I will admit I guess I don’t really know what power-violence is. Sometimes I think a band plays chaotic crust and I’ll be corrected and told they are power-violence. Other times I think a band plays grind and again I am corrected and told they are power-violence. My brother is telling me because of the time changes and slow parts its power-violence.
Who gives a fuck if it kicks ass…Isnt that what really counts? To me these dudes sound like an insane mix of NEUROSIS, WATCH THEM DIE and NAPALM DEATH. I think they are a crusty, grind band that kicks major booty. They go in for the strike and get the job done. None of this over the top, forever-building-over-dramatic-epic-post-hardcore-crust stuff I seem to be hearing so much of these days. They are like a hit squad being sent into the jungles of Honduras to sneak up (the slow parts) and make the bloody fucking kill (the un-slow parts). Word bitch!
The production is as thick as John Goodman’s left thigh. Thick and fucking meaty. Kinda of smelly even… There’s a nice crusty fuzz to it and it sounds so warm. Ahhhh, the wonders of vinyl. With that, although the music is grade A brutal it is easy on the ears.
Badass record. Just one of those records that you just keep flipping over and over because it rages so fricken’ hard. Excellent. (JoshMosh)
This was a really fun interview I did with the dudes in EARLY GRAVES. Sure there was somewhat of an interview prepared but really we just got down to talking about tunes. I mean we got way down, I had to edit out some shit or this would have been double the length and would have just really been us talking about what band we like and stoking each other out on old thrash metal tunes.
Anyway…these are solid dudes, they are rooted in the Bay Area and they play dark, metallic hardcore. Word. (JoshMosh)
ThrashPunx: Today is March 20th, the first day of spring and we’re talking to EARLY GRAVES outside the Blast O Mat. Who do we have?
Chris: This is Chris. I play guitar.
Tyler: Guitar.
Dan: Drums.
Matt: bass.
ThrashPunx: We were just talking a little while ago, you said you were in Texas I think…
Chris: Yeah, we’ve been at the SXSW Fest. It’s kind of a shit show but a lot of fun.
ThrashPunx: Did you play there?
Chris: Yeah, we had 5 shows there in a couple of days. So it was pretty cool. It was a lot of fun. The shows were ok, some were a little weird because they lump weird bands together. But some were awesome. Got to play with CLINGING TO THE TREES OF A FOREST FIRE and some other shit. Last night we were in Amarillo and we ended up having a day off and we just chilled in the hotel room.
ThrashPunx: I’ve been to Chaos in Tejas, but never SXSW. You get all kinds of different bands there right?
Matt: Everything under the sun. Everything that we don’t like.
ThrashPunx: Was there anyone that you were excited to see or anyone that really stood out to you?
All: RINGWORM!
Chris: We did a show at SXSW with RINGWORM and then we played the next night in Fort Worth with RINGWORM. And they were awesome! KILL THE CLIENT…They were great! MUTILATION RITES was great, CTTTOAFF was great.
Matt: We played some shows with CANCER BATS and they are probably like the nicest people in music right now. Total fucking sweethearts, really nice guys.
Chris: We bumped into some of our friends from back home, DEAFHEAVEN they were hanging out ya’ know…It was fun.
ThrashPunx: At SXSW there are so many bands, big bands, small bands…Don’t like Hollywood people go there?
Chris: Anthony Bordain was there. I’m sure there is all kinds of that shit going on there. Snoop Dog was there. I am sure there is all kinds of that shit going on, but truthfully for us because we were doing 2 shows a day…you can’t park anywhere near your venue so it’s pretty much just a shit show all day long. We spent most of the day loading and unloading. We parked in a parking garage that was like 10 stories tall and brought it down in the elevator.
Matt: A lot of nice looking women that didn’t want to talk to us were there…
ThrashPunx: Lets get a little bit of history on the band…Were you all in APIARY?
Chris: None of us started that band, we didn’t play on the album. Just as dudes from that band got kicked out or quit we ended up taking their spots. We were only in the band like 6 months before no original members were left. The replacement singer for the band was Mac who was the singer in EARLY GRAVES and I and Dan and we just said “fuck it we’re just gonna start a new band”. And that’s what we did. We toured with those dudes for a while. We had written a new album that was different. Most of the dude that were in that band are still good friends of mine. Some of them, not all of them. Fuck one of ‘em!
ThrashPunx: From what I can tell is with the different styles of music APIARY was entrenched in probably a different type of scene than what you guys doing today with more crust bands, grind bands, hardcore punk…What would you say are the difference between those scenes and how did you adapt from one to the other?
Chris: When we were touring with APIARY…I was in that band the longest out of everyone that is in EARLY GRAVES and what I would say for the most part is that this is cool and that shit sucked basically. The people were rotten, everybody thought that were going to be fucking rock stars. This was like in 2006 when we played with that band…So metal-core was at it’s apex and on it’s way down even. So everybody thought that they deserved to be on Ozzfest and all these stupid fucking tours. When I joined the band the dude that I replaced was kind of like the guy that did everything for the band, so when I joined I kind of took that role over I met some good dudes like Ethan and the guys from GAZA. It was fun but totally different and not what we do.
ThrashPunx: It sounds like you guys are a lot happier and have your own identity now.
Chris: totally…The first EARLY GRAVES record came out after APIARY dissolved and we wrote that record, it was totally different than that whole thing was. There was a little bit of a transition because people thought “Oh EARLY GRAVES is just like this ex-metal-core band” and for intents and purposes, yeah, we played in that so I’ll wear that shit hamburger every day. The fact is that is not what the members of EARLY GRAVES was trying to do, we didn’t write any of that shit.
ThrashPunx: I hear a lot of different influences in your music. How would you describe your sound?
Chris: Someone described it really well in this write up for a show we were going to play…”Swedish Death Metal mixed with American Hardcore”…And American Hardcore and punk I would say. If you asked everyone in the band it would probably be different.
Matt: Like the one common thing that we have is we all like really aggressive music but we all like all kinds of stuff. Some of us more into punk and rock ‘n roll, some of us are into hardcore, some are more into metal. So you hear all those things. You hear a lot of metal, like super metal guitars and then like the rhythm section is more into punk and rock n’ roll.
ThrashPunx: My brother was asking me the other day what you sounded like and I said kind of metal, a little more like TRAGEDY but with Chuck Billy singing.
Chris: Oh yeah, mac totally sounded like Chuck Billy. On our records we have a different singer than we do now. We are from the Bay Area, most of us…But Chuck Billy, on those mid 90’s records, even the Gathering he had that…he was doing the more deathy stuff. I grew up with thrash and when we talk about the metal influences that’s definitely a lot of my fault. If you ask me we’re a fucking death metal band! But we’re not, I know that…I think where we are all cross is our love for TRAGEDY and certain grind bands. That’s kind of like where the middle ground is. Somewhere in the American hardcore and punk, the d-beat thing, that’s where we all kind of mix together.
Matt: SLAYER. The first four METALLICA records. A lot of people like to reach further into more obscure shit, but we listen to Ride the Lightening pretty regularly.
Chris: We toured with this band THE SECRET from Italy, they are a pretty comparable band to us I would say. We shared a van and out on just what we would normally listen to and they were like “you guys listen to a lot of METALLICA”.
ThrashPunx: Some of my younger friends that are in to the Thrash resurgence thing they try to dig up these old obscure bands from the 80’s…I am like “when I was a kid that band sucked, I don’t want to listen to them now!” There was a reason some of these bands were obscure! There were so many thrash bands at one point and there was a reason SLAYER made it, METALLICA made it, MEGADETH made it…
Matt: We’ve had this conversation many times. A lot of times we end up being put up in these houses by like nice kids, but they’re like in their early 20’s, of the internet age, and their like into great bands but I am like “Master of Puppets”.
ThrashPunx: My buddy Joe is into RAZOR…RAZOR?
Chris: I saw a couple of dudes at SXSW wearing RAZOR shirts and they were new, probably got them on Ebay and I’m like “Motherfucker, you don’t like RAZOR…ok? Quit lying to yourself!” Like people that wear NIHILIST patches…”No, you like ENTOMBED!” It’s just a weird thing, the Big 4 are thrash metal. Those are the ones. I don’t even like MEGADETH all that much but lets be real here…
ThrashPunx: Well even the second tier…OVERKILL, TESTAMENT, EXODUS, maybe even NUCLEAR ASSAULT and some other bands but beyond that…
Matt: I get down with ANTHRAX. I think I’m the only EG member that gets into ANTHRAX.
Chris: It because you are from the East Coast originally.
ThrashPunx: Are most of you from the Bay Are?
Matt: We’re all transients. I’m from Massachusetts, John is from LA, Dan is from Santa Barbara, we from all over. We represent San Francisco.
ThrashPunx: What were some of the earliest heavy bands you got into whether they were punk or metal.
Someone: My older brother gave me a tape of MINOR THREAT and NIRVANA, if that counts.
Matt: When I was like 12 I was hanging with the older bad kids huffing glue in dumpsters and they made me a mixed tape and it was like something retarded like PANTERA, FUGAZI, OPERATION IVY, and then like one local hardcore band. Then I found where the shows were and just never looked back really.
ThrashPunx: Where was the point, where you just drew the line and said this is how my life is going to be now?
Matt: I think it’s the common story like you don’t belong in school, so already you are on like some weird ill path. I discovered punk and hardcore when I was 12 and fell into love with it. Started going to all ages hardcore shows in Massachusetts and I just loved it. It was accessible too. There was no huge fashion thing. When I was going to shows in the 90’s dude were going in there that just looked like kids. I’m from Western Mass so I went to shows in Springfield and Holyoke. There were a lot of really good Western Mass hardcore bands. AFTERSHOCK went on to become SHADOWS FALL. Before they were SHADOWS FALL they were this band AFTERSHOCK that was fucking dope. And OVERCAST, the singer was in OVERCAST.
ThrashPunx: So when you are not out on the big rock n roll tour what do you do for a living?
Matt: Carpenter…
Someone: Recording studio, days jobs…
Chris: Whatever will keep us employed.
Matt: Whoever is going to put up with our shit.
ThrashPunx: How often are you able to get out?
Chris: We used to tour a lot, then when Mac died we didn’t tour for entire year. And then John joined the band and we only did a little jaunt in December, we did just a few shows. Then after that, this is our first real tour being a band again. We’ve been writing a record, it was just very difficult to tour and do anything. We didn’t have a singer for a very long time. John and I have another band called the FUNERAL PYRE and I was out with them for a while.
ThrashPunx: What are some of the guilty pleasures as far as tunes when you are travelling in the van. The stuff you don’t like to admit to.
Someone: Morrissey
Chris: I constantly blast METALLICA and SLAYER.
Matt: When Chris is driving you hear Death Metal and Gangster Rap!
So Scott Kelly of NEUROSIS recently did a small tour spanning three east coast states and he did so in a Scion. You can read about here. I guess they loan cars to touring musicians or some shit. A cool move on the car manufacturers part or corporate sponsorship? Is Scott Kelly a spokesperson for a car company now? Is this just weird? APPALACHIAN TERROR UNIT claims he sold the fuck out and had this to say about it:
“On behalf of the workers of the world. On behalf of the citizens of Myanmar whom have been beaten, murdered, and enslaved by the Junta. FUCK NEUROSIS ! FUCK SION. AND FUCK APATHY ON BEHALF OF THE PUNK SCEEN MOST OF ALL. If your representing scion your part of the problem – PERIOD.”
What’s my point of view? I love NEUROSIS, but I tend to agree with ATU on this one. For some reason I thought that Scott was more grounded than that…
GHOUL wants pictures of you! That right splatterface, they want to see you on their FB wall:
“Welcome to all the new Numbskulls who have been liking this page. If you’ve come out to the shows, bought some merch and or got our new record, post a pic of the record spinning on your turn table, a pic of yourself in some Ghoul merch and or any splatter or injuries you got at our shows on to our wall!”
Long time Scandi-punx E.A.T.E.R are re-pressing the ‘Doomsday Troops’ 7”. Great record! If you don’t have it stay on the lookout and pick this little gem up!
Spike from DRI has been selling all kinds of stuff on Ebay trying to raise money to pay his medical bills. Check some of it out and know whatever you buy is directly helping Spike out. Spike is a cool motherfucker and he is lives in the US without medical coverage just like a lot of us. It’s time to pull together and help out one of our own. Go here
And in world new North Korea launched a long range missle and that douche bag Zimmerman was finally arrested and charged.
Hold on to your heads punks, cause this ones a RIPPER! Swedish heavy hitters rolling out to do what they do best.
UNCURBED launch into a heavy and punishing track right away digging deep into their roots as Swedish dis-core vets and proving they are still indeed potent. I suppose I could wax on for a long time about this but it is simply in-your-face killer hardcore punk. It has cool leads without being at all metal but has just enough of that Gothenburg sound to make it fucking awesome.
UNCURBED seem to have a thing for writing lyrics about the plight of the homeless with many of the songs here seeming to focus on the issue. Its pretty obvious that they have a personal connection to this problem and that it is a real source of angst and frustration. The vocals are totally urgent and unrelenting, and the songs are all forged with soul and passion. All of this makes it all the more tragic cause I have heard that UNCURBED have decided to call it quits. They had quite a run of it over the years and this will certainly stand as their testament.
The UNCURBED side finishes with a ASOCIAL cover that teeters on the edge of completely reckless chaos in perfect style.
WARVICTIMS have now been releasing great d-beat for at least the past 6 years and for me this is some of their finest material. While it might not be the most unique hardcore punk, If you know WARVICTIMS at all you know what you are in for with this. Powerful and tight with no slop at all. Full throttle hardcore assault. WARVICTIMS know what they like to do and they do it particularly well without muddying the waters with unnecessary elements, experimentation or filler.
This LP had an earlier european pressing back in 2010. This is a limited U.S. reissue with 106 on clear blue and black marbled vinyl. The LP comes with a lyric sheet too, and everybody knows I like that…(val)
I admit I have had a love/hate relationship with the kings of party-pizza thrash, MUNICIPAL WASTE. I didn’t even buy the ‘Art of Partying’, I was already burned out and they were only few albums in. However I did decided to give them another chance with ‘Massive Aggressive’ and was only mildly impressed. They still seemed tired, lacking energy and focus but the album did have a couple of good tracks. The other thing that really cheesed me was Ryan Waste’s ridiculous commentary during the “extras” of the ‘Get Thrashed’ documentary. “This guy is a fucking tool” were my immediate thoughts, to this day I still can’t watch the “extras” for fear of my blood pressure getting all crazy again!
So when I heard they coming to Boulder I wasn’t really jumping up and down in excitement. It was GHOUL who sealed the deal for me, I was there to see them. With that in mind I thought that MUNICIPAL WASTE would at least be entertaining live and the show would be fun in general. Some good friends and good tunes, who could ask for more?
MUNICIPAL WASTE fucking killed it! I stayed on the floor fighting for my right to thrash through GHOUL and through MW’s entire set as well. Hell, I even moshed holes into my sox and had to go to the Vans store the next day to get some new ones! They were a nuclear ball of energy and played the tightest, most energetic set that I have seen a band deliver in quite some time. Aside from some stupid “Boner City” jokes their delivery was dead fucking on!
While at the show I picked up ‘The Fatal Feast’ on vinyl. I bought it before they played, again taking a gamble that it was going to be the record that resurrected my interest in the band. And damn the man did it give me what I needed! Hell the fuck yeah!
Musically the WASTE are on fire! I think the time off really helped them to recharge the batteries and refocus on making some serious thrash-punk. The energy they emitted in the live performance is captured better on this album than any of their previous releases.
Lyrically they are still stuck in the college-humor-beer-pounding-mosh pit-of-ridiculousness. They certainly aren’t asking the listener to think, but that really isn’t the point of MW is it? They are all about having fun and fun is had. So much fun in fact that they are ‘Covered In Sick’ and told ‘You’re Cut Off’.
The title track takes their NUCLEAR ASSAULT worship to entire new level as this is a straight-up NUCLEAR ASSAULT song from the arrangement, to the tempo changes and even Tony’s vocal delivery. The song kicks ass but it almost freakish in it’s resemblance to the New York thrash legends.
All in this record is a helluva good time and is meant to cranked to maximum decibels! A solid release from these veteran beer bellied moshers.
Mine is on nuclear waste tinted geen/yellow vinyl and it even came with a poster of the sci-fi, comedic, gore laced cover. I was really impressed to see that they released the album in so many formats and packages with T-shirts and even pop-up covers. That’s how you get people to buy records! It’s not that hard, just put some care into the packaging! Downloads can never replace that! UP THE SPEED METAL PUNX! UP THE WASTE! (Josh)
Another major vinyl haul. Reviews are coming on some of these as some are new releases and some are older. Hell, might even reviews the older material too!
MUNICIPAL WASTE / the Fatal Feast LP – Picked up this LP last week at their show in Boulder with the mighty GHOUL and of course, GWAR. It’s on radioactive green vinyl and this record fucking jams! Review coming in the next 24 hours or so.
THE MOB / No Doves Fly Here 7” – I see this going for big bux on ebay but I was able to pick up thie 80’s Peace Punk classic for $25. Score!
APPALACHIAN TERROR UNIT / Greenwashing LP – Took advantage of the Profane Existence sale and picked up a few goodies!
OILTANKER/NO TOMORROW / split LP – This was reviewed by Val on the ThrashPunx site a few days ago. Another PE sale score.
THE SYSTEM / Thought Control LP – Essentail 80’s Peace Punk released on Skuld. Again, the PE sale ruled!
VOMIT SLAUGHTER cassette – SAW THROAT inspired metallic punk. Scored this last night, watch for a review…
This weekends soundtrack was brought to me by Ozzy era BLACK SABBATH, especially the unreleased tracks you can find on youtube like ‘The Rebel’. AWESOME!
Splatterthrash crossover kings GHOUL are currently on tour with GWAR, MUNICIPAL WASTE, and LEGACY OF DISORDER,, merrily massacring their way across the continental United States and having a devil of a time shredding through classic cuts as well as newer material from 2011’s critically acclaimed and viciously fun Transmission Zero (now available on CD/LP/digitally from Tankcrimes).
Cremator has supplied us with the following update, assuring us that he and his fellow numbskulls are alive and well. The rest of the crew…well, you’ll see.
“We thought Creepsylania was a dump, but now we are homesick… this backwards country we are touring, called by locals, “‘Merica,” is horrible! Granted, we like violence, but never has GHOUL witnessed citizenry that is so bent on hurting and destroying each other.
While these “moshing pits” of yours are eminently hilarious to view from the stage, it leaves us a little sad that we have so few people left to kill ourselves at the end of the show. I guess we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, as the littered corpses have kept us well fed for long drives.
From the beast coast to the midwest, we’ve had a very hard go of it. Every night the Creepsylvanian authorities show up and try to shut down our show before we even begin. Just when we think we’ve gotten rid of them and are pummeling the audience to submission, their bastard creation Killbot shows up and beats the shit out of Cremator. Luckily, we brought the best roadie in the world, Kogar the Destructor. He is the whole road crew all in one and manages to beat the mechanical moron back without fail… so far.
Thrashing out excellently next to us has been the band of original party dudes, MUNICIPAL WASTE. What a burden, though! They keep drinking all the rot gut and numbskull that Fermentor makes before we are even off the stage. How is a Ghoul to get drunk? Your ‘Merican beer may have made Bud wiser, but it just makes us vomit. Another day fucked up by the Waste and waking up with the gutbucket blues.
The lads from New Zealand, Legacy of Disorder, are rocking it just as hard and representing the Shire well. Digestor is repeatedly disappointed, however, to find our deli tray emptied by them. The LOD members eat first breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, tea, dinner, AND supper. I wonder if anyone has told them our deli tray is full of human viscera?
The lords and masters of this tour, GWAR, seem to act like our friends. We’re not so sure. Many a night we’ve heard tale of groupies waiting for us and then Dissector finds a pile of dead chicks, assholes ripped apart, smelling of cuttlefish. We have our suspicions.
Still, we Ghouls persevere along with our comrades on the tour, Mr. Fang and Baron Samedi. We cram in our bloodied van night after night, Kogar on top, and get ready to hit the next town. The slavering sycophantic crowds have been welcoming to our splatterthrash. We’re looking forward to more nights of haunting your nightmares and emptying your cemeteries. We are the things that go bump in the night… and bleed your ear drums with rock ‘n’ roll.” REMAINING DATES for GWAR / Municipal Waste / Ghoul / Legacy of Disorder
4/4 Ventura, CA @ Majestic Ventura Theater
4/5 Chico, CA @ Senator Theater
4/6 San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Ballroom
4/7 Reno, NV @ Knitting Factory
4/9 Las Vegas, NV @ Hard Rock Cafe
4/10 Magna, UT @ The Great Salt Air
4/11 Ft. Collins, CO @ Aggie Theater
TOUR DATES FOR GWAR / Kylesa / Ghoul / Legacy of Disorder
News! All the news that only a few give a shit about!
Denver crust/peace punkers APEX are playing Saturday April 7th at the BAR BAR with an array of Death Metal and Grind bands including ZOMBIE HATE BRIGADE, EXPURGATE, VOMIT SLAUGHTER and more. The venue is located at 2060 Champa street in Denver. Show starts at 8 PM since there are so many bands! Earlier than the usual 10 or 11 PM start times punk shows at the Bar Bar have been known to start at.
Rob Liester says the Albuquerque anti Christmas show will be on its 15th year this year. And rumored to appear this year are WORD SALAD (Alb.) REFORM CONTROL (Den.) and the FANATICS (Pueblo). This should be insane!!! To ensure these bands make it, please harass them and all 303- punk, crust, and thrashers are encouraged to make it!!!
BROKEN BONES are said to be reforming…again. I guess it’s the O.G. members, so I suppose that means the “punk” singer and not the metal dude. Lets hope they are more interested in their own reunion this time and are not as boring as they were last time out.
DRESDEN is on tour!
Dresden tour in may two Wartorn shows tied in .
MAY 18th Madison WI
May 19th Chicago IL / * WARTRON,TRAGEDY
May 20 Appleton WI / TRAGEDY
May 21 Hunington WV / ATU
May 22nd Philly PA / SPENT FLESH
May 23rd Boston/
May 24th Hartford CT /
May 25 NYC @ Acheron w/ Deviated Instinct,, Nomad, Koward
May 26th hanging at death fest.
May 27th Pittsburgh @ The Shop w/ Deviated Instinct,, Wrathcobra
MAY 28th Cleveland Oh @ Now Thats Class, Deviated Instinct,
May 29th Detroit MI @ The Corktown Tavern. Deviated Instinct,
May 30th Chicago IL @ Ultra Lounge w/ Deviated Instinct,, Coelacanth
May 31st Minneapolis, MN @ Medusa w/ Deviated Instinct,
June 1st wnonna MN
June 2nd doulth MN
June 3rd Minneapolis, MN* WARTORN/ANTISECT
CHAOS IN TEJAS put 100 more 4 day passes on sale. I already bought my tix and am only going for 3 days. 4 is just too much…
The new MUNICIPAL WASTE album comes out Tuesday the 7th. I have it and need to get a review up. I like it better than their last few releases…Check out the video for the title track, the FATAL FEAST.
Hold on to your helmet because this split LP between Hartford Connecticut’s OILTANKER and North Carolina’s NO TOMORROW is like being trapped in the trenches as a vicious battle rages overhead. OILTANKER once again prove that they are one of the most powerful bands currently out there holding the D.I.Y. punk flag high. They really have honed their crushing sound over the past few years and they just keep getting better and better. A full on assault of high speed modern metallic crust punk with no regard for anything that might get in its way. Blazing guitars and machine gun drums absolutely shred while the vocals bark and howl with desperation. I absolutely loved last years The Shadow Of Greed LP and eagerly awaited more from these guys. Oh, and I have to mention the rad cover art…whoever does the artwork for OILTANKER is simply amazing. It looks like the same artist has done all of their art over the years and the cover for this looks fucking great too.
NO TOMMORROW on the flipside are new to me but I didn’t have to listen for long to realize that they would be a band that I would certainly be watching in the future. They definitely have a scandi-crust sort of feel….my mind kept going back to MARTYRDOD or SKITSYSTEM as this played and that is just about as great a compliment as I can give. These d-beat junkies hail from Wilmington North Carolina and take my word for it, they lay waste to all with their precision bombast and pounding onslaught.
This split LP will without a doubt make new fans for both of these bands and they certainly deserve your support when they tour thru your town. Have Profane send you one of these and experience the devastating battle between the north and the south for yourself. Everybody wins.
I just got tattooed today. It is a small tattoo behind my ear of a simplistic character drawn by Nick Blinko, the lead singer of a great anarcho- punk band called Rudimentary Peni.
I recently started playing drums in a cover band that pays homage to their enigmatic musical soundscape. For over a decade I had thought about getting it eternally stamped into my skin. I knew that I had to go under the needle and commit it to my body as soon as we started putting together a set. The complexity of the seemingly simplistic songs strikes an ancient cord with me. Learning the songs has been absolutely thrilling, enthusiastically taking up my Sunday afternoons. The tattoo is of the little stick figure that possesses peace symbols for its body, real basic stuff compared to the mind boggling detail that goes into some of his pieces. Like the poster that folds out of the cover of Death Church, unfucking real!!! Actually, I picked it from the sticker in the middle of the B side of Death Church.
The funny thing about all of this is now I find myself doing the thing I use to label as total crap, playing in a cover band. I can remember when I was younger and thought the notion absurd. To me cover band were reserved for losers who were too school taught to write anything cool or original or douche bags who play rock oldies at bars and weddings. I used to balk at the idea of doing anything more than a single cover at a show. Maybe two of them if you were out of songs and the crowd demanded more. I couldn’t imagine entire practices dedicated to learning someone else’s music in whole. It just seemed incredibly inane to me. I remember seeing a Doors cover band when I was a teenager and I thought those guys were complete dolts, incapable of anything truly heart felt and real.
As the years went on my attitude towards counterfeiting music waned as a result of getting to see some pretty epic acts that were amazing to witness live. I lived in Long Beach for about half a year back in 2001 and was shocked by all the cover bands I would see flyers and newspaper ads for. You name it, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Journey, Black Sabbath, and piles and piles more. I couldn’t believe so many people were into doing cover bands and the volume of bands that were out there playing shows on any given night. They were making pretty penny at it too. When I lived out there I got to see one particular show. It featured an Ozzy Cover band headlining over a female fronted Iron Maiden ensemble. Oh yea , at that same show that night I got to meet a dude from Dark Angel, stoked, but that is a different story entirely. Regardless of that though, I have to say these bands jammed hard. I was instantly impressed with the attention to detail and the musicianship was out of this world for both of bands. It was too cool. Unlike anything I had ever experienced before that night. It wasn’t that I thought I was seeing the real thing. The fact that it was just a play is what made it so great to behold. I was instantly a born again cover band fan. I was turned on to how cool a cover band could be that fateful evening. That show always stuck with me and I decided if I ever got the chance I would try it out, give it a whirl and play in a dreaded cover band.
A few years later I would have that chance when I got a call from a friend named Dave. Dave asked me if I would want to play bass in a cover band doing old Motley Crue. Fuck yes! I get to be Nikki Six and he was going to be Vince Neil. I was pumped all the way. I got a wig, spray painted it black and glued extra hair into it to make it as glam as possible. I had the black studded straps, Mad Max shoulder pad, belts, ripped fish net arm stockings and painted lines under my eyes. A single time was all we got to play out live but it was a hoot. We played on a big old stage in front of a few hundred people and it kicked ass all the way. From then on I knew I wanted to start a cover band and do it full time. But what band? Who do you choose out of such a vast and never ending expanse of music? So, years just trickled by with a lot of talk but with zero results. A lot of drunken talk in bars that never ends with any phone calls the next day. Just a lot of “it would be cool if we did this” or “I’m in dude just let me know” blah, blah, blah! Truth is it’s hard to think of a single cover song to add to your own band’s set let alone a whole band that you can and want to cover. Plus you have got to make sure that you can actually play whatever it is you are going to cover in the first place. Shitty Metallica is just that, shitty. Different ideas had been kicking around in my head. Maybe D.O.A., Devo, Crass or do I do what I saw in South Dakota once when I was up there on tour. I got to play a show were a band called American Heavy Metal Weekend headlined. They did a number of different covers from all sorts of different 80’s punk bands. They blew the roof off the place. I really liked the performance and it made me think about how much fun that would be. Just pick your favorite songs, all the hits and rock them the fuck out so everyone can go nuts. Holy smokes, even this guy who looked like he was from Hellraiser came out of the woodworks for that concert.
A problem still lingered though; I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Cover a single band, like I saw some guys do with Sabbath recently in L.A. Or play a mix of covers like that band in South Dakota did?
I live in a row of warehouses that has been home to many bands over the span of the last 10 years. Awhile back my neighbors started an Iron Maiden cover band. They needed an Eddy and I have a mask so I got to do that one night. It was fun as hell but in all honesty that wasn’t my thing. The answer to my jones would come some years later when I was at the bar having a late night drink. An old acquaintance, who’s sober, asked if I knew anyone that would be interested in playing drums in a Rudimentary Peni cover band. I almost choked on my beer. Hell yea! I play drums and have always had a great love for that band. After he told me that they wanted to cover all of Death Church I knew I had to do it. I told him that I was his Huckleberry and just like that it was done. We have been working diligently over the last 3 months and finally have all but one song of Death Church done and are starting to think about what other records we want to touch on. The benefit I gained by learning the drums to this is album was not expected, it has improved my overall playing one fold. I find that I can do some new fills and new beats that I would not have thought of otherwise. Plus it has renewed old friendships with new band mates and gives us a chance to finally jam music together in the same band.
We have told some people about our new undertaking and the reaction has been strange. Either people don’t have any clue about what the hell you are talking about or they are fucking stoked to the highest degree. One thing that is nice about doing a Rudi Peni cover band is that there are no silly costumes, just getting playing music that has touched my soul. I really can’t wait to play it live!
ThrashPunx 