R.I.P: The Measure (sa) 2004-2011

The Measure (sa) have made a public announcement about 2011 being the end of the band. Guitarist/ Vocalist, Lauren Denitzio, had the following to say about why the band will soon be calling it a day, their final shows, and future releases from the band.

“After a number of lineup changes, the Measure increasingly became Fid and I finding ways to continue making music together. For a while, that was working, but this Fall I made the decision that I can’t continue with the band. There were a lot of personal reasons behind that and I realized that my heart just wasn’t in the project anymore. It’s not fair to anyone to try to keep going after that, especially when you’re expected to tour and write music and play shows and look like you’re having a good time. As far as parting ways goes, it’s a fairly amicable event and I’m glad that we’re ending the band on good terms and as friends.

We started the band when I was 20, and if you had told me then that I would get to travel around the country, put out over 18 records and play with some of my favorite bands because of it, I’d think you were out of your mind. It’s been a great privilege and I hope those experiences don’t end here. Fid and I will certainly be putting out music in other bands soon, so stay tuned.

We’re planning on releasing the next collection record of the more recent 7”s later in 2011 and intend on playingFest 10 (Oct 28,29,30-2011) for one final show. There’s a possibility of another couple 7”s as well. Locally, we’ll be playing our last shows during the second weekend in April in Brooklyn and New Brunswick. Details to be announced soon.

We want to thank everyone who has been so helpful and supportive over the years. Especially those who have set up shows, given us places to stay and put out records for us (Don Giovanni, Kiss of Death, Salinas, Chunksaah, Ernest Jenning, Art of the Underground, Los Diaper, Team Science, Snuffy Smiles and No Idea) . We’re incredibly grateful to the awesome folks at No Idea who have both distro’d our records and put out a split 7” and LP for us, getting our music out there to a larger audience than we were able to do on our own. They’ve been one of our favorite labels for a long time and it was an honor to get to work with them so closely both as a label and as friends.

To Mike Regrets, Big A, J Nixon, Mikey Yannich, Joel Control, Tim Burke!, Chris Pierce, Gore, Joey Birds, DanO, CJ, and Marco Reosti: thanks for getting through this band with us”.

punkrockneverstop,

Lauren + Fid

Samiam - Orphan Works

I like me some Samiam. They are no Jawbreaker, but I have a dozen or so Samiam releases in the collection that get pretty regular airplay at the JS-NYC corporate offices, rivaling the post-Latterman Canino catalog and the Suburban Home roster for top number of spins. My long-delayed first time seeing them live was pretty much a bust, but these recordings and this German footage lends credence to Samiam actually being a decent live entity when Jason isn't drunk.

Orphan Works compiles a bunch of live and other rare-ish stuff from the You Are Freaking Me Out and Clumsy (1994-98) eras. Save for too many versions of Stepson, there is very little to speak poorly of on Orphan Works. 18 tracks for your hard-earned dollar, and its on No Idea, so how can you really go wrong for $7? I think not, so let's cut the crap and start buying, shall we? Here's a link to save you the time and trouble.

R

Live: No Friends with Deep Sleep and Night Birds @ Bruar Falls 4.8.10

This show came courtesy of Ian Dickson and Hardcore Gig Volume, one of many of the bumper crop of shows that the warm weather has brought NYCward. Personally, I was in it for No Friends. I've liked the first two releases and have been known to Face The Waste on occasion, plus Bruar Falls is close and small enough to make it fun, so on the bike I went. I got there as Night Birds were kicking things off. They feature Brian Gorsenger of the now-defunct Psyched To Die on vocals as well as Joey Erg on bass to ruin your average bass player's day. The Birds brought it, ripping through six or seven tunes and closing with Paranoid Time. Nice. I'm definitely going to try harder to see Night Birds in the future.

The time between sets featured the arrival of the most knee-weakening lovely female I've seen in some time filling the time admirably and before I knew Tony showed and the No Friends boys got all Dag Nasty up in the place. Not especially original, but certainly awesome. You would be silly to not get the new EP for free here. That was almost it for me, so it look like the bridge beckoned, as it was early and I am old, but the hot girl seemed to be there for Deep Sleep, so I figured I'd torture myself by finding she had good taste in music to boot. As it turns out, she does. Deep Sleep are from Baltimore and play the older GI style DC hardcore we have come to know and love. I wasn't all that familiar with them before, but have appropriated their back catalog, so look forward to some coverage of their recorded material soon.

Oh, even after staying for Deep Sleep, I was home by 10:30, which may very well make this the best show of the year thus far. Props to Ian and Hardcore Gig Volume for showing that punk shows don't have to run hours behind.

R

Leatherface - The Stormy Petrel

It's been a while since our dear Mr. Stubbs has seen fit to release a new Leatherface record. While the long-rumored Tiltwheel new record probably scores the Chinese Democracy prize for anticipation, outside of The Pill Cult only Leatherface can garner that obsessive a following in their downtime. The Stormy Petrel comes courtesy of Stubbs' own Big Ugly Fish Recordings and your friends at No Idea.

Our dear Mr. Stubbs maintains the sound equipment at Wembley Stadium when he isn't scarring his liver and vocal cords and the big sounds at work seem to have permeated the proceedings here. The Stormy Petrel really is one of the best in-your-face productions you'll hear in this day and age. It helps that there are great songs from stem to stern and Stubbs really is one hell of a great guitarist. That alone would carry the songs even if the lyrics were crap, but wonderfully enough, that's not the case either. There really isn't bad song here, plus I got to find out what a stoat is. Catch them on one of the last few dates (so far, I hope) on the current tour with Bridge and Tunnel and Yesterday's Ring and pick this up immediately from No Idea. Here's a link. Thank me later.

R

Live: Bridge & Tunnel, Yesterday's Ring & Leatherface @ The Knitting Factory 3.5.10

With all the snow and the ridiculousness that comes with it, it seems like forever since I've been to a show. You can also add being fucking broke to the equation, too, but when word came down the pike that Leatherface were touring, you could damn well guarantee that I was going to be there. Adding a rare set of Stateside Yesterday's Ring dates and Bridge & Tunnel to the equation made me reconsider the influence of a higher power in my life.

So I made it across the water as Bridge & Tunnel started their set. Let me state from the onset: Bridge & Tunnel are fucking great. Hands down, no ifs and or buts. Great songs, Rachel plays her ass off and all and all the kids are 100% a good time. They remind me a lot of Braid and in some ways a bit like The Riot Before. Either way, I couldn't be happier that NY finally has a No Idea band. Between them and Little Lungs, all is not lost in the local scene. Not a lot in the way of stage banter, but know that Bridge & Tunnel crushed it from note one to note last. Buy their current release East/West here and see them immediately.

I was a little disconcerted during the backline change and thought there maybe had been a lineup change, but soon the preponderance of Inepsy and Tragedy t-shirts on stage confirmed that Yesterday's Ring was most definitely in the house. I was in Montreal for the record release shows behind their last EP and fell way hard for them. You may be aware that YR is the more rootsy incarnation of Canadian punk mainstays The Sainte Catherines. There are a few different members, but the apples don't fall far from the tree and SC singer Hugo Mudie fronts both franchises. He is as sweet a dude as he is smelly. The six piece ran through a bunch of stuff from their new Suburban Home release Diamonds In The Ditch as well as some chestnuts from the back catalog. I couldn't of been happier, plus I had a couple 'that guy" moments with Hugo, so it was win-win all around. Yesterday's Ring don't make it across the border all that often, but if they come near you, go out of your way to see them. They are one hell of a good time.

Ran into Davey Tiltwheel as I staked out real estate for Leatherface. One hell of a guy, and unsurprisingly tour managing this junket. He had Frankie on in short order, aviator hat, high blood alcohol and all and the suddenly full room promptly went apeshit. There is a delicious point where Frankie gets drunk enough to do his little shuffle dance around that make the Lemmy fronting Husker Du sound Leatherface purveys some of the best music ever. There were many Roach House residents touring the stage and monitors during the set, begging the question (at least in my mind) of how old the kids were in the 80s when things jumped off for Leatherface, but this would be the wrong room to play the agism card, as Frankie makes me look like a spring chicken. He held up for most of the set, but was obviously fading toward the end of the proceedings. That made two of us, frankly, but all in all one of the best shows I've seen this year. Setlist for Leatherface is to the left. Look for a review of the new record The Stormy Petrel soon on JS-NYC.

R

No Friends

Time to set off the pit. No Friends is the new band that is setting the hardcore world on it's ear. Featuring 3/4 of the pretty much dormant New Mexican Disaster Squad, you'll dig this if you liked them or their current franchises Gatorface and Virgins. Oh, wait! Did I mention that Tony from Municipal Waste is fronting this little combo? While I never really got NMDS, I fucking love The Waste. They have been getting serious play at JS-NYC HQ of late, much to the delight to the my neighbors. It's important to point out that while Municipal Waste thrash with wild abandon, No Friends take the hardcore road that bands like Paint It Black do so well. It's definitely on some Dag Nasty/Descendents/GBs shit and most assuredly awesome. No Idea is the label that pays them and Var and Tony must be stoked. It's not just a recording/project band either. The Waste are pushing their new record Massive Aggressive hard, but No Friends are still trying to do some shows around various Fests and whatnot. I'd go out of my way to see them live when and if you could, but in the meantime pick up No Friends here from the lovable men and women of No Idea.

North Lincoln: Midwestern Blood at PopMatters

Hey Kids:

Some punk rock review action of the new North Lincoln record is now available for your perusal over at PopMatters.

Thanks to Sarah Zupko at PopMatters!

Here's a link.

R

Bridge and Tunnel review up at The Tripwire

Hey Kids:

Review of the new Bridge and Tunnel called East/West is up at The Tripwire, questionable formatting and all. Thanks to Derek Evers!

R

Off With Their Heads - From The Bottom

I got into Off With Their Heads around the same time I fell for the Hold Steady and Banner Pilot. Not sure how, although it's probably even money on the Nate Ganglehoff/Rivethead/D4 connection. Either way, I played the shit out of the Hospitals EP. There are few better ways to get some shit off your chest in an empty apartment than to crank that puppy and shout along. My neighbors may beg to differ.

Ryan from OWTH is as DIY as he is crazy (which is probably as big as an understatement as the fact that I date crazy ladies). He lives at Alamo House in Minneapolis where he and the roommates do a lot of house shows. Maybe house shows are more fun in the Midwest, but in NYC it can get a little terrifying. Case in point would be the show in Bushwick with The Ergs, Four Letter Word, The Arrivals and Off With Their Heads. Not that it wasn't a blast, but the prospect of seeing another show in a firetrap messenger house is not something I look forward to. That said, it was a lot better than standing around in the backyard of Sealab 187 and being pelted by garbage or waiting around crappy Greenpoint bars for three or four hours to not see them play. I do so love punk scheduling.

Not that I was smart enough to learn anything from the experience, as I bought a ticket to Insubordination Fest seconds after I found that Ryan and the boys would be playing. It was rumored that they would have copies of their new release for No Idea with them and I, for one, was not going to miss snagging a copy. As Insubordination Fest got closer, more and more info about the new record came down the pike: old stuff was going to be re-recorded, there weren't going to be more than one or two new tracks, blah, blah, blah. As I have moved past my vinyl era, it worked for me. I'm way beyond working too hard to get stuff I'm just going to digitize anyway. In doing some digging, most of the re-records were precipitated by the last Fall's infamous OWTH tour of Japan with Yoshi from Snuffy Smile. After Ryan and Yoshi butted heads and the shit-slinging started, Ryan vowed (and I believe this is a pretty exact quote) that he would 'rather be face-fucked sideways than have those songs be available exclusively through Snuffy Smile'. Such eloquence!

Rehashed or not, From The Bottom is a rager from note one to note last. If the boys were redoing crappy songs to fill things out it would be one thing, but if you are going to save me some cash and give me a gang of great songs for $7, I am there with bells on. From The Bottom ain't long, but it sure is great, especially the re-record of For The Four. That itself is worth the price of admission. You're not going to hear any of the tracks here at your next positive affirmation meeting, but if you fall on the more cynical and/or nihilistic end of things, you'll be shouting every word.

R

www.myspace.com/offwiththeirheads
www.noidearecords.com