FUCK THE POLICE

As told by...

N.W.A


Bruce Springsteen


Black Flag


KRS One


Bob Dylan

HENRY ROLLINS FLIPS INTERVIEW

Well this is awkward.

I wish someone would track this kid down so we could see what he thinks about this whole thing 30 years later.

THE GIANT

I was never truly infatuated with Andre the Giant the way some people were. He was the guy from the generation before, so by the time I was getting into wrestling he was on the decline. I was too young for his "passing of the torch" match with Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania III and only knew him as the funny, big guy from THE PRINCESS BRIDE.

Over the past year there's been a bit of an Andre the Giant resurgence, and all these stories are popping up (like here and here). They're kind of great, so I've started to learn a little bit more about him.

A while back, I learned about this video of him on Letterman's show back in 1984—before Letterman wore a suit every night and was still just a young comedian from Indiana that somehow ended up with a talk show. It's not the greatest interview, because Andre seems a little shy, but it's still a lot of fun. I especially love the story about why he won't pick Dave up like he requested.

FELL IN LOVE WITH A GIRL

This video doesn't really do the song or St. Vincent (the stage name of the fantastic Annie Clark) justice, but it's the best video available right now.

St. Vincent came through SLC a few weeks ago and I didn't go because I'm an idiot. In reality, I heard a few tracks off the new record earlier this year and really liked them, but I just forgot about them. Then I forgot all about St. Vincent as a whole. When she was in town, I saw Instagram posts and Tweets all night about how good the show was, but didn't put everything together until a few days later.

I've been pretty upset about it ever since. To make up for it, I've been listening to her albums all day at work. and watching shitty videos of her performing with Nirvana at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony last night. Better videos will surface eventually, but they'll get taken down pretty quickly since the whole thing will air on HBO next month.

She played "Lithium" with the rest of the guys at the Barclays Center (Joan Jett, Kim Gordon and Lorde also played with the rest of  Nirvana which is Dave Grohl, Krist Novaselic and Pat Smear) and then the whole crew (minus Lorde and adding J Masics and John McCauley of Deer Tick) went over to Saint Vitus, a club with a 230 person capacity, to play a full set. Clark fronted the band for three songs - "Lithium" again, "About a Girl" and "Heart-Shaped Box" and from the sound of it, was amazing.

No matter what she played with Nirvana, Annie Clark is my current lady crush in the music world and I think it's safe to say she'll stay that way for quite a while.

BRMC - "FAULT LINE"

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club has been a band for a long, long time. I never paid much attention to them because I kind of hate that name and that's how things go. I didn't think they were bad, but I also never gave them a real shot until a few months ago.

And they're really, really good.

This song was featured on episode 7 of TRUE DETECTIVE (that whole show is amazing, by the way) and it showed up in an awesome playlist that I found of all the songs featured on the show. After a few times through everything on the playlist, I switched to BRMC and have been listening to their entire catalog pretty much non-stop for the past couple of weeks.

I suggest you do the same. You won't regret it.

HOLY PANIC ATTACK, BATMAN!

I'm not afraid of heights, I'm just not comfortable with them.

That's what I've always told myself, anyway. I can safely say that's a lie. I'm terrified of heights.

I saw this video and had a minor panic attack at my desk. These two guys, Vadim Makharov and Ritaliy Raskalov, basically travel around the world, find the highest places they can get to and explore it.

Recently, they were in China and targeted the Shanghai Tower, which, when completed, will be the second tallest building in the world. During the Chinese New Year and armed with Go Pro cameras, they hopped over the fence, climbed 120 stories and slept until the morning. When they woke up, they went all the way to the top, then climbed out onto a crane overlooking the city.

It's the scariest thing I've ever seen. My hands started to sweat and I felt lightheaded just watching the video. I give these guys all the credit in the world, because there is no way in hell I would ever try this. I get uncomfortable when I'm too high at the climbing gym with ropes attached. There's no way I'd climb an unattended crane nearly half a mile above a city.

They each have their own LiveJournal (!) where they write about their adventures and a joint site called On The Roofs, which is basically just the video below.

CHOICES

Henry Rollins will forever be one of my idols.

I've been thinking a lot about this kind of thing, and it's nice to see it laid out like this. It's a good story. Lots of hard work (and a lot of luck) made this guy into what he is today. It's a path that I need to follow. Maybe not the 'singing for a band' part though. I already did my time on the road. It was fun, but I'm glad it's over.

Check out the video and start thinking about what you want to get out of your life this year.

NINE INCH NAILS - TENSION 2013

Hi.

Remember how I've spent the last month or so talking about how excited I was to see Nine Inch Nails, then how much fun I had at the show and how amazing it was?

Now I can prove it to you. Last week Vevo released a high-definition video of the band's show in Los Angeles last month. I've watched it a couple of times already and I love everything about it. There's a full-length DVD in the works for next year, which I'm sure I'll buy because why the hell wouldn't I?

There's also a two-part behind the scenes video (part 1 and part 2) that shows Trent Reznor, Rob Sheridan and the rest of the crew putting everything together for the festival shows they did this past summer. Right when that was finished, and before they left for tour, Reznor decided that everything they'd put together was a "cop out" and they should do something different for the U.S. tour. A month before they left, he brought in a bass player and two back-up singers and had Sheridan re-imagine the entire design.

Reznor seems kind of hard to work for, but amazing to work for at the same time. He's constantly pushing everyone to make things better, and I bet it makes things incredibly difficult at times but immensely rewarding after it's all finished.

Like I wrote in my other piece, The Joint (where I saw the show), was basically a theater so there were limits to what they could do with the stage show. They couldn't raise and lower the huge LED screens that you see in the video, which is kind of disappointing, but again, I think I'd rather have seen them in a small theater than an arena. I don't know though. I'm still working through it in my head.

Either way, the video is embedded below. You should watch it. Better yet, you should pull it up on your giant HD flat screen and watch in your living room.

Now that this is finished, I'll probably stop talking about Nine Inch Nails for a while and we'll get back to random other things that make you love me.

 

DAVE GROHL IN "FRESH POT!"

Them Crooked Vultures is pretty great and I love Dave Grohl. Here's a little something to break up your Monday afternoon monotony.

Enjoy!

FELINA

BREAKING BAD ended a while back. It's been a rough couple of months without a TV show to get invested in. I always save BOARDWALK EMPIRE for full-season binge watching, so that's out.

I dove right in to season 6 of SONS OF ANARCHY, but the quality of the writing and storytelling and characters was so different and so much worse that  it was hard to watch. But then I spent 6 weeks watching the slightly entertaining but utterly horrible execution of everything that is THE WALKING DEAD. After that, SONS OF ANARCHY has been looking pretty god damn brilliant.

But it still makes me miss BREAKING BAD. They're rolling out the complete set on DVD pretty soon, so a few of the special features are starting to make their way around online. On one of them, a documentary crew filmed everyone for a huge documentary about the making of the last season. They had cameras in the room when Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul read the final episode for the first time.

They divided the parts between them and read it together in Cranston's living room. It's just great. These two lived with those characters for so long that it must be hard to let go. I can only imagine what it's like to finally get to the end of something that you work so hard on.

If you guys don't see me for about a month this winter, it's because I'm holed up in my apartment watching these 62 episodes all over again and pretending that some day I'll be able to write something so god damn awesome.

FAT BOTTOMED GIRLS

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Freddy Mercury and Queen.

"OCD"

A lot of people like to say they've got "a little OCD" because they're particular about something. That's not what OCD is.

Everything in my apartment,  everything on my shelves and everything on my desk at work has a place. It lives where I put it and it bothers me when it's not in the right place. But in no way do I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I'll still be able to fall asleep if I'm too tired to get up and fix whatever Harley knocked over.

This guy has OCD and he fucking owns it. This is one of my favorite slam poetry pieces I've ever seen.

The guy's name is Neil Hilborn. You can find his blog here, though he doesn't post that much. Still, take a few minutes and watch the video. It's really, really great.

P.S. Yeah, I actually do like slam poetry. Bet you didn't know that, did you?

THE DEEP

The video below is amazing and the reason that I'm infinitely more terrified of the ocean than anything else on this planet. You can go on and on about life on other planets, and sure, I'll listen. There's only a handful of people that love space more than I do, so I hope there's something else out there, but that's a ways away.

The ocean is here. It's part of our lives already. And there is so much about it that we will never, ever know.

That's what terrifies me.

Seriously. Watch this video and tell me that doesn't scare the hell out of you while leaving you fascinated all at once.

I love science.

I got this from a site called Science Friday that I'd never heard of until just now. But it might be my new favorite site.

The video is hidden below the break because I couldn't figure out how to disable autoplay and it was driving me nuts, so click through and watch it. I promise it's worth it.

NIRVANA REUNITED!

Sub Pop Records still gets legitimate mail.

A mail carrier shows up at their office every day with letters and things that they have to go through. Earlier this week, they got what might have been one of the best letters of all time.

A young woman from Virginia Tech wrote a letter to Sub Pop asking if Nirvana would be interested in recording a video for their homecoming celebration. As she states in her letter, "It presents great publicity for them, and as Virginia Tech loves Nirvana, we'd love to have her in our video."

This is where it gets confusing. Aside from Kurt Cobain having been dead for almost 20(!) years, she thinks Nirvana is a "her." It's also July. But maybe they start planning homecoming really early when you're the mascot. I don't know. Most of my college experience was spent doing anything and everything besides campus-oriented events.

But either way, Sub Pop played along. The young lady left her phone number, so Sub Pop had "Nirvana" make a video and sent it to her via text. She was thrilled.

So hopefully no one at Virginia Tech spoils the joke before the video hits the stadium of wherever it ends up, because there's now a video of Mark Arm from Mudhoney and three Sup Pop employees - one of whom is wearing the hat from the 4 Non Blondes "What's Going On?" video - posing as Nirvana. Hopefully it makes it all the way through and they're featured alongside the Ying Yang Twins, Big N Rich and three NFL players.

If this is real, it's probably a form letter that was sent out to hundreds of people and bands trying to reel in anyone that would take the bait. It's also possible that one of the older people on the board (or whatever it is that puts these things together) got kind of sick of listening to this young lady and just started throwing out the most ridiculous names they could think of to see which she'd fall for. Either way, it's pretty funny.

Good work for playing along, Sub Pop!

THE ART OF PUNK - BLACK FLAG

Black Flag is one of my favorite bands of all time. I've seen Rollins do spoken word a bunch and I've been keeping a pretty close watch on that dueling Black Flag thing that's going on (which, side note, Keith Morris' version, now simply called FLAG seems to be having the most fun with it, so I declare them the winners).

The unsung hero of Black Flag has always been Raymond Pettibon, the artist responsible for the majority of the bands artwork - including the iconic four bar logo.

MocaTV has released the first in a series of videos called THE ART OF PUNK and this one focuses on Pettibon and the art her created for Black Flag. It's a great video, but what's most interesting to me is the people they interview for it.

Keith Morris is there, Dez Cadena is there, Henry Rollins is there, Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist and unofficial punk historian) is there and Pettibon himself is there.

Greg Ginn, Pettibon's brother and founding member of Black Flag, is nowhere to be found.

Anyway. Watch the video because it's amazing. I want to be in a band again just so I can have someone design all of our stuff.

*UPDATE* - MocaTV just posted the Dead Kennedy's video, too. Now your day is complete.

THUNDER ON THE MOUNTAIN

Late to the party like usual, but this is just great.

Wanda Jackson was appointed as the "First Lady of Rockabilly" way back when and while she's not as mobile as she used to be, she's still got it.

As a side note, I think dudes obsessed with rockabilly and girls obsessed with pinup culture in 2013 is incredibly stupid. Just wanted to throw that out.

She and Jack White teamed up for an album that came out in 2011and this is one of the highlights.

They filmed it at the vinyl plant in Nashville where the record was being pressed, which is kind of awesome. I just assumed it was some VFW hall they knew about or a sound stage. The actual location is much cooler.

Wanda Jackson feat. Jack White - Thunder on the Mountain from Pulse Films on Vimeo.

"I'M TELLIN' YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO."

I love everything this kid says here. I don't want to blame the teacher, and I'm sure there's more to the story than we're seeing here, but she sounds so apathetic that it hurts.

It seems like he's taking his frustration out on the system more than the teacher herself. She probably has no room to work with and is forced to "teach the test" or whatever the hell they do now, and that's just sad.

But still. Good on you, kid.

This guy, Jeff Bliss, has turned into something of a minor celebrity since this whole thing happened a few weeks ago (I wanted to post it right after it happened, but had to wait until that damn contest ended). He's done a couple of interviews and started a Twitter account, but to his credit, it doesn't seem like he's milking it for attention and really trying to keep the focus on the problem that he addresses in his rant.

I can only hope that lasts and he actually follows through instead of cashing in, quitting school and doing reality TV, which would just negate this entire rant. Fingers crossed.

THE NBA LIKES FUN

You know what gives the NBA a huge edge over MLB and the NFL, to an extent?

The NBA likes fun. They've embraced social media—especially YouTube.

Baseball is really boring to watch, but occasionally something fantastic happens. Whenever someone makes a great catch, hits a monster home run, charges the mound, the benches clear or something else like that, it makes for a great highlight. If someone puts in on YouTube? MLB gets it taken down in a matter of minutes. They want everyone to get highlights from sites they own and run, that way they control what's appropriate and what isn't. It's stupid.

The NFL is the same way.

The NBA though? They'll let pretty much anything live on YouTube. Even the Artest Melee is still there, for god's sake. The biggest black eye the league has suffered in a long time is available for you to watch on YouTube. That's one of the things I like best about the NBA.

That and they get talented people to make awesome commercials for them. Like this one—even though I hate the sight of Steve Nash in a Laker jersey.

OLD FRIENDS - EPISODES 2 AND 3

Remember how I was going to make sure and post way more stuff?

Well, I got a real job where I sit in front of the computer writing all day and it's kind of been hard to come home and sit in front of the computer all night, too.

But I still have a lot of stuff in the que, so maybe I'll get to that pretty soon.

Right now, I wanted to pass along episode 2 and 3 of OLD FRIENDS. We're getting more and more popular as the weeks roll on.

Episode 2 - Devices


Episode 3 - Casey

OLD FRIENDS

Dan Fletcher moved back to town last week. You guys remember Dan, right? We played in Cherem together, worked at the Daily Utah Chronicle, started 6 or 10 bands that never made it past a late night drive conversation and ran GCA for a few years.

He and his wife have been living in New York for the past 4 or so years, but decided they'd had enough and headed back west. Well, he did anyway. His new job out here started well before hers, so he came out first. She's out there finishing up work and driving all their stuff back with her mom.

Since that's the case, he needed a place to stay for a few weeks. Luckily, I have a couch that's big enough for someone to sleep on, because who doesn't love a good nap? I sure do. But anyway, his brother was putting his condo on the market, he didn't want to look for a place until Kristin got out here, and needed to be somewhat close to work. So that's where my couch and I come in.

We've been living together for about a week and a half now, and it's been pretty damn easy. We started joking around about how life would be our own little sitcom for the next little while, so we just went ahead and made that a reality.

Here's the first episode - THE BAND. Keep an eye out for episode two. It's done and ready to go, so it shouldn't be long.