Complication

Belfast For Haiti

2010-01-29T14:13:00.001-08:00

Don't miss this - Yakuza onstage 3:30pm at the Limelight

January

2010-01-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

January - it's long, depressing and this year it's very very cold. Nothing like star of TVs "Madmen" January Jones I'm sure.

This year however it doesn't have to be so bad as there are some awesome shows coming up to keep you warm and entertained:

Friday 22nd Jan sees the return of The Big List magazines "Big Gig" as sponsored by a well known drinks company. Headlining are re-formed sleaze rockers Dirty Stevie, second on the bill is the one and only Yakuza and opening are post-hardcore hallions Before Machines. Kicks off at 9pm and admission is 5 of your so called "bucks"

Then on Sunday 24th Senator Steven Agnew, one local politician you can rely on not to sleep with a 19 year old boy and embezzle thousand of pounds from a property developer before trying to commit suicide, will host the Wee Green Man festival at Auntie Annies to raise funds for the Green Party general election campaign. Steven was the brains behind "Noise Against Nuclear" along with Complication a while ago and he's learned from that experience by booking some bands people might actually want to see. Headlining the bash will be Wexford mathcore favs Adebisi Shanks along with north coast punk upstarts Axis Of along with a DJ set from the notorious Not Squares - basically an hour of solid Xiu Xiu if that's your thang. Minimum suggested donation is £5 and kick off is at the traditional 9pm.

Finally on Tues 26th again at Auntie Annies is the triple threat of Comply Or Die, Black Bear Saloon and those pesky Yakuza kids again. Kick off at the predictable 9pm and admission is at a mere £2. That's a demonic 66.6 pence a band you cheapskates.

And finally the new series of "Madmen" starts on Sunday 24th on BBC4 and suddenly January doesn't seem so long or depressing. It's still really cold though.

Albums Of The Decade

2010-01-06T14:37:00.000-08:00

Ah hell why not:

Fugazi - The Argument
Hot Snakes - Suicide Invoice
The Redneck Manifesto - Cut Your Heart Off From Your Head
Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
At The Drive-In - Relationship Of Command
Trail Of Dead - Source Codes And Tags
Tomahawk - Mit Gas
Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
The Icarus Line - Mono
The Twilight Singers - Blackberry Belle
Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum
QOTSA - Songs For The Deaf
The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
Soulsavers - It's Not How Far You Fall, It's Where You Land
Isobel Campbell + Mark Lanegan - Ballad Of The Broken Seas
Sleater Kinney - One Beat
NERD - In Search Of...
Edan - Beauty And The Beat
Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
Nas - Godson
J Dilla - Donuts
Drive By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Silver Jews - Bright Flight
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News
Dan Sartain - Join Dan Sartain
The Melvins - The Maggot
Mastadon - Leviathan
The Dirtbombs - We Have You Surrounded
Q and Not U - Power
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimimi Battles The Pink Robots
The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
The White Stripes - Elephant
Comets On Fire - Blue Cathedrals
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
Black Eyes - Black Eyes
Murder City Devils - In Name And Blood
Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
Grinderman - Grinderman
Johnny Cash - American III
Deerhoof - The Runners Four
Outkast - Speakerboxx / The Love Below
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Dig Lazurus Dig
Harvey Milk - Life...The Best Game In Town
PJ Harvey - Stories From The City Stories From The Sea
The Heartaches - Too Cool For School
The Hunches - Hobo Sunrise

Rowland S Howard RIP

2010-01-05T12:26:00.000-08:00

Sad to hear Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S Howard died over Christmas. I think the six strings that drew blood just about sums it up. RIP Rowland:

Albums Of 2009

2009-12-22T13:56:00.000-08:00

Are as follows:

1. Soulsavers - "Broken"
Stunning stuff once again from Mr Lanegan and Soulavers with a little help from Mike Patton, Gibby Hayes, Richard Hawley and Will Oldham

2. Pissed Jeans - "King Of Jeans"
Sub Pop reissued "Bleach" in 2009 but this time it was by a band called Pissed Jeans. It was still angry, sludgey punk mayhem though and it was still class

3. Desire - "Desire"
Not often something you hear in a record store turns out to be actually any good but this was lovely dreamy electro pop (did I just write that I like dreamy electro pop? I should beat myself up)

4. Obits - "I Blame You"
Rick Froberg returns with some bowery punk meets Bo Diddley greatness

5. Richmond Fontaine - "We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River"
Songs of misery, heartbreak and the specific North West of America, recorded here

Honourable mentions but "must try harder"s for Wilco, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Heavy Trash and Torche...maybe next year fellas

The Jesus Lizard

2009-09-23T15:09:00.000-07:00

Well as suspected The Jesus Lizard totally slayed in Dublin last night. The band absolutely hammered it while Mr Yow yelped, screamed and howled like a maniac crowd surfing all the while. A special mention has to go to Mac McNeilly who totally killed it on the drums, one of my favourite drummers ever. Ended the night in a sweaty dirty heap so I guess I had a good time. I feel unbelievably lucky to have been able so see such an awesome band again. There's a few clips of the show on youtube. I like this one, cause I'm in it:

Be sure to cop the Jesus Lizard re-masters when they drop, forget the Beatles, this is the fab four I care about.

We're Off To See The Lizard

2009-09-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

Excited about seeing The Jesus Lizard tomorrow in Dublin. They're playing the Button Factory courtesy of the good folks of U:Mack Productions. They totally slayed at All Tomorrows Parties in May so should be killler mc hann.

Not Squares 7"

2009-06-25T14:13:00.000-07:00

Hup!

The awesome Not Squares just released their debut 7" on Richter Collective Records. Go forth and cop that shit:

Here!

Song Of The Fortnight - The Barbarians

2009-03-18T14:30:00.002-07:00

Well I got somewhat sidetracked and song of the week kind of turned into song of the fortnight and at was a tricky decision - 'She's Like Heroin To Me' by The Gun Club was never far from the turntable while the genius of 'It's Alive' era Ramones was also a strong contender but the out and out winner has to be the greatest band to ever have a one armed drummer - The Barbarians with the awesome 'Moulty' The guitar tone in this song is the sickest thing ever and it's kind of biting 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling' which itself was biting 'La Bamba' and it's a hear warming tale of one young mans salvation through music following a horrific injury - aww! Here it is:

Saint Dude's - Boys Gone Wild

2009-03-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

The awesome Saint Dude's, veterans of many a Complication live night have finally released their debut album 'Boys Gone Wild' and quite fantastic it is too being a rawkus mash up of 'Circa Now' era Rocket From The Crypt, The Supersuckers and 'Raw Power' era Stooges only not as good as any of those obviously) All the hits are there including 'Rolling Back To Richmond' 'Pow! Lights Out Fool' and the party anthemn 'Hot Sauce' complete with party vibe gang vocal. There's some nice production touched too like sax, female backing vocals (by The Saint Dudettes? The Saint Dolls?) and the little banjo interludes which add to the 'prepare to get eaten by psychopathic hillbillies' Nice work by the the Dudes. Sadly they've no more shows in 2009 but the whole album is streaming over at last fm:

http://www.last.fm/music/Saint+Dude%27s

Song Of The Week - The Buzzcocks

2009-02-26T14:29:00.000-08:00

I am currently driving about 4 hours a day to and from work which allows lots of time for digging in the crates (aka the messy pile of CDs in my living room) for neglected or forgotten tunes so I thought I'd try and stick up at least one tune that made me go "ah yeah that!" or "wow! what is that?" during the course of week. This week is "Why Can't I Touch It?" by The Buzzcocks. It's a late period Buzzcocks tune and not typical of them in that it's a slow with a dubby bassline rather than three chords punk pop but it's rocking none the less. It's also one of those rare songs that has a "special personal meaning" but we won't go into that here. It's a killer jam:

The Killing Spree

2009-02-18T14:50:00.000-08:00

On of my favourite ever bands The Killing Spree is reforming for a one off show for a great cause next month. Check out the deets here:

TKS only released on 7" on Rimbaud Records but the lads went on to form Gaju / Not Squares and a variety of other musical and non-musical endevours.

Obits

2009-02-18T14:39:00.001-08:00

I recently got a hold of "I Blame You" the debut album from Obits who feature Rick Froberg formerly of Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes and it's rather fine. There's a free download of "Pine On" from the album over at the Sub Pop here:

http://subpop.com/artists/obits

and you can check out the band on myspace:

www.myspace.com/obitsband

You're crazy for this one Rick!

An Evening With Greg Dulli + Mark Lanegan

2009-01-09T13:04:00.000-08:00

Sorry ladies, it's strictly a musical event. It should be fantastic though - Mssrs Dulli and Lanegan with play acoustic and stripped down (again, strictly musical) accompanied by Twilight Singers guitarist Dave Rosser. Promised are "many songs neither of us have performed in quite sometime or ever" I'm hoping that translates into 'Step Into The Light' and 'Stay' but whatever happens it should be awesome. It's at The Academy, Middle Abbey St, Dublin on Friday 16th Jan.

Complications Albums Of 2008

2009-01-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

I know it's a bit late but what can I say, I like pointless lists of things:

1.The Gutter Twins - 'Saturnalia'
2.The Hold Steady - 'Stay Positive'
3.Isobel Campbell + Mark Lanegan - 'Sundays At Devil Dirt'
4.Black Mountain - 'In The Future'
5.Howlin' Rain - 'Beautiful Fiend'
6.The Dirtbombs - 'We Have You Surrounded'
7.The Night Marchers - 'See You In Magic'
8.Nick Cave + The Bad Seeds - 'Dig Lazarus Dig!!!"
9.Deerhoof - 'Offend Maggie'
10.Silver Jews - 'Goodbye Mountain Goodbye Sea'
11.Creatue With The Atom Brain - 'I Am The Golden Gate Bridge'
12.The Cool Kids - 'The Bakesale'
13.The Melvins - 'Nude With Boots'
14.Not Squares - 'WROK' (Cassette)
15.Nine Inch Nails - 'The Slip'

So there you have it!
Edited as I thought of a few more.

Albums You Should Pay To Download

2008-11-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

I know you all probably just download music for free (maybe not and I'm being judgemental) but here's a few albums you should definitely pay for as the money is going to a good cause:

The awesome new Deerhoof album "Offend Maggie" is out on Kill Rock Stars / ATP and a portion of the digital sales through iTunes go to Medicins Sans Frontiers.

And the equally awesome "Adorata" by The Gutter Twins is out as a download only and a portion of the proceeds go to the Natasha Schneider Fund. Natasha was member of the band Eleven as well as a talented producer who sadly passed away from cancer earlier this year. She contributed to records by the likes of Queens Of The Stone Age / Wires On Fire / Soundgarden / Mark Lanegan / The Gutter Twins. "Adorata" features a cover of "Flow Like A River" one of Natasha's songs and proceeds go towards paying off debts built up covering medical bills.

Noise Against Nuclear

2008-11-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

"In February The Green Party presented Sammy Wilson with the Greenwash Award for presenting the biggest threat to our environment by advocating the building of a nuclear power station in Northern Ireland. That was before he was made Minister for the Environment and he has since gone on to state that he would not object to Britain's nuclear waste being buried here.The Green Party opposes nuclear power and wants to see the island of Ireland remain nuclear free. We have the greatest potential for wind energy in Europe yet while countries like Germany and Denmark harness their wind potential ours remains largely untapped, in fact we stand 2nd bottom of the European league in terms of our renewable energy production. The resources are there, we now need the political will to match it.Noise Against Nuclear brings together local bands to show their objection to Sammy's proposals and to raise money for the Green Party and awareness of this cause.Yes to Raw Power, No to Nuclear!"

Yakuza / The Evangelists / Comply Or Die

Laverys Attic Belfast

Sat 15th Nov 10:00pm £5

Electric Picnic 2008

2008-10-05T14:46:00.000-07:00

A few pics of this years Electric Picnic and you can check out some reviews I did of the fest in the new issue of AU mag...

The Breeders

Large Mound

Wilco

Complication 15 Photos

2008-10-05T13:50:00.001-07:00

Record Reviews

2008-08-22T15:19:00.000-07:00

The AU site archived a bunch of record review, some of which were wrote by me. Follow the links for mind blowing insight into the recorded output of the likes of:

The Creature With The Atom Brain

Black Mountain

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Akron/Family

Dirty Projectors

Qui

Ween

Mark Sultan

The Icarus Line

Wordtastic!

Complication # 14 - Spook Of The 13th Lock

2008-06-04T15:57:00.000-07:00

Spook Of The 13th Lock live at Comp "14" last friday. If a band plays a gig in an empty venue does it make a sound? Get their excellent new album from http://www.transductionrecords.com/

Complication # 12

2008-05-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

Complication the twelth went off two weeks ago and damned if Not Squares and What What didn't tear the roof off the suckah. Expect to hear lots more from both of the these bands in the next while.

Not Squares

What What

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Dublin 03/05/08

2008-05-14T11:18:00.001-07:00

Nick Cave

Nick Cave & Shane Magowan

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis

Nick and the boyos tearing it up at Dublin Castle for my 30th birthday! Nice of them...

Complication # 14

2008-05-06T15:08:00.001-07:00

I Wanted To Talk To You Last Night

2008-04-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

Some of my friends made a movie set in Belfast called 'I Wanted To Talk To You Last Night' It was made for no money with a cast of non-actors so it's a bit like 'Once' only with struggling film makers instead of musicians and with a better soundtrack. Check it out here.

Complication # 11 - Not Sqaures + What Squared

2008-04-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

Complication presents a twofer of newbies for Comp 12 in celebration of Jamesys birfday...

Not Squares
(A Gaju, 2 Tracers and a Keenan)

+

What What
(Analogue Punk)

Fri 2nd MayLaverys Bunker 9pm £5

Gutter Twins Interview

2008-04-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

AU posted the interview I did with your friend and mine Mr Greg Dulli of The Gutter Twins / Twilight Singers / Afghan Whigs about the new Gutter Twins album 'Saturnalia' Check it out here

Complication # 11

2008-03-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Complication # 11 went off a last week with sets from the awesome Saint Dudes and Stagger Lee. No photos as my camera done got killed so here's my DJ playlist:

Rocket From The Crypt - 'Pushed'

The Bronx - 'Your Shitty Future'

Murder City Devils - 'Night Of The Hunter'

The Gutter Twins - 'Idle Hands'

The Afghan Whigs - 'Uptown Tonight'

Van Halen - 'Pretty Woman'

Hank Williams - 'Ramblin' Man'

Johnny Cash - 'So Lonesome I Could Cry'

King Khan & The Shrines - 'Land Of The Freak'

Pavement - 'Baptist Blacktick'

Richard Hell & The Voivoids - 'I Wanna Be Your Dog'

Lupe Fiasco - 'Dumb It Down'

Wu Tang Clan - '16th Chamber'

J Dilla - 'Stop'

Banger 'N' Cash - 'Bootay'

Public Enemy - 'Bring The Noise'

And probably some other stuff. Check out Stagger Lee on the Rodge and Podge show this Tuesday and look out for the new Saint Dudes EP coming to your earhole soooooon...

The Gutter Twins London

2008-03-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

Mark

Greg

You should all go and get the new album 'Saturnalia' now, it's fantastically awesome.

Complication # 11

2008-02-25T15:32:00.000-08:00

Complication X

2008-01-22T12:37:00.000-08:00

The Year In Complication

2007-12-18T07:24:00.000-08:00

It's been a pretty cool first year for Complication, mainly thanks to the following great bands for playing awesome shows:

Pixie Saytar & The Sunshine Three

Yakuza

Panda Kopanda

The Dudley Corporation

Schillachi

Between that lot I really think we've had some of the best bands in the country playing so thanks to them all .

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

2007-12-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

The AU website has posted a review I did of the new Jon Spencer Blues Explosion singles comp here. You should pick that up, it'll make a nice stocking filler.

They've also posted a review of The Dudley Coroporation / Panda Kopanda Complication gig. Check that out here.

Fist Fite The Pavillion Belfast 9/12/07

2007-12-10T14:47:00.000-08:00

We played with an awesome band from Portland last called Fist Fite at The Pavillion last night. Also playing were the rocking Black Bear Saloon Here's some pics:

The Devastations + Yakuza Auntie Annies Belfast 28/11/07

2007-12-10T14:30:00.000-08:00

The Devastations

Yakuza

Good times!

Photos Of Below

2007-11-21T15:18:00.000-08:00

Apparition

Spectral Supremo)))

G Child

Complication # 9

2007-11-21T15:13:00.001-08:00

This Happened!

Supremo)))

Electric Picninc 2007

2007-10-13T02:40:00.000-07:00

Here's some photos from this years Electric Picnic. I love The Beasties and The Stooges...who doesn't...? Morons, that's who!

The Stooges

The Beastie Boys

Complication # 5 + 6 - Photos

2007-10-13T02:31:00.000-07:00

The Dudley Corporation

Dead Meat & Bernard of The Sunshine 3

Panda Kopanda

Pixie Saytar

Complication # 7 - Large Mound + Subplots

2007-10-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

Complication # 7 featuring the awesome Large Mound with the equally awesome Subplots took place last Friday again at Laverys Bunker Belfast last Friday. No photos as my camera died but do yourself a favour and cop the new Large Mound Album "My Whole Life Is Have To" on Nov 9th and check out Subplots tunes here. Most of the new LM album was mixed by the majestic Mr David Dubh Black, who recorded the first Yakuza album amongst others and who will be shortly mixing the new Yakuza album at Jackpot! Recordings in Portland, Oregon which should be amazing fun.

Playlist from Friday night:

Rocket From The Crypt - Come See Come Saw

Murder City Devils - Johnny Thunders

The Compulsive Gamblers - Need You More

The Modern Lovers - She's Cracked

The Clash - Garageland

Holly Golightly - Box Elder

Thee Headcoatees - Pinhead

Bangers 'N' Cash - Loose

Messy Marv - Get On My Hype

Ghostface Killah - Appollo Kids

Don't forget Friday 19th Oct - Complication # 8 w/ Yakuza and the loveable Schillachi doing The Jesus Lizard thing 9pm £5

Complication # 8 - Yakuza + Schillachi

2007-09-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

Complication # 7 - Large Mound

2007-09-24T12:41:00.001-07:00

www.myspace.com/largemound

Complication # 6 - The Dudley Corporation + Panda Kopanda

2007-09-05T12:59:00.000-07:00

Complication goes live again - Friday 14th September @ Laverys Bunker Belfast Live music from The Dudley Corporation (Dublin) and Panda Kopanda (Belfast) Doors 9pm £5 Please Note - EARLY SHOW!!! First band 9:30pm Second band 10:30pm Lets go!

Mark Lanegan Interview

2007-09-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

Mark Lanegan is another musical hero, much like Greg Dulli below. They're two of my favourite singers and they are due to release a joint album next year under the name of The Gutter Twins. I've been waiting for that album for years but in the meantime I thought I'd post this interview me and Gav did with Mark after his first Belfast gig at The Empire a few years ago. Another of my favourite interviews as Mark turned out to a dead on fella. Enjoy...

With the Screaming Trees Mark Lanegan produced some of the most soulful straight up rock music of the last ten years. Now solo, he continues to kick out the psychedelic jams backed by various ex-members of Queens Of The Stone Age and Dinosaur Jr as well as exploring jazz, soul and gospel all in that awesome voice of his, the kind of voice that separates a million and one shitty bands like Nickelback, Creed and Staind from well, this guy although good music helps too obviously. This interview took place in two parts, part one was conducted by a whole bunch of people in the street and part two by Jamesy and Gavin on the bus but for a more cohesive reading experience I just chopped them all up into one. Thanks to everyone who helps us pester rock legends on the streets of Belfast. It’s really just a bunch of music fans taking about music, but it’s only right and natural…

So Mark, did you enjoy the gig tonight?

Yeah, I loved it. I’d love to come back soon.

And have you seen much of Belfast?

I saw that big Government building with all the Christmas/New Years lights on it. I went for a walk down the street but I hadn’t been here too long before I had to come to work. I liked the look of the whole town although I didn’t hardly get a chance to see any of it, y’know we just came in today and then we leave. But I’ve always wanted to come to Ireland in general so it’s quite a thrill for me. My grandparents are from here and I don’t think anyone from my family ever did come back here except for me.

OK, obvious question, Screaming Trees, what happened?

We just broke up man, 15 years is a long time for anything but the real truth of the matter is that we broke up a hundred times, more probably, I think every other day for all those years because we were a volatile bunch, y’know the brothers they have wives and kids and houses and I’m doing this. It was just one of those natural things. How old are you guys?25 and 23? I turned 37 yesterday, spend 15 years together and then ask me again, because you guys?probably won’t know each other then no matter how good friends you are now. That’s just what happens when you get older I think. Y’know especially for guys who travel around doing this, because it’s a natural thing. And we did everything we wanted to do in that time, more than we ever though we would do.

But it’s still something that you feel you have to do, or just enjoy doing?

It’s all I ever have done since I was younger than you guys, and I don’t know what else I would do, I’m not suited for nuthin’ else except for things that aren’t…uh…socially acceptable.

Do you think you are enjoying it more know than in the early days?

I enjoyed it quite a bit in the early days, I’ve always enjoyed it.

I heard there was a Screaming Trees album knocking about that wasn’t released?

We actually recorded a double album in 1998 with Mike Watt playing bass on it that never came out so maybe someone’s got tapes of that but I don’t know what happened to it. We just decided not to put it out, we didn’t like it. I don’t have copies of any of my records, especially the ones that never came out, I just have to much stuff to carry around with me.

As you can see we haven’t really prepared this we just thought we’d do it off the cuff for the fanzine…

Yeah, yeah, I like that spirit, I appreciate that. I think a fanzine is a really cool endeavour. You guys must really love music to do something like that. That’s why I still do it too, because music gave me a life. Y’know when you’re a kid and you love music and you love to do what you guys do, you probably feel exactly like me and hopefully you’ll always do it because there’s nothing better than doing something in music and I think it’s good for people alright?

Right! You talk a lot about whiskey, what's your favourite whiskey?

Me? Now? I don't drink whiskey anymore uh-uh.

What's your favourite record then?

You guys are putting me on the spot. I got too many, can you name just one? Can you name even five?

Maybe…

Yeah but the minute you get done naming them five you're going to think of about 50 more. I love a lot of records, nothing I could say I loved more than anything else. There's a few, maybe "Black Sabbath Vol.4"

It's funny you should mention that as the standard Nova Wreck interview question is to ask about Black Sabbath.

You like 'em? (eyebrow raised suspiciously)

Hell yeah!

That's good.

Any other musicians you admire?

Well, you've got the greats. People like Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, Willy Nelson. Again there's too many to name y'know?

What about Tom Waits?

I think it's a great blessing that Tom Waits is on the earth. Does that answer your question? Although I'm not his greatest fan for some reason. It's cool that he's there y'know what I mean, there's a difference. I totally appreciate him but I don't necessarily like it. My girlfriend likes him a lot so I have to hear him all the time anyway.

Did you ever listen to Billy Childish or The Headcoats at all?

Yeah, but do you know what's even better than his music is his poetry. It’s amazing. They just put out this really amazing compilation in the states called "I'd Rather You Lied" It's taken from all across his poetry career. It's good shit.

Yeah, we saw him just last week.

Wow! Doing music yeah?

Music and poetry. He was brilliant, really honest…

Cool.

What is it about Gospel music that inspires you?A friend of mine has all these Gospel records and makes me these CDs and that's all I've been listening to these last couple of days. The singing on them is just incredible y'know, these guys today think they can fucking sing, it's embarrassing. When you hear that shit you don't even want to sing. The singing on that shit is just outrageous.

Do you like Spiritualized?

Do I like sports?

Spiritualized!

Oh, I like sports better than I like Spiritualized. One of my favourite records of all time is “The Perfect Prescription” (Spaceman 3) so I’ve always had a soft spot for Spiritualised even though Spaceman kicks the living shit out Spiritualized but don’t fucking quote me on that. Jasons’ a nice guy and I don’t want him to think I’m dissing his thing but y’know the whole rest of the world loves him so fuck it.

Did you ever hear a tune called "Dragnet For Jesus" by Sister Winona Carr?

Uh-Uh.

If you like Gospel or Soul music you should get that record. It's amazing.

Yeah, I'll check it out.

Do you still live in Seattle?

No, I've been living in LA for several years.

What is it about Seattle that produces such soulful singers?

I don't know man, I just figured they were ripping me off. I never thought about it man.Ha-Ha!

Have you any questions for us?

Yeah, where's all the crack and the hookers at?

Ahh, you've missed them they all go home at 10 O' clock.

Wow, they actually keep hours in this town.

Y'know that big government building with all the lights on? That's where you'll find the hookers. You gotta go to another town for crack. Is your tour taking you through Ballymena? That's where the crack is.

The hookers are in this neighbourhood? I ain't seen any hookers 'round here. I need cheap hookers man because I ain't got much money.

I'm sure if you tell them what you do they'll give you a discount.

Yeah, I'm sure! That's never helped me before, that means they think I have money.

What do your tattoos stand for? (four stars tattooed across the knuckles)It stands for youthful indiscretion.

Really? Over here it means "All Cops Are Bastards"

Oh, Jesus!

You'd better stay out of sight man, stay on the bus.

Yeah I will. It's been nice talking to you guys.

Complication # 5 Yakuza + Pixie Saytar & The Sunshine 3

2007-07-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

Complication live time again folks!

Yakuza 10th Birtday Party!

Pixie Saytar & The Sunshine Three Pre-Tour Party!

Laverys Bunker Belfast, Friday 3rd August, 9pm £5

Holly Golightly

2007-07-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

Holly Golightly and The Brokeoffs, The Black Box, Belfast 21/06/07

Complication # 4 - Givethedrummersome

2007-06-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

Complication #4 was again a great night, thanks a lot to Giveamanakick and Desert Hearts for playing and everyone who came down:

Giveamanakick
Desert Hearts

Giveamanakick
Desert Hearts

Playlist:
Q + Not U - So Many Animal Calls
The Make Up - Live In The Rhythm Hive
Bluetip - Castanet
Blood Brothers - Laser Life
Comets On Fire - Jaybird
Lil' Wayne Vs Black Rock - Stuntin' Like Black Rock
Edan - Rock 'N' Roll
Black Sabbath - Children Of The Grave
The Minutemen - Political Song For Michael Jackson To Sing
The Clash - Lost In The Supermarket
The Damned - Neat Neat Neat
The Ramones - 53rd + 3rd
The Buzzcocks - Orgasm Addict
Dan Sartain - Replacement Man
Mark Sultan - Warpath
Black Flag - Nervous Breakdown
The Buff Medways - Fire
The Premiers - Farmer John
The Heartaches - Teenage Hypochondriac
The Husbands - Tell Me Your Love Is Only Mine
Grinderman - Honey Bee Lets Fly To Mars
The Afghan Whigs - Crazy
The Hold Steay - Massive Nights
Ted Leo + The Pharmacists - Bottle Of Buckie
Saint Dudes - Pow! Lights Out Fool
Gaju - Access
The Who - Baba O Reilly
Refused - New Noise
Murder City Devils - Dancing Shoes
The Promosexuals - Shock Belly
Hot Snakes - If Credits What Matters, I'll Take Credit

Primavera Sound Barcelona June 2007

2007-06-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

Wilco

Sonic Youth

Ted Leo And The Pharmacists

Blonde Redhead

The Black Lips

Patti Smith

Girl Talk

The White Stripes

Billy Bragg

Girls Against Boys

Band Of Horses

Modest Mouse

Complication # 4

2007-06-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

This isn't rocket science folks, it's rock science!

Links: Giveamanakick Gaju

Gaju

2007-05-18T10:46:00.001-07:00

Gaju The Limelight Belfast 17/05/07

Comets On Fire Interview

2007-05-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

I didn't think anything could top the line up for ATP before Christmas but I have to say Primvera Sound in Barcelona at the end of the month comes pretty damn close. I'll be flying down with a bunch of hallions from Belfast to enjoy the likes of Slint, The Melvins, Sonic Youth, The White Stripes, The Smashing Pumpkins, Modest Mouse, Wilco, Girls Against Boys, Spank Rock, Girl Talk, The Buzzcocks, Ted Leo, Patti Smith and gods knows how many more. Also playing are Comets On Fire who'll be playing the whole of their awesome "Blue Cathedral" album as part of the whole "Don't Look Back" shenanighans so I thought I'd post my interview with Comets when from October last year when the rocked the Black Box in Belfast. Don't forget the pre-Primavera party- Laverys Bunker 25th May, live musics from Delorentos and DJs playing all yer Primavera favs. Here you go:

“You’re not going to beat him up like that Pitchfork guy are you?” asks Comets On Fire guitarist Ben Chasny as I sit down to interview band mate Noel Harmonson. While the thought of everyone’s favourite smug online music snobs getting some comeuppance is not exactly displeasing, a spot of shirts-off with the creators of the kind of wild scorched earth psyche rock of Comets Of Fire is less welcoming. Far from violent however, the keys man is settling into a nice Guinness buzz and keen to talk about Comets and their awesome new LP ‘Avatar’, which tones down the noise a notch and basks in the warm glow of 70s classic rock jams.

“There wasn’t a conscious decision to have a cleaner, more accessible sound but we always try hard not to make the same record twice. We all love all kinds of different music and all those influences seep in. The new record is a reflection of where we were at the time, but not necessarily where we’ll be in the future.”

How big a part does improvisation play in your writing process and live show?

“We write songs so we can play them live and there are set points that you can jam off but then in the studio you have to have the parts nailed down. So it’s a real dichotomy, we feel that once we have the songs documented on the records we’re free to improvise live and take them somewhere else. That’s been a particularly fun with this record, as the reviews have come out saying that it’s a bit more mellow so the thought if someone hearing the record and saying “oh! that’s cool, sounds a bit like The Allman Brothers” and then coming to the show and going “Fuck! These guys are maniacs!” Live we’re still this weirdo aggro freak out, maybe even more so”

Mellow is a relative term when describing the Comets sound, heady mix of psychedelica, garage punk, free jazz and classic rock. Do you all come from different musical backgrounds?

“Yeah definitely, myself and Chasny (also of Six Organs Of Admittance) are the two guys that are most into free jazz and experimental noise. The other guys are more into more melodic stuff, they would listen to The Grateful Dead, or at least tolerate The Grateful Dead and stuff whereas we would just refuse to have The Grateful Dead anywhere near us!”

Mention of The ‘Dead brings up the dubious spectre of the jam band scene. Having been described as an “underground jam band”, Comets have flirted around the edges of the scene.

“That’s a relatively new thing. It’s cool in a way. If someone calls you a jam band there’s a sense that you’ve been around long enough to be able to jam and that you have left some kind legacy or blazed a trail. A new band doesn’t get called a jam band. Much as we don’t have anything in common with the likes of Phish and The String Cheese Incident, if we can get involved in that scene and open it up and make it a bit more daring that’s great. It’s definitely made us reconsider who are fan base is but fans are great no matter where they come from.”

Fans are not in short supply for Comets at the minute with Mudhoney, Sonic Youth and Jello Biafra who reissued the bands debut album before they hooked up with Sub Pop

“Jello found our first record which we released ourselves in a record shop in Colorado and picked it up as it had a screen printed sleeve and he’s big into collecting records. He loved it and called us up and asked if he could reissue it so that was awesome. And we got to know some of the Sub Pop guys through playing in Seattle and they said “no one ever agrees on anything in the office but we all agree on the Comets record” We were like “What? I though you guys just listened to The Shins!” I can’t believe so many people are into it, for a band that started out as just a friends drinking beer.”

Luckily the only violence was that inflicted on the ears of the crowd at the Black Box as Comets ripped a hole in the space / noise continuum. Far out.

Mermaids

2007-05-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

A section from "Muscle Beach" by Sheila McCarron

Complication # 3 - Delorentos

2007-04-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

Nova Wreck and Gigantic Presents…

Complication # 3 – Primavera Sound Warm Up Party

Live music from…

Delorentos

(the return of Dublins indie pop superstars)

Plus DJ Fontana and DJ Johnny Tiernan playing punk / hip hop / garage rock / psychedelica from the likes of:

Architecture In Helsinki / Bad Brains / Battles / Beirut / Buzzcocks / Band Of Horses / Black Lips / Black Mountain / Billy Bragg / Comets On Fire / Clash / Dirty Three / Diplo / DJ Yoda/ E-LP / EPMD / Fall / Faith No More / Girl Talk / Girls Against Boys / Hot Chip / Heartaches / Isis / Jonathan Richman / Kid Koala / Kool G Rap / Low / Melvins / Modest Mouse / Mum / Mobb Deep /Oakley Hall / Ramones / Patti Smith / Spank Rock /Sonic Youth / Smashing Pumpkins / Slint /Ted Leo/ Tomahawk / White Stripes / Wilco

Friday 25th May 9:00pm £4

Laverys Bunker Belfast

Complication # 2 Photos

2007-04-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

Yes my friends, here are some lovely photos of The Evangelists and Factory at the Medicines Sans Frontieres benefit on Sunday night. Thanks to both bands, Mac for doing sound and everyone who came down. We raised £100 for MSF which should keep them in plasters for a while. Anyone who didn't make it down can still make a donation here

DJ Fontanas Miracle Medicine Mix:

Touch Me I'm Sick -Mudhoney

Medication - Queens Of The Stone Age

Rock N Roll Disease - Rock And Roll Machine

Pills - New York Dolls

Over And Over - Young Heart Attack

Teenage Hypochondriac -The Heartaches

Gar Forgets His Insulin - Hot Snakes

Sick - Unsane

Covered In Punks Blood - The Desert Sessions

Nausea - Therapy?

Nausea Shreds Yr Head - The Blood Brothers

Nurse, Would You Please Prep the Patient - Daughters

Take Me To Down To The Hospital - The Replacements

Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out - The Replacements

Pretend We're Dead - CSS

Dr. Wu - The Minutemen

Surgical Focus- Guided By Voices

Mr. Ambulance Driver - The Flaming Lips

Nuthin' But A "G" Thang - Dr. Dre Feat. Snoop Dogg

Sneakin' Out The Hospital - Beastie Boys

Is It Medicine - The Knife

Doctor Rock - Ween

Dr. Feelgood - Mötley Crüe

Bad Medicine - Bon Jovi (Chopped And Screwed)

Exploding Hearts - We're Almost Done

Tourettes - Nirvana

Midnight Service At The Mutter Museum - Murder City Devils

This Is What You Get - Murder City Devils

Waiting Room - Fugazi

Complication - The Monks

Psychotic Reaction - The Count Five

Doctor Worm - They Might Be Giants

Mr Pharmacist - The Fall

A Forest - The Cure

Complication # 2 - Touch Me I'm Sick

2007-04-01T07:34:00.000-07:00

Complication # 2 - Touch Me I'm Sick! A benefit gig for the good folks at Medicines Sans Frontieres featuring live music from The Evangelists, Factory and DJ Fontanas Miracle Medicine Mix. Laverys Bunker Belfast Sun 15th April Doors 8:30pm Adm £4 It's for charidee, if you don't come, you are a bad person...

Electric Eel Shock

2007-03-12T14:26:00.000-07:00

Gimme suicide or rock 'n' roll: Electric Eel Shock Auntie Annies Belfast 11/03/07

Saint Dudes

2007-03-06T13:19:00.000-08:00

The first Complication club night did indeed go down on Friday 9th Feb and lo it was awesome. Saint Dudes brought the house down and there was much dancing to DJ sets from myself and JT My play list was thus:

Dead Meadow ‘Heaven’
Black Sabbath ‘Embryo’
13th Floor Elevators ‘Reverberation’
Black Sabbath ‘Children Of The Grave’
The Birthday Party ‘Junkyard’
The Saints ‘No, Your Product’
The Outcasts ‘The Cops Are Coming’
Black Flag ‘Police Story’
The White Stripes ‘Handsprings’
Boss Hogg ‘Green Shirt’
The Hunches ‘Compression’
Wires On Fire ‘Dignity Points’
The Rolling Stones ‘Monkey Man’
Tina Turner ‘Whole Lotta Love’

Link Wray 'Rumble'
Edgar Winter ‘Frankenstein’
The Afghan Whigs ‘Retarded’
Rocket From The Crypt ‘Poison Eye’
Turbonegro ‘Get It On’
Supersuckers ‘I Want The Drugs’
The Monks ‘Complication’
The Stooges ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ / Fedde Le Grande ‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’
MC5 ‘Kick Out The Jams’
Detroit Cobras ‘Shout Rama Lama’
The Dirtbombs ‘Underdog’

Murder City Devils 'I Drank The Wine'
The Clash ‘Londons Calling’
Nirvana ‘Drain You’
Fugazi ‘Target’
Bad Brains ‘Sailin’ On’
Rites Of Spring ‘For Want Of’
The Gossip ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs ‘Art Star’
The Flaming Lips ‘Race For The Prize’
Bruce Springsteen ‘Born To Run’
AC / DC ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs ‘Cheated Hearts’

And people danced, I got totally out-Springsteened by JT though who dropped ‘Dancing In The Dark’ Dang!

Anyway, thanks to everyone who came down, it was fun and hopefully I’ll be let to another one. Here’s some pics of Saint Dudes who will be rocking Auntie Annies this Sunday with the absolutely awesome Electric Eel Shock. Don’t miss out!

Complication # 1

2007-01-22T12:55:00.000-08:00

Yes!

The first Complication club night will take place on Friday 9th Feb at Laverys Bunker, Belfast and will feature...

live music from Belfast’s bosses of hot sauce…

SAINT DUDES

Plus DJ Fontana and DJ Johnny Tiernan playing:

Garage Rock / Punk / Rock ‘n’ Roll / Psychedelica from the likes of...

Awesome Color / Bad Brains / Buzzcocks / Blues Explosion / Billy Childish / Comets On Fire / Clash / Dirtbombs / Dead Meadow / Dan Sartain / Exploding Hearts / Fugazi / Flaming Lips / Gang Of Four / Get Awesomes / Hot Snakes / Husker Du / Icarus Line / Jesus + Mary Chain / Kingsmen / Love / Minutemen / Mudhoney / Murder City Devils / Monks / MC5 / Nirvana / Outcasts / Promosexuals / Queens Of The Stone Age / Ramones / Replacements / Rocket From The Crypt / Stooges / Thirteenth Floor Elevators / Undertones / Unsane / Velvet Underground / Weirdoes / White Stripes / X Ray Spex /

Doors 9:00 pm Admission: £3

It will be awesome, please do try and come...

Deerhoof Interview

2007-01-12T16:24:00.000-08:00

The last quater of the 2006 was jammed full of musical highlights, a few of which I thought I may as well mention. First off, The Twilight Singers made good on their promise to play Belfast with a hot and sweaty show at the Limelight in November. Greg manfully battled a sore throat to roar out the likes of "40 Dollars" and "The Killer" which Mark Lanegan joined in for spine tingling covers of "Live With Me", "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" "I'll Take Care Of You" and some stuff off "Bubblegum" Thank you sirs! Next up was Jeff Tweedy from Wilco playing solo in Dublin. They guy is just super talented, he held and room of 800 people spellbound on his own for and hour and a half. Nice have that "pin drop" silence between songs, with plenty of drunken banter in betwixt. Drunken audience that is Jeff was sober. Lots of Wilco and a few Uncle Tupelo tunes, nice. Then it was the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival in Minehead. Curated by Thurston Moore, the line up consisted of all his favourite genres rock 'n' roll, punk, hardcore, noise, improv and weird psyche jam bands. The Stooges, MC5, The Melvins, Dinosaur Jr, Gang Of Four, Deerhoof, Comets On Fire, Deerhoof, basically all the stuff he has championed over the years. If he coulf have had The Minutemen, Nirvana and Pavement on the bill I'm sure he would have. He did have their bassists, though Mike Watt with The Stooges, Kirst Novoselic with Flipper and Mark Ibold replacing Jim O' Rourke in SY. Highlights for me were getting to see the Melvins play twice (lots of bands had to do two sets as the venues were quite small) with Coady Willis from the Murder City Devils on extra drums. That was drummer heaven. Dinosaur Jr were also awesome, ridiculously loud and just flat out rocking. Sunday was "Michighan Meltdown" day, kicking off with hardcore vets Negative Approach who were intense, before Awesome Color, Wolf Eyes, The Stooges and MC5 tore things down. Watching Iggy scream the lyrics to "TV Eye" from just feet away was incredible and the place went ballistic for them. After that I was a sodden wreck and I didn't think anything could get me to dance any more. But then the MC5 played - wow! History in the making I think. Such was the strength of the bill, I didn't get to check out stuff that was new to me and clashed meant I missed Comets On Fire, Be Your Own Pet and loads of other. The whole noise scene was out in force which I find to be a little intimidating, listening to tapes of some paranoid shut in sticking forks into wall sockets, just ain't my think y'know. Other good times were our hardcore disco, our chalet gallery and the water slides. Anyway, it was a class weekend so I thought I'd post this interview I did with Deerhoof for AU a few months ago. They were another of the bands who were good enough to do a second set after hundreds of people were locked out of their second stage show threatened to riot, in a polite, indie kind of way of course...

Photo by Claudia Rorarius

Deerhoof – your new favourite band... (Alternative Ulster September 2006)

Check your myspace friends. What are they listening to? There'll be a name that's cropping up with increasing regularity. That name is Deerhoof. The San Francisco three piece has slowly become one the most popular acts on the undergound rock scene thanks to an incredible word-of-mouth buzz and riotous explosion of sound that has seen them play with noise fiends, indie rock stars and hip hop behemoths alike. In Dublin to warm up the boards for Radiohead in front of ten thousand people at Marley Park as well as headline their own sold out show at the Music Centre we caught up with sleepy yet super friendly drummer Greg Saunier to find out how they done it...

It seems like Deerhoof have become very popular lately, largely through word of mouth, someone sees you play tells all their friends, buys a CD copies if for someone else and so on...

Definitely! It's not 100% word of mouth, we have a label and a publicist and we're always in touch with her. It's not pure accident, we do try to have some funny way to get our music heard, but the fact that it's a lot word of mouth makes me happy of course because it seems genuine when someone says they like the band. When I talk to people at shows a lot of time they feel that they found Deerhoof on there own, it wasn't pushed on them. Something that makes me very happy is how gradual it's been, it hasn't been that we suddenly got popular. Since the beginning of the band we've always been more popular than I thought and more people would come to the shows than I thought. If I new 2 people were going to come, 7 would turn up and when I was really happy that we got 40 people we got 70 and last night I was expecting zero people, the place was full! I'm always surprised that more people are interested than I think and that’s a pleasure that is denied a lot of bands who become instantly successful, in a way they're really lucky but they don't have that constant feeling of things always being slightly better than you thought they'd be and having many of your dreams start to come true slowly over a period of years. So we don't feel burned out or jaded at all, we still really enjoy playing and recording music, I'm still always so excited to wonder what's going to happen today, we've had so many wonderful things happen.

The Deerhoof sound is a tricky thing to pin down. They recently covered The Beatles and My Bloody Valentine which is a good place to start but only tells one tenth of the story. It’s a joyous mix of noise, pop, garage, electronica and psyche rock that has evolved over the course of seven albums and numerous EPs propelled by Greg’s ridiculous drumming style. How did your style develop?

Hey, I'm not ridiculous!
Ridiculously good!

Oh! I started playing drums in around third grade, learning the snare at first then the bass drum so then by the time I got near a full kit, I was just dying and I'd just go crazy on it.
Then when I moved to San Francisco I was so obsessed with The Melvins, it was just after they had moved to California so would play there a lot so I'd just try to rip off Dale Grover. So it's evolved from there.

A reshuffle in the Deerhoof ranks was recently forced by the departure of long term guitarist Chris Cohen. How has that affected the band?

It's odd because, in actual time, it's really recent that he left, it was only in June but in terms of what's happened since he left both for us and for him, it seems like ages. We miss him of course but the first shows we played since he left, were opening for the Flaming Lips, the Primavera Sound Festival in Spain in front of thousands of people, then 6 shows opening for Radiohead in California! It was a silver platter handed to a band that's basically starting from scratch, it's like starting a band and thinking "hmm, what should our first show be?" It's completely nonsensical! And between then and now, we recorded a new album, which we're mixing now on our laptop. And Chris it that time has finished his album, found labels to put it out, he's on tour right now but for him and for us we've been so busy. We weren't saying "on no, what are we going to do?" we had a whole summer of shows booked so we just had to get in there and come up with something. That's always been the way things worked in Deerhoof, things will just suddenly change. That’s how the band formed. The band I was in, that was just ripping off The Melvins broke up very suddenly, the singer and guitarist decided they didn't want to do the band anymore and left the city. The two of us that were left, me and the bassist Rob were like "Huh? What will we do? We've got shows booked in a week, what's a bass player and a drummer gonna do?" And we were the members of the band that new each other the least, and the only songs we knew were the bass and drum parts of our songs, now minus the vocals and guitars. So, we really quickly tried to come up with a way that these songs could work with just bass and drums.

Which is of course all the rage now...you were pioneers…
Ha-ha! Not quite, Lightning Bolt hadn't yet formed, they formed about a year later, but the band Godhead Silo had and we were like "they did it so we'll be ok" So for the first half a year we were a lot like Godhead Silo.

Was the band called Deerhoof at that point?

Yes it was. We did a lot of free improv too, me and Rob had been listening to a lot of AMM, Derek Bailey and we thought it was very cool so it was this weird mixture of drum and bass parts from these Melvins style grunge songs and I would take over the vocals and try to take very uninteresting parts and make them interesting by making them super exaggerated, to take this music that was very bland, and make it as expressive and over the top as possible…

Sounds like Lightning Bolt to me…
Ha! I think that kind of concept is still alive in the band, that way of taking music where the content of it may seem kind of silly but putting an undue amount of expression into it and making something great.

Do you find your trying to do that again in adjusting to Chris leaving?

Yes, he was playing bass towards the end, on most of the songs on 'The Runners Four', so Satomi has ended up playing bass or some version of his bass parts. I think John has had the funniest time though, he's really busy, trying to play to two guitar parts at once. We're lucky I can't think of any other guitar player who could do it, he can switch between them so fluidly, his control is essential to us being able to play any music at all. Also we don't mind rearranging the songs, and making it stripped down and skeletal that's interesting too. It's interesting when the Rolling Stones record a song in the studio and it's very stripped down and just guitar, bass, drums and vocals then they go out on tour and there's nine horns, and backing singers and percussionists the whole nine, and it becomes this whole other thing. But it's another thing, if someone plays a song solo, that to me is an incredibly cool sound and it's just as exciting as blowing it up, and adding a million layers. More often than not Deerhoof has been complicated on record than live, it's hard to resist putting a load of extra sounds on there but live we try to strip it down a lot.

You seem to strike a great balance between melodic, pop sensibilities and experimental noise which is difficult to do, most bands go one way or the other, is that something you strive for?

It's not that specific. Early on we may have thought about it more, I might have had conscious thoughts about it like "maybe I'll pretend I'm Dale Cover playing in AMM, what would he do if he were just doing free improv" We're all of varied backgrounds, I went to music school and am very trained musically whereas Satomi has no musical training, she never played a note before Deerhoof. John had played in bands but his musical interests were very different from mine. What all we like in music, is just about everything. It's not like John likes metal and I like jazz and Satmoni likes showtunes, we all like some metal and some jazz and some showtunes, to the point where it's not even possible to differentiate genres like say someone who worked at a record store would have to. If your in a band and thinking about music all the time and it's your obsession, the idea of different genres its like the kindergarten stage of exploring music. When you're at the point where for years on end you've just being playing and thinking about music, it's like when I'm speaking to you I'm not thinking about the alphabet, I'm not thinking about the letters being used to form the words coming out of my mouth, I’m thinking about the ideas i'm trying to get across, just like we might be using notes and things that might refer to other genres but it's not being done in a conscious way. That's one of the most beautiful things about Radiohead and why they've been one of my favourite bands for years is that it's the same for them. It's a very fluid, borderless musical universe they're working in, it's not that they're putting in classical instruments to be cute or funny or reference a certain genre but it's part of the sound world they inhabit and their creative mind is not going to compartmentalise like that. If you're dreaming up a song you're not going to say "I'm not going to put violins in your dream, because I know you're a rock band" They allow that limitless palate to come through. That's something I admire about them that I'd like to imitate.

So what's the new record like?

Gosh, as you've probably guessed by now I'm not the best person to ask about musical genres. This may sound pretentious but we're trying to make it sound not like anything you've ever heard. You can't avoid that but we wanted to make it so your first reaction is not "it sounds like so and so" but a really intense, pure sensation and then maybe you go back after a while and can pinpoint where it comes from. That's another thing that bands who get really popular straight out suffer from, we don't have one thing that we're known for so it's not difficult to branch out and do something else. Recently I've taken to asking random people "what should we do on our new record" and the one thing they say is "do something different, surprise me" We're incredibly lucky to have that licence. If there's any kind of marketing machine behind Deerhoof it's not "tone it down and make it more close to what's successful" it's "go further, the further out you go the more successful it will be"

Yep, that's were the smart money is. Time to get with the 'Hoof

Twilight Singers Interview

2006-11-07T14:44:00.000-08:00

Here's an interview I did with Greg Dulli of The Twilight Singers, previously of The Afghan Whigs. It was published in a heavily edited form in Alternative Ulster Magazine. Greg is something of a musical hero, hence the wealth of geeky fan related questions. He's also a super friendly guy making this one of the most fun interview experiences I've ever had. Enjoy...

You can check out The Twilight Singers incredible cover of Massive Attacks "Live With Me" featuring Mark Lanegan here

The impact of Hurricaine Katrina was felt all over the world. We watched helpless on as an entire region of the worlds richest country was practically destroyed in a matter of hours, it was a human tragedy of immense proportions. In New Orleans particularly, it wasn't long before the impact on the music community was felt, musicians such as Fats Domino, and Big Stars Alex Chilton were air-lifted off roofs while Kanye West's notorious "George Bush doesn't care about black peole" outburst focused attention on the Dubya and his governments' woefully inadequate response. All of which leads us two the new Twilight Singers album "Powder Burns", the long awaited follow up from to the 2003s rapturously received "Blackberry Belle"

"Powder Burns" is yet another classic album of epic, passionate, dark hearted rock 'n' roll from former album former Afghan Whigs frontman, Greg Dulli. It's also one of the first records to emerge having been significantly affected by and dealing directly with the disaster. I'll let Greg take up the story...

I did a lot of the basic tracking in New Orleans in July and August before I went to Europe. I was in Italy when the hurricane hit. I've lived in New Orleans on and off for the last ten years, so it's a very dear place to me and watching it unfold and watching the non-response from the government, the emotions I was feeling went from rage, to despair to sadness to feeling "I've got to get there!" back to anger but I had jobs I was doing in Italy so i couldn't get back. I got back as soon as I could and it was surreal. To work in an environment of a city that is probably one of the wildest cities on earth and have it be under marshal law with a strong military presence was fucking strange, and very surreal. I mean, I haven't seen tanks in a city since the last time I was in Belfast! So I ended up writing three new songs when I got back to town and those songs were those that were most affected by the hurricaine. Starting the record before the disaster and finishing after, there's very much a ying-yang quality, it's up and down. The more hushed songs were definitely written after wards "Candy Cane Crawl" "Bonnae Brae", "I Wish I Was" where written later on and "Underneath The Waves" is probably the most direct reference to the hurricane.

What's it like in the city now, any signs that it's getting back to normal?

Well I didn't go down for Mardi Gras because they shortened it from one week instead of the usual two so that should give you and idea of where it's at. I left town in December, and It was still under curfew. The curfew has been lifted now but there's still very few people there, the population is still only half mast and unless your in construction or demolition, jobs are hard to come by, a lot of businesses have pulled out. But we're starting a tour in may and we're playing in town on June 6 th which we are going to film for our DVD, and I like to point out that June 6th this year is going to be 666! So watch out!

Anyone who's ever seen The Twilight Singers live will tell you, that's going to be one hell of a party. How does this record compare to the other Twilight Singers albums?

I think the thing that's different with this record as compared to the other Twilight Singers records is that I kind of threw off the yoke of convention and allowed it to sound like it wanted to be. With the other records I had a preordained idea of how I wanted them to sound so "Powder Burn" is not limited by my initial concept of what I wanted the Twilight Singers to be which was as atmospheric kind of project. This one's a little more rock and roll, more wide screen cinematic.

Who's playing on the record?

For my live band I use a pool of about 10 musicians and all of them are on there. On backing vocals I have Ani Difranco, Joseph Arthur, Scott Bennet from Brian Wilsons' band, and John Curley from the Whigs plays bass on one of the songs.

The last record you made that was strongly influenced by New Orleans was the Whigs "1965" which was very joyous, I guess this is a bit different...

This is it's alter ego. "1965" is literally the happiest record I've ever done, it's my favourite Whigs record and Whigs fans will fight me to the end of time on that and I don't give a fuck! It was one of the happiest times of my life and you can hear that, this album It's definatley not as dark as "Blackberry Belle" but there is a darkness, y'know when death and destruction float through your life, it's hard to party.

"1965" was recorded very quickly after abandoning what would become "Twilight" the first Twilight Singers album. Likewise you're solo album "Amber Headlights" was abandoned to make "Blackberry Belle" after the death of Ted Demme (film director and the man who brought you "Yo! MTV Raps") You really seem to run with inspiration when it hits...

I make records based on the circumstances of my life at the moment and abandoning "Amber Headlights" was the thing to do at the time, I wasn't that person any more. On this one, the New Orleans that I left and that I came back to were very diiferent and I had to try and reconcile that. It kind of tore me in half and I think both halves are on there but I think there's a heart in the middle of it.

While "Powder Burns" has been a long time coming, even longer in gestation is the long mooted Gutter Twins project, a collaboration with Mark Lanegan that has fans salivating at the prospect. What's the deal man? People are waiting!

We hope to finish it soon. When I get back from doing this we have ten days booked in Joshua Tree, and hopefully it's going to come out next year. It's taking a while as we're both busy guys but it's coming together. We actually did a Gutter Twins show in Italy in September. We only played one of our original songs as Italy is so bootleg happy, and we didn't want anything to slip out but it gave me a great idea, of what our live show is going to be like and fuck! It's going to be a good time! Between the two of us we probably have about 500 songs we can play, so i think it's going to be very eventful. Some of it is so orchestral and sweeping that I don't know how we'll be able to pull it off unless someone ponies up for an orchestra for it, it's very 70s, Jack Nitzsche, Jimmy webb, sounding, downright epic....

I'm wondering how it will work live, he's very withdrawn and intense and you're very flamboyant and outgoing, do you think you'll be able to bring him out of his shell at all?

You can't bring him out! He's going to be him and I'm going to be me. I said to him, ‘look dude I'm going to go to bring it full force’ and he's like ‘Well, I'm not going to dance around like a monkey!’ I think it's going to work well, we'll be yin and yang. It worked at the Italian show, I'm very demonstrative and he's very intense and once we started playing we'll spark off each other. If I start talking he'll talk back, believe me, I can get him talking like no-one else.

Yeah, I've met Mark too and I have met him and despite his fierce reputation but he's a really nice guy...

He's really one of the nicest people I've ever met and he's one of my best friends. I've seen a side of him that no-one else has and at the same time, I've been the piano player in his band and watched him scare the shit out an the audience. One woman had the fucking balls to heckle him...

Oh no...

..and he destroyed her. If she didn't go home and hang herself I'll be surprised, and one point even I was like "Whoa! Dude! Pull off!" It was the dumbest thing I've ever seen, there's a recording of it floating around the internet and you can here me laughing into the microphone, it's fucking hilarious...

OK even though we've out-ed him as a nice guy, you still don't go around heckling Mark Lanegan...Your lyrics are renowned for being, deeply intense and personal, do you ever worry about putting too much out there or have you ever held anything back because it was too personal?

There's some things I haven't put out out of respect to my family, and I would say the Gutter Twins stuff is as naked as I've got. "Powder Burns" is also pretty naked, I don't mind it. It's shedding a skin and moving on and it's liberating, I'm not afraid to do it. There are certain songs from my past that I don't really feel comfortable playing but there's always a new one down the line.

Do you find you get further away from stuff like Gentlemen…?

I haven't listened to "Gentlemen" in a while and there are songs on there that I'm not comfortable playing. I was 26 when I made that record. Someone asked me the other day "do you think you could do that again?" I was like "fuck no!" That was 12 years ago, are you the same person you were 12 years ago? They say people don't change but they do. I did some Whigs stuff on the last tour, that was the one album i didn't touch, except for a little bit of "If I Were Going" but that one felt comfortable to me and I did it in a place in the set that was designed for release. I don't know, I was actually thinking of "Fountain and Faifax" the other day and I don't even know why, maybe because I drove past it. If I were going to do one, that'd be it, it was always the most fun to play live. My hands feel good on the guitar when I play that, it's a nice ripping riff. It's strange, bands with incredible longevity like The Stones or Aerosmith or even someone like Neil Young, you watch them do songs that are 30 or 40 years old and I'm kind of amazed by that. Like "Wow! Is this sincere or are you just hawking a product?" Like The Stones have so many great songs, why the fuck do they still gotta do "Jumpin' Jack Flash" It's not like you're going to be bummed if they don't play it! Why not play, "Rip This Joint" or "Back Street Girl" or even "Monkey Man" Fuck! Come on man!

When you played in Whelans a few years ago you seemed more comfortable with the more upbeat songs off "Black Love" and "1965"

Definitely. Doing "Faded" in particular is very natural to me. Of all the songs I wrote in the Whigs, it's the most comfortable. I used to say it's my "Purple Rain", the big show closer. It's kind of timeless, it's almost like a cover to me now, it feels almost older than me. "Gentlemen“, really took it out of me. That was the big record for us, we went from playing bars to big theatres and it was kind of a shock to the system. I mean I wasn't singing "Jumpin' Jack Flash". I was singing the darkest corridors of the mansion in my head, y'know. It's interesting, I still haven't decided if I'm going to do Whigs songs on this tour, I've now done as many records outside of the Whigs as I did when I in them. I probably will though...

Yeah, it's nice to hear them but at the same time, you have done enough great stuff outside that people wouldn't be annoyed, you don't need to rely on them...

Yeah, we did a couple of shows at SXSW and didn't do Whigs songs and nobody was bitching so it was fine. I think I'll do them if I'm feeling it but I'm not going to do them out of any form of obligation

A long standing feature of Afghan Whigs and Twilight Singers shows is the mind boggling array of covers spontaneously dropped into the set. A feature which reached it's logical conclusion with the release in 2004 of "She Loves You" and album of covers by artists as diverse as Bjork, Mary J Blige, Stevie Nicks and Billie Holiday. The album was the first of three planned covers albums, what's in store number two?

I guarantee I'll be ready for that'd second one when I get back from touring because, it just happens, it's nothing planned. The one song, I'm definitely going to do is "Flashback" by Fat Freddy's Drop and I may do "Forever" by Dennis Wilson, those are two songs that I'm playing with at the minute but somebody else's song will come out, and I will seize on it and make it my mine. I haven't even heard it yet and I'm already salivating...

I've got it in my head for some PJ Harvey of Tina Turner on this one...

Hey have you ever heard Tina Turner do "Whole Lotta Love"?

Shit no!

It's on an old album called "The Acid Queen" It's really amazing, really nasty, it'll break you in too, she looks hot on the cover too. Polly Harvey, I fucked with a couple of her songs in the Whigs "Down By The Water" in particular. There were two songs on "Songs From The City" that I thought I could do a mash up on and you've just sent me back in that direction James. She's ripe, ripe for the picking!

On the Whigs 1998 classic "1965" Greg also famously dropped a lyric form Queensbridge's finest Nas into "Omerta" Not many rock bands can get any with dropping hip-hop lyrics and not looking like idiots. That was awesome...

What's even more awesome about that is that, on the '65 tour, we did three shows in New York and on all three shows Ola Daru (Nas's da and famed jazz trumpeter) opened up and on the last night Nas came on stage and did a song with him and then stuck around. I spoke to him briefly, he was like "I heard you dropped me, I'm going to check you out" I'm like "alright man!" So he watched us from a table up one the balcony. I sang the lyric ("I never sleep,'cos sleep is the cousin of death") right at him and he nodded his head at me. It was awesome!

I love Nas

Me too man, he was really nice to me and his dad is a super stud.

Ha! Sticking with hip-hop, Greg also recently pointed out the remarkable similarity between Oukasts' "Hey Ya" and the Whigs "Uptown Tonight" via an incredible mash up of the two songs. It's a similarity he claims is no coincidence...

I know they heard my version because, a friend of mine is friends with them and Andre acknowledged that he'd heard "1965", but that was as much as he'd admit. I was like "Dude, I know what you did!" and I actually think it's fucking awesome.

Yeah, you can't deny "Hey Ya"

Hell no man, y'know I did it and the fact that they heard my version, I was psyched.

Greg has a close working relationship with Italian rock band After Hours. They're something of an unknown quantity over here, could you tell us a bit about them?

They're kind of the kings of Italy so I was aware of them having played a bunch in Italy and always having done well there and I met their singer at a wedding in Las Vegas so the next time I was over, I checked out their show and it was one of the most mind blowing and visceral rock shows I had ever seen, I didn't know any of their songs but it didn't matter, I was moved by them. Then they asked The Twilights to go play with them and when you play with After Hours in Italy, you're playing to 5 to 10 thousand people, they are a big fucking deal and have been a big fucking deal for 15 years. They asked me to do their record, I was like "fuck yeah man!" and they were doing it in May and June in Sicily so it was basically a paid holiday to the Italian Riveria. I co-wrote 4 of the songs with them, they are all amazing musicians and the singer is just incredible, like a cross between Iggy and Jeff Buckley and I ended up joining their band, I did 50 shows with them last year and I wouldn't have traded it for nothing. I loved being the sideman, I loved the no pressure role, played guitar and piano, and ended up singing a couple of songs. I sang a song in Italian at the end of the night, hadn't a clue what the fuck I was singing but the whole crowd was cheering so it couldn't have been anything too bad. They are awesome.

People are still raving about your show in Whelans a few years ago, when will you be coming back?

I'm pretty sure we're playing Oxygen and I think then we're going to come back do clubs and theatres in the Fall.

You still owe Belfast for the cancelled gig at the Empire...

Yeah man I know! It was the fucking snow storm! Touring in Europe in February is kind of silly because you're going to run into shit like that but it sucks man, I've only ever played Belfast once at Queens University and I had a blast. I remember I was at KFC, and I came out and nearly got hit by a tank! I was like, "Holy Crap! Just like on TV!"

There's not some many tanks around now which is nice.

That's cool.

Here's a kind of geeky question, have you ever played "Step Into The Light" live or ever intend to play it again. It's my favourite man! There's a long pause. I take that as a "no"

Don't take it as a no! Actually, I really love that song and I was actually, considering that as one of the songs I might consider playing again. I tell you what I'll come to Belfast and I'll play that song for you...

I'll hold you to that...

I actually started fucking around with it by myself on the piano and it works nicely as a piano song. I'll give that one a run. It's super stripped down. I actually play drums on it, and my friend Donal Lough, he's an actor and his parents are from Kerry, it's his favourite song and my granddad is from Cork, so maybe it's the Irish in us. Y'know what? It'd be my pleasure to play that song, I'm going to work it up with the band. You watch, we'll do that one then we'll hit you back with the PJ Harvey, give you some, double trouble.

Ok, I look foreward to it and I to checking out "Powder Burns"

I think you're going to like it, I'm as excited about it as I have been about any record I've ever done. It'll shock you in a couple of places I think…

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us Greg...

Nice talking to you James, have a good night...

Hello

2006-11-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

This will be the Complication Blog at some point.

Thanks