I’ve known my share of douchebag gutter punks who yell “anarchy” while wearing a uniform consisting of torn pants with the ass-bib patch, a number of patches on their jacket and a thick layer of patchouli and natural muskiness. I hate these fucks. Being smelly and living off of stolen 7-11 hot dogs and Icees does nothing to combat the socio-economic problems that your idols are screaming about. Shut up. Go take a shower.Every now and again, I hear of someone who reminds me why I give a shit about the punk scene, and this time around it was Joe Sib, front man of the band Wax, co-founder of SideOneDummy Records and organizer of the Rock To Roll charity event. What is the Rock To Roll event, you ask? Well, good thing I read up on this shit, so I can lay it down for you.
UCP Wheels for Humanity (UCP standing for United Cerebral Palsy) is a group that grabs up used wheelchairs, restores them to their prime levels of zoominess and pairing them with the needy handicapped in developing countries (and NOT just Africa!). OK, well, the Rock To Roll charity event is one of those concert fundraisers that sells memorabilia and all that, but with cool shit, not like, Bono’s used condom or whatever.
The main event of the, err, event, is a concert featuring Wax, NOFX (featuring another punk-turned-label-prez), Dead To Me and Flogging Molly side project Nathen Maxwell & The Original Bunny Gang. Now, of course, this is going down in San Francisco, so all I can do is dream of how cool it will be, as all of these bands have new shit out, which always adds an extra bit of energy.
That charity auction’s gonna have autographed schwag from Flogging Molly, Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), The Gaslight Anthem (Notice a trend here? Being the boss must RULE, wait, it DOES.) as well as some non-SideOneDummy bands like Thrice, Blink 182 and The Bouncing Souls.
Now, if you can’t make it out to San Francisco (like me.), you also have the opportunity to see Joe speak about the crazy shit he’s seen in done on Wednesday, Nov. 25th at the Boathouse in Costa Mesa. While it won’t have NOFX and Dead To Me playing, it WILL have bassists from The Adolescents (Steve Soto), Pennywise (Randy Bradbury), TSOL (Mike Roche), and Bad Religion (Jay Bentley).
I had a chance to talk to Joe bright and early at the crack of 10AM, and can attest to the fact that this man IS a storyteller. Whereas I thought I was going to be in the way and a bother, I soon found that Sib is as personable and down to Earth as one can get. But, in that same vein, I WILL be paraphrasing some of what he said, as we talked for the better part of an hour.
In discussing the origins of his “Broken Word” gigs, he boils down the entire path of his life to December 27th, 1981 (I was two months old.), where his dad took him to Winchester Skateboard Park, where he first heard punk, including Black Flag, 999, and the Buzzcocks.
This lead to his being in bands starting when he was 14, and his first tour with Circle Jerks and 7 Seconds (That’s fucking awesome!) And, as he “didn’t destroy himself with drugs,” Sib can easily recall all the crazy shit that being smack dab in the middle of the punk scene can bring.
An unnamed SideOne band requested a recording of his stories, which led to coffee and recording himself, creating an album of stories entitled “True Stories and Bad Ideas. One of which you can find RIGHT HERE! Now, here is a direct bit from Joe to get an idea on why he calls it “broken word”:
“The term ‘Spoken Word’ is so serious, it’s so Henry Rollins. I am so NOT that guy, I’m not that cool. I mean, I am not a cool guy, I’m just a fan of punk rock, an ultimate fan. I don’t have the story of punching the guy in the face because I sang in Black Flag, but I do have the story of talking to Henry Rollins and talking of Winchester Skateboard Park and of him taking the bus from DC with Ian MacKaye and going there. I’m just THAT guy. So I came up with this idea and it centered around how December 27th, 1981 shaped my life, ultimately bringing me to this moment with you on the phone. If I wou;dn’t have gone to the skateboard park and submerged myself in the music, and what a great time to be into skateboarding. It was when the Bones Brigade and vert went from the skateboard park era to it all just going underground and transforming into a skate culture. The entire California Calling is about growing up in that time”
This thought process went on for another 10 minutes, which highlights just how utterly passionate he is about EVERYTHING HE HAS EVER DONE. There is a lack of apathy that you find in a lot of punks, especially those over the age of 25, found in Joe that is inspiring for us other regular jerk-offs trying to do something cool with our lives.
When asked about partnering up with UCP Wheelchairs for Humanity, I discovered it was NOT simply for the ease of the Rock to Roll pun.
“I met a guy who worked at UCP Wheelchairs for Humanity, and I went over to their warehouse in North Hollywood, and it just floored me. I realized right then that I had a real phobia, like I was scared of wheelchairs and I can admit this because I think other people have this and don’t want to admit it, a guy rolling around in a wheelchair, I don’t even want to get near him. I don’t want to have his luck and I don’t want to end up in that chair. I’ll be nice to him, but I’m going to avoid him. I think a lot of people have that ‘Well, if I don’t look at it, it doesn’t exist’ mentality. But I go in the warehouse, and they had over 5,000 wheelchairs in there, and man, talk about a sobering moment in my life, it was fucking heavy. I met the owner, and saw the people working there and I just left there thinking ‘I gotta think of a way that I can raise money for them, because these guys are doing it all on their own, and I know I can help them.’”
In the three years of shows since then, they’ve raised over $87,000 at benefit shows featuring talent from Against Me!, Alkaline Trio and The Bouncing Souls, with this year expected to bring in over $100,000 for UCPWFH over the four years of benefits. So, go to one of them and help Joe get over his (and probably yours, too) phobia!
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