Yep, it's that time again.  The revolving door that has been the rhythm guitar slot in The Despised has revolved yet again and we're looking to fill the spot again.

But here's the fun part:  Can you learn about 20-25 songs in a month?  If you want the spot then you're going to have to because we leave for the US tour September 23, exactly four weeks from today.

Feel like you can slide in and jump out on tour and then get an all-expense paid trip to our next international tour and then fuck us again?  Think again!  Sorry, but the last two guys have ruined that for you.  Yeah, we've been to Japan three times and Europe four and all the trips have been financed by Shayne, the drummer.....and he's not doing it again.  Yes, there WILL be more Japanese, European and other international tours, but everyone gets to pull together to make them happen.  Want to be a part of the band then you get to BE a part of the band.  You suffer when we suffer, but more importantly you have a great time in cool places when WE have a great time in cool places....

Over the past several years I've heard a bunch of people say "wow, that'd be cool, I'd love to play with you guys!".....so now's the time to step up to the plate.

Think you've got it?  Prove it!

Again, if you think it'd be cool to jump in for a little while, tour a little, maybe record something while your other band isn't going anywhere, think again.  This is not a "hired gun" position.  We're looking for a PERMANENT DEDICATED MOTHERFUCKER who has gear, writes kick-ass songs and wants to BE Despised.  Mooches, Leeches, Slackers, Band-Whores and other wastes of our time need not apply.  I'm not Lars Ulrich and I'm not going to give you $1 mil to join and quit your other band....and we're not saying you can't be in another band....but you've got to want it.  Our lead guitarist Matt is in Death of Kings as well as The Despised, but he's a dedicated motherfucker that brings a lot to the table and has the skills and desire to pull it off.  So we know it can be done, but it has to be done right.

Again, think you've got it?  Prove it!  We've got four weeks of practice between today and "tour time" (dates are on our page) so if you're serious about doing something cool with your musical life, contact us ASAP and let's get rocking!

Cheers,
Shayne
Drummer and Dedicated Motherfucker (who's tired of dealing with people who waste my fucking time.....)

So, here we go again with yet another Japanese tour.  Naoki from Live House Wall has set up another great tour for us so hopefully this year's tour will go as well or even better than the previous years' tours!

September 2 – We get to the airport and check in.  I (Shayne) travel a bunch for work so I have a ton of extra SkyMiles on Delta and use them to get us all First Class seats on the way over.  Having never flown International Business Class none of us realize how awesome this is going to be!

Wow, so as it turns out, First Class is THE best way to make a 13 hour flight fly by!  This is without a doubt the most comfortable I have ever been on ANY flight in my life!  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

September 3 – We arrive at Narita around 1pm and hang around for about a half hour until Naoki shows up.  We say our hellos and head to the train which without Naoki would have been a disaster!  Naoki gets us to our apartment in Nakano with no problems and we get settled in.  Later that evening we decide to go down to Moon Step (a block from our apartment) to see what's going on down there and say hello to John and Yoneh (the big boss!)  We get down there and hang out for a bit and somehow allow ourselves to get talked into playing a quick three songs at the end of the night on the local band's equipment.  Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but the drum-kit is THE SMALLEST drum kit I have ever seen!  I felt like a giant sitting behind/above it.  Actually I looked like an elephant riding a tricycle but alas, we jumped in and ripped apart our three new tunes for a frenzied crowd.  Good times!

September 4 – This is a day off to get acclimated to the time change so we all sleep in for a bit and then venture out on the subway to head down to Shinjuku and Shibuya to just see the sites.  We cruise around town for a little while and then head back to the apartment before heading down to Moon Step.  Apparently the night before we were asked if we'd play an impromptu/unscheduled show over there which of course we agreed to…  So we went down and watched the opening bands and then played our first show of the tour as a "warm-up".  The show went well with Rotknee sporting his newly acquired Fundoshi which would become his show-wear for the tour.  I have to say THANK YOU to Rotknee for not going traditional Sumo and pulling it up his ass-crack!  If I'd had to see that every night I would have moved the drums to the front of the stage….

September 5 – Ok, so today is the first "real" show of the tour.  We're playing over at Roots in Koenji which is a subway stop away from our apartment.  We meet up at Moon Step since Joneh's band "One Yah One" is also playing the show and they're going to get us down to the club.  We get down to the club for sound check and begin to realize that the club is VERY nice but is also VERY SMALL but has a HUGE sound system.  Just the preliminary sound-check stuff makes us realize that this show is going to be VERY LOUD!!!!  So sound-check done we roam around a little and head back in for the show.  Namaste puts on a very cool show as does Jhabara and then on to One Yah One.  These guys kill!  Very solid fast sounds with a singer who is in another world, immersed so deep into the music that he just becomes one with it.  Very good!  Then on to Cheerio:  We played with Cheerio last year and knew what to expect and we were not disappointed!  Two vocalists who are constantly tapping in and out like American Pro Wrestlers in a cage match!  This band brings the intensity up even higher just tearing the club apart one bolt at a time.  And we have to follow that?!
Our show goes well, as the stage had been set by all of the previous bands so we couldn't back down.  We ripped into the setlist with a vengeance and continued the destruction that Cheerio had begun by completing the auditory beat-down with a blistering 30 minute set.
We THEN went next door for the after-show and proceeded to eat Chinese food and drink tons and tons of Sapporo and Sake until time to catch the last train home….  Wow, this was a great night!  And only the beginning!!!

September 6 – Naoki comes and picks us up around noon to head up to Tsukuba.  Apparently it's an hour and a half train ride and Naoki is running a little late.  Not a problem that a quick phone call to the club can't fix!  We get rolling and ride out to Tsukuba which reminds us of Birmingham, Alabama in the US.  It's a suburb and it seems to have the attitude of a small redneck town with a bunch of car dealerships and pachinko parlors all around us.  The club, however, is HUGE and very nice!  It has the largest stage and biggest room of any club we've seen on the Japanese tours complete with a huge sound system and big lighting package.  We get there for the sound checks and run through ours before heading out to the parking lot to hang out and eat Yakitori…..lots and lots of Yakitori.  I swear between the two of us, Rotknee and I probably kill off 20 or 30 skewers worth…  So back inside the bands begin.  I never get a list of who is playing when so I don't know the names of any of the bands I'm watching but they've got a pretty good mix of metal, nu-metal, emo, metal-rap (yeah really!) and the occasional hardcore band.  We're nestled right in the middle of them all so we get up there and just blow the heads off of everyone there.  I don't think anyone was really expecting us as we were an add-on band and MUCH heavier than any of the other bands so a bunch of the kids in the audience were standing there with their eyes and mouths wide open staring in shock at what they were witnessing.  But everyone was very cool and we made a few friends so that's a good thing!
Now, the plan for after the show was that the band "Even Today" was going to come pick us up and take us to Sendai for the next day's show, but we didn't know when that was supposed to happen.  As it turned out, Even Today had a show in Tokyo the same evening and they went to their after-show party while we were hanging out at our after-show party.  So, around midnight I try to find out what's going on.  We meet Deborah, a local girl who was at the show.  She spoke fluent English and Japanese so I had her call Naoki.  Turns out, Even Today was going to be leaving in about an hour or so.  Well as the club is getting closed down and we're about to get the boot, Even Today shows up around 3am ready to drive to Sendai.  So here begins the longest night of the tour!

September 7 – We leave Tsukuba around 3 or 4 am and get about an hour out of town and pull into a truck stop to rest.  We go about 30 minutes before we stop again and finally around 5 am we stop and that turns into THE stop since the drivers can't go any further.  So we attempt sleeping in the van, but with Dave and I both in the back seat and both over 6' tall neither of us can get comfortable.  I finally get out and go sleep on the sidewalk for an hour or two.  I think we all got back in the car around 8 or 9 and got back on the road for a couple hours.  We get into Sendai around 10am and it's of course much too early to go to the club so we decide to do some site-seeing….in the rain.  Well, the rain is sporadic so we hope that it'll just pass over which it does for several hours.  We end up going to some castle/museum and walking around for a few hours and finally get to the point that we can go back to the club and actually get IN.  So we leave and get on a bus….but it's not the right bus and takes us OUT of town.  So now Even Today and The Despised are all pretty much lost on the outskirts of Sendai!  Finally someone figures out where we are and gets us going in the correct direction and we finally get to the bus station and start to walk to the club from there.  At this point the rain begins and it's raining HARD!  A couple of us had purchased umbrellas at the 7-11 so we were ok, but most of the guys in Even Today and Deborah, our translator, was soaked to the skin!  So we FINALLY get back to the club soaking wet and load in to do a quick sound-check and proceed to dry off for a while.  The show begins and we watch another AWESOME show!  Even Today puts on an amazing show even though they had to be exhausted from the driving and the rain.  Every member just goes ape-shit and just tears up the stage showing how great they are!  I'm told they are a young band….wow, so it's going to get better?!  Awesome!  All of the bands were really good that night, but I think to me, the other standout bands were Break of Chain and BackStab.  Both bands were super tight and very powerful with BackStab just taking the lead in fast, intense brutality.  Another show where the bar was set very high for us!  Following such awesome bands is not an easy task, but definitely something we feed on!  I don't think we had very high expectations of ourselves going into that show due to the fact that we were very tired and still a little wet from the rain, but once we hit the first note, everything was washed away and we attacked the show like a prizefighter going after another KO.  We ripped through another set in about 30 minutes with the crowd helping us by jumping around and going crazy giving us the energy to keep pounding out the songs.  This was a great show for sure!
So the show finally ended and we loaded up and drove the 5 hours back to Tokyo that night.  I think everyone got 2 or 3 hours of sleep in this 36 hour+ period and everyone from both bands was dead to the world….  We were very happy to see our apartment the next morning and we all proceeded to pass out for the next 5-6 hours!

September 8 & 9 – These were days off that we took to do laundry, rest and just screw off in Tokyo.  No shows, just a couple days of rest…..and getting Matt's Passport that was lost after the Roots show…  Fortunately this turned up at the local police station a couple blocks from our apartment saving us LOTS of time and stress!  Only in Japan could this happen!  THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

September 10 – After a couple days of rest Naoki showed up in the morning to take us to Yokosuka for our show at Pumpkin.  It was another couple hour train ride so we got going early and got into Yokosuka around 3pm or so.  Sound check went quickly and we decided to walk around the town for a bit.  First impression:  TOO Many Gai-Jin!  We were playing about a block from the US Naval Base and there were US Soldiers and Sailors on every corner.  One thing we noticed was that in Tokyo (or pretty much anyplace in Japan that we'd been to so far) if we went into a store the shopkeeper was very polite and nice.  Here in Yokosuka the store personnel watched you like a hawk!  Apparently the local Gai-Jin were a bit more unpleasant that we were! 
So anyway, we get back to the club and the show begins.  A bunch of great bands yet again!  A.O.W., Reach Me Down, Bambi and Meaning all kick ass but again the highlight was Even Today!  Those guys were rested and it showed!  They absolutely blew the walls off the club!  It was indeed a pleasure to play another show with these guys!  We played another fast set and thanks to the other bands for kicking the intensity up, we felt pretty good about our performance that night!  Even Today drove us back to Tokyo after the show so we could rest at our apartment for the night….

September 11 – Well, I woke up sick today.  The rest of the guys seemed to be ok so hopefully it is just a little stuffiness in my head that'll clear up quickly.  As the day progresses I realize that this is not going to be the case as I start feeling worse and then the fever kicks in.  I go back to bed around 2pm and don't wake up until 8pm after I've missed all of the other bands!  I'm pissed because Naoki's band The Fangs is playing tonight and I didn't want to miss that!  My fever seems to have broken and I'm feeling a little better so I go down to Moon Step and we get ready to play.  I think the show goes ok, but I just feel very tired so I don't feel like I gave my best performance and I'm still upset with myself about missing The Fangs…  Hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow feeling better!

September 12 – Today begins the "long" leg of the tour where we travel out of town for three days and play 4 shows in a row with DSB.  We've been looking forward to these shows for quite a while now and now they're here!  The part that sucks is that Kobe is something like 8 or 9 hours away so we have to be AT Moon Step to meet up with DSB at 6am!  And to make matters worse, Naoki is running late AND the guys from DSB are running late so we could have slept an extra hour!  Oh well….  Everybody gets there and we get on the road.  I'm still feeling like shit from the sickness but I try to sleep a little in the van.  We have spread out so that Rotknee is in the car with Eiji, Yo and Singoman from DSB and then Matt, Dave and I are in the van with Heat from DSB who is driving.  This gives us a little more legroom and we actually get some sleep in the van for the first several hours.  I think I sleep most of the way down waking occasionally to take a picture of Fuji as we pass by it….  We get into Kobe and find the club which is tucked under the subway tracks in a cool little club.  Sound check goes well but we notice that DSB is JUST as insane during sound check as they are during a show.  THIS is going to be a great night!!!!! 
Matt and Dave head off down the street to explore and Rotknee and I decide that it's time to eat steak.  Kobe steak to be exact….IN KOBE!!  So we head off and find a great place and kill off about $100 worth of steak in about 30 minutes.  I have to say, if you EVER get the chance to eat Kobe beef IN Kobe, DO IT!  It's definitely all it's hyped up to be!!  Perhaps the best steak I've ever eaten hands down!
So we waddle back to the club and the show begins.  We watch as the first couple bands put on great shows and then we prepare for DSB.  The lights dim for a moment and DSB just unleashes the fury of 1,000 Samurai warriors as they start their set.  Never slowing, never backing off, they continue the assault as if they are fighting the invisible warriors themselves!  I've seen DSB several times before this but this was by far the most amazing show I've seen in a very long time!  DSB has set the mark high.  Following such an act is not going to be easy!
We somehow make it through and put on a great show.  I honestly don't think we could have possibly even touched the energy of the DSB show, but everyone has great things to say so I guess we did ok.  Then IScream7Showers closes out the show with their own powerful mix of punk and hardcore.  They put on a great show and close out a great evening!
After the show we find out that everyone is going to the after-show party, but I am offered a ride to the IScream house to sleep since I'm still sick instead of going to the party.  I, of course, take them up on this offer as does Dave.  We get back over to the house, take showers and pass the hell out!  The rest of the guys head to the party, but from what I gather, only make it an hour or so until pretty much EVERYONE from The Despised and DSB is asleep in the vans and the only ones at the party are the guys from IScream7 Showers and some locals.  I wake up briefly at around 5am to everyone coming in the house finally…..and then I pass back out.

September 13 – We get up around 10 or 11 and get mobilized and make our way out of Kobe.  We wind around the mountainsides and finally get on the right road headed to Osaka.  It's only a couple hours so we take our time and get in around 2pm or so.  Another cool club under the subway tracks!  Sound check goes by quickly and then we head down to the local Chinese restaurant for more great food with DSB.  After a great meal we head back to the club as the show is beginning.  Tonight's fare is a little bit more on the "tough-guy" NYHC style music.  All the bands playing are definitely good at what they do and they're having a good time with it.  Enslave comes on (an odd mix for the night it seems) and just kicks the shit out of the place.  We had the pleasure of playing with Enslave last year and we knew this would be a great show.  With dual vocals, one male, one female they keep a very good solid mix of vocal styles going.  I REALLY like this band!  Jeep is a great frontman and is constantly jumping into the crowd and smashing things around.  The female singer (cannot remember her name unfortunately) is a very small girl who has a VERY large voice!  She is very powerful and has a scream that will reach down YOUR throat, grab your nuts and pull them up into your throat!  I thoroughly enjoy this show!
Then we get to witness yet another amazing show from the guys in DSB.  Every night they completely take hold of the crowd and whip them into a frenzy.  Yo is a very powerful frontman who just completely dives into his work and gets completely engaged.  I don't know where he gets the energy to constantly jump around, throw his guitar around and just scream his ass off!  AND do so while playing in a full leather jacket in a club that's well over 100 degrees on stage!!!!  Wow!
So, again, we follow DSB with a show that we hope can match 1/3 of their intensity!
We then head BACK to the Chinese restaurant for the after-show party…
One comment about these after-show parties:  From what I've seen in Japan, it's very hard to actually get paid by the club when you play over there.  But let's say you make 10,000yen; THEN you give back anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 yen that you're EXPECTED to pay for these after-show parties.  Who came up with this scam?!  And how do bands over there actually make ANY money?! Wow!
Ok, so now that the after-show is over we head over to the promoter's apartment to sleep.  He warns us that his place is very small but we don't think anything of it.  We get there and HOLY SHIT, he wasn't kidding!  Heat and Singoman from DSB just go back down and sleep in the van, but somehow we fit 8 guys into an apartment  maybe 3m x 3m total!  And that's on top of all the stuff that he already has IN the apartment!  Navigating to the toilet at night without stepping on someone's head was VERY difficult!  But I have to say, THANKS for giving us a place to stay!  The hospitality of the people in Japan is second to none.  Such great people!

September 14 – So after unfolding myself from my little spot on the floor, we all get mobilized to head to Nagoya.  We've got all our stuff packed and are headed down the stairs.  I hear a "THUMP" and then "Oh shit, are you ok, what can I do?!?!?!" from down the stairs ahead of me.  Apparently Dave missed a step on the way down due to the shadows and the very small steps and fell onto a landing.  He basically fell backwards landing on his knees in front and his backpack on the back so essentially folding him in half.  With Dave being a big dude and already having a bad knee we feared the worst, but he got back up and walked it off and with a little ice and some aspirin seemed to be ok.  Lucky break for sure!
So we get into Nagoya and walk into one of the nicest clubs I've seen yet in Japan.  VERY nice sound system, very nice lighting and of course the best part:  Mr. Shutoh and Fumi!!!!  They were waiting for us at the club and proceeded to hang out with us all night!  So Fumi gets us all together and we head down to see Nagoya Castle which is supposed to be a very beautiful place.  We finally get mobilized and drive down there only to find out that the castle closes at 5pm and upon looking at our watches we see that it's, 5pm….and thus the castle is closed!  We do however get to see a little bit as we're walking around the grounds so it's not all for naught.  I felt bad for Fumi since she had worked so hard to get us all down there and due to soundcheck and the time it takes to get us all moving, we were the reason we got down there too late!  Sorry Fumi!  Next time for sure!!!
So the show starts and we see a few great bands yet again.  I can't recall which band was which but if I recall correctly, Rotary Beginners were a great fast hardcore band that played a great set and then Hibiki was a great thrash band in the vein of SOD that also tore up the place.  Of course DSB put on yet another amazing show keeping the crowd pumped up and just pummeling them with one great song after another!  We got up and played a really good set.  The energy from the crowd was feeding us and driving us to play faster, meaner and tighter.  This might have been the best show up to this point in the tour!
We then headed out for the after-show party with Mr. Shutoh and the other bands.  DSB was very helpful with getting Dave vegetarian food once again so we all had a great night of good music and great food!  Thank you again Fumi and Mr. Shutoh!!!!  You guys rock!!!!!!

September 15 – We woke up around 8am to drive back to Tokyo.  Rotknee wasn't too happy about getting up this early today after a late night of eating and drinking, but he got going.  So we headed back to Wall for the final show of the tour.  The trip back went pretty quickly and we were pretty rested and ready for the show.  We all got to the club around 6pm for the start and watched as the bands started getting the night going.  The Rednecks put on a good solid punk-rock set with the Abnormals also playing a very good show.  Smash Your Face put on a great show as well.  Dave talked to them for a while as they had played a warehouse in Atlanta (C-11) several years ago that Dave used to live at so he had seen them in Atlanta.  Enslave then played another amazing set.  Perhaps being the "home" scene or just having the comfort level of Wall, they seemed to play even tighter and better than the show in Osaka.  This show was all-out and they were not to be forgotten!  Then Clown took over the stage and these guys ROCKED!  In traditional old-school Japanese hardcore the singer had his face painted up in war-paint and was VERY active with the crowd.  A pretty large guy, he jumped into the crowd and proceeded to knock the shit out of a handful of people.  There was nobody there who could slow this guy down as he just plowed through the crowd like a bulldozer!  The rest of the band just powered out fast old-school hardcore and just slammed the place with solid, tight music!  This band is great and I hope to see them and play with them again!!!
DSB took the chaos that Clown had brought forth and expanded it into full-on energy.  Yo, Singoman, Heat and Eiji were ON FIRE for this show!  Home-town heros they took the stage with complete focus and just destroyed the crowd!  One song after another they just played the best show of their lives leaving Yo without a voice after the show!  Truly one of the best hardcore shows I've ever witnessed!
And THEN we played!!!  This was without a doubt the best show we've played.  The crowd was electric and keeping us charged up.  We started out fast and ended up in a blur.  I think we played an entire 45 minute set in about 35 minutes and just left the club in ruins!  I gave my video camera to the driver for Even Today who was at the show and he video-taped the entire show….or so he thought.  I went to rewind the tape and it said there was only 10 minutes on the tape!  After I looked at it I noticed that he had taped a little bit before the show and then got the first song.  He apparently pushed the pause button without knowing and never turned the recorded back on…..  So unfortunately we have no recording of our best show!  Oh well, that just means we're going to have to do it again!
We then hung out at Wall until midnight or so before going back to the apartment to crash….

September 16 – Well, the shows are over so today will be a rest day and then tonight we'll go down to Wall to catch Naoki's band The Fangs play since we missed it the other night!
We pack our bags and get ready for the return trip and then hop in a cab and head to Wall.
The Fangs take the stage and they play a very solid punk-rock set complete with a Misfits cover!  Naoki is a very quiet guy when you meet him and seems to be a very laid-back guy.  Not so when he hits the stage with his band!  A great frontman for sure, jumping around in the crowd, jumping up on tables and who finished the set with the entire mic in his mouth, no hands screaming into the mic!  AWESOME!!!!!!

September 17 – Time to head back to the states!  Naoki came and grabbed us and we hit the train early.  An hour later we were at Narita and about 20 hours later we were in Atlanta, tired as hell and very happy to have done another great tour in Japan!  To all who helped make it happen: Naoki, Joneh, John, all the Wall and Moon Step crew, Even Today, Enslave, Cheerio, Clown, ISCREAM7SHOWERS, Ex-C, Scum Banditz, One Yah One, Fumi and Mr Shutoh, Deborah, Mikki, Hiroyuki and all the fans and other great bands we played with, ARIGATO GAZAIMAS!!!!!  THANK YOU!!!!  You are the reason we do what we do and without you, we are nothing!  Again, from the bottom of our hearts, Thank you!

Kanpai!

This was shot at our show at Huck Finn in Nagoya Japan and then broadcast over and over on a cable TV show over there called "Channel Bootleg". The original program was 2 hours long and featured about 6 bands; four from Japan and then Murphy's Law and us. Somehow we ended up getting top billing on the video (yeah, even over Murphy's Law!) and instead of the three-four songs everyone else got, they're showing SIX of ours on this video! So, go grab a brew and some popcorn and watch this shit! It's fuckin' cool! (And if you speak Japanese feel free to send me the translation of our little intro and CD plug!)

Cheers!


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So, we do a little mini-tour that was going to be three shows: Orlando, New Orleans and Houston. After having difficulty renting a van from American Van Rentals (seriously, don't EVER use these retards...) and me having to fly to Atlanta FROM Orlando just so I could pick up the van......we had to cancel the Orlando show. We then just drove out to New Orleans to hang out with Howie from Reason of Insanity and The Pallbearers so we could be there early for our show there the following night. So all goes well for the first part of the day, we hang out around the Quarter, shoot some photos and then head to the show. Nasty Habits opens up and they put on a great show. Then the Pallbearers take the "stage" or floor area where a stage might be.... The singer seems to be pissed at the world for some reason and is ranting about this and that and then out of the blue, someone punches the shit outta the guy! So, his natural recourse is to rant a little more, walk up to some squatter chick and punch her.... (Ok, so maybe she punched him? Don't know...) So things are a little out of hand and he starts ranting and rubbing the blood from his nose on himself. The chick comes back in a couple times and unplugs the PA and runs back outside. Now the singer (and pretty much everyone in the place) is pissed off. So he picks up the remains of a broken bottle and proceeds to slash himself a little. Apparently this is commonplace for the guy and everyone is used to it. But then things go south (almost 6' south for him...) He jabs himself with the broken bottle and apparently jabs a little harder than normal and he starts gushing blood. Like horror-movie gushing! Obviously the show ends immediately and an ambulance is called which precipitates the NATIONAL GUARD to show up in a HumVee with a .50 cal on the roof! Needless to say, it was a crazy night! So below is the bulletin I posted along with a picture of the guy in his bloody glory....

Let's just say in the event that we ever do a show with the Pallbearers (which I'm thinking is probably a bit unlikely) WE will be playing before them....

This is the singer of the Pallbearers shortly after stabbing himself in the chest with a broken beer bottle....and puncturing his fucking lung!

Um, next time we're playing first!

And kids, DON'T try this at home....or in a bar....or well anywhere unless you're looking for a dirt nap! I think this guy lost a couple pints of blood before he made it to the hospital....

Did I mention that we're playing BEFORE the Pallbearers next time (if there is a next time...as I'm thinking this guy won't be singing for a bit....)

Ok, so enough babble: Here's the pic...note the river of blood flowing down the center of his chest and down his pants. This was flowing solidly...not a trickle. I believe the puncture was on the center right (bottom of the star tattoo) barely missing the breastplate...and heart.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a349/insaneshayne/IMG_1467-bloodcrop.jpg

 

 

 

CHECK IT OUT!

For some reason I can't get this to embed but click HERE for a cool video of THE DESPISED shot in Japan.

If the link above doesn't work, follow this link: http://www.borderlessaudio.net/pickup/?no=87

The interview stuff is kinda strange since they didn't really ask any questions, they just started rolling tape and we kinda had to improvise.

So enjoy!

Well, we have just returned to the US after five weeks in Europe and I have to say damn, that was fuckin' cool!  After doing two weeks in Japan we headed over to Europe to rock across Holland, Belgium, Germany, Poland and France.  Unfortunately due to van problems we had to cancel the Warsaw show and then a week or so later more problems forced us to cancel the Paris show, but the rest of the shows kicked ass!  Spent some time in Prague with some great people, took a break in Switzerland with another awesome dude and just had a great time.

So, to all of you who helped us out in some way or another by hooking us up with a show, a place to stay or food.....THANKS!  To all of you who came out to the shows, rocked out and bought our merch....THANKS!!!!

Japan and Europe will both be seeing us again!

Good news!  The CD is out and it fucking rocks! If you don't have it, you need it!  It's called "Punk, It's Not For Rich Kids Anymore!" and it's a 14 song HARDCORE/PUNK Album.  When I say "hardcore" I mean it.  It'll take you back to 1984 with brutal, fast, relentless guitar riffs; bone crunching, gritty bass; and drums that will pummel you senseless behind vocals that will tear your face off!  Want one?  Email us here on MySpace or go to www.interpunk.com and order one online from them!

SO, if you have XM Radio, call and request us on Fungus 53 and XMLM! Also, if you have Sirius, call and request us as well!  They all have the CD so maybe one of them will start playing it!

Cheers!

So, you're planning a tour and you want to play Atlanta and you're just about to email me asking for help....or, you didn't read this before sending me an email and thus I've sent you here....
Before you send that email, READ THIS!

I am not a booking agent nor is anyone in the band. I know people who know people and depending on who you are MIGHT be able to help....but chances are pretty good that I can't get you a show. As much as I'd like to help every band who's emailed me asking for help, I really can't. Not trying to be a jerk, but it's probably the same way in your town, right? I have enough trouble getting US gigs in Atlanta due to the amount of bands and general lack of clubs these days...

If you're in a band that's not in the punk/hardcore genre I can't help you...period. I pretty much listen to heavy stuff and know the clubs and bands in that genre. If you're in an alterna-rock band I have no idea where you'd fit since I don't go to those shows...so PLEASE don't email me....

First a couple tips:

If you're doing it last minute and trying to jump on a show next week the bottom line is: You're fucked. Atlanta, like most major cities books 45 to 90 days out and the farther out the better.

If you're tour dates hit on a Sunday or Monday (or really any night other than Thurs-Sat) again: You're fucked. Unless you're a pretty well known band people just don't come to shows during the week. Even Major Label bands have bad nights when they play a week-day. So if you're some unknown garage punk band from Topeka, Kansas and you want to play Tuesday night, forget about it. Drive through to Athens, Savannah, Augusta or Spartanburg....

Now, the info I send everyone that emails me so hopefully this will help:

Clubs worth playing in Atlanta:

Lenny's Bar: A small venue that does a bunch of punk and metal shows. Touted as the CBGB's of Atlanta, it's a good underground club. They moved a couple years back into a decent sized venue with a good PA so they do some good shows there but I hear that they may be moving again so who knows what's up here. Still a great place to play and would definitely be the first call to make. They are on the web HERE and on MySpace HERE. Bean does all the booking there and is cool to bands. His email is on both pages. (Most shows are around $5 and typically 21+ )

Drunken Unicorn: A small/medium size venue with a great PA and good bar. Typically the bands that play here are well-known underground bands and the shows range from Emo noise stuff to Hardcore and Metal shows. A much harder venue to get in. Check out the web site HERE or the MySpace site HERE.

The TreeHouse: A really cool, small DIY venue in the northeast suburbs of Atlanta. Decent PA and a good suburban crowd. Spanish Nick runs the place and it's really one of the few All-Ages punk/hardcore venues in the Atlanta area. They do a bunch of metalcore shows, punk shows, hardcore shows and really whatever they want. Contact them on the MySpace site HERE.

Swayze's: A decent size venue in the northwest suburbs of Atlanta. Good PA and a good suburban crowd, the club books metal, punk, hardcore and pretty much everything in between. Check out their web site HERE or the MySpace site HERE.

The Star Bar: A small bar with a big attitude. This is probably my favorite bar in Atlanta, however if you're not a well-known band you're probably not playing here. Small stage with a good PA, the club has an Elvis Shrine and $2 PBR and the best comedy and karaoke in town on Monday nights. Typical style of bands would be punk, rockabilly and well, cool. If you're a cheese-dick you're going airborn through the front doors. Check out their web site HERE or the MySpace site HERE. 21+ only.

The Earl is an awesome venue/bar in East Atlanta but getting in here is damn near impossible and completely impossible if you're not a major band. It's a small club, but they're booked many months out....so good luck with them. Check out their web site HERE or the MySpace site HERE.

The Masquerade: A large three-level club that has been closing for the past five or six years now... Probably the largest small club in town with an upstairs room that holds well over 1,000 and has a PA that'll rip your head off. The middle floor hosts smaller shows and downstairs is probably a 700+ size room with an awesome PA and the best viewing of the bands. The club is all-ages and hosts local shows as well as large national touring shows (like The Exploited, GBH, GWAR, etc....). You need to be pretty well known to get on a show with a major but you might get lucky with a week-night show in Purgatory or Hell. The old booking guy Steve left a year or so ago and I don't know who the new person is so good luck with this one. One thing to note: This club will let pretty much anyone play there (well, ok, you can't completely suck...) BUT they have the shitty "want to play here? Then sell tickets to the show!" policy. Not really applicable to a touring band, but think about this when you are offered a Tuesday night show with an unknown local band and your ONLY advertisement for your show will be THEIR ticket sales.... Many local Atlanta clubs have boycotted this club for this reason for a while now. Check out their web site HERE or the MySpace site HERE.

Yeah, there are other clubs here like 10-High, Smiths Olde Bar, Breakers, etc, but the above clubs (namely the first three) are going to be the main ones underground punk/hardcore bands are going to have a shot at playing.

So, hopefully this will give you all the info you need to book your tour. If you're a good fast punk/hardcore band and after listening to our music think that it'd be cool to book a show with us, then sure, shoot me an email and I'll do whatever I can to help out. No guarantees, but we'll do what we can....

Cheers,

Shayne - The Despised (drummer, webguy, booking guy and all purpose dork...)

Well, somehow we made it back alive!  I'd like to say thanks to all the bands we played with (and for....since a few shows the bands were the crowd!) and hopefully we'll do it again some time!

Baltimore was fun, Johnson City was a waste (although we did meet a few damn cool people and a great band, Black Tusk, up there...) and as always New York kicked ass.

But hey, the tour was a "success" in that nobody ended up in jail or the hospital.  Monetarily, well that was a little less than a success....  Let's see, total expenditures came out to around $3,000 give or take a couple hundred (of course this will depend on how much I'm going to have to pay for the blown tire blowing the back end off the RV!) and total income came out to around um, gee, maybe $200!  Proving once again that we're in this for the music and not to make money!  Of course we wouldn't turn down a big fat check from a label and a fucking driver so I wouldn't have to drive 3000 miles next time!

Oh well, pictures from the tour will show up soon.  There are a few good shots of the band members, the clubs and towns we played and the camper from hell (and the carnage from the violent blow-out...) so stay tuned to the site!

Cheers!
Shayne - The Despised (Swiss Army Drummer....)

Ok, I can understand the need to advertise your event/webpage/party/show or whatever, but FUCK, do you need to post a full 8.5" x 11" page down there?!  NO, you don't.  If you want to advertise something (which we all know that's what your doing, because otherwise you'd use the handy "Event Invite" thing if you wanted to tell me about it...) then feel free to post a comment, BUT, use text only or a SMALL picture.  If you post an entire fucking page I will delete it and nobody gets to see it.  When I have to scroll the page to see your entire add, it's too fucking big you morons!

Now, go work on your little bitty flyers for the thousands of people who check out this amazing page..... And if you recently posted a gigantic flyer and it's gone, well, um, this post is aimed at you!  Please note the ones that are still here....they're ok, use them for an example!