End of A Year

Come together, divide by ages
We're always talking though
But nothing changes
It's the end of a year...
There's another one coming...

Get to Work

Fresh Meat was a band. Fresh Meat are no more. Fresh Meat hated a lot of stuff. Fresh Meat flipped a merch table of a touring band one time when I saw them. Fresh Meat put GG Alin on one of their t-shirts. Fresh Meat toured. Fresh Meat destroyed. Fresh Meat were awesome.

Included are the Breathing Problems 7 inch, the Fashionable Idiots 7 inch and the Summer Blowout Demo which is the entire catalog, minus the LP which never was released, except in tape format. All rip.

Fresh Meat

Check it out and track down both records on their respective labels, but the Summer Blowout tape might be harder to come by. Still patiently waiting for my copy of the Hair LP tape. The mail must be slow.

The Ice Age is Coming

"A cold world is one where you think hope's alive.
Where 'friends' aren't really 'friends', where love can't survive.
A cold world is one where life takes your life, where day after day is a fight after fight.
This world has made me cold, and I know, you've got to break your back to hold your ground,
and bones will heal, so I'm standing strong."- W.E.

The Ice and Snow Still Haunt Me

Words of Life

"There's nothing better that you can get out of life than having a family unit...you know...a loving family of your own...which is something I don't have...and some sort of security in this world...which...that's really...if you're getting advice from me, that's of a much higher value than anything you can get out of surfing and if you can get surfing to fit in there somehow...then...you know...then, then you're on top of the game."- RKIt's been said on here before: Richard Kenvin's the man. This quote proves it and pretty much sums up my existence on the planet.

Manhood

While Trading Places and Christmas Vacation are up at the top when it comes to favorite holiday movies, the number one spot belongs to this man. We are all George Bailey.

Crystal Vision

Still going on a great streak of clean, fun surf for the past week or so. A couple of paintings I did from a while back that have the holidays colors going. I might have posted them before, but not together for the added holiday cheer. Tomorrow's forecast is looking fun.

Black Rock Men

My friend and I ventured into the small town of Nazareth last evening to catch the resurrection of one of the Lehigh Valley's best bands: Pearls and Brass. Not that they ever really broke up, I guess. After the release of The Indian Tower, the write up in the New York Times and all they hype, they sorta just stopped playing shows a few years ago. So when it was announced that they would be playing a show in their hometown, it seemed like a no-brainer that my attendance would be mandatory.

It was a frigid evening as we rolled into Nazareth and it was no surprise that the town was pretty much the same as the last time I had been there some ten years ago. The venue was called "The Nowhere Club" at the Christian Springs Hotel and I gotta say, it was a really great place to hold a show. There was a huge stretch of road for parking and the space itself was basically a huge barn with a stage and balcony for sound. So its winter, I'm in a barn with no heat in woods of Pennsylvania to hear some heavy riffs among more beards and flannel shirts than at a lumberjack convention? Sounds good to me.

Entering the venue, we gave our tickets and were asked if we were going to drink. After replying no, we were X'd up, making me feel 17 again. I knew as soon as it happened, a Teen Idles cover shoot would be necessary. I might be an adult, but I'm a minor at heart:

Since we got there a little after 9, we got there just in time to catch the second band, Serpent Throne. Being that it was only a 3 band bill, I felt like kind of a dick for missing Gods and Queens, but when has a show in the Valley ever started on time? I'm no student of Stoner Metal, but I have my basic favs like Sleep, Electric Wizard, etc. Serpent Throne reminded me of a lot of a Stoner Metal jam band. No vocals, but some really good groove parts that noodled their way in and out of some pretty good mid-tempoed songs. Not as fuzzed out and a lot cleaner sounding than I expected them to be. Some of their stage banter cracked me up ("This song is about dying alone in the Arizona desert" or "It's about an astronaut in space watching the world explode"), but overall, I really dug their set. Here's a shot of them, mid song:
Best part of the venue was this dude chilling above the stage. Part of me wanted him to hop down in the middle of Serpent Throne song, grab a mic and add some vocals to one of the songs.
Between bands there was a pretty long wait. Scoping out the room, there was a pretty good mix of people: Old, young, punks, hipsters, norms and everything in between. The lack of heat coupled with the fact I was wearing Vans slipons meant that my feet were nearly iceblocks before the final band took the stage; but if that was my biggest complaint on the night, I'd say it was a great show.

We stood around shot the shit until finally, Pearls and Brass grabbed their instruments and took to the stage. The crowd was hyped, but most did little more than bob around happily to the groove that P&B were laying down. Here's Randy Huth and Josh Martin laying it down.
If somebody was particularly amped, they would do the even more enthusiastic head bob into a bow as if simultaneously digging the riff and paying tribute to the band at the same time.
I was doing it too, because Pearls and Brass are so goddamned good. Playing for about an hour, they played a lot off of The Indian Tower and closed with "The Tower" after a killer version of "Bleeding Hands" off the self titled. Joel Winter provided the vocals:
P&B came back out to do one last song and then at the close of the night it was announced that "Pearls and Brass are back", so I guess you could assume that this was the first of more shows for them. It sounded to me like there was at least one track I hadn't heard before, so the thought of a new record seems like a possibility and not just wishful thinking. I've listened to both albums so many times, but seeing Pearls and Brass live is one thousand times better. The sound is just bigger, louder, heavier and more hypnotic. Once the set was done, we quickly ran to the car and blasted the heat in an attempt to thaw out after the frigid evening in Nazaria.

The most exciting Valley news to me was the fact that The Nowhere Club plans on doing regular shows come summer time. It was a great place to see a show and hopeuflly LV kids will appreciate having such a good venue and not manage to fuck things up. An incredible set at a great venue made for a good, but frosty evening. Somebody should work on a tile, Secret Cutter, Pearls and Brass show at this place to kick off summer.

Got To Get On

Supertouch Preview of the new record. Excited:

Don't Get Stuck...

...in the snow like I did. Supposed to catch Stick Together's set tonight at the Barbary. Instead, thanks to the poor timing of the season's first snowfall in South Jersey, I ended up stuck at home. Completely bummed because I wanted to hear the new jams from Stick Together and see Madball. ST have got a new 7 inch coming out and are about to head out with DEP on a winter tour. I suggest you check this tour out if you get a chance. Both are two of the best new crop of bands out there right now and if you're somewhere along the East Coast, they should be within driving distance. I'll be waiting for the Winter Jam in January to catch both bands. Saturday's lineup is ridiculous.

The Hanged Man

Forecast was calling for groundswell and offshore winds yesterday, so I thought I'd give it a look. It was bitterly cold and thought about bagging it a few times, but the combo was too good to pass up without checking things out. I knew daylight would be an issue, so I figured, I wouldn't be out long enough to get cold.

Rolling up to the south end, I was greeted with a beautiful sight despite the cold. The view from 57th is a wide angle: swell lines stretching from the pier all the way down to 55th coming in clear and strong with the wind keeping things lined up perfectly. Although the picture was a pretty one, the winds were strong enough to make me question just how fun thing would actually be. Had the weather been a bit warmer or a bit earlier in the day and it would have been crawling with boards and bros, but thanks to the cold, it was just me and a duck sitting in the line up.

Adjustments and positioning aside, it was pretty fun. I love how easy offshores make waves. Easy take offs, long lines and gentle closeouts to pull into make you feel like you're a better surfer than you actually are. A good mix of clean lines and fun closeouts were to be had for about forty minutes, until the sky gradually went from grayish-blue to a purplish red and the daylight necessary to continue my session quickly disappeared.

It was all downhill from there. Sprint to the car. Peel off my gloves. Try and get my frozen fingers to function well enough to get my board on the car and tighten everything up. Some guy tells me, "Isn't it kind of cold for that sort of thing" and while I'd like to tell him to fuck off, I just respond with "yeah, I guess so". Crank the heat and head home. Peel off the wetsuit. Blast the hot water in the shower and try and thaw out.

Finally, hang the suit up in the garage and hope that it drips dries until the next swell rolls in.

Upside Down

Some footage of Tudor and Knost at Malizoo. If you haven't listened to Off! yet, do it with this video. I don't care that it's only a minute long...play the song four times in a row with the footage: that's how much it rips.

American Violence

Bad American's opener @ SAS from November.

I Don't Need to Be Saved

Kid in my class rocked this shirt today. Should I tell him about the reunion shows in March?

All Murder, All Guts, All Fun

Inside the Episode: Ep. 12 - Part 2

Living Daylights

Planning to surf this time of year is a pain in the ass. Planning to surf after work in the winter is even more of a pain in the ass. For all the effort of getting your gear together and suiting up, you're battling conditions where it starts getting dark at like 4:30. Getting out of work early helps as does rolling up to a break and finding clean, comfortable conditions like at this spot last week. About waist high and fun without a lot of hardwork. Fun session minus the guy I surfed with whole pulled the whole "itsmylastwavesoillsnakeyouandrunto mycar" bit. Real awesome, guy. You were shredding.

Out of My Head

Anxiety. Paranoia. Hate. Reclusion. Garbage. Asshole. If Josh's choice of words for some of the titles to Middle America's songs weren't a good enough indication of what you were getting yourself into with the band, give one song a listen and you'll figure it out pretty quickly. Harsh, negative and depressive hardcore with an early 80s vibe that left you feeling, surprisingly, a whole lot better after listening. Middle America sprang out of the LV scene putting on some killer live shows that were as short as they were intense. If my memory serves me, the one time I caught them, Josh ended up inside of a trashcan by the end of the set. They managed to pull off a demo, a seven inch on Home Invasion Records, a seven inch on Fashionable Idiots, and a tour with Fresh Meat before playing their final show in August of 2009.

Depending on how you look at it, the final show was either a disappointment or exactly how they wanted it. They played first on an outdoor, all day festival, where they were at least ten years younger than most of the bands. There were benches and due to the early time slot, there was literally no one standing up front. To me it was a complete bummer, because to me, the band was so good, but it didn't make them hold back in the least. The final set was exactly as it should have been, short, brutal and intense. They covered "Sick People" and it was incredibly perfect, and made me so happy, despite the lack of crowd reaction. I took the photo above during their final breakdown and really hope that the video from that set surfaces some day.

Fashionable Idiots still has copies of the "Scars" 7 inch available and I highly recommend grabbing one, before you are kicking yourself while searching on eBay for one in a few years.
I am pretty sure the Home Invasion Record can be found to purchase with a little effort searching around the various distros on the web. Track them down. Josh was always super nice in hooking me up with MA stuff and I want people to check them out and be as stoked as I was on them.

The link below contains the following:

Middle America Demo
1. I Hate You
2. I Hate Myself
3. Elitist Asshole
4. Regurgitated Garbage
5. Hard To Avoid
6. All the Same
7. Live Set from Jan's Room

Scars 7 Inch
1. Every Night
2. Reclusion/ Scars

S/T 7 Inch
1. It Repeats/ Out of My Head
2. Anxiety/ Scraped/Paranoia

MIDDLE AMERICA

Candidate

Simmons is probably the most intriguing of the old guard of surfers. So the fact that RK is obsessed with him, makes RK pretty rad. He also has great words in Stoked and Broke AND this Gothic Dolphins collabo photo raises his stock to an all time high in my book. This photo should be framed and hung in my living room.

Life on My Own

Was dragging a little when I woke up this morning. This video is better than four cups of coffee and woke me right up.

New Beats from a couple of Dead Hearts

If the Barbary is lucky enough to stay standing after Crowbar and Madball, it's surely going to be leveled during this show.