...an arbitrary number like turning 40 maybe, but a milestone for me never-the-less. To be honest with you I didn't think I would make it this far, but with the help of my friends and some fellow bloggers who have also become friends, it's been a blast. So much of my life is filled with half assed attempts at doing something worthwhile with only mediocre results. Not to say that this site is the shit and I couldn't have done it better, but the outcome isn't half bad considering the skills I have that have survived my brain damage. While the music selection represented here is by no means comprehensive, I think that if you had listened to what I put out there, you would have a pretty fair selection of music or at least have a good handle on what I dig. Of course in the process I've come to appreciate not just what I have in my collection, but in a broader sense my life in general. 199 posts up to this point with 1385 comments. Even though a large percentage of those comments are mine, damn that's a lot of comments. Maybe not as much as some of the better blogs out there, but still incredible. You guys have made it fun to do this and I look forward to the next 200 and another 1000 comments.
A while back I was anticipating doing this post and asked my friends to contribute some pictures to help me celebrate the regular visitors to this blog. Not everyone responded, which is cool, I know what it's like to be busy and have to decide what is a priority, but I did end up with some cool stuff. In that process I was hooked up with some other stuff to add to my first attempt at posting music, also my first band
WD-40. These pics represent some of the regular visitors to MR and really what makes this site strong.
The first person to respond to my plea for pictures was my bro Jason over at
Lo-Res Viscera. He really stoked me out with one of his gacked out originals. I met him through a mutual friend, Jeffe the
Leftoverking who is actually the guy who turned me onto the whole world of music blogs. Jason is a reminder that there is still hope for this fuckin planet in his straight up honesty and no bullshit coolness. Anyone who does my boy Liam right is gold in my book, but being a father himself that kind of stuff probably is second nature.
Match, who's busy teaching english in Korea is one of my oldest friends. We were kicking a soccer ball around way back in 7th grade. Him and I have seen a lot of shit together, but somehow we managed to survive. He shared some pics of his new little girl Sioban (help me on the spelling Match) along with a few of him standing out like a sore thumb in Korea.
Some before and after pics of my bros Sang and Alex. That's my skinny geetered out self in the backround on the first pic circa 1988. Sang didn't send any pics because as always he is the procrastinator, but he knows he's a brother til the end. Between work, his old lady and his son Brendan he's busy like the rest of us.
Alex, his wife and little girl. Even though we didn't hang out in highschool, we've been homies for a long time and his loyalty is unparalleled. An old and true spirit. Check out one of his surf spots and the awesome artwork. See more of his art out, under Alex Escudero,
here.
Gage and Alex, way back when at the Valley West laundry mat. This old lady that worked there asked me one time why I even bothered to carefully fold my clothes only to end up stuffing them in an army duffle bag. I think she knew that I was not as smart as I looked. Gage unfortunately didn't send me any pics, so I guess I'll talk shit and tell you he's been too busy being a tour manager to rock stars. Actually Gage played a pretty important role in getting me cleaned up.
It was kind of cool how one of my newest friends, Marc from
Fugitive Equilibrium responded to the call for pictures. He's a person I wish I had known when I was in San Diego, but the way I was he's probably glad he didn't know me. He showed that not only is he a kick ass writer but he knows the sweet hiking spots in a place that is mostly known for it's beaches.
There's other people that I would like to thank for being regular visitors but they just didn't send pictures. Actually, Erich at Good Bad did send me one a while back but told me I couldn't use. I may still use it for a wanted poster since he still owes me a 7". Chris another fellow music blogger at
Small Take Over is one I didn't get a hold of for lack of an email address, but he shows up every once in a while. Jimmy Buttons over at
Jimmy Buttons deserves mention too even though I haven't read from him in a while. Brian, Deutsche, Erio, Fernando,
Dave ,
Ed,
Billy and last but not least my wife who has to find creative ways of putting up with me. I shouldn't have started a list though because I know I forgot somebody (remind me if I did because I hate forgetting). Sorry. Once again I've gotten too wordy and I'll blame that on the sappy feeling I get when I think about the people I care about. Have you guys noticed how many times and in how many forms I use the word "I"? Damn, need to work on that.
Anyway here's some tunes I dig that I've gotten from here, there and everywhere over the past year. Mostly from Jason at
Lo-Res Viscera, Erich at
Good Bad Music, Marc at
Fugitive Equilibrium and Peter at
Killed By Death. Go see those guys for their first hand take on music and maybe life in general. I have piles of respect for them in their love of music and the fact that they share that love with no expectation of any kind of return. Check my links to get more of this kind of stuff from other hard working guys as well. I'd love to have all these tunes on vinyl, but I guess just having been exposed to them is the next best thing. These are for your sampling pleasure, but if you put them all together, 53 songs, it comes out to about 77 minutes, enough to fill a CD. Some rips are obviously have better sound than others and the order is completely random, but that's how I remember hardcore shows anyway.
The Hitch - Dirt Surfer
Corrosion Of Conformity - Life’s Cycle
Artimus Pyle - Family Tradition
Attitude Adjustment - Destruction’s End
Lack Of Interest - Bitter World
Necros - Satisfy
Selfish - Speedy Life
Framtid - Punishment
Threatener - Isolation King
Discharge - Ain’t No Feeble Bastard
Ojorojo - Trapped Inside
Dearborn SS - Lynched Again
Electro Hippies - Mother
Zeke - God Of GSXR
Deep Wound - I Saw it
Go! - King Of Nothing
Gride - Arogance Moci
Mental Abuse - Adolescent Skins/Gimme Death
Extreme Noise Terror - System Shit
Melt Banana - ?
S.A.S. - Armageddon
Filth - Dear Fuck
Adolescents - Amoeba
Ill Repute - Fuck With My Head
G.I.S.M. - ABC Weapons
Doom - Multinationals
The Fartz - People United
Capitol Punishment - Wrong Direction
Urban Waste - Skank
Barn Av Regenbuen - Penga Profitt Og Kapital
Crossed Out - Heman
Cro-mags - Sign Of The Times
Agent 86 - Reaganomics
Operation Ivy - Hoboken
Infest - Where’s The Unity
Generic - The Oldest Trick In The Book
Disclose - Once The War Started
Die Kreuzen - Think For Me
Bruce Banner - Stop Moving
The Endless Blockade - I Don’t Give A Fuck About You
Raw Power - Fuck Authority
Bastard - Misery
Poison Idea - Castration
Chain Reaction - Your Bloody War
R.K.L. - Beautiful Feeling
Iron Lung - Politics Of Science
B.G.K. - Bite The Hand That Feeds
Apartment 213 - Dissection
Heart Attack - From What I See
Fear Of God - Thy Beauty
Extinction Of Mankind - Intolerance
The Dicks - Fake Bands
G.R.B. - La Fiesta
If you know how long it takes to upload these songs, especially when you can download it zipped up all nice and neat here,
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1QST2FW6, you know what a weirdo I am. Nothing like the old days but sometimes I don't know why I do the things I do. I guess there's something more permanent about having direct links to the tunes. Anyway do yourself a favor and put these on a disc and rock this out while you're rollin down the road. Thanx again you guys.
I remember getting this one in the mail from Ade of the Satanic Malfunctions, where I got all my stuff from the Looney Tunes label. I can't remember the year on this one but it must have been about 87. There were lots of cool record stores in the valley and LA proper at that time to spend all my money on, but there was something special about getting stuff in the mail, especially overseas. To this day I love getting new music in the mail. Not too long ago I got a big package from my old junior high school friend Bob of Lack of Interest at Deep Six Records . James of The Buffy Swayze, amongst numerous other bands, from up Humboldt Cali way, sent me some CDs and I got the Dearborn SS 7" from Vinyl Junkie Distro. My bro Brian is always sending me stuff he rips and I've actually already posted some of that stuff. Love getting shit in the mail, at least something besides the bills and other junk. The only thing that came today was the massive propane bill I've been making minimum payments on. Anyway about this record and band. Encyclopaedia Metallum had a thing on them but that site is down right now so I can't seem to make the link work. Basically this is different from so many of the other releases on Looney Tunes and in fact the band thanks Broken Bones and the English Dogs so that may indicate what they sound like. One of the guys in the band was listed as having been in the English Dogs at some point in time. They remind me of an English Excel. The tune "Oppressor" never did anything for me but the other two tunes rocked in my opinion. Check them out and let me know.
Taco night at the farm (NDN tacos that is, I forgot to lay out the key ingredient...fry fucking bread), I can't wait til summer when I can make my own salsa fresh from the garden. I had plans to post some vinyl tonight but that didn't work out, but I'm feeling like a short one after that epic 200th post. Thanx for the awesome comments guys.
Another one of those curious moments came to me the other day and I guess for a long time I've been curious about the band Hawkwind. All I knew was that this was the band Lemmy was in before he started Motorhead, but of course there is so much more to the story than that. You can read all about that at my usual source 
