letsgetbent:

In addition to our birthday shows, we’re celebrating our one year anniversary by looking back over our favorite news, reviews, features, and mixes, as Joseph, Kristen, Mariana, and Sonam make their picks for Best of Year One. And to show how far we’ve come, we’re also switching back to our original look for the week. It’s been an amazing twelve months, and we look forward to what the next twelve will bring. Thanks for reading.

By Rebecca Seung

One of the first questions people ask me is, “How did GET BENT start?” It’s a complicated thing to answer because GET BENT is the sum of so many people. Every single person on staff contributes something unique—a different voice, a fresh perspective—and if GET BENT is good, it is only because there are so many good people working here. They each have their own story of how they got here, some of which will be told later this week, but for now, this is mine. 

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letsgetbent:

Spider House - Matt Garlick

On March 14th, 2012, the GET BENT staff convened at Spider House in Austin, Texas for the first of three SXSW parties featuring some of our favorite bands from around the country. Music was played, alcohol was consumed, and a good time was had by all. What follows is our collective recap of SXSW, or what we can remember anyway. Since there’s not enough room to list every band we loved, skip to the bottom for the staff’s favorite sets at SXSW.

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That was a crazy week, and we didn’t even get into the late night after parties. Sex, drugs, rock n roll. 

letsgetbent:

Stop what you’re doing and mark March 14th on your calendar. Then buy yourself a ticket to Austin and get your ass to Spiderhouse. All of us here at GET BENT are really excited to present to you, the first of three parties we’ll be throwing at SXSW. We’ve got you three stages and over thirty bands culled from the personal favorites of our staff, as well as the fine folks at Southpaw, Evil Weevil, Nu Rave Brainwave and Oops Baby Records!

After you’re done marking the date, the next thing you gotta do is listen to the playlist posted above to find out who’s playing! Full line-up after the cut. RSVP to the facebook event here.

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whenever people ask me what I’m doing and I say working, this is what I’ve been working on

letsgetbent:

February 14th can evoke a lot of emotions, like love, lust, loneliness, nausea. Well, regardless of your relationship status, the staff at GET BENT put together this little video mix to say thanks. Your continued support is all the lovin’ we need because it doesn’t matter if you’ve got five fingers or five ladies—we’re never alone as long as there’s good music to listen to. So read our Valentines below, see the tracklist after the jump, and listen to more staff mixes here. 

To Joseph Rodriguez, Sonam Parikh, Kristen Berry, Mariana Timony, Burgers Rana, Mac Joseph, Christian Church, Paul Blawat, Becca Capers, Ben Frazee, Drew Yuen, Doug Sweeney, Dario Garcia, London Washington, Lisa Parisi, Joey Genovese, Zach Braun, Jonathan Markley, Ruby Perez, Steffan Hofland, Marcus Wilen, Daniel Clodfelter, Kat Bee, Tiffany Minton, Eric Davidson, Perry Shall, Pedro Hernandez, Hayley Grimes, Jonathan Carpinteyro, Mitchell Goldstein, Ryan Yelencsics, Matt Garlick, Adrienne Deeble, Sean Posila, Toby Sligo, Emmet Brault, Bobby Moore, Craig Storm, Seth Graves, Luke Buckley, John Grega, Katie Sands, Lisa Easterling, Johann Sorensen, Matt Johnson… I love you all. Thanks for everything that you’ve done for GET BENT. - Rebecca

Roses are red, violets are blue… Ah, fuck it, let me buy you guys a beer. - Kristen

Would you be my date to the rock and roll show? Circle yes or no. xoxo - Lisa

I LIKE TURTLES - Drew and Doug

Thanks for reading and supporting Get Bent. It makes me insanely happy. You know what would make me even happier? Instead of buying your significant other something frivolous on Valentine’s Day, buy them a record from their favorite band. A simple gesture like that makes everybody happy, keeps that band going, and gives us stuff to write about. Music is the best! - Zach

I love very few things in this world. Some people would even go as far as to call me a “hater”. One of the few things I DO actually love though are records. They’re just so damn great. I wanna bathe in them and have children with them and all sorts of other weird shit. So naturally, the people I love most are people who also love records. Let me spell it out for ya.. Those people are YOU!!! If you are reading this, that means you read my favorite site in the world, and I have a crush on you. You are my favorite people. Fans and supporters of great music. All of you are invited to spend this V-day spinning our favorite records at my house. Hope to see ya soon! xoxo - Joey

People who read Get Bent: You’re fucking awesome. Your support has built this musical home-base that I’m sure tons of us were looking for (I know I was). Happy Valentine’s Day and thank you. - Ruby

Thanks for not liking shit music! - Steffan

“She says, ‘Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side.
He said, ‘Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side.’” - Lou Reed
<3,
Burgers

In these troubling times, we’re glad you can take a moment to read what we think about the latest punk albums. - Christian

Happy Valentine’s Day! Don’t forget to mail a highly collectible 7-inch to your place of employment and pretend it came from your secret admirer. - Tiffany

There’s comfort in being a record nerd. Fashions fade, people change, shit happens, and bands break-up; but no matter what, the music will always love you back. My Valentine’s wish for you, dear reader, is that you have a record that loves you so much, it’s always playing in your heart. And if you don’t, I hope you find it here. Thanks for reading. - Mariana

If I could, I would write each and every one of you a valentine. But I can’t, so this’ll have to do. I think yer cute. Wanna get stoned and listen to some records with me? xo, Sonam

-Joseph

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I keep coming here, clicking the button, and then almost immediately canceling the post. It just isn’t working. Maybe because I feel like there are so many threads in my life that for the first time in awhile, I don’t feel comfortable talking about online. 

Like how I feel really fat. Which is stupid, but I guess I still have some body image issues. It’s kind of funny though. I realized today that I started eating normally again when either a) I stopped cooking for myself, and/or b) my husband and I separated. I also didn’t smoke a lot of weed anymore, which for whatever reason tends to suppress my appetite. So instead, I finally cleaned my room and then danced around like I haven’t done since I was in high school. 

Or like how my dad died. Which is okay, but it’s the first time someone close to me died. My grandparents all have, and close friends of a close friend have, but never someone that was an important part of my life. So it’s kind of funny how I can remember all these little things about him that always drove me crazy and now just make me sad. Whenever I was upset, especially with my mom, I’d crawl in his lap and cry. And at Christmas he’d take me to the bookstore and buy me whatever I wanted. I remember one year I got a set of philosophy books, and the next it was a set of comics. He never cared, just that it made me happy. When I was a kid, he’d pick me up from school and then take me back to his office at the church. I spent my childhood running around the altar and writing cuss words on the Sunday school chalkboards. And he’d stop at the gas station on the way home and buy me a soda, which I wasn’t allowed to have during the week. I found a letter he had written me after I got married. I’m glad I kept it. I’ve just never felt that emptiness before, and I know it will take awhile to adjust in a way that I never anticipated, and I’ve had over ten years to come to terms with it. He had such a big presence, and it’s gone now, and it will never be the same again. 

Or like how lonely I am in general. Not romantically, I’ve kind of lost interest lately. And sure, I have a lot of friends. But none of them are close. It’s just the really basic need to be understood by someone else, and I know that it’s my fault because I don’t let people get close to me anymore. See, I’m pretty weird and my mind works in unusual ways. I know most people say that, and most people are. But I’m very perceptive, and I grew up in a traditional, white conservative society, so I started noticing their reaction to me, and I guess it upset me because I didn’t understand why I was different. And since I couldn’t change that about myself, I withdrew so they couldn’t judge me anymore, and instead set out to observe human interaction. Over the years, through mimicking what I saw and testing out different approaches, I finally figured out how to have a conversation. Seriously, I was incredibly awkward until about 2 years ago. Most people think I’m shy, but it’s so much more than that. Sometimes I wonder what it’d be like to think the way other people think, but ultimately, part of why I’m a loner is because I honestly prefer my own company. 

Or like how scared I am of everything falling apart again. 

Damn, being in Montgomery is not good for me.