Richmond, VA’s Municipal Waste are set to melt your face off at The Summit tonight. With their sound deeply rooted in 80′s thrash and crossover metal (S.O.D., Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I., etc.), and enough volume to peel the crust off the crustiest, these dudes know how to stir up a party. Hell, they even named one of their records Art Of Partying (the title track is killer!). If you haven’t gotten a ticket yet, I would suggest that you get there a little earlier (doors open @ 9pm), cuz this baby is probably gonna sell out!

Also on the bill are Voestek, Kingsblood, Infernal Death(!!!DEATH!!! tribute band) and Pollution. The weekend starts early!!!!

MP3: Chuck Berry Holiday

On Thursday, June 17th, America’s favorite hard partying furball known as Nobunny is set to invade Cafe Bourbon Street. A wild good time is guaranteed! To those not in the know, Nobunny is a dude in a bunny mask who performs catchy rock & roll songs and turns the place upside down doing it, sometimes wearing nothing but the bunny mask. Sounds great, don’t it? But it’s not just about flying beers, bunny masks, and other shenanigans, which there’s gonna be plenty of. Nobunny’s debut LP Love Visions (2008) was packed with hooks that hang somewhere between Chuck Berry, Beach Boys and Ramones. It was received very well by reviewers and the fans alike. His wild stage antics only helped cement his notoriety. Since then he’s done a few singles, a couple of cassette tapes and a couple of comps. And lucky for us, it doesn’t look like he’ll be slowing down any time soon.

Bottom line, BE THERE! See it with your own eyes so you could some day tell the tale. Also, on the bill are local pop favorites Day Creeper and freshly back from their European (mis)adventures Savage Pinkos with their brand of bratty garage punk. See you there….

MP3: Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya
MP3: Let Us Play Your Party

When I heard that Seattle’s The Spits are dropping a new LP – their fourth – on the 4th of July, I smiled… That smile was brought on by a couple of different reasons. One – I, like many others, thought there might never be a NEW Spits LP, since the band went on a hiatus due to some of it’s members moving to different cities and getting involved in other projects. Two – there is no more appropriate band to celebrate our great country’s birthday with then The Spits. Why? Because to this humble fan The Spits are what America is all about – taking back alleys, playing parties, drinking beers and being weird.

To those of you who are not in the know, The Spits play the most basic type of punk rock, reminiscent of the great Ramones with a splash of new wave and a whole lot of FUN! The perfect soundtrack for a killer party gone out of control. They bring it live as well. I’ve seen them play a show at our very own Bobo Street where those in attendance, myself included, would not let them of the stage until they played every song that was yelled out at them. So if you get a chance, shell out the dough at the door and never look back. Also make sure to pick up all four of their self-titled LP’s and a singles comp called 19 Million AC. You’ll thank me later!

The Spits were gracious enough to answer some questions for us via e-mail. Also they attached a killer track Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya from the new album for us to enjoy (link above). So, here we go!

You and Sean are from Kalamazoo, MI originally. When and why did you guys re-locate to Seattle?

Sean and I had been traveling the country for a long time, separately and together, working as dishwashers and just seeking our fortune in general. When we landed in Seattle in the early nineties, the city had just the right combination of music, chicks, mountains and thrift stores. We knew we had found our new home.

When and how did the Spits start?

Well, Aleks, it was your classic “Boy meets girl, girl loves boy, boy goes to college for degree in 17th century French literature, boy drops out of college, girl leaves boy, boy hits girl, boy goes to jail for assault, boy gets out of jail and goes on 13-day vision quest with the Ayuhuasca shamans of the Amazon, boy starts band, band turns music world upside down and single-handedly rejuvenates punk genre, girl wants back with boy, boy sleeps with girl one more time and then sleeps with her sister in girl’s house and videotapes it, girl becomes murderous with rage, boy goes on long tours with band in Europe and U.S. to stay one step ahead of vengeful girl, boy blah, blah blah….” We’ve all been there.

You guys were on hiatus for a while. What were you all up to during that time?

Well, the Spits have gone through many personnel changes over the years and also gone through periods of isolation and reflection. We’ve had periods where all we did was huff ether, and we have had times where all we did was hunt raccoons and pheasants, but during all these times we have continued to play shows and with the reunion with original Spits drummer and cofounder, Lance Phelps (who had been doing some work for the government in human/extraterrestrial relations since he left the band) we are experiencing a golden age of creativity and productiveness that resulted in our new album, which we just released ourselves on our label, Thriftstore Records.

How did the new album come about? When and where was it recorded?

This new album is the result of two years of work. All the members of the Spits live in different states, so progress has been slow. We have recorded all over the world, including a cleaned-up Meth lab in Michigan, a renovated factory in Kalamazoo, Swami studios in San Diego, a studio in Seattle that no longer exists, a barn in France outside of Toullouse, and a house in a shitty neighborhood in Portland.

Why are all your LP self-titled?

Actually, they all have titles, we just don’t tell the public what they are. One of the albums is titled “Cogs Inside the Dreams of the Sleeping Robot’s Mind”, but I can’t tell you which album that is.

Can we expect a tour from you this year or anytime soon?

We will be touring part of the U.S. around August and September on our “Mutants” tour.

How does the current economic crisis effect the Spits? Whould you still play my party for a case of beer these days?

Luckily, Aleks, booze, prostitution and music are all immune to economic rise and fall. As far as playing your party, have you listened to the song? Both versions? Do you know what we are going to do to your house and friends and relatives and pets if we play?

Sure, we’ll play for a case of beer, but the price you’ll pay will be much more…dire.

We all have our own idea as to why the world needs the Spits…. Ummm…. What’s yours?

Yes, the world needs the Spits, but only a small percentage of losers, underdogs, and misfits WANT the Spits. The world needs the Spits because the world needs to learn how to party. The losers of the world understand the Spits because we speak for them.

A message to your adoring fans eveywhere….

Sorry about your taste.

A message to the playuh haters….

We’re gonna fucking get you.

PS: My thanks to JG and Mindy for letting me take over their lap top to deliver this piece to the masses! I wove you!!!

MP3: Laguna Beach Rules
MP3: Bolder Than

I heard Vegetative State for the first time a few years ago, when they befriended my old band on Myspace. Immediately my cohorts and I thought that we’ve stumbled on to something awesome. Here were real teenagers, playing real teenage angst driven honest to gawd punk rock with no extra flab, kick, catch, or whatever else you could think of to make it “fresh” or “current”. Soon after, we asked them to play a show with us. A little bit later the label that my friends JG, Mindy and I were running put out their 1st EP. But before we did that, we had to have a meeting with some of their parents at the White Castle, to which we showed up hung over as fuck!!! They were around sixteen at the time and it was understood that parents know best. Since then they’ve smashed more guitars, shocked more innocent bystanders, broken up and re-started again more times then Ol’ Man Hank Rollins got laid.

The band is celebrating the release of their new album tonight at Carabar. Sick Thrills and Necropolis are also playing. Here’s all of the dirt and more as I sit down with the lead singer of VS, Andrew Wagner.

Where does the name come from?

AW: Originally we were called Kamikaze Motor Cult. I came up with that. I thought it was really cool, but we were really young at the time and we kind of thought it was stupid, because nobody liked us at the time, because we were playing at the wrong bars. So, then we changed our name to The Problems. We all knew it was a temporary name. This was all around the time the Terry Schaivo controversy was going on and so I had the bright idea that we’d name the band Vegetative State and have the whole “duuuuuuuh ” (drool) thing be the gag…that and abortion.

Alright, so you guys got an LP coming out on the local Nice Life label, called “Feeding Tubes”. When, where and how was it recorded?

AW: It was recorded in our current guitar player Alex Unverzagt’s basement. Oh fuck…it was early last year February or March of 08’. It was all done in Alex’s basement on a 16 track mixer into a 32 track recorder with mics and shits etc. We ran all the instruments straight into the recorder and it was all done studio live except for a few vocal tracks that I fucked up and re-did.

So you guys did it all yourselves?

AW: Yuh.

Where are you guys from in Columbus? And how you met?

AW: Tim and I both are from Westerville and we grew up together. We met in 4th grade on the school bus. Tim thought I was annoying and I thought he was weird…but we both got into Dragonball Z and he heard me talking about it on the school bus and we became friends.

How’d you guys get into punk?

AW: Umm… Well it all started with Nirvana at the end of middle school. We would read books about their band and Kurt Cobain and he would always talk about his influences like Butthole Surfers, Dinosaur Jr. and Black Flag. That’s how we got into those bands. Really, Tim got into punk before I did, I didn’t like it initially. He would play me Minor Threat, Black Flag and Bad Brains and for awhile I didn’t like it until I decided one day to take a second listen of Minor Threat…”In My Eyes” single handedly sold punk to me! Followed by Bad Brains “Big Takeover”!

So how did the band start?

AW: Joey ( Our original guitar player) and Tim had a previous band but Tim and I had joked about a punk rock side project, because before they had a garage rock band that did some covers and a few originals, but they broke up so we took VS seriously…Perfect timing!

When did Ryan come into the picture?

AW: Tim met Ryan freshman year of high school. Initially they didn’t care for each other until Ryan wore a Dead Kennedys T-shirt and the rest is in my forthcoming memoir.

So where exactly are you guys from?

AW: Tim and I are from Westerville.

So if you were to find some Black Flag records and stuff like that, where would you guys have gone?

AW: We’d either download after the internet. I, actually, found Minor Threat’s Complete Discography at Virgin Records. Tim would get a lot of things at Magnolia Thunderpussy. And my step dad, Bob, was an old punk rocker and he knew about Magnolia too, so he took me there too.

You told me before that your dad had a bunch of punk records?

AW: I didn’t really listen to any of his records until I was in high school because they were always just boxed away. And we didn’t get them out until I was really into music. A lot of stuff I was really into was Lou Reed and The Who stuff. I never really dicked around with the 7 inchers because we didn’t have the 45 adaptor.

When you were first approached to do a 7”, we had to have a meeting at White Castle…with some of your parents. Can you talk about that a little bit?

AW: Well, basically, our (old) guitar player s dad had some reservations due to past experience when he was in a band and got screwed by their promoter/manager …whatever the fuck, so he wanted to meet you guys, just to kinda feel out your intentions really. We met with him beforehand and hatched this game plan and I being the speaker totally forgot it and we just agreed to put out the record on Death By Noise and be paid in records. Simple as shit, but we were 15 so people still cared about us.

When you guys just started out, where did you guys play and what were the gigs like?

AW: Well, we wrote a batch of songs and we really didn’t know what the fuck to do so we just followed the path of another band we knew and started playing pay to play shows at Scarlet and Grey Café so I would sell tickets to girls at my school who had a crush on me but they never came cause they’d pull up and be scared cause it was it really wasn’t a bad part of town but they though so after that we’d pay for the rest out of pocket and play to our parents and Ryan’s cousin who went to OSU. We played 2 shows there. We also played our friends birthday party.

How old were you guys when all of this happened and you got together?

AW: When we first got together we were about 15 or 16.

So how many years has VS been a band at this point?

AW: 5 years this summer.

You guys went through some line up changes. You, Tim, and Ryan are the original members, how did Alex and Adam end up in the band? And what happened to Joey, who played guitar on your first 7”?

AW: Alex ended up in the band while dam was recovering from a dislocated shoulder. We had recruited Adam after Joey left the band because he didn’t think he was being utilized to his full capacity. So we brought Adam in but he got hurt playing football so Alex who has been the band’s unofficial 5th member, since we started subbed for him for a show. After that show Tim and I decided that Alex should play with us. That’s when we adopted both Adam and Alex as guitar players into the band.

In the summer of 2008 you guys said you were breaking up, what’s the story there?

AW: Basically Tim and Ryan went to college so its obviously difficult for us to play shows let alone practice for them so we’re limited to breaks and summer vacation. But with the record coming out and the mutual feeling that we still have more to do we’re doing some shows while we can and possible a small tour with Mentally Ill.

VS also recorded a record for Parts Unknown label, whats going on with that?

AW: At this point that deal seems to be completely off the table, but we’re in talks with Criminal IQ (Chicago) about a possible release of those songs as well as some others.

So are you guys doing anything else right now musically?

AW: I’m currently putting a band together called Savage Pinkos, but we’re only in the early stages. Tim and Alex are currently working on a band called Sports Bras that I think has potential. But at this point all we can do is wait and see what happens.