Features / Series: Running on Nothing

It's ok to like ska. I'm not kidding. It is perfectly acceptable to like ska. With the current explosion of young ska bands coming up and their growing popularity, I've heard some peers kind of dragging on ska. That's ridiculous. The original ska music was VERY rebellious music. It was … Read more

I was in a band called The Lippies. I say "was" because we just broke up. Again. Hahahahaha! When we formed, we never had any intention of truly being anything more than a local or regional band. Then we caught the attention of Toby from Red Scare Industries and things … 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

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

Let's have a chat about preaching to the choir. It's that thing where the message you are putting out there with your music isn't really getting past the people who may already know the message. I'm getting up there in my years and experience. By the time we started The … Read more

Back in the early '90s, I found my people. My punk rock family. My own personal group of weirdos and misfits. Some of us wore the uniform of leather jacket, shocked out hair, big black boots. Some of us had long hair, flannel shirts and sneakers. Some wore Fred Perry … Read more

I was a teenager in the early '90s when a single song from a little punk trio out of the Pacific Northwest single-handedly destroyed a whole genre of music on the radio with one song. As a pre-teen in the 1980s, my music taste was 100% based on whatever I … Read more

A handful of years ago, my friend Jay sent me the demo of his new band. Jay had spent years fronting the legendary Detroit punk/ska band, The Suicide Machines. A few years had passed since they released War Profiteering and broke up. Jay was fronting a new band now. That band was Hellmouth. This … Read more

I think about music all the time. Always have since I was a kid. One of the many ideas I've pondered and debated with my peers is the recurring trend of bands putting out an amazing first record, gaining some form of notoriety or fame, and then completely bombing their … Read more

I know this punk guy named Tony. You probably know the same guy. I met him many years ago when he was in his teens and had a rockabilly band called Al and the Black Cats. Then his band The Chernobyl Babies infected my little punk bar with pogo punk … Read more

A couple of years ago I drew up a gigposter for a show I was putting on and used one of my friends as the model for it. It was a cartoony number with her on a couch drinking and playing video games. When I finished it she had mentioned … Read more

I hate this place. I really hate this place. I have three half-Korean adult children. Two of them currently call Chicago home. One builds beautiful violins and the other is an amazing cartoon artist. My youngest still resides here in Grand Rapids. MI. He is a fantastic chef and he … Read more