And so I’m Swimming…

Hi. My name is Jeremiah and I’m lazy. I’m going to get better at updating this.

I promise.

Who am I kidding? I probably won’t. Anyway…

So on the wreck cords front I got this.

I first bought this EP in the summer of 2004, shortly after I met Leah, I believe when she was spending 3 weeks falling in love with Dolores Park and San Francisco. This was really the last good MTB record IMO. The following full lengths, Menos el Oso and Planet of Ice, began to get more serious/experimental/electronic, and drifted away from the fun, partying inspired catchiness of This is What I Know About Being Gigantic and Highly Refined Pirates. If you get a chance check those out cause they will blow your mind with awesomeness. Anyway, the vinyl is a sweet rainbow (no homo) splatter. 1st pressing on 12″ and comes with a bonus track , Houston We Have Uh-Oh!, that was not included on the original CD. The song is alright, nothing super inspiring or mind blowing though. It fits very nicely with the rest of the record.

Let’s see, I’m pretty sure I mentioned that I pre-ordered the new H2O record, Nothing To Prove, like 9 years ago and b9 had apparently a million problems with the pressing plant, and as a result, it just shipped today. This is good news since I can stop accusing them of being the laziest label on the planet (when it comes to shipping) and also stop thinking of the 1000000 possible ways that I can probably improve the shipping process, because that’s my job. I know I did not mention before that I pre-ordered the new Alkaline Trio that also comes with a bonus 7″. I’m excited about that. The video for the first single is nothing revolutionary, but the song itself is pretty sweet.

Speaking of videos…(that was a sweet transition wasn’t it)…..

The H2O record release show was nuts!!! Sooooo much fun. Lot’s of stage dives, I acquired a new very small chip in one of my teeth and some sweet footie of me stage diving. You can check it here and here as well . I’m about 10 seconds into the ISHC video (the second link), the second guy to dive. I then show up in the fourth song of the H2O set. I’m doing a headstand for about 20 seconds on top of a bunch of people…definitely one of my finer moments.  If you don’t want to watch it, here are the screen shots. It looks way cooler in real time though. Toby’s son, Max, has lots of short little parts that you can hear, but not quite see. Lord Ezac was there…Dude has DMS tattooed on the back of his head. That’s some loyalty for real. The new H2O video for What Happened? is much better than the A3 video. You can check that here. Lou Koller’s part is killer.

What else has happened in the last month?….Well, Leah turned a quarter of a century and got a new bike, that actually just arrived yesterday. Our sweet friends Gabe and Kathleen cooked us dinner and we had 4 bottles of wine and a good time. Then we went wine tasting that weekend in Paso Robles, which was nuts. 15 people, 4 wineries, a party bus, and lots and lots of alcohol. Pretty awesome time. I remember more than Gabe (super tall guy in the back) which makes me feel a little better. Gibson (plaid shirt up front) discovered he has a gift for throwing pots. I wish I had some pics of the stuff he made, he must have sat at that wheel for like 2 hours.

Yesterday, Saturday the 14th, we had a pretty busy vacation type day. Leah got cancelled so we took the opportunity to go down to San Onofre and try to get her on a wave one last time. Which didn’t work out so well, but she came close and did very well for not surfing in almost a year. I’m going to try and talk her into going back next weekend and maybe bring Gabe and Kathleen with us. We then went to breakfast and headed back home for a hot second before going to experience “The Wedge”. The wedge is a ridiculous looking wave at the very end of Newport Harbor. The beach faces a ridculous South by South East angle (if that makes sense to any of you I’m amazed) and catches incoming South Swell very well. Well there’s a jetty that sticks about 200 yards out into the ocean and the swell bounces off the jetty and meets up with incoming waves, forming this bonkers looking thing that resembles a wedge. You can kind of see it in this picture. The white water on the left edge would be the wave coming back after bouncing off the jetty. Pretty famous body boarding and body surfing spot. Waves can get up to 40 feet when the swell is right. Many people have broken their necks/become paralyzed/died here. So Gabe, Kathleen’s brother, Hunt, and I went down for about two hours and tried to kill ourselves. Before you start thinking I’ve totally lost my mind, surf was only 4 foot to head high so no deaths occurred, but I did get severely worked. Gabe’s text to me this morning, “Me and Hunt both feel like we got in seven consecutive car accidents.”

So we only have 6 weeks left in Cali. It’s crazy. I’m feeling a little nervous now, but it will all go well I’m sure. Leah booked the moving containers we’re using this week. Those should arrive a couple days after we do. We’ve pretty much planned our driving trip. We’re going to take the southern route through Texas, stopping in El Paso the first day, Austin the second, then two days in New Orleans, then up to Nashville, and then to Richmond! That last one is going to be the hardest I think. Wouldn’t be surprised if we just got so excited to be back that we just blew it off and drove straight all the way from N.O.

I think that gets us caught up. I”ll be better from now on…..

Take a Swing at the World

Everyone at work is making me extremely angry right now, so I’m writing this while listening to ceremony and trying to escape for a little while. 

Playlist for today:

Except for today, life has been pretty good lately.  The NFG/ISHC show was INSANE! Sooooo much fun.  I swear NFG played for like two hours and they played soo many good songs.  The venue was sweet, there was no barrier, stage dives everywhere, MOSH MOSH MOSH.   The rest of the week was somewhat uneventful.  

Saturday:

I had an interview locked down for the afternoon, but the guy was on his way to vacation in Hawaii and was trying to squeeze me in a very short window of time that got closed when weather delayed his connecting flight in Phoenix.  We’re going to try and meet up after he gets back from vacation.  We’ll see what happens.  It was actually kind of fortunate because we ended up having some friends over for breakfast and mimosas on Saturday morning and I wasn’t in the mood to be responsible for business.   Finally made the trip to Will and Lina’s new house for dinner which was cool.  It’s in a somewhat fancy townhouse community and everything looks great.  I’m happy for them.

Sunday (funday):

Went to church and heard a pretty awesome sermon from Rankin Wilbourne, who is the pastor at Pacific Crossroads Church in LA, which is where our church is planted from.  He spoke about repudiating grace and how we much we resist letting God love us.   Pretty good theme for this week.  After church was Sunday Funday! No work on Monday = bike parade/pub crawl through Newport.  Very very very fun and very very very exhausting.

Monday:

Slept in (or at least tried to).  Went to a church picnic where we played a pretty intense game of softball that I wasn’t all that into in the first place, but whatever. Home to rest for the coming week.

I think that gets me pretty much caught up.  We only have 8 weeks until we leave here. Kind of crazy…I have a lot of surfing/hanging out to do.  I’m starting to realize that I may actually miss it a little. I won’t miss my job, that’s for sure, but I’m definitely going to miss church, our community group, surfing, the friends we’ve made, the beach, and not having any commitments at all.  Oh well, time to move on with our lives.
 

NOTHING TO PROVE

NFG(ENIUSES!!!!)

CHECK THE NEW VIDEO! CAN’T WAIT FOR THE SHOW TONIGHT!

 

First REAL show in a while

I have this theory that 99% of shows are played in front of audiences of 50 or less. I figure the 50 are made up this way:

20% – members of the bands playing and merch guys/girls

5% – friends of the bands

5% – people of no relation to the band that just like the music

5% – friends of the “people of no relation to the band that just like the music”

5% – %people who have no idea what’s going but are there anyway

10% – venue staff (security, bar tenders, etc)

check this sweet chart

I also believe that it is these shows that are the true representation of music, the “real” shows. People playing music and enjoying music just for the sake of music. No hype, no trends, and (most likely) no money. Every band that has ever “made it” had to play far more than their fair share of these and often these end up being the shows with the craziest antics/pranks/stupid stuff.

With that lengthy intro completed, Leah and I attended our first real show in a while on Thursday. Gravemaker, Ill Intent, Masterpiece, Truth Is…, and two other high school bands I don’t remember. We were part of the 5 people who were friends of the bands, as Leah’s friend Bailey (of Figure Four fame) plays bass for Gravemaker, who in fact were actually very good. If you like hardcore, check em out here. They’re way heavy and soon should be up there on tour with the likes of CBK, etc. Andrew from CBK is actually on their new record coming out on Think Fast! July 22nd. Get it. Ill Intent and Masterpiece were both from San Diego. Masterpiece was alright, Ill Intent was good. Both bands were not sober, and pretty funny and awesome. Good times were had by most.

Lows and Highs

Lows:

This is the new death cab song. Holy crap is it bad. When will musicians that I love stop deciding to be “experimental” and “different” and just write good music!!!! The same thing happened with Crime In Stereo and I have now vowed I will never watch them again.

I’m having trouble finding a job in Richmond. Help.

Highs:

Bamboozled was AWESOME.

H2O is the BEST BAND IN HARDCORE. Go here and try to tell me that their new record isn’t going to blow away Go. Not that that is a difficult feat, but I’m hyped. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that need to run around and be stupid through a band’s entire set. They opened with Everready as I knew they would and I was dead with in 30 seconds, but still pushed myself to keep going for the next 30 minutes straight. They played the two songs up on their space and I knew 1995 already from listening to it 100 times in a row after the first time I heard it, so it was still crazy. Jon Wiener was there. That was kind of weird, but cool at the same time. VIRGINIA world wide. MOSH MOSH MOSH MOSH MOSH

So right after H2O killed it, then Vinnie came on with Set Your Goals (terrible terrible terrible band) to play movielife songs. As we’re walking over so see him, Leah is telling me I need to slow down, and then they start playing I Hope You Die Soon. I’m not sure what happened, but I just started running. I don’t think I knocked anyone over, but it was 30 more minutes of going bonkers.

Then right after that, I got to see 7 seconds for the first time. They were good, but I wish I could have seen them in 82, 83, 84, 85. I bet it was insane. That transitions me perfectly into my next topic…

ummm…seriously. NEW FOUND GLORY PLAYING HARDCORE SONGS.

GENIUS

Not only is the music good, but the lyrics in general are awesome. Chad Gilbert is amazing. Any real hardcore kid can relate to every one of these songs. “Marty Mcfly come pick me up, I need a ride. I want to see what shows were like in 83!” I’ve only thought about this like 900 million times. It’s a sad fact that I wasn’t born until 82. They took down their other song, Captain Straight Edge. That was a good one too. Not as good as Madball Rules though. So hyped. I already ordered the 12″ along with the new NFG 7″ and the new H2O 7″. I seriously can’t wait for those records to come in. AND THEY’RE OPENING THE H2O RECORD RELEASE SHOW AT CHAIN. STAGE DIVES, HIGH FIVES, MOSH MOSH MOSH MOSH MOSH MOSH MOSH MOSH MOSH MOSH

MADBALL RULES
MADBALL RULES
MADBALL RULES

Matri(Cere)mony

last night was the first of three blacklisted record release shows. it was also the first show i’ve been to by myself in well over two years. kind of awkward. especially when ceremony covered california uber alles again and i couldn’t participate because i was holding newly purchased vinyl. over all it was an excellent show and i have three new records and a shirt to prove it.

so matrimony is a song on the new blacklisted record about how the singer (George) doesn’t understand why everyone wants to get married and how he can never picture himself making his life that much a part of someone else’s. basically he said that he’s too selfish to care about anyone much more than himself. at least he realizes it. i think now that i’m married, when people talk bad about marriage i get more offended than i used to. it’s something i believe in, that God has given to us as a gift and it should be treated as such. the new guy at work, has been with his girlfriend for 4 years and lives with her and is still acting like he’s not going to marry her anytime soon, and jokes about it all the time, and it kinda drives me nuts. i keep telling him he’s going to, and that he just needs to do it, but he just keeps putting it off. i just think it’s kinda stupid. just man up and do the right thing. grow up a little bit. not too much just a little bit. ugh, i shouldn’t say that. i never want to grow up. i’m a toys r us kid.

A little late

I’m going to do this from memory

Minus the Bear – Highly Refined Pirates
The Adolescents – Adolescents
Pearl Jam – Vitalogy
One Life Crew – American Justice

and once again I hate my job. I found out I have to help with another inventory of recently moved in Oliver Peoples….TOMORROW.

So on my way home in traffic I listened to Ceremony – Violence Violence for the second time this week. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh….Kersed makes me want to hurt everyone around me, usually there is no one so I’m OK, but the last time I saw them here with blacklisted I hit the kid in front of me like 10 times in the back of the head. It’s cool though, it’s a show. It happens.