The Great Plan-It-X Haul of 2011

So, you guys know I’m a pretty big cheerleader for my friends. From New Idea Society who I pretty much preach the gospel on, to Katy Otto who runs Exotic Fever and plays in Trophy Wife, I get into what my friends do. I feel lucky that most of my musical heroes are people I know and love.  In that same vein I am a big fan of what my friend Chris Clavin is doing with his Plan-It-X Record label. I met Chris a few years ago because these awesome dudes Ryan and Wade put me on a show with his band Ghost Mice (as well as Rachel Jacobs and Christian Brady who are equally as awesome and loved). Then they put me on a few more shows with Ghost Mice. Then I went on tour for a few days with Ghost Mice and Heathers in 2009 which is like one of the most awesome moments of my life. Anyway, I got to know a lot of Plan-It-X bands because of Wade and Ryan and getting to know Chris.

It’s been a while since I sent Chris some money for releases. I try to keep up on all the new releases that I can, whether I have heard the band or not. I believe in what Chris is doing, putting out interesting music and making it very cheap and accessible. He doesn’t do any online advertising or in any of the remaining punk zines. He doesn’t even take orders online (you can get all the PIX stuff through NO Idea online). Instead he does mail order, like they used to do in the old days. Times have changed a lot. Not many people are buying CD’s and I can tell you from search results that bring some people to this blog, people are still way trying to steal this music. It’s a shame and it makes me sad. Plan-It-X is trying to change with those times, we shall see what happens, but anyway, onto my haul.

The Max Levine Ensemble, DC’s pretty much exclusive pop-punk band, turned 10 years old recently. In an effort to celebrate this milestone that barely any band in DC makes it to, they re-recorded a bunch of old songs. Mr. Gikokovich 2000-2005: A Retrospective is the awesome result. The band wanted to capture the way they play the songs now in a more updated sound then the originals. Some of the songs, I don’t think I even remember hearing recently like “Leopard Print Girl” or “Tidal Wave” so it’s nice to hear old songs that don’t feel like old songs. Then of course the band tackled some of the classics. Super fast versions of “Poop Farm” and “Nihilism” make you realize how ADD this band has become. The whole CD is just over 20 minutes and it feels like it. If your just learning about pop-punk but NOFX and Pulley are overbearing and dull, start with this album. You’ll be able to keep up next time The Ensemble pulls into town. If yr an old crotchety punker like me, you’ll love the updated sounds of the classics, just the way they play them live now. It had a purpose and Mr. Gikokovich delivers on that purpose.

Another thing about Chris Clavin is that he is totally prolific. He has something like 7 solo albums and easily 7 split tapes. He used to release albums under the name Captain Chaos (of which I only have one, which is lame) and a few years ago he put out a great album on Crafty Records called The Road Leads Everywhere. The thing is, at least from what I own, all his songs are pretty great. In the past it was just him and his guitar, but in 2009 he put out a split with Sara Cilantro called Secrets that was him playing ukulele. I missed out on his split with Madeline Ava (I was gonna order it on this haul) but I have his two most recent one. The first one I listened to was his split with Kyle Hall. Chris’s side is pretty good stuff. He plays both ukulele and the guitar and has other instruments accompanying and accentuating his songs. IF yr familiar with the Ghost Mice you will feel all cozy with these songs. Kyle Hall is a young dude from California. I think I traded zines with him. Anyway, he’s clearly a convert to the Plan-It-X way of life. His songs, I think pay, homage to a lot of the Ghost Mice canon, which is great because Kyle tells great stories in his songs. I really dug “Nothing Gold Can Stay” a lot. It’s a sentiment I can relate to.

The other split was with Waxahatchee. Waxahatchee plays these really dark songs on an electric guitar. It was kind of sad to listen to while reading about the vastness of space last night. I can honestly say, I was a little melancholy while listening to those songs. They were recorded in a way that felt disconnected, like they were being played behind a curtain. It was chilling. Chris’s songs on this tape were also more sad. He has one song called “Greyhound” where you can tell he’s really trying to keep it together while he delivers the tale about a friend who wasn’t allowed on a bus to visit him. I think it’s about Plan-It-X cofounder Sam, who died pretty recently. It made me want to bawl my damn eyes out. The songs on this split are really good. It’s songwriting that’s getting a lot more intricate and complex from Chris. I’ve always thought he was a good guitarist, but I always felt like he held back on the solo stuff and with Ghost Mice. This is a great tape release, with an awesome cover and everyone should get this like now.

I also caught up on two other CD releases. Taxpayer’s To Risk So Much For One Damn Meal floored me as soon as I put it on. The drums remind me of early Against Me, the songs are like a hyped up Mountain Goats if John Darnielle was a bit more upbeat kind of guy. He isn’t, but the people in Taxpayers are. I really, really like this album. It just has that Plan-It-X feeling to it. Sometimes it kind of reminds me of (Young) Pioneers even though I don’t think this band really sounds like them Richmond dudes. There are a lot of influences, instruments and vocals here. They make me want to dance my ass of and get into the pit like the old dude I am and do the lawn mower until some 15-year-old kid knocks me over. Taxpayers are just some intense, hyperactive people who play really great music. I’m way into it.

The other album I got was by Small Bones. They released their Self Titled album last year and I wish I had gotten it sooner. There some dudes from New Orleans that play some really driving, up-tempo punk rock. They sorta remind me of a lot of DC bands that never quite made it out of DC, the names of which I forget now. But they have some awesome blast beats and chilled out guitar breakdowns. The vocals are young sounding in a higher register than people are singing these days. It’s like the post Braid, Promise Ring type of poppy-noisey-punkish music that was sorta big for like a year and then kind of faded out. Either way it’s another excited release from Plan-It-X, from a side of the label that I think is under-associated to the legacy. It’s good times.

So yea, Plan-It-X is still alive and kicking despite these despairing times. I got all this music for 25 dollars. I totally gambled and as always when I roll the dice on the Plan-It-X craps table I come up sevens man. Chris Clavin is doing it real, and I really hope he can continue. There is nothing I have heard on the label yet that has disappointed me. Keep up the good work Chris! I love you.

One Night Stand In North Dakota are AWESOME

One Night Stand in North Dakota (ONSIND)
Dissatisfactions
Plan It X

I’m not gonna lie to you reader. I started writing this review before I left for a hardcore show. So I will probably finnish it after said show. So you know, this is not gonna be that great. Also, at work, they blocked the Plan-It-X website for being porno apparently. Prolly cuz it’s got X in the title. Idiots. What can you do?

But this is all besides the point, except for the Plan It X part. Plan It X is like my favorite label, right? I mean, I’ve deffinetley wrote about a lot of their releases on this blog. I’m a big fan. HUGE in fact and I don’t really give a flying fuck what you think about how I gush over them, because if you don’t love shit passionately enough to gush over it, well then what’s the damn point. I first heard One Night Stand In North Dakota from a split 7″ they put out with Ghost Mice last year. I honestly didn’t even listen to their side of things for weeks and weeks because I was way too interested in the Ghost Mice jams to really pay much mind. Boy was that a mistake. Because they are really great and their new album is fantastic.

ONSIND hail from The Orchard, Bury Me, Durham in England. It’s two dudes that play accoustic guitars and sing really loudly. They are the masculine counterparts to the Heather feminine. And much like Heathers, they blend and stir the lines of those two great musical powerfuls and have made a stunning new record, Dissatisfactions. Right from the get go, “Heterosexuality is a Construct” pretty much lets you know where the hell yr going, very clearly and very loudly. The hook at the end “Love is not a crime and I draw the color outside of the line/Love knows no gender and it’s about time you nailed you colors up next to mine” is so fantastic and powerful, ONSIND kind of blows their load a little early. The added female vocals and electric guitar solo make this a tough track to follow, but the Bury Me, Durham boys do a pretty good job.

In fact it’s the added elements througout the record that make this a pretty great album. While the vocals are strong and the leads are mixed well over the rythym strumming the duo bashes out, it’s the subtle moments of additional parts that makes this a strong record. Point of fact, the bombastic voices could get a little overwhelming and repedetive. But the boys know how to mix shit up.

We started by talking about the first track and so we will end with talking about the last track. Dissatisfactions is closed out by a somber-with-heroic-resolution tale called “I Could Carve a Better Man Out of a Bannana”. This is a pretty ditty about a young lady, driven to murder by the abuse of her father. I know, bummer right. But the triumphant gang vocals at the end yelling “I can hide the body/underneath the shed/where they won’t find him/no they won’t find him” is a pretty awesome, punk rock experience. Plus it actually sounds like a legit chorus, even though the linear notes indicate it’s just there bros and lady bros. The young lady gets away with the killing, thus saving her life and moving on. The album ends on a high note. Everyone is happy.

So, I lied. I made it through this entire review of this record before I left for the hardcore show. 598 words later, we’ve found a resolution. I feel okay about this review. Fairly objective (not really), touching on key points, got some lyrics in there for you to nash on, maybe get your appetite up. You know, deliver the goods. Point is, you should get this album. It’s Five bucks, just like they always are. In the mail. A CD, with art and lyrics and drawings and shit. Chris will probably even send you a catalog and a nice little note. He may even give you a drawing of his cat, Mr. Jefferson, who I have met. He’s famous. The cat I mean, not Chris. Whatever, just buy the fucking CD.

Hiatus

Korrupt Yr Self the blog and podcast are going on a much needed hiatus. There are two more podcasts in the wings and will (should?) auto post over the next two weeks. After that, I am taking a much deserved break from podcasting and record review writing and other such things. I do not have an anticipated time of when I will return to these things. It may be three months, it may be a year. So, you know, sign up for updates and shit and you will know as soon as I do.

Issue #4 of the zine remains abundantly available. If you want one, write me an email at goodgovernor @ gmail.com and I will happily send you one for free. I will still have email.

If you get updates from this cuz yr my facebook friend, in 60 days you won’t be able to. Facebook page is going bye bye. the Twitter account will remain.

Finally, before I go, I want to talk about Plan-It-X records, a label I have talked about quite a bit in the past. Chris Johnson, one of the founders and long time operator of the label has been one of my biggest inspirations over the past year of my life. In June of 2009, Chris moved to Cairo, IL, a small town at the mouth of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, has a population of less than 4,000 people and has a depressed economy. Chris bought a building, renovated it and tried to open a community space and coffee shop. His dream was that he could get all the punks and weirdos and people who just don’t want to be a part of society to move there and start their own thing.

Recently, Chris and his other small band of merry friends decided to hang it up. He writes about it at his website Plan-It-X.com. To many, this might read like Chris failed. And measured in terms of everyday, capitalistic, money hungry, consuming bullshit, it is. But that was not what Chris wanted to do. And even though it is time for him to leave and return to Bloomington, IN and resume doing some of things he loved doing, and start doing new and exciting things he’s always wanted to do, I think of Ace of Cups and a success. Chris took a chance on a dream and put his life into that dream. He did it at great financial cost (something that weighs way too heavily on almost every American, whether we want to believe we live in such a stable economy or not) to himself, and sacrifice of many other aspects of his life. But the point is, Chris took a chance. Most people don’t dare do that in life. Like me, they get out of college, find some job that pays okay, get married, have kids, buy a house, grow varicose veins and fucking die never having the gumption to dream, to live, to grab life by the balls and say FUCK YOU, I DO IT MY WAY.

Over the last few years of my life, I’ve learned that trying to smash my life into this mold of consumerist comfort doesn’t work for me. There isn’t any thing at my fingertips that makes me a better person. There is no adventure, no excitement, no risk and no daring. Today I made a decision that, financially, was very difficult. But it’s time to turn these cards in and cash out. It’s not what I hoped for, but I will make it work somehow. There is a great deal of liberation, and the stress and tension is quickly fading away. It might turn out okay. Maybe not as I planned, but it might turn out okay.

I know I have urged you a thousand times to go visit Plan-It-X.Com. But I mean it. Go there now, listen to some of the music, find something you like, sit down, write Chris a letter and send him $5 for a CD. It won’t be around forever and you will be missing out on something very, very beautiful. Something that is quickly dying in our culture. Not the exchange of commerce for goods, but the investment in something beautiful, loving and wonderful.

Quit your job, burn down your house, throw a brick at a banker (myself included), and go on an adventure. You are never too old for that.

Peace from all of us at the Korrupt Your Self Corporation for World Domination, LLC, INC.

“What the fuck, fuck shit up” – Chuck Dukowski