Musicians are being scammed – Here are some things to watch out for

"We are out $475.00 and my whole band feels like chumps" This is just one of the lines from an email that Eric out of Chicago sent to us. He was doing some research after he and his band mates figured out that they had been duped. Below are some links to the information that confirmed his suspicion. Eric closes his email by saying, "If we fell for this, I know others might too and for alot of us all we want to do is play music and build an audience. If you can share some of this with more people that would be great."

Here are 3 of the dozen sources he sent in.

Article 1-
It can be difficult for an aspiring musician to find successful ways to get their name out, especially when there is a scam waiting around every corner. They can range anywhere from the dishonest record label to a shady website, so it is paramount to keep your eyes peeled and beware of any offer that promises to make you the next John Mayer. Read more here >>>

Article 2-
Isn’t it great that in an industry that is seeing the entry of tens of thousands of new musicians every year, there are so many nice businesses out there looking to help them? Read more here >>>

Article 3-
The entertainment biz has NEVER been at a shortage in regards to talent-directed scams, and despite the wealth of literature out there detailing the typical con-artist approach(s), thousands, if not millions of would-be artists find themselves falling victim to these ploys all the time. Read more here >>>

Monday Recap – Music and Lifestyle items

A quick recap of recent items:

Punk Rock Academy Fight Song - He's My Freind, He's My Alibi

Music play list for the week ending November 22, 2009

Government Warning - Band Spotlight

Krum Bums - Same Old Story

People are being sued for what they post sites such as Twitter

Mission of Burma - at The Echo - Los Angeles, CA - November 15, 2009

Music play list for the week ending November 15, 2009

Cat Party - Tragic Ends - Roofie and The Nightstalkers - No Spectators - Joe's Garage - at the Unity Church basement - Long Beach, CA

Banned For Life by D.R. Haney - book review


The Specials - at Corn Exchange - Edinburgh, UK - November 12, 2009

Music play list for the week ending November 8, 2009

The Revival Tour with Chuck Ragan, Jim Ward, Frank Turner, Konrad, Joey Cape - El Rey Theater - Los Angeles, CA

Channel 3 - Peccadilloes - at Texas Casino - Las Vegas, NV

Frank Turner - Poetry of the Deed

Doggy Style at Surf City Saloon - Huntington Beach, CA

Chuck Ragan - Gold Country

DEVO - at The Fonda Theater - Hollywood, CA - November 4, 2009

NOFX, WAX, Dead To Me and Nathan Maxwell - The Original Bunny Gang set to perform at the Rock To Roll charity event in San Francisco

DEVO - at The Fonda Theater - Hollywood, CA - November 3, 2009
 

 

 

Punk Rock Academy Fight Song – He’s my friend, He’s my alibi

Everybody has that one friend. The friend that could talk you into anything, get you out of anything and make you think twice about a whole lot of things. The type of friend who was both the angel and the devil on your shoulder-it just depended what kind of mood they happened to be in that day or even that hour. For me that friend was Herman we were friends since we were about four and he was my next door neighbor for a long while. Hell our birthdays were just three days apart. We were best friends, classmates, team mates and partners in crime who eventually went on two wildly different paths in life. We were a southern California version of a Martin Scorcese flick. One of the most you important things to know about my old friend was that his older brothers had given him the nickname of the weasel. Why you may ask? Well Herman’s brothers were two pretty big guys who were lineman on the high school football team and Herman was small, skinny, sneaky and well pretty much a weasely kind of a guy. Always up to something and always able to get out of most any situation. Herman was reckless, impulsive and care free. Now me on the other hand I tended to be more cautious, thoughtful and afraid of getting in trouble as a kid. My parents loved him but were always more than a little wary of him and his parents loved me and were glad that I was his friend.

We were a perfect fit. We were good cop bad cop in OP cords. He was my excuse to throw caution to the wind and I was his alibi. All he had to tell his mom was “it’s okay i was with Dan” and whatever fear of possible trouble was instantly abated in his mothers mind. The thing about Herman was that he could always convince me into doing something I wasn’t to sure of and it either ended up in me getting hurt, getting in trouble, having the time of my life and on several occasions all three. Over the course of our youth Herman would be responsible for some of my fondest memories and some of my biggest regrets. It’s because of Herman that instead of waiting for my mom to pick us up at elementary school we decided to take a short cut home and I fell into a bunch of prickly pears. It’s because of Herman that walking home from the roller rink in junior high we got chased by a bunch of high school kids who intended to kick our asses-he yelled a litany of profanities at them and then started to run like hell. I got caught, he out ran them and hid in some bushes. It’s because of Herman that I tried jumping off my neighbors roof into my pool and wound up with a concussion. It’s because of Herman we went joyriding in my parent’s truck at midnight and then had to push it home when the battery conked out on us at our friend Gus’s house. It’s also because of Herman that I became a Raiders fan (still not sure what category this falls under), learned to drive stick, played football, had my first shot of tequila and its because of Herman that I eventually learned to surf-which for kids from the San Gabriel Valley is no easy feat.

However as we got older we inevitably grew apart for the reason that Herman’s exploits and fun loving mischief started to take a decidedly more criminal slant. It started off with relatively harmless things like joyriding in our parents cars and then he got into shoplifting and then dealing some weed out of his bedroom window and eventually progressed into full blown drug fueled felonious acts-by him not me. As if following that Scorese script by the time we were 18 I was heading for College and he was heading for prison. Herman wound up doing a good stretch in California’s correctional institutions for a botched home invasion and I ended up doing a long stretch at Long Beach State. I lost touch with my one time best friend and have only seen him once since he first got locked up. About five years ago he showed up at a post wedding party for one our friends in San Gabriel. I was still wearing most of my tuxedo, sporting red hair and tattoos. He was wearing a wife beater, jeans and sporting jailhouse tattoos. We were both pretty drunk and talked for about an hour and I remember him asking me if I ever learned to surf and i told him yeah and it’s because of you. I haven’t seen him since but I’ve heard he’s still been in and out of jail. I do miss my old friend but sometimes the best thing a friend can do is not be there.

 

-Daniel N-

 

 
Read more from Punk Rock Academy Fight Song HERE

 

Music play list for the week ending November 22, 2009

Top 25  - In no particular order -

The Supremes - Keep Me Hanging On
Blood for Blood - Bitch Called Hope
Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye
Fallujah 71 - Psycho Neighbor
7 Seconds - Not Just Boys Fun
Channel 3 - Indian Summer
RKL - Life In A Bottle
Frank Sinatra - Come Fly With Me
Descendents - Everything Sux
ANS - Get Back To Work
Antischism - Fist
General Public - Tenderness
The Slackers - Manuel
US Bombs - New Approach
The Faction - Let's Go Get Cokes
Aquabats - Cat With Two Heads
Black Flag - Drinking and Driving
The Vandals - Viking Suit
The Cars - Let's Go
The Police - Dont Stand So Close to Me
The Damned - Democracy
China White - Dangerzone
X - White Girl
Johnny Thunders - All By Myself
The Beastie Boys - Transit Cop

The above list are some of the top played songs amongst our staff this week.

Get the albums that these songs are on HERE

Message of the week:
If you continue to do what you have always done...
you will continue to get what you've always got.
- Time for a change

 

Pressure Point, Hammer Bros, Shoot To Kill, Downpresser, Creatures, Plead the Fifth, Madhouse Disciples – at The Washington Neighborhood Center – Sacramento, CA – November 21, 2009

Once upon a time in the suburbs of Massachusetts my friends and I were trying to carve out a name of our own in a small scene. Being sick of tough guy poses and fools trying to show off how hard they were, we made it a point to be friendly and wear smiles on our faces. While sixteen year old kids in side ways baseball caps and bubble vests were punching their so called friends in the face we were starting circle pits where ever we went. We called ourselves the Harmless Crew in defiance of everything around us.

The Harmless Crew was mostly centered around two bands- HTD and Hammer Bros. Over time more bands would develop but when things started out for our group of friends our social lives were pretty much organized around those two bands. Early Hammer Bros was fast and the punk influences were right there for everyone to see. At one show they opened with a cover of "Pay To Cum" and we made it a point to dominate the dance floor with a huge circle pit while tough guys sneered at us. That was a big turning point for us and it really felt like things were taking a turn for the better. The Harmless Crew hung out together literally almost every night which wasn't difficult since several of us went to the same college and even lived in the same dorm. Our hang out away from shows was dorm suite 302 and in an early Hammer Bros song they even had a line in one of their songs that was a blatant shout out "I'm giving all that I've got to the Harmless and true- 302."

Over time things changed quite a bit. HTD broke up; Hammer Bros were becoming more popular which was great, but they were also getting much heavier which bummed out a few of us. Their shows didn't feel as welcoming and were getting more violent. There was a serious schism within the already dissolving Harmless Crew when a few people were involved in robbing the college radio station that some of us were volunteering at. Everything was falling apart and unfortunately I associated the heavier music that Hammer Bros were playing with dark personal times. Looking back those dark personal times were also probably affecting Hammer Bros vocalist, Jim Death and they probably influenced the band to make darker music.

It's been a few years now and since I'm living in Orange County I was pretty stoked to hear that the guys in Hammer Bros were heading out to California for the first time to play a few shows. I called up my old college roommate and fellow Harmless Crew member, the Pos. We made plans to see Hammer Bros in Riverside and in Sacramento. I unfortunately had to miss out on the Riverside show due to a family crisis but was still stoked to meet up with Pos in L.A.  where we were going to meet the guys in Hammer Bros and Shoot To Kill and caravan up to Sacramento with them. Before meeting up with the two bands Pos and I hit up Galco's Old World Market (http://www.sodapopstop.com/) in Highland Park. Galco's is an amazing local secret in North East L.A.- a market that specializes in old style soda pop. They carry over 450 varieties of soda. We stocked up on root beer and other unusual sodas that come in glass bottles for the ride.

Jim and Gisel, who is the current bassist for Hammer Bros road in Pos's car with us for the long ass car ride up the 5 Freeway North Bound. It was great to catch up and talk about old times. Pos's IPod had tons of music that we all used to listen to together like the Vanilla Muffins, The Ramones, Gorilla Biscuits, Cocksparrer, the Bruisers, Chain Of Strength, Misfits, and Agent Orange. There were a million stops that all took much longer than they should have on the way up, but eventually about 3 million hours we arrived at the venue.

Thankfully we weren't too late and as we walked in the first band was still playing. The venue was a community center and there were some skinheads playing basketball which was awesome. They were called Madhouse Disciples and they played some very proper Oi! including a cover of Cocksparrer's "Because You're Young." The bassist from Pressure Point was filling in for them that night and they had a really positive vibe.

The next few bands were way too heavy for my tastes but a lot of people really seemed into them. For a while Pos and I sat in a lounge area and felt out the vibe of the venue. I had never been to Sacramento so it was cool to see how things were run there. There was a good mix of punks, hardcore kids, and sharp dressed skinheads- no racist boneheads were around. There was a good amount of girls around which to me is usually a good sign. A guy in a booth was selling pizza, soda, and Pozole, which we came to find out was a meat based Mexican soup. Since I'm vegan I didn't try any out but people were raving about it.

I've known Shoot To Kill's singer, Chris Fenton for many years so I made it a point to watch them. They are another band that plays a heavier style than I like but they are all good musicians and I dug on their cover of S.O.D.'s "United Forces." Right after Shoot To Kill, Hammer Bros played and they made it a point to play a few songs from their first two seven inches for Pos and I. It was especially cool for them to play "Out Of Style" which was always a favorite. Seeing Hammer Bros brought back a lot of memories and I was really stoked that we decided to make the trip.

Pressure Point headlined the show and unfortunately a lot of the audience left before they played. Their set was awesome and their singer, Mike had some really funny stage banter where he poked fun at the guys in Hammer Bros for being from Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Since there weren't a lot of people around Pressure Point decided to have some fun and play a bunch of covers from tons of different bands, including the Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front, 4-Skins, Bad Brains, and Bob Marley. They threw in a few originals including "Boots and Booze," "Never Walk Alone," "Rise Up," and "Skinhead Justice." We all had a great time and it was cool to see a good Oi! band since there really aren't many in Southern California.

After the show the New England crew stuck around and played basketball with members of Pressure Point and some other locals. It was very social and everyone was getting along. After sticking around for an hour or so Pos and I hit the road back to L.A. and struggled to stay awake the whole way home.

 

 

-Ditch.-
Big Wheel Asst. Editor

 

 
                                          Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews

 

 

 

 

The Fake Boys – This Is Where Our Songs Live

While The Fake Boys call themselves Pop Punk I choose to use dirty words out of my vocabulary while talking about them. To me Pop Punk is linked with overly sanitized, overly cute music that serves no purpose but to get the people playing it girlfriends. The Fake Boys are certainly melodic but their music and lyrics are also full of substance. In the tradition of Jawbreaker, the Buzzcocks, Avail, Naked Raygun, and early Lemonheads they create songs that are beautifully written but are delivered with an ugly emotional realism that speaks to the soul directly.

The most cutting song on "This Is Where Our Songs Live" is called "Logical Ape" and Jim Death's vocal performance is delivered with acid in his throat. The lyrics are equally potent and harsh, writing off the prescribed American dream, "Just sell the earth to stay ahead/And every cop's your fuckin' friend/Just like God is the end, not dirt." Other songs are just as cheery with titles like "I Wish I Was Dead," "Life Is Stupid," and "I Quit." The music ranges from being snappy to heavy and even dreary at times.  For anyone who has hard time finding music that is both tuneful and edgey The Fake Boys are the remedy.

Band MySpace: www.myspace.com/thefakeboys
 

 

-Ditch-
Big Wheel Online Magazine

 

                                           Go HERE to see all the latest record reviews reviews

 

 

 

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »