Let’s go! A New Year means a new round of festivals we plan to attend. First up is Slam Dunk; last week, they announced their last names to their already impressive line-up, but bad news was also shared. So, who are the last names that will be joining Pennywise, Snuff, The Interrupters, Waterparks, The Ghost […]
Let’s go! A New Year means a new round of festivals we plan to attend. First up is Slam Dunk; last week, they announced their last names to their already impressive line-up, but bad news was also shared.
Beauty School, Caskets, The Dangerous Summer, Arm’s Length, Everything Unfolds, and Guilt Trip. Also announced was You Me At Six, which will also be their last-ever appearance at Slam Dunk Festival. As they announced, they are going their separate ways after twenty years, after they conclude their last tour next year. Slam Dunk 2024 will occur in Hatfield on May 25th and Leeds on May 26th.
Greetings, and welcome to the Dying Scene Record Radar. If it’s your first time here, thank you for joining us! This is the weekly* column where we cover all things punk rock vinyl; new releases, reissues… you name it, we’ve probably got it. Kick off your shoes, pull up a chair, crack open a cold […]
Greetings, and welcome to the Dying Scene Record Radar. If it’s your first time here, thank you for joining us! This is the weekly* column where we cover all things punk rock vinyl; new releases, reissues… you name it, we’ve probably got it. Kick off your shoes, pull up a chair, crack open a cold one, and break out those wallets, because it’s go time. Let’s get into it!
Check out the video edition of this week’s Record Radar, presented by our friends at Punk Rock Radar:
Scottish punks The Kimberly Steaks are batting leadoff this week, with their 2023 album Big Noise getting its long awaited physical release! It’s available on two vinyl color variants – split blue/pink and clear wax – from Brassneck Records in the UK and Bloated Kat Records in the US. You can also get the album on cassette from Cat’s Claw Records in the UK and Punk Rock Radar in the states. This is one of the best records released last year – highly recommended pickup!
And hey, if you’re gonna head over to the Punk Rock Radar store to pre-order that Kimberly Steaks cassette, you might as well grab a copy of this bad ass new record from French skate punks Fast Lane! Incomplete…All Fine is due out on March 1st; check out one of the tracks below and get it on yellow and/or blue colored vinyl here.
On the last Record Radar, we told you about the new Strung Out record Dead Rebellion, coming April 5th on Fat Wreck Chords. For those who missed out on the color variants exclusive to the label and band webstores, I have some good news – another color variant has popped up! Limited to 300 copies, this “coke bottle green” variant is exclusive to European indie stores. You can get it here.
I’ll admit I’m a bit late to the party on this record, but it’s awesome and I wanna show it some love regardless. Finnish pop-punk band The Odorants are back with their first new album in 17 years! This is my introduction to the band and quite the introduction it is. Love Songs Never Die is a fantastic record. If you’re in Italy or Europe, your best option to grab this record is probably hitting up the Striped Music webstore. For my fellow Americans, our friends at Mom’s Basement did have this up on their store, but it sold out. I’m sure they’ll restock at some point but if you’re impatient Barnes & Noble of all places has it in stock for $28.99 with free shipping. Don’t sleep on this record!!!
Good things come to those who wait, and in this case that good thing is Asian Man‘s 2nd pressing of the Common Rider – Last Wave Rockers reissue! It’s limited to 1,000 copies on random colored vinyl and will probably be sold out very soon, so quit dilly dallying and grab your copy here.
Massachusetts punk veterans The Prozacs‘ latest EP We Scream has been released on vinyl, with their 2004 Monsters Night Out EP tacked on the B-Side. You can get it on black, coke bottle clear and/or red colored vinyl here.
You may recall that 10×10″ box set NOFX released last year, featuring demos and acoustic versions of songs from their alleged next album Everybody Else is Insane, which at the time was supposed to be released in November, 2023. As if all the different color variants of this box set that in excess of $150 each weren’t enough to make you collector nerds sweat, there’s now an all black vinyl version the set (sans box) up on the Fat Wreck webstore. This one’s only $101 for 10 songs, though. Can’t beat that value.
I guess Interscope has a subscription service where you pay $45 and get one (1) exclusive record each month (doesn’t seem like a very good deal to me but I digress). This month’s record is Blink 182‘s 2003 self-titled album, limited to 2,500 copies on clear vinyl with embossed cover art. If you just want this record, I think you can subscribe for the month and cancel after you get it in the mail. You can do that here.
Frank Turner‘s got a new record called Undefeated coming out May 3rd. Check out the lead single below and get the record on violet or black colored vinyl with a bonus 7″ here. If you’re in the states and wanna save a few bucks, you can get the violet colored LP without the 7″ here or from any other indie record store.
After a 22 year wait between their debut LP and sophomore effort, fans of Santa Cruz punk vets Too Bad Eugene should be pleased to know the wait for album #3 won’t be nearly as long. Battle Scars, the follow-up to 2022’s Distance, is due out March 8th on People of Punk Rock Records. Check out the bad ass first single below and pre-order the record here.
The pride of Germany Donots will finish us off this week, reissuing their 2001 album Pocketrock for the first time ever! They’re 3 years late for the 20th anniversary, and 2 years early for the 25th anniversary but hey, better late than never! Or early… I guess. Anywho, go here to get it on 180g red vinyl with a bonus CD included.
Well, that’s all, folks. Another Record Radar in the books. As always, thank you for tuning in. If there’s anything we missed (highly likely), or if you want to let everyone know about a new/upcoming vinyl release you’re excited about, leave us a comment below, or send us a message on Facebook or Instagram, and we’ll look into it. Enjoy your weekend, and don’t blow too much money on spinny discs (or do, I’m not your father). See ya in the new year!
Wanna catch up on all of our Record Radar posts? Click here and you’ll be taken to a page with all the past entries in the column. Magic!
Cody Rheuff is the owner of a DIY music venue that he and his wife, Carrie, opened in 2018 due to the lack of places for bands to play in the area. The CR23 Bombshelter is a community-oriented place where people of all ages can come together, hang out, and enjoy music. Cody sat down […]
Cody Rheuff is the owner of a DIY music venue that he and his wife, Carrie, opened in 2018 due to the lack of places for bands to play in the area. The CR23 Bombshelter is a community-oriented place where people of all ages can come together, hang out, and enjoy music. Cody sat down and participated in an interview, check it out below.
Diego Rodriguez started a fundraiser to help keep this venue open. You can contribute here.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Dying Scene: Tell me about yourself. Who are you? What should Dying Scene readers know about you?
Cody Rheuff: My name’s Cody Rheuff. We started CR23 Bombshelter down here in Pueblo. There wasn’t much of a music scene when we started. All the places had closed and we looked at this house and it was a good place for a venue. So, we opened it up. Our first show was the Mentors in 2018 and we’ve been going since then.
DS: What inspired you to do this?
CR: Just the lack of places for anybody to play here in Pueblo. We had the Rainbow Bar at the time and they closed down due to financial problems and there just really wasn’t any place for a band to play other than houses and stuff. So, we tried it out and it worked out pretty good. At our first show we had like 20 people. Nobody knew who we were. It’s grown quite a bit. We have, on average, 75 people here for all the shows. We do a variety of music, mostly punk and metal, but we’ve had country, rap, and a little bit of everything.
DS: What kind of shows do you host and how often do you have these shows?
CR: We usually have them once a weekend. I try to keep them to the weekends in a rural area and try to be respectful of the neighbors but last year [2022] we put on 35 shows. This year we’ve had about 30 shows. We finally took a break for November and December because we’ve been just going and going and been tied to the place. It’s been fun.
DS: Can you describe the Bombshelter for the readers?
CR: It’s a community-type thing. Everybody knows each other that comes out here for the most part, if you don’t, they’ll know each other by the end of the night. It’s kind of a family, just a big family. It’s a place for the whole family to see the bands and hang out. We’ve had a lot of compliments about autistic kids being able to come out here. They don’t feel comfortable at bars and big venues. Out here, they feel comfortable and they can kind of let themselves be and have fun.
DS: That’s pretty cool. What are some bands that have played here and what is the most memorable show so far?
CR: So, we got The Quits out of Oregon and The PAWNS. Those have been really fun shows. We’ve had Houston Hermant and the Dirty Rats and they’re from New Jersey. We’ve had The Dead End and Sonic Vomit, both Pueblo bands. We got Death in the Silence. They’re kind of hard to put into a category but they were always really fun. The crowd likes them. We’ve had so many, but I’d say probably the Quits are one of my favorite ones. They always come down for my birthday, put on a big show, and bring a lot of bands from Oregon and stuff. The Dead End shows are always fun. I love Diskount Vodka. That’s my style…the hardcore, just in-your-face punk style.
DS: The most memorable?
CR: I’d probably have to go back to the Quits and Cellblock 3. That was a good one. We had The Flametrick Subs here. That was a really fun show. We had Three Bad Jacks just a couple months ago. And just a lot of fun rockabilly and psychobilly shows and that’s one of my favorite ones because everybody can dance and get into it and just have fun.
Left to Right. Lucian Barela (LJ), Matt Hamilton (Pickle), and Carlos Gomez of the Dead End with Cody Rhueff.
DS: What advice do you have for venue owners or touring bands?
CR: We started out slow…and just for venue owners, treat the bands with respect and take care of them like you’d want to be taken care of if you were out traveling and stuff. That’s what I’ve always tried to do. We run on donations at the door. I don’t have a bar or anything down here. It’s just a basement. We have to rely on people coming up to the shows and helping out to be able to get the bands here and pay for their gas and stuff. We get a lot of bands from Denver, which is a hundred-mile drive for them. It’s kind of hard to justify not paying them. The bands, the same thing, treat the venues with respect and stuff. We’ve had people and touring bands stay at our house to save on having to pay for a hotel and stuff. We really haven’t had any bad experiences with that. It’s been nice to meet new people with new points of view and it’s been fun.
DS: How should touring bands get in touch with you if they want to play at the Bombshelter?
CR: We’ve got Facebook for the CR 23 Bombshelter and it’s got my phone number and email on it so they can contact me through that. Been pretty good with that so far.
DS: What bands are you listening to this week?
CR: Houston and the Dirty Rats. That’s one of my favorite go-to ones. A lot of old school punk…The Vandals and Sex Pistols and stuff like that. And then I go to the metal…Otep and Hatebreed, a few of them. Those are my go-tos.
DS: What else would you like to share with Dying Scene readers?
CR: Just support your local scenes. I mean, we got to keep the little places alive. That’s our future. Nobody would hear about these bands…all major bands were once in a little place like this.
And that is it for 2023. We wrap up the year with one last show put together by the folks behind Punk Rock Tacos. It is time to bring the community together one more time before the end of the year at Cobra Lounge. The lineup for the show was an eclectic mix of very […]
And that is it for 2023. We wrap up the year with one last show put together by the folks behind Punk Rock Tacos. It is time to bring the community together one more time before the end of the year at Cobra Lounge.
The lineup for the show was an eclectic mix of very different bands in terms of genre and sound. Surprisingly that was not an issue whatsoever; once each band got on stage the music spoke for itself, regardless of what kind of sound they were producing.
The first band for the evening was one of Punk Rock Taco’s own x.Oracles.x. If there is one thing to reiterate about this band, it is their consistency to put on a killer show.
Ms. Lynch, the lead singer, likely delivered the strongest vocal performance of the evening. With strong support from the rest of the musicians, her voice is the key that makes their punk rock sound work seamlessly with blues riffs and rhythms. The scratchy guitar riffs add some grunge elements to the music that are supported by the walking bass lines that create an uncompromising mixture of both blues and punk.
Their set consisted of a mix of mostly original songs and an incredibly fun rendition of Talking Heads’ classic track “Psycho Killer.” Their song “Shotgun Blues” from their EP “Gitcha Gitcha” is a certified banger.
Is Party Punk a genre? That is probably the best way to describe The Reaganomics’ sound. Vocal harmonies, some ridiculously catchy riffs, and speed summarize their music. These guys did everything you want a punk band to do, and they did it well.
The self-described “sweaty dads playing punk” truly were, and did just that. Whether the songs were played in between banter or the banter in between songs, it was funny, enjoyable, and showcased solid musicianship from all four band members. The bassist and both guitarists took turns as lead singers throughout the show keeping each song fresh, and worked super well together when doing gang vocals or harmonies. The drummer, sporting the coolest shirt there and a groovy sweatband, did a stellar job as the driving force behind the constant rhythm changes and aggressive sound of the band.
The Reaganomics are definitely worth adding to your playlist. Their music is just so much fun, and a must-see live for sure. Take a listen to their song “Don’t Worry. We’ll Play First” from their album Lower the Bar. This is a great place to start if you are not familiar with this band.
Next on the ticket was Disinfo. The three-piece band took all the harmonies and catchy riffs that the previous bands had played and threw them out the window. There’s no need for vocal harmonies or complicated guitar solos when you’re trying to make a point, and Disinfo did just that, and very effectively.
This band is confrontational as hell, and they are not shy about it. Playing a mix of hardcore, d-beat, with some thrashy sections in some songs. These guys have one mission only and it is to send a message loud and clear – emphasizing the loud part.
For a healthy dose of whiplash, check out Disinfo’s song “Verbal Abuse” from their brutally blunt ep Nothing is True. Pay attention to these guys if politically charged, contentious punk is your thing.
While the lineup seemed eclectic at first, there was some genius behind the order in which these bands were scheduled to take the stage. As the show went on, the bands also got progressively faster, heavier, and more aggressive. So when the next band, The Dennies, got on stage I was caught off guard.
The next thing I see is a small army of teenagers getting on stage setting up their instruments. Not knowing what to expect I do have to admit that I had really low expectations, but then Noah Corona, the mastermind behind Punk Rock Tacos, grabbed a mic and promised us that the next band was going to “rock our socks off,” and oh boy he was right.
Despite their young age, The Dennies put up a performance that was easily on par with their more experienced counterparts on the ticket that evening. Their music sounded like some sort of amalgamation of punk, alternative, grunge with a bit of metal sprinkled all throughout. What an incredible combination. Jumping up and down, their lead singer had everyone up front moshing and slamming, and at one point even joining the moshing themselves.
The crowd requested an encore and The Dennies ended their set with a powerful rendition of “Raining Blood” by Slayer.
Overall, the band put on a great performance. I was honestly somewhat embarrassed at the end for making assumptions based on their age but they really did rock our socks off. It was teenage angst that got us all into this scene in the first place. that some of us somehow forgot along the way, and The Dennies are here to remind us of it. It is angst straight from the source. If you do not believe me, check out their song “Flesh,” Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.
To end the night, the headliners, playing high-quality hardcore punk as Eske (short for Los Eskeletos), granted us the perfect ending to the year. While 2023 is over and 2024 may not be much better, at least we have some awesome music to get us through it all.
Their songs were short – as most Hardcore Punk songs should be, if you ask me – but they made up for the length by playing some of the best hardcore I have seen live in a while. I am pretty sure they played their entire set in 20 minutes, but honestly if they were to play their set from start to finish again, I would not have complained.
While I do have to admit that I have a soft spot for specifically Latinx hardcore punk bands, Los Eskeletos is such a great band that I highly recommend it to anybody that is into that specific subgenre, and if you go to one of their shows I can guarantee their music will make you want to jump into the mosh pit. Their album Sobras is a must-listen.
Head below to check out the full photo gallery of the show!
Dying Scene caught up with Geoff Andersen and Carlos Gomez of Last Reel Hero at Analogue Records for an interview and photoshoot while visiting them in their hometown of Pueblo, Colorado. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Dying Scene: Tell me about your band. Where are you from? When did you form? […]
Dying Scene caught up with Geoff Andersen and Carlos Gomez of Last Reel Hero at Analogue Records for an interview and photoshoot while visiting them in their hometown of Pueblo, Colorado.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Dying Scene: Tell me about your band. Where are you from? When did you form? Who’s in the band? What instruments do you play or what roles do you play? And how did you come up with your band name?
Geoff Andersen: We are Last Reel Hero. We’re from here in Pueblo, Colorado and we formed in 2017. I believe, the beginning of 2017. I’m Geoff and I play bass. Carlos plays lead guitar and vocals. We have Dan Wiley on keys, trombone, and vocals. Jim Chandler on drums and Keith Sanchez on guitar and a little bit of vocals as well. Our band name, Last Reel Hero, is basically taken from a line in the movie “The Harder They Come” starring Jimmy Cliff and it means that we are here ‘til the end.
DS: I haven’t seen the movie, so now I’m curious. I understand that you have connections with other local bands. Tell me about your connections with The Dead End and Diskount Vodka.
Carlos Gomez: Well, the Dead End is my other project, a psychobilly trio with a standup bass. We kind of don’t really like to give ourselves the genre or name, but we’re a rock and roll band. The current lineup of the Dead End has been around for about the same time as Last Reel Hero has been around, which is kind of crazy…since 2017 or so. And as far as Diskount Vodka goes, Matt Hamilton (aka Pickle) who plays drums in the Dead End also plays drums in Diskount Vodka with my little brother, Cuauhtli Gomez, who plays bass in Diskount Vodka. So it’s a big rock and roll family.
DS: Very cool. How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard of you?
GA: Hard reggae. Punk rock, that’s very reggae-influenced. There are people who want to say we’re a ska band, which technically that’s part of our sound but there’s a lot more to it than that. We’re probably more of a very reggae influenced punk band more than anything.
CG: I would agree with that statement. I would just say that we’re all kids who listen to reggae that play punk rock and it just comes out the way it comes out.
DS: Who are your biggest influences and inspirations?
CG: That’s a good one. As far as this band goes, I mean, we love the Trojan stuff. Anything that came out on Trojan Records is a heavy influence in our band and our sound. The roots of ska and then even the two-tone stuff later on in the 70s in England, I would say all of that stuff collectively. Everything from Bob Marley to The English Beat. One thing I love when we go on tour are the playlists that Geoff comes up with because it’s just all this musical inspiration and we get to the gigs and it’s just stuff that we were grooving on this whole time. And then we project it in what we play and how we represent ourselves. So, I mean, as far as us, that’s what I want to say.
GA: Yeah, it’s old school reggae, ska, rock steady, two-tone, dance hall, old school punk rock, and pub rock type stuff then our just straight-up rock and roll influences. Yeah, it all just comes out. It’s not really even intentional, it’s just what we’ve always been into and then that’s what comes out.
CG: Definitely. I mean, we do a Waylon Jennings cover because anyone could do a Bob Marley cover. Why not do a Waylon Jennings cover? And honestly, I hear more rock and roll in it, but many people are like, wow, you made that into a ska song. So, it’s crazy how it is, but we soak in a bunch of different things. Definitely.
DS: Now, I’m curious. What Waylon Jennings song do you cover?
GA: We released it as a single about a year ago. So, it’s out there as a single on the streaming platforms. We have a new single that just came out 2023 October called “The Calling Of The Gun.” That’s really heavy, heavy reggae…heavy subject matter…heavy song. That’s our newest release.
DS: In addition to this latest single, when should we expect new music from you?
CG: That’s a hard one. We’re currently writing and just working on stuff, especially with it being wintertime. During that downtime, we’re going to try to pump out the new tracks and see where we go. I mean, there’s really no deadline on anything right now.
GA: Yeah, we just released just that song as a single and we don’t have anything else planned at the moment, but it’ll probably be late spring, early summer.
DS: Are you working with a record label? If so, who?
GA: No, our own label, Last Reel Records records. But we’re open to the right offer, that’s for sure.
DS: So, you guys have been performing locally and touring regionally for several years now. Where have you been performing lately? What is the biggest show you’ve played and what is the best show you’ve played? I’m sorry. And tell me about the most memorable show you’ve played.
CG: I already have a few in mind. I guess to start off with the first answer, we commonly play in New Mexico a lot. So, we do play locally here in Pueblo, but ever so often, every couple of months, which is good because it maintains our momentum. People would probably get tired of us just playing every weekend or whatever, but we go to New Mexico a lot and they’re very welcoming to us there. It seems like every time we go back, there’s a bigger following. So, a lot of the stuff we do is a little south from where we’re at currently. As far as bigger shows go, I want to say the reggae festival we played.
GA: Oh yeah. We played the The Sunshine Reggae Roots Festival in Topeka, Kansas about…the year before, a year and a half ago during the summer. That was really awesome.
CG: That was cool. That was a big.
GA: So, we played a big free outdoor show…
CG: That was my number two.
GA: …opening for The Slackers in Denver. It was pretty much the first show that Denver had post-COVID and it was free and outdoor. So, that was a really big show.
CG: That was a huge show and that was one of my best memories just for the fact that Vic Ruggiero from the Slackers comes up to me as I was minding my business backstage and he is just like, “Hey, what’s the name of that song?” And I was like, “Looting and Shooting,” which is one of our singles. He’s like, “Well, I liked it so much that I recorded it on my phone.” That blew my mind. It was just surreal. My thing is that I love bands and love music. Vic, The Slackers… third-wave ska, that was one of the first third-wave ska bands that I started listening to when I was really young. Being a skateboarding kid at like 12 or 13 or whatever, you’d buy compilation CDs, likeGive ’em The Boot or whatever, and I heard The Slackers. So, for me, that was an awesome show. I didn’t expect that side of it. It was already a great big show. And then that was just the icing on top for me. So, that’s the one I will always remember.
GA: Yeah, it was definitely a memorable show. It’s one of our best ones ever. We also got to play with the Skatalites in Denver. That’s one of my favorite shows ever that we’ve played. One of the coolest moments that we had as a band is when we played with The Toasters in Colorado Springs and their trombone player got sick. So, our trombonist, Dan, filled in for him and played the entire show on trombone for The Toasters that night and just killed it. It was awesome. If you went to that show, you would’ve never known – unless you saw that he was the keyboard player and singer in the opening band – that he was not their regular trombone player.
CG: Yeah, that was a great moment. Dan’s a very talented guy, too. He’s a music teacher at a local school. One time, The Dead End did a recording session and I was just like, “Dan, I brought this keyboard down. Will you just come?” And he just busted out all this stuff on these songs that he had just heard that day. It was just mind-blowing. Kudos to Dan. Kudos to all our members because I think we all collectively bring our own element to the band and that’s what makes our band what it is.
DS: So, you said New Mexico is where you travel often for shows?
GA: Yeah, so far mostly it’s been throughout the Southwest, mostly Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, California…Vegas. Kansas, Nebraska, around here. But we have planned…we’re going to the East Coast and back in June. That’s our next tour plan. So, we’ll be all through the Midwest and up and down the East Coast.
DS: So what is the music scene like in Pueblo?
CG: It comes in waves, to be honest. I mean there’s never not a music scene. There’s always kids in bands.
GA: There’s several good bands.
CG: Yeah, there’s old timers like you (Geoff). I’m not trying to call you old or nothing, but I mean you’ve been on the front lines doing it since the 80s and 90s. Paving the way for snot-nosed kids like me to be doing what I’ve been doing. I’ve already been doing it for almost 20 years now. So, the scene never dies, but it does come in waves and at its peak it’s obviously the best. But even when it’s struggling, I mean there’s still bands out there doing it, inspiring other kids to do it. It’s a great thing. I can’t think of a time where there weren’t shows going on, but there has been times where we’ve had great killer venues with touring bands and other times where we have DIY venues like the CR23 Bombshelter here in Pueblo. It’s the only all-ages venue at this point that we have, which is great because the youth wants something to do and it’s a place for them to go, it’s well regulated and shows end at a decent time. It gives the kids a place to play and gives us a place to play to inspire those kids. It’s all energy, it’s all this just energy just being pushed off from one another. It’s amazing. I really enjoy our music scene and we have a lot of great musicians here and I hope to put us back on the map again, if anything.
DS: Very cool. So, you mentioned a few things earlier about what you’re working on. What else are you up to? Have you achieved what you sought out to achieve as a band?
GA: Well, what we’re working on now is just booking a tour to go to the East Coast and back, trying to get as many good shows as possible there. And we are not working on any new material at the moment, actually, but we will be before long. We kind of take a break a little bit in the fall band-wise and then get back on it when winter comes. But our biggest focus right now is just booking our tour and we have a few shows coming up about once a month or so in Colorado for the next several months. That’s kind of it.
CG: I think for the most part we’ve set out to do what we wanted to do and we’ve pretty much accomplished it. I just want to get bigger and better.
GA: We’re just trying to keep expanding. We are where we set out to be musically. Definitely. As far as I guess being known or just playing as many shows as possible and whatnot, we’re still working on that.
DS: What advice do you have for musicians who want to start a band?
CG: Just do it. You can’t be discouraged. There is, being in a band, there is no guideline to this whatsoever. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I use templates from bigger bands. I see stuff they do and I try to apply that towards our bands and whatever. You can’t give up. You have to fine-tune your craft. There are a billion guitar players out there. You can’t be the best guitar player. But if you could fine-tune your craft and find who you are as an artist and then find a way to network, get out there, and get a response from people. So, to be in a band, you have to be open-minded to not only other music but just being on the fly with a lot of things. It’s just maintaining the momentum, being true to yourself, and never let anything discourage you from doing what your passion is.
DS: What is next for Last Reel Hero? What goals do you have for 2024?
CG: I think really it’s like we’re going to go on tour. We need to showcase what we have to the East Coast right now because we don’t have that following there quite yet. Thank the good Lord for Spotify and all that good stuff because we do have people who are aware of what we do. We probably wouldn’t be getting shows if it wasn’t for the internet. We want to take over the East Coast because we already got the West Coast and then we’re going to try to go overseas. Then put out new music along the way,music is the number one thing and that’s the whole reason we do this.
GA: We have a couple Colorado shows that will be playing in the beginning of the year, and then we will end up releasing a single, a new song…a single…digitally, probably in May. We go on tour through the Midwest and the East Coast in June. Our last album, which is our second album, only came out on digital platforms that’ll be released on vinyl coming out in June. Well, it was only on digital platforms and CD. It’ll be released on vinyl in June. It’s called Back To The Sun. We will have some other stuff coming out on vinyl as well in the summer of 2024. And then our next focus is working on the album after that. And keep touring as many places as possible.
CG: Music videos.
GA: And yeah, we want to just keep touring more places.
DS: So what bands are you guys listening to this week?
GA: This week? What am I listening to? I was not listening to Steely Dan. I was listening to Cock Sparrer earlier, I guess, and I was listening to, geez, I was listening to Operation Ivy earlier because I was trying to learn one of their songs that I wanted to play.
CG: I collect records, so I was listening to Frankie Valli. I was listening to Frankie Valli at home and then Revolting Cocks on the way here. Yeah.
DS: Very cool. So, do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share with Dying Scene?
GA: Thank you very much for doing this. Exposing the great town of Pueblo, Colorado to the world is wonderful. There’s always been a small but vibrant music scene here that’s been large at times, but comes and goes and definitely look out for us…Last Reel Hero. We are going to keep on growing.
CG: Yeah. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. It’s great that we could get together and do this. And thank you for taking the time. It just means a lot to me. And Dying Scene, doing what they’re doing…we were featured in Dying Scene in 2018, maybe, which was super cool. So, it’s definitely an honor and a privilege to catch up again.
Taking Back Sunday has been ruling over our hearts for decades now, let’s be real. Their dropping this album out of nowhere has taken a lot of us by surprise and has us all gassed up for a tour (at least I am). These guys have been making bops since “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut From […]
Taking Back Sunday has been ruling over our hearts for decades now, let’s be real. Their dropping this album out of nowhere has taken a lot of us by surprise and has us all gassed up for a tour (at least I am). These guys have been making bops since “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut From the Team)” winning our hearts in 2002, and they’ve stayed there ever since. They’re a staple in our pop-punk world and the fact they’re still cranking out bangers 22 years later has me so excited for our music industry’s journey from here on out. 152 has been such a blast to listen to and have the honor to review.
Alright, so jumping into the first track of 152, “Amphetamine Smiles.” It’s a beautifully written song that takes us back to their roots to originally win our hearts. The lyrics tell a story of someone telling one they love to stop their addiction and/or the road they’re going down, while also going down the same road to do nothing for themselves. “You better save yourself before you try // And save somebody else” is a clear indication of my interpretation, but the song could still have other meanings. Song interpretation, I feel, is always in the power of the listener.
The second track had me nearly in tears. “S’old” was seen as an homage to growing up and trying to stay the same spry and chipper kid you once were (if you were that kid). The instrumentals remind me of the very classic-sounding Taking Back Sunday that we all know and love. It reflects the upbeat and almost reassuring sound of the instrumentals as he’s begging us through the lyrics to realize we’re all going to get old, but it’s okay. It’s coming to terms with the fact that we are all going to grow up whether we like it or not and we really should just make the best of it and live as if we are young again. Life’s too short to just let it go by.
“The One” coming up as number 3 on the album is a sweet love story with a cliffhanger, at least from my interpretation. It has a somber and maybe a forelonging feeling almost to the instrumental. Talking of letting someone into their mess and not caring because they believed they were “The One”. Telling them to take the time they needed to take, with no specification. “Still the words that I can’t say go on and on and on and on” speaking of a possible difference that wasn’t resolved in the remaining track’s lyrics. It’s quite beautiful and I enjoy the multiple interpretations this track can give with its vague story, while still loving and enjoying the instrumentals.
“Keep Going” has been my anthem since listening to this album. It’s an extremely uplifting song with an upbeat and fun instrumental that makes you feel like you can get ANYTHING done that you set your mind to. It’s about growing by yourself and some of those who are closest around you not growing with you, therefore the differences become so different, there’s a fallout and the misunderstanding is so great, they’ve got to just “Keep Going” and move on. “The problem isn’t that I’ve changed // The problem is that you’ve stayed the same.”
“I Am the Only One Who Knows You” is a beautiful break for the instrumentals. We love Taking Back Sunday’s classic pop-punk sound, but who doesn’t love a slow-tempo song? As somber as the topic seems to be, I find this to be the most comforting song on the album. As a mom of 3, my youngest being 5 months old, losing yourself (let alone admitting it) is never an easy journey. Despite the religious undertone in the lyrics, I feel if you can hear that and simply think of a person or whatever higher power(s) you’ve chosen to believe in, makes this song relatable to almost any and everyone whose ears it’ll touch. Probably in my top 3 favorites on here. Also a perfect midpoint for the album (when listening from cover to cover, that is).
“Quit Trying” brings up the 6th spot on this 10-song release and honestly, I love the journey this album is bringing us on. Here it’s rock bottom. Its instrumentals, again, sound slightly somber, then it just explodes and has a sound of reassurance and comfort. I’m not sure how that works, myself, although I get this sense of reassurance of not feeling alone in sharing the feelings of the song. It’s comforting to know more people feel this way. I’m sure everyone has reached a breaking point of just not wanting to try anymore, and this song is the ANTHEM for those in that spot, I feel it could even have a good chance of unintentionally pulling some of us from the dark if they listen to this album cover to cover and go on the journey.
The next track very much has a different tone. “Lightbringer” has a more modern sounding intro and an echoey vocal start out, before it shoots into an upbeat instrumental. The song itself seems to me to be about asking if they’re forcing something that isn’t. Whether it be forcing a relationship to happen or trying to force it NOT to happen. Either way, it seems the song is supposed to have an upbeat and reassuring tone, which I am finding to love as a theme on this album.
“New Music Friday” is a super catchy song about being honest. I love that this puts a lot of people on blast. It isn’t easy asking for help. A lot of times people want to retreat into themselves and just bottle everything up. But this song is very much a callout to those who can’t ask for help to just TRY. “Do you need somebody else? // Can you live inside yourself? // Do you need somebody else? // I can’t be, I can’t be somebody else.” These few lines tell me that you can’t go it alone. You can’t live inside yourself and expect to get by without difficulty, so having help from others is okay!
This next track is, in my opinion, an anthem for when someone escapes a toxic situation. I’ve grown to love this song and bop to it often. It’s got a very upbeat instrumental and freeing lyrics that anyone would want to scream at the tops of their lungs. “Juice2 Me” has so many good lyrics, that I have a hard time choosing which to highlight, but I think my favorite lines have to be where he emphasizes the importance of understanding it’s okay to love someone enough to know they aren’t the right one for you and to let them go. “I love you, but I’d rather live without you.” It’s difficult to come to that decision and crossroads, and this is the perfect anthem for those going through that to blast from their speakers!
Last, but not least, “The Stranger.” This song is the calmest of all the tracks on the intro front. It then picks up into a catchy and bouncy instrumental with just as catchy of a melody to flow with it. The drums stick out for me in this song and I genuinely am a sucker for a good drum beat. It gives the song quite a bit of dimension and then when you get towards the end of the track, there’s a cool, ear-catching part that has me listening to it more often than most of the others!
Taking Back Sunday has been cherished by us for years, and this album just proves why we continue to love and admire them as artists throughout all these years! HUGE thanks to them for dropping this album for us to use to get through our crap, again as they’ve been doing for over 2 decades now.
Savannah, Georgia’s Manarovs are once again gracing the pages of DyingScene.com with another brand new track from their upcoming album Callsign: Proton. “Mr. Snow Leopard” is the latest single from the band’s sophomore LP, arriving soon via Mom’s Basement Records (LP/CD) and Memorable But Not Honorable Records (Cassette). We’re partnering with our friends at Punk Rock Radar to bring you […]
Savannah, Georgia’s Manarovs are once again gracing the pages of DyingScene.com with another brand new track from their upcoming album Callsign: Proton.
Like most big cities around the country but certainly in the Northeast Corridor, Boston’s slow creep of gentrification turned to more of a rapid descent in the years that preceded the Covid pandemic, and so the live music shutdown that resulted proved too much for most of the small and medium-sized rooms where local bands […]
Like most big cities around the country but certainly in the Northeast Corridor, Boston’s slow creep of gentrification turned to more of a rapid descent in the years that preceded the Covid pandemic, and so the live music shutdown that resulted proved too much for most of the small and medium-sized rooms where local bands could hone their crafts and workmanlike touring bands could build respectable followings miles from their respective homes. Sure, we have a fancy new 3500 cap venue built in a fancy new neighborhood, and an even fancier new 5000 cap venue shoehorned into an oddly-shaped lot behind Fenway Park and those are fine I guess for what they are. But gone are the overwhelming majority of 900 to 400 cap venues that were the life’s blood of a once vibrant music scene. (At least Great Scott turned into a Taco Bell Cantina, which is less bad than the original plan to turn it into a bank.)
But all is not lost, music fans! The ever-shaping live music landscape has not dried up, but instead shifted from a central Hub to the up-and-coming suburban areas, particularly north of the city. We covered a bunch of shows at the wonderful historic-bank-turned-shiny-new-brewery that is Faces in Malden last year and wound down our 2023 show-going calendar with Samiam at the also wonderful Italian-restaurant-turned-sandwich-place-record-shop-250-cap-venue that is Deep Cuts in Malden. Last Saturday took us further away from the city to the once-thriving mill town that is Lowell. It’s often been said that there’s a lot to like about Lowell and as someone who has lived within 20 miles of it for the entirety of my forty-plus years on this planet, I can say that that has only sometimes been true. The addition of Taffeta and the adjoining Western Avenue Studios artist community certainly move the needle in the right direction.
First out of the gate on this night of mostly locals in the 400-ish cap black box of a venue (it’s tough to gauge true capacity given the floor plan, which contains a seating area that is out of sight of the stage) last Saturday night was Coffin Salesman, the brainchild project of local songwriter Aria Rad. We’ve seen Coffin Salesman in a variety of shapes and sizes over the years, but the “full band” five-piece (guitars, drums, bass and clarinet) might be the sweet spot. The band tore through a blistering, cathartic half-hour set that seemed as much gothic revival as it was folk-punk show at times.
Next up was local rock-and-roll favorites Michael Kane and the Morning Afters. When I say “rock-and-roll,” I mean that in the Tom Petty/Bruce Springsteen/Replacements senses of the word. Their no-frills (well, maybe the Western shirts and bolo ties were a tad frilly) mentality and collective years of being in and around the local punk rock scene mean that Kane and his four horsemen (Franklin Siplas on guitar, Timmy Weagle on bass, Jeff Hoey on drums and Joe Ferraro on keys) can fit in nicely in a variety of lineups. The fun setlist on this night leaned heavy on songs from the band’s most recent album, Broke But Not Broken, with a few fun covers (“Bring It On Home To Me” and “American Girl”) thrown in for good measure.
Batting third in the lineup were Haverhill, Massachusetts’ The Radiator Rattlers. It’s been a while since we’d really heard from the eight-piece cow-punkabilly band from further down the banks of the Merrimack River, but the slightly retooled lineup (keen observers will note the new washboard player) sounded better than ever. Granted I think the last time I saw the Rattlers was on a sidewalk in December for my old hometown of Nashua, New Hampshire’s Holiday Stroll, so while that was a fun occasion, it didn’t exactly lend itself to the modern, amplified acoustics of a warm indoor concert venue. The Rattlers have always been super fun, and it’s good to have them back in the fold. I’m pretty sure Jonee Earthquake (the pirate on pedal steel) is immortal.
Bringing us home on this evening was Lowell’s own Old Rochelle. The quartet features frontman/guitar player Dave Coscia backed by Jared Holaday on bass, Jon McCumber on drums and Tony Cavalieri on accordion and if you’re keeping score at home, yes, that’s our fourth unique band lineup (and like our tenth different instrument) represented on the evening. There’s a quote on their website about being referred to as “Zydeco-washed Americana” and I’d say that’s pretty accurate, which made for a pretty entertaining set particularly when you through a cajun-seasoned cover of the Rancid classic “Olympia, WA” in the mix.
Check out more shots from each band below, and if you’re ever in the Merrimack Valley area, make sure to check out Taffeta in Lowell’s Western Ave district!
Dying Scene caught up with psychobilly band The Dead End in their hometown of Pueblo, Colorado. The Dead End showed us some of the cool places to visit in town, including Solar Roast Coffee, Analogue, posed for photos, and sat down for an interview at the CR23 Bombshelter. This interview has been edited for length […]
Dying Scene caught up with psychobilly band The Dead End in their hometown of Pueblo, Colorado. The Dead End showed us some of the cool places to visit in town, including Solar Roast Coffee, Analogue, posed for photos, and sat down for an interview at the CR23 Bombshelter.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Dying Scene: Tell me about yourselves. Who’s in the band?
Carlos Gomez: My name is Carlos. I play guitar and vocals.
Pickle: I’m Pickle. I play drums.
Lucien Barela: My name’s LJ. I play upright bass, a little guitar, and backing vocals.
DS: Where are you guys from? When did you guys form? And how did you come up with your band name?
CG: Alright, that’s a lot. Let me simplify this. I’m just joking. Really. The Dead End, this band right here, has been together since 2017. We were previously, or I was previously, Dead End Stompers. Pickle, temporarily, was a Dead End Stomper as well. That band was established in 2012. With the departure of the bass player, I dropped the Stompers part of the name and continued as the Dead End. I asked LJ to play, he said, “Yeah,” and pretty much as soon as he hopped in, me and Pickle just finished recording our first EP. And things just started rolling from there pretty much. So, really we are a Pueblo-based band. Granted. Pickle is from Texas. I think Pickle lived here for a good six months before we started playing music together.
DS: So, I understand you guys have connections with other local bands. Tell me about the familial and personal connections between the Dead End, Diskount Vodka, and Last Reel Hero.
CG: So, I also play in Last Reel Hero. That’s my second band. I play guitar and do main vocals in that band as well. My little brother, Cauthli, is the bass player in Diskount Vodka and he also shares the same drummer as us in the Dead End, Pickle, who’s in Diskount Vodka with his wife Ellie. We’re just one big punk rock family.
LJ: I don’t have any other band other than the Dead End but Carlos and I are cousins. So, we grew up together and started jamming. I was originally a guitar player. I had to learn how to play upright bass when Carlos had asked me to join the band. So, it was a different kind of animal. But when we were young, 13 or 14 being in the basement, just kind of jamming around, playing guitar, you know, we had a band way back in the day. It was almost like a hardcore type of metal or nu-metal. Yeah, it was nu-metal band called Rapture at Dawn in the early 2000s, something like that. It was a long time ago.
CG: We were around in early 2000s. Me and LJ probably started jamming together when we were like 13 or 14, but that band probably started when we were a little bit older like 16 or 17. That’s how we got into the music scene, playing around, getting to meet other people. I met Jeff from Last Reel Hero playing with his band, the Fanatics, when we were Rapture at Dawn. And I never knew 15 years or 20 years later that I’d be in a band with him being Last Reel Hero. So, being in the music scene, I mean, it all comes full circle, really….a lot of friends are in bands with other friends and it’s kind of cool how everyone’s interchangeable. Yeah, it’s a good local scene and I am sure there’s way more other bands and connections and things that we can really deep dive into, but really that’s the meat and potatoes of it.
DS: Wow, that’s pretty cool. It is definitely a small world.
P: Even more crazy is the fact that me and Raymond Burton Estes (…And We All Die) played in The Coffin Boys together and we played a show with Fanatics in Dallas when I was 17 or 18 years old. And now, here I am in the city where Fanatics was born. Their bass player used to be a guy named Randy, he’s passed away now, but he was a Fanatic…and it was crazy reuniting with the Jim, Randy, and the band tons of years later.
CG: One time Pickle had some health issues and he was in the hospital and my little brother who plays bass in Diskount Vodka actually played with me and LJ. We played the show probably about five years ago to the day…I just got the Facebook memories. We didn’t have a drummer, so we did it acoustic. It was just the upright bass, me on acoustic, and my brother played the washboard. Yeah, so it’s kind of weird how it all intertwines. My little brother plays in the band sometimes. When we play bigger shows, I’m like, just play the washboard, just come on stage and play the washboard.
LJ: It sounds really cool.
CG: But we’re all, like I said, a big punk family. It’s kind of interesting how it all is. We all share the same practice space and stuff. So, a lot goes on in that garage, which is weird. It’s the same garage we started off in 20 years ago playing music. And my dad is a musician. So, his band with my uncle, Steel City Band, also uses this garage. So, that little practice area has had a lot of music in it for a long time. It’s kind of crazy to see it branch out into the tree.
LJ: It’s almost generational.
CG: It’s awesome.
DS: Talking about connections with places and people, what is the music scene like in Pueblo?
LJ: I don’t know if it’s anything specific. The way I see it is that it almost created its own community. Especially, here at the CR23 Bomb Shelter. You get a lot of these younger kids, but they’re definitely like a lot of regulars over here with these younger kids. And it was a good place for them to have that outlet, I think because there wasn’t really, not lately anyway, there wasn’t really any other places for a lot of people to go, especially the younger kids in the younger bands that were kind of coming up. A while back, there was Phil’s Radiator and that was the place. But since Cody Rheuff has built this thing, I almost think of it is not necessarily as a scene down here, like it’s the punk scene in Pueblo or it’s the metal scene in Pueblo. It really is kind of just one big community. It seems like that now because you see a lot of these guys support each other, which is really cool, even if they’re not the same genre.
P: There’s a bunch of metal bands here, but we’re the only psychobilly band. Diskount Vodka is the only punk rock band. And then Last Reel Hero is the only ska band in Pueblo, I believe.
CG: There’s quite a few metal bands but I think the way we are with our genres, they are with theirs. One’s like, well, we’re doom and the other one’s like we’re metalcore or whatever. So, I think every band is very diverse and that’s what makes it special because you don’t come to these shows and see just the same band over and over again. This place diverse and it is a community. It’s a community where everyone comes together no matter what. They don’t know what’s in store. Once again, we’re a psychobilly band. So, I like our local scene here. There is no specific genre of scene like LJ said. And, I mean, we’re not that small of a town. I dunno how to say this, but we’re also not that big. So, it’s a weird scene that we have because everyone does support each other and it’s not all likewise music or the same shit.
DS: That’s a perfect segue to my next question. How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard of you? Rockabilly?
CG: That’s an awesome question because I have to answer this a billion times a day. No, honestly, to a person who has never heard the subgenre psychobilly or the genre rockabilly, I have to say it’s really stripped-down 1950s rock and roll, primarily blues-based or even hillbilly-based, hence the billy part. But when you get to psychobilly… The 50’s was almost a hundred years ago. Things evolve. Things change. And from my understanding, in the 80s you had neo-rockabilly bands, like The Stray Cats, who were coming out. Well, in England you had P. Paul Fenech from The Meteors who liked the Stray Cats. Yeah, that’s cool. But to him it was hokey. It wasn’t as rebellious as the 50s could be. And he’s like, okay, let’s put some balls behind this rock and roll music. It’s like, I like the upright bass, I like the guitar picking but there could be a little more oomph, a little more angst behind it. And so when I describe our music, I say it’s almost like 50s rock and roll, but with a punk rock twist. Definitely there’s a lot of punk rock attitude in our music. A lot of punk rock influence. I mean, a lot of the first bands that I’ve heard that were punk rock bands actually reminded me of 50s rock and roll bands, like the Misfits and the Ramones. So, it all goes hand in hand and it’s kind of silly. I kind of manipulated that answer depending on who I’m talking to. If I’m talking to an older person, I’m going to really reference the rockabilly part but if I’m talking to a younger person, I’m really going to be like, it’s really punk rock or whatever. But that’s what I like about our style of music. It can up appeal to a wide audience. I can listen to my music with my grandma and not feel ashamed of it because it reminds her of her time and it has those elements and it’s very Americana. I can also show it to my little nephew who’s into punk rock and he loves it just as much because he can still jump around to it and it gives him that good feeling. So, I try to keep it as a loose term, but I throw out some names to try to get people narrowed into what we try to represent.
P: That sounded good to me.
LJ: Yep.
DS: Thank you. So, you mentioned the Misfits. Who are your biggest influences and inspirations?
CG: The Misfits. No, I’m just joking. No, geez, that’s once again…a little bit of everything. I had mentioned the Stray Cats. I was a kid. I was born in 1987. I kind of caught the tail end of some of that neo-rockabilly stuff that was in the mainstream at that time. La Bamba was a big movie and that had a big influence on my life. Who would’ve thought? But, with that being said, that movie particularly got me into The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly are my all-time favorite rockabilly rock and roll musicians. Fuck dude, Chuck Berry, Willie Dixon. As far as upright bass players go, Willie Dixon really put the standup bass and slap on the map. Part of Chess Records who wrote stuff for Etta James and Chuck Berry and everyone under that catalog…Muddy Waters, Little Walter. So, not only do I like Willie Dixon, who wrote all this stuff, I love all the artists that are underneath that umbrella…50’s doo-wop, but then you get into the 60s and 70s. We do a Tommy James and The Shondells covers because I love 60s power pop. I love The Doors. Then you can move on to the 70s. Shit. You start getting into, I don’t know, you do have the Misfits…you do have Talking Heads. I mean it just goes on and on and on. I can’t say there’s one thing that inspires me because I will go up there and no matter what I play, I’m pulling from all my favorite artists. It’s not just 50s guys or punk rock guys. It is from Ziggy Stardust, it’s from Puff Daddy. It is just whatever moves me will definitely impact who I am as a performer and what influences me. And I don’t segregate anything. I mean if it moves me, then there’s power behind it and I’m going to definitely learn from it. I think you learn the best from your influences.
P: Well, I’m a punk rock drummer at best. I like all these old-school punk rock bands but the psychobilly bands have influenced me here recently in my life. The PeaBrains really fucking good. The Brains have been really good. Rene from The Brains has been real cool to us when we were on Batcave Records there for a little while. Let’s see. Who else? The Meteors are pretty good, too.
P: As far as punk rock goes, all that stuff. Yeah.
LJ: I came into it a little bit different. I really didn’t know a whole lot about the genre until I started talking with these guys. I never was necessarily like a punk guy. I didn’t really know much about the rockabilly/psychobilly scene until “Los” showed me some stuff, which it kind of opened my eyes to it. So, as far as that scene goes, the Brains, like Pickle said, I really, really, really got connected to those guys. Mad Sin is good. I like The Quakes now who I’d never heard of before and these guys are really fucking good. But as far as me just getting into music, I was a metal to metalcore stuff guy growing up and I still like it now. So, playing guitar when I was younger, it was kind of like the usual stuff, the old Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Pantera, Black Sabbath, stuff like that. And then as I got into my high school years, it was stuff like All That Remains, Bullet for My Valentine – I’m wearing their shirt now – As I Lay Dying, shit like that. And that’s what kind of got me into it and something that I still kind of gravitate to a little bit. I mean, like I said, I got opened up to this type of music and it kind of broadened my horizons a little bit and very cool stuff and very interesting stuff and I love the hell out of it. But as far as getting into it goes, those were kind of like my roots. That’s where I came from.
DS: That’s pretty cool. So, are you guys working with a record label? If so, who?
CG: At this point we are completely independent. We previously worked with record label but it was best for us to maintain being independent. I mean we put in all the footwork already, so might as well get the prize if you’re going to do that much work. The previous experience we had with the record label was genuinely good but I just figure at this point, If we’re working this hard, why not just receive the full benefits of it. I mean we live in a society where it’s all digital. If there was a major record label, if the right offer is there, and if we are totally into it, yes. At this point it seems like indie artists have more control over things and that’s how it really should be.
LJ: I agree.
DS: So, tell me about your current releases. When should we expect to hear some new music from you guys?
LJ: It’s actually in the process right now, would you say?
CG: We’re definitely in the process of recording some stuff. Honestly, by the first of the year we should not only be seeing three new singles but potentially a music video. So, that’s kind of the goal. Now we did some recording about a year ago at this point. That’s why everyone laughs about it. But we’ve been so busy, I mean especially with me and Pickle between our other two bands playing shows just constantly. We haven’t had time to go finish what we needed to do. So, this time right now is to not only go in there and plug in what we need to plug in, but just fine-tune everything and make it the best product that we can. So, when it comes out, people really do enjoy it. There’s plenty more songs out there that we are ready to record and we’re starting to work on. We play ’em live and people want to hear ’em and can’t. So we got to get ’em out to the people. And hopefully with all the work that we’re putting into these recordings, it’s going to help us do bigger shows. We just finished out a couple tours in the last six months with a bigger psychobilly band from Los Angeles called Three Bad Jacks. It’s fun and cool going on tour with your idol, but I’d rather it be our band headlining. So, that’s the goal. As far as releases go, this whole next year, you could expect at least if not a dozen songs, more.
DS: You’ve been performing locally and touring regionally for several years now. Where have you been performing lately? What is the biggest show you’ve performed or played at? What is the best show you’ve played? Tell me about the most memorable show you’ve played.
LJ: Oh wow. There’s been a lot of New Mexico lately, which is fun. I mean, I like it down there. There’s a bunch of cool bands down there that we played with.
LJ: As far as memorable ones go, it kind of sucks because we haven’t been back there since, but it’s called the Hot Rod Rock & Rumble here in Colorado. And it’s just a kind of a huge three-day car show event. They have swapping stuff over there. They have a ton of bands. It’s like three or four different stages at this thing and it’s a fun, fun event. They have a drag strip down there and we got to, it was like an opening ceremonies for the entire festival thing.
P: Thousands of people.
LJ: It was really cool. So we went up there and the stage was outside right below the drag strips. As soon as we start playing, the cars start going.
CG: We played like three hours.
LJ: Yeah, there’s a shit ton of people on the side and in the sun. Another band that we were playing with caught some footage of it. It was a Thirsty Crows. Unfortunately, they’re no longer together. They’re all really cool guys. One of ’em got some video recording of us playing and I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment.
CG: That’s probably the biggest show that we ever played, just for the fact that it was this car show with hundreds of people, if not over a thousand people. We played our three-hour set was being played over the monitor system for the whole car show. So, it was a little nerve-wracking. I usually don’t get nervous but it dawned on me that people way over there could hear us. I was like, hey…
LJ: It was insane.
P: Yeah.
DS: That sounds very cool. So, what are you guys currently working on? What are you up to?
LJ: It’s just these new songs, like Carlos said. We have about, I think it was like 12 to 15 new ones that were lined up at one point and three of them pretty much wrapped up now. The first of the year is pretty much the target to get these things going out. We have a little bit of downtime and we’ve kind of came off the hill with the shows. and all this other stuff that we had going on and it was really like the music video stuff now, photo shoot stuff. Trying to get our new stuff out. We have the new stuff, it’s time to get it out there now and that was the biggest thing at this point. The content. It is cool to put up the show flyers on the page, but it would be cool to have another video out and all that stuff.
DS: That leads me to my next question. Have you achieved what you sought out to do as a band?
P: We’ve hit certain points. Yeah, we just need to keep going.
CG: Hell no, I want Everest and we’re down here. No, just joking.
LJ: I don’t know if I would ever really want to put a cap on something like that. You know what I mean? I think if something could be continuously just outside of reach, then I think that helps you kind of fight for it more. Makes you hungry. As far as achievements go, I think a lot has been achieved. I mean, I’ve been playing with some of the bands,I’m like, damn, these guys are good. Then to play a show with some of these bands that you’ve listened to and that they’ve shown me, I’m like…you almost got a little starstruck. You’re like, oh my God, playing with these guys now…
P: Direct support for ’em. It’s pretty wild.
LJ: It’s crazy.
CG: Yeah.
LJ: Yeah. So, I think that’s a good achievement.
CG: I have to say so. I had aspirations a long time ago for what I wanted to do on so many different levels and one of the first ones really was to get an EP out. We got the EP out, no problem. Then I was like, well let’s just do another three songs. Got those out. But like they said with the shows, it was climbing that ladder of playing with bands. At one point you’re calling promoters and venues trying to get on shows. Now our favorite bands are directly messaging us saying, “Hey, what are you doing for this amount of time?” It’s really rewarding because you’re like, wow, these people are actually listening to what we’re doing at this point. It’s like they know what we’re about, what we’re doing. And a couple of those people have even reached out continuously and it’s like, whoa, hold on here. This person that I listened to as an inspiration for this long, thinks I’m worth a shit. So, like LJ said it’s like it’s good to have things out of grasp because it keeps you hungry. But I feel like thus far we’ve achieved quite a bit and I hope if the momentum maintains this way, we can get to Everest.
DS: So what goals do you have for 2024?
P: Just put out new music and just keep playing more shows.
LJ: Getting some new stuff out I think is probably a big one for us. When we did Hellbound, it was so much fun. I had a blast recording and promoting it. It was exciting. I like the recording process, the creativeness of it. So, I would say just getting every piece of that new stuff that we can out there and definitely trying to get another video.
DS: Very cool. This is a fun question. What bands are you guys listening to this week?
LJ: I’ve been on a Bullet for My Valentine kick.
P: I just got it mixed up so it plays a little bit of everything. It might play a little bit of like what he was saying earlier, it might be a little bit of punk rock or some psychobilly or it could be some hip hop, it could be anything at this point. It could be a little bit of everything. Might be some Poison, too.
CG: Just today, I was listening to Frankie Valli and Revolting Cocks, but as of lately, a constant go-to that I’ve been going to is this band called The Paladins. Neo-rockabilly, late eighties, early nineties, actually very Stevie Ray Vaughan influenced. But I cannot get enough of blues guitar and just these hot licks. I just want to just become way more proficient in just being an awesome lead player. A lot of that kind of stuff lately, a lot of Stevie Ray Vaughn, too. I would say Jimi Hendrix is my guy, but lately Stevie’s been more on my record player.
DS: Do you guys have anything else for Dying Scene’s readers?
CG: If you are curious about us, check us out. We’re on Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, all those streaming platforms. And we hope to see you more in the future.
P: And we have lots of videos on YouTube…ones we’ve made our own and live footage. We have all kinds of stuff out. So, check it out.
LJ: And if anybody’s ever in this town to check out a show, definitely come by here CR23 Bombshelter, too.
P: Yeah, this is a hot spot.
LJ: Yeah, it is. Cody’s done an amazing job with it. Even letting us come and hang out and take pictures and do this interview. It’s been awesome. Thanks Cody.
Three years of hush-hush. Alkaline Trio‘s new album is like a warm hug, even though, post-album shenanigans, we wave goodbye to Derek Grant, the drumming heartthrob, only to welcome Atom Willard, our newest beat magician. But hold your tears; let’s shelf the farewells for now. Sure, there’s a misty-eyed moment acknowledging the end of an […]
Three years of hush-hush. Alkaline Trio‘s new album is like a warm hug, even though, post-album shenanigans, we wave goodbye to Derek Grant, the drumming heartthrob, only to welcome Atom Willard, our newest beat magician. But hold your tears; let’s shelf the farewells for now. Sure, there’s a misty-eyed moment acknowledging the end of an era, but guess what? Amid those sentimental goodbyes, the sun rises for something new, and mouth-dropping begins. Alkaline Trio is back, baby! And the joy bubbling up in my soul? It’s off the happiness charts.
Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs starts with the turbo-charged “Hot For Preacher,” and is swiftly followed by “Meet Me,” delivering a double dose of infectious tracks with lyrics you won’t easily forget. “Hot For Preacher” cranks the tempo, while “Meet Me” keeps it cool with a mid-tempo vibe. But Skiba can’t fool us, “Meet Me” hits home as another one of Skiba’s enchanting love songs. It’s got haunting backing vocals and lyrics so fucking well-written that I can’t stop playing it on repeat.
Let’s throw some love at “Bad Time,” the track that’s practically a goosebump factory. Skiba’s vocal game has been on point throughout the entire album, but this song here? It’s as if I had never heard Skiba before; he came and went hard. And honey, it felt so good. Not that the album lacks solid vocal performances. There’s just that extra magic in this song. “Scars,” the bass and guitar creating a harmonic eighth wonder? That’s the sweet spot for me. Then comes “Shake With Me,” where Skiba unleashes his vocal prowess, reaching a pinnacle of downright awesomeness. And he steps back and lets Andriano take the pre-chorus towards the end, and together, they go all in, steering the song straight home. They had no business going this hard, but we’re here for it. And as the final curtain falls, “Teenage Heart“ takes the stage, tackling gun violence, drug addiction, loneliness, and a whole lot more. The album wraps up, leaving us with a lingering mix of intensity and emotion.
It’s a delight to welcome Alkaline Trio back into the scene and review their new album. They have always marched to their rhythm, ensuring they’re a one-of-a-kind musical trio. Whether it’s Skiba’s distinctive songwriting finesse or Andriano’s knack for making the bass pop, as it splendidly does on this album, they’ve got that special sauce. And hey, big kudos to Derek Grant, the drumming maestro who, after an impressive 22 years, decided to hit the pause button. The album is nothing short of remarkable, showcasing their undeniable growth.
Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs feels like the natural progression after six years in the making and might be their best album to date. They flexed their musical muscles, and I’m here for every bit of it.
