Hell Yeah Magazine - issue 01

ISSUE 1 SUMMER 09/10

THE ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

HELL YEAH COVER MODEL: Nikki Zammit MAKE-UP: Cheyenne Sarfati HAIR: Allegra Battiato PHOTO: Vicki Craddock

10-21. ARTISTIC ENDEAVOURS GRAFFITI/SAX/FINTAN MAGEE/JAMES DODD/420 GALLERY

20-23. PRIZED POSSESSIONS TUF TIM

26-59. STYLE

ALEXI FREEMAN/IRENA/SHJ/THRIFT HOPPIN/NEWYORK STREET-WEAR/DIY/ CONFESSIONS/AUSTRALIAN APPAREL/DOPE POSE/LACED INVADERS/DIRTY DENIM

60-71. MUSIC

COCO SOLID/DJ SEVEN/BUDOS BAND/RAILCARS/FEATURE STORY

72-78. COMMENTARY

INTIMACY/DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE/SLEEPLESS IN SYDNEY/CRIME WATCH

82. LAST WORD

alternative lifestyle magazine Founder / Editor-In-Chief: Natasha Dunstan Art Director / Graphic Designer: Damien Matter/www.damienmatter.com Staff Photographer: Vicki Craddock Proof Consultant: Emma Jane Features Editor: Natasha Dunstan Fashion Stylist: Alicia Coleman Columnists: Reks, Tabatha McGurr, Suzy Lou Staff Writers: Felicite Pryor-Kang, Sharline Spice, Lady Venz, DJ NoMc, Raman Groom, Mark Wong, Paul Murphy Contributors: Rosy One, Mick La Rock, 420 Gallery, Michael King, Mad Boots Morgan, DJ Skeme Richards, Anne Brenneke, Aimy Brandon, Dope Pose Publisher: Dr. Byron Campbell Website: Christian Alfieri Hell Yeah Logos: Rogan, Foxy For advertising inquiries, please contact info@hellyeahmag.com or call [+ 61 405 914 305] HELL YEAH MAGAZINE PO BOX 1330 Fortitude Valley, Queensland, 4006 Australia ABN-75137754815

PRINTED BY MING CHUN LTD Hell Yeah Magazine Pty. Ltd. is published quarterly out of Brisbane, Australia.

All content is copyright 2009, and may not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher or suffer public humiliation, possible beatdown and getting your arse sued! Opinions expressed in articles are those of the author. All rights reserved on entire contents.

c

Hell Yeah Magazine welcomes editorial submissions, letters and photos .Also music, books, DVDs and other relevant products for possible reviews, giveaways and promotions.

.6.

Welcome to Hell!

Finally, after months of beers, parties, emails, nagging, creative differences, swearing, phone calls, blogging and being broke-ass, I’m proud to bring you the first hard copy of Hell Yeah!

Magazine!!!

How is Hell Yeah! different to the other array of street publications out there you may ask? Well, unlike other free glossies currently in rotation throughout Australia, Hell Yeah! is uniquely focussd towards street culture, an area often talked about but widely un-catered for. Our magazine features un-PC, no holds barred, uncensored, raw, social commentary, 100% stiletto and anorexic-model free fashion spreads, all music genres, underground art, lifestyle and subcultures, conspiracy theories, politics and realness all brought to you by a bunch of like minded people from around the globe. Hell Yeah! may be based in Brisbane, but we’re international baby! Nothing is sacred. Nothing

taboo! Fuck watered-down so-called reality television and newspapers. The revolution will not be televised, but it will be printed in this brave glossy. Nothing’s too obscure or underground for Hell Yeah!

This issue we spotlight Australian and NYC streetwear labels in our ‘Australian Apparel’ and ‘Laced Invaders’ shoots backed by interviews with some of the label owners. In music we interview Coco Solid, Railcars and Budos Band, and DJ Seven explains to us the music phenomena known as ‘dub-step’. Plus my self indulgent piece‘D.I.Y door-knocker earrings’, Dope Posing in Switzerland, graffiti, artist profiles and shit-loads more.

As we are looking at broadening our team, if you’re down for the movement, we welcome contributions and ideas on everything from anyone world-wide. I mean it! Without the help of our dear friends, network of contributors, my gorgeous man Byron and our super-rad .7.

advertisers, this wouldn’t be possible!

And because we’re aiming for a quarterly publication, to enlighten y’all in-between issues, we’re blogging almost daily at : www.hellyeahmag.com.

Enjoy the issue, we hope it’s a keeper!

TASH

Felicite has been writing about music since the late 80’s. A true purveyor of the music, she has lent her hand to almost every aspect of music and cultures that surround it. She runs her own booking agency Haunted Music and hosts the Drum n Bass/Dubstep website www.sydneyfriction.com.

This issue Fez explains to us what the hell the music phenomena known as dub-step is.

Mark Wong AKA Metal is a B-boy with Sesion31, Repstyles Crew, and performs with Olive Dance Theatre.

He is also a freelance writer and filmmaker.

Based in Philadelphia, this issue Mark came along for the ride down to Brooklyn with DJ Skeme to interview the Budos Band.

Getting food served from behind bulletproof glass and watching drunk, over-dressed girls slip and fall in their own beer swill at the club make Mark go Hell Yeah!

Cheyenne Sarfati is the dopest makeup artist ever! She did the makeup for the Laced Invaders and American Apparel shoots. Hell Yeah especially loves her eyebrow art and we will miss her dearly when she heads back to her hometown Houston, Texas next year. Family, ‘Mi Vida Loca’, vodka, cranberry and ice and Latina beauty make Shygirl go Hell Yeah! Peep her website at www.readtheselips.net

This issue Sydney based music specialist/scenestar/legend Paul Murphy wrote and starred in the awesome “I survived an 80s Hair Metal band” story.

Vegan Breakfast at ‘Naked Expresso’ King Street, yoga, Telefon Tel Aviv, and body surfing at the beach at 6.30am make Paul go Hell Yeah!

Can’t wait for next issue’s “I survived a 90s Death Metal band” story!

Rosy One is a style animal from Switzerland active in the European writing scene since the late ‘80s. She is also an illustrator, graphic designer, dj, party planner and old school Hip Hop fanatic. Rosy hosts the excellent Dope Pose website, a gallery for dope posing and 80s hip hop fashion. Every issue she and her posse provide us with the flyest streetwear fashion spreads ever to go to print!

DJ Skeme Richards is the reigning nostalgia king of everything fresh.

The Philly native reps Rock Steady Crew and has held down turntable duties with some of the best DJ’s worldwide. This issue Skeme catches up with Brooklyn funk and soul players, Budos Band. When he’s not rocking funk, soul, and Hip Hop around the globe, you can find him making beats, digging for gems, and always eating good food.

In the male dominated culture of Graffiti, there’s one name that is renowned for longevity and passion for representing the Australian Hip Hop Culture since its birth in the 80s.

Sydney based female artist and youth worker Spice, has stamped her name on every element.

Every issue Spice will interview Hip Hop icons about their “Prized Possessions”.

Cute bboys rocking dope pieces make make this lady go Hell Yeah!

Tabatha is a French born, Brooklyn raised teenager who got a public school/ NYC street education and has one daughter- a chihuahua named Coco.

She is the literary bitch for New York’s seminal ‘Married to the Mob’ clothing label.

“Let’s make better mistakes tomorrow” is Tabatha’s first column for Hell Yeah! and man did she get us open. Writing, being naked, and doing nothing make Tab go Hell Yeah!

Lady Venz is a fashion stylist, artist, writer and overall visual poet.

She is located in Edmonton, Canada and is owner of online store Venzilla Vintage. In this month’s Hell Yeah!

Venz is here to help us cut pennies and find the dope aged goods in “Tips for thrift hoppin”! She enjoys the sun, moon and stars, palm trees, pineapples, 80’s, hip hop and high fashion.

.8.

WWW.ROSYONE.COM

.10.

.11.

.12.

ARTISTIC ENDEAVOURS / ARTIST PROFILE

What was your upbringing/childhood like?

“All my life I’ve lived in my little city, Vigo, but have lived some months in Paris, Barcelona and Burgos (Spain). I remember my childhood as being fine, but with the typical problems of a problematic and rebellious girl. [laughs]

Do you think it’s harder to get laid being a female writer?

In my school everybody had a tag, we bombed the books, and the bathrooms with markers, but I didn’t know nothing about hip hop culture. Later as a1617 year old I started to listen to rap music and to learn things about hip hop culture. Around the same time I met my friend Iria MC, she was only 13 but talented at rapping. We went out Saturday nights for drinks and made some tags with a spray can. We were the first girls in our city and all Galician community to form a crew of only girls, LPC (la promesa crew/the promise crew).Then I started to paint seriously and represent. I was only influenced by the graffiti artists of my city because I didn’t know nothing about graffiti, no information, no graffiti magazines. I started to paint alone, and some months after I knew some graffiti boys who told me what is a power line and how to make arrows. They talked to me about Lady Pink, Seen,etc... At that time I was happy to know that there was another girl who painted graffiti in the world, because I was the only one in my city and I felt alone, hahaha.

Tell us about your raddest painting action ever..Where was it? With whom?

When?

I never had problems with that:)

I have so much...In Valencia painting a train with two of my friends, we run 3 times or more! And we laughed a lot, it was a funny night by the moonlight. I only paint trains when I travel because in my city is not possible. I think that nowadays lot of people like it but the penalties are so high, exaggerated.

Do you live off your art or do you still have to work a normal job to earn a living?

I prefer to have a normal job, graffiti is a hobby for me:) a big part of my life but I prefer to paint when I want.

In Spain graffiti started in the 80s but in Galicia community the middle 90s.

I am one of the oldest hahaha, I like that.”

Nike or Adidas?

Your

Both. I like Nike Airmax shoes and Adidas jackets.

characters always seem to be funky, feminine, sexy and raw.

they differ from other girl characters like

How Koralie, Fafi, Miss Van etc?

do

My girls are pure HIP HOP influenced, with attitude and strong to survive in a man’s world. Inspired by my friend Iria MC and me. Iria always told me when I went to paint “paint me! paint me! pleeeaaasee!” and I would love to paint girls for people to see the graffiti and think “That is painted by a girl for sure! A girl making that oh my god! “ (I live in a little city you know...I was not a normal girl). And I don’t use brushes!

I prefer lettering, graffiti is letters. I think it is not possible to be a graffiti artist without your own lettering. I usually paint my letters with a bgirl next to it, or I paint only a girl when I have no time, there is no space, or I don’t have so much paint. Everybody can paint a lot of things with spray cans... and there is a lot of artists, but for me if you don’t have your letters you are not a writer. It is the most important thing for a writer, to get their own style, especially with letters.

What’s playing on your ipod right now?

La bella mafia Lil Kim. I love to listen to hip hop music everyday and I think that travel is inspiring for me. When I travel I return with inspiration to paint more.

Besos guapa te quiero!

What do you think of feminism?

It’s good but with restraint, not extreme obsession. I think that we can make the same things that men make but better lol,we are obviously different, and I love to be different;)

.13.

.14.

ARTISTIC ENDEAVOURS / ARTIST PROFILE

Vulture street Marrakesh palace

Recently, 420 Galleries were proud to present a collection of landscape paintings

by Fintan Magee that captured the urban environment he discovered while creating street art in Europe, The USA, North Africa and Asia. This travel diary of evocative landscape paintings explored our empty streets and isolated urban areas while commenting on the relationship between nature and our ever expanding cities.

As an artist, Magee has worked on large scale commissions in London, Rotterdam, Vienna and Brisbane and has showed in various group exhibitions and prizes across Australia. He currently resides in Queensland where he is studying a B.A in Fine Arts and works part time as a designer, illustrator and mural artist.

How

did you get involved in visual art?

graffiti your first love?

Was

I began creating art at a pretty young age. My early work mainly consisted of Ninja turtle drawings (laughing), still some of my best work to date! Well the work I had the most fun with anyway. Graffiti came later, when I was a disgruntled teenager...

How

would you describe your style?

abstraction of graffiti?

Is

it an

I mainly paint landscapes and my work comes

from the experience of creating art outside at night. I love the city at night. The sense of emptiness in such a crowded place, the way the street lights illuminate things, the silence..I guess my work attempts to capture that. I work mainly with oils and spray-paint and have influences from so many places over the years it’s hard to list. But my recent work draws heavily from contemporary urban landscape painters like Jeffrey smart, Edward hopper, R.B Kitaj, Jason Kowalski, Michael Sokolis, Kevin Cyr, etc.

You

have travelled alot through

many different cities

Europe

and

feature in your recent

work.....

Travelling will inspire any artist especially if your paintings draw from your surrounding environment. I usually don’t get many opportunities to paint on canvas while travelling because I like to keep moving. In the past I have been more focused on streets and trains but the next time I go overseas I am going to organise a studio before I leave and settle somewhere.

Maybe Berlin or Vienna.

Do you feel isolated being back in Brisbane?

Yeah, a little. You don’t realise how spread out Australia is until you travel, being able to get on a train for a few hours and then arrive in a different country with a different culture. It puts .15.

the twelve hour drive to Sydney in perspective, but I think Brisbane is a good place to be at right now. It’s a fast growing city so there is a feeling of change and there are plenty of opportunities for artists popping up. The city has come a long way since the Joh Bjielke Peterson era, that’s for sure.

Where

have

you

commercial work?

exhibited?

Do

you

do

any

Yeah I have been pretty busy lately with a few group exhibitions and a solo show. I have also been working on some public murals, illustrations and art demo’s, anything to pay the rent and keep food on the table. I like showing at 420 Gallery because it’s a new space and there is always something happening at ‘The Fort’, plus the gallery is artist run so everyone involved is extra supportive towards emerging artists.

Basically I am just making art till my career as a pimp takes off.

Artist profile by 420 gallery’s Byron Campbell.

ARTISTIC ENDEAVOURS

/ ARTIST PROFILE

Fuck the police

James Dodd has exhibited widely across Australia in artist run, publicly funded and commercial spaces. His work traverses the boundaries between visual street culture, alternative use of urban space and existing gallery conventions. Primarily his work revolves around the use of found text such as graffiti. Dodd principally works as a painter however he often experiments with the construction of objects to paint on for the purpose of large-scale installations.

The recent body of work featured in Hell Yeah! was inspired by his trips to Darwin and his studies of the gangs through their graffiti, [where they quite often put up Heavy Metal bands like Metallica and American Hip Hop artists like Wu-tang and N.W.A.] This work is his response to finding in it, a shared passion. Dodd’s work makes one consider where the tagging comes from, not what its particular meanings might be so much as what it means as a form of expression, against the backdrop of sunset colours and palm trees- Darwin as an earthly paradise.

HELL YEAH MAG head honcho Tash caught up with him recently after seeing his “Paradisiac” exhibition at the Ryan Renshaw Gallery in Brisbane.

.16.

Barbed Wire Palms

Darwin Bus Shelter

“ I am predominantly interested in creativity and intervention in the urban environment”.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in country South Australia and studied in Adelaide. My family’s from Cornwall.

Pretty much standard dogger.

How would you describe your style?

Ha, ha - style is a dirty word! I guess I have recurring themes or topics that I always use and approach in different ways over time. I am predominantly interested in creativity and intervention in the urban environment. Mostly I make paintings but I also build structures, furniture and other miscellaneous stuff..

For the last few years I have focused on collecting random things that people write in public - hand written messages that can be classified as ‘not’ graffiti (in the New York sense). So I look at this type of material all the time whenever I am travelling and when I had the chance to visit Darwin I found that it’s writing was quite unique and so began to undertake more research. I grew up listening to heavy metal, so to find a large volume of public markings devoted to it really got me excited. My overall approach is to celebrate the unique nature of all of this material whilst trying to include small insights into real social issues that exist.

Darwin rest of

What are some of your earlier influences?

Mostly it was the classic pop artists such as Lichtenstein and Warhol that got me excited about bold, graphic and advertising oriented artwork.

Your latest paintings refer to the tags of Darwin gangs and their allegiances to heavy metal and gangsta rap…and their dislike of the local cops….How did you come up with this idea?

Tell

us about your time in

influenced your work?

Darwin

and how it

seems so far away and unknown to the

Australia….

Yeah, it’s a frontier town, a little bit wild west.

It’s our gateway to Asia. Lots of people go there to escape things and it has a huge itinirent population. The physical nature of the place, weather wise, also contributes to the extreme experience.

of the activity and culture spills over into Darwin.

There are also the usual bunches of high school kids that write their names on things. So you also see a whole range of suburb specific crew names.

Did you befriend any “gangs”? What are the cops like up there?

These guys are really violent, they live in fucked up social situations. My knowledge is gathered from talking to locals up there, collecting material from the street and other people’s more anthropologically oriented studies. I haven’t had the chance to get out to regional communities of the area but certainly would like to. I don’t really make friends with cops, so it’s hard to say.

You’ve got to think about the situation - if you’re a kid, loitering about, maybe getting into a little trouble, you’re gonna have the pigs on your back and in your face. And it’s not even these kids fault, it’s a symptom of a whole lot of shit gone wrong.

How

do you feel about the treatment and

Are there really “gangs” in Darwin or merely graf crews like every other big city in the world?

general lack of respect for aboriginal culture by

The gangs are more specifically active in the Port Keats region, south west of Darwin. Some

That’s a pretty big question. I don’t really feel like I have enough experience to answer that one.

.17.

mainstream

Australia?

Barradodd

What is freedom to you?

Well, I think that we are truly fortunate in Australia to have as much freedom as we do. We should remind ourselves that there are many other people who don’t have as much freedom.

I think that we are obliged to make the most of our freedoms.

What are your thoughts on censorship then?

It’s up to us to find the edges of it and we actually censor ourselves more than other people do.

Do

planned for mid 2010, specifically to try to make work contacts for the future. The opportunities are definitely there for Aus artists to get involved internationally - I haven’t pursued them as much as some.

What’s next?

I’m always juggling a handful of shows alongside developing new ideas..

I’m trying to get a project rolling that involves looking at text that has been carved into boab trees of the Kimberley region.

you consider yourself part of the graf or

street art culture?

Check the blog - www.james-dodd.blogspot.com

Street art definitely, though I’ve never been a truly active ‘writer’. The cultures are heavily aligned, so I would say that I am. My interests have always been a little to the side of the mainstream activities of these cultures, which is a definite choice.

Do you get gigs out of Australia?

“Just remember - it’s ok to write on other people’s walls and you don’t even need to have neat handwriting”

I’m just starting to now. I was part of a festival in Belgium last year and was also invited to be part of the Cans Festival in London which was organised

by Pictures on Walls, Banksy’s business. I have some European and North American travel

Famous Dodd quote.

.18.

ARTISTIC ENDEAVOURS / GALLERY PROFILE

A new Art Gallery opened earlier this year in Brisbane. What’s unique about 420 Gallery is it’s operated and curated by artists! Housed in a beautiful heritage listed building in the heart of Brisbane’s culture hub, Fortitude Valley, this is super-fly; boasting chandeliers, marble floors, a leafy courtyard and a grand piano!

Hell Yeah! magazine caught up with owners Yuin Huzami and Byron, over a few beers one sunny afternoon....

What is the concept behind 420/Versus Gallery?

Byron: The concept is simply to bring the best art that graffiti/pop culture has to offer, and display it to the broader public. We boast that graffiti artists are equal and in some cases superior to the talents of more traditional artists and prove this by showcasing these works.

Yuin: The name Fortwenty came about because of our crew 420 clique, and seeing as the gallery is located within The Fort Arts Hub, it seemed like a nice coincidence to simply drop the U and make it Fortwenty Gallery. The Versus name came about from the space being shared with a second group of curators. We have the gallery every second month so we needed a name which suited this.

You guys have been incredibly active in the local Hip Hop/ Graffiti scene for a number of years. Why open a gallery?

Yuin: For me it was moving on an opportunity to start a gallery in a good location with affordable rent. I know some amazing artists who are getting busted for donating their work a little too freely to the community (illegally) and here in Brisbane there is also a very tough “zero tolerance” stance against street art, so my biggest aim with the gallery is to try to help some of these artists find a legitimate and sustainable outlet for their talent which promotes the skill and imagination behind aerosol art and by making it available to the public. We opened at the end of March this year (2009) and have steadily held exhibitions for emerging artists every week or two since then.

We’ve had around 15 shows so far.

Byron: Being an active writer has moulded me into the person that I am today and this is a

challenge that I have set for myself in an attempt to bring passion back into my everyday life. And being positioned in The Valley near two great galleries, (Ryan Renshaw & Jugglers) is the perfect location.

Who are some of your resident artists?

Byron: It’s hard to list resident artists as there are so many great artists that come through the door- photographers, visual artists, recording artists, designers... the list goes on.

Who are some of your favourite artists, both locally and internationally?

Yuin: Locally I’d say Sofles, Seiko, Meks, Tues, Lucks, Lister. Overseas probably Seventh Letter, TATS crew, Keger, Banksy. We like art that’s either bright, bold or ballsy. We dig technical skills and strong meaning. Raw, political, in your face!

Byron: Sofles, Seikoe, Pubs, d1, Kewder, Blends, Howard Arkley, Robots, Fintan Magee to name a few.

What style of visual art do you showcase?

Yuin: We are open to all forms of art whether it be visual with paint brush or aerosol, stencil, collage or anything. Photography, sculpture, graphic design, woodwork.... We are very open minded about all creative expression. As long as we personally like the art and the people who make it seem reasonable to work with, we are happy to promote and support it through Fortwenty.

What do you think of the Art world/critics/ patrons/other local galleries? Do you meet lots of wankers through owning a gallery?

Yuin: I think the two of us have certainly donated a lot of time and work to the public over many years locally and around the world. The idea of selling it however is still relatively new to us and the different types of artists we deal with. But, at the end of the day with so many people being dubious about galleries ripping them off and doing the dirty (have heard many a tale) we just figured it might encourage some of them to do more exhibitions if they could deal with genuine

.19.

artists like us instead of the typical snobbish or money-hungry conmen who are often attracted to this line of work.

Byron: It’s all new to me, but so far I am excited by the new generation of the local Brisbane art scene. Brisbane has lacked an underground/ emerging art following for too long, however in the last five years local artists are making a name for themselves on the world stage and Brisbane is becoming a hot spot for underground subcultures. As for wankers, I meet lots of wankers no matter what I do! There’s no escaping wankers anywhere, and owning a gallery is no exception.

The building the gallery is in is a historic Brisbane 1930’s beautiful art deco building...Tell us about the building’s history and is it based on the socialist, anarchist creative groups commonly found in Berlin based in squats etc?

Yuin: It’s very similar except that we pay rent for ours. Brisbane doesn’t have as many opportunities as some European cities but thanks to our amazing land lord we are able to collectively afford one of the nicest old buildings in town. It’s absolutely beautiful. Many would go so far as to call it pimp! Basically we needed to take the whole building to get it discounted so we invited all the best creative and cool people we knew who were able to commit to a space to take part in our vision for a green and progressive new arts community. We have so many amazing characters here and everyone (pretty much) helps each other out. It’s like a big share house and artist shopping centre or business district combined under one roof. Very unique within Queensland! We have hustled very hard to make The Fort Arts Hub happen and doubt very much that we could have succeeded without very strong assistance and guidance from the universe [and my partner Kelly.]

What’s next for 420?

We are both driven to hold more edgy shows that push the boundaries of what is accepted, along with providing an affordable space for emerging artists. If you’re interested in showing, sponsoring or discussing business opportunities at Fortwenty feel free to email us at 420gallery@gmail.com

.20.

.21.

PRIZED POSSESSIONS

With SPICE If you’re an avid collector like me, or hoarder as some would call it, then picking the items that are your most prized possessions isn’t an easy task.

I’m stoked to say from now on, every issue of Hell Yeah! I will get down to the nitty gritty, asking a few known heads what holds the most weight in their own collections....

Tuf Tim Twist, a name worth knowing! Born 1965 in Chershire England, this Hip Hop treasure would have to be one of the most inspiring people i know. Not just because he is a member of the legendary Rock Steady Crew, rocks dope back patches, looks as animated as the characters he paints and customizes everything from shoes, rugs and clothes to animated style jewellery... but because this is one true BBoy who holds no bounds.

and I hustled him for his best ones. Couldn’t afford many and wanted his so I swapped with him for his other stuff or just stole them when he left the room...i remember feeling bad at the time but I imagine it’s how a drug addict must feel when they steal from friends and family to get a fix, I just had to have ‘em!

No ordinary man, Tuf Tim’s passion for Hip Hop has pulled him through the toughest of times and lead him on a journey living the dream of being an ultimate Bboy, loving father, husband and the envy of many a Hip Hop collector.

I believe we all have a multitude of talents and skills dwelling inside us and it just takes a single action or happening to kick start them off,some people never find them and some people just neglect them,but we all have something that makes us who we are and fulfills the need for life.

“Hip hop found me in late 1983. I was a lost 18 year old searching for something new and exciting to do. I had a troubled childhood and was always the little kid everyone picked on or pushed around.

It all started at home-neglect,verbal and physical abuse. I just needed love in my life.

And then it changed when Hip Hop came to save me. I had always followed the latest trends and been involved in early subcultures like DISCO,PUNK,SKA and NORTHERN SOUL. I was into comic books as a young kid and loved to copy the characters HULK,THOR,CAPTAIN AMERICA,SUPERMAN... you get the idea, I actually came 3rd in a drawing contest on a saturday morning kids show,you had to “create your very own super hero”. 3rd in the whole of the uk!

I remember a kid who lived down the street from me,he had way more comics than I, was younger

London circa 1985

.22.

I was introduced to drawing from a very young age. My parents split up when i was a year old.

My older brother and I stayed with my father and lived with his mother ,my grandmother [r.i.p.] and my two older sisters went with my mother.

It was whilst living at my grandmothers that i learnt to draw. She had a window cleaner and he showed me how to draw around my thumb and turn the image into a dog,and that was the start of my artistic talent. I must of been about three or four.

Those early years of my childhood were the best years of my life before hip hop. I adored her and she loved my brother and I like we were her own children. Life changed when my father remarried. We left our grandmothers to go and live with my father and his new wife.

Life went from LOVE to HATE in a flash.

Both me and my brother were abused physically,verbally and mentally from about the age of 5 untill we left home. I started to fight back in my teens and left home for good at the age of 17.

Tuf. Life was tough and this is how the name TUF stuck with me, and i added the TWIST on the end. I started with JESTER....”JESTER OF THE JIVE” that was my first name. I was always a joker (i hid behind that smile for years) and this made so much sense to me and those around me,then i wrote DOODLE. I got DOODLE from the late great DONDI WHITE. It was the picture of his “CHILDREN OF THE GRAVE PART 3” whole car in the “SUBWAY ART” writing book,that’s what inspired DOODLE.I then wrote ARTEE for a while and my bboy name was “TIMMY T TWISTER”. My first serious name i would say was 2RISKY. I wrote this along side my one and only true writing partner SHINE159 [r.i.p.] We were called the “STYLE STARZ”, that was from mid 1985 till about 1989/90.

We also formed the crew “AWAYZ ROCKIN TUF” in about 1987/88. I still use the name today. I actually named my son bboy “ARTWIST” Art Muarizio Hollins after the crew A.R.T. My name is more than just a name, its a statement, its the way i feel, its how i live my life and its how i percieve the world around me.

In the early years of my hip hop career,whilst I was still in my apprenticeship period I always kept my writing and breaking names separate.

I’m not conscious of why I did this,maybe it was due to the illegal side of writing,but I never sat down and thought about it. Even if it was for that reason it didnt work because i still got raided and busted...but that’s a whole other story!

Tuf is for the life I have lived and how I have had to be to survive in this tough world,and you have to be tough to stay in the game of hip hop for so long! You have to be tough to keep yourself going when times are tough. Tough love is the the hardest of all.

TIM-Tim is the name i was given from birth,TIMOTHY,TIMMEE,TIM. When I was younger I never liked the name,actually thats wrong...it was the kids around me that made me think this way,when you are young and vulnerable, kids can be cruel and they

pick up on small details like your name,and the name TIMOTHY is feminine sounding and the kids would tease me and pick on me because they could not decipher the science of life at that age,so i suppose i was protecting my name TIM with the name TUF and TWIST on both sides. DONDI talks about how RAMMELLZEE taught him the theory of arming your letters to protect them from the evil powers around them.

I suppose when I think about it,this is what I was doing...protecting my real birth name from the world around me.

TWIST-TWIST is my last name and its what I do with everything in life. I “twist it up”,what ever it may be- art, bboying, work, relationships, fatherhood, family, life, it all gets TWISTED in one way or another. Sometimes the result is good and sometimes it’s bad but then we come back to the TUF....and on it goes.

It’s all about creating the person or super hero you want to be,It’s about taking on a character and being that character to the full. We all wish we could do this and do that and this is my way of achieving some of the dreams I have inside of me. I started off with nothing and then I got this name and I became something.

I became “TUF TIM TWIST” that’s my name, whats yours???? You should be proud to shout it from the highest mountain!

MAKE A BREAK was my first bboy crew and was formed in 1984. It was me and my long time bboy partner T.C.BREAK. We knew each other from our old neighbourhood and I saw him in a local disco poppin’ one night.

We were in different gangs but it was all cool.

I was amazed at him and wanted to do what he was doing. This was late 1983 and hip hop was first starting to appear on television regularly.

We arranged to meet and start to practice and after a while we started the crew. In 1984 even in small towns like ours crews started to break and it wasnt long before the crew grew in numbers from 2 to 10 plus members.

My very first inspiration was T.C.BREAK, but as soon as I saw ROCK STEADY CREW in BEAT STREET I was hooked. Then “BUFFALO GALS” and “HEY YOU” were released and from then on I wanted to be in ROCK STEADY but I never thought it could ever happen. I didn’t even think I would ever meet them!

From about 1983 to 1985 the tv airwaves were flooded with hip hop films documentaries and news reports from the USA. This is when we started to travel outside of the town and go to events around the UK,and this is when we discovered new inspiration’s like STREET MACHINE Manchester, BROKEN GLASS Manchester, EASTWOOD ROCKERS Liverpool, CRASH CREW Wirral, THE B.BOYS Wolverhampton, LIVE 2 BREAK London (SCOTTY), LONDON ALLSTARS London, ROCK CITY CREW Nottingham, SINE159 Manchester, CHROME ANGELS London, ARTFULL DODGER, SKAM, GOLDIE, KAZBEE, CHOCI ROC, WRHand many more. Respect to all the UK old school.

Hip hop started in the early 80’s in the UK, depending on where you are from it will depend on how early you started, the bigger cities tended to catch on earlier than the smaller towns.

I am aware of some people in London who

.23.

became hip hop aware as early as 79/80 due to connections they had with family members in NYC, but generally 1982 was the first I know of.

Back in the day NYC came first and the UK was next,we progressed real quick and probably due to similar social living conditions back then we related to hip hop and it’s reason.

It also helped that we also spoke the same language,this was a bonus.

The first wave of hip hop in the UK was short but very important,from about 1984 nearly every teenager had either tried at least one of the elements of hip hop or new somebody who did it, but by the late 80’s most people had stopped and hip hop and gone from “doing” to “listening and watching”.

The early UK bboy crews who in my eyes were the most important are STREET MACHINE from Manchester,BROKEN GLASS Manchester,LONDON ALLSTARS London,ROCK CITY CREW Nottingham,THE B.BOYS Wolverhampton. Then came the second level of bboys who like myself got their inspiration from those crews who came just before them,like SECOND 2 NONE Bournmouth, LIVE 2 BREAK London, EASTWOOD ROCKERS Liverpool, MAGIC FORCE Runcorn/Wirral, BELFAST CITY BREAKERS Belfast Ireland,GLASGOW CITY BREAKERS Glasgow Scotland just to name a few. Back in the mid 80’s every city had 20/30 crews and every town had 5/10 crews and then there were individual pockets of b.boys all over the place.

The writing scene was also very healthy all over the UK, with writers destroying the whole country with beautiful pieces of art.

London has it’s underground system and the city was far larger than the rest of the cities around the UK and it was as close to NYC as you could imagine.

After extensive international travels and being put in Rock Steady Crew, we returned home to the UK and just started to build and promote the crew and the rest is history....17 years of ROCK STEADY history! Flying the name “ROCK STEADY CREW” has been the most important thing I as an individual have had to do and its not all been easy.

People imagine you get all kinds of privileges but you still gotta rep yourself and for many years now i have been repping solo in the UK, unlike some people I like to be in just the one crew.

It’s impossible not be influenced by such a legacy and my life has been extra tough in the last 4 to 5 years as I have lost some of the most important people in my life and that’s made me ask alot of questions and it’s these last few years that have determined my future.

Hip Hop is my life and I feel like I have been reborn and I just want to open up my horizons.

I have so many things I want to develop with my art and dancing.”

TUF TIM’S PRIZED POSSESSIONS Clockwise left to right: Baby blue beat street replica suit recreated by the japanese chapter of rock steady crew.

Mock necks - these are the most sought after items I have, I get all kinds of requests from around the world for one of these.

My collection of pendants and medallions Ski hats, I got these in New York in 1997 - all are rare but my favorite would be the playboy hat.

I

find that although many new schoolers

have engaged into the once called fad of

breakin, there’s not too many who i’d call a bboy because

I

believe it’s the mentality

that defines the term true...would you agree or do you have a different opinion?

“You are so right!! It’s become normal to call yourself a bboy/girl from the moment you start to learn, but it’s like skipping the whole process. When you first start to write graffiti you are a toy then after a few years you can say you’re a writer and eventually you may become a master and a legend, but you dont go straight to legend, you gotta put the work and years in.

The whole what i call “APPRENTICESHIP THEORY” has been lost along the way. The way we teach and the way they learn has changed. I see a lot of so called bboys/girls that after only a year or so bboying they’re getting paid to teach classes. This is before they even understand what it is! I think you gotta put at least 5 to 10 years of learning

before you can truly call yourself skilled at any of Hip Hop’s elements. Just to be able to do the moves doesn’t mean you are a bboy/girl. You have to understand what it is you are doing before you can call yourself a title. Its not just physical, it’s mental, it’s soul, it’s knowledge and most of all it’s time that teaches you everything you need to be anything in life.

And you can’t rush time, time is the same for all of us, it makes us all equal. What I believe is the single most defining moment that has changed hip hop since we all started and that is communication or more so how we communicate today. Let me just explain how I believe communication has changed and how this has changed the face of hip hop forever.

With the changing face of communication, hip hop has lost its mecca. NEW YORK CITY was the mecca for hip hop for all of my generation.

This is no longer so.

This is because of the internet. The world shrunk and if you want to experience

.24.

anything all you have to do is log on and start tapping. Before I continue I just want to say the internet is a great tool. How some use it is the problem.

The world will never be the same again so long as we have the internet. Before if you wanted to experience other places and cultures you had to get up and go but now you can travel the world in a day and talk to anybody regardless of status and skill level or pecking order. To get straight to the point I have witnessed total toys and fools conduct arguments with hip hop legends in forums online just because they can and that is so, so wrong. First of all I wouldn’t dream of dissing those who came before me and without the internet they wouldn’t even have that opportunity without being on the same skill level.

And that’s the real deal. This is why so many people are getting away with all this bullshit, because they don’t feel like they have anything or anybody to answer to no more.

I

find that although many new schoolers

have engaged into the once called fad of

breakin, there’s not too many who i’d call a bboy because

I

believe it’s the mentality

that defines the term true...would you agree or do you have a different opinion?

“You are so right!! It’s become normal to call yourself a bboy/girl from the moment you start to learn, but it’s like skipping the whole process. When you first start to write graffiti you are a toy then after a few years you can say you’re a writer and eventually you may become a master and a legend, but you dont go straight to legend, you gotta put the work and years in.

The whole what i call “APPRENTICESHIP THEORY” has been lost along the way. The way we teach and the way they learn has changed. I see a lot of so called bboys/girls that after only a year or so bboying they’re getting paid to teach classes. This is before they even understand what it is! I think you gotta put at least 5 to 10 years of learning before you can truly call yourself skilled at any of Hip Hop’s elements. Just to be able to do the moves doesn’t mean you are a bboy/girl. You have to understand what it is you are doing before you can call yourself a title. Its not just physical, it’s mental, it’s soul, it’s knowledge and most of all it’s time that teaches you everything you need to be anything in life.

And you cant rush time, time is the same for all of us, it makes us all equal. What I believe is the single most defining moment that has changed hip hop since we all started and that is communication or more so how we communicate today. Let me just explain how I believe communication has changed and how this has changed the face of hip hop forever.

With the changing face of communication, hip hop has lost its mecca. NEW YORK CITY was the mecca for hip hop for all of my generation.

This is no longer so.

This is because of the internet. The world shrunk and if you want to experience anything all you have to do is log on and start tapping. Before i continue i just want to say the internet is a great tool. How some use it is the problem.

The world will never be the same again so long as we have the internet. Before if you wanted to experience other places and cultures you had to get up and go but now you can travel the world in a day and talk to anybody regardless of status and skill level or pecking order. To

get straight to the point I have witnessed total toys and fools conduct arguments with hip hop legends in forums online just because they can and that is so, so wrong. First of all I wouldn’t dream of dissing those who came before me and without the internet they wouldn’t even have that opportunity without being on the same skill level.

LEACY gave me a few things and they are very special to me now. The week before he passed away he gave me a yellow ZULU medallion.

And that’s the real deal. This is why so many people are getting away with all this bullshit, because they don’t feel like they have anything or anybody to answer to no more. It’s all about work for most of them.”

Also my ORIGINAL TRIPLE FAT V.SHAPED GOOSES and a pair of black CAZALS I have had since 1986. I bought them from a popper in Denmark I met in Leicester squre for £150.

Back then that was a lot of money but i had to have them.

When

did you decide to take customising

gear so seriosuly?

It’s something I have always done. I rocked my first “BACK PATCH” in 1985 for one of my friends and used to do shoes also, but i really started to get serious when my audience became aware of them. My house is full of my custom stuff. Most regular people have meaningless pictures or ornaments around their homes whereas I have custom kicks, jackets, my canvases and sculptures. I love being surrounded by hip hop, it’s like living a dream.

The market place is flooded with custom gear and you can walk through high street and buy hip hop.

The days of having to go and search for your gear are gone and now you can get your stuff anywhere but the real original old school gear is super hard to find and I got some gems I am still yet to blast out. The trouble is I got stuff so obscure most people dont even know what it is and by the time most people catch on I’ve been rockin that shit for years like PRO KEDS, LA TIGRA and the PLAYBOY beenies and MOCK NECKS. I was rockin those things for the last 10 years or so and people are just starting to wanna rock that shit.It’s crazy because I even have hip hip legends from the old school asking me for stuff they were rockin in the 70’s. It blow’s my mind!

The ultimate hip hop gear is to D.I.Y/ Do It Yourself. I love to custom everything and I got big plans for the future. I wanna branch out into everything custom, the sky’s the limit!

An

avid collector of all things

Hip Hop,

what are your most prized possessions and why?

I have such a large collection it’s hard to pick my most prized, but i must say BREAK D.J. .25.

I love my collection of old school ski beenies.

I have PLAYBOY, SPACE INVADERS and the RETURN OF THE JEDI and many more.

Peace n love to the pioneers of hip hop...to the legends from the mecca...NYC...to my crew...

ROCK STEADY....and my rock and soul, GEETWIST and ARTWIST....and ROXXEE... my lil girl, respect to all the hip hop people worldwide...peace n love to everyone.

TUF TIM TWIST..ROCK STEADY CREW.

Clockwise left to right: London circa 1985 Tuf Tim with son Artwist

NEST ISSUE: SPICE TALKS TO PROMOE ( LOOPTROOP), DMC ( RUN DMC) & ISIS/LIN QUE (X CLAN) ABOUT THEIR PRIZED POSSESSIONS.

STYLE / DESIGNER PROFILE

Left to right - Alexi coat, Alexi Freeman, Alexi dress.

.....................................

Two designers. Two different design aesthetics. One established, the other just starting out. Both crazy talented and going places. Hell Yeah! took five minutes to pick the brains of two designers you need to know about...

(Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs), Queen Michelle (Kingdom of Style) or Australian model Nicole Trunfio all have got some pretty good looks happening…

What does style mean to you?

LABEL: ALEXI FREEMAN (MELBOURNE)

I think style is about having the imagination and confidence to dress in a way that suits you, without necessarily adhering to trends.

What are your greatest influences when designing a collection?

How

Art, music, nature, my friends, a piece of trash lying on the side of the road… Influences can strike at any moment!

Who would you like to see rockin’ your clothes?

I’m thrilled when I see anyone rocking my collection on the street, but if I had to pick some gals you’ve heard of I would say that Karen O

Australian comparison to the larger, more industries such as Paris, Milan etc.? do you see the

industry in established

I think on the whole Australia is a pretty conservative market, but there are a definitely a few people here trying to push the envelope which is always refreshing – you know who you are!

Any

words of wisdom for someone wanting a

.26.

career designing clothes?

If you don’t like working more then 10 hours a day you will never survive in this industry as it’s a lot of hard work! But if you’re truly passionate, it won’t even seem like work half the time.

What makes you go Hell Yeah!?

1. Finishing a collection!

2. Playing drums – that’s right, I’ve recently taken them up…

3. Knocking off early on Fridays (like 7pm instead of 10pm).

www.alexifreeman.com

STYLE / DESIGNER PROFILE

Left to right - Photos from Irena’s Sex & Landscapes Lookbook.

Below - Irena.

LABEL: IRENA. (BRISBANE) What

What’s biggest fashion faux pas that you’ve seen?

are your greatest influences when

designing a collection?

Each collection will be different. I like to start with a general idea (that may be influenced by anything) and create a storyboard around it, incl. a muse & a playlist I put together that I listen to whilst designing and redefining. I’ve realised noone cares as much about your business as you, you have to do what it takes to get to where you want to be, you can’t rely on others to get you there or for anything to fall at your feet.

What other designers/labels do you admire and why?

Hussein Chalayan, Konstitina Mittas & Dion Lee would be up there with my favourites. I love the way their minds work, to think outside the basic dress. I think its pretty clear that Coco Chanel was an inspiration too.

Oh ha ha, I may be too opinionated to answer this, could probably write you a novel. I’ll say, at the moment, (fake denim) leggings as pants.

Enough said.

Whose style do you admire?

I’ll stay within Australia for this one; Thea Basiliou - Seriously. Is there anything she CAN’T wear??!

There are obviously others but Thea comes to mind instantly.

What makes you go Hell Yeah!?

Cupcakes, dress ups and my friends. (‘cause they’re rad!)

www.irena.com.au You may know AC from her regular contributions to the www.

What does style mean to you?

hellyeahmag.com blog.

This issue the porcelain skinned

bombshell styled the ‘Laced Invaders’ and ‘Australian Apparel’

Style is anyones interpretation for themselves.

I like simplicity, I like black and I like trying to change the mood of a simple black dress to suit each occassion.

.27.

shoots and found time to interview new school Australian designers; Melbourne’s Alexi Freeman and Brisbane based Irena.

Mondegreens, Pavlova for breakfast, lots of eyeliner and lilac nails make AC go Hell Yeah!

STYLE / DESIGNER PROFILE

Clockwise - Katrin Weber and Janny Schulte, Carmen dress, SHJ hoodie.

The label Superhorstjansen from Hamburg was launched by Katrin Weber and Janny Schulte in January 2008. In their Basics Collection they set their main focus on sporty, sexy looking Streetwear which is so comfortable to wear that you never wanna pull it off again.

Basic cuts in high-end jersey fabrics with rad details like pipes, attached pockets, twisted seams and cuffs out of that swimsuit material everybody had in the nineties. [Which the two designers found in half forgotten fabric stocks.]

Inspired by Old Dirty Bastard’s lyrics on the WuTangClan Album “36 Chambers” their first collection was called ‘First things First’ and that´s what Superhorstjansen stands for:

“First always do the things that are important.”

In the design field that means of course looks are important but what’s the use of a dress if you don´t feel comfortable in it?

“For me a dress is perfect when you put it on and look goddamn sexy on the dancefloor go home and still feel so cozy that you even wanna wear it in bed and at the next morning you can go out for breakfast in it and still look good”, says Katrin.

‘First things first’ also means to set a focus on ethical values like friendship and honesty in a industry which is full of wannabees and ego trippin´people.

“Diggin’ for gold means nothing if your face hasn’t been lying in the dirt so after ten years in

the fashion industry we know what to do when shit hits the fan. From designing to styling, back to production and trendscouting. in all this our friendship has become a strong foundation and the two of us became professionals. SHJ is about passionate and real people, so if you’re one of them it’s all yours!”

Oh yes we are! -Ed After ten years in the fashion industry they know that you can´t stay friendly all the time but they’re gonna do their best to keep it strictly love love.

They´re not in it to get flossy but to do it right and build a strong foundation with the people they work with based on real sympathy and respect.

So far SHJ have done collaborations wich Dave the Chimp, East Eric, CLP (Chris tue Luca vs. Phono) and a whole lot more artists and musicians in Europe.

The ladies strategy is to make one basic collection each year for ladies and gents which you can order all year plus a very limited mini collection every three months which you can just order online.

There’s no stockists currently in Australia, but with the beauty of the internet, they’re happy to take orders online.

.28.

“In this spirit we can only say: One love - steppin up.” www.superhorstjansen.de www.myspace.com/superhorstjansen Tell us 3 things that make you go Hell Yeah!

1) aerosol & sunshine 2) my boy smiling at me when I wake up in the .....morning 3) “don´t tell mama´s” cheesecake

STYLE / TIPS

1. AND YOU DON’T STOP, AND YOU DON’T QUIT:

4. LET’S GET FUNKY:

Thrift shopping can get heavy on the patience. Come correct, cool and collected and be prepared to rummage through the endless sea of second hand madness. Scourge those racks, dig into those bins! Get your hands dirtayyy and don’t forget the antibacterial gel... Those diamonds in the rough do exist!

If they have a special section for costumes, definitely hit that up. My fave time for thrift is Halloween season! I’ve found some of my favorite things at this time; bring on the retro funk! Think crazy cuts and nasty fabrics... People often mistake these old era threads for costumes which is noooooo problem, long as you can rock it.

2. THE KIDS ARE KOOL:

5. DUST YO’SELF OFF AND TRY AGAIN:

I’ve found some of my favourite gear in the boys and girls section. Teeny tinies can be found here, often mistaken for girls sizes or boys larges.

Tight little spandex and leotards, sexy half tops, cute tees, boys jerseys etc. etc. Lots of goods here...

Don’t be disappointed if you don’t score this time, there is always next time; tomorrow, next week, next month or just hit up the next spot... These stores put out 1000’s of new items on the daily. You just have to get back to do it all over again.

3. DO NOT LAY BACK IN THE CUT:

6. NOT DOWN

If you dig it, buy it. You definitely won’t be breaking the bank to tailor that $10 item into something great. Cut, shorten, rip, and tear. Cut and paste into a fly patch... Whatev floats your boat but come with your creative eye! This is the rare type of shopping where impulse is all good thanks to each item being one of a kind.

If you’re not down to shop thrift, there’s always the vintage and consignment shops! Wink Wink* Specialty vintage shops have already done the dirty work for you. All the hand picking brought to you so you don’t spend your time dilly dallying in the thrift shops. Find these in your neck of the hood or online!!

.29.

STYLE / NEW YORK STREET WEAR

When I think of dope street-wear, nobody does it better than New York!

Heavy colour co-ordination, big accessories, shiny new kicks and larger than life logos- all the while lookin’ expensive, sporty, bright and new.

Fly as fuck with wit, humour and an ‘I am somebody’ attitude.

Hell Yeah’s TASH caught up with four of New York’s premier street-wear labels currently killin’ it to find out their backgrounds, style inspirations and personalities behind these underground empires.

.30.

Creep Street™ is the child of 2 epic dudes with a dream and a dare to make it happen!

moment?

I believe our main focus outside of being visually more gory, colorful, and well more daring with our graphic humour - is the emphasis on h aving fun.

Mad love to everyone doing their thing but I personally enjoy combining our b-grade horroresque exploitive themes, with 90’s radness, and top it off with contemporary references of poor jokes and even more laughable happenings in the media. We gots materials for fucking daysSsss...

Creep Street™ isn’t just a brand, it’s a lifestyle! They combine everything from B-grade horror flicks to skanky chicks and rugged clicks. They love neon colors, zombies, skateboarding, music, 80’s television, 90’s movies, dinosaurs, hamburger helper, bad commercials and basically weird & creepy irrelevant things that are ultimately poor in taste. Heroes include anybody that really doesn’t give a fuck and enjoys life. That is what makes Creep Street™! Nostalgic enough to love, but creepy enough to take over the future, combining dope graphics with dope colors, printed on quality threads paying attention to every freaking detail, just so you know these other cats are just plain busters.

Chip currently just enjoys sitting by the pool and giving me a thumbs up on a good season these days but he always helps point the company in the right direction. Okay that was a lie. He just gives a thumbs up.

I pretty much run this baby by myself and well I informally get my friends around me to just help push the vision and enjoy all the creepy experiences that I share from this brand.

Tell us about your upbringing and when and why did you start a clothing label?

Where is your label sold?

BORIS: I’m originally from Queens NYC & I met my partner Chip (from Upstate NY) when I moved to Boston. We both worked at the same company at that time and clicked like a bic cap. It wasn’t too crazy, he pretty much taught me how to skate, I taught him how to bake, and the rest was history. We were both into kicks and clothes, and were just ins pired by the same shit we both loved as kids. As total graphic nerds we felt that streetwear in general needed a facelift, and well, gripped it and ripped it! He’s out in the west coast killin it now, so I’m still repping this East coast shit hard.

Our number one retailer is of course Karmaloop.com (so guys - do it) We’re in a few select shops around the world such as Orchard Skatesh op, Bodega, Karmaloop Boston, Tokyo Hardcore Love, Bassment UK, Unheard Of, FasinFrank etc.

If

Is this a celebrity question? I want to see your grandmother rockin Creep Street. Serious.

It’s made for anyone who likes to laugh but not for anyone who’s afraid to laugh.

Have you had any formal training in fashion/graphic design?

I studied Graphic Design in college and dated a few girls in apparel, and there was all the training I needed?! *laughs I interned for a clothing company in Brooklyn way back and got thrown in the mix and learned everything there. I can’t speak for Chip but I’d say his come-up was rather similar. Except he dated cuter girls in other countries.

How

you could choose anyone in the world, who would you like to see

wear your label?

Name your top 3 favourite horror films and why?

1. Monster Squad - cause that is the way life should be like forever.

2. Exorcist - shit fucks me up to this day.

3. Slumber Party Massacre - boobs.

is your brand different to other street wear on the market at the

What special marketing/ promotions do you do to promote the brand?

Myspace, your space, facebookin, spam, and of course werd of mouf.

We do it for the kids!

What’s a current trend you’re digging at the moment?

Girls with super deep burnout v’s.

What’s the worst fashion crime throughout the years you’ve ever seen on the streets of NYC? Neon skinny jeaned boys who carry decks but don’t skate.

Describe mad creepy style?

White Snake meets Teen Wolf. On the scene of Thrashin.

Any nut-job fan stories?

LOL well here’s my favourite we received in our inbox. message: “Can you guys double team me? I can suck cock while getting rammed in the ass really fuckin’ good!! You better believe it brothers....and i’m a hot bitch. Hey maybe you could teach me how to ollie too, or do a kick flip 360 off a hand rail with jiz in my mouth. Finish me off then you wimps.

Love, Cock face slut bag whorebo” What do you like doing to stay extra creepy in your spare time?

Taking crotch & cleavage shots of girls I know, and don’t know, and twittering about it.

Tell us 3 things that make you go Hell Yeah!

1) Hell Yeah Magazine 2) Hot chicks who rock our shit 3) Seeing my homies land crazy flip tricks off stairs incredibly intoxicated.

.31.

Cubannie Links,

an independently owned, home based jewelry collection best known for unconventional jewelry and light weight “big earrings.” Launched in 2007, what began as a hobby has now evolved into individual high craftsmanship jewelry pieces and can be seen on celebrities and fashionistas alike.

clipping and documents from 1940’s and on for his band. The film Mambo Kings was based on his story written by his nephews starring Antonio Banderas.

These are the kinds of things that will make my brand so much better. The more I know, the more of my art I can give.

A hint of eras past is found in the CL collection, but new forward thinking and mindfulness of what “THAT GIRL” desires is key to CL’s success. Founder & Designer Annie Basulto has been getting amazing notoriety as being one of the new fresh designers on the Streetwear scene. From Tyra, Rihanna, Salt N Pepa and Alicia Keys to M.I.A and Hell Yeah’s own Queen MC Tash, Cubannie Links are being spotted on every fahion forward around the way girls, worldwide!

How

Wu-tang

fan or

Cuban

heritage?

Both. Wu-tang played such a role in my life in 1993-94. 36 chambers was on in every car I rolled in and every house I was chillin’ at. I saw Wu perform as often as possible in Miami. Like everyone (I think) I had a crush on Meth. Later I was really into Cappadona but Raekwon and Ghost keep the ill shit since the group albums were fading and more solos jumped off. No one can doubt that the GZA was an amazing lyricist. Got to meet him a few years back and he was sooooooooooo sweet, very quiet.

My Cuban heritage is more profound now that I am older and appreciate why and how “I’m here”.

I’m undergoing a major background exploration, starting with creating some family history encyclopedia type of project filled with photos and irreplaceable family documents. So the history of “The Basultols” live on for centuries to come. I will also start to restore my dads uncle, Pedro Telleria, scrap books that contain

is your brand different to other big earrings on the market at the moment?

I admire all designers. I rarely/never “diss” other collections. Art evokes a different feeling to everyone. CL is ready to wear and doesn’t need to have a purpose. You can run to the corner store in CL or host the grammys in my jewels.

My collection doesn’t need a “season” a “color palette” or a “theme.” The quotes are necessary. *laughs. All CL jewels are hand-made and I think that adds the special quality to them.

Are

you one of those chicks with a thousand pairs of hoops and big-ass earrings?

Pre-Cubannie Links I definitely was. Now I have about 4 pairs I rotate and change up every month from my collection. Before I used to buy tons of cheapy earrings and never really wore all of it. I guess I appreciate my jewels more.

Who

What’s

a current trend you’re digging at the moment?

I wear anything if it’s cute...but I would have to say, I’m attempting to keep up with nail trends.

That’s one of my hobbies since last summer...Nail art. I really want to get my nail tech certificate soon.

What’s

the worst fashion crime throughout the years you’ve ever seen on the streets of

NYC?

People who “think” they’re dressed cute, dissing what other people are wearing...when they’re shit is all fucked up. Mean people is a trend that has to end.

Awwww...You’re such a sweetie. Who’s playing on your ipod right now?

A lot of Celia Cruz, my grandmother just passed away and I just need some nostalgic music to think of her. I love Celia, I wish she was my Tia. I have some amazing playlist with my everyday music, but you caught me at a special time.

is it made for?

You, your mama, your cousin, your sister, your gay brother, your kids, your boss, your teacher, your girlfriend, your hair dressers, your manicurist, your dentist, your auntie...everyone.

CL is a non-discriminating non-hating business.

We would never deprive a soul!

If you could choose anyone in the world, who would you like to see wear your label?

The 1st Lady of the United States of America...

Michelle.

.32.

Tell us 3 Yeah!

things that make you go

Hell

1. Spa gift certificate or anything “comped” for that matter.

2. When a retailer makes an order.

3. When a friend invites me to go the beach (Miami Beach preferably) & having cocktails before 2pm.

Princess of the Posse (P.O.P.’s) mission is to create limited runs of fashion forward designs that swing freely between art, fashion, glamour and street.P.O.P strive to use extremely high quality fabrics and oversized, feminine silhouettes always having that NY street edge.

forward people who want something unique with extremely high quality. We are making what we think is hot and hope that people can relate to it and appreciate it. Mostly for women but a lot of guys rock it too, which I LOVE!

I officially started P.O.P. in 2007 with our first tee, the “Bamboozled” tee. I always wanted to have my own clothing line, and finally did it!

One person I’d want to rock P.O.P. ... Karl Lagerfeld! I’d also love to design something for Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I love their music. Her style is her own and she rocks everything from simple to over the top, so I would feel free to design for her with no restrictions.

The strangest place I’ve seen our gear is random Japanese websites selling it.. But we never sold to them! And it’s not a knock off either.. They must buy it elsewhere and jack up the prices.

Did

you have any formal design training?

No design training, but I did go to the Fashion Institute of Technology, more for the business side of things, although we dabbled in everything.

Who

would you like to see in your label?

“Princess of the posse” is a classic Queen Latifah song. What’s the connection?

The

I have always listened to Queen Latifah..

Especially when I was younger. I believe she played a huge roll in paving the way for many female mc’s.

When people just totally overdo a certain look, and everyone is wearing the same exact thing!

They are all like a “cool” uniform. If you rock this stuff, you are automatically cool! 1.

Trucker Hats with Dunks (a few years ago, but it’s still around!) 2. Afghani Scarves (or any scarves in the summertime) 3. The full on American Apparel look ... Other than that, I’m totally open to people expressing themselves through clothing, even if I’m not feeling it, I generally respect their expression.

Who’s

on your team?

The P.O.P. team: Me and My boo- Peter R. Castro... we do most of it all. Just got an intern and sales rep, so that is a plus! P.O.P. is sold online at www.princessoftheposse.com as well as other boutiques. You can see a listing of our stockists on our site.P.O.P. is made for fashion

worst fashion crimes you’ve seen on the

street lately?

How

would you describe

NY

.33.

style?

NYC Steez... There is so much diversity here, it’s hard to say. I do think there’s a lot of crossover styles here. Like most people take elements and inspiration from various genres to create their own steez. Like you’ll see someone who’s totally punked out rockin Jordans, and things like that.

It’s a total mash-up of different styles. But I also think that’s starting to happen globally.

Tell us 3 Yeah!

things that make you go

Hell

1) My daughter, Kimani Dior 2) Really amazing and creative runway shows 3) Wu Tang

Keeping up with New York City’s graff girl turned fashion world darling Claw Money is no easy task. Between her eponymous clothing and accessories line and writing furiously for her irreverent fashion blog www.blogue.us, Claw has found time to inject major brands like Nike, Calvin Klein, Boost Mobile, K2 and Ecko Red with some of her street cred.

Some of Ms. Moneys recent projects include Doug

awesome interns.

Zandra Rhodes for her wild prints and unconventional

Pray’s 2006 graffiti documentary Infamy and her first monograph, Bombshell: The Life and Crimes of Claw

designs, Debbie Harry because she made punk pretty and Joan Jett because no one makes tough and hot look

Where is your label sold?

Money, published by PowerHouse books. The 2007

easy like her.

book, which archives her own collection of graffiti, high

Only in the finest stores and boutiques in the world

style and wild times, is already in its second edition

such as Fred Segal, Patricia Field, Bodega and Colette

What’s a current trend you’re digging at the moment?

printing. Most recently Claw has been on a world tour

just to name a few.

promoting two collaborative sneakers with athletic giant

That no one is shopping, so no one is designing anything

Nike. The two styles, a peacock feather-adorned Vandal

Who is it made for?

fierce.

and lace-infused Blazer are Nikes first artist releases

for women by a woman, setting a new precedent for

Bad-ass girls who know what’s up, cool dudes who love

What’s

female streetwear collaborations in an extremely

the ladies and babies who need street cred.

you’ve ever seen on the streets of

male dominated market segment. For SS2009 she has

collaborated with jeweler Gabriel Urist to create a range

Who isn’t it made for?

Headbands - stop it girls!

Skanks.

Describe NYC style?

If you could choose anyone in the world, who would you

NYC is a melting pot so that’s reflected in its style. NYC

like to see wear your label?

is everything, and so much more.

of peacock feather earrings and pendants in sterling silver and gold vermeil not forgetting her dope 80s

the worst fashion crime throughout the years

NYC?

almost Cazal style sunglasses range.

Have

you had any formal training in fashion/graphic

design?

I would love it if my chic 75 year old landlady would wear I am a Fashion Institute of Technology drop out but I

What’s playing on your ipod right now?

my line and start hyping it up to the elder fashionistas.

have worked in the fashion biz for twenty plus years. I

I’m obsessed with the new Cam’ron mix-tape. He is my

have no formal graphic training unless you count

Where/who’s the strangest person/place you have seen

fav.

painting my name on walls “training”.

your gear?

Who’s

My friend just sent me a video of a porn star who’s

Tell us 3 things that make you go Hell Yeah! on your team?

Do

you have many people working

pretending to be Lindsay Lohan in some porn parody

1) Dinner on the table when I get home - cooked by my

of her life, and she has on my glasses in the video.

handsome hubby

Well there is Haley and Ally who both do graphics, Clara

My friend and I went nuts, that was pretty crazy and

2) Waking up and it’s not all a dream

who does Brand and Media Development and writes

unexpected to see!

3) Smelling a lit joint

for you?

the blog www.blogue.us with me, Emily who does PR, Cat our production and office manager - and a bunch of

Name your top 3 style icons and why?

.34.

STYLE

Australia is not the easiest country to buy bamboos, doorknockers or any really big, dope earrings. As a collector of gaudy, massive, fake gold hoops I always get asked on the street where I get my earrings from. So when I heard about the unique DIY doorknockers or should I say, “Gheddorings” Anne was making and selling in Europe, I thought about all the ladies that would get a kick out of making their own, to Anne’s recipe.

“What interests me is the idea of real and fake as this is so important in hiphop! My work mostly deals with the technique of Bricolage, applied to ideas and materials. I like the idea of taking really cheap material and spraying it gold to give it another appearance. Being creative with what little you have is for me one of the essentials of what makes Oldschool Hip Hop so appealing today.

I got the idea of combining the foam with the gold paint after seeing a mirror framed by gold

foam to make it look like a victorian antique mirror,it was so rad!

That was sometime in the nineties! Then a decade later “Doorknockers” came back in fashion although I know I could never wear them without feeling utterly ridiculous. (if you could see me you would know why, I am the whitest of white and look more like a hippy!) So, I started making my own earrings and surprisingly people liked them a lot,so I started selling them at parties for the price of a beer.

You can’t buy the attitude that goes with Hip Hop fashion. I see this everyday working in fashion retail. BOOOORING! The name “Gheddoring” is a reflection of the way European kids like to buy into “Ghetto Fabulousness”.

I guess I would like to add some irony to this trend, the earrings are one-hit wonders; you can wear them for one night and they will make you feel good [I promise!] but they are not

.35.

permanent, the colour will come off and they are definetly not REAL! But they are no more fake than most “Doorknockers”...”

Gheddorings are a trademark of Anne Brenneke - Germany.

STYLE / DIY

1

Materials needed,clockwise from left * Builder’s foam * Gold spraypaint (take the most expensive jjjjone to give liquid gold effect!) * Water spray bottle * Gloves * Pins * You dont need a brush.[ but it looks good! ] * Plastic sheet

2

3

Put plastic surface on the floor and spray water allover as this will help you remove the gheddorings without sticking to the plastic.

If you arent happy with some of the shapes you can shape them by hand right before they completely dry, dont do it before as it will be a terrible mess!! BTW DONT EVER TOUCH THE FOAM with your bare hands before its dry, you cant wash this shit off, not even off fingernails!

Spray some more models- triangles look good or you can try to manipulate the tube by making tiny holes with a needle, just know that the foam will be slower.

Or you can cut the tube off. I do this at the end as it becomes really hard to push.The foam will blow up about 300%,

4

I like to squeeze them together at the top, and this is where the pins go through.

5

6

Now you just have gheddorings allover.

to

.36.

spraypaint

the

Lastly, attach the clips or pins, you can just push them through the ring, it should be easy! And there you have it, one-of-a-kind badass chunky earrings. Gheddorings!

STYLE / CONFESSIONS

I remember the good ol’ days of Hip Hop growing up in Groningen, a city in the north of the Netherlands. It was the post Grandmaster Flash and Afrikaa Bambaataa days. Breakdance had already died where I was from.

The “newschool” Hip Hop was happening: the golden era, 1986, 1987, 1988…

Sky Channel was broadcasting rap videos and MTV (London) had it’s early days of “YO! MTV Raps” hosted

by Sophie Bramley. Sophie was wearing those big earrings you also saw the female mcs wearing on their album covers: Salt ‘n Pepa, Neneh Cherry, Roxanne Shante, Antoinette, MC Lyte, Finesse & Synquis, Sweet T, Tairy B… Hip Hop was a underground subculture in Europe in the 80’s. These earrings were the most ultimate, female, Hip Hop, fashion statement ever. They went great with any style, street or regular. If a chick was wearing those earrings, you knew she was down with Hip Hop. I wanted them, too. But Groningen isn’t NYC. There was no chance to get them. And no internet yet to order them.

In 1988 I went to London but couldn’t find the earrings.

I got my name belt buckle and a Kangol instead at a place called “4 Star General” somewhere in a basement on Carnaby Street, where they did have the gold letter initial earrings MC Lyte was rocking on her first album. I regret to this day not having the money to get those…

A year later somebody tipped me about a small earring store in the centre of The Hague City selling doorknockers. I rushed to get there, and yes, two pairs of very small fake gold doorknockers were my first Hip Hop earrings.

There was this girl in The Hague, she was the sister

of a famous graffiti writer, and she had the biggest, fattest doorknockers you could imagine. Through the graffiti grapevine I found out she got them from a store in Paris, called Tigaret. This was a store around the way of Stalingrad, a Parisian subway station, and famous graffiti hall of fame of those days. My next mission: Stalingrad. Tigaret.

When I got there I didn’t believe my eyes: they had so many earrings. I wished to be able to buy ‘em all but had to choose. I bought 3 pairs: Round hoop bamboos, the style that Neneh Cherry was wearing in her Buffalo Stance video and a pair this girl from Two Live Crew’s video Me So Horny was wearing. These were huge gold plated earrings and too heavy to wear a whole day. To prevent the gold plate to wear off, I coated my earrings with transparent nail polish and always wore the same ones left and right.

In my hometown the local earring store had a small collection of Hip Hop earrings around 1990 and somewhere from that moment on my own collection started.

I went back to London for an earring hunt. And found small 14K versions. And a pair of 14K gold crazy big doorknockers. These were much lighter than the fake ones, a relief for my ears.

Back in Paris at Tigaret’s their collection was not so big as it once was, but when walking from Stalingrad to Barbès Rochechouart there were some Arabian jewelry stores selling the REAL deal. Shop windows full. All styles you could ever dream of, just like the ones all the mc’s were wearing. But there was one problem: they were all made of 18K gold. Prices were far from

.37.

my budget. I wish I had taken photos of those shop windows, you wouldn’t have believed it…

Standing in front of these shops I swore to go to NYC and come home with a tote bag full of fake ones. 1993 I did. (photo) Besides painting up a storm in The Apple I spent days at Canal Street watching all the 10K earrings.

Up in the Bronx there was a place with fake ones. That was my place to be. I bought as many as I could, a tote bag full. Most in small and big version, so I could wear two pairs at the same time.

Wasn’t it LL Cool J singing: “I love girls with extensions in her hair, Bamboo earrings at least two pair…” It was the fashion, and in NYC still.

On my second trip to NYC and all the trips after that, I came home with some gold earrings. I think I have about 170 pair all together: name earrings, doorknockers in many designs, oval ones, in colors, with Mickey Mouse, with Nefertiti and not to forget the rams horn- style or the dolphin style.

I have worn Bamboo earrings since 1988 and never stopped wearing them. New York never stopped selling them. I was surprised to see them coming back in fashion about 2 years ago. Unfortunately as a pop culture fashion item; not only for Hip Hop girls. It’s a bit strange to me to see mainstream girls/fashion victims/pop stars walk around with those earrings. It’s so out of it’s context. Bamboo earrings belong to the average black and latino girls from New York, those with extensions in their hair, standing by the bus stop, suckin’ on a lollipop…

Mick La Rock

STYLE

TM

Finally Australia has it’s own bunch of high-end street-wear labels! This issue Hell Yeah! celebrates local street styles we can now call our own. photos:Vicki Craddock stylists: Alicia Coleman & Natasha Dunstan makeup: Cheyenne Sarfati hair: Allegra Battiato models: Nikki & Lachie location: The Alibi Room clothes[in order of appearance]//t-shirt Grand Scheme, tights Alexi Freeman, Nike high dunk Laced //4006 grace jones t-shirt Cylinder, jacket Grand Scheme, jeans Grand Scheme, Nike Dunk high supreme Laced, sequin tux Alice Eve, denim cut-offs Lee, Eqyptian PAM t-shirt The Outpost, Adidas attitude high Laced//spray jacket Restless, Rosie bodycon dress Princess Polly, Nike Dunk high supreme Laced//boob tube bodysuit My Monkey’s Uncle, Puma basket first round winners pack Laced//red halter Tarmac, leggings Princess Polly, Puma baskets, Blank t-shirt The Outpost, jeans Grand Scheme/go mad dress Princess Polly, Puma baskets//yellow t-shirt Stylist’s own, denim dress Princess Polly, Adidas attitude high Laced, cap Grand Scheme, group of people PAM tshirt The Outpost .38.

.39.

.40.

.41.

text: insert writer e photography: insert photographer text: insert writer e photography: insert photographer

.42.

.43.

35 Adelaide St Brisbane, QLD, 4000 Australia P: +61 7 3012 7888 www.laced.com.au

.52.

.53.

Laced invades Team America. Hell Yeeaaah! photos:Vicki Craddock stylists: Alicia Coleman & Natasha Dunstan makeup: Cheyenne Sarfati hair: Allegra Battiato models: Alexis & Tash location: Laced Sneaker Culture Store clothes[in order of appearance]//kraftwerk Mishka sweater Laced, tights Stylist’s own, earrings Cubannie Links, Supra TK Society kicks Laced//Gucci scarf Model’s own, Kiks TYO flave & Dmc t-shirt Laced, jeans Wrangler, jacket Adidas, Adidas Instinct high kicks Laced, earrings Model’s own// 10Deep Big Bucks jacket Laced, Crooks & Castles ‘God Guns & Murder’ t-shirt Laced, tights Princess of the Posse,Nike Flight Lite High kicks Laced, earrings Stylist’s own//Crooks & Castles ‘Coco’ crew Laced, lycra tights Stylist’s own, Nike Structure Triax ‘91 kicks Laced, doorknockers Stylist’s own//10Deep New World Order crew Laced, jeans Lower, Eclat Le Coq Sportif kicks Laced, Chanel scarf Stylist’s own, earrings Model’s own//Hellz Bellz ‘kill for thrills’ hoodie Laced, Hellz Bellz t-shirt Laced, skirt Model’s own, Adidas Ecstasy High kicks Laced, earrings & tights Stylist’s own

.54.

.56.

.57.

Back patches by (in no particular order) Cutmaster GB, Tuf Tim,Venz, Rosy, Foxy, Curly, & Spice.

.58.

.59.

SOUNDS

When did you start performing?

Tell us about your crew...[eric, your sisters etc]

I was in a rap/punk band called The Pussies with 3 other girls in 2002. We were a motley crew, made up of Samoan, Balinese, Maori and Indian. We were all pretty young and crazy. I got my nickname Coco Solid around this time and after the band broke up in 2003 I stuck with it cos everyone called me that. I was always the homegirl of the group i guess. I went on to do live shows with my favourite electro DJ Erik Ultimate and he turned out to be a great deepvoiced rapper/writer and was my partner in crime for awhile. I never knew it would evolve and I would go on to do some of the shows and tours that I have done - life is mental!

Friends and family are a big part of it for me, but I’m side-project bonkers too. Theres Erik Ultimate, my DJ Han Baby, our punk producer ALC5 and I’ve recently started working with Robin Hannibal from Denmark. We’ve got a project called The Parallel Dance Ensemble, its 80’s rap with disco and a bit of new-wave in there.

Thats my focus right now. I rap with my three sisters Hayley J, She-Wizard and Baby Steps.

We’re a musical family. I make music with my friends overseas too- rappers and producers all over the world who I’ve met along the way like Pepepe in Mexico and Violet in Portugal. I also have a punk thing in the background called ‘Bad .60.

Energy’ which is me and my local homeboys Hemi & Sam. I love maintaining the underground music while grinding on a hip hop level too. It chills out the bullshit a bit!

Your music is a blend of hip hop, punk, electro and miami bass booty music...who/what are some of your musical influences?

Oh god. I love music, its a big part of who i am - as a fan and as a maker. I love hip hop. Dirty, clean, back-packer, club-banger, old-school, futuristic, dudes, girl-rap, political, commercial, drugs, I’m into it all. Take electro, rock, punk, booty, metal, and you get the picture. I could geek out about music forever and I try to have

that come through in the stuff I make and the diverse projects I undertake.

kind of opportunity for art, film and fashion - it broadens the collective of people and brings new energy to the original vision.

Name

Do

your

emcees!!

top

three

favourite

80s

female

What!! This question is torture!!

Ok. I would say these were from my formative childhood years. I remember being obsessed with three songs. Neneh Cherry ‘Buffalo Stance’.

Dimples D ‘Sucker DJ’ (with the ‘I Dream of Genie’ sample) and basically anything from Salt & Peppa. (I also think Grace Jones and Debbie Harry are totally under-rated for their cryptic contributions). I got into the old school stuff when I was a teenager. Roxanne Shante definitely influenced me.

I

EP “Graffiti Initially I peeped it coz I was intrigued by the title, and when I listened to it I fell in love with your old school 80s NY aesthetics and raw, playful, simplistic flow. I couldn’t believe it came outta N.Z! First things first, do you write graffiti? bought your superfresh pink vinyl

girls for life” in

Auckland

recently.

Me and my sisters grew up in south Auckland which is one of the hearts of NZ hip hop. My childhood was saturated in graffiti. Under the Mangere Bridge was a magical place for me. It’s almost sunk into the harbour now! We would tag on desks, buses, books but we were no Style Wars, it was very sweet and I have alot of friends who are far more gifted in the craft these days.

As for me, I stick to rapping.

We called ourselves The Graffiti Girls cause it took us back to a more innocent time I think.

And all four of us together as sisters are a force to be reckoned with and we needed a name to reflect that.

Even your music artwork has that DIY/homemade attitude...Who does your artwork? Do you come up with the ideas?

Erik Ultimate does alot of the psychedelic symmetrical colorful stuff and Zelda Murray has also done artwork for me on a couple of records.

I’ve definitely collabed on a couple of ideas but I am so lucky that an artist is never far away in my group of friends. Being a musician opens up that

you collect anything?

records etc]

[sneakers/earrings/

Man I collect everything, its terrible! Records.

Magazines. Earrings. Comics. Sneakers. Jackets.

Books. Vitamins. Lipstick. Awesome gay guys.

Foreign coins. Recipes. Lighters. Stationary.

“COCO SOLID”- the name conjures up images of Chanel meets the thuggin’ So-Solid Crew outta the UK. I gotta ask...Just like me and Lily....are you a Chanel gal?

Yes, oh god yes! Not the whole story but Chanel is a big influence in the ancestry of my name.

I live in an imaginary YSL, Dior, Gucci, LV, Roberto Cavali, Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs fantasy-land. But unless its from an op shop, a fragrance or fits in my palm, I keep my label thing pretty moderated. I do like my Chanel 80’s though. Oh who am I kidding! I love it all.

Generous millionaires, take note!

Women

rapping about sexuality is more accepted

Australasian hip hop.

Why do you think that is?

pretty self-aware and treat life with a joke when it sux. But I have my ‘don’t fuck with me’ musical moments too. Sometimes I like to take a break from the experimental with schtick and remind people I’m a tough cookie and I’ve been through alot. Some stuff on a political level is there to be rapped about, its your obligation I think. In a sense my very existence as an independent multi-cultural female rapper/producer is a bit serious. So I make sure I have fun with the responsibility.

Tell

us about your you-tube video with

of the

Conchords

Flight

which to this day has had

over half a million hits. How did you hook up with these guys?

Jermaine and Bret are amazing. Really low-key like most New Zealand bands on the struggle I guess haha.

I met them through a friend and we were in Texas at the same time which is how the video came about. It was pretty casual and for an old doco of theirs. I had no idea a year later they were going to be that scarily huge! Half a million hits to watch me rap half asleep in the street still cracks me up.

in electro than

One of the founders of NYC electroclash Larry Tee once said electro excited him more than hip hop because it allowed for more women leadership. Peaches, Princess Superstar, Fischerspooner, Chicks On Speed, The Roger Sisters, Le Tigre... these were all women and they took all different angles and avenues when expressing their sexuality. That diversity and effortless feminism (they weren’t battling the stereotype, they became the stereotype) definitely attracted me to the sound I think... I just put it into the hip hop I made. It made it more relevant to me and my background and I have never been afraid of mixing worlds.

Some people say your music is a “piss-take”...

Is this true or are you dead serious what you rap about?

Both. A sense of humour has been my biggest weapon in life and it seaps through into my music definitely. Its just what I’m like as a person, I’m .61.

Whats next for CoCo Solid?

I’m recording an album with Robin Hannibal (keep an eye out for Parallel Dance Ensemble everyone!). I have a punk record coming out with ‘Bad Energy’. I’m going back over to Europe in 2010 and I plan to do another tour. Arohanui and solidarity to anyone who gets my buzz over there. X Interview by Tash This lady is going to be a superstar!

You heard it here first!

SOUNDS / GENRE

&

Dubstep is currently smashing sound systems

“I was doing well as a Drum n Bass DJ and producer

around the globe and fusing a melting pot of

known as Eddy Woo, but all my friends were into

different genres and styles together into a new

Dubstep, they were producers and DJ’s n shit, and I was

I went to the states in 2007 with Youngsta just for a

sound that appeals to anyone who loves their bass

going out to Dubstep gigs every weekend with them. At

holiday to California, and I had the time of my life, I met

heavy.

first I wasn’t really feeling it all that much. I kinda got

all these Dubstep people and they were like “Eddy, you

into it in it’s early days when it was all minimalistic, half

gotta stay in LA!” Everyone was offering me to stay at

Australian Dubstep label Aquatic Lab Records

time and deep rolled out stuff, none of it was very up

their houses and shit. I think that was one of the biggest

has been paving the way in Australia having had

beat, so I never really grasped the concept of it too well.

turning points in my life. There was such a hype and

a wealth of top selling releases Internationally and

I was so into my DnB and I felt kinda locked off from it.

energy towards the music over there.

featuring such artists as Rusko, Caspa, Cotti, Zed

But at the same time, I was going out with my friends all

Bias and Truth. Their latest offering comes via

the time being exposed to it. They didn’t want to go out

England’s Seven.

to the DnB because they were so into the Dubstep, you know. So it really came to this point around late 2007.

Like so many people now producing Dubstep,

So

So

what was the major turning point for you?

what was happening over there that sold you?

They told me that Shy FX was doing a little Digital Soundboy party on top of this hotel in LA and I was

Seven started out producing Drum n Bass under

You’re

the Eddy Woo moniker, releasing tunes on both

and producer

his own label Subculture Records and Andy C’s,

influence towards you switching to

Dubstep DJ

already quite good friends with Shy FX through Drum

did he have much of an

n Bass, so we decided to go check it out. I ended up

really good friends with the

Youngsta.

Dubstep?

Ram Records. Frustrated with his direction and

getting chattin about Dubstep with him, and at that stage I had already made a Dubstep tune, basically to

the limitations of Drum n Bass, Seven’s evolution

Yeah, Youngsta is a good friend of mine and I would

shut my friend Youngsta up, because he was driving me

as an artist led him towards the grittier urban

have to say he has been one of the biggest influences on

mad about making one. So I ended up making one called

sounds of Dubstep, offering him the freedom he

me in my life and towards Dubstep. Youngsta never had

“Changing Lanes”, and it was nothing like I am making

was seeking as both a producer and DJ.

the internet in the early days, so he would come over to

now, but it was just something for him to play really.

my house everyday using my internet and downloading

He seriously cained that tune! Shy FX had heard it and

Having recently toured Australia to promote the

tunes. It got to a point where I was getting all these

said I am going to get a few of my boys on it, and I will

launch of his new 12” Dark Passenger/Conspiracy

dubs sent to my house all the time, all this upfront

send you a few of my tunes when I get home to the UK.

on Aquatic Lab Records, Felicite caught up with

Dubstep and I would listen to them all and was like “you

The rest of the tour was Dubstep! Dubstep! Dubstep!

him to chat about his progression from Drum n

know what, I’m starting to actually like this”, because I

I met some great people and had a wicked time, Then

Bass to Dubstep.

was hearing it, in my own time, in my own space. You

when I got home Shy FX called me up and said I am

could say I was literally forcefed Dubstep. So I got into it

going to send you some tunes, and he did, so he sent

mostly by association through my circle of friends.

them over and it was like Benny Page “Swagger”,

What

got you into

Dubstep?

.62.

“Stepper”, “Game of Death”. I was like woah! I got so

specific genre, it was like 2 different styles of Drum n

Yeah I am thinking about it and maybe I will bring that

excited I called up my friend Youngsta and I was like

Bass, and it was never appealing to just one market, and

back into play next year or something. I think with my

fucking hell! This is when the penny really dropped for

I really wanted to make really nasty, lead driven, dirty

own label it might just be a case of putting out 1 x 12” a

me. I was like, fuck! And Youngsta was like, you need

smackers, but what was expected of me was to make

year or something?

to write some tunes now, and I was like hell yeah! So

smooth, melodic tunes with musical integrity a form of

I wrote “Siren” and “Dark Passenger”. Then Youngsta

Liquid Drum n Bass.

Only 1

x

12”

a year?

cut them to dub within about a month and they were absolutely blowing clubs to bits, I was like woah! my

That’s

Drum n Bass don’t do this lol My Drum n Bass was all

being able to play what you’re feeling?

a tough situation for a

DJ/Producer

not

putting out regular tunes with other labels, so I just

liquidy and nice lol, I used to call it posh, my drum n bass was posh lol.

You

thought I should put out a tune a year on my own Yeah, I would get certain bookings because promoters

imprint. Subculture is dedicated to putting out high

would think that I played the liquid but in my sets I was

quality music whatever genre it may be, I think it’s

of

playing the most heinous dirty shit you had ever heard

healthy to have 4-6 releases a year and make them really

have never understood that name,

lol People would book me and be scared of what I was

strong releases.

were renknown in

Ram Records, I

Yeah it’s not about flooding the market because I am

Drum

n bass as

Eddy Woo

where did that moniker come from?

playing, so I felt as though I was always in between two styles. I never felt like I had a true identity in Drum n

So

things are going well for you?

Well it ain’t about wooing women, that’s what people

Bass. But in Dubstep I was like right it’s a new name

generally think and I am not Chinese lol Basically there

and a new thing and it just happened to me that now I

I consider myself to be a fortunate guy and I am really

was a joke, “What would Edward Woodward from the

sound like Seven. It don’t sound like anything else, it

lucky to be doing what I am doing, and thankful that I

Equalizer be called if his name had no D’s in it and it

sounds like Seven. It’s not a merge of two styles trying

am doing well.

was Ewar Woo War”. That then became my nickname,

to battle.

Do

and Shimon of Ram Records and those guys started

you think

Dubstep

has the ability to seduce

people from other musical styles?

calling me names like Ewar Woo Woo and it just kinda

I love what I can do now, I could play a whole set of my

stuck. One day Shimon said your going to be known

own tunes if I was big headed enough lol because I feel

as Eddy Woo, and I was like fuck off mate! I am trying

that there is enough variance there to actually do it. I

I think it already has! I think that now when you’re in

to get away from that and Shimon was like nah, that’s

just love other people’s music too much to ever want

London, it ain’t just a set crowd, now you get so many

what you are going to be called, remember it I said it

to only never play a whole set of my own music. But

different people from different scenes from Techno,

first! And I will always remember the first time Andy

having the ability to play other peoples tunes that work

Garage, Hip Hop, Drum n Bass etc, it’s like a massive

C of Ram Records signed my tune and he rang me up

with the style of tunes I make, allows me to maintain

mixing pot and I think it’s bringing a lot of social circles

and said Woo, what you going to be called? And it didn’t

the right tempo and momentum, and in essence their

together of people that would not normally have met.

matter because that’s what everyone called me anyway!

tunes compliment what I make! People often send me a tune and I will love it so much, and it will be so original

Obviously

a change in music styles has led to a name

change how did you come up with the name

Seven?

Well basically, 2007 was a massive turning point in my

You

recently

Toured Australia How

was it?

that I wont have another tune in my set that I can play with it or that comes to mind, so I will go and make one

It went really well, I especially enjoyed Sydney, without

specifically to fit in with that tune, which is why I made

a doubt the best crowd was in Sydney from front to

the tune “Drop”.

back, they seemed to be more responsive to the actual tunes, because they seem to know the tunes. Closely

life, and I like the number 7.

You

Dubstep

tunes on

followed by the Perth crowds. I really enjoyed the Perth

and with your latest

12” Dark

gig because I got to play Dubstep in one room and then

Woo from time to time, so you haven’t quite finished

Passenger/Conspiracy out on Sydney Dubstep label,

go and play a Drum n Bass set in another room. It was

Drum n Bass, do you think that writing Dubstep

Aquatic Lab Records, what was behind your decision

refreshing to do that. I played 79 tunes in 2 ½ hours I

You with

still

DJ

and produce under the moniker

Eddy

will allow you to draw some of that influence into your

Drum

n

have released a number of

labels such as

Tempa

to work with an

Australian

label?

literally didn’t have a tune left to play. lol The tour has

Bass?

been amazing, everyone that was involved treated me Initially it was Ntype that introduced me to the lads

really well, the crowds have been awesome, it’s been a

Definitely! Without a doubt, although I think I can be

and I played a lot of tunes over the internet to Farj and

dream come true.

more diverse in my production with Dubstep, I felt as

there were quite a few tunes that Farj liked and things

I have always wanted to do this and it’s been a living

though I was pigeonholed a lot with Drum n Bass.

just went from there. I can’t big the Garage Pressure/

dream. I was saying to the tour manager that I don’t

Aquatic Lab Records guys up enough because they are

want to go home!

What’s

unique about

Dubstep?

so professional, everything gets done when they say they are going to do it and everything seems to work

When I first started listening to Dubstep, it didn’t seem unique at all, it sounded like jungle with half time beats.

But it wasn’t until I heard those Benny Page tunes that

What

are your top tunes of all time?

right.

1. Massive Attack -Unfinished Symphony What’s

in the pipeline for the future of

Seven?

shit just fell into place for me. I heard them tunes and I

2 Stevie Wonder -My Chere Amour 3. Marvin Gaye –What’s Goin On

was like right that’s where the energy is. I clocked from

Well I do churn tunes out, I write at least a couple of

4. Dillinja –Deep Deadly Subs

the beats that you could really get some energy in the

tunes a week, depending on how much time I have

5. Omar-There Is Nothing Like This

tunes, I felt that I had pigeonholed myself so much with

really. I think that for me, it’s not just about putting the

6. Snoop Dog – Dog Eat Dog World

Drum n Bass, that I felt like I was caught between the

tunes out. I mean, I have a lot of labels that I want to

7.Biggie Smalls –Sky’s The Limit!

devil and the deep blue sea with it. What I really wanted

work with. I will be working with Aquatic Lab and with

to do in DnB, wasn’t accepted really. My Drum n Bass

more tunes to Tempa and Shy FX will eventually get

was never a vinyl buyers thing, it was a listeners thing,

around to picking a 12” lol

people that liked my tunes weren’t people who would Interviewer: Felicite Pryor-Kang

go out and buy Drum n Bass they were people who just wanted to listen to it. My Drum n Bass was never one

.63.

SOUNDS

“I think the thing that ties our music to breakdancing and B-boys is our love for soul music”.

Intro: Mark Wong In the same way that a B-boy can be recognized by his swagger and attire, Jared Tankel, Budos band’s saxophonist, clearly stands out as a musician.

As DJ Skeme pulls the car around to the side street where Jared is waiting for us, we spot him instantly, and I can’t help but notice parallels to old school Hip Hop fashion. A flipped-up dress shirt collar juts out from underneath Jared’s brown leather Members Only jacket, and tight dark jeans silhouette his thin frame against the yellow lights of the Brooklyn bar signs. Replace his leather boots with Pro-Keds or Clydes and he could easily pass as a B-boy. This riverside street, too, evokes an old school New York flavor.

It’s dive bars, grimy apartments, and slightly dilapidated warehouses overlook a sidewalk dotted with orthodox Jewish elders, hipsters, and sporadic flocks of young skateboarders. If you’re a B-boy, you’ve probably heard Budos’ work before and didn’t know it.

Otherwise, think an evil African James Brown with a tip of the hat to Fela Kuti, minus any vocals. You might not know that the Budos members are in their twenties and thirties if you

judged them only on their sound, which has a raw and echoed vintage feel. You might not even know they were American.

Despite their simplicity, every song has enough treats packed in to, in the words of a Seattle’s paper The Stranger, “make your soul sweat!”

They’re soulful, raw, and elegant in their simplicity, but they are by no means Hip Hop. Or are they? Paradoxically, the fact that they are a throwback to raw funk and soul music might be what makes their music Hip Hop after all.

That is, Budos band creates Hip Hop music the way it was originally intended: unintentionally.

They enter the Hip Hop cipher in the same way that Jimmy Castor Bunch or James Brown did.

These legends weren’t categorized as Hip Hop until the DJ’s played their songs at block parties and jams; DJ’s, not the bands or artists, were the only ones who could put the proverbial Hip Hop stamp on a record. This is the context in which I know the Budos Band, as I, as a B-boy, first heard their songs premiered by Skeme at a Philadelphia battle. Since then, Skeme has played their records at competitions and jams spanning from Rutgers in New Jersey to Rotterdam in the .64.

Netherlands, making the Budos Band a new staple in the worldwide B-boy scene.

Skeme, being an expert on funk and soul music as well as record collecting, was the obvious choice as a perfect interviewer; I came along for the ride and to document.

Below are the most interesting excerpts from our two hour talk session, omitting the particularly deep and involved conversations on record collections and musical minutia. Skeme opens by talking about his favorite Budos track, Up From the South.

SKEME: For me, that sealed the deal. It was like I could have heard nothing else and I could have been like, “Who are these guys? Where are they?” And everything after that I thought was solid too.

JARED: Yeah, that song is the jam, you know?

When we started playing together as [our first band] Los Barbudos, we were more or less an Afrobeat sounding thing. When we trimmed the fat a little bit, cut a couple dudes out, made it more the funk and soul format for songs, as well

as our sound, Up From the South came out as one of the first tracks that came out of us moving towards that funk and soul feel. But yeah, we all kind of knew it was a hit when we got it.

S: That’s

the one!

I

could die today and that

song could be buried with me. doubles of that, and

I’m

Just bury me with Not to gas your yeah, that’s the one.

good.

head up or anything, but

When I play it at jams, people ooh and ahh over it. I just played it in Urbana, Illinois this past weekend and everyone was like “Ohhh...we know it’s about to be on now.” The reaction it gets is incredible.

Me: Did ya’ll get into the Ethiopian scene at the same time, or did one person say like “yo, we gotta listen to this.” How do you guys all stay on the same page?

J: A couple of us knew about it, and it sort of became required listening.

Me: I don’t really know a lot about that scene.

Is that music real deep, or particularly funky? I’m guessing it’s very Afro sounding.

J: Yeah, but the melodies sound much more Eastern than you might expect. The scales they use for the melodies have a more [sings an Eastern, Indian snake charmer-like scale] sound, rather than like a funk or blues thing. I don’t know how that sound came to Ethiopia, but that’s what they were doing in the sixties and seventies, when it was like, “we got some guitars and we’re gonna do our best Fela or James Brown thing.”

Me: I’ve never even heard of that scene. Are you up on that Ethiopian jazz tip, Skeme?

S: I knew about the genre but I couldn’t tell you

like, who is the dude to get.

J: Well, the dude to get is Mulatu Astatke. There are a handful of artists, but his stuff in particular is like, crazy.

S: I remember seeing his stuff getting re-released a couple years back, at Dusty Groove. He’s the only name from that scene that I really know.

J: Yeah, he’s come to be the face of that movement. And he’s still around, too. I’d love to meet him.

Budos’ guitarist, Thomas Brennick, enters the room and introduces himself as Tom. More than a guitarist, he’s also the man behind Dunham Records (an imprint of Daptone) and the Menahan Street Band, which features artists from Antibalas, Budos, El Michels Affair and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. He’s tall, bearded, extremely friendly and casual. He offers everyone a glass of Jameson and joins us in a chair, without the conversation skipping a beat. Over the course of the night, Tom will get progressively louder and more excited, with he and Skeme taking digressions to geek-out about some records or music. Overall, he reminds me of a college buddy, the cool guy on campus that everyone claims as a best friend. Honest and animated, he makes a good addition to the powwow, and we begin to talk about how Budos is popular within the worldwide B-boy scene.

J: Initially, dudes were listening to Hip Hop, and of course we noticed that they were sampling certain records, so that was kind of a lead-in to the funk and soul thing, but now it’s more like we’re coming at it with more, like I said, Ethiopian jazz, certainly funk and American soul tip. And, our drummer and bass player bring the heaviness and rawness of doom metal. They actually have a metal side project as well. So the fact that B-boys and that scene are into this is cool, because none

of our members are B-boys. So it’s cool that this sort of connection is happening; we’re all coming at the music with different perspectives.

T: Get the fuck outta here!

THOMAS: I think the thing that ties our music to breakdancing and B-boys is our love for soul music. Even with our dudes that are heavy into metal, we all share a deep love for music as a whole. Like, the same dude that will introduce us to doom metal bands that we’ve never heard of will also show us a new Parliament track produced at Motown that will totally knock our socks off. The love for the music is all that matters, man. That, and [the fact that] our style always has a strong backbeat, which is important for dancers. I mean, we can love music from the 60’s all we want, but we also grew up in the late 80’s and 90’s, when everything had a strong backbeat. All the samples were James Brown or Parliament or whatever, and that backbeat is the shit. Like, we can love metal, but when we come up with a song, it’s still (mimics backbeat) boom, whack, boom, whack! And everything else that goes on around that, the more we play, the tastier it gets. There definitely is a simplicity about what we do. Less is more, you know, we take that to the max.

T: Hold on, I have it on my iPod. I can play it for you. Yo, the congas in that song are so loud, man. Let me get my iPod for you.

J: When I moved here like seven years ago, I didn’t know anyone to play with, but I knew of Antibalas and Desco/Daptone, and I knew that they threw open mics.

T: That’s lightning right there.

S: And look at where you are now.

We get a sense of Budos’ high quality standards, and of the fact that they are always keeping themselves in check and doing whatever necessary to create a good product. But, the Budos guys are in no way overly serious; talk of Seattle leads us to talk of coffee, which switches to singing praises of Portland. We trade favorite restaurant names, talk about the throwback arcade Ground Control and the throwback toy store Billy Galaxy. Toys segue Skeme into talking about his passion for collecting, and, inevitably, we end up back on records, specifically 45s.

Although, for a hardcore digger, Skeme’s having a hard time remembering the name of one of his latest gems. Tom comes to the rescue.

T: Billy Ball and the Upsetters - Funky 16 Corners.

S: That’s what it’s called! Never You start forgetting shit.

get old, guys.

T: Wow, you have that on 45? I’ve never seen that record before.

S: Yeah,

that one never pops up.

That’s one of Third Guitar - Baby Don’t Cry. That record never pops up. There’s one on ebay right now going for like 800 dollars. those records like

T: Yo, there’s another song by Third Guitar that’s off the hook, man.

Eventually, Tom remembers the name of the song, but I can’t in good conscience give out the title to one of Skeme’s gems.

S: You talking about [name withheld]? It’s called something like that. I bought that record from this guy out in London. It’s a little uptempo, and it’s short. It’s only like two minutes and ten seconds.

T: That song is the fucking bomb. It’s dense, and it’s dark, too. Nobody knows about that song.

Wait, you said you have that record?

S: Yeah, I got it from Jazzman in London. .65.

M: Sing it for me. Have I heard this?

S: It’s

I [all 45s funk and soul party] Hot Peas and Butta. Oh, and it’s got the grunt sounds in there! You can’t go wrong with the grunt. And it’s got a break in it! think

so heavy, man.

I

I’ve

played it a few times.

might have played it at the last

T: Yeah, it’s bad ass, man. It’ll knock your socks off the first time you hear it.

Tom plugs his iPod into the boards and explains that their system won’t do the song justice. As he presses play, I instantly recognize it from Skeme’s last funk night in Philly; it’s one of those once-ina-blue-moon tracks that makes you want to cry.

Sipping Jameson, bobbing heads to Third Guitar, we’re washed over by the evil sounding minor melody, violins, and loud bongos. Skeme, Tom, and Jared are trying to find a way they can link up for the Root Down party in L.A., where Skeme is DJing. Then, we’re back to serial numbers on vinyl and how DJ Young Chris did a podcast for Budos with all green label 45s. Skeme gives them copies of his mix CDs Sweet Soul Sistas and B-boy Essentials Vol. 2, and the conversation turns to mixtapes and podcasts.

T: It’s cool to have a theme. What we did for [Young] Chris was get singers like Charles Bradley, Sharon Jones and Binky Griptite [of Daptone’s Binky Griptite and the Mellowmatics] to do one-liners shouting out Dunham Records.

We had Charles Bradley say “Hi buddy, you’re listening to Dunham Records Radio!” and we had Sharon sing a little. So we had two turntables set up going through the boards and I had all the oneliners on a tape machine reel. [As we recorded the podcast live,] every five songs Chris would be like, “yeah, do this one!” and we’d just put the one-liners in on the fly. It all lined up so well, it was insane. You’d think we’d rehearsed it. If I knew the song, I’d be like, “well, the horns don’t drop for the first eight bars,” so that’s where we’d put the reel audio. It was so accidental! So yeah, we’re trying to get the podcasts to be more than just a [song playlist], with a theme and almost like an MC walking you through it.

Essentially, Tom describes the classic Hip Hop mixtape production, with friends and cameos giving shout-outs or freestyles over song intros.

I smile, fascinated by Budo’s subconscious and innocent connection to Hip Hop, and how their discovery of a way to play records is a DJing tradition we call ‘character’. This is a style that Skeme has been producing since the 80’s, and yet Budos has found this path independently, decades down the line. There must be something about that New York water.

Skeme and I exchange glances and decide it’s time to hammer out some of our prepared questions for the guys.

S: Do

you feel that funk and soul is being

accepted worldwide; is it still going through growing pains?

Will funk and soul ever make it to Brown?

the level of James

T: It’ll never be like that again. But I think it’s definitely well accepted because of Hip Hop. You know, samples, man. I mean, the stuff that they call R&B in Top 40, however, is just awful.

S: It’s not R&B. There’s no rhythm or blues!

T: I honestly think that, for better or worse, it’s

still sampling. But for some reason, it’s just not as cool as it was in the 80’s and 90’s.

J: A couple weeks ago, I did a guest lecture at [State University of New York] Purchase, and in part I talked about different components of music. So I talked about sampling, getting clearances, and working with original artists. So I was playing Curtis Mayfield, you know, Move On Up, and then I played that Kanye West song.

And the students were like, “Ohhhh...” They didn’t realize that Kanye’s song was basicaly a Curtis Mayfield song just slowed down, and then he rapped over it. That is certainly a way that [funk and soul] is around and popular. And through the whole resurgence of interest in that sound that, you know, [Amy] Winehouse came with, it’s definitely around.

S: So,

if you had to go back in time, who would

you want to perform with or open for?

T: I would want to just be in the same room as Curtis Mayfield or Jimmy Hendrix. I would give up anything in the world to just hear a second of Hendrix’s guitar playing. I would probably bust into tears. Same with Curtis; I would be shattered. Because those guys define soul music to me. And Hendrix, regardless of what you say about him being a rock musician, it doesn’t matter. That motherfucker has soul. So soulful, man. He could just talk and make a song. Like, If Six was Nine was the baddest song ever; he was just chewing gum and talking, and it was the coolest shit of all time.

J: It’s funny because I just read this book about the Beatles and their process for making records, and it talked about Paul McCartney making Band on the Run in Lagos [Nigeria] and how his interaction with Fela was sort of fucked up.

But, all that said, Fela Kuti personally changed the way I play music. So, if you could create the ideal situation where...

T: Where we could like, go back to the shrine.

J: Yeah. You know, I’m a saxophone player; I came up playing jazz music. Jazz is cool, and I loved it, but I feel like I never fully got it. I never fully understood the theory behind it. But when I heard Afrobeat and Fela, that just opened the doors to a whole different perspective on how to play the saxophone.

founders of Daptone, Gabe Roth, engineers the record. So he’s getting the sounds. So it’s not like we just hand over the finished record, but we deliver the album. So basically, we have complete freedom; they don’t put their hands in our music at all. And if we had a choice of anybody else in the world to be getting the sounds for our records, we wouldn’t change, because Gabe... well, you know [the Daptone Afrobeat group] The Daktaris record? Well, Gabe is one of the many dudes behind that record and all the Desco stuff. And the shit that he did ten years ago heavily influenced us, and when we were making our first record, we knew that was the guy we wanted behind the board shaping the sound of our record. But never, unless we ask, does Daptone interject into the music or put their hands in it.

Me: How do you keep from being just a jam band?

Earlier, both of you talked about the less is more concept, but how do you prevent that from happening? Like, you know when new bands come out and all the members are just rocking out at the same time, it sounds terrible.

J: It’s easy for us because we have a distinct aversion to that, and what happens in those bands.

And there are a couple people in particular in the band who will raise the red flag very quickly if it’s even approaching that territory.

T: But it hasn’t approached that territory in years.

We’re very conscious of not going into that shit.

And the reason why is because everything is arranged. Everything is simple, but heavily arranged. There’s only one chord in the whole song. And then the conga players add on to that. [plays a chord on the keyboard and then mimics conga sound with his mouth] Everything: the shake, the guitar, it’s all planned out. It’s not just like, “one, two, three, look how good I can play the guitar.” It is all about the collective sound. So it’s about me playing the guitar like it’s a clave.

And it’s about the bass player playing like it’s a conga. And the horns are playing melodies and harmonies. Everything is agreed upon that this is the best way to play it.

J: And we’ll never deviate from that in a show.

T: Yeah, well there are no chord changes.

T: If somebody started playing some fancy shit, we’d throw a beer bottle at them. Nobody wants a show off. You know, we want people to really blow and be expressive, but say what you gotta say in sixteen bars and then step back.

J: Well, (laughs) yeah, that helped. That helped, but also just the rhythmic style of Afrobeat, and the general approach of it all was really fresh to me. And that’s the reason I bought a baritone sax; I used to play alto until around the time I moved to New York. Then I was like, fuck it, the alto sucks. I’m getting a baritone.

J: Everybody has a really clear idea of what their role is. All the members come in with the knowledge of how our band fits together, like, this is why our songs are three and a half minutes long and are awesome, as compared to making the same song twelve minutes long, which would suck or be boring.

T: There was a little encouragement from the Budos boys too. We told him, “don’t show up until you get a baritone sax.”

Me: I think Everything’s

S: It’s

have fifteen minute long songs.

funny you mentioned jazz

-

do you know a

lot about jazz as far as record wise?

The official interview pauses while Skeme goes into a story about how he and a digging pal stumbled upon the 1500 series of blue note jazz records in Detroit, and how a friend dropped ten thousand dollars to buy the collection. Tom and Jared are loving it, and I’m surprised to hear a Skeme story I haven’t heard before.

S: Creative freedom wise, what’s your situation like? Can you just go into Daptone and be like, “yo, here’s the masters.”?

T: We record live in Daptone and one of the

that’s what sets you guys apart.

well arranged, and especially in

terms of music made by young people.

Everybody

out there is a jam band; of course they’re gonna

J: When we first started as Los Barbudos, we weren’t a jam band, but we were an Afrobeat band that had longer format songs. But part of the reason that we got away from that was because we were getting bored.

T: Well, we were trying to figure out what we were doing, and who we were as a band.

J: Yeah, but it was also a decision. It was a very much a decision to move away from that towards the tighter arrangement.

T: That’s a good point, because in terms of Fela’s music, which we are obviously very influenced

.66.

by, every song is nineteen minutes long. But we don’t have a political message that we’re expressing with vocals, or backup vocals, or a call and response thing going on with the band.

We have a rhythm section and a horn section, so you got a beat and a melody. And it’s pretty much this - how many times do you want to hear that melody? How many times do you want to hear the change? Then one solo, then twelve bars, then that’s it. It’s not that we have a formula, but we’re very sensitive to going over the limit. To us, going over that limit is like, cut it out. It’s like trimming the fat off a steak. Like, get that shit outta here.

S: Who

do you think in

America

has that good

funk and soul feel, in terms of new young music?

T: Well, I’m pretty biased because we’re pretty heavily involved in the Brooklyn scene, but I would say the Daptone bands, the Truth and Soul bands, and the Dunham records bands, Charles Bradley and the Menahan Street Band, I think they’re all repping it hard as far as the aesthetic of 60’s and 70’s soul music. On the West coast, I really like Dan Ubick and Todd Simon, who split from Breakestra to start a band called the Lions, who do reggae music. They also started Connie Price and the Keystones, who I like. But I think that as far as the water having something in it, I think it’s in Brooklyn.

We leave the Dunham Records Batcave and the Brooklyn streets are still bustling with that New York flavor, and I again can’t help but picture Hip Hop. Feeling that much cooler for the experience, we say our peace to the guys and exit the Mecca, making tracks for Philadelphia by way of some Roy Rogers fried chicken and biscuits. ...................................................................................

Mark Wong is a B-boy with Sesion31, Repstyles Crew, and performs with Olive Dance Theatre.

He is also a freelance writer and filmmaker.

DJ Skeme Richards is the reigning nostalgia king When he’s not rocking funk, soul, ans Hip Hop around the globe, you can find him making beats, digging for gems, and always eating good food. of everything fresh.

SOUNDS

Railcars is Aria C. Jalali, a tiny 22 yr old Jewish looking dude making infectiousas-chickenpox electronic pop out of San Francisco. His tracks are addictive gems, composed of electric guitar riffs fleshed out with home made gadgets and drum machines that necessitate the repeat function of iTunes. Releasing a couple EP’s under his own name, the moniker “Railcars” was introduced last year to describe the friends Jalali employs on stage.

Railcars’ sound has mutated a lot since the recordings under Jalali’s own name. These early versions of ‘Bohemia’ and ‘There is ice; It is blue’ are clearer instrumentals with audible lyrics, sounding a lot like Julian Casablancas vocals over Death in Vegas tracks. Re-worked for the latest Cities vs. Submarines EP, the songs are more abrasive and filled out; the vocals now sung through a megaphone, drum beats littering what was empty space.

The appeal of this new sound has a lot to do with finding a catchy tune through all the static, and catchy tunes are something Railcars do exceptionally well. Discussing plans for his first album, “Cathedral with no eyes” (to be released ASAP), Jalali expresses a desire for his recorded sound to better reflect the live show.

Watching clips of their live shows tells me the tunes may get harder to find. “My recordings have always been more polished and clean and fancy compared to how noisy or loud or chaotic I prefer the live sets to be. That’s how the music was meant to be really, I want the new one to reflect that. “

Joined by similarly Jewish looking (though I’m told they’re Persian) friends Navid and Fez, Railcars spent February touring Europe, playing shows with Islands, Crystal Antlers and Oxford Collapse. After being home for just a month, plans for a European summer tour were announced. “Yeah what the fuck is up with that?

I guess I’ve just been really bored.”

“Who the fuck wants a plain cd-r?

If people want our songs, they know they can go on bittorrent or some shit and download them”.

Quitting his day job at Google to concentrate on the band means Jalali has a lot of free time. To “keep his sanity” he has taken to creating super limited run merchandise, the latest of which were 10 hand painted cassettes of a live show in Paris encased in yellow felt pouches. Jalali’s hands on approach to merchandising is as intelligent as it

.67.

is engrossing. “Who the fuck wants a plain cd-r? If people want our songs, they know they can go on bittorrent or some shit and download them. But if they want something physical they can have, then I want to make it unique or memorable.”

So delicious are the recordings I’m planning a trip to the states to catch this junk live. Arriving a day before my birthday prompts the question: if I make him promise to throw my 21st in print will he be forced to honour it?

“ I would probably have no choice at that point.

But I would have done it anyway. It’s going to be a lot of fun. You should probably put the date and place in print too, so everyone can witness what a fucking rad birthday we threw you.”

You can hear Railcars online at www.myspace. com/railcarsmusic or catch them live at my 21st October 1st, somewhere in LA.

By Aimy Brandon

.68.

SOUNDS / FEATURE

One chilly Saturday morning in August 1986 something happened that changed my life for the next decade.It all started innocently enough, I sat down to watch the morning music show that was on Channel 7 back then called Sounds, most likely armed with a cup of tea and a piece of toast. About an hour in it happened, Bon Jovi’s ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’ came on and every long haired young Metal boy like me was about to have their world turned inside out.

No longer were we the ugly kids with long hair, no longer were we outcasts of society, no longer were we the music nerds.

Just to back track for a moment if I may. I was already well immersed in all things Metal (and Punk) way before this happened. I grew up listening to my brother’s Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, Jimi Hendrix and Alice Cooper records. By the time I was 10 I was well into it and I loved Kiss more than I loved life itself. We are talking 1975 here guys, Kiss was fresh, Kiss was rebellion, Kiss was AWESOME. And then one after the other came the great bands, Judas Priest, UFO, Angel, Sex Pistols, Van Halen, The Dead Kennedy’s, Iron Maiden, Ozzy with Randy, Dio, Motley Crue, Metallica, Ratt, Anthrax... I had already been in a killer band called SINFUL in 1985 which featured members and roadies who would go on to be in well known Australian metal bands such as Addictive, Slaughter Lord, Kilswitch and Mortal Sin. We basically split because half of the band wanted to do Thrash and the other half wanted to be glam. We are all still great mates to this day.

So anyway like I was saying Jovi hit the television and girls lost their fucking minds! All of a sudden any guy in a band with more than six inches of hair was getting more attention from girls in a single day than they had in their whole life.

It really hit home to me the day I left to go to work and I only made it to the bus stop around the corner from my house before being picked up and ‘looked after’ by a very pleasant young

lady who had been ignoring me for the two previous years. This was crazy! Not only were girls into guys like me, they were aggressive about it as well! It was like living in ‘reverse land’ and believe, this crooked-nosed long hair wasn’t complaining.

By this time SINFUL had morphed into a band called MASK who as you can tell by the photo were heavily influenced by the New York Dolls, Kiss, early Motley Crue and Hanoi Rocks.

“We looked like ugly girls with way too much make up on”.

I was still obsessed with Kiss and Paul Stanley was my God. I think the only reason I got into bands in the first place was so I could pretend to be Paul Stanley in a more noble and less embarrassing way than doing it in front of the mirror listening to Kiss Alive II at deafening volume. MASK played a few well attended shows and there were beautiful girls everywhere, most of us were in relationships with girls WAY out of of league so we were a pretty tame bunch at first and as far as I know none of that band cheated on their girlfriends at all. Things would change...

Being into Glam Metal in the early days was so much fun, girls loved us, guys hated us, Mums thought we were cute, Dads thought we were gay, everyone took notice. We made most of our own clothes and had to go to fabric shops to buys shiny stuff to make tops out of and theatre supply stores to get tights and make up, the oldish ladies in the stores loved us and gave us tips on how to put shit together. I would walk around the streets of Western Sydney with Zebra skin tights, pink nail polish and my hair stacked two feet high wearing A Dead Kennedy’s or Ramones shirt, it was hilarious. At first everyone else was shit scared to be Glam but slowly as more mainstream bands like Def Leppard and Guns ‘N’ Roses became huge it turned into a bit of a Mall Core thing but nothing like the mass appeal .69.

of latter day trends like Emo.

MASK split in the worst of ways and it still pisses me off to this day. We replaced a guitarist and the band was moving forward when we were told by our then “manager” the other guitarist had also left the band also but before doing so had recorded a rehearsal and copyrighted all of the band’s material in his own name, not a bad effort seeing he had not contributed one riff or word to a single song. He stole my songs! Anyway he went off and formed another band who never played a single show and as far as I know he has never been in a band since so I guess he got what he gave, nothing. Bitter? Me? Never...

From the ashes of MASK came STARLET, hell bent on being the glammest of all glam bands and in all honesty I gotta say we gave it a fair shake. We looked like ugly girls with way too much make up on, even the other kinda Glam bands who were around started to distance themselves from us. It was around this time that I really discovered how much I loved pissing off narrow minded people. We would play Tiffany covers and cover the audience in Silly String, get Pizzas delivered onstage in the middle of a set, advertise gigs as slumber parties and have 400 girls show up in all sorts of bed wear, none of it particularly warm looking. Guys would always accuse us of being gay, especially me.

One guy in particular who was all buddy buddy to my face but relentless with his bullshit when I wasn’t around is now married to a girl who really, really, really knows I’m not gay if you know what I mean... Like I said, I’m not bitter.

All sorts of normal band shit happened but most of the funniest stuff was nothing to do with the band itself or the music. Some of the people around us were hilarious, insane or both. Our “manager” I mentioned before used to come into the showers with me after the set and whilst I was soaping up he would run through the good points and the bad points of the gig. After about six months of that he sat us down one day and

Paul Murphy. ( No wonder dad thought I was gay! )

.70.

told us he was gay, the shower chats ended instantly and I felt violated in a strange way for several years to come...

At one point one of our drummers had started dating one of the guitarists ex-girlfriends, a total psycho, listening to two grown men argue for an hour over whether two minute noodles constituted a “awesome Chinese meal” or not will stay with me until my final day, the only thing that would have made it even funnier was if it was at a show and not rehearsal, the make up and spandex would’ve been the icing on the cake.

I used to love all of this stuff and it always made the fact that the band really didn’t seem to be going anywhere that much more bearable. The fact that I was also quite often wearing white high heels and fingerless lace gloves whilst this was going on made it stupid beyond belief, actually at certain times that would have been an excellent name for the band. Stupid Beyond Belief, I like it.

Speaking of stupid we managed to book ourselves into an outer Western Sydney hotel one evening and rocked up to see a army of Harley Davidson’s and Triumph’s outside, this was going to be interesting... We get in the dressing room and half the band were shitting themselves saying we had to go out in jeans and dump the Glam thing for the night. I wasn’t standing for any of that pussy shit so out we went towards the stage in full Glam attire, I remember stumbling at one point because my heels were so high.

The crowd were cheering and the sounds of wolf whistles and fists thumping on tables were drowning out our intro tape. The dudes were going nuts and biker chicks were up on tables dancing the whole way through the first three songs. When the third song ended I introduced the band and told them we had come to rock.

Suddenly one of the Bikers yelled out “Wait on, he’s a guy1” then about three seconds later he shouted “they’re ALL guys!” It was mayhem, the mood turned very sour for the rest of the set and I still believe if I hadn’t been dating the sister in law of the President of the particular Biker club in attendance we probably wouldn’t have made it out alive. Lesson number one, always look into any venue you are booked to play, especially if you are playing pop metal and dressed as a woman.

There were several rules in my book of Glam and number one always was and will forever be, no wigs, weaves or hair extensions of any kind. This was our life and bandwagon jumpers were not taken kindly to at all. Fake hair irritated the shit out of me for some reason so imagine my shame and sorrow when our drummer who feared he was going cue ball walked into our rehearsal room with a massive wig on. He explained the going bald thing, explained he was desperate to fit into the band’s image, explained he was willing to do anything to make it big. We all told him the wig looked awesome and it was a brave and noble thing he had done. By 10am the next morning we had kicked him out of the band and basically never spoke a single word of him again, he was dead to us.

Somewhere along the way the Glam kinda got pushed out of Glam Metal and it got stuck with the tag Hair Metal or Cock Rock. Although I gotta say I survived Hair Metal I was never really a Hair Metal dude, I was a Glam Metal maniac who loved Punk and Thrash and Hardcore and Jazz and Hip Hop. I loved Eric B and Rakim, Public Enemy, the Misfits, GBH and the Jam as much as I liked Tigertailz, Dokken, Tokyo Blade, WASP, Stryper and Poison. I would just soak up any awesome music I was introduced to and I’ve continued along that path for years now. Hair Metal guys are dudes who think they are good looking and wore acid wash jeans and

fringed leather jackets, Glam Metal guys look like bad transvestites and wear shit they make themselves and glitter eyeshadow to hide the fact we know we are ugly. Similar result on the outside but a whole different mindset. I had to set the record straight, I’m a Glam guy, always was, always will be.

I know you are only reading this to get the groupie stories so here we go... Yes there were groupies and yes there were lots of them, I always wondered if really famous bands have to beat girls off with a stick 24 hours a day, we were nobodies and we were swamped. I went from being a 19 year old who had slept with 2 girls to a 23 year old who lost count! Penthouse Pets, Models, Hairdressers, Mums, it was crazy. One girl I remember very well actually lost her virginity under a pool table at 3am at a famous old Sydney spot called the Trade Union Club, can you imagine losing your virginity and getting up close and personal with the smell of beer and vomit soaked carpet at the same time?

Awful.

Another groupie story that sticks in my mind is a stunning young lady who approached me after a STARLET show, she was so sweet and had the most gorgeous voice, it took all my strength to let her know I had a serious girlfriend and wouldn’t be able to help her out. Amazingly she then offered to sleep with the entire band and our two roadies if I would sleep with her first. We were all shit scared, we were normal suburban kids who had decent parents so this was not something we ever even imagined could happen. Luckily Motley Crue’s The Dirt wouldn’t come out for another 15 years so we had no blueprint to go from. Again we declined her advances and she disappeared from our lives forever, I still think one or two of the guys hold a grudge against me for not taking up the offer, I’m just not a multiple penis event kinda guy.

What about the drugs? The 1980’s baby! Cocaine, Trips, Speed. I saw lines of Coke a metre long and enough sheets of trips to cover a house. In the very late 80’s the first Ecstasy tablets showed up and people would give me a handful for free.

Believe it or not I never took a single drug during this entire time. I would refuse line after line after line and everyone thought I was crazy, we were after all being offered all this shit for free. I didn’t care, I was already well into health and becoming a vegan during this time made me want drugs even less. I didn’t even do weed until well after STARLET had split. I guess you could say I was the first Straight Edge bloke in Sydney for a long while. I hated alcohol so our crew and the other guys were always happy to take my share of the rider. Vegan, no drugs, no whiskey, I was starting to notice I didn’t seem to fit in all that well with the other rockers around me. I was also getting into everything from King’s X and Queensryche to Miles Davis and John Coltrane and I pretty much felt the Hair Metal thing was becoming way too common and less Glam, I didn’t want to be a Cowboy, I wanted to be a New York Doll.

So fast forward a couple of years and Guns ‘N’ Roses are the biggest band in the world and my secret little universe is now so mainstream that I actually started wearing my hair back in a ponytail, cut my fingernails like a normal man and stopped wearing make up in the street forever, there were too many people doing it now and nearly everyone was getting it wrong.

My world had been taken over and as usual with anything that gains mass popularity the people who end up in the scene are the last people who would’ve been there back in the day. Just look at what happened with the whole Hardcore, Metal Core, Emo, Screamo thing over the last bunch of years, total saturation and overkill, this is the exact same thing that happened to Glam at the end of the eighties. .71.

In mid 1988 at a STARLET show a well spoken gentleman came up and introduced himself as a Polydor Records employee from the UK who had flown over to Sydney from London to check out another band they were thinking of signing. He stated that we were just what they were looking for and that I should call him in the morning. I called and pretty much immediately he said that the label wanted to offer $250 000 as a buy on and relocate to London to work on a debut album as soon as possible. I was back-flipping in my living room and imagining how the guys were gonna react to this news we had all dreamt about since we were kids.

Then he dropped the bomb, they wanted me and maybe the guitarist and had other musicians and a producer waiting in the UK. It was gonna be a total label invented band with major backing from the get go. I pleaded that we needed to keep the band in tact not only because I believed in the band but also because the bassist was my life long friend and I couldn’t stab him in the back after all we had been through together. I held my ground, I missed out on the deal and I’ll never know what would have happened if I had gotten on the plane with him. I had stayed true to myself and stood by my buddies when they needed me most. In a cruel twist of fate the band broke up less than six months later due to the usual bullshit story of musical differences and the fact that we were all starting to piss each other off.

You can’t buy comedy that good!

None of these bands ever put out any official product although the last line up of STARLET did record a single which never saw the light of day due to the band breaking up once and for all much to my relief at the end of the day. We had started to de-glam a little and were heading into Hair Metal territory and I just wasn’t prepared to be another bad Whitesnake copy band, there were more than enough of them already. I still have some of the clothes tucked away back at my folks house and a handful of photos, some of which you are probably laughing at right now. It was an uplifting, surreal and above all hilarious time which I feel privileged to have lived through, I feel sorry for kids today who think that corporate crap like Disturbed or Mudvayne is in any way threatening or outrageous, that bland musical wallpaper couldn’t hold a candle to a real band of Glammed up heroin addicts like Hanoi Rocks or the energy of the first two Motley Cure records.

So yes indeed I did live through and survive Hair Metal and as you can see I have the photos to prove it. What was I thinking? No wonder my Dad thought I was gay! No wonder all the guys from my football team disowned me forever! I guess it all comes down to entertainment and as one of my all time heroes (and Glam God of the highest order) David Lee Roth once said, “Don’t take life too seriously, no one gets out alive”.

As told to Tash by Paul Murphy.

All photos supplied by author.

Next Issue: I survied a 90’s death metal band.

COMMENTARY

INTIMACY

BY TABATHA ‘MOST OFFICIAL BITCH” MCGURR.

“LETS MAKE BETTER MISTAKES TOMORROW” - I stole that quote from somewhere, by Dolores Haze The dictionary states that intimacy is ‘a close familiarity, friendship, or closeness’. I didn’t frequent the word much when I was younger, it’s not exactly appropriate for children. Sure, a child has intimate relationships, like with their mother, but intimacy is actually much too complicated for a little kid to really grasp. Honestly, it wasn’t until recently that I discovered what it is to be truly intimate with someone. Moments that are so commonly called intimate - like getting undressed in front of someone or having sex -are intimate by definition, but can you really define something that every individual feels differently about?

When I think about intimate moments in my childhood, few come to the surface. I’d say the only thing intimate about being a young girl are your friendships, we go through at least 3 best friends before Junior High and those duets are filled with close moments. You grow up together, develop before one another, and experiment together, almost to the point where this person could be considered your family. There’s no doubt that those relationships had importance and were very essential to one’s growth as a whole.

Besides that though, I had no intimate moments with boys. Even after I turned 12/13 and all my friends had ‘boyfriends’, I would roll my eyes and say ‘it’s just too early to be with someone’. I was aware that these ‘boyfriends’ were just another doll on their shelf – something for the gang to compare & fight over, maybe even trade. I might have also said that because I was different with

boys, they always saw me as more of a friend than anything else, and I tried to embrace it. I went on to collect mostly male friends because unlike the girls, they didn’t stab me in the back over the most pathetic shit.

When I got to high school, I was pretty much a loner, which didn’t bother me at all. I can be very social, but if I had to choose between a very socially exciting life and a life that I could attempt to control and keep in order from the comforts of my solitude, I think I’d choose the latter. Not to say I’m a solitary person, I have friends and a boyfriend, I’m just saying that being alone for me isn’t a dreaded thought. I made one friend, Jessica, she was a few grades ahead of me and something about her was really intriguing. We went to a shitty public school in downtown Manhattan where none of the kids thought outside the box. We became almost inseparable after that and those were the years when I went through every fucking phase in the book. The both of us were suffering from a major identity crisis, like most young teenagers. First we stretched our ears out and wanted tattoo’s, then we went to concerts, or we wanted to fight everyone - really typical shit.

What followed were a series of profound months, so much so that the time line is absolutely out of order in my head. I’ve tried a billion times to put the pieces together, but ages 15-17 are like a bunch of wires underneath a desk. Nobody wants to deal with organizing them, and by the time you look down and actually try to take them apart, they’re already completely intertwined. I blame that on drugs, or more specifically cocaine.

The first time I did coke was with her, neither of us would have done it without the other being there. I guess we were expecting to be all fucked up from it and we looked at each other like ‘this .72.

sucks, my face is numb’. But that wouldn’t be our last time, and there were periods when shit got absolutely grimey. I’d definitely call our behavior a true test of friendship which was and always will be magnificently intimate to me. I’m not proud of the blurred fragments I have left-over from said incidents, like doubling up in the girls bathroom stalls between periods to blatantly do lines off of a toilet seat together, but that had to have contributed to who I am today. If your life was a constantly wonderful thing, what would you have to write or talk about? Without bad, there’s no good. You can’t get a rainbow if it doesn’t rain first.

During those days I had a very strange relationship with a guy twice my age. He knew how old I was, and I never lied about my age – I liked being the only 15 year old at clubs. It scared or shocked the shit out of people, I got to play urban-Lolita.

I’d stroll into bars and get powder-faded, then bluff my ass off to guys, acting like I knew what I was talking about, but really just trying to get a reaction. They all knew I was psychotic though, except for this one guy. I think he knew, but he was out of his mind too, to say the least. We had a brief but ridiculously close affair, he never tried to touch me, there was nothing sexual about it.

What it came down to was these two humans who were absolutely lost and in need of affection.

I was just bordering being a child and a young woman, I hated my body, I hated my braces, my hair never looked good, I was just a mess. The only person who was willing to look past that was someone equally fucked up. I think we had some intimate times, but they were generally fuelled by drugs and in that case, I can’t affirm that what I felt was real. What consumed me at 15 doesn’t even exist anymore, as far as I’m concerned. We ended on a dramatic note, word of our ‘forbidden love’ hit the street and before I could even tell

him to run for the hills his life started crumbling down on top of him even harder. I was just a kid, so I got over it rather quickly. We’re still friends today though.

control it, just start eating healthy and work out, balance’ but you don’t know how powerful those things are unless you’ve dealt with it. Even then, it’s different for everyone.

of intimacy is overwhelming – from eating pussy to being comfortable farting or taking a shit around someone, but I love it. I want to explore every imaginary space of ‘intimate’.

Then my best friend graduated and I was alone in school, I really hated taking orders and doing homework and all that bullshit. I basically gave up, I did what I wanted to do. If I didn’t feel like going to class, I just stayed home or left. The only class I showed interest in was English (hardly) and even then when my teacher would ask for a book report on George Orwell’s 1984, I’d hand in an essay on Alexander DeLarge of A Clockwork Orange. Senior year was getting closer and I couldn’t see myself in the same place, I knew I’d never get out. I decided to transfer schools.

I honestly thought that would be the final great intimate relationship of my life. Any more weight lost would have probably ended me in a home where I wouldn’t be able to control what I had already lost control all control of, and I would have picked death over that shit. I got better though, with the help of doctors and friend/ family support. It was only around October that I was learning to accept who I was, and by then I had turned eighteen (09.02.90) so I was trying to think positively about all the things that would be available to me. I dated a boy for 2 months, my first ‘boyfriend’, but I guess he didn’t see it like that. The one thing I had left that made me feel like I was still worth something was my virginity.

No matter how much blow I sniffed and drinks I chugged, I never lost my desire to stay ‘pure’. My virginity was the most sacred thing in the world to me, representing not only a huge undiscovered gift on my part, but I wanted to be respected, and not disrespect my family. What do you know, the ‘really nice’ dude took my virginity on the night that Obama was elected. Ironically, we had also both voted for the first time that night – for the winner. I was a complete virgin, mind you. Didn’t see a dick, touch a dick, suck a dick, there was none of that in my life until that night. The next day I went to work, truly ‘glowing’, happy with how everything turned out. I watched the clock anxiously, waiting to hear from him. By 6pm my brain would simply not allow me to tell myself that he was just sleeping. He stopped calling and broke up with me a few days later. Needless to say, I lost my mother fucking mind.

One of my good homies from when I was younger was always socially awkward. Very handsome boy, but just a weirdo. One day he got this girlfriend who lived on the opposite coast, but they were crazy in love. I asked him about how things were going and he mentioned something about him missing her and them having phone sex. This was before my current relationship, and I asked him how he could even have phone sex with a straight face on. He said it was hard to explain, something that just comes naturally once you reach that level of comfort with the other person. I couldn’t even fathom something like that.

In this new school, things were different. It’s where they throw all the kids that, like myself, couldn’t focus, or didn’t want to, or were just bored with desks and headings and clothing regulations. It was a really diverse group of kids – rich kids, poor kids, hood kids, Goths, punks, trannies, teenage mothers – and we all got along somehow. But we all stayed our individual selves, since that’s what had brought us there. There begins the most intimate chapter of my life, which interestingly enough I shared with myself.

That January I decided to embark on my first of 2 juice fasts. It was totally random, just a resolution that came about due my continuous self-loathing.

The first fast lasted 20 something days. It was intense. I was entering the loneliest place I’d ever been, where everyone was either another version of me, food, or an enemy. I quickly gained the weight back, which led to the second fast, a solid 30 day job that left me so weak I hardly had the energy to even drink water. After that, I believe my mind had been tainted. All the time I’d spent focusing on my weight and appearance left me scared of food. I was literally afraid of eating.

My Mom didn’t think much of it at first. I’d been less talkative but still kept up a normal teenage attitude. Graduation was so close, I was getting ready to take this big 3 month ‘retreat’ out in the South of France at my grandparents home, just my dog and I. Little by little my mannerisms turned into ticks, which turned into an obsession that on the real, almost killed me. I would estimate the amount of calories I’d intake per day and make sure they were under 1000, but the estimations weren’t good enough. They caused me to have nightmares about eating too much or getting ‘fat’ and I became completely anal about anything involving food. I bought a scale, learned the caloric values for every single food imaginable (this occupied most of my time, seeing as I made a bible) and would refuse to eat any of my 3 meals (timed very specifically) without having cooked/ counted everything myself.

Very fucking long story short, I not only became anorexic, but I was ridiculously obsessive compulsive about it. I no longer spoke to my friends, because what were they going to do for me? Tell me to not do it, like my family and doctors did? After 3 months I returned to New York to meet my whole family at the airport. I was too dead in my own mind to realize what I was doing to them, but I did feel this sharp pain resonating through them when they saw me.

I went from 160 pounds in January to around 101 towards the end of June. I could barely walk or carry anything, I was exhausted, and if just the slightest bit of pressure was applied to my skeleton of a chest It felt like someone was stepping on my organs. The relationship here was with myself, but I called it ‘the sadistic mother’, a term used to describe anorexia that I’d seen in a book. I now use it to describe any addiction – you hate her because she abuses you when she should be caring and comforting, but you can’t not love her, she’s your mom. It seems so simple from an outside perspective, ‘you

Losing it two times in a year isn’t an easy thing to do, plus I was just starting a new full-time job and still juggling my weight issues. Every night I would fucking damn myself to hell for not having died in the summer, I wished to the point of tears to be able to go back and let myself slip away.

I spent this time drinking, my go-to numbing agent for harsh times. I don’t remember that either, just tiny bits here and there. And then, one of those nights I saw a guy I wasn’t very familiar with. I was so over trying to impress anyone that I didn’t put him on a pedestal as I’d done with guys before him, I was just my cryingout-for help self. I made the most menial attempt of reaching out – added him on myspace. Some weeks after that, I saw him again at a bar. I was blacked out on valium and vodka and started just popping pills into the mouth of anyone who crossed my path. When I woke up, I was in his bed. But it was fine, I wasn’t uncomfortable, he was nice, he was still cute, and even though I’d lost my phone, he still called me.

An Irish-American, 10 years my senior and coming from a suburb on the outskirts of Detroit, met my vulnerable child-at-heart from Brooklyn ass – and we fell in love. There was a night, I was still rattled about the shit in my closet, I cried on him in his bed and told him I was sorry.

I was sorry that although he was wonderful, I still wanted to die all alone. I said it over and over, hoping that his grip on me would loosen and that he’d let me go fuck myself up some more. He grabbed me tighter instead, and then I heard the unnatural and rare sound of a grown man choking up and crying. That was when I knew we weren’t going to be like anything I’d ever encountered before. Today I can say with a smile on my face as I type this, that we fall more in love every day. I have never had a more intimate relationship with anyone else, he’s my best friend. Intimate moments are not beautiful and perfect and magical, not until later. They’re usually dreaded, they can be uncomfortable, or they could be completely harmless. The vastness .73.

It’s been over 7 months that my boyfriend and I have been together now, we just got back from a surreal ass vacation in the Dominican Republic. I’m looking forward to getting home and spending the night on the couch with him, stoned and happy as two fucking kids at Disney Land and that chance and insanity brought us together.

There is no moral, I don’t have many of those.

However, I will say that to be truly happy, you have to have been sincerely miserable first. And that’s me, writing intimately.

COMMENTARY

SWINE FLU AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER Report by Raman G The mass media continues to propagate fear and global panic about the latest alleged pandemic in the the H1N1 disease, commonly known as “Swine flu”, but what exactly is going on? And if we look deeper at the deliberate hysteria propagated by the mainstream media, is there a hidden agenda involved?

The answer to anyone not brainwashed by the deliberate lies of a corporate controlled media is of course, yes.!

The story so far is that an out of season influenza epidemic allegedly made its debut in Mexico and then proceeded to sweep the globe.

Alternative media and the conspiracy-minded the world over aren’t buying the fact that this flu originated in pigs in Mexico. They believe that the swine flu is a deliberately planned psychological operation by the elites of the world, in a “beta test”, that is, a test run to see how the globe responds to the fear of a potentially killer pandemic.

When the initial outbreak of swine flu occurred, health officials noted it was a strain of flu never before seen. In fact, it is technically incorrect to call this simply a “swine” flu. Analysis showed it’s a mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Moreover, it is genetically different from the human H1N1 seasonal influenza virus that has been circulating globally for the past few years.

Bottom line, this new “flu virus” contains DNA from avian, swine viruses, (including elements from European and Asian viruses), and human viruses.

“This is the first time that we’ve seen an avian strain, two swine strains and a human strain,” said Dave Daigle, (spokesman from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), adding that the virus had influenza strains from European and Asian swine, but not from North American swine.

First of all, there’s the troublesome detail that the virus has elements that come from multiple continents. Theres the fact that true swine flu is only rarely transmittable to humans - this flu is spreading from human to human, most likely because it contains DNA from human flu.

Health experts say the virus comes from the same strain of virus that causes seasonal outbreaks in humans. They point out that this newly-detected version, which is highly contagious and fastmutating, also contains genetic material from the types of influenza that afflict swine and birds.

The fact that the new virus causing an avianhuman-swine flu first occurred in Mexico – where pigs and birds are rarely raised together, has also raised suspicion that the rare combination of more than two different flu viruses could have been genetically-engineered as a form of bioweaponry.

Indonesian Heath Minister Siti Fadilah Supari has publicly said the deadly swine flu virus could have been man-made. In the past the minister has said Western governments could be making and spreading viruses in the developing world to boost pharmaceutical companies profits. “I’m not sure whether the virus was genetically engineered, but it’s a possibility.” she told reporters at a press conference called to reassure the public over the government’s response to the swine flu threat.

Since 2006, Indonesia has refused to share all of its bird flu virus samples with World Health Organization researchers, citing fears that the system is being abused by rich countries to produce profitable vaccines, which impoverished nations have to buy.

Adding to this, international pharmaceutical giant Baxter was caught shipping a contaminated avian bird flu mixed strain in their vaccines to 18 countries in Europe this March.

***Baxter is also guilty of selling HIV infected blood plasma, causing thousands of heamophiliac patients to be infected with AIDS, during the 1980’s. Ominous also that the same company just .74.

caught putting bird flu virus in their vaccines, and contaminating unwilling blood transfusion patients with AIDS, is coincidentally developing the vaccine, in record time, for this latest virus.

Also, in March this year, Sanofi-aventis, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, announced the signing of an agreement with the Mexican authorities to build a 100 million euro facility to manufacture influenza vaccine in Mexico.

Aventis is the US’s leading manufacture of government stock piles used as a vaccine for the Avian Influenza, recognised by pathogen experts as one of the most likely sources of a future world pandemic.

Officially the first case of Swine flu was recorded in Mexico City on March 18, 2009, fortunately arriving just in time for the World Vaccine Congress, held in Washington DC, from the 20-23rd of April. Coincidence? After all, relative to the entire human population, the demand for vaccines is very low. With a worldwide pandemic however, millions would likely be scared into accepting vaccination.

Many reports exist of the danger of vaccines to health, with countless cancers, paralysis, sterilizations, and deaths attributed to them worldwide. This sharply contradicts mainstream consensus on vaccines, with health officials the world over claiming them to be safe and effective, though evidence would consistently show otherwise.

In 1976, during the original outbreak, the US government wreaked havoc on the American people with their disastrous “Swine Flu” vaccine that killed 21 people and paralyzed another 565.

The mainstream media has also been rife with vast exaggerations and deliberate disinformation on the nature of “Swine Flu”.

While most mainstream news outlets are quoting 200+ deaths and thousands of suspected cases in more than a dozen countries, the World Health Organization has admitted that officially only 46 people have died worldwide, and there is considerable doubt to whether these people have

actually died from “Swine Flu” at all. Compare this to the 250, 000, to 500, 000 deaths per year globally attributed to the influenza virus, or “common flu.”

There is also the problem of the term “swine flu”.

This particular strain of flu, apparently a mixture of strains that appear normally in humans, birds and pigs, has not yet been isolated in pigs, either in Mexico or anywhere else, nor has a specific pathogen been isolated, nor a comprehensive screening process been created.

So what conclusions can we draw from all of this?

Swine Flu is a hoax.

It is a controlled psychological operation on behalf of the global elites to further their agenda of population control, and the ushering in of Martial Law. Swine Flu is most likely a trial test seeing how the global population responds to a potential pandemic. The symptoms of supposed swine flu are indistinguishable from regular flu or from the common cold. It does not cause death anymore often than the regular flu causes death.

This “Swine flu” virus is undoubtedly another man-made virus – a hybrid of part “swine flu”, part human flu and part bird flu. Something like that can only come from a laboratory.

The fear of a pandemic that is being drum rolled in the corporate controlled media is a deliberate tactic to manipulate the consciousness of the people the world over. The various media groups (TV, newspapers, movies, magazines) are controlled by the same group that is in charge of this “Swine Flu” Psy/Op. The pharmaceutical companies, which will reap huge monetary benefits from this hoax, are part of the same cabal. They are working hand in hand with the elites of the planet to carry out this agenda.

eliminated in the event of a global emergency.

6. This Swine flu outbreak we are now witnessing, is merely phase one in a precursor to more lethal diseases, deliberately delivered to an unwitting population, under some false guise, (see SARS, Bird Flu etc), with the underlying motivation of POPULATION CONTROL!

Even Prince Phillip has said it best himself.

“In the event I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation.”

Or in the words of global media billionaire Ted Turner.

“A total world population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.”

Or the infamous former US secretary of state, and Bilderberg member, Henry Kissinger.

“Depopulation should be the highest priority of U.S. foreign policy towards the Third World...

Wherever a lessening of population can increase the prospects for such stability, population policy becomes relevant to resources, supplies and to the economic interests of U.S.” --(15) Yes, the ruling elite want to reduce the population of the world. They write about it in their books, in their think tank documents, in government documents, and at their conferences.

Many of the worlds most influential and richest people contribute millions of dollars to population control organizations, which is in their words, “Sustainable Development”. You won’t hear about it on television news because they’re part of the mainstream media trust, along with AAP and Reuters, which are all owned by the same people, and serve the same agenda.

Why are THEY doing this??

1. The creation of wide spread hysteria and fear and civil instability.

2. Further destruction of the economy by the enormous fraudulent “costs” that will be claimed to “control” the epidemic.

3. Huge profits for the pharmaceutical companies for anti-viral treatments – and potential sale of “swine flu” vaccines.

4. Mandatory vaccinations for “swine flu” which could be potentially contaminated with lethal diseases and toxins designed to damage the health and possibly kill millions of people around the globe. In the event of a global pandemic, due to laws in many countries, resistance to taking the vaccine will be illegal.

5. A rapid ascent into a global police state and Martial Law, in which personal rights are

They add the industrial waste and active ingredient of rat poison, known as fluoride, in your water, causing your brain, liver, and bones to rot and decay. They add mercury, which is as toxic as lead or arsenic, to the vaccines as a preservative, causing autism and sudden infant death syndrome, among several other things.

many of the world’s wealthiest people, top political leaders, and corporate elite, as well many members of the European Royal Families, whose goal is to create a One World (fascist) Government, stripped of nationalistic and regional boundaries, that is obedient to their agenda. Their intention is to effect Complete and Total control over every human being on the planet and to dramatically reduce the worlds population by 5.5 billion people. They are the controllers of the international banks that are currently manipulating this so called “global depression”, from behind the scenes.

They include the Rockefellers in the US, and the Rothschilds who rule the world from the City of London, the Neo-Cons who run the U.S. President, and the leaders of almost every country in the world – who are also puppets of the Zionist elite.

In the event of a large scale Bio Terror attack, human rights are at extreme risk, Martial Law can be installed, and the power to global governments would increase exponentially to combat this latest “threat”. (see Osama Bin Laden, The false “War on Terror”, and 911 false flag operations for examples)

One could see how this controlled and manufactured “false flag Swine flu pandemic”, could be advantageous to a global elite bent on fascistic world domination, where human rights are a thing of the past.

So WAKE UP!! Don’t necessarily take for granted what is passed for truth from the mainstream media. There is an oligarchy of power groups worldwide that have a vested interest in presenting a slanted version of the truth.

The mainstream media, and all corporate controlled commercial television, Hollywood, and newspapers are vehicles for its propaganda.

Develop a healthy skepticism of anything you see that doesn’t quite “feel right.”

Yes, the government hates you and wants to kill you! The Global Elites have been making a killing off war and death from time immemorial.

The internet is a major thorn in the side of the NWO and its deliberate fascistic mind control, so next on the agenda is “control and censorship” of the world wide web. The internet is the last bastion of free speech and there are many excellent sources of alternative media out there that present unbiased views of current events, many of them unreported by the mainstream media.

So who are “THE RULING ELITE”? They, the manipulators of the latest “Swine Flu” Psyops, are known as the New World Order, or Illuminati.

Anyone seeking the truth about Swine Flu, The NWO, or the Illuminati need only open their minds and do the research for themselves.THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!

According to the excellent conspiracy website, educate-yourself.org, a laymans definition of the NWO is as follows,

For more up to date information on Swine Flu, and the evolution of the New World Order, as it happens, go here; www.inforwars.com

“They are genetically-related individuals (at least at the highest echelons) which include

The views expressed in this report are those of the author only. Hell Yeah takes no responsibility.

.75.

COMMENTARY

Part 1 Greetings readers. This is your captain of the night Suzy Lou, coming to you over the loudhailer of your subconscious.

I will be taking you on an arterial journey through the bellows of Sydney’s underculture.

Documenting the lifestyles of the music freaks, the bedroom philosophers, the spiritually disenchanted, the morally bankrupt and most importantly the ones who against all odds, find enlightenment and goodness in the ugliest parts of Sydney’s underbelly.

I am a music producer and DJ, so maybe I see a lot of things differently to the average person because of the job and resulting lifestyle I have chosen. I catch public transport every day to and from my studio to my home at crazy hours of the day and night. I dance in the clubs with the rest of you, and I frequent the pubs with my band.

Needless to say I have a lot of stories, and I see a lot of things that happen at night, when people come out from their comfort zones to seek solace in a sub woofer.

The Sydney beat freaks brave many dark forces when searching for that perfect beat. When their drugs come on they want to be on the dance floor, not be stuck in a queue or locked out of a club. But in Sydney, the chances of the latter happening are pretty high. Once you are in the club, the roof is dripping sweat like a council worker in the sun, the toilets have no paper, to get a drink you must endure “no-service periods” and it will cost you most of next weeks pay to shout your mates a round.

Leisure time comes at a premium in the largest city in Australia. Cost of living is amongst the highest in the world. Traffic is abysmal, and the public transport system rife with corruption

and bad investments. Yet somehow most of us manage to get from one side to the other (of course after paying a toll) and find tricks to get to work on time. So when leisure time comes round, it will be enjoyed, and to hell with the cost, right?

But this is precisely what is being denied us.

Every time a bouncer pushes a kid around unprovoked, every time a group of guys get refused entry for “not having enough girls” with them, or when large swathes of music lovers get locked out of a venue after having paid the full price of entry, our leisure time gets eaten away, eroded like sand on Bondi Beach.

But of course this is all in the name of safety on the streets. Ask our Premier Nathan Rees, he is a real champion for safety. I wrote to him expressing my outrage at the frustrating situation for those who seek to spend their leisure time at music events or dancing at clubs. He wrote me a long letter back saying a strong police presence is what is needed. Exactly the kind of thing I want to see when I go out to have a fun night is a league of police with sniffer dogs, ready to check up my skirt for illegals.

But Nathan Rees is right about one thing, the streets are a scary place at night, but more like Casper the Friendly Ghost scary than Mad Max scary. On my journey home at midnight every night from my studio, I see the creatures of the night come to life. I know many of the homeless people’s faces well. I know their favourite public haunts, and their favourite public taunts. There is one guy who used to shack up just around the corner of my studio. He was an organised tramp, and had skills too. He had is own power source, fixed appliances and made interesting new contraptions. But of course he was completely mad. Some days I could hear him all the way from the studio, screaming and howling like

.76.

there was a pit of fire in his belly. After he was moved on by the powers that be, the next I saw of him he was proudly displaying one of his new contraptions opposite McDonalds on George St, playing his favourite tunes through a portable PA system he had rigged up inside a cabinet on wheels. Nice music selection too.

But lately the streets at night have taken a turn for the worse. The Martin Place flasher is back and causing strife. The usual mobile phone babble I hear constantly (I don’t use headphones or iPod for “hearing safety reasons”) on the buses has turned to the tales of redundancies, red eyed workers sharing stories of the latest person in their team to get the sack. Very late last night, as i was boarding the last bus home, I heard a guy who could quite easily have been a real estate speculator a few months ago, calling someone to ask for a place to sleep, he had nowhere else to go.

But still the clubs are pumping on a Saturday night. Restless souls looking for salvation in the grimey beats of dubstep, the sweet honey taste of house, the meditational elevation of techno.

To those of you who brave the odds to get your music fix, I salute you.

Suzy Lou *Suzy Lou is not her real name. She maraudes around Sydney in various guises so you’ve probably met her once. Her high school principal called her a social deviate, and she has been trying to live up to that expectation ever since.

She makes music and art, promotes events and regularly attempts to convince Sydneysiders to rise above their comfortable mediocre existence.

COMMENTARY

I Believe the Children are our Future What has happened to the marketing departments, TV executives and creative types of today? I remember my childhood being filled with well thought out cuddly mascots and characters but it seems that the youngsters of today haven’t been afforded the same luxuries. In our contemporary world, these days it seems that Mascots with ridiculous names or a stupid costume are harder to find than veins on a junkie.

Gone are the days when the most vexing question were about why Humphrey Bear wasn’t wearing any pants. Instead we are stuck with perplexing characters such as Grimace. To put it bluntly what the f#*k is a Grimace, the big fat purple thing at the worlds favourite family restaurant?

I mean who was the genius that came up with that idea? Was someone thinking; I know what we’ll do to accompany a child-molesting clown, we’ll give him a fat purple side kick and name him after spending 3hrs constipated on the toilet? Is he supposed to represent the fat purple crap that clogs your arteries after eating a fatty burger? Or does he represent the look on your face after you’ve tried to digest the ‘nuggets’? I’m certainly not a marketing professional but I think even I could come up with something better than that. The Hamburgler I get (setting aside the ethical issues his name reflects that he burgles hamburgers), Birdy (she’s a bird) and the ‘clown’. But Grimace?! Yeah sure he looks like he’s taken an overdose of Prozac, escaped from jail and now trying to fatten kids up at parties but really, Grimace was the best name they could come up with!?

In Brisbane an educational mascot has jumped to my attention. The geniuses within council have put a guy in a big blue water drop costume and sent him to primary schools to teach children how to conserve water.

Whilst the idea is a good one, the name of Wizzy is more likely to open the poor innocent water drop to playground bullying and ridicule rather than spread the water wise message. I can see the hands in the Grade 3 classroom shoot up now as poor little Timmy asks his teacher if he can go

The ‘tards that go boom.

The polite thing to do is to introduce myself I guess, all the better to make you, dear reader, feel some sort of guilty duty to read this most awesome rubbish as soon as you have picked up this fine tome. Unless you’re one of those “oh, I just buy it for the pictures” intellectual halfwits that seem to be the fall out from the cultural holocaust that is post post modernism, [or whatever you young people call it these days]. I’m after the dedicated 20+ minute poo “its the only chance I get to read” utilitarian literati! The plus side of keeping the bulk of your reading material in the w.c. is having some where to perch the ashtray, coffee cup, bong etc, whilst catching up on the latest developments in art, politics, science, whatever, or continuing your glorious 7 year plan to read the latest 3 million page Pynchon novel.

Speaking of science, how many retards does it take to almost kill themselves?

The answer, unfortunately, is two (me and my esteemed colleague DR. Paolo). Recently after a seemingly innocuous visit to Centrelink (Stones Corner boyee….ya feeling me?) I decided since I was in the neighbourhood, to drop in on the aforementioned Dr Paolo. After interrupting what I assume for him was a particularly beatific poo, coffee was made and I began the usual interrogation that goes with not seeing a chum for an extended period. “I’ve been getting into rocketry” he replied producing a mortar and pestle containing what I instantly recognised as gun powder (warning sign #1!). Soon enough, lines are chopped and burn rates are being determined.

take a “wizzy”. Maybe I’m wrong but using a slang word for urination is not the most appropriate name for an educational tool.

Perhaps the most disturbing of recent characters I have spotted (and yes you can tell I do spend way to much time watching daytime and kids TV shows) is called Muno. Sure that name alone is nothing too out of the ordinary when compared to the Teletubbies Tinky-Winky or the Wiggles Captain Feathersword but the costume is something that I found quite shocking.

Muno appears on a Kids program called Yo Gabba Gabba, whose name is bizarrely derived from the Ramones classic song Pinhead (Gabba Gabba Hey) and in my personal opinion the Ramones may not necessarily be the best role models for pre-school aged children. But the really terrifying part is that Muno looks like a giant red one-eyed dildo with a severe case of genital warts. I can tell you that getting up in the morning with a severe hangover only to switch on the TV and see DJ Lance Rock laying down some beats so that a talking warted dildo can rhyme over the top is a truly scary thing! Not to mention Biz Markie’s involvement!

Sure Colleges in the United States have a long tradition in creating strange characters and mascots [for example Scottsdale Community College’s, Artie the Fighting Artichoke or North Carolina School of Art’s, Fighting Pickle but considering they were probably high and listening to the Dave Matthews Band at the time, this is of no real surprise.

The really disturbing trend is the way poorly conceived mascots are influencing the kids of today. In the words of Homer Simpson, “Please won’t someone think of the Children” WHINGE BY MICHAEL KING

Gunpowder is a reasonably safe substance..(you have to be pretty fucking cavalier to do any damage to yourself) and is made from sulphur potassium and charcoal,it burns slowly, is safe (duh) and consequently only fun for so long. Satisfied with our work thus far we then moved on to “solid” fuel (warning sign #2)..sulphur potassium and sugar is an entirely different beast..we decide to start small (1/2 kg!!) mix grind melt and set…easy.

Out to the back yard saucepan on burner- stir…stir…stir…(this whole time with my head right over the pot) …and...nothing! After maybe half an hour of cooking, it still hadn’t melted.”Stand aside” says the good doctor and no sooner had he stuck the spoon in for a stir, then BOOOOOM! Now a line of powder 7-8 cm long burns in 5-6 seconds..in the time it took Paolo to jump back and away this shit was ATOMIZED! No residue, no nuthin’! P had a few minor splatter burns and I escaped unscathed and laughed my arse off.

This is what is called “low end” explosives. Burn rates measured in metres per second…the sort of shit that makes it to the “high end” is measured in kilometres per second! Much, much later a sense of our frail mortality set in and some of the humour value diminished. But what the fuck?..I’ve still got all my fingers and toes! And folks, plans are already afoot for more elaborate experiments!

Pray for me…….. (p.s. later that night I tried to talk to an extremely friendly dog..no joy..his animal instincts told him that as I reeked of sulphur I was the devil) FREAK-OUT BY REKS .77.

COMMENTARY

In the 80’s and 90’s the urban myth of Purple Aki would be used to warn children of a serial child molester who would mutilate and rape his victims. This Purple Aki would then carve his initials P.A into their buttocks.

It was said that the name Purple Aki was due to the fact that the perpetrator had ‘skin so black that it was purple’. It was also rumoured that he would sometimes dye his hair purple and in the dead of night, flail around town in a purple cape, something to the effect of Candyman without the hook-hand.

He was later slapped with a Sexual Offences Prevention Order which banned him from touching, feeling or measuring muscles, or asking people to do squat exercises.

Purple Aki was also charged in the 80’s with the manslaughter of a young man who died from electrocution at a railway station, as he attempted to get way from Purple Aki. Aki successfully appealed on the grounds that it was not a crime to stand on a platform and peer into trains.

Purple Aki was recently charged early this year with a breach of his SOPO and is currently serving time.

So is the legend of Purple Aki real or not?

Kids he is real. Purple Aki is real. Born Akinwale Arobieke in 1961, of Nigerian decent, he was well known as a body builder with a highly distinctive appearance and intimidating height of 6ft 5 in ( 2 meters, nigga is huge!), weighing in at 130 kg.

So what are his real crimes?

While it was never proven that Purple Aki was a rapist and murderer, his activities were of a sexual nature. He would stalk his victims, usually young males, and upon approach use his famous pickup line “Do you work out?” He would then without consent, attempt to touch their biceps or fondle their elbow joints.

Another favourite activity of the Purple Aki was forcing young men to participate in inverted piggybacks where he would let his balls sag on his victim’s neck, his face hovering near their anus, while he squeezed their quad muscles.

So boys and girls, the myth of the Purple Aki lives on and will persist to grow I’m sure, as he continues his pursuits in a more accessible arena… jail, where there is no shortage of men working out.

Evidence item no.1

Three things that make Mad Boots go Hell Yeah!

1). When some one runs for the train/bus hard out, misses it and then is so embarressed by act of trying and failing, they start walking to where ever they were going.

2). When I have the best idea 3). Wearing a Chain mail helmet to used car dealers, and pretending to be really interested in every car the salesman offers to show me.

MAD BOOTS MORGAN

.78.

.79.

245 Albert St. BRISBANE, QLD AUSTRALIA PH: 61 7 3229 5360

dstract81 .com

gran

pisto

la te e - st yle grey - $3 9.95

tee’s n’ shit

www.dstract81.com - tee’s - photography - brisbane based offensive behaviour .81.

LAST WORD DimePiece is an L.A label based around female empowerment and an ode to change. This season’s line is expressed by modern pop art-themed prints and tees with the cheekiest and most feminist of phrases; along with hoodies, sweatshirts, and leggings fabricated with an unusual mix of jersey, mesh and fish net. DimePiece have released a special line of tees and tanks based on American RnB princess Cassie’s new album, ‘Electro Love’.

“Women can do what they want, when they want and how they want, like it or not. Meowww!”

Thanks to DimePiece, Hell Yeah! have four tanks to give away. Simply email us why you’re ‘a cat with claws’ and the best answers will win.

420 Gallery have also given us ten copies of the Australian graffiti magazine ‘Sleepless Knights’ to giveaway. First ten people to walk into 420 Gallery and quote ‘Hell Yeah! is the shiznit’ will win a copy of this seminal graffiti bible.

City Stoppers is an independently owned and operated street wear boutique based just north of Melbourne. Thanks to the rad guys at City Stoppers we have a girls pack to giveaway featuring a Princess of the Posse long sleeved tee, Cash Money pendant and Cubannie Links gold tipped bullet earrings. To win send us a photo of yourself looking fly to info@hellyeahmag.com. Best photo wins.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading Hell Yeah! No. 1 as much as we’ve enjoyed making it. We wanna be around a long time and need your support to keep the mag fresh, funky, original and raw, and best of all FREE! If you’d like to advertise, contribute, model in our next fashion shoot or join the Hell Yeah! street team, email info@ hellyeahmag.com or write to: Hell Yeah Magazine PO BOX 1330 Fortitude Valley, QLD 4006 AUSTRALIA Hell Yeah Magazine also welcomes editorial submissions, party invitations, letters and photos plus music, books, DVDs and other relevant products for possible review, giveaways and promotions. Stay tuned to the website in between issues @ www.hellyeahmag.com, updated daily.

For mail order copies / back issues send $10 AUS or US dollars well concealed to the address above.

This issue is dedicated to all the fallen soldiers in this war we call life, particularly our friends STAER, FLAPS and JEEPS. Rest in Peace. Never forgotten. Always missed.

Until next time....We out!

The Hell Yeah! Team

.82.

Red Bantoo “Yesterday to the Rescue” / CD

Ugly Duckling “Audacity” /CD/ Vinyl

Omni Anti “Black Bird ” / CD

Resin Dogs “ More” / CD / Double Gate Fold Vinyl

Resind Dogs “ Peace And Love” / 12’ Vinyl

Resin Dogs “ More Or Less” / CD

Available Now From Hydrounk.com.au & All Good Record Stores