Union Jack Skull artwork with permission from Ben Allen.
Can you smell the sausages BBQ’ing? See the pot bellied, tattooed British men giving it the large on the pavements? Can you hear the radios spurting out plastic pop music and hits of yesteryear through tinny speakers hanging from dirty windowsills? Bunting waving in the wind from every lamp post? Oh yes, it’s the celebration that the great British public love – the Queen’s Reign of 60 years, the Diamond Jubilee, the same national event that will be celebrated by millions across the United Kingdom this weekend ahead of the Olympics, and oh, what it is to be British!
The working public will be raising glasses of plonk in the streets to Her Majesty’s service, all of them granted with a day off to party and celebrate her fascinating milestone. The streets will be alive with tales of the good old days, before the internet ruined it all, when families sat down to eat together, when porn was found in the woods, when records were actually bought rather than stolen. The Royal one will be sat at the throne waving her hands at the minions below whilst people hit the streets, ensuring burglars capitalise on the fun due to the worst recession we have seen in years. Partly due to greedy debt her people acquired so they can be seen in the latest designer clothes to clone the looks of the Prince and Princess and the actors and musicians they aspire to.
Not everyone will be waving Union Jacks this weekend. There are many across the country who simply don’t give a monkeys about the Royal spongers and would have not forgotten the days of them sitting at the head of Pall Mall with their smug faces back in the 1970’s, not paying tax, swallowing champagne and having butlers do everything for them.
Whilst Britain remembers itself for a week for the first time in ages, we decided to roll out our top 3 songs that poke fun at the establishment. Yes, they are all golden oldies, as there are not actually that many artists out there these days with any bollocks or lyrical skills to change the perceptions of the general public. In the 70’s, times were tough but people had a voice compared to these days where Anarchy means signing a Facebook petition. For the best results, play these all three songs at 11.
3. The Exploited – Royalty
Politically brash Scottish punks, The Exploited were well-known for their criticisms of the Thatcher government so “Punks Not Dead” album track “Royalty” came as a natural progression of their anti-authoritarian ethos. Here, the Queen receives some serious slandering in the form of lyrics “dirty little bitch” and “fucking little cow”. Mowhawk filth.
2. Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen
No anti-monarchy countdown would be complete without an appearance from Mr Rotten and his gang of filth and fury. The most celebrated anti-monarchical assault in history needs no explanation but to refresh those who don;t know, Virgin Records insisted it came out on the Jubilee in 1977 with the band celebrating the fact with a trip down the Thames on a boat. Their manager Malcolm McLaren was beaten up by the pigs with truncheons as they reached land and the band picked up more headlines than Diana conspiracy theories. ‘God Save The Queen’ went to number 2 in the charts, conspired against by the BBC and the Charts Company to keep it off the top spot. This is one of the best records of all time but sits at number 2 in this countdown once again to make way for…
1. Peter and The Test Tube Babies – The Queen Gives Good Blow Jobs
West Sussex’ moped-hating punks Peter and the Test Tube Babies shocked the scene with release of ‘The Loud Blaring Punk Rock Album’ back in 1984. Filled with derogatory lyrical filth across short but catchy punk tunes that gave a damn good pogo, they single-handedly take the most offensive Queen of England related dig from the mouth of singer Peter Bywaters with his take on Her Majesty’s love of giving fellatio. This album is one of the cheekiest British punk rock albums of all time, find it, be repulsed and sneer with them.
Thanks to artist Ben Allen who allowed us to use his amazing artwork. You can buy this limited edition art directly from here, find him on Facebook , Twitter, and via his blog.
Ben’s next solo exhibition DIRTY SEXY MONEY is his first London solo art show. An introduction to modern day pop art with a spinkling of skulls.
London June 28th – 30th 2012
TURNER | BARNES | GALLERY
32 Store Street
London
WC1E 7BS
Chelmsford July 5th July – 28th July 2012
TURNER | BARNES | GALLERY
Boyton Hall Farm
Chelmsford, Essex
CM1 4LN
Seattle duo Joel Schneider & Ethan Jacobsen who make up the explosive blues-rock duo My Goodness have just left the UK after a 2 week stint touring sold out venues. The pair thumped out an incredible jam at London’s Dingwalls venue this month that resulted in most people queuing for tee shirts and considering they were for a support act, that’s extremely rare. Getting to the front of this queue for some words before most, Sophie Eggleton spoke to guitarist/singer Joel Schneider about their musical quest looking back on a tour that they will never forget.
You’ve just come off UK leg with We Are Augustines. How was that experience? Do you think your bands married well together sonically?
It was an incredible experience. We had toured once before with We Are Augustines in the States and were already good friends before this tour. It made things nice and comfortable once we got over to the UK, especially since we were sharing a bus. I think if you listened to both of our records you might not think it the ideal sonic pairing for a tour but if you saw one of the gigs you would think differently. Both our bands play with an incredible amount of heart and passion that comes through in our live shows. In that way I think it was a great pairing for a tour.
Do you write your songs from personal experience or did you make more broad statements?
I definitely write from experiences. I like to tell a story with my songs. It can be my own story or someone else’s as long as it means something to me. I’ve written a lot of our songs about the ins and outs of trying to be in a relationship in your early 20’s. I’ve pulled from my own experiences and also those of close friends of mine. I use music as a way to get things off my chest that I feel the need to put out in the open. It’s kind of my own little source of personal therapy. I find it quite effective. I grew up in a strict religious environment where “secular” music was looked down upon and disallowed in the house. When I started writing my own music it became my escape, a way for me to say how I felt without as much of the backlash. I think I’ve continued on into adulthood with that same outlook and writing style.
How do you think the Seattle area has influenced you? Is it still as vital and vibrant as it was in the 90’s do you think?
It has definitely influenced me. I’ve always liked my music nice and loud, even as a kid. Growing up in Seattle during the 90’s we were surrounded by Seattle music. You couldn’t really turn on a rock station without hearing Seattle bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden on constant rotation. I used to hide a little FM radio under my pillow and listen to the local rock station until the early hours of the morning. My teachers always wondered why I was so exhausted at school the next day. Those bands definitely initiated my love for music. In my high school years (early 00’s), There was a great hardcore scene in the city. Bands like Blood Brothers, Harkonen, Botch used to play all ages shows on a monthly basis. I would try and go to every one. I think our music is a blend of all this music we grew up on and the classic blues, soul, and country we have come to love. We still definitely have a louder is better attitude though.
Music in Seattle will always be a vital part of the city and everyday life. I would say the heavier scene in the city has lacked focus for a while but things are now changing. A couple record labels are coming up and really creating a community of heavier bands in the city that there has not been in a while. It might not be quite where it was in the early 90’s but its heading in the right direction again. Either way it is a fantastic town for music.
Many of the reviews and articles I have read about you reference Jack White. How do you feel about that comparison? Has his work informed your sound do you think?
I have always been a big fan of Jack White’s work. I think a lot of the comparisons come from the fact that we are a two piece band with blues influences in our music. I don’t think his work has specifically had any influence on our sound, although I have always loved that in his live shows he’s never been afraid to let loose and lose himself in the music. To me that’s what it’s all about. I would say if there were any similarities that would be the biggest.
What records were you listening to at the time of writing or tracking the album?
There was a lot of Stones, Dylan, and Junior Kimbrough in my playlist around that time. Also was listening to Seattle bands Helms Alee and Murder City Devils a bunch.
Everything on your album was recorded to tape, with no effects or digital enhancing. Is it essential to you that it sounds real and raw and matches your live performances?
Yes, that was definitely the idea we had in deciding to do our record that way. We wanted our live show to transfer over to our record in the most organic and warm way possible.
Because you have chosen not to use the likes of pro tools, did you put in a lot of practice before recording? Was in nerve-wracking every-time the record buttons was pressed? (Did it take many takes)
It actually wasn’t all that bad at all. We did the whole record in a week. The only part that really took a lot of concentration was watching our tempo; making sure we stayed in the pocket without speeding up or slowing down too much.
Before you formed My Goodness you were both in other bands. What sounds were you making with them, and why didn’t they fulfill you enough?
I’m actually still playing in a band called Absolute Monarchs when I’m back home. It’s a far heavier band and is still a blast to play in. The difference is it’s far more structured and rigid than My Goodness. With My Goodness I feel like I can go in whatever direction I want with a song. I can fully express myself musically which is a very liberating feeling.
What would you/do you do when you are not playing music. Are you working other jobs simultaneously like many other bands are?
Ethan stays at a friend’s house when he is home. I’m still trying to keep an apartment in the city so I bartend a few days a week at a venue in town called Neumos.
The story goes that you closed a bar one night in early 2010 and went for a jam in a nearby practice space. What the musical chemistry instant? Was the sound you made together that night indicative of what My Goodness would end up producing?
It was. I think we ended up structuring the majority of “C’mon Doll” and “In the Sun” in that first session. I had already had a few basic ideas for songs formulated on acoustic at home prior to that night. When I started working through them with Ethan it came together pretty seamlessly.
When was it clear that this was the formula that would allow you to tour other areas of the world?
Honestly not until recently. We made some unfortunate decisions on who we decided to work with when we first started out. For a while I felt like because of that we weren’t going to ever get out of Seattle. Just in the last few months we were able to free ourselves of that situation. It’s been a breath of fresh air. Things have been moving fast and in the right direction since.
Can you tell our readers a bit about your debut single C’mon Doll. Where was it written, what spurred the lyrics, what do you want it to give to the listeners?
I wrote the majority of C’mon Doll at home on an acoustic guitar. I was having a lot of repeating disagreements with the girl I was in a relationship with at the time and it was starting to feel really redundant. Like the same shit over and over. The song is basically me saying “Hey! Let’s stop acting like idiots and let bygones be bygones – forget it and work shit out” It’s really just me trying to put things in perspective. A lot of times people let small issues become way bigger problems. Most of the time it’s completely unnecessary and caused by pure emotion and not a lot of thinking. I’m as guilty as the next person of doing this.
Are you constantly writing or do you wait to do it intensively? Have you already begun thinking about the next album?
I am always writing, although sometimes the creative juices are flowing a little more than at other times. Recently it has been going great. We have the majority of a second record already written and are quite excited about it. We’ve been playing a few of the new songs out at shows and they seem to be going over well.
Dream collaboration?
I heard that Dave Grohl did the last Foo Fighters record to tape. I’d be pretty intrigued by that collabo.
Recently played on your ipod?
Jim Ford, “Long Road Ahead”
Stage you’d most like to play?
A packed house in the back bar of the Bon Temp Roulette, New Orleans. You can only cram about 150 people back there if you’re lucky. It’s my happy place and I recently had a dream about it. I think we can make it happen at some point.
Guilty pleasure?
Staying in bed all day.
Aims for 2012?
-Keep on having fun playing music. Album is coming out in the UK by the end of the year so we will definitely be heading back over there to tour. We can’t wait!
Watch the making of the C’Mon Doll video here and download the single for FREE from this soundcloud link. You can find them on Facebook here.
As we approach the 35th anniversary of the Sex Pistols incendiary and landscape changing ‘Nevermind The Bollocks’ album, expect to see lots of nostalgia and media coverage of what is still to many the most exciting musical and cultural youth explosion to ever detonate across the UK.
We’ve all heard the story before, seen a million documentaries, wheeling in the same talking heads, the same archive footage. Thankfully, the forthcoming three-part documentary ‘Punk Britannia’ digs far deeper than the usual punk programming affair. Part one deals with the pre-punk years of ’74-’76, focusing on the ‘pub rock’ explosion that saw the start of the musical landscape shifting away from the bloated prog years and moving back towards short-sharp three-minute power pop songs – out of the stadiums and back into sweaty red-hot back rooms of pubs, with bands like Joe Strummer’s first band The 101ers, Kilburn And The Highroads, Dr. Feelgood etc and looks set to be possibly the most interesting programme of the three as this is an era that hasn’t been detailed as much and is easily as exciting.
Last night Crossfire was lucky enough to attend a private screening of the second part of the series at Soho House in central London. Rubbing shoulders with such essential punk players as The Damned’s Captain Sensible and Brian James, Gaye Advert from The Adverts, John Cooper Clark and Mark Stewart from The Pop Group, among others, free BBC wine was necked and all the old punks piled into the cinema for youths and memories to be re-lived. And whilst in this second part the story does focus on the already very well-told story of The Pistols, The Clash and The Jam etc, what is refreshing about this show is it does spread its wings further and the equally important likes of Sham 69, UK Subs and Stiff Little Fingers also feature heavily.
The third part, however, charts much previously unexplored (by the BBC at least) territory and focuses on the post-punk years of The Fall, PIL, The Pop Group, Crass, Joy Division etc and looks set to wrap up a very worthy look at all the different aspects of the original punk explosion. Don’t miss it!
The time is nearing when a significant contingent of English punk fans will de-camp to Meerhout in Belgium for Europe’s premier punk festival GROEZROCK.
Scheduled for the end of April, the event will see the cream of the crop descend on a field in the sleepy village of Meerhout once more. A mixture of old-school punk stalwarts (including Rancid), re-united greats (including Refused) and up-and-coming buzz bands (including The Menzingers) will play on a number of stage over two days.
Having become regular attendees of the festival, Winegums is excited to get over there again this year. Here is the Crossfire rundown of some top picks at the festival. It’s pretty hard to narrow them down, mind.
28th APRIL
Yellowcard
Currently working on a new album, Yellowcard make a welcome return to Europe for select performances this Spring, Groezrock being one of them. Bouncy, violin-embellished pop-punk to get everyone singing along.
Lifetime
Reformed hardcore legends will be bringing the old-skool to Groezrock this year. Expect stage diving and lots of it.
The Dillinger Escape Plan
Consistently legendary in their festival performances, let’s hope this particular set is lacking in human shit.
Set Your Goals
Best served with sunshine, Set Your Goals’ unique dual-vocalled brand of pop-punk will hopefully bring out the good weather in Belgium this time around.
None More Black
Continuing Groezrock’s theme of booking cult acts on their inimitable bill, None More Black will be showcasing frontman Jason Shevchuk’s unique gruff vocals leading punk rock fun for festival-goers across the event.
The Wonder Years
Literary references and wry autobiographical anecdotes abound in your average Wonder Years set but you can count on their delivery being anything but average. The most fun of fun pop-punk bands. Without the dumb lyrics.
Gallows
Now on the road with new vocalist Wade McNeil, formerly of Alexisonfire fame, Gallows will serve up their usual vigorous 1-2 punch of rock and roll hardcore, no doubt.
I Am The Avalanche
Following the release of last year’s astonishingly brilliant ‘Avalanche United’, I Am The Avalanche continue their campaign to play in Europe as much as humanly possible with their Groezrock slot. Get ready for fists in the air and rousing singalongs.
The Menzingers
Having just released their critically lauded album ‘On The Impossible Past’, The Menzingers have a lot to live up to. We’re convinced their live set at Groezrock will be the perfect festival event.
29th APRIL
Refused
What can we say? One of the comebacks of the year, this is surely the most highly anticipated set of the festival. When those first notes of New Noise ring out, all hell is going to break loose.
Thrice
Sadly this will be their last turn on European soil as the band announced their decision to call it quits at the end of last year. Make sure you don’t miss out on seeing one of the best bands to emerge in the last decade.
Gorilla Biscuits
More classic hardcore on the bill here, these guys are sure to be a popular draw of the festival! “Let’s Start Today” please.
Hot Water Music
With an amazing new album on the way, HWM will undoubtedly be premiering new material but you can be sure they’ll be bringing out the classics too. Maybe even that Bouncing Souls cover that they pulled out at Reading fest last year?
The Bronx
The Bronx never ever disappoint. 100 % always a must see band for optimal smiles and party potential.
The Dangerous Summer
For something rather more mellow, head to The Dangerous Summer’s set. You’ll find expertly crafted melodies oozing with heartfelt sentiment.
There are so many bands with the word Black in them that are in my record collection thesedays, it’s a joke. The funny thing is though, most of them are all dead good and that includes the likes of Black Mountain, Black Sabbath, Black Lips, The Black Angels, Black Breath, Black Helicopter, Brightblack Morning Light, Black Flag, fuck, I could go on and on here but the point is, after seeing a few links about the web, I clicked into Black Moth’s bandpages and realised within one tune that this latest band with my favourite colour was going to join the elite and get rinsed just as much.
Black Moth’s lead singer, Harriet Bevan answered questions other than what her favourite colour is, so get stuck into discovering another arse-kicking band from the Leeds scene in England who are ripping speakers apart right now with their own fine dose of stoner rock and psych metal.
So, how long has the Moth been Black for?
Black from the womb to the tomb! But our sound really blackened around about 2010 when we ditched our old 60s garage punk band to form this dark, weighty incarnation.
Location wise, where did the Moth first take flight from?
I suppose we bust out of our cocoon in Leeds, but our first flight was with That Fucking Tank in Bradford. Super sweet first gig.
How long did it take the Moth to transform from maggot to winged beast?
Well there’s a grotty little maggot still in each of us but we transform into winged beasts whenever we’re in the same room as each other. We were gradually writing heavier and heavier songs with our last band until we realised it was a fuckload more fun playing the gnarly, riffy stuff live… so within a few months, we’d ditched anything remotely pleasant and the rest is history.
What other band names were in circulation and in the mix before you chose your current band name?
Oh there were some dreadful ones… choosing a name is possibly the most infuriating thing about forming a band. I can’t remember many but I’m sure we toyed with both “Goatsucker” and “Bellend Sebastian.” We went with Black Moth in the end because it sounds badass. The idea is rooted in evolutionary theory of ‘industrial melanism’- where nature gets blacker and blacker in response to pollutants darkening the landscape. I have always loved the imagery of the moth though, particularly in Tennessee Williams’ poem “Lament for the Moths,” where the moths are the artists of the world that are downtrodden by mammoths. Kind of a battle cry to kick against the pricks and all that.
How do you write/rehearse?
We all write together. There’s no band hierarchy. One of us will show up to practice with a riff and we thrash it out and all throw something into the mix.
How many times do you strike a riff together in any given month and just KNOW it’s the best feeling ever?
Honestly, every time we’re in a room together with our instruments. At least once or twice a week. Playing heavy music is best feeling- there is nothing else like it. Whether were rehearsing or playing gigs, its always a lot of fun, and a surprisingly effective hangover cure.
Is there a better feeling than when it all just clicks in a rehearsal room and you thrash the living crap out of a track or riff knowing it’s a monster?
In a word, no. You put the words straight in our mouth there but frankly, why would anyone go through all the ridiculous shit being in a band involves if it wasn’t for addiction? Addiction to that mindblowing feeling when it all comes together. It’s sometimes unbearably frustrating having to wait until a riff is completely crafted into a song before playing it out to people.
What do Jim Sclavunos and Dave Sanderson bring to the band in the studio?
We were completely stoked to have Jim producing our album alongside his studio engineer Dave Sanderson. Their creativity and energy led us to experiment with different sounds with wild abandon, which has led to such an interesting record with multiple textures.
Jim has an enormous wealth of knowledge and experience as a musician (Grinderman and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) as well as a producer. He totally “got” what we were about which is very important. Dave is one of the most talented recording engineers we’ve ever worked with. He really knows his stuff technically as well as musically and this made the whole recording process go smoothly and enjoyably. Couldn’t recommend Dave and 2Fly studios enough.
Are there any instruments on the forthcoming record that you have had to pay more attention to get the right sound you require?
During pre-production we really examined every part of our sound to make sure it was right for the album. But even still when we got into the studio lots of things were revised and changed. I’d say the guitar sound is the thing we played about with most, using different guitar/amp set ups for every song to make sure it sounded chunky as hell whilst complimenting the feel of each individual song.
Who complains the most whilst in the midst of the recording process and who is most chilled?
As a band were pretty chilled in general. We’ve been amazingly resilient in some of the most stressful situations imaginable (E.G. making daisy chains on the side of Das Autobahn next to a royally pooped out van with only a few hours to get to a gig and nobody in the band able to speak German). There’s no stonking great egos in the band to worry about and everyone is down to earth so there was no real complaining. Complaining is never helpful and we’re more than capable of entertaining ourselves in the duller times…
Would you kill for each other?
We would, we could and we have. Quick, next question.
What’s the nastiest thing you have ever done to each other?
Generally we tend not to abuse each other too much. However sometimes whilst on tour after a lot of booze, shit can get ugly. Incidents include our bassist attacking our drummer following a brave attempt to coerce him away from the lamp post where he was provocatively pole dancing for a confused huddle of pensioners. I think he also pushed over an 8 foot goth at a club in London in a rage after she stole a load of our rider… but he apologised about 100 times after. We’re very nice people really… peace out brothers and sisters.
If you had to take out 3 local Leeds bands as part of a life survival test, who would you maim and how would they fall?
I would cut “Cut Yourself in Half” in half, pull “Pulled Apart By Horses” apart using horses, and get my mum to beat the living shit out of “Mother/Destroyer.”
Any of you been arrested?
Dom has a few times for scrapping and cannabis possession as a young scallywag.
Best puke story?
Oh Christ knows we have our fair share of those. Every time I’m face-first in a service station toilet after a gig I wonder if I will ever learn. Probably the most dramatic vomcident was when we had an organist for a brief period. We were playing an totally sweet gig at White Trash Fast Food in Berlin when halfway through the show he had to run as fast as his legs could carry him through the restaurant, sending hotdogs flying, to projectile in the car park. The mess was astounding!
Worst jobs you have had to do to earn a crust so far?
For some of us it has just been the experience of working in an office environment, hunched over a computer, staring at a spreadsheet in an artificially lit room with the blinds down on a sunny day … that’s about as grim as it gets. Dom says it made him want to gouge his eyes out with a spoon. Jim and I used to work at Kwik Save which should have been hell on earth but actually ended up being pretty funny chucking tins of beans at each other and skidding up the aisles on spilt fabric softener – needless to say the store closed soon after.
Best band story to date…
When we were on tour in Europe last year, our van broke down no less than THREE times, yet miraculously we made every single gig. To elaborate on the aforementioned autobahn incident, we we’re eventually picked up by a very confused young punk who didn’t speak a word of English, and by this point we’d watched so much Alan Partridge we weren’t making much sense either. So we had to resort to a phrase book. It wasn’t much help, so we decided to craft our own helpful phrases such as “would you love me more if I was an accountant?” and “please use contraception” which had him in stitches. We ended up getting drunk on Baileys with him in an apocalyptic scrap yard of smashed up cars, while we waited for our taxi to arrive. That’s right, he somehow convinced our insurance company to pay £500 for a taxi to get us to a gig, which we got paid fifty quid for.
The tour culminated in being towed all the way home to Leeds from Dover, but we knew the metal gods were looking out for us when we climbed, weak and battle-weary into the cab of the pick up truck only to find that our third knight in shining reflective gear who rescued us had Ozzy Osbourne on the Sat Nav.
You have 3 records to store before life is wiped out. What 3 records would you put aside and discuss your reasons for the choices.
Purely off the top of our heads because this is an impossible question:
Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath. To us, this is pretty much the most important album ever made. This is the album that started doom, and really paved the way for dark, heavy music to come afterwards.
Electric Wizard – Dopethrone. The heaviest album ever made. Eight tracks of sludgy, skull-crushing horror.
The Stooges – Raw Power. If the previous was the heaviest album ever, then this is probably the filthiest. Brilliant from start to finish. My heart still skips a beat every time I hear the opening chords of ‘Search and Destroy.’ Music to break into a sweat to.
Any of you skateboard?
Jim used to skate. Some of us used to get high down the local skate ramp and we all used to play a lot of Tony Hawk on the Playstation as kids, does that count?!
That’s should do it yeah. What about the local skate scene in Leeds as it’s one of the best in the country. You must know some rippers from around town right?
Well our pal Dougie McLaughlan from Gentlemans Pistols is a bit of a pro I think? And his girl Sami Graystone is a brilliant illustrator who designs for A Third Foot Skateboards. She’s also in a great band called Solid Gold Brass. Gentlemans Pistols are our local heroes. An awesome live band we have had the pleasure of playing with and working with as James Atkinson produced and released our first single with us on High Magick Records.
Dougie rips. Good call on the Pistols, we should have them in here next. Right then, what’s your Top 3 stoner rock bands of all time?
Sleep and Kyuss are the obvious ones for us. Thirdly I’m gonna go for Acid King, simply because Lori S is my kind of lady.
Lastly, let us know when we will expect the long playing Moth record to land in our ears and why the fuck should we buy it?
Our debut album ‘The Killing Jar’, produced by Jim Sclavunos of Grinderman and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds will be released on 7th May through London label, New Heavy Sounds. Here’s a teaser. You should fucking buy it, because its totally fucking gnarly and awesome and you’ve bothered to read this fucking interview so you may as fucking well now, right?!
Look out for Black Moth on the road and note that the first 500 vinyl copies of this album will be a deluxe package with full colour gatefold sleeve and awesome cover illustration by Vania Zouravliov that you can see on this page.
The vinyl will be pressed on 180g heavyweight (natch) transparent white vinyl, with a lyric sheet and a free download of the whole album. Go get it.
Live shows coming up at:
May 04 Sheffield with WET NUNS Audacious Art Experiment
May 05 Live at Leeds Festival
May 06 Camden Crawl, London
May 11 Great Escape Festival, Brighton
May 12 The Windmill, Brixton, London
May 18 Psychomagik at the Shacklewell Arms, New Cross, London
May 19 LEEDS ALBUM LAUNCH PARTY at Santiago’s
It took no longer than 10 minutes to interview Sexwolf. We don’t even have a fitting introduction for them other than their incendiary metallic hardcore reached us last month and some of it kicks arse. So let’s just get to the fucking point…
Who the fuck are Sex Wolf?!
Four guys living that tough life, unions, being on strike, we’re down on our luck, it’s tough, so tough! (Rich – melodies and poetry, Mulv – Bass, Jenk – Skin division, Joe – midget.)
Why the fuck did you call your band Sexwolf?
We like sex as in the act of lovemaking, Coitus. We also think wolves are remarkable animals. What could be better than wolves fucking beast lipstick lovemaking?………We are Sexwolf!
What other fucking names did you have before you chose that one?
We were originally called Statham- as in Jason, cockney, Mexican, crime-fighting, risk taking, bald cunt! His arms are majestic but once you have a random conversation about animal porn, Statham’s always gonna take a back seat!
What the fuck is going on in the Birmingham hardcore scene?
I’ll be brutally honest we havnt got a clue most bands we play with are not local. Every show we have played in Birmingham have been with bands around the country like Failsafe, The Plight, For Eyes who are very good bands! We see ourselves playing around the country and not so much in Birmingham regularly!
Who the fuck do you think you are having a drummer that is capable of sounding like a machine gun?
It’s not intentional he has full body tourettes from an overweight cock!
Why the fuck where you ‘brought up to fuck up’?
If you ever felt like people think you are useless, well I wrote a song about how you feel when cry wanking! Our songs are open to interpretation because we have no idea what they are about we just want you to sing along at full volume!
Who is the biggest fuck up in the band?
As a collective we each have our fuck ups. For instance, Jenk masturbates so often his sister in the next room has to wear headphones to stop the nightmares! Mulv has a big head like in circumference! Rich has the rhythm of a spastic slow lorris on ketamin! Joe is just a prick, midget prick.
Deep political reasons. I suppose they are a voice of a generation and own the hardcore scene, oh, and shit loads of money I guess!
Why the fuck are you pro boners and tits?
Listen, this is a serious subject. We love titties. We all sucked on our mother’s until puberty or until dad got jealous! Boners are the reason the world goes round, you know men are a dominate force we are men who stand boner proud! We promote soapy tit wanks!
Why the fuck should people listen to your music?
We promote good times and sound track to fully ram to the point of pleasurable prolapse….we want to bring back a bit of fun at shows everyone is so serious with there shitty, two step bollocks! We want star jumps and leap frogging and human pyramids! Listen to us it will make you smile!
This year has offered us some amazing tunes so far, so we thought we would stack up a bunch of freebies for you to get a taste of what’s out there at the moment with bands playing on the Crossfire Sound System. Just follow the red links to where the tracks are hosted and download them.
1. BLACK MOUNTAIN
Stoner rock Crossfire favourites Black Mountain are giving away a free track over at Stereogum this month. This epic track ‘Mary Lou’ is an 8 minute psychedelic jam that is part of the apocalyptic surfing movie Year Zero that is out in April. Grab it now.
2. DIAMOND RUGS
Diamond Rugs are a new indie supergroup with members of Dead Confederate, Black Lips, Deer Tick and others. This tune ‘Gimme A Beer’ is probably the best tune we have heard so far this year, in fact, nothing else comes close. If you like your rock and roll with a filthy country and garage edge then grab this now, it’s here for you to take away this month for free.
3. CEREMONY
Back with a new album out on Matador Records on March 5th titled ‘Zoo’, these US punks have changed their sound slightly and become more 80’s punk than the hardcore they were stomping about town on their last full length. Regardless, Zoo still has its moments and is worthy of a listen. Ceremony are giving away a track called ‘Adult’ this month, so get a taste of what’s coming from here and download it.
4. ALL THE SAINTS
Remember their epic debut album ‘Fire On Corridor X’? If not, then you are about to discover an essential album if you are into stoner/indie rock. Atlanta three piece All The Saints have a new album out this year called ‘Intro To Fractions’ that is mellower than their first offering but still one of this year’s finest. They are giving away a free download of ‘Half Way Red’, click here for the goods.
5. CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN
Fat riffs and tonnes of psychedelic rock is usually associated with Belgium’s Creature With The Atom Brain. They have a new album out in April called ‘The Birds Fly Low’ and this offering that you can take away for nothing is a good introduction to how they jam out those 70’s solo’s. Look out for them supporting Mark Lanegan on tour in the UK from March 4th.
The Doomtree Crew don’t stop, ever. So when we got a chance to catch up with Dessa from the Minneapolis mob, we couldn’t turn it down. Currently on a huge tour of the US showcasing the amazing new album ‘No Kings‘ to all and sundry, the rapper and singer talked to us about making her solo album, the pros and cons of being holed up in Wisconsin and how she likes her handshakes.
So read on and be sure to click those videos embedded in the text so you can see just why we’ve always been so excited by her and her team-mates. Onwards!
Hi Dessa! It’s time for the dream-team interview [dream team because of my jaundiced face with your wonderful t-shirt on the webstore, obviously] – I was going to open and say “we’ve come on a long way since I first interviewed Doomtree back in 2006” but I remembered you weren’t there because you were busy expanding your horizons in South America [right? I think anyway]. So I gotta open up with how did you come to terms with not being part of the interview back then? Therapy and comfort food? Shock treatment? Booze?
Denial. I was a part of that interview and enjoyed every minute of it.
I want to get right into it straight away – you’ve just released your new album ‘Castor, The Twin’ on Doomtree Records. For those that don’t know, it’s a reworking of some of your songs with live instrumentation and one of the things I like most about it is that you didn’t just say “there’s an 808 here, let’s just replace it with a real snare”, you brought new levels and layers to each track. So I guess, first up, tell us a little about how you came to the decision that you wanted to re-do your tracks? How did you decide on the tracks that you wanted to use? Was it an epiphany that came to you that 551 would sound dope with a band or did you guys work loads of songs out and cherry pick the best?
When I set off to tour my last album, ‘A Badly Broken Code‘, I asked a trio of live players to travel with me as my backing band. We piled into a van with Sims and Lazerbeak, who served as main support, and headed west to put on some mileage and play a bunch of shows.
(Frank aside: Like a lot of listeners, I have some serious reservations about live hip hop. Done badly, it sounds cheesy or like elevator renditions of otherwise listenable songs. I knew I wasn’t interested in creating a sound that had anything in common with a ‘jam band.’ I wanted an airtight ensemble capable of big crescendos, beautiful counterpoint melodies, and moments of suspenseful restraint. Happily, that’s almost exactly what I got.)
By the time our touring party returned home, we found our set transformed. We’d taken advantage of the live band’s range of dynamics and the players had written new parts for many of the songs. Sean McPherson, my band leader and bass player, was playing bowed upright in addition to his plucked lines—which makes for a moody, classic cello vibe. Dustin Kiel wrote new piano and guitar lines; on at least one song he was playing them at the same time with one hand on each instrument. Joey Van Phillips added a lot of power to the set—he’s a hard-hitting drummer who’s worked in almost every style.
All of a sudden we found ourselves playing music that didn’t sound much like anything I’d recorded. And attendees were asking for the new versions of our songs. So we hit the studio to record the new arrangements, adding viola, mandolin, vibraphone, and timpani.
And maybe a little info on the title too?
In Greek and Roman mythology, there are a pair of twin brothers: Castor and Pollux. (Not so incidentally, these are the stars of the Gemini constellation). Castor is human, Pollux is immortal. In a scuffle, Castor is slain. Pollux loves his brother desperately and campaigns for Zeus to allow him to split his immortality with his twin. Zeus agrees and the brothers alternate days, spending one day among the living, then one day with the dead. In naming the album, I wanted to express the fact that these songs were rearrangements—twins of existing songs. I also wanted to convey the idea that these songs were more organic, tender, nuanced versions—its an album without synthetic production, a very human sound.
I’ve been lucky enough to come out to Minneapolis to see a few Blowouts and over the years I’ve seen you go from straight up rapping over beats to introducing the live element with your band and friends – were you always keen to have that backing behind you? And hard as I’m sure it may be to answer, do you prefer being backed by a band or are you cool with just having Beak or Papes behind you?
Lazerbeak and Paper Tiger make some of my favorite arrangements. In addition to being gifted musicians, they understand a rapper’s perspective: what makes a beat appealing to emcees, and what kind of rhythms make the thing workable. For live performances, though, I’m a sucker for performers who create everything live—it’s like watching aerialists without a net, and knowing that they might make completely different choices from one night to the next.
There’s a brand new track on the album, ‘The Beekeeper’ – when was that written? Was it during the sessions of recording the new album?
I’m never a very fast writer, but ‘The Beekeeper‘ was unusually painstaking. At some point in the song’s history, I think every word was different. I wrote the piano line first, then asked (Jessy Greene, the violinist who now plays with the Foo Fighters) to layer several parts. She nailed it, utterly nailed it. After the neuroses begins: I listened to the song on repeat dozens, or sometimes a hundred times while trying to compose the melodies and lyric content—and then to wrestle them together. For ‘The Beekeeper‘ I knew I wanted something dark and epic to match the piano line. I often write with a zoom lens, focusing on details of scene and character. For this song, I leaned towards the panoramic, incorporating the sort of language that you’d find in a myth or a religious text to describe the broad truths of the human condition.
You’ve got a new rendition of ‘Palace’ on ‘CTT’, which was originally on Papes’ album ‘Made Like Us’. On a personal level, it’s my favourite song because a) it’s awesome, clearly and b) it’s named after the football team I support who I took Paper and Stef to see when they were touring a couple years ago. Can I now claim that Dessa is the newest member of the Doomtree-Palace Connection? I’ll send you a scarf for the Blowout, ha!
I’ll do almost anything for a scarf.
Your album ‘A Badly Broken Code’ got some great reviews [it was my number one album of 2010 in fact] and showcased your ability to both rap and sing in equally high measure. When you’re writing new tracks, do you go in thinking “right, time to make a total rap heater?” or does everything just flow naturally?
There are definitely voices in my head that concern themselves with how my next record will be perceived. But I try to tamp them down and focus on how to best express my genuine experience—I’ve got to trust that people will detect the sincerity in it.
The new CD pre-orders came through with a short story and you’ve already had your ‘Spiral Bound’ book out, do you enjoy writing outside of your music? Is there a separate mindstate when you’re writing poems or stories rather than lyrics?
I write less prose than I wish I did. Music has deadlines that writing doesn’t—at least for a writer without a publishing deal. Writing prose can feel a little more cerebral than writing rap lyrics—but both involve mouthing words, furrowed brows, frusteration, and maddeningly slow progress.
You have also been a teacher for a while [still doing it even? I’m slack here sorry!] – do you get as much pleasure from teaching as you do from seeing a room full of smiling faces after you’ve killed a Blowout?
I used to teach courses about writing, promotion, and hip hop, but the touring schedule takes a regular classroom gig off the table. McNally Smith College of Music has been gracious enough to keep me on as an Artist In Residence; several times a year I visit campus to report what Doomtree is learning in the trenches. We talk about the habits of successful indie artists, strategies to get press coverage, the social media hustle, and the grind.
Minneapolis has a very supportive hip hop [and music/art] scene and with the backing of the crew behind you, there’s a huge amount of love for you. Does it still surprise you that Blowout sells out super quickly and how about the fact you’re getting love across the board further afield? Are there any shows/cities you’ve played that have been amazingly good?
I figure there are no laurels to rest on. When we put tickets out for the Blowout, it was nail-biting right until doors opened. That said, it can be an amazing surprise to arrive in a new city and find enthusiastic listeners—even people who know the words. That really knocked me out the first few times it happened, I was so dumbstruck I stopped singing myself.
The new Doomtree crew record ‘No Kings’ came out in November. You guys all headed out to a cabin [in Wisconsin right?] to make the record in a concentrated period of time which is a switch up from the last crew album which was a sprawling epic of an album. How did this environment for making music work out and how excited are you by it? What can fans expect?
Man, the cabin was intese. We loaded up on booze and sandwhich fixings and sequestered ourselves for a few days to knock out the bulk of the album. Some of the guys are swift and prolific writers; it can be hard not to feel pressure when you’re the last to finish every song. I spent most of my time walking, trying to hammer out my parts. We’d wake up, have breakfast, pick a beat, and then I’d walk for miles in the woods, with the beat on repeat. After I eeked out 8 bars, I’d head back to the cabin, find out which beat was next, and then set off again.
2011 was a massive year for the crew with your record, the crew album and Sims’ amazing ‘Bad Time Zoo’ and the crew set on the main stage at Soundset [which was fucking awesome to see] – do you all continually push each other to make the music you make? Like, if Cecil drops a ridiculous beat, Mike will want to jump on it, or Beak unleashes another Lava Banger that makes Stef want to jump on his MPC?
I think we’re all motivated by one another and, as we amass more experience, we can better relate to one another’s professional concerns. “Oh, you’re three weeks away from a release date? Man, I know exactly what that brand of excitement, panic, and exhaustion feels like.” Or “Bad turn out in Santa Barbara? I feel you man, push through it. L.A. is around the corner.”
Ok, time to switch it up a little, we’ll do some either/or questions, see what you come back with:
Halloween or Christmas?
Halloween. Sugar and secularism.
Glasses or contacts?
Contacts, unless I’m negotiating a compensation package.
New Edition or Bobby Brown solo?
Lauryn Hill
Normal Skittles or Sour Skittles? [influenced by that huge packet of skittles on your twitter]
Normals, future sure. But only after all the cheap and trashy milk chocolate has been consumed.
High Fives or handshakes?
Handshakes, with a flourish.
Facebook or Twitter?
Twitter. But the crucial transmissions are still sent by passenger pigeon.
And to finish up, do you have any plans to come over to London? Hard as it may be for the whole crew to make it, I know quite a few people who would love to see a Doomtree show in the UK…
I wouldn’t hold my breath quite yet. But it’s time to start crossing fingers. The scheming has begun.
Following a huge breakthrough in 2011 with their debut album ‘Late Love’ picking up some rave reviews across Europe, Wolves Like Us return to 2012 hungrier than ever to spread their Nordic love further into our rock scene. The 4-piece will be back in the UK co-headlining on tour with label mates Junius in April, so look out for them on the road and enjoy what bass player Toy Kjeldaas told Ryan De Freitas and Crossfire when asked about how their impressive sound and stature has come together so goddam well.
Talk us through how this album came to be, from the formation of the band to the finished product?
Lars, Espen and I had recorded a few ideas and sketches that we played for Jonas. When all four of us met up in the rehearsal space for the first time, it all just clicked. It was truly amazing. We had plans for maybe playing a couple of shows last fall, but before we knew it we had been touring Europe, done a bunch of shows in Norway, sealed a record deal with Prosthetic Records, and started recording our debut album. Not sure what happened really.
Would you say that the experience you guys had musically with bands such as JR Ewing and Amulet helped you to find a mutual respect for each other quickly?
It certainly did. We were all fans of each others bands, and we’d all been friends for a long time when we first started thinking about making music together. We grew up listening to the same music, but it wasn’t until we started to play together we realized how similar our background really was.
The artwork on the album is also something that people have picked up on, we know that it’s by Justin Bartlett , who has also worked with Kvelertak and Sun 0))), how did the concept come about and was there a bunch of choices?
Justin put in a lot of work for us on this one. He used both our music and our lyrics for inspiration, and picked elements from them to come up with the concept that ended up on the album sleeve. He’s a very thorough guy, and it certainly shows. We thought it was an incredibly cool concept ever since he showed us the first sketches. He is an amazing artist we have a lot of respect for.
Are there other artists out there that you want to work with on sleeves in the future?
We have a few names on our wish list. We’ve already been in touch with Aaron Turner, he’s better known through his music career having been in the late, great Isis, but he’s doing some incredible artwork as well and we’d love to work with him.
You are currently touring with Kvelertak, how will you fuck with them on the road?
1) The contents of their on-stage water bottles might “accidentally” be replaced by vodka one night. That’s a classic really. I’m pretty sure it has been done before.
2) They are using a wireless system on stage for their guitars, and we plan to hack their frequency and play Justin Bieber’s last album through their amps in the midst of their set.
3) Our finishing blow will be to hide all their guitars right before they go on stage and put fake plastic weapons in their guitar stands instead. You know, axes, swords, medieval stuff really. The drum kit will be a bunch of real anvils. We really are doing them a favour, because it looks even more badass than real instruments.
Which band member is the most roadworthy and can take anything that comes in the way without moaning, and who is the worst?
Espen can take anything that comes in the way without moaning – except bad coffee. That unleashes hell. To all other problems, he only sees solutions. Jonas is the one that has been touring the most in the past, and has certain expectations of how things are supposed to be while on tour. That of course leads to a certain amount of moaning, haha! He’s the youngest of us, so we just treat him like a child, and everything will pass. No really, it’s a good thing, cause all of us others are just a bunch of puppies learning the ropes when it comes to touring compared to him.
What is the most ridiculous tour story to date since the band formed?
Well, we haven’t been around with this band long enough to make that much of fools of ourselves yet, haha! One funny story is about a friend of ours who is a lightning engineer. He was gonna do lights for us at a show in Oslo. We started worrying because he never came around to the venue. After a long while he turned up, and as it turns out he had gone to the wrong venue, spent a couple of hours setting up the entire lightning rig, programmed the light board and been starting digging in on the backstage beers when he realized that someone else was playing there. No one noticed him sneaking out the back, so it was all good.
‘Late Love’ is an album that truly shines, how do you follow such an epic record now it’s out there and will you be playing new material on this tour?
Well, first off; thanks a bunch! Lars has some awesome riffs and ideas going on, but there won’t be any new material on this tour unfortunately. It has been an incredibly busy year for us, and we need some time to get back in the rehearsal room and put things together in a proper way before any new material will see the light of day.
In the past you’ve referenced 90’s skateboard videos as something you took an interest in musically, are you drawn to skate culture and do any of you guys skate or is it purely the music that you found enjoyable?
Skating and music goes hand in hand. We’ve discovered lots of bands by watching skate vids in the past. Espen, Jonas and I used skate back when we were kids. We still bring our boards on tour though, but personally I am feeling a bit too old and fragile to be doing any neck-breaking stunts these days, haha! I mean, I am almost 37 now and haven’t really been skating much for the past twenty years. Plus, I was a vert skater, and still suck immensely at street skating so I’d rather look back at my teenage glory days on the vert ramp than risking my limbs doing kickflips to impress the other guys outside the venue while on tour.
What decks and skaters were influences along the years?
Obviously, the Powell Peralta team were the shit when we were kids. They were the easiest decks to get a hold of. Personally, I was really into the H-Street team. My first deck was the Tony Magnusson pro model. I met him a few times on some skate events he did in Norway, and he was a really inspiring guy. Him being a Scandinavian making his way onto the US skate scene was mind blowing for me at the time. That was everyone’s secret dream to do. Also, I’ve always loved the artwork that Ed Templeton did for his decks when he started his own company, and in the later years I’ve become a huge fan of his photo work as well.
If you have some skateboard history to unleash from back in the day, unleash it here…
As absurd as it might sound, since the 1970s and up until 1989 skateboarding was illegal in Norway, so when we started to skate we had to sneak around and hide our boards or the cops would confiscate them. When the ban was lifted, I’ve heard stories about guys who went to the main police station in Oslo to get their gear back. They were followed by an officer down to a vault in the basement, and there, right by sawn off shotguns, homemade nail bombs and rocket launchers was a bunch of skateboards. A skateboard is really a powerful thing, use it wisely.
Last words….
Remember kids, skateboarding is not a crime…anymore.
Wolves Like Us + Junius April 2012 UK tour
22nd Nottingham Hit The Deck Fest
23rd Glasgow Ivory Blacks
24th Manchester Star And Garter
25th London Borderline
Welcome to the world of Cerebral Ballzy, a hardcore band from New York whose band name I can never spell properly when typing it on a keyboard. This 5-piece have toured every shit hole out there and caused chaos with their energetic live sets for the last couple of years. Thankfully, we have had the pleasure of them playing 2 Crossfire events in 6 months and managed to sit down with them for a chat.
This video interview was shot at 2011’s Camden Crawl. The recording’s were lost on hard drive and then found recently, so enjoy their words discussing hardcore influences, the making of their debut album, skittle nipples, flourescent Nike’s, Raymond Pettibon’s studio in Venice Beach, being taught how to kickflip from the legendary Zoo York skater Harold Hunter (RIP) and more.
Can you smell the sausages BBQ’ing? See the pot bellied, tattooed British men giving it the large on the pavements? Can you hear the radios spurting out plastic pop music and hits of yesteryear through tinny speakers hanging from dirty windowsills? Bunting waving in the wind from every lamp post? Oh yes, it’s the celebration that the great British public love – the Queen’s Reign of 60 years, the Diamond Jubilee, the same national event that will be celebrated by millions across the United Kingdom this weekend ahead of the Olympics, and oh, what it is to be British! 
As we approach the 35th anniversary of the Sex Pistols incendiary and landscape changing ‘Nevermind The Bollocks’ album, expect to see lots of nostalgia and media coverage of what is still to many the most exciting musical and cultural youth explosion to ever detonate across the UK. 
The time is nearing when a significant contingent of English punk fans will de-camp to Meerhout in Belgium for Europe’s premier punk festival 
There are so many bands with the word Black in them that are in my record collection thesedays, it’s a joke. The funny thing is though, most of them are all dead good and that includes the likes of Black Mountain, Black Sabbath, Black Lips, The Black Angels, Black Breath, Black Helicopter, Brightblack Morning Light, Black Flag, fuck, I could go on and on here but the point is, after seeing a few links about the web, I clicked into 
