What the heck is going on in the Pacific Northwest that has caused this recent outpouring of goth-y, dark post-punk bands from that area? Don’t take that as a complaint. I love this kind of stuff, and the more people want to send it my way, the more indebted and grateful I become. This has always been a favorite sub-genre of punk for me, and I can honestly never get quite enough of it. The Now Dead, who go between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, are one of the darkest and best of the bunch. They have a 4 song demo cassette out (pictured above) limited to 100 copies, but many of the songs the band have in circulation can be heard at their MySpace page. Anchored by strong basslines that remind alternately of very early Christian Death, Warsaw, Rudimentary Peni, and (also early) TSOL, The Now Dead’s songs retain enough of a lo-fi buzzsaw guitar sound to keep the music deliciously on the punk side of the fence. The vocals are hollow, desolate, even cold; and although the cassette is a demo, the production feels appropriate, lending the songs an atmosphere of intense isolation and dread. If you can get hold of a cassette, do so as soon as you can; if not, write the band at the address above and maybe you can get a CD-R through PayPal or something. (Or use Audacity or Audio Hijack to record the songs off their MySpace page.) This is excellent post-punk music that reminds me not only of the gloomiest Mancunian British acts (should I even mention Joy Division any more this week?) but also of some of Rikk Agnew’s undervalued contributions to the old Southern California death rock scene (like his All By Myself solo album from the early 80s, parts of which are reminiscent of The Now Dead’s musical style).

Fuck it. Whatever The Now Dead are doing, it is just damn fine stuff. This is one of those bands I will be watching closely in the months/years ahead. Underground, DIY, dismal, guitar-driven, fog-enshrouded, gothic punk rock — no other way to describe it.

From the same general geographic area come a similar but slightly better-known band, The Spectres, who call Vancouver, British Columbia home. I’ve championed the Spectres here before, and the band were recently interviewed in the June, 2008 issue of Maximum Rock ‘N Roll (MRR #301), where they garnered comparisons to early Killing Joke and Crisis. The first Spectres 7″, “Cold War,” definitely has more of a Crisis feel to it, the more I think of it, than the Warsaw comparison I originally gave it. But you can hear both influences, for sure. You can get both the “Cold War” and “Visions of a New World” Spectres 7 inchers from The Spectres’ MySpace page. In fact, The Now Dead and The Spectres don’t sound dissimilar; as far as recording quality goes, however, The Spectres are a tad above the absolutely raw, minimalistic approach evinced on The Now Dead’s tape. That doesn’t mean The Spectres sound slick. They don’t. To me they sound just exactly as they should: mid-tempo, nothing slick and fancy, just great, guitar-driven post-punk rock with strong vocals that thankfully are not of the whiny, maudlin, or overly dramatic sort of vocals many people associate with “goth” (sorry, Rozz). “Visions of a New World” is on Portland’s Whisper in Darkness label that is also home to another going-towards-death-rock band, Deathcharge — and which shares a PO Box with the glossy black zine Warning.

Indeed, another post-punk band from Portland treading this terrain are The Estranged, apparently with member(s) of the Tragedy-related Warcry involved. Of The Now Dead, The Spectres, and The Estranged, it’s The Estranged who ironically sound the most polished. I haven’t heard much more of The Estranged than what’s offered on their webpage, however, so I have yet to explore the full range of what they have to offer. It’s worth noting that in a similar gesture the Born Dead icons launched their own “dark post-punk” project that I have also raved about on this site — The Complications. Are we witnessing a new sort of renaissance of good old fashioned, down and dirty, unpretentious, bleak, goth-y post-punk rock and roll? I hope so!

Lastly, while I’m at it, also from the Pacific Northwest (specifically, Vancouver, British Columbia, again, like The Spectres) are The Modern Creatures, a female-fronted post-punk act who can sound uncannily like Join Hands-era Siouxsie and the Banshees. That is, ‘79-era Siouxsie. Seriously, check out The Modern Creatures’ MySpace page and check out their track “Time to Go”. Do it. Now. “Time to Go” is just an excellent number that sounds as if might’ve been lifted from discarded 70s Siouxsie demos or something. Throw in some Lost Cherees (”Sexism’s Sick”) and you are among good musical company. Users’ comments on The Modern Creatures’ page complain that the band are only compared to other female-fronted bands — but, well, when the singer has such a Siouxsie-esque vocal style, it’s hard not to make such comparison! Me, I hear more Batcave or Brit post-punk in The Modern Creatures than I do Kill Rock Stars-type bands or Bikini Kill, as some other reviews claim. In any event, it’s good stuff.

Whatever you are doing, Pacific Northwest, keep it up!

Technorati Tags: spectres, the now dead, modern creatures, whisper in darkness, pdx, complications, crisis, siouxsie and the banshees, batcave, siouxsie, deathcharge, warning, the estranged

It’s hard to believe it was over a year ago when I wrote about a “culture shift” in the US after I witnessed a Fall song during a commercial for an SUV, and saw the infamous AARP advertisement that featured a Buzzcocks soundtrack. Probably not even ten years ago would it seem within the realm of possibility The Fall could shill for sports utility vehicles, the Buzzcocks — whose very name banned them from airplay for the longest time — would be the soundtrack for an association of retired and elderly Americans, and that Bill Gates’ Microsoft would launch a line of mp3 players paying homage to suicidal post-punk anti-hero Ian Curtis.

In related news, commercial fashion design firm Mishka NYC have appropriated traditional punk logos, made them wacky, and put them on overpriced t-shirts for sale as flashy. upscale accoutrement. Once more, Minor Threat is in the crosshairs (I think people have learned to fuck with Ian MacKaye/Dischord because they know it will get them publicity, a la the Nike shoes usage of Minor Threat artwork). The “Alcoholica” shirt is only $31 USD before shipping:

The Mishka NYC site’s store is temporarily down. When it comes back up I’ll check out what other logos, etc., have been appropriated.

Don’t think this is the end of it. I’m sure it’s only just begun.

Technorati Tags: minor threat, joy division, zunes, microsoft, bill gates, the fall, Mitsubishi, buzzcocks, aarp, mishka, mishka nyc

Pretty inspiring stuff.

Australia withdrew from Iraq the other day. One less nation to smell America’s excrement there.

Technorati Tags: iraq war

In related news, longtime labor folk singer and class war agitator Utah Phillips also recently passed. Wondered if this site was the correct place to post about this, but, fuck it, Phillips kept alive the original tradition of class war and anti-establishment rebellion that punk tried at its best to reignite through the medium of rock ‘n roll. Phillips just chose to use the traditional American folk music vehicle do so, unlike Born Against, MDC, the Crass label bands, etc., all of whose sentiments are similar though they chose punk as their medium. An IWW member ’til his death, Utah Phillips will be sorely missed for singing rebel music like this little gem from the IWW’s Little Red Songbook:

The workers’ flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead;
And ere their limbs grew stuff and cold
Their life-blood dyed its every fold.

[…]

With uncovered heads swear we all,
To bear it onward ’til we fall;
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting hymn.

Technorati Tags: bo diddley, utah phillips, class war, iww, the red flag, little red songbook

My favorite part is that the eBay description says the letter has “superb musical content.” So, is it like a musical Hallmark card? You open the letter up, and it plays “Big A Little A?” Or…?

For all I know some desperate punk is trying to find a way to pay his rent and this is his shot in the dark to do so. If that is the case, I am sympathetic. Sort of. Or, s/he could just be an opportunistic, vulture of a scumbag.

Not sure if this merits “cultural atrocity” or not.

Technorati Tags: crass, penny rimbaud, crass records, eBay, c.r.a.s.s.

Watching New York Hardcore was and is a strange experience for me for a couple of reasons. (I am watching it again now as I write this.) For one thing, the DVD is a snapshot of a very bizarre era for hardcore in general. 1991 was “The Year Punk Broke,” according to David Geffen, but 80s hardcore punk was certainly dead and buried by the time ‘95 rolled around. 1995 was pre-Internet, yet post-Nirvana, the long-haired grunge band that was supposedly punk’s second coming if you believed the glossy music media of the time. In the meantime, the New York hardcore scene was moving further away from its punk roots and into uncharted and downright tacky rap-metal territory. “Hardcore” to a lot of East Coast bands in the 90s meant paying slow, moshy, tough guy metal, singing about their “crews,” getting “stabbed in the back,” and adopting a lot of the mannerisms and posturing of hip hop performers while on stage. Not to mention the dress. Baggy pants, loose, low-hanging belts, oversized basketball jerseys, Rambo-style headbands — or just straight-up suburban jock clothing, but mixed with tattoos (still a novelty in ‘95) and sideways baseball caps. Ugh. Hardcore was invented because “people were tired of that punk rock shit, just like people are tired of that punk rock shit now,” a band member tells us at the beginning of this film from 1995, which is a strange time capsule from a strange era.

I know there are still lunkheaded bands that pursue this awful musical course, and, personally, I want no part of it. Some of the bands featured on New York Hardcore are 25 ta Life, Crown of Thornz, District 9 (”up in the Bronx, where the people are fresh….” [sic]), Madball, No Redeeming Social Value, 108, and Vision of Disorder.

Do I dislike all these bands? Not entirely. 108 have made a couple of decent releases (and more on them later). But I pretty much dislike the type of “hardcore” this documentary focuses on, a hybrid type of heavy music that rants and moans about folks “talkin’ shit” (behind your back, especially), fucking with peoples’ bros, and standing hard. Hard, man, hard! But then, also, on the other hand, you will find these fist-pumping masters of the moshpit preaching “unity” and lots of other “me and my crew are gonna throw down for the scene”-type crap. Victory, Equal Vision Records, and Revelation Records were (and are) behind a lot of this style of hardcore, and for many people — especially younger people — when they think of “hardcore” they still think of this bad, 1990s tough guy, screaming-over-slow-metal, moshy-type stuff. Only now kids will “dance” to it in girlpants while wearing white belts. And their hair is shaggier. Usually.

The first band shown on New York Hardcore is 25 ta Life doing the song “Da Lowdown” which is a really bad, slow-tempo metal number with embarrassingly contrived tough guy vocals. As the band plays, lots of white guys with shaved heads lope around doing windmills, air punches, and high, leaping kicks in the, uh, “pit.” Wow, do I dislike this.I have absolutely no interest in this sort of thing. Interestingly, the singer of 25 ta Life has a Nausea poster at his apartment (a “New York hardcore” band in another sense, but never mentioned or touched upon in this film), and seems committed to the traditional hardcore punk DIY ethic offstage. But please keep him away from a band or a microphone. The music is awful, and the “anger” in 25 ta Life’s vocals seems laughably forced.

After 25 ta Life wrap up “Da Lowdown,” a member of another hardcore band, wearing a baseball cap and a baggy blue t-shirt, explains while driving that “[a] lot of people just don’t know what hardcore is. And it’s hard to explain it. Because if you listen to it, you can be like, ‘Oh, it’s kind of like, you know, metal or rap.’”

Yeah.

Unfortunately, many bands in the 90s did make “hardcore” into “something like metal or rap,” and thus transformed it into something other than hardcore. At least hardcore as I understand it. The situation is complicated because there are figures in the documentary that do have ties to what I think of as real hardcore — folks associated with the Cro-Mags and Agnostic Front, veterans who don’t seem so eager to dissociate the genre from its punk roots and who thankfully mention the early NYC punk bands that inspired them. These guys know what they are talking about, even if they followed the river’s wayward current into this film and the bad mish-mash of rap and metal that it showcases. Indeed, it’s mostly the younger kids in New York Hardcore who — to me — seem to have an absolutely ahistorical or idiosyncratic notion of what hardcore is. “Hardcore” is shorthand for hardcore punk, folks. Period. Not gangsta-posturing, hand-motioning, slow, rap-metal bullshit. But grassroots, DIY, hardcore punk rock.

In that sense, I think the documentary is mislabeled. Technically, the DVD is a fine offering. The sound is great, the editing is good, the footage is clear and crisp, and a variety of folks are interviewed in a variety of locales. In the film, no one agrees on what “hardcore” is — you can’t define it precisely, many echo. To define it is to straight-jacket it and constrict it, some imply. And hardcore is about bustin’ loose, rebellion, and defying stuff. Right? But that just means the barn door is open, and you can make hardcore into hip hop, or, hell, why not carnival music? And we can still call it “hardcore,” because it can have no defining qualities, lest it be oppressed. Sorry, but I call “bullshit” to this. Defining something is not oppressing or constricting it. If a band is playing metal, or hip hop, just fucking call it “metal” or “hip hop” or whatever it is, and stop with the “hardcore is unique in the universe and can never be definitively labeled” bullshit.

(You will hear the same argument from anarcho-punks, by the way, that you cannot define “anarcho-punk” because to do so is not properly “anarcho,” which resists labels. This type of thinking conflates actual, real-world oppression with describing stuff by using words, and is one of the most annoying ideas you will encounter in the entire “punk” subculture, if there is such a thing anymore. That is, that describing a type of music by using a standrad English word like “hardcore” is akin to “constricting” it.)

By the end of the 1990s the musical conflation of metal, rap, and, er, “hardcore” that is featured in New York Hardcore would be proud of having produced such acts as the hip-hop infused Downset, who would become a Christian band by the time of their Do We Speak a Dead Language? LP, and …. Earth Crisis! Another band that combined a militant yet conveniently family-friendly straight edge ethos (which was also, in their hands, augmented by an odious anti-choice/anti-abortion slant) with yet more slow, bad metal sung with various types of simian grunting. Thanks, 90s “hardcore” scene! (Note that Earth Crisis were from Syracuse, New York and Downset were from the West Coast, like their rap-metal brethren Rage Against the Machine.)

Ironically, the hardcore band that would outdo them all was not even from New York City, but Sweden: 59 Times the Pain. Remember them?

In short, I’m not crazy about New York Hardcore because the subject matter doesn’t interest me much. I like hardcore punk, not “hood ‘core.” If Biohazard, Life of Agony, Orange 9 MM, and Pro-Pain are the be-all, end-all of “hardcore” for you (i.e. if you like musclehead metal), then you will like this documentary.

The presence of 108 in this documentary bring up a topic that I actually wish an entire documentary could cover: the phenomenon of Krishna-core. Not because I especiall like Krishnacore bands, but because I think the documentary would be fascinating. Kind of like Jesus Camp. For all I know, there is a documentary about Krishnacore. If there is, I hope it is not propaganda for ISKCON.

In short, if you are into thuggish metalcore and like extreme sports, you will like this DVD. If not, pass it up.

Technorati Tags: metal, metalcore, rapcore, rap-metal, district 9, skarhead, 59 times the pain, strife, hatebreed, victory records, new york hardcore, nyhc, cro-mags, madball, crown of thornz, vision of disorder, no redeeming social value, pro-pain, biohazard, life of agony, earth crisis, frank pavich, hoodcore, agnostic front, n.y.h.c. documentary

Amebix began in 1978 as “The Band With No name” and for many years have remained one of the ultimate “cult punk” bands. Within the past year or so there’s been an intensely renewed interest in the work of the band accompanied by the promise of new recordings and a DVD, Risen! (which Cultpunk.com has already pre-ordered, ahem).

INTERVIEW WITH ROB “THE BARON” MILLER OF AMEBIX

PUNKS IS HIPPIES: How is the new Amebix DVD coming along? I read it will include 2 full live concerts. From where and when? When will it be out?

ROB “BARON” MILLER: So far we have the two original Newcastle gigs and some of the Yugoslavian novi rock concert, which I am chasing up more material from at the moment. There is a guy in Ljubljana who is gradually uncovering stuff. We should be able to mix that footage in with the live CD from the same show. Although I am not sure when it will come out yet, the engineer/producer is going to the States to Interview Jello and Pushead — possibly among others — for some other perspective.

PIH: Elsewhere you mentioned that you wanted to track down the original recordings for potential re-release. Any luck with this? Who owns the Amebix stuff anyway? I mean obviously Alternative Tentacles is licensed to sell Arise! + Two I suppose, but what about the rest?

ROB: I have been in talks with Southern Studios about the first three releases. John Loder [Guardian UK obit. of John Loder here, written by Penny Rimbaud of Crass. - Oliver] would not let us have any access to them when he was alive despite the fact that we own all the recordings and artwork. So effectively he was holding our property against our wishes. I am asking for our stuff back with a view to re-releasing at some point. I think the attitude of some people from that time was entirely contrary to what we were about. A few made a lot of money out of our hard work.

PIH: The much bootlegged Monolith demos, 4 tracks which ended up on The Power Remains LP — did you record more stuff during the demos for Monolith? Are there more tracks from the same recording sessions still not released?

ROB: No, not to my knowledge.

PIH: Are there any other unreleased Amebix material from for e.g. demos for Arise! etc? Are there any demos, rehearsal recordings or good mix board recorded live material out there still not released?

ROB: I have scoured the web for material, but without much success. You never know, though; something may turn up. We did a couple of radio sessions in Holland and Yugoslavia which would be interesting to unearth, but I cannot remember where or for whom, apart from the Radio Student one in Ljublana. Our friend there is looking into that to see what survived the war there.

PIH: I recently tried to track down as many Amebix live bootlegs as possible, or at least I tried to make a list of recordings, and I mostly found the various cassettes from BBP tapes (London). One curious bootleg is called “1981 Practice” and I have no idea what this could b. Do you know? As far as I can tell it could be either a recording from the time spent in Dartmoor or it would be some sort of early Bristol demo with Norman?

ROB: If it is from ‘81 it would probably be Bristol. I would be interested to hear it.

PIH: Talking of which, in The Day the Country Died DVD you mentioned that during the stay in Dartmoor with Martin, the band did several homemade recordings. Do any of them survive, do you think? During this period I suspect the band inevitably experimented a lot with sound and ideas? I base all this simply on the fact that I have heard the ”79 demo,” of course, and this was sort of between that demo and the 1981 “Who’s the enemy” 7″…. Or, was it only when you had moved to Bristol that the band sort of started to sound like Amebix does on the first single?

ROB: I must ask Martin if he kept anything. We would record everything we did and get stoned and listen to it at night, then go back upstairs and record some more. Good times.

PIH: In my search for Amebix bootlegs, etc., I also inevitably found a bunch of live recordings. The only one I actually managed to get hold of was “Amebix- Live At The Station, Gateshead, 2nd August 1985.” The quality of this recording is actually quite alright despite at places all you can hear is the synthesizer or the guitar, while at other places you can’t hear the vocals too well. It is a quite interesting recording for several reasons: It is said between the songs that this is the one of the first (if not the first) show with Virus on drums, it has an early version of “Fallen From Grace,” and the fact that the band sounds less tight (which is blamed on Virus!) which makes this a quite interesting and different live recording of Amebix. Have you heard this bootleg?

ROB: No I haven’t. Do you mean Spider on drums? That would be the time that he joined.

PIH: Other live bootlegs or cassettes that I found were these:

1. A Compilation called “BE BAD BE GLAD”
2. DISORDER ROUGH MIXES FOR THE ‘MENTAL’ LP
3. CHAOS U.K. UNRELEASED DEMO FROM 1984
4. LUNATIC FRINGE UNRELEASED DEMO FROM 1984
5. AMEBIX LIVE IN LEEDS 11/09/85
6. Amebix & Smartpils: Live Bath 24/8/86
7. Amebix: Live Manhatton Club, Bradford 23/4/87
8. Amebix - 1987.09. - Live in Bath UK
9. Amebix & Broken Bones: Live Newcastle (Also 1987 I think, and I have a feeling it is the same as on YouTube and it’s a concert I have an old DVD of, by the way.)

And finally, a bootleg that claims to be from the Zig Zag gig but I haven’t seen much of this elsewhere so not too sure about this. Do you remember any of these shows? Have you heard any of the other bootlegs, or were you aware of their existence?

(Added to this, Erich Keller from Fear of God mentions that he has some private recordings of Amebix live from Basel, Switzerland, June 21 1986 as well as practice sessions in 1987. And I assume there will be private bootlegs recordings from other parts of Europe where Amebix toured.)

ROB: Hmm, I have been trying to get Erich to give me a copy of the stuff he has, but he is a covetous wee bastard, notoriously fond of his collection. I would like to hear the Zig Zag tape. That was a very weird gig, a once in a lifetime type of event, in fact almost a punk ‘Live Aid.’

PIH: By the way, which live show is it on the Power Remains LP by the way? Could not find it mentioned on internet nor could I find my old LP.

ROB: I am not sure, but I think that it is from an Eritrea benefit show we did in Bath.

PIH: It seems that every time Amebix is mentioned, three bands are mentioned in the same breath as allegedly influences for Amebix, namely Black Sabbath, Motorhead, and Killing Joke (most recently there is an American online radio show called a “Tribute to Amebix”, and it makes a lot of these so-called influences - Radio Schizo @ http://www.cultpunk.com/?p=125).

Now, I would think that the most obvious influences on Amebix would have been Crass and Discharge? Incidentally, I remember reading an old fanzine interview with Cal from Discharge saying that Discharge tried to sound like “Motorhead but with Crass lyrics.” The Crass connection to Amebix is kind of obvious, but did you ever meet the guys from Discharge? Did you ever played with Discharge?

ROB: We never crossed paths with Discharge, although I liked their sound and collected their singles when they first appeared on the scene. The Radio Schizo programme is interesting, although I don’t know why there is so much emphasis on Venom. I didn’t feel they were much of an influence. We saw them as being thick as shit at the time.

PIH: I have also seen Amebix described a few times as “pagan,” and the band’s adoption of Austin Osman Spare’s face and the fascination with the Atavism, and listening to the lyrics…. What other influences did you have for writing the lyrics? What other “esoteric” influences or interest did you have at the time? The obvious to me would be for e.g. Blake, Dante, Nietzsche, Alistair Crowley, alchemy, Egypt, H.P. Lovecraft, the Illuminati trilogy, etc. What were you into at the time and how did you get into things like this? What inspired you to write the lyrics? It seems like you had a quite clear rationale of sort behind most of the lyrics (comparably speaking to other “punk/anarcho/hardcore, etc.” bands at the time).

ROB: Stig was always interested in Crowley. I had a natural inclination towards the Occult. I think we were creating a psychological landscape through our music and lyrics that had some very primeval and archetypal forces running through it. In that respect Amebix were very different to anyone else at the time, or in many respects, since.

PIH: After being a fan of Amebix for several years, I actually took the time the other day to try and find out a few things in the lyrics (perhaps this is obvious to some people but…) and managed to find out that “Nathrac” from The Power Remains is a reference to Merlin’s “charm of making to summon the breath of the dragon” in the 1981 film Excalibur as well as a popular name in fantasy/role playing games, etc. I mean, knowing what “Nathrac” stands for now, I can interpret that song slightly differently and it kind of makes sense with “the serpent now trodden to dust,” etc. But that said, I think most people interpret Power Remains as meaning roughly “something in nature which is now forgotten in the modern industrial and capitalist world, which contains the solution to change the world into something better” — if you know what I mean. In short, “Power Remains” seems to be interpreted by most punks like some sort of “pagan-anarcho” statement. I mean that song is brilliantly ambiguous because of this, and that’s why I like it so much. What do you think? What did you have in mind as you wrote the lyrics? And by the way, were you into role-playing games and fantasy etc at the time?

And another one — which I am sure I was the only person NOT to get until now — was “ICBM,” which I discovered means “Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.” Now, I always kind of associated “silver express” with an express train (!) in the mountains, bringing death or something!!! That, or I kind of assumed ICBM was some sort of mid-1980s term for International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the World Bank or something. In other words, I thought the song was about capitalism and death. Finally, Monolith: I assume the album was called that because of its dual connotation with tribalistic rituals and big blocks of stone as well as meaning something similar to “Leviathan” in Hobbes’ sense (but negatively). Or likening society or progress of mankind to a monolithic, unchangeable, permanent, hard, ice-cold entity without emotions. How did you come up with this name for the LP? What did you mean with it, or in what context did you use it?

ROB: “Nathrac” is a reference to the World Serpent in Occult tradition. This was a song about the living Earth and the way that the serpent is always there under the surface, like the Dragon in Chinese Mythology. This was definitely a song about awareness of the power of the natural world over that of man. Monolith was also a kind of reference to the message of stone, placed in the landscape thousands of years ago, and the ambiguous messages that are represented through these monuments.

PIH: On the subject of influences, of course Killing Joke is mentioned a lot and you mentioned them in The Day The Country Died DVD. Killing Joke was kind of close to what Amebix tried to do. Well, Killing Joke has recently centered more on tribalistic, simple but heavy music and mythological lyrics, etc., most recently on their Hosannas from the Basement of Hell album (2006). The title of the first track I think hints at what I am trying to say: “This Tribal Antidote.” The point here is that very curiously some reviewers on the internet have likened this album to Amebix. Have you heard it? Did you ever meet Jaz and Killing Joke? Incidentally, I interviewed Jaz last year and all the time I had in the back of my mind the idea of asking him if he knew of Amebix. Regrettably, I never did.

ROB: I have heard some of the newer KJ stuff, and it is incredible — very, very powerful and intense, something they lost for awhile, I think. I have been trying to get in touch with Jaz, as he apparently was interested in having a commissioned piece made, but it is hard to get any contact address. KJ were a massive influence on Amebix. When their first album came out it was the most potent musical assault that I had ever heard.

PIH: Everywhere I read about the breakup of Amebix there’s either just general explanations such as “the band had run its course” and sort of vaguely hinting to problems relating to drugs. That, or that the breakup was due to issues relating to Monolith, such as label problems and/or the production of it? Can you clear this up? Also, not sure if it is related in any way, but I seem to remember that in the inners to Power Remains it said that you were not allowed printing the lyrics with the Monolith album. What was all that about?

ROB: It was a difficult decision to make. I was in a relationship, had just had a kid and entered into a new world of responsibility after 4 years of living on the streets. I think the demands of this really dried up any of the inspiration that we needed. It was my call to finish the band. Maybe we would have got back on course, but at that point we were getting very little feedback from what we had created, the press were not ready for our kind of sound; we were scorned by both punk and metal press alike. It is only in the last ten years that I think Amebix have begun to get any recognition. It was a time when I could no longer feel that deep connection to the roots of our music, unable to summon forth any more images, without a muse, compromised and squeezed dry by “responsibility.”

PIH: And more on this, it is often said that towards the end - meaning the Right To Ride demo - Amebix had lost its edge and somehow negatively turned into its “original influences,” such as Motorhead and Black Sabbath. Listening to those 2 songs now, retrospectively, they actually sound like a fitting closure to the band: “I have seen the winter sun…freedom’s in chains…we got to fight for the right now,” etc. In short, “Right To Ride” feels like a final statement in a way. Besides, I think that the view that the band was mediocre in the end, that it had gone full circle where Amebix turned into a bad Motorhead copy or whatever - this is nonsense! I actually think this later material is a quite dignified end and fitting, aesthetically. Did you decide to break up after the demo? Was the demo somehow written consciously with the idea of it representing a closure?

ROB: We did not mean to finish after the demo, and I appreciate what you say. The song is not bad at all, just an 8 track recording that could have been worked on and made into a good song. I really wanted us to have a more cohesive song writing edge. I wanted another guitar. We were at the point of deciding to move into a more musical direction, but we could very easily have lost touch with what the band was really about: simplicity and natural power.

PIH: It is also said that few ideas originally for Amebix later was used for Zygote (obviously “Right To Ride / Man in the Crowd”). Can you elaborate on this? Did you contribute to Zygote in anyway?

ROB: No, I had not even heard Zygote until a few years ago.

PIH: Besides from running Castle Keep and its obvious outlet for creativity, etc., do you make any music nowadays, or did you after Amebix broke up? What about writing stuff and/or drawing?

ROB: I have done some music on my own. I have a small studio here but could never find anyone to play with here. Like in Devon, musicians all want to play other peoples’ stuff. I have never had that urge. It has always got to be about making your own sound. I fancy strapping on a bass again and playing, but it is impossible here. I need to find a drummer and a guitarist Who knows?

PIH: How’s the housebuilding going, by the way? Or perhaps that is already finished by now (saw something on your Myspace / the Amebix site - but I think that may have been from 2006…)?

ROB: Great. We spent all last year building the house. It is a log building in a brilliant spot. I have learned a lot in this last year, having had to do a lot of the work ourselves. I love living here on an island, doing what I do. And although I have gotten older I still find that I need to create Art in any way that is available to me.

PIH: And what are other ex-Amebix people doing today?

ROB: Stig has just had his first child, he plays music as Karnyx, and he should be coming to visit next week. I only see him once in every few years. Spider is exactly the same old Spider, still building, although not playing anymore due to tinnitus — too loud in the practice room back then. Martin has never moved from where he was until this last year, when he moved out of the Glebe to a house at the bottom of the Glebe grounds. Haven’t heard from Virus since about 1989.

END.

The Deaf Sparrow entry/overview of Amebix is here.

Thanks to Slobodan Burgher of Punks is Hippies for the interview.

Amebix are on MySpace at: http://www.myspace.com/amebixuk

They also have an official webpage at: http://www.amebix.net/

You can pre-order the upcoming Risen! DVD here: http://www.toxicwastebelfast.co.uk/Amebix.html

The Amebix LP Monolith can be downloaded at a “sliding scale” rate (in other words, for free if you choose to pay nothing) @ Moshpit Tragdy here: http://moshpittragedy.com/info-amebix.shtml

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In other words: Yes, yes, yes! Finally I have this long-anticipated Rudimentary Peni EP in my hands, the band’s first release since 2004’s excellent “Archaic.”

To sum up my review: Get this CD (or its vinyl counterpart). “No More Pain” is Rudimentary Peni’s best release since their 80s material, an accolade I’d heretofore reserved for their 2004 “Archaic” EP (which is still quite good, by the way). “No More Pain” is a sinister, churning, snarling exercise in unfettered, powerchord-soaked nihilism. Nietzsche would cream his pants.

In fact, I’d argue “No More Pain” is the most nihilistic release R.P. have ever cranked out, continuing a lyrical trend that began on the “Underclass” EP about eight years ago. Where the lyrics are concerned, “No More Pain” sees the band arrive at an apogee of understated, haiku-like elegance, yet the band’s conservative economy of lyrics couples itself to explosive, distortion-drenched power that bursts violently at the seams. Despite my mention of “elegance,” “No More Pain” in sum constitutes nothing less than ferociously caustic punk rock, kicked into overdrive and delivered with extra helpings of venom — venomous even by Peni’s own high standards.

Musically, “No More Pain” is a heavy and menacing affair. The guitars are crushing, staying abrasively and stubbornly at the low end of the spectrum. “A Handful of Dust,” the first track, comes galloping out of the gates at a fast clip and Blinko begins to snarl in a genuinely creepy way — equal parts spitting contempt, feral growl, and — well, “angry” isn’t strong enough a word. There’s some sort of new, acidic tinge to Blinko’s vocals that almost merits comparison to some of the more misanthropic metal acts out there. Not cheeseball metal, for Pete’s sake. R.P. never have been and never will be a metal band. But, Christ, the vocals are just inhumanly contemptuous in that eerie way that Sakevi of GISM sounds on his band’s Detestation LP. Pair Blinko’s intimidating snarl with the intentionally minimalistic lyrics, whose central themes are death, nothingness, and a kind of aggressive fatalism, and you have one hellish EP whose perfectly acid ferocity might turn your speakers to pools of sizzling black mush.

As Nick, Grant, and Jon’s (Nick = singer, guitarist; Grant = bassist; Jon = drummer) sentiments have become more unforgivingly fatalistic in their outlook,”No More Pain”’s lyrics have been pared down to a bare minimum. Behind it all seems to be the Nietzschean credo the band espoused in “No Other Truth” from “Underclass”: “No other truth / But power alone.” If that is the case, there isn’t much to say about anything, is there? The single lyric to “No More Pain’s” opening track is this: “I will show you fear / In a handful of dust.” The first line is sung only once and the second verse is repeated 3 or 4 times before the song ends at one minute and twenty-one seconds. The last song on “No More Pain” has no lyrics at all (although it is admittedly a musical cover, and by far the longest track on the EP at four minutes and sixteen seconds, double the length of the second longest track.)

The lyrics are so spartan that this itself seems to convey a kind of worldview. Succinct and to-the-point, all the EP’s lyrics fit on the back of the CD case with lots of empty black space to spare. For example, “Grave Object”’s lyrics are, in their entirety: “The watch hands, / Halted, / Wither still / And separate / From flesh and bone.” The end.

Incidentally, “Grave Object” is also remarkable for its guitar and bass section. Starting on a (relatively) high note, Nick’s guitar and Jon’s bass proceed to simultaneously lurch slowly, ominously down the musical scale as the song progresses. Lower, and lower … and lower. I like the effect; it evokes a slow march into the grave, or a lowering into the spiral of Dante’s Inferno.

One of my favorite tracks on here, “Doodlebug Baby,” starts at a fast clip and Blinko does some uncharacteristic guitar parts that put one in the mind of classic RP material like “Teenage Time Killer” or “Crazy Chain.” There are even some chunky palm mutes here and there, not to be found much elsewhere on the LP, which sticks to a gloomy wall of harsh fuzz. “Doodlebug Baby”’s lyrics are in the maniacal vein of the band’s Cacophony material (FYI: Cacophony was the band’s late 80s HP Lovecraft concept album) and are the only respite the listener gets from the other songs’ obsessive ruminations on death and futility.

“Annihilation” is a song that ought to please all the old death rockers out there. Although I would by no means describe “No More Pain” as a gothy album (especially given what “goth” has evolved to mean in today’s culture), “Annihilation” sees Blinko momentarily give up his hateful snarl for something more akin to his vocals on “Cacophony.” Enjoy it while you can, eyelinered folks, because after “Annihilation” it’s back to Blinko’s bilious snarling.

Excepting the final track, which is a cover of “Pachelbel’s Canon in E,” the longest song on “No More Pain” is two minutes and eleven seconds. The average song length is about a minute and forty seconds. There are ten tracks.

The artwork for the EP is exceptional, I should add. This should come as no surprise to those who know about singer and artist Nick Blinko’s rising profile in the world of Outsider Art. The black and white cover of the EP depicts a charred, mephitic demon against a detailed wall of pale faces. Open the EP and you’ll find a large, hollow-eyed humanoid face staring at you from behind a curtain of meticulously-detailed black and white static. A foldout poster is included with the EP, reproducing the cover art on a larger scale, showing to a greater extent the wall of humanoid faces against which the scowling demon on the cover marches. Angry black markings cover the CD itself and underneath, in the case, is another minutely-detailed wall of black “static.” (”Black static” is a good way to describe Blinko’s guitar sound, while I’m thinking of it.)

“No More Pain” should end any doubts about whether Rudimentary Peni are “still any good.” Like the unholy denizens in Lovecraft’s horror stories, “No More Pain” proves that Rudimentary Peni dwell outside of space and time, pleasantly and thankfully free of the contagion of so much of the absolute crap that constitutes modern music. From the beginning, Peni forged their own path. They have doggedly stuck to it, defying the odds, evolving on their own terms, going at their own pace, inventing their own aesthetic, and thankfully ignoring the ephemeral music trends of the moment to continue doing things their own damn way. Who do we have to thank that the band continues to make powerful music almost thirty years after their inception? And with the same lineup!? Certainly not God, if Peni’s lyrics are any indication. How about we just thank the band themselves, eh?

“No More Pain” is technically an Outer Himalayan release, but is being sold and distributed by Southern Records.

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A nice booklet is inside with the “Resistance, or The Black Idol” painting by Czech artist Frantisek Kupka (seen below on the cover of a 1979 edition of Kafka) that Amebix made familiar by way of their “Winter” EP, which has been remastered and is included here. The liner notes by Rob “The Baron” Miller can be interesting: “The early Amebix material has been kept in dusty vaults until very recently. John Loder was not willing to release it from Southern Studios — and subsequent discussions have only very recently proved fruitful — with the original master tapes having finally been returned to us for this, our own retrospective release of the material.” Miller doesn’t elaborate, but I wonder what the hold up/contention was?

If you haven’t heard this Amebix material — and you probably have if you read this site — it’s often described as “crust,” but if you’ve heard what’s called “crust” in the modern era, don’t expect it to sound like that. For one thing, most stuff called “crust” nowadays is fast and owes more to Discharge’s rhythm section than to the kind of tribal, post-punk inspired rhythm section Amebix employed on these early releases. Amebix songs like “Control” and “Belief” are almost certainly inspired by the tribal, heavy-on-the-toms rhythm section of early Killing Joke, as the band itself admits. Few crust bands rumble around constantly on the toms like this these days. Vocally, comparisons to Cronos of Venom are standard, even if Amebix singer Rob Miller, in response to these ubiquitous comparisons, rightly notes that Amebix predated Venom by a year or two. The songs on No Sanctuary are bleak and atmospheric. Except for a couple of numbers, the songs don’t really rock out; instead, they convey a dismal mood. It’s not partytime, feel-good music. The impression conveyed is more of someone howling darkly out of a slowly spinning gray and black vortex. If that sounds like your kind of thing, and you have never heard Amebix, then check this disc out. Not recommended if you’re in a depressive funk, though.

On Arise! Amebix would perfectly hone their special hybrid of evil metal and punk rock. Along with many other bands, their punk-metal mix is said to prefigure the late 80s era of crossover thrash, but serious research into the annals of hardcore will show a pretty significant conflation of styles almost right from the get-go of punk rock. In the early 80s era of the No Sanctuary EPs, Amebix were more concerned with driving relentless, thundering volleys of gloom and doom into listeners’ ears. The lyrics are certainly in an anarcho-punk vein (”No gods, no masters!”) but are also extremely pessimistic about the possibility of humans changing their collective fate: “They lead you to your slaughter / Like they lead a horse to water / They can’t force you to drink / But you do - you do!” Hovering over the collection is a claustrophobic sense of impending nuclear Armageddon (”Moscow Madness,” “Winter,” etc.). That was also a common topic of 80s punk bands, but in Amebix’s hands the subject is accorded a nightmarishly serious cast that makes it sound like other bands are singing about their favorite Saturday morning cartoons.

Sound quality-wise, I’m not sure things are improved drastically from the vinyl I’ve heard of these same songs. Purists should take heart, though, because that means these songs have not been transformed into something they never were. There is a strong fidelity to the original sound and atmosphere. All in all, a great collection for those stormy nights when a thrash LP just won’t do. It’s cool to have all this material in one package. I’m definitely not sorry I bought it. In fact, I think I’ll go put it on again….

Thanks to Rob, Stig, and Jello for getting this out there. Now I’m just waiting for my pre-ordered Risen! DVD!

Also: Let’s have some official CD or vinyl compilations of material by the bands Acrasy, Part 1, and the S-Haters, eh? That would further flesh out this kind of dark underside of early 80s British anarcho-punk. Amebix, along with Rudimentary Peni and Killing Joke, are probably in my Top 5 bands of all time. Just FYI.

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