Soundcloud/My Musical Projects

Seriously guys, I'll get back to reviewing bands and albums as soon as I find a new band. Promises. But today I'm going to plug my bands/musical projects.

EVL:




















EVL is my main band. I describe us as being an amalgamation of hardcore punk, horror punk/metal, and death rock. At the time of writing this, it's Dean George on guitar and vocals, Me on bass and lead vocals, and TJ Gatt on the drums, but that could change any day now, you never know what happens. We've been working on a proper disc to release for a while, but it's been taking some time, but oh well. For now, you can enjoy our riveting live set, we'll be played the Coach and Horses on April 8th.
Here's a myspace link: www.myspace.com/evlmusic

Class-Traitor Collective:













Oh yes. I have a folk-punk "side project". Who doesn't nowadays? Hopefully will be a proper collective project in years to come, currently just me solo. I get shows here and there, generally at punk shows in houses, but I am playing the Phog Lounge April 18th, which is quite rad. You can listen to my EP here, or download it from Soundcloud as well. Soundcloud is awesome
Dear Victory Records EP by Class-Traitor Collective

Rainbow Vending Machine:












Oh this is a fun one. I started this a while ago with a friend who can't play any instruments. It's a noise/electro jam band that's incredibly enjoyable to do. We've never played live, but it's a possibility sometime in the future. Enjoy this sampling of our "music" from Soundcloud.
Consult the Raw Primordia by Rainbow Vending Machine
I Are Hate by Rainbow Vending Machine
Funjamlawl (Really rough 15 minute jam between JD and CL) by Rainbow Vending Machine

So those are my CURRENT musical projects, but you never know what I'm going to end up doing next. I appreciate ya'll taking the time to check this out, and I hope to see you at my upcoming shows.

Straight-Edge - My view

"Listen,
This is no set of rules,
I'm not telling you what to do,
All I'm saying is I'm bringing up three things,
That are like so important to the whole world,
That I don't identify as much importance in,
Because of these things,
Whether they are fucking or playing golf."
-Ian MacKaye

Straight-edge turned from a Minor Threat song into a clusterfuck that has separated the hardcore and punk community for decades.
For those unaware: Straight-Edge is a community within the punk and hardcore culture where the members of the community abstain from drugs (illegal or legal). Other aspects of the community (though not required) are to be vegetarian/vegan, and/or abstinence from sexual promiscuity.
In the eyes of a sane individual, this idea seems pretty good. How could such a simple, wholesome moral idea cause so much anger and infighting that it causes friendships to fall apart? It's the fact that there aren't sane individuals in the world. The fact that the punk and hardcore community tends to make any ideal into a radical one.
Straight-edge gangs beat up non-straight-edge kids outside of shows or just walking down the streets. The movement developed an offshoot that demands vegetarianism, abstinence from all sexual activity (including masturbation), are radical "pro-life" people, are anti-pornography, and many members of the movement are immensely homophobic. Hardliners are the epitome of radical straight-edge, preaching their ideals as being moral and right for all.

I'm not straight-edge. I don't mind if people don't do drugs, or don't have promiscuous sex, or even if they're vegetarian/vegan. I do care if you attack me or my friends for not tattooing large Xs on the back of our hands, or enjoying a beer in a bar. I care if you verbally abuse someone for having an abortion or having sex before marriage. I want your personal life choices to be your personal life choices. If you need a gang (oh I'm sorry, they're not "gangs", they're "crews") to back you up with your personal life choices, they no longer personal life choices. You're part of an atheistic religion (not anti-god, just a religion devoid of a god).

Peace&Luv,
Jawn.

The Aquabats - Live in Detroit, March 18 2010

The Aquabats are nothing short of awesome. Originally a ska band emerging from the mid-90's Third Wave Ska movement, The Aquabats have evolved and morphed into a new-wave inspired pop-punk powerhouse, keeping some ska undertones.
Supported by Grand Rapids, Michigan's Mustard Plug, and local Detroit Ska group Gunday Monday, this show was solid from beginning till end.
Mustard Plug entertained and kept the crowd energy high. Their set was tight and the crowd fed off their high energy, but I was waiting for the Aquabats. That's who I had come to see, and that's all I cared about.
The lights went dark as the background screen flashed with photos of the band members in various poses. They ran onto the stage and kicked off into their first song "Fashion Zombies". The crowd pushed and danced their hearts out and the bar had just been raised for the night.
The set consisted mostly of tunes from their latest album, 2005's Charge! but also contained classic tunes like "Martian Girl" and "CD Repo Man".
As the set came to a close, frontman MC Bat Commander noticed a group of small children in the front row. Before the last song began, he invited them each up on the stage and had them introduce themselves. In the middle of the song, the band slowed down to let MC Bat Commander speak. He asked the kids on stage if they wanted to fly off the stage and into the crowd. As they each answered in the affirmative, he picked them up and tossed them offstage.


(not my video, credits to youtube user joshuag413)

After the last song of the set, another video came on the screen, setting up an encore.
They ran onstage and asked the crowd what song they wanted to hear. Guitarist Eagle "Bones" Falconhawk started to play Kelly Clarkson's "Since You've Been Gone". The band picked up into it and played the first verse and chorus before being stopped by MC Bat Commander. They played fan favourite "Pool Party" as the encore.

The show was fun, loud, and awesome. One of the funnest and funniest live acts I've seen apart from "Weird Al" Yankovic.

-Peas&Luv, Jawn.

De Facto - Texas Electro-dub-reggae

Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala of the seminal post-hardcore group At the Drive-In and progressive group The Mars Volta are rather well known if not famous musicians. Bixler-Zavala for his high, yelping vocal style, and Rodríguez-López for his erratic, effect-laden guitar sounds.
One of the many side-projects of theirs, De Facto is an obvious, but not too drastic change from the eclectic jumble of music styles reflected in TMV. The music is rooted in Dub and reggae, but the work of the late Jeremy Michael Ward as sound manipulator and Ikey Owens on keyboards and "electronic beats" (as well as a host of auxiliary musicians on first album ¡Megaton Shotblast!) throws in an electro-y latin sound that the dub genre is not generally known for.
With ORL on bass guitar and CBZ on drums, this album also gives a listener a new perspective on their talents, with ORL grooving along to the in-the-pocket drums of CBZ.
The entire experience can be quite a bit wearing, maybe even exhausting, which is why the short runtimes of the EP 456132015 or the album How Do You Dub? You Fight for Dub. You Plug Dub In (under 20 minutes each) are perfect for this group.
All in all, I'd recommend this group to dyed-in-the-wool fans of ORL and CBZ's music and people wanting to mix up their music collection with a group that sounds like it crashed onto Earth from many galaxies away.

Links to online listening here: http://rodriguezlopezproductions.com/catalog-de-facto/

Happy listening, I'm out.

Holy Crap I'm Not Dead

Nope, I'm not. I swear. Promise. Cross my heart and hope to...you get the point.

Grade 12 has been a lot more work than expected, I'm tired really quickly and I'm busy with my bands, but I'm making an effort to get back into blogging for you...5 readers. (Hi, Andrea!)

Any ways, this is just an update post, music will be coming soon.

My band, EVL (www.myspace.com/evlmusic), is still going strong despite losing our vocalist, so I'm actually doing most lead vocals as well as bass.
I also have a solo project: Class Traitor Collective (www.myspace.com/emotionalxhobocore) has an EP, and I'm actually playing my first "real" show at Phog on April 18th.

To hold you off until I do a proper post, I recommend checking out Riotfolk. (www.riotfolk.org)
A collective of folk musicians, Riotfolk is a really awesome DIY venture with AMAZING artists. My favourites are Adhamh Roland, Evan Greer and Mark Gunnery but they're all stellar.



That's all for now, peace, love and such.

Underappreciated Albums 1: Into The Unknown

I don't get why fans or artists shun certain albums, saying they've "progressed past that" or whatever. I think they should, if not embrace it, at least accept it as a period in their history and not be ashamed of it.
This is the first in a series of albums I deem great or good, even though the artist or fans don't. Today: Into the Unknown by Bad Religion.


This is a marked shift from their debut album, a hardcore punk album, Into the Unknown is a progressive rock album.
I'm gonna list the negative right from the beginning: It's badly produced. That's a big factor, it sounds worse than some local artist's albums.
Apart form that, this album is rock solid. Every song is solid, if completely different form Bad Religion's normal sound. There is loads of acoustic guitar strumming, keyboard melodies, and the sng lengths are markedly different from the hardcore punk songs they played before.
My favourite song on the album is probably Billy Gnosis, it's a real strong, catchy, rockin' song.

Overall, this is a solid album, I don't think BR should have done any more prog stuff after this though, they seemed to have exhausted their ideas and effort on this album, and were done with it.

Late lazy post: Mexican town and youtube

Mmmm, mexican town restaurant. I barely finished half my plate it was soo filling.
Went there with Mom, Ian, and my mom's friend Carl and his wife, no pictures taken, but trust me, it was a damn good time.
Some choice quotes from Carl:
"If a city counselor's lips are moving, he's lying."
"Mexican coffee is jet fuel."

Also, I posted some youtube videos recently of my guitar playing and singing. It's by no means great audio, but it's an example of how much I suck for ya'll.





Should hve a proper post later this week, love ya'll!