Soundtrack to Life – Guest Author: Mike Plass

This week our guest author is Mike Plass, otherwise known as Mike-0 in the forums. Due to Joe moving out, Mike has gladly stepped up to write this weeks Soundtrack to Life, Enjoy!

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“Ballad of the Lost Romantics” by New Found Glory

I’ve grown sick
I’ve gotten older
I finally have an
audience to ignore
I can yell all I want
But you still can’t hear me
I’m punching myself out
Holding in my breath
I can take this lightly
Throwing up the words that I said to you
I always do what I’m not supposed to
Here’s to us fools
That have no meaning
I tip my glass to you
Let’s toast the night away to friends
And forget about tomorrow
I might say things you don’t want to hear
But someday you might care and I won’t be there
No I won’t be there
here’s to us fools
That have no meaning
I tip my glass to you
Let’s toast the night away to friends
And forget about tomorrow
I’m punching myself out
Holding in my breath
I can yell all I want
Throwing up the words that I said to you
I always do what I’m not supposed to
Here’s to us fools that have no meaning
I tip my glass to you
Let’s toast the night away to friends
And forget about tomorrow.

Ya know when someone loses a friend, it’s hard to get through at first, but then you look back at all the great times you had with the kid. When I think of the recent events in my life, I can only think of the good times I had with my late, great friend Pete Mirabile. This kid was a total class act, one of a kind. Well after a long battle of Aplastic Anemia, his operation failed and Pete died on September 20, 2003, a few of us knew him here, but he had many friends. Most people here left on a sore note, but that goes without saying that we all had good times with Pete, whether it be walking around aimlessly at the mall or relaxing at each other’s homes watching wrestling.

As I got on the bus to school, I passed a kid who I had never known, must be a freshman. As days passed, the kid was always on my bus, so I thought he was a local kid, who must’ve lived within the vicinity of me. The kid as I was told by him was scared of me, now I thought I wasn’t very threatening at all. A few weeks into the school year, Pete and I finally officially met. It was a late October day, and our friend Chris had introduced us to each other. Pete would always tell me how he was scared because of when I got on the bus, I had on a backwards Cleveland Indians hat and headphones, guess that is threatening to a little 15 year old freshman in high school. Well that was the beginning of our friendship. As we went through two years of high school together, we learned a lot from each other.

It was October 2000, the Mets versus the Yankees in the World Series final. This was the first time that we had an actual party together. It was in Pete’s basement, not many people, 5-10, couple of beers and a depressing night. The Mets lost, but who really cared that Timo Perez wasn’t running full speed from first? We took a drink to the loss and hoped for better results in the following nights. The Mets lost the series 4 games to 1, but they were still champs in our minds. So we kicked the night back, and relaxed.

Pete was a unique character, he was straight forward, in your face but scared at the same time. I’ll never forget the times where he’d try and start stuff with Chris or James or anyone, he was always looking to fight but couldn’t due to his illness. He was hot tempered, short fused but those were only qualities that gave him what he was. With random spouts of “Holler!”, “Gay!”, “Fag” or his at times uncontrollable, loud laughter, you could tell just where Pete was.

Another characteristic of Pete that I will truly miss is his random music collection, hence the reason for the song I have chosen to remember Pete by. Pete would go from the Beach Boys to some DMX and then throw on Good Charlotte. Everyone at one point could relate to some sort of taste of music he had. After a year of hanging out, we had finally gotten him to like some New Found Glory. Pete was always one for the rap, whether it was some cheesy Cee-lo or good ole Jay-Z, you could tell exactly where he would be driving cause, he’d have rap blasting the bass out of the car.

The hair, was quite possibly the most essential part of Pete. Besides the expensive clothes, $100 cologne, $100 boots, tinted glasses, it all came down to one necessity, the hair. Every time you saw him it was always spiked, perfectly and if you even breathed near him wrongly, he’d scream “Don’t Touch the Hair!” and try to perfect an already perfected hair style.

Throughout our short-lived friendship, we shared many memories. I can’t remember much, but of the few I have kept, I will cherish forever. Of the few I do remember, they were great times, whether it was the first time smoking a Joint or a quick ride home from the park after work, Pete was their to tell you the absolute straight forward truth, and if he didn’t like you he’d let you know within of seconds of meeting him.

In little more then a year and half ago, things took a turn. Everyone that had become friends with Pete had lost contact and a very childish fight ensued because of a few incidents that we all regret. Even though the incident took a toll on many of our friendships, everything came to closure on a good note for most, on a bad note for some. On Saturday, September 27, 2003, Peter Frederick Mirabile was laid to rest, but not without one last jabin the side of Long Island. When the funeral ended, through all the tears and solemn music came the 150 vehicle procession to his final resting place. Because Pete was a New York State Emergency Medical Technician; Nassau County Police, Garden City Fire Department, Mineola Volunteer Ambulance Corps, shut down most of the local towns so the procession could follow, Pete was definitely smiling down at all the people stuck in traffic, he had the grandest of processions, it just went to show how many people cared and loved Pete as either a relative, friend or neighbor. As the procession ended, we all went back to the Garden City Fire Department station house for refreshments, this was probably the most most emotional moment, because this is where “the shot” took place. As one of Pete’s final wishes, he wanted everyone of his friends from every town to take one last shot of Jack Daniels for his own closure. Well take about 75 kids, most underage, a couple bottles of Jack Daniels, about 90 plastic shot glasses and a heartwrenching dedication by Pete’s long time friend Andy Rodriguez, the scene was a memorable moment, one only to be meant for such a classy kid. So Pete, wherever you are now, it is with great sadness but such even greater joy that I and everyone else that knew you to tip my(our) glasses to you.

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Got a story you’d like to tell about a song that’s in the Soundtrack of your life? Don’t post it on the board. Email it to me and I’ll put it in my column. Stories will be posted in the order that their received. I don’t play favorites. All I ask is that you make sure the spelling and grammar are in fine order.
Email your stories to: loki@baloolapalooza.com

The Guitar Shop

(By Guest Author Brendan Seeley)
Greetings Fellow BP Alumni!

As you know My Name is Brendan Seeley but most of you call me Grimm or that stupid Canadian Kid who never shuts up. Well BP has given me the opportunity to continue to talk and probably cause me to never stop talking, with my own Column. In this column I will go over the news in the music world and then voice my opinion on the whole thing as well as do what I like to call Grimm’s Guitar Tab. In this section of the column I will post a guitar tab of my choosing (or I shall take requests) and explain it out to you for the best way to play it. So enough Jack Jawing and lets get into some musical news:

Metallica Fans from the land down under this is for you! Metallica will begin its touring in the year 2004 for with 6 live events in Australia. The events go as follows: January 16th in Auckland, New Zealand, at Ericsson Stadium/January 18th in Gold Coast, Parklands/January 23rd at the Sydney, Show grounds/January 26th at the Melbourne, RAS Showground/January 30th at the Adelaide, Royal Showground/February 1st at the Perth, Claremont Showground. This will be an awesome 6 events for all Metallica fans, take it from someone who saw the Sanitarium Tour, Metallica can still rock your focking socks off!

P.O.D Fans? Are you still out there? Well you should be, P.O.D is coming out with an upcoming CD labeled Payable on Death. P.O.D. titled their album Payable on Death because they wanted to set the record straight for anyone who still didn’t know what the band’s name stands for. Well at least fans can stop making up what the name means and just concern themselves on the music portion. When the band started working on Payable on Death, vocalist Sonny Sandoval, new guitarist Jason Truby (who replaced Marcos Curiel), bassist Traa and drummer Wuv rented a practice space in San Diego and started jamming with no expectations and no deadlines. No offense P.O.D but if you just jam around the whole time and don’t have actual deadlines, you’ll be forgotten faster then you can say School of Hard Knocks. I mean some of this music is good, but for the most part P.O.D is pretty mediocre. Now I know there is some P.O.D fans…maybe not, in the BP boards but seriously people since the song Alive can you really give me an example of 4 good P.O.D songs? I didn’t think so.

Now did anyone else pick up a copy of Rolling Stone magazine that featured “The Top 50 Greatest Guitar Players of All Time”? If you did you might of agreed with it, or like me would of completely been pissed off with the whole list as it was a complete pile of stinking bull plop. A person that shocked me in hi ratings is Jack White, ya ok he’s pretty good but its pretty reoccurring through the songs such as Seven Nation Army which any guitarist who has been playing for 2 months. The fact of the matter is Jack White should not have been in the top 15. I would continue to go on my rampage of Rolling Stone Magazines stupidest thing done in my life span but I’ll say something that will get me yelled at by some fan of BB King or Jimi Hendrix So Lets get to Grimm’s Guitar Tab for this week.

This week White Stripes Fans we will be looking at the Song Seven Nation Army. Now In this tab I’m going to show you also the bass line so that you can play the whole song without the bass guitar if you don’t have one.

Now I hope everyone knows how to read Tab but if not it goes as follows

e———————————————————————-
B———————————————————————-
G———————————————————————-
D———————————————————————-
A———————————————————————-
E———————————————————————-

The bottom E is the lowest string on your guitar, the strings continue downwards till you get to your high E which is your final string. Now When you see a number on each string that tells you what fret you’ll be playing. So if it says e and on the e it’s a 7 you play the 7th fret on the high e note. Its quite easy to pick up

Bass Line

e——————————–
B——————————–
G——————————–
D——————————–
A——-5————-5———-
E—7-7—7-5-3-2-7-7—7-5-3-2�play 6 times

Pre Chorus

e———————
B———————
G———————
D———————
A–55555555-77777777–
E–33333333-55555555�This is played just before the Guitar Part

e————————————————————–
B————————————————————–
G————————————————————–
D–9-9-10-9-7——–9-9-10-9-7—————9-9-10-9-7——-
A–7-7-12-7-5-10-9—7-7-12-7-5-10-12-10-9—-7-7-12-7-5-10-9–
E————-8–7————–8–10-8–7—————8–7�play this, listen to the song for right timing, once played through go to the pre chorus again and so on

As you can see this is a easy song to play and you should be able to play it within weeks of trying.

I hope you enjoyed my first column and I hope you look forward to my column next time

Peace Grimm

Review: Thursday – "War All The Time"

Release Date: September 16, 2003
Producer: Sal Villanueva
Record Label: Island

The quartet from New Brunswick, New Jersey have done it again. Thursday have just released their Island Records debut, War All The Time. So far their have been nothing but positive feedback from Rolling Stone reviewers to a simple fan of Thursday.

With the original make up of Geoff Rickley on vocals, Tom Keely and Steve Pedula on guitars, Tim Payne on bass and Tucker Rule supplying the drums. With newcomer Andrew Everding adding a new sound with keyboards. With the addition of keyboards, you can expect another side of Thursday.

With the post-hardcore, screamo trend still hanging around, expect another new wave of it. The onslaught of intelligent lyrics, combined with the intense sound of the guitars, bass and drums, War All The Time makes for nothing short of genius.

As the single “Signals Over the Air” has become an increasingly popular song on the radio, you can expect more and more people to get informed of Thursday. The video for “Signals Over the Air” is also getting some recognition by Mtv 2. The video concept is the band rocking out, (which I feel they should pride themselves on, because seeing Thursday perform is intense) but as the song progresses the band(mainly Geoff) is thrown underwater as they keep sinking down. The video is shot very well I feel, with dramatic lighting and up close in your face shots. The beginning of the cd, starts off fast and hard, “For the Workforce, Drowning” is bone crunching and full of angst. In this song, I feel that the economy and how its killing everyone is the focus of this song. With the chorus of “please take these hands, throw them in the river, wash away the things they never held, please take thes hands, throw me in the river, don’t let me drown before the workday ends.” My instant feeling is of hatred towards the American economy and how we will all be replaced by clones one day to leave us with nothing.

The second track, “Between Rupture and Rapture” is another intense song, starting off with simple strums of a guitar, the drums and bass come in a few seconds after and about half a minute into the song, everything comes together in a very anti-climatic way. This song I can only imagine is a true crowd pleaser and is definitely balls to walls. The third song I will give my opinion on is the title track “War All the Time”. This song reveals the softer side of Thursday. Another track with just a single instrument playing, this being the bass, but it is quickly caught up with easy playing of drums and guitars and Geoff’s vocals. This track is so perfect, so soft, so intelligent. Even if your not a fan of Thursday, I highly suggest giving this song a try.

Even though Full Collapse is an overall thrashing and more hardcore influenced record, it is probably the best cd Thursday have put out. War All The Time has definite influences from both their very independant release Waiting and Full Collapse, their Victory Records release. War All The Time is a very good combination of the slower, more melodic Waiting and the post-hardcore, in your face Full Collapse.

Right now, Thursday are on a headlining tour with Thrice and Coheed&Cambria. With the combination of new releases from each band all on tour together, I highly suggest going to see this tour if you get the chance. Not only because of new releases, but because all three bands are very good live, espically Thursday. Check out Thursday’s War All the Time and see what all the talk about is.

Review: Rancid – "Indestructable"

Release Date: August 19, 2003
Producer: Brett Gurewitz
Record Label: Hellcat

Upon reading that Rancid would be releasing a new album, I was quite excited. Reading their interview in the July 2003 issue of Alternative Press only made me want it more. Then the rumors came, and the news dropped like a bombshell. Rancid inked a deal with the most “evil” of all major labels, Warner Brothers. The flood gates opened up and all of the haters flowed on in. A lot of people in the punk community felt betrayed, others just wanted something to bitch about. How could a band that preached DIY and spoke out against major labels sign with one? How could a band who Brett Gurewitz of Epitaph just talked up as being the most loyal band alive, turn their back on the label that gave them life? Everywhere I looked all I read was “Rancid sold out.” Myself personally, I couldn’t care less what label they released the album on. Whatever it takes to get the music out there and heard by the masses, then so be it. Unfortunately, not everyone has that same mindset. Regardless, August 19 rolled around and the album, Indestructable, was released. I bought it. These are my thoughts.

The album leads off with the fast-paced title track, Indestructable. This is one of my many favorites on this album, and a perfect way to jump-start the album. It’s like them saying, Look, we’ve been through some fucked up shit through the past few years. We lost some people along the way. But we’re strong, we’re still standing, and we aren’t going anywhere. We’re indestructable. Excellent. It’s also dedicated to Joey and Dee Dee Ramone, as well as Joe Strummer.

The next track, Fall Back Down, fits perfect back to back with the title track. It opens up with a church style organ, which is a nice touch. You can hear the organ in the background throughout the track as well. This song is a tribute to friendship and being there for one another though hard times. Some people have dismissed the song because it has a “poppy” feel to it, but I like it. It’s a great way for them to say thank you to each other and their friends.

I find myself pressing repeat on my stereo quite often when I play this next track. Red Hot Moon, a song about a late friend of the band, named K.C. This reggae-influenced track is pretty damn catchy. I dare you not to sing along with the chorus, “Under the red hot moon/you take the bus downtown to the graveyard shift tonight.” Skinhead Rob from Transplants drops by and raps a verse for the song as well.

The following track, David Coutrney, is sang by Lars. It’s a fast-paced track dedicated to the man of the same name as the song. An introduction to the song calls him the “Robin Hood of London, England.” It’s a good song, though not one of my favorites. I’m sure it will get lots of love in the pits though. Start Now, a song about war, violence, and the overall fucked up place this world is right now. “I’m not looking for a fight now/And I don’t care who’s wrong or right now/So release the dove into flight now,” the addictive chorus sings.

The next track, Outta Control, seems like it would have fit better on their last album, Rancid 2000. It’s not a bad song by any means, it just doesn’t seem to fit well with the rest of the songs on the album. I do catch myself skipping over this song occasionally. Django keeps up the fast pace set by the previous track. Django is a “metaphore song about a guy who drags his demons around with him.” A good song, though not one of my favorites. The next track slows things down a bit. Arrested in Shanghai is sung by Tim from the perspective of an incarcerated protester. Travis Bickle is about Robert De Niro’s character from Taxi Driver. It’s also a tribute to their “home away from home”, New York. Memphis is another catchy song with an equally catchy chorus. It’s about being out on the road and traveling from city to city.

Spirit of ’87 takes a trip into the punk scene past and pays homage to the places “that had balls enough to put on punk shows.” Check the chorus of this hard hitting punk anthem…“Saturday/Where else are you gonna go/There’s no way/I’m gonna end up at a disco/Make my way/To fist fights and stilletos/To rock and roll/Rock and roll/Rock and roll”. The next track on the album, Ghost Band, is a break up song, so they say in the liner notes. Ever feel like all the sad songs play when you feel like shit? That’s what this song’s about. Tropical London, the next song, is also about a breakup. A more specific breakup though, Tim and Brody. If you lose me/you lose a good thing Tim tells his former wife in this reggae-influenced track. Up next is Roadblock, a song about playing live. It speeds up the pace quite a bit from the previous track, and it’s dedicated to Motorhead. Born Frustrated explores American consumerism and shopping malls. I’m guessing that the latest punk fashion trend being mass produced also motivated this track.

The next track, Back Against the Wall, has a bit of a reggae feel to it at times. The unemployment rate in America seems tobe constantly growing, and this is their take on it. The intro to the next song, the fast-paced Ivory Coast, reads “They suspended the curfew on New Years Eve so people could come out and celebrate the new year. The French soldiers were given champagne and a few drunken one’s shot their machine guns in the air when the clock hit midnight. The next day people were told they would be shot if they were out after dark.” The next track seems like it would fit better on a Transplants album, which isn’t really a bad thing. You can definitely hear the Transplants influence in Stand Your Ground, a song for the homeless in Los Angeles. “Hold your head up high/Cuz tomorrow you may die/Cuz there’s no one safe around here” reminds us how fragile life can be. The following and final track on the album is the heartfelt tribute, Other Side. The song is sung by Lars, and is directed at his late brother Robert, who passed away in 2001. This is one of my favorites on the album.

Overall, this is an excellent album which will be getting loads of play in my car stereo. In my opinion, this album did exactly what I thought it would do. It proved the haters wrong. It grabbed them all by their shirt collars, slammed them against the wall and told them to shut their mouths. Rancid haven’t changed and they haven’t sold out. Not even close. They’re still the same Rancid that I’ve come to love, with that wonderful punk rock sound. In the end though, it doesn’t matter what people say or think. They’re just four regular guys doing what they love…playing punk rock music.