my big wheel magazine record review for The Young Idea "War Paint" 7"

here it is guys. really rad bad you should all check out. the link is below. brian mccann jr.

my big wheel magazine record review for The Young Idea "War Paint" 7"



i'll be doing alot more reviews soon. so keep an eye out.

the day i met john lydon (aka johnny rotten)

So i heard John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) lead singer of the Sex Pistols was going to be at Amoeba Records signing vinyls and cds for his newer project Public Image Limited, who were playing the following day in San Francisco.

I'm honestly not a fan of anything Lydon has done after the Sex Pistols so I wasnt too pushed on going, but having his autograph on the wall was something i thought would be pretty cool, so I went down to Amoeba on Haight street to see what was happening.

When I first got there there was a few around but not really that many and there was a selection of PIL (Public Image Limited) vinyls and cds on a stand. Basically, you had to buy one to get your place in the line and get an autograph.

There was also a note saying he would'nt be signing anything Sex Pistols, I was a little disapointed but it was obvious he was just trying to push his newer band. there was singles and full albums, I picked up the double 12 inch and got my place in the forming line, that actually started to get quite long. I waited for about 25 minutes and while I was in line I heard people saying pictures were permitted. i was happy out.

I got closer to him as the minutes went by, he seemed like a cool guy, was really nice to everyone and laughing and posing for pics. etc. than it was my turn. i gave the lady working there my camera and walked over to his table.

And heres what happend next. He took my vinyl and said thanks for the support etc and than seen my Devil's Brigade hoodie. "Who are they he asked" I told him they were Matt Freeman of Rancid's side project and that they kicked ass. and than this happen. 

John "Oh, Yeah. Rancid. New Yorks alright if you like saxaphones"

Me "That's not a Rancid song"

John "It is mate, I know me history"

Me "I think thats a FEAR song"

John "No it's not mate" 

Me "Ok man, I guess you know more than I do"

John "Cheers man, thanks"

and than I walked away knowing I was right. He was a cool dude and its great to have his autograph, I framed it right next to my Jello Biafra one, but seriously. 

Brian McCann Jr

my big wheel magazine review for harrington saints, adolescents and more. live in san francisco.

rad night as usual when the saints are playing. check the link below for more.

my big wheel magazine review for harrington saints, adolescents and more

brian mccann jr.

my big wheel magazine review for tiger army, death march and more. live in san francisco.

here it is folks. click the link below. such a great night. brian mccann jr.

my big wheel magazine review for tiger army, death march and more.

tiger army and death march live. this friday night at slims, san francisco.

this friday is gonna be rad in san francisco, Tiger Army live and not only that but Skin Head Rob's new project DEATH MARCH will be playing too. I can't wait. I'm going to record and review the whole thing. stay tuned folks and if your in the bay area. FUCKING GO!

brian mccann jr.

so excited to see death march live and i hope i get the chance to meet skin head rob. 

this will be my 2nd time seeing tiger army but the first time was many moons ago back in ireland with the bastards in 2005. so so so so stoked. 

my big wheel magazine review for bone crusher, harrington saints, blank spots and more. live in oakland.

here it is you guys. what a great night. click the link below. and check out all the bands. brian mccann jr.

my big wheel magazine review for bone crusher, harrington saints, blank spots and more.

my big wheel magazine's old firm casuals and more review

ok guys, here it is, my 3rd review for big wheel. this time for the old firm casuals and a bunch of other amazing band that played at the parkside recently. click the link below.

my big wheel magazine "best of the west mini tour"

photos by the great Jody Lyon. click the link below for more of his work.
jody lyon photography

my big wheel magazine's the adicts review

ok guys. here it is. my big wheel magazine's THE ADICTS review! what an amazing night! click on the link for the entire review and the link below that for the videos i recorded. brian mccann jr.

My Big Wheel Magazine's THE ADICTS live in San Francisco 2012 Review

THE ADICTS live in San Francisco 2012 (Part One Video)

the night I got to meet lars frederiksen (rancid, the bastards, old firm casuals)

i live in san francisco now so i see him all the time but a long long time ago I was a kid growing up in a small rural village in Ireland, and if you ever told me back than that i'd do half the things i've done in the last few years i would have never believed you. but all that stuff is for another post. going back to this, and in relation. I never thought i'd ever meet him. I spent my days in secondary school in dunmore, co. galway writing LARS across one pair of knuckles and PUNX across the other. my school books were always covered in band logos and  all i wanted to do when i busted out of their is play in bands and see shows and have fun. wich is basically what I am doing now. and I know anything I havent done yet, I will. and thats a pretty confident thing to say, but i dont say it with any kind of cocky asshole-ness, i say it with the belief that anything is possible,  and alot of that belief started after this amazing and exciting night in 2005.

so my brother seen that lars and the bastards were coming to dublin, it was huge for all of us. we booked tickets straight away and i booked time off work. at that time i was working and in college and my brothers were all in school. i remember getting dressed that morning and waiting for my parents to honk their horn and pick me up. so i picked out my favorite rancid shirt (yeah i was that guy, i still am) and ran to my parents packed van. off to dublin we go. i dont know much about driving or streets or highways but it took way longer to get to dublin from galway back than. 

finally, we got to dublin, as soon as we got there me and brothers were so excited we just wanted to get out of the van and run straight to the venue. in our minds there was that chance lars or one of the bastards were around or the other chance of an early line we wanted to beat. and on top of that we just wanted out of that subway wrapper infested van.

so were outside and my parents are looking for parking. me and two brothers are there, im like just 19 and their younger than me. outside the venue right on temple bar and were just sort of hanging out, theres a few other punk looking kids so at least we know were in the right place. it was really only like 20 minutes before the front door of the music theatre swings open and Lars Fucking Frederiksen comes walking out of there and crosses the street to nearby internet cafe. I remember clearly he was wearing all white and had long blonde spikes and patches everywhere. I was so young and new to the punk scene even the way he was dressed made me kinda go wow in my chest cause for real, he was probaly the most alternatively dressed person i've met up to that point. never mind what he was wearing though it was fucking lars. so we all just kinda stod like leaves and i couldnt open my mouth to say hi. 

me and family and friends now outside of the internet cafe thinking thinking thinking.... what should we do. we cant just pounce on him when he comes out. hmmm.. than it hit me. just before this show the LFATB album viking came out and in the inlay it shows him opening a sticker covered fridge. so i wanted to get him a sticker or a magnet to add. quickly, I ran to an irish shop of the road from there and picked up a guinness magnet. Quickly i ran back and continued waiting. about 5 minutes later Lars came out and as he was walking out of there I just went behind and said nervously "Lars..." he turned around right away and we got talking. he loved the magnet. my parents and everybody came over and got talking than and it was great. we spoke for about 20 minutes than Lars had to go and as he walked back to the venue Gordy Carbone and Big Jay Bastard came out. It was great. We got everything signed and lots of pictures. the rest of the night was amazing. Tigar Army played a great show and the bastards were incredible. there ya go a little insight to the first time i ever met lars.

brian mccann jr. 

me, my mother, friends, brothers and Lars.

me, my brothers and Gordy and Big Jay Bastard.

Lars and Craig.

Lars rocking out.

Lars and my mother only last year in San Francisco. 

the night I got to meet matt freeman (rancid, devil's brigade, operation ivy)

one of the best nights ever, heres what happened. when i got my tattoo by lars in november 2010 he told me Matt was bringing Devil's Brigade to dublin I was stoked. really stoked.

Lucky for me I knew the promoters that were putting the show on so I contacted them asking if I could help out. They said I could so i showed up really early to the show that day and helped move gear, bring drinks and food to the backstage area of the venue and so on, some might say thats work but I honestly would have payed to help out, it was fun for me and Gar and Sarah are total legends.

On top of all this a few nights before the show I got devil's brigade tattooed on my leg and after uploading the pic to facebook I got a message from the band informing me I had been put on the guestlist. I was again stoked. really stoked.

So after about an hour or two there, everything was set up and the band were due any minute. I went for a walk with a mate of mine down the street that needed new drum sticks. when I came back to the venue there they were. Matt was sitting down on the stage looking very tired and the others were kinda hanging around. I walked over to them and the guitarist knew my face and had remembered my tattoo. Once Matt saw my tattoo we talked for a minute but than everyone got up again to do sound checks.

When Devil's Brigade did theyre sound check everyone went back up stairs or outside. But not me I stayed for the whole thing and it was sweet. like my own little mini show. after that i went to go meet my wife for a while cause I didnt want Matt to think i was some kind of stalker and maybe an hour later I went back up the long and twisted stairs of Whelan's. the backstage area was full of members and friends of the support bands, many of wich were my friends too. we hung out, had a few beers and I sort of just waited by Devil's Brigades dressing room till i felt the moment was right.

Half way through the second band, Kevin a good mate of mine comes through the door and tells me all their interviews etc are finished and if i want to goo in the dressing room I should do it now. So I  go in there, scared out of my witts and tell Matt how excited I am to meet him and what a dream come true this whole thing is. He was really cool about everything and signed about 20 things for me. He even took a photo of my Devil's Brigade tattoo. i thought that was pretty cool. So I sat down, talked to them for a while and left the room just before they went on. I filmed pretty much the whole show. had a complete blast and after they played hoped a cab to a different venue and saw The Queers who were also great. all in all it was a fantastic night. soo much fun and I hope to meet the legend that is again sometime.

brian mccann jr

devil's brigade (live in dublin) part 1

here it is. me and the man himself, Mr. Matt Freeman. 

my devil's brigade tattoo. 

        heres all the cds and stuff i got signed by Matt, and Lars a few months earlier. 

my big wheel magazine's rancid and cock sparrer review

this was a huge deal for me. not going to go into in too much cause once you click the link it will tell you everything but one thing id like to say before ending this is a thank you to BIG WHEEL MAGAZINE for giving me the chance to do this. it took hours to write, but when you love something time doesnt matter. i hope you enjoy reading this.

brian mccann jr

My Big Wheel Magazine's "Rancid and Cock Sparrer Review"

my ex bands. cut the reins and carry no banners.

so right now im not in a band. i was in bands for years back in ireland, so its a little weird. but i havent been in a band for so long im used to it now, wich is a bad thing really. i am working on music with my brothers right now but its long distance so it will be time before anythings released. all that aside, i am still so proud of the bands i was in.

my first band Carry No Banners started in early 2007, even late 2006 if were talking about lyrics and ideas. It was a punk band with some ska and oi tossed in. It was me and my two brothers Mike and Shane at the start and we soon added friends Alan and Donal. We played some great shows and had alot of fun but ended less than a year later for no real reason. it was tough but i think we all knew we'd start other bands wich made it a lot easier.

A few months later all five of us got back together and decided to start Cut The Reins. a more hardcore punk band with a little bit of crust mixed through. again we played many shows, supported many bands and had a great run before ending in late 2010. this time ending because some members needed more college or work time while others (me) wanted to move. in total we did a few irish tours, one uk tour, released two albums and one split 7 inch.

even talking about these bands and the whole experience makes me a little emotional. i got to make great life long friends and share the stage with some amazing bands, the restarts, strike anywhere, outbreak, leftover crack and alot of others. some of our friends even got tattoos of our logo even after we ended wich means alot to me and the other members.

Even though its been turned off for some time now, i still give out the cds to people i meet and the tattoos and memories will never go away so it's never gonna be dead fully and who knows we're all still friends and three of us are real brothers so a reunion show in the future is always a possibility.

Lastly, before ending this and putting up links its important for me to mention my parents, who were two huge parts of the band. my father Brian, who wears a huge CUT THE REINS tattoo on his arm drove us to about every show we ever did, even the ones in uk and took us to every recording studio. my mom was always good at selling merch for us making food for other bands even having the RESTARTS stay at our house. so heres some links. we are no longer together but if i feel if i have a blog this is something i should share as it's something very important to me.

brian mccann jr

cut the reins supporting leftover crack in galway, ireland

cut the reins (last show) live in galway

carry no banners (live in dunmore)

some of our stuff on interpunk.

cut the reins facebook page

carry no banners facebook page

the blank spots official "spare change" music video.

here is is. the official music video i did for the amazing Blank Spots. i filmed edited and did everything else for this video. I'm very proud of it and very proud to have worked with such an amazing musician and friend Talon. 

Even though this video is funny, its about really serious shit that Talon has gone through, so check it out, read the lyrics and go to a Blank Spots show! also if you like the video, contact me and we can talk about making a music video for your band. 

brian mccann jr.

Blank Spots "Spare Change" Official Music Video

Blank Spots Official Facebook Page

please check out my youtube channels.

so i have two youtube channels. i have one for music, shows, music videos that i create and other punk stuff. the other channel i have is for videos i make with my wife Jeannette. the one i have with Jeannette will be going again really soon. we decided when we moved here a year ago to give it a break cause we had so much on but more stuff will be uploaded really soon.

the music one.
britunesjr

the me and jeannette having adventures one.
brianmccannjr

hope you guys enjoy watching these.
brian mccann jr.

me and my old man in sf 2012.

seeing the adicts tonight. can't wait.

going to see the adicts tonight. pretty excited about it, it's my first time seeing them and also my one year anniversary since moving from ireland.

can't wait to hear classics like steam roller, viva la revolution and chinese takeaway among others im sure they'll play. also im going to get some footage so check over again in the next few days.

brian mccann jr.