One thing that is apparent as we grind down to the end of 2016 in the music world, is the dearth of quality legacy acts. Sure there are some great bands still kicking around and the dad metal crowd will always love the reunions that seem to be on tour forever. It’s definitely tough be nostalgic when you don’t have time to miss anyone. So when a quality act like Superjoint makes a comeback, you need to pay attention to it.Continue reading
Reclusive grindcore masters Agoraphobic Nosebleed have been downright prolific the last few years. Playing multiple special shows at festivals, and with a great new EP out earlier this year Arc (Relapse) ,the band has seen a resurgence of popularity, and as usual, unwavering respect in the underground. They will take a turn as one of the headliners this weekend at Southwest Terrorfest V in Tuscon, AZ. Ghost Cult’s Andrew Francis caught up with Adam Freisch, Richard Johnson, and Scott Hull earlier in the year to discuss the current state of the band, future recordings, and the difference in the record industry between being in a grindcore band, versus say Slayer, Iron Maiden or Tool.
In Part II of our interview with DROPDEAD from last fall’s Housecore Horror Festival, Ghost Cult’s Andrew Francis along with Ben Barnett and Bob Otis discussed the challenges of running a veteran band and still having the everyday challenges of life to deal with. Also they spoke of their lifelong political activism, and how it has stood on equal footing to the music they make since the beginning.
The music business is an unforgiving career choice for most. We asked Ben and Bob about their family lives, and how they manage to keep up with personal responsibilities and still tour, make albums etc.
Ben: “I have a girlfriend and help take care of my gram when I have time.”
Bob: “I’m a mental health worker during the day, and I do animal rescue during the night and also the
band, which is an extension of the animal rescue work because it’s animal rights related and politics. Maybe not all animal rights, but things based in that area. just an extension of things I already do.
Ben: I own two shops (Armageddon Record Shop in Cambridge, MA and Providence, RI ) a label, try to hang out with my friends, play a little music, take care of my Gram. As I said, there’s a lot of shit going on.”
Ben: “We fit it in best we can , we’re not trying to make it- there’s no goal besides to play music with our friends. Occasionally we have the opportunity to come to fest’s like these (Housecore) make new friends, see some great bands, hang out, and have some vegan tacos.”
Bob: “Part of it for me, personally is it’s a good podium to talk about our beliefs and the things we really believe in. I do cat rescue and similar things, and the animal rights as part of my life is fully supported in the band and my home life.
Considering the above sentiments, we figured out that it must be hard to hit the road and tour, leaving behind your family:
Bob: The days of being able to jet out and go somewhere for six months out of the year are definitely behind us we all have our responsibilities and real jobs adult jobs but we do the best we can. We’ve been going for 25 years now so, and I’ll go for another 25 if I can do it with this guy here. I don’t care aha! We’ll be in wheelchairs still trying to play in the band!”
On the differences between local shows in New England and playing Texas where fans might not be too familiar with your band:
Ben:“Yea there’s definitely stuff going on back there. Like today one of the guys at the shop in Providence, his grandfather is going to pass at any moment, and we just gotta tell him take the day off and close up shop. it doesn’t matter.”
Bob: “I actually have a house full of sick cats and kittens that my girl friend is home taking care of while I’m gone. Funny enough my father is watching mine back home as well.”
Bob: “Those things are our responsibilities back home, but stepping away and being here is our responsibility too. We’ve had a message for a very long time and I truly believe it, so to me this is equally important to me as well.
So basically being in DROPDEAD means staying humble, no vacations, and no party type atmospheres other bands dream of.
Ben: “Well no there’s some of that, I’ve never like to go out and have fun as much as we do now. back in the day I probably took it for granted but now I really enjoy it for what it is. My friendships too. The business part of it and the shows is just an extension of what we are doing for fun. I think I’m having a good time and enjoying it. I don’t think I let myself enjoy it that much back in the day. I was a little more serious.
Bob: “And we didn’t have time, most of the stuff we did was on a super budget and sleeping on a concrete floor somewhere and it was real raw. After 25 years and getting the respect of other bands and people and putting in the time now we get the flight paid for, or the room, and we never take that for granted. We still play cellar shows and shit like that but it’s a little easier that way now than it used to be when we were sleeping out on rocks on the side of the road.
Ben: “So no I don’t take any of this for granted I don’t think any one owes me anything, but its nice to stay in a hotel for a night and some one pays for the flight we’ve put in a lot of hard years lost girlfriends, apartments, and jobs to continue this because we believe what we say and you suck it up do what you love or you don’t do it. Don’t complain about it. Both worlds can co-exist, and we are thankful.
This interview took place in November during the Paris terror attacks. Having to talked to the politically astute guys who have made a career of understanding crisis worldwide, we could not help but ask about the relevance to those tragic acts. The bands own desire to shine a light on similar situations, such as their song ‘Bosnia” in 1992, or other songs in their catalog seemed relevant at the time:
Bob: “I say its extremism which is happening then with ethnic cleansing and same with France yesterday its extremism and ridiculous beliefs and religion things that we stand against all things we don’t believe in.
“That and none of us are religious in the band. I think its one of the biggest problems in the world next to capitalism and to me personally, is the destruction of the animal kingdom. All of those three things are the big factors of whats destroying the world to me. so of course we don’t believe it or we try to talk about it and share our ideas on it. When we first wrote the song ‘Bosnia’ that was in the early 90s and with the ethnic cleansing that was going on. I felt it was important to talk about. It’s kinda of a quick song, really four lines long. I always thought of it is political haiku the guys don’t leave me a lot time to write a long song to get our ideas out.”
We asked if there was a song about the Paris attacks coming as a form of a response:
Ben: “I may, we sing about a lot of things but I’ve been writing about animal cruelty so the songs will deal with that more so but once I have time to digest it and form my own thoughts on it then yea, maybe we’ll sing about it. but definitely we will sing about religious extremism in one way or another.”
Shortly after this point the interview kinda turned in to more of a conversation about a slew of other things. Interviews are great but as always to learn more about the band, they encourage fans to seek them out and to get involved in their causes, or your own. When not on tour, Ben can be found in the Armageddon Shops and Bob is accessible via Facebook, or of course going to a DROPDEAD show. They are more than willing to talk you and share their ideas and have a beer. Check em out, expand your mind, and get some more food for thought…
“Don’t you realize? you’re eating death! and the taste in your mouth, is the corpse on your breath!”
INTERVIEW BY ANDREW FRANCIS
CONCERT PHOTOS BY EMMA PARSONS PHOTOGRAPHY
Long-running activist hardcore leaders DROPDEAD have been around long enough to know, their path is marathon and not sprint. When you make non-sellout music that demands critical thinking from fans, you are not going to get asked on late night TV, or find your music in movies and football stadium. But what drives this band, a staple of the Providence, RI music scene for two-plus decades is not the same motivation for everyone else. Ghost Cult’s Andrew Francis met up with Ben Barnett and Bob Otis in Austin Texas, a long way from home. The band was in town for the Housecore Horror And Music Festival, and despite playing an incredible set, true to form, they never felt “at home”.
Curious about the origin of the band, we started off by asking Ben and Bob what has a great influence on their style: the scene in New England or was it shaped by other bands and their teachings?
Bob Otis: “It was a combinations of things really, me Ben and Bryan started the band. Ben came from California and Bryan and my self grew up in Providence but we all listened to a lot of different stuff.”
“Ben brought a lot of his California influences when he joined the band that I had never heard and I did the same for him with a lot of the anarco – punk, Bryan was in to Japanese punk but we all bonded around the same like of similar forms of music and hardcore punk and the philosophy behind it.”
DROPDEAD is the epitome of n East Coast Hardcore band, but like most in the genre, one can’t deny a multitude of broader influences in the punk rock spectrum: Bob: For me it was more to the punk side, I was really in to anarco-punk and the philosophy and Ben was more to the hardcore side”
Ben Barnett: “I was more into Infest, Negative Approach”
Bob: “Where I was in to Crass and Conflict”.
Ben: “But still in to the politics of that stuff.”
The band has an unmistakable agenda, but bandmates don’t always have the same word view. We asked Ben and Bob if they shared a lot of the same political ideas
Ben: “Oh yeah definitely”
Bob: Whats great about these guys is that they believe exactly the same thing as me, and they allow me to get up on stage and expound upon the beliefs that we all have, together. It’s not just we are going to get together and write the music and you can just go do what ever as long as it doesn’t sound silly?
Both: “NO!”
Bob: “We believe the same thing ,we have the same core values.”
Ben: Yeah I don’t think we could go up there and say what we say and do what we do if we didn’t mean it.
Bob: “No one in the band is going to McDonalds that’s for sure.”
Aside from punk, few bands shaped the political landscape for bands in history like Napalm Death has. A definite influence on the band, we asked both at what point did they discover the seminal Brit grindcore band and if they seeped in.
Ben: “That first Napalm record in 87 definitely blew my mind at first, i never heard anything like it.”
Bob: “To be honest with you they weren’t one of my favorite bands but I can appreciate what they did and stood for, but at the time i was more in to anarco punk but i appreciate it. You can see where the comparison comes from with short song times and ferocity and lyrical content.”
Bob: “Well yea we can see that but we also got a lot of our sound from the Boston Hardcore bands, Siege and California bands like Infest.”
Ben: “We acquired our name from a Siege song the and store name are from a Siege song, we became very influenced by a band from Weymouth.”
If a band was to be considered top-tier and the biggest influence on the band you would all say its Siege?
Bob: “Musically for sure.”
Ben: “Lyrically its not terribly that far off either. If you don’t listen to them already, Siege comes highly recommended young readers!”
Ben is the owner of Armageddon Record Shop and its accompanying label. One of the defining businesses in the North East music scene at the moment, we asked if the distro through the label was created because it makes life easier for a DIY band.
Ben: “I had done a label since the late 80’s up until 98 and I decided it was just time to call it a day. we had a record to put out and we wanted a fresh start and we figured we would do our own thing. we had some not terrible but not fantastic experiences with some people. back in the day Earache hit us up, Century Media hit us up it wasn’t really what we wanted to do.”
Bob: “Part of it was it was all stuff Ben could do himself so why get some one else? I don’t think any one could do it any better than him. he has an invested interest as our guitarist and best friend so obviously he’s gonna put every thing he’s got in to the band so i don’t think a record label would have as much invested in us as someone who’s in the band.”
Ben: “There might be more press, maybe more hype but ..”
Bob: We’ve done pretty good for our selves, he’s done a great job!”
Ben: “We just chug along do our own thing if people buy the records we appreciate it and if not then.. oh well? we’ll play a show some one may be excited then that’s pretty cool too, they go slow but they go.”
We then asked if starting the label became a necessity of being in the band or as a fan of music who later ended up in a band:
Ben: “Originally it was cause I was excited about music, I put out my first record for a California band Apocalypse in like ..1989. Just cause they were friends. It was kinda like you can be a guy going to shows or you could do something, and Otis can attest to this, I’m not really a do nothing kinda guy. kinda a workaholic.”
Bob: “One of the busiest guys I know.”
INTERVIEW BY ANDREW FRANCIS
PHOTOS BY EMMA PARSONS PHOTOGRAPHY
Fresh off the final date of Mayhem Festival, King Diamond has confirmed a long rumored fall US tour, which will see the performance of the classic 1987 album, Abigail (Roadrunner) in full. Exodus has been tapped as the opening band for the 18 date tour of theaters. The tour includes a stop at Phil Anselmo’s Housecore Horror Festival on November 13th in San Antonio, TX. A new studio album from King Diamond is expected in 2016 via Metal Blade Records.
King Diamond “Abigail” Tour Dates – with Exodus
Oct 29: The Fillmore- Denver, CO
Oct 31: The Complex- Salt Lake City, UT
Nov 02: The Warfield – San Francisco, CA
Nov 05: The Wiltern- Los Angeles, CA
Nov 08: The Rialto Theatre- Tucson, AZ
Nov 09: House of Blues- Las Vegas, NV
Nov 13: The Aztec Theatre- San Antonio, TX
Nov 15: The Civic Auditorium- New Orleans, LA
Nov 16: The Tabernacle- Atlanta, GA
Nov 21: Best Buy Theatre – New York, NY
Nov 24: Orpheum- Boston, MA
Nov 25: The Fillmore- Philadelphia, PA
Nov 27: Aragon Ballroom- Chicago, IL
Nov 28: The Fillmore – Detroit, MI
Nov 30: Myth- Minneapolis, MN
Dec 02: Club Brady – Tulsa, OK
Dec 04: House of Blues- Houston, TX
Dec 05: House of Blues- Dallas, TX
King Diamond, photo©Kevin Estrada / kevinestrada.com
Southern sludge masters EyeHateGod have announced another run of US tour dates beginning next weekend at the Summit Music Hall, in Denver, CO on 10/2. The band will be adding more live dates soon, as they continue on the killing road in support of their hearalded self-titled album, release on Housecore Records this past May. The band will be taking part in Phil Anselmo’s Housecore Horror Festival as well as other prominent shows touring with acts such as Today Is The Day, Pig Destroyer and Iron Reagan.
From The Press Release:
Louisiana volume visionaries, EyeHateGod, are pleased to announce their next run of live demolitions this Fall. The band’s latest itinerary includes a short rash of one-off dates in Denver, Orlando and Miami as well as an appearance at Philip H. Anselmo’s Housecore Horror Film Festival in Austin. From there, team EyeHateGod will head west razing stages alongside Power Trip, Iron Reagan and Today Is The Day on select dates.
Comments frontman Mike IX Williams, “New Orleans sons of the hurricane and battered filthy communists, EyeHateGod, will embark on a severely damaging run of US shows this October 2014 that are guaranteed to please the dirt starved masses of nasty rock ‘n’ roll tenfold. See ya’ll on the railroad tracks!”
EyeHateGod continues to tour in support of their chart-topping, self-titled studio offering and first full-length in nearly fifteen years. Released in May via Housecore, the record continues to reap praise and critical “fuck-yeahs” from fans and media globally. In an 8/10 score Pitchfork declares, “After fourteen years, they’ve come out swinging, armed with yet another of their often-renewed leases on life and still spoiling for a fight. That EyeHateGod exists at all is a miracle in and of itself, but the fact that it is so damn great is simply extraordinary.” Stereoboard dubs the record, “a vitriolic demonstration of everything that made this band so great in the first place. There are brilliant riffs, moments of barely contained aural violence and, most memorably of all, the ever-distinctive vocals of Mike IX Williams… a worthy addition to the band’s already impenetrable legacy.” Added The New York Times in a live review, “Something happened to EyeHateGod in the last decade, since its members got on the other side of those disasters: some kind of stability – a realization of exactly what the band has and how to use it. And its show at Club Europa, in Brooklyn… fell in line with the last three I’ve seen… It was an extended family of riffs, played over the new drummer Aaron Hill’s weaving, swinging drum patterns, and under the singer Mike IX Williams’ wretched howl and crinkly-eyed, mirthless smile. It was low-end body music, half-slovenly, half-graceful, impossibly deep – music for moving to in fluid motion.”
Additional live incursions from EyeHateGodwill be announced in the coming weeks. The band is currently working on a brand new picture disc version of the New Orleans Is The New Vietnam seven-inch which will be released soon in an extremely limited leather cover edition on A389. Stay tuned.
Photo by Meg Loyal Photography
EyeHateGod:
10/02/2014 Summit Music Hall – Denver, CO
10/03/2014 Backbooth – Orlando, FL
10/04/2014 Churchill’s – Miami, FL
10/26/2014 Housecore Horror Film Fest @ Emo’s – Austin, TX
10/29/2014 El Corazon – Seattle, WA w/ Power Trip, Iron Reagan
10/30/2014 Bosonova Theater – Portland, OR w/ Power Trip, Iron Reagan
10/31/2014 Star Lite Lounge – Sacramento, CA w/ Power Trip, Iron Reagan
11/01/2014 Metro – Oakland, CA w/ Today Is The Day, Power Trip, Iron Reagan
11/02/2014 The Observatory – Santa Ana, CA w/ Today Is The Day, Power Trip, Iron Reagan
11/03/2014 Los globos – Los Angeles, CA w/ Power Trip, Iron Reagan
11/04/2014 Catalyst – Santa Cruz, CA w/ Power Trip, Iron Reagan
11/05/2014 The Garage – Ventura, CA w/ Power Trip, Iron Reagan
11/06/2014 Dive Bar – Las Vegas, NV w/ Today Is The Day
11/07/2014 Soda Bar – San Diego, CA w/ Today Is The Day
11/08/2014 Club Red – Phoenix, AZ w/ Today Is The Day
11/09/2014 Launch Pad – Albuquerque, NM w/ Today Is The Day
11/12/2014 The Riot Room – Kansas City, MO
11/13/2014 Hi Tone – Memphis, TN
11/15/2014 Cobra Lounge – Chicago, IL w/ Today Is The Day
11/16/2014 Smith’s Downtown – Mishawaka, IN w/ Today Is The Day
11/20/2014 Double Wide – Dallas, TX w/ Today Is The Day
11/21/2014 Fitzgerald’s – Houston, TX w/ Pig Destroyer, Today Is The Day
11/22/2014 One Eyed Jacks – New Orleans, LA w/ Pig Destroyer
Order EyeHateGod through Housecore Records HERE.