Cancer Benefit

Hey Hipsters!

     As most of you know, I was diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of this year. While the treatments have been successful, I've been left with a stack of bills. I have always believed in bands doing benefits to help other people in world in which we live. In the early days of my career as a musician, we'd do rent parties to help our friend pay their rent if need be. It was part of being a musician and still is. You can't keep what you don't give back....or so a wise man once said.

     Therefore, a benefit is being organized to help raise money to pay off some of these debts created by my inability to work. The benefit show is going to be at Lennon Studios in San Francisco on November 3rd, 2007. Lennon Studios is my musical home away from home. Those putting on the benefit are looking for artists and bands willing to donate their time and art to the cause.

     Any interested parties can email the benefit here at the No Alternative myspace page and we'll take it from there. I normally would not reach out to the community because Jennifer (my wife) and I try to make our own way in the world, but we need help and at this point have no choice but to ask. Feel free to write with any questions or assistance you can offer. Thank you for your help.

                                Hugh Thomas Patterson
                                              aka
                                   Johnny Genocide

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Soundtracks

Hey Kids,

     Since we don't have a constant tour schedule to work around, I found myself with a lot of extra time on my hands to work on musical projects. Therefore, I've taken on a new project; TV and Movie soundtracking.

     I have just finished writing a theme for a TV show and will hopefully see it in use by years end. I'm also recording incidental music and solo songs for random movie stuff. It's not that hard now that you can have a recording studio within your home computer. Here's how I've been doing it:

     I sit around playing my ES-175 until something clicks. It's usually a single line that sounds like a good hook. I then drop it on to my laptop. I run a Vox tube amp straight into the computer. I use a casio keyboard for the drums and keyboards. This runs through the Vox amp. The software I use for recording varies depending on how complex the recording in. I tend to use very simple programs since I run a clean/straight signal into the computer. I use an Epiphone ES-175 hollow body jazz guitar for most recording since the alnico classic pickups give a fat sound.

     To start the song, I run a click track to keep the tempo. Eventually this track will be edited out of the final mix. I use an altered guitar setting on the amp that actually allows me to use the guitar in place of a bass. I can spend an entire day just get the right drums/bass combination. Laying down all the tracks can be time consuming but its the final mix that takes most of my time.

7:38 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

How We Do It
Current mood: blank

Hey Kids,

     Its Sunday morning and guess what, I'm not at church. I've been pestered into doing more blogging for the band. I thought I wold sit here and scribble out a large volume of nonsense accented with large words from my every changing, but always exciting, vocabulary. I'm not getting paid for this so I'm not investing any overly witty banter into this piece. So here's what I'm posting: How the band writes songs, practices, etc. A day in the life, if you will, of your favorite aging punk band:

     Song writing is the key to the whole operation here at the No Alternative compound. I'll sit and listen to a bunch of music and suddenly hear something I really like. It's usually a hook to a song. Then I go into our studio and start playing my guitar. I don't play the hook I just heard, I simply just play. Its hit or miss. Sometimes I write a song in five minutes or sometimes five days. Some of you may be disappointed that having gone to college I don't have some great scientific approach to writing. Its god damn rock and roll, it's not brain surgery.

     I then proceed to scribble lyrics on pieces of paper throughout the house until Jennifer insists I put them in my song journal. I write more lyrics than music. Some of my best work has been done on toilet paper and cocktail napkins.

     By the way, if there are any typos or misspellings, complain to Tom, he's got plenty of time to field my hate mail. Back to the blog: Then the big day comes:

     I present my new songs to Greg and Josh. One of two things will happen at this point in time. The two them will either look at me like a just handed them a dead rat or they love the song. Now, there are times when I'll write something I think is brilliant and they think is stupid, but most of the times they like the songs.

     We practice once a week. We rip through the set once and then work on new material. We always start off as serious working musicians. However, by the end of the practice, lyrics start changing and things get stupid, as in funny. Above the studio is our bedroom so my wife has to endure a weekly regime of not only our songs but every bad song we can think of. This is a sign of true love.

     So there you have it; a look into the boring and otherwise uneventful way No Alternative does it. Of course I left out the parts involving midgets, tupperware, pills, a chainsaw, the neighbor's cat, and the infamous thong belonging to josh. I've been warned not to post offensive blogs so I'm trying to keep this clean. See if you can figure out what we do with a midget, tupperware, pills, a chainsaw, the neighbors cat, and the red thong. Who knows we might write a song about it and give you the credit. You might make a whole $10.00 in writing royalties.

9:32 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Old School Country Music
Current mood: bitchy

Hey Hipsters,

     When I first started playing, I was introduced to old school country and western music. Being a young punk, I immediately rejected it as not being cool. We were too busy rewriting the rules and too dumb to appreciate the past. However, something drew me back for a second listen. It changed the way in which I wrote songs. George Jones, Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash had something I didn't have: The ability to write and sing from the heart.

     Listen to George Jone's "If The Drinking Don't Kill Me" and you'll hear what I mean. Those guys sang and lived the blues and had a sense of humor. If you want to improve your playing try keeping up with Buck Owens. The man could make his Telecaster wail!

     I finished all the new No Alternative and Blind Orange Genocide songs for new CDs and am now working on a solo country CD. Yeh man, old school country rules. I'm not big on the new country but I love the old stuff. I'm leaving for Memphis and Clarksdale Mississippi next Saturday for my honeymoon (Yeh June Carter Genocide and I are finally tying the knot). This is where I do most of my song writing. Clarksdale is my favorite place in the world. It's the guitar players Disneyland. These two places are where the history of rock and roll started. I've played slide guitar at the Crossroads where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil and man its a frightening and exciting experience.

     I'm going to do a cover of "If The Drinking Don't Kill me" by George Jones on my country project.  I encourage you youngsters to check out some  old country music. For you guitar players, add some old country guitar licks into your bag of tricks. You can't go wrong. So tonight kids, download some George Jones and expand your minds a bit.

                          Johnny

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Rebellion
Current mood: bitchy
Category: Music

     There is nothing that angers the parent of a teenager more than a 46 year old guitarist dispensing advice on rebellion. The foundations of civilization would have never been laid if it were not for rebellious thinkers. Conformity breeds boredom. Musical advancement depends on kids getting pissed off and rebelling. Here are a few thoughts for you kids out there:

     1. If your parents like it, you shouldn't.
     2. If your parents listen to it, avoid it.
     3. When your parents say turn that music down, turn it up.
     4. Drugs: when your parents tell you how bad drugs are, its
         usually for a couple of reasons:
              a. they never took them.
              b. they took them but not the right kinds.
              c. they don't want you getting into their stash.
     5. Parental quote: "don't you think you're going to play in a band." It
         is your job in life to start a band. Music needs you. Hell, I play in a
         band and I bet I'm more popular than your parents.
 
     As for that last thought, you really should try making music or at least a loud racket. Some of the greatest music has been created by people playing in their garages. Rebellion leads to other great advances in civilization. Take mathematics for example. The entire foundation of chaos theory mathematics was created by Lorenz as he tried to create a system for weather prediction. The man took chances, he rebelled. Da Vinci was another great rebel. I could paraphrase all day, but you get the idea.

     You need to fight the system and it's natural to feel a sense of rebellion when it comes to your world. For those of you that don't get it, let me put it in caveman terms; rebellion good, being like your parents bad!

     Yeh, I know that this is old ground but you have to cover it now and again. Especially considering the current state of music. What is all this crap people listen to? Kelly Clark? Jesus Christ, that's sad. Rebellion is needed now. Listen you kids, put down the play station and pick up a guitar. Mathematically speaking, you have a much better chance of getting laid playing music unless your play station resides in a whore house. Make music and make it now. You have the technology so use it.

                                   That is all!

                                       Johnny

2:42 PM - 6 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

2006 Practice Sessions

Greetings,

     Well Greg and I just finished Practicing and it sounded great. I guess actually learning how to play guitar and having 20 plus years to practice helps a bit. We are currently running an 18 song set list. While we'll play the songs people like, we will add new material to the set. I believe that writing new material is critical to any band. I am targeting having an albums worth of new material by the end of this summer. We will do a limited number of shows in San Francisco during 2006.

     I would like to thank you for the great support you have given us in the short time we've had our myspace page. Our friend list grows with new and interesting people. I'd like to thank all of you kids for demonstrating that your generation has not only respect for old school punk but blues and other forms of music as well. You'll be better off for it as musicians and fans of music. There is a bunch of stuff in the works for No Alternative over the next few months and we'll have to keep you posted. I'm currently doing an interview for a German Magazine and will try to have it posted on both the No Alternative site and the Minus-Better site (my other band with Jonathan from the Toiling Midgets).

     I should have new music posted up next week. I am sorry for the delay but I had two shows with Minus-Better this weekend and had to concentrate on that.

                            J. Genocide

3:57 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Writing Songs ala Genocide
Current mood: exanimate
Category: Music

So, the question I'm asked is; are you writing new material for No Alternative or are you just playing old stuff?

     My reply: Listen kid, I may be 45 years old but I'm still an angst ridden kid at heart. If anything I play faster and louder than when I was 18. What do I have to write about? The worlds going to hell in a hand basket so there's no shortage of material. I write about what I see going on around me, such as insanity, greed, envy, lust, sex, fast fucking cars, chainsaws ripping apart flesh, etc.

     The physical times change but the issues don't. I don't write about love and happiness. Yes, I'm happy and I'm definitely in love but I can't bring myself to write sugar coated hippy new age trash. If it don't rock at a thousand miles an hour, then its nothing to me.

     Now, I do try to put a small bit of effort into writing songs that have a bit of intellect embedded within them. If I'm going to say something and I want you to listen, then I don't want to insult your intelligence.

     I read a couple of reviews by people that accredited me with having written insightful lyrics. Listening to them, you'd think I'd written the great American novel. Of course they missed the point of 60% of what I was actually trying to say. Thus is the fate of your music in the hands of most critics. This is why the only review I every considered posting was the one on our myspace page. He got it right. Although I think he gives me too much credit as a musician.

     If you like my lyrics, send a letter to John and Exene from X. They shaped the way I write in the same way in which Billy Zoom changed my guitar playing. Thank them, because I would have been another nitwit writing stuff that sounds like other people's material.

     In short, you youngsters; age doesn't matter if you write about the stuff you like. Just try not to sound like every other band.

6:55 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Reunion Preparation
Current mood: crazy

Hey Youngsters and Aging Hipsters,

     Since we're now officially back and getting ready for shows, a bit of insight might be in order. Here's where I've been for the last seven years. I dropped off of the face of the earth and fell in love with chemistry. I was laid up after leg surgery years ago and decided to take a chemistry class at a local college in SOCAL. I had failed High School chemistry and hated my teacher for it. Needless to say, I struggled with college chemistry as well that first semester as a middle aged man in college. Luckily, I had a great teacher, Dr. Carl Wright, who saw I had an interest ( he did cool stuff in the lab) and fed me a box of chemistry books. It didn't help that I was pushing 40 years of age at the time and all the other students were in their 20s. Dr. Wright was not only a great teacher but had a love for really cool music. We hit it off. I took more classes from him and changed my major to chemistry. A few years later I got good enough at it to recieved a CMST teaching fellowship. Guess what? I was now standing in from of a class of high school students teaching them chemistry. I also started a Fuel Cell research project with Dr. Robert Flesher who turned out to be a brilliant guitarist. This research is something I still do today in the chemistry lab I have at home. Chemistry and music have many crossovers.

     While complaining about the current state of music to some students, someone who had the No Alternative CD suggested I start playing again and stop complaining. I did not renew my teaching fellowship and moved back to San Francisco to start playing again last year.

     Today I have become a bit of a technician when it comes to my playing. This doesn't mean that I play any better, although I've picked up a few new tricks over the years. It means I have more structure to my approach. We plan on NOT altering our style as so many bands have done when getting back together, opting for the fast pace we used to play at. For me it means playing the songs over and over until they are part of me. I believe that practicing one's craft is extremely important. I am now more comfortable with my playing then I was back then. Greg and Josh (our brilliant drummer and bass player) are similar in their thinking.

ITS ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC:

     Back in the day, and this is directed towards you youngsters starting bands, it was about a bunch of stuff and sometimes the music took a back seat to that stuff. For me, it is now all about the music. I don't do drugs any more. I don't have an opinion on the subject, one way or the other, other than it doesn't work for me. I treat my body faily well, except for smoking, because I want to enjoy playing. I play to play. I write songs to write songs. Playing my Black Gretsch gives me everything I need creatively speaking.

     When punk first started, it was a close knit community and had an almost communial (I hate using that word because it has a slight "hippy" overtone) feel to it. We made our own clothes, flyers, shows, records, etc. Sadly, today's market is very commercial and you have to work with this commercialism in order to survive as a band. I have have been adding commentary to many punk rock websites and forums. Many of them spend too much time reliving topics such as:  whose dead, who knows the greatest number of famous punks, how fucked up you were at a show, your favorite drugs and who looks like shit these days. Let me address some of these topics which I find rather idiotic:

     Sadly, many of have died due to drugs. Drugs nearly killed me and I think we'd be better off remembering the music made by the departed, not how they died. As for famous punks, I know quite a few but I would never name drop. These people are old friends and I try to treat them with the respect you give to an old friend. How fucked were you during the bad old days, well we all were, so fucking what. I don't remember the 1980s and frankly, I'm a bit embarrassed by it. Favorite drugs: creativity is mine.

     Finally as to who looks like shit: Wake up and smell the coffee, we're all middle aged and it comes with the territory. I have graying hair and have embraced middle age as the mark of a survivor. Too many forums and too much white noise. I do like one forum called talkpunk77. It is made up of people who love the music for the music. Thus it is where I spend most of my time

     So you hip kiddies out there banging on your guitars, basses and drums; don't stop. My biggest kick is listening to what you come up with. By making up songs and daring to dream you keep me alive. For you bands doing covers of our songs all I ask is this; do it in the spirit in which it was written: Loud, Fast and Hard. I gotta run do some "stuff and things"

                                  J Genocide

8:35 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Biggest Influences: X
Current mood: cranky

Greetings From The Compound:

     I've been meaning to post this for quite a while and since there is nothing good in the way of things to do this morning, theres no time like the present. Probably the biggest influence on my song writing and playing are three people, all in the same band: Billy Zoom, John Doe and Exene from X.

     When No Alternative first start playing, I got caught up in the whole "politics of punk" and found myself writing about issues that were of a political nature only. I had no experience with the idea of blending poetry with music (I was too much of hippy hater in those days and I was too stupid to realize that poetry was not the exclusive realm of the flower children, whom I'm still not fond of). I was fast approaching a brick wall intellectually speaking. Then we started opening up for X at a number of shows. Things suddenly changed for me. Billy Zoom turned me on to the whole Rockabilly thing. I found a parallel world in which two distinctly different styles of music were not really that different from each other.

     The way Billy was able to combine the two styles amazed me and would lay the ground work for other bands I formed such as the Swinging Possums and The Watchmen. Hell, I even play a Gretsch Rock Jet today because it captures that sound.

     As for lyrical content, John and Exene demonstrated in their writing that conventional rules could be broken and subject matter could be found anywhere.

     I would have to say that X completely changed the way in which I did everything musicaly. I stopped playing punk for a while and took up Delta Blues/Slide. It was great to try something different that I had to teach myself in the same way I taught my self to play guitar. Still the blues really is original punk (Leadbelly's best work was recorded in a prison). I started playing punk again only because for me, it's where it all began.

     I also would credit the Gun Club as an influence as far as writing goes. They were another band who changed the way in which the rest of us write our songs.

     So a world of advice for you youngsters writing songs and playing in bands: Don't assmue the "scene" you're involved in is the be all and end all place in which to find influence. There's a whole world of other places to find that "something" that makes the best bands different. Stretch beyond your comfort zone and grow intellectually.

                                 J. Genocide

9:30 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

A Few Thoughts From My Own Personal Madness
Current mood: devious

From the mind of Johnny Genocide:

    Just when you thought is was safe to go back into the waters of bland music and retread punk, we appear like a black leech sucking the kiddie punk from your ears and replacing it with the music that started it all: Louder, Faster, Shorter and driven by angst. Funny how there were rumors regarding my death. My personal favorite: I died in a car crash after loosing my leg. Truth be told, I bailed to study chemistry and try teaching. It's a terrible thing when the powers that be down in SOCAL entrusted their teenagers with me when I taught honors chemistry. Believe me when I say, you didn't pass the class unless you could recite the lyrics to at least one Avengers song and Bonzo Goes To Bitburg by the Ramones. After years of complaining it suddenly hit me; stop complaining and do something about it. I got so sick of hearing crap on the radio, I quit my teaching fellowship and moved back to San Francisco to make music.

     So I'm seeing that every old band is back in business and decide that The Great Rock and Roll Swindle is really the Old Testament of the music business and I need to see the light. By the time I'm done No Alternative will be the background soundtrack for every sleeping pill advertised on the television. Soon we'll be selling No Alternative pencil sharpeners and shot glasses. Hail the era of shameless self promotion. Hail Capitalism. If you don't like my thinking come and pay my rent. Seriously, enough of you have shown an interest in No Alternative so I thought I would create the site. It's good to see the bands that I've admired are back and playing again.

     Having spent the better half of the 70s and 80s in a whirlwind of pharmaceutical cornucopia some of the details of the band's history are a wee bit blurry. This is where you come in. I am inviting you all to recollect details and send us any photos you may have. This is a group effort and you're part of the group!

     This site is created and run by No Alternative and you get us when you either write or post comments, not some corporate entertainment machine.

Big News:

     NO ALTERNATIVE WILL ROTATE SONGS ON THE PLAY LIST SO YOU CAN DOWNLOAD OUR ENTIRE CATALOG OF MUSIC.

     Who knows, if enough of you want it we mght just do a gig or two. I have to sign out for now but will keep the home fires burning and the devil in my heart. Hey, come up with ideas for blogs and we'll do them. Instead of hearing me blither on (and on and on) about how great Organic Chemistry is, you create the blog idea and I'll let my fingers do the walking...

                      Straight To Hell I Run!

                            J. Genocide

7:18 PM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment