Friday, December 30, 2011

SAM MCPHEETERS WRITES A BOOK.

I was first aware of Sam McPheeters years and years ago as the singer for the band Born Against. I remember that my first exposure to them was from the magazine Flipside. It was a good read if I remember correctly but I never paid any attention to the band until right when it was about done. Suddenly I heard a bunch of of thier records and read some of Sam’s printed zines and writings and was impressed with both. Here was a band that at least to me sort of carried on with the same sort of spirit of much earlier hardcore bands that I enjoyed. Plus they were sort of a combination of outrage and having a sense of humor at the same time, which is a pretty good thing.

Anyways I started to write a few probably gushing fanboy letters and that is sort of how I know Sam. Except I really don’t know him at all. I met him once at a Wrangler Brutes show here in Raleigh years later and it was sort of nice and awkward, sort of like meeting someone you only know through say, Facebook. I have enjoyed much of whatever Sam has done as it has come along, and only recently I had learned that he is preparing the release of his first ever novel, a brisk two hundred and sixty two page effort called THE LOOM OF RUIN put out by Mugger Books and set to be released April 1st of next year. I have read it and it is definitely entertaining, funny and sometimes sort of..well, real weird. If you have ever liked anything that Sam has written before then you should have no problem at all enjoying his book.

This is by no means the greatest of interviews but it was still fun to do and I thank Sam for answering some fairly off of the cuff questions.
 Brian:  I really enjoyed the interview you did with Aaron Lake Smith awhile back and it touched on a few topics I found interesting. The comments about young musicians aping things that they enjoy with that great wall of tradition as their backdrop is something that I find to be true. What people don't understand is that the wall of tradition has always been there. Agree or disagree? I think that we have caught up with what people can be nostalgic for and it is ground zero now. Most of what I have been a part of musically was copying what had inspired us, even if it was back in 1985. So my question is musically what have you been involved with that you could hand to someone and say, "yeah this is still pretty good. check it out". I mean, I have enjoyed most of what I was lucky enough to be a part of but there is very little that I find to be unique to this very day.

Sam:  I definitely don't think the wall of tradition has been as high as it is now. In "The Filth And The Fury", John Lydon talks about having to ape Richard III for his Sex Pistols stage persona because he had nothing else to go on. So while I agree that everyone draws on something, it's usually the more remote influences (meaning those coming early in a genre) that produce the most unique art. Personally, I haven't done anything musically I'd want to hand anyone. Born Against and Wrangler Brutes had some shining moments, but both were self-consciously retro pursuits. And MRP was a little too unique.


Brian:  Can you think of at least five records off of the top of your head that came out of hardcore punk rock (whatever you want to call it) back in the eighties that you think still hold up and you can imagine easily putting on anytime because it is timeless? Why do you think it is timeless?

Sam:  I don’t have an interesting answer. The hardcore I listen to now – Minor Threat, SSD, Void – is essentially indie-mainstream. Millions of people listen to these bands and still feel like they are participating in something illicit. It reminds me of the way me and my childhood pals treated "Star Wars" as our own private wellspring of in-jokes thirty years ago. I don’t, however, consider any of these records timeless. 1980's hardcore is too deeply entwined with both my own personal nostalgia (high school, the secondary high school of the ABC No Rio scene) and a specific era (Reagan-Bush America) to be anything other than a product of its time. It is interesting to me which albums defined which parts of my life. In my 20’s, I listened religiously to “Damaged” (the soundtrack for people who have lost their marbles). In my 30’s, I listened and relistened to the Cro-Mags’ “Age of Quarrel” (the soundtrack for people who view themselves as struggling underdogs). In my 40’s, I rely on daily doses of Slayer’s “Reign In Blood” (the soundtrack for conquering armies [and best selling authors]).

Brian:  There are a lot of things I want to know so forgive me if this is somehow common knowledge. I discovered Born Against right at the very end of the band’s existence. I was amazed at what I thought about the band; good music, interesting lyrics, a total “no compromise” approach to thing matched with a sense of humor. You had a history of being pretty vocal about things. Did your band ever get into trouble with people because of it? I love that phone machine message in the “Born Against are fucking dead” song. Were your lives ever threatened? When those moments happened did you have butterflies in your stomach? And when you look back at all of that, what do you think?

Sam:  There were frequent close calls with violence. BA's guitarist Adam was generally braver than me, but I think it was hard on both of us. That many (though not all) of our woes were self-inflicted makes my memories confusing. At the time, I felt like I was doing something very important. This is probably how people in low-level cults felt. I don't know what the lesson of Born Against should be. I'm glad it happened. I'm bummed about some of the things I did. A lot has happened since Born Against broke up.

Brian:  The band moved to Richmond Virginia and from what I think I had read, pretty much disbanded two weeks after arrival. Did you move down there to continue the band initially? And what did you do after the band broke up?

Sam:  The band broke up during a two-month collapse in my and Adam’s lives. I’d gone broke, he’d split with his girlfriend, most of our old pals hated us, and our landlord sold our house. Richmond had been one of our favorite cities to play, and we both knew we could live there for a fraction of what we were paying in Jersey City. We’d booked the final show before we moved. After that last show, I spent a year decompressing. I played a lot of basketball, learned how to ride a bike, made some zines. It was a nice break from a stressful period.

Brian:  How long have you been living in Pomona, and of all places to live, why did you pick the town that Pillsbury Hardcore are from?

Sam:  I moved to Pomona in autumn 1999. At the time I had a record label I could run from any part of the country, and no attachment to the east coast. My girlfriend was from L.A. County, so I agreed to give it a try. Although I'd known about the town from the Man Is The Bastard guys (and Pillsbury's "I Love Pomona"), I'd already spent years here as a kid, when my grandparents lived in Pomona.

Brian:  Did you know at a certain point years ago that writing and maybe even your upcoming novel was going to be your future? Was it something that you had already been interested in long before these things started to happen? And perhaps the inevitable question (hey this beats asking about your musical influences or singing idols) is who along the way writing wise had some influence on the style that you have carved out with writing?

  Sam:  I've wanted to write fiction since before I could write. I've been working on novels and short stories since 1989. I like a lot of writers. John Updike was a huge inspiration to me, but it wouldn't be fair for me to list him as an influence, since I'll never be as good a writer as he was. Certainly I'd love to be able to write competent satirical fiction like Richard Brautigan, John Kennedy Toole, or Kurt Vonnegut.

Brian:  Wrangler Brutes seemed to break up suddenly. What was the inspiration for getting into another sort of HC sounding band after MRP?

Sam:  I wanted Wrangler Brutes to be far weirder than it was. I also wanted it to be a great live band. There were some complicated interpersonal issues involved, so I settled on getting one of my two wishes.


Brian:  Your new book is a very entertaining read throughout with some laugh out loud moments in it (at least I did). You certainly were right when you said that if you liked the writing you did in the past then you would like the book. How long have you been working on it?

Sam:  Between mid-2006 and late-2009, with a 9-month break in the middle. Also, thanks! .

Brian:   I couldn’t help but notice that the book takes place in your adopted hometown of Southern California and the Los Angeles area. Coincidence? Did you know right away that you were going to base it in L.A.? Why or why not?

Sam:  I like Los Angeles because I don't live there. I'm in Pomona, 30 miles east. LA still has a weird mythical quality to me. I've never gotten used to palm trees. Driving into Los Angeles has that strange feel of a nice interlude in the middle of a long tour. I'll probably write more about LA in the future.

  Brian:  I would have assumed that if you ever had an opportunity to do a book that you would have to re-print some of your writing from your various zines all of the way up to your now standard bigger pieces for publications. Instead, we get a fiction novel. Would there be any plans in the future to unearth some of that stuff in that format in the future?

Sam:  I have over 300,000 words of freelance and fanzine material, but only a small fraction of those pieces are good. Any collection of my past writing would have been second-rate. Since I've closed out the part of my life where I do second-rate projects, it'll probably be a while before I release any anthologies. Hopefully someday I'll have enough quality pieces to do so.

Brian:  Do you have plans for writing another fiction book?
Sam:  Absolutely.

Brian:  Could you see yourself getting back into music at this point? Why, or why not?

Sam:  I don't believe in music any more. Bands no longer make sense to me. I wish it were otherwise. But even if I still bought records or went to shows, I still wouldn't sing in any further bands. Who wants to see a 42-year old version of me jiggling across a stage? That'd be gross.

Brian:  At this point, have you been able to carve out a living based on your freelancing? I live in sort of this half assed world where I can combine my artistic projects with a part time job and maybe two months out of the year I am not stressed out. How about you?

Sam:  Freelance is definitely a scramble. I wouldn't say I've made a consistent living at it. It's been hard finding supplemental jobs, although not impossible. After 2008, it definitely seemed like a lot more people were in the situation you and I are in.

Brian:  I will conclude this with a Joe Preston question. What would you prefer, his cover of "The Trees" by Rush or the prospect of him doing a super exciting medley of songs from the first Bl'ast! album?

Sam:  I would prefer an album of Joe Preston blasting apart trees, like in the 1908 Siberian explosion. Come to think of it, the album could be recorded in Siberia. I would proudly purchase that in a record store.



Pre orders for Sam’s book begin next month. Also, a book tour has been threatened. Bother him for more information at: http://loomofruin.blogspot.com/

Friday, December 16, 2011

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

BIG BOYS

Big Boys logo by Chris Shary, artwork by me. This will for sure be a t-shirt in the future.

Monday, November 14, 2011

NAMEDROPPED IN VIDEO BY VOIVOD.

Man, this has already made my day. And Away spelled my name in his style of handwriting to boot.

Friday, November 11, 2011

COMING SOON.....

Thursday, November 10, 2011

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL INTERVIEW FROM A FEW ISSUES AGO.

So here it is. You will probably be sick of me by the time you are done reading it. By the way if you double click you can see the pages UP CLOSE for both this and the Double Negative interview. I aldo urge you to buy the back issue because we all know that holding a ink staining magazine in your hands is the way to go. Pull up a chair and put another long on the fireplace,, kids:

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

NEW ALBUM COVER.

This came out pretty great, for sure one of my favorite drawings.

PULLEY COVER and VIDEO.

The band Pulley made a video of thier Big Boys cover taken from the recent ep that I drew the cover for. They were cool enough to put some of that artwork in this video..check it out:

IT ONLY TOOK A QUARTER OF A CENTURY....

It only took a quarter of a century, but I got the cover story in the October issue of MAXIMUM ROCK N ROLL. Nice long interview that at times makes me appear to be thoughtful at times. And my real website was also written up recently. Thanks guys. You will have to go through these links to check it out..Obviously it isn't October anymore. So here is the link to the write up about my website: http://maximumrocknroll.com/2011/05/11/website-of-the-week-brian-walsby/ And here is a link to the MRR website if you want to order the issue I grace: http://maximumrocknroll.com/2011/09/02/mrr-341/
thanks....

MINUTEMEN, DIE KREUZEN SHIRTS NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH MY SITE.




Holy cow, there are two new t-shirts at my site! They both came out pretty cool I might add. Stay tuned for two ALL shirts, PULLEY and POLVO in the future. Thanks kids.

THE LINK:

http://brianwalsby.net/BrianWalsby.net/Home.html

FATAL ERROR: THE MISSING LINK

DRUMMER MATT CHARAPATTA OF FATAL ERROR. . FATAL ERROR were some good friends of mine while I was growing up in SoCal all of those years ago. Me and the Scared Straight guys were from Simi Valley. Fatal Error were from Chatsworth. Both towns were separated by the Santa Susana Pass, six or so miles of mountains looming from the Northwest corner of the San Fernando Valley where Chatsworth lies. Between Chatsworth and Simi Valley is Hwy 118 (now called the Ronald Reagan Freeway..no shit) and Spahn Ranch, ol’ Charlie Manson’s summer vista for getting away from it all. So now that you know exactly where everything is, there won’t be a quiz. The time period of all of this is 1984 through to the end of 1986, I think. A long time ago. FATAL started pretty much like any other band, competently played skater thrash music done by some of the most Californian people I have ever met. The initial lineup was Trey Clinesmith on guitar, Jon Palmer on vocals, Dave Munn on bass and one of the greatest drummers that no one knows of, Matt Charapatta. Trey had braces still. It seemed like these guys sort of had their own language. They really did use all of those California words, stuff like “dude” and “rad” and “shred” and all of that. They made up a few words of their own too. They were all super cool guys. And yes, they also skated. Meanwhile, I was also friends with a fellow named Ron Cerros, who was about to join FATAL for a short amount of time. They all knew each other and went to Chatsworth High. I might have met all of those guys through Ron. Ron, like the rest of the FATAL guys, was sort of a expert on hardcore. I was introduced to a lot of Dischord stuff, the Neos, and stuff like Rudimentary Peni through him. He had every record on earth and was a funny super opinionated guy who was a bit on the Crass trip. He even joined the band America’s Hardcore on bass right before that band fell apart. So I thought he sort of a big shot. The band had their only vinyl appearance on a Mystic Records compilation with Ron on board and that was it for Ron. I wonder what he is up to these days? Enter Matt Nestor and Bob Davis.
BOB, MATT NESTOR AND JON Bob Davis was the resident longhaired dude who filled in the Dez Cadena spot in FATAL, if you know what I mean. He played a White Les Paul and looked pretty cool up there onstage. He replaced Ron initially. Matt Nestor came in a bit later. Matt was another buddy of the FATAL guys, a super cool guy with perhaps a..bit more intensity to him then the rest of them. I think that him and Matt C had already been playing together in a little sideband and eventually he joined FATAL ERROR and brought in all of this new material to the band. Well, Matt Nestor sort of took FATAL to godlike status without anyone knowing about it. One day both Matts came to my house and gave me the new recordings they had done, in a real studio somewhere near San Diego. Jon was still the singer. So I think it was the first of a few three guitar lineups of the band. What was it like? Well, I was blown the fuck away. It was like everything I loved about this music in one godly package. Matt’s songs were clearly a step forward, a potent combination of breakneck thrash with a bit of the mania of maybe Void somehow meeting lots of Black Flag Greg Ginn creepy crawl guitar work and suspended pauses. There was a little bit of metal damage in some of the material but not obnoxiously so. It was still rooted firmly in hardcore. Snotty vocals, amazing fucking drumming, some dramatic time changes and some downright eyebrow raising lyrics and songtitles completed the package. That was the other real deal maker is the single-minded bleakness of the lyrics. How many times can you say that War is horrible? Well, if you are tired of that, there is still plenty of songs about plagues killing everybody (“Walk Of The Plague”), pyromania as a means of killing everybody (“Playing In The Ashes”), night terror (“Scary Z’s”), cremation (“Cremation”) , a army buddy of the band going AWOL and hanging himself (“Horizontal Friend”) and plenty of other cheery songs. One of the best songs was the band putting new music behind Bob Dylan’s “Masters Of War” and letting it rip. The funny thing is if fits in perfectly with the rest of the material they had. Later on there would appear to be some light to fight off the darkness but it came in the form of songs like “I Remember Drugs” and “Cockroaches Shall”. It was so weird to look back and think that nothing seemed to happen for them. Bands like Cryptic Slaughter had records out. Mystic Records put out records by a million bands that FATAL had played parties with. The band even had what no one else had: A great sounding recording. And yet nothing. Maybe it was the bands fault, maybe not but when I listen to this stuff I am still convinced of its greatness and would think that if more people could hear it, they would dig it. It sounds like it could be a new band. These recordings are as good or maybe even better than most of whatever I have heard these days. They are sort of the missing link, the great unknown band. Or at least one of ‘em. Later on the band lost Jon as singer and Matt sort of stepped in. Another demo came. Then the band lost Dave on bass and then Matt took over bass and Simi Valley’s Mike Harder came into the band near the end as another guitarist. I had already moved out to the East Coast when all of this was going on. I don’t know why or when they called it a day but they did. And all they left were these two really awesome sounding demos from that weird San Diego studio and a small handful of demented sounding home recordings. Hopefully this will be the start of what could be the material getting out there somehow. They deserve it, and I think some people would really like it. .
from MANCHILD 2, based on a story Trey told me in a letter he wrote after I moved away!

Monday, September 26, 2011

THE GRUNGE CHRONICLES.

Courtney Love can sure spin some good yarn! This charming tale comes from the new oral history book on the "grunge scene" and I tried to make her story come alive! Maybe we can work together in the future!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Q: AND CHILDREN? A: AND CHILDREN.

MANCHILD 6, MAXIMUM ROCK N ROLL COVER STORY AND OTHER NEWS.

So I am the cover story of the October issue of MRR. it came out (I think) pretty good and overall I am pleased with how it went. If you are interested in obtaining this issue, here is the link:
and this is my cover. What else? MANCHILD 6 has been discussed and it looks as though a mr. Will Butler will be doing the honors this time, letting Charles have some breathing room and learning the subtle craft of diaper changing with his new daughter. Thematically this will be sort of a continuation of the same layout idea that the last book had, except it will be sort of a Lester Bangs type of thing: writings and interviews with new art put between the chapters. No other news on this yet but I will let you know when we get the ball rolling. Other news? Well, my feet sort of hurt..but I will be okay I am sure. Thanks.

SHINY BEAST "STOP LOOKING AT US WE'RE WAVING GOODBYE" CD OUT ON LITTLE MAFIA RECORDS.



Six years in the making and three diffirent owners later, the Shiny Beast cd is finally out on Oklahoma's Little Mafia Records.

I would like to thank Little Mafia Records for caring enough to put this out.

Who is/was Shiny Beast?

(here is a re-print from an older earlier entry:)





WHAT I CAN REMEMBER....


I remember the time when the original Shiny Beast lineup of David, Mike Meadows and myself recorded what would become the tracks for the Boner Records release, we invited our freind Mike Carden to sing on some of the songs. Mike was in the evil local band Garbageman, definitely a unsung class act of yesteryear. Mike was this intense brooding man of (usually) few words who could scream and shriek like the singers of Die Kruezen and Negative Approach. He had a serious hardcore record collection as well. When he did the singing at Jerry Kee's home studio in a residential area of Raleigh, it was maybe a hour later when the police showed up at Jerry's. The police explained that they were summoned to the place because a neighbor thought that someone was being murdered or tortured. No officers, just laying down some vocals. They soon left.



I remember one time when we were on tour with Erectus Monotone and we played at State College, Pa. It was a beautiful little town tucked away in the mountains and the show was pretty good. Some dude let us crash at what seemed like an empty bottom floor of a frat house or college rec room. Well, that was the night everyone decided to get real drunk or something. I remember bonding heavily with EM's Brian Quast that night over our mutual love of the Descendents. He was really talkative and drunk. David was out of control. When he drank he got really animated and funny, not really drunk just really wide open and excited. He got so excited he dove out of an open window, ran around sticking forks into electrical outlets to prove how he wouldn't get shocked: "See? You gotta stick both prongs into the socket to get shocked! See? SEE??" Kim told him to eat a flower that was growing out of a potted plant so he did. Everyone had a good time until there was some drunken conflict (sort of) that I wasn't really aware of and then EM's Kevin Collins got reeeeally bummed out 'cause everything had been going so well personality wise on the trip so far. Then the next morning most everybody was really hungover and quiet and no one really said much for a little while when we left town.



I remember when we played in Buffalo New York a few years later in this huge art loft near downtown. Polvo were nice enough to take us out with them on the road and this was when the band went through our "Fleetwood Mac" period. The three of us ended up sitting on a couch at the entrance drinking a twelve pack of beer. Now, this had NEVER happened before but for some reason it made sense that night. We ended up playing in this hot packed sweaty room where I played a semi drunken set that I alone really enjoyed. David and Kim less so. David had to keep re-tuning his Telecaster. People seemed to like us, some even knew about us. Afterwards some guy who looked just like Dez Cadena of Black Flag came up to us and complimented us and then offered to get us stoned. So we did. I remember Polvo played a set that melted my tiny little mind; they passed around this cowboy hat while they played. Afterwards I was still out of my tree and ended up packing up all of my stuff but stupidly left a cymbal stand at the loft. Later I enjoyed a horrible turkey sub with ranch dressing that made me throw up later on at the house we crashed at. Hooray!



I remember how I learned to get really tired of the one thing everyone yelled at us when we played, no matter where it was: "TURN UP THE VOCALS!! I CAN'T HEAR THEM!! HA HA HA!!"

Even better was the time I had a conversation with a drunk in Columbus Ohio who watched our whole set and then insisted that we had some "great singing". After the third time I denied this, he then compared the band to Rush and that David's playing was "just like Alex Lifeson". That was certainly a new one.


Mike Meadows was the first bass player. When we played our first show it was in Greensboro with Mike Carden singing. I can't stress how weird it all was..me and David had been in Willard before this and it was like this was the first time I had "met" David musically, if you know what I mean. He wrote most of our stuff. Meadows was a great player, a all around talented musician but there was this personality diffirence. Me and David were wimps. Meadows was this sort of swaggering machoish dude who would do things like walk around shirtless in the Greensboro club with some random bass that he just found there and without even asking permission would just walk around with it playing it unplugged. I don't know why that stuck out in my mind but it did. I have to say that when he wasn't in the picture it was sort of a relief...not playing with someone that you maybe wasn't sure if you liked very much but being afraid that he might get mad at you for it. We did lose something without him but gained a whole new thing in the process.

Kim literally taught herself how to play bass in maybe a month, tops. David helped her. In no time we were back in business. Kim was kind of like how it was playing with Wayne Taylor, they both played bass in this very odd way, weird stuff. Kim later on was in this Greensboro band called Taija Rae who were quite good, more of a straight forward rock thing , and she still played the same oddball way which was nice. She wrote a little bit of the music towards the end.

....yeah, we played with a lot of bands when we were one ourselves. We opened for Cop Shoot Cop once at the old Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill and they were pretty nice guys and seemed to like us even. We opened for the Melvins once when I somehow was able to get them in touch with a short lived and foolheartily ambitious booking agent that worked (breifly) at the Brewery here in Raleigh. I don't know how that one was pulled off but you could imagine how odd that was. The Melvins benfitted greatly from the Brewery's powerful p.a. (sarcasm) that night. We played our music with our rinky dink little candy ass gear and sort of held our own I guess. We played with Don Caballero a couple of times. Their drummer was..sort of a strange fellow, not very consistent personality wise and played in his underwear with his ass hanging out. Nothing you probably haven't heard a thousand times if you are familar with that band. I still like thier first record. We played with Rodan a few times and that too was really cool. We really liked them and had a good time I think. They were so much better then thier record.



Here in the Triangle we played with pretty much every band that was at least once. I remember how we played with bands like Archers Of Loaf, Superchunk and whoever else was peaking during that time when Chapel Hill exploded and eclipsed everything else. I would sort of scratch my head with a tiny bit of twisted jealousy mixed with bewilderment as I sat and tried to figure out what was going on. All of those people were basically pretty nice too. It seemed like I was the only one of us who even thought stupid stuff like this. I just couldn't pretend that I didn't already see bands like the Minutemen and Black Flag back in SoCal so I just chalked it up to that for the most part.

We opened for the "new COC" once and that was maybe the weirdest reaction that we had, or at least the most interesting. At that point, COC were into their Mike Dean-free five piece "heavy rock" period and somehow they let us or asked us to play with them at the Cat's Cradle. The reaction we got was just like the reaction the "animosity" era COC were greeted with the first time I saw them back in SoCal. They played a "crossover" show and the entire metal audience just stood there watching, unsure of what to do or how to react. Not like our band was ANYTHING like the old COC, but six or seven years later thier audience pretty much did the same thing. No one even went anywhere near the stage at all, not like they thought we sucked (well, who knows about that one). Finally, one lone headbanger went up to the front of the stage and started to furiously headbang for like twenty seconds to one of our songs. He then stopped and went back to the rest of the audience who were standing fifteen feet away form the Cat's Cradle stage. Pretty funny.

We usually ended up playing a lot with bands of the time in our area like Erectus Monotone, Orifice, Regraped, Vanilla Trainwreck and Polvo. This worked out well because we all liked those bands the best in the Triangle area. We toured with Erectus of course and that was fun. They had Brian Quast for awhile then and they were finally clicking on the road playing some furious shows in goofy locales like a pizza shop in Conneticut amongst twenty other "enlightened people". Orifice were just..a soundtrack for a absurd weird comedy..everything about them was just hilarious. We played at least seven billion shows with Regraped and those were always fine. Ben and Kip played bass and Brian Q. drummed. I wish they recorded a proper record. Vanilla Trainwreck, horrible name, inconsistent records and lengthy shows aside still could fucking kick it out. And you know about Polvo already, I guess. We all really liked playing with those bands and here is my paragraph dedicated to all of them. Good going, guys..and girls..



Little Mafia Records:

http://www.myspace.com/littlemafiarecords

VOIVOD T-SHIRT NOW UP FOR GRABS.


I am pretty darn excited to say that the VOIVOD shirt is done and ready for pre-orders. It has been really cool to be able to do these t-shirts this year and to have a chance to work with some of my favorite bands and some great people but I think this one holds a really special place in my heart. Black and white design on a grey shirt. Here is the link once again to my site:

http://brianwalsby.net/BrianWalsby.net/Home.html







Wednesday, July 20, 2011

WHATEVER....


Thursday, July 14, 2011

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY SHIRT READY FOR PRE ORDER.


And it is our first black shirt..so you will look tough.

the link:

http://brianwalsby.net/BrianWalsby.net/Home.html

Thursday, June 30, 2011

THE IRON GANG LIVES.

Monday, June 20, 2011

CASTING OUT MY LINE.


Charles Cardello and his wife are about to have a baby! Congrats, guys!

Since Charles is going to be quite busy for the rest of his life, I am going to cast out my line to any would be publishers, actual publishers and other people who have money and also like me: i have a new idea for sort of a smaller book, along the same lines as MANCHILD 5 but with the focus being some of my better writing over the years, bookended with new artwork between the writings. There are interviews with all of the various people that I have talked to over the years, personal observations, slice of life stories and other little tidbits.

The idea would be to package it in a unique way, press up a small amount and also include something to listen to for fun.

Sounds good? Please drop a line if this appeals to you. Hell, it worked twice before.

thanks,
Brian

reluctantking@hotmail.com

Saturday, June 18, 2011

WHAT IS BRIAN WALSBY.NET ALL ABOUT?

Good question, kids. Mostly it is about getting people to spend some quality time checking out my work and me peddling my wares.

For instance, I have prints of my work available now. They are printed 24 by 36 and they look real good all blown up and stuff. Limited to thirty each, signed and numbered for all of those collectors out there.








We have been doing some t-shirts this year and so far they have done pretty good. We did MELVINS and DESCENDENTS shirts and those are about gone. Here are the three that are currently available:





The bands are Valient Thorr, Fucked Up and Honor Role.

And I have books out too. Five of them. Sadly, two of them are out of print. Here is what is available:





Manchild 5: Like Gold Down A Sewer is my newest book, a personalized oral history of all things Raleigh North Carolina related in the eighties. My fave book.
Manchild 2 is oddly enough the most consistent book as far as content goes.
Manchild 1: A Celebration of Twenty Years of Doodles is just that. A big book. Some "classics" are in here.


and oh yeah there are some links, downloadable artwork, and lots of mouth running too.

what is the link? Oh yeah..here it is:

http://brianwalsby.net/BrianWalsby.net/Home.html

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

DEDICATED TO MY FATHER..WITH AFFECTION.


This charming slice of life cartoon talks about the unique "water boy" aspect of my adolescence, where i lovingly fetched peanuts and colas for my dad on the days where he wasn't at work and he wanted to relax/

PUNK ROCK..IT'S NOT YOU..IT'S ME..

Monday, June 13, 2011

GENERIC SUPERHERO COMICS!



Todays episode: token weak powered member joins the team and dies instantly in two minutes!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

NEW NEWS!

For whatever odd reason, MAXIMUM ROCK N ROLL has stated that my website is the "site of the week" and you can read all about it here. Thanks MRR..you were a big influence on me and you still exist! Most magazines do not:

http://maximumrocknroll.com/2011/05/11/website-of-the-week-brian-walsby/


And in other news, our newest t-shirt featuring the Toronto band FUCKED UP is ready to pre-order. It came out really good, my fave shirt so far, and here is the link:

http://brianwalsby.net/BrianWalsby.net/T_SHIRTS.html




There will be a massively gigantic interview with me in a future issue of MRR and if that isn't big enough, they are also going to let me draw the cover. So stay tuned..

Thursday, May 5, 2011

HONOR ROLE SHIRT IS NOW AVAILABLE.

It is my fave shirt so far. You simply can't go wrong. Please go to my site if interested and party down.

http://brianwalsby.net/BrianWalsby.net/T_SHIRTS.html

need convincing? Honor Role were from Richmond Virginia and existed from mainly the mid to late eighties. Back then they were one of the first bands that I got into that truly went from being sort of a standard okay hc type band to an amazing and majestic band with great long lasting songs, incredible lyrics and awesome guitar playing. Check this out:

Monday, April 18, 2011

Coming Soon: HONOR ROLE t-shirt.


This will be the next (fourth) shirt, and I will make an announcement soon enough when it is ready. You all know how much I love this band, so it was a real honor to get permission to do it. Stay tuned!