Heatwave Magazine - #2

Issue 2 - Winter 2016 - London

Issue 2 - Winter 2016 Welcome to the second Issue of Heatwave Magazine!

It has been an amazing six months for us and we would like to thank you all for the support you gave us in 2015! This year, we would like to get even more involved with you, our audience. So write to us and give us your input to heatwavemag@gmail. com. Tell us about your favourite bands or simply giving us some feedback. We are also constantly looking for collaborators, so get in touch!

In this issue, we have put a little game together that you can Tweet about with the hashtag #wheresFonzie. We have placed eight small Fonzie faces (singer from The Parkinsons/Johnny Throttle) throughout the whole magazine.

Find all of them and send us a tweet with the page numbers where you can find the Fonzie faces followed by the hashtag #wheresFonzie, and you could win a Johnny Throttle 7-inch. Yes, it’s that easy! *Please note the Fonzies in the interview illustrations do not count!* We hope you enjoy this issue and don’t forget to check our website or Facebook for more news, features and parties!

Contents New Beats From The Street -Rik & The Pigs -The Youth -Black Tambourines -TRAAMS

VIDEO

Johnny Throttle

DEATH

Ben Edge: Electric Pencils and Art

Alternative Night at the Hippodrome So he says think about it – in the morning you’ll be able to tell the missus ‘I bought a whisky for Lemmy.’

So of course, like a fool, I do.

Six quid. And this is 1989.

He’s gruff, but friendly. I get a couple of roadworn stories and that’s my fill. He’s off. Not long, but long enough to gift a moment that’s burned bright and unsullied through twenty-six years.

Look, some of them have been right dicks.

I’ll not name names. Posers high on their own press,

4 The Anomalys A Long Way to Nowhere 5 Story of the Parkinsons 7 Revisited 8 Top 15 Garage Singles 10 Top 10 Music Books 12 Top 5 Gigs of 2015

16 Joe Hill Popcorn Chokers

19 Here Comes Giuda

Editorial Department Founder/Managing Director—Neus Ruiz Editor—Linsey McFadden Creative Director—Adrian Alfonso Contributors Olivia Cellamare Samantha Gladu Jeremy Harmon Laurie Jane Nick Kuzmack (Nix Beat) Maria Middtun Marko Petrovic Jody Porter Frieda Strachan Tom H Wing Penelope York

22 26 28 30 32 33 34 37

acting like they don’t know what it’s like to have heroes. But not The Lem. No. The live-fast, play-loose, wild man of rock spared me five minutes. Shook my hand.

Wished me luck. And had the grace to melt back into noise and light before I had the chance to say something stupid. © Jon Seagrave / Jonny Fluffypunk 2015 A poem in Memory of Lemmy Kilmister

Illustrators Gonzalo Facio Ika Lesniak Lid Von V Christopher Lopez-Huici Maria Midttun Special thanks to Ben Edge for contributing his art to our magazine!

Cover Design Ika Lesniak Layout Design Adrian Alfonso

Heatwavemag.com Printed by Mortons 3

New Beats from the Street Rik and the Pigs Laurie Jane

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ore than anything else, Rik and the Pigs are a rock n roll band. Erik Meyers [Rik], started the band as ‘a solo project home recording kinda thing,’ and doesn’t think ‘any other description is really necessary besides that.’

© Skankboi69@gmail.com

Rik, was born and raised in Tucson and he lived in St Louis before moving to Portland and then Olympia this summer. He said there are some good bands around but the Pacific Northwest punk scene is ‘limping along.’

“Portland sucks because it’s big, expensive, Underneath the bone-raw, sleaze-laden, and crowded and Olympia sucks because shredded guitars and snarl-snotted vocals, it’s extremely PC and pretentious,” Rik said.

While he thinks the music scenes in Portland the rock n roll influence can be heard. and Seattle are ‘decent,’ he thinks his current Rik, who has played in St. Louis’ Sweet hometown scene is, ‘rather pathetic.’

Tooth and Portland’s Sick Rats, Rik said the “It seems like no one gives a crap or wants band is his outlet to “lay down the stupid punk songs I hear in my head that didn’t fit to have fun. REALLY serious and REALLY boring vibe. Kill me,” he said. for any of my other bands.”

On the bright side, Rik thinks the area is He said the concept for the band is similar going through a transition and we should to his brother’s group, St. Louis’ Lumpy and the Dumpers. Like Lumpy, Rik and the expect some newly formed groups to crop Pigs started as one-man project. Rik plays up this year. In the meantime, bands he’d everything himself and then records it on a recommend from the region include Steve, Tascam 8-track in his basement. From there the Ointment and Spetsnaz from Portland, his extended Pig family have learned the Lysol and Vexx from Seattle, and Combat songs and they’ve gone on to play shows. Knife from of Olympia. Listening to Rik and the Pigs, you imagine that their gigs would When he lived in Portland, the Pigs included be something you’d show up to not knowing Q on drums, Fascist Rand on guitar and what to expect, even if you had listened to DH Strother on bass. On a Glitter/Pigs mini them or seen them live before. When I asked tour to Canada this past August, the Pigs Rik to describe what their gigs were like, he had help from Arielle on guitar and Jay on said they likened it to performances of punk drums. Pigs support in Olympia, where Rik bands from the 70s. now lives, has come from Kurt on bass and “Seeing us play was what they imagined Vexx’s Michael Liebman on guitar and Corey seeing a punk band for the first time in the Rose Evans on drums. early 70s would be like. I’m not sure what Rik said performances have been “almost that means, but I took it as a compliment.I completely spontaneous and very loosely would also add that the experience can be planned” it has now “turned into somewhat very awkward if the circumstances are not of an actual band with various incarnations right,” Rik said. from various cities for different shows.” In the A highlight show for the Pigs this year was in last six months or so, the actual band lineup has become more consistent, with the an alley at the Olympia Hardcore Fest. “It was more permanent form consisting of Michael, just a one – two punch that nobody expected or saw coming and it was perfect. We stole Corey Rose, DH Strother and Rik. power from the venue that was hosting the Rik said, “After meeting Mike and Corey fest with an extension cord through a window and seeing them play in Vexx, the greatest and I parked my van in the back of the alley, band in America, it became clear to me that blocking it off so there was just one way in we were meant to play music together. We and walls on both sides,” he said. started hanging out and were all on the same “We set up all the gear and as soon as the page so when I came up to Olympia it just band inside stopped playing we fired the came together.” amps up and people came pouring out of the venue and began crowding into the alley.

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“We played like four or five songs and people were pogoing and slamming in the mud like true Pigs. The spectacle also brought out some well known Olympia street characters, particularly a mentally ill homeless woman who got up front and started swinging at people in the crowd, and eventually took the mic from me and started spewing venom while the band was jamming out during the last song.

“Pigs in the alley, Pigs in the street! That is where we jive and thrive.”

So far in 2015 there’s been a Rik and the Pigs demo on Lumpy Records, the Life’s a Bust Lumpy mixtape single and the recently released Pig Sweat 7-inch on Total Punk Records. The band is planning another single and a 12-inch sometime next year. The single is already well in shape. It’s going to be released on the label Feel It and will have a new song called ‘Vile Order,’ that features some ‘mean’ saxophone playing on side A, with an extended cut of the Olympia Pigs doing ‘Life’s a Bust’ on the other side.

The 12-inch is going to be on Total Punk Records. Rik thinks it will be more of a 12inch EP with four to five songs on the A side with ‘a long jammer or two’ on the B side.

He’s also planning on doing a song, perhaps as another single by the rave up SNL group, Candy Slice and the Slicers.

“Because I’m in love with Gilda Radner, if she were still around I’d let her rock me and roll me till I’m sick,” he said.

In addition to recording some new songs, Rik and the Pigs plan on hitting the road next year. Possible shows include the Everything’s Not Okay Fest in Oklahoma City, the Total Punk Fuck Off Fest in Orlando and Garbage Daze 4 in Calgary. Rik would also like to come to England and Scandinavia, so if you’re reading this and can make that happen, check them out at rikandhispigs.bandcamp.com, because we’d love to see them over here.

© Lase Tarp

The Truth About the Youth Tom Wing

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he Youth are a four-piece band from Copenhagen, Denmark.

They play a mix of rock n roll, indie and contemporary garage sounds. They started up in 2012, and have records on Dirty Water Records, State Records, and Moody Monkey Records.

The band have also toured the continent heavily over the past 12 months. This year alone they’ve released an EP with yours truly, plus trips to Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Outer Denmark and Italy, where they have just returned from.

I spoke to the man behind the scenes, the band’s dark horse, yes, drummer Sune Christian. He tells us all he’s got to say about the truth about the Youth.

Heatwave: Hi Sune! I see you just recently returned from your second Italian tour of 2015. Looked like a lot of fun, how was it?

What were the crowds like?

are originally from. We were actually asked whether we would like to play a New Year’s Eve thing in London, but unfortunately we had to say no. So sadly no UK gigs in the binoculars.

Heatwave: I’ve heard that the Youth were in the recording studio recently. Can we expect to see an album release in the near future Sune: Hello there, Tommy Badboy. That’s correct. We went for 11 or maybe a few extra singles? days this time and overall it was good fun! We started out in Rome with great expectations, but people didn’t really show that night. Sune: That is correct, yes. We have already recorded our second Luckily we’re rather good at entertaining each other in the band, album, yet again recorded at Circo Perrotti. As we speak the record so we had a blast, of course, with the 12 people in the crowd. is being mastered and we’re talking with Kai Becker, from the But after Rome things really changed. We went south to a city Hamburg band the Wrong Society, about him giving the cover art called Caserta, just next to Naples, and people went completely a shot. Besides the forthcoming LP we’ve recorded eight songs nuts there. I think about 250 people attended, so that was really a at Yeah Yeah Yeah Studios in Hamburg. We still have to mix the good start. After some really successful weekend-gigs in Caserta songs and figure out the plans for the songs, what might become and Campebasso, we headed out for the weekday-jobs. a 10-inch. So we actually have plenty of new material ready.

Personally I didn’t really expect that people were gonna spend their Heatwave: You’ve worked in several different studios recording for nights listening to four sweaty and suit-wearing youngsters with the Youth. Circo Perotti in Spain, Yeah Yeah Yeah in Hamburg and work early in the morning. But Italy kept surprising me!

Black Tornado in Copenhagen, among others. How do you think Lots of people showed and even though some of them stood rather they compare to each other, sound wise and personally? Where still, we enjoy puking up-tempo garage-tunes directly into their faces. do you think you had the best experience recording?

Heatwave: Out of all the countries you’ve been to, what’s the most Sune: There’s absolutely no doubt that the best guy to be working fun to tour to? Taking into account, how you’re treated and what with is Jorge Explosion from Circo Perrotti. He’s so much more the quality of beer is like. than just a studio technician. He’s a proper producer with a great Sune: I love that you use beer as a quality stamp for an entire ear for almost all kinds of music. country. You’re gonna be a great politician some day, TB. To answer Sound wise I’m really into the things we did at the Yeah Yeah Yeah your question, it’s somehow difficult to compare, for instance, Studios with Dennis Rux. The sound of the songs had a super Germany to Spain. Even though they have some wunderschön beer nice 60s feeling to them. That combined with the fact that we only in Germany, I think that the Spanish people are more welcoming, had 48 hours to record, and in a certain extent write, the eight not one bad word about German people, I have to say! songs, created what I think is the best we’ve done since our State If I have to pinpoint one specific tour that has been the best so far, Records 45.

I would have to say the first time in Italy. The weather was brilliant, It’s rather difficult to bring Black Tornado into comparison with we had some lovely food, we sold out our merchandise within the other studios since we only spent one single day there. The the first three days, we went skiing in the Alps, and the distances surroundings of the studio are amazing, and it’s legendary in the between the venues were little. It was just easy and really enjoyable. Copenhagen area, but I think the product of the session is influenced by the fact that we had so little time.

Heatwave: When and where is your next tour/excursion going to be? Will you be playing the UK anytime soon, particularly London? Heatwave: Are there any studios in the world that you would really like to work in—Somewhere else that you could get a great sound?

Sune: We’re taking things slow in December because we want to spend some time with friends and family. Next planned gig is here in Sune: Well, I would, of course, have loved to do a session in Toerag Denmark, in a town called Esbjerg, where 50 per cent of the Youth trying to get that Kaisers sound to it.

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Heatwave: I remember hanging out with you and Lasse one night, and we were getting down to the nitty gritty about recording techniques and the level of importance in getting an authentic 60s sound when recording garage songs—A raw, edgy sound that everybody is always looking for, but can never quite achieve.

In context to that, the Youth’s records sound modern, yet with a slightly 60s tinge. It makes me think that we should just forget about this obsession with an authentic sound, simply because its 2015 and not 1965.

Would you agree? Do you think we should not think too much into this idea of creating something sonically identical to a Kinks record and just focus on getting a worthy production with the tools that we have?

are looking for. In the Youth we really love a small bar called Vinstue 90 [Wine bar 90]. It hasn’t changed since the 50s and because you can sit in total privacy in the back of the bar enjoying a slow served beer, a speciality of the bar, it makes it the perfect place to talk for hours. Usually we hang out at our beloved rehearsal space, Max Peber, because it has everything we need: bar, couches, music, instruments and just good vibes overall. I was just about to mention the privacy again… Maybe we’re just really into not being bothered by anyone, in our band.

Heatwave: How does the music scene in Copenhagen compare to other places? How regularly do you play in Copenhagen and how prestigious are your gigs? Do you get paid a lot and a good crowd at every show, Sune: This question might be the never- or does it vary depending on the night? ending discussion between people into 60s sounds. First of all, I have to mention Sune: I basically think the music scene in that the sound on our records, mainly our Copenhagen is good, the 60s scene is almost debut album recorded with Jorge at Circo non-existent though. I think that’s the main Perrotti, is influenced by that 60s sound we’re reason we haven’t really got any listeners in all somewhat longing for. But because we Denmark. There are so few people into that already from the start were aware that our kind of music. music is written with lots of references to At the moment there’s a real nasty wave of modern music, we thought it would make bands popping up in Copenhagen playing no sense to fully attempt to make it sound 90’s influenced pop music. I don’t really know how to react to that because I know like a production from 65’.

Personally I’m a big sucker for that so little about that kind of music. unexplainable 60s sound and it’ll forever But I promise myself to try and find some haunt me that I don’t know how to get good in every genre or style of music, even that sound that I like. But then we went on though it’s hard sometimes, and try to be recording at Yeah Yeah Yeah, and I really think open-minded. When we arrange concerts that the sound we caught on tape there, is around Denmark we get paid quite well, the absolute perfect mixture of modern and actually, I don’t know why. In some parts of Denmark, mostly on the west coast, we 60s sounds.

So to sum up I think what’s most important have somewhat of a crowd showing up, but for us is to learn is how to control the balance not in Copenhagen. between the 60s and modern sounds. If Heatwave: What do you think of bands on we learn how to manage the percentage of the other side of garage, like the west coast strictly 60s sounds and the percentage of San Francisco scene and Burger bands? softer modern sounds I think we’re doing Sune: I actually don’t really know that much as good as possible. about it. I sometimes listen to bands like Ty Heatwave: Now a little bit of Copenhagen Segall, Brian Jonestown Massacre and Daddy holiday guide advice. Where are the best Long Legs. Those are Burger bands, right? places in your fine city to eat, drink and Heatwave: Not entirely, but Ty Segall is close. hang out at?

Most garage beat/punk groups, whatever Sune: Copenhagen is a wonderful size. It’s you call it, share the same similar tastes easy to go from one borough to another, within their band. The members of Les Grys and yet you can find almost whatever you Grys are avid fans of the Pretty Things and

© Peter Smith

the Flaming Groovies, for example. But the Youth are quite different, aside from loving rhythm and blues and garage, you all have slightly different music tastes.

You, Sune, love your freak beat, David is well into ska and rocksteady, Jesper likes his calypso and jazz, and Lasse loves bands like the Velvet Underground, the Strange Boys and the Strokes. Obviously it’s not all that strict, but very diverse collective taste.

Do you think that lends to your sound and how you write songs together?

Sune: Absolutely! A few years back when we started playing we didn’t think about our personal references at all but as time has past we now know for certain that it has affected how many, many, many of our songs have been written.

When we were about one year into playing together as the Youth we all tried really hard to focus on only listening to garage, mostly U.S. garage actually, because we thought that we had to, to be able to be a garage rock, beat and R&B group.

But now we’ve found that what really drives us as a band, and when it comes to writing songs, we should just listen to whatever we personally prefer. Whether it’s Lord Kitchener or Julian Casablancas. Back in the days Lasse was the main songwriter, but today it’s completely mixed up.

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New Beats from the Street

to another place while you’re in commuter hell.

The Black Tambourines are clearly influenced by great bands ranging from the Ramones to the Beach Boys. Their surfer/ lo-fi sound combined with punk gives them this raw energy and is found in songs like ‘I Wanna Stay Away’ and ‘No Action.’ Their songs are fast and beautifully chaotic with a pure feeling of rebellion. Rebellion can be created in all kinds of forms of art.

Black Tambourines Olivia Cellamare

Music is one of the greatest forms of expressing it, and it can really make misfits feel part of something. Bands like the Black Tambourines are so vital. They are the kind of band you’d travel miles to see to experience the rebellion and unity in the crowd.

There is nothing better than bonding with a bunch of strangers at a gig while you all get into the band, as questionable fluids hit everyone, and you wander home without the jacket you brought with you.

© Lid Von V

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life and far from your metropolis,” a band member said.

’ve always felt there are two ways to find new music—late at night when the world is Although they come from a smaller place sleeping and you delve into a world most they may have the same kind of struggle to would shy away from, or at gigs. I always make a name for themselves as they would watch support bands because I’m curious. in cities such as Manchester and London.

You never know who you are listening to.

“We have had to work harder to get ourselves known but that’s fine because you learn it all You want those moments of ‘I remember seeing these guys support...’ Sometimes for yourself along the way,” they said. you can form lasting friendships and find your new favourite band. This year I went to the Manchester Psych Fest. I watched some bands I was already a fan of and also discovered some new ones to look up.

One of the bands I’ve become a big fan of is Falmouth’s very own noisemakers, the Black Tambourines.

This kind of work ethic is what makes them great. You can hear their passion and drive in their music music. It is something that most bands lack from laziness, but the Black Tambourines have it by the bucket load, as clichéd as that sounds. Their work ethic is quite punk.

As someone who grew up on punk and still Any band that names themselves after believes the mentality of punk is still alive, I a Beck song is going be great, right? The find the Black Tambourines to be a breath band, based in Falmouth, met when they of fresh air in mundane daily life. They’ve were 17, an age when everything feels a got songs to get you through your painful bit strange. You’re still trying to work out commute to work — while someone has who you are and what to do with whatever their armpit in your face and someone else feelings you’ve been lumped with. breathes their coffee breath on you.

“Though we haven’t felt the need to leave Their music has this relaxed sound, but is this place just yet, it’s a slower pace of always loud at the right time. It can take you

I grew up in a small town and I never noticed a music scene. Maybe there was one, but I was fine hanging out by myself and plotting my escape. Do smaller places allow bands to express themselves or do they all eventually sound like everything else that has been done before? What kind of place is Falmouth for bands that are making their own noise, on their own terms?

“What there is, is lots of bands entertaining lots of people. You can go out a lot of the nights of the week because there’s all kind great music and other things going on but if there’s nothing on you can just play music. It’s a wonderful balance,” a band member said.

“That’s how it should be and I think more and more venues and bands slowly adapting this kind of attitude. There are many venues in London that put on great nights that showcase such brilliant music.

“Unfortunately one of the best places [Power Lunches] has recently closed its doors, but we have to have faith that it isn’t the end of creativity.

“So long as someone is out their making their own scene, it will get heard. By any means necessary.”

Freedom came out in late 2015 and is probably one of the most underrated records of last year. It is one of those records you put on when you wish to go back to the summer, instead of looking outside at 4.30pm and seeing that the sun’s down. Freedom was produced by the band, with the help of two of their engineer friends.

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TRAAMS at The Social Laurie Jane

I thought TRAAMS no longer lived in their hometown of Chichester, a city of 26,000 in Southeast England. Apparently people often assume this.

© Brian Robinson

When they made Freedom it was the first time the band had tried recording live to tape, taking on board what they had learned from their previous releases. Freedom is one of the highlights of the year, especially for me, but what have the band learned from releasing their latest record?

“We have the relief of getting an album out that was a long time in the making and are now excited by the idea of getting to make something new. But first we have to tour, take it to the people, you know,” they said.

The Black Tambourines are a band you’ve just got to see live.

With some bands, you can tell that on record they will bring something entirely different to the songs when performed live.

The Black Tambourines are one of these bands, and it such a wonderful thing to possess. Maybe it is because I first heard their music in a live setting, but their live shows really display such greatness that you can’t really experience from a record. Maybe it’s the crowd getting into it that helps it all come together. Aside from blowing my mind at Manchester Psych Fest, where else in 2015 did the Black Tambourines enjoy bringing their live shows to?

“End Of The Road was really good for many reasons, but we played our local pavilions in October, which felt pretty great. One of those two but we did go over to the Netherlands in March and play some great shows,” they said.

It is worth mentioning that the band has toured with two of my great loves—The Fall and the Jesus and Mary Chain. If you’re a relatively new band, and you go on tour with two bands that have been such fundamental forces within the music industry, then you must be doing something right, and they bloody well are.

If they continue to put out records like Freedom then it will be only a matter of time before young kids are hooked on their sound and want to make something of their own. February sees the band embarking on their biggest headline tour to date. They are more than likely playing somewhere near you. So, get a ticket, sweat among the crowd, sing along and just have the best time imaginable. Their sound is designed to hypnotise you, whether on record or at a show. You become fully immersed in what you are hearing and nothing else around you seems to matter. That’s when you know you’ve found something truly remarkable.

With a wealth of EPs to their name, it is fair to say that the Black Tambourines release music that moves the listener. They are one of those bands that leave you wanting to find everything they’ve ever released, as soon as you hear them. Their EPs are nothing short of perfect and I urge you to get your hands on them. Each EP shows you exactly what the Black Tambourines are made of.

What they are made of is surely set to blow you away.

“Everyone thinks we’re [bassist Leigh Padley and drummer Adam Stock] from Brighton, but we’re not,” explained front man and guitarist, Stu Hopkins.

“Also people think we’re from Leeds. I think it’s just that it’s such a small place that everyone just assumes we would live in a big place. But we live in a really small place.”

As you would expect, Stu also said Chichester is ‘very sleepy,’ which is probably the exact opposite of how one would describe TRAAMS sound. A sound that is always energetic and often borderline frenetic, and where 2013’s Grin seemed to disperse this energy into an exploratory mixture of grooves, pop and fuzz, the band’s recently released Modern Dancing almost comes across as more polished, possibly even less experimental.

“It’s a bit more cohesive as a body of work. I think we needed a bit more of a plan, what we wanted to do with it,” Stu said.

“It flows a bit more like an album I think. Yeah, it’s a bit more polished. Though it’s got more noise and guitars and stuff on it than the first record I think.

I think it’s probably just a bit like more produced, like the vocals.”

The new album also manages to capture what it’s like to see TRAAMS live. Their first album, Modern Dancing, was produced

by MJ of Hookworms who helped them recreate this sound.

“Matt has his way of recording and it sort of suits the way we play, the way we should be recorded sonically. Because live we’re really loud. And there’s only three of us so when you just turn everything up really loud,

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it’s just like volume,” Stu said.

“But when you are doing that on record sometimes it can be a bit lost because you need somebody that understands how to make it sound like you sound live.

“He’s seen us live and was like ‘I want to replicate what you sound like live,’ but then at the same time make it not just completely blown out.

“It was almost like trying to coerce it into being like a live sounding record. It’s not live, but it has live-like qualities.”

The band worked on the album in ‘pockets,’ but they maintained an overall composition for it during the recording.

“Generally the themes were sort of running through and then we sort of bridged it with bits in to fill the gaps. We did a batch of recordings and when we came away we realised we needed something a bit slower in the middle,” Stu said.

“There was a few things where we sussed out what we needed.

Almost like making a football team. We came and wrote a couple of bits, which we don’t normally do. Normally we just write and then just go with it, but we actually wrote to try and give it a bit of balance.

“At the second session we recorded ‘Modern Dancing’ and ‘Gimme,’ and something else I can’t remember.

“It was really weird, we came away and we thought it really needs this thing in the middle, and that was ‘Modern Dancing,’ So I think that track held it all together a bit more.”

While ‘Modern Dancing’ is a track for balance, one song that seems to deviate from the rest of the album is ‘Car Song,’ which feels almost like a little melancholy interlude. Apparently Stu didn’t even realise that song had even been recorded initially.

“That was a weird one because New Beats from the Street

© Lid Lee

I didn’t even realise that had been written. We were driving to our rehearsal place and Padley had all of the demos we had been recording on his phone,” he said.

Talking to Stu about the band’s process for recording the album, you get a sense that the band has an easygoing approach to how they do a lot of things. I asked Stu if anything had changed since “He was going through songs we needed to work on. We record the band first started playing in 2011.

“Not a lot really. I think we know what we sound like a bit more. them so we know what we are doing because otherwise we forget and he was like ‘oh we should work on this,’ and I was, like, I’ve But in terms of how we are live, not a lot really. I think we’ve always been loud and confident and stuff,” Stu said. never heard that.

“He’d recorded me playing it through the wall. I was playing it on my own while they were out smoking and he recorded it. I was, like, I have no idea how to play that because I don’t remember playing that.

“So he had to work out what I played on the guitar and then show me back and then I had to play it. Then we went back with Matt, we sort of replicated the sound of me playing through a wall, which was what that was. It was just like a little ditty, but it sort of makes sense I think.”

“I think we’re more aware of what we want to do and what we want to play, and that sort of thing, but we sort of knew what we wanted to do quite early, so not a lot really. We’re just sort of continuing it and refining.”

“I think that’s the thing, refining what you do and doing things you like as opposed to doing things you’re not keen on. I think being in a band is really rewarding and fun, but you can sometimes go off on weird tangents and end up doing stuff you’re not that keen on. So I think that keeping it fun is the best thing.”

Fun is one of the priorities for the band this year as they plan to Another standout track is the unrelenting ‘Succulent Thunder do some touring and hope to play some festivals in the summer.

Anthem,’ which manages to be intense and catchy at the same time with seemingly random chants like, “you know there’s ice They are already thinking of their next album and want to ideally try and get it recorded by the end of the year. While this may seem on the road” and “you’re not my friends.” like an aggressive schedule to some, for the band it’s a chance to When asked how they come up with lyrics for their songs Stu said experiment with new material and ideas again. they tend to write them together and play around with sections of “You write and you record and then you wait for it come out and music. From there Stu said he will “sing phonetically or fragments then when it comes out you’re like god, should we start a new of lines.” He then writes them down in his phone and “works it backwards to sort of work out a theme and put the lyrics in.” The one then. Because you’ve cleared the decks. Because once a song is written and it’s recorded, it’s cemented. You can’t change lyrics to these songs aren’t necessarily haphazard though. it much,” Stu said.

“They’re all based, they’re not all nonsense. They have a theme.

“When you’re gigging it you might slightly tweak it, but it’s I think sometimes when you’re just phonetically sort of throwing things out there normally something from your subconscious runs cemented. You just learn how to play it, but then the new ones, you can still play with them. into things anyway,” Stu said.

“Once you’ve got it on record then it’s done. That’s when you can “Do you know what I mean? You’re not singing about like, I be like, right well, I’ve learned that now and I know how to play it, don’t know, doing the shopping. It’s probably something that, like, resonates generally with you, I suppose, and then you’ve sort of so we can just gig that and let’s write some new songs. That’s the got to work out what that is and where it’s meant to go, I think.” plan anyway.”

9

Heatwave joins the Hatewave with VIDEO

Samantha Gladu

W

hen I was in Paris last November, something terrible happened. Some old guys outside the show complimented my VIDEO T-shirt, but they didn’t know about Bad Sports. I complimented a girl’s Bad Sports T-shirt, but she and her friends didn’t know about VIDEO. This is all about to be reconciled, since rich garage rock geezer, Jack White, decided to put out some VIDEO records and pump money into their world takeover. VIDEO is a punk band you need in your life.

This combination of dudes from Austin, Denton, and Dallas Texas, USA are in other bands you must have heard of—Bad Sports, Radioactivity, Wax Museums, Wiccans, etc. etc. etc. These guys love to play music with each other. In this project, TV’s Daniel sings, Gregory Rutherford is on drums, Harpal Assi is on bass, and Payton Green is on guitar.

The four long-time friends carry on the Texas tradition of hateful killed-bydeath style punk. With a stark color scheme and a reliable song formula, the VIDEO discography has developed a brand that any classic punk fan or angry teenager would identify with.

Nearly every VIDEO song is an anthem, because TV’s Daniel repeats single phrases. VIDEO hates all the same things you do, and they’re just like you—only the best will do.

JOIN THE HATE WAVE! LONG LIVE THE NEW FAITH, LONG LIVE VIDEO!

“

Let your negativity fuel your creative output. Ride the wave.

Be true to yourself. Be someone.

”

Heatwave: You and your VIDEO bandmates are long-time friends. Do you always get along?

Tv’s Daniel: Uh, no. We don’t always get along, but we always know that the outfit that is VIDEO is the most important thing, so we have to conduct ourselves professionally.

Heatwave: I know Peyton, the guitar player in VIDEO, taught you how to play bass when you were both in high school. How long have the other guys in your band been playing their instruments?

Tv’s Daniel: I think Greg has been playing drums since he was 17 or so—that’s 11 years. Harpal has been playing about ten years I think... So, I think that proves why we have the greatest rhythm section in music today. A whole ten years of playing instruments.

Heatwave: Have they been playing together that whole time, off and on?

Heatwave

Tv’s Daniel: Yeah, off and on. They’ve done a variety of different bands before this. Everybody [in VIDEO] is in Wiccans, except for me. That band has been going for a while as well.

Heatwave: Are you sad you are not in Wiccans?

Tv’s Daniel: No, I’m definitely not [laughs].

They have too many parts in their songs. I couldn’t remember those little things.

Heatwave: Your new LP has a theme, Hollywood and fame. What would you say the theme of your first LP is?

Tv’s Daniel: A lot of it was actually about sex, I think, in hindsight. I didn’t even think about it at the time, when writing it. I just wrote songs. But as of now, thinking about it, I realize, ‘oh, ok, I guess that is what that’s about.’ I didn’t ever really think about that until someone pointed it out to me.

Heatwave: Last I heard you are about halfway done with your next record. What are the songs like?

Tv’s Daniel: The music is kind of a continuation of The Entertainers. Where the last song leaves off on that record, the next record kind of starts in that same vein.

It’s epic. Lots of epic songs and lyrically they’re all very depressing and nihilistic. So, everyone can look forward to that! A total bummer of a record.

Heatwave: All right! Is it going to be good?

Tv’s Daniel: Yeah, I hope so. So far we have five songs done and they’re all really good. So I’m trying not to write a bunch of crap after this.

Heatwave: You grew up in the Bible belt, listening to Christian rock and going to shows at church gyms. Video has this slogan, and song, “Long Live the New Faith, Long Live Video.” Are you religious?

Tv’s Daniel: No, only for the Cult of VIDEO. Heatwave: Define “hatewave,” as in your song “Join the Hatewave.”

Tv’s Daniel: Hatewave refers to the practice of being true to yourself, your opinions, and your general outlook on life. No longer should people be confined by the shackles of false optimism. If you hate something, say something. Don’t let others’ emotions hinder you from expressing your views and we as a society can progress and transcend the levels of mediocrity that, for so long, have taken hold. Embrace your true nature. Let your negativity fuel your

creative output. Ride the wave. Be true to yourself. Be someone.

Heatwave: Ok. Fuck, kill, marry: Devo, Dictators, Ramones. Why?

It’s got everything everyone wants in a song.

I mean all of our songs have everything everyone wants in a song, but this one’s got the anthemic chorus, the cool solos...

It’s got Wah pedal on everything in that Tv’s Daniel: Marry Ramones cause I’m in it song—drums, vocals, guitar and bass all for the long run. Fuck Devo because they’re have Wah on them. weird, and all of their songs are about sex as well, so I bet you they have some weird Heatwave: Wow, how many Wah pedals stuff to do. And Dictators, I guess I can kill do you have in the band? unfortunately.

Tv’s Daniel: Three. Two different guitar Heatwave: Yeah, I mean, Jayne County Wahs. We don’t use them all the time, and we have a bass Wah too. In recording beat the fuck out of… sometimes we’ll run the vocals through Wah Tv’s Daniel: Handsome Dick. Yeah, I’ve pedals and on that song we used a Wah seen Devo and they’re the best live band pedal on the drums. You’ve got to have the I’ve seen in my life. I have not seen the Wah. We need the Wah. We’re trying to bring Dictators, or the Ramones. the Wah pedal back into popularity cause Heatwave: Your record deal with Third Man not that many people are using it much. seems like a big deal. Like they’re really Heatwave: Is there going to be Wah pedal putting money into you. You played a label on the third record? showcase in Nashville in October—what Tv’s Daniel: Oh yeah, lots of Wah. Plenty was that like? of Wah pedal. I’d say a copious amount Tv’s Daniel: Oh that was awesome. It was of Wah. great. We played the Third Man studio. They have a great PA and everything like that, Heatwave: Do you have tour dates for upgraded just for VIDEO to play there. Cause, 2016 yet? you know we have such high expectations Tv’s Daniel: Yes. All of the U.S. It hasn’t for sound. Yeah, of course the money. And been announced, so I can’t say anything. afterward—giant party backstage. It was truly the best party I have ever been to. It Heatwave: Geez, all these contracts. was amazing. It was really, really fun. There Tv’s Daniel: Yeah, they’re very litigious were stacks of free food, there was an open over there so... Uh, we cannot divulge our bar, KID ROCK was there. It was great. secrets. We don’t want to get our faces Heatwave: I heard there was a real Kid stomped in.

Rock and a fake Kid Rock.

Heatwave: Wow. Tv’s Daniel: There was a real Kid Rock Tv’s Daniel: Yeah. They’ve got muscle and a fake Kid Rock, a real Jack White over there. and a fake Jack White, and there were several doppelgängers. A real and fake Bim Heatwave: Will you go to Europe?

Blackwell—one of the big wigs at Third Man. Timmy Vulgar was there as well as a gaggle Tv’s Daniel: Mmmm... Maybe. I don’t know. of Timmy Vulgars. There was several, I think I’m not sure they deserve it yet. They have about five or six, Timmy Vulgars that were to ready themselves for VIDEO, if they’re going to, you know... They’ll just have to at the party. wait. We talked about going in 2015. They Heatwave: Wow. How did you know who weren’t ready for us yet then, so we had was real? to cancel.

Tv’s Daniel: It didn’t really matter I guess.

I just did what I normally do and hung out by myself, so... I just ate and took as much free stuff as I could.

Heatwave: If someone had never heard VIDEO before, which song of yours would you hope they hear first?

Tv’s Daniel: Either ‘Leather, Leather’ from— actually, you know, I take that back. Let’s say ‘Join the Hatewave.’ It’s a good single.

11

Johnny Throttle Out of Sheer Boredom, They Went Penelope York

B

oredom. Boredom is one of the most mind-numbing evils out there and I’ve had my share far too often. It literally drives one insane, in a way, boredom is actually what drives us.

Forget inspiration, dreams, and wishes.

Boredom, me hearties, is the key to move our arses. Boredom can be the root of extraordinary bands. Here’s one fine example, ladies and germs, meet Johnny Throttle.

They were born out of boredom. Thank bloody goodness! I’ll never underestimate the power of boredom ever again.

Johnny Throttle is punk rock in its purest form. No sub genres, no complementary labels, no additives nor conservatives. This is raw, this is real—this is punk rock.

Burping with addictive riffs, catchy chorus and spiky drums, Johnny Throttle heightens your punk arteries until they’re pumping more blood than you thought you had.

In this new incarnation of the band frontman, Afonso Pinto of the Parkinsons, is aided by former members of the Ricky C Quartet, Blowouts, Los Perros and Las Aspiradoras, guitarist Hermano J, drummer Ricky C and bassist Bambas, of Raw Fun, are giving you that 20 minute adrenaline shot you need to survive another dull week.

They’re no-bullshit, no-lingering, no-waitfor-nobody, straight-to-the-point punk rock.

It punches you in the bowels right on the first riff, not stopping until the very last. Oh yes, please! Forget 77, we are here now and we still got it. If you don’t believe it stop reading and go listen to Johnny Throttle.

Go on, mate, I’ll wait. I said go!

Start with the Stukas Über Shoreditch single, released by Wrench Records in 2009.

The band said they are attacking the ‘cool’, already predicting the hipster spread. Stukas contains four raucous songs, ‘Looking at You but Talking to Me,’ ‘Public Retard No. 1,’ and ‘City of Dirt.’ All of them display a Heatwave

sharp and thorough interpretation Stooges, the Dead Boys, and of the Big Smoke and how highly Television, to name a few. influenced the band is by the city.

As they became close friends, Move over to the fast-paced their most direct influences were Sick of Myself, released by the groups such as the Kids, the great Hamburg based label, Knots, the Weirdos, the Pagans Crypt Records, with a version and Killed By Death punk bands. of the Kids’ ‘Job in the City’ on its Ricky C remembers the Carbonas B-side. Then give the grandiose being played at a lot at parties hymn ‘Lost Sputnik’ – another back then. He said his music Wrench Records release – a shot, knowledge increased since and then the catchy ‘Atomic arriving in London in 2002.

Reaction’ on the B-side. After Although the band never having your very first dose, you thought of consciously following a can now handle bigger flights. certain style, they were constantly Johnny Throttle’s eponymous feeding each other with new album, released on Dirty Water music and they are surely a Records, will simply knock your sum of all they have listened boots off. Its forty whole minutes throughout the years. With time of frenzied delirium will throw out 50s rock n roll and a great deal any remaining doubts that you of 60s garage started playing a could possibly have. role in the band’s sound too.

From the dancing tunes of ‘I Wanna Be Your Ex’ to the crude pureness of ‘Spazztastic,’ the longing ‘Ann’ and ‘Waking Up Alone’ to ‘Falling Off The Edge’ and back again to good old ‘Lost Sputnik.’ Got it now? Of course you do. Ok, moving on.

They are a band with a steady name in London’s modern punk history, but we are still talking about modern punk rock, and with that being said, we know how fragile everything can be.

The original lineup consisted of Afonso, Ricky, Nuno Sousa and The name Johnny Throttle was Jasper. Ricky and Afonso are the brought up by their first bass only remaining founding members player, Jasper Hood, from the in today’s lineup.

About Blanks, and was accepted Shortly after the band started, by the rest of the members Geordie would jump in to replace quickly. ‘Johnny,’ as Ricky C Jasper and Joseber would says, represents the everyday replace Nuno. Geordie left after punk boy, who struggles his life the album came out and was through, but never stops having replaced by Rory, of the Ten O fun. And ‘Throttle,’ well, how Sevens and Dying Shames, until better to keep your punk fluids the band dissolved in 2012. working? Choke the week, but The band is now back on their speed it up for the weekend. feet with Hermano at the guitar, The catchy sounding name, and Bambas, on the bass, who Johnny Throttle, perfectly mirrors has amazingly learned all of their the band’s lifestyle, a lifestyle songs in two rehearsals before that is fully transparent through their first gig in four years. No their lyrics. matter how many members have “I can’t think of any Johnny come and gone, Johnny Throttle Throttle’s song that deviates from stood through it all. the truth of their experiences,” I had just arrived in London and Ricky C said. was incredibly thirsty for a good The Johnny Throttle members grew up much like every modern punk, they started with the usual bands of the late 70s—the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and the Buzzcocks, digging a bit around 80s hardcore punk, but always returning to the classics, like the New York Dolls, the

gig—powerful, rough and loud.

Getting to the venue and back to my provisory home took me longer than the whole of the three bands that night. I didn’t mind.

The show was at the Dome, in Tufnell Park, a mid sized venue with a considerably large stage.

As most of you know, Tufnell Park

station has been closed for ages, so I took some obscure shortcuts, saying no to drugs while shoving down a veggie samosa.

Still a virgin to the London scene, I was actually there for Radio Birdman. Johnny Throttle was more of a bonus. Knowing that the singer was from my hometown and also the frontman of the Parkinsons, I was assuredly curious.

Around me new faces of my new city were gathering around for their last cigs before the gig. Cigs before gigs, interesting. Finally inside, I got exactly what I was looking for. The first band, Michael Jackson, was pretty good and warmed me up enough for what was about to come. Then behold, Johnny Throttle came, and I came right after.

Johnny Throttle on stage. Oh my! My skin shrieked in delight.

The goosebumps are so immense my skin must be about to leave my body. With it there goes my soul, floating above the crowd, the heat and the booze fumes, watching, listening, but mostly feeling.

My feet are feeding on the bass. It tickles all the way up. I tremble, I close my eyes out of pure ecstasy and I smile.

I have finally reached my own special world, where only the rawest of music has the key. My centre of gravity has reached its peak.

After they played, the legends, Radio Birdman, stood strong and rocked the audience. For me, they were like a cigarette after the first round of frenzied sex, just getting ready for the next, but I digress.

The second time I saw Johnny Throttle was at the Finsbury Pub. Before they played, the Featherz and the Role Models went on. I must confess I missed the first band and didn’t give my full attention to the second. What can I say? I was young, naive... Nah, I was just bloody thirsty, and the bar was so far from the stage. Oh well, seeing them would have to wait for another time.

The Finsbury Pub, now this is a venue more suited for Johnny Throttle. Cosy enough for both audience and band to become one, like one big sweaty lump of frantic charged souls.

Johnny Throttle’s presence is snotty on the surface, penetrating on your insides and bloody sharp overall. The lead singer insults the audience and we beg for more.

Knowing the frontman from his other band, his stage presence 13

© Ika Lesniak

is not new or strange to me.

But oh did it surprise me. His moves are even more languid and provocative. This version of him, less polished, so very raw.

It’s a hurricane, and I like hurricanes, don’t you?

Afonso, with his lascivious moves, is like a snake. He’s an insane slippery cool cat. His voice has this rare quality of being distinct, unique and deep without being too guttural, yet playful without being too shallow. He swindles his mic as if it was part of his own guts. It’s like a visceral dance between man and instrument.

His bandmates hold the mayhem within whilst exploding the boxes behind. They’re the backbone of what makes this band so great. They are focused, they are fast and they won’t wait for you. These 20-minute sets are pure primeval energy in its more untamed version.

Johnny Throttle is living proof that we can still express our most feral tantrums. The brave new digital world hasn’t stolen the existence of our flesh. We are humans with a bag full of crazy hormones, bursting out of our very bones. We need to escape.

We need to vent what is lurking deep in us while we are stuck in a shallow and surreal digital world. We want out, yet we can’t move a muscle, and that is why we still need punk rock. We need it desperately, now more than ever. This is our escape.

One of the few we have left. How sad are we, darling?

Imagine my shock when after delighting my urges with two sets worth of furious tunes of orgasmic proportions, I learned that there’s no new stuff and barely any new gigs on the horizon!

Fuck me! This is a live band. Their magnificent album and singles won’t be enough. I want more! My flesh has urges. Urges, goddamnit! But hey, no pressure…

Anywho, why did I stop dancing half naked on the rooftop in the wee hours of the morning? Boredom! That’s it! I need more boredom in my life. Forget dreams, forget wishes upon a star, and don’t come talking to me about goals. It is boredom that drives us. Only boredom can save us!

Come on, Johnny Throttle, embrace the boredom and bring us some more of this. We have urges. Come to us, so we can come too.

For London bands you can actually still see live, Johnny Throttle strongly recommends Raw Fun, Los Pepes, the Scraps, Retrofuture and Lucy and the Rats.

Heatwave

14

DEATH Linsey McFadden

W

hen Detroit proto-punk band, Death, hit the news in 2009 they “That’s what we were striving for. Not so much to be a unique were virtually unknown, now they’re achieving the predictions band because we were all black and three blood brothers, we their former leader said they would. were just striving to be unique because we really love rock n roll,” Death was punk before punk existed, but they were one of the Bobby said. genres most hidden gems until singer, Bobby Hackney’s, sons “Rock n roll at the time was something new and exciting happening unearthed the band’s recordings. and we wanted to be part of it.”

After hitting the pages of the New York Times and getting their Varying musical influences can be seen in the way the band writes own documentary, A Band Called Death, the band has experienced and in the way they play. Although Death is categorised as protoswelling popularity and is finally getting the recognition that the late punk, their albums are difficult tocompletely pigeonhole to one genre.

David Hackney always said they would obtain.

The brothers’ wide interest in all ends of the musical spectrum no Anyone who knows the story of Death, knows how they started— doubt has a great deal to do with their unique, defined sound. three brothers from Detroit, David, Dannis and Bobby Hackney, “It was just magic growing up in Detroit. You had a whole bevy making music in the 70’s. When the brothers started making music of music from which to pick and choose from and the great thing they had a funk sound, a sound that carried on for a couple of about it was, no one tried to categorise it,” said Bobby. records, but the boys would soon fall in love with rock n roll.

“It was just all there and great variety shows, and great radio “On my way somewhere else, I kinda happened in on an Alice shows. It’s not like the way things are today, where everything’s Cooper concert,” Dannis said. in one basket, one category. We’d be able to listen to all types of “That stuff got me excited, it got me going. I thought they had a music just from one radio programme and I think that was pretty lot of reckless abandon and all the stuff that I wanted to do, while cool, in that era.” being on stage, as opposed to just the regular norm.”

The band never got to meet Detroit rock progenitors like Iggy Dannis went home from the Alice Cooper gig and told David and Pop or MC5, but Bobby said Iggy acknowledged Death when he Bobby about it. They responded by kicking him out of the room. heard about them. The band members hope they will one day be Three months later David went to see the Who and he came home able to meet him. with the same feeling Dannis had when he saw Alice Cooper.

David tried to book Death at several cabaret shows, but the crowds at the shows were mostly blues loving factory workers looking for From then on, the brothers would play fully-fledged rock n roll.

The music the band made was completely original and the sound the crooning of artists like Al Green, Aretha Franklin or BB King. remains as fresh and innovative today as it was when it was written.

Heatwave

© Linsey McFadden

The band is also being inducted into the Smithsonian Museum in the spring at a ceremony that will be attended by Michelle Obama.

“Getting recognition now is strange and it’s good getting. I mean, you always want recognition, but it’s strange because so many things have changed,” said Dannis.

“But, lots of things remain the same, such as the rock n roll content, and that’s what you’re gonna see.”

As for the boys that cracked open the time capsule with Death’s music, Bobby Hackney’s sons are still going strong in their own band, Rough Francis. Bobby hopes to collaborate more with the boys and one day do a Death – Rough Francis tour.

“We’ve played together and we’ve talked about doing some collaborations together,” he said.

“But you know, we’ve been quite busy and as we wind down, maybe we’ll get some time to get in the studio together and do some things.”

“We were all up there playing rock n roll and every time we ended a song, you could hear a pin drop,” Bobby said.

“It was pretty hard for us to get out and get gigs, so we just had to resolve to work out our music and continue to write songs and do as many productions and complete as many songs as we could.”

“We only had a bunch of neighborhood friends that would show up every time we practiced in the garage and we would lift up the garage door, and when we’d lift up the door, we’d see a little crowd,” Dannis added.

“We’d get so excited and tried to play for them, and you know, some of them appreciated it and some of them said what Earl said [that’s white people music].”

As for the name Death, the name that held the band back from recognition for so many years, the brothers have become proud to have it as their band name.

“At least, I can say I am, cause it’s been through a lot of changes and it’s costed a lot,” Dannis said.

“Sitting here today, I’m really surprised that people had that frame of mind back then, even towards the word death. I mean it’s not all that bad.

“There’s a different meaning that should be explored in a positive way, because it’s part of life and it’s just as natural as birth, so you know, like somebody said, we all gotta break on through to the other side.”

Bobby said the band would have loved to play venues such as the Electric Circus, where Iggy Pop often played, but they even struggled with these venues. He said the club might have given them a show once on a Monday night when no one was there, but would not book them on a better night because of their name.

While the band struggled to book shows, they continued to move forward with their music. They even produced six of the songs featured on their newest album, N.E.W. during this time period.

New guitarist, Bobbie Duncan, said the songs were as new as if they were written today, and that some people would never believe that the Hackney brothers wrote them 30 – 40 years ago.

In December Death made it to the UK for the first time, achieving a goal that they say would have blown their brother, David, away.

Bobby said that London and Detroit are sister cities and that they have a lot of love for the city.

The brothers joked that they have been telling people that they are dukes of Hackney [London borough], but no one believes them.

“We know that the Who Came to Detroit and lived there for a while, and they became almost like a Detroit band, and we appreciate that so much,” Bobby said.

“People in Detroit have always loved London. I mean, when everybody here was running scared because of the Beatles, when the Beatles came over, Motown embraced them and they recorded Please Mr Postman right at Motown.”

The band has been incredibly busy since the documentary came out. More recently, an autobiography has been released going deeper into the band’s story—Rock n Roll Victims: the Story of a Band Called Death.

17

Heatwave

Ben Edge: Electric Pencils and Art Linsey McFadden

L

ondon based punk rock front-man and artist, Ben Edge, is putting together his first solo art exhibition and preparing to formally launch the Electric Pencils. The arts present themselves in everything from graffiti to poetry. Ben presents his form of creative thinking in two distinctly different mediums— painting and song writing.

Ben has been a familiar face in the London punk scene for years now, formerly fronting the popular band, Thee Spivs and now leader of a unique two-piece number.

Musically Ben has taken influences from the Scientists, the Cramps, the Clash, the Adverts, the Kinks, the Television Personalities, the Velvet Underground, the Violent Femmes and the Vaselines. When it comes to art he takes his inspiration from Folk and Native art, as well as post-impressionist painters and the Flemish primitives.

“I grew up around a lot of colourful and eccentric characters who were great story-tellers, so I think this is where my interest in people began,” Ben said.

Ben has been making art since he was a teenager. When he started working with canvas he used markers and drew inspiration from graffiti. Like most artists, Ben has evolved drastically since his teen years—he now prefers using oil paints on canvas.

“I started painting properly in my teenage years, but drawing and making things is something that I have always done naturally for as long as I can remember.”

Whether he is writing a song or painting a picture, Ben is able to draw inspiration from the same places—books, films and personal experiences, and when an idea comes, he knows exactly which medium to use.

“Once an idea comes to me I already know how I will use it. I never have the dilemma of thinking, what will this idea be, a song or a painting,” he said.

When Ben creates a work of art he isn’t just interested in depicting the face of a person, he’s interested in uncovering what motivates his subjects.

In the Life of Peary (see centre spread) the story of the first man to reach the North Pole, Robert Peary, is painted in a uniquely story-telling way.

The painting shows the explorer’s wife, child and Eskimo mistress, as well as his mother dressing him up as a girl. These were all real aspects of the man’s life. Painting can be a long process, but when it comes to song writing, the singer lets the words flow naturally, rather than forcing himself to sit down and pen lyrics.

“My songs are really quite instinctive and generally written in one sitting. With a painting once you have an idea, you have to develop it and construct an image, which is a much longer process for me,” Ben said.

Self Portrait With Mirror © Ben Edge 2015 Ben believes the key elements to making a good composition are learning the obvious rules and tricks, such as where to draw the eyes, but also to allow your natural instincts make artistic decisions for you.

“I think the key is just to play around until you find something that looks just right to you,” he said.

“It can be helpful to look at paintings you admire, to see how they have been composed, but it’s also good to not follow the rules too tightly, and let your own instinct decide.”

Ben said there might be some overlap in the way he writes his songs and creates his paintings and expresses interest in exploring this overlap with the Electric Pencils’ releases and live shows.

“I am going to be producing original artwork for every release for this project. I am definitely interested in overlapping the two as much as possible,” Ben said.

The Electric Pencils played their first live show in February 2015 and fans will be delighted to know that the Pencils have recorded their debut album and plan to release it later in the year.

On April 16th the Electric Pencils will be hosting a gig to raise money for their upcoming album, check the bands Facebook for future updates about their upcoming album and live shows.

To buy a Ben Edge original contact him directly at info@benedge. co.uk and check out his first solo show at the Cock n Bull gallery in early 2017.

19

The Anomalys

© Christopher Lopez-Huici www.clopezhuici.com

Samantha Gladu

A

nomalys are a rock n roll punk band based in Amsterdam consisting of Gilian, Bone, and Remi, maniacs who live for the music and break all the rules. Their reputation as a crazy, unhinged live band holds true, even when they play an afternoon set at a fest and everyone in the crowd is dying from hang-over, they go off. The band said they don’t practice their stage moves, but damnit I don’t believe them. Heatwave checked in with Anomalys on their new drummer, world travels, and the state of rock n’ roll [before Lemmy died], and we can’t wait for the Anomalys to celebrate our issue launch with us!

Heatwave

Heatwave: Your live show is crazy! How do you practice your moves?

Gilian: We don’t. It just kind of evolved over the years on stage.

It’s not like we choreographed any of the moves in the practice room like ballerinas, it just happened instinctively while playing live, and we started doing it again the following show. Then some turned into signature moves.

Bone: We don’t practice moves. We just get so revved up that we can’t stand still!!! Rock n roll is, of course, dance music. You’re not supposed to stand still.

Heatwave: What is your practice space like?

Gilian: Nothing special, we rent a room at a big practice studio complex. It’s not our personal practice space.

Heatwave: Tell me about the history of punk and street art in Amsterdam?

Bone: There’s a great history of punk in Amsterdam, which grew out of the Provo and Squat scene. Check out bands like Ivy Green, the Panic, the Helmettes and Jesus and the Gospelfuckers. \ For the lowdown on the history of street art and its evolution from punk street art into American style graffiti, I recommend the documentary: “Kroon juwelen” on YouTube. It’s got English subtitles. Dr. Rat lives!

Heatwave: You got a new drummer in September after playing with your previous drummer, Memme, your drummer of ten years left to spend more time with his family. How did you meet the new guy? Who is he? What is he into?

Gilian: Through a mutual friend, Fred Rollercoaster, who plays saxophone in King Khan and the Shrines, and Weird Omen. Remi is the drummer of Weird Omen and Fred told us he was looking for another band, and was moving to Brussels.

We got a lot of responses from Dutch drummers, but our original drummer, Memme, had a specific style of playing and we thought somehow this French guy fit the description the best. But let’s let Remi introduce himself!

Remi: I saw the Anomalys for the first time in Toulouse, South of France, two years ago. I have been a big fan for a couple of years and the show was really fantastic—small underground club, perfect conditions! Then I saw them again in one of the best rock n roll festivals in France, Cosmic Trip Festival—one of their last show with Memme.

We had a really great party, and one month after we started practicing and it worked very well! I have played drums in Weird Omen for four years now. We do a kind of primitive rock n roll mix with some wild psychedelic crazy saxophone shit. And I also play guitar and sing in Escobar, a garage punk duo I started two years ago. I like to do different stuff and not being stuck in one band energy, and meeting those two guys and playing rock n roll the way Anomalys does was exactly what I needed.

Heatwave: How would you describe an Anomalys fan?

Gilian: Because our music is a mutation of different styles, it’s hard to describe a typical fan of the Anomalys. We take our influences from 50s rockabilly and 60s garage to 70s punk rock and 80’s hardcore. We try to combine those styles into our own wild sound.

I think we’ve succeeded, but some people or bookers have a hard time pigeonholing us. They’ll find us way too punk for their little 60s garage shindig, while others think we’re too rock n roll for their punk festival.

Luckily there’s a lot of people who do get it and they invite us to play all over the world. Because of this we’ve played together with

© Matthijs Imminki

hardcore bands in Norway, on psychobilly festivals in Brazil and even with doom/sludge bands in California... And we’ve always had great responses from crowds that are not typically into ‘our’ kind of music. In short— a typical Anomalys fan probably listens to wild music, drinks beer and has a dick and/or pussy.

Bone: An Anomalys fan would be someone that likes in your face, loud rock n roll, with a dangerous twist! Someone that prefers a crazy party over an anger management therapy session!

Heatwave: What are your non-band jobs?

Gilian: To pay the rent I work for a video production company where I film, edit and direct online videos, and I DJ a little bit on the side.

Remi: I used to work in a bar, but I stopped a year ago. Now with three bands, it’s a full time job!

Bone: I’m a DJ, cartoonist, a booker, a bartender, and sometimes I sell Christmas trees!

Heatwave: What’s the biggest threat to rock n roll?

Gilian: Well, it’s not techno or EDM or whatever the hell they call that crap nowadays. Believe it or not, the biggest threat to rock ‘n roll is still hippies! In history, they’ve tried to kill rock n roll once before and now they’re trying to do it all over again! Only now the hippies disguise themselves as ‘neo-psych’ or even ‘grunge’ and pretend to be rock n roll.

Their recordings sound like they’ve pushed record on their phones during a practice session in a bathroom, with vocals and guitars sounding unintelligible because of too much shitty reverb. All because they think it’s ‘lo-fi’ and ‘punk.’ Believe me you can still sound raw without sounding like shit. I think some recordings of great garage bands from the 60s didn’t sound lo-fi by choice, they did it because they didn’t have the means to do it better.

There’s a lot of idiots following the latest trend who think: ‘Oh look, that band is on Vice and they’re doing this, must be cool so let’s do it too.’ All these fuckin’ shoegazin’ indie hipsters trying to be rock n roll, and hipster magazines/blogs selling it like this are the real threat to rock n roll. And don’t get me started on this whole generation of ‘ironic’ rock n roll bands, who take on any sub-genre and turn it into something geeky and hip.

I think Burger Records is to blame. Fuck that shit, I ain’t buying it. With that shit taking up so much space, real rock n roll will never rise again. It will stay underground... But maybe that’s just fine as it is.

Remi: I think there is no threat to rock n roll. It’s been alive for 60 years and there will always be people who understand it wrong and [also] people to keep it alive!

23

© Matthijs Imminki

Our van broke down on the highway to a big festival show, the show which was one of the reasons we booked the tour.

We acted quickly and jumped over the highway railing and hailed a cab. We told the guy we have to be in the city of Curitiba [a three hour ride] in two hours. During this hell-ride I kept envisioning two scenarios, while I firmly gripped the seat in front of me—we were going to die or were actually gonna get to the show on time. I couldn’t see it ending any other way.

Luckily we survived and we went from the taxi immediately to the stage of the festival where 5000 Brazilians went apeshit and kept shouting ‘Hey Ho, Let’s Go!’ Definitely worth risking my life for!

Bone: I find that hard to say as every show is an entity in itself.

The most hilarious ending of a show ever must’ve been at a Sleazefest, when I jumped through the drum kit on the last note, and me and Memme fell backwards off the stage with literally ALL the equipment. That the fastest time I ever cleaned a stage!

Bone: The biggest threat to rock n roll is rules! FUCK the rules!

Especially decibel limiters. On the other hand rules are great for Heatwave: Having played all over Europe, in the U.S. and South rock n oll because that means we can break ‘em and that, of America, where else do you want to go?

Gilian: Definitely Japan and Australia. And after releasing a new course is cool.

Heatwave: Have any of you ever been in a non-rock n roll band? album we plan to do that somewhere next year.

Bone: I want to go to Hawaii!

Gilian: Some punk bands, but mostly rock n roll related stuff.

Remi: I played in a reggae band for half a year, just because I love Heatwave: I heard you will never tour the U.S. again. Why? weed, and in my defence, there are no more hippies in reggae Gilian: Well, never say never... But we went on tour in the U.S. three times and most of the time we shared the door money with now... They all try to do rock n roll now, like Gilian said. four other local bands, got three lukewarm cans of Budweiser, Bone: No. directions to the nearest burger joint, where you pay for your Heatwave: Understandably, the Pit’s in Belgium is your favourite own burger, and on some nights we had to ask the audience on punk venue in Europe. The video for your song ‘Drinkin at the Pit’s’ stage for a place to sleep. We’ve been to Brazil, Chile, Uruguay shows what it’s like. Tell us about the first time you ever went to and Argentina recently and have had much better experiences in the Pit’s. literally every area I mentioned over there.

Gilian: The thing about the Pit’s is you don’t remember a lot after It’s a shame, I’d love to go back because of all the cool people you’ve visited! The first time I just thought, ‘Wow, this venue is in we’ve met, the great musical history, you can experience firsthand, the middle of a small, quiet residential street and the entrance of beautiful landscapes and good bands to play with... Maybe we just the place is also the toilet! Fuckin’ love it!’ But I’ll bet Bone has had bad luck or management, but it just costs us too much money.

And besides, I see a lot of American bands touring in Europe and some crazy stories!

Bone: I don’t remember the first time I went to the Pits. I went then they tell me how great everything is... I can’t blame them! there so many times and got so wasted that it has all become one Bone: It’s a hobby I can’t afford! big blur. A funny story I recall, though is when I played there with my old band Los Looches. We played with the American band Heatwave: Thanks for playing the Heatwave launch party. What Zodiac Killers. One of the local idiots [Ramses!] had a bottle of do you like the most about playing in London?

Gilian: Don’t know yet, it’s gonna be the first time for the Anomalys Mezcal that no one wanted to drink with him but me. in London-town! We played the Hipsville Festival just outside of When the bottle was almost empty I swallowed the caterpillar in one London last year, on a shooting range somewhere in Surrey, which time and he freaked out because he wanted it. So I got the oven was crazy. I expect fewer snipers this time around, but you never plate from the kitchen and I puked everything out. Once we located know these days... Anyway, we come back to play soon after, the critter we washed it under the tap and the he swallowed it!!!! on April 30 we play a Weirdsville night in London.

HAHAHAHA I’ve never seen a bunch of Americans so disgusted!

Heatwave: What are the top five 60s beat records from Amsterdam?

Heatwave: What is the best show you have ever played and why?

Bone: Gilian: Hmmm, one that stands out for me is our afternoon parking • Outsiders - You Mistreated Me lot show we did at Gonerfest 2012 in Memphis. It was our first • Het - Alleen op het Kerkhof show of that U.S. tour and the second day of the festival. We were • Het - Ik heb Geen zin om op te Staan extremely hungover from the first night of the fest and it was an • ZZ en de Maskers - Beat Girl early afternoon show in the blistering heat.

• ZZ en de Maskers - Dracula Somehow a decent amount of people showed up, never seen so many fucked up faces smelling like death breath in my life. But we gave it our usual full on assault and I think people weren’t expecting this tornado. We definitely blew some jaded brains I think. We sold tons of merch and got some good word of mouth, which came in handy for the rest of the tour. Another one was recently in Brazil.

Heatwave

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e r e h w o N o t y a W g n s n o A Lo s n i k r a P e h t f o y r Sto d e t i s i v Re

with only the old punk rock the film premiered the band took classics to fuel it and no young the stage at the St Moritz, the kids showing up to churn out place it all started 15-years-ago. new bands.

Caroline Richards, the film’s The Parkinsons had an attitude, director, has followed the band The Parkinsons was all over the press, but ever only toured the a sound, and a look that stood since 2001. The idea to make out from the waves of anarcho- the documentary first struck her UK, Portugal and Japan. crust, indie, emo and metal bands in 2005, shortly after the band Instead of touring the small had broken up. At the time, the that were popular at the time. u n d e r g ro u n d c i rc u i t t h e i r “We were a proper shitty little gang wasn’t up for revisiting their management led them to largeriotous glory days. scale festivals. Within six months gang. We were together all the Sometime between 2010 of their debut, the band was time, going out all the time, we always had the same look, Chuck and 2011 Caroline once again playing Reading Festival.

Taylors, leather jackets, and in approached the reformed band, “They actually tried to manage London, other than old school and the rest is history. us and sell us as being an indie punk bands, you really didn’t “I know it’s cliché when people band,” Afonso said. have a gang like us,” he said. say ‘these people never got the “We should have gone “We were the only people recognition they deserved. They to Europe, and played the w e a r i n g l e a t h e r j a c k e t s , had such an impact on the live underground circuit, rather than Wincklepickers and skintight scene’,” she said. just trying to commercialise us jeans, and you wouldn’t see that “But they did open the doors as a multi-selling record sort of anywhere, especially not four to bands like the Libertines or band, which we weren’t, because guys together like that.”

Razorlight, so it’s to show that we were too crazy for it.

On the anniversary of the they really have their place in “That’s why we never got signed Parkinsons’ first show, the history. I mean it was crazy for by a proper label, because it was Parkinsons: A Long Way to a band from Portugal to kind of too much of a risk.”

Nowhere debuted at the Prince revive the scene in London.”

When Afonso moved to London Charles Cinema. A few hours after the music scene was limping on

Fadden

Linsey Mc

A

fter 15 years of music and three years of filming, a new documentary is bringing Portugal’s most attention-grabbing band some well-deserved recognition.

Parkinsons members, Afonso Pinto, Victor Torpedo and Pedro Chau moved to London from Coimbra, Portugal, forming the band in 2000 with a revolving carousel of drummers.

When the band started playing they were wild, unpredictable and sometimes naked. The media loved them, but the band was never offered a record deal to match their public popularity.

“We were pretty much everywhere all the time, but we had no record deal, there was no money, there was no tangible success,” Afonso said.

“It was like a word of mouth, rumour in town sort of thing.”

Heatwave

Caroline works on documentaries full-time. That means working six to seven hours a day for four or five months straight, leaving her with only her breaks from work to do the Parkinsons movie.

Making the film was truly a labour of love.

The first time Caroline saw the Parkinsons play was in 2001 at the Hope and Anchor. She described the set as the most insane thing she’d ever seen.

“Afonso was just constantly in the crowd crawling around on the floor, and we just thought, ‘what the hell is this,’ and he was just completely fearless,” she said.

“Just marching around in the crowd and not afraid if he was going to knock into someone. And it just got crazier and crazier.”

“There was this part where he disappeared and came back with streaks of blood down his face. He’d head-butted the cymbals.”

Caroline agreed that when the Parkinsons came to London the music scene was really boring. No one was making music or performing the way they were.

“Some of their mates were just urinating on the floor, but it didn’t feel violent,” she said.

“It was just like, we’re here. Nobody cares about the rules. But it wasn’t in a nasty or aggressive way. It was just bonkers.

“There was just this kind of moat of piss around the front of the stage. It was just horrible and brilliant, but it was so much fun.”

By the end of the set, the drum kit was completely destroyed and Caroline knew she wanted to see them again. The next time she saw the band there was no nudity or urination, but the gig was just as good. That’s when she knew that the band was so much more than a shock rock act.

“I thought, ‘great, they’re not just trying to shock people. They just are what they are.’ They’re amazing,” she said.

Caroline said she has seen the Parkinsons about 20 times and there has only been nudity at four of the shows.

The force of nature that is the Parkinsons has inspired a lot of people. Caroline did videography as a hobby, but after being given a load of footage by the Parkinsons manager and being asked to make a video, she’d find herself on an amazing path.

From that video the guy that took the Parkinsons to Japan said he wanted to do other videos, and off the back of that Caroline got work with Sex Pistols documentarian, Julien Temple.

“It’s really all thanks to the Parkinsons that I had that opportunity.

I think a lot of people got inspired by it,” she said.

Originally Caroline intended to simply put a bunch of live footage on a DVD and give it to everyone, but the documentary grew into much more than that.

Reactions to the documentary’s London premiere were extremely positive, with many people crowding into the tiny St Moritz for a little more Parkinsons action.

“I’m not patriotic at all, or into anything considered as Latin, even when I have been raised and born as one,” Rachel Faustino said after watching the documentary premiere.

“But I gotta admit that for the first time, and as far I can remember, I have actually felt proud to be Portuguese.

“Hail The Parkinsons, and their naked asses! Punk rock died for the fake, not us! Emotional night for a few of us that can’t really get over the fact we are not living in 1977 anymore.”

© Linsey McFadden

Afonso said Caroline deserves all the credit she can get from this documentary. He said her research was so thorough that she asked questions about things he couldn’t even remember.

“She would ask me questions about stuff, ‘Oh you said this once to this magazine and Germany,’ and I’m like ‘Did I? How did you even get to read this interview in this German magazine’?” Afonso said.

From the Parkinsons’ Japanese tour alone there is 80 hours of footage, and Caroline somehow successfully narrowed down 15 years of history into 90-95 minutes, while still managing to portray the members of the band as they truly are.

“People told me that everyone comes across as being sincere.

It’s all shown, the highs, the ups and the downs,” Afonso said.

“I really appreciate Caroline, because she had material to really portray us in different lights, but it doesn’t feel exploitative and it’s all there. The good and the bad.”

Victor and Pedro returned to live in Portugal a few years ago, but the band marches on. Afonso said all the members of the band have grown and matured individually and musically, and no one really gets naked at shows anymore.

“Before it was just craziness, now we really put a good show on in all fronts. It’s really tight, the music’s there, the band’s there, and obviously the energy is there in the performance,” he said.

“Sorry, no cocks, well, apart from the four cocks on stage, you know what I mean.”

According to Afonso, it’s unlikely that anything will change because of the documentary. They’ve booked some shows in Portugal, coinciding with film screenings and he said maybe they’ll put a record out, but it’s too early to tell what will come off the back of it.

“Look what happened to Death, but then look what happened to Anvil—they made it to Japan again and right back to where they came from,” Afonso joked.

“So I can predict more of an Anvil than a Death… Or a death like Anvil.”

The film was originally slated to screen in in the upstairs theatre of the Prince Charles Cinema, but when that sold out they moved it downstairs, where it also sold out.

When the DVD comes out, Caroline said there will be a lot of great extras. She said there were too many funny stories for her to cram into such a small space. In the meantime, Caroline and Afonso are preparing the Portuguese translation of the film.

27

Proto-punks and hot rod gnomes The top 15 U.S. garage rock singles of the 1960s Jody Porter / John the Revelator DJ for Dirty Water Records / Have Love Will Travel

12. Action Woman (Scotty, 1967) – The Litter

I started buying garage singles more than ten years ago and quickly realised I was out of my depth. It’s a bewildering, expensive genre to get involved in, even more so back then, when re-pros were few and far between and there was less information online.

Just finding out about decent records meant word-of-mouth, pestering DJs, trawling eBay and record shops, buying disappointing compilations featuring a couple of good tracks surrounded by padding. It’s cost me a large fraction of my life, but that’s ok. I’ve put in the hours so you don’t have to. So, now I can present to you the top 15 U.S. garage rock singles of the 1960s. You’re welcome. Just buy me a beer when you next see me and we’re good.

Guitars and sex, or rather, not having sex. Or rather, not having the kind of frenzied, filthy sex the singer is clearly in desperate need of, screaming that he’s got to “find me an action woman, to love me all the time. A satisfaction woman, before I lose my mind.” The song was written by Warren Kendrick, who managed both the Litter and the Electras. The Electras also recorded a pretty good version, but not better. Why? Well, it has a harpsichord in it for starters. Incidentally, the Electras’ first single was the brilliant Dirty Ol’ Man, often to be heard at excellent London psych night Hidden Door, which was also released on Scotty, which was also written by the very same Warren Kendrick. Hmmm.

15. M E L V I N (Tiara, 1966) – The Belles Compared to the lads there weren’t many female garage bands, but this sole offering from the Belles is a prime example. It’s a cover of Van Morrison’s garage standard Gloria, with lyrics changed to reflect the gender. This song is also notable for sounding suspiciously like Patti Smith’s 1975 version in places. Had she heard it? After all, Smith met Lenny Kaye in 1971 when he would have been researching the first Nuggets compilation… Check out the Girls in the Garage comps for more top-notch female-fronted 60s bands.

14. Liar, Liar (Soma, 1965) – The Castaways A Nuggets compilation classic, which got to number 12 on the U.S. billboard chart, later released in the UK on London.

Clocking in at only one minute 51 seconds, this is the shortest track on the list and not a million miles away from the shortest record ever to reach the top of the American record charts. The shortest was Stay by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs at one minute 36 seconds. Not everyone’s cup of tea on the scene, this record has a fairly lightweight pop feel, but the organ riff and girl-done-me-wrong lyrics establish it unquestionably within the genre.

13. Cry, Cry, Cry (Liberty, 1968) – Unrelated Segments Beginning with a few sinister bars of bass line and drum, when the vocals enter they’re loaded down heavy with anguish and despair. When the music kicks in proper, a throat-ripping wail is overdubbed and you know this is serious, “Got up this morning and the sky looked black. My baby’s gone and she won’t come back.”

All records released by this band are worthwhile, but the better production, maturity of sound, and the sheer intensity of feeling set Cry, Cry, Cry apart. Apart from their other releases, sure, but from nearly every other garage record as well.

Heatwave

11. Nobody But Me (Capitol, 1967) – The Human Beinz A rock solid staple of garage DJ sets for years, because you can actually dance to it, this is the best version ever recorded of this song. You will even occasionally hear it at 60s soul nights.

Deliriously catchy, it says the word ‘no’ about a million times and along with Shocking Blue’s Send Me A Postcard, is the kind of ubiquitous, all-purpose winner that has unfortunately been a victim of its own success. Still better than 90 per cent of everything though.

10. Can’t Seem to Make You Mine (GNP Crescendo, 1967) – The Seeds Ok deep breath now, we’re into the top ten *rolls up sleeves* Sky Saxon of the Seeds, god rest his soul, commanded the archetypal 60s garage vocal delivery. Nowhere is it more apparent and expressed to greatest effect as on Can’t Seem to Make You Mine.

His tormented cries of misery and unrealised love perfectly match the plaintive guitar lines, as well as the bass and drum backing, which sounds like a maudlin teenager dragging his feet around a graveyard. You’d need to have the heart of a vulture not to feel for this guy. A slightly edited version appeared in an advert for Lynx deodorant a few years back as well, so it must be good.

9. 99th Floor (Tantara, 1967) – The Moving Sidewalks This Texas band gave Billy Gibbons his start in the music biz.

Gibbons later found superstardom as a hot rod gnome in ZZ Top. They released a handful of late 60s singles, including a grungy, acid-smashed version of I Want To Hold Your Hand, plus an LP, before moving into uninteresting boogie rock in the next decade.

99th Floor was their first and best single, with psychedelic lyrics and everything driven forward by a super tasty organ riff, one I’m pretty sure the Horrors would’ve been aware of in their Essex youth.

8. Kick Out the Jams (Elektra, 1969) – MC5

3. Dirty Water (Tower, 1966) – The Standells

Proto-punks MC5 were famously slated by Lester Bangs in his very first review for Rolling Stone, he said Kick Out the Jams was a “ridiculous, overbearing, pretentious album,” but their legacy is assured. Their long-shadow influence on punk undisputed.

These Detroit garage-blues maniacs are routinely praised for their ferocious energy and raw sound, and Kick Out the Jams, their first single and LP title track, somehow manages to capture it onto vinyl like live recordings seldom do. Play loud.

The unofficial anthem of Boston, where the song is set and where the band are from, Dirty Water by the Standells has had truckloads of acclaim heaped upon it. It was on the original Nuggets comp, it’s listed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, it’s been covered by just about everyone.

It even gave its name to London’s long-running and seminal garage rock club and record label, Dirty Water. The song romanticises the criminals and wasters to be found “down by the banks of the river Charles,” and so is prescient of punk’s later interest in society’s dark underbelly.

7. You’re Gonna Miss Me (Contact, 1966) – The 13th Floor Elevators Disclaimer: I think the 13th Floor Elevators are overrated. Too much of their output sounds muddy and stupid for the kind of cult-like reverence they enjoy, but this track is brilliant. Roky Erickson had previously recorded the song with his earlier band the Spades, but it’s the Elevators version that is definitive. It was on the first Nuggets comp, and was prominently featured in the film adaption of High Fidelity, and is consequently one of the more broadly known records on the list.

Folklore abounds in any discussion of the Elevators, and the rumour is they were all whacked out on LSD during the recording session. I’m inclined to believe it.

6. Pushin’ Too Hard (GNP Crescendo, 1965) – The Seeds

2. The Witch / Psycho (Etiquette, 1964) – The Sonics The greatest double-sider of all time, don’t be coming round here with your Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane, this flawless work of staggering genius was released in 1964. 1964!

The Sonics are the ultimate garage band and this record most succinctly captures what they’re all about, powerful vocals a la Little Richard—distinctive, scuzzy, menacing sound, massive doses of teenage swagger, furious lyrics about bad women.

I was lucky enough to interview saxophonist Rob Lind for Heatwave in a chip shop in Kentish Town this summer (find it at heatwavemag.com) and I can confirm he’s an absolute gent, with a huge appetite. They’re still touring, and they still know how to belt out the classics from their intimidatingly impressive back catalogue. Go see them.

The only band on the list with two separate entries, leaving either of them out was not a realistic option. Reportedly written in 15 minutes, Pushin’ Too Hard is a two-chord masterpiece of teenage rebellion. Ostensibly against a controlling girlfriend, but some have also interpreted it as a fuck you to the pressures of society as a whole. Something we can all get along with.

5. Stop and Listen (Capitol, 1967) – The Shag The least well-known record in the top five, and as we’re among friends here I’ll admit it, Stop and Listen is my absolute favourite garage record. That’s despite the ridiculous band name, and despite it being one of the very first songs with an anti-drug, anti-peer pressure message, “everybody’s going, everybody’s trippin’. Everybody tells you what you been missing.” That fuzz guitar though... Now I’m going to play the record for umpteenth time before lunch.

4. Psychotic Reaction (Double Shot, 1965) – Count Five Conceived in late 1964 and released in February 1965, this is one of the earlier garage records to show unmistakeable psychedelic touches. The repetitive and hypnotic bass line, the infamous freak-out section and of course the dentist-drillto-the-head fuzz guitar foreshadowed what most bands were experimenting with by a year or two. Apart from the Yardbirds, that is, who Count Five were clearly very much enamoured of.

The song went on to become a regular cover in live shows by Television and the Cramps. No higher praise needed.

1. Louie Louie (Jerden, 1963) – The Kingsmen More than any other record on the list, or any other record ever, the Kingsmen’s version of Louie Louie has transcended its genre to become an unrivalled touchstone of 20th Century culture. Released in 1963, it’s the earliest record on the list and is the iconic grandfather of all that came after.

It was recorded in one take, and singer Jack Ely’s famous mistiming, after the lead guitar break was left in, and can be clearly heard in the finished recording. Ely later said they’d originally planned to record it as an instrumental, like its B-side, Haunted Castle, but he decided at the last minute to sing it. By that time the sound engineer had raised the sole microphone high above the band to get a “live feel,” and so Ely had to stand on his toes, crook his head back and shout like a madman just to be heard over the rest of the band.

The resulting vocals are strained and incomprehensible, so much so that the FBI launched an investigation into whether or not they were obscene, but they’re all the more beautiful for that. Greater than the sum of its parts, Louie Louie is a wild, magic, imperfect record, one that we’ll always love like a favoured brother and jump about devotedly to.

29

s k o o B c i s Top 10 Mu Metar Parkovic

s of all time. I’ve read a ok bo ic us m st be of t lis finitive is list is more This is by no means a de many more classics. Th ing ad re to d ar rw fo g s, genre few but am still lookin oks including biographie bo ic us m of es typ nt in ere coffee table book thrown of a cross section of diff l na sio ca oc e th d an erviews rticular order, studies, essays and int rough nine are in no pa th e on rs be m Nu . re su there for good mea solute favourite. but number ten is my ab 5. White Line Fever by Lemmy Kilmister

1. Things the Grandchildren Should Know About by Mark Oliver Everett A memoir by E of the Eels, a band I never really cared to listen to.

But that might change after I read this book. It’s the unlikeliest of rock autobiographies, a story of a loner with a painfully tragic youth becoming an alternative rock star in his thirties, an age when many other rock n rollers fade away. While dealing with some of the most serious and heavy subjects imaginable, including deaths of all of his close family and a number of good friends, he manages to slip in a good dose of humor and self-depreciation.

This is painfully honest, disturbing and ultimately life-affirming.

2. Please Kill Me: an Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain A tell all, gossip and anecdote filled rollercoaster of a book compiled mostly of interviews with key figures in the history of punk. From Iggy and the Velvets to the Ramones, Patti, Pistols and the Clash on one hand, to visual artists, photographers and groupies on the other. It’s all sex, syringes and shrieking guitars.

3. Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones, America’s Garage Band

by Joe Bonomo A glaring omission in Please Kill Me is that the Fleshtones are the only band from the 70s CBGB’s/Max Kansas City scene that have been around constantly till the present day. A wonderful book about perseverance against all odds and all trends, and about a bunch of guys playing the music that they love for decades on end. It’s a story about a working band with no hits that hit the stage every single night to prove why they are still around, and to show you why rock n roll can change your life.

4. The Dirt: The Autobiography of Motley Crue by MC and Neil Strauss Yet another book by a band I don’t really care for musically. As a pre-teen in the late 80s and early 90s I dug the hell out of their videos, but the ridiculous hairstyles and cheesy songs aside, this is the ultimate in decadent rock memoires. Through unbelievable highs and lows, the book paints a vivid picture of four guys gone wild.

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This is somewhat in the same mold as Dirt, regarding the decadence and otherworldly amounts of drug use. This candid and super funny autobiography, by the legendary front man of Motorhead, is a levelheaded story of an English lad falling in love with rock n roll in the late 50s and gradually evolving into a rock icon in the 70s, and yet again persevering against all odds.

6. Before I get Old: The Story of the Who by Dave Marsh A definitive of the genre, this is an all-encompassing story of one of the most influential rock n roll bands of all time. From their early days as the Detours, and later as the High Numbers, to their rise as the Who. From mods and swinging London, to trashing their guitars and destroying hotel rooms across the U.S. From ‘My Generation’ to ‘Tommy’ and beyond, this is a tale of four volatile individuals that changed the face of music.

7. Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta by Robert Palmer Extremely well researched and well written this is the ultimate book about the history of the blues. Starting with unrecorded rural artists such as Henry Sloan to early greats like Charley Patton and Blind Lemon Jefferson, moving on to innovators such as Robert Johnson and Elmore James, and up to cross over stars like John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. This is a must read. It’s a entertaining musical history lesson.

8. Feel like going Home by Peter Gurelnick Another invaluable history lesson—this is a collection of early profiles and interviews with pioneering blues, country and rocknroll artists such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich, and more. This is a musical analysis and a psychological study, at the same time.

9. Antiseen: Destructo Maximus by Leslie Goldman, Larry Kay and Jeff Clayton Dig this, a coffee table book about one of the most controversial, confrontational and original American underground bands in the last 30 years. These self-proclaimed rednecks blend punk rock, noise, southern rock and country to create their own brand of music they call ‘destructo rock.’ This book includes numerous photographs, magazine and fanzine clippings, artwork, reviews and in-depth interviews with band members and longtime supporters, and last but not least, all of their controversial lyrics.

10. Hellfire by Nick Tosches

This is the undisputed champion of rock n roll biographies. Hellfire chronicles the meteoric rise and monumental fall of rock’s wild man, Jerry Lee Lewis. This book is a thoroughly researched biography as well as an impressionist character study filled with biblical motives.

Tosches takes artistic freedom in order to delve deep into the soul of a troubled genius.

The book starts out with a riveting prologue featuring Jerry Lee Lewis, a.k.a. ‘the Killer,’ at the gates of Graceland armed with a bottle of whiskey and a loaded gun. Elvis calls the cops and the Killer is handcuffed and taken away, or in Tosches’ words, “Elvis motherfuckin Presley-his heart hastened-setting up there in that goddamned mansion pretending that he’s god, and all he is is some fat old dope who dyes his hair like a goddamn woman. As the words of Job admonished: They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.”

The parallel between Elvis and the Killer and their public perception is one of the main themes in this book. The two giants of rock n roll shared a love of booze, pills and under-age girls, but it was only Jerry Lee who got publicly crucified, while Elvis maintained his family friendly image. Both were born in the Deep South to parents that were worshipers of the Assemblies of God, a fundamentalist Pentecostal religious sect.

The members of the sect seek baptism while ‘speaking in tongues’ and believe in ‘divine healing.’ On the other hand they strongly oppose the ‘music of the devil’ and consumption of alcohol, while also advocating sexual purity. Tosches sees the constant struggle between good and evil, personified by Jesus and the devil, as something that fuels the frenzy of the Killer’s music and gives it an unparalleled intensity. As quoted at the beginning of the book, Lewis wanted to ‘take his audience through hell.’

He started performing country and rhythm and blues as a teenager and at 22 he recorded ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’ for Sun Records. He became a star. The backlash started on his tour of England, a year later, when it was revealed that he married his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown, his third wife. Tosches argues that that was common practice in the rural south in those days.

Publicly scorned, Lewis entered what is now known as his years in the wilderness. He kept touring and recording and found moderate success, especially in Europe. In Hamburg in 1964 he recorded one of the best live albums of all time Live at the Star Club. In 1968 frustrated about not having a hit record in years, he recorded an album of country songs and became a bona fide star again.

Embraced by the Nashville country establishment, he denounced the devil and played it straight for a while, but the devil was just around the corner. At his first appearance at the legendary Grand Ole Opry in 1973 he told the audience, “Let me tell ya something about Jerry Lee Lewis, ladies and gentlemen, I am a rock and rollin’, country-and-western, rhythm and blues-singin’ motherfucker!” That conflict between heaven and hell, good and evil and his ongoing internal strife is what still makes his music so powerful and authentic.

To finish with another poetic paragraph from ‘Hellfire’: ‘Heaven and hell,’ he heard himself repeating. ‘A man’s got a soul, and a soul ain’t going but one of two places, heaven or hell. I know that, but I can’t seem to… I don’t know what’s wrong with me. God said, ‘ I am the alpho and the omega, the beginning and the end.’ The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus, ‘Dip thy finger in the pool and cool these parched lips.’

‘God gave me a talent, an unlimited talent. I got to be right or it wouldn’t plague me day and night.’

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I’ve been trying to nail my eyeliner like Ronnie since I was 14, and I must say it looked pretty good on December 3 until Ronnie sang Johnny Thunders’ ‘You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory.’

I had a real little cry and it was all over the place. She even did an Amy Winehouse cover and sang ‘Frosty the Snowman’ and all the hits from ‘The Fabulous Ronettes.’ She stretched out the set by sharing stories and footage from the Ronettes’ UK tour with the Rolling Stones in 1964, and some early performances in New York, which was totally OK. She disappeared off stage every time there was an instrumental part and always made it back just in time for those uh-ohs. A dream come true.

The best gig of last year.

All my favourite US bands were in the same place for two days. I hardly knew anyone, but made loads of drunk best friends, some sober ones too, and even some in higher places. I got to eat all the free hummus backstage, get a sunburn on my new tattoo, and see the Thee Oh Sees and Ariel Pink play from the back. It was almost too much to handle. I can’t remember how I made it home, but got a pretty bad rating from my Uber driver. HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: Bleached, The Coathangers, Shannon and the Clams, White Fence, and that band Weezer.

Another friend in higher places asked me one evening if I knew this band called Foxygen, who were playing a sold out show that night, and if I wanted to come along. Eh, yes.

Later I learned it was their farewell tour with that line up, which is a shame because I really enjoyed the backing singers synchronised dance moves.

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Moth Club is my new favourite London venue, and that is purely because of the golden glitter ceiling and stage backdrop, as well as the no children on the dance floor after 10pm rule. They also put on some pretty good shows, like when Jacuzzi Boys played and kicked off the super hectic gig month of November.

One of those semi-secret mid-week midnight shows at Birthdays. Extra exciting to catch Unknown Mortal Orchestra performing at a venue that size. It was mega nice and cosy.

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©Jeremy Harmon

Joe Hill Jeremy Harmon

In a classic scene in 1972’s The Harder They Come, a young man named Ivan enters a “There are many defects in the harmony studio in Kingston and records a song that expresses the frustrations of countless of my compositions, but that is because of my lack of technical training,” he said. people like him.

Ivan, played by reggae legend, Jimmy Cliff sings, “Well they tell me of a pie up in the sky, waiting for me when I die, but Between the day you’re born and when you die, they never seem to hear even your cry.”

Another frustrated singer, Joe Hill, was the first used the phrase ‘pie in the sky’. In 1911 the Industrial Workers of the World published his song, ‘The Preacher and the Slave,’ where the adage first appeared.

The lyrics of Joe Hill’s ‘the Preacher and the Slave’ take a swipe at religious leaders, who tell their followers that living impoverished lives qualifies them for wealth after they die.

“Long haired preachers come out every night, try to tell you what’s wrong and what’s right. But when asked about something to eat, they answer with voices so sweet. You will eat bye and bye in that glorious land above the sky. Work and pray, live on hay.

You’ll get pie in the sky when you die.”

Songs like this one from Hill, published in the IWW’s iconic Little Red Songbook, empowered workers from across the globe and gave them a common language.

Hill went to Utah in 1913 and worked briefly in the Silver King Mine in Park City. In January 1914, he was arrested for the murder of a Salt Lake City grocer and the storeowner’s teenage son, a crime many, then and now, do not believe he committed.

On June 21, 1914, while Hill was on trial, the Salt Lake Tribune published a brief jailhouse interview with him on his song writing.

When sung today, listeners are urged to “I am a man of little education and my ‘Do your share, lend a hand.’ Hill often set modest accomplishments are due to a natural his songs to the tunes of popular hymns, a strategy as practical as it was subversive. taste and native talent in that direction.”

Workers and passers-by at rallies knew Five months later he told the editor of the melodies and could quickly learn the Solidarity, an IWW newspaper that he saw music as a powerful way to enlighten workers. new words, perhaps paying a few cents for a copy of the red songbook.

“A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never The tactic also thwarted opponents who read more than once, but a song is learned tried to disrupt IWW gatherings. The Salvation by heart and repeated,” he wrote.

Army would famously send its brass bands “If a person can put a few cold, common to drown out speeches by IWW firebrands, sense facts into a song and dress them up a plan defeated when a crowd could fill in in a cloak of humour to take the dryness off the rebel lyrics. of them, he will succeed in reaching a great “It meant that the bands that the bosses number of workers who are too unintelligent were sending out were kind of like performing or too indifferent to read a pamphlet or an for the workers and adding to the whole editorial in economic science.” event,” said Billy Bragg, one of the musicians American folk singer, John McCutheon said on the 1990 album Don’t Mourn – Organize: the inciting power of Hill’s writing is what made Songs of Labor Songwriter Joe Hill. his songs significant. McCutheon recently Hill was writing songs for a purpose, said recorded an album of Hill’s IWW songs.

Utahn Lori Taylor, the historian who produced “American Idol is a lot of people’s entree Don’t Mourn – Organize for the Smithsonian to what it means to be a musician. It’s so Folkways Recordings label. antithetical to what Hill’s life and work was all “They wanted to get attention on the street about that I think it makes him all the more corner.

The way to capture attention was important,” McCutcheon said. through music,” Taylor said.

His organising anthem, ‘There is Power “So, you capture the attention and then in a Union,’ rewrites ‘There Is Power in the Blood (Of the Lamb).’The hymn begins, you can talk to them. And then you can “Would you be free from the burden of sin?” organize them. You can make them aware of how they’re being manipulated.”

Hill has a different question, and his own McCutcheon describes Hill as a ‘utilitarian solution. “Would you have freedom from songwriter’ who “wasn’t writing songs for the wage slavery, then join in the grand Industrial band. Would you from misery and hunger be ages. He was writing songs to be useful.” free? Then come! Do your share, like a man.”

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The key, McCutcheon said, was that while union organizers were motivated by their ideology, Hill’s lyrics spoke directly to workers.

“They didn’t have to be told an ideology to connect the dots.

They just knew that their families were starving,” McCutcheon said.

McCutcheon believes Hill’s songs raised awareness of social inequality, much in the same way the Occupy Wall Street protests trumpeted current economic disparities.

Taylor said Hill and the folk singers that followed him were also reporting on social conditions through music.

“I think the history of folk song in America is the unedited story of ordinary working people,” Bragg agrees.

Popcorn Chokers

“And Joe made a big contribution in writing that story through the songs that he wrote.”

Frieda Strachan Hill’s techniques and the ‘usefulness’ of his lyrics made his songs a template for later American folk music, McCutcheon said. His Keith Richards: influence can be traced through Pete Seeger and Woodie Guthrie, Under the Influence to Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen, to Bragg and the rock group Rage Against the Machine. ’ll admit it—I’m not really into the Bragg wrote his version of ‘There is Power in a Union’ after hearing Rolling Stones. I was brought Morgan Neville’s film shows Hill’s music during his first American tour in 1984. The trip coincided up on the Beatles, and there is Richards apart from the Stones, with a coal miners strike in the United Kingdom, a conflict Bragg that whole thing where you are which is a plus for me, and described as an ‘epochal class struggle’ between Britain’s National into one or the other. I’ve always features other people I like, Union of Mineworkers and Margaret Thatcher’s government. been bored by them and found including Muddy Waters, Tom “Perhaps there might be some people tomorrow who are coming Mick Jagger much less likeable Waits—who describes Richards to a strike or demonstration for the first time. When they hear these and engaging than John Lennon. as “a London cabbie who has songs that are a hundred years old, they’ll understand that they’re I’ve kind of dismissed the others. the knowledge [of music],” and Brown Sugar, You Can’t Always Howlin’ Wolf. not the first people who have fought these fights,” Bragg said.

Get What You Want and Paint it In the case of Wolf and Waters, “To know that others have fought these fights allows you to draw Black—I get those, but the rest...? of course, it is their musical a strength from that. The victories that have gone before give you I’ve decided that their popularity influence that is featured. The the sense that we could win victories again.” is mostly down to charisma. documentary paths the journey A version of this article was first published at joehill.sltrib.com.

Few people can say they have of Richard’s style and sound, The site is the result of a yearlong project researching the legacy the notoriety that Keith Richards how he honed his guitar playing, and impact of Joe Hill’s life, execution and music. has. I told my friend I was going what his influences have been Much more information about his trial, the impact of the case on to review this for Heatwave. He and what drives him to continue the descendants of the Morrison family and more detail about his made a face and we agreed that making music. Unsurprisingly, musical legacy can be found at joehill.sltrib.com. it would probably suck, but a few Richards’ first love is blues, which second into the film, when we was shaped by his mother who hear Richards’ trademark drawl listened to Ella Fitzgerald and and smokers laugh I *sigh* admit Louis Armstrong.

I felt a little excited. He’s funny.

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His life is so rich in other cultures, so seeped in blues history, that is isn’t really just Richard’s story at all. I mentioned Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, but they are not interviewed or shown at all, it is purely their recordings, pictures of them, never with Richards, that are shown in Under the influence.

Neville focuses just as much on the documentary’s protagonist as he does on those who influenced his work, which just adds more and more to his life.

His own taste led him to discover Chuck Berry, Elvis and other American styles. His obsession with America stemmed from his desire to escape the dreary post WWII British life he was leading.

It meant he soon picked up the guitar, and now we know him as that super skinny, cocky, weathered looking member of the Stones. The end.

When we see the clip of the Stones forcing the makers of SHINDIG! to allow Muddy Waters to perform on the show, I got goosebumps—cutting to Keith Richards’ wide grin as he watched a recording of the show is just... great.

Like Richards, I was brought up on country music. As he discussed his love of country, his love of country melody and heartbreak—of Cash, Nelson and Williams, again I was smiling.

Who knew? Well, probably fans of his, but as I say, this was my first real introduction to Keith Richards, and it was a very warm and surprising welcome I ended up giving him.

But it’s not really. Yes, the documentary explored his taste in music, but it is also quite touching.

Anyone who has lived for a million years, as Richards has, has a wealth of experience and stories to share. It is interesting to hear Documentaries are very rarely things he has to say, standing heart-warming, but Neville shows aside from Jagger and co. a very humble, thankful and Like I said, he is funny, and grateful musician in Richards.

Neville let’s him be funny, he lets A man aware of who he should him drawl, he lets him laugh at his be grateful to, and constantly own unfunny tales and one-liners. tipping his hat to them. It’s not He lets us inside the studio, lets so much a portrait of Richards us meet his circle of friends and as it is a nod to all those who also lets us like him. He’s cocky shaped his music. There are tales and all that stuff, but, I’ll admit, of his life, and he is consistently he’s super cool too. namedropping, but this is to be There is a reason he is a million expected, he is in the Rolling years old with a million fans and Stones after all... a documentary dedicated to I’ve changed my mind. It’s not him. He left home at 17 and has because the Rolling Stones are lived on the road ever since. He simple that I didn’t ‘get’ them, witnessed segregation in America, because how could they be when he witnessed the Swingin’ Sixties, they are so drenched in musical he dated Ronnie Spector, for influence and history? I think I goodness sake! I was an idiot was just a Beatles fan. Watch to think hearing more about his this, and fall in love with Keith... life would suck. and maybe even fall a little bit in love with the Stones too.

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n the summer of 2011 I visited London for the second time in my life. The day before I was due to return to Scotland, I hopped on a tube from Camden to Greenwich and Amy Winehouse got off the train as I stepped on.

I was with a friend from Scotland who egged me on to shout, “I love you Amy!”, and then immediately jump back and hide after.

I’m not sure if she heard me, but the following week, when I was in my kitchen in Aberdeen, preparing to move down to London after an insane and amazing week there, my friend texted me to let me know that she died. I remember feeling devastated.

Nowadays it is so hard for anyone to make as big a cultural impact, as Amy did, in Camden, in London, in Britain, in the world— she was and is still so relevant.

Asif Kapadia’s documentary, Amy, proves this. With every tear and sigh I shared with the other cinemagoers, when I saw the film, she remains important. It was the best thing I saw all year.

The documentary touches on all aspects of the troubled singers life, her family, her romantic relationships, her friendships, drugs, courtship with the media and of course her talent. It is her story told from the point of view of those closest to her. It lays bare a very obvious manipulation by her father, and later manager, which is upsetting and heart-breaking, just as I thought it would be.

documentary to say how they really felt about Mitch Winehouse.

They said he was a manipulative, fame hungry and money hungry father, but not father figure. They spoke of how Amy’s struggle with drugs meant they had no opportunity to see her or talk to her, as much, while her life with Blake became her main focus and obsession.

Kapadia shows footage of Amy in the studio recording, on holiday struggling to be private and out in Camden surrounded paparazzi.

We see a young Amy singing in the car with her friends, posing for home-movies and putting her make-up on while discussing her looks. Then it cuts to her Grammy Award win, where she holds her mother close in disbelief.

After having seen Amy portrayed as a drug addled terror for so many years in the media, Amy finally lifts the veil and shows an unsure and sensitive soul struggling with her fame and the things success has brought her. Her life was one full of manipulation, I cried throughout, partly negative dependence and an because I knew what was coming, overwhelming desire to be loved. and partly because she was even Although this has always been more misunderstood than you portrayed through her lyrics and could ever have imagined. It’s overwhelmingly difficult to digest music, I felt that this was the first real and full portrayal of a singer her story at times. who was tragically taken from us How someone so full of promise too soon. A well-rounded multiand talent could spiral into a life faceted documentary we are fully of addiction and lose it all despite immersed in her life. It’s a must her constant and desperate see, whether it is through tears attempts to change her course. or not, because as is clear from Kapadia does everything he can her music, she had so much to to give an honest account of say, and finally Kapadia gave her the Amy. He doesn’t hesitate to an honest and beautiful platform . allow those who partook in the 35

What Happened to Miss Simone?

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arlier this year I went on a trip to New York and spent the whole of my flight listening to music. I was going through one of my intense, and frequent, Chet Baker phases, so I opted for the Jazz channel.

A Nina Simone song came on, Mississippi Goddam. I got the remote out and looked for one of her albums on the inflight radio. I found one, thankfully. Simone is someone I can’t say I knew much about before watching the documentary. I knew she was prolific, but I had no idea about which era she belonged to, how she made it big or how and when she died. I assumed she was dead because she was not directly commenting in the documentary. She was, but this revelation only came right before the credits rolled.

The documentary started in the usual way, a brief summary of Simone’s life, but it highlighted and drew attention to so much that I hadn’t realised was part of her life—all of the stuff I missed because I was too ‘busy’ enjoying the sound to really ‘hear,’ was her life.

In the wake of recent, on-going and Civil rights, activism, and her black identity, constantly devastating deaths and injustices this is what made Nina who she was, not her to black people in America, this film couldn’t classical training in piano or her amazing voice. be more timely or appropriate. Her voice and She found her feet through these talents, but words are relevant, her fight and struggle is she found her voice once she gripped what relevant because it is still on-going. impacted her most. I cried endlessly when She could be singing these songs today the suffering of black Americans in the 1960’s and I would believe it all. She is seen saying was displayed onscreen. that she felt that her civil rights activism left I felt angry, awful, ashamed and helpless, her without a career, but if her lyrics can be but I didn’t feel what Nina felt, and I could sung with conviction by this generation, she never articulate the life of Simone in the way is still thriving in my eyes, and everything she that she did herself. Director Liz Garbus is seen to have gone through was worth it. worked closely with Simone’s daughter I’d be scared of her no doubt, but as much from her marriage to her manager, Andrew as there would be the fear of her telling me Stroud, to portray her mother honestly. She to shut up or sit down during a performance, was violent, she was angry, she was scary, we see her hissing angrily at a member of the but she was also extremely passionate, audience when she plays her initial comeback empathetic, intelligent and relentless in her show, I would be completely intimidated by fight for justice, freedom and equality. My her seniority, her class, her style and her heart swells when I think of her now. articulation of all the thoughts and feelings There were shots of the atrocities in Alabama that people are often too unsure or scared as Strange Fruit played. We saw Martin to say. Words people are still trying to be Luther King Jr’s lifeless body as we heard understood with today.

Nina Simone’s monologue from a concert In answer to the film’s title, she reigned, she following his death. We saw her enjoying ruled and she is still playing on our minds. the company of many friends, artists and She is as relevant as ever. I watched the final admirers, because despite all her flaws, frame of her, elderly and clutching a cup of she was likeable. It is this humanist and tea in front of a blossoming tree, full of love compassionate part of Simone that is honed and thankfulness. It isn’t feel-good, it isn’t in on through most of the documentary. thrilling or sad, but it is worth the watch, just Towards the end, there is an expected so we can put ourselves in Nina’s shoes, so turn, as she ages and her manic depression we can feel anger and heartache in the way is addressed by those closest to her, she that she did, apart from her brief stint as a begins to address her fall from grace and her citizen of Africa, which fascinated me. return to the mainstream. She is majestic.

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Austin to Boston

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hat a disappointment. I thought this was going to be all Deep Purple, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix reminiscing, but I was wrong. If you hate people doing triple harmonies to other people’s songs and claiming it is cute, because they are people who have long hair and vaginas, you’ll agree it was shit. If you hate Mumford and Sons, beware, because one of them is the MAIN GUY in this film and so it is shit.

I pretty much hated every member of all of the bands and all the performers—wishy washy, egotistical nobs, who think that because they like Joni Mitchell, and I love her, or Jack Kerouac, or have read about ‘old timey’ music, they are brilliant.

They are mediocre at best, and so is this film. I got even more bored watching the film than when If hear those horrible raspy vowels spewed out by the Mumford singer over the radio. Yuck. Not going to bore myself explaining why this sucks, just take my word for it. However, if you do like cutesy girls and faux-folk, you might just like it. It’s on Netflix if you want to give it a go.

s e m o C Here Giuda! ixbeat)

Nick Kuzmack (N

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iuda is one of those groups that never disappoints. My appreciation for them started when I first saw them at the 12 Bar in 2011. I spent the following years acquiring Giuda’s records, and I have been consistently impressed by their superb and unique style.

It is a style that invokes nostalgia for the golden era of 1970’s Junkshop Glam, while maintaining a certain contemporary brilliance. Their latest album Speaks Evil continues with this trend and after digesting it, I had to find out how the lads from Giuda produce such impressive work.

So, I sat down with them, trying to convince them to divulge their deepest and darkest secrets. During our conversation, they told us at Heatwave about signing to Burning Hearts Records, their new album Speaks Evil, the passion for music, the significance of the tiger in the Glam genre and more…

Heatwave: In 2015, Giuda signed on with Burning Heart Records, a label that has supported artists like the Hives and Turbonegro. What prompted Giuda to sign on with Burning Heart Records?

Giuda: We were contacted by Burning Heart a couple of years ago—they came to see one of our shows in Milan and, after several meetings, we signed with them.

It took us a while to make up our minds, we’re not kids anymore and we didn’t want make the wrong choice. Obviously, Burning Heart’s track record was a big influence on our decision.

Heatwave: Having checked out Speaks Evil, with my finger always on the repeat button, what you could tell me about the song “Roll the Balls?”

Giuda: Over the last few years, the public has been inundated with biographies and stories of rock stars and music critics in their descent into the abyss of drugs, alcohol and sex. Sometimes the music has taken a back seat. We’re not interested in that kind of gossip and as far as I’m concerned, it shouldn’t be the focus when talking about a musician’s career, the music should.

In “Roll The Balls” we had fun taking the mickey out of rock clichés. The music business is bogged down in bullshit, and it’s even worse today because it’s amplified by the social network. I think our best asset is our credibilty as a rock and roll band, not what we do in our private lives.

Heatwave: I read an interview that Giuda did with New Noise Magazine—In the interview you mentioned that the Rome punk scene was not as big as it once was due to the consequences of being exposed to music in real time that contribute to a sort of general laziness.

Do you find this to be still be an issue with the resurgence of interest in vinyl records?

Giuda: Yes, totally, because what I said was that it wasn’t just about buying vinyl. Back then, if we weren’t able to buy records we used to make tapes, we used to go to the gigs. We were doing something with our passion for music and for our local music scene. Now, in the comfort of their own homes, many kids listen to music they maybe really don’t want or need to listen to using YouTube or Spotify on shuffle mode.

It seems that today, more than ever before, they don’t really focus on, or deepen their acquaintance with, the good stuff because they can find everything for free on the Internet. We can say the same about people who try to get into the music business without having a real interest and passion for music.

Everybody wants to a have record out, but why is that, if many of them weren’t used to buying records in the first place? It seems nobody wants to be just a fan or a passionate music listener, and the right way to do that is by buying records and spending a little bit of money on your passion. That’s not the case with Giuda fans, we’re really lucky.

Heatwave: Giuda’s members come from working class backgrounds and it shows

through your material, like “Wild Tiger Woman” and “Working Class Man,” which emphasizes that theme.

In your own words what does it mean to be working class and how does it influence you when you play?

Giuda: If you’ve grown up in a certain cultural milieu, you automatically talk about it in your songs. It’s natural for us to describe our daily lives—Our loves, disappointments, joys, passions and vices.

We were born and raised in the working class and we are, effectively, a working class band that has to work hard to earn a living. Plus, most of my favorite bands used to have the typical working class approach, they were all “hard-working-bands.” This attitude is really a big influence on Giuda.

Heatwave: I notice that a lot of Glam bands have this sort of Tiger theme, and have found it represented in your single “Wild Tiger Woman.” What’s with the Tiger theme and does it have significant meaning in Junk Shop Glam?

Giuda: The tiger symbol was on my favourite processed cheese triangles when I was a kid! In many ways, the tiger has a lot to do with the 1970s, in terms of the graphics and lyrics of many bands from that period. It’s really catchy, aggressive and kitsch at the same time. It’s a great inspiration for a song.

Heatwave: You just played a show in London at the Lexington in December. What was most memorable about that gig?

Giuda: The show at the Lexington was fantastic, a really memorable gig. I was really struck by the enthusiasm and participation of the audience, who already seemed to know the words of songs from the new album by heart. I knew we were in for a great night but it definitely exceeded my expectations.

It’s a sign that what we’re doing is appreciated, especially there where it’s not easy to breakthrough. It’s wonderful to feel at home when you’re thousands of miles away from where you live!

Heatwave: What are you plans for 2016?

Are there any tours planned in the UK or Europe?

Giuda: Of course! The Speaks Evil tour has just begun. After a few dates in Italy, we’ll be touring Germany, Spain and other European countries yet to be announced. Probably, even though it’s not been confirmed yet, we’ll be going back to the United States in May.

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Heatwave: Speaks Evil was released on November 20. What has the reception been like from fans to Speaks Evil?

Giuda: Many new fans have written to us saying that they really love it. Even our older fans have been pleasantly surprised by it.

This has made us very happy, because when we make a record, we do it with a lot of passion and dedication.

Speaks Evil is much more “no frills” than our past releases. I think that it’s a braver record as far as the production goes. It’s basically two guitars, just like when we play live. There are fewer overdubs and there’s a bit more “space.” It’s a much harder record in that sense, even though I think it’s evident that there’s much more awareness in the songwriting, which has resulted in songs that are much more flowing and compact.

Heatwave: The Vinyl version of Speaks Evil has seen a set back with production. What happened to the original release and what is the record’s re-release date?

Giuda: There was a problem with the record’s manufacture that was beyond our and the record label’s control. Luckily, the pressing plant is already at work substituting the original batch with a new edition. It was a shame that we had to postpone the vinyl release because many people are still waiting for their pre-orders to be fulfilled. Fortunately, our fans have been very understanding about all this. Soon we’ll know exactly when the vinyl version will be coming out. Undoubtedly, the few copies of the first pressing that were actually sold will be genuine Giuda rarities in the years to come!

Heatwave: Now that you have your third album out, what is next in the works for Giuda?

Giuda: Obviously touring a lot and playing all over the world. We’re also working on the release of another single, which will be accompanied by a video. We’re going through a very creative period and can’t wait to work on new material, but we have commitments to respect.

Heatwave