5 Questions with CJ RAMONE at DO617

5 QUESTIONS WITH CJ RAMONE

CJ, THANKS FOR JOINING US. WHAT’S NEW WITH YOUR SOUND ON AMERICAN BEAUTY?

SONGWRITING IS A GOOD PIECE SHARPER AS IT’S MY THIRD GO AROUND, SECOND ON FAT WRECK. I WORKED WITH PRODUCER/ENGINEER PAUL MINER THIS TIME SO THE SOUND OF THE RECORD IS BIG! GUITARS A BIT CRUNCHIER AND THE VOCALS MORE UP FRONT WITH A GOOD DOSE OF STEVE SOTO’S BEATLESQUE HARMONIZING. IT ALSO INCLUDES SOME GREAT PERCUSSION BY PETE SOSA AND DAN ROOT’S GUITAR WORK THAT CAN’T BE BEAT. WE’VE EVEN GOT THE BOYS FROM MARIACHI EL BRONX PLAYING TRUMPETS ON A TRACK!

How is it playing with other punk royalty Steve Soto (Adolescents), Dan Root (Adolescents), and Pete Sosa (Street Dogs) and will these guys be joining you on the road?

COULDN’T ASK FOR BETTER. THERE’S A CONFIDENCE YOU FEEL STEPPING ON STAGE WITH VETS LIKE THOSE GUYS. PETE IS THE BABY BOY OF THE GROUP, BUT HAS AS MUCH ROAD TIME AS SOME OF THE OLD TIMERS IN THE BUSINESS.

THE ONE HANG UP IS THOSE BOYS ALL GET BUSY SOMETIMES AND I’VE GOT TO KEEP IT ROLLING. MY SECOND LINE UP IS CHRIS ELLER AND JOSH BLACKWAY FROM THE HUNTINGTONS AND MY GOOD BUDDY NATE SANDER.

How is it working with the fine folks at FAT WRECK CHORDS?

YEAH FAT IS A GOOD HOME FOR ME. NEVER HAVE A PROBLEM GETTING SOMEONE ON THE PHONE AT HEADQUARTERS AND THEY’RE QUICK AT GETTING THINGS DONE. ALSO DOES NOT HURT THAT THEY’VE GOT A BOAT LOAD OF GREAT BANDS WHICH MEANS LEAVING WITH LOTS OF VINYL ANYTIME WE STOP IN ON A WEST COAST RUN!!

Care to tell us about your charitable work with Autism Speaks or any other organization?

I. HAVE SUPPORTED AUTISM SPEAKS FOR A LONG TIME NOW. I DO THE LONG ISLAND WALK WITH TEAM CJ RAMONE EVERY YEAR. MY WIFE DENISE ORGANIZES MOST OF MY INVOLVEMENT AND WE ARE PLANNING A CJ RAMONE BIRTHDAY BASH TO RAISE SOME FUNDS ALSO. AUTISM SPEAKS FUNDS INCREDIBLE AMOUNTS OF RESEARCH AND WITH THE NUMBER OF KIDS BEING DIAGNOSED EVERYDAY, IF THIS WAS A FATAL DISEASE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN CALLED AN EPIDEMIC LONG AGO AND THE FEDS WOULD HAVE POURED MILLIONS OF DOLLARS INTO IT. . SO TO MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THE AUTISTIC COMMUNITY, STAY TOUGH!!!

Do you have a favorite ACID EATERS track? It doesn’t have to be one you played on!

MY BACK PAGES. OUR VERSION IS BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL.

[READ MORE at Do617]

5 Questions with CAPTAIN SENSIBLE of The Damned at Do617

5 QUESTIONS WITH CAPTAIN SENSIBLE OF THE DAMNED

Did you know that the venue you are playing PARADISE ROCK CLUB is also celebrating 40 years?

No, good luck to them… if them walls could speak what stories they’d tell. Whereas with us the carnage over the years is well known. I can only guess at the money it cost us to replace wrecked equipment and pay fines. Of course, we had no idea it was us paying it all… managers don’t tell you that stuff. Until you ask them why you’re still stoney broke - despite playing all those shows.

Do you have any memories of past Boston shows you’d like to share?

The Rat Club.. we had some fun there over the years. Not so much the first time though, when between songs the audience chatted among themselves, accompanied by the sound of cutlery on plates. We dragged a table up onstage and ordered pizza… if you can’t beat em join em!

The band has of course taken some time off over the years, but continues to roll on and tour. What keeps you all coming back?

While there’s discerning music fans out there who want to see us, and we’re fit enough to do it we’ll keep going. Those old frauds the Stones are still out there, can’t let those old swines outlive us.

When our guitarist and leader Brian James quit the band in ‘78 we were considered to be washed up… especially with no history of songwriting between the remaining 3 members. But I wasn’t going back to cleaning toilets if I could possibly help it so started composing like anyone’s business, and with the help of our chum Lemmy on bass we did some gigs that procured a new record deal, and a new musical adventure began - that went thru garage, psych and goth phases… with us eventually becoming the evangelists for live music you see now. We live for that manic hour and a half onstage when there’s an element of danger and chaos… and anything could happen.

The music business has changed but the support from your vast swath of punk, goth and rock fans continues to stay the same. Not many you started out with are still doing it. How was it working with Pledge Music to fund your latest album, offering your fans something that they want?

Things are very different now… but we caught the tail end of a golden period for bands. When a label would book a live in studio for a few weeks and trust you to deliver something they can sell. They often ended up with drastically different records to that they were expecting… and you simply can’t imagine that ever happening today. We used to enjoy seeing the slightly shocked record company faces when we played our new finished albums the first time.

Our mates the Buzzcocks told us about this Pledge Music thing which I’d no idea about - but when told it allowed us to make the album that WE wanted to make… without a record label bloke watching over your shoulder I was there. So we can pretty much do what we like - which in the 80s would’ve meant getting comprehensively sloshed and wrecking the studio - probably getting thrown out of a few along the way for those sort of capers. Not this time though, being considerably older… and hopefully wiser.

Pinch, Stu and a Monty are such great players… they’re going to get a chance to flex their muscles musically. This is a band that can break out of a song structure and really jam it up.

Each album we’ve made sounds different from the last one - and this one will continue that trend. It’s fun to experiment, to be creative… take a few risks. The only shame is not releasing before the world tour, but to have boshed out a half finished album would be wrong. I have Sgt Pepper and Pet Sounds in my vinyl collection, played em to death over the years, and unlikely as it sounds always aspire to achieve those elevated standards.

Do you have a favorite (or least favorite) THE DAMNED song to play live?

Fave - Neat Neat Neat for the jamming scope the riff allows… we never play it the same twice.

Cheers - CS

5 Questions with PRIESTS (DC) at Do617

WE ASKED THEM ABOUT TRUMP, DC PROTEST CONCERTS, AND THE PERRENIAL QUESTION OF THE STOOGES VS. THE MC5!

Priests are: Daniele Daniele, Drums. Katie Alice Greer, Vocals. G.L. Jaguar, Guitar.

Taylor Mulitz, Bass.

HOW WAS YOUR NO THANKS! SHOW AT BLACK CAT D.C. ON INAUGURATION DAY?

T: It was great! And necessary on a horrific night, so a little bittersweet.

WHAT IS CASA RUBY & ONE DC?

T: Casa Ruby is an LGBTQ shelter in Washington, DC.

K: Homelessness is a problem in every major US city but people don’t consider how unsafe many shelters are for queer people. There is a necessity for shelter from the elements but also places where you will be respected, and cis and straight people might take that for granted sometimes.

G: ONE DC is a grassroots organization organizing around fighting displacement and supporting people who live in these communities in our area who are being displaced, their organizing principles enable people affected to speak for themselves.

[READ MORE AT DO617]

SALAD DAYS: A DECADE OF PUNK IN WASHINGTON DC (review) at FORCES OF GEEK

Wishing for the days
When I first wore this suit
Baby has grown older
It’s no longer cute
Too many voices
They’ve made me mute
Baby has grown ugly
It’s no longer cute

But I stay on, I stay on
Where do I get off?
On to greener pastures
The core has gotten soft

— Minor Threat, Salad Days (1985)

Reflecting on these lyrics thirty years later, the documentary Salad Days: A Decade Of Punk In Washington DC serves as a backstage pass to one of the most explosive and important hardcore punk scenes in this country. 

One could argue that Ian MacKaye’s bands and Dischord Records label defined the look, attitude and stage behavior of East Coast hardcore and straight edge kids from up in Boston down to Gainesville for years to come. 

This documentary puts the spotlight on McKaye and Jeff Nelson (Minor Threat, Dischord Records), Henry Rollins (Black Flag), Dave Grohl as well as horror comic writer Steve Niles (Gray Matter) among many others to patch together a decent image of D.C. punk in the 80s.

I was pretty stupid back then.

Well, let’s say uncultured. Let me go back. I was a teenager once.

Like many teenagers, I needed to rely on older siblings to clue me into my next move. It wasn’t my sister (Guns-N-Roses fan) that got me into punk rock. Rather, it was a complex web of a social circle and older siblings that circulated mix tapes of everything cool from Violent Femmes (who’s ‘Add it Up’ connected with me the way it could only connect with a virgin’s sex drive) to Minor Threat, we had it figured out. 

And then we started our bands. The rest as they say is a rather boring personal history that means nothing besides that it was real. Real to us. Music, expression, Minor Threat and the Dead Kennedys and the through line to McKaye’s later band Fugazi and $5 shows was very real. 

Hot summertime basements were filled with our bands. We scrawled giant X’s on our hands one week and then asked the same older brothers to buy us beer the next. We played next to washing machines and bicycles in the cellar and waited for the cops to come.

We bought army jackets, paint, sewed patches and made our own version of ‘The Sound of Punk to Come’. We weren’t very cool, but that’s what we were.

90% of what we were TRYING to do every day was to be like Minor Threat.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

EARTH PRIME TIME: INTERVIEW: MIKE KADOMIYA OF “LIFE IS POSERS”

Mike Kadomiya, aka Rufio (of War of Words), teams up with our very own Brian Connolly (Nothing Mattress) for a punk rock book release this Thursday at Lorem Ipsum. Rufio joins Earth Prime Time to let us know what we may expect from the event, including the live Q&A from alien expert Chris Pittman! 

DIGBOSTON: Rufio, thanks so much for joining us today! Tell us about your book release at Lorem Ipsum.
Mike Kadomiya: Thanks for having me! The book release party will be this Thursday, January 9th. We are celebrating the release of Life is Posers Volume 2: Aftermath, as well as Brian Connolly’s second book, How Come Nothing Mattress. Admission is FREE and there will be CHEAP BEER! It will be a rare, fun night in Adult Allston (Inman Square).

Life is Posers – MIKE KADOMIYA

DIGBOSTON: Do you expect a bunch of decked out punks there, or can I come as well? Who else is going to be there? Chris Pittman?

The last book release party was a healthy mix of boners, normaloids, punks, punx, hippies, and herberts.

I am anticipating a similar crowd. All with a willingness to laugh at moronic cartoons are welcome! Chris Pittman will be conducting a live interview with Brian and I, followed by an audience Q & A.

DIGBOSTON: When did the online version of Life is Posers start and why?
Life is Posers was born online at the very start of 2011. I believe Nothing Mattress started at almost exactly the same time.

[READ MORE AT DIGBOSTON.COM]

Tue. April 23, 2013 - League Podcast presents: GAGE, THE UNION BOYS

What a week.
Thanks for coming out to the Party, we raised over $100 for The One Fund!

Want to party with some nerdy rappers and punks?

Come out Tuesday (4/23) to O’Briens Pub in Allston for this!

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04.23.13 Tue	LeaguePodcast Presents  O’brien’s  Gage (Baltimore) Union Boys Shane Hall Chestnut Hullabaloo (Swaggerin Growlers) Event Details 8PM Doors  21+  $8

As we ramp up for our 150th episode, we will also have some big announcements this week.
Check out all of our concerts, events, signings and parties here:

facebook.com/leaguepodcast/events

Thanks to you!

Facebook Event

NEW ART - 10/16 THE BOMBPOPS @MidEastClub Up - My Birthday Show

w00t.

Finally putting this one in the ‘done’ pile.

Pencils & inks from my hand.  Typeset and colors on the computer. My first coloring with a Wacom. Almost getting the hang of it, but I ised the mouse and trackpad for a lot of it.

The Bompops Oct. 16, 2011 at The Middle East

Looking forward to all the great bands:

Sunday (post NYCC) - October 16, 2011!

LeaguePodcast.com and Rock On! Concerts present
The Bombpops (Red Scare Records, San Diego, CA)
Continental (featuring Rick Barton of The Outlets / DKM)
Hands Like Bricks (LA, CA)
SEXCoffee
Chip and The Crosstown Express
Clay N. Ferno’s Birthday Party 
18+ $9 Advance / $10 Day Of Show 
TIX - Facebook Event

Save the Date - 10/16 Clay N. Ferno's Birthday Party @MidEastClub!

Sunday, ROCK-TOBER 16
Middle East Upstairs at 8PM

LeaguePodcast.com and Rock On! Concerts present
The Bombpops (Red Scare Records, San Diego, CA)
Continental (featuring Rick Barton of The Outlets / Dropkick Murphys)
Hands Like Bricks (LA, CA)
and Special Guests for
Clay N. Ferno’s Birthday Party
18+ $9 Advance / $10 Day Of Show
TIX - Facebook Event

********************

I’m ready to take you on a punk rock ride with some of my favorite bands from out-of-town, The Bombpops (Red Scare Records, San Diego, CA) and Hands Like Bricks (LA, CA)! Joining the soft-coast gang is the venerable Dr. Rick Barton of the Outlets and Dropkick Murphys, with his new project Continental.

Come join me for the 36th Birthday Stitches, it will be a party. Falafel optional at the world famous Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub.

We’re teaming up with RockOn! Concerts and the NYCC-bound LeaguePodcast for one heckuva blowout!

Clay N. Ferno being a creep at The Dwarves - pic by Eric Law