Category Archives: Music

Cleveland, Listing It Up, Live Shows, Music, Punk, Top 12

My Top 12 Live Punk Rock Albums

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I just viewed a clip of an amazing video taken from a Bruce Springsteen live show recently where he brought punk rock legend Mike Ness on stage to play “Bad Luck”.  Have you seen it?

This was just another one of those random concert highlights made possible by a live show with a performer who had a good idea for the evening and the fans who were all in attendance that night now have ultimate bragging rights as they can say “I was there.”

I have always been a fan of live shows and will always be.  It’s one of those things in life that I enjoy doing and can not see myself quitting anytime soon.  The atmosphere alone with screaming fans and endless smiles makes the experience worth returning to.  I love being a part of the evening and telling friends what I saw the next day followed by a bold “I was there” bragging statement about something only the ticket holders that night got to see before anyone else.

I admit I do not attend as many shows as I used to but I still make an effort to hit a few local venues and festivals every year just to keep the momentum going.  If a band I am a fan of rolls through town I do what I can to make arrangements to get to the venue that night to see them.

When not driving downtown to see shows I like to occasionally listen to a live show from the comfort of my home.  It’s easy to say I would rather be in a packed club listening to live music as the experience is like none other, but sometimes just hanging out at home is good enough as well.

Having a decent collection of live albums I thought I would narrow things down a bit and ask myself:

What Are My Top 10 Live Punk Rock Albums?

Scratch that…

What Are My Top 12 Live Punk Rock Albums?

Twelve is much better of a number to work with where there is so many live CDs to choose from.

Sure I could have a top live shows list from all genres but that would take me forever. As a music lover there are a ton of recorded shows out there that I own or have listened to that have had a huge impact on me. I think it would be best to start with baby steps with the genre of music that means the most to me; punk rock.  I also decided to keep it to actual releases by record labels and include no bootlegs (although I have some amazing live shows that never were released…)

After pondering this question for a couple of days I soon realized how hard this was for me to answer.  I had a nice sized list of live shows in my head but found it was no easy task to narrow down.  For the record, this was a very difficult list to compile for me as a fan.  There are so many other bands that deserve to be on this list but these top twelve mean the most to me.

In no particular order I here are my top twelve live punk rock CDs:


Social Distortion – Live At The Roxy
Mike Ness and crew always put on a good live show and this CD is listening proof.  Having been a long time fan of this band it was clear that this CD needed to be on my list.  Mike Ness more than a punk rock legend, the guy, to me, is a god and will be playing his heart out on stages all over the world until he is 100 years old.  I will never grow tired of this CD ever.


NOFX – I Heard They Suck Live
Without a doubt this was one of the most entertaining live CDs I have ever heard.  I remember buying the cassette and playing it over and over memorizing even the talking in between songs.  NOFX puts on a fine show as well featuring all sorts of independent hits.  I find it humorous that I list this CD directly after Social D because this show was played at the Roxy as well to a crowd of rowdy fans.  If you have not heard it you are missing out, unless you are not a fan of NOFX.


The Clash –From Here To Eternity Live
Ok I am sure you are wondering why this album has a big line through it.  Truth is I loved this CD for years until I heard a recent live release…


The Clash –Live At Shea Stadium
Now before you all jump on me and remind me that this CD is just The Clash (minus the original drummer) playing more popular songs hear me out.  This show was not even a headlining show (they were opening for The Who) and the year was 1982; right about the time The Clash was headed on a downward spiral the would lead to the dismissal of the group.  The set was shorter than their other live CDs but to me it was a great listen start to finish.  I have listened to this CD a lot since it was released and it has made me reignite my love for one of the greatest punk bands of my time.


The Dead Kennedy’s – Live At The Deaf Club
Just thinking of how this shoe was recorded in 1983 still amazes me.  My first and only taste of a live performance by this band was when I heard the improv “Night Of The Living Rednecks” on Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death.  I was sucked in by Jello Biafra’s method of story telling on this track and of course a fan of The Dead Kennedy’s so it was more or less a bonus to me when a full length live CD was finally released.  It also kills me that I was 2 years old when this concert took place.  I’d love to hear from someone who was at this show just to hear their personal experience.


Ramones – Loco Live
Do I really need to explain myself here?  Over thirty quick punk rock classics on one CD from the band that started punk rock in the states.  I don’t think many folk can disagree that this CD belongs in anyone’s live punk CD list.  It’s not top quality but it sure is fun as hell.


Bad Religion – Tested
This CD was not added into my collection for quite some time mainly because the CD was not readily available locally to me.  Once I did get my hands on it though it became one of my favorite CDs to listen to by Bad Religion.  I loved how the band recorded this CD, by plugging directly into their mics which in turn eliminated a lot of the crowd making for a more solid listen.  With a solid setlist and exceptional performance by the punk rockers this is one of my favorite love CDs out there.


Flogging Molly – Alive Behind The Green Door
This Irish punk rock act is, without a doubt, one of the greatest bands to see live in my opinion.  One thing I love about this disc is that it was released before any of their studio albums and recorded at Molly Malones, the bar where this band got their start.  There are not a lot of bands out there that have followed this approach by releasing a CD full of songs that later would be studio recorded on to various releases over the years.  The performance is clearly under the influence but ever so much fun.


Misfits – Evilive
The recording of this live show is horrible yet I love it.  It is about the closest listen I have ever gotten to true live Misfits from back in the day.  I did once witness the Misfits when Michael Graves took over the singing duties but it was no Glen Danzig and spite the good time I had it was not a genuine Misfits experience.  This is a show I only dreamed of saying “I was there.”  Full of classic songs,  I also loved hearing Henry Rollins guest sing on “We Are 138.”


Death By Stereo – Death Alive
Many people may have not heard this CD when it first released as it was first given out for free with issues of the Volume 3 issue of Law of Inertia magazine in 2003.  In 2007 the live performance was reissued by the band as Law Of Inertia went out of print and many fans missed out on this incredible recording.  If you are a fan Death By Stereo or just good wholesome hardcore punk you really should check out this CD.  This benefit show is full of so much energy I am surprised no one was hurt in the recording of it.


Face To Face – Live: Face To Face
Trevor Keith and crew have always had a special place in my punk rock heart.  I love this band, always will, and this CD is listening proof of how great they are.  The songs are all raw and full of energy and just impress track after track.  When I think of a live album that I could listen to over and over again this is the one.


The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Live From The Middle East
Ska is not dead, never was, never will be.  Ska may not be very popular these days but if you are a fan of the genre I suspect will be making a comeback soon, I am sure you know who the Bosstones are and very well have heard this CD.  The performance contained in this CD makes it worthy of multiple listens.  Such a great CD from beginning to end.


Against Me! – Americans Abroad!!! Against Me!!! Live In London!!!
Singing and shouting and good times for all on this CD.  If you only have New Wave in your collection I think it would be best to put that down and go out and find this CD.  I find myself singing along as if I were actually at the show while listening to this CD.  That to me is a good live album.

Again, this list was so hard to compile.  I would make a list of a whole bunch of band’s live CDs and then start crossing them out once I thought of another.  I am sure I will be hearing from a lot of folk telling me I missed someone and at that time I will smack myself in the head and hate myself for 9 seconds because I forgot about a phenomenal show.  I am ok with that though because I know there are a lot of awesome shows out there. A lot of artists can be put in this list but after all, it is my top 12.

I’d love to hear what your top 12, 10, even 2 are!  As music fans we are entitled to what we like and sharing the love for music is a great thing.

Live Shows, Music, Music Video

Lollapalooza 2009

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I finally had a chance to check out the Lollapalooza 2009 line up and I am a little excited about it.  Ok, a lot excited…


Click HERE for the Lollapolooza 2009 line-up poster.

The poster is kinda large to be putting on my site so instead I will just copy / paste the list of bands that will be performing over the 3 day weekend:

Depeche Mode, Tool, The Killers, Jane’s Addiction, Beastie Boys, Kings of Leon, Lou Reed, Ben Harper and Relentless7, Thievery Corporation, Snoop Dogg, Rise Against, Andrew Bird, TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, The Decemberists, Neko Case, STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9), Animal Collective, Band of Horses, Of Montreal, Arctic Monkeys, Coheed and Cambria, Ben Folds, Fleet Foxes, Silversun Pickups, Kaiser Chiefs, Crystal Castles, Bon Iver, Santigold, Atmosphere, Dan Auerbach, Cold War Kids, Deerhunter, Lykke Li, Robert Earl Keen, Peter Bjorn and John, Heartless Bastards, Gomez, Glasvegas, Federico Aubele, Dan Deacon, Passion Pit, Zap Mama, The Raveonettes, The Gaslight Anthem, The Airborne Toxic Event, White Lies, Ra Ra Riot, No Age, Asher Roth, Los Campesinos!, Bat For Lashes, Chairlift, Gang Gang Dance, The Virgins, Amazing Baby, Portugal. The Man, The Knux, Ida Maria, Delta Spirit, Friendly Fires, Manchester Orchestra, Constantines, Ezra Furman & The Harpoons, Hockey, Miike Snow, Alberta Cross, Hey Champ, Sam Roberts Band, The Henry Clay People, Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam, Cage the Elephant, Living Things, The Low Anthem, Blind Pilot, Langhorne Slim, Other Lives, The Builders and The Butchers, Eric Church, Joe Pug, Kevin Devine, The Greencards, Carney, Thenewno2

See any bands in there you like?  I know I see a ton of bands I would love to see, even if I have already seen them previously in the year!  There is also a handful of other artists too listed to perform at another stage.

I’ve never been to Chicago so this may have to happen.  I am sure my pal Matt will want to join me as has mentioned it to me a couple of times.  Any of you other Cleveland bloggers thinking of invading Chicago too?

Tickets are $190 for the three day festival not including a place to stay.  I will be highly considering this since I have still heard nothing about this year’s Virgin Mobile Festival.

I would like to say that I was going to the Virgin Mobile Festival for the fouth time in a row but if they move it from the Pimlico Race Track that will really put a damper on if I want to go.  Part of the whole experience was being at that horse race track turned festival grounds…  I wrote a little post about it a few weeks back you can read if you are curious on why they might move the Virgin Festival to another location.

I guess we will see what happens!

Until then here are some Lollapalooza related videos I found…

This video is footage of a terrible crowd in Charlestown, VA in 1995 not giving a good welcome to original indie artist Pavement:

I really wanted to go to Lollapalooza in 2007 because of this band:

Jane’s Addiction in Enumclaw, WA in 1991 with Ice T (NSFW, a little strong language going on here…):

Good Reads, Music, Random

Pirates Press Celebrates 5 Years!!!

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I received an email this morning from my pals over at SolidPR I thought I would share with everyone. With Record Store Day being celebrated just this past weekend I felt this was a more than appropriate good read:


Pirates Press Announces Five-Year Anniversary!!!

The best stories are those that write themselves, when all the writer has to do is expressly write what they see (or in this case, see AND hear)… and all the reader has to do is envision their role.  The story of vinyl records and especially its burgeoning resurgence is this type of story, and the proud leading role PIRATES PRESS has been playing in it is one as well. Their family of salespeople, production coordinators, project managers, and graphic designers have experience from all over the manufacturing, sales, and distribution industries and care deeply about the experience people have working with them.

Putting their customers ideas to life is the essence of Pirates Press’ true goal… helping artists, record label owners, and other entrepreneurs do what the market and industry are demanding of them to survive; bring collect-ability back. Helping create tangible products that reflect an artist’s visions in such a way that creates a real demand to purchase it (rather than download it) is important in an increasingly downloadable world that too-often looses the tangible dimension that once [financially] drove the industry.

Vinyl collecting has for generations been the baseball card of the non-jock (and even the occasional jock), and remained present in certain scenes and genres (underground for the most part) regardless of the pressures from the industry to exclusively digitalize. It was always that tangible element of vinyl in combination with the nostalgic sound and feeling you get from playing records which resonated with collectors through vinyl’s darkest moments. Now, when the digital world that everyone assumed would replace it entirely has brought such strain to the industry, vinyl and other creatively packaged albums sales have made a tremendous resurgence, once again giving people something their passionate about going out (or [ironically] going online) and buying. Pirates press believes that the sky is the limit at this point for vinyl and other types of creatively packaged music and ideas, and we’ll continue doing everything in our power to bring our customers there in as powerful and prominent of a way as possible!

Pirates Press Statistics in the last three years:
– 680,000 records produced in 2006
– 1,100,000 records produced in 2007
– 1,750,000 records produced in 2008

High Profile Projects: Spiderman3, MyChemicalRomance, Beck’s “Odelay” Deluxe 4LP Package, AgainstMe!, The Dark Knight, Madonna’s “Hard Candy” & a slew of singles, Talib Kweli, Brian Posehn&Lewis Black&PattonOswalt, Pulling Teeth (Holographic Record Jacket), Murder By Death 16pp Foldout, Bob Marley Boxset, Isis Boxset, The Watchmen, All the WBR Singles, & Much More…

High Profile Customers: Warner Brothers Records, Reprise, Sire, Atlantic, Original Recordings Group, Relapse, Robotic Empire, HydraHead, Deathwish Inc., Troubleman Unlimited, Anticon Records, Temporary Residence, Suburban Home & Vinyl Collective, Southern Lord Records, Tank Crimes, Chunksaah Records, Fat Wreck Chords, Vagrant Records, Slumberland Records, &  Many More…

Pirates Press Unique products include: Gatefold Jackets, Tip-On (casewrapped) Jackets, Boxsets, 5th and 6th Color Printing, Foil Stamping, Embossing, Spot Gloss and other special finishes, Insertion of CDs/Digital Download Cards into the vinyl, BIG Posters, Slipmats, Stickers and other Merch, Unique Types of Colored Vinyl, Limited VERSIONS to create immediate collect-ability! Looking to the future, we’re also working to redevelop the technology to make flexidiscs, as well as new technology, a multiformat CD/DVD/Vinyl Disc, Shaped Records and Picture Discs as well as diecut shapes of vinyl pressed directly into the records. Lots in store in 2009 and beyond!

Props to Pirate Press for staying in the game for five years now!  As a vinyl collector myself I think it is great this company is doing better and better every year.  I can only blame them some for helping empty my wallet as more releases come out in the future, but I am ok with that.

Bad Times, Bragging Rights, Good Times, Music, Random

Record Store (To)Day

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Today was like Jesus Day (Christmas) for many music lovers out there.  I am sure many people had a hard time falling asleep last night as there were countless album titles floating through their heads, distracting them from falling asleep.  Cookies were left out at the front doors of music stores worldwide in hopes that it could be an edible bribe to let shoppers in the door early… (That last part may not be entirely true)

Why?

Today is RECORD STORE DAY!!!

I know my friend Matt was one of those people who may have been a bit excited this morning when it was time to pack up and hit the independent record stores all over Cleveland.  Just check out what he posted today.  It’s a post of a post and more importantly a great read about how music rotated around his life growing up.

Before I even continue with my post I need to give Matt a thank you. 

Thank you Matt.

He is my hero for today as he took the time to fight people for a couple of Record Store Day release vinyls that I really wanted.  If that is not a friend, then I do not know what is.

I look forward to the limited edition vinyls (all singles) he scored for me:

Cursive + Ladyfinger
Flaming Lips/Black Keys
Jenny Lewis
MC5
Radiohead – Karma Police

I really hope next year that I remember to take the day off so I can actually enjoy such a wonderful idea of a day.  It sure beats sitting at a desk looking outside at a beautiful day just wishing I could be at one of those fine indie record stores maybe seeing a live performance…

Did you partake in Record Store Day?  I want to hear about it!

Download This!, Folk, Indie, Music, Music Video, New Release, Rock

Download This! – Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers / Paleface

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I was sent an email from Thirty Tigers / Ramseur Records over the weekend about a couple of artists who both have albums dropping on 4/28.

If you have never heard of either of the record labels, know this…  Ramseur Records once were the former home of The Avett Brothers and Thirty Tigers were the ones who introduced Those Darlins to me.  You might have heard me talking about Those Darlins before (perhaps HERE, or HERE), it is quite possible…

First up is Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers:

She’s 22 and has a voice that reminds me of Bjork at times, minus the weird of course and full of southern soul.  She has a singing style I could listen to all day.  Having never heard anything by her before I am intrigued now to hear more.

Here is a short bio:

With their debut full-length, Songs in the Night, Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers deliver a shudderingly beautiful unique batch of songs in a style that’s been described as “meshing freak folk with a deep-seated, dust-bowl soul.” The 22-year-old Shawnee, OK native’s haunting voice, well-chosen words and emotional depth ring true in a way that sets her apart from most artists of her generation. Picking up where her critically acclaimed 2008 Ramseur Records EP, The Confiscation, leaves off, we find Crain presenting each song with an unfeigned fervor as her voice rises and falls over the panorama painted by the Midnight Shivers and their roots-infused, fertile arrangements.

-DOWNLOAD THIS! – Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers – “Songs In The Night”

-Check out Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers’ MySpace page for more tunes.

-Here’s a video of her that might just very well move you:


Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers: “The Dam Song” @ Ramseur Records HQ from Ramseur Records on Vimeo.

The next artist is Paleface:

It’s been over ten years since this anti-folk artist has released any material mostly thanks to a personal battle that Paleface finally overcame.  His previous material is folk fun goodness and after hearing just a handful of songs I am intrigued to hear his new album.

Here’s another short bio:

More than a decade since his last major label release and collapse from alcohol abuse, Paleface, a founding member of NYC’s Anti-folk movement, is back with The Show Is On The Road (Ramseur Records). The album is an intimate, 11-song diary that transcends genres with its ingenuous lyrics and deceptively unassuming style – just Paleface on acoustic guitar and harmonica and his girlfriend Monica “Mo” Samalot on drums and backing vocals, along with the occasional piano overdub. Paleface is the sort of artist who brings you into his world. His voice is sweetly ravaged and effortlessly expressive, as intimate as a friend whispering in your ear. The album is a farewell love letter to his longtime home, New York City, and an embrace of his new life in the South.

-DOWNLOAD THIS! – Paleface – “The Show Is On The Road”

-Check out Paleface’s MySpace page for more tunes.

-Here’s a fun little video of an older song I found:


PALEFACE – Little By Little

So what do you think?