SPEAKER_01 0:00

Tony, what's up, dude?

SPEAKER_00 0:01

How you doing, bro? Pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Likewise, I'm Jesus Hernandez, man. How you doing?

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Very good, man. I saw your I saw your uh your post and I was like, man, I like this guy. I've seen your podcast before many, many times with so many great guys uh from around here and uh good times. So I figured, hey, why not chime in and say what's up?

SPEAKER_01 0:23

That's what's up, bro. Yeah, how long have you been doing your podcast?

SPEAKER_00 0:26

I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Yeah, tell us about you real quick.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

You know, um, I'm gonna I'm definitely a lifer, man. I I started out back in um, I guess you could say the thing that got me going was uh watching KISS back in 1979. I took the C-101 party bus up there with my two aunts, and uh we went to check out KISS on the uh Dynasty tour, the last tour with their makeup. And I just was uh I was all I became a KISS fanatic, and I when I saw Gene Simmons, that's all I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So uh after that I got into drums, and um there were just better drummers around than I was, so I needed to find a better gig to be in the bands I wanted, and the bands I wanted didn't have a singer, so I started growling and doing the doing what I had to do for uh the metal bands that I wanted to be a part of. And uh anyway, I was in the first metal band called Malignancy back in 1990, and then that jumped into uh band called Syntegrity for about 10 years, between 1991 to about 2000, and then I had another band called Killamora from about I never stopped playing, it was just a went from one thing to the next. I had Killamora from about uh 12,000 to maybe uh maybe uh 1215, I mean 2015. So uh it's been a good run, but I done I got a couple of tribute bands that I sing for, a Pantera tribute band called Vogar to Play of Power, uh, an ACDC tribute band called Mighty Unclean, got a couple of cover bands called Fist Full of Metal and Faster Disco, and a couple of original bands called War Cult and Annihilator, and uh then I got the podcast too. So I've been really, you know, just I'm a big lover of music. I I can't get enough. And uh I really liked uh starting the podcast because I wanted to talk to uh you know a lot of musicians and kind of get some history behind, you know, get their story and uh hear what their journey and their experiences were, and uh just enjoy you know building those kind of relationships and uh uh enjoying the chat along the way. And it's been nothing but a great time.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Yeah, dude, that's what's uh man, golly. I had a band in '98, maybe early 2000s called Wicked Red.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Hey, I know Wicked Red, yes, bro. Yeah, that was you.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Well, I helped start Wicked Red, and then I got they kicked me out of the band a while at like kind of toward the end of their stand through or whatever. But yeah, I think you I think Kilamora, I think it was Killamora at that time or Syntegrity. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

It was that was like the beginning of Killamora, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Yeah, that's cool, bro. Man, that's awesome. I was playing at the yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

At that same time, excrete was also around, right? And if I remember correctly, yeah, you guys had a big gig at the center theater downtown. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Well, I remember winning Battle of the Bands at the Center Theater, and we we played on the bill with the with the Misfits.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Killer, yes, bro. Y'all created a big stir back in the day, y'all had a nice following, bro.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Yeah, that's interesting, man, to know. And then excrete, man, those guys came on like it's a dude. It's cool to yeah, it's cool to me that the scene has changed, like it's changing and evolving, and and you're in the mix of it, bro. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Yeah, you know, it's I I I like I I started the original band thing with uh with Warcold probably about three years ago, uh, with my guitar player David Reed. And uh that's because I just had the uh the urge again, man. I'd been doing tributes and cover bands for a good maybe six, seven years without doing anything original. And uh man, I just got the uh I got the bug and and started the band thing again. But this time around with Warcold, it was not an easy ride, man. Getting the right guys together, the chemistry. Uh, there was a lot of budding heads from just coming up with a band name to um deciding on guitar parts, and it became really so complicated that it wasn't any fun. So mixed up with different musicians, man, and finally it came right. And uh, you know, that's where the lineup is that we got now. Me on vocals, David Reed guitar. Um, we are also using our our our former guitar player Brandon Salinas, who is uh helping us out because we had another guitar player filling in, but uh he dropped out of the band. And then, of course, my my bass player Brian Canales, and on drums we got Eric Maiden, who also jams with Gutter Gospels. And uh so these are good, this is a good mix that we got going on. So War Colt is doing some great things, as well as my original band, Annihilator. We got a gig coming up in Houston, and we'll be playing in the valley here pretty soon. And Annihilator is old school corpus Christy Thrash. These guys are or the thrash pioneers from the back in the days where I was still in a punk punk band called Aggravated Assault, and I guess it was probably 84, 85, and these guys were were from Moody and Ray High School, and I was like, man, these guys are getting a fucking badass metal band together. They had an annihilator self-titled cassette that was out and floating around locally, and it sounded cool. I was like, fuck yeah, we got some guys that are doing it like Metallica, like uh like the before. And so I looked up to those guys, and it ended up being Annihilator that gave Aggravated Assault our first chance to do a show. And uh, funny thing about that show, that was the first time that my father had ever gone to go see me play live. And my dad's a cop, he's a retired police officer now, and uh we had a song at that moment, it was called Cop Suck. So my dad showed up at the perfect time, man. It couldn't have been the worst time, really. And our singer Tim Abel, uh, who's uh in San Antonio, and he got on there, he goes, Hey, this is the corpus custody cops was cooking motherfuckers. This is called cop suck. And I swear my dad, he was staring at me like he couldn't, like he hated me, like he was so embarrassed. And I was fucking tripping because I didn't think Tim was gonna go off like that. And I think I knew that song was gonna come, I knew that song was coming on the set. I just didn't think he was gonna have some choice words before that. But uh anyway, between then, that was 85, and until I did my first Christmas benefit, which I this is gonna be my seventh year doing Tony's Twisted Christmas Spectacular, and uh I've been doing that raising money for the Coast Coastal Bend Food Bank for the past six years, and it's been my biggest project, and it's been something I'm most proud of because it's big it's a 20-piece band I put together called the Harbor City All-Stars, and it's made of a guys from uh like Julissa Virillal, Jacob Martinez, uh Mario Cervantes from the Young Classics. I got like Adant Pena uh from uh Zombie King. I got guys from uh last year I had Louis Mandel from Heavy Soul. Wow. I had uh Celeste Torres from Chain Links. I so many, I got uh fucking uh Ralph Davila from Cat House, uh Oscar Mendez, their singer playing with us, my guys from Warcult. They're everybody's in such a Christmas spirit. It's a 20-piece band. Yeah, and uh it's it's the best thing out of out of the whole year, but it's a such a big project. Wow, because uh rounding up everybody for that is is is some work, and and everybody's already got their own bands going on, and they're real busy because it's Christmas time. So getting together for one or two practices during the week just really shows the uh the dedication that all these musicians have to and our their generosity to to put the show together with me and to uh you know always raise. I mean, we've we've done over ten thousand dollars, man, for the coastal bed. About maybe golly, maybe a hundred pounds worth of food donated.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

So between what's it for? For the what what is it for again?

SPEAKER_00 8:14

The coastal bed food bank?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Okay, okay, okay, okay. I couldn't hear you chop it, it chopped up and I couldn't hear what you said.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Oh, yeah. And uh, you know, it's we gotta help out our community, and that's what it's always been about. Um, we've also we've all been so blessed to be able to uh uh have the you know what we have and have a meal on our table every night and and and have a job, and so sometimes that's not so easy for our neighbors, and so to put something together. Uh that year when my my grandson was born, uh Grayson James Osborne, because I just felt so blessed, bro. I just felt so blessed to finally to have a little grandson, it was just unreal. And I said, man, if there's anything I can do, I need to give back. This is my time to start giving back. And I just started calling up my friends, and everybody was all all gun-ho about it. So there's been some some member changes throughout the years because of scheduling and and and doing other other gigs, and uh, but I've always come up, it's always worked out when it's come down to the wire. I've had everybody show up and make things happen, and and it's been a successful event. Uh, Casey Lane from the House of Rock has put me up for the last uh three, no, three or four years. And before that, Richard Nunez from Richard Billiards uh put up his place for the first couple of years. And the only thing that stopped us was COVID. And that was the one only year that we stopped. And since then, we've been on right on track, and uh, we'll be doing it again this year, uh, December 21st, over at the House of Rock, and it'll be featuring the Harbor City All-Stars. And we usually figure it out to get one of my bands or or one of the other bands that has the artist performing to uh help us out uh as maybe another act or two after the uh the Christmas show, just for the adults, really. The Christmas show starts at seven, and it's all Christmas classics done with like an 80s mix to it. So it's kind of like uh going to see Twisted Sister uh or or Rat, one of those 80s bands doing all these uh Christmas classics like Silverbells and uh Let It Snow, Let It Snow, uh Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, you know, Frosty the Snowman, all the classics, dude. It's Little Drummer Boy, which is my favorite, that we finally put into the mix. And the other guys get to pick their songs. The young classics themselves are also part of the four bands that bring up the Harbor City All-Stars. So they pick out their songs, and uh, you know, Julissa bangs them out with some great vocals on classics like uh that Mariah Carey song, uh, All I Want for Christmas. So uh, you know, we we had all the classics that that come out that night, and it's the one time of the year that my parents do come out now. They show some other than that, they're not gonna they're not gonna show up for a war cult show or uh uh letter g and I don't blame them because it's gonna be it's gonna be some Christmas, you know, everyone's spirit, and that's it's just the best time of year to get everybody's family out there for a great time.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Yeah, for sure, bro. It's funny that you mentioned that because like if you put if you tag on like it's a benefit, like everybody show it's crazy, bro, because everybody shows up, yeah. And like if you're trying to do a regular, if you're trying to do just a regular show, they're just like uh whatever, it's a regular show. But if it's for a cause, like everybody shows up, bro. It's weird.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

I'm telling you, man, I yeah, I wish we could just tag something with it, and you know, that would make it uh everybody's a win-win, you know. Everybody picks a different benefit for a different show like that. That'd be tight. That's what yeah, you know, it sounds like that might be a good combination, man, because it could bring extra support and and uh yeah, yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah, it does, it does, it really does matter, bro. I think uh, and like be people see people in the scene will see that you are part of that and be like, Oh, okay, yeah, remember that guy did this, whatever, whatever. It's just a part of networking, I think, too. You know, an important part. Real quick, modern day renegade on TikTok says hello.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Hey, what's up? I've had modern day renegade on my podcast. Uh, great guys, dude. Um man, Ruben was on drums, Shinobi on guitar, Mark on bass. Um, I'm trying to think. Oh, Hector, we take that around. Mark Bantoja was on guitar and Hector Waters was on bass. Heck from uh uh Deftones tribute, a knife party.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Wow, so cool!

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Yeah, man, yeah, and also uh always a contributor to the to the Christmas show, too. Him and John Luna, and they also got a a tribute called Neverland, uh, the Metallic Experience.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Nice, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

So those are Corpus Christi Metallic, the tribute band right there, Neverland.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yeah, it's it seems like there's a lot of a lot of those tribute bands like popping up. I mean, it seems like that's the popular thing now, or because if it seems like if you want to play, you gotta do that stuff, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 12:56

I'm telling you, you got a good point. If you want to play, and and yeah, yeah, some of us guys have been at it, you know, 30 years. You know, we love playing, we love playing it, and that's why we'll be in multiple bands trying different things, because um, not only to collaborate with different musicians, but because we want to stay active and uh, you know, it's a great what better way to make some extra money by doing something you love, like you know, making music or performing. So it's a good thing, and and uh there's been so many of us that uh that have kind of uh uh made it that kind of side hustle where we still have our day job, but come weekend time, uh weekend warriors, you know, taking a trip to the Valley, San Antonio, uh Laredo, Houston, uh just uh, you know, make this the you know when it comes to tribute bands, usually you can uh make a good enough money where you can take your care of your expenses and still take some money home. And um, so um as far as original bands, it's a hard way to make it, man. It's a hard way to make it. But you got a couple, you got a few bands out there that are really grinding. And you know, one band that I know that has been out there making a name for themselves is a band called Identity Crisis. They uh they're a uh Seattle kind of grunge band uh that has been on the road with a band called Um Under the Sun, I believe. And if I'm correct, these guys are gonna have some opening dates with a bank with a guy called Youngblood. And you might be familiar with our that artist. And uh identity crisis is making some things happen. They they've been to New York, they've been to Cali making things recording and making videos and saying great things about those guys, but you know, some other guys that are really, you know, making some things happen around here are our friends in Zombie King.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Yeah, I keep hearing about them, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Yeah, and uh big props to Marcus Leal and Swim the Current. Love that group that he's got going on right now, and and you know, and his his other band, Shattered Sun.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Man, it's you're making me think about AI, bro. Like, AI is not gonna replace live sound, dude.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Oh shit, dude.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 15:02

I hate that I came across that sometime last year, and I I think it was somebody put out AI's version of a copy of an ACDC song. And since I was doing an ACDC tribute, I wanted to hear it, and dude, it was fucking perfect, yeah. And I just don't like that shit. I really don't feel when it comes to AI. I've seen Terminator 2. I know that Skynet, one day the computers and the machines are gonna take over. I've I listened to podcasts a lot, just like you know, you know, it's part of our business. So one of my favorites is Tucker's. So I listened to Tucker Carlson, and the other day he he had a guy on there that was an ex-Freemason and talking about how rituals and possession and spiritual good and bad is so much a part in everyday life around us in politics and the the guys that are running things, and how so many things are going on behind the scenes that you know that that a lot of people that are subliminal and are under people's consciousness, and they don't really want people to notice. But the signs are there. And if you look, if you really pay attention, you you can kind of find that kind of stuff. And I hate to go down a conspiracy kind of rabbit hole, yeah. But I myself feel like like there is a battle between good and evil going on, and I want to just know the truth as well as the next person, and finding finding the truth and and and hearing from different sources, you know, you gotta make your mind up for yourself, and uh I'm still trying to figure out all the shit out on a day-to-day basis.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

That's pretty cool, man. That's cool, man. So you came around, you came up in like the like the 80s era of metal and corpus. Yeah, what were some of the bands? What were some of the bands that were out before that you were like, oh shoot, check it out. You know what I mean? Like locally, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

The guys that I would go check out were like Final Assault. Those are the guys that were that were opening up for like metal church that would go play at the Ritz. Uh then Devastation came up from like the ashes of Final Assault or from seeing those guys. Devastation came up, and Devastation was opening up for anybody that would come by, uh, Celtic Frost, um Exodus, um, Invey Malmstein. They would do these shows at the Ritz. They started teaming up with one of my favorite bands, Anchor Wat.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

What's the name?

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Anchorwat. I love that name, and you want to looked it up. It's some kind of island in the middle of nowhere. And I think maybe one of the Galapagos islands, particularly named Anchor Watt. And uh kick-ass band, and their guitar player Danny Lohner went on to play with with Trent Reznor in Nine Inch Nails, and he's in the fucking rock and roll hall of fame, man. So um big props to Danny Lohner and you know the beginnings of of Anchor Wat, who ended up turning into Screw, which was a uh uh like a Nine Inch Nails version kind of band, which was the reason he got hooked up with Trent, was because him and Adam Grossman had made a two-man band called Screw that was working kind of at the same time that Al Jorgensen was ministry, was working in Austin, and they were kind of like on two sides of town working the same kind of stuff, uh caught up in that industrial metal sound that Trent had going on in Chicago. So uh yeah, Anchor Watt was a big deal back then, and they had a deal called the End of Summer Slam Session. They had one, two, and three. So they had three years of them, and they would have them at places like the Stardust Ballroom, which was right off of the access road between Castoras and Ayers. And back in the day, right in that same area, there used to be a little uh miniature golf park, and there was a big ass dinosaur that would kind of loom over the access road facing the freeway. So, as a kid, you know, I was born in 1970, and this this was born it was always there, so I was like, wow, it was always a treat to go play miniature golf there.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Crazy.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

Eventually they tore it down and they made it into a ballroom for Kincinetas. And when shows, local shows started coming out and becoming popular, guys like uh Phil Salazar, who ran Nighthawk Entertainment, started renting out the Stardust to put on these kind of local shows together because he saw that there was a need for it. And before you know it, they had five, six hundred kids showing up, you know, paying 10, 12 bucks a head. And we loved it. It was the shit. So big props to Phil. Thanks for taking a chance on these local bands and the local bands just coming together to merge because you had Anchor Watt was like one of the best crossover, first crossover hardcore metal bands. Devastation was a pioneer thrash band, and Rotting Corpse was definitely a thrash band out of Austin. So whether they were skinheads, punk rockers, metal heads, or just kids that just try to find some rock and roll, it brought these crowds together for those events, and it was a called SummerSlam. Fucking classics.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

That's amazing, man. Wow. You know, bro, I I'm sorry, I I changed gears like crazy, bro. My my my ADHD mind gets crazy. I was talking with uh with I was talking with a uh a hip hop artist. We're talking about how they think of us, they think of the them like as the Mexican rappers or whatever, that there's a there's a certain sound associated with it. And like when I look at us, bro, I'm like, we're just a bunch of Hispanics that freaking love heavy music, bro. And it's like, is you know what I'm saying? Like, is there a do you think there's like a well? I don't know, maybe for you growing up like in the 70s, was there like a stigma like to where, like, oh yeah, the Mexican dudes are into that type of music or whatever? You know what I mean? But is that did you experience that type of stuff growing up?

SPEAKER_00 20:52

You know, that's a good point that you bring up there because you know, growing up, I always saw white guys, those are the guys that always had the the rock and roll bands, and you didn't like you didn't see black guys, you didn't see uh Hispanic guys doing it. It was always uh Motley Crue, uh Rat, uh Twisted Sister. They were they were all Anglo guys, you know, even like in the earlier round, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, uh Leonard Skinner, you know, they everybody just was they were all Anglos, but that didn't discourage me. And since you brought that up, there was an eight track that my dad had in his garage, and I must have been maybe eight or nine, and it was a band called Santa Esmeralda, and they did a track, it was a cover of a song that we all know, and it's a badass 70 song called uh Um Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. Please don't let me be misunderstood.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

That one. And on the eight track, it said Santa Esmeralda featuring Roland Gomez. And I was told my dad, Is are we related to this guy? And he goes, Yeah, man, that's one of our cousins right there, dude. He's he made it. That's one of our cousins. And so he he got me inspired later on. I'm talking to my dad, maybe two decades later, talking about that moment. And even my uncle there and they started saying, That ain't your cousin. We don't know the thing. It's pulling your thing, man. Oh man, he had me, hook, line, and sinker. I was like, dude, there's one Gomez that made it. Now I'm gonna be the next. I'm gonna be the next. So that was inspiring. So Santa Morada did a super cover of that, and I think it comes out on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Yeah, dude. Dude, that's awesome, man. That's great.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

You know, going as the years went by, they, you know, guys from Moody, guys from Ray, um, my scene later on. We were, you know, like my guys in Aggravated Assault, it was me and Albert Delion. We were the two Hispanic guys, and then we had two white guys, um, Tim Abel and Matt McLean. And then after that, it was the guys in Malignancy, we were all Hispanic. The guys in Sintegrity, we were all Hispanic. Guys in Kilamora, we were all Hispanic, and around us too, like the guys from Excrete, they were all Hispanic. Um, but then you had some of the guys from from King High School that had like joy wax, crayons, um, poetic noise. And yeah, they were all anglo, but a couple of the guys were Hispanic, but they were all Anglo, they were real lights, yeah, yeah, for sure. You know, and and so, but regardless, a lot of those gigs started coming together. Uh like brutal poverty was in the mix back then, of course. And uh, you know, that's all that was all cuadenta right there. Everybody from the west side. You had like Brewish from Miller, that was all cuadenta crowd right there. You had Hypnotic State, which was just kind of a mix because you had David Lozano uh on drums and went to Carol, but the rest of the guys went to Miller and Moody, and they were a great metal band, Hypnotic State. And uh that was my kind of tag-along bear that I kind of was a roadie for during high school while I had aggravated assault because these guys are a great metal band. I was like, man, when I get good, I want to be like these guys. So it's very inspiring to kind of have our buds, you know, uh making something, making something happen. And uh, so big props to Hypnotic State, and the guitar player is Michael Bettis, who has the uh yeah, yeah, Latin talk. And so Mike's been doing it for so long, man. He's such a shredder, and uh love big props to Mike, man.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Love Mike, yeah, yeah. No, he was my guitar teacher at Delmar.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Hell yes! Oh hell yeah, I would have loved to have been one of his students. That'd be so cool.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Yeah, so cool. Yeah, uh man, it makes you think about like zeros. We we splat zeros, uh the zone, the underground. Yeah, think of too many other ones, but there, dude, there's been so many clubs that have let us play in in their spot, bro. It's insane, man. Like, is is there any any memorable memorable places that that you played before that you can think of now? Like, dang, that was pretty cool. They let us do that. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Yes, man. I you know, some of the my favorite places to go were and was the Elks Lodge, the Elks Lodge downtown. That was a particular place where I remember watching CBS from San Antonio was called uh short for crippled by society, anchor what, and then fearless Iranians from hell, f-i-f. And wow, they're from they're they're from San Antonio, they're they're a white skinhead band. Fearless Iranians from hell. Talk about just wanting to raise some hell. They came to fucking corpus, and they uh their favorite group was uh the SA skins, so they jumped, they had at least 12 guys in the back bed of the truck, and maybe about six guys in the front bed, and there was it seemed like there was 20 of them, dude. They showed up, and it wasn't a good thing for them, bro, because they showed up and there was a lot more of Hispanics, dude, a lot more of us, bro. They went in there and they fucking started to rumble in a pit. And before you know it, we took it out to the fucking alley and it was a fucking melee. But before you know it, we fucking sent them running. They fucking all jumped in the truck and got the fuck out of town. And it was fucking, it was unreal. So after that, no more shows at Elks Lodge. They were like, fuck this shit. Is this what we it's gonna be like? No more shows here. So the other place was like uh, of course, zeros, man. Of course, zeros, but aside from zeros, um the another place called uh it was right there off the access road, equalize, equalize right there, man. Uh that was run by like Saul and Hector and those guys from Abrasian, and they had some great guys go. They had some great acts like Agnostic Front, All Shall Parish go through there, and a lot of bands that that uh have really developed over the past 20 years and are are still grinding right now, but we're doing like their first, you know, we're really just doing those grinding tours, just getting the name put out there, and uh they just uh there were just a few guys that believed in the scene, and so they opened up their own bar and their own place and and a venue, and they took a chance and they still have a Christmas show, they have an equalized Christmas show every year, and uh they have some friends that that uh pay tribute, and and it's I think it's a Christmas Day show. So uh shout out to those guys from Equalize. Uh bro Underground, of course. I gotta I gotta shout out to uh uh Underground Ruli Liao running things over there, always gave uh great place for all us uh up and coming local bands to play. I remember Killer Moore playing there with Excreed many times and uh seeing some great bands. And then you had uh Patrick Basurlo put together another place right there off of um right off of Staples, we're close to the Staples and Agnes intersection. And I'm trying to think what the name of that it wasn't the Underground, I don't think. But um I know he had Asasino play there, he had uh Agnostic Front and a good list of bands. So besides that, golly, there were some other places that took some chances, like E and J's Pizza. There was a place called E and J's Pizza, which was right off of uh um right there behind close to Sam Houston Elementary, right down that on Norton, on Norton Street, right there between uh Sam Houston and Baker. And I remember we played there, and my band was called Fractured Minority. We did New York Town Hardcore. That was right before I got into the uh malignancy, so that would have been about 89. And it was us and fractured minor and fractured minority and community crisis and brutal poverty. And I remember that night that I got in the pit and somebody threw me into the wall, and I put a big old, I put about a three-foot hole in the fucking in the in the sheet rock. And so I think we might have made 75 bucks that night, but it went to the the the owner, man. The owner gave me shit right after it happened. He goes, You're paying me for that shit. You're paying for that. So I'm taking care of the door. So whatever you whatever you made, it's mine. Oh shit. So uh so each Jay's pizza, another local place that gave a chance, you know, to a bunch of local places. And and uh besides that, the other venue that was really rocking was a place called the warehouse, and that was at the intersection of Staples and Baldwin. That had some legendary shows like the crumbsuckers from New York City. We had um cryptic slaughter from the west coast that was crossover thrash from um San Francisco, LA. Um goodness, we had all, which was ex-descendants, so uh classic uh punk rock right there, descendants from uh uh California. Yeah, and golly, I'm trying to look them. Maybe I'd see some on my walls because some of these flyers I I want to I I save the souvenirs, but yeah, that's there are some great ones there that happened, bro. So we we had some great venues back in the day. Uh play lasted before you know somebody fucked it up.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Yeah, exactly, bro. Man, that was oh man, that's a couple places I remember. Golly, that's crazy. Let me ask you about your podcast before we go, bro. Uh so you're what are some of the things you look for whenever you're you're interviewing these bands uh on on your pod on the Tony Gomez podcast? Wasn't it it's Tony Gomez podcast, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:21

I call it the Tony Gomez Show.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

Tony Gomez Show. There you go. Sorry about that. Uh yeah. So what are some of the things? Some of the do you I mean, do you just like to interview people? Like what do you go in like looking for whenever you're interviewing these guys?

SPEAKER_00 30:34

What I like to do is talk to guys in bands that have something like a new single, a new video. Maybe they have a big concert coming up. Um that way we have something to really hype up. Um, uh sometimes I've had repeat guys that have been on my show, like uh Mike D'Aligone, who plays a Soul Fly and Philip and Selmo on the illegals.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

And I've got like uh you know Marcus Liao who's been on my show from El Nino and Shattered Sun and now swim the current. I've just been really blessed to have some guys that are really making some things happen that don't mind coming on here and and chit-chatting for a little while. And I just want the guys to have some something happening, and it doesn't have to be particularly metal, and that's why I just call it the show because I want to talk to guys like Casey Lane, who's who runs the House of Rock, hear about his story and how he made things happen. Um, talk to Travis Crawford, who is had I've had on my show, who who's you know, one of our champs here locally has gone on and done some badass, awesome fights. And you know, amazing. I you know, I just I want to talk to guys that are making things happen, that are coming from corpus, like yourself, that have a story to tell. And musically, that's an easy way to get into the mix because that's that's my my forte. And whether you got a Seattle Grunge Band or you got an alternative uh band like maybe Dream Stereo, um, you're gonna get on just as much as maybe a band like like Woomrod, who's heavy death metal or torch.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Oh my gosh, bro.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Yes, bro.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

Heavy duty guys that that are just are are masters at their game, but on the flip side, you got guys like Identity Crisis who are Seattle Gruns that are making things happen, and then of course, I want to get my bands in the mix, so I'll talk to Warcold or Annihilator when we got something new coming up. And uh, you know, I just uh previously I've had Rob from Rob's Metal Works on the show on last Thursday night, and he's been doing a program for 30 years, bro. Wow, 30 years talking to metal legends like Ronnie James Dio, uh Carrie King from Slayer, um, the guys from Judas Priest, uh Glenn Danzik. The list goes on and on. And uh 30 years of doing a program, it just kind of shows the fortitude and the dedication you have to want to do something like this because uh he don't make it, he doesn't have a paycheck out of this, it's done out of sheer love, and that's what's gotten me to this is just out of love because I enjoy meeting guys, I enjoy talking to talking to cats and and and hearing their stories and and and wanting to uh kind of encourage and empower uh people around me to to make shit happen because yeah, I mean I feel like I've I've been able to make a lot of my dreams come true. Yeah, I haven't been able to go on a large tour or been around the world like my brother and Marcus Leo, you know, has been able to do with in Shattered Sun.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Oh, yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

But that's why I love him so much because he's done that, and I feel like he's represented for guys like myself.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

So cool, bro. And a lot, a lot of us, a lot of us wanted that, like you know what I mean? Like growing up, we're like, damn, we want you know what I mean. And seeing him walking the no fit walking that wall, I'm like, damn, this is pretty cool, you know. So I feel that, dude.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Yes, bro, so proud. I only want the best, man. I always have that philosophy of high tide, when high tide comes, everybody rises, you know what I mean, and we all need to come up. And there's a lot of here. And you know, even regionally about Texas. That that yeah, I I just wanted to say, you know, my kind of a my mantra is kind of like high tide raises all ships, and I want to empower my friends around me. I want to empower our other artists and musicians and whatever they have going for them to uh keep fighting, be successful, never quit and and keep following that dream because some of us get a get a break, some of us will get an opportunity to get out there and and and take it to another level. But you gotta be willing to be dedicated, you gotta sacrifice a lot because along the way to make it to success, sacrifice is always part of it. You know, the more success, the more things you gotta sacrifice, and a lot of that is time with your with your family and your kids. Uh, as I was doing my thing, I was working two or three jobs, and a lot of that time, the two or three nights I had out during the week, I spent two nights rehearsing with bands. So I left one night for me to catch up with my kids. And in hindsight, I really regret that. I regret not spending the quality time with my kids because music's always there, and I've always made time for it. And I just felt like I've just been, I was really selfish at a period in uh in my life where you know I had just and here I am now again with six bands, you know. And you can't get away from it, yeah. I had Kilomara, I had Screw Face, I had the Pantera Tribute, I had a uh 90s band called Rockstein, and then I also had Annihilator and Black Lun Conspiracy. So it was more on the original side back then, but and I didn't have the podcast going on, but I was just really hungry and I wanted to take a break, I wanted to, I wanted to catch a break with somebody. And yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I'm still grinding. So in the meantime, in the meantime, since since then, I have scored a vinyl that has gone worldwide with my band Annihilator. We have a vinyl now called Death is Calling, and that came out uh a year ago in October. So I'm really proud of that, and we're gonna write new music for a second album that's gonna be put out on Extreme Music, which is right out of uh out of Spain.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

So wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

So they're backing us. All we gotta do is come up with the music, and it's getting ridden. And as soon as we got, you know, maybe eight or nine tracks, we're gonna get that and get that recording done and uh put album number two out together with this lineup.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Congrats, man. That's awesome, dude. Thanks. Uh so last thing, uh how much of an impact do you think your your podcast has on the scene, uh either locally or just worldwide, whatever?

SPEAKER_00 36:36

That's a good question. I do want to make a big impact as far as the amount between my circle of friends when I go out to shows people do remember or recognize the show, and they'll come up to me, even if they don't know me from the bands. They'll say, Hey, I come across the show, bang, cool podcast, keep it up. And so an impact, I would say right now, humbly a moderate impact. Um, and I think it's just a matter of uh staying busy and interviewing people that people are interested in and and listening from or hearing the stories about. But at the same time, I got good advice from my friend Rob when it came to uh asking for advice from a podcast, uh, new guy like myself after he's got 30 years in the game. He said, Man, bring integrity and have integrity in what you do in your show. And he's had people contact him, you know, with the show as long as he's got going on with the reach that he has. Um, he's had people offering money to come on the show, and he says, I don't want money, I want music. Send me your music. That's what'll get you on the show. And if I like you, you're on here. You know, I'm gonna put you on the schedule, you're gonna get on here, but it's not about money, and I feel the same way. Nobody's ever offered me money to be on the show, but I feel my need is just I gotta be interested in you, I gotta be interested in you for sure. Yeah, the latest cats that have reached out for me is a band from Colombia, they're called Cartel Psycho, and these guys are like the old school suicidal, they are an up-and-coming young band, and their guitar player, Miguel uh Pigenia, if I'm pronouncing his name right, Miguel Pigenia. He'd seen my podcast while I was interviewing Daniel Benavides, who plays guitar for a band called Parasitic Septicity. And the singer for Parasitic is out of Colombia. So I guess you know, sometimes you know, but there's not too much degrees of separation. And through links and sharing shit, Miguel hooked up, he watched it, and next thing you know, he's hitting me up saying, Hey, I got my band. Uh, listen to us if you like us, we'd love to be on the show. And so I'm gonna have him on. He's gonna be hopefully they'll be interview 99, and then hopefully I'll have uh Rodney Dunsmore be interviewed number uh 100 from Devastation. But that's the thing, have something going on, have a video, have something that I want to get out there and talk to about. And if you are an old schooler that I'm into, like the New York Hardcore scene, I interviewed the guys from Carnivore AD, which had members from Sheer Terra, Crumbsuckers, and Whiplash and Creator and Massacre. That was a couple of weeks ago. They're going to Europe, they're in Europe right now, touring Carnivore AD with their new uh EP called Transmutation. Uh, I love New York Hardcore, so I love talking to those guys. I love old school crossover. Uh, so I've talked to the guys in the accused and like the guys from Caton Pena from Hyrax, some uh East Coast scene. Yeah, and uh it's just been a blessing, man. And I had a great discussion with Jason McMaster, who plays with Dangerous Toys from that 80s metal hair scene. And he's got a couple of number one videos on on MTV, and uh right now he's still rocking dangerous toys. He's got a show next Saturday, May 30th. They're gonna be playing him come and take it live. So another lifer right there that that is just uh never quits, bro. Never quits. Cool. So uh, like myself, I don't see me quitting. It's just gonna be one of those things I'm gonna keep doing until I can't fucking do it anymore.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

That's cool, bro. Like, and that and that's the cool thing about like you and you, me, Rob, and other podcasters, like uh all of our styles are different from one another. If one band wants to be on my podcast, my interview will be different from yours, and your our interview will be different from Rob's. So it's like I don't see why we can't do different podcasts interviewing the same bands. All we're doing, like if we interview if we interview the same band, we're lifting up that band. They they're gonna share, right? They're gonna share the interview. Hey, I was on this interview, we're talking about this, whatever. You know what I mean? I don't see why it there's I don't, you know, competition is there if you look at it that way, but I'm just looking at at it as from an abundance mindset, like there's more than one of us interviewing these bands, and we have different perspectives.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

Absolutely, you know, that and that's what I love that I love your point of view and that perspective on it because that's the way I see it too, man. I feel like the more media we have to cover these artists that are around us, the better it is. You know, it'll bring love to our all of our shows, it'll bring love to the artists, especially, and that's what we're trying to do. And we're just trying to to help out other players in the game, yeah, and uh have some fun doing it.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's what's up, Tony. You got any uh parting words, bro? Thanks for coming on the show.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Man, I appreciate you you're inviting me. I I love seeing the link, I love enjoying your podcast. Uh, I guess if I have any parting words, guys, musicians out there, keep the live music alive, keep the live music alive, keep the original stuff going. And for you guys that got tribute or cover bands, keep rocking it, man. If that's your gig, keep rocking it hard. I want to see out there in the circuit, whether it be it at the exchange or rockets or over at the new Fifth and Element in uh in Portland or Brewster Street, something happen for yourself, all right. I want the best for you, and hopefully, if you get some new music or get some new videos, hit me up on my show and also hit Jesus up on this show, and uh make sure you can uh always keep up with Corpus Christi originals.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

Appreciate you, bro. Thanks a lot, Tony man. Well, best of luck, bro. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks for coming on the show. See you later.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

You got it, bro. See you later. Keep up the great work, man.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

Okay, bye.

unknown 42:28

Bye.

SPEAKER_01 42:29

Cool. That was Tony Gomez. You guys from the Tony Gomez show, check him out. Uh check him out. I think he's ever, I forgot to ask him, but you could probably find him, find him online. I'll leave some links in the in the in the description whenever I uh finish this live video to his information, but check him out. Definitely uh pull him for the scene, for the the metal scene, the heavy metal, heavy music scene. Um, check him out. I I I grew up listening to metal music. I was in a couple of bands in the scene in the 90s, and uh, I there's a soft place in my heart for those for those guys, man. And that's why you see uh uh Marcos Leao was on the channel before. I've had uh Zombie King on my channel because I just love that stuff, and uh, I still listen to heavy music to this day. Um, so yeah, it was pretty cool to have Tony on the show. So you guys check him out, and uh we'll see you guys on the next uh live stream. I plan to do this every weekend or every week. Uh next, probably next uh next Monday. My schedule rotates. We'll see what happens. But that was Tony Gomez on the show, you guys. Uh, thanks for joining. Modern day renegade, staying on you on TikTok, and uh anybody else watching or re watching the show. Leave a comment, like, share. Thanks a lot. Corpus Christi Originals. We out. So lime stream is the greatest.