BIG DEAL: It's a secret.... post June Gloom interview

This interview with BIG DEAL originally aired in our September Issue of F&L. It goes a bit out of our normal fare but has the attitude we admire, not to mention I really like this album. Some cool perspectives on being a band and the whole racket that is involved with it, while explaining the cool concepts on the June Gloom LP. – Kevin

With your newest release June Gloom, music fans and purists can bask in the underground/pop/garage intricacy of these amazing compositions that appear to draw upon such groundbreaking releases as Blondie’s “Parallel Lines” and the Pixies “Bossanova” while adding a completely new component. What was the process in the writing and recording of the newest collection?

KC- We started writing for it when we were in California after SXSW. We really wanted to move on from the first record and keep evolving into what we glimpsed the band could be. Our favourite bands and our favourite times in music were when, for lack of a better word, independent bands changed the mainstream. I don't really think that's possible anymore as mainstream is now tied into reality TV shows where they engineer emotions and everything else is squabbling for scraps.

The coolest thing about the newest release is the inclusion of a double vinyl release and it comes with an iron on transfer to make your own T-shirt. As a product of the 1990s myself, it’s refreshing to see a DIY approach that embraces slacker ideology and the concept of beautiful dropouts and losers. How does this type of approach affect the band’s personal belief system and lifestyles?

KC- In part we just wanted to thank people who actually wanted something physical , who are either aware enough to pitch in and help a band survive , or have a real appreciation of the format. Personally , I love things that you can make your own, or modify to suit you. It was also a lot more feasible then putting a shirt in every vinyl!

AC: When it' so easy to steal music I think it's cool to reward those who don't do it and are actively supporting bands. They can wear their iron on transfers as a badge of honour!

“In your car” is a monster hit on the digital airwaves. The video has an entrancing quality to it with brilliant simplicity, not to mention a great single! What was the basis for the song and accompanying video?

KC- This is news to us! Great news! though we are skeptical without seeing it for ourselves. Alice started the song in California, I finished it in London when we returned. I really wanted the video to be in the desert where I grew up. It has this incredible beauty that's threatening and brutal and a bit scary. The creatures in the video, i wanted to look like the guitar lead sounded in my head.

A favorite of mine is “Close your eyes” on the latest album, on this track it’s like a daydream experience with the Velvet Underground and the Vaselines providing the second hand buzz. How does the band balance more straight ahead synth garage rockers with moody ballads in the writing process?

KC- They are both parts of us, and something we miss from a lot of modern rock music. Balance is a really important idea to us, but it's also really liberating as you can go as far in each direction. Led Zeppelin records were almost always half acoustic ballads, which isn't the way a lot of people remember them, but makes it better going back to it.

Have you had experience with Southern California’s notorious June Gloom? It always gets the best of me every year but remains oddly cathartic at the same.

KC- We have! My mom now lives in San Clemente and she finds those months really hard, and I find it funny. I lived in Costa Mesa for a couple years and I liked it the most when it was gloomy and dark and cloudy, and moody. Such a relief from the endless sunshine! And now, it's the inverse. London is gloomy for all but a few weeks of the year. That is balance for you.

What are some of your favorite bands that played a role in your decision to make music for a living and outside of the band, do you have non-musical occupations?

KC- I love Nirvana and the Beatles and Depeche Mode, Smashing Pumpkins, Afghan Whigs, Sunny Day Real Estate. Those bands got me through growing up. I feel a sort of debt in that respect. I have/had all kinds of jobs, teaching guitar and working in a pizza place , waiting tables. I was a roadie for Dick Dale.

What is your opinion on how the digital revolution has changed the release of recordings and accessibility to artists? Do you feel you have more control in the creative process or does the help of a recording company offer a more lucrative lifestyle in terms of distribution and live gigs?

KC- Accessibility is the easy part to understand. Anyone who hears of something can immediately look it up, which is amazing, but also kind of sad. It's the hearing about it part that is now the commodity. And that’s where it gets confusing. We have never been written about on a high profile blog in the states. Major labels have the power to market their bands relentlessly. Still not an even playing field but…

From your combined experience, what is your advice for new indie bands looking to make an imprint in the indie/underground music world? What DIY methods work? Which ones don’t?

Alice: To be honest I don't think we're in a position to be giving advice on what works, as we're definitely still figuring that ourselves. But this seems to be the plan that new indie bands are following for success.

1) Make your band name a misspelt word to make it easier for people to Google. Usually it's coolest if you take a fairly mundane word but just change it slightly. For example ' I've just started a new band called 'Cetchup'.
2) Make sure you have a logo ( this is more important than the songs). It must look good on t-shirts, that one day might be sold in Urban Outfitters if you're lucky.
3) Make sure you have a collectively clear image and brand that people want to get behind.
4) Play some songs…(maybe)

OR
1) Work really hard on writing some great songs that you really believe in and want to spend the next part of your life playing all over the world.
2)Be in a band with your best friends. If you're going to be stuck in the back of a van for most of your life you're going to want to be stuck there with people you love.
3)Don't compare yourself to everybody else, especially if you're on an indie label. Trying to compete with bands on major labels is like trying to compete in a marathon against Olympic athletes who have money and support behind them and you're just a normal guy and all you've got is a really cheap pair of running shoes. There is a chance you could win, or even just make it to the finish line but you're going to have to work twice as hard.


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PUNK POLLUTION: NEW REVIEWS OF THE SOCIALS AND SUBSETS

FEAR & LOATHING LB OCTOBER...NEW ISSUE ONLINE NOW
Cincinnati invaded my turntable over the weekend and left me in a state of gratifying amnesia, where you know you had a life altering experience but can’ quite remember the details. The Socials and the Subsets display the extremely lethal prowess of a new hybrid of surf punk, emerging from the poisonous shores of the Ohio River. The last time I was in this eccentric city was the hazy spring of 1999, playing the Punk Rock Prom with my band on a weekend tour. Halfway through the mind numbing 8-hour drive to our destination of debauchery, we filled up at the Ohio border with gasoline and armfuls of malt liquor. Soon enough we arrived at our stay in an off-campus dwelling to get ready for the show, which ended abruptly after I cut the set short and jumped into a cover of “Cherry Bomb”, with some sinister Midwest girls singing along. Shortly after, I had an intoxicated altercation and annihilated my lower leg, which would end up causing me to limp for weeks. I woke up the next morning and drank all day with our merch guy while spinning records, swilling moonshine, and desperately attempting recovery through high octane stimulants. Jump to 2013 and I find this city grabbing my leg through the sewer grate in Long Beach with a grip of nonchalant violence and head twisting screams of melodic dissatisfaction with the world.

Yeah, you know it, both of these must have EPs are on slick black vinyl with badass cover art and inserts. The Socials just fucking floor me every time I hear them. “The Beast Bites” EP opens with “GoVermont”, this tune strangles the kill switch with Mrs. Communication’s incredibly catchy vocal surrounded by art-damaged guitars of seductive feedback noise. “Hot Tips” keeps the cheap high going with a swift deconstruction of pop/rock format dying to let the basement burn. With its intense dynamics in pulsating bass and drums, this band knows the razorblade filled apples they are peddling. Andy Slob, legendary Junk Records sometimes in-house producer, captures the “fuck tomorrow” atmosphere that embraces cheap mascara, noise pollution, and the intensity of a band at its prime. The B-Side continues the macabre pop noise with a devious nod to classic bands like Red Scare and early Fastbacks. “Nouvelle Technologie” and “The Future has Let Me Down Again” embrace the disinterest and fabricated fear of the 20-teens in their acupuncture delivery of Art Damaged Punk. This maladjusted orphan loves vintage “new wave”, the kind that wasn’t on the radio way back when… consume, now.

The Socials



The Subsets give you a new facelift minus the anesthesia, with four head slamming tracks of mysterious surf riffing and fingernail scratching vocals, all in perfect harmony that are the “Ape Facin’” EP. These noisemakers take cues from such long forgotten greats as “The Left” and “Black Market Baby” , while keeping the punker than punk tunes in a sharp and dirty rock n roll focus. My personal favorites off this black leather jacket of vinyl mayhem are “I Don’t Wanna Be Here” and title track “Ape Facin’”.

I think of the Midwest’s alluring appearances, like the city these bands reside in. You look at the clear skyline, trees, and seemingly placid water flow along the shores. However, you don’t recognize the unspeakable nightmares that lie underneath the surfaces. When you do encounter them, chances are it’ll be too late. The addictive noise of the Socials and the Subsets will be playing in your mind while you gasp the last breath of your “old life”. Enjoy.

-Kevin McGovern, 2013 Fear & Loathing LB Facebook

The Subsets

Reviews this Week: BRIAN JAMES cd and POKER ep

Brian James: Chateau Brian

The legendary guitar slinger behind the Damned and Lords of the New Church makes his mark in the new decade. This album is filled with acoustic introspection and the skillfully crafted work of an extraordinary musician and songwriter. With a brilliantly executed bar stool meditation that embraces classic blues and edgy rock influences, the lights are dim and the feelings vibrate loudly. I hear anguish and loss among the ruins with a look towards the past and the present state of affairs in the heart of Brian James. I would say this CD exposes Brian James as the man, not the “myth”. It exposes his soul like a fine French wine. This old school recording contains tracks performed in one take, with raw and naked warmth. In the flesh and quite contagious in its delivery of sordid goods.

My fave tracks are : STARING AT ME, TRIPTINA, MOAN MOAN MOAN, and STARING AT ME

If you love acoustic JOHNNY THUNDERS then you will also LOVE THIS ONE! Unlike J THUNDERS we don't have to put our arms around a memory because BRIAN JAMES IS HERE TOO STAY! GO BUY THIS CD! – Mike Spent

POKER: Boots And Booze EP

Hot off the presses, this will ignite your senses with its flawless execution, original power punk-pop madness of the highest order. Like the perfect scissor cut, instead of a cookie-cutter clipper shave. I was getting my hair cut the other week, courtesy of a mysterious girl from Merced, and we discussed the drain of being born in a small town/city. The conversation flowed with a cool aloofness and after discussing how we both crashed into our current city, came to the sensible conclusion that people who willingly stay in the same predictable place in life have nothing to offer except misery to others. Change is necessary to get yourself out of a preset destination where you bathe in regret and bore yourself to death in a circle of self-deprecating thoughts.

What does this have to do with POKER? PASSION! The willingness to rock the fuck out like no one’s watching and ravenously embrace the unknown, like taking your last $100 and moving to a city you’ve never been to before, because there’s no way it’s any fucking worse than where you already are. This extreme passion come from the prodigious city of Rome and takes place on these 3 classic tracks with frenetic female vocals, catchy melody, and ear pleasing guitars of sophisticated highbrow sleaze. Imagine an amphetamine fueled Josie Cotton singing for the Sex Pistols with modern production and you’ll start to get an image of what lies ahead for you in this sabotage of the senses courtesy of White Zoo Records.

This EP will leave you reeling, kind of like the pretty rich girl that lets you stay the night, kicks you out the next morning, and tells you to call her after it’s dark. Lustful destruction wrapped up in the most attractive of disguises. It’s on limited vinyl, so get it before it’s too late. Just listen to the song I’m leaving you with and get obsessed. – Kevin McGovern

as always, feel free to visit us at FEARLOATHELB.COM

New Reviews: HONEY BANE and THE DOGS

This week I want to introduce everyone here to my co-conspirator at Fear & Loathing LB, Gonzo Journalist and rock n roll troublemaker,Mike Spent. He has two CD’s revved up and ready for your eyes to consume. We have some exciting things in the pending works for the October issue: Pure Hell, The Faint, Habibi, Jeff Dahl, Smogtown, The Dogs, Rats on Rafts, and Third Phase of Moon Radio to name a few. So hold tight, unfasten your mind, and dig deep into our newest rock music reviews. –Kevin

HONY BANE: "ACCEPTANCE of EXISTENCE" CD

This release is existential post punk atmospheric dub, with the twisted sensuality that only HONEY BANE exudes! Brilliant while relevant in its musical execution, I love the entire mind-blowing output! My personal fave is VIOLENCE GREW. The album opener, "The Right Thing To Do!" echoes her CRASS years. Classic teen-angst and vocal rants in free form for your rock n roll fix! New soon to be classics include: DONT TELL ME!, WHO's HELL AM I IN?, and YA GOT ME ALL WRONG (this song starts out with a folkie kind of 70s soft rock vibe and enters into HONEY BANE telling it like it is in a very sexy way!) I was relaxing to the CD in a twisted kinda HONEY BANE way! I dig the artwork of the cover too! BUY IT! TRY IT! LIKE IT! I definitely do…


THE DOGS: “HYPERSENSITIVE” CD

This 3-piece proto punk band formed in the vintage year of 1969! What can i say each song rules… Track one "SLASH YOUR FACE" starts out like a classic 1970s acid rock song that morphs into a punk n roll explosion flawlessly. Sophisticated punk rock pioneers, the DOGS, are an AMERICAN ORIGINAL. They resurrect the sounds of fury from the graves of the MC5, the STOOGES, and even BROWNSVILLE STATION! They pay homage to all the original DETRIOT BANDS in the track "MOTOR CITY FEVER", the name says it all ! Every Rock City influence is completely obliterated in this smoking tour de force. My fave tracks are "YOU CANT CATCH ME" "SLASH YOUR FACE" and BEATIN THE FLOOR"(which reminds me of The Stooges Classic, Cock in my Pocket). BEATIN THE FLOOR is personal fave. I am seriously diggin’ these lyrics, "driving down the street going 90 miles an hour", now that’s what is what i like to do! Punk and roll at its best so BUY THIS CD! The DOGS logo is a sick 70s graphic… dig the DOGS! I almost forgot, PUNK ROCK HOLIDAY and its lyrics "got nothing to lose and some ones gonna pay the price!” My personal anthem!


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Tijuana Panthers: Semi Sweet

A heat wave comes crashing into Long Beach. The over-priced studio apartment you’re in has zero ventilation and the local hardware store is out of fans. That cute girl, who said she would call today, still hasn’t, as you check your cell over and over in excruciating hotness. Then out of nowhere, the sun starts to set, the air cools, and the speakers start to crackle with an oncoming rumble of serious rock n roll that fastens itself to your cerebellum called Tijuana Panthers. She ultimately calls, comes over, and this fine wine of an album plunges you into all of its surf-gutter garage pop grandeur.

Equal parts Troggs, Modern Lovers, Buddy Holly and Ventures, this album plays with airtight pop/garage rock ferocity that showcases the band’s incredible grasp of creating melodic psychedelic damaged anthems with addictive melodies soaked in cool intensity. The single Tony’s Song is an obvious head turner with its insidious delivery of perfect verse to chorus combination that reeks of Phil Spector perfection with a punk snarl. The tracks One Way Ticket, Baby I’m Bored, and Boardwalk display the full range of the band’s musical prowess in a fashion that mimics scanning your radio for the right station and every excellent song from all subculture rock genres is playing simultaneously. These 12 tracks play like a greatest hits album, zero filler, and nothing but pure candy for the rock n roll libido.

After the two of you annihilate the evening with good conversation and smoldering body language, I think your night might have an extended stay added on to it, courtesy of Tijuana Panther’s “Semi Sweet” magnum opus. The music certainly carries all of the conversation on this one. Long Beach has thee band that will be taking over the antiestablishment airwaves in no time, and it’s about time! Kick out the jams kids and get this album before your luck runs out.





Tijuana Panthers


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-Kevin McGovern 2013 (F&L,LB)

This review originally ran in the Long Beach Independent! Support the Long Beach music scene, it's cool.


I'll be presenting some of the best music coming out of Long Beach, CA in 2013 and we have some things that will blow your mind from all over the U.S. and the world in the upcoming October issue. Until next time.

Under A Broken Street Lamp: Watch for what you wish for

In the midst of the new American depression/recession, whatever you want to call it, I think many of us have “turned on” the focus to our interpersonal relationships and “turned off” the cable news, a destructive temporary brain pacifier that runs short quickly. Instead, we’re left looking at ourselves and relationships, are they strategic marriages? Financial convenience? The impending fear of loneliness? Do I need a new girl to answer my problems; am I a relic living in the past? These heavy themes are present in an insanely quick read that is rich in detail. The type of phone conversation you disconnect on, when your significant other comes in the room because you don’t want them to know what you’re talking about and who you’re talking about it with.

Regardless of politics and new taxes, we still have our everyday survival and human needs bullshit to contend with usually in a not so tidy format. Strangers scream and acquaintances bleed their emotions. We don’t feel like talking, we don’t want to chit chat, and we seek solitude because the noises of anxiety in these unreliable times are so goddamn deafening. Essington’s character study of the older man with the younger woman is poetic, haunting, and sub textual vampire tale. Older women will say as their “man” grows older they will inevitably seek a younger woman, but I always wondered if the catch was that the woman making this statement was at one time herself the 24 year old seeking the older man as a pacifier for the lack of wisdom found in her peer group at that time. I guess that doesn’t apply to all, but I was pretty damn clueless at 24 and had nothing to offer except napalm, venom, and a one night stand.

Authors Michael Essington and David Gurz examine this spectrum of complexities in relationships with a study of failure, lack of satisfaction with life in their unique chapbook. “Street Lamp” is a split endeavor by both authors (limited edition in its printing run for you collectors out there). Essington is an L.A. staple is his signature writing style of adding warmth to sometimes cold and difficult topics, while emotionally connecting with his readers. David Gurz, from Pennsylvania, paints a scenario and dilemma within relationships of obsessions both mental and chemical. Those of us who grew up immersed in punk culture can relate to the “like-minded” girlfriend, who has the same reliance on “old” music and perceived “life changing” punk events of the past only available anymore through mind altering substances.

Those old punk zines and records seem to be replaced by deadlier vices in the future as we we slowly forget what types of freedom we were seeking in the first place. Having grown up in Harrisburg, PA myself, I remember these types of girlfriend conversations and realized the only way to avoid the certain “local” death (by knowing the same people for way too long) of that state was to get the fuck out, anyway I could. Which would become a 5 year process of me apartment hopping, going homeless, and eventually landing on the shores of California, due to blindfolded risk taking.

Maybe the past is better for some, when the future is uncertain, but it also makes for a pretty boring existence in my opinion. Both authors offer an array of erratic sparks to ignite introspection of what makes us tick anymore, if anything at all. Instead of burning it all down, without including ourselves in the fire, we just live in a loop that will eventually drive us insane. I get annoyed too, with the solutions out there consisting of rehab, therapy, spirituality, and blah blah blah. A healthy ego and sense of self give us an exit but there’s only room for one. A conundrum? Not if you have the fearlessness to not care what others think, moving forward without looking back. Trust me, you don’t have to turn around, because those unpleasant tasting memories will cling to your subconscious like Krazy glue. I’ll leave you with a reading by Michael Essignton and link to this compelling book, while it lasts.

-Kevin McGovern, Fear & Loathing LB (new issue online)

Under a Broken Street Lamp

Michael's Reading

“Girls Play Games” BBTV: Adderall included, Scream Teen!

I remember being around the age of 16 and running to the local drug store on the weekend to pick up cheap horror film rentals at the great price of $3 for four movies, catalog only. Such greats as Basket Case, Dead Ringers, Phantasm, and Sleepaway Camp awaited my viewing and would shape my perspective of the world as “Girls Play Games” will for teens and séance connoisseurs around the globe in this increasingly popular weekly horror collection.

“Girls Play Games” is a new 6-minute feature in the Black Box TV horror serials corrupting the YouTube airwaves. Christian Ackerman directs a slick and sinister account straight out of Tales from the Darkside and Friday the 13th: The Series with blood splattered scalpel exactitude. The pacing, organic scares, and eerie color scheme create a new outline for the use of chilling brevity in the digital horror age. Eli Roth needs to keep an eye on the serious competition of writers Ackerman and Chuck Foster in this delivery of exquisite camp-horror with minimalist yet perfectly chosen production (the special effects are actually very cool in the episode).

So what’s the breakdown? Teenage empowerment meets a grisly backlash in modern/retro 1970’s unhappy tale fashion. Three teenage girls led by the talented Wendy McColm (reminiscent of a young Margot Kidder in Black Christmas) enter a séance by use of a rock to conjure and endure possession by sicko deceased neighborhood pedophile, William Stoddord. Multiple jolts and shocks ensue while the three actresses tear apart the stage in over the top dramatics that actually work. Stoddord’s evil spirit symbolizes the oppression teen girls endure every day in objectification and abuse by neighborhood creeps that slip through the cracks in everyone’s safe-community. A captivating brawl between sheer terror and gutsy retaliation fills the storyline. Bravo! Watch the short at the end here.

My personal video cemetery, aka drugstore, was about a 20 minute drive I made in my Dad’s ’86 Tercel hatchback, complete with FM radio and crisp trebly speakers. My brand new license enabled the excursion to fresh flesh and gruesome gore on the other side of town. On another note, on my first night of being a “certified” driver, I was pulled over with some strange dinner wine in small discreet bottles all over the car after playing a gig with my cover band at the time. The cop let me go; I was somewhat intoxicated but had no idea where the lights were to turn on in the car. He switched them on for this daydreamer and said, “go home and learn where the lights are when driving at night.”

SEPTEMBER ISSUE IS ONLINE NOW WITH A SHORT STORY BY CHUCK FOSTER IN THE VEIN OF PERENNIAL FAVORITE EDGAR ALLEN POE! JUST CLICK ON THIS TO GET YOU THERE AND WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW!



Do girls play games? Yeah...they do...and quite well...

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