Punk on Deck

Music Review 2K10

2010-12-21T22:21:00.000-08:00

It's been an interesting year. The Cardinals underperformed and I really am tired of LaRussa's genius. In June, I moved in with a friend. It's a great house, but it increased my work day drive time by more than double. While that has increased my car fuel costs, I also have a lot more time to listen to and think about music. I can nearly get through complete albums in one morning. Some albums I do. Rather than ranking albums this year, I wanted to give a little more detail on how I feel about some albums. This list isn't comprehensive, but what is?

Best Album For Your Inner Teenage Punk: RVIVR -- LP.
This LP had some of the best hooks I've heard this year. The dual vocals between Matt Canino and Erica Freas create a great atmosphere. The lyrics are simple and, although the songwriters are at least in their mid-20s, have an innocent and idealistic quality to them. This can be distracting if you're looking for something more substantial than "everybody's talking shit/you get used to it/we float on and on and on/." That said, I can see this album being very reassuring to a young, disillusioned punk looking for a band that knows what they are going through. RVIVR also released the Dirty Water EP this year. Of the few listens I've given it, it's pretty damn good, too. All releases are available for free (or donation) at Rumbletowne Records.

Best Album to Get PWNED to: Sleigh Bells -- Treats
I had heard this album was loud. At first, I kind of brushed off the analysis because being the seasoned veteran I am of loud bands playing loud shows, I had never heard of these guys. My roommate actually bought it. He cued it up in his iPod as we went to some shindig this summer. I'm sure my first reaction to that earsplitting first riff was the same as everyone who hears the album for the first time: WHAT THE FUCK IT THIS? Anyway, it turns out that this album is the perfect soundtrack to play Red Dead Redemption and Call of Duty: Black Ops. I've been shot in the head many times as "Crown on the Ground" encourages me to keep going.

Rager Soundtrack of the Year: The Brokedowns -- Species Bender

This is the soundtrack of getting drunk and partying at a show with your buds. Let's not kid ourselves here: a lot of bands do the gritty vocaled Midwest punk thing. But to me, The Brokedowns do it without a lot of frills aka the right way. Quick bursts of yelling. Throw in some fun sing-a-longs. You got a fantastic party album. Red Scare Industries out of Chicago put out this album. They do good work there and this album is no exception. This album is my audio 4 Loko this year.

Anticipated Album from this Year Satisfied Division: Gaslight Anthem -- American Slang
Gaslight Anthem has been one of my favorite bands for the past few years now. I've trekked hundreds of miles to catch them live, on numerous occasions. These guys put in their dues and all success they get is earned. American Slang is an improvement over '59 Sound in that it sounds like an album Bandleader Brian Fallon wanted to make. It has a consistent theme and each song highlights that theme in a unique way. Also, no more annoying reverb. I didn't listen to this album very much in the latter half of this year, but after a few recent listens, I can say this album is a strong statement by a great, young band.

Anticipated Album from this Year Disappointed Division: VRGNS -- Manimals
Boy, did I really want to like this album. After hearing a few of their songs off of compilations and EPs, I eagerly awaited this release. I preordered the damn vinyl. This band, consisting of former members of New Mexican Disaster Squad, had some high expectations from me, and for the most part, didn't quite meet them. The first track, "Everyone is Weird," is fantastic. Unfortunately, many of the other tracks don't quite reach that success. A lot of them sound like forgettable B-sides.

Best Album to Mash Potato to: Titus Andronicus -- The Monitor
Sure there are some convoluted themes about the Civil War but it's not actually about the Civil War but about today's political climate, but actually about Patrick Stickles internal conflict. Whatever. This album is fun. Forget the eerie monologues performed by Craig Finn, a lot of these songs about enemies being everywhere and being fucked from the start are just fantastic to beat your steering wheel to or even dance if you're so inclined.

Sad Bastard Album of the Year: Mumford & Sons -- Sigh No More
I didn't really know what to expect with this band. I had never heard of them. After a local musician whom I respect told me it was his favorite album of the year, I had to give it a chance. Do you like Avett Bros., but hate when they cut that tension with a sweet love song? Then this album is for you. While I confidently compare the two bands, I will say Mumford & Sons have a little more balls behind their tunes, even if it is one of the most depressing albums I've heard. (Except for the song I picked below. I don't even know any more.)

Best Overall Album of the Year Part 1: Someone Still Love You Boris Yeltsin -- Let It Sway
I hadn't expected to give this album such praise. They are the local band that has made it (relatively) big (Polyvinyl). I am a moderate fan of their debut, Broom, and was less than enthused with their follow-up, Pershing. Pershing felt tired, like they had burnt out before they ever reached their full potential. I bought Let It Sway partly out of local scene loyalty and partly to see if they could capture the lightheartedness they had in Broom. Initially, I wasn't very impressed, but after putting it on the shelf for a few weeks and coming back to it, I couldn't stop playing it. I might have exclusively played this album for most of September. Each song fits perfectly with the next. If someone had told me something so poppy would be one of my favorite albums of the year, I'da asked them for lottery numbers then punched them in the throat. But here we are. Sorry about the punch, dude.

Best Overall Album of the Year Part 2: The Riot Before -- Rebellion
Rebellion opens up with a distorted guitar and an almost primal drum beat. Brett Adams sings over the odd beat as if stumbling, then all of a sudden with one beat: everything is coordinated. A driving rhythm that is as good an album catalyst as you can get. The Riot Before's Rebellion has improved on their previous, more folky releases with an honest, brutal, and beautiful vision. If you follow lead singer Adams on Twitter or Tumblr, you can see that he has no bullshit notions about what he is doing. When his band has to play sparsely filled rooms in the middle of nowhere, he doesn't just say "It's okay, everyone that was there was THE BEST!" No, he is honest and says it sucks. He's been on the road with bands for years. He's in his mid-to-late 20s and you can tell he's starting to have doubts. He honestly misses his girlfriend on the road. His doubts are often my doubts. Can you be punk at 26? Is that embarrassing? Is it okay? When do I have to grow up. This album was written at a very specific time in a young man's life, and I feel like I am also at that point in my life. I don't know if this album is as universally understood as I understand it. I hope it does. And I'm sure Adams does, too.

Per usual, here's a track from each featured album:

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The Confounidng Art of a 20-Inning Loss

2010-04-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

A no hitter, no matter how "sloppy" is one of the most beautiful things in sports. I love seeing the joy of the pitchers and his teammates after the historic achievement. That said, it is a little disappointing when a 20-inning, dead whale of a game drifts ashore and the Coast Guard managers decide the best way to deal with it is stick a half a ton of TNT into the bloated carcass and blow it into pieces on top of the 1968 Lincolns.
Like a lot of epic art, there is a lot to like about this game and even more to throw 74 m.p.h tomatoes at. This game was that long running joke that was funny at first (Jaime Garcia had his own no-no after five) then annoying, (ok, it's the 8th, lets string together some runs), then dumbfounding (Holliday removed and the pitcher's spot "protecting" Pujols in the 11th), then kind of funny again (Felipe Lopez and Joe Mather: the new Todd Stottlemyre and Donovan Osborne), and finally somewhere between exhaustion and apathy (Lohse is in left field, Mather is IBB the bases loaded).
First, let me say that any sabermetricians that Gladwellian try to prove that protection in a line-up doesn't work can go shove it up their ass. LaRussa stuck with the back-up catcher on the bench until the 16th because he represented the "last bullet." That's fine if you have some hard and fast rules that you always follow. I'm okay with that. But one of those rules must be "NEVER EVER LET A PITCHER HIT BEHIND PUJOLS."
Despite what others might think, LaRussa isn't a bad manager. You don't win as many games as he has by ~~shear~~ sheer luck (Maybe by ~~shear~~ sheer cash, and a league that favors do-nothing managers, but not by ~~shear~~sheer luck). But LaRussa needs an editor. He is Charlie Kaufman. He is capable of brilliant work, if he has somewhat rigid guidelines. But when he gets free reign, occasionally long, drawn out monstrosities like a 20-inning, no run game or Synecdoche, New York come to ill-advised fruition.
But how disappointed can you be in this game? The players and managers for the most part, were in awe of it. See the audio quotes posted by BJ Rains. Sure, each team wanted the win, but it's one game (actually more than two games that count as one). They'll be ready for the next day's game, which is conveniently against the Mets.

**Edit** I have removed some dumb comments I made about a fellow blogger. They were unnecessary and after some thought and manual labor, I came to my senses. Indeed, I, of all people, should not accuse others of being a reactionary (and yes I see the irony snake eating itself here and I am a snake's ass). So I apologize to 310toJoba, who was only expressing his opinion as freely as I enjoy.

MLB and Music Mashup

2010-04-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

Let's take a quick look around the league for "hot" stories on this young season. (That first sentence is for unintended googling purposes.) In no particular order, here's what's struck my fancy:

Vernon Wells is raking. Four dingers in seven games and OPSing at a 1.450 clip. He hasn't been found to be gloating, either, according to the new Tater Trot Tracker. Good for him.
Despite Wells' paternity claim, Pujols IS your daddy.
The Seattle Mariners don't look like a team that will live up to their pre-season hype. Balky Cliff Lee and heavy leaning on Chone Figgins makes for a middling team at best.
Los Gigantes de San Francisco es mas bueno (or something, my apologies). This team has been pitching well (which isn't entirely unexpected when you have a couple Cy Young winners and the boyish good talent of Matt Cain), but they have also been hitting well beyond their pay grade. This includes a 5 for 5 outing from octogenarian Edgar Renteria. Let me tell you: if you have the summer sniffles, go play an Astro in a game of Minesweeper. It'll cure what ails ya.
Carlos Zambrano's ERA was at 54 even for a little less than a week. He got it down to a pitiful 11.88. LOLCubs
I drafted Jason Heyward in both (yeah, only two. I'm a bum.) fantasy leagues this year. Dude is feast or famine at the plate, but I don't think I'll be begging for scraps too often this year.
The Yankees and the Red Soxzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Musically, some fantastic albums have been released in the past few months. I endorse all these albums to one degree or another.

Each of these is compelling in its own magic way. If you're looking for something jangly, go for that new MBD. Some straight up tight punk rock, go for The Riot Before or The Flatliners. If you like your punk a little less formal, try RVIVR or The Holy Mess (both donation based releases). Glossary is for the alt-country fans. For a great write-up on the Titus Andronicus album, check out my pal Kris's take at 10 Listens.

(Image via here)

I no longer care what anyone eats ever.

2010-04-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

That's pretty much how I feel after the previously announced contest. I just started the thing on a whim, but then it got a little pub from my friends at Walkoff Walk, On The DL Podcast, Big League Stew, The Star (oooh international intrigue!), and Deadspin. In the end 18 Twitterers documented more than 180 tweets from baseball writers. The highest scoring tweet was found by Rob Iracane of Walkoff Walk and was courtesy of Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times with an admirably shameless display of In-N-Out love. Take note other beats: you may like In-N-Out, but you will never touch Baker's passion for the west coast chain.
So who won the contest? It was Mike Meech of the Phillies blog The Fightins. Meech won through shear volume of RTs. Whether it was a legitimate food tweet or whether it was utter crap, Meech threw it my way. After I weeded out the reaches and the blogger entries he tried to sneak through, Meech still earned a very impressive 279 points. The next in line was nathaniel_g, who started very strong, but couldn't keep up with Meech's seemingly endless supply of hungry baseball writer quips. If you would like to see all the results, or see how I scored every food tweet, go here.
I know what you're asking: what have we learned through this experience? First, the line between blogger and beat writer or columnist is razor thin if existent at all. I didn't include tweets from the guys at the the Yahoo! blog Big League Stew, because of their blog status, even though it's the bloggers' full time jobs. I didn't include tweets from Jonah Keri even though he has some new paper credentials under his belt. I did include tweets from former newspaper writers that lost their jobs due to the crumbling of the newspaper industry, like ctrent. It's hard and futile to make the distinction.
I also learned that most of the beat writers that "participated" in this contest accepted the good-natured ribbing (mmmmm . . . ribs) as it was intended. Guys like Evan Gran t and Matthew Leach kept the contest fun and sometimes made the scoring difficult. There was only one instance where, I suspect, a writer deleted his tweet after it was RT'd.
Thank you to everyone that participated and/or promoted the contest. I didn't do this contest as some ploy to get readers or followers on Twitter (as could be concluded from my minimal promotion of it, especially the last few weeks), but that was one of the happy results. A special thanks to Iracane from WoW for all the advice and enthusiasm for the project.
Since the contest finally ended, it means the baseball season has begun. The Yankees lost their first game and the Cardinals won. The season is already shaping up well.

Scarfing Scribe Scavenger Hunt SCORING UPDATE

2010-02-06T11:09:00.000-08:00

Beat writers love to eat. You know it, I know it, the guys at Walkoff Walk know it. But until the advent of Twitter, we never had to get every grisly detail of their comestible life. The prime time to witness the public gluttony is Spring Training. It's simple math: time * light work load - wife + smorgasboard = pig out.
There are a couple ways to deal with this. You could stop following these beat writers, but that's impractical. Most of them do good jobs at keeping us degenerates up-to-date on the health of our teams' stars or the prospects that we lust over. Another way to deal with this phenomenon is to embrace it and that's exactly what I'm going to do, and I want you to join in.
For every tweet by a beat writer (from a newspaper, TV, Radio, or MLB writer. NO BLOGGERS), you can earn points. Starting on February 8 and ending April 3, any food related tweet that your RT will be worth points. The winner will receive a $25 iTunes Gift Card.

RULES:
-- The first person to retweet a beat writer's food related tweet with "@punkondeck" will receive points for that tweet.
-- Once a tweet has been sent to me via Twitter, that tweet is dead and can no longer be scored.
-- For this contest, a beat writer is anyone that writes about baseball for a newspaper, radio, or television. Writers for individual teams will also count. Independent blogger tweets will not count for various technical and practical reasons.
-- The writer must be at Spring Training.
-- Scoring will be judged by me. Because of the nature of the contest, there is a bit of unavoidable subjectivity involved in scoring. I am the judge and will try to score tweets in the most fair manner possible.

SCORING:
-- Tweet mentions food among other things. e.g. "Saw F. Hernandez in a bullpen session. He looked good. Much like my grilled ruben." 2 points
-- Tweet is exclusively about food. e.g. "Hit the In-n-Out. So good." 4 points
-- Tweet goes into detail about what food they are eating. e.g. "Nice breakfast in bed. OJ, corned beef & hash, topped off with a Krispy Kreme" 1 point per food (or drink) item
-- Tweet goes into taste detail/turns into food porn. e.g. "Found this quaint little Italian place that Lasorda rec'd. The savory tort was delightful despite the over dependence on rosemary." OR "The wraps on the team provided buffet were as soggy as my cinnamon bun this morning." 3 points
-- Tweet references drinking alcoholic beverages. e.g. "Going back to the room. Don't bother me and Mr. Beam." 2 points
*SCORING UPDATE*
--Just thought of this but it's important because it's likely to happen: a writer posts a photo of food or drink. 6 points

As you could probably tell, there is some gray area in this game and a lot of tweets could be worth multiple points. I'm the ultimate decider on these things, so if you decide to participate, please cut me a little slack if you think you were shortchanged on points. For an example of how I will score take this early entry from St. Louis Post-Dispatch Beat Writer Joe Strauss:

The tweet isn't exclusively about food (although it's close). That's 2 points. He then gets specific about what and where: Pyro's Grille (1 point), original (1 point), chicken (1 point), curry mustard (1 point) tomato (1 point), and yellow rice (1 point). If this were tweeted between Feb. 8-April 3, it would have been worth a total of 8 points.
Remember: make sure you retweet the entry with @punkondeck, otherwise I won't see it.
If you have any questions about the contest or have an idea on how to improve the scoring system, please get in touch with me by leaving a comment or sending me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you. Let's have some fun because it's almost baseball season.

Rock in the Year of the Ox

2009-12-28T18:12:00.000-08:00

So it's time to do the year in music blog entry. I think they take away my Internet access if I don't rank this year's releases in an arbitrary manner. Who am I to fight it? Here's all the music you should have been listening to this year.

Favorite 2009 Releases:

1. Banner Pilot -- Collapser
I've made two "Best of" blog posts here and Banner Pilot is talented enough to be on both lists. This year they made their Fat Wreck debut and simply made my favorite album of the year. They play a style of punk that can, if left in the hands of the uncreative, become repetitive and boring. Fortunately, the boys in Banner Pilot took their Fat debut seriously and made an full length album with no filler. I'm not exaggerating on that last point. Most bands would be happy to have one of the first nine tracks in their repertoire. The hooks do their job and the lyrics are still as fresh as last year's Resignation Day. For making the most complete album this year, Banner Pilot earns top spot.

2. Fake Problems -- It's Great to Be Alive
After a handful of EPs and a couple full lengths, Fake Problems's It's Great to Be Alive proved coming of age for the band. They somehow made their lyrics more mature but still kept all the fun. In addition, they infused horns beautifully and made some damn catchy singalongs.

3. Red Collar -- Pilgrim
I bought Pilgrim in early August in anticipation of a live show they were scheduled to perform in Springfield. I liked it at first, and my interest in the album slowly grew, but after their live performance, I was converted. The group brings an unparalleled energy to their show. Maybe it's unfair to give an album such a high ranking based largely on the band's live act, but every single time I listen to "Radio On" or "Rust Belt Heart" or "Used Guitars" or any other song off their debut album, I am reminded of that stormy August night at Lindberg's in Springfield when Red Collar gave it their all for, at most, 10 people. I bought the vinyl later and it's a beautiful, translucent red (what else?).

4. The Bootheel -- Gold Tops
I've had the privilege to follow a couple talented local bands this year. Among those, The Bootheel has proven to be one of the most promising. Their country/punk/rock sound rewards both casual and critical music fans. Gold Tops is a fun EP with some great beats. Unfortunately, I don't think the EP is available for order online yet. You'll have to contact the band for all the CD, but while you are at it you can ask for some homemade barbecue sauce, which they also produce.

5. The Gateway District -- Some Days You Get the Thunder
Minneapolis power punk makes another appearance on this year-end list and so does guitarist Nate Gangelhoff. He (of Banner Pilot) along with Marren and Carrie (both formerly of The Soviettes) made an album that ranges from crunchy hangover songs to twangy country numbers. I had been waiting for another Soviettes album because the vocal interplay between these two women is so good it's risque. The entire album is streaming at Punknews.

6. Chuck Ragan -- Gold Country
Despite Hot Water Music's sort-of reformation, Chuck Ragan is still pursuing his solo career. Gold Country builds on and improves upon his previous efforts. This has a cohesive quality that his previous efforts lacked. Also, let's be honest here, if you need someone to sing some country music for you, that someone should be Chuck Ragan.

6. Cropdusters -- Howdy
Another local band of some of the most talented musicians in town. They're some of the nicest dudes to boot. Howdy is a far too short EP that only covers a sliver of what makes this band great. I'm proud to be in the same area code as this band.

7. Cursive -- Mama, I'm Swollen
Never really considered myself a Cursive guy. However, every time I listen to them, I'm drawn in. I'm not sure why exactly. I got to see them live last month and it was quite the entertaining time.

9. Bomb the Music Industry -- Scrambles
Every time I listened to this album, I thought about how amazing it was. However, for some reason, the album (which is available for free at Quote Unquote Records) does not play on my MP3 player. Therefore, I didn't have the opportunity to listen to this album in my car, which is where I listen to most of my music. If fate set those digital songs free, who knows how high the album would be . . .

10. How Do We Jump This High? -- Deep Stationary
Great demo. Former members of Frames and Get Bent. Sounds like a marriage of Cursive and Latterman (but I'm never good at that game). Looking forward to more from this band in the future.

Releases That Might Have Made the Top Ten If I Hadn't Just Bought Them With Christmas Funds
The Lawrence Arms -- Buttsweat and Tears
Lucero -- 1372 Overton Park
Cobra Skulls -- American Rubicon
The Riot Before -- Fists Buried in Pockets
Red City Radio -- To the Sons & Daughters of Woody Guthrie

Other Albums That Didn't Make the Top Ten for One Reason or Another
Shook Ones -- The Unquotable AMH
Frank Turner -- Poetry of the Deed
Nothington -- Roads, Bridges & Ruins
Mike Hale -- Lives Like Mine
Yesterday's Ring -- Diamonds in the Ditch
Dear Landlord -- Dream Homes

Top Live Shows
1. The Lawrence Arms 10th Anniversary Show -- Chicago, Ill.
I still can't believe I got to go see my favorite band play a huge show in their hometown. It was an amazing birthday present that I will never forget.

2. Red Collar -- Springfield, Mo.
See above

3. Gaslight Anthem -- Kansas City, Mo.
After missing all but 2 songs the first time my buddies and I went to KC to see them, we made sure to make sure we gave ourselves enough time to get there. If you count the two song show where they opened for Alkaline Trio and Rise Against, I saw Gaslight Anthem 3 times this year. The KC headlining show with Heartless Bastards was the best of the trio. Also, my host got a text that morning that Gaslight was dining at a IHOP for breakfast. I'll never forgive him for not taking me to that IHOP. I could have had a danish with Brian Fallon!

So that was my year in music. Where did I go wrong? Based on my lists, what bands/albums would you recommend for me? Leave it in the comments. I'll get to it sooner rather than later.

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Pulley Performer Picked to Prepare 'Pen at Progressive Park

2009-11-16T19:38:00.000-08:00

Get stoked baseball and punk music fans! It was announced earlier today that Scott Radinsky will be the bullpen coach for the Cleveland Indians for the 2010 season. New manager Manny Acta must be a skate punk fan because he called up Radinsky from the Triple A Buffalo Bisons, where he was serving as pitching coach. Radinsky, as I've mentioned before, is the lead singer for the band Pulley and used to lead Ten Foot Pole.
As you probably know, most Major Leaguers have terrible taste in music. Now the Indians have an expert that can guide the bullpen and guide musical taste. Here's how it will probably go down:

The Cleveland Indian bullpen gathers for a meeting during spring training in Arizona. They sit at their lockers while Radinsky saunters around with a Pabst Blue Ribbon in hand, occasionally glaring at the pitchers before him.
Scott Fuckin' Radinsky: All right, hillbillies, let's go over some of your warm up song choices. Perez! What song are you using?
Chris Perez: I like "Firestarter" by Prodigy.
SFR: BORING! I bet you like apple pie and hot dogs, too, don't you, Chrissy?
Perez: Yeah, I . . .
SFR: That's enough. You are now warming up to "Skulls" by The Misfits. Masterson, what are you listening to?
Justin Masterson: "Rebirthing" by Skillet. It's pretty cool
SFR: Christen Nu-Metal? You're breaking new barriers in suck, Masterson. You're now rocking "Linoleum" by NOFX. I opened for NOFX when you were 9 YEARS OLD! Can you believe these kids, Kerry? What do you warm up with?
Kerry Wood: I don't use a warm up song, coach.
SFR: *spits out PBR* WHAT? Get the hell out of my bullpen? How are you still on this team anyway?
Radinsky storms into a storage closet and rolls out cart with a TV and VCR.
SFR: Okay, this is obviously going to be a year long struggle. It's a good thing I got some sweet videos to inspire you. Check this shit. *pulls video cassettes out of duffel bag* *blows into VCR slot* *pops in first video* This one is my first band called Ten Foot Pole. Can you say Ten Foot Pole? Ugh, just forget it.

SFR: You didn't know I had such cool moves did you? That was me shaking out the cancer. Here's me leading my current band. Notice the increased command that only a wily veteran can provide.

SFR: Okay, that's enough loafing for one day. Let's go practice by throwing rocks at Jhonny Peralta.

*everyone cheers*

In the Batting Circle: NoMeansNo

2009-11-10T19:33:00.001-08:00

One side effect of easy (and illegal) downloading is that it is too easy get immersed in the latest music and put blinders on to the predecessors. People used to take suggestions from bands they loved as clues to what made them the artist they are. Brendan Kelly of one of my favorite bands, The Lawrence Arms, has made his affection for NoMeansNo apparent on a couple of occasions. He and Neil (TLA and The Falcon drummer) raved about the band in an interview and suggested the album Wrong as a starting point.
As is the practice of today, I generally ignored the suggestion. But fortunately for me, I found the album recently and I've been rewarded with one of the most unusual and fulfilling albums I've ever heard. NoMeansNo consists of brothers Rob and John Wright, and Tom Holliston (Holliston replaced Alex Kerr in 1993). The one word that comes to mind when I listen to the band is "primal." It's a type of music that is noticeably complex, but somehow seems simple and, as I said, primal.
To say that NoMeansNo influenced the fellas from The Lawrence Arms is evident, but not superficial. The bass lines punch similarly to many TLA songs. The "Hoos" you hear on "The Routes We Wander" on The Falcon album and EP are taken from NoMeanNo's "Tired of Waiting."
Since I have very little experience with some older bands, I can't compare NoMeansNo with other bands. They share some qualities with Dead Kennedys. The experimental aspects seem like predecessors to Refused's The Shape of Punk to Come. Simply put, they're a fascinating band and Wrong is their masterpiece. Please to enjoy:

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Press Box Blues

2009-11-09T19:47:00.000-08:00

Maybe I have a mix of cynicism and jealousy that keeps my ranting index up, but a few too many things popped up recently that were all too annoying and similar in scope, that it just has to be done.
During the this year's World Series, as with every World Series before it, hundreds of newspapers sent a reporter on an all expenses paid trip to one of the most sought after events on the planet. Such accommodations were not enough for some writers, including Philadelphia Inquirer's Frank Fitzpatrick. According to Fitzpatrick, he was too late to get to the usual press box (the Yankee Stadium spread was delectable!), so he had to go to an axillary box in the cold outreaches of new Yankee Stadium, where peons pay mere hundreds of dollars to have the same privilege.

We all would have huddled near the TV monitors for warmth had there been any TV monitors. Apparently it was OK for the cream of the nation's sportswriters to get wet but not for TVs.

Watching the TV and not the live action? Seems you could have done that from home.
Dan Levy then pointed out an irony recently. Murray Chass, who was a longtime sportswriter for the New York Times and currently ~~blogs~~ writes for his personal ~~blog~~ web site, got a press pass even though no one really reads his work anymore. What am I going to do though? The guy was forced out of a job that has no place for him anymore. Also, he fears stats more complicated than batting average, so his writeups could have been done by a robot.
Now that the season is over, general managers meetings and other MLB meetings take up baseball writers' valuable travel budget. Last year, GM meetings were held in Las Vegas and the St. Regis Monarch Resort in Dana Point, Calif. This year? The Airport Hilton in Chicago and the Winter Meetings are in Indianapolis, Ind. It's not so much that MLB is cutting down on expenses than those cities won the bid to host the meetings. But certainly beat writers won't complain about free travel, right? Oops.

In the Batting Circle: Vietnam Werewolf

2009-11-07T13:54:00.000-08:00

We go from a band having a potentially detrimental name to a band that earns automatic nerd cred (redeemable at any comic book store or video arcade) with Vietnam Werewolf.
Vietnam Werewolf hail (hailed) from Cleveland, which I believe is the Da Lat of the Cuyahoga Valley. Their sole full length, titled Ohio's City was released in 2008. I only got a chance to listen to this album because of the site If You Make It. They have quite a few albums that are on the pay what you want system. I actually downloaded this a couple months ago, but forgot about it so you can probably guess how much I paid for it (In my defense, there are a couple albums on my computer now that I did buy and forgot about for a few months. It's the danger of not having physical copies of music.).
Ohio's City contains a wide range of pop punk, from singalongs of Dillinger 4 to the gritty dual vocals of Latterman to the complete and complex song structures of Thrice to the liberal and socially conscious lyrics of Rise Against. They were a talented band that did a great job of showing of their chops on their lone release. According to their Myspace page, the band more or less broke up within the past year. Matt (a staff reviewer at Punknews) is in college, Jon and Andy play in a band called Little Sister, which is a thrash band. Tim moved on to play in Echoes of Harper's Ferry, which is a similarly amazing band from Cleveland. (Their album was reviewed at Punknews by Matt. A little bit of a conflict of interest for everyone!)
Go to If You Make It to download this album and many more releases from bands wanting you to hear their work.
In maintenance news, can everyone see/work the audio player? Is it workable or should I use another player? Anyone know of a better mp3 player for blogs?
Enough with that. On with the show . . .

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In the Batting Circle: Murder By Death

2009-11-06T16:53:00.000-08:00

It's tough to overcome prejudices. When I first heard of a band called "Murder By Death," I didn't know what to expect, but it couldn't have been good. They're doubling up on kill references in their name. Fortunately, I had a chance to hear their latest real album last year (they have since recorded a instrumental accompaniment to a graphic novel) and I was quickly converted.
No matter how many times I have to do it, I can never find proper words to describe their style. It's sort of spaghetti western meets metal. They take the dark, gritty imagery from both genres and make songs that sculpt figures better than Remington. Lead singer Adam Turla provides a distinct, deep baritone that depicts the lonely hired hand. He also has bad ass mutton chops. Sarah Balliet provides one of the most unique aspects to the band with her ominous cello play.
Despite these western Americana images, the truly epic stories give the songs a metal swagger. I had the opportunity to see the band open for Gaslight Anthem and there was definitely a guy holding an invisible skull. You know that move. The Hamlet.
Another reason this band is on my mind is because they are performing in my town of Springfield, Mo. on Dec. 5 at the Outland Ballroom. It is a benefit for Toys for Tots. (Previously mentioned The Bootheel will be opening.) If you live anywhere near the area, you must go. The last time the band played here in that venue, the intimate atmosphere made for one of the best shows I've attended. So check them out.
Image courtesy of Live Buzz of Bloomington, which has a more eloquent show review than I could pull off.

Defending the Bully

2009-11-05T16:25:00.000-08:00

Congrats to the World Champion New York Yankees. I mean that. I really do. They were obviously the best team in baseball and proved that since August. A common reaction to the Yankee success is that they "bought" the championship. That, of course, is ignorant and juvenile.
The Yankees compete with the same rules as every other team. They spend more than any other team, but also contribute the most to the collective bargaining agreement. The more that the Yankees spend, the more money the Royals owners can pocket. Let's move onto teams like the Royals.
People complain that these small market teams can't compete with the monoliths in the Northeast. Here's my rebuttal: baseball owners are so rich that the OWN BASEBALL TEAMS. It's not like they are living CBA paycheck to CBA paycheck. Sure, MLB teams are investments like anything else, but it's easier to miss water falling out of a boat than to not make money in Major League Baseball. Look at the empty seats at the Metrodome for Twins games. That team will be in a brand new, open air (enjoy April) stadium next season.
Rhetorical friend: "Well, wouldn't a salary cap be more fair?" I respond: You're not even real. But to address your suggestion, a salary cap would be more "fair" but also far more boring. A hard salary cap is one of the worst aspects of the NFL. It makes teams nameless, faceless robot squads (actually, that kind of sounds cool). Regardless, it makes every team the same and then you have no "enemies," and only the manufactured pablum of faux outrage. Watch wrestling for that crap. You can hate the Yankees and the Red Sox for spending more on a number 5 hitter than your hometown spent on a water purification system, but you can only hate the Cowboys and the Raiders because of the colors of their uniform. Another theory I have is that if baseball really wants to clean up steroids, then a salary cap would not work. The NFL depends on steroids to keep its players at a relatively even playing field (have you seen people NFL linemen size in the real world? Didn't think so).
I'm not saying that baseball's system is perfect. A salary floor is a more palatable idea to me, but even that has its flaws. Also, as much as I and many other people would like the economic situation in baseball to change on some level, there is very little chance of that happening as long as that goose keeps pooping gold.
So hope for change, but don't go too far. Let's let the Evil Empire have this one. They may have to wait another nine years before they can buy another championship.
In other news, The Freak got caught with some sticky icky. It's probably the weakest drug a Cy Young winner has used in 14 years.
Image courtesy of Getty Images.

King of Crap Mountain

2009-11-04T16:08:00.000-08:00

Pabst Blue Ribbon is for sale. Tens of thousands of punks and hipsters just dropped their ironic monocle's in astonishment. Why would any intellegent business person want to sell one of the top commodities in America today (wedged somewhere between the Snuggie and the Blackberry Curve 2)? Sales have been up because of the poor economy and the rise of Girl Talk. Having grown up in the St. Louis area, this is almost as devastating as the Anheuser Busch sale (not quite, though, because A-B has HORSES!).
Whomever or whatever buys the brewing company, is going to need a marketer and that marketer should be me. What are my qualifications? I think I've been to enough hipster dive bars and choked down enough PBRs to deserve the position (or at least a button to put on my derby hat). What are my plans? I'm amazed you haven't asked yet. Here they are anyway.
1. No more sponsoring NPR Music's Online Concert Series. NPR is a bit too conservative for Pabst's demographic. PBR will be the exclusive beer sponsor of The Daily Show and This American Life. It's a working class beer for people of diverse political persuasions, you say? I have never seen anyone my parents age or older drink it. That said, won't drop the illusion of a working class beer altogether.
2. Commercials will have two themes.

Specialized Working Class: These commercials will feature grainy stock images of late 1930's union workers. Preferably working on docks (we'll photoshop PBR bottles in if we need be). For these ads modern day images of people actually working will never be used because it will just remind the target demographic that they do not contribute to society in a meaningful way.
Actual Use: These ads will feature 30 seconds at any hipster-heavy concert in the United States. These will include, but are far from limited to, Fleet Foxes, Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, and Dillinger 4 shows (D4 show will be pixelated for the inevitable band nudity.). Any 30 second footage from these show will provide more than enough product exposure.

3. Pabst will be made artificially rare. Well, not the beer exactly. That needs to be readily available because most Pabst drinkers are lazy (they just say "PBR" because saying an actual word is for posers) and will move on to Miller High Life if Pabst isn't within grabbing distance. What will be made rare are the bottlecaps. They'll be made with various colors. We'll send out a press release saying, for example, that only 502 of the red caps have been and will ever be made. Those kids will pay a premium price for the beer if they think they can sell it on Ebay for a fortune. This will all be a lie of course. In six months, well make 500 more red caps and send out the same press release.
4. All Pabst Blue Ribbon merchandise will be sold exclusively through the Salvation Army.
5. New product idea: a Pabst stencil to be sold to tattoo artists. If we are going to have people advertise our product on their body for their entire life, let's make sure it doesn't end up on badtattoos.com. Actually, on second thought, we can sell two stencils . . .
So there is the gameplan to make Pabst Blue Ribbon the number one beer in the nation. The hard part will making sure the customers don't know when it happens.

The first image is taken from the blog No Brand Like Home which has an amazing breakdown of the viability of PBR.

In the Batting Circle: Nothington

2009-11-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

When an album you anticipate from a band that is relatively small time, you have to be patient. They don't have the means to produce a release every other month and even touring can be financially taxing. I took the patient approach with Nothington's new album Roads, Bridges, & Ruins because I was a big fan of their previous effort All In.
Nothington is Jay Northington, Gabe Lindeman (both formerly of Tsunami Bomb), Chris Matulich, and Tony Teixeira (No word on whether he chokes in important situations). They play a form of melodic punk reminiscent of Gunmoll with Hot Water Music Ragan-eque vocals. It's as good a combination as it sounds.
Roads is a progression for the band. as it should be. Most of the songs, especially "Stop Screaming," are far more complex than anything found on All In. That said, the album drops most of the country or Southern charm that the previous effort had. Roads is straight gravelly pop punk. A song like "The Ocean" has "whoa-oa-oa" gang vocals that just don't feel as sincere as on a song like "Where Is This Going?" on All In.
Another thing this album misses are the backing vocals of Emily Whitehurst, former lead singer of Tsunami Bomb. I get it. She isn't a full time band member and you don't want to be known as former _____ forever. That said, the strongest songs on All In featured the beautiful interplay between Jay and Whitehurst. If you have the opportunity to make your strongest songs with someone (a friend?), then swallow your pride and do it.
Despite my comparisons, Roads, Bridges, & Ruins is a strong release on it's own. Matulich's songs on this album are more cohesive to the whole than his previous efforts. Jay still writes fist pumping ballads that won't leave your head without a fight (see: "Best For Me"). I think the best way to experience this band would be to listen to this latest album first, then get the debut. I like saving the best for last, which explains why I am posting music after all this writing.

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Outrage for Profit!

2009-11-02T19:54:00.000-08:00

Recently, former St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire was named the new hitting coach of his former team. Even more recently, Sports Illustrated's Jeff Pearlman took it upon himself to be the voice of tired anger.
A little background: McGwire was briefly the holder of the single season home run record. He was probably on massive amounts of beef 'roids while he did it. He has summoned to Congress for a dog and pony show. He didn't say anything about his steroid usage. He moved to a deserted island somewhere for years and hasn't even made a public appearance following the announcement of his recent hiring.
Jeff Pearlman is a guy who writes books about the moral depravity of athletes. He wrote The Bad Guys Who Won about the 1986 Mets, Boys Will Be Boys about the Barry Switzer Dallas Cowboys (sensing a theme?), and two books on steroid users: Love Me, Hate Me about Barry Bonds, and The Rocket That Fell to Earth about Roger Clemens. Each of these books is basically the written equivalent of a school marm lecturing you about skipping class.
So it comes as no surprise that Pearlman is tsk-tsking the hiring of McGwire as a hitting coach. He implies that McGwire had no talent beyond the strength the steroids provided.

His courage and strength were mirages. His greatness, well, very artificial.

That, of course, ignores the fact that McGwire likely didn't use performance enhancing drugs before entering the Major Leagues and that he led rookies in home runs when he was had the body frame of a mortal. I wonder if Pearlman thinks even he could be a big league hitter giving the right prescription.

McGwire is back in the baseball fold; back to teach today's ballplayers how to (egad) succeed the same way he did; back to offer wisdom.

Holy cats, I think he does believe that.
McGwire is joining the Cardinals to be the hitting coach, not open up a pharmacy. McGwire has already provided personal hitting instruction to various Major League hitters including Skip Schumaker, who passes the "eye test." (If Pearlman doesn't have to say "allegedly," then I can determine if a player uses PEDs by looking at them.)
McGwire isn't going to play in the field. What was done in the past is done. It can't change as much as Pearlman and the old fogey writers he apes want it to change. All the whining about the "Holy Bible" of baseball being the record book is ridiculous. The Taliban think Pearlman is too hung up on one book.
The real reason he has to kick and scream like a sweet sixteenager without The Fray performing at her party is because he needs that outrage. He needs as many people wary against shadowy enemies because that moral outrage is what moves his books. Because it isn't about steriods to him. It's about an arbitrary standard of good and evil. To him, you have to win the "right" way or not win at all. Just ask the 1986 Mets.
McGwire's rookie card provided by HomeRunCards.com

You've Been to "The Show:" Cropdusters &The Bootheel

2009-11-01T14:19:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when you are a music fan (or art fan in general) in a smallish city, you tend to overlook some of the outstanding things going on while you pine for the elusive "other." I'm as guilty of that as anyone else. But I'm slowly coming around and am getting very fortunate to catch some talented bands based in Southwest, Missouri.
On Halloween, amid the debauchery of the "largest costume party in Missouri" (hang your hat on that Spring Vegas), the Highlife hosted one of the best local showcases in months. The Cropdusters headlined and Boogeymen and The Bootheel supported, but those roles fail to acknowledge how equally talented each group is.
I've briefly mentioned The Cropdusters before (or at least their lead singer). They play a fun style of southern/country rock that doesn't quite hit the "punk" mark, but is fun music nonetheless. Lead singer Jeb is a big Lucero fan and you can tell through his lyrics and slightly strained, yet steady vocals. Other lead singer Brian provides a change of pace vocally. His lyrics are often about life in the Ozarks and historically based. My current favorite song is Brian's "Quantrill," which is a fist pumping ballad for any self respecting Missourian that irrationally distrusts Kansans at best and openly despises any Jayhawker at worst. The Halloween show marked the final show for lead guitarist "Toad" Wyrick. I may have news on this front in the near future (I'm gonna scoop you, The Four Four!).
I missed the The BoogeyMen last night, so as to use my wristband at another bar (that wouldn't normally have a cover. Pub crawls are scams). I've seen them before and they are made up of an amalgam of local musicians and play western/rock-a-billy tunes, generally without vocals. They're fun and always play with masks, so I'm sure the effect was a little lost on Halloween.
The opening band, The Bootheel, played a loud set, which is their wont. They play a mix of punk, country, rock, and roots music to make a delicious glaze of goodness. (Not coincidentally, they make their own barbecue sauce. I kid you not. I bought some. It's delicious.). The band describes their sound as "aggressively Midwestern." It's an apt description and it makes you proud to be from the same area and culture that produces such amazing music.
Both these bands had their debut releases this year: The Cropdusters with Howdy and The Bootheel with Gold Tops.
If you live or will visit Springfield, Jeb and Brian from The Cropdusters and Todd from The Bootheel play acoustically at Lindberg's every Tuesday night for free. It's a unique event that not enough Ozarkians patronize.
For your sonic pleasure:

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Image courtesy of The Four Four, a local music blog that updates far more than I and is a valuable resource for the music scene in southwest Missouri.

Doing the AL for some reason

2009-10-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

The consistent blogging thing is for squares. That said, I always want to complete what I start (except the season preview, that was a bit too ambitious). The only reason I did it though was to post some cool videos of bands so that's pretty much what I am going to do.

Minnesota Twins: They had no chance. To be honest, the team pretty much sucked. But they beat the Tigers in a 73 inning tie breaker game, so good on them. They'll always have The Replacements.

Boston Red Sox: This team had a chance. Jon Lester was the key. Unfortunately, all the chowds are crying like Tom Brady's baby's mama. Here's a band that looks like a bunch of Casey Blakes (tip of my cap to Drew at Ghostrunner on First)

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: It doesn't matter how often I see it, that name is ridiculous. However, people adding a bunch of locales for humorous effect are more annoying. Stop it. It's not clever. Speaking of ridiculous: 50 year old man singing about being Mommy's Little Monster. I'm still a sucker for it.

New York Yankees: Probably the favorite to win it all (at this point). They haven't won in a decade or so. Certainly, their fans will be humble and reserved when they win number 27, amirite? Does Long Island count as New York? Do you think they have Yankee fans there? This band was from that area. (Not representative of album audio quality, obviously)

Got that done. Hey, look here. Bonus video:

This was brought to my attention by Rob at WalkoffWalk.com. Some bar in Wrigleyville moonlighted as a punk club back in 1984, before it became to popped collar brofest that it is today. From Chicago? What do you know about this bar? Leave a comment. It's been a while.

Starting at an Ending: NLDS

2009-10-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

Playoffs have finally arrived and the teams are set (at least for the National League). So let's run down the "best" of the senior circuit and see how these boyos match up. In addition, we'll get some tunes from each city's respective scene.

Philadelphia Phillies: One of the top teams in this league, the Phillies did it with good ole mashing. Put Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard in a lineup and you really have no choice but to score some runs. The defending champs have a nearly identical lineup to last year, save a substitution of Raul Ibanez (who had an unusually good excellent first half) for Pat Burrell. Starting pitching is strong on paper with lefties Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, and J.A. (sounds like "Jay." Seriously) Happ and and old Pete Martinez with the valuable "veteran leadership." They're a tough club. There has to be some weakness. Oh, well there is this guy.Yeah, that might be a slight problem they'll have to look into. The Phils have homefield advantage and take on the Rockies.
Philly has some damn good music. Not many better than this band:

Colorado Rockies: This year's wildcard (which lately has meant World Series favorite) got to where they are by disciplined hitting and great pitching by Ubaldo Jimenez and Jorge De La Rosa and out of his element pitching by Jason Freakin' Marquis. Not to mention, they fired their manager mid year. Hey, it worked for the Penguins, amirite? But let's not kid ourselves. If this team makes the World Series, we're all going to be bored out of our skulls. Remember the Red Sox-Rockies World Series? Of course, you don't.
This song's called "Joe California" but it's by a band from Colorado. Crazy worldly, I know.

St. Louis Cardinals: "My" team was a rag tag band of merry players that used grit and determination to lead the league in goodwill and hearty wins. Not really. Two Cy Young candidates and groundball wizard Joel Pineiro provided some stability in the rotation. The front office pushed their chips (read: top prospects) all in for masher Matt Holliday to protect Lord Pujols in the lineup. With any luck the peripheral players will play the slightly above replacement level that that are paid to do.
Unfortunately, not much to choose from but this is a pretty damn good song:

Los Angeles Dodgers: The Cards face the NL West Champion Dodgers. The Dodgers had a hot start this season after getting some decent pitching from Chad Billingsly and Clayton Kershaw and some hot hitting from Manny Ramirez, who has been coming off his 'roid cycle. But like the Cards, they lost a bunch of games as they entered the playoffs. It'll be interesting to see which team decides it's worth it to play games 163-168 of this long season.
LA has some legendary punk bands and I could choose any number of great music. However, I want everyone to root for the Cardinals, so here's a reason not to root for Los Angeles: the town brought you this travesty:

It's like Snoop Dog is endorsing a Juggalo band.

Go Cards.

The Kings

2009-09-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's nearly damn playoff time. The summer went fast, per usual. My team of choice clinched their spot in the playoffs and you can read a few of my thoughts on that here and here. The interesting thing is that even though there are less than ten games left in the season, not all the spots are decided yet. Will the Tigers hold on or will they Fernando Rodney their playoff chances? That's right Fernando Rodney is now a verb and Tigers fans know what it means. In St. Louis, it's pronounced Isringhausen, but diverse speech accents are what make America grand.
The proximity of the World Series had me thinking about the Yankees and the Cardinals: the two teams with the most championships. Now the Yankees have the most by far with 26. The Cards are a distant second with 10. But how did those teams do it? Existing for over 100 years helps. But what did the Yankees do to be so successful? You have to remember that these teams won in a time when there was no such thing as free agency. Players stuck with their team until they were traded away. So the Yankees began their success with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Having control over such great players made the team the premier franchise in league. The players knew they had to stay with the team as long as the team said. Wouldn't the best players want to be with the franchise that can pay the most and/or give the best opportunity to win? Success breeds success, indeed.
Also, there was no such thing as a farm system. The farm system was pioneered by the Cardinals. It gave the team a deep pool of players from which to choose their major league roster. That pioneering can probably explain some of the Cards' success.
Now that free agents keep players on the move and each team has a farm system to support the big club with cheap, young talent, the MLB is close to being the best possible system for league "parity" without the boring, facelessness of the NFL. Every team has a chance as long as their management doesn't spend 17 years thinking Jack Wilson type players are the key to your future championships.
In the music world, some of my favorite artists are or have put out new albums. Already out there are new releases by Frank Turner, Banner Pilot, Chuck Ragan, The Gateway District, and Pissed Jeans. Look out for upcoming music by Nothington and Lucero. It's a damn good time for new music. That's what makes it even weirder that I am ending with this song:

Poster of our heroes hawking cancer sticks courtesy of Deco Dog.

The Big Show: Red Collar

2009-08-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night shows are hard to pull off. It's hump day. The week barely started and it's barely over. I gotta work in the morning. But here I am, writing a show review of one of those Wednesday night "messes." Lindberg's in Springfield, Mo., is the best venue in town as far as sound and atmosphere. The sound system was put together by a real musician and the decor was designed by true music fan. Each show is looked over by beautiful portraits of patron saints Elvis, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Robert Johnson, Bob Dylan, and Tom Waits.
On this nondescript Wednesday evening, Red Collar was to perform at Lindberg's. It was a fill in show. They weren't even supposed to be there, but fate brought them to the edge of the middle of nowhere.
Mark Bilyeu of popular local band Big Smith opened the night with a talented and entertaining set. My friend Brett and I came in during the beginning of Bilyeu's set. He entertained the sparse crowd with bluegrass, old rhythm & blues, and alt country songs. I listened casually as I watched the Cardinals game, which was just getting started in L.A. The Cards got out to a 2 run lead and Adam Wainwright looked unhittable until the 7th inning. By that time, Bilyeu finished his set. A DJ was spinning his rockabilly and old r&b records by that time. The bartender very briefly changed the TV to the Weather Channel. It said we were in a thunderstorm warning and tornado watch. My buddy and I looked at each other and kind of gave each other the same quizzical look. Then we looked to the monsoon outside. Sideways rain and not infrequent lightning danced outside. We hadn't noticed before, but now we thought about trekking to our cars in this piss poor weather. As we looked away from the meteorological commotion outside, Wainwright gave up a solo homer. The game ended up tied by the end of the 7th.
Red Collar humbly took the stage. They sound checked and knocked into their first song. Now, you'll have to forgive me because I just very recently started listening to this band so I can't really give you proper song titles, but rest assured: this band brought it. As sheets of rain relentlessly beat against the windows at Lindberg's, Red Collar brought equal intensity. Jason Kutchma led the way as if he was conducting a hurricane. Guitarist Mike Jackson never stopped his kinetic rhythm. Beth Kutchma kept some tight beats on bass and drummer Jon Truesdale is as talented a drummer as you'll find. The band's songs pierced each listener at the venue. Driving rain, relentless beats, and flashes of lightning and greatness illuminated. During the song "Pilgrim" I saw through a window a streak of lightning strike across the empty sky. It was a goosebumps moment.
The room was moving. Here's the kicker: there were six (myself included) standing close to the stage and about eight people sitting at the bar or working the sound.
With such an anemic turnout, the band could have given a quick, minimal performance. But they played the house as if it was packed to the gills. After the initial set, local talented musician Jeb started the "One more song" chant. Jason asked, "One more song? How about we do two?" All six to eight of us erupted. Jason explained that he was trying out some solo work. He performed Tom Waits' "Better Off Without A Wife," with altered lyrics that were meant as a tribute to his wife Beth. The band closed with "Used Guitars" (I think) (Confirmed!).
During the set, the rain slowly died down. I looked back to the Cards game. Ryan Franklin just saved his 31st game of the season in a 3-2 game.
Jon and Jason both promised that the band would come back in September. Here's what you need to do. Contact the band and demand that they tour within 200 miles of your town. I know how it is when you live near podunk. You only travel far when it is a band you know and you trust will be worth the gas. As someone in your shoes, you'll have to trust me: if this band tours near you, go see them.
Here's a couple reasons why:

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Image via RedCollarMusic.com

What's your card?

2009-08-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

It was recently announced that Topps would be the "exclusive" trading card producer for Major League Baseball. This pretty effectively eliminates all competition from the baseball card industry. Good bye, Fleer. Good bye, Bowman. Good bye, Score. Probably good bye, Upper Deck. It was reported recently that Upper Deck has a deal with the MLB Players Association. They say they'll continue to produce cards in 2010. It'll be odd, but I can see some lame cards with players in front of a black background wearing non-descript t-shirts that vaguely happen to be the same color of their team. Topps head honcho Michael Eisner (yes, that Michael Eisner) says he is doing it to not confuse kids or some such crap. Let's call a spade a spade here. It's an exclusivity deal that eliminates competition and creates a monopoly on the market.
Before this mess was announced, I had been looking around a local flea market. I found big box that looked to be a complete set of cards from the late 80s/early 90s. I know it's a cliche, but remember when that would have been worth a sheik's ransom? I began collecting when I was 9 or 10. I received a large number of cards from someone who was a big collector. They were all the same year and brand. Because that is the majority of my collection and was my first card, it became my brand. The 1988 Score card. It wasn't flashy like Upper Decks or Topps cards, but they all had good in-game pictures and nice write-ups on the players on the back. Each pack also had a Magic Motion Trivia Card with some sort of fact that I would hurry up and forget. As with everything on planet Earth, there is a blog dedicated to completing a set of 1988 Score. A least a couple people are dedicated to the brand.
I spent a few summers looking for new cards and organizing them by team in my baseball card binder. Unlike the cliche, I still have the binder, so when the baseball card market finally rebounds, I'll be ready. Suckers.
Anyway, anytime there is news about baseball cards, it gets me a little nostalgic like most guys my age. But, like most things in life, we move on, we forget. The cards just seve as a bookmark in a long line of important "forgettable" life moments.

Baseball card images courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Nerd Alert: Curveball Edition

2009-08-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

I'll take a quick break from doing nothing and take a look at one of the consistent marvels of the game: the curveball.
In the baseball blogosphere, there is a whole genre of stat centric sites that try to determine the value of players. Beyond simple boxscore, stat analyzers are another set of writers who examine the physics and effectiveness of specific pitches. Check out Fangraphs for a world of stats you have never even considered.
Check out this article by Dave Allen at Fangraphs from earlier this year. In it, he analyzes the vertical and horizontal motion of curveballs thrown by Adam Wainwright, Roy Halladay, and Brad Penny. Notice this chart. The 0 in the "Vertical Movement" axis represents how much the ball moves vertically from the release point to the plate. Incidentally, the horizontal axis represents how much a ball moves toward or away from a hitter. As you can see, Wainwright and Halladay have much more overall movement on their pitches than Penny, which is why an indicator of why their curveballs are more effective than Penny's.
But also look at this visualization that I have just recently seen. It won an award for optical illusions. (Sorry, I can't seem to embed the visualization.) Follow the directions and notice how much the ball appears to curve away even though it is always moving in a straight line.
Despite the cool optical surprise, I'm not sure what it tells us about curveballs in real life baseball. If this is supposed to somehow represent the deception of a curveball, then it is an aerial view of a curve with no horizontal movement. It doesn't give us an idea of what that motion looks like from a batter's point-of-view. The batter, catcher, and umpire (presumably) have their eye on the ball the whole time. Keeping your eye on the ball in the visualization keeps the sphere in its true path. But certainly, the spin on the ball plays some slight trick on the battery. If a pitch is moving up around eight inches from its release point and the spin creates an illusion of movement, it is a wonder that anyone can hit the pitch, let alone on a consistent basis.
If you are interested in a much more informed analysis of pitches, check out Drew Fairservice's "Kicking and Screaming" recurring feature at Walkoff Walk.
In completely unrelated news, if you ever have to explain the infield fly rule to anyone, just play this song by The Isotopes.

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The Isotopes four-song EP titled Heatseaker is being digitally distributed by Red Scare Industries. Each song has to do with baseball. Sounds so familiar.

Curveball pitching data image courtesy of Dave Allen at Fangraphs.

EXCLUSIVE TRACKS: Volcania

2009-07-07T20:06:00.000-07:00

A few months back I picked up new record player from Target. Shortly thereafter, I sought out records at some local flea markets and thrift stores. One flea market booth had huge racks of albums with a wide variety of music. I found some Dylan and some Ray Charles, but I also found a couple punk albums like Government Issue's Boycott Stabb, and an album by a band called Volcania called L'agression. As you can see from the picture it had a goofy looking bat and a sticker on the front that said "The Leading French Punk Group." I had never heard of them, but that didn't mean anything because there are a lot of older, important punk bands that I don't know about.
I put on the record and did some research online for more information about Volcania. Or at least I tried to find information about them. There weren't a lot of Google hits and most of the information was in French, a language I most assuredly do not speak. The best information on the band I could find was on a French site called the "France Metal Museum." According to the Google translation of this site, the band was formed in 1976. Apparently, the band was originally named HLM. Before they recorded in 1977, the record label, Dream Music Records, forced the band to change their name (don't ask me why). Volcania was born. The group consisted of Pierre Brusco on guitar, his brother Yves "Vivi" Brusco on bass and lead vocals, Omar El Mabrouk Ben on drums, and Thierry Van Hooland on lead guitar and backing vocals. The band, under the Volcania moniker, toured to promote the album, but it didn't sell well. Pierre left the band later that year. The remaining guys renamed the band HLM (I want to know what it means just as badly as you do) and the toured a while longer. Eventually everyone went their separate ways. Volcania didn't even last a year. Matt Canino is in awe. Members of the band went on to perform with Trust and a band called Trash.
But in that year, they made an album. I did a review of the album on Punknews already but I'll go over some of my thoughts on it again. It's definitely a product of its time. Vivi has some nice aggressive vocals, a little like Iggy Pop's. The musicianship is tight. I especially appreciate the bass work and the lead guitarist, who has some ripping solos. It's a bit of a Stones and/or Who sound. My favorite tracks are the lead track "Mais C'est Seulement Du Rock And Roll" (But It's Only Rock and Roll) and Fille De Joie (Daughter of Joy). I don't understand a word of the lyrics, because, again, the French.
My guess is that because they album did so poorly in France, the label decided to ship a bunch of records to the U.S. to see if their sound would fly here (not without the sticker though. It means they are exotic). I have no idea how rare this album is. When I first researched it, there were a couple up for sale on Ebay, but neither entry is there now. Also, I have not been able to find the tracks digitally anywhere.
Until now. I am going to bring Volcania to the English-speaking, 21st century. Fortunately, my record player has a USB port which allows me to rip albums digitally. Unfortunately, I have no experience doing this. That means the tracks I have may not necessarily be of top quality. I tried my best. The vinyl itself is very clean for being over 30 years old. There are only a couple times that cracks are too noticeable. Otherwise, I hope the audio is sufficient. Let me know if you have problems downloading the album.
Also, if the person or organization that owns the rights to this music wants me to take down the album, please let me know through my email on the left side of the page.
Now, ladies and gentlemen: Volcania.

http://www.mediafire.com/?yjunowzzirn

Q&A with Roger Clemens

2009-06-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

In May, Roger Clemens started talking again about his alleged innocence in taking illegal performance enhancing drugs. One of the ploys he tried is taking questions from readers of The Houstonist. The blog took the questions and performed an e-mail interview with The Rocket. I submitted a question, but I wasn't sure it would actually get sent to him. To my surprise, it was.

You have stated that you never took HGH. However, your wife has admitted she took HGH and that that drug was provided by Brian McNamee. Are you saying that he was an adviser of yours and you let him give your wife a performance enhancing drug that you have never taken? (from: Brian Kist)
First, I did not "let" Brian McNamee inject my wife. As I stated in the congressional deposition, I was not at home when the incident took place. All you have to do is read — just go to the congressional website and spend some time reading.

I should have ended my question with "I want the TRUTH!" Of course, it takes more than one shot of HGH to get the desired results, so his answer was just thin enough to keep him out of jail for now. To be fair, though, I am impressed that he took questions from people (most of whom had fake names), without (supposedly) lawyers answering for him. Anyway, I got to ask a guy with over 4,600 strikeouts if he is a cheater, so that's another feather in my cap.

Awesome frumpy Clemens baseball card image courtesy of Wax Heaven.

The Draft and other one shot wonders

2009-06-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the MLB draft. I don't know too much about this draft because no one watches college baseball unless their team is good. My alma mater's team is occasionally good, so I know a few of the guys that will be drafted. Of all the major sorts drafts, this one is the biggest crapshoot. Because there are so many players drafted and they more often than not spend time in the minor leagues, it usually takes a three to four years for these guys to even make a major league team. It's closer to college signing day than the NFL Draft.
Hey, speaking of the draft, remember The Draft? It was the band that came about during Hot Water Music's hiatus. Their only full-length In a Million Pieces was pretty good. Check it.

Create a playlist at MixPod.com

Audio Visual Interpretation of the Mets Organization

2009-06-04T15:20:00.000-07:00

So, this is kind of weird. One, I'm posting two days in a row. Second, the YouTube video below. I stumbled across a link on MetsBlog that said a punk band covers "Meet the Mets." This is what it lead to. The girl awkwardly dancing(?) and the tired lead singer make it spicy. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to Seanchai and the Unity Squad.

Also, I had a bunch of time on my hands and played around with the Xtranormal stuff. Sports journalism meets Samuel Beckett.

Ryan Roberts Sports Ink

2009-06-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

So as I recently sought out a temporary substitute for Evan Longoria, who pulled a hammy, on my fantasy team, I picked up the Diamondback's Ryan Roberts. I had never heard of him, but he has been hot lately and he'll get more playing time because of an injury to Chad Tracy. After I added him, I noticed on his profile pic, he has a neck tat. Since I don't really have a way to find out punk fans in MLB, I have to use context clues. A neck tat is a good clue. So I researched. Wikipedia says Roberts has over 30 tattoos. There aren't too many other clues out there so here's a couple pics of his ink. If anyone watches D-Back games regularly, listen for his at-bat song. Maybe he plays some Clash or something.
Tangentially related, the bassist for the band The Briggs is named Ryan Roberts as well. Let's be clear, they aren't the same guy, but it's one way to get some music in this post.

Create a playlist at MixPod.com

Photos from Matthew Stockman/Getty and Elaine Thompson/AP.

Greetings and Apologies

2009-05-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

I'm going to go ahead and apologize for not posting more, as if I have disappointed thousands of disappointed readers. The usual excuses like work and laziness have affected the posting here. That isn't to say I haven't been writing. I have been writing (mostly) about the St. Louis Cardinals for Blogcritics. They have been mostly game recaps, so if you want to see what happened in Game 17, it'll be relatively easy to find. Also, I tried to put a little humor in there, so there's that. I am particularly proud of this non-Cardinals related post that involved a lot of research (at least for me).
To what have I been listening? Two albums that I think are a couple of the best of the year are Cursive's "Mama, I'm Swollen" and Fake Problem's "It's Great to Be Alive." I have always been a lukewarm Cursive fan, with the exception of "Domestica," which I think is quite the masterpiece. While ""Mama, I'm Swollen" isn't as depressing as that album, it is as good. Fake Problems is a band that has been around for a while, but this new album on Side One Dummy Records is a vast improvement over previous efforts. They are adept at mixing simple folk punk songs with rich instrumentals (including horns!).
I am currently listening to Death Cab For Cutie's new EP titled "The Open Door." Amazon is offering it for a buck today and it is a sound investment. Front man Ben Gibbard is quite the Mariners fan according to this article on MLB.com. While some rock stars sound forced or bored when they talk about sports, Gibbard sounds sincere.

"We always (say) that we always kind of feel like the underdogs," Gibbard said.
"Even when we're selling out Radio City Music Hall. To complete the analogy, it's like the Mariners having that 116-win season (in 2001). They had the best record in baseball, but they kind of didn't have the confidence to go all the way through the postseason."

So that's an update. I'm not going to finish the Linear Notes and Rap Sheets, but I'll keep the one I did post because screw the AL East. We'll keep their crimes posted for posterity.

Create a playlist at MixPod.com

Linear Notes and Rap Sheets -- A.L. East

2009-02-18T15:28:00.000-08:00

In preparation of the upcoming season, I'm here to provide you with the most incomplete, unresearched, and biased team-by-team preview on the Internet. In addition to a little rundown of each team, I'll provide a band that the team parallels (the linear note) and go over some of the players that have been arrested for one reason or another (the rap sheet). Today's entry is every major sports corporation's favorite division, the American League East.

Baltimore Orioles -- How many games do you think they will win this year? Okay, now cut about 25 wins from that number. Is your number 70? Damn, it was worth a try. They have Brian Roberts, who used PEDs but claimed his out of nowhere 2005 season was due to red contact lenses. I bet his cousin got him those lenses.

Linear Notes: This team is bad and they don't seem to be on the verge of getting better anytime soon. However, from all accounts, they have one of the more beautiful parks in the MLB. So they are a band with terrible music, but entertaining theatrics. The Orioles are GWAR.

Rap Sheet: The lone State Pen cowboy on this team is Ryan Freel who is a two time offender with a DUI and the ominous "disorder ly conduct." I think his best friend Farney is a bad influence.

Boston Red Sox -- Arguably the best team in the division, making it one of the best in the league, the Red Sox have a symbiotic mix of homegrown players and decent free agents. Speaking of Red Sox free agents, my favorite story of Spring Training so far is Larry Bowa's measured critique of new BoSock Brad Penny.

"You mean the same guy who was never on time, out of shape and has one complete game? He has more stuff to worry about in the A.L. East than me. He has to worry about getting people out. He was never on time, was out of shape and never helped the kids out. Put that on the (expletive) dot-com. Put it in the headline."

I love baseball.

Linear Notes: A team that used to downright lovable but then got some exposure and then boasts one of the most annoying bandwagon fans today. As much as I hate to make the comparison, it's true. The Red Sox are the Dropkick Murphys.

Rap Sheet: The Red Sox have the more scofflaws on their team than any other AL East team. Julio Lugo may or may not have beat his wife (charges were later thrown out). Clay Buchholz stole 29 laptops while he was in high school. Dice K, while being an upstanding citizen in the US, had a "scandal" in Japan when he illegally parked his car in front of his wife-to-be's apartment building. He also had expired tags or something. He was fined 195,000 yen, which I think equals $256,000 or a nickel. I'm not sure.

New York Yankees -- They spend more money than many teams combined. They're the Evil Empire. Blah, blah, blah. So what? They haven't won a World Championship in close to a decade. I hope they keep spending and losing. This year's model includes the CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira features. Please only use these features sparingly at first or risk overheating. A-Rod used/uses roids. He makes a quarter of a billion dollars and he puts something called "boli" into his butt. Later this season, he is going to reveal is jars and jars of saved fingernail clippings.

Linear Notes: The Yankees are one of the most well known sports franchises in the world. However they haven't done much respectable lately. The Yankees are Green Day.

Rap Sheet: Joba Chamberlain was charged with a DUI, speeding, and an open container. That's a triple play combination I can believe in. I guess 310 to Joba refers to his BAC, amirite?

Tampa Bay Rays -- We heard a lot about this team last year, but I'm sure everything will fall apart this year. A core of young, talented players playing for much less than market value is just a recipe for failure. They have pitchers with great K/BB ratios and some of the best hitters in the league. How could this possibly work?

Linear Notes: The Rays are a young team that has already achieved a lot of success and they are destined for more. The Rays are The Gaslight Anthem.

Rap Sheet: The Rays are as clean as they come. The only thing I found was that reliever James Houser was suspended 50 games in 2007 for testing positive for a PED. No crimes, unless you call the fashion police.

Toronto Blue Jays -- I like the Jays, I really do. But I'd hate for them to be my team. They lose every year, but nobody romanticizes it like they do for the Cubs. They aren't lovable losers. They're just losers. That being said, one of my favorite MLB players, Roy Halladay, anchors the rotation and Shawn Marcum, who will miss the upcoming season due to the loss of one of his limbs, is from my alma mater.

Linear Notes: The Blue Jays are the best baseball team in Canada. The Blue Jays are Propagandhi.

Rap Sheet: The Jays would have had a clean rap sheet if it wasn't for a fairly recent acquisition. Matt Bush was the first overall draft pick by the Padres in 2004. Before he even stepped on the field professionally, he was arrested for partying a little too hard outside an Arizona nightclub. The party consisted of one felony and three misdemeanors. Once he finally did get on the field, Bush, drafted as a shortstop, hit only .192. They converted him to pitcher, where he topped out at 95 mph. He then tore a ligament in his elbow and couldn't play until this year. BUT THE BEST IS YET TO COME! Before this season, Bush got into a drunken altercation with a high school lacrosse team. He was quoted as saying "I'm Matt (smurfing) Bush," and "(smurf) East County." Anyway, the Padres finally released him and the Blue Jays think he'll make a great addition to their Sunday services.

The Big Thaw

2009-02-12T20:43:00.001-08:00

Well, spring training is beginning. Pitchers who don't want to be there and catchers who will be lucky to have equipment that fits report today. It won't be long before we're sitting in the bleachers at our favorite park, critiquing professional ballplayers younger than us, and hazily judging the acceptability to take our shirt off (Tip: Do it. Why, not?).
Because of blessed global warming, it's been an unusually warm February here in the Midwest. My buddies and I got the first game of wiffleball in last weekend. We play a bastardized version of "indian ball," where we employ arbitrary rules about what is a single/double/triple. This is all fine and dandy until I bat however. I am the only one of us that bats lefty. So while they hit home runs (over the fence in the neighbers yard) on a regular basis, I am left hitting the ball into brush pile, which convienient is always a single. (No matter what anybody tells you, it is impossible to hit a wiffleball the other way.) One of my favorite aspects of a wiffleball game is the lawnchair strike zone. It's such a perfect size that you know its dual use is the work of Divine intervention.
I plan on having a bit of a preview of the MLB teams soon, so keep one eye peeled and one open for that. The picture is Anthony Raneri of the band Bayside. It looks like someone just went up to him and said "hold this" *click* "thanks, yo." It's courtesy of major league wiffleball.
Here's a bit of what's been in my ear lately. It's from Ben Nichols new solo debut titled The Last Pale Light in the West. By the way, if anyone knows of a good mp3 player for blogs, let me know. I'm not sure how I feel about this one.
Otherwise, let me know how you are getting ready for the season. How do you think your team will do? Which one of your players is most likely to get indicted for using illegal drugs (thought I wouldn't mention it, din ya?)?

What's Great in 2008? Rhyming, That's What!

2008-12-08T18:16:00.000-08:00

As the year grimly trudges to an end, the yearly "Best Albums of '08" articles pop up on all blogs and legit publications. Who am I to challenge such a proud, self-aggrandizing time for music critics and "journalists." Many of these pieces have the Top Ten of the Year and since Bob Dylan didn't release an album this year, they'll actually have room for ten artists relevant this decade. Before I get to some of my choices, I have to lay out a little disclaimer. These are only albums that I have actually heard. I know there are other great punk albums out there but I didn't have the cash lying around to buy everything I wanted. That's right: buy. I'm staunchly anti-piracy when it comes to music (cruise ships and movie theater candy contrabanding are another story). I know millions of people do it and they have no moral objection to it, but I do, so I don't. I mean look: if your team just won the World Series, you don't have to tip over cars just because that's what other cities have done after championship wins. Philly fans won the World Series and the first thing that went through too many cheese-steak poisoned heads was "Der, Let's find a car and turn it over." The guido or guido apprentice then stumbled down Broad Street so he could find ONE car. At least in Detroit and Chicago, they tipped cars because the street was too crowded with people. Here, they just wanted to tell their kids, "Hey, little Rock, I tipped over this guy's Camry. Let's go throw rocks at dose gay tourists." Where was I? Oh yeah, mob mentality is for the meat brained. On with the music.
So, I don't exactly have ten albums, because while I bought more than ten albums this year, I know there were better ones out there than the ones I bought or heard legally, so I am just going to review the ones I liked. These are in an order consistent with the Mayan calendar:

Banner Pilot - Resignati on Da y
I'm not sure if I first hear Banner Pilot on the Punknews Fest 6 compilation or if it was shortly before that, but I instantly recognized that I would like this band. Vocals draw me in and lyrics encourage me to stay and this album did both. Lead singer Nick Johnson (not Nick Johnson) sings about the dark, chilly nights in Minneapolis drinking with friends, tired heartbreaks, and making big plans. I know I am just hurting things by making it sound like Counting Crows lyrics, but my words won't do it justice. Read these linear notes. I know a lot of small town kids will identify a lot of the situations in these tunes. This is the kind of music that makes high school bearable for a lot of outcasts. The band is currently recording another album and Twittering the experience.

LaGrecia - On P a rallels
This artifact is a tragic little gem. LaGrecia was the third band for vocalist and lyricist Jason Shevchuk, formerly (and now currently) None More Black and Kid Dynamite (still not counting his metal band Bound). Before this album was even released by Suburban Home Records, he left the three-piece, leaving hundreds or thousands of albums with no band to tour, promote, and sell them. Why the sudden departure? It's his third band in about 9 or 10 years. He is never content. The reason this time though was because he dipped his pen in the company ink (company ink aka Dana Berkowitz played drums for the band). The songs on this album differed from other Shevchuk products in that it was more "indie" and experimental than a straight forward punk or melodic hardcore band. A couple of tracks, including Slower Than Manasses and Two Shotguns, have some jazz influence. It would have been fun to sing along with this band live, but we'll all have to settle for yelling in our car. Also, the album art by bassist Sal DellAquila is by far the best of any 2008 album, hands fucking down.

Lemuria - Get Better
Female lead singers have to walk a fine line. Unfairly or not, she has to maintain her femininity without being so "girly" that they are looked down upon by the majority of the punk audience. I suppose that's a gauntlet all successful women have to face but this album just made me think about it. (Co?)Lead singer Sheena Ozzella has strong, consistent vocals that still sound like they're sung by a girl. I wouldn't be surprised to find out she was a classically trained vocalist. And while a lot of female-fronted groups have their chick strutting around like she is on the short list to join the Pussycat Dolls, Ozzella isn't that kind of girl. The band's music is, rightfully so, the show. My preference for this album has fluctuated the few months I have been listening to it. When I first got it, I loved the sweet harmonies between Ozzella and drummer Alex Kerns. But the more I listened to it, I was a little turned off by the constant repetition in the lyrics. The choruses on almost all the songs are repeated to a point where I wonder if they ran out of lyrics. However, even later I grew to like that as well. I mean, despite the clear vocals, they're a punk band (or an indie band with punk aesthetic) and if it's something punk bands do well, it's make catchy anthems that are fun to sing along with live.

Murder By Death - Re d of Tooth and Claw
Take a spaghetti western, make it darker, place random barrels of whiskey around (more than usual) then you are on your way to understanding the aesthetic created by Murder by Death's style of music and Red of Tooth and Claw is no different. It's hard to pigeon hole the sound. The two most distinctive aspects of the music are Adam Turla's baritone singing and the cello work by Sarah Balliet. Lyrics tend to focus on good versus evil and traveling themes. I also got to catch Murder By Death live this year and it was one of the most fun shows I have been attended in a long time. They deftly carry their studio sound to the stage. The band is reportedly working on a follow up to their concept album Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them for the near future. I can't wait to see what's in store for this talented group.

The Gaslight Anthem - Señor and the Queen & The '59 Sound
While it's hard to pick an album of the year, the most impressive band of the the year is The Gaslight Anthem. They're everywhere and deservedly so. This band takes the best from The Bouncing Souls, The Clash, and Born to Ride-era Springsteen to make a sound that sounds fresh even with so many nods to other artists. They released a four-song EP on Sabot Records and later signed with SideOneDummy and released the full length heard 'round the world. The EP is a cleaner continuation of the debut Sink or Swim. The most noticeable aspect on The '59 Sound is the echo in the vocals. Lead singer Brian Fallon continually explains in interviews that the echo or reverb was a conscious choice to pay homage to albums produced in the late fifties and early sixties. While I still can't see the parallel between the production on this album and those of yesteryear, I like the atmosphere it creates. I had an opportunity to see this band open for Alkaline Trio, Thrice, and Rise Against. Unfortunately, they started their set exactly on time and I only got to see two songs (The Backseat and Angry Johnny and The Radio). While I was disappointed at the time, it says a lot about the band that those two songs were the highlight of an outstanding evening. I read somewhere that they are going to tour this Spring, so I'll make sure to catch the full set then. In the meantime, I'll continue to sing with my heroes, my arms in my bothers arms.

The Others:
Alkaline Trio - Agony & Irony
This was an improvement over Crimson, but they have to shake that poppy, atmospheric crap. I even got the deluxe set to get the acoustic songs. Even that is only 70% good.

The Briggs - Come All You Madmen
The Briggs are a talented group that oftentimes take the street punk genre to new and fun places. Unfortunately, even they fall victim to some of the limits of the style occasionally. This conflict is found on Come All You Madmen when a beautiful song like Molly can't even overcome the sickeningly silly This is L.A. It wouldn't have been so bad but they made that terrible track their single. C'mon guys, you're better than that.

Less Than Jake - GNA FLA
I still love this band. A few inspired tracks including the single Does the Lion Still Roar are signs that they can still write new tunes that will get the crowd singing along. Unfortunately, the album is largely forgettable.

Chuck Ragan/Austin Lucas - Bristle Ridge
Mr. Ragan teams up with former Man Alive lead singer Austin Lucas and family to make a bluegrass album. The result is a tight album from two seasoned professionals. If you are open minded enough to expand beyond the punk genre, check out this collaboration.

Shorebirds - It's Gonna Get Ugly
This mayfly of a band was the cocktease of the year. Matt Canino, formerly of Latterman, and Chris Bauermeister, formerly of Jawbreaker, and some drummer formed this band that was not to be. As is Canino's M.O., the group disbanded but not before releasing an EP and this full length. I suppose this never came out in CD format, only a 12" vinyl, because, as Canino and/or his significant hipster girlfriend/entrepreneur stated: they're "a record label, not an MP3 label." Despite that reactionary, Luddite attitude, there are MP3s out there for sale on odd MP3 sites and there are torrents, but I have trouble believing that the band or label (Rumbletowne) sees any of that profit, so I'm not buying. Fortunately, I got to hear it on Punknews. Heartfelt music and trademarked strained vocals characterize this beautiful album.

Paint It Black - New Lexicon
Dan Yemin's contribution to the punk and hardcore community is undeniable. Lifetime, Kid Dynamite, and now Paint It Black have all been amazing bands. I just can't get into the latter. I can tell it's technically great, but as a whole I'm not into it. I guess I'm not hardcore.

Albums released that I haven't heard all the way through, but really want to:
Off With Their Heads - From The Bottom
The Riot Before - Fists Buried in Pockets
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
The Tossers - On A Fine Spring Evening

2009 Anticipation:
Ben Nichols - The Last Pale Light In The West (the full length, 7 song mini-album released late 2008)
New Banner Pilot
New Lawrence Arms (hopefully)
New The Verbs (Redux)

Want some tracks from bands I discussed? Here you go:

I realize that I probably missed a lot, but whatever. Check out the two new blogs I added to my blog list: Walkoff Walk and Sound Scene Revolution.

Album images courtesy of Punknews.

Best Laid Plans

2008-11-09T19:08:00.000-08:00

While my thesis has always been that punk and baseball share a symbiotic, harmonious relationship, there have been glaring instances where that simply isn't the case. The most obvious and largest example of this occurred in late August 2006 in Pittsburgh's, then newly opened, PNC Park. Punk cover super band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes were booed of the damn stage (on a side note, it's fun finding Punknews articles with no cited sources). If you know about anything about this band, then you know this did not faze them in the least and they were laid back enough to laugh the situation off. Here is the only footage of the show that I could find on the webs. If you have or can find better footage (preferably with more drunken heckling), let me know and I'll post it.

The music that disturbed the delicate sensibilities of Pittsburgh residents :

Checking Back In

2008-09-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

So I've neglected this blog for a while, but I've been busy and the Cards collapsed so I've (unfairly) been less interested in baseball.
Well, what's been going on? The Cards, as I've mentioned, have sucked. All they needed to do was finish .500, but instead they decided to get swept by the motherfuggin Pirates! Rays have clinched. Cubs have *heave* clinched. Mets have been sucking. Yankees still take up too much airtime. Blah blah. Forgive my general indifference. I think I'll root for Tampa Bay during the playoffs. They don't play in a city that has a mostly white working class so there is no chance of that the team will be romanticized.
Musically I've been listening to Banner Pilot's Resignation Day. It's such a solid album. All the songs fit together like a finely tuned piano (just try to untangle that metaphor).

Speaking of music, here's what I really want to talk about. First, please listen to this podcast by a couple friends of mine. Mike, the guy getting interviewed, tells the story of one of his band's songs. The song and the story behind it are equally beautiful and I want everyone I know and don't know to hear it. His whole band (minus the new bassist) did a previous podcast as well that exhibits their great senses of humor. A little funny after the kind of sad story is good for the soul.

I'd also like my small group of readers to check out Mike's band called The Verbs (Redux) (be sure to click on their album on the left). The first thing you may notice is that it isn't punk. We'll I'm a complicated man with many tastes, so humor me. If you notice, it's a pay what you want system, so do just that: pay whatever you want. Fifty percent of all the proceeds goes back to the band. I think the default setting is $.45 a track, but you can click on the price and lower or raise it to what ever you think it is worth. If you like hip-hop or alternative music, check out the other bands on that link as well.

Another cool aspect of all this music on this label (LemonDrop Records) is that it is under a Creative Commons license. That means you are free to distribute it as long as you give the band and the label credit. You can also use it in your own creative products, again as long as you give credit to the band(s) and the label. That's a pretty cool deal for all artists out there (DJs, filmmakers, etc.).

All right, I leave for a month or so and now I ask for you to DO stuff. I know, I'm sorry. I think I am going to do some music reviews in the off season and I'll probably keep track of some of the fun hot stove league. I enjoy that stuff a lot but that's probably the fantasy geek in me. Anyway, keep well, y'all.

Do As I Say Anything, Not As I Do Nothing

2008-08-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

Recently, Max Bemis, leader of hipster group Say Anything, announced to his fans that he would write songs. Not settled for this great achievement, Bemis promised he would let fans have input on the songs he wrote for a low, low price of $150 a pop. When this ~~scheme~~ opportunity was announced on Punknews, the usual comments followed: some humorous, some supportive, some ad hominem, and some legitimate criticism.
Rather than allow the rather innocuous new item and the comments pass, as most artists do, Mr. Bemis chose to issue a "clarifying" statement to punk site Absolutepunk.net. In this statement, Bemis stated that the Punknews commenters were "strange, slow, old people" and that they should "keep listening exclusively to hot water music and shut up." See what he did there? He took the if-you're-not-my-friend-you're-my-enemy approach. That always works. But whatever your thoughts on this songwriter-for-hire program that he has set up, keep the following information in mind.
Say Anything's debut album is titled Baseball (now it comes full circle). It was released in 2001 and there may be as few as 200 copies of this album ever printed. Even the most committed Say Anything fans may have never heard the band play a song off this album live. Why not? Bemis refuses to play those songs and even refuses to reprint the album. So Bemis has an album full of original songs that he could play and his most loyal fans would love; however, he chooses to have his fans contribute inspiration for a price. With all this revealed about the frontman, I'm not sure how anyone can support a person who won't play Baseball.

Image via Colin Smith at distorted perspective. Check out his stuff. It's great

Bemis let's us know where the hurt is and Dr. Ragan provides the remedy.

At-Bat Songs and the Totalimmortal Curse

2008-08-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

My most loyal commenter, Alex Canteen, mentioned that new New York Met Daniel Murphy uses AFI's "TotalImmortal" as his at-bat song. Using an AFI song is infinitely cooler than how some Met fans pay tribute to the kid. I haven't seen a Mets game since the rookie was called up, so I haven't had a chance to hear it myself. While the song is indeed an AFI creation, found on their All Hallows EP, the more popular version is the Offspring cover, found on the Me, Myself & Irene soundtrack and Alternative radio stations 8 years ago. The song is good, but serves as a mark of where both bands start embarrassing themselves.

Before:

AFI via 1992 or so. Nice clean kids.

After:

Seriously, what the hell happened? Don't be surprised if Daniel Murphy starts looking like this in the next couple weeks. Damn you, "Totalimmortal!"

Moving on, MLB has been chronicling at bat songs of some players around the league in the MLB Entertainment blog. Silly me, I thought baseball itself was entertaining but MLB thinks they need to appeal to every last soul on the planet. (Coming soon: MLB feminine hygiene products. Get a tampon emblazoned with you favorite (or least favorite) baseball team. Giambi-approved!) So far, the team with the "best" overall music taste is the Cleveland Indians but really no one wins here. They only feature a couple players from each team and even fewer songs. ("What this team needs is WAY MORE METALLICA!") I was hoping they'd have C.J. Wilson's musical picks but, alas, no such luck. His taste doesn't even rub off on his teammates, but I have a feeling his cohorts don't want to hear him. What with C.J. saying his teammates are ignorant and selfish and Manager Ron Washington demanding R-E-S-P-E-C-T:

We still love you C.J. even if you won't be a Ranger next year. Especially if you won't be a Ranger next year.

Here's the two versions of Totalimmortal. PunkOnDeck takes no responsibility in the listener of these songs wanting to crank up Conspiracy of One. (You forgot that album, didn't you? We all did.)

Stuck Between Station to Station

2008-08-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

While the infallible Wikipedia says The Hold Steady are "Brooklyn-based," it's no secret that the band exudes Minneapolis pride. That is no more evident than in their professed love for the Twins. While I am not as versed in The Hold Steady as I perhaps should be, they supposedly reference the Twinkies in a number of their songs. At live shows, they give history lessons on the team and they were recently asked to record a rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" (see below), which is played at the Metrodome.

First, check out this interview with singer Craig Finn by Ezra Ace Caraeff of the Portland Mercury from May 2007. Excerpt:

I went down to Fort Meyers, Florida, for two games, and had a lot of fun. I was talking to this guy Jim Walsh, who is doing the Replacements oral history and he told me Paul would be down there. I kind of had my eye out looking for him, and sure enough, he was there with his son. I've never met him before, so it didn't seem like the right time to go bother him. It's funny because even before we did "Take Me out to the Ball Game" for the Twins, I was at the Metrodome last year and noticed how great the music was during the games. They played a lot of the Replacements.

Next, if you have patience with buffering, check out this video with Finn and guitarist Tad Kubler talking about the Twins and baseball in general.

The Hold Steady on Baseball!

And finally some tunes, of course:

Photo courtesy of Blue Collar Distro.

Speak Up

2008-07-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

A blog that has significantly more traffic than mine recently did an interview with Scott Radinsky (Ten Foot Pole, Pulley). Radinsky talks to Huggin Harold Reynolds about music, coaching, and his skate park venture. Here's a little to wet your whistle:

How do you juggle running the park, singing in the band and coaching?

I am surrounded by some pretty good people. I could not run a business if there wasn’t someone I could trust. So I am lucky to have that. The band has been going now for over 20 years in this same format, so I think it’s safe to say it runs itself. We have all learned how to make it work this way and get the most out of it. Coaching, well for me its the same as when I was playing as far as the time it takes away during a year. So it has been easy for all of us.

Meanwhile, this interview/confrontation recently came to my attention. I already thought Billy Beane was the most interesting GM in baseball. Do yourself a favor and read Moneyball if you haven't already. It will most likely change how you see the game and you will realize why so many people hate Joe Morgan .
Anyway, Billy Beane is an unabashed rock fan so this interview with Johnny Ramone is a gushing fanboy mess. I think the interview took place in 2002, which would be about 2 years before Johnny's death. It was presented by something called Chin Music magazine. It looks like this 'zine had a similar mission to Punk on Deck. So if you have some time to kill while refreshing the Punknews boards, check out the Chin Music archives. A wee bit of ultra-interview:

BB: Well, when I gave Hatteberg "The Filth & the Fury," I explained to him the differences between the New York scene and the English scene. He actually went home and watched it and he was just blown away. He couldn't believe how great it was!
JR: Oh, he was liking it then?
BB: Oh, he loved it!

So if you see Billy Beane out and about in Oakland, challenge him to some Guitar Hero or something.

Pick a Side

2008-07-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

Quick post. You have to pick one: Phillies or Mets. I like this rivalry. It's nowhere near Yanks/Red Sox or Cards/Cubs, but it's better than Giants/Dodgers. I'll help you with your decision. Here is a 2007 picture of the Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino.

Granted it's a Chuck Liddell style mohawk but kind of cool. Here's the Mets' leadoff man Jose Reyes:

Defend this, Mets fans. I'm sorry to kick you while you're down, but c'mon.

Photos courtesy of Bugs & Cranks and Newsday (via: Sportingnews)

Steal Your Words -- Ryan Paul Interview

2008-06-30T12:07:00.000-07:00

Shortly after posting the "Pro Ball Punk" feature on Giants prospect Ryan Paul, I got an e-mail from the man himself. This being such a small blog, I was surprised that he even found it but it was an honor to say the least. He even offered to field some questions so I sent a few basics to him. Enjoy.

When you were growing up, who was your favorite ballplayer?
I always liked the Seattle superstars, Ken Jr and the Big Unit. (I had a coach who called me the medium unit, brutal nickname, haha) But the first player I really got excited about watching was Scott Radinsky. Go figure! The best part was, during the time he was with the Dodger, I had no idea about the other side of him. Didn't know he was a local guy, I was singing Pulley tracks not knowing he was on vocals, and had no idea about the skateboard side either. Later on, when I discovered all of this, he pretty much became my idol. One of the biggest compliments I ever received was this high school coach, my pony ball coach at the time, telling me I reminded him of Scott Radinsky.

What was the best concert you've ever attended?
Well Strung Out always puts on a great show, the small local places are the best, it's always the same people in the crowd. That said, my favorite was None More Black. It just so happens, that it ties into baseball. In 2006 I was playing at CSUF at the time, and we had a series against Long Beach state. Originally the show was scheduled or mislabeled to be on a Sunday night. We play day games on Sunday, so I would have plenty of time to make it. Turns out the show was on Saturday night. I was crushed! NMB was playing on the west coast, 15 minutes from my apartment and I cant see them. Anyways, Saturday night comes and we are warming up for the game. About 30 minutes prior to the start a transformer blows up on one of the light poles. The game is delayed for sometime, and finally cancelled. I get all excited about making it to the show. Of course we hit traffic on the way back to Fullerton, and I'm thinking all is lost. To sum it up, I managed to change, pick up my bro, and drive to Chain Reaction (the club) in record time. We rolled in and NMB was just stepping up to the stage. I think we all know what happened after that. The whole day of events seemed like they were out of a movie. That was a very special show for me.

Do you have any music recommendations for my dozens of readers?
Obviously I recommend anything by Strung Out, Kid Dynamite and NMB, but that's boring, everyone knows those bands. I'll try to throw out a few people may have never heard of.

Shook Ones - Sixteen I'm pretty sure these guys are out of Washington. I was online somewhere searching for a Kid Dynamite replacement and found Shook Ones. Pretty fast, sloppy at times, and rough vocals. Perfect! The album is something like 16 songs and only 20 minutes long with "Crunch time in tooth town" being my favorite track.

Battleflask - Pledge Your Allegiance. Saw these guys open up for Strung Out in the San Fernando Valley. I have never seen this kind of energy from a lead singer. During the song "World Class Hero" Phillipe screams out "ARE YOU READY!? ARE YOU READY!?" While pointing at people in the crowd and staring them down. He pointed at me and I almost crapped myself. I was thinking "Dude, I dunno what he is talking about, but I'm sure as hell going to get ready for it." Anyways, "Pledge Your Allegiance" is only a couple song EP, but it's worth checking out. Go see them live!
Drunk in Public - Tapped Out This band is from Lompoc, Ca. That's all I got on these guys, they probably are not even around anymore. A friend dropped off the album a long time ago. It's punk with just a hint of twang mixed around. Dude, the album cover has astronauts hooked up to kegs, floating in space. What else do you need to know?

---------
If you haven't clicked on those band links, do so. Ryan has some great taste in music. Remember, Ryan pitches for the Augusta Green Jackets in the Class A South Atlantic League. If you are near Augusta or a team that plays in the league, be sure to go to a game to see him pitch. He's a reliever (mostly), so you never know when he'll get the call. But when he warms up in Augusta, his walk out song is "Drop the Pop" by None More Black.

I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on his progress over the season and beyond. Good luck, Ryan and thanks for the interview.

Photos courtesy of SJGiantsFan.org and Doug Pensinger/Getty Images.

Pro Ball Punk -- Ryan Paul

2008-06-26T18:41:00.001-07:00

Our first minor league pro ball punk is found all the way in the single A South Atlantic League. Ryan Paul is a relief pitcher for the Augusta Green Jackets, an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, located in Augusta, Ga. The south paw was the Giants 10th pick in the 2006 draft. He spent some time in high A ball with the San Jose Giants this year but was demoted to make room for another pitcher.
He pitched collegiately for the Cal State Fullerton Titans. His college bio is the only clue I have that he is into punk. Under favorite musical artists he lists Kid Dynamite, None More Black, and Strung Out. The dude is "Orgcore." I wonder if he knows about the band that never was, LaGrecia. Their new and only album On Parallels is awesome, by the way.

So if anybody lives near Augusta and goes to a Green Jackets game, let me know what song they play when he enters a game. If you are feeling industrious, try to interview the guy.

File under "Wha . . .?"

2008-06-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

So I found this odd. I'm not sure why I think it is so out of place, but it really is cool information. Stephen Malkmus of Pavement and now Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks is a big baseball fan. Not only that, but he plays fantasy baseball and, apparently, softball with what I imagine to be indie-waifs from Portland. This was all revealed to me through an interview at the blog 17 Dots.
Highlights include his thoughts on Brett Myers ("He's a bad redneck."), mohawks (They're dumb, mohawks.") and the indie rock sports community (Read the interview).
The entry's a few months old but it is still useful. You can really tell that he is a big fan.
As far as the music side, my knowledge of 90s college rock is limited. I DO know that a Pavement song leads into Pardon the Interruption (see below). That's all I got. But nevertheless, this was a pleasantly surprising find.

Photo courtesy of Moses Berkson and Matador Records.

Pro Ball Punk -- Jonathan Papelbon

2008-06-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

It's rather appropriate that Jonathan Papelbon plays for a team that claims the Dropkick Murphys as its unofficial house band. The Dropkicks are known for pandering to Boston's sense of phony nostalgia with catchy anthems. See that Scorsese film. Since that film, it had been observed that there are quite a few more, let's say, mainstream music fans at Dropkick shows.
As you can see, Papelbon went with the mohawk in the past. But just as listening to the Dropkick Murphys doesn't make you punk, having a mohawk doesn't either. He has also been known to pander to Boston.

But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He currently has a 1.84 ERA and .89 WHIP. As a commenter pointed out, pitching successfully in a bandbox of a stadium is very respectable. Papelbon does just that in Fenway, which features a high wall at tee ball distance in left field.

Papelbon also has a web site and he does some charity work as well. Overall, I give Johnathan a pass, but I am more impressed with his brother Josh, who throws sidearm.

Photo courtesy of JoeSportsFan.com. Check out their Worthless Card Collection.

Pop Punk Band Sets Tour Through Minor League Ballparks

2008-06-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

Tooth and Nail act Hawk Nelson have recently announced a "Faith Nights Baseball Tour." This tour will take the Canadian act through minor league parks throughout the US. While I don't support Hawk Nelson's brand of pre-packaged, sugary, Christian pop, I do support the idea of bands touring minor league ballparks. More bands, expecially ones trying to get their name out, should do this. It's a venue that guarantees at least a thousand or more listeners and minor league games are everywhere. There is no shortage of games throughout the country. Personally, I think a ball cap from each park you play would be cool, too. If you are interested in seeing Hawk Nelson, you can check them out at the following games:

6.8.08 Huntsville Stars, Huntsville, AL
6.26.08 Durham Bulls, Durham, NC
7.13.08 Memphis Redbirds, Memphis, TN
7.24.08 Fort Wayne Wizards, Fort Wayne, IN
7.25.08 South Bend Silver Hawks, South Bend, IN
7.26.08 Akron Aeros, Akron, OH
7.27.08 Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, Appleton, WI
7.28.08 West Michigan White Caps, Comstock Park, MI
7.30.08 Mississippi Braves, Pearl, MS
8.14.08 Frisco Rough Riders, Frisco, TX
8.16.08 Tucson Sidewinders, Tucson, AZ
8.20.08 Fresno Grizzlies, Fresno, CA
8.22.08 High Desert Mavericks, Adelanto, CA
8.27.08 Modesto Nuts, Modesto, CA

I'd like to see a pic of this band in Modesto Nuts gear.

Photo courtesy of the Cleveland Leader.

The Standard Bearer -- Scott Radinsky

2008-06-07T15:38:00.000-07:00

I'd be remiss to leave this guy out. Lead singer of So-Cal punk acts Ten Foot Pole and, currently, Pulley, Scott Radinsky was/is the quintessential punk rock baseball player. A south paw pitcher, Radinsky made his debut with the Chicago White Sox on April 9, 1990. He was an effective "LOOGY" throughout his career, which spanned to 2001, making stops with the Dodgers, Cardinals, and Indians. He didn't pitch in 1994 due to being diagnosed with and undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma. But no worries, he kicked cancer's ass.

Radinsky's musical career began in 1983, with Ten Foot Pole, then known as Scared Straight. Under this name and line-up, the band released two albums: Swill and Rev. Radinsky and the rest of TFP parted ways in the mid 90s, apparently because the band wanted didn't want to compete with Radinsky's baseball career. (Ten Foot Pole replaced him with a 13 year old boy. At least, that's what it sounds like. Sorry Dennis Jagard, your vocals are annoying.)

Enter Pulley. The band released their first album, Esteem Driven Engine in 1996. Overall, the band has released five full-lengths, most recently Matters in 2004. Also in 2004, they did a split with The Slackers and did a bunch of Minor Threat covers for some reason.

Today, Radinsky is the pitching coach of the Buffalo Bisons, the Triple A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. Meanwhile, there is a new Pulley EP out there somewhere and one of these days, it will be released. I suspect we won't see it until the Buffalo no longer roam.

Take a listen to some of his tunes.

Photos courtesy of Roctober Magazine and the Pulley MySpace.

Pro Ball Punk -- C.J. Wilson

2008-06-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

One of the new crop of punk ball players, C.J. Wilson lives his ideals. The current Texas Rangers closer connects with his fans via his MySpace and holds regular Guitar Hero tournaments to raise money for charity. While his musical taste seems a little too screamy metal/whiny for my liking (Killswitch Engage, etc.), the dude's charisma is undeniable. He drives speedy rocket cars through the streets of European cities and will, undoubtedly, steal your girlfriend.

As of June 6, he has a 4.32 ERA with a 1.16 WHIP and 11 saves. To be fair, however, his ERA is that high mostly from one bad outing versus Seattle (a 54.00 ERA in .2 IP, yuck).

He used to keep an MLBlog, which I linked to on the left. The last entry was earlier this year, so he may get back to that.

Oh yeah. He's straight-edge, too.

"Cubs v. White Sox" through the Larry Arms Lens

2008-06-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

Chicago's finest, The Lawrence Arms, posted some segments they taped for ManiaTV (because they're crazy, wakka wakka) on ye old YouTube. One segment at about 1:25 has them breaking down the conflicted loyalties of the Chicago baseball fan. Check it out because these guys are always good for a laugh.

I'm pretty sure the Chicago sentiment is unique to the area. New York fans don't vacillate between teams. I know Cards and Royals fans don't change loyalties like underwear. It's quite the Second City phenomenon.

Tradition of Success

2008-06-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

Why is this guy punk?

Despite what you may believe, it isn't because of the mohawk. It's because he appears to be wearing a replica 2006 World Series ring on his right index finger. Winning your tenth world championship will give you that swagger.

Thanks to Bob Crowe at Saint Louis Daily Photo Blog for the pic.

Let's get rockin

2008-06-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

In high school, where roles are rigidly defined like the caste system in India or the Hamptons, it is difficult, if not impossible to be both a jock and a punk. If you like you music loud and fast, you can't be on any sports teams. If you play football or baseball, you are being fake. Fortunately, common sense slowly sets in about the age of 20 and these two aspects no longer become mutually exclusive. That's all this blog is about. Let's see how long this one lasts.

One story that I want to feature tonight is about the Double A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, the Springfield, Cardinals. This story by Kary Boohar had shed some light on a minor league punk, Adam Ottavino:

His season had soured enough, with a bloated ERA and worrisome record chipping away at his confidence, and so Springfield Cardinals right-hander Adam Ottavino figured it was time to get right on Sunday.
And he wasn't kidding.
Earlier this season, his warm-up music was "Jukebox Hero" by Foreigner. On Sunday, he turned to "Mother," the edgy, signature song of 1990s death metal band Danzig.

I am going to give Boohar a pass on calling Danzig "death metal" because that's not the story. The dude went from Foreigner to Danzig. Did he dig the album up from his brothers lp collection/pot stash between games of D&D? It's not too often that you see such a musical transformation, but when it happens, how can you not be proud?

Yeah, I didn't link to "Jukebox Hero." You know what it sounds like.

Punk on Deck

Music Review 2K10

The Confounidng Art of a 20-Inning Loss

MLB and Music Mashup

I no longer care what anyone eats ever.

Scarfing Scribe Scavenger Hunt *SCORING UPDATE*

Rock in the Year of the Ox

Pulley Performer Picked to Prepare 'Pen at Progressive Park

In the Batting Circle: NoMeansNo

Press Box Blues

In the Batting Circle: Vietnam Werewolf

In the Batting Circle: Murder By Death

Defending the Bully

King of Crap Mountain

In the Batting Circle: Nothington

Outrage for Profit!

You've Been to "The Show:" Cropdusters &The Bootheel

Doing the AL for some reason

Starting at an Ending: NLDS

The Kings

The Big Show: Red Collar

What's your card?

Nerd Alert: Curveball Edition

EXCLUSIVE TRACKS: Volcania

Q&A with Roger Clemens

The Draft and other one shot wonders

Audio Visual Interpretation of the Mets Organization

Ryan Roberts Sports Ink

Greetings and Apologies

Linear Notes and Rap Sheets -- A.L. East

The Big Thaw

What's Great in 2008? Rhyming, That's What!

Best Laid Plans

Checking Back In

Do As I Say Anything, Not As I Do Nothing

At-Bat Songs and the Totalimmortal Curse

Stuck Between Station to Station

Speak Up

Pick a Side

Steal Your Words -- Ryan Paul Interview

Pro Ball Punk -- Ryan Paul

File under "Wha . . .?"

Pro Ball Punk -- Jonathan Papelbon

Pop Punk Band Sets Tour Through Minor League Ballparks

The Standard Bearer -- Scott Radinsky

Pro Ball Punk -- C.J. Wilson

"Cubs v. White Sox" through the Larry Arms Lens

Tradition of Success

Let's get rockin

Scarfing Scribe Scavenger Hunt SCORING UPDATE