When asking the question “How many belts does a man need?” the reply to oneself could be “turns out, you need three.”
Tad Doyle, Charles Peterson, Bruce Pavitt, Jack Endino, Mark Arm, J Mascis and Larry Reid, among many, many others, were all in attendance for this one of a kind fashion advice and for the one day only Birthday celebration of Sup Pop records. Of course Sub Pop is now under the wing of Warner, not so much independent indie label now as more; mothered by the moguls.
The Panel
Who cares? It would seem that no-one does, if the turn out in Seattle’s Georgetown District on Saturday July 13 2013 was anything to go by. Of those in attendance, some had travelled from afar, Canada and Brazil included. Others were more local and prominent and included Duff McKagan and Chadd Channing.
SUB POP MEGA MART, was open for the birthday celebrations only. Selling re-issues, buttons, hats, tees and gum by the cart load and a wall of art, ideas, pictures and more, was set up inside, featuring many artists past and present, for your viewing pleasure.
Jones Soda bottles were specially labeled with Sub Pop stickers for the day and everyone was a LOSER. The sun shined all day and every one enjoyed the FREE music provided at the three stages. However, there were those who were disgruntled to find that one stage was part of the beer garden, so deeming it 21 plus. The show was advertised FREE, Family and ALL AGES. Many music fans are not yet 21 and many families were in attendance. Tad Doyles; Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth and Jack Endinos; Earthworm were two of the acts that became inaccessible to the younger crowd as a result of this.
Birthday Soda Pop
Not bad news was the fact that Mudhoney were on a different stage and delivered a kick ass set. A touch of a comedown after playing LATE NIGHT with Jimmy Fallon, a first TV performance for the band in 18 years, prior to then becoming the first ever band to play live atop the Seattle Space needle the day after. All part of the birthday celebrations and all well received by older and younger fans alike.
The early bird catches the worm!
Non Sub Poppers Feast, opened the show, well and with angst too. Pissed Jeans were also in the mix.
New comers on the Sub Pop label, METZ, from Toronto, Canada worked the crowd into a frenzy and played a set of songs that although many had never heard before, grabbed lots of attention, including that of McKagan and would surely prompt some smart purchases soon after.
Solo, it would seem that J Mascis is for an acquired taste. Many afront the stage that Mascis played were appearing bored and phased by the whole set. Mascis played well and sang with conviction, but even being presented by the Mayor of Seattle didn’t enthuse the crowd, who had quite obviously gathered for Mudhoney and Built To Spill.
Armed and slightly giddy!
I move my own shit, Mayor!
Big guns Soundgarden did not play. Interesting as Doyle had mouthed their name as part of the infomercial advertising the show. Kim Thayil, also included in the same video clip noticeably failed to appear. Of course Nirvana are no longer together….
Nonprofit radio in the way of KEXP, who have eternally supported the efforts of Sub Pop musicians were in attendance, as was Northwest Parkinsons Foundation. This as a result of Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Ponemans announcement of the fact he has Parkinsons Disease, in May 2013.
Food , water and hippies were provided for the bash. Fashion sense and hair styling tips were not, socks and sandals and bad 80’s attire had re-surfaced especially for the occasion.
Grunge, if indeed it ever existed, was very apparent.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sub Pop. See you at 30?
Karen Graham July 15th 2013
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Gene Simmons is 62.
Courtesy Brian Ach
Wireimage.com
Paul Stanley is 61.
Shirtless God!
Both men are crazy mental mother fuckers.
At the age of 60 plus, most dudes would be happy to be in their Lazy Boy at 10:30 pm each evening. Not this pair. No, they prefer to breathe fire, spit blood and swing on wires, above the heads of 15,000 people! Most of those people will have payed approximately 150$ each to watch this spectacle! Do the math, you too may decide swinging at height on a wire is worth the returns.
October 2012 saw the release of the 20th KISS studio album, MONSTER.
1974 saw the release of the self titled record KISS. The first studio album. Live, it is proven that more of the KISS Army are still loving the older tunes a little better.
Of course the band are in full make-up once again after a break from it in the 80’s and 90’s and with two additional (and permanent) musicians in Tom Thayer (guitar) and Eric Singer (drums), the band is once again fluid and simultaneously solid. After a recent tour with younglings Motley Crue, a break would have been a great idea in some minds, but months of live shows has not fazed these grandfathers of Rock n Roll and they are still pulling off a live show with theatrical finesse.
courtesy of http://www.chicagonow.com
Stanley has notably reigned in his vocal on some songs, but it does no injustice to them and he still delivers an enviable performance.
Pyro, risers and confetti add to the circus that is a KISS show and Stanley quite obviously loves the attention that he is still given by women and other mens women, at a show. Admittedly a nicer ass is quite hard to find on a thirty year old in North America, so you cannot blame the birds!
Are KISS still making original music? Probably not, but classics like Detroit Rock City, I was Made For Loving You and Love Gun will make you jump to your feet and punch your fist in the air at a live show, so it really is irrelevant.
What this really is a family get together. Gene Simmons has successfully turned Sunday lunch into a fucking huge rock extravaganza, with a donation left at the altar of The God Of Thunder on the way in! Instead of selling baked pies, he persuades you to buy a piece of cloth with his face on it. It’s not a pretty face, but you feel compelled to buy anyway!
Keep buying. Gene will need fresh onesies in his retirement home for aged rock moguls one day soon…
It was great to see Strutter Shannon Tweed-Simmons enjoying the show and hanging out with the masses in Canada. Tweed-Simmons will once again be the voice of of Ex-Wives Of Rock, season two on Slice TV, is airing in August in Canada.
Karen Graham July 15th 2013
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Making history today, Seattle band Mudhoney, as part of The Sub Pop Silver Anniversary (25 years) played 10 songs at the top of Seattle’s space needle.
The first band to ever do this, Mark Arm and co. looked surprisingly relaxed as they played, circled by a camera toting Charles Peterson, who was also making his own history by traveling in a helicopter for the first time.
J Mascis of Dinosaur Jnr fame was due to make an appearance. KEXB radio reported that Mascis had forgotten his appointment!
Mudhoney and Mascis, along with many other Sub Pop acts, past and present, will be appearing at Georgetown’s Airport Way South, (Seattle) as a part of the Silver Anniversary, on Saturday 13 July 2013, which is FREE to attend!
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A Download 2013 Review
A little while before the last band were due to hit the main stage on Sunday 16 June 2013, some poor bastard got stuck on the zipline. It took fifteen minutes or so for the staff to zip down and save him. Of course by this time tired, happy, drunk, sunburned, stinky, hung over, bored and just plain in it for shiggles people, had started to use the guy for target practice with their empties. Little wonder his wellies didn’t fall off the way he swung, ducked and dodged. They didn’t and he was saved. What ensued was an all out bottle fight under the zipline. Kids, moms, adults dressed as animals, naked blokes, Jesus and the like, on the command of “bottle fight” launched into it and were engrossed in this childish, yet oh so very amusing and giggle worthy time waster, for a good half an hour. Of course, if the zipliners had been allowed to continue it would never have happened. They were stopped after Welly Dude got taken back to his tower and attentions of the masses turned to those about to jump! Amid shouts of “Pussy”, “Jump you bastard” and other worthy insults, the Zipline Gods decided to hold on to their targets. Sensible, if not a little po faced.
Bored, wet and hungover. The masses take to throwing shit!
Where are you? You my friend are at Download Festival , Castle Donington, England. It was a sunny day, well a little cloud here and there, but sunburn aplenty, which is surprising as the two previous days were less than pleasing. The words Rock Festival and Muddy Field joined again in an unholy matrimony. Of course the several stark bollock naked dudes, adult furry animals and poncho’d jello types, seemed not to be all that perturbed.
Less than impressed.
Music each day of the festival (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) kicked off at 10am ish in the Pepsi Max Stage and was an alarm call for those campers in VIP and Disabled camping, who were close enough to hear. A short five-minute walk took you to the right side of the stage as you looked at it, past the shops and stalls and eventually toward the food. Food was top notch. Pulled Pork, Giant Yorkshire Pudding, Noodle, Pizza and Fish and Chips were reasonably priced and tasted good. Tea, coffee and pop were not selling for an arm and a leg and were not watered down to within an inch of their life.
Toilets. Yes, we are going there. When there are people on patrol, cleaning and the like, why then is it possible that dickhead a); that’s what we will call him, is able to do a shit, put it in a cup and upturn it on the flush, ready for the next unsuspecting toilet attendee to see as soon as he/she/heshe enters the little room. It happened. There is no scarring. It just needed to be mentioned, that’s all.
VIP WC’s were a very different picture. Lighting, hand dryers and little sinks with running water. No poop here!!
It would be impossible, well OK, it would take far too long to review each and every band that played this year. A few do really deserve to be written about however. Starting with a band that should have been a much bigger thing in the late 80’s and still belt out superb music. Little Caesar were robbed of what was essentially theirs for the taking back in the day. It seems that it has only made them a better, more giving band. Little Caesar played their asses off in The Pepsi Max tent. It wasn’t a long set and they didn’t play Chain of Fools, but they didn’t need to. When they played Dirty Water from the new record American Dream, it just set in stone that this band is huge and will get bigger. ZZ Top were lucky that these guys didn’t kick ’em in the face on the way by. They should have.
Queens Of The Stone Age. No Dave Grohl this time around. Fortunately his presence or lack there of, didn’t take away from the band’s performance or very sick sense of humor that is the giant red-haired man, Joshua Homme. If his musical career were to fail, which is not likely, ever, not on this planet anyway; Homme could make a very great living as a comedian. He won’t ever need to do that. Not a still person at the festival site while these Desert Rockers were atop the main stage. They brought it. Download sucked it into every pore.
Down were probably a big surprise for some. A stage full of old thrashing guys is probably not a big draw for some of the younger pretty people in attendance, but Phil Anselmo is a bit of a legend and he made sure he lived up to his status. A proud user of the work “fuck”, Anselmo instigated circle pits and head banging using the word well. He did himself proud. Even the far away people atop the hill stopped to take a peek at the former Pantera frontman deliver his growly swearing sermon to music.
Stonesour are not a side project! This point needs to be made. Corey Taylor is as completely dedicated to this band as he is to Slipknot. Musically they are often similar, though Stonesour are not as thrashy. Taylor lends his voice very well to this outfit and the songs are a little more personal. Kudos has to go to Taylor for holding up the Slipknot show on Friday night so that “No friends of mine get hurt. Not on my watch,” following the collapse of a barrier, not once but twice. Taylor refused to continue until things had been fixed.
Jaren Leto is probably the best looking human ever.
It’s fact, not an opinion. So, little wonder he and his fellow pretty people in Thirty Seconds To Mars draw in a big crowd. Leto uses every inch of the stage and he can certainly work a crowd, but is this really just marketing genius? Thirty Seconds To Mars are not the best musicians ever and the songs they produce are all very similar on listening. Does it matter? To use a word formerly bandied by Phil Anselmo “FUCK” no. It matters not. The people loved them and it’s all about pleasing the people at the end of the weekend!!
Alice In Chains had probably been written off by many in the crowd a long, long time ago. What a hasty and foolish move. 25 years on the prowl makes for a great predator. They sought out their prey and devoured them. Too few classics missed and a crowd left wanting more.
Breaking the chains!
Europe were seemingly greeted by a bunch of guys who sang; “de de der der, de du du der der” before each song. It must be great to be remembered! They do have another song too!
Limp Bizkit have been around a while and Fred Durst is very controversial at times. The band cancelled for Boonstock in Gibbons, Alberta, Canada which played out to 14,000 two weeks after Download. No reason was given. Download didn’t give a shit. Limp Bizkit performed to a crowd that wanted what it was they were giving. Again, that really is all that mattered. Verbal reviews of the band on site were all good and that they “gave it up like only they could”. That’s gotta be good, right?
Headliners cannot be an easy decision when, although a metal/rock crowd, everyone has their special favorite. A bit like your favorite knickers, or the way you like your potatoes cooked! Andy Copping, Download Booker and Festival promoter, works year round to provide the best pair of knickers that only he can. Guaranteed, every time he announces a new band some cock will diss him on a social forum. 100,000 a day attend Download. That just tells you right there that Copping is on to something. He knows his shit.
A big thank you has to go out to the RAF, from everyone in attendance, for allowing a fly past by Spitfire pre-Iron Maiden. Genius on the behalf of the Maiden camp, fabulous every time that the plane hits the skies.
Slipknot, Iron Maiden and Rammstein all made their mark at this years festival. Till Lindemann made the bottle fight cease to be. That has to count for something. Each band is theatrical, each is musical. Tight choreography and musical superbness is key as far as each band is concerned. Genius is never far away.
Gimp masks, Giant skeletons and Sadomasochism as standard should be a part of everyone’s weekend!
If you are a fan of just one then your weekend was made. If not you need to earn to live a little!
By Karen Graham July 10th 2013
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Seattle band Pearl Jam have just released the news that Pearl Jam are coming to a venue close to YOU, North America.
Tickets on sale July 27th 2013 at Ticketmaster.com (YES REALLY) 10am local.
A single is highly anticipated, following the news that the band has completed recording for the new record…..
Turn It Up To Twelve 