John's Disses

John's Disses Moving

2009-08-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let you know that I have moved my blog to WordPress. I have a new website as well. Come by and check it out. Sign up to my emial list and I'll send you the url and password to my Secret Covers page where you can download 25 acoustic covers (by David Bowie, Rancid, The Clash, Psychedelic Furs and more)!

Bull Pit Podcast #16: Do the Atomsplit(s), Baby

2009-08-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

Just rock, minimumal talk. Bands include Atomsplit, Sex Slaves, Babylon Bombs, The Muffs, The Urgencies, Black Furies, 3 Kisses. Skull artwork by Mike Dyson, Guerrilla808 Studios (guerrilla808@gmail.com). Music provided, in part, by MusicAlley from MEVIO.

Since the podcast isn't in the iTunes Store right now, here’s an easy way to subscribe to it anyway. From the iTunes Advanced menu, choose “Subscribe to Podcast...” and enter the following URL: http://thebullpit.podbean.com/feed/. iTunes will subscribe you to the podcasts and begin downloadingOr you can hear it straight from Podbean, here.

Add the Bull Pit on Myspace!

Bull Pit Podcast #15: Abajo Fidel

2009-08-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

This is part 3 of an interview I did with Hector of The Frequency. NME's Chris Mandle calls the Frequency's new album "tied together with slick, stripped-back music strengthened by simplicity as much as beauty."And, "‘Unlikely Morning Song’ could calm even the most bilious of souls, while ‘Ego Is The Drug/3am’’s 17 minutes of poetic adventure has the scale of an instrumental Iliad."

In this 3rd installment of the interview, Hector completes the story about how he got off the island of Cuba... and tells some harrowing and heartbreaking stories about why he had to leave the island.

Songs by Black Furies, Soho Roses, Rock City Angeles.

iTunes is down, I had to re-submit our feed and it takes days for them to re-approve. It's getting more and more like Cuba here!

Since the podcast isn't in the iTunes Store right now, here’s an easy way to subscribe to it anyway. From the iTunes Advanced menu, choose “Subscribe to Podcast...” and enter the following URL: http://thebullpit.podbean.com/feed/. iTunes will subscribe you to the podcasts and begin downloading

Or you can hear it straight from Podbean, here.

Add the Bull Pit on Myspace!

Ginger Wildheart @ Viper Room, July 16

2009-07-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday night I went to see my favorite podcaster, The Rock and Roll Geek Show's Michael Butler, play bass (along with Billy Morrison of The Cult/Camp Freddy on guitar and Scott Lipps on drums) for Ginger Wildheart @ the Viper Room. I am a bit ashamed to admit I am not a fan and didn't know the songs. I meant to download the songs from the setlist (Michael gave it out on the podcast last week), but I didn't get around to it.

Butler was all over the stage, looking like a bad ass with his bass down low in his Disco Sucks t-shirt. The songs were catchy as hell and I plan on buying some Wildhearts/Ginger tracks in the near future.

It was cool meeting Michael after the show. The weird part about the night was that Trisha (Bull Lee singer), walked up to us as we were talking. She was there to review the opening band for a friend's blog. She ended up reviewing Ginger too (who she called the opening band), you can check that out here.

Michael's first words to me as I walked up and introduced myself (he's played us on his show before and we've corresponded a few times via email): "I thought you'd be a fat guy".

BULL LEE @ Anarchy Library, Downey - Saturday, July 11

2009-07-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

This is our last show with Popey on drums so you don't wanna miss it!

BushCares.com

2009-07-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

NEW Bull Pit Episode #09 You Looked Better on Myspace

2009-06-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Featuring songs by 900 Pound Gorilla, Atomic Brother, Bruiser, The Sainte Catherines, The Get Outs, The Muffs, The Mysluts and Bull Lee.

Subscribe or steam the show on iTunes here!

BULL LEE @ The Blue Monkey - July 7

2009-06-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

BULL LEE @ Universal Bar and Grill, June 28

2009-06-01T14:04:00.000-07:00

Flyer by Lucas Nardelli

BULL LEE Live @ Mr. T's, Highland Park (5/14)

2009-05-12T13:47:00.001-07:00

New Terminal Hotel - The New Poster

2009-05-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

New Terminal Hotel - The Poster

2009-04-09T21:15:00.001-07:00

What happens in Vegas...

2009-02-13T17:53:00.000-08:00

Flyer by Mike Dyson, Guerrilla808 Studios (guerrilla808@gmail.com)

Bull Lee Presents...

2009-02-02T00:40:00.001-08:00

BULL LEE Live Tonight in Universal City

2009-01-27T13:55:00.000-08:00

Concert Review: Cheap Trick @ The HOB Sunset Strip

2008-12-16T13:36:00.000-08:00

Bull Lee comrade Kevin Pope (drums) and I went to see Cheap Trick at the Sunset HOB last night. It was one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen. I kept thinking all night as the high voltage of the music moved through me, what an incredible art form rock n’ roll is. The sound, the songs, the lights, the performance; it was perfect.

Funny story about Cheap Trick, a few years ago a friend from back east mailed me a Rick Neilson signature guitar pick after seeing them play a state fair somewhere in Virginia. I ran out of picks one day, so instead of preserving that pick and heading to a music store for a new supply, I used my Rick Neilson pick until I wore it down. I was sort of bummed out about that. I eventually lost it (probably dropped it on stage). And then, years later (Dec 30, 2007), Kevin and I went to see CT at the Canyon Club in Agoura. We both laughed out loud all night at Neilson, who plays a different guitar on each song. His thing is to throw out hundreds of picks during the course of a show. He doesn’t hold on to one pick for more than 10 seconds it seems. His mic stand is covered with picks and he simultaneously rocks out, grabs and flicks guitar picks all night long. The highlight of the show’s hilarity is when he grabs fistfuls out of a bucket and showers the audience with picks. Needless to say, as it turns out, my original Cheap Trick guitar pick was not much of a collector’s item after all. In ’07 I didn’t get a pick but last night we made sure to stand close and all of us got at least one (I got two).

I was never a Rick Neilson fan as a kid. I thought he was a goofball and the opposite of what a rock star should be. I was always partial to the guys on the front covers (lead singer, Robin Zander and bassist, Tom Petersson) I was “too cool” to get it, I guess. I realize now after finally seeing them live (they’ve been one of my favorite bands since I was in 5th grade, and the song “Surrender” is one of the greatest rock n’ roll masterpieces of all time), that they are all pretty damned cool, but that Rick is equal parts powerhouse songwriter, genius comic, a rock god of a performer on stage and one HELL of a guitar player.

Kurt Cobain often cited Cheap Trick as a major influence. He would say that Nirvana was nothing more than a tribute to Cheap Trick and The Knack in the tradition of a bar band. Of course that isn’t true, but there are similarities. For me, the most obvious one is the song "Auf Wiedersehen", from Heaven Tonight which the band ends their shows with (the final encore). I can feel Cobain in the main riff, vocal melody and the way Robin Zander delivers the song. Even the drums sound like Nirvana on this one. Check it out. I got chills the moment I put that together along with the fact that the final word in the song is “suicide.”

(photos by Kevin Pope)

Derby Flyer

2008-11-26T16:56:00.001-08:00

Flyer by Mike Dyson.

No Lip Vol. 2

2008-11-24T20:14:00.000-08:00

The song "Fairfax Ave" by my band Bull Lee will be included on the No Lip Vol. 2 compilation CD due out next year on Mohawk Bomb Records. Our track "You Never Had It" was featured on No Lip Vol. 1 and we did two shows with some bands also featured on that album last month.

Henry Rollins

2008-11-23T23:12:00.000-08:00

Hank is always a good read and these contributions to Vanity Fair are no exception. Check em out!

Ramirez vs. Gonzalez

2008-11-19T16:23:00.000-08:00

Alberto Gonzalez always creeped me out. I was relieved when he resigned. Now I know why!

Click here for some classic creepy Alberto Gonzalez action!

And finally, here's more proof! He's been indicted in the Bush State of TX with... you guessed it, none other than The Angler himself, our very own beloved Veep: Dick Cheney!

BULL LEE Live @ The Derby

2008-11-19T14:08:00.000-08:00

My band Bull Lee will be playing The Derby on Tuesday night, December 2 at 10pm. We usually don’t play weeknights but The Derby sounds like a good time and we wanted to do one last show before the end of the year. It’s our 80th show and it happens to be BC ’s birthday!

Flyer coming soon…

900 Pound Gorilla

2008-11-17T14:24:00.000-08:00

These guys are my new favorite band. Bull Lee did two shows with them to promote a new compilation we are both on called No Lip Vol. 1. Check out "Big Fat Limo" and "Gutterball". They won a well-deserved LA Music Award for "Big Fat Limo" (one of the most addictive songs I've heard in a long time) and are currently being considered for a Grammy nomination.

A week after the shows, Popey and I went to see them perform at an Angel City Derby Girls match (do they call them matches?) and it was one of the most entertaining events ever. They wrote a bad ass song specifically for the gig called "Roller Derby Girl" and filmed a video for it during the event. Their bass player, Don, played an obsessed fan and at the end of the night the object of his affections finally kissed him, and then all the girls piled on top of him. It was awesome. He was in Derby Girl Heaven! Plus, the action-packed derby itself was cool, and the band rocked the house. I'll post a link to the video when it's up.

Introduction

2008-11-17T11:50:00.000-08:00

Hello!

I've had a blog here before, but deleted it. It was in response to the 2004 election. I was unemployed at the time and hopeless about the state of the world. I posted mostly political doomsday stuff about how the election was stolen and how the mainstream press wouldn't report it. After Senator Boxer contested the election and nobody paid attention, I deleted my blog.

I used my free time and aggression to write about 50 songs with my good friend, horror director BC Furtney (who handed me stacks of lyrical genius for me to set to music), and we started the band Bull Lee. I play guitar, he played bass. We found our drummer Kevin (or Popey, we call him) in Jan of '05. We looked for singers forever, finally settling on our current singer Trisha after being mesmerized by her drunken “Tainted Love” at a Westside karaoke joint. Turns out it was her first time EVER singing (Trisha also has a fashion business called Redrawn Arts, check it out).

BC left in March of this year to direct more horror in Pittsburgh, PA. He just texted me that his new thing, New Terminal Hotel (starring Fright Night's Stephen Geoffreys, scream queen Tiffany Shepis, The Hills Have Eyes' Ezra Buzzington and Lost Boys' Corey Haim) wrapped yesterday, and we’re all looking forward to his success (I’ve read it and it’s goooooooood!).

Our new bassist is Mo and we’re having a good time jamming with him.

In the waning days of 2007 I began writing and recording my own songs with acoustic guitar. I got the brilliant idea to post a new song per week for all of 2008 on my Myspace page. It’s really good for me, but the year pretty much has been me slaving away in the little home studio I share with my roommate. I look forward to having some weekends free next year and getting out of town to do some performing.

Oh, and I finally got a day gig working at a software co. I’ve worked there over 3 years now. It’s really mellow and the people are great. I feel lucky, and extremely happy that we got it right with the 2008 election. I never thought it would happen. I was sure we were on the path to a police state any day. I feel good about things now, if we can just keep on Obama’s ass to do the right thing I believe he will.

And if he doesn’t, we can throw him out and give Palin a shot in 2012. Ha!

I'll end this post with a quote from Senator Boxer: “I’ve taken lonely votes in my life. I’ve asked tough questions,” she said. “Otherwise, what’s the point of being in the world, let alone in the Senate?”