Amnesia RockFest - Montebello, Quebec

The past weekend was spent in the urban wilds of Montreal, as well as the rural wilds of Montebello, Quebec at the Amnesia Rock Fest.

Amnesia Fest is a Punk/Metal music fest that was developed by a Canadian teenager about 7 years ago. It takes place in Montebello (about 70 miles North of Montreal) and for 2 days- was the Great White North’s version of Woodstock.

Not this this was a completely good thing! The festival reached critical mass this year and three hour waits to pick up tickets were de rigeur. Fortunately, your humble narrator took care of his shit long before the day of show, and J-Lo, Davey-boy and old Nazz sauntered in leisurely both days. And, since the last big crowd headliner's bore no real interest to us (Rise Against and The Offspring-  been there done that for both bands), we also were able to "get outta dodge city" both nites without too much bumping.

 

Black Flag

The good-

• The people of Montebello (including law enforcement) could not have been nicer and more laid back. 50,000 plus punks and metalheads invading a town with more cows than people could have been a disaster- but civility was the name of the game. In fact, the only interaction we had with the long arm of the law was a photo op! The townspeople were wonderful- and as a result, the vibe between attendees, cops and natives was extremely cool.
• $5 beer inside the venue (and lots of it!)- beer kiosks were everywhere (albeit Budweiser) and vendors were actually triasping thru the mud (more on THAT later) to serve us! Kinda weird that they couldn't get Canadian beer sponsorship- but, on the other hand, I guess Bud is exotic in Canada since it's an import!
• Poutine- Inside the show- Pulled pork, gravy, fries, cheese curds…mmmmmmmmm – aside from a convenience store/ gas station sandwich that’s all I ate for the 4 days!
• The bands!- Holy shit!!!!!!  Let’s see, the best bands of the 20 or so (there were 5 stages and about 100 bands that played) I saw were: FLAG (ie – the non Gregg Ginn version)- Keith Morris, Dez Cadena, Chuck Dukowski et al brought it waaaaaay back to 1979!, our NYC homeboys Agnostic Front and Anthrax were great; DropKick Murphys, old skool L.A. band The Adolescents, old skool crust punks Subhumans UK, Alice fucking Cooper, Social Distortion, Rancid.
• But the best band I saw all weekend was FUCKED UP. Lead singer Pink Eyes and his preppy looking band absolutely tore up the freakin’ place. Pink Eyes (all 250 plus hairy lbs of him) spent the entire show singing whilst being held aloft. After the show, he spent about an hour posing for pix and hugging anybody that cam within hugging distance. 

J-Lo, Pink Eyes & Davey-Boy

The bad-

• Yeah, it was a lot like Woodstock- overflowing toilets, shit piss and mud rivers bisecting the festival grounds. Canadian kids must not have gotten the word on littering, strewn everywhere were empty beer cups, soda bottles etc- though this was at least in part due to the organizers, who did not have enough garbage cans.
• Band cancellations and bad info- several bands such as Lagwagon and The Mighty Bosstones  got shifted around in times and stages- and no one was informed- so we missed them.
• The lines- as said- waiting three hours to pick up my tickets would have been a disaster.
• Old age - I overindulged big time too early Saturday & sorta had to take a rest for a couple of hours in a parking lot in the early afternoon– But that was cool- I arose feeling refreshed and ready to mosh!
• Cookie Monster bands- Christ, is there some sort of Canadian law that every metal band has to sound like the Cookie Monster is their singer?

All in all- a great weekend. I hope to go back next year (it was a pretty long drive) but I am glad I went!

Mistakes Were Made

Apropos of nothing persnaps, but the following toonage has been resonating a little close to home lately.

Some of the anger I have been feeling towards others has dissipated. My understanding of matters has calmed me down. Never forgive, never forget fer sure, but I'm trying to grow beyond the rancor.

Pulpy blood stained knuckles are cool when yer 18, when yer double that age... not so much.

Self awareness is not very fun.

Man, it's tough being a grown-up.

Another State Of Mind

I was fortunate enough to see SOCIAL DISTORTION last night. What I was unfotunate enough to have to deal with was motherfucking Long Island, home of absolutely nothing good and right and pure. The club was horribly overpacked, filled with enough douchebags that I almost bailed before Mike Ness and his merry band of troubedours took the stage. Luckily I found solace about 20 feet from the stage, pressed against the bar and tenaciously held this area through the whole show, where the soothing sounds of Social D and many beers calmed me down.

(I love this video from the 1982 "Another State Of Mind)

Quote of the nite was when Ness asked the crowd what they thought of Jersey Shore folks. Considering that half the fucking squidheads at the show probably model their lives after that show, it was certainly ironic when the query was answered by booing. Not as much fun was when a little slut-ette puked three feet from me, nearly bathing me in her vile putridity.

(Social D last year in Sweden)

Social D were fucking awesome, playing a healthy dose of their catalog (dating back to Mommy's Little Monster).
Thank the punk rawk gawds that old Mikey never did the dirt nap, despite his previous hobbies dabbling in drugs, crime and prison life. I first saw Social D in the early 80's and almost thirty years later, they still deliver the goods.

(Social D in assholesville, Long Island)

Setlist
Road Zombie / Bye Bye Baby
Under My Thumb Bad Luck
Don't Drag Me Down
The Creeps
Another State Of Mind
Mommy's Little Monster
Sick Boys
Reach For The Sky
Ball and Chain
Highway 101
Sometimes I Do
Still Alive
encores
Prison Bound
Nickels and Dimes
Ring Of Fire

Punk-tober

As some of you might know, I play bass in a couple of bands of the Punk genre. My lack of musical ability makes my choices perfect. Bass (4 strings, 2 less than guitar), and Punk (even I can play 5 notes) and of course, my ever sunny disposition.

My ever understanding wife has given me free reign to exorcise my demons in this manner, bless her little heart.

One of my bands, Dirty Pillows; has got a gig on Long Island in Amityville (yes, the home of this) tomorrow (Sat Oct 17), if anyone is in the environs. It's for a pet shelter - a good cause if there ever was one!

The neat thing about this band is that we play 2 or 3 times a year live, and practice about that much as well. Hey.. it's punk rock. Furthermore, as most of what we do is, ahem, "influenced" by The Ramones, as long as one of us can remember to count to 4, we're set.

Last nite we had our first and only practice for the show. We literally ran thru the set once and we were perfect (also sober... which MIGHT have helped). It's nice to be able to get together with some laid back people and not have any drama in a band. We have about a 20 year span between the oldest and youngest people in the band, and maybe that helps as well.
After running thru the set, we had a lot of time left, so we played some elongated 12 bar blues thang (which I named "The I Can't Bang Jennifer Aniston Blues") and some old Pete Seeger stuff.

And my other band, Caterwaul Of Sound, is shooting an actual music video tonight! Lots of blood and gore and bad taste will be involved.

Punk rock... it's what's for dinner.

Hey... check out this progression...

Toonage:
Green Day - Another State Of Mind (Social Distortion cover)
Social Distortion - Ring Of Fire (Johnny Cash cover)
Johnny Cash - Hey Good Lookin' (Hank Williams cover)
Hank Williams - Your Cheatin' Heart

A VD Post

Just when I think you're out of my head
I hear a song that you sang or see a book that you read.

And I think about my loves, well, I've had a few
Well, I'm sorry that I hurt them, did I hurt you too?

I would break down at your feet and beg forgiveness, plead with you
But I know that it's too late, and now there's nothing I can do

You know the pain, that's in my heart,
it just shows, I'm not very smart.

And if I don't see ya, in a long, long while
I'll try to find you, left of the dial

Toonage:
The Kinks - No More Looking Back
Social Distortion - I Was Wrong
The Cure - Boys Don't Cry (demo)
Black Flag - Louie Louie
Replacements - Left Of The Dial (live Beacon Theater - NYC)



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Now playing: Ramones - The KKK Took My Baby Away
via FoxyTunes

An Ends To A Means

In the final accounting of the recent travails of the Nomad clan:

• Kitty Nomad is still hanging on for dear feline life. The tumor on his side has blown wide open, and while it is coverered with a shirt, we know the meds we feed him will soon lose their effectiveness. The vet says that it makes no sense to cut away his flank and sew it up, as the trauma would kill kim. For now, he is still friendly, social, and most importantly, hungry... so we pray that perhaps the 2 inch gaping hole in his side will somehow seal and he can make it through the end of year.
• Princess Nomad is firmly entrenched with the Twilight series of books. Between that and this, she is as happy as can be hoped for while awaiting the endgame for her pet.
• Nazz Junior is destroying all comers in Halo and Left For Dead on the XBOX 360. He has also developed an enthusiasm for Johnny Cash music, thanks in part to this movie. Nazz Junior is specifically enamored of The Man In Black's tales of murder, revenge and prison. Like father, like son!
  
• The Missus is trying to keep it all together in the face of feline doom. Thankfully, the shock is past, for now the grim waiting game continues.
• Yours truly is laid up with a bad back. Possibly this has been caused in part by the stress of work and finances. Luckily, a regiment of this and this have enabled him to combat the pain somewhat. Unfortunately, this has caused him to recently engage again in wasted posting. Oops!
  

On the plus side of the ledger... THE NEW YORK FOOTBALL GIANTS have got the number one seed in the NFL Play-offs.

So, along with the total consciousness the Dali Lama promised me on my deathbed, I've got it all under control. Which is nice.

Or something.

Gunga La Gunga, you mofo's!!!!!!!




Toonage:
Joey Ramone - Garden Of Serenity (live)
Johnny Cash -Dirty Old Egg-Suckin' Dog (live)
Social Distortion - Another State Of Mind
Quickie - Medicated (Just To Get By)
The Cramps - Bop Pills

Weird S.I.N.s Inside The Graveyard

"It's not the years honey, it's the mileage"
...Indiana Jones

For reasons that I will divulge soon, gentle reader, I made contact with an old friend last week.

I haven't talked to the guy since my wedding day; a score ago. But catching up, he's got a helluva book to write. It's funny what bits we had heard of each other over the last couple of decades, funnier that it's all the kind of stuff that would generally be dismissed as bizarre rumors, and yet in both of our cases, the information was true!

Unbelievably, the people he asked about on my side are all deceased, as are counterparts on his side. Suicide, jail and divorce abound as well. We're not old men either, I don't think either one of us is on the back nine of life expectancy.

I don't want this to sound like whistlin' past the graveyard, but the pressing thought I conveyed was how lucky the both of us are to still be walkin' this mortal coil. There but for the grace of the Grim Reaper (or the police) coulda been either one of us.

Growing up as an oblivious punk jerk-off, I always thought that the danger we put ourselves in wasn't as life threatin' as it really was. After all, we were immortal. Those that fell by the wayside were just unlucky, right? But looking back on the drunken driving, the chemical and agricultural products, the violence and the irresponsibility of the situations we placed ourselves in; well, it makes we shudder.

How I am able to communicate this to Nazz Jr. and Princess Nomad remains to be seen.

But, as we are still not A Diet For The Worms ... All the more reason to rock the fuck out whenever possible, I 'spose!

Bookage:
A Few Seconds Of Panic - Stefan Fatsis

Toonage:

The Mob - 101
Social Distortion - Another State Of Mind
Gram Parsons - In My Hour Of Darkness
The Soft Boys - Only The Stones Remain
Exene Cervenka and Henry Rollins - Wasted (Black Flag cover)
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Now playing: The Only Ones - The Happy Pilgrim
via FoxyTunes

Veneratio Thy Matris

"Well, you came into this world naked,
screaming and covered in blood

who was there to wipe you off and give you your first hug?

And it took a couple years to figure out how to not shit in your pants

but someone was there to clean you up and powder off your rash"

"Sorry Mom And Dad" - The Vandals

With Mother's Day around the corner, Bleedin Out takes time to honor the women who's wombs we sprung forth from. Musta been nice in there, all warm and wet and safe.

Bleedin Out's Mother's Day Mix:

featuring:

7-10 Splits- I Love Your Mom

Anarchy Six - Slam, Spit, Cut Your Hair, Kill Your Mom

Bob Dylan & The Hawks - Tell Me Momma

Cows - Mother (I Love That Bitch)
Devo - Gut Feeling (Slap Your Mammy)
Dwarves - Mother Fucker
Foxboro Hot Tubs (Green Day) - Mother Mary
Funkadelic - Music For My Mother

Grateful Dead & Allman Brothers - That's All Right Mama (Live RFK 6-10-73)
John Lennon - Mother (Plastic Ono Sessions)
Johnny Thunders - Blame It On Mom
Pink Floyd - Mother (The Wall Demos)
Ramones - Mama's Boy
Rolling Stones - Mother's Little Helper (Live Honolulu 7-28-66)
Social Distortion - Mommy's Little Monster (Live Minneapolis, MN, May 6th, 1992)

Download The Whole Kit and Kaboodle here!

And leave a comment! Your mom would want you to!

I Just Wanna Give You The Creeps

Creep- Selected definitions:
1- to move slowly with the body close to the ground, as a reptile or an insect, or a person on hands and knees.
2-to approach slowly, imperceptibly, or stealthily personal bias occasionally creeps into the account.
3- to advance or develop gradually so as to infringe on or supplant something else
4- a disturbingly eccentric or obnoxious person.
5-an intelligence or counterintelligence agent; spy.
6- the creeps, a sensation of horror, fear, disgust, etc., suggestive of the feeling induced by something crawling over the skin.
7-make one's flesh creep, to be frightening or repellent; cause one to experience uneasiness.

Now, that's a Punk Rock word!

There are an awful lot of really cool songs about creeps in them. So, what can a poor boy do, 'cept to compile a bunch of em and call it BLEEDIN' OUT'S CREEPY COLLECTION!

Toonage:

Bleedin' Out's Got the Creeps (click here for the whole kit and kaboodle)

starring:

Black Flag - Nervous Breakdown (w/ Creepy Crawl intro)
Brandi Carlile - Creep (Radiohead cover)
Bush Tetras - Too Many Creeps
David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
Nirvana - Negative Creep (acoustic)
Radiohead - Creep (live 11-27-03 Earl's Court)
Screeching Weasel - She's Giving Me The Creeps
The Creeps - Down At The Nightclub
Social Distortion - (I Just Wanna Give You) The Creeps
The Damned - Creep (You Can't Fool Me)
The Fall - C.R.E.E.P.
Hellacopters - The Creeps (Social Distortion cover)

Old and in the Warped

I officially cross over a Cultural line tomorrow. I am taking my 13 year old daughter to The Warped Tour. I have been to several of the Warped shows over the years, but me and my droogs were always the drunken rowdy mofo's. Now, I have to be the voice of responsibility.
But it's a small price to pay as I continue to lead my little girl away from the Britney and High School Musical fodder and into Rock N Roll (or what passes for it these days). At least Bad Religion is playing; they're as ancient as I am!
Warped was great for a couple of reasons- The tremendous volume of bands playing (at any given point there would be something decent to see) and ... THE BEER TENT!
The Beer Tent? Yeah! When 99% of the attendees are not of legal drinking age, the Beer tent is empty. Which means, no lines and the opportunity to piss away tons of money on shitty beer. But, since it's hot out, shitty beer does the trick.
So, as I escort my daughter, I will be eschewing the beer (do they even sell beer at Warped anymore?), holding off on the hidden bottles of vodka, and turning away from the aromatic herbs. And, of course...no pit and no moshing either.
Yep, I'll be the old guy in the Husker Du T-shirt. Gee, what did YOU do in the war, daddy?
And if any of those little whiney emo kids even glance at my little princess, I will wreak havoc upon them!


Toonage (of the "OLD SCHOOL" variety)

Bad Brains - Pay To Cum
Bad Religion - We're Only Gonna Die
Social Distortion - Lude Boy (demo)
Husker Du - Eight Miles High (live Trenton NJ 1985)
Descendents - I'm Not A Loser
Minutemen - Party With Me, Punker
Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized
TSOL - Code Blue

Friday Grab Bag - Prison Bound!

Here's to the most American of experiences. Prison!
As of June 30, 2006--
-- 2,245,189 prisoners were held in Federal or State prisons or in local jails.

-- Over 50% of those held in federal prisons are incarcerated due to non violent (ie: drug) offenses. Yep, the War on Drugs is really working out!

- - there were an estimated 497 prison inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents; up from 411 at year end 1995.

I would suspect that many of my fellow travelers have spent a night in the pokey. Hey, it's good for character building, right?

Toonage:
Jerry Garcia 5-5-82 Oregon State Prison (whole show!)
Johnny Cash - Live inside a Swedish Prison (whole show!)
Social Distortion - Prrison Bound
Social Distortion - Orange County Jail (demo)
Dan Bern - Jail
Wanda Jackson - Riot In Cell Block 9
Leadbelly - Birmingham Jail

Justice? Just them!

"The rich are different from you and me."
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald

What a surprise, the justice system in our country isn't fair and equal. And, gasp!... there's gambling in Casablanca! Round up the usual suspects!

California is a joke. I have no doubt that most people incarcerated can claim "mental anguish". Thousands of people are in jail for minor drug offenses and that skank walks free after 3 days. I imagine she'll be writing (I mean, someone will be ghost-writing) a book about her 100 hours or so behind bars. It'll be great when she gets that ankle bracelet tangled up with her earrings the next time her legs are behind her neck.

If THIS GUY skates free, than they should just close the courts for ever and let anarchy rule.

Toonage:

The Replacements - Jailbreak (live)

Social Distortion - Orange County Jail (demo)

The Clash - Jail Guitar Doors (live 10-2-79)

AC/DC - Money Talks

Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions (aka Grateful Dead) - In The Jailhouse Now

Squirrel Bait - Tape From California