Category Archives: Punk

Interview, Music, Music Video, Punk

Interview: Ray From Teenage Bottlerocket

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There is nothing like a good ol’ fun punk rock song that keeps me going. Sometimes I like a simple, to the point, quick song that’s perfect for singing along to.  I don’t need anything fancy or over produced all the time to keep me entertained and in fact it’s those short humorous tracks I find myself returning to over and over.

Teenage Bottlerocket (TBR) is one of those bands out there that keeps the fun and the punk flowing at a great level. Hailing from all the way up in Wyoming the foursome has started to make their name in the punk community with their Ramones infused power punk jams.  Recently signing to Fat Wreck Chords the band dropped their fourth release on the independent punk label.  I had a chance to talk with Ray one of the guitarist / vocalists of the band just before they headed out on tour in support of the release.

Shall we begin???

BHP – Thanks for taking a moment to chat. How are you doing today?

Ray – Doing ok, I drank to much last night and had to work for 12 hours today. Life rules though.

Ha ha, before I even continue can you just take a moment and introduce yourself to everyone?

I’m Ray and I sing and play guitar in TBR.

Does the band name Teenage Bottlerocket have anything to do with a certain Wes Anderson movie?

No it doesn’t, but after we came up with the name we watched the movie and really enjoyed it.  Fantastic Mr. Fox was cool too.

You boys are from the mean streets of Wisconsin right?

We are not from Wisconsin but don’t feel bad, we get that all the time. We are from Wyoming.

Oops, I knew that. So anyways how was it growing up in Wyoming?

It’s really cold there, the weather and the people.

How was the punk scene in Laramie, the city you grew up in? Is it any different from cities you have toured in?

It’s a lot different. We have a bit of a home town following but the venue situation is a little weird. We use our practice PA for the shows and it just doesn’t really pack the punch that a regular PA would at a venue in a big city. The kids go off though, and we always have fun playing in Laramie.

What else did you do for fun growing up other than music?

Brandon, TBR drummer and my twin brother, and I have older brothers that got us into skateboarding at a young age. We grew up skating and always looked up to Matt Hensley and other skaters on the H Street Team.

I kind of figured you skated back in the day after hearing a couple of your songs.  So who is the skateboarder in the “Skate or Die” video and where was that shot at?

The skater’s name is Otto Phlanz. He is from Denver, Colorado and skates for Conspiracy. The video was shot at the Laramie skate park.

Rumor has it that not only does the band consist of you and your twin brother but also 2 engineers. Is this true?

This is true. The 2 engineers are Brandon and I. We are in Bakersfield, California right now doing work on an oil well. Technically we are chemical engineers, because of the work we perform, but I graduated with my business degree and Brandon graduated with his Geology degree. We both went to the University of Wyoming. Miguel, our bass player, just graduated from UW with his business degree.

Dumb question, but what do you prefer more, working the oil wells or rocking out the clubs?

Playing music is my real passion. If we were all able to do nothing but play in the band, that would rule. Punk rock saved my life, but my job pays my bills.

I could not agree more. So how hard is it to split up the two career paths?

It’s difficult, but we’ve managed to do alright so far.

Teenage Bottlerocket material clearly shows love for classic punkers like The Ramones, Screeching Weasel, and even the Queers. Who are some of your other influences?

We listen to a lot of crust stuff. We really like Conflict as of lately. I wouldn’t say they are one of our influences but we’ve been listening to them a lot. We really like Cobra Skulls and Randy.

When I think of fun and punk rock in the same sentence I think of Teenage Bottlerocket. You guys are an energetic punk rock act with quick and to the point songs. Was this how Teenage Bottlerocket always was from the get go?

Well shucks dude, that’s cool. We just write tunes that we like and it seems to work.

Do people even use “get go” in sentences anymore?

Yes, they do.

How does it feel to be a part of the Fat Wreck Chords family?

It feels great. It’s exciting. We were always happy on Red Scare and it stokes us that Toby has been so cool with our decision to move to another label.

Who is your favorite band so far that you toured with?

Cobra Skulls.

Is there a certain band you wish you could tour with?

NOFX.

Wait, aren’t you going to tour with NOFX soon? How stoked are you?

We are really excited. We’ve been working on the set list and rehearsing as much as possible. We cant wait to play the Aggie in Ft. Collins. The whole tour is going to be a lot of fun.

“Bigger Than Kiss” was one of my favorite tracks off the new album as well as has a hilarious video for it. Any song that praises Slayer over Kiss is ok with me. Where did the song come from? Would you really “beat the piss out of Peter Criss”?

Kody has a friend named Charlie in Newcastle that said to him, “you know, Gene Simmons is pretty cool, but Paul Stanley is a total d-bag”. I’m not sure if that is exactly what went down, but it was something along those lines. Kody cracked up and got inspired to write the tune. It is my favorite lyrics Kody has ever written. I don’t think I would beat the piss out of Peter Criss, I heard he was in a wheelchair.

What seems to be the favorite foods throughout the band?

I like sushi, Brandon likes this pizza place in Ft. Collins called La Collina, Kody likes everything but seafood, and Miguel likes anything that is hotter than hell.

Best city you have played so far?

That’s a tough one. There’s a bunch: Chicago, Toronto, St. Louis, Orlando, San Diego, and Sheridan Wyoming.

How about the worst?

I’d have to say Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Why?

Probably because it was a Tuesday night and no one in the city of Las Cruces, with the exception of 20 people, knows who we are.

One of my best friend’s kid’s who is 6 adores you guys and listens to you every night before he goes to sleep. Care to say anything to him or give him some advice?

Tell him to play soccer.

I hope Brennan takes Ray’s advice…

Here are some TBR videos for you to all enjoy!

Teenage Bottlerocket will be touring soon. Don’t be a fool – check them out when they hit your town…
03/20/10 Austin, TX – SXSW Music Festival
04/21/10 Eugene, OR – McDonald Theatre
04/22/10 Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory
04/23/10 Billings, MT – Shrine Auditorium
04/25/10 Saskatoon, SK Canada – Odeon Events Center
04/26/10 Winnipeg, MB Canada – Burton Cummings Theater
04/27/10 Fargo, ND – The Venue
04/28/10 Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock Social Club
04/29/10 Milwaukee, WI – The Riverside Theater
04/30/10 Covington, KY – Madison Theater
05/01/10 Sauget, IL – Pop’s
05/02/10 Kansas City, MO – The Beaumont
05/04/10 Fort Collins, CO – The Aggie
05/05/10 Albuquerque, NM – The Sunshine Theater
05/06/10 Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
05/07/10 Las Vegas, NV – Sunset Station Amphitheatre

Cleveland, Music, Music Video, New Release, Punk

Alkaline Trio To Drop This Addiction On Feb.23rd

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Hey Alkaline Trio (AK3) fans!  In just one week This Addiction will drop on store shelves for you all to love and cherish.  This will be the bands first release on their very own independent label properly called Heart & Skull with a little help from Epitaph Records.

This will be the band’s seventh studio release and will be available in a regular format as well as a limited deluxe CD/DVD edition and even will drop on LP.  AK3 is currently on tour in support of the release and will be hitting House Of Blues Cleveland on March 4th with very special guests Cursive.

Look for a review by yours truly in the next couple days or so.  I can tell you it is pretty awesome.  Until then check out the band’s title track music video that just was released on the internet (and is very Braveheart inspired):

Cincinnati, Garage, Indie, Motown, Music, Music News, Music Video, New Release, Punk, Rock

Foxy Shazam To Take Over The World (or something like that)

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Genre slamming rock spazz stars Foxy Shazam are getting ready to riot out of Cincinnati, OH and take it to the streets.  The shock rock act will be dropping their major label debut entitled Unstoppable on April 13th thanks to Sire Records.  The band takes inspiration from legendary musicians Elton John, Marvin Gaye, Bruce Springsteen (the Born To Run years) and adds their punk attitude and ruthless energy making for one hell of a sound.

Love them or hate them, this band will be heard one way or another.  Just check out the video below.

Foxy Shazam headlining tour dates (sadly no Cleveland show…) are as follows:

3/15 – Exit/In – Nashville, TN
3/17 – Las Palmas Racetrack – Las Palmas, TX
3/18 – House of Blues – Houston, TX
3/19 – SXSW – Austin, TX
3/20 – SXSW – Austin, TX
3/21 – White Rabbit – San Antonio, TX
3/22 – Higher Ground – Metarie, LA
3/23 – Juanitas – Little Rock, AR
3/24 – Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
3/26 – Orpheum – St. Petersburg, FL
3/27 – Jack Rabbits – Jacksonville, FL
3/28 – Canal Club Downstairs – Richmond, VA
3/29 – Studio @ Webster Hall – New York, NY
3/30 – Great Scotts – Boston, MA
3/31 – Knitting Factory – Brooklyn, NY
4/01 – Webster Underground – Hartford, CT
4/03 – Petit Camps – Montreal, QC
4/05 – Sneeky Dees – Toronto, ON
4/06 – Mohawk Place – Buffalo, NY
4/07 – The Basement – Columbus, OH
4/08 – Eagle Theater – Detroit, MI
4/09 – Mad Hatter – Cincinnati, OH
4/10 – Beat Kitchen – Chicago, IL
4/11 – The Vault – Minneapolis, MN
4/13 – Marquis Theater – Denver. CO
4/15 – El Corazon Lounge – Seattle, WA
4/16 – The Venue – Vancouver, BC
4/17 – Satyricon – Portland, OR
4/18 – Bottom of the Hill – San Francisco, CA
4/19 – Boardwalk – Sacramento, CA
4/21 – Troubadour – Los Angeles, CA
4/23 – Martini Ranch – Phoenix, AZ
4/24 – Launch Pad – Albuquerque, NM
4/26 – Jackpot – Lawrence, KS
4/27 – Off Broadway – St. Louis, MO

Akron, Electronic, Experimental, Good Times, Live Shows, Music, Music Video, Photography, Pop, Punk, Review

Polysics @ Musica – Akron, OH – 02/12/2010 – Concert Review

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Culture was shocked in Akron last night thanks to Tokyo, Japan’s Polysics making a special appearance at Musica.  The orange jumpsuit wearing foursome traveled half way around the world to perform their Devo inspired music to a packed club on what normally would have been just another regular Friday evening.  Scenesters as well as a couple punk rockers and plenty of proud geeks piled into the quaint club in downtown Akron with perfect knowledge of what would soon progress.

Polysics is best defined as a pop power punk electronica experimental new wave outfit or “technicolor pogo punk” as they dub themselves.  Think heavy synthesizers and guitar matched over insane voice altering vocals as well as a very energetic male lead vocalist Hiroyuki Hayashi (Hiro – and yes, he sounds like Hiro from the TV show Heros) who blasts out English, Japanese, and gibberish lyrics.  Formed in 1997 out of the pure love for Devo as well as The Tubes the band is an underground sensation thanks to their extremely energetic live shows and of course their orange jumpsuits and straight bar-style sunglasses.

Opening the evening was a band called Stiletto hailing from Kent, OH.  The band reminded me of Bedlight For Blue Eyes and Roses Are Red with their slight heavy rock sound.  The lead singer had a good voice and when the band had it together they sounded fine.  They sadly kept having issues starting their songs and it became apparent that they needed some more practice as it became downright annoying to some of the crowd.  Still, they did well and get props from me when the lead signer quoted Tupac but really did not match up to the headliner at all.

Armed with my trusty camera I really thought upon entering Musica that I was going to grab some photos during Polysics’ set but while inside the venue I saw this:

That really was something I did not want to see.  I respected the artist though and did not shoot anything until the very end of the show because who am I kidding…I need at least one shot.

Good thing I did not take photos as there was a dual braided memory card deleting bandit who was part of the Polysics crew.  I understand the premise of his doings but you should have seen this guy.  He stood upon a stool and the moment a flash went off he was bolting over to that non-sign reading schmo and erasing any Polysics related photo from their camera.  Seeing what this guy was all about I really did not want him touching my gear so I parked the camera to my side and just enjoyed the show.

Hands were about the entire evening. It was a party.
Hands were about the entire evening. It was a party.

You know a crowd is excited to see a band when they cheer insanely as the band is setting up their gear on stage.  Things just got better when the band actually took the stage and just started hammering out songs.  The songs they played ranged from almost industrial heavy pieces to absolute insanity jump-all-over-the-place songs.

Still a novice to this band I just started with amazement throughout their set not having any idea what was going on other than a damn good time. The couple songs I did recognized were “Young OH! OH!”, “Fire Bison”, and just amazing “Shout Aloud!”

As entertaining as Hiro was throughout the night (especially when he screamed “you gruys awre awresoooooome!!!”) I absolutely adored the straight faced Kayo on the synthesizer and vocoder.  I could not help but envision the scene in Revenge Of The Nerds II when the nerds played the concert at Hotel Coral Essex.

According the band’s MySpace page Kayo will be parting ways with the band after the tour so I am pretty psyched I was able to the original line-up.  The whole night was a party with Polysics controlling it.  Fans danced and tossed their hands about to the music.  It was indeed a interesting and fun evening.  If I had to describe the evening I would have to say just imagine Daft Punk, Devo, and the Teen Titans humanized and in orange jumpsuits and you might have some idea what happened.  It was amazing.


Polysics – Young OH! OH!

POLYSICS | MySpace Music Videos


Pretty Good

POLYSICS | MySpace Music Videos


Polysics – Moog Is Love

POLYSICS | MySpace Music Videos

I had to throw this in too…

90's, Alt Rock, Columbus, Festival, Live Shows, Metal, Music, Music News, Punk, Road Trip, Rock

Where Does Rock Live? Columbus Apparently…

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Ok so that is not entirely true.  Rock lives everywhere.  Rock is where the heart is?  Ok, I will stop.

Now you can buy rock in Columbus, not that I know that personally or anything, but you can also rock out hardcore for a weekend thanks to Rock On The Range returning to the Columbus Crew Stadium on May 22nd and 23rd.  This will be the festival’s fourth run in the center city of Ohio and the lineup caught my attention more so this year than any other year before.

When I see that Coheed & Cambria, The Deftones, Helmet, Rise Against, Mastodon, and Killswitch Engage are all playing over one weekend I immediately want to go.

Other bands appearing at the festival are Godsmack, Rob Zombie, Three Days Grace, Limp Bizkit, Seether, Slash, Papa Roach, Five Finger Death Punch, Bullet For My Valentine, Theory of a Deadman, Puddle of Mudd, Sevendust, Drowning Pool, Skillet, Apocalyptica, Halestorm, Airbourne, Mushroomhead, Adelitas Way, Escape the Fate, Cold, Anberlin, Nonpoint, 2Cents, Violent Soho, Janus, Shaman’s Harvest, Year Long Disaster, Taddy Porter, Like A Storm, and Noise Auction

I can tolerate some of the acts but others I just can not stand and I fear if I go I am going to be punished…

Couple other personal comments in regards to the line up:

  • Who the hell are half of these bands?
  • Cold is still together?  So is Puddle Of Mudd?
  • Five Finger Death punch is still the stupidest band name I have ever heard next to The Prisoners.
  • Matt from Addicted To Vinyl (also a ROTR veteran) pointed out there is a possibility that Mushroomhead may play a bigger stage than Helmet.  If that is true I will be a sad panda.
  • Why no Jimmie’s Chicken Shack?  While I am at it, why no Monster Voodoo Machine and are they still a band?
  • Is it worth the $120 for the field general admission tickets???
  • Furthermore is anyone else planning on going?

I’ll be thinking about this heavily over the next few weeks.  I would hate to miss the opportunity of seeing a couple of my favorite bands but I do not know if I have it in me to sit though the whole weekend.  We shall see.

If you are interested in the festival head over to Rock On The Range’s website for ticket information as well as other info in regards to the weekend rock-out.