Behead The Prophet/N.L.S.L. at the PCH in Wilmington, CA. April 23, 1998. (photo by Matt Average)

Behead The Prophet/N.L.S.L. at the PCH in Wilmington, CA. April 23, 1998. (photo by Matt Average)

Behead The Prophet/N.L.S.L. at the PCH in Wilmington, CA. April 23, 1998. (photo by Matt Average)

Behead The Prophet/N.L.S.L. at the PCH in Wilmington, CA. April 23, 1998. (photo by Matt Average)

Behead The Prophet/N.L.S.L. at the PCH in Wilmington, CA. April 23, 1998. (photo by Matt Average)

Behead The Prophet/N.L.S.L. at the PCH in Wilmington, CA. April 23, 1998. (photo by Matt Average)

Send your tour photos, bands that have come through your town, the best of your local bands, etc. to: photoblog {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com. Include your name, a link to your website (or flickr, Facebook, or whatever), and the band (or subject), date and location of each photo. Just send your best photos — edit tightly. Three to seven photos is plenty, and it’s best to send pictures of different bands. Please do not send watermarked photos. Please make your photos 72 dpi and about 600–800 pixels at the longest side. Not everything sent in will be posted, and a response is not guaranteed, but we do appreciate all of your contributions. Feel free to submit more than once. Thanks!

THIS WEEK: Fred, Langford and Pete get suuuuuuuuper high and talk about shapes and partying. I think there was some music in there somewhere. Wait — what were we talking about?

Culture Kids (photo by Lea Anna Drown)

Intro song:
FROZEN TEENS – Hopeless City

Fred – Destroy Everything
AGATHA – Sissy Dang
SYNTHETIC ID – Throwaway
LOST SOUNDS – Plastic Skin
LATTERMAN – Our Better Halves
FIGHT – Struggle

Langford – A Spiritual Lesson In the Sacred Geometry (4 Kids)
GERMS – Circle One
HICKEY – Make Sure There Aren’t Any Squares at My Funeral
CRINGER – Petrograd
CAROLEE – Spiral Start
INFEST – Punchline

Pete – Party!
BLACK FLAG – TV Party
MINUTEMEN – Shit You Hear at Parties
THE EMBARRASSMENT – Celebrity Art Party
JAWBREAKER – West Bay Invitational
SCREECHING WEASEL – Teenage Slumber Party

Fred – Keeping the Party Going (Still High)
CULTURE KIDS – I Can’t Take It Anymore
SHIRLEY MACLAINES – Cigarette
PINK TURDS IN SPACE – Indie Crap
BLANK FIGHT – Graveyard

Outro song:
CRINGER – Triangle Part 2

RAW NERVE may be dead, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch this video of their last show. Plenty of bass drum/refrigerator/wall dives to keep even the most jaded punk interested. Filmed in Chicago at The Mousetrap back in April.

Jason Traeger (R) with Boston's Billy Ruane (RIP) in 1998

My attempts at writing an introduction to Jason Traeger’s blog have so far proven fruitless. The man’s writing really speaks for itself. On his blog you will find wonderful tales and artifacts from the past, anecdotes of discovering punk in the far outskirts of Seattle in the early ’80s, growing up in the scene in Washington state and San Diego, CA, and his journey through other places and music scenes as well. But this is not some random old coot’s boring nostalgia trip. In fact, you get a stern admonishment in that regard from the very beginning:

I’m the last one to cast a misty-eyed glance back at the “good old days.” In my experience the people who take this angle are usually the ones who weren’t there. Whatever mistakes, false starts and missed opportunities I’ve had the pleasure of having, I was wherever I was for better or worse.

This blog is not meant to romanticize any choices I made or any particular era. It’s simply a place where I share stories and take stock of where I’ve been as a way to figure out where I might want to go next. I’ll celebrate some people along the way, some of them you’ll know or know of, others will be new to you. I’m glad to have known every one of them.

Jason Traeger’s list of credentials is possibly too long to present here, but you might recognize his artwork in many of Maximum Rocknroll magazine’s scene report headers, and the cover to the BCT comp LP We Can Do Whatever We Want. He did the classic ’80s fanzine Leading Edge with Martin Sprouse and has performed music as a solo artist for many years now.

Almost all of Jason’s stories I would describe as “heartwarming.” What else could you say about your mom being cool enough to go see the Circle Jerks and the Fartz with you, and even sporting  Motörhead t-shirt for the occasion so as not to look too much like a mom? Or this, my favorite one: a Certificate of Patience made and signed by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson of Minor Threat for waiting for his mail order copy of the first pressing of Out of Step to arrive. Of course I couldn’t go without mentioning his post about MRR‘s role in connecting the punk scene and how it helped hook him up with his lifelong best friend.

You can enjoy all of this and more at jasonotraeger.tumblr.com.

Hey, look at that — I wrote an introduction to Jason Traeger’s blog!

Bosque at Blackhole, April 4, 2009. (photo by Milo from Chicago)

Kakistokcracy at Blackhole, April 4, 2009. (photo by Milo from Chicago)

Protestant at Blackhole, April 4, 2009. (photo by Milo from Chicago)

Fall of Efrafa at Blackhole, April 4, 2009. (photo by Milo from Chicago)

Send your tour photos, bands that have come through your town, the best of your local bands, etc. to: photoblog {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com. Include your name, a link to your website (or flickr, Facebook, or whatever), and the band (or subject), date and location of each photo. Just send your best photos — edit tightly. Three to seven photos is plenty, and it’s best to send pictures of different bands. Please do not send watermarked photos. Please make your photos 72 dpi and about 600–800 pixels at the longest side. Not everything sent in will be posted, and a response is not guaranteed, but we do appreciate all of your contributions. Feel free to submit more than once. Thanks!

THIS WEEK: Part two of CONQUEST FOR DEATH’s trip “Around the World” with MRR Radio. On this show we visit the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, South Africa and China. Conquest For Death has toured all over the world and now they are bringing you music from some of the countries they have played in. And don’t forget to go back and listen to part one from a few weeks ago! Many nations, one underground.

Intro song:
CONQUEST FOR DEATH – Mga Agwat

Devon of Conquest For Death (photo by Rafael Yaekashi)

CFD plays Philippines
ISTUKAS OVER DISNEYLAND – Fairy Tale in the Philippines.
CHOKE COCOI – Beauty
G.I. AND THE IDIOTS – Damn You People
KILL RATIO – Blessed Be the Wardead

CFD plays Indonesia
COMPLETE NGEHE – No Future For Politic
STRAIGHT ANSWER - Hantam Prasangka Buruk
EMPATBELAS – Minority Suffering
GRAVE DANCERS – Head Bang Mosh Stage Dive & Circle Pit

CFD plays Singapore
RECOVER – Realize Recognize
AUM – Compiled Fragment
DISTRUST – Alcocider Punk

CFD plays Malaysia
SARJAN HASSAN – Did You Know
APPARATUS – Hardcore Horror
KAROSHI – On Their Knees
CARBURETOR DUNG – Aku Buku & Auku

CFD plays Japan
COSMIC NEUROSE – Image Damn
ELEKIDZ – New Waver
CHARM – Shikami

CFD plays South Africa
TKDM – Scum City
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT – We Live in a War
SLEEPING & THE POPES – The New South Africa
WARSPIKE – Terrorist Attack

Outro song:
SMOKETOWN – Sexy Party (China)

But could there be some inkling of truth, or potential truth, to the idea of punk in North Korea? Luk Haas, our intrepid explorer of the world’s most hidden corners of punk and rock ‘n’ roll writes, “It is true that in North Korea, in the springtime, on days off young people gather in parks with alcohol and acoustic guitars for picnics. They love singing together, all the North Korean patriotic propaganda hits, and some are quite tuneful, like ‘We Will Meet Again’(about reunification of Korea). But nobody would dare singing anything remotely punk or even rock.”

Still, we have Ri Seong-Woong, as interpreted here by South Korea’s 악어들 (The Alligators)…

Find out more about this “project” here and here.

Manipulation at the Mouse Trap, April 14, 2012. (photo by Jimmy Farabi)

Culo at the Moustrap, April 14, 2012. (photo by Jimmy Farabi)

Raw Nerve at the Mousetrap, April 14, 2012. (photo by Jimmy Farabi)

Merchandise at the Mousetrap, April 25, 2012. (photo by Jimmy Farabi)

Vile Gash at the Mousetrap, April 14, 2012. (photo by Jimmy Farabi)

Sickoids at Crown Tap, April 26, 2012. (photo by Jimmy Farabi)

Send your tour photos, bands that have come through your town, the best of your local bands, etc. to: photoblog {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com. Include your name, a link to your website (or flickr, Facebook, or whatever), and the band (or subject), date and location of each photo. Just send your best photos — edit tightly. Three to seven photos is plenty, and it’s best to send pictures of different bands. Please do not send watermarked photos. Please make your photos 72 dpi and about 600–800 pixels at the longest side. Not everything sent in will be posted, and a response is not guaranteed, but we do appreciate all of your contributions. Feel free to submit more than once. Thanks!