Birthday, cont.

I spent my birthday with my ladyfriend and 2 good friends seeing Jane's Addiction in Baltimore. I'm always a little leery of seeing reunion-type shows, especially when I've seen the band in their primes. I just hate seeing my favorite bands going through the motions and butchering their old songs, or even worse, playing a bunch of their new crap that's terrible.

Jane's Addiction put those fears to rest by killing it, especially on a few classics like Three Days and Classic Girl. Great show and a great birthday.

Speaking of Fugazi...

...I had a classic DC moment a few weeks ago, but since I never write on the blog, only a few people know the story. So now I'll share.

I was skating with Senor Flynn in front of the fabled 1648 domicile on a Saturday, at a shitty spot in front of a church. It's where Flynn shot this photo of himself, but we weren't doing anything as good as that. We were just piling out and doing creaky old man ollies.

DC local and punk rock legend Ian Mackaye walked up carrying his kid and watched us skate for a few minutes. I fully fanned out and was mute at first, but finally nodded hi and tried to keep skating. It was a sad display, and ended with zero landed tricks in front of the dude who started Minor Threat.

It was a sorry skating performance, but a good DC moment regardless. Plus, his kid was pumped to see anything involving a skateboard, which was both not surprising (that kid was probably listening to punk rock in the crib) and kickass at the same time.

Wugazi

This is pretty incredible. I'm not usually into the mashups, but this one is worth your listening time. It's like when they combined those two things you really liked, only better and with Fugazi involved:

Sleep Rules Everything Around Me by WUGAZI

Stop-Motion, Manchester Style

Joy Division? Re-enacted by Legos? Yes and Yes:



I love Lego Ian Curtis' epilepsy dance at the end there.

h/t MRen

Ninja Attack

Apparently the guy who thinks he's a ninja (previous post, just scroll down to it) is coming to DC next week. I want to go, but I'm terrified. What kind of crowd is going to be at this show?

Who am I kidding? It'll be a bunch of hipsters wearing thick-framed glasses and ironically-colored shoes. They'll likely be there to make fun of this guy, what with his odd band and Hammer Pants. So I guess I'll fit right in.

For the record, the thick frames just make more sense for added protection from the elements and overall eyeglass support. Just so we're clear.

This Will Get Stuck in Your Head

I'm not sure what's creepier in this video...the little elf girl and her wavy dancing, the rapper's pants or that third little fella lurking in the shadows. Regardless, I can't stop singing that creepy chorus.

Enjoy!



h/t johnny proton

Slim

Everyone's gotta check out Langhorne Slim. F*cking incredible. I've been listening to this guy non-stop the last few days, and his music gets me so pumped up I wanna do karate kicks in the street:

All Good Things...

...must end, or something like that. Apparently, some end more abruptly than others.

I've been pretty much a lifelong fan of woxy.com, going back to its days as the only source of non-shitty radio in the Greater Cincinnati area (then known as 97x), to its current format as the first bricks-and-mortar radio station to go online-only with success.

Make that limited success. Woxy.com closed its (virtual) doors today amid financial struggles. This sucks on a number of levels, not the least of which being that they apparently didn't tell any of the staff until they came in to work today. Very classy.

This isn't the first time woxy.com has faced some money problems, and in the past they've been able to pull together some funding or find a new parent company or something, so maybe it'll all work out. If not, I'll keep my old 97x sticker on my guitar case and continue to be glad I had this exposure to so much good music as a young whippersnapper.

Reusable Love

During the fargin blizzard that blasted DC, I trekked out to Wonderland Ballroom to watch NateW, aka Disposable Love, dropping beats on fools while his boy Pauly (striped shirt) busted a multitude of moves that impressed all ladies in attendance. Complete with a hype man (lady) and some dude DJ, it was a full ensemble and that rig was tight.

Supposedly he's going to have a fan page or something on facebook, but I don't even know what that is b/c facebook sucks.

Good Thing We've Still Got Dokken

This is a shame. Truly the end of an era.

The Scorpions are calling it a career. The AP release talks about "Winds of Change" as their big hit, but we all know that is garbage. As far as I'm concerned, they only have one song:

Weeknd Wrapup: Gettin the Band Together

Dodged some crappy winter weather in a basement jam sesh that had JBanks freestylin about the hard livin of East Bay Rick and Big Bobby, me making my bass + singing debut on a Ramones cover (Blitzkrieg Bop), Nate doing his Animal impression on the drums and an imported guitarist named Matt leading the way. Good shit and long overdue to get some music going again.

Apparently there's video of us bangin out the jams, and hopefully some of it will make it on the Homey Video being filmed right now by NateSkate productions. If I can get my hands on it, I'll try and post something up here before too long.

If not, just trust me that we were badass. True.

Still Got It

Me and some of the fellas went and saw Dinosaur Jr. play last week, and for a bunch of dudes who have been doing this shit forever, they still sounded incredible. Played some classics (Thumb sounded really, really good) and some new stuff (not as great, but whatever), and J Mascis looked like Gandalf with his flowing silver locks blowing in the breeze. Even though we were indoors. Shit, maybe he is a wizard. He has his own wind!

After an appearance in Mind Field earlier this year, I knew that Dinosaur Jr. were back to some good action, but had no idea they could still rip until I saw their latest video. Good to see more old guys shredding: