Testing, 1, 2, 3 . . .

Don't let my grim demeanor fool you -- I'm stoked to have the tests in hand! Please bear in mind they arrived at work, with work, and still haven't had my morning "pick me up."

Word!

This Weekend...

is about to get silly

Good Thinking.

Now You Has Stats!

Head to React! Records' myspace to order.

New REACT! Shirt and Pre-Orders

Not sure when these will be available on the REACT! myspace, but once they are, go and gobble them up . . .

The 12" pre-orders are under way! Word has it that you can get all 3 colors for $40 PPD (USD). Check the earlier posts for more details on the breakdown.

Word!

Lazy Sunday Reviews...

So, I'd been thinking recently of doing a few reviews of contemporary hardcore bands, mostly straight edge ones.  What better a time than a lazy-ass Sunday in (Sunny?) Seattle? (FYI, this was written on two consecutive Sundays because I'm a fucking slacker...)

On: Vital Times Ep

On sounds like Better than a Thousand. Seriously, the talky parts

 and raging riffage bring Value Driven to mind.  The guitar sound is akin to Go It Alone, big and powerful, while the drums hit all the right highs and lows to offset Jim's very un-Champion lyrics.  The thing that probably stands out most is how much less gruff the vocals are than any of the Champion releases and how deep the lyrics seem to get.  This band is going for a dynamic modern-youth crew sound and they bring it together wit

hout sounding like any of the members' previous projects (Champion, Lights Out, Go It Alone, Legit, Ordeal, The First Step, Blue Monday).

The B side sticks out to me with chorus driven joints like 'Take a Stand' and the more jam-vibed 'Vital Times.'   I suggest you pick On's demo 7" up immediately as this self-release is mostly pre-ordered out. Good luck on getting a first show press however, they went quick and were limited to 75.

They'll be on tour with Verse and Have Heart later this summer up and down the west coast--peep that shit.  

*If I ever get my shit together, ON will get the interview I've begun to prepare and it will show up here...

Keep It Clear:  Demo 2007

Andy Patillo sounds pissed.  He also wears a letterman's jacket and has played in some of the most entertaining NW bands of the past few years.  These are all good things.  

This demo sounds like later Carry On (Lucas from GIA/Carry On did drum on this demo and 'A Life Less Plagued' after all...) mixed with floorpunch.  "Alone" into the intro gets me moshing wherever I may stand, you know, at the taco truck, at work, in my truck, in bed--wherever.  Fast parts into big breaks define this band, but keep it different and more edge influenced than these guys' past bands.  Live, they're super tight as all of Mark Palm's projects are; word to his new solo project as well.  

They have a record coming up on Not Just Words records in Europe, and from what I gather, it'll be really, really fucking good.  The aforementioned demo is up for download here.

Recent highlights from last night's Rainfest show were the Carrier from Boston, Conrad from PDX, "tour managers," Get the Most's set, Kevin Dier's new Zine, Maintain, $3 veggie burritos, Circles' 'My war' cover and 'rainfest' limited edition cover art, seeing helicopter Seth (yeah, that Of Faith and Fire record was good) and mass Cali heads, the Airport Tavern crew and hanging with all the NW heads of present and past.  Where was Chee-lo and his members' only jacket?  Who knows...

KOBE!

POINT EM OUT

Records For Sale -- Pre-Sale!

Ok, so that title really didn't have the effect I was thinking it would have. Say it aloud, and drragggg out the "pre" in a snarky sarcastic sort of way. There, better? I thought so.

So head over to React! Records' myspace on Monday if you're not too busy grilling and chilling out by the pool to pre-orderthe RIGHT IDEA Our World 12". This is prolly the only way you'll be certain to get the colors (if that's your thing). We'll have black vinyl (my personal favorite) at the shows, but we're really not sure of the breakdown of colors for us to sell at venues . . .

Here's the break down of the entire pressing of RXR-002:

20 -- TEST PRESS / BLACK VINYL / BLACK DJ SLEEVES / HAND-NUMBERED
500 -- BLACK VINYL
200 -- BLUE VINYL
300 -- WHITE VINYL
Now, all colors will come with a pretty sweet 2-sided poster / lyric sheet (think Judge -- I always do).

Oh, and I hope you're feeling the new look, b/c word has it that Aram will have some new RIGHT IDEA shirt designs based on the LP layout up for order as well . . . so, jump on that too, if you like, um, clothes.Word!

A Cheap and Tragic Canadian Weekend

My other band Cheap Tragedies is heading out this weekend for a couple of shows in Canada with our good friends in Omegas. On the way we'll be stopping in Rochester for a house show.


Here's the specifics:


FRIDAY 5/23 @ 278 North Street, Rochester, NY 14609 $5 / 9pm
SATURDAY 5/24 @234 Pomona Ave, Burlington, ONT
SUNDAY 5/25 @2035 St. Laurent, Montreal, QUEBEC

Take this as my warning and open invitation to friends in the Cleveland area to ride along in the Erba-Van. Cleanliness is suspect, and I will more than likely be rocking a cop-stache so good it'd make the Village People squirm:

FAIL.

Hahahaha! The next best thing to Liverpool winning the final?

Chelsea losing.

You suck, John Terry.

The Blue Bullet

I'm sure most of you are in need of some news unrelated to HxC, SO here you go. Late last night i was driving home on I-71 from this babes house cruising at 65 mph and a large damn deer decided to try and cross the highway. I saw the thing for a half a second then slammed on my brakes and swerved in my attempt to miss it. I failed. I whacked him on the drivers side and did a 180 and ended up facing the opposite direction on the highway. Luckily no one was around or I probably wouldn't be telling this story. I turned around and pulled off the road, got out and just screamed for 15 minutes. I was so pissed. My parents just bought me this car and now i fucked it all up. I mean i have to pay monthly and for insurance and all that jazz, but they do so much for me and feel like I'm just a bad kid. I drove the rest of the way home with my hazards on and left my parents a note by the coffee pot that said "I hit a god damn deer last night". My dad woke me up around 6:30 and we called the insurance people and body shops. Hopefully it will be fixed soon because I have my internship three days a week downtown and my valet job as well. So my advice to all, when that new Chris Brown song "No Air" comes on the radio, BE ALERT, STAY ALERT, IT WONT HURT!

California!!!

If you're too lazy to click the React! link to their myspace account, and then too slow to read the "News" post in their Blogs section, you might have missed this little tidbit:

RIGHT IDEA/MINDSET CALIFORNIA DATES IN JUNE

The REACT! crew invades California with Right Idea and Mindset teaming up for three dates this June:

Fri June 20th- Berkley, CA @ Gilman St.
w/MINDSET, FOREIGN NATURE
Sat June 21st- San Diego, CA @ The Che Café
w/MINDSET, BETRAYED
Sun June 22nd- Santa Barbara, CA @ Casa de la Raza
w/MINDSET, RAD

It'll be the first time either of these bands have been to the West Coast so please come out to support these guys; Right Idea will have their 8-song 12" EP, "Our World" with them for these dates so make sure to pick up a copy, sing along, stage dive, and show them how amazing the California scene can be! Please check out Right Idea at their blogspot and Mindset at their myspace:

http://if-you-cared.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/antiwasteoids

We're not 100% on all the particulars just yet, but we're looking forward to some sun, surf, food, and a little added bonus of the national pastime!

Viva la California!

It's Time To React! To News!

Everybody head over to REACT! RECORD's myspace for some legit news about the new record, listen to a new song, read about some potential shows and fun times!

Add them, put them in your top 5, and tell Aram hello for us!

A weekend of shows by some legitimate bros...

As I type this, my ears are still ringing from the pleasant cacophony of the last two nights.  What I'll try to do here is summarize the events of May 9th and 10th, a show at Seattle's Deathstar and the annual Legitimate Brocase take III.

9 May 2008

AO and I made some bike tracks from Dangler HQ to see a fistful of people adjacent to the parking lot formerly known as IHOP.  That's all I can say about the Deathstar's secret locale (43rd and Brooklyn, yo). Grave Maker was playing with a band that goes by the nickname, "We hate sluts."  Not being one to hate on a young lady for her personal life/daddy issues, I will comment only on Grave Maker's showing.  

GM is Bailey of Figure Four, J. McRae, Wayne Kong and t

he guitarist known as AZN BRN.  They decided that the best way to spend their days would be to write some catchy tunes, practice them until they're tight as hell and then go all over Central and South America, the US and Canada and Europe.  They did and continue to do this all on a demo 7" (on Copper Lung records) and with $4 a gallon gas.  They love what they do and it showed last night.  They were tight as hell and Jon's presence was unreal.  I never really got into the contemporary tough-sounding hardcore subgenre, but GM makes it a great live show.  If they come to your town, and make no mistake they will eventually be there, please go see them, compliment Wayne on his hand-made drum set and pick up their 7".  They'll have a new one on think fast! later this year.  

(Similarly, Wait in Vain of Seattle is also doing an lp on Think Fast!)

10 May 2008

Tonight was the first usage of Seattle's new Euro-like venue, the Booty Cave, by hardcore bands, and it was by all means, a rager.  

ON set it off with four melodic tracks a la Burn and Better than a thousand.  On is by all means an all-star band, but this project stands on its own in comparison to all members' projects past and present.  Expect a west coast tour later in J

une and check out their demo 7" which they're self-releasing.

Vancouver is the home of Today's Man, Andy Patillo.  If you have never met Andy, you're missing a crucial treat.  Today's man fronts Keep it Clear, Vancouver's latest straight edge project.  On this night, they played fast and tight and had a guest cameo by Column/Get the Most stud, O-face.  I give it a rating of no less than 9.8.  Perhaps more for the sheer Striking Distance sound byte uttered by Andy P... "Fuck this fuck you horseshoe shit, come up here and punch me in the face..."  Buy their fuckin' demo.

Circles followed, playing their unique brand of Revolution summer meets late Fat Wreck Chords hardcore.  A sweet Dag Nasty cover rounded their night out.  They too have a demo 7" available through the lesser-known silly girl records.  It's very good.  I recommend it to fans of good things and sideless shapes.

Get the Most was ridiculous.  Anna Pack is married to Kyle Deville, and after seeing this performance, I must say that she is incredibly lucky.  The sheer physical prowess of Kyle as he leaped, dove, frolicked and galloped while belting out classic Get Mo' tracks such as Clock me Out and Core Values, was overwhelming.  With Ace and Today's Man on Guitar duties, the sound was big and tight while AO's bop was, per normal, slick and stylish.  They have a new lp coming out on Powered Records in Europe and TBA stateside.  Their previous records are easily found at any GTM show or through Germany's Crucial Response Records.

The weekend's shows receive an overall rating of ten beej heads, plus one additional beej head for nice weather.  Word to everyone who came out and made these shows a blast!

Mountain Mama

For Real Fest Photos

There's some photos snuck in of when Mad Minds stole Triceratops' drummer and our equipment and hit the stage.

Thanks again Jeff Grey!

Youngblood Fest and News!

I hope everyone had as great a time at Youngblood Fest as we did!  Sean YB deserves all the praise in the world for doing a consistently outstanding label and doing shows that embody what the core is about.  

My personal review of the show:

Right Idea:  We had bass trouble but a great time!  See you this summer East Coast heads.

Mindset:  React 04! will melt your face--great music, great energy and a great message (anybody catch EV talking about the lameness that is "green" marketing?  As an eco-hunk, I fully back this band.  Yo, is that van biodiesel...Word to Cold Cuts playing a "high chair" and Chad being a world-class high jumper.

Coptic Times:  Two words: Skin Head.  Slow jams played tightly--peep their new shit.

Police and Thieves: Oh shit, so good, like Dag Nasty meets Embrace meets button-up shirts.  Carlos was really nice and was great to meet.  They have a podcast interview on dissonance and a new record--get into it.

TFS: Not able to make it.  I'm sure they'll get lots of love from kids in their last summer as a band.  Keep an eye straight and open for Aram's React! record label.

Fired Up: "Who won the Title last year--the mothafucking New York Giants."  New songs were killer, and I can't wait to see more of this band.

Worn Thin: Special set--killed it in the few songs they played.

Govt Warning: Love the lp--I need to get more of this band's records.

Mind Eraser: DFJ is a class act no matter what band he does.  Their drummer is big and scary looking.  This band is tighter than a fresh Touch and Go release on ebay.

LOJ/America's Youth:  Iron Cross cover by AY and three guitars during LOJ had me scratching my head in a good way.

Set to Explode:  Opened to 86 mentality, covered dead stop and were all around tight as hell.  I admire anyone who demands an apology on stage.

Iron Age: Austin Texans clad in camo hats and playing the best crossover out right now.  So.  Good.  Word to their ill roadie, Clif Schumaker for always tight parking lot conversations.

Bane:  The Baniacs loved it and went bonkers.  Good positive addition to the show.

Thanks to Alex WK for driving and a special thanks to all the kids from all over Ohio who came out.  It was great to see the Midwest, East Coast and Northwest people all around having fun and loving the music.  Word to Lee Trash Talk for making our set, old friends Ian from Nova Scotia and J25 for sayin' whats up.

Special Thanks to Sean Youngblood and everybody who came out, sang along, had a great time and picked up merch from all the bands near and far.  I can't wait for next year all ready...

Here We Go!

Photo: Jeff Grey

Tonight we're in the studio again with John D and tomorrow we're back in the van! See you at Youngblood Fest, you jerks! If you're coming with, be ready early.

This is a time we'll remember!