ImmigrationMasturbation

There's been a lot of talk about immigration lately, out of nowhere to get everyone's minds off the failing "war" abroad. It seems odd to be much of a political issue, since many large corporations and rich folk alike love immigration. Why pay someone a fair day's work when some illegal immigrant will do it for half the price? They don't get rich by being honest... The fact of the matter is that it's impossible to guard every stitch of our borders, even the parts that don't touch land could potentially enable someone to come in illegally. You can't put a wall up on our coastline and have people guard it constantly. A lot of it seems to be more concerned with Mexican immigrants than Canadian immigrants, which is more of a thinly veiled racist issue. I don't have any statistics, but I'm sure there's a good number of Canadian illegals here as well.

I had a Canadian friend who had moved to America, and married an American. You'd think that'd be enough to convince immigration to grant a citizenship, nope. He got a work green card, but the process to become a legal US citizen was so much of a hassle that him and his wife moved to Canada. First of all it was extremely expensive, then he had to list every organization he'd been a member of since the age of 18. This included internet sites and mailing lists. I know I've probably signed up for tons of useless crap on the internet I could never remember. The problem begin that if they find out you omitted an affiliation, you could be denied citizenship and be out your money and basically screwed. Another thing that was weird was that you couldn't leave the country for a year. I mean if you're coming from Canada or Mexico, chances are you have friends/family there. You wouldn't be able to see them for a year? That hardly seems fair, I think there should be a little more leeway within the continent of North America. If anything, it's almost flattering that so many people want to join our country, but if there's such a problem with them being there legally, there should be some effort to make it easier to obtain legal citizenship.

Memorial Day weekend antics

Wow, busy past few days... Did some record shopping, went to a show and saw X-Men 3 this weekend. Plus this week at work, I have like 15 DVD covers due. If I haven't mentioned before on here that I design DVD covers for a living (though it's not much of a living).

I got to see Tragedy, Warhead, Forward, Violation, and Drawing Dead at the First Unitarian Church in Philly this weekend. I like the church, it's pretty big for large crowds like this. A lot of people complain about the heat and the smell, but it doesn't really bother me. Drawing Dead and Violation are both new bands from Philly, and were good but seemed a little rough around the edges and better suited for a basement show. Forward played next, which was kind of a surprise since I expected Warhead to play next according to all the flyers and internet postings. My first encounter with Forward was 2 years ago when my old band, SNAKEBiTE played with them. I had loved their Burn Down the Corrupted Justice CD, and also got their Fucked Up LP. Unfortunately they only played 5 songs, which were all on Burn Down the Corrupted Justice. I guess there was a rush since it was a matinee show that had to end by 6. They were really awesome though, and the singer started out by saying "WE ARE FORWARD, WE ARE FORWARD, FROM JAPAN, FROM JAPAN, FUCK GEORGE BUSH," then proceeded to play "Fuck Bush" off their latest album. Warhead I knew nothing about other than they were from Japan. They sounded pretty similar to Forward, maybe a little faster and also played a relatively short set. I liked them a lot, and I'll have to track down some vinyl. The singer puked while they were playing, it was pretty nasty. Tragedy played last; I consider Tragedy the best current band. They may not be my favorite, but certainly the best. The raw energy and ferocity when they play is undeniable, and when I went to give them stickers after they played since I took some rad pictures they were super nice. They played a ton of great songs off their older records and 2 from the brand new one which totally rules. They even played "the Point of No Return" as an encore. I'll be seeing them again in NJ on Friday, and I can't wait!

X-Men 3 was pretty much a disappointment. There was a new director which could account for it, but the writing seemed all over the place. It seemed to have the storyline of Jean returning from the dead as the Phoenix, Magneto gathering an army to destroy humans, and the government inventing a weapon that will take away a mutant's abilities. Being a big X-Nerd, there were many inconsistencies in these stories compared to the comic. I would have preferred a new take on the Phoenix storyline rather than just have Jean turn red and float around with a bunch of power. The most disappointing scene in the movie is where the Juggernaut actually say "I'm the Juggernaut, Bitch." This is taken from a little movie clip that had been circulating the internet, I won't post a link because it's too stupid. I'd think with all the money the writers got that they could avoid referencing the internet video in a major motion picture big budget film. I mean if you liked the first 2, see it eventually. If you didn't see the others then don't bother at all. I'd still say that X-men 2 was the best one, but by no means is it a flawless trilogy.

*I'll make another posts about the new records once I get to listen to them all*

American Idle?

Does it make anyone else sick to know that more people voted for the American Idol winner than in any presidential election. I mean more people formerd an opinion on who they want to see sing cover tunes on a cruise ship than who they'd want to see run the country. Are people really this desperate to be on TV, I mean what have all the past American Idols really done? Aside from Kelly Clarkson, nothing of merit... Maybe a fair or carnival in some southern state. This is why every other country hates us.

Music is my girlfriend

While I was gone, I got these 3 records in the mail. None of them came with those little plastic bags. Record labels: use plastic bags, so I don't have to steal the bags of crappy records to put on good records.

I Object/ FxPxOx
I Object is one of my favorite bands going today. While they may not be the best technical musicians, their message and dedication is something to look up to. They just put out an amazing LP on Alternative Tentacles (yes, that Alternative Tentacles), and before had put out records on their own label(s). They've also toured the USA numerous times, and are currently in Europe for the next month or so. The stuff on this record is by no means their best, but in no way bad. Pretty much the same formula of fast old school HC/Punk with social/political lyrics. There wasn't any female/male alternating vocal parts, which I always enjoy. They actually overdubbed the singer twice in one song rather than having the guitar player sing backups, like usual. That's my only little gripe, it's still great. FxPxOx are from Macedonia, I honestly don't know exactly where that is, I'm pretty sure it used to be a part of the USSR. Either way, FPO are a really good fast political type sXe band. I first got introduced to their music when I was asked to do the design for their split 7" with Secret Seven on Moo Cow Records. One this 7" they only do one song, but it's pretty good. I think the split with secret 7 had like 6 songs, so it kind of shows how their song writing has evolved. Overall, the 7" has two great bands with something god to say from different parts of the world, who are both Straight Edge. It's also nice to see that 4 different record labels collaborated to put this out.

No Hope For the Kids- "Angels of Destruction"
Before the No Hope For the Kids LP was re-released this year, I'd get weekly e-mails from people wanting me to trade my copy to them. I don't really care about the collector value of the original pressing, I just got lucky and found it. But it's an amazing LP, which just sounds like old 80's melodic hardcore punk. It kind of reminds me of the Subhumans (from Canada) or the Observers. This 7" is pretty tricky to get, as are most bands from the Denmark area, but I found it on eBay which sucks because it just came out and I would've had no problem buying from the label directly. This record only has 2 songs, but they're great and I hope they do another LP. I also just found out that they're playing Pointless Fest this year, I'll be there!

Deathreat/ DSB
Deathreat was a band I always liked, but never really loved, until I found their LP in a used bin. For some reason it really grabbed my attention, and made me dust off the other records by them I had owned for years. I might've been the Koro cover, but it might've been the fact that it totally rules. So I found this on eBay, and was surprised to get it pretty cheap. DSB is some pretty intense Japanese hardcore. I missed them when they came through on tour a few years ago, which sucks. I like Japanese hardcore a lot for it's speed and intensity, but the language barrier prevents me from getting too into it.

I wouldn't really all myself a record collector really, more of a record accumulator. I'd never spend ridiculous amounts of money on a record just because it's limited or super old. I'd rather spend 100 bucks on 100 budget 7"s, than 100 bucks on 1 7" I'll never listen to since I had it on CD for years. I'm sure by Monday I'll have a new stack of music to listen to. I just got my ticket to see Tragedy, Forward and Warhead in Philly. It should be stinky, sweaty and crowded... What more could you want?

EducationMasturbation

So lately with all the graduation speeches on the news, and my own mother finally graduating college; I've been thinking about the impact and importance we seem to place on education. Myself being a college graduate with an and Associates Degree and a Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design. After graduating college, it took me about 2 and a half years to find a full time job in my field. In a way it leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth in regard to my educational experience.

Could I have gotten a job in my field with just a high school degree? NO, my high school guidance counselor even gave me grief for taking "too many art classes, and no honors classes." While to the average student, I suppose honors level classes look nice on a transcript, however for an artist, obviously your portfolio is graded higher than your academic scores. It seems like the high schools are more concerned with making your learning experience hard, so that college seems easy. I was a B/C/D student in high school, then when I went to college, I miraculously became a A/B student. WHY? What's the point in scaring students into thinking "if high school was this hard, college must be horrible." Maybe if my high school was a little easier, I would have had better grades and more confidence to apply to a 4 year college, rather than the local county college. Plus, the arts departments were ether being demolished to make way for a new cafeteria, or were given PC with no design programs on them. The only function they ever filled was to type out text in MS Word to print and glue on to projects.

Could I have gotten a job in my field with just my Associates Degree? Maybe, but nothing that I would enjoy doing. The teachers at the school were way too old to be teaching graphic design, which is a field which forces you to stay on top of things. By teaching us the extreme basics, and filling our head with pointless outdated knowledge, I feel like I was wasting time. And it turned out I kind of did, since when I transferred, I wound up losing about a year worth of classes. What is the point of tenure for teachers, sure job security is nice, but if you're essentially training a workforce for the job field, then you should be forced to keep on top of things, just like any professional. Now my father is a teacher also, but he's taken classes in graduate study, and goes to seminars to keep up with things, and teaches a basic level class.

Could I have gotten a job in my field with my Bachelors Degree? Potentially yes, however I didn't. I certainly learned a lot about design, but I had little experience and no clue how to search for a job. The experience was by my own initiative to get an internship, and do freelance work, but the average graduate had no experience what so ever. After graduation, my school did nothing to help with the job finding process. I had a nice portfolio, and a resume but no real leads on a job. By the time I actually found a job, my portfolio was outdated, and I barely showed any student work.

Do I regret going to college? No because I learned many skills on the way to my degree, which helped me in the long run. However, a lot of what I learned on my own is what made me have the skill level I have now. I was able to take things further, and am able to adapt to various diverse jobs. I'm still not at my dream point in work, ideally I'd want something that was well organized, busy and allowed me to utilize my skills to their fullest.

Is college necessarily for everyone? Definitely not, I know plenty of people who didn't go to school who make a lot more money than me. Plus they don't have as many student loan bills to worry about, and have been working professionally longer than me. If you're willing to dedicate yourself to get the skills you need without college, you will find that you are judged more on your skills, dedication and abilities in the long run. The stigma that you need to have a degree to so somewhere in life is ignorant, and doesn't apply to everyone's career goals.

Just to Get Away

I'm back from Florida, and had a great time hanging out with Annie. Saw some great bumper stickers (If you can't stand behind the troops, you should stand in front of them), saw some sketchy weirdos (they call me "the Rooster"... you know like that Alice in Chains song), did some beach and went to Islands of Adventure. Hopefully it won't be too long before I get to go back, and I hope she didn't get sick of my crazy ass being around for 5 days. I had so much Sweet Tea, lots of fun!

I'll be putting up another post either tomorrow or Thursday, I had some thoughts, and got 3 records in the mail while I was gone. This weekend I get to see one of my favorite bands, Tragedy. It's been almost 2 years since I've seen them, so I'm really glad I get to see them twice and get their new LP.

Florida and records

This'll be my last post for a few days, I'm going to Florida Wednesday night until Monday night to visit my favorite Floridian, Annie. I'll be on the beach, while it's raining and crappy in NJ. I'm also going to go to Islands of Adventure, where they have a Marvel comics themed park. I'm hoping to get a picture with someone dressed as Wolverine.

Recent Record/CD Purchases:


the Ergs- "Jersey's Best Prancers"
This was recorded a while, and just took forever to actually come out. While it may not be as fast as "Dorkrockcorkrod," it's still really really good. Sounds like they've been listening to the Replacements a lot lately. Most notable might be that Scott Reynolds from ALL sings backup vocals on one of the songs... I know crazy right? Seriously, this CD rules and the Ergs really are bigger than Jesus (in my eyes that is).


the Yah Mos Def- "Plays Ugly For Suckers"
A 5 song EP from this Philly hip hop group, scroll down to the show review to get more info about them. Basically it's as if the Beastie Boys had kept the punk energy and sound. Great CD, and it leaves you wanting more.


the Jury- "I Hate the Future"
Great debut for this upstate NY band, sound wise I get a 9 Shocks/ Poison Idea vibe. Fast raging distorted hardcore with strained vocals. Word out on the street is that it's limited, so track it down, before it goes on eBay.


Black SS- "self titled"
I was putting off buying this, since the few songs I heard online were kind of ok, but not mind blowing. I decided to pick it up from the Jury last week though. I'm glad I did, it's real good mid-paced hardcore punk. It's really good to see straight edge bands that lean more toward the punk side of the fence than the jockish hardcore side. I'd like to see them live and pick up some more records by them.

They Might be Giants

On Friday my partner in crime, Laura and I went to see They Might Be Giants at the TLA in Philly. In the past I had been more of a casual fan, first hearing about them through Tiny Toons. They had an episode where they made videos for "Istanbul" and "Particle Man." Then about 2 years ago, I worked with someone who brought a CD of theirs into work, and so I borrowed it and really liked it. Knowing Laura is a big Barenaked Ladies fan, I figured she's like TMBG... I was right. I'd probably say she likes them even more than me, so when we saw they were playing in Philly, we got our tickets.

We wound up getting there a little late, due to Philly's lack of parking. I don't think we missed much since they said thank you, how's everybody after the first song we heard, which was "James K. Polk." The crowd was probably the nerdiest crowd at any concert ever... so many glasses in the room. They played a bunch of my favorites, like "Cyclops Rock," "Istanbul,"Dr. Worm" and "New York City." They even played my favorite song, "James Ensor" which I never would have expected. They had a new CD/DVD of songs written about the various venues they played across the country. They even had one about the TLA, which also had the roadies doing YMCA-esque hand movements. It was pretty awesome, and they probably played for close to 2 hours. I definitely would go see them again, It's nice to go to a show and not have to worry about meatheads pushing into you constantly.

Wednesday's show

Thanks a lot to the Think Tank house, all the bands and all the kids who came out. A good time was had by all, and no problems aside for a 2 hour delay in starting.

my band- we played alright, coulda been better if we had a chance to practice before the show. We only played 3 songs, but people seemed into it. We still don't have a name, but were referred to as "Group Hug" and "Dr. Acula" by various hecklers.


the Jury- this was the first day of their 2 week tour, and were the reason the show was set up. I thought they were great, their sound reminds me of a less distorted 9 Shocks Terror. I picked up their 7", and it's a scorcher on pink vinyl with a spraypainted and silkscreened cover (which smells really unpleasant). They were touring with a fill in drummer, who is also in Positive Reinforcement and Blank Stare who also rule.


Yah Mos Def- I was hoping it wouldn't bee too weird, but I was glad to see people into it. Basically imagine the Beastie Boys... hardcore kids who somehow fell into hip hop. Two guys with tons of energy rapping to beats from an iPod with plenty of hardcore references. I think a line from one of the songs was something like "I'm young till I die like Kevin Seconds." Their CD is awesome too, but should be longer than 5 songs though... I want more!


Fanshen- They have been around for like 10 years, with a brief 4 year hiatus in the middle. I was really glad they could play, since they only seem to play maybe 2 or 3 shows per year. They played a bunch off the LP, "Static/Kinetic," they even played a bunch of new songs, which were great. Their sound is rooted in fast hardcore, but have very political/ social lyrics which border on spoken word at times.


The Ergs- My favorite band from NJ, they're pretty much great in every way. Started off by playing their entire new CD, "Jersey's Best Prancers" in order. They also played the classics, and some new jams. Their sound I suppose could be described as classic pop-punk, like the Descendents/ All and the Ramones with other various rock and pop music influences. I'm glad that on a show with fast loud hardcore, and even a hip hop group, they can hold their own and fit in.

more pictures at: http://bleedingedges.net/hc

Sean Paul is annoying

I normally don't care about popular music, or what's radio friendly these days. I don't listen to the radio and I don't watch MTV, so my only real contact with popular music is in commercials. There's currently a commercial for a cell phone with this horrible song by Sean Paul. I'm not into dancehall reggae, but yelling gibberish over a dance beat is apparently considered music these days. I guess if you're just making music with the intent that people can dance to it, then lyrical content isn't really a factor. My sister pointed out that it's hypocritical of me to say it sounds like gibberish, when to her my music sounds like that. Big difference in that however is, there's no commercials forcing Charles Bronson and Spazz down your throat. I'm trying to watch VH1's best metal song countdown, and on the commercial breaks I'm forced to see idiots dancing with their cell phones while listing to this audio garbage. I had thought nothing could be worse than Shaggy, but I was wrong... Sean Paul sucks!

last weekend's used bin scores

I went to my favorite NJ record store, Curmudgeon Records last weekend to peruse the used vinyl bins and drop off some flyers. Here's what I found:


Scare Tactic- s/t
Didn't know anything about them, seemed cool and was a buck. I think what sold me on it was that they're from Canada and the guitar player had a Siege shirt on. It's actually really really good fast lo-fi recorded hardcore. Almost a Dropdead quality to it. I could be wrong, but I think the guitar player is now in Career Suicide. The 7" is from around 2000, and I'd be interested to know more about this band.


the Pist / Brutally Familiar- "Small Town Justice"
I've loved the Pist for a long time, and always had trouble finding their vinyl, (anybody wanna trade me a Destroy Society 7"?). Apparently a discography CD is in the works, which should be awesome. This 7" has their own brand of intelligent street punk that I love from the other records that I love. There's even a version of "Small Town" that I assume predates the version on "Ideas Are Bulletproof." Brutally Familiar are more along the lines of faster almost crust-ish hardcore. I mainly bought it for the Pist side, but the Brutally Familiar side will get some more spins. Great deal for a buck.


V/A- Reproach: 8 modern bands covering Negative Approach
The title pretty much says it all, although the bands aren't very modern anymore. Some good ones like Dropdead, Spazz, Voorhees, Man is the Bastard, and others do pretty good versions on NA. I always kinda thought NA was kinda overrated, good yes, but not in the league of Minor Threat and Black Flag. This one was 3 bucks, but it's way out of print. Overally a good haul for 5 bucks total.

iPod: 2 months later

So I had put off actually getting an iPod despite pretty much all of humanity owning one, and raving about its greatness. I was late on jumping on the cell phone trend also, just because of my general apathy towards new technology. This past birthday, however I got an iPod nano (which I filled up in a day, and then exchanged for the video iPod). My main hesitation, aside from money wasted on something that will play music I can easily play on other mediums, was my own anal-retentive nature to keep the songs organized and labeled. Big surprise, I have to have all my tracks labeled and numbered properly. The only real advantage is that if I download something I only have on vinyl, I can put it on here and listen to it in more places. It's also nice that I can play it in my car, so I don't have to make mix tapes anymore. I also use it while at work, so I don't have to bring different CDs in every day. I have no interest in downloading from the iTunes music store, or putting pictures or videos on it, nor would I say I'm obsessed with it. I doubt I'd even recommend getting it to anyone.
Anyway, all was fine I suppose until this Monday. I rip my CDs on my work computer (Mac), and download stuff I have on vinyl from my home computer (PC). I never had any problems going cross-platform before, since I have this Mac reader program on my PC. On my way to work Monday I was listening to the new songs I loaded on there over the weekend, but when I plugged it into my computer at work the songs didn't play anymore. In fact all the songs I had loaded in the past from my home computer stopped working. It's like they moved directory and iTunes couldn't find them. I obviously didn't change their directory, since I have no idea how to. So now I have to delete and re-upload all the songs from my home computer, which is a colossal waste of time. Way to go Apple... You've got a great product on your hands that forgets how to play half my songs after 2 months.

come to this show I set up

WEDNESDAY MAY 10

the Ergs: http://dorkrockcorkrod.com / http://www.myspace.com/theergs
the Yah Mos Def: http://www.yahmosdef.com / http://myspace.com/theymd
the Jury: http://myspace.com/thejury
Fanshen: http://www.myspace.com/fanshenhardcore
+1 TBA (my band with no name yet: ex-snakebite/this ship will sink/crashing down) (current-kill crush destroy/seasick/don't wake up)

$5 / 6pm

@ the Think Tank House
Lakewood, NJ 08701

http://www.myspace.com/thinktankrecords
http://www.thinktankrecords.net
http://bleedingedges.net


click here for a link to a bigger flyer