Jen: What do you think of the SA music scene? Here's my take

Go get a drink and take a piss. This is a long one!!!!

Last night, we did an interview with "The Scene Productions" after our show. One of the questions Erk was asked was something like, "hows the San Antonio music scene compared to that of Orlando?" Well, his answer was a good one. Intelligent and completely heartfelt. Everything he had to say was positive. He had told the three of us his thoughts before so it was no surprise.

I thought about this question early this morning at like 3:30 as I showered. What would I have said?

I would have said, "listen to 'Greedy Little Monkeys' by Lokey, 'Lack of Respect' by Brotherhood and 'Slave to the Eucharist' by Angerkill.

Luckily, Erk jumped on after we've learned about who to trust and who to work with, so he's missed a lot of the scars.... although he endured the very same types of scars in Florida with previous bands.

My answer, obviously, was more from the business aspect while his was musicianship. It's not 100% about the business and it's not 100% about the bands. It's the marriage of both that makes the scene strong and SA lacks on on both ends. I wouldn't exactly say equally. I've seen a crapload of bands working hard, of bands with so much potential, and bands that just kick fucking ASS.. on a national level.. but I've seen even more greedy little monkeys leeching and weakening those good bands because there are always other bands to prey upon. They weaken our scene by portraying to San Antonio that this is what SA has to offer. Stupid prices to see unseasoned bands.

There are still those production companies out there that are fair. They'll be the ones around for a long time. The others burn enough people and will eventually have move to Austin for a while, then come back for a new crop of unsuspecting bands. Or if you can't move, you change the name of your company and hope that it helps. (names come to mind?)

Another question asked to Frank was "whats the difference touring in this band and playing in the country band?" His answer, "well, i have to pay for it all out of pocket." Yep, sir. Twice this year, AK was paid under $15 dollars for our performance. This may surprise some of you readers - unless your in an SA band.

I don't believe there's a music scene utopia in existance - anywhere. Last night was close though. Closer than I've seen in a long time. Check this out.. four headlining bands - AK, Bangladesh, Brotherhood and Nancy Silva Project - and not one rockstar in attendance. EVERY BAND WAS THERE FOR EVERY SET. None of this horrible shit of picking up your stuff and leaving when done.. or showing up right before you play. Randy Bonillas from Texas Traxx was there to check out the show. The Edge was in attendance to take pictures and promote at the event. I noticed several bands handing out flyers. There were a good ratio of other bands in attendance vs patrons (Flesh Electric, Before the Bloodshed, Water Became Blood, Lokey, Wings of Lead, When Words Attack, Kin of Cain and Deadpool come to mind - and Im sure there were more). The production team was top notch.. from door, to sound, to JT's MCing. Every band that performed completely commanded the stage and genuinely had nothing but respect for one another... and the best part..

..it was all put on tape to show to San Antonio. The Scene Productions is here to help us and I am really and truly excited that they've moved to network TV to broadcast SA talent to the masses. Perhaps they can't not save us, but they've are a gift right now. The act of bands working together is great.. and really prominent around here, but it has to be more than that. We should all be happy because that move was a move for all of us.

I let Dave read this blog and he said, "yeah, last night was just like an Austin show." That completely summed it up. Keep it up, everyone.

I give The Scene a whole lot of credit and praise for their efforts to strengthen our music scene and I want to commend BROTHER-FUCKIN-HOOD, BANGLADESH and NANCY SILVA PROJECT for good performances.

We especially thank Nancy for coming up to sing with us. We just met NSP at our last show @ Kristal at the end of May. One of them asked me if Angerkill was from San Antonio! Absolutely no prior relationship.. but Frank came up with the idea because he thought it would be something different, something of interest, something memorable and something fun. Nancy and Jesse came to 2 rehearsals and there was our gift back to all who were there for the music. METAL FOR THE ART OF MUSIC. We showed you a little of what this means to us.

Last Monday, during Texas Traxx, we sat in our rehearsal room with Chris and Mike from Deadpool and Jason of Flesh Electric. We toasted Jack & coke and beers each time they played one of our songs. We passed around fattie after fattie follwed by an iced bong.. and just enjoyed eachothers company. We felt accomplished.. and happy to share the moment together. That was the culmination - the realization that past challenges have been conquered, but we're not so blinded to be unaware of the ones ahead.

That same night, Erk brought me Skeleton Key. Jason brought us Scorpions "Taken By Force" and Primus "Tales from the Punchbowel." I went to bed ecstatic that we support and musically influence eachother. We are ALWAYS trading obscure music to listen to.. reminding eachother of our roots and introducing eachother to new sounds. Nancy Silva had just been in that same room 2 days prior rehearsing with us. Good feeling!

My opinion is an optimistic one. I believe that the San Antonio music scene will rise once again to what it was in the early 1990's... but not without some hard work from everyone.

With our angels to take care of us, we'll all be OK. This angels are the 'Keith Krouses' (Monster Music Studios), anyone with their heart in giving us quality without raping us - whether it's in putting together a solid show and actually giving us some of the earnings, sponsoring equipment, recording us, making videos for us, televising us, broadcasting us on the radio, taking free pictures at shows for us, being in attendance and simply buying us a beer or throwing up the horns if you feel what we're doing. You are the ones that make us feel appreciated, that make us smile, that make us stay positive... and give us the strength to strive for change and keep treading against the wind when it comes to the challenging business side of this art.

Cobra (Jen)

PS Obviously ive been thinking about this for a while now. About a year to be exact. It took last night for it to all come together!

Jen: Welcome to our world

Thanks to EVERYONE that went to the show last night. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and it was sooo awesome to see familiar faces and ghosts from the past.

I always love to hear, "last time I saw you guys was in 2001." I dig hearing that for lots of reasons. 2000-2001 were the best years for Angerkill in terms of momentum, before things came to a screeching halt and we had to do some thinking, reflecting, and appreciating. I know I speak for Dave and Frank when I say that we wait patiently and excitedly for the day that things surpass what we had back then - the intensity of the crowd at the shows was such a gift, we had some of our BEST pits in those days, and our chops were pretty damn solid. The only difference was that we played 11 shows a month.. and not 11 San Antonio shows, 11 TEXAS shows. Well, we can't do that anymore!!! That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, and it's taken me a while to realize that. I don't see our obligations as any type of handicap. We are responsible people who take care of our shit and lead balanced lives. As a matter of fact, it's 10:45 as I type this and Dave has been at work for almost two hours already. Try that... jammin out all night, getting to sleep at 4 or so, then getting up to lead your team at work and be the example. In terms of Angerkill, it's made us think in terms of 'quality' and NOT 'quantity.' Every show COUNTS, every practice counts and every minute counts.... so back to the subject line.

Driving home down 410 with my husband (the hot frontman!) and our trusty life long friend and supporter, Big Lou, and we get a call to my cell phone. It's Erk, our guitarist, to discuss the show. He said some shit that made me realize just how much he fits in to our band (not that I didn't know this, but he is so eerily in-tune, it's FUCKIN NUTS. As a matter of fact, Dave and I were hesitant to ask him in first time we met him BECAUSE he seemed to say all the right things, to have all the right ethics, and he's fuckin good). He asked me what we thought of our performance and I told him a 'solid B.' Yep, we're fuckin nerds - we grade ourselves. Dave had a mishap during our live debut, "a heartless endeavor" and it always seems like maulfunctions and shit will happen during the new songs. He knocked his tuners against the mic stand and threw his shit down at least a couple of steps!!!!! Right at the top of the song too... so whatdoyado.. just gotta keep playing, but all the way through, I'm wondering WHAT THE FUCK is wrong?! I didnt know if it was my bass, Erk or Dave, but some shit was off. Then you start contemplating frets - "it IS on the 2nd, right?!?!".. anyways, we fucked that song UP but other than that, we played alright. Luckily we had a professional sound guy to help our asses. Frank (sound) pinpointed what was wrong, turned Dave out of the mix and helped us out. Too bad he couldnt do anything for our insecurities!!! :) One must always appreciate good sound and lights - and we certainly appreciated last nights.

All the bands did really well and we were impressed with the talent and performances last night. Shame on all you who didn't stick around for Suicide Holiday. YOU MISSED OUT! Oh man.. they are a different genre from us, but held the same amount of intensity and as bands, we bonded fast. Bassist and I had lots to say, but did so in few words just because we understood one another. Their drummer.. oh my god... Frank's dream. Dave and I watched him drool their entire set!!

There were two parts to last night - almost as different as to feel like two different shows. I felt great because I could relate to both. Metal as fuck, then a woman musician who commands her instrument (dont mistake confidence for arrogance). Nancy Silva and bassist from Suicide Holiday have it GOING ON. I have a soft spot for women who can hold an instrument and jam out just as good as the next. It doesn't come easy - I work hard to reach new levels - so I know they work hard too and I give tons of respect for that shit. All four of us do. Metal is our passion and last night was just pretty fuckin fun.

Thats it. End to my blog. Anyone see that hot chick drunk as fuck last night?! Thats our Kimmi and she's wonderful. I'm sure she's puking this morning, thinking back to last night, wondering all these silly things.. but Kimmi, when you read this, just know that you are AMAZING, it was great to see you having a good time, and we are happy to have the Tinns in AK. Hope you had a very happy birthday!!!!!!

Jen

Jen: K3n Adams to do Angerkill cover art

A while back, you may have seen us announce that Angerkill was getting a shirt design from non-other than Lamb of God artist, K3n Adams.

K3n & Angerkill opted not for a shirt design, but for him to do the cover art for our upcoming album, "New Light's First Kiss." While doing this, he also created an all new, KILLER Angerkill logo, which will be released very soon. The album cover is in the final stage of completion.

We are excited and grateful for the opportunity to work with someone as talented and respected as K3n. Needless to say, we are pleased with our decision, and hope that you will be too. It's been 6 years since Angerkill released an album, so rest assured, the bar has been set high.

Visit www.k3n.com to see K3n's work.

"This CD is going to kick MAJOR ass." - K3n Adams

ANGERKILL

Jen: Tales from the jamroom part 2

This one won't be as long. I was telling the story of a weeks worth of bullshit in that last blog. This is just 2 days worth of bullshit.

As for tomorrow, the floor will be ready for furniture so it looks like we'll be ready for a good ol' Friday jam (I haven't spoken to Erk so this is unconfirmed BUT the Erk is usually ALWAYS down unless he has prior commitment). After the Friday rehearsal, Frank and I will start over, moving the furniture back to the painted side of the room and we'll begin washing and painting the band gear side. This shouldn't take as long (I'm sure I'm jinxing us) because we're not doing glitter or gloss.. just straight up 2 coats of black.

Yesterday our 4 year old and I primered the drum riser and the garage door while the other babies napped. She did such a great job.. and it was a huge confidence booster for her! Frank came by at noon to work, but when I heard that he had a class to attend, I sent his ass to class! We help keep each other on track - he does it to me too.

Today is a fun day. I've been way behind on the house since we started work out there. There is Easter grass IN our asses! It's everywhere... so I get to work in here and peek out there once in a while to work here and there. I'm painting the big silver "angerkill" mural across the wall, installing the art piece on the garage door (I'll describe in a moment) and Frank will finish painting our desk and his drum riser. Yes, indeed, there is an end in sight!

The art piece I speak of: our garage door is a 16 panel door with equal square insets and 4 windows across the top. Last night, I primered the whole thing.. windows and all. Richard Chapplow, of siorai.com, sent us an AWESOME picture of an industrial wall with AK painted on it, so I blew it up to 78 inches or something crazy like that, printed it out on a copy machine, and we're applying it to the garage door with wallpaper paste, then glossing it. Here is the picture... it's almost identical, but I have it cropped a bit different and I adjusted the contrast and saturation.

With that, you guys may be able to see what I'm going for. Black, white, gray, red accent wall, red glitter floor, several tapestries... it's definitely the most dramatic room I've designed (I'm not a professional designer - it's just been a HUGE passion of mine for well over a decade). That AK image above will have dark silver metallic crossbars breaking it up.

That's it for now. Frank called at 9:30 this morning and we're ready to ROCK! He's on his way right now and he's supposed to be bringing a camera. Hopefully we have a photoblog here soon.

Jen

Jen: Tales from the jamroom part 1

Since early March, we've been tackling everything we initially set out to: studio, jamroom, and positive & productive personal life stuff. Frank and I set out to remodel our jamroom into a personal creative 'heaven', if you will. We've talked about this for months and figured it would be best to do it before the next wave of writing begins - which is any moment... (as soon as recording is completed - 2 or 3 more sessions).

We knew it wouldn't be an easy task, but we weren't expecting it to be this friggin hard!! For those that haven't been here, our practice space is a 2 car garage. We're spoiled and already had it decked out better than most with a drum riser - that I proudly built out of scrap wood!- , our old doormroom fridge and pretty chill seating area (along with lots of tapestries, ambient lighting and Ikea decor). Jason from Flesh Electric had donated a couple of badass fabric flags (Sepultura tribal S and Death "Symbolic"). Gonzo from The Scene donated a King Diamond poster and Lamb of God poster... and Deadpool donated... well.. a picture of themselves. We asked em for posters and got "hell no!!! we're not giving up our Iron Maiden posters!!!" hehe... gotta love the DP - we do.

Anyways, we had every single project spec.ed out to the tee. Frank and I set off to Joann Fabrics & Home Depot on Saturday, 3/31 to buy the materials. Word to the wise... do NOT smoke before you are setting out to be creative and there is money involved. It's a lot like shopping for groceries on an empty stomach. We made some last minute choices at the paint counter that surely cost us some extra bucks! We were at Home Depot FOREVER, walking to and from the paint counter. I DID, however, manage to help stop Frank from purchasing $80 led lights for his riser, instead opting for the $30 'regular' lights (they really do have a warmer feel anyways).

We bought materials to paint the floor and walls black, except one accent wall that is blood red with a mural of a crow (part of an old 6th Street tale from when we played @ the Flamingo on Halloween night 2001) and the band name painted across in a dark metallic left over Ralph Lauren paint I used for our dining chairs. We devised a pretty cool design idea for the floor that prevented us from having to move out the beast of a riser - we begin with the 3/4 of the room in front of the riser and paint it black, sprinkle red and silver glitter on it (red all over, silver in a distinct pattern) then gloss the shit out of it. After the 2 year curing time (actually 72 hours for the paint, 72 for the gloss), we move the shit over and paint out the band gear area floor black, minus the glitter and gloss coats.

It begins flawlessly, but we find out very quickly what a pain in the ass it's going to be. The entire first day was spent degreasing and scrubbing the garage floor to prep. We rinsed for what seems like hours! At least 2... the suds seemed to never cease!!! Frank sent Big Lou to the store to buy a squeegee and it finally did the job. We let the floor dry overnight and laid down a tarp to work on the red wall. Frank and his friend Crystal get to painting the wall and it seems to be taking a million coats! This isn't a huge wall - a little bigger than 1 garage door. It took the entire gallon of red paint, and if you look really closely, there are still patches! While they worked on this, I painted out as much black on the opposite wall that I could without needing the ladder. My dumb ass sets the brand new gallon of black paint down on the tarp behind Frank (you all know where this is going) and he backed up into it and knocks it over on the tarp and freshly prepped floor!!! Resourcefully, we pick up the tarp and let the paint run back into the bucket. We managed to save most of the paint, and learned in the process that you can paint a tarp with latex paint. After all is said and done, we intend to make this black tarp into another painted artpiece - hopefully a collaboration with artistically inclined friends (Mike from Deadpool and Jason from Flesh Electric come to mind because they're always here).

The next day, we painted the floor. It looked BEAUTIFUL - light a clear night sky, but with red stars. While it was curing, Frank painted the fridge, I primed and he painted his monitor stand, and we painted some thrift store sconces and old plastic tiki decor flat black (gotta have the metal gods.. this is another art piece. We're going to poke holes in them and wall mount a light behind it to illuminate through.) I won't go into too much detail on the small projects - instead, we'll just post pictures soon. Anyways, the floor looked amazing.. We were proud. The epoxy floor paint applied easily and flawlessly.

After dry time (I think this is Tuesday now), we proceed to put down the "wet look sealer". It says to apply lightly, by back roll for smooth application. Ha! If only we could rewind to this point. Frank laid it down, paying careful attention to the back roll technique, and it looked pretty thin. On the outside of the roller, there were streaks that went down a little thicker and were a little milkier than the rest of the floor. We finished just as Dave was coming home from work, and he tells us, "that shit's a little thick.. you should smooth it out". Do Frank and Jen listen?! Hell no!!!!!!!!!!! "I'm sure it will dry clear" say Frank & Jen. Our flawless floor is now flawed and the infamous white streaks are born.

Frank and I were soooo bummed. He was beating himself up because he did the painting and I was beating myself up for not urging him to thin it out. We decided to stop for the day and figure out how to save our floor. This was the best decision we made.. so we're not complete morons. I called Behr (the paint manufacturer) and asked them what to do. They said to purchase denatured alcohol and apply it to the streaks. Doing so would break the seal and let the moisture out, turning the streaks clear. We could then proceed and add more coats to thicken the gloss and even out the streaks. Sounds simple in theory, right?!

Frank and I scrounge for change to buy this $7 can of denatured alcohol. He comes back and begins the daunting task of trying to make these streaks go away. I explain the process to him, but our communication skills lack, so he scrubs the shit out of the streaks, removing the varnish AND the black paint underneath in the process. After two small spots of this happening, he comes inside frustrated and says "it's not working, Jen - it's messing up the floor."

"Did you just put it on top or scrub it?!"

"Rubbed it in"

"ahhhh you didn't listen!"

at this point, I get this look of utter frustration, and I read his mind "jen, i want to rip your head off and eat your brain".. so I decide on a new approach. Let's describe in detail what to do.

"just put it on, with a q-tip or some shit - the phone rep said it should break the seal, releasing the moisture, and in theory, they should clear up." He goes outside and keeps working until he finishes the entire floor, then leaves to go pick up his kids. I checked in later, and it seemed to help, but there were still a lot of visible streaks!

My dad lives next door to us, so I went into his garage that night and started snooping around. Ironically, I found a bottle of "OOPS!!". After looking at the bottle, it claimed to work on adhesives and latex paint. hmmm..... I brought this bottle home and got to it - two hours of applying this stuff to each streak with a washcloth. I should have read the bottle more thoroughly and I'm sure that I would have gotten to the part about prolonged exposure to skin. By the end of the floor, I started to feel my right index finger a little tender. I looked down at it and it was red like a mother!! My first three fingers on my right hand were RAW. What a dumb shit. Anyways, the OOPS! worked a million times better than denatured alcohol and I was able to remove about 85% of our fckups. It was well worth the discomfort - good thing I don't have to pick up my bass for a few days.

Fast foward to Saturday. We had planned a BBQ and had hoped for the floor to be done by then. After all, on paper, if we had stayed on schedule, we'd be chillin in our new pimped out creative space Saturday night with all our closest friends, while in fact we were rushing around trying to find enough seating indoors to keep our buddies out of the cold rain . We managed to 'sort of' pull it off by setting up chairs on the drum riser and Frank did a great job of blocking off all traffic on the floor with an old chaise. Fast forward again to last night - Easter evening.

After we put our kids to bed, I went back outside and briefly swept up & touched up the black that had been scrubbed off. The floor looked clean, yet I had another pleasant surprise to be found later. Naive to my plight, I proceeded to put on the first coat of sealer since our initial mishap. We've been doing all this work in socks so we don't dirty the floor. I felt something sharp.

It seems that someone broke a beer bottle Saturday and failed to clean it all up. I moved the chaise and found some big chunks of amber bottle.. undoubtedly Bud Light. FCK! Don't care that someone broke a bottle, kind of care that they cleaned it halfass (because of the kids), really upset that I laid down varnish on 1/3 the floor riddled with shards of glass. It's not like I could sweep it up because I had laid down the gloss so there I go.. on my hands and knees trying to pick out dark glass slivers on a black gloss floor. I picked up what I could.. I have to wait until the shit dries and then go back and dig out this glass. Leaving them there is not an option for obvious safety reasons. That's our story... I have one more coat of gloss to put down before the 72 hour curing period, but now I have to wait until I can walk on it (tonight) and comb through this shit for glass.

Crap! I've done enough home improvement projects to know that nothing is ever as easy as it seems and that shit happens, but I've never run into obstacles like this. I know in the end, it'll be worth all the work and we'll have a badass place to create our music. We're nowhere near ready to give up.. I just wanted to share our story thus far! I'm sure I'll have a bunch more by the time our renovation is complete.

Jen: We're NOT performing at Headbang for the Highway this Sunday

Hey everyone,

We've heard from a couple fo people that we're rumored to be on the lineup @ the Rabbit this Sunday - not so! We never registered for the event.

Best of luck to those competing!

Jen

Jen: ok, i'm no web designer

I can't get the new banners I made to work on myspace (keeps deleting part of my code).. but it's way to beautiful outside to be behind this keyboard! I'll fix it sometime this weekend.... at the moment we have the pit lit with some gyros on it (thanks for the recipe, Gonzo)... a freshly cut backyard and cold beer flowing. I made the mistake of thinking I could fix them really quickly.. but not the case. I had to delete them for the time being.

I'll get to it soon.. thanks for the motivation and the AK support!

Jen

PS Dave and Erk KICKED ASS this past studio session. Lots of experimentation, lots of collaboration.. you guys are gonna be surprised with "Switchblade." That song completely came to life - pun intended.