The San Diego Reader and moral dilema.

I realized I was about to write quite a bit, and I wanted to make a completely separate post about this. My post about Larry Harmon who writes for the Reader prompted some responses that got me thinking.

The original post is here.

One response was: "I do not feel so inclined to trust Larry's musical opinions because I do not think a responsible commentator of subculture would write for The Reader."

I didn't know this, but the owner of the Reader is a large contributor to anti-abortion campaigns among other things.

Here's an article from Sign on San diego that was posted:
"Parental notice bankrolled by weekly's owner"
and one from a Planned Parenthood site
"Publisher funds anti-abortion measure"

My Response: "I would hardly call Larry "responsible." Nor would I refer to him as a "commentator of subculture." That assigns some sort of responsibility. Larry Harmon doesn't have an agenda. He likes drugs, alcohol, and punk rock music. He used to work writing fake sex letters for porno magazines. Satanism is a pretty consistent theme in his Genetic Disorder zine. I don't fucking trust him, but I like him. He's funny. He's pissed off countless readers in each of the forums he's written in, and I'm sure the number will grow, but I think that's a good thing. He's a black spot in a sea of white. San Diego is far and wide a conservative predominantly christian republican city. San Diego is the 6th largest city in the country and The Reader is the 3rd largest weekly in the country. The fact that Larry has been allowed to write for them is an accomplishment in and of itself. I'm not saying Larry is an activist or has any political/religious convictions. He's a writer, and the Reader is the biggest game in town. When the Reader ran a cover story on abortion headlined "What Becomes of San Diego County's 20,000 Fetuses Each Year," and anti-abortion groups were allowed to run full-page ads with photos of fetuses, it "outraged the Reader staff and remains a nearly taboo topic at the paper." But they didn't quit. There wasn't a protest. It hasn't been boycotted. I think that if they were told what to write, or not allowed to write what they want, they'd have quit. So, are you selling out for contributing to a weekly paper that funds the anti-abortion Prop 85. Yeah, probably. Most of San Diego doesn't have any problem with that. However, wouldn't it be rad to write about dealing drugs, satan, and a band called Heroin in some fucking looney Christian fanatic's weekly magazine."

Then I read up a little more, and I got to thinking, but still thought I should be cautious with my words. Abortion is such a freakin' touchy subject, and even the most seemingly uncouth of your friends might surprise you with some deep seeded convitctions. You really can't make assumptions about what people believe.

The next response: "Rich males telling women what to do with their bodies...it's a BIG DEAL to me as a woman. I didn't call Larry a sell out. I'm sure he's a swell guy. I have no personal opinion of him just that I feel writing for the Reader is irresponsible no matter who the person is or their gender. Jim Holman is a monster and I feel very strongly about that. How quaint, that an alternative newspaper is not allowed to have open discourse over their owner's political machine. Apathy is Jim Holman's best friend and a woman's worst nightmare."

Woah. wait a minute. I had to ask myself. Am I being apathetic or dismissive?
In general, I didn't mean to be apathetic, the fact that the owner of the Reader provided the majority of the funding for the yes on Prop. 85 campaign was news to me. Proposition 85 would have required minors to notify their parents before having an abortion. It was in fact defeated, I think mostly based on the idea that for some children, notifying parents might create a dangerous situation. The issue was not whether or not they would be allowed to have one, but I know Holman is an avid pro life supporter.

Therein lies the dilemma. So, maybe you don't agree with his politics. I believe everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and opinions. However, do you want to help pay for a campaign you don't support? Is your readership helping support the pro-life campaign? Is limiting your convictions to not buying ad space in the Reader or working for the Reader a cop out? Is the solution for the Reader to just go away? How do you make the 3rd largest weekly in the country go away? Do more people know what Holman does with his money? Do employees at The Reader necessarily know? How much have Holman's values affected the content of the paper? Does it matter whether or not the content is affected? How likely is it that both writers and readers just don't know about Holman? Should pro-choice staff at the Reader feel guilty or resign? Have I just not been paying attention? Am I just completely ignorant? If you are pro-choice do you need to stop eating Domino's Pizza, drinking Don Sebastiani wines, and reading the San Diego Reader? ...I don't know.

Just to clarify, I don't think that the quote "a nearly taboo topic at the paper," was intended to mean staff were "not allowed to have open discourse." It's a little too ambiguous to say what that means for the staff at work, or the content of the paper. Also, I think it's an interesting note that the paper had been operating for nearly 16 years before Holman ever got involved with the pro-life campaign. The same article says the paper was modeled on left-wing papers like the Village Voice, and though Holman didn't necessarily have that mind set, he didnt start the Reader for any reason other than to make money. The fact that he spends that money conservative republican politics totally fucking sucks. Why am I just now finding out?

Please, tell me what you think.

"oh, and I bought another Sonic Youth Album. It sucked, it was just noise"

I went and saw Juno last night. Go watch it. It's chock full of music references, a soundtrack that blows fucking Zack Braff's dumb ass out of the water, and a very cute and wonderful little love story that will have couples cuddling on the way out, and the single folks slitting their wrists. The main characters, Juno MacGuff and Paulie Bleeker, are played by Ellen Page and Michael Cera, respectively. Ellen Page (Juno) is absolutely adorable in this (She played Shadowcat in the third X-Men movie, and in some crappy looking street justice To Catch a Predator movie called Hard Candy). She plays a (perhaps unrealistically) charistmatic whip-smart high school junior with razor sharp sense of sarcasm and wit. She gets knocked up after first time sex with sort of boyfriend, played by Michael Cera (the timid kid from Superbad and Arrested Development). He plays the same kind of character in each of his roles, but he plays it well. This is a first for writer Diablo Cody, and I hope it's not the last. The movie ends with the characters performing "Anyone Else But You" originally by the Modly Peaches, which is pretty amazing. "Up Up, Down Down, left right left right, B A, start. Just because we use cheats doesn't mean we're not smart." Genius!



I also saw a trailer for a black and white animated movie called Persepolis based on autobiographical graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi about growing up during the Islamic revolution that looked really good.

If it works out I think they should totally make the graphic novel series, Maus, into movie.

Imperial Teen @ The Casbah.

After about a five year hiatus, Imperial Teen returned to the Casbah on Dec 15th, 2007. Their new album, The Hair the TV the Baby and the Band, is maybe not as dancey as 2002's On, but is the same brand of very underrated power pop/rock that lies somewhere between Belle and Sebastian and the Rentals or Weezer. Beautiful harmonies, delicate melodies, and fuzzy rock-out-without-trying choruses. They're all getting a little older (Roddy's 45), but they are still at it. Roddy and Will are still very hip gay dudes, they were both very sharply dressed. They played stuff from all four albums. Drummer, Lynn Truell, sang lead on a new song "Shim Sham" and gave up percussive duties to Roddy to play bass on a couple of songs during the encore. The place wasn't empty, but it was far from packed, which was actually quite a treat. Everyone there was a very enthusiastic fan, with lots of dancing room. Guitarist Roddy Bottum (former Faith No More Keyboardist) kind of looks like the guy from UCB, Ian Roberts, I think.

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

What the fuck! So, they decide to compile a soundtrack to the movie "Control," the brilliant profile of the life of Joy Division's Ian Curtis. Ok. The soundtrack is filled with great original songs from the period, and some classic Joy Division songs... oh and one Joy Division cover... hmmm.... Sweet, I guess. I mean another Joy Division cover to top off the list of tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of Joy Division covers. The one stop shop for indie credability: a Joy Division cover. Who, pray tell, could be next on the long, tasteless, unoriginal, undistinguished list?

That'd be awesome if it was like the Bravery or the fucking Killers or some lame shit like that...
Wait, no fucking way!
You're kidding right?
What?
The Killers?!
The Fucking KILLERS!?
Oh, Christ I hate the Killers. Every time Brandon Flowers puts his hand on his hip and dips like "I'm a little teapot," I wanna fucking slap him.
The Killers?
How pathetic. Jeeezus.
So much respect and reverence for Ian Curtis and Joy Division, and they get The Killers to cover Shadowplay? Why don't they just get Fall Out Boy to do an acoustic massacre, I mean cover, of like the most covered song ever, by one of the most abused-by-cover band ever, "Love Will Tear us Apart." That'd really shine a light on the memory of Joy Division, really capture the song's spirit you know. Wait, what? No fuck! You have got to be kidding me. That's brilliant. Aww, this is awesome.



The only Joy DIvision covers I've ever liked were when Swing Kids did Warsaw and The Aisler's Set did Walked in Line for John Peel. I heard Xui Xui played a decent live cover of Ceremony, but have never heard it...

The fucking Killers though... man that's hilarious.

David Bazan @ The Casbah

Pedro the Lion quite easily makes my top ten artists of all time list. And yet, I've missed them every time they've played in San Diego for one reason or another. Before Pedro the Lion singer/songwriter, David Bazan, went solo, I drove up to L.A. to see him play acoustic at the Troubadour. I also caught a short turned down set at Off the Record about 4 years ago. I saw Headphones when they played the Casbah, the short lived project that he did with TW Walsh where he played keyboard. Well, now that David Bazan is officially a solo artist, seeing him perform at the Casbah on the 8th of December, was the closest I'd ever get to seeing Pedro the Lion again. I had to go. David Bazan is a master storyteller. He uses fiction to tackle lots of social issues, often religion and politics, even shitty journalism.

He started off with a christmas song. I've forgotten which one, I was still getting a drink, and lack of sleep is wreaking havoc on my short term memory. I do remember the rest of the set. He didn't just play songs from his records as a solo artist. He played "Transcontinental," one of my favorites from Achilles Heel, and "When They Really Get to Know You They Will Run," from 1998's It's Hard to Find a Friend. He also played "Selling Advertising" from the Fewer Moving Parts EP which is an explicit stab at Pitchfork.com, prompting the quote by him "more people need to tell lazy, sloppy journalists to go fuck themselves." The title track from that EP, which he also played, is a bit of an unapologetic, yet regretful, explanation of why he decided to go solo. Less than half of his set was comprised of new songs to be released by this coming summer. He ended with a cover of Hallelujah - A Leonard Cohen song that I had become familiar with through the stylings of Jeff Buckley. If you've heard either version, you'd know it's a pretty ballsy move. Fans of Jeff Buckley will attest to the merciless tear inducing power of his version. There were a couple of girls next to me that were sniffling through most of the set. Yet, many before have failed miserably in an attempt to recreate this effect. Bono, K.D. Lang, Bon Jovi, even Anthony Micheal Hall have all contributed to the long list of terrible versions of Hallelujah. Not surprisingly, David Bazan pulls it off nicely, singing it in his own distinctive voice, as though he himself had written it. As a performer, Bazan is very down to earth and charming. Whenever he plays he asks if anyone has questions while he's tuning or just between songs. In response to a question, he talked about having seen "No Country for Old Men" four or five times so far, some of the shitty jobs he'd held before becoming a musician full time, his daughter...

You can legally download the entire set from a live show (including Q&A sessions) he played on Nov. 4th this year at the Grey Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina, here. It's got a lot of material from his forthcoming album on Barsuk Records.

The Locust, Melt Banana, Sleeping People @ The Epicentre.

On Wednesday Dec 5, '07 I went to the Miramesa Epicenter to see The Locust, Melt Banana, and the Sleeping People. Yip Yip also played, but I just couldn't make it out there in time to see them.

Melt Banana is pretty insane. Definitely the most straightforward rhythmically of the three bands that night, but that doesn't mean shit. They are unrelenting, noisy, and LOUD. They just pound away with a little japanese girl that doesn't weigh more than 100 pounds yipping and screeching her ass off, amid crazy lazer sound guitar effects, blast beats, and thumping bass lines. I was the only one of my friends who thought to wear some sort of ear protection. They were pretty fucked.

Seriously, Brandon Relf and Gabe Serbian, the drummers from Sleeping People and The Locust respectively, have to be the most goddamned talented drummers ever. It's ungodly. Speaking of ungodly, The Locust's live show alternates between sounding like a satanic cult invoking the devil and a fucking bomb Raid. They play a really tight set. There's no witty banter inbetween songs, no wasted time, maybe some quick re-tuning, and go. Consequently, not many people, including myself, really knew where songs ended and began. Inbetween songs, and during rests in songs, the venue was dead fucking silent. It was awesome and kind of eerie. It was an all ages show, and kids are kids, so at the beginning of the set, some eager young Locust fans decided that the people up front had to earn their spots. There was a lot of cannon-balling into the crowd with a good 10 yard running start. Thankfully, it didn't last long. I might be getting too old for some of this shit.

I saw Sleeping People first. Of all the instrumental bands out there that play really mathy ridiculously intricate and complex rhythms that make your head hurt (Tera Melos, Planets, Hella, Lighting Bolt...) they are still one of the most listenable. You can rock out more than just listen with mouth agape in awe of talent you could never in this lifetime achieve yourself. That's what I do most of the time anyway. Brandon played the set wide-eyed and sober looking, which is a departure if you've ever seen him off stage. I think he can play just as well as ever baked out of his mind, or from the bottom of a bottle. It's like magic. Jason Hendrix from the North Atlantic, who played with him in the short lived but highly controversial band Barfer, said of Relf something to the effect of "some days, I don't know how he puts his pants on in the morning... [but] it took me like half an hour just to figure out what he was playing, much less write something to it." The Sleeping People just keep getting better in my opinion. They have some beautifully contrasting changes between really heavy droning parts and really quick plinky beepy picked out parts in some of the new material. Brandon also did something I've never seen before where he scraped the tip of his stick across the bell of the cymbal that made a resonant ringing sound like rubbing the edge of a crystal glass with a wet finger. They just got done touring the U.S. with the Locust (during which I'm sure everyone's heard by now, the Locust got robbed in St. Louis). Now they are touring in Japan, though they may already be back by the time you read this.

Again I had a lot of pictures, but managed to corrupt a memory card with over 300 photos on it. Gone forever.

If you feel so inclined, I think you can still donate to the Locust Relief Fund.

Dissimilars at the Zombie and Larry Genetic talks shop

I don't know what the fuck is up with The Sess playing early at shows at which they are billed to play last or late, and then playing really short sets. It's happened several times now. And not only that, they don't seem to stick around after their own set to see anyone else's. Once was at their own record release show. Pretty fucked, but they do play out a lot, so I guess somehow, that makes up for it in part. They are pretty badass, so it just saddens me each time I go to see them making it to the venue as early as I can, only to find out they've already played. They are playing a shitload more in January, so word to the wise, get there advisedly early. You don't want to miss this band as many times as I have.

Anyway, on Thursday Dec 6th, I walked down to the Zombie Lounge after I got out of practice to see them and the Dissimilars. The Cobra Skulls were setting up as I got there. Incidentally, all of their songs have the word "Cobra" in them. They play punkabilly and a little reggae downbeat stuff. They do it well if that's your cup of tea.

The Dissimilars were next. I saw Chandra, the Scolari's weekend bartender there. Hilariously, the first thing singer Jimmy did when the set started was push his way through the crowd and start thrusting his junk, backing the startled bartender up almost into the next room. Jimmy did his temper tamtrum vocals thing in his tightey-whitey's. I took pictures, but I've been having issues getting the photos from the camera... long story. After the Dissimilars set (which was over by 12:30, pretty early for a bar show), I asked Nathan and Larry from the Dissimilars why the Sess hadn't played, at which point they informed me that the Sess were already set up on stage when The Dissimilars showed up to load in, waiting to play first. "That sucks," I said. They were mostly complacent. "Roll with the punches..." I got into a lengthy discussion with Larry Harmon, long-time author/publisher of Genetic Disorder Zine, about the record industry and local music. He's a contributor to the local music column in the San Diego Reader called Blurt. He recently wrote an article about GSL Records calling it quits. Gsl was spending 4 times as much on press than they were on manufacturing records, and it just got too expensive. Larry commented on just how ridiculous the availability of digital music has gotten. Recently he decided that it would have taken more time and effort to get out of his seat and find a cd from his collection and play it, than it would have been to find it on the internet and download it. So he downloaded it. Larry and I, like many music collectors, have almost entirely excluded our music purchases to vinyl. Cds, and mp3's are just so disposable, the industry is really starting to feel it. Larry said he recently spoke to a friend that works pressing vinyl records, who said that business has been better than ever for vinyl production. "It's like collecting baseball cards," I told him. He then charged me with the responsibility of breaking the news to his younger brother Todd, that upon Larry's death, Todd will not recieve any of his extensive collection of rare out of print records. Larry wants to be buried with them. He doesn't just want them to go in the ground with him, he wants them all to be melted down forming a sarcophagus in which to put his body, like a big goofy marblized King Tut. We went on to talk about hometown crap, and how he hurt his finger shooting with his brothers (both of which regularly carry guns) over Thanksgiving vacation. Anyway, it was good to see Genetic Disorder Larry Harmon writing. Read his stuff in Blurt, and buy Genetic Disorder. You'll thank me later.


Here's the Genetic Disorder bio from Zinewiki.

Wild Weekend and Squiddo @ The Tower Bar

If you read my Blog about the Sessions Fest, I talked about having seen Wild Weekend's first show ever at the Coffee House on Broadway, I recognized that they had some room for growth. I'll admit I don't give a lot of credit to cover bands, and I understood the obvious gimmicky element of an all girl cover band. However, I really like the Zeros and I thought it would be fun. So, I didn't give up and decided to give it a second go at the Tower Bar on Saturday 12/01/07. The show was billed as Wild Weekend, The Sexies, and The Rich White Males. Both The Sexies, and The Rich White Males canceled at the last minute, so Squiddo stepped in to fill one of the spots. I was glad that I had come out because I think much of that growth has come on rather quickly for Wild Weekend. The two girls from The Atoms, Melissa and Kaitlyn, have left the band. No disrespect to Melissa as a drummer, but she's been replaced by Brian Hill (formerly of the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower and The Prayers), who's quite the bad ass drummer. Kaitlyn has been replaced by Wendy from The Sexies, who is considerably more comfortable with the bass guitar. One description I heard of Kaitlyn's bass playing was "it always looks like she's taking a test," and well Wendy's got a lot of strut to go with her strum. Kelly's coming out of her shell as a performer, she's a lot more mobile, and sang lead on a song ("Leech," which can be heard on her personal myspace page here). Maren's solo's were timed sublimely, which is something that I really couldn't say for the first time around. She knows her way around that big ass yellow hollow body guitar. All three girls are hitting the back up vocals strong and right on queue. Also, they've started writing and playing originals. The originals are speedy pop punk girl shout anthems that remind me a lot of the Soviettes when the girls are singing. You can hear a big difference in Maren's vocals when she sings the originals, they're just a better fit, more natural. Wild Weekend is a much tighter, more engaging band than before, and I hope to hear more good things.

I'd seen Squiddo play before, and they made a much stronger impression on me this time too. I wonder if Squiddo's bummed about the covers project possibly overshadowing their own. The funny thing is, I think that Squiddo songs sound more like Zeros music than the Wild Weekend originals. Actually that makes a lot of sense considering Hector Penalosa, one of the original members of the Zeros, is in Squiddo. It's kind of a weird situation altogether.

Now that Brian Hill is drumming, this puts Wild Weekend ahead of The Vultures and The Prayers as my favorite post-Plot project (Mostly because I refuse to buy into the hype). I gave the Prayers a good long listen, and that Madonna cover just gets on my god damned nerves. I don't dislike the Vultures, I just don't see what all the fuss is about.

In other news: I am super bummed about having missed some really good shows recently: M.I.A., Jay Reatard, The Walkmen, Calico Horse, Repeater... next time.

November Shows Recap (it's never too late)

It's been a really busy and kind of stressful month. The holidays are hard on me for a number of reasons. Either way, I made it out to a few shows this month before I had to start traveling. I got back into town on the 29th. Before I left I think I made it to something like 8 shows and 12 bands in 11 days. Hmph. Anyway, here is a recap of all the November shows I attended.

Note: I only listed the bands I actually saw, not necessarily all the bands that played. Also, I took some really shitty pictures with my phone, and have since fixed my digital camera. I will soon be buying a new one as well.

11/08 Thursday - Swim Party @ The Ken Club

This was the One Year Anniversary for Sd Dialed In. I got there late didn't see Writer or Pocket Utopia. Swim Party was good. I had only heard myspace snippets before, but I enjoyed them live. They reminded me of what I what consider "classic" indie rock, like Yo La Tengo, or Guided By Voices. They got a nomination for Best Alternative Album at last year's San Diego Music Awards. A friend of mine who's only a few years younger than me said she felt like she was the youngest person there. The crowd was a little older, but I hadn't really noticed til she pointed it out. That night I also accomplished putting a face to the name behind SdDialedIn Rosey, when Swim Party tried to get her on stage. Go to SdDialedIn for more pictures and words on Rosey's blog, where she says " I don't think there's any band that I've written about on my site more than Swim Party."

11/09 Friday - Stars @ House of Blues

Canadian indie pop/rock is awesome. Stars is kind of at the forefront of what people like to call the Canadian Invasion. At least three of their members are part of the Canadian collective ubergroup, Broken Social Scene. They can be a little cheesy at times, but very catchy nonetheless. Throughout the show they kept throwing flowers into the crowd. They play the kind of songs that are familiar after the first listen. They played as a six piece, there was a lot of lush delicate instrumentation and really pretty arrangements to compliment the dual male/female vocals. It's just really pretty music.

11/09 Friday - Cabron, Fascination @ The Alibi

Stars ended pretty early, so I made my way to the Alibi in time to watch the last couple of bands. This was a fun show. There was blood, a human auction, weird dudes in overalls, semi nudity, a lot of drunkenness, oh and even some bathroom sex. It was a benefit for the Red Cross organized by the Strike a Match organization for fire victims. I missed Pen and Ink, Death on Mars, and Behind the Wagon. I've never seen Death on Mars before, but am familiar with the other two. Pen and Ink is Cullen Hendrix's band (Ex-North Atlantic, City Beat, Music Matters...). They practice in the same building as my band does, and we've played with them before. They have a strong Sunny Day influence and remind me a lot of Capp'n'Jazz and The Ivory Coast (damn, old school). I've also seen Behind the Wagon before. They are awesome honk-if-you're-honkey-tonk whiskey-drunk-country-rock (say that ten times fast). They stuck around after their set and got fucked up. Those boys like to drink. I did make it in time to see Cabron and The Fascination. Batwings is "tight bros" with both of these bands, we've played with each them a bunch of times. Cabron also practices where we practice. Oh yeah, there was this guy in overalls, the overalls guy... well, my friend Lori put it well: "we notice some dude wearing a one-piece dickies coverall kind of thing. he unzips it, so it's hanging around his waist. During Cabron's soundcheck, he's prancing around like he's ready to fucking rock you know. jumping, throwing a few punches here and there. Carmen, friend who is with me, and I look at each other after spotting him: "THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!" He was pumped, he kept on doing like Tae-Bo moves and shit, and his coveralls kept falling off his ass. So Cabron had just started when I walked in. Bob, the guitarist, was pretty wasted. At one point he knocked a mic stand down, and on its subsequent path to the ground it shattered though my aforementioned friend, Lori's drink, cutting her hand pretty badly, and also hitting her in the head. Their intoxication lent itself to very enthusiastic stage show, they were all drunk and pissed. I think Bob cut his arms up rolling around on the floor with the broken glass that he had made as well. Between sets, Billy from Behind the Wagon got auctioned off by the night's totally wasted MC, Todd Price, for five bucks. The young lady that bought him didn't waste a lot of time getting her money's worth. I'll leave it at that. The Fascination were in good form. They played their fancy dancey brit pop complete with disco lights, and Robin hopped around in his white boots. Forrest and Merwan played a rock solid set, and Merwan stripped down to his underoos. Kickass standard Fascination fare.

11/10 Saturday - The Hives, Feist, Vhs or Beta @ 4th and B

Not a big fan of the venue, but I am a fan of Leslie Feist's voice, it's really powerful and expressive. Unfortunately like her albums, a live show for Feist is a tragic pairing of a few really amazing and catchy songs, and a whole bunch of slow boring ones. She's a great guitarist as well as vocalist, it's just too bad her music plays like adult contemporary. The backing band looked suicidal, they were so damn bored. VHS or Beta are a good band, but I still thought they were kind of boring too. I think mostly, they are just not my cup of tea. Some might say it's blasphemy, but I think I've had my fill of shoegazer wannabe brit pop. Cure fans would most definitely dig them, I just thought that there were too many people on stage to be playing such simple music. Also, I don't think it's an accident how much the vocalist, Craig Pfunder, sounds like Robert Smith. The Hives are pure gimmick in the best way, they know how to put on a show. That said, if you've heard one Hives song, you've heard them all. I knew what to expect musically. The stuff from the new album sounds just like the stuff from the old albums, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The beer was was expensive and the mosh pit (yes there was a mosh pit) was fucking annoying. There were a couple of jocks with no shirts trying to start fights.

11/11 Sunday - Hostile Combover @ The Zombie Lounge

Shamefully, I had no idea who had opened the show at the time. I got there as Hostile Comb-Over was setting up. If you've never seen them, prepare yourself for heavy riffs, jarring changes, beards, dual yelling/bellowing vocals, and veins popping out of Ben Johnson's neck and John Cota's head. The two bands I had missed were two San Francisco bands called Bottom and Floating Goat.

11/13 Tuesday - King Khan and BBQ Show @ The Pink Elephant

There were a shitload of people there. Among others, I saw members of The Atoms, The Sess, Dissimilars, Slab City, The Spits, The Corvinas, Rich White Males, and of course three of us from Batwings were there. I also saw Troy Johnson (formerly of Fox Rox and City Beat), and Foundation Skateboards' own Josh Beagle. King Khan and BBQ play stripped down, stomped out, doo-wop meets punk rock. Mark Sultan, or BBQ, actually has a really good voice. He plays guitar while playing a kick and snare with foot pedals bare-footed. King Khan plays most of the lead guitar parts and sings back-up vocals. Things got good and rowdy. I like the Pink Elephant, it's a nice bar, and Pabst and Tecate cans are only 2 bucks, but it isn't really suited all that well for a packed house show.

11/16 Friday - Beatmo, The Predicates @ Scolari's Office

I have to be honest, the only reason I ended up at this show is because I was killing time before meeting up with a friend. I looked up all the bands on myspace. In an email, a friend warned, "Beatmo - they're stylish and interesting, but they're missing something. they need more rock or something. The songs start off good, but then they get boring. and i don't like her voice either. it's unpleasant. also, listened to The Predicates -- didn't like them. boring and both their voices were extremely nasally." I felt similarly about both bands. Beatmo is an east LA six-piece consisting of four guys and two girls. After looking up Beatmo and seeing them in action, I felt like someone in Beatmo must have taken a marketing class or something. It was either that, or someone put them together like P-Diddy and Da Band or whatever. Either way, they seem like they are in it to win it. They've got a bunch of professional promo photos in matching outfits on their myspace profile. They even brought along this pornstar looking hooker-boot-wearing merch girl. I'm sure she was just a friend of the band, but I calls 'em like I sees 'em. They are all young, fresh faced, good looking Latinos, and naturally, they have a gorgeous eye-candy front-woman named Alexis. I was sitting in the back near where they had their merch set up, and each time she passed me she would say "excuse me," or "thanks hun," and rub my arm up and down, or my knee back and forth, you know very affectionately... too affectionately. That kind of irritated me, because I knew it didn't mean what that kind of thing ought to mean, she was just being a fucking a flirt. Marketing. Maybe my reaction was supposed to be, "Oh dood, that girl lust rubbed my leg, I'm going to go talk to her, maybe buy a t-shirt or something... well, just as soon as she's done rubbing up on those three other guys" It could have been that she was just really nice and a little touchy-feely, but it felt like she was working the room, and I like my own space. I think if it were the other way around and a man was doing that to all the girls in the room, they'd get their ass kicked. The crowd was totally into them. They have some Spanglish words and song titles that went over really well. They are really talented, and they play a tight set. A couple of the guys are multi-instrumentalists... but somehow it still feels like there is just a little something missing. The crowd asked for an encore, and I think they played an extra song. That's a little awkward for an opener to do, and pretty shitty for the other bands. Decide for yourself, they play the San Diego Sports Club on Dec. 8th.

The Predicates are total fucking cheesballs. This was supposed to be their cd release show. Their third album is called "Wicked Smart," a follow up to "Dissin' Treez" which featured such gems as "Taco Bell." You say Po-tay-to, I say puh-tah-to. You say witty and talented, I say joke songs haven't been cool since Cheshire Cat. I didn't think they were very funny or talented. The chorus to one of their songs is "yo quiero taco bell" for crissakes. Maybe I'm being hard on them, maybe I just don't get it. They took a long time between songs and kinda wouldn't shut the fuck up. They are pretty whack. Don't be mad at me though, blame Blink-182. They ruined it for all the marginally talented funny musicians. I had to leave after the first few songs of their set, and I missed The Drowning Men.

11/18 Sunday - The Long and Short of it @ The Pink Elephant

This "Sunday Mass" made it two consecutive Sunday performances for Ben Johnson, who plays drums for Hostile Combover, as well as handling the all the redfaced HR-style vein popping hooting and hollering for The Long and Short of It. They are a bunch of badass Rockevangelists, preaching the word in the form of relentlessly driving and noodley AmRep style post punk. There was a decent crowd gathered for a Sunday afternoon.

P.S. We once played an Anti-Monday League show at the Casbah with them. It was like the second or third Anti-Monday League that Tim Pyles had put together, and so someone at the Daily Aztec, the SDSU newspaper, decided to write and article about it. I just happened to be on campus the day the article ran. There in the Tempo section was a close-up picture of Todd Price of Batwings on the mic with a caption that read "Ben Johnson of the Long and Short of It..." I thought is was hilarious. Unfortunately, throughout the whole article there was no mention of the bands that had played that night they took the photo, with the exception of the incorrect photo caption. But I still think Ben got screwed. Now people think he looks like Todd. Poor guy. Just kidding Todd. Click on the picture to read the article.

11/29/07 Thursday - Los Esmiths @ The Ken Club

Los Esmiths are from Calexico, a border town just south of where I grew up. They play Smiths and Morrissey covers. Not much more to it. They do an excellent reproduction, so if you like the Smiths... it was good, recommended if you like Smiths, but don't expect anything particularly spectacular. They don't have costumes or pompadours. The singer won't spin around with flowers in his pocket and claim to be asexual or anything. The opener that I missed was an artist named Bez. I have no idea if he just played records or if he has songs or whatever, but he's got some other minimalist electronica project called 01101o. I've met him before, and though I can't say for sure whether or not he is, he seems like a prick, a prick proud to be prick. Either way, a wise old friend once told me "Never trust anyone that thinks they are cool enough to wear sunglasses at night. Only assholes wear sunglasses at night," and Bez wears sunglasses at night. Hey, I don't make the rules...

11/30/07 Friday - Westwind Boys @Scolari's Office

This was another night where I had been busy until really late, and just went to Scolari's to see if I could get a drink or two in before last call. I walked in and said to myself, "What the fuck is going on?" Everyone was drinking Coors Light and wearing backwards baseball caps. The Westwind Boys do really trite rap, white boy Ocean Beach frat boy rap. Rad. That was a weird night.

Shit town.Shit Town?

When I read interviews by bands from San Diego and they are asked about the music scene here, I'm just not sure what/who to believe. Here are a few examples. In an interview with truepunk.com, Reeve Oliver says "...the SD scene is on the rise. It used to be amazing... and it kind of went through a dry spell. ...San Diego scene is pretty small and supportive" In an interview for About.com, Switchfoot said of San Diego, "...bands here are really in it for the music. It's not a scene like in LA or New York -- where people are trying to get a record deal. People here are really trying to make music for the sake of making music." Exactly what part of the San Diego music community does the hugely successful North County christian band Switchfoot play again? I don't know. Tim Pyles is quoted by sandiegopunk.com as having said, "The music scene in San Diego is growing at a rapid rate and the bands keep getting better and better. Were on our way to being a music boom town! Look out! I could easily name 50 quality bands in town right now! The quality is there!" Reading that you might think it's still some sort of Mecca where you'd want to go to start a band, but I'm still not sure. Local band Straight No Chaser (not the Rochester, NY Hardcore band of the same name) said "I think the main area that I would like to see improved is the lack of quality all ages venues. There are a few clubs that aren't terribly band friendly, and that seems very counteractive to growing a solid local music community." Alright, so what do we have going for us? We have Cullen Hendrix music journalist extraordinaire, writing for the SdReader, Sd City Beat, Music Matters, and his own blog Dirtbag's Delight. We've got Rosey working hard at sddialedin. Sandiegopunk.com is still active and accurate. Ok, but where are the Virgil Porters? Does Spence Gooch still live here? Where's Tara Barnes? Is Sandiegocore.com up and operating? I can't find it. Was it ever working? Dan Maier [formerly of Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower and engineer at Audio Design Recording] was interviewed a couple of years ago by Sandiegopunk.com. When asked about the San Diego music scene/community (they like to ask about that), he blamed the accessibility of music via the Internet for decline in show attendance and overall unoriginality. "There is nothing wrong with more kids playing music, but it seems since all these bands are so accessible on the internet, show attendance has dramatically declined. I also think this rush of band exposure, plus the mainstream co-opting the punk sound and image harder than ever, has homogenized the genre on a grand scale. There are more clone bands than ever, and it seems that cities aren't developing their own sound anymore...San Diego has a strong music scene but I think the lack of all-ages venues is really detrimental. There are really no all-ages venues in central San Diego, besides Soma, which is too big for most smaller bands." Also two years ago, Justin Pearson weighed in on online promotion via myspace, saying it is a "lame way to promote your band. That site is a pathetic attempt at mixing youth culture with major label corporate marketing all tied in with fraggle glam and sexual predators." Whereas, Tim Pyles' take was slightly different, "MySpace Rocks! Best networking tool ever! Just look out for pedophiles!...The access to finding out about bands and the bands being able to promote themselves for pennies on the dollar, it's freakin' sweet!...I promote MySpace quite a bit and use it everyday! It's made my job much easier, but I still like to get the CD from the band. I'd be lost without it now!" Where is our Troubadour, an all ages venue that serves alcohol? The all ages crowd and the fickle 21+ crowd do not intermingle. We had a bimonthly magazine called SD Music Matters that went under only to come back as Music Matters. Apparently, San Diego music isn't as important as they thought. Now the magazine says "socal music socal culture" under the header. I was hard-pressed to find evidence of any real dedication by the magazine to the local music scene anyway. The old site was rarely updated and the new site doesn't have any information specific to San Diego anymore. They used to have a show listing and a band listing. We've lost amazing artists like Minmae, The Robot Ate Me, and The North Atlantic. Many bands that seemed to have to struggle to draw in their own home town of San Diego for years, only to flourish on the road. And Eventually, they left for good. What happened to bands like The Displaced that were "DIY or Die" that just kept trying and trying til as far as I know have just disappeared. Maybe they haven't DIY and died just yet, but I see no signs of life. Labels like Happy Couples Never Last or Swim Slowly that have relocated in search of greener pastures. Other bands from out of town, opt to skip right past San Diego on their way to Arizona or L.A. Right now Tera Melos is on another U.S. tour booked by a professional booking agent where they have consecutive dates in Phoenix and Anaheim. That's a 360 Mile drive that skips right past San Diego, for Anaheim. We can't beat out Anaheim! Bands have skipped San Diego more times than I can remember. Sure we got a lot of touring bands, but a lot of times it seems we're not worth the stop. It's not just indie bands. Andrea Bocelli plays Glendale Az on Dec 14 and Anaheim the 15th. No San Diego. Oh, but Fallout Boy will be stopping in San Diego so I guess we're doing alright. Off the Record couldn't afford to stay in Hillcrest. Their new location isn't big enough for instores, and they had some of the fucking coolest in-store performance over the years. Those basement shows just never really worked out. I recently read the Band of Horses interview at Pitchfork.com which spends a considerable amount of time addressing the incident that occurred between Ben Bridwell and SdDialed In Rosey. In the process, Bridwell makes clear the impression San Diego garners. Gared from PMFS shared similar views, but the following Bridwell quote begs the question, what the fuck can we do as active members of the music community to change the impression we give to the rest of the countries touring acts? "It's just really jock-y around the Pacific beach right there, and San Diego in itself is a bit jock-y. The vibe was just kind of weird. It just felt a little off. I know there were people there that were fans, and we had to put on a good show for them. But at the same time, half the room seemed to be filled with weekend warrior types." Is this town worth a damn? I want to know.

Holy Shit, is that DPD Pete eating a cheeseburger?!

I almost choked, last night when I saw Die Princess Die/God's Gang/Snakeface/Wulf Anderson singer/guitarist Pete Chekvala taking a big healthy bite out of a hamburger in a Carl's Jr. commercial. It's an old commercial that is re-airing. I think the first time around that commercial paid for a year's worth of his comfortable living. Lucky Bastard. He lives quite the charmed Los Angeles life. Not that I'm bitter, maybe just a little jealous, but he deserves it. He's also been in a Bacardi commercial, a car commercial [I think he's driving a mitsubishi], and the movie "The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down," among other things. I've yet to see the movie, any good? Anyway, he's nice and a super charming guy, and he likes to party. Hard.



[Mary Roth and an "intoxicated" Pete Chekvala at the Spin-sponsored afterparty for the screening of "The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down." Pete ironically played "The Sober Guy" in the movie. (taken from Spin.com]

Read the interview with Die Princess Die in Modern Fix to get a good idea of what a DPD show is like.

Strike the Match!

Red Cross Benefit show tomorrow night! November 9th.

5 bands for $5 too!

Strike the Match is hosting this great show for a good cause! all proceeds of the suggested donation go to the Local Disaster Relief Fund.

Check out these bands and help support your community

Pen and Ink ( 8pm)

Death on Mars ( 9 pm)

Behind the Wagon(10 pm)

Cabron (11 pm)

the Fascination (12 am)

The Alibi1

403 University St.

San Diego CA.

21 and up...sorry kids!

www.strikethematch.org

San Diego Dialed In One Year Anniversary!

Don't forget to support Rosey and SdDialedin tonight at the Ken Club. She really doesn't get all the credit she deserves for all time she puts in. I will be there rain or shine.

Bad Dudes, Bad Video, and more.

On Friday November 2nd, I went to Scolari's Office to see The Viewmasters, Bad Dudes, and Planets. I was also subjected to "Naughty Bodies Be Good Vol 1," a video by a very lovely and talented woman named Sarah. I must be quite honest in saying that I don't get it, but that's a whole different subject.

First up was Planets, an instrumental two-piece very much in the vein of Hella, The Advantage, Lighting Bolt, Bad Dudes... It's Reno's version of your very mathy two-piece complete with unbelievable time changes, breakneck speed, and ridiculously complex melodies and rhythms. They came out in white spandex full body suits, with eye holes cut into them. They use all white speaker cabinets and white drums to match. The bass was clear plastic, and they projected what seemed like stock science video of microscopic life and astrology onto themselves and the white sheet draped behind them and across the stage. The amazing thing about Planets is that the bassist was really sort of playing two instruments at once. He was thumping basslines out with his thumb on the top two strings, and fingerpicking all the melody with his other fingers on his strumming hand on the other strings. I'm not sure if his bottom two strings were guitar strings, or just tuned up higher. With the hand that was on the neck, he would hop back and forth holding down notes on the top and bottom strings and hammering out notes while play the bass parts. There was just a lot of noise coming from that man. The only other time I've seen anything like this was when I saw Brooklyn three piece, Vaz, play as a two piece. Vaz is an amazing AmRep style two piece that was described by a friend of mine at the show (a couple of years ago at the Che) as "Joy Division atmosphere with Sonic Youth texture and Amphetamine Reptile power." There was only the guitarist and drummer, but we distinctly heard guitar melody on top of a bassline. We went up and asked the guitarist Paul Erickson, former member of Hammerhead who is also known as Apollo Liftoff, after the show how he was doing it. To make up for there only being one guitarist to play both parts, his bottom two guitar strings were actually bass strings on which he played the low end rhythm. Pretty fucking awesome. They are still together and just put a third album called "The Lie That Matches The Furniture," that comes out next Thursday on Narnack Records. It's on my wishlist.

I was also pretty astonished to find that the Planets bassist wore a full out Amish style beard underneath his storm trooper underwear. I hope the material breathes. I took a picture with my phone. I know, I know, I need to get a new digital camera. It's on the agenda. The agenda is long.

Next they showed Naughty Bodies be Good, immediately followed by a live performance by some of the naughty bodied dancers featured in the video. I won't say anthing about all that, but I will repost what I read in a blog by someone else who will remain nameless:

"friday night, i was subjected to a ridiculous display of vanity. basically, a group of scenester/hipster girls made a movie... no, no, no. i wouldn't call that monstrosity a movie. i'd call it: "look at how fashionable and fuckable we are." it was painful and pointless to watch. there was no plot, no comedy, no mis-en-scene, nothing. it was even harder to sip my saphire and tonic while watching said group of girls scream and giggle and laugh at every little thing happening on screen. you had fun making it. cool, whatever. watch this in your living room; don't subject innocent drunks to this nonsensery, this skull fuckery. i like good music, good conversation, and good company with my drinks, not that ridiculousness."

No comment.

When that was all done Bad Dudes took the stage. They are a six-piece instrumental band with members of Upsilon Acrux. Their music has been referred to as Nintendo Rock or Nintendo-core. They sound like The Advantage, but write original music. Lots of really fast melodic runs and single notes as opposed to strummed chords. They used to have a vocalist, and boy are they fun to watch. The drummer is pretty amazing with the double kick pedal.

After that, it was so crowded in there, I decided to walk down the street to the Bar Pink Elephant, where I enjoyed more $2 dollar tecates than planned, and totally missed The Viewmasters set. I walked in as they finished their last song. Sorry T-Bone.

Apologies, it's coming.

My posts have been sparse, but I've working hard on a some big things. Much much more to come, very soon.

Feuds!

Well the fires are under control. People trying to return to normalcy FDR style...

In other news, does anybody follow Hip Hop feuds/battles? I started following this Lil Wayne Vs. Gillie da Kid squabble. It was recently brought to my attention and I think it's kind of funny/interesting like a train wreck, like reality TV. These feuds, or "Beefs," always do a lot for publicity (Ex. Eazy E Vs. Ice Cube, Jay-Z Vs Nas, 50 Cent Vs. The Game/Cam'Ron, Ludacris Vs T.I. ... the list is endless). However, some of them can get out of hand. Lil Kim was convicted of perjury concerning a shootout between her entourage and that of Capone/Noreaga. Young Buck's hotel afterparty in Washington got shot up by "rival rappers." Of course the most notorious of all disputes ended up with Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. both dead. Somebody got shot over the shit with 50 Cent and The Game as well, who together have survived a combined 16 gunshot wounds.

So, the Lil Wayne dis is probably about a year old now, but I think it's still unresolved and still talked about. Lil Wayne aka Weezy F. Baby, Young Carter, Birdman Jr. dissed Gillie Da Kid in a song, and the shit has been going back and forth since. Some shit you might not have known about Lil' Wayne; he had a daughter at 14, and before he signed to Cash Money Records he shot himself in the chest on accident and put himself on life support for a few weeks. He appears in a controversial photo where it looks like he's kissing Cash Money Records founder, Brian "Baby" Williams aka Stunna, or Birdman, whom he also refers to as his father. Gillie Da Kid, who also calls himself the King of Philly, claimed to have written some of Lil Wayne's lyrics. Early in his career he signed with, but left Cash Money Records. Now, there are rumors that 50 Cent and G-Unit are interested in signing him. Early this year he got arrested along with 5 other people when the FBI found a half a million dollars worth of weed in 2 houses allegedly run by Gillie. It was something like 90 lbs of marijuana. Gillie wears a piece on his chain that he says has 1096 diamonds in it. Lil Wayne borrowed it to wear in a video. Now there's shit between Jay-Z and LL Cool J too. I didn't know Hip Hop was a such a fucking soap opera. Holla atcha boy!

Here's one of the videos in response to the dis

Though they don't usually end up with somebody dying, rock band feuds can be fun too. Dwarves singer, Blag Dahlia, got hit over the fucking head with a bottle by Queens of the Stone Age frontman, Josh Homme after saying "This one goes out to Queens of the Trust Fund/You slept on my floor/And now I'm sleeping through your motherfucking records" in a song on the Dwarves last album. One of the Gallagher brothers from Oasis said that he hoped Damon Albarn of Blur "catches AIDS and Dies." It was pretty rad when Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks wore a F.U.T.K. (Fuck U Toby Keith) shirt to the American Country Music Awards. Seriously, fuck that guy. Jack White really fucked up Von Bondies frontman Jason Stollsteimer for something he said in the press. The Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massacre feud was pretty sweet. Anton from BJM is fucking crazy, and sent personalized gunshot shells, prompting the Dandies to file for a restraining order. But come on, Marilyn Manson and My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy/Bravery and The Killers? Snorefest.

[Jason Stollsteimer after meeting with Jack White's Fist]

Oh and Mike Patton should beat the shit out of Anthony Keidis. please.

FIRESTORM!

They called it Firestorm in 2003 as well. I'm in Riverside until Friday. All my work got canceled for next week.

I would like to keep everybody posted in all the fire stuff, but I'm out of San Diego and out of the loop myself. So, I'll just direct you to the places I've been getting my information...

Sign On San Diego's Fireblog
Dirtbag's Delight
SD Dialed In
Cat Dirt Sez

Not Fox News, who would have you believe that all seeing, all powerful, Al Qaeda terrorists burnt up all dem peoples' houses.

Gotta work.

Have we learned nothing from O.J. Simpson?

Bill Maher once said to Ralph Nader, while pleading him not to run for president, "I'm giving this [picture of O.J. Simpson] to remind you that someone can have a lifetime of being considered a hero and then ruin it because of one thing."

The lesson should have been considered this week when comments made by 79 year old DNA science pioneer James Watson got him suspended from his position in the lab he was working in, and his book tour canceled. Basically, he said Africans are less intelligent than westerners, and he went on and on. What he said is being called a disservice to science, and he has been denounced by the The Federation of American Scientists. I don't think he gets to keep the title "Grandfathter of DNA." Nobody says "Heisman Trophy Winner O.J. Simpson" anymore. He can keep the Nobel Prize he won in 1962 for co-discovering the structure of DNA in the same place O.J. Keeps his Heisman, where nobody fucking cares anymore.

Here's what he said:

"inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really"
He went on to say in the profile that it would be nice if all groups were equal, but that "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true."

Old Fart.

Sold out. Fest Prep.

The Black Lips, Spits, Heartaches, Sess show was sold out by the time I got there. I knew it was going to sell out, but I didn't want to go alone. So, I waited for Gabe, Wolf, and Janelle. We were late. We did not get in.

Back up plan: Tiltwheel, In the Red, and Vena Cava at Kadan. All three bands were gearing up to make their way out to Gainesville for The Fest.

Voz Alta and Good Intentions

This Sunday, (10/21) Batwings will play at what Cullen referrered to as "well intentioned, but acoustically challenged" Voz Alta Downtown, next to Landlord Jim's, down the street from City College. Also performing will be Hostile Combover, The Fever Sleeves, and The Vaginals. The show is a benefit for S.O.T.I. - Survivors of Torture International

Playing Catch Up.

So things are busy as usual. Finally got my dog Chancho back. Started subbing again. Trying to start skating a little again. Got some EFC T-shirts printed. Going out of town again next week. ...Just trying to catch up so that I can eventually keep up with the world.

On Saturday (10/13) I went to Mexicali to catch Cat Dirt Records' own, Fifty on their Heels, a DJ set by Blake Miller of Moving Units, and Mexicali "hardcore with a keyboard" locals Lipstick Terror. The bar had a pretty cool setup. There was a separate stage in the back with its own bar. Lipstick Terror didn't take the back stage until nearly midnight. This was before Blake Miller's Dj set started, so there were actually people in there to see them. Granted, Lipstick Terror is a relatively popular local band, but by the time Fifty on Their Heels set up and began to play Blake Miller's "Puro Party" dj set was in full swing, and the back room remained relatively empty. It was pretty dissapointing how much time was wasted, and how little effort there was to showcase each act. My sentiments couldn't be expressed better than this article for City Beat by Cullen Hendrix or Shane from Cabron's blog, A Coat of Red Paint in Hell, which said, among other things, "Music that is spun should be either relegated to the background, or put in the forefront to stand alone and get asses shaking, it should supplement a band not be an equal ‘performing’ entity." Tons of kids showed up for Blake Miller, unfortunately dancing to his set was excluded seeing Fifty on Their Heels. Bummer. Cat Dirt Sez also had some words about Lipstick Terror and the Border Scene.

I missed Two Gallants last night (10/17) at the Casbah. They're an exciting two piece, who know how to tell a story with a song. One of Saddlecreek's newer additions. They played with two bands I've not yet heard of, Blitzen Trapper and Songs For Mom.

Tonight (Thursday 10/18) gear up for a hell of a punk/garage showdown. The Black Lips, The Spits, The Heartaches, and The Sess at the Casbah. If you're lucky you might catch some full frontal male nudity, band members urinating into their own mouths, and just general shenanigary. You can definitely count on seeing a shitload of punks drinking a shitload of beer, and professional skateboarder/punk drummer, Kristian Svitak, beating skins for the Heartaches. The Sess is one of my favorite local bands, who are in my opinion, underrated and by far the best and most talented of the group of buzzy local bands that get lumped together (atoms, powerchords, muslims, prayers, vultures...) They play the Atari lounge.

On Saturday (10/10), Batwings played Scolari's again. Ah, home sweet home. We played with the Frauds, Cabron, and The Dissimilars. Cabron, our "shit smelling practice space" buddies, just released Mexican Shoe Thief which I have yet to hear. I did however just discover the Blog by band member Shane, which is complete with band interviews and in depth reviews, called A Coat of Red Paint in Hell. The Frauds played first. After they were done, they fought for most of rest of the night. Now, by "fought," I don't mean they simply argued. Sure, that was part of it, but so were fisticuffs, physical assault. They actually got into it and started punching each other in the face inside the bar. The drummer went to the merch table and yelled "Get your Frauds merch, this might be your last chance." At one point one of the members went outside and began banging the shit out of his head on the wall. They yelled at each other all damn night. "You want a piece of me? Take a fucking shot big man!," "Your so fucking punk man!" At one point at the end of the night a small group of us were torn between what to watch, an obviously wasted girl attempting (unsuccessfully) to pull out of a parallel parked spot without hitting the cars in front of or behind her own, or the drummer and guitarist of the Frauds yelling and clawing at each other. It was quite a show. Actually, it was really uncomfortable. Cabron played really well. It's really a testament to taste and ability to see Leo sing for Cabron one night and play bass in his other band Fkenal. The Dissimilars bought their familiar brand of punk with gusto, as singer Jimmy crawled all over the bar with mask and cape. It was a fun night.


Not only have I been lazy, but the weather is keeping me shitty, so I missed Wild Weekend on Sunday (10/07). Yeah, if I weren't actually in the band, I probably would have missed the Batwings show at Scolari's and gone to see Sleeping People and Kill Me Tomorrow. Cullen reviewed it here. T-Bone is playing additional percussion for KMT which brings his band count to somewhere around 5 or 6, I think. Sleeping people will soon be going on tour with the Locust. Bobby Bray of the Locust was recently in attendance at one of his girlfriend's shows at the Brooklyn House AKA Ninja House. Maria Cochina's two piece noise band The Vaginals played as well as the band my younger brother was on tour with, Alak Alas Alaska. Fkenal also played featuring Leo fromCabron on bass guitar. Their drummer is a badass.

I still have yet to hear the new Radiohead album. Also missed Rogue Wave last week at the Casbah, Cattle Decapitation covered in molasses at Scolari's, and Polysics and Numbers at the Casbah. Damnit.


.

The Red Room rules.

Back when I was in Long Beach for work, I went to a very cool bar called The Red Room. It was kind of small and divey, but not too filthy, just the way I like it. It seemed as though they knew their clientele and catered to them well. There were lot's of young "cool" people, skateboarders and the like, but not too hip. It wasn't a fashion show or a meat market, much more quiet and chill. Well, i think it was a Tuesday, so maybe that had something to do with it. Well on this particular tuesday night there were no meth addicts, no old timer day crowd residuals, no costumed postured hipsters posing, no hooting and hollering Fratboys insisting upon Jaeger shots. No, just giant glass mugs of domestic beer for 4 bucks and your choice of several skate videos playing on a loop. I watched the new Listen video "Viajero's Locos" video with Danny Montoya and Rob Gonzalez like 5 times over. It was pretty awesome. I guess on Sundays they let you bring in your iPod and let patrons Dj for 15 minutes at a time. What a killer idea. The bar is highly recommended!... just make sure it's a Tuesday, or I can't guarantee you'll enjoy it as much as I did.


All photos taken from The Red Room website

The Flu is a dick, Free the Robots is the Shit.

I wasn't feeling all that well on Wednesday, but I made it through work and went back to the hotel to sleep it off. Got a nap in, showered. Felt pretty good. I should have stayed in, but when friend asked if I wanted to go out and that she'd pick me up, I couldn't bring myself to turn down the offer. I told myself I would take it easy on the drinks, and just power through it if I got a headache or whatever. I knew I had the morning off, so no big deal, right? I didn't have to be at work 'til like 11. We started at a bar in Santa Ana called Memphis. It was actually a restaurant. I didn't eat, I just had a couple of beers and started the long night of brain boiling fever denial. I walked down the street to the 7-11 and bought some painkillers and kept telling myself, "just stick it out til 2 and you'll get to sleep in." Next, we went to a cool little bar/venue called Detroit Bar. It was actually a pretty big place. There was kind of an island bar (3/4) , a room for the live music with dance floor, a room for a dj with smaller dance floor, a room with a padded bench all the way around it and a fireplace, a room with a couple of pool tables in the back for if you weren't really interested in the music, and there were tables here and there. [Click on the banner taken from their website to see four different views of the bar] Did I mention they sold pints in keg cups for a dollar? When I first got there I saw this 5 piece disco punk band called Funeral Party play. They seemed really young and all dressed like Jim Greco lookalikes (who is a Johnny Thunders lookalike), but hey, it's Orange County. I guess Heroin Chic never really went out. They were above average, but that kind of shit is a little played out and wasn't really my thing to begin with. Ok, fuck, I don't know why I have a hard time admitting I like this shit even though it's all interchangable, but they were pretty damn good. Think Moving Units, Rapture, insert dance rock band here. They have a left handed drummer which I loved, and really good bassist. After they finished, Free the Robots went on. FTR performed as a three piece but is really the brain child of Chris Alfaro. It's really awesome hip-hop ambient psychedelic triphop... you get the picture (fun with genres) with jazz samples, live moog, and enought dynamics and changes to keep your head bobbing. Anyway, I felt like dog shit when I got home. I missed work the next day and spent about 16 hours in bed before taking some more theraflu, soup, and gatorade and getting the fuck back in bed because of the ridiculous brain melting fever and unrelenting body aches. The Flu is a dick.

Batwings double duty saturday

Saturday September 29th, 2007 will be a busy day for the band. We are scheduled to play the Ken Club at about 9:30 with The Fever Sleeves, and a band called Vitro whose singer is a doorman at every freakin' dive bar in north park. After our set, head straight out to the Alibi where we will be playing with Play Pretty for Baby, Say No to the Microchip, and Get Your Death On. Why are we playing two shoes in the same night? I'm not really sure. I think it's something we've always wanted to be able to say we did. I think we're making up for not having played in a couple of months. Either way, I'm looking forward to it. I can't wait to play again.

Planes Mistaken For Stars at the Tower Bar 9/21

I had taken the news of the breakup of Planes Mistaken For Stars with a heavy heart. I had been out of town all week and nearly wet my pants when I found out they were playing in San Diego one last time, and I was actually going to be around to see them. After missing every PMFS show since 2001, I had decided there was absolutely no fucking way I was going to miss their last San Diego show ever as they hit the road on their farewell tour. The Tower bar's not a big place, so I made sure to get there early. I was greeted at the door by my good friend and favorite local writer, Cullen Hendrix (Dirtbag's Delight/City Beat/Music Matters). Coincidentally it was his 30th birthday. What a hell of a way to celebrate 3 decades! There were a lot of familiar faces, Cullen of course, Rosey from SDDialedIn, Corey and April from Vena Cava, Robbie from long defunct Danny Tanner, Bobby and Bryan from Batwings, Larry from Slab City, Dan (I think) from Punkboard, Lynn from Lynn's Rags, and a ton of other people. Get Your Death On and Kingdom of Magic opened up. Both bands play a similar form of heavy sludgy metal, but neither gets anywhere near the brutal aggression of Planes. PMFS started out with the obligatory warning, "this song is about fucking," to which someone replied "They all are!" They started the set with older material from Knife in the Marathon and Fucking Fight. They played some newer material from last years "Mercy," in the middle and wrapped it up with easily one of my favorite PMFS songs ever, "Thunder in the Night Forever" from the "Spearheading the Sin Movement" EP. I ended the night pumping my fist and losing my voice screaming "We ride to, We ride to, We ride to, We ride to fight!"

I need to buy a new digital camera, mine is caput. For pictures from the night, check the recap at SDDialedin.

PMFS interview from 2004

I had considered re-editing it, as it has been 3 years since I wrote it. But, here is the interview I did of Gared from Planes, with almost no Q&A cut out of the original transcription. This was published in Modern Fix issue #44, but Like I said, this is a lot bigger than what got published.

Planes Mistaken For Stars by Sebastian Ulloa
photos by Amber Teafatiller

As the saying goes "If it sells in Peoria, it'll sell anywhere." Peoria was supposed to be the perfect cross section, the perfect example of "Average America." Though they formed in Peoria in 1997, Planes Mistaken for Stars perhaps didn't make the best fit as average Americans. They've since relocated to Denver, Colorado, and have never stopped relentlessly touring the country. On and off the stage, they have been determined to give one hundred percent of their being to their music. They are a living, breathing, fucking, and fighting music machine. Planes Mistaken for Stars remain to be one of the most brutally honest, hardworking, and resolute bands out there. This year they wrote new material, and got a chance to road test it on the Plea for Peace tour. Immediately afterward they went right back out on the road to promote their new full length "Up in Them Guts" on their own. For singer Gared O'Donnell, becoming a father has not squelched any of the fire that fuels the band with such intensity. On the contrary, it has only served to fan the flames. Call it emo, screamo, post-hardcore... call it screamy-naked-beardcore. Whatever you call it, it's raw, real, and heartfelt emotion that is anything but average.

Some unknowing listeners may be put off when you stick your hand down your pants and say something like "this is another song about fucking." There's a lot of material in your music that if not explicitly, could be inferred as being sexual in nature. Like some of the titles, "Up in them guts," "Fuck with Fire," and "A Six Inch Valley"... Are the sexual references meant to be taken literally?

(Chuckles) I've got a couple of answers for you. First of all, all of our imagery and titles...Yeah it definitely does have that connotation, and does sit in that context. The reason I feel that we picked that title for the record in general is because it's a double edged sword. If you can get past the sexual gratuity... if the people that know what it is and have heard that slang, once they can get past that, they can look at it to mean other things too. The whole record to me, the songs and lyrical content, really strikes a nerve in me. Some of the stuff I wrote, I wasn't necessarily comfortable writing and definitely not so comfortable singing. That's why I felt it should stick, because I'm challenging myself and we're challenging ourselves. Rock and roll is inherently a sexual beast, and I think that's missing a lot these days. A lot of people might look at us and say "what do they mean? It's a bunch of hairy ugly guys playing punk rock." To me, I think there are a lot of subtle overtones and undertones of sexuality in all of our music. Some of the times when I say "this song is about fucking," it is in a roundabout way. It's not necessarily about the act of, but a lot of it is about the emotional impact of our sexuality. It's a lot easier to say that on stage than it is to pull out a diagram and explain word for word what I mean. To me it is very sexual. The six inch valley thing... (Chuckles) I was wondering when somebody would pick up on that, but it's not a sexual reference at all. It's actually from a Bruce Springsteen song. {Laughter) I was wondering when somebody else would get as dirty as me, ha-ha. You won a blue ribbon brother.

It seems as though lately you've tended to play with bands that don't necessarily have the same sound or garner the same crowd. Is that purposeful?

It's not always purposeful. Then again, it is definitely something we try and nurture. It's nice to go out with all sorts of people all across the spectrum, that way we don't get pigeon-holed ourselves. It kind of just happened that way. A lot of our friends' bands don't sound anything like each other. But, it's kind of a happy accident. It's something that's definitely refreshing, because we get to play to different kids on each tour that we go out on. Obviously, the Ataris pull a different crowd than Hot Water Music. It's cool. It never really feels like we're preaching to the converted.

A lot of the kids have been asking for autographs. Does it make you uncomfortable?

It's one of those things where when I was a little bit younger I was probably a little bit cockier about it, like "Fuck that, autographs are dumb." However, the more I've done this, the more I realize... especially like on the Ataris tour for example. A lot of these kids are like fifteen or sixteen years old, and it might be the first show they've ever been to. The fact of the matter is that you are standing on a stage and you're higher than the crowd and you look bigger than life. Some of these kids are like "Wow I actually met this person." So instead of acting like we're above that, I'll do them. I'll sign something for some kid. Kind of just seems like a document to me. Well, here's what I do actually; I have a son. Every band that we tour with, I try to get vinyl from them and have all the bands sign it for him as a document. So, some day when he's fifteen or sixteen years old, I'm going to have a giant box of records for him, all with little personal messages to him. It's really kind of a grey area. I definitely don't think that kids should look at anyone in a band as being better or bigger than they are. However, at the same time it's kind of neat. That way they will be able to show, "Yeah, I was there." I mean, fuck, there are plenty of bands that I would... If I could have met Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy I definitely would have liked to have gotten his autograph. It just brings it down to an even more personal level. It's kind of like "wow, I actually like shook this guy's hand"

How was working with AJ Mogis at Presto!?

AJ! He's a special guy man, I love him to death. He's a good fella'. He's a hard guy to get to know, but once you know him there's a huge payoff there. In retrospect, after we recorded the record with him, it's all fallen together. How it worked, certain things he did, certain ways he was, and exactly how they benefited the recording... I wouldn't have had it come together any other way, now that I can look back on it a little bit.

What influenced your decision to work with AJ?

There are a couple of different reasons. I guess the most obvious one would be that we're really close with Cursive. They put out the best record of the year last year. "The Ugly Organ" is just an amazing record. When we went in there we were under no illusion that we would sound like that record because that's totally two different bands. But, there's definitely a quality to the recording that is very appealing to us. It's very earthy, very natural and warm. That's what we wanted to go for. That's one reason, the other is that AJ and those guys are really easy to work with. They're not expensive yet. They're actually rather reasonable. They're also in a part of the country that we're familiar with. Lincoln is only seven hours from here. The other studios that we were looking at would have been 15-20 hour drives for us. It felt good to be just far enough removed from home, that we weren't at home. It's really hard to get stuff done when you are at home. It also felt good to know that we were only seven hours away.

Why did you feel the need to re-record the song "Bastards" on the new album?

I feel like "Spearheading the Sin Movement" is what it is. I'm very proud of it. I think we're all very proud of it as a piece. However, I feel like Ep's and 7"s in general don't reach the same amount of people for whatever reason. I don't understand it myself because some of my favorite pieces of music are 7"s. As far as the sales ratio goes, compared to a full length, there's a pretty big jump there. Say somebody sells 5,000 full length records, they'll probably only sell 1000 7"s. I think the point of it is that lyrically that song, I thought it needed to reach a larger audience. It's one of the few songs where I can actually pinpoint myself on what it means word for word. There is a message there, and I felt like it's one that we needed to share with people. I also wanted to get a better recording of it.

When you decided to leave Illinois, why did you choose Denver, and how long have you been there now?

We've been here a little over five years now. There were a lot of reasons. I had some family connections out here. That made it a little bit easier seeing as how my mom and brother lived out here. Also, in large part it was due to [the fact that] it wasn't typical. It wasn't a typical place for a band to get up and move to. Everybody moves to New York and LA. There's enough bands out there, there's enough stuff going on, I felt like we'd get lost in the shuffle. So, we came here. For touring, it's centrally located, really. We're in the middle of the country. It makes it a little bit easier to get to each coast.

It's still a pretty young music scene out in Denver isn't it?


Yeah, there's never been any one predominant thing going on here. And that's kind of cool, because you don't have anything to live up to or anything to be shunned for. I can just imagine how well we would have gone over in La. People would have hated us because we don't give a shit about fashion, and we don't give a shit about scenes. So, we just kind of came here, and we have friends here. Over the years we've made a lot of really close friends. Even here, we're just kind of doing our stuff. It seems like we're on tour more than we are at home.

So you're not really at home sort of setting the bar for Denver?

No, we definitely claim Denver. We're from Denver by way of Peoria. I think that all the bands here that are involved with each other push each other a little bit more. I'd like to think that people see us busting our asses and that it inspires them to do the same. I see bands from here that are really pushing the envelope in some areas and it inspires us to do the same.

How was your experience with the Plea for Peace tour?

The plea for peace tour was amazing. It was like a giant field trip because we're so close with Cursive. The crowds were kind of hit or miss. I think that on any tour that's a little bit bigger like that a lot of kids have it made up in their minds what they are there to see and that everything else is crap. I could tell that there were a lot of kids there that totally didn't get us, and just thought we were garbage. Whatever, they were there to see Cursive. I think it was a lot of Cursive's fans were the ones that were all "Ooh icky, Planes Mistaken for Stars sucks." I think they'd be surprised to know exactly what kind of people Cursive are, what they are into, and the approach that they are coming from. It was a beautiful tour. Mike Park is an amazing fellow. He's a beautiful guy for setting that up. Saul Williams is a stellar soul. And Cursive, obviously, they are blood. I couldn't have had a better time. It would have been nice if some of the crowds would have been a little bit more receptive to us. There were some shows that were a breath of fresh air where I felt like "wow, these kids are really here to see us and they're getting into it." It doesn't even have to be like that to be an enjoyable show. I think kids should at least give things a shot. You can look out in a crowd and tell which kids are there that have already made up their minds before you hit a one note that they're going to hate you. That's just how it works. Kids would probably be surprised to know what teddy bears we really are.

I tried to go see you guys in San Diego while you were on that tour. How was the crowd? I heard they were kind of shitty.

Yeah it was really pretty terrible. I think everybody was on par. Everyone performed really well. We tried to have fun. I mean, we had fun with each other on stage. The kids were just kind of like "impress me." I could have pulled a rabbit out of my fuckin' ass and none of those kids would have smiled. It was pretty ridiculous. San Diego, depending on where you play, seems like it has a lot of weird baggage going on. Some people have actually written us and said "Oh, don't play at this place." The problem was that it wasn't our tour. I can just suggest as much, but when shows have been set up for months and months it's really hard to pull out. It's one of those things too... It's kind of an uphill battle getting a show in San Diego anyhow. We've played the Che [Cafe] several times. Sometimes it's really been good to us, and other times it's been like "Oh wow, there's four kids here." The last two times we played there it was really good. It also seems really insular, like there are only certain kids that go there. It seems that there's a scene around the Che. I look at as "the more the merrier." It's a bummer man. I like the city. I have friends there, and it's a beautiful town. It just sucks that I never know what's going on. I mean, we could headline there tomorrow, and I really couldn't tell you whether there'd be 200 kids there, or 20, or 10. It seems like a lot of the kids might be fickle, but I don't know.

You've had two bassist changes. What brought the lineup changes about?

Well, the first bassist, Aaron [Wise], was in the band for the shortest amount of time. Like I said, we were such a young band. We just kind of started going right out the door, really struggling and fighting for what we wanted to get done. We all wanted to tour, tour, tour. He was one of these guys that wanted to tour one month out of the year. He was not much, but a little bit younger. We were 22 he was 19. There is a little bit of a gap there. He was still in school, and he felt like he had to do school. He did, he really needed to. That's what he got done, but we couldn't all wait for him. Then, I don't know what happened with Jamie [Drier]. He was in the band for five years. He was one fourth of the band. We kind of came into our own with him in the band. I think we really became a pretty well oiled fighting unit with him. One day he just up and decided he wasn't into being in a band anymore. It wasn't that he wasn't into being into us, he just said he never wanted to be in a band and that's all there was to it. A lot of people ask me, but I don't know. I'm going to start sending them his phone number, haha. He's one of my best friends in the entire world. I still talk to him fairly regularly. I guess he's just doing his own thing. He works for a record store, plays his acoustic guitar, and draws a lot. I don't think we've ever been on bad terms with either of them. When there is a separation or a shakeup like that there is definitely a need for a mourning period and to give each other space. It still breaks my heart that Jamie quit, but at the same time I wouldn't trade what's happened because of it for a million dollars. It's really exciting what's happening now. Chuck [French] has added a new energy, a new slant on things. He's made us pay attention to things that we maybe didn't pay attention to before. He's teaching us a lot and he's learning a lot. It feels really good.

How long has he been in the band?

Um, it feels like forever... I don't know, a year now. Out of the record we wrote there was only one full song that we had done before he joined. We had lots of bits and pieces and scraps that we re-evaluated after Jamie left. We threw some stuff out, and beefed some stuff up with him.

Your first record was initially self-released. How'd you end up with Deep Elm re-releasing it?

Initially Deep Elm contacted us on our first tour. I called home and my grandma told me there was a message there for me. I remember when we recorded that I only sent one copy out, and it was to Deep Elm. We had played with one of their bands. I think it was Pave the Rocket. They were like "Hey, you should send this to our label, they do comps and stuff. I think he'll dig it." When I sent it to him [John Szuch] I was under no illusion that this guy was going to sign us or something. It was totally like an afterthought. I guess as soon as he got it he called and wanted to do this and that. Our whole thing was like, "whoa, we've only been a band like six months." We're not really into signing contract, number one. Number two, if we were going to, it seemed like a bad time to do it. We didn't even have our own footing yet. We weren't even sure what the hell was going on. So, we told him "let's keep in touch." Months later, what we came up with was we were going to keep on pressing it here in the states and try to find distribution. We told him that he could press it overseas, because in a million years we wouldn't have known how to get good distribution in Europe. We told him that he could do the vinyl, and that we'd do all this if he did it on vinyl. We couldn't even fathom how we could ever have afforded to get any of our recordings onto vinyl. That's the biggest deal to us. That was and still is... like "Oh wow we have our own record." It feels like a real piece of music once it's committed to vinyl. He ended up just pressing it here and selling it here. We didn't really complain because in hindsight we really didn't have the resources to take it on. So we were asking around, talking to other labels, and really trying to start our own label for "Knife in the Marathon." Once again it ended up that we were touring so much that we just couldn't get that together. So, we had him put out "Knife" for us. Actually all the way up to "Fuck with Fire," we saved the money ourselves from touring, and recorded and paid for everything, and we would just get reimbursed. So we did "Knife" with him and we decided "let's leave." It kind of nice, we sort of just passed through. I think it's sort of rotten how some bands treat independent labels as stepping stones to get somewhere bigger. I think that's rotten. I also think that the cool thing about indie labels and independent music are the people that really are true to form, and that you can work with as many people as you want. It's kind of nice, and you learn a little bit from each label you work with. They learn a little bit from you, and you reach different kids. There might be some kids that only buy deep elm records, who wouldn't buy a record on No Idea because they've never heard of it, or vice versa. I'm really stoked that things worked out the way they did to say the least, and that we didn't get tied down to like a 4 or 5 record deal. A lot of young bands might jump on the first thing that's whacked in front of them, and I'm pretty stoked that we didn't.

How'd you hook up with no idea? Why have you stayed with them?

I started getting into No Idea stuff when he [Var Thelin] was doing the zine, when I was sixteen. He's been around for like fifteen years now, doing records. When we went and recorded "Fuck with fire" we sent out two or three copies to two or three different labels. The one that I focused on was No Idea, because I really respect him. He's put out tons of records. The thing is, for as many records that he's put out, even though I might not love every one of them, there is a reason that they are put out. Those songs and those bands needed to be documented, and they mean something. He really believes in everything that he puts out. That's something that means a lot to us, because there are so many labels that will just put out what they think will sell. Our whole position was that we were all fans of the label and we have a lot of friends on the label. We were buddies with Hot Water [Music] and Small Brown Bike... It just seemed right, and it ended up being right. That's why we're still on No Idea. I suppose there are flashier labels that we could have looked into and tried to pimp ourselves to, but at the end of the day No Idea is just a perfect fit. They really care about us, and we really care about them.

How'd you get involved with the Black Flag tribute on Initial Records?

We're just friends with the initial guys. They just called up and said "hey, you want to do this?" We said that it's a no brainer man, fucking A! I probably wouldn't have picked up a guitar if it hadn't been for Black Flag.

Yeah, but aside from the 12" you guys have your own 7". Why'd you record three songs as opposed to everyone else who recorded just one?

Actually I think we recorded four or five. What happened was I think they sent every band the same amount of money to record with. We've always been about getting the most for your money. So, when we went in and did that we recorded five songs. We did four Black Flag songs and one original, just to have as a demo for us. We actually recorded that song "Earning Ire" in the same session. Plus it was fun. It took us like two days, or rather two practices, to learn four or five Black Flag songs. We just went in and smoked through them. We did them all live and recorded five songs in like probably four or five hours. Since we had so many extra songs, they were like "Well, fuck, let's use them."

Was "Fucking Fight" only released on vinyl?

Yeah it was, up until recently. Recently some label in the UK put it out on CD, which I thought was silly. It kind of happened without our knowledge, through various misunderstandings and miscommunications. We initially thought they were going to repress it on vinyl. They went ahead and put it on CD, which I think is silly because it's like 2 and a half or three minutes of music. On a CD it just seems like a waste. To me it seemed like a vinyl piece. That's what it was, it's a single. Our original plans were to eventually tag it onto a seven inch collection. On CD sometimes the spirit's not there, it just seems very cold and calculated. I was pretty excited that the 7" had been around and out for three or four years before anybody put it on CD. When we finally did put it on CD I wanted it to be with a bunch of other stuff.

You used to skateboard didn't you?

Yeah, that's what got me into punk rock. I always have a board. I usually have one on tour. I still cruise around a pop a kickflip here and there. I don't skate like I used to. I'm too scared to. If I break my arm, there goes there tour. It's still definitely in my blood though.

Aside from being a father, is Planes pretty much a full time gig for you right now?

Yeah, I don't get paid, but it's definitely full time. Other than to my family and friends, I can't imagine devoting as much of myself or of anyone of us to anything else. It's pretty all encompassing, really.

Is it a struggle just getting by from day to day when you are not on the road?

Absolutely, what little we can scrape together from touring definitely has to last us. There's not a whole lot of glory in it.

How has becoming a father changed things for you and the band?

It's definitely rather trying. But at the same time in some senses it makes what I do easier, because I want to do it even better for him. I want to live even harder for him. Being a father makes a lot of things that you once cared about seem really frivolous and unnecessary. Then, it makes things that you really always cared about become a little bit clearer. It makes you focus a little bit better on what's really important. It's humbling to say the least.