Swans • PDF of 1 interview (total 3 pages, 1.9 megs) Fear and Loathing, Volume 30, 1995, Interview with Michael Gira and Jarboe. 2 pages.http://www.publiccollectors.org/MusicUnderground.htm

[stu666]

wow nice work porky.

[batreleaser]

some of my fave blastitude interviews:

Pink Reason
by Steve Kobak

 

Pink Reason breathed new life into underground music last summer with their debut single, Throw It Away. The homemade seven-inch appeared out of nowhere and dominated turntable time around the United States, filling speakers with basement-recorded gothic post-punk. The slab of vinyl contained within the photo-copied girl-picture sleeve seemed to be constructed by a local scene vet finally breaking into the national underground limelight. When the needle hit the grooves, a classic-model seven-inch blasted through speaker cones with the A-Side sporting a catchy-as-hell lo-fi post-punk burner and the two B-Sides showcasing weirder but just as compelling gothic-industrial tunes. Along with Cheveu, Car Commercials, Home Blitz and Tyvek, the band spearheaded the comeback of the seven-inch single, as christened by Blastitude.
One would think the masterminds behind Throw it Away had released many singles before hitting a stride this glorious but, in truth, it was the first release from one man, Green Bay native Kevin DeBroux. Though DeBroux stockpiled his four-track recordings throughout the years, self-doubt and general indifference from the local scene kept him from releasing the recordings to the public. He received minimal local support throughout his four-year career under the Pink Reason moniker. Promoters refused to book Pink Reason; partly because of DeBroux’s rumored antagonistic behavior but also because his music was, in their eyes, “too difficult.” This paired with an ever-rotating, unsteady cast of bandmates stirred self-doubt deep within DeBroux.
Friends say DeBroux’s notoriety in the local hardcore scene caused negative local attitudes towards Pink Reason. As he waded his way through the ranks of fucked-up teenage thrash bands, psychedelic noise outfits and straight-1980s hardcore groups, he developed an outsider’s mindset and a friend group comprised of “the real fuck-ups.” In bands like Zone 13 Rejects, a band DeBroux claims was “more conceptual in nature,” he provoked and attacked audience members, earning him lifetime bans from some clubs. Todd Kellner, operator of Trick Knee Records and DeBroux’s friend, relates the first time he met DeBroux was at a hardcore gig where DeBroux kicked one audience member in the face.
“He had an aura about him where people were kind of afraid of him,” said Kellner. “It’s kind of funny, especially looking back now.”
During a show with hardcore punks Hatefuck, DeBroux and company traveled to Winona, Minnesota. After a five-hour drive to the town, wasted locals, angry punks and gnarled three-legged dogs greeted them by leading them into a commandeered park. Inside the park, DeBroux found “the ultimate punk rock experience” with townies huffing rubber glue and mohawk-brandishing kids starting fights with crusties. The show ended and the locals gave the band three dollars for their troubles. A few kids asked DeBroux and company to chip in the three dollars on a keg. Soon, the crowd dispersed and left the band with no money or place to stay. The band wound up sleeping on an island between Minnesota and Wisconsin and breaking up soon thereafter. He wrote the first Pink Reason song, “Winona,” about this experience. DeBroux began to write and record songs on four-track soon thereafter and embarked on three unsuccessful years of creating CDRs and trying to rouse local attention.
After the town towed the car he lived in and crushed it, along with his personal possessions, he decided to move back in with his parents. He acquired a construction job, saved $500 and exacted his revenge on the local scene. He plotted to send his three favorite songs to United Pressing Plant and retire from music altogether. The resulting seven-inch would be a testament to and a panegyric for the power of Pink Reason.
He cannot remember the exact date he received the records but he said it took the record a short while to gain attention. He gained distribution through S-S Records, a label and distro center for a small niche of obscure art punk records. Within a couple weeks of sending copies of Throw it Away to S-S Records, the distribution’s operator, Scott Soriano, asked for more copies. Eager bloggers sang the praises of the 7” and his MySpace friends doubled. He said he felt vindicated, as people finally recognized his talent. He believed critics should like his record but, at the same time, one of these reviews humbled DeBroux. The Siltblog entry, written by Siltbreeze records associate Roland Woodbe, praised Throw it Away as “The best record of it's ilk to ooze outta Wisconsin since Hollywood Autopsy slithered into exile...”
“That was the first review that really blew my mind, to be honest,” he said.
Soon, Siltbreeze head Tom Lax sent DeBroux e-mails asking if Pink Reason would like to record for the label. DeBroux spent days sifting through recordings, listening to masters and picking the perfect song sequence. Still, he felt timid about sending the songs to Lax because of Siltbreeze’s storied history with bands like Dead C, Strapping Fieldhands and Harry Pussy.
“I was afraid to send him the masters,” DeBroux said, “but he kept on e-mailing me and saying, ‘Yeah, dude, whenever you’re ready, just send the masters.'”
Pink Reason embarked on a summer tour with Dear Astronaut in late July of 2006. Self-booked and financed, the bands often played in front of small crowds at art galleries, house parties and dive bars and generated enough gas money to slough to the next date. DeBroux pulled double duty, donning an acoustic axe and iBook accompaniment with Pink Reason and plucking a bass in Dear Astronaut. The tour stretched from Green Bay to Missouri and back to Maine. In between, DeBroux finalized the Siltbreeze deal during his Philadelphia date, even acquiring $20 in drinking money from Lax. (I think that's what they call an advance! -- ed.) He planned on handing Lax a CD of material for the Siltbreeze album but the label’s reputation daunted him.

 

[batreleaser]

After the tour, he sucked up his fear and send Lax the six songs which would become the 2007 LP Cleaning the Mirror. DeBroux constructed the songs on record during a “tough period” in his life; one that saw him living out of cars, on floors and in friend’s closets. He attributes the length of the tunes from these sessions to his speed habit. When he could access recording equipment, DeBroux often stayed up for days at a time, perfecting each song’s sound by recording and rerecording guitar solos and bridges while jacked on crystal meth. Seven-minute recordings felt like pop songs to the geeked DeBroux.
“[Cleaning the Mirror] represents a pretty rough time in my life,” said De Broux. “It’s kind of weird that sometimes, when I think about what I want to do next and shit like that, I’m just in a completely different place than I was in when I was recording that stuff, you know.”
Darkness infests the album and DeBroux lowers his easy-going Midwest vocal tone when relating tales from the period. One of his many stories involves grabbing a few friends and some possessions and heading to New Orleans in an attempt to forge a career for his hardcore band. On the way, the only people with money spent it on truck stop beef jerky and other “nonsense,” so the crew sold most of their belongings to survive in the Big Easy. DeBroux worked temp jobs in the day and eventually saved enough money to travel back north. The band broke up soon after.
Another finds him spending six months living with and apprenticing under a meth cook and practicing guitar in his vast amount of free time. While moving the meth cook’s heroin-addled girlfriend into a new apartment, DeBroux stumbled upon her diary. Unable to restrain himself, he flipped through the pages. Some of the words stuck with him and reworked versions of the diary passages slipped into a few lines on “Up the Sleeve.” The gothic-folk feel of the song reflects the bleakness of the lyrics, its tar-pace steadily creeping along until it reaches a lackadaisical boiling point.
“It doesn’t make me feel bad, listening to it,” he said. “I don’t regret my experiences or anything but, when I hear that, it takes me back to times I don’t necessarily want to relive at this point in my life.”
“Up the Sleeve” also demonstrates his instrumental approach, as it was orchestrated on the spot using whatever instruments were available at the time. He varies his attack on the song, thrashing about on banjo, saxophone and organ as opposed to the usual cheap Casio and guitar attack. After recording the song, he quickly forgot its chords. DeBroux, who taught himself to play guitar by playing along to Russian punk songs, wings it with many other instruments on his recordings. On “New Violence,” he bounced a big exercise ball for percussion. DeBroux constructed the rhythm guitar line on “Sleight Train” by strumming on a broken toy guitar he found while dumpster diving.
“A lot of the instruments I use on the recordings I don’t even technically know how to play,” he said. “Once you’ve been fucking around with shit as long as I have, even if you’re not playing it right, you’re still getting what you want out of it.”
Though recordings mainly feature DeBroux, Pink Reason concerts feature an ever-rotating cast of musicians. As of May 2007, he claims six members left the band, including Shaun Handlen, an original Pink Reason member who moved to China. He seems to snag whoever is around for each tour. Before the spring tour with Psychedelic Horseshit, DeBroux assembled a band from friends who had moved back in with their parents or were living in cars. At a Cleveland show in March, DeBroux drafted Alex Teder to fill in on drums after his drummer abruptly quit a few dates into the tour.
“A lot of people, I don’t think quit. I just think they play with him for a couple of weeks and then go back to their day jobs,” said Teder. “It’s not like a conflict of interest with anyone not getting along with anyone else.”
DeBroux recently shipped off to search of a backing band in Columbus, where record stores already stock Pink Reason records in the “local” section. His success with the LP generated a need for a permanent band. To support his self-professed “transient nature,” Kevin embarks on a national tour this summer with a full backing band in support of Hue Blanc’s Joyless Ones. He will have a rotating cast of characters in tow for the trek. DeBroux could not tell whether his new supporting band will rock with the loose garage feel or his recordings’ structured basement groove.
“I never consciously set out to do anything specific,” he said. “It kind of just happens.”

[batreleaser]

16 BITCH PILE UP
by B. Edwards

Sixteen Bitch Pile-Up is a group of ladies—and I use that term (ladies) loosely here—based in Ohio who get together and make sounds; sometimes the sounds are like porcupine car wrecks recorded underwater, sometimes they’re like slow glacial drift. At one point there were five of them, but two were sacrificed and cannibalized and aren’t spoken of in polite conversation anymore. The remaining ladies, sarah, sarah, and shannon, are soon to be undertaking a tour of the united states, wherein they will eventually park their shells in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. A tour itinerary follows the interview so you may track them down and witness their cathartic seizures live. Until then, behold: undistilled 16 Bitch Pile-up.
Since 16BP is a small army, or perhaps more accurately a highly disorganized battle of pheremonal explosives, maybe you best present your name and what sounds you make as part of the pileup.

sarah bernat: i make dirty sounds.
sarah cathers: you SMELL like dirty sounds.
sb: YOU smell like dirty sounds.
shannon walter: you are retarded.
sb: it’s a miracle we make sounds at all.
sc: i often make farting sounds with my hands.
sb: i like to draw cock and hairy balls.
sw: i am so happy to be alive.
sb: did we answer that?
sw: precisely.
sc: shannon plays the heavy shit (dark cave drippings) i play the OTHER heavy shit i.e.: car crashes, and sb is like when you are stranded in the desert and you hear that shrieking flying carrion beast.
sb: or like when you’re in seventh grade and fighting with your parents.
sc: i'm totally goth.
sw: no, I'M totally goth.
sb: no, you’re more like IDM.
(sc high-fives sb)
sw: (indignant) have you EVER listened to me? i'm insulted.
sc: have you ever really (sc, sb, sw in unison) looked at your haaaand?

Wonderful; I expected nothing less from you skirts. I have no idea to what the “hand” reference refers, and I’m glad for it. Let’s try something more concrete: Bernat, I know you’re a biking kinda gal. Are you all avid bicyclists? Any moments of bike and idiot driver vengeance worth sharing?

sb: bicycle!
sw: when i am not wearing heels.
sc: too true!!
sc: i abandoned my car in detroit cause i'd rather ride.
sb: i don't know about angry drivers (sc: yes she does) but i got in an accident and got maced and got put in jail for the night, does that count?
sw: a greasy spitball in a wifebeater called me a cunt blowjob and nearly killed me so i threw an open and full beer bottle directly at his face and the car exploded.
sc: oh, you mean there's rules? ohhh i'm sorry officer (bend over, put tits in cop face) they don't teach you that in riding school….
Getting maced definitely counts re: bad interactions; what had you done to warrant the macing? (I am, of course, assuming your guilt here.)
sb: well i had already been handcuffed and left to rot in the back of the cop car, when after about an hour they dragged me out of the back seat to formally arrest me. like anybody, i've seen too much TV, so when they don't read me my rights i get all WTF and say to the 2 cops who are on me: "well aren't you going to read me my rights?" they respond, "NO" and i'm all like, "what? why not? read me my rights!" to which they respond, "NO shut the fuck up" and i'm not happy, and they're not happy, and even though i'm still in handcuffs and there's 2 cops on me, apparently i'm some kind of a threat, so i get maced. that shit lasts forEVER, like 6 hours. when we get to the station one of the assholes tells me i can wash it out with water, which i do, but if you know anything about mace, which i didn't, putting water on it just makes it flare back up like it just happened. this was total bullshit and the worst experience of my life. how did this happen to begin with? well i ran a red light and hit a pedestrian, gave myself and probably her too a concussion. it had been bad day -- a real bad day. In fact it was probably already the worst day of my life before all that shit went down, so getting arrested was just the icing on the cake.
sc: i must say, she is no cupcake when it comes to dealing with the cops, or any authority for that matter...
And here I was thinking bicycling might steer

[batreleaser]

us into puppy dog and flower territory. So, back to the band. Do you ladies have a trajectory for 16BP? The split cassette with Sword Heaven was like a steamroller going over kids and bigwheels, and the split LP (also with Sword Heaven, you incestuous vipers) was more, shall we say, mellow. Is there a transition in your sound interest, or are you just bipolar and do whatever the hell you want?

sb: mental illness is no joke.
sw: what does a fish say when it swims into a wall?
sb+sc: what?
sw: dam!
sc: but seriously, you think we're mellow?Well, that LP is pretty, shall we say, “restrained” in comparison to the cassette.
sb: we prefer the term harsh ambient.
sc: we do what the voices tell us to do.
Point taken that you dredged up “do what the voices tell us to.” What's one of the most entertaining shows you've done?

sb: well, at first i was gonna say that show in Denver at Monkey Mania when shannon was dragging me around by the jump rope, but then i thought the show in Albuquerque, but probably for all the wrong reasons -- as soon as our set was over we got into a very nasty almost break up fight, screaming at each other all the way from the house into the middle of the street...
sc: as far as i was concerned we DID break up…
sb: then the cops came.
sc: called on domestic violence.
sw: we roll up to newark, ca expecting to be playing a house party and it turns out to be this kid’s grandmother’s house and she asks us if we can keep the volume low and sing diana ross songs. so we covered "where did our love go" in her back yard.
sc: entertaining to whom?
sb: yeah, the audience or us?
Either one, really. But what about the cops this time?
sc: oh yeah -- and then the cops came.
sb: i think they were called on domestic violence or something.
sb: they've all been entertaining in their own special (sc: “ed”) way.
sw: like when sb is standing outside of bourbon street yelling at us "what are we? just masturbating!?!??!"
sc: was that the night we were mooning traffic and yelling “pink pussy”?
sw: no, but close.
sc: our first entire year was very...interesting.
sw: and blurry.
sc: there used to be a lot of big sheets of plastic and…
sb: quote unquote ART involved.
sw: schtick?
sc: whiskey? shit used to get crazy!
sb: but we are feeling better now.
sc: we even practice now.
sw: we practiced then too!
sc: what, getting wasted?
You’ll never get the straight edge crowd at this rate. Are you all born and bred midwest girls, hence the fleeing to the west coast?

sss: what’s round on the ends and high in the middle?

Admirable harmony. Anyway, since Ohio’s apparently boring you wild young things, you're relocating to CA; are you all moving, as a cohesive unit, or will the band be shifting around due to said move?

sss: names that begin with the letter s are the names of snakes.
I’ll just transcribe that as an emphatic “yes.” Do any of you do solo audio?

sb (in computer voice): yes i have done solos as weird habit but don't have many releases to date. just one "happy birthday" 3" completed in england in 2004.
sw: sssolossss. drowned drone. shark attack!!!
sc: it depends on which persona you are asking about. actually we made a box set of five solo tapes (of the original 5 bitches) last fall. other than that its just boxes of tapes under my bed. (they all sound the same......)
Who’s the most diplomatic among you? who's the fascist?

sb: i can hear both of you saying "sarah bernat is the fascist!"
(sc+sw: toooo true!)
sb: sarah cathers is most notably acknowledged as the diplomatic one although i think shannon is the easiest to get along with in EVERY situation: shannon is the nice one.
sw: i'll be over here eating cheetos…
sc: we are a democratic unit and make all decisions as a group. we pick boyfriends for each other and no one is ever angry EVER! or else!!!
sb: …and sarah cathers never approves of our boyfriends.
sc: shannon had a good boyfriend once and i have like two of sb's.

Bonus round, part 1: you get to start a cover band. name the band you'd want to be a part of representing and how you'd accomplish it.

sb: ELO, go on a lifetime karaoke tour featuring hit single telephone line. "HOT SINGLE LIFETIME KARAOKE TOUR"
sw: first i would build a ship. and then i think i would be a SLEEP cover band and start smoking a lot of pot.
sc: even though she already employs (in unison with sb) "stoner logic."
sw: (flips the bird and blows the horn; hoooonk!)
sc: does this mean i am supposed to learn how to play an instrument? i am already busy with full time job of being sarah cathers.
sb: maybe someone needs to start a cover band of you.
sc: reality tv show. stunning soundtrack. real life true hollywood stories!
Bonus round, part 2: I've seen (and heard tell of) some excellent baking you ladies have done; the battered torso of the Black Dahlia being but one “festive” cake. What's your favorite item to cook?

sb: tacos!
sw: corndogs!
Do you actually prepare the corndogs or just throw pre-made ones in the microwave?
sw: microwaves? We didn’t have a TV til like last year. farm life is rough...have you ever really looked at my hands? they are calloused by years of corn dog-making.
sc: i am an excellent cook.
sb: i am the idea girl!
sw+sc: pffffft.

[Zombie Robot]

sweet thread idea. thx man.

SUN CITY GIRLS- Rick Bishop Interview
http://www.furious.com/perfect/sunci...interview.html


SUN CITY GIRLS- Alan Bishop Interview
http://www.believermag.com/issues/20...terview_bishop

[batreleaser]

warmer milks: http://www.blastitude.com/19/WARMERMILKS.htm

taiwan deth: http://www.blastitude.com/18/TAIWANDETH.htm

pissed jeans (tons of references to obscure punk and hardcore bands) http://www.blastitude.com/18/PISSEDJEANS.htm

ceramic hobs: http://www.blastitude.com/17/CERAMICHOBS.htm

pengo: http://www.blastitude.com/17/PENGO.htm

neil young (of fat worm of error)/yeay! casettes: http://www.blastitude.com/17/YEAY.htm

no doctors interviewed by weasel walter: http://www.blastitude.com/14/pg2.htm

carly ptak: http://www.blastitude.com/11/pg2.htm

big whiskey (i was infuriated when i was at zia records the other day and realized that there is a record by dave matthews band and big whiskey, of course this is some other band named big whiskey, not this amazing but waaaaay obscure psychedelic southern drone rock band): http://www.blastitude.com/9/pg2.htm

dylan nyoukis (prick decay/decaer pinga/blood stereo/ceylon mange) and alab bishop (sun city girls/akvarius b) interview eachother (SOOOO RAD): http://www.blastitude.com/15/pg3.htm

[batreleaser]

angry samoans: http://www.furious.com/perfect/angrysamoans.html

slicing grandpa: http://www.terminal-boredom.com/slicing.html

[Glice]

Does anyone else find it frustrating how piss-boring the overwhelming majority of musicians are? I mean, Nico is clearly amazing, but pretty much everyone else in this thread is duller than me whinging about them being dull.

Having said that...

Derek Bailey
Charlemagne Palestine
And, of course, Smith.

[demonrail666]

The now sort of infamous NME interview with Shane MacGowan, Mark E. Smith and Nick Cave.

Source: New Musical Express
Date: 25th February 1989
Author: Sean O'Hagen and James Brown
Copyright: (c) NME

Part 1/5

NME talks to...

For its second pop summit of the year, NME lent SEAN O'HAGAN and JAMES BROWN 10 pound each to buy SHANE MACGOWAN, MARK E SMITH and NICK CAVE a drink, and discover what motivates and aggravates rock's three wise men. "So the NME thinks we're the last three heroes of rock'n'roll, do they?" laughs Nick Cave.
"Smarmy fuckers," adds Shane McGowan, "what they actually mean is that we're the three biggest braindamaged cases in rock'n'roll."
"Apart from Nick", jabs Mark Smith, "Nick's cleaned up."
"yeah", drawls Cave, "my brains restored itself."
A bottle's throw from Millwall FC, The Montague Arms, a mock Gothic fun pub for morbid tourists, plays host to a bizarre summit meeting. Amidst stuffed horses' heads, skeletons on bicycles and mocked up corpses, three of contemporary music's most infamous individuals are gathered at the NME's request.
Shane MacGowan of the Pogues, Mark Smith of the Fall and Nick Cave all share an outsider's attitude that informs their respective musical output. Both championed and castigated for their obsessiveness and extremism, this unholy trio are dogged by reputations that precede them.
That they agreed to such a meeting is surprising. What ensues is inspired and insane by turns. The fractured and, often fractious, conversation sprawls between the amiable and the aggressive- Presley to Nietzsche, songwriting to psychology, football to fanatics.
In an afternoon of sheer psychotic hellishness, Cave plays the diplomat to Smith's bursts of contentious rhetoric whilst MacGowan transmits his thoughts from his own singular, rarified wavelength.

[demonrail666]

Part 2/5

WHAT REALLY WENT ON THERE ? WE ONLY HAVE THIS EXCERPT

NME Do you think it's accurate to describe the three of you as outsiders?

NC "I think we have all tended to create some kind of area where we can work without particularly having to worry about what's fashionable."
MES "Yes, fair enough. But I think there's a lot of differences in this trio here. Nick was very rock'n'roll to me but he's turned his back on it which was cool. Shane's more, I dunno. To me the Pogues are the good bits from the Irish showband scene, like the Indians. You had that feel, probably lst that now. Your work's good though."
SM "Fuck it man. Who wants to work in a place where there's all these people looking at you ?"
MES "Are you talking about your gigs ? You should stop doing them, then."
SM "Can't afford to."
MES "Fuck it, you could fight not to if you don't like it."
SM "...and leave the rest of them in the lurch ?"
MES "Nah, the rest of your band will always complain about not working. If you're paying them a wage tell them to stay at home and behave themselves."
SM "It's a democracy our band."
MES "Why aren't they here with you then ?"
SM "Cos the NME didn't want to interview them."
MES 'Cos nobody'd recognise them."
SM "That's it ! They want to interview us because we've got distinctive characteristics. They just want to interview three high-brow loonies."
MES "In that case you should have brought your mate Joe Strummer along."
SM "I said high-brow loonies."

HITS AND MYTHS

NME You must be aware that, consciously or otherwise, you've each created a particular myth that has arisen, in part, from your songs.
SM "Nobody created my mythology, I certainly didn't."
NC "No, you (the press) created it."

SM "The media has a lot to answer for, you're all a bunch of bastards however friendly you are."
NC "Let's not talk about the media. Why the hell are you talking about mythologies ? That tends to suggest it's somehow unreal."
SM "It seems to me that in your songs, Nick, you're doing a Jung-style trip of examining your shadow, all the dark things you don't want to be. A lot of your songs are like trips into the subconscious and are therefore nightmarish."
NC "Possibly."
SM "You're exploring the world through the subconscious. I've done that on occasions for various reasons, whether it be illness or self abuse, or whatever. Once things start to look grotesque I don't write them or sing them. I couldn't write them the way you do, I couldn't-making nightmares into living daylight..."
NC "I think you do a pretty good job of it in some of your songs."
SM "The minute it gets dark I shoot back, retreat. I haven;'t always but I do now 'cos..."
MES "Don't give too much away Shane, don't tell them. Hold a bit back."
SM "I haven't told them anything yet."
NME "How do each of you approach the actual mechanics of songwriting ?"

MES "When you ask that you induce fear in a songwriter. I just go blank."
NC "It's not a cut and dried process."
SM "For a start I've got to be out of my head to write. For a lot of the time it's automatic writing. 'Rainy day in Soho' was automatic."
MES "Its gotta be subconscious and off the wall. He says he's got to be out of his head, and a lot of the time I have too. Sometimes, I just wake up and do it. It's one of the hardest questions you ever get asked. For instance, you sometimes hear things that would make a great idea for a song but you never carry them out."
SM "I do. Like the "Turkish Song of the Damned" was a Kraut trying to tell me something and I misheard him. He said, "Have you heard 'The Turkish Song' by the Damned". Then I woke up.
MES "My German song's better than your yours, I bet. This is like one of those night-time discussions on Channel 4."
NC "I writesongs in batches then record them and then can't write again for ages. I try and build one song upon another, they may not look obviously inter-related but often one song acts as a springboard into another."
SM "You haven't been back to the swamps for a while, have you ?"
NC "The swamps ? Heh,heh. I've written a novel about that."
MES "Nick thinks a novel's two pages long. Very novel, heh, heh."
NC "What's it called ?"
MES "It's called 'It'll Be Ready in Another Five Years'. You should write more aggressive songs, Nick, you're getting too slow."
NC "I haven't sat down and thought about the mood befoe I wrote them."
MES "I find your work almost English Lit oriented, like Beckett, things crop up again and again."
NC "And your songs are very deceptive Mark, in the way they're sung. They might appear at times like streams of consciousness but that's deceptive."
MES "One thing that eally annoys me is that stream of consciousness thing. I wouldn't let on to it normally, but it annoys the shit out of me. I put a lot of hard sweat into them, I think about them. They have an inner logic to me so I don't really care who understands them or not. I see writing and singing as two very different things. My attitude is if you can't deliver it like a garage band, fuck it. That's one thing that's never been explored, delivering complex things in a very straightforward rock'n'roll way. My old excuse is if I'd wanted to be a poet, I'd have been a poet."
SM "And starved."
MES "I can write, boy, I can write. That's what I do. People like you sit around moaning about the state of pop music...The trouble is it's too bloody easy for people, that's why music is in the sorry state it is. Any idiot, actors mainly, can go in there, sing a chord, bang on a machine...I'm not objecting to that but when people get at me for trying to say something in a rock'n'roll mode it's as if I'm a freak."
SM "All this talk about the state of music, rock'n'roll, Irish music, soul, funk."
MES "Salsa."
SM "Its been proved by Acid House that anyone can make a record."
MES "We're not thick, we all know that."
SM "Look, I'm talking about the implications of Acid House"
MES "There's nothing new in Acid House for me, pal. I've been using that process for years. Bloody years. It might be new for you but don't assume it's new for anyone else, because you're fucking wrong, pal.
SM "What the fuck are you talking about ? Have you made an Acid House record ?
MES "It's the same process, right. Have you had some sort of bloody revelation about Acid House ?"
SM "Hah ! It's obvious if you listen they put Eastern melodies over it, bits of this nad that..."
MES "That's what music should always have been like."
SM "It always was."
MES "Why haven't you been doing it for years then pal ?"
NC "I think they have been doing it. I've heard zithers and so on. Eastern stuff and Turkish stuff."
MES "We had jazz arrangements in '82 when the rest of those tossers were playing cocktail lounge music and fucking pseudo new wave, so don't talk to me about it because I know what I'm talking about pal."
SM "Fucking hell, what's he on about ?"

[demonrail666]

Part 3/5

CONTAINER DRIVERS


MES "The trouble with the music biz is that its become so bourgeoise. A middle class executive business like the police force."
SM "A middle class executive police force ? You must be mad ! They're stormtroopers nowadays, thicker than they ever were."
MES "Can we drop twe cop talk ? It's the same with everything else, like lurries..." Sm "Lurries ? What are lurries ?"
MES "Lurries. Containers that deliver your fucking food to your fucking house, alright ?"
SM "Lorries ! Yeah right."
MES "The drivers are paid the lowest wages because everyone wants to sit in the office and be a ponce. You can't just go into a hotel and write your name, you've got to fuck around on a bloody computer. Nobody wants to work anymore."
SM "Oh God ! You make me wanna puke sometimes, you do. Of course nobody wants to work. Who in their right mind wants to work ?"
MES "Alright, alright, that's obvious, the sky's fucking blue. Soccer's the same. None of the fuckers want to hit the ball in the back of the net. They're all too fucking muscley. And thick. Running up and down the field like bloody morons. The England team are all bloody minor executives who can't kick the ball in the back of the net, can't do the bloody job they're hired to do. I do loads of gigs, that's my job to play loads of gigs, I'm not an executive, I don't mind playing in front of a load of sweaty people." NME "Do you two still enjoy playing live ?"

NC "I don't know if I do. The first Kilburn show was a nightmare."
MES "What's new with The Bad Seeds ?"
NC "I used to hate playing live totally, just the whole physical exhaustion wass too much for me."
MES "Bleeding workshy Australian. Australians never do any work."
NC "The last tour, going on stage was a release."
MES "Sexually ?"
NC "As my life gets more constipated and cramped going on stage I'm able to purge myself in some way."
MES "A bowel release."
NC "I feel more relaxed."
MES "With Mick Harvey behnd you with the vaseline."
NC "Put a muzzle on this guy."
SM "The gigs I enjoy are the ones where I am so angry and paranoid, and I hate the audience so much, that I put everything into it to feed off the aggressive side of it. I don't actually hate the fans but when I'm feeling angry, pissed off and full of hate, it's a good gig for me."
NC "An audience is the perfect thing to unleash that hate and venom on. It doesn't necessarily mean that you hate everyone in the audience but when you've got a so-called adoring mass in front of you, it's a perfect target for that kind of disgust. Sometimes you find yourself in a position where you're venting your disgust on an audience and a lot of them keep coming back because they actually like that aspect. In a way that diffuses the feeling and you don't get the same release."
MES "You gotta reassess your audience, make sure they aren't just coming to throw ashtrays at your head for fun. Shane says he goes on full of twist, you've got to. If you don't you're fucking fucked, that's whats wrong with a lot of acts these days, they do fucking yoga before and go on all fucking relaxed. I've been with Fad Gadget and he was doing incense and headstands. The English soccer players could do with a lot of twist, they should be put in a room and made to go round in circles, and told "if you don't do a good gig tonight then you're not getting paid."
NME "Shane, you obviously don't enjoy playing live anymore, is that through being on the road too much ?"

SM "I feel like I've spent the last five years of my life on the road. It hasn't affected my songs but it has probably affected everything else about me. Obviously, the more you travel, the wilder the things that keep happening to you, the more likely it is that complete strangers will knock on your hotel room door."
MES "Nick and I don't related to that 'cos the people who come up to us either hate our guts or wouldn't really want to be alone in a room with us. You're a very amiable guy, Shane."
NC "I'm not sure what you're talking about here but the way people related to me in the dressing rooms and so on was incredibly aggressive. They know every record and they seem to think they should nudge me or bump into me as they go past.It was this incredible performance that used to amuse me. I think we share something in common on that level 'cos, like, in the early days, people were drawn towards us like they'd be drawn towards a car smash..."
SM "I read about the fan mail that Freddie Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies gets-real sicko stuff, loads of letters from genuine corpse freaks and child killer types. It frightens him shitless. That sorta thing freaks me out."
NC "There is a definite relationship between that fanaticism and the fact that, as a performer, you expose more of yourself, of the undercurrents of your personality. Most rock personalities subdue that or chose not to explore it."
[caption] "It's rare when a group comes along that has any real soul to them." (Cave)

[demonrail666]

part 4/5





HEROES AND VILLAINS

NME "Mark, of the three of you, would you admit to being the professional cynic ?" MES "No, cynicism and defensiveness are two things constantly levelled at me. Look, I've got time for people, I'm good mannered. I usually find that when you are down, nobody has a bloody minute for you. If I was a nobody, you wouldn't even talk to me."
SM "You are nobody."
MES "Fuck off. It's bloody true. Neither would you, Nick."
NC "Bullshit! That's bullshit I take offence at that."
MES "I'm not levelling anything at you. People, in general, don't like being upfront and civil. They hate you for it. They label you a cynic 'cos you're reasonable."
SM "You're no reasonable though. You're a rude bastard. That's fair enough."
MES "Ok I'm cynical. But I'm not defensive. I'm slightly paranoid which is healthy."
SOH "Slightly?"
MES "Listen, Sean, do you walk around London embracing everybody? If I was in the bleeding gutter you wouldn't piss on me.
SOH "I would."
NC "Your reaction is becoming very defensive, Mark."
MES "You're a failed psychiatrist."
NC "I've analysed you, alright-defensive paranoid with delusions of grandeur."
MES "I've had discussions like this all the time in pubs. I end up beaten half to death on the floor. I try to be civil and people assume I'm attacking them."
SM "You attack people all the time. In the press."
MES "I used to. It became too routine so I gave it up. Nietzsche said 'Embrace your enemies'. You two aren't my enemies so I won't embrace you.
SM "Read a lot of Nietzsche, have you?"
MES "All his stuff. I can't quote him. I'm not into him anymore, gave up three years ago. He taught me a lot, though. We're not all born public school boys like you."
SM "I'm not a born public school boy."
MES "Do you like Brendan Behan, he's good."
SM "Yeah, he's not a fascist maniac posing as a philosopher."
MES "If we're gonna talk philosophy, that's a load of crap ! The Nazis adopted his creed and distorted it, they misquoted him all the time."
SM "'The Will to Power'? Try re-interpreting that statement. You can't. It says what it says."
MES "He wasn't a Nazi-you're only saying that because some polytechnic fucking lecturer told you he was."
SM "I'm saying it 'cos I read two of his books where he dismissed the weak, the ugly, the radically impure, Christianity, Socrates, Plato. He was anti anyone who hadn't a strong body, perfect features..."
MES "That's the coffee table analysis. He was the most anti-German pro-Semitic person..."
SM "His books were full of hate."
MES "You've just said you're full of hate when you go onstage."
SM "I don't go around saying Socrates was a cunt, Jesus Christ was an idiot, do I ?"
MES "Jesus Christ was the biggest blight on the human race, he was. And all of them Socialists and Communists- second rate Christianity. It's alright for you Catholics. I was brought up with Irish Catholics. Some of my best friends are Irish Catholics."
SM "listen to him."
MES "Hitler was a Catholic vegetarian, non-smoker, non-drinker. The way you're talking about Nietzsche is that anyone who's a non-smoker, non-drinker is a Nazi. That's the level of your debate, pal. You don't know fuck all about Nietzsche, pal."
SM "You're anti-socialist, too, aren't you ?"
MES "Yeah. I'm an extreme anti-socialist. You don't live on a housing estate where there's been socialism for thirty years and they keep saying it's gonna get better all the time and it never does. Thirty fucking years of it getting worse and worse. You obviously haven't experienced that, living in London."
SM "What's the alternative ?"
MES "I don't have to worry about that. I'm an adult. I'm working class, me. I come from a generation that fucking created this nation pal. You lot, you just sit around and talk about socialism, you're the bloody problem. Eighty percent of this country are white trash, working class. How come they don't vote Labour? 'Cos the Labour Party are a fucking disgrace, that's why. Engels- he was a factory owner in Manchester exploiting 13 year old girls. Learn your history, pal, learn your history. I suppose you blame all Ireland's problems on the British. All the problems of the world are down to Britain. That's what you think, why don't you say it? You can't tell me anything about oppression 'cos, I'll tell you something pal, if you'd been part of Germany, you'd have been liquidated. If you were part of Russia, you wouldn't even exist. Don't tell me about oppression, my parents and grand-parents were exploited to the hilt. Sent to wars, they had gangrene in their teeth. My grandfather was at Dunkirk and all you can see is Margaret Thatcher on my face when, actually, She's on Nick's face. Isn't she Nick ? Come on Nick, help me out. Basically, I like to discuss things right down the line and I don't agree with anybody..."

[demonrail666]

Part 5/5

KING INC

NME "This is getting a bit out of order, can we talk about something less acrimonious. Heroes ? SM "You're into Presley, Nick."
MES "A lot of Presley's good stuff was overlooked. LIke. the NME viewpoint that he died when he came out of the army. I think the opposite, his best stuff came after the army."
SM "That figures. He was a pile of shit when he came out of the army compared to before he went in. His mother died when he was in the army. That was one of the causes. Anyway, he did some good stuff in the late '60's after the army- 'Kentucky Rain', 'Suspicious Minds', 'In the Ghetto' as opposed to 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'Blue Moon of Kentucky', 'That's alright Mama'. I suppose that's all shit to you , is it ?"
MES "I'm not saying that but everybody writes the later stuff off..."
SM "Who ever writes off Elvis ?"
MES "Look, pal, Elvis was the king, right? To me, Elvis were king. He was only the king 'cos he sustained it. You probably think he's somekind of criminal 'cos he went in the army for a few years. You're insinuating that I'm pro-army and if you have anything to say on that score, say it now, pal and I'll fucking argue right through you !"
SM "What ! He's off again."
MES "I'm into Merseybeat at the minute- The Searchers. I respect Dylan. The only good thing I've heard of his is that LP he did with George Harrison and Roy Orbison."
NME "You seem to prefer older music, is there nothing contemporary that appeals ?"
NC "It's rare when a group comes along that has any real soul to them. Rock'n'Roll history isn't long enough. There's three or four blues people that I like after filtering through loads of blues. There's about three gospel bands, a handful of country ones. I have to draw on the....what are you laughing at, Mark ?"
MES "Oh nothing, heh heh, I'm really into John Lee Hooker myself. He's great solo without a band. His bands are crap. I was always into more experimental bands- Can, Faust. I won't say German 'cos Shane'll have an epileptic fit. I think Nick's more traditional and I espect that but, I'm into things like Stockhausen, The United States of America and Gene Vincent and rockabilly. That's my influences. And I always prefered Lou Reed to the Velvet Underground."
NME "What do you think of the blanket critical approval of Morrissey ?"
MES "Morrissey's another Paddy! A South Manchester Paddy. Shane's got more to say than Morrissey."
SM "I think you guys are encouraging Mark to be like this. You journalists love it."
MES "Of course they do. That's the NME policy, they love a good argument. Don't you lads ?"
Things fall apart. The unholy trinity climb on the pubstage. MacGowan on drums, Smith on guitar and Cave on the organ. A jam of sorts ensues- The Velvets meets Hammer Horror with a hint of Acid House. Totally wired. Summit mental.

[Glice]

Yeah, see, that's how you do a proper interview.

[demonrail666]

I love the way this bit pretty much grinds the interview to a halt. Amazing stuff.

MES "I don't have to worry about that. I'm an adult. I'm working class, me. I come from a generation that fucking created this nation pal. You lot, you just sit around and talk about socialism, you're the bloody problem. Eighty percent of this country are white trash, working class. How come they don't vote Labour? 'Cos the Labour Party are a fucking disgrace, that's why. Engels- he was a factory owner in Manchester exploiting 13 year old girls. Learn your history, pal, learn your history. I suppose you blame all Ireland's problems on the British. All the problems of the world are down to Britain. That's what you think, why don't you say it? You can't tell me anything about oppression 'cos, I'll tell you something pal, if you'd been part of Germany, you'd have been liquidated. If you were part of Russia, you wouldn't even exist. Don't tell me about oppression, my parents and grand-parents were exploited to the hilt. Sent to wars, they had gangrene in their teeth. My grandfather was at Dunkirk and all you can see is Margaret Thatcher on my face when, actually, She's on Nick's face. Isn't she Nick ? Come on Nick, help me out. Basically, I like to discuss things right down the line and I don't agree with anybody..."

PiL:
NME, May 27th, 1978

Transcribed (and additional notes) by Karsten Roekens,
with thanks to Tom Berglund
© 1978 NME / Neil Spencer
INTRODUCING JOHNNY ROTTEN'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND
Neil Spencer meets and hears John Lydon's new combo. Joe Stevens took the pics.
JOHNNY ROTTEN DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE

"Here, lend us a fiver Neil." John Lydon's upturned palm pokes toward The Guest Journalist, an expectant eyebrow arching above the famed John Rotten stare. Britain's most famous rock star is tapping me for a hand-out.
Is he joking? Is this another arch put-on, in the grand Johnny Rotten tradition of arch put-ons?
"I'm broke," he says flatly. "Completely penniless. There's no money coming in at all. He has it all..."
The eyes roll in silent reference to well-known and heeled King's Road anarchist and rag trade magnate Malcolm McLaren, ex-New York Dolls manager and currently protagonist of a flurry of lawsuits against Pistols photographer Ray Stevenson and now film maker and ex-Roxy Club DJ, rasta Don Letts.
Presently too, it seems, McLaren and his Glitterbest organisation will be engaged in another legal tussle, this time with his former protégé and Sex Pistols frontman, a situation that under British law precludes all but the vaguest references to and conjectures about relations between the two parties concerned.
Suffice to say that on the Lydon side of the tracks, the wounds inflicted by the Pistols break-up and subsequent events are deep and bloody. The resentments held are bitter and savage. The resolutions for the future though are considered and determined. No matter what happens, you feel – and as much should be clear from past events – John Lydon is not a man to be kept down.
Which is just as well considering not only the current financial embarrassment of both Lydon and the slightly motley musical trio rehearsing with him, but also the immediate prospects for its relief.
"Frankly," says Wobble, the band's bassman, "with John's business affairs the way they are, I reckon it could be six to twelve months before this band is gigging."
In the meantime the quartet of Lydon (vocals), Jah Wobble (bass), Keith Levene (guitar) and Jim Walker (drums) face the usual precarious hand-to-mouth existence that's the lot of any unsigned rock band, and quite a few signed and successful ones, to come to that. Just because we put these guys on the NME cover it doesn't necessarily mean that they can afford the time of day.
They do at least have somewhere to live though. "This," says Lydon with a gesture that takes in the scraggy three-story terraced house that he bought with Pistols proceeds and which overlooks a thundering inner London juggernaut artery, "is all I got out of it... the Pistols. It's very nice, but now I can't afford to pay the bills, the rates, nothing..."
The three other members of the band sit dolefully on the sagging sofa, and Wobble and Levene compare sympathetic notes on the injustices of being struck off the social security as a result of their joining forces with Lydon in this line-up. Jim Walker sits quietly on one side, resisting all attempts by the others to haggle him into going to the off-licence, with the ackers dutifully coughed up by The Visiting Journalist.
On the wall 'Anarchy' posters are relieved only by the occasional photograph of the Kray brothers. On the turntable it's reggae.
It is not what certain members of the rock press touchingly refer to as an 'interview situation' – that comes later once Lydon is conveniently absent. He's never liked committing himself to tape, least of all now he's faced with a minefield of legal complications.
The conversation roams around, centering mostly – and inevitably disparagingly – on the activities of former Sex Pistols and McLaren. Tales and incidents are related, some sinister, some downright laughable. John – he responds to a passing reference to 'Johnny Rotten' with a wry "he's not here" – seems particularly concerned lest the tapes that Paul Cook and Steve Jones apparently made with Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs in Rio de Janeiro are released under the Pistols name.
The former Pistol describes Biggs as "someone to avoid at all costs rather than seek out. People seem to have forgotten that that train driver is still a vegetable." (Actually, he's dead – Ed.) [1]
Lydon also has a small fund of stories to relate about his recent visit to Jamaica and the attempts by Boogie, a former Pistols roadie, to film him there – attempts which went so far as to involve the hapless cameraman hiding in the bushes by the Sheraton Hotel swimming pool.
Mention of the way some people closely involved with the Pistols have changed their 'anarchistic' attitude over recent months spurs me to trot out the old George Orwell adage about 'all power corrupting'. [2]
"Well, that ain't true," says Wobble. "Just look at John, it ain't corrupted him. He used to be far worse than he is now."
"It's true," agrees Lydon with a cackle. "I was far more corrupt when I started than now. These days I'm not corrupt at all..."
Jah Wobble – he acquired the Jamaican prefix as a result of his obsession with reggae – is better placed than most to pass judgement. He's known John Lydon some five years now, first encountering him when they were enrolling at Kingsway College of Further Education together.
"I thought he was a Led Zeppelin fan," he recalls. "I was queueing up behind him and we had a bit of a quarrel about who was going to put their names down first... After that he just started crawling around after me and I let him be my mate. He used to have to buy me drinks though, 'cos no-one liked him then. He used to wind everyone up, everyone. People who say he's a bastard now should have seen him then."
Wobble himself was still something of a skinhead at the time, fresh up from his native Whitechapel and the terraces of West Ham [5], which easily outstripped the current rock scene as a source of inspiration. His heroes at the time, he says, were the West Ham team. "Trevor Brooking definitely. Not just 'cos he's a good footballer, but the way he plays the game... you can relate that to life - style, elegance. Musically I've always been into black music, always. First soul, then reggae, which I followed through from my skinhead days. Bit of a cliché, but it's true."
It's worth mentioning at this point that Wobble has acquired himself a reputation in some quarters as something of a bruiser, and there are comparisons drawn between him and Sid Vicious, whom Lydon also met at the Kingsway College and who of course also went on to play bass alongside Lydon. Furthermore, it was Wobble who played back-up to Vicious in the seedy fracas at a Pistols gig at the 100 Club in summer '76 [3] when NME's Nick Kent, in the words of Malcolm McLaren, "got what was coming to him" and was 'done' by Vicious and his chain.
The Vicious/Wobble comparisons, though, don't really wash. Wobble is not the type to share Vicious' taste either for exotic pharmaceuticals, crazed American ladies of high parentage, or the cranky exhibitions of bloody self-destruction which Vicious has paraded before the world.
Wobble's interest in the rock scene began only with the Pistols' emergence in late '75. Since then he's entertained the notion of playing bass without ever taking up the instrument seriously until a month or so ago.
At the other extreme, Keith Levene started playing guitar at the age of seven and received classical training in both guitar and piano well into his teens [6].
He describes his major point of interest in rock before Pistols as Bowie. "I was a skinhead for four weeks... I was a hippie first, then a skin, 'cos I wanted to be different, but all the skinhead I knew were stupid and would just fight all the time, so I became a hippie again, a hippie in skinhead clothes."
A follower of the fledgling punk scene from its earliest inception, Levene belonged to The Clash in their earliest incarnation, surviving only a matter of weeks before his departure/expulsion for reasons which he says should be "obvious... I wasn't into politics."
A flirtation with drugs was apparently another reason why Levene didn't stay the course with the City Rockers, certainly 'Deny' on The Clash's first album is widely reputed to refer to him at this time, a period when he also met Wobble and Lydon for the first time.




rest on here: http://www.fodderstompf.com/ARCHIVES...WS/nme578.html

Aesop Rock Interview



Do you think you're old? Do you feel old? Are you scared of growing old?



Jeez way to jump right in there. Ha. I guess I do feel old. I'm 30. I have a handful of friends my age and older, but most people doing the music I do, or attending the shows I do are younger. The concert-going fans will always be a younger bunch, as I was really all about seeing shows during my late teens and early 20's. The only part that scares me about growing old is that I am constantly haunted by wondering what I'm gonna do next, in all of this, in music, in art, all of it. Sometimes the worry of that outweighs the enjoyment of what I do. Will I find something to keep me interested musically or otherwise? Will whatever I find pay the bills and support whatever family I may have at that time? I'm finally at the point where I can actually look back a little and say "oh shit, this is what I did with my youth". That can make you feel locked in, which is a scary thing. I also am starting to have the desires to involve myself in things that help out younger generations, which to me is an "old" way to think. I am starting to feel like it is my duty to show kids that they don't have to be a banker or sit in a cubicle, or if they DO have to or want to do that, there are other things in life that can bring you satisfaction and a sense of personal accomplishment that don't necessarily come with a 9-5. I know living off music or art has been a blessing, and if it stops ever I am still happy I got a chance to do it. I'd love to introduce kids to that world.

On the MTV site they said something about you "building on the rapping style eccentrics of Kool Keith and Del". How do you feel about that, and did you see Kool Keith last week at mezzanine and what did you think of the show?


I take that as a huge compliment. Those are 2 dudes that I am honored to share a place in a sentence with, as I definitely felt like both of them were role models to me in many ways. They really continue to show people that it is ok to let your personality show thru in your music, which really is the most important thing. It seems really odd, and sad that something like 'letting your personality show thru' is something that people need to be reminded of, but I guess it's maybe a sign of the times. I dunno. I did not see the Kool Keith show in sf.

List some places here in SF where you can be found? (places you enjoy going- eating at- parks to sit- record stores- spending time at- bars to drink at- movie theaters- anything if anything.
It depends on who's looking for me. To be honest I don't go to that many bars or parties. I don't drink, so that kinda stuff isn't really all that appealing. I'm really just trying to get used to the city still. I lived in NY forever, aside from college, so it's a bit of a change of pace. I haven't been here all that long. Most days my wife goes to work and I work at the crib. I make my rounds to all the record spots every couple weeks. I like walking anywhere cuz most of it is still relatively unfamiliar to me. I am a major movie nerd but I hate theatres. I'm trying to re-train myself to enjoy theatres. That being said, I saw nacho libre the other day and was really really let down. I like jack black, but they forgot to write jokes into the movie. I can also be found prying Jeremy fish out of his house to go eat at any of SF's fine diners. Grub Steak is up there.

I know Fat Nick from skating in Ohio. Do you know him and have you been to his Scribble Jam? If so, you ever compete in it?


I've actually never been to scribble jam. I may know nick if I saw him but the name doesn't ring a bell.

Did you say that smoking cigarettes will make your voice sound dope? That stuff causes cancer. Worry about that stuff? You smoke four packs a day?! My dad used to smoke three. I thought that was tough.
Jesus talk about something being blown out of proportion. I said the voice/cigarettes thing as a joke in an interview many many years ago and it has haunted me ever since. I did at one time in my life for several months smoke 3-4 packs a day. It was a bad time. A 'low point' if you will. The rest of my smoking 'career' averaged around a pack a day. Smoking doesn't do anything to your voice but fuck it up. I have long said in my life that I would quit smoking when I either had a baby or turned 30, whichever came first. that being said, I do not have a baby, but I did turn 30. I have not had a cigarette for 23 days. I have officially quit. Cold turkey. No going back.

Tell me how this collaboration with Jeremy Fish came about. How did you two meet and what in the hell do you think about that big geezer?


Man that guy is my hero. We have a friend in common who hit me up a while back saying that this guy Jeremy fish had an opportunity to pitch a cartoon to Disney and wanted me to be involved in the music side. I flipped out cuz I was also a fan of his, and owned some of his work. I was also dying for any kind of side project that I could get involved in, as occasionally making solo records gets really boring and repetitive, no matter how you approach it. As soon as I moved out to SF we got up, and that was that. We were getting the runaround on the cartoon, but decided we would collaborate regardless, as we had a ton in common and really just hit it off well. I grew up skateboarding, though it had been maybe 7 years since I have done it regularly, but Jeremy is pretty involved, and I got to nerd out on old skateboarding stuff. We just got along well, and his work ethic is inspiring to say the least. When I first moved to sf and re-set up my studio I was working a lot but having a real hard time getting into a zone. New surroundings, foreign city, all that. Jeremy really took the time to show me around a bit and helped me to get back in the zone. That guy is a gentleman and a scholar.

Would you consider yourself a nerd?

music nerd, movie nerd, video game nerd, part-time skateboard nerd, part time art nerd, and I like to read science journals.

Describe yourself when you were twelve.

Skateboarding. Dead Kennedy's and Public Enemy t-shirts. Pretty much listening to any music my older brother gave me. Trying to make art. Learning to play bass. Rapping over my brother's Casio concoctions. Building a launch ramp. Making out with a fat chick who wore Skid Row t-shirts. That was all around that time give or take.

You perform live a lot. Tell us about your worst live show.

There have been a few doozies. We had one this past year. I went to Santos Brazil for 2 shows with my friends Rob Sonic and dj Big Wiz. We played in this concrete soccer stadium thing by the beach. It was kind of open on the sides and covered up on top. It was over 100 degrees outside, and hotter in the spot. When we got up, somebody had piled all these towels onto wiz's computer, causing the whole thing to over heat. it was so hot that his equipment simply would not turn on. we were all so hot and that was causing us to be aggravated and irritable with each other. We finally go things running and in our flustered state started doing the wrong set (form an older set list), as in playing songs that weren't rehearsed. About 4 songs in the whole system again shut down. if that happens in the u.s. you can cover it up with something accapella, or freestyle, or make the crowd clap or something. but when you are somewhere with a language barrier, a lot of the impromptu shit is out the window. we tried our best and fudged our way thru it with the equipment going in and out the whole set. I've never seen wiz so mad. in hind site it was funny, but Christ we were not happy. luckily we played the following day too, and the weather had cooled. we did a lot better. I've had everything from blackouts during the performance to stabbings at the show.

When you first started taking off was it hard to stay away from the hot groupies?
yes.

How has living in SF changed your music if at all... and how did you end up here?


My music tends to change over time regardless, so it's hard to tell what effect sf has had on it directly without taking into account the changes the sound has already gone thru. I'm being really critical on what I do these days, it seems more so than ever before. I'm also trying to just write about shit I have never written about. I have a few more stories than I ever had. I've been really into songs that tell a story lately, or songs that just describe a setting and set up an event but don't actually detail the event, if that makes sense. saying this was the time, the city looked like this, it was night, it was summer, the air smelled like this, etc. I love that stuff.

I came to SF cuz I recently got married, and it was easier for me to relocate than my wife. she had a job and a band (parchman farm) in sf, where as I always worked by myself from home.

So you used to skate in the '90s. What was the largest pair of pants you rocked? I got to 56, and that was conservative.

Hum I don't honestly remember the actual size. I definitely had some bad ones though. But for every large pair of jeans I had, there was always a raver somewhere that made me feel like mine were a small/acceptable size.


rest on here
http://uhh4d.blogspot.com/2006/08/ae...interview.html




from fecalface.com

RFC Interview: Plastic Crimewave


As posted here yesterday, this Saturday WHPK and the U of C Film Center will be presenting Pictures and Sounds 2005. One of the musicians providing auditory accompaniment to the event will be Steve Krakow, aka Plastic Crimewave. He'll be performing solo guitar drenched with interstellar effects to the first Sci Fi film ever made, Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune, 1902). RFC recently caught up with Mr. Crimewave to learn more about his work and this upcoming performance... RFC: When hearing “Pictures and Sounds,” the first thing that comes to mind for me is a psychedelic aural and visual spectacle ala The Pink Floyd in 1967. However, the big differences here (besides the lack of LSD) are that: 1.Rather than random lights and slides, the music will be accompanied by complete video compositions and 2.The music will be improvised around the film rather than vice versa… Most people site The Floyd as being one of the innovators in bringing lights to live music, but who started the trend of improvising music around movies and film shorts?
Plastic Crimewave: Well, shit-this feels like a quiz, but it would be impossible to gauge. Me thinks-since folks were twiddling along on piano without set scores to the very earliest films!
RFC: This concept seems to be gaining popularity recently…(in the last few years, a couple of lounge/downtempo bands have released entire albums based on their improvising to old movies and locally, Califone did residency at Rodan last fall where they improvised to old films) …Is this your first gig like this? Or is it something that you’ve been experimenting with for a while?
PC: My full band, Plastic Crimewave Sound did Pictures and Sounds a few years back to Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising. I've always been into the idea though, being a silent film buff, and seeing a great Knitting Factory show in maybe 1995, where avant garde types scored such films.
RFC: So how do you prepare for a performance like this? I would assume you’re not going into it completely blind, and would have to have some ideas or themes planned?
PC: Oh, i've practiced a little, keeping mental notes, like "spaceship taking off part" or "underwater sounds" or "crowd chaos part"...funny enough when PCWS scored Lucifer Rising, I was the only one who'd ever seen the film, and folks still asked how we managed to score it so tightly-ie-they thought we'd practiced it a lot and had distinct movements planned, when we never had!
RFC: How or why did you choose Méliès' A Trip to the Moon for this performance?
PC: It was actually chosen for me, but a fine choice indeed, that I OK'ed.....
RFC: Anything else we should know about this performance?
PC: I'll be utilizing treated guitar and electronics...and promise aural lift-off! also very excited that my ol pal Fur Saxa will be playing, she rules!
RFC: Besides your performance at Pictures and Sounds, what else is on tap for Plastic Crimewave (and your band Plastic Crimewave Sound)? Future gigs? Album releases? International super-stardom?
PC: This is going to be a sort of big year for me/us...Let's see-
For PCWSound: a new double LP/CD due on Eclipse for summer; a split 12" w/Oneida on JagJaguwar; a track (and I did the artwork) on a UK 10" that is a tribute to "free-festivalers" Pink Fairies, Hawkwind, and the Edgar Broughton Band; a collaborative Lp w/Michael Yonkers; a west coast tour in May with the Ponys (also playing their record release show april 29 at the Double Door); also hoping to get to Europe/UK in the fall.

On the personal front, I've been drawing a bunch of posters, ads and album covers, will have a new comic strip in the Reader, been writing for Stop Smiling and Arthur mags, and I will have a new double-sized Galactic Zoo Dossier magazine available in Summer on Drag City, also will have Million tongues festival #2 in fall at Empty bottle. whew.