The return of Fuck You Fridays.

It's July now. I'm about to turn 24. The world sucks. What better band to usher in the return of This Experiment than Dangers? These guys, are one of my personal favorite hardcore bands doing it right now. They come from all the way across the country in California, and are crafting a brand of angry, intelligent, and unrelenting west coast hardcore the likes of which might change the game. Yes there are a ton of bands coming from the west coast right now, but Dangers is the only one that asks "Why didn't you kill yourself today?" and that's a very important question. It strikes at the essence of everything. What did you do today that's worth your continued existence? That's the kind of vitriol I expect out of hardcore, and get out of Dangers. Strangely enough, that's the name of their label. Vitriol Records.

Fuck you Fridays

Well hello there, it's been a while, but I think this is worth a blog post. There are so many people/institutions I'm angry with right now, and some rad tunes that you should know about, so I thought I'd kill 2 birds with one stone.

First fuck you goes to the city of Tallahassee, for telling me to mow the lawn at my house. With no reasons at all, and I'd count reasons, as my neighbors complaining, our grass restricting access for some utilities worker to do their job, blocking the mailbox, etc. None of that, we get a notice about how our grass is out of control, and is affecting the morale and overall happiness of our neighborhood, and we had to mow it or we faced up to $500 in fines. Again all of this without anyone in the neighborhood complaining, etc. So I mowed the lawn, and our landlord called me to tell me that we "passed" the inspection, but the code enforcement lady would like us to do it more regularly, and not so "haphazardly." Well fuck you code enforcement lady. I liked the grass. I liked that I could stand in it and not see my legs, I liked that we had all kinds of cool bees buzzing around our yard because they have enough varieties of flowers for all of them to be happy. And now they're gone.

Fuck you number two goes to the USPS/whoever is stealing our mail. Stealing is so fucking low, I don't even know where to start. Oh really some 7" punk rock records? and a rat fink t shirt? That's what you want? You had to steal from us? Do we even look like we have anything worth stealing? No we're all so fucking broke. Don't think you just get off the hook USPS letter carriers who just left our shit sitting on the porch for people to steal apparently instead of leaving us a fucking package slip. I know you have them in your pocket, and if you would've used it we could have avoided all of this trouble to begin with.

The third fuck you goes to everyone with their flags at half mast today. Seriously, get over it. Also to the US Military recruiters who use days like today to talk poor kids with second class educations into joining military service. This song is for you.



Ok I think I feel a little bit better. I guess I'll post in here a little more regularly because I spent all summer hearing awesome bands, and needing to share them with people. Maybe if I keep this up people might actually start reading this thing. What's up Phil?

Cool bands I've seen recently

Off With Their Heads

So I figure I'll start this off with a band that I saw for the first time in April. They were supporting Against Me! on a little tour around the US. I kind of had a bit of an idea what to expect; straight-up no frills pop-punk, and maybe a few sing alongs. They definitely brought all of that with them, but there were elements of street punk thrown in, with the driving bass and drums, and the open ringing guitar chords. Some of you might have already heard of this band, but I hadn't and it was definitely a good first time experience. Their latest record called "From the Bottom" is out on No Idea, and yo should check it out if you get the chance.

At first listen, it's sounds like any other snotty pop-punk band from the midwest, and one might expect to hear songs about girls and hanging out, which there is a certain amount of. With a closer look however, the songs reveal themselves to be a scathing critique of the existence we all live, and never bother to question every day. They do things like have a chorus that's as follows

Because I'll never let it go
I'll Just let it grow
Until the day I die I fucking swear
I'm gonna make your life as miserable as mine.
Then go into an extremely pleasing hook right after. It's madness the way depression gets juxtaposed against major chords and progressions all over this record. I definitely recommend checking it out if you get a chance. Once again, that's "From the Bottom" by Off With Their Heads.

I've missed you, loyal readers.

I'm sure all 6 of you that read this are wondering where I've been. I'll tell you. I've been practicing, and playing shows with my band, hearing tons of awesome music in the process, which I guess I'll have to share with you all. Instead of making a list of awesome bands I've seen play in the last two months, maybe we'll just do this on a day by day basis. Starting Later today when I wake up.

I'm going to make a conscious effort to keep this updated since I haven't really posted since that Slingshot Dakota show. Which I still think was awesome by the way. Maybe look out for a Jennfest recap type thing as well. Also There are some killer shows coming up this month, which brings me to my next point. Check out the right flank of this blog, and you can see a list of bands that will be coming through here in the next month. Also if you want your band featured or anything like that just shoot me an
email. Tallahassee, remember this blog is yours. It's only going to be as good as you all help me make it. I can't be everywhere at once, and I know there's a lot of awesome shit I don't know about, so help out. Okay I gotta sleep..

Saw a really awesome band play tonight

They were called Slingshot Dakota. Lemme just say, the recordings don't do them Justice. They were great live, if you can; see this band! Hour Of The Wolf was amazing last night, and then tonight I get to see Slingshot Dakota, and Against Me! the day before. Go Florida!

We're going analog!

Zine coming out Friday. Like a paper one. This blog shit is cool and all, but I'd much rter give something tangible. For those of you who don't live here any more, or are still interested in what's going on around here, I'll be posting more regularly, and only really cool things so you'll at least feel like it was worth the clicks. Definitely look out for the print zine though, it's gonna have poetry, and art, and local businesses, and music, and CD reviews. I'm really excited about it!

Shove your health insurance up your ass.

So I'm going back to college. Cause for celebration right? I'm not so sure really. While I was trying to register for classes and whatnot, I get a message that I needed to either purchase or waive health insurance. Which seemed innocuous enough, so I ctrl-v the URL and get down to the business of navigating the worst designed websites (possibly ever) to figure out all this nonsense. So when I get down to it and finally find the waive button, I find that you can't simply waive the health insurance, you have to have proof of some other insurance besides the grossly underproviding school insurance.

Granted, I'm not one for health insurance period. Or the medical profession for that matter. Anyway, so I'm thinking what does health insurance have to do with me going to college. Sure I may be away from my parents, and say maybe I might hurt myself. I understand that, I really do. That you need health insurance to even attend classes. Or raher, to attend classes, and have them count for anything is ludicrous. So I'm really annoyed by al this, and I'm going to call the university health people and complain.

What does this have to do with shows you might ask? Absolutely nothing. It does however have to do with the marginalization of those poor/unemployed enough to not be ale to afford "health care" which is a profit driven business, not a health driven community, and that my friends is where I see a problem. When did we allow our health to be taken over by businesses? I know it was before I was born, but just because something's been going on my whole life doesn't make it right. Take back your body, because it seems that step by step we are being controlled.

We have insurance companies, people trying to overturn Roe v. Wade, laws deciding who you can love, and how you an love them. Are we really going to just sit back and watch this all happen quietly? I hope not. As a 22 year old, I'm realizing now that there's not really any more parent figure to hold your hand per se, and sometimes you gotta get dirty to have a garden. My friends, it's time to get some rakes and shovels.