This Thorns of Life live at 924 Gilman Street recording isn't anything to sneeze at, but if you're dying to hear what Blake Schwarzenbach's new band sounds like, these MP3s do the trick. Sounds good to me and I can't wait to hear more. 3 interviews with Blake: here, here, and here. (Thanks again, Seth!)

Edited to add another bonus. 4 tracks from Thorns of Life show at Bar Pink. Again, iffy quality, better than nothing.


(Thanks for visiting Unlikely Words. If you liked what you read Subscribe to RSS, check out our About Page, read some of our favorite posts or Follow us on Twitter)

That's just how it is.
or
When Obama wins Chinese Democracy will finally come out!

I can't imagine it's any good, but that's not really what this is about. This is about wondering where Izzy Stradlin is and whatever happened to Steven Adler? I found out Duff McKagan has an Official Fanclub and an unofficial one (incidentally called LAMF, 10 points in the comments if you know what it means and what its significance was. I also cared what Matt Sorum was up to, because of Use Your Illusion I and II, but not so much Gilby Clarke.

My two best Guns n' Roses stories...
Use Your Illusion I and II came out on either Rosh Hashan or Yom Kipper and my dad drove me down Route 9 to get them in between services at the Strawberries that's now the Legal Seafood. Remember how CDs used to come in long boxes?

Chanukah 1991. I was a pretty big Guns N' Roses fan in 7th Grade. Listening to Use Your Illusion II ALL the time. My brother got me the best present anyone has ever given me - tickets for us to see Gn'R. If someone gave me Gn'R tickets now, well, that'd be nice, but it wouldn't be the best present ever. It was a perfect combination of the right gift at the right time. Imagine the biggest thing in your life and someone gives you a gift that enhances that, that was these tickets in 1991. He's lucky that Chanukah came early that year (December 2nd) otherwise he would have had to just give me tickets. The show was that Friday, December 6, 1991 at the Worcester Centrum with Soundgarden opening up. I remember buzzing the whole week. I remember Soundgarden playing louder than anything I'd ever heard. I remember a LONG time in between Soundgarden and Guns n' Roses during which time the camera men scanned the crowd, focusing on women, who would then be jeered by the crowd into lifting their shirts. Then Axl finally finished some temper tantrum or other and they start playing my head exploded. I remember them playing Wild Horses, which I had heard on another bootleg, and Duff (who was my favorite anyway) signing lead on a Misfits cover and swearing a TON.

Woo. Good times. Thanks for letting me share.

I think these are from last night's show, but can't confirm it. It's not much, but below are the first notes of The Thorns of Life music to hit the web. Nice work, lyssarella and thanks to my bro for the links. Can we please get some official news?

Ripping through the internet over the last couple days is word that Blake Schwarzenbach debuted a new band on Saturday, November 8th at the Jerk House in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The band features Aaron Cometbus (Crimpshrine and Pinhead Gunpowder among others) on drums and Daniela Sea (The L Word) on bass. It's not totally clear if the band has a name, and there doesn't seem to be anyone on the internet yet who actually saw the band perform.

Heavy breathing internet speculation leads the netizens to believe the band is called The Thorns of Life. This because Schwarzenbach's Facebook image says the same and because he is currently defending his masters thesis on Percy Bysshe Shelly whose poem "Ode to the West Wind" features the line (emphasis his) "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!"

In an unsubstantiated quotation, Schwarzenbach describes the band as such, "I can say only that it's loud and tender and we're called the Thorns Of Life. whether it's more Jetsesque or Breaker-like I honestly don't know; It sounds like a storehouse of fond hatred from the last few years and in the now."

I'm going to take a cold shower for a week. To say this is exciting is an understatement.

Pic by Brooklyn DIY

(Hat tip to Brooklyn DIY, pop punk bored, Complete Jawbreaker Cigarbox Guitars, and Punknews)

Cory Branan, a singer from Memphis (now living in Austin), sung about in a Lucero song, is a compelling stage presence. Dustying up his voice to better suit the narration of the song and playing the shit out of his acoustic guitar, Branan is a little bit country, a little bit rock n' roll. There weren't too many people there, but those who were had a good time.

From this long, though interesting profile of super fundraiser, Haim Saban, the man who brought America the Power Rangers: "At the appointed time, Saban, Arad, and Simmons sat down...Then Saban turned to Arad and, referring to Simmons, confided in Hebrew, “Now we gut him like a fish.” Without missing a beat, Simmons—who, unbeknownst to Saban, was born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel—replied in Hebrew, 'You asshole. I’m one of you.'"