HOT CROSS: RIP

I'd be happy to credit this photographer if I knew who. sorry, someone fill me in.

“It is with a dream and a heart that we proceed; not a thought to leave behind not another lifetime we need”- Consonants

All the fans know already, that HOT CROSS is indefinetly inactive. They thank their fans for 7 years of support and say that they need to spend time on the rest of their lives outside of the band. 7 years is a long time. longer than Joy Division was around. Hot Cross have left a good amount of recordings behind them. all of them on the relatively non-mainstream, Level-Plane, besides the latest. The run-on sentences of Billy’s lyrics provoke thought. The music creates an overwhelming mood which is pleasurable to us. They also challenged themselves musically and didn’t get stuck. That should command the utmost respect for an artist(s)

“and so we’re aimless caught behind and left without, it’s worse than morbid and less than funny the way it turned out” - Between Minutes and Miles

Thank you Josh, Billy, Greg, Matt, and Casey

best wishes:)

LEVEL-PLANE.COM/HOTCROSS

MYSPACE.COM/HOTCROSS

Their Level-Plane releases can be found at 29north records HERE

The best shirts they have are available from Shirt Killer HERE

order their latest, Risk Revival from MERCH NOW or Equal Vision.

I only got to see them twice, damnit. and they were right under my nose:(

:)-r KG!

WE SLEEP ON FLOORS + SHOWS...

First of all,
the Kid Ginseng track "We Sleep On Floors" is mixed and mastered. The whole track went through Neve eq's from the 1970's for a warm-as-hell sound quality. you can listen to it HERE




Kid Ginseng, Den Haag '06 w/Chicks on speed

no, I'm not in a metalcore band:) I make electro influenced by the west coast of holland sound (BUNKER RECORDS). also electrofunk from new york and california 1982-1989. some italo disco. and the way Suicide was recorded. recent influences include MAGAS from ADULT.'s old label, Ersatz Audio. a few years ago I found out about DJs like Stel-R. he holds down the entire Bruxhell electro/punk scene is Belgium. other influences of mine include a few types of hardcore. my favorite bands right now are SIGNS OF HOPE, DEAR TONIGHT, MODERN LIFE IS WAR, and Im about to order the new RUINER record from Bridge Nine. I stress again, check out Dear Tonight from Brooklyn. also check out this band FLAGS similar to City of Caterpillar, Saetia. they are cool guys and don't live too far from me.

COME TO THIS SHOW////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////



LOVERS AND THIEVES are playing



also playing are:
CT's synth rockers WELCOME

more shows are listed HERE

Moving right along then:

This dude doesn't even get paid to look like a troll! ha



Here I am with my new friend at a medieval festival this summer at Moncontour, in the Bretagne area of France. This day was disneyworld for metalheads. ha!

here I am in france at a pagan site. large druidic rocks. sombre.


anyway... news: in order to have a vinyl release in europe Jonny Steady and I are pressing a "12 Kid Ginseng ep. we are putting it out on our own KRAFTJERKZ RECORDS with help from our friends, La La Land Records. it's going to be a while until we get the test pressings ect. but if you are a DJ who likes Kid Ginseng, bug us about it and we'll give you one for x-mas:) stay tuned to find out which fine mailorders and stores it will be in. it should be available in paris, brussels, den haag. why europe? vinyl is a great sounding alternative to the mp3 and they love it there. they hold electro down, more than anybody besides Detroit or Miami.
that's all for now... next up, Im going to write about the late, great Hot Cross.

:)-r KG!

Hilly Kristal CBGB founder dies at 75.

On August 29th, 2007, Hilly Kristal, CBGB founder, died of cancer at age 75.

Tina Weymouth, founding member of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club Had this to say:

Hilly was the best of men in the worst of places. Humble -- we think of him tranquilly sweeping the front sidewalk after long hours of hardcore mayhem -- he was impossible to intimidate. He kept his cool, first with the Hell's Angels, then with the punks, and finally, to the end, with the little bourgeois landlord who, not content with milking the city of millions with a phony "hospice" operation (the flop house upstairs), opted to evict him in favor of even more lucrative rents from some corporate chain store that, with ironic justice, has never materialized. (And who would dare? That hallowed block bounded by Joey Ramone Way is still too sacrosanct.)

It's a little too early to make history but Hilly's CBGB's is already a legend. Like some uncannily knowing art gallery collector, Hilly got things to happen by allowing them to happen. He instated blessedly few restrictions (the strictly pragmatic to keep the fire department happy) and he never EVER tried to impose his artistic vision on the musicians. Virtually devoid of greed and totally unfazed by the powers that be, Hilly was never much tempted to cash in on the success he was instrumental in helping his bands to achieve. Akin to our great UK favorite, Tony Wilson, his art was the artless willingness to support us to grow better utterly without favoritism.

Hilly was super cool. He led the kids not by lecturing but by example. For years and years he kept his day job, a backbreaking piano and refrigerator moving business, so as to keep the ticket prices low for the fans and the profits and sound systems optimal for the bands. He had a dream and he fulfilled it. When he was made to leave the Bowery he took it all with him -- graffitti'd walls, the stiletto etched bar, the neon signs with the greasy dust an inch thick, the toilets (never mind what still clung to them!) -- he took it all to be rebuilt in the seediest part of that revolting West Coast mecca of the decadent, Las Vegas. He did it for the kids. May they mosh forever as Hilly's spirit carries on through their own inspired enterprises.

Hilly was a big guy with a big heart. Personally, we're going to miss him like water. Our kids are going to miss him, too. CBGB's was the last place their hip little underground bands could play in Manhattan. They'll have to cross the bridges to the boroughs and to New Jersey now, same as all the other young artists attempting to make their way in NYC today. It kind of makes you wish for a big economic recession like we ourselves had that made CBGB's possible for Hilly and the 70's so great for the Manhattan art and music scene.