HELLO WORLD!

LAFFS + DANGER!!

 Skate Laws & Blood Club - The Wig's Edge (Boogie Outtake) by Skate Laws

OUT NOW: OLD JAMMERS

OUT NOW ON FM DUST:

SKATE LAWS - U.S. Post-Disco
C-25 cassette (edition of 48)
$6 US////$9 INTERNATIONAL
"The first released document of dude’s one-man skatecore assault, featuring classix like 'Asylumed By My Parents' and 'Clawing At Spiders.' Obvious reference points include early Flag, VOID, and maybe the first Suicidal Tendencies record, among any number of other suburban teenage mooks. Each package comes with a piece of grip tape, so get this thing now and try not to bust it when you’re listening to yr walkman on the half-pipe."

SKATE LAWS: DICK MOVES

WHITE COLUMNS +

LIVFE

MEMORIAL DAY BONUS: "CLASS RING" BY SKATE LAWS

Something's obscene.

Something in here
is obscene.

What is it?
What is that thing?

Sorry, father!
NO CLASS RING!

"BAT IN THE FACE" BY SKATE LAWS

The paper
had the photo
of the winner

A bat in the face
a prize winner,
photo in the paper

Yeah

So where is our hero?
With his tennis racket?

A bat in the face!
That is no prize!

NEW SONG LIST BY SKATE LAWS

30 Nickels
Neti Pot
The Day the Hippie Ripped Slime
Pickled Grapes
My Place Within the Avant-Garde
The Chocolate Sauce Was Delicious
Man, It Just Got Weird in Here
Farm in Moscow
Nerds, Turn Your Image Around

Hear more @ myspace.com/skatelaws

BEAN STAIN

In the midst of taking a leak at the Lager House, a fellow patted me on the back to get my attention. "That was ART. It's awesome to see someone put their ART out there. It was spoken word art, kind of goth -- well, '80s goth, then it was a hardcore thing, then it was a punk thing. But it was art and it was so cool to see it out there. I love it when people put their art out there." And then he shook my hand, which I had not yet washed. It was hilarious & sweet. Here's the piece I read during the Skate Laws set:

A hot dog stand burning in a parking lot and you never felt such heat in your life. "My tits are burning," you thought and they were hot. And your thighs felt very hot. Your face was tanned. Eventually the car stopped smelling like burnt beef but the clothes from that night had been thrown out after a single washing.

When it became too hot, you walked back to your car and slowly, very slowly, edged around the fire and headed home. You thought you heard an explosion but later convinced yourself that you imagined that part.

The paper never ran a story on the fire. Someone did not want that hot dog stand there.

GOODBYE SWEATPANTS

Woof -- my Skate Laws set at The Moustashow is fast approaching and I'm starting to turn into a nervous nelly. People shouldn't see me in this state -- it's bad news. And since I've been on the wagon for a minute now (wellllll, for the most part), methinks I won't be imbibing beforehand. The ol' "liquid courage" thing, y'know. Anyway, here's the cover of my new book:

More info on that to come. Also, an Athens paper just hyped [the actually 48-page] Mr. Wiltoncroft just over yonder: 'Mr. Wiltoncroft' seedy, but benign. Interesting article title.

I've been listening to a whole lot of Golden lately. Just so damn good. Oh yeah -- I forgot to mention that the last Dark Matter at Elks Lodge went really well. I was anticipating something like 45 people and we got 90. Not our largest draw but probably the most people you could have there and maintain some semblance of comfortability. Ha.

BLOOD ON THE WOOD PILE

So, I fell flat on my face as Skate Laws last night, literally and figuratively. Some confusion over amplification and then a mixing goof made the vocals perfectly audible and the music a wee bit quiet. People seemed to enjoy it well enough although my favorite comment was, "It was interesting! I'll have to see it a few more times to decide what I really think." Ha -- me too.

It was an inspiring night nonetheless. Different from any other show across the board, and coupled with a free jazz band I saw in a basement a month ago, this has to be the best era of A2 house shows I've seen (of course, Mini-Systems was long gone by the time I moved here). There's talent, brilliance and modesty in place of the pretension, preciousness and ego I observed from some gross, carpeted corner of a student house a few years ago. It feels like Erin and I are tapping into the particularly smart and artistic crowd that we've been pining for.

Also inspiring: The John Baker Tapes. So much fun and so exactly what I've wanted to hear of late. I just gotta' start dicking around with cider bottles and pitch at the new place. Also a gemstone: Bacchanal by Gabor Szabo. Perhaps musically as good as Dreams, it also has a gorgeous cover. Unlike Dreams, Bacchanal's sleeve hints at a 12" Brakhage still. Gorgeous.

DARK MATTER

A couple months ago, Robert Wells and I agreed to DJ the Heavy Manners in August in place of Chuck (not Slick) and Brett. Robert later reneged so I tapped Aaron Lindell to take his place and enlisted our pal Raj as pinch hitter. It was our first time playing the Elks Lodge and, if anyone has heard me talk about just how great and strange the venue is, one might have expected my excitement over playing there. It started off slow but steady at 10pm and gradually the Elks filled. By 12:45am, the place was starting to get packed and newcomers kept up until around 1:50am. Raj closed the night pretty mightily and Aaron and I got to dance with our ladies. When we finished around 3am, the bartender came by with our tab and asked when we were coming back to do the Elks again. He handed me their calendar and I marked off three days during the next three months. Aaron remarked that this should be my thing since he has eve and Robert has the soul club. That sounded great to me since I had just been complaining to Aaron that I wanted my own night and I get to have it at the Elks. Amazing. Wonderful. It's going to be called Dark Matter.

Skate Laws' second performance was this past Wednesday in Ypsilanti. Save for Laserbeams of Boredom (a.k.a. Craig -- drums and guitar, he plays both at the same time, totally wicked) and Patrick Elkins, the events and bands preceding my set reminded me why I stopped playing shows for a while. Holy shit. I opened with a little a'capella Brenda Lee and went right into "White Columns", read a story, kicked my shoe off, made some cigar jokes, got sweaty, and did the splits. John Nelson of New Grenada was there and as soon as Erin said I should get a band behind me, he piped up that he and some people wanted to start a thrash band. I agreed to do it. The best part is: I don't have to show up to practice! They'll write songs, tape 'em and upload the suckers, then I'll write the words and we'll meet up to play shows. Anyway, Mike snapped the photo to the right. When I got home that night, Laurel asked me to play a show at Arborvitae this coming Wednesday and I agreed.

Another few weeks before we move to the new spot but I can't wait.

AIGRETTE

It's been a relatively slow summer for Ann Arbor so it's quite surprising when, say, 260 or so people show up for the Ann Arbor Soul Club like they did this past Friday. Expecting it to be a slow night, I got there late and was greeted by a long line out the door. Surprisingly, the evening was sans movie stars. Up next: a Skate Laws show and a night of DJing at the Elks Lodge. Both are well anticipated by this ol' boy.

Speaking of anticipation, we're moving into the new place come the first of September. It occurred to me that I won't have proper means to record once we're in the new spot so I'm devising some new ways of working. The change of pace and ethic should prove fruitful tho', and maybe I will self-release some music as suggested by Travis. It would be a while before that tho' -- Erin and I are readying the Roj work for mastering and production and the Benoit test pressings should arrive shortly.

Speaking of Travis, in a couple weeks, the gent is marrying the lovely Ms. Cara and I've the honor of serving as best man. As a result, I've been tripping down memory lane, paying special attention to a particularly enjoyable period of time a few years ago. He and I were living a few blocks apart, both single for the most part, often stopping by at one or the other's place with a bottle of wine (or vodka) and whatever new album we were being haunted by. Along with the other fellows of the Garland Street Mens Society, we made a lot of good food, threw some get togethers, watched a lot of movies of varying quality, and recorded quite a bit. All in all, one of the more productive and enjoyable periods of my life.

I PASSED OUT

Shadow Art Fair was this past Saturday. Woefully unprepared to play a set of "serious" compositions at Corner Brewery, I spent the morning mixing Skate Laws material sans vocals (thankfully, only a few of the songs actually have lyrics so practicing wasn't exactly essential). That Erin would miss the show was a total bummer; her inner-teenager has a major soft spot for SL.

The Fair did gangbusters and a good crowd had gathered during Laurel & Halolos' set. A nervous pang struck me hard when they finished so I plugged my mic in and started immediately -- there will be no second thoughts about doing a conceptual hardcore band. And despite SL being a conceptual hardcore band, I got into a cathartic spot pretty quickly and sweated my hairline off.

"Man Would Not Exist" and "White Columns" jammed particularly hard but that may be because they're the last songs I did and a little rougher. I'm thinking the future will see more SL shows with some a capella shit and poetry mixed in. Oh yeah -- methinks there will be photos and video to come.

Hott Lava went great, by the way. It was more than a bit hot in the house but everybody seemed to enjoy themselves, no one puked all over our toilet, and Windy's performance was thick intensity.

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!