THIS MUSIC Pieces on Heavy Metal, Punk Rock & Hardcore Punk by Lewis Dimmick

   

     Some time ago I was contacted by Lewis Dimmick to give some information on Dave Insurgent and as usual I was happy to hear from someone who wanted to know about my dearly departed singer. Sure Dave was like most of us, he had his good points and he had his bad points but unlike most of us, he had these amazingly great ones. So I messaged Mr. Dimmick back the answer to his question and didn't think anymore of it. Then recently I was sent a book titled THIS MUSIC  Pieces on Heavy Metal, Punk Rock & Hardcore Punk. I immediately glanced through it and the first pages that opened up for me were pages 44 and 45, which just happen to mention the song "Anytown" as well as a quote by me, about how drugs took away all of Dave Insurgent's creativity, humor and goodness. To be honest I only glanced at the the second paragraph from page 45 and saw my 'punk name' as well as my 'legal name' and the quote attributed to me and then I put the book down, I had a bunch of things I've blown off already and I was going away in a few weeks.I didn't have the time nor the attention span to read it so I put it down for some other time.

   Before I left for a tour of the mid west I saw the book and thought "why not?" and slid the book alongside my lap top where I put my computer and off it went with me. I shuffled off to Buffalo and then went to places like Warren, Michigan and Chicago but still I hadn't taken the book out every time I went for the lap top. Then I played Milwaukee, which has a strong Heavy Metal following and it was time to drive to Madison, the capital of Wisconsin. I was bored in the back seat of the rental so I decided to take the book out and see what it had to say.

First thing I want to tell you about THIS MUSIC is that once I picked it up it wasn't something I could put down. It's not a difficult read as it's only 'pieces' on the subjects of Heavy Metal, Punk Rock and Hardcore Punk, but that wasn't why I couldn't put it down. The reason was, besides being well written, it was like Lewis Dimmick was telling my story at times. There was his relationship with his friend Hobi which I automatically associated with my relationship with Dave Insurgent; two youngsters enraptured with music and the vinyl that carried that music to our ears. Lewis' older sister taking down her Robert Plant poster and deciding to grow up, that was kind of like my older sister doing the same shit, only my sister went on and destroyed one of my albums when she and my mom decided to kick me out from the only home I'd ever knew. I left and I guess my parents thought I was going to come back with my tail between my legs but I was popular, so my good friends made damn sure I didn't go back (once, just so I could pick up my measly belongings) until a few years had past. Eventually Dave Insurgent and I needed to pick up the amplifier that was in my parent's building's basement as we had already stopped playing gigs but with a new band on our horizon, House Of God, it was time to take care of the Marshall bottoms once again. I kind of made peace with them but it was always going to be weird as I never forgave them for not backing up my career choice; bitchin' lead guitarist instead of being a lawyer or some job like that.

     Now Lewis didn't have it as bad as me and yet, when reading his story, it seems at times he had it worse. His father passed away where as my dad is not only alive, but I just can't see him dying anytime soon. I never knew Lewis nor his friend Hobi but his description of their first rehearsals did strike a chord with me ( pardon that pun ) as I'd have to say I sucked when I started out, or at least I heard enough people, including my so called friends, tell me that. Nothing was funnier to me than when Dave asked me to play for his father the first song I ever wrote, a song that ended up being the last song we ever recorded; "Back to the Garden Parts I -IV", and of course he had to say it sucked. Dave's dad even brought our first release "Youth Anthem's For The New Order" to a man who lived down his block, who was 'in the music business' and as Dave's dad put it "he said this record sucks". Wow, with that kind of support, how could his son not beam with pride? I  saw Dave's father much like my father, a miserable prick who was still around to make our lives miserable and I couldn't help but wonder, was Lewis luckier than Dave and I for having a father pass away before his time? Or maybe it was that both Dave's dad and my father had endured World War Two and had become plain ole' mean.

      As the book progressed the only thing that could pop into my head was "oh, this guy was around for it all for sure" and what I mean by "it all" was hanging out in the east village and seeing how rock changed from what is now called 'classic rock' into Heavy Metal, Punk Rock and Hardcore Punk. I remember that exact moment for me, when the main scalper in the Rego Park/Forest Hills neighborhood mentioned kids were asking him for tickets for a show to some band he'd never heard of; Metallica. I laughed when I heard him say that and when some kid, in junior high, asked if I had ever heard of Metallica, it was pretty funny seeing his jaw drop when I not only told him I had heard of Metallica (he didn't believe me) hut that I actually brought up "Trapped Under Ice". The astonishment to this kid's facee that I could know all about Zeppelin.... and Metallica.

     It was guys like that scalper that made guys like Dave Insurgent and I look towards a better place to hang out. A place that didn't play by the old set of rules, where you could go and play and not hear the people say your songs or your playing sucked, and there was only one place that was like that; New York City's East Village/Alphabet City aka Lower East Side. That place remained a sanctuary for guys like Lewis, Dave and I and countless others until, as Mr. Dimmick explained so aptly, when the hardcore matinees at CBGB's had to have a line outside the venue so you could enter in order. Who the fuck wanted order? Dave Insurgent put it so well with his lyric "New Order, No Order, DISORDER". That shit was too much order and the matinees ended right soon after that 'getting in line bullshit'.

    When I got to the page where Lewis writes about Dave Insurgent, how he spotted Dave walking down the block and Lewis asks Dave how he could get a Reagan Youth tee shirt but Dave, as usual, is too busy, I remembered that way too well. Lewis's description of Dave is so spot on and to tell you the truth, being that I always viewed Dave Insurgent not only as a friend but as a mentor, I was always running around with not enough time as well. That's what usually happens when drugs start dictating to you what you should be doing. The evil law of diminishing return. You buy the same amount but it does less and less for you so you end up buying more and more...... until your band dissipates, your friendships disappear and your life ends up being the biggest fuck up that you've never imagined. When I look back I see how Dave tossed away his life over some white powder because, and I'm quoting from the book now; "I wonder if the difficulty of achieving an independent, idealized life apart from society fueled Dave Insurgent's addiction? The drugs took over, leaving no room for the person, the man who carried the idea. Or was Dave's life, and death, the realization of the idea in all its ugliness?". All I was able to think when I read that was I can't believe how this guy could write such insightful stuff about my dearly, departed singer, Do I know this guy Lewis? It was cold out driving to Madison, Wisconsin , even for April, and the snow and then the hail was hitting the windshield pretty frickin' hard and I wasn't able to tell if my eyes were watery from the weather or Lewis Dimmick's description of Dave Insurgent.  Probably a bit of both but regardless my heart swelled up for sure from what I had just read.

    Now I could go on and on.... and on about what's in the book but I think I can say it best like this; If you ever wondered what it was like growing up during the 80's, going to all the Heavy Metal, Punk Rock and Hardcore Punk shows during that era, then reading THIS MUSIC should be a must on your list because I can't see anyone describing it better then the creative writing professor from the College of Staten Island; Prof. Lewis Dimmick. He has the same gift that Dave Insurgent had, though with a different art form. He, just like Dave I., can say so much by using the  least amount of their words possible. a true gift. Pretty fuckin' amazing shit so yes I suggest everyone to pick it up. Go find it and buy it, borrow it or better still steal a copy of THIS MUSIC  Pieces in Heavy Metal, Punk Rock & Hardcore Punk and check it out because it should be an essential for anyone interested in the kind of stuff that pissed off your dad, embarrassed your mom or disappointed your sister because you just had to go live your life the only way you knew how, by being real to yourself and your calling.

   Thank You Lewis

RUSTBELT TOUR 2013

I am back home after touring the Midwest with Reagan Youth AND my brand spanking new band Dust Angel. We started off in Trenton, N.J. where I was raised by the praise of a fan who said I upset her...because the band didn't have enough original members (Dave Insurgent and Andy Apathy, your absence sill hurts our hearts). The next night we played Brooklyn and our the bill was Empty Vessels, New Scum and the always cool Crusty P. It was our last night before we had to to hit the road so the next day my band mates left their jobs early, as possible, Tibbie had the hard task of telling her baby boy goodbye before we hopped into our rental. So I tossed my most punk guitar, Fender's cheapest strat, the Squirer because I wasn't gonna trust the weather of the Midwest as wood is very susceptible to expanding and contracting, doing whatever it wants and that sucks when you wanna play your songs as well as you should. So I left my prized Gibson Les Paul at home and headed out with my two singers Trey Oswald and Madame St. Beatrice and my new drummer, Stig Whisper. Reagan Youth never played Albany before and we heard that they had a good punk scene, so we all left psyched, excited to play.  

We arrived at the venue in Albany, named Bogies, and as soon as I got out of the car I encountered a short, chubby guy wearing a hat and glasses telling me that the club was closing because we arrived too late to play. He ranted something about how we were supposed to load in at 5:00 pm (though all we were supposed to load in were our guitars and cymbals, things you sling over your back because we were supposed to be backlined, as we had the entire Rustbelt tour) and because we were from a big city like New York, it was obvious we were used to showing up late, so 'too bad for us'. But the time was only 9:30 pm so I tried to reason with him but he acted like an ass wipe. We had driven up to Albany,and we had to anyway to get to Buffalo, but why drive over 4 hours to go to some club so some ass-wipe, who was NOT Joe Chaos for everyone's information, tell me such foul ass shit. When they closed the club at 9:30 pm, and in my eyes, for no legit reason, and on a Saturday night no less, some fans for sure clamored for a refund since was the bands were present and ready, willing and able to go on. What could I do, it's not like the cops were gonna make the club give refunds, even if they should being that there was more patrol officers and police cruisers all over Albany on that Saturday night, so I brought both my bands to play at Twon's House who was kind and generous enough to allow us to rock Twon's House. Now at this point I want to express my deepest apologies to Mr. Joe Chaos for assuming he was the guy that was responsible for shutting the club at 9:30. Joe Chaos wasn't even the promoter of the show but someone who was helping promote the show but the band was given bad intel. It was a fucked up mistake for me to make an assumption that it was Joe, sorry my deepest regrets go out to Mr. Joe Chaos, for you see I had some not so very nice things to say about Mr. Joe Chaos when I posted a status on Reagan Youth's Facebook. That it got over 100 comments and there were many that stuck up for Joe Chaos showed me that he must be a good promoter, a stand up guy, someone any band would have no problem working with. Madame St. Beatrice of Dust Angel hid the post telling me "enough with that crap Paul" so I focused on other things, like the rest of the tour. Now just recently someone, who was present when all that nonsense went down, contacted the band and told me exactly who the guy that closed the club was, the promoter for our Albany show; Dan Asylum.

 What truly baffles me is why this ass wipe, DAN ASYLUM, or let me call him by his full name; DAN "ASS WIPE" ASYLUM, why didn't he or why wouldn't he contact the post Reagan Youth made about Joe Chaos and tell us that Joe didn't have nothing to do with closing the club at 9:30pm. It's easy to figure out. people had paid to see Reagan youth play and why not keep our guaranteed money and close down the club early so Dan the ass wipe could go out early and spend the moeny people paid to see us on chicken wings and sandwiches and anything else he could stuff into his fat ass, but be man enough to tell me that my beef wasn't with Joe Chaos, but that it was with him, Dan "Ass Wipe" Asylum. Just shows you what type of man Dan "the ass wipe" Asylum is, that fat chunk of shit. I don't know what bands would want to deal with him, but telling me that I'm no longer welcomed at Bogies is like telling me..  absolutely nothing. Whoop dee fuckin doo "Ass Wipe Dan". But enough with that ugly piece of shit fuck face Dan Asylum because it's time to talk about the good that we had in Albany. Dust Angel and Reagan Youth got to play our entire sets in Albany, at Twon's House, and our  fans wanted more so I got the band to play some covers; "Basement" by The Ramones, "Class War" by The Exploited, "Clash City Rockers" and "Raison D'Etre" by the Buzzcocks. And some real big phat love to Twon for putting us up as well. But Albany is mostly about my bad for making a stupid mistake so I can ask Joe Chaos to forgive me for my derogatory words towards him and the club Bogies, it's neither of their fault that Dan Asylum is a piece of shit ass wipe. It was quick and easy to get over what happened because of that sweet gig at Twon's House and having a cozy bed to crash in made things all the more sweeter. The next thing  we know, it's time to shuffle off to Buffalo. 

In Buffalo we played a club called The Funeral Home which was converted from a funeral  home. Darth Sarah and Lindsay had some amazingly great energy and it was nice to see a mixed crowd. One of the better shows on the RUSTBELT tour. It was cold in Buffalo but a great crowd for a Sunday show, no bullshitting, just some great down home punk rock. The club put us up and it was pretty cozy sleeping in a place that was once a dead person's last stop before disappearing. Sweet ;  )

We then made our way to Peabody's in Cleveland. I played Cleveland once before at Now That's Class and I wanted to see what else Cleveland offered so we played at Peabody's. An interesting club which was huge with two shows going on at the same night. One was a metal show (I had to check that out and the band, I believe they were from Florida, were super talented on their instruments and I always respect musical abilities) and then there was the punk show which included Sour Towel.

After we played we needed some time for just the band so we checked into a motel, and we do that, every once in a blue moon, because crashing at crash pads saves the band money, but more importantly, we get to hang with the locals and get a good feel of the places we visit. Motels are the same everywhere, and it doesn't hurt that people's places are usually 100 times cleaner than some place where people will use as a stop over, or a place to fiend on drugs, or to leave bodily fluids everywhere. But before we went there we did a radio interview for Cleveland State University's radio station WCSB. Now it was only supposed to be a ten minute interview, but the deejay wanted both Dust Angel and Reagan Youth and before you know it, we're ranting for an hour, at least. Listening to my band mates spread their good words and positive message enlightened me to the fact, that for the first time since I got Reagan Youth rolling again, I had a two bands with some great chemistry; the brethren Trey Oswald, Stig Whisper and Mike Nowek and sistren Madame St. Beatrice and Tibbie X-Kamikaze. It's always fun to do a radio interview but this one warmed my heart and made me feel proud to be associated with such great musicians, friends, human beings. Thank you. 

In all honestly if it wasn't for Sour Towel I'm not sure barely anyone would have showed up for us and they were great fun. But in Cleveland it was when we found out about the bombing in Boston. For some reason whenever I go on tour something with terrorism has to happen. I remember telling an audience in Baltimore that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. My drummer Greg had a friend who went to college in Boston and a few days later his friend called to tell him that a swat team had stormed his college with a black hawk helicopter hovering above. We watched the news for information everyday about that, which sounded like serious news, but nothing was ever put out on any news channel about that. That's why you can't believe everything the news tell you, when it's more about not keeping us informed or just informed enough so you really just know squat. What I did see end up seeing was an interview with a curmudgeon saying the bomber should be sent back to Russia to get buried. Wow, they had to put on an old fart who still believed the cold war was still going on since the dead bomber was a Chechen. Now Chechnya only had two really nasty wars with Russia recently, so why would they put on an idiot saying something so stupid. Fox news, can't you just disappear or at least, stop spreading lies and bullshit on a consistent basis? So we left for Detroit after Cleveland, and Detroit/Michigan has a great musical history MC5, The Stooges, The Amboy Dukes, Grand Funk Railroad and Slim Shady so it was no surprise to us that it was in Warren, Michigan that rock and roll was living up to it's reputation, because that gig had the best bands we played with that night. When the tour was being booked there was a band called Glitter Trash from Detroit, MI that wanted to play with us but had been banned because the singer liked to perform topless, sure wish they showed up but we played with Raw Dogs instead that happened to they were show a lot of skin that night. Raw Dogs sounded pretty fuckin' amazing!

As a matter of fact every band that played that night at Toepher's House in Warren, MI sounded hot. The promoter, from Suicide Machine, had the flu and didn't show up and we hope he made a full recovery. He booked a great gig and we drove to Chicago over night so we could crash at Ivan and Deborah's; good buddies of Madame St. Beatrice and I.  

In Chicago I played two shows, one was all ages at Township and another at Ultra Lounge. The all ages show we played were with kids that were my age when I started Reagan Youth way, way back with Dave Insurgent. It was great seeing and playing on the same bill  with When Flying feels Like Falling with Violet, Saffron and the rest of their band. Funny thing was when one of the other band's had one of their dad's at the show. he told me "So you're the reason I have to stay for the whole show"., but when we played the song 'Reagan Youth' that dad stormed out of the club during the "heil, heil, heil" chorus. So he didn't know what the band is about, but I respect that dad for his reaction.  Al least I know he's not a Nazi. Now playing two shows in a single night is tough and so we went to Ultra Lounge to play our second show. There I met Ari Lehman who showed up for the show. Ari went to N.Y.U. with Dave Insurgent and stayed in the same dorm. It was great seeing him after all these years. He started a band called First Jason because he was in the first Friday the 13th movie, as Jason Vorhees. Funny stuff, especially when he lit up some amazing herb, which made it even funnier. My drummer Greg kicked himself for not getting a photo with the 'first Jason'. I told Greg not to worry, we'll go see First Jason next time they play New York. And in Chicago it continued to rain, and rain. It rained so much the Ivan and Deborah's house got flooded. We drove off but not before checking out Chicago and my bass player, Tibbie X, bought me this cool Rush tee shirt that just happened to be red with a skull and swords on it. We went to a humongous guitar store that had a Fender Mustang bass with cool racing stripes. Tibbie tried that bass on and it was such a perfect fit. I'm gonna have to find a way to get her that bass even though  Tibbie will eventually be playing second guitar for Dust Angel, it just looked way too cool on her. 

So we drove off the highways towards Milwaukee and I
wanna give Dust Angel's bass player Mike Nowek mad props for getting us to Milwaukee because we heard there was so much traffic from that massive rainfall, one the area hadn't had so bad since 2008. I hadn't realized I would be playing most of the shows from our mid west tour in Wisconsin but I did and found out why. It's the state with some serious music, serious musicians and serious fans.We played the Frank's Power Plant in Milwaukee and we were told there was a big heavy metal show going on earlier and we would get the spill over crowd coming to see us. When Dust Angel went on my guitar broke a string and with the tremolo system I have losing that A string made the tuning go wacky. Nothing I could do at that time (no way I was gonna restring up because besides it taking too much time) and yes, I was stoned out of my mind. You see, Wisconsin is like the California of the Midwest, the state with the best sweet leaf. So I tried to play the song that was next up; "Love Is Between My Legs" and out of tune it sounded like total shit. Before I could get through the opening chords Tibbie X, my bassist in Reagan Youth, grabbed someone's guitar and I tuned it as quick as quick can be and next thing I know I played the whole set with this cool looking heavy metal guitar in black. The crowd at Frank's Power Plant was very kind but not as sweet as Mike of Population Control whose guitar saved my ass that night. When Reagan Youth went on I had put an E string on Mike's guitar but the crowd, which spilled over from the other metal show that ended earlier, didn't care much for our brand of punk rock, even if we were playing the "Heavy Metal Shuffle", the crowd emptied out and we went out in the cold night and got ready for the next gig in Madison. 

Madison is the capital of Wisconsin and is a very beautiful place. We played at the Frequency that night and it was one of our better shows. A band from Vegas called the Vampirates blew my mind by sounding totally disorientated yet tight. Can't describe it really, go out and give them a listen, you will not be disappointed. Then there was Tim and Pyroplast and his lead guitarist tore that shit up! After the show it was a bit sad because our bassist Tibbie X had to go home because she's a mother and her babysitter couldn't babysit no longer. So I drowned my sorrow in that amazing Wisconsin sweet leaf and played table hockey until my lower back started aching like my heart did for Tibbie X leaving us. 

We were supposed to pick up Tibbie's replacement for the rest of the tour, Shiro Aoki, a good guy I know from the rock scene in NYC but the airlines fucked his flight up something fierce. There was no way he was making it to Appleton so I proposed playing the set as a trio but my singer Trey had another idea. He contacted Eric from Wartorn and we met him earlier that day and ran through the set.

It was colder than a witch's tit that night and when I went to get my guitar from the trunk of our rental there was icy condensation on my Strat and I thanked myself for leaving the Gibson Les Paul back home. I played the Dust Angel set as a trio because we didn't have a bassist anymore since Mike Nowek was driving Tibbie back home and we were able to play some songs we weren't able to before with Mr. Nowek so that was fun. Then Eric from Wartorn came on stage with us that night and played our entire set as good as anyone could have after learning the tunes hours earlier. His band Wartorn tore it up and that he promoted the show as well just goes to show how freakin' amazing he is, not to mention that he also loaded the equipment to and fro the show. After the set I ate some amazing vegan lasagna and I have to admit there was a sense of relief from all of us but there was another party to go to so we huffed, and puffed and blew away so many brain cells. We deserved it so why not. Too bad we had an 8 hour ride to Des Moines the next day. 

At this point, since we lost two bass players and their car, we had to upgrade our rental. Our first rental, when I opened the glove compartment I found a pack of cigarettes and asked "whose are these?". Everyone said "not mine". I dug into the glove compartment a little deeper and found something a bit more insidious than a strange pack of cigarettes; cocaine, cooked up. I'm glad none of us indulged in the base cocaine that was left behind by the last car renters. With our new rental, true to form, something was left behind for us yet again; a Nintendo DS. No one wanted that either, so after driving all the way to Des Moines no one cared about returning that or smoking up base cocaine. But I digress.............So we had to make it to Des Moines in 8 hours and when you go to sleep when the sun is coming up it's kind of hard to make good time. I wasn't gonna break any speed limit but I couldn't take a break and driving 8 hours was hellish on my lower back and to top shit off I had to pick up Shiro who finally had the airline fly him into Des Moines. So we picked up Shiro, headed right to the Lucky Cat, plugged in and played our two sets. Nothing like having a full, complete band again. We could have partied, and Shiro really wanted to, but we explained to him that every night we've played there was a party waiting for us right after, so Shiro took pity on us and we crashed at our singer's friends, Tim & Tabatha's house, and we were finally able to catch up with some much needed sleep. 

We drove to Omaha the next day and finally checked into a motel, for it had been a while, since Cleveland. We needed to have some alone time as so we got it. I chilled out, watched a Simpson episode (I'm a big fan) and headed out to the Hideout to play. It was a slammin' crowd for a Monday night and we played one of our more inspired sets because, in the back of our minds we couldn't help but think "dang, this tour is gonna be over soon". Of course after the show we were blazed up and then given some killer bud as a present. Nebraska punks are as great as they come, I'll swear to that just as I'll swear The Shidiots are a great punk band. 

So we headed to St.Louis and as soon as we hit the venue we were given enough money to go eat up some good ole' St.Louis food, so kind of Bob who promoted the show. Another good turn out. I'm not gonna lie and tell you we were feeling 100%, especially when you play 25 sets in 12 days. I played a Dust Angel set every night and then followed it up with a Reagan Youth set , and that's counting two shows for Reagan Youth in Chicago, so I did my best to sound at 100%. The crowd at Fubar was great and that made a big difference in both sets especially with a fan singing all the lyrics into my mic (just like in Omaha). Afterwards we were given an interview by the lovely Devin Wright and her sweet friend Tess was kind enough to put us up. I have to say it was the most interesting night for me because I didn't just meet musicians but a a filmmaker as well; Jim D. Fuller (look him up in IMBD). He gave his short films "Demons Play", "Die Naked At The Hands Of Your Killer", At First Sight" and "A Cosmic Kiss Goodnight"....sweet! And then the next morning I got to go see CBGBs...again, but it was closed. And it was in St. Louis, but still.....Devin later confessed to me that she became political science major because of Reagan Youth. Dave, you had to be smiling down from heaven from that one :-) and everyone gave off some of the best vibes we had ever encountered and believe you me, that's saying something, especially after meeting so many great people who were different as individuals but copacetic as only Reagan Youth fans can only be. Needless to say it was sad to drive off to our last show, to our singer's Trey's hometown; Louisville. 

Entering Louisville we lost an hour due to the timeline and we hung out at St. Louis a bit longer than usual because it was so chillax there but that meant we missed our man, Mike Defendant from Ohio, when he performed as our opener at Spinelli's Downtown. After the show the band let loose at this great bar, Cahoots, because it was the end of the tour, it was time to indulge at a really beautifully decadent scale. Yet I still was able to find time to jam with Mike on a Jethro Tull acoustic classic; "Mother Goose", and the next day he recorded a country version of "Degenerated" with the guys I brought out whom I owe a many thanks to, most especially to Trey Oswald, Stig Whisper and Shiro Aoki. And mad love to Mike Nowek and ofc ourse mad props have to go out to my band mate extraordinaire  Tibbie X. So I partied the night away drinking Bullelit Bourbon (what else should one drink in Louisville, Kentucky?) and then I crashed, hard, at Sam and Bonnie's and woke up late. What to do? Eat at waffle house for some of their well known hash browns, and then just like I was ready to head home.

You would think after driving this entire tour with no car drama \the one drive home would be simple but we got pulled over for speeding in Ohio. The State Trooper took Stig's drivers license and came back a few minutes later and told Stig he wasn't allowed to drive because his license was "dropped"! That's right "Dropped"? Not suspended, nor revoked, not even stolen, just "dropped". So Shiro went on the internet and searched the internet about anything about a driver's licence being dropped and found  absolutely nothing. So we had a ball busting, bull shit artist State Trooper who then asked if anyone else in the car had driver's licences and we all said no, because no of us did (Trey did most of the driving, he's a maniac like that) and then he asked if we knew anyone in Columbus, where we were near. But why wake up people we like at some God forsaken hour, for bullshit and if he could lie to us why shouldn't we do the same to him so we said "No". Well he said he couldn't allow us to sit on the side of the highway because if some car comes plowing into us that would be some lawsuit against that State Trooper who wouldn't let Stig drive because of a "dropped" driver's licence being dropped? So he escorted us to a motel, hung around the parking lot to see if we'd check into some roach motel (we didn't), he then lost interest and we got back to heading home.

So, let me end by saying this, thank you to everyone, and there was a whole bunch of you who were so super kind to both Dust Angel and Reagan Youth. Next time we'll bring merch for Dust Angel and more merch for Reagan Youth so you could spread some positivity around and not to mention some catchy tunes and great singing. Trust me, you'll see we're only going to sound tighter and better with new tunes being written and rehearsed all the time. And last but certainly not least, once again , my bad Joe Chaos, you did nothing wrong because to ASSUME it was you I was beefing with, I made an ASS out of U and ME. LONG LIVE THE MIDWEST MUSIC SCENE! from your most faithful Axe Meister, Paul Cripple ;  )> 

Long Island; Land Of The Ugly American Male

LONG ISLAND What the hell is wrong with the male population from long island? Now I ask this question because I am well acquainted with long island as I grew up one county over, in the land of Rego Park, part of Queens county. As I reached my teens I knew it was time to spread my wings and go someplace different from Rego Park... and that was Manhattan, specifically the Lower East Side to play punk rock. But I did go to Long island as well only it wasn't with my friends and band mates, it was with my family. Sometimes we went to the Hamptons to spend all day on a beach catching rays like a true Sun worshiper, digging my feet into the murky waters looking for clams. Other times it was visiting my cousins who lived on a private golf course. Beautiful piece of property Long island. No wonder the native Americans loved it so much. But Native Americans do not live there anymore for there is a new type of people living out in Long Island, and I must say that if God hates "ugly", then he must really, really despise the men residing in Long Island. But I will be focusing primarily on three of those men, all of whom played in the band Reagan Youth at one time or another.

The first band mate from Long Island was a serious musician. Dave Insurgent loved his playing and asked that he join the band. It seemed like a perfect fit, the guy was knowledgeable about the sound we expected from him, and he did it really well when we tried him out. I asked Dave "what about the other guys" but Dave was dead set on having the Long Islander. So Reagan Youth had it's first Long islander in the band, and what's the first thing he does; he does a complete 180 on the sound coming from his instrument. It wasn't perfect sounding like he played at the band's try outs, it was totally different; it sounded like shit, and arguments between Dave and the Long Islander started and never ceased. But we played live shows and we came up with new songs regardless and when three out of four guys in a band are rockin' it, and one isn't, and the one guy who isn't rocking it ain't the singer, well it was good enough. But then it came time to record our first record and the arguments just grew nastier and louder. Me and the other musician watched as Dave and the Long Islander argued and argued. Now the way I looked at it was "Hey, didn't this guy join 'our' band? Reagan Youth didn't ask to join him, so why isn't doing what he promised to do when he joined the band". It just didn't make sense to me.

So we end up recording and then releasing our very first record, an e.p. named "Youth Anthems for the New Order" and everything sounded pretty on... except for the Long Islander. His playing sucked so much that he can not really be heard on the record as much as the rest of us. And why isn't he heard as much as the rest of us? His instrument was vital to the band's sound, it's just that the sound recorded from his instrument sounded a lot like a big fart sound and Dave Insurgent was not going to give that crappy sound the same volume as the rest of us who played the songs the way they were supposed to.

Shortly after we recorded the record Reagan Youth made plans to go and play the west coast and in true fashion the Long Islander said "No". So we parted ways and we didn't see him at all for years and I'll admit it, the guy was never a friend and I would never consider him anything more than someone that I played in a band with. But he was never a friend because people that self absorbed with themselves don't have friends (still doesn't all these years later... the guy hasn't learned anything about being a stand up human being). Before Dave died we met up with this Long islander because we were re-releasing the e.p as an entire l.p. with three new songs added to be called Volume I. I can remember him telling Dave and I that "Reagan Youth never existed before he joined and after he left the band Reagan Youth ceased to exist". I told him "No, we played all these shows with the original members, how can you not remember that? And after you left we continued to play without you, and we wrote some new songs that are gonna be released as our second record". Long Islander quickly said "Hey I'll play on that new record" and Dave and I looked at each other like he was from another planet. No way we wanted to go through his nonsense all over again.

Well we ended up releasing the second record but only after the band had ended it's run. I assumed that was that except all these years later when I had a chance to play these songs all over again and that's when I met the other Long Islander. I needed replacement players and the other Long Islander tried out and after I asked him to join. I explained to him that I needed him to learn the songs the only way; the correct way, and to not change them. The only other thing I explained was the band's politics which were anti-racist, anti-hatred and though we were anti republican, that in no way that meant we were pro democracy. Reagan Youth is an anarchist band which meant we do what you want, as long as what you wanna do doesn't hurt other people. It's the only way to be an individual, not a conformist. It's what a true punk rocker would believe in. So what does the other Long Islander do when he is firmly entrenched in the band? Well let me tell you it wasn't pretty and very, very pathetic. Even way more pathetic than Long Islander #1. Read on....

Well the other Long Islander thought the band Reagan Youth was now property that he, and he alone owned. When I would say this isn't so he would say "Well if they aren't my songs the it's not 'my' band". And I would say "How can they be your songs when you weren't even born when some of them were written and you were a small child when the rest were written". but this did not stop him from telling people "hey you have Reagan Youth on your ipod? that's me on your ipod". Of course the girl with the ipod was confused and the other Long Islander admitted she was but that he explained it to her. I was like "What did you explain, that you lied and that it isn't you on her ipod?"...lol. Or the time we walked into a record store and the other Long Islander picks up the band's first album, walks over to the counter and tells the store owner "you see this record, that's me" and the record store owner just laughed in his face. I was terribly embarrassed for the other Long Islander but he didn't seem to care, he was too busy living a lie. Just how big the lie he was living I would soon find out.

You see this other Long Islander claimed he was in love with a girl, but you can't love someone else when you can only love yourself. But regardless he would have long conversations to me about his love for this girl, except one thing always happened, and that was that he wouldn't speak of his love for the girl, but rather his hatred for her boyfriend. What I finally found out was that the other Long Islander was dressing up like the boyfriend/fiancee (he's now her husband, and I good man... he moved out of Long Island) of the girl he claimed to love. what's more is the Other Long Islander had his girlfriend dress up exactly like the girl he claimed to love. he even had his girlfriend add on to her name the name of the girl he claimed to love. And I thought I was having problems with this guy.

Well needless to say I got rid of the other Long Islander and last I heard he has moved into the same neighborhood as the girl he claims to love so she can be more easily stalked. This is not funny because this poor girl is gonna have to move to another neighborhood because of the other Long Islander having this sick problem of wanting to be someone else, and having his girlfriend be someone else. talk about a sick, sick man. But unfortunately when his hair starting falling out he had no problem popping propecia pills to put hair back on his head. But to take meds that would make him sane, well he thought that was just too outrageous, you know, like a true Long Island asshole.

Now the Last Long Islander was the biggest doozy of them all. Like a true Long Islander he was a Jets fan, you know, because they play in New Jersey. Now I grew up loving to play sports and American football was one I loved. I was a Steelers fan growing up, and Dave Insurgent loved the Dallas Cowboys, but when it came to the New York teams we both like the Jets over the Giants.

Let's face it, the Jets with Joe Namath and his anti-establishment look and attitude was way cooler, as was John Riggins growing a mohawk and moving to New York city's village to reside. these were true individuals, not conformists. But the Jets of today are nothing like that. it's all about Fireman Ed, the creepiest football fan alive. Well anyhow the Last long Islander was a monster Jet's fan, so much that he has a room in his home filled with jet paraphernalia. That's not so bad, but what is bad about the room is that no girls are allowed. I guess the last Long Islander doesn't want any women in the room, but who would when viewing bestiality porn of a snake being pulled out of a female's vagina. But enough about the Jets, let's talk music because the Last Long Islander was an amazing musician.

The Last Long Islander played his instrument as good as anyone I've ever heard and when we went on tour he was not like the other Long Islanders, he didn't suck playing live. But after the gig he was as horrible as horrible gets. You see, the Last Long Islander has a problem with women/girls; females will always be beneath him, as they either need his saving because of their weakness or are nothing but a bunch of whores...but never too ugly to fuck. And that's a big problem because when Reagan Youth plays a lot of pretty girls show up. But the Last Long Islander walked past every pretty girl and headed straight for the scariest looking woman I've seen in a long while and proceeded to tell her "You smell like a piece of candy".

Now even the ugliest woman alive can smell desperation miles away, so of course she was completely creeped out by the Last Long Islander. But that didn't stop the Last Long Islander, even if it meant costing the band hundreds of dollars, which it did, as well as hours and hours being wasted. And it's not like the Last Long Islander got any sex, because he didn't, he just got rejected and Reagan Youth ended up driving 4 more hours in the rain (we drove eight hours in the rain earlier that day) and instead of being a man and admitting to a mistake, he said to me "But Paul, I was coked out". yeah, whenever I do cocaine I make a bee line for the ugliest woman at the venue and tell her she smells like a piece of candy. I mean 'who does that'? And then he just went onto complain about my girlfriend, like she was the problem, but she wasn't even there, so what the fuck did she have to do with that fiasco? It was then that the other band member's told me how the Last long Islander had called them up to ask "What are we gonna do about Paul's girlfriend?". The other band member's told the Last Long Islander "Look, I'm busy at work and don't call me about this shit again" and the other band member said "Paul, I like your girlfriend and I didn't know what he meant, so I didn't know what to say". And this band member was a Jets fan just like the Last Long Islander and he must have thought that meant it was all right to call him with that bullshit and worse the Last long Islander would use the word "Nigger" around him, a lot. Obviously this does not work, at all, for Reagan Youth. But we had more gigs to play.

So the next gig we play one of the band members, and obviously it wasn't the Last Long Islander, actually got some sex from this pretty girl/Reagan Youth fan, only it was completely opposite of what happened the night before. There was no "hey, you smell like a piece of candy", but just a matter of plain ole drunken revelry. It was harmless fun but the Last Long Islander didn't see it that way because he was too busy being a jealous bitch ass. The next thing you know he's threatening to leave us stranded even though the band paid for the vehicle (the tour van was in the Last Long Islander's name) we were using. Real stand up guy that Last Long Islander, huh? Now I had to open up on the Last Long Islander and boy did I ever. I had to explain that this wasn't 'his' band or even 'his' tour van, it was Reagan Youth's tour and since 'we' paid for the van, what the fuck was he talking about. He said "point taken' and nothing else because, what else could he say? So the tour went on but he was miserable because young pretty girls of legal age not only showed up to watch us play, but were in our dressing room. So the Last Long Islander would storm out of the dressing room because he thought it should be like his Jet's room in his house out on Long Island, The room where no females are allowed, only him and his non friends allowed. Well the tour ended and we haven't spoken since because, obviously, because he's way too embarrassed that everyone in Reagan Youth knows what a jerk the Last Long Islander is.

Now after this I thought "hey, there must be a connection between these three assholes" so I did decided to do some research but before I could I had to relax, being that I just came home from tour. Osama Bin Laden had just been killed by navy seals who kept his wives alive, you know, because the wives actually attacked the navy seals but they just had to blow Osama Bin Laden's brain's out because his brain held a treasure trove of Al Qaeda secrets and America thought it best just to blow out brain and dump it into the Arabian Sea.

And was it the right thing to do? Maybe we should ask Pete King,Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and he's from, you guessed it; Long Island. But there was other news on that day, like that an off duty Long Island police officer pulled his loaded revolver from his holster and pointed it at a bartender who was doing absolutely nothing but serving him drinks all night.

It made me remember when we were in Chattanooga and the local police officer apologized to the Last Long Islander because Chattanooga didn't have a Chase Bank for us to make a deposit. The Last long Islander thought that was so surreal for an officer of the law to be so courteous and hospitable, and of course he would, he's from Long Island.

But eventually I searched the internet about Long Island and what did I find? That Long Islanders are talking of secession from New York state. On March 28, 2008 Suffolk County proposed a plan that would make Long Island (specifically, Nassau and Suffolk counties) the 51st state of the United States of America so that all the Long Island taxpayers' money would stay on Long Island, rather than have it shared with the rest of the state of New York, because, you know, Long Islanders are special like that.

That reminded me of when the Long Islander put out a Reagan Youth c.d. and told the record label that he would be the only one to get paid from it. Like that happened .....lol. Or when the Other Long Islander thought because he would do the 'Heil Hitler' salute "for real" when we played Berlin, that it meant he was the leader of Reagan Youth and that all the songs now belonged to him and him alone..... yeah right....lmao. Or when the Last Long Islander, and he is the last Long Islander that will ever be in Reagan Youth, thought that he was in charge of the band. The Last Long Islander can't get any sex from the ugliest woman I've seen in years and that makes him in charge .... yeah sure it does ....lol.

In closing let me say this; Long Islanders epitomize what is wrong with the United States today. The U.S. of A is not the best country in the world, it's only different than all the other countries. Is the U.S. better because it allows British Petrol to pollute Louisiana and then watches as the C.E.O. of British Petrol gets a big bonus because Gas prices went up because of it's fiasco? Is it better because the rich get big tax breaks but the middle and working class get screwed? I don't believe that makes the U.S. better than all the other countries in the world. Different? for sure, but certainly not better. Now I know the ugly American male from Long Island can't believe any country in the world can be better than the U.S. and nowhere in the U.S. is there a better place to be than Long Island. Well I believe that as much as I believe that Al Qaeda is planning to blow up Nassau Coliseum because the Islanders are such a great hockey team these days.

My apologies to all the Long Islanders that I know that happen to be cool, upstanding people. People that I know are good people. But the three that played in Reagan Youth that hail form Long Island? Stop blaming women for your problems and get over yourselves.

And lest we forget serial killer Joel Rifkin that murdered Dave Insurgent's finance, Tiffany. Where was he from?.....exactly.

Now let's see, not long after I wrote this, a Long Islander murders, in cold blood, 4 people while robbing a pharmacy. The crime "didn't make sense" according to the police commissioner, but it did, if you see where he's from. A self centered human being, not caring about anyone else but them self, that's what happens when you don't have neighbors to the north, south, or east and your only neighbors are in the 'wild west' with freaky New Yorkers. The "Pain Killer" did not show any remorse for what he did, of course he didn't, why would anyone who only cares for themselves show remorse? They don't and never won't.

Here's a Thanksgiving update, specifically to the person who thinks Quakers were at the 'first' Thanksgiving. Funny, I was always taught it was the Pilgrims and Quakers came way later to Pennsylvania. Hey, maybe he can go share some cranberries and squash with someone, anyone from the Algonquin tribe. Highly doubt that, but he can always share a slice of sweet potato pie with this racist garbage picking asshole in the video below.





As for the video below about this great American war hero, just keep in mind, McCain is a republican who ran for the presidency against Barack Obama. He had to be thinking about the three guys that were once in Reagan Youth that were born and raised in the very place he disparaged.