psychotic reaction

kidnappers interview

2011-05-14T12:51:00.000-07:00

Some months ago was released the last LP by the Kidnappers, "Will Protect You". The album really rocks in a pop-punk way a la Good Vibrations or something like that very power pop. Since i didn't know what was going up with them since a lot of time i decided to interview Chris and have a little talk about "Will Protect you" and their past. Listen the new record, it rocks.

how the highschool rockers got together?

Well we were 17 and listening to a lot of Rip Off Records and Crypt Records stuff. We started rehearsing in the basement of our drummers house.
Around the same time Daniel who was on the same school as us started Aliensnatch records. We got our first show and first release because of him…the rest is history hahahhaha

i always though that daniel was an old guy..
No, actually he’s a good looking, successful guy in his best years….

how you feel nowadays about that Highschool Rockers stuff?

Well, we were pretty young. It was OK for that time. When I listen to it now it’s just funny but I can’t take it seriously.

why you decided to break up with that and turn into the Kidnappers?

Getting rid of the Highschool thing, new, more mature sound and the name pretty much sucked…Kidnappers ain’t much better though

and how you feel about the first kidnappers album?

it's also very different from what you do now
Of course it’s different , we recorded it 9 years ago. It would be strange if we still sounded the same, don’t you think?
But it already had our usual mix of punk and pop stuff….much trashier of course

it has passed a long time ago since your last album, 4 years, what you have been doing in between? i almost forgot about you.
it seems that still on a power pop fever

How can you forget about us?Come On!!!!
Yeah we didn't do much in 2008 and 2009 besides a couple of shows because we finished uni and we got real jobs, the usual stuff that happens in life hahaha.
Me and my brother are living in Hamburg and our drummer in cologne, that doesn't help either. But this year we did a lot more live activities and recordings. We also hired Bruno from Miss Chain & the Broken Heels as an interim drummer for our tour this autumn. Timo just got a baby and doesn't have so much time anymore. Bruno is very professional and can play all our songs without rehearsing and as he is a young italian boy he doesn't have to work much.So now we can use Bruno whenever Timo is unavailable.
Still on the powerpop fever? Well, kind of, but we listen to a wide range of music...The new record turned out pretty poppy, that's true. But that was not intended.
We just keep the songs that we like, we never intend to write a specific genre-style song.
But i think it will not get any poppier than this album...live it's still pretty rough!

your second album was on rip off (that for you is a big goal). how you feel about the death of this label and it's sound?

It was cool for us to do it on Rip Off but it wasn't really that special. Rip Off Record's Heydays were long over when we released Neon Signs.
It was already clear that the label will come to an end sooner or later. Still the deal we got from Greg was good and he got a good distributer (which is bankrupt now but anyways hahah...).
And of course the early records on Rip Off Records are classics and had a big influence on us in the beginning.

talk me about "will protect you" and the recording of it

The songs were written between 2007 and 2009. We recorded the drums in one day in a rehearsal room in Cologne. All the rest was done in my apartment
We transfered my lumber-room into a vocal booth to record vocals and guitars. My living room was the control room.
The recording process was really slow. We only recorded every other day for one or two hours. Sometimes only doing backings or lead guitar for one song.
It was cool because we didn't have any time pressure. We are very satisfied with the result. I'm still suprised that none of my neighbours ever complained
about the noise. That's really a good thing about living in St.Pauli - Hamburg.

the recording sounds great, with what machine you recorded the songs?

Nothing special…all digital in Nuendo on my Laptop.

the cover of your new album is disgusting. it was your intention?

No, the photo was taken more or less by accident after a show in Groningen at one of those dutch food wending machines…it’s a money shot!!!!!

if i remember well... after neon signs you were going to put out a 7" or 10" i don't remember well... what happened with that? are you going to put out any singles out? lots of time since you don't make one

This 10” became “Will Protect you”. The next release will be a single. We have some unreleased stuff lying around….

will also be that seven inch in Alien Snatch? or what other label? also pop stuff?

This is still TBD. We’d prefer to do it on a US label.
Only PUNK from now on!!!

that's a lie. But nothing's gonna change is kind of a punk-hit.
how do you feel nowadays about "Neon Signs". i mean it seems to be like a step between both of your albums. like trying to be "will protect you" but still didn't know how to play that stuff correctly. i have been playing it a little bit this days since your last album came out, and it seems like so fast. i like it a lot anyway

Yeah it’s pretty fast compared to “Will Protect You”. We still like it. It’s not that we tried to do a record like “Will Protect You” back then. It was just these kind of songs that came up. We were listening to almost the same kind of music as today.
Of course technically we got a bit better….very very little though hahaha.
Live we play a lot of songs of “Neon Signs”.

how are seem the kidnappers in germany? you have a lot of stuff and years playing music on your back. but i don't know a shit about it.

Nobody is really interested in us. We have never been active continuously in the past 10 years.
We a have periods where we do a little more, and periods where we do nothing for half a year or a year. It’s just like that.
But still, if we play a bigger city on the weekend, we get a decent crowd…well,sometimes :-)
at least daniel loves you. - did you have plans for touring soon to make some promo of "will protect you"
In june, We are playing denmark and “Whole lotta Midsummer” festival in Stockholm.
And then probably atour in fall

there are plans to come to spain on that tour fall?

We definitely wanna play spain.Perhaps it will work out end of this year. If not we come next year.

not a lot of time ago your first LP was reissued on FDH from USA, don't you have plans to tour usa?

Well, it’s already 3 years ago. There were plans already to do it this year but that didn’t work out.
In march we played one show at SXSW in Austin,TX with Alyse of The Hex Dispensers on drums…that was fucking great.

what kind of music are you listening nowadays?

At the moment on my turntable:
-Conspiracy of owls
-King Tuff
-Yussuf Jerusalem
-Natural Child
-Apache
-CCR
-Boston

boston? c'mon

HAHAHHA …Raul you have to respect the Adult oriented Rock (AOR)….Boston, Journey, REO Speedwagon fucking Rock!!!!!
Listen to Boston “The Journey” and you’ll realize!!!

Zac Ives (Final Solutions)

2010-12-27T04:11:00.000-08:00

Final Solutions are definitely one of my favourite bands of the 00s, i still listen both of their LPs the whole time, and also their singles (with the exception of the shit sandwich 7" that isn't that good). I think that time will put them on their position and will always be remembered as some of the best rare stuff of the 00s. At least i want to think that. This interview with Zac Ives, their singer, is a small talk about the FS, Goner Records and the band where he is playing now (or was playing some time ago), Sector Zero. It was done my email through september - early december 2010, designed for my upcoming spanish webzime, in the midtime i translate it for his actual release i post it here on my blog for the english speaking people (probably more interested on it than the spanish people)

were the final solutions your first band or did you play before in any other band?

yeah - while we were in college the guitarist, bassist and I were in a punk rock band called the Jackmonkeys.. we were pretty bad. I met Jay at some point in late 1996 - and would get up and sing the Pack song "looking for danger" at Reatards shows - this was a very early incarnation of that band - with members of the Memphis surf/instro band Impala backing him up. We put out a split tape of Reatards and Jackmonkeys - but only made a few copies of it.This was all before the first Goner single and "Teenage Hate". Jay also played drums in a one-off band for our college's talent show that we did we were called the High and Mighties. We did Oblivians covers in the school cafeteria. To end it we switched up and I played drums and he sang a rip off of a Lil Bunnies song - that we turned into our theme song. I tried to light my cymbal on fire but it didn't work. The college kids weren't very into it.

We started FS about 3 years later - after I moved back to Memphis from the East Coast. Jay wanted to play drums more and have a punk rock band cuz he was doing Lost Sounds by that point. Tom was a teacher, and hadn't played music since college and Justice was doing more solo quiet stuff and needed to get back to the rock.

do you have any copy of that split? it would be cool to listen to it

Nah - sorry man - there were only a few copies made. might try and get the reatards side out - we are reissuing that stuff on Goner. it's jay w/ greg oblivian on drums. good stuff... much better than our side!

it's Goner reissuing more Jay stuff?

We are in charge of getting the Reatards stuff back out. First up is a 2LP reissue of Teenage Hate - the other side will be that tape w/ Greg O on drums.

who came along with the name of the band, i like it

If I remember right - Jay and King Louie were going to start a band called the Final Solutions - and we hijacked the name. We were a dumb punk rock band - we needed a dumb punk rock name - it seemed to fit.

nowadays some people talk about the eat shit 7" like if it was one of the best of the 00s.. what FS record is your fav?

Really? That's funny. That's probably my favorite too - or the Shattered single with the Pooh Sticks cover... I haven't listened to any of them in a while. It was always more fun to play than listen to.

the shattered single was really cool too yes, it have been a bit ruined for me by the "i am the now" version of the second LP, so much better than the 7inch version. your highest point if you ask me

ah thanks! yeah - forgot how bad that single version was until somebody played it out at a show one night... pretty funny.

yes, it's a bit worse, but the pooh sticks cover is so great, it really sounds like a Urinals outtake or something like that. who's got the idea to make it?

Mine... Eric O got me into the Pooh Sticks - and I'd always loved that song... so we decided to try and cover it. We recorded it here at the back room of the Goner Shop - and it was excruciating - for whatever reason Tom, the bassist, kept fucking it up. Over and over. And he's not the guy that is usually fucking up! Kind of funny. But people were hanging out in the shop that night for some reason, and we finally got it done and came out and someone said, "man, you guys really had trouble with that song, eh?" Once we finally got it, it was really fun to play live.

who are your favourite singers? you always reminds me kind of to the urinals kind of singing

Thanks - yeah we definitely stole heavily from Urinals along the way - but we didn't really start that way. I started the band by giving everyone a tape of 70s punk songs from Eastern Europe - the original idea was to be a Eastern European punk rock cover band - and I'd just sorta make up a fake language to sing in... covering Pekinska Patka and Kriminella Gitarrer was always really fun. Then we tried to write songs like that - that would zig where you would normally zag and start where other people would stop. That's generally the kind of music I like.

i can hear that eastern europe sound, the first LP is really like that, and that's the reason why "return to the motherland" exists not?

yeah - the return to the motherland stuff was all early recordings.

you guys did one tour with the Lids, did you do any other? how went the tour? here in europe we would have love an euro tour, but it never happened...

we never did tour much - had requests to play a couple festivals and things but could never make it work between work schedules and Jay's tour schedule. we did a couple trips to New Orleans and Atlanta, played Blackout Festival in Chicago one year, and that was about it for outside of Memphis shows. that tour was fun - but it was also a real mess. we went north in December - never a good idea - and got caught in some of the worst weather in years. Two separate blizzards... highways were closed down and the Lids tour van broke down so we were all packed in our van for part of it. But it was a lot of fun too.

the last record put out by the final solutions was "songs by..." if we don't count the demo stuff of "fs df".. did the band do more songs after "songs.." or was it the end? that album sounds really different compared to the first LP, less synth and a bit more straight-forward stuff (but i like it better). also better recorded

Yeah - that was really the last stuff we wrote and recorded... one big difference between that record and the first record is that Jay went back and laid a ton of synth over the first record after we finished the recording. When we played those songs live - I played one-finger bad synth on some of those songs - but nothing like what wound up on those records... Jay was in Lost Sounds at that point and getting good with all that stuff... so he did all that himself. Some of it turned out good - some of it kinda got in the way of the songs I thought.

On the second LP - Jay didn't really change things as much on the backend. He added some guitar lines, vocals and and handled all the mixing and everything. But none of the songs really changed. We also wrote a few of those songs for the record and never played really played them live. All the songs were recorded w/ the full band at Jay's home studio. Jay and I did "Lightning Bug" ourselves. I played guitar - he played the little synth lead and drum machine. We didn't want to make the same record - and I was listening to more DIY, powerpop and pop psych stuff and starting to get into Flying Nun sorta stuff and so I think some of those influences changed things a bit.

And yeah - by that point Jay had really figured out how to record.

yeah, what NZ stuff is your fave? some years ago i also turned crazy (thanks to Kiwi Tapes, like the mid of the garage punk guys) into NZ stuff, obviously really into the Clean and Tall Dwarfs

Right now listening to lots of the Chills - but I really like all the stuff that falls on the poppier side of things: Bats, Clean, Tall Dwarfs, Toy Love, Verlaines, etc... Even the punk stuff is off-kilter a bit - the AK79 comp is really great! We tried to get the Clean to come for gonerfest the past two years but weren't able to make it happen.

the chills are great, their videos are gay

YES!

i suppose that the band broke up because Jay hadn't time since he began to get huge playing his solo stuff, do you guys ever planned to look out for any other drummer?

It just kind of ran it's course... we had been doing it for a long time. But yeah - once Jay signed that contract with Matador it changed how he could record and play with other people and basically ended FS.

re: more shows... I don't think so. It would be pretty strange. We've had other people ask too. I dunno - might feel differently at some point down the road. But right now - it doesn't seem to make sense.

are there any other stuff that never came out? will come out anyday?

I think most everything worth hearing made it out... there are different versions of songs lying around... but nothing very interesting I don't think.

now a bit talk about your new band Sector Zero, i listened to your myspace, "guitar attack" is great, very FS like. who plays in here?

Thanks - Sector Zero is me, Eric O and Abe from the Oscars on drums.

when did it began?

Maybe 4 years ago? I'd never played guitar in a band and still can't really play... so we have that going for us. Eric and I just wanted to play a bit - we recruited Nick from American Deathray and ex-Golden Triangle to play drums... then we've had lots of other drummers. we don't really practice. It's that kind of band.. Lots of fun tho.

yeah, i heard that alix (lids, angry angles) tried at some point playing the drums too. you play the guitar on this band right?

Yeah - Alix played a couple of shows on drums for us. Jay, James Arthur, Billy (Waaves/Jay solo drummer/Boston Chinks)

are you recording any record right now?

We recorded some stuff with Jay recording and playing drums (that's what that version of Guitar Attack is from) a couple years ago - never really finished it... but maybe we'll get it finished and out there at some point.

it will be very cool if you guys finish that stuff, i hope you make something with this

Thanks - I think we'll eventually get a single or two out there. There is a track on the Gonerfest 5 giveaway LP we did... Porcupine Sweater. no drums - recorded at the shop.

when you began to form part of goner?

I moved back to Memphis and Eric and I did a lot of trying to figure out something to start up - a bar / a venue / a record store, etc. Then Greg O, who had a record store in this location for in 2002-2003 decided to move to Asheville, NC. We took over his lease - built record bins and started it up ourselves in Feb 2004. It started small!

when you guys decided to put the effort on the gonerfest? i mean, it must be near painful to make such a big event. a whole lot of bands, money etc..

King Khan and BBQ were going to get together and do a tour to support the record - we thought it might be the only time they got together (at that point they didn't expect this to be a long-term project) so we decided to call some bands and try and make it a big weekend. We were putting out the King Louie record around the same time - so we had him come too - and then every band we called was up for coming and playing. Black Lips came in - lots of other folks. We didn't know if anyone was going to come - so we did it at this little place that's a bar in a house called the Buccaneer. People came - we had a lot of fun and we moved to a bigger venue after that.

tell me, weirdest or favourite moments at gonerfests

every year there's a different one - but this year there were two that stand out -

1. Dave Cloud, a 56 year old man, stripping down to his underwear in the third song of the set and dry humping the floor. AMAZING SET.
2. UV Race, the next night, Marcus, their short and round 21? year old front man, made a hand drawn dress that he only stayed in until the 3rd song of the set - and then he ripped his off hulk style and then ran through an amazing array of dances in some very small underwear.

Other highlights have been insane sets by the Barbaras (covering everything in flour), Hunx and his Punx (on stage blowjobs and other uncomfortable things), Black Lips the first year - with way too many people packed into the buccaneer - glad no one died..

what records have you tried to put out but it didn't work?

Oh there's been a few things... we did Jay's first couple of solo singles - but In the Red could give him an advance and had better distribution and so he did "Blood Visions" with Larry (and at the time it was probably the right call). The Barbaras were similar - we did a single and planned on doing the LP - but signals got crossed and ITR lined them up for an album - that may or may not ever happen.

it's a shit that the barbaras LP never came out, their demos are really cool

Yeah - barbaras were an amazing band.

tell me records from the last couple of years that you would have love to put out

I don't know - cuz it's really not a competitive thing with us - but I can tell you about my favorite recent records that we didn't put out - Davila 666 s/t LP, John Wesley Coleman LP from last year, Hubble Bubble reissues, the Scrotum Poles LP...

have you never though into catching the uv race for goner and making goner the us pressings for this great australian stuff?

yeah we were hoping to do the new UV race album - but larry (ITR) is doing it instead. they are fantastic.

how are going the sales? i have understood that record sales got a bit down in the last few years

Our sales have been going up pretty steadily over the past year. We have better distribution now - after signing an exclusive distribution deal with Revolver a year ago... hopefully that gets our records into Europe better too... maybe you can tell me?!

how many copies you usually put out on a first pressing? how many sales for an usual record?

this depends on the record - no less than 1000 in the first pressing though. again - it varies - there are some where we've sold 5000 or so - others where we've sold struggled to get to 1000. no real worries either way though - it's all stuff we thought should be out there.

all time goner sellers

probably still carbonas s/t. but eddy current primary colours and ty's records are catching up.

worst seller

i really don't know - we've got several that we stopped at 1000...

since you work in a label.. tell me a bit. probably most of your newer releases goes in the digital way.. but it's difficult to make all the way analog? put some digital ways the pressing plant in the process?

yes - at some point they usually go digital - even if the inital recording is analog. just because delivering masters on CD is the easiest way.

have you had big problems putting out a record and becoming upset of using that pressing plant (if it is yes, tell the name)?

there are always issues - we prefer to use United Record Pressing in Nashville - we've used them for a long time and have a great relationship with them. also, they are only 3 hours away in nashville.

beginning a part of one of my fav labels from the 00s...what do you think about the 00s in general terms... better than the 90s? how have been the last couple of years musically talkin for you?

Huh - I don't know - I think just different. There was the whole indie label explosion in the 90s - where anyone could do a single... and that was good and bad. That kinda got smaller for a minute in the late 90s/early 00s - then got big again when you could do it all on your computer... as far as garage/punk stuff - I liked how things moved into a poppier realm for a while - but that seems to be getting old now. I think we're ripe for another change - that's when things get interesting! Bring on the 10s!

goner releases for 2011?

new quintron double LP recorded in a museum and a park in New Orleans, reissuing Teenage Hate w/ a bonus record of stuff Jay did w/ Greg O on drums when he was 15, Eddy Current singles and outtakes comp, overnight lows single, Limes, John Wesley Coleman... plus working on a couple other things... we'll see how it all turns out!

some words for the end of the interview?

just starting up a new band called Sharp Balloons with Joe T (Rat Traps, Feelers) and his wife who is a nurse and hasn't been in a band before. she's learning bass and singing most songs. Joe's a guitarist so he's playing drums in this band. and i'm still trying to play guitar. it's an explosion of ineptitude. the idea was to try and sound UK DIY/Messthetics kind of thing - not sure what it actually sounds like. a mess! been really fun tho!

New (and not that new..) Records i Have Dig

2010-03-22T04:35:00.001-07:00

Cave Weddings - Bring Your Love 7" (Hozac Records)

This is obviously the kind of record i really dig, garage pop at it best, "Bring your Love" is a song that must be on the future BFTG kind of comp from 2060 or so. A fuckin incredible song to open your DJ session at the rock and roll bar of your town, fuckin incredible. Great stupid guitar line, great savage-sounding drums, really great energy to forget the world and move your bones. Also, perfect recording in my opinion.
While the b-side is also good the a-side takes the cake, really, an unusual timeless hit. Forget all the fuckin post punk of this days.

Digital Leather - Warm Brother LP (Fat Possum)

I love Digital Leather, i loved "Sorcerer" and "Monologue". I jumped over the FDH record and i think i need to listen that record again too.. I was listening some days ago "Monologue" thinkin that it was really different from this record, but really it isn't. Ok, here you find some acoustic guitars and whispers here and there, but it fits so good. It only have two sucky songs ("Modern Castles" and "My Face"). Even with that last boring songs one of the best albums of the year.

Predator - Honest Man 7" (Rob House)

Ok, i don't really know if this band is that good but "Honest Man" is a killer hardcore hit with punk in his soul. Great soundin bass, violent etc.. Pure greatness. The other two aren't that great, but hey, it's a 7". I don't really expect more than a killer track and some more so-so tracks.. anyway, the other two aren't that bad, they fit well after "Honest Man". Great record from ex-Frantic guys. I hope that their future LP in Douchemaster kills.

Ben Cook (Young Governor, Bitters, Fucked Up, Marvelous Darlings..) Interview

2010-03-22T04:24:00.000-07:00

I did this interview some months ago, I think it’s kind of ok, I made some stupid questions that reading it now I could have forget about them, but it’s still ok. Young Governor jump onto my plate around September or so, I really listened to that “Virginia Creeper” around 300 times or so, like all fuckin day. A really great punk rock single, while the songs are really long, they are still fun, I still think it would be better a little shorter if he tries anyday to do a LP, but this way it’s ok for singles. He also plays in other bands like the Bitters (which I really like too), Marvelous Darlings (not my thing) and some other things like Fucked Up. Recently he have put out “Call me when the Cat Dies” which really rocks.

let's began from the start.. your first band was No Warning not? anyone before that? do you still like that band? i'm not into it but checked some stuff and seems to metallic. so different from the stuff you are doin' nowadays

My first band was called The Smegheads. It was 3 chord pop punk like Screeching Weasel, when I was 13. I've been in a lot of different kinds of bands, but they have all been part of the punk genre in some sort of way. No Warning was my first real band, started when I was 16 with some friend in my neighborhood. We were just shitty teenagers who didn't smoke or drink doing a hardcore band, and getting ourselves into some crazy shit (crime) because we were clearly bored from not partying like all the other kids were. That band got pretty deep into Toronto Hardcore scene, and we segregated ourselves from all the stuff we didn't like at the time, other bands around. Our band was very simple hardcore, and there was nothing like that in Toronto. We were laughed off by a lot of people at first, but to this day that band was one of Toronto's and Canada's most popular hc band (not just known in the city, but all over the world) and I'm pretty proud of it. We put Toronto on the map, and paved the way for other quality stuff.. Fucked Up, obviously taking things a lot further.

i have heard that you were a young actor before getting into hardcore, which were your goals as working as an actor? what age you had when you leave that to play in No Warning?

My mum put me in a Canoe Camp when I was like 10. I got kicked out for smashing my Canoe into the canoe of another kids. He ended up having down syndrome (I didn't know), and his canoe capsized and he fell into the pond. It was bad. So I signed up for another camp (Acting Camp). After that, i got an audition at the end of the summer and everything started for me then. It was all kind of an accident. I did that shit at a young age to make money to be able to by gear and help support my mum who was a single parent of my brother and I and didn't make very much money. I quit acting as soon as it threatened to take up too much of the time I spent making music which is what I really wanted to do. I stopped acting around 15 years old.

how you got to play in Fucked Up as 3rd guitar?

About 3 years ago, I roadied for them in England as I was on a trip with my brother over there. I extended my stay to go on their tour. I set up their amps every night, changed guitar strings, had fun with it. It was a fun time. I got home and there was an email from Mike asking me if I wanted to join on 3rd guitar. I accepted. I think he liked my professional ways, and attitude. Felt it fit in with their whiner bullshit and they needed some balance. I'm a soldier.

do you consider Fucked Up as one of your main bands? you have a lot of other projects (more interesting than Fucked Up in my opinion) going right now. or it's just like a bit of help for them?

Fucked Up is my main priority. Its the busiest band, and it's cool to see how far we can take things. It also pays my rent. Fucked up evenly shares everything as best we can. All the jobs, and responsibilities and creative tasks it takes to make a full time band work. I am part of that as much as anyone else. I wouldn't ever want to be just a little part of something. If I am in it, I am in it for real. I have many other projects because I have many musical goals, I'm always writing songs, and different things just keep popping up for me. I just go with it.

when you began with Young Governor.. i mean, self-recording your own songs all alone

I started recording my own songs and playing everything when I was like 12, but obviously that was awful.. About a year and a half ago I set up my recording stuff at a space in the east end of Toronto. I have been there ever since recording Young Governor records, Bitters Records, Marvelous Darlings records.. and any other bands that want to come in and work with me, I'm usually up for it. I've recorded a lot of stuff.

when you write songs.. do you really think for what band will go? or you write them and then you approach the songs to the sound of the band that will play that songs?

Usually as soon as I start writing a song, i know what band it is for just based on the sound. I have a lot of projects, but they all have pretty distinct styles so it easy to not get confused when writing. Writing a Bitters song sounds completely different to a Guvnor song.. Also I make sure I only write Bitters songs while Aerin is in the room, usuaully shes on the drum kit and works out drum parts to whatever I start playing. I could pick up a guitar for an hour and writing 10 songs very easily, so I sometimes avoid picking up an instrument in fear of writing too many songs and getting bogged down with too much to do. Haha.

so you are on the side of getting guitar, playing without sense and slowly it gets into a cool riff.. sing a bit without sense (just for the melody of the vocals).. another riff... lyrics and you have a song?

I dont really have a set method to it. Sometimes I build a song off just a drum beat. Sometimes it all comes out at once on my couch with the guitar, and the melodies and stuff. It's always different. Lyrics always come last though more or less, and I usually write them on the spot or like 10 seconds before I sing them. They usually turn out pretty well, I don't have a hard time coming up with them, I also don't really care about lyrics.. compared to the rest of a song.

do you think that it's really important to record on your own? i mean.. some months ago i got into studio, i usually used just to write songs.. after that i realized that it's really important to practice recording on your to improve your songwriting, to give more color to the songs. before i just used to think on the basic level.

I think it's important to try everything and see what is right for you. Some people love being in a studio and having the pressure and the schedule to work under to get everything done. And leaving the technical stuff up to an engineer to make things sound good, so you can just concentrate on the creative side of things. Personally I like to be in control of how it sounds sonically, and also how the song is being built creatively. Some people shouldn't record their own band, because it will sound like shit, but if you know what you are doing and you enjoy it.. do it. I see no use in going to a real studio for anything that i do (except fucked up), but i think when it comes to do a real LP with young governor one day (maybe the 2nd LP?) i might hit up a real studio and make it a big time studio straight forward pop masterpiece, and then dissappear and live in the woods and quit everything.

do you think you could write all this songs if you didn't know how to record? do you think you could have all that bands?

i think i could for sure. i know a lot of cats around who could record me if i didnt know how.. but it definitly makes it a million times easier.. i would NOT have all the records i have out now, and it would make things so much slower.. but i COULD if i really wanted to.. the fact that i know how to record and have taken the time to pay attention all my life when being in real studios and know what i am doing, this helps me A LOT.

are you already recording a Young Governor album?

Nope. Just singles.

what do you think about this personal project? are you happy with how is working?

I really enjoy it. I like that I can pretty much do anything I want with it, and it all ends up sound like me. You'll know what I mean when all the new singles come out.

what do you think about Hidden Love. Personally, i think it's really so-so but then it comes this.. Virginia Creeper? do you recorded those songs first or later than Hidden Love? it's amazing how it sounds, really.

Virginia Creeper was part of a recording session that I did right after the hidden love stuff. The Hidden Love stuff was done a little after Jay Reatards Blood Visions came out. I really love the production of that record, and I wanted to go and make some songs that sounded like it. Looking back a lot of it sounds a lot like Jay, but I still think Weird Ground, Summer Girl, and Hidden Love are really well written songs. Just as good as Blood Visions, easily.. haha.
Virginia Creeper came after, and was done around the same time as a single coming out soon called "The Cutter".

"Summer Girl" is a great song, that's true. the rest not that much for me..

Better take another listen then.

what plans do you have with Young Governor? I know that you will release singles with TTT and Criminal IQ. are you already recording a LP? are you playing live with this band?

Yes, TTT and Criminal IQ singles. A single on Plastic Spoon Records from France. A record cut into the lid of an ice cream tub lid. A reworked version of Summer Girl with horns is coming out on Sleep City Records with a book of artists that dude likes and some of my friends too. And a few more in the works too. Eventually a cool label will put out a singles compilation. Then I will work out a masterpiece LP.
Young Guv has never played live.................. Or have I ?

i'm not sure.. but Young Governor could be your more interesting thing live? great punk rock, lots of energy

yes, my first band was No Warning. A huge sounding powerhouse of a live band with insanely loud guitars, and an amazing drummer. Fucked Up, the 2nd serious band I've been in. Also a huge power house. 3 guitars, wall of sound, with a 300 lbs singer. Powerhouse energetic loud as fuck live bands is what I know. I do the Bitters and have done other stuff and that is fun to record, live it can go either way, but I'm most comfortable playing very loud, with a lot of rock n roll energy. In the least douchey way possible, I like music with balls. I see live bands now, and they all are garbage. Pitter pattering faux DIY lofi bullshit "punks" who can't play their instruments, or are too drunk to play and think thats cool. 2010: I will begin Young Governor band. My 3rd powerhouse, and full on raging live act.

how is going with the Bitters? when it's coming out the LP? i really liked that 12" on Captured Tracks. there's two really great songs on it

Actually it has 4 really great songs on it. All of them. Bitters is going well. Except the other night when the bass player forgot all the songs on stage, and I almost punched him in the face on stage. We are almost done the LP called "East General". It will come out in spring of 2010. It's pretty dark, and grunge like.

when was formed? does the girl play in any other band?

We started it like a year ago, this is Aerins first band.

do you have plans to play more with this band? you are putting out lots of records of this band in the next few months

Lots of records. Maybe a tour or 2 here and there. Not sure.

what are the influences for this band? it seems the most "today" band.. i mean.. isn't that far from bands like the Oh Sees, or the captured tracks, woodsist catalog

I just see it as another pop music outlet for me. I don't really have any influences for it when I write the songs with Aerin. I like 90's grunge rock, and 70's and 80's punk. I try to keep things a bit darker with The Bitters and keep things our own style, as opposed to some of the really major sounding pop stuff I do with Young Governor.. I've never really heard the Oh See's or really any of the Woodsist/Captured Tracks band. It's hard to keep track of it all. Everything sounds the same. That being said I think those labels are awesome, and really know what they are doing. I'm glad I'm a part of it in some way and they see one of my projects as something of interest enough to release a record. Thats cool.

i'm not that fan of the catalog of that labels either
do you have decided what band will play with you as Young Governor?

Yes. It will be me on guitar, jonah from fucked up/career suicide on guitar, aerin fogel from the bitters on bass (if she learns how to play bass), and jesse from no warning on drums.

will you try to record with them on future? or still alone?

When I one day do an LP, it will sound different and have a real drummer and Jonah will play guitar on it. All the singles will always be JUST ME though. Lp's I want to do something different with. I want them to be collaberative efforts with everyone I know who can write a good tune. And I want them to play on it. Like a rap album.

ok, let's talk about the Marvelous Darlings. It's also kind of a recording project not? the most poppy i see

Yes. It used to be a real band, but Matt left Canada to do some music in California so right now its just us releasing records, no live shows.

do you have any other project going that i'm not aware of it?

I might have an only cassette band brewing called The Roommates.... Maybe not. Haha.

what does fucked up guys think about you with all this band?

They are supportive of anything anyone wants to do as long as it doesn't affect Fucked Up in a negative way. They don't really talk to me about my other stuff, and kind of pretend they aren't paying any attention. Jonah plays in the Bitters with me when we do shows, and he'll also be in the Young Governor live band when I start it. He's very supportive, and I am likewise with his projects (Mad Men, Lonely Wholesome) which I also play in when he needs live players or someone to help record him.

apart of the records you have already recorded but still they aren't out... are you recording any new records right now?

Yes, I am recording the debut Bitters LP called "east general" for Woodsist records.. I have a few unfinished Guv singles that I am finishing for plastic spoon records in france, and another one called "The Cutter".

are there anything you have recorded that you are really really proud of the results?

I've done a few things this year that I thought came out really great. "Call me when the Cat dies" 7" on criminal IQ is a big one. "Virginia Creeper" came out awesome. I like that these records don't sound like anyone but me. I believe in personalizing each recording, and maintaining a style through out everything I do.

how it sounds "call me when the cat dies"?

Like a cat getting fucked.

ok.. and a few of stupids questions just to finish..
what have you been listening lately?

Papoose mixtapes, Replacements, Meat Puppets, Gza, Lemonheads, Goo Goo Dolls.

what bands you like from now? or you feel like you are in a similar style?

I don't really like too many new bands. I feel apart from my 12" my stuff doesn't really sound like anyone.. I guess people will call it power pop, but I dont really listen to that stuff especially current power pop. It's pretty bad. The Strange Boys from Austin are pretty good at holding it down, and say what you want about them but I think the Vivian Girls have their own thing going that a lot of people want to jump on the coat tails of.. but I guess that's old news? I think those 2 bands have will have a longer life span than most.

how many time you expend on doin a song until is finish?

It's different for each song. Sometimes 1 hour, sometimes a song will take months to form and go from my head or the recording I do of it on my cell phone to actually being recorded and having lyrics etc.

what set up do you have for recording?

A few mics into a mixer into a computer.

do you like to give to the recordings kind of a "fucked up" (i'm not talkin about the band.. i'm talkin about a fucked up sound) sound to the mix? to make it seem like a bit homemade?

I just make the recordings interesting to my ear. I don't like super clean recordings, they bore me. I like to give every recording its own personal flavour. I dont intentially go and make it sound "fucked up". I just like loud, powerful, fat sounding mixes - and I like to work very fast or I get bored of it.

did you appear on an avril lavigne video? i have heard rumours

No, but a friend urinated on her.

psychotic reaction back in action

2010-03-21T13:47:00.000-07:00

I'm not speaking or writing a lot in english lately and i feel like i'm losing my low level.. so, i will began again. Expect in the next few days an interview with Young Governor i did for a spanish zine as well as a Hozac (un-finished) interview.

Also, here there are a list of banned terms on this blog since i see they don't have sense anymore:

weird = it haven't sense anymore since all the weird post-punk bedroom stuff. it doesn't means anything, probably the nearest term to weird punk is that it sucks.

And there aren't more, if i find more they will be added. I accept suggestions on the comment box. Thanks.

Apache Interview

2008-05-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to write a stupid intro for 5 minutes... i end up delating everything i write.. why? I don't know what to say about the Apache guys after have done this interview, it's difficult to make an introduction for this out of sense interview. Anyway... if you don't know them they are the best band around with pop influences, buy now their single on Douchemaster, a classic (even if it's from last year).

Apache=A Carlos=C

first off, any previous band guys or play in another band? you came for me out of nowhere and i went crazy with the single, i had 0 expectatives.
A- I was in the, you might of heard of us, The Sex Pistols. You know With Sid Vicious
C- I was in a band called The Cuts, but I quit because they could'nt pay me enough.

I know about the Cuts, aren't my thing, Apache much better, great move...
A-I like the Cuts. But i have to agree!!
C-I did'nt make my fortune with the Cuts, that's for sure!!

... and fuck man, can't you imagine something cooler than the Sex Pistols? they were great, but what you played there?
why the fuck you play Carlos in Apache, you should be rich and retired, what do you think about Sid Vicious, what would he think about Apache?
A-Yeah! Playing in the snow is pretty cool. Turkey with gravy and mashed potatos too!
C- Oh I'm RICH!! Rich with women!!!

do you ever though to have that great reviews?
A- Of course!! We're pretty cool!!
C-Fuck yeah, that shit rocks!! Wait till you hear the album!!

Why the name Apache? it seems muy macho
C- That's cause it's TUFF!! Apache's were Warriors, and were Rock N Roll Warriors!!
A- We do it for the kids!!!

the Warriors were gay, i though there would have been lotsa fights and not a lot...
A-What? Your gay!
C- The Warriors RULE!! Walter Hill is one of the best American directors.

Do you think you have the necessary sex-appeal to be on the radio waves? i mean, for your music... for sure, if i could play any radio (i don't like that.. it's just in theory) i would put ya for sure near everyday. but you are bearded guys playing pop rock and roll music
A-Yeah, i guess. We're looking for a saxophonist cause truthfully we're more concerned with "sax appeal".
C- Time to get "saxxy" 5.what old bands inspire Apache? i hear on "Boys Life" lotsa bubblegum in the singin (and claps) a la Nikki Corvette A-Rock bands ala' Generation X, The Zeros, The Sicteens!! "SmoothPunk" type shit. C-Tommy James, Ramones, Billy Idol, The Penetrators, Gizmos, Tony Visconti, Gary Glitter!!

nice to see basement punk on your influences, that shit is the best
A-We've actually never played in the basement.
C-Nor have we played in a garage, I guess that makes us practice space rock.
- so, where you practice guys?
A - Actually, a place called "ROCKER STUDIOS" in San Francisco! Practicing there is like practicing in a garage...
C- We don't even have Garage's in San Francisco, because none of us have cars!!

so you aren't that sure of your sex appeal.. mmmmmmmmm...... i'm scared about sax, i hope you have great ideas for this
A-It's not that we're not sure, it's more like we luv Saxaphones! You know 50's rock'n'roll?!
C-don't you Spaniards like Roxy Music?
yeah, i like'm. i must say that i knew them not a lot of time ago, i began with the first album of Brian Eno, the second and then jumped into the Roxy Music, some cool stuff true.
C-Roxy Rules!!! But, if that don't convince you that the sax rules, check out Hanoi Rocks, or X-Ray Spex. They both use the sax quite tastefully.
hey, i like Roxy Music.. haven't any problem with them... i have moreproblems with X-Ray Spex (not a fan, i like some songs though..) and HanoiRocks that i don't like them. i like some no-wave stuff with Sax too
A - Not a big fan of Hanoi Rocks either. I do like the sax though, andsome songs to, I got to admit. This isn't being printed right?
C- Everyone is smoking crack!! If you can appreciate pop, you can appreciate Hanoi Rocks, and man can that Micheal Monroe wail on the Sax!!

do you play any cover live?
A - Nope. I sleep UNDER the covers though.
C- I like to get live ladies under the covers.

it seems (talkin about your myspace) that the rest of your songs are kind of more rock-wank-solos, i still like it.. there will be more pop infection?
A-Of Course!! We hope to be mainlining that shit by the summer!!
C- Yes!! We love the POP!! But were not afraid to emphasize the "power" in power pop as well!!

what do you think about the Time Flys? you are already on the same two labels that they are, can Apache fight with them?
A-They are old friends, But anything for the Spanish!! And anyways they have a girl, and we can beat her up really easy!
C- yup she'd be a piece of cake!

when will be out your LP and what you think about it?
A-JULY 4th 2008!! Americas independance day!! I luv it! It FUCKING ROCKS!!!
C- The album ROCKS!! Righteous guitar solos, vibraslap, vocal harmonies, and hooks all over the place!! The shit Rocks!!!!

did you had any other offer for the album? or you went directly to birdman?
A - We pretty much had to sign our lives away in BLOOD, even before we even had enough songs for the record. I think there's a picture of it floating around somwhere.
C- We actually had a record deal well before we even had a band. I think the same thing happened to Zeppellin, only Jimmy Page got signed for his Hot Licks, and Mr. Apache got signed for his Hot Looks!!

will come out this year any other record?
A - If it works out a limited APACHE skinhead/punk 45. Its rad!!
C- Were going to attempt to unite the Punks and Skins!! HA!!!

skinhead/punk? tell me a bit more about that
A- I think i mentioned before about our small, but proud skinheadfollowing we have out here.And basically we gotta keep them happy. The punk side is about a little 5 footpunker that comes to our shows! She's REALLY REALLY small! And PUNK!
C- Well we like to keep our boys from both sides of the scene happy, especially the skins for safety reasons!!

so you guys are going to tour Europe.. what's the feeling of americans about touring Europe? i mean, in Spain some bands seems to tour the US as the more far they can go, are there something similar for ya? or you just want to get drunk and see beatiful europeans girls?
A - If i'm still alive!! Girls Rule!!
C-Touring the US sux!! If we start touring Europe, thats when we'll be styling!!! HEY LADIES!!!!!!!BOOMTOWN GEMS, out 4th of July!!!!

what do you think about the cover of your 7inch? why the hell that? i don't know if the history of the ugly duck exists in the USA.. you know,histories to kids, it reminds me a bit of that.. or kind of "don't judge a book by looking at the cover"
A - Hey thanks for the compliment, I love being called ugly! I personallylike the cover. Books suck anyway, listen to records! Ugly Duckling DOES existin America and it's a great story! You know HOPE!! Vomit.
C- That was actually the third cover for that single. The first cover idea was a painting of a bunch of dudes on motorbike. I mean what could be more boys life then that? Douchemaster was'nt having it though, so they produced a coverthat had a dude in dominatrix, who had a ballgagger in his mouth, which was very gay!! So we choose the cyclops. I guess it's less gay, but actually it's more GAY!!!

Plexi 3 - Know Better 7" (Hozac)

2008-05-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, i love Plexi 3 and i was waiting another EP with short pop-punk songs, but hey.. i was wrong, for sure there are at least one.. "Know Better" that comes perfect on the style of "Calculated Romance" but the rest is different. I was a bit dissapointed until the 10th listen or so, but when i forgot a bit about thinkin on the first 7" and just listen to the second record i began to fall in love again with them and if i tell you, my favourite song of the record isn't "Know Better", it's "Enemies".. that fuckin kills, more noisy (in a good rock and roll way, not on the grunge way that we see too much nowadays) but still perfect.
I have heard people saying that the voice is a bit annoying, but for me it is perfect, it fits really well. Now i'm waiting very excited the LP, i hope they don't forget to include some short songs. One of my favourite records of the year.

Frustration - Relax LP (Born Bad Records)

2008-04-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, i must say that i wasn't a big Frustration fan before this, they were kind of cool trying to sound like early post-punk (think on Warsaw, that's the perfect example) but aside of some tracks, i didn't like them a lot. Now yes, this LP while it isn't perfect, it's really good.
I don't really know well how to say this (remember.. i do this blog to practice my english), but they use a lot the trick of getting really slow, near stop, and then slowly turn noisy again. But it's really good and very addictive. It's well played, and sound really awesome for this style.. on some moments they remind me on the singing even to Crass and other times.. like really european on the sound (especially on the intro of "Too many Questions"). It's the kind of sound that i hear on my mind when i use to think on the destroyed Europe after two world wars. Kind of truly dark, slow, repetitive, strange sounds.. great. My favourite album of the year at this time.

Laurent Bigot (Anteenagers MC, No-Talents, Steve and the Jerks..) interview

2008-04-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is an interview i wanted to do since two years ago or so.. and this was probably the easier time since i saw him writing on the TB forum a lot. Here lots of talking about the No-Talents, punk rock in France, his current band the Anteenagers MC and a bit of Steve and the Jerks. Like he told me at first he isn't the best drummer from France but it's the drummer that have been on my favourite 90s-00s french bands.

at what age you began to play drums? do you played in any band before the No-Talents?
I’m going to try to make a long story short ’cos it may get boring. One thing must be clear though : I never actually started playing drums, I still just pretend to, I’m not a musician. My first experience behind a drum kit was around 85, I was 20. We started a trashy garage duo with the same guitar player I'm still playing with these days, Manu Blervaque (now also bass player in Frustration). But after a few practice in a neighbour’s attic, it was over. We started our first real band together in '86, Spider & the Flies. I was just singing in it. We were doing Pebbles/Back from the Grave covers, and we sucked pretty bad. We had a few more similar cover bands after that, adding a bit of Surf, Frat, Freakbeat, Psych and Bubblegum at various points. I played drums in the second and the third bands. The second, Bonnie & the Clydes, is the one you can hear on Anteenagers MC's LP doing that inept cover of 'Out of Limits'. It's
the only recording of all these bands that will ever see the light on a record.
In '93, I went to study in New York City for a year. When I came back, I decided I better play punk rock to be on the safe side and we formed Steve & the Jerks in September '94. I ended up behind the drums because the only drummer we had among our friends joined the Splash 4 instead. The No-Talents started about six months later, in the late Spring or early Summer of '95.

how was the No-Talents show, i have read somewhere that the first show was kind of very few practice and kind of a mess not?
We played a couple of songs at a party after a couple of practices but our first show was after six months of work, opening for the Lazy Cowgirls. It sounded like we just started because we didn't have talent. Or that's what I thought then but in the end, the others were fakes, especially the girls. I was the only real no-talent in this adventure. I got a video of that first show somewhere shot by the singer of the Swingin' Neckbreakers.

used to have any fame the No-Talents in France? i have always though that this band is probably more famous internationally than nationally
We were famous among 39 people, 17 in France and the rest beyond french borders. The No-Talents probably sold between 3 and 5000 of the first LP and less of the 2nd so 'fame' seems like a big word. After I left, they were once on national TV in France then in Italy so that was the moments of fame I guess.

did they have non-released stuff?
I was in the band for two years and I believe there's only an alternate take of one of the songs still unissued from that period. I don't remember it being that different from the released one anyway. I doubt there's any unissued recordings from the two years with Mark Adolf on drums. They only did one session with him, for the 2nd album.

there was any kind of scene in France at the time? i mean.. the Splash 4, No-Talents, TV Killers, Steve and the Jerks.. near all of them are from the same years not?
We all started around the same time yes, and played together often. It was quite small to be called a ‘scene’ but we were all friends, playing in each others' bands and putting out each others' records. The TV Killers were not from Paris so we were less connected with them but friends still. Jacko and Lili of the Splash 4 did put out one of their record in fact. Like I said, it was a very small scene, but it was very exciting because we were all very close together, practicing at the same places, partying together, starting labels… There was a huge workshop that we used as a headquarter for the whole clique - that I dubbed the ‘Happy Family’ - for nearly a couple of years. Los Kogars, a surf trio who later made an LP on Planet Pimp, were also hanging out. There was also the Loud Mufflers, a 50’s rock & roll side project of some No-Talents, and later on Oi band les Teckels, also with a couple of No-Talents.

as for Steve and the Jerks, i don't really know near nothing about thisband.. ok that is near the same line up as the Anteenagers MC and that the Jerkssound to me like a budget rock band, used to love the song "we are the jerks".it was something like a side band? or used to play a lot in the time? for me iskind of obscure as i don't know nothing
It was my first serious band. We were lucky to do our first show at a partyattended by Billy Childish and he loved our cover of the Kinks’ ‘Misty Water’.So he asked to produce us. It took us a few months to gather the dough to go toLondon and we did a session at Toe Rag in ’95. Four songs came out on Wild Wildrecords, and two more, including one sung by Cecilia of the No-Talents, on Hangman’s Daughter. A few weeks after our EP, our bass player left because he wanted to play 60’s garage and psych, so we got Junior Campo as the new bass player. And he’s still with us now, and also plays keyboards in Frustration. We did an LP and a couple more 45s, opened for the Kids, the Zeros, the Swingin’Neckbreakers and a few others, even played one show in New York City in late’97, before becoming Anteenagers MC in 2000 when Nicus Duteil joined us as second guitar player.

great bands to play with! you were also the people that bring great bands to France?
Not really. I booked a couple of shows but that’s not something I care for. Too much work and not the fun kind! My only pride on that matter is to have book the very first show for Gonn in Europe. Unfortunatly back then, it was hard to get a bar or a club so I had to rent the biggest rehearsal room I could find and I organised two sets so that all the people interested could see them.

what do you think about the nowadays sound of France? it seems that isn't aspunk rock as it used to be, but the "famous" bands are still from the same people
There’s some good shit in France right now. I just saw the Weakends and Cheveu opening for the Black Lips and they’re both really cool, especially Cheveu. Not too long ago I was totally impressed by a new 60’s influenced band from the suburbs of Paris called the Carpet Sellers. They kind of sound like the Tell Tale Hearts. There’s also the Dead Clodettes from Nice, kind of into the early Slits/Kleenex sound, and Veines, a punk band from the same area. And of course Idig Frustration which includes all my bandmates (but I don’t dig the band because of this). Nicus also plays in New Wave band Opération S and 60’s band les Terribles. I could list more bands like the Feeling Of Love, Volt or the great Jack Of Heart... And I almost forget my faves, Blutt. They just put out their first album and the only thing wrong about it is that it’s CD only. They’re influenced by great french bands like Olivensteins and les Coronados,and by the Velvets too. Check ‘em out.

i have heard the myspace of Blutt, not as punk rock as what i though with your description. the last song is good
Well punk rock is not all about noise and speed. That’s as punk as anything tome. I still believe in the spirit of ’76 when Punk Rock didn’t have much rules.

what do you think about the state of todays punk rock in comparison with the 90s?
It’s the same I would say. Mostly crap but enough good bands for the time I have available. Paris is better because we now have a club where the bands can play unlike in the 90’s. It’s called la Mécanique Ondulatoire and opened last year. But I was lucky enough to spend two years in NYC in the 90’s, and there was a lot of cool bands among even more bad ones back then. The big new thing in Paris is that there’s now kids in the late teens/early twenties at shows which never happened in the 90’s in Paris.

having kids on shows the best thing it can succed, they will make new bands ocassionally
The problem with the kids today is that most of them seem to have discovered rock through the Libertines or Baby Shambles and this leaves an after taste to all their bands. I hate that. The previous generation had the same problem with Nirvana.

and now what you were probably waiting.. why the Anteenagers MC are so slow? i should say that the Anteenagers MC for me just have two records, the first single and the plastic idol single.. the LP didn't like it. and also think that the plastic idol EP is like a new band with the same name, it was pretty awesome, will the band continue? i have heard that plastic idol will put out another one, are you also thinking about doing a LP?
Anteenagers is slow because my band mates are very busy with Frustration, and because we’re getting old ha ha. I don’t really need a busy schedule actually we like doing little but having fun doing it, it’s not a job. I try to make sure every record is different from the others so I’m not surprised some people like one and not as much another. I don’t care as long as somebody like it. For instance, I read a lot of great feedback about our first Plastic Idol EP from abroad while here, people were not so happy with it. I mixed it alone with our pal Stanlet, Blutt ex-bass player, and my band mates were not too happy with the result, especially Nicus. So he’s one hundred responsible of the new one. He recorded it and mixed it so if you don’t like it, blame him ha ha... I don’t know how much longer we’ll be playing, as long as we’re having fun...

Frustration are cool, but Anteenagers MC more of my style, the new LP seems to be better than their older stuff for me though.. i wish it could be Anteenagers MC the big band
Thanks. Frustration is a very different band and I’m glad they’re doing great. Personnaly I only care about the underground, the real one and I couldn’t go to all the trendy places they’re invited to. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just not my scene. I just read a great interview of Graham Day and he said exactly what I’ve been thinking for years: Rock & Roll is usually better off away from the mainstream or the ‘hip’. Still I’m really happy to see a band like Black Lips making it cos they’re really awesome. Let’s just hope they’ll be able to stay that way and still have success. The problem when you make a living out of Rock & Roll is that if you’re starting to lose the interest of the public, you often try to gain it back and the result is rarely as good as what you did when you were doing it just for your own pleasure. But there’s exceptions to every rules so I hope the Black Lips will remain the great band they are.

do you use to write songs on the Anteenagers MC? use to play any other instrument in your home?
I can’t play anything. But I’m part of the writing process, sometimes singing what I mean or often adding bits and pieces to the others’ ideas. It’s really a team work, nobody ever wrote a song from A to Z. I write all the lyrics though.

do you have plans (or have done) more songs in french? in my opinion "les conformistes" is one of the best french punk songs i have ever heard
Thanks. The only other one we do is a cover of the Swell Map’s ‘Read about Seymour’ with totally different lyrics in french.

another point why i make this interview is to know about old French punk, ilove Gasoline, Bulldozer, Metal Urbain, the Dogs, Olivensteins, Electrochoc.. iwant to know more, tell me about lots of cool bands! it isn't easy to know more
Many of these guys are dead now, thanks to good ol’ heroin addiction. Métal Urbain are back together but I really don’t like their new stuff. France was always late for Rock & Roll but Punk was an exception. Bands like Strike Up and Angel Face were around in early ’76. We even had a weirdo called Samuel Hobo who made a 45 that sounds like Suicide back in ’73. Jean-Michel Jarre is playing on it. There’s a book called ‘Nos Années Punk’ (Our Punk Years) that tells the story of many of these acts but it’s in French. I translated the Métal Urbain part for Ugly Things magazine. The good news is that Born Bad records is working on an album by Olivensteins. It’s scheduled for next Fall. They found a lot of material.

i don't mean alive bands, i mean old great french punk bands.. what more i'm missing apart of the mentioned bands? great to know about les Olivensteins!
There was a few more punk bands between ’76 and ’80 that were pretty cool like Warm Gun who had an EP in ’77 or Asphalt Jungle who also started in ’76 and made three 45s including a pure gem called ‘Poly Magoo’ that’s like Spector meets Punk at its best. I like Starshooter’s first LP from ’78 and their first 3 45s.They went pop after that (they said “new wave” back then). The list is not thatlong but I’m sure I missed a few.

Final question: what means Anteenagers MC?
‘Anti-Teenagers Music Club’. It’s stupid, but we like it like that.

Psychotic Reaction : Mixtape 1

2008-04-06T04:17:00.000-07:00

First, I DON'T WANT TO FUCK UP ANYBODY, so if any band have problems of the songs here just tell me and i don't do it again.. it was just like a podcast.. but i don't know how to do that and probably it's more complicated, so i do this. It's just old stuff mixed with some new and nothing expectacular, trying to do something in the midtime i think what other things i can do on this blog.

TRACKLIST:

Rolling Stones - Time is On my Side
Tall Dwarfs - Entropy
the Quick - Pretty Please Me
Alex Chilton - Alligator Man
the Clean - On Again, Off again
Jewels - Opportunity
Saicos - El entierro del Gato Mayor
Barbaras - Demo
Kinks - Picture Book
Black Lips - My Struggle
Fe Fi Fo Fums - You Might Get Me
Nervous Eaters - I'm a Degenerate

enjoy!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OU3CAH6W

Mans - War Penis 7" (Ken Rock)

2008-03-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

Very late to do a review of this but i want, and you know.. i'm spanish, i like to sleep a lot, don't have hurry for anything and drink wine and beer, so here i go.
I love this 7".. great cover, great trash sound and awesome trash songs, the Mans are THE trash band of today. "War Penis" is obviously the hit, typical riff but who cares? It's called "War Penis" and it's fuckin awesome, the rest is more of the same with "STUD Missile" beginning my second fav of the 7", it's also really great and everything around this band is great, it can give you a headache or you can love it, but if you love it you will dig all of their records. The next one will come soon (or not that soon) on Spin the Bottle i think.

Cheap Time - Handy Man 7" (Douchemaster)

2008-03-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

While i liked the first 7" (just good), i love this new one.. at this time i should say that it's my favourite single of the year.. and while everybody seems to love lots more "Wild Youth" i prefer their punk side of "Handy Man".. incredible trashy simple guitar with noisy drums and Hubble Bubble type of chorus, totally fuckin awesome, i can't stop of listen to it. "Wild Youth" is also excellent but even if it try to sound different for me sound more generic than "Handy Man", anyway.. i dig a lot the drums and noises. People says is ripped off from the Quick, it's true that is similar but much more punker and updated to the 00s, so for me is ok, i haven't any problem with good rip offs. I can't wait for the LP.

Bored Teenagers MySpace

2008-02-20T06:35:00.000-08:00

Check it out!
the myspace of my band. trashy punk

http://www.myspace.com/theboredteenagers

Cheap Time (Jeffrey Novak) Interview

2008-02-13T04:58:00.000-08:00

While i liked the first Cheap Time 7" it wasn't before i checked their myspace to see what was going on with them and heard the new songs that they got me, totally awesome so i decided to do an interview with them after listened that songs around 50 times. For me they could be the band of 2008, can't wait for the LP. Here an interview with Jeffrey Novak, a member of them.

who play on Cheap Time and on what bands have played before?
Jon on drums, Stephen on bass, and me (Jeffrey) on guitar. Jon and Stephen have played in several bands together since they were in high school, but I met them three years ago when they were both in Party Cannon. Well, I actually met Jon at a Catholic Boys show before that, but we all knew each other for a couple years till we started playig in Cheap Time together. Everything just sort of fell into place about a month before we recorded our album.

what do you think on lots of people thinkin you are like Red Cross vol 2?
That's fine, if people want to think that. We don't sound that much like Red Cross now since our old bass player quit. But Red Cross and espeically Steve Mcdonald (bass player from Redd Kross) have been very influential on me. Steve has turned me on to so much great music over the couple of years I've known him. He was the first person to ever play me Sparks (which he also plays bass in). He also forced me to get into Pretties for You and Easy Action (the first two Alice Coopers records).

the first bassist was a girl true? why she leaved the band?
Yeah, it was this girl I was dating. We were living together, but then we broke up so she quit the band.

why the name Cheap Time? for me it was funny because when i knew of ya i was listening a lot the Beat Beat Beat EP Cheap Time
The old bass player came up with the name. I didn't hate it, so we used it. She actually threatened to sue me for ownership of the band name right after she quit, but nothing ended up happening. Josh gave me a copy of that Beat Beat Beat 7" at a Carbonas show in Memphis, but I don't know if I ever listened to it. I never really like Beat Beat Beat that much. They were always the weakest band from that whole Atlanta scene. The Frantic were always the best, but nobody ever seemed to notice.

what do you think about all the stupid weird talkin? do you think is a movement or just fan stupity? does Cheap Time feel involved?
I don't even know what that means. We're definately not involved in any sort of movement. We all live in Nashville, where there's no sort of scene for us. We're into the stuff we're into, but we're not following any sort of trend right now. I think most people think glam records are pretty lame, so I doubt they find us ripping them off to be very cool. I could care less about doing something that other people think is cool or hip. I just write the kind of songs I like, and we play and record them in our own way.

i don't think you sound either weird or glam, just punk rock, a bit crazy, but punk rock
Well you haven't heard our album yet. It's a about half and half. There's a lot of older punk stuff, and then there's a bunch of the new weirder/glammy things on it. The 2nd LP is going to be less punk and just more weird pop songs. Most of the songs have already been written for it.

do any of ya expect that In the Red could catch a Punk band like ya to release it? i like the label too, but it's rare, usually they release more noisy stuff (except Jay Reatard)
I don't know, I hadn't really thought about that. Larry who runs In The Red is into all kinds of different music, so I guess he doesn't like putting the same stuff out all the time. He put out the last Sparks album which surprised a lot of people, but he's loved Sparks since he was 13! It's a cool label, I like pretty much everything that he puts out. I couldn't belive it when he told me he wanted to do the Cheap Time album. We ended up recording it at the same studio the Hunches and the Black Lips have recorded at, but it doesn't sound like it at all.

do have you plans to do a big tour after the ITR album? i mean, being on this label can bring you opportunities to get lots more famous. even to continue and jump later on bigger labels
Yeah, we're trying to figure that out right now. We're not going to SXSW this year, because we're touring in April/May right after the album comes out. Then later in the summer we're going to tour the west coast again, and hopefully record our 2nd album out in Costa Mesa again. Maybe we'll go to Europe in the fall or winter? Everything is sort of up in the air. In The Red is cool, so I don't really have the desire to be on a bigger label. Plus I doubt our band will ever get that popular.

do you have plans to tour Europe?
Yes we want to tour Europe at some point this year, but nothing has been set up yet. Nothing is booked. It's like I said earlier, everything is up in the air right now. We're just waiting around for our album to come out, before we can really do anything.

how do you feel now about your first 7inch? those new songs on your myspace sounds MUCH BETTER, at miles i think
That first 7" is a totally different band. It's actually sort of a solo record. I play drums and guitar on it. I guess the old bass player sings back ups, but it was pretty much me doing everything which isn't that fun. We've turned into a real band since then. Stephen and Jon are really good musicians compared to what I've been use to playing with in the past. Onto top of that we're writing better songs now. We've sort of moved on.

will the Rat Traps play again in the future?
I doubt it. Joe moved back to Memphis, but all he does is hang out with his new girlfriend. We were never that good of a band anyway. I was always surprised that anybody even liked us. I bet April would want to play again though.

you're right the Rat Traps weren't that good, but the shattered 7" yes, the rest of the stuff psss but i dig that EP.
Yeah, I guess that record is ok. Jay just gave me a box of them the other day. The first one on Your Permanent Records is ok too. I doubt anyone that saw us live thought we were that good though. We were always kind of a mess, and I was never that good of a drummer.

what do you think about the Wax Museums?
Those guys are some of my best friends! I always have a blast hanging out with them. We've play a lot of shows together too. They've really grown as a band too. The new songs for the LP are really good. We'll probably end up touring with them again in the future.

tell your favourite history of your tour with them
I don't know. That tour was short. It was only 16 or 17 shows, I think. Everyone got sick near the end, except for me. Neither of us are that popular of bands, so there were several nights where we weren't really playing to anybody. Nobody came to see up in Florida except for Rich from Florida's Dying

what do you think about bands from today? i mean, Cheap Time play a very teenage styled punk, that for me is pretty cool, don't you think that there are very few stuff like this nowadays?
Like I said, we're not really part of any sort of scene, or atleast I'm not aware of it. Nobody cares about us in Nashville.I don't even listen to that many new bands. The only new records I even listen to are Volt and the Busy Signals. We've played with the Busy Signals a couple times, and I would definately call them musical allies. They're into a lot of the same stuff we're into, and they like what we're doing. I just wish they would tour more!

the Busy Signals are a great revival band true
The Busy Signals are probably the best new band going in America right now.

how old are you now? you have been playing since some time.. i remind your LP on ptrash, very very Reatards. do you think you have improved playing?
I'm 22. I've been playing music since I was 15 or 16. I think I was 18 or 19 whenever I recorded that P. Trash LP. It's totally Persuaders/Reatards worship, but at the time I was hanging out with those guys a lot. They were a huge influence on me. I guess I got tired of ripping them off. I'm not really any better of a musician now, I've just moved on to different influences. I guess Steve Mcdonald and moving to Nashville had to do a lot with that. I just want to do different things now. This first Cheap Time LP is just a transitional thing. Hopefully we'll end up moving on to something better.

so you have done some stuff for the second album? won't put out in between a bunch of singles?
A lot of songs have been written, but we're waiting to record them out at the Distillery in California. We're going to do a single on Radio Heartbeat Records though. That might come out at the end of the year, if we get it done in time.

interesting news! i never though on Radio Heartbeat releasing new stuff..
Me Either! Mike approached us about it the last time we played in New York. I couldn't believe it, but it was a pretty cool offer.

for sure.. and beginning on the same label as hubble bubble and raxola is something that everybody want! how cool is that?
I know! On top of that Mike and William are reissuing The Milk'n'Cookies LP along with the Quick's Mondo Deco later this year. It's insane!

Alicja Trout Interview

2008-02-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows Alicja Trout, here an interview about what's going on with her and her proyects nowadays that i don't see too much notices. There are some better interviews with Alicja Trout, but it isn't that bad.

musically talkin... what are your plans for near future? i know you have put a split with Le Jonathan Reilly under Black Sunday and will put out a Destruction Unit split too
Yes, well that stuff is completed. I worked on those last year. Musically there is not much I can do now but maintain my bands. Mouserocket has a release coming this spring 2008 as well, that's a band I've had for 8 years or more. Since I have a baby I play/record very unfrequently. The drums are in the attic. I made some tracks though, they are guitar and bass, layerings. It felt good to make them when I did, but I had my baby in a sling on my chest and it was hawkward. She's too big and alert for that now. When you hear the FDH split 12" that will be out this spring as well...you'll see how I spliced my instrumentals into that half-album with regular pop songs, things I finished at the end of my pregnancy. Right now it's hard to write words, my whole perspective is changed and I'm not so sure what my new perspective is yet. I make "memos". A little baby wants to be held and interacted with so pretty much the only instrument I have now is my voice, I can use that whenever I want it, and my singing has greatly improved. My voice has repaired. I had lost tons of range screaming out my songs in Lost Sounds. I'm practicing my pitch a lot. And it's way more cathartic for me now to sing then to scream, so I'd say vocally my aggressive tendancies are over.

don't you miss the Lost Sounds anymore? i mean musically, not because the members, it have pass sometime (2 years or so?) since the break up, how do you see that stuff nowadays?
3 years I believe. I can honestly say with no "sour grapes" that I don't miss the band. Had it been destined to continue that would be nice, but I have really grown musically without that band. It served it's purpose though, allowing me to experiment with many different styles and ideas, and I had the players that were willing, though ther was resistance that kept me within a "genre". I like to jump around a lot. You will see that the new Black Sunday stuff jumps all over the place, but I think because I have been prolific that people are learning to expect that, and I have that artistic license being that I know what I can pull off and I can't. It took a long time for people to accept Lost Sounds...that showed me a pattern I will always have to live with: it always takes people a little while to underderstand what I'm making. It's like if your skin is dry you can put on lotion for immediate relief, or you can start to drink more water and eat with olive oil and your skin will get miosture from the inside out over a period of time. Punk Rock is supposed to be simple and hit you like a ton of bricks and I don't make punk rock.

are Black Sunday a real band? i mean, did you play live with this band? or just recording project?
I played live and actually toured with this band as a three-piece. But Black Sunday is kinda like my catch all, and it would take a lot of orchestration and a large band to immitate what I want. The recordings have layers, especially with guitars and vocals, and live we never used any synths, so the touring band was an experiment with stripped down versions of my songs, not an actual portrayal of what I composed. Black Sunday is more of a no boundries recording project, I think people will get that when they hear the two half-albums i finished last year. If I had anything I wanted at my fingertips I would gather up a troupe and orchestrate the songs how I really want them. Every musician wants to be in a rock band when they are young, but then wouldn't it be great to get projects like Danny Elfman gets?

have Destruction Unit plans as a real band? i mean touring etc.. it's also a real band?
I don't know, I guess DU is Ryan's Black Sunday, he can do it however he wants. For now I'm not touring at all, though maybe an outta town show here and there. I would love to do a DU show though. Once again, it's a 3-piece, but the recordings, at least speaking from my part of creating the synth lines, it is layered and I'd rather have more then one synth player.

what's up with the River City Tanlines?
We took a break for me to have a baby, we crammed in tour dates until I couldn't play anymore. and everyone needed a break. We covered so much ground so fast since we started that I think we're good to just relax a bit. We start playing live again at the end of Feb. I think I want to try something new next time with that band, more of "My Reflection" style and less "Black Knight" style,

any new other band you are in?
I'm re-hashing through old stuff, I play with friends, I sing with Lori, a girl I had a 2-piece with a long time ago. But we'll have a back up band this time. It's like harmonies and cover songs. Then Mouserocket has a few new things. I gotta see what I can juggle. Juggling a zillion things is my specialty.

i recently heard you have had a baby, do you plans to still continue working on music releasing lots of stuff by you and other bands? or will change a bit at least on the first years?
it's all changed. Having a baby changes your modus apperundi. I'm curious to see what will come out of me when I do have some free hands and free time. But for now it's hard to put her down, I might miss something amazing. You can't just shove your baby in the arms of a relative and go on tour. Babies need their mom, and I'm breastfeeding and that's a full time job. I feel a pressure to keep on making good stuff, and get back to it as soon as possible to I guess prove something, like you can have a kid and be a mom and still be creative and productive. But honestly, I don't feel proud of this feeling. It shouldn't matter. I should be able to fade away and feel proud of all I've already produced. But maybe I'll be more drawn to visual creativity once i get time to get back into that creative zone.

nah, don't worry about that feeling. i see it really positive to still want to continue, in my own opinion every person needs to explode his creativity in any or other form.. for me music is the best.
yes... If you need to "explode" music IS the best. If you need to contemplate, music or art. You can explode with art too. I used to do big paintings and I'd be up and down and around for hours with a giant paiting, and at the end of the painting I was exhausted physically and mentally.

do you think that your baby will hear your stuff or the stuff you listen any day? would you like it?
Yeah, I'm sure. I played a song for her and I'm very sure she knew it was me, she's been hearing me from the inside ever since she was created. I think it'll just be normal for her. Sure I'd like it, I hope she enjoys all forms of music.

talkin again about Lost Sounds.. which is your fave album? at the time i didn't understood very well "future touch" but nowadays it's probably my fav lost sounds record. trully awesome, and the most dark LS stuff for sure
I really like Future Touch as well, though the mastering job is horrendous and squlched out all the dynamics. The guy mastered it "In The Red".m I DO consider it an album too, though it was released as a teaser to our real album. Having no pressure we experimented. I think Rat's Brains and Microchips could be my favorite. There are killer songs on every album.

how you knew Le Jonathan Reilly and how decided to do a split 12" with them?
I heard them when thy did a split with the Tyrades on Holy Cobra Society. Bought it cause the Tyrades was always a great seller on my record store webpage. But I heard the 12" and just loved it. I just suggested them to Matt at Tic tac Totally and he really liked them too. I noticed Matt was into a lotta sounds all kinda put together in a new way, I thought it might appeal to him.

do you have plans to do in future a Black Sunday LP? it would be really nice since the LP on dirtnap is just a collection of songs not? it wasn't though as a LP i believe.
my fav stuff is probably the "Cut Out" EP but i really love the song on Black Rabbit of Death CD-R "Dancing Knives/Don't Say No"
really the Dirtnap record IS an album, i wanted it to feel like an album, I conentrated on it like an album, working on it all at once, bouncing around from song to song. The Black Rabbit of Death cdr is definitely a collection of songs, different songs and differnt versions of them appear on differnt releases, and I ended up doing the song "My Reflection" on the last River City Tanlines album. An album takes a long time, it'd be awhile until I could begin. I wonder if it's time to do a singles compilation? There's been, hmmn, 4 singles released. Maybe if I release one more. It's easier to think in terms of 7"s.

what music are you listening at this time?
well theris a classic country station in Memphis that I turn on a lot, other then that I have a large record collection, and right niw in my car cd player I have the Flying Burrito Brothers "Gilded Palace" album, but I keep playing the first 5 tracks over and over, it's like a rock band trying to do the Louvin Brothers.

what are your plans about Contaminated? Maybe sell the record label one day. any stuff you are thinking on release?
I'm releasing a split, Perfect Fits and Twinkle Van Winkle-good regional stuff, it's medium speed rock pop, not quite power pop. what about that Kajun SS LP? it will come out? Never got anything finished. I have 7 killer intrumental tracks though...that's why I released the Black Rose Band 7", since ther was no more Kajun SS.

now some questions about form of composition... now not that much but you used to release lots of stuff, how many songs a week you used to do?
when I started 4-tracking (that was with a cheap cassette recorder) I did tons, I was learning. Everything was pretty much throw away songs. The better I got at writing songs the less I recorded, but still I was keeping very prolific, at least a few songs a week, several a day sometimes, incomplete stuff. Last year I was less prolific but I think I wrote some of my best songs. I might write two greats one day and nothing for a month. Last year I toured and made a lot of visual arts and concentrated on the releases that people can find soon this year 2008.

i usually write around 2 or 3 songs a week, some of them for my band and some of them just acoustic pop or punk that i like to play..did you use to feel when you didn't write a song in some time that you couldn't do it anymore?
yes, I learned for me that writing a good song meant you must practice, you have to write ten crappy songs, force myself like training for a race, and one day one sorta flows out no problem and it's a keeper. But like now I usually write a keeper if I write a song at all. Recording is my method, not just sitting with a guitar and notebook. I like to hear the sounds come back at me in the headphones. I like to hear the recording light up as I layer in the low end and vocals and nuances. Something about the way music sounds in headphones, stereo ELECTRIC music, it is so appealing to my ears. It's like sugary foods, ticklish and satisfying. Good rock n roll beats are like a bite of steak.

do you think first on your mind a rythm/riff or you use more to catch the guitar began to play and with luck without any kind of pretention write a great riff (that's my form)?
Sometimes I remember ideas to steal, they usually inspire me to sit down and record but they get thrown away as I get bored...then maybe I will write sometime of my own. I've never been too good at ripping people off, I'm better at pulling shit out of nowhere. Mostly I look for an original riff that is stimulating to me in either a mathematical way or the "biting a piece of steak" kind of way. Sometimes I go just for something that is interesting to play on guitar or keyboards, it is in a sense fun for my hands, rather then just chords. I challenge my dexterity.

do you play lots of covers when you are playing alone or you think it could kill your composing techniques because of playing too much other songs you can steal riffs (without thinking on it)??
yeah, when I sit around and play with no purpose I sing bit and pieces of cover songs. My songs are usually boring melodies, so I like to sinhg songs that have more beautiful melodies. I like to sit around and try to sing hard songs, thiI guess I get intimidated by realy great songs. But I accept that my style is rarely radio friendly and destined to be classics, so I don't get discouraged.

listening to: ... kiwi tapes

2008-01-25T03:16:00.000-08:00

Ok, i like to talk about the new things.. new punk rock stuff, new old reissues.. but apart of that we are living in a world where blogs are doing a great great work on the very beutiful young guys (like me), so it isn't bad to talk about bands i have discovered thanks to them or in any other form, so from time to time i will began this new section, that could treat about a web/zine/band or anything like that.
http://kiwitapes.blogspot.com/ is the last great blog i discovered around 3 weeks ago, it's around the pop-post punk era of New Zealand and lots more things but the records on that genre is what turns me crazy.. specially the Tuff Dwarfs - 3 EPs and the Clean - Anthology. Both are excellent bands recorded with a 4-track, later they released albums but what turns me crazy is those first records.
I don't know nothing about them, the Clean seems like they could be more famous but really don't know, just apart that the Clean was the band that began that sound, acoustic pop punk mixed with some post punk crazyness and some instrumental stuff. The Tall Dwarfs are also the same, but with more distortion, some more Velvet Underground elements (they have on that record at least 2 songs that are near the sound of "Sunday Morning") and some total crazy stuff that i can't understand.. not all the stuff is great for me but just with the Tuff Dwarfs "Entropy" they existed for a reason.. fave song of the last two weeks, listening to it since 2 weeks or so like 20 times a day, also the Clean really hit me with "Billy Bao", "Tally Ho" and "Count to Ten".
You can find there also lots more of stuff, the Chills and the Bats sound like they could be interesting to me.. but really don't know. Probably i really like those bands since i really like to play acoustic guitar.

Hex Dispensers (Alex Cuervo) Interview

2008-01-24T02:15:00.000-08:00

Near in every zine or blog i have wrote i always says that i don't like to make introductions to interview.. if i make an interview is because i know the band, and it's dedicated to the fans (or at least people with interest) over the person/band. This time there are no exception.. i made this interview just because i wanted to know what they though about the lo-fi sound of the album.. the rest of the questions are just like the typical interview. Here it goes:
PD: if you want info check the review i did about their LP.

RR: what try the hex dispensers to sound like?

HD: We wanted to fuse the song writing style of a band like the Wipers with the simplicity and hooks of bands like the Ramones or the Misfits.

RR: you can be proud, the guitar style sound on some songs a bit Wipers, on others very garage punk.

HD: I'm glad that comes across. I like that different people hear different things and make different comparisons. It keeps me from worrying that we sound too much like one band or one sound.

RR: did you try to get a garage sound or was because the lo-fi recordings?

HD: The album was recorded on half-inch tape in Mark Ryan (of the Marked Men)'s dining room. I think it sounds great.

RR: don't you think the guitar could sound better a bit more acoustic-like?

HD: something like the Adverts guitar, i really thinkNo, I completely disagree. But it's an interesting idea.

RR: you obviously dig the tubeway army, any other songs you though to cover?

HD: We just released 2 covers. One is a Haunted George song on a split 7" we did with him on Hook or Crook Records. We did "Pile o' Meat" and he did "Forest Ray Colson". We also covered "Tragedy" by the Wipers on Douchemaster 7". That should be out in a couple of weeks. We're still trying to decide what cover to do for the next record.

RR: uh! Tragedy! one of my fav Wipers songs. your fave Wipers album? it's is this real? do you like their later stuff? at this moment my fav is again "is this real" specially crazy about the solo on "don't know who i am". it kick ass.

HD: I guess for me personally it's a tie between "Is This Real" and "Over the Edge".

RR: why the name Hex Dispensers?

HD: Because we had to name it something, and that was the name we settled on. I like the idea of vending machines that dispense curses or hexes.

RR: Apart of that 7inch on Douchemaster, any other plans for 2008?

HD: We'll be doing a 2-song European tour 7inch for Alien Snatch.

RR: was Alien Snatch your first option? i mean, very great label. i love it, but didn't you prefer to put your lp in an american label?

HD: We wanted to do the album with Alien Snatch! because it's a good label and we want to tour Europe, which apparently was the right decision. I've been really happy working with Daniel so far.

RR: daniel seems like a nice dude truth, is selling well the LP?
HD: I believe it's doing pretty well.

RR: the Hex Dispensers have plans to be a real band, i mean... not a garage band that put outs a LP, some singles and around the time of the second LP they broke. There are any evolution (or de-evolution) between the LP and the new stuff?

HD: Well, we did an LP and a couple of singles, but I'm pretty sure we're going to last a lot longer than that. As far as the newer stuff versus the older stuff, I guess the listeners will have to be the judge of that.

RR: when you began to play music and what is your favourite band you have been (don't count the Hex Dispensers)?

HD: Well, it's hard not to say the Hex Dispensers, because the newest is of course the most exciting. I'm proud of a lot of the bands I've been in for different reasons, so it's hard to pick a favorite. Blacktop was a high point for me because it was my first experience recording albums and touring, and I love how dark a lot of that stuff ended up sounding. Even though there were a lot of personal problems, it was an incredible learning experience for me. Still, other bands taught me plenty (especially playing with Tim Kerr), or pushed me to do different things (like a Feast of Snakes, where I started singing and playing guitar instead of just bass). I've been fortunate to have played with some very talented (not to mention highly opinionated) people and I value that greatly.

RR: did the other people from the band played in any other band aside the Kodiacs/Dirty Sweets/Winks?

HD: Alyse was in the Winks, This Damn Town, the Brotherhood of Electricity, and is currently also in Manikin. Tom was in the Kodiaks, the Dirty Sweets, the Hatchbacks, and This Damn Town. Dave was in the Gimmicks, the Blowup, Tractor Sex Fatality, New Fangs, Fort Hell, and the Brotherhood of Electricity (to name just a few).

RR: you recorded a 12" with Mick Collins, it was at the end released?
HD: No, it was never released.

RR: what countries of Europe you want to tour?
HD: Every country! On this tour, we'll be playing in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, France, Italy, and Belgium (probably more, those are just what's booked so far). I'd really like to see Eastern Europe (Prague specifically), but it's not on our route this time. I'd also like to see more of Italy and Spain than we're getting to this time. Maybe another time. If you go to our myspace page, you can see the cities and shows that are already booked. We add them as the booking agency (Kiss & Run) confirms them.

Raxola / Hubble Bubble(1st) LP reissues on Radio Heartbeat

2008-01-18T02:40:00.000-08:00

Sometime ago i used to think that i couldn't buy the Hubble Bubble LP in my life, i have some serious expectatives on Raxola since they began to play again, but though that it will late more years. Now thanks to this label everyone interested can have them, now the 4 perfect belgium punk LPs are in print: the two first Kids LPs, Hubble Bubble first (also second, but for me isn't as classic, it's quite good though) and Raxola.
What can i say about those two i'm reviewing? BUY! BUY! BUY! Perfect euro punk, some of the best punk stuff you can hear on your life.
Both sounds killer compared to that crappy soulseek rip that have lots of people, while i fall in love with those versions when i put the vinyls on my home i went totally crazy again, specially on Hubble Bubble that the rip was even more crappy than the Raxola one.
Now i'm just awaiting for the Raxola demo single, hope it's great! I also would like to see the Ivy Green and Pack LPs reissued...

Time Flys - Rebels of Babylon CD/LP (Birdman)

2008-01-17T01:05:00.000-08:00

While everybody around thinks that this album sucks i'll tell you the truth, it don't, it's just the same again, not even worst.. just the same. How can someone says that the first album rocks and say the second is shit? Nah, it's just the same. What was you waiting of a band like this? A revolutionary LP? Just fuck you, it's the same with some high-lights and some good songs on it. No pretentious stuff here just punk-glammish stuff. Just listen to this like if it was a 2xLP, if not you will miss at least 7 great Time Flys songs. If you still don't see like this album is good enough jump to their 7" on Douchemaster that is the shit. Pretty awesome.

The Daily Void Identification Code: 5271-684346864436-4519 CD/LP (Dead Beat)

2008-01-11T07:59:00.000-08:00

While i liked a lot the first Functional Blackouts LP i didn't dig a lot the second, too crazy for me but here is what i would like the second FB album to sound like. Total crazy hardcore, but still hardcore and with a bit of sense even if it have very angular-non-sense riffs, it have also the same KBD aura that have the Final Solutions and the Feelers, but this album have even a more fucked up sound than them, it makes me think that the Daily Void are crazy jerks who don't know what the fuck means melody or pop. It also drives me mad listening at high volume and it makes me think that sometimes my parents were totally right saying that what i listen is pure noise. Great soundtrack for that days when you hate the world, and while it isn't a perfect punk album.. it's different... and truly fucked up.

Hex Dispensers - ST LP (Alien Snatch)

2008-01-10T00:45:00.000-08:00

Aside of some Alex Cuervo songs that were posted on static-party i really didn't know nothing about this guy, then i saw this new band and heard it. Good stuff, while it ain't my favourite release of the year it have some very great moments that reminds me a bit the Wipers on the guitar style with garage punk style singing, it have some songs that don't drive me mad, but the first two along with some other songs made me want to see more of this band, with luck it could turn in next releases with a more polished production (specially on the guitar, it should sound more acoustic) and forgetting their more garage side on one of the best bands around. Each listen makes me think that they are better, a grower. Give them a chance.

Terminal Boredom (Rich Kroneiss) Zine Interview

2008-01-07T01:20:00.000-08:00

NOTE : posted in Now Wave in February 2007.
"He has a goatee, or however you spell it, which nearly puts him in the 'beard' category. He's almost cool enough to pull one off. He wears khaki pants to the Blackout. Rich don't give a shit what anyone thinks. He rules!"-Todd Trickknee
The principal reason I began to write for zines was Blank Generation. Since I'm from a town at the very south of Spain, I didn't know about garage punk music, and Blank Generation did a lot for me. I also saw how easy it was to do a thing like that, so I just began to write when I was 16 or 17. I was very bad but today a bit better. Since Terminal Boredom is the continuation of BG and probably really better, I also enjoy it a lot but never thought of interviewing Rich Kroneiss from TB. The idea was Rutledge's, but I really liked it and I interviewed him. Around this time, Terminal Boredom is one of the best punk zines for sure.
Raul: At what age did you begin to write for zines?
Rich: I was in my mid-twenties when I started writing for music zines. Before that I spent my time contributing to horror/sci-fi and pulp fiction magazines. Still try to. I have continually written for some reason or another since I was a kid. So it's strange that I don't seem to be getting any better.
Raul: If you began in your mid-twenties, it isn't rare that you don't improve a lot...at that age people know how to write.
Rich: I guess that makes sense. Sucks for me.
Raul: It was for Blank Generation that you began to write? How did you get there?
Rich: BG was the first music zine I contributed to regularly. It was when I first got the internet, and I was way into Teengenerate. And Joe had written an article about them that I saw. So I e-mailed him about contributing, and he was really cool about it. I was a late-comer to the internet, so I thought it was absolutely amazing, all this information and communication out there. And I would just like to go on record and say Joe Domino is an awesome dude and super cool guy.
Raul: Do you see Terminal Boredom like nearly the same zine? Now it even has one of my fave articles from there, Obsessive/Compulsive Rock and Roll.
Rich: TB is just like an extension of BG, it kind of picks up where BG left off when Joe stopped. I hope that it's better than BG was. Not that BG was bad in any way; I just hope we've improved the formula somewhat. I was happy to get Icki to do OC R'N'R again; I have been bugging him about it for years. It was always one of my favorite columns too.
Raul: I think TB is as good; it just has more stuff. I miss Joe writing, but it probably is better.
Rich: Thanks. I wanted it be like BG except bigger and better. Joe is a great fella; I don't think he listens to too much garage-punk these days, though.
Raul: How did Terminal Boredom begin? Because you wanted to continue receiving promos? Just kiddin'.
Rich: TB began just because Joe decided to stop doing BG and most of us wanted to keep going with it. Promos?! It's funny, because I would get ZERO promos from BG. I never got anything from that except crappy emo CDs. I get good stuff for TB, but not as much as you'd think. But I appreciate that people send anything at all.
Raul: What do you think about another e-zine gettin' a Rip Off name?
Rich: PS: We Hate You? Hey, you couldn't pick a better source to steal names from.
Raul: Talkin' about Rip Off...You also used to write columns for Rip Off Records, didn't you? What's your current opinion on the label? I always will like it, even the new releases, but seems like that its time has come. It was THE label from '90s and early '00s, but not so much from 2004 on. It never changed (and that's a reason why it was cool).
Rich: Yes, I did like five or six columns for the Rip Off site. Greg stopped updating the site frequently, and I think we just forgot about it. It was fun, though. I love Greg Lowery and all that he has done. Rip Off is and will always be one of the best labels ever, in my opinion. Rip Off single-handedly kept me interested in garage punk at points in the Nineties; he had an amazing run. I guess the time has come now for it to wind down. Greg's been at this stuff for a very, very long time, and I imagine he's kinda tired of it. He refuses to bend his standards to release something just because it would sell or because it's popular. I always found that somewhat noble about him. I mean, a lot of people give him shit because he's very outspoken about things. But Greg honestly believes every record he puts out is amazing. He's not just shilling or trying to sell his records when he says things, he actually 100% believes in all his releases. I think that says a lot, that tenacity to his vision. He really does think that Atomsmashers record is great. And he's not afraid to say so. The guy has done a lot for modern garage-punk and has always been friendly and helpful to me. He's really a nice guy, although he probably doesn't want anyone to know that. So yeah, it's sad that Rip Off won't be there anymore. We should always remember it fondly. I don't think he's done too bad recently either. That Lids LP was amazing. The Suspicions LP is really good too. I think the Shop Fronts LP might be the very last release. Haven't heard it yet, though.
Raul: I read sometime ago about an annual TB print issue. Is that still a project?
Rich: I'd still like to do it. I just don't have time. It's difficult for me to just update the website, much less invest time and money into a print zine. Which I would love to do. Maybe a 'Best of TB' someday. What I would really like to do is compile the record reviews into one huge volume. Kind of do a Terminal Bordeom record guide like the International Discography of New Wave or Trouser Press guides were like. Someday...
Raul: Will you try anyday something like the Blackout?
Rich: Another thing I would love to do, but time and resources make it impossible. Actually, Bart Hart from Big Neck still does a weekend/fest type thing here in Buffalo every year, and I'm going to try an help him with it this spring. So hopefully that goes well.
Raul: Reading your reviews, it seems like you are a hard record collector of current stuff.
Rich: I'm definitely a pretty dedicated collector. I tried collecting KBD era stuff for a long time, but it's just too expensive, and I don't have the money or digging time to keep up with that. So I kind of make an effort to collect newer stuff and the variations, just because it's a bit more affordable and it sates the collector bug in me. I still buy a lot of old stuff, though. Plus, I think it's fun and necessary to document this stuff as it happens. 20 years from now I'll be the guy saying, "Hey, there were only 100 of that on color vinyl!!" and correcting people's eBay auctions. I think there is a ton of great music coming out right now and lots of great labels doing interesting things. I love the music, and I love vinyl. So I win on both counts.
Raul: I also really like new music...probably because it is the music of my time and all people like the music of his young time. What are the bands that you think everyone will remember in 2015? Or at least your faves...mine are Exploding Hearts, A-Frames, and Lost Sounds.
Rich: Good question. I agree with you on the Lost Sounds and A-Frames. Both of those bands have been the best band in the world at various points over the past five years or so. I think in ten years, people will still be buying or going back to Black Wave or the first A-Frames LP. I'd say the same thing about the Black Lips. The Country Teasers as well, although they've been at it for a while, I think they really hit their stride over the past few years. I think that first King Khan & BBQ album was a landmark, something people will listen to forever. I think The Spits will endure the test of time. Their records are timeless. There are a ton of current bands that are amazing, but those are the cream of the post-2000 crop, I think. Also, I think the Fe Fi Fo Fums might be the modern day equivalent of the Sonics. Or Wailers. At least I hope they are.
I disagree with you on the Exploding Hearts thing. They made some good records. I just don't think they had that extra something that makes bands great. Maybe they weren't around long enough. I think the terrible tragedy surrounding them forces people to elevate them to iconic status. I think their lasting legacy is getting a million kids on Myspace into power pop fashion and style. It's not so much about the music, which is good and all, but nothing too remarkable in my book. But I'm not a huge power pop fan anyway.
Raul: Uh, I agree on the Black Lips. Let it Bloom is for me as great as Teengenerate's Get Action! can be. But I do not agree on FFFFums; while it is a good band, it is pretty retro, very much "We fuckin' love the Mummies/Supercharger/KBD". That place is for the Black Lips on my list. The Spits for sure too... and even the Marked Men.
Rich: The Marked Men/Reds, in particular the Jeff/Mark songwriting axis, I guess, deserve to be regarded as 'classics' of this era as well. Agreed. The Baseball Furies should be included on that list as well. They're a band that people will realize how great they are years from now. Underappreciated during their time. I guess my point about the Fums is, they're carrying on a fine tradition of lo-fi shit rock. If, in ten years, people hear a Fums record and then work backwards to The Mummies and back to The Wailers from there and start a band, I think that's what I'm hoping for. That tradition needs to be carried on. They're the latest torchbearers.
Raul: TB (and lots of other zines) have overhyped some just good bands, like the Fatals or even Black Time. Any different thoughts from the first talkings about those bands?
Rich: I don't even think it's the zines or reviews that hype the bands so much as it is things people say on message boards. Message board chat is what really gives the hype machine its momentum. The Fatals = I honestly love the first Fatals 7". Still do. "Can't Change My Style" is so great, that little breakdown and pause towards the end before they really go nuts with the solo and shit...I love that. The second and third seven-inches were pretty good (on P.Trash and Yakisakana), maybe one great song on each. After that they could've broken up. And probably should have. But the fact that their records after that weren't so hot doesn't make those first records any less good. Live, they were incredible. I still say the "Angry" 7" was the best 7" of 2004. It was an amazing debut. I think that they maybe never lived up to the expectations set by that record. Black Time = I still love this band. The Midnight World LP was disappointing, even for a fan like me. But they still managed to put out a couple of great singles this year. I would stand behind any bit of hype I've given Black Time, because I think they deserve it. I think they should maybe stick to EPs though, they do really well in that format. The Dance Party single from this year was awesome, especially that "Girls in the Garage". I still think they're a great band, and have released only two sub-par records out of the eight or so they've done. I think they've done very well for themselves considering the amount of material they've put out. I'm still pissed I haven't seen them live yet.
Raul: Do you think TB has a certain importance in the garage noise punk scene, and even more since the stop of Horizontal Action?
Rich: Well, I hope so. I hope people look at it as somewhere where they can get reliable reviews and interesting writing about interesting bands. I hope people look forward to updates. I hope we let people know about good bands and are helping promote our little "scene" or whatever you want to call it. I just do it because I love the music and want to tell anyone who listens all about these bands and records. I want to let people know about the new and kind of obscure stuff that's out there. I want to get information out there about this stuff and get more people interested. It's like the first time I saw Blank Generation, I was blown away. I hope there are people just getting into this stuff who find TB and are blown away. There's so much great stuff happening out there. So much to listen to. I just hope we help people find out about the bands and labels we like. HoZac being gone sucks. There is not that printed presence anymore, which is something TB can never replace.
Raul: I also was blown away by BG; it discovered me this type of music and was also the reason why I write.
Rich: That's awesome. I hope Joe understands the impact BG had. It was perfect timing really; BG was around at exactly the right moment and helped a ton of people get into this stuff and get involved in the scene/community or whatever. He deserves a lot of thanks.
Raul: Do you think there are any other really remarkable labels right now? Something like a Crypt or Rip Off for the '00s...I mean, a representative label. Probably you will say In the Red; it's a good label that probably promotes already known bands but not too many debuts. I believe that if Douchemaster or Shattered continue doing it well, they could be something like that.
Rich: Crypt is like an entity unto itself: reissues, modern stuff, whatever. It's like above and beyond a great label. Rip Off was amazing because of its singular vision and its adherence to it. In the Red, you can't deny how great a label it is, whether he's helping put out newer bands of already established names like Timmy Vulgar or Greg Cartwright or unheard of bands. He's put out plenty of great debuts too. The first Hunches record, no one had heard of them really before that. The Lamps came out of nowhere. There's a lot more if you go back in the catalog. Plus, ITR rarely puts out shit. As far as labels with great vision, and a kind of unifying theme, you have to mention Goner. It's great that they've been putting a lot of records out again the past few years after being quiet for some time. I don't think SS gets the credit it deserves either, and I'm not saying that because I know Scott. He puts out a steady stream of good stuff that all fits together somehow. Great label. I think Bart and Big Neck have a great aesthetic and catalog. I admire what Mr. Z has done with SSLD, it's like the ultimate 7" collector scum label. I think it sucks he caved in this year and made the records more readily available. He should've decreased the print runs instead. That would really get people whining.
As far as newer brands, there needs to be a new label that can stick around long enough. I love what Douchemaster is doing. I hope they stick around. I think Shattered could have been one of the great ones, but I think we've seen the end of that label for the most part. Back to the Fums, I love what Boom Boom does. There are tons of great singles labels out there. But to be a truly great label, I think you need to be successful with both the EP and LP formats. Without putting out shit. P.Trash is the modern day SFTRI. Too much crap.
Raul: What do you think about the fact that there aren't lots of kids into this type of music? What's the reason?
Rich: I don't know. People are lazy. It takes effort to listen to this type of music. We're talking about bands that are lucky if they sell 500 or 1,000 records for the most part. In the grand scheme of things, they're tough to find. As easy as it seems to find out about this stuff with the internet now, for the average lazy kid, it's too much work. They can download the latest million seller to their iPod from their cell phone and forget about it a week later. To like this stuff you have to take an active interest in hunting stuff down and buying records and having an actual record player...it's too much work for most people. They'd just rather take what's force fed to them on TV and the radio. That's what makes a bunch of young kids in a band like Vegetative State or VCR so much more awesome to me. I know there are at least a few kids with some taste out there to keep things going.
Raul: Tell the truth: Who's the best TB writer (or your fave)?
Rich: Aw, c'mon. I love everything everyone does for TB or I wouldn't put it up. I think everyone does a great job. The stuff I personally love reading the most are Dave Hyde's and Justin Collectorscum's columns, the stuff that unearths records from the past you might have missed or have never heard. I love the "TB Guide to.." stuff that people have done a lot as well, like the guide to GG records Jay Litchfield just did, or Justin's Datapanik one, or Scott's Guide to Sacramento Rock, or the Artpunk Guide, or the KBD article. That's the kind of stuff I always wanted TB to be about.
Raul: Do you know something about HTML or is all of it done pretty bad on Frontpage, Dreamweaver etc.? I used to do that when i did my e-zine, and even with that, it was difficult! Do you have lots of problems uploading?
Rich: I don't use Frontpage or Dreamweaver or any program like that. I probably should; it would be easier, I guess. I've just never tried. I just code everything out by hand. I don't know a whole lot about HTML. I took a class when I was in school, have a couple reference books. My limited skill in that department is probably half the reason it takes me so long to update the site sometimes. And honestly, and this is not an excuse for my poor page layout skills, I didn't want the web site to look all fancy with tons of bells and whistles. I wanted the design to be really lo-fi, so the focus was on the writing and content, not the look of the site and pages.
Raul: What other names did you think of before TB?
Rich: I think that was just about the only one. I don't really remember any others. Lights Out! maybe; it was a zine idea I had for a while where the cover of every issue would be a different band mock-poking their eyes out with a fork. Pretty stupid. And honestly, I think the name Terminal Boredom might've been Mitch Cardwell's idea.
Raul: All time favourites? I know you dig The Damned a lot, but not a lot more.
Rich: The Damned made a big impact on me as a kid. The first Damned LP is probably my favorite record ever. Black Sabbath might be my favorite band ever. Black Flag, Stones, Stooges, Dictators, Dead Boys, the standard stuff. I obviously love the Registrators a lot; they're better than Teengenerate in my head. Halo of Flies are very important to me. The Mummies are one of my all time favorites. Swell Maps. Pretty Things. Scratch Acid. I probably love the old AmRep band Hammerhead more than anyone on the planet. Big Boys. Sonic Youth. Plugz. There's a ton.
Raul: Uh, surprising that Black Sabbath answer.
Rich: I don't know. The first five Sabbath LPs are some of the best music ever made in the history of the world. They never get tired. I guess it's my metal roots showing.
Raul: It's surprising for me...no metal in my life. I'm a fuckin' close minded. Just rock and roll, punk, and substyles.
Rich: Well, don't sell yourself short. You're missing out on some great stuff. There's a lot of metal that is more "punk" than some punk bands.
Raul: What do you think about all the Killed By Death freakism going nowadays?
Rich: Bands trying to imitate KBD-era sounds? It can't be all bad, I love that stuff. The good thing about it is that most bands from the '77-'82 KBD era maybe didn't have a grasp on what punk was "supposed" to be. They just played whatever they thought was weird or whatever. So you get a variety of sounds. The Mad sound nothing like Hubble Bubble, but they're both KBD-era bands, right? The bad thing is, no matter how hard someone today tries to dumb it down and sound retarded, they will never come up with another "UFO Dictator".
Raul: Favourite KBD type comp?
Rich: I like all that stuff. Personal favorite KBD volumes (although I think there's something good about most of them) are Volumes #9 and #18. Although every home should have copies of at least the first four. The Murder Punk comps are amazing. I get overwhelmed by the Hyped 2 Death/Messthetics/Teenline family of stuff, but I try to keep up. The Killed by Epitaph 2XLP (all Dutch Punk) is a favorite of mine. I think Staring Down the Barrel was incredible for a KBD comp at this point in the game.
Raul: Futurism (if that word exists)...What do you think will be the next trend in punk?
Rich: What is going to be the next big thing? Who knows. Trends kinda suck. When bands all start doing the same thing, it gets boring. I guess I would like to hear more bands that sound like Clockcleaner or Homostupids or Pissed Jeans. Not sound just like them, but do some of the things those bands are doing right now, kind of a rawer post-hardcore thing. There's a lot of new bands that I hope break through to bigger things next year. I really like the band VCR (Vice City Rockers) right now, I've only heard like three or four songs, but they're amazing so far.
Raul: Do you play (or have played) in any bands?
Rich: Not really. I'm not musically inclined. I'm content just listening for the most part.
Raul: Favourite zine ever?
Rich: My favorite music zine ever is definitely Forced Exposure, though it was a lot bigger than what most consider a 'zine. I constantly re-read those old issues. Another favorite of mine is/was Cimarron Weekend, which was a smaller thing from Memphis, the writing was great and it was absolutely hilarious. I wish it still came out. Horizontal Action and Pure Filth were classic as well. There was a local Buffalo zine called Avenue Player that was great when I was younger. Really funny. Oh, and Jay Hinman's Superdope.
Raul: What people that don't write for your zine would you like to have?
Rich: I don't know. I can't think of any particular people, but what I would like is more collectors/fans to come out of the woodwork and share their knowledge and do articles on obscure bands/records or even really detailed stuff on bands we already know.
Raul: What stuff are you really waiting for to be reissued?
Rich: I really wish someone would boot/reissue the Chronic Sick records so I could own them on vinyl. I wish Rave Up or someone would reissue one of my favorite Buffalo bands like The Enemies or The Jumpers or even The Vores on vinyl. An Electric Deads retrospective would be cool. There's a lot of singles I'd like to see reissued, but that list would be way too long.
Raul: And to finish, some stupid questions for record collector types...Favourite single in your collection as a collector boy?
Rich: I'm not sure how to answer. The most expensive ones aren't necessarily my favorites. The stuff that means the most to my collection is stuff that has sentimental value. I have a bunch of first wave punk records that were my father's, those mean the most to me. Those are the records I remember hearing when I was growing up, and now I have them. Those are my favorites, those Pistols, Damned, Sham, Clash records that I got from him.
Raul: 300 scum stats or 500 scum stats?
Rich: What's better? Tricky question. I say 300.
Raul: Favourite vinyl colour?
Rich: I don't really have one. I am sick of pink vinyl, though, it should be banned. Clear colors are the coolest looking, I think.
Raul: Favourite sleeve?
Rich: That's tough. There's a ton. I'll mention the sleeve to the Anal Babes Cocaine Swastika 10" because I forgot to mention them in the favorite bands question. That may be my second favorite record of all time. Everyone should own multiple copies. And I'm not just saying that.
Raul: Favourite record label ever?
Rich: Tough one again. I'd probably be lying if I didn't say Rip Off, though. Or Amphetamine Reptile. Other favorites are Bag of Hammers, Pre BS, Boom Boom of Renton, SSLD, Dangerhouse. There's a lot.

Great bands of the 90s : the Rip Offs

2008-01-07T01:16:00.000-08:00

NOTE: From August 2005 on the Great 90s band serie, it isn't well written or anything like that... but i like it.

Not long ago, I began to hear punk music, and lots of people told me that punk was only great in the late '70s and early '80s. And I agreed. The current punk bands I had heard then were the Casualties, Unseen, Total Chaos, and a bunch of other bad bands of that style. Some years later, I was talkin' with an Italian guy about Killed By Death type music, and he told me about the Japanese movement - specifically the Registrators and Teengenerate. So I checked out those two bands, and I loved them. I still listen to both bands a lot, and I have already done a small article about the Registrators for my Spanish e-zine.
Along with those two bands, I also discovered the Rip Offs. All three bands showed me that punk music was still a good thing - that you can be a fuckin' good band without knowing how to play, just knowing how to ROCK. And every fan that has heard lots of music should know how to do that. I learned that from hearing the Rip Offs and Supercharger - but especially the Rip Offs because I like them more. They didn't have much talent, and they probably knew it. But they knew very well how to write funny and catchy songs. This band, along with Teengenerate, changed my concept about punk music. Inspired by those bands, I decided to start a band and play music of my own.
I think with that introduction, you should know who my two favorite bands of all-time are. If the Rip Offs and Teengenerate aren't my two favorites, they are close. Along with first-album era Who, they are probably my most listened-to bands ever. But The Who were very good musicians and didn't inspire me to play music. On the other hand, the music of the Rip Offs sounds very lo-fi (they didn't spend much money recording their stuff), and I like it a lot. It's very simple and fuckin' good...especially their album Got A Record. I fuckin' love the sound it has, it's perfect for the band, and I also really love the order of the songs. I think the songs are very well-organized, and I can't imagine hearing them in a different order. I can't imagine hearing "Fed Up", "Baby Let Go", or the Lurkers cover "Shadow" after "Heat Seeker". After "Heat Seeker" comes "Rip Your Heart Out" (my favorite Rip Offs song), and then "Fed Up" and more and more... Probably they didn't think a lot about the order of the songs, but I think it is near perfect for the album. If you haven't heard the album, it's '77 punk with a very trashy feeling that comes from garage music. For me, this is garage punk '77 (like Teengenerate, Registrators, and some other bands); for you, I don't know... I'm not very good with the titles of music, but I think you MUST hear it now.
The Rip Offs didn't release lots of stuff, but they did put out some incredible 7"s. I discovered the Rip Offs very late, and I only heard the Rip Off Records singles compilations that contain most of their singles. The best of the singles is "Make up Your Mind"/"Wild Jane"...fuckin' perfect. I also like the songs "Leave You Cold", "Now I Know", "Go Away", and "Hooked On Phonics" a lot...all their stuff is essential.
And I've got nothing more to add. There are other good bands related to the Rip Offs - like Supercharger, the Infections, Zodiac Killers, the Fingers, les Dragueurs, and Four Slicks. Probably there are some more that I can't remember. I especially recommend Supercharger and the Infections. Also check out the label Rip Off that has lots of cool stuff - it's essential stuff if you want to know today's garage punk influences.

Reducers Interview

2008-01-07T01:12:00.000-08:00

NOTE: From May 2005, interview done the same month or february.

Generally I don't like to do introductions for interviews... there's no special reason; I just think it's weird because I talk about the band in the interview, and I don't need to say how good they are (think a bit: if I didn't like them, I wouldn't interview them). But I think this time it is necessary because the Reducers aren't very well known.
The Reducers are an old late '70s band that is fuckin' awesome, and very few people know them. I learned about them by reading an interview with Firestarter on the (now dead) web-zine Blank Generation. Firestarter is one of my favorite bands ever, and those guys have very good taste. They were talking very well about the Reducers, so I thought they must be good. Like two years later, I heard the Dionysus comp Power for Passion: File under Power Pop that has two Reducers songs on it. I loved them, then I looked for more stuff and now I have an interview with this GREAT band. And I won't say any more. Just that if you find their CD, Redux, catch it. If you don't find it but do find their first album or Let Go, they are also good options.

Raul Reaction: How did the band begin in 1978?
Hugh Birdsall: Peter and I were into Ducks Deluxe, Dr. Feelgood, and Chris Spedding around 1975-6. Then we went to London around Christmas of 1977 to see bands. We were there for 10 days and saw The Jam, the Sex Pistols, Chris Spedding, Eddie and the Hot Rods, The Only Ones, The Kinks, and a bunch of others. We were blown away by what we saw and figured we could do it too.
Steve and Tom were in a country and western band at the time. When we got back from England, we got them to rehearse with us, and we learned a bunch of covers of all those bands we had seen, plus some songs by the Ramones, Elvis Costello, and the Clash. We only learned songs that were easy to play because Peter and I weren't very good guitarists. By the end of the summer of '78, we were playing out in country and western bars because the rock clubs only wanted to hire Top Forty cover bands - not punk rock bands.
After our first year, we started writing our own stuff so that we would seem more punk. We were the first punk rock band in our area.
RR: From that first list of bands, I only know Dr. Feelgood.
HB: Ducks Deluxe later evolved into The Motors and The Tyla Gang. Great band! Chris Spedding is a British session guitarist perhaps most famous for playing with Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry and for producing some of the Sex Pistols' early recordings.
RR: When was the band more famous : in the first times or now?
HB: We were more popular around 1984 when our first records came out. People made a big deal about us for about a year and then sort of lost interest. But it is interesting that in the past two years or so, people seem to be getting interested in us again. We've been around so long that the trends come back our way every few years. People always come back around to basic rock and roll, because it's better and more fun than most of the other garbage they listen to. If we live to be a hundred, we'll probably get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - just kidding!
RR: Do you considerer the band "mod punk"? I ask this because you sometimes find songs of the Reducers on mod, punk, or power pop comps.
HB: We kind of fit best in the pub rock category - too bluesy for the punk clubs and too punk for the blues clubs. But I guess people put you in whatever category they want to.
RR: How did the Japanese tour with Firestarter go?
HB: We had the best time we've ever had as a band when we were in Japan. Firestarter are the best! They made it all happen. We never could have done anything without them - the most generous and cool people we've ever met. Plus they're an awesome band - as was Teengenerate.
RR: I heard from a friend that saw you there that the band played well, but that it was a very long show (around 30 songs) with lots of covers.
HB: Yeah, one of the nights in Tokyo, we played by ourselves at a dive called The Fiddlers. Normally during the tour, we played one set with two or three other bands and did mostly our own stuff. But that night we got to play all night and whatever we wanted, so we did. (We love playing covers. After all, if we don't do it, who will?) That was the most fun night of the tour - also the most raucous.
RR: Did you learn a bit of Japanese there?
HB: I learned a little bit of Japanese, but I'd like to learn more if I can find a good teacher over here.
RR: The band was one of the first DIY bands, wasn't it? Why was this? No label wanted you? Or because you liked the idea of having your own label?
HB: Originally we released our own records because no one else wanted to. Later, we realized that there were a lot of advantages to having our own label. No middle man. Most bands that we knew at the time who got signed to labels got screwed out of a lot of money and broke up soon afterward. So we never got much prestige, but we are still around, and they're not.
RR: I can't understand how nobody wanted to release your first album... it's great!!
HB: Thanks for the compliment. We thought it was great too, when we finished recording. But at the time, there were a million bands doing similar things, and we didn't stand out from the crowd enough to get much attention. We got some good press, but it wasn't enough. In retrospect, I say thank God, because I think being on a record label would have been a nightmare.
RR: Did you release any band besides the Reducers?
HB: Not until recently. We just released a CD by a band from Brooklyn , N.Y. , called HEAP. Their singer, Tim Heap, is from our town and a friend of ours.
RR: Which are your favorite bands of all-time?
HB: My all-time favorite bands are perhaps too numerous to mention, but I'll try to pick a few. Not surprisingly, I'm into guitarists, and I'm kind of an old fart, so my interests go back a bit. I'll try to go in chronological order. So, hmmm...Django Reinhardt, Les Paul, Elvis Presley and his band with Scotty Moore, Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Who, Small Faces, Electric Flag (with Mike Bloomfield), Fleetwood Mac (with Peter Green), Jeff Beck Group, Ducks Deluxe, Flamin' Groovies, Dr. Feelgood (especially with Wilko Johnson and Gypie Mayo), Chris Spedding, AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, The Ramones, The Jam, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Undertones, The Buzzcocks, Stiff Little Fingers, The Fleshtones, Roger C. Reale Band, The Replacements, Firestarter. I'm sure I've left a few out, but hopefully you get the idea.
RR: Do you like any bands from now (besides Firestarter)?
HB: Hmmm...I like Heap, The Can Kickers, The Paul Brockett Show (from New London), Rockbottom (from Tokyo), The Dogs, Stoneage Romeos, The Gangbangers (from France), Wes Macdonald, The Forty Fives, the Hives, the Strokes, Yo La Tengo, Aimee Mann, Laika and the Cosmonauts (from Finland), Lou Barlow, Robyn Hitchcock, Wilco, The Old 97s, The Hot Club of Cowtown, and a lot more that I can't think of right now.
RR: Did you heard the comp that was put out a few time ago by Bacchus (Dionysus)? Power for Passion: File under Power Pop includes "Small Talk" and "Black Plastic Shoes" (very punk rock and roll song, I think). Do you like the comp?
HB: Yes, I heard that comp. We knew a lot of those bands and played shows with them, so of course I like the comp. It brings back memories of filthy bars and late, drunken nights of loud rock and roll. What's not to like? We were all kind of learning as we went back then. Some learned better than others.
RR: I just heard the first Reducers album... What other stuff would you recommend to me? A guy told me that the second album is even better.
HB: Yeah, I think the second record is better than the first one, but the third one isn't as good - bad production. I like parts of all our records, but there are always a few songs that I wish we had recorded better or had just left off the records. I think the one we're working on now could be one of our better ones - more rockers, and now we have a good producer, named Richard Brukner.
RR: Why that name? The Reducers?
HB: We went through a lot of names, and the Reducers was the least stupid one. We also liked that it started with "R", so we would be in the record bins near the Ramones. (The first song we ever learned together was "Rockaway Beach.")
RR: Fuck, good idea to be in stores near the Ramones. Did the Reducers play shows with big punk or power pop bands from the late '70s, early '80s??
HB: We opened for everyone who came through our area. I'll try to remember some of them. We played with the Ramones about 10 times, with the Replacements 3 or 4 times, and with the Fleshtones about 20 times. We also opened for Johnny Thunders, David Johansson, Graham Parker, ? and the Mysterians, the Smithereens, The Leroi Brothers, Chris Spedding, the Stranglers, Webb Wilder, Wall of Voodoo, The Neighborhoods, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Let's Active, The Db's, The Blackjacks, Mojo Nixon, The Del Fuegos, NRBQ, and The B-52's. That's all I can think of right now.
RR: If you don't know the Exploding Hearts (now they are dead... car accident), you should hear their record Guitar Romantic. In an Undertones, Buzzcocks etc. style. Fuckin' good.
HB: Thanks for the tip. Yes, great band! Tragic story.
RR: What do you think about a young guy from Spain doing an interview with you?
HB: I think it's great that there's still someone under 30 who's into rock 'n roll. Way to go!
A band we know called The Botswanas toured in Spain, and told us there's a great rock scene there. So you're lucky. Over here, rock has definitely taken a back seat to a lot of other shit. Oh well...if we hang around long enough, rock will make a comeback.
RR: Will the band release more things and continue playing?
HB: Yeah, we've recorded four songs for the next record, and we're working on about 8 or 9 more. So maybe we'll have a record by fall. We might cover a couple of Firestarter songs too. "I Don't Mind" and "Trashy Dreams". We talked with them about releasing an EP together, where we play a song or two of theirs and they play one or two of our songs.
RR: And I think that is enough. Anything to add???
HB: Thanks for the interest! I'll look for this on your website at some point.

Raxola Interview

2008-01-06T16:11:00.000-08:00

NOTE : This interview was posted on Now Wave, on april 2007. It was really done for PS We Hate You and some months before, probably around january or february so they didn't even know that Radio Heartbeat would be interested on releasing their LP.
PD: I don't post the interview because of you writing a comment! I was going to post it after Radio Heartbeat one.
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It seems like with time, some of the favorite punk LPs of lots of stupid punks are by old Belgium/Netherlands bands like the Kids, Hubble Bubble, Raxola, and Ivy Green. The Bloodstains/KBD thing helped a lot to make those bands more known and also to got me into them. Now after having read that Raxola was playing again and had put out a new CD-single, I interviewed Yke N. Raxola about Belgium punk and the band's past/present.

Raul: First...how was the punk scene in Belgium? I really dig the first Bloodstains comp, and it is difficult for me to believe that in a small country like Belgium, there were that many good bands.
Raxola: The scene was really buoyant. We felt very close to the spirit of what happened in England. We felt like suddenly everything was possible in music. But the reasons were somewhat different. I guess that in Belgium it was more an attitude than a way of life. Belgium has often been the place for minimalism in art, and punk music took its share of it. Social roots and political involvement within the movement were very different than English ones. Belgium is a very conservative country. Many musicians were frustrated, and the punk wave just gave them an opportunity to kick out the jams.
Raul: Were the Belgium punk bands of the era inspired by the Kids? You know... like if they were Belgium's Sex Pistols. They are the most famous Belgian punk band.
Raxola: Well, in a sense, yes. This links to the previous question; Belgium is a small country, and I don't think there was room for so many bands. Very few places to play. Punk music, you bet! No venue would have taken the risk to host that stuff! It was a daily struggle to get some gigs. We had poor support from the press. And no support from the record industry. The Kids had a strong management and full support from Philips. Moreover, they were pretty good. That's how they survived.
Raul: Were the Netherlands and Belgium scenes the same? There were lots of cool bands from those two countries, and very similar style for me.
Raxola: I don't know. I wasn't much in touch with the Netherlands at that time.
Raul: Elton Motello was in Plastic Bertrand, right? He was in Bastard with you.
Raxola: Not at all. Plastic (aka Roger Jouret) was Hubble Bubble's drummer. He was cast to go on TV for personalizing artefact fake punk hit "Ca Plane Pour Moi", which was produced by Lou Deprijk, who also sang on the first three Plastic Bertrand singles. They are currently on trial 'cause Roger wants to get singer's royalties on "Ca Plane". Elton Motello is the nickname of Alan Ward, previously singer with Bastard and also sound engineer at the RKM studio...where "Ca Plane" was recorded. Small world!
Raul: Bastard was a band before the Damned began, not? Brian James played in the group also. Was the Damned's sound similar to theirs? Or was Raxola more similar?
Raxola: Yes, Bastard existed in Brussels in 1975 featuring Brian James on guitar, Nobby Goff on drums, Alan Ward on vocals, and myself on bass. It sounded somewhat similar to early Damned, but also included some "good ol' rock n' roll" riffs. We were much influenced by The Stooges and MC5.
Raul: Did Bastard release a demo or something like that?
Raxola: Yes, we recorded 2 tracks at RKM, which I plan to release soon with a little help from Alan/Elton. Titles are "Doctor Gong" and "Comfort".
Raul: Didn't Raxola try to get any new labels after the break with Philips? Or was that the reason for the end of the band?
Raxola: We fucking did try, but there was no fucking label in Belgium wanting to sign us. No money, no fucking money. I tried to get signed to Stiff Records in London, but it didn't succeed. So we split.
Raul: Why are Raxola playing again when you are the only old member?
Raxola: When we started again in 2002, it was the original lineup. Drummer Snikkey gave up quickly, and Louis didn't want to do gigs anymore. What else could I do but to get new members? I think I have the legitimacy to use the name, which I invented and knowing that I was the main composer, the only lyricist, and the singer. Louis still works with me sometimes. But he is much more into pop stuff that I am...Just to say !!!
Raul: Do you think the new stuff is good? I just have heard the new songs from raxola.net, but they sound too...well, I dig the old sound lots more. I'm a retro-punk; I like the lo-fi bad recordings.
Raxola: Well, if I recorded that stuff, it probably means that I like it ! I'm not able to say if it's "good" or not...I don't feel like playing harsh primitive punk songs anymore. I can understand your feeling; please wait until the album is completed to make a definitive judgment. What's for sure is that the lyrics still are in the same mood as before. I'm still a militant bastard as ever.
Raul: Will the first Raxola album be reissued on LP someday? Lots of people will buy the reissue; there are lots of old punk fans that don't like CDs.
Raxola: It costs a fucking lot of money, but if I could be sure to sell 'em all, I will surely do it. Some people ask for this from Japan and the USA, but how many will buy it? D'ya know?
Raul: What bands influenced Raxola?
Raxola: In the beginning, it was Bastard (songs such as "Anxious" or "Steal It") and all its background which was a revelation for me. I guess Ramones had been an influence by their "melodic" approach to rough punk. They were fucking great! (You should read Dee Dee's book Surviving the Ramones. We made some Ramones covers on stage. Then I guess we were not that much influenced by any other band (consciously, I mean), and songs such as "Thalidomide Child" remain somewhat unique for the time. After I went into England for a while in 1979, I became much influenced by Ian Dury's work. That trend rushed us out of Philips' plans. Sure The Kids didn't take any risks in making their music evolve!
Personally, my main influence has always been The Who. My favorite band now is Killing Joke. Their last album is simply fantastic. I don't like new punk bands that much, let alone The Distillers (but this must sounds like pop to you !).
Raul: I also love the Who, their early stuff and some more rock stuff but not all. Distillers... nothing. The famous punk bands from this time suck really hard, you should look between the small labels. There is still pretty decent stuff. And about the Kids, later they evolved a bit, I think. Their first two albums are near the same, it's true. But those are my faves of theirs BY FAR!! Are there recordings of that "evolved" stuff that Philips didn't want?
Raxola: Not from that time (just some takes from a rehearsal on a bloody cassette), but the new "Paranoized" goes that way. It's free to download on our website (you already did, I guess!).
Raul: What Belgium bands do you think didn't get the attention they deserved? I also dig Hubble Bubble and those small bands from Bloodstains but don't know much more.
Raxola: It's funny to say, but the bands that people recall the most are The Kids, Hubble Bubble, and Raxola. Those three have a common feature: they were all led by previous pub rock guys (Ludo Mariman, Alain Buro, and myself). My favorite Belgian band was X-Pulsion; they had a very killing singer (Peter Schlager, aka Pedro Ramis), much powerful, a real stagebeast - and they sounded really harsh. He works now for the European Union and wears a tie.
Raul: It's easy...the Kids, Raxola and Hubble Bubble have great LPs. The other bands just had 7"s etc. You could like them more because you could see them live. Also the Kids have been reissued and there are some covers (even a complete EP of covers by a Japanese band). I have even heard a Hubble Bubble cover (from a Japanese band, the Registrators...I think the Japanese are crazy about Belgium punk). How were the Mad Virgins? I really dig their two songs. I wish they had recorded more stuff like that.
Raxola: Mad Virgins were a second wave hype. They were a good band at the start (1980), but it split very quickly and it was the most interesting musicians who left. The others restarted as Mad V. Their popularity was somewhat linked to the fact that they were fashionable amongst the "nice Brussels people", friends with journalists, TV producers, advertisers, and so on. After a while they became successful radio advertising producers.
Raul: In what pub rock bands played Mariman and you?
Raxola: I don't know where Ludo played before the Kids, but I know he has a previous band experience. I use to play for years with a pub rock band named Evergreen, much influenced by The Animals, Inmates, and Flamin' Groovies.
Raul: How old were you when you began Raxola? The voice sounds near the teenage years, a bit more old (but not a lot...)
Raxola: I was fucking 25.
Raul: Raxola toured France and Germany, not? Did people like the band?
Raxola: We always pleased the audience while playing our speed stuff. Good for pogoin' to death, no problem. We had a very good stage presence and we could play, which was not so common. I have to say that "Thalidomide Child" always threw some cold thrills in the crowd. The least glorious gig we ever made was as the supporting act for The Jam on February 13th, 1978 in Brussels. We decided to start with "Thalidomide Child", which was a very poor idea. The 2000-person audience was literally shocked, and we couldn't manage to save the gig after that. Nevertheless, I can remember Paul Weller saying backstage, "I've seen worse in London". Lovely, isn't it?
Raul: Yep, nice words. I don't know if you did a bad show or not with the Jam, but Raxola are a veeery different band, probably they weren't expecting your type of stuff.
Raxola: That's for sure.
Raul: How do you explain that you are more famous in Japan than the rest of the world?
Raxola: I don't have any idea. Could be some kind of lust for exotism (lol). I dream every day of making a tour into Japan. But it's a hard road to find a tour manager there. May our new "live" album to be released next month will help.
Raul: Now a bit of talk about the new Raxola. From where come the other members? Did they play before in any other band? How did you join them?
Raxola: Hadri (bass) played in my sister's cellar with my nephew. We played together once and found it fun, so when Louis decided to quit, I asked Hadri to join. He's also a fine guitar player. Dave (drums) had not played for months when I met him at a friend's. We talked a bit and decided to try; he found himself very happy and had a good feeling with Hadri. He sings and screams quite well.
Raul: Who is going to release the new album?
Raxola: Dunno yet. No record company seems to care for us. Maybe we will go on distributing the album through the internet, with our Japanese (Disk Union) and US (Goner Records) partners. The "live" mini-album that we'll release soon will be a good test of that view. Of course, it would be great to get a good label deal, but the most important thing for us now is to record the best stuff we can.

Radio Heartbeat Records (Mike Sniper) Interview

2008-01-06T05:58:00.000-08:00

Since Now Wave is gone and you can search there (just across google) i will began to post some of my favourite work there here on this blog. I will put just my favourite interviews and some reviews from this year. Here began:

Not a lot of time ago, I began to hear a lot about Radio Heartbeat Records because they were going to reissue Hubble Bubble's first and second LPs and Raxola's debut. This was incredible news, and then I heard that the same label wanted to reissue some 20/20 demos and also more records of old power pop bands. I really didn't go to interview them. I just thought of it after some confusing emails. But here it is. It seems that Radio Heartbeat will be a big reissue label in the future.

Raul: When and how did the label begin?
Mike: A little over a year ago. There was another guy in NYC who was my main rival for original powerpop singles. I didn't know him, but it turned out to be William Martin, the other 50% of Radio Heartbeat. When we finally met, we decided to do a DJ thing and when we did, we got drunk and decided to do a label and festival.
Raul: So you are a hard collector? Favourite records? I don't mean musically, I mean as a collector. Hardest thing to find or blah blah.
Mike: I tend to find good stuff all the time, a lot of unknown stuff. I'm really open-minded tastewise, so that helps. I have a very eclectic collection, if you're narrow in what you want, then it's harder for it to turn up in a way. I love '60s stuff, blues, reggae and dub, synth stuff, old folk, old calypso, jazz...you know, there's always something good somewhere.
I never look for one record. I don't have a want-list, I'm happy to see something I want reasonably priced and then I buy it. If you stalk a record like a white stag, it'll never materialize!
I find that if dealers know you're into all kinds of stuff, you see more of their punk and powerpop then if you're one of those frothing collectors who only want one thing. A lot of record sellers are put-off by the guy who knows everything about his one niche, they feel like "This guy's gonna rip me off!" But yeah, record people are weird, don't have them for dinner.
Raul: Will Radio Heartbeat be only a reissue label?
Mike: Yeah, probably. I love a lot of the new bands, like the ones who played at this past year's festival, but there seem to be enough good labels (like Douchemaster, Hozac, and Shit Sandwich) that are doing a good job of getting it out there. We have a pretty full plate with the old stuff. I wouldn't rule it out completely.
Raul: What are the plans for the near future? Apart of 20/20 etc.
Mike: The 20/20 thing is very time consuming and a big deal for both of us. Steve Allen keeps finding more tapes of unreleased material, all from before the first record! For powerpop fans, that's a big deal! We're toying with putting out a 7" of some of them, just kind of a teaser of sorts. Right now, we're working on our next LP reissues, Hubble Bubble Faking and Raxola. Then we have Radio City, which is excellent unreleased stuff from NY. We're doing a Milk N' Cookies 2-LP set, the complete Island LP and all the bonus stuff. After that is the Boyfriends and Poppees stuff, and it looks like we're doing a Shivvers/Orbits vinyl companion to the Hyped2Death CD. We're obviously very busy!
Raul: It seems that the label is more concentrated on power pop/new wave than punk. Or are you guys thinkin' of releasing more classic punk in the future?
Mike: Well, Hubble Bubble and Raxola is pretty punk to me! We're mainly focusing on powerpop now, just because there are not many American reissue companies doing it. Lots of Europeans, though, but we think it's an American medium, essentially, so there should be an American label reissuing it. So what do we do? Put out 3 Belgian LP's....I dunno either. Heheh. I always said that if I were to start a reissue label, Hubble Bubble and Raxola would be on it. There you have it!!
Obviously, I love punk. I started buying powerpop stuff because I was looking for punk records in New Jersey, where I'm from. Fact is, there was a lot more powerpop than punk in NJ in the '70s/'80s. For every Ambient Noise, there's a Toms, Smart Remarks, Modulators...a ton. William got into powerpop from the other direction, he liked '60s stuff and worked forward.
There'll be more punk stuff in the future, I'm sure. I think we also want to do some more DiY, post-punkish type stuff too.
Raul: Cool! I dig post-punkish stuff.
Mike: Yeah, there's certainly plenty to investigate. There's also a lot that's only ever been reissued on CD. A big part of the RH idea is making good stuff from the era available on vinyl. Getting the Homosexuals stuff on vinyl, for instance, is a dream of mine.
Raul: Good idea on the Homosexuals. I would like to see a Screamers type In a Better World CD set on vinyl. And talkin' about power pop - the American Boys discography. I think it should come out on LP. Someone needs to do that!
Mike: I talked to Paul Roessler a bit about Screamers stuff. With no trace of Tommy Gear anywhere, they've never located the Geza X tapes. So, there's that bootleg of the dubbed copy - which no one knows if it's the best takes. In A Better World is a nice set, some great stuff there for sure. Part of the appeal of the Screamers is the mystique of no records and stuff, so maybe in an odd way it's for the best? They really were one of the best bands of the era, the DVD that came out recently on Target is amazing, the live stuff is cool, but it's the studio videos that really drive it home. That's the best fidelity Screamers stuff anywhere! Someone should do a vinyl of that!
William and I both love the US Boys too, as well as the Titan catalog, something to look into for sure!
Raul: Did you want to reissue any stuff but couldn't?
Mike: Yeah, I really wanted to do the Tearjerkers stuff, including the Paul West single (Tearjerkers under an alias), but they weren't interested in LPs or CDs, they renovated their website so people could download the stuff. Also wanted to do a reissue of the Nastyfacts single, but they declined for similar circumstances. I tried to explain to these bands that ultimately, someone will probably bootleg it, we offer a very good share of the profit and master everything so it sounds good, 2 things you never get from a bootlegger!
Raul: Was it easy to reissue Hubble Bubble and Raxola? They are classic albums, at least nowadays lots of people know them, but they hadn't a real reissue until now (at least Raxola, I'm not sure about HB).
Mike: I wouldn't say it was easy! Hubble Bubble was pretty tough, Raxola not as much. It was important to both of us from the get-go that we were 100% legit, so working with these bands (a lot of whom have been screwed in the past) can be a little delicate. Especially when you have to find whomever owns/possesses the masters.
Raul: How went the festival? It seems that it would have had to be great, my surprise was that there were lots of new bands. Why? Lots of Douchemaster bands.
Mike: The festival was great. I patterned it a bit after the Horizontal Action and Dot Dash festivals. Not so much in the style of music, but of having young bands open for more classic headliners. It's good for both parties, the opening bands get to play for some of their all-time faves and the headliners get to see bands that were influenced by them, which is a huge deal for a lot of them. It was great to meet all the bands, William and I wished we coulda hung out more, we were too busy!
The high-proliferance of Douchemaster acts was kinda a coincidence. I didn't know Douchemaster was going to do a Boys Club or Pets single, so that was a happy accident. It is a great label, though, and Bryan and Greg are great guys. It's not just a pop label either, Carbonas and LiveFastDie are 2 examples.
Raul: Do you have already some plans for the next festival?
Mike: Yes, no announcements yet.
Raul: What band was your favourite live? (new and old)
Mike: I don't want to play favorites, I was really pleased with all the performances in general. It was great to see the Busy Signals and the Fevers in New York, for sure. Two of my favorite current bands, and they didn't disappoint!
Raul: Have you ended up hating any of the bands you wanted to reissue? I mean.. really stupid guys that didn't help to make your work easier.
Mike: Nope! We're friends! I've gotten to know the Speedies guys really well, they're all super cool and easy to talk to. They have great stories too! It's been a real pleasure to work with them.
Same goes for The Boyfriends, Gary from Radio City, Steve and Ron from 20/20. It's great! William and I have hung out with Justin and Sal from Milk N' Cookies socially, in fact they're going to DJ with us next month! How cool is that?
Raul: Any plans to make your own comps of old stuff of the type of Teenline or Shake Some Action?
Mike: William and I both are interested in it. Especially with the thin-ness of quality stuff on Powerpearls, you know? I mean, we both have a lot of uncomped stuff, a lot of people do! Teenlines are great, the DiY series is good, but it's mostly major-label stuff.
The problem with comps is getting the rights from so many parties. We will never bootleg or put out unlicensed material, so that makes it tough! It's possible, though.
Raul: Power pop and punk records you would like to see reissued?
Mike: I guess Icognito is going to do The Pack again? That needs to be in print, for sure. I don't want to let on too much, because William and I do have a fear of someone else doing stuff we want to do! It's a friendly, competitive market.
What would be cool is if someone made all the early Devo demos available on vinyl. Hardcore Devo volumes 1 & 2 and all the best stuff on Recombo DNA. That stuff is amazing.
Raul: The Pack must be reissued again, for sure. I love 'em.
Mike: It don't get much better!
Raul: Why the name Radio Heartbeat?
Mike: William had named his DJ night that while he was in Italy. It was conveniently already in existence as something, so we just expanded it. Good enough name, you know? Sounds like something that already existed.
Raul: Apart from the label you also play in the DC Snipers, right? Any plans for them?
Mike: Not really. We've had our follow up for Empty pretty much done for well over half a year now, just needs some vocals. It's a much darker, weirder record than the first. I dunno if it'll get done, but it's a pretty big departure from Missile Sunset. I play shows as LiveFastDie's bass player once in a while, I guess I was LFD's bassist for a long while, but I'm too busy to tour as much as Camero Werewolf wants to. I'm recording from home a lot as well. The artwork keeps me pretty busy too, been doing a lot more sleeves and posters lately. None of the above projects are even slightly powerpop!
Raul: Does William also play in any band (or have played)?
Mike: I dunno! Good question...he owns a guitar.
Raul: Rave Up vs Radio Heartbeat?
Mike: Well, Rave Up has some years on us, so them for a little while. William knows Pierpaolo very well, we're definitely friendly labels. I think the Epicycle LP he did was amazing. As well as a bunch of others.. I loved Chainsaw, the Injections, Los Reactors, fuck..he's done a bunch of good stuff! I really wanted to do the Colors and The Go, but he beat us to the punch!
Raul: The Epicycle LP was great, true, I didn't expect anything from that record..but truly great. One of their best, but Rave Up put out too much KBD shit, but great power poppy stuff though..
Mike: I love KBD stuff, so I don't mind! I think there have been times where maybe there's not enough quality material to necessitate an LP, maybe an EP would have been better for some of that stuff.
The whole Punk vs. Powerpop thing to me is very silly. Good music is good music, and bad music is bad music, and no one can decide which is which but yourself.
Raul: Favourite power pop record?
Mike: God, I dunno. LP? Maybe The Toms LP, 1st 20/20, Black Vinyl Shoes, The Scruffs record...I do love the Milk N' Cookies record, of course, but I dunno if it's a purely powerpop record. It kinda fits into that Sparks glam-pop thing too. Gotta be American, of course. I definitely am pro-US when it comes to powerpop. When I think non-US, maybe the Starjets LP? Boys Only? The Undertones, of course. I dunno, there's a lot! I'm forgetting a ton right now...
Raul: Favourite power pop comp?
Mike: I have a soft-spot for those Rhino DiY comps I got on cassette in the cut-out bin.
Raul: Most horrible power pop record you have heard?
Mike: Mmmm....gee, lemme think... I don't really harp on something if I don't like it. If I hear something and it doesn't do it for me, I forget about it! It's like taking a sip of bad soup, send it back and forget about it!
Raul: Favourite label ever?
Mike: For this kind of music, I'd have to go with Bomp! No two ways about it.. Nikki and the Corvettes, 20/20 single, Poppees, Shoes single, Zeros, Barracudas... not to mention the Weirdos! And then to stick around long enough to put out the first 2 Black Lips LPs, that's not only admirable but unheard of!
Raul: Opinion on the second Plimsouls album?
Mike: You mean their first LP? If you consider the Zero Hour 12" the first album...anyway, I like Plimsouls through to '83-'84.
Raul: And about Hubble Bubble's Faking? It isn't very loved by people.
Mike: I think that's more comparative than anything else. I mean, if you never heard the first LP and didn't know of it as some "holy" artifact of European punk, you'd like Faking. I think it's great.

Feelers - Nothing Always 7" (Bachelor)

2008-01-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

I'm still a huge fan of this band, and i would like to see a 2nd LP but i'm not sure if they will do it on 2008, i hope so... anyway... Nothing Always is almost as great as their other single Just can't get Enough, probably i dig a bit more the dark sound of Just Can't Get Enough but fuck, Nothing Always is also the shit, perfect punk a la KBD but soundin a bit more modern, the hit is Nothing Always but the other songs also rock, this time they even include some strange voices on Zombies which i haven't seen before. You know what you find here, if you are fan, catch it, it won't dissapoint.. if you are a bit tired.. fuck, what are you waiting? It's a punk band!! I'm always on the attitude "Gimme punk or fuck you" so i like it a lot.

what i wait of 2008??

2008-01-05T08:26:00.000-08:00

I still don't really know what to wait about this year.. but probably like everybody into the garage punk world i really want to hear:
the Wax Museums LP
more Jay Reatard
a Romance Novels LP? i would like to see this, a 20 minute Romance Novels LP could kick ass. Also the Cheap Time 7" (douchemaster)/LP (in the red) that i'm near sure that i will love
the new band of some Boston Chinks (also their LP), the Barabaras.. fuckin love some of their songs of myspace.
Tokyo Electron second LP
Gaye Blades LP?
Digital Leather live LP on goner
more Feelers?
more Frantic?
and for sure records of my band!

Romance Novels

2008-01-01T08:03:00.001-08:00

¡¡Trash trash trash!! Here you have one of my favourite bands right now, poppy trashy stuff.. and now i won't review a single 7".. ALL their stuff is great. Their two 7inches out on Pizza Party and Hozac along the demos i downloaded from soulseek.. everything is great. It could have been released on early Rip Off for sure, even Radio X probably. Great Great Great.. for this kind of music you don't need more words, just hear them!

http://www.myspace.com/theromancenovels

Wax Museums - Traffic Violation 7" (Douchemaster)

2008-01-01T06:53:00.000-08:00

While it ain't my favourite band from today and this 7" is far from perfect it's nice oldie punk stuff, like a bad-musicians Angry Samoans. The only truly great song here is "Traffic Violation" but i don't really know.. it have something magic that makes me put the 7" again and again. Funny stuff without pretentions.

Clockcleaner - Babylon Rules CD/LP (Load)

2007-12-31T06:45:00.000-08:00

This album is the fuckin shit. I love Flipper, Killing Joke and some more of those repetitive bands with some punk elements.. also even Burzum that is lo-fi-black-metal so i was already prepared to the Clockcleaner attack. "Babylon Rules" don't sound like that bands but have some metal elements and lots of repetitive rythms like Killing Joke or Flipper but on the 00s. It have also some goth elements that make their sound truly dark, they totally blew my mind. One of the greatest things of this year, hands down. I can't stop listening songs like "Vomiting Mirrors" or "Divine Hammer".

Spam Spam Spam - Bored Teenagers Demo

2007-12-31T06:32:00.000-08:00

Hey, it's my blog.. and my band! So listen listen listen!! This is my garage band, i play bass and sing. I also do most of the songs with an acoustic/spanish guitar, this is just a demo practice with some error included. We probably sound somewhere between Rip Offs, Black Lips and some Post-Punki stuff that give us a bit more of dark soundin than them. Hope you enjoy it!!
Listen online:
http://www.ipunk.es/boredteenagers
or download at:
http://www.mediafire.com/?5bdg4edtmmm

Gaye Blades - I would brave anything for You 7" (Rob's House/Die Slaughterhaus)

2007-12-31T06:28:00.000-08:00

Puff, lots of time since i don't do a review in english so probably you will understand even less than usually, i won't concentrate on doin' reviews of the newest stuff, i will write just above my favourite things of the year.. so here i go:

the Gaye Blades like you should know are a at least a two-star-band runned by a Black Lips and Bobby Ubangi from the Lids, and what you get? Well, like a mix of the two bands plus lots of pure-big-gay-man feelin'.. and it fuckin' rocks.. "Whore Hunt" is very Lids soundin and the rest is more near to the Black Lips in a poppy trashy version of them, so it kills! "Treat me Like a Man" and "Keep your Hands off of my Baby" have incredible melodies and pure great stuff. There are also on the middle another one very Lids, but not truly remarkable... anyway... perfect 7". Probably my fav 7" of the year... you know, i'm fuckin closed and don't really need new type of post-punk-garage, in the end i want always the same.

Black Lips - Let it Bloom LP/CD (In the Red)

2006-01-15T06:59:00.000-08:00

Another album by the Black Lips... and better than their second album, i don't know if better than the first but it's fuckin good and different, you know, the Black Lips began like a garage punk band and it turned into a garage noise punk band, still incredible and with that BFTG aura. This guys can't dissapoint... probably if they pass to the history of garage music will be because of this album.

The song "Not a Problem" have jumped into one of my fav garage songs ever.

Nervous Patterns - Beatiful Brutal 7" (Zaxxon Virile Action)

2006-01-04T06:01:00.000-08:00

I was reading Agony Short Hand blog and i saw this 7" on the 2005 top, i also love this 7" and i looked on my stuff of this year and i didn't saw a review of this... so here it goes.
If you are thinkin on more Lost Sounds type of stuff better get off, anyway, i think it will like to Lost Sounds fans but this Jay/Alicja 7" is more of a classic post punk thing and simply one of their best stuff ever written.
Beatiful Brutal is a post punk 77 song that's really good, anyway it still could appear on a KBD comp. And the other song, You can't Change, is the real winner here! What a song! Total power pop stuff with Alicja singin without screams, i love when this girl sings on that way (for that probably i love the River City Tanlines 7" Gimmie Whatever), very catchy song that you won't stop hearing, at least, in a year or so... in my case it just jumped onto the list of one of my fav songs ever. Like i said, one of my fav stuff of them ever, and that's a lot.

Mighty Go Go Players - Play, Loose and Die! 10" (Alien Snatch)

2006-01-04T05:50:00.000-08:00

If you have heard the Mighty Go Go Players no surprises here, this french 60s style party garage band is killer yeah, so you know what you find. 60s party garage + a bit of the Fatals style, some songs are too long but still quite good, they don't bored me and that's a really good point for the band 'cause when songs go up of the 3:00 m is easy to get me bored, television killed my posibility of concentration... i just want easy things to hear/watch... and that's what you find here! Funny music to rock your house, your parties and annoy your family while they think that you are fuckin deaf.

Dissimilars - Land Mine 7" (Plastic Idol)

2005-12-30T07:30:00.000-08:00

This is one of the typical generic garage punk stuff a la Motards that i love, the Dissimilars are very similar to the Motards and if i told you, i prefer this songs before lots of the stuff of the Motards. Land Mine is a fuckin cool song to cranck up the volume and give reasons to your neighboors to hate you, fuckin good singin on the song, and chorus! It turned into one of my fav songs of this style. The other two songs are also really cool, i like a lot (Crushing Up) Pills and the other too! but a bit less.. still really good and the singer sings like a reatard. Excellent!! And that's all, Land Mine goes to my fav songs of the year.

Rythm and Blues + Black Rock'n'Roll comp

2005-12-29T01:44:00.000-08:00

http://www.theletizias.com/moonwolf/

This is an incredible comp that you can hear, and download, from that page of (like the title says) R&B and (black) Rock and Roll, it's really awesome with songs i never heard in my life 'cause i don't know nothing about this type of music, i just hear it from time to time.. i catch a comp of this type and i began to hear it.. i really like to do that and this morning i found a link to this page on a spanish forum and i really like the comp, since the first song (probably my fav) "Rock and Roll Ball" by Jerry Mc Cain it will be rockin' your bones.

Jeffrey Novak One Man Band - Southern Trash LP (P.Trash)

2005-12-27T16:49:00.000-08:00

I liked the JNOMB seven inches, they were cool trash punk, but i love the LP! Simply because it sounds better to me than most of the singles, the songs are at the same level, but i specially enjoy Southern Trash and the first 3-4 songs but the complete album is good. Just really good teenage fucked up rock and roll in the way of the Reatards, the incredible thing is that is just one person and can do lots and lots of noise!

Shop Fronts Interview

2005-12-23T09:07:00.000-08:00

Here an interview i did some months ago with the Shop Fronts, one of my favourite bands right now.. it's a bit stupid but, like allways, is ok.. some questions are desphased because of time but all you really needs to know is that if you like punk you need to hear their "don't quit" 7" on rapid pulse and that they have an upcoming album on rip off records.

first of all and what is more important for me... when you will put out a LP (or more stuff)?paddy: we have a new single coming out on Noma Beach real soon. We're also working on a full length which will be co-released by Ale's Baby Killer label and Paddy's Your Permanent Records. It should be out around November or so.
Alessandra: Yeah, and there will be a battle of good vs evil on the cover.

november?? uh cool, that's just in two months. I hope it will be good!
Paddy: yeah I hope it comes together that quick. it’s being mastered right now.

Now I can began the interview… who are the members of the band?? any of you play or have played in any other band?
Paddy Bullocks: (guitar & vocals) – I was in a band called F-Hole in SF.
Alessandra Aliquo: (bass & vocals) I used to play in the Tie Reds before the Shop Fronts.
Jami: (guitar & vocals) I used to play in Zodiac Killers and a number of other bands when i lived in SF.
TomDash: (drums & vocals) in the early 90s I played in Seattle garage band Primate 5. I play drums in a band that gets together a few times a year to play and record - Chandler and the Chasers, 50s and 60s soul, rock n roll. Starting a new band with some friends that is more art punk, psych punk...

i know that bands, i liked the Tie Reds. why they broke up?
Alessandra: We broke up a few years ago because Dave and Teri were totally broke, jobless, and fed up with living in this expensive city. So they moved to Oregon, now they're in Portland and they're in a really great band called the Slip Its, and Teri has a side project called And Then the Darkness, but I still haven't heard their stuff. So when they moved the Tie Reds broke up, simple. Oh and Nate went to San Diego to be closer to his then-fiancee' and now-wife Susan. He drummed for the Dissimilars while out there, another really great band!
TomDash: Tie Reds were the main reason I started to book shows in NYC...they were a great band, my favorite party band for sure...

aha... so at what you are better. drumming or booking shows???
Jami: Tom is in europe currently and will get back to you re: this, but I can tell you that Tom is
definately better at booking shows than drumming! hahaha!!!

one of the members was on the Zodiac Killers so.. Zodiac Killers vs Shop Fronts? i see them very similar, probably i like a bit more the shop fronts "don't quit" 7" to them.
paddy: I’ll defer to jami -- but.... Jami was in the Zodiac Killers on the 1st lp. They're a great band but Shop Fronts are younger and better looking. They have cooler sunglasses though
jami: There are definately similarities between the bands....both bands play short, fast, catchy punk tunes with alternating boy. girl vox. We all sing, but SHOP FRONTS have more female vox than ZK, and yeah, we are younger and better looking.

you are talkin a lot about you are all young... how old are you? i think that still older than me.
Paddy: god, I’m oldJami: WIth the exception of alle (the only real youngand good looking person in this group), we are all oldas dirt. But Paddy is still the oldest!
Alessandra: I'm 25 but I think I'm more like 56... I'm an old lady at heart. A fucked up old lady, that is.
TomDash: Alessandra may feel like an old lady, but she acts like a 10 year old! Jami is REALLY old though.

the only young alessandra? i though that jamie must be young too, a very kidie voice!
Jami: I'm 31, so that's not so young, but not so old. I still feel like I'm 16, though.....
Alessandra: Well you act like you're 17 and a half... so that's weird.

how was playin in the same festival (the dot dash) with Teengenerate?
Alessandra: It was delightful and refreshing!

you played on that festival because Tom Dash not? i don't know how to say it... but in spanish we call it "enchufe". he organized the festival?
paddy: total example of "enchufe"! actually Tom really didn't want to book us for that show but the rest of us made his life miserable until he relented. It was awesome playing with Teengenerate - a real honor. They were amazing. That whole weekend was a blast - Zero Boys, the Spits & the Reatards also kicked total ass (zodiac killers werent so shabby either)
jami: Yeah, we basically made tom put us on that. He was hemmin and hawing about it the whole time, but in the end we muscled him into it. We don;'t give a fuck about nepatism though, cause if any other band was in our position, i can pretty much guarantee they would have done the same shit. Who is going to pass on playing with Teengenerate? HA! We are all fans of the bands that played, so of course, we wanted in on the bill. But really, he didn;t want to even put us on any of the bills. and i know he had to take a lot of shit for it. BUt we are really thankful that he did.
TomDash: wait, we played this show? Sounds like it must have been amazing! yeah lucky guys... if i do a festival i put my band for sure too!
Paddy: We also got to play the Horizontal Action Blackout in Chicago this year - another great time!
Alessandra: When I think of Chicago I think of fucked up asshole Air Marshals.

what other covers you use to do? the Outcasts cover is ok. i like a lot a song them called something like "the cops are comin", i don't remember well the name.
paddy: We covered Ivy Green's I'm Sure We're Gonna Make It -- which is going to be on
"Killed By Trash" out on PTrash sometime soon. Also our cover of the Rings' I Wanna Be Free will be on our full length. We did the Ramones Today Your Love and put it on our split-cdr with the DC Snipers. and live we've covered the Drags I Like To Die and the Spits Bring Me Down (both of those we did when we were first starting out)
I think that's pretty much it for covers
Alessandra: And GG Allin "Bored to Death"!!

killed by trash... it will have like a 10000000000000 of songs not? every band i interview told me that they will appear!
Paddy: You’re obviously interviewing the right bands! ha

how is going with your label Paddy? you have plans to release stuff of other bands?
Paddy: I’m finally getting off my ass and making things happen with my label. I have a Rat Traps single coming out real soon (should be out by the time anyone reads this) They’re from Tennessee and Jeffrey Novak is in the band. And I also have a single from the best new NYC band called Live Fast Die. I’m hoping to do a release for the DC Snipers too – we’ll see if that works out. Alessandra has a new label too…
Alessandra: I started one recently with Mike from the DC Snipers. It's called Babykiller, and we've just released the Weekenders 7". MOTO 7" and the Shop Fronts LP (with Paddy) are next. Then we will probably also release Live Fast Die because that band is so prolific, Ethan just can't stop writing songs!

what other ok bands there are in NY at this time?
Paddy: Ah, this question is always a killer because you forget one of your favorites and feel like an ass! But I love our brothers in arms the DC Snipers. New band Live Fast Die is great. Little Killers, Ghetto Ways, WLWL. hell, Tom can rattle off a longer list.
Alessandra: I agree with Paddy on all those bands, obviously the DC Snipers have a special place, they're the band we've played the most with, toured with, got most drunk with, etc. Oh, and Andy G and the Roller Kings of course are a really great band too! I also thought Some Action was one of the best bands in the city before Zac left... now who knows what'll happen.
TomDash: Little Killers, Some Action, DC Snipers, Weekenders, Live Ones, Andy G and the Roller Kings, Spittoons, Live Fast Die, Purple Wizard, Awesome Color

do you think you are a "rip off" band? i already read a review of one of your 7" and says that. I agree.
Paddy: I love Rip Off definitely one of my favorite labels of all time - up there with What? and Dangerhouse if you ask me. We definitely have rip-off influences but we’re also into that Aussie ‘murder punk’ sound and Goner/Crypt garagey shit. I wanted the Shop Fronts to have a sort of timeless punk rock sound so we could be played right along KBD shit or Rip Off shit and still be fresh and today - not some retro bullshit.
Jami: I don’t think we are a "Rip Off band" per se....or really any "type" of band other than a straight forward punk band. If it was ten years ago, we'd be in vogue, but now you have to have a synth to be cool and "popular"...or whatever flavour of the month bullshit ....and you have to be wavey..... but It's funny because we get that Rip Off comparison a lot. i actually just sent greg a copy of our newest recordings....when i last saw him at Dot Dash he was very complimentary of our singles and the show. I think our first single especially sounded like it could have been on Rip Off like ten years ago. I dunno. That;s what I cut my teeth on in terms of playing music (obviously), so it's no surprise that comes out in the songs. PLus, we all pretty much love the old Rip Off days....we have a lot of influences--haha. when Shop Fronts first started, I really wanted it to be more of a mix of KBD type shit saturated with more rock n roll type shit, but none of us can really play that well, (with the exception of Paddy), and I only know the same three chords, in the same key, so...plus add in a heavy Cali influence, and here we are.
TomDash: What is this Rip Off we keep referring too???

you are happy with the results on the split with the DC Snipers? i think the don't quit 7" is very very better.
Jami: The split was great for what it was. Paddy was awesome enough to even put the piece of shit out, and it turned out pretty well. Those recordings were among our first, so, it was decent for what it was. The problem with the Don;t Quit single is that , upon listening, I am not sure that it was actually even mastered! Ha!!! So, I think that it is ok, but it doesn't sound as loud as it could. WHo really cares, though. We love Rapid Pulse and Jim and Deb, so we ain't complainin'!
Alessandra: I love all our records equally and unconditionally, just as if they were my children. I also spank them when theyre bad. not mastered?

i think you shouldn't master your records! sounds really well the 7". the worst thing is the Outcast cover and is ok.
why that name??
Paddy: CUNTS!, it means CUNTS! - used in one of my favorite books – ‘Borstal Boy’ be Brendan Behan) that sentence has a lot of b’s
Jami: And anything Borstal related is fine by me....ha!
Alessandra: Yer all a bunch of stinkin cunts.

so finally the album will be on rip off eh? i was right when i said you are a rip off band! Alesssandra: HELL YEAH! It really made me happy to hear that Greg wanted to put us out on Rip Off, obviously we're big fans. The Tie Reds really wanted to be on rip off too... we used to cover a bunch of Supercharger songs!
i really like supercharger also, one of my fav bands.

who or you talk spanish?
Alessandra: I speak Italian, which is very close. And i took a few years of Spanish in college, and i was really good at it... but lost practice so now i can hardly speak it, but i understand it pretty well.

i really like supercharger also, one of my fav bands, and do you understand this??? "los shop fronts son muy malos, alessandra muy fea y toca muy mal el bajo" (note: it means "the shop fronts are very bad, alessandra is very ugly and play the bass very bad")
Alessandra: Yeah, thanks a lot bendejo! Supercharger is great, Raul es mas feo que Alessandra... y gordo. :P

Intelligence - Icky Baby CD/LP (In the Red)

2005-12-23T08:58:00.000-08:00

This album isn't at this time that new but it's now when i'm loving it, i loved their split with the Popular Shapes but the album Boredom and Terror wasn't that thing to me, it was cool and have some really good moments but nothing great, but this time the album is great yeah. The Intelligence play art punk with a bit of A-Frames sound and a bit of the Fall too probably, in conclussion.. this album is awesome with that sounding. The first track is simply killer, i love when the guitar is just noise and the singer screaming, fuckin awesome... and since that is a non stop of good tracks, some of them are a bit worse and longer but in general really good... i love their punkest moments on Nice Tries, Juggle Bubble or my fav of the album, Oh but their longer songs are also cool. Just hear it, a really good album.

Mojomatics Interview

2005-11-11T08:16:00.000-08:00

Here the first interview i upload, and old interview with the good italian two-men band the Mojomatics. It's old, like since 8-9 months, so the last info is probably nothing new.. the interview isn't either very good but is ok. Try to hear the album "A sweet mamma gonna hoodoo me" and that's all...so here it go!
PD: i read on their webpage, http://www.mojomatics.com , that they are recording a new album.

How can two guys do all that noise?? Are you deaf??
Matt: No particulair trick than using the volume control at its best and inserting my fuzz signal into. Maybe it should be a Dave’s fault, he sometimes beats sooo hard!
Dave: When it needs to be loud I can’t draw me back! But we also play a pretty few of acoustic stuff, kinda folksy. Matt plays his guitar in fingerstyle way in a lot of times, and many times I use some percussions as maracas or something.

When began to play the band?
Dave: I was at the Outside Inside studio for some recording with my old band JohnWoo during the summer 2003. I’ve seen Matt playing so asked him to come up a bluesly band with me. We made some practice and realized that we have got a good feeling in doing it. At the same time we realized how the duo line-up was the best solution for what we’re playin’. So here we go.
Matt: The Mojomatics is the thing that I‘ve always wanted to do. So here we go (!)

What do you play? I don't understand a lot of this music and i'm not sure what style (I did a review in spanish and just said the album is cool, but I cannot explain well how is the album)... blues??
Matt: The Blues is one of the most important parts of the Mojomatics song-writing and sound. I listen to a lot of that rootsy stuff everyday - Memphis Minnie, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Leadbelly, Blind Willie McTell and much more. But at the same time we really love a bunch of sixties stuff - Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Byrds, Remains, Pretty Things… and how it can forget that awesome electric sound of Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, J.B.Lenoir, Elmore James?!? Wow! And I always mention Bob Dylan in my thanksgiving prayers…
Dave: You’ve forgot Chuck Berry…
Matt: Damn it’s true, and the Yardbirds too!!!!

How old are you, name and what are your names?
Matt: I’m 23 years old and my name’s Mojo Matt alias Matteo Bordin.
Dave: Well, and Dav Matic’s the mine. 25 years old. Ok, my name’s Zolli…Davmatic Zolli….

What other italian bands you like?
We dig a lot our friends the Rippers. They got an awesome live-stage and a powerful garage punk R&B wall of sound. Did you ever seen them playing there in Spain lately?
Yeah, the Rippers are pretty good... I tried to interview them but they ignore me. And I didn't saw them. All the shows very far.

What means the Mojomatics??
Matt: Nothing, I guess. I think it sounds good. The ‘mojo’ is a really important figure in the blues iconography. You can find it in a lot of blues tunes we love - Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Willie McTell, Robert Johnson etc… You can say all of your prayers, man, but it’s better that your magical amulet’s always ready too!!!
Dave: Amen

Which is the best two-men band around today?? The Mojomatics? The King Khan and BBQ show is also fuckin good.
Matt: I never saw King Khan and BBQ playin’, but I will able to answer you about in the future because we will tour the Europe with ‘em in the next month. Surely I dig a lot their album on Goner. Other duos I like are White Stripes (Jack White writes great numbers and he’s so into Blind Willie McTell), and the El Zombie from the Netherland. But I don’t know much about current bands.
Dave: Can’t wait to play with King Khan & BBQ!Do you like the Oblivians??

I think that the band don't sounds like the Oblivians but lots of people when hear the word blues or broken blues in a new band, think about them. What you think?
Matt: Telling the thruth I don’t know much about them. Sometimes at the Outside Inside - our own recording studio - many people ask me to have a sound like this band so they’re good I guess. As for the Mojomatics bluesly stuff I think it’s better quote the 60s white trash thing and bands as Stones, Shadows Of Knights, Pretty Things, and blah blah blah… over the original race music (afro-american blues and R&B) I already told you about.
Dave: I haven’t any Oblivians platter too, but I like them. However they got their peculiar sound by home-recordings, not using studio recordings equipments.

Who is the real leader and more beatiful from the band??
Matt: Any leader, but I’m the most handsome.
Dave: Maybe, but I’m the most appealing!

Italy vs Spain? What country have the best food and more beatiful girls?
Matt: Girls are fine everywhere, Italy, Spain, France, Venezuela, Viet Nam…everywhere! As for food I gotta tell you I’m not a very fond of gluttony. Ask Dave.
Dave: Yeah, I love it. If you want invite me to taste your country goods you don’t have to ask! Lay the table, I’m comin’ on.

Do you have other stuff apart of the LP coming??
Matt: Sure, our debut 7”ep ‘Devil got my woman’ out in 2004 on Shake Your Ass Records; then the current Alien Snatch LP/CD ‘A Sweet Mama Gonna Hoodoo Me’; a song on a japanese comp on Sazanami Records; and just out the new 7inch single ‘Ballads in the suitcase’ on Shake Your Ass again. We also will be on the coming soon compilation cd out with the fourth issue of Bam! (italian)Magazine, and two of these three tracks will become a single on Alien Snatch Records out in the next summer. The next album will be on Stax, or Apple, or London/Decca…we ain’t decided yet. Eheeh…
Dave: It also looks like two little cool eur labels want to put out a single each in next times. But I don’t want to tell anything before the things are fixed. It’s a type of superstition, besides not for nothing we are named Mojomatics…

hey!

2005-11-07T05:33:00.000-08:00

This is like a return from the 1st world famous, and best, e-zine about punk/garage/power pop/rock and roll music so you should be very happy jumpin' in your home and telling every person you know that Raul is back in action with his page, but now in a blog.

If you were as stupid to don't know this great e-zine i give you the old url, [url]http://www.geocities.com/psyreactionzine[/url], to check some of the stuff, and see how my english is the best around the net.

At the beginning you see that i wrote "like a return", it isn't a real return because is me alone, Tony don't write here.. this is just a blog to put the interviews i do for my spanish zine, i don't like useless work and i want to do something with the interviews before translate them, also to write some reviews and stupid rants. I will put here the stuff that Rutledge from [url]http://www.geocities.com/nowwave[/url] don't put, i don't like to send lots of stuff to there because i know it's lots of work correct my english to do it readable. Also read that zine before this blog, that's much better... there are a lot of better pages/blogs to check but i know that you have lots of free time with nothing to do, so you have time to read this too.

About the stuff i will talk... in general terms garage punk in the way of the 90s like Teengenerate, the Rip Offs, Reatards, Registrators and more and more. Also some power pop. And nothing more, i'm a close minded guy. And nothing more to add! Check my blog from time to time to read any interview and blah blah

Raúl