Thursday, July 22, 2010

oc weekly reviews roman candles tape




oc weekly did a review of our tape. you can read it
here.

Yorba Linda's Roman Candles have been plugging away for a couple of years now, with three self-released cassettes to their name (including one drawn from a variety of scattered sessions). Read Books/Make Art, recorded and released last year, is the kind of happily self-conscious indie-pop rock that could have just as easily been recorded at home in 1985 as it is now, an underground continuum of pop culture references, random winsomeness and a surface nerdishness that disguises a sometimes sadder, more reflective core.

So there's a song called "Walkin' Outside" that's a sweet little ramble with harmonica and what sounds like mandolin. There's the distended guitar and echoed vocals on "The Ballad of Ghost" makes for an unsettled, roughly beautiful ballad of a lost soul. On the flipside, how one reacts to "Fuck Yeah Fest!" (about a visit to said event) might depend one's tolerance for the local in-jokes, though the quick blast and ramble of "Punk Belongs to Me" makes up for it. Then there's "Tom Bombadil," about entertaining a dream of living off the land and wanting to be a stowaway.

That's a bit of a theme for the band, given that the next song is simply called "The Stowaways" that looks at the same dream from a slightly older, wiser perspective. All of which is a good thing, because if "Tom Bombadil" had in fact been about the one character from
The Lord of the Rings, the only fate for them would be busking at Comic-Con this weekend with the other filksong types.

the airborne toxic event - all i ever wanted

Sunday, July 18, 2010

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.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

FUCK YEAH FEST!


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.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

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.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

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.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

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.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

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

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

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.

Monday, July 5, 2010

roman candles summer tour day 6: 7.01.10

after the le voyeur show, we drove back to portland and slept at jillian's again. we slept in kind of late, and spent the whole day driving to medford, oregon. we played at this place called the musichead, which was cool. we played on the floor. this two piece folk-punk band called thor played, and they were really good. after them koalacaust played. i really enjoyed their set, they are all really funny guys. defiance, ohio were great. i traded tapes with theo. he gave me this nana nemo tape which is awesome. after the show, max drove through the whole night, and i was home by 11 am. this was by far the smoothest tour i've been on. i had an awesome time.

thor
koalacaust
defiance, ohio

roman candles summer tour day 5: 6.30.10

we drove to seattle first thing in the morning. we went straight to kurt's house. after that we checked out sub pop and jaime gave us a tour which made my day. it was awesome. after that zack bought a few records from the wall of sound, which is this really cool record store. then we drove to olympia, and this guy ben gave us a tour of k records. we got to meet calvin johnson, while they were taking a break from tracking the new lake record. after that we went and played frisbee on the capital lawn. that night we played a show at le voyeur. we played with campout again. then we played with this girl called fresh flesh. she was awesome, and rapped over beats she made and recorded onto cassette tapes. this band jacket pocket also played. they were really good.
smells like kurt's park
skipping stones by kurt's house

SUB POP
street art in seattle

olympia
le voyeur
campout
fresh flesh
jacket pocket

roman candles summer tour day 4: 6.29.10

when we woke up in portland i went to the microcosm publishing store and bought a copy of if it ain't cheap, it ain't punk. then we picked up zack from his friend kelly's house and went skating at burnside, which is the coolest! after that we went to voodoo donuts. i got a maple bar with bacon on it. we checked out powell's books and jackpot! records too. that night we played a show at kickdown studio's for like two people. it was pretty awful. but i had a great day.





roman candles summer tour day 3: 6.28.10

after waking up in berkeley, we had about a 10 hour drive to portland. max decided he was going to do the whole drive himself. in ashbuckle ( i think that's how you spell it) we picked up a tramp named larry. he had four teeth. we drove him to the very last stop in redding. after that we went swimming in shasta lake, which was beautiful. max finished the drive to portland. we stayed at chris' cousin's house. his cousin, jill, gave us razzleberry pie and soy ice cream when we got in, and then we went to bed. it was a good day off.



Friday, July 2, 2010

roman candles summer tour day 2: 6.27.10

we woke up early in berkeley, and went to ann's for breakfast. after that, i got to hang out with chrissy for a while. we went to the park, got harrassed by homeless people, and played frisbee until i accidently hit a girl and her boyfriend threatened to murder me. trash talk played a free show at rasputins up the street for their record release. it was incredible. than night we played a house show in oakland at this place called the hive with loose ends(female fronted punk), kingdom of magic(really loud/really good metal), and knifey spoony(steve0 is the man and helped us out with the show. thanks dude!)

my fire place is boarded up for some reason?
trash talk at rasputin's was nutz
skating oustide of the wrong hive in oakland
blah
kingdom of magic (sorry this picture sucks)
knifey spoony

roman candles summer tour day 1: 6.26.10

the first day, we played a show in l.a. with lemuria and the monthlies which went really well. however the first real day of tour was in fresno at this really cool d.i.y. space called the captive. when we got there, the only band i knew we were playing with was campout, but it turned out we wound up playing with heart sounds (epitpah), sea haven, and check raised. the show was really cool. we drove to berkeley after, and spent the night at my new house!

campout
check raised
sea haven
heart sounds
max at the captive

flashback fridays:bright eyes

bright eyes was easy to fall in love with in eight grade.