Reckless Aggression Demo Review

So the Bridge 9 board has been abuzz with posts about this band from Australia featuring a skinhead singer named "Meatdog" which he has tattooed on his head, along with a big spider. I hear the guy's zine is pretty popular too, featuring artwork like chicks blowing vikings by the light of the full moon and shit like that haha. Among some of newer bands that have been coming out lately featuring Oi/Streetpunk with hardcore influences, they do it well. All of these bands seem to be heavily influenced by 86 Mentality, which is a good thing as they are responsible for some of the best records of the decade. Too bad they never did an LP. Anyway, the vocals on this are rough and angry, not sure what the lyrics are about, I'd be interested to see if they are the standard boots and blood fare, or if there's something more to them. The drums really stand out on this recording, they just have this big crispy sounds that just kind of smacks you in the face over and over again, and they got some tough guitar riffs going on. This band would be great to see in a basement (like albion house) while swilling cheap beer and jumping around. I'd say the band is more on the Oi end of the spectrum of all these new Oi-Core bands sprouting up. They also throw in a 4-Skins cover, which was alright but nothing great, I like the originals better. In conclusion, good demo from this up and coming band. Hopefully they'll tour the states soon, I know there's a demand for them as more and more people are getting stoked on this band. I say keep all the new bands of this style coming. I haven't been too impressed with anything else that's come out in recent memory, and these bands are getting me excited about shit again.

There was a period where I went through a complete draught, not liking ANY bands that were coming out, even as everyone else was crawling up these band's assholes. One thing you can count on with this blog/my zines is my unadulterated opinion. It may not always be what you want to hear, but at least I'm honest and upfront instead of patting you on the back and telling you insincerely that I like your band. I've told friends I don't like their band plenty of times before. You gotta keep it real. If you're not keeping it real, you're keeping it WRONG.



Download the Demo from the link below. (Thanks to poster "lawlznorder" on the B9 board for providing the link):

Reckless Aggression Demo

Oh yea, here's an image of the back cover of Meatdog's zine and a Reckless Aggression live set for your enjoyment:

Tonight

Going to stop by a Halloween party in a bit. Hopefully it's not too much of a sausage fest.

Mmmmm

Hot Pockets for breakfast, the ham and cheese croissant variety. So good. I wasn't that hungover from last night which is fortunate cuz I drank the better half of a fifth of Sailor Jerry's rum.

Legalize It '79

Here's an ad culled from a vintage High Times magazine which advertises a "smoke-in" at the White House on July 3rd and 4th, the 4th obviously being our nation's independence day. I wonder how many people showed up? While obviously a step in the right direction, I guess it didn't do enough because we've still been dealing with the same oppressive laws for over 30 years since then. I have the feeling it was a bunch of unwashed hippies hanging out across the street playing the bongos a smoking joints.....which doesn't exactly bring the best image to the legalization movement. What we need is more "respectable" people.....suit and tie dudes....business men to come out and say,"When I get finished with a long day of work I'd rather smoke a joint of some good weed instead of having a double scotch on the rocks, and you know what? It's not a big deal". Once more "normal" people come out as pot-smokers I feel that we will gain a lot more ground for the cause, and eventually it will become even more socially acceptable, something that is happening as we speak. Look at the mainstream show "Weeds". I've been seeing advertisements EVERYWHERE promoting the new season of Weeds, a show about a pot dealing suburban mom that portrays pot in positive light. This is just the tip of the ice-burg as we as a society finally start to come to our senses.

Prison Sucks (Reprinted from Hot Food Zine #1)

Here's a short story (non-fiction) that I contributed to my friend Mike's zine "Hot Food" which came out awhile back. It's about a time when I went to visit my friend in prison. The story from page 1 is continued in the lower corner of page 2. Hope you find it entertaining.

Chicago Fest '05 Ticket Stub

Here's a ticket stub for Chicago Fest '05 at The Pulaski Park Fieldhouse. It was held in the main gymnasium part of the building and the turnout was huge, There was a ton of crusties everywhere, but the lineup was pretty cool, had a decent time.

My Favorite Blog....

The Bad Sandwich Chronicles is the only blog I check out and enjoy on a regular bassist. It's done by a member of the local Pop-Punk band "The Lawrence Arms" named Brandon Kelly. He writes about life in Chicago and in general, traveling with his band, and a multitude of funny observations/situations. This is the type of blog that you end up going back and obsessively reading all the archived material....which in this case goes back quite a ways. The writing itself is the opposite of dry, I've laughed out a loud numerous times while reading his blog. To me, anything that can make you laugh out loud while by yourself is good writing. Anyways, there's a link to it on my blog sidebar. I highly recommend checking this particular one out. I can only aspire to have as many followers/viewers as this dude, I'm sure some of it has to do with his "status" as a band member, but his writing stands on it's own, and obviously has tons of people coming back for more. The average post on there has like 30 comments, I've been doing this blog for around 6 months now and I've gotten less than 10 comments throughout all the posts. Yes, I am a bit jealous. Guess I just gotta step my game up a bit more.