Features / Regular Columns

CURE MY HEART FROM BEATING.(...)every time I close my eyes I pray for your demise(...) Did you know that in Beijing, where in 2009 the fragrance of cooking oil and wood-fired kitchens had been supplanted by a less identifiable photochemical smell and smog, the approaching bullet train sings a song? … Read more

Chaos, contradictions, and confrontations are a rite of passage. Charles Dickens said that we begin to forgive a place as soon as it is left behind. There is some truth to it. True places never are in any maps, Herman Melville said. When you’re moving, you are what you are … Read more

FRUITION. ( . . . ) I can hear it fading / fading like gas. ( . . . )I am having a hard time figuring out what you came here for.You are reading the column of an online publication. I never do that, so I do not really know … Read more

Japan. A near flawless culture of hospitality, design, cuisines, architecture, and a wonderful sense of ritual that pervades its society. A country ruled by meticulous and supreme organization, people respectful to the point of being invisible with an innate sense of courtesy. Vibrant, ever-changing streetscapes and fantastic food. A country … Read more

INNER SANCTUM. line has been drawn / headed for the big death / your everywhere is my nowhere / some things are better left broken and scattered / better left unsaid / frightened by tradition / caved in scar tissue / senseless quest for power / quest in lies / … Read more

escape the confines of your fate / don't be a prisoner in someone else's scheme / leave behind and bury what is dead / relief wrapped inside a goodbye / it’s not getting better than this / it's ending one minute at a time / time for putting garbage in … Read more

As the good ole shock jock Plato so eloquently put it, music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue. Loudspeakers are instrumental for that kind of education. A crossover network, transducers, an enclosure, additional parts and the complicated interactions of the aforementioned … Read more

I do travel. A bit. An iPod or portable device is a great, convenient yet soulless asset to have. It fits your music collection into your pocket and the capability is amazing. However, with the resurgence of vinyl and with emitting vinyl records via my projects, the necessity has arisen … Read more

before we talk of any repentance / I would do it all again / lose my way and fall again / they will never get what is inside of me / (vultures licking their lips) / step out of the womb right into the haze / reminded by scars / … Read more

(…) tunnel vision's tightening its grip - beat by mutual denial (…) During the Double Ninth Festival in China cemeteries get crowded. People drink chrysanthemum wine and hold onto dogwood as they clean ancestral graves and pay respects to the dearly departed. Celebrating the Chongyang festival in the capital of … Read more

Joe Anderl is lead vocalist and guitarist for The 1984 Draft. They recently released a Spilt 7in with Todd Farrell Jr. (Two Cow Garage) on September 2nd via Poptek Records. Their next album “Best Friends Forever” is set to release on January 19, 2023 via Poptek Records, Sell The Heart … Read more

Welcome to Running on Nothing, the latest addition to our stable of columns at Scene Point Blank. Running on Nothing offers a look at the world through the eyes of Kole, bassist of The Lippies, who have been working on a new LP for Red Scare Industries. -- I just finished … Read more

If ever there was such a thing as socio-political discourse in the contemporary punk “community” (which I should qualify as being a very tiny and specific niche of semi-semi-noteworthy bands such as my own), one of the most delicate and hotly debated issues these days is gender and sexism within … Read more

The Importance of Punk and Anti-Establishment Music in Rural America By Curt of Townies It is a warm September night (9/11 actually, but this piece won’t touch on that whole thing) and Cheap Perfume is about to take the stage. The stage is in front of a small dance floor, … Read more

Hmmm, anti-authoritarian views and addressing social concerns and issues related to the government and public affairs? Tick! DIY ethic? Tick! Attire that deliberately deviates from society’s norms? Tick! Rebellion against watered down arena rock and disco? Having started off as a subculture that eventually became absorbed by the mainstream? So … Read more

It's Like Three Card Monte, But With Bands... There's actually no wrong answers here. I was just thinking about the process I went through with most of the bands I started. A few people in my scene know about this, but so many others don't and I thought it would … Read more

I went out on tour with my buds in Norcos y Horchata as their bass player a few weeks back. I haven't been on an actual tour since before the pandemic, so this was going to be an adventure. The routing brought us from Michigan to New Jersey and back. It was … Read more

This past weekend we celebrated Memorial Day. In my world this is the first long weekend of the summer and it is spent in our yard grilling and drinking to excess. On that front, there's nothing really to report. We spent the weekend with our usual shenanigans that happen every … Read more

I've been the main merch guy for Mustard Plug for the past 10 years. My schedule is pretty loose, so it allows me to do tours with them. I love the job. It's a lot of fun meeting new people, traveling to various states, and hanging out with my buds in the … Read more

About a year ago, we found ourselves in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Out of boredom, I did a livestream on my social media where I did a joke tutorial about how to draw penises. It was a joke that backfired on me. I ended up making a few … Read more