Nick Fit The Nobleman

Here we have one my favorite dudes to see on the road and at home, Nick Fit. Dude has been road dogging for Trash Talk for some time now, and has played bass for The Mongoloids on a few tours. Definitely a brain worth picking, dudes got some funny things to say. He wrote this article for my zine so here it is.

LIFE ON THE ROAD

So after you gather a group of friends, write some songs, put out a demo, and then finally get the idea to get in the van, that's when your life on the road will start. It isn't for the weak of heart I must say. It's rough and those who aren't ready to sacrifice the basic necessities of life will never truly experience what it's like to be out on the road in a hardcore band. There is nothing luxurious about touring. If you are in a hardcore/punk/indie band and you aren't signed to a major label, then you aren't reaping the benefits of touring. You have to go into the idea of touring with a one track mind. You have to lose a lot to gain a little. You don't start off seeing the good side of being out on the paved paradise. I've been doing this touring thing for about a year and half and I am in no way in a better spot or making the money I should be as a 23 year old human being. Whether it was roadie-ing and/or playing bass with The Mongoloids to roadie-ing for Trash Talk and War Hungry, nothing that I've gained from doing this has ever helped when I arrived home after being gone for 2 months. But, that doesn't mean there aren't amazing aspects to getting out and seeing the country.



If you've surrounded yourself with good friends, then the times you will have will only be those of laughter and joy, and they will be unforgettable. Maybe you'll be driving all night, you've been behind the wheel for 9 hours and all of a sudden the passenger turns to you and says, "yo, put on Mariah Carey." Or maybe you've been to so many spots in the country that you know some of the locals and you treat them as good friends. I live in New Jersey, but i have friends in almost every state. From JP to Daylin to Joe Harder to Jason T. to Andy to Ian to Alex to Hoodrack to Riley to Rossman69 and so many more. These people share the same mindset as me and in a classic quote i must use right now, "real recognize real." I've stolen from gas stations to eat because I had no money. I've driven a van full of sleeping people 10 hours because no one else wanted to wake up and instead of pulling over, I decided to push on. I've sang songs for the bands I've toured with and have somewhat made a name for myself. You may not know who I am, but that isn't what matters to me. What matters is the memories I'm making for myself and the ones around me. I've been thrown off a jet-ski because Ian and I thought it would be a good idea to play who could knock the other person off the jet-ski first. I almost died from that but I took it in stride and was more worried about Mook. Nothing ever changes with tour. You line up shows and you drive to them. You load in, you set up, you preform, you load out and then it's back to driving to the next show. If I thought I'd be seeing huge arenas packed with thousands of people, I might as well hit up my friend who plays drums for the Jonas Brothers and ask if they need any help. The thing is the same routine never gets old to me, because no matter the situation, you're in a new part of the country every single day. In reality, though you do the exact same things each and every day, no day is like the last and that is the best part about it. I've been across the country about 4 times and I still get excited every time a tour approaches.




I love music. Not just hardcore music, but all types of music and I decided that instead of doing what a normal person my age does, I'd rather be in a van with good friends all the time as much as possible, touring the united states of america. If you're reading this and you're thinking, "Hey I want to do something like this," then get off your ass and do it. Find a band, make friends, and fucking roadie. It's a decision you will never regret for as long as you live. If you can't roadie for a band, then like the first sentence says, start a band and get noticed and bring your act on the road. I had a near brush with death with this line of work (i use the term work very loosely) and I thought I'd never be the same again, but here I am. I don't want to be remembered by anyone, but I do want to remember these times for the rest of my life. If I've ever hit you, punched you, stage dived onto you, jumped on top of you, choked you, held the mic for you to sing along to, or anything else, just know I did it because in some weird way we're all the same. Whether you look up to any bands currently or in the past, never forget that those people were just like you at one point, no better and no worse. They were just regular people who decided to get in the van and change some people's lives. They changed mine and now instead of talking about the drama and bullshit that surrounds us on a message board behind a computer, I'd rather carry on, in the long tradition and just making the road my life. Here's to seeing you when I get there.

The Ball is Dropped Again (Fireworks Interview)

Hail the laziness of my life. I intended to compile a zine with some new material I had been working on for about a month. The material was good and I pulled together just about enough for a decent sized zine. Alas, I ended up playing Call of Duty in my underwear and focusing on trying to do the least amount of work to get passing grades in college. I decided to post most of the material here and get this blog going again for the simple fact that my boredom has gotten the best of me, and I feel like Ray Cappo would be pretty upset with my lack of an active lifestyle. The posts will probably be in rapid succession. I'll do my best to keep the pace up with new stuff to look through. More articles and stuff I guess?

Anyways, here's a quick interview I did with Chris Mojan from the band Fireworks. They just recently signed to Triple Crown Records & recorded a full length album. Check it out:

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FU: Tell us the tale that is the beginning of Fireworks…
FW:We all have been friends for years, a few of us since about 12 years old actually. We all played in other bands and decided to start something together that was fun and had the same feeling of the shit we'd all listen to when we got together and stuff. The rest is just progress.

FU: Being mostly a group of hardcore dudes, what made you guys want to write this style of music?

FW: I don't really think any of us would consider ourselves hardcore dudes. Hardcore may be pretty big right now, but I think that close knit, "work hard to find stuff out" feeling still goes along with it. It seems like whenever somebody listens to it, goes to shows, or just follows it all together, it's assumed it's their main focus in terms of music. We all love hardcore just as much as we love punk rock and say indie rock, but I can definitely say hardcore has never driven any of us to write a Fireworks song. That doesn't mean we don't mosh though, so don't even assume that. I'd like to consider each of us individual kings of the pit. got that?

FU: Fireworks recently signed to Triple Crown Records. How did this come about and what's the plan?

FW: After we recorded our EP and started touring more and recording demo's we basically just sent out press packs to all the labels we could think of. Eventually word started getting out and our shit made it's way into Fred's(triple crown) hands. We've been life partners with the Hit The Lights dudes even before our bands really did anything, so I'd assume they bugged him enough as well. The plan is to just continue to write music and tour.

FU: You guys are recording a full-length soon with Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory fame, how did you guys get hooked up with this dude and when can we be expecting it to drop?

FW: We came to realize we had a few mutual friends with Chad and that he has been starting to produce records. The dude's obviously been around and has been in the position we're in now a million times, so a little overseeing could be nice. The idea of Chad producing our record actually came from Fred at Triple Crown, it sounded good, so we're just running with it.

FU: You recently ended a tour with Hit The Lights. They definitely seem to have a following that is much different than Fireworks. What was it like playing to these crowds?

FW: Some nights it was mainly older dudes, some nights it was a way younger crowd comprised of mainly girls, so every night was interesting. I'd say playing to the younger crowd ruled, although they didn't know us, most of them seemed to really appreciate that they were seeing a band play and really showing interest in the shit we were saying between songs, even the stuff that makes no sense to anyone but us.

FU: I gather you dudes are quite the filmmakers, what's your favorite project and is there anything coming from Fireworks Studios us you-tubers can look forward to?
FW: I made a video in high school called, "We Came To Get Down" that is probably one of my favorites. It was a story of 3 gymnasts trying to make it in the gymnastics world. "Club Drugs" rules as well. We will be starting a video blog showing our recording process starting in the next week or so. This may not be a movie, but I'm sure we'll make it interesting. A few of us were in the same video production class in high school so there are definitely a few gems to be found.

FU: So, we had a very random run-in with one another pretty recently very late at night, care to tell the story?

FW: I'm dying to tell it, it's one of my favorites of recent times. After a show in Baltimore we decided to stay with a friend of ours in DC. We arrived to DC at about 12 and decided we'd like to go to the mall and check out all the monuments. At about 1am we were on our knees praying to Abraham Lincoln and you decided to walk up. So we're from Detroit, you're from Florida, yet we both happened to be at the Lincoln Monument at 1am in Washington DC though, without any previous planning. What are the odds. Fuck life man.

FU: Run For Cover just put out a new 7" titled "Adventure, Nostalgia, and Robbery" what's the info on this release?
FW: We wanted to do vinyl with Jeff before we recorded anything else for somebody else. The idea had been talked about for awhile so we decided to run with it. We recorded a Kid Dynamite cover that the world seems to hate for Copper Lung Records "Carry The Torch" Tribute record. We thought that would be of 7' fashion as would 2 old demo songs that a lot of people haven't heard. Lastly we figured we needed one new song to keep things interesting and the rest was history. We called it "Adventure, Nostalgia and Robbery" because the new song is pure adventure of doing something new, the old songs are nostalgic, and we stole a KD song. Funny. They're almost gone but there's talks of a re-press.

FU: On your most recent tour, you stopped in Tampa. The real fun began after the gig. What's your recollection of this gem of a night?

FW: Well the fun really began when we ate Alaskan Tacos down the street from all the gay clubs right before we took pictures in front of the multi-colored cassette tapes after we watched the girl puke but before we hung out with a twink and daddy about 200ft away from where a lot of people die. make sense??

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There's that folks. Chris is also in a hardcore band called Sister Cities. Download the demo here. Tomorrow I'm posting an article from my pal Nick Fit of Trash Talk road dog fame. Don't miss out on that, dudes a real nut.

I'm Stupid

For those who were into the Road Journal, I'm sorry. I'm a completely unmotivated turd who doesn't follow through with anything. I'm home now from the tour, so I'll due a retrospective review from where the last post left off. Once again, I apologize. I'll be updating this blog alot more now since I'm home. I'll also be making Issue #1 of the zine available very soon. Be on the lookout for some really cool interviews/tidbits in the upcoming week.

Looks like I left off while we were in Spokane. Fuck. That was a long time ago. I'll do my best to recollect all the cool shit that happened from then until now.

After Spokane we headed towards Portland, Oregon. Man, that was a really cool city. We stayed with our friend Jessica. I knew Jessica from her previous stay in Florida. Cool chick with an even cooler dog. We saw Dark Knight that day, such a solid movie. Harvey Dent was awesome. Klint Got a tattoo with his friend Gus that says "Fuck Work, Lets Party". That was pretty funny. If you have any questions on that way of life, feel free to direct them to him.

Once we left Portland we headed into California, a place I had yet to visit. First show was in Sacramento. A band called Bastards of Young played this gig, and they were really fucking great, check them out if you get the chance. The next show was in San Francisco. We stayed at our buddy Nicks house. He's in a band called Crucified that recently signed to Double or Nothing Records out of South Florida. do yourself a favor and check out them & their labelmates Meantime. The city was really cool. Lots and lots of Toyota Prius's rolling around. I think the count was 30 or so in the first five minutes in town. Wyld. The vegans split with the carnivores and we went off to find decent veg food in the city. Klint suggested a place a few miles away so we trekked on foot. This made me realize how utterly out of shape I was. Once we got to the place it was closed, so we settled for this horrible indian place down the street. oof.

So we drove to Tijuana Mexico after San Fran. What a wild place that is. We spent the day walking around the beach. We collected 10 dollars and told Bob (Letdown) we'd give it to him if he jumped the border, touched a flag on the US side, and ran back into Mexico. All of this in front of the Border Patrol truck about 100 yards away. There was a tall wooden fence that stood as the border. There was a gap in the fence and Bob squeezed through. He took off towards this flag, touched it, and ran like hell back toward the fence. The border patrol got out of the vehicle and before they could get to Bob, he was across to Mexico. He makes his way over to us to collect his ten dollars, and one of the locals pointed out a helicopter and explained that whenever there is a jump, they dispatch a helicopter, so the helicopter was for Bob. The show was cool, but the drive across the border was blast. While sitting in traffic we had a bunch of people trying to sell us souveniers from Mexico. One specific guy would just linger around other dudes, not saying anything, with a statue of a turtle, an extremely blank expression on his face. What a dude. San Diego was pretty cool, we stayed at a friends and she made us vegan breakfast. Very sweet. We were all pumped cause Sound & Fury was up next.

Sound & Fury was ill. I got to hang out with a bunch of friends, as far away from home in the states that I could be. Three days of moshing side by side with some of hardcores greatest heads such as Nick Fit, AV, and Sammy 3B. 'Sup doggies? End of A Year blew me away that weekend. What a wild dude Pat is. His stage banter is second to none, I'll just say that. Trash Talk fucking killed it. This band is great. I know that too much hype is a killer to the "cool crowd", but I say fuck that. TTC '08.

After S&F we headed to Sin City and played this dudes living room. real fun. I have the worst luck in this city, maybe that means I shouldn't gamble. Last time I was in the city the van I was in flipped off a small cliff and rolled 6 times. Not. Fun. This time around I just lost my wallet. Not as bad but still blew. After Vegas was Denver again, then to Albequerque where we met up with The Carrier. Great band even greater dudes. I was pumped to see them every night.

Texas was great cause I got to hang out with a true coreman, Zack. What a master of disaster this dude is. One of my favorite new people. Austin was sick. Dallas was sick. Scott Corbin shredding for Bitter End was sick. Band fight at party house and Klint telling homeowner hed beat him with a rock 'till he stopped responding was sick. Oklahoma, not sick. I liked the venue though. Up next was Nashville. We ate like pigs in this city. The girl we stayed with gave us tons of food, so we stayed up all night stuffing our faces. ATL was the next night and I was pumped to see some old friends. Alex and Nate of Overdose fame were in the building holdin' it down for ATL straight edge. What sweet dudes. The Shop is such an ill venue. My band played there a little less than a year ago and had a ton of fun. If you're ever in Atlanta, make sure you check out one of the gigs these dudes put on. Great time.

Anyways, after Atlanta, we were going to my homestate, Florida. Needless to say, I was psyched. I hadn't been home since I made the retarded decision to jump in my car and head to philly. First stop was Orlando. I had heard about this new venue, Black Box Collective, and I was pumped to finally see the place. The venue was cool but one thing really stood out. IT WAS FUCKING HOT! Someone has GOT to get one of those retardedly big industrial fans in there or something. The show was cool, other than the fact that there was some stupid fight. Yuck.


The next night was Tampa, something I'd been looking forward to the whole tour. The turnout wasn't bad and kids were going off and having fun. I've been pretty fortunate with my shows at Transitions. The Staff is the best thing about it. Ill dudes.


So while we were in Florida, The Carrier and I crashed at Sammy B's pad. What a fucking pad it is. We watched tons of movies, and spent alot of time poolside, getting in some pool dives, practicing for the next gig. Someone ate Mike's burrito. Dude was pissed. I fell in love with Bacca even more on this weekend. What a dude. I already miss him. Zac Wolf came to the pad for a night of chill. Love this head. Check out his photos: http://flickr.com/photos/zacwolf/



Anyways after Florida we went straight to Johnson City, TN where we picked up Wes to take over my Road Dog duties after we got back to Philadephia. This is a pretty cool city. Home to Dead End Records, who happens to be releasing the new Learn Nothing 7". The show was pretty cool, afterward I said my goodbye's to The Carrier and we hopped in the van onward to Philadelphia.

So, that's that. Overall the tour was pretty ill. I had a good time meeting alot of you, and I'm sure I'll see you all again someday. Peace & Love.

-JP

RS Road Journal #4

Day 7 – The Drive
With all of us pumped about hitting the waterpark,(Dave and Mikey were pumped about going to a reptile and puppy store) we finally started the inevitable trek 20 hours to Tacoma, Washington from Denver, Colorado. There was a whole lot of sleeping involved. I was poked awake with all kinds of ‘JP’ acronyms like “Jesus Petunia”. This was Dave’s way of asking me to drive, so I took a No-Doz and got behind the wheel. When I started driving we were in Utah. I drove through Idaho into Oregon. Man, the view this coast has to offer destroys the east coast landscape without a doubt. Being from Florida I barely ever see mountains, so traveling down an extremely steep winding road was pretty intimidating at first. Skipping ahead, we finally got to the Seattle area. Man, what a beautiful place.

Day 8 – Tacoma, Washington
Getting out of the van after this drive felt like I was entering a parallel universe. My legs barely worked and my head was spinning. We went into downtown Seattle, and we all got to hear the rants about how weak willed people from this city were. We got to that Pike Market place. It ruled. Dave, Klint, and I got retardedly large vegan cookies. I got a snickerdoodle and it tasted like heaven. After poking fun at those less fortunate, we took the drive to the venue. The place was called the Viaduct, a newer venue that hardcore shows have been going down at. The place is pretty cool and the dudes who run it seem legit. After the show I met this dude Mike from Furious Styles, dude is seriously hilarious. He told us where we could get a pair of nice house shoes. He also explained that people with face tattoo’s that can’t get jobs are simply retards that couldn’t get one without them. A good philosophy if you ask me.

Day 9 – Spokane, Washington

Upon arriving to the venue, Jackie and I realize there is wireless In

ternet. Goodbye social skills. Throughout the entire show I stayed in the room where merch was and had chats with the locals (one of which let me know he enjoyed this blog. Big ups to that dude). Rifkin (playing drums for Letdown on this tour) kept ranting about this homeless guy who claimed he invented The Matrix. The show was extremely short so we decided to drive to Portland over night. On the way to get some food a couple dudes in a Jeep stopped next to us at a light. Here’s Klint with the play by play:
We pull up next to them, and the highschool bro in the passenger’s seat says “Hey, what’s up?” My natural response is, “Fuck you, I’m eating.” He’s appalled, but I repeat, “Carl’s Jr. Fuck you, I’m eating.” He asks where we’re going, and I say Del Taco. He invites us to Subway and demands that we race. Dave starts driving like an absolute maniac, and the race is on. We absolutely crush them with rallye-inspired aggressive driving and a barrage of “Suck it, nerds!”
After the race is over, I proceed to give them the goat. For the uninitiated, if you grab your dick and balls, pull them behnind you, then pinch your legs together and moon someone, that’s the goat. They speed off, and we keep chasing after them. More asses, more yelling. One of them comes out of their sunroof to moon us, and I tell them that some old lady is calling the cops on them. They speed off and exit the freeway never to be seen again.
Fuck them. And there was no Del Taco, anyway. They turned it into a fucking Taco Time.
We settled for Carls Jr. and Green Burrito. Man, that place is absolute shit. Anyways, after eating we started the trek to Portland, Oregon.

RS Road Journal #3

Day 5 – Omaha, Nebraska
We got the venue, a place called Sokol underground, a little before doors opened. This venue was awesome. The layout was really cool. It had a perfect stage and a lot of room for merch, which saved me the hassle of trying to shove everything into a little corner or something. I felt pretty good aside from the long drive. Something about staring out into an open field and being able to see for miles is pretty calming. So the first band comes on and they were horrible. Two singers, one pea sized dude and some big doofus, one doing high and one doing low. That ended quickly, thank god. An old friend caught my eye and it kinda caught me off guard. It turns out Signs of Hope was also on this show so I got to hang out with Paul for a bit. Great dude. SoH just released a new EP that’s definitely worth checking out. Skipping ahead to Let Down’s set, I’d like to delve deeper into the stage persona that Bob acquires. At this show he kicked a dude in the chest and ran around at a rapid rate. This dude reminds me of a pissed off raptor on stage, if I hadn’t spoken to him aside from seeing him at a show, I’d think he was out of his mind. I’m liking this band more and more as this tour goes on, their new record is outstanding. Anyways we started a chant that went something along the lines of a sports team chant like “Lets go Phillies *clap*clap*clapclapclap*” except it went “Letdown Straight Edge *clap*clap*clapclapclap*” Needless to say, Bob absolutely hated it, so we’ll be doing it as much as possible from here on out. After the show, we stayed at this dudes crib for a couple hours, got as much sleep as we could, and left around 7 am for the 8-hour drive ahead to Denver, Colorado.


Day 6 – Denver, Colorado
We got into town pretty early, so we headed to Dave’s friend Memphis’ house. He had just returned from Europe the day before and was heading out for two months again with his band Death Before Dishonor. Completely awesome guy. He had a really cool dog named Spaghetti that kept me entertained for awhile. It was at this point that I really caught the grasp of Dave’s love for dogs. While watching Reno 911 I looked over to see Dave in an intense make out session with Spaghetti showing no signs of coming up for air. We left to get to the venue, the underground. The venue itself was pretty cool, lots of graffiti and plywood. The show started off real slow, not too many people. We played soccer outside until the show started. I gotta say im probably the worst athlete in the van. I looked like an idiot. Once Letdown came on kids started coming. When RS played the room filled up and the show ended up pretty well. We found out the Twin Falls, Idaho show the next day was cancelled, and after searching for a house and failing, we realized we had a 20-hour drive to Washington, but we had two days to do it. We slept over Memphis’ place, and hung out around Denver for the day. When we left, we got some lunch and hit the road. On the way out we were stuck and traffic and saw a waterpark called Water World on the right off of the interstate. Klint and I got out of the van to scope out the sneaking in possibilities. We came up with a few feasible plans, but we didn’t think anyone else would be willing to try them. We walked up to the entrance to check admission prices. Too high. As we’re about to give up, Klint decided to barter a bribe with the dude working the gate. The Dialogue went something like this.
Dude: Tickets?
Klint: Oh, we don’t have those.
Dude:…
Klint: So, we’re from Philadelphia, and broke. There’s about six of us. Do you think if we threw you like 20 dollars would you let us in?

Dude: haha, okay.
Klint: Fuck yeah
We ran to the van and collected the others. I put on my newly acquired swim trunks and it was on. We only had an hour until the park closed so we ran as fast as we could to each slide. What really made this trip was Jay’s sparkly purple Speedo. Un-fucking-believable. All of the slides were great. After the park we started the inevitably sucky drive to Washington. We’re currently in some mountains about an hour or two outside of Denver. This road is not ready for the Supreme Team.

RS Road Journal #2

Day 3 – Peoria, Illinois
The drive wasn’t so bad to this show. The venue was a VFW hall. On the inside it was reminiscent of a log cabin, which was pretty cool. There was lots of table space and such, all and all a pretty cool place. This was one of those suprising shows. Coming into it we had no idea what to expect. It’s a Sunday night in a town Reign Supreme has never played. There were just around 100 people at the show, and people went off for both Letdown and RS. At the end of the show kids bought a ton of merch, which was awesome considering we had a twelve hour drive ahead of us to Wichita, Kansas. When everything was packed up we headed to this dude Nate’s pad where he fed us and let us shower, big ups to that dude. On the way to his place, we had a brief fireworks war, which left both bands hiding in their vans, doors locked and windows up. We came to a truce and headed inside. While eating we threw around ideas for Sound & Fury specific merch. Some great ideas were discussed, such as a Carl’s JR “Fuck you, I’m eating” shirt. Both bands came up with some pretty great designs, so be on the look out if you’re gonna be at this fest. Once everyone had showered, we hit the road and drove through the night.

Day 4 – Wichita, Kansas

The drive to Wichita was a lot of things. It was long; it was unpleasant at times as well as completely hilarious. Though it took twelve hours to complete, there were some highlights.

1. Dave getting pulled over a few hours into the drive for speeding. The dialogue went something like this
Cop: How are ya?
Dave: I’m fine
Cop: I got you goin’ 54 going into town.
Dave: That’s literally impossible.
Cop:…
Dave: I haven’t gone over 40.
Cop: Can I get your license and registration? [Dave hands it over] Thank you. One moment.
*A few minutes go by spent laughing at Dave’s approach to avoiding a ticket. The cop returns*
Cop: Here you go, try and slow it down. [hands Dave his license and the registration. NO ticket]

2. After being too tired to continue driving, I hand the wheel over to Joe. As I’m sleeping on the floor, I start to hear a lot of gravel hitting the bottom of the van, and it’s a pretty bumpy ride. I decided to get up and investigate. When I get my head up and look at our surroundings, I noticed we’re on a tiny dirt road in the middle of fucking nowhere. I closed my eyes and caught my bearings, then opened them again and I could spot the highway about 100 yards to the left, running parallel to this dirt road we were on. There was a huge ditch separating the two. I ask Joe “What the fuck?” to which he replies with loads of laughter in between, “Maria told me to turn right, so I turned right.” (Maria is the name given to the GPS we use to get from city to city. She was quite the personality and often asks us to turn ‘Bleft’)
Around this point, everyone is waking up and realizing we’re not on a paved road. Joe is still laughing. At this point I’m relatively excited to see what’s going to happen next. The dirt road turns off and comes to a fork. Joe started going left when everyone yelled at him to just turn around. At this point the jokes start flowing in. A few of my favorites were a series of jokes that spoke of a troll that Joe wanted to visit that resided at the end of this trail and Oregon Trail references.
Once we got into Wichita we were all dead tired. We passed a Ford dealership and it had a huge blow up slide in the parking lot. We stopped and a few of us ventured over. As it turns out we didn’t take into account the heat of the slide, and as we were going down each of us suffered burns in random places. On the way out there was a huge gong in the lobby, so I hit it rather hard and got back in the van.
The show itself was a pretty big disaster. It took place in this old brick warehouse in the middle of an industrial area. Around 4 people showed up, the first band didn’t go on until 9 due to lack of a PA. Once the PA was acquired, it decided to stop working after the first band. No one was there to work sound so Klint and I haggled enough to get it to work for about half of Letdown’s set. During Reign Supreme’s set it didn’t work at all, so we shot off fireworks and Jay sang into the butt end of a roman candle. We did what we could to have some fun. We crashed at a friends and woke up early for the drive to Omaha, Nebraska.

Reign Supreme Road Journal Entry #1

So, recently I made the abrupt decision to spend the summer in Philadelphia. I called my friend Klint and asked if I could crash on his futon, and there it was. I was drudging through an eighteen-hour drive from Tampa to Philadelphia all by my lonesome. Klint plays bass for Reign Supreme. As it turns out RS needed someone to roadie for them, and just like that, my summer plans changed.
As I write this, we’re sitting in front of the “colonial pantry” somewhere just outside morton, illinois figuring out what movie to play on my laptop, heading to the third show of a (whatever) day tour.

Day one – Cleveland, Ohio
We leave from Joe’s house around 9 am to head to Cleveland, Ohio. The show was pretty cool. This dude Nick who does Hope This Helps booking booked the gig (big ups to those tank tops). The venue was called “Now That’s Class” and apparently has a daily vegan meal served, which I didn’t get to experience this time around. Just outside the venue Joe had a run in with a local cruising on a mountain bike, equipped with a blue tooth headset. I believe the words she uttered went something like “Move your punk ass out the way”, “Get out the middle of the street”(it was a sidewalk), and “You better not have no money in ya pockets”. All in all it was a good run in. We met up with the dudes in Letdown at this show, who happen to be traveling in a mini van.
The show went pretty well. Not the best turn out for a Friday night, but a cool vibe. Letdown killed it. I’m so excited to be able to see these dudes every night and witness Bob jump off whatever he can find. RS played well. There was a point that Justin (bassist of Letdown) pointed out in which Jay looked like he was preaching to the crowd with his arms stretched to the sky, and everyone bopping up and down in unity with him. After the show we went and hung out with our new friend Taylor. Dude rules.
So, that’s day one. I’ll try and update every couple of days with pictures and crap from this trip. Keep an eye out. (always) Keep the faith.

Day 2 – Louisville, Kentucky
This show was in Louisville, KY. After a brief stop at the ever so delicious Chipotle, we left Cleveland and trekked to the venue. Once I was finished shaking off my cramps from sleeping on the floor of the van, I walked into the venue. The place was called the Brick House. From the back entrance it seemed a lot like a storage unit from the early 80’s, with Rifkin lying on a couch in the smoldering heat that encompassed the venue. I got to see a couple friends I hadn’t seen in awhile, so that was pretty cool. The show went pretty well aside from the heat. Everyone played in their underwear and Klint got naked. During load out it started pouring rain so we all stood around and picked our butts until the rain let up. We drove straight to Indianapolis from there and slept at this girl’s house. She had a pretty rad pool. Klint and I teamed up for some extreme chicken fighting. Titty twisters and kicks to the chest of the base DEFINITELY help you win. After eating random items from this generous girl’s kitchen, we hit the sack. In the morning we said our thanks and were on our way to Peoria, Illinois.

MeanTime Spotlight

MeanTime MySpace

From the shores of Daytona, come our local heavy-heads, MeanTime. Drawing from influences like 108,  Integrity, and Strife, MeanTime bring a breath of fresh air to Florida HC. Vocalist Alexx and guitarist Mikey both were a part of the recently deceased Years From Now, a melodic hardcore band that continued where Lifetime's "Jersey's Best Dancers" left off. With MeanTime, these dudes show their talent in a different branch of hardcore. Not too long ago they posted their most recent demo recordings on their myspace, and you can't help but want to mosh out of your computer chair when you hear the beginning riff of "Measurement". A common misconception about this band is that vocalist Alexx is some sort of hardman. I'd like to clear this up by saying although his muscles are extremely sexy, I think Larry of Think Fast! Records put it best when he said "Alexx is a pussy."

Anyways, with a little over a year of local gigs under their belt, MeanTime are making their first record attempt out on Double or Nothing Records at the end of this summer. They're supporting this release with a short east coast tour in August. Guitarist Matt answered some quick questions. Check 'em out:

FU: So, who does what in MeanTime?

MT: I am Matt, I play guitar. Mikey also plays guitar. Alexx is our vocalist. Josh plays bass. Jesse plays the drums, when he is not napping off.

FU: You dudes hail from the Daytona area, home of This Is For You Fest. You guys are definitely doing something different from what normally comes out of DB, what would you say influenced you guys to try something new?

MT: Well Mikey and Alexx have been in their fair share of hardcore bands from Daytona, and have always listened to the bands that influence us. Daytona has had some great bands, that not a lot people really gave a chance, like; Same Mistake, Years From Now, The Other Side Of The Sky. It is a misconception that everyone from Daytona Beach is PC. Everyone assumes that This Is For You Fest is some hippy gathering like BurningMan or something, but in actuality, Billy books a lot of up and coming bands. Before the hype machine (messageboards) hit them bands like Shipwreck, Guns Up!, American Nightmare, Darkest Hour, Pulling Teeth, Down To Nothing have played TIFY Fest. Sure, there are some crust and grind bands thrown in the mix, but that doesnt bother me. I guess we are a band now still to show people that Daytona is not what everyone assumes it is.

FU: MeanTime is a relatively newer band, and seem to be gaining recognition pretty quickly and deservedly. I know you guys have a release in the works, whats the info on that?

MT: We just got done recording our first seven inch, which does'nt have a title for it yet, but it is coming out on Double or Nothing Records sometime in late July/early August. We are currently working on getting the artwork and layout together for the release. The record has two new songs on it entitled, "No Tolerance" and "A Long Way Gone." Be on the lookout, because we will be posting those two tracks on the myspace in the coming weeks. The record also has two re-recorded tracks from our demo, "Believer" and "Measurement."

FU: With summer at our heels, are there any touring plans that people should keep an eye on?

MT: Nothing is confirmed yet, because we do not have a van yet, but we are most likely going to be on tour August 8th - 17th with Dead Hearts, Know The Score, and Energy. The start of the tour is in Boston, MA on August 8th, so we have quite a long drive up to join them, but we are looking forward to it.

Here is the routing for it:

 8-Aug Boston , MA
Sat 9-Aug Syracuse , NY 
Sun 10-Aug Baltimore , MD 
Mon 11-Aug Huntington , WV 
Tue 12-Aug Richmond , VA 
Wed 13-Aug Wilmington , NC
Thu 14-Aug Jacksonville , FL 
Fri 15-Aug Ocala , FL 
Sat 16-Aug Miami , FL 
Sun 17-Aug Tampa , FL 

FU: Alright man, thanks for doing the interview. Last question, what are some florida bands that people should be listening to?

MT: No problem. There are a bunch of Florida bands happening right now that people need to be listening to and supporting. Here is my list: Evasion [editors note: Evasion is legit] ,Mekhago N.T., Know The Score, DEA, Hours, Kids Like Us, Time To Die, Learn Nothing, Overboard, Cant Stand It, Rockfist, Change of Ideas, Republicorpse, etc. I am sure there are some others that I like and forgot. Anyways, check all these bands out, and thanks for the interview.

Killing The Dream Interview

There are very few bands that really stand out in hardcore these days. It's safe to say that Killing The Dream is one of those bands. It'd be near impossible to find a band with more raw emotion portrayed in their music. With vocalist Eli's angst driven lyrics and gut wrenching vocals over the driving tempo of the instruments, it's hard to not feel the anger behind it. Their latest and first full length attempt, "In Place, Apart" blew through the national hardcore scene, leaving an impact that will definitely influence HC acts in future years. This month (June 10th) Killing The Dream hits us with another hard hitting Full length titled "Fractures" out on Deathwish Inc. With the release of this record, they'll be hitting the East Coast, playing This Is Hardcore fest and Florida. Eli took the time to answer some questions for the blog. Check it out:

FU: Alright dude, lets start this off with some light questions. Who does what in Killing The Dream?

KTD: My name is Eli, I answer questions and lose my voice. DJ plays guitar and handles food consumption. Chris plays bass and sleeps all the days. Patches plays guitar and is only crying because of the adrenaline. Isaac plays drums and listens to an unhealthy amount of U2.

FU: You guys have a new record coming out on Deathwish. When does this thing drop?

KTD: June 10th, 2008. Check it out anywhere music is sold.

FU: Judging from the songs on the DW Audio Player, Fractures is lining up to be one of my favorite releases this year. How does the writing process for KTD usually go? Did it change at all with this record? 

KTD: It definitely changed for this record since we lost Joel and Bart right after we recorded "In Place, Apart". Joel was our primary songwriter so obviously it was going to be a new experience writing another record. For a while we just focused on playing those songs and promoting that record, but we knew eventually we were going to have to get down to writing new stuff. It took a while to get into a rhythm and figure out exactly what kind of record we were going to be making, but once we did, it just all sort of fell into place.

Overall, the record is the product of over two years of writing, rewriting, and waiting...but we couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Hopefully everyone else agrees.

FU: How would you say the band has changed since the release of your previous full length, “In Place, Apart”?

KTD: Most obviously, we've had some member changes, as i alluded to in the last question. A couple months after "In Place, Apart" got recorded, Joel and Bart quit, and we recruited our old friends Phil and DJ to fill their spots. Phil left us in december of 2006, and we decided we need some more viking in our band, so we scooped up Patches O'Houlihan, the littlest viking. He's been great to have around, he works hard and has such a great attitude about everything. I'm really happy he's in the band.

Musically, I think a lot of things have changed, if nothing else just from the standpoint that we are a new band with new people writing music. In a lot of ways, "Fractures" is really a record we all wanted to write. We're all so happy with the other records and proud of the work we did with them, but I think with "Fractures" we were able to put everything together. When you start writing a record, I think you always have certain goals for it - We wanted the songs to be fluid, to transition well into one another; We wanted to try new tempos, new progressions, and to take chances without going too far out there and being something we aren't. 

FU: I take it youre a bigtime fan of The Office, from your bulletins, and show flyers. How do you feel about the finale of this last season? Any predictions for the next season?

KTD: Dude, best show ever. I was kinda late to the party on this show, because I don't really watch a lot of current TV, but I watched all three seasons last summer in like two weeks. I was pretty stoked on the finale this year. There were a couple of episodes this season that honestly weren't that funny...I feel like they were trying to set up plot lines more than be funny, which is fine as long as they don't overdo it. So it was good for them to end with a really funny one. haha Kevin..."I am TOTALLY gonna bang Holly."

Anyways, yeah. I hate Jan. What a heinous B. It will be interesting to see what they do with that story...and the Jim and Pam thing is frustrating, just because I really hope they don't make them break up for the sake of drama and stuff, when they've spent the last four years showing us how good they are together. Man, I could go on forever. I'm gonna miss Michael hating Toby, though. Seriously that was one of my favorite parts of the show.

FU: At the end of this summer, you guys will be heading to the East Coast to play some dates including This Is Hardcore fest, and Florida. After that tour, do you guys have any extensive touring plans to promote this new record?

KTD: Haha no! This is pretty ambitious on our part...We'll be gone for almost half the summer, so we are really gonna need a break from stuff. We'll obviously go out and do more shows sometime, but we don't have any definite plans for a while after this summer.


FU: What would you say is the overall theme for “Fratcures”, lyrically? What inspired you while writing for this record?

KTD: "Fractures" is just about breaking away, moving on, growing up...in a lot of different aspects. Basically, I'm just not as young as I used to be, and I'm at a point where I'm having to face decisions that I've been putting off for years under the guise of being young, you know? At some point, you can't just keep gliding through everything and doing everything exactly the same way, and that's what a lot of the songs are about. There's a lot of looking back, looking forward, trying to come to terms with letting certain things go, that sort of stuff.


FU: The Song “Thirty Four Seconds” seems to have a pretty interesting meaning. Care to clarify this songs message?

KTD: Not really. It's a pretty personal song, even though I think a lot of it is pretty obvious. You should know that when I say "You are who you fuck.", I'm not talking so much about sex as I am other stuff.


FU: You guys have a tour in Japan with Ruiner coming up in July. I know you have already been through there before. What is the hardcore scene like there, and how does it differ from the states? Any more info on that tour?

KTD: It's funny, as different as things are, they really are the same everywhere. I think that's one of the really awesome things about hardcore. There might be a few cultural differences. Obviously language is a barrier, but for the most part, hardcore shows are hardcore shows. I don't think there's a lot of things in life you could say that about.

The people in Japan are great...They are so gracious and so stoked to be at shows, and just are very giving, unselfish people. The food takes a while to get used to, but other than that, it's pretty awesome, haha.

Here is the list of shows for that tour-

July 4th (Fri) Fly in ~ Chiba Shinmatsudo @FIREBIRD
July 5th (Sat) Day off
July 6th (Sun) Tochigi Ashikaga @NORTH BBC
July 7th (Mon) Yokohama @LIZARD
July 8th (Tue) Tokyo Kichijoji @WARP
July 9th (Wed) Shizuoka Shimada @CLUB CANDLE
July 10th (Thu) Nagoya @ZION
July 11th (Fri) Osaka Namba @BEARS
July 12th (Sat) Fukui @CHOP
July 13th (Sun) Tokyo Shinjuku @NINE SPICES
July 14th (Mon) Fly out


FU: With two EP’s and two LP’s under KTD’s belt, what’s next for the band? Any talks of writing anymore music or are you guys just going with the flow?

KTD: Definitely just going with the flow. Right now we're just focusing on playing shows for "Fractures" and having as much fun as we possibly can. I guess we'll just let everything else fall into place after that.

FU: That’s it man. Leave us with some inspiring words or a good plug.

KTD: Do something nice for someone today! Seriously, whether it's big or small...you won't be sorry you did.

Thanks for the interview man...See you this summer! Egg House! Haha I forget what that place was called, bummer it closed.

"FRACTURES" June 10th everywhere that has music!

Killing The Dream MySpace
Killing The Dream Website
Deathwish Inc.

Although KTD are one of the most powerful bands in HC today, it's a rare occasion for them to venture outside of California. With KTD delivering an unmatched live show, it would be extremely foolish to pass up an opportunity to catch them while you can. They're hitting Tampa on August 27th, I'll see you there. Be on the lookout for another update this week or next including full sets from the Blacklisted/Paint It Black show along with a video interview with Dan Yemin.

-JP

Ceremony Interview

Ceremony is a band that needs no introduction.  Since their debut EP "Ruined" dropped on Malfunction Records in '05, Ceremony have been a household name for modern day hardcore. With their release the "Violence Violence" LP, also on Malfunction, and their most recent effort, the "Scared People" 7" on Bridge Nine, they have only solidified their spot on the top. With an unmatched war-like energy on stage, Ceremony have left quite an impression on the hardcore scene today. They have a new record coming out August 5th on Bridge Nine called "Still Nothing Moves You". Be on the lookout for that. What follows is a quick interview with guitarist, Ryan Mattos. 

FU: Alright, who are you, what do you play, and what food best describes you as a whole?
CY: I am Toast, I play guitar, sometimes bass, never drums. I am a cyberdog.

FU: Ceremony is hitting the road with Life Long Tragedy and Sabertooth Zombie for a full US, I know that one of the dudes in your band has toured with LLT before, are you guys good friends? Any revealing stories between the two bands?
CY: Yeah, pretty much all of those dudes went to the same schools together growing up in Rohnert Park. I'm a little older and from a different town, I originally met them when I had been briefly working as a janitor at Rancho Cotati High School in RP. I wouldnt be one to reveal any revealing stories, theyve all known each other so long that I can barely keep up with the jokes.

FU: California is delivering some pretty solid bands as of late. What up and comers should we keep our eyes on?
CY: Crucified,Skin LIke Iron, Wolves & Thieves, Cinnamon, Foreign Nature. 5 is enough for now, look into those and you'll find more.

FU: Ceremony has a new LP coming out at the beginning of August called “Still Nothing Moves You”, Ross posted a bulletin about this record,calling it “the record” for you guys, are you all as confident in this release as he is? What can we expect to hear coming out of the “Scared People” EP?
CY: That was me. I think a lot of people confuse us because our names are Ryan and Ross, and I'm kinda a mouthpiece for the band, and most people assume that's going to be the singer. I mean my REAL name is Ryan, but everyone calls me toast at this point.

FU: I know you guys have a two song 7” with you on this tour, whats the info on this release?
CY: I have no idea. B9's helicopter crashed while they were taking it to the plant, so it got delayed and we don't have it yet. eventually we will and it'll have 2 songs, one's on the LP, one's not.


FU: I heard talks of this record being self-titled before the name was picked. Am I an idiot basing a question off of false information, or is this true? If so, why the name change?
CY: You're not an idiot, don't beat yourself up. We were going to have it be self-titled, but then we decided we didn't want people to confuse it with The Cult's record called "Ceremony."


FU: What would you say are your favorite things about living in the Bay area?
CY: Lake Merritt, good vegan food, weather, people, the Rose Garden, shows, Sabertooth Zombie.

FU: I recently stumbled across a number on the net for the Ceremony Info-line( Call [510]350-7360 and check it out for yourself). I called it up and it hit me with some upcoming tour dates, record info, and other Ceremony related news. This is definitely a pretty different way of promoting, whats the deal with this for those not in the know, and whose idea was it to get this thing started up?
CY: Well information is power, and with so much stuff on the information superhighway, it's pretty much the power superhighway. We're trying to get that power back from the hands of the upper class, internet-enabled techno poseurs, and back to the payphone punx where it belongs.

FU: Since the “Ruined” EP, Ceremony has kept a pretty hectic touring schedule, are there any memorable oddball dates that stick out in your mind? What’s the story behind it?
CY: Oh man, uh, there was this one that happened forever ago. We were staying at a hotel and there was a door on either end, right. And one opened up to the hallway and the other opened up onto the beach. And if you opened both of them it created like this crazy wind tunnel. So, like first of all we experimented by opening both doors and just like throwing shit into the path of the wind as it rushed through. So it would all like fly out into the hallway. Then, apparently there were a bunch of seagulls outside and next thing we know there is a bunch of seagulls flying at the open door. So we slammed the door closed and all we hear for like the next half hour is just seagulls like slamming into the door. (laughs) It was really kind of scary.


FU: Alright, thanks for the interview dude, it’s time for the ever-so-awkward last words portion of the interview. Leave us with some words to live by, a plug for the new record, or some shout outs.
CY: Dan, I know you're super bored and hot right now, just hang in there.

Ceremony will be stopping in Tampa with Life Long Tragedy and Sabertooth Zombie in a few weeks. Don't be a dummy and miss this gig.

-JP

LEARN NOTHING - Tallahassee Trip

For those that aren't familiar, I sing in a disorganized, cluster fuck of a band called Learn Nothing. We've been around for almost a year and have been consistently playing shows mainly in the Tampa/Orlando area. This past Friday we made a trip up to Tallahassee to play a show with 1984, No Excuses and DEA. We all met up at my house around 11:30 and from there we headed out to pick up Gil Sayfan of Think Right/Triple B/Ill Mosher fame. Gil is taking a little break from the streets of Boston to come visit us all in Florida. This trip wouldn’t have been the same without him and anyone that knows Gil knows the truth to this. From Gil’s place we embarked on our journey, which started out with me giving the wrong directions and Nick getting pissed off like he always does. What a guy. We got back on track and Nick’s nerves slowly started to boil down. We jammed some classic NYHC for awhile, most notably Warzone, Breakdown and Straight Ahead. Gil, Matt and I car moshed hard as nails for the duration of these songs. Sing alongs were of course included with invisible mics. Eventually we made a stop and I was thrown out of the “navigator” position and was replaced by the poser navigator, Danny. The car ride was long, long and long so I’ll skip ahead to when we were closer to our destination. About 50 miles out from Tallahassee we hit some hard rain. Unluckily for us, Nick’s windshield wipers fucking suck and barely work. We had to pull over at a gas station until it died down. When it finally did we piled back in the car and continued on.

When we first got into Tallahassee I wasn’t impressed. The downtown area and University area are pretty nice but mostly everything else is a giant shit hole. We finally arrived at Jack’s house sometime after 5. Jack was the one putting on this show and he plays bass in DEA. We were introduced to his drummer who’s name I forgot but he was a really cool kid. Immediately we left Jack’s house and headed to a local Chinese buffet. It should be noted that we are huge Chinese buffet fans. We hit the buffet hard and I instantly knew that later on I would regret eating here. From there we swung back by Jack’s house so he could pick up DEA’s merch and then headed to the show. The show was at a place called The Shed and when we pulled up it looked pretty interesting. There were already about 20 people there and it was looking to be a good turnout. We headed inside, met the people that ran the place and checked out the space. It’s a perfect place for small hardcore shows.

1984 are from Tallahassee and were the first band to play. Apparently their drummer was in some old hardcore bands back in that era. They were good but his talking cut into their performance. Kids were standing around and not much was going on. Midway through their set I had to leave because the Chinese buffet was starting to haunt me. I had to run across the street to a Popeye’s to properly dispose of my buffet waste. By the time I got back, the second band, No Excuses, were starting to play. They too are from Tallahasse and kids were going off for every song. By this time the place was fucking packed, 50-60 kids. I missed the last few songs they played to help get everything ready since we were on next. They finished their set and we started loading our shit in. Speaking of shit, I had to make a second run to Popeye’s right before we went on to dispose of more buffet waste. By the time I ran back the rest of the band was checking gutairs/drums. Kids started coming inside and the place was packing up. We had a special intro planned with the help of our fellow coreman, Gil Sayfan. We brought Matt’s boombox and started to blast “Born In The USA” by Bruce Springsteen. We got everyone in the room clapping along while Gil cleverly introduced each member of Learn Nothing. I really wish someone would have got that on film, it was ridiculous. We cut Springsteen and I took the mic from Gil. There was a good vibe in the room and kids were moving around instantly. We got through half our songs when this drunk idiot stumbled in. I could tell it would be a problem. We played a couple more jams and kids were still moving around for us, it was fucking awesome. During the last song the drunk idiot decided it would be a good idea to throw beer all over me. I responded by spitting in his dirty face twice. Kids pulled him back to prevent anything else. We finished the song and kids demanded covers. People were shouting "INFEST!" and I really wish we could have delivered. Next time guys, I promise. I thanked everyone and the kids were really nice to us all. Everyone had a lot of good things to say to us after our set and it was much appreciated. It was probably the best show that we have played and I can’t wait to play there again. DEA played after and kids were still going off. They played a good set and busted out a Cro-Mags, Floorpunch, and In My Eyes cover. All good in my book. It should be noted that Gil’s mosh was harder than nails during this set. King of the pit.


After DEA’s set we sold some shirts and started to pack everything up. Jack hooked us up with a very generous amount of money to make it back home and it was greatly appreciated. Soon after we headed out, made a stop at the gas station and got back on the road home. The car ride home was out of control for the first hour or so. We recited lyrics from some classic songs. Bare Naked Ladies, Coolio and Will Smith to name a few. After this choir session we all started to fade in and out of sleep, minus Danny who was driving aka swerving. 4 hours later we were back in Orlando, safe and sound. It was a great time and was one of those shows that really makes you want to keep playing. Big thanks to Jack and DEA, No Excuses and all the kids that came out to the show, it means a lot. We’ll be back soon. Punx.

-Nick V

Can't Stand It Spotlight

I decided to start a blog to chart the path of Tampa Bay HC. I'll throw up some spotlight bands, some interviews, and some show footage if I can from time to time. I'll probably have other dudes post here to get the upkeep going. This first post goes out to my dudes in Can't Stand It. 

Comprised of members of the late Now Soldiers, Evasion, and the Chicaboom Room heads, Cant Stand it plays hardcore in the vein of whining and Black Flag worship. They had a band going called Endurance which was more a of a side project with influences like Carry On and Chain of Strength. It seems to me that they are taking Cant Stand It to a new level, playing a ridiculous amount of gigs, and writing music at a steady pace. Their vocalist, Vince, seems to have a glass body, getting hurt at every gig he plays, so please my friends, be gentle. 

Anyways, they just released a Free EP this year( or FREE. P. as they so lamely call it). so if you want a copy of that, message them and I'm sure they'll get one to you somehow. The songs on it are hard hitting, short, and angry. Definitely a band worth keeping your eye on. (be sure to check out Vince's knee brace in this video)

So thats that, be on the lookout for more posts in the next few days from the Face Up Crew.

-JP