More Scared of Chaka photos

While I went to two fun punk shows this weekend, I really wanted to be seeing these guys at their reunion show in Nevada. I think I took these in the late '90s at the old Breakroom (now Chop Suey). Anyone go? I'd love to hear how the weekend went.

Friday night The Greatest Hits and Cute Lepers rocked King Cobra!

My Friday night was totally crazy, I spent the first half of it in the Emergency Room, then zoomed home to pull records to DJ the show at King Cobra. The show was great, here are a few photos...

The Greatest Hits:


The Cute Lepers:

Noisome Faugh

These photos are of Seattle band Noisome Faugh playing the living room of the Radio House around 1995. The band was only around for a few years, they were in the hardcore crossed with crust punk vein and included members of Consume, Feederz and Akimbo. They released one split 7" with Flight 800 with a press run of 1000 in 1997 and were on at least one compilation.

Discography:

• 1997, Flight 800/Noisome Faugh "Patriotism In Action" split 7" (Hippies in Flames Records). Songs featured were "The Children," "Malcontent," and "In The Name of Democracy."
  
• 1998, one song on "The Great Age of Enlightment 7" along with Racetraitor, Dropdead, Synguya, President's Choice, Passafist and Reversal of Man (Hit the Ground Running Records)

Greg Lowery

These photos are of Greg Lowery performing with his band the Zodiac Killers in the early-2000s at the Sunset Tavern in Seattle. I already published one photo earlier with a band discography and history here and mentioned Lowery's earlier band The Rip-Offs and their legendary show at the Lake Union Pub here. Crap, I sure have a liberal use of the word legendary, but in the case of that Pub show, it's quite true. Lowery also played in Supercharger and runs Rip-Off Records. I'm next to positive the person giving Lowery the finger in the photo is Stu from The Valentine Killers/Midnight Thunder Express, who recently joined The Coloffs.

More Misfits Reunion Photos

Probably not very surprising, but the Misfits reunion photos I posted to 10 Things a few months ago are about the most popular Google image search that brings people to this blog. It never fails to amaze me the broad appeal of such a goofy, but awesome band. I wrote about the show these are from back here if you want more info, it was November 4th, 1997 on the "American Psycho" tour when the band first reunited and had Michael Graves singing. I love in the first picture how multiple audience members are wearing skeleton gloves, how often do you get to rock those in public?

UK Subs

The UK Subs live at Rkcndy in Seattle in the late '90s:

Michael Griffen and old Rathouse photos!

I finally found some old photos I'd been searching for to pair with past blog articles. This first one is of Michael Griffen, who played violin in hardcore band Behead the Prophet No Lord Shall Live and Olympia band Noggin and passed away January 7th, 2008. The full original article on Michael can be found here. In this photo he is rocking out in the basement of the Goat House with Behead the Prophet.



This photo is of the members of The DC Beggars and Officer Down on the steps of the famous Rathouse from 1992. I had just finished interviewing them for 10 Things #2, if I'm not mistaken, Christine came along with me and took the photo. I wrote a more in depth article on the Rathouse crew and the DC Beggars back here. The playas from left to right: TV Kenly, Scott Marquardt, Julian Gibson, Adrian Garver, Steve 'Hoagie' Gero, Astrella Norell, Carla Sindle, Fred Speakman and Brad Stevens. Thanks to Fred for filling me in on all the names in his old Seattle punk article, even if he wrote my name wrong. The article is here and gives an excellent bit of history.

US Bombs, so close you can feel their sweat!

I seem to have hit Duane Peters gold in my photo archives. While the shots of him skating at Hey Punk! 2 at the Seattle Center were pretty awesome, here's one of my favorite shots I got of a live band at the old Seattle dive bar Uncle Rocky's. This was in the late '90s and it's of Duane and his band U.S. Bombs. I found my Turbo Negro photos from the same era, which I'll post in the next week or so.

Very early issues of 10 Things now online!

The folks over at Operation Phoenix Records (in Mill Creek, Washington no less!) have done an excellent job documenting punk rock zine history by scanning in a number of big zines from long ago and making them available as PDF files for everyone. In their Punk Zine Archive you can find early issues of Suburban Voice, MaximumRocknRoll, Flipside, HeartattaCk and now my old zine 10 Things Jesus Wants You To Know. I have to say, I'm a bit embarrassed by both the layout and content of the early issues, we really didn't know what we were doing, but I guess that's half the fun of zines. Follow the link, check out what's there. Not only 10 Things and the other zines, but the Operation Phoenix website has punk MP3s and they run a distro with some great classic punk records.

Gabe Kerbrat: The Roadie, The Legend, The Facial Hair!

This photo is Gabe Kerbrat performing with his old band The Trots at Rkcndy back in the mid-'90s. I think I met Gabe via swapping zines (he used to do one called "Hellbound") back when he was in highschool or just out of it. Later he and friends lived in the Hellbound House and put on punk shows, I wrote about it back here. Then he joined up with Owen and Larry's band The Trots to make them a 3-piece, you can hear the legendary Trots' song "Paid to Poo" in my article about the second 10 Things compilation CD. Needless to say, they were a funny band. Gabe then became roadie/member of the Murder City Devils and went on to a lifelong career as a roadie for a number of bands. He's got a great blog these days about his life that you should check out, called The Best Chapters From Books I've Never Written. And yes, Gabe's wearing foil underwear in this photo.

The legendary Duane Peters tears it up in the Sea Sk8 bowl!

I previously posted a few photos I shot of Duane Peters (US Bombs/Disaster Records/The Hunns) here, when he casually ripped off his shirt and skated a session at Seattle's Sea Sk8 during the Hey Punk! festival in 2001. I dug up a few more shots from that afternoon:

The Faction

California skate punk band The Faction played the second Hey Punk! show at Sea Sk8 in Seattle, across from the Seattle Center, August 18, 2001. They were great and the lighting was good, so I got a couple decent photos:

More Zero Down CD release party photos!

Jolene, DJ from KISW who has been increasingly cool to local metal and rock bands lately, introduces Zero Down at their CD release show at El Corazon:



Guitarist Lenny rocks out like a motherfucker:



Hawk and Fred and a layer of spooky metal smoke on stage:

Name that set list!

This one is pretty damn easy so I'm not going to give any hints, save for it's from about 10 or 12 years ago and the band was from Seattle. Ironically it's written on the back of a Front Line Assembly poster, recently unearthed between records in my vinyl collection.

Best new Seattle band name: Swearengen

I'm a huge Deadwood fan, so a band naming themselves after Al Swearengen rules. They're heavy, slow and sludgy and have long songs, falling halfway between Neurosis and Sleep. I'd call 'em stoner rock if they weren't fronted by Aaron Edge. Check out here. The Stranger will probably write about this band as the next big thing a year from now.

Mid-'90s Seattle show photos

The Stitches, at the Breakroom (now Chop Suey):

















Tilt, at the Redmond Old Firehouse:















The TV Killers, I think at the Lake Union Pub:


















The Wongs, I think at Gibson's:

The Valentine Killers - 10 Things Interview from 1999

The following interview was published in my final issue of 10 Things, which came out in 1999. I'm leaving it in the version that ran in print with no editing of the introduction for nostalgia's sake. Enjoy.



The Valentine Killers are one of Seattle’s best bands right now, many people are talking about them like they are the next big thing. They mix rock’s roots, 70’s punk, and garage rock energy into a fast, but smooth, blend of punk rock’n’roll. I’ve been going to their live shows from the very beginning, and it’s been great to see them grow and improve as they march on in their mission to bring back the rock and roll. Recently I finally sat down with the band over some beers to shoot the shit in an effort to see a little into the humor and attitude that makes this band so fun live. Interview and pictures by Dan Halligan

The Valentine Killers have been around for a while, but I don’t think too many people outside of Washington know your history, so can you give a little background on the band?
Coloff: You should say how you, Stu and Brian, who are pretty much the nucleus of the band, you should say how you guys met…
LaManna: We met at a record store in Olympia. In Olympia not all people dig real rock and roll, the thing is Stu had a Motards pin on his jacket, and Fumes and Loudmouths buttons, and I knew all those bands…
Stu: And he had a Rip-Offs shirt on!
LaManna: We started talking, and Stu thought I was a total record geek and didn’t really like it, but we ended up going to see the UK Subs and had a fucking great time.
Stu: John, the guy that worked at Golden Oldies, said we were going with this guy named Brian. He said to meet at Golden Oldies and we’d go to the show. So I got off work and got paid and I bought a 12 pack of Rainer Ice, what I always used to drink. So I called the guys and said come over here, I got a 12 pack of Rainer Ice! But by the time they got there it was gone. (Everyone laughs)
LaManna: No, me and John split the last one! (More laughter)
Stu: Yeah, so we went to the liquor store and got some mini-bottles and made all-ages drinks. All-ages drinks, kids, is when you get a Snapple and empty it out, then pour in two bottles of your favorite mini-bottles. Then it looks like a Snapple you’re drinking. Well we drank that and then went to this convenience store and got a 40 of Rainer Ale and I drank part of that and started throwing up everywhere. After that we finally went to the show.
LaManna: And we missed the Trots, I regret that…
Stu: I don’t know... but then we went to the show and some kid stage dove on me and knocked me out for a minute or so. (Everyone laughs) Then they scraped my body up and got me outside.
LaManna: Me and the bouncer from the Rockcandy got him outside.
Stu: Yeah, then I’m bleeding out of my mouth and had been knocked out, then we went to Burger King and on the way home we decided we ought to start a band. (Everyone laughs more) We did!
LaManna: Well see Stu and I had both been playing guitar, but I really wanted to sing and I think Stu really wanted to be the guitar player, so that was the basic idea. We conned John, the record store guy, into drumming for us. Then his friend Tim wanted in, so he tried out with us and we worked out really well. That was how the Notorious Brodies started, and we lived in Olympia and practiced in Tacoma. So Stu and I were in the Brodies and living in Olympia. Jill was living in Tacoma and she joined the Brodies just before we broke up, then we formed the Valentine Killers. Brian wasn’t in the earliest version and we had Tim, who was living in Tacoma, on bass. But we wanted another guitar player so Brian joined the band, thankfully. Then Tim left the band and we went with Meredith on bass for a bit. We went on the road with Zeke around the states, that was killer, and after we got back Meredith left the band and we got Jed playing bass, and that’s pretty much where we are at now. Oh, and right before we went on tour with Zeke, Stu and I moved up to Seattle.

But now you guys consider yourself a Seattle band?
LaManna: Yeah, we all live here…
Jill: Except for me!
LaManna: We have roots from Tacoma. The Sonics and the Wailers were from Tacoma…

So how did your tour down the West Coast go?
Stu: Fucking awesome, except for the van breaking down.
LaManna: We got to play with the Lazy Cowgirls, I’m still psyched about that. That and the Loudmouths.



Anything weird happen on tour?
Stu: We got drunk.
Jed: We drove by a Budwiser factory!
Stu: Oh, and the big fucking fire!
Jed: I was hanging out at 4 in the morning at Rosco’s Chicken by Hollywood and I saw a 3 car accident. And they all fucking took off! Man, L.A.’s fucked up.
LaManna: L.A. is fucked up.
Stu: On the way down, it was pitch black and we were just hauling ass in Northern California and there was this fire, it was huge!
Jill: It looked like a train wreck.
Stu: It was like the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
That was the coolest thing you’ve ever seen, that’s pretty pathetic! (Laughter)
Stu: Dan, this fire was fucking huge! It looked hell! Hell, California, population Satan.
Jill: That, and then the glowing red Budweiser sign. It was an epiphany.
Stu: It changed Jed’s life.

So did you tour the Bud plant?
Stu: No, we had to get to San Francisco. We had played Portland with the 5’s, 6’s, 7’s, and 8’s then were heading to San Francisco. The 5’s, 6’s, 7’s, and 8’s were cool, but they hated our gear.
LaManna: Yeah, they played on our gear. They are all retro and we had big American Marshalls.
Can they find ancient American gear in Japan?
Stu: Well, on their album cover they have some… you know, it’s just that when they come over here they can’t bring all their gear. But the Pills (who also played) were more 60’s garage rock and had killer shit for them to use.

So, when you are not playing in a band, what do you do for fun?
Jed: Fuck. I fuck girls.
Stu: Come on Jed, lie, make up something!
Jed: OK, I fuck boys. We work, we drink.
Coloff: We practice and plan our next tour.

So you are totally into the touring thing. A lot of bands say touring in America can be a big pain in the ass…
Jill: Well we haven’t gone to Europe yet.
Jed: America fucking rules. (The whole band starts fake chanting “USA, USA” and laughing.)

Do you want to go to Europe?
Stu: Yeah! I heard they have free alcohol, as much as you can drink for the bands.
Jed: America is the best country in the whole fucking world though.
Where’s your flight jacket with a flag on it? (Everyone laughs)
LaManna: For the record, Jed’s wearing a Crass shirt.
Stu: I love touring in America.
LaManna: We just need to push the cities closer together, that’s all it is. On the East Coast you drive four hours and you’re in another big city, over here it’s like seven or eight. I think I get it worse, I get cabin fever really easily, but other than that it’s not a fucking big deal.
Coloff: I think on our last tour it was basically the European style of touring. People fed us, let us stay at their houses, gave us booze, it was great!

Do you guys ever stay in motels?
Coloff: We stayed in one.
Stu: Yeah, one on the way back because we had to get home, that’s where we saw the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie!
Coloff: Yeah, that was the most party… party people video. (Really sarcastically, causing everyone to laugh)
Stu: They show the most fucked up stuff on MTV late at night.
Jed: Yeah, there was this guy running around in this big turd suit with diapers (laughs) and that was like the highlight of the stay in that motel.

So did you guys trash the room?
Jill: Oh yeaaah! (Laughs)
Jed: We are more about trashing bathrooms! (They all laugh)
Stu: Yeah, we all used the bathroom at Al’s Bar.
LaManna: Some of us used it and some of us destroyed it.
Jed: LaManna destroys bathrooms. Me and Stu, we are the foot troopers, we go in first and lay some damage down, and then he comes in and napalms them.
Jill: Recon! (Everyone laughs)
LaManna: They dig the trenches.
Jed: Then he comes in with the napalm and just destroys…
Stu: This is going to be the worst interview in 10 Things ever! (Everyone is totally laughing)
Jed: We got new nicknames on tour!
What are they?
Jill: Except for me!
Stu: You got the old nickname.
Jill: But I don’t like that one!
Stu: It’s “Cheeser” because Jill likes cheese.
LaManna: What? We can come up with something better than that!

What’s Jed’s?
LaManna: “Barely Legal!” (Everyone laughs cuz Jed is the youngin’ in the band)
Stu: LaManna’s is “The Italian Stallion”
LaManna: Fuck you!
Jill: Among other things, he has so many nicknames.
Stu: Coloff is “Smokescreen” (Laughter)
Jed: ‘Cuz he’s the hippie of the band.
LaManna: He likes to listen to later period Black Flag.
J: And Stu’s “Big and Tasty,” which is pretty self-explanatory.
Stu: They love me in San Francisco, they are tired of these skinny speed freak guys. They couldn’t get enough of me.

So, who scored the most on tour?
Jed: We didn’t really score at all on tour, ‘cuz Portland doesn’t really count as touring. I scored the night before we left and when we got back. We are not gonna talk about that stuff, no we didn’t score on tour.
LaManna: It’s a myth!
Jed: Next tour though… (Everyone laughs)
Stu: Well, (on tour) you’re all sweaty…
Jill: You haven’t showered in 4 days and you’ve slept in a van.
Jed: And you have a bunch of drunk assholes telling you how they wanna give you their business card and how you should come down and they give you their bullshit, you can’t talk to no pussy! (Everyone laughs half at Jed, half with him.)
LaManna: You’re on a roll there Jed.
Jed: Well fucking two bars I was talking to girls at and jerks accosted me…
LaManna: “Hey, you work for Sub Pop, don’t you?”
Jill: I think the whole ploy should be, since we all need showers, is we should hit on people and say “Oh man, do you have a shower?”
Stu: So in L.A. we had another fan of ours, that at first likes us, and then becomes belligerent and wants to attack us. We’ve had two of those now. He was like “You guys rock man, do you have any records?” I was like “Yeah, but we are loading up now…” We had merch set up earlier and all that shit, we were now loading up. We were exhausted, that day our van had broke down, it took forever to get it out of the shop, we had to walk a long fucking way, and then we were loading out when he asked about records. But I said “Yeah, do you have $3?” He said “Well, $3, $2, $1, whatever, you know, it’s the end of the night…” And I said “They are 3 bucks, do you got 3 bucks?” He said “Yeah, I’ve got 3 bucks, can I get a shirt with that?” I was like “No, you can get a record. We are losing money already, we would be losing more to give you a record and a shirt for $3.” He said “What about punk rock?” I was like “Fuck you and punk rock, for $3 you want all this shit?” What’s up with that... and here I’m like almost homeless. I’m like “Do you want the record?” And he says if he had the shirt he would wear it all the time and be our poster boy. I’m like “Sorry.” Then he says “Do you have any buttons?” So Jed says “I’ll give the jabroady a button” and takes off his button and he’s says “What did you call me?” I’m like “Dude, fuck you, just get out of here!” And he starts yelling at us down the street. (Laughs) The other one was in Missoula and was yelling shit when we were loading shit in our van, he was yelling about killing us while we were driving away.
LaManna: That’s because I pissed him off.
Stu: So we’ve had two people that loved us, but when they talked to us, they hate us.



So what’s that say about you?
Stu: It means they were assholes. I mean that guy wanted all that stuff…
Jed: We basically don’t take any shit.
Stu: Exactly, thank you Jed. It’s what I hate about people that go to shows and stuff. Sure, you give someone some money for a record and shirt or something and maybe you don’t quite have enough money…
But there’s a difference between what happened to you and knocking a dollar off.
Jill: Exactly!
Stu: Yeah, $10 worth of shit for $3 after our van had broken down and all. I just had enough money to cover rent when I got home and some asshole wanted all this shit for $3.
LaManna: Stu Miller on punk economics!
Stu: No, the thing should be is punk rock is about Burger King and the Ramones.
LaManna: Exactly.
J: But with McDonald’s fries.
Jill: And no mayonaise!

You guys like McDonald’s fries? They’re terrible!
LaManna: Well see, I prefer the Burger King fries, they’re crunchier.
Dick’s has better fries.
LaManna: Dick’s has better fries, but their burgers suck! They have good fries and milkshakes though.

What do you think of the current scene in Seattle? The bands and venues?
Stu: Gibson’s rules!
LaManna: There needs to be more all-ages venues, I would like to play more all-ages shows. The Hi-Score is doing a great in the absence of the VE and Rkcndy.
Stu: And Fallout!
LaManna: And Fallout, Tim is doing a great job at picking up the slack too. But there needs to be more organized house shows and I think we could stand to have another Gibson’s type of place. Maybe the Monkey Pub will become the Gibson’s of the U-District. As far as bands, I always hope there are more bands doing what they want to do. There are some good bands right now… the Spits fucking rule, the Spits are probably the best punk band in Seattle. The Vaccines are good, the Briefs, the Cuckoos, the RC5, Hai Karate, there is a good punk and roll scene, I hope it keeps going that way. And there’s some good younger bands coming up… we heard the Backstabbers demo tape and it was pretty rocking. So hopefully there will be more bands coming up like that. That’s what I want to see, I want to see bands that are in the same general ballpark, but not all trying to be the Dead Boys and Stooges, it’s like fuck, get some originality man.

Do you think that’s only in Seattle?
LaManna: No, it’s everywhere. We’ve talked to a couple people about this and it’s going on everywhere, every city seems to have their 2 or 3 Dead Boys wannabe bands.



Any final quotes?
Jed: We just want to bring back rock and roll!

The Valentine Killers play live around the Northwest fairly often and love to tour, so go check them out live when they play your town. Their upcoming releases include: a full length LP on Yeah It’s Rock, a song on Dead Boys cover compilation, a song on the Fistfull of Rock’n’Roll Vol. 3 compilation, a split 7" on Empty with the Loudmouths, and probably a cut on the upcoming Junk Records compilation of Seattle bands. Their first single on Mortville is still available, but snap one up soon before it sells out.

Plaster

After not seeing Seattle rock band Plaster perform live for over a year, I've seen them twice in the past few weeks. Wow, are they fucking heavy now! Remember that era in the early '90s when the AmRep bands seemed about twice as heavy as anything coming out on Sub Pop? Brutal, crushing rock with both metal and punk lurking in the shadows? Helmet and The Unsane come to mind. I hear a lot of "Strap it On" era-Helmet in Plaster's guitars and frontman Peter Litwin's stage stance even reminds me of that of a lot of those AmRep bands that played the OffRamp back in the day. Even if his guitar sounds tougher, Litwin's voice is immediately recognizable to most Seattle music fans from his day's in Coffin Break. But Litwin isn't the only recognizable face in Plaster, guitarist Todd Ohashi was in the RC5, bassist Jason Bordeaux was in F-Minus, and drummer Dana Sims was in Jet City Fix. All these guys have been in established bands for years and know their shit, so the resulting tight live performance comes as no surprise. Their Helmet meets Motorhead meets Coffin Break sound is heavy, precise, and rockin'. And while the band has been around since 2003, the current line-up fell in place towards the end of 2006, and that's when things really clicked for Plaster. The band has been recording a CD with Steve Carter (HIMSA, Cradle of Filth) which we should hopefully see in the next month or two. Until then, you can catch a few songs on their website: plastertheband.com. These photos are from a show a few weeks ago at King Cobra.

Zero Down CD release show!

Last Friday Seattle rock band Zero Down headlined their CD release party at El Corazon. Zero Down is a band I've seen evolve over the past years from just another garage rock band into a full-fledged metal assault. Think '80s AC/DC meets Motorhead metal punked up a bit, throw in Flying V's, fog machines, guitar solos and a group of guys that don't take themselves too seriously, and you've got and rock'n'roll powerhouse that Zero Down. They were introduced by DJ Jolene from KISW, which seemed perfect. It was a fun show with lots of ridiculous headbanging and antics, openers Plaster put on a great set as well. The new CD is called "Good Times at the Gates of Hell"... ha ha ha. For more info check out ZeroDownRocks.com. And hear them live tonight, March 11th in the Seattle-Tacoma area, on The Monkey 104.9FM. They will be interviewed on Damon Stewart's local rock show Garage Monkey at 8pm!

Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show!

This is a photo of my basement. It started with me picking up one $100 arcade game about 8 years ago at a garage sale and blossomed into a full-blown hobby of collecting arcade and pinball games. And I'm not alone, there are thousands of game collectors around world with basements or gamerooms like mine. Here in the Northwest, a bunch of local pinball collectors and fans are throwing a festival of sorts for the hobby this June and you should come. The 2008 Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show takes place at the Seattle Center June 6-8th. There will be over 100 pinball games to play for free with price of admission, arcade games, pinball designers and artists, local vendors, a pinball tournament, prizes and more. For more details and a list of the the games that will be there, check out: nwpinballshow.com

Friday Fun: Name that band!

Can you name any or all of the following bands? Bonus points if you can determine the venue. Clicking on the picture, as always, will give you the higher-res photo. Two I think are pretty damn easy if you're from Seattle (these are all Seattle bands from a few years ago)...

#1


#2


#3

Ticketmaster set to buy stake in Showbox via AEG buyout!

I've previously written about the corporate media empire of AEG and their purchase of Seattle's two Showbox venues and Bumbershoot booking (here, here and here). There is some new news on AEG that makes the big picture of corporate music and media consolidation look even more grim. Ticketmaster and Cablevision may soon acquire a 49% stake in AEG Live. Here's the whole story from Idolator (I highly appreciate their snarkiness):

"Billboard is reporting that two of my personal least favorite companies, Ticketmaster and Cablevision--the latter of which counts Madison Square Garden and the MTV-in-Pull-Ups network Fuse among its holdings--are on the verge of collectively acquiring a 49% stake in AEG Live, the second-largest concert promoter in the United States. (AEG's tours--which included Hannah Montana and Bon Jovi--took in $742 million last year, according to Billboard; the ever-expanding Live Nation was in the pole position.) According to sources, Fuse is in fact a key part of the deal, and the channel will be aggressively rebranded so that it can show the world that "AEG Live [is] a company now armed with a large media component and the world's largest ticketing company in Ticketmaster." But don't change that dial just yet! That MBA mumbo-jumbo just means that you'll probably be able to watch more live broadcasts of AEG Live-booked shows that just happen to be taking place at Fuse's neighbor across the street, Madison Square Garden--not to mention festivals like Coachella and All Points West, which AEG also has a hand in booking. And wait, there's more!

Given that Live Nation has been making a lot of noise about getting into the ticketing business itself, this deal could be seen as Ticketmaster's attempt to have a concert promoter of its own in its pocket--although as Billboard points out, this proposed partnership won't necessarily make up for the 15 million tickets that TM won't be selling once Live Nation's in-house ticketing system goes live next year. But it will be able to harness its "unique marketing power," i.e. its ability to drive its customers absolutely crazy thanks to charging them two bucks for things like using their own paper and ink to print out an already-overpriced ticket. Ah, Ticketmaster, you're so good at involving yourself in battles that should end in both combatants accidentally spiking each other in the proverbial neck at the same time, aren't you? Maybe thats a skill you should work on monetizing."

10 Things Northwest Punk Compilation Vol. 2

While I refer to this CD as "10 Things Northwest Punk Compilation Vol. 2," its real title was longer and ridiculous... "A Comp for the People Who Give a Fuck: Fuck the Nazi Law." Catchy! Jason from the band Potbelly in Idaho did a lot of the organizing for this compilation and I think named it. It came out in 1999 and featured 20 Northwest punk and hardcore bands, and inexplicably one California band. I of course plugged it in 10 Things and helped promote it, that's why a bunch of Seattle bands are it, but Jason did most of the work, and me and Joel Myrene paid for most of it. Bad title aside, this is just the type of release I was happy to get behind again. It features tons of bands that represented what was going on in the Northwest punk and hardcore in 1999. And like the first 10 Things compilation, 2/3 of the bands were no longer around within a year or two of it's release. Ha ha ha. So here she is, my second Northwest punk compilation CD for downloading. I made the MP3 files a little smaller this time, but still high quality. Feel free to repost the link to these, copy them, and spread them around on torrents. At this point I'm just putting this stuff up so these bands are remembered, I think only Bloodhag and Bristle are still standing and you can support them by seeing them live.

1. The Zero Squad “Pain Pill”
2. Wayward Youth “I Won’t Conform”
3. Positively Negative “Bastards in Blue”
4. Violation “Fuck it All”
5. Maurice’s Little Bastards “Rampage”
6. Iowa Hawkeyes “Meat & Plastic”
7. Sikness “Standard Price”
8. Section One “Wake Up”
9. Other Special Guests “Endless Sleep”
10. Ample “Justice Machine”
11. Potbelly “Nimphomaniac”
12. 46 Short “Problem”
13. The Trots “Paid to Poo”
14. Bug Hunt “In Your Face”
15. Bristle “To Cool”
16. Abortion Clinic “Misery”
17. The Shut-Ups “Beat Your Baby”
18. Larry and the Gonowheres “Suicide Lane”
19. Eternal 13 “Cujo”
20. Bloodhag “James Tiptree Jr.”
21. Brown Bottle Flu “Make Up”

Tribute bands... of The Misfits variety

My mention of Bobby Steele in my last entry got me thinking. All debate about cover bands vs. tribute bands aside, I think probably the band who wins in both categories - having bands both cover their songs the most and the most tribute bands - has got to be The Misfits. It may be because their songs are easy to play, or because they've been around 20+ years, or because their evil super-hero type of costumes and themes are easy to emulate and work great for Halloween parties, but I think the main reason is because they were such a fun band. Everyone loves to sing along to the Misfits. My two favorite Northwest Misfits tribute bands are as follows...

The Misfats


Portland, Oregon band The Misfats bill themselves as "The fattest Misfits tribute band ever!" While I'm sure there has never been an official weigh in, there are some big dudes in this band, so I'm inclined to believe them. But beyond the fat image angle, they take things one step further and also rework all the Misfits songs to be about food and eating. So "20 Eyes" has become "20 Pies" and "I Turned Into A Martian" becomes "I Turned Into A Lardass." I'm not saying the band is particularly tight and together when they play live, but neither were the Misfits back in the day. What The Misfats do is fucking funny, the whole audience is laughing and attempting to sing along, usually half singing the real song lyrics and the others in the know. This shot is of the band playing live at The Monkey Pub back in February of 2006. Check out misfats.com for more info.

Glenn or Glennda?


Taking different twist on The Misfits is Seattle-based band Glenn or Glennda?, who are less a permanent band and more a Halloween project Bill Bullock pulls together every year with rotating members from a bunch of other Seattle bands. This band plays off Glenn Danzig's name and the cross-dressing, transgender Ed Wood movie Glen or Glenda? with band members dressing the opposite gender or having split gender. This photo from a few years ago has Bill up front singing, costumed half like a woman and half like Danzig. That year's band also included Benny from the Hollowpoints, Nora from the Stuck-Ups (pictured), and Justin from the Authorities, the photo was taken after a show at a house party... I think at the Hollowpoints house. For more info about the band, check them out here.

Toxic Holocaust... the metal continues

Toxic Holocaust are an odd band. I swear from listening to their songs and reading on their website before seeing them live, I got the impression that the band was just one guy, Joe Grind. Or at least one guy seems to take credit for everything, maybe he's had a rotating cast of people sitting in to play with him on recordings (today however I noticed ex-Misfits guitarist Bobby Steele played guitar tracks on one past release). So I was expecting one dude on guitar and singing, with lots of effects pedals and a drum machine. Not exactly what you'd expect from a thrash crossed with black metal band. When the band played King Cobra, I was talking to Donny, drummer of Zeke, beforehand, and he mentioned touring in Toxic Holocaust. Weird, it didn't actually register with me, I thought he meant selling merch, since he was selling tshirts for both Toxic Holocaust and 3 Inches of Blood that night. But when the band took stage, there he was drumming, along with an additional metal dude, making the band a three piece. The band wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but certainly were good at what they do... metal fronted by a crusty punker dude that looks like he should have been in Discharge. Hear 'em yourself right here.

3 Inches of Blood... live!

In last week's post about 3 Inches of Blood I left some doubt as to how their live show would be after a few band member changes, including their high screamer Jamie Hooper having to rest his voice for a few years on doctor's orders to avoid permanent vocal chord damage (singing metal truly is brutal!). Guitarist Justin Hagberg filled in more than adequately live and new drummer Ash Pearson seemed to be a good fit (in November their last drummer got in a fight with Saxon drummer Nigel Glockler and was fired from the band). The band was tight, they owned the stage and the crowd, and they played a great entertaining set at King Cobra last Thursday.