Friday, March 28, 2008

TACO BELL FOR THE EARS

Dag! Someone remind me not to partake of the free nacho platter at the next film festival after party. From a dream -- actually, a nightmare -- in which Interpol were playing a live cover of The Smith's "This Charming Man," I awoke with what was quite possibly my worst case of indigestion yet. Were I not buckled over in pain, consciousness would've been a blessing. Of course, I fell back asleep and the dream started all over. When I woke once more, again buckled over in pain, I thought, "This is my world?" And not a Tums in the house.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

CROSSOVER

Sometime during my freshman year of high school, Matt, the first friend I made that year and future bandmate, pulled out a copy of Suicidal Records legendary comp, Welcome To Venice. Save for the "Institutionalized" video on MTV, Welcome was truly unlike anything I'd been exposed to. The cover looked dangerous as fuck: technically, it's a brilliant painting but slightly twisted, the title a gross joke on Venice, California's reputation for gang violence.

The music was dangerous too. It was hardcore and thrash but the solos had a very distinct flavor that wasn't quite either. Later, my sister's roommate, Spring, offered to sell me a cassette of "silly ol' skate rock" which I misheard as "Sicilian skate rock". The guitar solo in the intro sounded incredibly familiar: "There must be a Sicily, California right next to Venice," I thought.

So, my penchant for hardcore persists. Infatuation? Perhaps, but I'm really enjoying myself. I've taken to burning copies of the first Skate Laws recordings onto 3" CDs before leaving the house and plan to take some along for the trip to France -> Ireland -> Germany -> Malta. Is there a Maltese hardcore scene? A quick search yields great results: Extreme Maltese Metal Festival!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

HEY MUSIC

What goes on? Three weeks ago, everything was fair game! All genres had equal footing and, god damn, almost everything sounded great. Then I made a joke about how Vampire Weekend showed up, the world went crazy, and I lost my appetite for music altogether.

It turns out it wasn't a joke -- it happened! About two weeks after the VW album dropped, my musical world dwindled from a diverse playground to a meager (but choice!) stack of hardcore cassettes. My average listening experience has been widdled down to 16 minutes -- the same length as Agnostic Front's 1984 magnum opus, Victim In Pain! It's a peculiar world...



wait! this shit's even better...

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

THE CLOSED WORLD

I was left standing there, dick in hand. You said: "I'm sorry, but are your buns winking at me?" There was that sweet shit and then there was my blueballs. In those little shorts, I lost it by the waterside.