Flogging Molly seems to be one of those bands that, even if you’re not familiar with them, you have heard of them.

They are unique in that they incorporate traditional Irish music and instrumentation into the punk rock fold and end up with a sound unlike any other band. Along with using the typical guitar, bass and drums, you will also hear the use of fiddles, accordions, mandolins, tin whistle, and banjo’s plus a few other oddities. When you hear their music, there’s no mistaking who it is.

They tend to tour quite extensively which seems to be the norm for many punk bands and which is probably why it was four years between the last two albums. They are currently touring in Europe with “Street Dogs” after finishing up an American tour in October which included a stop at Pullman. Over the last 16 months they have been in our neck of the woods four times and I’ve been lucky enough to catch two of those shows once at Warped Tour 2007 on the main stage where they were a huge hit and again at a sold out show at the Showbox Sodo last December in Seattle where they were headlining and again were a huge hit.

Flogging Molly, a seven piece band formed in 1997, consist of front man Dave King (former lead vocalist of the mid 80’s metal band Fastway) on guitar, lead vocals and the occasional banjo and bodhrán, Bridget Regan, King’s wife, on fiddle, vocals, tin whistle and the occasional uillean pipes, Dennis Casey guitar and vocals, Matt Hensley accordion and concertina, Nathan Maxwell bass and vocals, Bob Schmidt mandolin and banjo, and George Schwindt on drums. This line up has been the same since before their first release in 2000.

Their discography includes seven CD’s 3 of which are live.   The first was  called “Alive Behind The Green Door” a live CD released in 1997. The first studio CD was “Swagger” from 2000 containing two favorites “Selfish Man” and “Devil’s Dance Floor“. Then in 2002 was “Drunken Lullabies” which reached #157 on Billboards Top 200 albums chart. This CD contains the title track ”Drunken Lullabies” along with “Kilburn High Road” and “Swagger.” Oddly enough Swagger was not included on the Swagger CD. The third studio CD was “Within A Mile Of Home” released in 2004 where it reached #20 on Billboards Top 200 albums and #1 on the Independent Music chart. This included the song “7 Deadly Sins“. After this were two more live CD’s, “Whiskey On A Sunday” 2006 and “Complete Control Session” 2007. Their latest studio CD, “Float” 2008, debut on Billboards Top 200 albums at #4 and reached #1 one Billboards Independent Chart and #4 on Billboards Alternative Chart.

Flogging Molly is one of those bands that really needs to be experienced live. The quality of the music  is outstanding and how the music gets the audience so pumped is evident in the following video I took in Seattle during December of 2007. The high spiritedness of the audience was like this through out the entire show. The name of the song is “Swagger”.

Should you get an opportunity to experience  Flogging Molly live….do so.

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El Monstruo is the latest release from The Vincent Black Shadow, the good band from Vancouver not the crappy one from Baltimore.

The Vincent Black Shadow, or TVBS,  is one of those bands that’s difficult to categorize and their musical diversity and talent are abundant  on this, their sophomore CD. From the pumping rock of “Dig, Dig, Dig” and “In A Row” to the ballady duet of “The Taste Of Copper” to the ska-ish feel of “Stupid Intruders” to the new wave-ish feel of “The Last Few Minutes” to the jazzy “Never Met Another Woman Like Me” to the poppy sounding “El Monstruo” there is a little bit of everything here for everyone and it’s all done well.  The solo’s within a few of the songs, while very short, are also different with one using a wah-wah peddle while another uses a voice box while yet another is a bass solo using a phaser.

This CD is released on TVBS own label “Beef Records” and along with other merchandise and touring, this band is a total independent effort. The first CD “Fears In The Water” along with other actions of their career were with Bodog Music. For some reason, unbeknown to me, Bodog,  in the early part of 2008 decided to dump the entertainment department of the company thus leaving TVBS and other bands with no corporate help. I give TVBS credit for taking the bull by the horns and doing it all themselves.

The Vincent Black Shadow, together since 2003, consists of the Kirkham brothers, Chris on bass and vocals, Robbie on guitar and vocals, Tony on drums and Cassandra Ford on lead vocals and when touring Mary Ancheta fills in on keys. On their last “mini” tour the opening band was Nim Vind which stars TVBS bassist Chris Kirkham on guitar and lead vocals with brother Tony on the drums.  It must be interesting opening up for yourself.

I got to see them during Warped Tour 2007 then again as an opening act for “Fall From Grace”.  I can’t wait to see them live again as they perform material from their latest CD.

The following video was taken during their last mini tour in San Diego and the song is “Don’t Make Me So Mad”.

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While Ludo’s music on CD is great the best way to “hear” this band is to “hear” them live.

I got to admit that I felt like a chaperon at a local high school dance as the average age of the 500 plus crowd was 19 and I am an old guy (you guess the age).

Ludo, along with The Graduate, Eye Alaska and The Higher  hit our state Saturday night at El Corazon in Seattle. This was only Ludo’s second time to Seattle as they are on tour promoting their current CD “You’re Awful, I love You” their best work to date.

Opening for Ludo was first, “The Graduate”. They were okay, nothing real special. The second band “Eye Alaska”, should have been playing at the local Holiday Inn. They were very “loungy”and the lead singer was trying too hard to be something he wasn’t. The band was un-good. They only did a 20 minute set stating that they had equipment problems, lucky for us.

Third up was “The Higher”.  While I’m not a big fan of their style, soft rock for the 21st century, what they did they did well, very polished.

Then there was Ludo. Lead man Anthony Volpe is the star of the show. His vocals along with his on stage mannerisms  really make this band.  Everything from the slow melodic “Please” to the rockin’ “Girls On Trampoline” really showcase the talent of Andrew Volpe and the entire band. He also showed his professionalism when doing a solo ballad, some guy in the crowd started heckling. Andrew kept playing as security removed the individual to the cheers of the crowd. Andrew did make some great comments about “Joe Heckler” after he had finished the song.

Another very fun aspect with this band is their choice of oncors. In the past they had played Faith No More’s “Epic” but this time their choice of oncor was much more fun as they ended the show with “Ghostbusters”.

This is another one of those bands that I will go see again when they hit my area. They are a GREAT live band!

The following video I took during their show is called “Lake Pontchartrain”. It was their opening song of the night.

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Rocky Horror, up beat pumping music, massive heels, leather sounds punkish to me. I just saw the Music Theatre Of Wenatchee’s production of The Rocky Horror Show and all I can say is “what an AWESOME show!!”

I bought my tickets a few weeks ago and I saw the motion picture over Halloween weekend, just sort of a refresher of the show and was glad I did because it gave me a bit of a reference  for the show.

The thing that really impressed me with the local production is the actors portrayal of the characters. Kent Salter as”Dr. Frank N. Furter” was spot on to Tim Curry of the original production along with Seth Chambers’ “Brad” (asshole….if you were at the live show you’ll understand), Barry Heminger’s  “Rocky” and Kevin McKee’s “Dr. Scott”, all three actors were spot on with their interpretation of their character. I felt that Tiffany Mausser’s interpretation of “Janet” was better than Susan Sarandon’s (plus she’s hotter…thanks to Gold’s Gym according to her bio), Jennifer Lalani made her character of”Columbia” her own as did  Paul Atwood  make the character of “Riff Raff” his very own. Paul was definitely a highlight of the whole production and Ashley Armstrong, as one of the “Transylvanians”, was most pleasing to the eye.

The Transylvanian Five, the live band for the show, were also spot on. Being a musician myself, I can appreciate their contribution to the musical.

The only down side for me was the sound volume. While the actors were mic ‘ed, at times it was difficult to hear Tiffany and Jennifer and there was the occasional feed back tho minor.

I hope they do this production again. If you missed it…too bad, so sad, as it was phenomenal.

Just in case you’re not familiar with Rocky Horror, the following vidoe’s are from the movie. The first is Time Warp followed by Sweet Transvestite. It’s probably the two best known from the movie.

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Located in south Seattle amongst empty warehouses next to the railroad tracks across from a garbage transfer station with the main entry in an alley is Studio Seven at 110 S. Horton. Could this place be anymore punk?….(and there’s plenty of free parking…woohoo!)

Studio Seven is a converted warehouse which you notice as you enter.  It has your typical decor, flat black paint, concrete floor, large columns and a ten foot ceiling with an occupancy capability of 550 people. As you walk about 2/3rds of the way toward the back it opens up to a 25′ ceiling with a rather large stage area.

To the left of the stage is a stair case that leads to a unique feature, the balcony bar. From upstairs you can watch the show from some 15 feet above the crowd, a good place to be to avoid the moshers. The bad part is viewing is very limited from the balcony unless you luck out and get a spot at the rail over looking the stage. Also in the bar area, you can sit back in the lounge area sipping your favorite beverage while watching the bands on close circuit TV and there’s no problem hearing the them.

I have watched bands from both the floor and the balcony and while the balcony may have been more “comfortable” I like the feel of watching from the floor at this place. I also prefer the camera angles I get from the floor.

Studio Seven has one of the better sound systems and very good stage lighting. They also have an area set up for merchandise and a “meet and greet” area, plus this place is very accommodating for locale bands as it provides practice rooms and recording studios along with the stage for live shows.

It’s a good place to check out bands just don’t expect much on the part of decor.

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Ludo, a five piece indie band from St. Louis, will be stopping by El Corazon in Seattle on Saturday November 8th during their current tour and yes I do have my ticket. Opening for them will be The Graduate, Eye Alaska and The Higher. Army Of Freshmen were on the original schedule but they got their own headlining tour in the U.K. starting November 12th and are no longer on the bill.

Ludo consists of front man Andrew Volpe on guitar and vocals, Tim Ferrell on lead guitar, Tim Convy on moog/synth, Matt Palermo on drums and Marshall Faniciullo on bass. I wouldn’t really consider them a punk band in the traditional sense but more of an alternative/indie pop band. There are a couple of good catchy tunes off their latest CD but I would consider their biggest strength to be their live show. I saw them during last years Warped Tour and they wow’d the crowd with, not only their latest hit “Love Me Dead”, but with their last song of the 30 minute set, a cover of Faith’s No More classic “Epic.” What really brought this song home was when Ludo brought up on stage the horn section from Oreskaband to fill in during the chorus. The horns made the song.

After being quite entertained by them from a 30 minute set, it really made me want to see a complete headlining show, thus my reasoning for going to see them this weekend plus the tickets were a mear $10 and it’s at favorite venue of mine.

Ludo has 3 CD’s out, “Ludo” released in 2004, “Broken Bride” released in 2005 and their latest “You’re Awful, I Love You” released in February of this year, which is why they are currently out on tour.

The following video is “Love Me Dead” from the latest CD which shows their sense of humor and I love the lyrics. Even though this is a studio video, front man Andrew Volpe acts this same way on stage all during their performances which just makes the live show a blast to watch.

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Cover tunes, you either love ‘em or hate ‘em. I LOVE ‘EM!! After a song is released by the original artist, I like hearing someone else’s interpretation of the song. A lot of people will re-record the original song along the same lines that the original was done….unless you’re a punk band.

Punk bands will take the original version of a song and generally punch up, speed up and rock up the musical portion while keeping the original lyrics in tack. Regardless of how good or lame the original song is and it’s really the punking of the lame songs that’s the best.

The world’s all time greatest, bestest, most fabulous cover punk band is hands down “Me First And The Gimme Gimme’s”.  All they do is cover tunes.

Me First And The Gimme Gimme’s, together since 1995, is the side project of five guys who all have other “regular” band jobs and will do “Me First” stuff whenever time will allow. The band consists of, from “Swingin’ Utters” Spike Slawson on vocals, from “NOFX” Fat Mike on bass, from “Foo Fighters” Chris Shiflett on lead guitar and from “Lagwagon” Joey Cape on guitar and Dave Raun on drums. Seeing as how they all have other band commitments they don’t get much chance to tour so it’s difficult to catch them live unless your in the southern California area.

Over the years they have released seven cover albums all with theme’s. From 1997  “Have A Ball” hits from the 60’s and 70’s, from 1999  “Are A Drag” broadway hits, from 2001  “Blow In The Wind” hits of the 60’s, from 2003  “Take A Break” R & B hits, from 2004  “Ruin Jonny’s Bar Mitzvah” done live at a real Bar Mitzvah, from 2006  “Love Their Country” country western hits and released this past summer in July 2008 was “Have Another Ball” more hits of the 60’s and 70’s.

Apparently their first album was to be a double album but they decided to make it a single so these songs are the so called “B” sides of the first. It sort of corresponds with a 10 year anniversary of the first release.

The following videos show how good they are at punking covers. The first video is the original version of the song I Believe I Can Fly by R. Kelly. It’s pretty, but slow and well….lame.  The second video is Me First And The Gimme Gimme’s version of the same song. Superb punk.

lame

punking!!!

And my most favorite video by Me First And The Gimme Gimme’s is “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”.  I never knew before this that Judy was such a punker. Click on the Judy Garland part below and it will take you to it.

Judy Garland ft. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes @ Yahoo! Video

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Halloween is near which brings thoughts of ghosts, zombies, skeleton’s and Wednesday 13, horror punk king.

Wednesday 13, a.k.a. Joseph Poole, (second from the right) was the former front man of “Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13″ and “Murderdolls” before venturing out to form his current band “Wednesday 13″ in 2005. He has also done a small side project doing country under the name Bourbon Crow.

The genre of music is horror punk. The music part is hard rock driven with a lot of the lyrics pertaining to subject matter found in horror movies such as zombies, grave robbing, murder and most often done in a “tongue-in-cheek” manner.  The live shows are performed with the band in appropriate make up and dress. It reminds me a lot of Alice Cooper in the early 70’s.

Some of the song titles show their tongue-in-cheek side with titles such as “Morgue Than Words”, “My Home Sweet Homicide”, “Happily Ever Cadaver”, “Til Death Do Us Party” and he does a great tribute with the song “RAMBO”.

I’ve seen him twice since February 2008 and I already have tickets in hand for the February 20, 2009 show. One point of interest, even though the first 2 shows that I saw were just 5 months apart, they were very, very different.

The February 17, 2008 show was part of “The All American Massacre Tour”. The band, usually a 4 piece, became a 5 piece after Wednesday was involved in an auto accident prior to the beginning of the tour breaking his collar bone. Realising that he couldn’t play guitar this way, he enlisted former band mate from Murderdolls, Acey Slade, to fill in on the tour. Since Wednesday wasn’t playing guitar, he was able to focus more on the theatrics of performing and brought the songs more to life with stage antics and a variety of props, much like early Alice Cooper.

Band members for this tour included Wednesday on lead vocals, Nate Manor on bass since ‘06, J-Sin Troxin on guitar since ‘07, Jonny Chops on drums since ‘08 and Acey Slade on “fill in” guitar from January to June ‘08.

Material for this tour was from his 2 previous CDs, “Transylvania 90210″ released in 2005  and “Fang Bang” released in 2006. Also during this tour he released a DVD entitled “Weirdo A Go-Go”, a bizarre little video showing Wednesday’s comical side.

The July 30, 2008 show was part of the “Skeletour” which was promoting the new CD “Skeletons” along with a new EP “Bloodwork”.  These CD’s were both self-released. Skeletons can only be purchased through Hot Topic stores  or online while  Bloodworks is currently only available at the live shows. Also just released is a live DVD called “F**k It, We’ll Play It Live” recorded live at the Crocodile Rock in Allenstown, PA.  during the “Skeletour”. This is also available through Hot Topic. Skeletons, while a great CD, is a bit more on the serious side, lyrically speaking, compared to his earlier efforts but the music portion still rocks.

Band members for this tour were the same as the other with the exception of Acey Slade. Wednesday’s collar bone had healed and he was once again playing guitar. Material for this show was mostly tunes from “Skeletons” and”Bloodwork” with a few of the old favorites thrown in.

His concerts are great. Hard driving rhythms, fast pace, interesting lyrics,  fun. Not just music but a show. And if you’re into people watching the crowd will keep you entertained all night long as a lot of the people attending come in “full dress”. I can’t wait until the next show.

Just a little side note, if you do purchase any of his works keep in mind the lyrics can be a bit explicit and he loves to say f***…….a lot,  which also happens to be the name of one of his songs.

I took the first video during “The All American Massacre Tour”  with Acey Slade called “‘Til Death Do Us Party” and the second I took during the “Skeletour” when they went back to being a 4 piece. The song is called “Gimme Gimme Bloodshed”. Both shows were at Studio Seven in Seattle with the upcoming February ‘09 show scheduled for El Corazon.

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The first time I heard ska I fell in love with it and am still a fan. Every time I hear ska a smile grows upon my face, the head starts bobbin’ and I just wanna dance. There is no such thing as a slow depressing ska song.

For the most part ska bands consist of a six pieces, guitar, bass, drums, trumpet, trombone and sax. It resembles reggae but with horns, is more guitar driven rather than bass driven and is upbeat.

One of the best at ska, in my humble opinion, has got to be Reel Big Fish.  Reel Big Fish has been around in one configuration or another since 1992 with the only constant being Aaron Barnett (above in the white jacket) on guitar and lead vocals who has been there from the beginning. To date there have been 20 members of the band with the current line up being Aaron, then almost from the beginning Dan Regan on trombone since 1994 and Scott Klopfenstein trumpet, guitar and keys since 1995 followed by John Christianson, trumpet since 2004, Ryland Steen, drums since 2005 and new comer Derek Gibbs on bass since 2007.

Reel Big Fish made an appearance in one of my all time favorite movies, BASEketball made by the creators of South Park, where they played the part of the team band that played during the games to pump up the crowd.

They have released six albums to date, the last one, “Monkey’s For Nothin’ And The Chimps Are Free” was released in 2007 and they headlined the entire Warped Tour last summer promoting it. Their 7th CD, “Fame, Fortune And Fornication” is due for release on January 20, 2009. This album is said to be all cover tunes including ska versions of “The Long Way” by The Eagles and “Talk Dirty To Me” by Poison. This one I’m really looking forward to (I love cover tunes). They are now currently on tour promoting it with the tour taking them to South America then through part of the states (but alas, no where near the Pacific N.W….bummer) then it’s off to Europe and Russia. Hopefully they’ll hit Seattle upon their return to the states.

The following video was taken at last years Warped Tour on the main stage. It’s a double song “Beer” followed by the cover tune “Take On Me”. Watching the crowd you’ll notice, when ska happens people can’t help but to dance and in this case, body surf. There are bodies, bodies every where. I really hope they headline a show in Seattle.

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The Dollyrots are one of those bands whose songs are catchy, up beat, simple, very “pop” sounding yet I wonder, why they get no air play?

The Dollyrots are a basic 3-piece band consisting of Kelly Ogden on vocals and bass, Luis Cabezas on guitar and Chris Black on drums. The band was founded in 2000 in Florida by Kelly and Luis, friends since the 8th grade.  The original drummer Amy Wood played on the first cd ” Eat My Heart Out” but left the band in 2006 and was replaced by Chris who is featured on the 2nd cd “Because I’m Awesome” released in March of 2007 on the Blackheart Records label, a Joan Jett Company.

Though they don’t seem to get airplay, they do get their share of TV time.  The songs “Kick Me To The Curb” and “Goodnight Tonight” off the first cd, along with the band, appeared on an episode of CSI:NY. They did a commercial for HP performing “Feed Me, Pet Me” also from the first cd. Then from the second cd the song “Kissed Me Killed Me” appeared on an episode of The Simple Life then their main song, which is also the name of the second cd “Because I’m Awesome” has been featured on the shows Ugly Betty, Greek, Picture This, Bad Girls Road Trip, Reaper and used for a KOHL commericial where models portray the band but you can see the band in the beginning of the commericial on the TV in the background plus they’re in the audience at the end. Check it out below.

I saw them live last April. They sounded great but I was very disappointed in the fact that they only played for 40 minutes meaning that for this show I drove for 2 1/2 hours to get there, sat through 4 opening bands then drove 2 1/2 hours back home all for a 40 minute show. I thought maybe they did a short set do to the low turn out, there was only about 40 of us there, but after talking to a guy who saw them in Portland they did the same thing there.  I did get to meet the drummer as he was the one who sold me a t-shirt…WOOHOO!!…(however, he gave me the wrong size).

If they come back through again I’ll give them another go, hopefully there won’t be quite as many opening bands. The video below is an old cover tune of “Brand New Key” by Melanie….anybody remember Melanie? taken at El Corazon.

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