TUCSON OH HOW WE LOVE YOUR SMALL TOWN GUMPTION

If you ask Tucson residents and people worldwide they will tell you: Tucson is a great self absorbed delusional town. A national survey released Thursday shows we're better than great: We are really, really great. No...REALLY REALLY REALLY GREAT! In fact, Tucson comes in first overall in the list of top cities in the United States for everything that is great. And that list includes NY, LA, Tokyo, London and even Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas — both of which Tucson is often compared and aspires — in the regional rankings. Here's what Value Wombat, a company that crunches numbers, does surveys and comes up with demographically based consumer lists, arrived at: • 1st overall nationally; LA, naturally, is No. 2, followed by Des Moines, Iowa; San Francisco; Phoenix-Mesa; Austin, Texas; and Passaic, New Jersey. • We're No. 1 regionally, with Austin and Tulsa, Oklahoma at 2 and 3. • We tanked to the bottom of the pile for actually having valid reasons to believe this, coming in at 200 on the list of 200 cities. • We're 39th for number of Mattress Firm stores. • Tucson came in 31st for the percentage of the population with useless degrees. The Value Wombat study evaluated 200 metropolitan areas using statistical data from sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, Thrillist, the Burau of Labor Statistics and several media surveys including USA Today and Travel & Leisure.

Last Days of the Grumpus Room

FEB 5TH 2008- SEPT 6TH 2008 42 fun as hell shows completed

from a long time ago at a venue in the endless stream of defunct places that were more about music and bands than anything else. check out the disparate lineups sometime. when touring bands converge in the same town thats what happens when youre just trying to support an underground scene instead of whatever happens to be the "in thing"

Tucson Arizona's one and only tiny D.I.Y. all-ages shithole venue. It holds a whopping 60 bodies..its lit by poorly strung Xmas lights and no longer has a pinata.

1250 s 4th ave #138 Tucson AZ

Dont park out front unless you are a band...everyone else hit the sidestreets. There is cheap booze all over the neighborhood and excellent birria across the street. Most shows are 7 bucks and all of the $ goes to the out of town bands gas tanks

. Jun 10 2008 7:00P BOATS/STANDARD DEVIANCE/THE TICS/SLOW THOUGHT Jun 13 2008 9:00P SWING DING AMIGOS, THEE MAKEOUT PARTY, AUDACITY , POLKA MADRE Jun 24 2008 7:00P The RED DONS, The ESTRANGED, LOS RUDOS Jun 28 2008 9:00P BLACK CAMARO,ULTRAMAROON , DIGITAL LEATHER Jul 1 2008 7:00P THE POTENTIAL JOHNS, STANDARD DEVIANCE, JAPANESE MONSTERS Jul 17 2008 7:00P THE CHEAT, BASEMENT APARTMENTS Jul 25 2008 9:00P SHARK PANTS, CANADIAN RIFLE(chicago), SOLID DECLINE(germany) Friday Aug 1st Weekend Nachos (Chicago) Parasites Go! (Bay area) Slow Thought The Fisters

"Not sure if this show happened. My olde mang brane iz broak:

Sunday Aug 3rd Sourvein Alarm Serows

"I dont think this show happened"

Thursday Aug 7th This Runs On Blood (Flagstaff) Vanish Twin TRANSIENT (portland, or) Limbless Torso ???

"Kickoff night to the first Beefstock. A band that had a dog as the vocalist started it off."

Friday Aug 8th THE FANSS NOBUNNY JJCNV ???

"Second night of the first Beefstock. Justin had just left Tucson a couple months previous and this was his glorious return. Also this was JJCNV's first show in Tucson."

AUGUST 12TH- TUESDAY- 7 PM Two other touring bands I cant remember who were sort of a big deal amongst the whole post rock/noise/tech metal crowd GUILTY FACES(ex-RATBYTE) from CT STANDARD DEVIANCE GOD OF THE SEA

"GOTS were the only band that ended up playing cause they were all pretty young and ended up getting drunk and running around the neighborhood acting like nitwits pulling their pants down and pissing on everything along with other stuff bored kids do when they think theyre being shocking. I think all the touring bands ended up sleeping there and somebody brought them food the next day and had a cookout as one of the bands did repairs to their van."

Wed Aug 20th Chow Yun Fat Murder Practice(Sacramento) Full Blown AIDS Bloodied Up Knuckles Wed Aug 27th WITCH HATS(AUS) MC TRACHIOTOMY(New Orleans) two other touring bands ULTRAMAROON

"MC Trachiotomy never went on the tour and two bands from Chicago or the midwest or something played as well. I ended up being able to send Witch Hats over to Club Congress to open one of the first show's that the dudes involved in SWTF threw with their newly formed production company. They rocked my little brain to pieces"

Friday Aug 29th DEVON DISASTER THE SHUDDERS (Bay area) WINELORD

"Devon Disaster, a PHX local moved down to Tucson cause she was Shawn from Digital Leather's girlfriend, didnt play for some lame reason after begging me to book her for months. She was someone who wanted to really be a celebrity ala Madonna and thought that "punk" or whatever you want to call this garbage we are involved in was her ticket to stardom. She also used to bitch about how much she hated "local" bands, like she was some world wide entity. She proceeded to start bugging me about booking her again a week after this The Shudders had the orig bassist from the Clorox Girls, and Winelord was a great local band that at this point was a power trio and a damned good one at that. It turned into a dance party afterwards with a bunch of 80s+90s pop dance/r&b tracks." I think there were only a couple more shows after this, one being The Blind Shake and Static Static (JHK and Heather with a member of the Red Aunts)* and another being The Intelligence with another local I cant remember that was sort of popular but ran in different circles, but was friends with the Intelligence, and Isaac and Levi's brother Adam's band Sexual Ambulance or whatever they were called at the time. Which was the very last show at this place, The World's Worst Pet Store, and had me getting a ticket for disturbing the peace after the meth head that lived on the corner called the police cause somebody pooped on her steps. The location was across the street from Tucson's biggest homeless park. I never did pay that ticket.

*Ah just found evidence of this sat july 21st static static (ex detonations) the blind shake (minneapolis...michael yonkers backing band) the complainiacs +more?

20 Metal Albums Awaiting Your Discovery

This started out as a piece on thrash metal albums that never really got their due in comparison to the Big 4: Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth. Out of which both Metallica and Slayer should hang it up and Anthrax and Megadeth never really seemed all that deserving of being on top. Anthrax and Megadeth both probably having enough decent material for a greatest hits comp if that. Sorry Mustaine heads nothing after "So Far, So Good, So What" is worthwhile and both that album and their first is only half decent.

If you like any of those bands you should have a working knowledge of all the following bands or at least their first couple albums, so I wont be writing about: Exodus - Bonded By Blood, Metal Church - The Dark, Testament - The Legacy, Flotsam and Jetsam - No Place For Disgrace, Voivod (all), Sodom, Carnivore, Destruction, Sacrifice, Kreator, Sepultura, Celtic Frost, Nuclear Assault, or Possessed. So writing about those bands albums is kind of unneeded as their audience already knows them and anyone you'd be introducing them too probably isn't going to like it.

Instead we will discuss some albums by bands that you might not know at all. Secret hidden works that have slipped through the cracks of time to await discovery by the lucky few.

So here are 20 bands that if you like metal (all different types) you'll probably dig

avenger blood sports germany coven blessed is the black usa cyclone temple I hate therefore I am usa deadhorse horsecore or peaceful feelings and pretty flowers usa dream death journey into mystery usa exhorder slaughter in the vatican usa grave digger heavy metal breakdown germany holy terror mind wars usa liege lord master control usa morbid saint spectrum of death usa nightstick ultimatum usa sabbat history of a time to come or dreamweaver uk sacrilege bc - party with god usa satan court in the act uk savage grace the masters disguise or after the fall from grace usa tko in your face usa tokyo blade night of the blade uk tyrant too late to pray usa violence eternal nightmare usa wehrmacht shark attack or biermacht usa

Cosmic Jackhammer

so after the last OZ post I decided (well actually a friend decided for me) that we should continue in that vein and put up a demo of the band Mike gray would join after Opinion Zero.....COSMIC JACKHAMMER

this was recorded in 1990 or 1991 and they started as a band in 1988 I believe. Besides Mike you also had
Ethan Houser, also on guitar, who previously had been in FUCT
Bob Martin on bass, who previously had been in HC (from west PHX - litchfield park)
Sonny Lamotte on drums, who's sister Roni also played drums in local yokels Haus
and Jerry Disaster aka Abel Ferraira the man responsible for Driller Killer and Bad Lieutenant....just kidding he had been in a band with Sam Preston of OZ called Butchers for Peace, and was a beautiful mess.

Later on after this tape had been recorded Jason Musfelt of Civil Order/Ice Nine would replace Bob Martin when Bob joined up with Greg Sage to tour Europe as the Greg Sage Experience, and John Scharf of math wizardry, bong rips, and pizza eating (later to be in the Lovers and CRUD as well) would replace Sonny on the drums.
Also there was a long line of guitarists that took over Ethan's place such as Detroit Johnny (or John John) and others my feeble old brain can't recall.

One particular show he was eating Cheetos (the puffy kind) while singing and near the end of the set decided to cut his head open with a Swiss Army knife. He made a pass once and nothing. Tried it again and again NOTHING! Someone from the audience notices he has been attempting this with the dull edge so they smartly tell him to turn the blade around. He does so and tries it again only with the same force that hes been attemnpting with the dull edge. ALA GRAND CANYON FULL OF RASPBERRY SYRUP TO GO WITH YOUR PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICHES! He got a little white in the face but finished out the set. The singer in the next band, however, had a mic that looked like a bloodstained basketball to contend with.

the name Cosmic Jackhammer alluded to GOD's male appendage. BFP had a song called Buttfucked By God and so Abels next band;s name was kind of a nod towards that

this demo is an amalgamation of one recording that just was finally released on cd this year and some songs that were on another tape i found in the junkpiles in my house


COSMIC JACKHAMMER demo

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Back with a Bang now...so I'm going to start this bitch back up and use it to get all the lost Tucson recordings out there into the vast reaches of space. Most punk/hc bands from Tucson never really put stuff out. UPS, one of the bigger bands, didnt put there 7" out till 6 years after they started. Hell, most bands never even got beyond a crappy boom box practice tape and if they did put out a demo it was in an edition of maybe 50 tops. Whether this was due to something in the water, being from TOO STONED, or just realizing the audience was slim and let's concentrate on getting thru this life and having fun (which means more live shows and less sitting around your house folding j-cards and labeling tapes) might never be answered. This is the reason though that more people know about bands from Phoenix, and less people know about the superior Tucson bands.

You scoff now, but I'm a show you

so first band on deck
OPINION ZERO

OZ was born from the ashes of WSB, which will definitely be talked about later, as John Henkel played guitar in WSB and would take over the bass duties in OZ. Mike Gray would be slinging the axe, freshly moved from El Paso where he had played in Friday the 13th, and another band I am brainfarting on. Sam Preston would be the singer, and he did guest vocals on two other bands recordings as well...Blood Spasm and Civil Order, as well as having some of the only 3-D tattoos I can recall. A guy named Rambo started on the drums and would later be replaced by Dean who would later move to Portland and join Alcoholics Unanimous. When Dean split Dugga Doug (from Civil Order) took over on the throne, and then much later Dirty Birt would man the drums when they had a reunion of sorts and local record store/label Toxic Shock would release a song, "Words" from this recording, on their Noise from Nowhere series.

OZ was of the crossover scene I guess, but they really sounded like their own beast. They were more a hardcore band that wasn't afraid to show people they liked Thin Lizzy, and less a metal band that was just discovering GBH and Black Flag. Some of the members were also in Five Prong Stud Assault, the premiere Tucson house party band at the time. Oh those Robo nights!

This tape was recorded at a place called the Sound Factory, I believe, in 1987. It was the studio for all the metal bands and tv and radio jingles at the time ie PRO studio.

They went on a tour up the west coast around the same time that they recorded this and played in the Bay area at the Farm. UPS might have been touring with them as well, Coming back after playing San Diego the van threw a rod that narrowly missed the occupants of the vehicle.

Sadly, Sam Preston would die in the latter part of 1996, at his mother's house.



John Henkel would later play in the Blink Dogs and Prosthetic Head.
Mike Gray would later be in Cosmic Jackhammer and Cancer Brides.

The cover of this tape (which I no longer have) was a drawing of an alien (much like kali) playing the guitar, the bass, the drums, and singing. A pattern that would be repeated by the band the Weird Lovemakers sort of with their t shirt that showed the amalgamation of the band members as superheroes. I wish I had that shirt as well.

One last thing...in the movie Frankenhooker there's a scene in a bathroom with a couple prostitutes and one of them looks like she has the OZ logo (a sort of chaos symbol with a 0 in the middle) on her arm...just another case for Robert Anton Wilson I guess.

Opinion Zero - Storm and Stress

BACK FROM THE DEAD AND HUNGRY FOR BRAINS

Francis Harold and the Holograms

"It's a mixture of Flipper and Brainbombs, but with a stronger hatred for your eardrums."





ULTRAMAROON





PIJIN RILIJIN

here's some mp3s for download
Francis Harold and the Holograms

ROLL OUT THE BARRELS

so we got redtagged Saturday night....long story short, a tenant moved in at the beginning of august who was not told about the fact that bands use the space to practice in and she's sandwiched in between Blues and Chango Malo. She wasn't happy and that is understandable BUT a reasoned response would be for her to say to the property manager "i was not informed of this, am not happy, and am now breaking my lease because or this"

she is not reasonable however. So her plan is to make it horrible for everyone else and make them leave, first bailers: us. This is what went down

had a show last night with the Intelligence, RCougar, and the Subway Vandals...it was a small fun show. No debauchery, No hijinx. Parents were there to see their son's band play (multiples as in more than one set...plus cousins and siblings).
Well right before the last band played, the unhappy neighbor came up to me and basically asked to speak to the lease holder...who was not there but she has his number, of which I informed her of...to which she said "I know I called him"...well what do you want me to do then...since conversation is hard for this woman (she mostly is that type of person who is good at talking but not very good at listening... wait that's wrong she's not good at understanding...she's good at overhearing conversations though) her husband(I guess) basically informed me that he would appreciate it if we kept people away from their storefront(that they live in). I said I would and no one from our deal had been hanging out there anyways...to wit he proclaimed "Well our light (one that comes on when motion is detected) has come on a bunch of times" to which I replied "well this is a busy street and I really don't have control over who walks down it or passes by your place" to which he started getting vexed and screamy and I maintained composure and let him know I would be making sure no one would bother them. End of story right?

nope...so they're hanging out in front of their place making sure that no undesirables are loitering around their end of the building. Someone comes up to me and asks what their deal is and I explain and say basically I don't have control over who wanders around this neighborhood (which is right across from the biggest homeless park in our fair city). Well ol big ears and small brain hears this and wanders up to me (with hubby in tow) to say "I overheard your conversation and just wanted to object to what you said" I really didn't understand what I had said that she might object to (i made sure not to call anyone names, or be disrespectful at all in my speech on this night...I think it was the hangover) anyways I asked her what she objected to and she began to tell me "You have to have control over these people! You have to have control over what you're doing here!" I attempted to explain she misunderstood and that I had control over the situation I was creating, but not over just random people walking by. This only made her and her husband scream even louder about Control like they were some Tribute duo to Janet Jackson. I informed them that I wasn't about to engage them in conversation if they couldn't act civilly and basically quit talking to them and went about my business. Well what would you expect them to do...they called the cops and complained about noise.Why noise all of a sudden.... because if they would have complained about what they complained to me about, the cops would have laughed at them.

Remember those parents who came...well one of them as she was leaving (with her two daughters or one daughter and her friend) was basically shaken down by the neighbor lady. This woman (who was there for the show) was older than the neighbor lady and doing nothing but walking to her car which was parked within 20 feet of the battleaxe's door. That's the mentality we're dealing with here people...oh yeah this was around 10:30pm as well.

So the cops came and told me we had to stop cause they got noise complaints and they weren't going to leave till we did. I told them I would go inside after the song that was playing was over and inform the band of this. Song ended, I opened the door, and the band said "Thanks, that's all... we were the Intelligence" I look at the cops and they shrug...you could tell they weren't interested in being there. The cop that seemed in charge went to talk to the neighbors while the other one stayed by our space. Everybody filed out and began leaving or getting ready to leave. The main cop comes back and basically tells me that the neighbor lady is demanding we get a ticket and since this is the second time in a month (she's who called the cops on us for a show in mid August) their hands are tied. But they also tell us that we should fight it and it'll pretty much get tossed out. Which we plan on doing but here's the problem....until our court date if we make noise of any kind, and she decides to call the cops, we get fined. This is a spot we moved into for band practice and that is what it even says on our lease. The redtag officially kills that until we have the court date (which I won't even know when it is until after I enter my plea on Monday). You see how this notion doesn't, as Manowar said, make us "wet like a young girl in her prime"

so we're bailing.... all touring bands that we had scheduled to play here we will try our damnedest to get you shows other places and will be in touch with news...any all local shows we had booked (basically sept 12th and the 19th) we ain't doing those now, SORRY!

we might get another spot in the future but really I don't see a need for it...the all ages thing is cute but since most of the kids would rather go to where their peers do (living room or dry river) it's not really needed...and there's plenty of bars where all these bands can play too...what tucson really needs is a scaling back of venues and bands cause the crowd there is for this is slim

sorry to be such a downer

adios
mark beef