Instead of sleeping I just spent seven hours on myspace listening to bands I love, and then checking out the bands they are connected to or who left them comments, and holy fuck I’m inspired right now.  People can talk all the shit they want about the state of music today, but there are some great new bands coming up, like I went back in time to my very favorite pieces of the 90’s but done exactly the way I wish they had rocked then, done even better than my unreliable memories. That probably isn’t true, just what I’m being nostalgic about, the energy and grit, being positive while grounded in reality, without the asymmetrical haircuts. This is all I want to listen to right now.  Click these band names then tell me I’m wrong, FireFox is about to crash from these tabs being open at once:

Brickfight, Shang-A-Lang, Turkish Techno, Rumspringer, Bastards Of Young, The Anchor, Anchor Arms, Anchor Down, Vacation Bible School, Used Kids, Success!, Andrew Jackson Jihad, Hour Of The Wolf, … And bands you should know, like Off With Their Heads, Tiltwheel, Nothington, Dillinger Four, The Arrivals, Toys That Kill, Underground Railroad To Candyland…

fuck I should go to bed now.

We have two new Mitch Clem shirts up in the store!

These are for pre-order since they aren’t made yet, but they will ship over this next week for your Christmas crass commercialism celebrating Jesus tooth fairy thing. Go spend some money!

ASHTRAY’s new full length, The Power Of Positive Drinking, just came in from the CD pressing plant. And holy fuck it rocks something fierce!

Inspired by BLATZ, OPERATION IVY and other bands to come out of the East Bay’s 924 Gilman Street scene in the 80’s and 90’s, Santa Rosa co-ed crusties ASHTRAY present the quintessential drunk-punk party record, The Power of Positive Drinking, featuring fourteen high-energy beer-soaked anthems.

Recorded by Andy “Andro” Ernst at The Art Of Ears, this album includes live favorites like S.S.B.C., Call The Cops and Favorite Things, plus a bonus unlisted track that is quite possibly the most adorable love song to ever come from the genre.

It won’t be in stores until February, but fuck it, we’re putting it up for mail-order early, because we can.  Go check out some songs from it on ASHTRAY’s MySpace!

Hey, putting out records is fun!

I should probably spread this news out over a few days, but I’ve been really bad at keeping this blog up to date, so instead I’m just gonna tell you about what else we’re working on right now.

December will see a brand new split CD, the debut releases from THE HARD GIRLS (Max and Morgan from PTERADON and Mike from SHINOBU) and THE ALBERT SQUARE, all very good friends of mine growing up in San Jose and some of my favorite musicians ever in the word.

This really excites me because first these songs are incredible, I’ve been listening non-stop in that “Holy fuck I just discovered JAWBREAKER or KNAPSACK” obsessive kind of way, but then aside from the music being mind-meltingly nut-wrenchingly awesome, these are some of my best friends performing.  It means so much to help get their music out there and work with them on this project!

You can hear the tender loving care and enthusiasm that went into this album.  Anyway, I’m being a dirty hippy now, but I don’t care. Here is some of the art on the right, we will be releasing this December 5th at Nickel City (yes, a NICKEL ARCADE) in San Jose, CA, at a release show with JESSE MICHAELS, MIKE PARK and KEVIN SECONDS.  Book your flights now people, its in the tiny piss-soaked party room, very intimate.  Oh yea, the album is ten songs for five bucks with a huge fold-out insert. Because we can.

Listen to the songs on THE ALBERT SQUARE’s MySpace page and on THE HARD GIRLS’ MySpace page too.

And a bunch of vinyl is in the works!

We have been working on these next projects for fucking ever, but then the world of vinyl pressing went all crazy with the economy in shambles and every big label in the world making big piles of vinyl as if it would save their asses.

I could explain in detail, it is very interesting, but maybe later, as I will use my limited remaining attention span tell you what’s coming up!

Stampers are being made right now for a split 7″ EP from our friends in THE NEW TRUST and PTERADON, then another split 7″ EP we’re doing for MITCH CLEM‘S Face Palm Records between SHANG-A-LANG and BRICKFIGHT.  I got to see SHANG-A-LANG at The Fest a few weeks back and had the best time ever, and will soon be punching Mitch Clem in the balls for not telling me about how awesome both of these bands were earlier.

As if these projects so far weren’t getting me wet enough, holyfuckingchrist we are re-issuing vinyl from two of my favorite and underground-influential east bay punk bands of all time, FILTH’s Live The Chaos 7″ EP and BLATZ’s Cheaper Than The Beer 7″ EP!!! 

I am still having trouble wrapping my mind around how this all came to be, but golly gee willikers, this is an exciting time to exist.

The bad news is these records won’t be ready for the holidays, but we’re looking at a January release on all four, so make them Valentine’s Day gifts or just ask your parents for money or something.

What else?

The new PHENOMENAUTS officer jackets came in, Series 3.0!! They are kind of amazing, all new nerd-core features. We need to take pictures and do some inventory then will be posting about those too.

And lots of bike stuff! Well no shit, this is a bicycle club. This post was just an update on the music things.  We’re building a three person tall-bike noise-machine.  More instrument-toting bikes. Ongoing ridiculous rides in the SF bay area and Sacramento. New member jackets. Vandalism. Scavenger hunts. 

Other people are going to blog about that stuff later or else I’ll stab them with rusty things.

As always, thank YOU for being awesome and supporting this crazy shit we do.

I just found the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on my Skylar’s website:

I’ve posted some scans of work done by my Omuta High School students (in Japan). For the assignment, I gave them blank ‘Calvin & Hobbes’ comic strips, and had the kids fill them out in English. Most of my lessons were designed to fulfill two purposes: get them to use English in a conversation situation, and make me laugh. This exercise, at least, is an example of the latter.

These are pure gold, check out the rest on his page.  By the way, Skylar basically runs Asian Man Records, and has been awesome enough to help record some stuff for us!

There’s an interview with our very own Eoin over at the Secretions Life Line!

Find out what him and his brother are doing in this picture, and how it relates to Obama’s plan for universal health care.

While the Sprockets that actually get shit done were running our booth at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco, I went to Florida. Here is the ugly story of why I am now suffering from “Fest AIDS”:

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On behalf of the entire Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club, I declare:

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!!!!!!
(Amanda Palmer’s ‘Whoo!’ was way longer, but apparently our blog software has limits on enthusiasm. BTW, I’m going to marry her someday, ftw.)

I don’t know about you, but I almost cried during his acceptance speech. It was beautiful. I’m not sure what to say that hasn’t already been said, except FUCK YES!

My President (Elect):

Although the struggle for Justice, Equality, and Peace is far from finished (As I type this, Proposition 8 is passing with Yes- 52%, No- 48%, with 69% of precincts reporting), success was achieved. Sleep sweetly America, we did great.

How was everyones Hallowtide? Ours went quite well if i do say so myself. Me and Deputy Danny spent most of the day doing critical mass getting guns pointed at us and getting free burritos. Later on someone actually tied me in Star Wars trivial pursuit in the third most haunted living room in sacramento and we made a rainy trip to space park for reasons Vince is keeping to himself. Then the next morning we all got up bright and early to go to the Alternative Press Expo and the rest is kind of a haze since we got in a car wreck. But lets start earlier.

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These new stickers sure are the Bee’s Knees!

Mmm, look at that sheen!

Also:

That dog is terrified! Better listen to him.

There’s also a new =Phenomenauts= sticker proclaiming “Math>War” or something. Buy that too.