Don't Call It A Comeback

Okay, fuck. Seriously now. It's long overdue, I've started several overambitious posts in the last few months and got sidelined. So let's just dust this thing off with a catch up post and that'll get me back in the game.

Once again, writing from a cheap hotel room. This time just outside Salem MA, and not on tour. We're recording the second BL LP, Rotten Thing To Say, with Kurt Ballou at God City. We just finished Day 5 and it's looking really good. I realized I was a sucker for not having a Karla Homolka song, I've been meaning to do that for 10 years (actually I updated all the songs on the BL BLOG including the new ones). Kurt's doing a serious number on the LP. I've also been able to catch up with old friends this week. Everyone here has chihuahuas and you get to drive past the woods that still have dead witch bodies in them twice daily. We stayed with Nate and Liz for days (thank you guys) and I got to spend some time with Jake at Deathwish to brainstorm layout and other plans for the reissue of Cursed One that they're going to be doing this winter. While we were there catching up, we did a podcast interview that ended up getting pretty heavy and it hits on just about everything, and answers most questions I get asked about Cursed or anything else. Thanks for that, Jake. GO HERE or the image below to hear it, and keep up with DWI about the reissue over the winter.

High Anxiety News

The City Limits comp, that felt like a milestone, the best kind of thing I had hoped to do with the label. And true to form, half the bands (out of 23) are already defunct. This winter there's a few good things on the table. As we speak, the DNF Hurt EP is in the oven and will come out during winter (DNF is a California band with members of Trash Talk and Touche Amore that sound like a more grindcore version of Ringworm circa The Promise but sludgier). Following that, the Purity Control 7" is still on the table, and likely a Burning Love single ahead of the LP, will also be made flesh.

---

Speaking of shit that I meant to do ten years ago; thanks to Photoshop, a moral void, many hours of studio downtime, and what they will probably later find out was Tourettes - here they are at last...

TERRORLOLZ!

...10 years too late or still too soon?

...What else happened this year? Motorcycles continue to be awesome. We moved, have a backyard for maximum chill time, already put a hammock in it. In the move, I realized (again) that thousands of books and LPs are fucking heavy, I realized that you don't have to admit you're a hoarder if you have good shelving solutions and a right to left OCD organizing system. We have a rad place that I should post some pictures of, our cat is still the most handsome, Morrissey broke my heart (long story), I got with a boxing gym again, I bought a BBQ and blew it up after 3 weeks (vegans just shouldn't)...what else? Oh yeah...

...GOT SOME RECORDS!

...After looking for the same 12 records literally all over the world, I stepped it up this year and got aggressive with my wants list. And I pretty much murdered, dominated, abused and demoralized the list. There's always some records I'm after but honestly, this was most of the big wants in all departments. Between trading (thanks friends) and buying at record shows, record stores on tour and good ole Hits & Misses back home, here's some shit I copped to fill up the space I made getting rid of old shit when we moved. The ones in red are (were) my most hallowed boner jams:

Bastard - Wind of Pain LP (boot)

Death In June - The World That Summer 2XLP

Scientist - Encounters The Space Invaders

Angels of Light - We Are Him 2XLP

Witch - Lazy Bones 180gr (Shadoks)

Jerusalem - S/T (1972) 180gr (Light In the Attic)

Creatures (Siouxsie) - Take Mine/Sad Cunt EP

Lucifer's Friend - S/T (Quadrophonic / Billingsgate)

Allen Toussaint - Toussaint (Scepter)

Satyricon - Now, Diabolical (gold/gatefold /500)

Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today (Rise Above) Gatefold 180gr

Colette Kelly - Long & Lonely World (Volt)

Babeez - Dowanna Love EP

Flower Travellin' Band - Satori 180gr LP

Pink Fairies - Never Never Land (Polydor) LP

Howard Tate - Get It While You Can (Verve) LP

Blind Willie McTell - Last Session (Prestige) LP

MF Doom - Born Like This 2XLP

Ghostface Killah - More Fish 2XLP

Death Side - Bet On The Possibility LP (Selfish)

Saints - Eternally Yours LP

Paul Bowles - Baptism of Solitude (CD)

John Fahey - Red Cross (Revenant /1000) LP

Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden (1980) LP

Marion Black - Who Knows b/w Go on Fool (Capsoul 45)

Pussy - Pussy Plays (1969) 180gr

Scientist - Introducing/Best Dub Album In The World (1980)

George Crumb - Black Angels (CRI) LP

Deep Purple - Machine Head

The Jam - In The City

Archie Bell & the Drells - Tighten Up

Godspeed You Black Emperor - 1st LP (@ reunion show)

Electric Wizard - Dopethrone 180gr (@ Amoeba LA)

Necrophobic (SWE) - The Nocturnal Silence (Hammerheart USA)

Skip James - Today! (180gr reissue) Thanks Willem!

Judgement - Just Be

Viletones - Screaming Fist 12"

Jay Reatard - Singles 06-07

Harvey Milk - Life...the Best Game In Town

Jackie Wilson - The JW Story 2XLP

Iron Maiden - Killers

Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast

Grant Green - Iron City (sealed)

Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder (Blue Note)

JAMC - Psycho Candy

Sandy Bull - Fantasias

Swans - Public Castration 2XLP

Swans - Feel Good Now 2XLP

Master - S/T LP (1990 version)

Death - Spiritual, Mental, Physical LP

Jesus & Mary Chain - Peel Sessions LP

Lenny Bruce - The Sick Humor Of Lenny Bruce LP

Cocksparrer - Here We Stand

Alice Cooper - Easy Action

Suicide - S/T LP

Yarbirds - Best of the Yardbirds LP

The Innocents w. Kathy Young LP

Boris Karloff - Horror Stories VI & VII LP

Johnny Cash - Here's Johnny Cash

Zero Boys - Vicious Circle

Teenage Head - S/T LP (orig. press)

Teenage Head - Picture My Face / Tearin' Me Apart 7"

Obits - Moody, Standard & Poor LP

Antidote - 7" reissue

Velvet Underground - s/t (3rd LP) MGM

Pentagram - First Daze Here Too (Relapse Reissue) 2XLP

Cock Sparrer - Shock Troops 180gr reissue

Louise Huebner - Seduction Through Witchcraft (1970) 180GR

Kathy Young - Magic Is The Night (Indigo / Picture Sleeve)

The Innocents - Innocently Yours (Indigo 1961)

PRF - 7

John Holt - Ali Baba (Treasure Isle)

The Boys - First Time EP (Nems)

Blind Willie McTell - Atlanta 12 String

Hot Snakes - Automatic Midnight

Hot Snakes - Suicide Invoice

Warpig - Warpig (1970) Kreation Reissue

MORE PLEASE.

...that's it for now. I'll try to keep this more consistent. Promise.

See you soon.

Imants Krumins: End of An Era

I came home from tour a few days ago to the sad news that a friend who'd been battling brain cancer (yeah, I know - a different friend) for the last while passed away. Yesterday was his service, and he sat there as unimposing and unassuming as ever while many of his friends from generations of the punk world, his world and ours, filled up a room and reconnected with each other over it. It was very fitting.

Imants was just shy of 60 years old, and I can't even begin to explain how down to earth he was for someone who had seen everything, and I mean everything. He'd been into punk since before it had a name, but in a scene characterized by hierarchal bickering by anyone who's put in more than 2 years, he was the complete opposite, still just too enthralled by this thing he loved to pay any attention to the bullshit, much less partake in it. And in a culture full of flashy eccentrics, he was a testament to just being yourself. I had to smile seeing all the old photographs from his adolescence on, to see that he looked like the exact same pleasant, bespectacled Imants that I knew him as for the last 15 years or so.

A mild mannered banker by day, he spent all his energy, money and vacation days travelling extensively to seek out obscure scenes and records worldwide, perpetually adding to what must be one of the top most complete punk record collections anywhere (hopefully it gets turned into some kind of archive). A friend and I had a short-lived record store in Hamilton in the mid-90s and he was one of few regulars who kept it afloat. He would show up standing happily at the back of some of the most unattended shows, having come in by car or bus from out of town. You sure as hell can't say any of the above for many, if any other, 59 year olds. And on top of all this, he was as much of a fixture in the indy wrestling and roller derby stands as well. I saw him at a game just a few months ago, well after all the surgery and treatment had begun and taken a lot out of him. Just smiling, doing his thing.

One of my first memories of Imants was of him having had one or two pints too many, at a Demolition Doll Rods show in the back of a restaurant in Hamilton in the mid-90's, drunkenly heckling and yelling out "Endless Blockades For The Pussyfooters!" at this poor, confused garage band. I wouldn't even know what that meant for another few years and by the time I did, it would make even less sense in that context, but who cares? You know, you just hope that there are people half this interesting somewhere around you, inconspicuous, people that you'd never suspect. And Imants was proof of that. So thank you, and condolences to his family and friends far and wide.

There are a few really nice things written about him...

- Fucked Up Blog

- Last Pogo Site

...I can't say it any better than Simon Harvey did here, so I'll leave you with this:

Imants Krumins has passed on after a lengthy battle with cancer. He’d spent the last while in palliative care, surrounded by friends and people who cared about him. Out of respect for Imants’ wishes, this had been kept discreet– he didn’t want a lot of fuss and drama, and I have it on good authority that he wanted to talk chiefly about music and records until the end.

I literally know of not one person with the amount of knowledge, passion and ongoing enthusiasm for punk rock, show-going and record collecting as Imants, and the stories are endless and true. He drove the Ramones on their first dates outside NY/Boston in 1976, he traveled to the UK to catch the 1977 punk explosion as it happened. He had incredible stories – seeing the Ramones over a hundred times, the record release show for the first SLF record, Bad Brains circ ROIR, Discharge and Rudimentary Peni in the UK super early– yet rather than get jaded or mellowing out, he was only ever seeking out harsher and more underground sounds, and his frequent buying trips to Europe and especially Japan are well known. No matter what was happening, Imants was there early and his tastes were spot-on – I was impressed when I picked up the Touch & Go book last year to find a letter from Imants looking to trade live tapes of the the then-new hardcore bands circa ’81, but then shortly after found letters from him in Bomp mag ten years earlier than that, taking Greg Shaw to task for some erroneous info regarding the Kinks. A true lifer.

More importantly, Imants was a truly friendly, generous and genuine man, inspiring to those around him and always up for a pint and a chat. He’s left behind countless good memories and he will be missed a great deal.

Imants Krumins...

...Limited Edition, 1 of 1.

On Gold.

Deep Breath

It is late October. I'm in the foyer of a fake-nice DC motel. Most of the last 5 months has been spent in clubs, vans, gas stations and obliging floors - on tour, like we are right now (between Halifax Pop and the east coast of Canada and the Fest in Gainesville). Tomorrow is a rare day off so we came to DC early to go to the Smithsonian before the show tomorrow.

For all the ups and downs of playing in a band, I've been really lucky to see, stay and catch up a lot of old friends this year, the survivors of my generation who get fewer and farther between as years go by and always pop up just when I need it to see them the most. And at the same time I've been able to see new places and to meet new people keeping their scenes real and alive in spite of the vacuous culture and times around them. There are so many stoked young people keeping it all going: playing in bands, running DIY spaces, collectives, doing zines, record and tape labels, creating dialogue and living their words. These ones also pop up just when I need the confirmation the most.

Hey, you like scary stories?

It's been hectic, but in what little time I've been off the road in the last few months, and not been at work, I have done the following: Got some great camping in with my favorite person...

(not me, the girl)

...What else? I got back into bikes without motors that do all the work, and finally got a tattoo my mom likes (aside from the "MOM" that I always tell her really says "WOW")...

... a long-planned Leonard Cohen portrait, and a stick & poke one at that, from my friend Alex Snelgrove, the best in the sticking/poking biz:

...Alex is a full time sweetheart and an amazing illustrator who's done work for a lot of bands, including a brand new Burning Love shirt design we were lucky enough to get out of her:

Please check her work out (HERE), she is a gun for hire.

New Mind

It's dangerous getting to meet people you respect and feel like you know based on the intimacy of their art or music. Often it's better not to know. Few people hold this much gravity for me at this point as does Michael Gira. I had never thought I'd have the chance to see the SWANS, and when word came down the line months ago about a Toronto stop in the handful of reunion shows, and through the people I work for, I put in early word to be on it.

I wouldn't have been that surprised if Gira had been a temperamental, misanthropic artist-type, was braced for it, but this was the furthest thing from the case. Still pissed, still uncompromising, still doing his thing exactly his way, and very personal with and appreciative of the people who support his art and music. Aside from the devastating show, which hasn't lost any of the legendary volume or intensity, getting to meet and talk to him and his band mates, was the music highlight of my year for sure. The show was appropriately tense and intense, but so genuine and so overwhelming. They pushed the hell out of the sound system at Lee's, the best room in the city for it. Someone passed out from it 5 minutes in. And I got paid to be there stageside. I nerded out, got records signed, stole set lists, the whole deal.

Something that really stuck with me in talking to him, aside from that he hates my favorite Swans LP (The Burning World), was this: I didn't know their new round of touring and recording was going to be ongoing, and I was telling him I was glad to know that there would be more of it coming. And with complete straightforward transparency, he goes "You know? I think it's really just what I want to do, what I was meant to do with myself", as if he were just figuring this out, as if he hadn't just done it every day for 30+ years, as if this was all fresh and new to him and was really planning on digging his heels in. Now that, friends, is my kind of guy.

RECORDS

It's been a heavy duty year for me and records. I nerded the fuck out and came home from tour with a boatload of records, stockpiling for the impending winter months. What are some notable scores, you ask? From the Coliseum/BL tour I came home with this...

Part I (East Coast):

Coliseum - House With A Curse LP

X- Aspirations (2001 Reissue)
Fight Amp - Hungry For Nothing
Fight Amp - Manners and Praise
Anti Cimex - The Records 81-86
Discharge - Why
Wipers - Outtakes
Mono - You Are There 2XLP
Siege - Deep Six 12" Reissue
Heptones - Sweet Talking 2XLP
Redd Foxx - Laff of the Party
Ingrid Bergman - Reads Jean Cocteau's The Human Voice
The Animals - Abcko Best Of
The Animals - Lovers
Miracles - 2XLP Best Of
Systematic Death - Systema Six
FUs - Kill For Christ / My America
Wipers - Follow Blind LP (1987)
Jawbreaker - Dear You
Boss Hog - S/T
Dove - LP (screened cover)
Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters - Cry Baby
Charlie Rich - 2XLP
Fleetwood Mac - Black Magic Woman 2XLP
Leatherface - Stormy Petrel
Roy Orbison - Orbisongs & In Dreams LPs
Penderecki - The Entombment of Christ
Penderecki - Passion & Death of our Lord According to St. Luke
Alan Hovahness - Poseidon Society
(7"/45) Black Tusk & Fight Amp split
Holy Mountain & Black Tusk split
Holy Mountain & Cobra Noir split
Andy Kim - Howd We Ever Get This Way
Jay & The Americans - Come a Little Bit Closer
Judgement - Just Be
Dark Lingo - Little Black Glasses

Part II (West Coast):

Human Skab - Thunder Hips & Saddle Bags (Family Vineyard)
Sonny Sharrock - Black Woman
Don Covay - Mercy! (Atlantic)
Steve Reich - Early Works (w. "Come Out" 1966)
Scientist - At the Controls: Rare Dubs 1979-1980
Burning Ambitions: History of Punk 2XLP (Cherrry Red)
Spyder Turner - Stand By Me
Mitch Ryder & Detroit Wheels - Breakout!
Kenny Burrell - Guitar Forms (Verve)
Gene Krupa - Verve's Choice!
Kingsmen - In Person
Doc Watson - Southbound
Ofege - Try And Love (Reissue)
Bonnie Prince Billy - I See A Darkness
Redd Foxx - At His Best
Merle Haggard & the Strangers - Swinging Doors
Little Anthony & The Imperials - Best Of
Brimstone Howl - We Came In Peace
Unbroken - "Reissue..." Box Set (/500)
All In The Family - 2nd Album
Frijid Pink - S/T (Parrot)
Toad/Drone Throne LP
Richard Pryor - LA County Jail & ST LP
Enabler - Eden Sank To Grief
Morrissey - Years of Refusal
Antonio Carlos Jobim - Love Strings & Jobim
Over The Edge - Original Soundtrack
The Shining - Original Soundtrack
CH3 - After The Lights Go Out (Posh Boy)
Clara Rockmore - Theremin (Mississippi)
Roy Orbison - Fastest Guitar Alive OST
Rotary Connection - S/T
Ray Charles - What'd I Say
Ventures - On Stage (w.Japan '67)
Carl Orff - Carmina Burana: Canteones Profanae
Dusty Springfield - I Only Want To Be With You
Dusty Springfield - Just Dusty
John Lee Hooker - Original Folk Blues (Kent)
Garnet Mimms - Sensational New Star
Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66 - S/T (mono)
The Toys - A Lover's Concerto
Reigning Sound - Too Much Guitar ($8 new @ Mind Cure)
Garland Jefreys - American Boy & Girl
Joe Tex - I've Got To Do A Little Bit Better (Dial)
Gene McDaniels - 100lbs Of Clay (Liberty)
Carlos Montoya - Spanish Gypsy Airs
(7"/45) Easy Action - She Aint My Girlfriend
Government Issue - S/T Reissue
Kim Phuc - Weird Skies/Suicide Circle

And speaking of records, the City Limits compilation that I've been trying to get together for a New Years Eve release show, is on schedule and looking awesome. Track List looks like this:

Side A - Toronto:

Career Suicide - Untitled 1:44
Bad Choice - Angry Americans 1:19
Purity Control - Comp Song 1:02
Snakepit - Justice 1:26
Mature Situations - Yoga Predator 1:09
Mad Men - ODIA - Tiratura Limitata 3:03
School Jerks - N/A :45
Brutal Knights - Bad Choice 1:28
Molested Youth 1:17
Urban Blight - False Truths 1:32
Total Trash - Violence 1:04
Burning Love - Mess 1:16

Side B - Montreal:

Slobs - Outlier 1:10
Foreign Bodies - Downtown Fun 1:46
Inepsy - Fast Way To Die 4:00
Castevets - Good Riddance 1:56
Vile Intent - Jumper 1:55
Naughty Girls - Left In The Dark 1:30
Dead WIfe - Choke 1:16
Brazen Hell - Corrosion 0:52
Bogus Cause - Blame Yourself 1:42
Unruled - Iraq Attack 2:48
Omegas - Social Slasher 1:13

BOOKS

I've gotten a lot of good reading done this year due to all the driving time. Book stores and scores were pretty neck and neck with records on the road. And just like record stores, I was crushed to find some favorites gone extinct in favor of big chain stores, but I found some great ones I'd never been to along the way. The best of the bunch is a neck and neck tie between Recycled Books in Denton, Texas and John Doull Books in Halifax NS, where I scored Paul Bowles' translation of Mrabet's The Boy Who Set The Fire for $8 a few days ago.

I didn't pace myself right, hungrily devoured and ran out all the Kapuscinski I hadn't read and was bummed when there was none left, but found a momentary placebo in Philip Gourevitch's account of the Rwandan genocide of the 90's, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families. I gave up on Chuck Palahniuk after Snuff and Pygmy both sucked it. Sorry but it's not gonna top Survivor from here on out. Bought David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest but am still a bit scared of it to start it just yet. And I got hooked on the whale that may well take me through the end of my book reading days, or until my eyes give out: William T. Vollman.

Some things on the current pile:

Buckminster Fuller - Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth

William T Vollman - The Atlas, Whores For Gloria,

Riding Toward Everywhere, Poor People

Peter Guralnick: Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm & Blues and

the Southern Dream of Freedom

Bulgakov - The Master & Margarita

Joyce Carol Oates - Where Are You Going...

... And Where Have You Been?

2010 Highlights & Favorites...

Tijuana (another day's story, goddamn)

Next Level Vegan Junk Food

(at Voodoo Donut in Portland & Vegan Treats in PA)

Best City For Records: Pittsburgh (Mind Cure, Jerry's, Attic)

Best Record of This Year: Nails - Unsilent Death

Best Record of Next Year - Kim Phuc LP

Best Shows: SWANS levelling Lees Palace Toronto and

DROPDEAD killing it in Providence.

Favorite BL Show: Vancouver & Montreal (RIP 'Cove)

Favorite Punk House: 538 Johnston, Brooklyn:

(...MVP: Chris Berntsen)

...2010 Lows

This one is no contest, but it turns posi towards the end, I promise. I kept looking on here over the last few months and seeing the last thing I wrote was about Will Munro, and just leaving it alone. That could easily be the last word on 2010, I know I speak for a lot of people in saying I'm nowhere near over it. If anything, after seeing so much happen to Toronto in the months since his death, from all the Orwellian G20 bullshit to Rob Ford being elected the new mayor today, I'm more acutely aware of the struggle between antagonists like Will (bent on breaking down social, class and cultural barriers) and the persistent reality of bigots with power and money behind them preying on exactly the xenophobic insecurities that maintain the social order that most of us accept as Reality. You don't need anyone's permission to pick up the torch, or a good old fashioned rock. Be cynical (please), but not apathetic. American Apparel ads are not real life. Be doing something, be creating things. Fuck comfort zones. Keep talking and keeping each other and yourself challenged so the work of people like Will and so many others is for something. Be provoked. There's no shortage of reasons.

----

So yeah. That's what I'm saying about the last 6 months. I've been sitting here for almost 6 hours and friend, I am going the fuck to bed while there is one that isn't a floor or car seat for a night. You take care out there. Maybe see you somewhere on the road or around the 'hood.

Oh, and PS: If The South does Rise Again, as it's always threatening to, and manages to get as far north as Canada, can it bring me some more of these amazing snacks?

Goddamn I love soul food and boiled peanuts.

----------

BONUS ROUND: Jerk Tofu with Almonds and Cashews

I've had a bunch of people tell me they tried out that last recipe, so here's another good one. I meant to post this in the summer when I made it, but here it is. You know goddamned well that I don't measure anything. But the long and short of it is:

- Get yourself some: tofu, vegan jerk sauce, almonds and cashews (or other nuts), fresh thyme and ginger, orange juice, tomato paste, nutritional yeast and Braggs.

- Mix the jerk sauce (Magic Bullet, holla!) with OJ, tomato paste and some shredded ginger.

- Frying Pan #1: Throw the nuts in one with olive oil, sea salt, thyme and sweetener (I used agave) and some of the jerk sauce so they're sweet and savory, with a bit of kick.

- Frying Pan #2: In the other, cube the tofu (or however you dig cutting it) and fry it in some olive oil, add the jerk sauce and grate some more ginger into it, add the nutritional yeast and a bit of Braggs.

- when both are done, add the nuts to the tofu. Should look something like this:

The nuts are wicked good on their own too:

-FIN-

Will Munro 1975-2010

Where to even start? This weekend saw the passing of a beloved friend and irreplaceable Toronto personality Will Munro, after a 2 year fight with brain cancer. All my heart goes out to his brother Dave and their family, Will's partner Peter and all his friends. It's so hard not to think angrily of all the useless people I know that give nothing back to their world, and hold it up against this - the cruelty of someone so visionary and so giving being taken in their prime. A born fighter, even through his diagnosis and chemotherapy, Will hardly let it slow down his art or his work.

He is mourned heavily in Toronto punk, art and queer circles, and more specifically - the spaces in between the three. This uncharted autonomous zone is where Will set up shop and he filled in those gaps with the monumental realities that he wished to see there - people carving out space in their city to define by themselves. Amongst his huge body of artistic work and all his other ventures, Will started up a monthly party called Vazaleen, spanning most of the last decade. He threw some debaucherous nights that people are still getting over (involving international music and performance art notables like Limp Wrist, Wayne County, the Toilet Boys, Genesis P Orridge (Throbbing Gristle), Cherie Currie and so many more). As was Will's plan, everybody felt a part of it, got lost in it and let it all hang out a little more than they planned to.

We worked together at a College Street bar where I served and Will cooked. We once put a juggalo CD we hated in a sandwich press to see what would happen (in tinfoil, of course. And for the record, they blow out). I worked the door for him at Vazaleen from the earlier days at the old El Mocambo - totally unhinged punk nights that would culminate in counting money out on the dingy office desks of certain shady Toronto night life personalities at 3am, trying to keep the math straight over the noise and confusion while lines were being done off the same desks - money which had to get to bands, the next party, charities, and youth outreach. Will somehow kept it all straight and gave everything and more back to his world, and despite being surrounded by it, he never got sucked into drugs, the drama or the shit. Too busy spinning records and keeping asses shaking, he was interested in the life-affirming, community-building side of those sweaty, loud late nights.

I was lucky enough to spend some time with him in his last stretch, but even though we all knew it was coming for a few weeks, it still leaves an impossibly permanent hole in our world. There are a million eulogies going around this week. I can't say it any better than the rest. But all the retroactive accolades which are usually so exaggerated when someone dies, in Will's case really couldn't be more true. Nighthawk, multitasker, artist, curator, activist, DJ, punk, auteaur, one in a million. This city is truly not the same without him. We'll all miss you, Will. To Dave, the best big brother anyone could ever ask for and who has kept vigil through all this at Will's side, I love you. You've been a big brother to me and so many of us all this time.

I imagine Will would cringe at all this grief and melodrama on his account (he'd want us all to shut up and dance). But it's precisely here, in the far-reaching and scene-spanning waves of grief going around in the wake of his death, that we truly see the extent of the community of Will's vision and the success of his mission to make it real. This friday at 11::40AM, we all truly lost one of ours.

1975 - 2010

RIP

1928 - 2010

Not only was Frank Frazetta one of the best fantasy artists that ever lived, bringing unfathomable scenarios screaming to life on canvas for comics, movie posters, books, magazine and album covers for over half a century...(his body of work alone is badass enough)...but after a series of strokes, the fucking guy taught himself to draw from scratch with his left hand, in his mid-fucking-seventies! Now that's a man's man. R.I.P. If you want a good crash course, check out the 2003 Frazetta doc Painting With Fire.

My all time favorite, Spider-Man (1966):

Are You Morbid?

Wow. So, further to our one way discussion about TV and nostalgia, I had been trying for years to place this show that I remembered watching as a kid, about a team of kids that have to make a newspaper and have a really nasty, dark (like, Michael Ironside dark) boss always yelling at them, I thought. Turns out it was 2 things getting mixed up together in my rapidly aging brain, both of them TVO mini shows: Read All About It and Write On. Read All About It was the one with the reporter kids, Write On was an educational (grammar) show with the nasty boss. Like I said, we never had cable so my TV experience was mostly TVO.

Let's do some cultural forensics here. In the late 70s and early 80s there was a serious upheaval of nihilistic and sado/masochistic imagery in music, film and TV, and a morally dark and creepy undertone to all branches of the arts. Par example:

Music videos were way psychosexual,

...disco and night life were straight up fetish porn, even Disney movies were cranking out creepy occultish tie-ins like this:

...I have a conspiracy theory. In any times of profound collective trauma, it always comes out somehow in the arts. Such is the case with the post 9-11 world, the dogma and failure of the War on Terror, and the consequent explosion of horror culture internationally. Makes sense. It's a publicly shared form of catharsis resulting from a similarly shared trauma (the failure of the trusted authority to keep us safe from bogeymen on the home front). Whether conscious on the part of the artist or not, films like Martyrs are as much a sign of our times as Combat Shock was to the 80s or Taxi Driver was to 1976.

So, blame post-Vietnam trauma or the backlash to ultra conservative ideals that found its way into all forms of art from the late 70s through the first half of the 80s. A reaction against the false propriety of suburbia, its attack on individuality, and the resulting disparity between our public and private alibis - many people still reeling from the events of the 70s had to assimilate into status-quo day jobs and make a good show of it under constant threat of social failure. Hence the drunk, overworked 80s dad:

...It's not a stretch to see that even kids TV and the commercials in between were of the same timeframe as Cruising orLooking For Mr. Goodbar. A lot of cynical leftover hippie types worked in TV production (my aunt & uncle among them) and were the ones programming shows and commercials, and producing the messages aimed at kids. In any case, what all of this was getting at is - I think my exposure to this creepy shit at a young age is what made me grow up to be a horror nerd and such a fan of psycho drama (and such a good speller, and not a drug doer). So I just wanted to say, very belatedly - 10,000 thank you's to the Cold War, The Russians, Mark David Chapman, John Hinckley and TV Ontario.

Seriously, was I just an over-sensitive kid or is this all just a bad acid trip?...

...Gaaaaaah! Wonder Showzen's got nothing on TVO.

Sorry it's been so long. I wrote this oversized rant last month about having a lot of alone time and how working on old motorcycles has been saving my brain (that's all I've been up to other than band and work life, and gearing up for this summer's epic BL tour with Coliseum) - it got complicated and was frozen like Han Solo in the Drafts folder but it's coming. Things are about to get really busy so there should be a lot to report.

Some Recent Loves:

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Entombed - To Ride...LP (thanks to Willem)

Nails - Unsilent Death LP

Complications - ST LP (Feral Ward)

Omegas - T.O. 7" release show

Mad Men - Bootleg 12"

Eric Burdon Declares War LP

Victims - Television Addict bootleg 7"

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Vonnegut - The Sirans of Titan

Voltaire - Miracles and Idolatry

Granta 87 - Jubilee

Treat Me Like Dirt: Toronto Punk 77-81

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1979 CB650 Four

1969 CL450 Twin

...you take care now.

Pics Or Didn't Happen

Welcome to Earth, Charles Wayne Tarrant of Queens NY, who you may know from such spermatozoa and ova of my good friends Will Tarrant of Chainsaw Safety Records and his lovely wife, artist Emily Bicht. Little buddy, I hope you like classic death metal.

Burning Love is recording the LP with Ian Blurton at Giant in early February. The ltd split 5" with Rot In Hell is still happening, outta the UK. And Deranged, on top of the LP, is reissuing the demo 7" and a new single from the LP, "Don't Ever Change" with a Bad Seeds cover on the b-side:

...we had a blast in Quebec this weekend, and we bid a fond R.I.P. to our boys the Castevets and big ups to Brazen Hell who just put out an amazing 7" (DL Link). On the label front, the posthumous Cursed "Last Session" EP came out, ran out and is going to be back in action with a new pressing, a different cover and colors, next week (Tre, I leeched your photo):

...next up for High Anxiety is the Omegas "Sonic Order" EP, a Nightbringer 7" and possibly, hopefully, possibly a Cursed discography LP box set this year.

Watching: IL DIVO (Italy)

Reading: Kapscinsky - The Soccer War (Wiki)

Listening: Low Threat Profile 7"

It's Christmas Eve

...so I want to tell you something I've never told anyone before.

Sometimes people ask me "What's your Secret?"

Well, to be honest, I'm kinnnndof Billy Dee Williams.

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I've been missing the golden age of Bo De Duyen, the best god damned vegetarian Vietnamese joint this city's ever seen. I was winging it with this recipe, I had a divine vision, and it worked out so good I took a picture and wrote all this down. Firstly, I don't measure anything, I don't like math enough to want to put it in my mouth. So listen to your heart, follow your instincts and this will surely make your yuletide extremely gay:

Hot-Pot Style Seitan in Black Pepper Sauce

Seitan is made from wheat, if you have gluten or wheat allergies don't do it. You can get seitan in most asian supermarkets or health food stores. If possible, get it in bulk (from big tub of water) but if packaged, get one that's plain and not already cooked or flavored. Get, a bunch of it. You'll also need:

Black Pepper Sauce (a vegan one with no MSG)

Black Bean Sauce (same deal)

Sweet Red Pepper (or yellow/orange)

Garlic (fresh) and Ginger (fresh)

Brown Rice

In a small pot, not a frying pan, put in a bunch of oil. Not olive, it burns easy and tastes strong. I used sunflower oil here. Cut up garlic into slices, at least 2 cloves (you see how the math creeps in?) and slice a bunch of the ginger, give it a few minutes headstart on High and then add the black pepper sauce. A lot of it. And add the black bean sauce. You shouldn't need salt because there's a lot in these. Stir it good, add more ginger if you can take it. Break up the seitan into shreds/chunks, put it in there, turn the heat halfway down and stir the seitan into all the black sauce. Cut the red pepper into slices and add them here. Stir it. Cover it and add a bit of oil if there isn't some hanging out at the bottom, and keep stirring it periodically (it shouldn't be dry enough to stick or burn with the heat turned down). Start your rice. I went with brown but you could roll with whatever kind floats your boat. Try the seitan about now and if you need it, add more of the pepper sauce to taste, then turn it down more so as to time it with the rice being ready.

...I think you can take it from there.

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"It was my understanding that there would be no math."

Willing To Relocate

(Zambia)

I think I need to do some ballsier and less cracker-ass travelling. Maybe it's just the winter talking but I think I missed my calling by 3 decades and several continents. I should have been a Zambian circa 1970-75 instead. I wish to Christ I could find these original records. Why does this seem so much more real and unaffected than any of its possible Western counterparts? Fucking staggering:

...and I'd be willing to bet they've got some awesome coffee and no American Apparels. Seriously, how much of the world do we just forget is ever out there? 98%, you think? I used to think this simplistically when I was a kid but it's true - Somewhere right now there is a French Polynesia. Someone is waking up or coming home from a friend's dinner party in Tunisia. Looking out at the ocean towards whatever is on the other side. Drinking too much kava in Fiji. What the fuck is all that? This is why I love the Bowles' and the Kapuścińskis of the world. They're too few and too goddamn far between.

And while we're at it, some love for/from Gambia. This is the best track from THIS AMAZING LP. Tell me this doesn't stick in your head. You want to have sexual intercourse to a phonograph record? Heads up:

Retro-bution

WORST OF 2009:

1. Getting my CX backed into by oblivious Starbucks motherfuckers while parked in front of the U of T gym .

2-10. Getting my CX backed into by oblivious Starbucks motherfuckers while parked in front of the U of T gym AGAIN. In the same fucking parking space. It goes without saying, Fuck You - Pay Me. It's all stuff I can fix but holy fuck - if you fail to notice a 600 pound motorcycle behind you, you need to pull your head, your Iphone and your latte out of your ass or don't drive a car.

BEST OF 2009:

All the rest.

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This is the first morning of real-deal winter and it's almost mid-December. I think we did pretty good. I've got a stack of neglected books that look like they'll get me through it. It's been a good year. Been catching up with a lot of old friends lately, going back 10-15 years. Also (been home for over a month now so this is very belated but) the UK was amazing. If you ever wonder who the sweetest kids in the entire fucking universe are, the answer is this:

Being out with the guys in Burning Love is great. They have no second thoughts or complaints about nerding out for hours in record stores of the world, jumping into the English Channel just because you're there, or crashing out in a sleep-where-you-fall pile of Mad Max squat punks. And even when shit goes terribly wrong, it's still fun and we go home thinking of the next thing regardless.

Came home from the UK with so many fucking records. We were ditching all our things just to fit more into our carry-on luggage. And I still haven't put these piles away, guess I should make that proper OCD guy list now so that I can, huh? These are from all over the UK, a lot of it from one brotherly Welshman Chris D, and holy shit, the best record store in the UK (Minus Zero RIP), Wax Factor in Brighton:

...Wow.

UK Scores - LP/12":

Slayer - South of Heaven (UK)

Scientist - Heavyweight Dub Champion

JAMC - Sidewalking 12"

Equals - Greatest Hits

The Jam - In the City

Kinks - Lola (Hallmark)

T-Rex - Ride a White Swan (Fly)

Pink Floyd - Relics (MFP/EMI)

Fleetwood Mac - 2xLP of early years (pre-chicks)

Hawkwind - Hall of the Mountain Grill

Nightmare - Scatteraw

QOTSA - Songs for the Deaf 2xLP

Motorhead - Bomber (Bronze)

Animals - The Most Of (MFP) & S/T (Regal)

Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy & Never Say Die (Vertigo)

Dusty Springfield - Where Am I Going?

Hendrix - Cosmic Turnaround (favorite JH boot!)

Desmond Dekker - The Israelites

No Mind - Tales of Ordinary Madness

Smiths - That Joke...& What Difference...12"es

Smiths - The World Won't Listen

Joy Division - Still 2xLP

Oppressed - Oi Oi Music (Oppressed Recs)

Social Unrest - SU2000

Cowboy Killers - Press and Run Like Hell

Rot In Hell - Hallways...(ltd cover) LP

Ripcord - In Search of a Future (ltd #172/500)

Heresy - 1985-1987 LP

Motorhead - Japanese Ace of Spades (boot)

Skinhead Moonstomp - Symarip (Trojan orig)

Napalm Death - SCUM (Mosh 3 orig)

Visions of Change - My Mind's Eye

...wait a minute, this is just the LPs and not even all of them. This list is retarded. And no one needs to read it. They get the point: There was lots of awesome records. Let's wrap it up.

Duly noted. Among the 7"es, some of the more notable scores:

Heresy - Whose Generation?

Poison Idea - Just to Get Away picture disc

Poison Idea - Filthkick EP

Blitz - All Out Attack & Warriors

Adverts - Gary Gilmore's Eyes

Smiths - Panic & Ask

Napalm Death - The Curse 7" (7 Mosh 8)

Last Rights - Chunks/So Ends...(Taang, Green)

Voorhees - Violent

Discharge - ST, Fight Back & Never Again

JAMC - April Skies

Pissed Happy Children - Gravel Truck

Neon Christ - S/T 7"

Sabbath - TV Crimes & Paranoid

Thin Lizzy - Cold Sweat & Killer On The Loose

T-Rex - Get It On

Morrissey - Thats How People Grow Up

Unsane - Vandal X/Streetsweeper (Subpop)

Partisans - 17 Years of Hell

Devo - Satisfaction (got it signed at TO show)

Animals - House of the Rising Sun UK

...alright stop it STOP IT!!!

OK, a FEW more, then you have to change the subject.

Cool.

Also completed my Cult Ritual collection (RIP). Now I'm deliberating tracking down the tapes. Also just traded with my friend Juan Perez (aka Willem, a chiseled Mexican boy band member currently living in Holland), who officially has more Cursed/LFD & Swarm stuff than even me, for these gems:

Entombed - Wolverine Blues (Earache)

Entombed - Left Hand Path (Earache)

SSD - The Kids...(eXclaim)

SSD - Get It Away (eXclaim)

Bad Brains - ROIR

Bad Brains - Rock For Light

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OK, I'm done now. THANK you. Fuck. There is apparently more to life than records. But not much more. One good thing about working in a cult video store way past the point when you should have had loftier ambitions is access to Cool Shit. I don't know if it's winter or turning 35 this month, but please, a moment of love and nostalgia for the things that were on non-cable TV at 6am when I was a kid:

...and if you use your head, you'll always win. Jesus Christ, that was a long time ago now. How retro!

Oh hey, the Mature Situations Cracked Pelvis EP is still available, the Old Hands EP is soon to be (on Deranged), the domestic version of the Burning Love demo EP will be out in January and Don't Ever Change EP and first LP (Deranged) are coming soon. Both BL and MS have tons of shows coming up. And, me and Andrus made a two-man Disrupt-worship side project, as yet unnamed. Will post some links when we mix it. Stay sweet.