Rock Star Journalist

Rock Star Photography has been updated with all sorts of new stuff. I finally got motivated and transferred a bunch of pictures from the digital over to the computer and got galleries made.

New pix of Peelander-Z, Los Craptaculares, the Clorox Girls, Iron Guts Kelly, and KTP. They look sharp, especially the Peelander-Z shots.

Expect more pictures in the coming months… I’ve got some requests in the pipe to various labels and bands, so I ought to be generating some content outside the usual review / rant / album download set-up we seem to have gotten ourselves into.

Los Craptaculares - “The Cut of His Jib Vs. The Whore Next Door”
the Clorox Girls - “Boys/Girls”
Iron Guts Kelly - “Strong Will Survive”
Peelander-Z - “S.T.E.A.K.“

CHASE PAGAN RELEASES FREE EP THROUGH INSOUND
DEBUT ALBUM OH MUSICA TO HIT SHELVES IN JULY

Militia Group artist Chase Pagan has released his stylistically-expansive debut EP, The Chase Pagan EP for free, at Insound.

The EP consists of five stellar cuts, including a spot-on cover of Queen’s “Play the Game” (#5). Tracks 1-3 are from Pagan’s forthcoming debut, Oh Musica - while tracks 4 & 5 are from “The Lost Recordings”, and were produced by the acclaimed Ross Robinson (The Cure, At the Drive-in). Such talented musicians as Stephen Perkins (Jane’s Addiction), and Gretta Cohn (Cursive) appear on the recording.

Carried by Pagan’s lilting falsetto and charismatic, sometimes fantastical songwriting, the forthcoming Oh, Musica is a debut of impressive scope. Whether it’s the bouncy reincarnation romp “Waltzing in the Sky”, the impassioned tango inside “Spanish Tongue”, or the rich upright bass and crashing keys of closer “Viola” the realization of Pagan’s expansive ambitions is an enchanting one. His distinctively orchestral, vaudevillian style, paired with his natural, organic and unpretentious essence make for a pleasing catharsis. “My music is a fantasy that I live in”, says Chase - and his songs positively reflect that.

Music Saves Lives

If you register for bone marrow donation on the Taste of Chaos Tour, Music Saves Lives has a way to thank you - a free cd, featuring the following artists:

Motion City Soundtrack – Yellowcard - Plain White T’s - All American Rejects - Run Doris Run - The Matches - Bleed the Dream - Tokyo Rose - The Starting Line – Cartel – Mae – Stacy Clark -Sherwood- The Spill Canvas - This Is Me Smiling – Copeland - Angelas Dish - Over It -Street Drum Corp - The Smash Up

Music Saves Lives and the Rockstar Taste of Chaos join up to benefit those with leukemia and other blood diseases.

This Music Saves Lives promotion is just one of many that ties in the ultimate goal of raising over 30,000 units of blood this summer in the USA. Every summer the blood supply across the nation drops to critical levels. This is primarily due to the fact that almost 30% of the blood supply comes from college and high schools. During the summer, when school is not in session, many areas in the nation suffer. A low blood supply can result in postponed surgeries, and can be life threatening in critical trauma situations and to cancer patients after treatments.

Wearing Star Wars costumes on Halloween isn’t necessarily everyone’s top choice for a costume but if you aren’t sure what kind of Halloween costumes you’d want to get then you might find that a Star Wars costume might do you well.

Here’s the deal… every fucking musical artist in existence needs to have the following information easily available on either their MySpace page or website (or, ideally, both):

• Label contact - what label(s) they’re on and how to find them.
• Press contact - who to contact for band interviews / reviews / photos / press.
• Tour publicity / Booking- who’s promoting their tour and how to get ahold of them for shows, tour, press, etc.

I swear to God, some artists know what the fuck they’re doing, and it seems like others just don’t care. The Briefs have FOUR ways to contact them online, as well as an honest-to-Jebus mailing address. The Fratellis are one of the hottest acts in the country right now, and you can’t even figure out what fucking record label they’re on from their website, much less get ahold of them for anything directly.

And don’t talk to me about forums. I know most bands have links to forums off their sites, where fans can interact with other fans. To hell with that. I have no desire to go through some sort of registration, and posting to what I hope is the proper segment of the forum to find out this info, only to get a series of responses along the lines of “2 bad lol!!!!11″

All I want to do is set up an interview with the Fratellis before their show with BMRC here in Lawrence in May. It took about half an hour of hardcore Googling to discover that the Fratellis had signed to William Morris. You go to William Morris’ site, and they have three seperate offices in the states, as well as a London office. There is no way in hell I’m making an overseas call just to set up a short little interview.

Maybe it comes with paying dues. If you’ve been around a good long while, you realize the importance of press, be it large or small, good or bad. Starting out with hardly anyone knowing who you are or even caring if they do leads to wanting to get your name out there as much as possible - especially if there’s a climb involved. When every paper in the country is dropping your name, and your song’s in the heads of every iPod owner and television viewer in the country weeks before your album drops… well, an interview with some late twentysomething with delusions of grandeur probably doesn’t rank that high on your list of priorities.

“3-2-1 Contact theme“

Both children and adults who want to wear a Star Wars costume for Halloween may find that going online to buy Star Wars costumes is a good way to save money on their costume of choice. If that wouldn’t be your choice then plenty of kids costumes can be found online as well.

Hawaii Mud Bombers – “Mondo Primo”
the Novaks - “The Novaks”
(Wicked Cool Record Co.)

Okay, right off the bat – fuck you, Little Steven. Your “Underground Garage” program seems to get all sorts of acclaim, but your record label sucks. I have yet to hear something on Wicked Cool that is either wicked or cool. The promo descriptions are always off-base, and pretty much everything the label’s described as “garage rock” has ended up sounding more like the Ataris than the Fuzztones.

The Hawaii Mud Bombers‘ Mondo Primo is no different. Kinda / maybe a little surfy pop punk from Sweden that is boring, boring, boring.

The Novaks? There just seem to be some bands that can’t quite deal with the fact that the Gin Blossoms aren’t big anymore. The whole Matthew Sweet-influenced, Big Star-derivative pop rock just doesn’t do it unless you’ve got some chops or something original. The Novaks have neither, and yet this record still got put out.

Hawaii Mud Bombers - “Summer Sensation“

For children still interested in Star Wars costumes there can be no greater outfit for a Halloween costume than to be able to choose their favorite character and buy a Star Wars costume just for them. Now you can go online to find a costume store and find a good selection.

Ah, mash-ups. Remember when they were all the rage? Like… Jesus, it was two years ago. Huh - seemed like it’d been longer than that. Anyhow, in our fast-paced, cybertronic, electronic, go-go-go world, things that were cool just the other day are soon left in the ashes of history.

Or something like that. I just got out of my American Lit class, and I’m feeling all sorts of verbose, thanks to the whole poetry section we’re doing at the moment. Damn you, T.S. Eliot!

The point I’m trying to make here is that sometimes the music that gets discarded ought to get a closer look, or at least get looked at again. The Kleptones are a wonderful case in point. Not content with releasing single-track mash-ups, knocking together some Christina Aguilera with whatever hip-hop artist sounds funniest. No, sir.

The Kleptones put out two concept albums built around themes (the Flaming Lips‘ Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots or Queen’s A Night At the Opera as backing tracks), one radio broadcast mixing Detroit sounds and moving to Jamaican tunes, and recently put out a double-disc concept album that goes through 24 hours of a man’s life. It will blow your fucking mind.

Despite the fun that comes from trying to figure out what samples you just heard (feel free to use the Kleptones Wiki for that), the albums are remarkable examples of what can be done with some serious creativity. Sure, it’s using nothing but what other artists have created, but it’s certainly far more interesting than hearing “Fight Test” again.

Every Kleptones album available in a variety of download options right here.

Even without some music lessons many people can learn to play with online resources.

It’s a rare occurrence here in Lawrence to hear a busker playing something quality. I work downtown, live within walking distance of downtown, and all my favorite stores are downtown. Basically, I’m a mallrat, only without the mall. Downtown bar rat, record store junkie, and java fiend. That’s basically the long way of explaining as to why I spend a good portion of my free time kicking around down here.

And, as I spend a healthy portion of my free time wandering here and there as I go about my day, I cover a good portion of downtown Lawrence on a regular basis. Now that the weather’s warming up, downtown brings something other than beer, records, and coffee - buskers.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, buskers are like panhandlers, but rather than just asking you for change, they do something to coerce you into giving them money. It might be singing, dancing, telling jokes, drawing pictures, or - more frequently - playing a guitar. Ah, yes… the singing troubador, playing songs and singing for his supper.

If it were only so wonderful as that description makes it sound. In all actuality, it’s usually some dishelved hobo knocking out bad covers. There’s one gentleman who specializes in classic rock: Pink Floyd, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. Other folks like Johnny Cash or other such old school country. Nirvana seems to be popular with the younger kids, but whatever the artist or genre, the execution is usually warbling off-key and out of tempo with how he’s strumming.

Case in point: this morning, on my way to get change for work, there was a trustafarian young sir singing Nine Inch Nails‘ “Hurt”, but playing what sounded like the chord progression for Jewel’s “Who Will Save Your Soul?” No lie.

In short, it’d be awesome if I could hear some crust kid knocking out Against Me!’s “Baby, I’m An Anarchist” or Billy Bragg’s “The Milkman of Human Kindness.” While I wait, however, there’s going to be quite a few guitar cases sans my change.

Against Me! - “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong“

Sorry for the long delay, kids. It’s been, what, nearly six months? Jeez. Sorry. I’ve been back in school and concentrating on my radio show, along with home ownership and family and etc.

Anyhow, the RSJ podcast is back, and I’ll be updating regularly again. The themed posts are pretty much gone, and what you’re going to get is pretty much half of what I play on my show every week. So, if you like the punk / garage / rockabilly, then you’ll be happy happy. Otherwise… well, it was nice to have you along for the ride.

Oh, and additionally… all tracks are clean edits, so you can play this at work without fear of reprisal or writeup.

Track listing

Sunglasses After Dark Show Intro
Rise Against - Generation Lost
Anti-Heros - That’s Right
Main Street Saints - World Cup Year
The GC5 - The Long Goodbye
Throw Rag - Beast In Me
The Gadjits - Optimism
Shotgun Idols - Deceived
Clorox Girls - Flowers Of Evil
The Stimulators - Loud and Fast Rules
T.S.O.L. - Code Blue
Gears - Don’t Be Afraid To Pogo
Hard Feelings - Who’s That Knockin’
The Rock-It Dogs - Teenager in Love
Rezurex - Dia De Los Muertos
American Werewolves - The Undead
the A-Bones - Rollin To The Jukebox Rock
Old 97’s - Four Leaf Clover
the Splatcats - Wildman
Billy Zoom - Crazy, Crazy Lovin’
Gun Club - Sex Beat
The Cramps - Surfin’ Dead
Ronnie Speeks - What Is Your Technique?

Download at the podcast page.
Bonus MP3 - the GC5 - “When All Else Fails“

The Dollyrots - “Because I’m Awesome”
(Blackheart Records)
The Dollyrots’s first album, Eat My Heart Out (on Panic Button), was a slice of Ramones-inspired pop-punk, with just a slice of buzzsaw guitar that would make the Zero Boys proud. It was also a little disjointed. While I liked it just fine, Eat My Heart Out didn’t really have a good balance between the sweet pop and rouch-edged rock.

Because I’m Awesome takes those rouch edges and smooths them out some catchy lyrics, and you end up with something that is not unlike Damone. However, unlike Damone, the Dollyrots are more punk, as opposed to Joan Jett leather rock… ironic, considering Blackheart is Jett’s label.

The Dollyrots have always reminded me of what would have happened if Joise & the Pussycats were a real band. You listen to the songs that came from that movie and compare them to the stuff written by Kelly, and there’s a lot of similarities. “My Best Friend’s Hot” is frickin’ catchy, and clever in that either sex can relate - there’s no “he” or “she.” “Hysteria” had me needing a cold shower afterwards - seriously borderline dirty. Naughty, really. Then you have “A Desperate S.O.S.”, which is amazingly political, yet still sassy and vaguely coquetteish.

The Dollyrots are going on tour soon, and this stuff in concert has got to be the most fun live show on the road right now. The album comes out tomorrow - pick it up.

“Because I’m Awesome“

Whether or not you can play acoustic guitars or you have taken lessons or training in drum sets those people who have interests in musical instruments may want to go online and price shop before buying things like bass guitars and other instruments.

Due to a massive lack of planning on my part, there’s no actual album to download this week. However, thanks to the fact that most of the bands and record labels that I like being clued in to this whole “free music” thing, we have an alternative. That alternative is the following ten-track comp I have put together featuring songs that are completely legal, easy to get, and actually good. It’s pretty much punk rock, with a little ska to get you dancing.

It took me longer to put this together than it probably would have to just track down something available online, but once I got the idea in mind, it was pretty much necessary to get the fucker done. Hope you like it.

Rock Star Journalist’s Amazingly Legal Sampler

01. Clorox GIrls - “Flowers of Evil”
02. Slapstick - “There’s A Metalhead In the Parking Lot”
03. Sixgun Radio - “Culture Crave”
04. Angel City Outcasts - “I’m An ACO”
05. Radio One - “Pipebomb Rebels”
06. Valient Thorr - “Man Behind the Curtain”
07. Rancid - “Salvation”
08. INDK - “Off the Scope”
09. Leftover Crack - “Gang Control”
10. Me First & the Gimme Gimmes - “The Longest Time” (live)

If you want to learn to play electric guitars then a first good step might be to take a guitar lesson or two before you go out and choose between guitars to buy one. You may find out you’d prefer to play the drums instead.

While watching wrestling Monday night, they were running the ad for EA Sports‘ MLB 2007 with disturbing regularity. That’s not odd - every two-hour episode of RAW has a tendency to show the same six or seven commercials to death. What grabbed my attention was the music that the ad featured - Nirvana’s “Breed.” Yep, Nirvana. In a commercial.

Now, I’ve heard Iggy Pop’s heroin ode “Lust For Life” used to shill cruises, the Specials‘ “A Message to You Rudy” selling diapers, and the Kinks pushing printers. However, I officially feel old now. Christ on a crutch - I think I understand so many older folks’ outrage regarding the whole John Lennon / Nike “Instant Karma” hoopla.

I mean, I oughtn’t be surprised - Pitchfork had this as news weeks ago. I’m just shocked, that’s all. Even as distastefull as I find her, I never in a million years thought Courtney Love would stoop this low. Yes, the botched With the Lights Out box set ought to have signalled something was amiss, especially considering the commercials they were running for the damn thing.

However, this is about as surprising as the first time I saw that commercial with the Circle Jerks. At least in that case, they were selling sneakers. Nirvana and baseball? It just doesn’t mesh…

Nirvana - “Breed”

Stream all the tracks from MLB 2007.

If you are still choosing between Halloween costumes for this year then if you are a sci-fi fan Star Wars costumes could be a possible idea for a costume that would fit your personal interests, as well as the fact there are many Star Wars costumes to choose from.