Blog — Page 272 of 273

I woke up today at 5:30am to get my ass to the store to open it for what I figured would be another boring Sunday at work. Work has been boring thankfully because it gave me a chance to catch up on my internet lurking. My computer finally shit itself out last week, exactly one day after my television did the same. So my tower is at my parent's homestead waiting to hear back from an Uncle I haven't spoken to in over a decade to tear the hard drive apart and sup it up with extra new shiny better parts. I might actually have a computer that will actually have some space on the hard drive to put at least more than 3 CDs on my iTunes. I can't wait.

The telly (ha-ha in that country where Matt is from, they call the TV a "telly". What freaks) is the least of my worries. I didn't have cable and I'm not one of those Office, Lost, Heroes, and Grey’s Anatomy freaks that spends too much time discussing whose going to get kicked off an island instead of important like moshing and mosh parts. The only thing I watched on TV was the Minnesota Twins every Sunday after work, where around the 4th inning I'd fall asleep on the couch. It looks like I'll have a TV back before a computer. I can't complain about free shit though, so I ain't gonna.

Oh, the worst part about today is not the fact it's a stereotypical Seattle day. It's rainy and cold. It makes me look forward to fall with all the leaf death and the oncoming of a hellish winter in the Upper Northwest. I'm drinking coffee (NW stereotype) and wishing I never threw away all my flannels shirts. If only the local rock station would play some Pearl Jam today would be set. Yeah so the worst part of today is when I woke up the butt crack of dawn. This in itself sucks donkey dong. No I woke up, stretched and felt a stabbing pain come directly from my right nut. My right, you’re left. Holy hell. It was like some wacko was trying to nail my testi to the cross of Ballianity for sin of falling asleep straight after sex and not cuddling. I was thinking, "Oh man, here I am fresh into my 33rd year on Planet Earth and I have nut cancer just like that asshole Tom Green." That would be just the proverbial icing on my shit life. Ball cancer. I couldn't even call into work and try to um, massage my nuts. Yeah ok. No one would answer their phone besides my boss and he isn’t coming in. He never does, apparently he's the only one that can call in sick too. Ugh. So I and my aching sperm home trudged to work in a misty shit rain. All I could think of was about going to a doctor I couldn't possibly afford and then Dr. Death telling me it's either my boy goes under the knife or my life.

I get the store open, in pain, this sucks. My jewels are aching and I don't want to be at work with my nut sack screaming "hey buddy FUCK YOU" at me for six hours. I take some aspirin figuring that would help. It did and my berries feel a bit better now. At least non-cancerous. I probably just squished it last night while dreaming about sexy neighbors and invading squirrels (that's a whole 'nother blog).

2.5 hours left.

So the man that founded Factory Records and helped Joy Division become as huge as they did through hype died today.

Not alot of people repect what Wilson did for music. Sure he talked alot of shit, but the man also founded one of the first succesful indie labels in the world, created the first superclub in the UK and brought a huge many bands to the world. Yes, he was a complete twat, a terrible business man, and said a many stupid things. But in the end he was the biggest music fan in the world and had a great talent for spotting the next big thing.

Tony you will be missed. Thank you for the music.

I would like to say on behalf of everyone at Scene Point Blank that we wish Tony's friends and family our condolences during this hard time.

Yesterday during rush hour traffic on 35W the bridge than spans the mighty Mississippi fell. There was no earthquake. There was no terrorist attack. The bridge just buckled and toppled cars into each other and into the watery depths below. I watched in complete shock as the local newscasters scrambled to find out just what happened. This is just one of those moments that will define the years ahead. It's something you'll never forget.

Twenty-four hours have passed since the bridge fell and I still have no answers on what happened. Every time I turn on the news all I get is heart wrenching stories of loss or inspirational diatribes of acts of heroism. People need to grieve and people need to rejoice and count their blessings. Myself I didn't lose anyone in this tragedy and I'm thankful for that. However, now I want some answers. I don't want super hyped emotional powerhouses of Bart's People. (Remember when Bart and Lisa were broadcasters on School's news channel and Bart did fluff pieces, yeah that episode.) I want answers; I want people in charge of inspecting bridges to be like, "wow we really fucked up." I want someone's ass on a platter. Most of all I want this to never happen again. My anger is directed at those that could have prevented this. Accidents happen, I understand. However I was raised to believe that bridges didn't fall when you drove over them. Everyone that died on bridge died in vain because someone decided that the bridge could make it one more year before repairs and crossed their fingers for luck.

I had today off, so I spent most of it just going on with my life. I kept the television off. I listened to some hardcore, moshed in my room a bit. I cleaned the bathroom and did my laundry. I went over to Barnes and Nobles and got the next volume of 52. As much as my heart goes out to victims and families of the 35W bridge tragedy, I had to move on. We in the state of Minnesota and the Twin Cities are going to have to rebuild and get on with our lives once again. I just needed to tell the world that I'm pissed that this happened. Sure I don't understand what exactly happened because I'm not getting any information but that doesn't dull my rage any less when I think of all the useless death that happened less than 24 hours ago.

Part 1: Mission Statement, Introduction, and first terribly nostalgic musing

A number of years ago, a few friends of mine, myself, and people who would quickly become my friends used to take over our college's radio station every Wednesday night for what we deemed "Punk Rock" night. It was the one thing that helped me personally get over that mid week slump. It was usually a giant party. I remember having more than 20 people in the studio one night in a room that was smaller than my dorm room. I looked forward to this party aspect (the lemon tossing incident will always have a warm spot in my heart) and the many life altering (quite literally as I met life long friends, met my wife, started a short lived record label, and many other great things) experiences that seemed to happen on a weekly basis, but I also looked forward to all of the great music that I heard and was introduced to as a result.        

The night would start off with a more mainstream punk show that would play some of the more popular "punk" acts. The kids who did this were good guys and were great talkers. Then, my show, Be Afraid would take the air. I (and a cadre of fools that included at one time or another Dented chest Chuck, my brother, my future wife, Punk C, Ryan, and a couple of other kids) used to spin a lot of NY hardcore a la Madball, H20 (pre Faster Than The World), Agnostic Front and, of course, Sick of It All as well as more metal influenced hardcore (metalcore was not a term to describe a genre then) like Coalesce, Converge, Deadguy, etc. After my show, Robbie and Bill's show, Youth Enrage, would follow; they spun a large batch of DC hardcore as well as records by Born Against and Life's Blood. Then Josh and Denis' show would close the night out at like 2AM. Their show's name escapes me right now, but they played everything ranging from Assuck to Catharsis to His Hero Is Gone.

Like I said, I heard a bunch of great music during these shows (finding new music was still challenging then), some of which I cherish and listen to still. The point of this blog, for the next few entries anyway, will be to highlight some of these bands (sometimes obscure, sometimes that are now well known) and hopefully inject some people with some of the same excitement and great feeling that I had back then. If all goes well, once a week a new Be Afraid (so named after my now several years deceased radio show) blog will appear with this same mission in mind. This first installment will feature the criminally unheard and short lived band, Ottawa.

I first heard Ottawa's name when Josh (who helped to helm the late show) happily proclaimed that he bought the Jihad & Ottawa split 12" record from someone. I remember the first show that he had once he received the record. The Ottawa side was played in its entirety, twice. Did I mention that we did almost anything that we wanted to do during these shows? Well, we did; and although Ottawa's side of the split was right around 15 minutes, that is still a large chunk of a 3 hour radio show. It did not matter; we were listening to Ottawa. Hearing this record for the first time reminded me that for all the political posturing and the meat head violence that could be associated with it at times, punk rock could be fun and have a sense of humor (and I am not referring to idiotic and or sophomoric humor); it was a breath of fresh air when I needed it the most. It was not until several years later when I had the opportunity to procure a copy of this record for myself; when I finally received the record in the mail, I listened to it 6 or 7 times in a row (I still have yet to play the Jihad side which I probably should even though I do not think I have ever heard their side) while pouring over the lyric sheet and marveling at all of the Lord of the Rings references. Thanks to the hard work of my brother (thanks again, you still have terrible taste in music), I recently found MP3's of this record which reignited my fascination with Ottawa, caused me to share the MP3's with Michael (the head honcho here at Scene Point Blank), and demanded me to write this long winded dissertation.

With a sound falling somewhere around the territory that His Hero Is Gone traversed with a bit of Left for Dead sound quality and aesthetic, Ottawa drills through their 13 songs, plus a lifted track from one of the old Rankin/Bass Lord of the Rings cartoons for ambience, in what amounts to a quick coffee break at work. They make use of several vocalists that make for good variation and break the whirlwind of guitars and rough blast beats up a bit. There are a bunch of samples added for good measure that set up a couple of songs (like using a speech from Saruman to his Uruk-hai hoards from the aforementioned Rankin/Bass cartoons before "The Onslaught of the Uruk-hai"). It is incredibly difficult to nail down exactly what makes me enjoy this record so much, but rest assured I find it just as enjoyable as I do the Left for Dead records (and that is saying something coming from me).

This split 12" is all that really ever was released by the band; although, rumors and whispers suggest that their half of the record was remixed with the intent to release as a "discography", but I doubt that will even see the light of day. The band is a part of a small niche group of bands of which even they are a relatively obscure part; too few people know about the hidden gem that is Ottawa (but those of us who do enjoy them a great deal) for a super small label like Council (who put the split out originally) to press a bunch of records that probably just will not move. Perhaps if more people knew of the band and showed an interest, we will see that repress in some not too distant future; the record deserves it.

For those interested, you can check out some of their music at a fan run page:

• http://www.myspace.com/ottawahardcore

Shook Ones, for the uninitiated, are a melodic hardcore band from Seattle, Washington. Their debut LP, Sixteen, had some serious Kid Dynamite aping going on, without a doubt, but it was a really solid effort regardless. The more I listened to Sixteen though, the more I found it kind of ran together for me. It ended up being finished before I even realized it, most times.

In the beginning of 2006, they released a 7" called Slaughter of the Insole (what a great fucking title!) and towards the last quarter of the year, the band dropped their 2nd LP, Facetious Folly Feat. While ...Insole skewed their sound in a bit more of a melodic direction, Facetious Folly Feat dove headfirst into Lifetime/Jawbreaker land. All the songs on the record have a much more unique feel than anything on Sixteen ever did.

In addition, the band recently released a split on Alliance Trax with Easel, who you should definitely check out as well. For me, this will probably be the best split since Western Addiction and New Mexican Disaster Squad shared a release!

Hopefully all three of you reading this enjoy Shook Ones! Make sure you check out Easel too!

To check out songs from both of the Shook Ones' full-length records, head over here or here.