I suppose it had to happen at some point. You can now create on online mixtape and send it to that special someone.

Check out my mixtape.  You should consider yourself a special someone.

Yet again I’m showcasing a Horror Punk band, but believe me The Rosedales deserve all the attention they get!

Their sound is hard to describe. It’s a mix between The Misfits and The Beach Boys. The harmonies on their songs are amazing and will have you singing along in no time. Their subject matter is typical Horror Punk themes, but it’s all presented with no cussing, a rarity in the genre. So if you’re a fan of punk, horror punk, or even surf music give them a listen.

In The Dark from their Album Raise Your Spirits

Call me crazy, but I still enjoy buying music. I enjoy the feeling of opening my newly purchased CD and having a first listen. I enjoy looking through the album liner notes to see the pictures of the band. I enjoy reading the thanks section to see who the artist felt helped enough to warrant putting their name on their album booklet. I enjoy buying music.

I image there are a lot of people like me. People out there who feel that the digital download revolution isn’t what they want. People out there who still enjoy having a actual pressed CD than a burned copy from tracks purchased on iTtunes. People out there who would rather have the best audio quality available from the beginning, and have the ability to convert it to an format needed for later use.

And here is where the first snag hits. According to the RIAA, ripping a CD you bought is illegal. They claim that you have no license to rip a CD and convert it to another format. According to them, you should purchase a legal digital download and use that. So, pay for it twice or else the artist will suffer.

This is nothing more than a blatant attempt to help their dieing business model. They see their profits falling and are scared. And instead of trying something new, they simply want to force us customers to pay more for the same old thing. An example, I went to FYE the other day and was looking around. I found the newest Interpol CD and my jaw dropped. They wanted $26 for the album! I would expect that price for a box set or a rare Smiths import LP, but the new Interpol CD? Are you kidding me?

In desperation for a new musical purchase I decided to look around on the internet for a good place to make some purchases. After a while I found cdbaby.com. WOW! This is how buying music should be! RIAA, take a note. When you guys are dead and buried, cdbaby will still be around. It put the fun back in to buying music, something y’all have tried to kill for a while now. They also got money from me, something I’ve tried to kill for a while now.

I Hate Kate is an amazing new band from Justin Mauriello, the former lead singer for Zebrahead. Justin brings the fun and excitement that Zebrahead was known for to I Hate Kate. Their songs are instantly catchy, and will have you singing along in minutes. Definitly worth your time and money!

I’m In Love With a Sociopath from their EP Act One.

Okay, look past the cheesy name of the tour and the fact that the their last album blew donkeys and realize that The Misfits are out on tour! In a time when Danzig is supposedly calling touring quits your chances to see the original horror punk band are, well, dieing.

And I realize there are people out there who will say that the real Misfits haven’t been around since 1983, but to those people I say who cares! Danzig era, Graves era, Only era, it’s all horror punk! Can’t we all just get along and like whatever we like? Isn’t the point of punk to listen to what you like and raise a fist to those who tell you what to do and listen to?

Check the dates to see if they’re visiting your town!

According to the BBC, Led Zeppelin are reuniting for one show to remember Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun who died last year.

Sources inform us that John Bonham will not take part.

In the tradition of The Misfits comes Calabrese, a horror punk band with enough dead attitude to spare. No cheesy corpse makeup, no songs about emo haircuts, and no songs about George W. Bush. Just good ole’ fashion horror punk topics, such as death, corpses, shrunken heads, and blood are covered here. Enjoy.

Backseat of my Hearse from their 13 Halloweens album

Enjoy punk, but find some of it to harsh for your taste? Then you’ll love the Groovie Ghoulies. Their energy and music scream fun. All of their songs are easily enjoyed by punks and non-punks alike. Their songs really offer something for everyone.

Ghoulies Are Go! from their Go! Stories album

I’ve attempted to write deeply personally articles describing how my music describes my life, but they have always turned out feeling superficial and dumb, as if it belonged more on someone’s crappy Myspace page than on my personal website. Why is it so hard to write about this? What makes it so difficult. I’ve come up with a theory.

Music is simply too personal

usic is extremely personal. The feeling it gives you is not always given to others. The way a song makes you feel is not always shared with other people listening to the same song. Music touches on a part of us that is intimately tied with our personal experiences and parts of our lives that other people have no access to. Because music can become so intertwined with who we are, it makes describing it like describing a feeling. You know what it feels like, why you like it, and why it is your favorite, but when sharing feelings through communication, there is always something lost in translation. And that something is typically what you were trying to say in the first place.

If I were going to try to describe to you why The Distillers makes be feel happier in times that I’m down here on my website, I’d be in for a fight. First of all I’d be describing the feeling altering effects of an artistic medium, but also I would be attempting to tailor it to you, my audience. That isn’t going to work.

If music is personal, how can I possibly alter what I’m feeling into something that you would want/care to read? You don’t know me. You don’t care about about how Dr. Chud’s X-Ward makes feel. So if I wanted to share it with you I would be forced to alter my message into something compelling to a general audience. This would be nothing more than a watered down version of what I was intending, and I think I owe y’all more than that.

Happy 30th Birthday Punk!

Although I realize that punk music has actually been around for more than 30 years, the time that most people consider the birth date of punk has arrived.  Go on, spit out the candles.

Time magazine has a nice history lesson about punk on their site.  They cover a few of the basics regarding the genre and it’s worth the 2 minutes it takes to listen to.