I saved a couple remaining bits of seratonin especially for these sick motherfuckers!

In my on-going attempts to properly undress stoner rock and bring it backwards into my bedroom, i have stumbled upon perhaps her finest maiden yet. I’m talking buckets of goat blood upon the inner sanctum of that which is most unholy kind of shit. This is it, folks. Behold, Earthless!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of knocking heads with my old punk band from high school, Heel. We blazed onto the Downers Grove/Chicago punk scene, blew minds and then self-destructed in a fury of drugs and gay, inter-racial sex. They still speak of us in whispers when they are brave enough to speak of us. ‘Genius’, is a word often used. So is ‘Gorgeous’ and ‘Vaguely Interesting’.

Heel was fun and it taught me a lot about creating a more interesting life, designed by my own interests without waiting for approval from some untouchable authority or record label. Few people in the early ’90s were plugged in enough to make original music, press it to vinyl and distribute it all by themselves, but the ones that were doing it were a gold mind of people and offered a master class to a young suburban kid of the important task of TCBing. In addition to pressing 7″s there was a thriving zine culture and a strong community of kids who loved playing music, dancing, and supporting one another. This was before the internet, mind you, but there was still a community connected (by phones at the time) where if your band was playing at some shitty VFW Hall in Indianapolis or something there would be a kid who would put you up for the night, feed you, and help you find some amusing trouble to get into.

My time in Heel opened up the world of DIY to me, demystifying, first, the record industry and then so many other aspects of living after that. It turned me on to Veganism (which I’ve happily recovered from), design, music production, political activism, business and community to name just a few. In all truth, our songs were pretty shitty, but the friendships and the fun were very real, very funny, and pretty exciting most of the time. And that’s what punk rock is supposed to be about anyway, right?

The sad side of this - as with age many things seem to be driven by sadness or, at least, tragedy or struggle - is that the bassist for Heel, Craig Ackerman, recently discovered his youngest daughter has cancer. She is presently undergoing treatment and seems to be doing well, but the improvement of her health speaks nothing of the medical bills that Craig and his family are having to deal with. To help the Ackerman’s through this difficult time the community that I was very proud to be a part of 16 years ago is still supporting one another. Names have gotten more recognizable and the talent has gotten a bit more compelling, but if you look at the movers and shakers in the Chicago indie rock scene the faces are all very familiar (though a bit fatter…).

That’s the long dramatic story of this storied reunion I drank myself through the other night. Some hot-shot honest to god indie rock STUDS put their tickers together and played a sold out show at the Empty Bottle for Craig, Stella and the rest of his family. Very fucking cool to see people pull together for someone like that.

If you would like to do your part to help make a darling little girls difficult time a bit less difficult you could send even just a little money, by PayPal, to this account (forstella@emptybottle.com) and feel real good about yourself for the rest of the day. Seriously, if you’ve got a spare $5 it would really help.

Now go do something you’ve always wanted to and make it really fucking cool.

I was listening to my “Comets on Fire” station on LastFM this morning and, as is often the case with the fantastic LastFM, discovered a band I had not heard of previously and foresee myself getting as weird about as I did over Steve Hillage last spring.

Blue Cheer was “rumored to have been named for a brand of LSD and promoted by renowned LSD chemist and former Grateful Dead patron, Owsley Stanley” and is credited with creating Heavy Metal and Stoner Rock. After hearing a couple tracks of these maniacs I am fucking sold!

Their website seems to indicate they are back together and touring now. I can’t comment on that at all, but who knows I might check them out when they come through Chicago.

When President Bush announced his economic stimulus in January, he bragged that his package was the “right size” and would “boost” the economy…

It sure has led to “higher consumer spending,” but not where Bush had probably hoped. The adult pornography industry reports that has seen a huge uptick in business thanks to Bush’s package. According to a press release from the Adult Internet Market Research Company:

“An independent market-research firm, AIMRCo (Adult Internet Market Research Company), has discovered that many websites focused on adult or erotic material have experienced an upswing in sales in the recent weeks since checks have appeared in millions of Americans’ mailboxes across
the country.”

Read the full article here