Video of the day (The Death Set - The Come To Get Us)

The new Death Set video is pretty damn awesome...yup.

Best thing ever...

For once the time zones of the world was on my side. I thought I'd have to wait another whole night, but I checked one last time before I went to bed last night...and there it was...

Sooooo...

One of the best bands in the world...

...releasing the best video of the year so far...

...for the best song of the year so far...

Math The Band - Four To Six

Awesome!

Soooo AWESOME.....YEAAAAAAAHHHH!

Have a nice weekend peeps.

sooo awesome

This picture will get me through the day...

haha...that tour will be insane...

First post of the year...it's got to be The Germs

The other day I decided to watch What We Do Is Secret, the glammed-up biopic about Darby Crash and The Germs. To be honest, my expectations weren't especially high. Who could play Darby Crash?

Turns out, Shane West can. Well, to an acceptable level anyway. None of the flaws of the film can be attributed to West. He does a pretty good job.

My main issue with the film is that it just feels so clean and sterile. I just don't think the punk clubs and warehouses of LA in the late 70's were this clean...even Darby's severe heroin abuse comes out looking pretty glamourous.

Just as a comparison...here's a clip from Penelope Spheeris' incredible documentary The Decline of Western Civilisation of The Germs performing Manimal

And here is the equivalent(ish) scene in the biopic...starting at 3:40 into the clip.

In the end it was a fun thing to watch. Nothing more, nothing less. I learnt a bit about the band and it made me curious to find out more.

If you want to see the original Germs in action (and a bunch of other awesome bands), I do highly recommend Spheeris' Decline..., which is available in its entirety to stream on youtube. So, is the biopic actually.

4 Days to Christmas (The Vandals live)

Only four days to go. I even baked yesterday. Oh yes. Gingerbread men, gingerbread ladies AND gingerbread trees.

Look!

Sadly, being in the UK meant I couldn't find and pig shaped cookie cutters. Well, I did find some, but they were not the right shape...like this one:

Stupid country. But, we'll have to survive.

Where was I? Oh, yes...counting down to Christmas with music.

The Vandals was one of my favorite bands growing up. They've been around for ages...an early line-up of the band even feature in Penelope Spheeris' classic 1983 punk film Suburbia.

Only remaining member from those early days is Joe Escalante, a man of, to say the least, many talents. Not only is he a bass player in a punk band, he also finds the time to be a lawyer, bull fighter and filmmaker! Yikes! Well, at least he used to find the time to do all those things.

The band is still going, but haven't released an album since 2004. That was Hollywood Potato Chip, an album that has been surrounded by controversy ever since. Not for any opinions expressed or for lyrical content, but for its album cover, which was a parody of showbiz industry shitrag The Daily Variety. For the band name they used a font similar to The Daily Variety's logo...and then all hell broke loose. I won't go into any detail, but the evil big guys sued the nice little guys and the expensive lawsuit has been going on ever since.

You can read all about it on the Vandals vs Daily Variety blog

OK...back to Christmas. In 1996 The Vandals released Oi To The World, a totally awesome festive pop punk record. Here are a couple of live versions of tracks from that release.

Hang Myself From The Tree (live in 2009)

A Gun For Christmas (live in 2003)

Video of the day (Bratmobile live in 1993)

Bratmobile are amazing. fact.

Humousexual and Anguish Sandwich (live at Power Lunches, 17th November 2011)

Power Lunches is a nice little place on Kingsland Road, near Haggerston overground. It kinda reminds me of Cake Shop in New York, with a lovely cafe upstairs and a somewhat dingy (but nice) venue downstairs.

Last night, Humousexual were playing a London gig, something which doesn't happen very often. Last time I saw them was back in February when they played a bedroom in Notting Hill. Victor and Boitel were in great form, playing the hits, as well as some new songs. They have new CD out that you may or may not be able to order from Everard Records...and if you can then you should. I haven't had the chance to listen yet, but of course it's gonna be awesome.

A short youtube clip of Get On Yr Bike...

Later on, it was time for Anguish Sandwich. They played The Reading Festival this summer, as proven here by the official Reading Festival t-shirt.

Somewhere right between Henry Rollins and Descendents, which is not bad place to be on a t-shirt.

Anyway, they were awesome as usual and even treated us to some new songs.

They've been threatening to take their current EP off bandcamp, so hurry over and get while you still can.

Anguish Sandwich on bandcamp

A great evening with two great bands....and now it's Friday. It just gets better and better. Have a good weekend!

The night Math The Band brought the awesome to Tunbridge Wells

Third Math The Band picture post in a row. Sorry, but I just haven't really done much else worth writing about recently. Last night, the Wheatus tour party headed to Tunbridge Wells in Kent and it was another packed house. I imagine 95% of the people there would have had no idea of what to expect from MTB, so watching people's reactions as the first song kicks in is rather amusing. The faces in the crowd show a mixture of 'what the fuck is this', 'ouch, this is loud', 'what is happening' and 'wow, AWESOME!'. Personally, I stick to to 'wow, AWESOME!!', although it is also rather loud.

This was the last show I''l be able to go to. I've done three in the last three weeks or so. It's been kind of nice escaping London just to go see a gig, something I haven't really done since my friend's band played in Kingston three years ago.

Anyway, some photos...Kevin is hitting some seriously impressive air in the first one.

Math The Band live at The Square, Harlow (28th September 2011)

Last night I went to Harlow to see Math The Band again. I just figure I have to take these opportunities to see them while they're in the UK. Who knows if and when they'll be able to come back.

I'm glad I went, as it was another great show. Kevin snapped string after string on his guitar and ended up playing the last song with just one left. Guitar strings are overrated anyway, right?

Math The Band (live at Boileroom in Guildford, 23rd September 2011)

I'd been wanting to see Math The Band for aaaaaaaaaaaaaages and last night I finally got the chance. In They're currently over here, supporting Wheatus on their humongous UK tour.

Was it worth the wait? Hell yeah! Sooooooo much energy and sooooooooo much fun! Definitely one the best shows of the year so far!

Videos of the day (The Replacements on SNL)

Today I found out that COLOR ME OBSESSED, a new documentary about The Replacements will be showing at the Raindance Film Festival in London in just a few weeks. This is VERY EXCITING! To celebrate I have two classic (and rarely seen) videos of the band playing on Saturday Night Live in 1986, a performance that would see them banned from the show. I'm not quite sure why, but it's an incredible performance. The songs played are Bastards Of Young and Kiss Me On The Bus.






videos via redwineonasunday.blogspot.com