Friday, November 30, 2018

New Album!

Hey everyone! We've been quiet on the blog posts because we've been recording a new album called "Anybody Wanna Skate" coming out in a few months on Gods Candy Records.
Album art by Riccardo Bucchioni.




















Jonny was also busy working on a ghostwriting assignment for MTV and completed 20 songs to be used as background music on their TV shows and was asked to score the music for David Duesterberg's latest skateboard documentary called "Permission." Sal from Electric Frankenstein is resurrecting his world famous "FIST FULL OF ROCK AND ROLL" comps. Keep an ear out for F.F.O.R.R. number 8, because we'll have a track on it.

We also got to play a bunch of cool shows lately to get our sea legs back. We played SoFA Street Fair, the Knockout in SF a few times, 924 Gilman in Berkeley, The Uptown in Oakland, The Skatehouse Skatepark in Tahoe, Sheas Tavern in Reno and January 30th, we'll be opening for Hank Von Hell (ex singer of Turbonegro) at Bottom of the Hill in SF. https://www.facebook.com/events/586998255078953/


















With a new album, that means new merch. We just created a NEW MERCH STORE that we'll be adding products to. What we're most stoked on is these sweet ass skateboard decks with the new album art. limited run of 50 decks, get them before they're gone.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

New 7" Split EP, Shows, News!

Howdy! Lots of happenings since our last post. We filmed a video for the title track off our latest LP "Cold Pizza and Warm Beer!" We have a new colored vinyl split 7" EP out now on Self Destructo Records with our friends Satanic Overlords of Rock and Roll from Houston!
Here's a digital stream of our side of the split Pick up a physical copy here or stream on any digital outlet. We've had a pretty busy year all around, shows with Peelander Z, the Dwarves, DOA, Agent Orange, The Adicts, 2 shows at Punk Rock Bowling 2017 etc. Here's some pics from those shows! We've been writing and demoing songs for a new full length we'll be calling "It's Fashionable." Jonny wrote/recorded 20 songs with Neil Young producing for MTVs Ridiculousness. Needless to say, we've been really busy and having loads of fun! See our "shows" tab on the website for upcoming performances! Until next time!!!

Friday, January 15, 2016

Happy New Year!

2016 is starting off pretty fucking rad! We're back in Cup O' Pizza Studios with Neil Young producing and we've already laid down two new songs. We're recording the whole record live and will only overdub vocals and lead guitar. No more sea of layers, fuck that shit, lets do it raw. Mics in the room and GO! On the day that Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead passed away, we got together, played some Motorhead songs, drank some Jack Daniels and ended up writing a tribute AND tracking it that very night. Boy, that was a lot of fun. Here's a rough mix of the song "70 Is Too Young for Lemmy To Die!"


On Saturday February 27th, Turbojugend San Francisco is hosting their 15th anniversary party at Thee Parkside in SF. It will definitely be a night of debauchery. It wouldn't be a TJ party without some loud rock and roll, so they've put together one hell of a lineup with headliners THE DWARVES! Opening bands include Party Force, Jonny Manak and The Depressives, Monolith and Flexx Bronco!






































In other news, City Slang Fanzine named our latest record COLD PIZZA AND WARM BEER one of the top 5 albums of the year! They also wrote this sweet review!




















WMBR MIT College Radio in Cambridge Mass has been playing the shit out of our latest record, so much so, that we charted #4 for the fucking YEAR! Yeah, not bad! We're in great company too! See the full chart here!



Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Vinyl, Cassettes, Shows, Press and Stuff!

It's time for another blog update. We had a blast at this years PUNK ROCK BOWLING FESTIVAL in Las Vegas. The crowd was so interactive, a stage dive at the end of the set was in order.


Our new record COLD PIZZA AND WARM BEER is officially out on all formats - LP, CD, Cassette and Digital! Get your copy and matching tee here!
Speaking of new tee shirts, here's a new tee design courtesy of Pork Magazine head honcho Sean Aaberg which you can order here!

On to shows! We're playing the annual SoFA Street Fair this Sunday! In fact, the Metro Newspaper named us one of "Six Bands You Can't Miss" at this year's event!

SoFA is a local festival that happens every year that features local bands from the San Jose area. 85 bands, 12 stages, all ages, free and there's booze! The festival runs from 2pm to 9pm Sunday September 13th. We play the GORE PARK stage at 8pm sharp!

Lets not forget the MUDHONEY show next month at Rockbar Theater in San Jose!

We received a healthy amount of press lately, too!
Pandora Radio included us in their staff picks! Read full article here!

Our friends at RockAndRollJunkie.com gave us a lot of love this week!



They had me on their weekly podcast as a guest which was lots of fun.

Our song Choose My Fate was "Song of the Day."



They also asked me if there's something I like to eat, that I can't live without, so I told them how to make my "Helvis Mesley" breakfast sandwhich. Give it a try! It's fun AND delicious!



Here's a list of record reviews.

SLUG MAGAZINE - "Cold Pizza & Warm Beer is punk rock at its finest—it hits that sweet spot where one can hear pre-punk influences, and influences outside of punk, but it’s still gritty, grimy and from the gutter."

JUICE MAGAZINE - "Punk, garage, surf, it’s all there!"

VARLA MAGAZINE - "Overall, it’s impossible to listen to this record and not tap your foot with a smile on your face."

ROCKANDROLLJUNKIE.COM- "Enjoy these gems, they don’t come around that often."

PUNK GLOBE MAGAZINE - "Not a sinker on the CD"

DAGGER ZINE - "It’s all revved up like a worked ’68 Chevy with a 455 in it"

The record is charting quite well on college radio! We owned the charts in August on WMBR radio in Boston! WMBR is the first station in America to play punk rock music, so we're pretty stoked on this!

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

New album out now! Press! Music placements! Shows!

I'm happy to report that our new album Cold Pizza and Warm Beer is out digitally at all of your favorite online music stores and streaming sites. iTunes made it a featured release on the home page of the rock section for a week, which was really cool of them!
Colored vinyl LP and Cassette are on order. Pre order the new record here!
CD digipak will be available at our CD release show Sunday May 24th at Beauty Bar in Las Vegas! WithGuitars.com wrote this cool piece on the showcase! MaximumVolumeMusic.com also had nice things to say!



New record, new lineup, new press photos! Keeping the Cold Pizza and Warm Beer vibe going, I thought it would be funny to buy a shitload of crappy pizza and beer and get weird with it. Mission accomplished!
We've been getting a great response to the new record, CMJ wrote this cool little piece and featured a song!



If you watch the HBO show Silicon Valley, you may have noticed they used a song off of my SONGS FOR URANUS solo EP titled PARTY! Pretty sweet! Thanks dudes!

This fall we are main support for Mudhoney! Woohoo! We're also playing Shea's Tavern in Reno August 8th for the annual Turbojugend Reno meet and greet! Gonna be one hell of a party! Stay tuned for more shows, we're just starting to book them again. We've been busy putting out a record dangit!

Friday, February 27, 2015

New Year, New Album, New Lineup!

Well, it's been about a year since I've updated this for a lot of reasons and I'll fill you in on why. My Dad passed away last March from a long battle with cancer. I did a lot of soul searching and just didn't feel like doing anything but writing and recording music by myself with Neil Young producing, I went into hiding of sorts. In the last year, I've written/recorded 35 songs for MTV's Ridiculousness/Fantasy Factory to be used as background music. I used all live instruments and played them all. It was perfect timing to have such a large amount of songs to keep my mind off losing my Dad. I put The Depressives on ice after letting our bass player go and just took time off of performing. I just focused on my ghost writing work. Once I wrapped up those songs, I got back to work on The Depressives new record titled "Cold Pizza and Warm Beer." Chipping away at writing and tracking a few hours at a time when Neil, Thor and I could get into our studio until we completed tracking enough for a record. In the end we settled on the best 17 songs to use. We'll be sending the record off to Mike Wells Mastering in a few weeks and it will be pressed on vinyl LP via Self Destructo/Reach Around Records in early summer. New-ish music video! We made this music video a year ago, but I never posted it on here. See above... I just didn't feel like doing anything but locking myself in my recording studio to ghost write to keep my mind of pops, bla bla bla. Anyhow, here's a video for Choose My Fate which was on the Seven Inches split 7" with The Hip Priests (released on Self Destructo/Reach Around Records.) It's also on our new LP we're about to release. Santa Stole My Whiskey Music Video! Neil and I also made a music video for a solo Christmas song I recorded called "Santa Stole My Whiskey." Neil plays Santa, I'm playing everything else. Our friend Alan shot the thing and here it is in February, haha.
We've added a new member! Super producer Neil Young has joined The Depressives. Neil brings a lot of experience to the table and can outplay me on bass, so it was an easy decision. He's been our exclusive producer for 3 years, we've done around 75 songs for Dickhouse Productions together and two Depressives records, so it was a natural progression. We always considered him, "the 4th Depressive" anyhow, now he's a solid "3rd Depressive." Welcome Neil! Wah-BAM used on Fantasy Factory! Although they commission me to write songs for their shows, they occasionally slip in my released tracks. Here's a screen grab from when they played Wah-BAM off our last LP from 2013 Primitive Sounds for a Modern World.
Booking shows again! New album done, full band again, what do you do now? Book some shows, ya' dingus! We're supporting 80's LA Punk Legends MAD PARADE Saturday April 25th at Johnny V's in San Jose. We've got an even bigger show booked, but we're not allowed to announce it yet. Stay tuned! I'll also leak the new record when I get the masters back.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

More music on ESPN.com - Santa Cruz Skateboards

Santa Cruz turns 40 and here's a profile of how it all started. They used 2 Jonny Manak solo track and a Depressives track. Too cool! I grew up idolizing this brand, I'm so honored to provide the sound track to their history! Neat!