Category: punk band

  • King of Fools

    Every space in my life is filled.

    Except for the most important space, which has been void for ages. The void is immense, and I doubt now it will ever be filled again.

    Things, nicknaks, books in towers, shoes upon shoes, pans atop pans, prints upon prints. So many “things”. Things purchased not out of need, but to fill someone elses void. Things saved and forgotten in boxes, to collect dust for nostalgia? Need?

    No amount of organizing, cleaning, no matter how much you do ever matters, nor works. The teetring mountain of things will overwhelm you, it will tip over on you and you will become lost in the clutter.

    When you realize that you are part of the clutter, just another thing with no space left for self. So you forget who you are, and give up more space until you are part of the background, part of the clutter in someone elses life.

    Then you become the house, to hold the clutter. The Foundation, encompassing all, keeping things safe, keeping the peace, like Atlas all of the weight is on your shoulders.

    Then you disappear, until you speak up, only to be given a performance to pull you back,  to get you to go silent, to forget again, to meld back into the clutter. To get you to be a creek in the wood of the foundation on a freezing day.

    Woe, my story is the story of millions of others, both men and women, i know im not alone in this tale. Just another fool/tool; be it fear of being alone, or keeping your honor and word out of pride, or not giving up in the face of overwhelming defeat. Where is the logic in any of that when you finally realize you are a thing? Knowing that you are a provider, a foundation, the protection, but not valued or recognized for any of it, or shown real affection or love. You are just a thing to be used for the comfort of others.

    This my dear, is what fools do. Maybe im the king of fools. To know the truth, walking that fine line between speaking truth to power, but at the same time knowing you’re the punchline of the biggest self-owning joke of all time.


    Actually, on second thought, Mike Ness can keep his crown. I have no need to be the king of anything.

      ©️ Jacob Pickard. 2026.

  • Cacophony

    Cacophony Album Cover – Rudementary Peni release 1988

    A wall of sound, like a train into solid mountain granite

    A cacophonic quartet of smashing rhythm

    Surrounded by darkness and a halo of thin light.

    The bar, black walls, stale smoke and beer

    Illumination of execution by genocide, crucifixion for/of beliefs

    Murder, letting of blood

    Metamorphosis

    Material to ethereal, body to spirit

    Or some would call it glory, ascendancy of man to heaven

    Cyclical thunderous melody, droning and blooming into monotonous complexity

    Bombastic renewal of circles cycles, of intricate repetition.

    The eye of Isis, the death and rebirth of Osiris. The annual flooding of the Nile.

    Life is a system, the process of rearrangement of cyclical moving parts, like a wall of sound.



    Written around ~1995 after seeing the band Neurosis at Okayz Corral in Madison, WI. It was so loud I couldn’t hear correctly for an entire week.  ©Jacob A Pickard.  2025.


  • Absolute Favorite Song, Group, or type of music?

    Okay people out there in WP land this is a difficult question and one that is very hard to answer.

       It gets worse if you have diverse musical genres you enjoy and listening moods that you mold the music around your feelings or state at the time.

            Personaly; punk, hardcore, metal, & rock have been my main as well as many of the sub-genera’s of them all. Dark wave, industrial, blues, Ambient, folk, Folk Nordic metal, old country and bluegrass. I also like classical, early rap, more jazzy hip-hop/trip-hop or political (here’s looking at you Public Enemy) rap. I’ve never much been into pop, but PJ Harvey, Lady Gaga & Billie Elish i have a soft spot for because of their voice, they speak their truth’s, and the dark feminine nature they exude (Check out Chelsea Wolf). Im not a swifty but I like that she speaks out her politics and stands her ground.

    So I im going to try to answer one of the questions I asked above and of course it is not 100%, but my favorite band(s) of all time goes to CLUTCH. Every song is a story, the lyrics build it into a saga, and the music a foundation for a mythology.

    I first saw them in my brother’s basement in Madison, WI. Everytime I see them it’s like meeting up with an old friend.

    Released 1991

    Released 1995

    Released 1998

    Released 2013

    Released 2022

    Clutch Clutch Album Cover 1995

        Honorable mentions go to Carcass, The Dead Boys, Mastodon, Gwar, Godflesh, Boy Sets Fire, Paradise Lost, Subhumans, Grinch (west coast progressive hardcore), Bahaus, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Amy Winehouse, The Cure, Beethoven, Curve, Public Enemy, Anthrax, Conflict, Brian Eno, Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy, Chelsea Wolf, Suldusk, Swallow the Sun, Red Fang, Melvins, My Bloody Valentine, Coil, etc…etc…etc…etc.

    Released 1986

    Released 1992

    Released 2019

    Released 2006

    Released 1991

    Released 1977


    So what do ally’all like? Can you answer this question?


  • Until Nothing Remains

    Let them fall from your lips on the ground
    And consume you in flames with your crown
    You can add up your ill-gotten gains
    And keep count till nothing remains



    Rise ye wolves up above the sound
    Through the choir of sheep as they drown
    Raise the banner of the proud and untamed
    Burn the kingdom down… until nothing remains

    Death throe dance pul in quite the crowd
    Cheering throngs of the scorned still unbowed
    The system’s dead and we spit on the grave
    Let it fucking rot… until nothing remains

    You hide in a sickness that leaves you unbowed
    Scorched earth policy friendships allow
    For your dreams and their failings to mount
    An assault on continous lies

    Let them fall from your lips on the ground
    And consume you in flames with your crown
    You can add up your ill-gotten gains
    And keep count till nothing remains

    When ashes remain
    Burn… ’til the truth is out
    Burn… down to hallowed ground
    Burn… and rebuild again
    Burn. Burn. Until nothing remains


    Boy Sets Fire

    Written by: Joshua Latshaw, Nathan Gray, Robert Ehrenbrand, Charles W Istvan, Christopher Rakus
    Album: While a Nation Sleeps
    Released: 2013