The Damned Are Coming

Well, at least the 2 main guys. Captain Sensible and Dave Vanian (along with some more than capable aiders and abetters) will be tourin' and playing DAMNED DAMNED DAMNED and THE BLACK ALBUM this fall. That's an interesting juxtaposition. Primal Punk and perhaps the first punk foray into Goth/Psychedelica in tandem.

Bitchin'.




The Damned 35th Anniversary Tour

Oct

20th - US - Cambridge, MA, Middle East
22nd - US - New York,NY, Irving Plaza
23rd - US - Washington DC, Black Cat
25th - US - Chicago,IL, Metro/Smart Bar
27th - US - Seattle, WA, Showbox at The Market
29th - US - San Francisco, CA, Slim's
30th - US - Los Angeles, CA, House Of Blues
31st - US - Anaheim, CA, House Of Blues

Nov

1st - US - San Diego, CA, House Of Blues
4/5/6 - Fun Fun Fun Fest, Austin, Texas - exact date and time TBA Sep 1st

Nov

9th - Bristol, O2 Academy
10th - Birmingham,O2 Academy
11th - Cambridge, Corn Exchange
12th - London, Roundhouse
13th - Brighton, East Wing
14th - Norwich, UEA
15th - Nottingham, Rock City
17th - Newcastle, O2 Academy
18th - Leeds, O2 Academy
19th - Manchester, Academy
20th - Edinburgh, Picture House

The Surfin' Dead

If you want to hang with Nazz this weekend, I'll be on Rock Rock Rockaway Beach surfing the rightous hurricane waves.

I realize that every Mayor in the North East is shitting bricks about the possibility of Katrina redux; but did our illustrious en why cee Mayor Bloomberg REALLY have to shut down all mass transit and order forced evacuations? If this storm is anything less than Armageddon, I think not. What a bunch of fucking pussies we've all become.

And why is that old guy across the street collecting 2 of every animal?

Utter Stupidity part 7812

It looks like my band Caterwaul Of Sound has had music sorta featured in a couple of more video projects. They are exactly in our "oeuvre", as you will see by investing a few minutes on either one. I can't believe 7 years of college amounted to this. I shoulda joined the Peace Corps.



Click here for "Dumpster Diving": (on Funny Or Die)

and than there's this:

"Psycho The Chef" - cooking up Shrooms and LSD

Oh snap- we just had our house shake from an earthquake!!!!!!  Now, that's a unique feeling!

Suburban Fun

plus 

          equals

We got these trees that are growing wild and drop huge caches of leaves into our pool. Which sucks. It also kills the sunlite in our backyard. Which also sucks.

Soooo, I got the rickety wood ladder out and my sawzall and decided to take down some of the bigger branches. This was going along pretty well, I was lightly buzzed and made sure everything was plugged in correctly.

I couldn't quite reach the highest branch I was targetting so I climbed on the top ring of the ladder- the rung that says- "do not stand on this". Even better, I was still holding the sawz-all. So... of course I slipped and fell down. As I was falling I threw the sawzall as far from me as possible and it landed a few feet away from me as I flopped off the ladder and landed asses up.

I sat there on the ground, a bit bruised, thinking about how no one would ever believe that I woulda cashed in doing tree work.

Bob Mould- "See A Little Light"

 Currently, I am reading and enjoying Bob Mould's auto-bio "See A Little Light". A fine book, not as heavy on the soul searching as I woulda thought, given his cathartic oeuvre of music, but some good insights nonetheless. He doesn't savage Grant Hart as much as you would expect, given their post-Husker relationship. Actually, he seems to think less of Greg Norton- basically describing him as superfluous to Hu-Du (except for his driving abilities).

Additionally, at least so far (I'm about halfway thru the book), Mould doesn't bury the book in overkill as far as his feelings about being gay. Of course he discusses it... but this is a book about Bob Mould, not a book about Bob Mould being gay (if that makes any sense- or makes no sense at all).

After finishing the whole book, I take back my initial perspective of Bob talkin  about his sexuality. He lays it on pretty thick in the second half of the book and  the second half of the book focus's much energy on his gay experience's (whether long term or "bumps in the night". He totally embraces gay lifestyle and is able to flourish in his adopted cities of NY, DC and Atlanta. Good for him- it certainly seems to make him a happier person. I think most people "back in the day" knew that the band was gay. It was a bigger shock finding out that Greg Norton with that handlebar mustache was straight! And despite the usual morons that were in any scene, I don't think that too many people particularly cared that Hu Du were gay.

I met Bob "back in the Hu Du days" a couple of times (and exchanged a couple of e-mails back and forth with him a few years ago) and he was always really really nice (as were Grant Hart and Greg Norton), so the "monstrous" anti-social behavior he describes in the book I never witnessed. There are some good insights into the Hu-Du songwriting and recording history, and I suspect the rest of the book will do the same for Sugar and his solo work. He talks about his drug use pretty candidly- ironically, the only time I ever saw him indulge was with a packet of powdered aspirin (we even asked him if it was coke and he showed us the envelope and it really was aspirin!)

It's also really cool to read his thoughts on some of the great shows that I saw the Huskers play- they were some amazing times for me, and it's always great to think about those old shows when both Bobby and I had alot more hair!

His stories about his subsequent efforts with Sugar and solo and with his electonica dj project "Blow-Off   are interesting. After all Sugar was a bigger band than Hu Du commercially. And Mould's tales of working for WCW wrestling were great. Punk rock!

I am relieved this isn't a "grouchy" look at his past- I hate those kind of "I hated every moment of my life" books. For example, I worshipped The Ramones, but after reading the various "tell alls" that were written about the "brudders", my memories of all the great times I had at their shows and listening to their music are a bit ruined since I know what miserable people they were.

Despite some rocky self hating moments, Bob at 50 seems to be a happy, well adjusted guy. Good for him!


I am posting some covers of Bob Mould penned Husker Du songs today- some really interesting stuff that I hope you enjoy.

(according to the book, Bob smiles at Grant after the guitar solo because he was so happy he nailed it correctly!)

Toonage:

Anthrax - "Celebrated Summer"
Sick Of It All - "Target"
Alloy - "Out On A Limb"
Jonas Jinx - "Something I Learned Today"

Does Listening To The Cure Make Me A Pussy?

I gotta admit, everytime a song that isn’t from The Cure’s first album (Three Imaginary Boys) comes on my iTunes, I feel a little less than the masculine, testosterone uber-stud that I truly am. 

Just now, I was in the midst of a Rancid/Cramps/Ray Charles/Sugar (yeah- I know all about Mr. Mould) run and on pops The Cure’s “Lullaby”. It got me thinking just how many Cure songs (OK- I’ll give ya “Primary” – besides that whole lp is electro-pop so it’s robotic) are weak ass pussy crap. “Love Cats”, “Let’s Go To Bed”,  “Friday I’m In Love”  don’t even get me started on “Caterpillar”. “Just Like Heaven” is great, but the Dinosaur jr and Goldfinger versions shred the original.

Between Robert Smith’s penchants for make-up, black clothes and really bad hair, and all the goth wannabe’s that were late to the party and queued up for The Cure, what the hell was I thinking?

(Tongue In Cheek?)

Full disclosure- back in the mid-80’s, the “old enough to know better” Nazz wore eyeliner and other questionable attire to witness The Cure in person. My only excuse is that I was trying to bang this girl who I went to the show with. Of course, she turned out to be a lesbian, so Nazz’s physical needs were “c*nt-blocked”.

Thank Satan I was able to jump to the next song on my iTunes : Queen’s “Liar”. 

Fuckin’ manly music!

Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite

from the original Elvis inspired rockabilly meets British blues...



 to the Scottish Punk rave-up...



to the bushman's holidays version of The Slickee Boys (aka The Wanktones)


to the inevitable Cali rendition

Well now the cats are rockin' and everyone is feelin' alright - alright!
Said on a Wednesday evening there's sure
gonna be a fight - be a fight!
Somebodys's gonna get their head kicked in tonight!

Well everybody's moving and everyone just wants more - more!
So there's gonna be a pool of blood on the dancin' floor - floor!
Somebody's gonna get their head kicked in tonight!

We're gonna rip up the chairs - rip off the walls!
Tear down the walls - Tear down the wall!
All my boys are in distress and
I hope that floor's a bloody mess

Said everybody's rockin' and everyone is feelin' alright - alright!
Said on a Wednesday evening there's sure
gonna be a fight - be a fight!
Somebodys's gonna get their head kicked in tonight!


We're gonna rip off the halls!
Tear down the walls!
All those boys, gonna be a big fight!
All my boys are in distress and
And the whole dance floor's gonna be a doggone mess

Everybody is rockin' and everyone just wants more - more!
So there's gonna be a pool of blood on the dancin' floor - floor!
Somebody's gonna get their head
Somebody's gonna get their head
Somebody's gonna get their head kicked in tonight!

Tribute Songs

What could be cooler than having a band write a song about you in tribute? Well, as long as the song is complimentary of course.
Here's some toonage that fits the subject!





Toonage:
"Grant Hart" - The Posies
"Strummerville"- Stiff Little Fingers
"The Replacements" - Tommy Womack
"Johnny's Gonna Die" - The Replacements (live July 1982)

Here It Comes!

By Friday afternoon the world will be in the midst of a full scale economic crash. By Monday, the rioting that occurred in the UK this week will be known as "the calm before the storm".
This is NOT a test of the emergency broadcasting system!

Wheeeeee!!!!!!!!

Hillbilly Hand Fishin'

OK, I have no idea what the hell is going on in this country. Apparently, there are so many channels to fill up with product, that anyone can get a TV show.

The latest example of this is "Hillbilly Hand Fishin". this is a show where a couple of southern gents take people into a muddy river and instruct them how to pull catfish out of holes in the river bed.

Along with multiple shows on every "celebrity" in existence, storage auction shows, repo shows, and 7 million different food shows, it is apparent that Warhol was right about everyone getting 15 minutes of fame.

Of course now that this happened today... eating catfish might become a major luxury for most of us.