New Noise Magazine - Issue #16

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BRAND NEW ALBUM OUT MARCH 24th! full North American tour April-May 2015 fatwreck.com @ NEWNOISEMAGS

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AINT IT FUN with CHEETAH CHROM E All right gang, I hope everyone had a happy holiday season and is enjoying the first few months of 2015.

They have been strange ones for me due to some recent events in my personal life, and I have been lax about ranting on the Internet, so I’m looking forward to getting back into it, as well as sharing my thoughts with you all in this column.

A lot happened in the last few months of the year, and a lot of it is pretty scary. The GOP took control of Congress due to an apparent lack of interest among Democrats. So now, we will have to look at Mitch McConnell and John Boehner on our televisions more, while they pretend to give a shit about the country and the people in it.

This is pretty graphic, scary shit, especially since McConnell bears such a striking resemblance to “Billy,” the scary dummy in the “Saw” flicks, and Boehner just looks like Droopy Dog with the worst fake tan your tax dollars can pay for.

Only slightly less scary than this is the rise of ISIS in the Middle East, the other shoe from the Bush reign finally dropping

and shaking things up in the region. Now, these guys are really creepy; if you’ve seen any of the videos they send out, you won’t forget it right away. They have a thing for beheading people and making their enemies dig their own graves—pretty chilling stuff—but they’re over there doing damage to their own people, while McConnell and Boehner are doing their damage here, to my country and yours. And apparently no one gives a shit, as this election—one of the most important in our history, real good vs. evil stuff—had the lowest voter turnout in 72 years.

A lot of the right wing pundits and boneheads on Facebook are criticizing our President for thinking before acting when there is some good ass-kicking to be had, not taking into consideration—as usual—that it was that sort of thinking that led to the formation and rise of ISIS to begin with.

When we pulled out of Iraq, we left behind a trained and equipped Iraqi army. Unfortunately, the Iraqi troops we have trained and supplied with arms seem to have no stomach for war. When ISIS formed and began attacking them, they ran, leaving the equipment behind. I find it hard to justify sending more American troops to die in their place; if they won’t step up and defend

albums of their own.

Early 2015 finds T-Roy in the middle of recording Sourvein’s next fulllength, which will be released on Metal Blade. After their impressive legacy on big doom labels like Candlelight and Southern Lord, being on Metal Blade is empowering and liberating. “It’s sick. I am honored,” says T-Roy.

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epping Cape Fear, NC, is just what Sourvein does.

Heavy, smoky, dirty riffs have propelled Sourvein since 1993. Founding member T-Roy heads this doom metal ship to this day, having weathered several member rotations—sharing players with Dystopia, Electric Wizard, Buzzov•en, Saint Vitus—and the sad death of bass player, Boone Doom.

Sourvein has released many split 7”s with Buzzov•en, Church Of Misery, Coffins, and Bongzilla, as well as six

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their own country, why should we? You can say all you want about what a horrible guy Saddam was, but he sure as hell kept order within his borders and these fanatics off of the front page. It was our illegal invasion of Iraq that set the stage for ISIS, and took away their fear of Saddam enough to organize and begin taking over the country. The new Iraqi government hadn’t enough power to keep things under control. President Obama, after taking a look at the extremely volatile situation, ordered airstrikes on ISIS targets and over 1,000 sorties have been carried out since he gave the order.

Of course, this threw the conservative boneheads among us into a tizzy, complaining about every move he made and pulling out the “bag ‘o’ rhetoric,” throwing the usual catch words like “ boots on the ground” and “Gitmo” around while they sit comfortably, eating pizza and watching Fox News like the brave chairborne commandos they are. Of course, when a Jordanian pilot was burned alive and the king of Jordan responded by ordering—drum roll— air strikes!, he is lauded by the boneheads as a great, bold leader, even though a week after the airstrikes began, ISIS was capturing the city of Al Baghdadi in Anbar province. The irony was lost in the fog of watching war on TV for my bonehead friends…

And I’m starting to not give a shit myself about the situation our country finds itself in, to be honest. It has become boring and tedious. I have the same arguments with the same closed-minded people daily, mostly saying the same tired crap. My

friend and I compare it to playing WhackA-Mole, which is a pretty good comparison, as is shoveling shit against the tide at Coney Island. Both are good analogies and sum up the futility of the situation we are in.

But I sure as hell am not going to just step aside out of frustration and not use my right to vote, and let assholes like McConnell and Boehner win elections because I didn’t do my part to stop them. As I’ve said in the past, only overwhelming numbers will do. We all have to do our part and let our voices be heard, loud enough that they don’t dare ignore us or brush off the will of the people in favor of the few. When only 30 percent of the people exercise their right to vote in a political environment like we have now—roughly 53 percent liberal vs. 47 percent conservative—there are a lot of ways to spin the reason why one side loses or wins, as the margin is so small. If we could get 70 to 80 percent of registered voters to actually get to the polls and do it, we would have a much better representation of what the actual majority of the people want.

Of course, then there’s getting the lazy bastards on both sides of the aisle to actually listen and take action to give the people what they voted for… But that’s for a different column.

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STUDIO CHECK IN WITH

Sourvein I N T E R V I E W

W I T H

T - R O Y

M E D L I N

B Y

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NC sludge riff legend Mike Dean of Corrosion Of Conformity is engineering, having procured a “huge analog tape machine.” The two had been talking since 2011, and T-Roy qualifies Dean as “hands down” the right man for the job. “He is a musical hero of mine,” T-Roy continues.

“This is an honor and a pleasure. We became pals. I was a big fan. And sometimes your heroes like you, too.”

Sourvein have not released a fulllength since 2011, but last year saw an impressive split 12” with Graves At Sea. T-Roy used the split as a chance for “experimentation. It was a good time to try something new, to branch out and show a more rock side. We got to show a different side of our heavy.” The new album on the other

hand “is something that’s been on the backburner,” he says. “The songs needed a full-length. We spread our wings on the split. This record is us being us.”

This year, Sourvein will play Psycho Fest in California with Sleep, Om, NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

Earth, and Eyehategod, then Void Fest, and a small tour of Europe.

Their priority is getting this record out, T-Roy projects by fall of 2015, around Halloween. He speaks with confidence: “People will dig it.”

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P R I S C I L L A

F O R D

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST ZAC DAMON BY JANELLE JONES

I got this email from Basement Records head Chuck Dietrich with the subject “Priscilla Ford” and didn’t know who that was…

People around here don’t know who she is. We’ve had quite a few people be like, “That’s a stupid name.” And we’re like, “Look her up,” and they’re like, “Oh… I get it now.”

On The Blackout Club—Priscilla Ford’s first official release—the Reno based foursome expertly fuse together punk, sleazy rock ‘n’ roll, and hardcore. Guitarist—and member of Screeching Weasel—Zac Damon discusses the album and the band, which was deemed “fuckin’ great” by Jello Biafra when he first witnessed them live.

I thought it was some singersongwriter…

[Laughs] It’s an interesting story. [She killed six people with her car in Reno in 1980.] We get some negative responses from time to time. We’re not glorifying her.

We don’t think what she did was good, but it’s a piece of local history, albeit a negative piece of history. We just felt it fit the tone of our band, and it was a piece of Reno history and we’re a Reno band. […] Generally it’s people who don’t get punk rock or aren’t a part of that scene [who say], “Why would

“I am really excited. This record is a long time coming. This is my strongest work yet.”

While most people were fawning over Pearl Jam and Nirvana in the ‘90s, Tad Doyle was cranking out monster riffs in Tad. Now, Doyle fronts Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth, with his wife Peggy on bass. After a “slew of drummers—they didn’t work or couldn’t hack it—we got David French,” he says.

BOTSC has been a recording-only project of Doyle’s since 2006. From casual posts on MySpace and a split 10”, BOTSC has evolved into a formidable force.

Doyle utilized the mixing skills of stoner/ doom icon Billy Anderson, who has recorded respected riffs for decades. The album was recorded at Doyle’s Witch Ape Studio in Seattle. He elaborates, “I like the leeway to tweak. These songs change over time.

Demos help us examine what I want to cut and alter.” Working at his own studio and employing a warrior like Anderson helps.

Doyle attributes the slow pace to his long process of writing. “I take time with my songs to make them move in a certain way.

It is transition. I am also picky about who plays it. It’s not like we are a jam band.” That said, with three years behind them as a trio, “album number two is coming along quicker. We will probably record in the fall.”

“This is the first time I have worked with [Anderson],” Doyle says. “He is smart, witty, funny, talented.” Doyle explains that Anderson’s history of mixing bands was encouraging. “He asked what we wanted to sound like. You can hear his stamp, but he gave us room. I have worked with people who won’t give. He is flexible and talented.”

you name your band after this person?”

You try to explain it and they don’t get it.

I guess you can just be offended and we’ll leave it at that!

How’d this all start?

My last band was called Miracle Drugs and was more of a power pop, punky band, […] but I was just bored of that for my own purposes, from a songwriting standpoint.

I’ve always appreciated classic punk rock, hardcore, metal as well. I thought I’d try something different.

My friend [bassist] Billy [Romeo]—who’d moved to Reno from L.A.—we’d talked about playing music together, so it was me, him, and we brought [vocalist] Todd [Imus] into the mix. He’d always played guitar in bands and wanted to just be a singer. He too had always played in poppier bands, so this was a different approach for all of us, [to] kinda take us out of our comfort zone. Initially, it was intended to

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST TAD DOYLE BY HUTCH

BOTSC being on Neurot Recordings makes sense. Tad (the band) and Neurosis played together back in the ‘90s. Doyle continues, “They stayed in touch and we had [producer] Steve Albini in common. They asked us to play their December 2012 show with Converge. [Vocalist and guitarist] Steve Von Till loved our demo. He has integrity and truth; an authenticity which is uncommon.”

Despite all of the big names involved, Doyle assures that the music stands on its own. “‘Empires of Dust’ is about the last moments of life and what would go through somebody’s mind. […] [It] is my ode to being unprepared to die. I may perseverate on death. However, I am not done. I want

A N N I S O K A Y

2007, and that intrapersonal familiarity shines through in their music. Annisokay produces phenomenally tight, catchy metalcore that is definitely a cut above the rest. So, how do they tie in with M.J.?

Wieczorek states, “It’s kind of a positive answer to the chorus ‘Annie, are you OK?’” The lyrics was written about Resusci Annie, the CPR mannequin used to train millions around the world, and Annisokay’s latest record, Enigmatic Smile, references Annie and her enigmatic smile.

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[You end the record with] “Complaint,” which features animal noises…

Our old bass player has four goats in his backyard. […] He feeds them beer and gets them drunk, which is not harmful to them. But he’ll pour a bunch of beer for them. We were all drinking, and I think we were recording the demo. He brought out a field recorder and set it on the edge of a table just out of their reach because they were in their pen, and you can hear him go “Fuck!” in the background because we were walking into the house and he tripped up the stairs. We just thought it would be funny to put it on the record. We were gonna give it its own track, but we thought it might be cool to put it in the breakdown of “Complaint.”

BROTHERS OF THE SONIC CLOTH

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST CHRISTOPH WIECZOREK BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

Hailing from Halle, Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, Annisokay—whose name is inspired by Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”—has been together since

be just extremely stripped-down, really simple, and it is in many ways, but I think we got a little technical in the process just by accident as well.

Wieczorek describes their sound well, explaining, “We simply try to merge ground-shaking riffs and screams with melodies and clean singing that hit you

directly in your heart.” While the band’s debut, The Lucid Dream[er], was a success, Enigmatic Smile sees Annisokay taking that much-needed step forward. The melodies are more frequent and frequently fantastic.

The songs are heavy and well written, using breakdowns as an asset rather than a crutch.

What’s most interesting is how unified the album sounds, given that it was recorded at two different times with two different producers. The band had already recorded an EP with prolific producer Joey Sturgis in 2013, but they felt like it was incomplete.

“We thought, to make it perfect, this has to be turned into a full-length record, so

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to continue to live and make music and be happy.”

we worked pretty hard on the other six songs to make them even more intense,” Wieczorek says. Annisokay was able to record the second half of the album with Will Putney from The Machine Shop in New Jersey. Wieczorek feels very fortunate: “In the end, it was a great experience, and lucky for us to work with actually both of our favorite producers on one record!”

The band has a very busy 2015 planned.

“At the moment, we are supporting the mighty Callejon in Germany, together with the talented Vitja,” Wieczorek outlines.

“In April, we are touring with Emil Bulls, which is a dream come true.” For those looking to see the band stateside, they are eager to cross the pond. “There is still way more to come, and our big goal is to tour the U.S. as soon as possible.”

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Swedish black metal band Shining’s IX – Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends— out April 20 via Season Of Mist—is a harrowing, yet rewarding listen. Vocalist and songwriter Niklas Kvarforth—aka Ghoul—is known for his aggressive personality, but one listen to Shining’s latest reveals that he’s also a phenomenally skilled musician.

“Even before I began working on [2012’s] Redefining Darkness, I felt there was a need for a change and therefore, I decided— amongst other things—to stop numbering my albums, which now in retrospect wasn’t such a good idea,” explains Kvarforth of their return to form. “You know, there are certain things you don’t tamper with, and thus, I began restoring things by releasing the 8 ½ “album,” [8 ½ – Feberdrömmar i vaket tillstånd, 2013].”

While he reinstated his numbering system on IX, its all-Swedish lyrics set it apart. “Ever since I started this band, I have written in

SHINING

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST NIKLAS KVARFORTH BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

both languages,” Kvarforth explains. “This time around, everything just happened to come out in my mother tongue. However, I released a book of translations for all the Swedish lyrics a while back, because I got really fed up with all these Googletranslated ones feeding people a warped idea of what they really are about.”

Most importantly, IX elevates Shining’s signature darkness. “There is always, of course, an attempt to make things more sinister and darker with each step we take with Shining,” says Kvarforth. “There is a more prominent presence of hatred and disgust hidden therein, which is something that, for some reason, hasn’t been that obvious on the last two, three records. This is probably because of the pitch-black period of hopelessness and despair that preceded the album. I guess the backfiring did contribute to the more ‘we will fucking annihilate you’

T H E

atmosphere, on some of the songs at least.”

Of the album’s art, Kvarforth exclaims, “[Daniele] Serra did an exceptional job, indeed! I believe that using a painting on the cover is the biggest change we have ever gone through, as we have mostly used photography or iconography on all previous records. Ever since I was first exposed to his work, I knew we had to collaborate in one way or the other.” But Serra did not work alone. “We also had two other artists working on the booklet,” Kvarforth continues, “Kim Holm who drew portraits of each member, and Mario Vega Ocampo who contributed with calligraphy for all the titles.”

The end result is a beautiful product. “The idea was pretty clear from the get go, but the execution was a whole other story. Let me just say that in order to get all things done

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E L E C T R I C

I N T E R V I E W W I T H G U I TA R I S T B R E N T B E R G H O L M B Y E R I C M AY

clusively through Little Dickman Records.

Hailing from New Jersey, the ‘70s influenced rockers The Battery Electric are here to party! The Heart and the Thrill is their brand new sophomore effort, released exThe Holy Gasp recorded The Last Generation of Love sporadically over the course of 2014. It was released via Arachnidiscs on limited edition cassette. Josh Korody, of Candle Recording Studios, helmed the album’s production.

Frontman Benjamin Hackman doubles his duties, both writing the tunes and managing the band. Hackman attributes the band’s dynamic sound to the city of Toronto, Ontario, which is “known to be a culturally and ethnically diverse city,” he says. “We attract all sorts here, and there are incredible bands, especially right now. The diversity of our city creates opportunities for us to draw upon numerous genres, cultures, and aesthetic reference points.”

The Holy Gasp initially functioned as Hackman’s solo project. “It was just me behind a pair of congas, ranting about ‘The Man,’” he

The band formed in 2012. Guitarist Brent Bergholm “met [bassist] Alex [Rosen] when we both worked at Quiznos and we both dug Black Flag, so we became instant friends. I ended up teaching him guitar for a bit, so I’d like to think I had a hand in helping him become the badass that he is today. I met [vocalist and drummer] Ronnie [Santee] through the music scene. We played a bunch of shows with our bands at the time. He used to date a girl from my college, so I would sometimes hang with him at parties, which sounds normal, but Ronnie was still in high school. He was, like, 16 or 17 hanging with a bunch of 20

“We all met up with nothing planned and just wrote everything on the spot,” Bergholm continues. “We all liked punk, garage rock, and soul, so we just started writing tunes in that vein. Our first band practice was two hours, and we wrote most of the songs that went on our first album Weaving Spiders. We haven’t changed the formula since.”

The Battery Electric captures the spirit of classic rock ‘n’ roll. Bergholm attributes this to the band’s reverence for the genre.

“It’s raw, it’s dirty, and it’s from the heart.

Bergholm hopes that there is still a place for this kind of music in today’s society. “I think America needs to let its balls drop and get some hair on its chest. People need to get loose and have a good time. That’s why The Battery Electric is here. We came to party, so you guys better get off your ass.”

T H E H O LY G A S P

says, embracing the “beatnik revival” image.

After experimenting with other musicians on percussion for recording, Hackman chose a permanent addition in Daveyoso. “We became a duo,” he explains. “I just got bored with the minimalist approach to songwriting and slowly started adding people. By November 2013, I had gathered all the members I needed to make The Holy Gasp what it is today.”

The current lineup also includes guitarist Sebastian Shinwell, alto saxophonist and flutist Christopher Weatherstone, and upright bassist James McEleney, all of whom contribute vocals.

The Holy Gasp have begun writing their

new album, but are prioritizing performing.

“I always like to share the stage with weirdos, freaks, and party animals,” Hackman explains. He surrounds himself with “folks who don’t fit snuggly into a genre and make me renegotiate the things in my life which I hold true.”

The Holy Gasp will be on tour this March in Ontario and Quebec. They will play “a few dates with Os Tropies, a wonderful Tropicalia-revival outfit influenced by the revolutionary Brazilian psychedelic ‘60s. I love their stuff,” says Hackman.

They will also play with Friendly Rich & The Lollipop People. Hackman calls them “utterly enthralling. Rich is a mad man.

Watching them play is like going to the

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/ VOCALIST EMMA RUTH RUNDLE BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

members’ different influences. “It’s the first band I’ve been in that I really don’t think sounds like anything else,” says frontperson Emma Ruth Rundle.

In love, they say that opposites attract, and for Marriages, the saying rings true in so many ways. The L.A. based band’s sound is extremely difficult to classify because of its

That’s why we called the album The Heart and the Thrill,” he explains. “It’s about the heart and the thrill that goes into making music and the process of sacrificing everything to make a dream happen. We want to do this shit for real and we love what we do. Nothing is better than writing and performing rock music with your buds. In the end, it can’t be forced; it has to be genuine.”

INTERVIEW WITH FRONTMAN BENJAMIN HACKMAN BY HUTCH

M A R R I A G E S

PHOTO: NICK FANCHER

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year olds. He had a big beard and dreadlocks, so he fit right in.”

in time and then have it delivered to Trine + Kim [design studio] for the actual layout work almost gave me a heart attack, but in the end, it was definitely worth it, as the album looks fucking amazing.”

Marriages features two members from post-rock group Red Sparowes, but the only similarity is their ability to create pretty, haunting atmospheres. Salome— due out April 7 via Sargent House—is heavy, but Marriages aren’t a metal band.

It’s melodic and hazy, but they’re so much more complex than any indie or shoegaze band. Plus, there is a big heap of ‘80s and ‘90s British influence sprinkled in for good measure. Salome is the album that metalheads, stoners, and hipsters can agree is

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all-caps AWESOME. It’s a testament to the band that they pulled it all off.

Creating a record with such a precise, unique sound can be a long and time-consuming process. “The three of us took our time writing and did it over the last few years,” Rundle explains. “Adding drummer Andrew Clinco as a permanent member helped transform our sound. The new material on Salome is more traditionally structured, with verses, choruses, bridges, and a focus on vocals, whereas Kitsune was more of one long, flowing piece of music.”

Taking their time certainly paid off.

Marriages’ Kitsune referenced mythical

PHOTO: ALEX KISILEVICH

theater, with all the right dramatic arcs and character conflicts.”

Japanese foxes that were believed to be wise and have magical powers that could be used for good or evil. Now, Salome hones in on the Biblical tale of Salome, who was the infamous daughter of Herod who danced and tricked her father into beheading John the Baptist. Salome has been viewed as a femme fatale, yet her name is derived from the Hebrew word for “peace.”

Rundle does not shy away from the connection, but she cautions, “Its meaning is more personal and intricate to me.”

Marriages will have a busy year in 2015.

“We plan to be doing as much as possible to support the new record,” Rundle says.

“We’ll be traveling to Europe in April, and will hopefully come back to the States to do a full U.S. tour.”

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Cleveland, Ohio’s Runaway Brother formed in 2010. “When I was in high school, my band played several shows with the band that [vocalist and guitarist] Jacob [Lee] and [bassist] Ian [Lee] played in at the time,” explains guitarist and keyboardist Charlie Gunn. “Jacob and I became friends and started writing and recording in his basement. Runaway Brother didn’t start playing shows until about a year after that.

For a long time, it was just Jacob and I, so at that point, Runaway Brother really just consisted of sitting around and recording music before we even thought about playing out. I’m pretty sure that we put out two EPs before we ever played a show.” The band eventually evolved organically into a four piece.

Runaway Brother have taken more than three years to work on their full-length debut, Mother, out March 31 on Tiny Engines and boasting influences from Motion City Soundtrack to The Get Up Kids. “In a lot of ways, we’ve been working

R U N A W AY B R O T H E R

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/KEYBOARDIST CHARLIE GUNN BY JOHN B . MOORE

on it for a lot longer than that,” says Gunn.

“The first song that Runaway Brother wrote is on this record, and we had planned to make a full-length called Mother from very early on. However, it didn’t feel right to record a full-length and just release it digitally at that point. Jacob wasn’t nearly as impressive an audio engineer as he is now, and we didn’t have the money to put it out physically. So basically, we just kept writing, recording, and playing shows, putting some songs on EPs that we released digitally, and setting some songs aside for Mother.”

“Eventually, we felt comfortable enough to finally record final versions of these songs that had already been demoed several times each,” he continues. “We were lucky enough to have Tiny Engines ready to put it out when we finished. It basically just took a long time because we wanted it to be

good, and we had to wait quite a while to be able to put something good out.”

The band has found a home on the label because they have “been friends with other Tiny Engines bands like The Hotelier and Signals Midwest for several years. I’m still not sure exactly what happened,” Gunn admits, “but I think that some of the guys from both of those bands got to talking to the label about us at some point, and we began talking with Tiny Engines about working together.”

Runaway Brother have toured throughout February, despite still working their day jobs, and they won’t be stopping anytime soon. “We have tour dates with Dads, Heart Attack Man, and Tiny Moving Parts announced, and we’ve been working on touring plans for the rest of spring and into the summer,” confirms Gunn. “We’ll

G R I E V E R

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST ALEX JACOBELLI BY THOMAS PIZZOLA

The phrase “when one door closes, another one opens,” could be used to describe the genesis of Griever.

Theories—Seattle, Wash.’s finest deathgrind assault team—have spent the better part of the last five years ripping up stages across the country. The band, who mix grindcore intensity with death metal precision, finally settled down long enough to whip up their debut full-length, Regression, due March 24 on Metal Blade Records.

“Theories started the way most bands do, I guess,” drummer Joe Axler explains, “out of boredom and wanting to play music.

The difference was: we had the plan of writing and touring, that’s it. Not wasting time with recording, planning studio time, planning releases, and all that. We are road dogs, and basically wanted to write until we were happy with a set and hit the road. I guess [that] is why we’re about to put out our first record and already have a dozen tours under our belts.”

After years of writing, touring, and fine-tuning their material, the guys in The-

Guitarist and vocalist Alex Jacobelli and drummer Corey Groenenberg were both part of former Deathwish Inc. punkers Lewd Acts. “When Lewd Acts started slowing down, we wanted to continue jamming and writing new material,” Jacobelli explains. “I feel like we had a very natural progression into a heavier, more sludgy sound, so we really wanted to explore that, and we wrote a few songs that ended up being our first EP. Playing music and starting bands is just in our blood. […] We love playing heavy music, drinking with our friends, and singing about how desperate and depressing our time here on Earth is.”

When asked about their goals, Jacobelli

admits, “We haven’t had many discussions about what we really want to achieve as a band. I think I can speak for every member of Griever when I say that what we all want to achieve the most is to have fun, drink lots of booze, bang our fucking heads, and worship Black Sabbath.”

Their first salvo was the Inferior EP, released on Vitriol Records in 2011. Now, four years later, the band—which also features guitarist Orlando Ramirez and bassist Wes Sisk—drops its full-length debut Our Love Is Different, also on Vitriol.

In between these two releases was a three way split with VYGR and At Our Heels on Creator Destructor.

THEORIES

ories have crafted a face-ripper of a debut.

Their single “Cycle of Decay” has generated solid buzz and lots of “like” button jabs on YouTube. There’s a ton of rapid-fire tunes on Regression—fans of blast and d-beats will not be disappointed—but there is also a serious groove element on display, as well. The final portions of “Abortive Crescent” and “First World’s Last Breath” are prefect examples of “holy crap the sky is falling” heaviness, coupled with uber-hypnotic double bass drums.

Axler credits the album’s varied track list to the band’s collaborative, free form approach to writing. “We write together, pretty much,” he says. “Every instrument writes their own parts, but we all give ideas on how we would like things to go. We actually all had bands in mind that we wanted to ‘sound like’ and expand off of as first ideas

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so there!” They have been hard at work on their new full-length album Thanks For Nothing and are “about ready to start playing out again. We’ve also been eating pizza, because that’s a game everyone can win.”

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On the new album, they further refine the sound of their EP. “You’ll definitely hear a lot of growth musically and lyrically in Our Love Is Different,” says Jacobelli. “While we are still very proud of the Inferior EP and love to play those songs, we are very excited about how we are refining our sound. We have always had a sludgy and melodic tone, but you’ll hear a lot more vocal melodies and musical variety on this new record. If anything, I feel like we have just developed a more ‘mature’ sound since the Inferior EP. If we ever get to the point where we are all satisfied with where we are at musically, my best guess is that we would just break up and move on to something else. Growing musically and challenging our creativity is a huge part of who we are, not only as a band, but each of us individually as well.”

INTERVIEW WITH DRUMMER JOE AXLER BY JAMES ALVAREZ

getting started, but we ended up sounding nothing like the styles of any of those bands.

We don’t really have a template for songwriting, we just kind of go wherever we go.”

If you like your death-grind loud and crazy, with a dash of crust punk fervor thrown in for kicks, you’ll definitely want to give Theories’ new record a spin. It’s got the Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed) seal of approval, as well. The grindfather himself mixed and mastered Regression, much to the delight of Mr. Axler and the Theories gang.

“We played one of our first shows with [Hull] as Theories, and I knew him from previous bands I used to do,” Axler reveals.

“We all talked about it and decided that if he was down to mix and master our record, then we wanted to go with him, because we

A

F R I D A Y

As the mixes progress, Dead On A Friday have been practicing frequently. Reflecting, Fox gets excited. “We recorded our new album with our amazing and hunky engineer David Andronico in the scenic Bronx, NY, at Little Door Studios. To have a musician like [Andronico] in our corner made for a great recording experience. It’s the second time I’ve recorded with Dave, and both times, the experiences have been

awesome.”

According to Fox, the band will be touring twice this year, aiming sights on both the East and West Coast. “We have a bevy of shows planned for the spring [and] early summer on the East Coast. Our main goal is to support Thanks For Nothing any way we can to get our music heard. We want to get people of all ages excited about punk rock again. Hopefully, we will be playing some larger venues and open for some of the bands we grew up listening to.”

The punk scene is Dead On A Friday’s most comfortable spot. They truly drive

NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

really like the way he works. He is great at dirtying up records and making them sound full and heavy. So we wrote to him, he said yes, and we were stoked.”

As are we all… to perpetuate a scene and get all involved.

I N T E R V I E W W I T H B A S S I S T / V O C A L I S T D AV E F O X B Y H U T C H

Dead On A Friday come from Flushing, Queens, NY. Dave Fox, bassist and lead vocalist, admits that this “makes the music slightly depressing, yet resilient. Also, the Ramones are from my neighborhood,

probably just be doing the touring thing for a while. We’ve also been working, somewhat slowly, on songs that will be on whatever follows Mother, so I expect we’ll spend our time off the road working on those.”

“We love playing with punk bands of all types: hardcore bands, whatever rocks,” Fox says. “An all-ages show with a punk lineup is a recipe for success within our genre.”

He continues, “As a teenager, being from Queens, I was influenced by punk and NYHC mostly. I’ve always liked underground music, because it was more real.

Punk and hardcore influenced me the most though because of the fast, hard beats and real lyrics. And who doesn’t like picking up change?”

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Don’t expect another ska/reggae vibe from Sammy Kay’s latest album, Fourth Street Singers. While last year’s Love Letters was heavy on Caribbean and two-one influences, his latest has a much more straightforward punk rock sound. “I knew that there wasn’t much more progress to be made playing ska and reggae,” says Kay, “and I had always wanted to make a record like this. So, when it came time for me to make another record, I fell into this.”

Though longtime friend Vic Ruggiero, vocalist and keyboardist for The Slackers, appears on both records, Kay has an entirely new backing band this time around.

Fourth Street Singers will be available March 10 via Panic State Records, followed by a U.S. tour alongside Northcote and fellow Jersey-ites The Gaslight Anthem.

Though they’re fellow locals, Kay has only “met [Gaslight frontman] Brian [Fallon] a few times in passing over the years, but

S A M M Y K AY

I N T E RV I E W B Y J O H N B . M O O R E

had the first ‘proper’ meeting in December when I opened up for him at a gig.” But Kay is a fan. His influences for the new album include “Springsteen, […] Chuck Ragan, Dave Hause [of The Loved Ones], all of Brian Fallon’s projects, Southside Johnny…

The Wallflowers were a big influence; Tom Waits’ early stuff as well.”

Kay’s influences are quite diverse. He explains, “I grew up on WFMU, a NJ-Philly public radio station, and a very music friendly family. Sunday’s were reggae and ska in the morning, gospel, garage, punk, soul, and bluegrass. It was the best. […] I stumbled on ska and punk when me and my brother were maybe 11 and 13. We would go to Jersey shows, see bands like Folly, Too Short Notice, The Superspecs, Catch 22, bands like that.”

Kay began going out on the road with

H O T

bands at a young age, which prepared him for his current endeavors. “Westbound took me out when I was young—18 years old—so they showed me really how to tour,” he says.

The Slackers also had a huge impact. “[They] have always mentored me,” says Kay. “I moved in with Ruggiero when I was 18, so my formative adult years were spent sitting on a couch, drinking beers, and arguing over what Bob Dylan record was better. [Saxophonist] Dave Hillyard showed me the business side, when I started tour managing them, and then explained to me that whatever Vic taught me was absolutely wrong. [Bassist] Marcus [Geard] pushed me heavily on the merch side of things, and explained what’s needed and what isn’t on a merch table. The Slackers as a whole are really why I am who I am today, they taught me a lot of really

N E R D S

INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST NATHAN JOYNER BY THOMAS PIZZOLA

this day.”

Hot Nerds’ vocalist and guitarist Nathan Joyner says that the band—which also features synth player Alia Jyawook and drummer Thomas F. O’Connell— has two simple rules when it comes to conducting their business. “There’s two things that [Hot Nerds] abides by: 1) Have fun. 2) Who gives a shit what anyone thinks of us, or our sound, or shit like that? That’s what we set out to do from day one and are still doing to Hot Water Music frontman Chuck Ragan once played a random show in German acoustic punk singer-songwriter John Allen’s apartment and gave the struggling musician a pep talk. “He did, in a way, talk some sense into me,” Allen recalls. “I don’t think it was intended as a lesson or anything, but it did have that effect on me.”

“In mid 2012, I had reached a point where I was no longer willing to put in the necessary effort; I had no motivation to write songs anymore,” he continues. “In October or so, Chuck’s German promo agency started a contest where you had to send in a picture of your kitchen in order to win an exclusive house show with Chuck.” Allen won the contest, and confided in Ragan about his musical misgivings. “He simply said that those who love music should never stop, and

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The band was originally just Jyawook, who would play a kick drum with her Casio keyboard, and say she was a “hot nerd.” Joyner liked what he heard, and asked if he could join. Instead of playing guitar—Joyner’s main instrument—he decided to play drums, which he admits he isn’t the best at. Regardless, they forged on, played some really fun shows, and decided to stick with the lineup.

Then something bad happened.

Joyner was hit by a car and pronounced dead. Luckily, he was resuscitated and put back together by doctors, but the metal bone replacements and bolts holding him together meant that his drumming days were over. In another twist of fate, Jyawook’s childhood friend,

O’Connell, had recently moved to San Diego. With Joyner back on guitar, their current lineup was solidified.

More so, their signature sound was formed. “We don’t see the band in any particular way. We just play and have fun. We say, ‘Hey that shit sounds good,’ and we go from there,” Joyner says.

“Really, we just sound like Arab On Radar with a synthesizer and shredding metal drums if you really want to break it down.”

Their new recording, following their self-titled EP, is the hilariously titled Strategically Placed Bananas, which comes out March 10 via one of the finest purveyors of all that is weird and wonderful in the punk rock world, Three One G. “The title of the record came from Tommy,” Joyner says. “We

valuable life lessons, on the road and off.”

The road is where Kay will end up soon.

Next for him is “touring, starting to write the next records, touring, hanging out with the Mrs. when we’re home, touring, and enjoying life!”

were on our way to play a show in Riverside, Calif. The recording process was all finished, so we said, ‘What do we call this thing?’ Tommy shouted out, ‘Strategically Placed Bananas.’ […]

Basically, it’s a tactic used in the video game ‘Mario Kart’ to spin out your opponents and help you win the race. […] It’s a video game reference. What could be more perfect for an album title by a band called Hot Nerds?”

Then there is the album cover by artist Josh Freydkis, which features a collagestyle illustration of a naked dude with a mullet, sporting his own “strategically placed banana.”

Joyner shrugs, “Basically, the title is a video game reference, which was then construed and illustrated as a dick reference.”

So it goes…

JOHN ALLEN

I N T E RV I E W B Y J O H N B . M O O R E

that those who openly and honestly show people how much music means to them will always find a crowd. You know, when one of your heroes tells you this, you have to try again. So, I bought a new guitar and started writing again, and for some reason, I slowly started finding my own approach, my own voice, and my own words from there.”

Allen has since toured with Frank Turner— who is also featured on his latest full-length, Sophomore, on Gunner Records—and has become associated with both Turner and Ragan in fans’ minds. “To even be mentioned in the same sentence as them is something I could not have imagined two years ago,” Allen says. “I still don’t think I deserve to be right there. To me, they are

proper heroes and masters of their craft.

Most of what I am today, I owe to Chuck and especially to Frank.”

Though Allen knows he must eventually set himself apart. “I think that sooner rather than later, I do need to creatively separate myself more from them, because if you want to hear someone who sounds like Chuck or writes songs like Frank, you really should go for Chuck and Frank and not settle with someone ‘like’ them. I think, in the future, I would rather people see me as John Allen and not just as ‘the guy who played with Frank Turner.’”

Allen has announced online that he is finally quitting his day job to focus on touring and

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recording full time, but it may be a while before he makes it to the U.S. “I don’t think I can manage the U.S. in 2015, but they are a priority for 2016,” he says. “I will do some extensive touring on mainland Europe and in the U.K. later this year, and see where we go from there.”

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T H E

B R I C K T O P S

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST AND MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST KEVIN GASKILL BY JANELLE JONES

progressing. This one I could do whatever the heck I wanted.”

Gaskill will soon be leaving his “redneck” hometown in Ohio for the greener pastures of Fort Wayne, Ind., to join the Flamingo Nosebleed guys with whom he plays in The Dumbfucks.

PHOTO: BAMBI GUTHRIE

On Maniac at Large, Kevin Gaskill wrote all of the material, played all of the instruments, sang, recorded, and released it on his own. “I think on the last two albums—it sounds terrible—but I had to write songs within the limitations of the people who were going to be playing them with me,” he explains. “A lot of the music became real sterile and stagnant and wasn’t Formed in 2011, Columbia, SC, based hardcore quartet Discourse have signed to Troy, NY,’s Closed Casket Activities for the release of their first LP, Sanity Decays.

How is the hardcore scene in Columbia compared to Atlanta?

They’re a lot different, so it’s hard to compare. Columbia is a much smaller city and it’s a college town, so a lot of people are there for four or five years and move away. [South Carolina] will occasionally have great shows, but it’s usually hit or miss. I’ll say that Atlanta has one of the best hardcore scenes in the country. There are a lot more people in Atlanta who have stuck around through the years instead of pulling that corny “I grew out of hardcore” shit that I saw happen a lot in SC. What was it like coming up, being a touring hardcore band from a place that’s not known for hardcore?

It made things more difficult, for sure. For

His new release shows off his musical prowess with songs that are all over the map, especially on tracks like “Hail Satan.”

“I grew up listening to metal,” he says. “[On ‘Hail Satan’], I was just farting around. It’s just some riffs I took from different songs I wrote over the years. I’m like, ‘Screw it! It’s fun.’ And I guess it was kind of an opportunity to show off a little bit. I’m all about whatever serves the song, but [here] I was just being a complete dork.”

The album also features an instrumental track called “Lift Off.” Gaskill explains, “On the last album, Move On, we did a surf song. I’ve always liked surf stuff, so why not just make that a new tradition? Put a surf song on every album. I think everything was starting to get to the ‘Ramones-core’ type thing. Which I like, but it gets old real fast. And I can do more than that.”

Maniac at Large starts off with the disarmingly hardcore “Make Us Proud,” which features the opening line, “Fuckin’ bitch, stupid cunt, I hope you die.”

“Looking back, I don’t know how I feel about that, ‘cause I’ve gotten some mixed reviews,” Gaskill admits. “I probably shouldn’t have put that one first, because somebody can hear that and be like, ‘I’m not gonna listen to the rest of this.’ That

“I’m very self-deprecating, self-loathing.

I’m a tortured artist,” Gaskill concludes.

“I can play it off as, ‘It’s fine, whatever,’ but there’s been a lot of ups and downs and I’ve dealt with depression my entire life. It’s terrible. Music is my savior.”

DISCOURSE

a short period, we were the only hardcore band in the area, so we didn’t have any friends’ bands to go out and do a tour with.

SC has also never been in the spotlight like, you know, Boston, So Cal, [or] NY. People weren’t paying much attention, and we didn’t have any shoulders to stand on to make our way up.

How does it feel to be putting out your first full-length LP? It’s surreal. For a while, we thought we’d never be a band to do an LP. I still hold the opinion that most hardcore bands should stick to doing 7”s, but then again, so many hardcore bands are putting out music now that it’s hard to cut through the noise and have people pay attention to what you’re doing. So, there was some pressure to put out a full-length.

Why was there such a big gap between

E L V I S

recording and the actual album release?

It’s kind of a long story. Our label guy Justin [Louden], was in Whole Foods one day picking up some beard oil. He doesn’t really like interacting with other grocery store patrons, so he was listening to Dying Breed pretty loud in his headphones. Justin didn’t notice the wet floor sign in the aisle, and slipped and hit his head on the edge of a shopping cart. Justin was hospitalized for a few months, so it delayed our record a little bit. He’s out now and doing great, just like our record.

How has it been working with Closed Casket Activities?

It’s great. We love working with Justin, and respect his approach to monopolizing the music industry via All In Merch, 518 Prints, and Closed Casket Activities. A true entrepreneur. I’ve even heard people refer to him as a young Rockefeller.

D E P R E S S E D L Y

it’s meant to be a joke. ‘The Beatles’ is a joke name too. People shouldn’t worry about names so much. It’s all symbolic.”

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But the album has a softer side, featuring gloomy acoustic closer “As Much As I Do” to “bring [the listener] down from the chaos,” and the introspective “Made for TV.” “The whole song’s about living with depression, really. ‘Every day’s just another episode.’ There might be different people, there might be different storylines, but it’s the same old fuckin’ shit. But I always try to hide it in ways, make it seem like it’s tongue-in-cheek.”

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST KYLE JACKSON BY MIRIAM USMANI

I N T E R V I E W W I T H M AT C O T H R A N B Y S T E P H E N S I G L

Don’t be fooled by the lighthearted moniker, Elvis Depressedly is a serious band with intelligent songs, and innovative arrangements and instrumentation. “I used to make up stupid portmanteaus at a dishwashing job, because it’s such mindless work and little games like that help the day go by faster,” prolific mastermind Mat Cothran elaborates on the band’s name. “Some people actually take the name seriously, which is kind of baffling;

was my Guttermouth song.”

Cothran’s writing process is also creative.

“I try to make rule sets for each record, because it gives context to what you’re doing and lets you see how far you can push the limits of those rules,” he explains.

“It allows us to find new ways of getting sounds that work and learning our way around our limited recording equipment better. Also, at this point, I’ve been recording music for 10 years with very little in the way of upgrading my setup, so new rules can keep things interesting.”

The resulting sound is often considered lo-fi, but Cothran disagrees. “I personally don’t consider our music lo-fi,” he says.

“We record at the standard bit rates, in

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full stereo, and shit that most high fidelity studios do, we just can’t afford amazing equipment or anything like that. […] I think honest lo-fi music is made out of necessity.”

Cothran says when he was young, he “was drawn to a lot of very repetitive, hypnotic music” like “WWF theme music and songs from Nintendo 64 games like ‘Pilotwings’” until he discovered Syd Barrett. “He became my favorite artist,” Cothran says.

“I still think his three albums are really influential for me as a songwriter.”

Has it changed your approach?

Nope. Not really. I think we get put higher up on festival lineups because people fear being blacklisted by Justin.

Any final words?

Crush all fakes, death to all punishers.

be hectic, a lot of touring in the U.S. and possibly overseas,” Cothran assures. “We’re releasing our album new alhambra in early spring, and reissuing some of our older records too through our new label Run For Cover. I’m also releasing an album under my solo project Coma Cinema that should be pretty cool.”

No matter what the future holds, Cothran isn’t stressed. “I never thought I’d even get this far,” he says. “I don’t really care about ‘making it’ anymore in this business; I feel like I’ve already made it. At this point, I only care about releasing the best albums I can and paying the bills on time.”

Nowadays, he’s more interested in his friend’s bands, such as “Teen Suicide, Alex G, R.L. Kelly, Khotin, and Spencer Radcliffe.”

As for Elvis Depressedly’s future, “2015 will

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S E A S O N S

C H A N G E

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST ANTHONY ROBLES BY DOUG NUNNALLY

In only a few short years, Los Angeles’ Seasons Change has amassed as a huge following as one of the premier pop punk bands in not just the region, but the country. After their successful EP Nothing & Everything in 2013, the young quartet is taking a big gamble by tweaking their sound.

On April 7, Seasons Change will release

Last year, New York pop punk band State Champs added Ryan Scott Graham to their roster as a bassist and backing vocalist.

While some fans may be wondering what the Michigan native will bring to the table as State Champs work on their sophomore album, there are plenty who already know just what Graham has up his sleeves. The same year State Champs released their debut record entitled The Finer Things, Graham’s solo project Speak Low If You Speak Love also premiered its debut album.

Everything But What You Need was selfreleased in 2013 and quickly gathered a strong word of mouth with fans who connected with its emotional core. The record is getting a rerelease on Pure Noise Records in late March to early April. “There was some interest in the record especially after Warped Tour,” explains Graham, “but Jake [Round] from Pure Noise was really into it. I was already part of the Pure Noise

their first full-length album—the 11 song collection entitled Please Don’t Leave— through No Sleep Records and really challenge their “pop punk” label. “We’re happy to be considered a pop punk band and I still think we are,” explains lead singer Anthony Robles, “but we’re not a cheesy pop punk band, as bad as that sounds.

When you say pop punk, all everyone thinks about is pizza, happy chords, and girlfriends. For us, our new direction is still melodic and ear-pleasing and catchy, bit it’s a little more mature and a lot more aggressive.”

To help capture this sound, the band sought out producer Sam Pura. Pura and his Panda Studios have had success with bands like State Champs and The Story So Far, and it was records like these that drew the attention of Seasons Change.

“What we really loved about his work

on those albums is that the recordings sounded so clear, perfect, and crisp, while still sounding raw,” Robles explains. “Our previous recordings have almost been too polished, and it took away from the rawness of our work. He knows how to capture the live energy, and that’s why we sought out Sam and reserved a spot with him before landing on No Sleep.”

After locking down Pura, the band was poised to explore, something that came natural to the longtime hardcore fans. A serious lyrical tone also bolstered the sonic shift. “All the songs have to do with being afraid to lose the things that mattered most to you,” Robles says candidly. “During this time of my life, I was close to losing a lot, like friends and family. It really affected me and the lyrics display that. I also lost my best friend two years ago, and one of the songs is about him and not being able to

INTERVIEW WITH RYAN SCOTT GRAHAM BY DOUG NUNNALLY

family through State Champs, and they were very supportive about me making my own decisions, so it was an easy decision to make.”

The rerelease will feature a proper mastering, artwork, and four new songs.

While Graham is happy with how the original album came out, he does admit it “sounds like a living room recording.” With the record close to coming out, Graham is seeing the benefit of the new production, specifically for one song. “You know, ‘Eight Weeks’ really benefited from the production. The song has a more upbeat feel and now that it’s been polished up a bit, it’s really been brought to life. This is something you could definitely hear as you flick on the radio.”

The record deals with coming to terms with

the self-doubt one feels in the aftermath of a breakup: thoughts of not being good enough, questions of what went wrong, and, as Graham puts it, realizing “that’s just not where you were supposed to be right then.” The record tells a story, but “Knots” is its centerpiece. “That song touches on a lot of different themes throughout the record, and it’s a very meaningful song to me. I’ve seen a lot of people mention how that’s ‘their song’ on the record and it kind of explains where they are right now. It’s a hopeful song, which is important because a lot of the songs on the record aren’t.”

Despite his side-project getting more attention, Graham is still “all in” with State Champs. “If Speak Low took off, I would just keep doing what I’m doing now for as long as I can, because I’m really enjoying my time with State Champs,” he says.

V O I C E S

extreme and challenging music. In this sense, it’s similar to the Akercocke work. […] The first album was simply us finding our feet and working out what direction we were going to move. There are some moments of gold on that first record, but it was really just a vehicle to get to where we are now. ”

“Voices is an experimental band,” explains guitarist Sam Loynes. “We want to produce

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By the time that material sees the light of day, Seasons Change may have shifted their sonic vision again, but for now, all eyes are on the young pop punk band taking a huge step forward in their aural evolution.

SPEAK LOW IF YOU SPEAK LOVE

Guitarist and vocalist Peter Benjamin adds, “We are just four inspired people making art. The whole point of this project is to do something different and against the grain of the current flow of artists in our very small U.K. scene.”

“We’ve tried very hard to gain identity through the record and have used different recording techniques and ideas,” Benjamin continues. “For instance, we’ve utilized

several different instruments and also a click track to record with so that we can add different sections and layers. It is a massive progression from the first release.”

While Akercocke focused on the traditional black metal fare of celebrating Satan, Voices is more complex. “For us, it would be boring to go where Akercocke and many other black metal bands have been,” says Benjamin. “We believe that it’s time to do something different, so we have taken on our urban surroundings and all that happens within as our influence.”

“The themes in Voices do not relate to any religious ideology,” Loynes elaborates. “We are interested in trying to decipher the world that surrounds us. The music forms an impression of our misgivings relating to

NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

Despite his strong commitment to State Champs, and the fact that he thinks his solo project’s name “kind of sucks,” Graham is still moving ahead with Speak Low’s next album, which he’s “already got enough material for.”

the distaste we have for this world. Yet, it is still a mystery to us.”

I N T E R V I E W W I T H S A M L O Y N E S A N D P E T E R B E N J A M I N B Y E R I C M AY

Voices are truly an intriguing London act, formed from the ashes of experimental death metal monstrosity Akercocke. Their new album London—available now via Candlelight Records—captures that same sense of experimentalism, but channeled through a black metal and avant-garde lens.

cope. Focusing on that helped changed the style of music sonically. That’s where a lot of the aggression comes from.”

With the album ready to go for six months, the band’s anticipation has been building.

“We’re really excited,” Robles says, “because songs like ‘Clueless’ really just kick you in the face and we can’t wait for people to experience the whole album.” Despite this anticipation, Robles has admittedly already begun work on new material. “I just love to write music. I never think, ‘Man, I have to write music!’ As soon as we got back from Panda Studios, I just started writing lyrics and putting songs together. By the time the next record comes along, I’m sure I’ll have more than enough material.”

London comes off as a twisted cerebral adventure, one that listeners must decode themselves. “It would be a tad prosaic to simply explain the plot behind our antihero in London,” says Loynes. “Let’s just say that he undergoes a gauntlet of obsession, abstractions, and insanity. All of which reside in a cold and unforgiving London.”

“I’d rather leave it open to interpretation, rather than to explain every detail,” agrees Benjamin. “Maybe it is a puzzle that each person has their own answer to. People who live in a city might understand more than those who don’t. The record is crafted as an adventure for the listener.”

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HELLISH OUTCAST

I N T E R V I E W W I T H D R U M M E R M A D S L I L L E T V E D T B Y E R I C M AY

Formed from a slew of Norwegian black metal outcasts, death/thrash band Hellish Outcast simply make music their own way.

One must use genre labels loosely, because you just can’t put your finger on exactly how to classify this kind of brutality. You’ll need a PhD in metal before you can even scratch the surface of genre-bending sophomore effort Stay of Execution, but it’ll be well worth the study.

With Stay of Execution, you guys unleash a balls-out version of extreme metal that contains many different facets, yet still remains uncompromisingly heavy. How did the band get started?

We are the hellish outcasts in a scene consisting of mostly old and new black metal bands. When we first started out, we were 14 and 16, and listened to Megadeth, Testament, and Metallica mostly. But then,

Psycroptic isn’t just the preeminent Australian tech-death band by default. The group’s pummeling sound has evolved over the past 15 years, and they continue to stay as busy as possible. According to drummer Dave Haley, “We’re always working on new music and trying to tour as much as we can while fitting in ‘normal’ life, so to speak. Since we don’t make a living from the band, we all have to work jobs to stay afloat. It’s always a balancing act, but we manage it.” This year will find the band “releasing a new album, and touring as much as we can. Hopefully, it will also see us working on new material. That’s probably my favorite aspect of the band: the music creation process. I’m guessing it will be a pretty busy year for us.”

helps that I really enjoy playing drums and music.”

In his off time, Haley keeps his skills sharp.

“I try to practice drums most days,” he says. “It helps that I’m a drum teacher for my day job, so I have to practice, otherwise I wouldn’t continue to get students. It also

“I guess we’re always trying to do something different than what we’ve done in the past,” Haley says of the album’s sound, “and lately, we’ve been working on making our songs as ‘catchy’ as possible, while still having

It’s no surprise that the band chose to self-title their upcoming sixth record, due out March 10 via Prosthetic Records.

It’s heavier, more technical, yet also the catchiest and most forward-thinking Psycroptic release yet. It’s a career defining record. “The recording took place over two different sessions, which is different for us,” Haley explains. “This created a bit of a different vibe for the songs, as parts of the songs changed by the end of the second session, and we were able to revisit some ideas and tweak them. It was quite cool to work in this way, as it helps keep things fun and exciting for us.”

R OYA L T H U N D E R

we discovered Pantera, and further down the road, we got introduced to heavier acts like Hate Eternal and Cannibal Corpse. So, I guess our music is somewhat of a mix between the American heavy style and our Scandinavian primal aggressive heritage.

The one thing I’ve always been very focused on is that Hellish Outcast’s music should be aggressive. Not necessarily in the speed metal way, but angry and frustrated.

Our music is very emotional, and that’s the way it should be.

There are a lot of grunge and sludge influences here also. To be honest, there’s a little bit of everything. Who are your influences?

We do listen to bands like Nirvana and Alice In Chains, and they have been with us since the MTV days. I wouldn’t directly credit Chris Cornell as an influence, but he is in there somewhere, hidden under the toxic lava fumes in the rivers of frustration. Today, more direct inspiration

Atlanta rockers Royal Thunder’s sound is part classic rock, part psychedelic doom, and all parts impressive. April 7 sophomore release Crooked Doors sees an evolution on all fronts for the band. It feels timeless, like it could have worked in any decade after the ‘60s. There’s no gimmick or flash, Royal Thunder is just damn good, and that’s certainly enough.

What was the writing and recording process like for Crooked Doors?

We were touring heavily on our previous album, so making time to

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sit down and write was unusual for us. Actually, it was nonexistent. We’re releasing some live demos that give you an idea as to where we were at, going into Aria Studio. For example, on the live demos, “Glow” was a completely different song in terms of vocals! I was surprised to hear it end up the way it did. It also changed instrumentally. I remember watching [guitarist] Josh [Weaver] through a sliding glass door, huddled up at the bottom of a staircase, hacking away at “Glow” until it was just right. Really, that’s how we wrote this

Stay of Execution sounds like a rather rough theme. How did you come up with it?

I really wanted to write a whole album filled with personal lyrics, and I asked the other guys to contribute if they had anything. The working title that I had was, in fact, Stay of Execution, and I was really inspired by the psychology surrounding the term as being given the death sentence.

How does your mind react to this? Not only in a courtroom, but in a hospital.

Given the message that you’re terminally ill with cancer and you have five months to live. Or you’re in a relationship that is doomed. I took my own experiences and shaped them into lyrics on a metal album, and although some of them might sound fictional, you will also find some to be brutally honest. They are dark, darker than hell. They are real life.

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the Psycroptic sound: still aggressive and intense.” He is very satisfied with the final product, confirming, “It’s something we are proud of.”

At this point, heavy music is in Haley’s blood. “I remember getting [Metallica’s] Ride the Lightning when I was 8 or 9 on cassette,” he recalls, “and the first thing my album: play, chop, play, chop, play. We didn’t have a vision. We weren’t being intentional. There was no concept, and somehow, we made it through.

If your debut was “post-apocalyptic blues,” how would you describe this album?

“Soul-storm rock,” that’s what I would call it. I know I was feeling that within myself: a raging storm, a noisy head. “One Day” sums up what this whole album is about.

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/BASSIST MLNY PARSONZ BY NICHOLAS SENIOR

comes from European acts such as Gojira and Decapitated, with a drop of Michael Jackson, of course…

What are some of the themes or motifs on the album?

I went into this album, lyrically, wanting to face my demons and open up about my life and struggles. I didn’t want to cloak everything as I have in the past. I wanted to be a bit more flagrant, for the sake of being real. That’s not to say the past albums haven’t been real. They are, but I didn’t want to get in the way, lyrically, on previous albums. I wanted listeners to make it their own. This album, I needed to burst. For my own sanity. But I know I’m not the only one who needs to burst.

I wanted to give people something to cry with, scream with, something to hold on to while you’re pulling yourself up.

I needed it, and I hope this album is a

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mum did was take it off me and read all the lyrics to make sure there weren’t any bad words in it. It’s one of the albums I really remember listening to for the first time, being in total shock, awe, and amazement.

From that moment on, I was hooked on heavy music.”

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blessing to others who might need it, too. I hope this album helps someone, anyone, through the crooked doors that we sometimes encounter in life.

Things that come to mind when I think of the ideas surrounding this album: “no one is all good; no one is all bad.” –Some old, black and white movie quote. There is always going to be something good within the bad. Life can scrape your face against the pavement and press it into the gravel, then walk away. There’s nothing keeping you from getting up and keeping on. You’re gonna heal eventually, and, hey, you survived.

What inspired the artwork? Does it tie in with the graveyard art from 2013’s CVI? We worked with Orion Landau of Relapse [Records]. He’s an amazing artist and a lovely human being. It was our pleasure working with him. He just went for it, and the concept was all him! We found a lot of meaning within the art.

It’s filled with personal photos from tour and home. That means the most to me.

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PA L E A N G E L S

UNWED ALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY REBECCA REED

I N T E R V I E W W I T H V O C A L I S T J A M I E M O R R I S O N B Y B R Y N E YA N C E Y

Pale Angels’ lack of hometown identity is a strength, not a weakness. Welsh vocalist Jamie Morrison—formerly of the Arteries— and former Static Radio NJ frontman Mike Santostefano are separated by distance, but have an undeniable musical chemistry, born at The Fest 10 in 2011, where the duo played a Nirvana cover set together, with Mikey Erg on drums. The unique circumstances of Pale Angels’ genesis inform their music, beginning with 2013’s moody Primal Play and continuing on in discordant follow-up Imaginary People—out this spring via Recess.

“We played in Europe over about five weeks at the end of last summer,” Morrison recalls. “When it was over, Mike stuck around in Wales for a few weeks and we worked on new songs.” The new songs expand on the ideas of Primal Play in an organic way, with the precise speed of classic punk rock shone through a scratched, distorted, grungy prism.

Pale Angels accomplish the majority of their songwriting while touring. “Those weeks between the Euro tour and the U.S. trip to record were pretty strange,” Morrison continues. “That’s when we wrote eight of the 10 songs that are on this new LP. It’s expensive to get together, so we really try to make the most of our time.”

Things were strange, Morrison says, because they “were mentally burnt out. I was, at least. I got tired of the idea of gigs and bands. I just wanted to make the new

album, but thought all bands, including our own, were a stupid idea. Everything seemed like weird posturing and not focused around wanting to create.”

“When I think back to us writing, I can’t remember it very well and I don’t feel like it was actually me or us writing,” Morrison continues. “That’s one reason we called the album Imaginary People—we had turned into a weird three-piece machine. In hindsight, I’m really glad it all played out like that. In my current, stable frame of mind, I’m certain I’d have nothing but boring ideas.”

The strangeness also included a rotating cast of drummers; Erg left Pale Angels last summer after a U.S. tour, to be replaced by tandem Reza Mirehsan and Chris Krause, the latter of whom played on Imaginary People. Morrison and Santostefano now bring either drummer onboard based on their plans and respective availability.

“Even though [Mirehsan and Krause have] never even met, it very much feels like the band is a four-piece. Reza is on this record, even though Chris played the drums; Chris will be with us in the songs when we’re on tour in the U.K. without him. The band is a weird setup. We’re self-funded, mainly playing gigs to nobody, but we want to play this music with each other and we wanted to make that album right there and then.

I never really wanted to have to say who played what. Imaginary People is the concept by necessity.”

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INTERVIEW WITH BASSIST JASON BLACK BY JOHN B. MOORE

Supergroups tend to burn out pretty quickly. It’s heartening then that Unwed—featuring members of Hot Water Music and Small Brown Bike—are so committed.

Comprised of guitarist and vocalist Arty Shepherd, guitarist Matt Kane, bassist Jason Black, drummer Jeff Gensterblum, and vocalist Neltie Penman, Unwed’s sophomore record and first full-length, Raise the Kids, will be available April 14 via 6131 Records.

“The basic idea [for the band] started when Neltie played me some demos of songs she had been working on over the course of I don’t know how long,” explains Black. “I thought they were really cool and asked if she would be into trading demos. The first thing I sent her was a rough version of the music for ‘Made Of.’ We were both so pleased with how that song turned out that we continued working on things, and eventually thought we should try to get a band together. I sent the first few songs we worked out to Arty to see if he was interested, and everything he sent back was awesome. Things basically snowballed from there.”

According to Black, everyone was stoked from the get go. “The thing that has been really great about this experience so far is that we all genuinely like each other and the music, and that’s the only reason we’re doing this. We don’t have an agenda; we’re just enjoying making music.”

Unwed released their debut EP in early 2014 via No Idea Records. “We had maybe seven songs total when we released the

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EP, so we’ve been working towards a fulllength from the start. We’re sort of constantly writing. So far, it seems like we just write until we hit what feels like a critical mass of sorts, then we start working on getting things recorded and getting them out.”

“We recorded this record in four different places, only one of which was a studio,” Black continues. “There just wasn’t an opportunity for everyone to break away from work and family enough to actually go embed at a studio to do the whole thing from front to back.” Though all of the members are based in New York—except Gensterblum, who is in Michigan—the band still composes songs mainly by trading emails.

Unwed’s future plans include working on a third release, as well as playing live.

“Right now, we’re working out some shows in April around the record release,” Black says. “We’re all pretty busy, so it’s not the easiest thing in the world, but we’re going to do as much as we can to get out and play shows. That’s the most fun part of it all.”

“I think once the record sees the light of day, we’ll probably start balancing playing and rehearsing with working out new material,” he continues. “We don’t exactly work quickly, so working ahead is pretty key for us to keep up momentum.”

“We really like doing this,” Black concludes.

“We consider ourselves really lucky to be able to play shows and release a record, so we’re going to make the most of it we can”

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DIVERS

I wanted to track him down to see if he’d help us out, so it was cool he came up and introduced himself. It was great.

He said you “look like an evangelistic preacher at a punk rock tent revival.”

[Laughs] We try to put on a good show, pretty energetic. We move around a lot.

We use a lot of religious terms. [Laughs] I don’t know if it’ll come across on the record so much as it would in the shows.

It’s just a high-energy thing.

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST HARRISON RAPP BY JANELLE JONES

Portland, Ore., based four-piece Divers released their first full-length—the extremely intriguing, moody and diverse Hello Hello—Feb. 17, and will follow it up with a full U.S. tour in March.

Hello Hello is one of the lyrics in “Wild Calling.” Why use it as the title for the whole record?

It seemed like a good name for a first record. There are themes on the record, and I think “hello hello” shows up in at least one other song. And it’s just an idea, even beyond the band, an idea of an emergence. “Wild Calling” sums it up pretty well, I think.

You follow that song with “Last Dance,”

A lot has happened since Xerxes’ debut album, Our Home is a Deathbed, both in the music scene and in the band’s personal lives. On the band’s sophomore LP, Collision Blonde, which came out last October, Calvin Philley vocally delivers feelings he hopes touches many. Philley opens up about being a frantic mess for the last few years, and the scene in his hometown of Louisville, Ky. How have fans responded to Collison Blonde?

Overall, I would say it’s been a positive response. […] We’re kind of a different band, so we don’t expect much. Just because we’re kinda weird and we don’t fit in too much.

So, when anybody takes a liking and publicly states that, or tells us privately themselves, it’s really nice. I’m easily excited by people enjoying my music.

The album has been described as “polarizing.” Do you think that’s true?

I would say so. Like I said, we’re kind of a weird band, so the things we do and the music that we make… It’s like a “love or hate” kind of genre of music. It is hardcore, but it’s not hardcore. It is punk rock, but it’s not punk rock. It’s almost pop music, but it’s definitely not pop music. So, it’s definitely, like, if you’re not wrapping your head around it from the first, second, or third listen, you’re probably not gonna get it.

What bands influence you to create your “weird” sound?

I know starting with [guitarist] Will [Allard]. His influences draw very strongly starting with Fugazi and Minor Threat. But then, like, he loves The Cure. […]

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which has a different feel. The whole record has a lot of different sounds going on…

That was definitely part of the idea.

We don’t wanna play one genre, but we don’t want things to sound disconnected either. I think it flows really well, and that was part of the idea: to have a lot of variety, but have it make sense as a whole. So, we did intentionally try to throw in different things.

Your publicist Chris [Hnat] says he was immediately taken with Divers when he saw you live. How long ago was that?

It was a really fortuitous thing. Maybe two months ago. I’d heard about Chris from a friend of mine, and I was thinking

Why did you start the record off with “Getaway”?

I think we wanted to start it off kind of low. We like to create a lot of dynamics.

It seemed like a fun idea. It’s something we’ve done a lot live and it’s really fun.

Other people generally start records on a higher note, so we thought we could ramp up, like, once it got to the second track, it would have an effect, kicking in loudly. That’s something we play with a lot.

What about “Listen Teller”?

That one’s fun. The idea of it is sort of a background conversation to a bank robbery. A lot of the songs aren’t very explicit in the theme, but that one’s probably the most obvious. I like playing that one. It’s kinda got a character to it, a character you can get into more than the others because of it being so direct.

interested for a long time in writing a road story. It kinda fit with that. I don’t think it’s one of those processes where you know, “Oh, we’re gonna write a record about this.” We kinda discovered as we were putting it together that there were themes happening.

So what are some of those themes?

I guess escapism, searching for something and not knowing exactly what that is, but also some darker things. The characters aren’t us. There’s violence. I guess movies played a big part once we really got into writing the lyrics.

Do you have a good music scene in Portland?

There’s a lot of variety. On any given night, there’re multiple shows going on.

I’m sure it’s the same in New York, but it’s not like that everywhere. And that’s fun for us, because we get away with playing with all kinds of bands, and most crowds seem receptive. There’s a band called Gaytheist we just played with last week. It doesn’t do them justice to say they’re a poppy metal band, but they are, and they’re just incredible. It was just the two of us who played together, and it was such a great show, and everybody was into it. It’s cool we can play different kinds of shows.

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What influenced the lyrics?

The Clash had the song “Bankrobber”; there’ve been stories like that. I was

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It really works for me, too, because I’m a huge Smiths and Joy Division fan. All that wrapped up with the fact that Thursday was my favorite band in middle school…

We all just have so many different influences per person that are completely different and come from such opposite sides of the spectrum, but we all get together and we agree on certain things in music, so it’s all kind of fluid for us how it all comes together.

There’s also something to say about bands from the scene now, […] your Touché Amoré and your La Dispute, bands like that.

When you’re friends with a band, you listen to their music. It would be ridiculous to listen to a band and not be influenced by what they’re doing.

Does being in a small town scene like Louisville’s change anything?

I think that Louisville’s got a pretty vibrant scene going on, as far as punk rock goes.

I got off work at 2 a.m. last night, and my girlfriend picked me up and we went to a bar… They also have a stage and the ability to do live music any time, so there’s a fuckin’ punk rock band playing at this bar I get to at 2 a.m., in Louisville. I’m happy about that; I think that says good things about the Louisville music scene.

Sometimes, I just hear a band and think, “Oh, they’re pretty good,” and then, like, after the show, I realize that it’s somebody I used to work with. It’s like everybody plays music here.

The only thing about it that’s bad is that the scene gets kind of… A little too high volume. There’s too much music being pro-

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACKI VITETTA

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duced to the point where there’s almost not enough people to enjoy it. So the thing that sucks about Louisville is that there are plenty of shows around town to go to, but getting people to go to shows is not as easy.

Your press release says, “Collision Blonde is a lyrical wreck that’s driven by love, drugs, depression, and waking up in a cold sweat, wondering, ‘What’s next for me?’ on a consistent basis.” What exactly does that mean?

I’ve had some pretty wild times in the past year. […] It was hard when things didn’t turn out perfectly with [the band], which they almost never did or will. It kind of led

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to this feeling of, “What do I do next?”

Well, what I did next was kinda act like a freak for a while. I just did whatever. It was not a positive thing, but it also produced some really striking material to write about, musically. So, Collision Blonde is not necessarily a breakup record, but a loneliness record. And I was lonely. And the reason I was doing all these awful things was because I was lonely, and because I felt misguided. So, waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night happened all the time and what I was gonna do about it, I never knew.

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BARREN EARTH

JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD

I N T E R V I E W W I T H G U I TA R I S T S A M I Y L I - S I R N I Ö B Y J U L I A N E U M A N

Finland’s Barren Earth is back with a new vocalist, Jón Aldará, a new album—On Lonely Towers coming out March 24 via Century Media—and a renewed spirit.

After the departure of their previous singer, how did they manage to find their voice again? Guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö— also of German thrash legends Kreator— tells the story.

You’re less than two months away from releasing On Lonely Towers. How are you feeling?

Feeling great! Writing and recording On Lonely Towers has been a long process, which lasted about two years, and to finally get it out there is a relief. Now, [we’re] just basically waiting to start playing these songs live as well. A couple of these tunes we’ve already played in front of a live audience and I can’t wait to do more.

What part of the record are you most excited for fans to hear?

The whole thing, in its entirety. It’s difficult for me to pick any song above the others. An element of surprise is present in every single one of them. On Lonely Towers can also almost be seen as a kind of concept album, since there are three stories intertwining with each other in the lyrics written by our new singer, Jón.

The lyrics actually ended up affecting the order of the songs on the album in the end. I believe that anyone who listens to this one can hear that a lot of effort and work was put into it.

Had you already written most of the material when Jón entered the mix last year?

A part of it was written, yes. When we were looking for a new singer, we asked some of the candidates first to sing a version of one of our older tunes. If we thought the versions were worth investigating further, we asked them to come up with something new for a new song—back then, only a demo. Jón sent us a demo of the song “The Vault” and everyone was amazed. The melodies can be heard on the new album’s closing track. Big thanks to

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everyone who applied. There were many good candidates from all over the world.

How did you invite him to join the band?

When Mikko Kotamäki [of Swallow The Sun]—our previous vocalist—decided to move aside, he in fact recommended Jón to apply for the “job.” Mikko obviously knew we were looking for a new singer and knew that Jón definitely likes our music. [Drummer] Marko Tarvonen and [guitarist] Janne Perttilä also knew Jón from before, as they had toured together in the past. They knew of his capabilities as a brilliant and versatile vocalist and also knew him to be a cool and down to earth guy, so everything came together quite naturally. We played our first shows together with Jón in Finland last summer.

Who does most of the songwriting?

Everybody in the band contributes to songwriting. However, the most productive ones of us six would be [bassist] Oppu Laine and [keyboardist] Kasper Mårtenson. As mentioned before, Jón wrote almost all of the lyrics on On Lonely Towers and almost all of the vocal melodies as well. Long instrumental parts and solos probably sound like they do partly because of collective music tastes enjoyed by the whole band. They come from lots of places—‘70s prog and ‘90s death metal, to mention a couple—yet with a fresh and original approach.

Any upcoming plans to tour the States?

The last time we toured in the U.S. was 2011, supporting our debut album The Curse of the Red River. We had an excellent time over there, kind of an extended party. We toured for a little over a month across the States as a part of the “Finnish Metal Tour Part II.” It was a successful tour. Over three years have passed, so it certainly would be time! I hope the right opportunity will arise. If so, we would be more than willing to do just that.

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INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST JAKE ORRALL BY MORGAN Y. EVANS

Wasted on the Dream—the new full-length

by Nashville’s grunge-pop-garage duo JEFF The Brotherhood—is an examination of the pros and cons of a career in music to rival Kanye’s “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.”

“Heard the world is turning to a giant ball of shit/What are we supposed to do?” asks vocalist and guitarist Jake Orrall on retro burner “Black Cherry Pie.” It ain’t all doom and gloom-pop, though.

“I get to travel for my job and play music every night. That’s pretty awesome,” Orrall assures. “I guess I’ve just been doing it long enough to know that I could be doing other things that’d maybe make me more happy.” He admits he’d like to live on a farm and grow vegetables; humble words for a dude who just co-wrote such a stellar rock record. “I spent the last 20 years partying, and now my knee joints don’t work and I can’t go hiking,” he laughs, clarifying the album’s title. “But farming can wait.”

Jake and his bandmate and brother Jamin may have a famous dad, but that doesn’t mean they got everything handed to them. JEFF The Brotherhood work hard, demoing no less than 35 songs for what would become Wasted on the Dream. “We knew which 11 songs we were going to record in the studio, so some didn’t get past the demo stage,” says Orrall.

Raising the bar like this must be hard when the buzz is so huge. The band’s 2012 Dan Auerbach-produced Hypnotic Nights was a critical smash and their live show is legendary. This time, Wasted on the Dream was co-produced by the brothers, along with Joe Chiccarelli (The Strokes, Dwight Yoakum, My Morning Jacket).

The talented guitarist says it may be better to have the record come out on the band’s label, Infinity Cat. “No one in the major label world can figure out how to release records anymore,” Orrall fumes. “They already killed us once when they signed us, because they didn’t promote us. We had a fantastic contract with them since we didn’t need to sign with them in the first place, [so] I was in a position to negotiate.

It will be more fun for us now, because we can do whatever we want again. That’ll be refreshing. It was such a fucking chore, man. At first they were great and said, ‘Whatever record you wanna make, just make it.’ After that, it went downhill and we couldn’t get an answer on anything from them.”

You’d think Warner Bros. would have trusted a band who can snag guests like Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull—who plays a flute solo on “Black Cherry Pie”—and Bethany Cosentino from indie rock darlings Best Coast, who sings on Weezer-ish track “Coat Check Girl.” Orrall says he doesn’t mind the Weezer comparison, “because Weezer are a great rock band. But I did get annoyed that we had Bethany on a song first… And then Weezer got her on a song after us, but their song came out first!”

You heard it here first, folks. Weezer are copycats.

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When asked about a release date, Orrall reveals, “I guess I can tell you that we’ve been dropped by Warner Bros. two weeks ago, mid-album rollout.”

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PA G E R I P P E R

A R C H G O AT ALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAUL SILVER

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST BRENT AULT BY TYLER GIBSON

Three-piece punk rock powerhouse Pageripper hail from the basements and dive bars of Portland, Ore.’s DIY music scene. “I left Arizona and moved up here in 2011,” says frontman Brent Ault. “I’d met [drummer] Sean [Martin] from a previous tour I was on in my old band, Partners In 818.” After a lineup change, the band “scraped by as a two-piece for about half a year before [bassist] Brandon [Whalen] joined.” Martin—owner of custom snare company 7023 Drums—and veteran shredder Whalen—formerly of Dark Country and Knifetalk—have been staples of the local scene for years.

Ault’s influences meld to form a sound that fits comfortably into the contemporary punk rock landscape. “I worship at the altar of Kid Dynamite and Jawbreaker,” he reveals. “American Steel—especially midera—is some of the greatest punk rock ever recorded. […] And stuff like Ekkaia and Tragedy proved crust didn’t have to be terrible.” As for newer releases, “Right now, I’m super stoked on Choke Up from Boston,” he says. “Their new album [Black Coffee, Bad Habits] is ridiculous. Our buddy Cory [Calvin] in Denver started a project called Nixon’s The One, that rules.

And the new Divers LP [Hello Hello] is going to be fucking killer, I assure you.”

Pageripper put out their third release, Bruce Jams Vol. III, in November of last year. “We’ve put out a few releases before BJvIII,” explains Ault, “all home recorded in [local DIY space] The Bomb Shelter—

RIP. This release was the first one we ever had recorded for us, in the studio adjoining our practice space.”

The record’s production is raw, but it doesn’t feel forced. “The lo-fi sound is something we purposefully aim for, without getting into shitty black metal territory,” says Ault. “I like tons of stuff that is recorded properly and whatever, but these songs warranted more grime.

We just use whatever is on hand to record the instruments, and I’ve always done my vocals through this incredibly old Shure harmonica-type mic to give the vocals a fuzzier, blown-out sound.”

Ault adds that Pageripper stays true to this aesthetic when playing live. “I think our live show isn’t too far removed from the recordings. We all just turn up as loud as possible and make a wall of noise.”

Bruce Jams Vol. III is available on vinyl from Portland’s 1859 Records, and Different Kitchen in the U.K. “[1859’s] Dustin [Herron] asked us a looong time ago if he could release something for us. He works his ass off for that label,” Ault says.

“Pretty sure he asked [Different Kitchen] to help with the release to get good U.K. distribution and help with the cost of pressing vinyl.”

According to Ault, now that BJvIII is finished, Pageripper have “two planned split 7”s in the works! More writing! And hopefully another tour soon; I miss the road!”

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Finland’s Archgoat have been a force in underground black metal for over 25 years. The band’s guitarist Ritual Butcherer weaves his Satanic worldviews—alongside his brother—into the trio’s punishing hymns on their new release The Apocalyptic Triumphator, available through Debemur Morti Productions.

What happened in the six years between The Light-Devouring Darkness and your newest album? How did this record come together?

We have played many shows in at least five different continents, and on top of that, I lived in the States for 15 months, which delayed things for us. During this absence, I composed Heavenly Vulva LP, which we released sometime in 2012.

The composing work for The Apocalyptic Triumphator really kicked in November 2013 when I got one of my creative phases and composed riffs for the three first hymns.

After this, we rearranged the parts and I wrote the lyrics right away, what I normally do only after all music is completed. I think there were three different creative phases for me, and this is probably why there is more variation between the hymns than before. I took things on my own pace until, in May, the January/February 2015 tour with Inquisition was agreed upon and the schedule started to put pressure on things.

All in all, this was not the most difficult release I have done. All eventually fell easily into place.

Does Archgoat still serve as an escape for you? Does it occupy the same role in your life as it did at the beginning?

It does in a way, especially when playing shows: the time when my only concern is to prepare to play a great live show and all other worries in the world pass me. In a way, [I’m] the same worry-free spirit I was when we started the band in 1989. The difference is that when we were younger, we were all drunk at our shows, and nowadays, we do not do that to same extent, so maybe I am not totally floating in the moment.

When did you realize you wanted to speak

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NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

out against Christianity?

When I started to question things, and whenever I found a subject that did not follow the laws of reason, my suspicion arose. With Christianity more than with any subject, the bipolarity of what one should do and why compared to what happened in reality made me hate the hypocrisy and the oppression of the free mind. That was sometime in 1987 or so, and quite quickly this opinion lead me to dwell inside the worlds painted in the lyrics of bands such as Venom, Celtic Frost, and Possessed, who all opposed Christianity openly.

Do you enjoy touring?

The last tour we did with Inquisition, Ondskapt, and Black Death was a nice one, and I could have continued for an extra 19 dates easily. If the organization and tour managing is professional and all looked after properly, then I do enjoy touring.

You’ve mentioned that you are difficult to know as a person due to your Satanic and occult beliefs…

I think I might have meant that I like to keep my own space to me, and not talk too openly about my personal things unless I know and trust [the person]. […] To get along is no problem, as you only need to touch the surface, but it is quite great to meet a new person with whom one can connect and discuss the philosophy of ours. [The] last person with whom I connected this strongly was Acerbus from Ondskapt; it was only half an hour and we were really deep in the world of chaos mathematics and devil worship.

Your hiatus happened because you didn’t like the direction black metal was headed.

How do you feel about the current black metal landscape?

I am really not too interested what others do, but concentrate on what we do. I killed Archgoat with [brother, bassist, and vocalist Lord] Angelslayer due to the scene being ass-raped by new bands. Now I see things differently and do not even think of us as a band of the scene. We are a band of the scene in 1989 to early ‘90s.

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Cleveland, Ohio’s Hiram-Maxim are a doomgaze four-piece who came together as part of Lottery League, which groups random musicians together to form new bands. Their self-titled debut will be available March 3 via Aqualamb Records.

You guys are a relatively new band. How did Hiram-Maxim begin?

Before we were called Hiram-Maxim, we were called Kill It With Fire!, before that, Band 12, and before that, we were complete strangers.

The band was formed in a Cleveland project called Lottery League. […] The guideline is to invite a selected group of local musicians, pool everyone’s names into a bingo hopper, and randomly draft bands out of the pool, with the only rules being that musicians must have performed out live previously and that they couldn’t be drafted into a band with someone they have already been in a band with before.

Bands are then given two months to create a band name and write a 10 minute set of music to perform at “The Big Show.” The goal is to force people out of their element, their “comfort zone,” and create something new.

Before being drafted into this band together, I was friends with [guitarist] Dave [Taha], but had never even heard of [drummer] John [Panza] or [synth-er and vocalist] Lisa [Miralia] before. It all clicked right away, and

after the project was over, all of us wanted to keep going.

What was writing and recording your self-titled debut like?

There is a big element of improv to this band.

Usually, when we get together, one of us will start and then we all just all play off each other. […] “Visceral” and “One” started off as rehearsal jam sessions that, after listening to them, we went back and learned how to play.

Going into the recording sessions with John Delzoppo at Negative Space, we had these two songs prepared. “Can’t Stop” and “Worship” were both improvised in the studio. We went back in after I wrote lyrics and finished up the tracks. We added some other stuff, but for the most part those are untouched. Both songs even still have some of the original scratch track vocals in the mix.

What’s it like working with Aqualamb Records on this project?

Nightmare, never met two bigger assholes. But seriously, they’ve been great. Both [owners, graphic deisgners] Johnathan [Swafford] and Eric [Palmerlee], are super friendly and encouraging. I think their idea for packaging an album as a book is so smart and creative. […] “Hey, buy this book: it’s 100 pages of artwork and comes with a download of our album.” […] Ours was done by graphic designer, Dangerous Minds contributor, and

MINSK

INTERVIEW WITH MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST TIMOTHY MEAD BY ERIC MAY

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from tribal post-metallers Minsk, but after a long absence, they’re finally releasing a new album entitled The Crash and The Draw via Relapse Records on April 7. Timothy Mead speaks about the “magick” deep within the new release.

What can we expect from the new record?

It’s always hard to find the right words when it comes to expectations. As always, we’re so close to this material and certainly will never hear it in the same way as anyone who approaches it from the outside. However, I think that those familiar with the band’s previous material will hear themes, both musical and otherwise, which are familiar to them.

I think there is a more focused feeling with this record, perhaps something

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HIRAM MAXIM PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARTHA GUNN ANDRUSS

different than what was in the past. On its face value, I think some people might say it’s “heavier,” but I don’t think that was intentional. Lots of time has passed, and we are all different people than we were last time around. Hopefully we and the record are a bit wiser, a bit deeper, and a bit more complex.

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST FRED GUNN BY TYLER GIBSON

friend Ron Kretsch.

Herzog, Shitbox Jimmy, Field Trip…

Does Cleveland hold a significance that embeds itself in your musical output?

Our drummer John Panza says, “There is a gorgeous bleakness about this area that inspires great music.” […] Our local music scene is thriving right now. Cloud Nothings and Obnox are on a national scale, but there are so many Cleveland bands right now that are just killing it! Goldmines, Murderedman,

What’s next for Hiram-Maxim?

We’re planning to hit New York City and do some East Coast dates in April [and] May. In December, we went back into the studio with John Delzoppo and began recording again for the next record. Still in the very early stages of that, but we’ve already laid down over 90 minutes worth of music to play with. So, we’re off to a good start.

words attributed to him that we actually included among lyrics and readings.

one’s imagination into reality.

As to the concept of the album, I’m still finding myself realizing what the themes are each time I listen. I think that one of the main themes that will jump out at people is the concept of cycle. We live in cycles. The circle is one of our most fundamental realities on so many levels. Even just coming to a very basic understanding of that is essential to happiness, to life itself, to the generative principle in which all of existence as we understand it occurs. And given the trajectory of the band and this particular moment in its history, we needed to come to terms in a more helpful way with the reality of cycle, the rising and the falling.

I think another strong conceptual theme here is that of work and will. In nearly ceasing to be a band, and then coming to the decision to continue on, we were forced to confront very basic questions of how the work is done, what it takes to turn

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Post-metal is transcendental. When you record or when you’re onstage, does it feel as though you’re practicing a live ritual for your audience to take part in?

Yes, I agree with the sentiment wholeheartedly. The ritualistic and trance elements to what Minsk perform have always had this intention and transcendence of one variety or another.

When we are all together playing, whether it’s in the rehearsal space or on stage, it feels like we are required to enter another place, and in this other place, the possibilities are endless. I think one of our deepest desires has always been for other people to experience that with us, some sort of an ecstatic moment in that place… To occupy this space together, to touch something beyond ordinary consciousness. The encouragement we get from likeminded people who tell us they’ve been there with us is one of the main things that pushes us forward.

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The Crash and The Draw seems to be influenced by the works of Kahil Gibran and Hermes Trismegistus, the father of Hermetics. What concept is put forth in this album? What kind of magick is represented through this musical art?

We have had some kind of Gibran reference on every Minsk release thus far, and we lifted some words for a couple of lines of lyrics this time around. So we wanted to give thanks. Same with Trismegistus, in that there are specific

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NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

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GALLOWS

TIMESHARES PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICK KARP

INTERVIEW WITH BASSIST STUART GILI ROSS BY NICHOLAS SE NI OR

After helping redefine British hardcore for five years with Orchestra of Wolves and Grey Britain, Gallows have seemingly only grown stronger. Desolate Sounds, the group’s upcoming fourth album, shows a band who continue to be on the top of their game regardless of lineup changes, and is arguably the best Gallows record yet. Vocalist Wade MacNeil sounds like he’s been leading the band all along. Desolate Sounds shows off a fresh, energetic, and adventurous form of Gallows, highlighting that the band’s best years may be ahead of them.

What’s the state of Gallows in 2015?

You’ve had a wild few years.

When people would write about the band in 2008 and 2009, they would express this view that for the outsider looking in, Gallows always seemed like a band constantly on the verge of self-immolation, of not being able to withstand the chaos it created, and always about to break up at any given moment.

We find ourselves in 2015 now, and little has changed in that respect. There have been some well-documented lineup changes over the past 10 years, but that’s normal for a band playing the style of music we play that has stuck around as long as we have. It demands a lot of a person to do something with this much commitment for this length of time.

I think that everything with Gallows happens for a reason and the state of Gallows in 2015 is still one of volatility, unpredictability, and self-destruction, albeit a state that has produced the best album of our lifespan.

What was the writing and recording process for Desolation Sounds?

For Desolation Sounds, much more of the writing burden fell on [guitarist] Laurent [Barnard]’s shoulders. He has always been the main songwriter in Gallows, but usually with us living so close together, he has always had the whole band to help craft his ideas to a point where it’s “Gallows.” Due to the distance between us now, Laurent really had to take on a lot of the fleshing out of the songs on his own, and there are a few songs on the record that are hardly changed from his demos from two years ago.

Don’t get me wrong, every member of the band came in when it was time to record and put their stamp on it, be it Lee [Barratt]’s great drumming, [or] Wade’s decision to explore his vocal range. Though I think there is a dark and somber tone to this record, not just relying on “the mosh,” and that’s probably down to it being a more

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personal record in terms of songwriting for Laurent. It’s the first Gallows record we have recorded that I didn’t write a song for.

Are you pushing your sound away from “standard” hardcore and into something that’s heavier musically and thematically? What were you aiming for with the record?

When we first all got together to record the first songs we worked on—which ended up being the “Chains/Wristslitter” 7”—we knew we wanted to experiment with being heavy without being obvious, heavy mood and oppressive emotionally, rather than anything else.

I don’t think “standard” hardcore has ever been relevant to Gallows. We’ve never been a hardcore band and never been accepted as part of the hardcore scene in this band, despite all being hardcore kids. It’s just not what comes out when we pick up instruments.

With this record, we really wanted to just try to achieve different ways of being heavy. There are some magical bands that are able to nail down this illusive way of being heavy without using guitars or kick drum pedals.

Classical music is an example, but there is so much more. We wanted to bring some atmospherics into our music, but in a way that Gallows fans wouldn’t be alienated completely… Yet. What are the themes of the record? It seems like the record is even gloomier than Gallows.

Unlike the last record where we had protest songs, on Desolation Sounds, there are a lot more introspective and, dare I say it, romantic songs on the album that I think everyone can place their own meaning and themes on.

I don’t think Wade would want it being spelled out to people even if I did know what the fuck he was banging on about [laughs].

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?

I would ask that people take the time to give Desolation Sounds a few listens through. It sounds weird to hear this when talking about a Gallows record, but there are some subtle things going on and nuances that I think bring a lot of texture to the record, and I don’t want you to miss that. I think you’ll discover new things every time you hear it.

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INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST JON HERNANDEZ BY BRITTANY MOSELEY

Timeshares guitarist and vocalist Jon Hernandez is in the middle of a two hour and 45 minute drive from Philadelphia to his hometown of Rockland County, NY, for band practice. He and the rest of the band—bassist Mike Natoli, guitarist Jason Mosher, and drummer Eric Bedell, who all contribute vocals as well—will soon converge in Natoli’s mom’s basement for a marathon practice session.

With Hernandez and Natoli in Philly, Mosher in Brooklyn, and Bedell on Long Island, scheduling band practice takes planning. They did, however, manage to carve out some time to write and record their sophomore album—and first for SideOneDummy—Already Dead. Timeshares is known for their scrappy melodic punk, and on Already Dead, they’ve hit their stride. It wasn’t easy getting here, though.

From solving personal problems to figuring out what kind of band they wanted to be, there’s a reason it took them four years to write the follow-up to 2011’s Bearable.

Fortunately, it was worth the wait.

How did you and Mike end up in Philly?

Mike and I are from Rockland County, NY, and it was one of those “We can’t die here” situations [laughs]. […] I realized—just through being a band and all the touring—I had more friends in Philadelphia than I did anywhere else. After I moved here, it became that thing where you keep seeing articles on the Internet about how the bands in Philadelphia are blowing up.

It’s funny, because it’s such a small city that you read those articles, and then you go to the grocery store and everyone in that article is in the produce aisle.

What has been the biggest change since your last album?

When we did the first one, we hadn’t gotten to be in a band like that. The band was an open forum, and we didn’t know Mike and I were going to be the singers. It was like, “Write whatever you want, and it doesn’t matter what the singer thinks because there isn’t one.” It got bunched in with what people call the orgcore scene, like the punknews.org thing. I know why. I heard it too. The idea with that record, especially for me and Mike, was to take that genre— the big heavy hitters of influence like Hot Water Music and Dillinger Four—and be

like, “But wouldn’t it be better if Nick Lowe wrote the melody for this song?” There are a lot of ideas on that record borrowed from Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe.

With [Already Dead] it took us so long to start writing because we didn’t want to go make a bunch of 7”s. We wanted to figure out the direction to take a new set of songs in. I think the idea with this one was to lead toward the influences we thought it was cool [to use], rather than try to breathe them into a pop punk song. It’s still a distorted guitar, melodic record in the same vein, but we learned how to sound like us.

On the first one, we were really excited to be a loud, singalong punk band for the fist time, and on this one, we were like, “Oh wait, we can do whatever we want. We just have to learn how to write songs.”

So, what’s the writing process like for the band now?

It’s super collaborative. It never feels right to me to say, “I wrote this song.” Even if I write a completed song, normally what I would do is go to them and say, “I have some chords and a vocal melody. You guys do something with it,” with me in the room as well. I’ve never had that before: this band where I just like everything they do. I’m in a band with three people who are all on the same wavelength.

Lyrically, what did you want to address on this album?

There was this period when the first album was getting written where all of our lives fell apart at the same time. […] I went through a breakup. Everyone goes through breakups, but I was learning that I don’t know how to deal with adversity at all. I just learned that I was an emotional infant.

[Laughs] I think the second one acts as a natural follow-up to it. With this one, [I’m no longer] harping on the fact that I’m unhappy and don’t know what to do about it. At least 80 percent of the record is trying to figure out what the next move is. I think the record’s about not finding how to make yourself happy, but finding the ability to look for how to make yourself happy.

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For Los Angeles band Wand, 2015 will be a busy year. With their second record Golem due out on March 17 via In The Red Records, and a heavy list of tour dates lined up, this West Coast group is poised for big things.

In alignment with Wand’s mysterious, reverberating psych-pop sound, everything from the band’s name to the title of the upcoming record is shrouded in layers of meaning and backstory.

“The word ‘wand’ has a weird double fantasy meaning to it. A wand, for the most part, is just a stick, but it’s also this way to channel something into a focused point,” says frontman and guitarist Cory Hanson of the band’s moniker. “It’s also a penis, and it’s also a weapon for wizards to fight with.”

Not to be confused with the Canadian band of the same name, Wand creates vast, dazzling compositions influenced by the everyday life of today’s twenty-somethings.

“I was thinking a lot about non-living things: household appliances, computers, cars, trains, phones, fetish-y objects,” Hanson says of his inspiration for Golem.

“I was also really thinking about my body for the first time in my life. It’s something that happens in your mid 20s, where those feelings of resilience start to fade.”

Backed by guitarist Daniel Martens, drummer and percussionist Evan Burrows, and bassist and synth player Lee Landley, Wand pulled from a myriad of sounds and effects for the stunning soundscape of the new album. Working with legendary

producer Chris Woodhouse, Wand recorded and mixed Golem in a packed 12 days at Woodhouse’s The Dock Studios in Sacramento, Calif.

“We would track from noon to midnight, sometimes later depending on the day,” recalls Hanson. “We’d go to a bar, unwind, come back to the studio and jam till 3 or 4 a.m., then get up at 10 and do it all again.”

From this high-pressure recording process, Golem was born.

This strong work ethic is clearly presented in the first single “Self Hypnosis In 3 Days,” which pairs ferocity in musicianship with a refreshingly deep mix of tones. With buzzes, beeps, and flourishes, the track clocks in at 3:53 and spans a spaceship array of sound effects perched atop a howling rock sound.

“There was a lot of analog processing going on,” Hanson notes of the writing process.

“We would take a section of a song or an instrument or field recording, and run it through the filter set on some old analog gear and get these really interesting tones.

Chris had this old analog guitar synth; I remember seeing him use it for noise in his band Mayyors five or six years ago. It had the sweetest sounding violin lead and a rad filter section. We ended up using it on just about every lead on the record.”

Constant experimentation and Woodhouse’s expertise behind the mixer made for a lean, tight sound grown partly from last year’s Ganglion Reef. “With Golem, we wanted to cut a more succinct,

TREASURE FLEET

PHOTOGRAPHY BY PATRICK HOUDEK

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST ISAAC THOTZ BY JOHN B. MOORE

Chicago punk rock supergroup The Treasure Fleet found a remarkably unique way to follow up 2012’s Future Ways. They pulled together a full-length soundtrack, The Sun Machine, and paired it with a sci-fi short film of the same name. “The movie idea came about right at the same time [as the record],” says vocalist Isaac Thotz. “I don’t remember how much I talked about that or how seriously anyone took me at that point, because everyone knew I had no idea how to make a movie.”

“The idea for the record came out of watching television and film,” he continues, “so the imagery was right there at my

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WA N D PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALAN SNODGRASS

fingertips. That is, I knew what the movie should look like if there was a movie, so in a way, that made it much easier. Then it just became a problem of, ‘Okay, how do we actually make this happen?’”

The band is comprised of a virtual who’s who of punk rock, including Thotz from The Arrivals, Neil Hennessy of The Lawrence Arms, Mike Oberlin of Sass Dragons, and newcomer Preston Bryant of Andrew Jackson Jihad. Bryant began filling in for Treasure Fleet on keyboard during a joint tour, eventually becoming a member in 2012, and according to Thotz, “The Sun Machine originated as a plan for Preston

INTE RVIE W W ITH FRO NTMAN C O RY HANS O N BY ANTHO NY CHANG

live oriented record,” Hanson reflects, citing Melvins, Electric Wizard, and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon as influences on the new material.

As Golem’s release date is fast approaching, plans for the rest of 2015 are coming together quickly. An expansive North American tour will take the band from March through to April. “It feels like a strange auto-execution of events,” Hanson says, looking forward. “The plans for the entire year have already been made, and we are just doing the things we promised ourselves we would do.”

With this much in store, Wand is in good shape to hit major milestones in 2015.

Wand’s trajectory is coming together nicely, much like Golem’s towering closing track “The Drift.” “It just sort of popped out of thin air in a great way,” Hanson says. “‘The Drift’ didn’t fit on Ganglion Reef, and it’s really nice to let a song breathe and come back in this whole new setting where it fits perfectly. I’d love to do a record of only songs like that, with no heavy songs at all.” Hanson concludes with a sigh, “Someday.”

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to come back to Chicago in winter 2013 to record a few songs for a series of 7”s.”

shot around our neighborhood in Logan Square. All over the place.”

They recorded the album in Thotz’ attic. “We ended up recording pretty much nonstop from January 1 through the beginning of March,” he explains.

“We set up the studio in my attic, and Preston literally lived up there during that time. I mean, that’s where he slept and everything. When Preston woke up, we’d get to work recording.” On top of a recording studio and bedroom, the attic also became a spaceship. “We filmed scenes inside the spaceship in my attic,” Thotz recalls. “I built a bunch of different sets up there.”

The film premiered at Raindance in London, but the film festival vibe didn’t suit Thotz—“I don’t really have [filmic] ambitions, so it’s just not as fun for me,” he says—so future showings will be limited to smaller events. “We’re showing it in Los Angeles on [Feb.] 20 at Non Plus Ultra as part of our record release show. We have an offer from a venue in Chicago that wants to show it. It screened in Minneapolis at Sound Unseen. It’s showing or has been shown on the Internet by now, I suppose. I haven’t really been trying to get it shown at any other venues at this point. I don’t know if I have the energy for that,” he admits.

The rest of the movie was filmed throughout Chicago and Michigan. “I owned a vacant piece of land in southwest Michigan that we parked a 1973 Winnebago on to camp out on the weekends. So, we used that for some scenes,” explains Thotz. “We got a lot of shots at the Museum of Science and Industry. The museum is really dark with a lot of interesting lighting. There are tons of things built to look modern and futuristic, but that was 60 years ago and it was a future that never came; now it just looks wonderfully dated. So, that stuff is all perfect for our movie, which is supposed to have a sort of outdated sci-fi movie vibe.”

“We shot all around Chicago,” he continues. “The final scenes are at an actual shipwreck offshore in Lake Michigan. It’s this big hunk of iron sticking out of the lake. We shot along the Chicago River. We

NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

When asked about the band’s future plans, Thotz says, “I have absolutely no idea. […]

I actually had a different, kind of large concept record I wanted to do before we started making The Sun Machine. Maybe that project will be the next thing. Or maybe something smaller.”

He has trepidations for a reason. “What eventually became The Sun Machine project was supposed to be a few little recordings we’d do instead of biting off something big. You can see how that turned out. So, if we go in thinking we’re making a concept record, who knows what that might become? That’s kind of a terrifying thought, actually…”

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FAT H E R M U R P H Y

character path. When we got deep down

No, we try to be as far from any kind of

with ourselves in the religious themes,

religion [laughs]. But we feel really at-

we started thinking about what the con-

tracted for the need of religiousness in

cept could be and how to represent the

our lives, but really it’s just another way

concept with sound. From that, we start-

to find empathy or people we love. But

ed thinking how many movements we’d

as for “religions” and something institu-

need to describe such [a] subject, and all

tionalized, we stay away from [that] as

these ideas of Father Murphy represent-

far as possible. It’s sterile, dangerous, and

ing the Catholic sense of guilt.

suffocating. Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. It’s funny, one of Kiara’s relatives

Where the concept for Croce come

is involved with the Church and studied

from?

the Bible for several years, in Hebrew and

Croce is Italian for “cross.” It’s a concept

Sanskrit and everything else. He said the

about the Cross [as] a symbol, and the

worst thing that happened to Christiani-

cross [as] a movement. The first part is INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST REV. FREDDY MURPHY BY JOHN HILL

about sacrifice, what you need to experience and suffer to achieve something

For Father Murphy, religion sets the

Father Murphy is me, myself, Freddy,

bigger or better in terms of conscious-

stage for the Italian duo to build upon

and Kiara Lee. We were a trio years ago,

ness, kind of like a brighter mind in

different themes and sounds to create

up until a couple years recently, because

looking toward things. And of course, for

something impactful. With their upcom-

we needed something more personal and

us, the first example of “cross” is the cru-

ing record, Croce, the duo tells a story

the third member wanted a different life.

cifixion, and Jesus’ sacrifice that he was

ber pop, and occasionally, straight noise.

Croce is pretty heavy. Do you begin

last part is kind of like a triumph march,

Following the record’s March 17 release

with the concept of the record or the

which is something you need.

via The Flenser is an 80 day tour span-

sound?

ning all the stations of the cross.

Each release that we’ve done since we

What’s your relationship with religion

started, it’s like a different concept. Each

like now? Is it observational or are you

release is like a step in Father Murphy’s

practicing?

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ty was the Catholic Church.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARA XIAYU

born in order to get to the cross. And the

about the crucifixion behind scary cham-

Who is Father Murphy?

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25

U

fomammut are an Italian metal trio that is equal parts lumbering juggernaut and swirling synergy. With the release of the band’s seventh studio album Ecate, these ultrasonic alchemists have soldered a mélange of doom, sludge, and psychedelia into a fiery caché of riffed-out songs that blister and buckle with throbbing intensity.

The band will set out on a full U.S. tour, following the record’s release, including their first performance at Maryland Deathfest in Baltimore.

Set for a North American release in March on Neurot Recordings— owned by members of Neurosis— Ecate translates to Hecate, a chthonic Greek goddess, in English. “Ecate is the goddess of three worlds: the world of the humans, the world of the gods, and the world of the dead,” elaborates bassist and vocalist Urlo. “[The first song on the record] ‘Somnium’—the Latin word for dream—is about our life, the way we create our dreams as humans, the soul and the body, our being a sort of vessel moving between these three worlds.”

sound, but it has always been a difficult beast to control. So we try to obtain the best results mixing old and new technology. Big tube amplifiers and analog pedal boards mixed with newer synths and also computer technology is the recipe for Ufomammut.”

about esoteric matters, occultism and such philosophies [in the band’s music]. [Ufomammut’s music] is the search for knowledge within us and to understand the mysteries of life. Knowledge is the essence of being; it’s what moves our will of living.”

Urlo discloses that the band’s odd name is actually a combination of the words for “unidentified flying object” and “mammoth” in Italian.

“It is the perfect mix of past and future, of mysterious things…” he proclaims. “There’s a big confusion

Urlo continues, “Since the beginning, in the myth and into real world, from Eve to the alchemists, from Lucifer to [Aleister] Crowley, the main problem has been trying to free our minds from the cage of reality, taking a rebellion against the common living

and all the rules that make us slaves, looking for the light, looking for knowledge. And to do this, you have to choose a different path, go through something that is unknown. That is ‘occult.’”

“So, if we consider this the concept of occult, I’m very curious about it,” admits Urlo. “And I’m very interested in understanding the esoteric worlds. I like to play with the myths and human fears to understand myself.”

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Of the recording process, Urlo explains, “I sing in English, it’s easier than other languages. I use lots of effects on my voice. I consider the voice as an instrument; it doesn’t have to be in front of the music, it has to be a part of it. I’m not a good singer, so I choose to use my voice as part of the music flow. Speaking of the vocals on Ecate, I must say it is very different from the past [recordings]. I tried to layer them in new ways.”

Ufomammut’s drummer Vita acknowledges that the band’s sound “is a kind of music that doesn’t have any limitations, because it fits with many other genres, sometimes totally different genres. I love to play heavy music because it can be violent and aggressive without hurting anyone,” he concedes.

“The idea of almost out of control waves of sounds,” interjects guitarist Poia. “It is very similar to a natural phenomenon, like a sort of thundering—primitive and cathartic.

Like bashing logs in the hearth of the forest.”

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However, Ecate isn’t all metal. For example, take the keyboard-layered track “Revelation” reminiscent of a Tangerine Dream song. Poia points out that Ufomammut “owns an old Moog, a Taurus, and a Korg that are responsible for many weird sounds [on recordings and at live shows].

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INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST JESSICA BOUDREAUX BY JANELLE JONES

Summer Cannibals release their sophomore full-length Show Us Your Mind on March 3 via New Moss Records.

The Portland, Ore., based band embark on a West Coast tour the same month, and are looking to tour more in May. Their first single “Something New” has even garnered attention form Entertainment Weekly. “[Our publicist] Chris [Hnat] was pitching for premieres and they said yes,” explains vocalist and guitarist Jessica Boudreaux.

The new record follows up 2013’s No Makeup. “This time around, we wanted to record with someone who would give a little more input, so we recorded with Larry Crane at his studio called Jackpot! here in Portland. This one we did all analog, so we did all to tape and we mixed to tape, so that was a lot different. But it was pretty similar too.

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We did it in a week like we did the first record.”

Show Us Your Mind will be self-released through the band’s New Moss Records. “We talked to smaller labels, but when we already have our own small label, it doesn’t really make sense to hand everything over to somebody else,” says Boudreaux. “If we were presented with a bigger opportunity, then we’d consider it. But I like to have some control over what happens with the music and the money. I actually really enjoy doing the different pieces, probably because I’m a control freak.”

Boudreaux tackles most of the band’s songwriting, but that dynamic may change soon. “I bring a pretty much finished product to the band, and things will change and evolve once we start playing it and they put their spin on it, but for the most part the songs

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are done. So, I’m trying to learn how to make it more collaborative.” vv“I usually have a drumbeat in mind,” Boudreaux continues. “I’ll put a bass part to it and then add guitars, and then I’ll write the lyrics. I usually have, like, a word document with different lines that I like, just random things that pop into my head. […] When I say ‘random,’ it’s still taken from experiences. It’s just different things that I think sound cool or smart,” she laughs.

A more collaborative approach will be possible due to the band’s current solid lineup. “[Bassist] Jenny [Logan] and [drummer] Devin [Shirley] have joined the band as our new rhythm section. I think they’ve played three or four shows with us, but they’re awesome. [Guitarist and original member] Marc [Swart] and I were just working on trying to find a group who

wanted to tour, and wanted to go for it and make it a full-time thing, which isn’t easy and it takes a lot of time. It took some trial and error to find people who were ready to do that.”

The band has done some touring, according to Boudreaux. “We toured the Midwest with Chvrches, we’ve done regional stuff supporting The Thermals, and we’ve done our own headlining West Coast tour. Apart from that, we mostly focus on Pacific Northwest stuff, because we figure it’s one step at a time trying to grow an audience and get people out. Hopefully, this year we’ll go to the East Coast.”

After all is said and done, Boudreaux has finally found a musical home with Summer Cannibals. “I’ve never been as excited and proud of the music I was making as I am right now.”

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nyone who falls in love with Portugal’s Moonspell becomes a lifelong fan.

Since their inception, Moonspell have forged their own path through Dante’s Inferno to the liberation of the spirit. Their dense thicket of poetry shows a range of styles, transcending genre from the beginning, before it was trendy. Whether it is the tribal punch of The Antidote, the extreme metal of Memorial, the gothic classic Irreligious, or the vertiginous strings on new song “Medusalem,” Moonspell are pioneers under the funeral full moon. Their new album Extinct—due out in March via Napalm Records—is another gem in their black crown.

“When [Type O Negative frontman] Peter Steele passed away, I thought of him and thought Extinct would be a good name for something,” says mysterious vocalist Fernando Ribeiro. “There will never be another Peter Steele. The death of a talent.

The death of the light colored green, basically. He’s not coming back anymore. Sometimes also, there is lack of love. Love gets extinct. Lack of rules. Back in the early days of the band, we would hang out, drink beer, whatever. Once death comes, all the memories, they are gone. Extinct. So, it was a logical step to go on a search about extinction. Lost animals.

Lost loves. I read hundreds, maybe thousands of pages about extinction.”

Bloom” finds Ribeiro’s singular croon circling with dark, gothic romance.

Still, the record contains the horror and shadows that fans of Moonspell’s metal side love. Can beauty be reborn from ashes?

“It was a process in nature, but nowadays, most extinction is caused by humankind pissing on the wrong places,” Ribeiro reflects. “Everything we bring upon ourselves, including our personal lives, is part of the concept. It leads to more questions than many other albums.”

“I’d like to be more hopeful,” says Ribeiro. “We had an album called Darkness and Hope. That was a beautiful time, and sometimes, I think that album title defined my life. Sometimes I feel like Extinct, where we are hitting the black wall of extinction. Some people like to hit their heads against that black wall.

But sometimes, I think if I hit my head hard enough, maybe I will make a crack in that wall and see beyond through the ashes. I can accept a ray of light. So Extinct, even though the album is very [dark], there are hopeful thoughts.”

Every Moonspell album features night and day cinematic moments, especially their recent acclaimed companion albums Alpha Noir and Omega White. However, this new release is a bit more gothic. “Funeral

Ribeiro pauses and laughs, “To talk about extinction you have to be… alive. It’s a witness thing. Sometimes, it’s hard to be a witness as well. When there is suffering, and someone dies, you see the pain. ‘Funeral Bloom’ is

very symbolic and about moving on.

If you take a picture and everything is only pitch black, you don’t have a picture. We operate in many realms of grey, because it is the most adamant state of mind for human beings. The grey scale.”

Whether from darkness or light, Moonspell never lacks for inspiration.

“We have a lot of problems in Moonspell, but obviously that isn’t one of them,” Ribeiro jokes.

“Every band has great moments and shortcomings. When it comes to being creative, we don’t have a problem, because with our fans we can achieve what any band have only dreamed was possible. I’m a romantic, totally, when it comes to Moonspell, and Moonspell always keeps moving.

It’s a very full experience for us.”

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f you try to define Young Guv, aka Ben Cook, you are going to fail. He grew up fronting modern hardcore heroes No Warning, then joined the ranks of Fucked Up just as they were transitioning from a band of hardcore traditionalists to avant-punk weirdos.

But then, he started a plethora of diverse projects, including Marvelous Darlings, The Bitters, and Yacht Club. On his newest release—Ripe 4 Luv, available via Slumberland Records on March 10—Young Guv fashions an eclectic sound that is reminiscent of all his previous work, but can’t be described by just a few adjectives.

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The new album is hard to pin down. Did you purposefully set out to create a new sound?

I didn’t really set out to create a new sound and… I’m not sure that I did… but thank you! […]

My solo music doesn’t really follow a specific vibe or style except for generally making sure the songwriting is bangin’.

I knew I wanted a clean, sparkling, diamond, champagne-like, twinkly pop record based around the guitar.

Anthony [Nemet], my co-producer, Steve [Chahley], my engineer, and I have been dubbing the sound “chimp pop.” It references the FX unit from the ‘80s that we ran everything through, which is called “The Chimp Box.” We had a minimal approach in terms of track layering and that gave a general chimpy vibe to some of the playing, sounds, and vocal arranging.

“Wrong Crowd” has that distanced, almost chilling sound.

The song was inspired by a story I heard on a podcast about a man from Virginia who was hanging with some people one night in his teens. They held up a Burger King. […] He raised a family, got a job, started his own business, only for the courts 10 years later to catch up with him and send him off to jail already a reformed, positive contributing member of society. It was a heartbreaking piece.

Fucked Up also still makes music somewhat hardcore based. Well, maybe it’s more punk based…

I don’t really understand when people think that just because someone makes one kind of music, they can’t make another. I’m a musician; I’m a huge music fan. I love so much. I want to do a lot and I will. […] When you come up in hardcore or punk, things move faster. You bang out songs. You don’t look back. You forget they even exist sometimes. There’s a certain energy. One take, done. Songs arranged. Could it be better? Maybe?

Who cares, let’s record it and make another. There’s no overthinking anything, no time to second guess. I don’t necessarily approach everything I do in this way, but the feeling is still there.

Speaking of the pop/punk divide, you’ve ghostwritten songs for Taylor Swift!

I wrote some demos for her a long time ago. Most of them weren’t used.

I’ve ghostwritten some horrible songs, though! It’s a lot better writing songs for other people, because you don’t have to hear yourself.

A lot of songs on the new album seem to deal with sex and relationships…

Yes, there’s a lot of that on this album.

But, to me, it’s more an album about people in general, masked by the classic love song delivery. The album is about lack of love, the crushing feeling of trying to feel loved, the confusing feeling of trying to love yourself, the love of a mother, the love of a stranger, trying so hard to love something you’re supposed to, but never being able to. I’m not sure it’s based on my specific personal relationships with girlfriends, but more a reflection of things I’ve seen and felt around me over time.

Many feel that hardcore is inherently at odds with pop music. Is that distinction valid?

Maybe I’m wrong, but hardcore is one of the last large musical bodies not completely infiltrated by corporate business, blogs, and brands. A lot of it is still run by the people involved, and that’s an awesome thing.

I ain’t no D’Angelo. I grew up on ‘90s R&B. It’s some of my favorite stuff. Not in a modern R&B way, either. I like it FACEBOOK.COM/NEWNOISEMAGS

You used to be in a pretty raucous hardcore band, and then had the guts to make pop music…

I still make hardcore music. I released a song with No Warning last year called “Resurrection of the Wolf,” and it was the most hardcore song of the year, by far. [Laughs]… [Straight faced] I’m not kidding though.

What about “Kelly, I’m Not a Creep”?

I wrote it with my old roommate, Marvelous Mark. It was about our upstairs neighbor who would wait in the laundry room for us sometimes, and be really sexually suggestive and forward to us both. It was pretty awesome, and we respected her a lot for her intimidating boldness and power.

Some of the songs sound like slow burning “lover jams.” What is it like knowing that people might be having sex to the sound of your voice?

I’d find it amazing, and I’m glad you said that, even though I’m not sure it’s going to happen! But, if it does, I hope it lasts more than five minutes…

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all. I like the corny stuff. I know every Boyz II Men lyric, vocal, and harmony. Backstreet Boys and N’Sync, too.

If a small sliver of that translates into my chimpy-ass no-brainer pop songs, that’s a good thing.

I don’t think they are at odds with the pop world. I’d be surprised if 95 percent of the hardcore community didn’t think Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” was an incredible song. […] So, while I think these worlds are definitely and intentionally light years apart, they are not necessarily “at odds.” Maybe at some point they were, but now? Nah. The Internet changed that game.

Your album is masculine, but not macho. Is the macho aspect of hardcore a virtue or a failing?

I guess, both. Ignorant, trashy, loser-ass men have made some pretty amazing music over time. Too bad they are such dicks.

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n their latest effort Liars/ Bastards—their first for Candlelight Records— Bristol’s Hateful Abandon continue to perfect their brand of atmospheric, cold, and highly powerful post-punk. To give a sense of the band’s worldview and musical philosophy, Swine summarizes: “Listen to music. Prepare for the future. Gather loved ones and supplies.” The heretofore studio-only band is just starting to play out and say the music has been sounding even better live, with Swine promising “catharsis for all.”

What influences your lyrics, and how does the music come together?

Swine: Musically, we both share a vision born from bleak realism, indignation, love, hate, all the primal emotions. We don’t even need to talk about the atmospheres we want to create with our music anymore. We sense it, we feel it every day; it’s in our blood. We just need to keep creating with these visions, learning, crafting our way through the mire.

Lyrically, I can’t speak for Vice or take credit for any of his lyrical work, but it would be along the same lines as mentioned above. The majority of the time his written work kicks off the sonic output.

magnified tenfold each year that passes. As long as people have their “super-fast broadband” and massproduced slop to fill themselves with, nobody cares. A violent and grey end is inevitable, and sooner than everybody thinks! [Hateful Abandon] is about acceptance more than anything else. Way past protest.

Way past pleading. It’s survival. And a celebration of what we do have left. Party music for the apocalypse.

Bristol. I used to get the bus into the city on the weekends with Kaptain, [guitarist for Salute, for whom Swine plays bass], and he introduced us at the pub, smashing down sopping wet cold ones and talking bullshit. […]

Vice came up with the idea of starting a group together; he had the basic ideas set in place and I was to play drums and engineer the recording.

How long did writing and recording this record take?Swine: The writing and recording process probably took about eight to 10 days, spread over 18 months or so. We don’t get to meet up much, but when we do, it’s more of a celebration. We let loose in the studio, starting early in the morning and usually finishing around 4 a.m. the next day, heavily intoxicated. We work furiously with the time we get and the barbaric equipment we have. Humour is key.

Things just fell into line, we shared the same level of enthusiasm for finding new music, and working together was fucking easy for once, a pleasure. That is actually why we continued, because we enjoyed it so much. No barriers or chains in place, just freedom to record any music we wanted without giving two shits.

Again, a celebration of creativity rather than wanting to be a rock star or any of that bullcrap. I’d say we are most proud of making Liars/ Bastards and having Candlelight approach us with a recording offer.

For those unfamiliar: how, when, and why did you get together?

And what have you been most proud of accomplishing to date?

Swine: I think around 2003, we met in

You just released this album, what are some of your other plans for 2015?

Swine: We’re currently preparing our live show, and will start writing the next record at the end of February.

All this will keep us busy for the rest of the year.

Vice: We’re so close to being ready to play live, it’s a matter of days away really. It’s a really exciting feeling knowing that we can share this music with people right in front of us and hopefully have some fun. What really excites me is recording album four this year. We have some ideas that we hope will really blow people apart.

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Vice: I just can’t see what the next step for the human race is. It seems that every negative human trait is

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to challenge ourselves artistically constantly, and to try and bridge the gap between vision and action so that it is as close as possible to being nonexistent.

In Times is the 13th Enslaved album. Is this a good sign or are you superstitious? Has Bragi the Bard has smiled on you, or did Iðunn give you some fruit of immortality?

GK: Well, we are certainly not Knight Templars and we do not fear that the Catholic Church will initiate a massacre on us—at least not in the nearest future.

So, I think we’ll be just fine, 13th album or not. As children, we fell in Suttung’s favorite mead, so we will most likely release many more albums!

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NTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST AND BASSIST GRUTLE KJELLSON, AND GUITARIST AND KEYBOARDIST IVAR BJØRNSON BY MORGAN Y. EVANS

egendary Norwegian metallers Enslaved release their 13th album, In Times, on March 10 via Nuclear Blast. Their North American tour to support the album kicks off March 5, and will feature doom trio Yob and heavy psych outfit Ecstatic Vision.

Enslaved have always been on your own path and such a vital, next level band. How does it feel to be where you are now?

GK: It feels great to be in a band that is still growing and evolving after almost 25 years—our anniversary next year! Most bands are usually history after four to five years, so this is an achievement in itself.

The weird thing is that it’s becoming more and more enjoyable to make records, not the opposite! I’m really happy to still be in a band with Ivar, because together, we make a unity that is always looking further and always eager to explore new musical territories.

From the very beginning, we’ve had the philosophy that there are no rules or recipes when it comes to writing and making music.

“Building With Fire” has a powerful marching riff. What does it mean to you?

IB: We are in a very good place 32

as a band, and personally, I have experienced tremendous progress in my various work, Enslaved being one of the cornerstones. So it could perhaps be an audio representation of the strength that is being felt both in the band and on a personal level! I’d rather have the riffs sound strong and powerful than suicidal, but that’s just a matter of taste I guess. [Laughs]

yourself are in charge of, in deciding the outcome through your effort and dedication, you will succeed no matter what the “world” should think of it.

Our mission is to make music we enjoying immensely ourselves,

The title track speaks of crossing the “ocean of time.” Is time the last frontier of the musician and all explorers?

IB: You could perhaps argue that it is the last frontier for the earthly explorations of musicians, Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and other explorers, but once you cross that barrier, you are free to enter other dimensions outside of time and space. In that respect, it is also a beginning of something new and eternal. Every end is also a beginning.

[Laughs] I have no idea why that is funny, but it is.

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How did you choose Truls Espedal’s majestic artwork for the cover of In Times?

GK: Because we made it together! Ivar and I are always “art directors,” and we always have the concept of the cover ready before we meet up with Truls and present our ideas to him. Then, we will sit down for six to seven hours, have some drinks, and make sketches.

That said, we are always surprised and overwhelmed when Truls has finished the artwork! This time, I think he totally hit the bullseye. The cover art is a perfect projection of our lyrics. You can almost say that the songs are the soundtrack to his painting!

How has the mission and drive of Enslaved remained so strong over the years?

IB: I think it has to do with the kind of ambition and motivation you have from the beginning. If you make sure to line up the goals in a way that you NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

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rom deep in the Netherlands comes of trio of ghastly storytellers who are sure to bring your worst nightmares to life. Even fairytales offer no respite, as is witnessed on the band’s latest release, This Is No Fairytale. Based on The Brothers Grimm classic “Hansel and Gretel,” this is not the cartoon version you saw as a sprout. It is a story of abuse, tragedy, and candy so sickeningly sweet that you’ll be vomiting your guts out all over the peppermint walkway.

A concept album based on “Hansel and Gretel” seems odd for black metal, even though it is explicitly bleak, which is the Carach Angren style.

We never deliberately choose this story, but [keyboardist] Ardek came up with the idea of having a fairytale influenced concept album. We almost went for it on the previous record, but later decided on war. So this time, I @ NEWNOISEMAGS

started to think and write about wellknown fairytales. I remember trying to write “Sleeping Beauty,” but I didn’t come far with it.

So I thought, “Let’s give ‘Hansel and Gretel’ a shot.” It was cannibalistic, to me, because the witch tries to feed Hansel in order to eat him… And then it just rolled out of my sleeve.

We began to wonder, “Why would people tell their children stories about their parents abandoning them, so that they might come along to an evil witch’s house of candy?” We thought that maybe it was a lesson to teach them not to take candy from strangers.

So I took Grimm’s “Hansel and Gretel” as a basis for this concept, and I literally rewrote the tale into a horrifying realistic version. It could be happening today or tomorrow and it’s the worst-case scenario. Hansel and Gretel may have survived happily

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ever after, but not in our tale!

The first single is “There’s No Place Like Home,” which seems to be based on child abuse. Is child abuse a major epidemic that you wanted to showcase on this record?

We were searching for a new concept and I came up with one sick fucking story. The guys told me that it would be perfect for a concept album, even though it was actually meant for just one song. But I had written so much detail that it could never fit into just one song, and that’s how This Is No Fairytale was born.

Child abuse is one of the darkest things in our world if you ask me, and it’s an evil that will always exist.

You notice that I call the father a motherfucker and a bastard, so as a band, we are clearly against such things. But you have to know that child abuse is a very essential part of this concept. We all have a problem

with it and I strongly believe as a songwriter that this story has a perfect balance of ingredients to make the concept work. We never even wanted to mention such horror.

But then again, horror is what Carach Angren is all about. Or maybe I’m just fucking sick in the head. But that feels good and I’m proud of it.

What do you think is the moral of this dark tale, if any?

I don’t know if you should learn anything. We just want to provide the world with the filthiest forms of horror and get credit for it. [Laughs] If you were to be a victim in this story, the wisest thing that I could suggest would be to blow your damn brains out before the fairytale even begins.

The victims in our stories always have a real shitstorm on their hands.

Happy endings are only for the evil ones; otherwise Carach Angren would be out of business. It’s not just drama. It’s horror!

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orisont is an underground hard rock band from Sweden on Rise Above Records, a British label owned by Lee Dorrian, the former frontman of doom metal masters Cathedral. The Swedish quintet’s retro-fueled heaviness combines elements of ‘70s classic rock and early ‘80s metal with contemporary sensibilities.

Guitarist Tom Sutton—the newest member of Horisont, an Australian, and their only non-Swede— describes their music as “intense vocals, twin-guitar action, and a rhythm section that will knock you down! We’re very classic rock influenced, but there’s a lot of early heavy metal sound to what we do too. We don’t like to rely on tired, clichéd riffs you’ve heard a thousand times before.” He lists their influences as “Deep Purple, Electric Light Orchestra, Scorpions, Saxon, Rainbow, UFO, Molly Hatchet, and Judas Priest.”

At the end of 2014, the band released a two song 7” on colored vinyl titled Break the Limit. The songs include the title track “Break the Limit”—a classic rock homage—and “Yellow Blues”—a keyboard-soaked, fist-pumping powerhouse.

“The Break the Limit 7” was recorded last summer at Studio Kust in Gothenburg, [Sweden],” explains Sutton.

“We had a long tour with Spiders and Vidunder coming up and we wanted something new to have for people, [plus] some new songs to play. We’re really happy with the results.”

Sutton is passionate about the release. “I’ve recently been listening to the B-side, ‘Yellow Blues,’” he says. “It ends with so much guitar fire that I think to myself, ‘‘Break the Limit’ can’t stand up to this!’ But then I flip the record over, and I remember that ‘Break the Limit’ totally rules too!

We made a video for that song, and it turned out great. It’s the most sat-

isfied we’ve ever been with a video so far. It really represents us and what we’re about.”

Horisont is currently recording their fourth studio album, to be released on Rise Above this year. “We’ve got about eight completed songs,” Sutton reveals. “And a few still to get finished up. We have no date set [for the release, but] I got to tell you, we’re super happy with the new songs.”Once the new record is completed,

Horisont definitely has plans to tour the States. “We’ve just joined the roster of a [prominent] booking agency [in the U.S.],” discloses Sutton. “I’ve toured there once before when I was in Church Of Misery. It was one of the best tours I’ve ever done. Super fun! People talk about the fact that it’s harder to tour the States than Europe—and they’re right for a few reasons—but it’s also totally amazing in the U.S. The landscape there is stunning, and there’s a real energy.”

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INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST NICK THOMPSON BY JOHN HILL

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011’s Invicta helped Hit The Lights become acquainted with a new pop-punk populous more concerned with substance than with style. With this year’s yet untitled full-length LP, they’ll be able to get back to making songs that rip no matter what anyone’s wearing.

What happened between 2008 and 2012? The Coast To Coast EP came out, and then you guys signed to Universal Republic for a minute, but didn’t release a record until 2012.

It was four years, which is a long time between records. It was exciting at first, because we were actually on a major [label], which for a bunch of Ohio kids in a pop punk band is something we always dreamed of. It’s like you’ve made it. […] At that time, there were a lot of songwriters, which was a situation we weren’t completely comfortable with, but now, I think we learned a lot going through it.

We couldn’t release a record, it was on hold, and a lot of our momentum was just pointlessly going down the drain. That got frustrating, and after a while, we lost confidence in ourselves and our songwriting, because we couldn’t get an okay from anyone or any feedback on the songs. We finally got released from our contract when they cleared the slate and got a new president. We signed with Razor & Tie, and—bectause of that experience we went through—we wanted to make a record that was really different. Some people love that record and some people don’t, which wasn’t anything we weren’t expecting.

How did you respond to people complaining that you had changed your sound?

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obviously, but we got a lot riffier with our stuff. That comes from touring, playing songs live, and what kind of energy you want to put out into the crowd, which is what we did good on Skip School, [Start Fights, 2008]. And then we kind of went with that to a more artistic point with Invicta. You can’t make everyone happy either; we could’ve done Skip School, Start Fights 2, and it might not do well because people would be like, “Oh, there’s no progression or change.” It comes down to us; if we’re not loving doing it, then there’s no point in doing it. That’s what got us on the road, because we loved to make music. Invicta was something that had to happen for us to cleanse ourselves of the bitter situations building up to it.

Where did you guys want to go with the new record?

At this point, we weren’t totally sure we wanted to do another record.

[We] took some time off, everyone took some time apart. That’s when I started Thief Club, and got to play a lot of songs I had on the side that I never got to release. I felt like by doing that I could progress as a songwriter, get those songs off my chest, and do something different from the Hit The Lights stuff.

When we felt confident enough, [guitarist] Omar [Zehery] and I talked about crowdfunding our record.

Which is when our booking agent

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contacted Pure Noise, who expressed interest in putting out the record. And Pure Noise is just on their fucking A game—as far as pop punk especially— in the scene right now. So, this is the best situation we could be in. We didn’t know if this would be our last record or not. I think we wanted something that made it up to fans who liked SS,SF, but at the same time, gave us progression. I truly believe everything on this record encapsulates the past, but at the same time, [stands on] its own with more aggression, riffier.

I’ve been keeping an eye on Kyle Black to produce, because he’s been doing a lot of records I like. I knew he had the chops to make our riffs and stuff really rip. Jake gave us the go-ahead to do the record with Kyle, [we] booked it, went out there for a month, busted our asses, and lost our minds, but we came out with an awesome project I’m super proud of. Definitely my favorite project, and it should be out March or April. I think it’s a real spring-summer record that’s meant to be heard with the windows down.

What sort of lyrical themes did you want to chase after with this new record?

That’s a good question. At the time, I had broken up with my girlfriend and stuff, and I was at a point where I’d have to move out directly after the record. I was in a fucked up state of mind, which helped out a lot. I think a lot of the record talks about the uncertainty of where you want to go

in life, what you find meaning in, and what happens that actually is. I turned 30 this past year, so there was this point of think[ing about] what makes you happy, what you want to do. I’m sort of writing positive lyrics, and to me, they come off as cheesy. I was tired of writing songs like “Body Bag” and even “Drop The Girl,” which had some dark aspect to them. Yeah they’re really poppy, but there’s some dark shit going on and that’s something I wanted to move away from, [toward] more positive and upbeat songs. It’s funny fighting with my cynicism, being like, “Well, is it cheesy or are you so fucking cynical you can’t deal with something positive?” So, it was finding that balance. It also goes for morality as a band, and mortality and what you believe in. We didn’t want to do something that just pleased fans, but it had to be something people could relate to. We wanted to [make] something that we’d be okay going on stage [with] every night without cringing.

If someone picks up the record and hasn’t heard you guys in a while, what would you hope they get from it?

I don’t know. I think there’s just a lot of energy, a lot of riffing and ripping, and I think what’s going to hit them.

It’s something we’re known best for. As far as something they can take away, it’s up to them. We’ve integrated a lot of the sounds from each of our records into this in the best way possible. I think, mainly, they should just listen to it and have fun. It’s poppy as hell, and it’s meant to be enjoyed. It’s all up to them in the long run. Play it on a sunny day and have a good time.

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I N T E R V I E W W I T H G U I TA R I S T S A N D V O C A L I S T S M I C H A E L C A R T E R A N D J O S H H AY E S B Y D U S T I N V E R B U R G

O///sé is a punk band based in both Oakland, Calif., and Portland, Ore. They’re all veterans of other bands, and their various styles and influences meld together into a frenetic, dense, and furious form of garage punk. Their newest album, Lower Berth, is out now via 1859 Records.

How did you record Lower Berth, and how long did it take?

MC: We recorded the songs on a few different weekends with Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer Studios [in Oakland]. We’re so stoked to be able to get Greg in on this. I think he tapped into an element of the songs we didn’t know was there. My voice blew out on the last day of doing vocals and I had to record a couple songs with Robert Bartleson at Haywire Recording in Portland. The whole thing took a lot longer than we thought, and we’re really happy to see this thing see the light of day.

This album is darker than the self-titled and Beach Bathroom Bingo, especially the title track. How did you choose the title? Does “berth” refer to space, function, or capacity?

JH: The name Lower Berth had been rolling around in my brain for a while. I liked the ring of it. It was also the episode of “Tales From The Crypt” where they reveal the origin of the Crypt Keeper, so there’s that.

But mostly, it brought images and feelings to my mind of stifled birthrights and predetermined destinies. […] It’s a degradation of sorts. The song had been written, I had that done for a while, but had no lyrical ideas. Mike came along and polished that up nicely.

As far as the album sounding darker as a whole, we all changed our lives around a bit since the first album and EP, so maybe that’s coming through.

Not sure.

“Lower Berth” is also the longest track you’ve recorded, right? And it’s on the same record with the shortest track you’ve ever recorded, “Given Up.” Usually, short songs are furious and longer songs have a

bit more space, but it’s the opposite here.

JH: Yeah, I mean, they come out like they come out… There’s no real science to it on our part. Probably the opposite of science, whatever that is.

What would that be? Christianity?

Never mind, then, it’s science.

Are you taking anyone else on your European tour? Are you excited or nervous?

MC: We’ll be out in Europe in May and June with Jan [Matthias] from Yo-Yo Records. Jan is quite possibly the best tour buddy anyone can ask for, and we’re really excited to be going to a few new spots in Spain and Sweden. Since it’s rare for the four of us get together, the only thing we want to do is be in each other’s company and play together. We’re also doing four shows in the States, along with this tour, playing two shows in Portland, and shows in Oakland and Ventura. Getting back to Ventura is one of the highlights for me. It’s been a while since I’ve been back, and I miss everything to an immeasurable degree. Some of the best people I’ve met and the best shows I’ve seen have been out of this city. I don’t think there’s any nervousness between any of us, just the anxiousness to get things going.

Why did you cover Tom Waits’ “Dirt in the Ground” for one of Lower Berth’s bonus tracks?

MC: I’ve been into Tom Waits for a while. I ended up driving seven hours to see him on the Glitter and Doom tour a few years back. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen, hands down. […] I’ve wanted to do this song for a long time, and we had no idea what the outcome would be—we just did it.

The only way for us to approach arrangement is to fall into it like a trip: fall in front of a bunch of people and walk away like it never happened. ИO///sé is a pretty mysterious band.

You only have a Facebook and a Bandcamp. Are you leery of social media? What’s the best way for fans to communicate with you?

JH: I wouldn’t say we’re leery at all; we just don’t care enough. That’s probably an honest answer. We’d rather play shows and tour, and that only works out certain times of year, so what do we have to say to everyone via our Facebook page? What do we have to report on? Not much. The best way to communicate [with us] would be through the Bandcamp or Facebook; we’re totally reachable. We like to hear from people.

Other than touring the Northwest, Europe, and California, what else do you have coming up?

JH: We’ll have another 7” out later this year or early next year, hopefully. We recorded a few more songs during Lower Berth, and we’d like to get them out. There should be a cassette tape of Lower Berth coming out sometime this year, too. Other than that, I’d really like to record all our Europe shows and see if we can’t get a half decent live [record] out of them.

We’ll see!

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espite having a moniker that isn’t very search engine friendly, California hatemongers Nails have certainly made a massive name for themselves in the extreme metal underground with their atomic mix of punk, grind, thrash, and death metal.

Since the band erupted onto the scene with 2009’s Obscene Humanity 12” and subsequent LPs Unsilent Death and Abandon All Life, their sound has been compared to everything from being murdered on the neighbor’s front lawn to an atom bomb exploding. This is likely because their hardcore riffs are blasted through the Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal made famous by Swedish bands like Entombed and Dismember.

Due to this lethal mixture, they’re commonly called “Entombedcore,” but that doesn’t necessarily phase guitarist and vocalist Todd Jones. “It doesn’t bother me, because I’m just happy that people are talking about our band. I think that’s a term that people use to marginalize what we do, but fuck it, man. I’m just glad to not be called ‘AskingAlexandriacore’ or something like that.”

No matter how their music is described, Jones believes their hateful objective has remained crystal clear.

“Some of the adjectives people use to describe our music, it blows my hair back sometimes. It’s pretty cool, man, I like people being enthusiastic,” he exclaims. “That’s one thing I’ll say about Nails, is I don’t think we’ve ever been misunderstood. Throughout the history of Nails, press seems like they understand us, and our fans understand us, so I think that maybe we’ve done a good job of conveying that emotion.”

For fans attending Saturday night of the New England Metal & Hardcore Festival, Nails’ sheer intensity and hatred will be on full display alongside thrash icons Tesament, Exodus, and Nuclear Assault. This isn’t their first time playing the festival, but it’s a special event every time they play. “New England Metal & Hardcore Festival started out and has put a lot of great bands in front of people who may have never heard of ‘em before—I’m talking about years before Nails was even a band— and they’re still doing it to this day,” enthuses Jones. “This will be our third appearance at the festival since 2011, and they’re one of the first three festivals who ever booked Nails, who ever co-signed us and promoted us.

That means a lot to me, because they did that pretty early on. So it’s still pretty damn special for us to go there and play.”

The band’s incredible sound and vicious live shows have been met with an overwhelmingly positive reception from fans and press alike, and have resonated through the music

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industry as well. “The band puts so much thought into songwriting that it makes their music stand out,” says Dave Brenner, co-owner of Earsplit PR. “Though they are ‘just another’ blasting, downtuned, disgustingly heavy band in the sea of acts out there, Nails continually trims the fat and reworks their parts so they hook you quicker than most bands. And their presence, both on record and on stage, is just unfuckwithable. It’s an obvious trait that carries through every note. It’s not media hype; Nails delivers pure adrenaline.”

Eventually, the band’s unflinchingly heavy sound managed to attract the attention of Nuclear Blast Entertainment president Monte Conner, which led to their signing in June 2014. “What attracted me to Nails is the sheer brutality of their music,” says Conner. “Just check out the This Is Hardcore 2013 Fest on YouTube. Watch the show’s opener ‘Unsilent Death’ and you will see exactly why I signed Nails. It is sheer brutality and viciousness of the highest degree. In addition, I like the integrity that Todd Jones and the band maintain across their entire vision. These are smart guys with good heads on their shoulders: the kind of people I like to align myself with.”

what we’re worth, we know who our audience is, we know what kind of music we play, and we’re just gonna do what we do.”

Currently, the band has begun the process of making their Nuclear Blast debut, but it might be a while before we hear any new music. “We’re like halfway done with it,” Jones confesses.

“We were supposed to record it in December [2014], but we didn’t have the satisfactory tunes available. We just didn’t have tunes that we liked well enough to record, so we’re still writing the record, and we have plans to record it at the end of December.

By that time, we believe that we’ll have an album that is something we feel represents us well, and an album that is comparable to Unsilent Death and Abandon All Life in quality and precision.”

still be doing their new record with Kurt Ballou at God City Studios, and you can still expect another vicious hellstorm of an album. Nails would have it no other way. “The only thing that matters to us is that we make a record that we like,” Jones says. “That’s what we’ve always done, and if we make a record, in theory, I suppose our fans will like it as long as we stick to the same principles.”

No matter how big Nails gets, they remain grateful for everything they have. “We’re just happy to be doing what we do and having an audience for it. We’re fucking beyond thrilled about that.”

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While the band may be on a bigger label, they’ll

For Jones, being noticed and signed

by Conner—a legend in the world of heavy metal—was definitely a dream come true. “When I heard that Monte Conner was interested in our band, that was the big milestone for me. Because he’s the person who made Roadrunner Records what they are. Coming from my perspective as a dude who likes early ‘90s death metal, when I think of Roadrunner Records, I think of the first Sepultura record, I think of the first three Deicide records, I think of the first two Obituary records, and all of those were Monte Conner. It blew my mind that he was interested in signing our band. It was kinda like, ‘Holy shit!’”

Though Nuclear Blast is normally associated with more mainstream metal bands, Brenner believes the signing makes complete sense. “I think it’s a great move, as it will definitely open up new metal fans to Nails. While the band’s output is definitely over the top extreme, they have been more accepted by the hardcore and grindcore communities overall, but with Nuclear Blast, I envision way more of a response from the thrash and death metal world.”

As a band with primarilyunderground leanings, signing to a big label in 2015 is never an easy decision. However, it’s a move about which Jones and co. are very confident. “I’m not so sure that they expect us to be the next Sepultura or the next Carcass.

They do have expectations for us, but they’re very reasonable. I think it’s a good fit. We’re not expecting to completely rise up and be a band that’s headlining Wacken Fest in Germany.

We don’t have any illusions. We know NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACKIE VITETTA

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IEW BY INTERV NTILE GE JOHN

uring the recording of their new album, Tales from Wyoming, the members of Teenage Bottlerocket took a lunch break. Someone went out on a McDonald’s run and soon enough, there were fries, Big Macs, chicken nuggets, and shakes spread throughout Fort Collins’ Blasting Room recording studios. An engineer walked in the room, glanced at the greasy food, and with a look of disgust on his

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face said, “That’s the fucked up thing about you guys… you… you act like you’re still in high school. Someone didn’t send you the memo to start eating better… When are you going to grow up?”

Little did the engineer know that Tales from Wyoming, by its nature, muses on that exact concept. Of course, being a Teenage Bottlerocket album, it’s packed full of songs about girls, grue-

some horror movies, and psychos—it kinda seems like the band likes ‘em.

Despite the litany of adolescent delights, the band ranges between the ages of 29 and 37. Are Teenage Bottlerocket a bunch of man-children with severely stunted personal development or are they a quartet of wise Buddhas who know exactly what the true joys in life are?

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“I don’t know if we ever look at ourselves that deeply,” says guitarist Kody Templeman. “When you’re in a band for as long as we have been, it’s hard to grow up. We don’t necessarily sit down and think about ourselves.”

“If we have grown up, it’s been an unconventional growing up process,” continues bassist Miguel Chen. “A lot of people think that when you grow up, you start to care about different

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to look forward to. ‘Let’s meet up and play some music together.’ I mean, if it wasn’t for Wyoming, I wouldn’t even be in a band, because the whole reason I know about punk rock is because the guy who lived up the street from me showed me his Green Day and Screeching Weasel records.”

The fact that they grew up in the middle of nowhere may be the reason Tales from Wyoming is a crowning achievement for the band. The band is often compared to the Descendents, and Tales from Wyoming is the first Teenage Bottlerocket album produced entirely by Mr. Descendents himself, Bill Stevenson.

The Bottlerockets and Stevenson clicked, both having dedicated themselves to a mantra of eternal youth(fulness). “He’s been this nice, enthusiastic guy for as long as I’ve known him,” Chen says. “There’s a lot of ‘stokeage.’ He pushed me to do better than I ever have before… But also, a part of it is farts, you know? Even on the last Descendents album, there were songs about farts. I mean, that shit is funny. The fact is, that Bill— with all he’s done and all the things that he has been through—can still appreciate farts and think they are funny is awesome. I took a lot from that.”

things—a career, a family. But, when you grow up in a punk band, you get to still enjoy the things that you enjoyed when you were younger. I still like horror movies. I still like women.”

genesis. Whereas New York and L.A. have any number of distractions, out in the dull expanse of the Wyoming,

Perhaps Tales from Wyoming—which has the area’s DNA encoded in its very chords—inadvertently reveals the band’s growth process. “Wyoming is spread out and the population is low,” explains drummer Brandon Carlisle. “Frankly, there’s not that much going on.”

Chen adds, “Growing up, I was bored out of my mind. I was looking for something to connect to. We would watch shitty movies and then go get wasted. I remember the first time I got wasted. One of our buddies stole a bottle of whisky from his dad. We were planning this all week long, so we each told our parents that we would be over at someone else’s house. Then, we walked all around drinking this horrible bottle of Black Velvet. I don’t remember much except that I threw up and that became what we would do.”

This boredom served as sort of a

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This youthful perspective, this refusal to engage in the bullshit reflection of so-called mature adults, permeates the record now more than ever. Take “Haunted House,” for example. As the two minute 30 second tune blasts along, describing suicidal ghosts, bleeding walls, people morphing into beasts, and decomposing bodies, you could take a step back, assess the meaning, and conclude that the song is an advanced reflection on the mortality of the human condition. You could, but you’d be wrong. It’s about haunted houses.

“Our songs are pretty much on the surface,” Templeman says. “I’ve always been into that stuff. It’s fun to write. I still am into that stuff.”

there ain’t much else to do except start a band.

“No matter where you’re at, you can be bored if you make your life boring,” says vocalist and guitarist Ray Carlisle. “We formed a band because we were bored. We wanted something to do. We wanted something

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“Scary movies and chicks, I’m into that stuff,” Ray adds. “In fact, when we finish writing a record, we draw it out—how many ‘girl’ songs do we have and how many ‘non-girl’ songs do we have? I think girl songs are the easiest to write, so I have to be careful to not write too many. I’m part hopeless romantic. It’s easiest to write a ‘this girl sucks song and I’m mad!’ but I like the pro-girl ones better. I mean, I know I like having a girlfriend.

That’s pretty cool.”

Thus, at first glance, Tales from Wyoming seems to be a 14 year old boy’s wet dream: 13 smashing, rip-roaring tunes about hot girls and bloody horror movies. It would seem, then, that the fundamental question about Teenage Bottlerocket is answered: these are four dudes who never grew up and shame on them! …But then, along comes the closing track, “First Time.”

It’s the album’s slap-in-the-face, the wedgie-at-the-prom, the sucker-punch to the stomach in the mosh pit. Teenage Bottlerocket’s first ever acoustic song, “First Time” started out as a rumination on confronting death.

“My friend Steve Paul died when he was 26,” Ray explains. “It was my first experience of the death of a friend. It was the ‘90s, so he wore a lot of baggy shorts. He had glasses and was skinny and would part his hair in the middle.

He was in this weird golf cart accident when he died. I wish this dude was still around. I wish he could have experienced what we’re doing with Teenage Bottlerocket. I just wanted to say to my friend, ‘Hey, man, I miss you.’”

“But, when I was done writing it, I realized that the song could be about a lot of things,” Ray continues. “It could be about a girl. It could be about addiction. At the end, there’s no hidden message, but I didn’t want to put the message up front, either.”

How can you accuse these four goofballs of being stunted troglodytes if they’ve gazed into the abyss of death and, despite the divorces and breakups and funerals they’ve been through, they’ve come back with the conclusion that girls and horror movies are the coolest?

“I dunno,” Templeman reflects. “Honestly, I’ve never really thought about it. I mean, I guess you could say it’s creepy that we have so many songs about girls and bloody murders. But, like I said, we don’t think about it that much. We just do what we want.”

“You can’t get a lot done by sitting around and wondering what if,” Chen continues. “I like to live my life in the here and now, and the here and now is awesome.”

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“Women,” Chen muses. “They just make life better.”

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ver 30 years ago, Agnostic Front began to write songs about aspects of life that really pissed them off. Their dismay with oppression helped lay the foundation for the legendary New York hardcore scene.

On April 3, the band’s newest record, The American Dream Died, will highlight vocalist Roger Miret’s current beefs with all the injustice the United States has to offer in 2015.

The title of the new record is The American Dream Died. What are you talking about? Society?

Economy?

It’s a little bit of everything, you know? Basically, what it really comes down to is the fact that we’re losing, little by little, those three big things that the “American Dream” stood for: liberty, justice, and freedom. Little by little, they’re stripping us as we sleep.

you and me, the only invitation we’re getting is to Rikers Island. They don’t give a fuck about us.

Why was it the right time to make this social commentary?

Because it’s so current, it’s so real. Ever since the economy crashed big time, especially since the housing market, and I watched all the corruption, who’s behind it. You watch all the bullshit going on with the police violence on innocent civilians. When they abuse their badge. Where was it? Fullerton, Calif.? Where they beat that homeless man, [Kelly Thomas]?

Now it’s a world where you can see everything! How do you let them get away with it? That’s the kinda stuff that really pisses me the fuck off.

The track “Police Violence” is pretty straightforward, but are you referencing any specific cases?

The Staten Island one, Eric Garner;

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST ROGER MIRET BY DEREK SCANCARELLI

AGNOSTIC FRONT Just the other day, I was watching the news and, for instance, Al Sharpton: he owes a couple of million dollars to the IRS and meanwhile he’s been to the White House 70 times. If I owed $10,000 to the IRS, I might be in prison. I’m just pinpointing the fact that for a certain elite group of people they’re very careful how they handle those situations, but a person like

that pissed me off. The guy couldn’t breathe; the illegal chokehold. If I would’a done that, I would be in prison, they wouldn’t give a shit. Or the guy in California, [Miret may mean Oscar Grant]. Those two really tick me off more than anything, because it’s so blatant and you physically see it. Somebody recorded the whole thing. When I actually see

injustice like that, it really pisses me off.

There was also Akai Gurley, who was shot in a stairwell in the Brooklyn projects…

Something like that, you know, it could go either way for me, because you don’t really know what’s right or wrong, you’re taking someone’s word or another. But, if it was videotaped, then you can make your own decision. I’ve always been into that, I believe in something when it’s the absolute truth. That’s what Agnostic means. You see it with your own eyes; some of the cases I’m referring to, especially in the album, are stuff that you see with your own eyes, and it’s unjust.

Being a New York guy, what do you think about the tension between the people and police? Two police officers were just murdered…

I don’t agree with that. That’s taking shit too far. Two wrongs don’t make one right. And the tension obviously was created by something like that incident where you see a man in a chokehold, and it’s unnecessary roughness. […] Police officers: we pay them for their services, they’re supposed to protect and serve. If they’re gonna behave like criminals, they need to be prosecuted as criminals.

How do we fix this without it becoming back and forth violence?

Well, that’s the whole thing. If you got a demonstration going on and

you’re throwing Molotov cocktails at the police, what do you think they’re gonna do to you? Of course they’re gonna charge at you, because you’re provoking it. Some stuff is provoking, some isn’t, but the [police brutality] I’m talking about is obvious.

Over the past 30 years, has Agnostic Front always called for social change?

Absolutely. We’ve always spoken of overcoming oppression, from day one, our first single. You’ll find those lyrics. We talk about uniting the people together to fight this unjust world. We shouldn’t be fighting amongst each other; we should be fighting against people who don’t want us to exist and think our own individual thoughts. It’s always been about social politics.

You sing, “This is our lives/This is our scene.” Is it still there, the comradery of the hardcore community?

We built this thing. New York hardcore is probably the only movement that made a world impact, period. It gapped that bridge between America and the world. If it wasn’t for NYHC, a lot of this hardcore thing really wouldn’t have been as big. […]

And that’s what that song is about; how it’s something we did together.

We’ve never changed. It’s a pride song for us, for New York and our scene.

There’s a track on the album called “Old New York.” Specifically, what do you miss?

New York is safe now, it’s great they took all that and threw it out, but at the same time, they created this monster that you can’t even afford to live in anymore. How do you raise a family in New York? They created this tourist monster and they got away with it. And people go there and say, “I don’t know what Roger is talking about. This Lower East Side, this is nice!” Well it wasn’t. That’s the beauty with my mind, I still have those memories, you know? “Old New York” is about how I miss all that.

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he West Coast has good weather, good beer, and good punk rock, which Winnipeg, Manitoba, hardcore mainstays Comeback Kid will get to partake of soon on their upcoming tour. The group’s most recent album, March 2014’s Die Knowing, is arguably Comeback Kid’s best album, so don’t miss the chance to see your favorite cuts played live this spring.

How has the reception been for Die Knowing?

It’s been really cool. We are almost a year past when we released Die Knowing, and I would say most of the new songs we play from the album are some of the most exciting songs to play live. People seem to connect with those songs just as much, if not more, than a lot of older songs. But that is the funny thing about our band: [reception of] different songs from different records seem to differ between countries that we play. Some places want to hear newer shit, and some people want to hear older stuff.

We will always play a selection of songs from every record, but it does make for some interesting reworking of the setlist sometimes. “Wasted Arrows” is probably the most fun song for me to play live right now.

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The album is the freshest and most assured Comeback Kid has sounded in a while. Do you feel rejuvenated, or is it just the comfort level you have reached?

I don’t know, we wrote this album in the same manner that we’ve written any previous record. We will usually write on our own for a while, because we all live in different cities, and then bring the ideas together when we get together for writing sessions [and] rehearsals.

I felt pretty confident going into this record, but still had the same insecurities that I have had with any previous record. I personally enjoy Die Knowing better than our previous effort Symptoms + Cures, but a lot of our listeners tell me that that is “their record.” Music is time and place, and people latch on to different songs for one reason or another.

Symptoms + Cures is definitely more of a punk rock influenced [hardcore] record, whereas I think Die Knowing is more of a throwback to some of the heavier ‘90s metallic hardcore that we grew up listening to.

You have a U.S. West Coast tour coming up. Whom are you bringing along?

Yeah we have a week of West Coast shows with our homies in The Green-

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ery, a fucking awesome punk/hardcore band from California. We met those guys on a European tour, and then ended up taking them out in Canada, because we got along really well. This will be our first time having them out in the U.S., and it will be cool that it’s in their area as well.

Also, we have No Bragging Rights, who we recently toured with in Europe on a festival tour called “Never Say Die” that we did a few months ago with Terror and Stick To Your Guns.

Cool guys, so it will be great to have them out.

A band called Life For A Life is going to be opening up, and we are renting their van from them, though I don’t know much about them quite yet.

What is your favorite West Coast city?

Do you have a favorite venue to play?

My favorite West Coast city, I’m going to have to say, would be L.A. and Hollywood, which we are kind of missing on this run. Being from Canada, I still like the feeling of being in the action of L.A. and the exciting things that come along with that.

Favorite venue? Damn, I miss the Showcase Theater in Corona, [Calif.]! Bring that shit back!

Any places you’re looking forward to eating, drinking, or smoking at?

Cali bud is exceptional; [it’s] not like it’s going to be too much of a change from what I get here in Canada, though. Food-wise, I’m not veggie or anything, but I love going to Doomies and getting the vegan Big Mac. I still love going to Veggie Grill, and In-NOut is the standard. After Cali, we are heading to Mexico on our own for four shows, so I’m excited about all the Mexican food and cervezas.

What else do you have planned for 2015?

This year, we just have a few more tours. We’re out in Europe with Bane doing Groezrock and Slam Dunk in the U.K., and some club shows.

This summer is mostly just summer festivals. Then, we might take a second to breathe before some more touring toward the end of the year.

We still have a lot of countries and cities we haven’t hit on Die Knowing yet, so there is a lot to do. Stay tuned for tour announcements for sure!

We will be releasing a live 10” of old and new songs that we recorded a while back in Vancouver. The record will come out Record Store Day, and it’s called Rain City Sessions +1, and it will also feature a Nirvana cover we recorded last year of the song “Territorial Pissings.” Very excited to release that—keep your eyes out!

..

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rock territory on “Sunlight in a Snowstorm.” Grab some headphones and bathe in Patterson’s gorgeous guitar tones, or blow out your speakers to one of the tightest rhythm sections in rock music; however you plan on digesting Anxiety’s Kiss, there’s no denying that the band has concocted another timeless toe-tapper.

Coliseum’s decade plus evolution from gritty punk outfit to rock ‘n’ roll powerhouse has been a gradual but natural transition. “The sonics may change,” Patterson says, “but the idea and vision is always the same. Obviously, we’re a very long running band, and we have a lot of fans who really believe in us and have this level of respect that is really nice and humbling, but we’re also a relatively small band, so we can do whatever the fuck we want. There’s not that risk of like, ‘Oh, we sold 100,000 copies of the last record; if we change our sound we might lose people.’ We can do whatever we want; the people who come along, come along, the people who don’t, don’t. We’ll still be able to put out our next record, still be able to tour, and the people who dig it, will dig it.”

Times change, people grow, tempos drop, and keyboards pop up now and again, but it’s not the end of the world. Not when it means we get solid tracks like “Wrong Goodbye.”

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST RYAN PATTERSON BY JAMES ALVAREZ

“When I was younger, I maybe aped some things too much. I didn’t know how to take all the things in my soul with music and put it out there,” Patterson reveals. “Now, with Coliseum, I feel like I can say this is who I am, this encompasses almost all of my tastes. This isn’t just the aspect of me that’s into really aggressive fast stuff, or introspective mellow stuff, this covers it all.”

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oliseum—Louisville, Ky.,’s blazing punk-and-roll power trio—are back with another killer album in tow.

Their new record, Anxiety’s Kiss, picks up where their stellar 2013 release Sister Faith left off, melding the high octane punk of their formative years with the moody swagger of old time American rock ‘n’ roll. Anxiety’s Kiss is rife with future jukebox classics, both biting and relevant social commentary, and serves as a snapshot of a band hitting its stride.

day after their previous Sister Faith sessions—as totally surreal. “It made that downtime seem real brief,” he says, a factor that surely had a role in Anxiety’s Kiss’ efficient and frenzied writing process. “We started where we normally do. I started writing some songs and bringing them to the other guys, but very quickly, they were bringing ideas in and we started writing together a lot. This was by far the easiest writing process we’ve ever had, and the quickest… Everyone was really inspired.”

“I felt like there was such a good chemistry between the three of us, and that we really clicked during Sister Faith,” explains frontman and ringleader Ryan Patterson. “I didn’t want to let that go and lose that energy. So, the guys had a talk about it and said, ‘So, we’re going to start writing next year?’ and I said ‘No, we’re going to record a record this year.’ [Laughs]”

Inspired is one way of putting it. Fired up would be another. Either way, Coliseum’s new album is 10 songs of finetuned rock ‘n’ roll goodness. There’s brooding, bad attitude anthems like “Course Correction” and “Comedown” mixed with fast numbers like “Drums & Amplifiers”: an “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” type ode to the DIY underworld.

Patterson describes the album’s déjà vu like recording process—heading back to producer J. Robbin’s studio in Baltimore almost two years to the

The tunes gathered on Anxiety’s Kiss are more than just a rad collection of ditties, as Patterson and the Coliseum lads have a few things they’d like to

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get off their chests. Take the opening track “We Are the Water,” a song that calls for the restoration of social awareness in our blasé and narcissistic society. “That idea that human empathy is being lost is something that is really important to me,” Patterson reveals. “One of the things that I can pinpoint that I’m actually proud of about myself is having a sense of empathy, and the people I respect the most are those who see the human struggle across the board… I think so many people just forget that. They’re in their own lives and just put it off, especially Americans, and you don’t give a shit about the person next door to you, ‘cause you have heat and you’re okay, so you forget about the person a street over, or a city over, or a continent over, you forget that they need.”

With their new record, Coliseum delivers both music with a message and totally infectious punkified rock jams. The band’s songwriting prowess and lockstep precision are on full display when they slows things down to a murky crawl on “Sharp Fangs, Pale Flesh” only to blast off into surf

Anxiety’s Kiss marks Coliseum’s first full-length release on Deathwish Inc. The team up is not only a complete no brainer, but has been a long time coming. “My history with Deathwish goes way back,” Patterson attests.

“Anytime I’ve ever asked anything of those guys—and I’ll include Jacob [Bannon] and Tre [McCarthy] who own Deathwish, and Kurt [Ballou] and Nate [Newton] from Converge— they have never turned me down. I think they’re a label that can put out anything they want, but it never feels like they’ve left their community behind. That’s kind of how I feel too. As a band, Coliseum has never turned its back on punk or hardcore—in fact we totally embrace that—but also, we can reach our hands out to other directions as well.”

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Basically, Patterson states, “It feels like the right place to be.”

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INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST JASON CRUZ BY DUSTIN VERBURG

trung Out is a punk rock band from Simi Valley, Calif. Formed in 1989, they’ve constantly changed and evolved since their 1994 Fat Wreck Chords debut, Another Day in Paradise. Their frenetic skate punk riffs eventually morphed into a genre-defining punk/metal hybrid that placed value in both virtuoso musicianship and thoughtful lyrics.

Their newest record, Transmission Alpha Delta, will be released by Fat Wreck Chords on March 24.

Transmission moves the band even further forward as they push their punk roots, metal shredding, and meditative lyrics into new sonic and emotional territory.

Transmission Alpha Delta—your first record in five years—took a little over a year to record with producer Kyle Black. What was the process like, and how did you know when it was finished?

The process was just me, [guitarists] Rob [Ramos and] Jake [Kiley], and [bassist] Chris [Allen], and then Kyle. Everyone had, like, a million ideas. Then, trying to fight for those ideas, and then letting each other get their say.

I think that was what made the record take so long. It’s just too many ideas, and agreeing on something and sticking with it. Sometimes, options aren’t the best thing, when you have too many options and too many ideas. I think that hindered us in the beginning. As time started moving on, we started gaining some momentum. Things just started to become a little bit easier. […] Rob in the studio, you can’t stop Rob. You have to, like, pump his brakes sometimes. I call him the workhorse of the band. He’s

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the backbone of this band. When you’re working with Rob and Kyle, who are super perfectionists, sometimes you got to get in there and get your elbows up and see to it that things don’t get stamped out.

Like, the feeling remains, but at the same time, you get what everybody needs to have to be happy.

Is transmission the album’s central theme?

The theme is basically: you can’t change what’s going on around you. You can only be affected by it, and you can only control how you’re affected by things. […]

who’s a police officer, who sends me dispatch calls that he’s probably not supposed to do, but he sends me all kinds of crazy dispatches, radio calls that he gets sometimes, because he knows I like to hear about what he goes through.

I just got high one night and we put that all together. Me and Jake actually sat there with Kyle and tried to do something with [them]. There was actually a lot

more weird stuff that we were going to do for the record, but it took up too much space. That made it.

But I thought the Charlie Chaplin speech fit well into what’s going on in our world right now.

“Rats in the Walls” is named after that H.P. Lovecraft story, right?

No, it’s not, actually. I had rats in my walls. […] We’d have exterminators come out. So I did the song “Rats in the Walls.” I did the painting for it, and I released the painting on the day of H.P. Lovecraft’s birthday, which was fucking weird.

It was a total coincidence.

It’s about thoughts. You know, like rats in your walls, like thoughts in your head that you can’t get rid of and they just keep eating away.

What are the most positive changes you’ve seen in punk during

We’re all sending out and receiving these emotions, these thoughts and signals. We’re all sending them out and we’re all receiving them. It’s up to us to decide how we’re going to send that back into the world.

I guess this is the first record I wrote where there’s no war. I didn’t want to write about the war. I didn’t want to write about anything political. I wanted stream of conscience lyrics, just [to] put the pen down to the paper and see what came out.

Now, I still listen to the record, and I’m like, “I don’t know what that meant.” I don’t know what I was talking about when I was doing it, and things are starting to reveal themselves now.

What is the opening clip on “Rats in the Walls” from? There are other clips, too. It’s hard to tell what they are; they’re like faint transmissions…

There’s Morse code in there, and then there’s that old, famous Charlie Chaplin speech that he did. It’s probably one of the most famous speeches back in the day about fascism. Actually, I have a friend

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your time in Strung Out? I think DIY won. Everything everybody was fighting for as far as “do it yourself ” came to fruition. I think it happened, that people just aren’t ready for it. […]

posal, you can do something if you really try.

Out was. I don’t give a fuck about any of that.

What does it feel like to have an upcoming tour with new material?

To me, that is what everybody was fighting for back in the day, the freedom to do what you needed to do how you needed to do it without relying on anybody else. That aspect of it is great. But, musicians really don’t make money anymore.

I feel bad for a lot of these bands starting out. I honestly don’t know how some of them survive. But, if you’re lucky and you know how to utilize the resources at your dis-

It feels actually really good, man.

We’re going to start practicing and learning the songs. It’ll be nice to get on the road again. I get sick of the old stuff. […] I don’t want to be a fucking nostalgia band, or, like, a ‘90s skate punk band. I don’t want to be any of that fucking shit. I don’t give a fuck about the ‘90s. I don’t give a fuck about 2000 or George Bush or what Fat Wreck Chords was or what Strung

I give a fuck about what we’re doing now, what we’re contributing now. […] I think that if you’re not contributing to the greater good, you’re not contributing to the art form and elevating it, then fucking go away. I truly believe that the new record is elevating what we do.

So, I’m stoked.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY TYLER GIBSON

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VISION 51

P

ennsylvania’s Beach Slang seem to have come out of nowhere in 2014, topping “best of the year” lists. Many fans wonder, “Where did these guys come from?” but far from an up-andcoming band, they are a group of guys who’ve finally found their most honest voice.

Vocalist and guitarist James Alex—previously the frontman of Weston—is joined by bassist Ed McNulty of NONA, and drummer JP Flexner of Ex-Friends.

In early 2015, the band will play five weeks of shows with Cursive, who are celebrating their influential The Ugly Organ album.

Beach Slang are also planning to rerelease both of their earlier EPs, Who Would Ever Want Anything So Broken? and Cheap Thrills on a Dead End Street, via cassette on Business Casual Records.

Has word of mouth been a driving force behind your momentum?

Absolutely. Whether it has been direct word of mouth, where somebody tells somebody about it, or the Internet, somebody writing something really sweet about us. […] We hadn’t even

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played a show yet and saw these things happening. That was unheard of in other bands I’d been in. So, yeah, word of mouth has been incredible for our band.

Do you agree with the hype? Are these the best songs you’ve ever written?

Yes. I could look anyone directly in the face and say that I believe these songs are the best things I’ve ever written. There are going to be people that grossly argue those points, but for me as a writer, as an artist, and all those other titles we give ourselves, absolutely, this is the best stuff I’ve written and continue to write. I have the next full-length completely written already and demoed at home on my clunky little home set up. I’m really, really proud of it.

I think that this is the first time I’ve been in a band where I’ve really said, “Man, just drop your guard.” Art is really about honesty. […] Maybe that’s the

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reason it is connecting; there’s no guard between me and whoever listens to these records.

released around September.

In terms of who will release it,

Whose idea was it to pair the EPs as a cassette release?

I wanted to make cassettes before I wanted to make vinyl. I was a gigantic tape nerd coming up, you know? We sort of loosely talked about it while on tour with Cheap Girls, and it just kept tugging at me. So I wrote [Business Casual Records] and said something simple like, “You still want to make that tape?” They said yes, and now it’s happening. I couldn’t be any more excited.

When do you plan to record the new material, and who will release it?

The plan was to record it and have it released early summer.

Then, the Cursive tour happened, which is really cool. So we’ve made our peace with backing the record up. […] We’d like to have it done by July so we can have it

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we’re talking to a bunch of folks.

We are in the really great position of having a few people talking to us, so we’re trying to figure out where the best place to land is.

them. When we were first offered the tour, it was never like, “Holy moly, we are going to tour with Cursive.” It was always, “Holy moly, I get to watch Cursive play every night.”

You premiered a song from the new set of material at the New York show called “Ride the Wild Haze.” What is that song about?

We did, and it felt great to play something new. It is really one of those life-affirming things.

It says, “Get on that ride.” It is the Hunter S. Thompson thing about skidding into your grave, or Bukowski being [like], “We’re here to make this tremble.” It is that kind of thing. Do it, and do it all the way.

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Was Cursive a formative band for you?

Definitely, and Ugly Organ was my favorite piece of work by

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BLIS.

INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST AARON GOSSETT BY BRITTANY MOSELEY

ence with acid. “I took a lot of acid and ended up going into this psychosis of a trip,” he says. “This thought just got stuck in my mind that everything around me wasn’t real and all these people weren’t real; they were just figments of my imagination. I thought that one of my best friends was trying to convince me to kill him, so I ran and locked myself in a car for hours.” He concludes the story by saying, “I know this sounds horribly irrational. That had a lot to do with the shaping of the record.”

Aaron Gossett wastes no time getting into the gritty details that shaped Blis.’s debut EP, Starting Fires In My Parents House. He begins recounting a trip to Nashville with drummer James Ingman and his unpleasant— which is putting it mildly—experi54

Bad acid trip aside, the EP was also influenced by Gossett’s struggles with sleep paralysis. The disorder causes people to temporarily lose the ability to move or speak while falling asleep or upon waking. “You fall asleep, and then you become aware that you’re asleep, but you can’t move your body,” he explains. “Sometimes I would wake myself up out of it. But when I was in that state of mind, I’d be halfway between dreaming and [being]

aware that I’m in sleep paralysis, and I would see some pretty crazy shit.

I started documenting some of the things I was seeing.”

As opposite as the two experiences sound, they actually share a common thread: the struggle between fiction and reality and coming to terms with the latter, whether through a rough breakup, sleep paralysis, or drugs. It’s a constant theme on Starting Fires In My Parents House, from the surreal opener “Floating Somewhere High And Above”—easily the EP’s best track—to the reflective, subdued “Stationary Life.” “Dreams don’t make sense when I’m sleeping in/Stationary life is crushing me,” Gossett sings.

The Atlanta four-piece—rounded out by guitarist Nathan Hardy and bassist Tyler Findlay—came together in 2011, and began writing music that blends indie-rock and emo, creating a sound that’s fervent, candid, and completely their own. Something that NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

isn’t completely their own is their EP’s title. “[When they were younger], my dad and my uncle got in the basement and started playing around with some matches, and they ended up lighting the entire basement on fire and freaking out,” Gossett says. “Instead of telling someone or doing something about it, they tried to cover it up and hide, and leave it burning. Then, my aunt came in and, I assume, found the situation and told my grandfather. They called the fire department and put the fire out. It just became really symbolic to me, and I started to piece that together and think about what that can mean. ‘Starting fires in my parents’ house,’ what that means to me is my upbringing and my owns parents’ house, the beginning of this person I am now.”

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I

INTERVIEW WITH FRONTMAN GERRY ROSLIE BY JOHN GENTILE

f there’s one word to describe legendary garage rockers The Sonics, “barbaric” fits the bill. Forming in Tacoma, Wash., in 1960, the band brought a wild, vicious, berserk sound to the rock ‘n’ roll scene. This is pre-Beatlemania, people! While John and Paul were shaking their mop tops and crooning, “I wanna hold your hand,” The Sonics were blasting out combustible, nihilistic blitzkriegs.

Their first album, 1965’s landmark Here are The Sonics featured the nugget “Strychnine,” which was about being so out of your mind that you like to drink pesticide. Or how about “He’s Waiting,” about how Satan can’t wait to get his hands around your throat? And “Psycho”? It’s about a guy who gets blue balls so bad that he decides to commit suicide. Again, this is 1965… The same year “Help Me, Rhonda” and “I Got You, Babe” were in the Top 40.

“I am, by nature, crazy,” Roslie explains. “When I get into the music, it just comes out. Our stuff was darker than most bands around at the time. They were playing this mellow kind of stuff. But our sound was rougher, so we had to sing lyrics that fit our music.”

retrospectively labeled proto-punk, and even “the world’s first punk band.” Considering that the band has songs about going crazy—you know, like Black Flag’s “Nervous Breakdown”—songs about being so horny that you’re about to lose it— you know, like The Clash’s “Protex Blue”—and songs about mystical, Satanic powers—you know, like pretty much every Integrity song— the tag sort of makes sense.

releasing a new album called This is The Sonics March 31 via their own Revox Records. The opening single, “Bad Betty,” shows that the band still just rocks the hell out. A hard-charging, racket of a number, the band tears along like they’re 18, that sax blasts away, and Roslie alternates between howling like a wolf and straight up screaming.

There are also lyrics about crashing cars, dangerous women, and rock ‘n’ roll.

Roslie says, “It’s interesting, because the term ‘punk’ used to be an insult, like, ‘Hey, punk!’ It was a term that you wouldn’t call anyone. But, now, they can call us anything they want: punk, garage. I mean, we certainly used to practice in a garage all the time. But, if they come to see us, they can call us anything they want.”

“We have a motto,” Roslie says.

“That’s ‘Put out an album every 40 years!’ Really, we thought it was about time. People were coming up to us at all these places and asking us to sign their albums, which they had been hanging onto for who knows how long. So, we decided that since people want to see us and hear us, we’ll put out a new record.”

He continues, “It’s going to have the same type of energy as before.

We were never trying to be a polished group. You could be the finest musicians in the room, but if it’s calm or mellow, what does it matter? For us, we always liked the kind of music that we played.

Everybody just got on it, and we hit it hard. If you’re not sweating, you’re not working.”

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Now people are getting their chance.

Though the band originally broke up in 1969—with their last studio LP being 1967’s Introducing The Sonics—after four and a half decades, the band is

The music of The Sonics was of a more dangerous sort than that of their contemporaries. Propelled by the slamming drums of early rock ‘n’ roll and a howling sax, the band would fit right in with the wild party in “Animal House.”

“Some of my favorites are Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley,” Roslie says of how the band formed their bombastic sound. “They were both more energetic than people had done before. That spoke to me.

They had such energy. I liked that energy, and then tried to play with that much energy, or more.”

In fact, the band was so jacked up and wild that they have been

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F

or over two decades, The Real McKenzies have been spreading their unique brand of Scotch-Canadian “fuck the rich and drain your glass” Celtic punk rock. Over the years, there have been a slew of imitators trying to ride their coattails, but all have failed to match the humor and energy of the original.

After a three year break between records, and a lineup change—the band is now made up entirely of Canadians—The Real McKenzies will release a new record, Rats in the Burlap, on April 7 via Fat Wreck Chords.

What lineup changes have you had since the last record?

We have had a change of the guard since Westwinds. Since then, we have recruited a totally Canadian crew, through no fault of our own.

In this business of rock ‘n’ roll, one must be prepared for anything.

As it worked out, we now have, in my opinion, the most aggressively humourous and accomplished musicians in the history of The Real McKenzies. I don’t have to tell you how difficult it is to be a touring, recording independent band.

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ward to touring with this new lineup, and seeing you in your town.

We love all of our babies. Even those who never made it.

You’re about to start touring for the new album. How do you balance playing fan favorites and adding in new songs?

This is a problem that has plagued us, and many recording artists, since day one. Of course we want to play our fans’ most favorite song, [from] any one of our last 19 albums, but on the other hand, we are touring our latest album. […]

Was “Bootsy the Haggis Eating Cat” based on a real cat?

Not only was he a real cat, but he was the dear friend of my gorgeous wife for 15 years. […] Bootsy loved haggis as much as the rest of us, and the neeps and tatties [turnips and potatoes] too.

Quite often, a fan will approach me at the merch booth, where I am most of the time, before and after the show, with a request of their favorite song that is not on the setlist.

I have been known to jump upon the nearest table and—while kicking everything off of the table with my big black boots—sing them their favorite song, a cappella, right then, right there. […] Why, I’ve even had Fat Mike’s daughter request “My Mangy Hound” at Slim’s in San Francisco prior to a show, and the whole band participated in a special performance just for the young lady and her friends. We need no excuse, for we all love to entertain.

Any favorite songs off the new record yet?

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[…] Unfortunately, Bootsy went to the great pussy playground in the sky—during the recording of the album, no less. It’s a factual eulogy in the honor of the passing of a great haggis-lovin’ friend. Here’s to you Bootsy, wherever you are. Sláinte and kippis.

This year marks 20 years since your first proper record. Do you plan on celebrating the anniversary?

Before I answer this question, will you be so kind as to define “proper”? Are you implying that you know how many “improper” recordings we have made? Which far outnumber our “proper” recordings… As any recording artist will attest.

After 20 years in this band, The Real McKenzies—I have been playing in

bands since 1974—every day you wake up is a celebration. Barring that, we’re constantly celebrating: sailing our sailboat, riding motorcycles, or harassing the rich, especially those individuals with a sense of entitlement. There are many ways to celebrate being Scottish, Canadian, and gow-gous!

What prompted the upcoming biography of the band, “Under the Kilt: The Real McKenzies Exposed”?

It’s only a matter of time before the raucous antics, gregarious nature, and copious amounts of frosty malt beverages catch up with themselves.

Someone is bound to take notice, eventually. And that someone is [author] Chris Walter.

[The book] will have a full-color cover, paperback pulp-style pages, words and numbers on each page, and pictures in the middle. And, if you are lucky, an autograph from each of the current bandmates, if you purchase one exclusively from The Real McKenzies merch booth.

Otherwise, there’s no way in hell you’ll ever stand a chance to procure an autographed copy, ye wee bastards. And bast-ettes.

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INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST JERRY A. BY JANELLE JONES

N

ot only are Poison Idea releasing their first LP in nine years on April 7— the gripping, blistering Southern Lord-released Confuse & Conquer—but the hardcore greats who’ve been around in one form or another since 1980 are also doing a bunch of touring this year. Hearing about the latest goings-on from frontman Jerry A. is a trip…

The last record you put out was Latest Will and Testament in 2006, when guitarist Tom “Pig Champion” Roberts was still alive.

Yeah, it was a long time ago.

You put out a couple of 7”s in the meantime…

Yeah, we were just messing around.

It’s the same thing with this one.

We’ve kinda always been a selfcentered band and do whatever makes us laugh. We don’t have a schedule. There’re a lot of bands that put a record out, tour behind it, come back, do press, do another record. We’re just like, “Eh, whatever.” […] After last year, we were gonna

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go over and do some festivals and the promoter who was gonna fly us over just dragged his feet forever to buy the tickets. He wouldn’t contact us. […] But the thing with [the tour] was [people thought we canceled, we’re the assholes. So I just thought, “Fuck it. Let’s put out a record and try to do some good.”

Since this is the first full-length without Pig, was there a time you thought it might fold?

Well, yeah. There’ve been lots of times. Poison Idea has always had this reputation for being extremists in all senses. We like to drink, we like to party, we like to get fucked up. And there was a time when that went first before anything else. And when that’s all you do in your life, everything comes second. I just thought, “This music’s getting in my way of me getting loaded.” But then, it was just like, I said I felt like I was kinda cheating some people who really dug the music, and it was time to just quit all that stuff

and get back to doing what I started out doing. Just make a record, play some shows, and if they dig it, that’s cool. Then, if we wanna quit, at least we’re not going out with a whimper.

How long did it take to write and record?

[Laughs] Like four months. We just decided we wanted to tour, so we’re like, “Let’s sit down and write some songs.”

What about a song like “Dead Cowboy”?

Well, I listen to all sorts of stuff. I don’t just listen to the same music.

I’m sitting in my room here, and I got a guitar there right in front of me and I just play around with it constantly. That [song] just came to me and I thought it sounded cool.

With the music, the way it sounds, the lyrics just naturally fit in there.

It’s not like I set out and planned to do that. I understand you have to break up the monotony and add some variety with everything, and I couldn’t write a whole record with those cowboy songs, because

NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

I wouldn’t dig it. We’ve always just wrote records with the stuff we’d want to hear, like if I put on a record, [I write it] the way I think a record should sound. It should kick ass in the beginning, have some good break in the middle, go up, down, up, down, end like this, go out like that. So, that’s what we did.

The lyrics are really powerful.

Like the next song, “Beautiful Disaster.”

If you’re gonna write stories or books, the best advice a teacher can give students would be to go out and live a full life, and then write about that. Write about you know.

The songs are all… You could look at Poison Idea records from the very first record up until this one, and it’s pretty much just a big, long story. […] It’s just life: it goes up and down. Maudlin stuff happens and good stuff happens. It’s all true and it’s powerful, and if you feel, maybe you can relate to it, because it’s life and people experience life.

On the new record, the song “Hypnotic”… The middle part, the spoken word thing about “burnedout hippie shit”…

That’s Pig. That’s kind of a tribute.

We added him on the record. Some guy videotaped him talking for some interview, and we just watched and thought it was hilarious. Now that I think about it, we didn’t put “Spoken word by Pig Champion.”

We really should’ve done that. That never occurred to me until you just said that…

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At a huge festival like the New England Metal & Hardcore Fest, picking which bands to see is like a metalhead’s “Sophie’s Choice.” Lucky for you, we’ve put together this handy-dandy guide of the bands you’ll feel like a dick for not watching.

Old School Thrash

NUCLEAR ASSAULT

string of albums that get progressively

Nuclear Assault’s take on thrash is

that’s second to none.

unique and progressive. Another reason to catch them: this is being billed

SHATTERED SUN

as their final performance in New

Shattered Sun’s melodic thrash is both

England.

ferocious and uplifting. Their debut

DEATH ANGEL

Hope Within Hatred is sure to be one

heavier, and presenting a live assault

of the best debut records of the year.

Hailed as the band that opened for Metallica before graduating high school, Death Angel have maintained their legendary status by releasing a PHOTO:ALAN SNODGRASS

PHOTO:ALAN SNODGRASS

TESTAMENT

EXODUS

If you ask any thrash metal fan about

Exodus’ last album, Blood In, Blood

their “big four” of U.S. thrash they

Out, reinstalled former vocalist Zetro

will likely mention Testament. When

Souza and created shockwaves in the

they hold their trial by fire on Satur-

world of extreme metal. Though gui-

day night in Worcester, is it one that

tarist Gary Holt has been on tour with

you simply cannot miss!

some band called Slayer, his chops are as sharp as ever.

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NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

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s e t i r o v a F l a c Lo OVERCAST

RED CHORD

With the release of three-disc discog-

Red Chord has been working on

raphy Only Death Is Smiling, 2015

other projects during their six year

has already been an exciting one for

hiatus, but hopefully their seventh

Overcast fans, and their third appear-

appearance at NEMHF—their first in

ance at NEMHF will further stoke

five years—will be the start of a busy

that fire.

year.

VANNA Vanna’s new album Void hit number 157 on the Billboard chart and introduced a brand new audience to their incredible style. NEMHF will bring more fans into the fold.

WITHIN THE RUINS

ON BROKEN WINGS

For the third year in a row, titans of

Though On Broken Wings’ status is

their fellow musicians to shame at

currently a bit of a mystery, one thing

NEMHF. On the strength of 2014’s

is for certain: moshcore is alive, well,

Phenomena, the band will be out with

and waiting for its return.

all guns blazing.

PHOTO:NATHAN KATSIAFICAS

tech metal Within The Ruins will put

NEMHF Vets

Closed Casket Activites DISCOURSE

tude with 10 ton riffs is sure to lead

These South Carolina natives’ debut

to a few broken noses.

album Sanity Decays fits perfectly with the label’s no bullshit ethos.

Their passionate style of hardcore is

SUBURBAN SCUM

as much a bleak crowbar to the groin

Another of the label’s Northeast co-

as an uplifting statement of intent.

horts is Suburban Scum. An inte-

BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME

gral part of the prolific New Jersey

BTBAM have played the fest more

hardcore scene, their style is raw

than almost any of this year’s other

THY WILL BE DONE

and in-your-face.

bands. Though they probably won’t

Thy Will Be Done has received all

be playing any songs from their cur-

kinds of accolades in their short ca-

GOD’S HATE These guys are as hateful as they come. An abhorrent mixture of Bay

PHOTO:ALAN SNODGRASS

2015 and primed to rip up NEMHF for a fourth time.

DISGRACE

rently-being-recorded album, there’s

reer, including playing NEMHF for a

Area thrash and New York hardcore,

a 100 percent chance that they’re go-

fifth time in 2015, which is the start of

with Phil Anselmo-esque vocals, they

Disgrace’s sound combines rotten,

ing to destroy as Friday night’s head-

a huge year for the band.

are a band you don’t want to miss.

disgusting death metal with a razor

liners.

sharp hardcore rumble that sounds

INCENDIARY

like a tank rolling over the bones of

VITAL REMAINS

1,000 zombified corpses.

FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY For the fourth year in a row, death-

Vital Remains has been spewing the

core’s answer to Iron Maiden has re-

Incendiary is best described as

filthiest, evilest old school death met-

turned to NEMHF with new vocalist

straight up pissed off NYHC. Their

al possible for over a quarter century.

Joe Badolato.

lethal mix of old school hardcore atti-

They are back with a new release in

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61

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

JOSHUA MIKEL Jack of every trade, Joshua Mikel—in some circles known as Sharkguts—is living a busier life than most of us could ever imagine. He’s a highly talented illustrator, animator, director, playwright, actor, and craftsman. You might have seen him in roles such as “douchebag drug addict bad guy #1” in the Jason Sudeikis film “We’re the Millers” or more recently as Stanton on Vh1’s “Hindsight.” It’s hard to pinpoint exactly which part of his legacy to cover, so shooting the shit with my boy seems to be the best way to go about this…

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INTERVIEW BY TYLER GIBSON

NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

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is. I just kind of approach each new project thinking how to best serve the particular job or piece. Which is maybe a good thing?

PHOTO BY CHELSEA HAYES

and simultaneously becoming a part of their history. It’s not so much how big they are in the world, but more how big they are in my heart that makes [me] approach those jobs differently… Womp womp.

I think a lot of times, I’m waiting for that “spark of inspiration” which I get often, but there’s been a few projects lately where I just keep waiting and waiting—and I’m getting to the point where I just have to force myself to get shit done. It sucks having to hold yourself accountable. You, [as a graphic designer], know as well as I do, right?

You’ve always had a genuine “patched together” vibe to your work. Often artists, designers, and other creatives get caught up in perfection… You cut letters out of construction paper. Is the process more rewarding than the end result?

I think it certainly was. It was a little problem solving, how to tell the story of the song, and particularly with lyric videos it was exciting to approach each one in a new way.

Yeah, I’ve never really been about perfection. I leave that to folks who are afforded the budgets for it. Lately though, I’ve had more trouble not repeating old approaches to stuff.

I don’t want to do the same thing I’ve done in other videos, [but] unfortunately, that’s how folks often

Jesus Christ. [I] didn’t know this was going to be a goddamn therapy sesh.

I do. At a certain point, production is priority regardless of a coherent idea, especially with volume or if you’re hitting mental walls.

You’ve worked with some pretty notable clients, do the bigger ones wrack your nerves a bit more, or does that even come into play?

Oh absolutely. It’s a lot easier working with folks whom you’re not a huge fan of. I’ve done plenty of videos and artwork for bands that I don’t really care for, and that stuff I think is easier, because I’m not bringing any fanboy anxiety into the mix.

make their way to me: “I’m looking for something like you did in this other video…”

How does this neurotic caveman lifestyle translate into visual art?

I think you can kind of tell, really. My stuff tends to be pretty distracted. I couldn’t really tell you what my style

But for folks like Against Me! and others, there’s the outside pressure of wanting to create something that pays respect to whatever nostalgic feelings I have about their past stuff,

Why the fuck are you up at 4:30 a.m.?

I’m in Alabama, my dude. It’s 3:30 here. Just wrapped on a day of filming. But yeah, I’m tired as shit.

Josh, what do you think your biggest weaknesses are?

Biggest weaknesses—hands down, I’m too dumb. I’m getting dumber by the second; I realize it, and I do nothing about it. I don’t read enough or stay engaged enough to have my finger on the proverbial pulse.

I’m pretty stubborn, self-centered, and I don’t think I’ve ever met a real deadline in my entire life. Also, I can’t dance. I’ve lately gotten pretty socially anxious. I’m unfocused. I say yes to everything, even when I know I don’t want to do it, and then I end up just wasting folks’ time and distracting myself from the stuff I really want to do—hang out in a hammock, work on an album, hang with my family.

In a perfect world, there would be a natural progressive balance with each project. I don’t know about you, but sometimes, old tricks and habits can be hard to break. Any advice on stepping out of your comfort zone? I’m asking for a friend…

[Laughs] I have no idea. For me, in the past, new techniques have kind of come out of necessity, in thinking, “What’s the best way to serve this song? Or band?” I think it’s harder in visual arts, because you need to crank those jobs out and it’s rare to have that time to explore new technique, right?

me a minute to reacquaint myself with a craft if I’ve been working on something outside that craft.

Aside from doing blow with Jason Sudeikis, what’s your dream gig that’s not acting related?

My “where do you get the fucking balls?” dream: I’d really like to create an animated kid’s show or write and direct a Disney/Pixar film.

Where is Joshua Nermal Mikel going to be in 10 years?

“Nermal”?! My middle name is Lee. Get it right or pay the price! (à la “Salute Your Shorts.”)

In 10 years, I hope I’ve reached some sort of stability in my artistic life. I feel like since graduating from [Florida State University], I’ve been pedal to the metal taking whatever is put in front of me, because I was so averse to getting a consistent—nine to five—job. Now, for the first time ever, I feel like money isn’t my biggest

worry anymore; I’m making a living as an artist, which is such a lucky thing to [be able to] say. So now, it’s about finding the projects that are really dear to me, and doing those.

Hopefully, I’ll have an album under my belt, a few more kids’ plays, a few screenplays, a bunch more music videos and artwork, maybe a cartoon or animated feature in development, a couple more Look Mexico releases— playing drums with them again—and a solid acting career in the works.

I know you’re focusing pretty tough on acting right now. Is it becoming harder to take jobs, or are you just beasting through whatever you can get design and video-wise?

[It’s] definitely harder to take jobs, as my focus is being pulled more and more toward acting. [I’m] also finding it hard to shift gears from design to videos to acting. [It] usually takes @ NEWNOISEMAGS

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LABEL SPOTLIGHT

INTERVIEW WITH COFOUNDER JOE SIB BY BRITTANY MOSELEY

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NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

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A

lot has changed since Joe Sib and Bill Armstrong founded SideOneDummy Records in 1995—nearly 400 releases ago—but their office situation has remained the same. “We don’t have separate offices,” Sib says.

“With the exception of going on a family vacation, Bill and I have seen each other or spoken to each other every day for the last 25 years.”

Sib and Armstrong’s friendship is what has kept the label going, from SideOne’s first release—Uncle Bob by Sib’s band 22 Jacks—to Flogging Molly, Gaslight Anthem, Title Fight, and Andrew Jackson Jihad today.

Two decades later, Sib still looks forward to work every day: “When Bill and I are sitting in the office, and I look at the clock—I get in at 8 a.m.—and all of a sudden it’s 1 p.m., and then before I know it, I have to go pick up my kids and it’s 5 p.m., I’m like, ‘How did that day just go by like that?’ That is when you know you love what you’re doing. And that happens to me, I swear to god, every single day.”

How did you and Bill meet?

Bill had been in L.A. a little bit longer than me, but both [of us] were guys in bands. Bill needed a roommate, and I moved in. I ended up sharing a room with Bill, but I didn’t even know who he was. [My band] Wax had just made their first record for Virgin, and we were touring a lot. Bill and I realized we were the same dude in our bands, […] the guy who got paid at the end of the night. We were the guys who were able to rent vans because we had credit cards. We were the responsible ones in a world where no one was responsible.

How did that lead to starting a label together?

Wax put our record out, and we end up getting dropped. There was this limbo period where I was like, “What do we do? I have this record, it’s finished, and I still want to go on tour.” I decide I’m going to start a label on my own and fall back on that DIY background I grew up on.

While I was doing that, Bill decided, “Hey, I’m going to start a label too,” and I was like, “That’s going to suck because we live together, we hang out together, we drink together, we do @ NEWNOISEMAGS

everything together. […] It would be rad if we just did it together.” Bill was like, “Let’s do it. I was going to call my label Dummy. Why don’t we call it SideOneDummy?” He’s like the pun master. He loves puns.

What were the early years like at the label?

Wax ended up putting its record out, and during the time that it was out, we ended up falling apart. I started a new band, 22 Jacks, and that was the first record we released on SideOne. When I was out on the road, Bill was running the label. At that point, calling it a label was a pretty big word, because it was just two guys in a room with two phones and a lot energy and passion for music, but no one wanted to work with us… We ended up putting out a Swingin’ Utters record, but we couldn’t lock down a band that would really give us a shot to show them what Bill and I thought we could do with our company.

When did the label really start to take off?

That went on for about five years where we were in this period of learning. We were chugging along and around that time, a friend of mine was like, “You gotta come see my band play.” That was Matt Hensley who is the accordion player in Flogging Molly. I got to the show, and there was no one there, but they were just off the hook. The next day I told Bill, “We’ve got to go see this band Flogging Molly. They’re playing in Vegas.” So we hopped a plane, and flew out to Vegas.

offered us each a beer, and said something like, “That was a load of shit.

I’m sorry you had to come out and see that.” Bill and I were like, “What are you talking about? We loved it.

We want to do a record with you.”

And he kind of looked at us like, are

you kidding?

At that point—for Flogging Molly, it’s hard to believe—everyone had passed on them. No one really got what they were doing. For us as a label, I think people liked ‘Joe and Bill’ as dudes, but it’s a big thing to say, “I’m going to [let you] put my record out, and trust

you with my career and my music.”

Flogging Molly was the first band to do that. And that was a game changer.

What do you look for in the artists you sign?

When we signed Flogging Molly, for some reason all the indie [labels] at that time had a sound.

The thing we ended up doing was all our bands sounded 100 percent different from each other. You would never listen to SideOneDummy and go, “Gogol Bordello sounds like Title Fight, and Title Fight sounds like Flogging Molly, and Flogging Molly sounds like Restorations.” Every band we started working with, even until now, they all were the best at what they did.

Our theory has always been: do you love the band enough that—god forbid you didn’t have distribution and you couldn’t get the records out there—you would load up your car…

In my case it would be a Prius…

Would I load up the Prius with all the CDs and follow the band around, selling them out of the back of the car after they were done playing? And if you say yes, then that means let’s work with this band.

.....

Once again, [Flogging Molly] played in front of no one. We went backstage, and everyone in the band disappeared except Dave King, the singer. He sat down on the couch and

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PRODUCER SPOTLIGHT

JAMIE KING

P

roducer Jamie King owns and operates The Basement Recording in WinstonSalem, NC. Though he is most known for his work with Between The Buried And Me, his production credits include Scale The Summit, Abiotic, The Contortionist, For Today, Call To Preserve, Kill Whitney Dead, My Bitter End, and Through The Eyes Of The Dead.

His work is thorough and arduous, especially focusing on his given genres. Honing in on vocal strength, King spends time bandying between clean singing and growling, and harnessing the delicate technical prowess of his bands and their brutal riffs. King’s ear must be balanced and finicky.

A producer embraces a tough burden.

King has to establish himself in his role while molding the clients’ desires. “I generally just ask the band what they want from me,” he says. “I personally think a record should be an idealized version of what the band or artist sounds like. I personally prefer that the band or artist choose the production style and tones. Many artists come to me and request that I ‘produce’ the tones and takes, [while] some request I ‘produce’ the actual material. Whoever is paying is the boss, in my opinion. I just try to provide the services that I was hired for, as opposed to trying express myself on their record.”

The list of records King has produced, mixed, or mastered is epic, but he is the first to point out that his reputation is due to his work with Between The Buried And Me. “BTBAM has priority over any other project,” he asserts. “Their influence in the industry is responsible for at

W R I T T E N

B Y

H U T C H

least 35 to 40 percent of my business.

They pay me more than any other client by choice. I consider them shareholders in The Basement Recording NC.” King is a busy man, but he tries to squeeze in as many bands as he can.

Occasionally, he will pass on clients, though surprisingly, not generally due to time constraints. King says he declines “usually due to feeling that I’m not the right man for the job. I’m just not personally into hip hop, pop, or programmed metal and such, so I don’t feel that I’d do a good job. I do like to work with clients on all levels, though. For me, there’s enjoyment and reward in working with beginners as well as pros.”

According to King, it was necessity that got him into production and engineering. “I recorded at a lot of other studios back in the early ‘90s with the bands I was in in high school and into college, and never got the result I was looking for,” he explains. “I knew what kind of tones I wanted, but no local producers were able to give me the sounds I wanted. I basically decided to get into recording myself so I could get the type of sounds I wanted.”

After all these years, King still loves his work. “I still enjoy listening to the record when it all comes together,” he says. “I’m OCD. I enjoy organizing, and that’s pretty much all production editing is. I do not enjoy dealing with unreadable clients although,” King laughs. “I’d rather work with poor performing, cool clients than great performing, uncool clients.”

.....

JAMIE KING EXPLAINS GEAR U sing the right gear for desired sounds is essential. Often, the cheap stuff yields a cheap, thin, distant, and harsh sounding product. The more pricey stuff is usually pricey for a reason. You will only get big, present, and detailed tones with the top of the line stuff. Especially when it comes to pres and A/D D/A conversion.

Of course, you can sidestep if you’re using guitar amp emulators, or prerecorded and processed drum samples. But, it’s essential to use quality pres and conversion when recording real analog sources.

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NEW NOISE MAGAZINE

“I’ve learned to not be brand loyal as much as certain-piece-of-gear loyal. There’s some gear that is standard for a reason. Stuff like a Shure SM57 on a snare and guitar cab. I love Shure Beta 91 inside the kick. Send 421— or equivalent 904—on the toms. Neuman KM184 on cymbals and U87 on vocals. All are standards and all always work for me, for almost any style.”

“Of course, it’s Pro Tools for me. Just relative to the ease of use and compatibility with other engineers and studios.”

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L A BE L SP O T L IGH T:

INTERVIEW WITH CO-FOUNDERS JOHNATHAN SWAFFORD AND ERIC PALMERLEE BY TYLER GIBSON AND KELLEY O’DEATH

have really influenced what we do at Aqualamb.

Beyond that, and maybe even more importantly, the shift in the way music is acquired and listened to in the digital age has played a big part in informing what we do. The decreased importance of album artwork that once played a huge role in how we experienced music led us to try to figure out a new way to engage listeners. It used to be that you could spend hours lost in listening to a record, pouring through the liner notes and taking in all the details of the production.

I

n a world… where jewel cases littered the barren wasteland, boomboxes were scarce, and vinyl reigned supreme, two graphic designers from Brooklyn had a vision. Unsatisfied with the limitations of a mere record sleeve, Johnathan Swafford and Eric Palmerlee began a label to distribute LPs with accompanying 100 page books featuring stunning visual interpretations of their records’ aural offerings. Their upcoming releases include Cleveland, Ohio, doomgazers Hiram-Maxim’s selftitled debut, with a book by Ron Kretsch, as well as a S/T album from heavyweights Godmaker, with a book featuring artwork by Joseph Silver and Stephen Wilson.

and it always seemed pretty natural to combine our interests in design with our musical projects. From gig posters and band t-shirts to

What were you doing before Aqualamb, and what catalyst set this aural and visual machine in motion?

EP: Johnathan and I both have relatively long histories playing in bands, going back to the early ‘90s.

While we didn’t meet until about seven years ago when our bands first played shows together here in NYC, we found that we kind of both come from similar backgrounds that, for various reasons, instilled us with very industrious, hands-on, and DIY approaches to life.

album artwork, it feels pretty difficult for me to separate the visual component from the music itself— one compliments the other pretty effortlessly.

We both coincidentally ended up going to school for graphic design, @ NEWNOISEMAGS

I have discovered some of my favorite graphic designers through the work they did with particular bands or record labels, and some of my favorite bands through their album artwork. I would also say early obsessions with aestheticheavy labels like Touch And Go, Factory Records, and 4AD, combined with the design nerd culture—Avant Garde Magazine, Emigre books, Sagmeister, etc.—

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With CD sales on the decline and vinyl still a bit of a niche market for audiophiles and collectors, we decided it would be great to mix everything up and release music in a book format. Who doesn’t love books? Falling somewhere between extended liner notes and an art zine, the 100 page books also include download codes for the music.

Do you take full control over the album aesthetic for the bands you sign?

JS: For some bands, we’ll work with them to help visualize the concept, layout, and design. When we are designing, I think we both approach it like any other design project by working closely with the artists to bring visuals to the sounds, lyrics, and mood of the band.

Other times the band has a designer or artist in mind they want to work with. It really depends on the band and what they are thinking. The great thing about the book format, you can really go anywhere with it, from graphic novels to more abstract concepts.

We do have certain things we keep

similar, such as the spine and title pages.

Your roster is very diverse. How do you find bands you want to work with?

JS: Our taste in music definitely ranges. As for the bands on the roster, I do think all of the bands come from somewhere heavy-ish and all of them have a certain artyness and weirdness that is exciting to listen to and experience live.

Right now, finding and working with bands seems to just happen via word of mouth and organically through friends.

EP: Yeah, so far, the word of mouth and more organic way things come together has felt really good.

Currently, there’s a bit of a focus on Brooklyn-based bands, because that’s where we are located, but the Hiram-Maxim record is mixing things up a bit with bringing Cleveland into the fold! We like the diversity and don’t really intend on being genre or geography specific as things progress.

What do you hope to accomplish over the next few years?

JS: An amazing catalog of interesting music and books. Maybe a gold record and a New York Times Bestseller?

EP: Definitely a New York Times bestseller!

You’ve carved a niche for Aqualamb with unique packaging, but what’s the biggest challenge you face as an up and coming label?

JS: I think our biggest challenge will always be getting our bands in front of the [many] ears and eyes that they deserve.

EP: To Johnathan’s point, simply getting the word out about our bands and releases is the biggest challenge by far. We hope people will eventually come to associate Aqualamb with a specific type of dark, weird, but ultimately interesting releases.

.....

*CHECK OUT MORE AQUALAMB RELEASES IN “FOR THE RECORD” AT THE BACK OF THE ISSUE SOMEWHERE.*

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STORE SPOTLIGHT:

PROGRAMME SKATE & SOUND P

2016 seems to be our goal to make some sort of move. By the time you’re reading this, we should have ProgrammeHQ.com up with a full webstore. We also plan on branding the shop name more. People are always complaining we never make enough tees or hats, though that’s a nice complaint to have.

INTERVIEW WITH CO-OWNER CHRIS GRONOWSKI BY TONY SHRUM

rogramme Skate & Sound in Fullerton, Calif., opened their doors in early 2011, propelled by the collective efforts of pro skater Fabrizio Santos, Death By Stereo and Manic Hispanic vocalist Efrem Schulz, Chris Gronowski, and Kevin Fewell.

Programme is your one-stop shop for decks, trucks, wheels, vinyl, shoes, shirts, and live music.

After that, we had Nations Afire and Kepi Ghoulie, but nothing consistent.

After we hosted Soul Search in early 2014, things took off with bands wanting to play in-store and we had a full calendar. Since that point, we’ve had Forced Order, Angel Du$t, Mindset, DJ Rusko, Jason Cruz of Strung Out, and The Casualties— just to name a few—play here.

What was your main goal when opening Programme?

[Laughs] To be able to just keep the doors on. Really just being able to combine some ideas of skateboarding, music, and fashion into something cohesive.

What kind of response has live music brought to the store?

Nothing but love. We get [California State University, Fullerton] exchange students coming in to witness real, live American music along with the local kids who want to support their friend’s band or get a chance to see a band like The Casualties in a tiny room.

What prompted you to include music in your store?

We all grew up playing in bands and working in the music industry while skating. Plus, have you ever seen a skate video without a soundtrack?

We just hope we can cater to the record buyer while opening up a young skater’s eyes to a band or genre he or she was unfamiliar with.

Your main focus is skateboarding.

Have you noticed any recent ups or downs in skateboarding culture?

Skateboarding is very healthy,

THE CASUALTIES PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROB WALLACE

but it’s going through a transition period where companies are ending or reformulating, while smaller, efficient brands are entering with a bang. Boards are getting bigger and changing shapes, so skaters are starting to have more hybrid styles where they ride transitions and street at the same time. As a lifestyle, it is only getting better, because parents and grandparents are now handing it down generations to their kin.

Any plans to expand the store?

We’re always looking at options, but

Have you achieved the goal you set out to accomplish when you opened Programme?

Well, we haven’t reached our goal of having Wugazi actually play a show here, so that one’s still a work in progress. Can’t get those guys to rehearse…

But, ultimately, every time someone compliments us on having a shop that carries everything they like or thanks us for supporting their scene, then we’ve achieved that goal.

.....

Is there a certain genre you cater to, or are open to all types of music?

Really, we carry what we like, whether it’s 7 Seconds, Gang Starr, Coltrane, Ramones, Lee Perry… We have roots in hardcore, punk, and hip hop, but we love classic jazz, roots country, indie rock, Britpop, etc. It’s all a little different, but fits together well.

When did you start doing in-store performances?

We had pro skater and musician Ray Barbee play here when we first opened, but after him, just a sprinkling of bands here and there.

Efrem talked to the guys in Bane about doing a semi-secret show here with Cruel Hand in early 2013. That, of course, was epically awesome.

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ANGEL DU$T PHOTOGRAPHY BY ZANE GREY

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t’s kind of crazy that The Simpsons has been around for over 25 years.

Regardless of what you think about the show at this point, it is an unfuckwithable institution in American comedy and animation. The show has basically done everything an animated comedy on a major network can do, sometimes twice or thrice over.

One of their major accolades is their list of insane guest stars, who either

portrayed themselves or random Springfield residents. Unfortunately, aside from Metallica and Judas Priest, the show has never included any truly “cool” bands (Unless you think Billy Corgan is cool.)

To remedy this, here is a list of 10 musicians we think are more than deserving of a chance to be immortalized on the greatest animated TV show of all time.

g buzzo Kin OF THE MELVINS

Kerry KinOFgSLAYER

Buzzo might be the perfect hybrid of Sideshow Bob and Sideshow Mel. He’s incredibly book-smart and a giant goofball. Though nobody needs another Sideshow Bob vs. Bart episode, Buzzo stepping in to save Bart from certain danger would be absolutely heartwarming.

First off: Slayer! Second, the dude is someone who has been an outspoken fan of the show for a very long time, so he is definitely worthy of a guest spot. Personally, I believe he would

With his fiery mane and face tattoos, the dude already looks and acts enough like a cartoon character that his inclusion in one is almost a given at this point. So, why not The Simpsons? He would make a perfect tough-guy-with-a-soft-side role model for Nelson, Jimbo, Kearney, and Dolph!

be perfect in an episode involving a cruise ship full of metal bands accidentally docking in Springfield and terrorizing its citizens (especially the Flanders clan!).

DS BRENT HINDON OF MASTO

Lisa Simpson has always been a progressive feminist. She has had many great mentors and substitute teachers over the years, so why not trans activist Laura Jane Grace?! She could act as a substitute music teacher who schools the children on the virtues of punk and maybe grab some lunch at Sconewall Bakery.

e Grace Laura Jan ST ME! OF AGAIN

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Run T

gene Hutz Eu OF GOGOL BORDELLO

he jew

Admittedly, my favorite secondary characters on the show are the aliens Kang and Kodos. I really couldn’t imagine a greater Treehouse Of Horror episode than the cosmic duo pretending to be rappers voiced by RTJ

e ls

in an effort to assimilate and conquer the planet. Maybe they’d finally succeed! After all, El-P and Killer Mike have 20 percent more swag than Bob Dole and Bill Clinton…

Boots Electric & Josh Homme DEATH METAL OF EAGLES OF

It seems possible that Josh Homme could actually appear on the show. The man is clearly one of metal and rock’s funniest dudes. If he brought along Eagles Of Death Metal partner Jesse “Boots Electric” Hughes, Flanders would have some serious competition for best mustache in Springfield.

in real life that it seems he was born Eugene is another person so animatedshow retired the character of Lionel the to be on The Simpsons. Though , Eugene could make an appearance as Hutz when Phil Hartman passed awayit’d be way funnier than any cameo by his long lost cousin. I can guarantee Party!!!

Pharrell Williams or Lena Dunham.

X OF N with cokey the clown

an ChucOFkHOTRag WATER MUSIC

Tales about Chuck Ragan are already the stuff of legend. Therefore, nothing he could do on The Simpsons would be too farfetched. He would especially make a great fishing buddy and mentor to Bart and/or Homer. Though he’d have to be careful not to be duped by the Fresh Burritos Instantly van…

In Springfield, Krusty The Clown is acknowledged as both a beloved icon and a disgusting human being. Therefore, Fat Mike’s alter ego would do amazingly well as his long lost disgusting cousin or disgusting brother… Or disgusting rival!

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BOOK SPOTLIGHT:

ROMANTIC VIOLENCE

MEMOIRS OF AN AMERICAN SKINHEAD I N T E RV I EW WI T H AUT HO R CHRISTIA N PICCIOLINI B Y J OHN B . MOORE

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hristian Picciolini has owned a record store, run his own label, Sinister Muse, and managed bands like Flatfoot 56 and The Briggs. What many never knew until recently is that Picciolini—a friendly, generous guy who has done plenty to help the punk rock world—spent years of his life as a member of the White Power Movement. He recorded and toured the globe with a White Power band, and was a major figure in recruiting for the hate group.

learn long-term solutions to counter all types of violent extremism. A few years ago, he decided to write about his ugly past. Months ago, with the book finally written, he set up a Kickstarter campaign to print his memoir “Romantic Violence: Memoirs of an American Skinhead.” He hit his fundraising goal in two days, ultimately raising $15,000.

With the extra money, he’ll donate copies of the book to all of the Chicago public libraries as well as youth homes and prisons throughout Illinois.

Having long since left that world behind, Picciolini cofounded the group Life After Hate, a nonprofit consultancy and speakers’ bureau dedicated to helping communities and organizations

How did you first get involved with these hate groups.

I’ll just start from the very beginning.

My parents came to this country in the mid 1960s, so I’m a kid of Italian im-

migrants. For the first 14 years of my life, I was a pretty lonely kid. My parents came here and they worked hard.

They were trying to chase the American Dream. Because of that, they were working all the time and I was pretty much raised by my grandparents, so I had to struggle for an identity for the first 14 years of my life.

We lived in a southwest suburb of Chicago that, at the time, was kind of an upper middle class neighborhood. We weren’t an upper middle class family, but that’s where we lived and what they were working towards. So, I grew up with these pretty vanilla kids whose parents were doctors and lawyers, and I was this Italian immigrant kid who didn’t look like them and my parents hardly spoke English. Every day after school, I was taken to my grandparents’ neighborhood, which was this lower middle class immigrant neighborhood.

The kids in my school didn’t want to have anything to do with me and neither did the kids in my grandparents’ neighborhood.

You didn’t have many opportunities to connect with other kids?

Exactly. So, at 14, I met this stoner kid down the block. I was smoking a joint with him in the alley—probably the first time I ever smoked pot—and down the alley comes roaring this ‘69 Firebird, spitting out gravel. It screeched to a halt and this guy steps out, and he’s got a shaved head and boots and jeans rolled up. This was 1987, so I [didn’t]—and really no one—knew what a skinhead was. He gets really close to me, smacks my head and says, “Don’t you know that’s what the Communists and the Jews want you to do to keep you docile?”

I didn’t know what a communist was, I barely knew what a Jew was, but it struck me at the time that an adult said something to me that actually had some meaning behind it. I ended up becoming infatuated with this guy, and it turned out he was Clark Martell and he was infamous for starting the first American White Power Skinhead gang.

So, that meeting was your first step toward joining a hate group?

For the next seven years of my life. I became enamored with everything about them. I didn’t know anything about

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politics or race. My parents weren’t racists, in fact, they were victims of racism because they didn’t speak the language and were foreigners. It was not anything I was raised on, but I became enamored with the fashion of the skinheads, because it looked tough and I wasn’t tough. So, I started to mimic them, shaving my head, listening to their White Power music.

You went on to become a part of the group and start your own skinhead band. How did you end up leaving?

I got married and had two children, and started to have doubts about my involvement. When I had my children, there was something that kept me from getting them involved. There was also something that kept me from recruiting my wife, as well. [The movement] felt dirty to me. I wanted to be the buffer between them and the movement.

I would bear the brunt of the violence and the ugliness so that it wouldn’t touch them.

Your sons from that first marriage are older now. Were you afraid to have them read this book and see the things you did when you were younger?

They were the first two people I had read my initial draft. They were 14 and 16 at the time, and they were the first people I asked to read it.

What was their response?

When they were old enough, I decided I would talk to them about it. I always made sure I talked about the differences in people and how those differences are important, so they were probably pretty surprised by the details in the book, but not the overall topic, because I’ve been pretty open to them. My intention was for them to know I was being completely open and honest, and I wanted them to hate who I was so that they would never be like the person I was.

....

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oncerts. Festivals.

Reunions. Acoustic jamborees. If you’re devouring these pages, you probably love live music as much as we do. Here some of the premier shows going on this season, in your neck of the woods.

BANE

WITH BACKTRACK

Bane—legendary hardcore outfit and previous New Noise cover stars—are embarking on a major trek across the country this spring. They’re bringing the mad moshers in Backtrack along for the ride, to ensure maximum dogpiles and screamalongs. Touring in support of their final studio album, there’s no telling exactly how many Bane shows are left in cards, so don’t wait up… Get out there.

3/26 - SIMMONS 667 - PROVIDENCE, RI 3/27 - HEIRLOOM ARTS THEATRE - DANBURY, CT 3/28 - MIXTAPE SPRING FESTIVAL - AMITYVILLE, NY 3/29 - SAINT CLAIRE THEATER - SYRACUSE, NY 3/30 - NOW THAT’S CLASS - CLEVELAND, OH 3/31- ACE OF CUPS - COLUMBUS, OH 4/1 - MAGIC STICK - DETROIT, MI 4/2 - MAC’S BAR - LANSING, MI 4/3 - BEAT KITCHEN - CHICAGO, IL 4/4 - OUTLAND BALLROOM - SPRINGFIELD, MO 4/5 - MARQUIS THEATRE - DENVER, CO 4/6 - LOADING DOCK - SALT LAKE CITY, UT 4/8 - EL CORAZON - SEATTLE, WA 4/9 - STAR THEATER - PORTLAND, OR 4/10 - GILMAN - BERKELEY, CA 4/11 - CHAIN REACTION - ANAHEIM, CA 4/12 - CHAIN REACTION - ANAHEIM, CA 4/13 - EPICENTRE - SAN DIEGO, CA 4/14 - THE UNDERGROUND - MESA, AZ 4/15 - PRIMAL SKATE SHOP - ABILENE, TX 4/16 - RED 7 - AUSTIN, TX 4/17 - WALTER’S DOWNTOWN - HOUSTON, TX 4/18 - CLUB DADA - DALLAS, TX 4/19 - BOTTLENECK - LAWRENCE, KS 4/20 - THE END - NASHVILLE, TN 4/22 - OTTOBAR - BALTIMORE, MD 4/23 - VOLTAGE - PHILADELPHIA, PA 4/24 - BRIGHTON MUSIC HALL - BOSTON, MA 4/25 - WEBSTAR HALL (STUDIO) - NEW YORK, NY 4/18 - THE OBSERVATORY - SANTA ANA, CA 4/19 - THE ROXY - LOS ANGELES, CA @ NEWNOISEMAGS

WEEDEATER WITH KING PARROT

The melodic hardcore heroes in Defeater just signed with Epitaph records, are working on a new album, and have a sweet national tour lined up beginning in late March. This tour, which features the thoughtful moshers in Counterparts and Capsize, also marks Defeater frontman Derek Archambault’s triumphant return to active duty, after recovering from hip surgery and performing subdued sets on their past few outings.

3/21 - THE LOST WELL - AUSTIN, TX 3/24 - LAUNCHPAD - ALBUQUERQUE, NM 3/25 - PUB ROCK LIVE - SCOTTSDALE, AZ 3/26 - CASBAH - SAN DIEGO, CA 3/27 - THE COMPLEX - LOS ANGELES, CA 3/28 - CATALYST - SANTA CRUZ, CA 3/29 - DNA - SAN FRANCISCO, CA 3/30 - STARLITE LOUNGE - SACRAMENTO, CA 3/31 - DANTE’S - PORTLAND, OR 4/1 - STUDIO SEVEN - SEATTLE, WA 4/2 - THE PIN - SPOKANE, WA 4/3 - NEUROLUX - BOISE, ID 4/4 - IN THE VENUE - SALT LAKE CITY, UT 4/5 - BLUEBIRD THEATER - DENVER, CO 4/7- RIOT ROOM - KANSAS CITY, MO 4/8 - WOOLY’S - DES MOINES, IA 4/9 - ROCK ISLAND BREWING - ROCK ISLAND, IL 4/10 - PYRAMID SCHEME - GRAND RAPIDS, MI 4/11 - SUBTERRANEAN - CHICAGO, IL 4/12 - GROG SHOP - CLEVELAND, OH 4/13 - SAINT VITUS - BROOKLYN, NY 4/14 - NECTARS - BURLINGTON, VT 4/15 - T.T. THE BEAR’S PLACE - BOSTON, MA 4/16 - KUNG FU NECKTIE - PHILADELPHIA, PA

E & TITLE FIGHT LA DISPUT w/ the hotelier Post hardcore champs La Dispute and the melodic punks in Title Fight are teaming up for a quick, co-headlining

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jaunt circling select states this spring.

There’s nothing like melting snow, guitar feedback, and heartfelt screams during this time of year, is there not?

3/21 - FITZGERALD’S - HOUSTON, TX 3/23 - THE MASQUERADE - ATLANTA, GA 3/24 - CAT’S CRADLE - CARRBORO, NC 3/25 - HOWARD THEATER - WASHINGTON, DC 3/26 - UNION TRANSFER - PHILADELPHIA, PA 3/27 - WEBSTER HALL - NEW YORK, NY 3/29 - PARADISE ROCK CLUB - BOSTON, MA 3/31 - ALTAR BAR - PITTSBURGH, PA 4/1 - PHOENIX BAR - TORONTO, ONT 4/3 - THE CROFOOT - PONTIAC, MI 4/5 - THE METRO - CHICAGO, IL

DEFEATER WITH COUNTERPARTS & CAPSIZE

The melodic hardcore heroes in Defeater just signed with Epitaph records, are working on a new album, and have a sweet national tour lined up beginning in late March. This tour, which features the thoughtful moshers in Counterparts and Capsize, also marks Defeater frontman Derek Archambault’s triumphant return to active duty, after recovering from hip surgery and performing subdued sets on their past few outings.

3/27 - BOGIES - ALBANY, NY 3/28 - REVOLUTION - AMITYVILLE, NY 3/29 - THE CHAMP - LEMOYNE, PA 3/30 - EMPIRE - SPRINGFIELD, VA 3/31 - MOTORCO MUSIC HALL - DURHAM, NC 4/1 - THE NEIGHBORHOOD - CHARLOTTE, NC 4/2 - NEW BROOKLAND TAVERN - COLUMBIA, SC 4/3 - THE MASQUERADE - ATLANTA, GA 4/4 - AQUA - JACKSONVILLE, FL 4/5 - THE FORGE - BIRMINGHAM, AL 4/7 - NEW ALBANY PRODUCTION HOUSE - NEW ALBANY, IN 4/8 - ROCKETOWN - NASHVILLE, TN 4/10 - WALTER’S DOWNTOWN - HOUSTON, TX 4/11 - CLUB DADA - DALLAS, TX 4/12 - KOROVA - SAN ANTONIO, TX 4/14 - THE WORKS - ALBUQUERQUE, NM

4/15 - NILE - MESA, AZ 4/16 - CHAIN REACTION - ANAHEIM, CA 4/17 - STRUMMERS - FRESNO, CA 4/18 - OAKLAND METRO - OAKLAND, CA 4/19 - HAWTHORNE THEATER - PORTLAND, OR 4/20 - EL CORAZON - SEATTLE, WA 4/22 - MARQUIS THEATER - DENVER, CO 4/23 - FIREBIRD - ST. LOUIS, MO 4/24 - BEAT KITCHEN - CHICAGO, IL 4/25 - THE LOFT - LANSING, MI 4/26 - FRANKIES - TOLEDO, OH 4/27 - BASEMENT TRANSMISSIONS THEATRE - ERIE, PA 4/28 - THE WAITING ROOM - BUFFALO, NY 4/19 - THE ROXY - LOS ANGELES, CA

THE USED

WITH EVERY TIME I DIE, THE MARMOZETS & THE EERIES Prepare for a rock ‘n’ roll bonanza of epic proportions this April, when The Used tour the States with hardcore vets Every Time I Die and British alt-rockers The Marmozets. Up-andcoming L.A. rock radio darlings The Eeries complete the tour’s lineup, which offers just about every strand of guitar centric rock one could imagine.

4/3 - HOUSE OF BLUES - SAN DIEGO, CA 4/4 - TEMPE BEACH PARK - TEMPE, AZ 4/7 - OBSERVATORY - SANTA ANA, CA 4/8 - OBSERVATORY - SANTA ANA, CA 4/10 - IN THE VENUE - SALT LAKE CITY, UT 4/11 - IN THE VENUE - SALT LAKE CITY, UT 4/12 - THE FILLMORE - DENVER, CO 4/14 - THE RAVE - MILWAUKEE, WI 4/17 - BOGARTS - CINCINNATI, OH 4/18 - THE FILLMORE - DETROIT, MI 4/19 - DANFORTH MUSIC HALL - TORONTO, ON 4/21 - STARLAND BALLROOM - SAYREVILLE, NJ 4/22 - RAPIDS THEATRE - NIAGARA FALLS, NY 4/25 - WEBSTER HALL - NEW YORK, NY 4/28 - UPSTATE CONCERT HALL - CLIFTON PARK, NY 4/29 - HOUSE OF BLUES - BOSTON, MA 5/1 - THE FILLMORE - SILVER SPRING, MD 5/2 - HOUSE OF BLUES - CLEVELAND, OH

.....

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brought them back. I couldn’t return to New York without evidence that I obtained psychedelics for free from the Scientology Center on Sunset Blvd. This needed to be shared with the world! Had this been a gift from Xenu himself? I had to find out and ingested immediately.

I sat down and closed my eyes, and right away, I found my body slunk into a contorted position. It began to obtain a comfortable posture within a parallel time and space. My body was perfectly still, but my face started to shake like I was being blasted straight up at high velocities of speed. Then it stopped—and I could feel being all around me. I opened my eyes to

I

just got back to my apartment in New York after a quick stint in Los Angeles. I was there for three days shooting an Alkaline Trio video when I got linked up with a really spacey film editor named Jose. Jose told me his buddy had just harvested a batch of altered psychedelic fungi and was practically giving them away. He explained he would share what he could score if I gave him a ride up to the guy’s house on my way to the airport.

“But… That’s Center…” I said.

the

“Yeah—that’s where we’re going.”

Back in New York, the second I stepped inside my apartment, I tore open my checked luggage to make sure the illegal narcotics remained undisturbed through security. I

On the ride up, Jose told me we were going to the same building he grew up in. In fact, this guy went to the same school as him and their parents were best friends. brothers!”

he

We took a left onto Sunset. We had just passed the big Von’s grocery store when Jose told me to hook a left.

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Now, I also find that it’s important I reminded the reader that, at this time, I am still at my home on Madison St., sitting on my rug—but I was also, somehow, on Canal and Broadway, smack dab in the middle of the most degenerate intersection in all of New York City. I could feel a harsh energy coming off of the hustlers and Chinese bootleggers. I could hear them whispering in different accents, “Handbags? Watches? Gucci!

Gucci!”—but I couldn’t see them.

I was alone. And I was a human shape similar to a pimple on the grid surface of It. I was surrounded by everyone. I could hear them, but

Scientology

“Yes—immediately.”

“We’re practically proclaimed.

see how far the fall was. I could only look upwards and watch the web cover the skyscrapers of Wall Street.

It was vicious and beautiful, like the slow and steady flow of fiery red lava.

I followed it north to Canal Street and stopped. Something felt strange— the intersection was empty. No one was there. For those who don’t know, Canal Street is the epicenter of bootleg luxury goods in the entire U.S. Different ethnicities come from all around the world to sell different bootlegged goods to tourists.

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pure amazement—everything was being taken over by a science fiction like web. I could see all. Everything was composed of simple and basic line work. The web crept up the legs of the table and up onto the wall.

Everything was being taken over by the web right before my eyes, so I decided to follow it.

First, it took over everything inside my apartment. I followed it outside.

The web raised me up and I was flying about 10 feet high above Madison St. down to the South St. Seaport. I couldn’t look down; I didn’t want to

they weren’t there—and I was alone.

In recognizing this, I was filled with a deep and sobering understanding…

We’re all connected by the same underlying thing, but I am all I have.

I was flushed with comprehension, and felt completely relieved and depressed all at the same time. I began to laugh out loud. Suddenly, I was completely sober and back at my house, laughing on the rug. I couldn’t stop. It was a laughter that only a profound understanding can produce. A laughter that only comes from being there—from seeing It.

..

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As mentioned in my interview with the label earlier in the magazine, I have an assortment of goodies to show off that are absolutely unfuckwithable. We talked to Johnathan and Eric of Aqualamb about the books they print to go along with their record releases, but how the fuck am I supposed to explain that? I can show you just as easy.

These guys really hit something here.

These books, when stacked next to each other, just give me that feeling of completeness. Like your copies of the X-Wing series that you’ve got stacked on your bookshelf that you proudly read when you were 12.

The uniformity of it all just rules.

Design- wise, there are a few things that they’ve implemented to keep the books in line with the aesthetic; the bar across the spine with the band and album title and Aqualamb logo.

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Other than that, you’ve got a various array of books that interpret each corresponding albums look, feel and sound.

I don’t know how long I can wax poetic about how awesome it is to see designers run a label. They aren’t skimping on the quality and are definitely giving you more for your money with these. Oh yeah, they do records as well! I’ve got a few, let’s talk about ’em, yeah?

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Black Black Black’s album art is simple enough. An esoteric symbol in purple surrounded by, wait for it… blackness. As a designer myself I’ve been toying with the idea of using purple, and I think this might give me that push, but I digress… The design of the book and the album is centered around occult horror imagery and is SUPER rad. The actual vinyl itself is purple as purple can get and looking at the entire package is boneriffic. Oh and as a side note, this album has a few really good song titles. “Mishandled Cult Funds” sticks out, and if you’re a fan of Sabbath

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and Queens of the Stone Age type rock pick this bitch up. Rock and roll yourself to hell.

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We interviewed the band in this issue as well. The Aqualamb roster is seriously a force to be reckoned with and I urge you all to keep your eye on them. Anyway… Sutures, medical diagrams, teeth, war imagery… this artwork is all over the place. But oh lord it works so well. I love the blurry, worn aesthetic and the book does a real good job of carrying that vibe over from the record. Again, another cool release. Buy the record and the book because you deserve to own something nice, right?

HUMAN HIGHLIGHT REEL - TAKING DRUGS TO MAKE MUSIC TO SELL CARS TO book compliments that with added imagery. The white/bone looking record is accentuated by the off white pages within the book. Images of old cars, old men, deserts and radios give you a weird sense of creepy nostalgia. Buy this one too while you’re buying the others.

That’s about all I’ve got for this issue.

When I find something I like, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will go out of my way to make sure you know about it. As always, support independent labels, record stores, musicians, artists and designers. They need your money more than Howard Schultz and you can make coffee at home, asshole.

Easily my favorite musical release from the label, Human Highlight Reel is one of the less heavy bands on the label, but they seem to fit re-

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ally well. The rustic imagery of old plains and dead grass sets the tone for the album pretty well, and again (I sound like a broken record) the

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“I’M NOT GOD BUT IF I WERE GOD, ¾ OF YOU WOULD BE GIRLS, AND THE REST WOULD BE PIZZA AND BEER.” - AXL ROSE 79

TOP SHELF FULL

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