This is the Land Where the Pharaoh Died

"gathering blues"

i'm a no-collar thief
and i'm lookin' for grief
to pass off to you as my charm
gonna find me a fool
and take all his grief
and tattoo it right here on my arm.

this was written in my macro-economics class, room 2301, July 11 somewhere between the hours of six and nine. i hadn't yet read ivan's spiel, but i think it may serve as an appropriate addition.

i'm not too concerned with roman art, ska, the hypocrisy of quantum mechanics, or macroeconomics. It is not my intention to vindicate, validate, or emulate. i just want to play my machine the best i can with the hands that i've got. And if i can't, then i'll borrow someone else's hands. I'm a no-collar thief. And I'm stealing these words as we speak.

post script: the boss beats # 2 should be done by this weekend. be on the lookout for the hexagon e.p.

Now is Better than Before

So yeah I have decided these blog posts aren’t going to have the set lists and all the stuff I promised before. In the immortal words of Darth Vader “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.” There is of course going to be updates about shows (even though I haven’t been saying much about them) and I will post any material that um… materializes. This is probably going to be more of my personal musings. Who knows maybe my colleagues in the band might take up the mantle and also write their own thoughts in relation to the band or music in general? For now you are stuck with me.

            Recently we have played a few shows and we have more coming up. As for the new EP we were at a bit of a standstill for a number of excuses (some of them are actually good ones). Right now we are just mixing it and we hope to be done by the latest Sunday.  We don’t have anything else other than the music right now. We are still working on things like packaging and artwork even the track list. That is all up in the air.  Anyone who watches us play regularly can tell what songs are going to be on it. I will tell you that “Foolish” and “I’m Gone” are not going to be on it. I’m not going to say much more because if I did I would be giving more of my opinion, my own personal speculation, or telling secrets I shouldn’t be.  I’m not much for secrets.

            What is not a secret is that I’m bored. When I’m bored I think of things. Right now I’m thinking about music. This is the blog of a band so it makes sense. I guess we are a ska band. It always bugged me when I read band interviews and bands would say they preferred to not to be categorized, “we are transcend genres.” That statement is way too confident for me to say. I would prefer to say that everyone in band listens to a variety of stuff and it comes out in the music we make. Just for convenience sake if someone asks me “So what kind of band are you in? Like rock?” I usually respond “We are a ska band.” Reactions vary from person to person but a common one I get is “What is ska?” This is one of my least favorite reactions because eventually it leads to a bad attempt at summarizing the history of ska it connections to other genres that spawned from it and the “waves” it has and continues to go through.

            The concept of waves is interesting because it seems that each wave of ska uses it as a way to align itself with the past giving a sign that “hey we’re all part of the same ocean”. I’m aware that bands don’t pick these titles. It is those who interpret their music that make up this separation (see chillwave). That being said the relation between the past and history has always sort of been there. Ska has always been saturated with covers. Even in the first wave (we are rewriting history) I’m pretty sure “I’m in the Mood for Love” had been around for a while before (I’m not doing research. I’m bored but I’m still lazy). The two tone bands also performed covers and were quick to adopt the fashion that sort of went with it. Third wave didn’t take to the suits but they sure loved to do a cover of something old and they liked the checkered pattern.  I know I’m stereotyping but to be honest I really don’t care because this isn’t the meat and potatoes of what I have to say. What I want to talk about is the present.

            Ska is in a coma. I’m not going to say ska is dead because it is a cliché to say that anything is dead because pop culture is constantly exhuming the dead bodies of old genre’s and trends (fashion is a zombie movie).  What wave are we in? Are we destined to be caught in a wave and to drown under the surf? I don’t know. Like I said placing bands into categories is a job put in the hands of listeners. Also it would be pretty presumptuous of me to say that we are going to bring “back” ska and that the third wave is over. Actually from what I see a lot of bands are still very interested in the third wave or sounding Jamaican or just sounding old. That is fine, but I think it is a mistake. Why must we walk on the shoulders of giants? Why must we do as the Romans do and steal their art from the Greeks? The Boss Beats are guilty of this too. Songs like “Love is Blind”, “Shadowman 9”, "Return to Spider Skull Island” and probably a few more are dripping in the leftovers of the past. I don’t apologize for these songs because I think there good songs. Even one of our “Newer” songs that I wrote “Cogs” is still influenced by the past. On the first things Zubin told me was it sound like the 80’s. What I think is different about the songs we are writing now is that we aren’t concerned with making it sounded like it was recorded in Studio 1 in 68. I want it to sound like I recorded it in a cave in 2011.  It’s a challenge to sound modern, and in some cases I can’t help but play that way (I could play a Gibson SG through a Marshall stack and the moment I try to solo it is still going to sound surf). I hope no one takes this as me criticizing the bands that work hard to play that sound. I honestly tip my hat at anyone that can do it right. That is their band and those are their goals. For me, my goal is to look at today. I want to create music that is here in the present.

            It’s easy to say that the old days were better, that the old days were the “best of times” but at the time they were “the worst of times”. Today is looked down upon. The past is held up high on a pedestal and the future is either dark or bright. Today is just beige and we aren’t going to see the brightness of the colors till we are old and grey and talking about the good ol’ days. In looking back about the past we forget the bad. What survives the erosion of time is usually the best that time had to offer. What artists should be creating is art that will represent the times they lived in not the times they wished they lived in. The Boss Beats are not the Romans (Yes I’m stereotyping Roman art). We are the Egyptians. If the pharaoh before builds a pyramid we are building a bigger pyramid. We are trying to kick old pharaoh’s pyramids ass. It’s going to be weird maybe it’s not going to even to be in the shape of a pyramid maybe it’s going to be a sphere or a cone. It’s going to have snakes with feathers and humming birds on fire (we sound more like the Aztecs). Maybe we are the Israelites escaping Egypt, tired of building the pyramids for the Pharaoh. We wish to break the bonds we have to the past and travel into the unknown land of milk and honey. I realize the irony in using an example from history and the Old Testament.

            A teacher was explaining to me once about the different types of sonnets. In the lecture she mentioned that how people writing in the different types are in “conversation” with the sonnets that preceded them. I look at most art in the same context. We are conversing with everyone working within our genre and sometimes outside of it. Just like in a real conversation it’s not going to go anywhere if you just repeat what somebody else said.

            We play Saturday all by ourselves.

I'm trying.

Already off to a better start. I don’t really have any news to give. I’m just trying to get into the habit of writing. So to make this blog post not completely worthless I will try my best to talk about a little something about “band stuff”. Well we have show this Saturday at the Dawg House (They really need to change that name, it really sucks). We will be playing with the Hub City Stompers. The flyer that is on our facebook says Factory Minds is playing this isn’t true. The Bohunks are playing. This is yet another show we are playing with our dear friends The Bohunks. If you have come to three of our shows you have probably seen them. If you have seen them then you are probably not the same. After watching the Bohunks you could be pregnant. The Boss Beats have seen the Bohunks so much that we are receiving child support. The Bohunks always are great live and they always take the kids every other weekend. As for Tried and True and the Hub City Stompers I have not seen them I haven’t heard too much about them. I have no opinion. I assume the Hub City Stompers are good since they are touring. Maybe that is a bad assumption but I doubt a band would consider touring if people weren’t coming to see them. It is 21+ and that really sucks. I’m sure they are charging and that sucks too. I have no idea how much. The only information I have is from a flyer and from past experience. Things are supposed to start at eight and that usually means nine or ten. I don’t know when we go on. I wouldn’t rule out first. You can usually tell the line up by the size of the text used for the band’s name. The Hub City Stompers are the biggest, so they are last. Tried and True is the second biggest, second to last.  Factory Minds and the Boss Beats are about the same but they aren’t playing. The Bohunks play often and they have built up a large following I would say so that puts the Bohunks third to last. That puts the Boss Beats fourth to last (first). I hope you come see us play. I wish there were no age restrictions and I wish they charged the bare minimum.

That is why You Fail.

Yup, I was right. I didn’t write set lists. I didn’t take pictures. My phone has been acting up so I doubt I will be taking pictures any time soon. Yeah I take pictures using my phone I don’t have a digital camera. I’ve been super busy with school. There are a bunch of excuses I could make but that would be a waste of vital writing space. So let us not concern ourselves with the past.

            On that note here has we been up to in the past two months: writing shows recording. Obviously no one has been using their time to write in here. All that precious writing time has been used writing songs (in my case essays and songs). As for shows we have had a lot. I wish I could tell you a number but like I said my phone has been acting up so all my old calendar dates have been cleared. Most of them have been good, some have been bad. We were on the (internet) radio. That was cool. Overall it has been okay. Recording has gone good. We’re close to being finished. We have some big plans and I think everything is going to be okay (the really good okay).

            It is unclear what the future holds. Few things are certain. More shows are for certain. New songs, yup that’s probably going to happen. Summer tour…? Maybe. I will try to write in this thing more. I’m not making any promises.

PS

I promise you that we will be playing at the Dawg (Dog) House in Hacienda Heights.

Did You Know?

Well I haven't updated in forever. I don't know how many people actually read this. I dare not to guess. I've been pretty busy with school. So yeah. There that is. So yeah we have had a bunch of shows. Do I remember all the set lists? Nope. Did I take any pictures? Nope. I will try to be better next time but that is all I can offer. I will have many opportunities to make up for my mistakes (probably make more). We have a good amount of shows coming up. We have like almost one show a week it is pretty intense (some weeks two). We are working on new songs. So that’s cool.  Here are some of the flyers that we have so far.

LAG and THE FIRST EP

Dear friends,

I'm so behind we have had 3 shows already and i haven't updated. I will try my best to catch up. In the mean time as a gift I have uploaded the first EP. so here you can dowload it. Sorry it isn't labeled and stuff, I did it in a rush and I'm not too good with computers.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jey8538z18gzk61

Also on a whim I decided to enter the Boss Beats in the Ernie Ball Battle of The Bands to play Warped Tour.

http://www.battleofthebands.com/u/The_Boss_Beats

Yeah so vote for us.

I love you dearly,

I.Ngo

The Winter of Our Discontent

" Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of York" (Act1.Scene 1 Lines 1-2) 

In the case of the Boss Beats our "son of York" is actually two things. We have two shows coming up. The first being in Pomona at Angelo's on the 25^th of February. We have played there a few times before, in fact I believe our second show was there (In which we opened for the Cro-Mags. weird right?). Other bands that will be gracing our presence are Bodegas, The Meru, the Brain Burnerz, and almighty RUPTURES. According to this flyer it’s going to be a night of “Street-Core Ska” whatever that means, and Clockwork Orange I guess.  The next show is the following day on the 26^th to be honest I don’t know too much about this show so I will post a quote from the facebook that I assume Jackie wrote, “Saturday Feb 26th Come out and celebrate Joline & Lenny's Birthday Bash @ Characters in Pomona! Free Show with: Y.A.P.O., KROOKED DICK (with members of Tangwich), THE BOSSBEATS, HUNGRY ASS YOUTH, D.R.A., A.S.S.” A flyer should be forthcoming. Character’s is a bar so probably 21+.  The address is 276 East 1st Street, Pomona, CA 91766. This brings us to our next point.

            When Shakespeare wrote “son of York” it was a pun implying Richard’s brother Edward, him being the Duke of York and part of his emblem being the sun. The Boss Beats’ King Edward is Eric Miller. The comparison ends there though since we aren’t planning to murder his children to position ourselves as the king. This will be his debut show with us as our new drummer. We think you will be impressed. Eric has filled in as a guitarist on different occasions and if you have come to our shows before you’ve probably seen him, in the crowd, on the stage, always there to let somebody “borrow” his shit. Since we shall be debuting a new member we will possibly be debuting some new songs also. 

_Ivan