June 19, 2008: Chinese Telephones, Potential Johns, Birthday Suits at SubT

It's been a while since I've gone to a show on a Thursday night. But I'm glad I went, it really broke up the week and tricked my mind into a sort of early weekend mindset. Then I remembered that I work all fucking weekend.
Anyways, my first time at the Subterranean in Chicago was a good one. I went to see the Chinese Telephones and to check out the Potential Johns (who the Telephones did a split 12'' with) and Birthday Suits, who I've only heard of.
The Chinese Telephones were great. They played a decent set with a good amount of songs from their self-titled album as well as off their 7 inches. They played "I Can't Be Right," "Back To You Again," "It's Starting Again," and many more.
Their bassist, Andy Junk, was either very energetic or very drunk. The band has an interesting stage presence. Justin Telephone, the band's lead singer, takes a pretty serious approach to the stage, but it's nicely balanced by Andy as well as guitarist, Daniel James, who reminds me of someone just plain goofy. Not to make any jabs at all, but in a world where pretty much everyone in punk rock does the same sort of thing with the chucks, tight pants, short hair, etc etc, Daniel James is reverse that. He looks a bit older than the rest of the guys with his receding hairline and strikes me as a joker. The guy knows how to play though. He is not only fun to watch, but adds a catchy and energetic kick to the music via his guitar playing (does VIA strike you as a yuppie trendy word?).
More or less, at a glance, the Chinese Telephones appear to be a conglomerate of all sorts of different tastes, and their music kinda reflects that. I can't exactly say, "Oh yeah, the Chinese Telephones sound like (insert catchy pop punk band here)." I know this much, though: They're damn good. And every time I see them, it's a great show.
Next in line were the Potential Johns from Denton, TX. They were interesting. The vocals are reminiscent of very early punk, distorted, hard to make out and fast. I almost want to say garage-style, but without the indie and grunge implication attached. They sound like someone...ah, it'll come to me.
The lead singer of the Potential Johns played the last couple of songs with the Telephones because for some reason, Andy left the stage. He was taking pictures of his band, shirtless, with the lead singer/guitarist of the Potential Johns. Maybe he was too drunk to play? Maybe the band needed more pictures? Maybe both? Maybe neither. I will never know, and in the last 10 seconds, stopped caring.
Anyway, I learned the Potential Johns are more or less of a side project of The Marked Men, also from Denton, TX. I looked 'em up and they sound the same to me. It's my first time hearing both bands, so I'll have to listen to more of each to note the distinctions, but for the sake of somewhat of a review here, I'm just gonna make a note of that. Oh! You know what they sound like? The Kinks on speed and maybe a little bit of Toys That Kill. Yeah. That's what I'm gonna leave it at. Very good, by the way. I ended up getting their split with the Fones. I'm excited to become a little more familiar with their music.
Last up of the three bands was Birthday Suits from Minneapolis, MN. They weren't like anything I'd seen before. Actually, that's not true. They were a two-piece and it immediately reminded me of Local H. However, they don't sound quite like Local H. Birthday Suits' drummer is really into drumming. Like, a lot. The guy seriously went ape shit on his skins. The vocalist/guitarist was crazy in his own way in that he would jump around, lay down and play, etc...etc...
His vocals were high-pitched and fast, along with the drumming, making for a pretty entertaining show. I can't say I got into their music, but watching them perform was very entertaining. I was surprised there wasn't much of an audience even by the end of the show. All of about 30 people showed up and were more or less lounging around, nothing too crazy. Don't get me wrong, it was nice! It was great being able to stand up in the middle of the place and enjoy a beer without sweating my balls off or having it knocked out of my hand. I like being able to focus on the music and not on who's going to kick me in the back of the head next.
I can't really compare Birthday Suits to any bands in particular for ya's. The two of them are so intense and quick with their instruments and all-around so sporadic, that it's really difficult to place them anywhere. The best I can do is say they are like one of those indie bands that just bangs on shit real fast and randomly and yells into the microphone in an off-beat way. I didn't hear a lot of what he was saying, but that's something all three bands had in common last night. All the vocalists have a way of making it so you have to look up the lyrics somewhere to translate the mass of sound and what you think they say into factual lyrics.
It was a good night, with the $8 well-spent. The beer was a hell of a lot more than that all together, but that was good too. I haven't seen a place that carries Dead Guy Ale on tap in all my 11 months of going to bars, but drinking that is always a treat.
Before the show, something cool happened. A semi truck was driving under a bridge outside of the Subterranean, and the truck was a few inches too tall, made a horrible thundering noise as it passed under the bridge, and a big, flat chunk of truck roof fell into the street with an assortment of twisted metal bars from either side. The truck did not stop to assess the damage, as it landed on the front corner of someone's car.
It somehow fit the persona of the show I was about to witness. A loud, fast mass of stuff going at a steady speed, tearing shit up and not turning around or even stopping to see what it had done. That's kind of how the bands played. Thumbs up.

Ben Weasel/Danny Vapid - "My Brain Hurts" show review

Saturday night started out pretty well. I got some food, had a few RC Colas and was feeling pretty damn good. There was a terrible DVD looping on the TVs of Gang of Four footage. They were really artsy and didn't seem to carry any sort of rhythm. But luckily after that, there was a Dwarves DVD. It wasn't much better, but it beat that Gang of Four crap.
So between looking at the naked Dwarves on four screens and looking at the Repellants on the live Reggie's feed, I decided to get up and go next door. I missed the Repellants unfortunately, but caught the Chinese Telephones. They were great, as always. During the show, a dude that goes by codename Jerry Cola requested "Crying In the Chapel," to which Justin Telephone, the lead singer, said "No requests!"
I figured it was worth a shot. They did play it at the Subterranean a little while back, though.
I was disappointed to learn that the Chinese Telephones might be breaking up really soon. Justin informed me after the show that the show I just witnessed very well possibly could be their last, which sucks. Something about the drummer leaving, I believe, but I don't want to spread non-facts.
That kind of bummed me out, because the Chinese Telephones are absolutely awesome and fun fun fun to watch. It's a shame the crowd is never really into them. Then again, most of the words are impossible to decipher.

Next up were the Jetty Boys, who I wasn't all too impressed with. The lead singer/guitarist of the band played in Ben Weasel's band in May, so I recognized him right away. The music was pretty good, but after all the clap-your-hands stuff, I got kinda turned off. They weren't bad at all. I just wasn't feeling them, and I was so excited to see Danny Vapid play with Ben Weasel, that any band that was up there, I probably would have felt the same restless feeling.

After the Jetty Boys left the stage, Ben Weasel's band came out and tore right into "Making You Cry."
My favorite part of the night was the fact that Reggie's doesn't give a shit who goes backstage. I witnessed the whole show from the side of the stage, and wandered up to the fence-balcony for a song. It was cool.
"My Brain Hurts" is my absolute favorite album, blah blah blah. It's a lot of people's favorite.
What I especially enjoyed were Vapid's background vocals. That's something Ben can't capture solo. His backing band does a pretty dead-on job of nailing the notes and has timing down. Simon Lamb, Ben Weasel's guitarist, did a great job especially. But it's the backing vocals that complete the true sound of the album. Ben is great solo. But Vapid and Ben together were incredible. Ace from the Steinways also took over for Simon on a song. They played, I think, four Riverdales tunes. Which, obviously with Vapid there, was really really cool. Ben will do Riverdales tunes, like in May. Sometimes Vapid will do Riverdales tunes during Methadones shows or that Mopes show in 2006. But having them together was awesome. One more person, and it would have been a Riverdales reunion show.

After the show, there was a free Vacation Bible School gig next door. They were fun. I want to check out some of their stuff. Another band of note was Teen Slut. They were fast and right on as The Queers, and they did a couple of covers, too. They covered "Terrible Monster" by The Vindictives and "Island of Pogo Pogo" by the Groovie Ghoulies. I think they did "Rockaway Beach" too. But I forgot who sings that originally.
After THAT, The Arrivals played next door.
Both shows were free if you attended the Ben Weasel/Danny Vapid show. You can't go wrong with the Arrivals. They've got a certain charm about themselves. I believe they are one of the more underrated bands in Chicago. All in all, though, Saturday night was awesome. The burgers next door in the music joint rule, by the way.

Riot Fest 2011 lineup announced

"Riot Fest Chicago 2011 Lineup
October 5-9, 2011:
Weezer
Social Distortion
Descendents
X (playing Los Angeles in full)
Youth of Today
Suicide Machines
ALL (Scott, Chad and Dave)
Helmet
D Generation
Down By Law
The Business
Strike Anywhere
The Tossers
Macabre
Nachtmystium
The Flatliners
Flatfoot 56
The Menzingers
Banner Pilot
The Pavers
Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Shot Baker
The Copyrights
Cheap Girls
Larry and His Flask Dusty Grooves
Chinese Telephones
The Crombies
The Holy Mess
The Van Buren Boys
Neutron Bombs
The Infected Black Actress

Plus a whole bunch more to be announced soon."

I think Weezer's a bit weird (but I would love to see them play their old stuff), but I am really really excited for this. Even the smaller bands; Chinese Telephones, Cheap Girls, The Holy Mess, the Neutron Bombs, Shot Baker, The Copyrights, Banner Pilot...all those bands rule. I'm stoked.

The Old Wives/The Blame Its Split 7'' review

So I get this piece of mail the other day from Canada. I was like, "What the fuck am I getting from Canada?" And right after I finished thinking those words, I thought, "Ohhh yeahhhh."
This thing rules. It's release #001 on Eat Shit and Die Recordings, a label run out of Canada and was released on May 8. It's also on white vinyl, might I add. Not sure of the pressing and all the collector/obsessive nerd details, but here goes.
The first track by The Old Wives is called "Losing All Control." At first I thought my stereo was fucked up or something, but it starts out all scratchy and low - a really cool effect for when they bring it up and start rocking.

My turntables' gears got to turning and I immediately thought the lead singer sounded like whats his face from Face To Face. Which rules, cause I'm a really big Face To Face fan. Well, a kinda big one since I can't think of the dude's name. But anyways, "Losing All Control" is a catchy tune. They're a pretty straight-up pop punk band but instead of singing love songs and having that vulnerable, sensitive air about them, they lean towards the slightly snotty, harder-edged pop punk.
"Shut Up" is about wanting to not hang out with (maybe ditching) a chick because all she does is talk and tell boring, stupid stories.
It's definitely the best song on the split between both bands. The Old Wives are one of those bands that are standard pop punk, yet original, catchy and good enough to have you singing along, appreciating the lyrics and at the very least, tapping your feet around.

The Blame Its were cool too, but the thing that bugged me about the album cover was that there was no hyphen between "Blame" and "Its." Which is cool, I don't care...too much.
Their first track was called "Beer and Anti-Depressants," which sounds pretty cool on the surface, but I didn't really hear anything about either one of those things in the song. His voice is a bit harder to hear than the dude from Old Wives. They are good though, kind of drawing an obvious vocal and instrumental influence from The Riverdales, Screeching Weasel and I wanna say just a pinch of Smoke or Fire/Banner Pilot there too. They are also pop punk, singing songs about inebriation (I think) and girls.
Speaking of girls, the second song is called "Wants To Can't Have," which I don't really understand and keep thinking it should be called "Want What I Can't Have" or something. Man, this band might be full of grammatical errors. Anyway, the opening bass parts are rad. There are a lot of group vocals, making it fun and like The Old Wives, tempting to sing along...if I could make out the words, that is.

The only complaint I have with this release is that there is no insert. It would be nice to have some lyrics and names with who does what. The lyrics for either band aren't exactly the easiest to make out. It's not Chinese Telephones hard, but it's not really easy either. All in all, I would say this is worth picking up, especially for The Old Wives side of it. "Losing All Control" and "Shut Up" are becoming instilled in my brain, making me want to hear more Old Wives because I can only listen to the same song so many times in one day without having a mental breakdown and involuntarily shitting my pants. Check out The Old Wives and The Blame Its from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada! I bet they play shows together and hang out.

Joe Queer on the Ben Weasel incident:

Most of us pop-punk fans have been following the Internet buzz following Screeching Weasel's SXSW show, where Ben Weasel punched two girls. Dan's dismissive hand wave at the end is my favorite part of that video. Anyway, Teenage Bottlerocket says they're out because they don't want to be associated with Ben/anyone who advocates violence and the Chinese Telephones, The Soviettes, Chixdiggit! and Kepi Ghoulie have all dropped out as well, for the same reason. Shot Baker and Banner Pilot have said they would still play. But, Vapid and the gang all quit the band as well so it looks like Weaselfest is off. Now here's what Joe Queer has to say about it:

"This whole Weasel thing is way out of hand. I mean come on and let's put this in perspective. The chick deserved a punch-unfortunately Ben gave it to her and not some other girl who would have been called a hero-but Ben's a monster. He doesn't advocate hitting chicks. I don't either. But as a lead singer in a punk band I know as well as anyone that sometimes you just fucking lose it with assholes onstage bugging you and causing trouble. This isn't Mother Teresa we're talking about here folks-it's a little troublemaker acting like she's a victim.Yeah I wish Ben had handled it differently-hell I'm sure he does. But everyone knows Ben isn't a guy who beats on chicks. Come the fuck on.
And after all Ben has done for the scene out there everyone jumps ship on him and all of a sudden he's persona non grata. I'm ashamed at all you people who could at least show him some support instead of acting all high and mighty and bailing out acting like you're some saint. Playing Weaselfest doesn't mean you condone hitting chicks for crying out loud. Talk about adding 2+2 and getting 5. Christ if Ben didn't start SW half you fuckers wouldn't even have a band. Ben's been around the scene for years-has he ever hit a chick before-no. Is he a guy who hates girls and beatson them-no. And you all fucking know it!@!Fuck you assholes who throw him under the bus like you're some righteous motherfuckers. Hey we've all fucked up-Ben has too. That doesn't mean he isn't my friend. I'm just glad it didn't happen to me-I honestly don't know how I'd react. For a chick to do that shit and then hide behind the fact she's a girl is bullshit in my book. In the old days-when a punk was a punk and not some self righteous asshole who doesn't dare to step out of line lest his Hot Topic earing punk pals make him conform to their rules-the crowd would have cheered when the chick got smacked.It's really nice at the first sign of trouble everyone bails out. Managers and booking agents and bands on Weaselfest. It's that herd mentality-everyone is terrified they do something that goes against the grain. Hey I don't advocate hitting chicks but everyone knows Ben doesn't either. You guys are all acting like you've never been to a punk show before. You people and bands who should know better too. In the heat of the moment he lashed out after getting spit directly in the face. Mother of God I pray it happens to all you do gooders out there. Let's see how cool you all are. The sad thing is Ben would be the first one sticking up for you too.

To all you bands out there-mainly those flying under the radar screen who can see thru the bullshit still instead of believing they're some self righteous do gooders-Thank you!! Right fucking on! We don't give a fuck what Fat fucking Mike-that rich bastard who has nothing whatsoever in common with his fans-says. Ben's my friend and he's done so much for the scene-he's our fucking friend and we're not abandoning him for one stupid incident at a punk show. You'd think he was throwing Jews in the oven at Aushcwitz the way these people are talking. And bands dropping off Weaselfesttoo-fucking A you pussy motherfuckers. Fuck you!! Talk about fair-weather friends. Boy this has shown me everything I need to know about a few people. You scumbag motherfuckers."