Liberty Motorcycles And Sticking To Your Guns

Vimeo is a great site for skimming through videos and groups, for simply watching TV. The small biography styled documentaries are fare more interesting than what cable tv provides, because they aren't littered with crappy commercials and focus in on the subject in a far superior way. 

Recently I found a cool video on Liberty Motorcycles out of Philadelphia that works on most any type of bike as long as it is vintage. One of the cool aspects of the video is when Adam Cramer, talks on learning the trade of mechanics becoming a lost art. I can attest to this and witness the same notion weekly, while talking to individuals that are pushing for a career path, which maybe it isn't quite for them. Learning the ins and outs of anything mechanical is something most everyone should learn to understand. Knowledge is lost, if it isn't consistently being challenged and put into use. 

Go fix something mechanical, just for the sense of accomplishment.

Link to original post on Vimeo


Handmade Portraits: Liberty Vintage Motorcycles from Etsy on Vimeo.

Engine repair? Liberty is there to help

Need the cumbustion chamber cleaned up?

Carburetor rebuilds are par for course

Top end of the engine tear down?

Reassembled and ready to roll

1953 Indian Motorcycles Being Assembled At The Factory

Feeling a tad bit nostalgic? Check out this promotional commercial from Indian Motorcycles during the early 1950's. Also, link to over to Cyril Huze as that is where we picked up the link from.

Dive into all that is Indian Motorcycles

Rory Kelly Tearing Up Another Stage, This Time In Cangas, Spain

Just the other week, Rory Kelly was tearing up stages all over Spain. More of the photos from the tour are starting to trickle in, so check out a few taken by Nova at the SalaSon in Cangas, Spain.

Connect with Rory Kelly on Facebook

Rough translation below from the write up on the show

"Guitarist Rory Kelly, accompanied by his father on drums, and a 'peculiar' bassist named Billy, rocked like no one had done the 'famous' morracense room (ask in USA for liquor-coffee).

We often see pictures of those punk shows of the 70 London concerts with more energy than any heavy festival today. We find that no longer exist those concerts, but I assure you that what these rockers showed Morrazo Cangas do not have anything to envy to that (I guess). Details like making slide with the bottle of the Star, or play bass crawling on the floor (by blood, with glasses), or some detail related to a passport and a key that will anecdotally between band and photographer.

I feel that the photos do not reflect the anger, but so you stay with the desire to have come. Do not expect more, a few more to come SalaSón (consult our agenda)."

Rory Kelly rockin' the Salason in Cangas, Spain. Photos © Nova 2012

Billy Miller in Cangas, Spain. Photos © Nova 2012

Rory Kelly rockin' the Salason in Cangas, Spain. Photos © Nova 2012

Billy Miller and Rory Kelly rockin' the Salason in Cangas, Spain. Photos © Nova 2012

Rory Kelly rockin' the Salason in Cangas, Spain. Photos © Nova 2012

Rory Kelly and Pops Kelly drinking some Tennessee Whiskey at the Salason in Cangas, Spain. Photos © Nova 2012

Billy Miller at the Salason in Cangas, Spain. Photos © Nova 2012

Rory Kelly rockin' the Salason in Cangas, Spain. Photos © Nova 2012

Langhorne Slim Was Custom Made For The Stage

Before last night's show at the Cat's Cradle over in Chapel Hill, I didn't really know too much about Langhorne Slim. Went to the show to enjoy a night out with my lady and was stoked to get out to see a band and have a beer. Little did I know just how great of a live act ol' Langhorne Slim would turn out to be. The club was only half full, but you would have never known, by the amount of energy coming from the stage and in front of it. As I stared around, checking out fan reaction, I knew that I was the recent convert to this social club. Almost every word, to each song was sung in chorus by everyone in the room. Many an act could learn a thing or two from these fellas. From their high energy, positive rapport with the crowd and weaving each song into a crescendo that left us wanting more, Langhorne Slim is a band to check out live.

Matchbook Illustrations By Jason D'Aquino

Artwork can be everywhere and anywhere. It all just depends on the item in which a scrawl, sketch, paint mark or crafted solution, was placed with the intention of creating a new object with a redefined sense of purpose. How does that sound for clinical and collegiate? Better yet, it could possibly be a way to describe art, in our modern context in which many things that are being created, rely on an element from the past as their springboard?

Some purveyors of "art" with the worst craftsmanship get away with being called "artists" and then there are folks such as Jason D'Aquino. His reliance on found objects takes his illustration style into a different level altogether. By using graphite pencils and old paper he is creating a sense of awe through scale and amazing detail. The depth within these illustrations is beyond good and the way the pencil lines flow within the context of the matchbooks heighten the story line to an almost hard boiled pitch. Mickey Spillane could have had a field day with these matchbooks as a storyline. Damn fine work indeed.

Check out original post on This Is Colossal

Pin up bondage, matchbook illustration by Jason D'Aquino

Pre 1930's Vintage motorcycles, matchbook illustration by Jason D'Aquino

Hot Date, matchbook illustration by Jason D'Aquino

Marilyn Monroe, matchbook illustration by Jason D'Aquino

Pistol diagram of a Colt 1911, matchbook illustration by Jason D'Aquino

Internal watch mechanisms, matchbook illustration by Jason D'Aquino

Famous Hollywood movie monsters, matchbook illustrations by Jason D'Aquino

Wrestling skeletons, matchbook illustration by Jason D'Aquino

True Cases of Women In Crime, matchbook illustration by Jason D'Aquino

Vengeance Is Mine, matchbook illustration by Jason D'Aquino

Illicit Desires matchbook illustration by Jason D'Aquino

"Jason D'Aquino is a miniaturist. He creates his artwork on an incredibly small scale, many works not exceeding one inch by one inch in dimension.

D'Aquino chooses to work on found surfaces such as strike-on-front matchbooks, 18th century animal-skin vellum, and antique ledger pages. His search for these found "canvases" has led him to strange corners of the world and to some unique treasures. He recently unearthed a hand-quilled, illustrated whaling manuscript from St. Petersburg Russia, which made its way to Christies Auction House in New York City.

Jason's influences include H.P. Lovecraft, Henry Darger and Hans Bellmer. His drawings, often political in nature, have graced the pages of the New York Times, Juxtapoz, I.T.A., The Stranger, and Gulliver Magazine. A hardbound volume of his work is fourth coming, soon to be released by Ignition Publishing."

Phil Anselmo Digs Antiseen And So Should Their Entire Fanbase

Proof is in the puddin' and when we find photos such as this, we know that great things are coming up in the future. Would dig seeing Housecore Records and Rusty Knuckles Music team up for a project. Maybe a split 7" series that could start things off right.

Check into all things Down

Get in touch with Antiseen

The fellas in Down enjoying a meal in the UK and Phil is rockin' his favorite Antiseen shirt

New App For Spotify From David Pattillo Of The Dead Exs

You can't stop progress and in this day and age, progress comes in a multitude of formats. The devil is in the details, as we are all data hounds. Reading and perusing more information, to better understand where exactly the original ideas or concept came from, is paramount to diggin' deeper into a band's vibe.

This is exactly what we are enjoying about a new app called H1tcher that was conceived by the Dead Exs front man and lead guitarist, David Pattillo. The app works within Spotify to allow for more liner notes and general information about an album to be viewed. Great idea for sure and glad to see an innovative app come from a musician, congrats hombre!

Check out the Dead Exs

Link to original post on The Next Web


"If you’ve ever bought a CD, cassette or vinyl record, you’ll no doubt know what liner notes (or sleevenotes) are – the complementary words you find inside your physical-format music product, giving background information to the music and artists involved. Well, H1tchr reimagines these liner notes for the Spotify generation.

Once you install the app, you’ll see it positioned among your other apps in the left-hand pane:



Now, whenever you’re playing a song from a playlist or album, all you need to do is hit the H1tchr app and it reels in related data from Wikipedia and Discogs, giving you full album and artist details together on one screen:



If you’re playing an album, then the details will remain the same as each track changes. If you’re playing a compilation, however, it will change automatically with each track.
It defaults to the Tracklist page for the album, but you can switch to view the album credits….



…or a gallery of photos as they would’ve appeared in the original album cover.



So if you like to instantly know the release date of an album, or who played that guitar solo, then H1tchr has you covered. As long as the data is in Discogs, of course.

H1tchr is a new company founded by musician and music producer David Pattillo, and it seems the Spotify app is just the start of things for the company. A quick peek at its main website reveals an up-and-coming new product, that lets users connect songs together and build maps of music…we’ll be sure to check that out as soon as we can access the private beta.

➤ H1tchr | Spotify

Feature Rival Sons Interview, Repost From Stereoboard.com

If you asked us to name our favorite new band of the last few years we would have a hard time. On the other hand if you asked us to name a band that is constantly in our playlist, it would be none other than Rival Sons. Their music is infectious and spreads like a kudzu. We could wax poetic on their music, but forget that. Drop down below, click on that video and let the magic happen.

Check out the original interview over at Stereoboard

Find out more about Rival Sons



With their explosive new album 'Head Down' receiving rave reviews and having recently completed a sold out tour of the UK, Los Angeles rock n' roll heroes Rival Sons are riding high on the crest of a wave that's threatening to turn into an all conquering tsunami pretty damn soon. It builds on a tremendous 2011 for the guys, with their sophomore release 'Pressure And Time' being voted second best album of the year by Classic Rock Magazine and the quartet themselves – Jay Buchanan, Scott Holiday, Robin Everhart and Mike Miley – receiving the accolade of 'best new band' from the listeners of Planet Rock Radio. We caught up with guitarist Scott Holiday to discuss the making of the new album, how the guys feel about the UK and what it takes to make great rock n' roll music.

Hi Scott. Firstly, 'Head Down' is a blindingly good album that's been getting fantastic reviews so congratulations! It was written, recorded and mixed in three weeks just like your previous album 'Pressure And Time'. Why do you work that way and how does it influence the sound of your music?
We've done it that way from the start. It was a conscious idea not to overwork the songs, the production or the overall feeling...and to keep the energy alive and inspired on the records.

'Head Down' is bigger, bolder and stylistically more diverse than Pressure and Time. Was there a conscious decision to make that kind of album before entering the studio or did it evolve naturally during the recording process?
Both...kind of. We're always thinking of pushing ourselves and expanding our musical output to make a new, bigger statement each time out. Hopefully all bands think the same way. Having said that, the nature of the way we do things makes it all unravel very naturally... and quickly.

Dave Cobb produced 'Head Down' after working with you on your previous albums. What does he bring to the band and was there ever any question of working with someone else?
We've done 4 records with Dave (three studio albums and one self titled EP) and he basically works like a 5th band member. It's really just the 5 of us and maybe 1 engineer for the whole process, working very quickly, and capturing everything we can. I think there's very few producers these days that want to - or even CAN - make a record the way we do. It's a lost art and whilst there's still other guys doing it that way there seems to be less and less of them all the time. Dave has worked out really well for us. He's great at finding the sounds we want and helping us to find new ones. He's also a good co-writer and a friend. So we've stuck with him. Of course we've thought about working with a few other guys, but not too seriously.

How do you start writing a new song – does it begin with an individual idea or from jamming in the studio? For example, what was the genesis of 'Keep On Swinging'?
Keep On Swinging started with me bringing in the main riff. Many songs start like that. Then we'll get in the room together and start formulating and jamming out the other parts. Right about the time we feel ready to record it our producer will peek his head in and say "great, guys!...we got it!" And we'll be like "we haven't even done one take yet!" But the tape is always rolling, and that's how it goes sometimes.



A couple of the new tracks – 'Wild Animal' and 'Until The Sun Comes' – are more mellow with Jay singing in a different style. Was that a deliberate attempt to get away from comparisons with certain classic rock bands?
No. We're always being inspired by new things and wanting to move in different directions. Trust me - It can get A LOT weirder. We've stayed pretty honed in on our sound thus far. Our influences could actually put us in deep space! We constantly have to remind each other that we're making a rock n' roll record.

Tell us about 'Nava' and 'Manifest Destiny' Parts 1 and 2. How did those songs develop and was the emotive lyrical subject a preconceived idea?
'Nava's an acoustic instrumental I wrote for my daughter. Her name's 'Nava' and I immediately felt the song belonged to her when I wrote it. I also gave it to Jay during the recording sessions, and he wrote the album's closing track, 'True', to it. Each version felt important and special in it's own way, so we decided to put both on the record. With regards the Manifest suite, I had decided to take 'Manifest Destiny pt1' into improvisational territory before Jay had written to either pt1 or 2, then he decided to connect them both with the lyrical concept. Which totally made sense to me, musically and conceptually.

How many takes did you need to nail the awesome guitar solo on 'Manifest Destiny Part 1'?
That's one take. The first one!

Who writes the lion's share of the lyrics and is there an overall theme for the new album that ties all the tracks together?
Jay writes all the lyrics. The only time I wrote lyrics was on our debut album 'Before The Fire', which was technically before Jay joined the band. I wrote all those lyrics with some co-writes from Dave Cobb. There are a few themes from my point of view on the new record, definitely from a musical perspective. Lyrically? Well, that would be a question for Jay.

'All The Way' sounds like a hell of a fun track to record. Were the words improvised on the spot as they have a very spontaneous feel to them?
No. Jay wrote that story and had the idea for the song. I came up with all my parts, just ear candy and fun little fuzz bits. It was actually one of the least likely songs to make the album, but in the end we all felt it was important to include because it's a really fun track. I'm glad it's on there.

Who designed the striking artwork for the new album and what does it represent?
Well, there's plenty of symbolism going on but it would be a terrible spoiler to give my perspective on it. It's best to let everyone see it and think what they want. I can tell you it was painted (oil on canvas) by Jason Holley. He did a great job and it's a beautiful piece that's very representative of the album.

Congratulations on you current sold out tour of the UK! How are the new songs going down live and which are you enjoying playing the most?
Thanks! The UK has been sooooo good to us. Our "home away from home" we call it! The new songs are going over brilliantly too and we play a good portion of the new record every night. Songs like 'Keep on Swinging', 'Run From Revelation', You Want To', 'Jordan', and 'Manifest Destiny Pt1' seem to be working really well at every show.

As a very spontaneous recording outfit I imagine your songs must take on a life of their own when you're playing them on stage?
Yes they do. It's a very symbiotic relationship. Not just between the band, but between the band and the audience.

You played at last year's Classic Rock Awards in front of legends like Jeff Beck – was that nerve-wracking or was it something you were able to really enjoy?
Not too nerve-wracking. A little maybe, just because we only rehearsed for about 2 hours in total, and had never played an acoustic set as a band before that! But it went OK...and I got to hang with Jeff Beck and Brian May(!) ha!!

When you and Jay first met you talked about what was missing from rock & roll and what was right with it. So – what's missing and what's right with it?
Missing: The blues, real bravado, fun, soul, danger, groove, teeth (sharp ones), swagger, dirtyness, heritage, pedigree, skill – without becoming a gay virtuoso band! Right: Bands and artists who haven't left out the above!

A lot of people see you as the saviours of rock music – does that inspire you or does the responsibility weigh heavily on your shoulders?
We don't EVER wear that jacket. We're just a band - 4 dudes that make rock n' roll music - that's it. If people like it, even LOVE it, then that's killer. We'll come to your town. Buy a ticket, buy our shirt, buy our records. That'll mean we can keep on doing it. People may say we're the next this band and that but look, we're merely standing in the shadows of the legends, trying to do our bit and have a great time. We simply want to bring good times and good rock n' roll to people. That's it.

Does it frustrate you that rock music doesn't receive much mainstream exposure and are you on a mission to change that?
Whatever. It's all on rotation, popular today and passé tomorrow. When something is right and good - REALLY good - people will take notice. I'm on a mission to make a living, playing rock n' roll all over the world. It's a great job to give people a great time every night. I just wanna do that.

What do you want your music to achieve – can you envisage a time when you're playing arenas and stadiums as many critics have predicted?
Sure, why not? I mean, we could get into the nuts and bolts of the business and discuss why that's not happening - and IF it can happen again. But I will say yes, I can envision this band headlining arenas. If we don't, we'll headline something else instead!

Head Down' has broadened the scope of your music – where do you go from here?
I'll have to answer that at the end of this album/touring cycle. I don't premeditate that too much as it would take away the spontaneity when we go back to make our next record.

Given how influenced you are by the music of the 60's and 70's – when are you going to release the mythic double album!?! Or better still – the double live album!?!
Head Down is technically a double vinyl ;)

What's next for you guys now you've finished touring the UK?
More touring. Into North America...then the US...then back to the UK and Europe. Make a few videos. Then make another record and do it all over again.

I'm sure I speak for all rock fans when I say thanks for releasing such a fantastic album and for continuing to fly the flag for our beloved genre of music. Long may it continue!!
God Bless You!

Creating From Scratch, Check Out Stussy And Morning Breath

There is no rhyme or reason as to what makes one idea better than another. Where the ultimate division lies, is within the craftsmanship. It doesn't matter what you make or dream up, but how well it is put together. We tend to think that if you will happily bleed for your endeavors or happen to give an ample amount of blood, then you are living in the moment and pushing yourself to new boundaries. This is not to imply, that intentionally cutting oneself will make you any better off. But, when you wreck yourself while doing what you enjoy, there is a certain zeal of being lost in the moment and living for it.

We are fans of anyone, that sticks to their guns and creates something new from scratch. Forget about copying ideas, as that is just way too easy. Go out on a limb and try something new. Fearing what people will think, ultimately kills the creative process of breaking new ground.

Below are a couple of cool videos we found on Vimeo of folks living in the moment and making something happen on their own terms. Dig into more about Stussy and Morning Breath

“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it” – Salvador Dali"



Shawn Stussy at his Studio from Seth Epstein on Vimeo.



Time & Space: Morning Breath Pt 1 from Vans OffTheWall.TV on Vimeo.

Jay Berndt & The Orphans Rockin' Out In Providence

One day, we will be able to envision the notion of Jay Berndt getting onto stages far and wide. As of now, he is content to play on home turf and has left touring for other pursuits. Knowing that he has a whole new project cookin' over top of a good flame, good things are about to erupt in the north east. 

Need more info on Jay Berndt?

Jay Berndt & The Orphans - photo © Kate Kelley 2012

Jay Berndt & The Orphans - photo © Kate Kelley 2012, rockin' at Neighbor Days in Providence, RI

Jay Berndt & The Orphans - photo © Kate Kelley 2012