Friday, December 22, 2017

There's Something Hard in There's Lucky 13 Photos for 2017

Fucked Up


Here we are again, showcasing some of Cat Rose's top photos for the year. Tough to narrow it down, but here you go.

Enjoy!

Death Eyes


The Damned


Arctic Flowers


Tacos!


The Second Hand Suits


Thee Perfect Gentlemen


Piggy


Generacion Suicida


CH3


Fu Manchu


Piston Ready


Mos Generator

Saturday, December 16, 2017

There's Something Hard in There 2017 Quotes of Note

Richard Brown of The Proletariat in Seattle (Cat Rose photo)


A bunch more band interviews for 2017 and a slew of insightful quotes.
Check 'em out:


Richard Brown (The Proletariat on the band's start in the 1980s)
"Back then, a lot of people thought for some reason, and I can understand why they would think that,  is that we were kind of like telling people what to do and what to think. We never wanted that, we just wanted to throw our shit out there... 'What do you think of this idea?' The whole thing was always like an open discussion with our fans. Somebody said once, most of the hardcore bands, they're very preachy, whether it's straight edge or whatever they do. We're not really a true hardcore band and we will not preach, that's the last thing we wanna do."


John Haggerty (Pegboy)
"It's always great when you go places, especially far away, and they're really into what you're doing and they say, 'Your music has changed my life for the better and made me happy, given me hope' or something. I get that every now and then and that really means the most to me."


Bryan Migdol (Panic/Black Flag, American Waste)
"It instilled in my morals to work hard. If you're gonna write good songs and you're gonna have a good band -- a tight band -- you've gotta rehearse."


Chaz Matthews (Cheap Cassettes)
"I like loud guitars and catchy melodies. That can mean Rick Springfield, Muddy Waters, Big Star or the Cramps- and everything around, above, below and between. I do admit that the sounds and visions of the late '70s and early '80s seem to pop up in what we do a lot. The Replacements and the Jam are very huge deals to all of us in this band."


Anthony Navarro (Second Hand Suits)
"To be preachers of the gospel, you have to really give your entire being to the gospel of booty shakin' -- the rock and roll dance party. You can't just try and preach the gospel without being the gospel, so you have to turn into a completely different person on that downbeat."


June Coryell (The Sellwoods)
"Just a good time. We've got the Viking! (only name given, on bass), he's the one that really puts on the stage performance. The sweat flying everywhere, the horns, everything."


Celeste Bell about her mother, Poly Styrene
"My mother has been a huge influence on me. She supported my song writing and performing from the beginning; giving me lots of valuable advice as well as warnings of the pitfalls of the entertainment industry; especially the risks there are for young women in which is still very much a predatory and sexist industry."


Jeff Smith (Hickoids)
"I like to play, I like to show off. I'm too old to start over with another band name. I try and leave people with something they'll remember -- good or bad."


Grant Lawrence (The Smugglers about their stellar gig with The Muffs, Chixdiggit and Needles//Pins in Vancouver, BC)
It was incredible! I was still worrying about people showing up even the day of the show! To see 1,000 people in the room from all over North America / the world, not to mention our hometown, was very very gratifying and humbling. It took a TONNE of work to pull it off, but it all came together somehow.


Earthdog (Silver Screams)
"If you believe in it and feel good about doing it, then keep doing it as long as it is fun for you. Even if others may say you are wasting your time. Creating something on your own is never a waste of time."


Mike IX Williams (EyeHateGod)
"Well obviously it feels fucking great man. I was a goner, I was having multiple organ failure due to my liver being completely toasted, so fighting my way out of that vicious gang war and living to tell the tale makes life all the much more enjoyable now. One of the things always in my mind when I was sick for ever how many or so years, was surviving to play music, write music, hear music and just live music as I have been my entire life..."


Evan Foster (The Sonics, The Boss Martians, Dirty Sidewalks)
"It means everything to me (playing with The Sonics). I'm up for the challenge--  and every single night that we go out there, I try to bring it harder than I did the night before. That's kind of a Martians thing, we've always been known for ... if it's 10 people or 10,000 people, you gotta go out and do it like you mean it, because if you don't, you can't expect anybody else to get on board and support the band."


Jonah Falco on Fucked Up's "Hidden World" LP
"When I think about where I was when these songs were written, I usually find myself sort of cringing or muttering something to myself, and I'm so much more comfortable as a player and a person now so it's really nice to sort of like conquer those insecurities. Definitely thinking back of being in the studio and getting upset about tuning or structures or have something that's supposed to happen-- it all seems really petty and really see the bigger picture now with these songs. It's not only that, obviously, time helps you evaluate things, but I do appreciate being able to draw back in on myself and everybody else."

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Fu Manchu to welcome in the new year with 'Clone of the Universe'

Fu Manchu live in Seattle. (Cat Rose photo)

By Andy

Today, the Fu Manchu guys geeked out while perusing Rush's Instagram page.

Well, that's because the powerhouse San Clemente, Calif., foursome is on the damn thing.

The page notes that Rush's Alex Lifeson supplied his guitaristry to the new Fu Manchu song, "IL Mostro Atomico," which clocks in at 18:08 and inhabits the entire second side of its new album, "Clone of the Universe." Fu Manchu will unleash the seven-song record on Feb. 9 on its own At the Dojo Records.

Rush adds that the closing track -- which is broken up into four sections -- is the exact length of its epic six-section journey, "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres," which owns the whole of side one of that album.

According to drummer/percussionist Scott Reeder's blog, Fu Manchu's management arranged for Lifeson to play on the mammoth tune.

When Lifeson was available, they sent the tracks to the guitar maestro, he performed his wizardry and fired the tracks back to the Fu Manchu guys. They were stoked beyond belief, of course.





Fu Manchu delivered the blistering title track of the new one to fans on its recent run of West Coast gigs and people welcomed it with pumping fists into the band's catalogue.

“We are excited to get out and play this stuff, especially 'Il Mostro Atomico,'" said guitarist/vocalist Scott Hill in a press release. “We think it’s some the strongest music we’ve ever done. We really love the overall sound of the album and having Alex (Lifeson) play on it is just incredible. It gives it that special validation for the idea that we had to try something like a side-long song.”

In true punk-rock fashion, there's a song on the album that clocks in at just 2:05 -- "Don't Panic."

The band -- which also consists of guitarist Bob Balch and bassist Brad Davis -- will play a heap of live dates all over the globe in the new year:

9.Feb - Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour
10.Feb - San Diego, CA - The Casbah
2.March - Paris, France - Le Trabendo
3.March - Hengelo, Netherlands - Metropol
5.March - Berlin, Germany - Festsaal Kreuzberg
6.March - Copenhagen, Denmark - Pumpehuset
7.March - Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller
8.March - Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser Medis
10.March - Helsinki, Finland - Nosturi
11.March - Riga, Latvia - Meina Piekdiena
13.March - Warsaw, Poland - Poglos
14.March - Prague, Czech Republic - Klub 007
15.March - Vienna, Austria - Arena
16.March - Budapest, Hungary - A38
18.March - Zurich, Switzerland - Mascotte
19.March - Bern, Switzerland - Dachstock
20.March - Munich, Germany - Hansa 39
21.March - Wiesbaden, Germany - Schlachthof
23.March - Hamburg, Germany - Markhalle
24.March - Cologne, Germany - Bürgerhaus Stollwerck
25.March - Haarlem, Netherlands - Patronaat
26.March - Leuven, Belgium - Depot
27.March - London, England - 02 Academy Islington
1.May - Phoenix, Arizona - Rebel Lounge
3.May - Dallas, Texas - Curtain Club
4.May - Austin, Texas - Barracuda
5.May - Houston, Texas - White Oak
7.May - Atlanta, Georgia - Vinyl
8.May - Raleigh, North Carolina - Kings
9.May - Washington, DC - Rock & Roll Hotel
11.May - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Underground Arts
12.May - New York, New York - Bowery Ballroom
13.May - Boston, Massachusetts - Brighton Music Hall
15.May - Cleveland, Ohio - Grog Shop
16.May - Columbus, Ohio - Ace of Cups
17.May - Detroit, Michigan - El Club
19.May - Chicago, Illinois - Bottom Lounge
22.May - Denver, Colorado - Streets of London Pub

Sunday, December 3, 2017

John Haggerty talks Naked Raygun, Pegboy, Stiff Little Fingers and more

John Haggerty playing with Stiff Little Fingers in Brooklyn in 2011. (All photos by Andy)


By Andy

Play it like you mean it. And if you can inspire people along the way, that's just about as good as it gets.

That's how John Haggerty feels when he wraps his deft hands around the black Fender Stratocaster the he's owned since the age of 15. From learning the ropes while strumming along to Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin records as a teen to hammering out his signature riffs in front of stoked fans at Naked Raygun and Pegboy gigs later on, the south side Chicago native has embraced his time with the six-string to the hilt.

Haggerty, 57, still rocks that same Strat of his youth at Pegboy gigs, including the latest show on Nov. 22 in Chicago.

"I thought it was the coolest looking guitar, so I got it," he laughed over the phone last Friday. (It's not his only axe, though, as shown in the accompanying photos.)

He's humbled when people say he's influential, and the self-described "one trick pony" jokingly figures it's because he's hung around long enough.

"To this day, I try to practice every day and there's really no substitute for it. Some people have more aptitude towards it, but I think in the end, how good you are is directly proportional to how much you practice," he said. "I hope that I'm a better guitar player every day -- I try to be. There's always something new to learn. It's really a wonderful instrument in that you can play it all your life and still not know everything. It's always a challenge and it's always fun."

Jeff Dean -- guitarist for All Eyes West, Dead Ending and Airstream Futures -- put his Haggerty thoughts on the table.

“The guitar tone that defined the Chicago sound, as far as I’m concerned. Like Bob Mould, Adam Franklin, J Mascis, John’s sound and writing has always been a go to for me as inspiration," he said in an email.


*****

Haggerty didn't gravitate toward the guitar until he was about 15 years old. Before that, he honked on the saxophone in the grade-school band, which is where his brothers and sisters cut their musical teeth as well.

The guitar literally became a larger-than-life obsession for the youngster when he checked out the Led Zeppelin flick "The Song Remains the Same" on the big screen.

"I went to see that in the theater when it first came out, and I saw Jimmy Page up there, and I said, 'Yeah, that's what I wanna do.' Didn't quite turn out that way (laughs), slightly different path," he said.

Armed with a K copy of a Gibson SG (his first guitar; the Strat came later), Haggerty took lessons from his buddy's brother-in-law and things took off from there. It was all about classic rock at first, but "a couple years in, I started to hear punk rock, and that kind of changed my whole outlook."

First up was the Buzzcocks, which he heard via a reel-to-reel tape that his friend's brother toted home along with a tape deck he bought when he was stationed in Germany in 1977.

"On this tape, he had all kinds of punk bands, including the Buzzcocks. As soon as I heard them, I was, 'Ah, man, this is it. This is something different,'" he said. "And then from there, it just really kind of exploded, at least in my little world. I began to seek out other punk bands, and right around that time, in Chicago there was one or two punk clubs that just started to emerge almost simultaneously from my first hearing that kind of different music. It just kind of blew up from there."

In 1979, he began frequenting punk gigs at clubs like O'Banions and Oz. Local bands like Strike Under, the Effigies and others struck a chord with him -- and got him into the game.

"I said to myself, 'This is something I could actually do,' whereas before, when I was looking at things like Deep Purple with Blackmore or Led Zeppelin with Jimmy Page, I would look at them and say, 'I could practice 30 years and maybe never be this good or probably never be this good,'" he said.

Haggerty would soon put his guitaristry to use in his first band.


Haggerty with SLF.


*****

While hanging around the clubs, Haggerty soon met the Naked Raygun guys -- Jeff Pezzati, Santiago Durango, Camilo Gonzalez and Jim Colao -- who were working toward releasing the "Basement Screams" EP in 1983.

Haggerty would first revisit his grade-school days by playing sax on Raygun's "Swingo" on the EP and he then joined the band as second guitarist; when Durango departed, the guitar slot was all Haggerty's.

"It felt great. It felt like I was doing what I wanted to," he said. "We kind of built that band up from nothing, from pretty much from scratch. When I first joined the band, I think we were probably lucky to get 50 people at a show, and by the time I left, we were playing the Riviera, which I think is about 3,000 or something."

Raygun toured Europe twice and the United States a couple times. While in England, Haggerty was thrilled to have Steve Diggle of the Buzzcocks join the band on stage for a cover of "Harmony in My Head," and later, Charlie Harper of the UK Subs hopped up on stage to play his band's "Emotional Blackmail" with the Chicago crew.

"I just had a heck of a lot of fun," Haggerty said of his time in Raygun, which ceased in 1989 when he left due to issues with management that couldn't be resolved.

"It's always great when you go places, especially far away, and they're really into what you're doing and they say, 'Your music has changed my life for the better and made me happy, given me hope' or something. I get that every now and then and that really means the most to me," he said.


*****

Pegboy was next on the docket for Haggerty, who was joined by his brother, drummer Joe, on this venture beginning in 1990.

"I got to set it up the way I wanted to, which was very gratifying," John said, noting that Pegboy felt more like a band -- a team -- than a group of individuals.

Among the many "wonderful moments" in Pegboy, Haggerty focused on the time when the "Strong Reaction" LP hit the shelves, received a great response and the band toured Europe.

"We went and played a place in Serbia during the war," he said. "The kids there were so glad to see us that they made their own T-shirts. We had to have a military escort in and out. They were just so happy to see us and were such fans that it just blew me away that we could do such a thing right in the middle of a war."

Nowadays, Pegboy plays about five shows a year and last month unleashed its tunes on Brazilian fans in Sao Paulo. They played a festival with Bad Religion and others and a small club date as well.

"Brazil was amazing. We had no idea we even had any fans down there," said Haggerty, noting that they received a random Facebook message from a friend of a friend of the promoter to set it up. Pegboy also played the Fest 16 in Gainesville, Florida, in October.

The recent hometown Chicago show was a blast.

"Everybody's still pretty excited about it -- so am I (laughs)," he said. "It feels great. It never ceases to amaze me that we have such loyal fans. They come out and they have a great time every time we play."


*****

Haggerty had the time of his life when he assumed rhythm-guitar duties for one his all-time favorite bands, Stiff Little Fingers, for nine US dates in 2011. He filled in for Ian McCallum, who was ill.

When SLF leader Jake Burns moved to Chicago, he and Haggerty became friends and had already played SLF songs together in the Nefarious Fat Cats, a cover band that performs at a benefit each December for KT's Kids, an organization that helps underprivileged children in Chicago. (This year's annual toy drive gig is Dec. 10 once again at the Liar's Club. In the past, the band has ripped through covers of Raygun, Clash, Thin Lizzy and more.)

On a Raygun/Haggerty note and further SLF tie-in, the band featured a live version of "Suspect Device" on its "Jettison" LP.

So, Haggerty was an ideal match with SLF since he already knew at least half the material; he learned the rest of the set while practicing in his hotel room on the road.

"It was so much fun. By the time it was over, I was just getting comfortable. Right around the ninth gig, I was confident, I had the songs down. And then it was time to stop. At that point, I literally felt that I could do that the rest of my life and not ever go home. It was no less than a dream come true," he said.

Haggerty even sported one of the matching SLF stage shirts.

"It wasn't demanded, but I figured, 'Why not?'" he said with a laugh.

On becoming close with Burns, Haggerty added: "Usually, when you meet your idols, it's a letdown, but not in Jake's case. In his case, he's just as cool as you think he is. He's just a great guy all around."



Another Haggerty SLF shot.


*****

With many years passed and a ton of guitar riffs wielded, Haggerty feels fortunate to still be hitting the stage with Pegboy and the Fat Cats.

For him, the key to keeping the guitar fire alive is having a passion for his craft.

"It's not something you're gonna make a lot of money at, so you have to really love what you're doing. The thing that really keeps me going is that every now and then, you'll have a really positive influence on people and they'll let you know," he said.

He recalls a platoon sergeant in Afghanistan who contacted him and said every time he took his men out and knew trouble was on the horizon, he would listen to Raygun's "Soldier's Requiem" to make it easier for him and his men, give them a purpose.

"I thought, that's the greatest compliment, that's probably the greatest thing I could ever do in my life is to positively influence someone like that," Haggerty said.

Once in San Diego, a kid in a wheelchair approached Haggerty and said, "'Thank you for your music, it saved my life, it got me through chemotherapy.'"

Haggerty added: "Some people are really touched deeply by it and that's the most rewarding thing there is."