Happy Joey Ramone Day!

Another Joey Ramone Day, and I'm still not trying to hitchhike to Rockaway Beach... it's a damn shame. 

In case you don't know, today is JOEY RAMONE DAY! Listen to THE RAMONES all day, think about how awesome punk is, tell yer friends you love them, and be glad that Joey, Dee, Tommy and that asshole Johnny started a band together somewhere in shitty Queens.

I swear to god that Muprhy's favorite RAMONES song is Danny Says... it always makes me think of this comic:      

So celebrate today! Listen to THE RAMONES so loud that yer neighbors come down and tell you to shut the fuck up... and then you listen to THE RAMONES together! Joey would've wanted it that way!

New Song

So right now in addition to writing many final papers and my thesis so I can be done with university forever, I'm also writing a bunch of new songs to play in Israel. Here's the first demo that I did. It's really rough and super punk because I left the mistakes in it. Check it out here:

Kokrobite by SIGFRIED AND ROID-RAGE

Tomorrow I'm playing a show at AUR as a part of an anti-discrimination workshop. It starts at 6 PM. If you live in Rome, you should come out. We're gonna have a good english language discussion for how to deal with discrimination in our daily lives and how to realize when we're being just as guilty of the same types of discrimination. 

Cinco De Mayo!!!

ON THE 5TH OF MAY, ALL THE PUNKS ARE COMING TO THE ISOLA TIBERINA HERE IN ROME. WE'RE GONNA PLAY BEACH VOLLEY BALL, LISTEN TO PRINCE AND DRINK GENERIC BACARDI BREEZERS AND 3 HORSES. WE'RE GONNA MEET AT (LET'S SAY) 2 P.M. AND BE PREPARED TO MEET MANY LOCAL CELEBRITIES LIKE ALEX THE TANK, THE ENTIRE BAND SHRED, AND GIANLUCA'S COUSIN. 

YOU SHOULD BRING BOOZE TO DRINK (IF YOU WANT TO), AND BOOMBOXES TO KICK OUT THE JAMS ON THE SMALLEST INHABITED ISLAND IN THE WORLD.

LATER THAT NIGHT DEAD HAND ARE GONNA MELT FACES AT A SQUAT SOMEWHERE IN ROME. 

KEEP IT WEIRD

 

C'è tanta roba da fare in questa paese di merda

Ciao cari amici!


Vi sto scrivando sotto l'influenza di adderall e tante cicche. Oggi devo scrivere il mio thesis, però tutte questi novità mi arrabia tantissimo. Sembra che ogni giorno il mondo cambia più peggiore nel giorno prima. Ci sono disastri nucleari a giappone, rivoluzioni che vengono messe giù dai governi di merda nei paesi arabi che non fregono un cazzo del popolo, e il governo dove mi sono nato sta iniziando un altra guerra. Anche qua in Italia la novità non sembra come il sole da queste scorse settimane. Ci sono rifugiato che stanno in campi a lampedusa in condizioni sub-umane e questo governo pensa che i soldi sia la risposta giusta. Mentre nel nord, i communi di merda stanno provando di uccidere le culture autoprodotti e independente col sgombo del ATLANTIDE a Bologna e colla musica "spenta" a Vicenza.  Per maggior informazioni di questi cose vi consiglio di leggere queste links:


1) Rapporto di Amnesty International dei condizioni sul terra in Lampedusa:  

2) Un Gruppo in difesa del Atlantide a Bologna

3) Un Petizione che potete firmare contra il proibizione della musica live a Vicenza.


Grazie mile!


-David

For those non-Italian speakers, I'm writing about 3 things, 1) the conditions on the Island in the south of Italy called Lampedusa where 20.000 refugees from Tunisia have fled the prospect of a civil war in Libya spreading into their country and general instability in their region and are now living in subhaman conditions under a government that wants nothing to do but kick them off the island. 2) The proposed demolition of an important space in Bologna that serves as a community meet space for several groups including some of Bologna's LGBT and radical femminist groups. 3) A proposed city ordinance in Vicenza, Italy that would ban all live music effectively destroying 30+ years of hard work to create a viable living alternative culture in that city, the band not only effects punk bands but anyone who wants to make some noise and feels that rocking the fuck out is a great way to express themselves, please sign the peitition if you support any type of underground music our counter-culture. 

You can click on the links to find out about more but they're mostly in Italian, but google does a decent job at translating them. 

Tour in Northern Europe

Hey Internet!

Sorry I haven't posted anything about my awesome tour in Germany and Holland. It was an incredible time, for sure, and it was great to see so many friends, learn about the places they live, party with them and make new friends as well. This tour really changed my perception of Germany. I'd been there before with THOMAS FUNCTION and ANDY DALE PETTY and always tended to have a bad or extremely weird time either puking up Jägermeister on the roof of some hostel in München, teaching a Tiki bar how to make cheeseburgers in Augsburg, or dancing with middle aged bikers somewhere in the Schwarzwald. This time was way different and way better! I saw many great independent cultural centers and indpendent spaces.
 
I was greatly saddened to learn that squats 15 year old me read about in MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL are slowly becoming a thing of the past in Germany and Holland while the extreme right is on the rise and neo-Nazis are using black-bloc and anarchist tactics to discredit people who are doing awesome things for their communities. But, I was also amazed at the ability of all these people to fight back against a whole heaping pile of bullshit that life has thrown at them and excel while doing so! I didn't get to see so many bands in my time in Germany (the ones I saw in Holland were fucking amazing and I can't wait to see them again!) but it was awesome to see so many creative and interesting people trying to create something new and exciting out of a really fucked up situation. 

Most importantly, I discovered Vokü... something that I for sure will introduce to all my friends in America as a way to develop closer ties within our community (and learn to become a better Vegan chef). Vokü taught me many things like not all sauerkraut is bad, nutritious food in a group setting doesn't have to be expensive and exclusive and that giving a punk scene ways to interact outside of shows is an extremely important thing that we should all work on in our homes! At our spaces in Italy we do similar things but with the ferocity that punks in Germany do it.... and in America, sure punks eat together sometimes but rarely in a situation outside of their houses with these amount of regularity across our communities. Y'all've got something good and special there. When people sit down and share a meal together they share more than food, they discuss ideas, form bands, look at problems around them, figure out ways to solve them, make inside jokes amongst their friends and help give greater credence to this whole idea of an "alternative" lifestyle. Vokü aren't the answer to all of our problems by far, but I've seen that they're a great place to start the conversation!

I'd like to thank all of these people/spaces/bands/cool shit for their support, hospitality, drugs, couches, toilets, frühstuck, local beers and inspiration:

Assaf, Ehud, Andrej, Hello Kebab, Dan, AZ Conni, that 42 euro universal regional train ticket, Clemens (seriously you were right about saurkraut... we're gonna drink spritz till the sun comes up in May, yo!), Gabo, Ulli, Similde, DEAD HAND, PISSED GOATS (rip), German Apple Juice and Pretzels (train sustinance), Hendrik, Extra-Blues Bar, Yoshi, THE MAKE-OUT, Scott (dude! you can buy weed with a credit card!), Merel, Robin, Florian, Michael THE BAT BITES, THE HOTLINES, THE MAYDAYS, RUINS, Innsbruck-Rotterdam pop-punk family,  Manu and his awesome housemates, THE NEXUS (the most inspiring punk run venue I've ever been to!), AJZ, Laura Devebber (I promise I'll see you sooner than 3 years this time), that cop who gave us a ride to Braunschweig after 30 seconds of starting to hitch, ARAK DEATH CULT, and Nadav Ben-Horin, Luca and Emanuele (cos without y'all I never would have met any of these amazing people!) 

  
Fuck you's go out to:  


Edreams, Lufthansa, Deutche Bahn, the people who wouldn't pick us up in Braunshweig, Nazis, the Dutch Government for closing all of yer squats and trying to go back on serveral years of progressive legislation, cigarette prices in Germany, and that fucking super serious East German dude in Leizpig that was pissed off that I'm America (sorry dude, I can't change where I got born)  
         
If I forgot anyone to thank anyone, I'm truely sorry but I'm sure I'll see you on the 5th of may and I'll give you a shot of cheap Tequilla or something.

I love all you and can't wait to see you this summer!

-David 

Rome, Italy 1 APRIL 2011 

p.s. Here's a recording of me in Dresden, Germany:
Live at the AZ Conni 20-3-2011 by Sigfriedandroidrage