Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Unwound

Olympia band Unwound was actually the first band to release an album on Kill Rock Stars, up until then it was a spoken word label. Crazy. Unwound also had the distinction of the being the first band released by San Diego's Gravity Records. The band had a powerful noisy sound often described at emo or post-punk. I personally really like their early singles and first two albums, I caught the band live a bunch around that era. They always had an intensity in their sound, singer Justin Trosper really carried the band by being so emotional live in his singing. This photo is by Amy Halligan, taken around 1994.

Band members: Justin Trosper on vocals and guitar, Vern Rumsey on bass and Sara Lund on drums.

Album & 12" Discography:
  • Demo tape (1991, self-released)
  • Fake Train (1993, Kill Rock Stars)
  • New Plastic Ideas (1994, Kill Rock Stars)
  • The Future of What (1995, Kill Rock Stars)
  • Unwound - demo re-released (1995, Punk in My Vitamins
  • Repetition (1996, Kill Rock Stars)
  • A Light at the End of the Tunnel Is a Train (1997, Kill Rock Stars)
  • Challenge for a Civilized Society (1998, Kill Rock Stars)
  • A Single History 1991-1997 (1999, Kill Rock Stars)
  • Live in London (1999, Love Letter)
  • Leaves Turn Inside You double album (2001, Kill Rock Stars)

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Steve Turner


Steve Turner was always kind of a hero of mine. He went to my highschool a few years before me, in a suburban snobby suburb of Seattle. Yet, like me, he got heavily involved in alternative and punk music and went in quite a different direction than most of his peers. Where I did it more as a fan, writer and publisher, he did it as a musician for some just awesome bands. First Mr. Epp and the Calculations, then Green River, and then the crown jewel, Mudhoney. The CD that compiles Mudhoney's Superfuzz Big Muff and their early singles is easily in my top 10 records of all time. In my group of friends at parties we have what we call a "Mudhoney Freakout" around midnight or 1am, where we put on old Mudhoney and scream along drunk at full volume. It happened at my Halloween party a few days ago, 20 rabid Mudhoney fans jumping up and down singing along to "Touch Me I'm Sick." It must have been a pretty scary sight. But we can't help it, even today, 19 years after those songs came out, they are packed with so much power and emotion they simply blow the fuck out of 95% of the music being produced. My admiration of Steve Turner was totally evident in my zine too. David and I interviewed him for our very first issue of 10 Things. This photo I shot on The Ave in front of the Big Time Brewery in 1990 after we drilled Steve with questions and wormed stories out of him for about two hours over beers. Cheers Steve!

Maurice's Little Bastards



Maurice's Little Bastards were a punk band from Bainbridge Island in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Fronted by Justin MoCheeks (he did a zine entitled MoCheeks), the band was known for their all out crazy live shows that usually ended with the band removing a lot of their clothes. Justin later went on to be in The Deadly Weapons (with Larry Rickets) and now is in Portland band The Clorox Girls. Justin's parents used to let him host shows in their house. I remember riding the ferry out there, drinking beers in the car, then talking to his folks outside before watching bands. Awesome.

Motorsports International Garage



The Motorsports International Garage was exactly as it sounds like, an old parking garage. It was a covered parking garage located in Seattle on the corner of Stewart and Yale, a block from where Rkcndy was. For a short time period in 1990-91 it hosted rock and punk shows before getting demolished. The venue had a cement floor, rectangle shape and fit 1500 people. While there were only a handful of shows at the Motorsports garage, most of them were fairly legendary.

On September 22, 1990, Nirvana, The Melvins, The Dwarves and The Derelicts played. It was the first time Nirvana played "In Bloom," and it's when the drummer from D.C. band Scream, Dave Grohl, was in the audience checking out Nirvana and his friends The Melvins. He would end up joining Nirvana a few months later. During The Dwarves set that night, lead singer Blag Dahlia threw an unopened can of Pepsi into the crowd. It hit a kid in the face right in front of me and he got a blood nose and seemed knocked out. As his friends dragged him to the back of the theater, he left a trail of bloody across my Doc Martens. We expected that kind of chaos from The Dwarves, I think the crowd actually cheered as it happened. I later saw some kid being carried out on a stretcher by paramedics, I doubt it was the Pepsi kid, more likely someone hit the pavement too hard stage diving or crowd surfing during Nirvana's 54 minute set (which is bootlegged and available on CDR for the diehard fans that want to seek it out, there is also a live video floating around).

Friday, October 26, 2007

Dead and Gone

The San Francisco bay area's Dead and Gone formed in 1993 and have been playing on and off ever since. For me they bring back the old hardcore sound of the '80s, before it degenerated into a macho mosh crew thing. Back in those days it was just freaky kids screaming and playing heavy fucking punk rock. Grrrrr. Dead and Gone are dark, loud, heavy, fast and kinda creepy, and yet totally powerful and catchy. I have to think that bands like Fucked Up and The Bronx took cues from Dead and Gone when reviving the hardcore sounds of '80s bands like Black Flag. This photo I think is from the late '90s, it's of vocalist Shane White when the band played at Rkcndy in Seattle.

Discography:
  • T.V. Baby CD (1996, Prank Records)
  • God Loves Everyone But You CD (1997, Alternative Tentacles)
  • The Beautician CD (2002, Gold Standard Laboratories)

Side Projects:

  • Creeps on Candy
  • Talk is Poison

The Boss Martians



I love this old picture I took of Evan of The Boss Martians, he almost looks like a Norsk metal dude from the '70s. This was taken back around ten years ago when the band was just hinting of the evolution to come. For quite some time before this they were the darlings of the Dionysus Record's surf and hot rod scene, often playing '60s garage band instrumentals. As the band evolved over their albums to follow, the surf and garage tunes gave way to '70s rock'n'roll and power pop. At the same time their clean image began to change as they got a more '70s rock flair to the way they dressed. Comparing their last record to one of the first two, you might think they were an entirely different band. But the evolution happened slowly over the years as they've found their own unique sound and have become a really great band. The band is just embarking on a big tour of Europe and their next album, due out May 13, 2008, will feature Iggy Pop doing vocals on one track. For more info about the band or to hear them, check out their MySpace profile. And by all means, catch them live now while they are still occasionally playing smaller clubs, they are definitely a band that has the potential to get huge in the next year or two.

Band members: Evan Foster on guitar and vocals, Nick Contento on keyboards and vocals, Scott Myrene on bass, and Thomas Caviezel on drums.

Albums (they have a huge discography, I'm only listing the full-lenths):
  • The Boss Martians LP/CD (1995, Dionysus Records)
  • Jet-A-Way Sounds Of The Boss Martians LP/CD (1996, Hillsdale Records)
  • 13 Evil Tales By The Boss Martians LP/CD (1997, Dionysus Records)
  • Invasion Of The Boss Martians, Live In 95/96 CD (1997, Vagrant Records)
  • Lockdown Party! LP/CD (1999, Rockin' Bones)
  • Move! LP/CD (2000, Dionysus Records)
  • Making The Rounds LP/CD (2002, Dionysus/MuSick)
  • The Set-Up LP/CD (2003,Screaming Apple Records)

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The Spits

When The Spits play live, there are a few things their fans have come to expect:
  1. Costumes!
  2. Erin and Sean arguing on stage
  3. Some kind of crazy antics on stage. Before following that link, I should warn you it's not exactly what I'd call "work safe" and that's why I didn't put it right into the blog. It's really because of the argyle socks, you've been warned! And I bet you are thankful I didn't publish the more blatant ones.

The A-Frames



Birthed from the loins of punk noise outfits like Scratch Acid and The Cows and bottle-raised on The Screamers, Wire and Joy Division, Seattle band The A-Frames have always charted vaguely familiar yet drastically different territory in the art punk genre. At times their music is minimalist and almost droning, at others it's angular, jarring and noisy. Needless to say The A-Frames have never feared experimenting as they interpret their dark futuristic visions into music. This photo is from when the band played The Breakroom (now Chop Suey) in January 2001.

Band members: Erin Sullivan on guitar and vocals, Min Yee on bass and vocals, and Lars Finberg on drums

Discography:
  • Plastica 7" (2001, S-S Records)
  • Neutron Bomb 7" (2001, Dragnet Records)
  • A Frames LP (2002, Dragnet/ SS Records)
  • Song "X.M.A.S" on X-Mas Surprise Package CD (2002, Flying Bomb Records)
  • Crutches 7" (2003, Royal Records)
  • A Frames 2 LP (2003, SS Records)
  • Song "I Wanna Hurt" on The Necessary Effect, Screamers Songs Interpreted compilation 2xCD (2003, Extravertigo Recordings/Xeroid Records)
  • Complications 7" (2004, SS Records)
  • Song "Bumble Bee" on Babyhead compilation LP (2004, SS Records)
  • Black Forest LP (2005, SubPop)
  • Police 1000 7" (2006, SS Records)

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Nashville Pussy

Nashville Pussy live at Seattle's Crocodile Cafe in the mid-1990's:





Saturday, October 20, 2007

Seattle Pogues Show Setlist

Here's the setlist from the first Seattle Pogues show for the curious:

Streams of Whiskey
If I Should Fall from Grace with God
The Broad Majestic Shannon
Turkish Song of the Damned
Young Ned of the Hill
A Pair of Brown Eyes
Boys from the County Hell
Tuesday Morning
Kitty
Sayonara
Repeal of the Licensing Laws
Sunnyside of the Street
The Body Of An American
Lullaby Of London
Greenland Whale Fisheries
Dirty Old Town
Bottle of Smoke
Sickbed of Cuchulainn
Sally MacLennane
Rainy Night In Soho
Irish Rover
Star of the County Down
Poor Paddy
Fiesta

Friday, October 19, 2007

More Pogues Photos

A few more photos of The Pogues in Seattle on October 17th. It was their first show of 2007 US tour. Apparently at least Shane MacGowan can still smoke in Seattle rock clubs.





Ms. Led


This is Lesli Wood of Ms. Led rockin' out at Funhouse about a year ago. Ms. Led will be playing Funhouse (in Seattle) next weekend, the 27th, with Steel Tigers Of Death, The Whore Moans and Glenn Or Glennda.

Hi Score Arcade audience

It's funny how the oddest places become makeshift all-ages venues. I mentioned in my previous entry about the Hi Score Arcade that they hosted rock and punk shows, this is an audience shot from when Teen Cthulu played. Kids had to stand on video games and squish between machines to catch the rock action. Note the Ozzy logo spelled out in tape on the wall and Brent from Bloodhag blinded by my flash.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

The Pogues


Last night I saw The Pogues for the first time in my life, at their first show on their US tour. They were surprisingly excellent! Shane McGowan seemed a little too lose and drunk on the first song or two, but pulled his shit together quick and they blasted through a ton of older material over the next two hours, which included two encores for a shouting audience of enthusiastic fans. I kept running into people I knew left and right. Some I hadn't seen in years and would just appear from nowhere in the giant dancing masses of bodies, throw their arm around my shoulder, and we'd both sing along to a song until we were ripped apart by the swirling masses of people. Everyone in the crowd seemed super happy, I didn't see one fist fight. By the end of the show I was losing my voice and my clothes were completely soaked through with my and everyone else's sweat. Awesome. I hope all the folks that catch their later US tour dates get as good of shows!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Mukilteo Fairies


The Mukilteo Fairies was a brilliant band name that only a Washington local would get. It's a pun off of Mukilteo Ferry, the ferry from a town North of Seattle to Whidbey Island. The band came out of Olympia in 1993 and broke up only a year later. They played hardcore with queer oriented lyrics (often dubbed Queercore or Homocore in that era). They played lots of fast and furious songs and had a huge following during their somewhat short existence. While they played what was essentially grindcore, because of their location and connections, they ended up having most of their releases come out on indie pop labels that didn't exactly know how to market them. Mukilteo Fairies live shows were crazy, singer Josh Plague (Joshua Plogue) would constantly jump out in the audience and audience members would sing along in his microphone. This photo I think is of the band playing at the Goathouse. The band played their final show at Olympia's Capitol Theater. For being around less than two years, the band actually had quite a few releases, including many after they broke up. I think that shows to some extent the desire/need for more queer voices in the hardcore punk scene.

Band members: Joshua Plogue on vocals, Rebecca Basye on guitar, Jon Quittner (Quitty) on bass, and Jason Reece on drums.

Discography:
  • "I Am Upon You" cassette tape (1993, Bang-Pop)
  • Split 7" w/Las Mordidas (1994, Honey Bear Records)
  • Special Rites 7" (1994, Kill Rock Stars)
  • Closet Check 7" (1994, Outpunk)
  • "Queer Enough for You?" song on Outpunk Dance Party compilation (1994, Outpunk)
  • "We are Not Your Entertainers" on Rock Stars Kill compilation (1994, Kill Rock Stars)
  • "Bloody Breath" on Periscope compilation (1995, YoYo Recordings)
  • "Contention" on We are All Guilty compilation (1995, Outcast Records)
  • "Push, Push, You Make me want to Choke" on Yo Yo A Go Go '94 double-CD compilation (1996, YoYo Recordings)
  • "Four Letter Love" on Some Songs compilation (1997, Kill Rock Stars)
  • Song on Join the Queercorps 12" compilation (1998, Queercorps)Song on "4-Track Attack" bootleg cassette (2001, Maktek)
After the band broke up Quitty and Josh started Behead the Prophet, No Lord Shall Live, then Josh was in Lords of Lightspeed. He now is a vegan cook and cookbook author and has a great online biography at All Things Joshua. Rebecca Bayse moved to Columbus, Ohio and started The Emerald Down and Jason Reece moved to Texas to form ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The Hi Score Arcade






Anyone that knows me knows I'm an old school video game and pinball fanatic. I spend time each week combing through want ads, classifieds, and game collector forums for old parts and machines. I drive out to the middle of fucking nowhere podunk Washington to buy games from people basements, barns and occasionally from under a tarp in their yard. And over the past eight or so years have built quite a collection of games and have my own basement arcade. The motivation for it dated back to when I was a kid.

I grew up in the 80's. As a kid I spent many hours riding buses or biking across town with my friends to different arcades or stores with an arcade game or pinball table buried in one corner. We'd sink countless quarters into defending the earth, gunning down enemy planes, and hitting the silver ball. Arcade games provided an escape from the world and it's problems. For a quarter or two I could be transported into another world where I was no longer an insignificant minor player in the events that happened around me, but was instead the king, the hero, the conqueror and the champion. Well... at least until I died.

During the late '80s and early '90s, thee place for arcades in Seattle was The U-District. But by the mid-'90s the last of The Ave's arcades, Wizards of the Coast, closed it's doors... much like Arnold's, Space Port, The Ave Arcade and The Game Space had earlier. The arcades were dying.

A couple of kids from punk bands however decided to make one last stand. In 1997 Zach and Jake from Bloodhag and Beth from Vandemonium opened The Hi Score Arcade. The Hi Score was a mammoth tribute to games of yore, with two rooms filled pins and vids, plus Transformers, Atari and other toys and imagery from the '80s. The same year Medieval Madness was put out by William's Pinball and it not only became a top grossing pinball machine, but it sparked a re-newed interest in pinball with another generation of kids. And kids were drawn to The Hi Score, along with us folks in their twenties and thirties. There were so many games, live rock and punk shows, and even couches just to hang out on. Located on the up and coming Pike/Pine corridor (612 E. Pine), the place was a hit for a few years, before eventually going out of business. I wish it was still around today!

Bloodhag still is a popular band that both performs and records. Beth and Zach went on to help start Tablet (with me and a bunch of other folks). Jake is now an announcer for The Rat City Rollergirls and SSP Wrestling.

The Pogues


$50 is the most I've ever paid for a ticket to a rock show... hell, it's probably double what I've paid. I stopped paying for big shows back when tickets were in the $25 range and have really only gone to ones in the past decade I could get into free. I don't like festivals or big shows for the most part, I like my rock in small clubs with beer flying and the barrier between the crowd and the band broken down, rather than enforced by a wood wall and a bunch of beefy security dudes. But I'll tell ya, I've been a fan of The Pogues forever and have never seen them live. And I know it will be a total crapshoot from talking to people that have seen them before, either Shane will be wasted and good or completely wasted and barely able to perform. I guess I'll find out tomorrow night...

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Murder City Devils Live Pt. 2

The Murder City Devils performing live at the Crocodile Cafe...






Murder City Devils live photos pt. 1

The Murder City Devils performing live at the Crocodile Cafe...



North American Bison





North American Bison was the first band I saw Rob Ropkins front, man was he a singer that was fun to watch and at times I swear he'd channel a bit of Glen Danzig in his vocals. And they'd do a couple crazy longer 5-minute songs which seemed totally different than any other punk or hardcore band you'd see playing at The Lake Union Pub or Storeroom. They were an awesome band. These photos are of North American Bison playing live at The Hi Score Arcade. Rob, Tyler AP and Reuben all now play in Beat Senseless.

One Man Army



In 1998 San Francisco band One Man Army's debut album "Another Dead End Story" came out on Adeline Records (Billie Joe from Green Day's label). Wow did I love it! The music was a perfectly executed blend of raw basic three chord punk, catchy song writing, smart lyrics and kinda gruff vocals. It was like the late '90s version of The Clash (1st album) meets Stiff Little Fingers (1st album). Really kick-ass. Their second LP in 2000 just didn't quite have the same magic for me and I stopped paying attention to them, I guess they broke up in 2004. But that first album is killer and they toured after it was released. They played a great show at Seattle's Rkcndy opening up for someone bigger, that's where I shot this photo.

Band members: Jack Dalrymple on vocals and guitar, Heiko Schrepel on bass, and Brandon Pollack on drums.

Jack Dalrymple and Brandon Pollack now play in Dead To Me which sound quite a bit like their previous band with a bit of a bigger sound and just released their first album.

Tilt



It takes a lot to get me to drive 25 miles to a yuppie town on the Eastside (from Seattle) to see a band at a YMCA with a bunch of teenagers. Don't get me wrong, I was a strong supporter of Redmond's Old Firehouse and Kate Becker from day one, but the shows there definitely have a Jr. High/Highschool vibe and anyone over 21 is just going to feel out of place. Even more so when you are in your thirties. But I bit the bullet half a dozen times for shows I really wanted to see and had a great time every show, despite all the underage kids trying to bum smokes off me. One of those bands I made the drive for was Tilt. It was 1995 and Tilt had been blasting out catchy pop punk in the SF Bay area for a few years. They'd recently released their second album "Til It Kills," produced by Kevin Army, and I was absolutely hooked on it. And they were touring with Good Riddance, who's debut LP "For God and Country" was also getting a lot of play at my pad. It was a great show! This photo is of Tilt's singer Cinder Block belting out the song "Libel."

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

764-HERO

This is John Atkins of 764-HERO performing live at Fallout Records on Seattle's Capitol Hill. Named for the phone number on the freeway signs to report carpool lane violators, 764-HERO was Atkins' two-piece band after Hush Harbor he formed with Polly Johnson of Bell Jar (later they became a three-piece when Robin Peringer joined the band). The band formed in 1995 and broke up in 2002 after releasing four albums, a number of singles and touring the States a few times.

Discography:


  • High School Poetry 7" (1995, Up Records; 1995)
  • Now You're Swimming 7" (1996 Suicide Squeeze Records)
  • Salt Sinks and Sugar Floats LP/CD (1996, Up Records)
  • We're Solids EP/CD (1997, Up Records/Suicide Squeeze; 1997)
  • Get Here and Stay LP/CD (1998, Up Records)
  • Whenever You See Fit 12" (1998, Up Records/Suicide Squeeze)
  • Garrison 7" (2000, Up Records)
  • Weekends of Sound CD (2000, Up Records)
  • Nobody Knows This is Everywhere CD (2000, Tigerstyle Records)
John Atkins is currently playing in The Can't See.

The Statics



Holy crap, this is Zack Hoppenrath looking even more wholesome than usual when The Statics played on of their last shows at The Monkey pub in the early 2000s. Usually referred to as Zack Static, he went on to form The Tokyo Drifters, The Repeat Offenders, and now fronts The Zack Static Sect. He's gotta be pushing 40, but looks about 14, that's what copious amounts of beer and garage rock will do to you. So get drinkin' kids!

Slim Jak, R.I.P.





Old school punk and Jak's skater Slim recently passed away. Here are a few photos of him ripping it up live at Gibson's singing for his old band The Vaccines.

The Catheters Live at Fallout

These are from a live set The Catheters did at Fallout Records. At the time the band was Brian Standeford, Derek Mason, Dave Brozowski, Paul Waude and Lars Swenson. Damn I miss Fallout Records, they had great free shows, excellent taste in what they covered, and served as a gathering place for miscreants like me. As usual, click photos for bigger versions.





Tuesday, October 9, 2007

The Zodiac Killers


The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who terrorized Northern California during the late '60s. The killer was never caught and the case remains open, which has made it the subject matter of a bunch of books, movies... and band names! After the demise of his legendary band The Rip Offs, San Franciscan garage rocker Greg Lowery formed The Zodiac Killers in 1998 (Lowery had also previously been in Supercharger and The Infections). The first two Zodiac Killers albums were great blasts of garage punk. The band seemed to continuously go through line-up changes however and not tour much, their last release was 2005's "Radiation Beach." This photo is from I think their only Seattle show, at the Sunset Tavern, probably around 2001. I'm not sure if the band is still together, they haven't done anything in the past two years, the Rip Off Records website is gone, and Lowery's old band The Rip Offs reformed and toured Europe in 2006. But Lowery does still have up a band profile for The Zodiac Killers on MySpace.

Band members: Jill Haley on guitar and vocals, Greg Lowery on bass and vocals, Jeremy Tuman on guitar, and Billy Badass on drums (Ross Fischer sang and played lead when the band started and by the time they finished Lowery was the singer and Jill Haley was no longer in the band).

Discography:
  • The Most Thrilling Experience LP/CD (1998, Rip Off Records)
  • Song "Johnny Won't Go To Heaven" on The Las Vegas Shakedown! compilation CD (2000, Masked Superstar Recordings, 2000)
  • Have a Blast LP/CD (2001, Rip Off Records)
  • Society's Offenders (2003, Rip Off Records)
  • Radiation Beach LP/CD (2005, Rip Off Records)

Monday, October 8, 2007

More Sasshole Pictures


These photos are of Missoula's Sasshole partying it up after one of their shows at Zak's (now Funhouse). This was about 5 minutes before they tried to de-pants me!

Meg Watjen


Meg Watjen booked and managed shows at Seattle's Velvet Elvis Theatre on Occidental Avenue in Pioneer Square during the mid-'90s. She became a champion of the all-ages scene not only by booking a ton of great all-ages shows and helping out young bands and promoters, but by becoming a tireless activist for all-ages shows in dealings with city government. She ruled! After the Velvet Elvis closed, she booked at Graceland and worked at Sub Pop. Later she married Chris "Wez" Lundry (editor of "Pool Dust" skate zine) and they now reside in Tempe, Arizona.


Friday, October 5, 2007

The Kings of Rock


I don't know how it happens, because I've only been to Smarty Pants in Georgetown about half a dozen times, but I've ended up at their yearly Ice Holes benefit shows at least two or three times. Maybe it's because great bands often end up playing to help raise money for Seattle's "Premier Motorcycle Ice Racing Team." Or maybe it's because a bunch of my Rat City Rollergirl friends hang out there and drunkenly call and say "You HAVE to come down to Georgetown tonight!" Who knows? But I do like Smarty Pants, it's a cool place with great food and drinks, it's just a bit of a drive from the city. And I do like the Kings of Rock, even if they were sloppy as hell at this show, probably because they hadn't played live in over a decade.

The Kings of Rock formed during 1987 after The U-Men had broken up. Tom Price was looking for something fun to do and recruited his roomate Don and co-worker at Fallout Records Tim Hayes. They recruited a 15 year old kid to play drums. The band played live and recorded a bunch in the late 1980's before breaking up in 1989. They played a reunion show in Bellingham in 1990 for Garageshock and had a few posthumous record releases after the band had split. As far as I know, this show at Smarty Pants December 3, 2005 was the first time they had played together live since Garageshock '90.

Discography:
  • I'd Rather Go to Jail 7" (1988, Regal Select Records)
  • Nearly Recordings 7" (1989, Regal Select Records)
  • Song "Boss Hoss" on "Here Ain't the Sonics" (1989, Estrus/Popllama)
  • Split single with Girl Trouble, song: "X Mess" (1989, Regal Select Records)
  • Bud, Sweat & Beers 7" (1990, In The Red)
  • Song "Little Girl Be Good" in The Estrus Halfrack 3x7" compilation (1991, Estrus)
Band members: Tom Price sang and played guitar, Don Blackstone played bass, Tim Hayes played guitar and Dan Ryan drummed.

If you want to hear The Kings of Rock, hop over to what could practically be our long lost brother blog Lamestain. There's a link on the right. Lamestain covers a ton of great bands from the Northwest in much the same era that I do here at 10 Things, where I lean more towards covering punk and featuring photos from my mammoth archives, Lamestain's highlight is a bunch of MP3s and a focus more of a grunge and rock bands. They put up the whole Sonics tribute album here and it's a great listen!

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Social Distortion at the Lake City Music Hall

I remember being totally excited for this show. Kammy, Steve, Amy and I... and probably Charlie all went in one car. We drank some beers in a parking lot before going in. Right off the bat we were told Gang Green didn't show and Jesters of Chaos were filling in. While a bummer, I was a fan of the Jesters so this wasn't a complete wash, besides we were really there for Social Distortion. Excreted Republicans were punked out kids and put on a decent show, I barely remember them, but I have photos I hope to dig up. If I remember right, The Jesters had their new and final singer at this show. They got in an altercation with security pretty quick during their set and ended up only playing a handful of songs. There was a long wait before Social Distortion played. I remember hanging around the lobby and Steve joking to me about this short dude's tattoos. Saying getting spiderweb tattoos on your elbows is totally ridiculous now that it's been done so much. The best part was when that dude stepped up on stage to sing a half hour later and we both realized it was Mike Ness. Ha ha ha! Social Distortion played a great show, pulling out all their old stuff and playing a bunch of songs of their new album at the time, "Prison Bound." They dedicated the title song to Oren and everyone laughed. When the lights came on and we thought the show was over, we all went outside to smoke and talk. Suddenly they started locking the doors and people were scrambling back in. I jumped inside with Steve and Kammy, but Amy got locked out with about 200 other people. The lights went out and Social Distortion started playing again... it was completely weird. They wouldn't let anyone back into the venue. I ended up worrying about Amy and went back outside missing the last couple songs, but getting to witness half a dozen cop cars come and see a couple of the Jesters of Chaos thrown into the back of cop cars kicking and struggling. When the crowd confronted the cops, somehow I was at the lead, a row of them met us and threatened to arrest everyone and people kinda backed off. The rumor was that The Jesters had pissed in Social Distortion's spaghetti dinner backstage and a girlfriend had broken a beer bottle, pissing off security and the situation escalated to the point the cops were called. Fucked up ending to a great show.

Rock'n'Roll Adventure Kids


The funny thing about The Rock'n'Roll Adventure Kids is someone gave me one of their t-shirts ages before I ever heard them or saw them... I think maybe it was from Kevin Flush. By the time I saw them they were a two-piece, the tshirt had like four band members on it. Anyway, they are a great spastic and fun live band, check out their MySpace profile for tunes and more info! This is from their show 9/30/06 at The Monkey Pub. Wow, only a year old, this has got to be the most recent band photo I've posted so far.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Aspirin Feast


I have no idea why I kept this and I don't think I was old enough to go to a show in a bar yet when this took place. I'm sure Mike from Aspirin Feast gave this to me. I remember seeing flyers with the Farside Tavern on them fairly often, but never went there. And now I live fairly close to that address, I might just have to drive by and see what's there now.

Schlong


This photo is of Schlong playing accoustic in a record store in Lake Tahoe during New Year's Eve of 1998. Amy and I flew into Reno a few days before and were picked up by our friend Naes (singer of Jewdriver) in Reno, who drove us over to Tahoe in the snow. We stayed at Dave Mello's (Operation Ivy, Downfall, Schlong, Jewdriver) house in the Tahoe hills, along with what seemed to be half the staff of Maximum Rock'n'roll and another 25 people from San Francisco. It was a great New Years that involved drinking, gambling, a couple shows, little yellow pills and lots of cool new people.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Name that band!

3 setlists, 3 bands, all from about a decade ago. Can you name any or all of them? Hint... ah fuck it, I'm not giving any hints, y'all have Google:

1:

2:

3:

The Castros

This photo is of The Castros rockin' out at the The OffRamp in the late '90s. The band members were Dave Goff (ex-Daddy Hate Box) on guitar and vocals, August Henrich on guitar and vocals, Meredith McGuire on bass and vocals and Alan Wright on drums.

August and Alan went on to form The Reckless Bastards and then The Earaches. Meredith went on to a number of bands, including The Valentine Killers, Stuck-Ups and Cute Lepers.