Sometimes life seems just fine and you're doing a bunch of stuff and then you get an email from an old friend which makes you miss them like no tomorrow. Jamie Drier sent me this list of things that should be on the t-shirts of children with parents who are fans of hardcore. He ended the email with, "That's all I could come up with on my walk home from work."

Here's a video from 1999 of Jamie playing in Planes Mistaken at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago. PMFS was originally from Peoria, IL. At one time I had so many friends from Peoria, I would nearly say that when somebody asked me where I was from.

*Jesus, I just listened to "Teaching You the Fear" five times. That song absolutely fucking rips.

• cherribombband.com

Rightfully so, not a lot of "mainstream" bands are talked about on Line Out or in The Stranger. Yet I am constantly surprised that there hasn't been any "Riot Grrl" blogs, Girl Rock Camp postings, or really any articles about this band Cherri Bomb.

The group consists of four girls between the ages of 14 and 16 years old and they shred! They weren't started by a scouting agent or a talent show, but instead by guitarist Julia Pierce, who, at the age of 11, flyered all over Los Angeles to meet other girls to play music with. According to the band's bio, other guitarist Miranda Miller was able to read music at the age of four.

After four years of being a band, they have an EP titled Stark and a full length that just came out called This Is the End of Control. They have exploded in the past couple of months, opening for Smashing Pumpkins and the Foo Fighters (probably since they covered "Pretender"). Granted, it helps that their manager is Samantha Maloney who has drummed for Hole, Motley Crüe, and Eagles of Death Metal.

So what's up? These girls don't wear too-revealing clothes on stage and they write their own songs (which aren't bad). So why is no one talking about them? If I had a daughter, I would totally take her to see Cherri Bomb.

I received an email yesterday, on Easter Sunday. It was from a person that I hadn’t talked to in years; the last time that I saw him I was pointing a knife at his face. He’d come to a party at my house in Kent, Ohio to smash me to pieces. I was told that he might come, that’s why I had the knife. I was always terrible at fighting, everything happens so fast. I think people who are good at fighting can slow the movements down in their heads, for me it’s just flailing and then it’s over. The email on Easter Sunday was an apology for the knife event. It didn’t include an explanation, just that he was sorry that it happened and he hoped that I could forgive him. I don’t think I can reply. I wouldn’t know what to say. It seems kind of silly to forgive a person for something that happened so long ago. I have a suspicion that the apology is part of a twelve-step program and the more I consider it, the more I think I deserved to get beaten up. You see, this person’s mother used to babysit me long before the knife incident, and I think I told a lot of people that he used to pee the bed.

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Um...I'm not one for the novelty, not too much...BUT I was just hipped to this album, Neil's Heavy Concept Album, last night!! Mostly it's silly silliness, as you'd reckon...uh, I'm assuming you've all seen the show (AND who could ever forget seeing THIS). If you've not seen the show, you kinda need to...like, RIGHT NOW!!! The Young Ones was an English TV comedy about four...um, very odd gentlemen, Neil was the "Hippie" character. So for his album he recorded some period sike songs done in Neil style with some of his "Right, yeah...so, llke I'm a tad bit burnt, right." ramblings to fill up the gaps. It's not Spinal Tap, but overall Neil's Heavy Concept Album is good! Hmmm, I guess I should look in the comedy section more often.

I was most impressed by his cover of Tomorrow's "My White Bicycle" (NICE CHOICE!!)...however, it was Traffic's "Hole In My Shoe" that was the 'A' side, and the song he performed on TOTP.

I have my bets on the future of 10-4 Roger, a local producer who has worked with Helladope and THEESatisfaction. I have this strong feeling that he will fill the space left by Sabzi's move to the Big Apple. After P Smoov, 10-4 Roger—that is my prediction. Some proof? For starters, check out his new remixes of the J Dilla:

Graphic design by Valerie Penera.