Nightlights Summer Tour Journal 2011 - Day 6-9 (July 28-31)

After signing to Eulogy Records and releasing their debut LP So It Goes on July 5th Nightlights are hopping in the and embarking on their fifth tour. This time they’ll be making a run up the east coast before turning around and hitting the southern circuit. Playing with new bands every night and staying in strange towns with people they’ve met on the road can make from some very entertaining stories. We’ve given Nightlights this forum to share their stories, tales, and exaggerations while on the road. 

Read the second installment below and be sure to check back every couple of days for more!

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Nightlights Summer Tour Journal 2011 - Day 1 and 2 (July 23 + 24)

After signing to Eulogy Records and releasing their debut LP So It Goes on July 5th Nightlights are hopping in the and embarking on their fifth tour. This time they’ll be making a run up the east coast before turning around and hitting the southern circuit. Playing with new bands every night and staying in strange towns with people they’ve met on the road can make from some very entertaining stories. We’ve given Nightlights this forum to share their stories, tales, and exaggerations while on the road. 

Read the first installment below and be sure to check back every couple of days for more!

Nightlights Summer Tour Journal 2011

Day 1 and 2 - July 23 and 24

We always meet at Jake’s house (drums) in Port Orange, Florida.  His house has the most sufficient parking and the van stays with him while we are not on tour.  We are all originally from that area but everyone resides in other cities now.  Jake and I (Joe, guitar) are the only ones who still live in the Daytona Beach area.  Actually, after this tour we will all be living in different cities, at least an hour or more apart from each other. Matt now lives in Jacksonville so we usually pick him up on the way out.

Our first stop is in Valdosta, Georgia.  Destination: Bleu Pub. Usually our tours start out horribly due to the fact that we live in the south and that the most southern states don’t really cater to punk rock music as well as it does to say…Christian Metal-core. So we really weren’t looking forward to this show.  We showed up a little late, but were pleasantly surprised to see a great turnout.  A nice and chill bar setting with a stage and what looked like some really delicious southern cooking.  We played third in the line-up and a decent amount of people took interest in us and presented themselves in front of the stage, while some of the other on-lookers sat in the booths.  That usually makes for a semi-awkward experience but overall the show was great and was probably the best first show we have played on our five tours.  We cooped up that night with a friendly couple that we got to talking with at the show.  They even made us breakfast in the morning.  We said our farewells, showed our appreciation for their hospitality and were off to Savannah in the ungodly mid-summer heat.

Half naked and sweating, we were cruising through back woods Georgia, Staying hydrated with our piss warm bottle water that we stocked up on before we left.  As we were driving on an overpass, we noticed a rendezvous of pick-up trucks on what looked liked a beach bordering a delicious creek.  We quickly turned around and headed off road to find the path to this party.  We pulled into a spot and headed to the water, full of good ol’ boys and warm Busch light.  The creek was not as refreshing as it seemed, being that it was shallow and warm, but the iodine colored water was better than the muggy highway wind.

When we arrived in Savannah, we were greeted with some familiar faces of some local Floridian bands, Mute Issue and Break On Through.  As well as our friends band from Houston, Texas, Earhart.  We got there just in time to find out that the show had been cancelled due to some miscommunication.  Every effort to find a new and last minute venue was taken but with no luck.  The other bands decided to post up in a park and jam acoustically to some bystanders.  We walked around downtown Savannah with an old friend as a tour guide.  We hit a few bars and then stumbled upon “Echo Square”.  This is going to be really hard to explain but I will try to sum it up without all the unimportant details.  Basically there is this square tile in this sort of little park about the size of an apartment living room.  When you stand on the middle of the square and talk, you hear this odd spring reverb.  Almost as if your were in a giant tin can.  

The only person that can hear it though, is the one who is standing in the middle of the square talking.  No one around the square can hear the effect it has on your voice and no one around the square talking can make that effect be heard to the person standing on the square.  This basically blew our minds as we tried all sorts off different saying, patterns and positions.  After about 20 minutes we headed back to the park to meet up with the rest of the touring bands.  We found a place to crash with a friend of Alex (bass) in Charleston, SC. So we said our goodbyes and headed north. 

Follow Nightlights on Facebook. Pick up their new record on Eulogy Records or on iTunes.

Top 5 Greatest Guitarists Who Are Also Great Songwriters with Oscar Albis Rodriguez of Ghost Robot NInja Bear (formerly of Nakatomi Plaza / De La Hoya)

You may know Oscar Albis Rodriguez from his extensive punk rock background with bands such Ghost Robot Ninja Bear, Nakatomi Plaza, and De La Hoya, but what you may not know about him is that he is a bit of a guitar snob and known to call Jimmy Page’s playing “sloppy” and rave madly over Eddie Van Halen’s noodling. 

 Below you’ll find a list of his Top 5 Greatest Guitarist Who Are Also Great Songwriters.

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Artist Spotlight: Tightrope

 

Artist: Tightrope

Genre: Hardcore punk

For fans of: Anchors / The (Philadelphia) Curse / Vultures United

Why you should pay attention to them: 

The bands that eventually become my favorite always have two things in common: they aren’t punk or hardcore, but somewhere in the middle and exude a special kind of energy that makes you want to see them live. It’s not an easily achievable feat and as simple as it sounds not many bands are able to click in that way with me. Tightrope, while still in its infancy is showing signs that they may be able to cross over into the ‘favorite zone’ if they keep perfecting their craft of just barely restrained fury. 

Read our interview with Tightrope below along with a track off their new EP. 

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Needle Drop Radio Episode #52 - A Punk Rock Podcast

This week’s installment of NDR is live and features jams from Teenage Bottlerocket, Basement, Descendents, Colin Farrell, and many more to get you through that drive home from work! 

 If you enjoyed the show,  subscribe!

 Make the jump for the full track list.

Needle Drop Radio Episode #52 Playlist:

  • Colin Farrell - Silence
  • Teenage Bottlerocket - Stupid Games
  • Basement - Fading
  • Tenement - Taking Everything
  • McRad -Prevent That Tragedy
  • Descendents - Jean Is Dead
  • The Tank - COVER SONG OF THE WEEK
  • Colin Farrell - Lollo Is On Cortisone

5 Essential Red Scare Industry Releases

Red Scare Industries formed in 2004 by former Fat Wreck Chords employee Toby Jeg when his friend, Brendan Kelly of The Lawrence Arms, needed a label to release an EP by his new side project The Falcon. Since then the label has been a hotbed for up and coming punk talent and has released music from The Copyrights, Nothington, The Sidekicks, Cobra Skulls, Teenage Bottlerocket, The Menzingers and many more.

Find out which 5 Red Scare Industries albums made the cut.

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Top 10 Punk ‘Rock Band’ Tracks Worth Downloading

It’s quite a shame that the whole rhythm gaming market came to a crash when it did because Rock Band was just getting started on something very exciting for indie music makers when it took a nose dive. Rock Band Network is a platform where indie bands can chart their music via a computer application and submit their tracks for download (both paid and free) in game. RBN offers a variety of great punk rock, metal, and indie tunes that you may have never guessed would be featured in a video game. We’ve gone through the work and handpicked the Top 10 Punk Rock Band Network Tracks Worth Downloading!

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Artist Spotlight: The Lion of Wall Street

Artist: The Lion of Wall Street

Genre: Hardcore

For fans of: Bitter End / Carpathian / Grave Maker

Why you should pay attention to them:

In 2008 The Lion of Wall Street made waves in the Texas hardcore scene with their mosh worthy post-hardcore endeavor Sidewalk Slam. That single 7” carried so much clout with the hardcore community that it kept their fans content over the next few years while the band worked fervently on their followup EP Yeah But Still.  After two years of waiting the band is back with a vengeance.

Read our Q&A session with The Lion of Wall Street below.

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Introducing From Across The Pond: The Stay Free’s

 It’s only been a short while since The Stay Free’s played their first show, and it’s fair  to say they made more than a few people take notice of their soulful, bluesy punk rock songs. Looking like Social D’s kid brothers, and sounding like you would expect a band, who grew up on the sounds of Iggy, Bruce, Johnny and Joe, to sound like, The Stay Free’s are ones to be keeping your eye on. We talked with Chris and Mike about first show nerves and being compared to Elvis. Or not…

Read our interview with The Stay Free’s below.

It’s not been long since the formation of The Stay Free’s, how did you all get together?

Chris: We all moved down south last autumn after our old band ‘Gutshot’ split. I had some songs while I was band-less and Mike and I got together to jam with Leland. After our old bassist left we invited our friend Matt to play bass. 

You played your first show very recently, how did that go?

C: We had a great time, the show was the cream of the crop of the UK ‘underground’ so we we’re delighted that Matt (Living Daylights)  gave us the chance to play. We we’re shitting bricks after how good the Saturday was but it was all OK!

Lincoln is a bit of a sly dog when it comes to awesome bands, who are some folks we should be on the lookout for?

C: The Living Daylights are the tits locally. While we’ve been away the fire in the local scene seems to have been rekindled or so to speak and there’s a lot more people going to shows again.

Mike: Lower Lands and We Pharaohs are both really good hardcore bands, we went to college with those guys.      


It must be exciting for a new, young band to be involved in such a healthy local scene?

C: Totally. I’ve seen so many amazing bands over the years at really small venues, the majority of those bands loved to play here and all got given a chance by the crowd. I think there’s a lot of people round here that probably would of never got into bands if they hadn’t been part of our ‘scene’. We seem to get like one or two bad ass promoters every few years who put on some really good bands then get jaded/loose all their money but they pass the torch down to someone else. I feel really lucky to have been involved in the local scene. 

You play a style of punk that is heavily influenced by blue collar Americana, how did a bunch of young British kids end up playing with so much soul?

C: I was brought up on a pretty strict diet of Johnny Cash, he was a great story teller something I’m appreciative of in music. I dig the 50’s greaser/rockabilly thing but I do think it’s important to stay relevant. I don’t wanna feel like I’m impersonating Elvis.

M: Yeah we all really like the whole Bruce Springsteen, Social D thing….we don’t all slick our hair back and wear bowling shirts like Chris though.

Tell us some of the non-musical influences that help create what The Stay Free’s do?

C: I work in the public sector and lost my job recently and that got me writing - A LOT, there’s a lot of other people who feel let down and mistreated by our shitty Tory government. I think it’s important to stay involved and not to be ignorant of what’s going on. 

M: Living in shitty student accommodation and being too poor to afford anything because London Underground rinses all your money. 

Any grand designs for your first release?

C: We’re Demoing tracks at the moment which we’re releasing one by one gradually for people to listen to and hear what we do. In the meantime we’re writing and will be heading into the studio over the summer to start recording our first E.P. The working title is Suspension of Disbelief.  

You must be itching to get out on the road for a bit, any plans to squeeze into a VW Lupo and go on tour?

C: Crash Doubt was a bit of a first to sort of raise our heads but we’ll be booking some shows over the next few months and hopefully be touring towards the end of the Summer.

Everyone loves a good split, If you could choose any band to record one with, who and why? 

C: Sharks are awesome. Like a British Gaslight. 

M: Iron Chic or Crazy Arm, both are amazing 

And finally, with the recent sad passing of E Street sax player Clarence Clemons, it’s only fitting if you finish off by giving us the 5 ultimate Springsteen tracks:

5) Badlands

4) Backstreets

3) Adam Raised a Cain

2) Highway Patrolman

1) No Surrender

Follow The Stay Free’s on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.

Written by Kev Fenton

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STOKED! - YuDu Home Screen Printing Kit

Product: YuDu Home Screen Printing Kit

Price: $99-199

Why we’re stoked: The first thing every band wants to do after putting out music is to get some T-shirts printed up. Getting 100 shirts pressed at a print shop will set you back around $500 dollars easy and that’s just for a single one-color design. With a YuDu machine you can do it yourself at home for much cheaper and it’s not that hard to do. After purchasing the kit for $99 the only thing you’ll need to buy from here on out is extra ink ($~20 for a three pack of colors) and T-shirts (I picked mine up at A.C. more for 5 for $10). The best thing about it though is its compact size, you could literally throw this thing in the back of your van and take it with you on tour and silk screen prints and T-shirts on the spot if you wanted to. 

Where to find it: Amazon (online) and Michaels (retail)

Continue reading to watch a video of the YuDu in action.

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