Best Of 2008

Best Full Length Albums of 2008

Off With Their Heads – From The Bottom (No Idea)
It's about time Off With Their Heads finally released an actual full length record. This did not disappoint one bit.

The Methadones / The Copyrights – Split (Transparent)
It's pretty much impossible for me to dislike anything from both of these bands. What else needs to be said?

Gordon Gano’s Army – S/T (Art Of The Underground)
I don't know what it is but "First Song" just by itself makes this album worth buying.

The Riot Before - Fists Buried In Pockets (Say-10)
Even though Against Me! decided to become boring at least there are great bands like the Riot Before to take their place and put out great albums.

Chronic Seizure – Ancient Wound (Fashionable Idiots/No Way)
Some of the best Chicago hardcore music out there right now.

The Loved Ones – Build And Burn (Fat Wreck)
I think I actually enjoy this album even more than Keep Your Heart.

Shot Baker – Take Control (Riot Fest)
Great band, great dudes, great album. The best album I've ever been thanked in… also the only album I've ever been thanked in.

The Steinways – Gorilla Marketing (Cold Feet)
I enjoy silly simple pop-punk songs, this album is chock full of them.

Teenage Bottlerocket – Warning Device (Red Scare)
It didn't end up topping Total but it's still a mighty solid release.

Druglords Of The Avenues – Sing Songs (Self Released/Red Scare)
Well the Swingin' Utters still haven’t put out a new album so this is the closest alternative there is, and a mighty fine one to boot.

The Dopamines – The Dopamines (It's Alive)
A bunch of dumb drunks from Ohio put out a good pop-punk album.

The Damned – So, Who’s Paranoid? (English Channel)
Nothing they could do would be able to top their classic "Machine Gun Etiquette" but this is a super solid modern day Damned album and is a huge improvement over their last album Grave Disorder.

Terrible Twos – Terrible Twos (X!/Criminal IQ)
Showing the world that good things still do come out of Detroit… who knew?

The Copyrights – Learn The Hard Way (Red Scare)
I think it’s impossible for the Copyrights to NOT have a new album out every year. We'll see what happens in 2009.

Murder By Death - Red of Tooth and Claw (Vagrant)
I have a certain Mr. Jason Swearingen to thank for getting the song "Coming Home" stuck in my head. Solid album overall.

Honorable Mentions
Olehole – Holemole
Pink Razors – Leave Alive
Total Abuse – Total Abuse
Banner Pilot – Resignation Day
The Cute Lepers – Can't Stand Modern Music


Best EP’s of 2008
The Brokedowns – Six Songs (Cassette Deck)
These dudes shit gold and fart magic. I want to re-learn my ABC's!

Sex/Vid – Communal Living (Dom America)
Is this considered a full-length or an EP? I think it's an EP so suck it!

Dead To Me – Little Brother (Fat Wreck)
This has made me very excited to see what they have in store for their full-length

Andrew Jackson Jihad – Only God Can Judge Me (Plan-It-X)
This is an enjoyable follow-up to their full-length from last year. This band won me over instantly seeing them live.

Vacation Bible School – Unlucky (Cassette Deck)
It's about time these guys finally put out something. Only problem is these guys should try to cut a few of the longer songs to under 3 minutes… you're a punk band, not Van Halen!


Best 7” Records of 2008
Pinhead Gunpower – West Side Highway (Recess)
There's a million Jews in New York, and I'm one of them!

Sex/Vid – Nests (Dom America)
I should have skipped work to see this band live the last time they were here, stupid me. I hope they come back soon.

Deep Sleep - Manic Euphoria (Grave Mistake)
I want this band to put out a full-length album.

Cobra Skulls – Never Be A Machine (Red Scare)
The two new songs are great… and hey they were smart and didn't include the word “Cobra” anywhere in the two new song titles, good job!

The Steinways – Unoriginal Recipe (It's Alive)
This one was worth it just for the super neat Pizza Pack packaging alone.


Top 7" of 2008 that isn't a 7"
The Ergs! – That’s It… Bye! (Don Giovanni)
Sure the artwork is nice but was it enough to warrant this being a 12" record? At any rate, all the songs are amazing and I'll miss this band a lot.


Best Collections of 2008
The Ergs! – Hindsight Is 20/20 My Friend (Dirtnap)
Is it bad that a singles collection is actually my most favorite and my most listened too album of 2008? You tell me!

Hot Water Music – Till The Wheels Fall Off (No Idea)
Listening to HWM increases facial hair growth by at least 35%, it's a fact.

Swingin' Utters - Hatest Grits: B-sides And Bullshit(Fat Wreck)
I guess this collection will hold me over while I still hope for a new Swingin' Utters full-length


Bummers of 2008
Dillinger Four – CIVILWAR (Fat Wreck)
I don't think it sucks, I think that it's a 3 out of 5 star album… but that just pales in comparison to all their other full lengths which are perfect or at the very least close to perfect.

The Gaslight Anthem – The 59 Sound (Side One Dummy)
I thought Sink Or Swim was a great album and I think the EP is pretty good… however, I just can't get into this album. Spare for two songs I think this album is pretty mediocre and the production just sucks out any energy in this album.

The Phenomenauts – For All Man Kind (Silver Sprocket)
I thought Re-Entry was a great album but this album just didn't deliver the goods.

Millencolin – Machine 15 (Epitaph)
Kingwood set the bar really high and they completely missed the mark with this follow-up. It's such a huge step down compared to their last three albums.

...well that's it for now, happy holidays and happy new year to you all!

Oh grandpa!

Last night I went and saw Ben Weasel preform at Reggie's. Just a few months ago if I would have told you that it would have been with a huge smile on my face. This time around I say that with bitterness and disappointment. Oh where to start?

Well for so long I have put aside the fact Ben Weasel has probably one of the worst personalities in punk rock due to the fact that the man has wrote and sung some of my all time favorite punk rock songs/albums to this day. What can I say, the man has a knack for making just about every band member he's ever performed with hate his guts. Not only that but as his previous writings, blogs, and radio shows have proven, he also has a talent for having some very wrong opinions. Sure sometimes he can be right but most times I'm just left left thinking " woah wait, you can't be serious?" But hey, despite all of that I just kept telling myself "well at least he writes and sings some damn good songs."

Now before the show last night I've seen Ben Weasel preform three previous times at Reggie's. I never had the chance to see Screeching Weasel live in the past as I was too young and naive at that point. So of course I was incredibly excited to finally see Ben play live at Reggie's back in May and I'd have to say that was one amazing show. I finally got to hear a ton of my favorite Screeching Weasel songs played live for the first time. Plus people from all parts of the world flew in to Chicago to see that show, making for one ecstatic crowd. The two Ben Weasel "My Brain Hurts" shows in August were still a blast due to the fact that I got to hear one of my favorite albums played live from start to finish. Plus I can't forget the fact that one of my punk rock heroes, Dan Schafer, actually made amends with Ben and joined him on stage playing My Brain Hurts. Face it, you can't have a "My Brain Hurts" show without Dan, his thumbprints are all over that album.

So enough back story, onto what went wrong with the show last night. Well first off Ben has had these Reggie's shows booked within 3 months of each other. DON'T DO THAT! Everyone that wanted to fly into Chicago to see Ben Weasel already did so for the first three shows. People just can't afford the plane tickets, hotel rooms, and time off to fly into Chicago every 3 months. So this time around the show did not sell out, there were still plenty of tickets available at the door. I went to the restroom once during the Weasel set and while the place was wasn't empty by any means, it was definitely not at sold out capacity and there was no struggle for me to get through a sea of people just to use the restroom.

As for Ben and the bands performance itself, it fell flat on its face. Spare for the one guitarist from the Jetty Boys who looked a little tired but was working his hardest to try and get into it, the rest of the band just looked completely tired and worn out. What made matters worse was that Ben looked like he wasn't into it at all this time around. I really got the feeling that Ben was phoning this one in since the show didn't sell out. The crowd wasn't as easily impressed or motivated either due to the fact that it consisted mostly of locals who have probably seen Ben play live at least one time before yesterdays show.

I had the feeling from the start that the show was in trouble since the usual set closer Cool Kids was one of the first songs played. The set consisted mostly of songs that were played from the past three Reggie's shows; the only new songs added to the set-list this time around were Static, Every Night, You Are My Sunshine, and the new song Countdown from the Riverdales "Phase Three" re-issue. Every Night is a great song and Static is one of the two great songs from Emo but the cover of You Are My Sunshine should have easily been skipped for any better Screeching Weasel song that they haven't played live yet. This was also the shortest set out of all the previous shows; with the set-list that we got it felt like a jip compared to the last three shows. But the banter was what made matters the worst. Here was more witty banter from Ben about how we should all checkout the merch table and buy some $15 shirts because "the show is the bread and the merch is the meat in the money sandwich." I guess the best stinger was when people were filing out and Ben gets on the mic and says something along the lines of "look at all those people walking out without even looking at the merch table." I can only assume no one gave Ben a memo telling him that banter wasn't funny at the last two/three shows. I couldn't begin to start on how many people were shouting "shut up and play" among other things every time Ben took a minute on reflect on merchandise.

Overall it was a massively disappointing experience and I wish that my time and money could have been used elsewhere that night. I'll end my rantings on this fact; for the first time ever Reggie's had to pour all beer being sold from cans into plastic cups for the Ben Weasel show, which I can only guess is due to the fact that Ben didn't want people chucking cans of beer at him.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

For anyone that doesn't know, I work in a grocery store. It's a lame job but hey it's a paycheck. I don't work on weekends and Halloween this year landed on Friday October 31st. As you could guess, we had displays of Halloween candy, pumpkins, and all sorts of various Halloween decorations scattered all over the store. This makes perfect sense, nothing is out of line with this picture by any means.

Well the weekend comes and goes and I come back to work on Monday November 3rd to the sound of Christmas songs. That's right, we're only in the first week of November and my store is already playing an assorted amount of Christmas tunes inside the store. I guess I must have missed the memo that said Christmas is now 2 months long and starts immediately after Halloween. Let me tell you, there was nothing more bizarre than tearing down Halloween decorations while listening to "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" when it was 70 degrees outside on Monday.

I wish that would be all I have to complain about but no, not only are we playing Christmas songs but we're also skipping any sort of Thanksgiving decorations. In past years I remember we'd have Thanksgiving decorations to put up for the month. This year we're moving right onto hanging up icicle lights, Christmas reefs, and setting up Christmas trees. Oh boy, nothing gets you more into the jolly Christmas spirit than standing way up on a flimsy ladder hanging cheap icicle lights on as many parts of the store as humanly possible.

To complete this Christmas story, my store decided poured salt into the wound by bringing in pallets of sidewalk salt yesterday. So not only do we have Christmas songs and decorations everywhere but now we have sidewalk salt for your driveway for when it starts snowing like crazy.

As for me, I'm not ready for Christmas. I would much rather think about turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn bread, pumpkin pie and all the things I'm thankful for right now. The last thing I want on my mind right now is cold snowy winters where I have to drive to various malls and stores buying presents for family and friends. So thank you work and Merry Christmas everyone!

joining the club

Sweet, time for me to hop on the bandwagon.