Peelander-Red carried by the crowd - photo taken by Shayda Milani

Upon entering the venue we could hear the band finishing their first song and I rushed to find out who was playing. Instantly my eyes went into shock as I saw Peelander-Z upon the stage. A four (technically five) piece band all dressed head-to-toe in a different color and was reminiscent of something out of an Japanese anime. The lead singer/guitar was Peelander-Yellow, the bass player Peelander-Red, the lead guitarist Peelander-Blue and the female drummer was Peelander-Green. They claim, as noted on their website that they come from Planet Peelander in the Z-area. Who doesn’t like extraterrestrial punk rock?

There goes one eye-brow...

I’ll be honest by saying that I’m generally always skeptical of bands that are so theatric (especially those who rely more on being animated/theatric then they do the music their playing). But, after listening and watching this band play less than two songs, I was sold. Such energy oozed off the stage and into the audience. The guitar and bass players moved in sync during certain riffs of some songs, the drummer (an adorable, tattoo adorned punk girl) swayed her head to-and-fro as she hit the various crash symbols around her kit.
Barley able to understand the lead-singer because of his heavy Japanese accent and the roaring of the crowd, the band was polite enough to hold-up signs at the beginning of the song displaying the name, which was also often the chant-able chorus. It was about the third song in that the band elevated their awesomeness.

Peelander-Red is rock'n'roll!

Peelander-Red moved into the crowd and disappeared for a moment, but quickly reappeared as he was raised in the middle of the venue while being held up by members of the audience. He looked around for a brief second, while most gazed in amazement at what he had just achieved. Quickly, once he was sure of his balance and support, the song kicked back in and P-Red began to rock out. The song ended and he fell backwards and was caught by a different section of the crowd. Adrenaline hit the crowd and while Red was carried back to the stage I, quickly in the tow of his wake, made for a closer spot.

They played another song, stopped, and got even crazier. Peelander-Yellow told everyone to take out their cameras and ‘put on youtube.’ Confused, a swarm of lights from cameras and phones were held in the air as he pulled a shy and scared girl onto the stage. With an unknown device in his hand, he gave it to her and instructed the girl to shave one of his eyebrows off. Whoa. She totally did it in one clean movement across his sweaty brow. She returned to the audience. Seconds later, a guy was pulled onto stage and instructed to do the same but to the other side – which at first resulted in a failed attempt, but was ultimately achieved.

With songs like “So Many Mike”, “What a Health – Super Health”, “Ninja High School” and a punk rock rendition of “E-I-E-I-O”, each song was filled with fun, personality and a whole lot of energy. Still, the band upped the energy when they started to replace themselves and their instruments with members of the audience. One-by-one Peelander-Z became a bunch of random people that were following the instructions given by the band. Once the strums and hits were steady, the band got dressed up as a giant bowling pin, an alien, a large wigged-character and more. They went into the audience, cleared a space and set-up for a game of bowling. With no ball in site, Peelander-Yellow (dressed as the bowling pin) began to charge at the actual pins head first, leaped into the air and landed making for a ‘perfect’ strike.

After the game, the band re-armed themselves with their respected instruments and played a few more songs while Peelander-Pink joined them on stage in what looked like a Japanese anime character and costume – too cute!

It was a sad moment when the band finished, because it was such a spectacular rock-n-roll show that was more fun then most I had gone to in quite some time. While, listening to their record goes for a good time, this is a band I would recommend keeping tabs on and their tour dates so you might truly be able to experience the magic.

Also, after Peelander-Z we all took to the street for a cigarette break. Outside, Samuel Saarni was being interview by a reporter from Time Out New York and was asked if he was at the show to pick-up chicks. Apparently, it was for a dating survey they are doing. Either way, here is a picture of what Ethan dubbed as ‘meta-journalism’. What now, Time Out NY?!?!

We drank a beer or two there and then decided to go to the Wreck Room to play some pool. Wreck Room was sort of crowded, and they had removed(?) the pool table to make room for some sort of Princess Mononoke screening. Not quite what we had in mind. Kelley and I hit the head(s), and then we bounced.

During our travels, we met this old soul. He filled our heads with knowledge, but not with wisdom.

We headed back toward Kelley’s part of town, one or so subway stops from the Wreck Room. As we were wandering past some sort of parking garage with an awful lot of carpeting on the interior, we heard a bit of commotion and saw a couple dudes working over a coin-op arcade-style punching bag game at the far end of the garage. We talked about going to check it out, but I for one was a bit astonished when Kelley took a hard right and bee-lined for the center of the action.

Apparently we had stumbled upon a party at I.C.R. vs Deth Killers of Bushwick, a clothing company formed from an alliance between two motorcycle gangs. They had a table set up where they were selling Gennesse for $2, so we decided to stick around. Unfortunately, we were only there for about 5 minutes before a lady started yelling that they had to close up shop, so everyone needed to finish their drinks and meet up at the Wreck Room. Having little desire to return there, we pounded our beers and headed on.

It wasn’t entirely clear to us what was going on at that party. All I could see was an interesting mix of attendees: giant dudes with fearsome hair walking around in leather Deth Killers jackets, some babes, a bunch of average-looking young transplants like ourselves, and one guy walking around in a suit. There was also what looked like a rack of wetsuits on display through a door in the garage, and a poster above said door advertising a Stab-a-thon that had occurred a couple months prior. The Internet told me a much more interesting story.

• Their old website – don’t know why they changed it
• Some truly heroic shirts
• An origin story that I can only believe is factual, given what else I have discovered
• Free protection for scrawny hipsters wandering around Bushwick at night with their Macbooks

I expect to be spending a lot of time in the near future trying to get closer to these proud and enigmatic people. Still not sure what a Deth is, but if they say it needs killing, then all I can say is “how dead?”

We wandered for another few minutes before arriving at the bar Kelley sort of thought might be OK: Don Pedro, on Manhattan a bit south of Montrose. Best website ever. We walked inside and set ourselves up with the usual beer/whiskey combo. I didn’t catch what their well whiskey is, but it is not a good whiskey at all. Austin keep remarking that it looked like they were setting up for a show, and that we should go check it out. I reluctantly acquiesced.

Wait for it....

My reluctance disappeared in an instant. From the first note they played, The Back CC’s had me pinned against the far wall with the power of their rock. These four do not fuck around. The best thing to do would be to click the link above and listen firsthand. Get ready for some all-out honky-tonk garage-punk with harmonicas and chicken masks. The crowd was small, but they were all obviously there to see the band and to have a rip-roaring good time.

Taste the power

Still dazed from the awesome, we stumbled outside to reflect upon our newly-minted attitude toward life, love, and the ineffable archetype of the raging Asian.

The Dardys on the toilet seat at Mars Bar
Now that you’ve read Ethan’s review of this bathroom, I went into this questioning what type of band, and its members, would have the need for promotion so bad that they would touch this toilet seat cover. But there it is, and when I decided to investigate The Dardys I began to notice their stickers are everywhere! Mostly in bathrooms too.
Nonetheless, I began with a quick google search confident I would discover the result to be another Brooklyn based band. Alas, I was totally correct. The band, outfitted with a mysapce music page, an official band page and a blog, has a strong presence on the internet. Their personal page consists of a bio page that indicates they are a four piece indie-pop band from New York with their main influences being Buddy Holly, Arctic Monkeys and Blur. The rest of the page consists of their origin which is followed by a list of quotes from varying music blogs to their friends and at the bottom a link to download their album for free.

Download complete, unzipped and loaded into iTunes and pressed play. Their sound of the instruments were tight, good use of back-up singers and overall catchy song construction. Having listened to the whole album I felt as if it had a narrative – that being the band got better.
I think the only thing that put my off initially was the lead singer’s, David Heffernan, voice. Not that it was bad, but there seemed to be an element that was forced. But it was over the course of the album that I think he found is stride and by the last two songs, which were my favorite, he found a good middle ground between his actually singing voice and the voice he seemingly tried to emulate.
Nonetheless, the band had a great ability to get me into the groove and dance elements of their sound and can definitely forsee this band achieving bigger and better. Granted, they already have a good promotion plan of smothering bathrooms of hip bars all about Brooklyn and Manhattan. After exploring this band, they’ve managed to hook me enough where I am curious about their live performance.

This Chicago based guy/girl two-piece was fun to watch. The immediate reasons being: they are from my hometown and, one of my kryptonite(s) happen to be cute girls in glasses that play music. That said, their music was fun too. Her higher toned voice was nice as she carried elongated notes and smashed the shit out of her drum set. Between the two, they harmonized well and created, with the limited instruments they were equipped with, good song structure. I will note the band turned up the energy for the last two songs that I wish was present for their whole set. Nonetheless, it was a nice way to start this experimental concert-going experience.
Time for a refill.

The following band was Zambri, two sisters backed by a drummer and a guitar/key-board/drum machine player-dude.

With the two sisters changing instruments, lead vocals and positions about the stage the music they created varied from slower, more vocal-based songs, to the fun and dancey hits that included the familiar cow-bell and solid drum beats. They actually reminded me of Out Hud and Santigold – which was awesome. They had a great ability to stir the crowd into a tizzy of dance and excitement which was endearing and entertaining as they were adorned with eccentric head-wear and/or dress. Again, another good find that I will most likely look up and listen to in the future.

Between Zambri and the final band Ethan, Giulia and I went outside for a cigarette which is when I noticed two large ‘spot lights’ in the sky. I, forgetful of the day, asked if those were for something in Manhattan related to Fashion Week (which is currently underway). I looked, sounded and felt like an idiot when I realized they were the lights emitting from ground zero. I’m gunna guess there was not a party going on there… New York, I promise I won’t be so ignorant next year.

Thusly, onto the final band: Twin Shadow.

I will preface my knowledge of this band as being described as a hodge-podge between Prince and New Order (which is why I so readily bought tickets to the show). I will further say: “yeah, no – totally not Prince meets New Order.” Not to derogate the band’s clout; they were still very impressive and entertaining to hear and see.

With, from I can best recall at this point, dancey guitar riffs and moving drum beats, the band commanded the crowd into a flowing motion of movement and excitement which included a number of audience members (that I would conclude to be their friends) joining them on stage to incite further dance and revels. With a sincere passion toward performance, Twin Shadow seemed to thrive on the audience’s grand response, mine included, and channel it into the energy of the show and experience.

With a great set and response from the audience, the show concluded and it was time to go home.

As an odd momentary anecdote after leaving the show, I did stumble across this odd ’white party’. Which I’ve now learned is a “thing that happens.”

[editorial note: VitaminC4 will never actively review an event of this sort]

As a closure to this review, I did quickly return home to find the Hispanic residents of the first floor sloppily strewing about, where they then offered me a beer and we exchanged broken English/Spanish banter.

Lesson learned: Being half-Mexican, I need to speak better Spanish.

A portion of this night’s success relied on the fact that Ethan and I, at times very big forgetful slackers, managed to find tickets to the show through various last minute sources. This could be luck, or possibly a sign from Ulthar giving us great fortune. Furthermore, California pal and Vermont native Cooper McBean arrived with his sister Megan as Ethan and I were walking in the doors of the venue where Sleep had played the night before. Embraces and high-fives a plenty were followed by the purchasing of beers (well, not before we had to buy drink tickets). The Masonic temple itself is large with two levels. The bottom for the stage, standing room, sound booth, beer and merch while the upper part had several rows of seating.

For the first band, Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter, the hall’s lights remained relatively raised, allowing for those still trickling in to find their positions, friends, or the end of the beer ticket line. The band took to the stage, two smoke machines pushed the altered air onto the crowd and they began to play. While they aren’t as stoney as most metal bands that I prefer, Jesse Sykes has a voice that works in beautiful harmony with her guitar, and with the music being played by the band behind her. Skinny, lanky, with long black hair – she belted out, and carried sweetly, a range of notes that transformed the venue into a temple to the Elder Gods. Their set was awesome, even when they transitioned to the ending portion in which they experimented with the genre of folk.

After Jesse Skyes, BXI played. That was, at the very least, an interesting experience. To give you a background, BXI is made up of the members of Boris with Ian Astbury, of The Cult, as their lead man. This act was a mix of emotions that consisted of seeing the musical talents of Boris playing without robes (see next paragraph), but also having to endure an aged metal dude in a leather jacket and yoga pants. Granted, Ian’s voice still carries and sounds ripping. It’s rather distracting to see the line-up of Boris support a fleeting – but still awesome – character from the past. During the set I did question, out of amusement, the mathematical equation as to how this band came into existence. Nonetheless, it was still along the lines of ‘fucking radical’. (see fig. 4).

fig. 4

A couple of cigarettes, and a piss, later it was time for the grand finale. Quickly the lot of us jumped in and out of the beer line(s) and sought higher ground on the upper deck to embrace the trembles that were about to fall upon us. The lights darkened, the smoke machines created a worm-like creature that stretched over a portion of the balcony, and they took to the stage in a whimsical fashion (robes-n-all). What was once cheering quickly turned into silence as the congregation of listeners anticipated the first series of strummed notes to vibrate through their bodies. The band(s) slowly swayed back and forth with their instrumental weapons in hand. From the balcony it looked as if an ocean of black shirts was about to slam onto the stage, drowning those who wore their summer-time plaid shirts like sailors lost at sea, while we atop were the tidal-wave crashing down with angst. The snare hits became more consistent and it continued to build, everyone now feeling it in their bones. The first song finished and I somehow felt altered, more so then what two beers could do to me normally.

[editorial note: when placing your bag in your friend's car before the last act goes on stage, remember to grab the camera. This sorry excuse of a human totally forgot it. Lack of pictures begins – now]

Sadly, during the second song the power cut out. Some of the already amazed crowd quickly fled for the doors to smoke and chatter about the immediate satisfaction of seeing this duo play only two songs, while the rest of us waited in agonized anticipation, wondering whether the power would return.

Hark! Nodens would, with his mighty power, allow for us puny humans to continue with the show, and the power returned . Once again, the band(s) members took the stage and proceeded from whence they had ended.

I was now sitting in a recently vacated chair and was mesmerized by their new presence on the altar laid before me, even though I could not see them through the darkness of the hall (because they had cut the lights out of concern over the power supply). Note after note began to vibrate through my body. Their power was now making my brain move within my skull. My organs, not literally, changed position around my stomach. The sensation of breathing sound. And my consciousness ascending upon a Lovecraftian realm in which pure thought, fantasy and fear became one.

The experience itself consisted of drifting between visual and mental awareness, especially during “The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)” (that features the vocals of Jesse Sykes).

And just as soon as it started, my mind and eyes felt the lights go up.

The show was over…

The experience alone of seeing these two amazing bands perform this album in its entirety was the best live performance I’ve ever had both physically and mentally.

While exiting the show, my comrades and I remained in silence only to make the occasional comment of “holy shit that was amazing”, or “my body is still vibrating.”

Now that I have been to several ‘big time’ events about the city which include some of my favored bands, this still remains to be the best thing to have happened in New York since I’ve been here, and possibly the year.

My praise to you, oh, Elder Gods. May our sacrifices be plentiful.

Blood for the blood God.

So here we all are at the Williamsburg Waterfront last Sunday. It was the last of the free summertime Pool Party shows, and there were crazy rumors going around about who the secret headliner was going to be. People were saying it was going to be Jay-Z (spoiler: not Jay-Z). We showed up around 6 and got our over-21 wristbands and headed to the “beer garden”, which is Brooklyn for “area with fence around it full of Porta-Pottys”. As soon as we got our drink tickets (“Excuse me, is this the line for the beer, or the line for the tickets to the beer?” “I don’t know, faggot”) DMC, formerly of Run DMC, took the stage. Not too shabby. Is this the headliner? We asked each other. Nobody had any idea because we were all going off of hearsay… not even sure whose hearsay.

So that was pretty cool. They were on top of their game, and there was a girl dancing really awesomely off to the side of the stage. Never really seen many hip hop shows in the past, so I don’t know how this one stacks up, but I am thoroughly entertained. Then they stop and start saying something, but I can’t understand what they’re saying. Then Andrew W.K. runs onstage. Fuck yeah! As a card-carrying pussy little white boy, that was a lot more exciting for me than Jay-Z or whoever else. I’m still a little unclear, at this point, as to what exactly the set-up is, but it turns out that Andrew W.K. is basically banging on keyboards while DMC raps, and occasionally he grabs a mike to shout some stuff that I can’t hear. He looks absolutely awesome while he does it, of course. I really would have rather had him do some of his own stuff, but that’s neither here nor there.

Got some good photos of that before they retreated offstage. Turns out that dynamite duo wasn’t the headliner, and out came Doug E. Fresh. That would probably be incredibly awesome for a whole lot of people, but he was really before my time and, again, pussy little white boy. Still, very good stuff. Next up, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… Gucci Mane. Cool, thanks the for the free concert, Brooklyn. I’m not complaining. Hopefully I paid my share by losing my 2nd beer ticket after they closed the ticket booth and having to bribe the guy at the Brooklyn Brewery booth to give me another beer. On to the bars!

I should mention that Peter Wallner came to visit, and this was his last day in town, which is how I got convinced to leave the house instead of toiling away in the Internet mines all day like I was supposed to. It all started at brunch….

There was a whole big group of us at brunch… Joe, Peter, me, Andrew, Courtney, Peter’s friend Shannon, two guys whose names are either Jeff or Chris (hopefully one of each), a guy named Andrea or Antonio… etc. Really should have taken some pictures, as much to jog my memory as for any other reason. The morning (early afternoon) was dismally hot, and I headed over to Life Cafe near my house to meet them. Never been to Life Cafe, heard it has a really good brunch, which was corroborated by the fact that people were spilling out onto the sidewalk and Joe informed me that we looking at a 30 minute plus wait time. That, combined with his “waiter’s shame” that our party kept growing every time someone texted him, spurred us to look elsewhere.

We went across the street to the Wreck Room, a dive bar that allegedly also does brunch. There were no other patrons when the 11 of us entered, and the bartender got kind of a deer-in-the-headlights type expression on her face. “I’ll go check with the cook”, she said. She returned shortly to report, “We don’t have any potatoes, so we can’t serve any of the items that have potatoes in them.” “That’s OK”, Courtney said, “do you have any champagne for mimosas?”

Turns out there was only 1 bottle of champagne, and they decided they didn’t really want to do brunch. “We’re all pretty hungover.” “That’s OK, so are we.” She set us all up with lunch menus while she ran across the street to get ingredients for bloody marys. It wasn’t exactly the brunch we had been expecting, but the burgers were good, there was a pool table, and she didn’t charge us for our High Lifes, so all in all a successful brunch.

The night ended with Joe, Peter, Shannon and me alternating between playing King’s Cup and improv games at Shannon’s apartment in Clinton Hill, while Austin was dragged to various bars by a new friend and played giant jenga (really giant jenga?!?). All in all, this day goes in the win column.

Nothing beats finding out one of your new favorite bands is playing a “secret show” at a tiny record shop for FREE. And the news just got better and better. The show was officially announced a few hours before it started, but in a small town such as ours word gets around fast. To top it off, word on the street was Zach Hill is now the drummer for WAVVES. Holy shit. I had to work that night but managed to swing getting an hour off to run over to Metamusic and see the show. I got there just in time to get a perfect spot and let my eyes adjust to the red lighting before they started.

It was so loud, there was so much feed back and it was so awesome. They announced it was the first show they had played with the current line-up and yes, I now have like hella scene points. (Is that still a valid form of street cred currency? Was it ever? I’ll have to check with my editor.)

Okay, this is the part where I’m all like “Zach Hill is amazing, blah blah blah and how challenging it must be for him to play in 4/4 and so on. And that Nathan Williams was playing his guitar like a (noun) from (place) and his vocals sounded like (verb) with a (object) on a (animal).” I am just gonna stop and go do laundry. Journalism was never really my thing.

Hiram Coffee

There I was. Enjoying iced tea and reading on my porch on a sunny afternoon. I took a shower at around six and headed downtown to grab a beer. Here’s where the plan falls apart.

6:30 Find Bryn drinking alone on the back porch of Pergolesi. Join him

6:50 Grab Bryn and head over to the Cypress Lounge for a sick art punk show

7:00 Burritos

7:20 The Screaming Females kick off the show. So good! This three piece from Philly destroyed. The lead guitarist/singer was this tiny girl that could fucking shred like a metal god.

7:45 More beer.

8:00 Shellshag, a cute couple that could beat the living shit out of any boyfriend/girlfriend band. Taking an interesting approach to drums, they rocked out so hard that you wanted to get what ever drugs they might be on.

8:50 The Cysts, part of some weird thrash scene revival that i was unaware of until then. I probably would have really liked them if i wasn’t distracted by a cute girl. (not Bryn).

9:20 We all got are dance on with Abe Vigoda. This is the second time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them and they do not disappoint one bit. Last time I saw them they had a tape for sale of their new album Skeleton which a promptly bought and has been in heavy rotation in the truck stereo.

10:00 The show is over but one is about to start at Santa Cruz’s newest venue, The Parish Public House. And we’re off! I hop in a friends car and give up on having a nice quiet night at home.

10:15 We arrive at our destination to find the show hasn’t started yet. More beer! We grab a six pack and head over to a friend’s house on Dufour.

10:25 Three cute girls decide to shotgun beers.

10:26 Hilarity ensues. Having three cans of bud left and one fancy beer and our ranks having swelled to five we stand in a circle pounding the rest in rapid succession always passing the beer to an empty hand.

10:45 We head back to the show to find an opening band none of us are very interested in. We continue to chain smoke and shoot the shit.

10:55 After giving away all my cigarettes (I can never say no to a pretty lady even if there is four of them) I run over to the liquor store to resupply and somehow ended up with a cute little bottle Bushmill’s.

11:20 Oh my god. Botron starts playing. Imagine three kinda dirty punk kids playing the most perfect, schizophrenic mix of psych rock, metal, math rock and good ol’ southern rock. Hell yeah. Also this girl would not stop spitting on her boyfriend then performed drunken CPR on a Safeway security guard. WTFuck.

12:20 ish. Trying to figure what’s next we buy more booze and end up at my house.

Here’s where things start to get a little hazy.

1:00 I never went to college, but most of my friends did. So i have never played this drinking game Kings Cup.

1:30 I’m really drunk. And smoking inside.

2:00 More friends show up and my house mates come to investigate and end up part of the game. I am no longer wearing shoes at this point as a result of swearing like a sailor. Don’t ask.

3:00 my room smells like a fucking bar, but there is half a watermelon. Yay!!

3:30 DANCE PARTY!! the game has been abandoned due to lack of beer. I’m gonna go ahead and say that it was probably a good thing.

3:50 Jay-Z, strobe lights, animal masks, suits, ties, ladies, gentlemen, headdresses, whiskey, jacket related injuries (i’m really sorry about your eyebrow..)

4:30 The people start to filter out, and we start to clean up a bit.

4:50 “Want to watch True Blood??” “Sure!”

Sunrise.

Hooray for S.O.N.S. 09′

-Hiram Coffee (I’m a fucking journalist!)

Mi Ami

Honestly I wanted to go to a different show that night in San Francisco. It was Mi Ami and Double Daggers at The Knockout. It would have been so awesome. I saw Double Daggers play the night before at the Crepe Place and they are yet another fantastic post-punk band that seem to be popping up out of nowhere lately, which pleases me immensely. Hailing from Baltimore, this brutally loud three piece put on one hell of a show that had me running to my car to get ear plugs as soon as the first chord was struck. The lack of guitar worked surprisingly well leaving bass, drums and vocals to deliver a sound that had me nodding my head in glee. The singer was all over the place, tangling innocent audience members in mic cables and almost tripping me on several occasions. A fellow VitaminC4 writer was forced into a sort of slow dance with lead vocalist Nolan Strals much to everyones amusement (but certainly not hers). I picked up their latest release “More” out on Thrill Jockey and I must say I was far from disappointed, needless to say I highly recommend it for those who like that high energy, heavy post-punk sort of thing.

Mi Ami on the other hand is my new favorite band. Their live show I had the good fortune of seeing a few times is nothing short of amazing. Another three piece band now out of San Francisco features ex-members of the D.C. super group Black Eyes and embodies everything you liked about them too. With bass and drums holding down a tight rhythm you can dance to, it allows the third member to lay down spastic guitar and high pitched vocals over it. Their album “Watersports” out now on Quarter Stick is by far the best thing I’ve heard in a long time. If ever you have a chance to see either of these bands live you better do it, no excuses. None.

Deer Tick was good too. And so was Emily Jane White. I didn’t watch Dawes.

-Hiram Coffee

As of late a good majority of young hip kids that are able to rent houses with the help student loans or minimum wage jobs are doing their part to fill a void that has plagued us for years.
These fine ladies and gentlemen have been kind enough to let strangers into their homes and host shows for your entertainment. For the past couple of years a noise ordinance has been strangling the Santa Cruz music scene with a what could only be described as complete and total overkill. It went from your neighbors calling in a complaint, cop shows up, you get a warning and worst case scenario
you end up with a $32 fine if it happens again in 24 hours, to you get a warning then if it happens once more in a 12 month period, $250 fines for you and your housemates and your landlord. To make it even better the fines start doubling if it happens again. But, it seems they have finally let up and people are taking full advantage of it.

Before the noise ordinance most of the shows in Santa Cruz were house shows. I could go on and on talking about the good old days when you could throw a metal show in your kitchen but i don’t think that’s where we want to go with this article. The editing manager has informed me this is not really “a place to talk about how drunk we used to get at house shows that happened four years ago” but rather “ an article to inform readers about how drunk they can get at house shows now.” Now that the house show is becoming more and more frequent with a much lower probability of failure it’s time to start stepping up and supporting your new neighborhood venues. Here are some pretty basic guidelines to follow when attending one of these events.

-Don’t be a dick! You’re in someones home so be fucking courteous.

-If the tenants of the house/warehouse/apt/decrepit old building tell you to leave or do anything else listen to them, they are in charge.

-Do not steal or break shit. That just sucks.

-If there is a donation for the bands, beer, or house throw in some cash.

-Bring some booze, it’s never a bad idea.

-Bring your friends!

Now if you are thinking about hosting a show in your house here are a few suggestions.

-Make sure everyone you live with knows it’s happening. You do have to live with these people and i find it’s best no to piss them off. THEY KNOW WHERE YOU SLEEP!

-Sometimes it’s a good idea let your neighbors know but on the other hand sometimes it’s not. Use your own judgment.

-End it early, avoiding tickets is an under appreciated art form that is very difficult but very possible.

-If things are going poorly and no one seems to be having any fun, add beer. It works like a charm.

-IF SOMEONE IS BEING A DICK KICK THEM OUT! you have every right to and you should.

-Have fun.

Now that the guidelines are set it’s time to set the stage and do as Andrew WK so gracefully said, “YOU’D BETTER GET READY TO DIE!”. Wait, I’m mixing up my WK quotes, “PARTY HARD!”
there we go. Let’s take back the music scene, one house at a time.

Hiram Coffee

There’s a new art co-op in town. The Tannery has been going full speed ahead – putting on shows, art openings, and establishing a low income housing option for Santa Cruz artists. It’s pretty impressive if you ask me. I recently had my first visit to the Tannery and got to poke around for a bit. They have a nice little art gallery and a tiny recording studio packed full of old musical equipment that had me drooling just a bit. There is still a lot of construction going on for the apartments, but it doesn’t seem to bother the current tenants that are making all of this possible. I’m still not sure how they got the city to fund most of this though. In the past couple of years city officials have spent a lot of time and money on new ordinances to make exactly what the Tannery is doing impossible, like the noise ordinance that was passed that shut down house shows and turned Santa Cruz into a black void where a pretty awesome music scene used to be. But now it looks like things are finally on the up and up. The “Sounds of the Mighty San Lorenzo” comp is proof that not all hope is lost.

The compilation is divided into two discs, a folk side and a rock side which is very fitting considering the two genres are more or less the two predominant scenes in town. The whole thing is done up very professionally but still manages to hold on to some of that diy charm that all great things have. With a hand printed cover and forty something tracks the comp is a very straightforward representation of what our little town has to offer. It also works well as a sort of re-introduction to Santa Cruz as well as announcing our presence to the world.

So naturally if you’re going to release a compilation with two sides it’s only right to have two shows to showcase both genres being represented. The first night was the folk night featuring Mylo Jenkins, Hod, Birds Fled From Me, Johanna Lefever and various other acts. The second night brought us Brown Irish, The Spurts, A Dark and Stormy Night, BATTLE/MTN\, etc, etc. Both nights were fantastic and sold out. If you were there you were a part of something that hasn’t happened here for a long time. You were there for the beginning of something new and beautiful. The start of a music scene that has long since died in our sleepy coastal town. And if you weren’t there, well you missed out. Don’t worry though, like i said it’s just the beginning.

The Sounds of the Mighty San Lorenzo is available at Metamusic, Streetlight Records, Logos and other local stores. Check it out.

Hiram Coffee

Through Hell and High Water is the first album I’ve heard in a long time that made me remember that “metal-core” didn’t used to be a bad word. It used to refer to bands like Unbroken, Converge, and even Pg 99, bands that pierced the barrier between heavy metal (and its marriage to hooks and melody) and joined it to the anger and dissonance of punk rock. The kids might be obsessed with tight jeans and neon colors, and might care more about their Facebook profiles than the only place in town where they can see shows, but there will always be bands who see far beyond that. One listener remarked: “I thought we were still listening to Coalesce covering Led Zeppelin.” These guys remind you that while hard-core may be a genre unto itself, it still manages to tip its hat to the blues-tinged hard rock of the last 40 years.

More like The Awesome! Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business. I recognized at least a couple of these guys from Harry & The Hitmen, the most technically accomplished and interesting Santa Cruz jam band that I never really cared for. I’ve never been a jam band kind of guy, I’m more interested in what would it would sound like if you tried to play the Fibonacci sequence on a Guitar Hero controller, but that’s my personal struggle. In fact, why am I even writing about music?!?

The Terrible! carries over a lot of the, well, the cred from H&TH, the precision and the fluidity and the soul, and then makes it more… apocalyptic. It’s still precise but it’s extremely discordant at the same time, with a healthy smattering of epic guitar wheedling over a nice solid doom-y bass line. I think it’s how the Pixies would sound if they all at the same time discovered that their families had been murdered. It’s the kind of music I would want to be listening to on an elevator on the way to the 88th floor of an office building to face off with my arch-nemesis who has made a name for himself in the world of organized crime and is also quite good with throwing knives. I back it.

Ethan James

My first thought when Nan Miller started singing was “Oh my God! That guy has a setting on his microphone that makes him sound like M. Ward!” It was just one of those little half-egg-shaped deals, but I thought what with technology being what it is and all that I just might have stumbled onto something ground-breaking. I still think that would be a good idea (patent pending, motherfuckers) but once the song was over and he paused to say something cute back to the giggling audience sitting cross-legged in a semi-circle around him, I realized that it was just a normal mike. There was a little reverb on it or whatever, but it was really all his doing.

This turn of events inspired dueling emotions. On the one hand, I was excited that his voice really is that silky and ethereal and nuanced. On the other, I was pretty bummed because my dreams of sounding like M. Ward are apparently much farther away than a special order at The Starving Musician. Nan went on to give us several more soulful, heart-string-intensive ballads in addition to a very nice Leonard Cohen cover that I didn’t recognize. Make yourselves easier to find on Myspace, people, all of this arduous fact-finding has delayed my trip to Safeway too long already. I found myself quite entranced, and the crowd gobbled it right up. They did, however, call out several songs by name, not to mention some anecdote from Nan’s past, so I’m going to go ahead and file them under “biased”.

In summation, I can’t be 100% sure who Nan Miller looks to for influence, once again because of the no Myspace thing, but I’d wager we’re looking at a roster of folk-rock legends and iconic singer/songwriters like Cohen and Dylan and all the usual suspects. Presupposing this, I’d say he’s done a very studious and successful job of emulating these heroes. That’s both a compliment and a criticism in a sense, but it’s a lot more of the former.

Ethan James

The transformation of the Crepe Place from a funky, old-school Santa Cruz restaurant to the epicenter of what appears to be full-fledged renaissance in the music scene in this town has been a little odd for me. It seemed that overnight, bands like Red Sparowes, who used to bypass Santa Cruz entirely on their national tours, were packing the tiny room at the corner of Seabright and Soquel with people who genuinely seemed to enjoy the music, who didn’t just stand around drunk and indifferent while the bands were playing. This is a great boon for a scene that has long been wracked by apathy and Johnny-come-lately faddishness. Now that dance-punk appears to be over (thank god) for the most part, and the hardcore scene has been reclaimed by the sober people, the fashion of the day, particularly at the crepe place, seems to be of the freak-folk, boots and beads and beards sort. Which is why it was especially nice to see the three dudes of BATTLE /MTN\ deliver a set of some actual Rock music the other night at our beloved creperie.

The dudes consist of one skinny, hyper vegan kid on drums, one brooding, bearded fellow smelling vaguely of whiskey on the first of two guitars, and their leader, a handsome Chinese gentleman with some killer dance moves on guitar and vocals, and they laid it the fuck down at this, the second ever live show they’ve played. The songs veer between instrumental, spazzy post-Don Caballero jams played at Fang Island (google ‘em) speed, and moments of downright heaviness such as the song I know only by the name of “The Stony Jam”, a riff heavy Sabbath throwback that allows the handsome mister coffee to really get his scream on. Of great interest was the song that presented the band as a four piece, with their fourth member playing the electric guitar with a slide. It added a great deal of texture to the songs, which can sound a bit thin at times, and the fleshed out, four piece sound made me think of some of the post hardcore music of the nineties that I used to love and has since disappeared from the face of the earth, for the most part. Think early Unwound, or maybe the mellow parts of bands like Indian Summer and Shotmaker. All in all, a great deal of promise from a really fun band.

However, as we all know, any time you leave the house, you leave yourself open to interaction with any of the endless number of fucking kooky douchebags that this town has to offer. There was this little motherfucker doing his moshing thing in a roomful of people who were standing completely still, and this is made even more inexcusable by the fact that this dude was at least five to ten years older than myself (I am twenty five). Not only did he fall face first and into my lady friend and I (he was apparently in the grips of some kind of guitar induced epileptic fit) he then lay on our fucking feet until we kicked him away. This was then followed by the classy move of knocking the singer’s mic stand over and being so intoxicated that he couldn’t really stand it upright unassisted. It was about nine thirty in the pm at the time, by the way. I heard later that he caused so many problems during the next band’s set that the promoters had to get him in a headlock and forcibly remove him from the venue. Good work bro. First dude ever 86′d from the fucking Crepe Place. Kind of impressive, almost. But I also heard that this same dude’s cab broke down and he had to walk to whatever shit hole apartment or relative’s basement he resides in, so I guess he got his. In conclusion:

BATTLE /MTN\: Awesome, with a lot of potential
DRUNKEN IDIOTS: Everywhere. Be on your guard.
THE CREPE PLACE: Unlikely though it may be, so far the best place to see a show in Santa Cruz at the moment.

Daniel Strong

Worldwide lovers of the finer things are rejoicing at the news that Mudhoney, yep Mudhoney, is back in vinyl and digital action in 2008 with The Lucky Ones, the band’s eighth full album in a mere 20 years of triumphant rocking.

The Lucky Ones redefines stripped-down, “back 2 basics” ramalama, certainly when it comes to Mudhoney’s recent past. I mean, it’s not like the band’s other twenty-first century works (2002’s Since We’ve Become Translucent and 2006’s Under a Billion Suns) were proggy, topographic explorations or anything—far from it. Yet this new one is deliberately and aggressively raw. It sounds as lean and as full-on as any modern equivalent one cares to mention. Recorded in a scant 3.5 days (including overdubs) with Tucker Martine (who also recorded four songs on the previous album), Mudhoney went in armed with a batch of new material expecting to spend a fair amount of time getting it right. Bang—and bang again after some mixing—and a new album was birthed in record time, faster than anything else the band’s done to date.

Borrowed from Sub Pop Records’ Mudhoney page

Wooden Ships, SF Dirty Stealer, Sleepy Sun support and open the show.

Show time: 8:00 pm Tickets $15 adv, $18 door available at: Ticket Web, Streetlight Records 831-421-9200, The Crepe Place 831-429-6994

The Santa Cruz hardcore scene has changed a lot since i was a kid. It has had it’s ups and downs but now exists in this weird middle ground that i don’t really understand. Maybe I’m too old or maybe hardcore got a little too old for me. Either way i’m hoping my little brother, at the prime age of 18, can help me make sense of something i was so dedicated to when i was his age.

Hiram Coffee– You can sit down if you want.

Hugh Coffee– okay..

Hiram– So you’re in a band?

Hugh– yeah..

Hiram– it’s called HEROSHIMA

Hugh– yeah..

Hiram– So you guys are playing a show with Shai Hulud on Wednesday, how stoked are you?

Hugh– pretty stoked.

Hiram– i was surprised to hear that they are putting on the show at a roller rink in San Jose

Hugh– yeah……

Hiram– this is the part where we insert “awkward pause”

(awkward pause)

Hugh– yeah i have no idea why this is weird. Oh, on Wednesday we get to skate for free!

Hiram– So why do you think it is that a lot of the younger kids in Santa Cruz are drawn to hardcore music and start bands with funny names, like there’s your band and a couple other of high school hardcore bands

Hugh– yeah, i don’t really know any by name

Hiram– fair enough. i feel like you’re giving the scene a lot of support by playing shows at the 418, Do you think there is even much of a scene in town anymore?

Hugh– not really, just cause not that many shows are happening anymore.

Hiram– i hear a lot of kids talking about how bad the economy is and it surprises me that people are saying that the reason why they can’t form bands, go on tour or put on shows is that the economy is shit.

Hugh– that’s everyone’s excuse.

Hiram– i don’t feel like that’s true at all and definitely not in the spirit of hardcore music. i just feel like the scene has changed a lot in the last six years.

Hugh– yeah, i don’t know.

Hiram– you wanna play Dead Space?

Hugh– YEAH!

For this portion of the interview Hugh and i decided it would be a good idea to go inside not only because it was cold but also because that’s where the xbox lives.

Hiram– so you guys just finished recording a new CD?

Hugh– yeah

Hiram– How’s that going?

Hugh– We still haven’t put it out yet, we’re waiting on CD art

Hiram– Are you going to put it out on a label or just do it yourself?

Hugh– Well we sent our CD to a couple of record labels but we haven’t heard back yet so we’ll probably just put it out ourselves.

Hiram– I feel like that’s kind of the way to go anyway.

Hugh–yeah. Whoa. Sick! (Hugh just started playing Dead Space.)

Hiram– So awesome.

Hugh– what!? is that me?

Hiram– yeah it’s all in third person. okay, hang a left and there is a small med kit.

you have to wait for the door to open.

Hugh– Oh i get it.

what was that? oh my god. holy crap. What is that!? OH SHIT!!

Hiram– OTHER DOOR! OTHER DOOR!

Hugh– WHAT DOOR!?

Hiram– THE ONE ON YOUR LEFT! NO YOUR OTHER LEFT!!

Hugh– this is scary.. SHIT IT”S BACK! oh my god oh my god.

i am not into this dude.

Hiram– you have to cut off their limbs to kill them.

Hugh– Oh, alright i can do that.

Hiram– Hey so what does metalcore even mean?

Hugh– it’s pretty much, you know, a converging of metal and hardcore which creates this like, really bad music.

Hiram– those weird necromorph things come through the vents.

Hugh– Oh, that sucks. AHHH! FUCK! FUCK!

did you hear? i shot a gun.

Hiram– you shot a gun?

Hugh– yeah i shot a 12 gauge shotgun.

Hiram– that’s sooo metal! where?

Hugh– at Jordan’s (bassist for Heroshima) dad’s house.

Hiram– what were you shooting at? cars? squirrels?

Hugh– cans.

Hiram– you were out in Boulder Creek weren’t you?

Hugh– No, i was actually in Huntington Beach which happens to be in the middle of nowhere.

Hiram– awesome.

Hugh– it was during tour when we didn’t have any shows so we hung out with our parents.

Hiram– did you just bring the shotgun with you guys?

Hugh– no it was at his house.

Hiram– that would have been pretty hardcore.

Hugh– this one band we toured with did.

Hiram– what? brought a shot gun with them?

Hugh– yeah, they were kinda crazy though.

Hiram– well yeah.

Hugh and Hiram– Bye Cedric

Hiram– Oh yeah, how was summer tour ’08?

Hugh– Um… pretty shitty. We didn’t really play any good shows and a lot of shows got canceled.

Hiram– lame.

Hugh– we only made it to Utah and we were supposed to go across the country and back.

Hiram– that sucks.

Hugh– yeah we just ran out of money and all our shows fell through. i think this door is locked.

Hiram– use your key dude.

Hugh– i have a key?

CJ- i think you dropped it.

Hiram– no i think it’s still there yeah the storage key. Oh yeah GET THE POWER NODE!!

Hugh– Where is it? what the hell is a power node?

Hiram– just go left. i mean right. yeah right. power node.

Hugh– sick. power node, what do they do?

Hiram– now go to the bench.

Hugh– bench? Oh bench!

Hiram– now you can upgrade all your equipment with the power nodes. if you have one more you can upgrade your health meter.

Hugh– what should i do?

Hiram– go back and just put them in your plasma cutter.

Hugh– HELL YEAH!

AHHHHH!

Hiram– KILL IT!!

Hugh– I’M TRYING! WHY WON’T YOU DIE!

Hiram– grab the stasis pack.

Hugh– what?

Hiram– just grab it. get the med kit too.

Hugh– Oh shit, what happened?

Hiram– RUN!

Hugh– oh great. i’m on fire. oh god. did i lose?

Hiram– in a way, yes.

Hugh– really?

Hiram– no.

Hugh– oh fuck. oh fuck. oh my god. Hiram. Hiram!

CJ- RUN!!

Hiram– SHOOT IT! oh cool a store. if i were you i would get the level 2 suit. Oh wait. get the scorpion suit.

Hugh– whoa, i look so bad ass. I’m like indestructible now!

Hiram– not quite, but it looks pretty cool. and your inventory is huge.

Hugh– alright, i should go.

Hiram– thanks for coming over Hugh.

Hugh– no problem, thanks for cutting my hair.

Hiram– sure, anytime.

The last portion of the interview was done via text message.

Hiram– What’s with the whole bro-core that seems to be coming out more at shows and hardcore in general?

Hugh– Well i think it roots directly from hard line straightedge crews and the idea that they have that if you’re really tough you’re really cool. I actually went to a town in Utah when i was on tour with an actual documented straight edge killing.

Hiram– Whoa. So did a bunch of straightedge kids kill a junkie or what?

Hugh– You know i don’t really know the whole story but i imagine it was something like that.

Hiram– When i was a kid i felt like there was more of a sense of community and involvement in the scene. Do you think that holds true today?

Hugh– No, i feel like people really try to keep the scene alive, but there are to many assholes who go to shows and kinda ruin it for everyone.

End.

Hugh Coffee plays guitar for Heroshima and is one kick ass little brother. Keep your eye out for the new album “Through Hell and High Water” out soon. I already have a copy, it’s so good it makes me want to disown Hugh and never speak to him again.

Hiram Coffee

On October 25th at around 8:00 PM two shows started. One at 418 Cedar St. and the other at 320 Cedar. At 418 Cedar stands the cafe we all know too well, Pergolesi. And at 320 Cedar the best vinyl shop in the county, Metamusic. Because some of us here at VITAMINC4 can never make up our minds and are incapable of doing anything alone, both Ethan and I decided we would cover the two shows at the same time, together. Here’s my take on the two very different shows- One being a sort of casio-drone-folky-improv-noise show and the other, well i guess a rock show. That sounds so cheesy though, “So we went to this rock show.” Saying that kind of makes me cringe. Eh.

So I went to this rock show as well. Parts of it, anyway. Together, Hiram and I will weave for you a tapestry of words more intricate and beautiful than the finest-spun threads of a silkworm’s chrysalis.

Quantum Visionary @ Pergolesi

Okay, let’s get bunch of kids together that all hate each others taste in music. Let’s make them agree to start a band and find some sort of common ground where every band that any of these kids ever liked, would wage war against one another in an epic battle for glory in the context of one song. Whoa. These guys have no filter. Awesome. Imagine taking a song from every genre in your iTunes library, burning a mix cd of it, then throwing it a blender, hitting the button that’s labeled “LIQUIFY” and screaming over the loud crunching noise of your (or your house mate’s) blender breaking. I thought it was pretty good.

When your common ground is “rocking the fuck out” it’s kind of hard to go wrong. I think Hiram put this much better than I every could, as I spent at least half of their set trying to figure out who was a bigger moron: me, or the person who designed my new camera. The hearty helping of Coheed & Cambria folded into their omelet is grounded really well by some spontaneous metal licks and a commitment to dance-y how-do-you-like-this-then fun times.

Young Fiction @ METAMUSIC

There’s a lot one can do with six small keyboards, a small selection of electronic children’s toys, a grip of pedals, a guitar and a mic. But it’s the person who decides to do next to nothing with this setup that’s really hot shit. Taking a minimalist approach to overkill, Young Fiction produces a fantastic blend of ambient noise, bright casiotone key notes and coherent vocals and guitar. After he finished his set i booked it over to Pergolesi to catch the next band.

Desa @ Pergolesi
Maybe Ethan has something good to say about this band. I certainly don’t.

So I went on Myspace to get a little refresher on Desa, and ended up hearing a completely different band. Mad props to whoever made those recordings – you have managed to produce a very polished, professional, melodic paint-by-numbers wankfest. As it was, the PBNWF presented to my ears was much less coherent. I would like to give them a second chance, though, as the singer had Bradley Nowell caught in his throat on this particular evening. I’m going to assume he partied too hard the night before.

PC Load Letter @ METAMUSIC

Take Young Fiction’s setup and add a second member and you get something new entirely. I was told that it was all improvised which made it fairly impressive. I even found myself tapping my foot along to nice even tempo, casio drum lines and pretty melodies. I am glad to see someone is picking up where Storm&Stress (the band not the German literary movement Sturm und Drang.) left off. Ian Williams would be proud. But probably not actually. Next!

Desa @ Pergolesi

They are still playing. Seriously, i know most of you used to be in Link 80, but that does not give you the right to annoy the shit out of everyone. You already did that like eight years ago.

I guess my general attitude is that if you’re playing in the back room of a coffee house that doesn’t have anything even resembling a stage, you kind of have to ditch the idea that the show is about YOU. I’m sure Desa is used to playing waaaaaaay bigger gigs, but every one of the other bands that I saw tonight did a much better job of creating an atmosphere where they were sharing their music with the audience, and the audience was happy to host the band as guests in their space. I think this is the sort of give-and-take attitude that kept me from getting tarred & feathered even once while in Supersect, despite the fact that my primary job function was to sweat all over anyone too slow to get out of my way. As it was, power-chord lunges and soulful face-scrunching were not enough to win the heart of this audience member, even after I realized that they had turned the bright blue light enough so that I could take pictures even on “Auto”, which is apparently the most confidence my camera will place in my photographic skills. I guess I can’t really blame it.

Anomie @ METAMUSIC

Drone-tastic! To tell you the truth i don’t really know what happened. I think the wall of tape loops hit me a little harder than i expected and i blacked out. When i woke up i had Cole/Anomie standing over me waving around a homemade bass constructed of cardboard and duct tape, probably thinking about different ways to strategically place himself and his “bass” to get the maximum amount of feedback out of a 10″ by 10″ amp. Did i get it? No. Did i think it was awesome? yes.

This is exactly what I’m talking about. A bunch of folks hanging out while Cole & his deputies scurry around trying to find the scientific combination of loops and noises run through pedals that most effectively sends everyone to their happy place. My favorite part was when he handed two of his cardboard instruments to Matt & Peter so they could noodle with him. I’m not sure whether they knew they would be part of the band beforehand. I like to think not.

This is kind of what it sounded like:

Mtn. Animal Hospital @ Pergolesi

I like these guys more and more every time i see them. Not only are they the biggest bunch of sweet hearts, they are all really good looking. Like “stuck on a desert island and you can pick one band to take with you to keep you company” good looking. Mtn Animal Hospital is soooo cute! I want to squeeze them and never ever stop.

Yeah, I don’t even know what I need to say about Mountain Animal Hospital. They keep writing songs, keep playing tons of shows, and keep getting better and better. They always manage to sound solid no matter what surreal tangent they’re off on. That’s the main thing: each song is fresh and interesting without ever straying into I-guess-I’ll-put-up-with-this-to-hear-that-one-I-like territory. And they had great Christmas lights on the keyboard and stuff. It was really fun.

Yeah, i would do it again…

Hiram Coffee
Ethan James

Aside from that they were loud and made it difficult to buy a drink. We slowly pushed our way through the crowd to get to the back door. To tell you the truth we spent most of the opener’s set chain smoking in the outdoor dining area which was fantastic. After a conversation about how our friend’s cousin got really into saving the world through meditation and inflating his own ego i decided to go check out Misty Mountain. The place was packed. I stuck around long enough to get the
gist of it. The songs were stony but lacked the energy that backs the singers other band Mammatus. I love Mammatus but this was clearly not them.

I spent the next forty minutes or so watching my friends dive face first into a vat of whiskey and gateway drugs. As sober driver i got to watch the entire ordeal unfold in front of my less than willing eyes. Ugh. Anyways Sleepy Sun was about to go on so once again I found myself wading through a mass of slightly irritating UC students, stoned psyche-rock fans and of course, drunk assholes. I finally got the front of the stage where i found a cozy little spot next to a group of people who very obviously never heard any of the bands on the bill and a little out of their element. I waited for a bit then the lights started to dim, the band members took their places, amps were turned on. then we waited again.

Sleepy Sun kicked off the set with the very appropriately titled song Sleepy Son. AWESOME! LET’S PARTY! The only thing i didn’t enjoy was the tone deaf girl standing next to me trying to sing along while her friend just kept yelling “this song is totally on the cd!! I totally listened to this song!” Good fucking grief Lucy.

Five or six songs into their set i somehow ended up in the back near the bar which was less than awesome. Most of my friends ended up too drunk to stick around, the sound sucked and i couldn’t see shit. The people behind me would not stop screaming at each other so i turned around to politely ask them to PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP. But as luck would have it they were the other half of my very drunk friends that lacked the presence of mind to realize that they needed to leave or shut the fuck up. I am kind of a pushover so i let slide.

After a set of new and old material they finished with the hit single White dove. God they are so good. If you haven’t heard them before just buy the album, buy it now. You won’t regret it. So the official verdict.

Crepe Place- Awesome venue, it can get a little cramped at times, but it’s an all ages venue with a bar. Rad.

Sleepy Sun- Totally rad.

Mammatus- Totally rad.

Kingdom Of Loathing- Totally rad.

I can’t wait to do it again…

- Hiram Coffee.