Feels So Good, But You Don't Dare Believe It

Today is an awesome day.

I started the day by sleeping in to around noon. I'm a dude that needs a lot of sleep. I know some people can be functional on 4 or 5 hours, but I am the polar opposite. So I'm able to get a solid 9-10 hours in even though I was up pretty late, it rules.

Then I was greeted with the new Frank Turner album. If you didn't know, Frank Turner fucking rules. He used to play in the hardcore band Million Dead, but turned towards the folkier/acousticier side of punk when that band broke up. He is a fucking awesome song-writer and has a way of writing songs that pretty much any young person who's a little confused about life can heavily relate to. He's also a super down to earth dude who you'd really have to try hard to not like. His live shows are always very fun; everyone has a smile and everyone sings along. His new album England Keep My Bones is going to be out soon. Learn about that here.

This is also going to be the first really hot week in Toronto, with the temperature being above 20 degrees every day and even going up to 30 tomorrow! I fucking hate the cold and always look forward to summer. It's always my favourite time of year and I can't wait to break out my jorts, fake wayfarers and tank tops. Seeing how nice out it is today, I seized the opportunity and went to go read Franny and Zooey outside. It was really nice.

I also just came off of a weekend in Guelph, where I got to get pretty drunk for a whole weekend with a bunch of friends that I don't get to hang with when I'm out of school. I wish I could see them more. Day drunk on Genny, Donkey Kong Country and the Jackson 5? Can't really ask for more, in my opinion.

Next order of business: If you don't think that the Rush episode of Trailer Park Boys is absolutely hilarious, you probably aren't Canadian, but also don't know good comedy.

Now I get to watch Jo-Jo Reyes go for the most consecutive starts without a win record for the Blue Jays.

I'm completely broke, but life still rules. Everything is coming up Milhouse!

And this still makes me laugh a lot, years later. I can't believe how much time I used to spend on Newgrounds.

(That video also lead me to tons of Super Mario glitch videos. Awesome.)

I know this post was more or less me just talking about what I've done the last four days, but I felt like I had to put it somewhere, y'know?

It's Not Hard, Not Hard To Reach

If you don't like The Ramones, you really need to figure your life out.

Thinking 'Bout You Is The Way I Like To Waste My Time

Since I got home from Pouzza Fest I've been listening to non-stop "Ramones-Core" pop-punk. By Ramones-Core I mean that the band really worship the altar of The Ramones their songs never really get too complicated. 3 or 4 chords max and songs about holding hands and all that nice stuff.

These are some of my favourites right now:

I really want to form a band like this.

Maybe Tomorrow

Well, Pouzza Fest was a fucking blast. Non-stop awesome bands, beer, parties and junk food. Everyone we met there fucking ruled and it was more or less the best time ever.

My highlights:

• First and foremost: Lifetime's set. Everyone there seemed to love the band as much as I do and it showed. You know a band matters when the other bands playing the fest are going crazy and stage-diving for them. They opened with "Turnpike Gates" and it took about 3 seconds for the first person to jump of the stage.
• Dig It Up's set was the perfect way to end the whole thing. Everybody was going to begin with but by the end half the crowd had no shirts on, there were people hanging off the roof and pretty much the entire drumset was circulating on top of the crowd. It was the last set of the last night and everyone just went off.
• Puking outside Underworld and running upstairs and directly onto the stage to stage-dive during Living With Lions' set.
• Drinking all day, every day. Especially at Fouf's during Saturday.
• Only consuming meat, cheese, gravy and pizza all weekend.
• Every band that I saw was great.
• The Holy Mess being probably the drunkest band I've ever seen and still putting on a fucking awesome set.
• Bad Astronaut somehow pulling off what they do on record live and sounding absolutely phenomenal. They also closed with my favourite song "The F-Word" even though it's 8 minutes long!

It was really, really fun. I hope it comes back bigger and better next year.

Please Tell Me Everything That You Think That I Should Know

I'm leaving for Pouzza Fest in Montreal in a few hours.

Things I packed:

Pokemon Red

Gameboy Advanced

Weed

Other shit

Will probably just play this song on repeat the entire way up:

Fuckin' Stokedcity U.S.A.

As Crazy As It Sounds I Think It Helps

Wow, two Joey Cape postings in two days. Anyways, I've posted this song before because I instantly loved it when I saw him play it live and it's become maybe my favourite song of his. Today he posted a full-band electric version of it! It translated so fucking well! I probably like it more than the original version!

To make matters even better he announced a North By NorthEast show with Chuck Ragan playing as Joey Cape's Bad Loud which is a live band I'm assuming. Day before my birthday/Descendents throwdown. Holy moly I'm lucky!

Listen to this. I've been jamming to it all day and clearly think it's pretty radical.

Joey Cape's Bad Loud - Okay by Joey Cape

Man, The Guilt Must Be Huge

Today is apparently unofficial "LagWagon Day" because probably their most well known song is called "May 16th". Even though tons of my friends already posted this, I'm doing it too. I really love the song and every time I hear it reminds of when I first got into punk rock and started listening to bands like LagWagon and No Use For A Name.

Huzzah.

Coax Me

Hey!

First things first. Living With Lions is an awesome Canadian punk rock band. They have a new album, Holy Shit, coming out on Tuesday. Fortunately you can listen to the entire thing (albeit with a few ads thrown in as well) right here for free! I've only listened to it all the way through one time, but I thought it was a good fucking album!

Alrighty, I'm not exactly sure where this is going to go as I'm starting this right now. I've been home from school for a little under a month. My sister just came home from school so I've been forced to move from her room to the basement. This fucking sucks. The basement is cold. I also had to move all my stuff down and that ranks pretty high on my least favourite activities list.

However, I'm going to Pouzza Fest in Montreal. I'm really, really stoked for a variety of reasons. Number 1 is that I finally have a chance to see the band Lifetime. They are one of my absolute favourites ever (I'd say 3rd behind Less Than Jake and The Descendents). The band reunited in 2005 and I got into the band just after the Toronto date of that tour. As a result of this I figured it would be a long time until I got to see them, but was pleasantly surprised after they were added to a festival I was already planning to attend.

Long story short I get to see a ton of fantastic punk bands, hang out with a few of my best friends all weekend, get day drunk every day and then eat a massive poutine from La Banquise after doing something along the lines of this. Honestly, that's pretty much all I want in life. I'm a simple dude.

I should take it easy on the links though, eh?

Speaking of music festivals, I just watched a documentary on the South By Southwest music festival on the TV channel AUX. Then entire thing isn't up yet, but you can watch the first part right here for free! It's hosted by Sam Sutherland who is an awesome/nice dude and also sings in a totally radical pop-punk band! Sidebar: They recently signed to Paper and Plastick and have a full-length coming out soon! Anyways, the doc was really great and very interesting. They do a really good job of covering every part of the festival and interviewing a wide variety of artists, from Moby to Odd Future to Matt and Kim to Keith fuckin' Morris. Definitely look for it on TV, AUX is channel 107 in Southern Ontario.

I just started another summer at Ontario Place. It'll be ok I guess. I used to really love that job. Then I hated it. Now I'm okay with it. At work (and in life in general) I think it's important to take everything with a grain of salt. Don't take anything too seriously, it usually becomes less fun (re: shittier) after that. I also watched Adventureland recently and it gave me two things: 1, a boner for Kristen Stewart in a Husker Du (don't know the short cut for umlauts) shirt and 2, a feeling of super nostalgia towards working in an amusement park.

I guess that's all I got. I'm tired from cleaning and moving shit all day and Role Models is on. That movie makes me laugh very hard.

I Guess That's Why We're Awesome

!ATTENTION! is really radical pop-punk band from Toronto. They're poppy but rough, put on a very fun live show and are definitely up there as my favourite band based out of the GTA right now. They added a bunch of new merch to their facebook page and then posted a new song today! Two awesome things! One, there is a release titled Another Year by them coming out on August 8 2011. Ep or full-length? I don't know, but either way I'm fucking stoked. Two, the new song is called "Shirts Off, Party On". I love the fuck out of this band and really wish that my stupid broken dryer in Guelph didn't burn and permanently stain the design on the front of my !ATTENTION! shirt.

You should really, really think about pressing play below right now. Glenn and the guys are awesome and very nice dudes.

You've Got Your Skeletons And You're Scared To The Bone

Moments like these are why I like punk music so much. It doesn't matter if you don't know anybody there, when the bands playing everybody is there for the same reason and everybody there knows it. Generally speaking, the bands are pretty down to earth and don't have huge egos because at one time, they were those kids at the shows.

The first concert I went to was Warped Tour 2004. I saw Bad Religion, Rise Against, Deville, Flogging Molly, Allister, The Planet Smashers and The Casualties. It was okay. More importantly the next show I went to was The Planet Smashers, The Toasters, The Pietasters and The Pylons at Lee's Palace about a month later. That show was exactly like the one shown above. During the last two sets every kid was dancing and going completely crazy in the crowd. Tons of people were onstage singing into the mics, stage-diving and dancing all over the stage. The important part is that the bands were loving it and getting into it too, which (I think at least) probably wouldn't be as common with other genres of music.

That really sold me on the music I like. Nothing makes me feel like being a part of a unique live experience with bands that I love.

P. S. Norm MacDonald's new show rules a whole lot. He's a very funny dude.