Location: Somerville, MA Game: Uh, I play stuff. On 360. GT: McFlynnTHM Evidence: Flickr will be the death of us Contact: AIM: McFlynnTHM Email: McFlynnTHM (AT) gmail (DOT) com Social networking: DeviantArt Twitter Facebook Yelp MySpace Personal site

I wrote this review of the new album from Football, Etc., The Draft, and it recently appeared in AMP Magazine. Now I'm on their list of contributors! How about that? They even made up this fancy graphic for it.


Read the review here. And find AMP at all kinds of newsstands, or your local Barnes & Noble.

My friend Ian runs a small label in Ohio called Messy Life Records. They've only got a handful of releases under their belt, but they're doing well, and it's not just punk rock; they've worked with some interested electronic acts, as well as some pretty extreme powerviolence-type bands. So that's cool.

So, Messy Life is doing a free, downloadable compilation for the summer, and Ian, being a fan of my stuff, asked if I would do the cover art for him. I said sure, and quickly cranked this out. The idea was his, so that made it easy to get done before leaving for San Francisco tomorrow.
( Read more... )
There are some things that should be fixed- most notably, the hatching on the bear going outside the lines- but in general I like how this came out. Ian was stoked on it, too.

I really would like to get back into color stuff. I have some ideas for pieces similar to this that I'd like to do in a different style. Time to bust out the tablet, I guess.

Anyway, the comp drops on June 21st. It should be really cool, so far confirmed bands include Mixtapes, Shinsplints, Ascetic Parade, Signals Midwest, the Haverchucks, and Blithe Field.
Messy Life Records on Facebook
Messy Life Records on BigCartel

Tunes: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Hiding All Away

Hey you kids! Tonight, at Charlie's Kitchen in scenic Cambridge, MA!

The Slow Death (ex-Pretty Boy Thorson & the Fallen Angels; The Ergs!)
The Arrivals
Dan Webb & the Spiders
Dumbwaiters

9pm, $5 21+

In other news, Denver pop-punk act The Gamits have come back from retirement with a new record, Parts, out soon on Suburban Home Records and Paper + Plastick. You can order the album here from Vinyl Collective/Suburban Home, or stream it over on Punknews. It's good. Really, really good.

Tunes: The Gamits - No One Cares Why Should I

So the beloved Death to False Hope Records, Scotty Sandwich's label that offers all of its releases as free downloads (not unlike Jeff Rosenstock's [Bomb the Music Industry!] Quote-Unquote Records) is putting out a sweet compilation. It's their third digital comp, and it's filled with awesome bands like the Bouncing Souls, Joey Cape (Lagwagon), Paul Pendley (Red City Radio), Mixtapes, Stereotyperider, and tons more. If you want to see the track list, I recommend going over to this here Punknews.org article.

Another notable thing about this release is that the artwork for the "cover" was done by yours truly. CHECK THIS OUT. ( Read more... )

I'm super stoked for this to be released on May 11th. You should probably go download it when it happens.

Tunes: Less Than Jake - The Rest of My Life

I can't believe I missed my 5,000th post. This will be 5,008.

In related news, I can't believe I've written that much here. And that I've had this thing since... February 2003. Over 7 years. Goddamn.

Tunes: The Gaslight Anthem - The Spirit of Jazz

So I won a contest on the Org Summit, and as a result, one of the members sent me a prize. I had no idea what the prize was. It came today! ( Read more... )

So, in the end Wonton/Justin redeemed himself, and single-handedly took care of my Christmas shopping for you all. STOKED?

Tunes: The Connie Dungs - Lost in the Microcosm

One of the best albums ever recorded? Quite possibly!

Tunes: The Lawrence Arms - The Ramblin' Boys of Pleasure

( Shopping list? )

The worst part about spending your day reading about and listening to new music is that I'm encouraged to spend a lot more money on a lot more bands.

Tunes: Hot Water Music - Paper Thin

Hot damn!

That SSCP class we all took, that I was 100% sure I failed? Just got the results. I passed!

Thank god!

Tunes: Off With Their Heads - That Must Be Nigel With the Brie

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but Frank Turner's latest album, Love, Ire, and Song, was released in the US yesterday via Epitaph Records. An odd fit for them, but a totally awesome album from a really fantastic singer/songwriter. His new album, Poetry of the Deed, is dropping Sept. 7th, 2009. It's gonna be great!
Here's a video for his song "Photosynthesis."

Got a whole bunch of records I had somewhat forgot that I'd ordered yesterday:
- Bad Religion - No Control LP
- Thee Makeout Party - Play Pretend LP
- Shark Pants - Porno Snakehead LP
- Screeching Weasel - Wiggle LP
- A second copy of the Carry the Torch Kid Dynamite tribute 2xLP, because I'm a moron and pre-ordered it twice from two different sources, months apart
So, if anyone knows/is a Kid Dynamite fan who would love a collection of KD covers on vinyl, send 'em my way. I somehow doubt there's a huge market for this sucker (as eBay has not a single listing).

So, sometimes I don't mind Larry. Other times, like today, when he argued that the Cambridge cops were right to arrest Harvard professor Henry Gates, and probably should have done more- I believe he said he should have been shot, thought I think/hope he was being hyperbolic- I really don't know what else to do other than shake my head in disbelief. Oy.

Looks like the restart of the Doomsday MachineLarge Hadron Collider has been pushed back yet again, to mid-November. So you've got a few months more to get everything you've wanted in life done. Hop to it.

Windows 7, Microsoft's follow-up to the much-maligned Vista, is rolling out to maufacturing August 6th, with some beta testers and OEMs getting it now. What do you think about the forthcoming version of the world's most, uh, prevalent operating system? Any of you play around with Win7 yet? I toyed with a couple of betas and found it to be a great improvement to Vista, but then, I appreciate some of the steps forward that Vista made.
I still would love to see MS put some of its massive brainpower toward an all-new Windows kernel/architecture, but that's a dream I doubt I'll see for another 10 years. Though, it does seem like the corporate culture over in Redmond is undergoing something of a shift.

Tunes: Hot Water Music - 220 Years

Also, here's Brian Fallon of the Gaslight Anthem covering Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." It starts a bit shaky, but he gets there.

New Jersey's punk darlings, The Gaslight Anthem, played Glastonbury this past weekend. They opened their set with the title track from last year's The '59 Sound. And who joined them but the Boss, Bruce Springsteen? Anyone who's listened to the band knows that they have a huge hard-on for Springsteen.

You can download a video of it here. There's also a crappy video on YouTube.

Tunes: Bruce Springsteen - Bobby Jean

In about half an hour, my coworkers and I are marching to the Rec Center to take the SSCP exam. We are most likely all going to fail this shit. Even Bob isn't confident. Ugh.

At least Vistronix will pay for us to retake it?

On the plus side, Punknews is streaming the new Dear Landlord album, and it rules. I mean, with members of the Copyrights and Rivethead, one would expect so, but it still should be said. So there's that.

Tunes: Dear Landlord - Hell

The Bosstones are playing in Providence, RI on August 14th. Anyone want to go?

Tunes: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Next to Nothing