Well this week’s show is freakin’ awesome! Our special guest is none other than punk rock engineer / producer, ex-Screeching Weasel bass player, and founding member of Squirtgun, Mass Giorgini. If you’re a fan of 90s pop punk, then chances are you’ve been listening to records he’s either engineered, produced or played on. This episode is filled with stories revolving around working with the likes of Ben Weasel, Danny Vapid, Jughead, Dan Panic, Dan Lumley, Zac Damon, Billie Joe, Mike Dirnt, The Hard-Ons, Anti-Flag, Rise Against, Green Day, and the list goes on. He talks about his time at The Lookouting and that one song that shot them straight into peoples homes with the movie Mallrats. This is a two hour interview of solid punk rock goodness and you’re gonna love it! Listen in right now by clicking on THIS LINK. To keep up to date with future interviews, click the subscribe button over there on the left hand side.
Enjoy tunes by anyone and everyone Mass talks about on the show.
This week’s show features an interview with the absolutely awesome Donita Sparks from rockers, L7. From their humble beginnings to John Waters movies to their Australian tour, Donita opens up about all things L7 and it’s a pretty rad time. This is a whole lotta fun and you should get on it right now by clicking on THIS LINK and don’t forget to subscribe to the show by clicking on that link on the left.
So the gang is back again for another jam packed episode of radness featuring Damo and Michele. It’s nothing but awesomeness at all times on this episode as we feature a quick chat with the almighty Clowns from Melbourne, we review horror and action movies, Kate pops by to tell all about her birthday shenanigans and Craig jumps on at the end writhing in pain but still manages to deliver his weekly news of The Shrine! You can’t keep a good Shrine fan down. Antics Antics Antics! Listen in now by clicking this link.
Enjoy tunes by:
Clowns
Direct Hit!
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
SR-71
Coffin Wolf
A
Entombed
Riverdales
Sex Pistols
Pansy Division with Jello Biafra
Bodyjar
Social Distortion
American Hi-Fi
Chainsaw Hookers
Damone
Ryan Adams
When In Rome
Wow, I never thought I’d see the day when this happened but the good folk at KillRockStar Entertainment are doing the unthinkable. The Dead Kennedys were first in Australia in 1983 and now they are back and ready to shake the foundations of our shores again. Now, I know there is the whole argument of the band without Jello Biafra and believe me, after meeting Jello Biafra and thinking the guy was a downright top dude, I too could easily jump on his side of the fence. The thing is, I grew up with this band. I love those tunes. ‘Plastic Surgery Disasters’ is one of my all time favourite punk rock records. Everything about them was awesome. I followed the band closely through tape trading and managed to score myself a shitload of video footage of the band over the years. This is one segment I do have on tape and since the band is touring again, I feel it is relevant to share it with you now…
(This is not from my own tape, I just found this on youtube)
And I mean, let’s face it, Jello Biafra was the heart and soul of that band. But I think that without the 4 of these guys together, the unique sound and the songs that were born wouldn’t sound the way they do. The Dead Kennedys had a punk sound that was different to the likes of the Ramones, The Clash or the Sex Pistols but what they had was something new and exciting. Those albums still sound as fresh today as they did the first time I heard them in 1988 (yes, I was a late bloomer but I’m not THAT old).
So what am I going to expect from this tour? For me, a celebration of the songs of my youth. I know it’s not going to be as amazing as their shows were in the early 80’s but I also think comparing the 2 is kinda pointless. The guys are older, Jello isn’t with them but the others are still touring, letting us kids who werent old enough to experience it the first time to finally have our turn at enjoying the songs that the Dead Kennedys gave us.
The current line-up has Ron “Skip” Greer on vocal duties. For those not in the know, he fronted a band called the Wynona Riders who released some stuff on Lookout Records. I have a 7″ single and their JD Salinger CD which is pretty cool. I like the tunes so for me, seeing him up there singing for the Dead Kennedys will be an interesting experience. Here’s a song I found on youtube of the Wynona Riders for your listening pleasure…
The rest of the band, Klaus Flouride, East bay Ray and DH Peligro are still the backbone to punk rock’s most controversial group. I say controversial because what they were doing in the 80’s with the Frankenchrist album still remains an important story in punk rock history. Hell, even my mum found Jello Biafra quite interesting. She was watching a Dead Kennedys video with me once while she ironed my clothes for school and thought his views were interesting and he made good points. Either that or she thought he was hot… but I think it was the former.
So anyway, the Dead Kennedys hit Australia in April playing the following dates:
When the Sex Pistols first toured in 1996 on the Filthy Lucre tour, I went. Why? Cos I knew if I didn’t go and it was awesome, I would have been kicking myself about it. I ended up loving the show. I am sure if I don’t go to this, I will be kicking myself again if I miss it so I will assure you, I’ll be there. Let’s rock! Seeya’s there and I hope they play Moon Over Marin.
Let’s be honest here… I don’t listen to Soulfly. I couldn’t even tell you a single song title. Yeah, really. I mean, sure, I know who they are, I know that the dude’s from Sepultura and I know a lot of dude’s who wear basketball jersey’s, camo shorts and have shaved heads, goatee beards and baseball caps dig ’em, but other than that, I know nothing about them. But then on Tuesday night a message came through asking me if I wanted a free ticket. Of course I accepted cos who knows, maybe I’d dig it? So I got to the venue at around 8pm and met my friend and in we went.
The first band were playing. They were called Incite which isn’t the best of band names but then again, either is Spiders In The Biscuit Jar and at the time we thought that was awesome (we were kids so quit the laughing). Word on the street is that the vocalist is the son of Mr Sepultura himself, Max Cavalera. Incite were pretty good. They got the crowd ready and the inbetween song banter was amusing. I dunno about you, but personally, hearing someone scream “Heavy Fucking Metal!” in death metal voice just makes me laugh. Still though, not a bad set. Pretty heavy stuff with some good riffs.
City Of Fire came on next. These dudes were like a supergroup with members from Fear Factory, Hatebreed and Strapping Young Lad. That’s a pretty beefy sausage party right there. I didn’t know what to expect when they came on and immediately I was diggin’ it. I hadn’t heard a single song by these guys either so for me to get rocked without knowing any of the tunes I thought was quite cool indeed. These guys did an awesome version of The Cult’s “Rain” which I thought was a highlight of the entire night. It just sounded cool in the middle of so much testosterone.
Soulfly came on and the place started jumping immediately. They have that groovy metal sound that has jungle drums and stuff to get people pogo-ing like they were at a Sex Pistols show in ’77. The driving beats and rhythm of each song had everyone dancing from the first chord til the last. I have to say, I liked ’em. It was groovy. You could totally move to it. The only downfall was the amount of douchebags there. I mean, really? Being a tough guy drunk fuckwit pushing people around because you are metabolism-challenged is not cool. Whatever. Cavalera had the crowd in his palm and gave them everything they wanted including the Sepultura classic, “Roots”, in the encore along with crowd favourite, “Eye For An Eye”. It was a great set and the crowd loved it. Seemed the people were more than happy. And Max has crazy dreads.
Besides the few who got into “tough guy” phase, the show was most awesome and I am a converted fan. Granted, you won’t see me in a basketball jersey anytime soon but I was definitely impressed. Awesome stuff.
So back in the day, around 1989 I think, this was shown on TV here in Australia. Page One was a current affairs type program that played on late night television on Channel 10. I remember the night clearly: I was in the lounge room laying on the floor, my mate was sitting on the couch and my mum was on another couch, we were all watching. I guess my mum knew we were all into metal and she wanted to take an interest in what we were listening to, or something. So here we were, sitting down and ready to watch a program that was going to warn my own mum about the music I was listening to. Now, 21 years later, found on some tape with the words “Heavy Metal” written on the label, you can watch this piece of visual history as Page One takes you through a look at the likes of Metallica and Judas Priest being blamed for the suicides of teenage kids.
Part 1
Part 2
I really like how they mention Venom too… those lyrics are gold! In fact, so much that I am gonna have to listen to Black Metal as I write this. See, Venom can be associated with anything. So good! I remember the day when I found the Satanic messages that are in the Venom song ‘In League With Satan’. Me and my brother were stoked. So much in fact that we showed my mum who, sadly, wasn’t so enthusiastic. Her words were something along the lines of “Well that’s bloody nice, isn’t it?” and then she walked off. She doesn’t seem to share the same appreciation for Venom as her sons. I guess it’s a bit more full on than the Beatles messages of “Paul Is Dead… Miss Him… Miss Him!” Either way, Venom are still awesome. But I digress. This archival piece is pretty darn awesome and includes exclusive interviews with Lars Ulrich, Rob Halford and some dude named Rocky.
So there we have it… another relic found in the archives of the Long Gone Loser video collection. I hope you enjoy this piece of heavy metal history. Have fun!
Side note: Does anyone know the garage thrash band featured in this special? Always wanted to know who they were. Especially cos they have fans who saw off their casts, live in middle class suburbia and all seem to like Overkill.
