New Song from The Honey Brothers

Great new song from The Honey Brothers (sounds like absolutely nothing else you've heard today!).

Let me know what you think.

AthFest June 25-28

Label A&R folks may have stopped visiting Athens, GA after R.E.M. and the B-52's were signed, but the city has continued to churn out some amazing bands (The Whigs, The Black Lips, Dead Confederate, etc.).

Next week (June 25-28), the city gets a chance to trot out some of those groups at the 12th annual AthFest held in dowtown Athens. Over 175 bands and artists will perform over four days on two outdoor stages. The all ages shows are free, but wristbands will be sold for the 20 or so music venues.

Among those playing next week are The Black Lips, Patterson Hood & The Screwtopians, Randall Bramlett Band, Dead Confederate and many others.

More info at http://www.athfest.com/.

New Song from Sub Rosa

Southern California's Sub Rosa, have a strong apprecaition with early 90's grunge (everyone from Screaming Trees to a mellower Nirvana).

The band was kind enough to make an MP3 of their new song "Here In Filth" available for free.

Enjoy:

"Give Me Back My Black T-shirt"

I am a big fan of t-shirts.

In fact, covering music for the past 15 years, most of the pay I get is in band t-shirts (and I have no idea why they are always black).

Over the past couple of week, I've come across two great t-shirt companies that are worth blogging about.

Worn Free

Launched in 2005, Worn Free is a rock T-shirt company that wants "to resurrect the coolest shirts of all time."

The label reproduces t-shirts worn by rock legends like Joe Strummer, Joey Ramone, Debbie Harry, Gram Parsons, Johnny Ramone and Joan Jett (among many others). The shirts, though not exactly cheap, are among the softest I've ever worn (yup, that's a good thing).

Here's a little more from their press materials:"We’ve spent more than a decade combing worldwide photo archives of music and style icons, learning what they’ve been wearing and bringing it straight to you."

Check out the catalog - the Joey Ramone shirt is really cool.

PLAYBACK CLOTHING

Another great shirt company and this one won't make you feel like a materialistic jerk for buying yet another t-shirt.

This Brooklyn company offers t-shirts and sweatshirts created by recycling cotton scraps and plastic bottles. "PLAYBACK is on a mission to dissolve the uncomfortable, expensive, cardboard look of past sustainable clothing, and replace it with a hip new model that combines quality, style and color." Not just for jam-band lovin' hippies, the shirts are actually very cool looking.

Here's some more info from the company: "Unlike other sustainable brands that take rolls of organic fabric and dye them into color, PLAYBACK achieves its profound success by utilizing the preexisting color of the original recycled material to color the yarn. This eliminates one of the most harmful processes used in clothing production- the chemical dyes. Since the products are made with only existing materials, PLAYBACK has also eliminated the need for extra cotton growth and in turn does not require massive amounts of land and water. By reducing the amount of textile and plastic bottle waste, PLAYBACK takes recyclables out of the landfill and puts them to good use."

The color names themsleves are cool as well: "Beer Bottle Brown," "Soda Bottle Green" and "Water Cooler Blue". Here's a link to their catalog.

Putting Dirt On the Coffin

When I was 15, I thought KISS was the coolest band in the world.

Last night, the 15-year-old version of me, died of embarrassment for the band.

R.I.P. Gene, Paul, Ace, Peter and a teenage me.

Punk Rock at 7 Inches Tall

GG Allin has always scared the crap out of me. And even at 7 inches tall, he's not any less intimidating.

Aggronautix is releasing limited edition GG Allin and Tesco Vee (Meatmen) collectibles. There will be 2000 of the GG Allin "1991" figurines and only 1000 of the mini Tesco Vee's. Each "Throbblehead" (their term, not mine) figures is made of polyresin, and will be displayed in a tri-windowed box.

Both figures will be distributed by MVD Entertainment Group - a company specializing in music-related distribution - and DKE Toys.

According to the press release, the idea first surfaced two years ago when Aggronautix pitched the GG figure idea to Merle Allin, GG's brother. "I had been thinking about doing a GG figure for a while, so when the guys came to me with the idea, I was into it," said Allin. "The proofing process took a long time, but we got it right. The doll looks really good and I'm happy with it."

The company then turned their attention to Vee. "As a toy collector of two decades, and classic bobble head collector, imagine just how geeked I became, when informed that yours truly would enter the pantheon of 'Throbblehead' punk rock losers, along with poopy soulmate GG Allin!," said Vee.

The figures are now available for purchase on www.aggronautix.com and www.seeofsound.com. They will also soon be available at many independent retailers, comic shops, tattoo parlors, etc. Aggronautix is currently working on a Dwarves "Two-Headed Throbble" to be released this summer.

The Pansy Division

I'm about two-thirds through Deflowered, the memoirs of Jon Ginoli, founder and front man of San Francisco punk group Pansy Division (the Godfather of queercore).

The book is hilarious and I am kicking myself for not going to a book signing he had in Atlanta recently. As my penance, here's a list of his upcoming book signings.

At the event's, which are free, he'll read from his book, do signings and play an acoustic set.

• 5/13/09 Borders 3600 McKinney Ave Dallas TX


• 5/14/09 Borders 570 Meyerland Plaza Houston TX 77096


• 5/15/09 Bookpeople 603 N. Lamar Blvd. Austin TX 78703


• 5/16/09 Full Circle Books 1900 Northwest Expy Oklahomo City OK 73118


• 5/17/09 Kirby’s Beer Store 3227 E 17th St N Wichita KS 67208


• 5/18/09 Barnes & Noble 420 W 47th Street Kansas City MO 64112


• 5/19/09 Left Bank Books 399 N. Euclid St. Louis MO 63105


• 5/20/09 Carmichaels Bookstore 2720 Frankfort Ave. Louisville KY 40206


• 5/21/09 Barnes & Noble 500 Main Street Royal Oak MI 48067


• 5/22/09 Aroma Cafe 118 N. Neil Champaign IL 61820


• 5/26/09 Tool Shed 2427 N Murray Ave. Milwaukee WI 53211


• 5/27/09 Public Space One 115 East Washington St Iowa City 52240


• 5/28/09 Barnes & Noble 3333 Oakview Dr Omaha NE 68144


• 6/5/09 Rebel Reading Series/The Knockout San Franicsco CA


• 6/6/09 Yerba Buena Performance San Francisco CA