Hardcore Documentary At A Bar In Brooklyn

The Night Of The MTV After Parties

There are tons of parties tonight for the VMA's, most look quite shitty. I probably could have attended a few of these but I waited to long to ask. Not that I'm into the awards (I don't even have MTV) but I enjoy parties with free booze, free food, live bands, and drunk starfuckers. I'll probably just cruise the Village or LES tonight. If I do end up at a VMA party this will be the one:

More Gervais...From The 80's!

SO I was going to post part two of the Gervais Microsoft video and then a coworker passed along a very funny video. You may have heard that Gervais was a minor pop star but I bet you haven't seen his video. Oh and the Microsoft clip is posted too.

via Crackers United

Wolf Parade "I'll Believe In Anything" Video

I don't get it...but it's a great song.

via Stereogum

Whip It - 90 Minute Open Bar

This party tonight has an hour and a half long open bar - which is great. However it's taking place at Stereo which is bad. I'm not sure if this will be good or bad but it does have potential...to be either. Proceed with caution.

Say Mike Nouveau at the door for FREE ENTRY all night!

Hatebreed Playing CBGB's Tonight (Tickets ???)

So as you may already know Hatebreed is playing CB's tonight. Originally the only way to get tickets was to preorder the album - which may still be true. However CBGB just sent out a MySpace bulletin announcing the show. Does this mean they will have tickets at the door? I'm not sure since it wasn't specifically mentioned but why else would they announce it to the public?

Ricky Gervais - Microsoft

Ricky Gervais proves his genius yet again. For those of you unfortunate souls Gervais wrote and starred in the original UK version of The Office, which is a thousand times better then the US version (still damn good).
via Waxy

Tourfilter

Today while visiting the Hype Machine I discovered the latest 2.0 music site - Tourfilter. All I can say is, if you enjoy concerts then you need this site. Basically it checks the show listings for damn near every venue in NYC. You create an account (FREE) and tell them what bands you like and it will email you anytime that band is in the city of your choice. There are already similar sites and services but none so very, very easy to use. I highly recommend giving this a try.

Link:
Toufilter NYC

Sparta Member Releases Short Film

Tony Hajjar of Sparta has created a short film called Eme Nakia. The trailer can be streamed here.

Eme Nakia is a unique 16-minute film that Tony Hajjar along with his band Sparta will release as part of a special edition of their new album, Threes. The word “Eme” means “Mother” in Arabic, and Nakia was the name of Tony’s mother. The album and short film will be available on 10/24.

The film grew out of a desire for the band to make a movie while recording their third album. Jim Ward, frontman and guitarist for band, suggested telling the story of Hajjar’s (Sparta’s drummer) remarkable personal history: He was born in Beirut, Lebanon and at the age of 5, along with his family, fled his country during the Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990.

It looks like it could actually be pretty good.

Pennywise & Circle Jerks Playing the Warsaw

I'm not sure when this was announced but I just saw it on the Warsaw website. Pennywise & Circle Jerks will be playing the Warsaw on Oct. 19th. The opening act will be Ignite, which is nice.

Warsaw

Merauder, Outburst, & All Out War @ CBGB's - 8/27

The last time I saw All Out War was either 1999 or 2000. I was in Tallahassee where the hardcore scene was pretty weak. I had been to a few hardcore shows there and for the most part they were tame so when I saw All Out War was coming I didn't expect anything different. That show ended up being one of the best hardcore shows I would ever attend and cement All Out War as one of the classic live bands I've seen.

Since that show I haven't had the pleasure of catching All Out War. When I saw they were playing at CBGB's with Merauder I had to get tickets. A friend of mine got me into Merauder about a year after that All Out War show and I was impressed but I never became much of a fan. None the less I've been wanting to see them play since the first time I heard them five years ago.

Yesterday I arrived at CBGB's at about 5PM. I knew a shitload of bands were playing so I wasn't planning on staying - I just wanted set times. I asked the doorman and he couldn't help me so he yelled inside to the singer for Leeway. He said it would be about four hours before All Out War went on. So I went across the street to the Bowery Poetry Club and had some coffee and then we went to a few shops on Broadway to kill some time.

We got back to CBGB's around 9PM and the Leeway dude was standing in the doorway. I asked him who was up next and he told me Uppercut was coming up. Since I keep hearing good things about Uppercut I decided to head inside and check them out.

After about 15 minutes of set up time they started to play. I immediately noticed the riffs - they were pretty good. But what really stood out was the singers voice - not so good. When I used to be in bands doing the scream/growl shit people used to say to me, "Anybody can do that". And I would hand them a microphone to test their theory. Now what would happen is they would scream but it just sounded like a guy in the street yelling - no rhythm, no style, just yelling. That's kinda what this guy sounded like - in no way did it sound musical.

Needless to say I wasn't really feeling Uppercut and I was happy when they finished. They didn't suck they just didn't stand out. Up next were my boys - All Out War. I was pretty damn excited and I pushed my way threw the crowd and got a spot on the side of the pit against the wall. Once the music started the floor exploded.

I've been to lots of shows at CB's and I have never seen a pit as big as what I was looking at. It went from the stage all the way back to the gap in the bar. It was totally fucking crazy and pretty much stayed that way the whole time. I knew All Out War had a following but not even the Madball or Blood For Blood shows at CB's had pits that size.

During the set the band did some talking. Of course they said some kind words about SOB and said their farewells to CB's. They also talked some shit on Hawthorne Heights and, Victory Records chief, Tony. Apparently they have a new album finished but Victory won't release it. The new shit they played was pretty damn good. The whole fucking set was good - not as good as Tallahassee but they were a lot more lean and mean back then.

After All Out War left the stage Outburst was up. I had heard of Outburst before but honestly I don't know much about them. I really didn't know what to expect so I just listened. After the first song I could see why these guys were big back in the early 90's but I wasn't into it.

Also after the first song a guitar broke and the singer started yapping about retarded shit. He said something about Priest inventing metal, not Sabbath. Also he made a bad and old joke about how things have changed since the early 90's (Bush, Iraq war, etc.). He also mentioned his "paint your face shit, black lip stick" metal band he was in, which doesn't go over well the hardcore kids.

I ended up going outside after about 3-4 songs. They were taking long ass brakes between every fucking song and I couldn't take that dude running his mouth anymore. So anyway I stood outside for a while doing nothing. A lot of other people went outside during their set too. Once the mobs of people came pouring out I headed in because I wanted to get my spot back while everyone was outside.

Before the set started Merauder had a moment of silence for recently deceased member SOB. Then all the DMS heads got ready to represent. As soon as the first note was struck the place went nuts. The All Out War pit was bigger but this was a lot scarier. There were a few 300 pound goons just fucking pummeling people in the pit. Then there were a few skinny bastards flipping off of everything more then 4 feet off the ground.

The scene was utter chaos yet oddly choreographed. Like I said, I've been to lots of shows and I've seen some crazy ass shit but this pit had more high risk maneuvers than any. The odd thing was I didn't see a single damn person get hurt. There was everything from backflips and handstands to dudes swinging from the pipes in the ceiling. You could tell everyone knew everyone and they also new the building.

Anyway, back to the music - Merauder killed it last night. I never really noticed how technical the band was. Much more so then nearly all hardcore bands. The riffs were like something out of Kerry King's scrapbook and the drums were tight as hell. I was simply amazed by how good of a bunch of musicians Merauder were. It was also cool to see 20 people up on stage with them. Everyone was passing around mics and taking turns helping out on vocals. That's what hardcore is about - everyone at the show is just as important as the band. Just because you're not in the band doesn't mean you aren't part of the music.

Merauder

All Out War

MP3's:
Find My Way - Merauder
No Warning - Merauder

I'm Back

Well, I haven't really been gone but after nearly two months without a home internet connection I'm finally back online. It feels really good but I'm pissed it was so fucking simple to fix. All I did was install this program called Treewalk DNS and it got me right back online. While I'm very happy it worked I'm a bit weary that something so easy and free is safe.

Party Tonight

Friday Night Rififi

Tonight I'll be heading over to Rififi for Trash. It's the chosen party for the birthday of a friend of a friend. Normally birthday parties for people I don't know are a bust but this is Rififi on a Friday and Trash is always fun.

11th btwn 1st & 2nd

Ski Club on MTV...Sorta

MTV has launched a VMA microsite to guide weary travelers along the mean streets of NYC. They have enlisted various celebs, bloggers, and other spotlight types to contribute to the blog. What's Up NYC is one of the many contributors and they listed Brooklyn Ski Club in the top 5 NYC blogs.

What a surprise huh? Who would have thought What's Up would name Ski Club as a top 5. It's not like we're run by the same people or anything. No nothing like that at all...

Link:
VMA 2006 Guide

Because of this top 5 thing some people are questioning the meaning of BSC.

I subversively love that they linked BrooklynSki Club because I always thought that site was born out of a group of Brooklynites who liked to go out and do drugs together

Oh how I wish this were true - sounds like a lot of fun.

Rancid & H2O @ BB Kings 8/24

Last night was the first of four Rancid shows in NYC at BB Kings. Of the four this was the one I really wanted to check out because NY legends H2O were opening. The first act to play was FVK - since I never heard of them I decided to show up late. Big fucking mistake. First of all FVK is Fearless Vampire Killers, the Cro-Mags side project. I know and like Fearless Vampire Killers but I never saw initials used. Damn it, so I missed FVK completely. I also managed to miss 1/3 of H2O's set.

So showing up late was a huge fucking mistake. The few songs I did catch from H2O were sick. On the last track the guitar player for Madball came out and joined in. After that we pushed our way through the crowd and got a spot up front. Some half crazy gutter punk was starting odd conversations with everyone around. It was fairly amusing until his buddy started spraying beer all over the place.

After about half an hour Rancid finally took the stage. They opened with "Ruby Soho" and the place went nuts. The one 400 pound lard ass in the place was, of course, right next to me. After three songs of him leaning on me I went to the side for some relief. I should say right now that Rancid was always cool in my book but I had never seen them live until last night. Through out the set I was getting frustrated because I kinda knew every song but not enough to ssing along.

I'm not sure how long they played but after a while they left the stage. Then came the obligatory encore which consisted of 3-4 songs. The first two songs were done acoustically and were killer. Everyone in the place was singing along. Check out the video below - it sucks but the sound is good. After the two acoustic songs they strapped the electric guitars and finished with some punk rock.

The highlights were hearing H2O play "Family Tree" and "Guilty By Association" and Rancid play "Ruby Soho" and "Time Bomb" but I would have liked to hear "Whole Lot Of Nothing" and "Salvation". They also played an Op Ivy tune, but I was never into the whole Op Ivy thing. So anyway it was great to see Rancid and I highly recommend you go to one of the remaining shows.

**Update: Hardcore Shutter Bug has killer pics

AntiPizza - HORSE the band

A few months ago during the middle of a tour HORSE the band ate some pizza. The pizza was so divine they decided to quit their tour and record an EP devoted entirely to the most excellent of all pizza. They stuck to their word and the Pizza EP is finished. The first track was just made available on their MySpace profile - it's delicious.

HORSE the band on MySpace

Apes And Androids Are The Future

What the fuck happened at Sin-e last night? One of the best performances these eyes and ears have ever been witness to. There are simply no words to properly express how unbelievable last night's Apes And Androids show was. I'll do my best to explain but I'm sure I will do them no justice.

Before A&A started I got myself a spot right up front to take pictures. I was surprised by how packed Sin-e was. I mean nobody I knew had even heard of this band - which is why I rolled solo. As the band started to set up hoards of little girls started pushing by me to get up front. It was crazy how many were there acting crazy, it was almost Beatlemania-esque.

Just before the band went on they unveiled their backdrop - it was a huge silver skeleton monster. Once the lights went down the monster's eyes lit up and it began to speak to the crowd. It said something about us being the last people on Earth.

It was quite an intro and it was clear this was going to be one hell of a show. The band members were wearing futuristic make-up and there was a distinct "Logan's Run" quality to the show. About halfway into the first song one thing was very clear - this band is so much better live then recorded.

I was blown away by the layering of the vocals. Both lead singers had unique voices, the blonde guy had an incredible falsetto. It was almost opera-esque, in that Freddie Mercury kinda way. The other singers voice wasn't as impressive but was still better then most crappy indie singers out there. Two other members sang backup and they topped it off by adding keyboards to the vocal chorus - it was just a huge wall of vocals.

The guitar playing was also quite good. There were a few ripper solos in there that came out of nowhere. They also had tons of keyboards and synths but managed not to sound like 80's cheeseballs. I really was not expecting this band to be so tight band but they were, and then some.

Halfway through the set people from the crowd went up on stage and pulled the monsters hidden arms out. The arms were long pieces of fabric with pointy hands attached which were controlled by people in the crowd. The effect was very cool, it looked like the monster had his hands out over top of the crowd - almost like an evil puppeteer. The whole time his bright red eyes were blinking red. Also at this time glowing green orbs were unleashed on the crowd which were tossed around like beach balls.

Like I said this was quite a show and so very hard to describe. I'm pissed no one went because I have no one to back me up when I say it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. And I mean that on both levels - the stage show was genius for its low budgetness and the band were just plain awesome. They have a sound that makes you think Queen and Bowie but with the energy of At The Drive-In or Blood Brothers.

The highlight of the show from a musical perspective was "Hot Kathy" which is one of the coolest songs I've heard in a long time. Check it out at MySpace but just know that live there is way more to it then what you hear online. The oohs and ahhs at the end were amazing to hear live. I recorded it on my camera but the quality is horrible - I still posted it though.

This band is an absolute must see. The girls adore them and they know how to put on a show. As long as they don't fuck up they will be very well known in the near future. The show last night was better then anything I've seen any fancy signed band put on and without any fancy label money to do it. If you're a label then you would be retarded not to check out Apes And Androids next time they play.

Just listen, you can't see shit

Everyone Must Hurl 6

You should try and get out of the city tonight. In fact you should try and get down to South Jersey - Vineland. Why you ask? Well tonight is August 24th, which means it's time for the annual drinking fest known as Everyone Must Hurl. This party is in my hometown and draws a few hundred people (rain or shine). If you enjoy drinking until you puke and witnessing lewd, obscene retardedness (who doesn't?) then this party is a must.

If you want to go and need more information get in touch with Cutie (former BSC photographer).

Link:
Cutie's MySpace

Apes And Androids Tonight @ Sin-e

Tonight go see Apes And Androids at Sin-e. This will be my first time seeing these guys but I keep hearing good things. At some point they were Gothamists "Band Of The Week", which sounds pretty good.

MP3:
Radio - Apes And Androids

New Party Tonight: Topless Tuesday

This party is being hosted by a friends roommate and is right down the street from my apartment so I might check it out. So here's the deal "drink specials all night", free sushi, rock n' roll & titties.

6TH STREET BTWN AVE A AND B

The Return Of Cocaine Corner

This morning I was very happy to see an email in my inbox from the one and only Edgar Winter of Cocaine Corner. This is what it read:

"edgar is back. spread the gospel."

If you've never been to the The Corner then you are missing out on perhaps the most entertaining and well written blogs out there. A few months back Edgar went into hiding and Cocaine Corner came to a stop. Go read what you've been missing so you're up to speed once it gets going again.

Link:
Cocaine Corner

Stream The New Walls Of Jericho

I remember back in the day the first time I heard this band. I was totally blown away by their style - very familiar but still unique. Then I found out the vocals were coming from a female and I was even more impressed. This album is damn good, there are a few times where it gets a bit Kittie-esque (which is odd for WOJ) but for the most part it's good old fashion Walls Of Jericho.

Walls Of Jericho AOL Album Stream

Rancid Ticket Trade?

I have tickets for the Rancid show on Thursday but I have something else I would like to attend. So I was hoping somebody could trade me their tickets for the Saturday show. Even trade, no money involved - Thursday Rancid (& H2O) tix for Saturday Rancid tix. Please let me know if you are interested.

A Place To Bury Strangers Tonight

Good show at the Mercury Lounge tonight.



MP3:
My Weakness - APTBS

Tiswas w/ Trouble Everyday & Goats

This should be a good one. Trouble Everyday sounds pretty good and it's the Mountain Goats relesase party.

After The Dolls Tonight

This is where you can go get drunk:

Links For Your Pleasure

Sweet, delicious (not del.icio.us) links:

Fisherman Lost At Sea For A Year

New Species On Ebay

Celebrity X-Ray

Brothers United: Max & Igor

New York Dolls Tonight - Free Show

Despite only having two original members the Dolls are still worth seeing live. I've been to two NY Dolls shows this year and both were awesome. I suggest you go see the Dolls - they might be dead soon.

7PM
New York Dolls Live!
@ South Street Seaport
Pier 17
Free

Past shows: @Avalon, @CBGB

Papa Roach Is Hilarious

So today I'm checking out some music site for work and on the front page is a Papa Roach contest. Just the fact that Papa Roach is still around made me laugh a bit but then I noticed the picture next to the contest. At first glance I thought it was related to another topic but then I realized it was Papa Roach. But I had to make sure so I went to their MySpace page and how ever did I laugh.

Here is why that shit was funny - they looked like Avenged Sevenfold. They had the black clothes, the skulls, the jet black hair, and to top it all off - eyeliner! Nu-metal darlings Papa Roach have gone screamo, at least in appearance. You see I still hadn't heard any of the new shit at this point so I still wasn't sure how deep this madness went.

When I listened to the first track on MySpace it sounded like traditional shitty Papa Roach and then it went into some emo shit. Screamo with Nu-metal rapping, not a mash up I was hoping for. I listened to the rest and it sounded ALOT like MCR or A7X. What the fuck boys? Aren't you cats like 35 years old? You look like fucking retards. Not that I necessarily have a problem with that look. I have a problem with a bunch of frat rock morons going from baggy jeans and backwards caps to girl jeans and eyeliner.

Seriously do you think kids are that stupid? You think that you can get away with dressing like you're 15 when you're 35? Ok so maybe you can and maybe you'll sell a shit load of records. But I will always remember you fuckers as 90's nu-metal posers. Even if these days you're 00's screamo posers.

Here are some pictures for your amusement (I wonder if this was their idea or the labels?):

Papa Roach back in the day:
Papa Roach now!

A7X:


For more fun go to the Papa Roach MySpace for the NEW pics. Be sure to check out the gun picture - soooo scary!

Bonus - Album covers:



Vs.

Aberdeen City At The Annex Tonight

I think a lot of people are headed to that Ratatat thing tonight. Personally I think this will be better. This won't be great but for a fairly dead night it's better then nothing.

FYI: Rumor has it the free Sparks ain't happening.

MP3:
God Is Going To Get Sick Of Me - Aberdeen City