Sunday, June 28, 2009

Disregard The Things I Said

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I don't know what's happened to Danbury, since it's still my favorite town in Connecticut, but when you get maybe one paying customer at a punk show featuring two decent bands from out of town, you kinda start to wonder. Not that there isn't anything else to do in Danbury; there's three decent indie clubs all within easy walking distance of each other, plus a lot of other stuff going on, so Danbury has a long way to go before it backslides into becoming a little pisshole of a scene like Waterbury used to be or whatever. Still, you gotta figure that an above-average punk show on a Saturday night should earn a decent walk-up crowd, just out of habit.

One of the bands that everyone missed last Saturday was The Dispensed, who are sorta new as far as I know, besides having recently added Chris Grivet from The Steinways on guitar (my list of fave '00s pop-punk bands has The Steinways right up there with Chinese Telephones and The Ergs)-- not like that's a selling point or anything, I'm just throwing it out there to make it look like I know what I'm talking about. No kiddin', though, I thought The Dispensed were really really good. The sound during their set wasn't so great; I could pick out who was playing what as long as I had my earplugs in, but when I took my earplugs out (which is usually what I do when I want to hear the band better), all I got was an indescernable mush. All that aside, though, what I heard was some good 70's glam-influenced pop-punk, like The Stiffs, D-Generation, and Dimestore Halos. The singer, Brian, kept jumping all the time which would've made a cool photo but I had my flash set too slow, which had me mumbling "fuck, stupid asshole" at myself every time I missed another one. I'd definitely go to see these guys if they ever played around here again, just to get a better idea of what they're up to.


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The Challenged played next, and they were also good, as they reminded me of The Thumbs quite a bit, or even that one Face to Face song ("Disconnected") that I used to really like a lot. I had some catching up to do with them (Jim Testa's been telling me how great they are) so I bought a couple of their CDs, but even better are the three songs that they've got lined up for an upcoming split ("Consolation Prize", down below, is one of them) which I think beat the hell out of everything else they've done. I''l be ready to buy the shit out of it once it comes out.


The Challenged -

"Consolation Prize"

"Cost of Higher Education"

The Dispensed -

"The Future is Unwritten"

(these files are now listen-only)


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25 comments:

Bruce Tent said...

I blame malcolm tent. hear me out...the loss of a trash as a central meeting place has denied the post-trash generation their ability to learn their first lessons in how a DIY scene works.

discuss...I'm gonna' put coffee on...

Brushback said...

Can't disagree with that at all (except the blaming Malcolm part).

I think the Danbury scene of the 90's had a real core, and Trash was a huge part of that... maybe sites like MySpace and Facebook help to fill in the blanks a little, but I also don't really get a feel for the Danbury scene right now, like I do with New Haven or New London for instance. I mean, there's Sub Rosa and Larry's, but where are the bands? Where are the records?

Bruce Tent said...

I kid Malcolm...because I can't help it. But I DO believe that without Trash the young 'uns are without a sense of community, though.

the Heirloom is having a rough go of it...all props to jay but the space IS unwieldy and a money pit.

The Danbury scene (or "next Seattle") has always had a big turnover rate...most of the local bands don't stay together too long, or graduate WestConn.

Not that it excuses the fact that there hasn't been a document of the "danbury scene" since CHOP WHIP GRATE, etc.

C'mon, blame Malcolm...it'll be fun!

Jere said...

It's a shame that our host here kinda missed the one era of the Danbury scene that I was a part of. Which, of course, was the BEST time in Danbury history. Ha.

But yeah, the loss of Trash goes so far beyond a record store disappearing. To be able to know that anything you want to do will have this centralized, free space that's both bulletin board and meeting space in which to promote it is invaluable. Add the fact that if you have nowhere else to do whatever it is you're promoting, you could just go ahead and do it right at Trash. Man, did I leave Danz-bury at the right time or what?? But I still root for it...

Anyway, I think our best idea for documenting the "scene" back in '99-'03-ish was:

The Danbury-area Punk Rock Grammys, to be held at Newtown Teen Center, and we'd all wear tuxes. I'll never forget Pat's line from our vision of the event: "Ladies and gentlemen....Diallo."

And in a way, our cable access show documented it. Kinda. We did show local bands sometimes. Mostly our own band, though.

Oh and Bruce, speaking of Danbury, I saw Grace recently. I can't believe Dominic died!

Brushback said...

Yes, please fill me in on all of those Empress Ballroom tough-guy metalcore shows that I missed...

Really, the Danbury scene through most of the 90's-- with bands like Atlas and Monsterland and Creature Did and Her Tears and China Pig and so forth-- that kinda stuff just doesn't happen everywhere. The bar was set pretty high to begin with. Still, who are the standard-bearers of the Danbury scene now? I mean, I went to the big Safe to Swim Weekend last year, and found only one local Danbury band that interested me (besides Bruce's, of course)-- Failure's Art, and when I went up and asked them for a demo, they didn't have one with them. I still don't think they've released anything since then.

You could maybe count Guilty Faces as being from Bethel, but that might be stretching it.

I really had all my hopes set on Tractor Flip, but oh well.

Jere said...

"Yes, please fill me in on all of those Empress Ballroom tough-guy metalcore shows that I missed..."

No! That was what we were trying to go against. Our band even boycotted Empress, though its location would've made it a perfect home court for us. Had we not hated everything about it.

I'm talking about the shows the kids now in Guilty Faces were at.

Bruce Tent said...

Safe to Swim is really geared more to the out-of-town acts than the locals. Tony Sub Rosa was wise to not just make it a Gasball rehash. In some ways, rampant local-ism is what sunk that event.

I dunno'...I'd hesitate to apply any particular standards to "the scene"...maybe the fact that so many good bands never released anything just means that instead of "the next Seattle"...Danbury became "the next DC".

Brushback said...

Here's basically all that I'm saying, and why I think releases are important (and I'm not slagging on Tony or Sub Rosa at all, just following up on what Bruce wrote in the first comment):

Danbury has slid well behind the other CT cities, as far as a music scene goes. If you want to tell someone about New London, you can talk about bands like Brava Spectre, point to a label like Cosmodemonic, and hand someone a Fatal Film CD. If you want to tell someone about New Haven, you can talk about bands like Estrogen Highs, point to a label like Safety Meeting, and hand someone a Titles CD. Even the Hartford - Middletown area has bands like Werewolf Police and the stuff that's going on at Wesleyan. Now, try doing this with Danbury...

It's harder to point at concrete stuff like this to give people an idea of what Danbury is about.

Bruce Run It said...

So it's agreed...we blame malcolm!

Brushback said...

Actually, Malcolm's (solo and/or with Creepdust and Ultrabunny) has been one of the few things from Danbury worth keeping up with lately.

Jere said...

All this Danbury talk got me in an early 00's mood, so I uploaded the theme to my old cable access TV show. The show and the song by The Pac-Men are both called "Ready!"

I'll probably post more from the show soon, which will include, if nothing else, more Bruce.

Also, Tom Faces (Tom Guilt? Tom DDTeens?) is briefly visible jumping in a red shirt at the 1:26 mark.

Brushback said...

Aw, man, that is awesome.

I still want a Pac-Men 7".

Jere said...

Thanks! We had fun...

I've got a box full of 7"ers....our limited run has not quite run out yet.

Jere said...

More Ready action up here: Rollins vs. Danzig. Jere interviewing Bruce toward the end, and actual DDTeens talk in the middle. Brian aka Pist drummer and Pac-Men singer doing most of the interviewing.

Brushback said...

These are awesome, just to see Danbury (my favorite CT town ever) in the background.

Bruce Bartell said...

She WAS indeed...one foxy cop.

Brushback said...

Total Dick playing Safe To Swim this year, I see?

Brah Wobble said...

Yeppers! I'll have to lay a disc on you, it's quite reactionary and very anti-trad punk!

tommy h perkins (esq.) said...

glad to see Ready TV is back on the air to some degree. Also, nice video of CCS in my folks garage.

Brushback said...

Fuck, Tom, you've got a show tonight. Wish I was there. I want a t-shirt!

Jere said...

Okay, to continue the continuity...more from Ready! and early 2000s Danbury...

A young Tom, later of Guilty faces, interviews Malcolm Tent.

Jere's band covers Bruce's band.

Brushback said...

Ha! That Malcolm interview is great!!! What a charmer!

t...p... said...

you missed out on the chronic sick show. it was altogether pretty entertaining, but because of some complications there were no free shirts.

my voice in that interview sounds the way my twin brother's does now. weird.

Brushback said...

Yeah, I really wanted to go to that show, but I backed out because it was a weeknight and Cafe Nine shows don't usually end until around 12:30 or 1:00.

Brushback said...

The mp3 files on this post are now listen-only (non-dowlnoadable) files. However, you can download the entire Challenged/Nancy split EP (which is where the song "Consolation Prize" is from)for free at the Challenged's web site (click here).