2012 Punk Rock Bowling Lineups

Tomorrow around noon, I head to Las Vegas for my first experience of Punk Rock Bowling.  Here are the lineups for the 3 day festival and the 3 nights of smaller club venue shows.

Matilda

I bought a 4pk of Matilda last weekend at Woodmen's in Kenosha, WI.  It was $10 - ouch!

Matilda
Belgian Style Ale
7% alcohol
Goose Island Brewing Company

Dessert

I found two of my favorite desserts in the same package at Jewel last weekend.

Pepper Stout Beef (sorta)

Last Saturday, I made a variation of Pepper Stout Beef.  I originally found this recipe on www.Pelletheads.com.  The results were a hit with the wife and the neighbors.  I've been eating the leftovers all week.

I smoked the chuck roasts at 200* for about 6-7 hours until they reached an internal temp of 160*.  After that, I turned the grill up to 350*.  I placed the roasts in pans with the sliced up vegetables, some rub, some liquid smoke, some worcestershire, and a bottle of Beck's Oktoberfest.  They cooked for another 2 hours or so covered.  I then pull the foil off the pans to reduce down the liquid a bit.  I then pulled the beef and let sit in the veggies and broth.

Close up shot of the rubbed down chuck roast.

The two new rubs that I purchased at Sam's by McCormick's - Texas Smokehouse Burger and Cracked Peppercorn & Worcestershire Burger.

About 5-6 lbs of chuck roast on the 2nd rack on the Memphis Elite.

The Memphis Elite smoking away.

The modified ingredient list - mushrooms, 4 different colored bell peppers, onions, jalapenos, garlic, rub, liquid smoke, worcestershire sauce, and beer.

Close up shot of the ingredients in the pan waiting for the roast to get to 160*.

Pic of the final product and some polish sausages that I made with it.

A pic of the sandwich with some horseradish sauce.

Sandwich close up shot.

1st Steak on Memphis Elite

About a month ago, I made my first steak on the Memphis Elite utilizing the special insert over the fire pot to get a high heat direct grilling experience.  I had a New York Strip steak that I rubbed with my Steak Dust (Montreal Steak Seasoning and Cow Dust), and let sit in the fridge for a few days.  I set the temp in the Memphis Elite to 700 degrees.  At close to 600 degrees, I put the steak on the grates.  The steak was incredible.  I could not believe how juicy it was, but yet how little juice drained out of the meat onto the plate.

RIOT FEST & CARNIVAL 2012 Lineup Announced!!

Everybody's Scene

Everybody's Scene: The Story of Connecticut's Anthrax Club by Chris Daily

Prior to reading this book, I did not have much knowledge of the Connecticut hardcore punk rock scene of the 80's.  This book chronicles the history of the Sheridan brothers, Brian and Shaun, launch of the now famous Anthrax Club.  The club was an art gallery upstairs and a music venue in the basement during the early days.  Eventually, they grew out of a few buildings and settled on solely being a music venue.

The book chronicles the history through interviewing members of the scene from that era.  There are plenty of pictures of the multiple venue locations, club regulars, and bands that played the venues over the years.  It also does a decent job of the chronology of the local Connecticut punk bands including the transition and startup of the straight edge scene.

There is an interesting story about how Reflex from Pain told their lead singer, a young Ray Cappo, that the band was breaking up only to start a new band, 76% Uncertain, with a new singer.  I guess you could blame the Knapp brothers for the start of that knucklehead straight edge scene.

If you are into the history of regional punk rock, I recommend that you read this book to get an understanding of what was going on in Connecticut in the 1980's.  The Anthrax Club played an important part in bridging NYC and Boston for many of bands on tour throughout the USA back then.

Cockney Reject

Inspired by the Cockney Rejects being scheduled to play at the 2012 Punk Rock Bowling Festival that I am attending in Las Vegas during Memorial Day weekend, I decided to buy this book from Amazon.  It arrived earlier this week, and I read the whole thing yesterday.

95% of the book covers the life of the Cockney Rejects lead singer, Stinky Turner, from his age of 15-19.  If you do not like reading about violence, I would not recommend it.  Most of the stories are about the Cockney Rejects feeling disrespected by someone and then some sort of fight ensuing.  I found it an intersting, quick read, and I am glad I purchased the book to read.

Their is a very interesting story about a last minute trip to California that turned into them being held at gun point by a band member of the Circle Jerks.  This at a time when the Rejects were trying to be heavy metal rock stars with a sound closer to UFO than the Oi! sound that they helped to define across England.  In fact, they had a new drummer and bass player and they only knew how to play 3 songs from their earlier (best) period of their career.

It was quite an interesting 4 year period to go from being on Top of the Pops three times to being without any money.  This would be an incredible story for someone at any age let alone during the years of 15 to 19 years old.

I hope the unreleased tracks by the Postmen and the Cockney Rejects that are mentioned in the book see the light of day.  I would surely buy them to complete my Cockney Rejects discography.

Like a lot of punk bands from the 1970s-80's, they have had more financial success playing current music festivals throughout Europe and the USA.  It was interesting reading how blind they were to their popularity throughout the world outside of England.