Category Archives: Rock

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

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.

Dearest Danzig…Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 Still Ruled.

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.

Fun Fun Fun Fest Streaming Free On Pitchfork.com

So for the few of you who are jealous that I am attending the 2011 Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX this weekend, you now can too from the comfort of your home.

Pitchfork.com will be streaming Fun Fun Fun Fest from Nov. 4-6.  This is the first time that the very successful festival will be streamed live.

Unlike other music festivals with similar live streams, Fun Fun Fun Fest will present 4 separate streams with each tailored to different musical tastes.  Like the Fun Fun Fun Fest stage setups, each stream will provide genre grouping of bands, from punk and metal to indie rock and electronica and even hip hop and comedy.

In other words, if you are jealous that I am seeing Murder City Devils and Danzig w/ Doyle tomorrow night, you now can stream it without spending a dime.

To check out Fun Fun Fun Fest’s live stream on Pitchfork, head on over to pitchfork.com.  The stream should begin as soon as the festival starts around 12 p.m. central time.

I’m sure I will be posting a ton of nonsense should time allow it over the weekend.  First things first thought..I need me a Lone Star…

As part of FFF Fest, FFF Nites will start tonight.  This is a music event in itself as tons of bands will be taking over local venues and playing shows.  I will be seeing Toxic Holocaust, Hull, The F’n Wrath, Hull and Pushmen.  Should make for a nice and loud intro to a kick ass weekend.

Tomorrow night’s FFF Nite’s I am looking forward to even more…

New Ninja Gun Music Video!!!

My day just improved after seeing this new music video for “Hot Rain” by Ninja Gun

Seriously, I do not think I have smiled that much in a long while while watching a music video on the interwebs. The song comes off their Sabot Productions release titled Roman Nose that dropped earlier this year.  If you have not checked it out yet, you really should.

T-Minus Less Than A Week…

I have been sucking lately when it comes to blogging.  The paying gig has consumed a lot of my energy as has school leaving for little time for this site.  I know, I suck.  Deal.

Anyways…

Next week I am headed back to Austin, TX to check out Fun Fun Fun Fest.  This will be my first FFF experience and second trip to one of the best cities in America. 

Without going into too much detail, I decided to grab a ticket after I discovered that Danzig was bringing his Danzig Legacy set to the show and would be playing Misfits songs with Doyle Von Frankenstein.  It also helped to hear that the Murder City Devils would be playing a show as well.  In fact, after I saw those two bands, I made my decision instantly. 

Granted there are like 16 versions of the Misfits these days, there is only one version I prefer.  After I saw the Misfit(s) in 1996 with Michael Graves taking lead, I told myself that I would never see the Misfits again live unless Danzig himself was behind the mic.  Don’t get me wrong, I had a good time, but I can not stand any Misfits material after Earth A.D. 

Coincidentally I am not the only one with Danzig on my mind…

Recently my pal D.X. Ferris started writing a 4-part series called Defending Danzig on the pro-metal website called MetalSucks.net.  I encourage anyone out there who knows the name Danzig to check it out.  Ferris has been making some valid points on a musician who is way more talented than he gets credited for.  Sure the below picture is a real picture of Danzig in a Danzig shirt buying kittie litter, but he is a person too and apparently has a cat. 

Ferris will wrap up the series on Monday, Halloween to many, and I have to say, I can not wait to see it.  So far it has been a great read.

Back to my upcoming adventure.  This is my site after all right? 

Murder City Devils.  I am going to see them live and I am beyond stoked.  I have been a fan of them for years and missed many a chance to see them live.  I even considered a couple years ago to travel to Chicago to see them play their reunion show but backed out for whatever pathetic reason.  This time though it is happening.

Life is too short to think how good something could be without going for it…  and I have no problem traveling to see a good show.  Thanks in advance to a spacial lady in Austin who is giving her couch up to me for the weekend. 

I am also hoping to meet up with Evan Lovett, a very talented tattoo artist who does work out of Austin as well as Beachwood, NJ.  Should things work out, I will not only interview him, but also add to my personal tattoo collection. 

I’m sure I will be keeping everyone in the loop.  Stay tuned and have a great weekend!!!