Crew,

We can’t control the wind, but we can adjust the sails. Things are changing with SCC. As with other iterations of the band, the current line-up is in flux and I’d like to take a minute to explain what’s happening and what you can expect in the near term.

After five years, 100 + shows, three trips up and down the east coast, one to the mid west and countless nights at Galway Bay and The Box, James is shifting his focus from nightclubs to classrooms. James is finishing up his associates degree this spring and will be continuing his education this fall. Given his busy school schedule, James will have less time to dedicate to the band.

I’ve been asked “Is James is quitting SCC?”. The answer is no. James is focusing on different parts of his life right now and that means he won’t be playing as many shows. I’ve also been asked “will you find another drummer?” The answer is, not right now. Right now, we’re figuring out where the band will go next.

Erik, Michael, Erica and James – these are the people I hope to grow old playing music with. The shanties are the songs I hope to be playing with them. I’ve felt this way for a while now and with James taking this break, I feel it more strongly than ever that we’ll all be around for a sing-along, just sometimes we may not be singing along at the same time. We are lucky enough to be playing a few more shows with James this summer on the Schooner Quinnipiack in New Haven before he starts getting wicked smaht this fall.

As for SCC, we’re adjusting. We’ve done a number of acoustic shows so far this year and it’s been really fun at times and really uncomfortable at times. Uncomfortable for us and maybe uncomfortable for you too. As humans we are uncomfortable when things change, as Rhode Islanders it’s practically unbearable. Don’t believe me? Take a left where the Almacs used to be. The nice thing about change is what comes of it. If SCC never changed, I would have never had the opportunity to play music with James and I’d still be doing the open mic at The Custom House Tavern, which is weird because The Custom House has been closed for a lot of years now.

We will be taking the next month or so to chart the course for what’s next for SCC (pun totally intended). Until then, please join us in thanking James for all his massive, arena rock drum fill endings and wishing him well on his road ahead.


Upcoming Shows:
- Sat May 19 New Haven CT - The Schooner Quinnipiack
- Sat Jun 16 New Haven CT - The Schooner Quinnipiack
- Sat Jul 21 New Haven CT - The Schooner Quinnipiack
- Wed July 25 Providence RI – House show w/ Jason Kutchma of Red Collar
- Sat Aug 11 New Haven CT - The Schooner Quinnipiack
- Sat Sep 15 New Haven CT - The Schooner Quinnipiack
- Sept 22 Portsmouth NH – Prescott Park
- Sept 29 New Bedford MA – Working Waterfront Festival

In the lead up to record store day, I thought it would be fun to hear about all the records that got away. What is the one record you wish you never sold?  What's the one you're really glad you didn't?

I tell the story often, and I’ll tell it again….my journey to becoming financially responsible started at In Your Ear on Thayer St. When I started working at 15, I would drive with friends to Providence and spend my entire paycheck on records. When I turned 16, I stopped buying records long enough to save $500 to buy a car, then I would drive myself to Providence to buy records. I think my first car ride out of Warwick was to Thayer St to go record shopping. With a car came car insurance, so when the insurance bill came due, I would bring a milk crate full of records to In Your Ear and sell back enough to pay the insurance, then when I got my next pay check, I would buy those records back at a much higher price than what I sold them for. Thinking back on it now, the record store was kinda like a hock shop for the 16 year old me. 

The lesson learned, if I spent a little less on records each week, I could keep my records and pay my insurance at the end on the month.  Vinyl economic.

The one that got away. I really wish I hung onto that Side By Side 7-inch. Not sure why, just wish I did.


The one that didn’t, The Clash City of the Dead.  The last time I sold records was to Fast Forward, when they were on Steeple Street. I brought in my milk crate and they gave me a price for all but 1 record. Judy handed me back The Clash Complete Control / City of the Dead single and said “you don’t want to sell this.” She was right, I didn’t. Thanks Judy!

Michael recently returned from China where he took these photos of May (aka Xia), SCC's biggest fan in Beijing.

For over 2 decades I have been moving band t-shirts from apartment to apartment, and now to the basement of my house. I’ve said for years that I want to make a punk rock quilt out of them. What’s more punk than a quilt? I don’t know how to quilt, so until I learn I will be posting pix of these vintage gems and remembering when. I will call this series T-Shirt Tuesday.


I graduated from college in 1996 and for much of that year the cassette from Lp recording of Gameface's 'Three to Get Ready' was in heavy rotation in my VW Super Beetle. When it was time for me to begin down the road of a career, I was hearing “All packed up with no where to go, a thousand miles with only one show and just enough gas to get us nowhere” everyday, over and over.

Listening to that record, all I wanted to do was get in a van with my best friends, travel and play music. That summer, that's what we did.  There is something very powerful about that experience of traveling and performing together.   It’s funny, just this week I was listening to an interview with Ian MacKaye on NPR and when he is asked If he misses performing he says "sure", then he goes on to explain what he really misses are the 6 hour drives with the guys, because those moments are so hard to come by in life.

This shirt is from the Gameface Summer Tour 97 when I saw them at the Middle East in Cambridge, MA. They were a long way from home that night, but I bet there was no place they would have rather been.

Here’s Gameface’s June:



And here’s a link to that interview with Ian MacKaye: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/01/142998596/steady-diet-of-everything-the-fugazi-live-vault

This will probably be our last sing along of 2011. Also, we’re gonna hold a coat/hat/glove drive at the show, so donate something warm for someone that needs it!
We’re really excited to play with The Jesse Minute and stoked to be playing the speakeasy @ 121.

For over 2 decades I have been moving band t-shirts from apartment to apartment, and now to the basement of my house. I’ve said for years that I want to make a punk rock quilt out of them. What’s more punk than a quilt? I don’t know how to quilt, so until I learn I will be posting pix of these vintage gems and remembering when. I will call this series T-Shirt Tuesday.

BYO is a record label out of LA. They started releasing records in the early 80’s and I became interested in BYO in the late 80’s because they put out many of the early 7-Seconds records. I must have sent away for a BYO catalog to see what other bands were on the label and that must have led me to sending a well concealed 10 dollar bill to California in hopes it would come back to RI in the form of a T-shirt.

Two funny stories about this shirt -

I was playing a show at a space called Under the Hut. Under the Hut was “under” an indoor skate park called Skate Hut in the Olneyville section of Providence. Under the Hut seemed like it was open for less than a week before it closed down, but there were a few great shows in its brief existence.

I was playing in Common Ground and we played with Go! and Bad Trip from NYC. At that show the coolest of cool punk rockers and singer for The Wurst, Rob Phelps, told me my BYO shirt was cool. The punkest of the punkers gave me a compliment on my T-shirt. I was floored. You have to understand, getting a compliment from Rob was like getting blood from a rock, nice words did not come easy. His forte was ripping hardcore bands to shreds in his article in the nicepaper. He once wrote that our band "looked retarded" for covering an LL Cool J song, now that I write that, we probably did.

Story #2, I was on Thayer street, walking by In Your Ear, when a dude offered my $20 for the shirt. I thought that was interesting because I bought it for 10 and he could have done the same thing. Plus, what if I went for that deal? Would he have given me his shirt? Would I have had to return home shirtless. I didn’t sell it to him. I thought the guy that made me the offer was the guitar player for Puzzlehead, but looking at the photo on their 7-inch, none of them look familiar except for a very young Ted Leo. These t-shirt Tuesday’s teach me so many interesting things.

Until the next shirt, take a listen to this Bad Trip song

For over 2 decades I have been moving band t-shirts from apartment to apartment, and now to the basement of my house. I’ve said for years that I want to make a punk rock quilt out of them. What’s more punk than a quilt? I don’t know how to quilt, so until I learn I will be posting pix of these vintage gems and remembering when. I will call this series T-Shirt Tuesday.


SNFU put on one of the greatest live shows I have ever seen. They had hand puppets and back flips and a bass slung so low it practically scrapped the stage. This shirt is from the FYULABA tour, probably 1997ish.

Can we talk about live shows for a minute? When’s the last time you were floored by a bands live performance? I ask this because I see a fair amount of live shows and more often than not the musicians seem miserable, sometimes I wonder if they would rather be anywhere else but playing music at that moment.

Not the case with SNFU, these guys have a blast when they play and I think we should all take a page from Mr. Chi Pig’s book and loosen up. It’s ok to smile when you’re doing EXACTLY what you want to be doing.



This Thursday, we play at Club Hell with a band that plays with some energy, be sure to check out Larry and his Flask….

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For over 2 decades I have been moving band t-shirts from apartment to apartment, and now to the basement of my house. I’ve said for years that I want to make a punk rock quilt out of them. What’s more punk than a quilt? I don’t know how to quilt, so until I learn I will be posting pix of these vintage gems and remembering when. I will call this series T-Shirt Tuesday.



T-Shirt Tuesday #6 – Gorilla Biscuits

Tomorrow night I’m going to see Samiam in Boston, Walter Schreifels is opening up solo. When I was digging thru my pile of t-shirts for this post, I saw this gem and thought it was fitting.

There are 3 records that have opening notes, chords and lyrics that instantly transport me back to the summers of 1989 and 90; summers when I would skate every waking hour I wasn't working my part time job and I would spend everything I made on records.  These records are: Operation Ivy’s ‘Energy’, Fugazi’s first EP and Gorilla Biscuits ‘Start Today. Each record begins differently, but they all have this quality of “what you’re about to hear is different from anything you’ve ever heard.” These records were written at a time when there were no song writing formulas, bands were experimenting with sounds and rhythms and if that meant staring a hardcore record with a trumpet, that’s what was done. If it meant a harmonica solo in 'Start Today', let’s try it.

What was it about this band that made them special? Why did they stand out in an ocean of other great bands from New York that were all putting out solid records in the late 80’s? Here’s what I think,  Gorilla Biscuits seemed to be having more fun than alot of other NYHC bands, musically and lyrically. More importantly, they were super positive without being preachy like so many of the contemporaries.  It was like they walked this magical line between the struggles and issues the other NYHC bands were singing about and my teenage, straight edge suburban life, doing it all without alienating listeners who didn’t subscribe 100% to the straight edge subculture.

So, I have a couple stories involving the Gorilla Biscuits. The first one involves a matinee show at Babyhead when the lights went out and the everyone kept sing along to ‘Start Today’ when all the instruments cut out. I was not at that show. End of story.

The second story involves seeing the Gorilla Biscuits “re-union” tour at the Worcester Palladium in 2006. There’s no way to be kind about this, it was awful. I think it was early on in the tour and they were working thru songs they had not played in a VERY long time. The epic trumpet intro that starts the record was awkwardly played thru an ipod and the recording of the first chord of ‘new direction’ bled thru the PA before Walter strummed it out.

I did make my way up front for a few songs, to see what had changed since the last time I was up front at a show. I got kicked in the face and had to go to work the next day with a black eye.

Here’s ‘New Direction’, reminding us to have fun with music -

For over 2 decades I have been moving band t-shirts from apartment to apartment, and now to the basement of my house. I’ve said for years that I want to make a punk rock quilt out of them. What’s more punk than a quilt? I don’t know how to quilt, so until I learn I will be posting pix of these vintage gems and remembering when. I will call this series T-Shirt Tuesday.



So, I’ve recently reconnected with a friend that I played show with over 15 years ago. 15 years ago, that is just crazy. How does this relate to Shades Apart? We played with them at this friend’s house in Mystic, CT in the mid 90’s. Dayne played in Doug and I played in Returnaround. We played so many great shows at that house. I’m pretty sure it was called the Depot House cause it was right on the train tracks, but I could be making that up.

The night Shades Apart played, I think it was the bass player’s birthday. It was definitely someone in shades apart’s b-day because in the middle of their set, in the middle of the living room, a birthday cake appeared, it’s a fun memory. These guys were heroes in a way, and I was at their birthday party.

It seemed as though Shades Apart opened for every hardcore show at Babyhead for a while. They were one of those bands I really enjoyed seeing, but took for granted because they were always on the calendar. they were an interesting band because they released their first record in 88, then nothing till 92. Four years doesn’t seem like that long now, but then it was an eternity. So much had happened to “alternative” music in those 4 years.

The first recording I heard was their cover of ‘Tainted Love’ on a 7 inch that came in a copy of Suburban Voice Zine, that was ‘94. The b-side was doc hopper covering ‘Pink Houses’. The first Shades Apart LP I bought was ‘Save It’, partly because it came out on Revelation and partly because Chris Jones is wearing their shirt on the cover of Verbal Assault’s ‘Your Choice Live Series’ LP. I’m noticing now that Bill Stevenson produced 'Save It", does it seem like that guy has his hand in everything?

‘September Burns’ is a pretty amazing song.


I picked up the follow up LP ‘Seeing Things’. So many great songs on this record. ‘Cathode’, ‘Fearless’, ‘Second Chances’, ‘Behind the Wheel’. Really great, catchy songwriting.

After those two releases, they seemed to have some commercial success and, in a progression that became all too common, with commercial success came material that I didn’t find as interesting, I stopped picking up their records at that point.

I see on their Wikipedia page that they did a reunion at Maxwell’s this past June. I bet they got a lot of requests for ‘Tainted Love’ and “Stranger by the Day’.

Until the next T-Shirt, take it easy.

Mark