Gods & Queens Are Back from the Brink...

...of oblivion.


Here is video proof.

On Gods And Queens

The three dudes in Gods And Queens are up the creek right now and need people's help.

Before I repost the sordid tale, go here and here and drop a pittance on some of their records to help them out.






There is also a benefit show for them in Philly... go here for the details

Here is the tale for those living under a rock:

Uhm…We need some help.
I´m going to try and make this as short as I can. After all these years of touring in unsafe vans, and doing stupid things, I guess I was over due for this… We had a serious van accident in route from our show in Graz, Austria to Dresden, Germany, somewhere along the highway in the Czech.
I was asleep in the back of the van, so I’m unsure of what exactly happened. All I know is I felt the van skidding out and we started to slide and roll over. Not sure exactly how many times the van flipped but it was more than enough. I started screaming for everyone to tell me they were OK. Gertjan check, Ben check, Sara check, and I didnt hear Jeff.

Ben pulled me out through the windshield and I took off running, screaming for help with blood pouring down my face. I honestly though Jeff was dead. A car stopped and a slew of women started screaming at me and I was screaming at them. We were in the middle of no where and as I was running two things came to mind, I think Jeff is dead, and I hope I don´t get shot like Artimus Pyle. A woman pulled me into her house and her husband and son ran to the van crash site. I found Gertjan, and he said everyone is OK. The family started talking to me via Google Translation telling me everyone is safe and that an amublance is on the way.

The ambulance comes takes us to a hospital, we get taken care of…sort of. The police arrive on the scene and inform us that we aren´t leaving until the medical bills are paid in full. The were so kind enough to escort Sara and myself to an ATM machine to pay the entire lump of the bills in full on the spot. Even after we signed some strange papers saying we have 30 day with proof of citizenship, etc. What the fuck ever right? We asked where Gertjan was, and their respone was…prison. 300 phone calls and around €3,000 later we are out of the damned Czech and safe in Germany.

Long short, we are all somewhat OK. Jeff broke his collarbone, Ben got his hand jacked up, I am pretty alright, Gertjan is OK, as well as Sara. The van is destroyed. Booking these tours ourself really made me realize that we are 100% on our own. We had no one to call, no one to “rescue” us. I made 3 phone calles and the entire German punk scene came to our rescue. God damn thank you. Our new friends from Dresden Germany came to get us at the drop of a hat, no questions asked. Thank you.

So here it is, we are 3 grown adult males in our 30´s who play in a punk band. We are all stage hands at R5 Productions in Philly. That´s what we do to enable us to be here in Europe doing this. Never in our lives have we needed help like we do now. If you want to help us, please go to www.godsandqueens.bandcamp.com and purchas a record for $1.99. If you ever laughed at one of my awful jokes, or spend hours talking with us after a show, and you would like to help, please do. I always though our band would have too much pride to ask for help, but I am pretty sure we all agree that this time we need it. If you would like to help in any form please do jamiegetz(at)gmail.com is the paypal address if you are inclined to do so. We will also accept first class upgrades on US Air, Delta or Virgin.

Thanks.

Now show some community spirit and cough up the duckets.

Confessions of a Music Fetishist Vol. 1

"Records are not unlike fetish properties…"

Although a fictional character, John Cusack's portrayal of Rob Gordon in High Fidelity speaks volumes of what I feel in regards to music; although, I might go so far to say that music is my heroin, and boy does it hurt/ feel good to jot that down, but a fetish property not at all. I really enjoy listening to music for sure, tons and tons. It feels weird when I only have one or two new records a week to check out, and right now things are really really slow on that front. 

But in light of that, it makes perfect logical sense that I write reviews for an online publication, (http://www.scenepointblank.com), which gives me the perfect excuse to listen to tons of music while at the same time espousing my misguided opinions on said records. My goal this year was to write 100 reviews, and my thinking is that I will fall just short of that total this year. It has been a strange year in music as some of my favorite bands broke up (see Cursed) and others that I like (Playing Enemy) while new ones have sprung up to take their place like Have A Nice Life, Helms Alee, True Widow, Gods and Queens, and the Night Marchers. My top 25 records of this year will be posted at Scene Point Blank as well as a ton of top 5 type things so check that stuff out, but here will contain some unabridged versions a la listing records top records 50- 26 and other such things as that.