This Makes My Blood Boil

So the RIAA in their infuriating and counter-productive wisdom now say that putting a CD you paid for onto the iPod you paid for is still "unauthorized," is not "fair use" and is in fact "steeling."

When asked by the RIAA's lead counsel whether it was wrong for consumers to make copies of CDs they have purchased, Jennifer Pariser replied in the negative. "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song," said Pariser. Making "a copy" of a song you own is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'," according to Pariser.

News flash old men destroying the music industry, I listen to music two ways, on my iPod and on my computer. If I can not do that legally by buying a CD then why the fuck would I want to buy a CD? Am I supposed to pay for the same songs twice? Do they actully believe that consumers will chose old CD players over their computers and iPods?

Does this make sense to anyone under 90? I thought the goal of the RIAA was to encourage people to buy more CDs not make up new arguments why people should not. I can just not grasp the stupidity of this position. It really makes no sense at all. It makes so little sense that it is contradictory to the arguments that the RIAA made itself in the 2005 MGM vs. Grokster (a case they won), where they argued that making digital copies of music for personal use was protected.

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RIAA: Those CD rips of yours are still "unauthorized" [Article]

Bloggers Making More Impact than You Think...

The LA Weekly this week published an article on a batch of new indie labels the common thread other than being extremely DIY is that they are all run by prominent Bloggers. Two of my favorite Blogger-turned-label owners are mentioned Rockinsider/JaxArt and Hate Something Beautiful/I Am Sound Records.

It is a very interesting read, and gives hope that their are people doing new imaginative things to promote and sell music. It is also noteworthy that all these labels are doing quite well with limited recourses, limited capital and virtually no staff in the same environment that all the players with those things are doing worse than ever. They are going back to basics and just promoting the music they love.

LA WEEKLY: Bedroom Confidential [Article]

Advertising Suported Free Downloading is here, almost

So the first free legal downloading site SpiralFrog.com launched today being supported by advertising.

Just a few minor porblems with it:
You can not burn it the file to a CD or listen to it in any CD players.
You can not listen to it in iTunes.
You can not listen to it on a iPod.
You can not listen to it on your iPhone.
You can not download it to a Mac.

I want to know where I can listen to it? Do they think this will work if the people listening to music on one of the 100,000,000 iPods out there are shut out? I know the industry wants to stick it to Steve Jobs but the way to do that is not to hurt his customers (ie EVERYONE) but is to make a better product or better service.

I will not be using this service because a) I listen to music on CDs in my car b) I listen to music on iTunes c) I listen to music on my Ipod and d) I own a PowerBook. Oh well.

Why the MP3 Does Not Affect Quality Music

A lot of people have been talking about Lee Gomes article “Are Technology Limits In MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?” in the Wall Street Journal on recording and the effect of the MP3 on sound quality. This seems to be an unimportant issue to me for two reasons.

The first reason is obvious; the technology will get there. There is already a 180MB iPod. In a few years there will be a 1,000G iPhone or something equally crazy, everyone will be on broadband networks that are so fast it will make our current TI lines feel like dial up does now and no one will have to use the inferior MP3 format as the standard. Apple and other the software and hardware companies will make this happen regardless.

The other reason this trend does not worry me is less obvious. That is that the good artists (note that I said “artists”) are not doing this. The good artists will always push themselves and those recording them to make the best music and best sound possible, they are simply not worried about how it sounds on myspace.

What about the bands and acts doing this today? (Note I did not say “artists”). What about their records in future? I would say chances are that the acts making music for the “right now” are not the acts we will care about in 5 years anyway. The kinds of acts that are not trying to make the best music they can are probably not going to make music worth listening to when the fad has past. Most of these are the same acts that only sound good because of technology and Auto-Tune anyway and should not be felt sorry for when their record doesn't cut it. The artists that make the best albums they can are far more likely going to create albums we still want to listen to in ten years and when we do they will have been recorded at the best quality possible and we will have forgotten this was ever an issue.

I will bet that A Ghost Is Born, Neon Bible and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots will sound as great in ten years as they do now, and I don’t listen to those records that sound like crap now anyway so in ten years so they really wont affect me.

Like most problems in must this only affects the hacks and will have little or no effect on quality music. If it was that big a problem artists could just do "MP3 Edit" the way major acts do radio edits now.

RIAA still hates music fans

Know Your Rights: What to do when the RIAA comes calling

Engadget posted this article on the RIAA lawsuits by their "totally punk" copyright attorney Nilay Patel. To people who have been paying attention to this issue it may not seem as relevant, but it is a good summery to everyone else on how to deal with those RIAA lawsuits.

How has the RIAA not realized yet that they way to get the casual listener to pay for music is not to sue the music junkies?


P.S. I would whole heartedly support an organization that protects the recording industry, thats why I hate the RIAA. It is doing to opposite.

Rubin in the New York Times

The New York Times: The Music Man

I know this is a few days old, but I found it an interesting read. I just think it is a sad state when the fact that a major record label has a "music guy" running it is seen as novel and news worthy. I don't know if it is as novel as this makes it seem or if Columbia is just doing a great PR job convincing everyone they are doing something different.

Video Nowhere?

Radio Nowhere Video

Three thoughts:

1) Springsteen still rules. There really is no one else who is still as relevant after so many years as Bruce. This song is great. It has really grown on me, and I liked it to start. His voice sounds great, he's playing great, the content is still there and Max, Little Steven and the rest of The E Street Band sound great (even if he could have been more prominent in the mix).

2) What does it say when one of the largest radio stars ever has no hope of getting a GREAT new song played at radio, and as one of the biggest stars in Music Television history has even less chance of getting his video on TV? Yet the media company's wonder why kids are running as fast as they can toward internet. If you can not find someone as undeniable as Springsteen by conventional channels how could you hope to discover anything else? *

2) How brilliant is it to debut the video at Amazon.com? And by Brilliant I mean it is what people should have already been doing a year ago. Everyone (this post included) will be linking to the new video and presto you are at the store with a by now right there. I have been saying for a at least a year now that this how the labels should have dealt with youtube. If ever video on youtube had a link to buy the hi res version with one click people would.

* Not that I expect a lot of "kids" are looking for this, but Springsteen is a great example that anyone older could understand why old media is in trouble.

Radio Nowhere Is Right

As if there was a chance of the new Springsteen track being played at radio anywhere these days anyway. Bruce Springsteen is back with the E Street Band, they have a new album and a new world tour. It is first in at least 5 year and the first since "final" tour that we all knew would not be the last.

Right now and for the next week at iTunes you can download the new single "Radio Nowhere" for free. I can get behind free.

Springsteen is one of my favorite artists. Few can craft a pop song better than he can. I also think he is one of the few classic acts to be still putting out relevant material and not just trying to recreate his past work. His last two albums "Devils And Dust" and "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions" are both masterpieces greater than almost any other albums being put out today. The new track is neat, a throw back to the straight rock of classic Springsteen rather than the folk records he has released recently. But is also fresh and new. It may not be his best track he has ever released but it is a solid song.

Punk label does far more than sell records

So Hopeless / Sub City has now raised over $1 Million for charities (Yahoo News). That is no small task for a small indie label. The most remarkable is that that one Million has come out of their and the bands incomes. The way they work their record deals is similar to any other small label except that both the label and the bands both then give 5% of everything they make of the sale of their records not just of the profits and donate it to a charity of the bands chose. Thrice even continued this when they moved to Island and got Island to agree to a similar deal, it was one of the final selling points that got the to make the decision to go to the major.

When SubCity started this I doubt anyone though the small indie could have such a huge and positive impact. It is amazing that they have stuck with it for so many years.

To celebrate they are having a party at the Troubadour in LA on Sunday.

Phoenix gets new place to eat music

For the last 20 years Stinkweeds Records has been one of the Valleys greatest supporters of independent music. To say owner Kimber Lanning is one of the most important advocates of local music in Arizona would be a huge understatement. In addition to Stinkweeds she owns local art gallery and venue Modified Arts and has been a curtail player in revitalizing the downtown and the art district. Lanning also is the Director of Local First Arizona (formally AZ Chain Reaction) an organization of locally owned businesses that support locally owned businesses in Arizona.

Now Kimber and the other great people at Stinkweeds have launched SilverPlatter.info, an online blog/concert calendar. Everyone in Phoenix should go take a look. This has the potential to be a great vehicle to promote music in AZ.

If you ever get the chance to talk to Kimber I advise you to do so. She is one of the most passionate and informed advocates for art and music I have ever meet. A lot of how I think about the way the business of music should done comes from my conversations with her. Modified Arts was where I started doing shows in High School and have continued doing so ever since. And Stinkweeds has been the main shop for music.

Ben Lee's New Wave

Ben Lee - New Wave

So Ben Lee apparently shares my love for Against Me! Recently on his bolg he posted covers of the entire Against Me! Record New Wave.

"I fell in love with the album. Really. Like, couldn't stop listening to it. As heavy and gnarly as it sounds at times, it is unmistakably a pop masterpiece." - Ben Lee

Hearing Lee cover AM you can really hear the greatness of each of these songs. I liked the record from the moment I heard it, but these covers just reinforce what I liked about it.

I think this is a great example of what the best of what the Internet can offer to art. In years gone by the cost of a recording like this (not that it is the best recording) would have prevented this type of recording for fun, and with out the Internet their would have been no cheep, let alone free, way for people to hear it. Lee even manipulated the album their album cover which must have taken him all of five minutes in Photoshop. Now an actual artist like Lee can spend an afternoon recording something great just for fun and we all get to hear it.

I always love artists doing something cool for no other reason than they think its cool. Even if you don't think it is that neat what did it cost anyone?

Not to mention the great PR angle for both Lee and Against Me! This is one of those times when everyone wins.

A Alchemy Teaser

Thrice have posted a teaser video for their new album The Alchemy Index. No word on when the album is due out since they are curently label-less after they Island earlier this year.

This video makes me even more curious to see what they recorded. It sounds like nothing they have done before. This record will likely confuse a lot of people who do not know what to make of it. It is a shame that Thrice are stuck making some of the most innovative music out there while being mistakenly categorized into a genera known for being incredibly non innovative and increasingly generic. It would not surprise me if in 10 years Thrice will have evolved so much that it will be little more than trivia that they ever were a hardcore band.

More punk from my past

Fat Records has announced more details (and this lovely album art) on the new American Steel “Destroy Their Future.” The record comes out October 02 and will be released on vinyl as well. They had not played together in five years and now have a new record coming out, are playing both The Fest 6 and Fuck Yeah Fest and are doing a tour with Lawrence Arms.

This is one of my most anticipated albums of this year. I don’t necessarily think it will be one of the best records of the year, but I bet it is going to rule. I used to LOVE American Steel. To me they were everything a punk band should be. I saw them many times in basements with some of the most wild and sweaty pits I had ever seen at the time, and still to this day some of the most fun.

I meet them a few times while they were still playing as American Steel and when they formed Communiqué (all four original AS members are in Communiqué) I help promote many of their shows and even had them headline the Fest I put on last year. They are all amazing guys, and really believe in what they are doing and they way they do it. I am glad they are playing together again.

Stellar Line-Up for Ferdie Cuilda of 400 Blows

Buy Tickets

Last month Ferdie Cuilda of 400 Blows got chicken pox on tour. This sounds like a childish problem but in adults chicken pox can be serious and caused a six day hospital stay during the middle of a tour. Like most touring musicians Cuilda does not have insurance and has no way to pay the bills.

Tomorrow is a Benefit being put on by The New Ship at the Echoplex in Echo Park with some of Ferdie’s Friends. The original line up was announced as The Locust, The Bronx and Qui, which is David Yow of The Jesus Lizard and special Guests. Since then the line up has been expanded to include punk rock icons The Circle Jerks, and the legendary Melvins.

I have never seen the Melvins or Circle Jerks before and it almost seems like a serious failure in my musical up bringing. Both bands have been a huge influence on independent music. I am glade that not only will I get to see both bands finally; it will be fore a great cause. 400 Blows are a band I respect a lot for always trying to do their own thing and always trying to stay independent.

I have booked 400 Blows in the past and as people they are as respectable as their band is. I am glade I will be able to help in some small way, even if it is only my $15 ticket.

What To Be Taken From MP3 Being The Most Common File Type

InformationWeek.com is reporting “MP3 Audio Files Most Common On Computers.” comScore has done a survey of 2 million computers to find that the mp3 is the most common file type with the average PC 880 mp3s. It is unclear if this includes Macs or not. The company also can do comparisons of what websites people with lost of mp3s visit compared to ones this very few.

The interesting part is this quote:

"Well, an organization like the Recording Industry Association of America might see this data and conclude that heavy MP3 users represent the sort of customers that should be courted."

Although that is not news, it is amazing how many reports time after time come up with this sort of conclusion (including several from Harvard and Princeton studies) and yet the RIAA still seems to not realize that music fans are their biggest customers.

The Hold Steady to share stage with The Rolling Stones

I just saw on Vagrant's Blog that The Hold Steady is playing with The Rolling Stones in Ireland. Yes THE ROLLING STONES.

I wish I could go. Boys and Girls in America was my favorite record of 2006.

One Reason I No Longer Live In Mesa

“Metal rock's not Mesa's role, councilman says” read the headline of an article published yesterday in the Arizona Republic.

The article is about one Mesa city councilman’s comments of The Sounds of The Underground show in Mesa coming up.

"It's not what we want our image to be," said Kyle Jones, who represents downtown on the council. "For me personally I'd just as soon we didn't have any of that kind of stuff."

This attitude is one of the reasons I no longer live in Mesa. I am a Mesa native but cannot stand that this is the way the city looks at art. Can you imagine any LA or New York councilman making this kind of statement, or even caring about any one tour?

Christie Front Drive's Influence

Christie Front Drive - myspace

Yet another reunion worthy of mentioning, Christie Front Drive will be playing this year at Denver Fest. The rest of the line up has not been announced, but that announcement is coming this Wednesday.

Christie Front Drive broke up years ago, before I ever had a chance to get into them. But when I was first getting into indie rock and what was beginning to be called “emo” in the late 90s they were a band that always came up. The bands I was getting into at the time like Jimmy Eat World (who had done a split with CFD), The Get Up Kids, Pollen and many other in that scene would often mention their influence. Finally I had to see whom all these bands were listening to. And after listening to CFD’s records it was obvious.

I think many new bands in the “underground” world today don’t understand what it is like to truly influence people. All these bands seem to be making records that they think can get them noticed and “big.” Back then bands like The Get Up Kids and At The Drive-In were doing what they wanted not what they thought would get them onto MTV. Did CFD want to be huge? Who doesn’t, but that’s not why they sounded like they did. And why did bands try and sound like them? It wasn’t to try and cash in on CFD’s success.

Christie Front Drive’s legacy is not what they did, but is just as profound, it is what the bands they influenced when on to do. They help create a sound that people imitated not for where they thought it could take them but because they loved the music.

Influencing people is easy when you are on MTV and making money, it says little about the music you make. Influencing people based only on the music you make when you have little financial success, now that is hard, and that is what Christie Front Drive did.

Small Drag, Reunions far from me.

Small Brown Bike and Superdrag are both playing again. Two bands I used to love have announced reunions this fall that I will not get to see since they are only doing East Coast or Midwest dates.


Small Brown Bike - The Cannons And Tanks

Small Brown Bike is playing two shows to benefit a friend battling Leukemia, a very noble reason for a reunion. Also rad to see it isn’t any sort of cash in, not that they were really ever big enough for that.

SBB was one of the first truly underground bands I got into on my own. A friend’s band in high school opened for them at some basement show in 98 or 99 and I decided to stay and see them, for no real reason. Wow. I was blown away. They were too aggressive to be emo (back when emo meant Jimmy Eat World or Promise Ring and not the crap generic teen rage it means now) and they were too melodic and tight to be punk. At that point all the small bands I had seen had a reason they were still small. But SBB was a fucking great band. At the time I did not anyone who was into them and that didn’t matter. They were a key band in that turning point when I realized that how hip a band was or how many people knew who they were had nothing to do with how good they were.


Superdrag - Keep It Close To Me

Superdrag is doing a short reunion tour with their original line up. Unfortunately I think it was a later line up that did the bands best work.

I saw Superdrag for the first time around that same time. I actually latter spent my 17th birthday at a show of theirs. A friend was a fan and dragged me to one of their shows, either right before “In the Valley of Dying Stars” or right after. They were amazing, just a great pop rock band. They are one of those bands that are just a little too interesting to really work at radio and not arty enough to work with indie hipsters.

They are a sad case of a band doing their best work after their “big hit” and the majority of people dismissed it without ever even hearing it despite the fact that they would like it if they could look at it with an open mind. Kind of like Nada Surf only with Nada Surf people have noticed the quality of what they are doing now.

These two bands played a huge role in me discovering underground music and to me they were my bands. I may not get to see either of them this time around but I am happy to see them still going.

Catalogue Artists in the Internet Age

The music company Abkco is forcing YouTube to take down instructional videos that teach people how to play guitar. Read about it on NPR.

This is extremely short sited. 15-year-old kids are not trying to find 40-year-old songs by The Animals. Hell half of these kids are only vaguely familiar with the Beatles let alone having ever heard of Herman's Hermits. Yeah the Stones are still well known but the majority of teenagers do not know their music.

Companies that exist to promote catalogue artists need to start embracing the Internet as an inexpensive way to turn kids onto older music that they would otherwise not hear. Having a good looking website may have pasted for being web savvy in the 90s, but we are already on to web 2.0! It is hard enough to get younger kids interested in these acts as it is. Late night infomercials will soon stop being cost effective, and they were never good for turning on new listeners. Instead of just closing the door on these kids stumbling onto these old songs they should be actively trying to find ways to get new listeners to find them in just this sort of natural way (natural in the new web paradigm).

Instead of sending lawyers after YouTube they should request that the people posting these videos link to the online stores and have watchers purchase the tracks. Granted most watchers will not buy the track but when some of these videos are viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and will only be viewed more in future, a small percent of watchers could be a decent number of sales. And after the initial set up the video could last for years with no oversight continually creating more sales. Set up an affiliate program where the person posting the video gets a small cut of the sale for encouraging kids to buy the track. Doesn’t iTunes already have these incentives? Amazon does. If there is an incentive not only will they be turning kids on to old songs they will actively be promoting the sale at NO COST AT ALL to the copyright holder. FREE MONEY! Instead they are closing the door on a possible promotional tool and new revenue stream when traditional revenue streams are already drying up and they are looking bad in the process.

Do the Smashing Pumpkins hate indie stores and their own fans?

I used to love the Smashing Pumpkins. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was the first CD I ever purchased my self and the album that got me into music. Now they are back with a new record and it seems to be set up for disaster. First we don’t get a real reunion with only half the key members on board, then we get a single that is unimpressive to say the least, then terrible album art and now that other music site, the one we all know we all read, posted an article on The Smashing Pumpkins new record and their giant F U to fans and indie stores.

Basically there are four different versions of the record, one for Best Buy, one for Target, one for iTunes and one for everyone else that has fewer songs. So if you are a fan that buys the record in any store that actually supports music, cares about the future of it music, and cares about the music fans that shop there, then you get fucked. If you were a big fan that wants all of the songs on the album you have to buy three copies of the album to get all of the songs, and you can’t even buy any one of the three in a record store! And we wonder why Tower closed. You know they would have not gotten any exclusive on this.

Who ever thought of this has not bought music in a decade. How can screwing the fans and actual record stores be good for anyone? It is no wonder the record business is hurting when the record business cannot start supporting the very people support it. When every other industry in the world is talking about added consumer value in the digital age the record industry is finding ways to make the albums less valuable. Why would anyone want to buy a version of a record that doesn’t have all the songs on it? And when so few people want to buy CDs anyway why would anyone buy three copies of one CD?

I can see where they got the idea from; they are just copying from an old playbook. Years ago when imports were killing domestic sales in Japan, because buying imports were cheaper for the Japanese due to the high value of the Yen, the labels started adding bonus tracks. Now they are trying to do the same thing to get people to buy more records from the big retailers at the expenses of real record store sales. The difference was to the consumer in Japan adding the bonus tracks ADDED VALUE; this strategy does the opposite.

I can except and even support giveaways. I could get behind bonus downloads that other consumers have to buy for cheep online, tee-shirts or giving away singles or CDs of live songs. Those kinds of things add value with out screwing the fans.

Do they not see that this is why most people download music illegally? I did not start downloading music to steal records. I still buy my music on CDs. I started to find music I couldn’t find in stores. If I wanted this record, which every news story I read on it makes me want it less and less, I would buy it a real record store and STEAL the rest.

The big labels should realize that screwing indie stores only hurts their bottom line. First when the real record stores all close down where will they sell records? They don’t even have an answer for this. Second the “cool” kids buy their records in indie stores. Buy hurting the cool kids that buy the record early they are only securing that the record does not get hyped. Look at the some of this year’s big records; like Arcade Fire, Amy Winehouse, Modest Mouse, The Shins and now Wilco. They all started with great promos at indie stores, and now those records have hype that is still growing and they are still selling records.

I wonder if Billy Corgan even pays attention to these sorts of plans by his label? He is such a control freak I would have thought he would. Which only leads to the obvious question; does he really hate his fans or does he just not care?

And the last question: How stoked are D’arcy and Iha that they did not join in on this fools mission?

Rebirth of Vinyl:

I think it is official that the industry needs to start thinking of Vinyl as a viable stream of income for more of its artists. Hits Daily Double is reporting that The White Strips sold 10,000 vinyl seven-inch records in one week.

“EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: The White Stripes’ “Icky Thump” sold north of 10,000 seven-inch vinyl singles in the U.K. last week, marking the highest weekly sales total for a seven-inch single in more than 20 years, The Guardian reported this morning. That vinyl sales tally topped the single’s numbers on CD and downloads combined. No word on whether the seven-inch was copy-protected. (6/19a)”

That is fucking impressive. How many CDs call sell 10,000 copies a week these days? I know records recently have been in the top 50 on Billboard with sales like that.

Obviously vinyl releases will not work for every artist but I think more artists should be doing vinyl. In this would of the Long Tail it is all about numerous income streams not just a few large ones. If a band can sell even a small number of vinyl records they should be doing so. I am sure with this record there was a debate at their label about how important a 7” could be for the white strips and some one was arguing it was a waste of time (if not I am sure they were thinking it), but clearly they would have been wrong.

In addition to the 7” they are also selling decorated USB drives with the album on it. While I am not into this, the idea of doing something like this is rad. At least they are trying to do something. They could have decided to sue their fans and bloggers but instead they are trying to ad value and something their fans might want.



This is one of the reasons why the death of the record store is so scary. Is Best Buy or Wal-Mart going to stock 7” records that collectors want? No! But Tower would have. The death of stores dedicated to music is most scary because it leaves the whole industry less flexible. The big box retailers are not dedicated to music, only CD sales for now. They could leave it any time. But record stores are more likely to work with the industry on what ever comes up, be it bringing back vinyl or anything else that we can not foresee today. And it is the unforeseen that the industry needs to be planning for, not just the possible death of the CD.

Coalesce is harder to kill than a Zombie

Coalesce - Grain Of Sand

PunkNews.org is reporting that Coalesce is doing a short eastcoast/midwest tour with Daughters and releasing a 7 inch. I am stocked and saddened by this. Sad only because they will not be coming anywhere near the west coast, stocked that they are still alive. I can live with them not being the most active band ever as long as they don’t give up completely. They are with out a doubt one of the most underrated hardcore bands in the last 15 years.

Several years ago I was one of the promoters for the Tucson show of their “reunion” tour. It was one of the best and worst shows I have ever been a part of and definitely the most memorable. Due to bad management at the venue and despite a contract with us they shut the show down only two songs into the set, Coalesce did one more song with no power to the PA, Sean just screaming louder.

Outside the band decided that they needed to play somewhere since they had driven to Tucson. My friend Kate offered up he living room which turned out to be the smallest living room known to man and some 16 year old kids donated there bands crappy PA. Buy the time the band was set up there were two or three time as many people at Kate’s little duplex than were at the show to begin with. Seems every hardcore kid in Tucson had gotten the memo and knew they could not miss this historic party. We warned the band that at 11:30 at night on a Tuesday they had to know the cops were likely to make this show as short as the earlier one, thankfully they were not concerned.

With well over a hundred people in a room that could comfortably fit 6 the show was so packed that no one could even move. The band managed to play for most of an hour if not a little more with not a sound form the fuzz. It was hands down the most intense hose shows I have ever seen, and for that matter one of the most intense shows period.

After the band finally finished some kid had a taser and the kids took turns taseing people. James DeWees tased some kid who wanted to get tased, probably due to a chemical imbalance in his head, or simply because he was a hardcore kid and none of them think completely straight in the first place. The incident hit the world wide web which is know for preserving the truth in all things leading The Get Up Kids to get asked for years why James tased a kid at a show.

I wish that account could do justice to how utterly insane that night was for all involved.

In short go see Coalesce, if you have the chance.
8/15/07 The Palladium Upstairs, Worcester, MA
8/16/07 First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA
8/17/07 Knitting Factory, NYC, NY
8/18/07 Otto Bar, Baltimore, MD
8/19/07 Alley Katz, Richmond, VA
8/20/07 Lawrenceville Moose, Pittsburgh, PA
8/21/07 Magic Stick, Detroit, MI
8/22/07 TBA / Chicago
8/23/07 Picador, Iowa City, IA
8/24/07 Sokol Underground, Omaha, NE
8/25/07 Bottleneck, Lawrence, KS