Austin Lucas

"BORN TO RUN" IS THE BEST SONG EVER IN THE HISTORY OF RECORDED MUSIC. PERIOD.

Take this job and shove it!

Auxes - Ichkannnichtmehr

I tend to put people on a pedestal sometimes. Musicians, artists, writers, people in my life, people I love. I just can't help it. This is part of who I am. When I interviewed Chuck D, I felt like a little kid. (OK, actually I was looking down on Flavor when I bumped into him, but this was more a height thing...) But then again, punk rock has taught me that hero worship is a bunch of shit. If you look up to someone, you make yourself smaller. That's idiotic. One of the best thing about punk rock is that there are people you admire, people that inspire your thoughts and actions, and ultimately your life, but you can see eye to eye. You are peers.

Dave Laney is one of the people that have inspired me, even though we have never talked. He played in Milemarker, he played in Challenger, he published Media Reader, and probably did half a dozen more things that I don't know shit about. I loved the pink Milemarker record to death, and Media Reader made me look at music reviews from a whole new angle:

"We believe that the complete package is essential for a proper review of an "artist", and, even more importantly, of the specific "work of the artist" that you are sending us. We see no separation between art and music (in fact, music is art) and thus review not only the music but also the design and contents of the record."

So, well... Mr Laney is an American gentleman. This album has a German title. He lives in Hamburg now. Does that say anything about the music? Nope. I just thought I'd drop some random info here. And now, in the spirit of Media Reader, let's have at the artwork... awesome! It's extremely simple: just white and pink handwriting on black backgrounds, but it works. In fact, it works much better than an all computerized and clean design work would in this case. The music is dirty, the lyrics are personal, and the artwork reflects just that. Extra bonus points for the tasteful of magenta without letting it even remotely look like some teenie metal "emo" band!

The music... well... it KICKS FUCKING ASS! Maybe I have been listening to too much Black Flag in my life (if that's even possible at all!), but some of the song structures remind me of Black Flag. In fact, the chorus of the first song sounds exactly like "Rise Above" (if you make your own phonetic version of the lyrics, like I do all the time...). The second song, "Bad Luck, Motherfucker", is my favorite song on the whole album, it rocks so hard it's almost ridiculous. And more than that, it makes me feel alive.

So, from one old punk to another: thank you, Dave Laney! Your music is on fire with passion. I can hear it. I can fucking feel it. I can relate to a lot of the lyrics. That was a pretty bad review of a pretty good record, I know. I just feel that I really can't do it any justice by just describing it. Just listen to it, and you'll know what I mean. This is punk rock 2010. There is hope.

www.auxes.com
www.gunnerrecords.com

All my friends are into liquid trends

We're not that hopeless, we're not as fucked as you think...

"In short lived moments, we can do anything..."

Dear Landlord, München 2010

Water Pistol Man, full of ammunition...

I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death.

I am patient boy. I wait, I wait, I wait.