Good in the Sack

This is just one post in my wrap up of the year 2010. If you would like to read the rest, click here to the main post.

There were a lot of great shows in 2010 that I was fortunate enough to see for free. I love my job. I didn't review a lot of shows as I would have liked but here are some that stuck out in my mind.

White Rabbits
I <3 the White Rabbits. When they rolled into town, I was on it. I even paid $15 to see them. I wrote in my ACL post "for those that know what a cheapskate I am know what a big deal that is." And man, they didn't disappoint. I prepared myself for the show by listening to their two albums ad nauseam at work. I also showed up before the show started, waited in line, and stood right in front of the stage just for this band. Again, none of these characteristics are me. Even though I'm press, there are just some bands that bring out my inner fangirl. This is one of them.

Unfortunately, I got some annoying news right before they took the stage but I was distracted by the percussion awesomeness not to care.

Thrice, Kevin Devine, Bad Veins, The Dig
Summer shows in Texas are fucking brutal and this was no exception. I was sweating so much that I could feel it dripping down my back. Yuck. Poor Chantel, who took the photos, was stuck in the front with a crowd of people around her for the entire show.

It was a random line up but it worked. I watched Thrice from the side of the venue away from the crowd and it was surreal to see this sea of sweaty dude bros pumping their fists in unison and yelling out the lyrics. Those moments make shows unforgettable.

Carney and Athlete
Another summer show but this was inside Stubb's. Think that made a difference from the Texas heat? Hell no. Again, I was sweating and with the combination of the sultry tunes from Carney and the charisma from Athlete's frontman Joel Pott, good god. Babies were probably made that night.

New Politics
I stumbled onto this band during SXSW right before Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump was set to play. I arrived early so I could ensure that I would be able to get a good spot for viewing. Nothing is more annoying that trying to see a band from behind a person taller than you or drunk high-pitched hyenas. That's a story for another day.

When I walked in the Dirty Dog bar, New Politics was on stage. The music was fun. Honestly, there wasn't anything too special. Got some pop punk elements to it and catchy "yeah yeah" to sing along to. But the minute the lead singer started break dancing, I was sold. More bands need to incorporate break dancing in their sets. Just saying.

Fun Fun Fun Fest
This is what I tweeted about this festival on the old Twitter:
.@funfunfunfest is the one festival to bring out every journalist's inner fanboy/girl. I've never seen so many of them geek out in my life.
Decscendents, Bad Religion, The Bronx... I was such a fangirl that weekend and so was everyone else. It was awesome.

This had to have been my favorite tweet of mine:
As I look at the red-colored press from Gwar's spray, I'm glad Karissa was in the pit & not me. The things we do for you. Haha. So True.

The Secret Handshake
I felt bad for The Secret Handshake when I found out they had to cancel their tour because of low ticket sales. That's disappointing. It disappoints me that if a band hasn't had their ass kissed by Pitchfork or whatever music blog hipsters consider tastemakers that month, no one gives a shit. Whatever happened to liking music just because it's good fun music?

Anyway, off my soapbox... SPEAK opened for this band for my November show and I was really impressed by them. The Secret Handshake is fun, bottom line. Don't believe me? Here's a video.

Down with Webster, Friday Night Boys, The Bigger Lights, and Cute is What We Aimed For

I won free tickets for this show from Do512.com. Yay. I was a fan of Cute is What We Aimed for and I'll admit it was because I thought the name was witty. I don't know if you could call me a fan though because I didn't listen to them on a regular basis. I had the album but I honestly think I heard it once. Again, that name is adorable.

Anyway, the show was interesting. I loved the first band Down with Webster. The second two bands, not so much. The lead singer of Cute is What We Aimed For though... Wow, what a charmer. I was trying my hardest not to swoon, but I just couldn't resist.

Good in the Sack

I had a flashback at the show from the days I spent in the Backroom, reeking of cigarette smoke (smoking was allowed in venues then), and hanging out with all my friends from the Austin Punk Rock website. Seeing everyone in the crowd again singing along to Good in the Sack's silly little lyrics about wishing to know how to fight and having friends with benefits made me feel like that 23-year-old newbie "blogger" all over again.

The Steps, Love at 20, Bright Light Social Hour
This show was great. Three local bands all bringing some different to the line up. Hearing The Steps' guitarist Sam Thompson perform those guitar riffs impressed me. And he's like 19. Wow. These youngins' are coming out of the wombs with talent these days.

Love at 20 always brings a good show which comes as no surprised with all that determination Mike Groener has in that mind of his.

And Bright Light Social Hour was the reason that brought me to that show. It was their last show before they camped in a studio to record their debut full-length. I wanted to see what the big deal was.

Ever see a Cheech and Chong movie? Those '70s and '80s cult films where those two idiots would get high and hilarity would ensue? If life was a Cheech and Chong movie, the Bright Light Social Hour would be that band playing on stage in the bar setting up the scene. I thought for sure that those two clowns would stumble into Emo's at any minute to entertain me. That funky bass, Jack's moustache, and catchy lyrics... woo, that's a show.

Wakey!Wakey!

Unfortunetely, this show wasn't my favorite in the least, but that wasn't Wakey!Wakey!'s fault. It was completely the crowd. The show was inside the Mohawk so it was crowded. That's not a bad thing. Standing in front of a drunk couple who insisted on whistling and yelling as loud as they could because they just looooove Wakey!Wakey! was. I was so annoyed by the end of the night that I wanted to walk out and leave. It was only a keyboard, a violin and vocals so it was very chill show. I understand you're so moved by the music that you feel the need to express yourself, but geez people, yelling? That's unnecessary. Especially inside the venue. Ugh. But the show was memorable.

Glassjaw

Glassjaw was epic. But I'm sure you've realized by now that "epic" is such a regular fixture in my vocabulary. I say episodes of Glee were epic. I say eating a sandwich is epic. But Glassjaw actually lived up to definition "of heroic or impressive proportions."

I wrote a brief review about the show that never got published. Mainly because it was a hot mess, but here are some highlights:

Its been around seven years since Glassjaw performed in Texas, let alone in Austin. With this date not only being the last show they're playing for awhile, it was also the only U.S. date they had booked this year. So it was no surprise that this show sold out immediately when the tickets became available in late December.

Arriving at Emo's at 8:30 p.m., there was a line wrapped around the corner but it moved rather quickly. Glassjaw was the only band on the bill so the crowd had about an hour to get as close to the front as possible or hang out in the venue until the guys took the stage.

The show itself was an hour and 30 minutes of some favorite songs including “Tip Your Bartender,” “Siberian Kiss” and “Ape Dos Mil” as well as some newer tracks from the upcoming album (release date hasn't been officially announced yet.). Vocalist Daryl Palumbo was drowned out by the tightly packed fans who sang along to his every word. Even with one guitar player missing from the original line up, the band still sounded just as fierce and aggressive as the Glassjaw fans love.

After the last song “Babe,” the band said their thank yous and walked off stage. Unfortunately, the small hope in the air was quickly deflated when the band didn't come back for an encore. However, the overall consensus from the fans that night was that this Glassjaw performance was exactly what they have been missing.

This is just one post in my wrap up of the year 2010. If you would like to read the rest, click here to the main post.

January: Free Week
I went to Free Week just to watch some great bands for free and hang out with friends. If a band caught my attention, I would keep them in mind for future coverage. So I had no intentions of actually working with shooting photos, writing reviews, etc.

But after the week was over, I realized I saw a lot of bands that should be shared so I wrote up this quick post with my debut of Twitter-style reviews. Writing a review in 140 characters or less is a great writing exercise I recommend for any writer. You have to be to the point and consise.

February: 200 music interviews
I have an excel sheet that I use to keep track of all the coverage I've done. Yep, I can be that anal retentive. Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated since I've posted this blog about reaching 200 interviews. I'm sure if I update it now, I'll be pretty freaking close to 300 if I haven't already hit that mark yet. What can I say? I get around.

March: The Dig performing "I Just Wanna Talk to You"
I fell in love with The Dig the moment I interviewed them. The first thing I heard out of one of their mouths that wasn't "Are you Sarah?" was "There are cute girls over there." See, our interview was at the Parish hours before their show and there were already teenagers lined up at the door.

During their set, I happened to pull out my Flip cam right before they played this song which is one of my favorites. I knew I was in for a treat when band members of the other two bands hopped on stage with them. Such a good song.

April: SPEAK covers "Toxic"
I was trying to refrain from including any SPEAK posts in this but this band affected a big chunk of my year that it was hard to resist. It was this post when I decided that I was actually going to go through with SPEAK for a Year. As I was writing for it, I kept debating in my head if I should just go ahead and announce it or wait until I've covered more shows. I must have click the preview button like 5 times before I decided that yes, I was going to go through with the crazy project.

It was published right before the April show so after the set, some of the guys asked me what was this project I was going to announced. Once they all showed they were ok with it, it motivated me to go home and write up the first post for SPEAK for a Year. I ended up staying up until 2 in the morning getting it all ready.

May: In-depth We Are the Lottery League
This was a fun assignment. It was my first time doing a story like this when I was just a fly on the wall, covering this type of event from beginning to end. I didn't know what to expect, but it came out pretty well.

June: Good in the Sack interview
One of my favorite bands during the APR days was Good in the Sack. Since I worked at a childcare center, I could never wear their shirts at work but man, I loved this band. It's pop punk with tongue-in-cheek lyrics about breakups, drinking, etc. Wow, I just made them sound like Blink 182, but rest assure, they weren't.

The moment drummer Jorge announced the band's return during this year's SXSW, I informed him we were doing a reunion interview. Of course, the band was all in (who could say no to this face?) and after their set, we walked towards the back of the bar and chatted just like old times. Only this time, some of us had less hair and more weight as before.

July: Giant Steps interview
I interviewed James through email to promote his SXSW showcase but once I took on the Spinner job, my time was very limited. Hey, I got paid for Spinner though. I felt bad I didn't get the interview out but once he announced his anniversary show, it saw the light of day.

August: Art vs. Industry interview and Love at 20 interview
I had two interviews published in August and I liked both of them so I'm choosing both.

Art Vs. Industry were some of the nicest guys I've ever met and very knowledgeable on not only music in general but also where they stand with their genre of music. I felt so out of place at Elysium where I interviewed them but they treated me like anyone else even though I was wearing pastels.

With Love at 20, Mike and I met for coffee and just ended up having a very long conversation about music. The man knows what he wants and has planned his way to get it. Why can't more bands be like that?

September: SPEAK
October: SPEAK at ACL
I only posted one thing during September and October and they both have to do with SPEAK. September was a fun one because I got to make fun of dude bros and my October post was about my experience with SPEAK at ACL.

November: NaNoWriMo
I wrote a novel this year.
I. Wrote. A. Novel. This. Year.

It blows my mind that I went through with NaNoWriMo this year and actually made the word count. I've been editing the novel when I'm not watching Veronica Mars or posting things for Red River Noise. I have a long way to go before anyone reads the finish product.

December: Zlam Dunk
Besides the obvious posts with SPEAK singing at my birthday party or the 2010 review for December, this was a fun post to write. I interviewed the band during Wild Frontier Fest in September but only used two lines from it in my article for Accent.

Since we spent most of the brief interview talking about recording, I figured it was time to bring it out for Zlam Dunk's CD release show.

Before SoManyBands became the blog format it is now, I usually just posted unedited Q&A interviews and every now and then, a review of some sort. However, if blogging was the thing during 2003-2006, Good in the Sack would have been one of the bands (along with Air Tight Alibi, Natchet Taylor, and Firekills) that would have regularly been blogged about on my site.

Good in the Sack was a pop punk band from Austin (of course) that wrote silly hilarious songs to some pretty decent melodies. They weren't revolutionary by any means nor were they the best musicians to ever to walk on the face of the Earth, but the tunes were fun, relatable, and catchy. The guys always provided an entertaining show with their drunken antics on and off the stage.

My personal favorite song "I Need to Learn How to Fight" (which you can see a performance of the song at the bottom of this post) is about that first moment you see your latest ex with a new person and the anger and jealously you feel that makes you wish you knew how to fight so you can beat that new person up. Very therapeutic song for those geeky insecure types out there such as myself. Especially when you yell out "And I hate you!." However, it's played to pop punk music so it's makes you feel happy.

So it goes without saying that I was a huge fan of this band back in the day. I went to many of their shows at the Backroom, both Redrum locations, Red Eyed Fly, Flamingo Cantina and wherever else would book them. Hung out with the guys whenever I ran into them. I interviewed them twice for SoManyBands because let's face it, they always deliver hilarity every time. I really don't remember how this band's run ended. I don't even remember a farewell show. It just seemed like they fell off the radar one day.

So imagine my surprise when the drummer Jorge nonchalantly announced on Facebook that his bands, 3 and Good in the Sack, were playing during 2010 SXSW. Say what? I immediately replied to confirm that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me and that it was indeed Good in the Sack who was performing and sure enough, it was.

Oh dear god.

I immediately texted Marlee who tagged along with me to many of these shows during those days and we were both in excitement. Man, it has been too long. Four years to be exact. I immediately added the show to my SXSW schedule not caring if anyone else of importance was playing or an interview needed to happen. I didn't care. It's Good in the Sack.

Of course, I messaged Jorge and told him that an interview needed to happen. It has been too damn long and this caused for a celebration. Of course, they were in.

The show itself was at a small bar on 6th Street called Aquarium. Not usually a venue, the stage was super small and the bar layout was awkward for any crowd larger than 20 people to see a live show. But people showed up and they showed up in droves. I got there early so I could get a good spot. Smart move as not only was I in the very front, the place got super packed super quickly. Guess I wasn't the only one that missed this band.

There were a ton of familiar faces from those days. Members from the Riddlin Kids, Born to Lose and Rubberhed showed up as well as some of the other members from the bands I mentioned earlier in this post. It seemed that everyone looked the same for the most part except we all looked a little bit older and a little bit heavier. The original line up (well the only line up) was on stage to perform all the hits except for the guitarist Dipto, but one of Jorge's bandmates filled in and did a pretty great job. However, Dipto still showed up to watch the show. He told me afterwards that there was no ill will between the guys. He just couldn't commit to the practice that was require in preparation for the show.

After the guys took me down memory lane, we went to the back of the bar to do our interview, mainly to catch up on the past four years. What exactly were they doing when the band was dunzo and why didn't Dipto perform? And most importantly, do we sense a comeback? Of course, in true fashion, this interview was just like it always is in a Good in the Sack interview, I held the camera and the guys just chatted away until I told them to stop.

Sean: I'm Sean. I play bass and I sing. This is Jorge.

Jorge: Hi.

Sean: Jorge plays drums and he doesn't sing. We actually don't allow him to sing because he should never sing. So we are Good in the Sack. We are a crappy punk rock band that made our return for SXSW 2010.

Jorge: We're a semi-crappy punk rock band. Semi.

Sean: Hey, I'm not even sure if we can say we're punk rock anymore. So I really don't know what we are now.

Jorge: I think we're progressive metal.

Sean: See. The way that we've always said is we are across between Color Me Badd and Slayer. So somewhere in between there, that's Good in the Sack.

How long as it been? Four years right?

Sean: It's been four years since we played.

What have you been doing in the past four years?

Sean: Drinking a lot. You can kinda tell.

Jorge: Yeah, drinking a lot and fucking around.

Sean: A little. See, the thing with being in the band is like you end up learning how to drink really, really well and then you make that a profession after awhile and you put down your guitar, stop playing and that's kind of what happens. So the thing that got us back to do this is we've been talking for a long time. We missed it so we wanted to play again and we really didn't know when we were going to do the reunion show. We were always talking about it. "Oh we'll do a reunion show. We'll do it later." All this stuff. So we were drinking here at Aquarium when Amir the owner's like "Hey, you're playing during SXSW." And we're like "All right, that's it." That's what made us play was being drunk at Aquarium having Amir telling us we're going to play.

Jorge: Yeah, nothing like being smashed in the corner of the old hangout spot having your buddy go"Hey, you guys want to play in my bar during SXSW?" "Sure." Shots. Shots.

Sean: The thing that was awesome though that when we decided that we wanted to play, we just got it together and decided to do it. What was awesome was that everybody came out to see us. Everybody actually, all of our friends came out, our drinking buddies were here to booze it up with us and that was awesome.

And how long did it take for you to prepare for this show? To relearn everything?

Sean: Four practices.

Jorge: One acoustic practice. One plug, two plugged in practices. Three.

Sean: Three practices?

Both: Three practices.

Sean: Yep. The thing was like once you plug in again, I was kind of worried. I thought it'd be real rough but we played for so long and we've done these songs for so long and it just comes back to you right away. You remembered it all.

Jorge: Yeah. I know I look like a god damn pilot right now.

*both laugh*

Sean: dun-dun-dun-daaa! And that was us. I mean you gotta remember like how it was back in the day. We were always jackasses and that never stops. Our band never depended on sounding really good per say as just drinking a lot and playing really loud so that never goes out of fashion.

How did it feel the first time you started playing together?

Sean: Um, great. The first practices were awesome. I was surprised actually how well it all came together and then it was just...

Jorge: ...amazing.

Sean: ...all there.

Jorge: Unfortunately, Dipto could not play because he was studying for his GMAT which is understandable. So we got my buddy Isaac, one of my good friends, that I moved up with here in '99 and actually play in a band with. We got him to fill in and he learned everything like that. So that made it even better.

Sean: It was amazing. One of the things that was great was getting back on stage today and seeing everybody there and all of our old school buddies there. It just felt like family reunion so that's one of those things.

Yeah, it was awesome.

Sean: And it felt awesome to have everybody there. Playing the songs. It felt good.

Well you kind of did it like nonchalant on Facebook like "Thanks to some guy for booking this band and Good in the Sack for SXSW" and I'm like "Whoa whoa wait."

Sean: Yeah, well we didn't know. It's been fours years. We don't know if people care anymore or want to hear this. They want to hear our music in general. So really walked into it really tentatively and just after awhile once we announced it, then we saw the ball started rolling. People like "hey, dude uh we're coming. We're coming." So then everybody liked it and the fact that they all showed up was pretty badass.

Jorge: Definitely.

Sean: So I was pretty happy about that. Old school good times. So that was good. I mean the fact that we got to do that, it felt like everybody was with us through it.

Jorge: It was a barrage of old bands. Old people that we've always been playing together in shows. Different bands and stuff.

Sean: Yeah, we got our boys here. We've got Rubberhed. We've got Riddlin Kids here.

Born to Lose.

Sean: Born to Lose. Just looking across that you see all your friends here and that was awesome.

It was like being in the Backroom in 2004 all over again.

Sean: Seriously. It was like time travel.

Jorge: But it's Aquarium. It's the fish bowl.

Sean: Aaron even said that. He's like something like memory, you think of taste or smell or things like that. He's like "No, this is memory," when he was looking around and so that's the thing. I mean everybody says that but getting everybody together again, it was like us with everybody. I think everybody was in it, you know. Like dude, we're back. It's like 2002.

Jorge: And we had been planning a reunion show for awhile. We just didn't know where to do it and it was kind of like here and there cause we all work now a lot. Then we got the offer to do SXSW. It's like ok. What better place to do a reunion but then the fucking music festival as well.

Sean: Nothing better. Nothing better. So what are we going to do from here, we'll see but that was awesome. That was awesome.

You'd think they'll be more reunion shows in the future?

Sean: (looks at Jorge) Any more reunion shows in the future?

Jorge: Yeah.

Sean: I think we like it. I think it was fun. I think we got to do that again.

Jorge: There was a Ghostbusters 1. There was a Ghostbusters 2. They're making a Ghostbusters 3.

Sean: Boom. Hey we're back. We couldn't go away for long. We're such jackasses.

Jorge: You know that's not gonna end because that shit just keeps on happening.

Sean: Hey so you can buy us on iTunes now. We started playing again. I think we got a second wind. I think we're back. I'm calling it now. We're back. I'm calling my shot. Boom.

Jorge: I know Thomas is definitely planning on trying to get us playing around everywhere.

Sean: Yeah, so look for us.

Do you think Dipto will be apart of that too?

Both: We'll see.

Sean: We'll see what he's doing. He's got a lot of work to do. Trying to get into grad schools so you know, if he does, we got the four back together. If not, then we got one got stuff going.

Jorge: It's completely respected. Completely respected. Everything he's doing, awesome.

Sean: I don't know if you know this but Isaac freaking killed it on guitar.

He was really good.

Sean: He was going meanly solos on the top and on the bottom. I was like "Wow."

Jorge: Yeah the shit.

Sean: I was like "That's how it should be." Rocking out.

Jorge: Isaac is the shit. That guy makes his own guitars too.

Sean: Yeah, he's pretty badass.

All right. Any last words?

Sean: Hey Good in the Sack. We're back.

Jorge: Yes.

Oh, last time I interviewed you, we did a true or false question. So true or false: are you still good in the sack?

Sean: Absolutely. Better.

Jorge: Yes. (laughs) Yes.

Sean: That was awesome.

Good in the Sack from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.