Aston Matthres (left) with

Lakewood rapper/gun-enthusiast Aston Matthews and Long Beach's new hope Joey Fatts (two-thirds of the Cutthroat Boyz) link up once again for their brand new record, "My Nina." This ain't a sentimental track with someone waxing poetic about their sweet, kind-hearted Nina; this is an acrobatic back-and-forth sound-off between two of this area's best up-and-coming rappers that delves into trap-rap, gunplay, and how they can turn your block into Bosnia.
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Flickr user robotography.

​There are publications other than Heard Mentality writing about music in Orange County. Please don't read them. Just kidding! Please do. But please also check in every Friday for our round-up of the most interesting links from the local blogosphere in the past week. We're calling it Orange Bits.
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sepiamutiny.com

​Someone forwarded me this article on Muslim punk in the United States. I read it and think you should too.

A major focus of the story is a Boston/NYC group called the Kominas, which I learned from reading means "the scumbags" in Punjabi. The article is pretty good and makes the Kominas sound like decent individuals, so of course I had to check out their Myspace page. And wouldn't ya know? They don't suck. At times they're Minor Threat, Television and Operation Ivy. Sounds weird, but it works for them.

Give it a read and pretend like it's not the first time you've visited CNN's website (although I think it was a first for me).

There were Web sites back in 1998? Sure were! After all, that's the year Travis Keller and Aaron North started LA-based Buddyhead, the influential, infamous (Keller once sneaked into Fred Durst's office to steal red baseball caps and sell them on eBay!), shit-talking and genuinely beloved (well, probably not by Fred Durst) music site that spawned a record label of the same name.

The site went dormant in 2005, and, as the Web goes, pretty much disappeared from memories as it disappeared online. But, this past March, Keller brought it back (current headlines include "Less Queer Than His Fans: Buddyhead VS Mountain Goats"), and the whole story is detailed on this week's cover article of our sister paper LA Weekly. There's also a great tale of Keller talking Led Zep with Marilyn Manson. Here it is!