Archive for May, 2007

For those of you not in the midwest, specifically IL, you may not know about the Cicada, or the 17 year locust. This is the year they return and over the weekend seemingly out of nowhere, my back yard was filled with them. I was out in the backyard yesterday preparing for my annual Memorial Day BBQ at Combustion Manor and decided to snap a few pix of the little invaders. They pretty much were all over the trees in the back and one of them even took flight and landed on Lady MXV’s leg.

Every time I see their wings in detail, it reminds me of the logo for the band, The Locust.

In other news, sorry for the lack of new content on here, I’ve been busy with things of a personal nature and haven’t had much motivation to write. I will be photographing Skinny Puppy this Friday which is a huge deal for me seeing as how they are my favorite band in the entire known universe. I wish they didn’t have that silly three song restriction for photographing at the House of Blues, but I’ll take what I can get! I read the spoilers as to what the set list is for this tour and there is a couple songs I’m really excited to hear them do live. I was so excited about this upcoming photography opportunity, I went out and got two new lenses for my camera. I got the Canon f/1.8 18mm fish-eye lens and the Canon f/1.4 50mm lens. The latter renders my need for the “nifty 50″ f/1.8 50mm lens obsolete so I’m going to offer it up for sale or put it on ebay to help finance a new speedlite.

For those that want to see the rest of my Cicada pictures, they are on my flickr site.

I just learned of a great punk zine archive. This site has made available old issues of MRR, Flipside, etc for free in pdf format. With the old zines being pretty scarce and probably exchanging hands for large sums of cash on ebay (along with anything else in the old punk genre it seems), here’s a great way to check out what it was like back in the day without the clutter in your home or the outlay of any cash.

Check it out here. Thanks to Wretch from the daghouse board for posting the link there.

If I lived in CA (or was on one of my many visits there), I would definitely be heading over to one of the greatest record stores still standing and one of the only to specialize in the punk rock I love so much, Doctor Strange Records.

EDWARD COLVER AT DR. STRANGE RECORDS!: The world famous Ed
Colver will be at Dr. Strange THIS Sunday at 2:00 for a book
signing of his new book "Blight at the End of the Funnel".
If you're not familiar with the photo's of Edward Colver take a
look at pretty much any of your old Punk records: Germs, Dead
Kennedys, X, Wasted Youth, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, 45 Grave
(I could type ALL day here people).
Edward was just as much a part of the early punk rock scene as
any band was. Come out and pay your respects, buy a book and
have him sign it for you. This is a ONCE in a life time event.

When: Sunday, May 20th at 2:00 (we open at 10:00 as always)
Where: Dr. Strange Records, 7136 Amethyst Ave., Alta Loma, Ca.
91737
Bring yourself, a few bucks to buy his book (we'll have plenty)
and a GOOD attitude. 

**don't live in near by but still want a book signed to YOU
personally? No problem! Go ahead and order on-line and in
the "shipping comments" put a note "please have Edward sign MY
book!". It's that easy... But HURRY Jack-Ass!

http://www.drstrange.com/catalog/product.php?dept=zine

It’s under “Ed Colver” book.

And also check out a special live appearance this Sunday with:

THE BILLYBONES: Check out a new (and great) video from former

Skulls singer; Billy Bones and his new band; The Billybones.

Click here and be enlightened:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S__jorZ1yIU

I was and continue to be a big fan of Ed Colver’s work. When I was in CA last year I went and saw an art exhibit he had going on there. If you are in the Southern California area, I think it would definitely be worth your time to go over to Dr Strange and get a signed book and check out the show too, not to mention pick yourself up a fat stack of punk records.

If I didn’t already own the book (sadly mine is not signed) I’d definitely have put in an order at least for a copy of the book, it has got some really amazing photos in there.

Price of gas Sunday - $3.29
Price of gas yesterday when I had to fill up - $3.49

The shit went up 20 cents in one day, after going up about 10 cents every week or so for the past few weeks! What the hell is going on with this shit, it has never been this high. When I started my job eight months ago gas was at least a dollar a gallon cheaper than it is right now. At this rate I am going to need a second job just to be able to offset the cost of gas to get to the first one. This is bullshit of the highest order. I can easily see many businesses, especially those in the form of entertainment, taking a hit from this since people won’t want to drive anywhere they don’t absolutely have to because it is becoming way too cost prohibitive.

I just needed to vent. The more I think about it, the more angry I get!

Sunday night I took a quick trip over to Champs Rock Room in Burbank, IL to see Destroy Everything. They only ended up playing five songs. I was experimenting some more with different settings on the camera using the flash on the second curtain sync with longer exposures trying to get better results with showing the room lighting and motion. Let me know what you all think.

The rest of these are up on my flickr page.

The Locust - New Erections CD
Anti/Epitaph

The Locust to me are one of the most interesting newer bands around these days. Instead of following the latest trend of hardcore and punk, they went out and forged their own sound which has since been copied by quite a few bands, none of which can do it as good as these aliens. Dressed up in crazy insect from outer space gear, The Locust played hyper fast hardcore with precision start and stop action peppered with all kinds of electronic noodling and sounds.

It is a good gimmick but one that could easily get stale after a few records. Luckily the band realizes this and their sound lately has evolved. Gone are the 50 second blasts of electro-thrash, they have now been replaced with songs that clock it at two minutes or more and are much more complex. A song could start out sounding like The Locust we all know and love, but it isn’t long before the song will progress and shift tempos completely and go from raging thrash to plodding doom. The changes don’t feel forced either, it all seems to make sense throughout the course of the song. They change it up so much I actually found myself wishing they left in at least a few songs that used the old formula just because it is such a departure from the last album, but I’d much rather be completely surprised rather than bored and this album in no way bored me. After a few listens to properly digest it I found myself appreciating their bravery in forging ahead in a new direction instead of sticking with what worked to the point of redundancy. Having seen the band recently I can tell you the new stuff sounds really good live too.

For you record collectors out there, they did release this on a limited edition colored vinyl LP as well that is available via mailorder or from the band themselves at their shows.

Related links:

The Locust official website

The Locust on myspace

Three One G records (for the vinyl)

Epitaph Records