9 posts tagged “punk”

I was listening to what is arguably the best Green Day album, Kerplunk!, a little while earlier, and even after all these years and a million spins, it still really rocks me. I love that album, and the memories that go with it. One awesome song that I'd sort of forgotten about is this one:

I know this stuff doesn't appeal to everyone, but I find this song to be downright pretty. I love the chord and vocal progressions, and the little solo is catchy as hell. It reminds me of a younger and more awkward, and somewhat more endearing Green Day... the days before Billie Joe strutted around on a stage with more square footage than all of my residences combined. When after the show, he would sell you a shirt or a CD personally and thank you for coming to see them.

Not that they don't rock ass now, because they definitely do... They just feel a little less accessible, which is sort of NOT very punk rock.

Last night Susie and I saw NOFX at Slim's. Ahhhh... one of my favorite punk bands at one of my favorite venues. They were drunk as all hell, which made for almost too much stage banter. They'd just riff on each other and the audience for like 10 minutes in between songs. It was pretty funny. It was the last show of their tour and the last of three nights in San Francisco, so they were understandably letting loose a little bit. Since they played three nights, they decided to drag out a lot of songs they hadn't played in a while, and that was pretty funny too since Mike kept forgetting words and Jefe kept forgetting how to play. Eric Melvin was just his silly ass self as usual. They were recording a live album, and they kept introducing songs by saying "this is the last night, so we can't fuck this up!" and then they'd fuck it up. And then at the end of the song Mike would be like, "Hey... that wasn't so bad..." That record's gonna suck.

At one point, they did nine songs in five minutes, where they played a bunch of their really short songs, like Monosyllabic Girl, which I love. They also played Bob, which is one of my favorite NOFX songs. Oh, and they also did Franco-Unamerican, which is one of several tributes to our country's leadership that they've done recently. Mike changed the final verse to "We all know George Bush is an imbecile / He loves dick but he hates homosexuals / I don't wanna be another I Dont' Care again / The whole world wishes that we'd kill our President".. or something along those lines. It was hilarious at the time.

Towards the end of the show, Susie realized she'd lost her wallet, but then she found it, so it was all good until we got to the 24 hour donut shop and found that there were no donuts.

Tonight I have a date... with The Vandals!! They're playing at Slim's. I almost fucked myself over again yesterday when I agreed to go to Tahoe with Randy, but then I remember that I have a ticket to see The Vandals, so FUCK YEAH!

Well... the aftermath of my idiot move of scheduling a weekend trip to Seattle when I already had tickets to a bunch of shows is now all apparent.

First off, the trip was crazy. My flight was delayed four hours due to bad weather in Seattle. I often considered bailing on the trip and staying home to go to at least one of the shows. But, I pressed on. When I got to Seattle, it was crazy cold and almost a million homes had no power. I managed to have a good time, hanging out with my homies and stuff, but the party I was specifically there for was cancelled, as the hosts' home was still without power.

I have since learned that the shows I missed were, in fact, awesome. Super awesome. Sunday's show in particular. justjen informed me that at that show, Jesse Micheals from Operation Ivy came up and did Unity with Rancid. That's sort of one of the most amazing things I've heard of in a while. For those who don't understand that last sentence, let me explain:

Before Rancid, two of their members were in a band called Operation Ivy. They are considered to be among the most important punk bands ever and they're sort of credited with starting the Bay Area punk scene. Lookout Records was pretty much created for them. A lot of bands like Green Day owe a huge part of their success and influence to Operation Ivy. I regret having never seen them, but I never had a chance to. They were only around for two years, and they only toured once, and they never came near me.

Anyway, Jesse was one of the members of Operation Ivy. If my history serves me, he wrote most of the songs. After Operation Ivy, he did a couple of little projects here and there, but sort of faded in to obscurity. Apparently, he resurfaced on stage on Sunday to play one of my favorite Operation Ivy songs - Unity.

This is like if Johnny Marr showed up at a Morrissey show and played Shoplifters of the World Unite or maybe Bigmouth Strikes Again. It's like if Kurt Cobain came back from the dead and showed up at a Foo Fighters show to play Smells Like Teen Spirit with Dave Grohl on drums.

Had I been at that show on Sunday, that moment would have ranked right up there with hearing the Pixies launch in to Bone Machine at the beginning of their set in Victoria, BC at the first show of the reunion tour that I was able to go to. It would have been up there with seeing Camper Van Beethoven open for Cracker at the Crocodile a few years ago. It's like a music miracle.

Can't believe I missed it.

Well, this is just getting silly. I just got a mailer from Slim's and took the time to look at their show calendar. As a result, I've just added the following to my ever more ridiculous schedule:

• The Damned with The Epoxies (NEXT TUESDAY!!!)
• Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (12/15)
• OMGHOLYSHITWTF NOFX is playing THREE NIGHTS at the end of January!!!!

I'm going to die.

I didn't get a chance yesterday to update about the Halloween show at the Fillmore! Busy day. Anyway, it was an incredible show, as expected.

I got to the venue about 10 minutes after doors opened to find no line. I thought that was a bit odd. Perhaps they'd opened the doors early and gotten everyone inside already? Nope. Inside was only about 50 people, max. I walked right up to the edge of the stage on the left side and kept myself planted there for the entire evening.

The place filled up a bit before Groovie Ghoulies came on, so they weren't playing to a totally empty room. They played a great set, albeit a bit short. They seemed a little worn out, but were still fun. For the final song, they played the Time Warp, which I've seen them do once before. That time, they got something like 30 people on stage to do the dance. This time, nobody jumped up on stage. It being Halloween and all, there were even people in the crowd dressed as various Rocky Horror characters! I'd have loved to see all them get up there. Maybe I should have started it, but I didn't want to risk getting thrown out.

After the Ghoulies, a really shitty band played. It was made up of two slutty girls and heroin hipster. The slutty girls were dressed extra slutty for Halloween. They tried to play some Jet style garage rock, but they sucked at it, and their minimalist setup (two guitars, no bass, drums were a floor tom and snare only - no cymbals) didn't really work. The girl who was I guess the lead singer sang like shit, and in between she'd do these crazy ass monologues where she spoke like a southern evangelist about giving the love that the lord gave you to each other and stuff. It was super duper lame. They overstayed their welcome by a few songs, and then mercifully relinquished the stage.

Fifteen minutes later, the gates of hell opened, and out poured The Cramps. Holy shit, they were so awesome!! Lux is showing his age much more than Poison, but he seriously tore the stage to shreds. He broke two mike stands, bending one over the top of his head. He flailed around and made crazy faces and screamed his guts out. His stage banter was pretty funny and he had the crowd with him the whole time. They played a lot of favorites (although a lot were missing... what can you do when you have such a great catalog?). You could tell from the gigantic smile on Lux's face as he walked off stage before the encore that he still truly enjoys what he does. And, he's awesome at it. He mentioned at the start of the encore that if they were to refuse to leave the stage for another 50 minutes, then it would be the 30th anniversary of The Cramps! Thirty years!! That's a long time to play in a punk rock band. They didn't end up staying on stage that long (they played three songs for the encore), although I'm sure nobody in the place would have minded. I fully expect them to make it to forty years... if they live that long.

After the show, everyone got a free print of the poster for the show. That was pretty sweet, and made up for the fact that my t-shirt was $25.

I took some really shitty camera phone pictures. The man just moves around too fast to get anything good in low light on a phone. It's too bad, because you really should see just how ghoulish this man looks. The collection below contains the ones that came out somewhat legible.

Stolen from SFGate's Day In Pictures:

			Mohawk magnificent: Lengthy locks and a little mousse puts Aaron Studham in the Guinness World Records for the world's tallest hair.
			Day In Pictures Archive

Note the red Chucks.

This is like asking me what my favorite band is or my favorite movie. There are a lot that are way up there, but none that stand out as absolute favorite. I do love me some covers, though. Here are a few great ones that come to mind:

First up is Joya Landis' 1968 cover of the 1967 Evie Sands tune, Angel of the Morning. You're probably familiar with the 1981 Juice Newton version, which is quite pretty, but I really love this version.

I love covers, but I really REALLY love covers done by punk bands. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are the undisputed kings of this practice, although it's hard to pick a song that's representative of what they do. I've always loved The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel, and the Gimmes' take on it is pretty awesome.

Equally as much as punk bands doing covers, I love soul covers of pop songs from the same era. In those days, if there was a pop hit that was blowing up, you can bet some down and out soul singer was going to cover it... only most people would never hear the soul versions, as they just didn't get a lot of play. Sometimes they'd sneak out there as a b-side. This Phil Flowers cover of Like a Roling Stone is epic and brilliant. I haven't liked much of anything else I've found by him, but this cut just grooves. I found the 45 a couple years ago and I almost always get compliments when I play it at a soul night.

I believe this is a Monkees song. I like this version way more than the original.

This is a cover of a really pretty song by Ellie Greenwich. She didn't record a whole lot, but what I've found of hers is always really awesome. One of my favorite songs to play at dance nights is an Ellie Greenwich song. This one is a bit more mellow, but Flans handles it quite nicely. For TMBG it was a toss-up between posting this, or their cover of Cub's "New York City". I figured less people knew this one but would find it intriguing.

I'm running out of steam on this post. I really wish Vox could search for cover art and plug it in to the asset, instead of me having to manually tag all these. Anyway... punk cover... I don't care what anyone says, I've always thought this was a great song.

Last song... Madness' interpretation of the classic ska song about nobody being honest about what kids they produced. Family values at their best. Everyone loves the original more, but I think this one is great. It's got Madness' signature on it. It was about this time last year that I was floating around with Otis in his pool and this came on the radio. I remember going, "THE FUCK? Is this a NEW MADNESS SONG?". That, of course, led to the news of a new album and a tour, and eventually one of the best shows I've ever had the pleasure of attending. So, this song has some good vibes attached to it for me.

In response to: What is your favorite cover song?
Question submitted by Ray.

My friend Meredith in Seattle has a boyfriend, Steve, who's the lead singer/guitarist of one of my favorite little punk bands, The Briefs. It's rare these days for someone to do something musically that just rocks me, but The Briefs do just that. Their style is best described as skinny-tie, new wave punk fucking rock. They pull it off very well, not just because of the music, but their look and just their natural style all just fit in to one of the most enjoyable live bands I've seen recently.

Today, I've allowed myself to be significantly rocked by this song, from their HIt After Hit album. I've included a video of a partial live performance, so you can get a small idea of what it's like to see them live. Picture a bunch of really skinny guys in tight pants with bleached hair, 80s sunglasses, skinny ties, Chuck Taylors or Vans, Clockwork Orange faces, Orange amps, and wacky thrashy stage antics, and you get the picture. They're a lot of fun, their songs are great, and they're quite friendly. The bass player is my favorite to watch, as he bounces around, usually hunched over his bass like a cartoon ghoul, making insane asylum inmate faces at the crowd.

Turn your speakers up, hit play, and pogo for a couple minutes to instantly improve your day.