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.

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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.

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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-