Soda Jerk

Cushioned seat?

Most teams are shockingly bad against a ten man defence. Remember when Barnsley shut out Chelsea in the FA Cup last season by keeping everyone in a red shirt in and around the penalty area? Anyone can do it, and it's painful to watch. And it's Man United. They were obviously going to score at some point. Celtic should have played for a comfortable win and not done a Rangers. With the inexperienced Ben Foster in goal, they could have had a shot from the halfway line and hoped for an awkward rebound. Van Der Sar could have saved the lob. The replay shows such a minimal stretch from Foster, although it was a nice goal, it was fairly bad goalkeeping too. From watching the game on telly with replays, Ronaldo didn't dive, but he did make a meal of a good few challenges which is a bit annoying to see. The worst exaggeration of the night was seeing Brown make a very delayed meal of Ronaldo's ankle tap, which was inexcusable, but what an embarassing reaction. Faux crying and everything. What an absolute fairy. If I was a player, I'd happily take a red card and a 12 month ban to punch a soaking wet fanny like that right in the fucking mouth.

Ah, the old SPL-Club-In-Europe tactic played a blinder last night. Play 10 minutes of football then park the team bus infront of goal. It made for a boring match, which had the potential to be a great match. For Giggs to sneak a goal past Celtic's well disciplined flat-back-ten was quite the achievement. Still, I can't decide if I'd like to see them beat Aalborg to secure 3rd place for automatic relegation into the Uefa Mantlepiece only to get trounced by AC Milan at some point, or to see Aalborg tear them a new one and give them no European stint at all. It's a toughy.

The reverse black keys are purely cosmetic. So, to say they are 250 brand new and this is a second hand machine - 150?

if Albini hated the sound of In Utero, then he's mental. Man, the first 4 Jesus Lizard records have some of the finest production I have ever heard.

To be fair, I don't have many Albini produced records, but the ones I do have all sound great to me. Nirvana's In Utero sounds crushing, as do all of the Jesus Lizard records on Touch&Go, Superchunk's No Pocky For Kitty, Helmet's Meantime (massive!), the self titled Jon Spencer Blues Explosion record (crunchy guitars!), Jawbreaker's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy (raw and lo-fi, but it's a punk rock record!), F-Minus' Wake Up Screaming (I don't really like this band, but it sounds punishing!), High On Fire's Blessed Black Wings (there is no way you can say the guitar sounds terrible on this) I actually prefer the Albini produced In On The Kill Taker, which Fugazi scrapped because of their performance rather than production. The actual finished article sounded nowhere near as good, but is performed better, and the songs seem a bit slicker. Especially on In Utero and the Jesus Lizard records, he makes the vocals sound haunting and terrifying in the distorted dischordant screaming parts.

Them and Black Flag even shared members at one point. Plenty of oppertunity for coverage. I guess they don't fall under the banner of Hardcore, but I wouldn't really say the Minutemen do either, or half the bands covered in Our Band Could Be Your Life. Criminal indeed! Slightly on topic, Frank Navetta, a founding member of the Descendents died last Friday. He played on their first demo before Milo joined, the Bonus Fat EP, and more importantly - Milo Goes To College. A milestone as far as punk rock is concerned. I think the difference is, is that bands like Minor Threat and Black Flag didn't have long lifespans but are documented very well in various formats. The Descendents / ALL family tree is as long as it is complicated, and technically - both bands are still 'active', but neither are documented that well at all. I would pay good money for this to have some kind of coverage in the same way, from the start to the present day. Maybe the death of an important founding member will spark this as an idea.

Albini? An awful producer? He's still the only man on earth who has managed to get a drum kit to actually sound like a drum kit and not a clicky, trebley tin of Quality Street.

The book was alright, but the film wasn't that great I though. I found it a bit boring really. As for the book, I actually prefer Our Band Could Be Your Life. All these 80's punk rock documentaries always seem to completely miss out the DESCENDENTS! Why is this?

I love red Marshall cabs and I would love to own one. It would look completely frankenstein sat under my JCM head with the limited edition cream and black weaved mesh, but I think that is definitely a good thing.

An acoustic pickup will never make an acoustic guitar sound like it should and my advice would be to not bother. It skips over alot of the dynamics of an acoustic tone and for the price, it really isn't worth it. You lose bottom end, and the abrasive sound of the picking/strumming alot of the time. The best way to keep the natural tone but make it louder is to stick a mic infront of it. Anything else is just a tainted replica of a complete acoustic guitar sound.

Seriously? I'm hard pushed to name an album that plods along in such a mediocre fashion as 'Is This It?". Infact, the title is very fitting, and they were probably the words on the tip of my tongue after I heard it. Everything about it is so tame. The guitars are weak and scratchy, the drums are merely tapped and brushed upon and the vocals just murmer along to the beat. It just sounds so effortless, lifeless, and as if none of them can be arsed. And if the record isn't enough of a translation, then their static, uninspiring live performance backs it up perfectly. They come across as a band who don't really want to be a band, but just do it half arsed because they don't want to get proper jobs. A band that I really and truly cannot understand the hype that followed them at all. It's threads like this that confirm that I'm more and more certain that everyone on earth is fucking nuts, except for me.

The Epiphone Dot is alright, but the feedback can hum a little bit. I've heard nothing but good things about the Ibanez Artcore series.

San Jose? Those cunts can go get fucked and play their hockey on the bastard beach. Shirtless no less.

I used to love NHL but I've grown a bit bored of the game. It seems alot less physical than it used to be. How well they can skate and make it look so effortless is completely overlooked though. I went to a Red Wings game 10 years ago whilst on holiday in the States, which was pretty awesome, so I guess they used to be my team. I also like the NY Rangers and also Montreal Canadiens. I however, don't like the non-snow cities that play hockey. Tampa/Florida, Carolina, Anaheim, LA. There's no ice there. Get fucked. These days, I'm more into Baseball than Hockey. Not sure why, as its just glorified rounders and the games last about a fortnight. It sucks me in though, despite not properly knowing the rules.

The defence aren't the quickest. I drop back deep and don't commit to running attackers too soon which makes the pace less of an issue. It would help if Luca Toni was a bit faster though. I'm sure he's not that slow in real life. Ribery is almost too good.

I've just got Live set up. Anyone fancy a game? After only 2 days, I'm fed up of playing abusive children who play as ManYoo and then quit when they go a goal or two down. I even sent one of these kids a message asking why he quit. He replied with "Shut up fagggg", so I don't really have the motiviation to start a quick ranked match. The effort is worthless if the cunt just goes and quits. It's populated by foul mouthed little cretins. My gamertag is BrutusFire, and my team is Bayern Munich. I have a very unorthadox midfield set up, with Podolski on the right wing, but pushed up, to sit just behind Klose and Toni. He's not got much of a cross on him, or much of a right foot, but when he cuts inside, he can smash them in with his superb left. They either rifle through the net, or Klose or Toni are there to pick up the rebound. Smashing! I tried a few games with Roma, but despite the blistering shot of Totti, they don't have much else in the way of assets. Bad in the air and just no pace at all. Man City are a great side to be too. Robinho often drops back from crosses to catch it on the volley, and there's stacks of pace in Wright Phillips, Elano and Robinho. Anyone up for a game?

I had the displeasure of seeing them play at Leeds Fest many moons ago. Dullest band on earth. I don't think any of them ever even looked up or even bobbed their head. Not even a foot tap. They headlined the cunt too with their drawjopping charisma... Boring as hell. They definitely weren't worth the hype that followed them back when the NME was all about scruffy New Yawk garage bands that didn't wash.

I failed to mention that not only did ATD-I split up shortly after that tour, but so did Spies. I am a dick.

At The Drive-In w/ Spy Versus Spy at the Leeds Cockpit at the back end of the year 2000. It was about 6 and it was on a Saturday. I had no excuses, but I passed it up, thinking "ah, they'll be back". Then they split. PAIN!

God, I've got one of these I want to sell too. I just keep putting off taking it out of my Viper.

I need advice on P90's. Proper P90's, not humbucker sized P90's. I'm after some fairly low output ones that will provide sparkling cleans but will give a bit of grunt and crunch when driven by the amp. I've had a quick browse but most of them seem to say they are specifically hotter for heavier tones. I'm after warmth rather than attack. Any suggestions? Brands/Models?

I always thought they could be taken off. I thought they just slid right off. The pole piece screws would be gold aswell, but I'm sure they can also be replaced. But, you'd probably be worth just getting the ones you need rather than spending money modifying what is already a cheap pickup.

The bin?

!!! is a terrible name. Probably equally as terrible as 'A' How would you even say !!!? I hear it's said as "chkchkchk". Imagine asking if they've got any CHKCHKCHK stuff at a record shop. Pointless.