SXSW recap/ Awesome Band Alert (sxsw edition)

yosoholius.  So sxsw is over, and we are still reeling from it.  Having to take a week off here in Houston so everyone can attend to some personal stuff.  Trying to remember all the shit that we got into.  Here's what i can remember on first thought:

Wednesday:  Roll into town... Rock @ Emo's Annex.  This was probably our best show of the week.  We got the chance to party with different buddies all week long and it started just as we got here.  (Jucifer, Priestess, the Bronx.)  Saw Jucifer play, then we rocked, then we loaded our shit, and then we watched Priestess play.  I have to say their new songs are badass.  Especially "lady killer".  Then we watched the Bronx kill it over @ Red 7.  The next day is such a blur of blown eardrums and sore feet, that ill spare you the details of everything and just give you a list of the complete shows that i saw.

Thursday:  Ironworks BBQ!!  Skeletonwitch.  Avett Brothers.  walk 3 miles.  Roky Erickson!  walk 2 miles.  Radio Moscow.  the Entrance Band.  Flower Travelin' Band!!!  walk 1 mile.  Annihilation Time.  Early Man.

Friday:  I can't even really remember a lot of what was going on this morning, but i do know that I made my way over to see Earthless play w/ J Mascis on extra guitar.  This (unbeknownst to me at the time) was blowing out my fucking eardrums.  They jammed so goddamned hard, and my ears were ringing for over an hour later.  Best thing I saw really.  Hmmm...  Then sometime later we played @ a gay bar.  It was rad, but totally unorganized.  Then we partied it up some more w/ skeletonwitch and all the dude bands over at red 7.

Saturday:  We played a party early style w/ like a round robin setup.  One of the bands scheduled to play apparently went to jail, so our buddies in Golden Error got to play.  And the other bands were Team Robespierre, Cerebral Ballzy, and She Rides.  And somehow after that, we got out of town in time to make it to Houston to see Skeletonwitch yet again w/ Black Tusk, and Kylesa.  So.  My brains are fried.  Just purchased the new Extra Golden cd.

Thanx to all of our friends in every band we saw like Black Skies, and Colossus, and everyone else.  Extra Special thanx to Jeff Hammett and his family for putting us up.  More and More And More soon.

Awesome Band Alert #2

hello, and welcome to another addition of Awesome Band Alert. Today's band's are not new bands, but they are exciting and refreshing nonetheless. I feel that you guys who have not heard about them will be psyched to check them out. These are all bands from the triangle area of North Carolina which consists of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.  Let's get started.  band#1- the first two bands that we'll discuss played a killer house party (which are very rare in these parts these days) in Raleigh this weekend.  the first one ill talk about is Double Negative. (actually the first band that played was called Whatever Brains, but I missed them.)  So, Double Negative are no bullshit hardcore band that kill it.  Need more info?  how about a video showing them jam?  That should sum it up for you.  Brian Walsby is the drummer and did the art for our Exit Strategy video.  He has a new book (his fourth) coming out on Bifocal Media w/ yet another Melvins "official?" bootleg.

ok. band #2 is the Birds of Avalon.  they are labelmates of ours and put on a hell of a show.  We were all fans of the different bands that they are made up of (Cherry Valence, Dynamite Brothers, Olympus Mons, Pyramid, the Weather, etc.)  and so a few years back, they just started blazing away.  Ive gotten word that they have a new record in the can, and I cant wait to get my filthy paws on a copy.  The new jams and Can cover that they played were awesome @ the party.  This party by the way, was most certainly the perfect example of a how to do up a house party.  You couldn't fit one more person in (even tho they tried).   And there were super young lil dudes just rocking... some so young that they didn't even care about scoring beer, they were just there to party.  That to me, is always a beautiful thing.  It was getting so crazy that the floor was flexing, crackheads were being escorted out to the lawn, and i was starting to get a real "hey now!/old man" type vibe.  Haha.  It was hectic to say the least.  I had beer and confetti (that Craig Tilly- their singer threw out) in my hair, and even the next day some in my bed.

alright, and finally- band #3- Caltrop.  This is one of my favorite bands around right now.  i absolutely love their new album and have been jamming the fucking demos from it since last year.  Jason Lucian Thorr was a drummer in this band in the beginning and will still jam with them from time to time.  Adam Nolton is one of my favorite guitar players in the country and I believe that Sam and him having been writing some amazing licks while this band has been going.  Adam used to have this band called Pegasus while I was living in Chapel Hill about 5 years ago, and I used to love to go get stoned and listen to them jam.  But now, this band is even better, what with Murat from Kerbloki, and other local bands on bass and vocals, and speaking of Sam, I think that with this band, his guitar playing has improved from other bands he's been in, and his goddamn vocals on this are unbelievable.  I feel like this is a weird compliment, but I think the band sounds like Big Business if they wrote Earthless type jams w/ a Hendrix player on guitar and the dude from Soundgarden singing.  In the best way possible.  But they are even better than that, because hendrix didnt have a killer harmony man jamming guitar with him, and theyve got Murat on vox as well as John Crouch on drums.  And that dude is every bit the drummer that Jason was, and is.  Meaning- I hold them both high on my drummer scale.  So yup.  Come out to see them play with us this Sunday @ Tir Na Nog in Raleigh.  Now, all you have to do is check out all these links and you'll become a super genius, like me.

Awesome Band Alert #1/ Today I am 30.

alahoyus.  Today is my thirtieth earth birthday.  and with that, i have a new little thing i'm going to do whenever i see awesome bands.  I don't know how many of you feel this way, but I see a million bands, and I used to get excited and impressed easily, but somewhere along the line, the quality turned into quantity of actual bands that are out there, and the output turned to shit.  Im rarely blown away, and I thought, well, from now on, when I am, Ill tell the world about it.  So, Ill tell you a little about them, and then you click on the links and check them out.  Simple enough, right?  Ok, here we go.  Awesome Band #1 is called Children.  I saw them the other day in the west side in Manhattan.  I believe they are from nyc as well.  I think we should take them out with us.  Pretty intense ripping stuff.  For fans of Early Man, Saviours, and other badass things.  Looks like they are working on a new record.  Awesome Band #2 is from the same town (Orebro) in Sweden that Witchcraft and Truckfighters and Winchester Widowmakers and about a 100 other awesome bands are from.  They are called Dead Man, and they completely blew me away last night.  Swedish prog/folk played now, that is every bit as ripping as any of the bands that you'd find on an Underground Psych comp.  i bought both of their albums.  One of which isn't available in the US.  i believe their 2nd lp, Euphoria, is available in the states on Metro City (im pretty sure anyway, just check their myspace).  The 3rd Awesome Band for this installment is a band from Iowa called Radio Moscow.  I thought these little dudes were just there to see the show last night, and then after dead man ripped, they got up and started grabbing the instruments and commenced to just killing it.  They were so young, and i was tripping out, b/c i thought somehow since I'd hit 30, that now everyone just seemed young and i was an old man... hahaha, but maybe that was the beers.  These kids were pumping out a Blue Cheer meets Hendrix w/ a heavy dose of British blues.  I had discounted them after hearing one single a while back, but obviously I heard the wrong track.  These dudes are solid.  Check these last two out and about right now.  Do not miss them.  alright.  Party On.