Sunday, February 28, 2010

Baltimore, the best place for cookies, pudding, and friends

Hey folks,
Jordan here. Last night's show in Baltimore far exceeded any of my expectations for any show we could play. The Charm City Art Space is probably the coolest venue I've been to, and the people there are even greater. First off, thanks to Eddie Brock, Factors of Four, Skin Cells, and Zeus for playing, everyone kicked a bunch of ass. The night continued after the show with some of the coolest people I've ever met, and hope to see more often. Thanks to Jack and everyone whose house we hung out at and Victoria and Izzy and I know I'm forgetting more names and I'm sorry, but thank you to everyone. The cookies and pudding were fucking awesome! So was the dance party. So were the knuckle tattoos. Basically everything about last night was awesome. my e-mail is j.bard.fg@gmail.com and if ya live in baltimore or whatever and send me your address I will send you vegan goodies through the mail because I really want to.

Thank you again to everyone

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

"without madball, music wouldn't exist."

hello all radically hellacious dudes and babes. this is my third (and most complex) post on this blog, and my first one of 2010. (fun fact: i have not posted one here since december 29.)

our first show january 11 was a lot of fun. i want to give huge thanks to ray strife / to live and die in nj for putting us on this show at his old house (R.I.P. last week). ray has been a very good friend of mine for about six years, and i was very happy that we could play this show with him.

our second show on february 6 was a great time as well. it was great to play in J.W.Y. with longtime friends seasick and zhenia golov. also, cumming clean was cool too. thanks to everyone who came out in almost two feet of snow, and donated (vegan) food and money to hub city food not bombs. it's a big sigh of relief to see hardcore kids who are doing something positive for their communities. my goal is to keep positive community projects such as FNB going and growing. thanks again.

we will have our first round of t-shirts this friday. i am not going to post a picture right now, but i will say that they are parody shirts and they are hilarious. they will be $8 in person at shows, or $10 USD ppd via paypal. if you order online from us, expect a demo, stickers, buttons, and erotic notes from one of us included in your package. if you ever need t-shirts for your band or elks club, i would recommend hitting up my dude jason at willcott printing. he does shirts for us, stressed out, and dystrophy...and he is rad.

upcoming shows:


friday 2/26 @ school of rock (fort washington, pa) w/ abserdo (thanks dudes!), common enemy (lol), shitlist, venereal exchange (just break up already!). cooooooool.

saturday 2/27 @ charm city art space (baltimore, md) w/ eddie brock (rad pv dudes), the skin cells, factors of four, zeus. jack i cannot wait to lick your beautiful face when i see you. also, yabba pot cafe anyone?!

sunday 3/7 @ mill hill basement (trenton, nj) w/ outlast (<3), bring out your dead, progress, a lesser evil. this show is SERIOUSLY at 5 pm and we're playing 1st. i love joe pulito and i cannot wait to smell his musk.

and because i love this band: thanks to mike davis for being genuinely awesome, always looking out for me, and posting far more hilarious blogs than i do. thanks to justin for being the most hardcore person in this band (BY FAR), and for being responsible for the hilarious title of this blog entry. thanks to jordan for being one of the nicest, coolest humans i have ever known. you deserve cake!

most importantly, thanks to you for reading this, coming to our shows, listening to our songs, and taking an interest in d.i.y. music, art, and expression.

thumbs up all around! xo, NJ

ps - you should read the stressed out blog too.

Monday, February 15, 2010

"I wish Pedro was here so he could be the "old guy."

Hey, el duderinos!

So about six hours after I did my usual Monday ramblings, I find out that Richard actually managed to turn our one-day tour into the first (of many) JOHN WILKES WEEKEND (or, alternately, WEEKEND WILKES YOUTH!)!

In addition to our already-scheduled show at the Charm City Art Space on February 27th, we will now also be playing a show on Friday, February 26th at the Fort Washington (PA) School of Rock. Also playing the show are some pretty cool bands like Common Enemy (like The Faction if The Faction was more updapunx) and our dude Brad (read as: "G.G.," or "'eyyyy gee-gee")'s band Venereal Exchange. Flyer with show address, cost, etc. will be posted below.

Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot in the world of JOHN WILKES YOUTH going on since last week. We're currently at work on a design for our first set of t-shirts. They should be pretty sweet. If all goes well, we'll have them in time for the aforementioned JOHN WILKES WEEKEND WILKES YOUTH. If not, definitely in time for our show on March 7th with Outlast.

We wrote a new song today. It sounds sweet. Crucial Mike Davis parts (meaning they are mosheriffic). The Greene Goblin writes sweet songs.

That's about all I've got for today. If you're going to the H2O shows in Philadelphia or Brooklyn over the weekend, you'll see myself or Justin. H2O GO!

MD



Monday, February 8, 2010

I know that the snow sucks, and it's hard to avoid...

First of all, a huge thanks to everyone who came out to our show at the Food Not Bombs benefit show on Saturday! I had an awful day that got progressively better, mainly thanks to this show.

If you didn't notice, about a foot of snow fell on central New Jersey between Friday night and Saturday afternoon. This forced, among other things:
  • A waste of three hours shoveling my entire house while my family was snowed in at a dance competition in Atlantic City.
  • Outlast had to cancel. This was a total bummer, but it was for the best. We value the safety of one of the best D.I.Y. bands in NJ over one basement show. Can't wait 'til March 7th! [more on that below]
  • I expected just about nobody to show up to see the awesome show that had been planned for months.
That was my 49% negativity for the day. After I got to New Brunswick, things just turned right 'round. I bought a can of 'Zona, which was awesome. Then, our good friend Rob from Zhenia Golov offered to have his new band, who I think was called Coming Clean, open up the show.

But wait! It was 7:45, and there were maybe 10 or 15 people there. Coming Clean was set to start right around 7:50, and it looked like the snow had won. But in a sudden turn of events, a whole bunch (my hyperbolic eyes say about 40) showed up between 7:45 and around 8:00, when we started.

As for the set, it went much better than our first show. We played way more songs than we did last time (or probably ever will again unless we want Richard's head to explode), including a cover of the Gorilla Biscuits' "Big Mouth." Luckily, somebody at the show captured video of just about half of this cover song.

The Internet strikes again!

John Wilkes Youth 6 fev 10 @ somewhere
Uploaded by trustnoone987. - See the latest featured music videos.

After we were done, Zhenia Golov and Seasick both killed it, as per usual. I think Seasick covered a Kill Your Idols, but don't quote me on that.


MORE SHOWS!

We've got two shows scheduled so far, and we're psyched to play both of them.


The first one is scheduled on Saturday, February 27th at the Charm City Art Space in Baltimore, Maryland. Thanks a lot to our new friend (and Richard's old friend) Jack for setting this show up for us. We're playing with a bunch of cool bands, and it's sure to be a good time. Also, how great is that flyer?!


The second show is scheduled for Sunday, March 7th at the Mill Hill Basement in Trenton, NJ. We're playing with an awesome hardcore band from New York, Bring Out Your Dead, and our friends in Outlast!

Now, the show is in the basement of a bar called the Mill Hill Saloon which, I admit, is very not posi. However, I've been assured that show is indeed ALL AGES, which means any and all are welcome.

That's about all I've got for you guys, for now! Stay safe, and we hope to see you soon. I like this idea of Monday blog updates, because it gives me something to do before class.

MD

Monday, February 1, 2010

Get stoked!

I don't know about you, but I am [really/super/mad/hella/wicked/crazy] stoked for our show on February 6th with SEASICK, ZHENIA GOLOV, and OUTLAST. These are some of the best DIY hardcore bands in New Jersey right now, and it's silly that we even get to play the same show as them (it also helps when your singer knows them all personally and is booking the show, but bear with me).

Our set will be spiced up from the last show (thank god), so it should be a good time for all. Get there early, cause we play first!

If you need the address, just e-mail the band at johnwilkesyouth@gmail.com. Seriously though. It's not a big deal. We're not going to laugh at you because you don't know where the show is.

See, this kid did it!
Other things going on:

We've officially been trashed on the Internet!

It's a rite of passage for all up-and-coming (are we even up or coming yet?) hardcore bands. Now, regardless of if Richard actually spammed their board with his plugs (which, I mean, he did, but everybody does that), some of that stuff is pretty silly in there.


It's a pun. It's a half-hearted attempt at being funny.

See? This guy knows "funny." Ghost of Patrick Swayze? That's gold. However, we are not white power by any means. Granted, there's no way to know that we are or aren't unless you A) have a demo and see some of the lyrics, or B) know us in real life. So this is excusable as "speculation."


Wakkwakkawakka street justice wakkawakkawakka (jeez I miss BTC)

Alright, Blogspot is really annoying when it comes to posting images, so I'll stop here. It's just hilarious. There's also a thread devoted entirely to trashing Richard. I'm considering posting in there just to threaten them that he will, indeed, lick all of their rumps. Oh, and there's a lot of homophobic blather I don't even want to give the pleasure of re-posting here. Whatever. Karma's a bitch.

Oh! Go listen to Stressed Out's new songs. They are very rad, especially if you like metal. I don't, particularly, but I love these dudes and these songs. I had the pleasure of hanging with them for two days last weekend, and it was a great time. I fucked my hand up during two days' of "Disney Kids." It looked like this:


I can't wait until they play with Former Thieves, Troublemaker, and Worlds at the end of the month. Every single one of those bands rules.

That's about all I got for today.

Have fun, stay safe, stay positive, and don't let anyone ever charge you more than one dollar for a can of AriZona.

MIKE DAVIS