This year has been great as far as bad contracts are concerned in the major leagues. With Andruw Jones, Miguel Cabrerra, Eric Gagne, the crown jewel of all bad contracts Barry fucking Zito, and now Dontrelle Willis all complete flops, GM’s around the league have to be even more wary of spending the big dollars on extensions for younger players and those big free agent fish.

It was announced today that Willis, or “the human earned run” as I like to call him since he was traded to Detroit (note the 10.32 ERA), has been sent down to Single A. I’m sure it’s just to “work things out” or whatever, but the truth is his numbers had declined steadily for the two seasons previous to Detroit acquiring him during the off season due to the fact that he can’t seem to mix in a strike every once in a while.

Detroit as a team fucking sucks this year after many predicted them to be world series contender, and after putting Jeremy Bonderman on the DL earlier in the day things don’t appear to be looking up any time soon. They have one of the highest payrolls in the bigs, and I looked forward to seeing that lineup come together on the field, but such is the way of baseball. After all, who would have predicted Tampa Bay to be 38-26 at this point in the season?

The one-man video vortex known as Video Matt had the chance to kick it with Shawn Harris, frontman for Oakland, CA’s The Matches this weekend and has posted the results for your viewing pleasure on our YouTube channel. The two discussed everything from Barack Obama to Beer Pong to the band’s latest record, A Band in Hope out now on Epitaph records.

Finally a part of the hyphy movement I can feel good about: Scraper Bikes. Way safer to ghost ride. And you don’t even need to get a lease, relish! Wait a couple months and every suburban white emo kid will be rolling one of these, just like every single emo band t-shirt suddenly looks like a Bape hoodie from 2005. Check the cut from Oakland’s Trunk Boiz:

The above photo, taken by our homie Mark Ziemke from Ground Control Mag, Why? frontman Yoni Wolf is throwing his hands in the air, as if to say “I’m waving them like I just don’t care.” In actuality, he’s rapping on some wtf shit, all post-coitus and alienation, love-songs-as-suicide-notes, self-conscious braggadocio in grandiose sweeps of the pen. wtf in the best way possible. Why’s forthcoming album, Alopecia (March 11th on Anticon records), delivers the word-smithery over what could only at its loosest be considered hip-hop beats — a mixture of echoing psychedelia and jangle-pop, with ghostly rhythms spliced and diced into wee sounds poems. Yeah, it’s on some other, and it’s definitely worth picking up on. Our other Ground Control homie Aaron Autrand wrote up a review of Why/’s recent show in LA - check it out at Ground Control’s site.

Be sure to check out Why? on tour - dates after the jump:
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Anyone who read my last post about this knows exactly how I feel about stolen band gear and what I think should happen to the culprits. Jodi Hates The World, whose music I didn’t really like at first, but has since grown on me (think Jane’s Addiction meets the Smashing Pumpkins), recently got their tour van stolen in Oakland, CA. If you frequent pawn shops and seedy neighborhoods, be on the lookout for this stuff:

1994 Doge ram 1500 17 passenger van WA lic 808 SVT

1976 black Gibson Les Paul Custom

Worn finish on neck, star decals, ink drawn “SAI” on back of body where finish has worn off..a big ding right behind the tailpiece…it’s hard to miss this guitar….serial number starts with 001…will get the rest as soon as I locate it

1979 Natural Finish Gibson “The Paul”
Large Chip in headstock. Charlie Brown decal on body..if you look close at the headstock you can see where someone had placed some little heart stickers under the Gibson logo….lots of wear just under the pickups, and where your arm would rest on top of the body…..again, pretty hard to miss…

1970’s Fender Bassman 100 Amplifier (master volume)
Blue powerlight, post-factory power cord with a big yellow plug, hum balance pot has been removed from the back of the amp..has an airplane decal with JHW on it just under the power light…also the faceplate is a little dented under the power light

1990’s Fender Tonemaster 4×12 Speaker enclosure
Lots of duct tape over torn tolex cover.
“JHW” stenciled on the side..it has also been modded to run on 4 ohms instead of 8….

90’s six string Ibanez bass guitar
SR series maple wood body, light brown/tan finish

2003/04 six string Ibanez bass guitar
SR series, mahogany wood body, dark brown finish

3 blue Garcia custom drums (seattle drum shop. jerry garcia. hard to miss)
18×22, 16×20, 18×16

1 Mac Book (white)

2 cymbal bags
1 large black case of drum hardware
1 Kepplinger custom steel snare (holy shit these are amazing snares)
1 Fender Roc Pro 1000 amplifier
1 Marshall 2×12 speaker enclosure

::PEDALS::

2 Boss DS-1 distortion
1 Boss GE-2 qualizer
1 Ibanez Toneloc Phaser
1 Boss DF-2 Distortion/Feedbacker
2 Digitech PDS1002 2 second delay samplers/didital delay…pretty rare to find…one of them has some scorching around the power jack
2 Digitech XP-100 Whammy-wah(both have JHW printed on them)
1 Digitech XP-300 Space station(has Jodi Hates the world printed on it)
1 DOD analog delay..missing the battery cover
1 Electro-Harmonics “Holy Grail” reverb
1 Boss RC-20 Loop Station
1 Boss Tu-2 Tuner
1 Boss flanger (80’s, made in Japan chipped paint…REALLy rare to find nowadays)
1 line 6 delay modeler
1 ART A/B/Y footswitch
1 Hartke head HA5000
1 Hartke cabinet 15xL
1 Hartke cabinet 4.5xL
1 Boss bass overdrive pedal (yellow)
1 Boss DD 3 digital delay pedal (white)
1 Ibanez Toneloc bass distortion pedal (grey)
1 Ibanez Toneloc bass synth pedal (grey)
1 Boss bass pre-amp multi effects
processor (red)(GT6B)
1 BossRC 20XL loop station (red)
2 Shure microphone SM58

Please anyone call me if you hear anything.
CHRIS VANDEBROOKE
415-336-2698
CARGO@EMOCORE.COM

Tomorrow Oakland, CA, metal heroes High on Fire will release their new album Death is This Communion (produced by Jack Endino), and to celebrate, they’ve got a few things going on that don’t involve drinking the Blood of Virgins.

First, you should go to their MySpace page to hear “Rumors of War,” a track off the new album. Add it to your profile to prove to the world just how metal you are. Then you might want to check out the Newbury Comics Web site where you can pre-order the album and receive an autographed CD booklet with your purchase. FYE.com is also offering a giveaway to promote the album. You can enter this sweepstakes for a chance to win a guitar autographed by High on Fire, on which you can practice sludgy riffs until your weed runs out.

Above all, you should rejoice, because a new album means a new tour. Bay Area hessians should head over to Ameoba Records in San Francisco tomorrow, Sept. 18th, to check out a free all-ages show at 7 PM. From there, the group embarks on a month-long nationwide tour, beginning at the Casbah in San Diego on Sept. 20th. If you haven’t seen the group live, the experience is something akin to standing in the middle of a stampede of brontosaurs. Full tour schedule after the jump. (more…)