I love the early Sam Raimi-ness of this Terrible Twos video. This will be their next single (I think), coming out on Robs House Records (I think), making this already their second 7″ release of 2010 (I think).

So you’re now into your first workday post-Blowout, and you still feel gross, and you’re still wondering why Skipper’s kept putting happy face and star stamps on your hands every time you came in. Hey, me too.

Everyone who is a sane functioning adult and doesn’t use the internet on the weekends can feel free to make sure there vote gets counted in the polls up there and to the right, or vote again from work to be extra sneaky. What we didn’t tell you is that the winner of each night will be the bands selected to open for Public Image Ltd at the Crofoot in April. No, not really.

As far as new and never before seen things, I’ll give this year to Illy Mack & The Kodaks. Illy Mack is playing a free show on Friday at Alvin’s that you should try to stop into if you’re back in the mood for live music then.

I’ll tell you now to go see Surfer Blood tomorrow at The Magic Stick and to go see Tigercity & Lettercamp on Wednesday at The Magic Stick. Those will be big fun times. This morning while violently pressing every button on the alarm clock some AM radio guy told me it was going to be nice for a little while, so I’m going to pretend that I’m not a vampire for the rest of the week and try to figure out what this “sun” thing everyone keeps tell me about is.

It’s Sunday night at 10pm. I feel like I’m supposed to be somewhere right now. Am I late for a band? Where is all the second-hand smoke? Why am I sober? I don’t like it.

Saturday night’s recap goes like this: I was tired and it was crowded.

Started off at The Belmont to see The Kodaks. Good stuff. Sloppy indie rock, sort of Strokes-ish or Television-ish. Catchy. I’m not sure how long those particular dudes have been playing together, or if they’re even officially “the band”. I had heard a couple of the guys from Millions of Brazilians were going to be the band for this performance, but it didn’t work out or something. I dunno. I also heard someone complain about the singer’s voice, but if the songs are there I don’t really mind. Of course, I’m the guy who likes Titus Andronicus so maybe ask someone else.

From there, Secret Twins. I walked in on some looping number they were doing. I really fucking liked that one. I could have listened to a 20-minute version of that, but they stopped to play a “real” song. Not that I didn’t enjoy the rest of their set, but the one I walked in on was the highlight for me.

Uh, what else? Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor. Intense set in a packed room. Made me feel like I was back in ‘Nam, except with better music this time.

After that we drove over to Jean’s to see Prussia. Jean’s was a fucking disaster. I’m going to guess they were 300 people over capacity. We lasted five minutes, couldn’t even wait for the band to start.

At this point all the drugs kick in and I can’t really remember anything other than spending the rest of the night at the Gays of Columbus, trying to avoid another Jean’s incident. In hindsight, I wish I could have seen The Beggars and Mick Bassett but we were tired and lazy and maybe a tiny bit drunk. I remember Lightning Love sounding fantastic in the small room. Again, too crowded to actually see the band, but they sounded great from where I was standing — behind a fucking chimney.

Uh, some other stuff probably happened…other bands sang songs…I think somebody ate a hot dog…the sound guy drank four liters of Diet Vernors…I got into an argument with a black dude over whether or not hating all Chinese food makes me racist. Millions of Brazilians played some songs and shot toilet paper out of leaf blowers (actual leaf blowers, not Mexican people) and then there were a bunch of people on stage and at some point I went to bed.

Saturday night’s big winner was me because I finally got to take that goddamn wristband off. Although, I swear I can still feel it.

I went out. I saw some bands. I didn’t have fun until after 2:00am. I am tired. Here is the Saturday Poll Thingy.

I don’t know how many of you nerds Foursquare in these parts. Doesn’t seem like many (and yes, I know about this), but real cities have all kinds of events and perks centered around this stupid little app. Bars will give drinks to the “mayor,” restaurants will give discounts to people who check in often, some places even have their venue’s leaderboard up on the wall.

If you’re familiar with Foursquare, you know you’re awarded badges for doing certain things (explained here), but you can also create city-specific or event-specific badges like they do for SXSW. Let’s pretend they did this for Blowout. What badges would you expect to be on there?

Dysentery Badge - Check in at The Clock more than once during the weekend.

Shitting Blood Badge - Two nights at The Clock and one at Checker’s

BYOCS Badge (Bring Your Own Club Soda) - Consecutive check-ins at bars that don’t stock the basics

Blowout Cheater Badge - Considering it a new venue every time you walk between the Gays of Columbus Hall and the Lounge

Drunk Driver Badge - Check in at more than six venues in one night

What else?

JRC Says!

09:20 - Jamie Register & The Glendales @ Jeans
09:40 - The Mahonies @ Atlas
10:00 - The Kodaks @ The Belmont vs Secret Twins @ G of C Hall
10:20 - Sisters Of The Sikkest Nations @ G of C Lounge
10:40 - Big Mess @ Bakers
11:00 - Child Bite @ G of C Hall
11:20 - Prussia @ Jeans
11:40 - Kommie Kilpatrick @ Atlas
12:00 - Bazooka Jones @ New Dodge vs Silverghost @ G of C Hall
12:20 - The Beggars @ Paychecks vs. Lightning Love @ G of C Lounge
12:40 - Los Minstrels Del Diablos @ Smalls
01:00 - Millions Of Brazilians @ G of C Hall

Jasper Says!

Seems like I missed quite a bit last night. The photos of Marco Polio’s set look amazing. I wanted to catch The Sights, but couldn’t get in. And I still haven’t made it to four of the venues. Blowout is hard.

Bands we talk about somewhat regularly here are: The Mahonies, Mick Bassett, Four Hour Friends, I,Crime, Prussia, Smoke, Millions of Brazilians, Silverghost, Child Bite, Secret Twins, Lightning Love, Sisters of Your Sunshaine Vapor and The Beggars.

Fuck. This is going to be a tough night. On top of all those, I’d like to check out The Kodaks, Divine Comedians, Kommie Kilpatrick, Timmys Organism and Le Ren…Le Ren sounds interesting.

Ugh, this is way too much. I might stay home and watch Law & Order.

Also, what is this i dont even.

Last night I managed to see 11 bands in 9 venues. You can feel free to let us know what you saw and enjoyed by using our little Friday Vote Machine.

The best set of the night was turned in from Lettercamp, who packed the Gates Of Columbus Lounge with what had to have been capacity +100, then threw down the best set of Blowout. Everyone in that band compliments each other so well and the songwriting is almost perfect. Bravo, kids.

And then you have The Hard Lessons. There is a reason these guys are still front and center in the city 5 years after their first single. It’s because they are incredible. They played stuff off of every record last night, and and some point Augie jumped from the balcony into the crowd a la Eddie Vedder in the Evenflow video. When the set was ending, and after they had absolutely killed it someone sent a note to the stage that read: “Keep playing the owner is a councilwoman.” It was at that point that I ordered two more beers and watched what had to have been a 4 or 5 song encore. I know when we got to the car it was 2:30 in the morning. You can say whatever you want about The Hard Lessons, but a band that leaves it all out there every single time they play… it doesn’t really get much better than that.

I also saw pretty fantastic sets by The Juliets, The Swamp Sisters, and Satin Peaches.

So we’re going to do this one more night, huh? It’s always a toss up as to if I will even be physically able to get drunk on the last day. Often times my body just starts processing alcohol and refusing to inebriate me no matter how much I consume. Probably since it’s given me every other indication it can to tell me that I’m fucking out of control and I’m obviously just not listening. We’ll see what happens.

I saw Lettercamp perform at The Loving Felch during our DJ set this year at DIY Fest and I thought they were “OK”. A few lineup changes later and the band now consists of Liz (Friendly Foes), Matt (Nice Device), Derek (Millions of Brazilians) and Shane (that venue in Rochester?).  Holy shit. They were so fucking good tonight. Their weirdo stage screens contributed to the performance, but the fact that they were playing something that sounded modern absolutely buried the competition. They win the night.

First runner-up was The Satin Peaches, followed by SX-8 Columbia and The Juliets.

Biggest bummer is attributed to whoever farted during The Perineum’s Perennials’s set at Atlas and the waitress at The Clock who accidentally threw her tampon on the table with a handful of straws. Fucking “Oops” is the understatement of the weekend.

Someone just slid this note under my door:

Did you hear the rumor that was going around about the guys from Bat on Fire getting mugged last night? It’s completely untrue. It started with one of the band members sending texts that said, “got mugged. 2 in the hospital. Not a good time” and then this morning on their Facebook page it said something about 2 gunshots, 3 broken noses, etc. so it started to spiral into something serious. But as it turns out, they were at the venue, didn’t like the first band and thought Kelly’s was a shit bar and they bailed. They were bitter about the whole thing and made up the rumor to try and put a black mark on the event.

Apparently, they’ve never been to a Blowout — nobody ever likes the band before you and 80% of the venues are shit.

JRC SAYS:

09:20 - Scott Harrison @ Bakers vs Perennials @ Atlas
09:40 - The Juliets @ GofC Lounge
10:00 - SX-8 Columbia @ Skippers
10:20 - Swamp Sisters @ Painted Lady
10:40 - Lettercamp @ G of C Lounge
11:00 - Beekeepers @ Jeans
11:20 - Scarlet Oaks @ Painted Lady
11:40 - Black Lodge @ G of C Lounge
12:00 - The Sights @ New Dodge
12:20 - Satin Peaches @ Atlas
12:40 - Marco Polio @ Paychecks
01:00 - The Hard Lessons @ New Dodge

JASPER SAYS:

Same deal as last night. Satin Peaches, Friendly Foes, Lettercamp, The Juliets, The Hard Lessons, The Sights, Scarlet Oaks, Marco Polio and SX-8 Columbia (Deastro) are all solid acts that I’ve mentioned a hundred times before.

Outside of that, Perennials is a new Michael Cianfarani / Dale Wilson / Jeremy Stork band that I’d like to check out. I saw Trash Camera once and thought they had some solid songs. Bloodbird’s MySpace sounds somewhat interesting and Old Empire has some good stuff, as well. Uh…fuck. There’s too much to see tonight. Where are all the teenage Jesus bands playing?