DISARM (swe) interview 2003

Here's a brief but definitely worth reading interview with one of the most influential swedish hc/punk band from the 80s'. Taken from #3 of Cancer'zine.

Tales of a pretentious asshole#002

Sometimes, especially in these days, getting a record or a rare version of it is just a matter of being fast. Other times, it's a matter of knowing the right people. But sometimes it's just pure luck.
Last year I went to japan in january. It was my first time traveling overseas alone. In a country where people barely speak english. But since my friend Toru was supposed to pick me up at Narita airport, I wasn't really concerned. While getting my connection flight in Helsinki, I got a phone call from my girlfriend. She informed me that Toru suddenly got his day off  cancelled. Shit. I got quite nervous. She told me that Toru would pick me up as soon as he finished working. I just have to find a manga kissa (japanese internet café where you can also sleep), mail him where it was and then just wait. To make a long story short, after a 12 hours flight I've spent the next 8 hours in this tiny box where I could barely fit in:

After this claustrophobic experience, when  I recognized Toru's voice asking for me at the employees, it was a relief! On the way to his house, we got a wonderful dinner at a japanese barbecue restaurant. Then we stopped to an Onsen, a typical japanese public baths with hot spring water which was quite an experience!
After a solid sleep, the next morning I woke up ready to achieve my main goal. I could lie, but the main reason for that trip was record shopping. After hearing for years a lot of stories about how amazing japanese record shops are, it was finally my time to check if the rumors were right or exaggerated.
I headed straight to Shibuya's Disk Union since I also wanted to see the famous crossing. Now, if you're ever going to find a certain place in japan, be sure to get a map before or accurate directions otherwise you'll never find it. In case you didn't know, those wise bastards do not name their streets and buildings numbering is totally random. Smart choice. Since I'm an organized nerd, I got everything planned before leaving shitaly and found the place quite easily.
When the elevator doors opened, I was in hardcore heaven. On the wall in front of me, I immediately spotted Swankys "the very best of" lp and Wretched first ep and lp. My legs started to shake. The heartbeats got faster. After 5 minutes of randomly wandering around in a semi-ecstatic state of mind, I started to go through the crates. An awesome record after another. All in wonderful condition. The very first record I found was this:

Sieg Heil "1984 demo" repressed on lp that Overthrow Records put out sometimes around 2006. Being on Overthrow, I missed it when it came out since it sold out pretty quickly. Damn collectors. 750 copies were made and they sold out immediately. Considering the price it sells for on eBay, I got this for a steal (20 euro-bucks). Basically this contains their first demo tape "Nazism", released in 50 copies by Violent Party Records back in 1984. In case you don't know, Sieg Heil were from the same city of Gai/ Swankys and Confuse and their sound is the typical Kyushu sound that we all love. I've heard funny stories about dumb crusties complaining about this band. So before pretending to be offended by something you don't even know, keep in mind that they weren't nazis. SH were just a bunch of high school kids looking for an easy way to piss people off. No big deal, sorry. Awesome band, I think they're even better than Confuse if you want my opinion.
Later that afternoon, back to Toru's home, after a day of compulsive record shopping, I started to check all the records I bought that day. Sieg Heil lp came with a fold out insert with band's story written directly by band members both in japanese and english.

Then, when I pulled the record out of the dust sleeve, I couldn't believe to my eyes:

I've got red wax! Most of the press is on black wax. I couldn't find any infos about it so I guess that something like 50 or 100 copies were made on colored wax as a limited edition. I've only seen one picture of another copy of this on red so I'd assume that it's pretty rare. If you have any infos about the pressing run, it will be extremely appreciated. 

So yeah, sometimes record collecting it's all about being damn lucky. And it makes you feel way better than just being fast on refreshing your browser.

Violencia Y Destruccion

It seems like my prayers have been finally answered:  someone repressed for the masses this nice lil' piece of wax. If you're into colombian hardcore, you should already know that in that country, like in the rest of central/south america (with the notable exception of Brazil), hardcore sprouted almost a decade later compared to the rest of the world. And Rasix Sociedad Violenta split ep was the very first hc vinyl that came out from Colombia sometimes around 1989. Punk Y Qué?, who were also responsible for the repress of the Imagen ep that came out a couple of years ago, did an excellent job: not only this is a perfect reproduction of the original, but it also has 3 bonus trax that I guess come from bands' respective demos.

Both bands play that kind of extremely simple and straight in your face hardcore that is my favorite style at the moment. Like all the other colombian/south american bands, lyrics are very political. While I tend to see this kind of lyrics ridiculous when they are written by bored western white kids who still live with their parents but pretend to be some kind of revolutionaries only 'coz they are dressed/act weirdly, they are totally genuine when they came from someone who grow up in the slums of Medellin. Between late 80s'/ early 90s' this city was under the siege of an extremely violent drug war. The kids involved in the hc scene chose to do not be part of the drug cartels and lots of them payed that choice with their life. At the same time, lots of western punx were having recreational time with the very same south american drugs while pretending to make the world a better place. Yeah, punk is  really a threat to the society.

According to the insert, the main reason for this repress were the silly prices colombian records sell for on eBay. While I can totally see the point and respect it, I don't think anything will change. Of course more people will hold in their hands the real piece of plastic instead of some crappy mp3s. But I'm pretty sure collectors wont care and they'll keep paying outrageous amounts of money for the original. Please keep in mind that I've payed 70 bucks for my copy of "La Ciudad Podrida" so I'm not the right person to understand punk idealistic crusade against overpriced records.

At this point I'm confident that, in a not so far future, also BSN, Restos de Tragedia and IRA vinyls will receive the same treatment. They deserve it and I deserve to own them all.

Here's a Medellin discography (period '89-'93) that I've tried to assemble a few months ago. Lemme know if something's wrong or missing!!

-ATAQUE DE SONIDO “s/t” 7” (ADS Records, 1990

-BSN “guerra bacteriologica” 7” (Discos Fuentes, 1991)
-BSN “brigada subterranea” 7” (Self relased, 1992)
-CENSURA “libertad sin control” lp (Self released, 1991) 
-CTC/ AVERXION split 7” (Self released 1991, 2 presses)
-DEXKONCIERTO demos
-FERTIL MISERIA “cadenas” 7” (Disco Fuentes, 1994)
-FERTIL MISERIA “reaccion” 7” (Disco Fuentes, 1996 repress?? OG recorded in 1992)
-HERPES “medellin” 7” (self released, 1989)
-HP HC “hardcore punk trash” 7” (Planeta Crisis)
-IMAGEN demos 1&2
-IMAGEN “...y ahora que?” 7” (self released, 1989)
-I.R.A. “barquizidio” 7” (self released, 1989,  repressed in 1996)
-I.R.A. “atentado terrorista” 7” (self released, 1990)
-I.R.A. “impotable diversion” lp (self released, 1993)
-RASIX/ SOCIEDAD VIOLENTA split 7” (Lufer Records, 1989)
-RASIX “latino america” 7” (Lufer Records, 1990)
-RESTOS DE TRAGEDIA demo tape (???)
-RESTOS DE TRAGEDIA “ser y no ser” 7” (???)
-RESTOS DE TRAGEDIA “medellin presenta a: RTD” (???)
-SOCIEDAD VIOLENTA demo
-VA “estamos en la sima” tape Ataque de Sonido, Crimen Impune,Diskordia, BSN, Dexconcierto, HPHC, Herpes (1989)
-VA “grido antitaurino” tape
-VA “la ciudad podrida vol. 1” lp with multiple trax by BSN, HPHC, Crimen Impune, Diskordia, Ataque de Sonido, Dexkoncierto, Restos de Tragedia(1990, bootleged?)
-VA “medellin contra el quinto centenario” tape with multiple trax by Desastre, Rasix, GP, Imagen, Desahogo, Hartos de Ti, Censura, Agresion Social. (?? 1991)

EXTORTION interview 2006

What can I say about Extortion? When I was in Perth I saw them live a couple of time and I was totally annihilated by their intense, angry, non PC fast hardcore. Interview conducted with singer Rohan via email on sept. ’06, just between their first ep and first lp (their best period, imho). Originally featured in PM#5.

Perro: Hi Rohan, how’s going there? Before starting the Extortion interview I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about your previous band, All In Deep Shit (by the way, great name!). It seems that AIDS had a very brief life…why did you break up so early?
Rohan: actually aids was around for quite a while, we started in march of 2001 went through about 3 guitarists before rhys join and broke up in 2003 when our vocalist, robin, left for melbourne. we reformed and did a short tour of the eastern states when the 7" of our recording came out. i must point out that aids was a pretty shithouse band, it was (for most of us) our first band and for the majority of our existance we were more like the musical equivalent of a sloppy steaming pile of horseshit.

Perro: Since half of the AIDS members were also in Extortion at its beginning, could we consider the bands connected in some way? To make it more direct: is Extortion the continuation or the evolution of AIDS?
Rohan: there was quite a gap between aids and extortion, and we all formed a bunch of bands in that time. towards the end of aids i ws writing heavier, more grindcore tunes and after aids broke up wrote started a band called halo of knives with james who played drums in aids and jay who is the current guitarist in extortion. i'd say halo of knives was the natural progression of aids, in terms of my songwriting. rhys on the other hand wrote the more technical powerviolence songs, something along the lines of youth enrage.
extortion was really more of a progression from nailed down, who i also played bass for. there were a lot of songs i had written for nailed down that we never got around to learning before we broke up, so when rhys said he wanted to drum for a band (he previously played guitar in aids, the collapse and 5.3 billion other bands) in the style of early boston/infest i had songs ready to go and rhys wrote a few and we had a set in no time.

Perro: The way you sing in both band is very different: in AIDS it was more a fastcore screaming style while in Extortion you are using a more traditional yelled approach. Why did you decide to change the way you sing?
Rohan: haha, actually i played bass in aids, robin was our vocalist, we're both pretty haggard looking dudes, so i can understand the mix up. the songs we had for extortion were angry sounding songs, so i'd write lyrics about how shit work and my boss is and other crap that pisses me off and yelling that way just seems right for the subject matter i guess.

Perro: Ok, it’s time to close this brief trip to the past. Since I don’t think you are very well known here, introduce Extortion to the uninitiated!
Rohan: extortion is a band from perth, australia. we play fast angry hardcore. like if infest, no comment and crossed out gang raped siege whilst negative fx witnessed the ordeal and ran off to ring the cops (who happen to be repulsion, terrorizer and early napalm death).

Perro: You are going to have a new release on Deep Six and I think this label is perfect for your style. When you told me that, you were very happy and in some way proud of it…
Rohan: haha, is this a question? thanks raffa! i'm fucking stoked to be on the same label as infest and numerous other bands i listen to on a unhealthily frequent basis

Perro: Have you already recorded it? I think that with your new drummer Dean your sound is improved a lot…
Rohan: yeah we recorded it in febuary this year, a month or two before rhys (our first drummer) left to find ugly chicks to fuck in europe. our songwriting evolved a lot since the first e.p so the songwriting is a lot stronger. rhys's drumming improved tenfold since the first recording, not surprising considering he'd only been drumming a few months.

Perro: Talking about dean, he’s a living drum machine! Are his arms insured?
Rohan: he's not currently insured, so nowadays after we play he usually just gets dismantled and put back in the box he came in and kept under the stairs. he's good, but with the price of petrol these days he's expensive to run.

Perro: This one is directly for Dean: Your hardcore “pedigree” is very impressive, you played with Rupture, Nailed Down and also Heist. Can you tell us some funny or scary anecdotes about these experiences? 
Dean: Considering i hate everyone that i have ever played in bands with, i don't hang around them long enough to have any anecdotes worth telling except the one where I smashed andrew (singer from rupture) in the streets of melbourne cause he asked me for money for heroin... and considering i hate junkies more than i hate the people in the bands i played in... it was worth it.. at least he is dead now.

Perro: Your lyrics are very negative, depressed and full of violence. Are them inspired by the huge number of MTV kind of punks that I saw all around Perth? Seriously, you are a very nice and friendly guy, totally different from the idea that someone could have after reading your lyrics. What’s the font of inspiration for them?
Rohan: im a bit of a pessimist i guess. on top of that, whilst i'm willing to talk to anyone, if they repeated talk solely about inane boring tripe or outright retarded shit, i just won't have anything to do with them. songs are usually about these type of people. as for MTV punks, well yeah, they suck, but so does the majority of the population, so its no surprise.

Perro: “Mindless violence” is obviously a tribute to gore movies. What’s your favourite one? If there was an Extortion movie, how would it be and who would direct it?
Rohan: im a big fan of cannibal movies, and ruggero deodato's cannibal holocaust is a favourite. along with braindead by peter jackson for its sheer gore overload. as for an extortion movie, i think it'd be more like a series we had over here called blue murder, it was about corrupt police. i doubt anyone could say we could be seen as moral enough to pass as police, but the arseholes in the police force that i always seem to encounter would prove otherwise.

Perro: I was very impressed by your live performance, especially the gig at your house with Jaws was totally crazy! Are you neighbours threatening you for hosting shows in your living room?
Rohan: i'm surrounded by stores, the closest house is maybe 50 metres away? so yeah, i guess we are far enough away that its not too noisy. it seems every single person who has made a complaint about noise has disappeared in suspicious circumstances before anything came of it and we've had not one complaint which makes these disappearances even more suspicious.

Perro: I’ve always had the impression that aussie scene is a bit ignored by international diy scenes. Do you feel that? I’ve also noticed that sometimes Perth, due to its geographical isolation, is skipped by overseas touring bands…
Rohan: yeah, well australia is so far away it costs a shitload to get here and the lack of population makes for pretty small shows, so i can understand why it would be seen as a bad idea to come to australia. its only been recently that enough people have been going to shows to make it worth while for international bands to fly all the way over here. Perth is just a more extreme version of this situation, its all the way over the other side of the country, so you're paying around $500 each person to play to a small crowd in most cases. that said perth is getting better, we're getting 100-200 people going to see most touring bands.

Perro: On the other side, Perth is the undisputed capital of australian hardcore. Almost all the classic aussie bands seem to arrive from there. What’s the secret for being so good when it comes to play hardcore? I’ve read somewhere that is also the same for many others music genres…
Rohan: perth seems to have a history of fast hardcore, from the 80s through til mid-late 90's there's always been a bunch of fast bands around which is kinda weird considering how small and isolated perth is. i'd love to know how those early bands heard about this style. there are also a lot of KBD bands from perth, the victims, quick and the dead, etc. i don't really know much about other genres, but apparently perth is huge for drum and bass, hahahah

Perro: Perth and HC gossip: I’ve read about a famous controversy between Rupture and Nailed Down some years ago. Could you tell us all the spicy details…
Rohan: hahah, i wish i knew too! i've quizzed kim from nailed down about it, but to no avail and i've spoken to matt from rupture and he doesn't know what it was about. seems to be some sort of animosity between kim and andrew (gus chambers).

Perro: Introduced european species like rabbits, bees or foxes are a serious threat to your unique and delicate environment. I’ve noticed that in many national parks the questionable solution is poisoning and killing them. What’s your opinion about that?
Rohan: it seems that nowadays whilst they try their hardest to stop feral and introduced animals, its only slowing their spread as opposed to stopping them. its kinda fucked. i dunno much about animal control, so i can't really comment on whether poisoning them is bad or not. given the amount of animals and the vast amount of land they inhabit, i can imagine there would be little other choice?

Perro: Some years ago a refugee boats was refused to land by John Howard’s government. You still have him at the power, is the immigrant situation getting worst?Rohan: hahaha, everything has been fucked over here for a long time, as far as politics is concerned. though i imagine its the same everywhere if not worse. its seems like there is no choice, no one is making the right decisions and the majority of the public are more concerned with whatever paranoia they're being fed by newpapers and television.

Perro: Plans for the future?
Rohan: we're always writing new stuff, and we've got enough for a new e.p now, but booked in at the studio in december, so we'll probably have a monumental amount of stuff by then. i'd love to tour, but its a matter of money and time and the fact that i'm lacking both of them.
as for myself, just keep working my shitty job just to keep on top of rent and bills, hopefully one day save enough to travel! see you then raffa!

Perro: It’s time to conclude, thanx for your time! Any last words of wisdom?
Rohan: i'm not a wise man, and hence have nothing wise to say. perhaps don't do anything i would do? that'd probably the best way not to fuck anything up, really.

Total Noise Core

I've been waiting for this record for over a month. Apparently, the guy I've bought my copy from was out of town for about three weeks and asked his girlfriend to ship all his parcels. Of course she didn't do it. Never trust a woman.

What we got here could easily become the noisecore record of the year (well, technically this was released on 31/12/2011, but c'mon...). Just look at the puerile artwork and labels, if you're not excited like a schoolgirl about dumb stuff like this, I feel sorry for you! When it comes to make records looking cool without being too fancy, Hardcore Survives has no contenders. I love their coloured dust sleeves that always match perfectly with the artwork. 

Thanx Buddha not only this ep looks cool, it also contains awesome music (or should I'd better say noise?). I do really appreciate that, while both Control and Stagnation are influenced by the usual suspects (Confuse and Disorder, respectively), they are not ruining their sound by hyper-distorting everything (like lots of japanese bands have done in the last 4-5 years). For sure the guitars sound like chainsaws, but under the fuzz you can also enjoy the structure of the songs. So the final result are some memorable tunes, not a simple blur of generic noise. Get this one before its too late!!

DEATH SENTENCE (australia) interview 2006

Great interview conducted a few years ago with one of my top five ever favourite aussie band: the legendary Death Sentence. If you haven't heard their mighty "Ryan Thanx for the Support" 7", do yourself a favor and go hunting a copy immediately! Originally featured in great oz zine Mind Control#3 (I'm still looking for #2, if you can help, hook me up!)

Nobody Likes A Thinker

It has been bloody cold in the last two weeks. Temperatures rarely went over 0° and we got snow too. I do really hate winter. Everything get slower. Of course it has been a perfect excuse to avoid updating this blog in the last weeks. But, on the other side, my worst enemy, the damn poste italiane, also seems to be slower than usual in these days (not that they are that efficient when weather is nice and warm). I've been waiting for a couple of parcels for some weeks now but there's still no sign of life in my mailbox. Thanx Allah this weekend we got the local record fair in Milano so at least I got some new wax to avoid going through a vinyl withdrawal...

Last time I was there it was quite disappointing. The only good score was a Void/ Faith split (french press), for the rest I just got some boring represses. Not that there wasn't hot stuff, but it was way too overpriced for my pockets. This time it was better. I went with a friend early in the morning since we thought there would be less people around. Of course every other smart ass record nerd got the same bloody idea so it was packed as hell!

Anyway, here's the new kids on the block:

Let's start in Sydney, Orstralia. Year of the lord 1986. Massappeal's debut full length "nobody likes a thinker". This record has been in my want list for some years now so I'm glad to finally own a copy in excellent condition for a fair price. Not sure if the purple cover is the first or the second press. All I know is that it looks way cooler than the white one. What else can I say? If you're not familiar with these guys, definitely check this out. Top notch fast hardcore in the classic mid 80s tradition. I'm pretty sure someone would call it crossover, but I'm not sure if I'll go that far....

Let's cross the Pacific Ocean and, almost around the same time, the mexican scene was unleashing two excellent bands: Histeria and Masacre 68. This is a repress of the original split 7" with lots of extra tunes. It came out in 2K. I know, I know picture disk sucks. But this is a hell of a record if you like your south american hardcore. Raw and direct in your face brutal shit. Sleeve is a two-sided printed sheet with artwork on one side and liner notes and track lists on the other one. It's on bad quality and extremely thin paper, so it was pretty damaged and required an immediate treatment to prevent further damages. I've put a thick piece of cardboard between it and the record to avoid that it deteriorates even more in the future.  

Back to Italy. Even if in the early 90s' I used to hang out sporadically with this guy that everyone called "Kina" ('coz he was a big fan of them), I've never gave them a chance during all these years. My loss since Kina debut album "realtà irreale" is a solid record with lyrics that seems to be smarter than your average annoying militant band from italy of that era. This copy is missing its xeroxed lyric sheet that originally came with the record and the cover shows signs of the time but for 10 eurobucks I can easily affirm I've made a good score. 

Last but definitely not least, the repress of the uber-rare finnish classic Kaaos/Cadgers split ep. I love finnish hardcore and this is definitely one of its finest moment. Of course it's not the original first press that came out for P.Tuotanto in 1982 and now goes for big bucks. But at least its the official repress on Anomie from 2005. A perfect reproduction of the original and I've even been lucky enough to get the limited red vinyl, so I won't complain at all. In case you live under a rock and don't know it, Cadgers renamed themselves Riistetyt after this very record.