Songs to Blow Your Mind Pt. 4

Today's 'Song to Blow Your Mind' is more of an 'Artist to Blow Your Mind' but this is no time to split hairs. Today's artist Austin Lucas rose to my attention mostly through his being on the Revival Tour with such punk rockers turned troubadours as Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Ben Nichols (Lucero) and Tim Barry (Avail). This kid can do it all. He's got a great voice, he's a solid guitar player and he writes fantastic lyrics. The first song of his that really caught my attention was "There's Always Someone Tougher and Meaner" off of his album Putting The Hammer Down, but then I saw the video for "Go West" and I'd have to say it has won out to be the official Song to Blow Your Mind.



Austin Lucas - There's Always Someone Tougher and Meaner
Austin Lucas - Go West

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Austin Lucas

Attention Pizza Sellers of Worcester!!!!

Use of this product definitely sway me towards using a pizza place. Just sayin'.

File Under 'Rumors We Hope to God Come to Fruition'

PunkNews.org reports that Seattle music blog Ear Candy reports that there are rumblings about an original lineup reunion of Sunny Day Real Estate. The rumor is that they are rehearsing and planning on touring. This is of course simply a rumor but it's totally enough to warrant some Sunny Day songs.





Sunny Day Real Estate - Seven
Sunny Day Real Estate - In Circles

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Sunny Day Real Estate

Non-Hetero-Centric Post

A long time ago, I bought two records by the band Latterman. One of my favorite parts about the accompanying lyrical materials was a short note by the band apologizing for the fact that one of the songs was less than relevant for non-heterosexual listeners. That's my weak ass intro for today's post which will feature items of a homosexual theme. First off I'm a little late in declaring this, but I'm proud of my state being the first to legalize gay marriage via legislation, especially since we got to tell our governor Jim Douglas where he could stick his veto.

But for the most part I wrote this post because Newsweek did an article about Pansy Division who is apparently putting out a new album. Newsweek apparently saw a perfect opportunity to do a little gay rights, Prop 8 tie-in with this story while I see it mostly as an excuse to post an Pansy Division song.

Final note: I think it's hilarious when mainstream media talks about punk bands because they lose all authority. Punk is a scary foreign concept that they've certainly heard of, but they were pretty sure it died in the late 70's before being resurrected by such punk stalwarts as Green Day and Good Charlotte with the distaff being brought by Avril Lavigne and Gwen Stefani.

Pansy Division - Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other

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Pansy Division

HEAVY WEIGHTS

Suicidal Tendencies may be pound for pound the largest band ever, narrowly beating out Bowling for Soup.



I would encourage everybody to head over to youtube and watch the video for 1985 by Bowling for Soup if you didn't understand why I think they got second.

AK Press Blog is making me a better human being / Songs to Blow Your Mind 3

I don't remember how it happened but a while ago I happened upon the website for AK Press, a publisher and distributor specializing in radical and anarchist materials. While browsing their website I discovered that they have a blog called Revolution By The Book. For the most part I really like this blog because I gives me ideas for books I might like to read and every once in a while it has a pretty good interview worth reading. However, what inspired me to feature in a blog post was the recent article posted on the blog called Dancing with The Devil about the concept of an anarchist business and the problems that come with the contradiction of an anarchist business. Though a tad long, the article is well thought out and extremely articulate and I think the points made in it can be enlarged to deal with the problems of trying to compromise anarchist ideals with everyday living.

Now I want you to know that I thought about just posting a couple of Anarchy themed songs and calling it a day on that. I even had a few cued up and ready to go but instead I thought this would be a good chance to post a song I've been pretty taken with for a while and make this another installment of Songs to Blow Your Mind. So without further fanfare, Avail's Black and Red.

Avail - Black and Red

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Avail

A Classic

Today, I'm not going to say anything clever (which some might say doesn't change anything) we're all just going to sit back and enjoy a great live performance.



Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)

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Otis Redding

I HATE APRIL FOOLS DAY!!!!!!

I hate April fools day. For one thing, I don't really know how to punctuate it. Does 'fools' have an apostrophe? Does the day belong to the fool who is the official fool of the month of April, the fool laureate if you will? Or do I leave out the apostrophe making this the day named for the many fools of April, the fools being many but not necessarily in possession of the day itself.

Besides grammar/punctuation worries, I dislike the day because you can't trust anything that seems too good to be true. So many news sources you'd like to be able to trust 365 goddamn days out of the year think it's a laugh riot to print the first pack of lies that comes into their heads (Boston Dirt Dogs I'm looking at you, I was so happy for Bill Lee there for a second).

All this means that I have no way of knowing whether or not to believe reports that as the result of a lost bet, Rise Against will be releasing an original 7" with their old label Fat Wreck Chords. Honestly I'm mostly excited about this because it's nice to see the Tim and co. breaking away from the increasingly rigid role of major label roster membership. I'm not going to bore you with my thoughts on "selling out" (the fact that I put it in quotes should be enough to show you I'm at least conflicted) but suffice it to say this news made me happy. If only I could be sure it was true.