THIS MAY JUST BE THE GREATEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN..........holy shit i'm hungry now.........

was that shit for real?.......................

Stak

SOUNDING LOUD..................

Two different posters...........same show................plan on rocking out tomorrow night..........oh and Rhi, i'll have a copy of that compilation cd for you whenever we can arrange for you to pick it up..........i owe you some goodies for the tattoo design.............



Rock it like it's goin out of style.........time's a'wastin..........

Stak

CICADA!!!!!...............

How many of you have seen a living cicada........oh sure we hear them in the trees all the time when it gets hot out........but for me, the only tangible evidence i've ever seen of these weird bugs has been the husks left over after they've molted.......

This weekend at the lake, we ran into this guy..........fresh out of the ground, he was still caked in clay........he looked like a miniature rhinceros without the horns.....Dylan picked him up off the ground and placed him on a pine tree......his forelegs looked like ice hooks........he promptly began climbing.........

We looked up on the tree a few hours later.........and there was nothing left but a husk, split down the middle.........what a strange creature.........

Stak

CAKE FACE! CAKE FACE!.........Aidan's birthday party.........

Yep........we gave him his own cake........chocolate with chocolate frosting.......his first time ever tasting cake in fact.......i think he liked it......what do you think?...........afterwards, i just dunked him in the lake...........he had frosting in each ear hole...........

Rock it like a good poppa..........love that kid to death......

Stak

YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF SOUTH CAROLINA'S STELLAR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM......

Here's Miss Teen South Carolina giving us a Big Brain exhibition............prepare to feel your IQ drop while watching this..........i mean.......GAAAAHHHH!!!!....








Rock it like you've got maps.......locate South Africa and help em dammit....to build up our future.......

Stak

PURE EVIL............i will definitely be having nightmares after seeing this........

I found these images over at My Confined Space which i highly recommend........if you're wondering why i would go so far as to call that "cute and cuddly" piece of shit pure evil, you'll need to go read this.........that should be all the explanation you'll need....

Have a good weekend all..........i'm going to the lake to have a birthday party for my toddler.....







Stak

BIRTHDAY WISHES.........for one of my favorite persons on this planet........

Aidan turned one year old today...........Oh my gawd how i love this kid........


Stak

BOOM!

I have always been in love with severe wheather..........fascinated by it..........


I sat out on the deck today as thunder rolled in surround sound all about me ..........

One strike..........one direct hit......or even an indirect hit..........and you are literally Toast.............

I thought about that one and done scenario............




Rock it like you're living with no fear..........DARE the lightning.......

Stak

DOES ROCK COUNT ON MONDAY NIGHT?........i don't know but imma find out.........

WHILE WE'RE ON WILL FERRELL..........dear baby Jesus...........

I CAN TURN INVISIBLE.........if i really try hard.........

JUST BECAUSE IT BEARS REPEATING..........put yo junk it dat box........

FOR YOUR EDIFICATION............the rhymenoceros........the hiphopopotomus..........

DEATH METAL...........it's the shit.......no really......it's shit..........

THE WINDSOCK OF DOOM..........or a guide to making your bandmates puke while riding in the tour van..........

The photo above is yet another step back in time for me........that's a band i played in back in the days when i had hair..........hair that wasn't growing on my knuckles or my back..........pre-bald gorilla days if you will..........at any rate, that's MARY JANE JONES..........the other fine fellows in the band are Dave Newhall who played bass, Rob Bernier who played guitar, and his brother Todd Bernier who also played guitar.........

Tonight i wanna talk about Todd.........specifically his behavior on the road.........now Todd or "Tippy" as we called him had standards that were a bit different from most folks......let's just say he was comfortable letting his hygiene go way past the point that most reasonable human beings would be sprinting for the shower......and a manicure.......and a sandblaster........

Try going on the road for weeks on end with someone like that...........i triple fucking dawg dare you............my apologies for the breech of dare etiquette........

There was one long trip MJJ took out to the midwest and back........it was a happy time.......we played a record label showcase and gots lots of interest from the VIRGIN records A&R guy............on the trip back Tippy struck.......it was the coup de grace.......we had been practically living out of a van for 2 weeks........Tippy had not changed his underwear or socks ONCE during that entire time span........and it was summer time too..........whilst driving through the OZARK mountains, Tippy took one of his socks off........and okay that was bad.........but what he proceeded to do next will be ingrained in my olfactory nerves for eternity..........he........he.........he........

excuse me for a second........i can hardly bring myself to commit these words to blogdom.............*sniffle*...........

he opened up the side window on the van..........then he proceeded to lift this sock........which for all intents and purposes was a living eco-system of funk......as the sock began to take wind, it became the putrid death wind sock of the apocalypse............the stench of two weeks of foot funk permeated every last molecule of air in the van............

we had to pull over...............

now i've been scared before.......but i have never felt like i was standing at the edge and staring over it into the abyss........until i smelled "the wind sock of doom"..........i hope to never endure such torture again.........

at least it was a rental van............and thank Almighty Jesus.......he used his sock instead of his drawers...........



Rock it like you've lived well..........enjoy your memories......even the stinky ones..........

Stak

TWO TIDBITS.............found wordplay for the Poetry Train.......

Blurb #1

She smelled like nicotine
Stained fingers
Stained teeth
Stained soul


Blurb #2

Your words caress my teeth
I crunch them in my mouth
The syllables are sweet
The curses they are foul


Stak

MAN VS. WILD.............and we didn't leave the set and sleep at the MOTEL 6..........

This is a photo of a vista at Devil's Fork State Park........it's on Lake Jocassee in the northwestern corner of South Carolina...........me and Trix and Aidan camped there last weekend.........it was beautiful............the water was so blue..........-S

It was a nice campground, although if you're camping in a tent you're haulin' all your stuff from a parking lot down a path to your site. For you backpackers, you can call me a pussy, I'm a total "car camper". Plus with a baby, there's more shit required. Once we were set up all was fine. My friend E-man came to join us, he had spent some time up there & was a fine guide. We went to a couple stroller friendly waterfalls, & up to a town called Highland where we got great Italian sandwiches & a $10 accordian. We went swimming in the blue water, had a lazy day, & sat out a rain storm in our bathing suits. I'd definately do it again. - T.

Certainly, pros and cons all around........but the landscape was beautiful.............and we like camping................

Stak

THE LOCAL MUSICAL FAMILY TREE..........this will probably only make sense to me...........

I have had the luxury and honor to be both a participant and observer of the evolution of music in my hometown of Augusta,Georgia..........the picture you see above was taken at SQUEAKY'S TIP TOP..........an Augusta landmark that was once described in GQ magazine by the members of a New York band called Lotion as "a tool shed with a bar on the side"..........they made the remark in the most loving way possible..........because most every band that came to SQUEAKY'S loved it.........Jay Aston from the 80's band GENE LOVES JEZEBEL calls SQUEAKY'S a friend to this day.........for a good long run, it was the oldest functioning bar in Augusta...........for pete's sake, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER came there for a burger and a beer after a round of golf at the AUGUSTA NATIONAL............

The picture at the head of this post was taken in the late 80's.......obscured behind the cymbals and drums is yours truly.........it was around the time that THE TIP TOP began having live entertainment..........that's my band NEATO TORPEDO.........waaaaaaayyyy back in the day..........the bands set up in the back of the bar at that time.........seeing that pic puts me in a nostalgic mood........so imma run down some of the bands from Augusta that either inspired me,blew my mind.........or of course the ones i played a part in...........(dig my dangle,Bpops).............

i'll start with a band that fueled my curiosity and desire to play music.........My dad's band THE PALLBEARERS............they billed themselves as "the last ones to let you down"..........and they made a name for themselves playing the frat circuit all over the southeast............i was not present for their career..........however........the memorabelia(sp?) i got to see, belied how big time these cats were.........they played white boy soul.........and they released records on two separate label imprints..........they rode the then very influential top 40 of WBBQ for many many weeks just prior to my birth...........and the music kicked ass.............

flash foward 15 or so years to the mid 80's...........as a teenager, i became aware of a burgeoning scene of cats that were doing the whole DIY thing and building the foundation of our music "scene"............

John Brownlee impressed me very early on as a sort of impressario.....he played bass with a band called THE FUNGOES...........and he brought bands from out of town to play Augusta............they held the shows in a practice space above a chinese laundry on 8th street downtown.........there was always a keg..........and the shows always got busted..........but it was cool as shit to me as a teenager........THE FUNGOES later became THE OUTLINES............and it was good.......

there were other bands sharing that practice space..........one prominent band was THE CRAWLING PEGS...........who's members later went on to form BLAH............

around this time, i helped found NEATO TORPEDO.............along side us, several great bands were forming...........taking our cues from the variety of great stuff we were discovering by bands from labels like SST and all the DUTCH EAST INDIA TRADING COMPANY stuff.........FUCKSTICK turned into PAINTED TAMBOURINE......which evolved into SWIMMING GROUND............the boys from TIN SOLDIER eventually joined forces with DAVID BRADBERRY from STAN'S BIKE and ORPAN TRAIN to form DEBT OF NATURE(one of this town's all time greats)........

i joined DEBT OF NATURE upon leaving NEATO............DON dissolved into SMILE.........after SMILE, Dave Newhall and I formed MARY JANE JONES...........and so on and so forth.........up to now..........

in the middle of that span of time, there were other great Augusta bands such as DESOLATE JAMES,BURNING BUSH,JAMESGATE,PINE.........and how do you forget HUNDRED YEAR SUN..............

the list, the history and the chronology are by no means complete.........but the point is this..........this town has produced great original music for more than 20 years now..............

i'm proud to have been involved in whatever small capacity..........

Rock it like your next artistic endeavor may in some small way make history........lay that shit down with the most passion you can muster...........

Stak

THE BOOTS OF EVIL WERE MADE FOR WALKING........keep your vulgar monies..........

All hail E-bay..............thanks to that glorious creation, we procured a DVD copy of season one of THE TICK.........remember............HE IS MIIIIGGGHHHTTTYYY.........seriously great stuff..........

Other stuff..............JOE GRAVES AND THE DIRTY LEFT HAND has several shows coming up......one of them NOT being 12 Bands of Favoritism.............ahem.........more on that later............



Looking forward to a miserable season by my FALCONS............AND my BULLDOGS...........

Baby Aidan turns one year old on the 23rd............i can't really express what a joy it has been having him around thus far...........the work is a pleasure....i have to admit that Trixie does most of the heavy lifting.........and believe me.........the kid is HEAVY...........here's hoping this is the first birthday in a string of a hundred in a long happy life.........


Apologies for the lack of posts lately............i've been otherwise occupied.........

Stak