Though I have plenty of reasons to feel “blessed,” being a music fan that lived in Seattle around the turn of the 21st century is right up there at the top.

I will be the first to admit that the music from Seattle in the early ’00s wasn’t earth-shattering — I can count the number of really great bands to come from that time on one hand. But those bands were the first steps to expanding my musical taste and teaching me that your favorite bands are typically not the flavor of the day.

Looking back, I bet I wasn’t alone. I swear within two years, the Seattle scene went from pretty much ALL New Bomb Turks and Heartbreakers rip-offs to every other type of band. Phrases like “Killed By Death” and “No Wave” seemed to have become common vernacular within a year.

Though bands like the Spits, Blow Up and the Cripples helped bridge this gap by playing shows with generic rock ‘n roll bands, people like me had to specifically find an A-Frames show to attend. After hearing constant buzz from friends, I finally caught a set of theirs at the Sunset in Ballard. Couldn’t tell you who the other bands were, but I remember their set like it was yesterday.

I couldn’t fully appreciate their sound at the time, which my friend Cody would always imitate by going *BRap BRap BRap,* but in the middle of the set, singer/guitarist Erin asked the audience, “Do you want to hear a slow one?”

To this day, “Surveillance” is one of my favorite songs, and from that moment on I was a dedicated A-Frames fan. (And I’m not alone in my conversion by “Surveillance.”)

Seeing them at the Hemlock brought me back to those days when every song they played was a hit, especially the ones that appeared on a cassette they released back then: “Crutches,” “Complications” and “Membrane.” It was so good, I made sure to go to the Stork show 2 weeks later, where they not only played those songs again, they busted out “Surveillance” too. (Sadly, I didn’t record it, but the band probably got a recording of the set from the Stork’s board…)

All those early recordings, including a bunch of demo tracks, have been compiled on 3-Lp set called “3″ released on SS Records. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.

If you aren’t friends with Steve Lucas of X on Facebook, you probably don’t know the drama behind the band’s first tour of the U.S. in 33 years. Apparently Lucas has a herniated disk in his spine, causing him great pain when he sits for long periods of time, like when flying cross country or riding for hours in a van.

By touring, Lucas is ignoring doctor’s orders, which usually isn’t the best idea. On May 28, he wrote:

“I have been advised to end the tour. I was advised not to take it on. I am now being told I am in need of surgery as the real option. I would have to come home… defeated. The longer I stay seated (as in a bus for hours upon end) I increase the level of damage.”

But yet the tour continues.

I was lucky to catch the band and record it on a day that appeared to be kind to Lucas — they only had to drive from Sacramento to San Francisco, about a two-hour drive.

There were a few missed notes and a few forgotten changes, but for a majority of the set X brought the same energy captured on their early recordings. By the time they reached their 16th song, “Mother” (which they’ve taken off their set for the remaining shows), the band and the crowd was spent — you can hear it in the recording. But up until that point, they had the crowd dancing and singing along.

Sadly, a few friends talked to me the day after the show and when asking me about X’s set, they always added the caveat, “I heard they suck.” In this music scene, word-of-mouth is everything and bullshit-criticism like that spreads like a virus. Hopefully that crap hasn’t been affecting their shows.

Heed my advice: listen to the recordings below and then, if you live in the Bay Area, go to the shows on June 5 & 6, because you’ll probably never get a chance to see such an amazing, influential band again.

*First two songs don’t have the best guitar sound; make sure to listen to #3 and on as I fixed the mic by then.

Finally, all the free records I’ve been sending out to radio stations, publications and other label owners have paid off (sort-of): Lemon Session has made quite a media splash.

A quick Google search show the label name popping up in radio playlists all over the nation, including KDVS (Davis, CA), WUSB (Stony Brook, NY) and KEXP (Seattle, WA). One DJ named Jared who has a show called “What We Do Is Secret” (Tuesdays from 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. on KRCL in Salt Lake City, UT) even wrote a great article about the first four releases on the club.

You can read the article here: http://krclblog.org/krcl/?p=562.

A personal highlight for me was listening to The Best Show On WFMU on May 4 and hearing Rib Cages’ “Lock Horns” in the beginning of the show. Being a huge fan of Tom Scharpling, the fact that I got some props from him on my show made this whole spending-thousands-of-dollars-to release-records-no-one-buys thing worth it. (Go to WFMU’s archives and click on the May 4 pop-up player to hear the entire show.)

But one radio show went above and beyond all others: The World Is A Drag, an online show on Rainy Dawg Radio, actually recorded a live set from Rib Cages. And because Jeremy is so rad, he even let me post the recording on this here website for you to download!

So, here is a live set from Rib Cages, who now feature the bass player from Octagon Control and who will be touring the Midwest this summer.

If you didn’t notice, the band has a bunch of new songs, which will appear on their upcoming album that they are currently recording. Keep coming to here to learn more details.

In other great news: this Monday I will be recording the X/A Frames/Hank IV show at the Hemlock, S.F. IN ITS ENTIRETY! The mp3s will show up on this here website for free download soon afterward, so keep checking the website for updates!

I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this, but it just has to happen: The next 4 singles in the club (AKE, Steeples, Unnatural Helpers, Blowtops) will have smaller pressings; instead of pressing 600 of each, I will only press 300.

I want to put out more records and pressing 600 of each record is making that more difficult by being so expensive, as well as taking up the little room I have in my apartment. At some point I’d like to press all the records at amounts that don’t make them so “exclusive,” but at this point it’s just not possible.

I’m also going to shore up the number of possible subscriptions, from 475 to 210, so if you haven’t subscribed yet, you should do so now. I’m guessing that since we’re already close to reaching 210 that it won’t be long until I’m announcing that there are no more subscriptions.

You can still subscribe using the payment plan — you only need to put down $12 initially — and now I will send all those who pay off their plans with one big payment the next two records (Terrible Twos and Butcher Cover.) That means you won’t have to wait until June, when they would be sent to you. Awesome!

To sign up, click here: http://www.lemon-session.com/releases/

And remember, if you are on the payment plan and don’t know when to send in the next payment: now would be good. Again, the next package goes out in June, unless you A. Are on plan #1 or B. Pay off the plan with a big ‘ol payment. If you’re in either of these categories, you’ll get records in May.

I’d also like the add that the Bundle Of Fags bonus still stands (the cover is above): if you’re one of the 200 wait, 210 subscribers, you’ll get the Bundle Of Fags single too. Basically the club is now 9 records instead of 8 FOR ALL SUBSCRIBERS.

And for those of you who have received promo copies of the first 4 records — because the pressings are being cut in half, I won’t necessarily be sending you the next 5. Please sign up for the club if you really want those records.

If you haven’t signed up for the email group, please do so by entering your email address into the little Yahoo thing on the left.

Thanks again for coming on the site. For an added bonus, below is an attempt at a music video for the Intelligence’s “Boyfriends And Girlfriends,” where I took a bunch of shaky video from a 2002 show (with the almighty Dean of the Unnatural Helpers on drums) and make it much more exciting. I plan to do a post on the Intelligence sometime in the near future as I am sitting on a bunch of recordings from this era.

I wish I could’ve gotten to the show earlier to set up. My dragging ass not only missed an opportunity to record the Bare Wires, I didn’t set up in time to get So Cow’s entire set. Combined with some weird guitar-mic issues, I properly recorded only about six songs of their face-melting set.

Listening to So Cow’s self-titled album is a bit like time travel to me. When I throw it on, it takes me back to my salad days, when I had a lot of time, little responsibility and a few punk cassettes — Descendents, Ramones, etc.

Back then my musical tastes demanded lots of energy and melody. I had been through a metal phase and found punk to be so much more powerful. It was the first music I heard that made me jump around and sing along. (Mind you, this was right before NOFX’s Punk In Drublic and Green Day’s Dookie became the mainstream definition of punk rock; I had yet to become jaded with the formula.)

If I had a cassette of So Cow’s album when I was 12, I probably would’ve worn it out while trying to ollie over bricks in a church parking lot. Brian Kelly’s songs have the pop-hooks and speed of the Descendents combined with the chord mastery of the Beatles. Or to put it simply, So Cow is a fast Beatles.

Which is why I was so surprised by the band’s comments during and after the set that the songs were played too fast. The band doesn’t sound like they’re rushing through the songs — it sounded like it had energy. Yet, before starting “Ain’t No Fun,” my mics picked up the bass player saying, “It needs to slow way the fuck down.”

But what-the-fuck-ever, decide for yourself:

One final note: though the So Cow set was great, the highlight of the night was during the Bare Wires’ last song, “Young Love.” At the climax of the song, Melton and the bassist (don’t know his name) had obviously planned to jump into the crowd. But when Matt jumped in, he unplugged his guitar, so the song went from loud and rockin’ to quiet and confused.

Maybe I’m the only one who finds that funny because I’m a critical asshole. Whatever… Subscribe to the singles club!

Things here at Lemon Session HQ have gotten seriously hectic with the Singles Club 2010 being announced and my entrance into show promotion here in the Bay Area. Between mailing dozens of records every day, and trying to find time to post fliers around Berkeley and Oakland, all the while being EXTREMELY lazy… it’s just left me with no time to do anything useful for this label.

So, onto doing something useful: Don’t forget to purchase a subscription to the Lemon Session Singles Club 2010. There’s still time to buy one, and economy be damned! — you can join for $12.* (Yes, that star means there’s stuff you should read at the bottom of this post that concerns money, mainly paying me money.) Click here to sign up.

For all youse wonderful people who have a singles club subscription and come to this blog regularly for all the free shit I give away, I happily present a live recording Snake Flower 2 from just last year.

I’ve been a fan of Snake Flower 2 ever since I saw them opening for Los Llamarada at their first show in California. I wasn’t planning on recording them and after their first song, I kicked myself for being so lazy. Since I had brought video equipment to film Los Llamarada, I should’ve at least turned on one of the cameras to capture singer/guitarist Matthew Melton, complete with shoulder-length hair, ironic mustache, and a long sleeve shirt-&-tie combo that made him look like he was attending a wedding — rocking a strat strapped so high on his body that it could’ve been an oversized necklace.

They didn’t play the tightest set but I could tell the songs were there, which inspired me to buy the $5 promo CD of their (at the time) upcoming album, Renegade Daydream. From I head that first drum roll on “Flight Of The Navigator,” I knew I had stumbled upon a hidden treasure.

Flash forward a few years to 2009, where the band, now with a new lineup and Matt on bass/vocals, opens for 4-track rockers the Idle Times. The band played a huge chunk of new material and ended with some serious hits from “Renegade.”

Here’s my recording:

While setting up the recording equipment for the show, Matt introduced me to a lady named Nicole who would be filming the show. While waiting for the band to set up, we talked a little about geek stuff like cameras and recording equipment. Turns out she was a student at Expressions college, the art college with an $80,000-a-year tuition, which gives her access FOREVER to their equipment and studios. (Sounds cool, but that is WAAAYYY to much for schooling.)

In the middle of the band’s set, I walked away from my set up to take some pictures. As I made my way through the crowd, I saw Nicole, camera-less, watching the show, while another guy stood next to her and videotaped the show. Now I’m not an expert on shooting video, but if you have two people available, why not bring two cameras? Even if you’re not trained professionally, it’s not hard to use a camera.

Also, what kind of education are you paying $80,000-a-year for if you don’t know to bring a tripod to a video shoot?

Next post — some videos from my personal collection? Fuck yes.

*The plan is 5 payments of $12 and if you are one of the first 200 to sign up, you get the newest Bundle of Fags 7″ as well as other bonuses! Buy now!

The Idle Times is one of my fave bands. As far as lo-fi psych bands go, the Idle Times AKA Brian Standeford has perfected the art of sounding raw and primal without sounding inept. As far as bedroom musicians go — and yes, all his stuff is recorded by him at his apartment with him playing all the instruments — he’s a virtuoso.

But my favorite part about this band? Brian records the drums on a toy drum set. I think he’s an inch or two over 6 feet, and a tall man playing drums on a tiny kit can’t NOT be funny.

Sure, you can’t tell that the drums are tiny from his records — he makes those 4-track recordings sound like he’s playing with a full band. (Or maybe you’re just distracted by the smoking guitar work.) But it’s the truth — those drums were meant for a tweener or younger but Brian got them for free and that’s what he uses.

It’s also funny that when Brian plays the Idle Times material live, he’s always playing with a badass drummer, usually Dean Whitmore, the brains behind Unnatural Helpers.

For a short West Coast tour, Dean couldn’t come along so Brian recruited two ex-band mates from his Catheters days, drummer Davey Brozowski (currently in the Black Whales) and bassist Paul Waude. As you can tell from the recording below, the songs have a lot different “feel” when played by such massive musicians.

And yes, Brian is the one who designed the Lemon Session logo, the triangle eye, for such a paltry sum it’s almost unbelievable. If you’d like to employ him for graphic design work, you can reach him at brianstandeford (at) hotmail.

From this idea’s inception it took me 11 months to get to this point. Personally, I don’t think that’s too long of a time to get eight records ready to sell, but if it is, I would love to know.

In theory it shouldn’t be that hard to send a CDR to someone in a different part of the country and have them turn it into a record. Yet it is, because:

A. You actually have to talk to two or three people;
B. You have to have the grip of money that’s required to be sent with it.

Oh, and one quick note: I’m doing this so I can start a label and put out more records you’d want. So, to make yourself feel better when you’re buying this, you can tell yourself you’re helping start a non-profit.

Lemon Session Singles Club 2010

Subscription options

Option 1 - 8 Shipments $65.00 Option 2 - 4 Shipments $55.00 Option 3 - Local $45.00 Option 4 - Payment plan $12.00

Email list

After months of compiling this, here it is, the Lemon Session Singles Club 2010. Only eight records, but all previously unreleased material.

The 2010 lineup:
Rib Cages
Teenage Nightwar
Terrible Twos
Butcher Cover
Unnatural Helpers
Blowtops
Steeples
Aluminum Knot Eye

Cover art provided by the most talented Rob Vertigo, singer for Butcher Cover.

There are no real restrictions, but for those outside the US will have to pay the difference in shipping costs.

Option 1: 8 Packages:
For $65, you’ll receive a single every month of 2010, except for January, April, July and October.

Option 2: 4 Packages:
For $55, you’ll receive two singles each package, mailed out in February, May, August and November.

Option 3: Local pickup (for Bay Area residents only):
For $45, you’ll be able to pickup records on an almost monthly basis at 1234 Go! Records.

419 40th Street
Oakland, CA 94609-2508
(510) 985-0325

You’ll need to sign up for the mailing list above to find out when the new records have been dropped off.

NEW Option 4: Payment Plan:
For 5 payments of $12, you get all the records, but the packages only come after you pay.

So you won’t feel surprised or gypped by what you receive, here’s a sampler of all the bands, including 3 songs that will be on three of the singles in the club.

After a year of ignoring this blog like it was homeless person asking for money, I’ve finally gotten off my lazy butt and did everything I said I would — I switched to Wordpress, redesigned the blog and bought the proper equipment so I could start posting video clips from my extensive VHS collection (something like 6 tapes, all awesome.)

I also began work on my record label. I already have my first eight releases lined up and all of them will be available through a singles club subscription I intend to start selling very soon. Make sure to check the “Releases” page for more information and updates.

For the first post of 2010, I bring you recordings from a hand-held device of the Mayyors show at the Eagle. Great bill — Ty Segall, Ganglians, Mayyors and the Oh Sees — with a line to the door that stretched to the end of the block. I missed Ty Segall completely and the Ganglians set was a bunch of muffled screams and disco beats (no I haven’t heard any of their records.)

When I finally did get into the Eagle, it was just a sea of hipsters. Satin jackets, ironic mustaches and hot pink as far as the eye could see. And when the hipsters saw the Oh Sees climb on stage, they jammed themselves into every nook and cranny in the bar, thereby turning the club into a sauna. I tried to take pictures but my lens kept fogging up. I did manage to walk up close enough to the stage to get some decent recordings on my Zoom H4.

I’m not the biggest fan of the Oh Sees — I own a few of the old albums, which I really like, but I’m not one of these fanatics out there that got into the band last year and either has, or will go to great lengths to purchase, every record the Oh Sees put out in the last two years (which is something like 245 releases (and that doesn’t include cassettes.)) But even a negative pants like me appreciated their set that night. That is one finely tuned machine John Dwyer has got there.

Then, the moment I had been waiting for: Mayyors took the stage. I was one of those lucky bastards who caught their set at the Hemlock late last year, and yes, I lost my shit. At some point, the singer John Pritchard slapped me in the face*. It fucking ruled.

This set seemed to have several new songs. Too bad John’s vocals were too low in the middle of the set.

(That’s the entire set, with encore, but with huge chunks of the noise transitions cut out. You’re welcome.)

Sadly, the guitarist for Mayyors, Chris Woodhouse, is going on tour with the Intelligence for six to seven weeks in Europe, so there won’t be Mayyors shows around here until after May. Goddamn Europeans are taking away our fun and that fucking sucks.

*Admittedly, I was trying to pull him off the stage. If he’s going to play that music, I feel he should perform the obligatory stage dive, at least 4, no 5 times.

So this post is a little late and a little rushed because I leave for the Dry-Shitties tomorrow. Still, I finally finished these goddamn demos and everybody should download them, distribute them, do whatever. They’re just demos, right?

But before I get to the songs, I have to show off/brag about my newly obtained Mark Mothersbaugh autograph. My wife’s aunt came over from Philadelphia to visit my in-laws for a few weeks and brought me a present — no, not the autograph, but a Men Without Hats “Safety Dance” 45.

Obviously it was a present she found while cleaning out her closet. (It had a note inside from her sister talking about how great a some record by the Police was.) Still, it was super nice of her, especially since I had probably only saw her 3-4 times before then.

My father-in-law has a record player hooked up in his dining room, so we put the record on. I think only my wife and I knew the Safety Dance before that moment, so of course I had to demonstrate it for them. By doing so I confirmed the fact that it was a stupid dance.

We flipped over the record to listen to the B-side, an upbeat synth rocker that could have only been written in the ’80s called “Living In China,” (which is also, by the way, is kinda racist.)

“This sounds like Devo.”

“Oh, you’ve actually heard of Devo?” asked Joan.

“Yeah. I’m such a big fan I actually bought a DVD of theirs.”

“You want a Devo autograph?”

Whadda ya mean do I want an autograph? Hell yeah, I want a Devo anything, especially an autograph. Watching “the Untold Story of Devo” turned into a two-week long Devo-listening jag where I craved listening to Devo records, especially songs like “The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise” and “Snowball.” Her offer came during the middle of those two weeks.

So there it is up above, a piece of cardboard signed “We’re All Devo, Mark” by Mark Mothersbaugh back around 1980 (“Freedom of Choice”(Hell yeah!)), in all its glory.

Now to the tracks:

A few quick notes:

1. I used a PreSonus Firepod with Logic on my 15″ Macbook to record this. I also miked the living hell out of the drums and recorded the guitars direct.

2. Pilot’s Handbook — I’m gonna change the lyrics some time soon. For this recording I half-assed sang some scribblings I made on an early BART train about a guy crashing his car. (I don’t know why I said “Joe” in the first bridge but I really regret not re-recording it during the 2-hour frame of time I had to record the vocals at my practice space.

3. Under A Mountain — This is the first song I wrote for the band and no, I wasn’t listening to Queens of the Stone Age at the time; I was listening to KARP (Self-titled of course.) I had those first two lines for a long time, but usually just made noises throughout the rest of the song. The rest of the song is now filled with obnoxious comments about a guy I hate. Really not going for a Pulitzer here. (Also notice the stupidest/most hilarious/most awesome Pussy Galore lyric squeezed in at the second verse.)

4. Criminals (look like this) — Gavin Toler’s post-Pud band name that I loved. Thinking about the title made me think about Bernie Madoff and Kenneth Lay, so I wrote a bunch of phrases that those guys might have said.

UPDATE: We’re now called Steeples and we have a new singer, a guy named Dustin who sang for the band Suicide Bomb.