All posts by Brian Mc

Acoustic, Music, New Release, Pop, Punk, Review, Rock, Vinyl

7″ Vinyl Review: Roll The Tanks – Goodnight Jimmy Lee

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If it looks like cake and smells like cake, it must be cake right?  Not in this case.  This cake-looking and smelling thing I speak of is the birthday cake scratch n’ sniff 7″  titled Goodnight Jimmy Lee by LA rock act Roll The Tanks.  The two song 7″ was released on Sabot Productions in early October.

The threesome, who have toured already with Against Me!, have have sparked the interest in many and not just because they recruited Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Joe Sirois to play drums.  They have rubbed elbows with the right people and played their asses off making sure the world noticed them.  Their determination and hard work has paid off as the band will be dropping a full length debut titled Broke Til Midnight.

Title track “Goodnight Jimmy Lee” is a catchy-sounding yet brutally honest tribute written about the late Jimmie Lee a.k.a. Jay Reatard.   “Now he’s gone and I’m no Jimmy Lee” bounces over catchy guitar playing that screams 90s alternative rock.  As fun as the song is, the deeper meaning pays homage to an artist who left this world far too early in his career.  The b-side, “Pistolero”, is a cross between that twangy country rock all the kids seem to be getting into these days with indie rock of the 90s.  The acoustic-driven song almost carries a nice Fake Problems feel, but far more upbeat.

I am looking forward to hear what Roll The Tanks can dish out on their debut.  Until then I have the feeling I will be listening to these songs on a regular basis as well as scratching and sniffing the cover smelling the goodness that is birthday cake.  Did I mention that the cover smells like cake?  Yes, I may be a little excited about this.

Cleveland, Funny, Sports, WTF

W.T.F. Browns…

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Yes, the Browns game today was total crap.  Hell, the season has pretty much been total crap and as a lifetime fan of the franchise, sometimes it is just so hard to be a Browns fan.  Regardless, I am in it for life.  I would not have it any other way.

Don’t worry, my site is not turning into a sports page or anything, I do, however, want to share a fun hoodie my pal Nick from Flagrant-T came up with.  It is simple, to the point, and aimed at all you frustrated Browns fans out there:

I have already rocked mine last week when coming home from my trip to Austin and a whole slew of people got a kick out of it.  With today’s loss, it is safe to say I will be wearing this tomorrow to work.

$20 and it is yours (use the code TAILGATE today for 10% off your order).  Head over to WTFShirtz.com and grab one for yourself today!  While you are at it, check out the “I Shaved My Balls For This?” shirt I actually sported during day three of Fun Fun Fun Fest.  Needless to say, everyone loved it.

Music, Punk, Rock, The Suck

Luther & Tom May (of the Menzingers) Cancel Current Tour

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Yesterday morning was not a good day for punk rockers Luther.  While on tour in Chicago with Tom May of the Menzingers, the band was involved in a pretty rough accident.

From what I gathered on their Facebook post, everyone was taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

The van, properly named Vandross, was totaled forcing the band to cancel the last stretch of their tour.  This includes their stop in Cleveland that was supposed to happen this Monday with Signals Midwest and Two Hand Fools at Now That’s Class.

As much as I am bummed I will not get to see Luther this Monday, I am relieved that no one from the band was seriously hurt.  Hopefully they will be able to make it to Cleveland one day soon.

If you have not heard of Luther, head on over to their Bandcamp page and check them out.  They kind of kick ass.  Check out the review I did on their recent release.

Cleveland, Comics, Got Local?

Donate For A Harvey Pekar Cause

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Harvey Pekar left this world too soon in July of 2010.  Sadly he left nothing more than unfinished works and comics leaving for his widow Joyce Brabner to take control of many things for him including how the Cleveland underground comics icon would be remembered.

Recently she started a campaign for a Harvey Pekar tribute using Kickstarter.  In an attempt to raise $30k, a unique tribute sculpture will be created of Pekar and installed at the public library in Cleveland Heights.  The sculpture will actually be a desk that she and others want people to sit down and draw or write at.  The following was taken from the Kickstarted page:

A way to celebrate comics as art and literature at a Cleveland Heights public library. A literary landmark, a desk that’s always filled with paper and pencils for people to sit and write or draw comics at the same place where Harvey Pekar liked to work.

Mounted on the desk, a sculpted bronze comic book “page.” Stepping out from a panel, Harvey– using his semi celebrity to focus on the creative possibilities of the art form he opened up to so many people. On the reverse, gridded into bronze ruled “panels,” a giant slate storyboard that looksvery much the way Harvey always started his own scripts.  (He wrote and drew stick figures, just like Paul Giamatti in that movie.) Plenty of chalk and plenty of encouragement from a library that cherishes comics. At different times each year, a librarian can unlock the middle drawer of the desk and pull out copies of books that Harvey read as a kid that inspired him to write,AMERICAN SPLENDOR scripts, memorabilia and anything else that could inspire library patrons to be creative with comics.

The desk and statue will be mounted next to the library’s “Harvey & Friends Used Bookstore”* and facing the library’s ever growing comics shelves. Every so often a Kickstarter campaign runs over. If that happens, once all the bills are paid, the Estate of Harvey Pekar will use the rest of the money to add to the library’s no-white-gloves, read and enjoy(!) collection.

Donate a lot, or a little.  All of it is going for a great cause and idea.  I myself am aiming to donate $75 so that I may possibly receive one of Pekar’s vinyls.  Having admired the man for years, I think it would be so cool to have something that he might have listened to while writing his stories.

This is just the beginning.  Once the tribute has been created, Brabner is collaborating with Cleveland’s Jax Prints to create a 5 year scholarship for comic book writers who have not yet been published.

His legacy will live on.  Just wish I could have met the guy once in my life.  I actually used to live down the street from him years ago but did not know it until after I moved.  He’s one of the reasons that I do what I do.  He inspired me to be myself and not care about anything or anyone.  I will definitely be partaking in this fundraiser.

With 23 days left, so far just over $17k has been raised.  Where that is a nice chunk of change, there is still a ways to go.  If you consider yourself a Cleveland native or even a comic fan, do your part.

00's, 70's, 80's, 90's, Alt Rock, Austin, Babble Blog, Fun Fun Fun Fest, Good Times, Grindcore, Hardcore, Hip Hop, Indie, Live Shows, Metal, Music, Personal Entry, Pop, Pop Rock, Post-Hardcore, Punk, Road Trip, Rock, The Awesome

Dearest Danzig…Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 Still Ruled.

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I am sure many of you caught my last post about good ol’ Danzig’s awesome show I caught at Fun Fun Fun Fest this past weekend.  Love it or hate it, Danzig’s set on Friday night had the potential to ruin my weekend.

I knew the plug was going to get pulled the moment he announced to the crowd that they were told they could only play 5 more minutes.  That’s why I grabbed my camera and took that terrible video.  I wanted to capture the moment shit hit the fan, and I did.  I just discovered the Spin.com has used the video in one of their posts.

Prior to that announcement, I was finally starting to get into the set, granted the band just played “Vampira”.  I will not lie, they could have sounded way better.  I am sure there was a multitude of factors that resulted in what I heard.  It was windy as hell out and the equipment was heavily used all day , but there is no doubt in my mind that the band’s techs were not satisfied with their sound check.  Not only did the asshats do an impromptu sound check while the Murder City Devils were still playing (dicks), but they also had that extra 45 minutes before Danzig went on stage.

One of the whole reasons I went to Fun Fun Fun Fest this year was to check out the Danzig Legacy.  I was so hoping to hear “Hybrid Moments” and maybe even “Hollywood Babylon”, but we all know that was not the case.  Instead I heard heard Danzig, including 2 mediocre songs, some not so good sounding Samhain, and you know what happened after…

Plug pulled + Temper tantrum on stage = Me leaving and getting awesome vegan pad thai in downtown Austin.

Danzig make $100k that night and never finished his set.  The fans were all disappointed, and I was too.  Face it, we were all standing in front of the Black Stage to hear Misfits songs and nothing else.  With the time limit, one would think that Danzig could scrap one part of his set and focus on what people really wanted.  I felt worse for Doyle who probably just caked all that make-up on his face before coming out on stage.

Don’t worry, I did not want to tear off my Misfits tattoos and stomp on it after what I saw.  Hell, I am still a fan and always will be.  I was just pissed that Danzig was acting like a diva but also knew that I had 2 more days of Fun Fun to look forward to.  Perhaps the Misfits, the REAL Misfits, were never meant to be resurrected.  I do not care what Danzig has done for the music world, all I know is what I saw was unprofessional and beyond rockstar.  He was given fair warning of the time limit, did not want to even play, and then pulled his shit.  You know what?  I’m done talking about it.  Maybe if the Danzig calamity happened Sunday night I would have a different “Attitude” about the weekend but it was only night one.

I was already in a great mood after seeing Murder City Devils and Russian Circles take the stage Friday night.  Saturday I got to see Hot Snakes and The Damned (both were mind-blowing).  Sunday I saw Eyehategod, Kid Dynamite, Cannibal Corpse, HUM ( amazing) and eff’n Slayer. I also throughout the weekend saw Major Lazer, Diplo, Childish Gambino, Big Freeda, Spoon and Del The Funky Homosapien.

There was one quick performance though that just made me happy to be a part of the entire weekend.  While my friends and I were walking across Auditorium Shores to check out a veggie hot dog eating contest we noticed that there was a band covering Misfits songs on one of the main stages.  We all stopped dead in our tracks and literally ran to see what the hell was going on.  We caught the end of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists’s set where Leo and friends were performing their Misfits cover band TV Casualty.  It was awesome, it was funny, and it sounded awesome.  The four songs that Leo and crew played made up for the bullshit Danzig stirred up Friday night.

I’ve been to a whole bunch of festivals in my time.  This years Fun Fun Fun Fest was the best one I have ever been to and I was only at maybe 1-1/2 of it.  I missed all of the early shows due to other things going on in Austin like eaten grub or getting a sweet tattoo (stay tuned for that).  I was ok with missing a couple of the acts as the main ones were in the evening.  I got to see MCD, Hot Snakes, and HUM all in a weekend.  How cool is that?

This is not a review.  This is me declaring how much fun I had last weekend.  Great music with the greatest of friends, old and new.  Throw in the sweet motor-boating I did on a healthy rack right before Slayer and, my friends, I may have had one of the best weekends ever, in fact, I know I did.  Thanks Austin.  Thanks Fun Fun Fun Fest.  I wish it was last weekend all over again.