Events Round Up: Art Fag & Crocs Stuff

So nice to see you on the Lord's day. Happy sabbath to you and yours, and remember..He's a good god, a just god and heck, a giving god. And I'm bored. On with the round up!!

Thursday December 4 - blackblack and Crocodiles at Mountain Bar in Los Angeles. $?

Sunday December 21 - Too Many CHRISTMAS Creeps. Our Sunday night weirdo fest gets a yuletide screw in the butt. Count on xmas jingles mixed in to the usual punk, post punk and underground fare. We'll be wearing antlers and santa hats. DJs Mario Orduno, Sir Charles and Brandon Welchez. FREE @ The Whistle Stop in San Diego.

Saturday December 27 - Nite Jewel, Spirit Photography @ Soda Bar in San Diego. Also, djs Sir Charles and Mario Orduno. $5.

Monday December 29 - Finally Punk (Austin, TX), Crocodiles, Doctor Bird and Blessure Grave @ The Casbah in San Diego. Also djs Jeff Graves and Mario Orduno. $8 no presale get there early!!

NYE09 @ The Whistle Stop in San Diego. Dancing crap for 5 bucks. Count on the usual crappy and untalented mix you're grown to love from yr drunken dogs. No midnight toast, no photographers, and no tramps 'hosting'. Just us and masses of booze..

Is this it? Not really a round up per se. More like a blurb.

The Muslims Change Their Name

The Muslims from SD/LA are now called The Soft Pack. Get with it.

One Last Wish / Faith/Void Split Reissues

Soooooooooooo, next week Dischord Records is going to reissue two of the best recordings they ever released. 1986's One Last Wish record and the long out of print Faith/Void split (1982). These have been on cd for a long time bit the vinyl has never exsisted for OLW and F/V went out of print god knows when. Needless to say, I'm ecstatic. In celebratory fashion I'm posting my favorite song by OLW, filmed at one of their 6 shows AND Void's Who Are You. Enjoy.

And in parting, there was this girl back in the day here in lovely San Diego that everybody wanted to marry. Not just hook up with, but MARRY. She had a VOID tattoo in her bottom lip.


One Last Wish "My Better Half"







Void "Who Are You"

Jilted John

You want to be made happy? Or maybe just develop a snicker? Well then just watch this little gem. Dumped? Write a song! GORDON IS A MORON! (And she's a bitch, mind you...and it's not fair.)





How funny. This was produced by Martin Hannett!! So great...

Big Shows By The Bay / New Music Alert : Dum Dum Girls

I'm super excited about the string of shows this weekend in the bay area. Not just because Crocodiles and I tend to get blackout drunk on these trips, or that we'll make another visit to Rooky Ricardo's in Lower Haight. Not even because it's the birthplace of the 60s (inside joke). The reason I'm super excited is because I was able to coax the reclusive Dum Dum Girls to play these shows. Dum Dum Girls have been pulsing sweet addictive nuggets from my stereo for the weeks since I got this disc in the mail. It doesn't look to be ending anytime soon either. DDG is really just a gal from Los Angeles named Dee Dee. Don't know much about her except she's really polite, painfully shy, makes super good shoe gaze bomb cuts in her room and lives in the city of angels. As polite as she is, don't count on her answering any questions, she won't give up the 411. But, hey, if you're in the bay area this weekend, you can see her in person and share the magic. Listen to this song below and get all into it. There'll be a release soon so look out for it!! In uniform with her steez, there's not any info available on the release except that it's a cd. 7" Singles on Art Fag and HoZac in the coming year too. See ya in the bay Thursday and Friday.



Dum Dum Girls Myspace








San Francisco





Oakland

Negative Creep

Fuck this is so good. Boredom brought me here and I'm very thankful. I'd never seen this footage, and I think it has to be the best I've seen of this song. Negative Creep was the first Nirvana song I ever heard and it ranks in my top 10 maybe 5.

I was at a Nirvana in-store much like this one and it was amazing. I got a Smells Like Teen Spirit 12" signed by the band and 10 years later sold it for a thousand dollars. It still kinda makes me sad.

Crass' Walls From 'Stations Of The Crass' 1979

This is one of my favorite Crass songs. A lot of people don't even realize Crass made a song like this. Walls (Fun In The Oven). It's from Stations Of The Crass (1979) and if you don't have it you should get with the program. The video below is fan made, sure but it is done kinda well and fits with the lyrics, you know what I mean? I'm just tying to give something to enjoy is all. Some visuals or something. But I think I can promise video or no video you will love this song. Joy De Vivre's vocals are perfect. I used to sing along like "toodah toodah toodah toodah toodah toodah toodah toodah", but so that you won't go through the same shame, I put the lyrics down below. C-Ya.






...desire, desire, desire, desire,
Desire, desire, desire, desire,
Desire, desire, desire, desire,
Describe, desire, defile, deny.
Defile, desire, deny, desire.
Describe, describe, describe, describe.
No air to breath inside your walls,
Left to dream inside your walls.
Left us in a wilderness,
Well I can make my paradise.
Without your walls I am alive,
No body I, in rank and file.
Girl and boy and man and wife,
Flesh your measure with a smile.
Have and hold and hold and have,
Have and hold and hold and have.
Desire, deny, deny, desire,
Have a child to justify.
Images that you apply,
I won't bow my head in shame.
I won't play the game the same,
Without your walls I am alive.
Without your walls we all survive,
Without your walls no guilt to bear.
Without your love, our love to share,
Without your walls I am alive.
Without your walls I am alive.
Without your walls I am alive.
WITHOUT YOUR WALLS I AM ALIVE...

Mobile Again

Jesus Christmas, after EXACTLY 1 1/2 years without a vehicle (R.I.P. '87 Cadillac w/ perfect leather interior), I now have one of these god damned things. The Vespa LXV 150 in sienna. I call it cream, beige or tan, but they call it sienna because evidently it's fancier. Fuck, this is going to be fun.

Check out these cool commercials.







Vespa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa!

Mister Lonely Screening This Sunday @ Too Many Creeps / San Diego

This message is a San Diego message. So just scroll down readers in Seattle, Osaka, and the Heavily Fortified Green Zone, Iraq.

This Sunday Too Many Creeps presents a screening of Mister Lonely by Harmony Korine (Kids, Gummo). We're really excited and have been waiting FOREVER for this. remember how long I wrote about this movie? Jesus, like April or some shit. And then it never even opened in my beloved city. But never fear sunny San Diegans, we got it for you TWO days before you can rent it. Screening begins at 8:30pm SHARP!! This is FREE!!








Immediately after the movie we're going back to the same weirdo music and cold suds you've grown to love at Too Many Creeps. MAXIMUM JOY ON SUNDAY NIGHTS.






So, as you should know, Too Many Creeps takes place EVERY Sunday at The Whistle Stop. C-YA there San Diego, California!!

Jess Holzworth / Awesome Art / New Beck Video

Some years ago I had a night thing here in in San Diego called Contort. We played all kinds of loud, noisy, crazy crap and it was a lotta fun. When I needed a flier my friend Jess, who was an already accomplished artist but kept it on the down low, volunteered to make it for me. What came of it was an offensive, beautiful masterpiece. A collage of porn, wild animals, duct tape and glitter. If my scanner wasn't on the fritz, I would scan it in below. Maybe in the near future I'll take it over to FedexOffice/Kinko's/Kinko's Office Depot. In the meantime, check these similar "pieces" she's created not too long ago.










So, the reason I'm bringing this up, is because Jess has recently directed her first video for Beck, and it's seriously that flier, or the rest of her art come too life. Substitute the porno star with Jess' pal Chloe Sevigny. The song's kind of, "eh", but the video is TOP NOTCH. Alright Jess!!



"Gamma Ray" Directed by Jess Holzworth


Beck - Gamma Ray




The only way to see it hi quality is thru Myspace for some reason. Must be some exclusive shit. And like I said, I'll post her old fliers she made for me soon!!

U.S. Tour Photo Diary

Phoenix, Arizona - This was the first night of the trip. Chuck got us in some trouble with the locals.




Wichita, Kansas - This is the biggest cat I've ever seen. HIs name is Frankie. He looked like one of those internet hoaxes, but in the flesh, right in front of my eyes. The kids we met and stayed with were rad. We had a blast staying up and partying but when it came time for bed, I realized I forgot a blanket. They had none to provide either. It was freezing cold and I was bummed, but Frankie came over and laid on my back. I'm not kidding. It was perfect, he was big enough to basically cover me like a blanket.



I can't remember what city this was. Somewhere in the midwest. We got to a motel super late after the show and this little guy came bounding over to us. He had no collar on and it was raining. I asked the clerk if he belonged to any of the tenants and the guy said no. He suggested we just leave the dog alone, but we were right next to a freeway, so we decided to have him spend the night with us. He was the friendliest dog and obviously someone's pet as he was clean and groomed and had a cowlick on his neck from where a collar usually was. We didn't know what the right thing to do was but we knew we didn't want him to go the pound and get killed. We considered taking him with us for the rest of the tour, but bars and basements with loud music are no place for dogs. In the end we found a no-kill shelter who picked him up in the morning. I hope he got reunited with his owners.








St. Louis, Missouri - This is the part of the trip where Chuck and I coordinated contorting our mouths in unison. Just kidding, but seriously, look how stupid both of our mouths look.
We stayed with an old, dear friend, Tony. He took most of these pictures. He also took us downtown to dance.



Kilmarnock, Virginia - Chuck's birthday. We stayed with his grandparents for two days and ate real meals and slept in real beds. It was amazing. The icing on the cake was that his grandparents bought him icing and a cake on his birthday.







New York, New York - We were here for 4 or 5 days and got to see lots of friends and family and stuff. One night, an impromptu game of street soccer took place. Our friend Freddy bought a soccer ball off some dude in Manhattan and 4 or 5 us had a moving game of soccer as we made our way down Houston Street. Every so often a group of strangers would join us for 10 minutes or so before getting to their destination.







Tulsa, Oklahoma - Election night! We played an election watch party and got to see history unfold with a bunch of nice folks. After Obama's win was confirmed the mood was extremely jubilant. Anyone in a band who's reading this: Play Soundpony in Tulsa. The staff are super nice as are the locals. They took really good care of us and we made some great friends, such as Kelley, the gentleman with the beard. He had been in a bunch of Tulsa, Phoenix and New York punk bands in the late seventies and early eighties. Also, the cat at the end's name is Kitler. As in, "Adolf Kitler".

Video Rewind : The Wagon By Dinosaur jr

This old nugget of pure slacker goodness. I'm so bummed I sold my purple Dinosaur Jr shirt. It would looked nice on me now. I could listen to all of the albums from 85-94 all day long and not get sick of 'em. Although the SST ones are more popular and have a distictly different sound, this single has a special place en mi corazon.

Happy Yet Bummed

I live in California, so you need to know about CA to understand this blog-O-rama.

I'm so happy about Barack Obama winning. I can't describe it. I want yesterday to happen 10 days in a row and I want that speech to last 3 hours and i want to have been in Grant Park. ECSTATIC. (I also want to weep with Jesse Jackson and Oprah and Steadman.) And Joe Biden's granddaughter is the cutest little chubby cheeked bundle I've seen in ages.

Prop 4 makes me happy too. People get it, but so many don't. Can you imagine this deal was denied by just 52% or some shit? I hate religion.

Prop 2 cool. And 60 some thing percent. Well done. You'll have to pay a penny more for your disgusting eggs but at least you may feel better about it? God damn, eggs are nasty.

PROP EIGHT. What in the hell. This is so fucking sad. What happened? Was it the horrible and misleading commercials that ran the last week? Is California seriously homophobic? It has nothing to do with straight marriage! You are not threatened at ALL. I'm so sad because when California made it OK for gays to marry, i was in San Francisco and the city was electric. So happy and positive that government can do the right thing sometimes. Evidently unless the people don't want it too.

Lastly and least importantly, if you visit San Diego you won't be able to enjoy a can of suds on the beach or any park. Weird right?

The Strange Boys In San Diego Nov 8 (And More)

Whoa. Total hiatus. Sorry 'bout that.

November is looking like its going to be a really busy month. I'm especially excited about this show on Saturday, here in San Diego. The Strange Boys are coming to San Diego, Crocodiles are coming back to San Diego after a month long tour, and Christmas Island (who are always magic and fun) are playing. A new band The Anasazis are opening. Fun right?







Also:

November 17 / Grand Ole Party, Vivian Girls, Nodzz, Love Is All and "DJ" Mario Orduno @ The Casbah in San Diego

November 20 / Crocodiles, Dum Dum Girls and DJ Mario Orduno @ The Knockout in San Francisco

Fun right?

Lastly, Audrina's got massive boobs and I can't believe it's election day. What a long fucking campaign this was. Remember the Youtube debates? That shit was July 2007.