Sit Down. We Do This Every Fucking Day

Something that my parents instilled in me at a very young age was the importance of reading. Whereas many of my friends in elementary school (let's get real, they're still my friends now) would be getting new Super Nintendo (and then Sega) (and then Nintendo 64) games and bangin' new toys for Christmas and birthdays, I would get a whole lot of books. Though I wasn't the happiest camper when all my friends were jumping on kremlins while I was staring down a stack of literature, I realize now that it was a very good thing. Reading and enjoying a book is immeasurable in the benefits it gives to a person's language and speaking skills and also really develops one's imagination, as their mind creates images to go along with the story it's taking in. Since I got in the habit of reading for pleasure at a young age, it's something that I've continued to pursue since and something that I've noticed people I know do less and less. First TV and now, especially in my generation, video games have more or less taken up all the time that would have originally been occupied by books. Though you'll never catch me bad-mouthing either of those things since I thoroughly enjoy them both, it does really suck that instead of teenage boys getting stoked about all the angst and swearing in Catcher In The Rye, they're getting stoked brain-melting violence. (Again, for the record I would like to state that I really enjoy brain-melting violence.)

Another thing that my parents lovingly forced onto me at a young age (that I briefly touched upon in an earlier blog) was a deep love of baseball. With both my parents being die-hard Toronto Blue Jays fans, I was going to games before I knew how to talk, let alone walk. You know how it's a somewhat common practice for parents to keep a newspaper headline from the day their child was born? My parents cut out and kept the boxscore from the paper that day (A 4-3 walk-off win over the Mariners ending in dramatic fashion with George Bell scoring on a wild pitch after Fred McGriff tied the game with a ground-rule double.). While most of my friends growing were playing hockey and gushing over Mats Sundin, I was going to way more Blue Jays games than they were Leaf's games and worshipping the life-sized cardboard cut-out of Joe Carter on my wall. Eventually I started playing softball and then baseball and began to understand the ebb and flow of a 9 inning game and all the little elements that make it so great. Through my adolescence and now into adulthood I've started to realize the love/hate relationship and stress that comes with loving and supporting a team that is perpetually on the outside looking in when it comes to October. You start to realize after a while that baseball is a constant in your life. Unlike other sports, during the season baseball is there pretty much every day and it's something you get used to; the game starts at 7 (usually) and it's the way you end more or less every day from April 1st until September 30th. After a period of time you develop a kind of fatherly relationship (or about as fatherly as a relationship between a teenaged boy and 25 grown men can be) (welp, that came out wrong) and you invest a whole of emotional energy into wanting to see them succeed on the field.

So, what exactly do these two long-winded, seemingly unrelated  paragraphs have in common? Well, I just finished reading Season Ticket by Roger Angell and before that read The Summer Game by the same author and both were amazing reads. Angell is a columnist for the New Yorker and regularly contributes baseball and non-baseball work, but his stuff about the diamond is by far the best. It's completely obvious in his writing that while he's a through and through New York Mets and Boston Red Sox fan, he's a fan of the game first and foremost and a good deal of each book consists of him taking pleasure in seeing the game in all its different forms in different cities. Pretty much every page has at least one great anecdote about baseball, be it from Angell or the ridiculously large amount of players he interviews over the course of each volume. Some personal favourites were Earl Weaver (One of the all-time great managers and characters, managed the great Baltimore Oriole teams from the late 60's and 1970's) sitting in his underwear, drinking a beer and explaining why exactly he likes baseball so much; (a reporter asks him if he thought the Orioles were going to hang on to their lead and win the World Series) "No, that's what you can never do in baseball. You can't sit on a lead, run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all." Another was Ted Williams (The best Red Sox hitter of all time? Yes. Without a doubt.) describing the process he would go through in his mind when deciding where to swing on a fastball. It is truly a moment when you have to sit back and think "Well, that is why you are the last man to hit .400 and I only played houseleague."

But by far my favourite part of the two books was Angell describing seeing the expansion New York Mets for the first time in 1962 (the worst baseball team of all time), through to seeing them win the Series for the first time in '69 and then edging out the Sox in '86. Since the Blue Jays were an expansion team, joining the Majors in '77), they suffered though the usual fate for new teams in sports: many years of mediocrity. I've been to Blue Jays playoff games and got to witness them win two World Series, but unfortunately that happened when I was 3 and 4 years old, so I don't remember that happening (save for this of course, I'll never forget that.), so basically I've watched the Jays struggle to stay afloat (often fail at doing so) for 19 seasons. After a while you get used to the losing and learn to love the team despite their lack of success. Angell gives these long descriptions of going to Mets games and having an absolute blast at the games with the rest of the Mets fans, despite them being absolutely awful on the field that I immediately drew parallels with. It's especially great with the Mets because they came out of nowhere to win the World Series in an upset in 1969.

Angell was there from the beginning and then got to watch his boys win it all and get the ultimate gratification in the end and this is something I can relate to now. So far in the off-season the Blue Jays have pulled off a major trade and signed a few key free agents to greatly improve our chances in the American League East and in some cases become the favourite to win the division. I know that our club's certain betterment on the field will inevitably bring in hordes of band-wagon jumpers who will be a little annoying, but it sure as hell won't make the giant shit-eating grin that will be covering my face while I watch this new and improved version of the Blue Birds on the field any less enjoyable.

Even if you don't have any interest in baseball, reading either of these Roger Angell books (or any of his others, I'm sure) will make you look at the months of November through February with great disdain and make the news of pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training seem like the second coming of Christ. The guy is the Mark Twain of the old game and his absolute love of every thing that goes along with it is completely contagious.

Oh, and uh GO JAYS GO!

All You Seem To Say Is Baby "How Could It Be You?"

So today I was listening to the Jonsi song "Sticks and Stones", which most people know because it plays during the credits of the most excellent movie How To Train Your Dragon (and man, it's an aweosme song), and when it ended my itunes went right into Joyce Manor. Like I said in my last post, I've been re-discovering a bunch of music that I haven't really listened to in the last few months and this is certainly an example of that. But while Lemuria gave me more of a "Wow! This band is so poppy and cute and makes me feel great! I can't believe I ignored them!" feeling, this was more of a "Hey Tim! Feel like getting ridiculously sad? Remember all those pent-up feelings from last fall? Well, here they are whether you like it or not!"


All their releases up this point sure are great though. Between an EP, a full-length and another full-length that is so short some people consider it an EP even though it's nine songs, there's not much filler and a whole lotta angst. I highly recommend checking them out.

Also, speaking of How To Train Your Dragon, I heard a lot of people rave about that movie when it came out but only ended up watching it yesterday. Holy shit a company that's not Pixar actually made an endearing, fun, touching and inspiring animated kids movie! (Siq use of adjectives brah) I really enjoyed watching it.

I've mentioned it a few times on here, but I joined a band with whack of my favourite homies in the world. We're called Beat Noir and are in the process of recording a whole bunch of music and we have a show in Toronto coming up in December! I'm excited for a number of reasons. 1: I haven't played a show in Toronto since my high school ska band The Pragmatics  (Oh, you know I still have that ASOB shirt I'm rockin' in that video) broke up on stage in grade 12. 2: The show is with Like Pacific, who I am pretty good friends with, are A+ dudes all around, just put out a new EP called Homebound and are what one could consider "on their grind".

I really think you should think about attending this show, so if you would like the info it can be found right here.

In hindsight I maybe should have not linked that Pragmatics video. It's really embarrassing man! That hair was such a bad idea!

I suppose I'll leave you with this because I want it so bad and it makes me smile:

Every Funny Guy Has A Serious Side

CAN YOU GUESS WHY THERE IS A PICTURE OF MONTGOMERY BURNS HOLDING A "MYSTERY BOX" AT THE TOP OF THIS POST? CAN YOU?

So this year I'm joining the Movember and how that works is that I grow a mustache and accept donations which are then used to help in prostate cancer research. Beat Noir made a team and you could donate to us right here! Since my Mom beat colorectal cancer about 6 years ago I've taken a lot of joy and pride in trying to aid in research to figure out how to help people with the disease. Once it affects someone close to you, the idea of losing somebody you love and having nothing you can do about it becomes very, very real. It's not fun. The team is currently in 17911th place and I would really appreciate it if the person reading this could help us make it further up that list. If you could forward that link or know any type of group that would be interested in donating I would appreciate the most. Thanks!

Recently my ipod ate shit and stopped working. I had to restore it (delete everything off of it) several times and also had to reinstall itunes. So now my itunes is completely reset and everything. This golden nugget of shinfo aside, what that lead to was me listening to a bunch of music that I haven't in a while because I had to go through my music library with a fine tooth. One of these artists that I somehow managed to avoid for a while was Lemuria and I have no idea how that happened because they rule so fucking hard.



Right?

You know what's awful? The Major League Baseball off-season. Baseball is something that my family's been involved with for as long as I've been alive. My mom was at a Jays game something like 3 days before I was born and I went to my first game at 3 weeks old. Since then the Toronto Blue Jays have been a constant in my every-day life. And hey, we haven't made the playoffs since 1993. Think about how many losing seasons I've had to endure. IT TAKES ITS TOLL MAN.

Anyway, the MLB season ended not that long ago with the San Francisco Giants winning the World Series and now I am faced with 5 1/2 very long, baseball-free months. I guess I'm luckier than all the football, basketball and hockey fans because our off-season is shorter, but does it suck. From April until the end of October, you get baseball every day. Unlike other sports, baseball plays almost every single day and checking the scores and the standing and seeing where Jose is in the home-run race becomes your routine and something you look forward to each morning. And now all there is to do is read wild trade rumours most of which aren't true and only serve to get your hopes a little about your perennial losers.

I still love 'em though.

Oh and if you didn't figure it out, the post started with that picture because it was sort of a "grab-bag" or "mystery box" of random shit compiled together. BET THAT WAS A LETDOWN.

Ha.

The Kind Of Green That Doesn't Make A Big Deal About Itself

This past Tuesday evening I went to go see the film adaptation of Perks of Being a Wallflower.

I was first introduced to the book by an ex-girlfriend of mine. She raved about it and said the connection that she had with the story was one of the more major ones she had experienced while reading. She had been given it by a teacher with whom she had a relationship not unlike Mr. Anderson in Perks, which certainly added to the "coming-of-age" aspect of the novel. I had heard several other people describe the book in a similar fashion, so taking that into account as well as my ex's stellar literary taste; I decided to read to the book after a while.

The book hit me pretty hard as I was reading it. I was going through a time when I wasn't the happiest, so I related to Charlie a ton. I mean I've never gone through anything as traumatizing as a best-friend shooting himself or sexual abuse from a relative, not even close, but I'd just been dumped and was really reveling in the level of melancholy present in the writing. I really liked how the sadness wasn't over the top; Charlie never really made over the top statements about how much he wasn't enjoying his life, he would just say "I'm getting bad again." Or at least I think that is more realistic. People who are generally alright but are having a bit of a rough time will make a huge deal about how shitty they feel (present company included) simply because they aren't used to feeling that way and are having trouble dealing with it. People who are legitimately very depressed don't mention it all the time because they are used to being sad all the time (fuck bruh), so Charlie describing it very simply as "getting bad again" makes his condition that much more real.

I also related pretty heavily to the novel because I wasn't the most popular kid in my high school, which was a very sports-centric school, so a story about the weird kids who band together hit home a little bit. I suppose when you write a story about  kid who starts to learn about relationships and try drugs and meet new people and try new things and read cool books, then most adolescents are going to relate to it, but this book came at exactly the right time for me.

I was moderately excited to see the cinematic version of the book because even though film adaptations generally fall short of the original novel, it's still exciting to see a visual, moving version with sound of a story you're familiar with. It had been about 3 years since I had read the book, which was long enough for me to forget many of the minor plot details, but remember them right before or as they happened in the film. To put it shortly, I was floored by the movie.

Pretty much every scene matched up exactly to how I had seen it in my mind while reading the book. I'm sure this is due in large part to the author writing the screenplay and directing the movie, but it was almost uncanny. All of the actors played their roles exceptionally well and, just like the visuals of each scene, looked and acted more or less exactly as I had thought they would.

It sounds funny to say it, at least in regards to a movie that in reality is a pretty standard teenybopper coming-of-age flick, but I got pretty emotional at the end of the movie. It was a combination of forgetting how heavy the end of the novel is and seeing bits of myself as well as other important people in my life in the characters on screen and I had to sit back and let out a "fuuuuuuuuuuuuck" in my thoughts as the movie was coming to a close. I'm not sure if anyone can relate, but whenever I have an intense moment and let out a deep breath it always feels like a huge weight is being lifted off my chest and that happened.

I know most people will probably look down on me for liking the book as much as I do (it certainly has it's share of h8erz), but it's just one of those things that was the right thing at the right time in my life. I really have nothing but great things to say about the movie, but don't be disappointed if you don't get as emo as I did at the end.

Nightmare On Arthur Street

Typical Tim: I'm back! I swear I'm back! And then leave it alone for four days.

Anyway, I went to Guelph this weekend to see a rad show in Guelph. My wonderful friends Snake Charmer who I've had the pleasure of seeing multiple times were playing as well as The Mighty Atom, Born Wrong and Social Divorce, all of whom I have heard of a bunch but somehow avoided in concert so far. All things considered it was one of the craziest shows I've been to and I'm so happy I got to make it there after my night was almost ruined by a giant gaping asshole of a greyhound driver.

I knew the show was going to be a little wild when I walked in and saw that the room where the band was playing was pretty tiny. The drumset took up about a fifth of it, so it was going to be packed and there was no doubt in my mind that the crowd would get a little wild. This is a recipe for a memorable night as well as some serious mosh, which is something that I am all for.

Mighty Atom started things in pretty raucous fashion. They were loud and rockin' and got the crowd really stoked. Though afterward the band said they thought they had played terribly, the opposite was evident as they sounded tight and loud as fuck. They're noisy and fast with a great stage presence. To get an idea of their set picture this song in (maybe, if that) 12ft x 12ft room:

I was upstairs in the house when Born Wrong started but as soon as they did a huge rush of adrenaline shot through me. That might be hard to understand for non-punk kids, but when a band is absolutely killing it and right on the mark on a night, you can tell from the first note. As a result you get really excited because you know the rest of the set is going to be just as good and you can't wait to see it. This happened that night. I really don't think Born Wrong can sound any better than they did this past weekend, their set was perfect. Fast and aggressive, with the entire crowd going crazy. People were jumping off of the staircase onto the crowd and the band was getting just as into it as the crowd was, as the singer spent roughly 100% of the set in the middle of the mosh. I spent most of the set watching everything go down from above and can definitely feel how hard I was headbanging in my neck right now.

I had heard about Social Divorce since their inception because two of the members are also in Snake Charmer who I know very well. However, I had never seen or heard their music somehow (some friend I am, right?). It feels like I'm just repeating the same thing over and over, but holy hell did they kill. They were fast and angry with just the right amount of humour thrown into their banter to keep the crowd stoked. Not to mention absolutely ace Minor Threat and Dead Kennedys covers. They have a demo, but it definitely doesn't how tight and intense these guys are live. For example:

Snake Charmer are just something else. I can't speak with absolute certainty, but I'm fairly sure that in forming the band they took the heaviest, fastest and most pissed off hardcore and then said "Let's play heavier and faster and get more pissed". They get better with each time I see them and have parts where I just have to sit back and think "Whoa, this happening right now" and parts where I just completely lose my shit without even thinking because it just gets so intense. Having legitimately the best drummer I've ever seen play live also helps their case. They play shows around southern Ontario all the time and while they are extremely intense on-stage, they are some of the nicest, genuine and most down-to-earth people off of it, so you have no excuse to miss them. While the rest of the bands sure did whip the crowd into a fury, it was nothing compared to the absolute mayhem that happened when Snake Charmer player. There's some video from the show and it looks a little something like this:

The show got me pretty stoked and has put me on a huge hardcore kick since.

Ragin' y'all.

All Hallow's Eve

Today is a pretty weird day.

WHY COULD THAT BE TIM? HOW CAN YOU MAKE THAT STATEMENT AND THEN LEAVE ME HANGING LIKE THAT? JEEZE BRUH!

Well, it's feels weird because today is the first Halloween I've spent at home since 12th grade. And while it might seem like I'm making a way bigger deal of this than I need to, as soon as my Mom put up the decorations and brought the mini bags of chips to the door I was on whatever the nostalgia-oriented version of the Autobahn is called and transported to my childhood.

I imagine that it's equally weird for my parents because while the last 6 years of my existence feel like a lifetime and I feel like I've changed lots and lots since then, I'm sure it went by very fast for them. I find that the older you get, the faster that time passes. Like remember when you were a kid and it seemed like  forever in between Christmases? And now it's like "Oh shit, it's Christmas already." Anyways, what I'm trying to get at is that those 6 (and if we really want to get into it, like 8 or 9) years went by like *Tim snaps his fingers* that to them. So it's got be weird that their son went from dressing up like Batman 4 years in a row and being amped to go out and get candy to sitting in the basement on his laptop and thinking that it sucks he can't go out and get free candy.

I don't know if it's just me becoming jaded as I get older or the usual "Back in my day..." shtick, but is it just me or has Halloween gotten substantially shittier in the last few years?

I mean when I was younger there'd be a gang of about 10 or so of us 12 year-olds covering out entire neighborhood trying to get as much candy as possible and looking for that elusive house giving out cans of pop so we could wash down what we were snacking on while walking. We'd all gather at one person's house early and we'd be out for hours. Now it seems like parents are so concerned about what their kids are getting and so on that everyone is sheltered from everything I understood Halloween to about when I was younger.

I guess I can't fault parents for protecting their children because obviously that is extremely important, but  Halloween is a pretty crucial stepping stone in a child's social life as well as developing their independence (or at least I see it that way). Because when you're young and going out trick-or-treating for the first time, it's really the first time you're exposed to that many people being out and around. It might have just been me being a little boy and overwhelmed, but my early memories of going out on Halloween with my Dad and sister made the street seem like a giant crowded marketplace of costumes where everyone was having an amazing time. I loved it.

And then you get older and start to trick-or-treat with your friends and all of a sudden it's "Holy shit! (I started swearing early) Our parents are letting us go out by ourselves! And we're getting candy!" And then you go back home and watch Halloween cartoon specials and actually have more candy than you can eat and it's just like "Fuck those jabronis in Stand By Me, they don't have shit on my friends and I!"

Then before you know it you're in 8th grade and everyone in your class is going out together and you just think "HOLY FUCK! GIRLS." and you have a reason to hang out with them and if you were smoother and not starting to get acne you would make a move.

Of course that segways right into high school when you realize that drinking and weed is cool, but drinking and smoking weed is even cooler when you can go out and candy for free and hang around your neighborhood and again, girls.

So if you can't tell by now, I fucking love Halloween and while I'm sure that kids today are probably having an equally rad time, albeit in some different way, I wouldn't want them to miss the amazingness that was Halloween when I was growing.

I sure am a nostalgic son of a bitch, aren't I?

I Look Like Shit (Again)

What the fuck is up!

You should be able to tell I'm going to make a half-assed effort to keep up this blog (Yes, again. Ugh. I know.) because not only have I put a new picture at the top (MAXIMUM EFFORT YOU GUYS.) but I also added another contributer who happens to also be me, just with a new email.

More importantly, Jeff Rosenstock has put out a new album and I feel compelled to write about and we all know this is a fucking haven for music news right?

Right.

So yeah, last week Jeff Rosenstock released a solo album without having mentioned the release date or built up any hype whatsoever. Just completely out of the blue. He's done this on the last few Bomb The Music Industry! releases and I have to say I'm fan of it. Rather than trying to drum up praise or excitement, he just lets the music speak for itself and in his case it works because the music is extremely good.

GET THIS ALBUM RIGHT HERE. IT IS FREE. YOU ARE A CLASS-A JABRONI IF YOU DON'T.

One can immediately recognize that Senor Rosenstock is behind the music not only from his distinctive voice, but also because the music more less follows the style that BtMI! has established over the course of their last few albums (makes sense as several of the tracks were originally intended to make up a Bomb EP that was never finished). Since a bunch of the songs are demos, they're a little more stripped down than what he put out in the past, though there are more than enough drum machines and clear (but awesome) signs of home production to satisfy fans of Bomb's early work.

One thing I've really noticed is how much work the guy puts in vocals nowadays. He's gone from yelling as many words as he can per song (which I loved) during the Arrogant Sons of Bitches to writing less words but putting way more melody into his vocals (which I also love) as was the case on Vacation, all while dramatically increasing his range along the way.

Along with this what is definitely his most interesting choice of cover, and maybe even his best cover, as he chose to do the pop-punk tune "I Don't Wanna Die" (Ai Don Wana Dai?) by the extremely rowdy and awesomely weird Ging Nang Boyz. Jeff has a habit of making the second or third last song a longer/darker number and then following it up with the most epic ender one can imagine that just makes you feel amazing and posi and fuzzy and happy to be alive. In this case "Amen" fills the role of the former, while "I Don't Wanna Die" takes care of the the latter.

I guess it could just be me, but I've spent the last week yelling "The Internet Is Everywhere" and "Bonus Oceans" and it feels PRETTY DAMN GOOD MAN.

To put it shortly, if you love Bomb the Music Industry! then you will love this album. If you don't love Bomb the Music Industry!, then get yer head outta yer ass and download this album. The guy's a genius and this is probably more accessible to you than anything else he's put out.

Album of the year?

Probs.

I Look Like Shit

A problem I have is that I tend to over-think things. Though I can be shy and might not speak very much sometimes, in my head the wheels are constantly turning and analysing everything I see. It’s not exactly healthy and is something that I would avoid, but unfortunately the way my mind works is not something that I control.

The worst part about over-thinking things is that it leads to several bad habits that I would like to avoid just as much. There really are too many to list but the main one is that I keep things bottled up. The link between over-thinking situations and over-analyzing occurrences and my habit of not letting anything out may seem a little bit strained, but let me elaborate.

There are and were many people who I am and was exposed to on a regular basis that I found to be pretty irritating and overbearing. Usually a big part of this would be making a gigantic deal out of things that were pretty minor in actuality. An example would be complaining about schoolwork and acting like it was the end of the world that they had an exam/essay/report/etc to write and also acting like they specifically had it worse than anyone else. In reality everyone at university had a pretty similar workload if not worse than these people (An engineer would have far more work to finish in any given week than a business major.) but this was lost on them. They would often make similar remarks about their love life and such.

As is my custom, I found this people to be extremely annoying and very unpleasant to be around. Naturally I wanted to be perceived in the opposite light of these people, so I tried to do the opposite of whatever they would. Since they let everything out and constantly complained, I started to not let anything out and try to never whine. This is certainly not healthy or recommended but it does have a few positives that come along with it. If you stop to think about it, do you actually like to hear about others’ problems? The answer is definitely no. While I’m sure you take great pleasure in hearing your friends rant and helping them overcome obstacles that pleasure comes from helping your friends out and seeing them become happy again, not from hearing them complain. Straight up, people complaining fucking sucks. So I found that not venting about little annoyances made it seem like I am far more easy-going than I actually am and thus more likeable.

However, with this approach come many more negatives than positives. As Jeff Rosenstock very poignantly put on his latest album “Show me a person who always seems fine and I’ll show you a lying sack of shit”. Everyone dislikes things and gets low because that is human nature and it happens to everyone and that’s just the way things are. So if you have no avenue to purge these annoyances, they start to pile up and get much worse.

This has been the case lately. I’m done school and don’t really have anything to challenge myself like my program did. I’ve been forced to move back into my parent’s house and live in my sister’s room while she is away at school. I have no job and thus no source of income to do things. My band lives in another city that is an hour and a half away by car, but 3-4 hours away via public transit, which is what I am forced to take to get to practice. All this adds up to me often feeling beaten down and tired, despite not having done very much, which is just about the worst feeling you can get.

I have a select few friends who don’t really mind hearing me open up about things, but on the whole I keep it to myself because I feel like I shouldn’t trouble other people with my problems when they already have their own. As a result of this tendency coupled with my aforementioned worries, I wake up in a bad mood with nowhere for it to really go, which leads to days like today:

I wake up still tired, I put on records about being sad, I drink coffee and mope around my house, keeping quiet and trying to find things to do while my mind races around in circles thinking about the things I don’t like but not really finding a way to reconcile them.

Fortunately for me, my 11 year-old border collie has a habit of noticing when I don’t feel so great and he came over to put his head in my lap, stare at me with his gigantic eyes and remind me that at least he wants me to feel good.

Hit Stop, Rewind, It's Time To Check Your Audio

Today I left my house and was scrolling through my ipod try to find something a little more energetic to listen to than the Cat Stevens record I already had going at the time. Being already in the "C" section, I came across a name that I hadn't seen in a while: The Ceremonial Snips.

Now of course they are still a band, but have changed their name to just "The Snips" and in fact put out a new record this year which you can get for $0 right here. But with the name change came a big change in sound as well as some member changes. The band has been operating under the "Snips" moniker for a while now and most people probably think of the current incarnation of the band, rather than the "Ceremonial" version of the band.

While nowadays the band plays rockier/poppier punk songs that are very good, they're nowhere near the hard-hitting/horn-laden punk that the band used to put out. They played real fast, had melodic hornlines, hardcore-influenced riffs and metal leads. It definitely seems like an odd combination, but the band pulled it off extremely well, taking the best parts of each genre in order to make a greater whole.

Evidence of this is one of their better known old songs, "Fuck With The Rose", where they start with about 30 seconds of metal riffing that wouldn't be out of place on a Megadeth record, then go into a great catchy hornline, a fast punk verse and then end with a hardcore gang vocal back and forth.

I first got introduced to the band because they would get put on ska bills all of the time because they had a horn section I guess? They really have no element of ska to them whatsoever. Anyways they kept getting tighter and tighter live and kept getting gnarlier and gnarlier riff-wise and really turned into one of my favourite Ontario bands. Then they kept quiet for a little bit and came out with the new line-up. I was pretty bummed at first because of the change in sound but eventually grew to like the new version as well.

The band was pretty important to me and were definitely one of the first groups that got me more into hardcore and metal. I would highly recommend tracking down a copy of Check Your Audio because it's front-to-back great and is seriously riff city.

Or, if you are lazy then click this.

Fuck That Shit

Something that has been interesting to me throughout my life is watching the way skateboarding constantly evolves and changes. More so than any other sport (except in some cases Basketball) one single single figure, or small group can completely change the style of skateboarding. This was true in the 70's with the Zephyr team, the 80's with the Bones Brigade, as well as many different skaters in the 90's and after. Visually the biggest difference is the fashion as skaters are very quick to jump on a trend and start dressing like their favourite shredders (Watch The Search For Animal Chin and you will immediately see why I dress the way I do). Remember when every suburban teenager started wearing purple and black "heart-agram" shit because Bam Margera did. Or when Hurley stocks went up a jillion points when Bob Burnquist had a Hurley shit on in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater? The same can be said today of all the kids trying to look like the Deathwish/Shake Junt teams.

The exact same thing happens in the style of tricks performed. Young kids skating obviously try to skate like their favourite skaters and do the same style tricks as them. Everyone is flipping in and out of grinds today because they grew up watching Koston do the same thing.

Basically what I'm trying to get at is that the trends in skating as well as skating itself is in constant flux and constantly evolving.

But something that has grown an astounding amount in popularity over the last few years is longboarding. I just do not get the appeal. When I first started skateboarding longboarding seemed to be a California-only thing for the hippies to do on their amazing selection of hills. As I went through university, I noticed more and more people starting to longboard to the point that now far more people longboard than "regular" skating. The only appeal I can see is that they are easier to cruise on and thus much more convenient if mobility is all you're looking for in a skateboard.

Rollerbladers have long been the mortal enemy of skateboarders, but I would wager that longboarders have now taken up that mantle. When I look at the reasons why I, myself loathe them so much I can't really pinpoint it. I used to say "You can't ollie on a longboard" but then I saw a group of kids bombing rails in New York on longboards (less lame, but still pretty lame). I often say "It's not a skateboard if you can wear sandals on it" but that doesn't really carry any weight and is more just me making fun of people who wear Birkenstocks to skateboard in.

After a lot of thinking though, I believe I've finally come to a conclusion. It's because no (or a very minimal amount) of longboarders were skateboarders before. So what has happened is that a huge population of people who aren't really "skateboarders" (This is a whole other fucking ordeal that I can't get into now.) have taken over the sport. For example, there is a skate shop in Guelph where I just moved out of that didn't sell any actual skate parts, only longboards. As a result of this, pretty much the only place someone can go to get  a new skateboard/skate parts is the West 49 in the mall. Which really sucks.

The culture surrounding longboarding is what pisses me off most about it. It started as something that was awesomely counter-culture. Skateboarding is illegal, street skaters got in the way, did things in places they weren't supposed to and weren't highly regarded. I got into skateboarding and punk music at around the same time (as many people did) and it seemed like a match made in heaven. In contrast to this is longboaring culture, which, as far as I can tell, consists of bros riding them to the library and hippies cruising around on them to be environmentally friendly.

And that fucking sucks man.

Also, complete non-sequitur but especially fuck people who refer to skateboards as "shortboards". That should be punishable by stoning.

It just really sucks to see something you've grown up loving so much to be completely overrun by a group of people who have absolutely nothing to do with the original ethos of the sport. Not to say that I'm a nihilistic badass with no regard for anybody who busts Smith grinds now 10 sets in front of cops, but there certainly is  a "I don't give a fuck" attitude that you take up a little bit the first time you buy a skateboard and that is definitely void in longboarding.

That, or I'm a jaded ass who hates everything.

Maybe a little of both?

But I suppose that even though most people actually ask me "Why don't you longboard?" when they see my deck, a bunch of turds can't ruin the inherent magic of landing sketchy ollies with your best friends in a parking lot. So I suppose that even though skateboarding is extremely mainstream at the moment because of figures like Rob Dyrdek (though he does build a ton of skateparks in places they are needed, so good on him) and Ryan Sheckler (though he does shred pretty fucking hard) and also overrun with goddamn longboarders, nothing can ever take away the magic trying to land a trick all day and finally stomping it at 12:30 with all your friends cheering you on.

That and some fuck is always going to be pissing off security guards by manualing around the front of a building. Which makes me smile.