New Blake Schwarzenbach Project

I went to a show last night at the Jerk house in Sunset Park and I got there kind of late, figuring that house shows never start on time. I was wrong about this one and ended up missing the first three bands. I did dance into people excitedly for a long set by Shellshag, but unfortunately that couldn't make up for the fact that I missed Blake Schwarzenbach's new band play a surprise set. I'm not sure what the band's called and since I didn't actually see the set, I can't really say much about the sound, but I heard from everyone that they were pretty awesome. Not terribly shocking.

"Perfecting Loneliness" by Jets to Brazil
"Boxcar" by Jawbreaker

This may not have been all that informative, but hopefully I'll start getting to shows on time and more Blake Schwarzenbach news will follow.

Mitch Clem!

I was reading through old NN2S (yes... use the shorthand, get pretentious on em) strips today and I came across this one and thought it'd be appropriate to share here. If you don't know Mitch Clem, he is a funny man who used to draw Nothing Nice to Say, currently draws San Antonio Rock City and Kittens!, he writes Coffee Achievers, and he was one of the creative forces behind the tidbit of awesome that is Joe & Monkey. A lot of his humor revolves around punk rock, mostly jawbreaker, so I enjoy it. Hopefully you folks at home enjoy it too.

punk rock love

Personally, my favorite love songs are punk rock love songs. You know the girl in the story is probably not a knockout, but she probably wears cute pink converse and has red hair and is much closer to anyone you'll meet than any of the girls in a backstreet boys song. There's a lot of earnesty to it too, punk rock has always had a tough guy image, deserved or not, and to hear these bands belt out lyrics about love and loss seems more earnest than some guy with a flowing white shirt. So here's a couple of my favorite punk rock love songs.

"Pretty Mess" by Crimpshrine
This song captures a lot of different facets of young love really well. "In love with no place to go,", "my friends would never understand,", it's all there. One of my favorite parts of the song is that he calls this girl a "pretty mess", that idea that to the average passerby this girl might seem like a trainwreck, but you think she's beautiful. This is the first of two songs on my short little list sung by Jeff Ott, although this first one was written by Crimpshrine's drummer Aaron Cometbus. Goddamn incestous East Bay Scene.

"Kiss The Bottle" by Jawbreaker
Blake Schwarzenbach's mean rasp is the perfect vehicle for this song about love turned to alcoholism. When Schwarzenbach croons, "I know I painted you a prettier picture, baby," you can't help but feel sorry for this guy. It's like he's tried his best, but things just turned out differently than he planned. Come on, who can't relate to that?

"The End of The Summer" by Fifteen
It's not like the inevitable end of the summer fling is a unique theme in music. I mean, this song is basically the punk rock version of "Summer Lovin'" from Grease. Even though I've never seen Grease (seriously, just once, in a play my cousin was in when I was 4). That's the beauty of art though, you don't neccesarily need a whole new idea, because everyone has the ability to interpret things differently. Fifteen's Jeff Ott isn't neccessarily mourning the end of the summer here, he's looking towards the future and the possibility that they can have another summer just as great as the one that's passed. Also, the cowbell here is so crucial.

"Hope" by the Descendents
So back in my heck of young times, one of the first albums I ever bought for myself was Sublime's 40 oz. to Freedom. I still credit this album with really getting me into music, since Sublime put so many cover songs on that album. Since I loved the album so much, I would go out and buy the albums by the original artists. That's how I first laid my hands on Milo Goes to College by the Descendents in 7th grade. I fell in love with that album as a whole, but the one Sublime covered stuck out in particular. Hope is a love song in that quintessential punk rock vein of "i hate your boyfriend". It's been done a million times, but rarely this well. If you can find it, there's a live version of this song from the album Liveage. Milo croons a little more live than he does on the album and it works really well on this song.