punk rock bowling Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Fear “Nice Boys (Don’t Play Rock n’Roll)”

sfilzen — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 18:07:11 +0000

Fear “Nice Boys (Don’t Play Rock n’Roll)” 2023. Fear Records/Atom Age Industries. Limited edition (tour only) blue vinyl. I’ve been sitting on this 7″ EP since last year when my friend Chuck picked it up for me at Punk Rock Bowling in ’23 in hopes that I’d get to see Fear. Those hopes came true last weekend when we caught Fear at a ridiculously late Club Show at PRB ’24 (like 1:00 am late). Last time we saw Lee Ving/Fear was sometime in the mid-90’s at the Rave, so around 30 years ago. He’s aged (as have we) – I know his health isn’t great but his voice is still powerful, his attitude just as “fuck you” as it’s always been, and he started literally every song with “1234, 1234!” which made me stupidly happy. We’re pretty sure only his drummer was part of the lineup we saw 30 years ago, the rest of the guys in his band were probably in diapers, if even born.

Fear at Punk Rock Bowling ’24

The 2023 3-song EP features that same drummer, Spit Stix, as well as a couple of heavy hitters: Slash on slide guitar and Duff McKagan on bass (those two were most definitely not at the PRB club show) on side A’s hard-rocking, metal-inspired “Nice Boys (Don’t Play Rock n’Roll).” It’s a cover of Australian metal band Rose Tattoo’s original from 1978 (Rose Tattoo was a huge influence on Guns N’ Roses and they also covered “Nice Boys” in ’86 on a live album). Side B has the menacing “I am an Engineer” and the short, whip-speed punk’d out “She’s a Leech.” Because this is Fear, the lyrics to all three songs are not….deep. At all (if you can remember the name of the titles you’re 90% there for remembering all of the song lyrics for each track). But it’s a fun little EP and I’m thrilled we got to see Lee Ving again as there’s no way we’ll be seeing him again in another 30.

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Youth Brigade “Sink with California”

sfilzen — Thu, 23 May 2024 19:37:27 +0000

Youth Brigade “Sink with California” 1983/2023. Trust Records/BYO Records, limited edition “Punk Rock Bowling 2023” red vinyl. We’re heading to Vegas tomorrow for Punk Rock Bowling and while Youth Brigade isn’t performing this year, the festival is still run by BYO (Youth Brigade’s own label) and at least one of the Stern brothers from the band. Since I’ll be featuring a lot of vinyl next week by bands that are playing PRB, I figure I’d get into the mood with one of my favorite, and most significant, songs and bands from my 80’s punk days.

Youth Brigade at Punk Rock Bowling, Las Vegas 2021

“Sink with California” appears on Youth Brigade’s 1983 version of the LP Sound & Fury (a different version was released in ’82) and that album was one of my most-listened to in the mid-80’s – me and my friends played it constantly so it was a huge thrill for me to finally see them play that track (and a ton more) in 2021 at our first Punk Rock Bowling experience, when there was a small pause in the pandemic. (I am very much looking forward to not having to wear a mask and standing in line to get a wristband proving my vaccination status this year!) Side B has another one of my top tracks from Sound & Fury: “Blown Away” which is a catchy-as-hell high-speed anthemic anti-war song. While I am soooo excited to see a bunch of great bands this upcoming weekend (The Chats, 999, Cosmic Psychos, Stiff Little Fingers, etc) I would be extra stoked if Youth Brigade staged a surprise appearance 🤞

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The Brigade “The Dividing Line”

sfilzen — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 17:54:48 +0000

The Brigade “The Dividing Line” 1986. Better Youth Organization/BYO Records. Just a bit over a week ago I finally got to see Youth Brigade perform at the Punk Rock Bowling music fest in Las Vegas; The Brigade was the sort-of side project of brothers Shawn (vocals, guitars) and Mark Stern (drums) while their other, younger brother Adam Stern went to art school. At the Vegas show Shawn and Adam were on stage but Mark was not: Shawn explained that he was having a baby (I assume that his partner was having the baby but whatever). No matter – I had waited over 35 years to see one of my favorite punk bands from the 80′s: their album Sound and Fury was always on heavy rotation back in the day. My friends gave me this copy of The Dividing Line for my birthday in the summer of ‘86. At the time I was underwhelmed as it lacked the hard punch of Sound and Fury; it has a massive mid-80′s new wave BIG production sound – “I Scream,” “The Dividing Line” and the anthemic “The Last Frontier” could have been on INXS’ Listen Like Thieves or U2′s The Unforgettable Fire). The track “It’s a Wonderful Life” includes violin and acoustic guitar and “The Dividing Line” has some world-music flavor and horns (clearly the Stern brothers had a strong interest in exploring these generally non-punk sounds further as Mark, Adam and yet another Stern brother, Jamie, helped form the swing band Royal Crown Revue). But I’ve softened over the years and actually like most of the record (I’m not sure the band does, however – Shawn briefly mentioned The Brigade iteration of the band at the show in not a particularly favorable light). However, I still don’t care for some of the silliness that first appeared on Sound and Fury’s song “Jump Back” and continued on The Dividing Line’s “The Story (Part 1)” (though I think that “The Story (Part 1)” was probably written pre-The Brigade as all four Stern brothers have writing credit for the track…it certainly sounds like they wrote it when they were very very young). And “The Hardest Part” is super-dated and cringe-worthy (I don’t recommend clicking the link to listen).

Here’s a photo from their September 25, 2021 concert in Las Vegas

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