Interview with Dylan M. of MARDOU in the works.
THWART...!
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
[Past-Blast] [Blank Generation-Jan. 2001]
Reviews from Blank Generation January 2001
Note: Images added to certain reviews for cosmetic purposes in 2013
I am Shawn Abnoxious. I am part of the Blank Generation. I’m going to get on the level with you all on this one. I’m still basically new around these parts. I’m a flake. NOT a fake, a FLAKE. I’m weird. I’m strange. I admit and forewarn. Here I sit, doing this review when The Blank Generation web site is "on vacation"... I mean what the fuck? Mr. Domino nearly breaks his fucking wrist bowling BUT he can still find time to venture abroad and drink martinis on the French Rivera? "Vacation" Yeah, right...
Anyway, like I said, I’m going to level with you all about this release. It’s a bootleg. Well, not even really a bootleg. It’s a pirated piece of music. A 'Pirate Disc' if you will. A friend of a friend told a friend that a friend had this CD they bought from a LEGITIMATE record store so this friend went to another friends house and burnt me a copy of this on his COMPACT DISC BURNER; and even went the extra mile and scanned the cover to put in a CD case AS IF I was getting a LEGITIMATE compact disc. Fuck yeah! Year 2K1 and I’m having some fun! FUCK THE NEW MILLENIUM. Fuck you Metallica. Fuck your lil' Napster battle. Fuck your band too. "Speed Metal!" Who gives a fuck anyway? "One" was your coolest attempt at making something worthwhile and that’s just because of the video... Target spotted [music industry] FIRE TORPEDOS! BLAM!!!! "Sir, we hit the vessel on the port side and did about $15 dollars worth of damage" "Excellent Ensign, bring the sub around to a heading of 45 degrees and dive! Dive!! DIVE!!!!"
I don’t know much about the Raincoats. I Guess will have to pick up my copy of Jon SavagesEngland’s Dreaming and see what he has to say about this band. Nah, knowledge is for winners and if a loser likes me gets a PIRATED Compact disc like this dropped into their lap, then I WANNA BE A LOSER! The Raincoats. Minimal. Savage. Art-punk. Damage. Slits-ish. Punk scenes ROUND THE GLOBE need more bands like this one. Out-there. Experimental. You like ESG? The Raincoats aren’t proto-disco-art-rock like that but just as worthwhile. They cover "Lola" by the Rolling Stones and kick some ass. I know Rolling Stones didn’t originally do "Lola" but who cares? I mean whose review is this YOURS or mine. If you had any balls you would be going to www.Sputnik.com reading the latest info on the First USSR Satellite in outer space. If you get a copy of this disc and aren’t punching plaster walls when you hear "Black and White" then dammit YOU FUCKING SUCK. What the fuck? Did THE BEAT HAPPENING get a hold of this and PAY ATTENTION? Is that some Eno-ish guitar I hear in there? Didn’t Polyrock rip Enos guitar sound off for their stuff? Yes to both. YES 2 BOTH! Electric Violin! Sounds like someone’s killing a refrigerator. Why cant Michelle Shock’s stuff be this fucking cool? You figure with a cool name like Michelle Shock she would be DARING. Nope. Anchored down in Anchorage? FUCKING WHAT??? I don’t get it. Patti Smith was in the Raincoats. Nope, she wasn’t. I know that last sentence got all you MUSIC BUFFS out there all amped up.
FUCK!!!! AGH! While writing this review the powers that be... indeed, terrorists once again discovered a new weakness and sent a Spider on the attack from within the desk drawer that sits in the desk, that sits on a run, that sits in the kitchen. Don’t ask yourself why? It’s a spider! Vegetables. Spiders. Two (2) on my ever growing list of Arch-nemesis’s! I couldn’t even find a rolled up magazine to smash it with before its retreat. It’s toying with me. Letting me know it’s here and stalking. Letting me know with its MANY legs, and fangs, and evil spider eyes... AGH! There it is again. Chills of fright run through my body. I break out in chills. I find a notebook and kept near the phone on the desk I mentioned before AND SMASHED THE FUCKER. "Your a Million" is playing this very same instant the spiders life ceases. One down, and an unknown amount more to go. The point of this review? Let me sum it up. Raincoats good. music industry good. PIRATING music, BETTER. Killing Spiders? THE BEST! (SAB)
(No Address, Obviously)
Testors (featuring: Sonny Vincent) "Original Punk Recordings New York City 1976-1977" 10"EP
(No Address, Obviously)
This is yet ONE MORE of my missives. Get comfortable. Get that bottle of gin and sit down with me awhile.... There’s this thing called THE BIG MESS. It’s a lifestyle; it’s a mentality. It HUNTS you and CLAIMS you. You don’t claim it. It seems no matter what; the things you do, say and ATTEMPT to pull off go wildly astray. Things get broke. People get mad. You aren’t even trying!!!! Live in the dirt and appreciate the failure of what surrounds you. Losing is winning. Survival of the fittest? Nah. That’s bullshit. Its only when you learn to live with the chaos, when you learn to deal with THE BIG MESS when you finally grasp the MEANING, the definition of Life.... Jimmy Pervert, who has been called Jim the Amish lately because he has taken to sporting a beard (and its manicured too), Jim was told a while back when he first started growing his beard that he looked like Jim Morisson from The Doors. For about a month when he walked into a room people would bust out singing "LA Woman" or "The End". Well anyway, Jim shit in this bathtub the other night at a party. Why? The Big Mess. That’s why....
Kenny "Rock-Action", you know him, he’s a fellow Blank Generationer, just recently, during the Detox Police, blew the crotch of his white jeans out. He did this and didn’t care. Why? He knew it was all part of the big, messy picture. We (meaning him AND me) sang "Eyes of Satan" while Radar Secret Service belted out the music. Kenny said he would always remember it.... Kent, Ohio. Snowed the whole way up. You could call it bare knuckle driving except it’s being called red knuckle driving because Jerry skinned the fuck out of his hand while loading up. Tension....
Matt the Junglecat sits in a chair and it breaks. He goes spilling into the floor while a band called Ditchweed is playing. Everyone laughs and instead of getting embarrassed, he goes with it. He rolls around on the ground and acts out the whole bit. He doesn’t spill one drop of his Burger Beer either. Why did the chair break? The Big Mess....
The Dynamite On play in Dayton at some fucking country bar that has animal heads hanging on the wall. Its a pretty odd place that I never been in but I know all about it. Anyway, they end up getting banned from ever playing there again because the bar tender thought Sam "Miami Vice" (AKA "Human#8") was '; getting it on' with some girl when all they were doing was swapping spit. "You’re a cunt!" Sam told the tender. "What'd you say to me? What'd you call me?" she responded. "I called you a cunt!" Sam said. Then as a unit Dynamite On exited the place and was told never to come back, I didn’t see this all go down but Andy (the On's drummer) told me all about it today, Andy told me that they [Dynamite On] ended up winning out of the whole deal because they got $20 in cold/hard cash and their bar tab, which was supposed to come out of their pay at the end of the night) was overlooked in the chaos of the ousting. Apparently, and I have seen the Ons drink before so I believe this, Andy said they drank way more than $20 in beer and slow gin fizzes' Why? The Big Mess!!!
I sit in Kill the Hippies Mantua Ave keep. Matt (KTH Guitar) brings me a bottle of Gin. He had been taking the bottle on tour from person to person throughout the after-show party. I force him to sit down and drink it with me. He does so. I soon get up. Go to the bathroom. Puke in the sink. Clean it up and as everyone, including my adoptive sister, Melissa from KTH, ask me if I’m all right I tell her and them. "Yeah, there's just some Sci-fi shit in there." Then I passed out only to wake up in a dark room with members of the Socials, and Detox Police sprawled out on the ground everywhere. Kenny is listening to Jurassic 5 and other old rap bands like UTFO, Curtis Blow, Slick Rick and rappin' to his sweetheart as they hug and lay on hardwood floors with one pillow and one blanket between them. THE BIG MESS! Luke Skywalker has his FORCE. Even the Darth Vader has the FORCE. We, the humble minority sitting amongst the garbage and broken things, have THE BIG MESS!
Now, you sat through all of that because this BIG MESS thing isn’t anything new. The Testors had it. This 10" proves it; it’s the best taste from this band yet by far. The other Incognito 10" was great. The Rave Up LP was up to par with the first 1, but this tops them both. This 10" has five unreleased studio tracks and one live track of one of the best punk-rock songs EVER; "Awmaw"! You see, apparently, as the liner notes read, Sonny Vincent would play this song to clear the room of the non-believers. The song begins with about a minute and a half of guitar noise. I suppose rooms cleared. Some soundmen wouldn’t even work with the Testors because their sound was DANGEROUS. This 10" proves it! In my eyes, The Testors still make The Dead Boys sound like they never took their Youngstown bell-bottoms off. The Testors make the Dead Boys look like fucking butterflies! Lil' sweet, caring, peace loving, peaceful butterflies! The Testors are the dirty rats. They ARE the cracks on the sidewalk. They are the stale vomit smell you get when you go into an unfamiliar venue. Rooster Booster and Rich Lathers from Crimson Sweet hit the nail on the head: There's a certain level of filth you expect in any viable venue you’re about to play in. If the filth don’t exist, then stay uncomfortable! In some cases I know that the Testors were the type of band to welcome the filth when they walked into a suspecting venue. Other times I would say that the Testors were perhaps the element of Filth to a place they walked into. Either way I bet they were ready, willing, and able! This 10" is right up my alley. If it wasn’t I wouldn’t have given it the time of day. The Testors. Pioneers! St. Vincent! (SAB)
(Incognito Records)
(Incognito Records)
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Remembering SEXUAL TENSION (Interview)
The Newest Greek Tragedy is Greece. Go fucking figure.
An Interview with Elias “White Chocolate’ Velouchiotis on SEXUAL TENSION, Busking and Greek Politics.
“My only plans for today involve a bucket of fried chicken and trying to drink off this hangover…”
I have only recently taken down an aged photocopy of a picture that was taped to the wall of my living room of Elias playing with Sexual Tension where he appears to be falling down but was really propelling himself upwards from the ground during a spastic fit during singing.
Tell ...Thwart! Readers about you and Sexual Tension... and why I still think that band is one of the best I’ve ever witnessed?
Well, I got into punk rock because my older sister Olympia was a punker. She went away to college when I was 12, and I went into her room and discovered all her records; a bunch of Bikini Kill, Nation of Ulysses, Ramones, Huggy Bear, and Kill Rock Stars stuff. She also had some 7 inches from local bands, and a 12" comp called "Board Games to Take Your Mind off the Punk Rock Struggle" that was almost all Kent and Akron bands. In eighth grade I started regularly sneaking out of the house at night to go see bands at house shows, the Mantis, and the 1-2-Fuck-You. There was a huge scene back then in Akron and Kent, tons of places that had shows, and some fucking incredible bands like Kill the Hippies, Radar Secret Service, Ligod, and The Go Go Bots. I used to go to the Mantis, find some crackhead to buy my beer and cigarettes for me, drink High Life and rock out until I threw up, and then walk 3 miles back to my parents' house, hiding in bushes or front lawns every time a car passed because I was paranoid about cops.
By the time I finished high school in 2001 I had gotten really into the old Cleveland and Detroit punk: The Stooges, The MC5, and The Pagans, and I really wanted to start a band that was a cross between that stuff, and all the old R&B, funk and Soul I really liked, like Little Richard, Screamin' Joe Neal, and The Radars. The only problem was that I couldn't play an instrument, or write a song. So I went around trying to find musicians, and hooked up with this guy Nate, a bass player who was a raging alcoholic and had just been kicked out of the Army. He lived in this claustrophobic efficiency apartment on the corner in Kent we called Crockton, a bunch of really shitty, really cheap apartments owned by the auto mechanic Tim Crock, that were always occupied by punks, druggies, and other dregs of humanity. (Now they've all been torn down and there's a Sheetz, the Walmart of gas stations, there.) We would sit in his apartment for hours and try to write songs, but neither of us really knew what we were doing. Finally, Matt from Kill the Hippies, who lived next door, came over to help us, and ended up writing "Cookin' with Gas" while we both sat slack-jawed the couch and stared at him in awe. After that, we basically guilted him in to joining the band.
We found our drummer, Scott Davidson, who was playing in a classic rock cover band with Nate at the time called Randy Magik, and were ready to actually start practicing, but one day I went to the efficiency apartment, and found it empty. Nate had just disappeared. (He didn't resurface until about 5 years later.) We replaced him with Sarah Roland, who was dating Kill the Hippies' drummer, put together a set, and played our first show at the Mantis on Valentine's Day, 2012, as White Chocolate (myself,) Erotic Thunder (Matt,) Sarah Tension, and Sexual Scott. We later replaced Sarah Tension with Pine Nuts (Robbie from Radar Secret Service.)
How did the CD-R come into being?
Well, we decided we needed a CD, so we recorded one ourselves at our practice space, which was Scott's apartment above the Mantis. We did it track-by-track, and I remember it being a total pain in the ass. Again, Matt did pretty much all the work, setting up mics, levels, mixing, etc. The only record of that band is that CD, a tape of a live show where the bar owner shuts down the whole show and kicks everyone out in the middle of our set, which one of our friends recorded on a hand held tape recorder, and our last show at a DEVO tribute thing, playing "Girl U Want" and "The Theme from Doctor Detroit."
How would you describe your live shows? The times I remember seeing Sexual Tension there was always a bit of chaos involved.
Yeah, they were generally pretty rowdy. We got in trouble at a few of the more uptight bars in the area, (the Avenue shut us down, the Europe Gyro kicked me out one night, and the Lime Spider refused to pay us after I broke a mic) but somehow, we never got banned. I was obsessed with Iggy Pop at the time, and tried to set into that groove of dancing, freaking out, and self abuse. Things were always pretty crazy, and a few times I fucked myself up pretty bad, but there was never a whole lot of macho punk shit or fighting at our shows, which I really dug. The scene we were in was really tight-nit, too, which helped. Instead of a crazy band going on last when everyone was wasted being an excuse to throw elbows or show off it was usually just everyone throwing beer on each other and wrestling with me.
What do you miss the most from your Sexual Tension days? Do you look at those times as special and unique?
Really, I just miss singing in punk band. Not having a shred of musical talent or ability and being able to travel and play shows where my only responsibility was to get drunk and beat the shit out of myself was an incredible experience to have as a 17 year-old kid. Plus it was a great time musically, not just in Akron/Kent, but for a lot of the cities we played in. We played with some great, weirdo bands, and made some really good friends, like The Jeffs in Columbus, The Socials and The Gazelles in Cincinnati, and Valient Thorr in Greenville, NC. There was something in really bad assed about being a bunch of dirty, loser kids and finding like-minded people to play and have a blast with.
Elias, its time to talk about the Cockpunch Records infamous "Lets Get Killed" comp... Tell everyone what that was...
Well, when I graduated high school I made close to $1,000 at my graduation party, and I wanted to start a label with it. My plan was to put out a comp with a bunch of the bands we used to play with at the Mantis: local bands mostly, and some out-of-towners like The Jeffs, The Socials, and Crimson Sweet. After that, I was gonna put out a Radar Secret Service/Sexual Tension split 7", and then a Jeffs full length CD, but I ran out of cash after Let's Get Killed.
I asked all the bands for tracks, and got everything together. Clint Bott, who ran Rubber City Records in Akron told me the cheapest place to get it pressed was this joint in Columbus. I used them to press 500, and about 200 of them came back seriously warped. I still have a couple boxes of warped ones in my Grandma's basement. My friend Sarah Rinear drew awesome covers for it, and Larry from Don Austin worked at Kinko's at the time, so he hooked me up with printing all the covers and inserts for free.
When I started sending it out for review, it got a pretty mediocre response from all the major punk rags. Heartattack, Razorcake, and some smaller zines were the only ones that gave it rave reviews. It sold pretty well around here, and when I put together my next band, The Wildcats, and we started playing in Detroit all the time, people would occasionally ask me if they could get a copy, since Robbie had given one to Tim Vulgar and he would play it sometimes at after hours at his house.
Even though it was a total loss, and pretty much the only legitimate release from Cock Punch Records, I'm really glad I did it, instead of spending the money slowly on Adderall and Miller High Life, which is probably what I would've done instead. Some of the bands, like Kill the Hippies and Crimson Sweet, already had plenty of releases and a pretty well established catalog, but some of the shit on there, like The Pirates who Carve Out Your Eyes and Piss in Your Eye Sockets and that song from the legendary Sweaty Weapons tape would never have been released anywhere else.
Is there ever a chance of re-establishing COCKPUNCH or even SEXUAL TENSION for another go round?
I don't think so, man. Those were great years for everybody, but we're all kind of doing our own things now. Scott's in Columbus, Matt is up in Cleveland, where he's (thank god) still doing Kill the Hippies. Robbie's in Akron still, but he's doing two different bands (Radar Secret Service and David Bay Leaf.) I'm back in Ohio now, but only until May, when I'm going back to Greece to pursue my life long dream of being a full time street musician and hobo.
As far as doing a label, for as much fun as it was to play businessman for awhile, both Kenny from On/On Switch and Jamie from Donut Friends told me that the secret to having a label that people actually pay attention to is either to have a lot of money or to be part of the whole punk rock ol' boy's club. Seeing as how I'm perpetually broke and unwilling to stay in one place long enough to be established as an ol' boy, I'm pretty content with leaving Cock Punch as a one-release label.
Greek Street Musician and hobo? Talk more about these plans Elias. Are you gonna be an ex-patriot?
I don't know about but permanently, but I'm gonna try and be there for at least a few years. I lived in Greece for a little over a year in 2007-2008, and then I spent this last summer traveling around (mostly) northern Greece as a street musician, busking every day and staying with friends, in squats, and on beaches. Greece is going through some horrible shit right now, their economy having basically been raped by investment banks, German corporations, and corrupt politicians, but the truth is I'd rather lived in an economically devastated Greece than a relatively economically healthy USA. There's a whole host of problems now, even on top of crippling unemployment and poverty (including a huge crisis with refugees pouring in from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and the rise of neo-Nazi party in parliament that carries out fascist pogroms against immigrants and counter-culture types on the streets) but there's this base sense of society, where most people seem to actually give a shit about one another, and that creates this kind of tangible social safety net that's very comforting. The other thing is that Greeks have been living happy, safe lives with very little money for a long time, so when something like this hits, there's no huge disaster in social terms. And the huge amount of broke young people has created a culture that operates with as little money as possible: things like hundreds of squats all over the country, hitch-hiking being really prevalent and easy, free shows, most socializing being drinking your own beer and wine in squares, instead of bars, etc. So anyway, my plan is to go back in May, spend the summer hitch-hiking and busking, and then use some of my savings to get an apartment in September and start looking for some kind of work there.
‘Busking' I’ve never heard of that term. You need to enlighten me a bit...
Busking just means playing on the streets for change.
You sound as if your politics lean toward socialism and/or anarchist. Would you like to explain it further and deeper? Is Greece perhaps ahead of its game with similar crashes in store for 'the west' and develop a new insightful path for others to follow? Will Greece once again develop a 'new' way of life for others to emulate and copy?
What's happening now in Greece is a really deep, complicated thing tied to thousands of years of history, I can't say I really understand it. I can say that there is a general misunderstanding that Greece is part of 'the west.' Aside from ancient Greece the country's history and culture really places it closer to the Middle East than Europe. While Europe was forming, Greece was Byzantine, and when catholic Europe sent the crusades to the east, they started out not as wars against Muslims, but against Byzantium and Orthodoxy (i.e. Greeks and Slavs.) Then Greece fell under 400 years of Ottoman Turkish occupation, and when it emerged in 1832, it was regarded as a "peasant state" and placed under a British-installed King. Even in the 20th century Greece was considered part of the "backward" world by the west. It was the only country behind the iron curtain to not become communist, and only because the US and UK funded a war of extermination against the Greek communist resistance who had liberated the country from the Nazis, and then installed fascist dictatorships that lasted well into the 1970's. The other big thing is that the credit economy didn't exist in Greece until the European Union. Until 2002, Greeks couldn't get credit cards, or get a car or a house with a payment plan or mortgage. If you wanted something, you saved up your money and then bought it. The result is that the western ideas about the sanctity of private property, education being tied to social class, and the cult of individuality never really took root in Greece.
Now the crisis really started in Greece in 2002 when the euro was launched, and employment and standard of living plummeted, especially for young people. The big social reaction then was the explosion of the Greek anarchist movement, the biggest and most volatile in the world, as was shown by December 2008 there, and the current demonstrations happening daily, all over the country. But during my last trip it seemed like the anarchists were really starting to crack under pressure from the cops and the fascists. A lot of the more political squats were being raided, more people being arrested at demonstrations, horrible in fighting between groups of anarchists, and even stories of kids being tortured by the police. I was with some friends at a free concert in Thessaloniki when a fight broke out between two different groups of anarchists got in a fight and started beating the shit out each other with clubs. Shit like that is really turning people off to the anarchists.
It seems like the big shift that's happening now is that people are realizing the west has screwed them, and they're looking back to their roots. Where 5 years ago all the kids were playing blues and rock and roll, now there's a ton of people playing Rebetika (a kind of underworld Greek music developed by Greeks in Turkey) and the regional folk musics. Most of the trendy, European stores have closed, and instead of going to the grocery stores, everybody has gardens, or buys their produce straight from the farmers and gypsies who come through the neighborhoods with trucks. A lot of young people are leaving the cities to go back to the villages and homestead, some even going to the "martyr villages" (villages burned by the Nazis in retaliation for resistance) and reclaiming abandoned and destroyed land.
This crash is definitely happening in the rest of the world (just look at Italy, Spain, and Portugal) but I think the Greeks are especially enabled to handle it, not because they're looking forward, but because they're looking back. The fact that the idea of being totally reliant on consumer capitalism by working your ass off to buy a bunch of worthless shit still be just as poor and miserable never really reached cultural ascendancy in Greece really helps.
Man, we've really gotten off the subject of Sexual Tension. Ha.
Well, yeah. We have but the story of Sexual Tension... if just to me even. Sexual Tension=Elias XXXXXX (‘Real’ last name withheld) to me. You represent 2000-2003 for me... You represent an era. The story is YOU. Elias, in general, would you say THOSE 'back then' times were really the shit and its all down hill from here OR are the best times to come?
I don't know, man. Everything was definitely different then, but I can't really say if it was better or worse. It seems like life consists of the same highs and lows all the time. I will say, for me, looking back at it, it seems like it was this period of fresh-faced enthusiasm and innocence. Not too long after we broke up a friend of ours was hit by a train and killed in Kent, and it seemed like that ushered in a new period of darkness. A lot of relationships went south, people started moving away, and some of us (including me) started getting into harder and more dangerous drugs.
Now I'm just thrilled with the prospect of getting out of the country again for a significant period of time. Life keeps marching on, and as long as you live it with out fear the best is ALWAYS yet to come.
Well said. Verily well put. Is there anything else you want anyone who has interest in you or your various projects to know?
Nothing too significant. I'm playing in a band for the next few months called The Koproskilos Rebetiko Orchestra, and when I head back to Greece I'll be setting up a soundcloud to post field recordings of street musicians and friends there. So if anybody's into Greek or Eastern music, keep your ears peeled.
Stay in touch with Elias on fb
"Follow Me Follow Me Follow me Babay..."
An Interview with Elias “White Chocolate’ Velouchiotis on SEXUAL TENSION, Busking and Greek Politics.
“My only plans for today involve a bucket of fried chicken and trying to drink off this hangover…”
I have only recently taken down an aged photocopy of a picture that was taped to the wall of my living room of Elias playing with Sexual Tension where he appears to be falling down but was really propelling himself upwards from the ground during a spastic fit during singing.
All answers by Elias “White Chocolate’ Velouchiotis
Tell ...Thwart! Readers about you and Sexual Tension... and why I still think that band is one of the best I’ve ever witnessed?
Well, I got into punk rock because my older sister Olympia was a punker. She went away to college when I was 12, and I went into her room and discovered all her records; a bunch of Bikini Kill, Nation of Ulysses, Ramones, Huggy Bear, and Kill Rock Stars stuff. She also had some 7 inches from local bands, and a 12" comp called "Board Games to Take Your Mind off the Punk Rock Struggle" that was almost all Kent and Akron bands. In eighth grade I started regularly sneaking out of the house at night to go see bands at house shows, the Mantis, and the 1-2-Fuck-You. There was a huge scene back then in Akron and Kent, tons of places that had shows, and some fucking incredible bands like Kill the Hippies, Radar Secret Service, Ligod, and The Go Go Bots. I used to go to the Mantis, find some crackhead to buy my beer and cigarettes for me, drink High Life and rock out until I threw up, and then walk 3 miles back to my parents' house, hiding in bushes or front lawns every time a car passed because I was paranoid about cops.
By the time I finished high school in 2001 I had gotten really into the old Cleveland and Detroit punk: The Stooges, The MC5, and The Pagans, and I really wanted to start a band that was a cross between that stuff, and all the old R&B, funk and Soul I really liked, like Little Richard, Screamin' Joe Neal, and The Radars. The only problem was that I couldn't play an instrument, or write a song. So I went around trying to find musicians, and hooked up with this guy Nate, a bass player who was a raging alcoholic and had just been kicked out of the Army. He lived in this claustrophobic efficiency apartment on the corner in Kent we called Crockton, a bunch of really shitty, really cheap apartments owned by the auto mechanic Tim Crock, that were always occupied by punks, druggies, and other dregs of humanity. (Now they've all been torn down and there's a Sheetz, the Walmart of gas stations, there.) We would sit in his apartment for hours and try to write songs, but neither of us really knew what we were doing. Finally, Matt from Kill the Hippies, who lived next door, came over to help us, and ended up writing "Cookin' with Gas" while we both sat slack-jawed the couch and stared at him in awe. After that, we basically guilted him in to joining the band.
We found our drummer, Scott Davidson, who was playing in a classic rock cover band with Nate at the time called Randy Magik, and were ready to actually start practicing, but one day I went to the efficiency apartment, and found it empty. Nate had just disappeared. (He didn't resurface until about 5 years later.) We replaced him with Sarah Roland, who was dating Kill the Hippies' drummer, put together a set, and played our first show at the Mantis on Valentine's Day, 2012, as White Chocolate (myself,) Erotic Thunder (Matt,) Sarah Tension, and Sexual Scott. We later replaced Sarah Tension with Pine Nuts (Robbie from Radar Secret Service.)
How did the CD-R come into being?
Well, we decided we needed a CD, so we recorded one ourselves at our practice space, which was Scott's apartment above the Mantis. We did it track-by-track, and I remember it being a total pain in the ass. Again, Matt did pretty much all the work, setting up mics, levels, mixing, etc. The only record of that band is that CD, a tape of a live show where the bar owner shuts down the whole show and kicks everyone out in the middle of our set, which one of our friends recorded on a hand held tape recorder, and our last show at a DEVO tribute thing, playing "Girl U Want" and "The Theme from Doctor Detroit."
How would you describe your live shows? The times I remember seeing Sexual Tension there was always a bit of chaos involved.
Yeah, they were generally pretty rowdy. We got in trouble at a few of the more uptight bars in the area, (the Avenue shut us down, the Europe Gyro kicked me out one night, and the Lime Spider refused to pay us after I broke a mic) but somehow, we never got banned. I was obsessed with Iggy Pop at the time, and tried to set into that groove of dancing, freaking out, and self abuse. Things were always pretty crazy, and a few times I fucked myself up pretty bad, but there was never a whole lot of macho punk shit or fighting at our shows, which I really dug. The scene we were in was really tight-nit, too, which helped. Instead of a crazy band going on last when everyone was wasted being an excuse to throw elbows or show off it was usually just everyone throwing beer on each other and wrestling with me.
What do you miss the most from your Sexual Tension days? Do you look at those times as special and unique?
Really, I just miss singing in punk band. Not having a shred of musical talent or ability and being able to travel and play shows where my only responsibility was to get drunk and beat the shit out of myself was an incredible experience to have as a 17 year-old kid. Plus it was a great time musically, not just in Akron/Kent, but for a lot of the cities we played in. We played with some great, weirdo bands, and made some really good friends, like The Jeffs in Columbus, The Socials and The Gazelles in Cincinnati, and Valient Thorr in Greenville, NC. There was something in really bad assed about being a bunch of dirty, loser kids and finding like-minded people to play and have a blast with.
Well, when I graduated high school I made close to $1,000 at my graduation party, and I wanted to start a label with it. My plan was to put out a comp with a bunch of the bands we used to play with at the Mantis: local bands mostly, and some out-of-towners like The Jeffs, The Socials, and Crimson Sweet. After that, I was gonna put out a Radar Secret Service/Sexual Tension split 7", and then a Jeffs full length CD, but I ran out of cash after Let's Get Killed.
I asked all the bands for tracks, and got everything together. Clint Bott, who ran Rubber City Records in Akron told me the cheapest place to get it pressed was this joint in Columbus. I used them to press 500, and about 200 of them came back seriously warped. I still have a couple boxes of warped ones in my Grandma's basement. My friend Sarah Rinear drew awesome covers for it, and Larry from Don Austin worked at Kinko's at the time, so he hooked me up with printing all the covers and inserts for free.
When I started sending it out for review, it got a pretty mediocre response from all the major punk rags. Heartattack, Razorcake, and some smaller zines were the only ones that gave it rave reviews. It sold pretty well around here, and when I put together my next band, The Wildcats, and we started playing in Detroit all the time, people would occasionally ask me if they could get a copy, since Robbie had given one to Tim Vulgar and he would play it sometimes at after hours at his house.
Even though it was a total loss, and pretty much the only legitimate release from Cock Punch Records, I'm really glad I did it, instead of spending the money slowly on Adderall and Miller High Life, which is probably what I would've done instead. Some of the bands, like Kill the Hippies and Crimson Sweet, already had plenty of releases and a pretty well established catalog, but some of the shit on there, like The Pirates who Carve Out Your Eyes and Piss in Your Eye Sockets and that song from the legendary Sweaty Weapons tape would never have been released anywhere else.
Is there ever a chance of re-establishing COCKPUNCH or even SEXUAL TENSION for another go round?
I don't think so, man. Those were great years for everybody, but we're all kind of doing our own things now. Scott's in Columbus, Matt is up in Cleveland, where he's (thank god) still doing Kill the Hippies. Robbie's in Akron still, but he's doing two different bands (Radar Secret Service and David Bay Leaf.) I'm back in Ohio now, but only until May, when I'm going back to Greece to pursue my life long dream of being a full time street musician and hobo.
As far as doing a label, for as much fun as it was to play businessman for awhile, both Kenny from On/On Switch and Jamie from Donut Friends told me that the secret to having a label that people actually pay attention to is either to have a lot of money or to be part of the whole punk rock ol' boy's club. Seeing as how I'm perpetually broke and unwilling to stay in one place long enough to be established as an ol' boy, I'm pretty content with leaving Cock Punch as a one-release label.
Greek Street Musician and hobo? Talk more about these plans Elias. Are you gonna be an ex-patriot?
I don't know about but permanently, but I'm gonna try and be there for at least a few years. I lived in Greece for a little over a year in 2007-2008, and then I spent this last summer traveling around (mostly) northern Greece as a street musician, busking every day and staying with friends, in squats, and on beaches. Greece is going through some horrible shit right now, their economy having basically been raped by investment banks, German corporations, and corrupt politicians, but the truth is I'd rather lived in an economically devastated Greece than a relatively economically healthy USA. There's a whole host of problems now, even on top of crippling unemployment and poverty (including a huge crisis with refugees pouring in from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and the rise of neo-Nazi party in parliament that carries out fascist pogroms against immigrants and counter-culture types on the streets) but there's this base sense of society, where most people seem to actually give a shit about one another, and that creates this kind of tangible social safety net that's very comforting. The other thing is that Greeks have been living happy, safe lives with very little money for a long time, so when something like this hits, there's no huge disaster in social terms. And the huge amount of broke young people has created a culture that operates with as little money as possible: things like hundreds of squats all over the country, hitch-hiking being really prevalent and easy, free shows, most socializing being drinking your own beer and wine in squares, instead of bars, etc. So anyway, my plan is to go back in May, spend the summer hitch-hiking and busking, and then use some of my savings to get an apartment in September and start looking for some kind of work there.
‘Busking' I’ve never heard of that term. You need to enlighten me a bit...
You sound as if your politics lean toward socialism and/or anarchist. Would you like to explain it further and deeper? Is Greece perhaps ahead of its game with similar crashes in store for 'the west' and develop a new insightful path for others to follow? Will Greece once again develop a 'new' way of life for others to emulate and copy?
What's happening now in Greece is a really deep, complicated thing tied to thousands of years of history, I can't say I really understand it. I can say that there is a general misunderstanding that Greece is part of 'the west.' Aside from ancient Greece the country's history and culture really places it closer to the Middle East than Europe. While Europe was forming, Greece was Byzantine, and when catholic Europe sent the crusades to the east, they started out not as wars against Muslims, but against Byzantium and Orthodoxy (i.e. Greeks and Slavs.) Then Greece fell under 400 years of Ottoman Turkish occupation, and when it emerged in 1832, it was regarded as a "peasant state" and placed under a British-installed King. Even in the 20th century Greece was considered part of the "backward" world by the west. It was the only country behind the iron curtain to not become communist, and only because the US and UK funded a war of extermination against the Greek communist resistance who had liberated the country from the Nazis, and then installed fascist dictatorships that lasted well into the 1970's. The other big thing is that the credit economy didn't exist in Greece until the European Union. Until 2002, Greeks couldn't get credit cards, or get a car or a house with a payment plan or mortgage. If you wanted something, you saved up your money and then bought it. The result is that the western ideas about the sanctity of private property, education being tied to social class, and the cult of individuality never really took root in Greece.
Now the crisis really started in Greece in 2002 when the euro was launched, and employment and standard of living plummeted, especially for young people. The big social reaction then was the explosion of the Greek anarchist movement, the biggest and most volatile in the world, as was shown by December 2008 there, and the current demonstrations happening daily, all over the country. But during my last trip it seemed like the anarchists were really starting to crack under pressure from the cops and the fascists. A lot of the more political squats were being raided, more people being arrested at demonstrations, horrible in fighting between groups of anarchists, and even stories of kids being tortured by the police. I was with some friends at a free concert in Thessaloniki when a fight broke out between two different groups of anarchists got in a fight and started beating the shit out each other with clubs. Shit like that is really turning people off to the anarchists.
It seems like the big shift that's happening now is that people are realizing the west has screwed them, and they're looking back to their roots. Where 5 years ago all the kids were playing blues and rock and roll, now there's a ton of people playing Rebetika (a kind of underworld Greek music developed by Greeks in Turkey) and the regional folk musics. Most of the trendy, European stores have closed, and instead of going to the grocery stores, everybody has gardens, or buys their produce straight from the farmers and gypsies who come through the neighborhoods with trucks. A lot of young people are leaving the cities to go back to the villages and homestead, some even going to the "martyr villages" (villages burned by the Nazis in retaliation for resistance) and reclaiming abandoned and destroyed land.
This crash is definitely happening in the rest of the world (just look at Italy, Spain, and Portugal) but I think the Greeks are especially enabled to handle it, not because they're looking forward, but because they're looking back. The fact that the idea of being totally reliant on consumer capitalism by working your ass off to buy a bunch of worthless shit still be just as poor and miserable never really reached cultural ascendancy in Greece really helps.
Man, we've really gotten off the subject of Sexual Tension. Ha.
Well, yeah. We have but the story of Sexual Tension... if just to me even. Sexual Tension=Elias XXXXXX (‘Real’ last name withheld) to me. You represent 2000-2003 for me... You represent an era. The story is YOU. Elias, in general, would you say THOSE 'back then' times were really the shit and its all down hill from here OR are the best times to come?
I don't know, man. Everything was definitely different then, but I can't really say if it was better or worse. It seems like life consists of the same highs and lows all the time. I will say, for me, looking back at it, it seems like it was this period of fresh-faced enthusiasm and innocence. Not too long after we broke up a friend of ours was hit by a train and killed in Kent, and it seemed like that ushered in a new period of darkness. A lot of relationships went south, people started moving away, and some of us (including me) started getting into harder and more dangerous drugs.
Now I'm just thrilled with the prospect of getting out of the country again for a significant period of time. Life keeps marching on, and as long as you live it with out fear the best is ALWAYS yet to come.
Well said. Verily well put. Is there anything else you want anyone who has interest in you or your various projects to know?
Nothing too significant. I'm playing in a band for the next few months called The Koproskilos Rebetiko Orchestra, and when I head back to Greece I'll be setting up a soundcloud to post field recordings of street musicians and friends there. So if anybody's into Greek or Eastern music, keep your ears peeled.
Stay in touch with Elias on fb
"Follow Me Follow Me Follow me Babay..."
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Brandon Broome of THE FLESH PETS (Interview)
Brandon, tell everyone reading about THE FLESH PETS; where the band name came from, Who plays what... How the band came together...Our name came a mixture of a philosophy I had, and some interest in science fiction movies. Offhand, the name "The Flesh Pets" kinda sounds like a fallack reference. In our minds it means that to an alien race we are all flesh pets. Despite monetary value, talents, etc. we are the same species. In the band I play lead guitar and vocals, and occasionally keys, Vaughn Broome plays bass, Shawn Kreger plays drums, Jacob Broome plays rhythm guitar. As you can tell by the last names, 3 out of the four of us are related. Jacob is my brother, Vaughn is my cousin, and Shawn Kreger is my long time friend since 4th grade. The band really started with me and Shawn, in 6th grade we decided to start a band, his dad was a drummer so he had access to a "beater" of a kit. I got a Epiphone guitar from a pawnshop, and our interest in music took off. Shawn and I had been through various bands spanning a variety of genres. My cousin who had recently moved back to Ohio, started playing with us when our previous band fell apart. We played a lot of shows that were kind of rough, with age being a target. We were playing clubs around Dayton when Shawn and I were 15 & 16, and Vaughn was 18. As time went by, we started gaining more ground in our area and weren't take as a "kid band" shtick. We were very serious and very pissed off kids, and we still are hahaha
So is your family a very musical one or is this an all new family trait you BROOMES are flexing?
Everyone in our family has a large appreciation for music, but we don't have a lot of musicians. We were raised on a lot of good music though, my mom and dad raised my brother and I on SONIC YOUTH, NIRVANA, THE PIXIES, PEARL JAM etc. So we had a good dose of the good nineties from them
What makes THE FLESH PETS special? There’s a million bands around. Do we really need another band?
I think what makes us special is the our attitude and diversity, we take influence from so many genres spanning from punk rock, shoegaze, swing jazz, rockabilly, lo-fi, surf rock, psych rock etc. Our attitude sets apart in ways too, (some not always good) In the Indie rock world, the way we operate is kind of looked down on. We're not gimmicky or full of shit or anything, we just get really rowdy and aggressive and it seems to scare a lot of people. It's kind of a similar effect that the doors or the sex pistols may have had, our lyrical content is really honest and sometimes taboo
What sort of topics do your songs lyrics cover? Have you had any violent reactions at shows due to yer attitudes or subject matter?
Our lyrics have a wide span of topics. Some of them are in "hate letter" format (generally aimed at jock types or rednecks), others deal with our political state or social inconsistent behavior. A lot of it deals with increasing alienation that is built up from the disconnect created between ourselves and the people who are into their appearance, suck off trends, and then say your the loser. And we have had violent reactions at shows, hahahaha I remember during one of our first shows I made a statement about ex prez GWB, and then some redneck proceeded to invite me to "suck his dick". Another instance I remember is being threatened by bubble gummy pop-punk band hahaha The worst part was they had their girlfriends lift in their gear. They were awful people hahahaha And I’m sure what I’m saying makes us sound like assholes, but I'd like to think were not. Music is a just a really good chance to deal with aggression in a productive way. As people we're more about just laughing about stupid shit and creating music
What pop-punk band was it? I’m on TEAM: FLESH PETS now. Gimmie the dirt... So do you think music is dangerous?
Well I’m not sure if I wanna drop names, but I will tell you they were from Columbus and they considered themselves "ghost-core". And I think some of the songs are dangerous, others are just fun. Some songs are particularly aggressive and people in the crowd will either run with the energy and mosh or jump around, and the people who were "that kid" in high school (the jock type) will get mad and leave, or flip us off or something.
Nice... Where do you mostly play shows at? You mentioned Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati in only a couple questions...Where’s your best show to date been and why?
We mostly play shows in Dayton and Cincinnati, we have played a lot of other places though, some like Cleveland, Chicago Indianapolis etc. I don't know if we've had a particular best show, but we also really enjoy South Park Tavern which is in Dayton, we played Ba Ba Budan’s in Cinci recently which was also really fun. The Brain House (Cinci) has always treated us well. A good show to us may be different than a good show to most bands. A good show could be in a basement or a warehouse. It really doesn't matter to much the venue, just the general energy of the crowd and walking away with a couple different connections or friends
How important is getting paid money for shows? Are you comfortable admitting your biggest pull from a show? What motivates you to do a show?
Getting paid is virtually meaningless to us, I mean someday I'd like to make a career out of it, not necessarily become a rock star just be able to tour and have a bit of notoriety. And if you mean pull by audience, then I'd say our biggest audience has reached in the hundreds, probably like 100-200 people. If your talking about money, the most we've made was 100$. Our motivation is just to play music to an audience. I like the idea of sharing a moment with people where you can completely be unfiltered. Were not the most social people so that’s the best shot we have at communication hahahaha
Sounds like your band is pretty established but yet you offer up no reviewable releases to blogs like ...Thwart! What’s the deal with that?
Well we've been a band almost two years and we're FINALLY recording an EP. We've just finished our first song and it's coming along. We've had a few DIY recordings but not a whole release. Mainly due to the fact we've had bad studio experiences and we gained most of our momentum on playing live. After long bouts of unemployment we've finally all started working and getting enough money to get out a record. It should be interesting, we plan to record different songs at different studios, we've got one done at purple monkey studios and we also plan to do a few songs with our pal Brian “Hoops” from MY LATEX BRAIN. So the album will be the studio sampler of Dayton
HOOPS! Yeah man... He is a great engineer, awesome guy and phenomenal musician. HOOPS gave me forgiveness for puking about 30 gallons of puke and pissing all over the bathroom in the late 90's despite the fact that he was not in charge of the Canal Street Tavern at that time... Would you mind elaborating on why your studio experiences were bad? What made them bad? What’s some helpful advice for someone desperate enough to actually read this interview?
Hahaha well our studio experiences were bad because our engineer was kind of manipulating the sound to his liking, and everything was too polished and it felt like we were playing money to have him trash our sound. Some helpful advice is do it yourself our have an experienced buddy help. Don't pay money for something you're gonna fucking hate
Verily well put and solid advice... What do you think of the current state of punk-rock? What’s good and bad in your opinion?
In a lot of ways it's thriving, in others it’s a continual decay. I think the DIY circuit is becoming a viable thing again. Bands don't look down on playing in a basement or a warehouse as much as a couple years ago. I also see a lot of bands really going wild, which isn't cool in Indie culture. If you're not wearing a sweater and staring at your shoes then you're wasting your time. Even as much as what I mentioned before sounds like progress, it really is the hair on the testicle of a mouse in a field, when comparing it to mainstream pop and rock. I think the people who could give this little underground movement momentum are still holding onto bands like social distortion and rancid. Both those bands are great, but really they are past their due. I think a band called DEERHOOF is real punk. I discovered them only a few days ago but they are quirky and obnoxious while still have infectious melodies like good punk should. The best part is they sound unlike anyone or anything else. Even in the hardcore movement it went through a stale point after 3 years or so. Every band tried to just be minor threat, but on the other hand you had flipper, who in my humble opinion has way more punk credentials than any punk band.
It's about innovation and revolution, not scene
RANCID... Oh man. People held onto that/them? We all gotta start somewhere don’t we? Where did you start?
Well we all started on the BEATLES. I know that's cliché an all, but they are still my favorite band to this day. From there I got into nirvana and PEARL JAM, then SONIC YOUTH and DINOSAUR JR, further into DEERHUNTER, FOALS and MODEST MOUSE etc. and LA punk was huge to me. Bands like the GERMS, X and FLIPPER changed my perspective on music entirely
Like the DANGERHOUSE comps? BLACK RANDY & THE METROSQUAD? That was majorly inspirational to me... Does The Flesh Pets rock any covers live?
Hell yeah dude. And sometimes we may do covers, we try not to very often. We have covered “The End” by THE DOORS and a song by a Canadian folk artist called HAYDEN DESSER
You and I sorta 'bonded' concerning FLIPPER. What is the personal attraction to FLIPPER? Did you drive around *high* and/or drunk when you were 18 and blast BLOWIN' CHUNKS on yer car stereo at a very loud volume or was that just me?
That's pretty much accurate hahahah I first heard of flipper from a friend and I started out on "Gone Fishin" when I heard "first the heart" I just lost my mind. Ever since then, flipper has been a godlike influence. They really were the most punk band. When everyone else was trying to be MINOR THREAT or BLACK FLAG they just wailed and introduced noise and sax which wasn't really being used in punk. They the best punk credentials
To me FLIPPER are almost a sonic-myth... Are you as passionate about any other bands the same way?
Yeah I’m VERY passionate about sonic youth. Some bands I’m super passionate about would be DEERHUNTER & MODEST MOUSE. All those bands were like awe striking to me in so many ways. I remember well when I first heard DEERHUNTER, my buddy and I had just smoked a joint in his garage and he said "this is gonna be your new favorite band" and from there he was absolutely right. I had always known MODEST MOUSE and not thought much of their hits, but then my girlfriend played me all of "Lonesome Crowded West” and I remember thinking, WOW this guy has described my life and surroundings. I could really relate to the album's underlying message about mall's springing up everywhere and just feeling yourself disappear as quick as the natural land
Smoking Joints? Brandon, your Mom may read this... Do you really want to expose your youthful indiscretions? I don’t know too much about DEERHUNTER or MODEST MOUSE but I’m a SONIC YOUTH fan... What’s your favorite era of Sonic Youth? Mines the album before, after and including Confusion Is Sex if I must choose a 3 album time frame.
Hahahaha and my favorite era of SONIC YOUTH is different years. I'd probably go more by album, I really love Goo of course, Daydream Nation is classic, Experimental Jetset is beautiful. And I really liked The Eternal, for how recent it is it sounds fucking incredible they are not one of those bands that sour and become formulated. They really kept it innovative and interesting.
I feel the same way as you with SONIC YOUTH about FUGAZI. Brandon, what’s the future hold for The Flesh Pets? Are you comfortable talking about what can be expected from you guys in 2013?
Oh yeah FUGAZI is great too, and for 2013 we can expect to an EP, we'll still be playing shows in the Ohio, Indiana area, we may branch out and do a couple cities elsewhere, then maybe by the summer 2013 a us tour. We're self funding it which we have some money saved up. With any luck we'll be operating smoothly… As for the EP We just finished the first song so it should be released by late January early February
That’s some big plans but solid hope. Are you guys recording it yourself or at a studio? Also, is your EP gonna be a DL (download) deal or will there be a tangible product like a record or tape? Are you a cassette enthusiast?
We've done some at a studio, some of it will be done by our friend “Hoops.” And we're actually recording in Canal Street, and we'll release CD's maybe some vinyl, like a 7 inch and we'll have DL's. And I do indeed enjoy cassettes I’m not sure if we will release any tapes
Oh yeah, we touched on Hoops a bit ago... I grew up spending A Lot of money weekly on cassettes which are now 'cool' and honestly, I just don’t get it. How old are you and what’s the big fucking deal with tapes? I don’t get it. Can you help an old man like myself understand this phenomenon? It will count as your 'good deed to the elderly/crippled' for the day. School me Brandon!
Really the reason I buy tapes from time is because I can't find a band I like on vinyl or CD, a lot of the stuff I like can be hard to find and somebody will have a tape of it that they bought a while back. I really don't think it sounds any better, and it is pretty inconvenient rewinding them and stuff. I honestly don't see why it's a trend either hahahha I just enjoy tapes strictly because I’ll find tapes of bands I like
How many tapes you have? In my tape heyday I had about 150… I’m not trying to brag either.
I have only a couple, I have more vinyl and CDs on tape I have some ADAM ANT, TAD, HELMET, VIOLENT FEMMES and maybe a few others I also have my friends demo tape and that band is called BLOOD NOIZE. I fill in on drums for them occasionally
Do you rock a [revolutionary] beard? While you mention BLOOD NOIZE (good name) what’s some other bands you appreciate (locally) that you feel compelled to mention? Explain what makes those bands noteworthy in your opinion
Yeah I usually keep a beard, sometimes I have to shave for work but generally I’ve got a grizzly food storage unit on my face hahha. A band I would like to mention is a Dayton band called the TURKISH DELIGHTS, they have great turn of phrase lyrics similar to BOB DYLAN. I would also like to mention ATLAS SOUND, soul coughing, FOALS, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES, TY SEGALL, THE PIXIES, ARIEL PINK and THE HAUNTED GRAFFITI, ABERTOOTH LINCOLN (Dayton) A lot of those bands are pretty good lyrically, I really like ABERTOOTH'S political lyrics, its satirical but very poignant and serious in the same swipe. I've also really enjoyed dark poetic lyrics of JIM MORRISON. I heard the line "Dead presidents corpse in the drivers car, the engine runs on glue and tar, come along we're not going very far, to the east to meet the czar" and it really struck me. Another one I liked was the classic "The End" "Lost In A Roman Wilderness of Pain, and All of the Children are Insane" great fucking stuff
Can you actually sit and watch APOCALYPSE NOW from start to finish in one sitting? I did. Once.
I've tried, hahaha I’m not sure how far I made it
I'm a big fan of Col. Kurtz... How much is what your doing now gonna be viewed by you as idiocy in 15 years. Are you wasting your time now (you think) or is Flesh Pets a step in your process of success. What do you wanna be when you grow up?
I don't know honestly, we always progress dramatically in different ways. I think by the end of it we'll be playing psychedelic prog acid jazz noize no wave haha. Or maybe we'll just buy a keyboard sell our instruments for some illicit drug and make noise hahahahaha
Sounds like a plan. So now is your chance to tell ...Thwart! readers one last bit of info you want them to know about THE FLESH PETS. Go.
I'd like to any reader's know that we are available for children's parties. I'm kidding hahaha In all reality, I'd like people to know that there is change a'brewin. With any luck we'll be a part of it. A word to those who cling dearly to trends and subject themselves to comfortable lives. Clench tightly your Ikea furniture, cry deeply for your "fly" friends, pay your last respects to your imitation Indie, snapback hats, processed manufactured clear channel pop music. Times will be strange, and only the weird will survive
I suppose Imp safe under the 'only the weird will survive' clause. I have no idea what a 'snapback hat' nor do I wanna know. Thanks for your time and support Brendon.
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