Ain't Nothin' To Do

Nine Pound Hammer
"Radar Love" b/w "Ain't Nothin' To Do"
1995
Vinyl Rip

The greatest redneck punk band in history covering two songs that are awesome in their own right, Golden Earring's "Radar Love" and The Dead Boys' "Ain't Nothin' To Do". Forget all the cowboy-hat wearing, rebel-flag sporting, faux-country posewads; this is the real deal. It's a shame Nine Pound Hammer called it a day shortly after this, paving the way for the far inferior Nashville Pussy, and then the equally inferior reunited version of Nine Pound Hammer. So maybe it's not a shame they called it a day, but rather a shame they didn't stay down. Or maybe I'm just selfish.

At any rate, chug a beer, download this, crank it, play air guitar, and go smash something. Or, you know, be a pussy. The choice is yours.


"Radar Love" b/w "Ain't Nothin' To Do"

Science and Trucking

Textbook
A Garden to Tear Apart
unreleased

Shameless self promotion alert!

Textbook started back in 2003 or so, with an original lineup featuring three former members of Flux Capacitor (Jeremy Spake, Shane Secor, and Brian Crow) and some other dude on drums. Eventually that other dude was replaced by Gregory Case. Around this time, Brian was playing with me in a band called Atlantic (with another former member of Flux Capacitor, incidentally). He jumped ship to focus on Textbook exclusively, and eventually Atlantic folded. Fast-forward a year or so and Shane and Textbook decided to part ways amicably, and lo and behold, I get called up as his replacement.

I was in Textbook for roughly 1 year before we went on hiatus due to a great career opportunity for Jeremy. That 8-month hiatus turned into a year-long hiatus, then a year-and-a-half, and long story short, we never reformed. So here is our never-released full-length debut. Being in the band for only a short time, I'm in a bit of a unique position. I play on 2 of these 9 songs; the rest were recorded with Shane before I joined. So I'm really coming to you as a fan of this record, not just a dude promoting his own shit. If you like heavy post-punk, somewhere between Jawbox and Deadguy, then I think you'll dig this record. I do, anyway.

Oh, and btw, Shane Secor is in a pretty good newer style punk band called 40 Hells, which initially featured both Brian Crow and Gregory Case in its ranks. And yes, I'm aware of the humor in my band going on hiatus and two of the guys making a new band with an old-member and not me. It's really funny. Ha ha.

A Garden to Tear Apart

Kill The King

Masters of Reality
Masters of Reality
1988

Chris Goss is the unsung hero of the desert rock scene that gave us Kyuss and its many offspring. Goss produced the three Kyuss records that matter, and his influence is strong even on current Queens of the Stone Age stuff. That whole oddball, bluesy rock thing w/ the smooth vocals over top that QOTSA does is lifted from Goss's playbook. You already know all of this, I'm sure, so I'll get to the point.

Masters of Reality is Goss's band. They've had a revolving door of a lineup over the years (that's included all the usual suspects [Homme, Oliveri, Lanegan, Catching] as well as Ginger Fucking Baker) and have released 6 or 8 records or so. This is the first album, and it's nuts that this came out 21 years ago. Awesome heavy blues rock that is a hundred times better than anything termed "blues rock" should be. "The Candy Song" was a minor Headbanger's Ball hit. Dig it.

Masters of Reality