What I Am Thankful For

By Scott Raychel

'MMURCA!

Every year, families get together to celebrate Thanksgiving and have as much turkey, stuffing, green beans, green bean casserole, pie, cornbread, and various other delicious treats nobody really has the rest of the year, save for a few exceptions like Christmas. My family is no different. We celebrated the tradition just as everyone else did. Families change and grow and go their separate ways but it’s always tradition that ends up bringing them back together for a few times a year.

I moved out to live on my own around a year and a half ago, currently living in the second house I’ve ever lived on my own at. Being in college and having a job that barely pays the bills can leave anyone desperate for a cheap meal, and with nobody around to prevent you from encountering the dangers of overly-processed yet overly-delicious fast food, it’s only a matter of time before the warm, artery-clogging embrace of Ronald McDonald and the Burger King seems like a pretty enticing idea. It’s one of the characteristics of growing up in middle of the American dream, but as I have found beyond the burrito wrappers and giant plastic cups that currently cover the floor of my car, there’s still nothing like the prospect of a homemade meal made by someone you love and served up on a hot plate instead of a crinkly piece of paper.

I started going to local shows when I was 18, right before I graduated from high school. I made friends with people from all kinds of backgrounds: Christian, atheist, home schooled, high schooled, young, not-so-young, punks, nerds, regular kids, straight-edge, pot heads, barflies, misfits, outcasts and everything in between. It was, and still is, a forever-changing, ever-growing community of people who look out for each other. Some would even dare to call it a family.

Then sometime in the last couple years, Stephen and Margie Zumbrun, two of the co-founders of Piradical Productions, the all-ages booking company that helped to create this family, which makes up a small portion of the Indianapolis music scene, declared every Tuesday would play host to Community Meals. It was a chance for all of their friends and newcomers to visit their house, share some food and stay in touch with each other on a regular basis. At first, the Zumbruns would cook food, normally spaghetti or chili, for everyone, but after some time, it was decided Community Meals would be split up to different houses within this community, and that every Community Meal would from now on be a potluck. The regular attendees of the weekly event pulled through and delivered, making food for each other rather than one making food for all. The sense of community and the sense of family had been strengthened.

When I asked my friends to share any Thanksgiving recipes they have, which was the original idea for this article, I got this response from my friend John Silva, lead singer of local party punk group Trip N Balls:

“I don’t cook. I put boxed dinners into the microwave and press ‘Start.’ This is the 21^st century, dude. People don’t do ‘recipes.’”
-John Silva, November 2011

The Breakfast of Champions

Although the last part of the statement isn’t entirely true, being a fan of Easy Mac and cans of Chef Boyardee Spaghetti and Meatballs, I can’t say I would disagree with it. After constantly eating out for most of my meals, I have recently made a conscious decision to lay off food coming from any place with a drive-thru window in favor of frequenting the local Kroger more often and preparing my own meals. I’ve always liked cooking, but never really did enough of it. During my fast food streak, I visited my mom for dinner on a normal Sunday night, where she made meatloaf and scalloped potatoes. It was food I’ve had numerous times while I lived with her, but in the midst of the pizza-burger-burrito binge that is my college career, that meatloaf tasted like some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life. Nothing beats mom’s homemade cookin’!

But I’ve definitely had meals come close to it, and most of them came from these weekly Community Meals. They don’t always do the trick, but they’re definitely satisfying enough. For me, it’s not just the fact that I didn’t have to yell at a speaker box to get food, it’s the fact that someone took the time to prepare a meal with extra love and care for their friends, the people they sometimes choose to call a family. It’s a welcome relief from counting coins left on my nightstand in the hopes there’s enough for a couple tacos, and makes me happy I have something better to hold me over until the next meal I share with my actual family.

Stemming from the idea of Community Meals is the annual Pirad Thanksgiving Meal. After everyone has spent time with their own families, they get the chance to hang out with their second family for a second day of feasting and thanks. This ends up bringing the most food of any Community Meal, and it always makes for a good time. I will definitely be attending this year, just as I’ve done the last several years, because in the oasis that is the hustle and bustle and the mind-numbing monotony of daily living, having the opportunity to share a real meal with those closest to me helps me realize exactly what I am thankful for: family.

What Pirad Thaksgiving Looks Like

Local Album Review: Good Luck, "Without Hesitation"

Bloomington pop punk trio Good Luck is one of the best bands to emerge from Indianapolis’s sister city. After the release of their first full-length LP, 2008’s Into Lake Griffy, the band found regional success with their irresistible sound and great song-writing. While Good Luck’s sound could be lumped into the emo genre that’s emerged in the Midwest in recent years due to guitarist and co-vocalist Matt Tobey’s noodly riffs and sometimes unconventional time signatures, their undeniably positive energy helps them transcend the genre and form into something much more accessible to a wider audience. Now the band has released their follow-up LP, Without Hesitation, which can currently be heard on Alternative Press.

The signature style, impressive musicianship, and solid sound of their first album are all present in this new outing. Fans of the band who have picked up last year’s Demonstration 2010 will have had a sneak peek into this album, as the three of the four songs from the EP are present on WH, re-recorded for the album with a couple new tweaks. The standout track from the EP, “Novel Figure” is easily the standout track on this album, with the most manic energy of the album present in a furious display of thrashing guitars and pounding drums over co-vocalist and bass player Ginger Alford’s powerful vocals. Matt Tobey’s vocals and twinkling guitar float through the spaced-out “Decider” with a catchy chorus of vocal harmonies taking the listener through its fantastic finish and bringing it gently back down to reality.

However, the rest of the album doesn’t quite live up to the expectations set by the band's previous two outings. While every song on Into Lake Griffey was fully realized and packed a punch, several of the songs on Without Hesitation don’t feel quite finished and ultimately just feel like padding between the meatier songs. “Impossible” shows the band trying a faster tempo than they’re used to with relatively successful results, and songs like the crashing “Our Mess, Our Mark” and the epic “The Story, Rewritten” are the best new songs to emerge from the album. But songs like the album’s opener “All Good People” and closer “Significant Day,” while by no means bad songs, leave just a little more to be desired.

Into Lake Griffey was an absolutely solid first effort, complete with some of their best song-writing to date, giving a fitting ode to their hometown and managing to remain upbeat while pouring out sometimes heartbroken lyrics. While Without Hesitation kind of just floats along while not quite living up to its predecessor’s standards, it’s still a fairly good album definitely worth a listen or two. Long-time fans will be satisfied with Good Luck’s sophomore album, but new fans probably won’t have their minds changed without listening to Into Lake Griffey first.

The Importance of Being Evil, with Harley Poe

Over the Halloween weekend, a group of costumed show-goers gathered in the Hoosier Dome to watch a local Hoosier favorite take the stage. Dressed as a skeleton, a clown, a Rastafarian, a zombie, and a ghoul, Harley Poe took the stage on the weekend of their favorite night of the year. For the next hour, they entertained an enthusiastic audience in various costumes with their own special blend of songs about monsters, death, and the just plain weird.

What sets the Kokomo-based act apart from their horror-punk counterparts is their lack of a desire to raid Hot Topic and add a “whoa-oh” sing-along to every song in an attempt to display their devotion to The Misfits. If Jello Biafra decided to pick up an acoustic guitar after watching schlocky B-horror movies instead of C-SPAN, Harley Poe would be the result. Their lyrical talent goes much deeper than any horror band with boring, spooky imagery and dudes in leather jackets with slicked-back hair and an upright bass.

Harley Poe’s songs are about all of the famous horror movie figures fans of the genre have come to know and love: vampires, zombies, werewolves, demons, death, and more. Front man Joe Whiteford fills every song with sarcastic, witty and scathing lyrics that are enough to keep listeners entertained and laughing through the normally dark and bleak material celebrating the joys of being on the outskirts of what is deemed “normal.” But just as many horror movies are allegories representing a deep fear the viewer may have or creating commentary on modern day issues of the world, so does Harley Poe’s songs.

“The Suckers” can be a classic example of this. The lyrics, chalk full of innuendo, detail the account of someone who takes home a nice girl from the bar, only to find out too late his one night stand is a blood-sucking phantasm of the night. Upon reading the lyrics, it’s not difficult to figure out exactly what happened in the events leading up to the reveal:

“She opened her mouth as she was going south
The blood rushed to my head
Sexy sleaze, she was aiming to please
And I bet she’d be good in bed
So we’re having our fun
And she’s getting it done
And it feels like ecstasy
She says open your eyes, I’ve got a surprise
And it happened so suddenly
She comes up to chin and gave me a little grin
When I noticed these little fangs
She stuck them in my vein
I couldn’t bear the pain
She went and ruined everything
But she’s a blood sucker
And I’m her prey.”

Fairly straight-forward stuff, but it doesn’t take a Twilight fanatic to figure out the subtext of the sex-crazed world of vampires. The unfortunate victim of this one-night stand is obviously now a full-fledged creature of the night, but take things a step further and one could plausibly say this man has just left his unfortunate encounter with a brand new case of the clap. Cautionary tales are something Harley Poe has a knack for, whether or not the subtlety is there. Just listen one of their earlier songs, “The Girl Has Syphilis.” It’s the same story as The Suckers, but without the sneaky innuendo and horror imagery. Whiteford and company decided sexually transmitted diseases are horrifying enough.

Long-time fans of the band know Harley Poe had its early roots in Christian music as Calibretto 13, but the disturbing content of some of their more recent material as the current incarnation proves they couldn’t be located any further from the light. “Homicidal Maniac” and “Stick It In The Man” depict graphic tales of revenge and angst while alluding to the grisly desired outcomes they seek. While nothing entirely relatable to most, songs like these can be a cathartic experience for the listener who may be having a particularly bad day and want to vent some frustrations in less destructive ways. Everybody has evil intentions at one point or another, and Harley Poe recognizes this and empathizes with the listener in many of their songs. The point is not to celebrate violence and death, but to provide something the listener can relate to in their own dark times.

What Harley Poe ultimately celebrates is the value of individuality. “Transvestites Can Be Cannibals Too,” one of their more popular songs, is an anthem for outcasts and misfits raging against those who shun them for being different, which in itself is the classic punk rock mindset of rebellion.

“I hate the popular people ‘cause I ain’t popular
I hate these words tomorrow ‘cause I’m bipolar
It’s okay to be different unless you’re all by yourself
You think you’re so special when you’re just like everyone else

I just don’t understand the reason why I said
Why can’t I be a bigger mand and walk away when
You tear me down and make me feel like I’m worth nothing
But then again, I’m sure that you deserve what you’ll be getting

And when I was young, I wore my sister’s clothes
I like to paint my nails and I had secrets no one knows
But now that I’m grown up, I cook dinner for my wife
I still carry my secrets along with a butcher’s knife.”

Harley Poe stands up for the little guy: the nerd who was bullied by the jocks, the goth teased by the popular girls, the weird kid no one talks to because he licks pennies in the corner when he thinks no one is looking. Just look at their fans in attendance at their shows. While many would be disgusted with the graphic imagery on display in every song, their fans dance and sing along with such enthusiasm, because they’ve found a band that gets them. Music is all about finding a niche where the listener can feel a little less alone. Harley Poe just chose to do it for the freaks and geeks of the world.