Archive for December, 2009

Rowland S. Howard, most recognized as being the guitarist from The Birthday Party, passed away this morning at the age of 50. Rowland sadly lost his lengthy battle with liver cancer.

Aside from his work with The Birthday Party, Rowland also did time with These Immortal Souls, Crime and The City Solution, Lydia Lunch (shown) and others.

For some additional information and background click here.

Black Cobra – Chronomega
Southern Lord

Black Cobra is a two man band from the Bay Area in California comprised of former members of Acid King and Cavity. The band released two albums prior to this one for At a Loss Recordings but for this new album they have found a new home with Southern Lord.

Black Cobra’s music is incredibly heavy and it’s hard to believe such a huge sound can come from one guitar and one drummer! If it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve witnessed them live, I’d swear that they were trying to fool the people by secretly having additional instruments in the band, the sound is really that thick!

Chronomega shows a little more maturity in the band. The songs are a bit lower and heavier at the sacrifice of some of the chaos of the earlier records. The songs feel a lot more calculated and have more direction. Even the packaging of the CD feels like it has purpose and that the whole album has a definite theme with each song having the lyrics and its own artwork which reminded me a lot of Voivod in its presentation.

The album contains nine songs, most of which are around five minutes each. The songs are as thick as sludge, a bit dirty sounding, heavy, pounding, and brutal. The music will beat you into submission in a very pleasing way and the album makes for a great and very satisfying listen from start to finish. Upon multiple listens I never once found myself skipping tracks which is a rare thing for me in almost every situation. I believe it is going to rapidly become my favorite Black Cobra album and I look forward to what the future brings with this two man powerhouse.

Related links:

Order the album from amazon.com

Buy the album from iTunes

Southern Lord Records

Black Cobra on myspace

Black Cobra official website

Last night Washington DC post punk/indie rock legends, Jawbox, reunited to appear live on the Jimmy Fallon show. The performance was to support Dischord reissuing the band’s one-time major label release, For Your Own Special Sweetheart, which was an excellent album for its time. They played the song, “Savory”, which happens to be a favorite of mine.

In case you missed it, or like me your DVR decided to chop off the ending, NBC.com did the world a solid by posting videos of not only the performance from last night’s show, but also bonus footage of the band playing two other songs earlier that day in rehearsal! Check it all out below.

Saturday night the fine folks at Riot Fest put on their last “secret” show of the year at the same location they did all the other ones, the AAA building in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. As with the previous shows, admission was by invitation only and it was the recession friendly price of free!

No Enemy

No Enemy

No Enemy

No Enemy

Park Ridge, IL’s No Enemy were an unannounced opening act for the show. They were a melodic punk/hardcore band with short and mostly fast songs. The crowd was already quite full already and many of them seemed to enjoy the band who played about a half hour long set. After their set they were giving away free copies of their CD to anyone who came up to their merch table to request one which made for an early Xmas gift for those who took them up on the offer.

The Falcon

The Falcon

The Falcon

The Falcon took the little stage soon after since they were sharing equipment with No Enemy there was very little setup required. The band on stage looked suspiciously like the Lawrence Arms and that would be for the fact that The Falcon is made up mainly of members of that band including sharing the same singer/guitar player.

The Falcon

The Falcon

The place was almost full to capacity by the time they started and they looked eager for the band to play. It didn’t take but one song before a small mosh pit started and people were bouncing around. The band played some melodic punk with a hint of hardcore influence in a few songs, and a lot of the songs reminded me of some Lawrence Arms material I’ve heard which is pretty much unavoidable considering the band contains most of the Lawrence Arms members in it.

The Falcon

The Falcon

The band played “all the songs they knew” and as well as a couple of cover songs I couldn’t identify.The set was very entertaining to everyone in attendance and when the band was finished many were clamoring for more which the band was sadly unable to accommodate since they played everything they knew!

The Falcon

The Falcon

The final Riot Fest sponsored show of the year was every bit as fun as all the ones that preceded it and hopefully 2010 will bring some more shows like this one as they are always a good time.

Some additional photos from this show can be seen in the slide show at Chicago Examiner.

History On My Arms with Dee Dee Ramone DVD
MVD Visual

If you aren’t familiar with The Ramones and know who Dee Dee Ramone is, promptly ground yourself to your room and don’t come out until you figure it out because The Ramones contribution to the world of punk rock, and music in general is legendary.

In 1991 Lech Kowalski spent a day filming an interview with Dee Dee Ramone about his life as well as his involvement with Johnny Thunders who was a sometime friend, one time band mate, and fellow junkie. Lech made this into a 60 minute film a dozen years later called Hey Is Dee Dee Home. That is included on this DVD along with two other features, History on My Arms, and Vom in Paris.

Hey Is Dee Dee Home is a candid and intimate look into the life of one of punk’s founders as told in his own words. It is a bit scattered and disjointed at times as it seems Dee Dee is just firing off random stories as he remembers him but inside all of that is some pretty interesting tales about him making music with Johny Thunders, writing “Chinese Rocks” (one of the best punk songs ever), and lots of stories about copping dope, the failed “super group” attempt with Stiv Bators, Johnny Thunders and himself,  and what his tattoos mean to him. At times he even picks up a guitar and makes a little bit of music. It’s part train wreck and part history lesson.

History On My Arms is a 27 minute short film made from outtakes and portions of Hey Is Dee Dee Home. It focuses mainly on Dee Dee telling the story of where he got his various tattoos mixed with a few other tales A lot of it feels recycled from Hey Is Dee Dee Home (and it is) but there is a few parts that are exclusive to this film. At 20 minutes in length it goes by pretty quickly, but feels a bit unnecessary after watching the film that this was spawned from.

Vom in Paris is a 22 minute interview with Vom Ritchie  of Die Toten Hosen who was the drummer for the failed “super group” and tells his side of the story about what happened when Dee Dee came to Paris and how it all fell apart. Since Dee Dee tells his side of the story in Hey Is Dee Dee Home, it was interesting to see someone else’s take on it but I found myself quickly losing interest not too long into the interview.

The video is full frame for all the features on the DVD and the audio is 2.0 stereo. The DVD is packaged with a small booklet with a couple photos and an excerpt from Dee Dee’s interview. It also contains a CD called Dee Dee Blues which is a single microphone recording of Dee Dee with his guitar goofing around It is split into three tracks that total about an hour in length.

If you are a hardcore Ramones fan you will likely find something of interest with this release and may want to pick it up if you are the type that has to have everything related to the band. Casual fans may want to check out a rental copy in the event that you are curious but wouldn’t likely watch this more than once.

Related links:

Order the DVD from amazon.com

MVD Visual

You Weren’t There, A History of Chicago Punk 1977 – 1984 DVD
Factory 25/Regressive Films

Chicago had a good punk rock scene back in the old days with a some really great bands but the problem was that few outside the confines of the city and surrounding suburbs knew about it back then. While the early punk rock scenes in New York and California actually got attention, got a few bands records deals, and have been documented in quite a few books, Chicago had none of that. It took a pair of local aspiring filmmakers to finally give Chicago its due in a documentary they spent a few years putting together and the result is this film,  You Weren’t There.

The film was truly a labor of love and the two filmmakers spent a few years conducting interviews with as many people involved in the early Chicago punk scene as possible, as well as digging up as much footage of bands from back then as they could find in peoples closets and old drawers. The result is a two hour documentary that does an amazing job of telling the history of punk rock in the Windy City in a very informative and entertaining way.

It starts out telling how punk in Chicago started by a small handful of clubs deciding to play punk music and have one night a week devoted to it, which eventually led to the clubs turning totally punk. The strange thing was there was pretty much just one punk club at a time and when one would tragically close due to fires or the city shutting it down (remember punk was “dangerous” back then), a new one would replace it as the scene grew and evolved. Interviews with all the people involved in the clubs from the owners, to the patrons to the DJs participate and tell their various stories, all of which was totally fascinating and often humorous.

The clubs led to like minded punks meeting each other and forming bands and that is where the movie goes next. It starts with Chicago’s first punk rock band, Tutu and the Pirates, who were a great band that sadly never released any records (a prime example of why Chicago doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, not enough recordings came out). It also gives detailed stories of Da, Silver Abuse, The Wayouts, The Effigies, Articles of Faith, Naked Raygun, End Result, Mentally Ill, Big Black, and lots more. Each band covered has modern day interview footage with former members telling their stories and all of it is as entertaining as it is informative.

The shift from punk to hardcore, feuds between the Effigies and Articles of Faith, the feud between Vic Bondi and Steve Albini, violence, and more are all covered closing with how the scene everyone once new had all but died and had been replaced with what they all viewed as a not so pleasant new scene filled with jocks and generic hardcore bands. The common thread among most that participated in this film was that the Chicago punk rock scene was something really unique, exciting and special and is something that hasn’t been duplicated in the modern age.

The pacing and story was really well done and extremely fascinating. I saw this movie twice in a theater when they did screenings of it and didn’t take my eyes, ears, or mind off the film for even a second during the whole thing, it was totally riveting. On top of being such a great source of information, it also has a light hearted and comedic side which had me laughing out loud on multiple occasions which made it that much better. Even someone who has no knowledge or interest in the punk rock bands would find the story and movie a fun watch from start to finish.

The video is full frame which while being a bummer in the land of widescreen TV’s, makes sense since all the old footage they dug up was in that format and probably would have been worse for wear trying to reformat it. The sound is stereo and the mix was very well done with the interviews and the music so there was no need to keep the remote handy for any volume adjusting. The movie is just over two hours in length. Bonus features include some footage of Negative Element, “Strike Under”, and Mentally Ill from the movie release show two years ago at Beat Kitchen and some other old footage from a few of the bands featured in the film. There is also some extra interview footage with Mike and Anthony from Rights of the Accused talking about a few subjects which was quite humorous.

The DVD is available as a single disc standard release or in a limited edition package with a white vinyl LP with music  from the various bands featured in the movie, some of which is unreleased and most of which is out of print. It’s housed in a gatefold LP jacket.

Of all the punk rock documentaries out there these days, You Weren’t There is among the cream of the crop. It is two hours of great entertainment and education and a wonderful document of a city’s punk scene that deserves to be more well known. It gets my highest recommendation.

Related links:

Order the Limited Edition DVD/LP  from amazon.com or the standard edition DVD

Factory 25

Regressive Films