Photography book!

I'm hoping to put out a photography book later this year with photos from Columbus's DIY punk scene. It's going to be called Blow Up The South Campus Gateway. Here are some previews from the book:

The cutest song in the world...

Is easily "Guess What" by Gameface. I couldn't find it on Youtube or Google or iLike, so I just uploaded it singularly here. I'll probably upload more Gameface stuff at another point.

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/7940935592f0a5a9/

No Friends

Tony Foresta from Municipal Waste sings, but they're very, very different than you'd imagine with that bit of information. No Friends is another band I'm not sure how I stumbled across. I think there might have been some murmurings and show where some band's drummer was wearing a shirt that said "NO FRIENDS" down it almost a dozen times. They're from Florida and on No Idea. Everyone has their shirt now, but they're still pretty good.


Download Traditional Failures: http://www.zshare.net/download/79381975902ef77a/


Download Self-Titled: http://www.zshare.net/download/79382081e4219cfa/

Mixtape #2

This one was made for my friend Leanne for her 27th birthday. Check it out:

1. Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy
2. Bisybackson - Throw His Head Into The Lake
3. Genia Tou Xaous - Koinwnika Ipoproionta
4. A Day In Black And White - There Are Objects And Objects
5. Arnakia - Olio Einai Fadasmata
6. Ambulars - Coasts
7. Front Royal - Here's To Your Antics
8. Bomb The Music Industry - (Shut) Up The Punx
9. Cop Hugger - Pick Me Apart
10. Knapsack - Cellophane
11. Free Yourself - Anyway
12. The Wonder Years - This Party Sucks! (Acoustic)
13. Get Bent - Ridgewood, Son
14. Boom Boom Kid - Automatic
15. Green Day - Geek Stink Breath
16. Autistic Youth - Fuck Yeah
17. Good Luck - Stars Were Exploding
18. Banner Pilot - Absentee
19. CIV - Boring Summer
20. Bridge And Tunnel - Wartime Souvenirs
21. God's Reflex - Why I Hate Texas
22. Crimpshrine - Fucked Up Kid
23. I Hate Myself - Destroy All Monsters
24. Boy's Life - A Quarter's Worth
25. Saves The Day - I Think I'll Quit
26. Screeching Weasel - Love
27. Leatherface - Cabbage Case
28. Fischer - Don't Those Pomegranates Growing...
29. Jawbreaker - For Esme.mp3
30. The Ergs! - Hey Jealousy

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/79332057bfd42ea3/

More zines!

These ones are primarily indigenous stuff, one about queerness (and insurrection), one about insurrection (and how it is to be done, heh). These, along with the zines I posted a week ago, form the basis for what I've been reading now, which is mostly boring philosophy and more in-depths critiques of our relationships with our sexuality, society, capital, and the rest of the world. Those will also be posted soon.


"Some will read 'queer' as synonymous with 'gay and lesbian' or 'LGBT'. This reading falls short. While those who would fit within the constructions of 'L', 'G', 'B' or 'T' could fall within the discursive limits of queer, queer is not a stable area to inhabit. Queer is not merely another identity that can be tacked onto a list of neat social categories, nor the quantitative sum of our identities. Rather, it is the qualitative position of opposition to presentations of stability - an identity that problematizes the manageable limits of identity. Queer is a territory of tension, defined against the dominant narrative of white-hetero-monogamous-patriarchy, but also an affinity with all who are marginalized, otherized, and oppressed. Queer is the abnormal, the strange, the dangerous. Queer involves our sexuality and our gender, but so much more. It is our desire and fantasies and more still. Queer is the cohesion of everything in conflict with the heterosexual capitalist world. Queer is the total rejection of the regime of the Normal."
- The first page of Toward The Queerest Insurrection, written by a self-identified "criminal queer" in Milwaukee in 2008.

This zine was pretty popular with anarchist-activists who loved identity issues when it first came out a few years ago even though it was the first stab the infamous Midwest queers took at using the identity of "queer" as a negation of identity. People didn't get it, and even after reading it a dozen times, I think I'm still starting to pick up on stuff I missed the first eleven reads.

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/790073276e4794f1/


How Is It To Be Done is a Tiqqun piece about... Well, how it is to be done, rather than what is to be done. I guess it's almost written as a poem, which I think is pretty cool.

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/79007369937e2825/

And the indigenous zines, which I don't have the patience to explain everything about:


Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/790075951618eaf6/


Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/79007443379edf6b/



Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/79007457bec0bd57/

Dopamines "Public Domain" video

I thought this video was pretty cool for a few reasons:
1. I like the cinematography, it's beautiful and fits the band and song well.
2. The song is catchy.
3. It's filmed in my friend's practice space near Cincinnati.
4. They smash stuff.

Agios Dimitrios - Demo

Agios Dimitrios was a short-lived screamo band from Chicago in 2009. Made up of kids who were mostly 18 and younger, their singer, Zak Eveland, was 16 years old. This band was weird because it was a screamo band made up of members from brother/sister folk punk band Y Lime?, indie band Blueberry Fist, dance-y pop-y girl-y band Tony Hawk & The 900, and pop-punk band Arkansas?. I remember walking up to Zak before of one of the first Agios Dimitrios shows and being like "So... You're in a screamo band now?" It seemed like such a strange combination of people, but it worked. I think they were around for the entirety of the summer; played a few shows, recorded a demo, and then broke up when their drummer moved to Brazil and their singer got shipped off to boarding school by his parents.

They're named after a suburb of Athens, Greece that put out some pretty amazing communiques during the December 2008 riots following the death of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropolous.

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/79311159662c7cd0/

ZINES!!!

I thought I'd do an entry of stuff that's important to me and isn't music. The easy answer? Zines! The difficult part? Which zines? I dug through my bookshelf and the "Books, Zines, & PDFs" folder on my computer and came up with these ones.

I'll probably post four or five more zines I like tomorrow. I'll also try to make the content a vary a little bit, so you're just reading critiques of critiques of past articles, books, and zines. Or something.


Eternal War On The Hitler Youth is a zine about the Edelweiss Pirates (Edelweißpiraten), a loose organization made up of working class youth all over Germany during Nazi rule. All the members were under the age of 17, and were fierce as fuck. The zine doesn't go too terribly deep into the history of the Edelweiss Pirates, but in fall 2008, I went through every book about Nazi-era Germany in the Baltimore library and found out that they were basically beatniks, or hippies, or crust punks before any of those things existed. Oh, and they tried to kill SS officials. Pretty cool.

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/790082206edeb5fb/


This book was talked about by Glenn Beck. He claims it will encourage the working classes and "disenfranchised people" to use terrorism to overthrow the United States government and global capitalism. What he doesn't realize is that the book had been out in the United States in zine form for years before MIT put out the book version which you can get at Barnes & Noble. Anyways, The Coming Insurrection was written anonymously by the Invisible Committee in France and currently nine people are on trial as the accused authors and for allegedly "having ties with a terrorist enterprise".

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/7900746553b1391e/


The Institute For Experimental Freedom (IEF) put out Politics Is Not A Banana, an obnoxiously pink book full of various contributions about insurrection, orgies, hating the world, destroying shit, and other stuff awhile ago. Definitely worth a read, cause as Liam Sionnach says, "... nothing is too beautiful [not even the grotesque] for the unwanted children of capital."

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/7900749953e64e0d/


I first read Give Up Activism during the weekend of the disastrous and stressful Bash Back! convergence 2009. It kind of sang to me, which is a stupid, silly way to say "this zine makes sense, yo!" Read it.

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/79007342be3e480e/

Tomorrow we can drive around this town...

I spent the better part of today with my friend Gabe. We haven't known each other very long, but he's pretty cool. And he likes pop punk. We listened to the Pop Punk's Not Dead compilation a lot and drove around looking for stuff to do. Here are albums by bands who play my favorite songs on that comp, as well Gin Blossoms' New Miserable Experience because he quoted it to me when talked about driving around aimlessly last night, and because it reminds me of Pete & Pete.


Spazzys - Aloha! Go Bananas: http://www.zshare.net/download/7898585339373e6d/


Steinways - Missed The Boat: http://www.zshare.net/download/78986225c3ccf38c/


Unlovables - Crush Boyfriend Heartbreak: http://www.zshare.net/download/789862536d3b8ab8/


Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience: http://www.zshare.net/download/78985854d339710b/

Stress - O Hxos Tis Anasfaleias I & II

Stress is one of the few Greek punk bands that I've heard that sounds distinctly like the stuff that was coming out of New York and England in the 1970's. They formed in the early 1980's and played anarchist sort of politically-fueled punk, the kind of stuff you'd imagine a band from Greece would sing about. The name of their first LP was O Hxos Tis Anasfaleias (Ο Ήχος Της Ανασφάλειας/The Sound Of Insecurity), and their second was O Hxos Tis Anasfaleias II.

Interview with Stress in 1985: http://punk.gr/english/docs/stress-intv.html

O Hxos Tis Anasfaleias:
1. Athina (Athens)
2. Xafides (The Snitch)
3. Leros
4. Agxos (Stress)
5. Fovos (The Fear)
6. Agwania (Agony)
7. Sreatiwths
8. Perithoriakos (The Outcast)

O Hxos Tis Anasfaleias II:
1. Agxos (Stress)
2. O Xafies (The Snitch)
3. Leros
4. Athina (Athens)
5. O Fovos (The Fear)
6. Genoktonia (Genocide)
7. Athens Burning
8. Perithoriakos (The Outcast)
9. 1984 Para Kati (Nearly 1984)
10. Dikaiona Sti Zoi (Right To Life)
11. O Xafies (The Snitch)

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/78950708c598383a/

An unfinished mixtape I made for a boy I once liked...

But never gave to him. Whoo! You get it instead!

1. Broadway Calls - The Freedom Haters
2. Dauntless Elite - I Am A Ninja, My Life Is Lonely And Difficult
3. Kid Dynamite - K05-0564
4. Lawrence Arms - Old Dogs Never Die
5. Psyched To Die - Zen And The Art Of Being A Fuck Up
6. 2049 - Preserve
7. Boom Boom Kid - Blu
8. Champion - Decisions Made
9. Claire Danes - 3 Years
10. Comadre - Teeth Versus Teeth
11. No Friends - Have You Ever Heard Of Aspirations?
12. American Steel - To The Sea
13. Tsunami Bomb - Mushy Love Song
14. Autistic Youth - Smash The Cop Cars With Bricks Of Resistence
15. Crippled Youth - Positive Scene

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/78919841a6ba1723/

Soon to come:

I just downloaded a HUGE torrent called "διάφορα πανκικά (diafora pankika)", or "various punk" in Greek. It contains countless albums of some of my favorite Greek punk bands, but also a lot of stuff I've never heard before. Be ready for that.

I'm waiting on a copy of Erik Oseland (from the RNC8) and Dave Mahoney's (from the MKE3) hardcore band, Omertà, which I actually sang gang vocals on.

Probably some more Unrestrained stuff.

And whatever else I can find. Stoked!

Triceratops is dead! (for real)

Triceratops was a hardcore band in Columbus for... A long time. They broke up awhile ago, but two of the members, Chris and Tucker (who are actually from Alaska, WTF???), have gone on to do three (four if you count Broke As A Joke) bands since. These bands are usually called Triceratops parts 2, 3, and 4. However, they are also known as:

Empire: http://www.zshare.net/download/78918194c8e8574e/
Lifeguard: http://www.zshare.net/download/78918824c4eae02f/
and Forget It!: http://www.zshare.net/download/789182008645cf47/

These are all demos, and Empire no longer exists, but Lifeguard and Forget It! still play shows. Check 'em out!

Unrestrained vs. Unrestrained

Unrestrained (VT):



Split w/ Dead Icons: http://www.zshare.net/download/78839020a91b6b4d/

BONUS: Screaming For Change, a documentary by the guitarist, Derek McIntire.

Unrestrained (OR):



Demo 2007: http://www.zshare.net/download/7883888987d1a306/
Screaming For A Life Worth Living: http://www.zshare.net/download/78839013e338ef64/

Bisybackson - Indestructable Junkshow & Notes From The Sinking

Bisybackson is another northern California emo band, like Knapsack. They were around at about the same time, forming in 1994 in Sacramento, and touring with Fifteen in 1995. They took a break sometime in 1996 or 1997, and in 1999, their bassist died of an overdose and they called it quits for good. Donut Friends was supposed to release Notes From The Sinking, but instead put out Indestructable Junkshow in 1999.

It's noteworthy to say that in 2008, I probably got the best bit of advice I'd ever been offered from someone controlling the Bisybackson Myspace account.

Here's what traces I've been able to find of them online.

Indestructable Junkshow: http://www.zshare.net/download/78814300a315454c/
Notes From The Sinking: http://www.zshare.net/download/78814286baf75836/

2049 - Torches

2049. I have no idea what that name means. This band posted their album, Torches, on the Columbus DIY forum awhile ago. They're a newish screamo/skramz band from Cleveland, and I like them a lot. Some of their stuff reminds me of Still Life, though the band member who posted it on the forum claims to have never even heard them before. Some of the sing-alongs are reminiscent of the horriblebutamazing stuff that Cap'n Jazz did in the 90's, but the "bah bah bah da da" and seemingly skipping of "let them all die" is a little bit annoying sometimes. I don't know much else about them other than that their songs are way better than their album artwork. Four songs, and a solid near fifteen minutes of music.

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/78814460b6082358/

Knapsack

I'm not even really sure how I stumbled across Knapsack. I've been really into 90's hardcore, emo, and screamo for the past few years, a decade a friend referred to last night as "the worst era for punk". Obviously I disagree, and amazingly, Knapsack stayed around for almost the entirety of the 1990's. They formed in 1993 in Davis, California, and broke up three records later, in 2000.

Sergie Loobkoff of Solea and Samiam joined on bass in 1997, shortly before the release of their second album, Day Three Of My New Life. The last record, This Conversation Is Ending Starting Right Now, was put out the next year, in 1998; and, personally, is still one of my favorite album titles of all time. Katherine The Grateful (sometimes spelled "Catherine", kinda like the Lifetime Katrina vs. Catrine thing...) is the first track, starting the album out perfectly and setting it up to be a quintessential 90's release.



Two things that are interestingly enough for me to mention here:
1. Blair Shehan, the singer, went on to form The Jealous Sound, who, in 2003, put out a record with the same name as the Cop Hugger tape I posted a few days ago.
2. MTV has a video for Effortless from Silver Sweepstakes and a bunch of streaming songs up on their site, for one reason or another.


Silver Sweepstakes (1995): http://www.zshare.net/download/78664707acca84bb/


Day Three Of My New Life (1997): http://www.zshare.net/download/7866465468b47368/


This Conversation Is Ending Starting Right Now (1998): http://www.zshare.net/download/78664313966fbfd4/

Cop Hugger - Kill Them With Kindness & Hot Cross - Cryonics

The first album up is "Kill Them With Kindness" by Cop Hugger from Athens, Ohio. This is a band with Max Wheeler from Gnarly As I Wanna Be on vocals. Kinda dance-y, kinda angry, this is up for sale on both tape and cd on the GAIWB site. They played Berea Fest this year and are booking a ton of shows in the near future in Athens and Columbus sans bassist because he moved home for the summer.

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/7866386667dd34ea/
Order: http://gnarlyasiwannabe.com/artwork/1418910_Cop_Hugger.html



Hot Cross was from Philly and broke up in 2007, but they're still one of my favorite bands. This is their first full-length and probably the best stuff they put out. Cryonics is melodic, scream-y, technical, and sorta cheesy at some points. Hot Cross definitely lives up to having members from Saetia and Off Minor, but still refrains from being just another screamo band.

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/786640791d5ee984/

Reasonsssssss...

I started this blog to work on alone because I get easily stressed out when working with others. Blah.

The project that I did give up on and is still planning on continuing can temporarily be found at everythingyouhateandmore.blogspot.com before they change their name.