ARTICLE JUMP
Smoke And Mirrors / Surprise
Attack Records (EMS)
What are your top five albums that were released in 2009? (In order 1-5)
- Clutch - Strange Cousins
- Brand New - Daisy
- Maximum Penalty - Life & Times
- Steel Nation - Forever Wounded
- Earth Crisis - To the Death
What band did you discover in 2009 (can be a brand new band or an older band) that had an impact on your life? What made them significant?
Lots of new stuff came out but I've been rediscovering tons of older classics due to massive amounts of late night downloading. For my sensitive side I've been enjoying the entire The Cure back catalog. For the funk soul brother in me Galactic, The Cool Kids, and The Knux made frequent spins. And for the die hard thrasher old Anthrax, Carcass, Metallica and Megadeth have been on head banging rotation.
How will you remember 2009? (In terms of music)
The Erie scene lost a good member of our community this past year, Corey Wolfram. It definitely shook everyone up and made you realize how fragile life is and that we all shouldn't take it for granted. His smiling face at shows is definitely missed but not forgotten. On a global level I saw a huge influx of keyboards, synths, drum programming, and electronica invade the indie scene and a lot of the bands pretty much sucked due to gimmicks, superficialness and subject matter. But I got to admit it's probably pretty damn fun to make but most of the bands are falling short of establishing themselves of anything that's going to stick around other than a novelty. I've also noticed a lot of really bad merchandising going on. Especially the poor attempts for vulgarity and shock value by using huge fonts and curse words. At least rockers in the 70s made their sexual innuendos clever in their lyrics, song titles, and cover art other than just spouting out "Suck My Dick" ten times down the front of a shirt.
2009 was a huge year for reunions. What reunion excited you the most? What band that has not reunited would you love to see play/record most in 2010?
I generally scoff at reunions as I feel like a lot of times band members revert back to their most "successful" band because they've been having a hard time getting new projects going that couldn't get out of their shadows. I don't ever think it's necessarily a money issue for bands, I mean there's really not that much to be made in the punk rock / hardcore world. I do however enjoy the new Earth Crisis record and I'm stoked on Maximum Penalty playing around again. I hear Biohazard has decided to not throw it in just yet. One band I would drive to anywhere in the US to see though would be the almighty Fugazi. I would love to see them. After almost 20 years of listening to them they are still one of the best bands ever, hands down.
What can we look forward to from you in 2010?
Smoke and Mirrors had a good year by playing out as much as we got offers to and feel like locally kids are really starting to get behind us. Looking out and seeing my friends and kids I don't know sing along and grabbing for the mic is one of the best things ever. I welcome pig piles. We were fortunate enough to release a split 7", and then a 9 song CD came out in the States and in Europe, and we're all ready trying to plan studio time for the spring so we can have some new stuff out by the time it stops snowing in Erie. We'd love to work with a variety of DIY labels all over the place on lots of different projects. I'd like to be even more prolific this year. I'd also like to whore myself out and get as many guest vocals on other bands projects as a I could too haha.
What three records are you looking forward to most in 2010?
I'd love it if Corrosion of Conformity made something happen. I know they're on hiatus but I could really use some of that rock n roll again. Hopefully The Evens might put out something new too. I saw them a couple years back and it was a great show indeed. If the Cool Kids come out with a new album it will definitely be my "feel good album of the summer" that gets bumped with the windows rolled down. Public Enemy needs to come out with some new empowering music. They always get me pumped up for a revolution.
Website Link (Website/Myspace/Blog/Etc.): http://www.smokeandmirrors814.com
