tonyreflexblog

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

The Big Rock

The Big Rock. Chris Shaefer. I miss you buddy.

I get up every day, and I swear, at some point you cross my mind. It's been that way for a couple of years. Usually when I'm on a hunt shopping for stuff, I'll see something and think to myself, "Hey, I wonder if Chris could use this stuff?"

You know, something goofy, like sharpies, or tape, or lemon pepper seasoning, or a thermal shirt from Old Navy, or, I dunno, Tapatio, or candy and other silly American goods.

Your passing away only makes it worse.

As the band gets ready to prepare for the recording of our next record, you're face...... no, your you...... crosses my mind. All versions of the Chris I know. It's been rough, man. Trying to picture a tour over there without you navigating the ship. We've done a couple with Jonathan in Spain, but that was always a different scene. It meant a great deal to me when we did the tour and you drove- the one when Jonathan toured the Germs. It was great to bring you guys together because you guys are special people.

Going to Italy with Suz in tow, or France with the Burning Heads. Rocking it with Dudu and Bender the last couple of summers. I wish I'd written it all down. American Dogs In Europe was a good start, but it wasn't supposed to be the whole story.

I wrote up some of it in a coloring book, I don't know if you ever saw me working on it. I usually did it late at night when everyone was asleep, like they are right now. I'm at home, and it's peaceful except for a suspense movie on TV providing the static in the back.

Damn, I wish I could sleep. I know you remember those sleep cycles and habits. Yours were way worse. Oh well. I'm going to jump brother. You know where to find me. Drop in and say, "Hi" when you can. I'm always ready to talk whenever you can, and wherever you are.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

ADOLESCENTS TOUR DATES DEC/12- JAN13

12/7/12

Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory, w/ TSOL, CH3, & more ...

12/9/12

Agoura Hills, CA @ The Canyon Club, w/ TSOL, Gears, & Love Canal

*******

12/27/12

Dallas, TX @ The Trees, w/ Youth Brigade & more ..

12/28/12

San Antonio TX @ The White Rabbit, w/ Youth Brigade & more..

12/29/12

Corpus Christie TX @ The House of Rock, w/ Youth Brigade & more ..

12/30/12

Houston TX @ Fitzgeralds, w/ Youth Brigade & more ...

12/31/12

Austin, TX @ Red 7 on NEW YEARS EVE !! w/ Youth Brigade & more ...

1/2/13

Gainesville, FL @ Loosey's, w/ Youth Brigade & more ..

1/3/13

Deland, FL @ Cafe DaVinci, w/ Youth Brigade & more ...

1/4/13

West Palm Beach, FL @ Respectable Street, w/ Youth Brigade & more ...

1/5/13

Jacksonville, FL @ Jack Rabbits, w/ Youth Brigade and more ...

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Hallowe'en! 31 songs to Celebrate

We love Hallowe'en a whole bunch in this house. We cut our teeth on Universal monstersThis is our good time month. To celebrate, here are 31 great Halloween songs that we like. This isn't a family that pushes censorship, so use your own discretion.

31. Danny Elfman: This is Halloween from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas

There is no denying what an awesome and wonderful song this is, it really caught the spirit of the song. Elfman should be no stranger to anyone who followed Los Angeles Music, or even the Dr. Demento Show. Who can forget the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, Danny Elfman's brother's thing from the Gong Show?

30. Oingo Boingo- Dead Man's Party

Speaking of whom, using whacked, colorful, almost Posadas inspired puppets, this is a great merge of classic new wave from the 1980's & Dia de los Muertos imagery. No doubt that for Hallowe'en, Weird Science works, too, but I think I have to cut ole Danny off here.

29. Ramones- Pet Semetary

"I don't want to be buried in a pet semetary....." No denying the merit of this song as a Hallowe'en classic, and a great example of what a catchy songwriter Dee Dee Ramone was. The Ramones were so much to so many of us, including this family, with the elders being fans and having seen them more times than we recall. The kicker for a movie based on Stephen king's novel of the same name, King was, like so many of us, a fan.

28. Siouxsie & the Banshees- Night Shift

A moody and uncomfortable, creepy riff circling around an obsession. At the top of their game no one from their genre could touch them, and there isn't anything I have heard in years from the spooky kids that even comes close. This clip from Koln, 1983. Anyone who saw this band knew how heavy they could be.

"My night shift sisters,

With your nightly visitors,

A new occassion in life,

My love with a knife."

27. Goblin- Suspiria Theme

The theme from a pretty scary Italian slasher film (but it is so much, much more than that) there is no denying that without Goblin's soundtrack, there would be no grounding for Dario Argento's classic. One of the greatest soundtracks to any horror movie.

26. Alice Cooper Band- Ballad of Dwight Fry

There are a couple of brilliant versions of this on the internet from live shows in 1971, neither of which would load. Using the story of Renfield, played by Dwight Frye, Alice Cooper took mental illness and put it out in the center stage. The following video is pretty heavy. You're warned.

25. John Carpenter- Theme from Halloween

One of the coolest discoveries I learned was that parts of the slasherfest known as Halloween were filmed here in Sierra Madre. The town doesn't boast of it much, but the cemetery scene was filmed here, as was the much later funeral of Laura Palmer of Twin Peaks fame. La tee da. So, John Capenter beat out the keys, and scared the hell out of us all. just hearing the music, much like hearing the theme of Jaws, could prove to be..... unsettling.

24. Screaming Jay Hawkins- I Put a Spell on You

What a great showman! No denyng the charm and the swarm that was Screamin' Jay.

23. Roky Erickson- Two Headed Dog

22. Misfits- Die, Die My Darling

21. It's the Mummy from Mad Monster Party

Dance, dance, dance, but don't lose your head! A dance party claassic with all your fiends dancing along. Woo-hoo!

20. Addam's Family Theme

Not to be confused with the Munsters, this is the show with the French speaking Morticia! Then there's that cute Wednesday and her headless dolly.....

19. Roky Erickson- Bloody Hammer

Roky Erickson and the Aliens put out a record that could have been a Hallowe'en classic on itsown merit (The Evil One) and this song, often lost in the mix of out of this world greatness, is a stand alone classic.

18. Mike Oldfield- Tubular Bells: The Soundtrack from The Exorcist

And the scary hits keep a coming! Put it on with the soundtracks to Halloween and Suspiria and try to go to sleep.

17. Grim Grinning Ghosts-

It's still brilliant. You know I am right.

16. Theme from Martin

"Nosferatu....." Way before that wonderful Let the Right One In, we all met Martin. He was a little bit Harold and Mad.....

15. Siouxsie & the Banshees- Playground Twist

Another tense song from Siouxsie and the Banshees, pretty amazing that it was released as a single in 1978 considering that.

14. Munster's Theme

The other spooky family from the sixties. Thank God the networks were trying to outdo each other. Two great shows for the price of one!

13. Cramps- Human Fly

and I say buzzzzzzz...... Sure do miss the Cramps.

12. Damned- Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

11. Screamin' Lord Sutch- All Black & Hairy

10. Monster Mash

9. Zacherley- Coolest Little Monster

8. David Seville- The Witch Doctor

The creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks, David Seville (Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.) was the cousin of "Bill Saroyan" (writer William Saroyan, both of whom hailed from Fresno, California) as pointed out on this clip. Pretty neat guy, did lots of work with Hitchcock, and figured out cool tricks with tape speed to create his characters.

7. Phantom of the Paradise- Life at Last

6. Samhain- Diabolos '88

Not on many lists, for whatever reason, but this is one damned fine piece of Hallowe'en music. Maybe it wa simply because it fell too vauely between the legend that was the Misfits, and the reality that was Danzig's latter music, but this little gem, and fine band, were pretty much forgotten.

5. Halloween III Silver Shamrock Theme

Omaha, Nebraska, it says, but lots of it is the old downtown Sierra Madre, here and there. Carpenter used the Sierra Madre locale one other time (The Fog) but the dancing pumpkins from a TV store remains my favorite.

4. Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs- Li'l Red Riding Hood

Awooooo! Set with classic cartoons. Great song and a nice presentation here.

3. Theme from Spiderbaby

Good times with knives and ropes.

2. Psycho

Music soundtracks designed for fright and suspense have to acknowledge this one.

1. Theme from Blood Feast

Not going to run the other clips with the scenes here, but it is the original gore film that introduced bright red to the tattered silver screen.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Bogota! The Rundown

On February 18, 2012 the Adolescents played on their second trip to South America. The first had been 18 months back when the band played in Brazil. On that fateful trip Steve lost part of his thumb in an accident where a window had slammed shut and crushed his left thumb. This current trip to Colombia had begun in the summer of 2011 when Laura had approached the band in London where she was on location for a pulishing company and had seen the band. She and her husband Robert have a booking company and rehearsal studio in Bogota called Alto Voltaje. As we had never been to Colombia, we were very excited and began the planning through our European agent to begin planning our weekend in Bogota. Unfortunately, we had not researched the terrain too well, and approximately ten days before the trip we realized that the altitude of Bogota was close to two times the height of Denver, Colorado, and that posed a health risk for both Steve and myself.

After consulting with our physicians, it was determined that I could do the trip with medicaton, but it was not advised for Steve to make the trip. We were stuck with a problem that has rarely come up as a possibility- and that was that the band would need to perform without Steve. This problem had surfaced in Brazil on the night that Steve was injured, and once in 1980 when we were kids and Steve's parents had insisted on his attending a church camp retreat. It became necessary to either locate a fill-in, or to cancel the show. We felt that it was too late to cancel the show givent the circustances and the amount of promotion that had been done. To cancel may have caused difficulty for the promoters, and we felt that it wasn't possible to do that. Steve made a couple of phone calls, and we were lucky to find that Joe Harrison, who has been a member of the band for seven years, but who currently attends Berkely College in Boston, would be able to fly in to Colombia to play bass.

The flight to Bogota was pretty long, and began with leaving to the airport at 4AM PST for an international flight. I began taking medication on Thursday to help with my breathing (I have significant asthma) and outside of my usual insomnia, I was rested and ready to go. After the usual LAX airport monkey business- which usually involves me being randomly screened very closely, emptying my bags, and being x-rayed twice- we finally boarded for Miami International. Now, theoretically, people are chosen at random for screening, but I find that I am randomly chosen about 25% of the time. In any event, we got to Miami and hd to kill a couple of hours. Miami is a wonderful airport as far as killing time, and as far as I know, the only one that openly encourages patrons to take complimentary shots of rum. We passed on the 2PM booze boosterism, but I am still scratching my head about that. We are on our way to Bogota by 5PM SST, and landed in Bogota at about 8PM CST. Mando, Dan, Mike, and I would meet with Joe and the promoters when we arrived at El Dorado Airport.