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Friday, May 17, 2013

The Empty's (Ex The Forgotten) Debut!

ahhhhh my bands first gig! I have not stepped onstage in nearly 14 years, it is a long time coming. Back then I was playing bass in a band called The Forgotten. We were riding high with tours, singles, albums, comp. tracks being released, high profile tours and shows. I played bass and back up vocals. Everything was flying high, or so I thought. After putting so much into my prior band, Slip with Gordy (vocalist for both Slip and The Forgotten), I was hitting burn out. I decided to walk away at the most in-opportune time as the band was just about to really take off and be what they are today. Regrets? Oh yeah, some for sure. But hey, I had to move on. I was 35 and finishing college, tiring of living in a shit hole where the band practiced and the world revolved around. I was bartending and just getting the bug to.....well, grow up. Fast forward, and now I am married, have a great stepson, live near Santa Cruz (near the beach) and have a good job (that I hate) and have settled into middle age. I turned my hobby pursuits to other things, mainly outdoor pursuits that I still dig to this day. Backpacking, snowshoing, cross country skiing, etc. Though, there was one thing bugging me. I just cannot get music out of my blood. I am born to play. Well there I was sitting around one Thanksgiving weekend when my wife presented me with a real nice acoustic guitar purchased from our friend Greg Lisher of Camper Van Beethoven. Certified rock guitar!!! All it took was some strumming and the fire was ignited once again. This leads up to the here and now. I now play guitar (rather poorly) and sing (rather poorly) in a band with 3 other unsuspecting bandmates. We're called The Empty's. I would say our sound is akin to The Ruts, Clash, SLF as well as some more modern American punk bands like Swingin Utters, Workin Stiffs, Social Distortion. This is for fun. All smiles and no pretense. The best part is I will be on stage again in July. Smiling my life away! A kid in a candy shop!

The Vibrators-On The Guest List

Track listing: View From My Cadillac featuring Walter Lure (The Heartbreakers) 2nd Skin featuring Chris Spedding Automatic Lover featuring Ty Segal Every Dog featuring Brian James (The Damned) Prisoner In The Mirror featuring Wayne Kramer (MC5) Turn Up The Heat featuring Tomomi Nabana (Detroit Seven) Rain To Town featuring Hugh Cornwell (The Stranglers) Baby Baby featuring Campino (Die Toten Hosen) Birdland Is Closed featuring Ross The Boss (The Dictators) One More featuring Tony Lovato (Mest) My Stalker featuring Eddie Spaghetti & Dan “Thunder” Bolton (Supersuckers) Rock 'n' Roll Clown featuring Bill Davis (Dash Rip Rock) The Ohio featuring Nicky Garratt (UK Subs) Whips And Furs featuring Leonard Graves Phillips & Stan Lee (The Dickies) Long Beach Police featuring James Donovan & Lome Behrman (The Dead Tricks) Voodoo Eye featuring Mickey Finn (Cold Blue Rebels) With quests like this, how could this not be incredible! IT is!!!! This is their best album since Guilty. Sure, Buzzin' and Energize were both fantastic albums. Yes the cover albums, especially Garage Punk were fun. But nothing can compare to this. This just oozes with energy and your classic Vibrators sound. Love it!! I have been a fan since I bought Guilty as an 18 year old kid exploring all the punk rock I could find. After that, I went out and got Pure Mania and V2, and the rest is history. Been a fan ever since. The 80's were ok to The Vibrators as they churned out album after album of pop rock that had some punk overtones...somewhat like what Chelsea did during the mid 80's. What you get today though, is a different animal. This group has awakened from their slumber and have made an album that is so crisp, new and in your face, that this ranks with their best stuff. My only issue is, do we need another version of Baby Baby and Whips and Furs? Love those two songs, but really? Aside from the nitpick, this is top notch stuff. GET IT!!!!!

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Bishops Green Self Titled 6 Song Ep

Where in the heck did this come from. Wow! The first moment I heard this was like having the room spin around like a drunk with no ability to comprehend. Top notch stuff here. Instantly memorable and catchy as hell. Literally this has not left my turntable all day. Love it! Never heard of them? Neither had I, but let me tell you, all of the guys come from other bands, most notably the bassist Brian McCallum who did time in SNFU and Death Sentence. But I gotta tell you, those bands have nothing in common with Bishops Green. I hear tons of Cocksparrer here with some later day Partisans, and The Business. Not many band can pull it off what Cocksparrer do,due to lack of understanding rock n roll and melody. Well these guys do. Everything is so well played, and melodic. Instant sing along is what we have here. I look forward to more of their stuff. I am a huge fan in one day. Love it!!!!!!! Buy this you will not be disapointed one bit! http://www.piratespressrecords.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=32_34&zenid=5f08f0e383a222c700fa6827c2d53f36

Zero Boys Vicious Circle Bonus Tracks

Does anyone have the bonus tracks that The Zero Boys did for Vicious Circle....meaning the stuff that has Toys From The attic etc.??????

A few things here......

Gobshyte, do you still need the Flesheaters No Questions Asked LP??? Someone requested that I re up White Flag's Eternally Done...done this weekend. Let me know what else others would like re uped.