Responsibly Wild Blog

I distinctly remember Tuesday, February 23, 1999. I was still living in Iowa and immediately after school let out I road with a friend to Best Buy so he could pick up Eminem's freshly released second album. Always down for a hang, I road along as there was one album I had read about and wanted to see if it was in stores. That album was Jimmy Eat World's Clarity . On the ride home I didn't bother asking to put in my purchase as my friend was not a rock fan. So for the next hour or so of cruising we blasted Slim Shady at painful volumes. For those uninitiated, this was the "Hi! My name is (ticka ticka) Slim Shady" album. I was indifferent to rap so it got a little long and tiresome by roughly the third time through the album. When I finally listened to Clarity it underwhelmed. Nothing on the album is lyrically hook centered on kinetically riff focused like later Jimmy Eat World releases. For a 16 year-old ska and pop punk super fan, Clarity go

If you've been playing along, then you know last month I played a show. It was my first time "fronting" a band in 15 years. The set wasn't great and the crowd wasn't there for us, but man was it fun. Writing, performing, and recording music is one of those rushes that can't quite be found anywhere else. I suspect performing in a play on stage comes close, but that doesn't isn't always backed by a kickass drum beat. So since that show I've an old itch has been begging to be scratched... Through my years as an active singer/songwriter I never, not once, recorded in an actual studio. Closest I came was High Jinx recording bass and drums in a church. Second closest was Eight Miles Out and The Evil Geniuses each recording in a friend's basement, Justin Meyer, who was messing around with starting a studio. He did good work, but the studio experience wasn't there. Last time I was in an actual studio was 2012 when I snapped some pic

It has been a long time since I played in a band. A few years ago I jammed with a group for a few months, gigged with them, and got out at the right time for me. But in that situation I felt more like a session guitarist than a full fledged band member. This past weekend I played in a band... A tribute band. Photo courtesy of Bethany Jensen Behold, " All on Black ." A one night only tribute band to maybe my all time favorite punk band, Alkaline Trio. Finally figured out the 1st time I saw @Alkaline_Trio ; Jan 17, '99 Val Air Ballroom. Damn snowy night, ~50 people there, A3 blew me away. Approached them after the set, they seemed spent, & had zero merch. Went home and mail ordered Goddamnit from @asianmanrecords that night. pic.twitter.com/HVHSyaUidn — Patrick Boberg (@PatBoBomb) October 31, 2019 I'm a serial analogist, metaphorist, and similator, and a common comparison I like to make is of girlfriends (or I guess romantic relationships if you ar

I used to have the well earned reputation as the kid who was always carrying a camera. Starting in about 8th grade or so I fell in love with videotaping all of the shenanigans my friends and I got into. Then in 11th grade I was introduced to the world of "non-linear editing" with programs like Avid, Final Cut Pro and Media 100 and my fate was pretty much sealed. This "Got Pat?" promo, along with its sister video , were the product of my video production education during my short stay in Grand Rapids and helping produce "Central Sights," the morning news announcements at Grand Rapids Central High School. My friend Chris Ostertag is the guy manning the camera here. After getting a well rounded feel for Final Cut I never put my camera down and ridiculousness ensued. Music: Homegrown's "Grow Up" One of my favorite memories of my Grandpa Joe was him telling me I could drive with as many girls in the car as i wanted, it was when you ge

I am a huge Google fanboy. I use Youtube, Google Reader, Picasa, Maps, Analytics, Gmail, Calendar, Tasks, Bookmarks, Documents, Buzz, G+, and I have an Android phone. All that and most recently I started using Google Music - and like the rest of their products - gMusic just owns. Back in College I lived and breathed music. That's me dancing on stage at a Dismemberment Plan show right before they broke up. I went to more concerts, bought more cds and messed around with the "scene" more than any one person should. I was obsessed with finding cool new tunes and I didn't care what genre they fit into as long as they were awesome. To say those days have passed is an under statement. I haven't bought tickets to a concert in probably 5 years, I spend close to no time searching out new music, and me and the scene? Ha! Well there is no way Google Music can restore all of that but damn if it hasn't brought back my love for little known (at least to me) music

This may not be the dream of living out Josh Baskin's job in Big but damn if it isn't close. The CRI has been producing a show for children called "Kids Show." Up until this week I've played a pretty minor role in the show; producing songs that my coworker AJ and I perform as "PB & AJ," but I've finally stepped up to the plate and started solely producing a segment called "Big Stuff." At first I was a little hesitant because I wasn't exactly sure how to tackle it but after just deciding to shoot something and just do it I think it may be the coolest thing about my job. Check out the first segment of Big Stuff: Snow Plow. I shot, edited, voiced, animated, scored, and did everything and anything involved with this segment (Well I did have a bunch of coworkers help me yell big stuff a few times...) I'm pretty stoked about doing this thing. I think I'll do wind turbines for the next segment. Anyone got any ideas what else I shou

Oh yea... Another holiday, another parody song. You know you want to download this. Company Time Presents - The Turkey Boys - "Gobble Till you Wobble." Just right click on this graphic and click "save link as" Who knows? we may have a Thanksgiving classic on our hands.

Was there ever a better time to work in video than the 1980s? Movies and everything got better but to me the creme de la creme is 1980s music videos. Everything look so terrible but yet people loved it. If I were in a band making a music video today I would definitely do it in the vein of The Buggles (Video killed the radio star) and Flock of Seagulls. So damn cheap look but classic. Sadly today music videos are worthless (mainly because no one plays them on a basic cable channel). That wont stop me though. Check out what clicked in my brain about 8 am this morning. Sweet? Oh... not sweet... Well I enjoyed making it. Anywhoooo! Have a good weekend. Peace.

I realized earlier this afternoon that I am horrendously out of the musical loop. I don't pay attention at all to new music. I don't listen to the radio (as if anything I like is on) and I don't look to see if my old favorites are putting out new stuff or playing in my area. I missed an RX Bandits concert in Des Moines from a few weeks back and today I stumbled onto the new Foo Fighters single. Sounds all right, I feel they have written themselves into a formulaic corner. Dave Grohl needs to just grab a four track and spend a week in a garage with out of tune guitar. Maybe then FF would be able to reset and put out an organically rockin album. Be that as it may, Dave Grohl is working his musical ass off. Check out this video from his latest collaboration as a drummer; It's " Them Crooked Vultures " with Josh Homme on guitar and !!JOHN PAUL-JONES!! on bass. Oh man that's amazing. I can't wait to pick up this disc. I will probably never see the

Do you know the man pictured above? Would it help to tell you he's a publish poet? That he is going on Tour with his first book in February? That doesn't help? Hmm... What if I told you he was my best friend in the 6th grade? Oh yeah! Now you remember, Josh Boyd! Josh is all grown up now and if all the branches hold up on the tree during his climb he'll soon be a successful poet. Really cool. A couple months ago Marieta was working with a new Dietetic intern at WIC. She was a pretty cool chick (just as into food and baby stuff as Marieta) and after some back and forth it turned out her fiance is Josh. Marieta said to me one day before we headed out to the farmers market "When you used to play out with your band did you ever meet a guy named Josh Boyd?" Haha, I met Josh long before I was ever in a band. Anyways we got to talking, and he was telling me about his poetry, the book, his tour, and I thought this would be a perfect scenario to put my love for short

Wells Fargo has put their money where are mouths are. So come mid October Marieta and I will be housing it up! How cool is that? You know I've been saying for the last two months that the worst part of homebuying is waiting for the underwriter so give the thumbs up, but now that the only thing standing in our way is the closing... ROCK N ROLL!!!! Here's what she looks like right now. The sod is all laid, the kitchen and dining area have all the wood flooring down, the sold sign is just out of the frame on the left, and as of today all of the framing lumber is laying in our driveway to finish off the basement. Cool stuff. I'm excited for all of this goodness to be finished off, move in, and set up my drum set in the basement... Marieta may not know what crazy loudness she is in for : ) Stop by every once in a while to see where this baby is at. EXCITED!

Just a quick little anecdote to start the day. Every morning I leave home around 10 to 8a and listen to KXNO sports radio up til I get to Pella. Around Pella the radio signal craps out due to hills, powerlines, and radio towers blocking the way, so I pop in a cd (yes I'm one of the few people who doesn't do the ipod driving thing.) It's been kind of fun going through my mountain of cds over the last month. I've listened to everything I had not given a spin in a while; NOfx, Stone Temple Pilots, Thursday, Beatles, etc. Today's choice was The Photo Album by Death Cab For Cutie . Really through the whole feel of the morning off. You see during college I spent several evenings driving home from Iowa City, concerts, Des Moines, pizza hut in Ankeny, and my go to night driving cd was The Photo Album. It just really wound the night down in the perfect way. Well winding down on my drive to work is not generally something one needs to do, and it's f'ed up my entire

OK, here are the rules. Test your memory and your love of live music by listing 50 artists or bands (or as many as you can remember) you've seen in concert. List the first 50 acts that come into your head. An act you saw at a festival and opening acts count, but only if you can't think of 50 other artists. Oh, and list the first concert you ever saw (you can remember that, can’t you)? Should you choose this challenge, here's what you do: Copy my note. Click on “notes” under tabs on your profile page. Select "write a new note" in the top corner. Paste the copy in the body of the note. Make your list. Change the number at the top, and add your title. Once you've saved, don't forget to tag friends (including me) on the right. 1. Rolling Stones 3. Blind Melon 4. Nerfherder 5. Goldfinger 6. Reel Big Fish (8 times) 7. Alkaline Trio (12 times) 8. MU330 9. Grubby Ernie 10. Mustard Plug 11. The Urge 12. NOfx 13. Dave Matthews Band 14. Thursday 15. Dashboard COnfess

It makes me sad to say I will be one of those guys who can only tell his kids that he used to rock and they wont (most likely that is) experience it first hand. The picture above was taken in Burt, Iowa back in 2003. The "Hey Day" of Eight Miles Out. This past week has kind of been a rock n roll renaissance; dug out those lost to the winds 8MO demos, mixed down the last recordings I ever did for another group (if you care to listen check this out ), and started work on a collective DVD of pieces from every show we got on tape. That DVD is gonna take a lot of work and will probably only be appreciated by three people and eventually their descendents but... who cares. When you want to relive your rock filled days it's easier to do if it is all wrapped up in one neat little package. Will I ever get my stage legs back? Good question. If I do I doubt it will be for anything more than fun and a few good laughs. In the mean time my musical goal are to set up all my gear (Guitars

This picture was taken on New Years Eve 1999 at the first show of Eight Miles Out (then called High Jinx). Kind of funny how much time has past since that day. I still remember our setlist. Chris' Song "Vegas," my tune "SubDude," "Josie" by Blink 182, "Two Princes" by Spin Doctors and I think (could be wrong) we played "Chick Magnet," by MXPX. It was pretty awesome... kind of. Our only practice occured the night before, Chris had his wisdom teeth taken out four days earlier and was nursing a broken foot, I lost my voice from jamming out "Feel Like Making Love" for a hour and a half the night before, and to top it off Andrew, our drummer at the time, had the flu and was seriously jetlagged having returned from Poland only two days before the show. I have memory of us being pretty terrible that night but you know what? It was awesome. Chris and my musical bromance had been brewing for a few years (our previous ska group &qu

So yesterday I'm driving to Emeryville to pickup some cupcakes (delicious by the way), and I just grab a couple discs I haven't listened to in a long time; Coheed and Cambria's In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 and Jet's to Brazil's Perfecting Loneliness. Both discs I got back in college, and both I haven't listened to in at least three years. First off, Keeping Secrets , is garbage. Disjointed riffs, zero fluidity, completely inorganic transitions, recording quality that is just piss poor for a national release, and screams that just flat junk. The only redeemable quality is the ocassional catchy lyric. Looking back I don't know why I bought any of their albums. I saw them on accident 2 or 3 times in college (once at mshop for a few bucks, they opened once at gabes, and the warped tour), and I think I may have gotten caught up in the hype. Lame. Now revisiting Perfecting Loneliness is a completely different story. Have you ever bought a book, album, j

Some may be in the know here, but for Marieta and my wedding, I am writing all the music for the ceremony (minus a couple of catholic mass things). It is something I have always wanted to do. It's pretty challenging, and personally I find it a touch demanding. There are a lot of elements at play. When you play in a band you could care less about what people think about your tunes (well that's not entirely true). The songs you write are the songs you write and if you attract an audience kudos. Basically you may be playing for no one, but if you do have an audience chances are those people want to hear your tunes. That's not the case with this. This is the first time I am writing with an audience in mind, wedding goers. The music needs to fit the mood of the situation and not be off putting to those listening. No one will be attending our wedding with the specific reason of listening to my tunes. It's kind of like when you go see a movie. Tim Burton movies are notorious

So I didnt tell you but I have this idea for a dvd of the scene. I figure I have a shit load of video of local bands why not consolidate it and package it with interviews and all that fun BS. Here's the info I had in my AIM profile "Okay so here's whats up: I am gonna make a dvd and use live footage from the following bands: DWS, 8MO, EATF, DOFH, Senator Kelly, Evil Gs, Duck and Cover, Preacher GOne to Texas, Roger Mexico, Ten Grand, Horseshoe Spatulas, Argos, Poison Control, North to Alaska and any other bands I see before I finish the DVD. It's going to include a picture collage, interviews with people about the big 5 scenes. Emo, Indie, Hardcore, Ska, Punk and I am gonna interview people about fallout/Botan/bizzarn, ZZZ, 515crew and what not. let me know if you can help." I think with any luck it could turn out to be a really sweet thing.