Overweight, Under paid & Never Laid

Its been a while hasnt it. I would love to say that its because I’ve been busy and working hard, but the truth is ive just been kinda lazy. So to recap on the last few months, both the september tour with Soey and my first tour as the guitarist for Brackets Closed in February were alot of fun, and I cant wait to get back out on the road with Ants! (Graz) at the end of may, dates for that will be posted here soon.

What else? Well, ive nearly finished writing my debut album, which will be recorded over the next few months and I’m holding my breath for a September release, but again, more info on that to come.

Ive got a few shows coming up before the May tour:

Weiner Neustadt - Fuxbau W/ PJ Bond and Marc Mccabe - 24.04 
Graz - SUb W/ Despite Everything | Wish Upon A Star - 02.05
Vienna - Cafe Inspection W/ Franz Nicolay
Veszprem (Hu) - Acoustic Punk Picnic W/ Franz Nicolay

Hope to see you all real soon!

Not much has been going down over the last few weeks. Played a few shows in Vienna and the 3 dates Oil and Water played with Apologies, I Have None were a total fucking blast, although it was only 3 days I was still overcome with a feeling of confusion about why anyone would ever wana do anything else apart from play shows and hang out with friends.

Upside is on Friday I leave for tour with my longtime pals SOEY!!! SOEY have just put there new album “Headwind” up for streaming - http://soey.bandcamp.com/ do yourself a favor and check it out! Here are the dates for their Euro tour 

Fr 2.9. -AT- Salzburg | Rockhouse Bar
Sa 3.9. -NL- Heerlen | café bluff w/The Liberation Service
So 4.9. -BE- Blankenberge | tba
Mo 5.9. -BE- Leuven/Mechelen | tba
Di 6.9. -UK- Bristol | The Croft *
Mi 7.9. -UK- Norwich | Karma Kafe *
Do 8.9. -UK- Edinburgh | The Banshee Labyrinth w/shields up!
Fr 9.9. -UK- Macclesfield | The Swan with two necks w/shields up!
Sa 10.9. -UK- Leeds | tba  w/shields up!
So 11.9.  -UK- Southsea | Fat Fox
Mo 12.9. -FR- Le Havre | Mac Daid’s w/the living daylights *
Di 13.9. -NL- Heemskerk | Cafe Lokaal w/Sweet Empire 
Mi 14.9. -NL- Eindhoven | Cafe Aloys w/Sweet Empire *
Do 15.9. -NL/DE- NEED HELP! w/Sweet Empire
Fr. 16.9. -D- Regensburg | Alte Mälzerei – w/Nothington 
Sa. 17.9. -AT- Wr. Neustadt | Triebwerk w/Sweet Empire (Entro p’s after party W/ Jack Holmes) *
So. 18.9. -AT- Oberwart | OHO w/Sweet Empire *

Dates marked with * mean im playing aswell. Thats about it for now, Ill hopefully be posting a tour diary as the dates go on so check back for that!

My band Oil and Water play 3 shows in 3 of my favorite towns with one of my favorite bands, Apologies I Have None starting tomorrow. Both bands hit up SUb in Graz on the 13th, Venster 99 in Vienna on the 14th (along with The Liberation Service, fuck YEH!) and the triebwerk on in Neustadt on the 15th. I couldnt be more excited. Its been about 3 weeks since ive played live and I seem to be filled with debilitating angst because of such. I both love the fact that these days it only takes a few weeks before I get pent up because I havent played live, and hate it at the same time. I feel like if I dont do an acoustic set soon im gona punch someone in the face, which WILL end badly for me.

Hope to see you at one of the shows, if not, you can suck on the one that dangles lowest.

P.S When im in a typing box my computer likes to highlight my spelling mistakes, now when im talking about towns and venues named in Deutsch that its feeble mind dosent understand, that becomes very annoying

Im getting really fucking dicked off with bands who do the whole “when we get to 10000000000000 fans will post a new song, so get recomending us to your friends” over face book, for a few reasons.

A; its your job to attract new people to your band by releasing good music and playing good shows, it is not your fans responsibility to do this for you. They come to your shows and maybe purchase your music or merchandise, they owe you NOTHING! Infact its quite the oppisite. B; Your music is supposed to be something that you created, born from passion, frustration, happiness, desire or whatfuckingever emotions or feelings you have at the time. It is NOT a audible bargaining chip on your path to stardom. C; if you judge the merits of your band by reaching 2500 “likes” then your diluded. This number or any other number of friends, followers or likes on any online bassed medium aren’t worth shit. The merits of your’e band is the quality of music you make, the effort you put in and the fans that are one over by such and in return make an effort to see you live and support your music. Thinking your’e band is getting anywhere because a certain number of people have had you “recommended” to them online and complaisantly clicked on a button because of such is not only pathetic, but a slap in the face to the much realistically smaller amount of people who do care about your music.

Bands are supposed to release new music because they enjoy doing it, fans are supposed to listen to it because they enjoy listening to it, and thats the way it is. Now asking fans to help spread the world about your new release or what ever is one thing, but if someone is into your band enough to want to spread the word, then that is an amazing thing, you have touched someone so much that they want others to listen to you. So dont cheapen that by bribing them. If they love your band, then keep them connected by releasing new music, if its good enough then they will spread the word on their own.

Live from Meteor Street is now streaming online and will be up download tonight - http://jackholmes.bandcamp.com/

Hello friends.

I got the final masters of the live recordings I did for the Live From Meteor Street E.P last night. Concidering the circumstances they were recorded in I think they turned out really well (the guitar was D.I’d which is hardly a recording engineers wet dream and I had been swiming in a lake with Bangers that day so I had extreme sun burn), as always Cis has done an amazing job, hes a true gent. The Art work is being handled my friend and worlds biggest pain in the ass Toni Magpie, and his girlfriend Vicki, they both have really good ideas for concepts so im really excited about seeing what comes out. The E.P will be released next week, probably on Monday via bandcamp. Im playing a show on Tuseday in Vienna in a caravan park squatted by hippies, should be fun and this will be the first chance to get your hands on the physical copy should you want one.

In other news, Oil & Water are playing 3 shows in July with Apologies, I Have None and I couldnt me more excited. Apologies were easily one of my favorite 2 bands in the U.K to watch before I left, and one of the things I begrudged about my choice to relocate to Austria was that I wouldnt get to watch them and Bangers as often as I was used to, so getting to play with them 3 days on the trott will be a lot of fun. I wonder if my traditional reaction of getting too drunk and singing the wrong lyrics down the mic will occur, im going to try and not let it but, Promises, I Have None

I hate punx.

On the subway back from work last night I spent the whole journey drunkenly glaring at a group of punks acting like a pack of barking assholes. It almost makes me feel sick when I see someone who clearly labels them self a Punk but spends more money buying bondage trousers and hair dye than they do on going to shows.

Wiener Neustadt sums this up perfectly for me. I constantly see the same group of “punks” walking about the streets there, with their fucking army boots and mohawks, drinking cheep beer in the middle of the day, clearly proud to be a punk. But do they show up to any of the gigs in that town, DO THEY SHIT. There are always posters advertising the punk shows at the local venue in the streets were these guy loiter so its not like there just out of the loop, they just don’t care. I think the 1 time ive seen the punks at a show was a donations bassed out door festival were you could bring in your own booze, too their credit they showed up, but payed no attention to any of the bands that played, they just took the chance to mosh violently in a crowd largely made up of familys with young infants. If I wanted to put up with shit like that, id go to a Madball concert.

The reason shit like this upsets me is that these assholes buy into the whole post card punk image, act like morons in public once in uniform, and then this is the image of Punk Rock that the average joe in the street will take home with them. Not the sense of community. Not the ethics. Not the group of kids stood quitely watching a band with a beer or 2 instead of being out in the street causing problems. Now don’t get me wrong now, I aint saying that anyone who calls themselves a Punk has to be zine printing, gig promoting vegan clone of the the next guy, or has to be at every show that has a punk band playing, or spend all there money on records, far from it, im just saying I am proud to consider myself a member of the Punk Rock community and I hate the thought of people confusing what I personally think Punk Rock is with these assholes. Perhaps thats me with a superiority complex, I duno.

Im willing to admit that im probably being a Punk Rock fascist here, Im always the first one to say Punk is only what it means to you, and if to you it means spending your time painting exploited logos onto the back of your studded leather jacket rather than checking out new bands or picking up an instrument then so be it, just be aware that you are completely missing the point. And trust me here, when the world sees you in all your shit hair cuts, studded jackets and doc martin boots, no one is offended, they just think your pathetic.

Its been a while, no? Not a great deal has been going on. Ive finally recorded the songs for the “Live From Meteor Street” E.P, waiting back on the artwork and final mixes but I have my fingers crossed that It will be out for July 5th, expect a free download on bandcamp! In other news Ill begin finishing of the rest of the recordings for Alcohol and Irony in the 2nd week of july. 

Hopefully once im done with recording im gona start booking up a lot more shows. Im going on tour with my friends Soey in september, maybe Ill even end up playing a few of the shows.

now please, get the fuck of my website!

Ive been asked to post the lyrics to the song below on line so here they are. The song was written as the resignation letter I wish I had of given in when I left my job last year, saddly I opted for the polite version.

To whom ever it concerns,

Please accept this letter as my offical resignation, im getting the fuck out of here as fast as I can because the last 3 years have dragged like needles over skin and I wouldnt stay here if you payed me a kings wage for this jesters job.                                          No, im not stepping foot in this place again to piss on the fire when it goes up in flames, ill stand across the street and watch, laughing at the site of this burning parade of assholes leading clowns strait into the ground.

Today has come as my resignation day.

Ruff mix of the first track of Alcohol and Irony