The Remains Of "The Toxic Narcotic," Pt. 1: The Cover Of The First Issue

How It Looks, How It Is

Look her over:

Isn't she a beaut?

That, my friends, is a Vox ToneLab ST, purchased for fifty bucks off Craig's List, literally 1/4th what they retail for new. It's a digital amp simulator and multi-effects pedal with an actual 12AX7 tube preamp. Which means nothing to non-guitarists, I know. But this compact beauty accurately reproduces the sound of my old Marshall JCM800 50-watt amp I played through The Hormones. Hence, I'll be using this as a pre-amp and my new Fender SuperChamp X2 head as a tube power amp, and I have my old classic tone back! Which I have missed! Which means I'll be roaring, as The Hormones ATX (which the 2013 Hormones will now have to be called, just to avoid being the asshole who sics lawyers on punk bands) come back to life in the coming weeks. I'll be announcing a new lineup soon. Stay tuned.

Meantime, after my big fucking announcement a few weeks back I was starting a new online fanzine through Your Favorite Blog, I now can see I was overly ambitious, as always. I really have no time to add to my current project load, as cool as this idea is. I simply can't even do a quick-and-dirty layout, as shitty as I am with art programs. (I use GIMP2, because it's free, unlike Photoshop. Maybe that's the problem?) It's easiest just to treat my blog as my fanzine, on occasion, and post my non-publication reviews here. So, tomorrow, I will post the guts of what was to be The Toxic Narcotic right here. After all, a man has to know and respect his limits.

BTW, did you see my Willie Nelson piece in this week's Austin Chronicle? It was the cover story (as you can see below), and I think she turned out well. Read it by clicking on all this different-colored shit.

Finally, I got interviewed by a pretty cool Greek website called Think Baby Music. You can find the interview at all THIS different-colored shit.

Alright, I have to tune out and work on a Moving Sidewalks piece for The Austin Chronicle. (By the way, this would be a good cue for you to check out the smokin' Moving Sidewalks box set, out now.) I'll leave you with a photo chief Sidewalk Billy Gibbons hisself emailed me, of the current Moving Sidewalks backline! Drool, gearheads, at all that Magnatone goodness, not to mention the digital lava lamp Telecaster bass and guitar! Dig!

(pic: Sandrine Lee)

"RADIO NAPALM" Podcast # 3 is on the air NOW! At Mixcloud Radio!

Irregulars, we've been on-the-air with the 3rd episode of the "RADIO NAPALM" Podcast for 24 hours now. Yeah, I suck - I shoulda been more on top of informing you. My apologies.

But...you CAN still click that handy link below, IF YOUR HEART CAN STAND IT!!! We've got new music and classics both from Iggy And The Stooges, UK Subs, and The Replacements; new hits from The Lovesores (featuring Scott "Deluxe" Drake and Jeff Fieldhouse of The Humpers), School Jerks, Pink Smoke, and Kid Congo And The Pink Monkey Birds; classics from The Nuns, The Sex Pistols, Television Personalities, and The Undertones. Plus all the screaming, echo, and vintage commercials and jingles you can eat! And Ed The Engineer, Scooter my dimwit assistant, and I get into all manner of wacky hi-jinks, despite my inability to devise a plot line this week! 

So, click that link, open your speakers, and WAIL, baby! What are you waiting for? C.L. of Austin, TX., says "Awesome podcast, goes great with coffee." Hell, "RADIO NAPALM" boosts your coffee's caffeine efficiency by 500%!! CAN YOUR HEART STAND IT?!!

"RADIO NAPALM" with your host, Tim Napalm (Podcast # 3, 4/13/13) by "Radio Napalm" W/Tim Napalm on Mixcloud

Do You Have The Time To Listen To Me Whine? Green Day at ACL Moody Theater, 3/15/13

Nope. I've got nothing.

I reviewed Green Day's SXSW gig for the following day's Austin Chronicle. It looked good after editing, but I preferred what I originally wrote. Here's the raw, uncut review:

Green Day

ACL Moody Theater, Friday

It's 11:21 PM, Friday, 3/15/13. Mrs. Armstrong, do you know where your son, Billie Joe, is? If you're reading this Saturday morning, he's probably still onstage, exhorting, "C'MOOONNN, TEXAAAAAS! GET YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!!!"

Green Day 2013 is a very different band from Green Day 1993. That band pulled up to Emo's in a used bookmobile, loaded minimal equipment onto the stage themselves, and unleashed several short sharp shocks that suggested the Buzzcocks or Generation X with a bratty sense of humor. Then they encored with "My Generation" segued into "Jessie's Girl," chasing off the punkier-than-thou Chronicle reviewer. Dookie, American Idiot, rock stardom and punk rock finally going Top 40 in America were in the future.

Fast-forward to 2013. Green Day is now established as mega almost 20 years, and are still decidedly punk rock. But since the audience would now fill several Emos, the scale of everything gets bigger and more grandiose. Which does not mean they suck. Quite the contrary. It just means there's more space to fill, and farther seats to reach.

Green Day 2013 still acts like 19-year-olds who just discovered The Clash. They still stand as a united frontline, Billie Joe still whips himself into a Strummer-like frenzy, their songs still get arranged as a series of dynamic explosions. But now, in a theater as opposed to a grotty punk rock pit, things take a more Springsteenian scale. The quartet (longtime supplemental touring guitarist Jason White now being as official as Billie Joe, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool) now employs supplemental keyboards and yet another auxiliary singer/guitarist. Most songs get extended to epics of audience handclapping, drops in volume to induce singalongs, Billie Joe exhortations to "GET YOUR HANDS IN THE FUCKING AAAIIIRRRR!!!"

Yet the impish spirit of 1993 is not lost. Three times, Billie Joe drags audience members up: A young teen on "Know Your Enemy" rewarded with a sloppy Billie Joe mouth-kiss, then urged to stage-dive; a woman translating lyrics into sign language; another kid handed the mic for an off-key 3rd verse on "Longview," the first big hit (and again urged to stagedive). Somewhere in the middle, songs devolve into brief, Replacements-style snotty covers of "Sweet Child O' Mine," "Highway To Hell," the Isley Brothers' "Shout," even "Hey, Jude!" (I fully expected the return of "Jessie's Girl.") Then, somewhere in the middle, a familiar blue Japanese Stratocaster copy materializes around Billie Joe's neck: "I wrote this song in 1993. It's called 'Burn Out!'" Thus unleashing the hits which made them: "Basket Case," "Welcome To Paradise," all played (save "Longview") in the stripped-down/revved-up arrangements the world fell in love with.

Bite my lip and close my eyes. Take me away to paradise. Now on a tour bus, not a bookmobile. Green Day proves punk can be epic and fill stadiums, and still make you sneer and pogo. Just make sure to GET YOUR HANDS IN THE AIRRRRR!!!

Bringin' It All Back Home

Isn't she lovely? Cabinet aside, which was a gift, the rig is all mine. And every last bit was earned via writing.

I'm ink-stained again, friends.

I know it doesn't look like it, but this is supposed to be me hard at work.

Many of you know this already, if you're a Facebook friend or Twitter follower. But my rock journalist side has been fully reactivated. I'm back with the paper that, alongside Alternative Press, was my home in the '90s, The Austin Chronicle. I've been pumping out a hellacious amount of work there over the last month, which I'll link you to if you haven't seen it:

"Do I know this guy?" Chief True Believer Alejandro Escovedo and I, Feb. 2013 (pic: Todd Wolfson)

One Big Guitar - a big feature on the return of beloved Austin rock 'n' roll institution the True Believers.

"Do I know this guy?" Iggy And The Stooges guitar hero James Williamson visits after their SXSW set. (pic: Pokechoppums)

Blog on Iggy And The Stooges' return to SXSW, plus my review of their showcase, which I rate as one of the greatest gigs I've seen, and I feel my review is some of the best writing I've done.

Interviews with The Specials and Kid Congo Powers.

Reviews of showcases by The Enemy, Billy Joe Shaver and Alejandro Escovedo. 

In addition, my work at Rock 'n' Roll Dating continues apace, with this recent chat with the great Mike Watt. 

Be prepared for tons more writing, radio, and rockin' in the coming months. Yes, you read correctly: Rockin'. The appearance of that rig above means I shall soon be reforming The Hormones with a new lineup, and be back to rockin' a punk rock pisshole near you. Stay tuned.

"Do I know this chord?" Okay, I know - the joke's getting old now....  (pic: Michael Adams)

Meantime, check out this interview Chuck at Apathy Trend did with me! Damn, if that boy knows how to ask a great question. doesn't he?

Oh, yeah. And Happy Easter....

Whoa! New "RADIO NAPALM" Podcast up at Mixcloud, and I didn't tell you?!

Damn! What kinda self-promoting jerk AM I?! Letting THAT slip by?! Anyway, "RADIO NAPALM" Podcast # 2 has been up at Mixcloud since last Thursday, and it's a doozy! Great music by Buzzcocks, Complaints, The Strypes, The Troggs, early Rolling Stones, and more! Plus Ed The Engineer and Scooter and I are up to our usual hijynx, and my old station manager Woody buys out Mixcloud just to annoy me in his inimitable fashion! So, what are you waiting for? Hop on it! Click the link and RAWK!

"RADIO NAPALM" with your host, Tim Napalm (Podcast # 2, 3/22/13) by "Radio Napalm" W/Tim Napalm on Mixcloud

"RADIO NAPALM" is back on the air NOW(!!!) at Mixcloud Radio!!!

Irregulars, it's been a long time comin', but WE'RE BACK! Me, Scooter, and Ed The Engineer have just reopened The Garage at Mixcloud Radio! We're dishing up all the echo, screamin', classic commercials and jingles, and even some raw rock 'n' roll for ya! We're serving you heapin' helpin's of The Hangmen, OFF!, School Jerks, Night Of Treason, Muddy Waters, Johnny Thunders And The Heartbreakers, The Enemy, and scads more from across 50 years of punk rock history! And it's all right here! Click the link below, open your speakers wide, and rejoice - Punk Boss Radio is BACK!! Can your heart STAND IT?!!

"RADIO NAPALM" with your host, Tim Napalm (Podcast # 1, 3/7/13) by "Radio Napalm" W/Tim Napalm on Mixcloud