Hardcore Thursday

Dragging ass today, so I decided to blast Hardcore Punk all day. Yeah, old Nazz traveled in these circles back in the day (albeit as a long haired non straight edger). Fuck the straight edge skins (ironic as Nazz now has a shaved head- but that's more due to genetics and Mother Nature's ironic sense of justice), Joey Ramone and Mick Jones were long haired freaks, so I was in good company. 

I never really got the whole straight edge thing- what was better than getting wasted and laid when you were a teen (or for that matter- now!~). Besides, most of the hardcore kids I knew were not straight edge at all. That's sorta what really killed the scene- the dogmatism and inherent judgmental bullshit. 

 The days of CBGB's Sunday matinees and Irving Plaza punk fests might be way over, but the music sorta still lives on. Minor Threat, Kraut, Reagan Youth, Crucial Youth, etc... (mostly) good times! 

 Feast on these and remember...  

I'm a person just like you.

 But I've got better things to do. 

Than sit around and fuck my head.

 Hang out with the living dead. 

 Snort white shit up my nose.

 Pass out at the shows.

 I don't even think about speed. 

That's something I just don't need. I've got a the straight edge. 

 NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

"Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth"

So said Iron Mike Tyson.

Words to live by.

How are YOU taking the hits?

With your hands on head or on the trigger of a gun?

I've Got The Straight Edge

The new job is no longer so new- almost 4 months. The results? Learning the ropes, closing in on some deals (lord willing) and less stress. Much less stress. The negs: My ass is getting fatter from sitting on it all day, I haven't been to the gym in forever, and my vices are getting much much vicier.

Well, what's a poor middle class family provider to do? It's time to get straight. Time to hit the gym every day and have the term 4:20 only refer to the time of day. I must have put on 15 lbs in the last few months and I am not pleased. Nor am I pleased by the cough I am developing and the sore throat.

It's fun to have an addictive personality... it's even more fun when you can channel it into positive results. When I was on the dole, I was hitting the gym for two hours each day. I was running 4 miles and banging the weights big time. I had all the time in the world of course. That is, when I wasn't looking for a job (and as Saint Westerburg sez: "The hardest job is finding one").

It's time to get right again. Yecch.

Covers? Covers!

As a trainspotting effort of sorts (or something), Brother Ib of the esteemed Sibling Shot On The Bleachers and yers truly conspired to throw out some cover versions of toonage that are superior to the originals. Being the anti-dogmatic reprobates that genetics deemed, he threw out one and I am trowing out far less than the ten we targeted.

More importantly: WHAT ARE YOURS???????

Do You Wanna Dance - Ramones -- Bobby Freeman:
The Ramones only wanted to be a top 40 band. Was that so much to ask for? You can tell the Joey songs pretty easily from the Dee Dee songs. The Joey songs were about love. And Joey picked the covers. This one blew the roof off of the original early 60's hit.



Police And Thieves - The Clash -- Junior Murvin:
White reggae at it's finest. Though Strummer would reference the original and tell people to go out and listen to it.





My Way - Sid Vicious -- Paul Frank Sinatra: Covered more famously by Frank Sinatra perhaps, but Sid's version is the standard. "To think, I killed a cat" Genius. Plus Scorcese used Sid's version at the end of Goodfellas!




12XU - Minor Threat -- Wire: Sure, Wire's version is an old school classic, but for sheer energy and THE RAWK, you can't beat Minor Threat.

Affimative Action? Or Reverse Discrimination?

As I toil in the hardest job I have ever had... which is ACTUALLY FINDING ONE, I have noticed a couple of things. The first is that as you email your resume to the gaping maw that is the unknown hiring director; you might as well not even bother. I have doubts that any of the hundreds of resumes even get looked at.

The most troubling one of all is that anytime you fill out an online application, there are two mandatory questions. One is to state your race/ethnic background. The second is to state your sex. True, you do have the option of checking the "i refuse to answer this question" box, but no doubt anyone foolish enough to select that choice is immediately eliminated from the employment competition.

I have no idea how recent these questions have become mandatory. It's (yeah right!) illegal to discriminate in hiring practices in the USA; but why ask the questions? Wouldn't total anonymity be a better guarantee? With answers to these questions, wouldn't companies be establishing quotas? Total reverse discrimination.

Leave it to Canada to get things right; again. Our neighbors to the north ban those types of questions.

I am going to start marking the "eskimo" box.

Vin

1990 in London

At home

With Nazz, faking a handstamp so we could sneak into a club

5 years ago today I got the call that my buddy Vin died. An aneurysm. I woulda bet on liver failure, or getting hit by a car. If you’re lucky in life, you get a friend that you can really consider your brother. Well, I got lucky.

I met Vin back in first year college, when I was tripping hard on acid and he came strolling by with an equally acid addled friend. Vin was back from college and with-in a week, we were best buddies. Over the ensuing 80 or 90 years we went to more shows, got tossed out of more clubs and bars, drank more booze, and got into more trouble than either one of us should have ever been able to survive from. We would constantly push each other to do dumber and dumber things… it wasn’t even to out-do the other, it was more of a scientific pursuit to discover how far we could take it.

Every weekend we’d be at a Circle Jerks, or Fleshtones or Slickee Boys, or Dead or Kraut or whoeverthefuck was in NYC that nite show. Often, one of us would wake up the next morning a bit banged up (more often than not it was Vin, since he couldn’t hold his liquor as well as I could and was smaller than me). Oh, the liquor thing… Vin was definitely in a lifelong battle with John Barleycorn, and more often than not, was the loser. For as much as he drank, he would get hammered pretty early on. He had 4 distinct phases: Stages 1-4. Stage 1 would be the simple slurring and stage 4 would be falling down drunk and speaking utter gibberish. And it might only be a three drink journey from 1 to 4! And God help us if he tried to pick up a girl or if we got back stage to hang with a band. I remember one time when Vin tried to tell John Doe from X the lyrics of some of John’s songs. Doe became completely unhinged as Vin tried to tell him he was singing the songs wrong! Or getting thrown out of the old Peppermint Lounge when we started square dancing during some “bull-shit downtown scenester New Wave” show. Rock n roll. I think we did 12 Super Bowl’s in a row… wherever we were, even in different cities, we would get together for the game.

Vin lived in Albany for quite a few years in the 80’s and was pretty involved with the Capital-land punk scene. I spent a lot of time in Albany, as my girlfriend was going to school there and Vin lived there. I usually spent more time with Vin actually! He had a great apartment with aluminum foil as wallpaper on all the walls… it was like living in a giant baked potato.

That’s not to say Vin was a moron. The guy graduated from a top college, worked as an assistant to two different State Assemblymen and eventually ended up in the Wall Street area, working as a systems analyst.

The missus felt equally close to Vin, he was definitely like a brother to her as well. He even lived with us for a few months right after we got married.

On September 11, 2001; Vin was coming out of the subway downtown when the first plane hit… he narrowly avoided getting killed when a piece of the plane landed feet from him. I spoke to him later in the day (I was out of town) and he described how people were jumping out of the towers. I don’t think he was ever the same after that.

Anyway, when I got the call that he died, as clichéd as it sounds, we died a little that day too. I made the requisite calls (my mom was devastated as well); and we did the wake thing for 4 days. On day 5, there was a memorial mass and than a huge party that his parents threw. It was supposed to just be a luncheon, but it ended up being the kind of going away party that I would like when I kick. Everyone drinking and crying and telling stories. That night, I had to play a gig… we made it a memorable one and my buddy Al came on to sing Bloodstains (Agent Orange). At least we sent Vin out on a high note.

I know this post is all self indulgent (as if the other’s aren’t!). I don’t care. My buddy deserves better than this blog post, but it’s the best I can do.

Here's a mixtape of some of the bands and songs that I think of when I think about Vin.

Or something.

Anyway, wherever you are, hoist up a beverage of your choice and toast someone you care about that's gone.

Toonage (all on one file):

Circle Jerks - Live Fast Die Young

NOFX - August 8th

Black Flag - Police Story (Ron Reyes version)

Minor Threat - In My Eyes

Husker Du - First Of The Last Calls

The Vipers - Cheated And Lied

Flipper - Earthworm

Rush - The Trees (live)

Run DMC - King Of Rock

Public Enemy - Welcome To The Terrordome

Fleshtones - Hexbreaker

If The Thunder Don't Get You...

Hey kiddies, here's some advice from yer Uncle Nazz.

Don't take your sleeping pills until AFTER you get home!

Unlike what I did last nite, which was to pop an Ambien before I began my drive home from band practice. I figgered it would kick in right after I got home.
However, I did not take into account my empty stomach OR traffic. Which resulted in me driving the last highway stretch with one eye shut tight since I was seeing double! Additionally, I overshot my driveway and knocked over some flower pots. This morning, I was picking flower petals out of my car's front grill.

How ironic that now that I am on the straight and narrow, I still can't avoid these types of mishaps. At least I used to have the excuse of booze and other things that warn you to stay away from large machinery.

These days, it's nothing but good intentions.

I have been sober for 5 weeks and 2 days. That's 37 days with nothing but Dr. prescribed meds coursing through my bloodstream. No booze. No nothing. And that's despite being in several environments with open bars as well as band practices where intoxicants have been known to flow freely. And I haven't felt the urge to partake at all. No meetings. No higher power. No soul searching sessions. I just say no. Yeah, that's it. Just say no.


Do I feel better? Well, I certainly have gotten my shit together with-out the "self-medicating". I've (as the experts say) "levelled-out". The difference in my personality is certainly apparent to my family and co-workers. Between what's going on in work, and the country as a whole, this past month would have had me normally on the bender from hell. Can you say "nu-cu-lar"?
And I am down close to 20 lbs due to the lack of alcohol and a serious loss of appetite.
It still bothers me that I had to make such a major change in my life... but I find I respond better with "all or nothing" decisions better. As my buddy said "you were a professional for decades, it's time to retire and let the young ones play".

Or something.
We'll see how this goes...


Bookage:
Iggy Pop - Open Up And Bleed


Toonage:
NOFX - Getting High On The Down Low
Crucial Youth - I'm Straight
Jeff Buckley - Grace (Live WNEW radio)
Buzzcocks - Boredom (Live 1977)
Minor Threat - Straight Edge (demo)



----------------
Now playing: The Fuzztones - 1-2-5
via FoxyTunes

Here (Doesn't) Come A Regular

Just noticed that I have been sober for over a month. That's not by design, it's just that I haven't had any time to tie one on. Fatherhood used to be so easy before the kiddies got hep to Dad's red eyes. Darn those "rat on your folks" lessons they get in school. Mrs. Nomad and I haven't even gotten to see this yet. Been going to alot of baseball games lately. And you can't get drunk at baseball games, since beers are 9 bucks each. And it's bad beer too.
So, it's been the relatively straight and narrow, since Nazz jr and Nazzette jr NEVER GO TO BED! I even had a dream last nite that I was at some Heavy Metal fest and I got busted for getting wasted. When you can't even get high in your dreams, that's just messed up.

Well, here's Planet Unicorn. Why? I don't know. He's on third base.



Toonage:
Kelly Clarkson - Sober
Crucial Youth - I'm Straight
Minor Threat - Straight Edge
The Stranglers - Straighten Out
George Thorogood - If You Don't Start Drinkin' (I'm Gonna Leave)

Of Monsters, Giants, and a King

Saw Cloverfield over the weekend and it certainly rocked. It's done as a videotape that one of the characters shoots during an attack on NYC (where else!) by some sort of monster. As it is supposed to be an amateur video, it falls in and out of focus and the picture is shaky, but the concept really makes it seem that you are involved in the action. There is one scene that takes place in a helicopter that is really freaky.

I wish however, that everyone would stop beating up on NY. Between this and I Am Legend, the Big Apple has taken more than it's share of hit's lately. There is one scene that echoes 9-11 very eerily. Here's hoping the next movie takes out Boston. I'd like to see Fenway Park melt under the next alien death ray. Or something.

A happier event in NY is that the Giants are going to the freakin' Super Bowl! I was supposed to be at the game at the Frozen Tundra in Green Bay last nite, but things fell apart. And, upon reflection, that was a good thing. It looked unbearably cold and the cardiac arrests provided by Big Blue woulda killed me. Holy crap! Eli and Plaxico and the G-men defense put a hurtin' on Brett Favre and the Cheeseheads and now it's on to the Super Bowl! It would be nice to knock off the Patriots and destroy their season, especially after the Red Sawx have bitch-slapped the Yankees around the last few years.

And today is Martin Luther King day. As Bill and Ted said: "Be excellent To Each Other". Racism and other hate-isms sucks. Unless it's anti-Boston.

Toonage:

NOFX - Don't Call Me White

Rancid - Don't Call Me White

Minor Threat - Guilty Of Being White (demo)

Slayer - Guilty Of Being White

Stiff Little Fingers - White Noise

A Slayer Summer

Summer's here and the time is right for... SLAYER!
I spoze there alot of kids (or maybe even adults!) that take these guys seriously with all the devil stuff. I just think they rock. And their lyrics are funny.
Back "in the day", as we geriatrics say, it was fun to yell "Freebird" or "Starship Troopers" at a band when they were playing. In fact, one time we yelled it and The Dream Syndicate played it! Now, it's fun to yell "SLAYER" at the band, especially if it's some crunchy jam band or some downtown moron hipster thang.
But I digress. Here are some tunes (including some covers of Minor Threat and other cool songs) that will make your lawn die.

SLAYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Toonage:

Slayer - Guilty Of Being White (Minor Threat cover)
Slayer - Filler/I Don't Want To Hear It (Minor Threat cover)
Slayer - Richard Hung Himself (DI cover)
Slayer - Violent Pacification - (D.R.I. cover)
Slayer - I'm Gonna Be Your God (sort of a Stooges cover)
Slayer - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Iron Butterfly cover)
Slayer - South Of Heaven