One of the weirder South By Southwest events I have attended was the Tricky Kid party at Randy Palmer’s South Austin Gym. My friend Roy AKA Tricky Kid was looking for places to throw his SXSW showcase and this guy Randy Palmer reached out to him. Randy had wanted to do shows at his boxing gym for a while and figured SXSW was the perfect opportunity to get things going and let his space be used for free. Roy told him he would do the event at his gym if the bands could play in the actual boxing ring and Randy said yes and the event was on.

I got there a bit late and I all but missed the first band (Here Holy Spain) but the second band The Blind Pets were pretty fucking awesome. They sounded a lot like Mudhoney. One of the guys in the band told me that he had never listened to Mudhoney before they started the band but ever since people started bringing up the similarities he has become a huge fan. I didn’t think they were too derivative or anything and they rocked a lot so it was fun to see. They also helped set up the show which turned out to be not such an awesome thing in the end but they were a great band.

When I heard that The Death Set were going to play a show in a boxing ring I couldn’t stop thinking about how fucking amazing it would be if the show had 300 people there instead of 60. A boxing ring seems like the ultimate venue for a band like the Death Set who brings all their fans on to stage with them.  Even with the small crowd I knew things were going to get out of control. They were using the back line of the Blind Pets and as soon as the Death Set brought fans on stage the Blind Pets started freaking out. They made all the fans stand on the outside of the ring.  That didn’t last long. By their third or fourth song everyone was moshing in the ring and the Blind Pets frontman was losing it. Evidently Randy Palmer was not happy that people were possibly tearing up the ring and told the Blind Pets guy to get everyone the fuck off stage.  This quickly escalated and they eventually pulled the plug on the Death Set.  They were allowed to play if they got everyone out of the ring but the Death Set said fuck it and that was the end of that.

The next band was a metal band called The House Harkonnen. I don’t really get the appeal of metal like that but they had a ton of people really excited to see them.  A ton of people who were really upset when the cops showed up and finally shut the whole show down.  New Yorkers Wildstreet and special guest Moistboyz didn’t get to play and everyone was pissed.  Luckily for me it gave me the chance to head down to see the DFA’79 show which turned out to be one of the craziest moments of my SXSW.

But yeah, the show was really cool, but unfortunately it could have been a lot better. I want to build a venue with a boxing ring in it really badly now. It seems like nothing but good stuff could come from that.  Anyway, there are some pretty cool pictures of the madness.

Click here to see Tricky Kid’s SXSW Brawl For All featuring The Death Set at Randy Palmer’s South Austin Gym.

Wednesday night was the only day during South By Southwest that I didn’t have any specific plans. I decided to watch a hockey game and then I was going to get some work done and catch up on some sleep. Luckily for me that didn’t happen.  Luckily for me I was wearing my Mishka Bad Brains shirt.  My friend Sam came over to my hotel to watch the end of the hockey game with me and he saw my shirt. He just casually asked me if I knew that the Bad Brains were playing at 11pm at Emo’s. Oh yeah, and some band named Off! was opening for them. The second the game ended I got my ass down to Emo’s to catch both bands and boy am I glad I did.

If you don’t know by now, Off! is the newest band from Keith Morris. Morris was a founding member of Black Flag and then he went on to front the Circle Jerks (who I shot at SXSW in 2009). The band also features former members of Redd Kross and Rocket From The Crypt. My favorite part of the band might be their least legendary member in Dimtri Coats from the band Burning Brides.  Coats guitar sounded so perfectly 1981.  The band could have been an early 80’s LA hardcore band except they seemed totally relevant and not one of these faux retro bands.  They fucking melted faces and instantly made me a huge Off! fan. What a fucking great band.

After Off! was the legendary Bad Brains.  As a punk kid growing up in DC the Bad Brains were pretty much gods. The pretty much created the DC hardcore scene that meant so much to me as a 15 year old. They eventually made the same move I did moving from DC to NYC and continued to fuck shit up along the way.  I never got a chance to see them, missing their epic performance at the Vice Halloween party a few years ago by about 15 minutes. I couldn’t have been more psyched to see them. When they got on stage they very calmly performed their songs, nothing like the Bad Brains of the late 70’s/ early 80’s but somehow they still blew everyone’s fucking mind.  People were crowd surfing and moshing to their slowest reggae dub songs.  It was fucking insane.  At the end of every song H.R. would simply bow to us and move on.  It was amazing to see.

Anyway, it was a fucking amazing show and made me so glad I decided to leave the hotel. These pictures are not the best because it is really hard to shoot photos in a mosh pit, but fuck it, I got the shots…

Click here to see all the pictures of Off! at SXSW.

Click here to see all the pictures of Bad Brains at SXSW!

Oh yeah, and keep up that PMA.

THe first band I saw at South By Southwest was Peelander Z at Beauty Bar. It was totally accidental. I was sort of bar hopping on the Tuesday night before SXSW Music started and some people I met went to Beauty Bar so I followed them over there.  There was some hip hop DJ in the front and when I made my way out to the back there was just chaos. I pushed my way through the crowd and I saw a sign that just said “STEAK” on it.  I knew immediately what I was about to witness.

Peelander Z is the most insane Japanese band around which says a lot considering how weird the Japanese are.  They also happen to be one of the most fun bands everywhere.  I have seen them a bunch of times, but not in the last 5 or 6 years.  They might be even better now.  When I walked in they were nearing the end of their set where they hand over their instruments to members of the audience, pass out noise makers, set up bowling pins and throw a giant lobster man at the bowling pins.  Somehow this makes sense in the context of the band as weird as that sounds. You clearly need to check them out if you get the chance.

Click here to see all the pictures of Peelander Z at Beauty Bar Austin during South By Southwest. And click here to donate money to the Red Cross’ Japan Tsunami relief efforts.

Last night the Village Voice threw their second party of SXSW. This time during music week and at the Austin Music Hall and they partnered with Frank 151 to do it. The Interactive party was fun but low key.  The music party fucking blew shit up. It might have been the best party I have been to in 8 years of coming to SXSW. I got there a bit late but in time to check out Brooklyn natives Trouble Andrew and Rocky Business.  Rocky Business played a set that is sure to blow those kids up.  They were just insanely good and the crowd lost it.  After them one of the most stunning girls I have ever seen named Mars Lovejoy did her thing and made half of Austin fall in love (well, at least me).  Texas native Trea The Truth brought a dozen guys on stage with him and fucked shit up for the nearly local crowd.  After that shit got really serious with performances by Yellawolf, Fishbone and the fucking Wu-Tang Clan. The night ended with a DJ set from Erykah Badu.

I managed to get back stage even though I didn’t have any legit credentials for that. I just kept showing people my Village Voice press pass and pointing to our banner and hoping they would let me in. It seemed to work. I shot from the stage and back stage and had an insane amount of fun.  I ran into Comunnity star Donald Glover who I had met the day before backstage. He and his co-star Danny Pudi spent about 15 minutes looking at my photos on my iPad until one of Wu-Tang’s entourage brought us over to Wu-Tang’s dressing room.  Bam Margera was also back there and at some point I got stuck in some room with Erykah Badu and her entourage. It was all pretty surreal.

I don’t have time to upload pictures and all that shit today and when I do upload pictures I am going to do a much more indepth write up of every thing. I shot 1100 photos at the party so I will be breaking it all down into a number of posts. But today I am going to leave you with just a link to the Village Voice slideshow that only features a small percentage of the pictures I shot.

Click here for the Village Voice slideshow.

Click here for the Village Voice blog post.

And click here to see the Miami New Times write up featuring my shots.

Tonight around 4AM I will be headed to John F. Kennedy airport and then off to Austin, Texas for the South By Southwest Music, Film and Interactive festival.  I will be covering Interactive and Film for the Village Voice and then shooting a number of parties during SXSW Music.  I will undoubtably take thousands of photos and there will just be tons of amazing content and that sort of thing.  Unfortunately I will be super busy during this time which means a lot less updating. I always think I am going to have time to update but I never do.  During the film and interactive part of SXSW I should have sometime time. I also have a new art project/web site launching next week so you will have that to look at.  But duing SXSW Music, from the 15th – 20th I would, not expect a whole lot from me over here.

All that being said… I will be updating my Tumblr every day with highlights from the fest. If you don’t have Tumblr you should be following me on Twitter because I post all the good Tumblr stuff to my Twitter. Then again during SXSW most of my Tweets are just name dropping, eating BBQ and bragging about cool shit I am doing in Texas. So I will probably lose more followers than I gain next week.  But such is life.

Today in the interest of actually updating my site with content instead of just me giving you a bullshit post explaining why I am not going to be posting I am going to give you links to some highlights of past SXSW trips.  This will be my 8th SXSW trip in a row, although several of those trips were when I was managing The Gaskets and I wasn’t shooting photos so these high lights all come from the last few years.  If you mouse over the photos it will tell you about them and clicking them will bring you to more photos from that day or event.

And for all of you who will be at SXSW this year… I will see you mother fuckers in Austin.

Nothing says Mardi Gras like a warehouse party in Bed Stuy.  Okay, warehouse party might be kind of a stretch considering the “Electric Warehouse” or The Jam or whatever this place was called had the most obnoxious security I have dealt with in ages. Usually Warehouses seem to be a lot more fucking chill.  After getting rape searched on the way in you were forced to check your coat.  You get yelled at if you try to step into the lobby where maybe the music isn’t so loud. The only place to  have a conversation is outside but since you are coatless it was impossible to hang out there for more than a few minutes.  All exits were final, the show cost $20 (not that I paid) and the place was filled with what seemed to be 15 year old girls.

Now, all the shit aside the line up was amazing and it was really fucking fun.  Anton Glamb & Hiro were Djing when I walked in and Krames DJd from 4-5am.  Rocky Business, Maluca, Rye Rye and Memberz Only performed which is a pretty serious group of musicians.   Unfortunately I missed Rocky Business and I had to leave during Maluca’s set so I didn’t really get to enjoy what was no doubt an amazing show. I did stay long enough to shoot a pretty good gallery from the party and there were like 900 other photo bloggers there so I am sure you can find pictures if you want to see it all. Whatever, fuck off. Don’t judge me… I am about to go out of town for a few weeks I needed to get my shit together.

Click here to see the photos from the short time I was at the Mardi Gras Warehouse Party at the Jam or the Electric Warehouse or whatever this fucking place was called.

I turned 30 last May and I realized something. In my life I have worked in the music industry in nearly every imaginable way except one.  I stared a record label when I was 15. I ran a zine about punk for 3 years. I have written and blogged about music. I have booked shows and dance parties. I have booked tours for bands. I have managed bands including one for 5 years. I have photographed bands and DJs both live shots and portraits.  I have been in a half dozen music videos. I haven’t actually recorded any bands but I have been in recording studios with bands helping out in whatever ways I could for countless hours. I have made flyers, stickers and album covers. I have promoted, built websites for and done everything you could imagine for a number of bands.  Music was my life for so long but one thing I have never done was play in a band.

I have no musical talent, but that hasn’t stopped me from fucking around with bands.  I was in a band in high school that I played random things like washboards and kazoos in but we never played a show. I have even made some really awful music more or less as a joke. I once sang background gang vocals on a Camper Van Beethoven track.  I even once filled in for a band that was missing a bassist at a show.  I stood there holding a bass that was plugged into a cardboard box that had the word AMP written on it. One of the dudes from PCP Roadblock stood in the back of the room and yelled “TURN UP THE BASS” as the guitarist and drummer played three songs while I stood there banging on strings.  Other than that the closest I have ever come to playing a show was singing Elvis at my friends post elopement wedding party.

Now, one thing I have to say is that I cannot sing for shit. I have no voice and no timing.  All that being said, I am a fucking lunatic and I have a pretty good feeling can thrash around on stage with the best of them. So when I turned 30 I decided to try to start a punk band. After months of talking about it we are finally going to have our first practice on Tuesday.  This band is pretty much going to be a joke.  The guys in the band are all in other bands and they are going to practice with me once a week until we get our shit together to play a few shows for fun.  If I could play three real shows I would cross a huge item off my bucket list.  So we are going to probably just be a cover band.  At least to start with. I sent everyone three of my favorite punk songs to learn and hopefully we can get them down on Tuesday. I guess the ultimate goal would be maybe 5 covers and 5 originals which seems like a pretty good 20 minute set. I’ll let you guys know how it goes although I probably won’t be promoting the shows too much if they ever do happen because 95% don’t give a fuck about punk and wouldn’t enjoy the show even if I could sing.

Now the meat of this post is going to be the 3 covers we are going to end up practicing on Tuesday:

The first is Girl Problems by State Of Alert.  S.O.A. was Henry Rollins first band and he is really dismissive of them.  But their only record, the No Policy EP, is my favorite punk album of all time. Girl Problems is my favorite song on it even though when I was 15 and listning to it the only girl problems I had were that they wouldn’t talk to me.

SOA – Girl Problems

The second song is Drink, Fight & Fuck by G.G. Allin.  I plan on naming my first photo book Drink Fight Fuck and this song is sort of what violent punk is all about.  The irony here is of course that I don’t drink, but I think I might make an exception if we ever play a show. I got in a lot of fights growing up but having a $3000 camera in your hand makes it a lot harder to decide to throw a punch so I have been pretty fortunate not to have done extremely stupid in a few years. And as far as the Fuck part goes… no comment.

GG Allin – Drink Fight Fuck

The last song is Depression by Black Flag.  The Keith Morris version of this song is great but it’s really the live version from Decline of Western Civilization version that I hope to be channeling when I sing it. Black Flag is the band that got me into punk and really changed my life. The DIY mentality of punk is probably the only reason I have been able to run my own business. If it weren’t for Black Flag I would probably be working at a bank or something.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wizKUrUgFOw&feature=related[/youtube]

Rocky Business headlined a packed show at Mercury Lounge on Wednesday to celebrate the release of their “White People Are Drug Dealers Too” mix tape. I meant to get there in time to catch Hussle Club too, but I totally failed at that.  I managed to catch Trouble Andrew who were fun but I was there to see Rocky Business do their thing.  They are the only Radical Outing members I haven’t seen live so I figured I needed to make an appearance.  They were as good as expected and put on a hell of a show.

You know what? Just look at the fucking pictures already.  Oh, and download their mix tape too.

Click here to see all the pictures of Rocky Business at The Mercury Lounge.

Happy Presidents Day! Oh wait… it’s not technically Presidents Day anymore… I sort of fell asleep reading a Time Magazine article on singularity and woke up and it was Tuesday. I’ll take my sleep when I can get it. I’ll also post date this blog post so it looks like I actually got it up by midnight. So I guess I win.

Anyway, we are continuing the All My Friends Are In Bands series with three more videos from musicians that I like both as musicians and as peoples. This week features some videos I wanted to post about a while ago and probably did on my Tumblr already but fuck it, these are all videos I really dig and I want you guys to fucking pay attention to.  Let’s get started.

The oldest one is Johnny Nelson’s “Put Em In A Body Bag”.  I fucking love this song, the video is fucking tight AND most importantly Johnny Nelson has a fucking DBB tattoo so you know that dude is family.  But once again I just wish I was in the fucking video.  Come on guys, we need to start putting me in these fucking things. It’s not like I am doing anything better before midnight…  Honestly though, this song and video are amazing and his brother Telli from Ninjasonik is along for the ride.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5kCKiovnOg[/youtube]

The second video is Hussle Club’s “Loose Tights”.  Prince Terry is obviously part of the Driven By Boredom family despite flaking on his DBB tattoo and his Hussle Club is pretty fucking bad ass but I am sure you know about that by now.  The video is sick too although I do have one problem with it. He gets off the J train at Bowery and then ends up at the Delancey F train. I mean there is a J stop in the same station, clearly you missed your stop homie. You live a block from there, you should have that figured out by now…  In all seriousness… good song, good video… watch that shit now.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5A5qFFQJdo[/youtube]

The third and final video is a documentary about the Death Set’s tour with Girl Talk called The Adventures of Quanni Cannonz.  When that show was in NYC at Terminal 5 I shot it and that’s how I both discovered the Death Set and met Ninjasonik.  All those dudes are fam now so that show was a pretty momentous occasion.  Plus it was a fucking amazing show.  I had seen Girl Talk a bunch of times before anyone ever heard of him but seeing him for the first time in front of a sold out crowd was fucking nuts.  Anyway, the Death Set killed it opening for him and this documentary is fucking hilarious.  It’s 20 min long but well worth watching.

The Death Set – The Adventures of Quanni Cannonz from The Death Set on Vimeo.