If there is one thing about New Mexico that I miss, it is the breakfast burritos from the Santa Fe Grill located in those Pic-Quic gas stations.
Actually I am lying. I miss living down the street from the Dirt Cult Records headquarters. Chris was a rad dude and I am glad I got to know him even if just for a brief moment. His band, Low Culture, remains one of my favorites to this day.
Recently, I learned that Dirt Cult relocated to Portland, Oregon and I thought I would check in with Chris to see how things were going with the big move. He advised everything was going smooth and shared a few new releases his label is putting out in the upcoming months.
I thought I would do a quick review on all of them them. Enjoy!
Autonomy/No Sir I Won’t – Split I blame Chris for getting me into Autonomy before I even became pals with him. This split is pretty bad ass crust-ish punk act that to me sound way better than Crass. I loved the samples throughout. Autonomy’s “Ashes To Ashes” was a pretty kick ass song that just started almost psycho-garagy and turned fizzled out with a Cure-sounding bass riff. No Sir I Won’t were cool to check out and full of aggressive punk rock that reached into the 80s style I grew up loving. Definitely will be checking them out some more.
Apocalypse Meow! – Baseball and Alcohol 7″ Featuring Off With Their Heads’s Justin Francis as well as members of Sundowners, I knew I was going to adore this 7″ before I even listened to it. With songs relevant to the 7″‘s title, Apocalypse Meow take two of America’s favorite past times and mix them into pure pop-punk goodness. The track “MVP” ruled with the lyrics “all I want to be is a goddamn MVP” repeating throughout. The title track though is what did it for me. Loved it.
Blank Pages – Blank Pages LP
Straight outta Berlin, Blank Pages proves to have one hell of a release with some serious garage rock layered with a old school punk rock feel. These guys really remind me of the Marked Men in a good good way. Great song writing added with vocals that could easily fit in with the 70s/80s punk scene. “We’re All Broken” was just amazing with almost a surf-punk sound in the middle. I was beyond impressed with the clean sound throughout the release and just full on togetherness of the band. It just works so well. “All In Due Time” was another great track. I am really glad Chris threw Blank Pages my way, I am totally loving what they do. If you call yourself a fan bands like the Ramones and the Dickies, I have the feeling you will like what Blank Pages have to offer Ich bin ein Fan von Leerseiten.
For more info on Dirt Cult releases or to check out some other amazing release on the Dirt Cult label, head on over to http://dirtcultrecords.bandcamp.com.
Why bother hiding it, the 15 year old in me is freaking out. I got to chat it up with Joey freaking Cape.
I have been a fan easily for over 20 years now with everything Cape has done. From Lagwagon to his solo material, I have always appreciated what Cape has brought into the music world.
Recently I heard about a new project Cape has created called One Week Records. You see, Cape decided to turn his home into a studio where he….you know what? Let’s just have Cape explain it. Trust me, it is a hell of an idea…
BHP: Let’s talk about your all new project called One Week Records. To my understanding, this is a label you created where you invite an artist to your home to record an album in a week, right?
JC: Yes. That’s it.
Where did you come up with this awesome idea?
It is an idea I had a few years back and have been considering how to do it since. It stems from my love of the honest production and approach of demos. Also, I am not a fan of the fact that albums and their romance are pieced out into single tracks falling into the shuffle of a chosen device. I believe an album should be heard as a whole and in the intended sequence of the performer and producer. That is why we sell them as one event and the reason we do not own certain mainstay editing tools such as pitch correct plug-ins.
How does your family like you turning your home into a bed and breakfast of sorts?
Haha. Yeah, My girls are cool with it. It allows me to be home with my wife and daughter and also marries my 2 very different lives, Home and tour. For many years I did not enjoy the thought that my wife did not know so many of my long term friends and my daughter may never know them. One Week allows me to bring these people to my home. They have meals and morning coffee with us and it is exciting for my daughter especially. She doesn’t know the difference between Chris Cresswell and Iggy Pop, so in her mind these famous people are coming to stay. It’s sweet. I’m careful not to invite anyone I do not know well enough of course. So far so good.
That is great. Is One Week limited to just one artist at a time?
Yes, but some people choose to bring accompaniment
Cool. So is the goal to record a song a day? Would you ever surpass the 7 song mark or would that defeat the purpose?
It’s actually 10 songs in 7 days with a One Week Record and 5 songs in 3 days with something we are calling a One Weekend record. The limitations are purposeful. There is not enough time to second guess everything and because of this there is a more raw and true outcome I think.
Brian Wahlstrom’s session is absolutely amazing. In fact, I encourage anyone reading this to go out and download it right now. I know he was part of a side project you worked on called Scorpios that sadly went on a hiatus due to the loss of a great man (RIP SLY). Did you pick Wahlstrom to debut on your label because of this?
Brian is a very close friend and incredibly talented. He is my latest musical soul mate. We work on everything together now. We co-wrote much of his record and he even worked with me on the new Lagwagon album. I knew he would make a great one week record first because we had such a great report. There was little pressure and plenty of chemistry and I love the idea that One Week gives me the opportunity to expose songwriters that many otherwise would never hear.
Chris Cresswell also released an album through One Week that is just incredible. How did he become involved early on?
Well, I have toured with Chris a bit with the Flatliners and I played an acoustic show with him and loved his voice and songs in that setting. Chris is one of the kindest and sweetest people I have ever met. I can think of no one more pleasant to be around. Honestly, I was just as excited for him to meet my family than to record but, yes, I am very proud of his record. He is such an amazing song writer and has an exceptional voice.
Do you have anyone out there in the music world that you really want to record?
The list is endless. I have a sort of faith that these people will come to me like in Field Of Dreams. “If you build it, they will come”. Hahaha. I’m really biting my tongue and hoping for some of them to reach out. It’s better that way. I don’t ever want to solicit them because as friends it puts them in a position where they might feel they are disappointing me if they are not into it.
So how does someone become considered in being a part of this project?
Well, I have to really love the music. Otherwise, I don’t feel I would have much to offer other than engineering and that results in a poorly produced album. I met a few of the people I am doing records with on the road. For example, Brian and I ran a sort of contest. Don’t like that word. We chose a person in each city we played over a year to join us on stage during our set and play one of their own original songs. It’s better than an opening set because often people are not in the venue earlier to see the performance. This guaranteed them and their respective cities to meet. I loved each and every night we did it. People submitted YouTube videos and this was in the end a cleverly disguised and more so unintentional sort of scouting for One Week. So far I am recording three of the artists I found this way. I just finished a record with one of them, a guy named Jo Bergeron from Quebec City. He is amazing I think.
Hell yeah. I can’t wait to hear what is created. So, who is behind the artwork on each of the releases?
Each artist is asked to draw their own cover. Black sharpie on white paper. For better or worse it continues the emphasis on the individual personality of each record. I love it. If I every did one it would be really bad. I can barely write my name. Haha.
Ha. Will this strictly be online or do you think maybe one day you might put some of these songs on vinyl?
Each artist is allowed to print vinyl with anyone they choose. It’s kind of a joke but the contract reads that the artist simply has to give One Week one copy if they press. I collect vinyl and love it but I really just want to focus on the creative side of things and not physical manufacturing or the marketing of those things.
I like that idea. Win, win. So I have to ask… What happened to My Records? I was a huge fan of the only release on that label.
Wow. Well that was something completely different. I just found it to be too painful trying to distribute physical merchandise though the channels. too many middle people and when those people didn’t respond to the albums the way I did it was sad. One Week Records is B2C (business to customer). No issues here. If somewhere here’s a song streaming or whatever, they just buy it and again, they have to buy the entire record which is nice for both the artist and consumer I think. The events are inexpensive due to the low cost of producing them. I’m certain there is and will be many more labels doing this sort of thing in the near future.
Speaking of Nerf Herder, any chance Parry Gripp be recording anything with you soon?
He just might be on my list. Hehe
Do you have long term expectations with One Week Records or will you just take each week as it comes?
The latter. I have learned to simply enjoy the process and not set your self up for disappointment by having goals and expectations. My only goal is to make great records with great people.
I have the feeling that is going to happen over and over… So, what’s next for Joey Cape?
Lagwagon has a new album almost complete. So lots of touring I imagine and One Week Records in the in between tours whenever possible. Still, have my day job. Haha
Joey Cape is currently in the middle of recording and all new Lagwagon album that should be dropping later this year.
It seems like it has been quite some time since I dipped into my past and talked about a band I really dug.
Today for whatever reason, I thought about a band I absolutely adored in the late 90s. The first time I heard of them was on a 1998 Vagrant Records comp/sampler called Five Years On The Streets.
The band I speak of is New Jersey’s Automatic 7. Does anyone remember them?
The album I became a huge fan of was their sophomore release titled Beggar’s Life. It was put out by Vagrant Records back when they were a indie punk rock label.
With major similarities to Face To Face, Jawbreaker and even Unwritten Law, I immediately became a fan the moment I heard their song “Broken Record”. I loved this East coast band with a SoCal feel but sadly fairly certain that I never caught them live.
From what I have gathered on the good ol’ internet, the band disbanded around 2001 but reformed in 2006. I will be honest, I have not thought about them since my early 20s, but I am stoked that for whatever reason I thought about them today.
Fun fact: Trevor Keith of Fact To Face actually joined the band briefly in 1997. Perhaps that is where some of their sound derived from. I am ok with that.
If you still hold on to the music from your past and were a fan of 90s pop punk rock, check these guys out.
Pop punk’s hooligan heroes, Masked Intruder, are back on the prowl with their all new sophomore release M.I. The ski-masked foursome clearly have no problem dodging the law while stealing hearts and throwing together one of the catchiest releases you will probably hear all year.
Having kept their identities safe so far, probably due to the band threatening anyone with blunt force to those who may know who all is actually under those masks, Masked Intruder remain an enigma of sorts in the punk rock world playing some of the greatest stalker-love jams ever recorded. Think Ramones and Chixdiggit!, but with plenty of obsession and missing valuables.
The album started out with a revamped recording of “I Fought The Law”, a track that originally appeared on Masked Intruder’s 2011 demo. This version clearly trumped the original and sounds even catchier than the demo version.
“The Most Beautiful Girl” is flawless when talking about a pop punk love song. In less than 2 minutes, the band manages to pack together harmonies within sing-alongable lyrics (is that even a word?) all while swooning someone special.
“Saturday Night Alone” pretty much sums up some of my weekend nights sans spending it in the slammer like these masked heartthrobs do. Hard-driven guitar playing (that easily could have been stolen from label mates Teenage Bottlerocket) played throughout making for a fun track. I loved when the band just stopped playing and just sang and crooned for just a couple of seconds only to start jamming out again.
I loved the track “When I Get Out”, especially on how the band sang about what they were going to do when they were released from the slammer. From getting revenge to slamming ice cream and pizza, it is clear that Masked Intruder had a lot of time to plan out their freedom while locked away and incorporate it all into a fun song.
I really was hoping the band would go all a cappella again on this release, and they did in “Almost Like We’re Already In Love”. It’s like a barbershop quartet song, but different. I’m sure if the band sang this song to me in person, I would be batting my lashes and blowing kisses their way.
“Hey Girl”, was a quick, catchy jam aimed at breaking the ice with the ladies. “Don’t Run Away” followed perhaps on purpose to assure all the beautiful ladies by singing “don’t run away, I think this is it.”
“Say that I’m a freak, a geek, a weirdo” started off “Wierdo”, a track that may have been written by actual events that happened in my life. Seriously, I think these guys plagiarized my lady luck in my early 20s and threw it into a song. What the hell guys?
Another great track was “I Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye To You Tonight”. It was a pop punk love track that may or may not require a restraining order.
Ending the album was “Locked Up And Lonely”, a song that did not really sound like the others as it was a little slow starting at the beginning, but only for a moment. I could not but help think 90s punk rock on this song. On another note, can someone please tell me why I thought of Charles Manson in this song (in a comical way of course). Seriously, as this song played, I thought of an emo’d out Manson sitting in a cell looking out his cell window and writing about how lonely he is.
After listening to this album at least 37 times in a row, it is safe to say that Masked Intruder has once again dropped a solid release. I was so addicted to their debut release so much that I failed to review it, but this time I decided I had to at least say a couple nice things about their latest effort.
M.I. has the potential to make Masked Intruder appear on many Most Wanted lists. With their quest to avoid Miranda Rights as well as continue to hide their identity, this band has surpassed the gimmick stage and is going toward full-blown rockstar.
So who are Masked Intruder? Who cares. Just keep them away from my record collection and wallet. Beyond that, I hope they keep doing their thing. Those guys rule hard.
Masked Intruder is seemingly always on tour. Personally, I think it is because they are running away from the law. Regardless, they are playing Cleveland on June 20th at Now That’s Class.
Downingtown / West Chester, Pennsylvanians Panucci’s Pizza are an emo-ish punk rock duo with a heavy appreciation for pizza and straight up ridiculous song titles.
Not only were the track names entertaining, the music itself was pretty bad ass to listen to. I liked the mix of acoustic demos and just full blown chaotic jams. I did not know what to expect with each track and by the end I just wanted some more. Funny, that is exactly how I feel about pizza sometimes…
Panucci’s Pizza re-released their 2013 full length Don’t Tip the Delivery Boy on CD via Songs from the Road Records. You can order the pizza-decorated CD here. Scroll down a bit to check it out via Bandcamp.
I can not help but be reminded of my homies Cherry Cola Champions and Two Hand Fools a lot though this release. It’s definitely worth checking out.
Track Listing:
1. Holy Diver Pt. 2 2. Ladies, Welcome to my Swaggrokrag 3. You know when the Trojans got that horse and they were all “Yeah this is totally a gift” Thats how sure I am 4. Pokemon Cards and an Empty Bottle of Grape Juice 5. The World’s greatest Bowler is the World’s worst anything else 6. Nicholas Cajun (Stole the Declaration of Pizzapendence!) 7. Wait, you know who Frankie Muniz is right? 8. I still haven’t seen “Almost Famous” 9. My Imaginary Friend is STILL addicted to Pornography
