Guitars, Drums, Tones, and Saxophones

My friend Christine recently asked me to compile a list of 25 albums that are quote-unquote essential for anyone that claims they are “in” with the genre should have listened to. Classics, contemporary, etc.

So, I limited myself to 25 and started thinking. What a challenge! I decided to give a brief history of punk. I left out a lot, naturally, and for every record that’s on the list, there are 10-20 other records that could easily be put in their place. I went with historical significance over “quality;” for example, Punk in Drublic isn’t my favorite NOFX album, but it’s important.

I present my list to you, but at the same time ask: what would your essential 25 list look like? Post ‘em if you got ‘em!

And hit the break to see my list.

(more…)

1-2-3 FEST!

It’s that time of year again! The annual installment of The FEST is happening in Gainesville, FL, and the schedule has been posted for everyone to cry over. Conflicts abound. I don’t know about you, but having to choose between Red Collar and Hot Water Music is killing me inside. But it must be done, and no matter who you see, you’re all but guaranteed to have a blast!

You can check out the full schedule here. All in all, aside from a few conflicts- like the one mentioned above, or the overlap of the Against Me!/Red City Radio sets- it’s not too bad. I know I’m excited as all get out, to hang out with everyone, party hard, and see a couple of bands here and there!

Get pumped, and I’ll see you all in Florida!

Hit the break for my tentative schedule, so you can come drink cheap beer with me.

(more…)

Asian Man Records 15th Anniversary

Over the past week, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend Asian Man Records’ 15th Anniversary Festival in San Francisco. For those unfamiliar, Asian Man Records is a label started by Mike Park of Skankin’ Pickle, The Bruce Lee Band, and The Chinkees. Over the years, Asian Man has released many, many records from bands like Slapstick, Lemuria, The Broadways, as well as helping to launch the careers of bands like Less Than Jake, Alkaline Trio, and The Lawrence Arms. Personally, the first time I found the folded-up mail order one-sheet catalog for Asian Man in a CD- it was Less Than Jake’s Pezcore- was a huge moment in my entrance into punk rock.

The festival was 5 days of shows in San Francisco, with high profile reunions of short-lived but classic Asian Man bands, Slapstick and The Broadways, not to mention bands like Slow Gherkin and MU330. The shows I attended were:

• Slapstick, MU330, The Chinkees
• Alkaline Trio, The Hot Toddies, Kepi Ghoulie, The Atom Age
• The Broadways, Bomb the Music Industry!, Ratasucia, Spraynard
• The Lawrence Arms, Toys That Kill, Short Round, Spraynard, Chotto Ghetto

(more…)

I’m back from The Fest, and am still sorting out the weekend. I drank untold amounts of PBR, ($2 tallboys! I can’t resist a bargain) met and hung out with some awesome people, and of course, saw lots of amazing bands. A few highlights:

• Off With Their Heads‘ last-minute secret show at the Atlantic, playing Hospitals straight through
• The whole Red Collar set. Seriously, wow.
• Frank Turner in my friend’s hotel room late Sunday night
• Seeing Red City Radio’s Garrett perform like a million times
• Mixtapes! Both acoustic at the Holiday Inn and with the full band at Rumrunners. They covered Jimmy Buffett’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise”
• And of course, Dear Landlord decked out like Juggalos for their set.

Being my first Fest, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. But now, I’m hooked. I absolutely must return for Fest 10 next year.

So, to those who went, what were the best things you saw?

After the break is a list of bands I saw. Italics for partial set.

(more…)

FEST!

Hey everyone! I’m sure you all already know this, but the full schedule for the Fest 9 is online! You can find it here. So, who are your must-see bands? What are your conflicts?

I’ve made my tentative schedule. Hit the break to see it. And, if you should see me around Gainesville that weekend, please say hi!

Also, if you know of any sweet warehouse/house shows going on then, let your favorite blogger know, alright? (oh, and tell me about them too)

(more…)

I feel like it would be a good time to give a shout-out to some sites that I quite like. First up, the music-related blogs and things!

• Rocket Fuel Podcast – Jeff over at Rocket Fuel is a good dude, with great taste in music, awesome contests and giveaways, and cool interviews. He takes advice received to heart, and it makes for a great show. Definitely something to check out!
• Switchboard Sessions – New to my reading, this blog has some awesome stories about musicians, plus exclusive tracks, recorded over the phone. Lo-fi and awesome. Check it out.
• unsolicited. – Pete reviews things. Dude is really funny, so this is a worthwhile read.
• Bad Sandwich Chronicles – Brendan Kelly’s (of the Lawrence Arms) blog. Filled with stories of being a musician, observations, and scatological humor. Good times.
• Cassettes in the Mailbox – Brian Fallon’s blog. He doesn’t post much, and when he does it’s odd recommendations for music and things. Dude loves Clapton. Anyway, Gaslight fans will like this.
• Punknews – The obvious. I read this more than I read world news. That’s sad to admit.

And some friends, who enjoy writing on the internets:

• Gunter Glieben Glauchen Globen – Daniel Brockman is the bass player for OwlWatcher, as well as formerly playing guitar in the Hidden and Medea Connection. In addition to rocking hard, he writes for the Boston Phoenix, a weekly free alternative paper of some renown. Dude has a crazy knowledge of music, and tastes ranging from thrash to pop.
• Turn Off Your Cell Phone! – A group movie blog that I sometimes contribute to, though as one might guess, my time is more often spent listening to music than watching movies.
• Ambitious Outsider – It hasn’t been updated in a while, but my dear friend Maura’s blog is dedicated to exploring wonderful, fascinating documentaries. There’s some good stuff to be found there.
• Mencken Was Right - My friend Jeff blogs about politics. He’s well-read and a thinker, so his analysis is often interesting to read, agree or disagree.
• Shameless! (Pomp & Circumstance) – Christa here is an artist and designer in the Boston area. She likes great music, and makes great art. She’s worked with Mark Lind and Far From Finished. And she’s funny to boot!
• Empty Port – Brian here is the Content & Community Manager over at HubSpot, and blogs about things related to online marketing and tech stuff. Also a fellow UMass All-Star. His other blog identifies lizard people. It is not a marketing tie-in for ABC’s V.

So these are all pretty great, and worth your time! What about you, dear readers? Got any awesome blogs- music-related or otherwise- that you’d like to share? Post ‘em in the comments!

OK, so this is a bit different for the site, but with the nice weather approaching/already here, and trips to beaches and things imminent, I figured it would be a good time to talk about great albums for the summer. What are some of your favorites for laid back afternoons in the sun?

A short list of mine:

• American Steel – Dear Friends & Gentle Hearts
• Mos Def – Mos Dub
• Chris Wollard & the Ship Thieves – self-titled
• Jimmy Buffett – A1A
• Cheap Girls – My Roaring 20′s
• Harvey Danger – Little By Little
• Latterman – No Matter Where We Go!

That’s what I can think of off the top of my head. What about you?

Well, here it is! A “best of” list for 2008. This list will probably change when I start finding all the albums that came out in ’08 that I missed or neglected. Oh well! Here it goes, folks.

(more…)

Jimmy Buffett - A1A

OK, so this is gonna be a little different. So far here we’ve seen nothing but reviews of punk albums, with a bit of ska and one acoustic solo effort by a punk frontman to shake things up. But dammit, this is a blog about music of all sorts, and so we’re going to talk about this album.

So I think just about everyone on Earth knows who Jimmy Buffett is. He’s the guy who, as of 2008, makes a ridiculous amount of money playing songs about getting drunk on beaches to white, middle- and upper-class suburbanites while they sit on lawns at overpriced venues and pretend they’re the kind of wandering, carefree troubadours that Buffett sings about. You have probably heard “Margaritaville” at some point in your life, and every now and then you might see a new album on the “New Release” chart, probably with some silly, punny title. You scoffed, more likely than not.

Probably surprising to some of you, but this was not always the picture of Jimmy Buffett and his career.

[Editor's note: this is, I think, the longest entry thus far.]

(more…)

Bad Religion - Suffer (1987)

I’m going to start this blog with a review of an incredibly important album to any fan of modern punk rock. Well, this is less a review, since the last thing the Internet needs is another review of an undisputed classic, and more just writing on why this record is important.

Note that this is in no way objective. Suffer is my favorite record of all-time.

Previous to this 1987 release, Bad Religion were a well-known and well-liked L.A. hardcore band, but not the legends of punk they are today. They had released an excellent self-titled EP, an incredible first album (1982′s How Could Hell Be Any Worse?), and one completely out-of-left-field LP, the prog-rock Into the Unknown. During the recording of that album, the band had largely broken up. The future didn’t look bright for Bad Religion. (more…)