Back in inaction

Today I did my first solo radio show with WMTS. Urusei Punk Rock!! got off to a rough start. I didn't get to bed until 5:30 last night, as I was working on my computer. I then had to be up at 9 for the show... that didn't happen by the way. I got there late, had forgotten my iPod with the show's play list already made out, so I ran the show using CDs and records. This is not a big deal, it just means your board is tighter than a band of sun dried raw hide around your neck. I was scatter brained, hungry and tired as hell, but I made it work. 

If you're wondering, I play pop-punk and hardcore on my show. I'll be recording it next week and will upload the recording in two parts. I'm gonna try and see if I can somehow record on my computer which will let you hear it all, uninterrupted. Doing a 2 hour show on CD-R means there's a gotta be something missing, and it get freaking expensive. 

Anyway, today is my birthday, so here's so stuff for you because I'm feeling magnanimous. This was one of the hidden gems I got 5 months ago when the station pitched out its library. Fucking morons... I was incredibly angry. so much great music was just thrown away. This is a CD from Books Lie, a Brooklyn band that stuck around for a couple years longer than most hardcore bands seem to do. They were still jamming out their brand 

of hardcore as late as 2004, and thus far I've not been able to find out

 much more since then. They were wanting to head over to Japan, but since they disbanded in 2005, I very much doubt that worked out for them.  

The music really reminds me of the stuff coming out of San Diego in the early 90's. Antioch Arrow and Heroin come to mind. This CD is the Hall of Fame of Fire EP and a bunch of old 7"s so you get a good bit on this one. That said, if you piece it together right you can hear the band's evolution. this is of course true with most discographies or collections, but this one isn't in order, so I figured I should state that. I don't know why I felt the need to state that, or justify it. Welcome to meta-blogging? Anyway, the chronological order is as follows-

9, 11-14, 16(I Felt Like Such a Loser Until I Realized I am Already a Winner); 15(Split with Living Under Lies); 17-18(Empathy 7"); 1-8--  and no info on what track 10 is... must be one of those B-sides I hear so much about these days There's a weird electro track that is better off ignored. I'm guessing they are there to punctuate the sections of this collection as the end of the titular EP is also one of these oddities. 

This is on Level Plane. I really dig their roster. If labels like Dischord and Gravity captured scenes at a special place and time, level plane seems to be a who's who of the last 10 years of this music, what ever you want to call it. 

I'm not including art work on this one, as you can google it. Enjoy.

Also, Bad Skulls' has launched their new site with more awesome shirt designs for every kind of hardcore  music you can think of, and more importantly- Posters and records(mostly Look Back And Laugh stuff, but that's more than OK)

Books Lie:

Brooklyn, NY

1999-2005

Hall of Fame and Fire CD

Level Plane Records 61

2004

And another thing-

If you are interested in cycling, my lame day to day existance, random musings, and anything i enjoy that isn't covered in this blog, please check out my other "personal" blog Hi Losers. . . I'm Here. I'll be getting my laptop back on Friday, and I'll have my real post of the summer up before too long.

More new stuff, still no posts

Right now the only thing hindering uploads is the absence of my computer. Since I rip music from it, it is obviously the second most important element of the sharing process.(after the record/cd/tape, of course). But when it comes back, I'll have a lot of stuff for the summer. Lot of CD rips, and some cool vinyl rips, and a sampler from this baby-

Yep, the Dolcim LP, Guillotine Ride finally hit, just in time for tour. I spent a lot of time this weekend hanging out with my friend Jonathan and Sean(Dolcim's bass player), who is a mutual friend through different circles from many moons ago. Dolcim is heading out on their first tour(today, I think) which is also their first European tour. Doing it up Gorilla Biscuits style, I guess. Needless to say, Sean hooked us up with the CD-R of the 12", and two copies of his solo project, Kafka on the Shore, which is pretty much amazing. Its all instrumental, and is available on tape only at the moment. I'll also be posting up a few select tracks for you at a later date as well.

I also got some other cool records, such as the Urusei Yatsura Drama Special 12" from Japan. Urusei Yatsura is a much beloved Japanese anime TV show from the 80's, and if you like Japanese culture, its probably the best series representation out there. Its full of humor that most non Japanese would have no hope of comprehending if not for extensive translation notes, a familiarity with the language, and too much exposure to Japanese pop culture, history, folklore, etc. As a terminal nerdking, I can say I dig this enough to buy a mint condittion copy of the record and pay for the shiping from Hokkaido. Since there are only two tracks of music (the rest being a promotional radio drama for the second season of the show, in which the important parts of season one are recapped) I'll only be putting up those tracks. Also to come are a metric buttload of 7"s and a smattering of 12" records.

Still more exciting for me is that I am going to be doing some music stuff of my own. Jonathan came to me about two weeks ago with a plan to write and record an album of predominantly instrumental bits. I've been roughing out some guitar parts for the last week, and I think we'll have the rest of the first song written out by the weekend. I'm doing all the guitar and bass, While Jonathan will be doing some percussion, keys, and horn. We'll be bringing in some friends to help as some of the ideas are a little out of our reach as musicians. Mostly it will be some more complicated drum parts that I can write, but not perform(I honestly can't play drums at all... not one single rhythm). And since we happen to be good friends with a pretty damn talented session drummer, He'll be assisting us at points.

The project is called Imperialism After Dark, and we plan to incorporate some familiar bits of pop culture into our music as short melodic fills, modified drum beats, or just jumping off points with little to do with the original works, as has become the case of the song I'm currently churning out.

We have no idea as to when or how the release of this stuff will go down, and the planning isn't all there. Its one of those things where if we don't just get up, rush headlong into it, the thing will go on a dusty shelf of aborted projects, along with a ska punk band, a feature film, a Le Mons race team, and a zine. Its a do or die situation.

More to come-- Stay tuned