photos by Keith Marlowe

Time Out NY: These days, the Descendents seem to play more one-off festival gigs than full-on tours. How do you decide when to fire up the band again?

We go through periods of just blatant inactivity, and then we fairly whimsically just decide to start doing some shows. But because of the logistics of getting the four of us together, we seem to have bettter luck doing little weekends. You know, several of us have, quote, "real jobs"--Milo's job being very, very real, he's a biochemist at DuPont. And I guess in a way my day job, as it were, has become fairly real. I seem to have begun to lean on record producing quite a bit, although I still definitely do my fair share of drumming and songwriting. And so you throw those jobs into a pot of logistic stew along with everyone having wives and families and also the fact that we live in three different states... The bottom line is, we just get together whenever it's convenient for all of us, and as long as we continue to do it that way, then it's always fun.

Its been a long time comin', but the Descendents made it right at a sold-out Roseland Ballroom on Friday night with H2O and the recently reunited Suicide Machines. How was it? Their November set at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010 was great (they've also since played NXNE and FYF Fest).

The show was one of a pair for Milo & co. this past weekend. The Descendents also swung by Philadelphia to play RiotFest East on 9/24 alongside Dead Milkmen, X (who are on their way towards NYC), Plow United, Hot Water Music, and many others. Descendents will next head to RiotFest in Chicago, their last scheduled US show for now. There they'll again share a bill with Suicide Machines as well as names like Weezer, Danzig Legacy (also coming to NYC and Fun Fun Fun Fest), ALL, Social Distortion (who play Izod Center with Foo Fighters tonight), and many others.

In somewhat related news, one of the Descendents' labels, Fat Wreck Chords (home of 2004's Cool To Be You), is having a CMJ showcase on 10/20 at Union Hall with: Dead To Me / The Flatliners / Banner Pilot / Old Man Markley / The Arteries. Tickets are on sale.

More Roseland pictures and the Descendents setlist is below.

Continue reading "Descendents played Roseland Ballroom w/ H2O & Suicide Machines (pics & setlist)"

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Smoke or Fire - "Neon Light" (MP3)

Smoke or Fire (photo by Katie Hovland)

Much like The Hold Steady, Against Me or The Gaslight Anthem, Richmond's Smoke or Fire revel in the hard-rockin' melodicism of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Americana that isn't readily apparent in "punk". Its a tough line to walk but they do it well, while sawing out driving punk that wouldn't feel that out of place in their bassist Gwomper's former project, Avail.

Smoke or Fire will welcome their new LP The Speakeasy on November 9th, via Fat Wreck Chords. The Speakeasy marks new territory for the crew; new drummer Ryan Parrish of Darkest Hour was recently welcomed into the fold (a seat that was once held by Dave of From Ashes Rise) and the LP marks Gwomper's writing/recording debut with Joe McMahon & crew. Check out the new track "Neon Light" available above.

Smoke or Fire will appear with Flatiners and Cobra Skulls twice in NYC for CMJ, and on the same day (10/23). Generation Records will host the trio of bands at 2PM, and later they'll all play the sold-out Fat Wreck Chords CMJ Showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg with Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, None More Black, and Dead To Me. Full tour dates, show flyer, and some video of Smoke or Fire is below.

Continue reading "new Smoke or Fire MP3 from 'The Speakeasy' ++ 2010 dates "

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, None More Black, Teenage Bottlerocket, Smoke or Fire, Dead To Me, The Flatliners, and Cobra Skulls are playing the Fat Wreck Chords CMJ showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg on October 23rd. Tickets are on sale at noon.

Tickets are on sale at noon for the Land of Talk show at Bowery Ballroom.

Tickets are on sale at noon for the Tallest Man on Earth show at Webster Hall.

Tickets are on sale at noon for the Tom Tom Club show at Brooklyn Bowl. Tickets are also still on sale for the Santos Party House show.

Tickets are on sale at noon for the English Beat show at Webster Hall.

Tickets are no longer going on sale at noon for the Rogue Wave / Midlake show at Webster Hall. Stay tuned for more info.

Tickets are on sale for a GBH show at Highline Ballroom.

The Matador 21 Fest, Devendra Banhart, Of Montreal, Scissor Sisters, Ratatat & other tickets went on sale at noon too.

"The lead singer from the band NOFX is under fire for giving out free shots of Patron during a recent show -- shots that appeared to have been watered down ... with the punk rocker's urine.

The guy accused of pissing everybody off -- Fat Mike -- put on a solo performance as his alter-ego "Cokie the Clown" at last week's South by Southwest festival in Austin ... covered by punk news website DyingScene.com.

Mike began the show by passing out the shots to fans and even downed a couple himself. But after a bizarre half hour in which Mike described his friend hanging himself, smothering his dying mother to death and milking a fan, Mike decided to show the crowd a very, very disturbing video.

The video appears to begin just moments before Mike took the stage and shows the singer urinating into a bottle of tequila ... and then serving it to the audience. The video did not appear edited.

So far, cops are not investigating the situation, but when we called the Austin Health Department to ask if they had taken any action, they told us they were unaware of the incident ... but would be looking into it.

Fat Mike told TMZ, "I confirmed that urine was not classified as a biohazard waste and not subject to the risks of legal ramifications of blood, semen, or feces." [TMZ]

The show took place at Emo's (who reportedly have banned Mike from ever coming back) on Saturday, March 20th (it was the Fat Wreck Chords showcase - 3 days after the BV show at the same place). Check out the TMZ-uploaded video of the incident, and information about the new restaurant Fat Mike is co-opening (yum?) in Park Slope, below....

Continue reading "Hopefully NOFX's Fat Mike doesn't serve pee at his new Park Slope restaurant (like he did dressed as a clown @ SXSW) "