan is actually a very delicious food sometimes caled "wheat meat." It can be made like chicken, beef, etc. to bring a forceful presence to all your hard-hitting recipes. Vegans also wear their love like metal fans do:

Vegans also get in on that DIY spirit! The best vegan food comes from recipes in cookzines!
Please Don't Feed The Bears, Soy Not Oi, Hot Damn & Hell Yeah/The Dirty South!

Another very integral part of food blogging and the vegan world is cupcakes!! Much like underground musicians, some vegans want nothing less than world domination.
Check out these very metal treats from some innovative bloggers!

The Black Oven: Immaculate confections succumbed to northern darkness is a blog featuring all manner of dark and delicious baked goods.

Check out Le Petit Gateau, which Megan describes as "baneful in their absolute disdain for your tastelessness, and...misanthropes as far as baked goods go." Excellent!!

Here's a link to Metalcakes done by Kathy Bejma. This blogger is truly inpspired! A little press on Metalcakes is here.

Maybe not so metal, but still kinda rock-n-roll are these KISS cupcakes from Clever Cupcakes.

Thanks for reading! I'll leave you with Heavy Metal Cooking's Episode, Seitan with Satan.

Pacific Northwest Record Shopping Part 2

2009-08-07T09:49:00.005-05:00

The second part of these inane record nerd posts has us going up the Pacific Northwest. First stop is Olympia, home of many bands my wife loves. The first place we spotted was...

Phantom City Records

Small but good record store. Picked up an awesome record I had lost along the way:

They also had the entire catalog of Insect Warfare on vinyl, but I settled for this 7" since I haven't heard it:

If you find yourself at Phantom, walk around the corner to this place, it was fantastic:

Next, we took a boat from Seattle to Victoria, BC and right across the street from our hotel was:

Wow, records are expensive in Victoria. New records are easily from $25-$40 dollars. Not quite sure how that works with the exchange rate and all, but I don't think it makes that big of a difference. I got lucky though and found this used for $10 and a couple other items:

which complimented this 7" I had ordered from Dr. Strange Records a couple months back. Its an awesome punk relic!

Back in Seattle, we were headed to check out Sonic Youth and The Gossip at the Capitol Hill Block Party when HOLY COW! another ...
This one wasn't as good as the Portland store, but I was still stoked as I found a Jon Spencer 7" I had never heard.
We kept walking around and ran into this store, which was just mind blowing in its metal-ness:
They had Slayer, like Haunting the Chapel-Slayer blasting from the speakers and a crap load of metal metal metal vinyl. It was too much, I was too broke and too tired. That store totally was the bomb, but I had to get out of there.

Record Nerd

2009-07-28T10:06:00.008-05:00

My wife and I went on a birthday/honeymoon/vacation to the West Coast and I got in some heavy duty record shopping. Before we left I wetted my whistle by pre-ording this:

Purple? Hell no! Its gotta be green vinyl for Municpal Waste!

First we flew into Portland and we stayed two blocks away from this this place:

...Which is open from 9am to midnight!!!! Holy smokers was this place HUGE, I mean Amoeba huge. I went there everyday I was in Portland (actually, I went twice in one day) to check their New Arrival bin which was catorgorized by day. They also had the biggest collection of punk 7" I have ever seen and they were mostly $1 a piece! Woah!

I picked up this:

and a bunch of 7" records. Since they were just a $1, I got anything that grabbed my attention, but was pretty stoked to find Destroy, Snuff, Strawman, and a Blanks 77/Submachine split with Dwarves covers. On the Blanks side its got a picture of their bass player and says Featuring: Hewhocannotplaybass. Nice.

Their website says "Portland, Oregon's Finest Selection of New and Used Records, CDs and Collectables" Which is fine and dandy I guess, but I couldn't find a single thing to buy. Maybe its just the location but everything was expensive. I went there twice even and left empty handed both times.

Down the street though is Crossroads. Another huge store and the coolest thing was the old flyers of past shows on the ceiling. I'm a big Poison Idea fan, so I was stoked to see their flyers.

Next was Music Millenium, another huge record store. Its absolutley nuts how much vinyl there is in Portland and I never even had time to go to the other four record stores it has.

Their new arrivals were picked through pretty good, but I did find this for $5!

And my wife bought this:

Next post will have Olympia, Seattle and Victoria, BC record shops. If you are interested in more of our trip, you can look at my wifes blog here: http://cuppapixie.blogspot.com/

Vegan Up Yo Ass!

2009-06-01T16:58:00.009-05:00

This post was originally for my wife's vegan blog here: http://cuppapixie.blogspot.com/

Hi Pixiepiners! I’ve been slowly educating Leslie on the most important subjects known to mankind and that is the history of punk/metal/hardcore. Sure she already had a fantastic taste in music and who would want to marry a woman that DIDN’T know every word and nuance of Bikini Kill’s “Suck My Left One?” Not me buddy, I ain’t no fool! Although she had some blank gaps in her musical knowledge when it came to “wind milling” and “breakdowns”, it’s just because she, unlike myself, has a more mature and intelligent taste in music. Well, except for Peaches, haha.

Leslie was unawares of the vegan movement in punk and hardcore and so I was showing her stuff on the Interbot one night and how even some metal dudes were all up in it. I offered to do a blog post for her and here it is. Now this is in no way Jose a definitive history or even factual, haha, so take it for it is. Come climb into the time machine as I set the dial to 1986…

Youth of Today

As far as I know, they were the first band to put vegetarianism into hardcore punk. I still love this video!! It’s so corny and hilarious and I still dig the music! Check out the T-shirts in it: Insted, Judge, SSD, Bold. Haha, I love it. NO MOOOOOOOOORE! BMX Youth Crew!! When I was a kid I had to tape a copy of this album off my friends record player and his record player always played everything too fast and I listened to that tape a million times and I still can’t get used to how it really sounds. So just in case you’re not old and getting crusty, like me, or have decent musical sensibilities and never listened to this junk, the singers name is Ray of Today and he went on to start Hare Krishna-core with a band called Shelter. It was a huge deal back in the day with religion getting involved in punk and MaximumRocknRoll had a 1,000 page article and everyone was arguing “scene politics” and crap. We went to go see Shelter play when they came to town and Ray told us about his stance against violence and told us he was now against slam dancing and stage diving. Then he tried to make all of us testosterone fueled teenagers take off our combat boots and sit cross-legged throughout the performance. My memory is a little fuzzy but of course he got heckled relentlessly by the crowd and my sister pegged him with a bottle or something, she had pegged an onstage Ian McKay with Chap Stick around that same time as well, I might be getting it mixed up. My friend Nigel told me that we ran into Ray of Today in London years later when I was living over there and I must’ve had too many pints as I can’t remember that at all, but he said I was nice to him though. I wish I still had my Youth of Today shirt…

No More
Meat eating flesh eating think about it
so callous to this crime we commit
always stuffing our face with no sympathy
what a selfish, hardened society so
No More
just looking out for myself
when the price paid is the life of something else
No More
i won't participate
we've got the power we've got the might
to take whatever is in sight
not even worried, it's an unfair fight
well we've got a heart to tell us what's right
our numbers are doubling in 88
cause the people are starting to educate
themselves their friends and their families
and we'll have a more conscious society

Another more popular vegan underground band in the 90’s that sang about veganism and influenced thousands of kids to kick the meat were Earth Crisis. I had heard their song Gomorrah's Season Ends and knew I had to go see them when I lived in San Francisco as I had been hearing about the East Coast militant straight edgers and plus they were playing with Madball who the singer is the brother of the singer in Agnostic Front who I saw sing one song when Agnostic played with Suicidal Tendencies and he brought down the house. Ok, I am rambling.. so anywho.. Madball were great and then Earth Crisis does their slow brooding thing and the pit is warming up when someone gets in the pit and unloads a bottle of mace on everyone and fights break out and the show is officially screwed up. If I remember right I think they battled through it all and got through a whole set. I didn’t really think San Francisco would be ready for NYHC in the 90s anyways. Econochrist was about as hardcore as the scene got back then.

Seitan Worship!

Carcass and Napalm Death

Both British metal bands are legendary in metal and they are vegan! Actually I think only a couple dudes in Napalm are vegan and the others are vegetarians.

These were the first two metal bands that I had heard about being vegan. There’s a lot more now as you can imagine, and there is actually a list here: http://music.vegan.fr/

Cattle Decapitation are one of the more outspoken metal vegan activist bands around these days.

I even saw that Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy is up for Peta’s “World’s Sexiest Celeb Vegetarian 2009”

Well thanks for taking the time to read my post, I hope that some of you were like Leslie and never heard of this stuff and maybe found it interesting or entertaining. My blog is http://whoaskedya.blogspot.com/ if you want to come over and visit.

Chillaxe!

2009-05-26T15:34:00.005-05:00

Hi! Well I’ve been busy getting married and buying a house and all types of other things and haven’t had to much time to mess around with this blog. When not running around and pulling my hair out, I like to chill and watch some things that lift the human spirit and re-kindle my faith in the human race. Here is some concert footage that does just that:

I’ve always had a soft spot for Green Day since the time my band played with them in front of a whopping 5 people at a club in San Francisco. Billy gets two horns up in this vid.

Be sure to skip to the 1:40 mark of the video quickly before you have to watch/listen to any of this monstrosity. Fabulous ending though!

This is sooo funny, I love how Kiss lines up together like a evil-doer fighting machine!

Feel the love!

Best Band Name Evahhh!!!

2009-04-06T09:30:00.010-05:00

I was talking to my girl about WKRP in Cincinatti about a rock band they had on the show one time that destroyed their hotel room and their name was was really funny but I couldn't remember it. I had to look it up via the magic of the Internets and it was from the episode "Hoodlum Rock". The band was called Scum of the Earth and WKRP had a banner hung up that said "Welcome Scum!" and Herb was worried the banner would attract the wrong kind of people, haha. That got me thinking of some of my favorite band names. Some I realized I haven't even thought about the meaning of for decades like:

Circle Jerks

and

The Dead Milkmen

Of course you gotta have some weirdness and/or artsy-ness thrown in for a good name, such as

Throbbing Gristle

or the always eye popping:

The Butthole Surfers

I remember when they made bumbper stickers that just screamed "BUTTHOLE" in giant bold pink letters. Too funny.

And then there was

...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead

To which I was all "Ohh fuck yeah!! Awesome name!" And rushed out and bought it only to be sadly disapointed that the music was neither "crushing-death-metal-like-none-ever-heard-before" nor was it "murderous Charlie Manson Family flava of anarcho-punk". Just lame-o Indie. Which made me hesitant to ever listen to this next one, although I love the name:

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness

Here are some of my favorite, lesser known band names that I love:

John Cougar Concentration Camp

Starvation Army

The Horny Mormons

Carnage Asada

And my favorite of late, if not all-time(although I'm not sure if foreign readers will understand it fully):

Blood Bath and Beyond

What are your favorite band names?

Youtube Drummers

2009-03-25T08:26:00.006-05:00

I've been learning to play the drums since December. Here’s a picture of me rockin’ my set:

I've been using Youtube a lot for techniques and tips and how to's and have run across some pretty crazy drumming videos. Here's my favorites and don't worry, you don't have to be into drumming to enjoy these:

I almost just wanted to quit after watching this little dude.

This guy has a ton of very helpful videos and always wears this awesome suit (no reason to watch whole thing):

Whats worse than a lazy hippy? A lazy hippy that can play Slayer laying down:

To finish up is Tigger's grandmother:

Nirvana’s Autographed Nevermind

2009-03-17T09:15:00.008-05:00

Many of my customers from Spazz Records will recognize this disc, it hung on the wall during half of its short existence. I am looking to sell sell SELL! If you are interested in making a serious offer for it or any questions, email cobain.kurt40@gmail.com .

Edit: People have asked me and that email address is just a temp one I created to field offers.

Metal in 3-D!!!

2009-03-13T08:44:00.008-05:00

So I took my two daughters to see the Jonas Brothers 3-D movie today. Holy cow! Tickets were $15 a piece for a matinee show and a Fandango charge so for the three of us it was a whopping $49.50!!! Maybe in a big city that ain't much, but here in BFE, that’s outrageous. Compare that to a Fugazi $5 show! Well, I had promised my kids before I knew how much it cost, and they more than deserved to see it, besides I wanted to get outta work early, ha! Well we got our 3-D glasses and sat down and watched the trailers of more movies coming out in 3-Deeeee and I could feel the money jumping out of my wallet as most of the coming attractions looked awesome! Then the "Jo-Bros" hit the screen/stage and my daughters were singing along and shaking their “booties” to the songs. I've said it many times before and I'll say it again, the Jonas Brothers are not sooooooo bad. Most of my friends would puke at that sentence, but then again most of my friends don't have kids and have never suffered through Barney and Teletubies for years. If your not a parent, believe me when I say that it is a pleasure to have your kids listen to real instruments no matter how bad it is after 8 years of Casio keyboard pulsing lameness.

The movie was actually kinda cool if it only lasted say about 10 minutes instead of 2hours. They must've had a hundred dang cameras everywhere and you could really see what it was like to be on stage rocking a 20,000 seat arena. It might sound cliche', but I was struck by how Kay-Rayzeeeeee the teen girls were in the crowd. It was kinda scary feeling when they put you on stage with the zombie like grabbing action of 20,000 girls trying to get you (errr..them).

So of course this got me to thinking “Where was this technology when Dio was rocking The Spectrum in Philly back in 1984 or whenever the hell it was? Can you imagine a 3-D version of Iron Maiden's Live After Death tour? Well, yes I can!! I was there! But did I ever want to leave that concert?? Hell no!!! Is $15 + Fandango a helluva a lot of money for a movie? Well, I guess its relative cause I would give my left testicle to still be there. I would pay $100 easy to watch a 3-Deeeee movie of one of these guys that actually made it into the show:

Iron Maiden riot

(Bah, can't embed the video, BBC are bloody fascists!!!!)

Don't even get me started on G.G. Allin in 3-Deeeeeee, haha, or say this show:

(Many classic moments in the above Municipal Waste vid, btw. If you never seen it, stay with it through the 9 minutes, its well worth it. For example, the 5:25 mark was pretty much all I did in my 20's. Naked guy alert at 7:29)

How about the Studio 54 show with Exodus, Slayer and Venom!!

I rest my case.

Slayer Vinyl

2009-03-01T17:31:00.010-06:00

Woooooooo! It was a rollercoaster of emotions in the final seconds of the Ebay auction, but I FINALLY got my paws on this baby right here:

Here's a blurb I found about it:

http://www.slayersaves.com/rare-collectibles.php

Reign in Blood LIMITED LP
Release date: around 1986

Here it is.....the holy grail of Slayer! This limited edition Reign in Blood Picture LP was released in extremely limited quantities and is very hard to find today (the original). It's highly sought by many Slayer collectors...However if you search eBay you might stumble on somebody selling it one day.

But geeeez wouldn't you know it, I found this 7" for sale on Ebay. I've never even heard of it, but from the listing it seems to be legit. Says that Slayer only made 10 black vinyl and 10 clear vinyl ones and they are hand numbered. This guy has both versions and is selling only the clear one, which is #8/10. Its still got 7 days left in the auction and it already has 16 bids on it. I'm keeping an eye on it though to see what happens. I am guessing it will sell for hundreds, if not a thousand. Its damn sexy though!

EDIT: 41 Bids and it sold for $350.

Punk Names

2009-02-17T09:40:00.006-06:00

I was watching that movie about the Germs called What We Do Is Secret (which was horrible, btw)…

…and they had a scene where Darby gives everyone their punk names. Then my punk friend Jerry told me he was having a baby and asked for name ideas. That got me thinking of punk names and so here's a list of some that I thought of:

Rob DeCradle- The Freeze- Great band! Check them out if you never heard of them.

Lux Interior- R.I.P.

Lydia Lunch- She earned the surname "Lunch" by regularly stealing lunches for her (often starving) artist friends.

Anne Arkie-I can't rememebr who this is, just remember the name.

Spike Anarchy- Fictitious name used as a stereotypical punk dude.

Johnny Rotten- yeah

Sid Vicious- A famous wrestler haha

Joey Shithead- DOA Once fought Thor!!!

Jello Biafra- Dead Kennedy's also had East Bay Ray, but thats not very punk!

Iggy Pop- yeah

Dinah Cancer-45 Grave deathrocker, used to go out with Nikki Sixx!

Richard Hell- yeah

Steve Ignorant- Crass dude

Eve Libertine- Crass dudette

Germs:
Lorna Doom
Pat Smear
Darby Crash

X:
John Doe
Exene Cervenka- Cervenka is her real last name, I looked it up
Billy Zoom
DJ Bonebrake

Johnny Thunders- yeah

Rat Scabies- The Damned's drummer

Capt. Sensible- The Damned's singer- In September 2006, he formed a new British political party know as the Blah! Party

Stiv Bators- Real name Steven John Bator, not too much different!

Chuck Biscuits-Jeez Louise! I looked on Wiki to see why the "Biscuits". It didn't say, but check out all the bands he's played with: Chuck Biscuits (real name Charles Montgomery)was a drummer for Victorian Pork, D.O.A., Pointed Sticks, The Subhumans (of Canada), Randy Rampage, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Descendents, Brown Sound, Red Hot Chili Peppers (in 1986), Weirdos (one San Francisco show), Fear, Floorlords, Samhain, Danzig, The Four Horsemen and most recently, Social Distortion. He has also filled-in for popular bands such as ABBA, Hootie and the Blowfish, and he is the apprentice of metal legend Peter Steele. Fuck!!!

Fat Mike- yep

Poly Styrene- X-Ray Spex singer

Tesco Vee- I get the “Vee”, but why the Tesco? Anyone know??

Miss Hell- Michelle, old friend of mine.

Spazzy Brad- Me! Given because of my now defunct Spazz Records, haha.

Iron Maiden Post #1- The Children of the Damned

2009-02-04T08:28:00.007-06:00

"Let's see those haaaands, yeeeeeeeaaaahhh!!!!"

(Well this post got quickly out of control, it was supposed to be an introduction about my love for Maiden. I kept finding more and more cool stuff and I got to meandering all over the Internets. But it’s still good, hang on!)

WOOOAAAHH!!!

Here's a spin-off to the movie of Children of the Damned:

...and the Spanish version with more br0tal shotgun cover!!

Anywho... back to topic.

Mai-den! Mai-den! Mai-den!

And they are looking a tiny bit better these days:

Oh wait... that’s the female cover band The Iron Maidens!

Bruce Dickinson:

And a challenge to the throne of Blackie Lawless for the best all-time name in metal. I give you:

Aja "Bruce 'Lee' Chickenson" Kim:

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

What was the topic anyways? Oh yeah, this is coming!!!!!!

From the same guy who did this movie:

Oh boy

2009-01-27T14:28:00.005-06:00

This picture just KILLS me and I had to share. I knew I would find something perfectly dumb right after I posted about dumb things in metal! Its of the band Symphony X I came across while surfing.

Welcome... to the Twilight Zone.

Top Ten Dumbest Things in Metal That I Absolutely Love

2009-01-23T08:34:00.011-06:00

There's a million dumb things in metal, and this list could be ginormous, but here's some off the top of my head.

10. Nitro's 4 neck guitar, the "quad neck" guitar:

9. Blackie Lawless- Not only the best name in metal, but he is very dashing as well:

8. Gutteral Cricket "Vokills"

7. Tom Araya's high pitched screams on early Slayer albums.

6. Iron Maiden "get-ups"

5. Any song that starts with lightning and or rain or just sounds plain creepy. (btw, this clip is the song Rain in Blood and only has the drum and vocal tracks, no guitars.)

4. "Killed By Death"

3. Caninus band with the death metal "singing" dog

Not only do I have this record, but I got a Caninus T-shirt too!

2. Twisted Sister videos

1. Ronnie James Dio (#1 on any list!)

Clubs

2009-01-21T10:46:00.012-06:00

I went out to Los Angeles recently with my girl and we were doing the touristy stuff there and were walking down Sunset Blvd. (not as in: "Walking alone down Sunset Boulevard, feelin' hungry, feelin' mean, feelin' hard..." as Rollins once sang, although I was humming it for sure...) and we stopped in front of the Whiskey a Go Go to look at the calendar taped to the front door. I noticed the door was unlocked and said to my girl, "Hey, look we can go in". Before she could answer a guy walked up behind us and said "Hey, you guys wanna come in?" and I said Hell Yeah! Awesome! Thanks! I had been in there once before to see the Descendents, but that was 17 years ago. The guy explained they were upgrading the PA and he let us goof around on the stage and stuff and we said "X played here" and "Iggy was right here" and all that cheesy stuff, haha and took pictures of each other.

That got me thinking about clubs and all the ones I've been to and stuff like that. Then last week the topic was in my brain again cause I bought and watched this awesome and highly entertaining movie on an old club in Portland:

So in order, here's some clubs that I have great memories in:

The Squashpile- Asheville, NC

I can't find pictures on the Internet of it at all, although there are videos of Live! Naked Girls playing there on Youtube. If I remember correctly, some people moved from Chicago to Asheville and they owned it and I think they also owned the store What Do You Want? or something like that. It was all ages and they encouraged us to hang around and let our crappy band play there a couple times. The coolest thing they had was a rope on the stage that you could swing out on and use for stage dives, etc. Of course I was going bezerk during a Antiseen show and knocked myself unconscious and gave myself a concussion from one such stage dive. Some other bands I remember seeing there were Anti-schism, Bedlam Hour, Rednecks in Pain, M3, Tragic Mulatto, Pure, Sewer Puppets (Kurt from Buzzoven’s old band) and I think Neurosis was supposed to play there but didn’t show or something.
Most of the big shows at the time (late 80’s) were in Charlotte so we used to go down there to The Milestone (I still have dents on my shins from the corner of that stage) and the Pterodactyl Club and a couple others I can’t remember the names of. Or if it was someone we just HAD to go see, we would truck it all the way to the Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill.

The Milestone:

The Tabernacle- Atlanta, GA

I’ve only been there once, but it was to see Slayer on the South of Heaven tour. Overkill (ha!) and Motorhead opened. My friend Keith and I skipped high school, and drove the 6 hours down there and had to sleep in his two-seater car on a cold night which was miserable but totally worth it. I remember the sound in there was awesome and some dude had upside down crosses on his face, which was super crazy at the time.

Slayer melted my face. Slaaaaaaaayer!

924 Gilman St. –Berkeley, Ca

Well, there is a book and a movie about this club and yeah, there’s no reason to rehash all that junk here. I was there for 10 years or so and I moved to California because I had read about this club in MaxuimumRocknRoll, which is funny to think about now. I remember the first night I went there Neurosis (Word As Law era) was playing, and in full swing and I walked up to the back of the pit and this girl comes flying out of it and bites me on the chest, hard, and then throws me into the pit. I had teeth marks and bruises for a week. Welcome! Another not so good memory was when a skinhead punched me out and broke my nose and it’s still wonky as I never went to the hospital, I had to go work my 2am security guard job with two black eyes and a broken nose. Otherwise, every band played there and it was awesome and life changing. Maybe a future blog post all on its own.

Continental Club- NYC

I think I am still paying off on my credit card the time I flew from SF to NY for New Years to see The Ramones and at the time some crazy new band called Nashville Pu$$y. I am guessing that was 12 or so years ago. It was awesome though, first trip to NYC and I loved it.

I really wanted to go to ABC No Rio, but nothing was happening. Its still there though, so someday I will go hopefully!

I went by CBGB’s but it looked touristy and lame and had Salsa dancing or some crap.

There's a lot of clubs in San Franscico I could list as well, but these are the best memories I have.

Black Flag Singers

2009-01-12T10:03:00.005-06:00

Keith Morris from 1976-1979.

Then:

Now:

I saw him with the Circle Jerks way back when I was 18 or so in Salt Lake City. I always loved the Circle Jerks as they were one of the first punk bands I ever heard, actually it left such an impression on me, I can still remember exactly where I was when I heard it. I was playing basketball and my friend Kenny said "You have to hear this..." and it was the song I've Got the World Up My Ass and it blew me away. We sat there and listened to it over and over and then played basketball singing the song at the top of our lungs. This was probably in 1987 or so I am guessing. So anywho... back to 1991... I'm at the gig and for some reason I decide between songs to jump up on stage and shake his hand and then I turn around and stage dive back into the crowd. I've got brand new Docs on with the steel toes and I come down off the crowd toes first and crack all my toe nails in half on one foot. Haha, what a dolt.

Ron Reyes (Chavo) (1979–1980)

He's the guy that was the singer in Decline of Western Civilization movie that lived in the closet (literally). Then he hit Dez in the head with a brick and smashed the tour van's windshield and was thrown out. Now he's a born again Christian.

Dez Cadena (1980–1981)

Then:

Now:

Yep, I had no idea he's joined the Misfits. Well, not the REAL Misfits, but y'know what I mean. He also played in some band called Carnage Asada in which I think might be up for consideration in the "all-time best band name" list.

Henry Rollins (1981–1986)

Henry gets too much press as it is. Meh. Hey, remember the girl bass player that was in Black Flag for a bit? Who the heck was that? Well, I checked it out, her name is Kira Roessler:

She married Mike Watt and was in the band Dos. Now, she works on a lot of movies as a dialogue editor.

Thor

2009-01-08T14:17:00.009-06:00

WWWOOOOAAHHHHH!!!! How have I never heard of this guy till today??? Thor Central is a goldmine of everything that makes the Internets great!

Here is a 1978 promo shot of Thor and the Imps.

...and it looks like they used to break blocks with a sledge hammer on Thor's chest for the stage show. They weren't no shoe gazing band!

I'm not sure what the deal is with his furry shield:

Looks like the 80's rolled in or they watched the movie Warriors too many times, but it was time to update the image.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Cherry Bomb!

Over in the fans section, they have actual fan letters to Thor, you gotta go take a look. Here's my favorite:

They also say this about the letter:

Reggie Bibby sent in this letter and illustration to THOR back in 1978.
We tracked him down in 2004, and he still has the autographed photo
that THOR sent him in return for his fantastic fan letter.

Freakin'-A, that is awesome!!

Here's some sweet album covers:

...and oh yes, the classic 80's album cover!! I recognize this album, but never knew what it was.

Go take a look at Thor Central , it will have you entertained for hours. There's all kinds of greatness to be found there.

Best Metal Albums by Decade

2009-01-07T08:22:00.006-06:00

Lists lists lists. All over the TV since it was a New Year. Best movie, biggest event, best videos, etc. Well, since you asked, here is my list of best metal albums by decade.

1970:

Ok, I didn't have this till the 80's since my parents thought they were evil. Worth the wait though! Toss up between this and Let There Be Rock.

Sure there was Motorhead and Priest and most would argue Sabbath was the best in the 70's, but I have always been on the punkier side of metal.

1980:

This one is easy:

...with a nod to:

1990:

I'm going with

Totally blew me away when I first heard it. A close second is:

which was great, and I think many will argue their first album was better, but I heard this one first and thats just the way it goes. I might buy their newest one just because I saw that it comes with a patch that says Glenn Benton for president with his picture on it, haha. I wouldn't even listen to the music, but would love just to have that patch. For those who don't know, Benton is the singer with an upside down cross burned into his forehead. I love this kinda crap, btw.

2000:

I cannot listen to this album enough.

I think they might release a new one this year, hopefully its not as overproduced as Nocturnal. Sure you can argue Tool, Mastadon, Lamb of God and a lot will say Black Dahlia are just another At the Gates, but its not the same to me at all. Hell I would argue that Unearth's Storm was 2nd best, but then I might get punched in the face.

BDM

2009-01-02T11:49:00.001-06:00

I had typed out a whole new post, but then I saw this and it was much better:

Welcome!

2008-12-31T10:03:00.000-06:00

On the live part of the D.I. album Ancient Artifacts, when a fan heckles them that they suck, Casey Royer fires back a snotty "Who asked you?". I loved D.I., what other band would release a live album of them getting booed and heckled relentlessly and then almost beaten up while trying to play?

I decided to start this blog since there is hardly anyone in my small town that enjoys my taste (or lack of) in music and figured I can blab about it here. When I was younger, it all started when Motley Crue's Shout at the Devil came out and I absolutely loved it. I started listening to speed, thrash and death metal and then found hardcore and punk. I'm pretty obsessed with these genre's of music. I think I have lots to share and talk about, hopefully it might even be interesting, but probably most will be pointless weird trivia.

So, anyway, back to D.I. This is from the movie Suburbia, which has great footage of TSOL and the Vandals as well as a young Flea of the Chili Peppers:

I saw this back in 1988 and D.I. instantly became my favorite band. I got to see them in Portland in 91 at some 2 day punkfest concert and saw them a couple times at Gilman St. in Berkeley too and the were great. I Google'd Casey Royer to see if he's still alive, etc. and sure enough Casey has a myspace which lists him as 39 yrs. old, although he was the drummer for Social Distortion in 1978, so I had to look up his real age and he is 60! Not too shabby looking for an old fart:

Now and back in 1978

It looks that he is still flogging the dead horse that is D.I. and they still tour, have a new album out, etc. Yikes. I hate when bands do that.