Huh... this blog has been trawling along for four and a half years now. I expect to receive a gold watch in six months time.

My brother is in New York right now; in fact, he spent last Friday in the city witnessing a free open-air concert celebrating the 4th of July. The line-up? Sonic Youth supported by The Feelies. Not bad... not bad at all. Last time I noticed, the free concert us 'Strines were offered to celebrate the day of our modern founding as a country, we got Russell Crowe and Thirsty Merc. Sometimes you Yanks do get it right.

That image above is from the Hawaii LP by the Last Of The Juanitas. Weird how things turn out sometimes. When Gary from Yawning Man/Ten East rang me about 6 months back, he was raving to me about this guy Bryan Giles who going to play guitar on the new Ten East record. He told me he'd always been a fan of his work in the band, Last Of The Juanitas, and that his current outfit, Red Fang, will kick yer backside into next week. LOTJ... it rang a bell, couldn't figure where. It wasn't until months later when I Googled an image search that I came up w/ the above picture. The bell was truly rung. I realised that LOTJ were actually a band I had flogged incessantly whilst working at Missing Link throughout 2000-2001, so much so that I had written my own sticker explaining its wares to The Kids, in the hope of selling more copies, and yet I'd never picked it up myself. Now I have. My ebay purchase of the LP version just hit the front doorstep this evening. Scored it for a Nice Price, and now I'm smiling... perhaps even gloating a little. LOTJ were a predominantly instrumental outfit who existed between the years 1996-2004, released a few LPs, EPs and 7"s, toured a bunch and called it a day. For the finer points, find 'em here. One listen to Hawaii and the memories flood back: hearing a record by a band you know absolutely nothing about, yet are immediately impressed by. The standard description for the band remains this: Melvins meets Black Flag. That'll do for me. You can call 'em math-metal, jazz-punk, doom-rock, whatever. The rampant six-string Ginnisms mixed up w/ Melvins-y sludge is my ticket to a good time. Glad I made the effort. Seek and ye shall enjoy.