so its been awhile since i've posted but its because i'm slowly puting together a new site at yosada.com....justin at yosada is being awesome and giving me all this free stuff so in the near future i can post mp3's and be like a REAL blog. so like my mom can shut up cause i'll like LOOK AT MY REALLY IMPRESSIVE LOOKING BLOG MOM. sometimes she jsut won't quit. ok..so give me like a week...the 4 people that will read this.  ¶ 5:42 PM 0 comments

 
Bleh Halloween. I understand why Halloween is so cool. I like ghoulish things and the overall dark side of humanity but there are certain traditions I think we could all do without like how every band turns into a Misfits cover band for the 2 weeks before Halloween. I love the Misfits as do most people but c’mon can’t the holiday do without this just for one year? How about we cover some other bands that celebrate the Goth that dwells in us all. Other bands that are completely appropriated for Halloween cover experiances. Below is a list of bands I think you’re shitty band could and should cover next year. That’s right it’s a list of gothy punk bands who's songs your band could still learn in 20 mins.

The Cramps-They were around the same time as the misfits, defiantly more attractive in their day.It was all about stupid haircuts and rock&roll what more could you want and you could get a tranny to fill in as poision ivy.

The Damned-Another band from that time with equally as stupid haircuts and played just as excellent rock&roll. the bummer is that you'd have to do a shout out when you played "new rose" but if you're reading this site you're probably painfully alone.

Diamanda Galas-Justin H. made me fall in love with her this year. I guess it’d be more difficult to do this one do to the uniqueness of her death scrowl but the effort would be legendary... The point is she has had equally as shitty haircuts as the for mentioned. Maybe you could get jenna from the silver daggs (and mika miako) to help you with this one.

Christian Death- I refuse to believe that this doesn't happen every halloween. why have i not been invited? (i mean i thought we were friends jerk) I wish I could see some dorky kid pull a Rozz Williams…I mean beside Marylin Manson. For the sake of saking stick to Only Theatre Of Pain and play Romeo’s Distress twice in the set cause you’ll totally get play. Ps. you'll also get to give yrself another shitty haircut.

45. Grave- You defiantly shouldn’t do this one if you live In the LA area cause you could attract the wrong kind of interesting crowd (you know what i'm talking about). But you could dress like Geza X (if you're the guitarist) and get all the chix and the dudes…actually just do a Geza X tribute so you can all get laid and play hits by the deadbeats.

Bauhaus-Yea ok so now we’re just goth. These dudes win for worst haircuts you can emulate to make yr performance golden. (though nothing looks quite as stupid as a deadlock). I don’t think they we’re the first Goth band to look this dumb but whatever nobody cares anyways. They did a reunion this year and I heard it was magical. I think I’d be terrified of OLD men acting like gay vampire sex symbols....come to think of it that's excactly the kind of thing that's missing in my life.

So there you go. The truth is that Halloween’s probably the only time its aceeptable to be in a crappy cover band but it doesn't mean if you're playing around that time you have to be. Very rarely is it pleasurable to hear covers in general. I heard that Bob Bruno is involved In a NEU! Covers project. That might be an exception. I hope you and you’re shitty band find this inspiring.  ¶ 2:58 PM 0 comments

 














Oh God of course I’d write about the Silver Daggs. How predictable. Honestly though I wouldn’t even try to resist! It’s true that anything I say about them is on the bias that they’re the coolest most ruthless tribe I’ve met in LA ever. But really coolness aside I love this band because they’re an awesome band....what luck to have a bunch of awesome people in an awesome band. A band so awesome the thought of them breaking up releases somber tears upon the chapped cheaks that have been left so dry for so long.. The band is presently in the 4th form it’s taken since its creation. From a two-piece keyboard/drum shock unit to a 5 piece doom-bringing death sqaud. I honestly didn’t care about this band for the first year of its existence. It didn’t seem like anything more than 2 young attractive boys-gone-wild, having a good time for good time’s sake and then there was that FINAL SHOW thing they did before Jackson moved to NYC. I was skeptical anything would happen. So along came the sax of Jenna “gimme my hat back” Thornhill and 2 dudes I don’t think I ever met on drums and bass. This interested me for a second, but I couldn’t deal with the repetition and pure unadulterated sloppiness the band pursued at the time but I had met Will and had enjoyed his company thoroughly so i felt obligated to see them play every once in awhile. The 3rd evolution of this band was when I was struck jaw dropped and shell-shocked. Marcus had now joined on the drums and Steve had picked up the bass. Its weird how an amazing rhythm section can suddenly make everything make sense. Later Jackson would return but this time as a guitar and so goes the present tense Silver Daggers. Sure they’ve already released some stuff. Some of its amazing (the 7-inchs) and some of its ehhh…. pssssh whatever (I’m talking about the cassette tape though it seems like EVERYBODY LOVED THAT TAPE. I think I’m to PR for it or something but whatever…I own it so and wouldn’t give it to anybody for anything so…) but they’re newest is something well new. It’s the same Silver D. I’ve grown to love but they have this weird world/prog thing going throughout the whole record. It adds a new layer of depth to a once doom-ridden prog art punk act. I can say that it doesn’t really sound so much like their nitty-gritty live show as I would like but its nice to hear them all squeaky clean too…expect some long drawn out parts that eventually you’ll skip over once you cease to be amazed by them but expect some ominous sounding party jamz too. Records aside they’re one of my favorite bands to see live and some of my favorite people ever. So whatever, I’m officially hyping this on the street you should too.
PS I can’t find any info on the load site but rumor is its going to be released on load even though the band themselves haven’t said much about it SWEET check it out.
www.myspace.com/silverdaggers  ¶ 5:52 PM 2 comments

 












Blah. Don’t you hate when you see a cover band that doesn’t know they’re a cover band? Like you swore they’re riffs we’re heisted from Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath and you wish they would drop the pretension of playing their originals and just play “war pigs” 7 or 8 times. I recently saw this band from Austin TX called Sword who we’re 4 attractive long hairs who decided it’d be a good idea to play the music they listen to bar for bar and have a good time. It was well-done and fun to watch but I was just kinda offended that they didn’t play “war pigs” it would’ve made my night. I understand the need for rock parody, I enjoy Spinal Tap but hasn’t it gone through the cycle enough times for us to know better? What really pisses me off is that a band that’s plagiarizing an old rock band gets more attention than a band totally reinventing the old rock band making it thiers and getting written off even when they did it 18 years before these lackluster white boys stuck in the trend. I’m talking about Japan’s finest in psych-noise-proto-metal-freak out rock DMBQ.
I’d never paid attention to them before I saw them play the smell about 2 years ago. A week before Julian (who’s band the pope opened) said, “hey man I know you’re not into rock music but you’ll love this band…and yr stupid”. The next week I showed up and drank a little bit with Juju, Watson, Jon, David and Joey. The Pope played but it was before they got awesome so it was just good. Then DMBQ started setting up…an hour later all we had witnessed was the singer doing an improve noise set playing only his deals and his gasmask but the band was yet to be set up. For a few minutes I considered the possibility that the set up was the actual set. That they were performance artist acting as a dinosaur rock band with to much gear taking forever to set up their shit. I was so wrong. From the first riff on it was the most stupefying psych- proto-space-metal I’ll ever enjoy. The band was crazy active for a bunch of old dudes. I mean for 45 minutes they went totally crazy reducing everyone to fat stupid smiles on their faces. I had been rocked and it wasn’t even half way over. Eventually the singer/guitar player had started acquiring everyone in the front row’s t-shirt and slipping them over his small frame one after the other. Suddenly he decided it’d be a good idea to take all of them off till eventually he lay naked on the ground. Then just as soon as they came they left.
A year later Juju set up another DMBQ show but this time in the basement of Claremont College. Awesomely it was booked during one of the school’s breaks and barely any students were there to witness the dark magic of the Japanese tyrants of riffage. This time at the end of the show they moved the stage into the crowd somehow without anybody being able to react to it and the collision of heavy rockage and pure unsupervised youth energy made for a remarkable little explosion of fun that I will never in my life be able to forget. Whoa. So about a week and a half after the show there was a car accident in between Baltimore and Brooklyn. Mana Nishiura (who also drummed in Shonen Knife) was the only not to survive and a feeling of doom entered my stomach and I knew something I couldn’t accept happened. I haven’t seen DMBQ since the accident but I’m anxious to see what direction they’re headed and how they could possibly out do themselves again. Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hno0U3QJ3QE  ¶ 3:30 PM 0 comments

  Sometimes things just pop in on you at the right time and you can’t explain why you’re so attracted to it but you are, and there is nothing you can do. I can’t tell if I’m probably going to hate this band once they come out with a slick over produced recording but as of right now I’m enjoying the janglely pop-ness of Shaky Hands. At times they remind me of the less ridiculous Violent Femmes stuff but at other times it sounds like something that pitchfork would eat up with their blistering over hyping mouths and chew the fucking soul out of. Regardless, there are a few undeniable things about them; these boys are attractive, talented, seductive, well dressed and totally doing it for me right now. Check out “Sleepless” for their poppy side and “Hold it up” for the violent femmesy side ad if you know anything else about these beautiful young troubadours contact me so I can update this shit wo0o. <333333333333333333333
http://www.myspace.com/shakyhands  ¶ 10:06 PM 0 comments

 

I was working at a print shop off Fairfax when I first heard the name Scott Walker spoken for realsies. Some of my more annoying friends swore by him but they we’re totally annoying so I didn’t think there was any reason to listen to them. I mean I liked them…they we’re my friends but for some reason I don't enjoy hour-long drone sessions, Not even under the influence of the hardest drugs. (like how much black tar would it take to get me to listen to d minor for an hour) So I was collating some mail that needed to go out and Andy dressed in his sea captain ensemble came storming down from his loft and said “ahoy! Shut the f up and listen to this…. jerk”. I was terrified of Andy cause he was not only my boss but my idea of a magical guru who could solve all my problems with a hair off his seabeard. Suddenly the blissful first bars of “Jackie” arrived like a traveling circus into my life. I couldn’t figure out if it was a joke or not but like I said I was terrified of him so I listened on. It wasn’t until Amberly (a co-worker and the friend that got me the job) came in and said “wtf? This is amazing” that I too realized how remarkable Scotty Walker really was. Jon (my roommate relative/reason for living/co-worker) soon bought Walker’s “sings Jacques Brel” (a collection of songs written by Jacques Brel which came out in 81’ but was recorded throughout the 60’s) off ebay for like 30 bucks and it soon became the party record of the year. So started the Walker obsession I figure every young man faces in his life. After the Brel album’s magic wore down a little bit I was ready to dive into the Walker pool of hit/misses. I first checked out the Walker Brothers British invasion stuff and learned that Walker himself was actually Scotty Engel from Ohio who cut a bunch of teen idolish records in the late 50’s, which can now be found on the collection called “humble beginnings-the Scott Engel sessions”. The best part about this record is how joyfully terrible all the songs are. The innocence and bubblegum-ness of these songs are so over powering and I have yet to make it through the record or even put it on more than twice. The Walker Brothers produced some hits and Scott Walker finally became a heartthrob but only after moving to the U.K. (what a teabag) Mostly its just Kinda cutely embarrassing to watch…”the sun ain’t gonna shine anymore” warms the chilled heart but the majority of it doesn’t affect me. Walker didn’t really get astonishing until his 1967 s/t release which begins the BREL fascination. From there he releases “2” which is now thought as one of the greatest records ever recorded. I remember the first time this album hit me was when I was a little whatever in the car and “black sheep boy” (written by Tim Hardin…Nico, Fred Neil, Rod Stewart) came on. I remember tearing up a little bit over recent events which lead my best friends/roommates to basically kick me out of our house cause they couldn’t deal with my bullshit anymore. The first two albums we’re great but very similar in the structure and production. Also the composers remain the same (mainly Brel and Mort Shuman ((who wrote for Elvis, Janis Joplin, Andy Williams and the Small faces)) So it was about time for a change and Walker wrote more than Half of “3” including one of my fave walker originals “30th century man”. Finally we come to my favorite of the four which is titled “4”. Walker wrote every song on this uh I guess we can call it a masterpiece. I hear back in the day it wasn’t as well accepted as his other ones but I think it’s probably the one I listen to most now and I doubt I’m alone...its totally excellent. The most well known track know on this heavy hammer of a record is titled “The Old Man’s Back Again (dedicated to the neo-Stalinist regime)” which is about the repressive Czech government that took control of Prague in 1968 with the help of the commies. After that I kinda ended my Scott Walker phase and chilled out for a couple years on the worlds greatest baritone. Then one dark, gloom filled day Justin was like “oh man I heard the new Scott Walker is an excellent art-rock album”. I didn’t know what to think but “The Drift” came out in 2006 and made the year even more confusing for me. Its not that I don’t get it, I understand how awesomely cool it is that Walker decided to make an album that sounds more like an opera clashing with a black void of nothingness other than the orchestrated matadorian pop I’ve come to love. And I think that this is probably a fun record to drive though desolate landscapes too but I don’t know if I think it’s very good. I love the lyrics but more i love the explanations of some of the songs like for “Jesse” he writes “In times of loneliness and despair, Elvis Presley would talk to his stillborn twin brother Jesse Garon Presley”. This shit is stark and I think anybody who’s into the unexplainable oddities of music would appreciate this…but if you want to fall in love with the Scott Walker I know get the early solo stuff. Blah. Blah. Blah shut up. oh dude check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dfqtyL_9-4
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I remember being with Andrew at the Juvee this one night totally drunk watching some Juvee rock bands feelin kinda bored when all of the sudden Andrew said “oh man you got to hear this 7-inch, its like totally the rock&roll that makes me want to go apeshit” I was like…uh ok dude…(I think we we’re drinking 211) We stumbled to his truck where he put on a tape of the intelligence/popular shapes split. Suddenly! Two totally crunchy contradicting guitars and songs about luggage and symmetry or something slapped me in the face with a palm wet from the blood of the northwest. i gasped for air and let out a battle cry and "oh shit" echoed through the deep night air.... I was totally hooked on it. It wasn’t till I bought the thing like 5 months later that I actually listened to the Intelligence side of the record, which mysteriously forshadowed the future of what was to come. A year passes and their full length “Bikini Style” is released early in the used bins of amoeba (W.T.F.) I picked it up and said to myself “holy shit!”. I then ran over to the cash registers anxiously awaiting the car ride home. "Bikini Style" was raspier than the pervious recordings, the vocals had a little distortion on them and the sound is more lo-fi even though the quality is much better. Every track was consistent to the style and the lyrics made very little sense but it didn’t matter…for I had fallen in love. When yr in love, you're lover can do no wrong and you just kinda go with whatever they feel like doing even if its add synths and play 3.5 mintues sons like 7-inch's that followed thier full-length. The 7-inch’s rocked but in a more wire-esque way they grew up so fast that the energy of the first two releases wouldn't be captured again but whatever. i remember the live show not being to impressive but they we’re playing a place set up like a lazar tag joint and I was extremely intoxicated. I was bummed to find out “b-ball music” would be thier last recording as the other members decided to join with the A-frames to become their new full time band The Intelligence. The guitar player who stole my heart (T.V. Coahran) with the licks of his fingertips played for the Glam-As-Fuck band The Holy Ghost Revival and now I hear he has a solo project that’s heavily influenced by ELO and Sparks (which i'm totally psyched to hear)…none of these bands will replace one of the most underrated groups of my time but whatever at least they haven't yet dissapeared into the endless void of obscurity. Buy their shit! http://www.ononswitch.com/artists/popularshapes.html  ¶ 11:34 PM 0 comments