mon vieil ami

Take two…

Going for the Throat

I broke down and bought a pack.  Smoked one on the roof in the cold.  I thought of her and her California.  Missed her like I often do.  It was the end of a blue day.  At the end of a blue year.  Nothing out of the ordinary for me.

I’d found a way to own my blues.  They publish it, this publishing house.  Back in my hometown.  I could write about bullfighters tonight, or do my “fiction” about heartbreak.  But there’s no magic left in it and nothing miraculous about the arena anymore.

There was a time.  When as matador I could take it on.  Sit behind the President XII and the bottle and work it out.  But you get up.  And you get over.  Maybe look back longingly over the black canyons of Major Depressive Disorder.

I spent allot of time down there.  With some true companions.  They…

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Shrieks of Paradise, Correspondence&Rails#20, Dear Maximum RocknRoll

3923 Run of the Oaks Drive #G
Austin, TX 78704

Editors, Maximum RocknRoll
PO Box 460760
San Francisco, CA 94146

10/4/11

Hello-

Punk rock doesn’t mean anything anymore.  If you were there or part of it, sure-it means allot to you and for the rest of your life.  But this generation doesn’t get it.  And I fear they never will.  They’ll only think of punk rock in Guitar Hero terms, as a fashion or hairstyle.  Kurt Cobain.

11 years ago a band came out of Philly that was the real deal.  Seeing The Bad Vibes play meant you’d get your whole body chopped off in just under 15 minutes.  There might be bottles broke and basses through windows but you welcomed this annihilation.  It was rock and roll.  You had to find a way to get the world off your neck.

2002’s Hate Your Everything was propulsive-fast.  Furious and full of hate.  It was punk rock with as much virulence and nihilism that could be cranked into a 10 song, 15 minute album.
2005’s All The Right Ways To Do You Wrong took strides in being something exceptional within the genre.  It was post-punk but had lost none of the original ire.  I Smell A Rat, for example.  The song conveys vulnerability in a bitter, hands up way that many of the band’s contemporaries can’t touch.
After 6 years the guys are back.  They’re getting ready to release an EP and start playing the kind of shows that scare off the phonies and help us kill it in our heads.  I’m hoping you’ll consider running an interview I’ll be doing with them in a couple of weeks.

When I reviewed Hate Your Everything in 2002, I wrote that The Bad Vibes were Anti-Core Core.  They were against any kind of movement, even the one they were creating.  Reminds me of The Business, singing about being on the wrong side of whatever side there was.

Hail, hail rock and roll.

Yours,
Jim Trainer
Austin, TX
jimtrainer.wordpress.com
jimtrainer.net
verbicidemagazine.com

#LetterDay, send me your address and I’ll write you a letter.
P.O. Box 49921
Austin TX 78765
#goingforthepost—we’re all mad here.

One From The Heart-The Bad Vibes Hate Your Everything

The Bad Vibes do not play punk rock music. Fuck you. Punk’s not dead. It just sucks now. The Bad Vibes are not down with your “anti-punk” stance. Nor do they respect your anti-“anti-punk” scene. They’re not retro. They’re not down with your retro scene. They’re not on Clear Channel. They’re not on WMMR. They destroy you. You thank them. Someone needs to clear out all these corpses so’s I can get right up in front of the stage. Rock. What is rock? Blues. What are the blues? 4 men. “Shake you all up… Put you in yer place.” This town is dead. The Bad Vibes make “war on you”. Anti-core core. The Bad Vibes hate your everything.
©2002

This review originally appeared in the Fall 2002 Issue of WKDU‘s Communique, as well as the Steel Cage Records’ website around the same time.  WMMR is one of two big classic rock radio stations in my hometown.  I will always think of this band and their explosive shows fondly. When they stopped playing, Philly got boring again.  Hail, hail rock and roll.

fuCNN

Je déteste médias. #CharlieHebdo #CNN #becomethemedia #gonzo #goforthethroat

— Going For The Throat (@GoingforThroat) January 13, 2015

Bridges

pullin’ into town
I admire new architecture
but as I drew closer
I began to hear them whisper
then I heard them yell
“Boy, what the hell you tryna do here for?
We told you after the fire, we don’t suffer liars
and we don’t like you.”

well I roam this land perpetually
tryna find a reason to just be me
and she lived here
among the tall wallflowers
I left her here
by the old clock chimin hours

she was there with me
on the killing floor
but it was only me
who walked through
the door
I just came back to
see if there’s any chance that
she plays in the same band
does she got a new man?

well I roam this land perpetually
tryna find a reason to just be me
and she lived here
among the tall wallflowers
I left her here
by the old clock chimin hours

pullin down her street
I can feel my heart racing
as the crowd gathered round
they began to pick up stones
I climbed those stairs alone
the crowd swarmed around
but when I knocked on her front door
her porch light went out

there’s a train rollin’ in
there’s a moon in the sky
there’s no reason to live
and no reason to die
but she lived here
among you tall wallflowers
I left her here
won’t the old clock chime a year?

she lived here
I saw her in a dream once
years ago, before the fire
before I knew what losin was

Recorded live at Melodies Cafe on 1/9/15 for the Bluebird Cabaret, Songs of Sadness&Light, featuring
Savy Avrimedes Guthrie
Mark Thousands
Andrew Meoray
and Cardinal Arms.

Live at Melodies Cafe

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jim Trainer (@goingforthethroat) on Jun 9, 2014 at 10:16pm PDT

Tonight at Melodies Cafe
Songs of Sadness&Light
with
Mark Thousands
Andrew Meoray
Cardinal Arms
Jim Trainer
and very special guest Savy Avrimedes Guthrie
Friday January 9, 2015
7:30 Melodies’ Cafe
2 East Lacaster Avenue
Ardmore, PA
8 PM
Photos courtesy of Kettle Pot Tracks, setlist&photos from Jim Trainer’s performance at Melodies in June

Philadelphia Blues

walkin down Hazel street one day
I heard a man say “I’ll kill you.”
a little ill at ease when I’d walk these streets
I don’t know about you
but there’s no such thing as paranoia
in a town where they shoot you fer yer shoes
no respite, no mercy, the Philadelphia blues

in a city of millions I can’t see how
the two of you could end up at the same hotel
you sit at the same table share the same scenic view
what my ex-wife and my girlfriend
are discussing I haven’t a clue
must be hatchin plans to give a man the Philadelphia blues

little umbrella girl in the pourin rain
with the snout of an elephant or a shrew
gonna get it all down with her pad&pen
dirty whore knows what to do
gonna get it all down gonna mark it all down
maybe put it on pay-per-view
a sad little movie starring you, called the Philadelphia blues

ain’t a bar in town that’ll serve me now
their doors closed to me and their bolted, too
but if there’s a bar in Hell, gonna order me a whiskey&vermouth
and say “Hello Satan! Something I wanna talk about with you.
You don’t have to giver cancer Just give her some
Philadelphia blues.” 

walkin down Hazel Street today
I slapped my pistol down in that pig’s face
we all got things in our lives we can’t undo
rain pourin down on the beltway, I’ll be in Little Rock around 1 or 2
put the pedal down makin miles from the Philadelphia blues

Jim Trainer returns to Melodies’ Cafe this Friday January 9, performing with a stellar lineup including Mark Thousands, Cardinal Arms and Andrew Meoray.
Songs of Sadness&Light
this Friday January 9
at Melodies’ Cafe
2 East Lacaster Avenue
Ardmore, PA
8 PM

New Year’s Day

(c) 2007

Going for the Throat

end of the year
with cocaine dreams
vague plans to stick around
this old farm town.

where the turkey vultures wheel
with the Sun in the fields,
and I burn and break my back
to make my freedom real.

the way she stood in the doorway
make a poor boy cry
but the way she looked on the bridge behind me
enough reason to say goodnight
to

another day
staying clean
sponsor on the phone
when I hit Pike Creek.

another year
that I ain’t done wrong
blues and trouble with me
singing they songs.

down in the devil’s lair
drivin out round Mermaid’s Run,
the cops don’t mess with me out here
and it’s dark and wet on 71
so

pull up a chair
and come on in
I’ll hit the lights
as you count back from 10.
take off your clothes
and tell me your name
wake up with…

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