---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jason Feinberg
To:
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:20:11 -0800
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: Punk Troubadour Tesco Vee Announces The Meatmen's Return

Hey Fred,

Saw a month or two ago you mentioned the Meatmen's upcoming show on
your blog. I'm working with Tesco to help promote the band's return,
there's a ton going on (including a SXSW showcase, a nationwide tour,
reissues of classic CDs, a DVD of rare footage, and a new CD out later
this year).

We've got some free MP3s you can give away on the blog if you'd like,
and the press release below goes into detail about what Tesco and the
band have lined up.

Thanks,
Jason

MP3s:

Meatmen Stomp (Live from "We're The Meatmen and You Still Suck" Reissue)

True Grit (Live from "We're The Meatmen and You Still Suck" Reissue)

Video:
I Want Drugs (Live, song from "Pope On A Rope" Reissue)


For more meaty info, check out http://www.tescovee.com or visit the
band on Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/hatepolice. For interviews
or other press requests, email jason@otmg.net

SXSW / MIDWEST / EAST COAST TOUR DATES
March 12 - The Double Wide - Dallas, TX
March 14 - SXSW Showcase at Emos Annex - Austin, TX
March 15 - The Conservatory - Oklahoma City, OK
March 16 - The Underground - St Louis, MO
March 22 - Smalls w/Millions Of Brazilians - Hamtramck, MI
May 8 - Jigsaw Saloon - Cleveland, OH
May 10 - Club Hell - Providence, RI
May 11 - The Nutty Irishmen - Bayshore, NY
May 13 - The Ottobar - Baltimore, MD
May 14 - The Oasis - Charleston, SC
May 15 - Vinyl - Atlanta, GA
May 16 - 31st St. Pub - Pittsburgh, PA

EDITOR'S NOTE: The preceding email (along with a windy press release praising Mr. Vermeulen's punk credentials which I excised for brevity) came to me because of this post from a few months back. So this is how the business works now, huh? No wonder I can't make a living as a music journalist. Thanks a lot, democratizing effect of the free exchange of ideas.

I'm no fan of the Meatmen, and even less of a fan of their fans ... anyone who pays full price to see a 50-year old man wear a motorcycle helmet festooned with dildos while celebrating the prejudices and ignorance of adolescence is sadly deluded about what makes truly great rocknroll. We're The Meatmen And You Suck is a fucked classic (I'll never give up my copy), and when you're a lonely, stupid teenager in rural Michigan in the early 80s, songs like "Crippled Children Suck," "One Down, Three To Go" (about the Lennon assasination, natch) and "Tooling For Anus" sound like liberation compared to the safe, sane boredom of classic rock and polite society. But this is a different, far more vulgar age, and the Meatmen's "anti-PC" stance is boring. None of Tesco's follow ups to those early recordings ever sounded good to me (despite a wealth of friends who thought differently) and vulgarity-for-vulgarity's sake lost its luster for me long ago ... GG Allin gets more respect from me simply because he was fucking OBSESSED with spreading hate, it was a lifestyle for him while ol' Tesco was just flogging a schtick to entertain and living the life of a workaday family man at home. That ain't no sin, don't get me wrong, it's just less interesting.

However, I'll definitely hit the show if the Meatmen come through Seattle, and I'm hoping they do, because my old pal and former End Times 1999 drummer Ian Sugierski is manning the tubs for Tesco. He's a great beatkeeper and I can't tell you how happy I am to remember him as a bespectacled 19-year old and then resign that image with the fact that he is now a fucking MEATMAN. Wow. Ian, I implore you to find Doc Dart and drag him out of retirement next ... the world needs a Crucifucks tour far more than a Meatmen tour, believe me. You can do it.

A confession ... my old band El Smasho often covered "I Got A Problem" and it was always a blast to play.