Video of the Week: Romans and the 'Vantastic Voyage'

Romans - The Vantastic Voyage

BMA Weekly Grind - 6-23-09

It’s not a sausage fest, it’s Dudefest!

Three days worth of smelly dudes embracing their punk roots—and Slip N Slides—storms into Indianapolis from July 17-19. Non-crust folks may only be able to tolerate a solitary day of such a pungency of the senses, which is where our suggestion for watching GAZA and Lords on Saturday of the fest comes in. Salt Lake City’s resident conscientious objectors are back again this year, after leaving last year’s Dudefest salivating at the gills. The last remaining rebels of the South follow later Saturday evening to kick what’s left of the concert goers’ corpses in the ribs. Other bands scheduled to join the stage with both GAZA and Lords Dudefest weekend are Torche, Russian Circles, Harvey Milk, Furnace and more.

For a complete listing of bands, venue and ticket information, visit the Dudefest MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/dudefestindiana

Paria run to the Dakotas and back!

Maybe not physically, but the band’s tour dates are as follows:

6/25 - The Sydney - Omaha, Nebraska

6/26 - Knickerbockers w/The Recession - Lincoln, Nebraska

7/11 - The Beat w/High Hopes - Minneapolis, Minnesota

7/17 - Nights of Columbus (w/Old Ironside) - Sioux Falls, South Dakota

7/18 - The Red Raven (w/Battlefields & Old Ironside) - Fargo, North Dakota

An excerpt of Paria bassist Dustin Treinen describing the band’s wacky relationship with Psyopus in a recent interview with Thrash Magazine:

“We were in the middle of a song and a girl walked out holding a big sign that said something like “Psyopus owns you pussies!” The next thing I knew, my band was being pelted with flour and glitter wrapped in paper towels. We were caught completely off guard because as far as we knew, Psyopus was 5 hours away from us….”

The full interview can be read here:

http://www.thrashmag.com/interviews/content.aspx?id=4598

http://www.myspace.com/paria

Engineer kicking ass and taking names with Tides!

The most up-to-date July tour dates and venues scheduled for Engineer thus far:

7/12 - TBA - Rochester, NY

7/13 - The Vineyard - Kent, OH

7/14 - The Metalfrat - Ann Arbor, MI

7/15 - The Tower Room - Antioch, IL

7/16 - The 1511 w/ Comadre & Surroundings - Indianapolis, IN

7/17 - TBA - Evansville, IN

7/18 - The Hideaway - Johnson City, TN

7/19 - SK Net - Charlotte, NC

7/20 - Nara Sushi - Richmond, VA

7/21 - The Velvet Lounge - Washington DC

7/22 - The Hexagon - Baltimore, MD

7/23 - Kung Fu Necktie w/ Fight Amp - Philadelphia, PA

7/24 - The Cherry St Station – Wallingford, CT

7/25 - Easy Axxess - Pawtucket, RI

7/26 - Anchors Up! - Haverhill, MA

7/27 - The Long Mustache - Burlington, VT

7/28 - Recess w/ Fuck the Facts - Syracuse, NY

http://www.myspace.com/engineercooldude

A plethora of BMA releases comin’ at cha, real soon!

9/15 – Lye By Mistake – “Fea Jur”

9/15 – The_Network – “The Bishop Kent Manning”

10/13 – Sweet Cobra – TBA

10/27 – The Abominable Iron Sloth – “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Heaviness”

Follow us on Twitter, Blogspot and troll our Web sites for the latest BMA rhetoric:

http://blackmarketactivities.blogspot.com

http://www.blackmarketactivities.com

http://www.myspace.com/blackmarketactivities

http://www.twitter.com/sheenabma

http://www.twitter.com/michellebma

New Lords interview with HardTimes.ca!

Lords' Chris Owens isn't shy, folks. Who else would compare today's mainstream hardcore to '80s hair metal?

Lords Interview HARDTIMES.CA

Shaun Luu Horror Fest: Tales from the pants party

To complete a week of recapping on Shaun Luu Horror Fest in Syracuse, NY is a final blog entry from the BMA family's resident mystery human, followed by the second live video of the_Network.

Day one: Friday, June 12 – Boston, MA

Ripped pants, spaghetti sandwiches, delicious treats and booze.

All three pretty much sum up the days leading up to Shaun Luu Horror Fest in Syracuse, NY.

After exhausting all of my electronics on the non-stop, five hour plane ride on Friday, departing from San Diego, CA, and arriving in Boston, MA, I was ready to check out the portion of the nation yet-to-be discovered by yours truly—but apparently by most other humans.

For a first timer in Boston, I could go on for days about the things I saw. But chances are many of the people reading this have already been there and are thinking, “relax Cali, I’ve already run like 20 miles around what you just saw.”

I was a sheltered kid, OK? Traveling was a rarity in my household.

I’ll save you all some eye-rolling, and stick to the highlights:

· Vegan food in the North End, joined by post ingestion grub crawling across the plate where my vegan slider once sat.

· Chocolate covered cannoli from Mike’s Bakery. Two of these suckers proved to be too many—my first fail in pastry eating.

· Boston Common sidewalk dweller proudly exclaiming his awareness of what resided beneath our pastry box—“I know what yah gaa-aht!”

· An Irish bar playing techno and a bartender who really wanted to prove he knew his Guinness.

· Map fail in Boston, no “You Are Here” dots to be found on ANY of the city maps.

· My guide stepping in a murky, dog-shit textured puddle of dirt that adhered to his shoe for the next three days.

Day 2: Saturday, June 13 – New Hampshire

It’s 11 a.m. and time for the_Network to hit up the jam spot before heading to a show in Portsmouth, NH.

All I’ve been told about Portsmouth for the past hour was that it’s a city by the ocean and it’s awesome—too bad the show ended up really being in another city adjacent to Portsmouth, so all my dreams of grandeur went down the shitter.

Greenland, NH wasn’t anything spectacular, nor was the show the_Network played. What was supposed to be a fest ended up being more like a grab-and-go liquor store—go in, do your stuff and get out—and your choices for a beverage were watered down beer, or one lone bottle of whiskey.

I’ll leave the Greenland gig at that—what follows next is much tastier.

Pre day three: Sandwiches and six hours of open road

Massive French rolls covered in assorted grilled meats, spiced up condiments and layers of melted cheese was the best idea for a fitting meal to try and forget the fact that we had a six hour drive before us to Syracuse, NY.

Restlessness prevented some of us from sleeping, others knocked out in meat-induced food comas, but upon reaching Keith from Architect’s house, everyone slept like they were trying to kick Swine Flu.

Day three: Shaun Luu Horror Fest – Syracuse, NY

Two pound sandwiches were a great idea, yesterday.

Breakfast at Mom’s Diner in Syracuse had to be the best choice of the day—so far, anyway.

Curry and Mediterranean spiced eggs were the highlight of the meal, and Recess Coffee and Roastery provided its glorious conclusion (shameless plug for Ed Gein).

Properly caffeinated, I watched the_Network wake up the half-glazed over audience, with distorted bliss running through my ears and Mikey Bones assaulting random members of the crowd.

Engineer followed shortly after, playing to a mostly full room of eyes gleaming with excitement for the band of brothers. No matter how hard I try to describe how fucking great Engineer was, no description will do justice to the post-show exciting masses, who were evidently amazed given the rampant amount of prideful name droppings and “fucking rad”’s being uttered upon their departure to fresh air.

Architect reminded me why I just traveled nearly 3,000 miles. My mind was literally blown and dripping down the side of my skull post set—they definitely need more than a Swiffer to clean that shit up. I was told they deliver every fucking time, but at this particular show, they were near God-like—though I bet the band would be disgusted to share a comparison with God.

Ed Gein. Do I really need to say anything? Seriously. So many people have hyped up how fucking stellar this band is live. How it’s been years since they’ve shared a stage. The more I heard, the more stoked I became. I didn’t doubt for a second that Ed Gein wouldn’t live up the hype. I was so fucking right. If everyone else’s mind wasn’t lying in a pool of chunky mucus on the floor, I would not have doubted it. The crowd knew what they had just witnessed was magnificent, chanting “Ed Gein” and “play more songs,” to which the band responded, “We don’t have any more songs!”

If you missed out on the fest, no worries. All of the afore mentioned BMA bands are writing for coming albums—the_Network’s “The Bishop Kent Manning” is out in September—so you’ll get your chance to make a mess of the floor soon.

-Sheena

the_Network live at Shaun Luu Horror Fest, part one

Part one of two videos filmed of the_Network at Shaun Luu Horror Fest:

Have you hugged your mom today? Ed Gein's Aaron Jenkins reminds us of the importance of friends and family in the wake of Shaun Luu Horror Fest!

I'm not a religious person. I don't believe in god or the devil. I don't believe in the afterlife in the traditional sense. But I do believe that there is a lot about this world, this life, that we don't understand. That we will never understand. Until we pass on and find out first hand. And I can not shake the feeling that Shaun was with us last night. I'm man enough say that I'm tearing up as I'm typing this and I cried like a little baby many times yesterday. I've generally held up pretty well during the fest over the past two years, but something about yesterday was just unreal. I miss Shaun. I miss his weird, uncomfortable sense of humor. I miss his full body head banging. I miss seeing him at practically every show no matter what style of music it was. I miss his enthusiasm and his intensity. I think he would have had an absolute blast yesterday. And I want to thank each and every one of you for being there. And I want to say this to all of you....none of us knows how long we have on this earth. It could be years. It could be days. It could be less. Tell your friends how much they mean to you every time you see them. Tell your family you love them. It's easy through out our day-to-day lives to forget how important our friendships are. It's easy to take things for granted. It's easy to not see how absolutely precious and wonderful each day is. Please don't forget.

Our community is amazing. When we all come together there is nothing that can't be done. We all may have our differences of opinion. Our feuds. Our misjudgments and our grudges. But when it all comes down, when we take a minute out of our day to really think about what we have here in this city it is amazing. At the movies alone we raised over $3197 for the benefit fund AFTER most expenses were covered (we still have to cover return shipping for the film prints and we won't know how much that comes out to until Wednesday when Jeff gets them shipped. So that total will change a little. I'll keep everyone informed). We haven't had a chance to go through the money from yesterday yet but the final head count for the bands was 311 people! And from what I've been told a lot of people were paying extra to get in.

The bands from out of town were floored by how amazing the people in Syracuse are. They were very glad to be a part of yesterday. And many many thanks to the fucking awesome bands we have right here in this town. Every last one of you is top fucking notch. Ed Gein has played with a lot of bands in a lot of cities and I can tell you we have some of the best bands out there right in our home town. Thank you all for doing what you do.