Last Tuesday I went to the Antiflag/Casualties show in Buffalo... for good old times' sake. It had been a while since I ventured out of Toronto for a show and I found that I had completely forgotten what it was like. The scenes were as different as Billy Talent and Billy Joel.

Immediately I felt the acute pain of alienation as I realized everyone in line was well under 18. Moms and dads frowned at the sight of me, wondering if their kids would still have spiky hair at 24. Teens and pre-teens looked at me in awe as if I were a museum relic, amazed that I've been listening to punk rock since before some of them were born. I bit my lip and digested that sinking feeling, "I'm getting old!" There are shows like this in Toronto but I couldn't remember the last time I was surrounded by such an enormous populus of teenagers with little representation in my age bracket. There are also 19+ punk bars like the Bovine Sex Club in Toronto, which is unheard of in a quaint scene like Buffalo where most shows are all ages, at skateparks or over/under clubs. I looked at the vast sea of kids and hoped they'd grow to truly understand the culture and avoid Hot Topic like the plague.

Here ye! Here ye! Royal knaves and drummers of the court! All hail King Minus, for his punk rock far surpasses yours.

With a disregard for pop and fluff, King Minus takes the catchy melodies and meaningful lyrics of classics like Social Distortion, Minor Threat, Bad Religion, Face 2 face and Black Flag and fuses it with the power of Motorhead, ACDC and Black Sabbath. The end result is a headbanging, soul-churning, sweaty moshpit of social realization.

In the past year they've blown audiences away at The Reverb, Bovine Sex Club, Lee's Palace, Club 279, El Mocambo and Sneaky Dee's. Currently they're looking for someone whose between 20-30, a professional attitude, prior stage and studio experience and preferrably their own transportation. Freeloaders and bums are not encouraged to apply at this time.

If you think you have what it takes and you'd like to be the driving force behind their sound, then contact Steve at steve@kingminus.com

If you didn't get a chance to chat up your favourite rock stars at Wakestock this year, never fear! BlogTO caught up with The Reason, Silverstein, The Salads, Ill Scarlett, and The Black Maria for some quick chats and random encounters! Hear what they have to say about the festival, their sets, the crowd and what's new in their hectic worlds.
(Keep checking this thread all week for more uploads!)

Welcome to the first of our Wakestock podcast series! First up is a quick chat with Jeff, the young and energetic new singer for Dead Kennedys and bassist Klaus Flouride! Find out what the guys thought about the festival, who their favourite Wakestock artists were and what's up next for these legendary punk rockers!

Listen To The MP3

Inebriation abounded on the second day of Wakestock music. Everywhere you looked, you were sure to see at least one instance of shameless drunken excess. People were leaping over garbage cans, jumping off picnic tables to stomp cans flat, mooning hundreds of people, ripping life preservers down from the ferry ceiling, screaming random exclamations and slipping off the half-pipes. Of course none of this compared to the sketchpad wearing a Santa hat, doing hundreds of continuous pushups in the mud! Do you think that's weirder than witnessing two seven-year-old girls crowd surfing to Reel Big Fish?? Hm, tough call. Yes, it was definitely a day to write home about.

The dreary overcast day dulled spirits as the clouds spit out precarious raindrops. Yet by the end of the day, rain was pushed to the back of everyone's minds as they screamed lyrics with Dead Kennedys and indulged in the inspirational sounds of Rise Against.

Torontonians generally are a difficult breed to impress so the bands definitely had their work cut out for them, especially our forsaken hometown boys who played to a relatively listless crowd. There were several groups of moshpit dancers who weren't afraid to send arms swinging and others flying as they erupted into a violent kerfuffle. It was a great spectacle to see - twenty kids, arms windmilling, swirling around the pit, singing along and really feeling it. What a rare sight in Toronto these days! Usually this kind of activity is reserved for the suburbs but Wakestock brought a plethora of people and an army of talent.