merry christmas @ burger records 6.19.11

merry christmas played burger records today. they are my favorite indie rock band around right now. aaron kovacs the drummer for summer vacation was drumming for them, and they sounded really good. 'teenage jackie' sounded great as did their new song 'my personal experience'. they ended with 'new york and the picturebook to remember her by'. their set was really short but damn i love this band. i'm still singing "it's your heart/it's your heart and it's breaking mine".

gnarmageddon fest 2011 at the glasshouse 6.18.11

the first band i saw was resist and exist. they were an anarchist punk band from l.a. i think, and had the only female members of the day. musically they were okay.

jfa played next. it was cool to see them, but i don't know i guess i just didn't care too much. there best song was the charlie brown penuts gang theme song.

sabertooth zombie was my favorite set of the night. but then some girl stepped on the bouncers head before she stage dived, and before he could react her boyfriend did the same thing, and i felt really bad for the bouncer. it was funny though.

ill repute was another old punk band that i wasn't familiar with, and didn't really do much for me.

doa on the other hand rocked. i've never listened to them but joey shithead is a great frontman. he rocks the rock n roll high kick like no one i've ever seen.

agent orange was cool. blood stains rocked. el dorado was good. pipe line was sick.

i think next years fest will be better. i think the glasshouse said they're never doing another punk show.

loughton, the lovely bad things, feeding people, black elephant, pangea @ the lovely bad pad 6.17.11

the lovely bad pad is in la mirada, and all of the bands played in this tiny garage. it was really hot during every set so by the end of the show i didn't care too much anymore. it was a party though and everyone was drinking and such in the backyard which was a lot of fun. definitely an ideal place for shows. this was a burger records night, and it showed. a ton of kids came out. there was no touring band or a real headliner, but still a huge turnout. i'm suprised how many kids have responded to this scene.

loughton played their first show on friday. it was a really quick set, 3 songs and a cover. each song was about a minute and a half, but they were really good. my second favorite set of the night besides pangea. they covered bloodstains by agent orange. it rocked

i haven't seen the lovely bad things in a while. they have played some bigger shows since the last time i've seen them and it shows. they've gotten much better. they played new songs and the new songs sounded good. looking forward to see where these guys go. they're putting out a new tape on burger and going on a west coast tour soon. keep on the lookout for that.

this was the first time i saw feeding people, and they were what i expected. the garage lights kept getting turned off and for some reason i liked them more when the lights weren't on.

pangea was the best band of the night. they fucking rock. straight forward pop punk done really well. they were fun, and if their song writing improves they'll be untouchable.

black elephant kind of disappointed me. i really really like their recordings, but they didn't really sound like that live. they have potential, i hope they live up to it. plus it was way too hot in that garage to be dressed in shirts and ties. you don't have to dress up to play music. who are we kidding?

media blitz record release show @ pepz pizza 6.10.11

i went to pepz pizza in la habra last night to celebrate the release of media blitz's new 7" a voice of our own. pepz was pretty awesome, it was a great place for a punk show. pizza, beer, galaga, and music: what more could one ask for? plus the show was free to boot. the shrills played first. they were pretty fun lo-fi surfy garagey i don't know. they sounded like audacity and a lot of other bands around right now, but they were fun nonetheless. they had three guitar players, i'm not sure if that was completely necessary, but they got surprisingly rowdy. i hung out outside for the next two bands, i just didn't really care. i'm not sure who played, and i'm not sure if i really missed anything. media blitz played a really fun set. they played 18 songs. jason said it was the longest set they've ever played. by the end he looked tired. they played new songs from the 7", and they sounded great. i really liked "drown me" and "don't slow down". kids were stagediving off the arcade games. it was pretty funny. they ended with a cover of "fight for your right" which was awesome. there was cake, balloons, and party hats. it was definitely a celebration, and the attendees got down.

archers of loaf @ the troubador 6.3.11

i went to ameoba last night with riley and sold all my cd's back. got $122 so i was really stoked. then we drove down santa monica to the troubador only to spend 30 minutes looking for parking. eventually, we wound up parking behind this flower shop. their only sign said, "no parking: violators will be washed and waxed at owners expense." rad! we headed to pavillions to grab some beer. drank it behind this restaurant and walked inside the venue right when they were walking down the stairs onto the stage. they opened with 'step into the light', and it kind of went from there. the bass player was having more fun than anyone, it was great. i was surprised how tight they were. they sounded fucking perfect. 'harnessed in slums' was a highlight for me. i really liked 'dead red eyes' where bachman played the keyboard. we were definitely the youngest two people in the crowd. it was strange. everyone was 35 - 40 years old and still cooler than me. they all had i-phones and such it was strange. a lot of them looked like they raided rivers cuomo's closet. i would have liked everyone to be 17 - 22 years old crowd surfing and such, but what can you do. they played two encores it was the coolest. an hour and a half set. it'll be hard for another show to beat that for me. definitely the best thing i've seen all year.

fucked up - david comes to life

i'm listening to fucked up's david comes to life right now on npr. they have the whole thing up. i'm three songs in. there's no point reviewing it. i could never do it justice. it's coming out june 7 on matador. it's the album of the year.