So, I am catching up on life, so we are still slow around here for a few days. I am going to try to get something sexy up tomorrow and then some local party photos up over the weekend and hopefully we will be back cruising by Monday, with LA galleries going up ever day that week plus new local stuff. I have a controversial interview coming out this week too which should be a fun read. I am getting my ass handed to me already in the RVA Mag comments and it is not even out yet. Fortunately the more level headed people seem to have my back.

Anyway, on to the photos. The last night I was in LA I went and saw my friend Tom’s band Magic Mirror. He place bass in them and guitar in Lower Heaven. They are both pretty psychedelic. I am not a huge fan of stuff so jammy usually, but Magic Mirror are super tight, pretty rocking and I was never bored, which is surprising when it comes to me and most “pretty” music. From the people I talked to who listen to a lot of psychedelia they are pretty fucking amazing. Tom has been in probably 20 bands in the 18 years I have known him and I am pretty sure Magic Mirror is his favorite. I actually had a great time at the show.

Tom and I met in the 5th grade. He was just starting to play guitar and we had some other friends playing stuff so we started a band called No More Freedom. And while they never actually existed, I like to say it is the first band I ever managed. The second band I ever managed was in the 7th and 8th grade when Tom had a band called Manley Stanley who did grunge and metal covers. The flyer said they knew EVERY Nirvana song. I think they played a couple of talent shows and a school fund raiser. In high school Tom and I founded the punk rock club and started both a zine and a record label. Our zine, Nervous Breakdown went from a total joke to a pretty legitimate magazine in its 4 year run. The record label was less prolific, with only 2 tapes, one CD and one record ever released, but the record was probably the most successful DC punk record of the mid 90’s selling out it’s first run in a month with no distribution. Tom and I sold every one of those records by hand. The record was a 7″ called Raise The Flag harDCore Vol 1. One of the bands on it, No Credentials, was fronted by Tom and during our record release party I had to play bass due to a missing band member. Unfortunately I do not play bass, so I plugged in my friends bass into a card board box with the word AMP written on it in black marker. It was pretty legendary. I also sang a bit in a rockabilly band that my friend Jamie started that Tom played guitar for and I booked a few gigs for Tom’s later college bands The Strap Ons and the life changing Captain Kick Ass.

Years later, Tom lives in LA making a successful career working in the art department on huge budget TV commercials. When I asked him if he had any in the Super Bowl last year, he said something a long the lines of “most of my commercials were played during the Super Bowl.” As far as I can tell he is close personal friends of Mr. T. That may be a lie. He is also playing in 2 bands and the last time I was in LA he was so busy doing both I didn’t get to see him. Luckily he has a small break from work and I got to hang out with him a bunch. We went to some really weird parties and managed to not get arrested. It was a good time.

Lastly, I have a tattoo on my arm that reads NMF, NB and OCR. People ask me what they mean all the time. That tattoo is a tribute to the 10 years I worked in the music industry in some way or another. And where it started was with No More Freedom, Nervous Breakdown Fanzine, and Outcider Records. Everyone of the projects I did before I was 20 I worked with hand in hand with Tom and I am pretty sure we would be completely different people without each other.

But enough with the sappy life story, check out Magic Mirror right fucking now, and then check out the photos right here. There are some nice ones with available light, and then a few at the end where I was just fucking around with my broken flash.

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