--------------------------------------------------------------------------- r==+- |Rational Alternative Digital Cyberzine (c) 1995 Jeff Jolley * -\ | Volume 2, Issue B * * | } ** | Interviews, reviews, and philosophy abound in issue of RAD 1""G?p | Cyberzine. Use Mosaic to check out RAD Interactive at a () | 'HTTP://intele.net/~rad'. There you will find all past >< [] / | interviews and reviews from all issues of RAD Cyberzine, 0 --/ | plus a lot of extras -- pictures, additional info from the T | interviews, and general info about RAD Cyberzine. ^^#|-= | 7 oo | =-=-= RAD Cyberzine's Email121112111211 address: -=-=- oo | -=-=- RAD@INTELE.NET =-=-= 55$fz.k | ,> / | use FINGER RAD@INTELE.NET for more information : ==* | ||___~~ * | digital images (in jpeg format) of the bands in + | RAD Cyberzine can now be found in RAD Interactive T | ...check it out! | |=========================================================== jlj r | Rational Alternative Digital Cyberzine is not to be => =R | confused Review and Discussion of Rock and Roll Culture }} t | (R.A.D!), published by CONSPIRACY M.E.D.I.A. * /0 |=========================================================== 2@wQb/ \ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Editor-in-chief: . . . . . . . . .Jeff Jolley Managing editor: . . . . . . . . . . .Su Chon Staff Writers: . . . . . . . . . . Greg Zaret James Bush Squid Art Director:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ike --------------------------------------------------- ============================================================================= ==From the Editor== =================== We haven't done anything like "from the editor" before.... You should have noticed that our Email121112111211 address changed. Our internet provided sold it's equipment and left town, leaving RAD Cyberzine (and now RAD Interactive) without a home. Actually, we still have the INDIRECT.COM account, and we telnet to from INTELE.NET, so no mail121112111211 has been lost as of yet. But it's easiest to keep everything in one place, and I like the way INTELE.NET does WWW pages better. So we're sticking with INTELE.NET (untill they leave town). Check out RAD Interactive at the address at the top of this document. Let us know what you think of it. It's still VERY young, but we're working at it. Thanks for all of your support over the years. We are excited to bring you what you read in RAD Cyberzine. One thing we want to get back into here at RAD is asking bands questions that YOU want to know about. We have interviews scheduled with Hole, Sonic Youth, The Cult, The Overlords, and many more that are in the works, but not finalized. If you have questions for ANY bands, send them our way and we'll see that they get asked. See ya! Jeff ============================================================================= ==Pop Will Eat Itself== James Bush ======================= Yet another cold evening, looking around trying to find something to do, but tonight there's something a little strange going on, two bands that kind of grew up together are here in the same place at the same time. According to them, something that has never happened before. The two bands are Pop Will Eat Itself and Pigface. Right now I am on Pop Will Eat Itself's tour bus with Clint, one of the singers in the band. RAD: So who contributes to writing most of the music in the Band? PWEI: It is done between me and Graham, mostly. We sort of work individually, you know, but once we get the ideas up and running everybody puts stuff forward. RAD: A lot of times people look at your records and they see that the songs are written by one person in particular now. Who is that? PWEI: Well that's Vestan Pance but uh.... RAD: Now I gotta tell you that I looked at that on your records for a number of years and I kept thinking, "so who is this guy?" And then one day I looked at your record and I said out loud, "Vestan Pance, Vestan Pance I don't see anybody in the band called that!" Then I figured out you were just tricking us, that it's just kind of a name for the whole band. PWEI: Yea basically it was something we came up with years ago, and basically we have to stick with it now because of the publicity situation, but yea it was just one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time. RAD: I know this has probably been asked many times from people, but where does the name "Pop Will Eat Itself" originate from? PWEI: Just some guy was theorizing on the state of modern music--it always steals from the past and generally feeds on itself. If he really took it to it's logical conclusion, he would end up with one perfect song, then "Pop would Eat Itself," and that was it. RAD: So who would you consider to be your inspiration when it came to writing music? PWEI: Probably Suicide, Jane's Addiction, Public Enemy, Four Tops. RAD: I see you put a little soul in there. PWEI: Yea well we got a lot of Soul, and just stuff like that. RAD: Where do you usually get your song titles from? PWEI: With titles we get sort of bored with things like "baby I love you" or like a band called Stone Temple Pilots got a track called "Plush" I mean I do really like the track and I do like the Stone Temple Pilots but it doesn't say anything to me, I just like to play with words. RAD: One thing I kind of noticed with your titles it seems like something from the 21st century, futuristic and kind of destructive all in one. PWEI: We like to play with words and conjure up images and try to make good titles. RAD: If you could say anything to your fans out there at all what would you say to them? PWEI: We just do what we do, if the people are into it and if they want to get into it then here we are. Pop Will Eat Itself--well what can I say except Excellent!! If you have the chance to ever see this band don't miss it. ============================================================================= ==PIGFACE== James Bush =========== Right down the street from that show Pigface was playing at Spanky's. We never had the opportunity to see the Pigface show, but we got a chance to speak to Martin Atkins, one of the original members of the band. RAD: When did the band Pigface actually start? Martin: The band started in 1990 and grew directly out of the Ministry, KMFDM tour. Bill Rieflin and myself were the two drummers during that [tour]. I would look around the stage and I would see Ogre, Chris Connelly, Paul Barker, Gus from KMFDM. All these people wild, wild people in their own right, and we were all just covering Ministry songs. But that was a wild tour--an unbelievably wild tour. We were escorted out of Salt Lake City--I remember it well, but I just remember thinking, "I wonder what would happen if somebody said, 'okay, you're not Ministry tonight do whatever you want.'" And that's what we didħħ that's how Pigface was born. Bill Rieflin and myself booked some studio time in Chicago, and the day after the last Ministry show we to told everybody, "hey, we've started this thing. Come come on down to the studio." Everybody on that tour came down-- Michael from Front Line Assembly, Al Jourgensen was down (he just drunk two bottles of Bushmill's--that was his vibe), the guys from KMFDM came in, David Yow from the Jesus Lizard, Trent Reznor flew in, and it became this really vibey cool thing. Then we went out on the road and tried to recreate this anything-goes-there-are-no-rules- mutual-respect-experimentation thing. RAD: So where does Pigface originally come from? Martin: Well everybody's from different places. I'm originally from England. I've been in the states for twelve years. Mary Byker still lives in England; Magely Chin--who's singing with us tonight--is originally from San Francisco, she's living in London; Ogre's living in L.A., he's from Vancouver. It's a nightmare of plane tickets. somebody said to me, "are you the instigator and the founder of Pigface?" I said, "no I'm just the fucking travel agent"--which other in a physical sense or like the astral plane the spiritual sense i'm not a band, I just bring people together, and once everybody's together in a place I just light the fuse and retire to a safe distance. RAD: Who has inspired you to do what you have done with your music? Martin: A few people, just like a lot of groups of people. One would be Charlie Watts, not for his drumming but because I read an interview where he said "I always listen to a band and watch any situation because even if it's really bad you can always learn what not to do." And sometimes that's more of an insight than trying what to do, you can just learn what not to do and avoid somebody else's pitfalls. Also the Beatles. I was in the studio yesterday in Seattle recording "While my guitar gently weeps" backwards along with a porno tape through a harmonizer and laid vocals, and then we put on Sgt Peppers and I went, "Oh just how innovative are we? Not very." RAD: Who writes the music in the band? Martin: Whoever's around, whoever has an idea. RAD: I heard that Danny Carey from Tool was here with you tonight? Martin: Danny, yea, this is Danny's first show with us. Also Casper from Massacre is here with us tonight. RAD: How long has he been with you? Martin: This is his second show. We haven't rehearsed, we just get up and play whatever. RAD: Has Johnny Lydon ever played with you? Martin: John said he was going to do L.A. and he didn't. I can tell you, though, other people that have been on this tour. Laura from Thrill Kill Kult, Doug Flanegan from 77 Luscious Babes, Doug McCarthy the singer from Nitzer Ebb, Singer from Murphy's Law, Al from Swans, Sally from the Mekons, Pipe players and Belly dancers, and a lot of people. We always end like listing the names of the people, there's been an awful lot of people who aren't in any bands. A guy drove down from North Carolina to Tampa with a shopping cart just to play the shopping cart and you know anybody's welcome to do that! RAD: We were talking to Pop Will Eat Itself and they said this was one of the first times you were in the same town together at the same time? Martin: I didn't even know they were on tour where are they headed next? RAD: Vancouver--the opposite way. Martin: Good, I don't mean anything bad about that but we've been leap frogging around Killing Joke as well, that's all. I still like those guys I just don't work with them anymore. It's kind of an affirmation for me that this Killing Joke are on Zoo. I was in Zoo records in L.A. before Killing Joke went on the road and I saw a thousand Embroidered hats ready to be sent across america and I'm happy that Invisible Records, which is my label with the limited resources we have, are successfully promoting Pigface to the point that we were outselling Killing Joke everywhere. That makes me feel good about the machinery that we have to express ourselves. RAD: If you were going to ever say anything to your fans and friends out in this world what would you say to them? Martin: Well there are a lot of people who say stuff and it's almost like, "fill in the blanks, okay we've got the band!" We've got the image-- it's this and that, this and that and what's the crusade fill in the blanks and for me. I've been around a lot of people who say a lot of stuff, and most of it's just hollow words and bullshit. I would just say to people, "look at what we're doing." We've changed our corner of the music industry for ourselves. It's an awful lot of hard work, you know, twenty eight hours a day nine days a week, but when you put that amount of energy into something, you can change your situation. You can change the end result and you can find fulfillment, and whether it's music or the construction industry or the art world, if you're prepared to work really hard you can change things and there's no magic dude in a Rolls Royce who's going to break down outside your apartment and discover you. You have to do it, and if you do it, sometimes it takes a really really really long time and gets you just really discouraging along the way and that's the test, that's the struggle, and just do it and eventually something will happen that will fuel you but if you just sit around and fantasize and complain and drink and do drugs and do whatever it is to distract yourself and then, of course, it will never happen. ============================================================================= ==RAD CD REVIEWS== ================== V/A, "PUNK-O-RAMA," Epitaph Records, 1994 Come on, guys. You've been reading RAD Cyberzine long enough to know what we're going to say about this one. Why even read further. Hello?!! Whether you're a punker or not, you HAVE to get this CD. Simply put, it's a sampler of some of today's finest punk and truly "alternative" music. "Punk-o-rama" has got them all--the Offspring, Rancid, Pennywise, NOFX (go Fat Mike!), Total Chaos, Gas Huffer, SNFU, Ten Foot Pole, Down By Law, RKL, Wayne Kramer, and (of course) Bad Religion. It samples the cutting edge of punk over the last few years. It has stuff like Wayne Kramer's post-pre- post-punk "Crack in the Universe", classic Bad Religion, classic Offspring, some unreleased Rancid, and some basically cool crap. Do you find yourself asking, "Who the HELL is _ _ _ _?" (fill in one of the bands we mentioned above)? Then get "Punk-O-Rama." Do you pretty much know who these bands are? Then why the hell don't you have it already? The Stone Roses, "Second Coming" 1995 In biblical text, the Second Coming (of Jesus) is preceded by a host of false prophets that are concerned mostly with deception and stealing your well-earned money. This "Second Coming" has been no different. Other bands from the U.K. tried to ride the coattails of the Stone Roses debut album and have succeeded in some part to convince people of the relevance (Oasis and The Adorable come to mind). Well, Ian Brown and Co. have handedly overcome their foes with their second release in what has been an eternity. The first track, "Breaking into Heaven", lulls you into thinking that the entrance into heaven will be a peaceful journey into the eternities. This ends abruptly after the initial four and one-half minutes when you realize that entering the pearly gates will be accomplished with a battering ram of sorts. The Roses more than make up for the long awaited sophomoric effort with two very different pieces of music. "Your Star Will Shine" reminds one of a plissed-out hootenanny while just two tracks later the Roses will make even the most awkward, two-left footed listener run to the nearest open space to dance and frolic. Of course, the Stone Roses are not sin-free, as they have included a ninetieth track that is preceded by prolonged silence. Though irritating, the Stone Roses make it worth the wait with an unexpected pleasant tune. It is time for those who have been lead astray to ask the Stone Roses for forgiveness and make themselves worthy of the Second Coming. Wayne Kramer, "The Hard Stuff," Epitaph Records, January, 1995. The MC5's lead guitarist "Brother" Wayne Kramer released his latest soulful work on the Epitaph Records release of "The Hard Stuff." It would have been very hard to start of the review of "The Hard Stuff" with anything other than "MC5." Not only did the MC5 influence such "first-generation" punk bands as Black Flag, the Clash, The Dead Boys, and the Ramones, but they have had direct influence on today's punk bands like Bad Religion, Claw Hammer, Operation Ivy, Pennywise, Rancid, Syster Goddamn, and more. Now, that's enough of a Kramer bio, lets get to "The Hard Stuff...." Epitaph Records kicks off 1995 with a kick-ass release of Wayne Kramer's "The Hard Stuff." This soulful release of energy is addictive and thrilling. Don't buy this album expecting Green Day, or Face to Face, or some punk like that, this is an entirely new form of punk--no a new form of music. No! that's all wrong! It's a return to the roots of blues itself. However you want to classify it piece of art, it doesn't matter. This is a man, a guitar, and some serious shit. Do yourself a favor, pick up what will be known as one of the best releases of the '90's, get the latest from "Brother Wayne," get "The Hard Stuff." ============================================================================= ==Killing Joke==A.K.A: Jaz Coleman's philosophy of life and the universe. ================ When I stepped onto the tour bus and sat down with Jaz Coleman, the lead singer for Killing Joke, I didn't expect to spend the next half-hour discussing religion and philosophy. We've brushed up the interview so it won't take a half hour to read, but it one VERY an interesting conversation with a man who has influenced the harder edge of music today like few other people. Shocking, surprising, penitent? Read on.... Jaz: You know, in one of our dressing rooms about two weeks ago, I met this person who had an alcohol problem. Every time that she'd abstain from alcohol and then have a drink, she'd feel terrible about it. And she got back to her sponsor and her sponsor used to say a very lovely thing to her. He'd say, "forgive yourself, because God's already forgiven you." Now that resonates in my heart when I hear something like that. I believe that we must really take a good look at the christian faith, because I believe in society that is based on compassion, ultimately. Even if I wasn't a christian, right, I believe in society based on forgiveness and compassion. Although I came very close to converting to Islam, I cannot (although I have doubts about the origins of christianity-- some of the origins). Because I am such a sinner, I've come very close to becoming a priest, or LOOKING at becoming a priest. I've always had a dichotomy with that and my work with Killing Joke, but the way I can communicate with people is probably best done through something like Killing Joke. The Good Lord has got a great sense of humor sometimes, I think. I'm seriously at a turning point in my life, where I'm thinking--because I find the music industry so selfish--not what can I get out of it, but what can I give to it? I'm not much good for myself, I'm one of those kind of people that in terms of finding inner peace for myself I'm by no means a master at that, but I'm good at healing other people more so than for myself. It's one of those sort of strange situations. Because in Killing Joke we address the spiritual with our music, we address the things that disturb us about ourselves. When we have horrific thoughts or sexual thoughts, things like that, instead of dismissing them and writing love songs, we get right to the heart of the matter, unashamedly. We sing about what's disturbing us, and we use the rock and roll extreme as a catharsis, as exorcism, to rid ourselves of anything we keep inside us. That has been, really, the essence of Killing Joke since we've started it. We started a music which had it's roots in a social function as opposed to a pleasure principle. Most people work a 9 to 5 job and they come home at 5:30 and want to put music on the turn table, or on the CD player, and relax with it. If you put Killing Joke on after doing your job, you'll end up losing your job, the way I see it. The whole thing about Killing Joke is it's about creativity, it's about a different value system, the way we question things. It has a social function for us. We as the players NEED the music. I work with two other guys who've got big, big hearts. I don't believe in evangelism...when you see these people shouting on street corners at everybody, I feel like going up to them and saying, "what have you done for the poor and the needy? And what are you doing with your actions that gives you the right to shout at people on the street corner." Evangelism I have a problem with. I believe that people like Mother Teresa, or people that do it with action resonates truth to me. Part of being in Killing Joke is that Killing Joke is synonymous with the word "awareness." It's rather like the last 30-40 seconds of your life, where you're looking back upon your whole life, and the people you've loved and the things that have happened. It's having that clarity of thought NOW. That's the best way for me to describe Killing Joke. And part of Killing Joke is not just playing in the band, it's having a lot of time away from the band--quiet solitude, writing, reflecting on some of these things--that's a big part of Killing Joke for me. That's why I live in New Zealand. RAD: What part of New Zealand? Jaz: Well, I live in Auckland. My biggest problem is, of course, that I gone over there and I've gotten involved the music industry over there, which is an absolute nightmare. Suddenly, there's all these people over there who want you to give them a life in music, thinking that you can make them into pop stars. I've opened up a recording studio over there, which is where we recorded this last album... RAD: ...Except for parts of it which was recorded in the Pyramid... Jaz: ...That's right, the Great Pyramid. RAD: How was that? Jaz: Extraordinary! RAD: What part of it did you record in the Pyramid? Jaz: "Excorcism" and "Millenium". Those two. We wanted to do "excorcism", because there was a reason for going there to do that. But we were going to do a lot more, and we took hours and hours worth of batteries, and each day that we went in we only had twenty minutes of electricity, because it drained all the energies from the batteries. It's built on the Harmonics of Light. It's a holy place. RAD: I'd just like to ask, because I've found this album wonderfully listenable. I find "Black Moon" an incredible song--I love it. Jaz: You know, so many people are products of the sufferings that their parents went through. "All the hurt we felt repeated down the line; the pain inflicted was the pain (that) we designed; I try escaping from the person I am; here is the endless cycle; escape it if you can." Those ideas, looking honestly at the parents that you love, making sure that you break some of those cycles so that you can heal--so that the hurt doesn't continue. A lot of people say that we're "this" and "that" in Killing Joke. That we're "black" and the we're "bad people." We never have had violence in our concerts, but very VERY rarely in 15 years. And essentially, when you finish a Killing Joke concert, there was a time when I felt, "Is it in conflict with my faith and what I really believe?" And the answer is, "NO." It's the strangest thing I find is that, no it's not. Because essentially, it's good. You judge a tree by it's fruit, and they're not bitter fruits from Killing Joke. That's one thing I know. I have a problem with a lot of American "New Wave" or "Industrial" scene, or whatever you want to call it, where it's cool to be sick. I can remember years and years ago seeing Black Flag and Henry Rollins, and they were all glorifying Charles Manson and stuff. You know, when the punk thing happened in the U.K., it came from deprived working-class kids who just wanted to get something out, basically. Very different from these L.A. kids who just want to be shocking, and I find an element of that in Nine Inch Nails and a few of these other bands. RAD: These are EXACTLY the things I wanted to ask you about. One of the things I see in a lot of these bands is the idea that if you believe in ANYTHING, you've been lied to. If you believe God, you've been lied to... there is no such thing as love, there is no goodness. Jaz: So what they're saying is that all life is expressed in matter--that a dead body is the same as a living body. Physics can prove them wrong. We're getting so close now that with the new physics we can prove the existence of God. And science and religion will come closer together--it must. I have a problem with a lot of these bands who pick song titles to shock more so than they've got anything to say. Most of the time, people ask me "what music do you listen to?" and "what inspires you artistically?" {I don't listen to paints} (laughter) RAD: I imagine that your musical tastes goes to all sorts. Jaz: Not just music, but architecture--great architecture, great poetry like T.S. Elliot. T.S. Elliot has this one poem called "little geddings" which talks of the England I was brought up in. It's the only poem I can't finish because it breaks me up inside. He says things like, "we shall not cease in exploration. Let the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time, through the unknown- remembered gate when the last of Earth left to discover will be the first...." And I just can't go on--beautiful, beautiful language. That inspires me. Salvidor Dali's paintings inspire me. Picasso's Guernica, Beethoven's Ninth, Tchaikovsky's Sixth, Mozart's Requiem. I LOVE genius. I only want to be subjected to genius. I don't like mediocracy. I'd rather study one piece of GREAT music for six, seven, ten years than to be introduced to lots of music like "oh, yeah, that's alright"--disposable like McDonalds. I don't like disposable music. One of the things I've very proud of being part of this band--that's been going 15-16 years, that has surprised everybody, and has influenced so many other groups--is that there's a substance there. I can take the musical form of Killing Joke and I can score it for an orchestra. That's my other job. I worked this year for the London Symphony Orchestra twice, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Minsk Philharmonic, and the Budapest Symphony. With the orchestra, you have the dimensions of the universe and God itself. You have the highest to the lowest. I could take Killing Joke's music and the dissonances and the quarter-tones and I could transcribe that for orchestra and it's the landscape of the future. If you can listen behind the brash intensity and the beauty that resolves in our sounds, there's no other band in the world like it. Our treating is different. I'm in a band with two other great philosophers who are articulate individuals, powerful individuals, in their own right. It's nothing that we do because we want to sell millions of records, we do it because we love it. It's kind of like an annual event when you get together with all your friends and you make this music. And then you go out and you drink and have fun, and it's just a lot of love. Why are we doing it, because we love it. Last night we had the most awesome concert, spiritually beautiful concert, so many happy people. And we keep an open dressing room policy. When we have a dressing room, we shrine it up--you'll see it later on tonight--so we have middle-eastern cloths on the wall and we have cushions all around. We do it up like a beduin tent with candles, and we try to make ourselves at home. We like to invite people in afterwards--so many happy people at the end of the concert. "The fruit from thy tree is sweet," I couldn't continue with it if it wasn't. If I thought its origins or its or it's source was malign, I could not work with it. And I know my colleagues couldn't. To be subjected to that music day in and day out, seven days a week, on a tour like we're doing, if it was bad, it would send you mad. And I hope we have a lot of fun here tonight, more to the point. It's my first time here. I get good vibes from here. It's like America--there's so much good and so much bad--to the extremes. This country needs more visionaries, who dream of reforestation and healing the land, and of healing society. Of giving more, not taking more out. I have a problem with capitalism, in it's extreme sense. At the same time, communism, I have a problem with that, because every man must feel like a lord in his own manor, as in terms of his individual spirit. RAD: You know, New Zealand really brought out so many feelings like that in me. Jaz: New Zealand is a holy place. Isaiah talks about New Zealand: "Sing unto the Lord the new song, and his praise is off in the Islands at the ends of the Earth. Ye that Kedar doth inhabit that go down to the rock." Oh yes, there are many mysteries about New Zealand. From New Zealand man will learn to farm the sea beds again, and to heal the land--permanent agriculture, and agrarian-based economy. These are the politics that I believe in. That's why I live there. ================================================ ==Rational Alternative Digital Cyberzine = RAD== ================================================ ==USE finger cyber@indirect.com for more info == ================================================