I wish they were on methadone

So Travis from the Cute Lepers is dead. I wish I could make that sound starker, but you fucking can't.

Dead.

DEAD.

Dead from mixing pills and booze, apparently. (Joe Queer is saying it's heroin, but Joe Queer says a lot of things.) I've done this before and I'm sure more than a few of my readers have done the exact same thing. You're hanging out in the vicinity of a show and drinking; someone offers you some pills which you take cause hey why not? Most of us wake up.

Sex and drugs are really two verboten subjects on the punk circuit. If you sing about them too openly and/or too joyously, you're seen as a poser. Someone who doesn't get it. Punks don't sing about smoking weed or getting laid, do they? Human beings do stuff like that, and no tru punx would ever be caught doing stuff a real human would do. After all, the trash at Gilman needs taking out.

I don't mean to turn this into a manifesto or take advantage of Travis' death just to make a point. Sometimes when we lose someone, we freak out as a community. I say we take the pertinent lesson and hopefully move on. It's terrible what happeneded, and we hope nothing but the best for the families.


Provie It: http://www.mediafire.com/?ujcarycyyzz

Terminal Boredom: http://www.mediafire.com/?ldjmq3xmily

Cool City: http://www.mediafire.com/?govmjzmjxoj

Take THAT, the government!

It took me forever to find a picture of The Riot Before that was not 1) live or 2) taken while they all stood on a porch. What do you expect? They're from RVA. It's almost expected in the land where PBR stands for the People's Beer of Richmond.

Late last year they put out Fists Buried in Pockets, which was one of the best records to come out last year. (And considering how good last year was, that's saying something.) They are definitely a punk rock band, but it's hard to put your finger on why, exactly. They play melodic, undistorted, uptempo rock music with only mildly gruff vocals. So I dunno. Maybe it's because their bassist is a fat guy with an epic beard. Maybe it's the lyrics - "We Are Wild Stallions"* is about how love of music and community trumps paydays and comfort with a rarely matched passion, which the nu metal and screamo-pop bands certainly don't do. Maybe it's because you can so very easily imagine singing "WE'LL GET AWAY, WE'LL GET AWAY WITH THIS!" at the top of your lungs in some basement. Like Cheap Girls or Tranzmitors, other rad bands, they're a group who on the surface may not seem like the punkest band in the world, but underneath everything they are punk rock to the fucking bone. Plus, you know, references to the Royal Tennenbaums for the fucking win.

Threat Level Midnight - http://www.mediafire.com/?euwxzwjmzzm

We Are Wild Stallions [sic] - http://www.mediafire.com/?jnitemzj0jm

They Rode on in the Friscalating Dusklight - http://www.mediafire.com/?0m04zd5jwzy

*Bogus Journey is the superior of the two movies, I'm just saying. They play Twister with Death. What more do you need to know?