They're glory bound, the Hell Patrol

Made it to Syracuse and Toronto after Christmas.  Almost died before we even got to Toledo as 23 was all ice, but Ian held it together in a wicked slide and kept us out of the ditch, once again reaffirming his position as Minister of Transportation.  We had a good time in Syracuse, lowlife cab driver aside (Heavy accent: "Yes, this was my dog for two weeks.  He killed another dog in a fight, and a man killed my dog because he lost $3600 on the bet.  I would have killed the man myself but he went to jail first."   "Imagine that."  Keep quiet for the rest of the ride as he cranks bad hip hop and runs every red light).  Then played a top notch show in Toronto with the gingerbread men of Mature Situations, Rackshot (who fucking rocked it), and Overpower, who added Oi! tuneage to the already excellent show.  Tiny room, good bands, old friends, doesn't get any better.  The next day we recorded a set for the esteemed Stephe Perry (ex One Blood, Countdown To Oblivian, and Journey) as well as an interview that aired that night.  Hopefully we'll get ahold of the CD and con someone into bootlegging it for us, its raw but pretty damn hot, especially considering it was at the tail end of three days of gunning it, more hours spent on the road than sleeping, but you throw the switch and get it done.  Anybody that wants to get mellow can get the fuck on out of here, alright.  Len should be moving back here around May, then we can really turn it up a few notches and then some.

Upcoming  assaults on the general populace

1- Thursday, February 5th at the Trumbull in Detroit w/ Stations and Lost Cause from Philly and locals Black Birds

2- further down the line, Sunday May 3rd with Crude (Hakodate, Japan) and Unit 21 (Texas), somewhere in the Arbor/Ypsi area.

End Notes:

1- the Invader/Boywife split 7" is a smoker, goddamn.

2- 5 myspace links in one post, oughta go out to the garage and huff motorcycle fumes, but its just the way of the world these days.  Not particularly worth fighting it, although we did fight the metric system and win.  File that under lies my teachers told me, "We'll be switching to this," my ass.

3- Time to quit mucking about on here and go to sleep.  Tomorrow's itinerary is walking dogs at the Huron Valley Humane Society for an hour, then fixin' on cars at work, then training, then studying Chuck Berry leads.  Ian said, "Wow, he looks young there" and I said, "Yeah, and he isn't even pissing on anyone."  Ugh.

New singer, new DVD, new post

Quick update of the last six months or so...

1- Matt left the band, got married, and we wish him the best.  We're keeping the one guitar line up.

2- Len joined on vocals.  He and I were in Earthmover together from 94-98, so it has been great to play together again, and I think it has made everything finally click.  For the next couple months we will only be able to play once or twice a month until he moves back to Michigan.

3- We made a DVD demo of 4 songs live with the new lineup.  $5 plus postage, email me.  Here is the cheap bastard youtube version.  Part 1  Part 2  Also available in Japan at Base and Boy Records and from Under The Surface mailorder.

4- Two shows coming up, December 14 in Detroit at the Trumbull with just about everyone, and December 26 in Syracuse.

5- New shirts.  They're yellow ("athletic gold", to be specific) and the is a design based on the Michigan state flag, except it looks like the hood of a mid 70s Firebird.  $8 plus postage.  Buy one and help fund Michigan's economic recovery.

"One of these days I'm gonna get organezized"

Someone buy me a calender, for christ's sake.  The correct show days and dates are:

Saturday, May 31 w/ Gasmask Terror (France), Black Dove (ex Awakening), Shit Fucker,  1737 W. Warren, Detroit

Monday, June 2 w/ Endless Blockade (Toronto), XBrainiax, Pizza Hi Five at the Trumbull, 4210 Trumbull, Detroit, 8pm, $6

getting caught up

I stole a day off from work, so in between my physical (everything checked out, all the good bits were in the right places, the doctor said I had exceptionally awesome blood, but I think their equipment is off because they tried telling me I'm 5' 6 3/4".  I'm 5' 7", for chrissakes.  Recalibrate that thing, stat) and the eye doctor, I've got some time to play around with this site and try to whip it into some sort of shape.  After the eye doctor, I'm going down to Toledo to pick up my Marshall Major, fresh out of the shop.  200 watts of 38 year old Marshall amplification, and hopefully it won't electrocute me anymore.  With Matt retiring, I'm going to start running the dual half-stacks again like I did in Ruination, so if soundmen hated us before for being louder than their PAs, they'll really hate us now.  Which means the next step in the amplification arms race is to get our own PA, and a van to haul it in.  I wish Honda made a full size van, that would make it so much easier to pick one.  Ian shot down my idea to get an Element and a trailer, but I guess we really don't have the $10,000 that would cost.

We played with the Meatmen last weekend and Easy Action the week before, both in Toledo.  Both good shows, I'd say.  The new line up is set as a three piece for the foreseeable future, hopefully we can get it together to let Matt do a last show or something.  Between work, his kid, engagement, and planning to move to NYC, he's a busy guy these days.  

In April we started recording our second demo (if you don't count the one we abandoned in Novemeber when the reel-to-reel bit the dust).  We're going to do 7"s on Deer Dealer and High Anxiety, as well as having a track on the Under The Surface Records comp.  So we recorded every song we had to send to Mike, Chris, and Souichi, so they could pick the songs they wanted.  Then we'll release the remainder as a real deal 2nd demo, and properly re-record the ones they want.  Maybe even a cassette, so that when humanity is wiped out and the last 50 years of our history is lost as electronic data, the alien archaeologists can listen to our tape and ponder what led us to such an end.  In the mean time, here's the rough mix of five songs that we had at the last couple shows.  

Here's the line up for the UTS comp...  

CROSSFACE (tokyo), TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY (tx), WORMS MEAT (tokyo), BLUDWULF (ny), BUGZARTS (urawa), NIGHTBRINGER (mi), 悪AI意 (kitakyushu), WARCRY(or), CRUDE(hakodate), WORLD BURNS TO DEATH(tx), NO VALUE(tokyo), TOLAR(tx), INEPSY(montreal, canada), JHABARA(tokyo), CRIMINAL DAMAGE(or), ORIGIN OF [M](hiroshima), NIGHTMARE(osaka), AGGRESSION (kochi), ONEDAY(toyama), SEVERED HEAD OF STATE(tx,or), PUNCH IN THE FACE (il), 九狼吽 (nagoya), INMATES(oh), FUCKED UP(toronto, canada) 

WOW.  Best comp in years, presumably.  And if you ask me, I'd say the last best hardcore comp was the "Tribute to Masami" 2xCD.  Track it down if you can.

Two shows coming up:

Friday, May 30 w/ Gasmask Terror (France), Black Dove (ex Awakening), Shit Fucker,  1737 W. Warren, Detroit

Saturday, June 2 w/ Endless Blockade (Toronto), XBrainiax, Pizza Hi Five at the Trumbull, 4210 Trumbull, Detroit, 8pm, $6

show in ann arbor friday the 11th

we got a show at the neutral zone this friday up in ann arbor. its a benefit for the ann arbor skate park i think. we're gonna be a 3 piece, matt has to work, so we'll see how this goes. show starts at like 9. pancheros and pinball petes afterwards motherfuckers.