BLANK DOGS/NO PAWS/NAKED ON THE VAGUE

Last Friday I made the hour long trip to Orange County to see Blank Dogs and Naked on the Vague play at The OCCCA in Santa Ana. The show was originally supposed to be held at UC Irvine with Blessure Grave, but Blessure Grave ended up dropping from the show at the last minute and it was moved to this rad gallery space in Santa Ana's art district. It was a bummer I didn't get to see them play, but No Paws (No Lions) filled in the spot brilliantly. They played all the regular jams like "Don't Be Afraid Of Where You Live", "For Sean", "For Your Eyes", etc. It was one of my favorite times I've ever seen them, they were super on point, sound was great, set was perfect length, crowd was cool, it was an overall perfect set. There was another duo that played after them, but I never caught their name. It was kind of forgettable in all honestly, some ambient vocals ran through pedals with a random composition of guitar, drums and/or drum machine played throughout. Not really my cup of tea, a few did seem to be into it, but the audience was generally thinner for them than any other band that played.

Naked on the Vague was next and played a solid set. The vocals seemed a little quiet, and they took a really long time to iron out sound issues while setting up, but the swagger of that band was their ultimate redemption. I loved the erratic guitar work and the pounding drum machine, it set a wonderful canvas for everything else going on in the songs. Overall, the set was really eerie and entrancing, and it kept me thoroughly interested.

Last, but definitely not least, was Blank Dogs. I had been anticipating seeing Blank Dogs since I first heard him almost two years ago and I could not wait to see how all my favorite songs transpired live. The whole set was much more dark and intense than his recordings, and he played a pretty expansive mix of songs from his various releases. It was also noticeably more punk than I had expected. Kids were going wild, other kids were getting mad about it, the bassist was as '77 a dude as I have ever seen in my life, and any "mellow" tendency found on a Blank Dogs record was noticably absent as they pummeled their way through the set. I fucking loved it. A+++

A few times throughout the night I had talked to the man behind it all, Mike, and he ended up being a really rad dude. We chatted about things, and he gave all of us (Rapid Youth and No Paws collectively) a bunch of records and shirts for free. He made me feel good about music, as though there is still a sense of community and support. I can't wait to catch him again, and I suggest you do as well.

Cosmic Entities and drugs aka "soul searching"

Big news for Temecula area folks: we finally have another record store!! SPINDLES MUSIC is like 50 feet from where I work, off Ynez and Rancho California right in between Chronic Tacos and The Movie Experience (can you say.. BEST SHOPPING CENTER EVER?!?!) I'm super stoked. I checked it out while walking past it on my lunch break about a week ago, and it is honestly pretty fucking decent, especially by temecula standards. I picked up 10 records for like 33 bucks!! It's all used vinyl and although there are a lot of the typical boring classic rockish nonjams, I still found records from Gang of Four, Talking Heads, etc. for CHEAP. I even got the Rod Stewart "Young Turks" single there. Only cost me $.96!!

I chatted with the dude who owns it, totally forgot his name, but he said he was thinking about selling some new vinyl eventually, and I guess he's down to put some of my bands' records in there for consignment. I see a lot of potential for this place, dude ran the store in Ottawa, Canada for like thirty years before he moved to Cali. I suspect he knows a little bit about the business.

In other news...I have a twitter now.

http:www.twitter.com/cosmicandtrippy


Life is good, I saw Mi Ami/American Gil last night at pehrspace and it fucked me up. Super fucking good, but soooo late. Gil is kinda like the I.E.'s George Clinton. seriously. I'm going to bed now.

L8'r

Kids playing popular music

Red Hot Chili Peppers///9-10 yrs old


Metallica///12-13 yrs old


Nirvana///(somewhere between)14-18 yrs old


Linkin Park///12-14 yrs old


Led Zeppelin///8 yrs old



SICK

Late Night Pleasures

GZA - Liquid Swords
Raekwon Feat. Meth & Ghost - Wu Ooh
David Lynch - The Alphabet Gravediggaz - 1-800-SUICIDE
Wu-Tang Clan - Da Mystery Of Chessboxin
Wu-Tang Clan - M.E.T.H.O.D Man

The Shaolin Field Guide To Being COSMIC

So you know that sort of punk dude who you went to high school with that skated (kind of) and did lots of drugs to be cool and get laid? Then a couple years after that, he started wearing lots of turquoise jewelry and grew his hair real long and fluffy?

Or how about that kind of nerdy dude that got cool over a summer because he grew like two feet and started wearing paisley vests and got way into Frank Zappa? Any of this feel familiar???

This is the starting point of getting COSMIC. The new cool thing/thing that has always existed and was never the cool thing to do when your a dude and wanna get wasted and laid FOREVER MANN. I've made an easy guide for you, here are a few simple characteristics:

1. Dress like you are the secret 20th member of the 13th Floor Elevators. Think corduroy bell bottoms, paisley vests, crushed velvet anything, silk scarves, lots of rings, fluffy hair, leather jackets, big hats, alligator shoes, moccasins, multiple belts, etc. If you do wear a shirt, it has to be either too tight or too short.

2. Get way into super tripper obscure psychedelic jams with a lot of soloing and early Tyrannosaurus Rex. Don't forget to have a general knowledge of classic rock and early new york punk/powerpop. Loosely acceptable: Sun Ra, Mars Volta, prog, glam, anything made in or before '77.

3. DRRRUUUUGGGGGSSSSSSS

4. Instead of saying "weed" say "dope." Choose a "doobie" over a "joint." You DON'T hang out, you party. "Cigarette" = meh, "fag" = COSMIC!

5. Strive your hardest to be Jim Morrison.

6. Talk about outer space, indian spirits, zeitgeist, exploring your mind, abstract religions, The Doors, mythology, art, literature, music, and The Doors, all of which you know nothing about.

7. spend most of your time thinking about shit like this:




8. Somehow manage to get laid by beautiful girls ALL THE FUCKING TIME no matter how ugly you are. Looks don't matter, as long as your cosmic.

...and there it is in a nutshell. I can guarantee that you're either reading this thinking, "I know exactly what your talking about and those dudes suck" or "WHAAAAAATTTT TRIPPY". In which case, you are probably COSMIC AS FUCK!!

One last thing: I found the below picture on some fashion blog while writing this post and it pretty much sums everything up. The quote is REAL.



"My style, it changes from week to week. I like Freddie Burudi, he designed/dressed David Bowie a lot in the early 70s. I like Marc Bolan's style, he's from T.Rex. Today I just woke up at some girl's house and I just grabbed what was around and I didn't wash my hair, so I had to buy a hat."

FIN.

Male Bonding

About two months ago I was cruising around the internet when I stumbled upon MALE BONDING's myspace page. The name is what caught my eye initially, as it was one of the ideas we had for naming RAPID YOUTH before discovering that it had already been taken. I saw that they had a few splits with rad bands like PENS and GRAFFITI ISLAND so I decided to give them a listen. The first song I listened to was "Pirate Key", starting off with no real indication of where it was going to go, and then blasting off into the happiest celebration of pop music via no wave I've heard in a while. The drumming is beyond on point. In fact, it destroys the point and creates a whole new point altogether. Working around the drums is a combination of aggressive guitar and catchy bass. It is obvious that the members (Robin Christian, John Webb, and Kevin Hendrix) have an impressive combination of pop and punk sensibility, interwoven with fierce musicianship and a fun attitude. "Years Not Long" is an even more impressive display of that tight and aggressive sound with it's hyper-speed drums and clamoring guitar and bass setting the canvas nicely for an almost Ramones-esque sing along chant. They list Nirvana, Screamers, and The Wipers as their influences, all of which make sense. I also see shades of Sonic Youth, early Touch and Go, and The Minutemen. Despite running their record label, PARADISE VENDORS INC, and having two of the members fully involved with the band PRE, these dudes still manage to be completely productive and active. Male Bonding has a whole gang of splits and compilations coming this year out as well as a tape of their own so keep tabs on them, I feel like their future is only going to get brighter.

Male Bonding's Myspace Page

Paradise Vendors Myspace

Does it make you more a kid, if you wanna off a pig?

In 1991 Niki Elliott, Jo Johnson, Jon Slade, Karen Hill, and Chris Rowley started playing shows as Huggy Bear in the London/Brighton area. Within a year, they had managed to gain so much hype that they were packing local venues with a vast array of interested teenagers and began releasing a series of EPs and singles. By early 1993, they were playing on/being violently kicked off of major British television and touring with American riot grrrl punx like Bikini Kill. The following year, they lost Jo Johnson, released their first and only full length, and broke up. This is basically what I know of Huggy Bear in a nutshell, in addition to the fact that they directly influenced some of my favorite bands of all time. Their EP compilation, "Taking the Rough with the Smooch" is one of my favorite releases ever. It's one of those things that feels like it was cooked to order specifically for me. Ranging from catchy anarcho, post-punk, twee, garage, spoken word, and everything in between, the whole atmosphere created by this album is just perfect, it still feels relevent and doesn't seem to get any more dated no matter how much I listen to it. Here's a video made of my favorite song off the album, "pansy twist"