God rest ye merry gentlemen from Edmonton

Home Front, holidaze & book giveaways

Last night I went to see Home Front, Long Knife and Brazen Bull at the Soda Bar here in Slow Death, Ca. Long Knife’s Curb Stomp Earth was one of my favorite records of 2023 and they didn’t disappoint. Home Front, however, was a revelation. An Edmonton band that mixes hardcore vocals, post-punk riffs, and ’80s synth-pop, a combination I loved from the jump. Just a great fucking show.

Long Knife, King Diamond scarf, Home Front

Spend, spend, spend. Delete, delete, delete.

On Friday night Nuvia and I went to the Christmas Market Hight Tech High Chula Vista where she used to teach. There was a stage where students in a very angry hardcore band played and the K-Pop dance club performed. I had my first tamale of the season, but it won’t be the last.

On Saturday we went to Balboa Nights, the annual holiday festival at Balboa Park. We go every year to watch our friend’s daughter perform with the San Diego Civic Dance Company. It’s wild to watch kids you don’t even know grow older. For me, the show marks the start of the holiday season but it’s hard to get in the spirit when it’s 75 degrees. At least the ice cream was delicious.

On Sunday we busted out the X-mas decorations put up our lights. My feelings toward the Catholic church and Christianity in general are unequivocally hostile and getting angrier all the time, but l love me some twinkly lights at yuletide.

San Diego Civic Dance Company, Balboa Park Botanical Gardens, Paradise Hills

That good cheer, however, is fighting a losing battle with the firehose of consumer capitalism being blasted at me all day, every day. First it was Black Friday, then Small Business Saturday, then Cyber Fucking Monday and finally Giving Tuesday. How many emails did I delete last week? 100? 1,000?

Now it’s the year-end list season, from Spotify Wrapped to every publication touting the best of books, albums, and movies of the year.

Frankly, it’s overwhelming.

As much as I love discovering new books and music that I missed out on during the course oft he year, I find the relentless insistence that my happiness is tied to my purchasing power more than a little depressing.

So what am I going to do about it?

For the next three weeks I’m going to give away a bunch of shit, and by shit I mean beautiful, mind-expanding, life-changing books. I’ve got signed copies of The Witch’s Door, Eight Very Bad Nights, Joshua Mohr’s Saint the Terrifying, and other surprises ready to go out the door.

Here’s how the giveaway will works.

1) Become a paid subscriber.

2) Leave a comment.

That’s all it takes. Just do one (or both) of the above from now until the end of the year and you’ll be in the running for some first rate free shit.

Closing out 2024

Next week I’ve got my last interview of the year with punk photographer Linda Aronow who just released her first book of photos: Punk and Other Four Letter Words from Cabin 1 Books.

The week after that I’ll share my annual 10 Raddest Records of 2024, and the week after that it’s time for A Year in Books, my recap of every book I read in 2024. This year that falls on the last day of the year. (I hate year-end lists that come out in November.) Right now I’m at 60, but if I finish all the books I’ve started this year I’ll hit 822. I think I can make it.

Steve "Crabby" Cabler, El Centro set list, Jake Hout formerly of the Dead Boys

Lastly, I want to thank everyone who liked, shared, commented on or sent me a nice note about my story in the LA Times last week about Steve Cabler. Steve is many things: a surfing legend in Newport Beach. A longtime OC punk rocker who grew up behind the Cuckoo’s Nest. And the survivor of a truly horrific terrorist attack in Indonesia that left over 200 people dead, an incident that frankly too many people have forgotten about.

One thing Steve Cabler is not is forgettable. I’ve been talking with Steve for close to a year now, listening to his story and getting to know him as a person. A few weeks ago I got to see him play at the Tiki Bar when El Centro opened up for the Dead Boys, which ended up being a story in itself when singer Jake Hout quit the following week that I wrote about for the next issue of Razorcake.

If you missed Steve’s story, or you’re not an LA Times subscriber, here’s a link to an affiliate that also ran the story. It’s one of the most powerful stories I’ve ever been called upon to write about and I hope you check it out.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for supporting my work this year. Thanks for not being a tool of the totalitarian technostate. Oh, wait. That’s my resolution for 2025: Don’t be a tool of the totalitarian technostate. Either that or get my station wagon painted like an orca. What’s yours?

If you liked this newsletter you might also like my latest novel Make It Stop, or the paperback edition of Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records, or my book with Bad Religion, or my book with Keith Morris. I have more books and zines for sale here. I hope you’ll consider checking out my latest collaboration The Witch’s Doorand the anthology Eight Very Bad Nights.

Message from the Underworld comes out every Wednesday and is always available for free, but paid subscribers also get my deepest gratitude and Orca Alert! on most Sundays. It’s a weekly round-up of links about art, culture, crime, and killer whales.