Soda Jerk

I like the lad in the pink shirt who is just screaming in that girls face.

Have you ever played so terribly that the venue mercy-killed you by shutting the power off? Not me, but I have witnessed it happen to another band back when I was in college. Definitely the worst band I've ever seen. The local pub had student band nights on Tuesdays, so it was always well attended. People were in hysterics at how bad they were. Then they played this song, a cover of sorts, where they jammed a whole bunch of iconic guitar riffs together to make one 'song'. That's when the guy behind the bar had had enough. Lights went out. Everyone cheered. Brutal. That would make me never want to touch a guitar again.

Gigs to empty rooms are rough. My first ever band played a gig at Josephs Well in Leeds to pretty much my Dad and a mate from college (deservedly, probably. we were baaaad). It was a gig that the inhouse promoter put on, 4 totally different bands who didn't know each other, so the friends of the bands went into the next room where the bar is when other bands played. We brought the drumkit and bass cab for all the bands to use, and they still didn't even watch us, and it unfortunately meant we couldn't leave early. Those gigs were weird. The promoter asked which band you were there to see when you paid in, and tallied it. If your band got less than 20 people in, you got blacklisted from his future gigs. Proper weird way of doing things, as opposed to, you know, putting together bills that make sense? The promoter, "Peanut", now plays keyboards in the Kaiser Chiefs. Or used to. I don't know if he still does. He was always a dick. I once saw him get refused entry into The Cockpit whilst bellowing "do you know who I am?!?" as the bouncers ushered him away, and that was before KC were really known. He just seemed to think he was the scene-king because he put on shit gigs at the Well, or something. Twat.

Yeah, if you could see if it's a job he'd be up for, that'd be cool. Understandable if he isn't, as I've read re-housing digital pedals is much more fiddly and difficult than it sounds, and would probably go against him doing it for fun.

By all accounts, the circuits are decent. Naff build quality though, and the case feels like it's made out of lego. It's not broken yet, but I feel it's not going to be able to take many actual stomps. Sounds identical to the HM-2 though, so can't scoff for £18, rather than the £100+ that second hand HM-2s go for. I have the UM300 too, which is a Metal Zone clone of sorts, but way better. That just sits on my desk and gets switched by hand. That one will probably live a bit longer.

Sorry to talk about Music on the Football and Dead Celebrities forum, but does anyone know of a UK based FX pedal builder/modder who can re-house a pedal of mine? I have a Behringer HM300, a Boss HM-2 clone and a surprisingly good one, but it's made of plastic. I'd like it in a more resilient enclosure. Just a plain box would do, but if they do custom artwork too, that'd be a bonus. Anyone know of any that I could send it off to and they could do the business? I messaged Raygun FX and Nine of Swords but got no reply. They're either super busy or they're not in the pedal game anymore. Any other suggestions?

Thing is apt. What even is that headstock? It looks like a fist.

Quite surprised to hear that when they've always made great business decisions by giving people what they want. They are the Marvel Comics of Guitars. Their business model is identical. "Hey, remember that thing everyone liked? Well, let's do it again, and again, but make it much, much shitter each time". But it works for Marvel because people are stupid.

Where abouts are you in the Monday Night Wars run? I watched the '99 Royal Rumble last night for a bit of nostalgia, as it was the first PPV that I stayed up and watched (and went to school the next day!) during that period when Channel 4 showed them for free. They really were all about the bad guys then. Just about every match, the heel wins, apart from Xpac beating Gangrel (remember him?!). Everyone boos at the end of the rumble, even though the outcome was totally obvious. The Rock vs Mankind I Quit match is still brutal. It was quite uncomfortable to watch, even now.

Agreed. Hop Along LP is great. Saw these open for Propagandhi last week, and I am hooked. I've listened to this song several times a day, every day since. New LP is out next month. GET IT.

True. My missus has a similar situation with a friend she's had since primary school, she was her chief bridesmaid and whatnot, bestest friends 4eva etc, but get a drop of alcohol in her, and she turns into an ultra-bitch. We're not even talking drunk, but a few sips of wine and she just starts to turn. Not quite smashing up kebab shops, but really snide comments and insults, really horrible, over-the-line stuff, or if we're out in a big group, she'll be whispering and sniggering with someone next to her whilst looking directly at the person she's talking shit about, and then do a really obvious "oh no, he/she's looking, stop talking" reaction, to make it clear that it was about you. And as she gets drunker, the insults get nastier and louder. Every time we are out with her, even if it's just a meal, my missus usually gets home and is in tears, but feels tied to this person due to how far they go back. But like your mate, when alcohol is out of the equation, so is the nastiness. She helped us with our move down here, gifted us some furniture when we had nothing, let us come and go to their house whilst we had no internet and needed to apply for jobs. They had a massive barney at Christmas though, and instead of just going home in tears, my missus unleashed over 15 years of repressed fury. It was badass. They've not spoken since, but they'll probably reconcile in a few months. I dunno though, if it was me and she tried to contact me again, I'd be telling her where to go. No time for that sort of toxicity in my life.

The announcer who wasn't Corey or Michael Cole - can't remember his name - was the only one trying to stick to the narrative, but he couldn't stop them from laughing at Titus. It was so odd to see WWE officials taking the piss, but it was probably the only enjoyable part of it. The end of the cage match felt like a cop out. It was like - oh, is that it then?

'kin hell. One of those instances should have been enough to sever ties with him. All of those together, the rest of you should have clubbed together and made his disappear. It doesn't sound like the world would miss him.

@Lemonade Did you watch the 'Greatest' Royal Rumble? It was bad, right? But so bad that it was kind of good. But still really bad. But Strowman won and I kind of like him, so that's cool, I guess. Titus falling under the ring and Corey losing it on the microphone was the highlight. Sounded like the announcers didn't give a fuck, they were calling the botches rather than trying to sell it, like they did at WM, talking the Undertaker up as the fittest and fastest he's ever been, when he looked old and slow. How disinterested was the crowd? Everyone that was visible seemed to constantly be walking away, as if everyone watching was just passing by and getting a quick glimpse before going off to do something else. Why wasn't anyone stood still? What was going on? WHAT WAS THAT? Ungood.

He ended up getting a job at the Council when I was there. In my department, literally sitting across from me. Turned out to be a rather nice lad. I even went to a few Aberdeen games with him. I do remember him being distinctly unpopular on a football pitch though, he was either Cattermoling everyone in sight, or sulking because nobody was Cattermoling as hard as he was. Whilst he was working with me, he was talking about arranging an 11 vs 11 game, and he kept asking if I wanted to play. I kept having to make excuses, because I feared he might still be a total animal (I'm also really shit!). I'm sure he said @Woodsinho was gonna be playing in that game. Did it happen, and did he go through everyones shins?

If you get me hooked on more wrestling, I'm gonna be so pissed.

True, it was very boastful, but probably to be expected given the people involved. I started off really disliking Bischoff, but at the end started to like him again. Probably because even though he was a bit of an arse, he was totally out-done by Vince Russo, who became an even bigger arse. Imagine being a writer, and writing yourself in as a character, just to be an arse on camera? How did he think that was a good idea? I'll give some of the ROH shows a watch. Are the TV shows and PPVs on demand?

There is one. The last post was in 2016. I'm right back on it though. Hooked on NXT right now. I dig the indie promotion vibe it kind of gives off, small arenas, passionate crowds, but backed by Triple H's chequebook. Raw and Smackdown I find harder to keep up with properly. They're way longer than they used to be, and there's a ton of filler. I tend to just watch the highlights recaps on Youtube before they get taken down. Is there any other docs you'd recommend on WWE Network? There's so much content, but quite a lot of it does sound like it'd be terrible. I finished Monday Night Wars. Really good, but a bit repetitive, seems like it wasn't put together to be watched one after the other, as they recap on the same things quite a lot. But what is there was pretty great. So much I didn't know about, like WCW spoiling taped RAW episodes. Proper dirty, that.

I never really cared for DDP when I watched wrestling. He just seemed like one of those kind of forgettable mid-tier characters. I guess he was, to some extent, but I do have a lot of time for him now. The patience he has with Jake throughout is saintly. I didn't know about Hall and Nash being the ones behind DDP having a pop at NWO, for the sake of doing a favour for a mate, as WCW didn't seem to fully believe in him. That was cool, and how it all came full circle with Hall coming to DDP's house and getting cleaned up. YOU'RE CRYING! I'M NOT CRYING! I'm sure Chris Jericho is a talking head on just about every documentary I watch, even non-wrestling ones. Guy pops up everywhere. I watched a low-budget doc on Youtube on the birth of Thrash Metal in California in the early 80's. Who pops up? Chris Jericho, with probably more screen time than anyone else. I quite like him, but come on man, let someone else have a go.

Just watched that doc on Jake The Snake. I'm sure Lemonade has mentioned it before. It's difficult to watch at times. Just when you think Jake is a wreck, Razor Ramon rocks up in a wheel chair looking closer to death than Jake does. When they do the crowdfund for Jake's medical bills for his shoulder, and he realises how many people are rooting for him, man, I think had something in my eye. Spoiler alert... At the end, Jake looks about 10 years younger, and they lived happily ever after. Good watch. DDP is a good egg.

Down here in the south west, the biggest reason the locals don't ever want to go to London is because it's "bloody 6 quid for a pint!". Stay in Bristol, where it's about £4.80 a pint instead. London's not getting my £1.20.

I've started playing Cities Skyline. I don't even know why. It's somehow zero fun, but completely addictive. Constant moaning that taxes are too high and their rubbish isn't getting collected. Welcome to reality, guys. It's ugly and expensive. The city's water pump broke and I didn't realise right away, everyone drank sewage, got sick and died. Streets of abandoned houses. I didn't have enough cemeteries with enough hearses to collect the dead bodies. DARK.

https://diehoffnung-gnv.bandcamp.com/releases I wasn't crazy about the first album, but this one is pretty great. Jagged, sparse emo/indie, which sounds similar to other bands the Marburgers have done; namely I Hate Myself and Burnman. I dig the production on this thing, there's so much space on it, the drums are warm and thumpy, and the guitar is stabby. Super good.

This is fun. Found whilst going down a Youtube rabbit hole of suggested videos, funnily enough it was whilst watching a live Nails video. Just blast-chug silliness. I love how synthetic those drums sound.

I'd not heard this before. Watched an interview with Kurt Ballou about things he'd recorded, he mentioned this and it sounded interesting. Not your typical Ballou-sounding record. Reverby gothic post-punk. Super good.