Billy Don Burns and His Outlaw Friends

As yall know we are staunch supporters of Real Country Music and with Billy Don Burns amazing new album coming out July 10th, its time for the world to realize the impact he as had on Real Country Music. Have a listen...

"I picked Johnny up at the airport across the Ohio river from Cincinnatti. I gave Johnny the white shirt and members only jacket that he has on. He looked pretty ruff. Then we drove through the freezing rain to Hillsboro Ohio. The Ohio State Police took him when we pulled into the court house. The shirt Johnny has on at th CCI concert is an Outlaw at the Cross shirt, a song that Mack Vickery and I wrote, RIP Mack. The young man walking behind Johnny in the prison is me with the black Paycheck 88 cap on and the black and yellow plaid shirt. This is the only time I ever saw Johnny close the show with a song other than "Take this job and Shove it" He closed this prison show with a song that I wrote "Chillicothe You Got a Hold on Me". RIP Johnny."
 - Billy Don Burns

Order your copy of Billy Don Burns stellar new album

Billy Don Burns new album - Nights When I'm Sober, Portrait Of A Honky Tonk Singer - out July 10th 2012

Flat Tires Are Now Officially Approved By Motorhead and Headcat

Its about damn time that the world woke up to the Flat Tires. For all of those in the know, we thank ya for being there and checking out one of the best damn Juke Joint Rock N' Roll bands hitting the stages anywhere. Now we can officially count on Lemmy, Slim Jim Phantom and Danny B. Harvey as being fans of the band. Do yourself a favor and become baptized in beer and get out to the shows to witness one of the best live bands working the club circuit today.

We are keeping the lid tightly shut for now, but we can guarantee that a big tour slated for late this summer is going to help them explode into a whole new spectrum. Even though they get Flat Tires home turf wrong, it just doesn't matter. The fellas are rockin' out to the Flat Tires and putting them up against a lot of proven bands. Proof is in the puddin', roll the tape...

Slim Jim Phantom, Lemmy and Danny B. Harvey diggin' the Flat Tires

Link to post on Amoeba Music

Flat Tires will be one of the featured bands on the Rock N' Rassle Apocalypse July 28th 2012

Thanks To All Of Our Veterans

We give thanks today to all of our Veterans that have served this country. Thanks for the dedication, support and all the lives that have been put on the line, whether it is right or wrong as documented by our ever evolving history.

The colors may be dirty and worn, bu the symbol remains the same

Rory Kelly Featured In McDowell News

This past Saturday night, Rory Kelly had one hell of a cd release party for his debut album. We are going to let him recover for a few days after a string of shows around the big show on Saturday to get the full scope of the action that was had. 

Needless to say, big things are coming up this year for Rory Kelly and make sure you check out him out on Rock N' Rassle Apocalypse show happening on July 28th at Tremont Music Hall in Charlotte, NC where they will be taking the stage with Antiseen and Flat Tires along with four wrestling matches. Oh yeah, that is going to be one rowdy event to be remembered for a long time to come. 

Rory Kelly will be one of the featured acts on the Rock N' Rassle Apocalypse

Get the latest updates with Rory Kelly on Facebook

Link to original article and write up

Get your copy of Rory Kelly's new album (Don't Shake My) Family Tree now

"Downtown Marion will be rocking Saturday night as local musician Rory Kelly and his band celebrate the release of their new compact disc.

In the past few years, Kelly has played guitar with Intethod and later with the Crank County Daredevils, an Asheville-based metal band. After that, he formed Rory Kelly’s Triple Threat. This band is comprised of the 29-year-old Kelly on lead guitar, his father Mike Kelly on drums and Billy Miller on bass guitar. Kelly also plays at Main Street Pub & Deli in downtown Marion, where he hosts acoustic guitar jams.

Last year, Kelly and his band were picked up by Rusty Knuckles, an independent music and merchandise label. The label works with such groups as the Crank County Daredevils, Flat Tires, Hellbound Glory, Antiseen and The Green Lady Killers.

“The summer of 2011 brought more recognition to Rory Kelly as they were thrust into and embraced by the Southern biker circuit and a permanent bass player joined their ranks,” reads the website for Rusty Knuckles. “Billy Miller, also a seasoned musician from touring gigs with Voodou and Super Sport, brought the final element needed to round out this dirty rock 'n' roll trio, forming a mercurial rhythm section with the elder Kelly to compliment the smoldering swagger of Rory Kelly's rock riffs.

“The addition of Miller has brought a new dynamic into the band and, with that, an ever evolving definition of what Southern Rock means to Rory Kelly and how they intend to translate that to their followers.”

After months of work, Kelly and his band are celebrating the release of their new CD, “(Don’t Shake My) Family Tree,” to worldwide distribution on the Rusty Knuckles label. The 12-song album came out on Tuesday and the official release party will be held Saturday night at Main Street Pub & Deli. 

The show starts at 9 p.m. and there will be no cover charge. The group 21^st Century Goliath will be the special guest along with Kelly, his dad and Miller.

“I am really fired up about it,” said Kelly to The McDowell News.

(Click here to watch the music video of ("Don't Shake) My Family Tree")

The new CD will be sold for only $10 at the party. Free gifts will be given to anyone who buys a CD or T-shirt. After 100 copies of the new album are sold, a raffle will be held with a neon beer sign as the prize. If 200 copies are sold, a raffle will be held for a $50 tab at the pub, according to Kelly’s Facebook page.

“We’ll make sure they get taken care of that night,” said Kelly of his fans.

“(Don’t Shake My) Family Tree” was a collective effort by Kelly, his dad and Miller. The band wrote all of the songs, which contain elements of Southern rock and heavy metal.

“As a band, everybody’s role is vital,” said Kelly.

Kelly did the mixing and the engineering for the recording of the album. Musician and radio host Steve Blanton oversaw the mastering. Rusty Knuckles did the design and photography for the cover. In addition to being released on compact disc, the new album will be released on vinyl as well, he said.

Kelly and his band will do a show in Asheville tonight and another show on Sunday in Anderson, S.C.But they made sure to do their official CD release party for Saturday night in Marion.

“I am excited about getting this thing ready to roll,” said Kelly to The McDowell News. “A lot of people expected us to do the CD release party in Asheville but Asheville is not my hometown.”

To support this new release, Kelly and his band will do a tour of the East Coast this summer with a European tour to follow. They are scheduled to play Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium from September through the first of December. This will mark Kelly’s first tour of Europe as the leader.

“They already have a tour bus set up for us,” he said. “We are hoping this album takes off.”

For more information, visit www.rustyknucklesmusic.com. You can also check out Rory Kelly on Facebook."

Brent Loveday of Reno Divorce: "Originality Is The Evolution Of Influence"

The fellas in Reno Divorce returned to their home turf of Denver after a kick ass tour in Europe and immediately hopped right back on stage for their first hometown show this past Saturday night. Below is a great interview with Brent Loveday that touches on much of what Reno Divorce is all about and some of their history. 

We can tell you with absolute certainty that the new album is going to be a game changer. Reno Divorce has pulled out all the stops and has fine tuned their sound in something well beyond what anyone might expect. Once this album comes out, forget about seeing them at your local dive of a venue, they will be on a lot bigger tours and hitting large capacity venues. More details soon on the full release date and all aspects of the new album "Lovers Leap" due out this fall.

Brent Loveday of Reno Divorce feature interview in Denver Westword

Get in touch with Reno Divorce on Facebook

Keep up to date with them on their main site

Reno Divorce at Rock N Ink, Chemnitz, Germany - photo by Karsten R. Schäfer

Link to original interview post on Denver Westword

"Reno Divorce (due tomorrow night at the Marquis Theater) began in the middle '90s when frontman and guitarist Brent Loveday founded the outfit while still living in Orlando, Florida. Some early, glowing press came the way of the band's 7-inch. But it wasn't until Loveday relocated to Denver and discovered a place he felt like he could live that things began rolling. Since then, the guys have been on a handful of tours and shared the stage with many of their heroes. The band's surprisingly earnest, but never pretentious, combination of melodic punk and roots rock, peppered with something a little more aggressive, has resonated with fans across a relatively broad spectrum of musical taste.






This fall, Reno Divorce will release Lover's Leap. If you've caught any of the outfit's recent performances, you already know that the songs going on that album have a rare emotional poignancy that is more than just honest -- it's poetic. We recently spoke with Loveday about the band's history, his run-ins with his heroes and the way Reno Divorce seems to transcend its obvious influences, not just in the music but in lyrics that go deeper than rock often does these days.


Westword: When did you start Reno Divorce?


Brent Loveday: I started Reno Divorce in Orlando, Florida in 1996. It went for a couple of years, and we had a seven inch on Skank & Skull Records. It just kind of fizzled out. Of course the band fizzled out right at the time this stellar review in Flipside came out. I couldn't believe it. I moved to California, and I'm sitting in this shitty apartment in Tustin, you know, and Maximum gave it a pretty good one. Compared it to Jason and the Scorchers, which is great. Tex and the Horseheads. So I was stoked about that, and thought, "Man, I can't believe the band is broken up." Then I opened up Flipside and...it's probably still on our website. It was the greatest review I've ever gotten.


When did you decide to come to Colorado?


In California, I couldn't get nothing going. My in-laws moved to Las Vegas, and my son moved with his mom to Colorado. So basically when we were in California, we were just going back and forth to Colorado. Vegas was closer. We tried that for a year, and finally, I went, "You know what? It's the same thing; we just keep going for birthdays, Halloween, every holiday. Let's move to Denver." It turned out to be the best decision of my entire life.


Our first apartment was Capitol Hill. Then we lived in Congress Park, then Mayfair and now Park Hill. We moved here in 2001. Two months into it, the original guitarist from Reno lived here, and then we found a drummer and a bass player, and it started rolling pretty quick. Maybe within six months our debut album, which was supposed to be a demo, Naysayers and Yesmen, ended up getting four "Ks" in Kerrang! It was a pretty wild ride in the beginning.


Speaking of that, you opened for Wire on September 6, 2002. How did that happen?


You remember the Wire show?! Yeah, I put in for that show, man. I love Wire. They came to the Bluebird. This was when we were starting to get a little momentum. Not much. We were still playing a lot of East Colfax bullshit. We got that gig, and we thought it would be huge. Sold out. We got there, and those guys were totally cool. But maybe a hundred people showed up. Go figure. You never what's going to be hot and what's not.


You had a different bass player at that time, right?


We had Seth Evans. He was this mastermind, phenomenal bass player. He was one of these dudes where you play with them and think, "Why is this dude playing in my band?" He's really good. We did a European tour with him and two U.S. tours, and finally, it was too much for him. He and his girlfriend had a kid and it was too exhausting.


How did you get hooked up with a European tour at that time as a relatively new band around here?


We were relatively new. You know All? I'm a huge All dork, right. And Scott Reynolds was in my favorite era of All. He had a new band called the Pavers. When I heard them, it was like Scott's All writing, but his band was AC/DC. It blew my mind, and I totally obsessed over that band. It was one of the few records I ordered from the record shop. A buddy of mine lived in Chicago, and he was a stock broker, but he still dabbled in music, and he said, "I'm going to get you on a tour. This record's too hot; you've got to get out there." Naysayers hadn't been properly released, and we were just burning CDs. So I said, "This is the band, the Pavers. If you can get me on a tour with Scott and those cats? It's all over."


Two months later, the guitar player from the Pavers' wife called -- my friend had emailed them or whatever -- and she said, "We need a support band. How about a U.S. tour?" We did the Midwest from Buffalo all the way through. The tour went well and both bands were great. So Scott had a record deal thing going on with Boss Tuneage Records in London, and he passed it on. The guy said, "Hey, Scott recommended you. I'll put this out."


He had so many releases, even big independent bands and obscure indie rock stuff, and Kerrang! gave us that review, and he said, "You guys have got to come out and support the record." The guy from Boss Tuneage, he kind of got out of the record businesses. He had too many releases and he only focused on a few bands and we weren't one of them. So we got the rights back to it, and Street Anthem wanted to put it out with bonus tracks.


Where did you go on that tour?


It was a lot of Germany, a lot of Belgium, some Holland. Our band was cut short a few dates because my dad had a stroke, and I had to cruise back to the States. But it was a good tour, and to this day, people who saw us on that rough tour still come and see us.


When you came to Denver, what were your impressions?


I tell you what, my geography, in general, is awful. I don't know what I thought of Denver. I thought it was fucking Cincinnati or something. Just a run down, steel mill town. Which is the opposite of what it was. The first impression my wife and I had was based on our staying with our guitar player in Aurora out in the sticks. So we thought it sucked. My son was staying in Arvada, so we would go there. It was like one end of the spectrum to the other.


Then I went down to get my haircut on 13th Street, and I thought it was a cool town then. It was a cool barbershop. Aces or something. Next to Cricket on the Hill. The chick had a cool spot with cool posters up, and she was spouting off about all these cool bands, and I thought, "It has potential. It wouldn't be the end of the world if we had to live here."


The first band I saw was The Volts. They blew my mind. I also saw Fast Action Revolver; they were great. Brian Hagman was in that band. I saw them at a warehouse punk show -- the kind that's always teetering on whether the cops would come or if a fight would break out. That nervous energy was in the air, which made it even cooler. I guess it was a legitimate venue, but it was kind of a dive, maybe the Raven or the Roxy. A lot of bands were playing but those were the ones that stuck out.


The first venue that Reno Divorce played was something like Herman's Hideaway on a Wednesday. Our drummer knew someone, but he didn't know about punkers, and we got there and we were playing to our wives and girlfriends. But the last time we played Herman's, we had an almost sold out gig, so that kind of felt validating. If you get the punkers to come and see you at Herman's, it means a lot.


Our CD release show for Naysayers was at the 15th St. Tavern. People trip on, "We'll never play the Gothic or the Bluebird." And you get in there and go, "Oh, it's cool; we're playing here." The Tavern, for me, was that caliber a stage. Even though it was a shitty place off 15th and it smells awful, it was so legit and so authentic. It was what I was aiming for, and to have our CD release show was incredible.


Did you ever play shows with King Rat?


Do you remember the Undead in Denver compilations? Our first gig with them was the CD release for that at the Bluebird. When that came out, punk was the hottest thing in Denver. It did a lot for Denver. Even when Undead II came out, it was still great. What was really cool, we would tour and we would take these compilations with us to sell as merch. People in Hanover, Germany, would hear these Denver bands and get turned on to them. On a national and even the international level, it was good for everybody.


Obviously you've had out releases since Naysayers.


Well, we had Naysayers and Yesmen, You're Only Making It Worse, we did an EP called Laugh Now, Cry Later -- those two ultimately got combined. Then we did our biggest release, Tears Before Breakfast, on Ice Cream Records, and now we have one in the can called Lover's Leap. It's just a matter of waiting on the business end of things. I can honestly say it's our best release to date. It was mixed and mastered at the Blasting Room, all done by Jason Livermore. It will probably be out in September. I think People Like You Records will put it out in Europe and maybe Rusty Knuckles in the States.


You just got back from Europe two days ago?


We were gone I think 31 days, and we played twenty-nine shows.


That's like Black Flag scheduling!


It was, dude. If you look at the routing on the map, it's like a pentagram, right?


Dukowski, did you book this tour?


For real. It was harrowing; there were a lot of long drives, a lot of Friday nights with forty people and Wednesday nights with four thousand. It was just weird. Extreme highs and extreme lows. That's the way it should be. We did a lot of Germany, which is, of course, where our market is. We did the Czech Republic, we did Budapest, then we went over to France, Belgium, Holland and Italy. We got as far as Rome to about ten people. Not a big punk scene in Rome. We also did Milan. We did Poland, Warsaw.


And Zlotow, which was probably one of the craziest gigs we've ever played. Just people crammed into a small, underground space. The guitar player was picked up second song and crowd surfed through an entire song, right? The ceilings weren't much taller than here in the basement. My best guitar solo, I was picked up, unplugged. But it was great, totally cool people. We stayed in a four-star hotel. Then you go to Berlin and play for four thousand people on a Tuesday and you stay in a hostel. It's rock and roll, man. You get what you get.


We supported 7 Seconds on a few shows and Lars Fredericksen's new band, the Old Firm Casuals. But most of the dates we headlined. The Berlin date was a festival that was the first of May festival. We headlined our stage in Kreuzberg. We're the last band to play and it's starting to get dark. We look at the street and we start playing and all these people come out.


Berlin seems good for lots of different kinds of music. Cindy Wonderful lives there now, and she's a hip-hop artist. And Alexander Hacke of Einsturzende Neubauten and his wife Danielle de Picciotto lived there for years.


What kind of music is that? Industrial? Our guitarist is a big fan of industrial music and all of that, and we always bust his balls. We played a gig in Budapest, and in the dressing room is a poster for Xymox, and they're looking so industrial, but Xymox had played the venue, you know? Did you ever get into Christian Death?


Oh yeah.


Before we left on this tour, we played a gig with Rikk Agnew in Sioux City, Iowa.


Was it with The Adolescents? Just kidding.


It's crazy, he got a band from Omaha, and they played mostly Adolescents tunes, and he played guitar and sang a little bit. But he was selling Christian Death shirts at the venue.





When you played with Stiff Little Fingers last August, you introduced at least one song by telling a story or something about being close to your friends and family. And it was honestly moving. Why do you feel compelled to open up like that to a general audience?


I think it's best, if you're going to hear a song for the first time, maybe you're gonna hear my lyrics, maybe not, but to kind of set it up for you. We kind of joke with, "Oh, here he goes with the VH1 Storytellers." But you preface the stories and maybe people will pick something up through the hooks and whatever.


We have this new song about the way Americans raise their kids. Like if they bring home a bad grade, the first thing they do is take them to the doctor and say, "My kid doesn't pay attention. Put him on something." That's so contrasted with even Europe or the rest of the world where you sit with your kid and do their homework with them. But we live at such a fast pace that we want that quick fix and we become highly medicated. So the song is called "You Created a Monster." It's about doing the opposite of Americans' first knee-jerk reaction.


Not to pry, but what inspired that song?


I had a friend who has ADD, and it's legitimate. He's really torn up about having to put his kid on the medication. But as an adult, I see friends asking doctors to put them on various drugs and just kind of work the system. It's kind of a commentary on the healthcare system, doctors, pharmaceutical companies giving samples and lazy parents that would rather fix things with a pill.


Seeing you talk about that at a rock show was refreshing.


I'm bad about that, man. It chews up a lot of set time. That's why I do it. To put you in the moment and let you know where I'm coming from.


It was a poignant moment. Everyone who has seen you for years and think they have you figured out should see that.


We've been hearing that a lot lately, man. Our new record is definitely not a crazy departure, but it is more aggressive, and it's one end of the spectrum to the other. There are no ballads, but our hearts are on our sleeves with this next one. I've always thought of us as storytellers. We're not like a KISS or Motley Crue. We're telling people in our walks of life that we come from, these are the situations that we deal with. It's not boasting or posturing; it's our day-to-day.


Why did you want to call the band Reno Divorce, and have you ever entertaining the idea of changing it to something else?


Never. I hate to name drop, but it's kind of cool. We went to see the Ataris the other night, and Kris Roe, the singer -- I introduced myself because we're kind of working with the same booking agent -- he said, "I just wanted to tell you that's the coolest band name I've ever heard." Most people want to know what it means, and it came from when I was watching an A&E documentary on jetsetters in the 30s and 40s and how they would marry each other and then two months later, they want to get a divorce.


The fastest place to get a divorce is Reno. Back then, you go to ranch, stay there four weeks to get residency and bam! -- the judge signs it, no qualms. So the adage came, "Vegas wedding, Reno divorce." I thought, "Man, that's it. That's the end of the rope. When the honeymoon's over, it's a Reno divorce." I thought it sounded cool as shit, to be honest. I didn't think I'd build a band around it. Rat Pack, hotrods...it worked for me.


How did you get into playing music?


I heard Black Flag, and that was it. I was like, "Man, someone made music just for me." Then I got a guitar and realized, "I can probably do this." I'd listened to Metallica too, and I can't do that, but stuff I like, I can do it. I can't play Black Flag note for note. Greg Ginn's stuff is still over my head. But more like The Ramones and Social Distortion.


I saw Social D at a very impressionable age, obviously. I saw them on the tour right before "Ball and Chain" came out. They were playing all this new stuff. They were doing "Ring of Fire" and "Sick Boys." We saw them at a sold out gig in Orlando, Florida. It was me and a couple of buddies. My mom dropped us off and pulled us out during "Lude Boy." It blew my mind. I'd never seen anything like it.


Social Distortion was always just my favorite band. The melodies, the songs and the way the records were made. That show was sold out to begin with. I don't think they'd come to Florida in years. His presence and his command of the audience -- here's this young guy who couldn't have been more than 26 or 27 at the time -- they were powerful.


Obviously many people have compared your band to Social Distortion.


Oh yeah. It's our biggest comparison. And what I tell people is that originality is the evolution of influence. You've got to start somewhere. To me there are a lot more influences than Social Distortion, but sure, you don't [expect] John Lee Hooker not to play the blues. Of course he plays the blues, but he plays it like John Lee Hooker, which sounds a little different from the rest of the blues players. I think I'm always just trying to make that record that Social D never made.


Naysayers is pretty much that record.


Ice Cream Records, their A&R dude, was interested at that time. Someone called him up and said, "I've got the new Social D record." This was before Sex, Love and Rock and Roll came out. He plays it for him and the guy says, "How the fuck did you get that?" And the other guy says, "It ain't Social D, it's this band Reno Divorce."


On this last tour we would have those off nights and people would say, "You played like there were three hundred people in here but there were just thirty of us." And I'd say, "I'm here. This is what I do. I'm expressing myself. If you're here to witness it, cool. But if there were five people in here, it would have been the same show." Don't leave it on the table, man.


Let's talk about how and when you met Bobby Adams.


I'm star struck. I played with Kevin Seconds with my solo stuff, and I met Kevin and Troy, the drummer, when I was fifteen and got my picture with them. But it's all out the window because I'm star struck talking to this dude. Don't even want to look him in the eye. I go, "Man, for real, you're one of my favorite bands of all time. I'm here playing with you in Europe, I gotta ask for a guitar lesson because there's a riff I've been struggling with for twenty fucking years and I've got you here and you could just show me. I could watch you and learn it. He goes, "That's cool. Go get the guitar."
So I grab my custom, white Les Paul and set the guitar in his hands. Soon as he gets it, he goes, "Whoa, set up perfect." He shows me the riff, and I take a picture of him playing. Then he hands me the guitar, and I go, "What about this other song?" I play it this way and he says, "Damn, I've never seen anyone play it like that." It was cool, man. It was cool as ice.


You met TV Smith from the Adverts in Europe, right?


We played the Rock n Ink festival in Chemnitz, Germany. We were rushed in there, and I don't even know who was playing. A cool friend of ours told us that he needed to see TV Smith play, because it was an acoustic set that was super political and badass. TV actually came up and met us before that, and he said he had heard about us through a mutual friend.


His set? This dude was as cold as ice; he had the crowd captivated. He breaks a string on stage and tells a punk rock poem as he's changing it. He's the real deal. Ain't no bullshit. When we played later, I look out in the audience and see him. Our bass player is a huge English punk fan and after the gig, dude comes up to our dressing room and says, "That was brilliant, mates."


At that first 7 Seconds tour, we played this huge venue in Fulda, Germany. We knew it was going to be packed. We went to catering and some guys are sitting there and I go, "I'm Brent with Reno Divorce. Who are you guys with?" And they went, "We're with DYS." I saw that on a sign going in, and I thought it was a joke. And I knew Dave Smalley is the singer for DYS, Dag Nasty, All, Down By Law. And I'm like, "Did you say DYS? Where are you from?" Because I'm thinking maybe it's a European DYS. They say, "Boston." I'm like, "Dave Smalley's your singer? Where is he?" They say, "Oh he just got in a fight with the bass player. He's walking around here somewhere."


Fucking Dave Smalley comes in and it's the first time I met him. He was a super badass dude, and he wore a Reno Divorce shirt during the set. Stuff like that makes it worth it. When you play to fifteen people and drive eight hours for it? That kind of drags you down, but then you have all this other stuff that kind of keeps you in the game.


You have a Black Flag tattoo. When did you become aware of them?


I think they were broken up by the time I got into them. I got into them in '88. I heard The First Four Years, so I'm always partial to that. Especially Chavo and Keith Morris, though Dez is cool. "Wasted" is the first song I heard. That was probably a turning point in my life, hearing that. For better or worse, OFF! is like the Black Flag basement tapes.


The closest I came to seeing them was the Warped Tour in '96. After The Descendents' set, Bill played guitar, Stephen went to bass, Karl went to drums and the singer for the Pink Lincolns came out to sing, and they did four Black Flag tunes. They did "Jealous Again" and all that stuff. I've never heard anyone play those Ginn riffs like Bill Stevenson would.


Let's talk about TSOL.


You know TSOL had that schism. They made Change Today, and they made Revenge. Change Today is a really weird record. The production isn't the greatest and the songs are kind of like the Doors, which is cool. I first heard it on a skate record. Joe Wood's voice is really like Morrison but in a punk band.


Then Revenge came out. That's a deserted island record for me. It's just so produced, strange and polished. I spent years trying to figure out riffs from that record. Then they made Hit and Run and they started doing the glam thing. They had a couple more after that that sucked. I saw them on the second kind of glammy record. It was just Joe, the drummer and the bass player. Jack Grisham and Ron Emory had left the band so it was really weird. They played some of the stuff from Revenge but also a lot of the garbage glam stuff.


The band broke up, and Jack and everyone else got back together and they made a couple of records. We played with them six or seven years ago at the Climax Lounge. We have a song called "World War Three." I met Ron before the gig, and I was star struck. On stage I said, "We're big fans of TSOL and we wrote a song called 'World War Three,' this is for them." They killed it. It was one of those things like the Wire show. It was a Friday night, TSOL; it was all-ages, and a lackluster turnout."


Reno Divorce, with King Rat, Warner Drive and The Skeleton Show, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 26, Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer Street, $8-$10, 1-866-468-7621, all-ages.

Billy Don Burns - Part 4, Custom Banjo Build - Gaylor Creek Church

For video part four of the gas can banjo build for Billy Don Burns, Rpeek focuses on the neck of the banjo and the hardware for adding the strings. This video part features the song "Gaylor Creek Church" from the forth coming album, Nights When I'm Sober, Portrait Of A Honky Tonk Singer available July 10th.

Pre-Order the album now and help support Real Country Music

Billy Don Burns new album - Nights When I'm Sober, Portrait of A Honky Tonk Singerer out July 10th

Dale Dunning Metal Faces

Design ideas can be found in a multitude of places but sites such as ThisIsColossal.com bring out more ideas than should be legal. Consistently the site sheds light upon new creative ideas that just keep the ol' cranium in flux with, damn, how did they figure that one out.

One of the more recent posts that really struck us was the metal sculpture work of Dale Dunning. His typography mixed with steel and welded forms oozed right into our grease soaked heart.

Link to Dale Dunning on This is Colossal

Dale Dunning type face metal sculpture

Dale Dunning type face metal sculpture

Dale Dunning type face metal sculpture

Dale Dunning type face metal sculpture

"Just last week Colossal featured the work of Hong Seong Jang who used the long aluminum sticks of moveable type to create miniature cities. Now we have the figurative sculptures of artist Dale Dunning who welds together metal type and steel hardware to create intricate masks and heads. Of his work Dunning says:

The head that has been featured in my work for the last 13 years is a generic, simplified form not specific to gender, devoid of detail, resembling an egg. The head is universally recognized, easy to identify with. We live in our heads, see, feel, and experience the world in our head. It serves as the foundation upon which I can develop various paths to explore.

Though I’m struck by the the final shape of his figures, I find myself almost more intrigued by the processes Dunning must utilize to create them. I’m told that the last piece above, Constellation 1/1, is made from 900 welded bolts and washers and I can’t even imagine how one would embark on such a time-consuming process. You can see much more of his work here. All images courtesy Oeno Gallery. (via my amp goes to 11)"

Dale Dunning metal sculpture made from bolts

Dale Dunning metal sculpture made from bolts

Dale Dunning metal sculpture made from bolts

Hellbound Glory And Their Summer Tour

The road warriors from Hellbound Glory are about to hit the road on the US Summer 2012 tour and we have a bunch of dates ready to roll. You can also get all the details from their facebook page as that is the most updated for tour info.

Link up with Hellbound Glory on Facebook

June 19 - Kearney, NE
June 20 - Riverton, IL
June 19 - Berkeley, MI
June 22 - Caroga Lake, NY
June 23 - Pawlet, VT
June 24 - Staatsburg, NY
June 25 - Kingston, NY
June 26 - Endicott, NY
June 27 - New York City
June 28 - Philadelphia, PA
June 29 - Washington, DC
June 30 - Amity, PA
July 1 - Charlotte, NC
July 2 - Jacksonville, FL
July 3 - Lake Worth, FL
July 4 - Sarasota, FL
July 5 - Orlando, FL
July 7 - Lafayette, LA
July 11 - San Antonio, TX
July 12 - Austin, TX
July 13 - Amarillo, TX
July 14 - Dolores, CO
July 15 - Glenwood Springs, CO
July 21 - Stanley, ID
July 25 - Idaho Falls, ID
July 26 - Stanley, ID

Hellbound Glory Tour Poster for Summer 2012 US Tour

Brand new Hellbound Glory keychains

Fuel Magazine Issue 10 - Launch Party

A lot of ideas have been in the works for an Australian tour and we are looking to invade at some point in the near future with several bands in tow. The only way we can think to do it right would be at least a two week run and to hit up many parts of the country and to do it on two wheels, from show to show. Once we get down under, we would also definitely dig getting to one of the launch parties held by Fuel Magazine, which is quite the quality read.

Fuel Magazine has Issue 10 coming out and will also pair it up with a DVD to further infuse a great product with even more badassery.

Dig into Fuel Magazine

Fuel Magazine - Issue 10 Launch Party, South Australia

"It's that time of year again, the files are off to the printer, and we finally have the winter issue on the way. We thought we'd do something a bit different for a launch this time, particularly as we have the Fuel Tank DVD on sale at the same time, so we're off over to Adelaide. 

As usual, it's all very informal with no great planning involved. The guys n gals at Auto Transformers in Parafield Gardens have kindly let us have the event at their place. There is plenty of space to bring a car, bike, or other cool machine that you'd like to bring along. Even if the weather's not looking to flash, there's lots of indoor space so don't be put off.

  There may be a food van there, but that is yet to be confirmed. We can confirm that there will be cool cars, good music, and awesome people, so please come along and say hi. 

As a total coincidence, it's also editor Luke's birthday that day so there will most likely be a few quiet (ahem) drinks in the evening in Adelaide somewhere. 

See you there folks!"

Fuel Magazine DVD

Let Bobber Pros Do Their Magic

We can see it now, you have a certain build idea in mind but maybe not the time. Oh yeah, we are too often traveling down the same damn road and wondering why we cannot carve out just another three hours of daylight to get everything done. So yes, we are still working on the 49 Chevy shop truck and the Buell street fighter builds and praying for more free time to devote to them.

The other day I happened to stumble across these folks called Bobber Pros on youtube and damn if they cannot make some cool videos on their bikes and parts sold on ebay. Seems like they have a cool niche on their builds and would dig seeing them in more detail up close.

Link to Bobber Pros on Ebay

Check them out on Twitter

Bobber Pros customized Sportster

Bobber Pros customized Sportster

Bobber Pros customized Sportster

Bobber Pros customized Sportster

Joey Ramone's Long Lost Tracks

It's great to see that Joey Ramone's legacy continues to live on in his music. The solo record of unreleased tracks and demos has finally seen the light and put into a great collection of songs with quite the array of  contributors including Joan Jett, Steven Van Zandt, Richie Ramone, Bun E. Carlos, Dennis Diken, Richie Stotts, Lenny Kaye, Holly Beth Vincent, members of The Dictators and producers Ed Stasium, Jean Beauvoir and Joe Blaney. Give this album a spin.

Link to JoeyRamone.com 

Joey Ramone ... Ya Know?

 

Rock N' Rassle Apocalypse - July 28th

We have been warning yall on the impending doom, that is about to happen on July 28th at the Tremont in Charlotte, NC. Not only will this go down as one of the rowdiest rock shows ever, but there is a level of hardcore action to this night, which will not be topped for a long time to come. Just watch the trailer and get in on the action.

Get Tickets While You Can

Rusty Knuckles Presents: Rock N' Rassle Apocalypse - July 28th 2012

Rory Kelly Featured On New Releases Now

We know that it is only a matter of time before Rory Kelly is a name that is known far and wide. If you don't believe us, well check out New Releases Now. (Don't Shake My) Family Tree has excellent company with other kick ass albums from Joey Ramone, Children Of Bodom, The Cult, Kill Devil Hill featuring Rex Brown from Pantera and Down along with the crushing heaviness of St. Vitus. Best part is that Rory Kelly's new album has more groove and pure rock n' roll than all of them, have a listen...

Click over to New Releases Now

Rory Kelly featured on New Releases Now

Rory Kelly's New Album, Available World Wide Today

Rory Kelly's new album (Don't Shake My) Family Tree been unleashed on the world and is available through Itunes, amazon and close to three hundred other digital outlets. Follow the link and get this great album streaming now. 

Rory also has a big showcase this weekend for the cd release party in western North Carolina, so you can insure this album will be getting a lot of play for a long time to come.

Get Rory Kelly's - (Don't Shake My) Family Tree, through Itunes

Rory Kelly's (Don't Shake My) Family Tree is available through Itunes

BSA A5 Rickman Riding Video And Vintage Cycles TV

If ya haven't heard about the fellas and their well done videos over at Vintage Cycle TV, give'em a shot. Their focus is on vintage European bikes and maintaining them in high working order. Looking forward to see their site grow.


Link to Vintage Cycles TV

"This amazing and totally rare classic bike is piloted by its loving owner, Alex Sohn. He is a talented and agile rider, and he really pushed it to the limits a few times to entertain us here at Vintage Cycle TV. Thanks Alex! The Meat Wagon was being stunt driven by our own Guzzimoto, who is also Minister of Safety here at VCTV. You can see a couple shots of just how we get this kind of awesome footage mixed into this adrenaline-fueled video. Sawbone and Captain Axel are strapped in the back for this unbelievable hayride of sorts. Stay tuned, this is just the first of the material we will offer with this motorcycle, and we will have more riding and presentation of this amazing bike from Alex at his headquarters in exotic North Carolina. We here at Vintage Cycle TV wish to bring you the best material we can, and we feel we’ve really nailed it with this piece. We’re trying to provide that rush of riding to both those in the know, and others who maybe haven’t discovered it yet. This bike is an A65 two carb BSA 650cc Lightning engine, with some mystery internals as the engine has never been apart with only 9000 original miles!! It sounds very cammy, and it’s lithe and has huge forks for its day. Alex has slightly modified it with rearsets and clipons for riding purposes – LET THIS BIKE BE RIDDEN AS IT WAS MEANT TO BE RIDDEN!"





"So you have a vintage spoked wheel with a beautiful aluminum rim, and a round black piece of rubber, and need the two of them to get together so you can get back out on the road on your cool vintage ride. What do you do? Well, you could take the two of them to a modern motorcycle shop and have them throw that wheel up on the tire machine, rip that old piece of rubber off, stretch a new one on and head out the door… hoping it works and that your wheel wasn’t damaged."

Interview With Marc Smith, Lucha Libre Photographer, from Future Shipwreck

Great photography can make a moment be etched in time forever. That one fleeting instant of perfection in which a whole story can be written. Go onto various sites such as flickr, pinterest or instagram and see amazing work. Hell, you can spend hours there perusing categories, groups and portfolios looking at great imagery, then one in particular will strike like a dead blow hammer and floor ya.


That is kind of how we felt after checking out these Lucha Libre images by the photographer Marc Smith. His amazing lens work and attention to detail give these images an underbelly that can only be found in niche cultures.


Dig more into the article below from Future Shipwreck

Marc Smith is a Disney animator by day and Lucha Libre photographer by night. After graduating from CalArts, Smith began his animation career as an inbetweener on The Lion King and Pocahantas. Inbetweeners are responsible for drawing the tens of thousands of action images– yes, you guessed it– in between the key frames. Not a bad way to foster an understanding of the human figure’s multifarious angles and expressions.


By Smith’s own account, he was content expressing himself through drawings and sketches until “one fateful day, after enjoying a particularly garlicky plate of hummus as his girlfriend dug though her purse for a piece of gum, she handed him her camera to hold. Just then, a 400-pound man carrying a 2-pound dog rounded the corner. With no sketchbook in hand, he used the camera, and a passion was born.”
The seed of that newfound passion has borne some spectacular fruit. Smith’s images explode across the screen. They are as immediate and arresting as they are thoughtful and measured– a precise balance that can be traced back to the photographer’s keen sense of timing and fundamental understanding of the body. Smith was kind enough to send us over photos and share some thoughts on photography, the appeal of Luchadores, and the very real pain of searching for missing teeth.






How did you go from working as an animator for Disney to taking photos of Lucha Libre wrestlers, and how has your experience in animation informed your photographic technique?
I started using a camera to do studies for the cinematography on the movies I was working on. I found it to be a very powerful tool to record observations while I was out and about, but more than that and this came as quite a surprise to me, I found that photography was the perfect complement to an artist sketchbook. Because when you have an idea for a drawing you begin with absolutely no information on your paper, nothing, and your job is to put information down until your idea is realized.
Whereas with photography you begin with everything. A whole universe full of information and your job as an artist is to extract the information that doesn’t support your idea. For me the end goal of both is exactly the same. I’m just trying to push myself to see the subject in a new or a deeper way.


Do you wrestle, yourself?

No, I don’t wrestle. I would be pulverized in the ring. I’ve been shoved and kicked more than once (and it hurt)! I can tell you these guys are tough and they take the sport seriously.






What attracts you to the subject?

Passion! The passion of the performers but especially the passion of the crowds. In some parts of the world where there are not many examples of life being fair, the Luchadores are their superheroes– a means by which the people can watch the powers of good conquer the powers of evil.


Are there any sports photographers who’ve inspired you?

I wish that I was more familiar with the art of sport photography than I am but the truth is that I was focused only on shooting images that I felt would represent the series the best.


What is the social aspect of taking these photos like? Was it challenging to get these wrestlers comfortable with the camera to capture such intimate portraits? 

The wrestlers are both athletes and performers so photographing them in the ring is no problem because that is what they are there for. In time I learned to read the signs if someone was about to be thrown out of the ring into the audience or about to do a dangerous stunt. That’s not to say that what these men and women are doing isn’t real. I’ve seen serious injuries and spent time after the crowds have left searching for teeth that were knocked out during the matches.


That said, the shots of the performers taken backstage were more difficult. There is a long and illustrious history to the protection of the identity of a Luchador (the masks are a testament to this). An “unmasking” is considered to be a huge insult that could have repercussions lasting a lifetime. There are even examples of identities that have been passed down through the generations of a family. So the backstage work required a little finesse and a lot of respect. If I would have marched into the dressing room with my camera ready on the first night I would have learned more about wrestling than I wanted to know.