The powers that be have, ironically, made life easier for Anti-Flag as Truepunk discovers from bassist Chris #2.
Pittsburgh punk protagonists Anti-Flag owe much to the American Warped tour, the popular annual music festival with which the veteran quartet has virtually grown up.
Interview by Steve Tauschke with bassist Chris #2 of Anti-Flag.
“We played two shows on the Warped tour in 1999 on small side stages and the next year we were a second stage band,” says Chris #2 (born Chris Barker) on the phone from Pennsylvania, “so I felt we were really starting to have an impact and gain some ground as a band. It’s an eye-opening experience when you see a tour where five to ten thousand people were coming out. And it wasn’t just one person walking away from the Anti-Flag show energized and empowered but a lot of people were connecting with our music and our ideas in the same way that we do. We are back again this year so we have a lot of history with this tour and a lot of landmarks in our ‘career’ have been defined through it.”
The ever-expanding Warped caravan has in recent years provided Anti-Flag with an ideal platform from which to voice their dissenting views, albeit via an old school punk soundtrack. The group’s latest album For Blood and Empire certainly tackles with aplomb what they regard as the underhanded forces of global ‘evil’; the CIA, 10 Downing Street and most topically, their interpretation of American colonial militarism.
“Any time through history where you have a war or a conflict of human interest whether it be through violence or political policy, then that’s going to influence art whether it’s painting or music or poetry - and I think that’s going on right now,” says Chris. “We’re seeing more and more artists come out not only standing against this war in Iraq but around the world. I think that’s the silver lining. It’s a total cliché but sometimes shit needs to get really bad before it gets any better and I think that’s where we’re at, another paradigm shift in our world’s history.”
Inspired by the explosive punk template of the Dead Kennedys and The Exploited, Chris, vocalist-guitarist Justin Sane, drummer Pat Thetic, and vocalist-guitarist Chris Head believe this nation’s foreign policy needs a rethink, citing local comedian David Cross’ satirical observation that ‘a war on terror is like a war on jealousy – you’re never going to end it!’.
“It’s unfortunate but in America we live in a country full of misinformed people and the reason they’re misinformed is because they watch network news everyday,” says Chris. “And that makes them afraid and once they’re afraid they can’t help but continue to watch and have that cycle of fear over and over. We as a band are trying to break out of that and say ‘you don’t need to be afraid all the time, you can be constructive and find out what’s happening in this world for real’.”
In their early days, Anti-Flag found themselves lumped in with the so-called unpatriotic minority. Now the tables seemed to have turned.
“It’s definitely far easier to be in Anti-Flag today than it was back then,” says Chris with a touch of irony. “With September 11 they – and I mean the people in power in the world – have made their bed, and in fact made it easier for us to be in a band. The error of their ways has been brought to life and frankly the chickens are coming home to roost.”
So does the fight ever wear you down?
“It doesn’t wear the four of us down because we love what we do, we love this band and the music we create and our artistic outlet. Beyond that, the celebration of all the people coming together at any show we play is more than we could ever ask for. I feel the band today is bigger than it’s ever been maybe because of the political landscape - or maybe because people just like the way it sounds.”
There’s a palpable sense of adventure on Chicago four piece Rise Against’s 2006 album The Sufferer & The Witness. Having recently defected from Californian indie label Fat to major label Geffen, the band’s exploratory song structures and dynamic directional shift has brought a maturation to the sound few could have predicted.
Interview by By Steve Tauschke
Certainly, the addition of a string quartet to the mix has raised the collective eyebrow of the group’s loyal hardcore supports.
“When we first started using strings people were asking if we were afraid our fans would call us sell-outs because we’re incorporating classical instruments but we don’t see if that way,” explains bassist Joe Principe from San Francisco where Rise Against is touring with Thursday. “Something we’ve always been a really big fan of are string instruments and when tastefully done it’s effective. It compliments the song Roadside very well.
“We actually performed it last night with a string section for the very first time and I think the fans responded really well to it - they got something a little different. I don’t think bands should be afraid to try new things as long as you’re sincere and true to your heart as far as song writing goes then there’s nothing wrong with venturing into new territory. I think any band that wants to grow and have lasting stability has to keep things interesting.”
Inspired by this year’s progressive albums from AFI and The Killers, The Sufferer & Witness was, on the advice of their punk rock friends from Good Riddance, recorded at drummer/producer Bill Stevenson’s increasingly popular Blasting Room studios in Colorado, the studio of choice lately for many punk and hardcore acts.
“Bill understands aggressive punk rock, really melodic punk rock and obviously being in the Descendents and Black Flag he’s got the best of both worlds,” says Principe, formerly of 88 Fingers Louie. “He really paid attention to the grit behind our music and he wanted all the tones to be really big sounding and aggressive and I think he captured that. I think my bass sound on the record is one of the best that I’ve done.”
Stevenson, songwriter/drummer with punk-pop veterans Descendents and ALL, worked on the band’s previous album, 2004’s Siren Song Of The Counter Culture hence it’s certainly no major label compromise.
“If anything I think we’ve grown as a band together, whether we were on Fat or Epitaph or Geffen, it didn’t matter,” reasons Principe. “The Suffering & the Witness is just a product of us maturing as musicians and people.”
The Aggrolites came together purely by accident–just five guys having fun in the studio, backing Jamaica ska singer Derrick Morgan. Enjoying the music they created together, they decided to book some shows. They’ve since opened sets for the likes of Madness, Rancid, Floggin’ Molly, The Selecter and Ozomatli.
The band took its name from the 1960s British slang “aggro” which was a term used to describe the tough Reggae sound getting more and more popular in the UK. “The Aggrolites collective goal,” vocalist Jesse Wagner explains, “is to increase awareness of Reggae music–to show American’s especially that there’s a whole lot more to Jamaican music than Bob Marley, ganja and growing dreadlocks. We’d love to put it more on the map.”
With an old-school raw underproduced sound, The Aggrolites reflect their deep love for Roccksteady, SKA and Reggae through their music. The self titled album is dynamic–no songs sound the same, from songs ranging from pure fun, to serious tones on poverty.
I sat down to interview Brian Dixon, rhythm guitarist of The Aggrolites.
Interview by Roya Butler | roya@staff.truepunk.com | with Brian Dixon, rhythm guitarist of The Aggrolites.
How long have you been doing Aggro Reggae?
Brian: We’ve been together for about 4 years. We’re from Los Angeles, where there is a small army of SKA/Reggae musicians; so outside of the Aggrolites, we’ve been playing together in various bands for much longer.
What got you into that British style of reggae?
Brian: To be fair, we are into Reggae (Jamaican music); we also like SOME of the British Reggae that came out of the late 60’s. And actually, you could say that we appreciate the British record labels more. Not for putting out British Reggae, but Labels like TROJAN and PAMA Records re-released a lot of the great Jamaican stuff.
You did a lot at the show tonight, to hit your goal of increasing awareness of reggae music. How do you feel your fan base is growing due to your tour?
Brian: Our fanbase is definitely growing from this tour. It’s cool; we have a small worldwide fanbase of hardcore 60’s Reggae fans. Now we’re reaching people that never considered Reggae anything more than some wimpy, hippy music and we’re on a mission to show that the REAL reggae music is tough as nails!
How do you see your music metamorphasising within the next few years?
Brian: Better songwriting. I think we will also get more comfortable in the studio, which I’m really looking forward to.
What was it like to have Chris LaSalle and Tim Armstrong of Rancid put “Dirty Reggae” on the fourth volume of Give ‘Em the Boot compilation?
Brian: That was GREAT!!! Tim is a BIG reggae fan. He wanted to introduce a lot of people that might not have heard late 60’s Reggae, to our sound; really cool.
How is it like opening for and backing legendary bands? Is this enough to make you realize how much people appreciate your music?
Brian: Yeah, it’s funny because our biggest fans are musicians. This music is much more difficult to play than it looks. Musicians always seem to appreciate that the most.
I know you were saying something about opening for Rancid again… Is that coming up later on this tour?
Brian: Hopefully in the Fall. We’re just waiting to see what dates we get.
One of your fans in the audience compared you to The Clash… Who would you compare yourselves to?
Brian: The thing I liked most about the Clash, was that they did their own thing. There was no band like them before they came out and no band after. I like to think of ourselves in that light. Late 60’s reggae has really not been played in 35 years and it didn’t have quite the edge that I feel we give it.
Tell me about the organ fiasco you had last night.
Brian: On the last song, one of the tubes on the vintage organ we tour with went out, which knocks some of the notes out of tune. Most people think we’re crazy for hauling a full size console organ around, but NOTHING else sounds like it.
How is it touring with the Aquabats–their fanbase is pretty diehard–do you find their fans to be fans of yours as well, as your music is really progressive.
Brian: We can play in front of pretty much any crowd. Everyone can appreciate quality reggae, in my opinion. Our stuff is edgy, but it’s not abrasive. People young AND old can like it and for different reasons– Reggae is really deep music. It has longevity. It will outlast most bands music.
If you had a choice to tour with any band in the world, which would it be?
Brian: We’re less excited about touring WITH another band. We are more excited about being the backing band for some old school reggae singers. We’ve backed Prince Buster, Derrick Morgan and others. We’d like to back singers like U-Roy or maybe Leonard Dillon (The Ethiopians).
In your album, I noticed every song is different. Some are really fun and melodic and others take a more serious tone. Can you explain this further?
Brian: Great question! We play specifically Jamaican music from 1969 to 1972. Some people have asked if that limits our sound and creativity, but I think it helps us stretch out musically. The unique thing about this era of Jamaican music is that the musicians were experimenting heavily with trying to find a new sound. Tempos, “feel” and groove change from song to song and historically, Jamaican lyrics usually deal with what’s going on in the lyricist lives at that moment in their lives. THAT is our biggest influence. NOT trying to sound like and session band or specific song, but taking the approach of experimenting with different sounds from song to song.
On stage you as a band had so much energy that you could feel it rush into the audience and everyone was moving along to the beats. It was a pretty playful vibe in your songs and presentation and the audience appreciated it–do you intentionally bring that into your set, or is it just a flow from the music itself? Is it perhaps a little of both?
Brian: Both. It’s tough, groovy music. At rehearsals or in the studio, you’ll see us grooving to the music, too.
Tell me a little about how you formed the Aggrolites.
Brian: A promoter in Los Angeles called me in October 2001 to see if I knew of any bands that could back legendary Jamaican SKA/Reggae singer Derrick Morgan for a show. I wasn’t really playing with anyone at the time, so I said, “Let me put an all-star band together!” I called some of my favorite musicians in the L.A. scene to play. It was amazing! Derrick couldn’t believe how great the band sounded. 4 months later, Derrick called me to have the band write and record an album for him. I called the guys up and we did a whole album. The recording sessions went so great and were so much fun for everybody; I asked if the guys would want to do a show, just for fun. We did the show and it was amazing. The next day, another promoter who heard about the show called me up and asked us to do another show. We did and then word got out about the band, that wasn’t really a band, yet! After about 6 months of doing shows, we decided to officially become a band.
Tell me a bit more about working with Derrick Morgan.
Brian: Derrick is really cool. He’s in his mid 70’s now and he’s completely blind, but he’s sharp as a knife. He told us all kinds of stories about the old days of recording and living in Jamaica and about all the old musicians that we love.
Compare your previous record release Dirty Reggae with your new self titled album.
Brian: The first album was written, recorded and mixed in about 10 hours!!! It was recorded live and mostly improved in the studio. Our singer Jesse adlibbed many of the vocals! The new album was done in a similar fashion, but the songs were mostly written before we went in the studio.
How’s this tour been for you in general and what’s your favorite city you hit up on this tour and why?
Brian: The tour has been amazing! No favorite town to play in. Seriously, we’ve gotten a great response at every single show this tour. I did really enjoy Chicago, though. Not just for the show, but hanging out in the city afterwards with our friends from Deals Gone Bad. Also, every show has been great, just hanging out with the guys in The Aquabats and Whole Wheat Bread.
Tell me about Armstrong’s new solo.
Brian: 6 months ago, Tim Armstrong hired us to be his backing band on his new solo record, due out at the end of the year. It’s us playing our brand of “Dirty Reggae” over his songs, with him singing. It’s really good. Anything else?
Brian: Thanks for the interview!!!
There’s a new album in the pipeline for San Diego’s veteran punkers Agent Orange, the band’s first album proper in more than a decade. Founding frontman Mike Palm says the disc’s working title Full Blown Supercharged Punk Surf Grind ought to satisfy all queries.
Archival March 1997 interview by Steve Tauschke | steve@staff.truepunk.com | with Agent Orange’s Mike Palm.
You’ve obviously been a big fan of surf music for a long time?
“Yeah, my older brothers were really into it, in fact my cousin was in a band called the Original Surfaris. So the music has always been around and it’s a situation where you’re older brother’s record collection gets passed down - and a lot of that stuff was surf … I really like to go see local surf bands and when I’m elsewhere I like to dig up things whether they’re current or from another era. I’m interested in most instrumental surf-type stuff and part of that is because without lyrics it doesn’t cloud my mind as far as ideas go. So it’s easy for me to listen to instrumental music all the time. And I really like to catch opening bands, locals bands, ones who wouldn’t normally play too far outside their area.”
Back in the early 80s Agent Orange played shows with The Angry Samoans … what do you remember about them?
“It’s funny, pretty much any band you could name we’ve most likely played with. But those early punk days are realy a blur.”
The band hasn’t recorded since 1987…did you ever call it day at any point over the past 10 years?
“The band was always an ongoing thing. The gap there was really caused by our record label and in part by our management as well and it created a situation where we were not at liberty to record. What we did during that period ws, aside from trying to get out of our contract and move on with our recording career, we spent a lot of time playing live shows. So one of the things we tried to concentarte on during that time was retaining our audience which ultimately is the most important thing.
“It’s hard to go without releasing new records so we just played as many live shows as we could until the recording thing got settled. So the band actually never broke up …It’s been difficult though, I’ve gone through a couple of different sets of drummers and things but the most important thing is that the songs have held up really well and that the catalogue is still available. It sells well and people still like to hear the songs. Another thing, I really enjoy what I’m doing. When I get up on stage I’m having fun and that’s really what being in a band is all about. I mean what other reason would you go see a band?”
Do you view The Vandals and these sort of bands as your long-time peers?
“I mean when I see a band like the Vandals, it’s far cry from the Vandals with Stevo singing. Their only original member is Joe, who used to be the drummer and is now the bass player. He’s not the main songwriter. I was always the main songwriter/singer/guitarist.”
As someone who witnessed the first wave of west coast punk, how do you see its ressurection now?
“The main thing about it is, and most people don’t realise, that in the early days punk was feared by most of the mainsteam media and pretty much people in general and it was difficult for a punk band to get booked into a club or to get airplay on the radio or even get a review of any kind. And later on with the introduction of hardcore by some of the other bands, and I have to admit some were in Orange County in California, I think that introduced a violent aspect to it which really sucked a lot of the fun out of it and made things a lot more difficult. But as far as the punk style goes, I think it’s still viable today. Let’s face it, there’s not a whole lot you can do as far as, um, I mean (punk) really wasn’t as frightening as people thought it was and obviously it isn’t now that it’s the mainstream. The style still works, there’s still a lot of ways to shock as far as the punk style and I think that’s part of the fun of it.”
What did you make of L7’s early recording of your track Bloodstains?
“I’m always very interested to hear other people’s versions of the songs. I think it’s the ultimate compliment to be covered. I guess rock n’ roll in general has always been a cannabalistic artform which is fine but I feel that some of the new bands, er, let me put it this way, there’s a fine line between influence and plaigarism and for the most part music suffers when that line is crossed. Right now I think we could stand a little bit more orginality in as far as, to be specific, melodic punk rock goes. I don’t want to hear any music style formularised to death. And that’s the problem.’
Do you feel The Offspring crossed that line with Come Out And Play and its similarity to parts of Bloodstains? I mean what was your reaction when you first heard it?
“Well, it seemed pretty obvious to me the things they used for an influence but I think they were a little too obvious about it.”
The Offspring have claimed that the surf riff isn’t yours, that it’s an old surf standard used many times over the years.
“I think they used it sort of like a sample would be used in hip-hop, that’s how it sounded to me. I’ve heard some other things in their songs that are musically taken from other bands’ songs or whatever so I think they picked an appropriate name when they chose The Offspring.”
Anti-Flag was originally formed in Pittsburgh in 1988. The band name originates from the experiences that the founders had in their hometown. When the two would go to local hardcore shows, they often saw patrons of the shows chanting slogans for “freedom not fascism” while waving the American Flag and sporting the flag on their jackets. However, these same patrons would constantly participate in violence against those who did not completely agree with their point of view. Justin and Pat saw the brandishing of the American Flag and using it as a tool against others as a form of fascism.
Hello Chris! How are things going with you, your band, and record label in 2006?
Everything is fantastic. We have a new Anti-Flag record coming out in 3 weeks and a tour starting in 2. A-F Records is doing the vinyl of “For Blood and Empire” and we are working on a bunch of new releases for 2006… it’ll be a busy year.
I have no idea if you remember me, but I am the guy who interviewed you in Milan, Italy, back in 2002 or so, during the Millencolin / Anti-Flag / Donots tour. So, a lot of things have changed since that time. How did you decide to leave Fat Wreck Chords and join major label RCA?
Not too much has changed, aside from a new record label we are operating in pretty much the exact way we were back when we met in 2002. The RCA agreement was a lengthy process that happened at the end of the writing of “For Blood and Empire.” Basically, major labels have been showing interest in releasing Anti-Flag records since “A New Kind of Army” was about to be released. To each we said the same thing, there will be no discussion between Anti-Flag and their label until a guarantee of complete control over each aspect involved in producing and promoting an Anti-Flag record is ours and in writing. RCA gave us that and out of the companies who we spoke to they seem like the right people to help us achieve the next natural step. We will see if this holds true in the coming months.
noticed that on your new album “For Blood And Empire”, you haven’t been influenced by the fact that you were on a major label: I mean, some punk bands change, but you’re still 100% Anti-Flag! So, was it difficult to work on your own or did you have to convince some big boss you were doing something you wanted?
No, we had the ability to do whatever we want based on our agreement with them. Also, they knew who they were signing, I mean, they signed us because we are 100% Anti-Flag, they don’t want to change that.
On your new songs, I had the idea you sing more about American related things. While on “The Terror State” and “Underground Network” you used to deal with global issues and world problems, now you’re more specifically pointing your attention towards the United States. Well, the policies that are conceived in the United States have impact around the world and that is the real issue we are trying to discuss on “For Blood and Empire.” I also feel like we are a more globally concerned band now then ever before.
Musically, you added a lot of new elements on the new tunes, as horns on “Hymn For The Dead” and acoustic guitars and strings on “One Trillion Dollars”. Why did you decide to experiment on more new things?
We are always trying to push ourselves musically, trying to make a better record not only ideologically but musically as well.
From the point of view of the production, did you all do by yourselves this time? I know you worked with Tom Morello, who produced your previous album “The Terror State”, but he only played guitar on “Depleted Uranium Is A War Crime”.
Tom was involved every step of the way, we worked with a co-producer named Dave Schiffman. He is an amazing engineer; he was able to give us any sound we wanted. I think this record is sonically better than any record we’ve made. Dave is responsible for that.
At the bottom of every lyrics you put comments, articles from web sites or newspapers or books, and direct links to web sites to know more about the specific things you sing about: do you really hope the average teenager who buys your album will check out things?
Yeah I think they do. I know I did when I was reading the liner notes to the Dead Kennedy’s records, and other albums that offered more than just their lyrics as information. So yeah, and based on the e-mails I get and discussions at shows, people read them and decide where they stand on those particular issues once they’re informed.
You shot a video for the first single “The Press Corpse”: I saw the
first shoots online and I think the video is going to kick some ass. Can you tell us what the song is all about and what you wanted to say in the video?
The song is about the press worldwide and specifically the cluster fuck in the United States and how the lead up to the Iraq war was handled. Supposed leftist media was beating the war drum all the way into Iraq, not questioning the U.S. and U.K. administrations. With the video we’re showing examples of how and why people should find the voice that they wish to share with the world, showing people and the visions that inspire them to take action on particular issues.
How does it feel to be seen as a punk rock rebel and share the same record label of Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson and Christina Aguilera? I know this is really a stupid question, but some people are really close-minded about that.
In the end I’m more than happy to spend the money generated by those people on Anti-Flag and the music’s messages.
Speaking of your own record label A-F Records, what are your most recent projects with that? Any interesting bands you’re working on? I heard that Much The Same and New Mexican Disaster Squad left the label.
A few of the bands have moved on to bigger labels. NMDS is now on Jade Tree, Much The Same on Nitro, but we never expected to have bands be a part of the label forever. We are releasing the picture disc LP of the new Anti-Flag record, there’s a new Intro5pect record coming, The Code are finishing up writing, Darkest Hour is reissuing a record on A-F…a ton of awesome records are in the works!
What are your future projects? I know on March 12, 2006 you start a
tour. Where and with whom? Any plans to come to Europe?
In the US we will be out with The Casualties, The Unseen, Smoke or Fire, and The AKA’s. In Europe we’ll be touring with The Unseen, A Wilhelm Scream, Red Lights Flash, and The Down and Outs. Then we are
doing all of this year’s Warped Tour.
Oh, one more last thing, there is a girl in Italy named Vise, who wants to hang out with you. Next time you come to Italy, know she is waiting for you.
I’ll look out for her!
Avail’s throaty singer and damn nice guy Tim Barry is almost beside him with excitement. It’s just been announced that his long-standing Virginia quintet have been hand-picked by punk vets Bad Brains as supports at CBGBs as part of the legendary New York venue’s final round of shows before closing its doors.
Interview by Steve Tauschke with singer Tim Barry of Avail.
“Bad Brains, as far as punk goes are as influential on me as the Clash is and to be able to play with them, phew, I’m kind of speechless over the whole thing,” gasps Barry over the phone. “My intent is just to play our hearts out, get off that stage, crack open a cold beer and go up front and sing my f*&kin’ heart out to every Bad Brains song. And I think these are the last three shows at CBGBs and there are rumours that it’s going to be burned down after the last one.”
Speaking of memorable shows, last time I saw you guys was with Lagwagon in 1998?
“Yeah, for us it’s all about the money and never havin’ any. When I say money I don’t mean profit potential because I don’t really give a f*&k about that.”
So the pure joy of playing has helped keep you guys going all these years?
“I think we’ve never wanted anything to do with the MTV game and it’s not because of punk politics, it’s just where we come from and the type of people we are. We just work jobs, I’m a stage hand, Ed’s a painter and Joe’s a carpenter and Gwomper’s a truck driver and Beau’s a bartender. So the music is just based on the realities of our daily lives. It’s our expression.”
You’ve moved over to the Jade Tree label .. what happened with Lookout?
“It’s such a long story and maybe not too exciting because it revolves mainly around business. But in a nutshell we were with Lookout for the entire time but we left
‘because we weren’t being paid royalties. It’s unfortunate to say but we had to abandoned it after five years of saying ‘where the f*&k’s our money?’. We received quarterly royalty cheques from them and that money is put into a band pool, a bank account that provides health insurance for each band member, their children and their spouses. And every quarter our royalties weren’t coming in and we would say ‘hey, we need this money because it’s for our health insurance’ and they’d be like ‘oh, it’ll be in in a couple of months’ and eventually we had to start putting our health insurance on credit cards to the point where we got $18,000 in debt. It got the point where we thought ‘this aint workin’ no more! So we pulled all the records because of non-payment and I called up Jade Tree Records and they were glad to put them out and did a wonderful job.”
So did Lookout pay you in the end?
“No.”
Avail and Lookout seemed so like-minded.
“Yeah, it’s unfortunate but that shit just happens. Lookout are still great friends and I don’t mean to say any of what I just said as a slander because they are good folks and they took care of us for a number of years.”
I believe the band is trying to piece together a new album while on the road?
‘”Well, we had all the songs done and we had time booked in Fort Collins Colorado with Bill Stevenson (Descendents, ALL) early last year and about two months before that we had a meeting. I held up the list of songs and asked the guys if they liked these songs and there were only two songs that everybody backed. So we cancelled the recording session and dropped the entire set of songs except two and started from scratch. We decided not put this record out until everybody likes the songs.”
Will you go back in with Bill Stevenson when they’re ready?
“If we have it our way, yeah. But he’s a busy motherfucker, he’s doing a lot of bands over there. But as far as producers and engineers in this country I think he’s the absolute best so when we do another record I don’t want to have it any other way. I want to go with him.”
What about your own record .. I hear you have a solo album out?
“I have a demo that I made that turned into an accident. It’s the same three chords as any punk band basically but it’s folk-style music and I made this demo. My sister plays fiddle and my buddy Josh plays dobro and we all just get together and play music. But I put out this demo and it just kind of took off. I didn’t expect to make it for anyone more than friends and family but it kind of jumped without me anticipating it.
“It just got picked up by a record label out in Colorado and just recoded my first album with them and that will come out in late November. It’s a lot of fun, I get to play like house shows and basements and dive bars with my sister and friends and make folk music really rebellious again. I love playing these shows in shitty little bars where people are breaking bottles and fist fighting and singing along. It’s almost like a punk show.”",”http://www.truepunk.com/interviews/AVAIL_2″,2008-01-20 00:00:00,”TEXT”,”Avail is a punk rock/hardcore punk band from Richmond, Virginia. Originally from Northern Virginia, the band formed 1987, comprised of Joe Banks, Doug Crosby, Brian Stewart and Mikey Warstler. The only original remaining member, guita
Displaying the light and shade of a folk-punk marriage, American quartet Against Me can expect to be on the road for the next eight months promoting last year’s album Searching For A Former Clarity. Truepunk caught up with frontman Tom Gabel.
“Power doesn’t necessarily mean loud volume,” declares Tom Gabel, nucleus of long-running Floridian hardcore outfit Against Me, as he waxes lyrical on the lasting contribution of the acoustic guitar to popular music.
“I’ve heard it been said before that you can tell a song is a good song if it can be played just on an acoustic guitar,” he adds. “If it stands alone it’s still a good song.”
Singer-songwriter Gabel started out as an unplugged 17-year-old busker on the streets of Gainesville in 1997 and with the aid of musician friends performed rough-edged anti-establishment protest songs mirroring the sentiments espoused by the UK’s 80s peace- punk movement.
“We were really into Crass and the Apostles, bands that were almost like borderline hippie punk,” says Gabel, still an active anarchist. “We’d be wearing sandals and we’d have dreadlocks and people were like ‘what is going on here?’.”
The band’s genesis was “unorthodox” to say the least; essentially Gabel on acoustic guitar and 8-track recorder - a Christmas gift from his mother - with original drummer Kevin “banging on some buckets and makeshift drum pieces” - hardly a crowd-pulling act in hardcore-drenched late 90s Florida.
“We didn’t really have anyone around us to take our cues from so it was really just up to us what we wanted to be doing,” says Gabel. “There’s a certain amount of freedom in that, when no-one likes what you’re doing and no-one has any expectations.
There really was no intent or purpose when I started out. I was playing in another couple of bands at time and I was not really into what we were doing. So I pulled out an 8-track recorder and I started messing around with it and made a little demo tape of a couple of songs and gave copies to some friends and it just kept snowballing from there.
We definitely had the attitude when we first started out of ‘fuck it, let’s just see what happens and we’ll do this by any means necessary and we’ll make do with whatever instruments we can find and we’ll play where ever people will let us play’. And it just gradually got stranger and stranger and more and more people took interest and here we are today.”
After several line up changes and countless tours, Gabel did the Dylan-esque unthinkable - he turned electric, and just in time for the band’s 2001 debut album Reinventing Axl Rose.
“We pretty much did everything we could do as a two piece,” he says, “so we thought we should add a bass player and eventually people did start coming around to what we were doing. Acoustic instruments are quite temperamental and once you start playing larger venues and using amps you start having weird feedback issues so gradually we started to switch over the playing more electric while still doing some acoustic stuff.”
Against Me’s most recent album Searching For Former Clarity, produced by former ex-Government Issue/Jawbox member Jay Robbins, is a measured pairing of hardcore gusto and neo-folk acoustics that retains Gabel’s anarcho-punk-roots.
“I was raised in an army family and spent the majority of my childhood on military bases,” he confides. “I had a very unfortunate experience when I was very young. I got beat up by the cops and arrested which definitely made me think ‘wait a second, what’s going on here, maybe we aren’t all that free’.
“What anarchy means to me is that mankind has the ability to govern itself and all power and control of governments is an illusion and you recognise that based on fear of force and fear of violence. Unfortunately you have to pick and choose your battles - we live in dark ages.”
So does the album title allude to those sentiments?
“The meaning for me is feeling like maybe in one period of time you had things figured out and now you don’t necessarily have them figured - and so you’re trying to get back to that place. I was talking about the new Propagandhi record with a friend of mine recently and it’s a great record but we were talking about the differences between their newer stuff and their older stuff and I think they sound a lot more unsure than they used to.
We thought that just comes with growing older, how when you get older all those things that seemed so definite and concrete when you were like 17, 18, 19 years old they become less and less concrete and you become unsure. I don’t think that necessarily has to be a bad thing, like being jaded. I think you can grow older and realise that maybe you just don’t have it all figured out, that things in the world aren’t that black and white and aren’t that easy to categorize
On the eve of the mid-90s neo-punk expolosion, NOFX’s Pied Piper-like leader Fat Mike, already a ten year veteran of the San Francisco Bay Area scene, offered his own prerequisite on attaining punkdom’s esteemed high office.
INTERVIEW WITH NOFX By Steve Tauschke
“There can’t be any rock stars in the band,” he cautioned me during a break on a Punk In Drublic tour in Europe back in 1994. “Punk rockers are shit, they’re not very good musicians typically and it doesn’t take much to play guitar – or to yell. It’s like, fuckin’ easy! Anyone can learn bass guitar in about half an hour. Actually I taught my 78-year-old grandmother how to play a song on bass.”While Mike’s beloved grandma has since passed on - “she’d probably be pretty good by now if she hadn’t died ten years ago!” - NOFX are still dishing out albums that, in a Mad comic kind of way, depict the lighter side of punk rock and its trappings.
The quartet’s new album Wolves In Wolves’ Clothing tackles everything from drinking songs to the more serious matter of America’s flawed foreign policy, as illustrated in the ship-headed-for-the-iceberg analogy of USA-Holes.
“Yeah, it’s funny how many kids say ‘why are you singing about the Titanic?’,” laughs Mike. “God, fuckin’ stupid kids! It’s a pretty easy metaphor for America and there’s no escaping this either. I just think this country is on its way down, maybe we won’t be wiped off the face of the earth but we’re just going to turn into a country like South Africa where urban places are super dangerous, the economy sucks and everything will slowly turn into chaos. “Cities such as Detroit are fucked, you just don’t want to go there. Or Pittsburgh, which used to have 3 million people and now it has 300,000. There’s just empty house upon empty house and if you live in a city with no work, it’s just turned into a crime-ridden city and so people leave. Cities like Phoenix won’t last either because people are not supposed to live in that kind of heat. I think people will flood towards the west coast in the future. I read a report that said the cities that will survive are coastal towns that have decent temperatures.”
Notably, Fat Mike, born Mike Burkett, was instrumental in releasing on his own Fat Wreck Chords label the War On Errorism album in 2003 followed by two instalments of Rock Against Bush, leftist politico-punkcompilations that in the build up to local elections re-jigged the ‘wake up America’ template of the Reagan-era Dead Kennedys two decades earlier. Back then, Mike was a teenage misfit with punk rock aspirations. He spawned NOFX in 1983.
“If you wanted to put out a record in 1984 or ‘85 there were maybe only 5 or 6 labels in the US; SST, Discord, Mystic and a few others,” he says of the group’s long-held DIY ethos. “You had to put out your own stuff if you wanted a record out and that’s what most bands that we knew did, they just put out their records and then later more labels popped up. I always thought going to a major would be the wrong career move for us. Now we’re even more DIY than before because we put out own records – we’re not even on Epitaph – and we book our own tours and pretty much do everything ourselves. “It works for us but I don’t give that advice to bands now, because it’s too hard. They say ‘oh, I want to do everything myself’ but you can’t anymore. You try booking your own tour and the clubs are not going to book you. The only reason we can do it is because we have a history. You might get popular on myspace but you’re not going to know what to do with that. You need to get an experienced booking agent and some kind of experienced record label if you want a career out of touring the world and surviving on playing music. It’s pretty hard to do yourself if you’re just starting now.”
Ask Mike for his thoughts on the myspace phenomenon and his tone turns to indifference.
“There’s kind of some good and bad things about it,” he shrugs. “For me, the whole downloading of music is bad for my record label but it’s kind of good for new bands. I’m not really one to bitch about it because that’s just how it goes. I used to tape records for my friends when I was a kid but there’s just so many bands to choose from now, it’s just really hard to find new bands – they’re so much mediocrity out there.”
“Anyone with a Pro Tools rig and a computer can get a CD out to thousands of people. It used to be that if you were good somebody would sign you and pay for you to go into the studio and then distribute your record. Now anyone can do it and maybe that’s good or maybe that’s bad, I’m kind on the fence either way. All I know is there’s more fuckin’ mediocre bands now than I’ve ever seen before. When Epitaph signed their first bands from ‘89 they were pretty good bands; NOFX, Pennywise, Rancid, the Offspring and Bad Religion; they all made an impact in the punk world.”
Despite citing Against Me, Arctic Monkeys and the “new Chemical Romance record” as recent musical highlights, Mike does concede his enthusiasm has waned considerably over the years.
“I think I’ve got 10% of the enthusiasm I used to have,” says the 39-year-old father-of-one. “One thing though, when I find a band I really like, it does make me really happy. There’s this band called The Spits, I don’t know if you’ve head them, I heard one of their records and it totally gave me faith in music again. Once in a while you see that but mostly it’s just fuckin’ depressing.”
Currently plotting a world tour of locations as yet untouched by NOFX, Mike says 2007’s road trip adventures will be documented, bloopers included, on a DVD package hopefully later this year .
“The third world crowds are the hungriest and it’s where all the craziest shit happens. They don’t have a lot of experience staging shows and so you never know what’s going to happen. We’ve already got permission to play Beijing and Taiwan and we’re going to Russia and Israel and South Africa and hopefully all over South East Asia. And we’re playing Tasmania, we’ve never been there before!”
The band that put Californian pop-punk on the map, Descendents return after a 10-year absence with a new album, Everything Sucks. From his suburban home in Wisconsin, vocalist Milo Aukerman speaks with True Punk.
Archival September 1997 Interview by Steve Tauschke | steve@staff.truepunk.com | with Descendents’ Milo Auckerman.
Hey Milo, have you really been away at college all this time, since Descendents broke up in 1987?
I’ve been doing biological research on plants. That’s what I do, I do genetics on plants. But I stayed loosely associated with the ALL guys through that period. I did backing vocals on their Breaking Things record and they’ve always sent me demos of their stuff so I could give them input on the music.
So I’ve been in science for the past ten years but I’ve kept in touch, especially with Bill (Stevenson - drummer), he’s been my best friend for many years. But yeah, I got my PhD in 1992 so I guess if you include undergraduate work and graduate work, it took me nine years.
Aside from contact with the ALL guys, did you have any association with music during that period?
I was actually in a band for a year and a half called Milestone in 1989. It was just a band that was more of a hobby that I did during graduate school for a short time. Other than that, it’s just been the Descendents all along.
I guess the reformation album didn’t take much prompting?
Yeah, it came about basically because I started writing music again in January or February and I called up Bill and asked if he wanted to help me with some of the songs and if he wanted to record some of them. And it just turned into a fully-fledged record over the course of a couple of weeks of working on the songs. So, mainly I got back into writing music because I needed an outlet for my frustrations, and music has always been my favourite outlet.
It’s nice to see the band has retained its Thou Shalt Not Commit Adulthood maxim on the album?
Kind of one of the reasons I got back into this was because I was living a very adult life in science and I was missing a lot of the more youthful, fun stuff that we used to do when I was in the band. Music always keeps you young no matter how old you are and we’re still not committing adulthood. Ha! Part of me doing this music again is my way of re-discovering the joy of it and the fun of it.
You get to be nerds too!
Exactly! I feel like I have a personal kind of mission to celebrate nerd-dom, basically. I mean obviously I spent the last ten years being a nerd and now I’m returning from nerd-dom and trying to convert others to the faith, ha ha. I’ve been a nerd since high school and it’s something I cannot escape, something I cannot deny in myself. So I just want other people to see how great it is, ha ha!
It’s certainly great to hear a new Descendents record … will this just be a one-off album?
No, I still have a bunch of new songs that I’ve written and if all goes well in the next year we should be able to record another record. I can’t guarantee it at this point but I would say that I think it’s very likely that more stuff would come out. I’ve done the science thing for many years now but over the next year I would like to focus more on music because I’m having so much fun doing it right now. I’ve been enjoying writing songs that, in the past, is something I was never prolific at. I’m now pounding out song after song and it’s fun!
Their new “S/t” album came out not too long ago on Fearless Records. The third album from this Florida hardcore band signs a progression for this kids: they let the old singer go a but they keep on trying to mix melody and hardcore all together. This interview is what came out after a talk to Anthony, bass player for Glasseater, who talks about the band and their new record.
Julio from Glasseater is on the photos section of truepunk.com, showing off his tats on his webcam.
Interview by Carlo Gironi | carlo@staff.truepunk.com | with Anthony . Hi ! How are you doing?
Hey I’m good and urself?Hopefully good
Can you introduce yourself and say what you play in Glasseater ?
I’m Anthony and I play bass in Glasseater.
Even tough you already released three albums, Glasseater is a quite new band - would you tell us a story of how you got together and stuff ?
We started off in 1998 as friends that all were in the hardcore scene.. it started off with Jc and Julio and it was first sort of a prog rock band. They asked Ariel to play guitar also who was also in a old school band with Julio at the time called Destro. Then Jason tried out for the singing position. Him and I were in another band called Set Apart…so then thats how I was asked to be in the band..anyhow 3 or 4 years down the line Jason parted ways with us and Julio moved from drums to vocals and after a bunch of searching, we found dave our current drummer and thats our current lineup.
After an album on Ides of March Records and another one of Eulogy if I don’t go wrong, you signed with Fearless. How did you feel it was time for a new label and why ?
Well we had already been on Eulogy for about a year and Fearless got in contact with us and it was an opportunity to open up our music to a bigger crowd so we went with Fearless and are still with them .
Your previous records, “Miles Ahead of Where We Left Off” and “7 Years Bad Luck” were a bit different than the new “S/t” album. Is there some reason why you started to play more melodic, almost pop punk tunes, rather than the old hardcore inspired songs?
Nah, musically it’s the same…the only thing, the self titled album was released after almost 2 years of nothing so we progressed a bunch musically, still keeping it melodic and still with our hard edged sound..and of course its going to sound different since Julio is singing on it.. he has a great voice so theres more singing in the new album but theres also the screaming that weve always had.
How would you describe your music, both musically and lyrically ?
Musically I’d say post hardcore with punk influences…really melodic, heavy and very catchy..lyrically its about friends, our daily lives, and the things weve been doing for 4 years.<
I know that your old singer Jason went away from the band, and now your drummer Julio takes care of the vocals - are you still in good releationships with the old singer ? Do you think you can do it without him ?
Yea totally, we always talk to Jason. hes doing really good and actually started a side project thats realy good..but yea, we’ve managed without him. At first it was tough on tour but julio managed to make a great frontman .
Did Jason also sang on the new album ? Because there are some parts ( ie “screams”) that remind me of the old vocalist - did Jason sing some part for the new record ?
Nah all the vocals on the new record are all Julio. singing and screaming
Fearless Records told me you’re busy on tour right now. How is it going and where and with whom are you playing ? Are you having fun ?
We’re home now. We just got home today, it was with Rx Bandits and Lost City Angels..both bands awesome guys and musicians.. we all had a good time hanging out.it was out west and we love it there..we had an awesome time..it sux that it came to an end so fast though cuz we became good friends with those guys.
Is there some fun thing you would like to share with you fans reading this interview ?
Haha well just on this tour we did, our trailor broke down and we had to buy a new one last minute and we got a 6×12…its huge! but its awesome were all really happy with it..although we’re in debt and came back broke after the tour, its all good…and also in Kansas while we were in a rest stop, Julio got out of the van to pee on behind the van, and right before he got to pee, a state trooper saw him and got pissed, screamed at him saying that he was peeing when he didnt even start to pee and Julio told him he wasn’t peeing and the cop got pissed and decided to be a jerk and arrest him ..so we ended up spenging the whole afternoon waiting for him to get out…and while he was in jail people were asking him what he was in for..and he was afraid to say for attempting to pee cuz he thought hed get beat up, so he told prisoners he robbed someone..haha…thats it.
Is there a chance you will also come touring in Europe ?
Yea we’re going to Europe in april.
I saw some pics of you live and I saw some of you had a “X” on their hands - are you sraightedge or some sort ? What do you think of straightedge ?
Everyone in the band is sxe except for me..we all get along fine.. I respect their views and they respect mine..we all have different religious beliefs, lifestyles and etc but it doesnt interfere with what we love to do.
You come from Florida, and a lot of punk hardcore bands come from there - do you think there is a good music scene ? Are there any bands you are very friends with and that you like more?
Yea the scene here is awesome..its definitely grown through the years which is awesome..we grew up playing with bands like New Found Glory, Poison the Well, Further Seems Forever, As Friends Rust, Until the End, Remembering Never, Dashboard Confessional, Destro..etc..a bunch of great bands come from Fl.
What do you consider the influences of Glasseater musically? Do you have bands you like or take inspirations from ?
Definitely Dream Theater, we listen to a bunch of music…Dave and Ariel listen to a lot of indie, Jc grew up being a metal head and playing jazz, so did Julio, ariel listens to a lot of punk, so we all have influences coming from everywhere..
What’s in your cd player right now? Is there some albums you always pick up while on tour because you can’t live without listening to it ?
I love the new Glassjaw, the new Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Sonata Artica, Midtown, and that new Sum41 song is awesome.
Final comments ? Keep a lookout for us. You can check out www.glasseater.com
Favorites
Digg
Del.icio.us
Furl
Magnolia
StumbleUpon
Google
Yahoo MyWeb
