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

Slapstick, MU330, and The Chinkees

The first show of the festival was perhaps, before the announcement of The Broadways’ reunion show, the most anticipated performance. Like me, many in attendance had not known Slapstick in their time together in the mid-’90s. You know, when being in a ska band seemed like a good idea. Likewise, I’d never had the opportunity to see MU330 or The Chinkees perform. So this show, for me, was worth traveling from Boston for. And the bands involved didn’t disappoint. When Mike Park and The Chinkees took stage, he faced a sold out, highly appreciative crowd. Famously modest- at least, until he ended the band introductions with “I’m Mike Park, and I’m the fucking man!,” a sentiment I don’t think anyone in the room disagreed with- he was an energetic, funny frontman, leading the band through a great set. At one point, he called Matt Skiba up on stage to skank to a cover of Operating Ivy’s “Bankshot,” which he obliged. There are videos, and they are fantastic. The Chinkees opening set felt like a headliner, both in terms of the performance and the crowd’s reaction. It was weird to think, after they left the stage, that the night had only just begun, and two bands were left to play.

MU330 came out next, and played a set that perfectly captured- and even amplified- the energy of their records. While some of them clearly had aged since the Crab Rangoon days (though Dan seems to be unable to age. Less acne, I guess, but aside from that, bouncy and youthful), it didn’t slow them down one bit. One highlight involved the band selecting a guy named Scott from the crowd to play guitar for one song, and Scott did a fantastic job. If you ever read this, way to go, dude!

Finally, the performance everyone (read: I) was waiting for the most, Slapstick. Having only seen Brendan Kelly in the context of his current band, The Lawrence Arms, or solo, actually witnessing him fronting a ska band, right in front of my eyes, was odd. He was, as one might expect, humorous, self-deprecating (at one point quipping “I love all of these guys, and it’s great to be able to spend time with them, even if we have to play ska to do it.”) and grateful for the crowd’s enthusiasm, and especially to Mike Park. The band played a great set, with songs like “Eighteen” and “There’s a Metal Head in the Parking Lot” really sending the crowd into a frenzy. I would have liked to have heard “Nate B.,” but it’s hard to complain about having seen a band I never thought I would have the chance to see.

Alkaline Trio, The Hot Toddies, Kepi Ghoulie, and The Atom Age

I can’t say too much about the opening bands here; my ticket for this show was in my friend’s name, and he didn’t show up until about halfway through The Hot Toddies’ set. I heard the other sets through the door of the Bottom of the Hill, but it’s hard to really assess the performances. The Atom Age and Kepi sounded good, anyway.

The Hot Toddies, from what I saw of their set, were fun, and I really wish I’d had the cash on hand to get their record. Great vocal harmonies, and an almost Go Go’s poppy punk sound.

I was discussing the Alkaline Trio set earlier in the evening with a friend, wondering what kind of a setlist they would pull out for this festival. We speculated on if it would be a standard 2011-era set, or something wild like playing Goddamnit! straight through. It ended up as neither, but closer to the latter than the former. They played a loose, high-energy set that drew heavily from their 3 Asian Man albums- Goddamnit!, Maybe I’ll Catch Fire, and Alkaline Trio. Makes sense, I suppose, but they certainly didn’t have to. Anyway, Skiba was notably drunk, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. And he, like all the other bands, expressed his gratitude to Mike Park for giving them a chance.

The Broadways, Bomb the Music Industry!, Ratasucia, and Spraynard

Spraynard are a pretty new addition to the Asian Man family; their debut on the label, Funtitled, just came out a month or two ago. If you haven’t checked it out, you really should. Anyway, they’re a trio of young dudes, and played a great set- their first of two over the weekend- and the crowd really got into it.

Ratasucia is Dan Hanaway’s (Slapstick/The Broadways) new band, and they’re really, really great live. Loud and powerful, they delivered a great set, which definitely sold me on their record.

Bomb the Music Industry! seems to be one of those “love ‘em or hate ‘em” bands, which very few people left in the middle. I guess I’m one of those people in the middle; I like some of their songs, but most of their records seem like they’d be better as EPs. Oh well. If nothing else, you can’t say they don’t bring it when they play live, and the kids who love it go absolutely nuts for them. So if nothing else, they’re always entertaining live, music notwithstanding. And they did a good job getting people all amped up and ready for The Broadways.

The set from The Broadways was announced late, and initially only offered to people who had already purchased tickets to other shows in the festival. Every effort was made to ensure that fans, not scalpers, were getting these tickets, and I think it worked. The Bottom of the Hill was packed full of deliriously happy people who, Brendan noted, had never seen the band before; so noted because, as he said, no one at their shows back in the day knew the songs, and even less people liked the songs. Here, on the other hand, the crowd knew every word. The band fed off the energy, and seemed incredibly grateful at the response they got. While he was probably exaggerating a little, to see a project that meant a lot to you finally get its due must be a good feeling. Anyway, they played a great set, and when they closed with “15 Minutes” off Broken Star, the crowd went absolutely nuts.

The Lawrence Arms, Toys That Kill, Short Round, Spraynard, and Chotto Ghetto

The final show, for me, of the weekend. (meanwhile, over at Thee Parkside, Bomb the Music Industry! was headlining another show) Chotto Ghetto I had never heard of before. They had a sort of early-’00s post-hardcore sound. The lead singer moved around like Daryl Palumbo, and claimed to rip off The Blue Meanies in his early songs. I wish they had sounded more like the Meanies, actually. They were alright, but not really my thing. Apparently they have an LP coming out on Asian Man soon, hence their appearance this week.

Spraynard rocked out again, this time with a beach ball bouncing around the crowd. Some guy tried to stop the frivolity and pop the ball, but was unsuccessful, prompting the band to tell us “You can’t pop fun!” which I would totally wear a t-shirt proclaiming. Someone get on that.

I hadn’t really known Short Round before, though I knew of them- and I’m pretty sure I own a CD or two by them, thanks to ordering a pack of like 40 Asian Man CDs at some point- but I dug what I heard. More rock than punk, they were fun. And it’s always good to see someone other than a white dude fronting a band.

I was particularly excited to see Toys That Kill. I had seen part of their set at The Fest 9, but the venue had been so tightly packed and hot that I had to escape early. This time, no such issues. Apparently TTK had put out an EP on Asian Man way, way back. They were fun, and while the while crowd didn’t react to them like they deserved, those of us who were into it danced wildly.

Finally, The Lawrence Arms took stage, and in sharp contract to Alkaline Trio’s set a few nights before on the same stage, they played maybe two or three songs from their Asian Man albums, instead concentrating on their later Fat Wreck material. So a pretty standard set from the Larries, but kind of disappointing, when you consider the context. And actually, they played less from the Asian Man releases than the last time I saw them, this time lacking perhaps my favorite Lawrence Arms song, “An Evening of Extraordinary Circumstance.” But, the set was solid regardless, containing most of The Greatest Story Ever Told’s side B- it’s stronger half, if you ask me- and some great cuts from Oh! Calcutta!. Brendan seemed pretty sober for the entirety of the set, which was really weird. At the encore, he said they had gotten a “weird request” that they couldn’t honor; I really want to know what that request was. Probably Mike asking for some deep cut off Cocktails & Dreams.

Final Thoughts

Asian Man 15, as it’s been called for the sake of brevity, was an absolute blast, and I didn’t even experience the whole thing. While I was seeing bands at The Bottom of the Hill, there were shows happening at Thee Parkside down the street, not to mention the BBQ at Thee Parkside on Saturday afternoon.

Two things all the shows I attended had in common: first, every band played a fantastic set. They all brought out their A games for this week, and I think that shows how important Asian Man Records and Mike Park was and is to them. Second, and related, every band, though the headliners in particular, made sure to stop and express their gratitude to Mike for everything. Some of the bands shared stories about working with Mike or first meeting him- or, like Matt Skiba, being mistaken for Slapstick’s Matt Stamps and worming his way into a record deal that way- or something along those lines. And it really helped underscore how deserving of such a big festival Asian Man Records is. Speaking from my own experience with the label, I don’t know how deeply into punk rock and ska I would have gotten had it not been for Asian Man. I also don’t know if I wouldn’t have gotten jaded with the whole scene without people like Mike Park trying to do good in the world, either through the Plea for Peace project or just battling racist, sexist, or homophobic thoughts inside and outside of the scene.

I’m glad I was able to make the trip out and celebrate the history of one of the finest labels- and one of the best people- in punk rock, one so deserving of the praise. Hopefully, in another 15 years, we can do it all again.

Slapstick - s/t

This week here at GDTS World HQ, I’m doing a “theme week.” Yes, I feel like I can do such a thing. What’samatter with that? So it’s Chicago Week here, wherein I will talk about awesome albums from the Chicago scene. And I’ll kick off the series with the self-titled collection from Chicago ska-punk kids Slapstick.

Maybe you don’t know Slapstick. You might have heard of them, but don’t really know what they did. That’s fine; in their lifetime, they only recorded 25 songs, all of which are collected on this album. This is a posthumous career compilation; the band called it quits in 1996.

Many of the members of Slapstick have continued on to other, more successful projects: vocalist Brendan Kelly formed the Broadways, and later the Lawrence Arms; trombone player Pete Anna would find himself in Less Than Jake; and bassist Dan Andriano would find fame in an outfit called the Alkaline Trio. Wikipedia has a more complete family tree.

But you’re saying: “So the members went on to bigger and better things. What about Slapstick itself?” Well, Slapstick was awesome. The songs here are great, memorable ska tunes with that often show what Brendan would later go on to achieve with his later projects. The album opens with the excellent “There’s a Metal Head in the Parking Lot.” Brendan’s vocals are notably young-sounding, but he still has touches of his trademark gruffness. The band is tight and energetic throughout, and the recording is surprisngly clean and professional sounding, particularly for a band that never really saw a lot of commercial success in their time together.

The general sound of the band should be pretty familiar to anyone who was into 3rd wave ska. The songs come fast and furious, and there are a LOT of them. At 25 tracks, even with them being fairly short ska-punk numbers, the album is quite long. Particularly if years of listening to punk rock has left you with the attention span of a gnat. It happens. Thankfully, the songs are all pretty killer. In particular, I quite like their cover of the classic “Earth Angel.” Also, “Almost Punk Enough,” and “Eighteen” are definite stand outs.

So who would like this album? Well, if you enjoy 3rd wave ska-punk, you’ll dig this. Pretty much if you like the bands signed to Asian Man Records (I think most particularly Less Than Jake’s first LP, Pezcore) you will like Slapshot. And Brendan Kelly fans should probably own this. The man seems unable to do wrong!