December 2008 Editorial

This year I was able to avoid doing any shopping on Black Friday. I usually try to stay in, but sometimes boredom gets the best of me and I end up following the rest of the herd into a mall or store. Unfortunately although I was not shopping I was sitting in the waiting room (cue Fugazi in the background) at urgent care with my wife whose asthma was acting up. While we were waiting for her to be seen we were watching the news and heard about the mob who had killed an East Coast WalMart employee in a stampede (see Radar Blips section for that story). It put things into perspective and made us realize that as crummy as it is breathing in sick people fumes in a waiting room we were lucky not to be dead on the floor of a SprawlMart.

We've all heard tirades about the over commercialization of holidays in the United States and abroad. Most of our favorite Christmas movies and T.V. specials address the issue (conveniently with commercial interruptions). Take Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, or Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown- all of them warn us about materialism and disconnecting the holiday spirit from the holidays themselves. We all know that we're not supposed to try to express our love with our wallets and credit cards, but it happens anyway. With the economy running on self destruct mode anyone could be a few Tickle Me Elmo's away from spending away their bank account.

Despite all of the distractions that capitalism has to offer it seems like a lot of people have been getting a chance to reflect on all of the things that they are grateful for this year. When people don't have as much money to spend it seems they often have to go back to the old fashion way of showing love- a kind phone call, gathering together around the dinner table, visiting friends; We're talking some serious Tiny Tim shit here!

In Southern California we might not build snowmen or go sledding but we are lucky to have a pretty tight knit Punk  / music scene developing here and it's always great to see people helping each other out. In the past year we've lost a few show venues but we have been blessed with some great bands coming up. My personal favorite new SoCal bands of 2008 were Cat Party and Northern Towns. Cat Party have a dark vibe that reminds me of bands like the Damned/TSOL  as well as bands like the Replacements and Wipers. San Diego's Northern Towns on the other hand have a straight up Cockney Rejects/Sham 69 feel.

As far as touring bands go we had a great year with bands like Negative Approach, Fucked Up, Annihilation Time, Gorilla Biscuits, Cro-Mags, Lower Class Brats, Concrete Facelift, Guilty Faces, and the Spits all coming through. We've also seen some great old bands from Southern California reunite like the Outsiders, Sin 34, and MIA.

All of this leads to, of course a list of my favorite records of 2008:

1. Cat Party- Jigsaw Thoughts 7"
2. Marvelous Darlings- I Don't Wanna Go to the Party
3. Fucked Up- The Chemistry of Common Life
4. Jay Reatard- Matador Singles '08
5. H20- Nothing To Prove


Hopefully 2009 will bring a lot more fun and everyone will stay safe and sane for the holidays. As always there's a lot of promise in the air.

-Ditch-
Asst. Editor