One Day As A Lion @ Aladdin Jr. 7.17.10

One Day as a Lion is Zack de la Rocha's new band. They played a matinee show at aladdin jr.'s. It was their first show, and I wound up getting in for free, which was really awesome. They were a great live band. Aladdin's is a really small venue in pomona, ca, so to be able to see zack really close up was pretty incredible. he's an unbelievably talented front man. their drummer, jon theodore, was a madman on skins. he really killed it. considering the band only uses drums and keyboards, they were able to fill up the sound really well. the show was presented by fyf fest, but there were a lot of "kroq" types there. people in DVS's and SRH tanktops are always pretty amusing. Zack used his time on stage to address the issues in regards to Arizona's sb1070 laws. he didn't preach too much, but i enjoyed listening to what he had to say. he promoted the soundstrike website which has gained a lot of popularity among mainstream artists. I really liked when he addressed the people who spent the whole show filming it on their digital cameras. He said something along the lines of this being the smallest room he's played in in a really long time. why would you spend the whole show watching it from behind a little camera screen? You're Here, This is live, It's happening right now. enjoy it. Enjoy it I did. they're playing again tomorrow in l.a. if you get the chance to see them I would do so.

FUCK YEAH FEST!

FYF FEST 2009 from CATJAM Studio on Vimeo.

the fuck yeah fest is one of my favorite times of the year. i remember the first time i heard about it, i was probably 15 years old. bronco tatonka was playing. i didn't really know anything about the fest other then i really wanted to go. the problem was i couldn't drive yet, and there was no way i was going to be able to convince my parents to drive me to l.a. to go see a band play at the "FUCK YEAH FEST," so i didn't even ask. i probably should have.

the first year i went was fuck yeah fest 4. i went with riley, geoff, and stephanie. we met up with zack and jane there. we only went to the first day. at the time, i didn't know too many of the bands playing. looking back at the flyer now, i know most of those bands and would have done the festival completely different. regardless, it was the first time i saw the mae shi. they played the echo, and it fucking rocked.

riley and i hyped the festival up all year long, and by the time the next year rolled around my knowledge of local music was much greater, and i was much more excited for it. riley couldn't go because he had to go on a family trip to yosemite, but i wound up convincing cole, ian, calvin and max to come along. this was the year it changed from the fuck yeah fest to the f yeah fest. i saw trash talk, paint it black, abe vigoda, mika miko, the mae shi, crystal antlers, triumph of lethargy, two gallants, no age, and the monotonix play (among others). it was awesome.

last year the name of the festival changed again from the f yeah fest to the fyf fest. they also changed the location. it use to be at the echo/echoplex and surrounding venues. now it's at the los angeles state park. i didn't go last year because i was away at school, but i feel like most of the bands sean puts on would better be seen at the echo, but everyone i talked to who went last year had a good time. it's probably better that it's at the park too, because i remember waiting in ridiculous lines oustide the echo that didn't make any sense at f yeah fest 5. we even had to wait in lines inside the echo to go down to the echoplex and vice versa. it was pretty shitty, but it didn't really put a dent in my experience. the day was still really awesome.

i'm flying home for it this year, and i'm super excited!

the first year i went

the second year i went. i remember helping miles from moses campbell pass out flyers for this at sunset junction.

this years line-up is so awesome. i'm really excited to cross a bunch of bands off of my "bands i want to see, but haven't seen yet" list.

if it ain't cheap, it ain't punk

microcosm publishing and plan-it-x records made a documentary: if it ain't cheap, it ain't punk directed by joe biel. it starts out with the history of the politically conscious basement punk scene and leads into the history of plan-it-x focusing on operation: cliff clavin. after discussing the history of the label, the documentary sways into the first plan-it-x fest and shows how that led to the first tour-fest. the documentary ends with the plan-it-x fest 2006 in bloomington, indiana. it talks about the labels gain in popularity with bands like against me! and kimya dawson gaining mainstream success. the film offers live clips of defiance, ohio, this bike is a pipe bomb, one reason among other bands, making the documentary pretty awesome for fans of any of those bands. bonus features include extended interviews, my favorite of which focused on the history of abe froman. this is a pretty awesome film that is definitely worth watching.

defiance, ohio - midwestern minutes

defiance, ohio return with their fourth full length album - midwestern minutes released on no idea records. this seems like a step forward from their previous effort the fear, the fear, the fear. with eleven songs in less then 28 minutes my biggest complaint with the album is the length; i wish it was longer. two of the songs: "cigarettes" and "diamonds theme song" are both under a minute. the center piece of the album is definitely "hairpool" which holds the entire record together. it's already a fan favorite at shows. "the reason" highlights the addition of piano to the bands ensemble. other highlights include "her majesty's midwestern islands," one of the better songs on the album. as a whole, midwestern minutes, is one of the better albums to come out this year, but unlike defiance, ohio's first two albums, this one took me a little longer to fall in love with. it didn't happen on the first listen, but maybe it wasn't supposed to. i really recommend this album for old and new fans of the band. i think it's a great record, and bears repeated listening.

dash jacket - high spirits

dash jacket offers another eighteen minutes of fuzz covered rock n' roll with the release of their new tape: high spirits. these orange county diy kiddies self released another eight songs on their own ultra vivid records. limited to 100 copies on clear blue cassette tapes, this is sure to be a collectors item in years to come. The tape opens with Pheromones which is a close to perfect pop song; I only wish it lasted longer. What has become a staple of their live shows, No Way Girl proves itself a strong contender as a recorded song too (It's been stuck in my head for days now). Melting Gaze draws influences from No Age's more instrumental tracks, and the tape ends as quickly as it began with San Pedro, which is arguably the tapes strongest track.

dash jacket's on tour now so grab the tape before it's out of print.

Defiance, Ohio/Moses Campbell @ Syncspace 7.6.10

So last night the line-up for the show was moses campbell, joyce manor, summer vacation and defiance, ohio. however, there were soo many kids there that they decided they were going to split the show into two sets and defiance, ohio would play twice. we decided to go to the first show thinking we would get back into the second, but it didn't really work out that way. so we watched moses campbell who were awesome, and played a few new songs not on the record. then defiance, ohio played. after that they kicked everyone out and let in all new people. then joyce manor and summer vacation played and defiance, ohio played again. we stood outside listening to most of joyce manor's set before leaving in frustration. i wanted to see joyce manor and summer vacation really bad, and it bums me out that they booked defiance, ohio at such a small space. regardless defiance, ohio rocked and played a few different songs from when the played in oregon a few days ago which was cool. they ended with this time, this year.

moses campbell

Defiance, Ohio

trash talk @ rasputins 6.27.10

i wanted to say a few things about trash talk's record release at rasputins in berkeley last week. first of all, it was awesome. about the second song in, kids started stage diving off the dvd racks. this went on for about four more songs until a security guard said if they continued to stage dive the show would end. when he said this kids started "boo"-ing him, which was pretty funny. trash talk is easily one of the most chaotic bands i've ever seen. they are in your face, they are engaging, they are incredible. i've seen them five times now, and i'm still unfamiliar with any of their recorded material, i just think they're a great live band. with that in mind, i can't really speak to how well they played their songs, or if the new songs sounded good because i really don't know. but i do know that i walked away from the show thinking that trash talk is easily one of the best bands in hardcore. on their last song, the lead singer stage dived off of some dvd racks again, which caused the security guard to pull the plug on them. and with a big fuck you to the security guard, trash talk played one more song without any power, which ended in most of the kids screaming along. at this point everyone ran out of the store because no one wanted to be responsible to the damage caused to the record store. i personally can't imagine having that lack of respect for a record store, but i'm also not in trash talk so go figure.