RUSTBELT TOUR 2013

I am back home after touring the Midwest with Reagan Youth AND my brand spanking new band Dust Angel. We started off in Trenton, N.J. where I was raised by the praise of a fan who said I upset her...because the band didn't have enough original members (Dave Insurgent and Andy Apathy, your absence sill hurts our hearts). The next night we played Brooklyn and our the bill was Empty Vessels, New Scum and the always cool Crusty P. It was our last night before we had to to hit the road so the next day my band mates left their jobs early, as possible, Tibbie had the hard task of telling her baby boy goodbye before we hopped into our rental. So I tossed my most punk guitar, Fender's cheapest strat, the Squirer because I wasn't gonna trust the weather of the Midwest as wood is very susceptible to expanding and contracting, doing whatever it wants and that sucks when you wanna play your songs as well as you should. So I left my prized Gibson Les Paul at home and headed out with my two singers Trey Oswald and Madame St. Beatrice and my new drummer, Stig Whisper. Reagan Youth never played Albany before and we heard that they had a good punk scene, so we all left psyched, excited to play.  

We arrived at the venue in Albany, named Bogies, and as soon as I got out of the car I encountered a short, chubby guy with a hat and glasses telling me that the club was closing because we arrived too late to play. He added something about how we were supposed to load in at 5:00 pm and and because we were from a big city like New York, we were used to showing up late, so too bad for us. But the time was only 9:30 pm so I tried to reason with him but he acted like an ass. We had driven up to Albany, and we had to anyway to get to Buffalo, but why drive over 4 hours to go to some club so some ass-wipe, who was NOT Joe Chaos for everyone's information, tell me such foul shit. When they closed the club at 9:30 pm for no legit reason, and on a Saturday night no less, sure some fans clamored for a refund since was the bands was present and were ready, willing and able to go on. What could I do, it's not like the cops were gonna make the club give refunds, even if they should being that there was more patrol officers and police cruisers all around Albany on that Saturday night, so I brought both my bands to play at Twon's House who was kind and generous enough to allow us to rock Twon's House. Now at this point I want to express my deepest apologies to Mr. Joe Chaos for assuming he was the guy that was responsible for shutting the club at 9:30. Joe Chaos was the promoter of the show but the promoter isn't always at the show. It's happened before and even later during this very tour. It was a bad mistake for me to make an assumption that it was Joe, sorry my deepest regrets. You see I had some not so very nice things to say about Mr. Joe Chaos when I posted a status on Reagan Youth's Facebook. That it got over 100 comments and their were many that stuck up for Joe Chaos showed me that he must be a good promoter, a stand up guy, someone any band would have no problem working with. Madame St. Beatrice of Dust Angel hid the post telling me "enough with that crap Paul" so I focused on other things, like the rest of the tour. Now just recently someone, who was present when all that nonsense went down, contacted the band and told me exactly who the guy that closed the club was; Dan Asylum.

 What truly baffles me is why this ass wipe, DAN ASYLUM, or let me call him by his full name; DAN "ASS WIPE" ASYLUM, why he didn't or wouldn't contact the post Reagan Youth made about Joe Chaos and say to us, be man enough to tell me that my beef wasn't with Joe Chaos, but that it was with him, Dan "Ass Wipe" Asylum. Just shows you what type of man Dan Asylum and I don't know what bands want to deal with him, but telling me that I'm no longer welcomed at Bogies is like telling me.. nothing. Whoop dee fuckin do Ass Wipe Dan. But enough with the ugly, it's time to talk about the good that we had in Albany. Dust Angel and Reagan Youth got to play our entire sets, and fans wanted more so I got the band to play some covers; "Basement" by The Ramones, "Class War" by The Exploited, some "Clash City Rockers" and "Raison D'Etre" by the Buzzcocks. And some extra love to Twon for putting us up as well. But Albany is mostly about my bad for making a stupid mistake so I Mr. Joe Chaos can forgive me for my derogatory words towards him and the club he promoted our show at. And it was quick and easy to get over what happened because of that sweet gig at Twon's House and a cozy bed to crash in and the next thing y'know, it's time to shuffle off to Buffalo. 

In Buffalo we played a club which was converted from a Funeral Darth Sarah and Lindsay they had a great energy, a mixed crowd and it was one of the better shows on the RUSTBELT tour. It was cold in Buffalo but a great crowd for a Sunday show, no bullshitting, just great down home punk rock. The club put us up and it was pretty cozy sleeping in a place that was once a dead person's last stop before disappearing.

We then made our way to Peabody's in Cleveland. 

home and both bands I played in got tighter and their were a lot of coolest looking punk rockers that I ever come across, just like I played Cleveland once before at Now That's Class and I wanted to see what else Cleveland offered so we played at Peabody's. An interesting club which was huge with two shows going on on the same night. One was a metal show (I had to check that out and the band, I believe they were from Florida, were super talented on their instruments and I can always respect musical abilities) and then there was the punk show which included Sour Towel.

In all honestly if it wasn't for Sour Towel I'm not sure anyone would have showed up and they were great fun. But in Cleveland it was when we found out about the bombing in Boston. For some reason whenever I go on tour something with terrorism has to happen. I remember telling an audience in Baltimore that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. My drummer Greg had a friend who went to college in Boston and a few days later his friend called to tell him that a swat team had stormed his college with a black hawk helicopter hovering above. We watched the news for information everyday about that episode, which sounded like serious news, but nothing was ever on put out about that on any news channel. That's why you can't believe everything the news tell you, when it's more about not keeping us informed or just informed enough so you really just know squat. What I did see was an interview with a curmudgeon saying the bomber should be sent back to Russia to get buried. Wow, the had to put on an old fart who still believed the cold war was still going on since the dead bomber was a Chechen. Now Chechnya only had two really nasty wars with Russia recently enough. So we slept and then left for Detroit, a city with a great musical history MC5, The Stooges, Slim Shady and it was in the great city of Detroit, living up to it's reputation, that had the best bands playing on the same bill as us. 

After we played we needed some time for just the band so we checked into a motel, and we do that, every once in a blue moon, because crashing at crash pads saves the band money, but more importantly, we get to hang with the locals and get a good feel of the places we visit. Motels are the same everywhere, and it doesn't hurt that people's places are usually 100 times cleaner than some place where people will use as a stop over, or a place to fiend on drugs, or to leave bodily fluids everywhere. But before we went there we did a radio interview for Cleveland State University's radio station WCSB. Now it was only supposed to be a ten minute interview, but the deejay wanted both Dust Angel and Reagan Youth and before you know it, we're ranting for an hour, at least. Listening to my band mates spread their good words and positive message enlightened me to the fact, that for the first time since I got Reagan Youth rolling again, I had a two bands with some great chemistry; the brethren Trey Oswald, Stig Whisper and Mike Nowek and sistren Madame St. Beatrice and Tibbie X-Kamikaze. It's always fun to do a radio interview but this one warmed my heart and made me feel proud to be associated with such great musicians, friends, human beings. Thank you. 

When the tour was being booked there was a band called Glitter Trash from Detroit, MI that wanted to play with us but had been banned because the singer liked to perform topless, sure wish they showed up but we played with Raw Dogs instead that happened to they were show a lot of skin that night. Raw Dogs sounded pretty fuckin' amazing!

As a matter of fact every band that played that night at Toepher's House in Warren, MI sounded hot. The promoter, from Suicide Machine, had the flu and didn't show up and we hope he made a full recovery. He booked a great gig and we drove to Chicago over night so we could crash at Ivan and Deborah's; good buddies of Madame St. Beatrice and I.  

In Chicago I played two shows, one was all ages at Township and another at Ultra Lounge. The all ages show we played with kids that were my age when I started Reagan Youth way, way back with Dave Insurgent. It was great seeing and playing on the same bill as When Flying feels Like Falling. Violet, Saffron and the rest of the band. Funny thing was when one of the other band's had one of their dad's at the show. he told me "So you're the reason I have to stay for the whole show". When we played the song 'Reagan Youth' that dad stormed out of the club during the "heil, heil, heil" chorus. So he didn't know what the band is about, I respect that dad for his reaction. Playing two shows in a single night is tough and we went to Ultra Lounge to play our second show. There I met Ari Lehman who showed up for the show. Ari went to N.Y.U. with Dave Insurgent and stayed in the same dorm. It was great seeing him after all these years. He started a band called First Jason because he was in the first Friday the 13th movie, as Jason Vorhees. Funny stuff, especially when he lit up some amazing herb which made it even funnier. My drummer Greg kicked himself for not getting a photo with the first Jason. I told Greg not to worry, we'll go see First Jason next time they play New York. And in Chicago it continued to rain, and rain. It rained so much the Ivan and Deborah's house got flooded. We drove off but not before checking out Chicago and my bass player, Tibbie X, bought me this Rush tee shirt that just happened to be red with a skull and swords on it. We went to a guitar store that had a Fender mustang bass with racing stripes. Tibbie tried that bass on and it was a perfect fit. I'm gonna have to find a way to get her that bass for her even though  Tibbie will  be playing second guitar for Dust Angel, it just looked way too cool on her. 

So we drove off the highways towards Milwaukee and I
wanna give Dust Angel's bass player Mike Nowek mad props for driving us to Milwaukee because we heard there was so much traffic from a massive rainfall, one the area hadn't had so bad since 2008. I did not realize I would be playing most of the shows in Wisconsin but I did and found out why. It's the state with some serious music, serious musicians, serious fans.We played the Frequency in Milwaukee and we were told there was a big heavy metal show going on earlier and we would get the spill over crowd coming to see us. When Dust Angel went on my guitar broke a string and with the tremolo system I have on my strat losing that A string made the whole guitar go out of wack. Nothing I could do at that time (no way I was gonna restring up because besides it taking too much time, I was stoned out of my mind. You see, Wisconsin is like the California of the Midwest, the state with the best sweet leaf. So I tried to play the song that was next up "Love Is Between My Legs" and it sounded like total shit. Before I could get through the opening chords Tibbie X, my bassist in Reagan Youth, grabbed someone's guitar and I tuned it quickly and next thing I know I played the whole set with this cool looking heavy metal guitar. The crowd at Frank's Power Plant was very kind but not as sweet as Mike of Population Control whose guitar saved my ass that night. When Reagan Youth went on I had put a E string on Mike's guitar but the crowd, which spilled over from the other metal show that ended earlier, didn't care much from punk rock, even if we were playing "Heavy Metal Shuffle", the crowd emptied out and we went out in the cold night and got ready for Madison. 

Madison is the capital of Wisconsin and is a very beautiful place. We played at the Frequency that night and it was one of our better shows. A band from Vegas called the Vampirates blew my mind by sounding totally disorientated yet tight. Can't describe it really, go out and give them a listen, you will not be disappointed. After the show it was a bit sad because our bassist Tibbie X had to go home because she's a mother and her babysitter couldn't babysit no longer. So I drowned my sorrow in that amazing Wisconsin sweet leaf and played Bobby Hull table hockey until my lower back started aching like my heart did for Tibbie. 

We were supposed to pick up Tibbie's replacement for the rest of the tour, Shiro Aoki, a good guy I know from the rock scene in NYC but the airlines fucked his flight up something fierce. There was no way he was making it to Appleton so I proposed playing the set as a trio but my singer Trey had another idea. He contacted Eric from Wartorn and we met him earlier that day and ran through the set.

It was colder than a witch's tit that night and when I went to get my guitar from the trunk of our rental there was icy condensation on my strat and I thanked myself for leaving the Gibson back home. I played the Dust Angel set as a trio because we didn't have a bassist anymore since Mike Nowek was driving himself and Tibbie back home and we were able to play some songs we weren't able to before with Mr. Nowek so that was fun. Eric from Wartorn came on stage with us that night and played our entire set as good as anyone could have. To think he learned all the songs a few hours earlier, played a set with his band Wartorn and promoted the show as well just goes to show how freakin' amazing he is. After the set there was a sense of relief from all of us but there was another party to go to so we huffed, and puffed and blew away so many brain cells. We deserved it so why not. Too bad we had an 8 hour ride to Des Moines. 

At this point, since we lost two bass players and their car, we had to upgrade our rental. Our first rental, when I opened the glove compartment I found a pack of cigarettes and asked "whose are these?". Everyone said "not mine". I dug into the glove compartment a little deeper and found something a bit more insidious than a strange pack of cigarettes; cocaine, cooked up. I'm glad none of us indulged in the base cocaine that was left behind by the last car renters. With our new rental, true to form, something was left behind for us yet again; a Nintendo DS. No one wanted that either, so after driving all the way to Des Moines no one cared about returning that or the base cocaine. But I digress.............So we had to make it to Des Moines and when you go to sleep when the sun is coming up it's kind of hard to make good time. I wasn't gonna break any speed limit but I couldn't take a break and driving 8 hours was hellish on my lower back and to top shit off, I had to pick up Shiro who finally had the airline fly him into an airport. So we picked up Shiro, headed right to the Lucky Cat and plugged in and played my two sets and we were happy to have a full band again. We could have partied, and Shiro really wanted to, but we explained to him that every night we've played there was a party waiting for us right after, so Shiro took pity on us and we crashed at our singer's friends, Tim & Tabatha's. house and we finally caught up on sleep. 

We drove to Omaha the next day and finally checked into a motel for it had been a while, since Cleveland, so we could have some alone time. I chilled out, watched a Simpson episode and headed out to the Hideout to play. It was a great crowd for a Monday night and we played thinking "dang, this is gonna be over soon". So we played our hearts out knowing the Rustbelt tour was going to soon come to an end. We hung out for a bit after the show and we were blazed up and then given some killer bud as a present. Nebraska punks are as great as they come. 

So with our rental we headed to St.Louis and as soon as we hit the venue we were given money to go eat up some good ole' St.Louis food, so kind of Bob who promoted the show and had a good turn out. I'm not gonna lie and tell you we were feeling 100% when you play 25 sets in 12 days. I played a Dust Angel set every night and then followed it up with a Reagan Youth set with two shows in Chicago, so I did my best to sound at 100%. The crowd at Fubar was great and that made a big difference in both sets especially when a fan singing all the lyrics into my mic. Afterwards we were given an interview by the lovely Devin and sweet Tess who was kind enough to put us up in the heart of St.Louis and it was the most interesting night for me because I didn't just meet musicians but a a filmmaker, Jim D. Fuller (look him up in IMBD) who gave me "Demons Play", "Die Naked At The Hands Of Your Killer", At First Sight" and "A Cosmic Kiss Goodnight"....sweet! And then the next morning I got to go see CBGBs...again, but it was closed. And it was in St. Louis, but still.....Devin later confessed that she became political science major because Reagan Youth. Dave, you have to be smiling down from heaven from that one :-) and Tess gave off some of the best vibes we had encountered and believe you me, that's saying something after meeting so many great people who were different as individuals but copacetic as Reagan Youth fans can only be. Needless to say it was sad to drive off to our last show, our singer's Trey's hometown; Louisville. 

Entering Louisville we lost an hour due to the timeline and we hung out at St. Louis  longer than usual because it was so chillax but that meant we missed our man, Mike Defendant from Ohio, when he performed as our opener at Spinelli's Downtown. After the show the band let loose at this great bar, Cahoots, because it was the end of the tour, it was time to indulge at a really beautiful scale. I still was able to find time to jam with Mike on a Jethro Tull acoustic classic; "Mother Goose", and the next day he recorded a country version of "Degenerated" with the guys I brought out whom I owe a many thanks to especially Trey Oswald not that Stig or Shiro for that fact. We partied the night away drinking Bullelit Bourbon (what else should one drink in Louisville, Kentucky?) and then I  crashed, went to waffle house for some hash, and was ready to go home.

You would think after driving this entire tour the one drive home would be simple but we got pulled over for speeding in Ohio. the State Trooper took Stig's drivers license and came back a few minutes later and told Stig he wasn't allowed to drive because his license was "dropped"! That's right "Dropped"? Not suspended, nor revoked, not even stolen, just "dropped". So Shiro went on the internet and Googled anything about a driver's licence being dropped and found nothing. So we had a ball busting State Trooper who then asked if any of us had driver's licences and we all said no and then he asked if knew anyone in Columbus, where we were near, but why wake up people we like at some God forsaken hour, and if he could lie to us why shouldn't we do the same to him so he said he couldn't allow us to sit on the highway because God forbid some car comes plowing into us that would be some lawsuit against the State Trooper who wouldn't let Stig drive because of a licence being dropped? Bullshit!

So, let me end by saying this, thank you to everyone, and there was a whole bunch of you who were super kind to both Dust Angel and Reagan Youth. Next time we'll bring merch for Dust Angel and more merch for Reagan Youth so you could spread some positivity around and not to mention some catchy tunes and great singing and then you'll see we're only going to sound tighter until it's as tight as a mosquito's ass, the music that is. And last but certainly not least, once again I'm sorry Joe Chaos, you did nothing wrong because to ASSUME it was you I was beefing with, I made an ASS out of U and ME so my most heartfelt apologies to you, Joe Chaos. LONG LIVE THE MIDWEST MUSIC SCENE! from a most faithful Axe Meister 

Jim Pepe; The Ultimate Douchebag

This is just too much for me to let go so I'm going to tell you the story of Jim Pepe, one of the biggest shitheads I've ever encountered. I met Jim when I was looking for a singer so I went to see his band Diesel play at some New Jersey bar. I watched him sing and relized that this guy wasn't what I was looking for. He would call me periodically after that but I always ignored the call because it would have been pointless to have talked to the guy since I had already chosen Kenny Young to sing. But true to Kenny Young's way of being, Kenny started smoking crack, and when it was two weeks prior to a tour of the west coast, Jim was contacted by Mike Agro, so I rehearsed with him. Jim Pepe sang all the songs and seemed to be 80% there but every once in a while he'd let some pop shit creep into the songs. It annoyed me but it was better than bringing someone in the midst of abusing crack. Now Jim Pepe told me that the band he used to sing in, Diesel, used to get the same amount of money but that his guitarist had done some shady shit. Actually it was his old guitarist along with his girlfriend. I didn't know what that had to do with me but I later realized that he said that because my girlfriend was booking the shows so he made all of that up on the spot, just like Kevin Spacey's character in the movie "Usual Suspects". In that movie Kevin Spacey's character sees things around him and comes up with a lie and untruths and never ending bullshit, just like JIm Pepe. So we go out on tour and we played some nice shows but for Jim Pepe, it was the first time in his life that people were actually watching him perform, yet throughout the tour he kept telling me how his old band had the same amount of success as Reagan Youth. I never asked him, he just volunteered that bullshit over and over. He'd also say things like "let's record Degenerated because I sing the song more rock and roll than Dave" and I would laugh inside thinking "Dude, there is nothing rock and roll about you" but I just said focus on the new songs, which of course he never did. Actually, I wasn't able to play the band's new song because according to Jim Pepe, he had nothing to do with the lyrics. Jim Pepe failed to realize that none of the band's songs have anything to do with him. On top of that Jim would keep telling me that he wasn't punk and I thought "great, so he doesn't need to be in this band anymore because this band needs a punk rocker, not a failed football player" You see Jim Pepe went to college to play football and all he did was warm a bench for the South Carolina Gamecocks. I always thought it was funny that the pictures Jim Pepe put up on his Facebook would have him on the sidelines, no action shots of him actually playing in a game. Jim Pepe even admitted to me that when he wanted to go and show off his skills at the N.F.L. combine he was told to bring $60,000.00 to try out. That's sixty thousand dollars. That's what all the football teams thought of Jim Pepe's skills, basically if you want to come and waste out time than it will cost you $60,000.00. And it's not like Jim Pepe doesn't have the money, he's on his second trust fund he fucked up his first trust fund and his daddy gave him another, so Jim Pepe tells me "I know what it's like to be poor". No Jim, you know what's it like to be a douchebag and of course, a pathological liar. Well after that tour we played a few more shows with him but I had to let him go. I figured if he wasn't singing the songs correctly for the west coast tour, it was understandable because he only had two weeks to prep himself. But after months he comes back singing the song like he's Chris Daughtry. The last thing I need is for a guy to sing the songs like Chris Daughtry, maybe that worked on American Idol, but it had nothing to do with Reagan Youth. And Jim Pepe looks like Chris Daughtry so why would he want to sing like him? I'm pretty sure because Jim Pepe doesn't even like himself because he's a douchebag who happens to be a pathological liar on top of it. Shit, if I was him I wouldn't like myself either. Let's see Jim Pepe told me how he owned a business, lending money to small businesses. One of the businesses was, according to him, a Haitian woman who was a fashion designer and that by lending this woman money, she was able to hire three workers. There goes that "Usual Suspect" plot again. Jim saw my girlfriend, who is of Haitian descent and she is into fashion and when you add her to the there other guys he's touring with and just like that Jim Pepe spews out another lie. The last gig I played with him was in Philadelphia, he was really, really sounding like shit but when he told me how he went to a 24 hour convenience store and gave a some poor kid $5 because the kid didn't steal, like the kid's two friends did, I was like "this guy would rather hang out with 10 year olds in a convenience store that chill out at the venue? It was don't call me and I won't be calling you.... ever. Oh, and his so called business? he had on his Facebook that he was the owner of some business but he removed that when I told him that I knew everything he told me were nothing but lies. So he removed that because I wasn't going to believe that nonsense anymore so Jim Pepe thought "what's the point of having it up there". I'm still wondering why he had it up there at all. So what happens? Jim Pepe rents out a "hall" out in Plainfield New jersey so he can sing all the Reagan Youth song's correctly? Please! I ended up posting a status on the band's Facebook page explaining what a douchebag Jim Pepe is. And then I get all this information about Jim Pepe that made my head spin. There was the time I put these two girls on the band's guest list. Jim Pepe was attracted to one of them so he asked me to introduce him to her. She ends up telling Jim Pepe that he has big shoes to fill when singing in place of Dave Insurgent. And so what did I find out? I found out that Jim Pepe harassed those two girls into buying him beers. WHAT KIND OF A MAN WOULD DO? I know what kind of man, a non-man. A man who doesn't have a penis just a swatch of pimply skin between legs. And I did contact Jim Pepe and asked him "why don't you go book a show for your band Diesel, you made the same amount of money....lmao.... as the shows that we played. Of course he stopped pretending that was the truth. One thing that was true, Jim Pepe had a music page. It had three of his songs, and I told him how he should find his own voice. On his music page he tells of how he came in second place in the 2006 songwriting competition in Houston. I told Jim "sorry you lost to the Houston Oilers in the 2006 divisional songwriting playoffs but the Oilers didn't win the superbowl that year anyway. He deleted that page right away. Who would post such a pathetic thing? ONLY A DOUCHEBAG KNOWN TO THE WORLD AS JIM PEPE. JIM PEPE; DOUCHEBAG.... I have a lot more to say and I will continue to update this blog. And don't forget, if you ever meet someone called JIM PEPE from Miami Beach, remember, he's a pathological liar douchebag. Everyone who comes into contact with him should know. Can't believe I am saying this but I should have brought the crackhead to the west coast instead of....don't know if I told you this already but Jim Pepe is a pathologically lying douchbag.

http://reaganyouth.tumblr.com/post/45975080888/i-gotta-tell-you-about-this-guy-jim-douchebag http://reaganyouth.tumblr.com/post/45973313728/hey-ive-been-notified-that-a-couple-of-ex-band

ALL OVER THE SURFACE (DRAFT I)

From Pittsburgh, all over Ohio, way down to Alabama & Mississippi, made it to New Orleans and finished up in Florida with a different drummer. The tour was supposed to be about two bands that share the guitarist and drummer but the drummer insisted bringing along a merch girl. She was a nice person but she had never worked merch before and the drummer did say he knew "she was not good looking" but it was his van, so.....I figured he'd get tired of her real fast, but it was the exact opposite way around. Our drummer, Mr. Sabatino, thought the merch girl was going to be his girlfriend but she didn't like him like that and that just made him more pushy, more clingy and eventually way more creepy. But the rest of the band was gonna have a good time regardless and did. But he started acting like a bitch-ass and started costing the band all this money with his shenanigans like going to the most expensive gas station and filling it up he tank with super unleaded, cranking the AC even when we had colds or when it wasn't even warm out. It got to the point when we fill the tank and the morning it would be empty even though we didn't drive anywhere. When I asked the merch girl what did he do with the van all day she said he drove around aimlessly. So things we're headed towards a showdown. We finally had enough and the roadie filled in on drums after the "fired" Mr. Sabatino refused to play 'Degenerated' in Miami and stayed there, blowing off Orlando the next day, all because we allowed the merch girl to sleep in our motel room so she wouldn't be sexually harassed that night. Hey, she begged us and we couldn't say no. The moral of the story is you could always fire an asshole drummer so don't ever let that get in your way of having a good time with those kids in Pittsburgh (you know who you are), Matt Tard, Checkpoint Charlie, Mike Defendant, Chicago Steve from New Orleans, Sheila & John, Brian from Cincy, Bruce from New Smyrna Beach, Jessica Pearlman (ALWAYS), Straps, Cutie, Claire, Joshua from Athens, Zackary from Birmingham, the whole Ocean Springs, Mississippi scene, Blackbox Jungle from Gainesville, Rad Company from Dayton, Dead Cat Lounge, Vinny, The Flest Pets, Abortive Issue, Wesley from DeLeon Springs, Fabio, Homer and so many others I just can't put them all down right now. So you see it's not how the tour starts it's how the tour ends. And then you come home and play a great show in Brooklyn while get ready to tour Texas....but of course with a new drummer; the best drummer I've had since I started playing again and he is the coolest dude on top of it all.

RESURGENT (A WORTHY REPLACEMENT FOR DAVE INSURGENT)...FINALLY ! (DRAFT I)

After I reunited Reagan Youth I went through three singers. The first one couldn't sing the songs correctly but though he claimed not to be political at all he sure knew how to act like a bona fide Nazi after we did a three week tour of Europe (yeah that went over real well for the band as over half of the audience left half through the band's set) just to show that he could fuck up a gig. Since I fired him I removed every video of him singing Reagan Youth songs off YouTube and when you couple that with the fact that no one goes to see him play or even hear his new music that makes him a Ninja punk; a punk rocker that is never seen or heard because his music and performances suck so bad. After him I used someone that Dave Insurgent and I wanted to start a band with back in 1990 it didn't work back then and it didn't work this time around either. So I replaced him with someone who said all the right things politically and learned how sing the songs 90% correctly but when it was time to do another tour he showed his true colors that he thought being some trust fund baby elevated him into some Godlike status. Now for someone who never worked a day in his life and had time on his hands he has accomplished, so far, absolutely nothing unless you include his short stint as the band singer. Now prior to these three singers who just never had the talent or capabilities to sing Reagan Youth songs I had asked someone that I knew could do it who I was sure to do it. He couldn't at the time because he was focused on his own project but just recently I begged him to come sing but not as a permanent member and we both agreed. To have someone who could tour with us and not embarrass the band with silly antics, shitty singing, superiority complexes and all the other nonsense that have made those three non-singers to go back to their oblivion they came from. So now when you come see Reagan Youth expect to hear a singer that will do the songs justice something that wasn't done until this upcoming tour (Drivin' South Tour) since I reformed the band in 2006.

2011: a year of travelling the states with the band (DRAFT)

When 2011 began I was ready to play a bunch of shows with Reagan Youth once again. At the beginning of 2010 I had fired the previous singer and since the drummer was upset he wasn't able to borrow anymore money from said singer because of that fact, he was replaced soon after. The only remaining member was the bassist, Al Pike and we spent the whole of 2010 looking for not just a singer, but a drummer as well. By November Reagan youth was ready to play again with a new kick ass drummer, Mike "Thunderkicks" Sabatino, and an old friend of Dave Insurgent and I; Kenny Young. But now it was a new year and we got to play just a few shows with Al Pike until he was let go to focus on health and family issues. Now this was unfortunate because we had a Midwest tour booked by our good friends Stressbomb, who would be our support act, so I thought about who would be a noble replacement for Mr. Pike?. I decided on Dave "Dynamite" Manzullo who I had known since the first days of N.Y.H.C. of which both of us were a part of. Back then he was the guitarist of Ultra Violence and now after all these years he still played gigs with said band. I asked him to play bass. He told me "it's funny you asked because I just bought a bass". We both took that as a good sign.

Now in the meantime we were able to record a demo of a new song "Lucky 7" thanks to Gary Arnold of Gary's Chop Shop. A classy guy with a classy studio who knew how to record us like nobody's business. I was feeling blessed. Now it's only a demo but I was happy enough with it to put it up on the interment so anyone could download it for free.

Previously, with the first reformed band I had written a song "In The Thirsty Hour" which I wanted to be the other side of the first single with "Lucky 7" on the A side. Unfortunately I wasn't able to release any recordings of those two songs with the previous band as the singer purposely sang the lyrics incorrectly, so that no one could sing along to it, like the way people who see us always sing along to all our old songs. Couldn't put that up because I'd be way to embarrassed of how terribly the previous singer ruined that recording. But we had "Lucky 7" thanks to Gary Arnold and we were looking forward to rocking another new song live.

So we played our first show at local 269 after we were asked to play the gig as a favor to a promoter. I did this promoter a favor by telling her to pay the band whatever she could. I wish I hadn't played because during the gig this stupid drunk ran into my leg during the show and broke the tibia in my left leg. Seconds after going down I broke my guitar after swinging it as hard as I could, missing his head by an inch, thinking "what a piece of shit this ass wipe is". How typical when do someone a favor and end up owing thousands to a hospital for an emergency room visit.

We played one more gig in preparation for the Midwest at Sinclairs in Long Island for Howie Fightback whom I can proudly say is a real promoter. he took care of us as usual and we left to play our first tour since 2009. We played Philly twice and heard that we were playing :real rock n' roll". A true compliment i never mind hearing. We then went to Pittsburgh, a city I happen to love, and had fun there as well. Cleveland was next and the band finally laid down a rule for Mr. Manzullo: NO DRUGS BEFORE YOU PLAY as he sounded off and acted wack. He did the right thing at Chicago and we sounded tight like a mosquito's ass. That was important to my as in the audience that night was none other than Dave Insurgent's best friend; Russell Muscle. seeing him slam dancing in the crowd again after so many years, and seeing him singing along to all the old songs meant something to me. It touched my heart. I was able to see his wife Christine and it's always great catching up with ole' buddies.

So we drove unto Columbus where we had one of our best shows. A great crowd showed up and seeing Mr. Manzullo get some from a beautiful girl put a smile on all our faces as he had been dumped by his girlfriend previous to joining the band. he appreciated finally going on tour with a hardcore band, after some 30 years of waiting, and his appreciation was reciprocated by a young woman in school to learn modeling. No one deserved that better then Mr. Manzullo. We then played Nashville, a beautiful place with a rich musical history. Chattanooga was next and the thing I remember best was listening to the people's stereo system blasting Judas priest live out of a stereo system form the 70's. I hadn't heard 'that sound' since the early 80's and it was magical to hear recordings played on a system that were specifically built to play Judas Priest Live and Strangers in The Night by UFO. Beautiful people those Southerners and I will always hold Matt Tard and Charlie Checkpoint from Columbus and Morgan and Twat Sauce close to my heart for their amazing southern hospitality. We headed back north and played Virginia where I met a fan who showed me a quilt with a box shown into it with a picture of Dave Insurgent. he asked me to sign it after telling me that he would hand that quilt down to his grandchildren and explain to them the importance of Reagan youth's message. I was so proud of having played with Dave Insurgent before but hearing and seeing that, I was touched with overwhelming emotion beyond belief. we wrapped up the tour in Baltimore and met a few folks that remembered seeing Reagan Youth back in the 80-'s at Jules' Loft. Really sweet stuff.

So we we took some time off and headed down to Florida where we played with an amazing band, Gurelllas De Noche. who rocked Churchills. My merchandise girl, who happens to be black, was called the n word by some racist piece of shit and the singer from that band defended her honor. The racist hit the singer with a bottle and that's when all the punk rockers opened joined in since the bottle no longer meant it was fair fight and opened up a serious can of whup ass on the racist. The cops came and arrested the racist who came with one friend that night; an off duty cop.....lol.

So we took some time off to take care of shit at home and after doing that we headed out Delaware where I was able to hang with the singer from the old N.Y.H.C. band the Mob, the great Ralphie. He busted out some lines of blow and patted me on my back as I headed out to Pennsylvania. The gig was memorable because we met a great guy; Ron Zodiac. We headed back home and waited for our next show.

The next show we had booked was Boston but our singer wasn't able to make it. I felt bad going up there without a singer but when I explained to the audience what happened (drugs), instead of booing they cheered us on and helped us out by grabbing the singer's microphone and singing along to each and every song. Boston rocks, great city with even greater punk rockers.

So now I had a dilemma, who was gonna sing for our big west coast tour and after considering all these singers we I eventually chose Jim "Diesel" Pepe. We played Pittsburgh, once again that year, so he'd know what to expect for the west. Now he didn't have much time to learn the set but by the time we got to Seattle he rocked those songs something fierce so going out west the band was feeling confident once again.

Seattle's' Sound fest was great, as we opened for the Avenegrs and Jello Biafra. next we played with poison Idea in Portland and that was another great show (mention Sharlie Scandal and Rawbo and Sarah and that Chinese band). We drove down US1 and saw some of the most amazing sights. When you look at at the pacific and the sea merges with the mist and the sky, well, Jim said it best "This is what Heaven looks like guys". eventually we made our way to Bakersfield, Buck Owen's old stomping grounds and it was as good any place we've ever visited. Along the way a drummer hooked up Mr. Sabatino with a snare all for a signed Cd. Great guy. We L.A. (which had been wary to book us since the last time we played there our fans got so excited they rioted. I made sure to keep it cool this time around. Next we rocked an all ages show for Mr. Jeff Froelich in Fullerton. Unfortunately Mr. Froewlich had to get his appendix pulled and missed the show. We went with our good friends Ana and Emily insurgente to the Poor Kids radio show. freaking' amazing. And heading west we played some beautiful shows at Santa Barbara, San Lius Opisopo, Pomona and Concord. Sacramento was wack as we played after the police chased everyone away. But we finished strong with two amazing shows, Gilman in Berkeley and The Instant asshole House in Oakland. Leasa and Mikey ROCK!

We headed home but Mr. Ssbatino went back out again with Zounds, another great anarcho punk band, with a shaved head so he'd look different, but still an amazing drummer. he told me he wasn't the same flashy guy that time around but I know the fans appreciated hearing some great drumming coming from Reagan Youth's drummer. We played new jersey and though it wasn't a crazy punk crowd like we experienced everywhere but where we live, we appreciated playing in front of music nerds. We played Beatrice's third annual birthday bash with best Mess and Obamnation debuting a bunch of new songs, half of then Reagan youth songs but with my new band. The Living dead (which has now been changed to DUST ANGEL) as Jim was unable to sing the last two shows, being that he was stuck working in another state, so we had Kenny young back to rock the vocals (he had gotten better, and proud of him am I ! ). we ended things up playing a show with a band we hadn't played on the same bill with since the early 80's. the great agnostic front. I remember playing some of my earliest shows playing on the saame bill with Mr. Vinnie Stigma when he was rockin' it with the Eliminators. and seeing that he still has it, all these years later, well playing that gig with Agnostic Front was a beautiful way to end the 2011.

Now I did play some more, but with dust angel, and we do play some new Reagan Youth songs "Love Is Between My Legs", "Temptress", "Necrophilia" as well as "Lucky 7" and "In The Thirsty Hour" along with Pure Dust angel songs "Image of Man", "New Improved Mother Earth" and "Do What Thou Wilt". Expect more songs to come out for both of my bands, Reagan Youth and Dust Angel, even if my new band will be playing those new Reagan youth songs at first.

So I have to say 2011 was a very great year for Reagan youth and for all the people who were there to support us and be helpful and kind, we won't forget you. as for the assholes who screwed us over (you know who you are, and remember this, I ain't gonna ever forget, go on and keep living like the piece of shits you are, but I will not only get even, but get over on your pathetic asses.

But anew year is coming up, and why end this blog thinking of "those" shitheads. I got a lot of music left in me, and I learned a bunch from my great old singer Dave Insurgent (rest in piece buddy, I'm always thinking about you because no one has influenced me more) about exposing the evils of society through art and music and words. So here's to 2012 even being better then the great past year of 2011.

So happy new year everyone, and let's try to get that1% to finally stop shitting the the 99% of the rest of us. Come on, let's make it happen. occupy Wall street baby!

Love, hugs and smoooches,
Paul Cripple

Don't forget to mention names I have forgotten and the KWE (especially Drew stone) and try to think about other things I have to remember.

Long Island; Land Of The Ugly American Male

LONG ISLAND What the hell is wrong with the male population from long island? Now I ask this question because I am well acquainted with long island as I grew up one county over, in the land of Rego Park, part of Queens county. As I reached my teens I knew it was time to spread my wings and go someplace different from Rego Park... and that was Manhattan, specifically the Lower East Side to play punk rock. But I did go to Long island as well only it wasn't with my friends and band mates, it was with my family. Sometimes we went to the Hamptons to spend all day on a beach catching rays like a true Sun worshiper, digging my feet into the murky waters looking for clams. Other times it was visiting my cousins who lived on a private golf course. Beautiful piece of property Long island. No wonder the native Americans loved it so much. But Native Americans do not live there anymore for there is a new type of people living out in Long Island, and I must say that if God hates "ugly", then he must really, really despise the men residing in Long Island. But I will be focusing primarily on three of those men, all of whom played in the band Reagan Youth at one time or another.

The first band mate from Long Island was a serious musician. Dave Insurgent loved his playing and asked that he join the band. It seemed like a perfect fit, the guy was knowledgeable about the sound we expected from him, and he did it really well when we tried him out. I asked Dave "what about the other guys" but Dave was dead set on having the Long Islander. So Reagan Youth had it's first Long islander in the band, and what's the first thing he does; he does a complete 180 on the sound coming from his instrument. It wasn't perfect sounding like he played at the band's try outs, it was totally different; it sounded like shit, and arguments between Dave and the Long Islander started and never ceased. But we played live shows and we came up with new songs regardless and when three out of four guys in a band are rockin' it, and one isn't, and the one guy who isn't rocking it ain't the singer, well it was good enough. But then it came time to record our first record and the arguments just grew nastier and louder. Me and the other musician watched as Dave and the Long Islander argued and argued. Now the way I looked at it was "Hey, didn't this guy join 'our' band? Reagan Youth didn't ask to join him, so why isn't doing what he promised to do when he joined the band". It just didn't make sense to me.

So we end up recording and then releasing our very first record, an e.p. named "Youth Anthems for the New Order" and everything sounded pretty on... except for the Long Islander. His playing sucked so much that he can not really be heard on the record as much as the rest of us. And why isn't he heard as much as the rest of us? His instrument was vital to the band's sound, it's just that the sound recorded from his instrument sounded a lot like a big fart sound and Dave Insurgent was not going to give that crappy sound the same volume as the rest of us who played the songs the way they were supposed to.

Shortly after we recorded the record Reagan Youth made plans to go and play the west coast and in true fashion the Long Islander said "No". So we parted ways and we didn't see him at all for years and I'll admit it, the guy was never a friend and I would never consider him anything more than someone that I played in a band with. But he was never a friend because people that self absorbed with themselves don't have friends (still doesn't all these years later... the guy hasn't learned anything about being a stand up human being). Before Dave died we met up with this Long islander because we were re-releasing the e.p as an entire l.p. with three new songs added to be called Volume I. I can remember him telling Dave and I that "Reagan Youth never existed before he joined and after he left the band Reagan Youth ceased to exist". I told him "No, we played all these shows with the original members, how can you not remember that? And after you left we continued to play without you, and we wrote some new songs that are gonna be released as our second record". Long Islander quickly said "Hey I'll play on that new record" and Dave and I looked at each other like he was from another planet. No way we wanted to go through his nonsense all over again.

Well we ended up releasing the second record but only after the band had ended it's run. I assumed that was that except all these years later when I had a chance to play these songs all over again and that's when I met the other Long Islander. I needed replacement players and the other Long Islander tried out and after I asked him to join. I explained to him that I needed him to learn the songs the only way; the correct way, and to not change them. The only other thing I explained was the band's politics which were anti-racist, anti-hatred and though we were anti republican, that in no way that meant we were pro democracy. Reagan Youth is an anarchist band which meant we do what you want, as long as what you wanna do doesn't hurt other people. It's the only way to be an individual, not a conformist. It's what a true punk rocker would believe in. So what does the other Long Islander do when he is firmly entrenched in the band? Well let me tell you it wasn't pretty and very, very pathetic. Even way more pathetic than Long Islander #1. Read on....

Well the other Long Islander thought the band Reagan Youth was now property that he, and he alone owned. When I would say this isn't so he would say "Well if they aren't my songs the it's not 'my' band". And I would say "How can they be your songs when you weren't even born when some of them were written and you were a small child when the rest were written". but this did not stop him from telling people "hey you have Reagan Youth on your ipod? that's me on your ipod". Of course the girl with the ipod was confused and the other Long Islander admitted she was but that he explained it to her. I was like "What did you explain, that you lied and that it isn't you on her ipod?"...lol. Or the time we walked into a record store and the other Long Islander picks up the band's first album, walks over to the counter and tells the store owner "you see this record, that's me" and the record store owner just laughed in his face. I was terribly embarrassed for the other Long Islander but he didn't seem to care, he was too busy living a lie. Just how big the lie he was living I would soon find out.

You see this other Long Islander claimed he was in love with a girl, but you can't love someone else when you can only love yourself. But regardless he would have long conversations to me about his love for this girl, except one thing always happened, and that was that he wouldn't speak of his love for the girl, but rather his hatred for her boyfriend. What I finally found out was that the other Long Islander was dressing up like the boyfriend/fiancee (he's now her husband, and I good man... he moved out of Long Island) of the girl he claimed to love. what's more is the Other Long Islander had his girlfriend dress up exactly like the girl he claimed to love. he even had his girlfriend add on to her name the name of the girl he claimed to love. And I thought I was having problems with this guy.

Well needless to say I got rid of the other Long Islander and last I heard he has moved into the same neighborhood as the girl he claims to love so she can be more easily stalked. This is not funny because this poor girl is gonna have to move to another neighborhood because of the other Long Islander having this sick problem of wanting to be someone else, and having his girlfriend be someone else. talk about a sick, sick man. But unfortunately when his hair starting falling out he had no problem popping propecia pills to put hair back on his head. But to take meds that would make him sane, well he thought that was just too outrageous, you know, like a true Long Island asshole.

Now the Last Long Islander was the biggest doozy of them all. Like a true Long Islander he was a Jets fan, you know, because they play in New Jersey. Now I grew up loving to play sports and American football was one I loved. I was a Steelers fan growing up, and Dave Insurgent loved the Dallas Cowboys, but when it came to the New York teams we both like the Jets over the Giants.

Let's face it, the Jets with Joe Namath and his anti-establishment look and attitude was way cooler, as was John Riggins growing a mohawk and moving to New York city's village to reside. these were true individuals, not conformists. But the Jets of today are nothing like that. it's all about Fireman Ed, the creepiest football fan alive. Well anyhow the Last long Islander was a monster Jet's fan, so much that he has a room in his home filled with jet paraphernalia. That's not so bad, but what is bad about the room is that no girls are allowed. I guess the last Long Islander doesn't want any women in the room, but who would when viewing bestiality porn of a snake being pulled out of a female's vagina. But enough about the Jets, let's talk music because the Last Long Islander was an amazing musician.

The Last Long Islander played his instrument as good as anyone I've ever heard and when we went on tour he was not like the other Long Islanders, he didn't suck playing live. But after the gig he was as horrible as horrible gets. You see, the Last Long Islander has a problem with women/girls; females will always be beneath him, as they either need his saving because of their weakness or are nothing but a bunch of whores...but never too ugly to fuck. And that's a big problem because when Reagan Youth plays a lot of pretty girls show up. But the Last Long Islander walked past every pretty girl and headed straight for the scariest looking woman I've seen in a long while and proceeded to tell her "You smell like a piece of candy".

Now even the ugliest woman alive can smell desperation miles away, so of course she was completely creeped out by the Last Long Islander. But that didn't stop the Last Long Islander, even if it meant costing the band hundreds of dollars, which it did, as well as hours and hours being wasted. And it's not like the Last Long Islander got any sex, because he didn't, he just got rejected and Reagan Youth ended up driving 4 more hours in the rain (we drove eight hours in the rain earlier that day) and instead of being a man and admitting to a mistake, he said to me "But Paul, I was coked out". yeah, whenever I do cocaine I make a bee line for the ugliest woman at the venue and tell her she smells like a piece of candy. I mean 'who does that'? And then he just went onto complain about my girlfriend, like she was the problem, but she wasn't even there, so what the fuck did she have to do with that fiasco? It was then that the other band member's told me how the Last long Islander had called them up to ask "What are we gonna do about Paul's girlfriend?". The other band member's told the Last Long Islander "Look, I'm busy at work and don't call me about this shit again" and the other band member said "Paul, I like your girlfriend and I didn't know what he meant, so I didn't know what to say". And this band member was a Jets fan just like the Last Long Islander and he must have thought that meant it was all right to call him with that bullshit and worse the Last long Islander would use the word "Nigger" around him, a lot. Obviously this does not work, at all, for Reagan Youth. But we had more gigs to play.

So the next gig we play one of the band members, and obviously it wasn't the Last Long Islander, actually got some sex from this pretty girl/Reagan Youth fan, only it was completely opposite of what happened the night before. There was no "hey, you smell like a piece of candy", but just a matter of plain ole drunken revelry. It was harmless fun but the Last Long Islander didn't see it that way because he was too busy being a jealous bitch ass. The next thing you know he's threatening to leave us stranded even though the band paid for the vehicle (the tour van was in the Last Long Islander's name) we were using. Real stand up guy that Last Long Islander, huh? Now I had to open up on the Last Long Islander and boy did I ever. I had to explain that this wasn't 'his' band or even 'his' tour van, it was Reagan Youth's tour and since 'we' paid for the van, what the fuck was he talking about. He said "point taken' and nothing else because, what else could he say? So the tour went on but he was miserable because young pretty girls of legal age not only showed up to watch us play, but were in our dressing room. So the Last Long Islander would storm out of the dressing room because he thought it should be like his Jet's room in his house out on Long Island, The room where no females are allowed, only him and his non friends allowed. Well the tour ended and we haven't spoken since because, obviously, because he's way too embarrassed that everyone in Reagan Youth knows what a jerk the Last Long Islander is.

Now after this I thought "hey, there must be a connection between these three assholes" so I did decided to do some research but before I could I had to relax, being that I just came home from tour. Osama Bin Laden had just been killed by navy seals who kept his wives alive, you know, because the wives actually attacked the navy seals but they just had to blow Osama Bin Laden's brain's out because his brain held a treasure trove of Al Qaeda secrets and America thought it best just to blow out brain and dump it into the Arabian Sea.

And was it the right thing to do? Maybe we should ask Pete King,Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and he's from, you guessed it; Long Island. But there was other news on that day, like that an off duty Long Island police officer pulled his loaded revolver from his holster and pointed it at a bartender who was doing absolutely nothing but serving him drinks all night.

It made me remember when we were in Chattanooga and the local police officer apologized to the Last Long Islander because Chattanooga didn't have a Chase Bank for us to make a deposit. The Last long Islander thought that was so surreal for an officer of the law to be so courteous and hospitable, and of course he would, he's from Long Island.

But eventually I searched the internet about Long Island and what did I find? That Long Islanders are talking of secession from New York state. On March 28, 2008 Suffolk County proposed a plan that would make Long Island (specifically, Nassau and Suffolk counties) the 51st state of the United States of America so that all the Long Island taxpayers' money would stay on Long Island, rather than have it shared with the rest of the state of New York, because, you know, Long Islanders are special like that.

That reminded me of when the Long Islander put out a Reagan Youth c.d. and told the record label that he would be the only one to get paid from it. Like that happened .....lol. Or when the Other Long Islander thought because he would do the 'Heil Hitler' salute "for real" when we played Berlin, that it meant he was the leader of Reagan Youth and that all the songs now belonged to him and him alone..... yeah right....lmao. Or when the Last Long Islander, and he is the last Long Islander that will ever be in Reagan Youth, thought that he was in charge of the band. The Last Long Islander can't get any sex from the ugliest woman I've seen in years and that makes him in charge .... yeah sure it does ....lol.

In closing let me say this; Long Islanders epitomize what is wrong with the United States today. The U.S. of A is not the best country in the world, it's only different than all the other countries. Is the U.S. better because it allows British Petrol to pollute Louisiana and then watches as the C.E.O. of British Petrol gets a big bonus because Gas prices went up because of it's fiasco? Is it better because the rich get big tax breaks but the middle and working class get screwed? I don't believe that makes the U.S. better than all the other countries in the world. Different? for sure, but certainly not better. Now I know the ugly American male from Long Island can't believe any country in the world can be better than the U.S. and nowhere in the U.S. is there a better place to be than Long Island. Well I believe that as much as I believe that Al Qaeda is planning to blow up Nassau Coliseum because the Islanders are such a great hockey team these days.

My apologies to all the Long Islanders that I know that happen to be cool, upstanding people. People that I know are good people. But the three that played in Reagan Youth that hail form Long Island? Stop blaming women for your problems and get over yourselves.

And lest we forget serial killer Joel Rifkin that murdered Dave Insurgent's finance, Tiffany. Where was he from?.....exactly.

Now let's see, not long after I wrote this, a Long Islander murders, in cold blood, 4 people while robbing a pharmacy. The crime "didn't make sense" according to the police commissioner, but it did, if you see where he's from. A self centered human being, not caring about anyone else but them self, that's what happens when you don't have neighbors to the north, south, or east and your only neighbors are in the 'wild west' with freaky New Yorkers. The "Pain Killer" did not show any remorse for what he did, of course he didn't, why would anyone who only cares for themselves show remorse? They don't and never won't.

Here's a Thanksgiving update, specifically to the person who thinks Quakers were at the 'first' Thanksgiving. Funny, I was always taught it was the Pilgrims and Quakers came way later to Pennsylvania. Hey, maybe he can go share some cranberries and squash with someone, anyone from the Algonquin tribe. Highly doubt that, but he can always share a slice of sweet potato pie with this racist garbage picking asshole in the video below.





As for the video below about this great American war hero, just keep in mind, McCain is a republican who ran for the presidency against Barack Obama. He had to be thinking about the three guys that were once in Reagan Youth that were born and raised in the very place he disparaged.

Volume Two

Yes, I know, a bunch of you went "What the fuck?" after hearing Volume Two, especially when you compare it to Volume One. I can definitely understand that. What I will do is explain why this all came to be. Now let me just make clear that Dave and I had been writing songs since junior high and by the time Reagan Youth's first gig, we had a full set of songs ready to go. At that very first show, at A7, for an encore we played "One Holy Bible" though the drummer wanted to do the breakdown part of "Queen Babylon". Now they were called by different names back then, and they went through several name changes until they were finally recorded on Volume Two. So those songs were around at the exact same time as everything from "Youth Anthems For the New Order". But the tunes remained the same, and so did a few of the lyrics. But we continued to write songs, but some of the songs we wrote were not for Reagan Youth, so we reserved those tunes for our next band, which we called House of God. Three of us (Dave, Javier and I) were playing in House of God when recording we started recording Volume Two. But all the songs on Volume Two are in no way, shape or form House Of God songs, I mean shit, we played "Back To the Garden" back at Max's Kansas City and just look at the last time that place was open. Now that I got the fact that a majority of those songs we had from the beginning, let me explain what happened.

We started recording in the Spring of 1989, right after Reagan Youth had disbanded. We wanted to play that one last Reagan Youth show, in D.C., as our farewell, so I called up our bassist, Victor Venom, and asked him about playing it. Victor answers the phone and tells me that he never wants to see us, let alone play a gig with us, again. So that was the end of that. Javier, Dave and I were playing in a new band, House of God, with a new bassist, Chris Simunek, and we were ready to fuck with organized religion the way Reagan Youth fucked with right wing politics, and that wasn't going to be the only change. The music had became more complex, but it would still remain catchy as hell. So instead of two minute political punk rock songs, we were going to play 8 minute songs about the evils of organized religion. Around this time is when Dave and I met Nicky Garratt, the guitarist from the U.K. Subs.



Dave and I met Nicky at the Palllidium and he told us about his new label, "New Red Archives'. He offers to re-release our only record, a seven song e.p., under the condition that we add whatever songs were leftover from those 'Youth Anthems For The New order' sessions, making it album length. Dave and I had a condition of our own; we wanted to put out another album which would consist of all the other Reagan Youth songs that we never got around to recording. So we gave Nicky a demo tape of that stuff. Now the only other thing we ever did with that demo was bring it to Metal Blade (or was it Road Runner?) records. We were told that they only release metal, no punk, and that we should come back when we had House Of God ready. So we took home our complimentary King Diamond (or was it Mercyful Fate?) records and nothing more was ever done with the demo, until we gave it to Nicky Garratt. So Nicky ends up agreeing.

Now a whole year goes by when I finally gave Nicky a call. I told him "Alright, we're ready to do this" and he's like "But Paul, that was a year ago?". We end up having a discussion about Dave and his drug use and I ended up assuring Nicky that I'd be responsible for making sure the shit got done. What one has to understand putting out one last Reagan youth album, let alone re-releasing our first e.p. as a complete album was taking aback seat to our new band, House Of God. Our new band was so much more important to Dave and I because we had been developing these songs for the past two or three years. It wasn't that putting out some more Reagan Youth material was unimportant, it's just that House Of God was gonna be the band that I, and I can assume Dave, felt that we could actually make it in the music business. Reagan Youth was well known, but we were viewing House of God as being something that could be more than just well known; that we could actually become "big". Oh well, so much for that dream happening.

Mixing Volume I went smooth enough, with Dave choosing alternate versions of every song on "Youth Anthems for the New Order" and adding three new songs; "In nDog We Trust", "No Class" and "Anytown". But it was time now to record the songs for Volume II. I called Victor and asked him if he could put aside whatever bullshit there was and to 'just come in and play' bass. Victor said he'd do it so we were set going into the studio. Nicky books studio time at Saatchi & Saatchi, an advertising company who have a topof the line recording equipment so they can record all their jingles and shit. It was going to be real fuckin' sweet recording the rest of our songs there. Unfortunately, that would be our only visit to Saatchi Studios because the security & staff from the building told Nicky that Dave wasn't to be allowed back in there, not even allowed to walk through the front door into the lobby. It had everything to do with the way he looked, or more to the point, the way he smelled. Dave's addiction had made him 'tore up from the floor up' but at least at that time he was showin' up. So we went to record at Toxic studios instead, and first thing I did was borrow a Fender Precision for Victor to play. We always had to supply Victor with a bass when he played in the band, he considered himself a guitarist first, and soon he began playing bass like it was beneath him. And now when it was time to record, it was no different, but actually, way worse.

Now we hadn't seen, let alone played with, Victor in the longest time but I was certain of one thing, that Victor could play. The only thing was that Victor came in and played some real uninspired shit. I'm sure he thought he was keeping it punk and snotty but the only time Victor showed any real interest, at all, was when he asked me "So how does Nausea get the same record deal as Reagan Youth?". I pointed to Nicky, who was present in the studio at the time, and said "Well Nicky's right over there. I mean, he is the guy to ask, the label owner, not me". So Victor just shrugged his broad, lean, masculine shoulders and walked over to speak with Nicky. Well it was no more than a week before Victor tells us that he has to leave, that he can't record with us any more because he has to go on tour with Nausea. The record wasn't close to being finished but he just shrugged and said "too bad".


Right after he left I went and recorded an alternate bass track for "Get the Ruler Out". I told Dave and Nicky that Victor's bass playing wasn't worth shit, and they wanted to hear Vic's playing before any decisions were made. So I told the engineer, Jim Fourniadis, to play for them Vic's bass track so they could hear it for themselves. He plays them "Get The Ruler Out" and they immediately tell me "The bass sounds great" and "Vic's playing is fine, don't touch it, what are you crazy?". Now I'm listening to it along with them and I'm like "What the fuck?" because it didn't sound like this before. So I go and ask Jim "Is that the bass that Victor's playing?" and Jim tells me he's playing the bass track I recorded. So I went and explained to Dave and Nicky that Jim had played my bass track instead of Vic's and right away Dave said "You should play bass on the album"/ It would be extra work for me to record the bass on all of the songs but Dave wanted that and Nicky was cool with it immediately. On Volume II I'm listed as; Pusi Koorahtz, bassist.

Now when you go in a re-record the songs again, that means time is a wasting, and even bigger, money is being wasted. Dave would say "You're taking the costs out of the record sales, so what does it matter" but Nicky was uncomfortable, and how could he not be? But even more important, was the music itself. When you record songs without a full band being present, problems arise. For instance, on "One Holy Bible", the 'improved' part was to be played by all three musicians simultaneously. When Victor left, I had to focus on getting the arrangement right instead of playing the improvisation. On "Queen Babylon", during the 'breakdown' part, we mistakenly played it five times instead of the usual four, so I had to throw out what I usually did as a guitar solo and start from scratch. And when I said let's go record it again the engineer, Jim, told me "Nicky said no more of that, if it sounds decent, then we go to the next song". Now for the most part, we were able to get through it, but those songs and some others could have and should have been played much better, not to mention mixed down. So No Thanks To Victor the Sphincter for all the time and money


Another band member who also went missing, but for different reasons, was the most crucial one, the singer, the leader; Dave Insurgent. "Since I don't play an instrument, I really don't need to be here" was his excuse whenever he didn't show up for the basic track recordings but at least he would show up enough times. When the music was finished it was time for Dave's vocals. A block of time was booked for Dave to come in and sing but he doesn't show up. I called him up and asked "What happened?" and he comes up with some lame story about waiting the entire night for his superintendent to come by and fix his toilet. So another block of time was booked but Dave blows it off again. When I called him up this second time, he starts in with the nonsense about his super and his toilet. Well this goes on and on, again and again and Nicky and I begin to wonder if Dave is ever gonna show up. And just if you're wondering, yes, Dave knew he was welcomed to bring his drugs and paraphernalia into the studio. None of us were gonna bust his balls about pulling hits off his crack pipe in between singing his verses, we knew Dave was not ready to give up drugs, we just wanted him to come in and do what he did, sing Reagan youth songs.

So it got to the point where Nicky comes up with the idea of bouncing Dave's vocals from the band's demo onto the new recordings. I thought that would sound like shit so I came up with a better idea; I'd go down, find Dave, and personally escort him to the studio. I went to his place but he wasn't there so I left a note on his door, basically saying that he better show up tonight, and sing every fuckin' song, or I'd take giant shit on him like something fierce, you motherfucker, you better show up! Y'know, like that. It got his attention because he called me, pronto, and told me how fucked up my note was I'm was like "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now make sure you just show the fuck up.", and yes, he did.

That night Nicky and I met up with Dave at a deli that was near the studio. Nicky bought him a tea and some lozenges to soothe his throat and then we escorted Dave to the studio and explained to Jim, the engineer, that Dave could not leave, under no circumstances, the studio until he sand a take on every song. Nicky and I leave them alone to do their thing and I go home. The next time I see Jim I ask him how Dave's vocal session went. He told me that Dave sang two tracks on each song before he left, and that he said he'd come back to fix up all his weak spots, which were many, let's face it. But days went by and soon they turned to weeks and it became obvious that Dave wasn't in any rush to come by the studio. As the lead singer, laying down vocal tracks are important, but as the leader of the band, mixing down the record was just as, if not, more important. Nicky had been so patient with us but by this time his patience was just about gone. So Nicky asks me what should be done and I tell him "Just go use whatever we have" as I figured Dave would call up eventually, outraged that he didn't sort through and edit out all the bullshit. Basically, to come in and give it a final mix. I was pissed something fierce at the way Dave was behaving, so my thinking at that time was "Let Dave go bitch to Nicky about how it can't be released like that when he finally decides to show up". I knew in the back of my mind that Nicky would allow Dave to do that, but unfortunately, Dave never ever did show up at the studio.

Soon after that I get this phone call, but it's not from Dave or Nicky. Some police officer is calling to ask me what I know about Dave. I ask him "What happened?" and the cop says "You tell me" like some real wise ass. So I'm like "Okay, so Dave's in jail?" and the cop says "No, no, no. He's not in jail". Next I ask "Is he dead?" and the cop chuckles at that one as he says "Oh no, he's not dead". I take a moment to think what's left and I say "So he's in rehab?" and the cop says "Nope. He's not in rehab". At this point I'm all out of ideas so I'm like "I give up, so where is he?" and the cop tells me to "Go call his parents if you want to find out", and so I do. I get Dave's mom on the line and she tells me that "Someone beat David up with a baseball bat and he just came out of a coma".

The next day I visit Dave in the hospital and boy is it tough, he looks like hell. Dave's eye lid was swollen so much it reached all the way down to his upper lip. His parents were there and I find out that he needed a lobotomy to save his life. Eventually, he gets discharged from the hospital but Dave now has stitches going around his forehead from ear to ear. When Dave finally recovered, as best he could, I asked him what happened. Dave told me he couldn't remember anything. Neither Dave nor I insisted on getting back the tapes and giving it a real final mix. At that time, I was just hoping that Dave would be able to do the artwork for the album and the ensuing CD. I'm sure Dave could have convinced Nicky to get back the tapes, and allow him to re-mix it, but how could Dave even think about that stuff when life altering events, for the worse, had happened to him. Of course I wish I had actually taken home a cassette of the recordings, and dissected them, and then actually mixed it down, but I had assumed Dave would have eventually taken care of it. I remember when Nicky sent us the final mix on cassette, I kept telling Dave that I had put backing vocals throughout "Acid Rain" and boy did that freak him out. When he finally heard it, he was cool with the backing vocals, but not all those lead guitar tracks. The lead guitar track behind Dave's vocals on "Urban Savages" works just fine, on "Miss Teen America" and "Get The Ruler Out", it doesn't. It was too late to go back, just like it was too late for Dave to go back and live without having Frankenstein like stitches forever crowning his countenance. And so that is how Volume Two ended up sounding the way it did.

In retrospect, things just went from bad to worse from the time I called Victor to play on the record. So many sessions (weeks and weeks worth) were wasted because of his shit playing. Javier told us, afterwards, that Victor had told him the only reason he was going to do the record with us was because he knew the record would make money, and that's all he was doing it for. Too bad Victor didn't show up to play some bass that didn't suck instead. Then there was the time when Javier had brought his brand new motorcycle to the studio in order to show it to us. He parked it out front, on the street, and by the end of the session it had been stolen. Things were going like that and it didn't make things better, obviously. That it all culminated with Dave getting beaten an inch from his life just made it all pretty miserable. Do I hate Volume Two? No, I do not, but that my bass playing is way better than my guitar playing says a whole lot. I love the songs on it, I just wish we could've played them way better.