India Flashback
Wednesday, November 22 2000
Posted by brockp
Wherein I discover some old notebooks from my first trip to India...

(Sunday, Decmber 3rd, 1989)
Hissing, flapping sound of a pigeon in flight, wings moving...door opening down the hall, horn honking outside, some other bird, or is it a dog ?

Now in the lobby of the Hotel Lawrence, Bombay, Brock sits boiling water with an immersion heater. A German guest exits the bathroom, "I see there is no water," she comments.

"Not 'til 9 o'clock," Brock responds.

"That's for the whole city ?" an Australian guest asks, coming down the hall.

"No," Brock goes on to explain, "it comes on at 9 o'clock then lasts all night until 10am or so."

"So you have to plan your day then," the aussie says.

"There's a big bucket in the bathroom at the end of the hall - you can use a lota and pour over yourself..."

Brock poured the first mug of water into the bottle and set another to boil. The sound of hammering somewhere filling in the gaps between thoughtlines disappeared abruptly, no doubt to resume when Brock was no longer listening.

The second mug of water had come to a boil.

Wednesday 6 December, 1989
Twleve noon on the S-3 to Igatpuri. The train has stopped and a light breeze blows in the window intermittantly. It is otherwise very hot. A horn sounds and then the clanking of metal wheels, then rumbling and more horn. A train goes by heading towards Bombay as this train begins to move again.

We pass over a ditch/stream of burgundy-purple coloured murky water. As I look out at some concrete blackened five story buildings (appartments) I see a grey-black pig munching on grass. Then there are the slums of corrugated tin roofs and patched walls. Many are painted with ads for commercial products: Sanyo, Black Belt Tee Vee Center...Then some green patches - squares of cultivated garden sprouting small plants pass by. Some piles of railroad ties, another train platform, the clack rumble pound goes on, India going by.

Reviews & rants
Friday, November 17 2000
Posted by brockp
Oh well. I tried to write about it in Real Road but I am compelled to publicly excorcise myself after discovering a few more scathing reviews of my last record from the UK (see reviews page). I should have put a big sticker or something on the shrinkwrap reading "Not Punk-Rock" (actully this might be a good idea). That may have at least warded off purchases by today's mowhawk bearing youth, but then again, my "hirsute" head on the cover I am sure has done the job nicely. I mean, where the hell do I get off making music that is different from that band I was in over a decade ago anyway ? What am I trying to do here, move on or something ?

I guess I've in some way asked for this by asking my old friends to play on my record, or mentioning the name of that band in promotional materials, haven't I. I mean why would anyone want to do that ? For fun ? To reach a potential audience ? To convince the distributor to pick up your record so it gets in stores ? I guess I ought to have written something like "some boring folksy ballads with some other lame attempts at rock 'n roll played by a guy who has no business in a recording studio". Maybe that would have convinced NAIL to pick it up.

It kind of makes me think of something my friend Laurie once said when commenting on the crowds that came to see us play in the old days. It was something like, "why do they want to make themselves look so ugly ?" She listened to Cat Stevens and blue grass and didn't get it at all - kept telling me we were butchering my songs !

I'd like to see those guys who lambasted these songs as boring garbage tour Canada in February in a van with no fucking heater and carry Ampeg SVT cabinets accross parking lots in Winnipeg when its so cold your hand is sticking to the metal handle. Or play a set with your hands vainly wrapped in your torn shirt because they are raw and bleeding from too many popped blisters. Or, here's a good one, crazy glue those same blisters a week later so you can get through another set. Sufferring. In my currently self-righteous opinion, that's what punk rock was really about, not fashion or even a particular musical style. For God's sake, the Bad Brains played reggae songs - or are these guys not old enough to remember ? I guess in some way this kind of fashion categorization is borne of a capitalist society, and some two-bit zine writer is just as much a victim as everyone else.

Don't get me wrong, you guys, I'm not really mad at these bogus reviews. I mean come on, I posted a link to them just cause I think some are about as nasty as I've heard (although I should dig up the URL to that COLLECTIVE review which was equally insulting). The truth is, I feel a little better ranting in public about my hurt feelings. DUH. When someone attacks something which took you a year to make, it hurts. No, not sob sob I can't take it, but...just a little soft poke in your chest which says another person didn't get what I was saying. But hey, I've got a website, and a lot of people are coming here every month for some reason or other, so why not rant anyway. You guys probably would appreciate something new to read.

So if you're coming 'cause you're looking for some new punk rock, I guess I gotta say see ya later. This is not a punk rock site, nor do I feel any inclination to make it so. A couple weeks ago I was lumped in a category with bands like Counting Crows and Jakob Dylan's band (thanks to Listen.com) and to be honest with you, I'd probably rather hear the new Wallflowers record than John K's at this point. Sorry folks, but things change.

April
Friday, November 17 2000
Posted by brockp
The latest release from Hashimoto is now available in the online store. Exclaim! compared Gordon's vocals to the Violent Femmes and 13 Engines, describing the music as "dark, fuzzy, reverbed, and eclectic". Its also funny and loveable, kind of like Gordon.