“You’re bad now but you were eating an ice cream cone and I saw you. That’s the shit you can’t hide! Ice cream eating motherfucker. That’s what you are.”

At my first real punk show in the summer of 1991, Fugazi leveled me. I’d never seen a band so intense; so fucking aggressive and massive sounding…but without being macho or even “heavy.” Their careening, dynamic songs blew my little punk rock mind as did the locked-on musicianship and frenetic movements that defined their live shows. And the fact that they’d just called about 50 tough-guy skinheads (who were punchmoshing away everyone’s good time) “ice cream eating motherfuckers” was one of the most audacious and hilarious things I’d ever seen a band do in a live setting. The next day I bought 13 Songs, Repeater +3 Songs, and Steady Diet Of Nothing. I loved (and still love) all of those records, but I felt like none of them quite captured what I’d witnessed.

I saw Fugazi play as much as possible, and growing up outside of Washington, DC meant that I was able to see them a lot. Their shows were always incendiary. I saw them a few more times before In On The Kill Taker came out, and I started recognizing songs that weren’t on the records I already owned. These songs expertly realized every element I loved (and still love) about great punk rock: Driving, punctuated rhythms; howling incandescent melodies, and vocals that immediately communicate the singer’s urgent need to GET THIS SHIT OUT – but executed in a way I just couldn’t fathom back then. I asked the owner of my local record store to find the release date for the next Fugazi record. He did and I was there as soon as I got off of work that day. I bought the record and listened to it non-stop for weeks.

Continue Reading

It was a sweet, sweet feeling to be greeted with the deliciousness of breakfast tacos every morning, in the breezy, 80 degree Austin weather. But as they say, all good things must come to an end, or at least in this case, they have been replaced with the busy hustle and bustle of New York morning commutes and frigid Spring temperatures. Regardless, the buzz that was 2011′s SXSW is still fresh on the mind (and no, it’s not because Ben Weasel took a swing at me during his show).

Long beer-filled days were put to rest by late night shows, which led to some of the best discoveries I could have asked for during this year’s host of free showcases. One of the best stumble-upons of this year’s SXSW was found at the the Austin Imposition II showcase. My heart had been set on hearing Julianna Barwick’s set — having pretty much drooled all over the tracks I had caught from The Magic Place just a few weeks prior — but the Longbranch Inn was probably one of the more inappropriate places to have hoped to watch her play during SXSW. The sound was off, the chatter was loud, and I was just about to turn around and walk away when No Joy plugged in and blew me completely away.

Just a few bars into the first song, and the chattering, uninvolved audience stopped and started to pay their attention to the bastion of sound No Joy projected. The band’s 2010 release on Mexican Summer had only been a slight teaser for what No Joy was able to offer live. Each song played became better than their last and by the end of their set I wanted nothing more than for them to keep playing on through the night — or at least grab hold of a copy of Ghost Blonde and play it on repeat on the car ride back to the hotel.

Here’s the title track from the album. Get it from Mexican Summer.

“Ghost Blonde”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Mark Ryan isn’t really sure why you are reading this. Sure, Ryan has been a part of two beloved garage punk groups – first in The Reds and then later with The Marked Men, but his latest endeavor – Mind Spiders – started off with modest intentions. Ryan intended for the project to remain studio-bound, where he could explore and tackle genres he may not have dared to before with his previous groups.

But people do care and after hearing the self-titled debut from the band, it’s not really hard to see why. It just might be the best damn thing the man has done in his long and celebrated music career. Diverse is just one way to describe the album – which one moment goes from the spazzy power pop similar to The Marked Men to T. Rex-inspired rockers to even Spaceman 3-esque shoegaziness. And the best thing is that it all works flawlessly. Sprawling, fun, and one of the best things I’ve heard in 2011 so far.

I had a chance to talk with Mark over the phone recently, just a few days after the band played at SXSW 2011.

Were you thinking about doing The Mind Spiders record for a while?
While the Marked Men were going, I had been screwing around with side projects. I did this other thing briefly called The Crying Jags. There was at least one song I had with that band that I used with this [Mind Spiders] record. I knew it didn’t fit with The Marked Men.

Did you see it as a solo record?
The Mind Spiders started out as just a recording project. I didn’t really intend for it to be a band. After the first 7-inch came out, I had written a bunch of other songs. I know lot of people that play in other bands so I got them to record with me. That’s pretty much the extent of it and then all of the sudden we’re playing a bunch of shows.

With you playing more shows, the band has developed a consistent lineup. If you were to record another record, would you’d record with a full band again?
I’m going to try to record here in the next couple of months. I think the record will sound more like a band than a recording project. It’s gotten kind of ridiculous because there are six members. Two drummers, two guitar players including me [but] I’ve been playing synthesizer recently. It’s just hard because every member of the band has other projects going on. This isn’t going to be a full-time band. I’ve gotten the opportunity to play more. We did SXSW and we’re going to do the Mess-Around in Atlanta and Chaos in Tejas in May. I’m hoping to do more stuff.

Continue Reading

Supersuckers frontman Eddie Spaghetti will be playing an acoustic set at Generation Records on Saturday, April 2nd. The free, all-ages show starts at 3:30 pm. Opening up the show will be NYC’s The Brought Low. Entry will be first-come, first-served.

RSVP to the show on Facebook.

If someone asked me to pick out an album that exemplified why I like Jamaican music, I’d most likely pick Derrick Morgan’s I Am The Ruler. It’s not that it’s the most original, or the most important of the Island’s rich musical tradition. It’s just cause it’s an amazing collection that shows a brief period of Morgan’s career at it’s peaks in what is for my favorite period of Jamaican music, the 1960′s.

At the center is “Gypsy Woman,” a track that never made it to the Jamaican top 10, but somehow really is essential Morgan. The bouncy early Ska Riddim back up a doo-wop duet between Morgan and Millicent “Patsy” Todd. The sax intro and harmonica solo seem to pick up the song at any point it gets down. But essentially what tracks like “Gypsy Woman” did was add that little bit of Caribbean rhythm to the R&B that was coming in from the States, and began to set the stage for decades of great original Jamaican music to come.

Derrick Morgan “Gypsy Woman”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.