April 2013 – Veglam

Baby Let’s Twist, Memoirs of a Runaway Heart / Andy Shernoff interview

Published on 29 Apr 201327 Jan 2014 by veglamLeave a comment

Baby Let’s Twist

Memoirs of a Runaway Heart

By Thomas ‘Thomaxe’ Goze

So that’s it, here I am sitting in this dive bar where I’ve already sat one too many nights, New York City of all places. This time is different though…this time all of a sudden everything seems to sort of make sense. I’m not sure how or why it is all coming together, but maybe it’s just that tonight Otto’s Shrunken Head has turned into an open-door, a vortex where worlds collide, as if trying to tell me “It’s alright buddy…have another one”.

On the small stage that can barely fit a full band I’m witnessing Andy Shernoff, one of my all-time favorite musician/songwriter, setting up alongside vocalist Tricia Scotti, and harmonica player Brian Hurd. The three of them are about to start playing the last show of their residency, marking the end of 4 weeks of unrehearsed impromptu acoustic performances of Andy’s latest songs as well as new takes on some of his Dictators classics. Oh, did I forget to mention that Mr. Shernoff was a founding member and most prolific songwriter for the legendary Dictators? Well, I figured you knew…

Sitting on my right is NYC’s underground rock artist JOff WilsOn (the man with a thousand never-recorded hit songs) who happens to also be my band mate since he brought me in his Bowery Boys on second guitar. Actually, I only ever had played punk bass on stage before meeting JOff…

But let me stop here for a minute before I go on with this story, and allow me to take you on a short journey through time…it will all make sense…I promise.

Years earlier:

I’m standing in front of the window of a small room I’m renting holding a used Gibson Les Paul that I just purchased with the little money I had left. I strap it up on my shoulder and plug it in a tiny 12 watts amp. I’ve never played guitar…except for the crappy acoustic I bought when I was a kid and could never really figure out what to do with. Later in my early 20’s I had picked up a bass at the encouragement of my good friend Dee Jaywalker (Definitivos, Marky Ramone & the Speedkings, etc…) who taught me my first songs so I could follow the path of my favorites: Dee Dee Ramone, Arthur Kane, and…Andy Shernoff…

See where I’m getting at now?

So standing by the window, looking down at the street, I press on the drive button of that amp and only with the knowledge of power chords I start playing… “I shuffle down the street, my eyes are on my feet…I got no place to go…”. The song is Stay With Me, written by Andy Shernoff for the Dictators.

And as I’m playing my first song on guitar, I see a car pulling out of the parking lot on the other side of the street. I kind of want it to stop, just to acknowledge the fact that I’m standing there, or maybe that I exist, yet I know it’s foolish…and I know it won’t.

So I just keep playing as I watch it drive away “…my heart is calling won’t you stay with me”. The car is my ex’s, she lived in the building next door, now she’s leaving to never return, and that’s fine.

The scene looks like it is out of a movie…I mean…what were the odds? The song choice makes sense…I guess I was playing it for a reason too, though I sure don’t want her to stay, but it still sucks. She’s nothing more than the reflection of my own bad choices and life failures. She was bad news, she was poison and all I wanted was to go cold turkey… so I got myself a guitar and here I am pretending I don’t care about anything else, and I think I really don’t.

I was born and raised in France, but I’m here, of all places, in New Paltz, NY. I don’t know it at the time, but that’s also where the Dictators met, and got started…

Is this beginning to make sense?

Back to present days, our scene at Otto’s:

Andy is about to start his set when I see Ramones producer/co-songwriter Daniel Rey pop his head in…he walks in my direction and sits next to me. He doesn’t know it but I got his band The Martinets signed to European label Tornado Ride Records a couple years earlier, I’ve seen them perform many times, they even played my birthday show 4 years earlier. I’m friends with their front man/Songwriter Eamonn, but just never introduced myself to Daniel. I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t speak much, unless it’s necessary.

The Shernoff trio starts playing and everything is making more and more sense…Andy, my first song on guitar, JOff who got me my first gig as a guitarist…and now Daniel Rey… who is credited for co-writing a version of Poison Heart with Dee Dee Ramone…who was an inspiration for coming from France to NYC and the reason why I joined my first band on bass in NY…The Gonedaddys, fronted by another Ramones collaborator/songwriter, Skinny Bones…

Andy keeps playing…it’s a great show and everyone is loving it…but what am I saying? It’s always a great time.

Since I learned my first song on guitar I have had the chance to see Shernoff perform on many occasions, solo and with his band the Master Plan. In fact, I even got the Master Plan signed to Tornado Ride/Nicotine Records the same way I did with the Martinets. I hadn’t gotten a chance to see him perform since his residency at the Lakeside Lounge a year ago, it was around the same time that my grandpa passed away, and on the eve of his funerals I had decided that-since I couldn’t be there and that he loved music so much- I would celebrate his memory by going to Andy’s show. That night he played a song he had written for his late mom, and it felt like it was for my grandpa too. Shortly after, it was the Lakeside Lounge that closed its doors forever.

So the show goes on and I’m sure of it now…Otto’s has turned for one night into some kind of a vortex…and under this new light it appears as if everything happened for a reason…ultimately leading all the way to here and now…

I just wish my old friend Dee Jaywalker could be amongst us…he took me under his wing after we met when he played lead guitar in Marky Ramone & the Speedkings. It was in France in 2002 just a few months after Dee Dee passed away, and that night I got invited on stage to sing one song; and then to join in the van for a few shows. Later Dee got me to pick up a bass, and then we organized Walter Lure’s first euro tour in 25 years back in 2007…and went on the road. So here I am thinking about him as he seems to be the only piece missing in right now here at Otto’s…

Then I look down, and smile…realizing that the leather jacket I’m wearing was a present from him…it used to be his own favorite…

The puzzle is now fully complete, all the pieces are in place, it just needs one final touch…so at the end of the show, as everyone is applauding and asking for more, I turn around towards Daniel Rey…pull up my sleeve, and show him the tattoo on my left wrist (I got it there so that I could see it whenever I’d play)… “I thought you’d appreciate it” I tell Daniel; he looks at it and smiles…It reads “Poison Heart”.

As I step out the door and start walking in the cold to catch a subway back home, I realize I’m feeling OK…because I may have been born with a runaway heart…but it sort of got me somewhere after all…

Thomas Goze, NYC

https://www.facebook.com/thomas.goze.9

Where are they now:

Dee Jaywalker: After touring/recording extensively with Marky Ramone, Dee Jaywalker played with his solo band and later joined Walter Lure on guitar for a Euro tour/record in 2007. Since then Dee started playing again with Belgian legendary punk rock band The Definitivos who got reunited. He also performs with his Rockabilly band The Greyhounddogs. https://www.facebook.com/dee.jaywalker

Skinny Bones: After the critically acclaimed release of his Gonedaddys album Shot My TV, Skinny Bones embarked on a successful euro tour ending at the Ramones museum in Germany. The Gonedaddys have been on hold since but Skinny- who is working as a sound engineer- keeps writing/recording music when his busy schedule permits and is planning more in the near future.

JOff WilsOn: JOff plays live in NYC on a weekly basis might it be with The Bowery Boys or with various well respected musicians of the Lower East Side. He is planning to finally record some of his songs this year. https://www.facebook.com/joff.wilson1, www.theboweryboysnyc.com

Daniel Rey: Daniel just finished recording a new album with the Martinets who are currently looking for an appropriate label to do the release. https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Martinets

And as for Andy Shernoff….read it from the man himself:

-So Andy, You just finished a month residency of acoustic shows at Otto’s Shrunken Head, and already booking more clubs. Can you tell us how this all started and what is the idea behind it?

I’m a songwriter and the only way for me to know if a song connects with people is to play it live. It’s a bit nerve-wracking playing new songs in public but what makes you uncomfortable also allows you to grow. That was the purpose of the Otto’s residency. Overall, I’m going through a very difficult transformation from a bass player known for aggressive punk and hard rock to an acoustic singer/songwriter ….or as I like to call myself the ‘insensitive singer -songwriter’ so I’m constantly putting myself in uncomfortable situations.

-How did you meet Tricia and Brian with whom you’ve recently been playing?

We travel in the same music circles and have many mutual friends

-Last year you released a 7inch, how, when and were was it recorded?

You are referring to “Are You Ready To Rapture”. I recorded an intricate demo at home where I mapped out all the parts. Then I tracked it at Headgear studios in Williamsburg using my demo as a guide. I overdubbed in my home studio and then mixed it at Headgear with John Agnello who’s an old school Record Plant engineer but is now an indie rock kingpin producer

-One of the songs was written with Joey Ramone, was it ever recorded before?

I recorded numerous demos with Joey over the years. Some made it to Ramones records while others like the song you are referring to, “Make Me Tremble” was simply not appropriate for The Ramones. However I thought the tune was really cool and showed a different, softer side of Joey that should be heard. I wanted to put it on my single so I approached the people who handle Joey’s estate and they were kind enough to let me use it. We ran into a problem was we couldn’t find the master tapes. We had to use the rough mix I had on DAT tape so we couldn’t remix it. The version you hear is what we walked out of the studio on that day in the early 90’s.

-Can you tell us a little bit about your friendship with Joey?

Joey was a sweetheart. We had a common bond in music and growing up in Queens. When I first met him he was very shy and awkward but as The Ramones grew in stature he became more confident and assertive. He had a sly sense of humor and severe case of OCD, which has been documented in several books. At the time everybody I knew was weird so he was just another in my collection of weirdo friends. I think Joey made the world a better place by demonstrating that outsiders and weirdos can contribute to society…. and Joey definitely made the world a better place.

-You also wrote with Dee Dee, how was he to work with?

Dee Dee was probably the most amazing character I ever met in my life. He was certifiably schizophrenic, literally a different person every day. One day he was your best friend and the next day he thought you were plotting against him.

He was the most spontaneous artist I ever met, capable of writing a great song on demand.

I call him the idiot savant of rock and roll…. in the Ramones he was an absolute genius but outside of the band he had a hard time getting through life.

-Tell us about your latest hit, the Are You Ready To Rapture…what inspired you to write the song? Is it pissing some people off?

I was ignorant of the Rapture growing up. The only person I knew who believed Jesus was returning to Earth was the crazy preacher standing on a box in Times Square screaming at everybody to repent for their sins because the end was nigh.

A few years ago I became fascinated with evangelicals. I saw these people entering politics and trying to make other people live by their personal delusions and superstitions. It was obvious how dangerous they were….war was inevitable in the Middle East because it is a precursor to the return of Jesus and climate change was a hoax because god said he wouldn’t destroy the earth after Noah and the great flood. I wanted to write a song that accurately represented their beliefs, though I assume they might quarrel with my referring to the resurrected Jesus as the Jewish Zombie.

-Who made the animation for the video? Did you know what you wanted or did you give freedom to the artist to get inspired by the song and come up with his/her own thing?

That was the brilliant work of Brian Musikoff who has done animation for comedians like Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn. I loved his style and felt his sense of humor would really take the tune to another level and I feel he really brought the lyrics to life. Animation is a very long and slow process but we worked together exchanging ideas until we made something we knew we would be proud of.

-It got an award right?

Absolutely, it was a finalist in the Atheist Film Festival

-So what’s with all the religion-themed songs lately you’ve got at least 2 others that I believe you’ll be recording soon?

My new EP “On the First Day, Man Created God” will be four interconnected songs about religion and faith. It’s such a great topic with cool stories and tons of drama about the human condition.

-What was the Reason Rally in DC that you recently played?

It was the largest secular gathering in the world, sort of a Woodstock for atheists. It was held on the National Mall in Washington DC, the same place where Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech so it was a pretty big deal. . I performed along with Bad Religion, Eddie Izzard, Penn Gillette and speakers like scientists Richard Dawkins and Laurence Krauss. It was a highpoint of my musical life and the largest crowd I have ever performed in front of.

-Your second single just came out, and is dedicated to your mom. Can you tell us a little bit about this record?

It contains four songs that I worked up during my residency at the late and lamented Lakeside Lounge. I dedicated it to my mom who died about 2 years ago. She was slipping into Alzheimer’s which is a cruel and dehumanizing disease, so I wrote the title song -Don’t Fade Away – about my experiences and dedicated the record to her.

-Some people might not know –shame on them- but you are also an acclaimed music producer. Which albums did you produce are the ones you are the most proud of? Did you produce your latest two singles? Are you looking into doing more producing in the future?

I produce all my own records these days. I know what I want and I know how to get it, I also work cheap. Outside of The Waldos’ record I won’t choose favorites. I’m also not really looking to produce these days. It takes my energy away from my own music.

-You’ve got an acoustic version of a Dictators song on the single, do you plan on re-recording more?

Actually, I’m planning on an EP of acoustic versions of Dictators songs for next year.

-Your band Master Plan performed in Europe in 2012, any more shows coming up? Any plan to record a 3rd album? 

I love playing with Master Plan but the members live all over the country so getting together is very difficult, so no plans for that band in the near future.

-So what’s next for Mr. Andy Shernoff in the year 2013?

Vampire Junkies Featuring Texas Terri “S/T”

Published on 26 Apr 201328 Nov 2013 by veglamLeave a comment

London punk’n’roll featuring Texas Terri on vocals and Steve Pegrum (The GHOSTS OF LOVERS) on drums. They got together with Stephen ‘Tash’ Reddihough (The MACHINES/RAW POWER) on bass and Kevin de Groot (The KRONSTADT UPRISING…) on guitar in order to deliver these 5 action rock’n’roll songs that sound like they were written for live performances before all ; hard hitting from the beginning with a very in your face”With My Machines.”
Second song “Mainline” is closer to The STOOGES while you’ll get a bit of STIV BATORS in “Denmark Street”.
Street punk fans will probably enjoy “Rocket Red” while heavy rock ones will bang their head to “Tokyo Rubber.”
This EP is out on Angels in Exile records. Blood will be spilled!/Laurent C.

Vampire Junkies on Facebook
http://www.angelsinexile.com

Mike Zero “Now”

Published on 24 Apr 201328 Nov 2013 by veglamLeave a comment

This is the third album of German punk rock’n’roller MIKE ZERO, but actually the first one I get to listen to, though I’ve seen the name here and there through the years. Songs like “Modern World” or “Doctor Doctor” evoke TURBONEGRO in their best days while “Sick Sick Kaputnigue” and “Gimme More” get closer to SOCIAL DISTORTION.
On the quieter side, “Lost In The Moment” shows that rock ballads aren’t always cheesy, it contains a hint of BOWIE/80s wave that makes it stand out as one of the best songs of the album. You’ll also get to hear a sparkle of 70s glam (“Dandy Hooligan”) that will make you stamp your feet.
The cherry on the cake is a suprising and cool cover of INXS’ “Mystify” which just adds to the good surprise effect of “Now”./Laurent C.

http://www.mike-zero.com/
http://www.wolverine-records.de/

Dirty Box Disco “Legends”

Published on 24 Apr 201328 Nov 2013 by veglamLeave a comment

This isn’t really an attractive album cover. You’d think that in this day and age, rock bands would make an effort to try and sell their records but well, maybe it’s an art statement after all, as it sure fits with the band’s cartoonesque imagery.
Luckily, the band’s music appears to be interesting. Some high energy punk rock’n’roll full of fun and singalong choruses (‘The Other Side Of The Street”, “Rock n’ Rolla”, “I Don’t Wanna Go Out With You”, “I Won’t Forget”…) I’m sure that DIRTY BOX DISCO must a great live band as their songs are definitely made for stage action (“I Just Want To Be A Girl”, “I Am Rock’n’Roll”, “Radio! Radio!”, “Let’s Get Wasted!”)
While TURBONEGRO and the RAMONES obviously come to mind when listening to these songs, names like The DESCENDENTS or SNUFF also pop up on songs like “Smackhead” and “We All Fall Down.”
Don’t judge a record by its cover art, this is quite a good one, even maybe one of the best I’ve heard in that style in the last 2 years. The only thing that annoys me a bit is this voice effect on a few songs that reminds me of the worst Californian punk pop bands that ever existed, you know, the ones that were huge 10 years ago. Anyway, the new kings of pop punk rock’n’roll are now from the Midlands!/Laurent C.

http://www.dirtboxdisco.co.uk http://www.wolverine-records.de/

JJ & The Real Jerks “Economy Class Ego Trip”

Published on 23 Apr 201328 Nov 2013 by veglamLeave a comment

6 songs on transparent sky blue vinyl released by Rankoutsider Records. This looks good from the start!
“Downward & Outward” opens in a bluesy punk rock’n’roll way not too far from The HANGMEN territory, you also get some Thunders kind of guitars and killer sax/piano solos on “Economy Class Ego Trip.” Well, I haven’t heard of this band from Los Angeles before, but two songs are enough to prove that they definitely know how to rock and roll!
When JJ & The REAL JERKS slow down the tempo to offer us “South Of The Borderline”, they manage to stand somewhere between TSOL and The LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH! Actually, Greg Kuehn (TSOL/The Joneses) plays on this record. B-side hits hard with “Thrift Baby” (a high energy -but still melodic- punk rock”n’roll tune!) and “Finer Things”, a song that sounds a bit like a garage jam between The HANGMEN and PRIMA DONNA.
Let’s face it, this fine wax piece of Californian punk rock’n’roll should be the next EP you buy!/Laurent C.

http://www.rankoutsiderrecords.com/
http://jjandtherealjerks.blogspot.fr/

Wyldlife “The Time Has Come To Rock & Roll”

Published on 22 Apr 201328 Nov 2013 by veglam1 Comment

Looking at the name, I first thought that this was another 80s hair metal revival band, but I was wrong! This album was actually produced by Tuk (BITERS) and has big ’77 punk rock, early glam and power pop influences. Opening song “The Right” reminds me of The EXPLODING HEARTS (quite an efficient way to grab my attention!) while “Wasted” or “Guardian Angels” mix CHEAP TRICK influences to 70s hard rock ones (THIN LIZZY, KISS) the same way the BITERS do it: Fine melodies, powerful hooks and cool guitar riffs.
Bands like PILLBOX and the GUN CLUB also come to mind while listening to “Sonofabitch”, quite a good way to add some change without getting lost in something completely different.
WYLDLIFE also know how to get on the 70s glammy side (“Trash”) and can show as much energy as The HIVES on a song like “Cowboys & Slutz”, which only makes you think that the live version of the song should probably be fun to hear and see!
I’m warning you, some of the songs on “Time Has Come To Rock & Roll” such as “Saturday Night”, “Wasted” and “First Time Is The Worst” won’t leave your mind once you’ve listened to them… That’s always a good sign, isn’t it?/Laurent C.

http://wyldlife.bandcamp.com/

Farewell Dude! The Music Underground Mourns Loss of RIKKI X!

Published on 21 Apr 201328 Nov 2013 by veglamLeave a comment

by Anguish Young

“All the best art work is on the bottom of a skateboard somewhere.”

(-David Lee Roth)

“Look at the world through the eyes of the weak and vulnerable.”(-Dr. Cornel West)“How I hate those dedicated to producing conformity.”

(-William S. Burroughs)

“When will it be official that Obama is nothing but a douchebag able servant of Empire?”
(-Cindy Sheehan)

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

(- George Orwell)

“We don’t know everything, but we know enough. There is a temptation to keep researching until we can prove the truth even to the most recalcitrant naysayers, but that is an unattainable goal. There are none so blind as those who will not see. What we know now is enough. What we do now, what we know we must do now, is to live independent of criminal governments, criminal corporations, criminal political parties, criminal media, criminal academics and criminal religious organizations. What we do now, what we know we must do now, is unplug ourselves from the matrix which has held us for so long. What we do now, what we know we must do now, is go off the grid in every way imaginable– off their power grid, off their water grid, off their food grids, off their money grid, off their medicine grid, off their transportation grid, off their banking grid, off their housing grid, off their educational grid, off their news media grid, off their security grid, off their sewage grid. You have done the work to claim the space between your ears as your own. Now it is time to expand your space and your mind to include your whole body and what you put into it. It is time to claim the space that is within arm’s reach– within your home, your neighborhood, your region. Make your willful intentions for peace, health, justice and integrity expand to include as much of the planet as you can. Claim this moment as yours, this minute, this hour, this night– and tomorrow morning we can wake together in a world where the matrix is in full retreat and the new systems of our dreams are rolling out from our epicenters over the surrounding landscape like a resurgent blanket of green living things burrowing healing and purifying roots into the broken concrete of irrelevant, collapsed institutions. Lucid and clear dreams to you, fellow travelers.”

(-Martin Truther)

“It is a terrible thing
To be so open: it is as if my heart
Put on a face and walked into the world.”(-Sylvia Plath)”Nothing is illegal if 100 businessmen decide to do it.”(-Andrew Young)

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘wow! what a ride!’”

(-Hunter S. Thompson)

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”

(-Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum LP)

“If we must show a little reverence and decorum at this time, then so be it. Our deepest sympathies go out to the families of all Margaret Thatcher’s victims.”

(-Chumbawamba, 8th April 2013)

“Thatcher is remembered as The Iron Lady only because she possessed completely negative traits such as persistent stubbornness and a determined refusal to listen to others. Every move she made was charged by negativity; she destroyed the British manufacturing industry, she hated the miners, she hated the arts, she hated the Irish Freedom Fighters and allowed them to die, she hated the English poor and did nothing at all to help them, she hated Greenpeace and environmental protectionists, she was the only European political leader who opposed a ban on the Ivory Trade, she had no wit and no warmth and even her own Cabinet booted her out. She gave the order to blow up The Belgrano even though it was outside of the Malvinas Exclusion Zone – and was sailing AWAY from the islands. When the young Argentinean boys aboard The Belgrano had suffered a most appalling and unjust death, Thatcher gave the thumbs up sign for the British press. Iron? No. Barbaric? Yes. She hated feminists even though it was largely due to the progression of the women’s movement that the British people allowed themselves to accept that a Prime Minister could actually be female. But because of Thatcher, there will never again be another woman in power in British politics, and rather than opening that particular door for other women, she closed it. Thatcher will only be fondly remembered by sentimentalists who did not suffer under her leadership, but the majority of British working people have forgotten her already, and the people of Argentina will be celebrating her death. As a matter of recorded fact, Thatcher was a terror without an atom of humanity.”

(-Morrissey)

GOODBYE BLUE SKY….
Our cruelty based “got mine” culture has been poisoned and permeated by all that Bill O’Reilly cop son tough talk. What if you do not have the desire the demonize the poor, or blame the victims of the prison industrial complex, the defunded public schools, the almost ungraspable promise of a living wage, and become an overpaid blowhard mouthpiece for empire like self-proclaimed “workaholics”, O’Reilly and Limbaugh, still peddling those obsolete, hard worker, Horatio Alger myths, fifty years past their expiration date? Truth can’t be found on your televisions. So many baby boomers and punk era survivors still prefer to cling to their delusions that our government and the corporate elite would never drug, deceive, poison, pollute, cause harm to, spy on, oppress, undermine, or experiment on the population, or even just merely lie for their own venal agenda. Throwaway youth you gotta take a stand. The mortgaged for life college crowd have all been indoctrinated to venerate the rich unconditionally and vilify the slave class, it’s really sick how they transform those poor suckers. The richest 300 people of Europe and the U.S. have the same income as 4.7 billion poor people. I don’t know what the sky looks like in your part of town, but where I live, two or more planes trail something(!) that billows out into chemical, cloud-like formations, until the whole sky is a soupy toxic mess. Probably six days a week, and even at night. I don’t claim to have any scientific facts about what it is they might be up to, just a first hand witness that they are shitting some kind of chemicals from those planes. I WATCH them. We are sick ten months out of each year, I sneeze constantly and my nose runs like a faucet, same with my other family members, but when I mention this issue to my local activist community, they instinctively rehash trite cliche’s they’ve learned to parrot from the media. That they are just harmless con-trails, that the sky always looked like a crazy tic tac toe grid, that I am a kooky conspiracy theorist, that vaccines are safe, and fluoride is good for you, one guy who admittedly works for the government even defends G.M.O.’s, in spite of being a member of the local farmer’s market food co-op, etc.! “Con” Trails, huh? Respiratory fatality was the 8th most common death in 2003. Now, it’s the third leading cause of death. Biden and Feinstein are leading the charge to round-up America’s firearms, while DHS has bought enough ammunition to kill every American six times, and has a growing list of 300, 000 American citizens they have already declared as “terrorists”, or get this new Orwellian lingo:”paper terrorist”, meaning “non-violent terrorists”, or somebody who speaks out against drones, torture, false flag attacks, invasions of other nations for big oil, austerity, G.M.O.’s, vaccines, gun round-up’s, chem-trails, fluoride, executive hit lists, the criminalization of the poor and houseless, the slave labor in these private prisons, the bogus drug war, or Obama’s dehumanizing, pre-crime indefinite detention without trial. Obama has finally come out in favor of the XL pipeline, after signing indefinite detention into law, the Monsanto Protection Act, as well, while oblivious yuppies in this country only seem to care about Michelle Obama’s toned arms, and the first couple’s opinions on Beyoncé. He has emerged as our Gitmo expanding, endless war, drone, oil, gas, fracking, constitution shredder, surveillance, whistle-blower persecuting, fascist, austerity president! Native American protesters were forced to protest the drone prez’ pro pipeline speech from afar in penned-off “free speech cages”. This is who liberals want to give their fire-arms to? Just because he’s part black and pro abortion and reminds them of fresh prince/man in black, Will Smith? The American economy has been intentionally and permanently thrashed by the global elites, while countries like Japan allow the commoners to run little mom n pop businesses out of their houses, on every corner-barber shops, news-stands, little food joints, in America, shadowy business groups like the Chamber Of Commerce and their local politician puppets, “naturally”, require that people have massive capital to pay expensive fees and outrageously expensive food and liquor licenses and have all these strict zoning laws to keep the masses enslaved by the elite few at their own restaurants, hospitals, prisons, and big-boxes.

Communities of color are still imprisoned at ten times the rate of whites in Obama’s so called post-racial society, where dumb middle-class college people see Kanye, Beyoncé, Oprah, Obama, and Tiger Woods and figure everything is square, now. It’s also known that white people use drugs at a higher rate than other populations, not even counting booze, or all those big pharma drugs they get prescriptions for. Today there are more human beings behind bars in “the land of the free and home of the brave” for non violent drug offenses than were incarcerated for all crimes combined in 1970. The drug war was always a bogus sham, but people watch so much corporate TV propaganda that Dr. Phil and Dr. Drew and Dr. Oz and “The Doctors” really got them believin’ in all that recovery-industry reefer madness anti-drug hysteria. KBR/Halliburton didn’t build 800 FEMA Camps for nothin’, soon enough, lots of white folks who were trained from birth to worship the white founding fathers who penned the Constitution will join Muslims and other people of color in corporate internment camps for challenging the genocidal agenda of the global elites. Everybody from the English Beat to Morrissey and Crass and Billy Bragg raise hell about tyranny and lies, austerity and murder in the U.K., but Amerikan punks can’t be bothered to do anything but pen memoirs and sign autographs, and brag about being anti-authoritarian in the Reagan years. They don’t say shit about anything, anymore. Hell, some of ’em are apologists for torture and endless war, and cheerleaders for gun round-ups in the age of indefinite detention and executive kill lists. It’s Pathetic. I hope Obama notes how warmly Thatcher has been remembered for robbing the poor to give to the rich. I know grown-up professionals who refuse to believe they can be arrested or killed without trial under N.D.A.A., even though it’s on the books. If it ain’t on their preferred cable channel, it ain’t happenin’, and these are the same exact people who will tell you how you can’t believe anything you read on the internet. I was the same way, once, myself.
Even me, back when I had cable, I totally bought in to all the faux liberal, culture wars stuff, I thought Al Franken was gonna make a difference, I was so moved when Pete Seeger and Springsteen played Obama’s inauguration, and I was dismissive of chem-trails and FEMA Camps, because the cable newsmen always told us they were nutty “X-Files” Bigfoot jive, until…I moved beneath a daily aerosol-operations flight-grid and watch them dump that shit over my town, five or six days a week, where we all stay sick year ’round, and saw the former head of the F.B.I. on Youtube demanding an end to the chem-trail death dumps, but most people still cling to their belief that Friendly Ole Obama, the Foo Fighter fan, would never do anything to harm anyone, and if he did, Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart would promptly tell them about it on their flat-screened oversized TV’s. Cable watching Liberals are crying for more gun control in the depopulation agenda/ false flag era, because apparently they think the steroid crazed enforcer class has proven themselves to be so egalitarian and non violent and trustworthy, thusfar. Start demilitarizing the police, first . How many times have we read the phrase, “BOTCHED DRUG RAID” lately? Consolidated media is very selective about which deaths of innocents we are supposed to mourn-never babies in Gaza, or victims of Obama’s drone attacks. Or Amerika’s bogus and corrupt sham drug war. When cops kill a black baby in her grandmother’s arms because supposedly, her mom had dated a drug user not even on the premises….and vain, brainwashed Americans could not care less: the victims’ family will just be demonized by overpaid blowhards on talk radio. The cop gets a paid vacation, it’s shameful, immoral, abhorrent, and goes on and on and on and on each and every hideous day. Who do you believe? Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, or your own eyes, instincts, memories, and first hand experience? I am saddened to hear about the death of Arizona scenemaker, rock critic, D.J., outspoken opponent of the New World Order, free speech and social justice activist and all around rock’n’roll motherfucker, RIKKI X. He was one of the most informed and insistent researchers I ever brushed with, who was always urging me and many others, to read, research, think critically, to dig deeper and look beyond the slickly presented surfaces of consolidated media unreality. If you never had the pleasure, RIKKI X also known as Rick Martinez, and D.J. Essential, was a lifelong participant of our glammy subculture and a Bill Hicks and William S. Burroughs inspired blogger, songwriter, podcaster, party animal, 9/11 truther, boogie soul brother and multi-talented glitter punk charisma-king. Arizona underground music fans remember his early band, CATHOLIC SCHOOL GIRLS, who influenced all those youngish, South West glitter gangs like Crash Street Kids, New Romantics, and Slash City Daggers. A couple of his CATHOLIC SCHOOL GIRLS band mates became the power popsters, Sugar High, while RIKKI X, went on to embrace all kinds of obscure and cutting edge floor genres like rave-techno-bass n drums-dance music. He was a man of excellent taste who loved metal and thrash and goth and hardcore, but never abandoned his passion for all the sleazy glam we celebrate ’round here. Like Demolition 23 sang in “Scum Lives On”, it’s tragically peculiar how all the good guys get sudden infections and die, but the evil architects of genocide and endless war live to be 100. A toast to RIKKI X! He will be sorely missed in Arizona and beyond.
http://www.myspace.com/rikki_x/blog/519528158 http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2013/03/rip_rick_martinez_dj_essential.php

FUCK TV! LEARN THE TRUTH:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hH6UynI5m7Y

http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/cmu-proposal-domestic-guantanamo/2660/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0C1aRrz0oA
http://worldtruth.tv/who-is-running-monsanto/

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/chris-hedges-what-is-the-most-effective-way-to-mobilize-against-these-entities/
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2011/03/naming-names-your-real-government.html
http://grist.org/climate-energy/arkansas-town-in-lockdown-after-oil-spill-nightmare/
www.worldcantwait.net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNe527zGr9o

http://www.earth-heal.com/index.php/news/news/102-geoengineering/760-chemtrails-facts.html

http://www.upworthy.com/watch-the-video-that-coca-cola-and-mcdonalds-hope-you-never-see?c=cd1
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/assassination-dr-king-and-suppression-anti-war-and-peace-perspectives

Gary Sunshine (is one of Anguish Young’s favorite American artists…)

Published on 4 Apr 201328 Nov 2013 by veglamLeave a comment

“It’s a disease. Nobody thinks or feels or cares any more; nobody gets excited or believes in anything except their own comfortable little God damn mediocrity.”

(-Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road)

“It is only the outcasts and the rebels who keep truth and intellectual inquiry alive. They alone name the crimes of the state. They alone give a voice to the victims of oppression. They alone ask the difficult questions. Most important, they expose the powerful, along with their liberal apologists, for what they are.”

(-Chris Hedges)

“We have picked a fight with the most powerful economic and political forces on the planet. That’s frightening. And as this movement grows from strength to strength, it will get more frightening. Always be aware that there will be a temptation to shift to smaller targets – like, say, the person sitting next to you at this meeting. After all, that is a battle that’s easier to win.Don’t give in to the temptation. I’m not saying don’t call each other on shit. But this time, let’s treat each other as if we plan to work side by side in struggle for many, many years to come. Because the task before will demand nothing less.Let’s treat this beautiful movement as if it is most important thing in the world. Because it is. It really is.”

(-Naomi Klein)

“If you want to be a recognized, credible, card-carrying member of the national security community what you have to do is buy into the received truths of the establishment and continue to perpetuate that stuff, This is what I call civilian subjugation to the military. We face it in this administration, we faced it in the Clinton administration…we faced it in the Bush administration.”
(-Gregory D. Foster, a former Army officer and West Point graduate who now teaches national security studies at the National Defense University in Washington)

“The easiest way to gain control of the population is to carry out acts of terror. The public will clamor for such laws if the personal security is threatened.”

( – Joseph Stalin)

” ‘The lawyer for the American plaintiffs thinks Homeland Security is gearing up to make lots of arrests of U.S. citizens, in anticipation that Middle East protests will spread to American soil.’

It is not true that Barack Obama single-handedly destroyed the rule of law in the United States. The savaging of the Bill of Rights was, in effect, a tag team effort between Obama and his predecessor, George Bush, two presidents united in a single-minded quest to remove all barriers to the imprisonment, without trial or charge, of persons anywhere in the world, including U.S. citizens. George Bush did the initial groundwork, interpreting the 2001 congressional mandate to strike militarily against al-Qaida as giving the president the power to hold foreign prisoners without charge in Guantanamo, and, in theory, to treat American citizens the same way. But that was a stretch, and only a presidential opinion.

George Bush knew that it would be very difficult to get a preventive detention bill through Congress; Democrats would raise holy hell, and protesters would call for his head. But Barack Obama accomplished what Bush could not: On New Year’s Eve, Obama signed a preventive detention law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. Under a Black Democrat, the rule of law ceased to exist within U.S. borders. Obama had already declared the rest of the planet a killing ground.

Then, back in August, a federal district judge in New York, Katherine Forrest, slapped a temporary restraining order on preventive detention, ruling on behalf of a group of activists and journalists who said the they could be thrown in prison permanently simply for speaking or writing about groups targeted by the United States. What, precisely and under the law, constituted providing “support” for al-Qaida or related groups? Obama’s Justice Department lawyers refused to say, claiming they had not thought the question through. Clearly, President Obama, like President Bush, wanted leeway to interpret the law any way he sees fit, so he can lock up whoever he wants, whenever he wants, for whatever reason, or for no stated reason at all. But Judge Forrest wasn’t having it. On September 12, she made her injunction permanent, ruling that Obama’s preventive detention law was unconstitutional.

‘Under a Black Democrat, the rule of law ceased to exist within U.S. borders.’

For less than a week, the Bill of Rights returned to U.S. soil. But, this past Monday, a federal appeals court judge put the Constitution back on hold, removing Judge Forrest’s injunction [9] on preventive detention. The entire three-judge appeals court will begin hearing the case on September 28. Obama’s lawyers say the government needs to be allowed to detain certain prisoners without charge or trial in Afghanistan [10]. But Bruce Afran, the lawyer for the American plaintiffs in the case, thinks Homeland Security is gearing up to make lots of arrests of U.S. citizens, in anticipation that Middle East protests will spread to American soil.

That’s the evil beauty of these Bush-Obama laws: they cut across international borders and render all the people’s of the world equal in one important respect: President Obama claims the right to kill each and every one of them, or lock them up forever, on his own say so. In that sense, Obama recognizes no legal difference between U.S. anti-war protestors and anonymous targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, or Somalia. All of our lives and freedom are subject to the whims of an American president.
(-Glen Ford; www.BlackAgendaReport.com)

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”
(-Charles Bukowski)

“ME AND THE MOONLIT GHOST”…GARY SUNSHINE (is one of Anguish Young’s favorite American artists…)

Well it ain’t gonna be easy to write that much about Mister Gary Sunshine, he ain’t what you call a real go getter when it comes to publicity and audacious self-promotion. He writes these songs, records ’em, throws ’em up on-line, and then it’s up to those of you who know how to burn C.D.‘s, or purchase downloads, or who have decent speakers on your computers, to figure out how to listen to ’em. Seldom have I seen a guitarist of Gary Sunshine’s stature become such a strong lyricist and singer/storyteller. His newer originals are reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Neil Young, and Shane MacGowan. I saw Circus Of Power less than a dozen times, but they always blew our young minds with their swampy, blue collar motor rock, a greasy hybrid of MC5 dueling guitars, sixties blues, punk and hardcore, and Stonesy honky-tonk. They had one of the top ten singers of the hair-metal era, a Morrisonesque cosmic crooner by the name of Alex Mitchell, who was a soulful, baritoned poet-warrior, and two utterly badass guitar heroes, Gary Sunshine and Ricky Beck Mahler. My favorite line-up also included Ryan on drums and Zowie on bass. Their first album is better than the Cult’s “Sonic Temple” approximately as good as “Electric”, not quite as good as “Love”.

Only the Four Horsemen really rivaled Circus Of Power in their hell defying heyday. Yeah, Zodiac Mindwarp were fun, but they never had the humanity or soul of Circus Of Power. After a few solid major label albums and a live e.p., Circus broke up in L.A., and Gary went on to work with glam goddess, Brigitte West in NY Loose, he also did time with the Silos, managed an adult gift shop for Larry Flynt, and even worked with Axl Rose in Guns N Roses. I can’t tell you much about why they broke up, or what Gary’s been doing ever since then, because well. he’s just not a big chatty Cathy media whore, he’s a mystery man, a lone wolf, the enigma, but I can assure you he is not only one of the top guns of sleazy rocknroll, but he’s steadily evolved into a talented and prolific, cinematic songwriter at a breathtaking level. He’s an under-rated, detail oriented, yarn spinning artist like a John Fogerty, or Steve Earle, quietly crafting a wide body of songs, that leave corporate rock wankers and nostalgia circuit headbangers, in the dust. And he’s a Dad. You never hear his tunes and connect them to “Beavis & Butthead” or the Aqua Net era. His songs resonate with a world weary defeatism and sly charm like Charles Bukowski and Tom Waits.

He’s definitely got a Mexican beer suppin’ beat-poet thing goin’ on. You ain’t the only one with the blues, kid. He’s cool like a Long Island ice tea. Circus Of Power have one of those extremely passionate, hardcore cult followings, with an unshakable devotion to that band, and I know many who were disappointed when Gary chose not to join the old gang for an anniversary reunion show some years back. You don’t have to abandon the dream of experiencing a genuine Circus Of Power reunion, to enjoy the contemporary works of wonder being constructed by the Circus alumni, for your listening pleasure, wolf brothers and moon sisters. If you’re familiar with Circus Of Power vocalist, Alex Mitchell’s sensational more recent works, with his various bands, Fat Nancy and Captain Zapped, and you hear Gary Sunshine’s solo music, you will inevitably be somewhat awed that these guys were so successful at merging their combined talents, for as long as they did. They’re both truly GREATS, in their own right. Yeah, Alex is my favorite hard rock vocalist besides oh, maybe Frank C. Starr (R.I.P.), Billy Idol, or Tex Perkins, as I have trouble fully connecting to whatever Ian Astbury sings about these days, but Captain Zapped provide all the crunchy kickass comicbook metal you’ve been missing since Iggy was screamin’ for “Power & Freedom”, and their freakolicious psychedelic biker punk is easily purchased online, and highly reccomended, but Mister Gary Sunshine’s moody music is equally as valid, it’s just coming from a less extroverted place. Gary’s like the quiet older cat you wanna be friends with at the bar, who rolls his eyes when you’re being loud in your pink shirt, cause he’s just not up for that much frat-boy buffoonery anymore; who is more serious and soft-spoken than you and your belligerent crew, and talks about old timey music and jazz and film and poetry and shit. Definitely a finger-poppin’ hepcat jazzbo bohemian dude but he ain’t no poseur beret, he’s one of those old-school NY downtown people. Only downtown ain’t downtown no more. So ya gotta go lookin’ for him on-line.

The first song you’ll wanna dig into is about the Ramones and Sex Pistols. It’s called, “The Sex Pistols And The Ramones”. It’s so, so good. It’s subtitled “A Love Story”. It will remind you instantly of your punk rock past and the golden Converse wearin’ romance that never faded away. His music is real gutbucket, washboard, kitchen sink oriented and brimming over with beautiful losers and recidivists and drinkers and divorcees, Gary Sunshine’s tellin’ OUR stories, and the music is equal parts Lefty Frizell, Lightnin’ Hopkins, the Pogues, and Woody Guthrie. I mean you know how there’s that bigarsed Americana scene, supposedly? Rich guys who’s NPR listening ex girlfriend hipped them to Chris Isaak and Royal Crown Review And Wilco and now they think they’re countrified downhome cowpokes? How the “NO DEPRESSION” bunch has missed Gary Sunshine is startling to me. If you like shit like the Jayhawks and Creek Dippers and Lucinda Williams and all those Replacements and Uncle Tupelo influenced, “insurgent country” bands, Gary Sunshine eats most of those bands best stuff for breakfast, ya know I can imagine Sunshine up with the cockadoodle doo, on first watch, listening to Mingus and Monk on low, slicing home fries, brewing coffee, spreadin butter on stacks of salt risen toast. Stoppin’ now and then to write something down, or honk on a harmonica. Gary is one of the tens of thousands of artists and intellectuals sadly pushed out of Lower Manhattan by the ruthless forces of po-lice state, real-estate, and billionaire gentrification, but you can put him in the Delta, down on the farm, in some dumbfuck Monsanto cornfed Midwestern football town, and all his front porch narratives are still gonna flicker with that seventies Martin Scorsese vibe. Rain wet alleyways and steam from gutters, and shifty lookin’ fellas with ducktails and porkpies and and Donnie Brascoe jackets makin’ big plans in 70’s coffeeshops. There’s just something very NY about the guy. Even when he grows a Skid Roper beard, his dignified geezer music still throbs with a Shaft pulsebeat. He was there the day the Stones made their “Waitin’ On A Friend video”. He waited on Woody Allen, who was searchin’ for cool jazz at an old Manhattan record store. He thrilled rabid heavy metal audiences all through the late eighties and early nineties, with the best band around. He’s been around. He’s definitely kept his D.I.Y. sensibility, crankin’ out song after song, long after the music machine is gone, he’s doing it all himself, just for you and you and me. “Be Careful What You Are Whispering” could be a Guy Clarke or Steve Earle out-take.
“Listening To Heavy Metal (Day After Day) reminds me of Paul K. & The Weathermen, or David Olney, or Chick Graning from Scarce, it’s effin’ genius, makes me wonder about my own mulleted, ole Gary Moore wannabe, stonewashed metal bro from way back, who joined the Marines and disappeared. It’s probably the best thing Sunshine could have done for his art-vanish into the flyover states and make Peter Laughner and Robert Johnson influenced punk rock in a squalid basement room with his two kids playin’ on the swingset in the backyard and a one eared bloodhound named Muddy, ’cause you know how every suck shit perm from the spandex era who was ever, ever on MTV in the middle of the night still gets to strut around like he’s Jimmy Page? Sunshine just cast off all that pretentious major label metal dude celebrity with a shrug, sure, he could be sittin’ on a barstool with Chris Holmes and Riki Rachtman right now, hittin’ on Bambi eyed strippers from Des Moines at the Rainbow Bar & Grill, but instead, he’s got a spiral notebook and he’s gonna use it, he’s puttin’ it down, like Dylan, and Townes Van Zandt. He’s writin’ about “Cheap Champagne & Angry Names” and “Gettin’ Used To The Finer Things”, and really stirrin’ up the beatnik ghosts. You remember that jazzy college radio band from the grunge era, Morphine? He’s got summa that in here, too. “You Made Me A Criminal”, “Did You Move To New Orleans Or Texas”, etc., etc., are the keenly observant musings of a deeply sensitive American songwriter who’s been payin’ attention, who’s gotten older with the scars to prove it, and who still likes the Clash. Here and there, summa that old risqué voodoo and brimstone from the Circus Of Power years, naturally, leaks into his acute folk songs. If you loved his old band, this is the sound of his bruised soul in middle age, and it’s not as energetic as the raging punkmetal of twenty-five years ago, but it’s full of insight and awareness, and still has all that emotional impact, it’s just the grownup side of life, like Kristofferson, Gary’s feelin’ mortal, and thinkin’ ’bout what’s most precious in his time. I love it. If ya see ‘im at the donut shop, tell him I said hi.