By   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Richmond - Wise minds once said you can assess the potential of an individual within five minutes of conversation with them.  After this writer spent time with Aspect, an up-and-coming rap artist, it’s no secret that he possesses the creativity and drive to lasso the moon if he so desired.

Set aside your copy of Tha Carter III and accept this invitation into the mind of one of the few solid rap talents in the industry.  Aspect (A Simple Perspective Enhancing Common Thought) offers a complex swirl of thought-provoking lyrics and deliciously raw production work.

Expecting a sound similar to 50 Cent or Soulja Boy?  Don’t count on it, because Aspect presents man’s struggle with life and relationships while pursuing the l ove of music which, he believes, is the essence of hip-hop.

“Most of these joints nowadays are like the ‘fast food’ of hip-hop,” he said.  “Mainstream artists come forth with a lot of filler meant for a quick fix, and I’m offering steakhouse-quality audio cuisine.”

Those already hungry for gourmet rap have the opportunity to sample Aspect’s rhymes with the release of his first mixtape Arts & Craft late last year.  Think of it as personal, life-long retrospective of the trials and tribulations he has experienced.  Whether indulg ing listeners on family and relationships (“Smile” and “Cinnamon”), loss of loved ones, or internal and external obstacles (“Finish Line” and “However Long It Takes”), his rhymes are razor sharp and slash through the speakers down to an impeccable freestyle over Young Jeezy’s “Go Crazy” instrumental.

Meshed in between those subjects are hints about his love for comic books and their corresponding superheroes, culminated well with his Spiderman tattoo.  Aspect is not your typical hard-edged rapper because he also digs old video games and other laid-back hobbies. 

“I also try to curse as little as possible on my tracks because a rapper uses them as a distraction and as filler from developing substantial lyrics,” he said.

Most people don’t experience success overnight, which is right up Aspect’s alley.  He persevered through a difficult childhood growing up in Queens, New York, with his mother and relatives.  Because of surrounding circumstances, he and his mother eventually moved to Richmond in the late 1990s, a challenging transition for him.

“It was tough having to leave my family and begin a new chapter of my life in an entirely new environment,” he said.

Although Aspect expressed an extensive interest in artists like Michael Jackson growing up, his hip-hop blood didn’t begin to boil until high school when he began exchanging bars with a group called the Foot Soldiers.  He said they eventually asked him to include a verse of his own for their performance, which was well-received.

“It was such a source of motivation to hear how much they dug my music, that’s when I really began to pursue a rap career.”

He continued to perform throughout high school until he was 20 years old, when his son Amiri was born.  Afterward, hiatus of single fatherhood, in-and-out custody battles and full-time job status kept him obligatorily preoccupied for the next three years of his life.

“Nothing comes before my son and my relationship with him - that’s why I wanted him to grow up in an environment where I would be around to take care of him,” he said.

Despite a nearly packed weekly schedule, Aspect was eventually able to collect his thoughts and begin developing his debut release, but once again it was an uphill battle.  The loss of his grandfather and timing constraints affected the quality of Arts.

“I was forced to release the mixtape without it being completely finished,” he said.  “Some of the tracks have gritty intros/outros because it was never mixed properly.”

No worries, Aspect!  The profound truth lies in the lyrics, and it pulsates with emotion held up with well-constructed metaphors, which he says is his specialty.

Nearly one year since its release, the circulation of Arts is only the beginning to Aspect’s professional business approach.  He has been quite busy performing at various freestyle events and promoting his sound on WHAN 1490, as well as working with his new manager Jamal Engram at J Global Entertainment LLC and working on his first full-length album The Gallery.

“Things have been moving really quick but that’s the way I like it,” he said.  “I’m starting to put my name out there and get this thing poppin’.”

Although he wants to keep his new project a secret, Aspect did shed a little light on the subject.  He plans on promoting his sound from a more casual listening experience to a more up-tempo blast to the eardrums.  Also, he’s pulling production teams from across the country to develop Gallery so that each track will have a unique, stand-alone feel from the next.

“Life After Death is one of my favorite albums, and Biggie designed every track to satisfy a wide array of rap listeners,” he said. “I’m trying to model my album in a similar way.”

One production team is housed in Richmond, Da 88ightz, managed by Will Feaster, a longtime collaborator with Aspect.  Feaster describes himself as a musical director who likes to compose a full and live sound.

“We’ve known each other for a while and have been talking about working together, but didn’t actually begin grindin’ until the mixtape was finished,” he said.  “We’re planning on developing 3 to 4 tracks for the new album.”

In the meantime, Aspect will continue to perform at Richmond’s the Camel in October, as well as at a collective live event at Florida A&M University later in the year.

“I’m still going to keep it real and make solid, substantial music,” he said.  “Even though this is a career, too many artists make it about money and fame and let the passion slip through the cracks.  Hip-hop is love, and I love where I’m at in this point of my life.”

Those who are interested can check out Aspect’s music at MySpace.com/Aspect1Eye. 

By   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Staunton - The face and sound of country music has changed dramatically over the past fifteen to twenty years.  Rather than  heartfelt ballads and somebody-did-me–wrong songs, country music in the new millennium has a more "pop" look and sound.  On Saturday, August 14, 2010, the audience at the Mockingbird was served a country music treat.  Listeners were transported into a classic country music experience.

First on the menu was the appetizer: The Judy Chops.  Sisters Molly and Sally Murphy anchor the vocals to most of the group’s songs along with the Reverend Bill Howard.  Molly possesses strong, soulful vocals while Sally compliments with a silky smooth voice.  This band exhibited the true classical country sound.  Their song list included originals as well as covers of some old favorites, including “Crazy” (made famous by Patsy Cline).  Also, the group performed a crowd stirring rendition of “Ol’ Dan Tucker.”

The main course: Jim Waive and the Young Divorcees.  Singing a mix of originals and covers (such as Johnny Cash and George Strait), this band epitomized the honky tonk sound.  Anna Matijasit's fiddle playing personified grace tempered with fire.  Charlie Bell was electrifying on the steel pedal and steel body resonator guitars.  Frontman Jim Waive was reminiscent of an old-school male country vocalist.  The crowd interaction fueled this local favorite so much that an encore was requested.

At night’s end, everyone had clapped their hands, stomped their feet, and hollered out at least once.  It was quite refreshing to hear a sound that reminded me of my childhood when I enjoyed country music.  Without a doubt, Jim Waive and the Young Divorcees and the Judy Chops are keeping the true classical country sound alive.

MySpace.com/TheJudyChops

JimWaive.com

By Director and Correspondent: Helen Brown   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Charlottesville - The first time I saw the Hogwaller Ramblers at Fellini's #9 was on one of those hot, chaotic nights.  I met Jamie Dyer previously around town, and after having many engaging conversations, I knew it was only a matter of time before Magazine33 would come knocking on the Hogwaller Ramblers' door to arrange a review.  After I saw them perform for half a set, I was impressed that these musicians were as intricate as they were underrated.  Their lyrical compositions form a story that combine a variety of cultural accents and genres of music, such as Celtic, bluegrass, and rock and roll.  Their fluid rhythms, excellent musical prowess, along with vibrant energy prompted me to spread the word about such impressive musicians.  On July 16, the Rock River Gypsies opened up for the Hogwaller Ramblers on the Downtown Mall at the Charlottesville Pavilion to a passionate crowd of fans that basked in the musical aura of the day.  I noticed a swarm of bare feet dancing hysterically and generally having a splendid time.  Something was truly magical about this particular show and it was apparent when everyone stomped out every kind of dance you could imagine.  The Hogwaller Ramblers proved to be a band that fuels a dancing mood and guarantees a good time that adheres to anyone and everyone willing to relax and let the music take you away.

The Hogwaller Ramblers, a five-piece band, displayed a spectrum of skillful instrumentation that lifted the eyebrows and raised the skirts at the Pavilion, where shyness was never an issue.  A rocking band with a little dash of bluegrass swagger, Hogwaller Ramblers currently consists of Jamie Dyer (guitar, vocals), Sandy Gray (lead guitar), Rolland Colella (violin), Cristan Keighley (drums), Bud Bryant (bass, backing vocals), and Jimmy Stelling (banjo).  Since 1991, they have been influential in every aspect of the revolving Charlottesville music scene.  As they classify themselves under the genre of "blue trash," they vastly underestimate their place as fantastic musicians.  They claim that they are “the ingrown toenail of the local music scene”; however, they give themselves far too little credit.  They are the original, quintessential Charlottesville rock band and they are a force to be reckoned with.  The Hogwaller Ramblers are the epitome of working musicians that have as much experience as expertise.

Jamie Dyer’s lead vocals rang through with persistent resonance.  Accompanied with a mean acoustic guitar, Jamie kept pushing blissful yet aggressive notes that became simply irresistible.  The lead guitarist, Sandy Gray also displayed his proficiency upon the electric guitar that reverberated into crowd and provided that ripple into the composition, like when lighting sparks the dark.  As the two guitars sang together, the heavenly banjo played by Jimmy Stelling stayed buoyant and upbeat.  Stelling is part of the family responsible for making the trademark Stelling Banjos that have remained some of the most desirable banjos worldwide.  Stelling played the banjo as if someone would play an electric guitar, and the effect was incredibly amazing; every note that bounced and reverberated in my inner ear highlighted the grassiness to the rocking, acoustic elements found within the Hogwaller Ramblers.  As the notes beckoned from Stelling’s banjo, Gray’s electric, and Dyer’s mad acoustic, Rolland Colella added one of the most intense violin renditions I have truthfully ever seen.  Just as the flames that painted the surface of his violin, he extracted devilishly heated notes where he was the master at the helm, directing the waves of stinging notes in expert progression.  As if the fine skills were not impressive enough, Bud Bryant and Cristan Keighley were right there adding a resilient backbone and playing off one another brilliantly.  As Keighley kept perfect timing with Bryant’s masterful bass, they were both consistent and in accord.  I also observed the blending of each musician’s style and ability in conjunction with their bandmates, transforming the unexpected into an elaborate root while seeming intentional and polished.

If any readers in the Charlottesville area have not already seen the Hogwaller Ramblers, you positively owe it to yourself to see them.  They play most Sunday nights at Fellini's Restaurant on the corner of the Downtown Mall.  They offer a fabulous live show that make you want to have Sunday become your new Friday.  Fellini’s also offer a nice brunch that includes a Bloody Mary bar and excellent food for a day filled with everything that you love from 11:00 am- 2:00 pm.  However, more importantly, please be sure to catch up with the Hogwaller Ramblers at HogwallerRamblers.com or at Fellini’s #9, which you can call to confirm, located in downtown Charlottesville Virginia at fellinis9.com for food, music, and a romantic ambiance.  For future shows at the Pavilion, you can find other local acts, as well as traveling mainstream performances at CharlottesvillePavilion.com.

By Editor (Managing) and Correspondent: Robin Marschak   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Richmond - Once again I was headed over to Legend Brewery, this time the band on my mind was Haze and the Transients.  As I crossed the Manchester bridge, dark clouds loomed over the brewery.  So much for my hopes of a show on the deck.  But when I arrived at Legend, the rain appeared to be holding off and the band was doing their sound check out on the deck.  I grabbed a beer and a front row table that had mysteriously remained empty despite the fact that most of the other tables had been filled long before I got there.  As my photographer, Travis Ely, showed up the band was just finishing their sound check.  Things were looking good, but my hopes of an evening out on the deck were once again washed away.  Just as the band broke into their first song, the sky opened up, and everything had to be hastily dragged into the barroom. These are the sort of things that sour your mind to a band even before you hear the first set.  But I was easily consoled by the bands decision to set up in the barroom, and after a second sound check Haze and the Transients got down to the business of the evening: good music and good beer.  The show must go on even if the weather does its best to foul things up.

The atmosphere of the evening was drastically different than it would have been out on the deck.  Instead of the cool enjoyable damp of the river breeze we were thrust into the chilly air conditioning of the barroom, but after a couple beers the change in environs ceased to bother me and I was able to start really getting into the music.  And there was plenty of it.  Haze was the only band playing and despite several set breaks which seemed to last forever, they managed to play a great deal of music.  They played a wide variety of songs while keeping a consistent and distinct sound, that being strongly melodic and somewhat minimalistic.  John Dacey, playing only a snare and high hat, set an upbeat tempo along with subtle help from Rick Myers on the upright bass, while Chris Ludwig played lead guitar.  But the real attention grabber of Haze's music was the vocals.  Lead was split primarily between Jolie Harrison, who also played tambourine, and Kirsten Hazler, who also played guitar and keyboard.  All of the band members pitched in on harmonies at some point throughout the night.

Both Kirsten and Jolie had very distinct voices.  Jolie's was somewhat more powerful, deeper and sultry.  She sounded amazing singing the bluesier numbers as well as some of the songs that had a dixieland feel.  Kirsten, on the other hand, had a light, airy voice.  Relying more on subtle melodic shifts she  was equally as captivating as Jolie, but by entirely different means.  Kirsten's voice was perfectly suited for the folksier and more country feeling numbers.  While one vocalist or another may have stood out as the lead on any particular song, the other members of the band created beautiful harmonies that perfectly bac ked up the main vocal melody.

As always Legend proved its worth as host to great music and delicious beer that managed to salvage the evening despite the rainy weather.  It may not have been the evening I was looking forward to throughout the day, but it was well worth looking forward to anyway.

HazeAndTheTransients.com

MySpace.com/HazeAndTheTransients

By Director, Genre Lead, and Editor: Andrew Wolfe   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Chesapeake - 33: Alright, so you guys have only been together a couple years now.  What is the secret of your success?  'Cuz you're opening up for bands like Ballyhoo and Murphy's Kids.  You've got bigger followings and you've only been around a couple years.  What is it that brings it all together?
Seth: A lot of it lies in Corey.  This dude...
Dylan Sajbel: Has the Yellow Pages in his phone book.
S: He's a salesman at heart.  And with that comes public relations.  He can come up to anybody and be their friend.  Instantly.  And he can make connections to people.  And that's how a lot of our shows got booked at the very beginning.  A lot of the connections that we made were mostly through Corey.  He knows everybody.  His house back in the day in high school, he was like the party master.
DS: It was like a mentality though, a passion...He knew how to approach people, make deals and we were like a bunch of goofballs...
S: He was like, “Let's go make money.  Let's go do what we love to do.”  He was the first one to turn 21.  

33: With some members of the band under 21...
S: We don't endorse underage drinking...

33: Does that ever cause any trouble getting shows?
Corey Sullivan: When we first started playing we had ten songs that we could play.  I had never heard a band like us, especially in northern Virginia, a band that was as solid as we were that we could play in front of a party and people would like us.  Most of the time you go to a party and the band that's playing is terrible.  We actually got a really good response.  I remember seeing that and being so inspired to make something out of what we had.  I wanted to share the music that we were making with other people.  I remember going up to people that had never seen us and being like, “Yeah you want to come out and see a show?  You really should.  If you're not impressed I want you to come up and tell me.”  I don't want to be the band that sucks.  The first band that I was in was the band that sucked.  You had to go out and sell tickets and try to get people to come out to your show.  And everyone comes and nobody likes it.  We were inviting people out to Feed God Cabbage shows and people were having an awesome fucking time.  I was like, “This is great.” And that's why I’ve tried to run with it because this is like changing everything. 

33: I gotta agree.  I heard you guys one time and I was like, “I gotta interview these guys.”
CS: It really didn't have anything to do with business skills or money; it was more about seeing something that was really good.

Church is Now in Session

33: What was the first show you guys ever played? 
CS: The church show?
Aaron March: The church!
CS: The best show ever.
DS: Tweens and old adults.  They were serving punch...
C: One key to our success is we actually had decent equipment.  For a change I actually had a nice guitar amp...so my friend Wilfredo hooks up this show and he's like, “We're playing at this church and it's like this cool underground scene...”
S: It was in a basement...
CS: It was going to be our first show so I was like, “Alright come on, let's go play this.” And I was like, “Do we need to bring equipment?”  And he was like, “No, there's gonna be a drum set and a bass amp...”  At the time I was twenty, Dylan was seventeen.  Going into the church he was easily the oldest person there in the bands by at least five years.
AM: We opened for a bunch of twelve-year-olds!
CS: They covered “Enter Sandman.”  It was actually kind of okay...
DS: I've never seen a group of people stand so still...
S: It was really like chairs around a huge dance floor...
DS: It looked like an eight year old's prom...
CS: Were we “Feed God Cabbage” at that time?  Yeah, we were “Feed God Cabbage” rolling into a church for our first show...the drum set was from the 30s.  There was no carpet it was on a marble floor.  The drum set's going everywhere.  The fucking bass rig is buzzing.  And the PA was like...
DS: It was like computer speakers...
S: There were rats...Y'all were drinking in the church parking lot...
CS: Jager-bombs.

33: That might have been it but what was your worst on-stage moment?
S: When I tackled Dylan's drum set...with a wireless mic. 

33: And the reason you tackled the drum set is...?
S: I was dancing with my eyes closed. 

33: Not a good idea onstage.
S: But I did make a good recovery.  After doing that and then knocking over my keyboard, I said to the crowd, “If you're not breaking shit, you're not rocking hard enough.”
CS: I told Seth earlier today if his feet weren't attached to his ankles,  they would just walk away.  His feet step on everything.  We call him BAMS.
S: Break All My Shit.

33: We've heard the worst, now what's the best moment?  The peak of your career so far?
DS: I gotta say SOJA [Soldiers of Jah Army]...
C: The Halloween party was off the hook...
DS: Battle of the Bands?
AM: I hit a bowl on stage at Chuck's house...
CS: That's whack.
AM: Okay, Chuck's house was awesome.
DS: We had multiple achievements, we won the Battle of the Bands, got free recording time, won money...
CS: Put an album out...
DS: Huge ego boost because we brought out a shit-ton of people.
CS: We went to South by Southwest...

(Notes from the Wolfe:  For those who don't know, South by Southwest (abbreviated SXSW) is one of the largest music and film festivals in the world.  Based in Austin, Texas, thousands of bands play each year over the course of the festival.  It happens every March and this year will be the 25^th anniversary so if you aren't doing anything from March 16 to the 20 this year, I have but one suggestion: ROADTRIP!)

DS, S, AM: That was whack!
DS: (to CS) You met Bill Murray there...
CS: Well, I didn't meet him but I ran into him...
S: I think the best part of that was us playing with our shirts off.
DS: Yeah we walked up and down the street...half naked with ”Free Show!” in permanent marker...
CS: Dude, you broke three strings and you were playing with a paperclip.  The trip was tight; the show we played was not tight.
DS: We were in the heart of 6^th street, the midst of the festival...shit was wild, I mean Austin is just a great city.
CS: We're going back.
S: If you had to ask me for my best moment I would have to say it was the second time we played with SOJA at State Theatre.  It was the most people we ever had.  We were just on point...we have videos up on YouTube, you can check it out...we came with everything we had.
DS: Dude they were chanting our name before we even had our shit set up.
S: The first time we played there I hadn't even heard of SOJA.  Then listening to their music and playing with them again and watching them...I was coming down from the guest room and they came in and everyone was cheering for an encore so I was kind of stuck right there and they were like, “We're gonna come in with this song, ready, we're gonna do the verse, the chorus four times...”.  I'm sitting there and I'm like, “This is SOJA, planning their encore like a quarterback's play...dude, this is epic.” 

33: Any plans for a new album in the works?
S: Yes.

33: What've we got?  A name?  Anything?
CS: Nah...

33: It's in it's infancy?  Not even infancy?  Artificial insemination?
CS: The album has thirteen songs on it.  And we have thirty songs.  We have shit we play live and people hear live all the time...it's just not on record.  So we're really excited to get back in the studio.
S: (to the Wolfe) What would you name the FGC album?

33: What would I name the FGC album? Suddenly I'm the one answering questions.
S: We want to get a response from the people...

33: Drink Satan's Root beer, I don't know...
S: I like that...

33: Feed God Cabbage?  Drink Satan's Root beer.

The Lightning Round!

33: We're going to be winding down the interview now with a final set of questions.  One of my favorite parts, a little bit of free association, the rapid-fire fury...(game-show host voice) now it's time to play the Lightning Round!  Win prizes!  Girls!
DS: Can we do the “Red Light Challenge” instead?

33: Favorite Phil Collins song and yes, you can use Genesis' catalog of hits if you need to...
DS: Uh...the only Phil Collins song I know is...
EVERYONE: (singing and clapping in unison) I can feel it, coming in the air tonight...
CS: Is that Phil Collins or Genesis?

33: Phil Collins.
DS: You know what that song is about...

33: Yeah, and that's not true.  The whole thing about not saving the guy who was drowning, it's complete bullshit.  I was disappointed, too, when I found out.
DS: Damn!

33: Dirty Sanchez...or Filthy Gomez?
CS: Seth!  Answer this question!
EVERYONE: [laughing]
DS: He's looking right at me because I look Spanish.

33: See my question is what distinguishes a Dirty Sanchez from a Filthy Gomez.  I was thinking the Dirty Sanchez was the big poop mustache across the whole lip while...
S: The Filthy Gomez actually has the goatee.

33: Oh!
DS: Wow! I did not know that about you...

33: Alright, probably an easy question: Booze or bud?
S: Bud.
CS: Both.
AM: Bud.
DS: Bud.
S: Marijuana.  The fact that it's not legal is based on bullshit politics and yellow journalism.
CS: Not that we're weed activists or anything.
S: I'm a weed activist, fuck it.
CS: What he's trying to say is we wonder a lot about what the world would be like if alcohol were illegal and weed was legal.

33: Elvis or the Beatles?
EVERYONE: Beatles.

33: So, this one you might want to get pen and paper for.  A train leaves Philadelphia going 100 mph, at 8 AM EST.
CS: Oh god...

33: Another train leaves LA at 9 AM PST, going 60 mph.  (pause) How high are you?
EVERYONE: [laughing]
DS: I was actually about to ask you for a piece of paper.

Well, there you have it.  FGC is a force to be reckoned with in the world of reggae rock with nowhere to go but up.  Good, down-to-earth cats who can break into coordinated renditions of Phil Collins at a moments notice.  And who knows?  You might be drinking Satan's root beer in the near future...

Miss the first part of the interview?

MySpace.com/FeedGodCabbage

By Correspondent: Mike Blackmore   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Stafford - I didn’t get fired the first go-round so it looks like I’m back on assignment.  "Battle of the Bands" has been a corny cultural moniker for decades.  It makes me expect to see Michael J. Fox at a ‘50s sock hop doing “Johnny B. Goode,” but I’ve heard he moves too fast for the stage and those Van Halen solos anymore.  Nevertheless, it is time to return to the topic at hand.  The Battle of the Bands at Mick’s consisted of Alter Egoz, Stereo Morning, and Nine Down competing against one another with Vinyl Epitaph sitting in as judges and giving a performance at the end.  We have music to review and no time for my frustration with semantics....

The first band to perform was the drum/acoustic/vocals trio Stereo Morning.  The band has good pop sensibilities and the pitch and harmonies were well-executed, making for good overall structure.  More variation in rhythm and riff will strengthen their songs.  A lot of the lyrical content seemed to be about relationships.  However, I may be wrong.  I’m not good with poetry or relationships anymore.  A lot of lyrical content pertaining to relationships suggests a lot of, well, relationships.  Being ladies’ men has it’s perks now, but from an evolutionary perspective they may want to slow it down because the more partners one has, the less likely one will be able to monogamously partner up in the future.  Surely, we all want the glorious nuclear family arrangement that’s been problem-free for decades, so just be careful!  While some pay attention to the sound, I also pay attention to the fashion.  If you weren’t in the Hell’s Angels or at that Stones show that fell apart because of them, you can’t wear an Altamont t-shirt.  In this band member’s defense, it does look like a shirt he purchased at a gift shop in Altamont and not one of those faux "Aeropostale’s Crab Tire Oil-Change Shack: Altamont" shirts.

However, Altamont, you were correct for being miffed at certain members of the crowd.  Those that left early stepped on musical toes.  I heard you outside the venue expressing your angst and doubts after people left in numbers before the winner was announced.  Altamont, this IS what you do and it IS frustrating when people leave before all the art of the evening has been displayed and critiqued.  Walking out on artists is a rude and egregious breach of etiquette unless you’re making a political point like walking out on the Rite of Spring during the Paris debut.  Actually, I think a political parallel can be drawn.  In this town, those rude enough to leave are dumb enough to join the local Tea Party chapter.  It’s ok, no one in Fredericksburg has heard of the Rite of Spring.

Before Nine Down took the stage, I was observing the band and their following from my post in the periphery.  The group and entourage all dressed as neofolk lumberjacks with unisex haircuts sporting such bright flannel that they’d all land safely in a grab bag of tropical skittles.  I like the cohesion.  Seek the endorsement.  The sound of Nine Down is classic rock/folk that falls somewhere between Wilco and Springsteen with a gruffer Dylan on vocals.  Among the harmonica, ukulele, and all the acoustic texture, they’re working with imaginative instrumentation.  Most praise goes to the song about I-64 and women from southwest Virginia, “East Bound, Outta Town.”  The song is cool because it means something for us here in the region.  Who hasn’t been high from the night before driving somewhere from the girl you want to be with but won’t talk to you anymore?  The interstate is the place to piece together a few fragmented delightful memories from the bourbon soaked night before.

Before we roll along to Alter Egoz I must make an ancillary note.  I don’t think Mick’s house photographer needed to feel threatened by the presence of Magazine33’s very own photographer Ryan Barsanti.  He wasn’t intending to vie for her job.  His behavior usually isn’t threatening.  However, I remember one time when he was piss-ass drunk running through the bonfire in Vinyl Epitaph’s backyard.  He thought it was a good idea that night to climb trees without clothes alongside a local tattoo artist who looks like an angry jack-o-lantern.  I hope Ryan left the goats alone during the New Zealand sabbatical.  Ryan was taking pictures of Nine Down tying their shoes during an intermission while a Kevin Rudolph song was playing and some drunk woman was tripping on the stage, but after having talked with him we figured those pictures won’t make the page.  Anyway, here at Magazine33, we’re glad he’s back.

Back to the music...Alter Egoz is an R&B band with a hip-hop/jazz feel and they were the winners of the evening's competition.  The victory was deserved.  When the percussion section is knocking on nine skins, a D.C. go-go feel is inevitable, and it sounds great.  The musicians are talented and tight, and the layered melodies are warm.  As if the musicianship wasn’t enough, Alter Egoz forged the strongest connection with the crowd, and the groove was infectious.  The only real criticism is they shied away from the crowd-demanded encore.  Even if you have to repeat a song, do it.  The crowd wanted it that much.  As they add more original compositions to their song bank, Alter Egoz should be able to carve out an identity as an original band and only have to choose covers when those covers mean something to them.  Good performance, ladies and gentlemen.  We look forward to hearing more from you.

I’m running out of space because I’m only given 1,500 words for my rants so I can’t dig deep into Vinyl Epitaph’s performance on this one but I’ll cover a show in a later issue.  Vinyl Epitaph wasn’t competing, and I had a lot of ground to cover.  Hopefully there will be no hard feelings.  I wonder how having a fifteen-plus year history with the members of the band will cloud my objectivity as a critic.  I think the band can vouch when I say that I’m an inherently miserable person so they probably never feel completely secure when I open my mouth.  They would expect me to say something snarky about Mike’s Lil' Wayne haircut, Hugh no longer having the same haircut as Samara from The Ring, Nick’s knee socks, or Matt’s capacity to never keep a shirt on, but I won’t jump into it now.  The Bo-Flex is working, Matt.  

The ultimate moral of the article is this:  A Battle of the Bands has to consider complex factors before coming together.  It won’t fly as high without considering several facets of a good show.  Without planning, It would be like me trying to seduce a woman with tastes for Mozart and chess when I’m much more an Aphex Twin and pool hall kind of man - it was an epic fail and she moved to London.  It’s important to match artistic styles with the venue and the kind of people likely to come to the venue.  The artists, the venue, and the patrons all have psychological dimensions, and they contribute to the best possible show when all these aspects are properly aligned.  Bands of certain styles should compete against bands of that style and play for fans of that music.  If this constraint is put forth, it eliminates certain sample biases based on different musical tastes and judges can work towards finding artists worthy of the win.  Sure, diversity within a line up will work for bigger outdoor festivals, but Fredericksburg isn’t quite there yet.  We have sociopaths like Ted Nugent rambling at Celebrate Virginia about God-knows-what.  If he packs up his fortified compound and doesn’t turn Wegman’s into Waco, then maybe we can get smarter outdoor festivals.  For those doing the booking and band members alike, keep this in mind when promoting or accepting gigs.  

This prescription has been brought to you by M.D. Blackmore (trust your doctor) and the judge comment cards I stole from Vinyl Epitaph.  If something I said was offensive, surely I got it from their cards as my disposition is always pleasant.

MySpace.com/yroclee (Stereo Morning)

MySpace.com/AlterEgozBand

By Director and Correspondent: Helen Brown   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Floyd - When I attended FloydFest in July, I never envisioned I would get the opportunity to see great bands such as Old Crow Medicine Show, the Levon Helm Band, and the North Carolina-based band the Mantras.  The crowd was captivated, the bands were enthralling, and the sun was brutal.  However, my experience of witnessing such talent and skill is definitely one for the books.  When the Magazine33 team setup camp next to the Mantras, it was as if I got an inner look at the musical personalities meshed together that evolve into a sound of methodical funk.  Since the Mantras allowed us onstage, we were fully submerged in their performance, and I was able to see the different flavors of skill, much like a layer cake composed of different instruments and composites of abilities that create the Mantra’s framework.  With many different influences, ranging from Jimi Hendrix, Phish, and Widespread Panic, the Mantras hoisted intricate, musical diversions that were indicative of their closeness as a band, to which they claimed was the key to their evolution as a group.  With their recent release of their new album Dharland this year, the listener can envision what is like be a magical, musical trip.  There are so many ingredients that anyone can relate to that I cannot wait to see what they will do next and where they will go…

The Mantras consist of Keith Allen (guitar, vocals), Marcus Horth (guitar, vocals), Brian Tyndall (bass, synthesizer, vocals), Justin Loew (drums), and Brent Vaughn (percussion, vocals).  Since their unification in 2005, I mentioned earlier that they feel they are now in a place where they have tackled some of the earlier issues in a band that can disrupt the creative process, and have since been able to expand and move forward with the level of the music they seek to produce.  Keith Allen’s sandy vocals utter the lyrical brilliance and truthful analogies to the crowd while he maneuvers his guitar's precision and delicacies through his fingertips.  Marcus Horth’s interpretative renditions pair beautifully with Allen’s as he creates something from his guitar at unexpected moments, sliding across the strings to create magnetic improvisation across the neck.  During the Mantras off time, as we would be gathering under the shade of the trees, talking and taking breaks from the madness.  During jokes and nonsensical conversation, we talked about the contributions of each instrument, and how some people are simply born to play a particular instrument.  Brian Tyndall is one of those people.  He can maneuver the bass and insert his energy into his intended movements with such a natural ease that makes playing the bass look easy.    

Along with the fantastic bass that provided a phenomenal backbone, the drums and percussion added an interpretative rhythm section that kept rolling from one feeling to another, showcasing and adding beats to develop concentrated configuration.  Justin Loew glided across the drums, pushing every ability he possessed to create beats that a musical body would identify.  He would constantly adjust his tempo in each hand while maintaining perfect timing to create an affect that was groovy.  With his Latin influence from the congas, Brent Vaughn twisted the drumbeats with a Cuban and Latin zest.  He would switch from the drums to the congas and back again where he created insane skill and timing that I wondered how one person could create fluid movements while making not a single timing error.  The entire rhythm section was monumentally fascinating, and it literally blew me away that musicians can interweave skill and sound that were intentionally intricate yet cohesive.

The entire experience of the Mantras proved to be a series of enlightenments that to some degree is hard to completely convey.  After listening to their CD, I have found new attributes that keep compounding my descriptions of their music.  You simply have to hear them, and you would probably come up with an entirely different point of view.  Yet, with the fan base they have created, it is no surprise that they are found moving across many different areas and easy to adore.  Their next festivals include Camp Barefoot and the Getdown Music Festival where they are the headlining act during Labor Day weekend.  I am sure they will bring the intensity that I witnessed at FloydFest.  For further interest, show information, and current events about The Mantras, please visit TheMantras.com.  It might have worked out that we might not have met; however, we were in each others immediate vicinity, in each other’s lives, and it was an honor to be a recipient of their graciousness that allowed me to write an article to represent a level of talent and quality that I was fortunate enough to experience. 

By Director, Genre Lead, and Editor: Andrew Wolfe   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

 Virginia Beach – Ah! Warped Tour!  From its humble roots of a mass mingling of punk and ska acts around 1994 to its expansion (no doubt at least partially) thanks to its corporate sponsorship by Vans in 1995, Kevin Lyman’s vision has definitely come to have a life of its own.  What was once the punk/ska show you could count on to catch as many acts as you could stay conscious for (at least for 30 minutes at a time) has mutated into another breed of animal entirely.  The music has changed, but you can still count on finding a few “can’t miss” shows in the midst of all the screamo and indie rock.

Whatever people say about the rabid capitalism and soapboxing of causes, Warped Tour still really is about the music.  With the able help of Mr. Mullican it was fairly easy to get the press access for the show and once there, the staff was very accommodating.  After all, one of the best ways to spread the word about a band is free press.  Much thanks to Bethany Watson for coordinating the press and interview times.  Upon arrival and sign in, I found it about time to go out amongst the swirling masses and get my bearings. 

Merch, merch, everywhere, and 10 bucks just to drink?

All about there were the various opportunists trying to make a quick buck on elevated need and limited supply.  I walked up to one of the hucksters and attempted to bargain with him.  I had my credit card but only 86 cents in change.  He demanded two dollars for a piece of paper with the hastily scrawled schedule of bands, eight dollars for a baby bottle of sunscreen…Apparently I didn’t have large enough breasts for a free schedule, or at least a discounted one.  Mind you, I’m not adverse to using my own tits for the sake of a story; I just could not ask that of my trusty photographer.

As I wandered through the jungle of vendors and causes, I happened on a lad with a cardboard sign begging for someone to buy him a beer.  Not to see anyone go needy at a show I stopped by the nearest beer dispensary.  Now I truly intended the best, and I saw they had PBR which made my heart swell like a Grinch’s on Hanukkah (that’s four sizes, not three, has to last for eight days ya know).  I asked the kind concessioneer for a PBR to which he promptly replied, “Ten dollars please.”  I think I heard something like the breaking of a single guitar string wound too tight inside my head.  I was about to pay more for a single beer then an entire six pack of the stuff was worth…almost twice as much in fact.  I still bought the beer mind you, but young Ikabod had to go without.

The merch booths offer the pretty cool opportunity to meet the bands.  I saw members of the various and sundry performers peddling their wares while giving out photo ops and autographs.  At the booth for Flatfoot 56 (whom I would be interviewing later), I ran into a friend of mine, Mr. Mike Berlind, a member of Hey Hey Hooligan and former drummer of Duburbia.  He was there checking out the Mighty Regis earlier and, much to my regret, I found I had just missed seeing them…on stage and in person. 

The Big-Ass Board of Bands

Anyone who’s been to Warped Tour before can tell you - if you’re looking for who’s playing when and where, you don’t need a two dollar scrap of paper.  Just go to the mainstage area and you’ll find it, impossible to miss, a gigantic inflatable schedule board.  Towering over everything you can see the full day’s schedule for each stage and all the updated that are not on the one’s those scurvy jackals are trying to get you to buy.  My suggestion, bring a pen and scrap of paper when you go to Warped so you can formulate a plan of attack - you will need it!  You got like 50 bands playing on a handful of stages.  There is bound to be some conflict between times and places.  Be prepared to miss some of the acts you really wanted to check out.

Band of the Day

Times they are a changing.  Warped Tour has definitely become a “Band of the Day” experience.  Whatever the prevalent music of the youth is, that is what you’re going to get.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  After all, Warped Tour really is for the kids.  It’s a festival where they can actually get out and see a lot of different music played by bands that either don’t normally come around this way or play bars and clubs that are strictly 21 and up. 

From its punk/ska beginnings to a colossal juggernaut of $10 PBR and more bands than you can see in a day, no matter what anyone might say to the contrary, it's still a worthwhile experience.  Sure, it isn't the punk/ska mecca it once was, but that doesn't mean you can't still catch a good show here and there. 

Like Flatfoot 56!

Or Tip the Van!!

Or even the legendary Reel Big Fish!!!

By   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Richmond - Alright folks, I’m going to say right off that I missed a big portion of the GWAR-B-Q due to my day job.  The party kicked off at noon, so before I got there Construct, Bloody Crackdown, Stuck Backwards, Meat Cleaver, Suppression, and Mobile Deathcamp had already played.  I also missed the Spew Olympics, which consisted of a single event where contestants used their noses to push an egg across the ground while being doused with spew from the bile driver.  Furthermore, I missed American A-Hole, the karaoke competition.

The moral of this story is you should tell all your friends to read this magazine so I can quit my day job, and bring you full coverage of these events.

Moving on, I found the entrance and got my smiley-face wrist-band secured, then ambled over to the tattoo tent. I was just in time to catch a girl getting the GWAR-B-Q logo tattooed on her very nice ass. The four artists from Brookland Park Tattoo offered $20, $50, and $100 sized GWAR-B-Q logo tattoos all day until the sun went down and there wasn’t enough light to tattoo by.

Once I’d eaten a delicious barbeque pork sandwich, I ventured out to see the music.  I was in time to catch Mensrea, featuring Cory Smoot of GWAR on guitar, and started working my way to the front to get shots of the band.  After stumbling in and then out of the mosh pit, I discovered there existed no barrier between band and fans, save the line of speakers on the ground. One nurturing fan fed the band hot dogs and beer, which they consumed without missing a beat.  The whole scene seemed to have a sense of childlike innocence and communal love despite being set to the sounds of heavy metal and fueled by beer and liquor.

After Mensrea, it was time for Cannabis Corpse.  Needless to say, they rocked.  They tore it up, and so did their fans.  I didn’t get a set list, but they played a bunch of songs about weed.  A few songs in, a guy dressed as a cannabis bud entered the crowd and much moshing awesomeness and laughter ensued.  The pit was really in full force, and despite being essentially a giant green target of moshing aggression, the guy dressed as the bud seemed to be the safest as the costume provided some cushioning against the concrete.  Driven by the thrashing beats, ripping guitar, and screaming lyrics, the marijuana mascot moshed, crowd surfed (and wiped-out), fell over the speakers, and hugged the lead singer.  It was an amazing performance.

As the sun began to set, it was time for the little prince of darkness to take the stage.  The band began to play, and 4’9’’ Little Ozzy entered from behind the drum set.  The crowd was thick with the sweaty and drunk, packed tight all around the stage.  Little Ozzy as a band doesn’t just play the music the way it was meant to be played, they put on an entire show.  Lacking a stage, Little Ozzy would climb a set of platform steps to stand above the crowd, belting out lyrics and shaking with passion during guitar solos.  He came prepared with a blood-and-guts-like mixture that he ate and threw into the crowd.  He would not divulge the ingredients to me except to say “I can tell you that the mixture was something even the guys from GWAR would consider gross!”  Also, during “Flying High Again” he produced an incredibly long joint, which got passed around the crowd and mock-smoked.  He even let a small girl from the crowd play tambourine during the last few songs.  The little girl rocked out so hard people in the crowd asked if they could adopt her.  By the time they got to “War Pigs” it seemed everyone in the place had squeezed forward, and the crowd was spilling over the speakers, several times causing the power cords to disconnect from guitarist Dave Runner’s pedal board.  Runner’s amazing solos and sexy moves proved to be more than some could handle, and toward the end of the show a girl rushed him, half falling and half tackling him to the ground.  Runner survived, but his pedal board wasn’t so lucky. If you missed this show, catch Little Ozzy and several other bands at the Little Ozzyfest on October 2 at the Old Town Civic Center in Petersburg.

Last up was RAWG (GWAR without costumes), who played a musical history of GWAR.  They started with the Death Piggy line-up, which was lead-singer Dave Brockie’s first band.  After switching up members a few times, they began to play with the original Scumdogs of the Universe GWAR line-up and played songs from the first GWAR albums.  They continued to switch members, playing favorites from different albums, until they came to the current GWAR line-up with Dave Brockie as lead singer, Mike Derks on guitar, Cory Smoot on guitar, Casey Orr on bass, and Brad Roberts on Drums.  With this set-up they played newer GWAR songs, including those from their newest album Lust in Space.  Though the sun had long since set and vendors were breaking down their tents, skaters were still ruling the half-pipe, and the crowd was still going strong, moshing and singing along to their favorite GWAR hits.  After eleven hours, GWAR-B-Q finally wound down, and the last of the fans and skaters wandered out of the Bike Lot.

By Editor-In-Chief and Correspondent: Andrew Lutwin   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Richmond – Conveniently located next to the Magazine33 tent at Camp Barefoot, Chapin Mathews displays his various creations to the festival masses.  A featured artist at this year’s festival, Chapin not only has a vending permit and tent to sell his work, but has also been asked to “live paint” during select sets at the main stage, something he has experimented with on a smaller scale at local shows in Richmond.  “I really dig painting next to a stage,” says Chapin.  “You really get in a flow with the beat.” 

Chapin recently graduated from VCU Art School with a B.F.A. in Craft and Material Studies, concentrating in glass and ceramics.  These works can all be found for sale in his tent – anywhere from ceramic cups and bowls to glass jewelry, jars, and pendants.  However, since graduating, resources and facilities have been limited in this field, so Chapin has returned his focus, partly by necessity, to the realm of 2-D art.  At Camp Barefoot 4, Chapin produced two pieces of live painting – one during sets by RAQ and the Breakfast, and the other during DJ Williams Projekt and the Silo Effect. 

Despite his expertise in crafts, Chapin is no stranger to the brush, as one can find any number of previous works for sale at his vending booth.  Making an effort to keep his work affordable, minimalist silkscreen prints were sold for $10-$15, while his series of “cosmic” paintings topped off at $20.  He even raffled off the live painting he did at last year’s Camp Barefoot. 

While one can see the diversity in his work by a mere glance at his tent, certain threads continue to appear.  One specialty is landscapes; however, these are not your grandmother’s landscapes.  Chapin takes nature and merges it with the mystical and ethereal, giving his work a very cerebral quality, as if bringing out the neurological energy within the natural setting.  His second live painting from the Barefoot weekend is a perfect example.  Perhaps it is the context in which these paintings are made that create this effect.  States Chapin, “The reason I do live painting is because it’s such a great collaboration.  The art and music  bounce off of each other.  Plus, the crowd vibes, too.”  He continues, “Most of the reason I paint alone is to be meditative, but you can only be but so  meditative when painting live.  It is more like a dance.” 

Chapin’s work can be found at the Phobeus Gallery in Hampton, as well as the Laurel Gallery in Glen Allen, not to mention most any local festival you have the good fortune of attending. 

Contact Chapin at seekcreativespirit@gmail.com, or check out 

ChapinMathews-SolarArt.tumblr.com

By Editor (Managing) and Correspondent: Robin Marschak   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Richmond - I thought I had a good notion of what to expect from Downbeat Switch.  They have most of their recorded music streaming on their website.  But when I arrived at City Dogs for their show, I discovered that in the time since their last recording they have replaced one of their old male lead singers with a gorgeous young lady named Jenna.  This completely changed the dynamic of the sound, especially since she has a phenomenal voice and the other members of the band realize this and readily embrace it.  But I'll get to that later.  First I've got to mention the opener.

Tommy Vinson is the keyboardist for the Downbeat Switch, but he's also a guitar player, providing an excellent means for the band to fill out an evening.  Tommy opened the night with an acoustic guitar and vocals set, and also played between the band's sets.  This meant that there was never really a moment all night when there wasn't some sort of live music going.  He did a couple of covers and a couple of originals in a pretty standard singer-songwriter fashion.  That's not to say it wasn't excellent.  It was definitely ten times better than having intermission music piped in over the bar speakers.

On to the main act.  Downbeat Switch is most definitely groove music - largely funk rock with some other influences mixed in.  With Jenna B on lead vocals, Meredith Brooks on guitar and lead vocals, Wayne Todd on bass, Michael Register on drums, and Tommy Vinson on keys, they are able to create a deep, lush sound that just reaches out and carries you away.  From the very first song Jenna's voice really stole the show.  She had incredible range in both pitch and volume, but her real specialty was a deep, sultry wail.  This was showcased beautifully in their renditions of “Fire on the Mountain” and Joplin's “Half Moon”.  While I did have some difficulty drawing my attention away from the amazing vocals, it really wasn't all that hard to get into the rest of the music as well.  Wayne laid down quite a few mean bass lines that really gave the band much of its funky feel.  And as always with rhythm-driven music, Michael's drums really held everything together.  As I mentioned earlier, Tommy also plays guitar, and it really showed in his ability to mesh the keys with Meredith's guitar, making the perfect compliment to Jenna's voice.

As I downed more and more beer throughout the night it became harder and harder to keep from completely losing myself in the music, and eventually I gave up entirely, letting Wayne's bass lines and Jenna's voice carry me off to places unknown.  I lost  myself so well that even as I left City Dogs after the final notes had been played, my brain was  still wondering around somewhere on cloud nine, unwilling or unable to come to grips with the reality that had been left behind earlier that night.

You can find all of Downbeat Switch's albums on their website as well as quite a few live performances.  And keep an eye out for their first album with Jenna on vocals which should be dropping in the next couple of months.

MySpace.com/DownbeatSwitch

By Editor-In-Chief and Correspondent: Andrew Lutwin   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Bartow, WV - We were somewhere around Bartow in the heart of the mountains when the signs began to appear – “CB4” underlined with an ominous arrow pointing down some unmarked dirt road.  I remember saying something like “Are you sure this is the right way…” before emerging onto a cluster of festival organizers standing under a makeshift tent.  “Remember,” I advised my driver, “these mountain people don’t take kindly to city folk.  We must exercise extreme caution.  Better let me do the talking.”  We pulled forward to the table for ID inspection.  “I’m with Magazine33, and I have very important business here this weekend.  I will need full access to your facilities, as will my driver, and this coverage will not be possible without VIP passes and a campsite among the hippies.  After all, we must live amongst them in order to truly understand their intentions.”  I showed my ID to a woman with long, braided hair, and she promptly returned with our VIP lanyards.  “Hmmm…that was a little too easy.  Best stay on our toes.  Without cell phone reception we’ll have no way to call for help.”  My driver nodded in agreement and pulled forward into Camp Hidden Meadows, the campground chosen to host this inevitable freakshow.

Not long after setting up our tents, a car pulled up next to our campsite with none other than Magazine33 photographer James Young behind the wheel.  “How did a degenerate like you even make it past security?” I called to him.  “Someone had to be around to crack the whip on your lazy ass,” replied James.  “For chrissakes, you’ve got an awful big job ahead of you stringing all those adjectives together.” 

He was right, after all.  We certainly had our work cut out for us.  There was a plethora of music available to be ingested this weekend, enough to make any amateur in attendance curl up in the fetal position completely overwhelmed by schedule anxiety.  Luckily, there were two highly capable professionals camping next to each other who had the experience necessary to withstand all of the obstacles associated with festival life.  The first obstacle had already been made clear: locate the third stage.  At least for that night, I had a strong feeling that stage three was the place to be, as it was showcasing some serious local (i.e. Richmond) talent in a completely different setting from the hippie bars and hot dog restaurants I was used to frequenting in the city.  After a trek through the woods following the not-so-distant sounds of percussion, we stumble up to the third stage, nestled securely in an intimate wooded setting.  Whereas the main stage resides in your typical wide-open field, stage three was simply a tent in the woods.  In fact, it was barely a stage at all, but nevertheless provided a very personal setting for its featured bands.  I knew immediately that this was where the real action went down, where you could easily get caught up in the thick of the madness and lose yourself entirely.  I could only hold on tight and hope to make it out in one piece. 

When we arrived at the stage, the Former Champions’ set was in full swing.  Their futuristic, progressive sound took on a primal urgency in this outdoor setting, reminding me vaguely of the massive, sweaty dance orgy that coincides with the awkward Keanu Reeves sex scene in one of the shitty Matrix sequels.  On the one hand, we are in the future and robots are taking over, but for some reason we are still wearing togas and dancing in our bare feet.  (Note: Camp Hidden Meadows is extremely rocky.  I would not advise going barefoot at Camp Barefoot.)  While the Champs’ alien synths and cyborg guitar lines plowed us headfirst into spaceland, the rhythms (and in effect the audience) remained firmly rooted in their primitive, caveman boogie.

This would provide a most fitting introduction to the Silo Effect’s late night set, one that I would consider a highlight of the weekend.  With their sights set firmly on the skies, Silo pulled the audience into a whirlwind of psychedelic rock that shot us into the ether before pummeling us back to Earth, barely given a chance to catch our breath in between.  Their lighting rig was stellar, to say the least, capturing every dynamic swell the band had to offer by bathing the forest in warm glows of green and purple before culminating in an exploding strobe freakout.  Having seen them countless times around the bars in Richmond, I can honestly say I have never seen them play better.  Their set never lost focus or lacked momentum, and the audience was enthralled.  Every single time some sort of peak had been reached, they reached higher still, until the final bars of their set faded out in an eerily peaceful manner.  Something otherworldly seemed to have possessed them that night, although what exactly I cannot comment.  Some things are better left a mystery.

I was kicked awake by James the next day.  "Get up, you lazy bastard.  There's work to be done."  And once again, I found myself heading to the third stage for an afternoon set from LarJar, another hometown favorite.  Their loose, groove-oriented keyboard funk provided the perfect warm-up to what promised to be another raging schedule, especially after the sheer intensity of the night before.  Time to catch my bearings and formulate a plan.  There was much left to do – best not get ahead of myself.  But by the time the Kyle Hollingsworth Band (best known from the String Cheese Incident) hit the main stage that night, the reins had been dropped once again, and the horses had taken off into the forest.  Anyone attempting to maintain some semblance of control that weekend was soon found flailing around, completely adorned with glowing, neon apparatus.  We had found the mother load, and after a closing cover of the Talking Heads’ “Naïve Melody”, the madness had reached a whole new level.  I knew there was no going back.

With that in mind, it was not the main stage headlining sets of RAQ and Conspirator that truly topped off the festivities for me.  Instead, I was once again drawn back to the third stage where on two consecutive nights, Papadosio brought their unbelievably tight live act to the freaks of the nighttime forest.  While more structurally conventional than their other late night counterparts, they were no less progressive and psychedelic.  The level of professionalism brought by this band was exceptional – never was a beat missed nor an opportunity wasted.  The compositions were very orchestrated and arranged yet sounded completely organic and natural.  And with the addition of a spectacular light show, Papadosio were truly the kings of late night Barefoot. 

With the assistance of his headlamp, James fried up a massive amount of bacon upon returning to the campsite.  This seemed the one true way to effectively culminate the weekend.  Reintegration into society the following week would be most difficult.  However, I could return with the comfort of knowing that somewhere outside of that world, mini-rebellions such as this one, where the main light source is glow sticks and bacon is consumed at all hours of the night, can and do exist.  One just has to make it out alive.

You can see more of James' CB4 photos at RichmondImage.com.

By Director, Genre Lead, and Editor: Andrew Wolfe   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Virginia Beach - When I'd heard that Tip the Van was on Warped Tour this year, I gotta say I was pretty stoked.  I caught the tail end of their set with Reel Big Fish last year at the NorVa and was impressed.  So many times I've gone to see what promised to be a good show and had to endure an opening act rather than enjoy them...thus the late arrival to that particular show.  I only had caught a couple songs, but I had filed them away under “Bands to Check Out” in my mental file cabinet.  The deal was sealed that night when Nicole Oliva, the band's lead singer, joined RBF on stage to do “She Has a Girlfriend Now” and a cover of Poison's “Talk Dirty to Me”. 

After the ordeal of trying to find out who was playing where, Suzy Q and I found out that they were playing the Kevin Says Stage right after Reel Big Fish.  Awesomeness was with us as that stage was a 30 second walk from the Teggart Stage where I would be watching Reel Big Fish.  I would not be forced to sacrifice one for the other, one of the all to often drawbacks of going to Warped Tour. 

After Reel Big Fish was done rocking my face off (see Reel Big Fish article for the full details), I moseyed on down to Kevin Says for a real treat.  I guess I should say first, just to get this out of the way, the one thing that I hadn't noticed at the NorVa (being at the back of the crowd at that particular show) is that the ladies of Tip the Van are, for lack of a better term, pretty damn smokin' hot.  Nicole, Simone, and Steph are super cuties, but that is nothing compared to their talent as musicians, their awesome stage presence and, as I found in the interview, their general warmth as good people and their love of their fans.  “The Brians,” as they are referred to in the band, are also an integral part of all those same qualities.  Well, except the cute part. 

When I got to the stage they were just finishing setting up and the crowd was pretty sparse.  A few cats and kittens hanging around, but nobody was really prepared for what they were about to get.  Fortunately, for the Wolfe, it presented an excellent opportunity to get nice and close to the stage for the show. 

They kicked things off with a couple songs that unfortunately I did not catch the names of, but which started a slow vortex that drew in the people floating around the stage.  With some rockin' guitars, a groovin' bass-line, some pounding drums, Steph's adept and seamless switching between that awesome full brassy sound of her trombone and the deft work on the keyboard, not to mention that awesome two-part harmony of the sisters, Nicole and Simone.  By the end of the second song there were a whole lot a kids skankin' to the beat and clapping along at the undeniable call to arms of Nicole. 

Now that the crowd was into it you could see the band feeding off their  energy and returning it a hundred fold.  They whipped through a set filled with old and new tracks, particularly of note being “Cherry Red” and “Place Like Home” off of their Passion, Love, and Pride EP.  They just suck you in, and you got lost in their particular brand of ska influenced pop-punk.

Well, after all this I was even more excited about the interview to come.  I could tell from their energy on stage, I was in store for a truly fulfilling experience.  And they did not let me down...

Brian Dunnigan: I am Dunnigan, Brian Dunnigan, and I play guitar.
Stephanie Allen: I'm Steph.  I play the keyboard and the trombone.
Simone Oliva: I'm Simone and I play guitar and sing.

33: And that would be your sister over there...
SO: Yep.  Nicole and Howie are both over there.  Briggs is manning the merch table all by his lonesome.  He can handle it. 

33: You guys haven't been a band for too long.  You started in 2005?
SO: We've actually been a band for about 9 years.  2002?
SA: 2002, yeah.
SO: And we started the first year of Warped Tour [for us] was 2005.  We played on the ShiraGirl Stage and '06 was the ShiraGirl Stage and now we're on the Kevin Says this year.  So we've been a band for a little bit over but this is the third Warped Tour for us. 

33: Being a veteran of the Warped Tour, over the years what kind of changes have you noticed in the Warped Tour - in bands, in the crowds, anything in particular that comes to mind.
BD: I think as people's musical tastes change, so does the tour.  'Cuz I remember going to Warped Tour 2000, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones were there, I don't know if Reel Big Fish was there, but a lot of these old ska bands and stuff, but now, flash forward, there are basically no ska bands on the tour and it's a lot of hardcore bands and synth bands...

33: I remember that, Less Than Jake was on the tour that year and...
SO: Yeah, that's right.
BD: Yeah, I think it's evolving into more of a, more electronic...it keeps up with fads, I guess.

33: Yeah, I was actually interviewing some random people earlier, and they mentioned how it's kind of like a band of the day type thing.  The present, up and coming genre of music...
SO: I think it's kind of a mixed bag though.  The people on the main stage there's a lot of the screaming and whatever, all the hardcore heavy stuff.  But if you're looking for new bands you will find things.  I think a lot of people don't know who we are, and a lot of people stop by and are like, “Wow, I've never heard of you but that was really different and cool.”  People come to see the bands they came to see, but they're still very open minded to all the different other kinds of bands out there.
SA: Definitely.  I think, like you said, the smaller bands, this is a really good opportunity for them.  Just to be a little shining star amongst the main stages and stuff.  It's pretty cool.

33: Having been on Warped Tour for a little bit, what is the craziest stuff that happened on Warped Tour?
SA: Yesterday actually, this is really really sweet, it's not like crazy but...we had three fans that saw our show, they were singing along the whole time, they were absolutely loving it.  After our set they came to our merch tent, they wanted a photo with myself, Simone and Nicole.  So the three of them and the three of us we all get together for the photo, right?  As they're about to take the picture, all three boys turn around and face us, they get down on their knees and they each hand us a ring made out of a dollar bill...they had three rings, one for each of us.  And they're like, “Will you marry us?” and we're like, “Yeah.”  They put these little dollar bill rings on our fingers.  It was just the sweetest...
SO: I just took mine off this morning in the shower.
SA: It was so sweet.  They obviously planned it out and thought about it.  It was just an awesome fan moment on Warped Tour.
SO: It was definitely one of the sweetest fan moments.

33: Alright, we've heard about the good and the crazy...what's the worst on-stage moment you've had on Warped Tour?
SO: On stage?

33: Yeah, on stage.  Crazy fans running amok, jumping on stage.  Anything?
SO: Last time we were on Warped Tour '06, I remember someone in the crowd literally taking all their clothes off, except for their underwear and dancing.  I don't know if you guys remember that.
SA: No...
SO: It was a guy, super tall skinny guy, sweaty all over, he was probably drunk and he was...
SA: (gasps) Oh!
SO: He was running around in his underwear.  He literally stripped while we were playing and I'm like, “Am I promoting this because I'm playing?”  It was really weird.  I was so distracted, I was just hysterical, I stopped singing and just continued to laugh.

33: Like I said, last year I saw you guys touring with Reel Big Fish.  What was that experience like?
BD: For me it was like a realization that maybe the band was actually doing something good because I'm playing with my childhood idol.  One of my first records was Turn the Radio Off and then all the sudden to be invited by one of my favorite bands to join them for tour and meeting them it was like, “Oh, my god!  This is amazing.”
SA: It was an incredible experience.  I think what was also so amazing about it was that they were so warm and wonderful to us, and we're friends with them and they're here on Warped Tour this year.  We're all hanging out and they were so wonderful to us and it was such an honor to be part of that tour.  They're really cool people, too, and they like us and we like them so we definitely got friends out of it.  We just really look up to them, they're a great group of people.

33: Yeah I remember seeing Nicole come out on stage for “She's Got a Girlfriend Now”, 'cuz like everytime I've seen them it's been Scott doing falsetto for the female parts...
EVERYONE: [laughing]
SO: Right, right.  We actually did that yesterday, for the first day.

33: So this next one is aimed more towards the girls...are all three guys in the band named “Brian”?  Is it just like an all-purpose thing, you can just say, “Brian, do something!”
SA: We call them “the Brians” actually.
BD: We usually try to differentiate by last names.  Because it's too easy just to say, “Oh, Brian...”
SO: He's Dunnigan, we have Briggs and Howie.  But collectively, “the Brians”.

33: Alright well this one is definitely aimed more towards the females.  Ska, punk, rockabilly, that traditional sub-culture set has traditionally been a more male dominated kind of field.  One of the things I've noticed seeing you guys play, with you and your sister, is the two-part female harmonies.  Any influence from, say, Dance Hall Crashers, things like that?
SO: What's funny is when people bring up the Dance Hall Crashers, they were a little bit before my time, I'm only 21, I'll be 22 in August.  People are like, “Do you know the Dance Hall Crashers?” and I'm like, “Yeah.”  But I was so angry when I heard them, like the sister thing I'm like, “They stole it from me!” and then I realize they were doing it like 25 years before I was even alive.
SA: [laughs]
SO: Yeah, my math is awesome.  I always exaggerate, always.  Anyway.
SA: I didn't know who the Dance Hall Crashers were until...

33: I remember they started in like '93 or '92?
SO: Yeah, '92.

33: With Tim Armstrong.
SO: Yep.

33: Tim Armstrong started everything though...
SO: Side note, Brian Dunnigan in 2005 met Tim Armstrong on Warped Tour, right outside our stage.  That was one of our shining moments as a band for our first Warped Tour.
SA: Yeah, we get compared to the Dance Hall Crashers a lot, and besides the fact that there are girls that harmonize, I don't see really much of a connection.

33: I'm seeing more and more female vocalists...bands like Dance Hall Crashers, Horrorpops, the Barrymores...things like that.  Where do you see this going?  A little less testosterone, a little more estrogen...
SO: I think that even currently with the female fronted bands that are on the tour this summer...Automatic Loveletter, the In Crowd...it's really, really awesome and exciting because instead of being compared to older history women like Madonna, now it's like really up and coming, the girls can do it, too, and this is our new sound.  All the girls that are in these girl-fronted bands have a definitely interesting, different sound.  Some of them are a little more keyboard heavy, some are pretty relaxed, we're a mixed genre.  We call ourselves “indie rock power-pop”...

33: With the occasional ska song...
SO: Yeah, we obviously have ska in our roots for sure but with our new EP coming out, we have a new song called “Refuse the Tide”, and it's been really awesome because out fans are totally into it.  It's still us, it's just a little bit different.  It's real exciting.

33: So the new EP is coming out...
SO: Not released yet.  But soon...

 Not soon enough in my humble opinion.  If you're tired of the same-old-same-old, do yourself a favor and go check out Tip the Van.  They deliver on all levels and their live performances will truly leave you with that feeling that only comes along so often...the feeling that you just got rocked.  In a good way.

TipTheVan.com

MySpace.com/TipTheVan

Facebook.com/TipTheVan

By Director, Genre Lead, and Editor: Andrew Wolfe   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

...Now let's sit down with Justin and Kyle Bawinkel, drums and bass respectively, of this ass-kicking, beer-drinking band.

Warped Touring...in a Van!

33: Is this your first year on the Warped Tour?
Kyle Bawinkel: Ah, yes.  This is our first.

33: Any expectations coming in?
KB: Expectations of the Warped Tour?  Everyone says it's a tough tour to do if you're in a van.  It's rough to do it that way but it's been a blast.

33: You guys are in a van?  That's hardcore touring.
Justin Bawinkel: Yeah.  Save money, and do what you can.

33: So far this year what is the craziest experience you've had?
KB: Well...a few nights ago we played in Jersey, and they have this Barbeque every night for the bands.
JB: Yeah, it's like a big party, and they asked us to play it for all the crew and stuff like that.  They don't get to see shows and stuff all day.  We started, and like typical backyard punk shows the cops came and shut us down.  Literally pulled the plug.  It wasn't really that crazy but it's a good story.  Cops shut us down.  It was perfect.  Perfect punk rock end to a night.

33: So while you're here are there any bands you're trying to check out when you got a free moment?
KB: There's a whole lot of bands.  There's Riverboat Gamblers, AM Taxi, Andrew W.K., the guys in Set Your Goals...there's a lot of bands out there we're trying to check out.  Far From Finished, the Mighty Regis...there's so many bands.  We all want to see so many bands we end up running ourselves into the ground every day.

33: Any bands you've already caught so far that you would suggest?
JB: All those bands, they're great.  AM Taxi is a fellow band from Chicago and they're awesome.  Like definitely kind of a rock and roll with definitely a punk flare.  Great song writing and really awesome rhythms and melodies.
KB: Yeah, I think that's basically it.  We caught Reverend Peyton and His Big Damn Band.  It's really good.  It's really fun. 

33: How did you guys get your start?  How did this all come to be?
KB: Basically our older brother Toby was like, “Hey, I want to start a band.”  And me and Justin were pretty young at the time, and he was our brother.  We're like, “Alright let's do it!”  So we just started playing music, we played one show, and then later on one of our buddies played bagpipes for our junior high basketball team so we were like, “Let's try bagpipes out and see how that works.”  Turned out it worked pretty well, and we had a lot of fun with it, so we played the next Saint Patty's day in 2001 at this Mexican mariachi bar on the southside.

33: Have you guys always had that Celtic kind of punk sound?
KB: Yeah.  We were a little bit softer back then but was definitely with a punk rock flare.

33: You guys started in like 2000?
KB: 2000 yeah, late 2000 is when we first started.

33: Any influence from Celtic punk rock bands like Dropkick Murphy's...
KB: Yeah, a little bit.  It's kind of weird how Dropkick came into it because we didn't even know anything about them and think we figured out about them in 2003.
JB: Yeah.
KB: And we heard about them...
JB:  Everyone was like, “You got bagpipes, you're like Dropkick Murphy's.”  We were like, “Who?”
KB: So instantly from there we knew we had to check 'em out.  We were like, “Alright.  They got pipes.  Let's figure out what they're doing.”  I guess you could maybe call it an influence.  But we never really listened to them that much.  We've still never got into them that much.  We saw them once.
JB: They're a great band.
KB: They're a great band, but I think we've been trying to stay away from it just because they have pipes and...
JB: We didn't want to take any, you know like...

33: Accidental influence...
KB: Yeah.
JB: Which in the genre it's so specific already that a lot of people are like, “Ah, you guys sound like Dropkick Murphy's.”  And we're like, “Well, we try not to.”  We listen to a lot of hardcore punk bandsm, too, so we have a lot of punk influences.

33: Any earlier Irish influences like the Pogues, the Dubliners...
KB: Of course.  Actually it started with the Clancy Brothers.  I'm trying to remember but the Clancy Brothers I'm pretty sure was at a thrift store, and we heard some good things about them through folk music, through our parents, we got the vinyl of it.  We always had a record player at our house.  We really loved the Clancy Brothers.  We got more into the Dubliners after that.  Then there was the Wolfe Tones, the Chieftains...and then one of my buddies was a skinhead kid, really into punk and Oi! music...a really good kid, burnt me the best of the Pogues.  Ever since then I had every single record.

33: So over the last few years you've had to have noticed the growing popularity of Celtic punk, almost a “world punk” sound that's come about.  You've got bands like Dropkick Murphy's, Flogging Molly, and then you've got more world punk sounds like Gogol Bordello...what's your take on that and the general acceptance of the whole “world music meets punk” sound.
KB: I think it's helped.  It's cool that bands are taking different spins on everything, and I think it kind of broadens the horizon.  For punk music I think it's great because punk music has kind of been stuck in this hole and not adding anything else to it.  It's like you have to dress the part to like punk rock music and that's not the case at all.  It's nice that it kind of broadens it out to everyone and everyone doesn't have to be a “punk person” just to like the music.  If you like it, you like it and if you want to go to a show, go to a show.

33: So you guys recently switched labels for your new album?
JB: Yeah.  We released our new album on Old Shoe Records.  We were off of our old label, we didn't switch, we weren't on a label.  We put out Knuckles Up and Jungle of the Midwest Sea on a Sony sub-label that has now folded, and when they folded they let us go from our contract, and then we spent about a year apart from anybody.  Then we recorded a new album and shopped it around to a few labels and Old Shoe jumped on it.  They're great guys, they put out Black Thorn in March and it's been doing great.  Really happy with them.

33: Tell us a little more about the album.
KB: It's definitely a more mature songwriting style than the other two albums that we put out.  It's a lot of lyrical content taken from stuff in our lives.  We're just growing up, you know?  We been doing this band since we were really young so you can almost tell our age by each record we put out.  Life experiences that have happened.  Two of us are married now, and the rest of the guys are growing up.  When stuff like that happens it's definitely going to influence the music.  It's matured a lot.  It's a very diverse album. There's even like a ballad on there, like a love song, which is the first we've ever written.  Also a lot of songs about hardships and life's trials and working through them.  Definitely an album that's all about encouraging people to hang in there.

33: What about your plans after Warped Tour?
JB: Plans are after Warped Tour in Kansas City we're actually touring back to the Northeast for a festival we're playing.  Then we're touring back home, then we'll be home for a couple days, and then out to Europe for a week, playing some festivals out there and then come home for a couple weeks.  In the fall we do a big tour with a band called the Street Dogs from Boston.  We're doing two months with them...

33: Didn't one of the guys from the Street Dogs produce your last album?
JB: Yeah, Johnny Rioux produced our album.
KB: Awesome guy.
JB: Yeah, awesome guy.  He did our Black Thorn album.
KB: And in that tour of the Street Dogs Matt Friedman's psychobilly band will be out with us.
JB: Sick of It All will do like a week with us.  And then the Continentals which is the original guitar player from Dropkick's [band].  He's gonna be out with us as well.  And then various other bands are jumping on and off. 

33: The Northeast, so, are you guys gonna be around here anytime soon?
JB: Street Dogs will probably be the next one we come over with.  We usually hit Virginia Beach.  We played the Jewish Mother last time.

These cats really deserve a little more notice.  If you like Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphy's, and the Real McKenzies, you gotta check these guys out!

Flatfoot56.com

By Director, Genre Lead, and Editor: Andrew Wolfe   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Virginia Beach - For the past five or six years, every July, I end up at a Reel Big Fish show.  Don’t know how, don’t know why…don’t really care.  Some of us are just blessed with phenomenal luck.  So this year when I got the go ahead to cover Warped Tour, in July, who should be playing the main stage?  Yep.  You guessed it, Reel Big Fish.

While one of my biggest complaints about War ped Tour is the 30-minute set limitation, if there ever was a band that can pack it all in to such a short span of time, it’s these guys.  Their set started right in with a crowd pleaser (but aren’t all their songs?) “Everything Sucks.”  The crowd went wild right off the bat.  You could hear everyone screaming every lyric at the top of their lungs.  There is nothing as dedicated as a Reel Big Fish fan.  As the song came to a close, Aaron Barrett, in his usual playful manner, shouted out, “We’re Reel Big Fish! Thank you and good n ight!” and started to walk off stage. 

 Of course, this was not the case at all.  Immediately the band broke into “Thank You for Not Moshing” with Scott Klopfenste in taking on the elaborate vocals done on t he album by Coolie Ranx of Pilfers fame.  And of course, the moshing ensued.  The crowd moved as a single organism, rising and falling like a tide of sweaty humanity.

They followed that dose of awesome sauce up with a spirited number, “Another F. U. Song” off of Monkeys for Nothing (And the Chimps for Free).  There is something awe inspiring about the on stage antics of Reel Big Fish.  Everyone gets into it.  From John Christianson on the trumpet skanking in place to Scott Klopfenstein on the other trumpet and vocals belting out “Fuck you!” at the top of his lungs and giving a one finger salute to the crowd, the energy was just infectious. 

The set continued, highlighted by such numbers as “Snoop Dog Baby” and a surprisingly straight forward cover of “Enter Sandman.”  As all good things do, though, the set had to come to an end.  Ever the crowd pleasers, the last two songs were “Beer” followed by “Take on Me.”  There is nothing like their live performances of those last two numbers.  Every person in the crowd could be heard over the amplifiers with the “Whoa’s” from the outro of “Beer.”

Needless to say my next task was my favorite…on to the interview!

33: So I just heard about you guys - you're a new band...first time on the tour?
Dan Regan: [laughs]
Aaron Barrett: First time.  We're out there full of hope and positive energy.
DR: Special feelings.
AB: Feel ready to conquer the world.
DR: We got our tape sampler...
AB: We got tour support, ya know?  We're young...

33: Ended up on the tour because you're big in Japan?
DR: Yeah, exactly.
AB: We got our tight pants, and we're ready to conquer the world.
DR: I'm actually wearing a fat suit right now for the normal people.

33: Ah! Make 'em feel better.  Weight problems in America.  Everyone thanks you very much.  Is it true that everybody's doing the fish?
AB: Yes.

33: And how many times have you had that question?
AB: I don't think we've ever actually had that question one time.

33: Score!
DR: It's true that everyone is doing the fish inside their hearts.  But we have to ask it, so they'll let it out.
AB: Funny thing is we don't actually know what the fish is.  We never made up a dance to go with the song.
DR: Some people do this.  I am putting me head on top of my head as if it were a shark fin.
AB: That was actually from an old, old, really old Fish song.  Our first ska song called “Ska Hula” with our old lead singer.  That was the chorus.  It start with one of these weird Hawaiian parts, and then that was the chorus, “Everybody's doin' the fish.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

33: Didn't that song ["Trendy" NOT "Ska Hula"] actually get used for a baseball team?
DR: Marlins.

33: Marlins, yeah...
DR: And they won the World Series that year.

33: Ever see any money from that?
DR: We got to go to a free game.

33: “A” free game.  Not many but “a”.
AB: And a Dolphins game.  We sang the national anthem.
DR: One of the most embarrassing moments of our lives.
AB: Not embarrassing just, uh, stressful.

33: How many years have you guys be doing the Warped Tour now?
AB: This is our fifth time, our first one was in '97?  Then '98 in Australia, the one time we went there.  Uh, 2002, 2008...
DR: 2008!
AB: And then...
DR: Food's gotten better.
AB: Yes.  It was meatball sandwich day.
DR: We like anything in a ball.
AB: We like things that are balls that we can eat.
DR: Our motto is: Balls in our mouth.

33: I remember seeing you guys on Warped Tour a few years ago, and you started your set and then some kid had some kind of major accident in front of the stage.  You went on acoustic for awhile while he was being dragged out on a stretcher...
DR: Yeah, we ended up putting him in the smoker, and he was jerkied, and we ate him to get going for sets every night.
AB: It's just the nice thing to do when someone falls and gets hurt.

33: Apart from that, what's the craziest experience you've had on Warped Tour yet?
DR: Right now man, this hallway is trippy...
AB: You mean the craziest thing this time?

33: Anytime.  Bring the history...
AB: Well, I think the craziest thing that ever happened was the Australian Warped Tour, because we didn't have our buses and fancy things.  All the bands would get on two Greyhound-type buses and drive for like twelve hours and then pull up to the big field where we were going to play the next day, then hand out the tents to everyone.  “Set 'em up!”  Everyone would set up their own tent and there we were in the little village of tents.

33: Big rockstar when you're setting up your own tent...
AB: Big spiders the size of your hands, beetles the size of your thumb, crawling all over you in the morning.
DR: At least they weren't the ones that were poisonous.
AB: I'll never forget that one.  Kinda funny.  Good time.
DR: Bats. 

33: On this Warped Tour are there any particular bands that you're trying to check out?
AB: I was happy to see Sum 41 again.  We haven't seen them play since we toured with them probably in, what was that?  2002?
DR: Yeah.
AB: That had to be in Europe...

33: How about Tip The Van?  It seems like every time I've seen you guys around here it's been with somebody new, but Tip The Van and Streetlight Manifesto I've seen you with a couple times now.
DR: Yeah, we're going to go see Tip The Van on the Kevin Says Stage.  They are fantastic.
AB: They just joined the tour yesterday.
DR: Streetlight Manifesto is going to jump on the tour for a couple dates, too.
AB: Four days and that's it.
DR: It'll be like a reunion.

33: You guys have always had a knack for picking great cover songs.
DR: We try.

33: And you succeed.  One thing from Fame, Fortune, and Fornication I had to ask you about...when I saw you at the NorVa here, and you're on stage and you're like, “Alright we're gonna do a song from a band called 'Edna's Goldfish'...” And I love Edna's Goldfish.  Saw them on Ska Against Racism back in '97.  And I'm thinking it's gonna be “Sunrise to Sunset” or something else I've heard a hundred times.  It's never going to be the one song I want it to be: “Veronica Sawyer”.
DR: [chuckles]
AB: It's their best song!

33: It is their best song!  So how did you come to do it?
AB: Well, they toured with us in like '96?  '97?  We went to Maine together.  But, I always liked that song, and I still have the album, and just recently we were touring in Europe and they have these punk rock dance clubs and every night they play “Veronica Sawyer.”  That song's so good!  And then we saw Brian Diaz on the last Warped Tour in 2008, and I was like we should cover an Edna's Goldfish song and he was like, “Do it!”  And we did it.

33: And it rocked.
AB: That's a great story.
DR: With the blessing of the Diaz.

33: So I gotta ask, it's been a little bit...new album coming out anytime soon?
AB: A new album of old songs just came out two days ago.  It's called A Best of Us for the Rest of Us - 22 songs and 14 acoustic songs.
DR: It's a "best of" but it's re-recorded...with the current line up and a far cleaner...
AB: You can order it online at bestbuy.com.  It's $7.99.  So your get 36 songs for $7.99.
DR: Can't beat that.  We're practically giving them away!
AB: A new album of new songs probably be next year.
DR: When we got off our record label in 2005, 2006, we kind of had a checklist of all of our fantasy things we've wanted to do in the band, like with donkeys and things - no, musically.  So it was like, record a covers album...
AB: Live album, B-sides...
DR: So we finally got through that checklist.
AB: We've finally done the whole checklist now.  Now it's new album.
DR: We pretty much like the sound we're getting in our recording studio...
AB: Almost.  Just about perfected it.

33: Any new side projects coming up?
AB: I don't have any, do you have any?
DR: No.  Black Casper is a lazy bitch.

(Notes from the Wolfe:  There are many past and present side projects from RBF, from the Scholars to the Forces of Evil.  Black Casper is a techno project of Dan's.)

33: Will the Forces of Evil ever reunite?
AB: Absolutely not.  I wrote all those songs as Reel Big Fish songs.  We were doing pre-production for Cheer Up!  I didn't want to bring them in to the producer and have him ruin them.

33: One last thing: Where did you get your impeccable fashion sense?  The awesome Hawaiian shirts, the hair that just defies gravity...
AB: I got this haircut from Morrissey.  The Hawaiian shirts - my sister got me my first one from the Salvation Army or something.  I started wearing it on stage a long time ago.  I like being bright and colorful on stage.

33: You do a wondermous job of it, too.

Reel Big Fish, what can I say?  They always deliver and in person they are nothing short of constantly entertaining.  Their humor is just as infectious as their music.  I can't say enough great things about them. 

'Nuff said.

Reel-Big-Fish.com

Best of Us at BestBuy.com

By   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

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Visit the Online Music Store:
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By Illustrator: Christine Stoddard   Wed, Sep 01, 2010

Find out more about Christine's work at ChristineStoddard.com!!!