Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Revelation Records‘ 25th anniversary happened last weekend and I went to two of the four shows. Here are some pics that I’m sharing in B&W. As my friend Ben Clark says, that’s how punk rock is supposed to look. Sorry, no Quicksand pics because I didn’t go on Sunday. I suggest you keep an eye on Atiba Jefferson‘s site because his Instagram pics from the shows were pretty hot. Bobby Hundreds covered it on his blog, too.
Night Zero, which was added after the weekend shows were announced had the widest range of sounds and styles. The first two bands, Kiss It Goodbye (Seattle) and In My Eyes (Boston), were of the straight-up, no-bullshit, unfiltered hardcore and straight edge variety.
Like the musical equivalent of a Coelacanth, Sacramento’s RAD is a living, breathing, biting example of an era gone by. They carry on the fury, brevity, and humor of the mid-‘80s when punk and thrash were crossing over, but with totally modern sensibilities. A couple of months ago, I finally got to see them play L.A. (along with my friend and ace photographer Ben Clark, whose pictures from a Pyrate Punx house show are included in this blog) and followed up with some questions that follow.
RAD is Lory (vocals), Charles (guitar), Anthony (bass), and Craig (drums). I asked them a lot about their debut 7” but there’s already a cassette tape demo ready to drop as well. They play often–sometimes in basement shows with local bands as well as with old-school thrashers–so check them out when you can. But as the song goes, definitely cover your tits in the pit.
MW: “Rad” is a word that all of you use pretty often. Is it difficult to not use it when talking about your own shows, songs, or sound?
Anthony: Yes, it’s difficult because it’s so true. We are rad. I think we remind the audience of that fact at least twice every time we play. It’s quite an effective marketing tool actually. People say, “Whoa, you guys are rad!” all the time after they see us play, and pretty soon everyone believes it just out of sheer repetition. Because it’s also true, of course. We are RAD.
Charles: We originally wanted a name like “NARC” or “Bad Dudes” but settled on RAD.
Lory: Being a native Californian, I tend to say “rad” a lot. We do get to play a lot of rad shows. I think all of our songs are pretty rad. The sound we are going for… rad. The dudes that I get to play this rad music with… They’re all right, I guess.
Craig: Yeah, unfortunately the word does come up a lot. All of us spent some amount of our childhood in the ’80s so it’s just in the vocabulary.
If you read this blog, you’ve probably gathered that I fully advocate supporting bands by purchasing records from merch table, cool shops, or the labels themselves. Downloading free MP3s is strictly for bootlegs, demos, and so on. But I have no qualms about attending free shows–especially ones that I can take my four-year-old daughter to. And what could be better than a trip to see one of Eloise’s three favorite groups (Dum Dum Girls) at one of her favorite places (The Getty)?
The Dum Dums kicked off the museum’s free Saturday evening concerts two weekends ago with a full set of dreamy, goth-y, garage-y rock. The band has been touring in support of its excellent second album with its extra lush sound for a while now. So of course they sound as great as ever, but there are extra hints at showmanship this time around. Members step up, back, and converge in the middle of the stage. New bassist Malia fits right in, and Eloise and her cousins rocked out nonstop after the sun went down and the volume turned up. So rad to get an hour-long fix in such a setting, and Eloise even got a heads-up from her Facebook/Instagram fans Sandy and Dee Dee. Gotta find out when Sandy returns to town for a Fiore date, and keep checking the Getty’s Saturdays Off the 405 schedule as the summer goes on.