Midnight Mob

Midnight Mob - "High Octane Rock N Roll"

Squeeze Blog

Touring Tips – Becoming a Highway Pirate

The following article was written for ReverbNation.  We figured we’d throw it up in its entirety on our own website after we heard how much people were enjoying it.  It was actually really interesting hearing from people that weren’t musicians, never toured or anything close to it that really liked the read.  Below is the original unedited version, so if you read it already (thank you) but this is a touch different & slightly updated.  We also added our own pictures from our tour vault. Enjoy!

 

So you want to tour? Congratulations on your decision to become a highway pirate!  It’s time to cruise the land with your bandmates, crew, your favorite sweat pants, your noble steed and all your individual special quirks fully loaded to test each other’s patience & sadistic behavior.  Here are our top tips & suggestions on how to make a tour successful, fun, inexpensive, efficient and most importantly safe for all.

Can we leave him in TX?

Before you decide to make a few week long commitments look inside the van and understand this will be your home along with everyone else.  It is your communal bedroom, living room, office, bathroom (to an extent of course), kitchen & changing room.  Then look at your bandmates & crew.  If you have any doubts about being able to deal with anyone’s personality in such close quarters then we highly recommend to book a long weekend excursion first and shoot for maybe 8 hours out.  If you comeback and you all don’t want to leave the van you’re a golden girl.  If you comeback and the drummer made a voodoo doll of the singer or crew mate decided to use the tour as a relaxing vacation rather than being useful then you’re more like murder she wrote.  It is so important to have the foundation of the band on the same page when traveling.  You either love it or hate it and it’s not for everyone.  If there are people in the van who need to stay at a hotel all the time either cut them loose immediately or be very clear to pay for it out of their pocket and not out of band funds.  If there are complaints about showers you can stop at Flying J truck stops and pay for a $10 shower, it’s glorious & totally worth it if no one has money for a hotel.

I Love You Glenn Vanzig!

Adventure! Lets do this!  It’s time to bite the bullet and make the band bond blood sacred. Do your research hardcore before you purchase your vehicle and/or trailer.  Don’t buy the first thing you see and don’t cheap out.   Buy something that will last years with basic maintenance even if it costs $5K more than you wanted to spend.  Your band should be equally putting money towards paying off the van.  All for one one for all.  You don’t want to be that lame band that’s constantly asking other bands to borrow their van because your ghetto blaster van keeps breaking down.  If a killer show comes up 10 hours away and you break down on the way or have zero confidence  in your transportation you can kiss that connection goodbye for sure plus others because your rep will be tarnished.  People talk.  When you find your chariot: name it, christen it, worship it, respect it & take care of it as if it is the last unicorn on Earth.  We take our steed, Glenn Vanzig, to the car doctor one month prior to leaving for tour to make sure everything is up to par & limit any BS.

There’s No Money in Ham

Be prepared to play wherever, whenever, however.  Your lifeline is money & reputation.  The only way to make money & boost your rep is to kill it every night even if it’s for the bartender or the other band.  Don’t be the lame band that refuses to play because no one showed up.  You never know who’s watching and the “bartender” could be the talent buyer or owner.  If they see you kill it for no-one then he/she will hit you up for a huge show coming through and then you can start a relationship.  We had 2 extremely lucrative situations ($thousands) happen to us.  One was showing up to a venue in New Orleans in the early afternoon asking to play at like 2pm.  We were scheduled to play that night at the same place but figured what the hell it’s New Orleans.  We became friendly with the bartender and she said go for it.  We played for 2 people and sold 1 cd.  Two months later we received an email from the individual that bought the cd saying that he runs a festival in AL and wants us to play.  We did it for 2 straight years were paid a massive guarantee, 2 nights 2 rooms at a Holiday Inn, free drinks & food plus tons of promo.  The other experience was in NYC playing a venue that was not suited for our sound.  Instead of hamming it in we turned way up released the beast and played for maybe 5.  One of the 5 was a higher up for Pepsi Co & we were paid a ton of cash to write a song and perform at private NYC penthouse party.  We’ve also had venues just give us hundreds of dollars, places to stay and  food just because they really dug what were doing, the effort and professionalism.

Take Your Wood Out

You will encounter show cancelations and other weird events that may force you to improv a bit so bring your acoustics.  In addition, to your electric set or more involved set have a stripped down acoustic set in your back pocket.  Being able to handle yourself acoustically is incredibly impressive to people.  It shows off the depth of your band and opens yourself up to a totally new audience.   Plus a venue’s slow nights are Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday.  But some coffee shops and bars have killer open mics on those nights and it’s without any red tape.  This works for great band relaxation and bro-ing out with each other. You’ll make some money, minimal gear movement, it’s a different environment and your singer will appreciate the lighter night.  It’s also great for asking the locals for the low down of the area & any contact info so you can organize something for the future.

Socialism Is King

In the world of touring it’s key to be social & making full use of social media.  This is not for the introverted, but if you are introverted and want to stick it out then make it up by organizing the equipment or keeping an eye on things basically help out in another way, just don’t be a sad donkey.  Before you leave for your dates it’s a good idea to have your band agree on some sort of daily social media thing like every morning is a video tour diary thing or maybe a photo with the latest fan.  Whatever it is do it everyday on all of your social media daily and close to the same time of the every day.  Video tape the bananas out of everything.  You may think it’s stupid now but a month from now it’s really entertaining or good footage to splice into something else to be used on your social media.  Invest in a communal band dropbox pro account so all content can be emptied from all phones or wherever so you have room to keep additional content.  From the stage promote your social media, every person you talk to let them know where to find you on social media or help someone on the phone to find you.  Your website should be the hub off all this info so if you can’t think of something say the website.  If you’re doing it right your social media numbers should spike when you are on tour, which means your info is getting across and people started following your journey.  A massive help is running Facebook ads in order to promote each show and your brand.  No one knows who you are so get there attention and at least let them know this show is happening.  Utilizing Club Flyers is a great way to have 500 color postcard type flyers printed for $20 either shipped directly to the venue or a generic one with all of your social media on it kept with the merch tub.  When you show up to the show throw them all over the venue and whatever is left over at the end of the night take back to use again.

Respect, Walk, What did You Say?

If you and your bandmates don’t respect each other or any other person involved in each show then you’re screwing the pooch.  You will each going to have your quirks, requests, diet restrictions, pet peeves etc…  Work together as a family a single unit looking to take over the world.  Be the 300.  If one person doesn’t like smoking in the van then don’t, if one person doesn’t like trash in the van then pick it up, if one person doesn’t want fast food then go somewhere that has options.  Bottom line there is no arguing over petty stuff.   If you have a problem with something bring it up & talk it out.  Give a high five work with each other and you will be happy campers which means kick ass shows, more money and even better memories.  This respect extends to the security, bartender, sound guy, stage manager, owner, the dude in the bathroom that gives you a paper towel, lighting dude, ticket window person, promoter, the guy that plays lotto all day at the bar, other bands etc…  Make sure you introduce yourself to everyone with a smile, humble, professional and pleasant demeanor.  Your band is a brand and it’s all part of the show.  Plus it’s less stressful.  Not everything will be too your liking but that’s life. You still get to do what you love and a complete stranger opened there doors to you so be a sexy guest.  The number one rule is you are not entitled to anything.  Don’t complain if a venue doesn’t want to guarantee you money.  Be happy you got the show and prove them you’re worth the loot.  You’ll be surprised how many venues will throw you a bunch of cash anyway.

We recently played the largest motorcycle festival in the US Sturgis Buffalo Chip, SD and opened for 3 Doors Down and played after Kid Rock on two separate nights for thousands of people.  There were things promised to us on the day of each show that didn’t happen and one of the shows we had a severe chunk cut from our set because of an insane lightening storm that almost canceled Kid Rock’s set.  We’re convinced Kid Rock is Thor due to his ability to channel lightening during sets at Sturgis.  We didn’t get what we were promised but who cares. We said thank you for informing us no worries & we can’t wait to play we’re having a great time here because genuinely this is how we felt.  We put on 2 baller shows and 2 employees there that we were talking too happened to be scouting for the Rocklahoma Festival. We extended the invite to play Rocklahoma & accepted, but unfortunately had to cancel due to Blackey’s medical issues with her throat.

We had an experience in NC where the town put an obstacle in the venue’s way and the venue wasn’t able to rectify it before the show.  The owner apologized, gave us the run down and we said we understood, no worries.  The owner was so enamored with our patience and understanding that he immediately started calling his buddies in other cities to see if we could squeeze on a show last minute.  Unfortunately it was no go, but he through us gas money.  Then we huddled up, picked another city, rocked out an open mic in Charlotte and sold tons of merch there.

No Glove No Love

Protect yourselves and each other out there.  Remember you are in a foreign land where people might talk different, act different and look different.  Keep tabs on each other and don’t leave to walk around the city without telling someone.  You’re surrounded by strangers that might not have the best intentions so be street smart.  When we played Sturgis in SD we stayed with all the bikers camping on the land.  Four of the six decided to get some sleep so they retired to the van.  Squeeze & Beatz decided to go to an open bar on the campgrounds which was about 3/4 of a mile away from the van.  They hung with some other travelers until the bar closed then ventured back to the van.  They didn’t take into consideration though the temperature dropping to about 30 degrees and it being pitch black on the campgrounds.  Plus Glenn Vanzig is black so you literally could be standing in front of it and not see it.  After about 40 minutes of looking for the van Beatz and Squeeze split up.  Squeeze found the van within 5 minutes put on a jacket & was good to go.  When he went back for Beatz minutes later he couldn’t find him.  Squeeze decided to go to sleep but then knew he had to find Beatz.  On his quest to find Beatz he scored some free pizza, which was a bonus.  An hour later he saw a Gollumy looking creature in the distance under the moonlight going from tent to tent in search of shelter & compassion.  It was Beatz and he was relieved and appreciated coming back for him.  Beatz apparently gave up at some point and slept on the dirt shivering in between some tents for awhile.  Beatz later returned the favor going back for Squeeze in Charleston, SC when someone was looking to light fireworks off in their apartment at 1am.

Also if you plan on driving that night after the show designate that responsibility to someone who agrees to be sober & rested.  There’s no harm in taking a nap while the other bands are playing if you absolutely have to drive that night.  There is also no harm in pulling over in a parking lot if the designated driver is just too beat or if the person riding shotgun can’t stay awake.  Take your time you’ll figure it out.

Once Bitten Twice Shy

Dealing with venues & promoters is tricky. It’s pretty similar to reeling in a river monster or finding big foot.  Once you have a date make sure you ask as many questions as possible preferably in one email because most likely they will only respond once maybe twice.  Once you confirm a show you need the following info: set time, set length, load in time, payment if any, how payment is settled, all social media tags, contact names numbers & emails, where to mail promo, parking info, local press contacts, backline, how many bands, when bands start, other band names, pre sale ticket info, wifi password, do they live stream, green room and any bonus accommodations.  The more you know the smoother it will be.

Glenn Your So Tight…

Pack up your gear right after you play.  At this point you’re going to be the most alert, feel your best, you know all of your gear is accounted for because you just used it and everyone will love you for cleaning up after yourself and keeping your stuff out of everyone’s way.  Packing your van/trailer should be ritual.  Tour Van tetris is an art and this art has an order.  Make sure you have hard tour cases for everything so nothing breaks when constantly moving gear around.  Your heaviest gear will go in first to give your vehicle proper balance and minimize wear and tear, but everything after that is your own special puzzle.  Just make sure you do the same thing every night so all the gear is accounted for, this way if a packing job doesn’t fit right you know something is up and can be fixed immediately.  Use bungees to keep the gear really tight so nothing gets loose and causes damage.  Each member’s gear is there own responsibility.  If the microphone is left behind the singer shouldn’t be blaming anyone but himself or herself.  As a precaution bring extra cables, mic’s, strings, batteries etc… just in case.  No one is perfect, but if you have to rock the credit card because something was left behind take it in stride.  Being clear about everyone’s responsibilities will keep the poop off the floor.

Claim Your Land & Rule Like A Boss

Your merch is more important than catching 20 river monsters.  Get to the venue early! Everyone will love you for this because you appear to be professional.  Best parts about arriving early are no stress, possible venue freebies, best parking and most important first pick at your merch spot, which means electricity.  We bring a small card table, wood trifold march board with lights & then additional lights.  Sometimes there’s only one outlet.  Claim your spot, light up and let other bands be ignored in your shadow.  Also it’s crucial to accept credit cards.  Don’t miss out on sales because you’re too lazy to set up something on your cel phone or tablet.  It’s really easy.  We recommend Square to not only process all credit card transactions but to also enter all cash sales.  Square is a fully customizable POS system to manage all sales & inventory for as little as $30.  You can also run tons of analytic reports.  Square is also on the cutting edge in accepting the latest types of payments such as Apple Pay or contactless payments.  After you make your booty for the night make sure you immediately settle up with the venue.

Long Distance Runner

Those are our tips for all you out there.  They have been put together through years of mistakes, triumphs and keeping an open mind learning from others.  Your tour will never be immaculate.  If it was cleaner than Taylor Swift then where’s the adventure.  One final tip is to eat healthy & stay hydrated.  You don’t see any drunks with a hot dog dangling from there mouth finishing the marathon.

 

Peace,

-Squeeze

The New Tower Records is Spotify & PledgeMusic

Squeeze here and this is long due blog entry. I have been meaning to write something about the new music model, but just haven’t had the chance. We have had a ton of down time due to Blackey’s vocal problems, which means writing music, doing research and asking questions to try and figure out how to leverage everything out there better. Personally I have been led down the infinitely long rabbit hole known as Spotify. I first got involved with that nuclear bomb known as the mp3 during the 1st wave of ipods. The ipod was the best invention & totally made for me. I now could put my hundreds of cd’s in my pocket and listen to my music on the go. I always bought the cd though and then put the cd on my ipod until about a year ago when my ipod broke for the 3rd time and the cost to fix is ridiculous. I threw up my hands and said screw this, I refuse to put all my cd’s back on there. This is when I ventured into the streaming phenomenon. I started with Pandora, but got bored of it. Then I tried out Soundcloud, but there was too much garbage on it. While trying both of those I would also listen to albums on YouTube, but that got really old quick due to ads, glitchy internet and random ghetto audio quality.

Then I finally took the plunge with Spotify when I upgraded my phone from an android to an Iphone 6. On this day I was touched by a mythological creature. I used the free plan at first and was amazed at the amount music on Spotify. What really got me was that Spotify had all these rare albums that I wouldn’t expect it to have and albums that I was also interested in but didn’t feel like spending the time or money to check out. I upgraded to the paid plan after my free trial and then upgraded again to the premium family plan. The paid Spotify plan is hands down the best. You can listen to any song without any ads plus you have a download feature where you can download albums and listen to them without any internet service, which is perfect if your gym or office has crappy wifi. So many out there believe streaming music is the devil and bands complain about not making money with music sales. I truly believe the opposite. When Tower was around there was an actual culture around music. MTV played music videos all day, Music mags had all the latest music info, the radio played more variety, Tower held midnight promo events etc… It’s not like that anymore. Now the culture is reality TV and music being heard on TV, movies and video games. So naturally there has to be a new way to consume new music of which TV & radio don’t help. I have discovered so many bands through Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist that it got me pumped about music again. There’s a massive music culture out there but it’s in Spotify. I have actually purchased more band merchandise since starting to listen to Spotify. Bands at all levels manage there own merch stores & all of these bands are on Spotify. If I dig an album I go to the band website and look for the Vinyl , shirt or some other item that I can buy. There’s always that hesitation when a band puts out there latest album, maybe you hear a song or two from the radio or internet, should you spend the money on it? It always sucks to buy the latest album and then conclude that you just wasted $12. With Spotify hear the whole album first then decide to buy something, it’s a win win. It gives more incentive to the bands to put out quality albums each time because of all this streaming madness.

Streaming has definitely removed cd’s, but so what. Even if you had a cd where would you play it? Cars & computers don’t come with players anywhere and most likely your cd’s are scratched anyway or the player doesn’t work right. Another heavy hitter in this new music culture is PledgeMusic, which is a crowdfunding platform. I have been using it for a few years, but it has caught fire over the last year. PledgeMusic allows bands to offer exclusive limited edition merchandise. Megadeth released the grammy winning album Dystopia through PledgeMusic and one of the items offered was a guitar lesson with Dave Mustaine. I have recently pledged the Iron Maiden campaign and will be pledging the Cheap Trick & Nina Diaz campaigns. I have had my eye on a signed Cheap Trick Vinyl for quite sometime. Also Rex from Pantera has one going for his first solo album, which is really cool. He released a track on Spotify & I’m diggin it.

If this was 1995 we would run to Tower to buy & listen to all this stuff, but Tower is gone & it’s spirit lives in Spotify & PledgeMusic. Spotify, PledgeMusic and people like me will tell you all this stuff, but the rest of the media unfortunately won’t be so informative. These platforms were created off of the average consumer’s demands. I actually took steps in creating my own music podcast using Spotify as the core of it. In conclusion nothing has changed it’s just different just like everything else around you. Instead of going to a music store as the norm now you order everything through the internet and converse socially about it through social media. Concerts will never go away so you can get still get your heavy metal parking lot on with other like minded metal heads. Up the irons!

Metallica “Hardwired…to Self-Destruct” Review

The Specs:
12 Tracks
1 hr & 17 min
Double CD & on Spotify
Standout Tracks: Hardwired, Moth Into Flame, Atlas Rise!, Here Comes Revenge, Spit Out the Bone
Coolest Riff: Main Riff on Confusion

On 11/18/16 Metallica released the much anticipated new album “Hardwired…to Self-Destruct”. It’s the first album since 2008’s also much anticipated “Death Magnetic”. I guess everything Metallica does at this point is much anticipated and they deserve it even though they have been more or less disappointing for the last 20 years. I have personally written off Metallica since Reload, but have recently become interested based on a piece of the “Moth Into Flame” single I heard. This is an album everyone is talking about and the reactions are all over the place. Being intrigued I dug in and also decided to give Death Magnetic a spin to offer a simple comparison.

Overall Rating:
S-Q-U-E-E

Comparison to Death Magnetic:
Hardwired is definitely building on Death Magnetic, which is an album I felt failed miserably. Sonically speaking Death Magnetic is bizarre & worth a skip even though at the time you wanted to make all the excuses in the world why it’s amazing just because it kind of sounded like Metallica trying to bring back classic Metallica. If Death Magnetic was a way of relearning their roots then I’m all for it because Hardwired revisits so much classic energy, but it feels way more genuine and natural than Death Magnetic. Both albums have long tracks, but Hardwired could have learned from its predecessor by keeping it to 10 tracks maybe 9. You will forget Death Magnetic even existed after one listening to Hardwired.

Let get into it:
Hardwired will surprise the crap out of you. It is definitively the best collection of songs Metallica has put out since the black album over two decades ago. Just the sound alone erases everything since the black album. For all the good in the album Metallica can’t seem to get out of their own way. There are so many great riffs and grooves, but they continuously ruin it by adding additional parts that ruin the flow. I have no idea when a verse, pre chorus, chorus or bridges begin or end. I could have also done without half of the guitar solos, they seemed forced and to fulfill someone’s need for guitar solos, but not exactly for the benefit for the song. Hardwired is mostly a collection of great metal parts with some not so good parts. If you’re looking for anthem hooky choruses then you’ll hate this album. Plus James Hetfield seems to insist on trying to sing ballads for some reason. At this point unless another Nothing Else Matters pops up James should only be barking it out. Overall this album has riffage paying homage to Kill em All through Load. Hardwired also pays homage a bunch of non Metallica styles such as Iron Maiden, Anthrax & funny enough Megadeth. I am actually excited to listen to this album again and again minus a few tracks. I am also not dreading hearing James’s voice. For some reason since Load I have found his voice to be unpleasant. Load would have been way better with another singer. Let’s break it down further.

Track by Track:
1. Hardwired (3:11) – Great intro to this album! If you like Battery, Damage Inc & Metal Militia then this is for you. When it comes to Metallica I don’t really listen to the lyrics, but this is one of worst pre chorus or chorus lyrics in the Metallica repertoire. Only if the rest of the tracks were under 4 minutes.

2. Atlas, Rise! (6:29) – One of my favorite tracks. Atlas pays homage to Master of Puppets & Maiden in this one. It gets a tad metal whimsical for no reason but it still kicks.

3. Now that We’re Dead (6:59) – Cool tribal intro kinda of a weird take on Megadeth’s Reckoning Day. Great metal riffage & groove out of the gate into a Kill Em All like verse. This song is the first song where you kind of think I could do without the pre chorus & chorus. I’d rather just hear the verse and intro. There’s some Load-esque moments on this one. Some cool & some eh. There’s a bunch of parts that could be taken out.

4. Moth Into Flame (5:51) – Another Puppets rocker mixed with the best of Load and James tearing it up on rhythm. The only part I’m not into is the Maiden guitar melody part, which seems just out of place in the context of everything. It’s supposed to be the guitar hook of the song, but the part after it is so much cooler.

5. Dream No More (6:30) – Sad But True like intro into the best of Load. One of my favorite verse melodies. Really cool and groovy. When they get to the pre chorus or chorus, I’m not really sure what it is they destroy all that is cool with some super sluggish unfocused part that reminds of Savatage actually (remember them?). I can picture Jon Oliva singing it for some reason, but it sounds more like Stevens. Savatage would sound much better doing it. I’m getting sidetracked, back to Metallica. The intro and outro to and from the solo section is an awesome guitar melody but the main solo is the same Metallica solo you heard a 1000 times on the black album. Drop the wah and try a talk box or something.

6. Halo On Fire (8:15) – Holy crap is this a waste of space & it might be the 2nd worst on Hardwired. It’s like Metallica is trying to do a Megadeth song like Go to Hell meets Dawn Patrol meets Revelation Mother Earth. Another really pointless intro. James the balladeer appears for the first time and unfortunately not the last. So boring and stoopid. Don’t waste your time looking for a cool part in this 8 min poo drop. It just keeps getting worse. I’ll take that back. A killer riff comes in at 4:50 and disappears faster than the phantom lord at 5:05.

7. Confusion (6:41) – Probably the biggest disappointment on Hardwired. After listening to a 1 minute long intro of the same Metallica part you heard on Puppets, Justice & Black Album you get to the coolest guitar riff of the album. Then in current Metallica tradition they destroy the momentum and go into some weird sub par Iron Maiden Mother Russi-esque part then to a really boring verse. Fortunately enough they weave the main riff in and out throughout the song. Unfortunately 99% of the parts around the main riff kind of make you scratch your head and wonder why wasn’t the whole song the main riff and does there really need to be multiple guitar solos. I blame Lars for finding 99 ways to die.

8. ManUnkind (6:56) – Most unnecessary Metallica intro ever. Even though it lasts 30 seconds it makes you look up every Iron Maiden song on Dance of The Dead, Brave New World, A Matter of Life and Death and Final Frontier, which takes hours! What the f*** Metallica like what the f***. I had to find the exact song where this came from for seem reason & you will too, they are playing sick game here. Did you make Robert break into Maiden’s studio and just steal their s***? Metallica is Metallica & Iron Maiden is Iron Maiden and lets keep it that way. It’s almost as if Metallica studied every Maiden song from these albums and said hey lets do this again and do it sonically exactly the same because that would be cool. Then after that we’ll go into that same metal marching band thing. At about minute and a half you finally get into the meat of the song and it’s like a take on that cool Shinedown song meets Load. I skip this track. And to my right Robert Trujillo, he wrote this.

9. Here Comes Revenge (7:18) – I love this track and no one really talk about it, which makes me wonder. Again after setting the momentum in the intro Metallica has to bring it down to this really annoying dreary tribal thing and then for a brief moment into Orion, which is really cool, if only for a blink of an eye. When it rocks it rocks hard.

10. Am I Savage (6:30) – Really cool intro into that Shinedown stomp. Then at the 2 minutes mark it gets all Megadeth like, which made me look up a ton of Megadeth songs to find the one it sounds like. I’m still looking, there’s so many. This song is really boring and the best part was listening to all the Megadeth songs.

11. Murder One (5:45) – Enter metal marching band part again. This is Metallica’s tribute to the late/great Lemmy. Probably one of the worst songs written in the last 30 years, this includes all genres. What the hell is this. I call 911 Emergency on this one. Sorry Lemmy there’s only death here no glory and sadly they overkilled you. OMG I’m starting to write James lyrics… next track!

12. Spit out the bone (7:09) – This track totally redeemed all the crappy ones on this album. Horns up & crank it! No Life til Leather! Thank you Metallica. Why the hell didn’t you write at least two more songs like this?

There you have it that’s my opinion, I hope you got something out of it. I delayed posting this because I wanted to see how I felt about it after time went by & I’m happy to say I’m still really into it. I know there was a bunch of negative stuff in there but it’s a really long album and there’s plenty of awesome stuff in there as well. Dig in and find it.

– Squeeze

The Perfect Squeeze Music Reviews

This past weekend I decided to enter the music review arena. The new Metallica album gave me a kick in the pants to do this. I heard a snippet of one of the singles a little while ago and thought this actually sounds really good. Fast forward to now, the album is out and everyone has really interesting opinions about it. I fit in the “wrote off Metallica at Reload” group, but based on everyone’s reaction to the new album I decided to listen to the new album. Now as I am writing this I am listening to Death Magnetic since I never gave it a chance and all the reviews I have read for the new album give a quick comparison to Death Magnetic so I’m doing some rock n roll review homework.

I have always found myself in conversation talking about new albums so why not officially throw my opinion out there, maybe it will help you decide whether to buy or not. We’ve all been there reading a review thinking: too long, too short, unhelpful, too biased etc… I think I would be able to give a unique and fair review based on the wide scope of music I listen too, recording experience, no label affiliation and no zine affiliation. I am a fan of all music genres as long as I dig what I hear.

Right now the plan is to focus on reviewing new albums/ep’s whether major label or independent. A killer song is a killer song. Major label production doesn’t always yield the best music, but unfortunately it is the only music you are allowed to listen to on heavy rotation. I’m open to review any album no matter when its release date, just send me a request through my Facebook profile, Mickey Squeez. I will be using discretion when picking and choosing what to review since I have a bunch of friends in the music community and don’t want to potentially piss on someone’s day. I also don’t want to publish a review on something that is biased in some way, shape or form.

Lets have fun with this and by no means do I think my opinion is the best, it’s just my opinion. I have no intentions of putting anyone down it’s just a nugget for debate. My rating system is going to be like an old school game of horse only, but the opposite. If you spell out Squeeze that’s a perfect rating. My reviews will be track by track but only one overall rating for the album/ep. First up Metallica’s “Hardwired… to Self-Destruct”!

Don’t Ask Homeless Kids Questions

I haven’t blogged in a while. I want to do this more often because it’s actually kind of entertaining for myself, but at the same time I don’t want to be forced to blog because it might not be so entertaining for anyone, not even for the person not reading this. I’m shooting for once a month or when the mood strikes! Since it’s been months since my last blog, this will be considered when the mood strikes. I have been word struck & now I will blog hard.

I’ve been all over the place recently and have come across a slew of wise ass kids on the younger side. At first you’re like what a jerk kid, but then you laugh because what the kid did was hilarious and then you can’t stop laughing to yourself because you realize you were totally that wise ass kid growing up. Being older now you view & understand these kids comments & the magnitude of what is actually coming out of their mouths. Why would you stop getting your parents all amped up, it’s so funny. Angry moms in the mall yelling at their kids is amazing. It’s almost as if the kid is so aware that he’s putting on a show for you.

Today this one kid really brought it home for me. I parked in my apartment lot and walked to the front door. As soon as I got to the door a pack of kids said hi & had that up to no good thing going on. The girl said this lady was creeping them out because she was asking where they live and what they were doing. I asked them what they told her. The girl said nothing but the boy said, “I said we were homeless”. This was so funny because as soon as he said that I started saying you should tell her that you eat garbage with the cats. The boy and I locked eyes & that’s when memories rushed back on how much of a wise ass I was to my parents at like 6/7 years old. I used to love changing the channel on my dad from another room, it never got old or egging my dad on getting him frustrated, then saying “what are you going to do about it”.

I’m sure there are plenty of you out there that can relate to this. My dad’s the best & this weekend he will be my best man. Only the best could have raised me & deal with all my antics. Remember that time when you all thought I was dead, but I was just sleeping in a bathroom without any clothes on, yeh I was that kid. Happy Father’s Day!