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

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.