地震と津波

Prayers and best wishes to Japan. It's not even 2012 yet and between Japan, Chile, Haiti and New Zealand, it appears that the Earth is pissed off. Or something.

Now we'll have endless news stories in the U.S.A. about what would happen if the "big one" hit (insert your city here).

As I live in New York, it's just another unpleasant possibility to ignore. Tsunami's, earthquakes, nuclear attacks... we're all dead pretty much instantly; why bother stressing.

Summertime Booze

We have one of those extended "vacations" due to the economy. You know, the kind in which you get to take the days off, but they don't pay ya!

So the next few days will be spent playing loud shitty rock n roll, drinking beer and lazing about the pool.

Or, I can paint the living room and the kitchen, as I promised.

Screw that!

After all, if you're not wasted, than the day is!

I heartily recommend checking out the following tunes. Just trust your pal Nazz on this one!

Toonage:

The Tiganauch Players - Green Door (Cramps cover)

Anarchy 6 (Redd Kross) - Drugs Aren't Great

Flipper - Brainwash

The Fugs - Boobs A Lot

Teengenerate - 1979

Television Personalities - Part Time Punks

Scenes From A Weekend

Thanks to the economy, we got an (unpaid) day off on Friday, so a four day weekend was spent thusly:


There was a kick ass military air show at the beach- lots of thrills and chills as everything from old style bi-planes to Thunderbirds were doing there thing int he skys above. There were some people actually protesting the event, claiming that the show was celebrating war. Now, I ask you, gentle readers... is this taking the whole anti-war thing a little too far?


My punk band Dirty Pillows ended up playing a show in the bowels of Long Island Saturday nite. What made this so egregious was that we performed at a shit-hole bar that I used to drink in when I was underaged, millions of years ago. Back then, it was Top 40 cover band Hades. As we haven't even seen each since January, the prospects of us playing well were dicey. However, after an hour practice the nite before, the "old magic" was back, and three out of the four of us were dead on. Three chord songs do have their advantages. Our other bandmate, the less said the better. I played the show pretty sober (no free beers, and the bar wanted $5 for a can of Miller Lite- no way!). We actually drew a few people (outdrew every other band in fact), and of course got beat on the money. What a surprise. I actually played much better than I usually do (hmmm sober = playing well (what a concept!)). And I got to sing and play on a Ramones cover we whipped up ten minutes before we went on.

Got a nice big blood blister on my finger as a remembrance of things rocked.
Well, it wasn't as bad as Pete's hand, but it still is nasty!


Started to put the pool back together... lots of marine sealer needed. And there were no dead mammals or birds in the water. Hopefully it'll be ready to jump in by this weekend. And you're all invited to the pool party! Bring your own Absinthe.


So, after 4 days of getting totally baked by the sun and intoxicants, it's back to work time.


And how was YOUR weekend?




Toonage:
The Dirtbombs- The Sun Is Shining
The Jam - Here Comes The Weekend
Teengenerate - Wild Weekend
Johnny Thunders - Seven Day Weekend

Phuck Phish

So, I see Phish are reuniting. Big Phucking deal. Although it would be phunny to see if all those old Phish-Heads pushing Phorty have showered yet.

Back in the day, I listened to a phair share of Phish (OK, I'll stop now). In the early to mid 90's; as the Grateful Dead had turned into a leaden behemoth, being crushed equally under the weight of stupor-stardom and Garcia's penchant for smack and chocolate doughnuts... I started to do the tour/collecting tapes (ask your parents) thang. After all, they were contemporaries of mine and had many of the same influences (The Who, Stones, Punk, Funk, Classic Rock). I was certainly thrilled when they broke out The Who's Quadrophenia one Halloween.

I can admit to enjoying a phew (oops sorry) of their shows, culminating in a memorable New Years Eve stand at Madison Square Garden at the end of 1994.

However, I quickly tired of them. The music constantly threatened to somehow be both pretentious and bereft of any significance. It was really annoying as well to stare at Trey's blissed out eyes-closed puss... combining equal parts self satisfaction and Heroin bliss... as well as those asshole Phish fans.

You know the ones... the Trustafarian-Wookie-Clueless-Barefoot-Neophyte-SmellyIdiots who thought they were the second coming of the sixties. They combined all the clueless, ignorant and "babe in the woods" aspects of the hippies with none of the street smarts that were needed to survive. Guess what, you NYU rich prick; showering is cool. Seeing these nit-wits walking around outside Mad Sq Garden barefoot amongst the broken glass and syringes was truly mortifying.

This culminated in a 1996 show, in which three kids high on Acid sat next to me at a show, continuously asking me to guide them through their trip. "Should I go to the bathroom?" one asked me. "Um, do you have to?" I answered. The last thing I gave a crap about was some douchebag who bought his drugs cashing in Mater and Pater's college checks.

When they played the Talking Heads' odious "Remain In Light" lp, my buddy Killer Kim said to me... "This band sucks, we can never listen to them again". A direction that I have followed ever since.

Although, I must admit, i am contemplating buying some tix for the tour and selling em for a hefty mark-up! Hey, times are tough!

Ahh, phuck it all. Here's some Punk Rock.

Toonage:

Teengenerate - Don't Come Close
Adolescents - Kids Of The Black Hole
MIA - I Hate Hippies
The Queers - If You Only Had A Brain
Vandals - People That Are Going To Hell

Like Takin' Carrie To The High School Prom

"I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members."

--Groucho Marx --

I have been notified that I will be the recipient of A BIG HONOR. My industry has an award (I guess it's sort of a lifetime achievement kinda thing - not that I'm particularly a grizzled veteran), complete with a banquet with hundreds of people, a magazine article about yours truly and other assorted aspects.

This is apparently A BIG DEAL.

The question I have is... "WHY ME". I really don't merit this award (and I am not being humble). It is more likely that some peer of mine in the industry decided it would be a nice thing for me to get this honor and nominated me.
Either that, or they figured my company would buy a table at the banquet (fat chance of THAT happening!).

Regardless, this is embarrassing. I vision myself being featured in the article and readers wonderin' WTF? Even worse, I have to accept the award and have a room full of people LOOK at me and wonder "who is this asshole"?!
There are many people in my business that deserve this honor. The fact that I got it cheapens the award forever more.

It's important that I accept this, since it might help me in my career. But jeez, this is like Milli Vanilli being elected into the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame! OK, maybe not that bad. Let's go with GWAR. Yeah, me showing up at this banquet is like GWAR showing up at a Baptism.

Maybe I'll just copy this speech word for word. It's perfect.
Now I get to stress about how I'm gonna fuck this up for the next couple of months.



----------------
Now playing: The Runaways - Cherry Bomb
via FoxyTunes



Bookage:
From Hell - Alan Moore

Toonage:
The Smiths - Still Ill
Teengenerate - Fake, Fake, Fake
Brother Brick - Color Me Impressed (Replacements cover)
The Posies - King Midas In Reverse
Tom Petty - Even The Losers

RISING SUN RAWK N ROLL

Today we're gonna feature some of Japan's best and noisiest punk and garage bands.


5.6.7.8’s The 5.6.7.8’s are a three piece female Japanese band probably best known for their appearance in the movie Kill Bill Part 1. They perform in the "Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves" segment. This is the scene in the club right before Uma Thurman wipes out the Crazy 88’s. Their performance of Woo Hoo is also now heard in a commercial for a wireless phone company.

The 5.6.7.8’s music is a take on American garage rock and surf tunes, with an extremely raw feel. Most of their songs are sung in their native Japanese, but they also play a lot of American covers as well. The three girls are also very stylish, performing in 60’s style dresses.
They formed in the late 80’s and still tour, so catch em if you can.

Official 5.6.7.8's Site

5.6.7.8's Wiki

Buy 5.6.7.8’s music

Teengenerate
Sloppy, noisy and raucous, Teengenerate were a mid 90’s Japanese Punk Band whose recorded output sounds like it’s was recorded in on an airplane runway as 747 was bearing down on them. To say that Teengenerate is raw would be an understatement, it’s more like the musical equivalent of a gaping wound caused by a shotgun blast.

Teengenerate Wiki
Buy Teengenerate music

Guitar Wolf

Yeah baby, more lo-fi Punk Rawk Noize. Japan’s greatest “Jet Rock n Roll band”. The “Jet” is in tribute to Joan Jett, whom heavily influenced the band (especially in look).
They’re still touring and still kicking it. Greasy, nasty, black leather clad muthafucka’s who just rip the shit out it. They sing in a language that might be Japanese, it might be English, or it might be Esperanto for all I know. They also starred in the movie Wild Zero, in which they fought zombies, aliens and fans. What more could you ask for.


Guitar Wolf Official Site

Guitar Wolf Wiki

Buy Guitar Wolf music

Toonage
5.6.7.8’s: 1 Scream

5.6.7.8’s: Oriental Rock

Teengenerate: Bloody Belgium

Teengenerate: Let’s Get Hurt

Guitar Wolf: Kung Fu Ramone

Guitar Wolf : Loverock