Strange Obsessions - Fall Mix

I busted out some records tonight and whipped up a fall mix. Is it too late in the season for a fall mix? Who cares! Weirdos only. GET IT HERE! Geza X and the Mommymen - I Hate Punks (You Goddam Kids!/Dionysus) Black Humor - You Can Have It (Love God Love One Another/Superior Viaduct) The Mob - Witch Hunt (Let the Tribe increase/Overground) DA! - Dark Rooms (Unreleased Recordings 1980-81/Factory) Tyvek - Mary Ellen Claims (Fast Metabolism/Water Wing) Catatonic Youth - Freedom Vanilla (Piss Scene EP/PRNL) Daily Void - Tapewurm (Identification Code/Dead Beat Records) Blank Dogs - No Compass (Under and Under/In the Red) Total Control - Scene From A Marriage (Sub Pop) Consumers - Ballad To The Son of Sam (All My Friends Are Dead/In the Red) Liket Lever - Vevande Begravd (Bloodstains Across Sweden/Record Scum) Mission of Burma - Red (Signals, Calls, and Marches/Matador) Neon Piss - Bullet In The Back (S-T/Deranged) Black Bug - Nightstick (Red Lounge) Futurisk - What We Have To Have (S-T/Minimal Wave) Surgeons - In My Scope (Total Punk) Reactors - It's Not Important (Rerun) Los Microwaves - TV In My Eye (Life After Breakfast/Posh Boy) Zounds - Demystification (Curse of the Zounds/Broken Rekids) Cops - I'm Tired and I Want To Go Home (Rob's House)

St. Louis Happenings

I was able to snap off a few photos at some shows recently and here is what I got.

Bruiser Queen (STL)/Modern Convenience (Memphis)/The Switchblade Kid (Memphis) @ The Livery 10.26.12

Modern Convenience

Bruiser Queen

The Switchblade Kid

Halloween Cover Bands and Shit @ 2720 Cherokee 10.31.12 Rusted Shut (Catholic Guilt)

New York Dolls (Bad Dates/Cherry)

Jay Reatard (Members of Sam's Club)

Wire (Trauma Harness)

Warsaw (Shaved Women) (Photos by Tom Bremer)

Sex Pistols (members of Glass Teeth, Corbeta Corbata and The Saints)

The Stooges(members of Bug Chaser / Warm Jets USA)

Off!/the Spits/Double Negative @ Fubar 11.01.12 Alright, so I showed up late to this show and missed Double Negative and didn't take any pictures during the Spits set due to darkness and fog machine overload. I still managed to get a few decent photos though... Off!

Me & Steven McDonald (Redd Kross!!)

Obligatory post show tour photo op

Cheap Thrills #9

Ryan & Ashley are back as promised with a heap of punk records to play for you! This episode features music from GG King, Nightmare Boyzzz, Mind Spiders, Vapid, Ice Age, Sex Cult and tons more. Get after it! DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE | ITUNES | FACEBOOK Playlist: The Boys Next Door - Somebody's Watching (Door Door/Mushroom) Sex Cult - Sid Visions (Goner) Mutants - Insect Lounge (415) Daylight Robbery - Flat City (Three Way Split/Dirt Cult) Mind Spiders - You Are Dead (Meltdown/Dirtnap) Vapid - Die (Practically Dead/Nominal) Frozen Teens - Support (Shut Up) Transistors - Nervous Heart (Hypnotic Toys) Mouthbreathers - Out Of My Head (Out Of Breath/Self-Released) GG King - Want (Esoteric Lore/Rob's House) Iceage - You're Blessed (New Brigade/Dais) Hank Wood & the Hammerheads - My House (Go Home/Toxic State) Really Loud Hamburgers - Hate Crime (Florida's Dying) Burning Itch - Say It Again (Self-Titled/Tic Tac Totally) Chalk Circle - The Slap (Reflection/Mississippi) Kleenex - Hitch Hike Max & the Makeups - Poland (Puke & Vomit) VOM - Too Animalistic (Rerun) Nightmare Boyzzz - Batman (Happenin') Chronic Sick - Crotch Rot (No Way) Brutal Knights - Life Ain't Cool (Riff Raff) Larchmont Trash - Lake Placid (shdwply) Foreign Objects - White Elephant (Loud Punk) Reigning Sound - Can't Hold On (Abdication...For Your Love/Scion)

Cheap Thrills #8

Cheap Thrills relaunch! We are back with a brand new episode full of the mind melting punk you'd expect of this program. Featuring music from Gary Wrong, Shitty Limits, Vanna Inget, Nervous Patterns, Sonic Avenues, White Lung and much, much more! DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE | FACEBOOK Playlist: Shitty Limits - Medication Time (Speculate Accumulate/Levum) Black Bug - Television Screen (Red Lounge) Gary Wrong - Streets Of Iron (Total Punk) Note: Streets is spelled wrong on the label, hence our calling it "Sterets of Iron"! Cruddy - Burn It Down (Negative World/12XU) Hex Dispensers (Personality X-Ray (Razorcake Sister Series) Hysterese - Deadbeat (S-T/Search For Fame) Royal Headache - Never Again (S-T/XVIII) Terry Malts - I Do (Killing Time/Slumberland) Sonic Avenues - Fadin' Love (Television Youth/Dirtnap) Glueams - 365 (Discography/Static Age) Vanna Inget - Alla Andra Dagar (Allvar/P-Trash,1-2-3-4 Go!) Statues - The Last Stand (New People Make Us Nervous/P-Trash) Nasty Facts - Get To You (Drive My Car EP/5th Column) Flyboys - Square City (Flyguy) Test Patterns - Blackout (S-T/Tic Tac Totally) White Lung - Two Seen (It's The Evil/Deranged) Bloody Gears - End Of The Line (Deranged) Nervous Patterns - No Control (S-T/Cochon) Telecommande - Telecommande (Demo Tape) Brain #F - Restraining Order (Static Shock) Peace Warriors - Murder In Line At Space Mountain (Careers In Peace EP/Self-Released) Total Control - Stonehenge (Henge Beat/Iron Lung) Wax Idols - All Too Human (Hozac)

Allow Me To Bore Thee

If you've ever had the chance to browse my blog here, you might easily think that my sole interest in this world is attending rowdy rock & roll shows. While you wouldn't be completely wrong, there are other things that I am passionate about. One of these things is old Hollywood. I am a massive fan of old movies, particularly those from the 1930's-1960's. I have my grandparents on my father's side to thank for that. I've made a decision that every now and again, I might use this forum to "nerd out" on any unsuspecting human that may come across this blog about an old flick I adore.

Tonight, my favorite channel in the whole universe Turner Classic Movies showed a grand movie I'm sure you've heard of. A Star Is Born, the original from 1937. Not to be confused with the remake from 1954 starring Judy Garland. I actually saw the Judy Garland remake first and didn't enjoy it nearly as much. The 1954 version was turned into a musical with Judy howling all over the place for 2 hours. If you've seen this version and feel the same way about it, don't let it sour you on the original.

If you have not seen A Star Is Born (1937) I'm about to spoil it for you (you've had 75 fucking years). It's a story about a young actress moving out to Hollywood looking for her big break. She eventually get's her break from an actor who happens to be on his way down the ladder. His alcoholism has helped him to fall out of favor with fans and industry types alike. The two fall in love and are soon married. Wife "Vickie Lester's" star power continues to rise while husband "Norman Maine" continues his downward spiral causing Vickie to decide to end her acting career in order to take care of Norman and see to it that he ends his drinking. Norman overhears this conversation with her producer and ultimately decides to end his own life by swimming out into the ocean, never to return.

The most interesting part of this movie for me is that the Norman Maine character is based partly on real life happenings just a year before this film was released in 1937. In 1936, actor John Bowers rented a boat and sailed off to the shores of Santa Catalina where he intended to audition for the film Souls At Sea. When he arrived, he was disheartened to find that the film had already been cast. He set sail and departed the island never to return to land...alive. His body was found on the beach of Santa Monica. John Bowers was a star from the silent film era. Like many of those actors, he was unable to make the transition from silent films to "talkies" as they were known. Maybe it's just me but I think it's interesting that Hollywood would base a character on one of their own before his body had a chance to go cold so to speak. Can you imagine if they would have produced a film with a character based on Heath Ledger a year after his death? The horror!

Maybe I'll do more of these short write ups one day. I'm fascinated with all the silent film star suicides that took place when sound in movies came in to play. It's unreal. Perhaps I'll touch more on that next time. Over and out.

Double Header

April 4th-5th at the Firebird, a rock & roll double header. This time of year is my absolute favorite. All kinds of bands are shaking old man Winter off, jumping in the van and hitting the highway. It's not uncommon for there to be 3 or 4 solid shows a week around these parts during these months. In part, due to the fallout of festivals such as South By Southwest and Chaos in Tejas, and also because that's what bands do. Tour.

Wednesday night, I was ecstatic to see one of my favorite post-punk bands, Mission of Burma. The band played a good deal of newer material which in most cases would disappoint. This however, was not the case in my humble opinion. The new songs meshed nicely with old classics such as That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate, Max Ernst, Academy Fight Song, and That's When I Reach For My Revolver.

Mission of Burma






The very next night, I was treated to the sounds of legendary Japanese garage punks, Guitar Wolf who brought New Zealand natives Transistors along for the ride. Local support was provided by pop-punk mainstays, Ded Bugs and also Dynofight. It's been 7 or so years since I've seen Guitar Wolf, and while they unfortunately lost a bass player since then (RIP Bass Wolf), they certainly haven't lost a step elsewhere. They were as raw and loud as I'd remembered. My eardrums seemed to have recovered from it all just some mere hours ago.

Ded Bugs




Transistors






Guitar Wolf