Fall Review

No excuses for the lack of activity on this blog over the last two months. However, no lack of cool shit going down, here are a few events that I was proud to be a part of over the course of the fall.

This is a tee shirt I helped the Mugs put together for a recent reunion show. For those of you who are ignorant to the Mugs, they are New York Hard Core's best kept secret. Based out of Maspeth Queens, they have played since 2000 with a rotating line-up to mixed reviews. In 2002 they recruited New York Hard Core legend Jay Rogan(Eyes of Hate, No Self Pride, and currently Caught In A Trap)on drums to solidify their line-up.

After recording the classic "Sex, Mugs and Rock n' Roll" in 2003 with some guy named Don Furry, they played a few memorable gigs around the Lower East Side, including an epic St. Patricks day show with Murphy's Law. Mugs shows often ended abruptly, sometimes in violence, sometimes due to legal infractions. One thing is for sure the Mugs have always been impulsive and exciting. You never know what will happen. Well you kinda have an idea something is gonna result in them getting shut down or kicked out, but how will it happen?

The show was held at an anonymous Spanish cuisine restaurant near the Financial district in NYC. There was a great alley next to the place where I found Sammy(bass) and a few stray Budweisers. As you can tell Sammy already had his share. Inside the restaurant I found Metal Thrashing Matt(Guitar) and Legendary clothing designer/ hardcore impresario Rat Bones hawking their ware's.

Rat Bones did good at that show. He sold some shirts to yuppies who thought they went out for a night of fine dinning. Little did they know what they were getting into. Phil Mugs(Vocals) even got in on the fun.

Olde York open up the show, and from the first notes it was clear that the management did not realize what they had in store for themselves. The owner came out with some sort of Noiseometer, to measure the disciple level of the speakers. Look closely it is in the left hand of the Lou Pinella looking motherfucker.

Well this guy busted Olde York's balls through out the entire set, and it was clear that the Mugs should get on and try to play as many songd as possible before the club owner shuts it down.

The place went off immediately. It was an all ages show, filled with people who were too young for the Mugs the first time around.

Such Mugs hits included "Sack Attack", "How Much Do The Lions Cost?" and "I Get What I Want". Someone ripped open a bag of flour after Phil made a crack about coke. The energy was great, but it put the management on their toes. They responded by taking the microphones away. No worries, the crowd helped Reverend Phil spread the word.

After a couple of songs without a mic the set was over, so was the show. There was a big rush to the door to get a refund, which I think some people were granted. There was alot of under aged kids left outside the club and in the alley, drinking, loitering, pissing off(and on) the restaurant. There was a rumor cops on horses and riot gear showed up, but I was long gone by then. All in all, another Mugs show. The following weekend after that Mugs show I went to Vermont with Chris Balrtus to pick up Caitlin's 1964 Plymouth Valiant. Chris purchased this car from "Dr. Valiant" Andy Whittenbourne of New Jersey. Story goes after he evacuated New Orleans in his 1965 Valiant, he picked this one up out of Hemmings Motor News, and he's still getting his $500 out of it.

I love this car. Lot's of good memories associated with it. My senior year of college we drove it to New Orleans. Visited a few times after that. Cruising the Crescent City streets at night was always a treat in that '64. It has a 225 cu in. slant six engine. Not as economical as the 170, but it has good pep by comparison.

This is a 1962 Dodge Polara that is located near Chris' parent's house. Wonder whats under the hood. Maybe a Max Wedge, maybe.

This is Chris' other 1964 Valiant. It's a two door with a shitty flame job. We built a fire and picked the thing apart. We took apart the interior, lifted the dog dishes, snatched the carb, anything that was worth money or would deteriorate while the car is waiting to get refurbished.

Back in Sea Cliff we see here is a 1922 Dodge Brothers Series I Touring car. Brand new it cost $985, it had 5 seats and a 114 in. wheelbase. It has a 4 cylinder engine and is quiet as a Nun on Sunday. This particular car is owned by Glen Head resident Tom Malloy, who is a sculpture artist and lawn mower mechanic.

Contrary to popular belief the Dodge brothers were not Jewish as one might think due to the star of David being on their hood emblem. The six pointed star stood for Dodge's six points of excellence, what ever those were. I think he said that the car was original, and never restored. Whatever the case maybe, the last time it was inspected was 1963-64. I want this sticker for my car.

Finally one of my favorite nights of the fall was the "Cathy"(you know, that awful comic strip) inspired art show that my buddy Pete threw at the Chief Magazine gallery space in Bushwick. I had just moved out of my apartment in Brooklyn, back to my parents house, so it was nice to get down with some Brooklyn folks for the first time since I had moved. Here are a couple of people who made the art show/party possible...

Pete, he threw the shin dig.

Erica, she got the party pumping, and submitted a cool photograph.

Glen, the wheel man, he owns a versatile van, part utility, part party machine.


Chirs Riggs, I don't know this guy, he was not involved in the show per say, he showed up with a marker and got busy, good work.

This is what I submitted, I would have included pictures of other peoples submissions, but this post is getting crowded.
I've got some good posts planned for December, including a look at the "new" ABC NO RIO! and a long over due tribute to Yankee Stadium.

Punk Island, Not as Bad as Anticipated

June 21st, the first official day of Summer 2008 was a treasure trove of killer shit to do. Beach? BBQ? Yankees Game? Outdoor Music Festival up and down Bedford Avenue? Nah. I opted to take my bike to Governors Island for what I hope is the First Annual Punk Island. For those of you out of the loop, Punk Island was a plan Mayor Guliani had to round up all the LES riff raff and banish them all to Governors Island. Bloomberg found this plain the draw of the Mayors desk after a little spring cleaning and put things into action. 9 stages 70+ bands.

The day began with a ride into Manhattan. As I was cutting through Lower Manhattan I passed by a Law Enforcement Car Show. It's always nice to be out, and find something you find interesting.

Normally I'd be freaked out by he shear number of cop cars, but in this case I was quite relaxed.

And wouldn't you know it, the Batmobile was there too.

To top it all off, at the end of the block there was a 1964 Dodge Dart 170. This particular car was a replica of those driven by members of the Seattle Police Department. "Although Chrysler Corporation did not offer a police package for the Dart or Valiant until 1976, Seattle P.D. was using Darts a decade earlier. In those days their marked fleet consisted of Fords, while the Darts were unmarked "pool" cars. By the early 1970's Seattle began marking their Darts, installing light bars, and using them for full time patrol", according to the information sheet tapped in passenger side window.

After indulging my inner car guy for a while, it was off to Governors Island ferry terminal. It was great seeing punks congregated in front of the terminal like it was CBGB's or gAyBC No Beer-O. I grabbed a map of the island and wrote down the locations of the bands I wanted to see. (Just so we're clear the names of the bands were not written on the map, and there was only one of list of bands with times and locations. You'd think that after coordinating this whole event someone would put the ol' photocopy machine to work, but I digress, it was the only disorganized thing I saw all day, so in all I guess it wasn't so bad)

I spent a good deal of time hanging out on the Brooklyn side of the Island. I caught Dealin With It, Olde York and Scum City. Gotta hand it to those Olde York guys, always a pleasure to see, always put on a good show, can't say enough good stuff about that band. Props to singer of Dealin With It. He told a good joke about Guliani's "Punk Island" that I paraphrased earlier in this entry. Take note of the container ship in the back ground, the thing was huge. It was pushed out of dock by a tug boat while Olde York was playing. First time I ever saw that at a punk show.

On the Manhattan side of the Island I caught Rabia, Death Mold, Hipster Holocaust, and Lost Locker Combo. To LLC's credit they looked fucking funny as hell on that island. I mean look at 'em, looks like they are at some prep school up north or something. In fact the whole day had a college campus feel. I was on my bike so I zipped around rather quickly all day until I picked up a piece of glass in my front tire. Everyone else sorta floated around with their respective groups of friends. People gathered in the shade as if they were all in some study group. I even saw a couple of dudes playing hacky sack. Imagine that, hacky sack in this day and age.

Total college campus.

So towards the end of the day I caught this band in front of a church. They had an early Epitaph NoFx, No Use For a Name sound. You may have hated it, but I dug them, lots of energy. I forget the name of this band. I talked to the singer for a few minutes after they played but at this point all the sun, weed and beer had gone to my head, and I really needed to lay down for a few minutes and catch the Nihilistics. I opted not to catch Fakin Youth. Besides I had some things to do later that evening and I wanted to nap off the sun, weed and beer I had consumed that afternoon. As far as I could tell things went smoothly and I couldn't imagine why they wouldn't throw another Punk Island next year. Here's Hoping.