i live for windy city nostalgia.

at this exact moment, i am watching the men of Naked Raygun acting as guests on the legendary Chicagoland area public access television show JBTV. first of all, i am shocked and amazed that JBTV is still airing, as i used to watch it fairly religiously when i was a tiny little teenager, and was exposed to many a great local (and national) underground/punk band through it- shit, i must have been 17 years old the last time i watched an episode. secondly, i am delighting in the fact that (so far) they have chosen to play videos of Jesus Lizard and Mustard Plug. also lot's of old Raygun live footage. i suppose that this is all something of an advertisement for the upcoming Riot Fest 2006, which i have already taken the entire day off work for. i am ready and more than willing to relive my teenage years, thank you very much.

i am perpetually nostalgic for the good ole days of the chicago underground. perhaps this is why i spent about 2 hours last night searching for old Fireside Bowl videos on Youtube. or maybe it's because i have no life. your call.

My Lai, sometime in 1998 or 1999. one of my favorite bands to ever come out of Chicago.
MK Ultra, i have no idea what year. one of Chicago's greatest hardcore bands (besides Crudos).
4 Squares, a video for one of their songs. some scenes show at Fireside.
Vindictives, ok, this isn't at the Fireside (i have no idea where this is shot at), but it's the Vindictives for fucks' sake!
The Locust, 7/24/99.
Arab on Radar, sometime in '99.

a while ago i was toying with the idea of doing a Dance of Days style book about the Chicago punk scene. all of these Chicago punk band reunions that are happening all willy-nilly are causing me to toy with this idea a little more. another (more ambitious) idea is doing an all-reissues label that focus on Chicago area bands....possibly called Stupid Little Label (bonus points if you know what that's a reference to).