Back in the late 80s, early 90s Paul Abrash did a zine called Drastic Solutions. I started helping out from Issue 2 through til issue 6. There was some great material in this zine, so I posted them up for PDF download. Uploaded today are:
* Issue 1 - Kreator, DRI, Impetigo, and Nuclear Assault
* Issue 2 - Voivod, Slaughter, Heibel, Son of Happy, Alcohol Preps
* Issue 3 - Friends of Music, Brotherhood, Malhavoc, Sons of Ishmael
* Issue 4 - Oi Polloi, Fuel, Bliss
* Issue 5 - Moral Crux, Hopeful Monsters, Bad Religion
* Issue 6 - Rorschach, Born Against
We also uploaded a podcast download for last night's show.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Top 7 – August 2009
Top 7 – August 2009
1. DESTINO FINAL “Atrapados” LP (La Vida es un Mus)
2. DEEP SLEEP “Three Things at Once” CD (Grave Mistake)
3. PROJECT HOPELESS “Av Hela mitt Hjarta” ep (Not Enough)
4. WITCH HUNT “Burning Bridges to Nowhere” LP (Alternative Tentacles)
5. EATING GLASS “Feed Them to the Vultures” ep (High Anxiety)
6. URBAN BLIGHT “More Reality” LP (Slasher)
7. SPG “Special Patrol Group” ep (American Waste)
Label Info:* LA VIDA ES UN MUS – www.lavidaesunmus.com
* GRAVE MISTAKE – P.O. Box 12482 / Richmond, VA / 23241 / www.gravemistakerecords.com
* NOT ENOUGH – www.notenough.se
* ALTERNATIVE TENTACLES – P.O. Box 419092 / San Francisco, CA / 94141 / USA / www.alternativetentacles.com
* HIGH ANXIETY - http://highanxiety416.blogspot.com/
* SLASHER - 629 Ossington Avenue / Toronto, ON / M6G 3T6 / Canada
* AMERICAN WASTE – 128 Raritan Avenue, 2nd Floor / Highland Park, NJ / 08904 / USA
1. DESTINO FINAL “Atrapados” LP (La Vida es un Mus)
2. DEEP SLEEP “Three Things at Once” CD (Grave Mistake)
3. PROJECT HOPELESS “Av Hela mitt Hjarta” ep (Not Enough)
4. WITCH HUNT “Burning Bridges to Nowhere” LP (Alternative Tentacles)
5. EATING GLASS “Feed Them to the Vultures” ep (High Anxiety)
6. URBAN BLIGHT “More Reality” LP (Slasher)
7. SPG “Special Patrol Group” ep (American Waste)
Label Info:* LA VIDA ES UN MUS – www.lavidaesunmus.com
* GRAVE MISTAKE – P.O. Box 12482 / Richmond, VA / 23241 / www.gravemistakerecords.com
* NOT ENOUGH – www.notenough.se
* ALTERNATIVE TENTACLES – P.O. Box 419092 / San Francisco, CA / 94141 / USA / www.alternativetentacles.com
* HIGH ANXIETY - http://highanxiety416.blogspot.com/
* SLASHER - 629 Ossington Avenue / Toronto, ON / M6G 3T6 / Canada
* AMERICAN WASTE – 128 Raritan Avenue, 2nd Floor / Highland Park, NJ / 08904 / USA
Sunday, August 30, 2009
SLICES - Migraines (Home Invasion)
MAD COWBOYS - Music! No Borders (Self-Released)
B LINES - Crazy Glue (Nominal)
GENERATION X - One Hundred Punks (Chrysalis)
L’ETRANGER - Barricades (Ground Zero)
STATUES - Click (Shooting at Decoys)
URBAN BLIGHT - Blight Makes Right (Slasher)
RAH - Keep Walking (Chez Ogilvie)
PLUTOCRACY - Class Tension (625 Productions)
OMEGAS - Secret Signals (Self-Released)
OFFSIDES - Taking It (Thunderized)
RUM RUNNER - What’s the Music Mean to You (Stumble)
EMERGENCY! - Kill Downtown (Self-Released)
PVC - Sick of You (Incognito)
EMERGENCY - Won’t Tell You Again (Step 1)
RIOT 99 - Start a Riot (Riot Records)
MAD MEN - Polish (Dischord)
FUCKED UP - David Comes to Life (Deranged)
FAILURES - I’ve Done Unspecified Things, Again (Self-Released)
EXTORTION - Curb Craw (Deep Six)
THE ENDLESS BLOCKADE - Death to Spies (20 Buck Spin)
GO! - Escape from NY (King Fish)
LOW VISION - World is Pain (625 Productions)
SHUT EYES - Lurk (Self-Released)
THIS ROUTINE IS HELL - This Routine is Hell (Akashic)
TWIN KILLING - Best of Us (Akashic)
DIRTBOMBS - Don’t Break My Heart (In the Red)
DEAD KENNEDYS - Too Drunk To Fuck (Alternative Tentacles)
DEAD END - Death Game (Self-Released)
COMPANY OF HEROES - Ragnaroar (Self-Released)
COMBATWOUNDEDVETERAN - Comes in Red, Orange and Fuck You (No Idea)
AMPERE - Regulator (Youth Attack)
A.N.S. - Sakte Zombies Must Shred (Cowabunga)
A-FRAMES - Experiment (Sub Pop)
THE INSULTS - Too Late (Punks before Profits)
STARK RAVING MAD - Are You Sleeping / Take a Stand (Nuclear Blast)
NYC MAYHEM - We Stand
DRI - Balance of Terror (R Radical)
CAPITALIST ALIENATION - Norms (Crust ‘n core)
SPG - Destroy (American Waste)
URBAN BLIGHT - What Can Be Done (Slasher)
EATING GLASS - to the Vultures (High Anxiety)
WITCH HUNT - Super Death (Alternative Tentacles)
PROJECT HOPELESS - Name Them Frame Them (Not Enough)
DEEP SLEEP - Into My Brain (Grave Mistake)
DESTINO FINAL - Libertino II (La Vida es un Mus)
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
UPDATE - August 27, 2009
Dion Conflict puts together these awesome zines on film and music culture. I started putting up some of his back issues for his zine Konflict in the Kino. Up so far are:
* Konflict in the Kino, Issue 10 - William Beaudine, Cinema Sewer, Jason Everly, Viplo Vidopliassova
* Konflict in the Kino, Issue 14 - Bruno Mattei, Pekka Malinen, Joey Greco, Ed the Sock
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
UPDATE - August 24, 2009
RADIO ARCHIVE
Sunday, October 19, 2008 - (Greg Dick interviews Colin Brunton, filmmaker for the Last Pogo)
Sunday, January 11, 2009 - A Studio 3 session with the School Jerks and guitarist Ben guest hosts a set
Sunday, August 23, 2009
click here for a mp3 download
THE FALLOUT - Apathy (Insurgence)
YOUTH YOUTH YOUTH - Made in England (Fringe)
ONE BLOOD - Decimation (Lobotomy Exchange)
HAYMAKER - Burning Chemicals (Deranged)
THE ENDLESS BLOCKADE - Haymaker vs. Manowar (EXD Tapes)
BLUNDERMEN - Safety Dance (Unreleased)
BRUISE VIOLET - No L.A. (Emancypunx)
THE GEEKS - Together as One (Third Party)
FEUD - The Downfall of Common Sense (Self-Released)
IN TIME - Shattered (Self Released)
RAH - Push to the Edge (Self Released)
EATING GLASS - King of Frauds (High Anxiety)
PULLING TEETH - Bleeding to Death (A389)
THE JOLTS - (Baby) I’m a Loser (VPAF)
REPROBATES - Dead Blood (Schizophrenic)
POINT BLANK - Bars (Harvest King)
BEFOREAFTER - Streetcleaner (625 productions)
D-CLONE - We Make Next Generation (MCR Company)
WEST PORT MURDERS - Time Wasted (Harvest King)
THE METAL EDDIES - Pissed Me Life Away (No Vynil)
SPOILED ROTTEN - Go! Gary Go! (Amp Records)
BRUTAL KNIGHTS - Self Gay Hand Job (Deranged)
IMPERIAL LEATHER - Ban the Ban (MCR Company)
LOS CRUDOS - Asesinos (Lengua Armada)
WRETCHED - Spero Venga la Guerra (Antichristi Dionysus)
FALL OUT - Reagan Hysteria (Antichristi Dionysus)
RAW POWER - Death Seller (Soul Force)
PEGGIO PUNKS - Scemo (SOA)
MEINOFF - A.A.C.A. (MCR Company)
TOTALITAR - Frihet att Valja (Prank / Finn)
LEGION666 - No Virtues are Extolled (Schizophrenic)
WORLD BURNS TO DEATH - Glorious butcheries (Hardcore Holocaust)
LAUKAUS – Poistukaa (Putrid Filth Conspiracy)
REGULATIONS – Anna’s Eyes (Havoc)
NITAD – Levande Dod (Deranged)
KAKKA-HATA 77 – Hamaan Haima Tulehdukseen (Combat Rock Industries)
COCK SPARRER – Spirit of ’76 (Captain Oi!)
Demo Feature
KILL RATIO - The Parade (Self-Released)
KILL RATIO - Graveyard from radiation (Self-Released)
KILL RATIO - A Barren Factory (Self-Released)
KILL RATIO - Blessed Be the Wardead (Self-Released)
BLACK SPOKES - All My Friends Work at Startek (Schizophrenic)
BLACK SPOKES - 63A Southbound (Schizophrenic)
BLACK SPOKES - Soapdodger/ Girl I Got Your Number (Schizophrenic)
MAD MEN - the Awakening (Schizophrenic)
LIVING DARKNESS - Fools Darkness (Schizophrenic)
LIVING DARKNESS - Some Choose Despair (Schizophrenic)
URINARY TRACT INFECTION - Stavrogin (Schizophrenic)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
UPDATE - August 23, 2009
RADIO ARCHIVE
Sunday, August 10, 2008 - (Featuring: The Screwed)
Sunday, December 7, 2008 - (Featuring: Rackshot)
Sunday, December 14, 2008 - (Featuring: Rocket Reducers from Welland)
More older episodes to come!
-Stacy
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Pointed Sticks “Three Lefts Make a Right” CD
Vancouver’s POINTED STICKS got back together a couple of years ago to play some one-off shows in Japan and then Toronto and New York. Two years later they have a new full length out. It is great. It has all the quirky new wave stylings of their old material complete with organ. It totally reminds me of early ELVIS COSTELLO or the BUZZCOCKS. In the current day scene think of the TRANZMITORS. Catchy new wave inspired punk like “Perfect Youth” or the material collected for “Waiting for the Real Thing” which came out almost thirty years ago. Way back when the band’s second LP was to come out on Stiff Records. This is not that record. This is a record of all new material and they haven’t lost it. Some of the lyrics like “Too Late” speak to the band’s maturity and reminds me of “Guitar and Drums” by STIFF LITTLE FINGERS or “Come and Reminisce” by the LURKERS. Upon further reflection this reminds me a lot of new STIFF LITTLE FINGERS. Chalk another one up to the old school. (Northern Electric – 549 Columbia Street, #403 / New Westminster, BC / V3L 1B3 / Canada)
Flyer - Saturday August 22, 2009
This was the record release show for the second RAH ep which came out on Labelled Records. Labelled Records is a brand new label done by Greg Benedetto who does Stuck in the City. This was also Bored Stiff's last show.Wednesday, August 19, 2009
UPDATE - August 19, 2009
All the zines are up now.
We posted up some Top Ten releases.
And we went back and put in as many of the Canadian bands and other bands that have been featured on the show in our keywords giving us a big list of bands to search by.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Urban Blight “More Reality” 12”
Take the URBAN BLIGHT ep and re-record it at a volume that sounds like you are playing this out some busted speakers. That later period EXCLAIM fuzzed out sound permeates this 12”. URBAN BLIGHT obviously want you to hear this loud regardless of what volume you are actually listening to this at. Beav’s vocals sound a lot more like Joe DeNunzio from INFEST. URBAN BLIGHT still have that no nonsense east coast sound of SSD meets URBAN WASTE. It’s tough sounding and it is short, fast, and loud. Like a bulldozer moving at a jet plane pace. Hit the fuckin’ deck. A lot of people have been commenting on the hip hop like nature of the cover. It is a 12” sleeve with a big hole in the middle as opposed to your traditional LPs. But this record is a 45. A 12” albeit, but a 45 nonetheless so the cover. What I find neat about it is the use of photos of kids from the scene that check out the BLIGHT. It’s a great use of another scene’s style because it works here. And maybe the band didn’t have an idea for cover art. Either way it is always neat to see scene shots and it helped get this record out quicker. Besides who cares about the artwork, it’s the fuckin’ music that you want this for. The cover is just window dressing. (Slasher Records – 629 Ossington Avenue / Toronto, ON / M6G 3T6 / Canada)-SPVapids, the “The Point Remains the Same” ep
The same title as the last CD, but this doesn’t appear to be the single from the full length, like they used to do back in the day to try and re-sell music to folks. The ep seems to have three new tracks, including the title track. “The Point Remains the Same” has got that same driving RAMONES beat, but the pace has been slowed a touch. The opening track “Hazzard County” is an ode to the ‘Dukes of Hazzard”, originally written by another Hamilton band, known as the BAD LUIETENANTS. It is a more favourable take on the show as opposed to the DEAD KENNEDYS “Goons of Hazzard”, which is more a critique of the glorification of redneck culture. And the title track takes dead aim at the rock scene that punk replaced. Jimmy strings lines from bands like LED ZEPPELIN and AC DC to demonstrate how ridiculous they were. My favourite line is “take the Stairway to Heaven or the Highway to Hell”. (Surfin’ Ki Records - www.myspace.com/surfinkirecords)
Radio - Sunday, August 16, 2009
click here for a mp3 download
THE CLASS WAR KIDS - Riot 2010 (Rebel Time)
DUN2DEF - Riot Torn City (Rowdy Farrago)
THE FALLOUT - Bread and Freedom (Insurgence)
63 MONROE - What the Fuck (Speed City)
THE ROTTEN - What the Fuck (Rebel Time)
DOA - Smash the State (Sudden Death)
PRESSURE - My Faults (Self-Released)
KILLING FROST - Sick of You
RAISED BY WOLVES - Death Dealer (Metric)
NEW MEXICAN DISASTER SQUAD - The Piggybank’s Gone, Nick! (Jade Tree)
LIFE TRAP - Solitary Confinement (No Way)
LOOK BACK AND LAUGH - the Path
VENOMOUS CONCEPT - Drop Dead (Century Media)
IAN DURY AND THE BLOCKHEADS - Blackmail Man (Stiff)
TRANZMITORS - Beating Up My Heart (Deranged)
THE EXISTERS - Think Big (Unreleased)
TEACHER’S PET - Can’t Do That (Smog Veil)
THE STRANGLERS - I Feel Like a Wog (United Artists)
DEVO - Jocko Homo (Warner Brothers)
SOCIAL CIRCKLE - Can’t Take It (No Way)
PARLIAMENTARISK SODOMI - Du vet ikke om atomapen (625 Productions)
DUKE NUKEM FOREVER - Retard Strong (Self-Released)
BLOOD OF CHIRSTIAN CHILDREN - Government Agent (Self-Released)
THE REBEL SPELL - I am a Rifle (Vancouver’s Punk as Fuck)
MAD COWBOYS - The Gods Don’t Wear Tight Jeans (Self-Released)
SPASTIC PANTHERS - The Ballad of Joey Ramone (Handsome Dan)
THE SCREWED - Sheena is a Punk Rocker (Screwed)
THE VAPIDS - Get Off My Back (Double Hell)
ROCKET REDUCERS - Sauce Wagon (Kick Yer Butt)
BRUTAL KNIGHTS - Beach Slam (P Trash)
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT - Zombiefication of Anytime USA
CONFINE - In the Name of (One Day Saviour)
Demo Feature
EXECUTION OF TERROR - Kill Too Human (Self-Released)
EXECUTION OF TERROR - Money Making Shit (Self-Released)
EXECUTION OF TERROR - All Comes to Worst (Self-Released)
EXECUTION OF TERROR - Kill of be Killed (Self-Released)
EXECUTION OF TERROR - You’re Such a Headache (Self-Released)
THE FALLOUT - Bread and Freedom (Insurgence)
63 MONROE - What the Fuck (Speed City)
THE ROTTEN - What the Fuck (Rebel Time)
DOA - Smash the State (Sudden Death)
PRESSURE - My Faults (Self-Released)
KILLING FROST - Sick of You
RAISED BY WOLVES - Death Dealer (Metric)
NEW MEXICAN DISASTER SQUAD - The Piggybank’s Gone, Nick! (Jade Tree)
LIFE TRAP - Solitary Confinement (No Way)
LOOK BACK AND LAUGH - the Path
VENOMOUS CONCEPT - Drop Dead (Century Media)
IAN DURY AND THE BLOCKHEADS - Blackmail Man (Stiff)
TRANZMITORS - Beating Up My Heart (Deranged)
THE EXISTERS - Think Big (Unreleased)
TEACHER’S PET - Can’t Do That (Smog Veil)
THE STRANGLERS - I Feel Like a Wog (United Artists)
DEVO - Jocko Homo (Warner Brothers)
SOCIAL CIRCKLE - Can’t Take It (No Way)
PARLIAMENTARISK SODOMI - Du vet ikke om atomapen (625 Productions)
DUKE NUKEM FOREVER - Retard Strong (Self-Released)
BLOOD OF CHIRSTIAN CHILDREN - Government Agent (Self-Released)
THE REBEL SPELL - I am a Rifle (Vancouver’s Punk as Fuck)
MAD COWBOYS - The Gods Don’t Wear Tight Jeans (Self-Released)
SPASTIC PANTHERS - The Ballad of Joey Ramone (Handsome Dan)
THE SCREWED - Sheena is a Punk Rocker (Screwed)
THE VAPIDS - Get Off My Back (Double Hell)
ROCKET REDUCERS - Sauce Wagon (Kick Yer Butt)
BRUTAL KNIGHTS - Beach Slam (P Trash)
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT - Zombiefication of Anytime USA
CONFINE - In the Name of (One Day Saviour)
Demo Feature
EXECUTION OF TERROR - Kill Too Human (Self-Released)
EXECUTION OF TERROR - Money Making Shit (Self-Released)
EXECUTION OF TERROR - All Comes to Worst (Self-Released)
EXECUTION OF TERROR - Kill of be Killed (Self-Released)
EXECUTION OF TERROR - You’re Such a Headache (Self-Released)
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Interview: Motherfuckers
The MOTHERFUCKERS have been around for a decade now tearing up the Calgary scene. They toured out in Toronto two years ago and we got to talk to them then. Their EP “I Want to be a Cop so I can Fuck You Up” had just come out. The MOTHERFUCKERS are on hiatus right now. Here is the interview done by Stephe Perry.
Introduce yourselves and tell us what you do in the band.
Jay: My name’s Jay Misery and I play lead guitar.
Dan: My name is Dan Izzo. I sing badly.
Shawn: Shawn Hunter. I play bass, badly.
Tim: Tim Bastard. I play drums.
How long have the MOTHERFUCKERS been around for?
Dan: In various incarnations about ten years. We are celebrating our ten year anniversary this December.
How did the band come together?
Shawn: Tim and I and Rog, our first bass player, decided we were just going to start a band. We wrote some material, mostly music. I had some lyrics at that time. We had a lot of trouble finding a singer. One person tried out but she found a better band and moved on. I suggested Dan, and Roger at the time was against it. We did nothing for six months and then Roger had the great idea of asking Dan. So we got Dan and then got the rest of the songs together and that Boxing Day played our first show.
Was there an idea behind the band when you first started? Did you want to try and be a certain type of band?
Shawn: I don’t know that anybody tried to be a certain way. This was Tim and my first band. Roger had been in plenty of bands before. He may have had ideas. We just wanted to get together and play some music, write some stuff, play some shows.
Make it fast.
Shawn: Yeah.
Were any of you in any previous bands prior to MOTHERFUCKERS other than Shawn who said you weren’t?
Shawn: Tim and I weren’t.
Tim: We were in some garage bands but nothing serious. This is the first band that we actually went out and played shows with.
What about Jay and Dan?
Jay: Yeah, I have been in a lot of bands actually. Since I was sixteen years old.
Dan: He has been in about half the bands in Calgary.
Jay: Yeah. Probably a half dozen in Calgary alone.
I don’t mind if you mention names because we don’t hear a lot about bands from Calgary.
Jay: I don’t want to mention names.
Dan: NO COAST HARDCORE, RIOT NERDS, THE HOSERVILLE BLOTTO BOYS.
And Dan, were you in some bands?
Dan: I was not in any serious bands before the MOTEHRFUCKERS. Jay and I, before Jay joined the MOTHERFUCKERS, had a band called the BLOTTO BOYS who didn’t do a whole lot. We played a few shows and released a split 7” with a band called RUM RUNNER. It was a POGUES tribute 7”. If anybody wants one of those I think the RUM RUNNER boys still have about 400 of them. We have a couple.
Did you guys put it out together?
Dan: Yeah, Alan Drinkle from RUM RUNNER had a little label called Pedestrian Records that did one release and that was it.
Are you Handsome Dan?
Dan: I am Handsome Dan of Handsome Dan Records fame.
So you put out the recent MOTHERFUCKERS EP right?
Dan: Yeah. All of the MOTHERFUCKERS releases except for the original MOTHERFUCKERS CD EP “If It Ain’t Puke It Ain’t Punk”. That was on the short lived Two Idiots with a Dumb Idea record label. All the other releases are Handsome Dan releases.
Can you list off a discography of MOTHERFUCKERS releases and could you include the years? When was your first release?
Dan: I think we did “If It Ain’t Puke It Ain’t Punk” in 2001. It was recorded about a year before that and sat around. It was released on a very limited poor quality CD-R. We did in total about 200 of them.
How many songs were on it?
Dan: There were six songs. Then we did the “Classless Society” CD which was 10 tracks. That came out in 2004. That was recorded a little earlier. At that point the band was Jay Misery, who is here with us now playing bass. Shawn Hunter was on guitar.
Jay: There has been five or six people who have played bass in this band.
Shawn: I am on my second tour of the band.
Dan: That original ep we had a very different line up. It was Tim Hunter, myself. Hunter you were playing guitar at that point.
Shawn: And we had Andrew and Scott.
Dan: Andrew McCall on bass and Scott Belton on the other guitar. Then we did “The Mother of All Fuckers” CD which came out last year. That is kind of a mish mash of a bunch of crap.
Like different recordings.
Dan: Yeah.
Tim: Three different recording sessions.
Is it over a long period of time with different line ups?
Jay: We re-released the “If It Ain’t Puke, It Ain’t Punk” CD. We put that on and we had 8 or 9 songs already recorded with our old guitar player. That was basically done and on the shelf. We were just waiting to release it when we had some personal issues. Unfortunately everything got sidetracked by that. Then last year we went back into the studio and did another 4 songs and we put it all together. It was kind of a tribute to our old guitar player.
Okay so it is three different recordings with 18 songs.
Jay: It spans about three or four years of the band.
Dan: The first four tracks was a line up with Roger Neilson on bass who was the original bass player. We brought him back in the band to record those four songs. He also played on the 7” we just released. Once again he is out of the band. It is all very confusing especially for us.
Well you are on the road now and playing so that is good.
Dan: I think we have a reasonably stable line up now.
And where does “I Want to Be a Cop so I Can Fuck you up” come in?
Dan: That just came out. That was released in June. Again that is six tracks we recorded with Roger on bass. We recorded it about a year ago. We went in and did ten tracks. We pick six to do the ep so there is another four unreleased ones.
Shawn: And you will never get to hear any of them.
Dan: They will come out on a secret bootleg at some point. You just won’t know anything about it.
Is there a good studio to record in Calgary? Where do you guys go? Do you go to the same place?
Shawn: The first three CDs we did at Echo Base Studios. Some folks might know Casey Lewis from the EVERYMEN and FAILURE.
Tim: He did our first three albums and then we went in with Dave Alcott. Dave is the drummer for an old band called CHIXDIGGIT.
They were very popular here.
Tim: Dave is a great guy so it was real easy.
He probably knew your sound.
Tim: He has been around. He has seen us for years. He knew what he was getting into.
Jay: I think we were the first punk band he had mixed in three or four years. He does a lot of other stuff.
Tim: Country, Blues whatever. Very talented guy.
I was going to ask you where does the name MOTHERFUCKERS come from and is there a story behind it?
Dan: That was one of these unfortunate incidents. When I first joined the band we tossed around a few names. I think Tim wanted to call it the BUTCHER BOYS. Hunter wanted to call it INSIDE JOKE and the cover of the album was going to be a picture of a prostate. In the end I went around telling everyone the band was called ROWDY ROGER AND THE MOTHERFUCKERS mainly joking around kind of poking fun at Roger our old bass player. Unfortunately I told it to a lot of people and it just kind of stuck so by the time we played our first show we were already billed as ROWDY ROGER AND THE MOTHERFUCKERS.
Jay: Yeah the kid who made the poster just put us on it. Didn’t even ask us. Just assumed it was our name.
Dan: Of course when Roger left the band we didn’t do anything for a year or a year and a half. Then we threw together the new line up we dropped the ROWDY ROGER and kept the MOTHERFUCKERS. It is not the most imaginative of names. There are a few more MOTHERFUCKERS out there.
Yeah but still it is good and it has a good story.
Tim: Every kid loves to have a shirt that says MOTHERFUCKER on it just to piss their parents off.
What about influences? Who do you consider influences on the band?
Dan: BLACK FLAG and RUN DMC.
Jay: That’s Dan’s entire list.
Dan: That’s why I am not allowed to answer any questions.
Jay: We all listen to a wide variety of stuff.
Tim: Yeah. Very eclectic.
I am mostly interested in punk things.
Dan: Anything involving Keith Morris. I only listen to BLACK FLAG and CIRCLE JERKS.
Shawn: We definitely have a heavy MOTORHEAD influence. More speed rock style sort of thing.
I was thinking the early skate crossover scene. Bands like ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT.
Shawn: We have been compared to older bands like SUICIDAL TENDENCIES. We were compared to DRI. We don’t bring songs to the table that sound like something we have just listened to.
Yeah I don’t imagine that but sometimes it is by osmosis. You are just listening to something and it comes through in your sound. If you had to limit your record collection to five punk releases what would they be as a band? Let’s say you are going on tour and you only have room for five releases.
Dan: Dude, we are going to fight. We are not even going to go on tour. We can’t even make it from one city to the next without a fight over music. This trip it has been MOTORHEAD, ALCOHOLIC WHITE TRASH, DAVID ALLEN CO., NWA, ICE CUBE, THIN LIZZY,
What about punk stuff?
Jay: AWT counts. WHO’S GAL, from Victoria. LID. We tend to listen to bands that we have met, playing shows and we pick up their stuff. For a while we were on a big Victoria band kick. We went on two or three trips out there and everytime we met a new band we grabbed their CD and that was what we were listening to for a while. For the mainstream stuff we were listening to a lot of BLACK FLAG. We have all listened to a lot of it in the past.
Dan: We listened to SLAYER doing VERBAL ABUSE covers.
Jay: Dan it’s not punk.
Dan: Dude it’s punk. It’s a VERBAL ABUSE cover.
It’s reaching but it’s good. What about lyrics. What are some of the things you are singing about Dan?
Dan: A lot of the earlier stuff is alcohol influenced and lyrics are generally written by Hunter or me.
What are some of the song titles?
Shawn: “Let’s Talk about Turkey”, “Number 7”, “Pissed in the Pit”, “God Pissed in my Beer”. We used to do a song called “Gin and Tonic”. Yeah a lot of it was booze influenced. It is not high brow stuff by any stretch of the imagination.
It reminds me of GANG GREEN, the whole idea. The alcohol theme.
Shawn: The quote on the back of one of our releases by Kacey Lewis is “Thinking Man’s Drunk Punk”. Occasionally when I write a song I will grab an old cliché line and stick it in there. Just let it run however it runs from there. We have had a couple of songs that run that way, like “Fish Fucking” is ….
Punk rock speaking in tongues.
Shawn: Pretty much. It is a lot of W.C Fields. “Don’t drink water, the fish fuck in it”. And it runs from there.
What is your favourite MOTHERFUCKERS song from a lyrical standpoint and why? There is your probing question.
Shawn: Dan claims to love to being probed.
Dan: I did earlier. Now that I am being probed…..actually one of my favourites is “Pass by me”. A few years ago Hunter said he was working on this song and he said I am writing it from your point of view. I didn’t think anything of it. The chorus is “I can’t believe that your idea of normal seems to mean that I can’t walk around in semen encrusted jeans.” I was like “Oh man that is fucking hilarious.” Two or three days later I was like “Wait a minute. This is the one he said he wrote from my standpoint.” I guess the general idea that of feeling like you are living outside of society where we all work real jobs and there is this feeling of being apart from the average person. “Ordinary People” is one I wrote along the same lines because there is that feeling that we are a little different than your average guy on the street. Our goals, motivations, and general attitudes are quite a bit different.
Shawn: For me probably “Lost” is one of the ones that I am happy with.
Tim: Me too.
What is it about?
Shawn: For a long time we played as a five piece. Us here plus Rich Williams. A couple of years ago Rich killed himself. So I took a couple of lines from the Funeral Director’s eulogy for him and blew it up into a song. His mom really likes it. His family really likes it.
Tim: It was the last song he wrote with the band. It never got recorded and it was just done. The music was there, but we didn’t have the lyrics for it. When he died that is when we decided to put out the “Mother of all Fuckers” because Rich had been involved in the second recording. It was the last thing he did and the last song we wrote. We wanted to put it out as a tribute to him.
Dan: That is basically what got us back into the studio. We hadn’t really done anything for years coming up to that.
Tim: It was the kick in the butt we needed. It got us back to work.
Yeah it sounds like it. A raison d’etre.
Tim: He wouldn’t have wanted to see the band stop just because of that.
For sure. It is a nice tribute. Jay, do you have a song that you like?
Jay: I only just started to understand the lyrics. I have never really known what they sung about at all. I just hear the word “beer” every once and a while. I don’t really listen to lyrics. I have to pay attention to Dan’s vocal pattern. As a guitar player I sometimes have to play off of his vocals. I find it adds a lot of dynamic to the music. I like “Classless Society” a lot. I like “Nervous Wreck”. I used to live like that song. Those are the ones I like the most.
I was going to ask you about the Calgary scene at the moment. I am going to ask you to be punk rock ambassadors at the moment and tell us about some bands that you play with at home.
Dan: The PISS OFFS.
Tim: They are awesome.
Dan: I really like the ANTI SOCIAL CLUB.
What are the PISS OFFS like?
Tim: Street Punk. They write catchy songs. They put on a great show. They go balls out. They are fun to watch.
Dan: I really like the ANTI SOCIAL CLUB. They have an early 80’s hardcore thing. I think they just broke up though so…..Oh no we are playing with them next week and then they are breaking up. That will be their last show. We are also playing with the BLOODY HELLS. They used to be a band called GOOD AND PISSED. Before that a couple of them were in the BLOTTO BOYS with Jay and I. Before that they were in NO COAST HARDCORE. There is a long line of bands those guys have been in.
Tim: Incestuous bands.
Every scene is like that, including Toronto.
Jay: In Calgary there will be times when things are really happening and then it will drop down. Also the time we end up here is to play shows. We are to old to go hang out in bars every night. We can’t see the scene in it’s glory every night. I am a little out of touch myself. I have definitely noticed the change in styles of music. I guess in the last ten years in Calgary they were showcasing a lot of punk rock bands and then it shifted. There is a lot of indie and college radio material. Lots of bars are promoting that stuff. It seems like when one venue closes another one opens up in a couple of months so there is always a place to play.
Tim: Yeah. There is never a shortage of that. The only problem in Calgary is the all ages scene. That is really sketchy.
Dan: But there is some basement shows coming up again. There is this girl named Lana who does a lot of basement shows. There is a lot of new all ages hardcore bands. I think that scene really is coming back.
Tim: The DEAD DOGS from Winnipeg. They were great.
Dan: She put on a show with ANS from Texas. We were supposed to play that but we ended up not being able to. It was a great show. A lot of kids out for that. I think that the all ages scene is definitely coming back.
Tim: That is good to see because we have lost so many venues over the years for one reason or another. Now it has gotten back to the basements again, which is great for us. I love playing those kind of shows.
Were you guys part of a skate scene at all back in Calgary? You kind of dress that way.
Dan: Yeah, to a certain extent. I haven’t been skating much this year but I get out when I can.
Is there much of a skate scene there? And is there a crossover with punk rock? ‘
Dan: To a certain extent. Not as much as there used to be.
I know that hip hop had taken over in some areas. Punk rock had gotten pushed out and then was embraced again. I know in the last five years or so there has been a resurgence of hardcore back into skating.
Dan: It is definitely not as much of a crossover as there used to be, but there still is.
Jay: They are changing from the Fat Wrechords - California sound that came out of So Cal. They are getting away from that style of punk rock with skating in mind. Going back to the crossover thrash metal so that is kind of cool.
What are the bands plans for the next little while?
Tim: Survive this trip.
How long are you on tour for?
Tim: We are out for another week.
Dan: Well we have two more shows. We are playing London tomorrow and then Thunder Bay on Tuesday.
And how long have you been on tour so far?
Dan: 9 days.
Thunder Bay is a long drive.
Dan: Yeah we are definitely looking forward to that one.
I guess it is a show somewhere in between.
Tim: That is exactly it.
Dan: I think we are going to go back into the studio as quick as we can and record some new material with this line up. The new 7” we put out is a good record, but it doesn’t really reflect the way the line up sounds now. We have a few new songs ready to go and we are going to try and get some more stuff done. Hopefully put out a full length within the next year or so. If all goes well.
Tim: Hopefully come back out here.
Shawn: And we have our anniversary show to plan and pull off.
Do you know when your anniversary is?
Shawn: The first show was Boxing Day 1998.
Tim: We already have the venue arranged and the line up is set.
Yeah it sounds good.
Shawn: Work on the cat herding and make sure it all goes off.
How can people get in touch with the band? What is the best way to reach you?
Dan: We have a myspace page, which is myspace.com/motherfuckerscalgary. There is another one on there rowdyrogerandthemotherfuckers. Don’t go to that one. We don’t see that one. I think our old bass player does. We also have a website at motherfuckerscalgary.com. That is updated pretty often. I go on there whenever I can. We should have some new photos from tour. You can see photos of the random drunk girl that was on stage with us last night.
Any last comments? Final Words? Parting thoughts?
Dan: Last night was awesome.
Tim: Thanks a lot to Toronto.
Dan: Thanks to Matt from High Art for the Low Down. We played there last night at Siesta Nouveaux.
Sounds like a memorable show.
Dan: Yeah it was great. We played to about ten people in Montreal the night before so it was really nice to come out here and play to a bunch of people who are really into it. The other bands we played with were great. It was a lot of fun. For all of us that is the kind of show we prefer to do. Small venue like that to people who are really stoked on it. Great sound in that space too. We had a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who came out.
Thanks for getting up so early to do this interview and we hope to see you back in a year’s time.
Introduce yourselves and tell us what you do in the band.
Jay: My name’s Jay Misery and I play lead guitar.
Dan: My name is Dan Izzo. I sing badly.
Shawn: Shawn Hunter. I play bass, badly.
Tim: Tim Bastard. I play drums.
How long have the MOTHERFUCKERS been around for?
Dan: In various incarnations about ten years. We are celebrating our ten year anniversary this December.
How did the band come together?
Shawn: Tim and I and Rog, our first bass player, decided we were just going to start a band. We wrote some material, mostly music. I had some lyrics at that time. We had a lot of trouble finding a singer. One person tried out but she found a better band and moved on. I suggested Dan, and Roger at the time was against it. We did nothing for six months and then Roger had the great idea of asking Dan. So we got Dan and then got the rest of the songs together and that Boxing Day played our first show.
Was there an idea behind the band when you first started? Did you want to try and be a certain type of band?
Shawn: I don’t know that anybody tried to be a certain way. This was Tim and my first band. Roger had been in plenty of bands before. He may have had ideas. We just wanted to get together and play some music, write some stuff, play some shows.
Make it fast.
Shawn: Yeah.
Were any of you in any previous bands prior to MOTHERFUCKERS other than Shawn who said you weren’t?
Shawn: Tim and I weren’t.
Tim: We were in some garage bands but nothing serious. This is the first band that we actually went out and played shows with.
What about Jay and Dan?
Jay: Yeah, I have been in a lot of bands actually. Since I was sixteen years old.
Dan: He has been in about half the bands in Calgary.
Jay: Yeah. Probably a half dozen in Calgary alone.
I don’t mind if you mention names because we don’t hear a lot about bands from Calgary.
Jay: I don’t want to mention names.
Dan: NO COAST HARDCORE, RIOT NERDS, THE HOSERVILLE BLOTTO BOYS.
And Dan, were you in some bands?
Dan: I was not in any serious bands before the MOTEHRFUCKERS. Jay and I, before Jay joined the MOTHERFUCKERS, had a band called the BLOTTO BOYS who didn’t do a whole lot. We played a few shows and released a split 7” with a band called RUM RUNNER. It was a POGUES tribute 7”. If anybody wants one of those I think the RUM RUNNER boys still have about 400 of them. We have a couple.
Did you guys put it out together?
Dan: Yeah, Alan Drinkle from RUM RUNNER had a little label called Pedestrian Records that did one release and that was it.
Are you Handsome Dan?
Dan: I am Handsome Dan of Handsome Dan Records fame.
So you put out the recent MOTHERFUCKERS EP right?
Dan: Yeah. All of the MOTHERFUCKERS releases except for the original MOTHERFUCKERS CD EP “If It Ain’t Puke It Ain’t Punk”. That was on the short lived Two Idiots with a Dumb Idea record label. All the other releases are Handsome Dan releases.
Can you list off a discography of MOTHERFUCKERS releases and could you include the years? When was your first release?
Dan: I think we did “If It Ain’t Puke It Ain’t Punk” in 2001. It was recorded about a year before that and sat around. It was released on a very limited poor quality CD-R. We did in total about 200 of them.
How many songs were on it?
Dan: There were six songs. Then we did the “Classless Society” CD which was 10 tracks. That came out in 2004. That was recorded a little earlier. At that point the band was Jay Misery, who is here with us now playing bass. Shawn Hunter was on guitar.
Jay: There has been five or six people who have played bass in this band.
Shawn: I am on my second tour of the band.
Dan: That original ep we had a very different line up. It was Tim Hunter, myself. Hunter you were playing guitar at that point.
Shawn: And we had Andrew and Scott.
Dan: Andrew McCall on bass and Scott Belton on the other guitar. Then we did “The Mother of All Fuckers” CD which came out last year. That is kind of a mish mash of a bunch of crap.
Like different recordings.
Dan: Yeah.
Tim: Three different recording sessions.
Is it over a long period of time with different line ups?
Jay: We re-released the “If It Ain’t Puke, It Ain’t Punk” CD. We put that on and we had 8 or 9 songs already recorded with our old guitar player. That was basically done and on the shelf. We were just waiting to release it when we had some personal issues. Unfortunately everything got sidetracked by that. Then last year we went back into the studio and did another 4 songs and we put it all together. It was kind of a tribute to our old guitar player.
Okay so it is three different recordings with 18 songs.
Jay: It spans about three or four years of the band.
Dan: The first four tracks was a line up with Roger Neilson on bass who was the original bass player. We brought him back in the band to record those four songs. He also played on the 7” we just released. Once again he is out of the band. It is all very confusing especially for us.
Well you are on the road now and playing so that is good.
Dan: I think we have a reasonably stable line up now.
And where does “I Want to Be a Cop so I Can Fuck you up” come in?
Dan: That just came out. That was released in June. Again that is six tracks we recorded with Roger on bass. We recorded it about a year ago. We went in and did ten tracks. We pick six to do the ep so there is another four unreleased ones.
Shawn: And you will never get to hear any of them.
Dan: They will come out on a secret bootleg at some point. You just won’t know anything about it.
Is there a good studio to record in Calgary? Where do you guys go? Do you go to the same place?
Shawn: The first three CDs we did at Echo Base Studios. Some folks might know Casey Lewis from the EVERYMEN and FAILURE.
Tim: He did our first three albums and then we went in with Dave Alcott. Dave is the drummer for an old band called CHIXDIGGIT.
They were very popular here.
Tim: Dave is a great guy so it was real easy.
He probably knew your sound.
Tim: He has been around. He has seen us for years. He knew what he was getting into.
Jay: I think we were the first punk band he had mixed in three or four years. He does a lot of other stuff.
Tim: Country, Blues whatever. Very talented guy.
I was going to ask you where does the name MOTHERFUCKERS come from and is there a story behind it?
Dan: That was one of these unfortunate incidents. When I first joined the band we tossed around a few names. I think Tim wanted to call it the BUTCHER BOYS. Hunter wanted to call it INSIDE JOKE and the cover of the album was going to be a picture of a prostate. In the end I went around telling everyone the band was called ROWDY ROGER AND THE MOTHERFUCKERS mainly joking around kind of poking fun at Roger our old bass player. Unfortunately I told it to a lot of people and it just kind of stuck so by the time we played our first show we were already billed as ROWDY ROGER AND THE MOTHERFUCKERS.
Jay: Yeah the kid who made the poster just put us on it. Didn’t even ask us. Just assumed it was our name.
Dan: Of course when Roger left the band we didn’t do anything for a year or a year and a half. Then we threw together the new line up we dropped the ROWDY ROGER and kept the MOTHERFUCKERS. It is not the most imaginative of names. There are a few more MOTHERFUCKERS out there.
Yeah but still it is good and it has a good story.
Tim: Every kid loves to have a shirt that says MOTHERFUCKER on it just to piss their parents off.
What about influences? Who do you consider influences on the band?
Dan: BLACK FLAG and RUN DMC.
Jay: That’s Dan’s entire list.
Dan: That’s why I am not allowed to answer any questions.
Jay: We all listen to a wide variety of stuff.
Tim: Yeah. Very eclectic.
I am mostly interested in punk things.
Dan: Anything involving Keith Morris. I only listen to BLACK FLAG and CIRCLE JERKS.
Shawn: We definitely have a heavy MOTORHEAD influence. More speed rock style sort of thing.
I was thinking the early skate crossover scene. Bands like ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT.
Shawn: We have been compared to older bands like SUICIDAL TENDENCIES. We were compared to DRI. We don’t bring songs to the table that sound like something we have just listened to.
Yeah I don’t imagine that but sometimes it is by osmosis. You are just listening to something and it comes through in your sound. If you had to limit your record collection to five punk releases what would they be as a band? Let’s say you are going on tour and you only have room for five releases.
Dan: Dude, we are going to fight. We are not even going to go on tour. We can’t even make it from one city to the next without a fight over music. This trip it has been MOTORHEAD, ALCOHOLIC WHITE TRASH, DAVID ALLEN CO., NWA, ICE CUBE, THIN LIZZY,
What about punk stuff?
Jay: AWT counts. WHO’S GAL, from Victoria. LID. We tend to listen to bands that we have met, playing shows and we pick up their stuff. For a while we were on a big Victoria band kick. We went on two or three trips out there and everytime we met a new band we grabbed their CD and that was what we were listening to for a while. For the mainstream stuff we were listening to a lot of BLACK FLAG. We have all listened to a lot of it in the past.
Dan: We listened to SLAYER doing VERBAL ABUSE covers.
Jay: Dan it’s not punk.
Dan: Dude it’s punk. It’s a VERBAL ABUSE cover.
It’s reaching but it’s good. What about lyrics. What are some of the things you are singing about Dan?
Dan: A lot of the earlier stuff is alcohol influenced and lyrics are generally written by Hunter or me.
What are some of the song titles?
Shawn: “Let’s Talk about Turkey”, “Number 7”, “Pissed in the Pit”, “God Pissed in my Beer”. We used to do a song called “Gin and Tonic”. Yeah a lot of it was booze influenced. It is not high brow stuff by any stretch of the imagination.
It reminds me of GANG GREEN, the whole idea. The alcohol theme.
Shawn: The quote on the back of one of our releases by Kacey Lewis is “Thinking Man’s Drunk Punk”. Occasionally when I write a song I will grab an old cliché line and stick it in there. Just let it run however it runs from there. We have had a couple of songs that run that way, like “Fish Fucking” is ….
Punk rock speaking in tongues.
Shawn: Pretty much. It is a lot of W.C Fields. “Don’t drink water, the fish fuck in it”. And it runs from there.
What is your favourite MOTHERFUCKERS song from a lyrical standpoint and why? There is your probing question.
Shawn: Dan claims to love to being probed.
Dan: I did earlier. Now that I am being probed…..actually one of my favourites is “Pass by me”. A few years ago Hunter said he was working on this song and he said I am writing it from your point of view. I didn’t think anything of it. The chorus is “I can’t believe that your idea of normal seems to mean that I can’t walk around in semen encrusted jeans.” I was like “Oh man that is fucking hilarious.” Two or three days later I was like “Wait a minute. This is the one he said he wrote from my standpoint.” I guess the general idea that of feeling like you are living outside of society where we all work real jobs and there is this feeling of being apart from the average person. “Ordinary People” is one I wrote along the same lines because there is that feeling that we are a little different than your average guy on the street. Our goals, motivations, and general attitudes are quite a bit different.
Shawn: For me probably “Lost” is one of the ones that I am happy with.
Tim: Me too.
What is it about?
Shawn: For a long time we played as a five piece. Us here plus Rich Williams. A couple of years ago Rich killed himself. So I took a couple of lines from the Funeral Director’s eulogy for him and blew it up into a song. His mom really likes it. His family really likes it.
Tim: It was the last song he wrote with the band. It never got recorded and it was just done. The music was there, but we didn’t have the lyrics for it. When he died that is when we decided to put out the “Mother of all Fuckers” because Rich had been involved in the second recording. It was the last thing he did and the last song we wrote. We wanted to put it out as a tribute to him.
Dan: That is basically what got us back into the studio. We hadn’t really done anything for years coming up to that.
Tim: It was the kick in the butt we needed. It got us back to work.
Yeah it sounds like it. A raison d’etre.
Tim: He wouldn’t have wanted to see the band stop just because of that.
For sure. It is a nice tribute. Jay, do you have a song that you like?
Jay: I only just started to understand the lyrics. I have never really known what they sung about at all. I just hear the word “beer” every once and a while. I don’t really listen to lyrics. I have to pay attention to Dan’s vocal pattern. As a guitar player I sometimes have to play off of his vocals. I find it adds a lot of dynamic to the music. I like “Classless Society” a lot. I like “Nervous Wreck”. I used to live like that song. Those are the ones I like the most.
I was going to ask you about the Calgary scene at the moment. I am going to ask you to be punk rock ambassadors at the moment and tell us about some bands that you play with at home.
Dan: The PISS OFFS.
Tim: They are awesome.
Dan: I really like the ANTI SOCIAL CLUB.
What are the PISS OFFS like?
Tim: Street Punk. They write catchy songs. They put on a great show. They go balls out. They are fun to watch.
Dan: I really like the ANTI SOCIAL CLUB. They have an early 80’s hardcore thing. I think they just broke up though so…..Oh no we are playing with them next week and then they are breaking up. That will be their last show. We are also playing with the BLOODY HELLS. They used to be a band called GOOD AND PISSED. Before that a couple of them were in the BLOTTO BOYS with Jay and I. Before that they were in NO COAST HARDCORE. There is a long line of bands those guys have been in.
Tim: Incestuous bands.
Every scene is like that, including Toronto.
Jay: In Calgary there will be times when things are really happening and then it will drop down. Also the time we end up here is to play shows. We are to old to go hang out in bars every night. We can’t see the scene in it’s glory every night. I am a little out of touch myself. I have definitely noticed the change in styles of music. I guess in the last ten years in Calgary they were showcasing a lot of punk rock bands and then it shifted. There is a lot of indie and college radio material. Lots of bars are promoting that stuff. It seems like when one venue closes another one opens up in a couple of months so there is always a place to play.
Tim: Yeah. There is never a shortage of that. The only problem in Calgary is the all ages scene. That is really sketchy.
Dan: But there is some basement shows coming up again. There is this girl named Lana who does a lot of basement shows. There is a lot of new all ages hardcore bands. I think that scene really is coming back.
Tim: The DEAD DOGS from Winnipeg. They were great.
Dan: She put on a show with ANS from Texas. We were supposed to play that but we ended up not being able to. It was a great show. A lot of kids out for that. I think that the all ages scene is definitely coming back.
Tim: That is good to see because we have lost so many venues over the years for one reason or another. Now it has gotten back to the basements again, which is great for us. I love playing those kind of shows.
Were you guys part of a skate scene at all back in Calgary? You kind of dress that way.
Dan: Yeah, to a certain extent. I haven’t been skating much this year but I get out when I can.
Is there much of a skate scene there? And is there a crossover with punk rock? ‘
Dan: To a certain extent. Not as much as there used to be.
I know that hip hop had taken over in some areas. Punk rock had gotten pushed out and then was embraced again. I know in the last five years or so there has been a resurgence of hardcore back into skating.
Dan: It is definitely not as much of a crossover as there used to be, but there still is.
Jay: They are changing from the Fat Wrechords - California sound that came out of So Cal. They are getting away from that style of punk rock with skating in mind. Going back to the crossover thrash metal so that is kind of cool.
What are the bands plans for the next little while?
Tim: Survive this trip.
How long are you on tour for?
Tim: We are out for another week.
Dan: Well we have two more shows. We are playing London tomorrow and then Thunder Bay on Tuesday.
And how long have you been on tour so far?
Dan: 9 days.
Thunder Bay is a long drive.
Dan: Yeah we are definitely looking forward to that one.
I guess it is a show somewhere in between.
Tim: That is exactly it.
Dan: I think we are going to go back into the studio as quick as we can and record some new material with this line up. The new 7” we put out is a good record, but it doesn’t really reflect the way the line up sounds now. We have a few new songs ready to go and we are going to try and get some more stuff done. Hopefully put out a full length within the next year or so. If all goes well.
Tim: Hopefully come back out here.
Shawn: And we have our anniversary show to plan and pull off.
Do you know when your anniversary is?
Shawn: The first show was Boxing Day 1998.
Tim: We already have the venue arranged and the line up is set.
Yeah it sounds good.
Shawn: Work on the cat herding and make sure it all goes off.
How can people get in touch with the band? What is the best way to reach you?
Dan: We have a myspace page, which is myspace.com/motherfuckerscalgary. There is another one on there rowdyrogerandthemotherfuckers. Don’t go to that one. We don’t see that one. I think our old bass player does. We also have a website at motherfuckerscalgary.com. That is updated pretty often. I go on there whenever I can. We should have some new photos from tour. You can see photos of the random drunk girl that was on stage with us last night.
Any last comments? Final Words? Parting thoughts?
Dan: Last night was awesome.
Tim: Thanks a lot to Toronto.
Dan: Thanks to Matt from High Art for the Low Down. We played there last night at Siesta Nouveaux.
Sounds like a memorable show.
Dan: Yeah it was great. We played to about ten people in Montreal the night before so it was really nice to come out here and play to a bunch of people who are really into it. The other bands we played with were great. It was a lot of fun. For all of us that is the kind of show we prefer to do. Small venue like that to people who are really stoked on it. Great sound in that space too. We had a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who came out.
Thanks for getting up so early to do this interview and we hope to see you back in a year’s time.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
House of Commons "Guilty as Hell" CD
Welly of Artcore pulls together all of the recorded material by Vancouver's House of Commons. The first seven songs come from a mini LP titled "Patriot". This record originally came out in 1983 and was recorded by Rob Wright of NoMeansno. These songs are:1. Way Down South
2. Low
3. Gotta B Alive
4. 1999
5. American Patriot
6. Institutional
7. Live for Today
The other materials comes from a later demo recorded in 1985 and may have been unreleased. These songs are:
8. Here Today Gone Tomorrow
9. Ultimatum
10. Attitude
11. Raid
12. Insane
13. Factory
14. Killer's Pride
Artcore also has a myspace site at www.myspace.com/artcorefanzine. The CD has video footage of the band to so it is an enhanced CD. These guys rage like Death Sentence.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Radio - Sunday, August 9, 2009
click here for a mp3 download.
THE WANKYS - It’s a Punk Rock Life (La Vida es un Mus)
THE INSULTS - I Carry a Badge (Punks Before Profit$)
NAKED HIPPY - Fast Food Pig Out (Smile or Die)
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES - Institutionalized (Frontier)
RHYTHM PIGS - Elegy (Mordam)
CURSED – Friends in the Music Business
9 SHOCKS TERROR – Prozac logic (Devour)
DS-13 – Religion=Oppression (Lengua Armada)
ESPERENZA – Identity through Consumption (Lengua Armada)
NEUROSE URBANA Declino Corpos (Darbouka)
BORED STRAIGHT - Drink Beer LLC (Data Control)
NITAD - Dag Efter Dag (Deranged)
DEEP SLEEP - Face Down Dead (Grave Mistake)
THE POGO - Revenge (Loud Punk)
BURY THE LIVING - Your Brutality has a Name (Prank)
TALK IS POISON - Lost (Prank)
SEEIN RED - Apathy (Lengua Armada)
LIFE’S HALT - Hysteria (Lengua Armada)
UGLY LAW - Wasted Space (Cowabunga)
HONG KONG BLONDE - Hell is Alive (Ugly Pop)
NO TOKEN - Comentario (Six Weeks)
THE ENDLESS BLOCKADE - Fed Up (Schizophrenic)
ASPIRIN - Inject (Schizophrenic)
PULLING TEETH - Bloodwolves (A389 Recordings)
DAY OF MOURNING - Iconoclast (A389 Recordings)
CLASS WAR KIDS - Cherry Poppin’ Conservatives (Rebel Time)
WEDNESDAY NIGHT HEROES - Uncivilized Bastards (BYO)
THE REBEL SPELL - December 8th, 1980 (Clandestine Collective)
KNUCKLEHEAD - Better Living (Stumble)
HOSTAGE LIFE - Happy Two Thousand and Anything (Underground Operations)
Demo Feature
GORDON IVY - Daydream Nation (Self-Released)
GORDON IVY - Hope You Choke(Self-Released)
GORDON IVY - Broken Promises Shattered Dreams(Self-Released)
GORDON IVY - Breaking Through(Self-Released)
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Punk rock walking tour of Kensington Market
)
Here is a walking tour I gave in conjunction with Lyndall Musellam's project on "Remembering Who's Emma". For more information see rememberwhosemma.wordpress.com. Emmasgold has uploaded lots of great memories from Who's Emma on youtube. Please have a look at the footgae of 9 Shocks Terror or Legion666 or Ruination or Good Clean Fun. If those walls could talk they would have stories to tell.
Here is a walking tour I gave in conjunction with Lyndall Musellam's project on "Remembering Who's Emma". For more information see rememberwhosemma.wordpress.com. Emmasgold has uploaded lots of great memories from Who's Emma on youtube. Please have a look at the footgae of 9 Shocks Terror or Legion666 or Ruination or Good Clean Fun. If those walls could talk they would have stories to tell.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
UPDATE - August 5, 2009
The remainder of VOLUME 3 is now online.
ZINE ARCHIVE:
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 - January 2003 (Featuring: Tijuana Bibles, D.S. 13)
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 - March 2003 (Featuring: 17th Class, Wiltshire Drive)
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 - July 2003 (Featuring: Legion 666, Wednesday Night Heroes)
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 8 - August 2003 (Featuring: Vigilant Resistance, Malefaction)
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 - November 2003 (Featuring: Black Eyes Club, Hostage Life)
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 10 - December 2003 (Featuring: Running For Cover, Nunfuckers)
ZINE ARCHIVE:
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 - January 2003 (Featuring: Tijuana Bibles, D.S. 13)
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 - March 2003 (Featuring: 17th Class, Wiltshire Drive)
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 - July 2003 (Featuring: Legion 666, Wednesday Night Heroes)
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 8 - August 2003 (Featuring: Vigilant Resistance, Malefaction)
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 - November 2003 (Featuring: Black Eyes Club, Hostage Life)
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 10 - December 2003 (Featuring: Running For Cover, Nunfuckers)
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Shut Eyes / Emergency split CD-R
SHUT EYES are from Barrie and lay down the mosh-core. It reminds me of ALIVE AND KICKING from Newmarket. They take the first five songs of this split and sing about living in the present, being haunted by the past and a few more personal things that the song titles aren’t immediately apparent. Anyway think of early JUDGE and SHUT EYES is along those lines. EMERGENCY are not to be confused with the band from Vancouver a couple of years back that featured the dude from the STRIKE. This band is also from Barrie but have more of a Midwest melodic sound to them. Think D4 or RIVETHEAD. (Shut Eyes – www.myspace.com/luv2mosh / Emergency - www.myspace.com/killdowntown) – SP
Monday, August 3, 2009
Rah “The Truth Will Reveal Itself” ep
Right out of the gate, in a great blaze of glory, as guitars ring out and the heavy pounding of toms and rolling thunder of bass begin, you just know that something very big is going to happen. That thing is RAH, and it’s HUGE. Things pick up, soon it’s frantic and then suddenly the song is on the verge of exploding—“AND JUST LIKE THAT IT WAS GONE!” Jesse screams, at the top of his lungs, with all the despair and hopelessness he can muster. His world is over and the record’s barely started. Fuck. What the hell have I got myself into? and we’re only 30 seconds in! Labeled Records brings us RAH’s second effort and let me tell ya, it’s a doozie. Not only is the production stellar and the design and packaging clean, sleek and gorgeous, but the songs themselves are of serious quality and complexity and still make you want to break shit and go crazy. While not being a great departure from previous material, it’s abundantly clear that they’ve evolved and matured in all the right areas, where each song shows off serious chops and at no point does it ever feel tired or less exciting than earlier. “The Truth Will Reveal Itself “is led primarily by razor-sharp guitar work of Ian Nixon with riffs so tight and precise that the sonic chainsaw of guitar cuts you to ribbons before you know you’ve been hit...and the hits just keep on coming. You’re very quickly 3 tracks deep into side A and RAH hasn’t let up for a second, never missing a beat. Considering the fact that, um, “lightning-speed” is their official main gear of operation, it’s a bit hard to keep up with them and their frenzied path of destruction. Amazingly though, it never falls apart, as you expect it to around every corner in crystal-clear production such as this, where you can hear every nuance. Rather, each song is held tightly together by the toughest backbone of rhythm sections, Ryan Walker on bass and Justin Ogilvie on drums, who remain in almost super-human control as these songs race into oblivion, yet never collapse in on themselves. The instrumentation mixes a blend of Youth Crew-era hardcore and its ultra-high-energy chord progressions (minus the gang chants), with some more modern touches of groove and riff-oriented song structure. However, RAH’s bright and energetic musicianship is contrasted greatly as vocalist Jesse Rosenthal just spits, snarls and barks his way through a mix of heartbreak, betrayal and deeply personal admissions of years of hard luck, without a glimmer of hope in sight. He even ends the record lyrically with a chorus of “Well what did you expect? This is as good as it gets. I wish the good times would last, but they won’t”. Not uncharted territory for hardcore, but what is unique is his stressed and painful delivery. Its disarmingly heartfelt and genuine hurt. So while RAH’s approach is youthful, its also very mature, delicately achieving both explosive crazy fun and also great deal skill you can really hear. Upon first listen, the record just rips, plain and simple. Put it on a second time and listen carefully, you’ll quickly realize just how fancy Justin’s drum fills are or how fast the guitars go, yet somehow remain tight and flawless. It’s highly impressive. In fact, I dare say this one of the finest 7”s I’ve ever put on my turntable. The ten minutes of pure steam-rolling hardcore is unstoppable and unrelenting to say the very least and with song after song like that, just kicking you in the teeth (slowing down only momentarily in its final minutes) you’ll be begging for more. Merciless drums, ferocious vocals, impossibly slick guitar & bass work, RAH have one hell of a record to top next time. Sure, the sound may be familiar and not completely foreign, but this Toronto foursome stands alone in their own right and “The Truth Will Reveal Itself” has such palpable life and vitality to it that it plays with great honesty and without artifice. What’s actually revealed in these eight tracks is that RAH are unmistakably the new face of contemporary hardcore punk in Canada. It is an instant classic. (http://www.stuckinthecity.ca/labeledrecords/) - DRHThe songs on here are:
1. The Truth
2. Keep Walking
3. Not Now, Not Ever
3. Not Now, Not Ever
4. Good Intentions
5. Change
6. All I Know
7. Think Again
8. It Won’t Last
Radio - Sunday, August 2, 2009
click here for a mp3 download
STEF AND THE STUDS - We Don’t Need the English (Schizophrenic)
ABLE DANGER - Beef on Weck (Feral Kid)
NO TIME LEFT - Rapid Transit to Nowhere (625 Productions)
RUNNING FOR COVER - Collapse / On Nature / Worldview (625 Productions)
THEY LIVE - Game Over (625 Productions)
COUNTDOWN TO OBLIVION - Four Alarm Fire at Lockport Gambino Ford (Ugly Pop)
SCHOLASTIC DETH - Cheetos (625 Productions)
HOMOSTUPIDS - Apeshit (Parts Unknown)
86 MENTALITY - Terror boys (Grave Mistake)
xBxRx - Pigs Wear Blue (Polyvinyl)
LIFE LONG TRAGEDY - Hey Death (Deathwish)
DEEP SLEEP - Let Go (Grave Mistake)
DRUNK DRIVER - Secret Eater
BOYS CLUB - Gotta Get Right
ULTIMO RESORTE - Violencia (La Vida es un Mus)
GRB - Lo que hace el dinero (Tralla)
SUBTERRANEAN KIDS - Mucho Tiempo (Tralla)
ANTI-DOGMATIKSS - Olimpisme (Tralla)
DESTINO FINAL - Volver (La Vida es un Mus)
HAZARDOUS WASTE - Fed Up (Schizophrenic)
MICRO EDGE - United We Skate (Self-Released)
SUDDEN IMPACT - Freaked Out (Marquee)
FAIR WARNING - Skating (Sonik’s Chicken Shrimp)
BEYOND POSSESSION - Skater’s Life (Melodiya)
PSYCHED TO DIE - New Hampshire Man’s Quandry (Firestarter / Grave Mistake)
URBAN UNREST - Nothing For Me (Rabbit’s Foot)
DISCO ASSAULT - My Fate (Schizophrenic)
SCHOOL JERKS - Nothing Else (Riff Raff)
NO SLOGAN - Killed By Gentrification (Desobediencia)
THE ZERO BOYS - Dingy Bars Suck (Secretly Canadian)
CAUSTIC DEFIANCE - Tell Me why
F.U.’s - Civil Defense (Lost and Found)
LIFE SENTENCE - Problems (Legends of Hardcore)
BLANK STARE - Words are Loud (Refuse)
Demo Feature
RAH - The Truth (Labelled)
RAH - Keep Walking (Labelled)
RAH - Not Now, Not Ever (Labelled)
RAH - Good Intentions (Labelled)
RAH - Change (Labelled)
RAH - All I Know (Labelled)
RAH - Think Again (Labelled)
RAH - It Won’t Last (Labelled)
Sunday, August 2, 2009
UPDATE - August 2, 2009
The remainder of zines from 2001/2002 are uploaded including interviews with Fucked Up, Career Suicide, Riot99, The Class Assassins and more.
Also of note is that the show listing are in a drop down box on the right hand side just click the [+] underneath the heading SHOW LISTINGS.
ZINE ARCHIVE:
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 - October 2001 (Featuring: Fucked Up)
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2 - November 2001 (Featuring: Scare Tactic)
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3 - December 2001 (Featuring: The Class Assassins)
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 - January 2002 (Featuring: The Class)
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2 - February 2002 (Featuring: Career Suicide)
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 3 - March 2002 (Featuring: Riot99)
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4 - April 2002 (Featuring: The Abandoned Hearts Club)
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 5 - May/June 2002 (Featuring: Put To Shame)
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7 - August 2002 (Featuring:Runnamucks, The First Day)
VOLUME 2, ISSUE 9 - November 2002 (Featuring: The Blue Demons)
EXD IN MRR:
DOUBLE NEGATIVE - August 2008
SIMPLY SAUCER - September 2008
THE DIODES - December 2008
The rest of the zine archive will be up throughout the week and shortly we will organized a better index.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
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