During the 1990s, the Skeletones used to play every friggin' show from the Inland Empire to Orange County. After search the Internet, you might assume that the 10-piece ska group from Riverside still maintains a busy schedule.But look closer and you'll notice that a few newer bands have also taken the moniker since the original band's heyday. A Google search for "the Skeletones" comes up with three acts -- the Riverside band and two others from Michigan and England.

These days, the original Skeletones -- Jonas Cabrera, Paul Hampton, Mark Cummings, Chris Miles, Kip Wirtzfeld, Rick Bonin, Woody Diaz, Bob Alvarado, John Alvarado and Jared Palazzolo -- perform between 12-24 times a year, which is still a lot considering the group has been around for approximately two decades. That said, don't think frontman Jonas Cabrera has gotten too old to rock a stage because he says he will "out-skank anybody who dares to try" to beat him in a dance-off.

The Skeletones play Saturday as part of Long Beach Sound Society's fourth annual "We Are The Mods Celebration" at Madhaus. The event includes performances by Suedehead and the Savoys and features an array of DJs, food trucks and a horseshoe pit. With so much mod in one area, let's hope Cabrera has a new pair of dancing shoes cuz he's gonna need them.

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Every band has "hits," the songs they have to play in concert or no one will pay money to see them. Alkaline Trio is no different.

Thanks to nine studio albums, including My Shame is True (released today), singer/guitarist Matt Skiba, singer/bassist Dan Andriano and drummer Derek Grant have a plethora of tunes that are damn-near guaranteed to make any set list, which means there's a good chance you'll hear "Radio," "Nose Over Tail," "Clavicle," "'97," "This Could Be Love," "Mercy Me," "Crawl," "Cringe" and "Bleeder." While there's nothing wrong with these (in fact, they are some of the band's best material), there are also a bunch of songs that rarely -- if ever -- get played. But they should.

There's no way of knowing what we'll hear from My Shame is True, but "Kiss You to Death," "Young Lovers" and "Until Death Do Us Part" are bona fide awesome and are worthy of replacing the oft-played "She Took Him to the Lake" and "Private Eye." And, if we are lucky, the addition of new material might force the band to dig into its catalog to pull out a few oldies-but-goodies.

So, here, in no particular order, are six songs that should be added to the band's set list when they kick off their upcoming tour at The Observatory on April 25.

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Coming up with 10 punk albums to listen to before you die is a lot harder than you'd think. For starters, it's a morbid thought, which makes you start asking yourself why in the hell you're thinking about punk albums when you're only gonna die, so who cares?

Second, the best material of many (if not most) punk bands is featured on singles, not full-length records. That's why you won't see Minor Threat on this list because even though they are punk rock royalty, their sole album (1982's Out of Step) isn't as good as their EPs. Or, on the flipside, you got a band like Red Cross, whose first EP is
unfuckwithable, but EPs aren't albums and therefore not included in this list.

That said, there are still plenty of full-length punk records that everyone should most definitely hear and more than likely own.

Here, in no particular order, are 10.

See Also:

*10 Jazz Albums to Listen to Before You Die

*Top 25 Greatest OC Bands of All Time

*Top 10 Band Wally George Band Interviews From the Hot Seat

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Marcos Godoy Godchaux

If Lookout! Records still existed, Orange County foursome the Hoagies would be the ideal group for the label. Take one part three-chord punk a la the Queers and one part '70s rock a la the Donnas and you've got the Hoagies.

However, there's more to the Hoagies than just a fascination with '90s Bay Area punk. You see, the Hoagies like sandwiches. A lot. So much in fact that the foursome (singer King Hoagie, guitarist Tony "No" Bologna, drummer/keyboardist Sloppy Joe and bassist Rye Bread) are about to release a 12-song record titled Cold Cuts that includes songs such as "Rye or Die," "I Wanna Grinder" and "I'm Gonna Put It In Your Pita."

Joke and/or themed bands almost always suck, but don't go dismissing the Hoagies as the punchline to a joke no one ever told because the songs are actually really good. In fact, Cold Cuts is so rockingly catchy that I, a vegan, not only enjoy the record, I'm thinking about getting a pastrami on sourdough right this second.

OK, that's a lie, but I did like the songs enough to devote an entire six minutes coming up with questions to email the band. Here, in not even remotely close to their entirety, are their pickled answers. 
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​In 1962, Neil Sedaka said everything that needs to be said about ending relationships when he sang, "breaking up is hard to do." It's simple in an "aw shucks" 1960s pop song sort of way, but the tune's direct approach has not meant the end of the break-up song. In fact, we've got some pretty dandy ones the past few years, the kind that make you almost forget that guy/girl/celebrity crush who just won't return your fan mail who ripped out your heart, spit on it and fed it to his/her dog for dinner. Almost.

Here, for your misery and heartache, are five recent songs that say everything about breaking up that you never could.

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​From the man who brought us "Rifles Burs" and "Snacks" comes a new song/video called "Imdabes." It's already blowing up Youtube, so I'm going to go head and call it now: It's an instant classic, the kind you don't take home to mother.

On the track, Gillionaire tells listeners that he "be the one that win Street Fighter tournaments," "got the highest score in the world on my SAT" and that he's in the best at "watching all them '90s videos -- Power Rangers, All That, Kenan & Kel."

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Wayne Coyne's Twitter account

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Spending 22 hours in a car is a crazy idea in itself. Match that with driving halfway across the nation to knock on the door of rocker Wayne Coyne's house is taking stalker status to the next level.

"Some weirdos just showed up on my porch...They drove all the way from LA to bring me a birthday gift!!!" said Coyne on Twitter  last week.

Those weirdos were newly-formed Orange County band, Hott Mt. Not only did the trio, made up of Adam Ashe (formerly of Dahga Bloom), Nick Logie (of Telegram) and Ashleigh Allard  show up unexpectedly at Coyne's home in Oklahoma City on Jan. 13, SPIN.com also reported that the members got to sleep on Coyne's couch and floor for four days. 

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​Full disclosure: I've known Lauren Boquette of Lords of Ruin for approximately seven years and I consider him a friend. But the first time we met, I wasn't so sure we'd have much in common. Allow me to explain.

Without ever meeting him, I hopped in a van with Boquette, my friend Gabe, someone who I think played in Dread Zeppelin and the only man who knew everyone in the vehicle, the one, the only, Alfunction.

I'm an introvert who doesn't do well with people (but I'm amazing with animals). I'm also a pipsqueak and a nerd, so you can imagine my trepidation when I first saw Boquette. Dude is at least 6'3'' and one of his arms is as wide as my entire body. Add a bunch of visible tattoos into the mix and I was certain he figured I was a total lame ass not worth talking to.

Keep in mind, I am a total lame ass not worth talking to, but by the time we hit Baker, Boquette was not only keeping the van in good spirits, he was actually engaging me in conversation. Turned out, my fear was nothing but my often-irrational belief that no one will like me because about 14 hours after we left Orange County, our party ended up at downtown Las Vegas' Glitter Gulch, where Boquette got us in for free and all of our drinks comped. Later that night, someone who wasn't me puked outside a car while it was moving. I'm not saying who, but he knows who he is.



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Jeremy Eichenbaum

​Champagne. Kisses at midnight. Some dude throwing up.

These are what we've come to expect at New Year's Eve parties, which is why I'm headed to the Blue Cafe in Long Beach to see the Spell, Ambush Freqs and Mr. Elevator & the Brain Hotel. I'm no psychic (although I play one on this blog), so here's what I'm planning on seeing this Saturday evening.

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On Oct. 18, I introduced two YouTube videos that are not only changing the face of music on the Internet as we know it, but are also re-shaping and re-defining the idea of swag. The songs ("Rifles Burs" and "Snacks") are so life altering, so hard ("Gunshots are the beat!") and so damn good that the artist doesn't even list his name on the videos. Thanks to a comment left on that post, we are led to believe that the emcee in question might or might not be named Gillionaire.

In that blog, I called "Rifles Burs" "the video/song of the year." It's true: the track leaves a sticky trail of swag all over listeners' ears just like how my hair used to leave a stain on the pillows of all the girls I was with when I rocked a greasy pompadour (which was pretty swag on my part).  Without further ado: Q&A with the one-man Internet swagging machine...Gillionaire.


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