Category Archives: Rock

Festival, Hip Hop, Live Shows, Metal, Music, Music News, Punk, Rap, Reunion, Rock

Cypress Hill & The 2 Day Smoke Out (Festival)

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I am beyond jealous of this line up…

I have not seen quite a line up like this in a long time.

Where do I start talking about this amazing festival? 

Sublime?  Seriously?  I am so curious to see how this is going to pan out.  Who is this 20 year old Rome who picked up the singing duties?  Will it be just a glorified Long Beach Dub Allstars?

Why am I asking so many questions???  I am excited that is why.

Pennywise will be playing one of the days with their new singer who was just assigned as Jim Lindberg announced his departure of the band last month after being with the band for 19 years.  Zoli Teglas from handcore punk band Ignite is taking over the duties temporarily.  I am so curious to see how this goes.

Pennywise’s Fletcher Dragge had this to say about the replacement:

“As everybody knows, Jim has left the band and we’re looking for a new singer. For the time being our friend Zoli has agreed to fill in for Jim for a couple shows to avoid having to cancel them while we look for a permanent replacement.”

Acts like Cypress Hill, Deftones, Method Man & Red Man, Bad Brains, Afrika Bambaataa (wow, seriously…wow), Mix Master Mike, Goodie Mob (reunion performance), Hieroglyphics, and the Geto Boys (reunion performance) all in a span of two days all hosted by Cheech & Chong really makes me wish this was a touring festival. 

Sadly though, it is in California and there is no way I am going to be at that show this year.  I hope to read good things about it and I thank my pals over at Earshot Media for giving me the heads up.

Download This!, Indie, Live Shows, Music, New Release, Pop Rock, Rock

What’s So Great About The Grates?

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I love it when I hear a song that I have to listen to over and over again because I like it so much.  I put it on replay so that each time it plays though I can find something else about that song, perhaps a certain beat or a lyric that I might have missed around the first time.

This is the case with a song titled “Burn Bridges” that my pals over at Thirty Tigers sent me this afternoon to check out.  The song is by an Australian band called The Grates who will actually be releasing their sophomore album titled Teeth Lost, Hearts Won through Thirty Tigers.

One listen to this song and there is a pretty good chance you are going to think The Grates are great too.  It has this Mates Of State positive-makes-you-want-to-smile feel while at the same time being edgy and aggressive.  I can hear hints of female driven 90’s bands as well as current indie rock style providing for a great listen.  With the lead vocalist Patience sounding a lot like a young Gwen Stefani (before the solo crap) this band exempts a lot of energy and aggressive raw fun.  I am really looking forward to hearing the rest of Teeth Lost, Hearts Won.  The album drops on September 15th.

To add to my excitement the band is actually going to be playing some shows with my favorite ladies Those Darlins.  Sadly they will not make it to the Cleveland show next week when Those Darlins return but I guess I will live.  Hopefully they will make a stop here sometime soon.  They sound like they would be a lot of fun to see live.

DOWNLOAD THIS! – The Grates – “Burn Bridges”

So seriously, did you dig that song as much as I did?  Do you want more?  Well head over to their MySpace page for a bunch of other tracks.

Better yet, have some fun and watch their videos:


The Grates Live (More Dates TBA):
September 3rd – Boston, MA – The Middle East Upstairs w/ Viennagram
September 4th – New York, NY – The Mercury Lounge w/ Tiger City
September 13th – Morrison, CO – The Monolith Music Festival at Red Rocks
September 18th – Phoenix, AZ – The Rhythm Room w/ Most Serene Republic
September 19th – Los Angeles, CA – Spaceland w/ Most Serene Republic
October 8th – Little Rock, AR – Whitewater Tavern w/ Those Darlins
October 9th – Norman, OK – The Opolis w/ Those Darlins
October 10th – Lawrence, KS – Jackpot Music Hall w/ Those Darlins
October 14th – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court w/ Those Darlins
October 16th – Seattle, WA – Sunset Tavern w/ Those Darlins
October 18th – Eugene, OR – Sams Bonds Garage w/ Those Darlins
October 20th – San Francisco, CA – The Rickshaw Stop w/ Those Darlins
October 27th – Albuquerque, NM – Launch Pad w/ Those Darlins
October 29th – Dallas, TX – The Cavern w/ Those Darlins
October 30th – Austin, TX – The Continental Club w/ Those Darlins

Band info:

Australia’s The Grates are set to release their anticipated sophomore album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won on September 15th via Thirty Tigers/Dew Process. The 13-song album was produced by Peter Katis (Interpol, The National) at Tarquin Studios in Connecticut and features guest appearances by Kori Gardner of Mates of State (vocals on “Milk Eyes“) and Tim Fite (vocals on “Not Today”). On this album, the follow up to their 2006 Interscope Records debut, Gravity Won’t Get You High, The Grates have brought a depth and density to the songwriting – the lyrics are raw and poignant and the sonics more biting and aggressive.

“If Teeth Lost, Hearts Won was a beast, I imagine it’d be like something from Where The Wild Things Are,” lead singer and front woman Patience says. “They’re big and scary, but they’ve also got this sensitivity, and pick up the little kid and protect him.” Drummer Alana adds, “Or maybe like the griffin In Alice In Wonderland. He’s like a lion and eagle together, but a really gentle creature.”

The band, who have recently relocated to Brooklyn, NY in order to make American touring easier, have confirmed a co-headlining tour with Those Darlins in October. Fresh off a completely sold out residency in New York City and various dates supporting Passion Pit, the band have also confirmed a performance at the Monolith Music Festival at Red Rocks on September 13th (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Phoenix, Mars Volta, etc) with additional live dates with Most Serene Republic.

In Australia, The Grates have played numerous sold out headline tours, played major festivals such as Big Day Out, Homebake, Falls Festival, Southbound and stole the show at Splendour In The Grass. Gravity Won’t Get You High has gone Gold in Australia while Teeth Lost, Hearts Won is well on its way to Gold status as well.

The American record release follows a highly successful trip to the U.S. for the SXSW Music Festival in March. While in Austin, the band played five buzzed about shows in four days and gained a massive amount of recognition for their highly energetic performances.

Cleveland, Good Times, Live Shows, Music, Personal Entry, Rock

Memories of The Veil and looking forward to the Way Of Life

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Sometimes I absolutely hate social networking websites.

I can care less about the constant status posting of some people on Facebook.  I do not need to know how many steps it took for you to get your mail this morning or how tired you are and wish you could sleep in some more.  Truth is some of these posts are just TMI, too much information.

I also love social networking websites too.

These days it is so much easier to reconnect with friends of the past without driving all over the city to find them.  There is no awkwardness in finding old friends on social networking websites.  All you have to do it request to be their friend and suddenly you have reconnected instantly.

In the case of this post I have reconnected with a old friend, rather friends and I owe it to the social networking site Facebook.

When I was just a young punk kid I had the pleasure of hanging around a high school band foursome called Witch’s Veil.  I remember going to a certain house I am sure a lot of my high school friends remember having good times at and would watch them play in the backyard garage.

Years later after high school and a break up, the band re-grouped with a most of the original members and called themselves The Veil.  By this time I had become pretty good friends with the band and hung out with them on many occasions.

At my young naive age I wanted nothing more than to be in their band but alas there was no room for me.  Jacob, Norm, Jamie, and Bryan were all great friends to me but they had control of the direction of the band and honestly they knew I could not play an instrument had my life depended on it let alone needed an extra person to their band. I could sing some, but they already had two great singers that took control of the songs.  I knew it was not happening but I never stopped thinking of how fun it would have been to partake in band practice.

I understood and never really bugged them about my short lived dream.  Still, I was fascinated with being around them so I hung out at their practice space and watched them do their thing.  I loved the process of a jam turning into a 4 minute rock bash complete with guitar solos and drum solos.

Still I wanted to be in that damn band so badly.  I remember one night I grabbed a tambourine and started keeping with the beat.  They guys got a kick of it and before I knew it I was labeled “Tambourine Man”.  From then on I would grab a tambourine and a beer at every practice and play along to all of the songs.  I became an unofficial member of sorts…

Soon they invited me on a  world tour and I would supply the hardest tambourine solos everyone had ever seen….no…that did not happen.

Hell, I did not even play live with them it was just a practice thing for kicks and giggles.  The truth is they did not need a live tambourine man, and I knew it.  They did however need a friend and a fan to support them.  I was pretty good at doing that.

They would invite me to their shows and I as well as a good group of friends would attend as many as we could.  I hung out with them before the shows, and drank with them after.  I was almost a roadie of sorts but never helped them move their equipment but did drink their beer.

The band later broke up because of indifferences but still remained friends throughout the years.  After all the foursome knew each other since high school.  They still remained friends but just did their own thing musically with some staying in bands and others starting families.

I did my best to keep in touch with them all but sometimes you just can’t help what happens over time.

When you grow old your life changes and everyone know that.  You meet new people, move in different directions, and sadly lose touch with good friends.  I lost touch with the members of The Veil but not completely.  Once in a blue moon I would run into them and they were just as happy to see me as back in the day.  The term friend for life comes to mind when I think of them.

In 2007 the world lost an amazing person as Bryan Collyard lost his life in an accident.  I can honestly say he was one of the more friendly people I will ever have had the pleasure to have in my life.  He and hung out a lot throughout the years before, during, and after The Veil.  He was a good man and everyone who knew him would say the same thing.

I heard rumors of the rest of the band getting together after Brian’s passing and jamming out.  A couple of weeks ago Jacob messaged me on Facebook letting me know that the band regrouped and were going to be playing a show.  Someone who I have not kept in touch with for years found me online and informed me of plans with the rest of the band.

Jacob informed me that he, Norm, Jamie, and friends created Way Of Life after jamming out a bunch of times after Brian’s passing.  The remaining members of the band knew that Brian wanted them to go on and after two years of intense jam sessions they decided to start playing out live.

This Thursday Way Of Life will be playing at the Beachland Ballroom at around 8:30pm.  I will be in attendee and would not miss this for the world.  Tickets are only $5.00.

To get a small taste of their music head over to their MySpace page.

Band Bio:

Way of Life is a “Straight up Rock n’Roll” band in the vein of the Stones, G n’R, and Social D. Norm, Jacob, and Jamie originally played in the popular Cleveland 90’s band The Veil, regularly selling out venues such as the Odeon and Peabody’s and opening for national acts such as Creed and Days of the New. James Genero has also been a long time Cleveland musician.

In the original band, Jacob played drums, Scott played bass, Jamie sang, and Bryan Collyard played guitar. After the passing of their loved long time friend and guitarist Bryan in January of 2007, the three, without really much effort at all, started getting together and ‘jamming’ some of the old tunes they use to play together. Being a group of friends that enjoy getting together by a good camp fire and breaking out the acoustic guitars and hand drums and having jam sessions, they in this case also did so, getting together at the houses, the three all playing acoustic guitars and singing the old songs. After getting together a dozen or so times, they realized it felt good and somehow was just right- they liked the positions they assumed instrumentally, thus deciding to keep those roles and seek out a drummer and bass player. They have found the perfect bass player and drummer.

After two years in the making, Way of Life is ready to come out. Way of Life stands for exactly what the Cleveland music scene is; a Way of Life…………

DIY, Download This!, Indie, Music, Music Video, New Release, Rock, Sans Label

Sans Label: Brooklyn’s Monogold

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I have a new feature I will periodically post here about up and coming artists and I call it simply Sans Label.  I was trying to think of a wittier name for this category but apparently I am suffering from brain-melt.  I just can not think of something clever regarding independent unsigned artists.

How often I post Sans Label entries will depend on the alignment of the sun and the moon or simply whenever I am wowed by an independent or underground act.  I will be sure to post a little something something up on this here site along with a MP3 to share with the band’s permission of course.

I am doing this out of the love for all music out there.  I receive so many emails from folk asking me to check out their work.  I feel this will be my thank you to all of the acts out there that spend day after day self-promoting their band.  These bands are unsigned acts trying to get their name out there with a D.I.Y. attitude.  I respect all genres of music so expect to see a variety of acts posted.

So without further delay here is the first Sans Label post:

A few weeks ago a Brooklyn based band named Monogold reached out to me via a simple email asking me to visit their MySpace page to check out their music.  Always looking for something new I clicking on the link in the email and checked out a song titled “Feel Animal”.  I was completely floored by how great it was.  The upbeat dramatic indie rock song was such a pleasant track to hear.

In fact just listen to it for yourself.

DOWNLOAD THIS! – Monogold – “Feel Animal”

The song alone in my opinion is proof this band is going to be going places. Of course I don’t want to jinx them but imagine my surprise of hearing such a track and instantly loving it.  I immediately asked the band for more.

The band kindly sent the rest of the EP to me titled We Animals.  Just as I had hoped the other six tracks that were self recorded, self produced, and self released  by the three members have a very likable feel to them.  The harmonous singing and catchy guitar playing is perfect for a soundtrack to a warm summer evening drive.  Trust me, I speak from personal experience.

The fact that this band is only a three piece amazes me.  Honestly when you hear their sound in the rest of the EP you would like it would take more than a trio to perform such tunes. I thought so highly of this band I decided that I wanted to take their music a step further to help them get their music heard.

Recently I was appointed by my good friends over at Sexy Photo Trip (SPT) as their music director.  I decided that I wanted to use one of Monogold’s songs for an episode of SPT.  Monogold was thrilled I asked them to use their song in the video and honestly so was I.  It fit perfectly.

You can see that episode by clicking HERE (warning all SPT material is NSFW so view at your own 18+ risk).

Look for Monogold to release the amazing We Animals EP next month.  I am hoping they are able to tour as well in support of this sure to be a hit release.

Here’s a video from an earlier track titled “Leaves”:

One a side note, I plan on continuing this trend of using unsigned bands  here in the Sans Label posts as well as in future episodes of SPT so if you know of anyone out there that is unsigned or independent and listenworthy, send them my way.  I would love to hear them and maybe even get one of their hard worked songs into a fun episode on SPT.

90's, Cleveland, Grunge, Live Shows, Music, Reunion, Rock, The Suck

Gin & Tonic Tour (Agitate The Gin & Light On The Tonic Please Edition) – Cain Park – Cleveland Hts., OH – 08/21/2009 – Concert Review

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I knew I was going to relive some of my high school memories last Friday when Matt tossed me a ticket to the cleverly titled Gin & Tonic tour featuring 90’s grunge rock sensations Tonic and the Gin Blossoms.  The outdoor show was held at the Evans Amphitheater at Cain Park in Cleveland Heights, a venue I had never been to before.  The weather was perfect for a night outside and I was just down right excited to see these two 90’s alt/rock bands take the stage.

Opening act One Lone Car from St. Louis took the stage with a nice little pop guitar rock / piano act and warmed up the crowd.  I could not help myself but wonder why they went on so late.  I was under the impression the show started at 8:00pm but they did not take stage until 9:00pm.

After they finished there was a surprise announcement over the PA that the second act, Tonic, was going to be late to the show due to problems at the airport.  It was then announced that the Gin Blossoms would take the stage next and play.  Everyone seemed ok with the announcement, at least everyone who was not a lead singer of a certain band that just had it’s slot bumped.

Robin Wilson taking it to the crowd. Moments later he just sulked away.
Robin Wilson taking it to the crowd just before going into sulk mode.

Gin Blossoms took the stage and proceeded to rock out as the crowd went nuts.  Fans in the venue started moving from their assigned seats to get a better look at the rock act and the mom and pop security did not care one bit.  Lead singer Robin Wilson seemed to be happy to see the crowd and even tossed a tambourine to one lucky fan who failed to keep a beat along with the band.  Two songs later the tambourine was tossed back at the stage almost knocking over Robin Wilson’s Red Bull & vodka drink.  I still have no idea why she threw it back, I myself would have kept it for an ultimate souvenir of the evening…I also would have been able to keep a beat.

Early into the set I saw someone on the side of the stage wave the lead signer over to them to hand over a piece of paper with a secret note.  Robin Wilson read it and dropped it to the ground as he continued to sing.  I am pretty sure the note read: “Now is the time to act like a giant douche” and I say that because in mid-song Robin Wilson turned from enjoying himself to just plain annoyed for reasons unknown.  He sulked about and left the stage in between songs through the set leaving the guitarist to introduce the band and try to keep some positive vibe to all the folk who dropped over $40 a ticket.

There was no encore when the band finished.  They thanked the crowd all so non-convincing and left the stage.  Granted the Gin Blossoms were supposed to headline there was no reason for Robin Wilson to act they way he did and in fact he ruined the show for me.  It was the first time I had ever seen the Gin Blossoms live and it will also be my last.  First impressions last on me regardless if you are a person trying to be my friend or a band that I came to see.  I did not go to the show to see someone baby it up on stage because the other act was late or because the turnout was low.

There was a strange silence for a few moments while the stagehands disassembled the Gin Blossoms’ gear.  PA’s started being disconnected and I was just waiting for the announcer of the evening to announce that the show would be ending because Tonic was unable to show up.

Thankfully the stage hands started setting up for Tonic so I knew the night was not going to be a complete bust.  For whatever reason though a good chuck of the crowd left as if they only came there for the Gin Blossoms.  Matt and I took advantage of this and moved to the front center of the seating area and claimed our spot for Tonic.

Tonic showed up and took the stage around 11:00pm and was able to make up for the poor performance by the Gin Blossoms.  Tonic seemed to be down a man and they performed as a three piece although I am not even sure these days how many people are in the band since their reunion.  The fans who stuck around did not let the lack of a Tonic member bother them though.  Heavy and loud cheering filled the area with tons of folk including myself singing along.  Good times were had.  I love that band.

Lead singer Emerson Hart mentioned that they were late because of a plane crash and proceeded to let everyone know how much is sucks to have a plane lose pressure and not have the oxygen masks fall into you laps.  They were not too happy with a certain airline that flys out of the Hopkins International Airport but did not seem to let that bother them at all.  They sounded great but since they were supposed to be a middle act they only played for less than an hour with no encore either.  Matt and I agreed that there was no encore because of curfew as well as Tonic probably did not want to upset a certain lead vocalist for the Gin Blossoms.

When Tonic finished there was that eerie silence again.  I am used to music becing played once concerts are over but this time it was a dead silence with fans discussing the strange events of the evening.  As happy as I was seeing Tonic live finally I just felt the night could and should have been better with no thanks to Robin Wilson of course.

Then again I should thank Robin Wilson seeing how he has inspired me to create a new catergory… The Suck.