Ginn, Reyes get Black Flag going again

Ron Reyes sings a Black Flag song in Shoreline, WA, last May. (Cat Rose photo)

Greg Ginn and Ron Reyes are officially back together again in a new version of Black Flag, according to a post on Reyes' Facebook page today.

The band is in the process of putting the finishing touches on a new album with Ginn on guitar, Reyes on vocals, Gregory Moore on drums and "Dale Nixon" on bass.

Black Flag will be headlining the RUHRPOTT RODEO in Hünxe, Germany, on May 18, the UK's Hevy Fest on Aug. 4 and the Muddy Roots Music Festival in Tennessee on Aug. 31. More festival and tour dates will be announced soon including a Black Flag U.S. tour in the fall of 2013.

Ginn currently plays with Good for You and Greg Ginn and the Royal We, while Reyes -- who sang in the "Decline of Western Civilization" film and on the "Jealous Again" EP -- plays guitar in his Vancouver, BC-based outfit, Piggy. Moore formerly played with Gone and another version of Black Flag in 2003.

As for the bass-player slot, Reyes' post reads: "While Dale has lent his skills to the new album, he is currently contractually obligated for a stint on Celebrity Rehab. Still, as he has always done in the past, he will continue to provide insight and spiritual guidance to the current bass player." (Dale Nixon is Ginn's alias, which was used on the "My War" credits.)

Ginn and Reyes in Vancouver in July 2010. (Courtesy photo)

Ginn and Reyes jammed at the singer's 50th birthday party in July 2010 in Vancouver, playing "Jealous Again," "Revenge" and a new original song, "Broken."

"He shows up and we put a guitar in his hand, and he started playing and it was pretty amazing seeing him play after all these years. Being in rehearsal with him was pretty impressive. Our jaws were just dropping when he got in his groove," Reyes said in a There's Something Hard in There blog interview on May 18, 2012. Reyes was in Seattle at the time for a gig with Piggy at The Funhouse.

On Black Flag's work ethic, Reyes added in the There's Something Hard in There interview:

"I think it got even way more crazy and intense after I left. Certainly by the time Henry came down. I had the opportunity to go down and see them and spend some time with them in rehearsals with Henry and Kira, that lineup, and it was monstrous how they would jam for hours and hours and hours and hours. It was pretty incredible.

"It was great music, I love the fact that Greg was doing something that was groundbreaking. It was very unique."

The next night at Darrell's Tavern in Shoreline, Reyes got into Black Flag mode by singing "Revenge," "Police Story" and "Nervous Breakdown" with some local bands, Sioux City Pete and the Beggars and The I Love Myselfs.

At the end of the night, Reyes was a demon unleashed as he plowed into the crowd and nearly knocked over a table, but still sent beer bottles banging to the ground. People were stoked on the scene and left with their ears buzzing and faces beaming.

**We previously posted our editorial on Flag, featuring Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Bill Stevenson and Stephen Egerton.

Not your average Joe: DOA leader trades punk for politics / Interview

Joey "Shithead" Keithley leads DOA in Vancouver. (All Cat Rose photos, except where noted)

By Andy

Joey "Shithead" Keithley is a vote-getter of the highest order.

At one of DOA's farewell gigs on Jan. 18 at the Rickshaw Theater in the band's hometown of Vancouver, BC, Keithley asked fans to leave their song requests in a ballot-type box at the door as they exited. Maybe they'd include some of those songs in their set the following night.

"We've got 250 songs. I'd like to play 'em all, but there's nothing I can do about that," Keithley told the crowd in his familiar gargling voice before the band ripped into another gem from their punk-rock catalogue.

The band played for about two hours that first night, opening the sold-out show with "New Age" and plowing through classics like "Slumlord," "I'm Right, You're Wrong," "General Strike" and many others before closing with "Disco Sucks" as the stage was littered with former members Randy Rampage, Zippy Pinhead, Wimpy Roy and other Vancouver punk luminaries. (A new song, "He's Got a Gun," was also a standout from DOA's killer new album, "We Come in Peace.")

At the end of next month, Keithley, age 56, will be seeking votes of another kind as he'll put DOA to rest after 35 years to continue his campaign for a spot with the BC New Democrats. He's running to be a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), which is similar to a U.S. state congressman.

One night, Keithley's rocking the crowd and the next day he's knocking on someone's door to introduce himself and discuss his political platform.

I spoke with Keithley on Jan. 14 by phone from his home in Burnaby, BC.

--You're gonna be putting the band aside to concentrate on your political career. Is this a tough decision for your or are you fully set on the next part of your life?

The toughest part was committing to the idea because I had considered running for city council in my hometown here... I live in Burnaby, the first suburb east of Vancouver. The place I'm actually running in is Coquitlam, which is the next suburb.  I had considered this about 2-3 years ago, but there wasn't the opportunity to run within Burnaby. So, I did not find this a tough decision, it was just sort of picking the right opportunity and go ahead with this and, like you alluded to, I'd say it's a natural transition in my life.

In one sense, yeah, of course I'll miss rock and roll. How could I not after being involved for 35-38 years or something? 17 years old or whatever when I picked up a guitar, but this is what I choose. Just as an aside, I won't stop playing music. I'm just busy with this.


--How has being in a band all these years prepared you to jump into the political realm. Was it a good learning experience, a natural progression type thing?

Well, it made sense. People in Canada, and I think people in North America and in Europe somewhat know DOA for a political stance-- I'd really call it being a social activist. You know, kind of fighting for people power, that's kind of what I call it. So with people in BC, I'm really well known here, so it isn't like a big leap to do that, so it kind of fits because I've been kind of working on helping people with stuff, trying to help the regular person all my life. I guess another thing, too, is when I was 18, I went to university to become a civil-rights lawyer. Then DOA started, and obviously I never got my law degree (laughs) ... that goes without saying, right?


--So is that when you first started getting interested in politics? When did it strike a chord with you?

It was actually when I was 16, Greenpeace organized this protest against testing of nuclear weapons by the U.S. military, and what was happening in the Amchitka islands, which are part of the Aleutian Islands chain of Alaska ... underground testing of nuclear bombs. So, Greenpeace urged all these kids in high school here, in different areas, to leave their school and march downtown Vancouver where the American consulate was and march around and protest. We did, we left the school, the principal tried to stop us with his arms across, trying to physically block us. That didn't work, obviously, and about a thousand of us marched downtown. An interesting thing about that was Dimwit -- rest his soul, my old drummer, who drummed in The Subhumans, The Pointed Sticks and The Four Horsemen -- he brought a bass drum that day, so he was at the head of the parade with his bass drum, beating as the students moved along toward the consulate.

--What do you hope to achieve if you're elected? What's your platform?

Some really straight forward things... there's nothing too wildly spectacular. One of the big things I'm working on is educational access for everybody. I believe post-secondary education should be a right, not a privilege. We wanna improve the school system, university system and skills training like trades: electricians, plumbers and stuff like that. An educated population is gonna end up having better jobs than a bunch of Mcjobs, (which) is what people are ending up with now. There's nothing wrong with being a barista, I certainly wouldn't look down on anybody who worked at any menial job. But at the same time, you'll never be able to buy a house or raise a family if that's the kind of job you got-- it's just impossible.

The other thing, too, is I'm trying to encourage people (to get) democratically involved. And this is part of the thing about being a DIY guy and as I was growing up being a punk. Being involved democratically is a lot more than just going to the ballot box once every four years. People should be after their local and statewide, national politicians to listen to them, which they generally don't... politicians generally thumb their nose at the general public. And I really think you can get this kind of grassroots democracy that people would seem to accept... that's kind of attracting the opposite of the Tea Party, I know their thing is based on a grassroots thing, 'down with politicians' and all that kind of stuff. I'm talking about more of a grassroots thing where things make sense and are not just right-wing hysteria like the Tea Party is.


--I know that you had run before for the Green Party. What have you learned from that previous political experience that you're applying this time?

What I've learned and what I'm gonna apply here is what I've learned more in music as opposed to my previous political experience --  is that 1: if you wanna be elected, you should learn to listen to people. I've really learned that in the music business, my own record company, being a manager, being a road manager, playing in a band type thing. You have to employ those people skills and listen to people and try and help them. Because when you get elected, you get elected to serve all the people, not just the people that voted for you or the people that agree with you.

Top, first record, the 7-inch EP: "Disco Sucks"; bottom, new LP.

-- Getting back to DOA now, are there some top songs that you still really feel have an impact on you today and have really stood the test of time?

I really just go by the audience. There's some that I really like, say "Woke Up Screaming" is one of my personal favorites. Lot of the old songs that we still play like "The Enemy," "The Prisoner," "World War Three," stuff like that. There's one on the new album I really like that we play all the time is called "He's Got a Gun." It's tough to say, I've written probably 250 songs, we've got 14 albums, singles and comps and various odd things. It's a little hard to narrow it down.


--What kept you guys going all these years?

DOA is really held together all these years by many rolls of gaffe tape (laughter).

It's really a political philosophy, I guess. One of the big things about DOA, there always had to be a sense of camaraderie, being friends with the other people in the band. My philosophy really is just to get up there and try and enact change. One that I really take as my example is one of my heroes would be Pete Seeger. That guy has been going at for a good 70 years doing great things for people from being an activist, to being a great songwriter, to teaching people music, reviving folk music at various times. Just doing a lot of really, really cool stuff with his voice and his banjo and his ability. So if I can end up doing a quarter of what he did, I think I'd be doing really, really well.

Once I'm finished with politics, I'll be back playing music at some point, but who knows what form it will be in.


-- And you do a lot of that acoustic stuff, as well.

Yeah, I try to. It's pretty fun, it's really got a completely different vibe, that's for sure. But I gotta tell you, it's sure a lot of fun playing really loud rock music. You gotta have fun at what you do. You've gotta love a challenge, so this is one of the reasons I'm getting into politics. One of the reasons I kept DOA going, is, hey, I love a challenge.


-- You've done a great job so far, and I would imagine you're gonna keep doing it.

Thank you very much.

-- What do your kids (ages 16, 23 and 25) think of the band and your political career?

They're all behind the band. It's not really their style of music, except for my youngest son, Clayton (16), he's a budding filmmaker. Me and him actually jam in the basement-- I drum, he plays guitar and sings, and we play Ramones, Clash, Damned, Sex Pistols, stuff like that. But the older kids weren't really into punk rock per se, but they're proud of me, and they're totally behind this political thing. Especially my daughter, and she's not political at all. I asked when we were around the family table, I asked 'Should I do this?' and everybody's saying, 'Oh, I guess so,' and she went 'Yeah, Absolutely. Absolutely.' (laughter)


-- If you could look into a crystal ball, how do you envision your future?

Ahhhh... (laughs) ... I wish I could look into a crystal ball. You just gotta keep trying to do what you think is right in life and carry on the best way you can, that's really the only philosophy I've really got is that you've got to believe in yourself and be positive.


-- NHL hockey is back, are you excited? Are you a Canucks fan?

Yeah, I've been a diehard fan since before they were in the NHL, the Canucks. They've never won a Stanley Cup-- so it's not a great thing. I kind of get excited about hockey because we do, we call it a Hockey Pool, basically it's a fantasy league. So me and a bunch of other guys in the music business, we've had this Hockey Pool going for about 25 years now. It's our big competition-- we are cutthroats, we're meaner and more underhanded than NHL owners, so we try and really screw with the other guy. It's really a lot of fun.

I was actually glad the NHL didn't go the first half of the season, because I was too busy campaigning.


-- What was your take on the lockout? 

It's a bunch of millionaires getting stiffed by a bunch of billionaires. They've all got so much more than 99.9999999 percent of us do-- it's pretty sad that they would fight over this. It's really sad the people that work at the arena or sold hot dogs and all that kind of thing, they really lost a big chunk of their livelihood. They seem to like to do this every six or seven years--- it's not very smart, but that's the way it goes.

Early DOA: From left, Chuck Biscuits, Dave Gregg, Keithley and Rampage. (Edward Colver photo)

Neurosis, Tragedy, Black Breath and Stoneburner shred Seattle / Review

By Tim Ramage, Guest Writer

The first time I ever saw Neurosis was in 1990 on their "Word as Law" tour. This show changed my life, as I have never seen a hardcore punk band with this much intensity before. They played at Washington Hall in Seattle’s Central District and the entrance fee was five dollars, maybe reduced to three as the headlining act cancelled as I recall. I must admit, this is the best show I have ever seen in my life. I’ll never forget how silent the audience was when Neurosis ended their set. We were all literally blown away and somewhat speechless as we made our way outside for air.

To say I’ve been a fan of this band is an understatement. I have seen most of their Seattle shows over the last twenty-three years. Neurosis has continued to draw more of a "metal" crowd over the years more so than the punks back in the day. Their live sets have always been a unique "spiritual" experience for me, but the sound and atmosphere of Neurosis is respectively not for all. It became a running joke about how there is more “color black per square inch” at a Neurosis show than anywhere on the face of the Earth. Show after show have proven this correct.

Here we are January 5th, 2013, twenty-three years later. Neurosis is playing at the Showbox and tickets cost us approximately thirty dollars each (including the service charge).

Stoneburner (Portland) took the stage and started the show off right! I don’t know much about this band other than they delivered some unique doom metal. I look forward to hearing more from them.

Black Breath was back from tour and made it to the stage to deliver a powerful set. They were for sure complimentary to the evening of awe.

Tragedy (Portland) without a doubt, simply scorched the place. I have not seen fire like this for years. Where the hell have I been? They formed in my hometown of Memphis and relocated to Portland. Pops, a friend of mine, has been talking about them for a while, stating they have the same energy as early Discharge. The comparison could not have been more true! They ripped through an awesome set of politically fueled lyrics and anthems infused by tight-as-hell, powerful guitars and percussion. We were all in a frenzy when “Darker Days Ahead” (title track of last release) was dropped on the audience like a giant sack of lightning and chainsaws. I think I wiped a way a tear! This is my new favorite band.

The opening bands all delivered great performances. As we were all catching our breath and anticipating Neurosis to start, I could see the various band members making their way to the stage performing a last-minute sound check.

Scott and Steve appeared suddenly on the stage looking like a couple of druids with their black hoodies, picking up their instruments as if preparing for an intense battle, yet so relaxed. A few months ago, I caught Scott’s solo performance at El Corazon. It was a beautiful performance. I looked around at the Neurosis audience and wondered to myself, "Where were all of the people then?" Making my way around the crowd, I was surprised by how many people were also at the show I mentioned earlier at Washington Hall decades ago. I digress.

Suddenly, without any intro, warning, or even a 1-2-3, Neurosis comes alive with the power they are known for.

They started with “Eye” from their earlier release "Through Silver in Blood." Instantly the audience is captured and a symbiotic relationship is forged for the remainder of the evening. I was not in the pit, per se, but I was amongst the huge swaying mass of an audience improvising the standard broken neck "dance." It is sort of funny, yet so right, to witness a sea of people doing this in unison. It was just a ball of mass moving helplessly to the ambient power chords and complicated rhythms projected by the band. I swear, I couldn’t help but go into convulsions the whole time. To me, Neurosis is more like Joy Division more so than any metal band.

Neurosis played cuts from their latest album, "Honor in Decay," such as “My Heart for Deliverance” & “Bleeding the Pigs.” We were also blessed by previous releases such as “Locust Star” and “Times of Grace.” Their set was excellent as usual.

About a month ago, Neurosis mentioned they will no longer use visuals for their live sets. The visuals were usually just as awesome as the music and would enhance the experience. This is the first time they have played Seattle without the visual projections and it was actually good to see them as I first remembered them.

Neurosis finished their set and left the stage. That’s it! The audience left satisfied and in awe. It was a great night and I am sure all of us are looking forward to their next show.

Will Flag rise above expectations? | Editorial

By Andy and Cat

A Flag has risen in the form of Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Bill Stevenson and Stephen Egerton.

But instead of just playing the "Nervous Breakdown" EP at the Goldenvoice soiree in 2011, Flag will be rampaging through a full set of Black Flag songs at the Punk Rock Bowling fest in Las Vegas in May.

Some people are stoked. Others are skeptical about whether this is the right lineup to be representing the legendary band.

That's the way it's always been in the world of Black Flag.

In the past, Henry Rollins got major shit from punks when he replaced Dez Cadena as the singer for the band. When Kira Rosseler took over on bass for founding member Dukowski, once again, the fans weren't sure if it was a good move for the group.

In both cases, most fans welcomed them on board. Rollins and Rosseler were more than worthy newcomers, invaluable assets who helped guide Black Flag through some solid albums and copious gigs that fans still talk about to this day.

Black Flag made an impact -- no matter who was on board.

In 2013, this foursome is billing itself as Flag, and the four iconic bars on its logo are evenly placed next to each other instead of set in the familiar jagged form. So, it's clear that Morris, Dukowski, Stevenson and Egerton (the only non-Black Flag member) know what their roles are here: To give fans a taste of what was -- in a current setting... If they missed out before, then here's their chance to get into it... If you were there, here's some new memories to place alongside the old ones.

Kevin Scanlon photo

We're OK with this Flag thing. We mean, who wouldn't be stoked to see someone like Dukowski rip it up on his four-string in the flesh? But we're hoping it doesn't go overboard, turn into a money grab and taint the history of the band. The demand for some Flag action is certainly at a premium nowadays -- and the Internet has lit up with people thinking a tour might be in the works -- but maybe it's best just to hit people with this Black Flag tribute once and leave them wanting more.

... Or maybe the Flag guys will get inspired from this experience and write some new tunes to complement the old ones and blow us away all over again. The mystery, the unpredictability of it all -- that's what it was all about back then, and maybe we can still have some of that nowadays.

'We Got Power': Photos and memories galore for your slam-pit-reading pleasure | Book Review

By Andy

It was just a typical Saturday night, of course: I was sitting around with nothing to do when the phone rang. Husker Du was in town and Bob Mould asked me to accompany him to Santa Monica to meet with some friends.

A few minutes later, the Husker van rolled up Steinhart Avenue in Redondo Beach, I hopped in and we hit the liquor store for some tallboys of Olde English 800 — the punk-rock beer of choice in 1983, for sure.

What would the night bring? After all, I didn't know who these Santa Monica characters were or what they were up to. We just rolled along to our destination and chatted about music, sports, whatever.

Turns out it was the "We Got Power" guys — Jordan Schwartz and David Markey — who were waiting for us to arrive. They were more than ready to crack some beers and hang out for the evening.

I'd seen their fanzine and, after meeting them on this night, recalled seeing the duo lurking around the SST office on Phelan Avenue in Redondo once or twice. (In fact, I've still got "We Got Power" No. 1 — a folded copy since I stuffed it into my jeans back pocket after receiving it at a gig.)

On that Santa Monica night, Markey answered the door, greeted us and led us into his family's home. He told his mom, "This is Bob from Husker Du." She politely nodded. I blended into the background, not getting a royal introduction from David, when Bob turned to me and said to the Markeys, "And this is Andy." That was cool, I thought.

What's even cooler — some 30 years down the road — is that Schwartz and Markey have unleashed their mammoth book of punk photos and essays, "We Got Power: Hardcore Punk Scenes from 1980s Southern California." (Bazillion Points)

It's four pounds, 304 pages and 400 photos full of hardcore memories from back in the day when me and thousands of other punks took to the clubs and witnessed raging bands, guzzled cheap beer and met like-minded fans and band members to bond with on those crazy nights. Henry Rollins, Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Mike Watt, Tony Adolescent and many others tell their tales via essays in the book, as well.

Social Distortion's Mike Ness, house party, 1982. (Jordan Schwartz photo)

Inside the book, you've got your mainly black-and-white photos of the biggies like Black Flag, Minutemen, Circle Jerks and others, but what strikes me the most is the snapshots of the smaller bands and fans who were just your regular folks — fucking bent on having a great time. They were just like me and my hardcore associates from the cities of Redondo, Hermosa, Manhattan, Torrance, Inglewood, Gardena, Hawthorne, etc. We were all in it together. (In essence, the members of the larger bands were on our same level, as well, just more well known in the scene.)

We'd hop into cars and drive to the Whisky, Florentine Gardens or the Palladium in Hollywood. There was Godzilla's in the armpit of the San Fernando Valley. Dancing Waters was the spot for your punk pleasure in San Pedro. The Barn at Alpine Village in Torrance hosted some of the best shows of that era, notably a Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, MDC, Zero Boys and Detonators stunner.

Sometimes, things got gnarly like when the owners at Bob's Place in Watts made us all stay inside because some locals were apparently looking for punk blood outside after a Misfits, Necros, Social Distortion, SVDB gig.

At another Misfits gig in a sketchy area of LA, me and my friend John along with Chris and his girlfriend Julie (Sin 34) looked on with shaking heads as cops cleared out locals outside so we could make it to our cars. (It was a miracle we even found the venue in the first place — our only clue was some kids holding a mattress outside a window upstairs that read PUNX, the gig organizer.)

Inside "We Got Power," a handful of those clubs are represented with bands playing on their stages. As I scroll through the book, I'm transported back to those days, and in some of the photos I know that I'm not that far away from the where the camera lens hit its mark.

What was I wearing? What did my hair look like? Was I a shy boy in the background or an energetic youngster up front singing and thrashing along with the band?

Answers: Flannels and homemade band T-shirts… hair short and a bit spiky due to my cowlick … and a little bit of both in the demeanor category.

What mattered, though, was that I was living it up, straddling the line between euphoria and danger on some nights.

It was our time — and we made the most of it.

Quotes of note from 2012 / The TSHIT interviews

Keith Morris (Andy photo)

Andy talked to a bunch of people in a bunch of bands in 2012.

Here's some memorable quotes:

Keith Morris on OFF!:

We're nothing more than a folk band. When you boil all of the flesh and the meat, the muscle and the skin off of the bones. When you're listening to OFF!, we're nothing more than a protest band, we're just a folk band -- but we're loud, we're obnoxious, we're in your face and we're angry about it.


Ian MacKaye (The Evens):

I feel like right now while we're talking, there's some kids, if they're not already playing it, they're cookin' it up-- it's comin', can't be stopped. And if it can be stopped, then we wouldn't be talking, because I wouldn't have been able to do it back then. It's never over.


Reed Mullin (Corrosion of Conformity):

I think this is COC and it will be together until we start to crumble-- I can't imagine us stopping now, I think we're just getting geared up... and do another 30 years, COC 90-something (laughs).


Dan Kubinski (die kreuzen) via email:

For me in those early days, playing live was almost better than recording. Those early tours were a whirlwind of lights, sweat and volume that were always intense. Our songs were for real, we worked so hard on them both musically and lyrically so that when we played live, there were pieces of us that were flying out of our instruments and vocal chords and through the PA systems. We weren’t trying to be something, we were just being ourselves. We were for real....


Henry Rollins on Black Flag's intense work ethic (via email):

In my opinion, that’s the way you get your music together and make the live shows good. You really have to work. This is what Black Flag was all about. It was the Ginn/Dukowski method and it worked very well. It’s hard on the band but that is what it takes to kill it live. Being in a band, a real band with real ambition is a very hard thing to do. Most bands are not successful. They are usually not all that good and if they are, they rarely have the intensity to take it to the degree needed to get it over the wall. It will break you to pieces, so you have to deal with that.


Tom Price (Tom Price Desert Classic):

Don't wear a baseball hat on stage, because a baseball hat is the symbol of egalitarianism, it makes everybody equal. The purpose of a stage is to make you not equal, it's to make you temporarily special and above. So, if you wear a baseball hat on stage, you negate both the baseball hat and the stage. Nothing against baseball hats.


Mike Magrann (Channel 3):

It never fails, and we've talked to every punk-rock dad out there, and the kids are just like, 'Dad, you're so lame.' (Laughter) And I'm like, 'Don't you understand? I'm a 'punk-rock god.' And they're like, 'Dad, come on, your hair is grey.' So, you can never win over a teenage girl.


Mark Adams (Saint Vitus):

Everything's just fucking pretty crazy. It's almost like a time machine going backwards, but instead of nobody caring, people care now -- it's pretty far out.


Mike IX Williams on EYEHATEGOD's history:

It was bizarre to all of us. To me, that was more of a way to move this band even further-- 'the original singer is a born-again Christian?' Nowadays, Jimmy (Bower's) given him CDs of the band and he'll tell Jimmy later, 'I threw it in the garbage' -- I guess he thinks we're all going to hell because we kept using the name.


Mike Watt (fIREHOSE, Missingmen):

Even when I doubt myself, when that fever got me tonight, the momentum of those days -- and it's not a 'Happy Days,' Fonzie and Potsie and that shit -- it's the kind of ethics that were built with that shit, still apply now, and that's why I do call it a movement... there's a lot of autonomy, not much hierarchy. There would have been no 'Double Nickels' if Husker didn't do 'Zen Arcade' -- shit like that.


KJ Jansen (Chixdiggit):

We still get to do this. We're in Seattle right now playing rock and roll-- still, you know? This shit should have ended years ago. I get to travel around with my best friend, get drunk and be a jackass and do interviews... it's like, fucked up.

Scott Hill (Cat Rose photo)

Scott Hill (Fu Manchu) on hearing Black Flag for the first time:

I was like, 'What the fuck's THIS?' And he (a friend) was, 'BLACK FLAG!' I was in junior high, and we had punk day: 'Punk is Bunk,' people wrote on their shirts. I was listening to Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, Nugent and stuff, and I heard Flag, and I was like, 'Holy Shit'... took the tape and didn't even give it back to him. I got turned on to the Adolescents, you know, went from there, Circle Jerks, and it was like, 'Oh Shit,' just bought everything I could, every zine, kept my fliers, wrote bands, just every dime I had went into buying records.


Our friend Melissa on Skelator's leather-armbanded singer:

I feel like he's gonna dive off the stage and land on a unicorn ... or turn into a unicorn.


Ben London on reviving Alcohol Funnycar's songs:

(It's a) really weird sensation, going back and learning songs you wrote that you don't remember the lyrics or the chords to. I write a lot of songs -- or try to -- and so they kind of get pushed to the back of bus. It's kind of like looking at pictures of yourself from high school or from college or something like that, where you're sort of like, 'What was I thinking? Was that haircut really a good move at that time?'


Joel Ross (Lopez):

The accessibility of punk-rock bands-- that really started to get me into it a lot. Seeing them live and just how much it was a one-on-one thing. It wasn't so much of like, OK, here's this huge stage with a light show and the whole nine freaking yards, and then the 30-foot barricade and then the crowd.


Aaron Beam (Red Fang):

We're four older gentlemen who are too stupid to stop playing rock music and touring.


Ron Reyes (former Black Flag singer) on playing guitar in Piggy:

For me, it's great because, for some reason, there's a lot less anxiety attached to it. As a singer, as a frontman, I have great anxieties about that -- always have -- and it's one of the reasons why I haven't done it for a very, very long time. It's not that I'm awful at it, but it's just that I feel like I'm gonna shit my pants, every moment I'm up there (laughs).


Pat Hoed (Fantasma) on unveiling Brujeria members' identities (they cover their faces with bandanas on stage):

We tried to keep it secret. Once the Internet age hit, it was like forget it, everybody fucking knows.


Ed Crawford (fIREHOSE):

It's somewhat surreal, yes. And sublime -- oh, look at me, my fancy words. It's like we were off for a month and came back, and not 18 years. It's really bizarre... and really beautiful at the same time.
I mean, who gets to play with Mike Watt and George Hurley? I do. I'm over the moon, head over heels, just having the best time of my life.


Penelope Houston on the Avengers' gig with the Sex Pistols in 1978 in San Francisco:

It was kind of weird because, we'd been playing for six months in the Bay Area and also LA, and on the whole West Coast, we could think of about 500 punks, those were the people we knew, we saw in our audience. So, to get on stage and look out at 5,000 or 6,000 people, who weren't necessarily punk, but they were all throwing shit and spitting, behaving badly, was just like, 'What, who the fuck are you?' It's like, 'What is going on?'


James Farris (Moral Crux) on ideas for lyrics:

You know the whole thing with technology, too, how that's affecting us socially, being somewhat muted as people just, whether it be like resolving conflicts or whatever, being able to kind of come up and talk to people, the whole texting thing. I suppose it has its purpose, but it just seems when it starts to kind of run you. And then, the whole Facebook thing, I just tell people, 'Why don't you just go talk to your real friends?' It's got a use, like if you're in a band or if you have relatives way far away...


Peter Case on touring with Paul Collins and playing old Nerves, Plimsouls and Beat tunes:

The other thing about it is the song catalogue that we made up. All these songs from back before 1983, it's really fun to kind of revive them and bring them back around because we made them at the time to be sort of timeless-- we never went with gimmicks or the time.


Glen E. Friedman (photographer):

But when I was taking pictures, yeah I'd be right in the front, because I knew everyone there, and sometimes I'd sit on the stage and sometimes I'd stand right in the front row, and certainly I got whacked a lot of times, but anyone who's been to a show knows what you're doing, you know how to stay the fuck out of the way and accidents happen -- so you get hit, no big deal.


Blair Shehan (Jealous Sound) on playing live:

You just roll with it, have fun -- I fuck up, somebody else fucks up, it doesn't matter, I'll go and give you a hug. It's like, 'Cool, we'll do better next time.' It's not that important, it's more about how the whole thing feels. That's what I walk away with and I hope the audience walks away with. Overall, we had a good time, you had a great time, it's an awesome ping-ponging back of energy.


Kasey Keller (former USA World Cup goalkeeper and our own Seattle Sounders alum):

When you're a 15-year-old, middle-class farmboy from Olympia, Washington, the next punk that came about in the mid-'80s was gangster rap. So when gangster rap first came out, you couldn't get any more punk than being a white kid from Olympia, Washington, listening to gangster rap.

Kasey Keller (Andy photo)

An action-packed 2012: Photos year in review

Piggy

Here we go... Cat Rose photos galore from some of our 2012 gig outings. Enjoy --- and Happy New Year!

Black Breath

Chixdiggit

Corrosion of Conformity

Pierced Arrows

Love Battery

Saint Vitus

Moral Crux

Fu Manchu

Channel 3

Swervedriver

Red Fang

Skelator