Married To The Church

For better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health I go to shows at The Church. I go when I am broke. I go when I don’t even have tickets. I go when I feel like shit. But there is nothing in those vows that says anything about enduring the ungodly sweltering hell of a church basement.

I get it. It’s punk. It’s cool. No air conditioning. Sweaty, hipster-punks moshing to Blacklisted or bopping to Passion Pit (before they got too cool and moved to the Mann Center). But sometimes I wonder if I will come out of the show alive. I think it might be a legitimate health risk to not have air conditioning in The Church. Maybe only a health risk for us elderly folks but a risk all the same.

The fact that I have yet to see someone pass out at a summer show at The Church is quite miraculous. I’ve seen fights, making out, drugs, weird dudes in weird hats and half naked girls but never heatstroke. I might be the first.

The fans, they so kindly provide, just don’t cut it. Sure, if you are lucky enough to stand directly in front of it you can catch a soft breeze but the people around you will give you dirty looks for hogging the breathable air. Otherwise, the fans just stir the oppressive air around.

Maybe I’m just not punk enough. Maybe I’m too old. But a vow is a vow, and till death do us apart. And death might just do The Church and I apart when I sweat my skin off at the next show.

Things I Think You Should See

4/2-Making Time-Girls/ The Dum Dum Girls@ Voyeur

4/2- Major Lazer (Diplo), Rusko, Sleigh Bells@ Starlight Ballroom

4/3-Best Coast/Reading Rainbow/Creepoid@ The Barbary

4/5- Florence And The Machine/Holy Hail@ TLA

4/6-Serena Maneesh/The Depreciation Child@ KFN

4/13- Xui Xui@ The First Unitarian Church

4/15Titus Andronicus/The Babies@ The Barbary

4/14-Orbit To Leslie/ Caves, Da Comrade!, Kite Party@Johnny Brendas

4/15-The Thermals /Past Lives/Coathangers@ The First Unitarian Church

4/16-Liars/Fol Chen@ The First Unitarian Church

4/18-Real Estate/ The Beets/Family Portrait@ The Barbary

4/22-Architects@ The First Unitarian Church

4/25-Echo And The Bunnymen@ The Keswick Theater

4/25-Earth Crisis/ First Blood/Think As Blood@ The Barbary

4/25-Think About Life@ Johnny Brendas

4/30-Thursday/Converge/Touche Amore/Lewd Acts@ The Troc

Hockey Brings Me Sunshine

Hockey, the four piece band hailing from Portland, Oregon, is nothing short of being the quintessential hipster band of 2010. The hype surrounding them is thick and rightfully so. Hipsters Eat For Free has been trying to get a hold of Hockey since they were last in Philadelphia and when we finally did it brought sunshine to my rainy day, unfortunately only metaphorically.

Although singer Ben Grubin and I were worlds away from each other (he was in London) we each were feeling the bitter chill, relentless winds and icy rain; him more so than me. I spoke with the front man of Hockey while he wandered around London in the rain. “How’s the weather there?” “It’s freezing rain and stuff. I’m walking with literally my entire family. My sister just got married and moved here. I am walking to the tube, but I should have a few minutes before I have to go down into it.” While I was comfortable at my desk, I could hear the drops of rain and the distant conversations of the people around him as Ben and I chatted about his music.

Hockey is a prime example of an indie band. They produced Mind Chaos on their own and walked away from a deal with Columbia records. “We were just a two piece then…It was way too tense trying to write singles with producers. It just wasn’t cool.” Ben reveals that rejecting Columbia was mostly due to the fact that they lacked the confidence as a band and simply were “not ready for anything.” While most bands in the same place as Hockey would have jumped at the chance to belong to Columbia, Ben realized they just weren’t good enough yet… yet.

That’s when Ben and Jeremy (Jerm) Reynolds decided they needed some additions to the band in order to make the music they were striving to make. Drummer, Anthony Stassi, and guitarist, Brian White, were the missing ingredients for success. The new members added to their sound and provided the lacking confidence. But Columbia was still out of the picture.

Instead, the colorful quartet wrote and self-produced Mind Chaos. No big shots telling them what’s what and all the control in their hands. “It was a cool and simple process. It was good for us at that time. We could do what we wanted, control the board.” From the short ten minutes I spoke with Ben Grubin I got the vague impression that he is a perfectionist, which is a great thing to be when making music and an even better thing when you have all the say.

Grubin did most of the writing for Mind Chaos. “Others added, we arranged it together, added solos etc” Hockey is in the very beginning stages of creating a new album, Grubin tells me. They only have two new songs so far but that is enough to get the storm going. This is one storm I can’t wait to weather. With the added members of Hockey the writing process has become more collaborative; hopefully we can expect a new and exciting sound from their album in the distant future.

Hockey, although it has its own unique sound, has been compared to bands like MGMT and The Strokes. In the music world it is nearly impossible to break free from being compared to someone else. “It doesn’t bother me. It’s inevitable and there is some truth in it. It puts music on the map…Where music is right now everyone is a combination of past and present. I’d like to escape it but I don’t think we’ve done that yet.” I see the likeness in musicality between Hockey and other indie dance bands out there today, but their intellectual take on dance/pop music is what will distinguish them from the others.

Most of the tracks on Mind Chaos have the killer combination of infectious dance beats and witty, thoughtful lyrics. These are songs you can listen to while dancing at The Barbary or at home while writing a blog post. I asked Ben one final question as his family urged him to get a move on, “What do you want listeners to take away from Mind Chaos?” “A dynamic ride and lyrics… Whatever I can do I’ll do it.” And I like what he is doing. As Gruibin descended to the tube, I turned up the volume to “Curse This City” and danced the storm away.

Diary of a Band: Odessa Stair

Odessa Stair, the band that other bands didn’t want to play with at recess, has been reaching new levels of popularity. Between opening up for U2, swinger parties at Feist’s house, and Pat winning Best Actor for Crazy Heart at the Oscars, there has been precious little time for diary entries.

We finished our demo and committed it to 100 cassettes in December ’09. We decided that instead of a set title, each cassette would be individually named after one of the rebus riddles you find on the caps of Lionshead, such as Sky’s the Limit or Lady and the Tramp. We learned a very valuable lesson: Never try something so stupid again. Explaining that to everyone is bad enough, but we got drunk while solving the riddles, so a lot of them are called Fuk U LOL! orPUSSYMART!!!!

People have not been shy to me about their distaste for the cassette format. “What’s next? 8-Track?” “How are you going to make money selling tapes?” “Can you put it on a CD-R for me?” Let me be blunt: If your band’s demo is on CD-R, you’re an asshole. Hold a copy of your CD-R demo in your hand and look in the mirror. If the first words out of your mouth aren’t “God, I’m a pussy,” you probably don’t even have a mouth in the first place.

We played our first Brooklyn show in January at a place called Goodbye Blue Monday. People from Philly get very impressed when you tell them you played a show in Brooklyn, as if there are at least five record company executives in every Brooklyn club at all times. Little did they know that playing Goodbye Blue Monday requires little more than signing up through e-mail. The show went well and some drunk chicky declared her affections for Dan’s belly, but she didn’t buy anything. Girls are assholes. Girls and bands with CD-Rs, man. Assholes.

I feel better than ever about this band. Creepy strangers are starting to dig us, people are enjoying the tape and we’ve got tons of new songs. I can’t wait until Odessa Stair becomes the soundtrack to your lives and is the last real thing you can hold on to in this world of pain and corporate greed. That’s when we’ll sign to Sony and take over the Billboard charts on the strength of our smash single “How’s My Dick Feelin’ (In Your Booty).” Everyone will know it as “That Song in the KIA Commercial.”

~Steve

PS: If you were stupid enough to get rid of your tape deck, you can download our tape here (Dan will give your computer AIDS if you burn it on CD-R): http://www.archive.org/details/OdessaStair-__________

PPS: We’ve got a show at the Khyber on Tuesday, April 6. Come out and see us. You check out all the other bands that get hyped on Hipsters Rarely Update This Website, so you might as well check us out too.

Constantly On the Verge: Philly Rock ‘N’ Roll (Part 1)

Since the invention of rock-n-roll, certain regions of the country have added their own unique flavor to the mix. Cities within these regions have fostered their own rock culture and acts that reveled in it. Philadelphia is no exception, but seems to stand like a volcano looming in the distance; it could erupt at any time and should be feared and respected, but has mostly lain dormant. This is a city that is almost there, seemingly permanently.

You can’t talk about rock without mentioning its heritage. Macon, Georgia gave us Little Richard and Memphis gave us Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. St. Louis was the home of Chuck Berry. The fusing of southern blues, country, and gospel created the foundations of what all rock music is based on.

Over a short period of time, the acts and regions started to influence one another. Picturesque southern California created pleasant surf/car/girl-loving music like, The Beach Boys and also the reverb work of Dick Dale. During the 50s and 60s, Michigan’s booming industry was fertile ground for music as well, with early pioneers like Hank Ballard and The Midnighters along with Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels. Later in the 60s, a revolutionary band called The Stooges emerged from Ann Arbor, taking rock in a new direction. In the 1970s, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s southern rock made its mark, particularly in the modern karaoke scene. Then, of course, there is the omnipresent New York City, which needs no introduction.

Sometime between the late 70s and the early 80s is when things really started to change. Rock acts were evolving and diverging, some staying in the time-tested mainstream while others embraced the obscure. Cities like Nashville hung on while others, like Detroit, seemed to crumble in the industry. New York remained omnipresent. Glam and hair rockers like Guns-N-Roses dominated airwaves from Los Angeles and rose to super stardom. At the same time, Boston was nursing a burgeoning underground with The Pixies and Mission of Burma. The Dead Kennedys came out of San Francisco in 1979 in response to the hippie fervor of the previous decades and bands like Jefferson Starship and The Grateful Dead. In the late 80s and into the early 90s, music turned upside down. The underground became the popular and the stage was set in Washington State. Nirvana, Soundgarden, and even Sunny Day Real Estate blossomed in Seattle, the home of Jimi Hendrix.

Yes, the art of rock-n-roll has a long tradition of evolution created from the spliced genes of the cities that adopted it. Chicago, Austin, Portland, and D.C. were all there. New York, still, remains omnipresent. But what about Philly?

To Be Continued…

Post By: Patrick Neiderriter

Kill Me In My Face!

When Kill You in the Face contacted us here at Hipsters Eat For Free to see if we could help promote their huge upcoming show, I jumped at the chance to sit down and chat with these fine fellows. With a name like Kill You in the Face, I was awaiting some sick ass stories about fights, rage and drugs but those things were not in their agenda. Instead Mike Romeo (guitar), Alejandro Torres (drums) and James Saul (keyboard) let me see what normal, down to earth guys they really are. I was amazed at how connected they all seemed to each other, finishing each others sentences, laughing simultaneously or even saying the exact same thing at the exact same time! Like, Siamese twins.

Of course we talked about their show this Sunday night at Kung Fu Necktie with Twin Thousands and what a huge deal it is that Gretta Cohn formally from Cursive, is in Twin Thousands but we also talked about my favorite three things; music, hipsters and Philly. I met up with them at their practice/living space in South Philly. Nelson, their feline friend made himself comfortable on my lap and we got started.

HEFF: Can you guys tell me a little bit about your creative process?

MR: It’s mostly really pretty collaborative. Like someone will start playing a riff and someone else will embellish upon it and someone else will be like oh that’s pretty cool.

HEFF: And where do they lyrics come from?

MR: Lyrics always come last. We kind of work the lyrics around the music. I know a lot a lot a lot of other people do it the other way… cause we have parts of a story that we are telling and we sort of fit chunks in where we can.

HEFF: What are you guys in the process of now?

MR: Now we are starting to plan spring and summer. We’ve got a big show in a couple of weeks. In March we’ll be in Danger Danger (Gallery). We are going to try to do some regional shows.

AT: A lot of new songs too.

MR: We just recorded a song for the label we are on Punk Rock Payroll. They are putting out a comp and we recoded a new song for that and then we are going to have like some B sides and one of the songs from Mighty Atlas on there.

HEFF: Any possibility for a full length coming out sometime soon?

MR: That’s what we’re working on.

AT: We have about six or seven new songs so far. We are constantly working on new stuff. We have a lot of ideas for some new songs. But we are all really pushing for a release regardless. I feel like most likely it will happen no matter what.

HEFF: Is there a time frame?

JS: No, not really. Plus, we also want to work on the stuff a little more and make sure it’s really good.

MR: And figure out the packaging (laughs)!

HEFF: I am excited for the next great packaging idea. (They give me The Mighty Atlas ray gun.) Did you make these yourself?

MR: Yeah. We make them here.

HEFF: How did you decided to make the ray guns?

MR: Um how did we? Oh! Alright. Pretty much we were thinking a lot about how we wanted to do the release because we did the split and that was the board game and The Extraodinaires area always doing their books. So we thought okay how are we going to do this? And with this story that we are telling we started kicking around the idea that it would be cool to start like vinyl toys and try to sell them at the merch table and just do something collectible like that. And that started to morph into well what if the toys were the album and then it just rollercoastered from there.

HEFF: I assume this is coasting you a lot of money to make?

MR: Yeah (laughs). I mean we don’t have as good of a profit margin as most other bands but I mean it becomes worth it.

JS: I feel like it’s really unique and awesome. I can’t believe it happened.

AT: To see the faces of the happy people.

MR: Like when we go to a town we have never really been to before and we set up merch and we play and people wonder over and they’re like “ Well what the fuck is that?”

HEFF: I know that The Mighty Atlas has a story that it portrays. Will the new album follow suit?

MR: It’s going to be the same. Everything we do is just sort of pieces of a bigger story. Should we go into the story?

HEFF: Yeah!

MR: Well the title The Mighty Atlas is about our main character, Atlas. This is set in the semi-near future. Basically it’s a unified earth, but we’re invaded by alien forces and Atlas is a turncoat and his son is basically the leader of the earth rebellion. They come down and blind sight us and they win. Humans are in camps and there’s a revolution and stuff like that. You know there are some of those themes on the EP here but I think the full length and a lot f the songs we are doing are really focusing on Atlas’ past, his failures, his victories, his woman, Helena.

AT: Pretty epic.

JS: We haven’t written any lyrics for the songs yet we just know what the story is going to be about even though we just have the music now. It totally feels right.

AT: The first song will be the song from the compilation.

HEFF: I like the way you guys seem so in tune with each other.

MR: We do. We work really well, for the most part. You know there are rough days. Like we’ll start working and I’ll be crabby and short with Adam or we’ll start practicing and Ale will come out of the room be like “let’s get this shit over with.” You know but it is what it is. For the most part we have a good dynamic and a good balance.

HEFF: Where did you get the name for your main character?

MR: The Greek mythology. I read somewhere that a common misconception is that Atlas is holding up the earth, which is what I thought but it turns out he’s actually holding up the sky. That’s his punishment from Zeus for rebelling. Then when we started really hashing out this idea, that came up. And that it would be kind of cool if Atlas was our character because now he is that separation between the aliens (the sky) and the people of earth (the earth).

HEFF: Do you guys ever write about life experiences?

AT: I think it definitely reflects on our stories. We try to be as emotional as we can you know to sort of evoke the emotion of whoever we are talking about in the story.

HEFF: You guys are fairly new in the grand scheme of things. How are you planning on defining your sound?

JS: I feel like it’s coming out a lot in these new songs, just the way we are playing.

MR: And I think that’ll be the definition of our sound, that we don’t always necessarily fall into a sound. If we start writing a song and it’s a little bit heavier and has breakdowns, we’ll do that. Or like the song we just recorded is super poppy, like very Reggie and the Full Effects. But it doesn’t matter. We would never stop ourselves and be like “no that’s too this or it’s not that enough.

AT: And it’s funny because I wish that people could hear the other stuff we’re working on. It’s so different, so much heavier…

JS: It’s still cohesive. Like we are starting to think of some order of like what’s happening on the full length. It’s good the way that the songs, they do have all these different kind of feels to them in some way but they are also together. Like it sounds like we’re writing an album and it’s really cool.

HEFF: So, you mentioned that you all have different musical backgrounds. What are they?

MR: I grew up on a lot of punk and hardcore.

HEFF: There is a lot of clear hardcore influence.

MR: Yeah, like when I grew up there was a lot of bands with breakdowns and a lot of heavier stuff and then I leaned a little more on the punk side of things where I feel like you (AT) were more metal minded.

AT: (laughs) I love heavy metal. Death metal.

JS: I like heavy metal too. Like, Iron Maiden. I love Iron Maiden. We all kind of like brutal music and break down kind of stuff. We definitely all have a love for breakdowns.

HEFF: It is definitely evident in your music

MR: And even beyond that when we started to get a little older we started falling more into Cursive …

AT: The early Emo.

MR: Built to Spill.

JS: D.C. hardcore.

MR: Q and Not U

JS: Rites of Spring

Simultaneously: Fugazi!

JS: Oh and I’m obsessed with the new Beach House Album

AT: I love dance music. Pop Dance

JS: Michael Jackson

HEFF: In every interview and article I read about you guys they mention your somewhat misleading name.

MR: We actually got a really shitty review one time because our name was misleading.

JS: The late Steve Wells. He said that our name should be Mouse Cock (laughs).

MR: Or Fussy Eaters. That was another one.

JS: Or Three of Us Wear Glasses.

MR: If you look on Philly Weekly.com, it’s on there.  We got like a really good article in the Weekly and then a week later we got this other one. Same publication. The dude was so pissed off.

HEFF: How do you guys take bad reviews?

MR: That one was a little rough. We remember it really well. But that was the first really bad one. But afterwards it was more funny than anything. And I would like to start a side project called Mouse Cock.

HEFF: I would support that.

MR: But Steven Wells, goddamn him (laughs).

HEFF: What do you guys think of the Hipster lifestyle that has kind of taken over the world right now?

AT: Some would say we are hipsters.

MR: I Don’t know. I don’t feel particularly hip (laughs).

JS: Why can’t I just like records and record shopping?

MR: Well, you know as far as like the term hipster, I think it’s, I don’t know I think it’s a little funnier than it is actually serious.

AT: It sort of alienates you a little bit. You know? I feel like I can get down in all different sorts of situations.

JS: Yeah you don’t want to be pretentious.

MR: I mean I am pretty snarky but…

AT: People are judgmental by nature. It’s just the way it goes.

MR: If you are okay with that then you are a hipster.

HEFF: And if you wear tight jeans.

MR: My jeans are moderately fitted… and I am wearing this hoodie sweatshirt (laughs) But I don’t wear neckerchiefs!

HEFF: Then maybe you’re not a hipster.

MR: well, to old people I am.

AT: I eat meat!

HEFF: That’s a big no-no if you want to be a hipster.

JS: I am vegan.

MIKE: Me too.

HEFF: Me too.

MR: Hipsters unite (laughs)!

HEFF: So are you guys super excited to play with… (Twin Thousands)

AT: YES!

MR: Oh my god yeah!

JS: Dude!

MR: It’s really crazy. I feel like whenever I talk about it I am on the verge of gushing and I don’t want to be. I want to be cool and collected about it but I am really excited about it.

AT: I’m mainly concerned with hammering out the songs and just being very tight. I can’t wait to practice tonight.

JS: It’s going to be great!

AT: It’s going to be a great show.

HEFF: How did you come in contact with Twin Thousands?

MR: Frede at the label had been in touch with Steven from Kung Fu Necktie and he was like “yo, we need another band.” And Frede said, “We got one.” And then I got a text message at work: “What are you doing the 28^th?” And I was like “uh I don’t know, something I guess” and then he told us. I am just really excited because you know Greta from Cursive. She played on the Ugly Organ and that album was such a big deal when it came out.

AT: And Twin Thousands are really good.

MR: I was almost expecting like person was in big band and now they are in mediocre band but they’re really good and that makes me nervous… There are always a certain amount of nerves I feel like when we play; the ride to shows, in the van are always a little quite (laughs).

HEFF: Is there anything you guys do before a show to calm yourselves down?

MR: Nah. We pretty much just get there and inquire about drink tickets.

AT: Right before you play it’s pretty intense. People are looking at you, everyone is waiting for you.

MR: Everyone is waiting for you with their arms crossed.

AT: but it doesn’t out weight the feeling that you get. It’s such a great feeling to play.

HEFF: You are the first band I’ve interviewed to admit that you get nervous when you play.

MR: I think anyone who says they don’t is either full of shit or they don’t really care about what they’re doing. I feel like what makes me nervous is just the fact that we are going up there and doing something that we put so much work into and so much of ourselves into.

HEFF: What do you guys think of the Philly music scene and the fans? Is there a special connection?

AT: I feel like you have to make a full connection with the fans in Philly.

MR: It’s a rollercoaster… I feel like Philly is a tough town. The people who come out to shows I feel are a little harder to impress and even if you do impress them I feel like it’s a little harder for them to…

AT: Get used to you.

MR: And be like good show or like uncross their arms. The best part of Philly music is the smaller shows. Like, JR’s Bar and Danger Danger and basements. Even at the R5 level it’s harder for people to warm up to you. But as far as all the other bands in Philly, everyone is so cool… There was a pretty big pop in the Philly music scene and then it sort of fizzled out really quickly. But I realty really think as a city, as a scene we’ve got a fighting chance we just have to be less compartmentalized…

Adam Plante, the bassist enters.

MR: Boy did we slander you (laughs)!

Kill Me In The Face Any Day!

Loyal readers,

Philly’s own, Kill You in the Face is having a radical show on Sunday Feb. 28th at Kung Fu Necktie!  They are playing with Twin Thousands (Gretta Cohn from Cursive’s new band)!  It is sure to be KILLER show.  So, don’t miss it or I’ll kill you…in the face!  Click here for tickets!

Mission of Burma: Still Kickin’

Mission of Burma made my brain melt this past Friday night at the First Unitarian Church. Who knew these old men could bring it so hard? Known for their ridiculously loud shows and raging songs, Mission of Burma did not disappoint.

There have been so many times when I go to a show where the band members, to put it lightly, are no longer in their prime and it is evident in their live music. But when Mission of Burma played it was as if I were in a seedy bar in D.C or Boston in the early 80’s rocking along with all the other anti-establishment, angsty youth. They sounded amazing; their unblemished musicality and louder than life songs were just as I would imagine them to be in their heyday.

They began their set with “Set Up” and never backed down until the lights were out. “123 Partyy” and “Dirt” really got the crowd pumped. They played a great set with both old and new songs, all of which were played to perfection.

There were visible signs of aging, like the Plexiglas protecting Roger Miller from the defining drums, shortness of breath, wrinkles, grey hair etc… But their sound was unaffected.

This enormously influential band continues to make music and inspire current bands. It is not very often that a band can maintain its unique sound for this long and still create new music that is just as good. So, I can’t wait to see what is next for them and in the meantime I will get my earplugs ready for the next time they are in Philly.

The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth: Surfer Blood Saves The Day.

I, as a dedicated and honest journalist (okay, okay blogger), feel as though I should uncover the truth behind the nasty, rotten, smelly rumors that other, less honest and dedicated music bloggers have been spreading. I feel as though I am responsible for the information that is being given to my readers. It must be truthful! So, I am here to put you at ease.

It is NOT the end of the barely evolved, beachy, sunny, fun-times, indie rock genre that has currently taken over the industry. I am thinking of Girls, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Maps and Atlases, Micachu and The Shapes. I have read countless posts saying goodbye to this fist pumping music, that the genre is on its way out and I scream it aint so.

My proof? Surfer Blood’s Astro Coast. This album will keep the indie beach party alive! Although Surfer Blood is not a seasoned band, their music is wise. The tracks on Astro Coast are not necessarily intricate and complex but have a supremely enjoyable simplicity to them; I think there is something to be said for the smart, undemanding chords of the guitar on Astro Coast as well as the dominant hooks. They make it so easy to tap your feet and sing along to. And that is what music is all about in the end.

This is not to say that their music is not intentional. It is. The Florida based, Surfer Blood has the ability to shove this genre of music forward for another long while. Their music is not overly poppy, and conveys thoughtful composition, a perfect balance.

The third track on the album, “Take It Easy” with its simple lyrics, steady beat and African rhythms reminds me of a grittier, cooler Vampire Weekend. “Twin Peaks”, one of my favorite tracks on the album evokes late 90’s catchy rock but has its own contemporary, indie flare with distorted voices, horns and cowbells. And don’t forget their hit single, “Swim”, an epic, indie classic. Every college kid I know was playing this song in their dorm rooms while jumping and thinking about their future.  Okay, you caught me. I don’t actually know any college kids but I am sure this is accurate regardless.

And being accurate and trustworthy is what we here at Hipsters Eat For Free are all about. So, take my word, and don’t preemptively say farewell to the catchy, lo-fi, indie fun-rock just yet. Surfer Blood is here to save the day!