Break Anchor sound like every band from early Warped Tour got thrown into a blender and poured into a recording studio in the woods of Detroit. The Michigan quartet began as lead singer and guitarist Jay Navarro’s brainchild. After making a few phone calls to old friends who he wanted to play with—who then called their friends who they wanted to play with—guitarist Kyle Green, bassist Cris Golan, and drummer Dan Stover came aboard, and Break Anchor was born. The band’s new album, Van Down by the River, dropped April 8 on Paper + Plastick. “That’s a Chris Farley skit from ‘Saturday Night Live,’” Navarro explains, edifying the young’uns. “He’s this motivational speaker and he’s always saying, ‘You gotta stop smoking the marijuana or you’re gonna live in a van down by the river.’ That was the idea for the title and the artwork, kind of like what happens to all these people who
BREAK ANCHOR
INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST JAY NAVARRO BY GABI CHEPURNY
are in bands. First we struggle, and then end up at just the bottom, just normal.”
It doesn’t matter to me if people like it or not. We don’t care.”
He says that the new album came as a result of whiskey, gin, and being locked away in Mark Hudson’s secluded recording studio, as well as listening to music from his own childhood, like Jawbreaker and Smashing Pumpkins.
Being a part of the punk scene for almost 30 years means that Navarro has seen it all, and he appreciates the current resurgence of DIY networks. “I think there’re some genuine people in bands and genuine promoters who run these beautiful, genuine DIY venues,” he says. “I feel like there’s that moment again in time for this world of music. Really compassionate people, and they’re doing it for the right reasons. It’s like back to the early ‘90s.”
While they love making music, each member of Break Anchor has a day job, which Navarro actually appreciates. “We all work jobs, but we don’t stop [playing music]. Love it too much,” he says. “But that’s the kind of freedom that having a job gives: we don’t have to worry about the music being something we live off of. It gives you complete freedom. Oh what, we sound like a fucking super pretty Green Day? Guess what? I don’t care, fuck you, that’s what we want to do.
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Above all, Navarro seems to value sincerity. “I think that being yourself is one of the hardest things to do in life,” he admits. “Maybe it’s because I’m at the point where I’m older now and it’s easier for me to be myself, but it’s a hard
G H O S T
thing to do. I think that all four of us are pretty fucking awesome at just being ourselves and knowing who the fuck we are. I feel like that’s when a human being is at their best.”
W O L V E S
INTERVIEW WITH CARLEY AND THOMAS WOLF BY THOMAS PIZZOLA
from being intimidated, they went in there with a confidence befitting for a “bad ass rock ‘n’ roll band.”
PHOTO: DAWN LAUREEN
The Ghost Wolves are a hard charging husband and wife duo from Austin, Texas. They formed with one simple goal: “We wanted to start a badass rock ‘n’ roll band, be way too loud, and make music without having other people tell us how to do it,” says Jonny. Judging by the 10 tracks that make up their debut long player Man, Woman, Beast—released last year through Cheetah Chrome’s Plowboy Records— they are a major success. Their music drips with bad attitude, bad thoughts, and way too much fuzz. They recorded the album at Austin’s world famous Arlyn Studios, but far
“Die inside the Crack House!” is the new mantra. Crack House delivers the ugliest of extreme music in the vein of—and with the subtlety of—Eyehategod. The band’s members have years of experience from other Philly institutions: Bitchslicer, Bad Luck 13 Riot Extravaganza, Call The Paramedics, and Eat The Turnbuckle. Guitarist and vocalist Shlak Rock identifies the members as, “Chubb Rock on guitar and vocals, [Shlak] on guitar and vocals, Shifty Shane on drums, and random junkies on the free base. The band is a year old at most, age-wise and mentality. We hail from the worst parts of Philly.” The Hits Just Keep On Coming, released on Horror Pain Gore Death Productions, is a brutal, crushing EP. With tracks named “Junkie Fucker” and “March of the Crackhead,” Crack House ensure exhilarating, sweat-drenched metal punk. The lyrics were cultivated from the Philadelphia streets and slums, and relay the mistakes and desperation of those areas. “We are
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“We were just there to get a job done,” they say. “We had the best team in Gordy Johnson and Ben Richardson, along with their engineers. We were nervous going in, but once we got started, things were flowing rapidly. We were incredibly excited to work in a studio of that class, to know that the sounds we were going to make were going to be captured in the best way possible.” The couple enjoys their status as a duo, and they won’t change the dynamic anytime soon. Not only does it strip down the music to its base core, it also makes intra-band decisions much easier. “We love being a duo. Let me say that,” says Jonny. “We made a conscious choice to keep it this way. If we wanted other musicians, we could have them. But we don’t. We’re much more nimble than bands with more members in so many ways: musically, logistically, personally. Everything is faster,
cleaner, better. We make decisions in seconds that would take a band of six people a week to figure out, because it’s just the two of us running this show and we’re constantly together. Other bands have to bounce ideas around, schedule rehearsals, email each other, return phone calls, all kinds of bullshit to achieve the same results.” Others may not be so enthusiastic about playing music with their spouse, but to The Ghost Wolves, it’s the perfect way to merge their personal life with their musical life. “So many people think it’s a horrible idea,” Jonny recalls. “I’ve even had family members and close friends point the finger and tell me I’m an idiot for starting a band with my wife: the whole mixing business with your relationship, family, etc. I think that’s bullshit. If you can’t work closely with your spouse, why the fuck did you marry them in the first place? I didn’t marry Carley so I could see her every once in a while, after work or after a tour with another band. I have a huge admiration for her personally and creatively, and am super lucky that we have the chance to do what we are doing right now and love it.”
PHOTO: DAWN LAUREEN
CRACKHOUSE
INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST/VOCALIST SHLAK ROCK BY HUTCH
as real as it gets, my friend,” Shlak assures. “All this shit is spoken from experience. We don’t actively go out looking for crack anymore. But, if you happen to be selling it, or want to share, we will gladly partake in the festivities. Everyone in the band will pretty much do whatever you put in front of their face, with the exception of dope, because that shit is garbage. Not that we haven’t done that before. We will try anything. Three or four times.” Shlak breaks down the audio experience as “tons of street lingo screamed like a doper Dr. Seuss over music that sounds like methamphetamines shooting out of your speakers.” Crack House’s music is belligerent and unapologetic. The production is straightforward. Raw and brash, the tunes are low end heavy hardcore mixed with blackened thrash rock ‘n’ roll. The EP was mixed and mastered at Mark-It-
Zero Music in New Jersey by Dan O’Hare, who is the guitarist for grindcore legends Brutal Truth. “I think it came out great for our first slab of shit. Could always be dirtier. Expect another six song EP in a few months,” Shlak states frankly. That attitude mirrors the blue-collar work ethic of its members. “The band consists of a maintenance man at a high school, a bartender, and a tattooer. Our day-to-day consists of a lot of fucking off, getting stoned, and playing music.” This year will see Crack House doing more shows and gaining momentum. “We are scheduled for Pray for Death Fest III in Connecticut and Grind Your Mind in Montreal this year. We will be doing a bunch of weekend runs to the surrounding states, and dropping the sister EP to The Hits Just Keep On Coming, entitled Today is a Nice Day for an Overdose.” Shlak
NEW NOISE MAGAZINE
condenses the experience of a live Crack House show, saying the uninitiated can expect “horrible drug influenced jokes in between nonstop face-melting pocket tempo thrash metal.”
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