Anarchy in Bedrock

I found this through a bulletin post on myspace and thought I would pass it along. As a side note, before SJA me and my friend Matt created a fake band called The Dead Flinstones. I guess maybe could have taken the idea to further levels with great results as evidenced by this way cool video (even if I've never been a big fan of Green Jello...er, Jelly)!

This Makes Me Happy

Heavy Load are a UK punk band with a twist...all of the members have developmental disabilities . I just love stuff like this, and not because I think it's funny or weird, but because it shows just how much life people with these disabilities have and how they just want to be like you and me. I can't wait to see the whole film, but here's a little sneak preview brought to you by the always cool Boing Boing & Verizon (more links on their site).

T-Shirt of the Day

I think this may be the first friday that I've actually posted a T-Shirt...I'm too lazy to go back and check though! Anyway, this one comes from my favorite rock club on the face of the earth...The World Famous Milestone. This place is a dirty little hole in the wall, but it's the first club I went to back when I was 16 and I'm still going today (though not as often as I'd like thanks to the rising cost of gas and being old and somewhat responsible). So many good bands, so many good friends, so many good times...older than GBGB's, this place defines punk rock to me. The people who run this place today are some of the coolest guys on earth as well. You'll be reading more about this place in the future as I (eventually) get to it in my band history. Check them out if you're ever in Charlotte and let me know you're coming! The PBR will be on me!

Punk Rock Thursday

Today we have Dead Kennedys in the studio. From the YouTube posts: "From the In God We Trust Inc original session that was lost when the reel deteriorated. The final versions that made the albums were all different second versions, but the originals are preserved here."

Hyperactive Child



Religious Vomit



Rawhide



We've Got a Bigger Problem Now



If you want to see the rest of the tracks, follow the URL link (or click on the video to go straight to the YouTube page) and you should be able to find the rest, unless you're an idiot.

My Musical History

Today I realized that I've pretty much abandoned writing "original" content for this blog, other than my T-Shirt of the Day posts and even that is limited writing. I even changed my bio to reflect that realization. But I think I'm going to try to start writing a little bit more, while still keeping the random stuff that I find during the day (videos, links and such). One thing I want to start documenting, while my memory is still somewhat intact, is my history playing in punk rock bands. I don't know that I will post a new installment everyday, but I will try to keep up with it on a somewhat regular basis. I have many stories to tell...some are quite funny (to me and my friends anyway), while others are a little embarrassing. It won't all be chronological...my memory is not that great at this point in my life already, so a lot of it will just come as I do think about it. I will try to at least get started in a semi-chronological order and then the time-line will all fall apart. So what better place to start than the beginning...

I got my first guitar when I was in 9th grade. I never took lessons, and I really never applied myself enough to learn on my own. I would dick around with it from time to time, but other than real basic stuff (mostly bastardized versions of songs I liked), I really couldn't play that well at all. In 10th grade, one night I had my best friend over to spend the night. Sometime during the night we decided we were starting a band...a band that couldn't play. We loved punk rock and figured you really didn't need to know how to play if you were playing punk rock anyway! Our first order of business...coming up with a name (which was caught on tape...the tape that would become the first unofficial "release" by our band). Matt said that whatever we called the band, it had to be "something 'stylin''", to which I immediately shouted out "Johnny Appleseeds!", thus the Stylin' Johnny Appleseeds (or SJA as we would eventually abbreviate it) were born. We banged out "song" after "song" on the guitar and my brother's drum set, while screaming whatever "lyrics" came to mind. Mind you, this was all recorded on a small jambox...or whatever you want to call it, so the sound quality as well as the quality of the playing was bad. Very bad. Still it was fun and once we were done we made two hand-drawn covers...one for his copy and one for my copy. The title of the cassette? The Four of Us are Dying", even though there were only two of us in the band at this point.

The following Monday we told our friend Gregg about it. He actually played drums and was very good at it...a much better musician than either of us were or ever will be. We told him how much fun it was and that we were ready to record again, only this time we wanted him to play with us. We didn't stop there though...we also asked our friend Brad to play guitar because he could play very well also. At first we played mostly covers...none of the "songs" from our debut were ever played again as there really was no structure to build off of. This also left me in bad position because I couldn't play the same things Brad did. He tried to teach me a little, and I could sort of keep up if I just played one note, but it sounded terrible. When we realized we needed a bass player, I jumped at the chance to play what I was attempting to play on guitar on the instrument that it really needed to be played on. We borrowed a bass and a bass amp and I started picking it up much more quickly than I ever did on the guitar. I had found my instrument and eventually bought my own bass and bass amp, I still wasn't great, but I was learning and would eventually become much, much better (as a side note, I did eventually learn to play guitar, but I have always been a better bassist than guitarist).

If we hadn't decided to try out for our high school's talent show, it may have all ended shortly thereafter, but luckily for us the practicing paid off and the band became "real". We didn't win the talent show, though we really weren't that terrible at pulling off a half-assed version of Jane's Addiction's Mountain Song. A mishap with the snare drum, some lackluster vocals and a feedback laden ending probably hampered us from getting a trophy, not to mention the "edgy" (at the time) song choice, but it provided just enough spark to keep us going. Original material soon followed, and as basic as it was, we started garnering a few "fans" with our simple, single-track recordings...we even created our own "record" label (we never released any records though) called Flamin' Head Records. The SJA name stuck, the fun was still there and I was learning to actually play an instrument. We finally had a real band! It was punk rock and we loved it, even if we were part of a handful of people in our small town school who even knew what punk rock was. We weren't as good as our idols, but we didn't let that stop of from staging our own "shows" (attended mainly by a few friends) in Gregg's basement. We named our little basement venue "The Ankle Club" after Gregg's dad's ankle injury at the time (don't ask why, even I can't remember what exactly prompted us to name it after that particular detail).

This continued throughout high school along with several "side-projects" that we created to be our opening acts. The Oswald Factory, The Rat Snots and Guns for the Fuhrer were all "make it up as we go along" versions of SJA...the same four members, rotating to different instruments for no other reason than to torment the few friends that did show up to watch us play. Occasionally we would have "guest" members of the band and we always recorded it either on video or audio tape and usually both. One "show" even had us doing an elaborate set up with about five TV's and a few VCR's to make it a "multimedia experience". We had big ambitions and big heart to go along with them.

We finally broke down and borrowed a four-track recorder to make our first real tape and the band took off even more from there. That's a story for another post though as this one's grown long enough as it is. Up next? We graduate, move out of the basement and we help setup a successful show in our new practice space. Damn. I just realized I may have to do a little digging to get all the details I want to include. Luckily I have a box full of stuff (the Flamin' Head Archives), so I shouldn't have to dig too deep!

Potluck Monday

I think on Mondays, instead of featuring one type of music, I'll give you three videos of my choice. Sometimes they may be of the same band, but usually I'll try to mix it up a bit. Anyway, here's today's choices...

The Ramones - Rock'n'Roll High School



The Flaming Lips - Seven Nation Army (White Stripes cover)



Van Halen - Unchained (live)

T-Shirt of the Day

An oldie today, though I still have it and wear it from time to time. I
got this one on Screeching Weasel's Wiggle tour way back in 1993...I
think. It may have been early '94...my memory sucks these days, but I
do know it was around that time. To the best of my knowledge it's the
only time they've been to Charlotte as well, though we'd have loved it
if they had come back. A fun show by one of the best punk bands of the
late 80's/early 90's. This picture is over a year old (as evidenced by
my hair and ring) but you'll just have to deal with it. I'm still being
slack about taking new pictures.



Oh, sorry for the lack of posts today...haven't found much to pass
along, plus I've been busy. Stay tuned though, I'm sure there will be
some late night posting!

Punk Rock Thursdays?

Guess so. We'll start off with one of the best...Circle Jerks!

Beverly Hills/Wasted



Wild in the Streets



I Wanna Destroy You (With Debbie Gibson on background vocals!)

A video by The Clash....just because I can.

I think from time to time I will post videos in here. Some music related, others just oddities I find. I have over 500 favorites over at You Tube, so I've got plenty to pull from. For now I bring you Guns of Brixton by The Clash...