https://player.captivate.fm/episode/a98679b5-a8c1-42cd-93e4-433e95195fa2/
Journalist and author Mike Damante took a left turn from covering mainstream entertainment and sports news in Houston to chronicling the weird world of the paranormal in his blog, Punk Rock and UFOs .
With a lifelong passion for the music of punk rock and an interest in the weird, Mike Damante decided to take the attitude of punk music and apply it to the investigation of the unknown. While punk music can often have paranormal themes (just look at any song by the Misfits or a multitude of classic Vandals tracks), it’s the approach that punk music took to the status quo of the 1970s that Mike Damante is looking to emulate.
In the 70s, the music industry was all cocaine and big money, exemplified by the slick sounds of Disco and the costumed denizens of Studio 54. Punk Rock was the antithesis of the laid-back California Pop-Rock sound of the Eagles. It was loud angry music created by dirty musicians in dingy clubs. It was piercings instead of glitter, mohawks instead of long flowing manes. It was the sound of a people left behind by a bloated hedonist beauty-worshipping culture and punk was their rallying cry of smashing that system.
That’s the attitude of Mike’s book and writing, Punk Rock and UFOs: Cryptozoology Meets Anarchy, is about questioning everything that you think you know when it comes to the world, especially the paranormal one.
Of course we talk about the most famous former punk rocker turned UFO evangelist, Blink-182’s Tom Delonge who was featured in the news during the 2016 presidential election when his emails to fellow alien enthusiast John Podesta were leaked to the world, but we also go into other punk rock legends from Milo Aukerman from Descendents to Bad Religion’s Greg Gaffin. It’s a good mix of rock stories with paranormal tales and conversation.
If you’re interested in Mike’s book, you can grab it on Amazon right here . And make sure to follow Mike Damante on Twitter by clicking this link .
The song this week started off as a punk idea and ended up sounding like an adult contemporary song, ha! But sometimes when we’re writing, we just have to go where the Muse takes us. It’s an earnest track about looking back on a youth filled with paranormal adventure and all the memories and mistakes that come along with it. The track is called “Stories In The Dark”.
When we walked among the headstones,On that August New Moon night,That marble might have been cold,But we raised the Fahrenheit.And a summer is forever with,not many on your belt,But you know when the hurtin’ hits,Yeah, the hurtin’ hits like Hell.And you know when the hurtin’ hits,Yeah, The hurtin’ hits like Hell.
There’s no point in saying sorryFor these twenty years gone pastNo statute of limitations forActing like a jackass.Time is always the best healerDistance makes things much more clearEven picking at a scab feels good,Just in the rearview mirror.
These ghost stories in the darkOh my dear you were always gameStronger than I gave you credit forBut crazy just the sameTall tales that we tell ourselvesDo their damnedest to dull the painAnd you know every broken heartComes with a storyBest told in the darkComes with a storyBest told in the dark
Mystery by every corner,Didn’t matter what we saw,It wasn’t what we got that made you hot,It was the quest that burned us raw.
Being on a pedestal justain’t easy as it would seem.Well the young should never handleSomething fragile as a dreamI said the young should never handleSomething fragile as a dream
There’s no point in saying sorryFor these twenty years gone pastNo statute of limitations forActing like a jackass.
Time is always the best healerDistance makes things much more clearEven picking at the scab feels good,Just in the rearview mirror.
These ghost stories in the darkOh my dear you were always gameStronger than I gave you credit forBut crazy just the sameTall tales that we tell ourselvesDo their damnedest to dull the painAnd you know every broken heartComes with a storyBest told in the darkComes with a storyBest told in the dark
The post 143 – Punk Rock and UFOs: An Interview with Mike Damante appeared first on See You On The Other Side .