House Boat - Delaware Octopus

I've actually seen House Boat live a couple of times and wasn't really over the moon. Frankly, I thought that the incestuous nature of the pop-punk scene of today was beginning to get more than a little bit ridiculous. This new amalgamation marked the 10,000th band to have Mikey Erg behind the kit, but kept up with the Jones' by having Zack Rivethead on guitar. Ex-member aficionados will delight in seeing Grath and Ace from The Steinways in the fold. Those first couple shows didn't really grab me that hard, but listening to The Delaware Octopus, I've got a new outlook. It's on It's Alive and has Luke from The Copyrights behind the glass, if you needed the pot sweetened any. You get a lucky 13 songs for your hard-earned dollar, only one of which deigns to cross the 90 second mark, but you won't feel slighted after hearing tracks like All Of The Time and Are You Into Metal. Get The Delaware Octopus immediately, then start harassing the gents for some more damn live shows already. Here's a link.

R

Live: The Copyrights, Jonesin' @ Tommy's Tavern 11.6.9

An early Fall night and The Copyrights are two of the great tastes that go great together. I stopped off for a pre-game with 2/3 of the aldenbarton rock franchise and posted up in time to hear the end of Nude Beach. Literally, but I ran into the newlywed Dan of Deadly Board Games and Dirtbike Annie and whiled away the dead time til what I assume was Jonesin' played. They played in the punk-optimized power trio format and rocked some noisy gems that crossed Husker Du with newer NYC indie-punk upstarts like Get Bent and Iron Chic are putting out. They were good, but sadly in the unenviable role of opening for The Copyrights, who are definitely the top tier of the current Mid-Weas-tern punk bands. They have a new 7" on No Idea that I guess they are touring behind. I could have cared less, as anytime The Copyrights are playing, one would be smart to be there. They were without one of their guitar dudes and somewhat limited in their selections but still knocked out a solid 10 or 15 tracks, including the delightfully appropriate (and JS-NYC euphoria inducing) This Ain't Broadway. They managed to cough up a couple more tunes as an encore at the behest of Dan and what appeared to be some rogue Steinways, but as awesome as it was, it was over way too soon. Big up to Tommy's and their bizarro smoke/light treatments. It reminds me of old times at The Charleston. Keep tabs on the tail end of this post-Fest junket and other Copyrights goings-on here. Snatch up the new record (a split with The Brokedowns) from No Idea here.

R

Live: The Copyrights, The Unlovables, Dear Landlord & House Boat @ Fontana's 6.22.9

I had been saying for a couple weeks now that this show was the NYC show of the year (thus far) and now that it's done, you'd be hard-pressed to get me to say otherwise.

I showed up at Fontana's a couple songs into the House Boat set. Wonderfully enough, the listing of the bands was woefully inaccurate, listing The Copyrights as going on first, an eventuality that was rapidly rushing me towards apoplexy. I was pleased to find that someone was just an idiot. House Boat features the ubiquitous Mikey Erg on drums, along with Grath and Ace from the The Steinways. Zack Rivethead fills out the lineup on guitars and vocals. It's better on paper, at least at this juncture, but it was only their second show. Don't get me wrong, it was real good, but I think I'd like it a lot more with more time to marinate on the songs. There's evidently a record coming soon, recorded at Sonic Iguana with Luke from The Copyrights. Somebody would do well to hook a brother up. Hint, Hint.

Next up was Dear Landlord, who are simply awesome. Featuring half of The Copyrights and half of Rivethead (R.I.P), they have finally gotten around to recording a full-length that's coming out this Tuesday on No Idea. It is staggeringly awesome. Pick it up immediately. We got most, if not all of their canon and the room got real frisky real quick. Every song is a slice of some post-Weasel pop punk goodness that should be played as much as possible. See them live, buy their records, name your children and bands after them.

The Unlovables made one of their increasingly frequent live appearances next. They had a couple of new songs and sounded pretty great. Hallie has not gotten any less lovely, I will tell you, and the older songs still hold up nicely. The local kids were out in force and loving said Unlovables (aided and abetted by liberal amounts of Rolling Rock). They are an awesome time live and the Archers Of Loaf cover doesn't hurt one damn bit. Here's hoping we get some new stuff out quick, and some more live shows soon.

The Copyrights closed the evening in righteous fashion, churning out banger after banger that would make lesser bands hang it up stat. The well-lubricated crowd was chomping at the bit to see the Kings of Carbondale and the gents did not disappoint. If there is a better punk sing-a-long than Cashiers, I have yet to hear it. Luke didn't make it on this trip and Ronnie from The Arrivals has stepped into the breach to savage the drum kit, but that was the only thing close to disappointing. For the record, Ronnie was awesome, as was everything about their set.
How four of the best punk bands in America could play for $8 and not sell out is beyond me. I heard the next night in Brooklyn had a lot more bodies in the room, but there is no reason why a show this good shouldn't have been better attended. You punks need to get off your lazy asses.

R

Live: Full Of Fancy, Lost Locker Combo, The Unlovables @ Cake Shop 11.16.8

It was a busy weekend for the pop-punk set as The Ergs! and Hunchback played their (assumably) final sets over the weekend in NJ. Chris Grivet (of The Steinways drumming fame) got this show together as a NYC capper. It featured a couple of now ex-Ergs, as well as the final show from 1/3 acid casualty band For Science and a gang of other scene luminaries making the devil's music.

The whole thing had a 'Saturday afternoon at SXSW' kind of slow and hungover air about it. As it was Cake Shop, I showed up at 2:30 to find they were still waiting for a bartender and that nothing was going on, but managed to browbeat the doorguy into taking my money so I could wait as the JS-NYC hq while they got their shit together.

45 minutes and some Gangland later, I returned to find the Unlovables setting up. That was both good and bad, as they were who I really wanted to see and I expected the old man in me would kick full-force afterward. The Unlovables were playing second, assumably as Hallie was performing in/with Fuerzabruta, and proceeded to rock the hell out of the place. Hallie has not gotten any less attractive since I've seen the Unlovables last, I'll tell you. It was kind of a short set, but pretty stellar for the second band on at a matinee. I hope those kids have a new record soon.

Without turning things totally in the direction of the lecherous, I kind of only stayed to see Lost Locker because of the glockenspeil player. Man oh man oh shevitz is that one attractively bookish woman. LLC is a school-themed band fronted by Mr. Jim Florio of (quasi-heirarchically) Bugout Society, MRR, and the Shemps. Think school outfits, wacky songs about scoliosis and the like. They were quick to label themselves as 'prop-punk' and pelt the crowd with no end of crap from the Tri-State areas finest dollar stores. Not exactly good, but certainly fun, and I refuse to front on Bugout, especially after that whole White Castle incident some years back. That said, Castle Carnage was pretty much the only thing not on the floor after their set. I don't think I'd ever buy a record, but it's fun to watch.

Next up was Full Of Fancy. These ladies (and a dude on traps) are sort of a NJ Soviettes. They sure do have great gear, if I may digress into gear dorkdom. I just wish they had better harmonies. I'd say the bassist is the stronger of the two singers, but a lot of the times they sang together were not the most aurally pleasing moments of the night. Oddly, Miranda's voice didn't show too much wear, even after playing the last Hunchback show the night before. I really want to like FOF, I'm going to try the next one drunk and see if that works for me.

For Science played after, as did The Steinways, but my OMS kicked in and I bailed to go sleep on my couch. I heard that Jeff Erg stepped in the breach for the final FS set, ironically (and somewhat anachronistically) due to the FS singer having a bad acid trip and bailing for NOLA and then Hawaii. Kids today. I heard that Jeff killed it, so maybe he'll step in full-time and give those kids some new life. The Steinways closed things out, but I was well into my Robotussin fueled covalescence by that point.

For a show at Cake Shop, not a bad time. Grivet definitely deserves props for making it happen. Once the NJ pop-punk deck is reshuffled, hopefully we'll get some more rock from the kids soon.