BLACK TOP MOTORCYCLE GANG hits the pavement hard!

The satisfaction of starting something new can only be surpassed by actually accomplishing something with it -- and in under a week, we seem to have done both...

FredROCKton is filled to the gunnels with crazed people and their equally crazy plots. From Sir Charles GodDamn Roberts &c., up to and through the middle century antics of the street trolling stock car racers, and into the punk and jazz infused late 20th century, this place has always been a hotbed for the weird and wonderul, the exiled, the lunatic. (Remember everyone -- where nothing happens, anything is possible... don't forget, DTK records started here, the UNB Art Centre has pumped out shows on everything frojm the Holocaust to grafitti and tattoos, the creative writing department here is the oldest in Canada, Eric Hill lives here and Walter the Farting dog passed his gas on our hallowed streets...)

The BalckTop MotorCycle Gang, our quiet city's latest collective is set to squeel forth and lay down the rubber on the main drags. Watch out for us at art openings, and local coffee houses, birthday parties, weddings, and any open green space we can find.

You know them all.
You love them all.
Now feel the power of the Spoken Word...

Jeannine Gallant
Matte Robinson
WhiteFeather
John Heinstein
Biff Mitchell
Eric Hill and here
Old Skull

Strange how sometimes it takes so long to discover something -- how, for some reason, it just slips you by.

Well, regardless of all that time that I spent in the mosh pit in the mid 80's, and despite how much and how long I have loved and lived for punk rock, Tim Armstrong and Rancid have just entered my life -- and how very happy I am to have them here...

That combination of early style Clash/ east cost hardcore/ west coast growl is, well, music to my ears. A beautiful swirl of angst and anger and fun and love and hate and authenticity...



And speaking of happy accidents, these are the Weakerthans. Comparable to discovering Marilyn Manson and White Zombie when Rage Against the Machine broke up, it is a serendipitous moment that I should fall for these fine Winnipegian songsters just as the Rheostatics prepare to play their final gigs (at Masey Hall and the Horeshoe Tavern next week -- a moment in Canadian music history which I will be in attendance/ awe of and will report back to you directly)...

Never forget -- the world is BIG (really, REALLY BIG) and music is everywhere -- even in places where you figured you'd flipped all them rocks... As a matter of fact, if you still think you know it all, and just can't find anything new worth listening to, check THIS out.

Over and out,
A.

Watch it and weep...

One more time Sportsracers.

This is Noah Levine and his book "Dharma Punx".

Time makes us stupid -- causes us to say things like "oh wow, it's been THAT long" and some such shit. And such is the foolishness that has recently erupted from my mouth...

You see, I've been practicing zen sitting meditation for 18 years now -- yup, that's right, 18 years worth of sitting there, staring at the wall, counting breaths.

Not only that, but I started going to punk shows 23 years ago -- oh wow, that's a LONG time...

And for all that, they have coexisted inside me -- remember, it was the Buddha who said 'and question me too'. Question authority, question reality, question yourself... it all fits together...

So as time passes, and we see that passing, we sometimes slip into the stupidity that makes us throw our balding head back and laugh and say "Mick Jagger is still at it? Oh man!"

But here I am, still buying Rancid CDs and still sitting still, counting breaths.

And in my best moments, I know this to be right and true, that I am on a good path, and that it all fits together in grand stupidity.

Right on Noah. Thanks.