From the city that never sleeps...

I have my itinerary printed all off. I will be flying out of Rochester at 9:45 in the morning and will be headed pretty much straight for the show from there. It has been a long time since I have been to a show like this so I am really not sure exactly what to expect. I know that Gorilla Biscuits and Agnostic Front are still two of my favorite hardcore bands of all time. It will be great to see them both in New York City finally.
Back when I was really into this whole hardcore phenomenon, I always thought this year would be special to me because I would be 30 and thus I would have been into hardcore for half of my life. Well I don't really feel all that special I guess since I am not quite as active in hardcore as I was ten years ago. I still take a lot of the ethics that I learned from this scene and put them to daily use. I have hardcore to thank for helping me become vegan. I also honestly learned most of the "business" knowledge that I know from hardcore.
Since Gorilla Biscuits and Agnostic Front were two of the first bands to help me get all crazy over hardcore, I think it is fitting that they will be the headliners at this show. The word "epic" has been getting thrown around a lot by the BNB staff when they have been promoting this show. I hope I end up using that word in my post show haze.

Welcome to Houston

I don't know that this is an improvement over Rick Adelman. Given the available candidates though, I am glad that Houston ended up with Kevin McHale as their new coach. Now they just have to resign Yao to an incentive-laden deal and resign Chuck Hayes and they will be all set for next season.

The NBA Finals are taking their talents to South Beach

After 11 months of hype (and a lot of failed hope for some), the Heat have reached the NBA Finals. Aside from a match up with the Lakers, things really couldn't have been scripted much better than this. You have a rematch of the 2006 NBA Finals- a real chance for Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry to redeem themselves. This will also be a chance for Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem to get another ring, and it would obviously be pretty sweet for Lebron James and Chris Bosh to parade around South Beach with the NBA trophy in just their first season there. Dallas also has a few hungry veterans on their team, with Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, and Tyson Chandler having played in 269 combined playoff games heading into these finals. It is obvious that both teams are going to be hungry, but unfortunately only one will walk away with the Larry O'Brien trophy.

I was correct when it mattered, for the most part I guess. I would have expected the Eastern Conference Finals to go to at least six games though. I guess the Bulls are still a player or two away from taking that next step. As a huge fan of the sport of basketball itself, I will personally be happy no matter what the outcome of this series is. But I have said a few times over the season that I would enjoy watching the Heat win the title in the face of all their critics, Mark Cuban included. I think a lot of people expected the Heat to be here in their first or year or two, but I feel a few fans have to at least be surprised at how easily they got there. Same goes for Dallas I guess. As I have said, I give Dallas plenty of credit. I did not even expect them to get passed the Trail Blazers. Dallas has been shocking me throughout the playoffs but against Oklahoma City, I wasn't as surprised. I put the Thunder in a very similar category as the Bulls. They are two young and exciting teams, that lack the experience that will help carry them into the Finals. The talent is there for both teams, it just needs to develop a bit more for a few of the players.
Both of these teams should be well rested heading into Tuesday's opening game in Miami. On paper, Dallas has a much deeper roster and their bench could tell the tale in this series. If Rick Carlisle can find an adequate balance for his players and find a way to shut Lebron and Wade down, they will be able to win this series easily. I know there's the whole team chemistry thing, but you have to wonder how much Caron Butler could help in shutting down the Heat's Big Three. Again, Dallas has been playing some of the best basketball in the NBA over the last few months so if anyone can beat the Heat, it's them. You would think that bringing Butler back at less than 100% probably would negative impact the Mavs' chemistry. At the same time, Dallas is going to have their hands full when Lebron, Wade, and Bosh are all at full steam. I am going with the team I have been rooting for all throughout the playoffs and I am going to pick the Heat in six games.

Congrats to the Dallas Mavericks

Again, credit is due to the Dallas Mavericks. They beat three decent teams and now they are going back to the NBA Finals. Honestly, aside from a couple series these playoffs have been pretty anti-climactic for me. I think the Finals are about to change all of that though. I have to say, I wasn't expecting this out of Dallas at all this season. Now when I look at their roster, it does make sense. I also recall thinking LAST SEASON that Dallas would win it all. That might be why I wrote them off so easily this year, I got sick of them making me look like an idiot. Well, they managed to do it again anyway! I have been quietly rooting for the Miami Heat to show all the trash talkers that they are for real during these playoffs. I will not be disappointed if the Bulls or Mavericks win the title at this point though.

Happy 32nd birthday to Tracy McGrady

Tracy McGrady's time in Houston will be known mostly for injuries and not living up to the hype. I like to remember this game, a night where I was lucky enough to be woken up by my buddy PD just in time to watch McGrady make history.

HTGC Video

At 30 years old, I am just old enough to remember the movie (and great idea for a soundtrack) Judgement Night. This was released when I was just entering junior high, a period when I would transition from a kid who listened to rap music to a kid who listened to punk and eventually hardcore. I honestly never owned this soundtrack, but the concept of it and a few of the songs on it were always great to me. Where else can you hear Ice-T and Slayer perform a medley of Exploited songs? I will also say that I think bringing Seattle's own Mudhoney and Sir Mix A Lot on to do the song "Freak Momma" was sheer genius. Anyway, the movie itself isn't that great either. I usually find myself watching it almost every time it is on tv though. It has a younger Cuba Gooding Jr. and Jeremy Piven, as well as a pretty sweet appearance by Everlast. Other than that, the best part of Judgement Night was probably the CONCEPT of the soundtrack, mixing heavy music with rap music. It was a concept that had not really been done all that much, outside of Walk This Way and Ice-T's group Body Count. Loud Records tried something like this a few years later, having heavy bands come in and re-record a few hip-hop classics. That didn't work out all that well. Then, Terror even did a remix for Jedi Mind Tricks. This was decent, but still not the hip-hop/hardcore collaboration that I have been looking for since I was a teenager.
When I first heard that Sean Price and Cold World would be doing a track together, I got really excited. Cold World have been fusing hip-hop samples with their Hardcore sound for years now. Not only that, but they have one of the best guitar sounds in hardcore (in my opinion of course). To top it off, their drummer did a great remix of John Blaze a few years back. Sean Price has been slaying mics with a variety of Duck Down groups over the years. He also killed it on a few Jedi Mind Tricks records. I saw him with Black Moon in Toronto in 2005. I fell asleep when he played here in 2009 unfortunately. I was not sleeping on this record though, I ordered it from The White Glove Group. I was happy to see it arrive with my mail on Record Store Day. I was even happier to see that the artwork was not only in 3D, but came with accompanying glasses to view said artwork. Now to the music, like the last Cold World it is slightly more rock than their first record. Sean Price does most of the vocals on here, rapping a little bit faster than usual to go along with the music. The video is pretty basic, makes me think it would be pretty entertaining to see Sean Price perform this song with Cold World at a big hardcore festival. I hope the reception is positive enough for this song and video for Cold World to release more like it in the future.