Know Your Mom and Pop: American Pride Plumbing & Heating Being a plumber is a seemingly thankless job. It’s the type of work no one truly appreciates until the toilet becomes so clogged that water flows over the side or a pipe bursts at 3am. Plumbers are more known for their infamous crack than their dedication to the craft. A lot of work goes into ensuring that the customer’s needs are met, and catering to those needs can sometimes be more demanding than the labor itself. It’s an important job, and American Pride Plumbing & Heating, LLC owner Greg Chihoski wears many hats being his own boss and only employee. Though he didn’t become an incorporated business until 2011, Chihoski has been plumbing for the past 15 years. He started working for a small company and learned that he had a talent for the job. He went to school, accumulated tools and started his apprenticeship. Through the years, he has become a licensed Master Plumber, Master Pipe Fitter and a Certified Back-Flow Assembly Tester. The next logical step was to branch out on his own, building a loyal customer base and a reputation as a “reasonably priced plumber that does quality work.” “It got to the point where I had everything I needed to go out on my own,” Chihoski said of his decision. “I already had some steady customers through the music scene.” It was the local music scene that may have inadvertently led Chihoski to branch out on his own. Playing in bands since 1989, he made a lot of friends and acquaintances in the scene, and a few of them needed plumbing work. Whether working at the clubs themselves or the house of an employee, he gave each job the same level of quality no matter the size or cost. He has since expanded to working all over the state, all the way from big construction companies, property management companies and successful local businesses to friends who just bought a new home and want to start out on the right foot. With so many wrenches being thrown into the plans, there is no typical work day for a plumber. Chihoski attempts to stick to the same routine, though the day usually has different plans. Working for himself, he does all of the estimating, bidding, installation and services. Once the plumbing work is done, it’s on to the billing and paperwork that every business owner must do. “On an average day, my phone starts ringing at 6:30am,” Chihoski describes. “I usually have either billing or quotes to work on or send out. Then I drop my daughter, Devyn, off at day care, head to the supply house, then my first job.” Never quite knowing how long the day might last, he has to prepare for anything, whether it be finding raw sewage in a basement or getting an emergency call that keeps him working nearly through the night. Being a local musician (he plays bass in Reason to Fight and guitar in Gutter Monk), Chihoski has figured out a way to combine his full-time job with his full-time passion. He uses the American Pride name to book national punk shows in Rhode Island. He has brought Sick of it All, Ignite, Gray Area and H2O to Providence; bringing the same DIY attitude that he has for his plumbing business. Chihoski uses his shows as a tool to promote his company. “Instead of taking out ads, I just put on shows sponsored by the plumbing company.” American Pride Plumbing & Heating, LLC has a driven owner with plans for a bright future. Wanting to grow the business enough to add two or three licensed plumbers while still being able to keeps rates low and quality high, his vision is clear, and also supportive of the music scene that he grew up in. “I will try to hire experienced people from the local music scene who take pride in their work.” American Pride Plumbing & Heating, LLC offers plumbing and heating repair, including heating systems, water heaters, faucets, toilets, showers, roof drains, sewage ejectors, gas piping, cast iron stack and pipe replacements, laundry hook-ups, winterizing and minor drain cleaning. Greg Chihoski can be contacted at 401-536-2716. Please text if it is an after hours emergency. Check them out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanPridePlumbing?fref=ts. American Pride Booking has two shows coming up at Simon’s 677, located at 677 Valley St in Providence. Madball is coming to town on December 7, with Turnstile, Death Before Dishonor, Take Offense, Downpresser, and Gutter Monk. Agnostic Front plays December 17, with Revenge, Reason to Fight, and The Struggle. Album of the Week: Stardeath and White Dwarfs’ Wastoid It can be a daunting to be related to a music superstar. Enter Dennis Coyne, nephew of Wayne Coyne, the insanely enigmatic frontman of acid-punk act The Flaming Lips. Dennis’ band Stardeath and White Dwarfs have a new album out called Wastoid and you can see the influence of his uncle throughout each track. What sets this act apart is the heavy fuzz from the bass and guitar distortions that can make your head spin. It can be tough living up to someone else’s fame, but Wastoid shows that Stardeath and White Dwarfs are looking to forge their own path. If you have heard the Dark Side Of The Moon cover album Stardeath and White Dwarfs did with The Flaming Lips, Peaches and Henry Rollins back in 2009, then Wastoid should show a lot of similarities. There’s a great psychedelic presence on the album with each song taking you from one place to the next. Each track provides a different experience but each is a pleasant one. Staying true to their crazy and weird Oklahoma roots, Stardeath and White Dwarfs never cease to astound from start to finish with their new album. It’s groovy, fun and trippy with a taste for the abstract that comes together to form something unique and wonderful. So the World Cup is finally over. Since a portion of your day is all the sudden freed up, dive into my top tracks off of the Album Of The Week. Maybe it’s not as fun as watching a bunch of dudes run around for 90 minutes, but it surely won’t be boring. The jungle beats and the raw riffs of “Frequency” make it a funky number at the start and then it gets all acoustic with Dennis strumming on his six-string. It reminds me a bit of mid-90s era Blur. A wonderful example of the fuzz is “Guess I’ll Be Okay;” the guitars hit you like a stick of dynamite over a nuclear power plant and it’s my personal favorite off of the album. Cool psych-jazz goodness is all over “Sleeping Pills and Ginger Ale,” a very entrancing song that features piano chords giving it a full body. Stardeath and White Dwarfs will be performing at The Wichita Psych Fest in Wichita, Kansas, on July 19 and at The Center Of The Universe Fest in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on July 26. If you’re willing to make the road trip to one of these festivals I highly suggest you do. Hopefully they make it up to New England soon, but until then grab yourself a copy of Stardeath and White Dwarfs’ Wastoid. It’s the perfect album for the person who lives in another state of mind. Stardeath and White Dwarf’s Website: stardeathandwhitedwarfs.com Cruel Hand Throws Down at Firehouse 13 By: Khrysta Ryan Providence hardcore locals Waste of Life and Black Celebration opened up a killer show at Firehouse 13 in Providence this past Wednesday. This small three day tour headlined by Maine hardcore band Cruel Hand, who joined Swamps from Springfield MA, and Street Sweeper from Boston. Although it was a weekday show it didn’t stop people from all over New England to show up and throw down for each band. Fans from Connecticut, Mass, and NH came out and filled the place up. Black Celebration opened the show and hyped up the crowd even without a packed floor. The first band of the night sets the mood for the rest of the show, and that is exactly what they did. This Providence band knew how to keep the crowds attention. Still new to the scene, they had a memorable performance with their opening and closing song be a tribute to a “black celebration.” Their self titled EP, released in early April, is out on Bandcamp, which you can download for free. Following was Waste of Life: only playing three previous shows, the crowd was impressed by the stage presence of the entire band along with the amount of interaction the vocalist had with the fans. Their short and sweet set gave the crowd a taste of what is to come from this local hardcore band. The only vocalist to actually get off the stage made Waste of Life’s set one of the best to watch. Their debut EP Nothing to Gain released in early April, people have been able to hear how this Providence band puts their own twist on the classic hardcore style. With each member having different musical influences they mix their ideas together to create this different take on hardcore. Playing with Cruel Hand, Rude Awakening and Capsize, all bands who are nationally known in the hardcore scene, this band is moving in the right direction; quickly in the hardcore scene. Following Waste of Life was Street Sweeper who killed it with their Boston hardcore sound; fast paced and higher pitched vocals resembling hardcore legends Have Heart.