Really, portraits? That's a bad idea.

Well folks, it's another Wednesday, which means another review(?) of the new episode of Best Ink.  I got up this morning planning to put my kid on the bus and then sit down with a cup (or 3) of coffee and watch the new episode.  Well, I got my coffee and turned on the TV only to find that it hadn't recorded- crap.  It also wasn't on 'on demand' yet.  A few hours later I broke down and spent the $2.99 and watched it on iTunes- not because I couldn't wait, but because I didn't want you, my loyal readers, to have to wait. And, lemme tell ya, it was well worth the 3 bucks.

The show started with a short segment of everyone talking about how much Jessica sucked and how they're glad she's gone- pretty funny.  This week, what they refer to as the flash challenge was really more of a life drawing challenge.  Nicky, my new person to bash, said some shit about having broken his glasses this morning and not being able to see the model.  What the fuck?  You travelled away from home for however many weeks it took to shoot this dopey show, and you didn't think to bring an extra pair of glasses just in case?  Alexis wins the competition and is rewarded by being the only contestant to get to vote on the bottom 3.  I would love to be in that position- I'd vote for the bottom 6, have everyone go home, and have the damn show be over.  Then there's a scene where they're all sitting around talking and Kyle pops up and says something like "Joe always says things like it needs more black.  Fuck his opinion".  WOW!  Now, I'm not defending Joe here just because he's my friend, and I certainly don't think that he needs me to defend him, but he's an excellent tattooer, and Kyle, well, not so much.  Maybe Kyle should try to learn anything he can from Joe during the course of the show- just sayin'.  OK, Kyle, from what I've seen on the show, your tattoos need more fuckin' black!  They need help in other ways too, but they could definitely use more black.  My personal opinion is that when you think you've got enough black in a tattoo, put some more in.  

They're told that they're gonna be doing portraits and Charlie has a little tear-fest because she knows she shouldn't be doing a portrait.  As someone who does a good number of portraits, I know that it is not something for everyone- it takes a special kind of crazy to do portraits properly.  I almost feel bad for the people getting the portraits.  If ya want a good portrait, you go to someone that DOES portraits, you don't get tattooed by someone that you are stuck with on a TV show.  Charlie gets upset when she finds out that she will be working from a passport photo- but the photo has been blown up, so it's not tiny.  She apparently doesn't realize that for someone that has never done a portrait, she kinda lucked out.  It's an old photo, and there's not a whole lotta detail, making it a little easier to duplicate the photo. They're given 5 hours to complete a portrait- that's reasonable.  I generally tell people that most portraits take me anywhere between 3 and 5 hours to complete.  Midway through, Joe does a walk around and looks at everyone's tattoos.  At this point, Jon's tattoo looks the best.  We get a cutaway to Kyle saying "I'm not all that concerned with what Joe has to say".  You're diggin' your own grave buddy.  

Again with the mad face from Joey at the beginning of the judging- hell yeah!  Joe lays into Kyle and tells him that he has a bad attitude, then blows up at the whole bunch of 'em.  I love that he uses the term 'new fangled tattoo guys'.  I can't even tell ya how awesome the explosion from Joe was- you gotta see it to fully enjoy it- I rewound it a few times.  At the end of this I'm gonna post a link to a video on the Oxygen website that has a great segment from last nights show, that shows Joe losing his shit on Kyle- you gotta go watch it because it's fuckin' awesome. A river of tears from Charlie who actually did a really nice tattoo considering that it was her first portrait.  Jon and Alexis were the top 2, with Jon coming out on top.  Alexis voted Kyle, Charlie, and London in the bottom 3.  Nicky should have been in the bottom 3 but he's buddies with Alexis, so that didn't happen.  Kyle goes home, but Nicky did the weakest tattoo by far, and should have been the one to go home.

Now, this is awesome and you should all go watch it:  VIDEO
This is the kinda stuff that should have been kept in the show.  I wanna see all of this stuff, and I'm guessing that other people would enjoy it as well.

Now, since the episode was about portraits, here's some shameless self promotion- some of my favorite portraits that I've done over the years:

Helmet and Stupid Tattoo Day

Here's another helmet I just did.  

This one and the others were dropped of with my friend Joey this morning.  Joey is gonna clear 'em for me and then, hopefully, I'll get to start working on the striping on them Wednesday.  Here's a shot of all 3 headed to Joey's.

Saturday, for the shop's 15th anniversary, we did nothing but stupid (read awesome) tattoos.  We had a great time and put a lot of stupidly awesome tattoos on people.  We got kinda backed up because we had not foreseen people wanting multiple stupid tattoos.  Very few people got just 1.  We heard things like, "I want the broccoli, the fart cloud, the pizza and the party shark".  There were a bunch of designs that nobody got, and some of them were super cool, like the Manson-Butterfly, the Quadruple Amputee Gymnast, the Nick Cage Skin Rip, Mark David Chapman, the Tiger Prawn- the list goes on and on....These designs will remain available throughout the year (at the regular prices).  Here's some pictures from Saturday.  There were also free donuts in the morning and free pizza in the evening.  We stayed till 1am to get everyone tattooed.

         

                              

 

The Pizza tattoo was done as both 'Takin' Care of Pizza' and 'Pizza Care of Business'.  I'm pretty sure that 'I Love To Stab' was the most done tattoo of the day.  My buddy Joey topped everyone by getting Nick to do 6 small tattoos all clustered above his knee- it pretty much looks like a small sheet of flash on Joey's leg- Hilarious.

Here we go again....

Best Ink episode 4, here we go....

As usual the Flash Challenge is retarded.  At least this time they were working with actual art supplies, and some of them actually drew some nice designs.  I loved the look on my 'friend' Jessica's face when the guy told her that her shitty tribal look 'Evel Knievel-ish'- EXCELLENT- I am at the point where I really enjoy seeing her get crushed (remember, I'm a dick).  At least this came closest so far to them actually drawing flash.  What they really did was design a custom tattoo for a specific client- that's not really flash.  Flash is not drawn for 1 particular person- it's meant to be sold over and over to many people for many years.

On to the tattooing...

They had to design tattoos for people that have never been tattooed before, that all want tattoos for their best friends.  Of course, they all had to tell their stories about why they want to honor their best friends.  A little side note- I'm sick and tired of hearing why people want their tattoos and what they represent- this is a relatively new phenomenon- since the days of tattoo TV shows.  I stop people in my shop all the time and tell them, "Do you see cameras here?  I don't need to know your life story."  I'm not trying to be a dick, but there's no reason for me to know the meaning behind your tattoo- I just have to design you a nice tattoo based on what you tell me you want.  The fact that you want it because when you were in the 4th grade, your pet puppy was killed by a meteor isn't gonna help me with the drawing, unless you want a tattoo of a meteor smashing a puppy (which would actually be a pretty sweet tattoo).  Whoo hoo, then they throw the switcharoo at 'em and tell them that they have to tattoo 2 people instead of 1.  Not too much to say about the actual tattooing- nobody flipped out.  Nicky had to deal with a customer that moved around a whole lot, but didn't handle it like a tattooer.  By handle it like a tattooer, I mean yell at her and tell her to sit the hell still.  The first time someone moves on me I'll tell them that they need to sit still.  The second time, I say something like "You REALLY need to sit still or you're gonna have a fucked up tattoo".  The third time I yell, and then they usually take it seriously.
Then we move on to the judging.  For some reason, before the judging even starts, you get a shot of Joe sitting on his throne looking pissed (I'm really glad they gave Joe a throne).  The guest judge- some actress- shows a tattoo on her wrist that is absolute shit.  Why would she show that thing, and why would they show it on TV?  Of course Jessica has a little breakdown before they vote for the bottom 3- can't have an episode without some kind of Jessica breakdown.  I liked the tattoos that Alexis did the best, and she ended up winning this time, so I guess the judges felt the same way.  Jessica gets voted in the bottom, and then gets hammered by the others in the bottom.  Some of whom shouldn't have been in the bottom 3 (or in this case 4), but the voting by the contestants is no longer about the tattoos, but about the personality clashes.  They basically tell her that she's a giant pain in the ass and they wish she was gone.  Jessica ends up going home, and the others are thrilled- the 'Ha Ha' look on Alexis' face was pretty good, but I'm a little upset about them sending home my favorite person to pick on.  What am I gonna do now?  I'll have to find someone else to talk shit about.  Maybe it'll be Nicky- he definitely doesn't seem like a tattooer to me- a little too wimpy, girly, emo.

Helmet and a little bitchin'

Sorry folks, didn't watch Best Ink last night, but not to worry, I have it recorded and will watch it tonight....

Painted this helmet the other day- shitty pics.  It looks unfinished because it is.  It needs to be cleared, then I'm gonna add some stripes....

As promised, here's a sneak peek at some of the stupid (and when I say 'stupid', I mean SUPER AWESOME), designs we will be offering this Saturday.  We will ONLY be tattooing off of these 2 sheets of flash that day, so If you want a butterfly or you're girlfriend's name, please don't come in, you will only be disappointed.  If you want to get a SUPER AWESOME STUPID TATTOO in celebration of 15 years of Good Clean Fun, then we'll see ya there.

 

 Now for some bitchin...

Last week a kid at my child's school pushed down 2 other children and stomped on them until the PE teacher stopped it.  One of the children suffered a broken leg.  Here's a link to the news story:

Boys Says Bully Caused Broken Leg at School: MyFoxATLANTA.com

What I want to know is why was this child allowed to stay at this school?  I don't know what punishment was given to the child, but expulsion should have been on the damn list.  Not only was this child allowed to stay in school, but they have moved him to my daughter's class?!!  My daughter had issues involving verbal bullying with this same kid when they were both in the same 2nd grade class.  Obviously, this kid is a bad kid- he's probably got shitty parents too.  I think that they have allowed this child to stay in the school because there are only 6 weeks left in the school year, then he (along with the rest of the 5th graders) will be going on to middle school, and won't be the problem of Pharr Elementary anymore. They don't want to deal with the trouble or possible repercussions of tossing this kid out on his ass. Well, he is your problem, and when he hurts another kid at a different school, people like me will be asking why appropriate actions weren't taken after the first incident.  I am trying to find email addresses of Gwinnett County school administrators so that I can let them know exactly how I feel about this situation.

Stay tuned for my Best Ink coverage....

Best Ink- Round 3...Ding Ding

Once again, the flash challenge doesn't have a damn thing to do with flash.  That kid Nicky ended up on my shit list for the use of 1 simple word- Haters.  He referred to Roman and London as Haters.  Well, I'm a hater- I hate anyone that uses the term 'hater'.  This is one of the biggest piles of bullshit to come around in recent years.  People these days refer to anyone that disagrees with them as a hater.  The fact that someone has a differing opinion does not make them a hater, it just means that they don't agree with you.  Only a few minutes into the show, and Jessica has another breakdown when John implies that she is not an artist- fucking hilarious.  I like when Jessica loses it- not because I'm a dick (I am, but that's not the reason).  I like it because last week she read and commented on my blog.  Here's what she said:

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH CRYING. JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE AN INSENSITIVE GUY DOESN'T MEAN THAT IT'S WRONG TO BREAK DOWN WHEN YOU'RE UNDER SO MUCH PRESSURE. BUT YOU WOULDN'T KNOW THAT BECAUSE U WEREN'T THERE. I'M A GOOD ARTIST WHO DRAWS FLASH AND HAS LOYAL CLIENTS. INSTEAD OF RANTING LIKE A MEAN JEALOUS DIRTBAG HAVE SOME COMPASSION. FUPM.

I didn't even know what FUPM meant- someone filled me in- it's Fuck You, Pay Me.  What the hell does she want to get paid for?  I can watch her cry for free every Tuesday night at 10pm.  So, now, because I am a dick, I'm gonna hammer her after each episode- guess that makes me a hater.  It's amusing to me that she even found and read my blog.  She must be doing google searches for the words Best/Ink/Jessica- seems a little narcissistic if ya ask me.

I thought Roman quitting the challenge was great- I'd have quit too and said, "How about you have us actually do some flash?  It's called a flash challenge".  Just call it a fuckin' 'Art Challenge', and I wouldn't have such a problem with it.

I guess it's Jessica bashing time again- she said that 'Seasoned Tattooers' don't like doing kanji.  Don't get all wrapped up in yourself and think that you're too good to do kanji.  We're tattooers (well, I am at least)- bottom line, you put pictures on people- you're not something special.  These stupid shows (besides all the other ways they've hurt the tattoo industry), have made tattooers think that they're doing something so damn special- you're drawing on people- get the fuck over it.  Well, after 19 years of tattooing there are days that I wish someone would ask for a kanji or a simple little rose.  Some days, I just don't want to get involved in a project.  You do what the customer wants and hopefully they leave happy (and a little lighter in the wallet).  In fact, I have to go to work early today to try to catch up on some customer drawings that I'm behind on.  Man, if they just wanted kanji....

I thought that most of the tattoos were mediocre, which was proven by the top 2 tattoos.  Neither one was overly impressive.  The tattoo Nicky did sure as fuck didn't look like 4 hours of tattooing, and the gray shading looked scratchy.  Give me 4 hours to do a B&G skull and rose tattoo, and you'll get a hell of a tattoo.  Here's a B&G skull and rose tattoo I did on a friend of mine a few years ago, and I know it didn't take 4 damn hours.

                                  

There were some super Joey mad faces at the end of the show when Roman basically quit.  I thought he was gonna pop a blood vessel.  Calm down Joe and stick to making these kids cry.  If you're gonna get all worked up could ya at least give us some of those sweet Joe Capobianco hand gestures- kinda like angry guinea jazz hands.

Blue Helmet

Did this helmet today.  Turned out better than the last one.  Made sure to not tape over any paint.  Now I gotta clear it (once it's cleared, it will be for sale).  A little less ambitious than the first attempt, but I'm pretty happy with the finished result.  The pictures could be better- some of the real dark blues look black in the pics.  This thing looks pretty snazzy out in the sunlight though.

You can expect another entry from me tomorrow- I'm gonna watch the new episode of Best Ink tonight, and you can bet your panties that I'll have something to say about it.

Best Ink part 2 & Helmet Failure

So, I watched Best Ink again last night, and I got some stuff to gripe about- imagine that.  First off, I was a little disappointed in Joe's performance- he only made 1 person cry this time- you can do better Joey!  The show started with the 'Flash Challenge' again- Flash Challenge?  What flash?  I didn't see any flash.  What I saw was a bunch of people painting on douchebags.  I've never met any of them, so maybe they aren't all douchebags, but they were the California, TV 'pretty people', so I'm guessing that at least 50% of them are probably douchebags.  If ya wanna call it a 'flash challenge', then have them create some damn flash, otherwise just call it a challenge.  There's a good chance that most of the contestants have never drawn a sheet of flash, but why would they have?  These TV show have convinced the general public that flash, or anything off the wall, is undesirable.  'It's gotta be custom, it's gotta be custom!'  This is the cry of the new generation of customers- the ones raised on Miami/LA/New York Ink, and now Ink Masters and Best Ink, but to them, custom is something they found on the first page of Google image search.  Lemme tell ya something- I'd rather do a sweet piece of flash than another goddamn flock of bird silhouettes or rib lettering any day.  On to the main challenge- tattooing.  This week was the Pin-Up challenge.  They did a switcharoo thing with the artists and clients which caused some issues, and some tears.  I like the tears- you can pretty much predict them coming- oooh, ooh, here come the waterworks.  A little side note here- tattooers don't fuckin' cry.  The one girl, maybe it was Charlie or Jessica (I don't know), had a breakdown and cried "I can't do this, I don't know what to do"- boo fuckin' hoo- Bam, you're off the show, pack your shit and go home.  If I were running the show, as soon as I saw a tear, you would be headed home.  The one guy, Roman, got into an argument with his new client, and she left in tears because he refused to do what she wanted.  So, they got him a new client and gave him the same amount of time as the others.  In my opinion (which really doesn't count for shit, but I can force it on you because I have a blog) he should have been tossed off the show for failure to complete the challenge.  If he wasn't thrown off, they should have at least told him that he still had to finish his tattoo at the same time as everyone else- he should have just lost the time that it took to get someone else for him to tattoo.  They each had 5 hours to complete their tattoos.  Five hours is plenty of time to do a nice tattoo, but, to me, the majority of the tattoos did not look like 5 hours of work.  Maybe it's just that I work fast, but If these people had actually been paying clients, they should have been pissed that they got charged for 5 hours when they got a 2-3 hour tattoo.  I'll watch again next week and will surely give you my impressions of the show, but I'm not sure that I can watch through to the finale.  They should just put clips on YouTube of Joe making people cry- that's really all I'm watching for anyway...

Spent the day yesterday experimenting with painting a helmet with AutoAir Candies (I think it was Joe that suggested that I try the AutoAir line), and found out the hard way that you CAN NOT tape over these paints.  Apparently you need to shoot clear over them before taping over them, which kind of defeats the purpose of using them- I'm trying not to spray a bunch of heavy urethanes in my garage. I really only want to clear them after they are done. I'll have to experiment with them a little more because I really want to do some helmets in that 70's style heavy flake, crazy lowrider shit.  Here's a couple of pics of my first (failed) attempt, you can see where the masking film/tape pulled up the paint:

Best Ink

So, I just did something that I swore I would never do- I watched a tattoo (un)reality show.  I'm sure I've made it clear enough in the past how I feel about ANY tattooing on TV.  Why did I watch Best Ink tonight?  The only real reason is that a very good friend of mine, Joe Capobianco, is one of the judges.  One episode in and I counted 3 times where Joe made someone cry- Way to go Joey!- makin' all the ladies cry.  Let's start at the beginning- the opening credits.  I know it's TV, but why do you have to make all the contestants (that's what they are- it's basically a game show) look like douchebags?  I'm pretty sure that one guy didn't say ,"Hey, how about I play air guitar for the opening".  I woulda told 'em to go get fucked when they suggested that move.  The hostess- I don't remember her name- basically described herself in the same terms as a mullet- she said, "I'm all business in front, and a party in the back".  At which time she turned around to show the shitty, too small, paragraph of lettering on her back.  Maybe you coulda got someone to host the show that, I don't know...Fucking Knows Something About Tattoos? She stated that they were all there because they were some of the best tattooers in the country.  Really?  I know a whole lot of tattooers that are way better than these folks.  

Now on to the actual competition...

They started out with the 'Flash Challenge', where each contestant had to re-imagine the butterfly tattoo.  I couldn't believe that some of them were freaking out about it.  C'mon, it's a butterfly.  The one guy actually said something along the lines of "butterflies are not my forte".  If you've been tattooing more than 3 weeks, you should have already done your fair share of butterflies.  But, that's the problem, and it's not just a problem with this particular group of tattooers, it's a problem with a lot of 'newer' tattooers.  They've never worked in a street shop.  They've never tattooed flash all day in a good old street shop.  They've never wanted to do it, and in fact, most of them look down on street shop type work.  I have a lot of shops around me, with a lot of mediocre to downright shitty tattooers working in them.  Lemme tell ya something- if you can't do a custom design that looks as good or better than flash (and I got some damn nice flash in my shop), then you should do the damn flash.  Stop telling people that you only do custom work or that "we're a custom only shop", and learn to tattoo.  Half of these idiots that tell people that they only do custom work just go into the back of their shops and trace something out of the dozens of sketchbooks they have.  I see shit all the time that customers tell me "The guy drew it up custom, just for me"- the crushed look on their faces when I tell them I have that design in the shop is classic.  Don't get me wrong, there's certainly nothing wrong with being a 'custom only' tattooer, but ya gotta work your way there, and the best way to do that is in a street shop.  These kids today wanna start with doing full sleeves when they can't even do a kanji properly.

OK, I got sidetracked there....back to the show...  The butterfly flash that they drew was not really flash.  A couple of them drew designs that could have been considered flash, but not the others.  As far as I'm concerned flash should look like flash- linework, shading, color- a one shot tattoo design, that above all, has to be tattooable.

Next, they moved on to actual tattooing.  They each had to do a coverup, so the whining started again..."a coverup? In one sitting?  I usually do coverups in multiple sittings".  Blah blah fuckin' blah.  Another example of people that never worked in a street shop.  Someone comes in wanting a coverup, you figure something out that will work, cover the damn tattoo, and send 'em out the door.  I agreed with the judges on which 2 were the most successful coverups, but the one guy just did a traditional style swallow and only had to cover a small faded rose- that's an easy cover.  Some of the contestants had much larger, darker tattoos to cover.  The people putting on the show should have made all the coverups be at least somewhere close in the level of difficulty.  The guy that did the swallow did a solid tattoo, but he had 4 hours to do a fucking swallow- it was an hours worth of tattooing at best.
I loved the terrified looks on some of their faces when Joe walked over to see what they were doing- Go Get 'Em Joey!  I hate this shit and wish it wasn't on TV at all, but I will continue to watch it, just for the pleasure of watching Joe rip into these kids, and rip into them he did at a few points.  I wish I could have been backstage with some kind of secret service microphone set-up just to get Joe worked up a little more.  A worked up, ranting Joe Capobianco is a really fun Joe Capobianco, and I know how to get him all riled up.  I'm gonna have to give him a call later...

On to some other things...

April 22nd of this year will mark 15 years of business for Good Clean Fun, so we will be doing something stupid (hopefully a lot of stupid things).  Since the 22nd is a Sunday and we'll be closed that day, we will be celebrating the shop's anniversary on Saturday the 21st.  On that Saturday we will ONLY be doing tattoos from 2 sheets of flash (that Nick and I are working on now), and they will all be stupid tattoos- some will be stupid and offensive (which is like stupid with sugar on top).  The prices for these tattoos will be considerably lower than usual.  If you want a nice tattoo, don't come in on the 21st.  If ya want something dumb, it'll be first come first served.  As the day approaches, I will be posting some previews of the available stupid tattoos.

Did this tattoo the other day.  Lately a lot of girls have been coming in wanting silhouettes of birds- I guess it's on the first page of google images if you search for '18 year old girl tattoo'.  Well, this customer wasn't an 18 years old, and actually wanted to do something nice that included bird silhouettes.  She wanted an owl going into silhouettes of trees and birds coming up around her shoulder....

Got some wheels and tires on Abby- a little more slow progress....

Super Cool Paint

Haven't given ya anything new lately, but I got some stuff coming soon, so for now...

I don't ever re-blog stuff, but this paint job is pretty fuckin' awesome.  I follow this guy's blog and all of his paint is really nice, but when I saw this today, I decided to post it over here.  Here's a link to his blog:  Chemical Candy Customs: Brad Jans CFL....

Helmet, Tank, and Bitchin'

So, Saturday I'm minding my own business, sitting in my room tattooing, and I hear what sounds like someone bouncing a ball in my shop.  I was tattooing a girl whose mother was in Nick's room getting tattooed, so the Dad was walking back and forth between the two rooms watching what was being done.  The bouncing ball noise starts and stops a few times.  The next time the girl's father comes into my room, I ask him if someone is in the shop bouncing a ball, and he says 'Yes'.  The next time I hear the bounce-bounce-bounce sound, I set my machine down, take off my gloves, come out of my room and get in this kid's face, and yell, "Enough with the fucking ball!  You wanna play ball, got to your fuckin' house or the damn schoolyard, but this is my damn shop, show some fuckin' respect!"  I go back to tattooing, and Mr. Bouncey Ball and his 2 buddies leave the shop- I think I mighta' scared 'em a little bit.  Good!  Fuck 'em!  What makes some idiot think that it would be OK to walk through someones place of business bouncing a fuckin' ball?  Just another example of some spoiled ass kid whose parents never told him 'NO' or taught him how to properly conduct himself when out in public.

Anyway, here's a helmet I did since the last time I blogged.  It's a Large Daytona DOT helmet, and it is for sale- $175 plus shipping.  The helmet is gloss black and I did some sweet gold leaf on it along with some pinstriping.  I kept this one kinda simple as I was going for a very classic look.

This morning I finished painting a tank for a guy for the 2nd time.  I painted it a few months back, then he realized that the tank needed to be sealed, poured in the sealer and it ate through his paint.  So, he had to have the tank repainted, then I had to redo the striping and lettering.  He wanted me to change the lettering this time (I like the original lettering better, but it's not going on my bike...).  Here's a new pic, and the original one again.  I actually like the striping better this time (I hope he does too).

Here's a pic of a tattoo I did about 3 years ago.  The guy was in the shop the other night, so I snapped a healed pic.  This was done from a SMALL picture of his grandfather.  That reddish glow is from the neon in the shop- if he had been here during the day, I would have snapped a couple of pics out in the natural light, but since I haven't seen him since I did the tattoo I figured it might be my only chance to get a healed photo.

Been worked up over the PC Army of Doom lately.  Not really gonna go into a big rant, I just feel that all this PC bullshit has sucked all the funny out of the world.  I personally, would rather laugh than be offended, but it seems that a lot of people would rather be offended (and actively look for things to be offended by).

***UPDATE***

Three hours or so later, I remember something else that I wanted to blog about today.  The new Corrosion of Conformity record.  Quite a while ago, I wrote about them and said that they hadn't done anything good since Technocracy, well...

I really like the new record.  They recorded it as a 3 piece- the Animosity line up, and it's pretty cool.  I was never a fan of the Southern Metal direction they took after Technocracy.  This record, while definitely very metal, has more of a punk feel.  The lyrics seem angrier and more punk rock to me- I heard in an interview that while Pepper was in the band he handled most of the lyric writing.  Standout songs for me are Your Tomorrow, The Moneychangers, What You Become, and Leeches (a track that sounds like it could have come out around 1985).  These 4 songs are probably the most Punk in both sound and lyrical content.  I hope they do more records like this even if Pepper rejoins them on future efforts.  I pre-ordered the vinyl having high expectations for the record- it was my favorite version of COC recording together again.  It came with a bonus 7" and a T-shirt with the COC skull on it and a poster of the record cover.  Now for my biggest complaint- the record cover.  It's fucking atrocious!  What a way to ruin one of the coolest punk rock logos ever.  Here's a pic of the new cover, and a pic of the original sweet ass design (drawn by Erroll Engelbrecht), you make your own decision...