Category Archives: Bad Times

Bad Times, Music, Music News, Punk, The Suck

The Menzingers Could Use A Little Help…

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It really sucks that people need to resort to robbing other people.  It’s trashy, mindless, and just pathetic if you ask me.  I am not trying to tell people out there how to live your life, but stealing from someone, especially from a hard working someone is just shitty.

Yesterday, Philly punk rockers The Menzingers fell victim to some douche who decided it would be best to smash out their vehicle’s windows and steal a few things while the band was hanging with fans at an after-party.  Normally this would not be something I would even make a big deal about, but the boys are overseas in Manchester currently and in those bags were their tour money and more importantly, their passports.

Greg from The Menzingers posted what happened on their Tumblr account  this morning.  At first I glanced over it and thought their clothing and electronics were lifted, but once I read it over some more, I realized that they really do need some help.  Maybe their label will be of some assistance, but I am pretty sure these guys are freaking out and need all the help they can get.  Hopefully someone will just step forward and give them back their passports.

Here is what Greg had to say:

Ok so here’s what happened…

We played a sold out show at The Moho last night in Manchester which ended up being the absolute best show of tour. Seriously! Stage dives, singalongs, shots of mystery liquors.. It was one for the books. An after-party started to form at a bar down the street. In the great moods we were in we decided to partake and spent the night singing and dancing to  The Cure and Springsteen with The Souls, Red City Radio, Leagues Apart, and tons of friends. 

Dave March (our driver/front of house/lifemate/best friend), Eric (bass player/ good looking one) and I decided to only have a beer and then hit the road. Tom and Joe were going to take a cab back to the house. Ok cool. Everything’s going great. We walk around the block To the van and I hear Dave give a quiet “oh fuck”. The driver side window was smashed out and 3 personal bags were stolen. Unfortunately my bag was stolen with all of our tour money inside it. To top it off, we brought around $2000 in US cash with us in case of an emergency. So let’s see €5000 Euros, an iPad, 3 iPods, 3 passports, 2 pairs of raybans (I know, I know they’re super expensive but they make you look pretty cool), my personal tour journals from the last year and a half which included all of my “On the Impossible Past” lyrics and all of my god damn memories, a digital camera, prescriptions, blah blah blah.This sucks. It really fucking sucks because it’s not your fault and so many, in fact an absurd amount of you want to help out. It’s pretty surreal and heartwarming to know we’re not alone in this situation. Thanks, thanks, thanks. Cant tell you how much it means. 

The absolutely wonderful folks at  Banquet Records have set up a donation drive for us. They really are the best. If you live in the UK and care to help you can donate there. I hear they’re matching donations which is just too nice. Too nice. http://www.banquetrecords.com/MenzingersAppeal

While we’re extremely apprehensive about this we’re going to open up our paypal account if you care to donate. We don’t expect much and we feel extremely uncomfortable putting our hats out like this but here’s our paypal account if you care to help: MenzingersSkrilla@gmail.com  Tom made the account name up years ago. Sounds about right.

We’ll find a way to make it up to you by way of acoustic demos, new songs, free shows. Whatever. Thanks for the help. Love you all. 

-Greg
Kudos to Banquet Records for being so awesome to them.  I know this is a reach of help for the fans in the UK, but it is open to everyone all over the world. 

If you fancy yourself a fan and want to help out, you know what to do.

Luckily Jaded Punk Hulk, as found on Twitter, as already pitched in to help:

Bad Times, Cleveland, Got Local?, Music, The Suck

CBS Radio Kicks Cleveland’s Music Lovers In The Pants By Yanking Radio 92.3 From FM Radio

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I figured I might as well talk about the 92.3 change while I had a moment.  I know that many of my friends are all sorts of excited for the sports radio station to take over.  Honestly I would be happy too if I were into sports as much as they are. 

I guess I look at the change a little differently and not even because I think Cleveland needs to have  crappy music like Paramore and My Chemical Romance played along with even worse music like Audioslave and Staind.  Oh, dare I mention Sublime???  (It was not that bad, they played the hits of Bad Religion, Rise Against, and Rancid too sometimes…)

The rumors are true.  92.3 is now called The Fan.  Its Cleveland’s first sports radio station.  Rejoice!!! 

The logo looks….well…you decide:

Seriously, how many people that you know actually have HD radio?  I know I don’t know anyone who has one of those, and if they did, they never told me because it just is not anything worth mentioning about.  I honestly think that not many people are going to listen to the iPod on shuffle, I mean, HD-2 92.3.

Yes, HD-2 will still play music, list shows, and keep listeners informed, but it is not going to be the same.  I have no desire at all to even jump onto the HD station’s website and stream music.  Done.  Maybe me recall the time I bought a portable XM radio player thinking it was a good idea. 

92.3 has been around for as long as I can remember and it was always music related until now.  There was 92 RQCK, Jammin 92.3, 92.3 The Beat when I was younger, and then the more memorable 92.3 Extreme Radio, K-Rock, and of course Radio 92.3. 

I know that not everyone out there was a fan of Radio 92.3.  A lot of the music they played was not really my thing and sometimes repeated one too many times, but every once in a while they would throw a gem in there.  They took the liberty to cater to as many people as they could, and that is no easy task.  They kept the community informed on what was going on and even threw together some awesome shows.  One in particular was the impressive Kuyahoga Fest that K-Rock threw together years back at Blossom.

There were a couple people who worked for the FM station I felt owe a shout out to.  Not only were they entirely too cool to me, but they also supported this dinky little website of mine.

Nard, the man behind the curtain, really gave it his all when it came to that station.  Not just inside the studio, but also during promotions and events.  It’s tough to please one person, but he managed to keep the attention of all of the surrounding communities of Cleveland that set their dials to 92.3. 

The regular Sunday night locally focused Inner Sanctum, featuring Pat The Producer and Matt Wardlaw, just celebrated 18 years as a continual program only to have to find a new home.  Luckily WNWV 107.3 FM Cleveland was quick to pick them up and they will not even skip a beat sharing the local music scene with Cleveland every Sunday.  There’s some good news for some good people who I have had the pleasure to call friends for a few years now.  If you have not checked out Inner Sanctum yet, you should.  They play a lot of good quality tunage by some amazing local talent.

Will there be a new radio station to jump in and take over? Is the HD-2 92.3 going to stick around, or will CBS ax that too?  Does it matter really anymore?  How many people really listen to radio these days as much as they did 10 years ago?  I know I do not.

The fact of the matter is that Cleveland has lost another alternative rock station and good people have lost their jobs because of it.  Where as I did not listen to the station daily, I did have the pleasure of making friendships with many of the staff that CBS released.  Regardless of how shitty some of that music was on that radio station at times, the people I knew there were incredible and I am happy I was able to network with many of them.

Good luck to everyone from 92.3 that CBS took a giant Cleveland steamer on.  Thanks for all you have done for me (and the rest of the city for that matter) with music.  I am sure you will have no problem finding something else soon.  I have no problem if you all collaborate and decided to make a radio station that played all punk rock and Clutch.  In fact, I would totally be ok with that.

RIP Radio 92.3…

Bad Times, Death, Hip Hop, Music, Music News, The Suck

R.I.P. DJ AM (Adam Goldstein) – 1974-2009

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Travis Barker & DJ AM
Travis Barker & DJ AM

I got home around 2:30am this morning when I checked Twitter before shutting my eyes on an amazing day.

Sadly I read something I wish was not true.  DJ AM was found dead in his NYC home.

Seriously?  WTF.

Having personal battles in his life, it was stated that the popular DJ who has worked with a whole slew of folk including Crazy Town, Jay Z, and most recently Travis Barker ended his life by an apparent drug addiction.

Having narrowly escaped death not even a year ago from a fatal plane crash it appears as if he simply could not deal with life anymore and made a terrible decision to pull the plug on his life.

Travis Barker tweeted the following this afternoon:

Don’t know how i am gonna play 2night but i am for AM. My brother is gone.i love u and miss u, i’ll never forget all the good times we had. I’ll never forget everything we’ve been thru and every time i play the drums i’ll think of you. U were an amazing friend/DJ/human being. Rest In Peace my brother, this really fucks me up.

It’s just sad to see such talent just end it all.  He made a powerful impact on so many other artists…

I appreciate all music out there so obviously I was familiar with some of his work but not all of it.  I do know that he was too young to leave this world the way he did.

Perhaps the most stand out DJ AM material to me is that of the DJ AM and Travis Barker (TRV$/DJ-AM) mix tapes that are available on the internet.  The TRV$/DJ-AM mixes are available for download free of charge.  If you have not heard them before you should check out what the late DJ and drumming sensation Travis Barker created.  The mixes incorporate live drumming by Travis Barker along side DJ AM spinning just about anything he could get his hands on.

RIP DJ…

Bad Times, Good Reads, Music, Music News, Punk

Pennywise Lead Vocalist Jim Lindberg Calls It Quits

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Thanks to Punknews.com for confirming this…

Jim Lindberg of punk rock act Pennywise announced that is is quitting the band after being their lead signer and songwriter for over twenty years.

Jim had this to say about his departure:

After 20 years, nine albums and thousands of shows around the world, my time in Pennywise has come to an end. Being the singer for this band has been an amazing experience, and along the way we made some of the best fans anyone could ask for. There are few things that made me more proud than seeing people at our shows singing our songs, and it’s your support and encouragement that’s kept me going this long. would sincerely like to thank everyone who helped us along the way and wish everyone in the Pennywise family the best of luck and continued success. Yours truly, Jim

Thanks to Ear Shot Media for supplying this statement from the rest of the band about the departure:

After 19 years with Pennywise, Jim Lindberg has decided to step down as lead singer. Pennywise has long stood behind the motto that you should always follow your heart and pursue what makes you happy, and we wish Jim the best of luck in his new ventures, whatever they may be. Pennywise has become a way of life for a lot of people, and has definitely become a way of life for us. As the three remaining members of Pennywise we feel that we are not done delivering our message to our fans.

The band has always been about moving forward in life no matter what obstacles stand in front of you. We will begin our search for a new singer immediately. We will continue to tour the world and we are looking forward to writing new music. We’ve had a lot of good times and survived the hard times thanks to the undying support of our fans. We’re looking forward to what the future may bring.

Sincerely Fletcher, Randy, and Byron

I am glad to see that Pennywise will still move on spite the loss of a main component of the band.  I can not wait to see who takes over the singing duties and if there will be a chance in sound.

Jim Lindberg plans on releasing his own album and is also currently in the middle of filming a documentary based of his 2007 auto-biography titled Punk Rock Dad: No Rules Just Real Life.