cold steel on ice

five days till hockey down the street.

my early burglary years

Sing us our
Favourite song
Nobody loves us
Born-again athiests
Practicing troublemakers
Make us our
Favourite jam
Nobody loves us
Useless and shiftless
And jobless
But we are all yours

tie down the jersey cause it could get ugly tonight.

Milan Lucic is a beast. several examples.

runaways

Memories down the drain
I forget them gradually
They vanished just like I did
Derailed, no path for me
So take your sentiments
The evidence you present
Tells me I've got it wrong
But it's you that makes no fucking sense
Fuck you we will elude
Can't capture us or be confused
From the morals i'm removed
Found vultures walking in my shoes
FUCK YOU WE WILL ELUDE

lalalalalala

morrissey in chicago 2007.

We All Die Alone.

Broken dreams. Memories.
Maybe now's the time to go. Let's go.
I'll save my last goodbye. For now I'll leave this at goodnight,
tonight. I'm thinking. I'll leave this for tonight.

Southpaw

there is something you should know.
the girl of you dreams is here all alone.
the girl of your dreams is sad and all alone.

partners in crime

"it was us against the world..."

only one October

post season baseballs.

NLDS
Philly over Bratheads.
Cubbies over Red Sox West.

ALDS
Sawx over Halos.
The Missile over Orange Juicers.

NLCS
Philly over Cubbies

ALCS
Sawx over The Missile

WS
Sawx over Philly

seven years...

while i wouldnt consider keith olbermann a news journalist...

life. love. diablerie.

holy shit... Disembodied alone would be sweet, but add in Unbroken!?!?!

from lambgoat.com
"Recent rumors of a Disembodied reunion show appear to be well-founded, as the group will reportedly reunite for a show in Chicago early next year. Said show is being organized to coincide with the release Brian Peterson's upcoming book, Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit and Sound, which is being distributed by Revelation Records.

Originally slated for December, the event will now take place in late-March/early-April and will likely also feature some notable performances which have yet to be divulged (Unbroken is among those rumored).

Look for official information to surface in early-October."

youre one of them...

newsflash: Henry Rollins is an icon according to Vans.
dually noted.

there were ghosts in the eyes

the screen door slams
Mary' dress waves
like a vision she dances across the porch
as the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
hey that's me and i want you only
don't turn me home again
i just can't face myself alone again

manny being manny

happy trails Manny Ramirez.
All good things must come to an end.
Jason Bay will look after your bathroom and cell phone for you.
Cooperstown awaits you...

a pretty little girl that i left behind

came across this video of Lucero from when they played the Bottle back in June. fun weekend. two shows of lucero with a cubs game sandwiched in between. Lucero is good summer music. the back of my head is visable all the way to the left hand side of the screen. rock.

the '59 sound

"...you ain't supposed to die on a Saturday night."

outlive, outlearn, outlast

bought a ticket this morning for Henry Rollins when he comes through in October. His time is running out to use the Bush Administration as a source of material for his talking shows, which is not a bad problem to have, by any means, so he seems to be taking advantage by doing a big long tour. At the Vic Theatre again, will be there early so i can score my same seat that i have sat in the last few times he's been there.

you've got me at an all time low

and she'd love to leave for someplace nice and cold
and she'd love to live far from me or anyone shes ever known

i'm throwing my arms around chicago

I've noticed I'm up to 4 days worth of Morrissey mp3s.
sweet.

when routine bites hard

out on dvd now. i think ive watched this at least five times in the last week plus the two times i saw it in theaters. im sure i will watch it tons more times. one of my favorites from last year.

im going deaf soon.

hows this for a weekend...

9/26 - Mogwai @ Congress Theater
9/27 - My Bloody Valentine @ Aragon Ballroom
9/28 - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds @ Riviera
9/29 - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds @ Riviera

after those first two shows i hope my hearing is in tact for Nick Cave

blinded by fear

only five more weeks or so to get through...

she wakes when she dreams

she wears a sorrow beauty can’t hide
i pray she sheds it and sleep the whole night
she wakes when she dreams
sleeps when she wakes

its gets the worst at night

i survived the alcohol intake of a lucero weekend for the second time this year. this time there was a cubs game sandwiched in between. saturday night they played on the streets of chicago at do division fest. they played just under an hour and the set was similar to what they did when they opened for hot water music, keeping it to some of the more "safe" songs. "safe" meaning songs that are regular staples of their setlist and wont be fucked up by the usual intake of alcohol. sunday night they played a"secret" sold out show at empty bottle and that one was more the typical lucero show with the expected fuckups missing from the previous night which is mostly what makes lucero shows the experience they are. this will prolly be the last time they roll through in a while as i know some family life has to be attended to come the fall, but ben should be doing some sort of solo tour during that time. looking forward to it.

this weekend even got a mention on spin.com
Lucero shake loose in Chicago

from back in february at Metro...

years of refusal

Morrissey’s new studio album ‘Years of Refusal’ is now complete, and is set for a September release by Polydor UK (Universal). It has yet to be decided which Universal label will release the album in the US.

‘Years of Refusal’ has 12 tracks and is produced by Jerry Finn.

Prior to this, Sony-BMG will issue a remastered version of ‘Southpaw Grammar’ in July. This album, first released in 1995, will include three previously unreleased tracks, and new artwork.

...sweet.

gimmie gimmie gimmie

the history of black flag haircuts

are you in?

There really isn't anything else in sports that has the constant intensity over two and a half hours like playoff hockey and to be more specific the Stanley Cup Final. i really don't have a horse in this race, i suppose i would rather see the Penguins take it due to my hatred of the Red Wings, but at the same time i wouldn't mind seeing Lidstrom win the Cup again.

playlist:
vision of disorder - s/t

do you really think she'll pull through?

girlfriend in a coma, i know, i know, it's serious

everything has it's point to it

a ticket has been secured for My Bloody Valentine in september at the aragon b(r)a(w)llroom. looking forward to this in so many ways, just hope the sound isn't too bad as that venue isnt the best when it comes to acoustics.

a few weeks back i went to three Padres/Cubs baseball games in the span of four days. it should have been four in four days, but i opted out of sitting in a downpour of rain during game two, to watch comfortably from my bed at home. Of course the game i don't goto is the one that the Padres win. i am a Cubs fan, however with Greg Maddux being my favorite baseball player to ever play the game, i've become a Padres fan the last few years, much as i had a rooting interest for the Braves during the 90's, being thats where Maddux was. So during this series, i stuck to rooting for the Padres just for the hell of it. For game 4, i was able to watch Maddux pitch, what very well could be his last time ever pitching at Wrigley. he didn't fare too well, but it was still great to be able to see him do his thing one last time. Now that Clemens has been exposed for the fraud that he is, there should be no doubt that Maddux has been the greatest pitcher of the last 25 years.

recently i've discovered the brilliance that is Java Monster. i've never drank energy drinks before and only really drink coffee these days if it is of the irish variety, however on a whim i bought one of these and i'm pretty sure i'm hooked now. so far i've tried the Big Black and Mean Bean, i'm in search of the Irish Blend, but that one has eluded me so far.

playlist:
Shipwreck AD - Abyss
Forfeit - Visions EP

you made me realize

i have this long running stance that band reunions are really dumb. i think that for the most part bands belong to a certain era or timeframe and should be stuck to that. there are of course exceptions to the rule. i have passed up numerous chances to see a variety of bands that have gotten back together after however long a hiatus, because i wasnt really interested in seeing some rehashing or attempt to recapture a time long past. ie: the current bad brains comeback.

needless to say after that. this september my bloody valentine will be playing a show at the aragon ballroom, and i will be making an exception to what i had said to the above. i have for quite some time answered the "if you could go back in time to see any band at any point in time?" question with my bloody valentine. i have in my head their live performance to be something like mogwai x 10. mogwai being the current greatest live band ive ever experienced. im hoping that i will be able to secure tickets for mbv and i hope they do not disappoint and disprove my belief on band reunions.

this is one of my top five favorite uses of youtube ever...

this is for the one who saved me

there is long list of reasons to prove the greatness of Sick Of It All
this video is on there somewhere...

uniformed whores

so kansas won their first basketball championship in exactly twenty years. while my bracket that i filled out this year on espn.com looked pretty rough at the end, i did end up correctly picking kansas to win it all. i came in six hundred thousandth place or something. but when you consider there were millions of entries, that actually isnt bad at all.

today was one of those great days where it stormed pretty much non-stop the entire day. but seriously people usually get stupid when it snows and forget how to drive, now they are are completely clueless on the etiquette when walking with an umbrella. simply, i don't use an umbrella. i just don't like carrying it around. i accept the fact i will get wet as a result of my choice and i'm fine with that. still when there happens to be an awning along the sidewalk and people with umbrellas walk in that space forcing those without umbrellas to walk out in the open in the rain is really annoying. you have cover, we don't. and finally when walking with an umbrella, please don't look down while walking or let the entire thing cover your head so you cant see where you're walking and you don't see the people coming toward you until they are 6 inches away and you've almost collided with them (me). ohh and one more thing, whats with people carrying the golf umbrellas that have a span of about eight feet across taking up the entire sidewalk, only giving me about six inches to squeeze by you, under the open sky of course.

done venting on that.
morrissey makes it all better.

reader meet authur

i found a bar tonight where i can drink a lot of Stella for real cheap and after 10pm or something they give away free food, including some of the best mashed potatoes i've had in a long time. they have traces of cheese in them and taste a lot like cheez-its. the only downside was these two girls showed up and were dj-ing the hiphop hits of 2003 with compact discs. clearly dj fuckhead has opened an academy and has proteges. if not for them we would have stayed and this bar would have five star potential.

swing and a drive...

i'm so happy baseball is back.
i missed it so much.

destination: death or better days

i find it great that in a city as big as chicago, you can walk down one of the major streets in the city on a sunday night and go blocks upon blocks without passing another person. this occurred this evening as i walked down belmont on two separate occasions. as dumb or cliche as it sounds walking in the rain, alone down a city street with your ipod is one of the greatest things ever.

tonight was the final chicago show for modern life is war. it will be sad to see them go as i really think over the past five years for the most part they did things the right way despite the way the industry currently works. in the end that might have been what cost them more longevity. who knows. it might have just been their time. six years is a long time for a band to be together when you think about it. they are one of those bands though that has kept my interest in hardcore going at an age when most people have givin up long ago.



update on the mail. some of the movies showed up, the day after i had reported them missing. they showed up a week late along with their replacements which only took a day to arrive. there are still three dvds missing. i suppose i should report them missing so they can show up the next day. still no phone call about my missing packages. im willing to bet they got the return to sender treatment.

i will keep you warm in hell

i am convinced that the US postal service is plotting against me. i have netflix movies that should have been here days ago. two of them were supposed to be here last teusday and another three were supposed to be here last thursday. i'm aware sometimes it takes longer than the time netflix says it will, but never has it taken a week even when they are sent from other cities, and not all 5 movies at once.

on top of that, i did get two of my packages on saturday, but got one of those little notices saying i had two packages to pick up at the post office. first off i'm not quite sure why they left 2 of my packages, but didn't leave these other two. so i wake early this morning to walk to the post office to retrieve my packages. after giving the lady my slip and standing there for about 15 minutes, she returns to tell me that she cant find my packages, she takes my phone number and says she will call when she finds them. she didn't really give a time frame on when they might find my packages, but i was kinda hoping to get a call sometime during the day today. obviously not. perhaps they have columbo working on it. im pretty sure i wont be receiving a phone call.

they better not fuck up the delivery of my cubs tickets, which should be coming at some point. its just odd that the only mail i've received over a one week period was two packages. no junk mail, no bills. i usually get mail of some sort fairly frequently. im going to give the netflix a few more days before i report them missing, so i can get back to watching movies. we shall see what happens...

i'm really quite shy

when you spend the majority of the day drinking, only to come home and pass out for a few hours, and wake up at midnight, the clear thing to do is watch a baseball game being played in china and then sit around at 4am watching morrissey clips on youtube.
one of my favorite morrissey songs...

pity for none

so apparently i've already slacked on doing a weekly band of the week post, which i figured i would slack on at some point. i just didn't think it would come this quick into the plot. i'm sure they could pop up again along the way, but i cant promise anything.

starting tomorrow night around 10pm i will be on "vacation" for a week. the word is in quotes because i'm not actually going anyplace or doing anything remotely outside of my usual routine. i am however racking up timeoff paid hours at work and need to start using them. i'm not the fan of vacations or taking time off or any of that stuff i suppose. i figured this week was as good as any though with a bunch of shows coming through and st. patricks day in a week. i can knock though a few bottles of jameson and get in some netflix action. perhaps even get around to going to see the sharks at the Shedd which has been on my to do list forever.

'twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky

its getting to be that time of year again.
i even took a whole week off work to celebrate.



As down the glen one Easter morn
To a city fair rode I,
Their armed lines of marching men
In squadrons passed me by.
No pipe did hum, no battle drum
Did sound its loud tattoo
But the Angelus' bells o'er the Liffey swells
Rang out in the foggy dew.

Right proudly high in Dublin town
Hung they out a flag of war.
'Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky
Than at Suvla or Sud el Bar.
And from the plains of Royal Meath
Strong men came hurrying through;
While Brittania's Huns with their long-range guns
Sailed in through the foggy dew.

The bravest fell, and the requiem bell
Rang mournfully and clear
For those who died that Easter-tide
In the springing of the year.
While the world did gaze with deep amaze
At those fearless men but few
Who bore the fight that freedom's light
Might shine through the foggy dew.

And back through the glen I rode again
And my heart with grief was sore
For I parted then with valiant men
Whom I never shall see more
But to and fro
In my dreams I go
And I kneel and pray for you
For slavery fled
Oh, glorious dead
When you fell in the foggy dew

tastes like good cough syrup

a craptastic day came to an end with a little experimentation after i poured the wrong soda in my glass...

+


+

= actually pretty good.

no one understands you at all

every sunday i'm going to try to do a band of the week type post, where simply i pick a band that i have a great amount of love for and try to not get too sentimental talking about why i love them and gravitate towards their music. ill try to throw up a video or music clip or album or something along those lines. so anyhow, the first band of week...

LIFE OF AGONY

i first encountered Life Of Agony in the winter of 1993/1994, when River Runs Red had just come out. i was aware of the band only because they were on roadrunner and that the drummer had been in Type O Negative. i still remember the location i first listened to most of the record, which oddly enough was at high school. at the time i was doing a radio show and a friend, who had bought the record, brought it in to play some tracks off of it. it was different than the usual fair of metal that i was listening to at the time as it mixed in elements of hardcore. at the time the only hardcore band i really had any interest in was Sick Of It All. most of the bands that i know now from that time and prior to be hardcore, i simply lumped in with punk since i mostly listened to metal at the time and didn't know any better. RRR dealt with real issues, had the whole weeklong storyline skit tracks mixed in with the songs on the record. it was one of those albums that i heard once and i was hooked.

the second album, Ugly came out in 1995 and it was around this time that i was able to see Life Of Agony live for the first time. i saw them open for KMFDM at the aragon and Anthrax at the vic in fall of 95. the next year they came through a couple times on their own headlining tours, which i was able to catch. they played a good mix of songs from both records every time i saw them and for a short time LOA were one of my favorite bands and in some ways started that bridge of taking my musical tastes from mostly metal and crossing back into the world of hardcore.

From there the band kind of went downhill in my eyes, writing more accessible songs on their next record, then losing Keith, and finally breaking up. they've gotten back together in the past few years and done a new album which i find kinda blah. i haven't seen them since the reunification, but those first two records are still personal favorites of mine and have a permanent spot on my ipod. this past week i got around to picking up both albums on vinyl, which is the main reason LOA ended up being picked here. Life of Agony is one of those bands that affects me in the same way at age 30 as they did when i first heard them at age 16. theyve gotten me through some bad periods of my life, and im glad that i will always have their music in the future for bad periods still to come.

the zine is a lost artform

yesterday i got a bunch of zines in the mail, along with my modern life is war vinyl. issues one and two of Listen Up and issue three of It Ain't All Hugs & Handshakes. the zine is a lost artform within the hardcore scene these days with everything moving to the internets these days. i still, much like vinyl i guess, like to have the physical product though in my hands to experience. its much different laying in bed, spending an hour thumbing through a zine than sitting in a chair looking at a computer and reading an article or interview.

there seem to be far and far less zines these days than 10 years ago, when i would try to get my hands on as many as i could whenever i would order from lumberjack, very or revelation. over the years i've tried to hold onto old issues of zines like Hanging Like A Hex, Sliver, Second Nature, I Stand Alone, MAG, Status, etc. and while there are great current ones, like the two mentioned above as well as Define The Meaning, Value Of Strength, and At Both Ends. the amount of them seems to have diminished greatly and while im aware of the reasons, which i'll save for diving into another day, its just a sad day for the status of the zine it seems.

24-0

its nice to see that things have picked up exactly where theyve left off...



FORT MYERS, Fla.—Josh Beckett and the Boston Red Sox were in October form during their exhibition opener.

Baseball's only 20-game winner last year didn't care that his first opponent of spring training was a Boston College team that had been working out indoors all winter to escape the cold and snow up north.

The Red Sox ace only cared about keeping batters from making contact and refining his pitches on a relatively chilly (58 degrees) Florida day. He retired all six hitters he faced, four on strikeouts, in Boston's 24-0 victory in seven innings Thursday.

AL Rookie of the Year Dustin Pedroia hit a two-run double, and a Red Sox split squad picked up right where the team left off last October when it swept Colorado for its second World Series title in four years.