Dear Friends,
On one hand, yesterday was a really nice day. Family and friends and good food. Excellent conversations, laughs, and love was all present.
On the other hand, it was a hard day.
My friend, Donnie Ho, died on July 2nd from cancer. It sucks so bad. I wasn’t expecting it at all, and the news hit me hard. I blew off going to an event about a month ago, maybe a little less, where I could have seen him. I kick myself for not going to Sidewalk Surfer to celebrate him.
There is a lot to process here, but Donnie was the type of guy who just made you feel better. Over the last decade or so, he became one of my favorite people and was always someone that I looked up to from years and years ago. I will miss seeing him until the day when I am gone, as well.
My heart goes out to everyone who loved him. There are a lot of people hurting today. I am there with you all.
*****
I’m a fan of July 4th, though. We will do our best to have another good day. Rhondi is going to make some green chili stew, so I am fully stoked on that. We have a bunch of fireworks to blow off, too. It will, at very least, be somewhat festive.
As bummed as I am, I know my friend would not want me to spend the day being sad about him. Too much death these days, though. Too much.
Time for a different subject.
*****
I have zero recollection of how Freedom Fighters came to my attention. It just seems that one day, I had this record. I’m guessing Shane told me about them since they were on AmRep. There is only one record and it’s called My Scientist Friends. It seems fitting that I should talk about them today as we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of our nation.
My Scientist Friends is a bit of an asskicker. It comes roaring right in and doesn’t let up for the entire nine songs contained within. It is available on Spotify, too, so don’t get twisted if you can’t find a copy of this CD anywhere. You won’t find it except on Discogs.
I also don’t know anything about the band. Any information I could share here would just be something I found on the internet and because it is a holiday, I’m not doing that. What I will do is just enjoy this record while I type about it.
About every seven or eight years I dust this off. It sits there in my stack of CDs near the Fudge Tunnels and Fugazis, and it remains ready. Vigilant, even. Heck, with a name like Freedom Fighters, this band better be ready.
My imagination tells me they were amazing live. There is a real urgency to the tunes on My Scientist Friends and I love that from a record or a band. The heavier/noisier bands that clearly came from the punk rock world are typically my favorites. I can’t imagine that the Freedom Fighter guys were anything but hardcore fans.
Probably the best song on the record is “Crows Nest.” The band does the quiet/loud thing really fucking well here and in the mix are some bits of static that have to be there just to fuck with the listener. I love that. They don’t mess up any of the really good parts with it, but it is there in the beginning, and it creates some wonderful tension for the listener.
I also really like the first two songs a lot. “Bad Back” and “Bob Dylan’s 119th Dream,” respectively, are both fantastic. As mentioned, “Bad Back” comes in and just grabs you from the get-go. Totally bad ass. The lyrics to “Bob Dylan’s 119th Dream” are great, too. Both in delivery and the choice of words, whoever sings this one is ruling it.
“C.E.O.” is some badass riffage, too. The band does this thing with the recordings a lot where it seems like things are fucking up on your stereo, but no. Just the band fucking with you. As the CD goes on, there are some riffs that seem like they are fucking up, but again, it’s just the way it is supposed to be.
Damn, I wish I knew more about Freedom Fighters. I bet they were funny as hell. You should listen to this record, especially if you like things heavy and noisy and little fucked up. Freedom Fighters deliver the goods on My Scientist Friends.
“1 arm, 2 Legs” is excellent fun, too. I should really have just stopped and really thought about this write up before I started it, but hot damn, I want to blow some shit up.
*****
See you tomorrow.
My AI scientist friends
Opmerkingen