If you want to see more stuff or just avoid having to read any of my awkward blathering you can see a ton more purty pictures here and watch a bunch of grainy, blown out videos here.
Well this certainly is long overdue. If any of you were holding your breath for our take on this year’s Budget Rock, well, you’d be dead, so I guess no harm no foul. All I know is as lovers of all things “garage,” we’re damn lucky to live in city that hosts a festival like this one. The kick off party at the Eagle Tavern (a personal favorite) was the perfect way to get in the mood, if you will, and my first chance to see Hunx and His Punx camp it up and ramp it up in the most awesome way possible. That dude’s see-thru, nylon body suit budget must be INSANE. There's really no reason not to see them every time they play. Real talk. Aaaand, The Primitivas laid down some of the grimiest riffs rock n roll riffs since the Oblivians, busted up leopard-print bass amp notwithstanding. They finally have tracks up on their myspace, so go soak in all the glory like a PBR filled jacuzzi.
Young Offenders:
Primitivas:
Hunx and His Punx:
Cheap Time:
We missed the Friday show, like a bunch of jerks, but Saturday’s all day, pizza and liquor fueled rock and roll extravaganza at Thee Parkside more than made up for it. Between awesome sets by The Pizzas (so many puns!), Personal and the Pizzas (so many sunglasses!) and the pizza-eating contest (I almost barfed!), I’m pretty sure I contracted gout, but it was so totally worth it. Also, five dollars for a shot and a beer is a deadly/delicious combo. And duh, like I need to tell you, R’ N’ R Adventure Kids and Nobunny played the songs that make the kids go apeshit. If I wasn’t a 56-year-old arthritic man I’d have been right up there crowd surfing with the best of ‘em.
The Pizzas:
Johnny and the Limelights:
Personal and the Pizzas:
Pizza Eating Contest:
Rock N' Roll Adventure Kids:
Nobunny:
After Nobunny made everyone’s head explode, the staff shuffled everybody outside the venue to either get back in line for the late night show, wander over to Bottom of the Hill for that show or schlep home with tears in their eyes. I can’t vouch for the BoftheH, but the lineup for Thee Parkside show was beyond killer. After Nobunny’s fancy rabbit mask came the slightly more cost effective paper bag masks on the Handsome Sexies, which would have done a fine job of keeping everyone’s identity a secret if they hadn’t immediately fallen apart. For the sake of confidentiality we decided to just obscure their faces ourselves. Your welcome, Handsome Sexies, your secret’s safe with us. As excited as I was about finally seeing the Mummies I was pretty jazzed about having soul jams and racial slurs hurled at me by Harold Ray Live In Concert first. On top of having some of the best stage banter I’ve ever encountered, the HRLIC dudes can really lay down some exciting shit. It was impossible to dance because everyone was so smashed up against the stage in anticipation for the Mummies, but you could see it in their eyes that they really really wanted to. The extended 20 minute vamp on 25 Miles to kill time before the Mummies wrapped up their BotH show was more fun than it had any right to be and if they’d played it for another 20 minutes I’m not sure if I’d have minded one bit. If someone could please resurrect HRLIC from the dead I would gladly give you my couch. And let me tell you, that bitch is PLUSH. Words can’t really describe how excited I was to see the Mummies. Excuse me, THE MOTHER FUCKING MUMMIES! Ahem. Those guys are garage rock royalty and really I don’t have any words to describe the show. Just kidding, I have so many words: hot, loud, bad, good, drunk, Sonics, farfisa, drunk. If these guys ever decide to play another show (and you don’t have to fly to Spain for it) just drop whatever you think you’re doing and go. Actually, fuck it, fly to Spain. I hear hotels there are cheeeap. Even after playing a whole set at BotH they managed to play long enough at Thee Parkside that the venue shut down the PA and even then Trent just gathered all drum mics and shouted into them. It really don't get more budget rock than that. This dude filmed the other Mummies set on some crazy VHS contraption, so if you ask really really nicely, you might be able to get yourself a copy. Maybe.
The Handsome Sexies:
The Younger Lovers:
Okmoniks:
Harold Ray Live in Concert:
The Mummies:
I’m not going to lie, because I would never lie to you, mom, but I was a little spent by Sunday night’s wrap up show. Still, an excuse to drink and see the Thee Ohsees is an excuse to drink and see Thee Ohsees so we were there. We were able to catch Dan Melchior and Und Das Menance as well and between the super primal 2 drum set up and the evil as fuck guitar lines it really made me wonder how so many shimmery hugs and kisses pop bands get labeled garage all of a sudden. I’m looking at you Japandroids. I’m looking right at you. (also, seeriously Pitchfork: Best Coast?) At this point it’s goofy to keep writing about Thee Ohsees. They’re like this blog’s Waterloo: either you were there, or you don’t understand. Yeah, they set up on the floor. Yeah, they managed to knock over all their own beers before the set even started. Yeah Eric Oblivian sort of half assedly hit Gris Gris drums with a maraca while they were playing and Ty Segall played a bit of guitar. Yeah it was wild. Yeah I remember the majority of it. Seriously, Thursday at the Eagle. Seriously.
Dan Melchior and Und Das Menace:
Thee Ohsees:
Honestly, it’s crazy how good the bands were, how cheap the shows were, how cheap the drinks were and how much fun we had. Let’s do it again next year, please? And as always, thanks to Cookie Wolf for providing those insanely good, diabetes ridden peanut butter cookies for everyone to snack on between sets. I don’t know how I would have made it through the festival without em. OH! Speaking of long overdue, Gonerfest 6: coming right up. I promise.*
*Promises in no way legally binding.
Pssst, speaking of Harold Ray: BONUS!!!!! Shangorillas @ The Knockout - 10/??/2009
Our buddies in The Mindless Things were playing this show and for some reason we showed up to the venue at midnight and missed their whole set, but we did get to catch the Shangorillas, so all was not lost. They are incredible. And playing … this month. Win/win.
The Shangorillas:
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