It’s that time of year, when all the blogs suddenly go quiet as their authors attend to the usual end-of-year commitments – BBQing, boozing, family feuding, etc…

Seems like unless you give a shit about the many places Tiger Woods has chosen to stick his dick and how that relates to the struggling US stock market, there hasn’t been much good reading on the internet of late.

In the interest of helping fill this void, UB.com’s Danger Coolidge interviewed bassist Mark Nelson of Melbournian swamp dwellers The Stabs…

Who are The Stabs’ allies and who are your enemies?
Anyone who’ll buy me a drink is all right by me.

Your new record Dead Wood is the successor to Dirt. What’s the difference?
I think Dead Wood is a much stronger album. In hindsight Dirt is more like a documentation of our favourites from the first batch of songs we wrote. Dead Wood benefits from a little planning – there are songs on there we don’t play live, and songs we play rarely.  We really tried to make an album this time as opposed to record what we had lying around. In that sense there has been a shift in the songwriting, particularly “Cabin Fever” which was never meant to be played outside the studio and “Funeral Waltz” which was written on the spot.

Dirt you recorded with Lindsay Gravina but Dead Wood was done with Loki Lockwood. Which of those two guys has the better eating habits and personal hygiene?
Lindsay had nothing to do with Dirt, we worked with Rob Long on that one. He seems to shower regularly and is always wearing clean clothes. We recorded the second album with Loki because we simply wanted to make a different record with a different dude. I can’t fault Loki’s hygiene either. Sorry, no dirt there.

Got any tips for fellow bass players on how to preserve the vibrancy of your strings to retain that crisp, fullness of tone longer?
I don’t really have a rule for my strings. I don’t even have a favourite brand. This last set I used for a month before the E string broke, sometimes they’ll go for more like six months. Whenever one string goes I change the whole set to maintain an even tone across the neck. Sometimes I’ll notice they’re really dead and change them before one breaks, whichever comes first. In The Stabs I try to play all the notes on the E and A strings for maximum bottom end. I probably rely on my big muff for sustain more than fresh strings though.

What’s the greatest perk involved with being a Stab?
The other night I got punched in the face, the dude got thrown out and then half the bar felt sorry for me and bought me Tequila shots.

Every release you’ve done has been put out by a different label – are you proud of this or ashamed? Why such instability?
What’s to be ashamed about? [er, the fact that no one wants to deal with you beyond one record – DC] I’m glad so many people are willing to come to the party. I don’t think it’s instability at all, just sharing the love around. I’d like to think that we have our core fan base that buys our releases no matter who puts them out, then with each label there are a few people who might not hear of the band otherwise that hear the records because they’re into the label, or the mailing list they sell them through.

If The Stabs could chose to be on any label in the world – a permanent lifetime deal on a mad royalty rate too – where would you go?
If it was a mad royalty rate I’d sign on any dotted line, I’m not made of stone. Starbucks would be fun for the free coffee. It would be cool if Coopers Brewery started a label…

Dirt never came out on vinyl, which sucked. Will Dead Wood get a vinyl release?
I’d love both Dirt and Dead Wood to come out on vinyl. It’s just a question of money and nobody’s offered to do it yet. Unfortunately we’ve never been in a position to afford pressing them ourselves.

What was the most insane, out-of-control Stabs show ever – beginning, middle, ending and after-party?
The most insane show would have to be the last date of our USA tour of 2006. There’s footage of it on our myspace site/youtube. It was in a warehouse in Allentown PA called Jeff the Pigeon. I remember Lexie Mountain Boys were also on the bill. Before we played the guy who organised the show was worried about too many people passing out because he didn’t think he had enough smelling salt to revive too many dudes. While we played people were swinging from the rafters, rolling each other up in the carpet, kicking each other, sticking their heads in my bass cabinet and punching the floor, lying on my feet while someone else poured beer into their mouths, generally just going nuts. The set ended with a giant stacks on and the next day Brendan [Noonan – guitar/vocals] had a bruise the shape of a Doc Martin boot on his back. After we played chairs started flying around the room. The night ended when we went back to the promoter’s house, drank methadone and watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

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Dead Wood is out now on Spooky Records

The Stabs MySpace: www.myspace.com/thestabs

Hands-down one of the coolest new discoveries of this year was Montreal awesome foursome Barn Burner.

Any band that writes a song called “Beer Today, Bong Tomorrow” is OK in our books, but these guys are something extra special.

Their album, Bangers, was to 2009 what Priestess’ Hello Master was to whatever year that came out. A highly assured debut packed with kick-arse hard rock tunes hanging ten on an endless Sabbath groove, doped to the eyeballs, sprayed in beer, spat at punk-style and intercut with gratuitous scenes of twin guitar sex and death, it’s a damn shame most folks don’t even know it exists.

Released in Canada in August by local label New Romance for Kids, Bangers was met with a much milder response that its brilliance deserved but was at least enough to convince Metal Blade to take a chance on the band. Brian Slagel obviously still has his ears screwed on right.

Bangers will be thrust upon the wider world via Metal Blade/Riot! this February with two additional bonus tracks. All you sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies and dickheads are advised not to miss out the second time around.

UB.com’s Danger Coolidge recently interviewed Kevin Keegan, Barn Burner’s guitarist/vocalist (and not the little English bloke that used to kick a ball around)…

The band formed in Montreal circa-’06? What was the impetus behind starting up? What other bands had the members been in previously?
We actually got going late in 2007. A few of us had fucked around under different names with different members for a few months before that but it didn’t really get off the ground until later in 2007. To tell you the truth the local scene here in Montreal was not too inspiring at the time. I had only moved to Montreal from Vancouver a few months before starting the band so all my local inspirations were back west. There is not a lot of the kind of thing we are doing here in Montreal; the few of us there are (bands like Priestess and Trigger Effect) sort of stick out amidst a massive sea of technical death metal. The impetus for starting the band was initially to write and play tunes that made people want to drink excessively and high-five a lot. What came with that thrust was also the desire to write tunes that sort of compiled everything we like to listen to, from the harshest of death metal to catchy 70’s metal and rock. Previously I was in a slew of bands: A Javelin Reign, Bend Sinister, The Gorgeous. I did some touring and had a few releases with them but nothing really substantial. Marc [Doucette, guitar] and Taylor [Freund, drums] played in a band called Black Ships that did a ton of touring. Rick [Nick Ball, bass] played in a badass reggae cover band with his karate teacher; I think you can still catch their weekly gig at Pirate Pete’s Tapas Grill in Halifax.

Did you have such a distinctive sound right away or was there a developmental period leading up to the recording of Bangers?
At first we were trying to go for a sound that had more of an emphasis on seventies riff rock like Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple. Because I had spent many years before that writing fast technical metal I really wanted to shift gears and try something different. What I soon discovered though was that there is no escape from the dark and punishing side of heavy metal so eventually the two sounds sort of collided. On Bangers you can spot the shift, some songs have more of a poppy riff rock feel while others are heavier and darker.

Did you pay for the recording yourselves?
We did pay for it ourselves unfortunately, we were not on a label yet so we had to do everything ourselves. We had done some demos before but Bangers was our first actual album recorded with the intention of releasing.

Why did the album take so long to come out? How did New Romance For Kids finally come to the rescue?
It took a long time to see the light of day because both we were lazy and didn’t give it the initial push it deserved and our first label sort of pulled the plug on us last minute, otherwise it would have come out way earlier. We approached New Romance after Taylor (whose band Black Ships was on New Romance) showed the album to them for the first time. When they heard it they were totally stoked right away and a few months later put it out.

The cover art is fantastic – who was the artist?
The figure you see on the cover is actually our mascot, Bernard Burner. He was conceived of by our good friend and ridiculously talented artist Cody Fennell. Cody had done a T-shirt for us with Bernard on it and when the time came for the album to come out I asked Cody to draw Bernard in a throne with a chalice raised in a toast. He took that idea and added tons of detail to create what it ended up being.

What is the best thing you’ve heard said or written about Bangers? What is the worst thing?
The best thing I read I think was: “If Steve Harris (yes, Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris) moved to Montreal, started eating poutine and joined Corrosion of Conformity, it would sounds like this.” I thought that was pretty awesome. Countless people come up to us seemingly really excited and say, “Oh man, my dad saw your set and he thought you guys were awesome!” You would be surprised how many times we’ve heard that, so we are having a T-shirt made that says, “Dads Love Barn Burner”. I read a comment about us somewhere that said, “A lot of 40-year-old bar stars are going to be really stoked for this band,” which, although was meant as a slight against us, was pretty hilarious and hopefully true.

You recently signed to Metal Blade. Was that after a huge bidding war?
Well the bidding war started between Warner and RCA and they each offered us a 3million dollar-signing bonus, but as soon as Metal Blade came into the picture and simply said they could get us a beer sponsorship, we were sold! Ha, jokes aside, we didn’t actually have too many labels interested in us at the time that Metal Blade approached. It came totally out of the blue, I had sent some promo packs around months before and didn’t actually send one to Metal Blade thinking that we didn’t seem metal enough next to the likes of Cannibal Corpse and Behemoth. So when they offered us a deal we were totally shit shocked. For me the idea of being on Metal Blade has been a dream ever since I started listening to metal so naturally we didn’t hesitate to sign with them. I guess they just offered us sincere support and to be a part of a roster that destroys. I don’t know if we hope to gain anything besides touring like mad men and putting out a few more records.

Metal Blade will re-release Bangers with a couple of extra tracks. Is it ironic/weird/frustrating that Bangers is now coming out on Metal Blade when it was ignored for so long?
It’s not too frustrating, if anything its sort of flattering that they want to give Bangers a real worldwide push. Having it only out in Canada is pretty limiting because Canada is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of things. The fact that they want to give it the push I think it deserves is pretty crucial.

Are you also locked in to make your next album with Metal Blade?
We are, which is awesome, I think, because it will be the second record they do, meaning, hopefully, it will do better and bring some more opportunities with it. We basically have the next record written (tentatively titled, Bangers 2: Scum of the Earth), which I think will be no surprise to any one who digs the songs on Bangers, its in the same vein just a lot fiercer and quite a bit darker. The two new songs we recorded to add to the metal blade version of Bangers will kind of give you an idea of what the next record will sound like, both songs were written in and around the same time as our other new tunes. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be back in the studio until fall or winter of 2010.

Final thoughts?
Maybe just a couple of mantra-like one-liners that we like to throw around: Keep the dream alive, peace in the pit and throw goat!

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Bangers is out worldwide on February 16th on Metal Blade, distributed in Australia through Riot!

Barn Burner MySpace: www.myspace.com/theinfamousbarnburner

A great mate of UNBELIEVABLY Bad, one-time interview subject [issue #7] and now contributor [see issue #9 for his debut piece on grave-robbing with the Misfits], Mike IX Williams (EyeHateGod, Outlaw Order, Arson Anthem) sent a killer care-package to our PO Box the other week containing tons of stickers/handbills/fridge magnets and assorted Housecore Records product, including the bloodcurdling Arson Anthem debut 10”. Top of the pile, however, was his new solo 7” via Jersey’s Chrome Peeler label.

Described in the press release as “anti-social misanthropic spoken word and power electronics”, one side of the single features a spoken piece with ambient backing by Ryan McKern (Wolvhammer) titled “That’s What The Obituary Said”, while the other side has a reworked version of “Ten Suicides” by Bloodyminded, which Mike did guest vocals on. Limited to 500 copies, black with yellow spatter vinyl, it comes with a lyric sheet all wrapped in a poster with amazing art done by Mike himself.

UB.com’s Danger Coolidge sent some probing questions through to IX, but he forgot all about them, so this week Danger sent ‘em again. Without further ado (since ‘ado’ sounds much classier than ‘bullshit’), here’s the latest from the Southern Nihilism Front…

The new solo 7” features two quite different sides – do you see the two sides as being connected, or were they just two pieces you had lying around to chuck on a 45?
Naw, they’re not connected at all except in the fact that they are both experimental and non-musical in structure. I recorded “That’s What the Obituary Said” especially for this record and that’s more atmospheric with more somber spoken vocals. The “Ten Suicides” track is a re-mix from the group Bloodyminded’s Gift Givers release and was recorded 2003-4 if I remember correctly. It’s harsher noise with screaming voices and I wanted to use that one again on something of my own and they were fine with that.

“That’s What The Obituary Said” by The Guilt Øf… is a spoken-word piece with ambient backing by Ryan McKern of Wolvhammer. How did you guys get collaborating and do you have more material than this one track? Do you perform that stuff live?
Ryan was living in New Orleans and wanted to do a project and contacted me through email and we got together and wrote some stuff and it clicked. We have a bunch of songs finished, probably almost 18 or 19 or so and have a couple releases coming out; a split with Italian band IVS Primae Noctis and another with Merzbow outta Japan. We’re also gonna put out a full-length of our own eventually, we’re looking for labels. We haven’t played live yet, but plan too soon. Ryan moved back to Minneapolis to work but comes down frequently and every time we go in the studio and soon we will begin rehearsing a live set.

Do you have a lot of spoken-word material accumulated? What are your spoken-word rants generally based on or inspired by?
I have a lot written but not really too much recorded. There are a few or three cassettes laying around for a few different solo releases that are planned. I’ve taken some things out of my book, Cancer as a Social Activity, and other stuff from tons of notebooks I have scattered about. My words for TgØ are more abstract and not as straight forward as my other groups but basically my usual sentiments; hatred and disgust of authority, isolation, contradiction and confusion, depression and corruption, hallucinations and weirdness.

“Ten Suicides” is a nice ditty by Chicago’s Bloodyminded that you did vocals on. What is this re-mix done by Mark Solotroff (Bloodyminded)?
Mark mainly raised some levels and lowered others while extracting some of the vocal tracks as it had a bunch. It’s a more bare bones version and sick in a different way I suppose. It was recorded a good while ago at the old flophouse I was living at and I did my part by yelling through a cardboard tube directly into a cheap shoebox style tape machine. My neighbors; all alcoholics, war vets and addicts, didn’t even notice because there was always someone screaming at that apartment complex.

EyeHateGod have been doing a fair few shows of late. How is the old killing machine – still doing the damage? Any hassles leaving the States/entering other countries?
We DESTROY everything as usual after all these years. The bruises, cuts and hangovers don’t go away as quick anymore but we still got an edge. I’ve been drinking a bit too much on some of these shows but people wanna see a train wreck and that’s what they get. But yeah we are tight and heavy as shit and the crowds have all been amazing as fuck. It’s like finally people caught on and it’s trendy to like this type of music. No problems leaving the country or travelling in the USA, all paperwork is legal and good.

What would it take to get EHG down for an Australian tour? Are you at least interested in coming?
Oh yeah for sure, I’ve wanted to come down your way for years and years and am working on that some way or somehow. I want to come with EyeHateGod, that’s the ideal plan, but I’d settle on coming with any of the bands I’m in. I’m hoping the upcoming Merzbow connection with The Guilt Øf…will lead to some good things, such as a Aussie/Japanese/NZ tour. I have been fascinated by Australian music and culture for as long as I can remember and wanna visit or fucking live there before I die.

What is the current status of Outlaw Order? You had to cancel some shows in March this year due to family issues?
Not my family though, but yeah our drummer had some problems he had to take care of. That pretty much sucked, I hate to cancel especially when our album had just came out. We have been gigging around lately a lot however, just played a local one last Friday night and before that did a couple Southern shows last few months ago with Anal Cunt, then Murderfest, Chaos in Tejas, Hellfest in France and another show in Texas with the old doom band Pentagram. We try to keep busy but sometimes obligations get in the way. It’s like that with all the bands really.

What is the status of Arson Anthem at the moment? Is it hard to pull everyone together for practice or writing?
It’s not really been a problem because obviously it’s a side project now anyway so we do it when we can. We managed to record 17 new songs for a full LPs worth of material last year and just recently finished the mixing of that and I’m excited to get it out on Housecore Records in 2010 and its all furious and raw fucked up hardcore punk. We have done gigs when the first record came out and everybody had a break in their schedules and we definitely want to do more. We wrote the new album when Hank III came down and we holed up in the practice room for a week, 6-7 hours a day and knocked it out, taking care of details later. I think people will be blown away and also be happily surprised as it’s a quite a bit different than the first EP.

We really dug (no pun intended) your article on robbing graves with The Misfits in the latest issue of UNBELIEVABLY Bad – truly amazing shit! Got anything else in store for upcoming issues?
Killer, glad you folks liked it! That’s all true shit. I got more stories from back then like taking Gibby from the Butthole Surfers to buy crack and later being on tour with EHG that I need to dig from the memory banks and jot down on paper. I recently sent in a short piece about Hellfest and I got another one called Underground and Unsigned I dunno if I sent in yet, but if not, I will. Also a story about getting in a fist fight with a bandmate down in Juarez, Mexico and barely escaping going to jail down there and/ or getting killed! I write in all my spare time and if you bastards will have me, I’d love to continue to contribute. I love the mag, man, as I’ve told you before and always look forward to reading it. I’m currently reading the PDFs of all the sold out issues.

What other stuff you got in works – rekkids, books, gigs…?
Besides the things I mentioned above; I’ve got to find time to finish my next two books which are done except for editing and artwork, then a couple spoken word/noise cassettes on two different labels to put together, may be doing the Dennis Dread art show in Portland next year, lotta shows booked for next year with EyeHateGod and Outlaw Order and I’m sure there are many things I’m forgetting. I gotta keep busy and stay outta trouble, but I mainly want to keep creating stuff while I have a chance. I’m having fun, I think…?

What is your favoured holiday destination right now?
I dunno, maybe just stay home with the wonderful dog and wife, have a few drinks. Was talk of going to Alabama for family but who knows? Merry Crassmas, I hope you fucking choke on it!!!

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“That’s What The Obituary Said” b/w “Ten Suicides” 7” is out now via Chrome Peeler: www.chromepeeler.com

EyeHateGod MySpace: www.myspace.com/eyehategod

The Guilt Øf… MySpace: www.myspace.com/theguiltof

Arson Anthem MySpace: www.myspace.com/arsonanthem

Outlaw Order MySpace: www.myspace.com/outlaworder

Who started the label and what were your general aspirations?
Bubsy – also the vocalist of Ebolie – started the label back in 2001. I (Lachlan) joined around 2004/2005 to help out with the website and all things digital. The goal has always been to support and release local music that we are passionate about.

Where is the label’s homebase?
We both live in the southern suburbs of Sydney.

What kind of distribution does the label have?
All of our favourite independent music stores in Australia stock our releases; Repressed Records and Missing Link being our foremost favourites. Internationally we have distribution with labels and distros across innumerable countries – The Czech Republic, Russia, Indonesia, Thailand, USA, Canada, Yugoslavia, Poland – you name it, we’re probably there! We also have a very pretty new online store with plenty of releases for low, low prices.

How can a band get signed to your label?
Essentially one of us just has to hear your music and be passionate enough about it. We try not to put any limitations on what we’re looking for. It also depends on how many commitments we have at any one time.

Why do you do it?
We have had quite a good year in 2009. The greater economic crisis affects billion dollar banks and archaic major record labels – not small-scale independent music. We have never run Grindhead Records in order to profit; that was never our goal. We do what we do for the love of music. To be associated with a piece of music that you are passionate about is rewarding enough – but to take it that little bit further and be associated with a fantastic music event like Slaughterfest III is very, very satisfying. Honestly I don’t know how to answer that question. I will always be playing music and I will always be supporting music I am passionate about in any way I can. It just seems natural.

What else do you do?
Bubsy sings in Ebolie and also promotes gigs and a series of mini-festivals (Slaughterfest and East/West Death Grind Fest). I play bass in Ebolie, as well as a experimental/prog kinda band called Serious Beak. I also play guitar in the stoner/doom band Adrift For Days. We both work normal jobs and dedicate our own spare time to the label. I work as a digital producer and usually have a fair few websites and projects in the works – like AusGrind, which is an online blog and portal for Australian extreme music. I’ve also been drawing more and more in 2009 – so who knows if that’ll end up somewhere public.

Favourite holiday destination?
The psychedelic realm. Is that a legitimate answer? We usually try and tour instead of holiday, though I’m headed for a big Europe trip in 2010.

What is your most recent release and what’s on for the short-term future?
Our two most recent releases were the Kill A Celebrity / Krupskaya split CD and Guild of Destruction’s new album. We’re going to push out four more releases by the end of 2009. There’s an incredible one coming up from Sweden’s Sound of Detestation that all fans of modern European grindcore will need to hear!

Long-term future?
Who can tell? We’d love to expand further into stoner, doom and sludge. Chances are whatever the future holds will not be quiet. There is always more on the horizon.

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Grindhead Records site: www.grindheadrecords.com

Grindhead MySpace: www.myspace.com/grindhead

Our favourite Welsh tarts Future Of The Left will be back in a couple of weeks, making amends for this time last year, when the bastards cancelled their scheduled Aussie tour in order to spend more time on their second album, Travels With Myself And Another.

In addition to appearances at Falls Festival and Southbound Festival, the trio will play their own shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne (see dates below).

Sydney label Rice Is Nice (home of Spod, Seekae, Miniature Submarines, Talons, Dick In Your Mind, etc.) will release a limited edition tour 7”. The A-side is “Stand By Your Manatee”, from Travels With Myself And Another; the B-side a previously unreleased off-cut called “Pre-Occupation Therapy”.

The release will be available as soon as the band hit Australia, sold at the gigs or in cyberspace via the Rice Is Nice store.

UB.com’s Danger Coolidge chitchats with ol’ Mclusky mate, the always hilarious ‘Falco’…

It was a highly articulate outburst you delivered when Travels with Myself And Another was leaked prior to its release date. Are you looking to became the new spokseman for anti- downloading?
It’s a debate that’s often seen in very simple terms – like Robin Hood, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. But for me it’s rather more complex than that and I just wanted to add our story. It’s not all Metallica versus some poor kid in his dorm room. What I’d like to know is, if internet pirates are such freedom fighters with such great taste who just want to discover new art why are they downloading fucking Metallica in the first place? If you’re gonna fight for freedom let it not be for the freedom of shitty metal that’s fifteen-years past its sell-by-date.

I can understand it would make you angry when it seems like music fans expect you to entertain them in your spare time.
Yeah, like a sexy gang of dancing clowns. Another reason for writing all that was to make people aware of what the real consequences of it are. I genuinely believe there is a two-tiered system where on one level – and I don’t use this term disparagingly, I just use it realistically – you have ‘hobby bands’ who just can afford to tour on their holidays from work. Then on the other level you have superstar bands touring arenas selling all the merchandise they can possibly print their names on. You’ve got the Justin Timberlake pillowcase set, the Whitesnake AIDS test vial… anything they can get their logo on. Those bands are always going to be supported by their fans. People who love U2 don’t just don’t illegally download U2. They like to go to the stadium and see the big show and spend loads of money on all the extraneous crap that comes along with the band. But unfortunately, the kinds of people who download stuff are people who like our band – uni students, young people, people a bit older but who have a connection with contemporary artistic culture but without the money to fulfil all their wants and desires. So while I understand it is the way of the world, it really affects a band like us. I don’t do it myself but I can understand people downloading. They just need to be aware of the consequences of their actions, particularly if they come up to me at a show and say, “Hey, why aren’t your band more successful? Oh, and by the way, I’ve downloaded all of your fucking records.” I don’t care how big the cunt is, next time, he’s going out the window.

I know you recorded the debut Curses! in and around your jobs. Did you have to make Travels With Myself and Another the same way?
It was different because we were still a full-time band, but mainly because we kept touring almost the whole time and there’s really no way you can hold down any sort of job, part-time or otherwise. I can see a future where if the band doesn’t step up a level, and I’m not so much talking about in Australia… We don’t exactly play huge venues in Australia but if you compare the numbers in a pro rata sense in terms of the size of the cities between Sydney and London then we’d be playing to two and a half thousand people a night in London. And I can tell you, we are not playing to two and a half thousand people a night in London. Our last show there played something like 650 people, which is ‘cool’ and everything but that was literally our biggest show. So if things had gone as well for us here as they have in Australia I wouldn’t be sitting here on a gold-plated twat wagon and we might have less of a hand-to-mouth existence than we currently have. You can’t really complain about it, it’s just a fact. I can see a future where we have to go back to how we made the first record, where we have to rehearse at weekends and we can tour nearby and maybe we’ve got two weeks a year where we can go somewhere. That’s fine and dandy and all that, but the real fun is taking the music all round the world, playing from Seattle to Chicago to Sydney to basically anywhere except Paris, Switzerland or Oxford.

Sounds like you don’t hold out much hope for this album.
I’ve got hopes but y’know this is like the fifth album proper I’d done. The first Mclusky record, that was just a bunch of demos really and nobody had any hopes for it at all apart from it actually coming out. I’d really had high hopes for Mclusky Do Dallas, and even years later I’m surprised not more came of that record. I know people talk about it as this cult record but believe me, in terms of the amount of people Mclusky played to I would counter that impression severely. I had high hopes for the third Mclusky record (The Difference Between Me and You Is That I’m Not on Fire), which maybe didn’t have as much impact but had a couple of songs that were really instant. But that never happened. I had high hopes for the first Future Of The Left record. You learn after a while that those hopes are only fulfilled by the quality of the music and those occasional great nights where the crowd is as up for it as the band. I don’t want to sound like a mainline hippie, but those nights where there’s a real magic in the room and everybody leaves feeling like there’s been a real event.

You cancelled an Australian tour last January to work on the album, what was the story there?
Those tours were cancelled for us rather than by us. Believe me, if I could have chosen to spend January sitting in my freezing cold flat under a duvet or be in Australia when it’s the hottest time of year and I could get some sun on my skin instead of looking like an anaemic Ewen McGregor, which is what my friend, Terry, called me the other day, then it’s obvious what I would have done. I would have loved to have gone to China as well, even just from a basic human interest level. That was disappointing, but it wasn’t as embarrassing as cancelling some of our UK shows with only a few days notice, the Birmingham show on the actual day. To say that I was so embarrassed that I could have killed people with a hammer was an understatement. I was absolutely fucking mortified. But in the end, that time we had to work on the record was constructive. But cancelling shows is bullshit. If people haven’t been through the whole circuit of being in a band it’s quite hard to see the way it works. I mean, record labels will put a band in a position where they are on the road for a substantial length of time and then expect them to almost write a record on the road. I’m sure if you’re The Kooks or Coldplay it’s very easy to write a record on the road. You simply take your acoustic guitar and sing the first winsome ballad that comes into your head. For us, we’re a band who need to plug in and play loudly. I haven’t written a Future Of The Left song on an acoustic guitar and gone to the other guys, “I got this one in G, I was really hoping you could help me flesh it out and mend my broken heart.” The way it works is, you plug in and you play loud.

Looking forward to coming back to Australia for real this time?
Y’know Australia, alongside maybe Hamburg, Seattle and London, is the place we look forward to playing the most. I’m not just saying that because I happen to be talking to an Australian, it really is. Melbourne was always the best for Mclusky, but that Future Of The Left tour was good fun generally but the Annandale show in Sydney was particularly good.

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Dates:
Sunday 3rd January – The Zoo, Brisbane
Thursday 7th January – Annandale Hotel, Sydney
Friday 8th January – Corner Hotel, Melbourne

Future Of The Left MySpace: www.myspace.com/futureoftheleft

Reunited after roughly a decade out of the game, NY grind trailblazers Brutal Truth will return to Australia this week for the first time since ’98.

The tour, which is in support of their new comeback album, Evolution Through Revolution, kicks off in Brisbane this Saturday and finishes up in Melbourne on Monday, with Sydney squeezed in the middle (see below for full dates and venues).

Melbournian mental-cases Blood Duster will play main support on all dates.

UB.com’s Danger Coolidge recently had the honour of firing a few questions at frontman Kevin Sharp…

We watched a doco last week all about the global economy / environment / population growth etc. and it scared the shit out of us. The bottom line is that humankind needs to look towards a cosmic shift in thinking to avoid the catastrophic ramifications. Is this what Evolution Through Revolution means?
It’s more in line with evolving globally in a social sense. We are all tied in the same economic ties… The EU [European Union] is a small indication of our future global economy… Evolution Through Revolution is a bit of an apology towards the “American way” – greed is good. We are all in bed together, may as well learn how to get along with each other.

You were a music journo before you joined Brutal Truth – how did you get into that, who was your most memorable interview?
Did radio in Atlanta back in the mid-eighties. ‘88 moved to New York and got into writing by default. There was plenty of interviews, people I knew who helped define music in the nineties, but John Lydon nearly cock-blocked it all during a PiL interview that made me feel as dumb as I ever felt… Joey Shithead from DOA quickly made me feel better about music.

Do you still do any kind of writing?
I have a column in the states with Decibel Magazine and I will write for Terrorizer Magazine from time to time, but mostly writing makes me want to shoot myself in the head. I have enough interests to deal with and collect on – Albert [Mudrian at Decibel] allows me to log in memories free of editing… seeing as my brains are quickly dissolving… I need to pen it or I forget it…

Do you read much?
I read children’s books.

What do you remember about the very first Brutal Truth tour of Australia, January 1996?!
I remember Tony Blood Duster doing faceplant after faceplant trying to learn how to skate. I remember BBQ and drunk monkeys… I remember acid at the last show in Melbourne and Jason Fuller laughing constantly with handfuls of McDonalds.

You were the singer in Damaged for a while – did you get to spend a bit of time Down Under when that was happening? Will you catch up with any of the Damaged guys when you are back in Australia?
Spent time there… recorded… toured… skipped winter… Stayed with Skitz… drank a lot… lost touch with them a few years back… hope to get caught up – at least with Skitz… maybe Eddy the Kid…

Brutal Truth recorded “Sister Fucker” for the Eyehategod tribute album [For The Sick]. Was that the first step in Brutal Truth getting back together? Did you ever get any feedback back from the Eyehategod guys?
That’s about right… Eyehategod… still good friends… curious – but never asked what they thought… also did a track with Buried At Sea as well… I prefer the Buried track.

Did you ever hear the Brutal Truth tribute CD [Choice of a New Generation]?
I like the Birdflesh and Groinchurn tracks… oh yeah the Malevolence track as well… It’s kind of cool yet creepy… even though we’ve done plenty of those kind of things… to have it flipped on you is a bit weird.

What is your favourite movie? Or if you don’t have one in particular, how about a rough Top 5?
Caddyshack, Airplane, Where The Wild Things Are, Willy Wonka, Man Bites Dog.

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Dates:
Saturday 19th December – The HiFi, Brisbane
Sunday 20th December – The HiFi, Melbourne
Monday 21st December – Manning Bar, Sydney

Brutal Truth MySpace: www.myspace.com/brutalfuckingtruth

One of the most incredible Sydney bands never to release anything (except a demo), Terrible Virtue emerged in ’87 playing their own brand of crossover, which they dubbed ‘blendercore’. Gigging around the traps with hardcore, punk and metal bands of all persuasions, TV recorded a couple of demos, released one of them, then split in ’89.

Re-united in ’92 for a tour with Toe To Toe, by ’94 Terrible Virtue were threatening to get serious again, becoming a five-piece and recording another demo, which was never released. But that all went to shit in ’96 and they were not heard from until March this year, when they – Dick Ford (guitar), Peter Allen (drums), Michael Brady (bass) and Rod Hunt (vocals) – were coaxed back for the one-off Monster Session benefit gig. That turned out to be such a raging success they’ve agreed to do it all again this Saturday night, only for longer, at the sweatbox known as the Sando in Newtown, supported by Deathcage and Dead Wasted (playing their last gig).

UB.com’s Danger Coolidge caught up with TV frontman Rod Hunt to get the skinny on the re-re-reunion…

Can you give us a description of what ‘blendercore’ is?
It’s a, er, blend, of ’70s punk rock, ’80s American and UK hardcore, plus a splat of British crust punk and a shot of rock. Basically, all our influences chucked into a blender. But the reason it’s called ‘blendercore’ is not so much cause it’s a blend of all those elements, but more cause we were rehearsing once back in the band’s early days and the owner of the studio – who was a real old school kind of rock dude – walked into our room and asked “What do you call your music?” He obviously didn’t have any reference point for what we were playing. We jokingly told him that we play ‘blender music’, cause at the time we were trying to play as fast as we possibly could, and it would degenerate into this almost indistinguishable wall of noise, like the sound of a blender. And then we continued the joke when we went and recorded our first demo in early ‘89. At the start of the song “Social Failure”, the guitarist, Dick Ford, asks me, “What do you want for Xmas Rodney?” And I growl back, “I want a blender,” and then the sound of a blender we had recorded in the studio kicks in as an intro to the song.

Playing a such a mix of styles, did Terrible Virtue fit into the punk scene, the metal scene, the hardcore scene, or none of the above?
We somehow managed to straddle all of those scenes. Early on, in the late ‘80s, we got our first gigs playing with bands like Rocks and the Spunkbubbles. But then we also did some metal gigs, with bands like Mortal Sin and Addictive. We also played with Massappeal circa their Jazz album and lots of Australian hardcore punk bands like Lethal Overdose, S.S.D.C., Under The Influence (Scott Mac’s pre-Toe To Toe band), Vicious Circle, S.U.X. and Tutti Parze. Later on, in the ‘90s, we played with hardcore bands like Toe To Toe (when they first formed), crusty hardcore punk outfits like Beanflipper and Ominicide and even Frenzal Rhomb and Nitocris in their early days.

Terrible Virtue recorded a bunch of demos over the years; definitely enough tracks to throw together a CD comp. Ever considered putting something out?
We recorded three demos that go for about 30 minutes each. Only the first one, I Only Laugh When It Hurts, was properly released as a demo cassette. The others never got released, for various reasons, but some of the songs did end up on various comp albums. I’d love to see the songs released as a comp CD, but the main things stopping us are: no money, we need to track down decent copies of the recordings (or ideally the original tapes…) and getting us all to agree on anything! And does anyone even buy CDs anymore? I know I do, but you just about have to give CDs away these days. That said, if anyone is interested in helping us put out a comp release, please get in touch via email! We’ve also been throwing around the idea of recording some songs that never got recorded, plus some songs that our bassist Michael Brady and drummer Peter Allen wrote in a band they rehearsed in together briefly, some years ago, and maybe a new song or two, ideally for a vinyl release. But at this stage that’s just talk. Cause who knows – it could all end tomorrow, we’ll see how this gig on Saturday goes.

TV came back after 13 years to play Monster Session in March – how did all the members make contact again and settle old differences?
I had started hanging out with Michael again and we ended up renting a house together. Prior to Glenn Koek from Zombie Dog asking us to play Monster Session I hadn’t been in contact with the other blokes for a while. Michael was still in contact with Peter, so he was the common line of communication. I think Peter and Dick thought I would be the one who would say no, but I decided that Monster Session sounded like something worth re-forming for and putting the past behind us.

How much preparation went into Monster Session? How did the show compare to back in the day?
We only had two rehearsals before the show but it all came together quicker than we expected. It seemed to go down well on the day, we got lots of positive feedback, and there was a decent size crowd, considering we were on fairly early. People seemed surprised when we told them that we had only had two rehearsals. But after looking at the video from the gig, we thought we looked a little more nervous onstage than we’d like to. Plus playing that fast after having not played like that for some time, you tend to cramp up a bit. It’s something you need to spend time building your stamina up for to do well. Dick was the most nervous about it, cause he hadn’t even picked up a guitar for about 10 years. At least the rest of us had still continued playing in bands, even if they weren’t fast hardcore punk bands. I think it went pretty well, considering. Compared with a Terrible Virtue show from back in the day, for starters it was the biggest stage we’d ever played on and probably the most people we’d ever played to as well. Most of shows in the past have been small up close gigs in a pub or hall, with no stage barrier. So that was a bit foreign, for Terrible Virtue. There wasn’t as much between song banter as there typically was at one of our shows back in the day, mainly cause we only had a short time to play and we were concentrating on just playing as well as we could. The atmosphere was great, but less chaotic. At our gigs in the early days loads of people would be stage diving and we’d be talking loads of shit between songs.

Playing again this Saturday – any special reason for this reunion? Will you be playing a similar set to Monster Session?
When we agreed to play the Monster Session gig, we talked about doing one more show of our own, at a later date, if the gig wasn’t a total disaster. It went better than expected so we thought, let’s book a show and rehearse properly for it, do a longer set and play at a smaller, sweatier venue. At Monster Session we only got to play for 30 minutes. Whereas we’ve now got around 50 mins worth of songs down – including more originals, a new piss-take of a well known song, and an extra cover or two. With all the shit we normally talk, it’ll probably go for about an hour all up. Plus we’ve rehearsed a cover of a ‘80s hard rock song we played once or twice years ago, that should be pretty funny… We’ve been rehearsing regularly over the past three months; we’ve had at least eight rehearsals this time. So we should be a lot better prepared. Zen Studios have done well out of us – we sure aren’t gonna make any money out of this re-union! We’re too hopeless to have even had any merch made to sell at the gig! It feels like all the practice is paying off, going by the last couple of rehearsals. Though I guess we’ll find out for sure on Saturday! Cause with TV, you should always expect the unexpected.

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Terrible Virtue play the Sandringham Hotel, Newtown this Saturday, December 12th. Supported by Deathcage and Dead Wasted.

Terrible Virtue MySpace: www.myspace.com/terriblevirtue