Dear Friends,
What have I learned about myself over the last three years of writing every day?
This is a question I keep coming back to these days. What will I do with all the time and effort I put into having a daily blog? Something? Anything?
I think I need to figure it out.
I spent the first year telling stories. That was good exercise for the fingers and the brain. The second year was a lot of fiction, daily updates, a lot of work stuff, and just random things. This year was about music and my daily life.
Like Doris Day sang, “Que sera, sera.”
*****
I’m not going to think about it right now, that’s for sure.
*****
Yesterday was a long day. Stupid Cardinals took up some of my time and so did a Freeze practice. We played pretty well for taking two weeks off. I think Friday night at Yucca will be a good show.
It ought to be, at least. The band is firing on all cylinders, and I’ll be worked up from playing a Hillbilly set, too. 30 years of Hillbilly Devilspeak is in the books, as they say. Hard to believe I’ve been playing out for that long with one band.
I think this will be the last show I ever do at the Yucca Tap Room. I just don’t care for that place. It’s so hard for me to ask people to come out to that place. I think it all stems back to shows we did there years ago, and they were just so inconsistent on how they paid.
I’ve had a lot of fun there over the years. It’s not like I’ve hated every minute of it, but there is something about how it is run that I just don’t trust. As someone who has made that bar a fair amount of money over the last 20 years, I just wish I had a better feeling about working with them.
*****
I hope today goes smoothly. I am not really in work mode at the moment, but I’m guess it will all come back quickly. I did my prep for the week before I left, so I do have some time to get reacquainted with my plans before the day starts.
When I get home, I have to write up a little thing about the Redd Kross movie. That’ll be nice. Then I have to write about another record.
*****
A lot of the records in this last month are ones that I really love and would take up places in my top 50 if I was making a list, but some are just records I hadn’t gotten to yet. Like the record today for example. I like this record, but it is not one of my all-time favorites. It’s a moment in time, though.
*****
In 2001, I went to a show at Hollywood Alley in March. There were lots of bands on their way to and from SXSW and this one was amazing. It was Oxbow, Victims Family, and The Fleshies. I loved all the bands and made a point to talk to Ralph from VF and Matt and Vonny from Fleshies about setting up something with Hillbilly in the future.
We ended up playing with both bands and did two shows with The Fleshies. One at Hollywood Alley and then another at Modified. They were so damn good live. I enjoyed the Fleshies a little too much, I think.
The Fleshies did punk rock in the early 2000s the right way. On Kill The Dreamer’s Dream, the band has just enough attitude, killer riffs, and snotty vocals to keep your attention for the whole record, and then some. I played the CD a lot back in the day.
It helped that the majority of the band were just good dudes. We didn’t become friends or anything, but there was a camaraderie there and the guys seemed to enjoy playing with us almost as much as we enjoyed playing with them.
Johnny No Moniker (I forget his real name) was (and probably still is) an excellent front man. He really got into the live performance, even to the point where harm to his body was an afterthought. His lyrics are pretty great, too.
When we did the Modified show together, he had hurt his foot somehow at a previous show on their tour and he got pissed off about it during their set in Phoenix. He started taking his foot and pounding it into the stage to the point where it swelled up pretty big by the end of their set and he was bleeding pretty badly. I had a hard time understanding why you would do that to yourself, but he seemed to be good with it.
I’m guessing the drugs were strong, but I could be wrong. It could just be the way that guy was/is wired.
Kill The Dreamer’s Dream exhibits the band’s sense of humor, as well as a sense of East Bay awareness to social dilemmas, really nicely. “(What if We) Arm The Homeless?” kicks things off with a little nod the Dead Kennedys way of doing Bay Area punk rock. I like the song a lot and Johnny’s words are really good and the riff is great.
“Meatball” is just kind of silly, as is “Fit Cop,” but I love “Yes, I’m Starting Shit.” Something about that song really speaks to me and I enjoy it to this day. It was definitely the main song on this record that I liked to share with people.
Much of the next five or six songs is just solid, punk rock. It leans a little to the pop-punk sound at times, but the riffs are good and the vocals are great, so I give it a pass. “Locofoco Motherfucker” is pretty fun, I suppose, as is “Big Green Teeth.”
Things take off again for me when “Gooba Says There’s No Tomorrow” starts off. I love the way the band begins the song. Mattowar (guitar), Vonny Bon Bons (bass), and Hamiltron (drums) could really fucking play. They were so good at bringing a really chaotic and energetic live show that it was easy to overlook how well crafted their songs were on Kill The Dreamer’s Dream.
“The Biggest Snowball” is one that I really enjoyed, too. It’s got great energy. The last bit of the record is actually really great. After “The Biggest Snowball” it finishes quite strong.
“South Miami Beach” might have the best lyrics on the record.
“Why does the water taste like pee?/It’s warm and salty all over me/Must’ve been those five muscle relaxers I ate/we’re all in the water except Mattowar.”
“Led Fuckin’ Zeppelin, Man” is also a lot of fun and “Enough Sleep” is a quite a tasty closer. This record is just kind of fun personified in song. I still get quite a smile on my face from listening to it.
Turn it up if you check it out. It deserves to be played loud.
Real loud.
*****
See you tomorrow.
I never liked the Yucca that much. Thanks AI.
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