SONIC SHOCKS - Issue 14

Issue 14/2013

£ FREE

LORD OF REGENERATION

KILLER NEW SHOES, THE DEFILED, BLACK STAR RIDERS, JONNY COLA, THE SWORD, SISTER, ILL NINO, PEANUT BUTTER LOVESICLE, KILL FOR EDEN, THE OCEAN, THE DEAD LAY WAITING, BURLESQUE, IBIZA OPENING PARTIES, VULGARIA, A PORTRAIT OF JAMES DEAN, SCARECROW, BOYS ON FILM, NEKROMANTIK, BULA QUO, PLANET OCEAN, THE KING OF PIGS, PUNK & DISORDERLY, SKID ROW, LIGABUE, KARYBDIS, KVELERTAK, MELVINS, ADEMA, LL COOL J, IRON CHIC, THE COMPUTERS, HATCHET, GROT, HEIGHTS, RETOX, NO CONSEQUENCE, JAMAICAN QUEENS, DALE EARNHARDT JR JR, AT THE DRIVE IN, THE THERMALS, ENDLESS DARK

MATHIEU KASSOVITZ on rebels, heroes, villains and spoons...

AS NEW ALBUM AND MOVIE ARE RELEASED

By Cristina Massei Based on the true events in New Caledonia in 1988, when local Kanaks killed some French soldiers in their promptly repressed quest for independence, ‘Rebellion’ will leave you with a lot of questions. This is what happens when an uncomfortable truth is exposed, bare naked, without colours or superheroes, no poetry or happy endings: ‘thought-provoking’ I guess is the best word to describe a movie of this nature. I had the opportunity to ask some of these questions to Mathieu Kassovitz himself; that only made me want to ask more but soon our time was over, and I doubt it would be enough even if I invited him out for dinner… I hope this interview answers some of the questions ‘Rebellion’ may have provoked in you, but most of all I hope it will make you want to catch this eye-opening film if you haven’t yet.

th

ly n o r o f n o d n in Lo l a v i t s e F t s e be

How did the inception of the film come about?

My father gave me a book in 1999 that was an investigation made by some journalist for the Human Rights League that was a different account of that story from what the authorities had given at the time. I was 18 in 1988, the story that we heard was ‘the official story’, and two days later because of the elections we forgot about everything, but what we heard was that 19 guys killed military and took hostages then they got shot – good riddance. My father gave me that book and I discovered a different aspect of that story, not only that but minute by minute there was a script: the characters were there, the conflict, the universal story was there.

You based ‘Rebellion’ on this report, but you also read Legorjus’ book; how much did his point of view shape the movie? [Philippe Legorjus is Captain of the GIGN, an elite counterterrorism police unit, sent to New Caledonia to negotiate with the rebels. He left the force after the events of 1988] I had to take his point of view into account; I’ve met him and known him a number of years, which we spent together to try and figure who he was. These guys are professionals and don’t let their emotions take over in decisions they have to make and the responsibilities they take when they do their job, so it took me years to try to get through his skin and understand what he felt; but it was not really about him, what I needed was to use him as eyes for the audience to feel what he felt. ‘What would I have done if I was in his shoes?’, that was the whole idea. It was not inspired by him, but his character was almost the reason to make the movie because of what he experienced, the internal conflict that he has to go through. It is something I can relate to as a member of our communities; we’re voting for people that are lying to us, that tell us to do things that we know are not right.

We go to our jobs and do things we know we shouldn’t do that don’t fit right with our personal morale, it’s something I can relate to and that’s why this character was important, but I really made a journalistic work in ten years we got information from everybody. People think the movie’s inspired by his book but it’s not, I almost use the same title [Legorjus novel is ‘La Morale et l’Action’, while ‘Rebellion’s original title is ‘L’Ordre et la Morale’] but he has to be the centre of it because I don’t want to talk about the rebels – we know what they’re rebelling for, no internal conflict, we’re going all the way and if his character wasn’t there I would have to probably invent one, somebody who’s been everywhere.

If you look at the movie there’s not one scene without him: what I used him for was ‘Did you see that? Yeah I saw that.’ So I can put it in the movie, because if he tells me he saw that and I get the same info from different people then he was there and I can see it through his eyes and find the truth. It was very important to use him as the centre of gravity.

So was it a challenge to humanise a character who by their very nature is so guarded?

I don’t care about his emotions, he had emotions but he couldn’t afford to let them really dictate his actions and he’s under orders so it’s not about getting his emotions through; it was about my personal emotions through his experience, to use him as a shell and I played it like that.

Continues on back page

Sonic Shocks

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Issue 14/2013

GOD IS DEAD and so is Black Sabbath.

By Matthew Tilt

Sonic Shocks Ltd www.sonicshocks.com info@sonicshocks.com

Editor in Chief & Creative Director Cristina Massei thewickedwitch@sonicshocks.com

Content Editor Matt Dawson

cygnus@sonicshocks.com

Movie & TV Editor Matt Tilt tilt@sonicshocks.com

So Black Sabbath are back with a nine minute track entitled God is Dead. The track doesn’t exactly build up hopes for the upcoming album, 13, regardless of what 90% of the media have said; it is a droning, lazy, mumbling piece that never goes anywhere.

It sounds like the only reason it lasts nine minutes is because someone forgot to turn off the recorder as the band dropped into some chill down jam to celebrate another massive cheque.

Ozzy recently explained to Zane Lowe that it suddenly hit him that God must be dead else he wouldn’t let people die in his name and this was how he came up with the lyrics which explains why they sound like a bunch of decade old clichés, because they are.

People have discussed this idea for generations; for Ozzy to have finally had his moment of clarity and come up with this shows just how irrelevant Black Sabbath have become.

He also recently admitted that he’d found his way back on the treacherous path to drink and drugs and, while we at Sonic Shocks are not implying he was intoxicated at the time of recording, it does sound like they picked up a pissed up tramp on the way to the studio and got him to read the lyrics sheet.

People are excited about 13 because it’s a new Black Sabbath album but this only proves that people, when in a group of similarly minded folk, are stupid. It is yet another band living off their past reputation and whereas The Rolling Stones had the common decency to come back with the awesome Doom and Gloom all we’ve received from the Godfathers of Doom is a hefty ego stroking session that’s twice as long as it needs to be and nowhere near good enough to cause a fuss about.

Who knows maybe 13 will turn out to be awesome and God is Dead will be quickly forgotten like Soundgarden’s Live to Rise; the one thing that is sure is that everyone will say 13 is incredible regardless of whether it is or not. Why? Because it’s fucking Black Sabbath dude.

Unsigned Editor Dan Balchin

zorro@sonicshocks.com

US Correspondent Denise Bales Britt denise@sonicshocks.com

Events and Nightlife Nelly Loriaux nelly@sonicshocks.com

Burlesque Sophia Disgrace Photographers (this issue) Cristina Massei Ashley Naismith Cathy Hattam LibraSnake Photography Writers (this issue) Cristina Massei Matthew Tilt Matt Dawson Dan Balchin Sophia Disgrace Kristian Kotilainen Cayleigh Shepherd Ashley Naismith Nelly Loriaux David Lees

For general enquiries please contact info@sonicshocks.com For advertising enquiries please contact advertising@sonicshocks.com To stock Sonic Shocks please contact distribution@sonicshocks.com

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Issue 14/2013

Sonic Shocks

Page 3

By Matthew Tilt Rob Zombie the director is much more divisive than Rob Zombie the musician; while the musician has released a series of critical and commercial successes starting with the groovy, horror inspired, sleaze of White Zombie through to the industrial era of his solo career, his directorial efforts have often been criticised for their violence; garnering mixed reviews at best and, in the case of Halloween 2, been utterly panned.

His latest effort The Lords of Salem looks set to continue this trend; offering up another slab of grindhouse style horror with Sherri Moon Zombie in the lead role. As a director you can see the clear influence Kubrick’s The Shining has had on Zombie here; long shots coldly move across wallpapered walls up to a door doused in shadow while a damaged protagonist tries to hold onto their sanity. Even the half-rotted witches look similar to Kubrick’s occupant of Room 237.

Zombie’s direction, despite relying on Kubrick a little too much, has massively improved; gone are the awkward framings or confused movement. Each shot is timed to build tension, never overly relying on jump cuts but using more classic forms of sleight of hand to create the scares on offer here. The influence of Paranormal Activity’s Oren Peli, acting as a producer here, becomes clear as we explore Heidi’s apartment throughout the midway point of the film.

He does wonders with a small budget as well; as we flashback to the original witches of Salem he manages to create a series of terrifyingly grotesque witches, including a cackling Meg Foster, whose back story could have been explored more fully in the form of an exploitation short.

There are only two things that let Lords… down and the big one is Zombie’s writing. Like House of a 1000 Corpses and the Halloween series, his storytelling is a massive weak spot.

Here he attempts to pull audiences one way but his twist is far too obvious and his desire to shock overrides the desire to tell any sort of real story, so we end up watching his wife grip two phallic style tentacles protruding from a mutant baby, we see pictures bleed and witches appear in the corner of the room without there been an ending that gives any sort of satisfying explanation beyond that given via two predictable twists.

In the fact the ending is so half-baked that you feel unwilling to forgive the other mistakes Zombie makes here; which is the blatant nepotism he continues to shower on his wife, whose acting is comprised of wearing very little, swearing and embodying a large portion of counter-culture clichés. Her likable co-stars Jeff Daniel Phillips and Ken Foree can’t even lift her screen presence which likens what her character experiences to that of a mild headache, or not been able to find her keys.

Of course the soundtrack is incredible, featuring The Velvet Underground and John 5, and this is because, while fellow fans of grindhouse have been trying to deny this, Zombie is better at music than his is at film. The best reveal in Lords… focuses on music and Zombie’s best film, The Devil’s Rejects worked largely in part to an pace setting soundtrack that managed to hold the loose plot together.

His new album Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor shows that Zombie has lost none of his musical prowess. The opening groove of Teenage Nosferatu Pussy is as sleazy as anything he has put down in his career while the pounding rhythm of lead single Dead City Radio is as catchy as Dragula or Never Gonna Stop.

In fact this album rates as one of his best and renders Hellbilly Deluxe II as a bad fever dream embodying the same world as Halloween 2 – they never happened, don’t worry.

Venomous Rat…is filled with singles, from the industrial, tongue-in-rotted-cheek Ging Gang Gong De Do Gong De Laga Raga or the squealing guitars of White Trash Freaks; with his sound moving somewhere between the crushing grooves of White Zombie and the

up-tempo club night anthems of the original Hellbilly Deluxe.

The album never lets the pace drop; instead speeding up as it comes close to the end. Where his past work has occasionally took flak for relying on drawn out sludgy riffs, here he strips things right back, especially on closer Trade in Your Guns for a Coffin which sounds more rock ‘n’ roll in just over two minutes than most bands do in a lifetime.

Zombie has rarely sounded like he’s having this much fun on a record, throwing an abundance of crude, grindhouse samples at the tracks and ensuring that everything is equal parts dirty and pomp – carrying that feel of a coherent story through the album. It’s the same thing he attempts to do with his films and yet he can never find the same success.

Goodwill wasn’t too high for this grindhouse industrialist after the unfavourable responses to Hellbilly 2 and Halloween 2; but with his best album in over a decade and a film which, though hit and miss, shows a great deal of directorial growth, 2013 looks like a return to form for Rob Zombie. Whether he’ll be able to bridge the gaps in quality that lie between his music and film all depends on his next projects; though few would argue that he could use some help on the scripting side of things.

After Halloween 2 rumours circulated that Zombie would direct a remake of The Blob, before he pulled out saying he didn’t want to do another remake but it has to be said that this would be perfect. Neither the original nor the 1988 remake carry the same sort of rabid fan base that Halloween does and, with a solid basis to start from, there’s every chance he could deliver a Blob that finally lived up to the high concept.

Rob Zombie ‘Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor’ is out now on Universal Music ‘The Lords of Salem’ will be on limited cinema release in the UK from April 26th and available on DVD from April 29th order now from Amazon UK.

Sonic Shocks

Page 4 Interview by Cristina Massei - Photo Paul Broome Cristina tested Ben and Jon’s (New Killer Shoes) rock ‘n’ roll credentials and got them to give up the gossip on their new album I Ain’t Even Lyin’ and their gig with Adam Ant. So you’ve got a gig with Adam Ant coming up… how did that happen?

Our manager entered us into a competition and we beat like 500 bands to win!

Are you excited about it?

Very excited, it’s going to be great.

You guys have a lot of different influences, is Adam one of them?

To be honest we’re not that familiar with his stuff but our manager’s a big fan of his and we listened to his new album and we love what he’s doing!

Now you’re just back from a European tour with BRAD to a very positive response, is there anything in particular that stole your heart?

The whole experience was wicked and I’d happily do it again tomorrow. We were surprised how nice they were; they looked after us like we were family. For our first proper tour we couldn’t have asked for anything more really Any particular place that you want to go back to?

Germany was really good. Jon liked Italy but I think Germany and Holland were good for us.

We seemed to go down really well over there and hopefully we’ll get back out there soon.

Any rock and roll anecdotes from the tour?

It was a lot of hard work for us. We were always meeting a few people after we played then back on the road again. We got drunk on the bus but nothing crazy happened… but we can’t remember much about it! [laughs] I’m sure lots of good things happened but it’s all a little bit hazy…

Yeah, no one reminds you of the good ones!

We’ve got plenty of bad stories but you don’t want to hear those!

OK, give us a brief history of the band!

Four years ago we all met up and said we wanted to start a band but nothing really happened for a while; then the next time we met we just swapped numbers, met up and started jamming. It all went on from there really. Practicing from once a week to four times a week and playing some local shows – our manager spotted us at a show in Birmingham – now we’ve recorded an album and are about to go on tour again soon. It’s exciting!

What made you decide that this would be your day job and what would you be doing otherwise?

Working in a factory! I don’t want to do that! [laughs] So you’re quite happy that this is happening basically?

Yeah, more than happy! We can turn up, play music and work on the band.

So you’re not a typical punk band/metal band or ska band. Where do you feel you fit in?

Rock And Roll!

Jon: Yeah we don’t like to bottleneck it to certain genres; we just like to keep it wide.

Ben: We like to keep people wondering what we sound like!

So if you were to describe your music to someone who doesn’t know you it would be rock and roll?

Rock and Roll with massive nuts! [laughs] What sort of things do you write about?

Jon: Having a good time with your friends, what happens at the weekend, relationships - good and bad - hopefully you can relate to it!

Now your album (I Ain’t Even Lyin’) is out in April, do you feel more nervous or excited?

Ben: We can’t wait, we’ve been waiting for ages for this to be finished. We were recording it for 9 months and to get it finished is awesome.

Jon: We’ve been playing the tracks for 3 years now and to be honest we want to get this out of the way and move on to the next one!

Does it sound like everything you wanted it to be?

Well there’s 5 different people in The Defiled, and we all come together in the band. Some of us are chilled, some more lively, we just try and project what we wanted to see when we were younger.

You’ve toured with some amazing bands, who would you love to tour alongside if you could pick any one past/present?

Interview by Sophia Disgrace Photo Scott Chalmers Our Sophia managed to get a chat with The Defiled in occasion of their London date in Brixton supporting Gojira and Ghost…

It would seem that you guys have had a pretty steady rise to success since your inception in 2005-what do you attribute this to?

Hard work man! We’ve had our ups and downs, line up changes and so on. I think things have really picked up in the last two years. When we released our album free with Metal Hammer I think that really helped get us attention and get our music out there.

You seem to have a very dedicated fan base; any crazy fan stories to tell?

Well there was one guy, in Scotland, he had had a heart attack, and ripped out his drip and stuff whilst in hospital and came to our afterparty! Not sure what happened to him, we haven’t seen him for a while…

The Defiled are the epitome of the rock n roll image, is it all tattoos and eye make-up or are you more laid back behind the scenes?

Definitely Rammstein; from back in the day, Guns’n’Roses - original line-up - bands like NIN… but we’d like to have our own headlining tour ideally! Right now, it’s amazing supporting Ghost and Gojira.

You have a distinct horror/glam sort of image, do you agree?

I wouldn’t say we’re specifically a certain ‘look’, we do like horror and stuff but then normal everyday life can be horrible enough...

People like to put tags on you...tag us!

Your sound has been described as metal core, death metal and so on, how would you describe it?

I guess that’s for journalists to decide… At the moment we’re industrial apparently, which is ok with us... We just do what we do.

To close, can you tell me what’s in store for The Defiled in the coming year?

Yep, our new album will be coming out in the summer, we hope old and new fans are going like it...

We will be touring, we want to play some new places worldwide.

Issue 14/2013 Both: Yeah!

Ben: Baz (Bayliss) did a great job on it; we’ve learned a lot working with him and fair play to Dan Spriggs!

Who should buy this album?

Jon: Everyone! [laughs] Ben: You should buy it, then your friends, then their friends!

Ages 5-96!

Label or self released?

Jon: We’re on Gospel Oak at the minute and we’re working with Transcend, almost a self release if you like but with help from outside parties.

So what formats will be available – digital/physical/special editions?

Ben: We know that there’ll be a vinyl and CD hard copy as well as download and possibly some bundles. There’s also an acoustic album coming out a couple of months after I think.

You’re already well known for your live performances.

After this album comes out and you’ve done the dates with Adam Ant can we expect a headlining tour?

Jon: We’d love to but at the moment we’re just trying to build a fan base because we’re still pretty much an unknown band. If we put on a headline tour now it probably wouldn’t do us any favours. We can’t wait for the day we put on a headline tour. That’s a goal we’re looking forward to.

Anything lined up for summer festivals?

Jon: We’ve got a few things in the pipeline – nothing confirmed yet.

You have quite a social network following, what are the nicest things fans say to you?

Ben: The nicest thing fans have done for us is to travel from hundreds of miles to see us and follow us around on tour, that’s the biggest compliment along with buying the merch.

2013 is a very important year for you. Ideally where would you like to be at the end of this year?

Ben: Doing our own headline tour.

Jon: Thinking about a headline tour around the UK and Europe.

If you should pick another support or a dream band to support who would it be?

Jon: Queens of the Stone Age. Ben: Or Foo Fighters along with Royal Republic.

Jon: Showaddywaddy! [laughs] Is there anything else you’d like to say to your fans and potential new ones?

Jon: We’ve got a couple of singles available for download on iTunes and Spotify. Tickets are still on sale for Adam Ant as well at the Roundhouse.

Have you ever played there before?

Jon: No but we’ve been there for the Classic Rock awards so it’ll be nerve wracking!

Small stages or big stages?

Jon: The bigger the better!

New Killer Shoes’ debut album ‘I ain’t even lying’ is out now on Gospel Oak Records and available on CD, vinyl or download. Get it from iTunes or www.newkillershoes.com

Issue 14/2013

Sonic Shocks

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an interview with

RICKY WARWICK they’re really great but let’s put it out under a different name.”

It must have relieved a lot of pressure off your shoulders…

Of course there’s been pressure of being in Thin Lizzy and I’ve enjoyed every second of it but obviously I can get out Phil’s shadow a little bit with Black Star Riders and certainly be myself completely again which is nice.

You’ve said that you have been influenced by Phil in the past anyway…

Always.

So which part of his influence are you bringing with you to Black Star Riders?

I think his attitude, phrasing, phonetics and the way he goes about his poetry/lyrics has always been an influence on me; his delivery was so unique and I learnt a lot from it, it’s something I’d like to retain and keep with me anywhere I go and no matter what I do musically from here on.

The music has a modern fell yet still retains the classic Thin Lizzy sound. How did you mange to do that?

I think it’s just a natural step in the evolution of Thin Lizzy with Black Star Riders. You have Scott Gorham whose been in Thin Lizzy for 40 years and his dual guitar sound is never gonna change because that’s who Scott is. Also with me being in the band for 3 years, living and breathing Phil’s lyrics, and Damon and Marco obviously being there we’re gonna bring the passion, vibe, intensity and soul of Thin Lizzy with us but we’re able to put new ingredients into the pot and mix it up a little bit. I think that’s where you’re getting the new sound from.

Interview and photos by Cristina Massei On, what would have been, Gary Moore’s birthday Cristina talked to Thin Lizzy/Black Star Riders vocalist/guitarist about his influence, respecting the Thin Lizzy name and stepping out of Phil Lynott’s shadow.

The new single ‘Bound For Glory’ is out and is probably the most Thin Lizzy sounding off the new album. Are you happy with the reception so far?

Yes, very much! I’ve been blown away by how well the single’s been received by everybody, the amount of airplay it’s been getting has been great. I’m absolutely ecstatic with how it’s going.

The idea of dropping the Thin Lizzy name; was it already there when you were writing the material?

It came 3 or 4 months into actually writing and we started to realise that playing the songs live was one thing but with this being the first Thin Lizzy album in almost 30 years and with Phil being passed away for over 25 years I think Scott [Gorham] and Brian [Downey] were starting to feel that maybe we should let history be history and respect the legacy of the Thin Lizzy albums. Just for the fact Phil was no longer with us and it had been such a long time and they just felt a bit uncomfortable using the name when it came down to it.

We all certainly felt that way, I felt a little bit weird about it too and it just seemed that the right thing to do would be to change the name and move on from that.

From the feedback has it been something that fans have appreciated?

Yeah, obviously you’re very aware of what the Lizzy faithful are thinking and we keep an eye on that. It was getting a mixed reaction but it just didn’t feel right and we just felt we had to respect what had been established and you’ve got to go with your gut. Everybody just thought “We wanna record these songs; we really believe in them and we think

So you’re willing to capture a fanbase outside of the Thin Lizzy universe?

Yeah, we want the faithful to love it first and foremost then we want to reach as many people as we can. We want everybody to be a part of this and come along, enjoy the songs and not just look towards one section of the crowd.

It seems to be a good moment for everything classic and vintage so do you think Black Star Riders will appeal to a younger audience and maybe introduce them to Thin Lizzy?

I don’t really think of us in terms of ‘classic’ or ‘vintage’. It’s just what we do and those are the songs that we write. I try not to put a time limit or an age limit on it. There was a real mixed crowd on the last Thin Lizzy tour; parents bringing their kids along, so I’d like to think there’ll be younger people at the shows as well as older people too.

One of the main differences between Thin Lizzy and black Star Riders is that you don’t have a keyboard player, will you add one for the tour dates?

No. It’s all guitars, no keyboards.

You also said there’ll be a few Thin Lizzy songs played at shows, how much of the set will be that?

It depends; if we’re headlining there’ll be quite a bit but on a support/festival slot we’ve only got 45 minutes. It’ll be a couple but we’ll always play them along with a large part of the new record as well.

You’ve always been a live band but at the moment there’s only the Hard Rock Hell date that has been announced so are there plans for more?

What I can say is that there are a lot of dates booked for a UK/European tour from October – December; keep an eye on the website and our Facebook page for when dates are announced.

Any festivals this summer?

Just in Europe. Sweden Rock is confirmed and a few others to be announced pretty soon as well.

You mentioned in the past that the last Thin Lizzy tour wasn’t exactly a farewell one…

We’ve left the door open, Brian and Darren [Wharton] didn’t want to do the massive amount of road work that we do anymore and that’s absolutely cool but I’d like to think that down the line some one- off shows here and there could happen but our main energy and focus is on Black Star Riders.

Where do you see Black Star Riders going in the future?

We’ll go straight in to record album number two!

Today would have been Gary Moore’s birthday; he was obviously a huge influence on you…

My favourite Lizzy album is Black Rose, which obviously Gary’s on, it’s sad about his passing but I’ve gotten to know his son Jack as a good friend. He’s a great guitar player like his old man and I feel for him; it’s very sad when somebody dies far too young and they leave children and family behind, that’s the people we should be thinking about at this time.

If you had to play a song to celebrate his life what would it be?

Black Rose.

How does the thought of you touring again go down with the family?

It goes down very well, I have a wonderful family, wife and children who I love more than anything in the world and they’re very supportive. That’s the toughest part – being away from them, Skype and the internet helps as much as it can and when I’m home I spend every second I can with them, it’s not the quantity of time it’s the quality of time that works for me.

Any final messages?

Buy our album, come to our shows and thanks for your support!

Just as we go to print, Black Star Riders’ tour dates are finally announced, so here you go...

Fri/Nov-22: Bournemouth - O2 Academy Sat/Nov-23: London - Shepherds Bush Empire Sun/Nov-24: Bristol - O2 Academy Tue/Nov-26: Cambridge - Junction Wed/Nov-27: Norwich - UEA Sat/Nov-30: Wolverhampton - Wulfrun Hall Sun/Dec-01: Cardiff - University / Solus Mon/Dec-02: Oxford - O2 Academy Thu/Dec-05: Inverness - Ironworks Fri/Dec-06: Edinburgh - Picturehouse Sat/Dec-07: Newcastle - O2 Academy Sun/Dec-08: Leeds - O2 Academy Tue/Dec-10: Leamington Spa - The Assembly Rooms Thu/Dec-12: Nottingham - Rock City Fri/Dec-13: Manchester - Ritz Sat/Dec-14: Dublin - Academy Tickets are onsale via an exclusive PLANET ROCK Presale on Monday April 29th at 9am UK time via www.planetrock. com/blackstarriders and then on general on sale on Thursday May 2nd through all normal outlets and agents.

Dublin is on sale Friday April 26th at 9am.

Tickets are priced at 22.50 GBP (25.00 GBP London) subject to booking fees. Dublin is 25.00 Euro inc Booking Fee. VIP Packages available for all shows - including meet and greet and special acoustic performance – available from April 29th via the VIP package link at: http://www. blackstarriders.com/

Kill For Eden debut album out May 6th www.killforeden.com

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Sonic Shocks

Issue 14/2013 I hear it’s a rather filthy one… Any anticipation? Any particularly filthy song we should know about?

JONNY: Oh, plenty of anticipation, always with the anticipation... Blow Up is probably the most obviously obscene one on there. That seems to be going down well live, appropriately enough.

When is it going to be released and in which formats this time?

JONNY: The release is pencilled for early September. The formats rather depend, to be honest. Jez, what do you think we should release it on?

JEZ: 8-track cartridge and cassette.

JONNY: I see. Well, we’re going to be launching a campaign on either Kickstarter or Pledgemusic over the next few weeks to help raise funds for the release and a couple more videos, so maybe we can offer 8-track cartridge in return for a preposterous sum of money. Even more money than the naked calendar.

Interview by Cristina Massei – Photo Nikki Q It’s been a long year for Jonny Cola & The A-Grades – especially for Jonny Cola, today the proud owner of one of his girlfriend’s Heidi’s kidney after a hell of a health scare. Clearly, none of them has lost his sense of humour in the process, or their lust for life, or lust in general…

As a Londoner I loved the Marlborough Road video, the whole changing out of a suitcase as you’re crossing the river… What’s the difference between North and South of the river for you?

JONNY: I grew up on the edge of South London, in one of those areas with an identity crisis. Is it London or is it Surrey? Whatever it is, it’s fucking dull, so I got the hell out and went to Brighton.

When I moved back to London, my main aim was to be nowhere near where I’d lived before, so I hung around Archway for a good while.

A few years ago, I ended up back dahn sarf in Camberwell, mainly cos Mauro lived down the road. It’s good - fewer tourists and the posh types are fractionally less obnoxious. I don’t know what all the fuss is about really.

MARCO: The North has more Tube stations and music venues. Must be better?

MAURO: In South London you get less north Londoners (most of whom are from elsewhere anyway) moaning about the lack of Tube.

JONNY: This is a fairly typical exchange.

One of the things you get out of the suitcase is a vinyl record; you look at it and throw it away.

Considering your love for physical releases – in fact you’re back to vinyl with this single - is there a particular meaning to that?

MAURO: Didn’t Cola throw a record away in the video for The Party’s Over? I think it’s just one of his “things”. Or maybe it’s his way of tidying up. ;) MARCO: No idea - remember, I was working my way through that rum bottle.

JONNY: Jez, tell them...

JEZ: It’s a little nod to one of our last videos, The Interview by Sophia Disgrace I caught up with Kyle from The Sword to chat about comics and Wayne’s World - of course!

Can you remember the first album bought and do you still like /listen to it now?

First album I bought, with my own money was the Wayne’s World soundtrack! It got

Party’s Over, where we made Cola throw away his Cast single. He owns a lot of dodgy singles so it was easy to find another one to chuck out of the cab window. There’s also a nod to our last Christmas video (not our Last Christmas video that was Wham) with the Action Man making his second appearance.

Straight To Video is very surreal, with references to The Ring and The Grudge; are you a horror fan, and if so, any movie you’re looking forward to this year?

MAURO: As far as horror goes, I’m a big fan of Rosemary’s Baby, The Shining and Don’t Look Now in particular. I never have a clue what movies are about to come out so I can’t say there’s any I’m looking forward to tho, sorry!

JONNY: Those are three of my favourites too! Also Mum & Dad, for a bit of extreme grimness, and older black and white stuff like the original The Haunting.

MARCO: Isn’t there a new Scary Movie coming out soon? Seem to remember seeing the posters on the way back from rehearsals.

JEZ: We’re more Rocky Horror than horror in general. But we’re all looking forward to the Arrested Development movie, I’ll tell you that for nowt!

A lot has happened in your life over the past year, for a start you now function on someone else’s kidney… How did this change you and your relationship with Heidi?

JONNY: It was certainly a hell of a year, but it could have been a lot worse. When I got diagnosed, it felt insurmountable - I just couldn’t imagine myself on a dialysis machine or having an organ transplant!

Crazy shit. But it’s at times like this that the relationships in your life really prove themselves.

Heidi and I had only been together for eight months, it could have all fallen apart overnight if we’d had any doubts, but instead we just got closer. me into music like Alice Cooper. After that I got into big American rock bands like Aerosmith. I don’t listen to the Wayne’s World album now - I don’t actually know where it went - I probably sold it! But that album definitely opened things up for me music wise!

What’s your favourite movie or movies?

I really love the film ‘Casablanca’. I’ve seen it about 100 times, I could watch it right now! I always tell tour managers and people we take on to work with us on tour and so on ‘ You need to be like Humphrey Bogart!’. He was the man, honest and frank and to the point! I also really like the first two ‘Back to the future’ movies, they have everything: cool cars, guitars… I really love them and their theory of time travel!

Are there any famous people/persons that particularly inspire you?

Freddie Mercury - he really knew how to perform, lots of people probably feel the same way as me about him. The more I research Freddie, the more interesting he becomes; he was a very complex person, very private. I think I can kind of relate to him in a way.

Also, the whole punk rock scene back in the day had a big

It is kind of strange to consider that part of Heidi’s body is now keeping me alive. I don’t think about it that much, but every now and then I remember and put a hand over the kidney to check that it’s still happy in there. It seems to be doing OK so far.

Although the worst part is behind you, kidney disease is still something you have to live with for the rest of your days. How does that change your outlook on life?

JONNY: It’s made me more determined than ever, less willing to waste time and, perhaps weirdly, I think it’s also made me happier. It’s reinvigorated my lust for life, shall we say!

Does your condition limit you in any way (i.e. touring, on stage or just general rnr lifestyle)?

JONNY: Well, I can’t eat grapefruit anymore, but you don’t get much grapefruit in rock’n’roll. It’s not really a party fruit. We’ve been taking the return to gigging *relatively* easy so far, but I’m not particularly static on stage and I haven’t ruptured anything yet. Tour-wise, it’s not a good idea for me to leave the country for a little while, just in case something went wrong. Imagine being stuck in the States and needing hospital treatment. That’d be me bankrupted immediately! But we’re hoping to do a few UK dates (i.e. outside London) later in the year. As for NEXT year, who knows where we’ll end up...

Talking of less gloomy stuff, how’s the new album getting on?

JONNY: Very well!

JEZ: The staff at the Dynamite Jet Saloon are working round the clock to make this album hunky dory (not Hunky Dory - that was Bowie).

Apart from the mornings. Mornings are for lying in bed thinking about what to have for breakfast.

MAURO: I’d say the “debut” album is shaping up far stronger and more confident than the “prequel” album In Debt.

Can we expect a full tour following the release?

JONNY: Not a full tour immediately, because of my health situation blah blah - oh, and the small matter of my wedding later the same month - but before too long, definitely.

Bowie is clearly one of your inspirations; what did you think of his recent comeback?

MAURO: Overrated.

JEZ: Lacklustre. 5 stars! ***** JONNY: It was very flattering that it was timed to support our own live comeback and new single, but I think perhaps releasing the album on my birthday might have been verging on the sycophantic. But cheers anyway.

Thinking of Bowie’s character Ziggy Stardust, make up a Jonny Cola alter ego to be remembered by.

JONNY: Midway through our last tour, staying in a Travelodge on the South Side of Glasgow, we renamed ourselves Jonny Buckfast & The Fuck-Offs, in honour of that evening’s beverage of choice and the way we were communicating by about midnight. Hey, it was punk rock night.

Anyway, that’s me done on the alter egos for a few years, I reckon.

What else is 2013 going to bring for the A-Grades that you would like to share with our readers?

JONNY: If there’s anything the last year has taught me, it’s that nothing in life is certain. In another year, we might be sipping cocktails in an LA hotel or we might be knocking back Jack round at Jez’s. Actually, let’s face it, the latter is far more likely, but the last year has also taught me to be optimistic. The album’s gonna be awesome, more and more people seem to be listening up, so hey, let’s not rule anything out eh. Mine’s a ginger mojito, cheers.

Catch Jonny Cola & The A-Grades at Nambucca on May 21st, full details here; https://www. facebook.com/events/333975583372896/

impact on the band as a whole.

Any alternative media – i.e. graphic novels/video games that have made a significant impact on you creatively/personally?

Sure, I’ve always read comics, I’m really into Batman, I remember when I first discovered X Men I was like ‘There’s a guy with claws on his hand!?’

I really got into the whole DC/ Marvel rivalry thing. I also like Noir comics like Goldfish by Brian Michael Bendis.

One of my tattoos is based on a scene from Goldfish.

Game wise-Zelda, Final Fantasy are all good; games now are crazy, almost like movies. I’m really enjoying how games are becoming more experience orientated.

What did you want to do profession wise as a kid growing up?

When I was really little, like 7 or 8 I was really into fish. I loved sharks and octopus, I thought I’d study something related to that. In the summer ‘of 93 found MTV and that was it: I wanted to be in a band.

They’d play Nirvana right next to Dr Dre video, next to an old Police video… It gave kids more exposure to all sorts of scenes, much more than they have today I think.

Do you have a Plan B if music doesn’t work out career wise?

It’s kind of funny you mention it actually, I’ve just started managing a band - some close friends of ours, I really like them and what they’re about so who knows. I’ve been in the industry for 10 years now, I know it really well from multiple angles, so I can see myself working within it long term. If all else fails, I’ll pack up and move to Australia, I’ll just move to a whole other hemisphere!

The Sword are playing out Download this year, so go check them out mo-fos! Word out!

Issue 14/2013 Swedish sleaze hellraisers Sister are in London for the last night of their UK venture supporting Wednesday 13. Cristina Massei meets Jamie and Rikki as they get ready to conquer the capital…

How has the tour been going in the UK with Wednesday 13? [At the time of conducting the interview it was the final night of the tour]?

Jamie: Perfect.

Rikki: It’s been great and awesome to be here in the UK for the first time, the audiences have been great.

Jamie: The crew has also been perfect.

Any particular tour story you would like to share?

R: We can tell you about this guy we found in our hotel room!

J: We checked into our hotel in Nottingham and this drunk guy in our bed who refused to leave the room.

R: So we had to throw him out! [laughs] So after this tour you’re in Europe with Crashdiet. Looking forward to it?

Sonic Shocks J: Of course!

R: Yeah, it’s going to be cool to tour with them because we’ve played with them in Sweden a few times and they’re good friends of ours so Europe will be cool.

Any particular city that you’re looking forward to?

R: We did a Sonisphere in Spain but we haven’t played the smaller venues over there so I’m looking forward to playing there then going Barcelona.

That should be good, you plan to catch any football?

R: I don’t think there’ll be time for that! The downside of touring is that we don’t have much time for anything else.

So for all those who haven’t had a chance to catch your live shows, what should we expect and how important is the visual element to a band like yours?

J: Total chaos! 100% headbanging! [laughs] R: A lot of energy, we try to focus on giving the crowd a show and just give them the opportunity to join us.

So a lot of interaction with the crowd?

R: Yeah! We try to get audiences involved in the show.

For those that are still completely new to your music, who would you say are your i n f lu en c e s and how would you describe your sound?

J: Our sound is like punk-metal, very raw, dirty kind of rock and roll.

R: We like bands such as Pantera and the heavier type of music but also punk like…

J: G.G Allin!

R: G.G Allin yes and others like that so mainly a mix.

Sounds good! Hated was released 2 years ago, are you working on new material at the moment?

J: We’ve recorded 10 demo songs, the plan is to release the album this autumn.

R: We have the whole album finished pretty much, we just want to hit the studio, there’s no release date yet.

Any new songs in the live set?

R: One new song tonight.

Looking back on your first album how do you feel you evolved listening to the new songs?

R: There’s much more diversity now I think, we’re trying new ground, it’s darker and heavier, mostly speed metal but now there’s a few slow ones.

It’s of course going to be on Metal Blade which is not the most obvious choice for your type of band, how did the partnership come about?

R: I think they wanted a piece of what was happening in Sweden and in Europe, sleaze in a way but a bit more darker version, that’s what Alan [Averill] said when we signed.

The Swedish rock scene has been prolific with sleaze rock and similar kinds of bands – is that still the case now?

R: It’s pretty much still the case, I guess it’s like a wave that’s slowed down a little bit but has been growing outside of Sweden, we’ve played more in Europe than in Sweden actually in the last year, we try to focus on a lot of countries not just our home.

Any festivals planned this summer?

J: No festivals yet but hopefully.

R: We’re focusing more on writing songs and getting this album done so we’ll see what happens. We had some really cool festivals

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last year.

If you could put together your own festival with your dream lineup who would it be?

J: Guns ‘N’ Roses, original lineup.

R: Hanoi Rocks J: G.G Allin! [laughs] R: He could open it…

J: Sister as the headline!

Of course! [laughs] R: and Wednesday 13.

The new record will be released after summer you said, do you think there’ll be a headline tour?

R: Yes, the plan is to open for bigger band but later on of course you want to headline so we are hoping for one.

Is there a title for the new album yet?

R: At the moment it’s just the songs. We will come up with something in time – maybe Loved! [laughs] Has there a main songwriter or are you all working together on this album?

R: Myself and the drummer [Carl] write the lyrics and then Tim plays the guitar ,comes up with a riff then we mix it all together.

J: A lot of jamming!

What are the lyrics about?

R: Love and Peace [laughs], not really it’s more about frustration, desperation, hate and love. It’s a way to get aggression out I guess! [laughs] Are you ready for tonight?

R: Yes! We have to say this tour with Wednesday 13 has been one of the best we’ve done, we’ll make a hell of a party tonight.

What would you like to have thrown on stage?

R: Clean clothes because I’m all out! [all laugh] Makes sense! Any last message for your fans?

R: If you haven’t seen us on this tour, catch us next time!

Sonic Shocks

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Matt Dawson has a chance to catch up with Ill Nino frontman Cristian Machado as the band prepares to rock out in Stoke.-on-Trent..

Ill Nino have been around at this point for 15 years; what would you say are your favourite memories?

I think that being an artistic individual, because I’m in the industry for the art form, not so much for the extravagancies of being a rock and roller. My favourite memory was starting the band; writing the first couple of songs and trying to make our way through the local scene in New York. Basically being unknown are some of my favourite memories; during those times we didn’t have worries. There weren’t things like budgets, having to do our taxes and all these other things that you would normally relate to being a human working for society. To me all the greatest memories are the artistic ones, just being creative and being a creative mind and trying to come up with the initial concepts that make the band special.

I remember listening to stuff off Revolution Revolucion and there was something about the mixture of it all that clicked together and you said in regards to Epidemia that you were hoping to ‘redefine Latin metal’, in what way has the latest record achieved that goal?

The new record definitely has a more modern sound, when you listen to Revolution it is a great sound for the time but I think with Epidemia we modernised the tones. We didn’t necessarily change our strategy or anything like that; we simply just took into account a lot of things that we’ve experi-

enced and tried to incorporate them a little bit more into the music.

To me, in music, sometimes there’s magic and sometimes there isn’t. When there isn’t you’re probably just thinking about things too much and that’s not something we wanted to do on the new record. We just wanted to really focus on sharing a vision like Dave [Chavarri] and I did at the very beginning of the band. It’s a little bit tougher because there’s 6 of us in the band so sharing a vision becomes a bit more complicated.

We needed time to start connecting with each other now we also have Ahrue Luster in the band. His style is slightly different than Jardel [Martins Paisante – former rhythm guitarist] so we wanted to take that into account and to allow him to have his personality within the band but still keep the Ill Nino DNA. Did you gain any influences while making Epidemia?

Yeah, I think we all did. It was a learning process for us as for many years I had lost the love for music – not mine but other groups and genres - and somewhere along the way after many years of touring and deadlines you wind up losing that sense of romance that is in the music and the true heart that you’re supposed to feel from a song. For me it was a learning process to fall in love with music all over again and to be able to appreciate new music.

It reminds me of our early days because when we made our first record. I was a big music fan and I was influenced by a lot of really cool bands. Every band have their influences and I think becoming more involved in the New York local scene helped me find the love and what made it special for me in the be-

ginning. As you would say – when you first meet a girl and fall in love, after a long while you’re still in love but it’s more a pain in the ass!

That’s just for me personally, I felt I had to lose a lot of the nonsense that was in my mind and it was purely mental, and I had to just focus on the music.

You felt that you had to re-evaluate yourself…

Absolutely. I would say I lost a sense of what I was trying to do and why I was doing it. On the new record we tried to focus on that a little bit more without losing what is the heart of Ill Nino.

So which bands would you recommend?

I like Karnivool a lot – the Sound Awake record is really good , there’s a couple of songs on the new Meshuggah record - Behind The Sun and Demiurge - which are awesome, the first Animals As Leaders record for me was very philosophical, it is a mood record and it’s not so much about technicality but there’s so much feeling and heart put into those different instrumental parts and I love Raunchy – A Discord Electric – which I thought was an excellent record.

There are some bands that Laz [Pina] and I have worked with at our studio Sound Wars in Hoboken. One band is called Serosia and they’re doing a lot of great things in the Texas area, there’s a really cool, brutal tribal metal band called Iratetion that we worked with. Those are some examples of things that I can listen to, really connect with and feel the truth in their music. The band doesn’t seem false to me.

They – first and foremost – connect with each other and understand who they are and what they want to do. That is what people connect with.

How does it feel to be touring the UK again?

We feel very blessed to be back man, it’s been a long time since we’ve been here.

How long?

I think it’s been about 4-5 years… [voice in background : 2 years!]

When was the last time?

[It was with Breed 77.]

Shit that’s right – it feels like so long ago, we were hoping it’d be a little warmer, yesterday was fucking cold in Southampton.

It’s the illusion of warmth – it LOOKS that way but yet we’re still wearing jackets!

First time in Stoke though…

We’ve probably played near here many times but

you more to keep doing it and believe in what your music is doing. We’re just a three piece: drums, bass and guitar, and vocals, and that’s it. There’s no electronics. We play all the tracks. You have to be able to play your music live.”

By Cayleigh Shepherd – Photos Cathy Hattam In a small bar on the corner of a crossroad in Shoreditch, London, a trio of Americans sit nursing a few drinks by the window, while the remnants of London’s rush hour make their way home on a cold and windy evening in February.

Later this evening, they’ll be playing round the corner at a vintage bar and boutique store. Certainly different from your usual run-of-the-mill gig in The Big Smoke. I didn’t think the night could get any kookier, and I hadn’t even met the band yet…

Peanut Butter Lovesicle are a three-piece band hailing from Brooklyn, New York. Despite their location, they’ve managed to avoid fitting into the mould of what is expected of a ‘typical New York band’.

“Whenever people say ‘oh you’re a Brooklyn band’, they don’t think of psych rock, the raw music,” explains guitarist Jake D’Arc. “I think that’s what we like. We like to be the band that doesn’t do what expected of it.”

Timmy, the outfit’s drummer and vocalist, agrees. “It pushes

Issue 14/2013

I feel bad for asking - knowing that every interview the guys have conducted that day have probably all included the same question - but you cant call yourself after ‘peanut butter’ and expect me to ignore that, so I cave and enquire about their delicious band name. “It’s acronym – PBL - is for Pretty Boys that go to London! When we started out it was just a fun name and we never let go of it. People ask why - like you, and we give them this exact answer. Peanut Butter Lovesicle is just PBL. Three dudes in a band, loving peanut butter.”

The mutual love of peanut butter is not the sole reason for their unison. As well as being family in a musical sense, the trio are all related. With two brothers and a cousin completing the group, I couldn’t help but wonder if the closeness of them all had ever lead to them having a sense of cabin fever…

“Jake and I live in a cabin!” exclaims bassist Mike D’Arc. My choice of wording had hit closer to home than I’d anticipated.

“We do separate things though. I’d say the only time we were together is when we’re touring or writing. If we’re planning on rehearsing or otherwise then we’ll all meet up, but any time we have off we like to go off and do our own thing. Tim has like 45 different hobbies…”

“The morning time is my favourite time [of the day],” admits Timmy. “I always try to make a point of waking up early, getting out and at least walk around or throwing on some music, or sit in a park or something. I like being outside. I’ve got a dog – I miss her very much. I do everything with her…”

“You crying dude?” jabs Mike. “Nah, she’s a great dog!”

“That’s it basically. A lot of outdoors stuff. I mean they [Jake & Mike] are from Western Pennsylvania, and there’s a lot of outdoors stuff to do there: fishing… hiking… it’s great.”

It’s a bit of a far cry from New York City. “I like to do stuff in the city, but it’s a bit hit and miss.” Mike confesses. “I like to be in the city, but I also like the down time as well.”

Jake sums it up perfectly: “you have to find a good balance.

If you have a lot of balance in your life, things seem to work

not in this particular town. The venue’s good!

What do you like to do in your downtime?

I do music! [laughs] Laz and I own a studio and we do a lot of recording for local and upcoming national acts. We have rooms there where it’s basically a musical industrial complex if you will; bands have their monthly rooms there or can rent hourly rooms. Our downtime from music IS music. It may not be our own but we’re constantly helping artists get their feet wet and try to help them build their career, pass on the knowledge of what we’ve learned.

You had a song on the Freddy Vs Jason soundtrack years ago [How Can I Live?], if there were any other films that you could either do a full score or contribute a song to which would it be?

Star Wars! I know that’s a monopolised market with Skywalker Studios, I wouldn’t mind doing what they’re conceptualising to come out in a few years because it allows you to modernise whatever it is that your ideas may be. That would be the ultimate movie to do a score for but we welcome anything that’s cool and has artistic form. I’m a huge fan of documentaries to uncover things that you wouldn’t hear on TV so I would be totally into doing a soundtrack for one.

Would you consider yourself a conspiracy theorist?

I don’t because I base my beliefs on facts rather than fears. A lot are built on fear and I’ve come to a point in my life where I feel fear and greed are the two greatest evils of mankind. I like to watch things that are based on science, philosophy and psychology, even educational films, that don’t point the finger at anything but say that we’re still in the process of evolving this theory.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s fun to watch 5 minutes of something but it’s entertaining.

It’s why Alex Jones has some influence..

He’s very entertaining; when it comes down to it he’s an entertaining human being. Does he say a lot of things that make sense? Sure. Is he a fear monger?

Yes he is. I don’t like living my life in that manner anymore; I truly believe that’s not the way to evolve the mind and to really free the mind you have to be free and not scared.

Enjoy life instead of being scared of what’s going to happen.

out better.”

By this point I’m intrigued. At what point while they were gallivanting around like Bear Grylls in Pennsylvania did they decide to form a group? Timmy volunteers. “It was years ago. I wasn’t even in the band. We talked about sharks earlier [before the interview]: it was originally going to be Peanut Butter Lovesicle and the Great White Shark. Our friend was playing drums…”

“He’s kinda built like a great white shark,” adds Jake. “He’s got great muscle definition. Deep blue eyes… looks like he’s ready to attack.”

“The first show we ever played was a sixth graders’ birthday party,” Mike confesses. “But we stuck to it. I feel like it became less about the name, more about the music.

People always ask us about the name, but that shouldn’t really matter.”

Jake nods in agreement. “Peanut Butter Lovesicle was really different, rather than something like ‘The ‘Fill In The Blank’”.

“I think [our musical influences] really brought us together,” suggests Timmy. “It wasn’t as if we all sat down one day and were like “OK what should we like?” We kinda had these bands that our parents listened to, we all had our instruments and just happened to like the same music. We also like some left field stuff, too….”

So how does all of this transpire in their music? The band seem to finish each others sentences when answering questions, but were they this synced when writing new material, or does one guy take the lead?

“One person has one idea, they bring it in, and we have an open forum style writing session,” explains Mike. “We come up with things on the spot, add it to another part, fuse it all together and just a lot of hours spent together.

Jake and I will usually end up wrestling on the floor together arguing. Tim’s crying in the corner…”

“I tend to be the pacifist between the two!”

Their most recent recording session was with producer Henry Hirsh, who worked alongside the band to produce their second EP, Dirty Pride. “He’s such a craftsman and so good at what he does,” says Timmy. “He lives and breathes his music.”

Issue 14/2013

Interview by Cristina Massei After a couple of spins of Kill For Eden’ upcoming debut album, I needed to find out more about these female fronted gritty newcomers. So well, I asked…

Sonic Shocks we could. Some songs didn’t make it and some blossomed so we’re looking forward to its reception out there in Rock and Roll Land.

Who do you think Kill for Eden (the album) is going to appeal to?

It should appeal to anyone who appreciates good songs.

Kill For Eden’s music isn’t about age or demographics, but tunes that grab you both for musical and lyrical intensity and we hope, quality.

For those who have already been following you live, are most of the songs on the album already part of your usual set list or are we going to find some unheard material?

For the most part our set features songs off the album but we are demoing new songs all the time and you’ll certainly hear new material at our shows.

What are you hoping to achieve with this release?

We hope to elevate our name into the consciousness of the rock and roll cogniscenti and all followers of good time rock and roll music.

How can we get hold of your album and what formats are available?

The album will be available on iTunes/Amazon/Spotify

Page 9 and all major digital outlets and there will be a link from our homepage at http://www.killforeden.com. The album is available from May 6th.

Do you have a tour planned? Any Festival slots? I hear you’re competing for the Redbull Stage at Download Festival…

Notable gigs include the 100 Club, London on May 10th, The Lancashire Bike & Rock Show on June 8th and The Cockermouth Rock Festival, Cumbria on July 19th.

Download would be outstanding.

I hear you guys are all keen travellers; which one would be your dream country/city in the world to play a show?

It’s a toss up between Sydney and San Francisco, love ‘em both.

What’s the best way to keep up to date with all things Kill For Eden?

Anyone looking for us can find us at www.killforeden.com which has all the info and links to more videos and songs.

What else do you have planned for 2013?

We shall be playing live this spring and summer and making some acoustic videos too. New songs as I mentioned are being demo’d so we will be busy.

A final message to our readers…

We hope you enjoy listening to our music, it’s straight from our hearts and is an honest snapshot of where five people were musically and spiritually in a particular pocket of time. It should be played both loud and with a smile and we hope it sends all your blues away.

Kill for Eden self titled debut album is out on May 6th

How would you describe yourselves as a band in one sentence?

We make hard rock music that is both melodic and groovy while having a satisfying guitar bite.

You have a wide range of influences, would you like to mention some?

We all listen to various styles of guitar music from Led Zep and UFO/Scorpions/AC/DC etc through to Bon Jovi/ Aerosmith and then Nirvana/Green Day/Nickelback/Alice In Chains/Soundgarden and the Black Crowes etc. Add in a healthy splurge of Blondie/Garbage/U2 /The Cult and you have a rough idea of our musical recipe.

Lyla’s vocals and stage presence are already a trademark for Kill for Eden; is there any female artist in particular you inspire yourself to?

Ann Wilson from Heart, Suzi Quatro, Blondie, Beth Ditto, Suze Demarchi from Baby Animals and Chrissy Amphlett from The Divinyls.

Is there a main songwriter in the band or is it completely team work?

Dave writes the music/riffs and Lyla writes the lyrics and melodies.

‘Beige’ is so far my favourite track, could you tell me more about it – i.e. what inspired it, what it represents…

LYLA – “Beige is about being in a previous relationship where the man was a total conformist bore, one of society’s sheep who expected me to join forces with the masses, not to think for myself or have dreams of my own and I almost fell into the trap!”

Let’s talk about your self-titled debut album out on May 6th; are you more nervous or excited?

A bit of both to be frank. It was made through most of 2012 at Soho Studios in London taking studio ‘down time’ where Jake echoes his admiration. “When you go [into the studio] it’s just straight up one thing. You work so hard when you’re with him.”

“We did like 10 hour days. 11am til 9 or 10 at night, and you’re just recording. Whatever it is, if it’s tracking or vocals…he just pushes you to as far as he knows he can push you, and he gets everything out of you. It’s amazing.

It was the first professional environment we worked in, and what a better place to work than with someone like him. I had surgery on my wrist while I was recording. I had like two weeks off, and the week I came back he was like “y’know, we could have redone the drum tracks just to try and get a better sound had you not had surgery.” We got a good track, but just to try and explore something different.

Working with someone like that, who isn’t like “OK we got the track. Next one.” He really tries to suck everything out of ya.”

Mike confesses that although the schedule was intense, it wasn’t all work and no play; “We like it to be fun. Everything was dedicated to making the tracks the best they could be.

It was also cool that he let us listen to Led Zeppelin at nine in the morning. We like to dissect Led Zeppelin…”

“We came together on that a lot,” adds Jake. “Like influences wise, we were all definitely on the same page. I think that was also a good fit as well.”

Their music came to light for a mainstream audience when it was used on the American television show, Gossip Girl. While a fantastic platform to promote their work, I couldn’t really see how their brand of psych rock related to the audience for said program. I asked them whether they’d gained any new fans as a result of their music appearing on the show.

“Yeah. Internet wise, yeah, it has brought different fans to the band. Even at live shows, you can tell who likes the show.” Jake explains. “I guess it’s interesting because you wouldn’t necessarily put those two groups of people together. At least I wouldn’t, in my head.”

“A lot of things cross over in the music industry,” Mike continues. “Genres are becoming obsolete; fans are starting to like everything. It’s different times.”

Very true indeed, and something we can’t ignore. The Internet as a platform to reach new audiences, and indeed, discover new acts from around the globe is invaluable to

artists and music fans alike.

In the past few years alone we’ve seen how the power of reaching your audiences can cause monumental effects, such as getting a record to #1 on the singles charts, or successfully funding your album through Pledge campaigns. Although all of this can be nothing but a positive effect on the music world, I’ve always wondered if it’s come at a cost. Is the ability to connect to your audience via social networking and other online media outlets making them feel closer to the band a good thing, or has it destroyed the enigma and image of those who we held in such high regard?

“That’s a great question!”

Timmy exclaims. “Especially with social media, you’re automatically associated much more closely with your fans, and there’s a much more intimate relationship. With social media, you’re constantly being told to check out this band at whatever, hashtag whatever, you have people constantly pushing music. We do it too. We have a Twitter, we have a Facebook, and fans do too. You’ve got to be your own fan too.”

While this is not their first time in the UK, I’m surprised that the PBL boys have chosen to return here again and not venture towards other European cities with a popular music scene. I ask them why they keep coming back to old London Town…

“It’s where all our favourite bands originated from.” Mike says with a smile. “Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Who, that’s where they got their start. Initially we wanted to see what it was all about when we came here for the first time for 10 days. We loved it so much that we kept coming back. We love being here; it’s a great place. The fans are unbelievable.

Eventually we’d like to check out other places with a great

music scene too. But until then, we love London. It’s a great place to be.”

His brother nods in agreement. “It’s become our second home for the band. Last time it was for 3 months, we were here for 33 shows. An unbelievable experience.”

As our time draws to a close, I ask them if there’s any chance they’ll be checking out the European festival season any time soon, and what their plans are for the rest of the year.

“Coming to London again is a great way to start off 2013,” answers Timmy. “We’ve had a couple of showcases here: our first show was great, we’ve got another show tonight.

We’ve got new material to work on and if we keep playing shows, that’s about it.”

“I think what Tim’s trying to say is that our goal is to keep playing music throughout the year…” offers Mike.

“Haha, right!”

Page 10

Just before heading to Roadburn, Robin Staps from The Ocean chatted with Matt Dawson about why there are two versions of their latest album, Pelagial, and pretty much spoiling Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker for everyone.

The last time we spoke was at Damnation Festival a couple of years ago – how did it feel playing there?

It was great! The people who run it were just absolutely lovely and it was really cool. There’s not so many festivals of that kind of size and with that much attention to certain aesthetics in regards to booking in Europe. I think it’s a really special festival and I hope we get to play there maybe this year or next. We’ve been doing something similar in Berlin with Friction Fest.

You were supposed to be in London recently – what exactly happened with that situation?

Oh man, we were screwed! Our van broke down in the middle of France on the Sunday while we were on our way to catch the ferry in Calais. The engine just went off in the middle of the road and it wouldn’t turn back on. On a Sunday in rural France it’s absolutely impossible to something like that fixed so we tried to get a replacement van and I had to hitchhike to Germany to get a van with a tow bar and drive 200 kilometres back to pick up my guys then we tried catching the last ferry but we missed it by about 20 minutes and it was too late because London had a tight curfew.

We heard the other bands on the show were really good and we were just like ‘fuck our lives!’

So there are plans for a rescheduled show probably later in the year?

Yes, definitely. We’re going to do a headline tour October/November anyway and there’s going to be UK shows as part of that tour – probably more than just London - it’s probably going to happen then unless we do another short trip but our touring schedule is pretty tight until October.

When did the writing process begin for the new album?

In the summer of 2011, we were on tour in the USA with Between the Buried and Me, then we did Friction in Europe and we had a couple of weeks off over the summer and that’s when the album was mainly written for the most part.

The last two records focused on a critique of Christianity – is there a particular topic this time or was the style more geared towards a freeform nature?

There is a specific concept behind it. With the previous albums there was a philosophical kind of questioning at the focal point of it and this one is more of an introverted/personal album lyrically. It’s kind of like a dichotomy; one side is the journey from the surface to the bottom of the sea.

That’s what we’ve tried to do musically, this progression from light to dark, fast to slow, high in tuning to low and lyrically it’s a journey from the surface to the abysses of the human mind.

There is a concept but it’s very different, it’s much more personal, more abstract and more towards experiences in my own life.

Some of it is influenced by the film Stalker…

Yes, originally when it came down to approaching the lyrics I didn’t know how to do this. I didn’t want to write about ocean creatures; I was looking for something that works and would be interesting. I’d been a big fan of this film for many years; it’s a journey through zones. Three people are travelling through this zone towards the cen-

Sonic Shocks

tre of it where wishes are supposed to come true; the closer they get the less they know about what they would wish for. Eventually they realise that their subconscious wishes and even the ones they didn’t want will come true.

In the end something that’s enticing about this really grim kind of scenery and it fits the album concept perfectly. This increasing element of claustrophobia when you’re getting into the depth zones is something also happening in the movie. Originally all the lyrics were from subtitles of the movie – extracting the parts from the English translation that I felt could work and that was working out very well. We had already started to record the vocals based on these lyrics when our publisher came to us and was like ‘guys you can’t really do that!’ We’d done stuff like that before; on Aeolian we used Edgar Allen Poe’s The City In The Sea but Poe has been dead for more than 70 years and Andrei Tarkovsky is not.

I did write to the Russian studio to ask for permission but they never gave permission to us – never wrote back – so I had to paraphrase the whole lyrics and start from scratch, the new lyrics do make reference to the movie a lot but it’s more original text now, in a way it’s cool because they’re now more personal to my own life.

Have you ever read the novel [Roadside Picnic] that Stalker is based on?

The original Russian novel? No I have not actually; I’ve only seen the movie.

Were there any other literary/cinematic influences?

No not really. Stalker is the spine of the lyrics.

Originally the album was going to be an instrumental one – Luic of course is on the album – but what exactly led to the thoughts of possibly doing an instrumental album?

A number of different things. When I had the original idea for this album I couldn’t imagine it to have vocals; like I said I didn’t want to have to sing about ocean creatures and I thought it could work great as an instrumental record. It’s not an abstract idea for us as we did it before with Fogdiver and we all listen to a lot of instrumental music. At the same time Luic was having trouble with a nodule on his vocal chords and he was unsure whether he could be part of the live band on the upcoming album cycle. We didn’t want to be put in this position where we have a great album with vocals but no vocalist to sing it so that led to the decision to keep it instrumental.

Luic recovered in 2012 and eventually he told me he’d like to be part of the album; I’d come to the same conclusion and we then decided to record vocals for the last 2 tracks of the album [Demersal: Cognitive Dissonance and Benthic: The Origin Of Our Wishes] which happened very quickly.

We started fooling around and got into this amazing creative session and by the end of the week we had vocals for almost the whole album. It was too good to throw away so we decided to release the album in two versions.

You recently released a stream of the instrumental album as well…

I think it’s interesting as people have only heard two tracks from the vocal version so they don’t have any standards of comparison. We thought about how to do it for a while and I thought the wisest way was that rather than premiering the vocal version first and taking something away with the instrumental version we released this first so people can appreciate it as a full record that stands

Issue 14/2013

on its own and then hopefully will enjoy the vocal version even more.

You guys are also playing Roadburn festival; how does it feel to be playing there?

I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time actually; it’s an amazing festival and a great honour to be part of it. I’ve gone there twice before so it’s great to finally get to play there, especially on the main stage in an amazing venue with incredible PA and lighting. It’s probably the best venue I’ve played in Europe.

There’s something about Roadburn that’s unique – the artist in residence deal e.g Jus from Electric Wizard doing what he calls The Electric Acid Orgy – it’s great where you can get Electric Wizard, High On Fire and Psychic TV in the space of so many days!

That’s Roadburn for you, it’s absolutely unique and taking the ideas of ATP in a different direction and context in regards to sound, the whole concept and the way it’s evolved too.

You mentioned earlier Friction fest - do you see that expanding to the UK or anywhere else?

It’s given way to Pelagic Fest which I’m doing for the first time this year. I’m not even sure if we’ll have another Friction fest, it’s was two great years and all the people that organise it are in full time jobs now; including myself with the band and label. We decided not to do this anymore in the near future but you never know what will happen.

At the moment we’re concentrating on Pelagic fest which follows a similar aesthetic but a bit more narrow in regards to Friction Fest.

Depending on how that goes could be possibly see an expansion there?

Absolutely, that could happen. That’s not something I can say after the first year but it’s doing good so far, we’ve sold a lot of tickets which is unusual for Berlin but it looks like it will sell out and if so I do want to do this again next year.

What is coming up in terms of the label?

Not so much in the near future, right now I’m re-

What can we expect from the film that’s coming out with the new album?

It accompanies the album in the limited edition box sets that we’re selling through Pelagic Records. It’s a film by Craig Murray that visualises the journey that is this album; it takes both streaks [journey from surface to the depths of both the sea and mind] and puts them together.

You will have a lot of oceanic footage, some of which I filmed myself in Australia last year, and the journey of the mind is being enacted by female protagonists that appear throughout the movie as it’s goes through different stages of fear, joy, lust, pain and terror. It’s fairly abstract but it all connects to the lyrics.

The movie’s only available through these box sets but we are also showing it live as a video projection.

Do you feel social media has had a big impact on The Ocean?

For the band it’s definitely affected the way we work quite a lot, it’s still a new phenomenon and I started the band in 2001 when there was almost nothing like social media. Nowadays all communication happens through that and it’s important for every band I think.

We experienced that a lot in 2011 when we toured with Devin Townsend and we were originally supposed to do another tour but that fell through; so we did the Devin tour and that ended in Vancouver so we ended up having to drive from there to Boston and decided rather than use money and drive like 6 to 7 days nonstop why not try and organise a last minute headline tour. It was organised entirely through Facebook which would never have been possible a couple of years ago.

We ended up with 14 shows in 14 days and made all the money back for gas, the van and stuff.

Some of the shows were rough because they were promoted at such short notice but some were actually very good. People started coming out to the shows just from word of moth and that was incredible. Also, when it came down to getting

leasing a new record by Lo!, who are also on the Cult Of Luna tour with us, called Monstorum Historia. I’m also releasing a band called The Old Wind from Sweden, that has 3 ex members of Breach and me on guitar and we’ll be touring with in June; and I just released the last 10 inch

by Kruger and a Danish band called The Shakin Sensations.

We’re very active for March and April but in the coming months I don’t have many releases because of The Ocean tour. I try to organise my time in a way that gives priorities to the label or the band for certain periods and for now it’s clearly The Ocean period. When I’m not at home I can’t take care of all the label logistics the way that I would like to but there’s going to be more stuff for sure.

accommodation in the US things were different than Europe, where we have promoters provide hotels for us, so we posted we needed places to crash and you have people replying to you helping you out. It’s made touring easier and more convenient.

How do you relax when you get time?

Travelling! [laughs] Usually when I don’t do anything music related I try to get away from it all. I just have to get out of Europe where there is no metal music or record labels; just people speaking different languages, eating different food and different temperatures. I just bail out and escape to the Tropics which probably won’t happen for another year but I’m looking forward to when the time comes!

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Issue 14/2013

We met Luke Lucas to talk about life after Rising Records, a new EP, comic books and all things TDLW....

Welcome back guys! It’s been a while since your last release in 2011 on Rising Records… What was your experience of the label and Mark Daghorn?

Compared to most, our experience wasn’t as bad as some. We grew increasingly frustrated with lack of progress once they upped sticks to Barbados. There’s the better part of a whole album and two videos that we went out there to record that will never see the light of day. We are so excited to pushing forward under our own steam with the new EP and with the new team we’ve assembled will insure we won’t be making the same mistakes as the past.

Was it difficult to get the band back on track after the label’s demise?

Quite the contrary actually, with the label out of the picture we were free to pursue what we really wanted to do with no restraints. We were filled with a new hunger, with a new goal, to hit the Interview by Cristina Massei world hard with TDLW 2.0!

So, what have you guys been up to over the past year?

Yes, we have recently released our very own Syringe shaped custom We’ve put a lot of time into the upcoming EP as well as writing for 2GB USB sticks. We plan to release the EP in physical format as well the next album that we want to get out as soon as possible. We’ve as preloaded with a Digital version of the comic and much more. been out of the public eye for a while, so we want to hit the ground Keep an eye out online for more details coming soon! running and get new music out there. We’ve already got the ball Your sound has definitely matured since your debut ‘We Rise’ in rolling with the new video, single and then the EP in May so hope- 2009; how do you feel it has evolved and where do you see it going fully that’ll satisfy everyone’s hunger for a little while. But we’re very from here? intent of keep the content coming. We already have around 9/10 When we released We Rise we were of an average age of 17 years songs for the next album so it’ll hopefully be out sooner than you old, we were young, naive and new to song writing. Since then we think! have been through what some would call a lifetime of experiences, Tell us all we need to know about this new EP, ‘Ascent Of The some good, some not so good and I really think that has shaped us Murder’. as a band to what we are today. When writing lyrics I have learnt to Ascent of the murder is our introduction in to the new TDLW. I channel my emotions through my music which allows me to express think it is safe to say it’s like nothing we have ever done before; my feelings towards a certain sub just or past experience in a much we have matured in our writing style and our approach to subject more authentic manner. It also has become a method of self therapy matters. With this E.P we come with a message, a purpose and a as I am releasing, anxieties and bad feeling through a creative megoal! The E.P also serves as a lead up to the full length album that is dium. From this point I would like to start working around a much currently in the works in terms of concept, but I’m not going to give more conceptual approach to writing albums. I would like to have away too much just yet… the whole album as a story rather than individual songs in a random You recently released a comic book as well, ‘Chapter One – The order. I also believe now that we have defined our current sound, we Girl’; can you tell us more about it, and is there going to be a can progress by experimenting with new ways to create music and Chapter Two? hopefully discover something amazing!

The Comic is a fictional story based around the band. It’s a tale of For your next album are you likely to keep pursuing the ‘independreams, mythology, adventure and love that covers many real life dent’ avenue or are you going to look for a label? issues that are then clouded in fantasy to bring you an exciting read Learning from our previous experiences with labels we would not go that you won’t want to put down! It is co-written by me and Marie in to a new deal lightly at all. However saying that, I am aware there Ponting and we have already got the whole season structured in are some fantastic and genuine labels out there, it’s just finding the terms of plot lines. So in short yes, there will be more, this is just right one. For now though we are happy working independently as it the beginning. allows us to be able to do whatever we want within reason.

Comic book and EP will be available together in a USB package; You’re well known for your live shows and their mind blowing could you tell us details of all formats available so our readers energy; are we going to see you live around the UK to promote can pick what to buy? this release?

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Oh yes, we plan to hit the road hard starting with a headline U K tour next month. We are going to show the UK what we do best, then eventually take the world by storm!

Our live shows are something we pride ourselves on above all else for their energy, passion and entertainment value. If you haven’t been able to catch us live yet, I urge you to come check us out at a show near you!

Summer is finally here – we hope – Any Festival slot in the pipeline or one you would particularly like to get?We are hoping to hit as many festivals as we possibly can this year and there are a few that are looking very likely! Unfortunately that’s all I can say on the matter until the official announcement but definitely keep an eye out.

What would you say to someone that is unfamiliar with The Dead Lay Waiting to get them to pick up this EP and give it a good listen?

If you want to hear the generic bullshit about meaningless topics then perhaps Nicki Minaj is the way to go, but if you would like to hear a band that writes and performs genuine music inspired by their love and passion for what they do, then please take a moment to listen to this EP Any final words for our readers?

Over the last 7 years we have been through hell and back. We continue to do this purely for the fans who have never stopped showing us their continued support and love. We are more than just a band, we are a family, we are The Crows. Join us.

by Sophia Disgrace - Photo Rita Michelberger

Burlesque!

Welcome to your one stop drop for all the news on the best burlesque nights, in the capital and beyond! My name is Sophia Disgrace and I’ve performed at numerous events in the U.K and abroad, from festivals to the most exclusive clubs. I tend perform in a neo burlesque style and o en incorparate other elements, such as fire play, into my routines.

Burlesque - or ‘the art of tease’ as it’s also known, first rose to prominence in the 1950’s; in recent years it’s enjoyed something of a revival, with stars such as Dita Von Teese helping to popularise the scene once again.

London as ever is at the fore front of this movement, which is both alluring and inspiring for men and women alike.

Here are my pick of all things burlesque this month...

London Burlesque Festival

Various venues across London, Friday 10th May- Sunday 19th May Times vary according to the specific event Wow! The question is where shall i begin?! There’s something to please every one at The esteemed London Burlesque Festival: from the best of British to legendary international performers such as Jim Rosa (U.S), sexy sideshow, boylesque...you get the idea. There are sooo many reasons why you must check out this now legendary event!

For further information re.tickets please refer to the LBF website-http://londonburlesquefest.com/ Hurry quick!

Coco Boudoir

Chapel Arts, Bath Saturday 12th May Doors 7pm-Midnight Coco Boudior is known for its stunning shows and this,

their first for 2013, looks to be setting a new standard of performance once again. Headlining the show is Miss Polly Rae, founder of the sell out West End show 'Hurly Burly'. Other acts include the sultry Darkteaser, who amongst other accolades was voted 21st century Pin-ups Burlesque Diva 2008!

Other highlights on the bill include boylesque with a pinch of comedy from Count Adriano Fettucini, plus a whole host of cabaret, bump and grind, all with extra sequins on top!

Oh and make sure you dress to impress-theres a prize for best outfit!

Tickets £20,please call 01225 461700 for more info

The Black Cat Cabaret Cafe De Paris, London Friday, 24th May From 7pm-3.00am

The Black Cat Cabaret is the place to be seen in 2013, featuring some of the hottest acts on the burlesque circuit and promising to whisk the audience back to 'the absinthesoaked heyday of Montmartre’s dark and daring cabaret underworld. Founding artists Vicky Butterfly, Dusty Limits and David Harris have selected artistes guaranteed to exhil-

irate and astound in equal measure. This edition of the show includes close up magician Laura London, aerialist Jo Foley, sideshow performer Missy Macarbe - and that’s just for starters!

Food is also available,tickets from £12 Please call Booking Hotline – (The Catphone): 020 7284 4700 for further information This months velvet curtain reveals...

Burlesque Spotlight!

Paul o’Grady perpectives with Gypsy Rose Lee ITV Catch Up - aka on the box!

This might sound like an odd choice compared with past spotlight features, but trust me, it’s a winner!

Running at in at one hour long, this one off show first aired in April 2013, but is still available to view now.

It’s a slightly random look at Paul O’Grady/Lilly Savages love of burlesque and specifically U.S performer Gypsy Rose Lee. Insightful, factual and very interesting, it’s a must see for fans of all things burlesque!

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Issue 14/2013

By Cristina Massei I guess trawling in the mud eating overpriced chips has its charm, when you’re 16, but there’s something about London Festivals that you just can’t beat especially when they give you a chance to sample some of the best venues and bands the European music capital has to offer. Add to this the amazing background that is Camden Town on an early summer day.

This year, the famous North London neighbourhood will host once again Camden Rocks, a one day Festival over several live music landmarks showcasing the best of the underground up & coming acts right next to some legendary names, including Therapy?, Turbowolf and a one-off show from the unforgettable Yoyo’s.

The man behind it all is Chris McCormack; you may have heard of the guy because of his old band 3 Colours Red back in the good old days, or you may have heard of him for having played with Gary Numan, co-writing the latest Adam Ant album, recording and producing a number of bands too long to list, hosting club nights with the best live music all over London, or maybe you just had a few drinks with him in Camden. I had a few; he was always running all over the place. He was too fast, I was too drunk and the place – normally Jubilee at the Barfly – was too loud. But this time I managed to hunt him down and finally ask him a few questions about the summer event every music lover in London is waiting for…

First of all, so many bands and venues for £20 only! How did you manage to keep the ticket price so low with so many names taking part?

For years I’ve been telling insurance companies i am a magician instead of a musician as it’s much cheaper. I’ve said it so much i think it’s actually come true!

Basically it’s not going to make a profit but I believe in the idea and think it’ll work out long term. There are 130 bands and most people would pay £20 to see one of them.

You did Camden Rocks first in 2009, what was the outcome then and why the break?

I was just busy with other things. Musical projects etc so didn’t have the time.

Doing something like this takes over your life for a while, it’s pretty intense.

You were inspired to put this event together by all the talent you came across thanks to your club nights in London; did you actually witness all of the participating bands live for yourself?

Yeah, well most of the bands are bands that I’ve booked for Jubilee or White Noise club nights I do in London. They’re the ones that stood out and work hard. I love working with bands from an early stage and helping them build a fan base.

Are there any acts in particular that we’re probably not familiar with and we should absolutely check out?

Yeah, The Vex, The Howling, Kid Kapichi, The Wholls and The Front are all bands people should try to check out live.

You’re giving many less known bands an opportunity to showcase their talent; as someone who’s been on the scene for a long time, what’s your advice to them after this to emerge?

Concentrate on getting a great live show together and building a fan base, create your own buzz. There’s so much bands can do to make this happen now with all the online tools, the bands just need to have good ideas and learn how to use them.

Camden seems to be a part of London you’re very close to; how do you feel it has changed over the past few years? Does it still have the same vibe?

Yeah, I moved to Camden in 1995 when I formed 3 Colours Red, they we’re

great times. All the pubs were full of the new bands like Oasis, Blur… There was always something going on.

I used to live on Oval Road which was the scene of many a crime! London was new to me, every day was an adventure. I don’t think I had a night in for the first 3 years!

Which venues will be taking part to the event?

There’s 13 in total: Barfly - Black Heart - Camden Head - Camden Rocks - Enterprise - Good Mixer - Hawley Arms - Jazz Cafe - Lock Tavern - Monarch - Purple Turtle - The Cuban - The Wheelbarrow How does Camden Rocks compare to Camden Crawl?

It’s much more rock’n’roll. It’s for people that like guitar music primarily.

Over 100 bands in one day: I’m already panicking to try and catch them all! What’s your advice to the punters to try and make the best of the event?

Plan your day, sign up to the website and you’ll be sent a schedule and updates. www.camdenrocksfestival.com We’re bound to miss some out; are we likely to find them playing at your club nights later on? Give us all the details on your club nights.

Yeah, I work with the bands I like every couple of months, I try to help them build a following and the club nights I do are perfect for that. I do Jubilee at the Barfly on Friday nights and another called White Noise which I move around but usually in Hoxton.

Camden Rocks is only 2 weeks away from Download; for those going to Donington, are there any acts we can see again there?

Yeah, a dozen or so, Camden Rocks is more of a mix so you’ll see lots of indie as well as rock, we’ll have an acoustic stage too.

Are you working on any other project at the moment besides this Festival and the club nights?

Yeah, I’ve got a studio so always working on songs and producing. I just wrote and produced Adam Ant’s comeback record which was just released... that’s another story through!!! Hahaha. Let’s just say there was never a dull moment.

After all this years, you still show the same enthusiasm when it comes to the music scene, whatever your part in it. What is that you love so much about it?

Music is all I know to be honest. It’s all I’ve done. It’s what saved me from a mundane existence up north where I’m from originally. I dread to think what I’d be doing if I never picked up that guitar and learned those 3 chords!

Despite the venues we’ve lost to Starbucks and such, London still has one of the most amazing music scenes in the world. How can we help it get even stronger and get hidden talent to shine?

London is where the industry is so it will always be the place bands want to play. I think bands need to help themselves. I love working with bands but it frustrates me when they don’t put the work in and think about what they’re doing. I remember what I was like when starting out. I never sat still for a second. I was always thinking of the next move, how to move forward and get to the next level. It was life or death.

Issue 14/2013

Sonic Shocks

Page 13

included in your £20 ticket...

We picked some of the coolest – or hottest if you prefer – bands on the bill and asked their thoughts on the Festival and which of the shows you should make sure you don’t miss. They also told us what they’re up to these days and where you can find more info about them, so if you don’t believe us when we say they’re all pretty amazing you can check them out yourself.

THE YOYOS (Tom Spencer) What a mad day it's going to be! It's a great excuse to drag out the Yoyo’s. Plus loads of people I want to see and catch up with - I smell monkey business! I've been to a few of these around London, I always end up discovering someone new. Great line up and so many bands. Haven't heard of a lot of them. Maybe I'm old? Out of touch? Or maybe it's time I went to Camden Rocks??

I’ll definitely check out The Vex for a new band and of course Therapy, can't wait to see them.

This is a one off Yoyo’s show. I've just released 'Til the death of rock'n'roll' an album and whodunnit book with The Loyalties. Will be selling copies at this, as it's the same sort of bollocks! And The Yoyo’s don't have merch. Otherwise I'm playing guitar for The Men They Couldn't Hang, a bit of Banjoey Ramone, and making my tattoo stained glass (www.tattooglass.com)

The best part of Camden is that there are promoters like McCormack creating a scene and not just putting on loads of shitty bands to make cash. Camden Rocks is taking over the town the right way. That coupled with the fact that we fucking love the place, makes it a very exciting thing to be a part of. The line-up is strong, leaning on the heavier side of rock in places which I'm happy about it too.

We’ll be definitely checking out Turbowolf (Because our drummers Mrs plays bass in them and he'll be grounded if we don't check them out), The Rifles, Glen Matlock and The Front.

We're buzzin!! As a band and as music fans in the UK, Camden is the hub, the place to be.

We've been honoured over the last 18 months to play some of the best venues in the area, with many of the bands on the bill for this year’s Camden Rocks. So trust us when we say there is some shit hot music coming to town on 1st June!!!!! Our venue… will be the one with the roof blown off haha!!! There's a great mix of names on the bill from the biggest acts that will draw heads to the bands that have been stirring things up in London recently and making a noise.

Every band playing has gotten themselves on the line up on merit so there is no weak links. Just one whole day of the finest bands on the London circuit right now.

The UK's influence on world music is massive and these are the bands and artists making waves in the UK's capital!!! The only down point is you can't watch them all!!!! High on our agenda of festival highlights will be, set times allowing, heading to catch The Vex. These boys mean it. Loud, hooky, bangers for tracks and they look the bollocks too!!! They've definitely got a bit of Clash about em. Also our boys The Scruff representing BTown (Bedford!!!) will entertain every person in the room guaranteed!!! SO GET INVOLVED!!!!

We are in the studio preparing to drop our debut single and finishing work on the album. No release dates yet but our live sets have been going off the hook, it's time to unleash some bangers out there!!! And we'll be taking our newly aquired tour bus from Dorset to Donegal in the summer to taste the local festival highs and bust the odd set out there too!! Find everything you need to know on our facebook www. facebook.com/thewholls and twitter banter @thewholls . Or alternatively on our website www.thewholls.com but that will be down for a while as we're redesigning it. #whollin SEE YOU THERE!!!!!

We’ve just done a music video for a single out next month. I’d be a liar if I said that we didn’t all enjoy getting touched up (with makeup, unfortunately) all day long in the studio. The single’s called ‘Growing Up Going Down’ and will be available FREE (because we’re nice like that) from our website and from Rough Trade in the form of a very, very sexy 7” vinyl. Launch is at The Great Escape in B-Town (No, that’s not Birmingham, stop reading NME mate) next month. We’re all very excited about it.”

The Kid Kapichi are really looking forward to playing the Festival as we've always taken influence from a lot of bands that are playing. We all think Camden is still a great area to play for up and coming bands and the support is always top. It's an area where people are always up for not only seeing the bands they know and love but also seeking out new bands to back and support. The line up looks great and it's amazing to see so many unsigned acts on the brink of a break through being selected and supported. We're most excited to see Turbowolf. We suggest you look at another Hastings based band called Ceyote. Who we hope to have support us in London when we next play with you guys. And another amazing band who we've played with from Ireland called Sal Vitro.

At the moment the kid Kapichi are recording their forthcoming EP ‘Don't Kill the Kid’. We've recorded with hard-fi’s producer and recently supported Skunk Anansie on their UK tour.

We are now in talks with Nick Hodgson from the Kaiser Chiefs about new material and recording. We hope to play a lot of festivals and get our name out there to the London people!

Well up for Camden Rocks, always a cracking buzz around there. We'd be going if we weren’t playing! The line-up looks sweet. Played with Rise To Remain before… Some big names this year. Check out Bad For Lazarus.

We’ve just sold out the Borderline completely on our own! Exciting times at the moment. You can find out more at www.facebook.com/thehowlingofficial

We're looking forward to playing Camden Rocks, Camden has a pretty unique vibe anyway so to be part of a festival that's got a bunch of bands playing in a ton of the venues round town should be fun. Plus we're really looking forward to catching up with our tour buddies 'Colt 45'! The line up's great, it's a real mixture of the underground music scene. Definitely catch 'Colt 45' & 'The Vex'!

We’ve just finished recording our next album with Pete Miles and Joe Fields (The King Blues, Sonic Boom Six, We are the Ocean, Amy McDonald, The Prodigy) - and will be releasing it in August alongside more touring. We're also featured in this month’s edition of 'Classic Rock' magazine with a track on the cover CD. Finally, after coming off a successful UK tour, early March saw us win a Pure Rawk Award (Best New Breed), as well as selling out a large venue in Kent for the Teenage Cancer Trust. We've also just had confirmation we're playing at Strummercamp, Rebellion, Mighty Sounds (Czech Rep), main stage at 'Beautiful Days' and of course ‘Camden Rocks.’

You can find us at www.facebook.com/electricriver and www.electricriver.co.uk

THE CRAMATICS (Dan Cook)

Very excited! Barfly and Koko are two of my favourite venues in London. I’m hoping to catch Charlie Simpson, Therapy? Carl Barat, Straight Lines. Amongst new bands, you should keep an eye on Canterbury.

Our debut single ‘Puzzles (Take it or leave it)’ is out May 21st, debut EP out in July. Check them out!

Sonic Shocks

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GUIDE

The most heavenly club of the island will deliver a summer of madness with its daily delight, each night bringing its individual theme.

Opening parties as follow:

By Nelly Loriaux The countdown to Ibiza opening parties is well and truly underway and now would be a good time to start planning your upcoming clubbing holiday to the white isle. Slowly but surely, the 2013 party calendar is filling up with what is going to be another memorable year for party goers all around the world.

MAY 24th Es Paradis Opening (one-off event) 28th Fiesta Del Agua 80’s & 90’s Special edition 31st Fiesta Del Agua JUNE 1st Hed Kandi 5th Ibiza Rocks After Party www.esparadis.com

Issue 14/2013

Pacha’s opening parties are promising a blinding summer with a daily temptation, might just be the cherry on top for your clubbing schedule!

MAY 22th Wisdom Of The Glove 23rd Welcome To Pacha (one-off event) 24th Insane 25th Pure Pacha 26th Solomun +1 27th Epica 28th Pacha Anniversary (one-off event) 30th F**k Me I’m Famous JUNE 4TH Flower Power www.pacha.com

Regarded as the official ‘’consumer’’ opening of the Ibiza season, IMS (the International Music Summit), will return for the Sixth time with a speaker line-up full of pioneers and big players from every corner of the global electronic music scenes (artists, labels, agents and more) Theme ‘’Beyond the Boom Boom’’ 22nd-24th May @ Ibiza Gran hotel The summit will also include 2 nights of live performance (23rd and 24th), the Grand Finale, that will once again take place at Dalt Vila, the UNESCO world heritage site.

For more details on their delegate’s badge packages: www.internationalmusicsummit.com

Ibiza Rocks will open its famous open air rock stage for the usual dose of blistering live performances from international bands to emerging breakthrough artists JUNE 5TH Ibiza Rocks: Jake Bugg 7th We Are Rockstars: Zane Lowe/Baauer/Doorly www.ibizarocks.com

Amnesia and its popular nights will kick off later on in June JUNE 8th Amnesia opening (one-off event) 10th Cocoon 13th Cream 14th Music On 18th Together www.amnesia.es

This luxury venue has become the place for celebrities and party people alike to dance until sunrise to the tunes of star studded DJ’S, making it the ultimate day and night Beach Club experience.

Opening dates: Friday 3rd May, Saturday 4th May, Sunday 5th May (Fri, Sat, Sun only) Friday 10 May, Saturday 11 May, Sunday 12 May (Fri, Sat, Sun only) th

th

th

Friday 17th May, Saturday 18th May, Sunday 19th May (Fri, Sat, Sun only) From Friday 24th May 2013 open 7 days a week until Sunday 4th October 2013 For more information visit: www.oceanbeachibiza.com

Space Ibiza will open its door on May 26th for its legendary opening fiesta from 12 noon till dawn, an experience not to be missed that is guaranteed to surpass all your expectations.

Later on in June, its dedicated nights will resume to offer you the best vibes and tunes all summer long.

MAY 26th Space Opening (one-off event) JUNE 1ST Kehakuma 9th We Love 19th Ibiza Calling 24th Cafe Ole JULY 4TH Enter 9th Carl Cox www.spaceibiza.com

Ushuaïa will open at 1pm, featuring dazzling acrobats and dancers, a stunning display of pyrotechnics and DJ’S Sven Väth, Luciano and Loco Dice (supported by Maya Jane Coles, Joris Voorn, Reboot, Andrea Oliva and Uner), setting the benchmark for its 2013 calendar MAY 25TH Ushuaia opening www.ushuaiaibiza.com

Issue 14/2013

Vulgaria

Sonic Shocks

Dir: Pang Ho-cheung Starring: Chapman To, Ronald Cheng, Dada Chan, Fiona Sit Third Window Films (Out Now) Vulgaria, for its moments of crude humour, is actually a rather nice tale of a down on his luck producer trying to make it, and impress his daughter along the way. In his bid to make a successful film To Wai-Cheung goes to triad boss Tyrannosaurus who offers him up cows vagina, invites him to partake in some bestiality and then says he will fund a remake of the porno Confession of a Concubine as long as it stars the original actress Siu Yam-yam.

From here we’re treated to a bizarre cast of characters who continue to make life difficult for our producer; from the squeamish porn actor to the new girl whose oral technique earned her the name Popping Candy and all of this is brought together in flashback as Wai-Cheung gives a cringe worthy lecture to a university class.

This allows Wai-Cheung to break the forth wall; his lecture continues to the audience, explaining various parts of the industry to us in his downtrodden, deadpan way. It’s a risky move but one that works perfectly thanks to the tongue in cheek attitude and witty script.

What writer/director Pang Ho-cheung does so well is to satirise the dicey world of filmmaking whilst still showing a deep love for it. As we near the end of the film we see Wai-Cheung’s joy as he realises the film is complete and we see his swagger as he works within his element. There’s no bitterness towards the victims of Vulgaria’s mocking, this is a film that is laughing with the filmmakers, and not at them.

Vulgaria is a joy to watch, placing high farce into an industry where anything can, and will, happen and doing it in a such a way that will invite people in rather than excluding those who aren’t in these circles.

Matthew Tilt

an interview with Adam Torel

By Matthew Tilt Alongside his review of Vulgaria, Tilt took the time to chat with Adam Torel, owner of Third Window Films, about the troubles facing independent film as well as what’s coming up in Asian film.

I wanted to start by talking about the history of Third Window and the really horrible luck you guys and the film industry has been having over the past couple of years. You lost a lot of stock in the London riots…

The stock –as in the units – themselves were covered; the problem was not the loss of stock but it was the infrastructure that was down because obviously it was in August so nobody could get their stock ready for the beginning of Q3 and Q4. It was like the situation with Woolworths in the UK – they couldn’t get their stock and the shops closed down. It’s possible that HMV situation maybe has something to do with that in one way or another, if stores aren’t getting stock for months what are they going to sell?

Exactly.

Obviously it affected a lot of the major studios, the irony behind all of it was they were housed in another location. Sony has a few locations and the ones with the independents were where all my stock was.

With the growing speed of internet and the wide availability of DVD/Blu-Ray discs do you feel like film piracy is evening out with music piracy? This can’t help the situation.

It’s a problem all over, luckily in England internet speeds are still slow, in China for example they release their DVD’s very cheap so people will buy the real product rather than buying the pirate or the download but in England the prices are already so cheap. I think the big studios a few years ago thought it would be a good idea to drop the prices to a degree and get more customers so they would sell more and the profit’s would even out.

I don’t see piracy as a big problem in the UK because internet speeds are low – even where I live in London we were running through phone lines until recently , 15/20 years ago when I lived in the States we had cable and in England we’re still using phone lines in places!

I just wonder why so many companies decided to drop the prices of DVD’s because in England they’re one quarter of the cost that they are in the US – DVD’s are still healthily priced along with music as well - maybe over here it’s a strategy but it’s a silly thing.

It’s one side you don’t really hear about – the film companies haven’t been too public about the loss of stock either through piracy or the riots and now the HMV/Fopp situation…I’m interested in how as an independent company you’re coping with this? I know you’ve had to push back some releases.

I think the reason you don’t hear about it as much is because there aren’t as many independent film companies as there are music companies. It’s not as easy to put out a movie as it is a record which is easier to do with less money/staff. Putting out movies in cinemas and DVD costs a fortune, more in England because of the BBFC; you’re talking a minimum cost of £1000 just to release a film.

You still can’t release a movie unrated here as well.

In America you can, but in other countries they have these rating systems where the cost is very low. In Ireland they have a system in which if you only release a certain number of units, say under 2000, or a limited cinema run the fee is 10% off the total.

With the BBFC we have a ridiculous set of rules where you can buy films that were banned over here or watch a stream/download. Then there’s the cost it’s bringing to the companies – is it re-

ally worth having the BBFC do you think?

There should be some audience some way or another with keeping content safe but it doesn’t have to be so expensive. First of all they don’t need an office in one of the most expensive locations in London when the people that review the films actually watch them at home. It doesn’t cost £1000 for someone to sit with a pen and paper watching a movie for 2 hours; it’s really over the top. They need some structuring and if you think about the amount of money they must be making if you read the reports they’re absolutely minted!

Who’s going to stand up to them? I did a petition a while ago but not enough people signed up for it and you really need the big boys to all come together and nobody seems to care.

I guess the big companies are still doing alright from it and they’re not going to worry.

A thousand pounds to a big company means nothing compared to the same amount to me, how many DVD’s do I have to sell? Some don’t even recoup the cost of the BBFC cost and that’s only one part of a small pile of costs.

What can small companies like yourself work around these costs to get profit back?

Having as few overheads as possible is the only way. I have no staff, no office and I try to do everything I can, including the translations of the films, in-house. I’d do more in-house if I could. What’s happening in America is more independent companies are moving to Video on Demand which is a very easy way to release films but over here we can’t due to the internet speeds.

I was speaking to someone else who was thinking about bypassing DVD and looking for other ways because it’s just not worth it so maybe that’s the way forward but I still like releasing DVD’s. I’m a collector myself; I’ve got hundreds of Criterion DVD’s and about 5,000 DVD’s overall. I don’t really want to stop that and I think the best way is to get an audience, like Tartan did, who were very connected and bought whatever they put out.

Like with independent music labels you need a core audience that will stay with you. That’s the only way. You have to be really careful about the type of films you release; anyone can release a low budget gore film and sell like 5000 copies but then your audience is going to watch that and not buy your next release. It’s about building a label nowadays.

You mentioned being a collector; did that help inspire you starting up Third Window?

I’ve been interested in foreign cinema since I was young, I saw John Woo’s The Killer at a film festival when I was 12 and at the time it was very hard to find these films. The only way to get them was through a company called Tai Seng; then, when I was older I worked in a video store that had 35,000

Page 15 films and I watched them day and night.

Asian films weren’t big where I was and I just really wanted to start teaching people about them.

I used to trade with other video companies that were in the States at the time and started to show them to all my customers and taught it at a university. It’s all about finding things that people don’t know about and educating them. That’s why I started Third Window up, so I could find these films.

I’m not interested in releasing movies that there’s already an audience for, it’s why I don’t normally release Takeshi Miike or Kitano, it’s more about finding directors who you wouldn’t normally have the chance to see and building up an audience where there wouldn’t be one. That’s what I get the most thrill from, that’s why there’s such a varied selection in my catalogue. I can release a horror then a low budget comedy. I’d get bored doing one thing or doing the same thing too much. There’s so much Asian cinema to bring to the UK. You mentioned Takeshi Miike. You will be releasing a new film of his in the near future and re-releasing the Tetsuo series and you’ve managed to acquire these names while keeping to your own ethos. How does it feel having those directors and companies wanting to work through you?

The type of film we’re releasing (For Love’s Sake) is very different from what has been released over here in the past (Audition, Ichi the Killer).

It’s mostly the ultra violent gangster or horror films of his that are released in England; however, he’s a name I can sell. Recently I haven’t had that many popular titles so I need to make money to release another title.

With Shinya Tsukamoto the Tetsuo films have never had the transfers in the UK so I’ve remastered them with him; they’re classic films so I wanted to get them out there.

It’s funny how you mention how they haven’t been remastered properly – why do you think some of these films get neglected to the point that they only get this 25 years down the line?

It’s expensive to do it in Japan so it only happens to big names like Tetsuya Nakashima [director of 2010’s Confessions]. I had released Memories Of Matsuko before them on Blu-Ray, but it took them until he became one of Japan’s biggest names before they went through his back catalogue.

It’s one of those where people know of the Tetsuo name and not the director behind it.

I’m sure people know both but I’m not sure it would sell enough in Japan to cover the costs; Blu-Ray isn’t as big here…

Blu-Ray isn’t that big in Japan but do you think it will replace DVD? If I can release films on one format and people will buy it I’d rather do that than releasing on both DVD and Blu-Ray, to be honest I don’t like releasing to Blu-Ray because it costs a lot for me to release it but customers don’t want to pay because you can buy studio ones like Spiderman for cheap.

The value has dropped because studios want it to take over from DVD so they drop the price but people think why spend £20 for one which is what I’d have to sell at.

It’s still in a situation where people will only pay if it’s a very small amount but I don’t think companies can afford to bring the prices down; prices have dropped in terms of manufacturing but we have to pay royalties to Sony for every Blu-Ray sold because they own the product.

It just sounds like everything is against independent film at the moment..

A lot more than music. The other problem with film is there’s not many independent companies but a lot doing it on a major scale and therefore when it comes down to press we can’t get our stuff reviewed in the same way. No matter how big the release is places like Sight And Sound won’t review it and the DVD section of others like Empire is only 2 pages compared to theatrical reviews and it’s hard to get it into the cinemas.

You can only go so far with internet only websites..

What films are planned to be released soon?

In April I’ve got a film that satirises the Hong Kong film industry but at the same time is vulgar in the style of an American sex comedy but it’s really witty – Vulgaria .

Terracotta are also screening that as part of their film club if I’m correct.

I’ve known Joey from there for years, his press agent is mine as well and also my flatmate. He’s from Hong Kong so he gets a lot of the jokes more as some of Cantonese can only be translated so far. We also have remasters of Bullet Ballet and Tokyo Fist.

I’m also releasing a new film by the director of The Woodsman And The Rain – Shuichi Okita – titled Yokomichi Yonosuke and a new film from the guy that did Fish Story – Yoshihiro Nakamura called See You Tomorrow, Everyone.

So it’s a busy 2013 for you..

I’m also releasing a film I co-directed called The Land Of Hope with Sion Sono.

Vulgaria is out now on DVD.

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Issue 14/2013

(1973)- Director: Jerry Schatzberg

Warner Bros. (Out Now – selected cinemas)

By Matthew Tilt It is hard to imagine, considering the amount of coverage the festival receives every year, that any winner of the Cannes Palme d’Or could end up forgotten and yet Scarecrow, now celebrating its 40th anniversary came close to this fate.

This loosely plotted road movie sees hot headed ex-con Max (Gene Hackman) meet Francis ‘Lion’ Delbuchi (Al Pacino), a hyperactive ex-seaman drifting back home to the woman he left and the child he’s never met. Their meeting is one of chance, awkward and tense, but a friendship quickly blooms and the pair are soon hitchhiking down to Pittsburgh with the dream of opening a car wash.

Garry Michael White’s script, alongside Jerry Schatzberg’s luscious direction, allows the film to briefly delve into several genres as the journey unfolds. Moments of slapstick softly merge into character study and as our characters reach Denver, and Max’s sister Coley, the film grounds itself. After a bar fight lands them in jail Schatzberg tries his hand at prison drama, pushing the well-meaning Lion into the hands of Riley (Richard Lynch), whose friendly demeanour hides a vicious streak which culminates in a shocking assault.

If the first half of this film documents Lion’s influence on Max then the second half is about Lion’s tragic downfall.

Once released from the prison Lion’s disillusionment is clear and only deepened by a spiteful and false rejection at the hands of his past love Annie. Al Pacino captures this wonderfully, replacing the stuck on smile with a blank look that hints at his depression. His antics become wilder in an attempt to cover up his true feelings and Hackman’s responses to this bring his characterisation of Max full circle while compounding the tragedy of the scenario.

Warner Bros. restoration of Scarecrow is beautiful; showing Schatzberg’s adept work on both exterior and interior shots – his past as a professional photographer shining through.

Each shot is purposeful from the opening long shot of Max descending a hill and the distant shots of the wasteland prison they are sent to through to the claustrophobic phoneboxs and motel rooms that Max and Lion occupy throughout.

Equal parts funny and tragic; Scarecrow is an unforgettable buddy movie that still represents a high point in the elusive careers of its stars. Now forty years later it can be rediscovered by a whole new generation of cinephiles and regain some much deserved recognition.

Sonic Shocks

Issue 14/2013

Page 17

Matthew Tilt presents

CULT FEAST in collaboration with

Nekromantik (1987) There’s a different atmosphere at Certificate X tonight; far from the tongue in cheek crowd who hurried out to watch Female Trouble or Squirm tonight we have some serious gorehounds in attendance to catch a very rare screening of Jörg Buttgereit’s infamous Nekromantik.

First of course we have the lovingly archived trailers which tonight comprise of the Psychoinfluenced Beyond the Darkness, modern day controversy-courter A Serbian Film, the short Aftermath which covers many of the same themes as tonight’s feature and Buttgereit’s follow up his duo of Nekromantik films, Schramm.

The shorts tonight consist of Kostnice, a disorientating look around Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic; a church decorated with over 10,000 bones from the victims of the Black Death. The second short is the bizarre Satan bouch un coin; a French short which combines elements of BDSM and fetishism to great effect over the course of its twelve minutes, though it never feels as evil as it’s non-fiction partner.

Nekromantik has amassed a large amount of hype in the age of the internet; widely banned, it’s a name known across cinephilic circles and yet anyone too young to know the VHS era intimately has struggled to see it. Rather surprisingly it’s a very effective horror; while it looks very dated in places there’s no denying Buttgereit’s originality.

The actual scene of necrophilia looks uncomfortably real; while the darkly funny set up for each of the onscreen deaths plays out like some crude version of Final Destination. Bernd Daktari Lorenz, who would later go onto direct softcore pornography, plays the lead Robert as a down and out loser while his girlfriend Betty takes on the stronger role, eventually leaving him for the corpse he dutifully brought home for her.

From Buttgereit somehow ups the disturbing aspect of the film; with Robert’s murder of a cat one of the most cringe inducing moments, but despite the content Nekromantik never feels gratuitous. Buttgereit treats the subject matter as if we were all animals; a point made more explicit as Robert watches an autopsy on television and we’re swapped between that and the skinning of a rabbit.

Nekromantik never feels tame despite the vast amount of visceral cinema we’ve witnessed over the last twenty years, it remains a hard-to-watch, creative piece of work that seems to laugh in the face of the video nasty era and dare anyone to try and outdo it.

https://www.facebook.com/CertificateXCultFilmScreenings

5 July 2013 (UK) - Director: Stuart St. Paul Review by Cristina Massei The grumpy and the wild old men of rock'n'roll make a movie. An ac-

tion movie nevertheless, where they get themselves into trouble with the local gambling racket after a show on the heavenly Fiji islands! But worry not, as the pluri-decorated music legends have no intention of taking themselves too seriously; proof is the choice of baddie for this adventure - that Jon Lovitz I still remember peeping from a tree branch in Little Nicky - and some rather terrifying outfits. Having said that, our heroes can surely do comedy, and they prove it in these 105 minutes of light hearted fun somewhere between 007 and The Naked Gun, with a generous side of first quality rock'n'roll.

Partly unaware of danger, partly entertained in a 'bored rockstar' way, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt drag in their Bond-esque perils manager/ bodyguard/nanny Simon (Craig Fairbrass, aka Eastenders' Dan Sullivan) and young intern Caroline (Laura Aikman), not yet familiar with the band's bizarre antics. Prepared to deal with a couple of pretentious old farts, she's bound to dramatically change her mind by the end of the far-fetched chain of events. Will our heroes save the day and the girl?

Of course they will - and you can hardly consider this a spoiler.

It's fast, it's fun, it's Quo rocking all over the world like only Quo can.

Thankfully Rossi is ponytail free these days, could have been a step too far with the Hawaiian shirt; instead, not only they get away with it all, but give even the grumpiest man on earth something to smile about.

Find out more from Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt on the next issue of Sonic Shocks and catch Status Quo live in December 2013: Fri 6 Sat 7 Sun 8 Tues 10 Weds 11 Fri 13 Sat 14 Sun 15 Tues 17 Weds 18 Thurs 19

Liverpool Echo Arena Birmingham LG Arena Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena Plymouth Pavilions Bournemouth BIC Brighton Centre Nottingham Arena London, O2 Arena Leeds Arena Glasgow Hydro Newcastle Arena

Tickets are on sale now through Live Nation at £38.50 + booking fee.

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Sonic Shocks

Issue 14/2013

Duhamel – manage to create a film that is factual as much as it is touching: Planet Ocean will tell you – and show you – how amazing the Ocean is, but also how our very existence depends on it; it will make you understand how selfish man is when it comes to other living creatures, but won’t stop at making you feel bad for how we treat sharks or turtles: will actually make you discover how we’re putting our own species in danger. At times, it may even make you feel that our extinction wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.

But besides leaving with the knowledge of the damage we’re causing to the ecosystem, there are lot more thoughts Planet Ocean is going to provoke. As early in the movie something as simple as a sardine shoal takes our breath away, we discover that the fish have no leader, yet they move in perfect formation. Each fish is aware of the presence of his neighbours and respect their distance – much unlike my neighbours – which is essential for their hunting and preservation needs. As much as we try reproducing that with rules and signs, humankind is not even capable of standing on the right side of the escalator. Lost in our papers and mobile phones, respect for our neighbour’ space is an alien concept to us. How can we expect someone who has no respect for his own species to respect what, to him, is mainly a source of food? But maybe, playing on that exact selfishness, if we can get mankind to see the implication of its behaviour towards the Ocean we can still win. And this is where Planet Ocean ultimately differs.

I’ll never be a vegetarian. I love fish – and meat to a lesser extent – and I believe man has always been part of the food chain and things may get ugly whatever part of the food chain is taken off the equation. But there’s no need to be greedy. There are things that can be done and things that can be avoided in order to maintain a balance. The problem these days is that we look at things around and we see NOT sustain, but PROFIT. The consequences are unimaginable to most. Arthus-Bertrand and Pitiot want us to understand this chain of events, because it’s the only way our attitude can change, as selfish as we may be. We are ultimately endangering ourselves, more closely than we may think. Awareness, at this point, is our only hope.

Planet Ocean ends with a shocking view of Rio de Janeiro and a list of things we can do to – really – save the world. Some we can’t do directly, but we can give it a push: bring protected marine areas up from the current 1% worldwide, maintain the Antarctic treaty, establish a treaty for the Arctic, stop industrial fishing and promote small scale fishing, ban deep sea fishing and limit deep sea exploitation, for a start. But there are also little things we can do directly, like choose to only buy fish with eco-labels, control pollution, encourage responsible fishing – or at least do not encourage irresponsible one. And most importantly, what we can do is educate ourselves and others. Please go watch this movie and when you come out share your new found awareness. Filmbank (www.filmbank.co.uk) licenses Planet Ocean to schools, churches, trains, hotels, hospitals and similar organisation: ask your child’s school, church, place of work or club to get involved. And watch your footprint.

As we see a dead bird on a beach with a number of plastic objects protruding from his stomach, Josh Duhamel talks in the first person when he says that, despite living thousands of miles away, that is his rubbish, comes from his home, and when fish eats it he will ultimately be eating it himself. We’re all responsible and we all can stop it. Start now.

Find out more on www.goodplanet.org

PLANET OCEAN Directors: Yann-Arthus Bertrand & Michael Pitiot Narrator: Josh Duhamel Universal – Available now on DVD and Blu Ray

By Cristina Massei As a more than keen scuba diver, I’ve been lucky enough to see the ocean’s indescribable wonders with my own eyes; unfortunately, I’ve also seen in it the ugliness and greed of humankind. Back to sea level I’ve seen many a try to illustrate both; while the progress of technology makes the visuals increasingly breathtaking, capturing the essence of the ocean and the gravity of what we’re doing to it – and implicitly ourselves – is not easy to portray. Most Directors end up with a documentary that is either just a beautiful blue display with little facts to make us understand, or a thorough source of information but fails to connect with the viewer.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Michael Pitiot – with the compelling narration of Josh

THE KING OF PIGS Dir: Yeun Sang-ho Terracotta Distribution - 13th May This disturbing Korean animation builds slowly from an unsettling beginning; exploring the futility of rebellion and the disillusionment of childhood in a Lord of the Flies style, shockingly violent school setting.

Kyung-min, after killing his wife in a fit of anger, gets back in touch with Jong-suk, a dissatisfied ghost writer, whom he hasn’t spoken to in fifteen years. Both are haunted by the memory of their school days where the richest children, known as dogs, dictated the ‘pigs’. As they reminisce they remember Chul-yi, an outsider who leads an unsuccessful uprising against the dogs.

Chul-yi’s violent temper and fighting capabilities initially strike fear into the dogs, but their efforts to lean on those beneath escalate ultimately ending in tragedy. Director Yeun Sang-ho builds tension gradually; starting with the image of Kyung-min’s dead wife which leads into Jong-suk’s savage assault of his own partner before stripping it right back and telling the bulk of the story in flashback.

By doing this we gradually see each timeline strain under the emotional weight as long forgotten memories come back and regrets are unearthed.

The violence, even during the extremity of the final chapters, is constantly shocking, helped by the scratchy, kinetic animation.

It quickly becomes clear that there will be no happy endings for these characters, no gratifying closure; and the emotive gut-punch of an ending offers no comfort to the viewer. This is the story of the forever downtrodden; a savage critique of the systems which we throw each generation into.

Matthew Tilt

Issue 14/2013

Sonic Shocks

LIVE!

Berlin, 12-14 April 2013

Review by Kristian Kotilainen Photos LibraSnake Photography It was a beautiful spring evening in Berlin and Astra Kulturhaus in Friedrichshain had just opened its gates. Astra Kulturhaus is a multifunctional venue with the capacity of 1,500 people and this weekend - the host for the Punk And Disorderly festival.

We were about 50 people gathered in front of the stage when the opening act -Louise Distras walked in with nothing more than her guitar. She started with “Stand Strong Together” and instantly filled the room with her presence and charismatic voice.

The more I listened I realised how every single song is a potential h i t with intelligent lyrics. “People O f The Abyss” - with the lines “We all live, we all cry, then you work until you die”, sums it up perfectly.

I keep wondering how it would be to see Distras backed up by a full band. At the same time I feel like there’s no need for it. Her simple and stripped down music is already mesmerising enough in itself. It’s been a long while since an artist made me this excited - and I love it.

Middle Finger Salute didn’t really appeal much to me with their poppy punk. The guys did a good job though and the growing audience seemed to enjoy it.

By the time the English boys in Booze & Glory entered the stage to the tune of “Forever Blowing Bubbles”, the venue had filled up severely. There’s no secret what football team the band supports and it felt more like I was supporting the team, rather than the band when I applauded. Personally I couldn’t care less about sports but Booze & Glory are awesome on stage. It’s catchy, playful and fast and I really enjoy it when band members share the vocal duties.

A lot of their songs are about London Town, like “London Skinhead Crew”and “Maybe”.

There was even a boot given to Margret Thatcher in “Working Class Man”. The band finished with a cover of “Skinhead Love Affair” by Bad Manners. After that, I walked to the bar feeling very satisfied with what I’ve just seen and heard.

When Saturday arrived I was very excited. I was gonna see one of my favourite bands Cock Sparrer for the first time...

Deadline put on a fast-paced, catchy show and even though I’m a big fan of female vocalists, I do feel that Liz Rose’s voice is a bit plain. I don’t mean this to offend anyone but it would be nice with a bit of “change” sometimes.

I love the broad British accent though and everybody really had a good time. I was happy to hear my favourite tune “Last Night”.

The following act Discipline from the Netherlands impressed me a lot with their aggressive streetcore. Their original singer Joost De Graaf is in prison for killing his wife but the new frontman Merijn Verhees seemed confident in his role. By the end of the gig lots of people were up on stage and Discipline sure got the crowd going.

The ska band Buster Shuffle from London sounded like a Madness with keyboards. Two keyboards to be more precise. That’s at least one too many in my opinion. I enjoyed their covers of The Specials’ “A Message To You Rudy” and Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell”, more than their own songs. Regardless of my dislike for keyboards - Buster

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Shuffle did put a smile on my face.

Finally! Cock Sparrer took the stage. I was psyched as fuck to say the least. The London boys instantly owned the venue from the first second and it only got better from there. “Working”, “Teenage Heart”, “Where Are They Now”, “Sussed”, “Bird Trouble”, “Because You’re Young”, “Suicide Girls”, “Get A Rope”, “Argy Bargy” – we got them all and more. I was singing along to every single word and after the last song I was on such a high.

A friend who’s attended several Cock Sparrer gigs, told me beforehand about the love I would feel in the room. Damn, was she right. An extra plus to vocalist Colin McFaull for wearing a 12 Bar Club t-shirt. It felt like I was back serving pints in that lovely London bar again. It certainly made me remember my good ol’ Soho days. I guess that’s how I see Cock Sparrer’s music – as a companion during the good times.

Sunday arrived and with that - the final day of the festival. The weekend had started to take its toll but that couldn’t stop me from checking out the last few acts of the evening.

The geezers from The Last Resort delivered a lethal dose of old school Oi! The singer shirtless, slightly insane looking and covered in tattoos.

They gave an energetic performance and where a brilliant warm up to the evening’s headliners...

The Exploited, was even better and got everybody going. The frightful frontman Watty dominated the stage with his attitude. I must admit that even though I’ve never been much of a fan – this sounded amazing live! That is actually something I feel about most punk bands... It’s made to be played live and loud. We got classic tunes like “Fuck The USA”, “Sex And Violence” and “Punk’s Not Dead”. The gig ended with a complete stage invasion and it was a great and fun climax to a great weekend. For those who wanted to continue – Kreuzberg’s Wild At Heart was hosting an aftershow party.

I was too tired for that.

All in all – the Punk And Disorderly weekend was really enjoyable. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and several people had travelled far for this festival.

My only criticism is that you were not allowed to leave the area and re-enter later if you wanted. If the reason for that is to keep people’s money within the venue - then it rhymes badly with a punk festival in my ears. If you pay good money for a ticket there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be allowed to go in and out. Especially since there weren’t many options food-wise at the venue. If you happened to be a vegetarian – even less.

The outside smoking area where a bar, the two food stands and a merch stand were located, was nice but pretty small. Could be an idea to make it bigger next year?

A wider range of food and maybe even more merch, the selling of vinyls, cd’s and other music related stuff? It would add a bit more to it all than “just” the music.

Punk And Disorderly is an awesome festival and I wouldn’t mind at all returning next year. I’d also like to add a special thank you to MAD Tourbooking for letting me attend this event.

The Underground, Stoke-on-Trent - 3rd April 2013

By Matt Dawson As one of the bands to keep an eye on Sacred Mother tongue have had a crazy 2013 so far; their second album Out Of The Darkness has received critical acclaim and they’ve played with Fear Factory and Halestorm.

Despite slight reservations at the beginning of their set by the Stoke crowd, they soon begin to warm up as Andy James’ guitar solos during tracks such as Seven and Evolve/Become kick in along with the great vocal prowess of Darrin South. By the end of the criminally short set, new fans are conquered as the continued growth of Sacred Mother Tongue spreads; Download Festival awaits.

The crowd however are amped to see Ill Nino – their first show in Stoke – and, as the triple shot of ‘If You Still Hate Me’, ‘God Save Us’ and ‘Te Amo… I Hate You’ kicks in, a wave of remembrance hits the venue; throughout the set Cristian Machado is charismatic: cracking jokes, getting the crowd to engage in a bizarre dance and even quelling a potential fight by getting a mass hug going around the room [sadly no chants of ‘Hug It Out’ occurred].

As the show ends with a great drum solo by Dave Chavarri and ‘How Can I Live/Liar’ rounding off proceedings; tonight for sure the crowd have learnt ways to feel alive and have fun, as smiles can be seen all around.

Sonic Shocks

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LIVE!

TechFest Weekender, 9th March 2013

C-Club, Berlin, - 27 March 2013

By Kristian Kotilainen It’s Wednesday evening in a freezing Berlin and I arrive at C-Club in time to catch my fellow Swedes in Truckfighters. I hadn’t heard them much prior to the event but their show is ace and with their fuzzy stoner they totally win me over. Great job guys, I’m looking forward to seeing you again.

I’ve seen Kvelertak before. The first time was in a small pub in Angel, Islington, about two and a half years ago. I had of course heard the hype beforehand and their intense live antics made a big impression on me. At that time the Norwegians were still working their way up and the rest is history I guess.

This time, vocalist and leader of the pack, Erlend Hjelvik, enters the stage wearing a huge owl mask. The headwear is obviously inspired by their awesome album artwork. With “Meir”, the follow up to the self-titled debut from 2010, they have toned down the “madness” slightly for a more

Review and photos Ashley Naismith This one’s going to be a little different. I only heard Karybdis about two days before they hit the Upstairs at the Garage stage to play the UK Tech Fest Weekender. It’s really a testament to how much of an impression that this band made that I legged it over to Highbury and Islington during the intermission of a West End play to catch them live. I can’t speak of any of the other bands there, I didn’t see them; tonight is just about karybdis.

Formed in 2009 and influenced by a plethora of bands like Lamb of God, Sepultura and In Flames, the London based melodeath outfit quickly prove that they are a musical force. Diving in with ‘Minotaur’ from their debut album, ‘From the Depths’, a small but dedicated following gathers round the stage. The song starts ambiently, synth strings slowly building up tension, melding into a clearly doom inspired riff. Then, crash! They descend into the iconic opening lick, and as vocalist and frontman Rich O’Donnell belts the opening lyrics, the crowd’s energy hits peak and they begin headbanging furiously and screaming along. The crowd knows the band, they know the words, and that is tribute to how far this band has evidently come.

With ‘Arson Aesthetics’, guitarists Pierro Dujardin and Harsha Dasari’s twin guitar attacks create a pulsing soundwall that embraces and incites the crowd, generating a small but furious moshpit. There’s just a bit of hardcore influence there, just enough to inject the right amount of aggression and fury, but not enough to necessitate perpetual breakdowns.

Awesome.

As the intro to ‘Maelstrom’ flares out, it’s clear that this band have more to them than technical skills. Their music has in it a passion

O2 Islington Academy, London 13th April 2013

By Louise Bates To say this show was sold out would be an understatement, talk about Glam fans in a sardine can! A sweating, writhing mass of hairspray, bandanas and booze. Main support I AM I were a thunderclap of melodic metal, crystal sound enabling even the most intricate of notes to register on the listeners rock radar. ZP Theart’s vocal acrobatics were practically pitch perfect and after a decade’s worth of experience, it’s fair to say he is still at the top of his game and a far cry from a rock star supernova burnout. This band, whilst comprised of experienced individuals, collectively is still in its fledgling phase with only one studio album (“Event Horizon”) under their studded belts. This is a band willing to take risks, to conclude they sprung a blinding, electrifying and guitar focused cover of John Farnham’s 1986 track “You’re The Voice” leaving this rock n roll soul standing in complete shock and admiration.

There is a light buzz in the air, not quite electric, but rather the fuel addled, laid back expectation and anticipation of some good old

Issue 14/2013

and a strength that speaks for itself. It’s safe to say I’m a fan of the music; however, I wasn’t a fan of the performance. Karybdis have yet to employ the stage presence and charisma required to take the show to the next level.

They have energy in bounds, but haven’t quite taken that up a notch. However, again, they make great music, so it should only be a matter of time before a big band picks them up and takes them on tour. And when they do, go and see this band, their music is really something. fashioned rock n roll. Skid Row take to the stage in what can only be described as a disappointingly understated fashion. However their lacklustre entrance is soon forgotten as they launch head first into audience favourite “Slave to the Grind”. The sound quality for Skid Row is noticeably poorer than for previous act I AM I, but the crowd seem enraptured as Skid Row pull out the “Big Guns” causing the sea of leather to erratically ripple in a frenzy of head banging. Skid row in sound have always been hard hitting with a raw edge, but tonight Johnny Solinger’s vocals just sounded raw from a sore throat.

Whilst I appreciate “the hits” were not written for his individual vocal style and range, the fluidity of movement between the lower range and falsetto just wasn’t there and neither was the lung splitting power even when singing new material. The hardest thing to do in this industry is fill the void and continue the legacy someone else left behind, and as much as it pains me to say it as a Skid Row fan and whilst trying not to make direct comparisons, I found Solinger to be generally wanting. Despite what I felt to be a half hearted, run through the motions, pre-choreographed performance the show was far from awful. What the band lacked in charisma the fans made up for in bucket loads, “18 and Life” was performed by the audience to the band! Interestingly the highlight of the set was “I remember you” which was heartfelt, not over performed and would have made a brilliant acoustic lighter swaying break in an upbeat set list.

Final song of the night “Youth Gone Wild” see’s all of the nights performers swamp the stage, I AM I’s Theart appears from amidst the crush of musicians with a microphone and joins lead vocals. Suffice to say, Solinger surrenders the vocals to Theart and in that moment it is clear that I AM I hail dominant here tonight.

This evening was a night for the fans, and most appeared to leave the venue reasonably satisfied, ready to pursue their weekend rock n roll dreams and get up to some good old fashioned monkey business. The question remains, with three EPs on the way, can Skid Row recapture what they have lost? Only time will tell.

straight forward rock sound.

Even though Hjelvik seems to do (a bit) less climbing and running around than the last time I saw Kvelertak, the keyword remains pure energy. Believe me, none of the band members stands still for long and the sweat and the rocking out is more than most bands can pull off. I also find it so cool that they have none less than three guitarists, with up to four of them sharing the vocal duties. It adds to a richer sound and I think that’s a part of their success and originality.

The intensity on stage is so present you could cut it with a knife and the lead singer crowd surfs twice. Of course his shirt is off and he spends most of the gig with his sweaty hair covering his face. Metal as fuck! Kvelertak ends with a dragged out version of “Ulvetid” which climaxes with all the guitarists climbing both sides of the stage for a solo.

If you want to catch one of the most interesting and fierce bands of today – the name is spelled Kvelertak. Try it, you’ll like it.

Royal Albert Hall, London 5th April 2013 Review & photo Cristina Massei A child’s smile framed in silver hair, a token of gratitude encased in a reminder of a life that never tempered his enthusiasm: Italian rocker Ligabue is back at London’s Royal Albert Hall for another double sold out, after first being invited last year to perform at the legendary British landmark.

Luciano Ligabue is one of the most prominent and successful singers/ songwriters in his country, where he rose to iconic status over the past 20 years. In 1994 he reinterpreted R.E.M. ‘It’s the End of The World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)’ in Italian, inspired by the inauguration speech of the first Berlusconi government. The longevity of his success is an achievement in itself, the dedication of his loyal followers a show in the show, the two of them together something England is rather unfamiliar with these days.

Tonight the local Italian community is out in force, but there’s also a huge contingent who flew all the way here for a dose of freezing snow and warm rock’n’roll, as ‘Bar Mario’ (Ligabue’s Italian fan club) temporarily moves to the land of Albion. Families who grew up with his music, couples who exchanged their first kiss as the radio played ‘Urlando Contro il Cielo’(Screaming to the sky), youngsters who inherited the love and anger of a previous generation and made it theirs.

The set list tonight is rich of old and new, hits and rarities, in a night that is not about promoting a new album but rather celebrating the life of Ligabue himself and those of his devoted following. It starts with early unforgettable ‘Figlio Di Un Cane’ (‘Son Of A Dog’) and its adolescent forbidden poetry of broken condoms and stolen intercourses. Next to the usual suspects – like ‘Vivo Morto o X’ (Alive Dead or X), ‘Balliamo sul Mondo’ (Let’s Dance on Top of the World) and poignant ballad ‘Ho Messo Via’ (I’ve Put Away) – there are gems never heard live before, like ‘Male Non Fara’’ (It Won’t Hurt), which get the audience screaming even louder in the relentless two hours singalong.

Outside, a deserted South Kensington is taken over by the Italians, smiling in ecstasy unaware of the freezing London cold. The Piccadilly Line is a special train between two worlds, between stage and reality (‘Tra Palco e Realta’). Ligabue conquers London again and brings home another double. Well done sir… and see you at Mario’s!

Sonic Shocks

Issue 14/2013

Page 21

THE MELVINS Everybody Loves Sausage Ipecac - 29th April

THE THERMALS Desperate Ground Saddle Creek - Out Now

ADEMA Topple The Giants EP Pavement Entertainment - Out Now

THE OCEAN Pelagial Metal Blade Records - April 29

Is there anything more exciting in the noise-rock world than the announcement of a new album from The Melvins? How about an album of covers that promises a momentary peek into the bands that had a small part in helping shape the behemoth sound that Osborne and co. assault their fans with?

Everybody Loves Sausage is a strangely awesome title for a strangely awesome album that slots Queen’s Best Friend between Venom and Ram Jam and includes the track Female Trouble, originally sung by the LGBT icon Divine for the John Waters film of the same name. Working as both The Melvins and The Melvins Lite across the thirteen tracks, the band are joined by a collection of guest artists as eclectic as the song choices.

Mixing straight up covers, with ones more clearly branded with their own style, the album bathers from one track to the next, rarely missing a beat and leaving you open mouthed on more than one track. Their cover of The Jam’s Art School descends into a wonderfully juvenile, feedback laden, foul mouthed tirade after a rather Oi! punk start off, while Roxy Music’s In Every Dream House a Heartache is stretched out to nine minutes, swirling around the main bulk of the original and allowing Jello Biafra to let rip on vocals.

They play it as straight as they can on Queen’s Best Friend; sounding so joyful that it’s hard not to smile, and when it’s followed by Black Betty – another one they play straight up – it’s hard not to nod your head and tap your feet. Once it gets to Buzz crooning the tongue-in-cheek lyrics of Female Trouble you’ll wish they’d done a double album of this.

It’s hard to think of a covers album that has worked this well, from the opening drum beat of Venom’s Warhead to the final notes of Throbbing Gristle’s Heathen Earth The Melvins have simultaneously managed to pay tribute, recreate and explore the sounds of their influences while still sounding like the musical rebels band we know and love.

The Thermals’ don’t waste a second on Desperate Ground, breaking straight into Born to Kill which makes the most of its short running time before revitalising the assault with You Will be Free though in all honesty it never really breaks free of the patterns lay down by these two tracks.

Yes, their energetic power-pop is fun and none of the tracks are long enough to really cause an issue, each track quickly begins to verge into the next one. Even when tracks like The Sunset start off with an interesting guitar line they quickly slip back into the mid paced routine laid down before them.

Things aren’t helped by the fact that Hutch Harris never stretches himself on vocal duties, finding a comfortable, neutral gear and staying in it from start to finish.

Each song starts off with a different tone, or lick and yet by the time you reach the half-way point it sounds exactly the same as ever other track; even when they change it up on The Howl of the Winds they quickly copy that on closer Our Love Survives.

Now this sounds like a negative review, and in many ways it is, but the fact is that Desperate Ground is an enjoyable album. There isn’t a bad song on this album, but that’s because there is only one – two at a push – tracks on the album and it’s been repeated over and over. It’s kind of like a poppunk version of Dragonforce, only The Thermals are likable.

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything from nu-metaql alumni Adema, six years in fact since Kill the Headlights and three since an abortive attempt to restore the original line-up. Worryingly, the line-up changes still seem to be an ongoing process as new guitarist Marc DeLeon already left before the release of this album. But finally the long-delayed EP, Topple the Giants is here with former guitarist Tim Fluckey taking over lead vocals and Kris Kohls on drums.

Sadly excitement over the new release might be muted by the fact it only contains three new songs, the final four being versions of older tracks re-recorded by the new line-up. I have mixed feeling about this.

On one hand it’s clear why they went this route: after years of delays and line-up changes the band must have wanted to reassure fans that this is still the Adema they know and love, not a different beast wearing an old name. On the other hand, those same fans have been waiting so long for new material that what Topple the Giants gives them may seem a little stingy.

Of the new material the EP starts strong with the angry, riff-strewn Resolution, immediately establishing Fluckey’s decision to move into the vocalist role as a good one, his voice angry yet melodic and certainly on par with original singer Mark Chavez. The energy continues with Topple the Giants but things are let down somewhat by third track Lions, a ballad which feels like it got slipped in by mistake from a different album and contains some clumsy wordplay, particularly the “rely on your lions” chorus. The remaining tracks Unstable, Immortal, Planets and Giving In are all solid versions of familiar songs.

Overall this is a very strong EP, especially given the band’s troubles over the last few years (not to mention the jaw-droppingly poor cover art). Fluckey is a very capable vocalist and with the new recordings of older material it certainly makes an excellent jumping on point for new listeners to get a taste of the band but for the same reasons existing fans may feel disappointed. Also, the fact that only two out of the three new tracks really live up to Adema’s legacy does leave questions over what we can expect from the next full album. Personally, on the strength of Topple the Giants I’m going to choose to be optimistic.

After taking us through their thoughts on Creationism on their last double album – Heliocentric and Anthropomorphic, The Ocean have decided to take us down to the deepest depths of the ocean itself.

Mix in a lyrical perspective inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 Science fiction film Stalker and the whole album not only sounds akin to going to the Mariana Trench or the infamous Room brought up in Stalker itself.

The Ocean have been evolving over the course of the past three albums; in particular the writing process has changed as it’s no longer just Robin Staps. Add to this that the core line up – at least in regards to the studio – has been the same for the past three albums we get the feeling that Pleagial shows the true scope of their power.

Case in point: the Bathyalpelagic section of the album starts with a ferocious growl by Loic Rossetti then after a beautiful piano led interlude it breaks into a more groove based rhythm followed by a complex guitar melody by Robin – all in all this is the point where the need to headbang shall occur the most.

Loic himself has grown dynamically throughout the record – the clean vocals on this album on impeccable and even though the instrumentation of this record is captivating, there is something about the vocals that give it an even better edge to it all.

In order to fully embrace Pleagial you have to hear it in one sitting as it was intended – this is the Ocean’s finest hour to date. Get ready to go to the deep waters of your own self.

Matthew Tilt

Matthew Tilt

Matt Dawson

David Lees

HATCHET Dawn of the End The End Records - Out Now They must put something in the Bay Area water that causes teenagers to consider, at least once in their lives, the possibility of becoming a thrash metal musician: Hatchet are no exception.

Five years and a few line-up changes after their debut they come back with ‘Dawn of The End’ and, for those that like their palate tickled with some good old San Francisco inspired thrash goodness, this one is for you. The long break and Juiz Ramos being the only original member left may cause a slight hint of wariness ; as soon as ‘Silenced By Death’ kicks in, however, the urge to head bang creeps up fast onto the listener. This isn’t thrash by numbers – or a St Anger inspired record thank goodness – but one that shows true love to the genre.

Clark Webb’s use of the guitar is great to hear, particularly in his solos on tracks like ‘Fall From Grace’, and Juiz Ramos’ vocals show good confidence in his range with the potential to get even better on future releases. Despite ‘Revelations Of Good And Evil’ briefly stopping the musical ride, Hatchet should gain new followers on a global scale with a record that will please lovers of the classic era inspired thrash metal.

Matt Dawson

THE COMPUTERS Love Triangles, Hate Squares One Little Indian Records - 29th April

IRON CHIC Spooky Action [Tour 7”] Drunken Sailor Records/Yoyo Records - May 1st Iron Chic play an awesome, gruff and garagy brand of pop punk that literally flies off the wax in an energetic mix of melodic riffs, pounding rhythms and strong vocals. Opener Spooky Action at a Distance builds from the simple melody and vocal line into something a little more chaotic and sharper edged.

At four and a half minutes it’s the longest track on offer by a long way, with their other original Less Rest for the Restless, with its obvious pop punk leanings, clocking in at a much slimmer two and a half minutes and maintaining all the melody of the opener. It’s a seriously catchy show of tunes to celebrate their European tour, and ending this special 7” with a Butthole Surfers cover just completes the package.

Starting with a daft vocal rendition of some TV themes before a deafening wave of feedback escapes and the vitriolic punk rock begins. Staying faithful to the original, but managing to sound like their own band in the process.

Iron Chic threaten to dominate the DIY pop-punk scene with this 7”; combing their aggression with just enough melody and catchiness to really make a move.

Matthew Tilt

There’s nothing like a bit of grindcore to give you the audio equivalent of a wakeup call now and again – something that Grot manage to give in spades.

Comprising of Eoin Broughal from Warpath on vocals, Gama Bomb’s John Roche on bass and guitar and the mighty Kevin Talley [Hate Eternal, Six Feet Under, Dying Fetus] on drums, the listener should expect a brilliant blast of ferocious grindcore mixed with death metal brutality.

Eoin’s vocals comprise of vicious growls; the pace is fast and furious, filled with guitar solos – like on Impervious to the Cause - groovy basslines that will cause the mental mosh trigger to go off in your skull, and the blastbeats are what you expect from a man of Kevin’s calibre: pretty fucking great.

Grot aren’t afraid to pay homage to their idols with a cover of Napalm Death’s ‘Unchallenged Hate’ and carry it off with the respect that it deserves, by allowing the power of the original to shine but at least adding their own ideas.

If you like dirty death metal with grindcore goodness buy this EP NOW.

The Computers’ first album hinted at the rock ‘n’ roll influences they held close to their heart but nothing could have prepared us for Love Triangles, Hate Squares; an eleven track ode to soul and R’n’B that couldn’t be any more toe-tappingly catchy if it had herpes.

Bring me the Head of a Hipster opens things up on a series of harmonised Wo-Ohs that fall into upbeat guitar riffs, blues harp and the soulful vocals of frontman Alex, which truly come into their own on the title track with its glorious chorus and snappy verses.

This whole album is reference for a by-gone era and yet, infused with the punk energy that infected their debut, this sounds so modern even as they slip into Jerry Lee Lewis piano melodies on Selina Chinese or the Elvis balladry of album closer Single Beds.

In between you’ve got the spiky attitude of Disco Sucks, the poppy Nothing to Do and the melancholic Point of Interest. The change in styles allows Alex’s vocals to shine; sounding so passionate as he croons over each track, while the variety of instrumentation is stunning as they move from one influence to the next but always sounding like The Computers.

This is the sort of album that doesn’t come off repeat; it stays there until you know all the words and then it stays there even when you could repeat it line for line. Brimming with attitude and talent, The Computers haven’t so much bypassed the curse of the difficult second album as laughed in its face and embarrassed it in front of its friends.

Stunning.

Matt Dawson

Matthew Tilt

GROT I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream Hammerheart Records - Out Now

Sonic Shocks

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Issue 14/2013

AT THE DRIVE-IN Relationship of Command Transgressive - Out Now

HEIGHTS Old Lies for Young Lives Transcend Music - April 29th

DALE EARNHARDT JR. JR. Patterns Quite Scientific Records/Warner Bros Records

LL COOL J Authentic 429 Records/The Savoy Label Group – 29th April

With a number of brilliant live shows with Your Demise – including a personal favourite of mine in Stoke back in February – it’s time for Heights to make sure that EVERYONE knows why they’re a force to be reckoned with.

Alex Monty becoming the vocalist for Heights has allowed them to have that extra edge of anger allowing for a maturity in their sound; given that this is their second album in 18 months and they’re still new to many people this is a very impressive feat to achieve.

There is a beautiful mix of heaviness with melodic ambient passages; take the track ‘Windowless’ for example, with a haunting intro as the realisation kicks in that the song is about the discovery of a teenager’s suicide, his friend’s anger as he recalls the last two lines leading to a painful anguished – near primal – scream followed by soothing piano.

Add the guitar work that keeps the ferociousness of the album intact in ‘Eleven Eyes’,’ The Noble Lie’ [which has a great use of drums at its start] and more, and you have an album that shows exactly why the UK hardcore scene has some real strength behind it; time for people to recognise it even more as bands such as Heights lead the charge.

“Josh and Daniel are modern day musicians not resigned to a certain category.” Well that’s a loaded statement isn’t it? It’s a line that can be used to describe the most confused, amateur songwriters as well as established bands who have managed to constantly shift and expand their sound; then, of course, you’ve got the PR photos, making this jaunty electronic duo look like 2013’s answer to 3OH!3 which is, in no way, a good thing.

Luckily Patterns escapes any of these pitfalls, standing up as an electronic album with enough variety to keep you interesting and enough personality to avoid that smarming, supposed humour that infects so much of the genre. Opener If You Didn’t See Me (Then You Weren’t on the Dancefloor) opens with a gentle ukulele that’s eventually joined by a heavy dose of electronica, affable vocals and a catchy chorus that simply refuses to leave you once you’ve heard it.

Each track opens with something outlandish; from the spaghetti western whistling that leads into the moody, slowed down Dark Water or the bizarre, jarring sounds that echo throughout the gloriously simple Hiding. Each track offers you a different style and sound as the duo explore just what they can do, but, most importantly, they remember to build the sound around the song; ensuring that the words are as good, if not better, than the accompanying music.

Whether Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. could keep this momentum up for a full length is yet to be seen, after all it’s easy not to slip into repetition when you have four tracks to fill, but Patterns is an accomplished piece of music that really shows what this duo are capable of.

It’s ‘back to the basement’ for 45 years old LL Cool J, ‘pushing it real good’ not because he has to, surely not at this point, but because of - as enthusiastically stated while presenting ‘Authentic’ - his love of music. And he’s not alone, looking at the star-studded guest list of this album.

After closing his career-long venture with Def Jam in 2008, LL has been busy on several fronts, including his role in US Series NCIS Los Angeles; ‘Authentic’ however is worth the wait: from the pounding hip hop of ‘Whaddup’ performed live at the last Grammy ceremony), to the soul infused ‘Something About You’ or the smoothly seducing ‘Closer’, the rapper puts together a track list of potential singles representing all that he does best.

The level and the diverse range of collaborations enlisted on ‘Authentic’ will give you a pretty good idea of the album’s content. Next to Travis Barker (Blink 182), Tom Morello (RATM), Z-Trip and Chuck D – all coming together on ‘Whaddup’ – Mr Eddie Van Halen is on guitar for a couple of tracks, legends Earth Wind & Fire make an appearance, and then Bootsy Collins, Seal, Monica, Charlie Wilson, of course Snoop Dogg – oops, Lion – and an unlikely partner in crime in country singer Brad Paisley; luckily this time they leave social struggles aside for the less controversial topic of love.

While he declared he’s not ‘trying to compete with 17 years old on the radio’, there’s definitely a lot those 17 years old could learn from LL Cool J; true love of music is probably the biggest lesson for a generation often simply longing for their 15 minutes of fame.

This is clearly a job done with passion and fun, and the result is enjoyable, vibrating, fully loaded and without the shadow of a doubt Authentic.

Relationship of Command is, quite rightly, considered a landmark album. There’s very little to say about it that hasn’t been said before, and we could wax lyrical about the savage guitars riffs, the frantic vocals and the high concept genre bending that saw the band define and destroy post-hardcore in one self-destructive move.

What is interesting is how weak the production actually is; even on this re-release. Sure it has a certain raw energy about it; and tracks like One Armed Scissor still sound fresh today despite so many blatant copies and tributes and yet it’s hard to shake the feeling that everything is, at times, simply blurring into one.

Omar Rodríguez would go on to say similar in interviews following the band’s hiatus, and while the remastering certainly has helped in areas – album closer Catacombs comes to life within its coiled assault of mixed tempos and tones – there’s still a lot of room for improvement here.

When you listen back to the band’s other 2013 rerelease Acrobatic Tenement and hear that incredible punk energy, that youthful assault of grand ideas, you can’t help but wonder exactly why it is this album that has always been the one that’s remembered.

That said there’s still a childish reminisce in hearing this album again. Tracks like Pattern Against User and Sleepwalk Capsules show a band at the height of their creativity, combing light and dark in a way that few bands have managed to match. Then there’s the opportunity to introduce new generations to a band that looms largely over the alternative scene we know today and this can only be a good thing.

Maybe it’s not quite as amazing as we all remember but it will take more than an off-day production job to write this level of quality off for good.

Cristina Massei

Matthew Tilt

Matt Dawson

Matthew Tilt

RETOX Ypll Epitaph - 7th May There’s a general consensus that Justin Pearson can do no wrong; having headed up Swing Kids and The Locust, as well as a host of incredible bands and electronica projects in between, and now onto his second album as frontman for Retox, the stripped back supergroup featuring members from Some Girls, Cattle Decapitation, The Festival of Dead Deer, and The Crimson Curse to name just a few.

Of course a stripped back sound doesn’t sound that stripped back with that line up; the riffs and the rhythms remains as frantic as any of the band’s mentioned above, and there’s more experimental aspects then were present on their debut Ugly Animals. Feedback swirls around tracks like The Art of Really, Really Sucking, dissolving into a crushing, slowed down assault led by Pearson’s vitriolic vocals.

Yet, at the core of their sound, Retox rely on pure rock ‘n’ roll. Each track is a rather straight forward assault – a culmination of pure songwriting and technicality – which effectively speeds past in a wave of savage satire and head spinning noise.

Brian Evan’s drumming add structure to the insanity; rapidly changing tempos while Michael Crain and Thor Dickey somehow manage to hold onto their instruments as they assault the frets behind Justin, whose lyrics remain as iconoclastic and furious two decades after he first started out in Struggle.

YPLL sees Retox building on the sound they pretty much perfected on Ugly Animals; upping the technicality and trashing single fodder like Piss Elegant, occasionally verging closer to the sounds of past musical endeavours but keeping a style that remains entirely their own.

Matthew Tilt

NO CONSEQUENCE IO Basick Records - Out Now It’s been three years and a few lineup changes since we’ve heard from No Consequence; now they’re back with the difficult second album.

Biding their time however has worked out well as IO is anything but difficult, in fact by combining groove and atmosphere effectively on songs like ‘Illusion Of Choice’, the interlude ‘Ether’ and ‘Bury The Debt’ all of show No Consequence are coming back with a bang, cementing their place back in the tech, progressive world very well.

The dual guitar attack of Dan Reid and Harry Edwards combined with Kaan Tasan’s emotive vocals do bring to mind their peers in the scene but never to the point where it detracts from what this band are capable, and lyrically the band are there best on tracks like ‘Sentient’ .

IO is a mission statement, one that signifies the return of a band that has been missed by many and as the love for Tech keeps on growing – such as the extension of UK Techfest in 2013 – there’s no doubt that No Consequence will gain even more of a following this time around. Welcome back.

Matt Dawson

KILL FOR EDEN Self Titled Self Released – May 6th ‘Kerosene’ opens and closes an album that will fuel your engine for a whole day with every spin.

Kill For Eden’ self titled debut album is a gritty yet smoothly captivating piece of work from this upand-coming female fronted outfit, irresistible in its simplicity.

The crude rebellion and dirty riffage of songs like ‘Untouchables’ or ‘Ned’ is alternated to the darker mystique of ‘Beige’ or strong ballad ‘Stalemate’ where Lyla dismisses needles and pins for a more elaborated woman touch, growing from Courtney Love to Blondie-meets-Siouxsie with the downto-earth rawness of Joan Jett; a force that screams to be seen live, together with David’s incisive guitar work.

The tracks are mostly quite memorable, with hooks ready to get stuck in your head for a long time to come. ‘Kill For Eden’ is one of those albums where you’re likely to find a new favourite every three days - I just went from ‘Beige’ to ‘Living on Mars’ – and enjoy a few surprises here and there, like 80s inclined ballad ‘Fate Insists’ – Roxette anyone? – Manson-ish ‘Slip Away’ or the bluesy intro in ‘Alone with My Demons’.

Kill For Eden are not saying anything new, but the way they’re saying it demands to be heard and will for sure be remembered. There’s a new apple on the UK rock tree, and it may not be ripe just yet but looks definitely promising… Watch this space.

Cristina Massei

JAMAICAN QUEENS Wormfood Notown - Out Now Mixing a trippy brand of electronics with soft pop vocals, Jamaican Queens are one of the cooler subjects of the hype machine and this, their debut album, is a culmination of influences and talent that sounds fresh from the opening notes of Water to the distorted sampling that closes Caitlin.

Each track gently expands on ideas; slipping elements of dubstep and folk into the mix, and even verging on 8-bit in the interlude stylings of the title track. Despite the incessant experimentation this duo manage to incorporate enough catchy hooks to draw you in; more straight forward tracks like Wellfleet Outro sees gentle singing over the soaring vocal harmonies and a dirty bassline before performing a straight switch into acoustic jamming.

Closer Caitlin shows a mastery in slowbuild, allowing the rhythm to build around the vocals until the electronica almost suffocates it, varied and interesting, breaking into a rhythm that threatens something more danceable but remains at its own quirky mid-pace.

It doesn’t always work; a few too many tracks build up from the solo male vocals and it can try your patience as you wait for things to expand, but the lyrics are more than interesting enough to hold your attention; equally witty and personal, pulling together the light and dark as the music constantly evolves behind them.

Wormfood is, at times, frustrating, euphoric, interesting and involving but never boring. That parts of this fail is only prove that Jamaican Queens are doing something interesting, with little in the way of a guideline as they merge genres.

Matthew Tilt

Sonic Shocks

Issue 14/2013

Page 23

reminiscence of early 90’s electronic coming through. Sure, its a bit different and it does get your foot tapping. Whether I could endure an album’s worth is questionable, but I recognise the need for artist like this to carve their way into the spotlight.

Find them here - http://www.facebook.com/ PjpBand For fans of – Pet Shop Boys 9. RED ELEPHANT – ELECTRIC BALLOONS [SINGLE] Red Elephant are really struggling to find their way. Throwing everything they like from popular records into one mix they’re missing the point of why the phrase ‘less is more’ can actually open doors. Whilst I wanted to enjoy Electric Balloons, the amount of annoying background tings and bangs rendered this an unpleasant experience.

1. ENDLESS DARK

4. LIGHT PARADES – ADOLESCENCE [SINGLE]

I love this band, they are simply awesome. Having heard snippets and teasers over the past 12 months, the EP is finally ready to fill the void in every hardcore metallers collection. What you’ve got here is 5 head-banging opportunities to go wild and lose yourself. Musically talented and enthusiastic beyond belief, Iceland is coming for you. Get ready.

‘Light Parades’ provide a genuinely pleasant and uplifting single in anticipation of brighter weather coming our way. Euphoric, light and full of radio friendly hooks, Light Parades are doing everything required to tick the commercial box. Adolescence is a great tune and one which will almost certainly act as a stepping stone to greater things for this group.

Find them here endlessdarkband

Find them here - https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=vFNK8Zb86mM

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www.facebook.com/

For fans of – A Skylit Drive, Emarosa

For fans of – Keane, Deaf Havana

7. KING AND COUNTRY – A WORKING MAN’S LIFE

Find them here – www.myspace.com/red-elephant

This is your typical English indie-rock group, influenced by the sounds of countless others like them. However, the production and quality of their initial output confirms they’ve got something unique about them which will no doubt ensure some longevity in the market place.

For fans of – Weird and eclectic

Find them here com/kingandcountryband

www.facebook.

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For fans of – Lower Than Atlantis, Deaf Havana 8. PJP BAND- VISCOUS LUCK [SINGLE] A pretty safe offering from PJP Band, with

10. WAKE UP CALL – JUST WANNA DANCE [SINGLE] Help! We’ve lost Wham! And Duran Duran in Italy and can’t find them. Oh wait, they’ve returned in the form of ‘Wake up call’. The music is flat and boring; the single has a hook which is more likely to encourage you to throw your speakers out the window than turn them up. Distinctly average.

Find them here - https://www.facebook.com/ WakeUpCallrock For fans of – Glam, pop-haircut

Introducing

2. ELYSIUM – IN VALOUR This is a band who explore a range of genres and yet seem to deliver each with relative ease. With harmonised vocal work; both screamo and clean, Elysium cater for a wide audience and this may well be the ticket to their success thus far. They seem to have avoid the dreaded ‘pigeon hole’ syndrome.

Find them here - www.facebook.com/elysiumband For fans of – We are the ocean, Bury Tomorrow

3. RAYNE – FALLEN Rayne utilise the plethora of guitar pedals available to the modern day music and create pretty infectious music. Very much a British outfit, with each lyric pronounced with clarity and intent. Musically they’re borrowing cuts from U2’s studio time and popping some lyrics over the top. In short, Rayne have the goods to make it, but are we ready for such a group? Only time will tell.

5. VUKOVI This female fronted lot are full of the energy and passion required to sustain some sense of hope on todays music circuit. They’ve got plenty of riffs and melodies to entertain a first time listener and they are worth a listen if female fronted rock groups are your bag.

Find them here - http://vukovi.bandcamp.com/ For fans of – Skunk Anansie, Incubus

6. PARKER – TEASER When a number of similar sounding bands split and form a new group, it’s always a little hit and miss as to whether they’ll make anything worthwhile.

After all, if your last band didn’t cut it, you best step up. Luckily the buzz and hype around Parker is in keeping with their potential. Keep your eyes peeled.

Find them here - www.noisetrade.com/raynemusic

Find them here - https://www.facebook.com/ thisisprkr

For fans of – Muse, U2, Angels and Airwaves

For fans of – Bring Me The Horizon, Architects

For anybody who doesn’t know Endless Dark, how would you describe yourselves?

Always weird describing yourself.. Endless is a mixture of heavy break downs and catchy/poppy choruses. also a lot of synths! if you still don’t get it.. imagine if some real heavy band would have a baby with Michael Jackson, that baby would be called Endless Dark How long have you been together and was it always a dream to pursue a career in music?

We’ve been together for 4 or 5 years. Yeah music is the only thing I want to do for a living. I’d rather play music and be poor then be rich in a job i hate What artists have influenced your sound?

So many ! to name a few.. The Devil Wears Prada, Bring Me The Horizon, The Color Morale and also a lot of 80’ pop bands Did you always want to be a six piece band?

Does it get crowded on stage?

We never had a specific number in mind, we’re actually 7 now, our good friend Rúnar G joined the band last summer and does screams. I love having some many guys in the band it just makes it more fun to travel and tour! and of course we sound better What is the unsigned scene like in Iceland?

Pretty much every rock/metal band in Iceland is unsigned, there’s no label that wants heavy bands so the unsigned scene is really good You’ve toured in Europe and performed in the UK. What is it like playing to audiences outside of Iceland?

It’s such a great feeling and sometimes a bit surreal, coming from such a small country and getting the chance to travel and play our music in a foreign country What are your favourite songs to play live?

There’s this one song that’s going to be on our next album called ‘Warriors’ it such a heavy yet melodic song with semi techno synths in the end, it just makes me want to party ! Can’t wait for you guys to hear it You are known for being an amazing live band.

What makes you different from other bands?

I guess it’s because we practice a lot and also we try to make the stage performance as crazy and fun as we possibly can You released a video for ‘Cold, Hard December’, was that your first experience recording a video? What was that like?

Yeah it was the first video we ever made. I thought it was going to be a piece of cake but man was i wrong! a lot of sweat and blood went into the video What has the feedback been like from the fans and the press?

It’s been really good so far ! i think i haven’t seen a single bad review You’re about to release your self titled EP, what can we expect?

We’re working our debut full length album, It’s going to be so good ! Not only do the songs sound fantastic but the album is going to be a concept album, so the album is going to be this one big story, kind of brings out our inner nerd Have you got plans for an album or worldwide tour in 2013?

Yeah our goal is to release our debut full length in 2013 and hopefully tour as much as we possibly can Where can we find out more about online?

On Facebook, just search Endless Dark, Do you have any parting words for the readers?

Hopefully you’ll check us out! and thanks for reading!

Continues from front page There’s no big scenes because it would take over and I was very cautious. When I told the Kanaks I was going to make their enemy, the man who betrayed them, the ‘hero’ of the movie, they were like ‘Really, are you sure?’, I said that through his eyes we’re going to see the cruelty and absurdity of our side and give a different perspective on what you are. The audience is going to discover the Kanaks through his eyes, I didn’t make the movie for the Kanaks to discover us.

Was it difficult to portray him neither as a hero or villain?

No because it’s not about judging him or getting his emotions through, I don’t care whether he’s right or not, the hero is not the guy that makes it all right in the end…

Yeah, it is actually because if he didn’t quit in the end in reality I couldn’t have used the character, he wouldn’t have learned anything from his personal experience so if he was still in military today. He’s a traitor but by quitting he’s a thinker, a human being that accepts his own flaws and errors then reflects on them, that was all I needed. I didn’t need to judge him or to make him good or bad, that’s what he did – you can judge him but what would you have done in his shoes? That’s the question.

What would YOU have done?

I would have done the same I think. But I don’t think I could be in his shoes, these guys are another level , if I dedicated my life to being in the military and went through what he’s been through I would have quit, be the enemy, be the traitor because there’s no other way out of it; what saves him is the fact that he did.

How close to actual events is your film? Why was now the right time to tell the story?

I didn’t decide the time, they decided it. If I could I would have made the movie in 2002, a year after the inception of the film but no, it got pushed back and took a little bit longer and came out as soon as I had a yes. I did it without timing setup, but next year they’re going to start the vote about independence so it’s good timing.

I thought it was quite topical because France went into North Africa two weeks before I saw the film…

Timings like that are a coincidence, but that’s why the movie’s close to reality: because that’s how it works, you’re going to see that all the time because that’s how the system works. We’re very close to reality because we did the work for a decade to get all the information from all the sides and because nobody told that story, nobody knows those guys and it took ten years for them to say yes and give us the keys to their culture; if we betray them with this movie they would be in trouble because that’s the first time they’ve allowed the rest of the world to understand who they are, so for them to give us the key it’s a great responsibility because it’s going to become their memory.

There are a couple of documentaries, a couple of books, but that movie is going to become the cornerstone that they can build on and talk about because people don’t know what happened, they hear different things through the grapevine, they had different experiences. That was our responsibility so we were very careful – we went to the Kanaks and said ‘we’re not going to make you look good, you shot and killed people and were responsible for most of it, but we’re going to make people understand who you are and through that they can reflect and put it into perspective’; but you need to be close to reality and politically there are things I don’t understand, so we focused on the true story of what happened on the ground.

There are things that I didn’t show: the torture, the strong graphic horror stories that happened during that time because I didn’t want people to be mad at the French; that would have been wrong and if you saw that it would have been too much – white people torturing black people on their own island – so we needed to keep the discussion open and I made the movie not controversial by being as close to the truth as I could.

It hasn’t been accepted as that though…

No, because you’re talking about an event that’s 25 years ago, people are still there, you’re telling the truth but for them it’s controversial because THEIR truth is not the same as yours. Their truth is the official truth that they gave us for over 20 years, and that was a big lie. When you try to tell the truth, to them that’s controversy, raising more problems, so that’s what they do. When you expose people that’s how they defend themselves.

Did you find opposition to the release of the movie?

Not to the release because they can’t control it like that in France, but in New Caledonia they managed to cen-

sor the movie, they were scared that people would riot so they didn’t allow the movie to be released there. But in France no one from the Government helped or the military, we told them ‘we would like you to participate in our project’ just so we could get together and tell the Kanaks ‘Hey that helicopter was sent by the French Army ‘, so they would understand the process of reconciliation and start finding closure, because it’s difficult even for the Gendarmerie there right now, it’s a difficult past. Us as a civilization, we need to clean our slate, like you guys in England, we all have a story about colonies and need to clear our past so we can move forward together but they didn’t want that – they said fuck you!

I tell the French stories because that’s what I can relate to but you see them everywhere, there’s not one country where you don’t have that, that’s why La Haine was so powerful everywhere and relates to this day; people come up everywhere and say ‘that movie changed my life’ every fucking day. Police brutality is everywhere, now we’re talking about government brutality which is EVERYWHERE. I’m not criticising France, I’m just showing an aspect of France you can see everywhere.

Did you at least manage to show it to the Kanaks you’d been working with?

The difference is movies like that are very difficult to come by, you can’t just find a story like that. It just fall into your lap, you have to cross paths with it, actually the story finds you. You don’t find stories like that all the time, you don’t get that kind of inspiration all the time, so when you don’t have it… go Hollywood! [laughs]

Of course, we did special screenings for them, we had worked so close together during the 10 years that they knew exactly what they were going to get. What they were proud of and what I promised them is that they would be shown as what they are and the movie really shows that – their flaws and their different approach to reality, nature and life which is very interesting because it’s an optional way of thinking; that’s why the machine wants to get rid of them, because it gives people another way of looking at life. You don’t have to obey the same rules, you can think for yourself sometimes.

Do you think it helped understand – not justify - Legorjus’ actions?

It clarified it because the Kanaks had a love/hate relationship with that guy for the past 20 years, they know he tried to do good but they also know he betrayed them; the movie shows what his conflicts were and what he could and couldn’t do. That’s how I can relate to the movie also, it clarified everything for everybody, even for the military and for the Kanaks, they understand now that he had no choice, he made wrong choices but there was no good one available.

When I read that story I had crazy scenes of romantic emotions of these two guys that were brothers and enemies, and it was like ‘Run Forrest Run!’ [room laughs] I had those scenes when he has to tell them; when I read the story I was like ‘Tell them! Go and tell them they going to kill them! TELL THEM!’ but then you talk to the guy and he’s like ‘Are you crazy?! I’m working here!

I’m not this romantic character that goes around telling people to put down their weapons and shit like that, no!

I have to save lives’ - but he tried to get the damage to as low as possible and he couldn’t. That’s a crazy story but the strength of the machine, that’s how strong it is.

When you first saw this news report when you were 18 and read the book were you already forming the movie in your head?

When you read the book – the minute by minute investigation WAS a movie, I was surprised that nobody did that movie already because what you see in the movie is what’s in the book, it’s crazy – the character, the conflict, the psychology, everything is there. I was talking to someone and he mentioned ‘To Be or Not To Be’ – that’s what it is. It was there, I was surprised but that’s what true stories are, you cannot make up reality, it’s so amazing that if you find something like that you have to stick to it.

It was funnier for us to find that exact reality; I felt constrained sometimes, as I was like ‘Shit, I have guns, I have military, I could do some crazy scenes!’ but it didn’t happen, I was like ‘Shit they’re going to have to talk, alright..’, but then you have to make it interesting and that’s a challenge, it becomes more interesting to look for the truth rather than romanticising/dramatising it.

The idea is that with the film you can show all the events but as you say the greatest mystery is human nature: why do people act the way they act?

That’s the feeling you should get when you come out of the theatre, again, ‘What would I have done?’. I saw that this morning in the news and I’ll see it again tonight – it’s everywhere, a reminder to tell you about human nature as a whole, about working as a community and as an original person with our own thoughts and how little actions can change the system of a group. You have to take positions and make decisions. If you’re a journalist and you’re working for Rupert Murdoch and you’re stealing information from the telephones of victims of the war or 9/11, at some point you need to look in the mirror and decide whether you’re part of the machine or you’re out. We all have to question that, you as journalists, myself as a director, can I betray my artistic values for money or not? Am I giving the right message or should I not care?

With La Haine you’re willing to be critical on a nation (France) with the stories of individuals and try to expose the past..

It’s not France, the same stories happen everywhere,

Does Rebellion see a shift back into films with more social consciousness?

So you’re not against going back to Hollywood?

I moved to Hollywood a year ago, Rebellion was the end of what I had to do in France. With the freedom that I had as a film-maker and as an artist and activist, France is the perfect ground to express yourself and I did that with very personal movies; it’s a full cycle and this is close to La Haine, same kind of structure, I can’t push that any more than this. I need to do something else, and I also need to have fun. So I’m a gun for hire in Hollywood, and I have trouble finding films because they’re like ‘We’d love you to do The Hunger Games III but why would we hire you?’. It’s a fun game of cat and mouse but I’ll eventually get something. I want to work with other people, in France I was very comfortable and I could do whatever I wanted as an artist but I’d love to be part of an ensemble with different talents because you can’t make good movies by yourself. La Haine and others were made with other talented people and Hollywood is full of that; if you find the right project that’s great, you can have your artistic point of view in a commercial movie; that’s what makes Spielberg what he is, and if you can do that, it’s better than being able to do whatever you want. You have to be constrained by factors that make you better.

You’re working with your company NNP on some new talent coming up – can you tell us five French talents we should keep an eye for?

Me, me, me, myself and I! [laughs] I don’t know, there is nobody – I shut down my company because there isn’t!

French cinema isn’t what it should be – we invented that technology, we perfected and reinvented it and right now it’s stalling. There are interesting movies, artists and directors but not enough, we don’t set the bar high enough and Hollywood is making way better movies than we do, it shouldn’t be like that! We should make the interesting movies – they should make the shitty commercial ones!

But it’s just the opposite, and I’m like ‘ok, why should I waste my time…’ Darren Aronofsky is working in America, all these amazing new directors are there, not in France. Again that’s how the system is rigged… Internationally, we’re becoming a reserve of people that have to obey the same and buy the same things, and this is what we’ve become in France. We used to be a feisty little villagethat nobody liked, now there’s nothing to hate about us and I’m very sad for that! You guys may even like us someday and that would be terrible… [laughs] Back to the Rebellion… As Legorjus tries to mediate, it becomes clear throughout the movie that a peaceful solution was never really on the cards; isn’t it sad and scary thinking that, doesn’t matter whether people try to do their best, the decisions have already been made?

Yeah, but look at the ten years war in Iraq – in 2003 we were all like ‘What the fuck are they talking about? They want to go to war for what?’ They did, because THAT’s how the system is rigged, that’s what it became, that’s what our civilization became. We are not trying to find solutions, we need to get rid of problems, and force prevails. So it’s very important for us to understand that not only these people use force for wrong reasons, they also lie to us. The terrorists are not always the people that you think they are. Governments are participating and using this…

Can we fight it?

We can fight it by being conscious about it, knowing that when you read the news and hear the Government telling you stories just be aware that they may not be all true; if you just keep that in your mind, if you start to see… Do you know The Matrix?

Yes. There is no spoon. If they try to show you a spoon, you have to ask yourself ‘are you sure it’s a spoon?’ It’s like a Maigret painting.

And with that, our time with Mathieu is out. Later on, Hollywood will be trying to show me a spoon in ‘Olympus Has Fallen’…