(Don, I'm not a woman.)

A long time ago there was a band called the Castawaves.

Also, Happy wedding Mike Mahoney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Honda Ruckus 125cc in the works.

Everyone knows I love the Honda Ruckus. It is the most original scooter out there - with rat / survival looks right out of the box. Problem is - the Ruckus is available in only 50cc (too slow) and 250cc (too expensive) displacements.

Fortunately, Honda has a 125cc Ruckus in the works, which would be the perfect displacement for the Ruckus. Here is a video of it.

http://www.honda.co.jp/HDTV/motorshow/Tokyo2005-NP6-S/index.html

Rocket Punch set to release "BLOOD ON THE UKELELE"

Rocket Punch is releasing the new record, entitled "Blood on the Ukelele" on Yellow Mica Recordings. Rocket Punch is the solo project from Brad, formerly of Geneseo, New York's synth-pop heartthrobs The Pink Cammies. Yellow Mica Recordings is a Swedish record label that has formerly released 7"s and CDRs of The Capstan Shafts, Boyracer, and Javelins.

The record is truly great and has five songs Brad that have been in the works for the past year. If you are the type to constantly compare bands, I would have to tell you that it sounds like Saturday Looks Good to Me, The Capstan Shafts, Pinback, and The Pink Cammies. However, Brad would say it sounds like Jonathan Richman, Brian Wilson, Jeff Gilbert, The Capstan Shafts, Ariel Pink, Kevin Shields, and KK Slider. Furthermore, my opinion is one of these songs is the best song Brad has ever written, though I'll let you guess which one that might be.

Blood on the Ukelele:

1. Pink Cashmere
2. Better Lives
3. Small Volcanoes
4. Michael Don't go to private school
5. Kafka on the S.

The first two songs can be heard already at:
http://www.myspace.com/rocketpunch/

Also, I should include the address for Yellow Mica Recordings:
http://www.yellowmicarecordings.com/

Yellow Mica Recordings is run by a member of the group Javelins, and this is my favorite song of theirs:
Javelins - "I Was Raised as A Polar Bear."

major announcement coming soon

New Kalpana track!

OMG! Geneseo/Rochester now Brooklyn, New York band Kalpana now have a new track! Although my reviews of "This Dead Horse" and "Hors de Combat" are long overdue, I'll just skip to it and go to their new song.

It's called "O Carcass! My Carcass!" It's live, and it has yelling. Chances are it will be on Kalpana's next record, which rumor has it will be one continuous piece of music from start to finish and will be called "How to talk to God (if you must)."

http://glassanimalindex.com/media/music/carcass.mp3

This track starts off slow-ish, like many Kalpana tracks do, but then speeds up a bit with double timed drums that are still slow. The electronics are really taking over the band too, and where the "Hors de Combat" songs had a metal influence, the ones on "This Dead Horse" have more of a glitch influence. At the half-way point the song breaks into a really emoish scream/breakout section. It must be Aaron singing on that part, I'll guess. Aaron kind of sounds like the dude from Sparta, if you like to think of singers in relation to each other.

At just over eight minutes, the song isn't short. But breaking it into two parts keeps it tight and actually cuts the fat. The screaming verse only goes for four times.

Listen and hear for yourself.

Rising Up / Rising Down

Dave aka Este aka the drummer from ROCKETS AND BLUELIGHTS is in a new hardcore band called Rising Up / Rising Down. He is wearing the same "GOOD RATS" T Shirt as seen in Rockets and Bluelights photos, so I know it's definitely him.

On their myspace page you may listen to three of their songs, but unfortunately not download them. The untitled one sounds the most like Rockets and Bluelights.

They refer to themselves as a "power trio," so they must be good! They also have a crappy geocities site like Rockets does, which does have this cool insect shirt logo, but no info on their recordings.
http://www.geocities.com/rurdweb/

IRA RYAN

Today In front of my office I saw the coolest single speed bike. It was marked "IRA RYAN" and I didn't know anything about it. So, I looked it up later today and found Ira Ryan is a bike courier here in Portland. He just started making his own frames and now makes bikes himself. Anyway, I thought this bike was so sexy and so awesome. Here it is. I am going to get a single speed or fixed gear pretty soon. I love them so much.
www.iraryancycles.com