The Beat Kitchen had several powerful bands with fearless stage presence perform as Babe Haven headlined another unforgettable night of raw, chaotic energy along side Chicago’s Bev Rage & The Drinks and No Men. The doom-groove No Men sends shivers down your spine with deep vibrato and grinding riffs, transporting you into a trance. Or, as a friend put it, “I […]
The Beat Kitchen had several powerful bands with fearless stage presence perform as Babe Haven headlined another unforgettable night of raw, chaotic energy along side Chicago’s Bev Rage & The Drinks and No Men.
The doom-groove No Men sends shivers down your spine with deep vibrato and grinding riffs, transporting you into a trance. Or, as a friend put it, “I think this band just burped me.”
Pursley leads on vocals and occasionally jumps in on a floor tom and snare, adding to the already blistering drumming.
This was a particularly special show for the fun and fab drag-fronted Bev Rage & The Drinks as it marked their 10-year anniversary as a band. Starting with their 2016 debut self-released EP, Don’t Know Shit, Bev Rage & The Drinks have since released several full-length albums, numerous creative music videos and voted Chicago’s Best Punk Band by readers of the Chicago Reader for 2024 and 2025.
The high-energy queer punk band from North Carolina, Babe Haven immediately got the room moving into a sweating frenzy while blasting through aggressively fierce and powerful songs such as “Nuisance”, “Uppercut” and “Gas Pedal”.
Having just finished their appearance at Camp Punksylvania (along with Bev Rage & The Drinks), Babe Haven will be touring the EU/UK this fall with Latter followed by a US West Coast tour.
Toronto, Ontario based Cursed Blessings Records release provides an opportunity for smaller bands to get their records on wax for more ears to hear bands that may not have a far reach. Their latest release features two of Toronto’s best: Almighty Trigger Happy and Het Up! This four-song split features two songs from each band […]
Toronto, Ontario based Cursed Blessings Records release provides an opportunity for smaller bands to get their records on wax for more ears to hear bands that may not have a far reach. Their latest release features two of Toronto’s best: Almighty Trigger Happy and Het Up! This four-song split features two songs from each band and is perfect for that 1990s punk rock fan in your life.
A lot of bands want to move on from the melodic skate punk sound that they started playing in their youth, but Almighty Trigger Happy leans into it with their two contributions to the record. Their first song, “The Ghost of Jim Cherry,” is about the fallen punk rock bass player of Strung Out, Pulley, and his own band Zero Down. Their two-minute ode is the strongest song on the split and a fantastic way to start this record. Working simultaneously as a memorial and a song in the vein of the era, Almighty Trigger Happy Tribute is a riffy remembrance for a fallen friend. Much faster in tempo, Almighty Trigger Happy’s half also includes a cover of “Cops Ain’t Tops” by Chronic Submission. The band is currently working on a full-length LP, but these two songs are a good sample of what’s ahead.
While HET UP! may have been formed during the pandemic, they sound like they’ve been around for much longer. After releasing an album in 2023, the band continues to release a couple of songs here and there to keep their fans satiated. Their first song, “Down with You,” is a pop-punk song with fingerprints of genres from a decades-long history. The best way to describe it would be melodic and fun. “Smile… (See You In Hell)” is a different beast, although from the same era. A double-bass-pedaled punk song that sounds straight from Fat Wreck Chords in the mid-1990s.
This is a solid EP. The musicianship, the sound, and, more importantly, the songs are all top-notch. These songs feel more like contributions to the era, rather than homage. Pick up the Almighty Trigger Happy/Het Up! split on Cursed Blessings Records.
Deanna Belos, or perhaps known as her elegant ‘nom de plume’ Sincere Engineer, releases her fourth feature album this Friday, entitled Probable Claws. This album is no doubt a masterclass in what it’s like to be a fiery, valiant Midwestern girl with an indestructible desire to write songs for those who seek refuge in feisty, […]
Deanna Belos, or perhaps known as her elegant ‘nom de plume’ Sincere Engineer, releases her fourth feature album this Friday, entitled Probable Claws. This album is no doubt a masterclass in what it’s like to be a fiery, valiant Midwestern girl with an indestructible desire to write songs for those who seek refuge in feisty, punk-shrouded records.
The Chicago punk-pop band has taken the scene by storm ever since her debut album Rhombitian – a 2017 punk album consisting of hits like “Shattering,” “Overbite,” “1K Rats,” and last but not least: “Corn Dog Sonnet No.7”: a song that would soon become woven into the quilt of Sincere Engineer forever. This song completely enveloped the fandom, leading to every Sincere Engineer show having at least 47 people dressed in corn dog suits – which, by the way, should DEFINITELY be how *every* punk show starts!
But Probable Claws is a testament to the extensively beautiful journey that has led Belos to this point in her career. To me, Probable Claws encapsulates everything I love about Sincere Engineer. There is angst, there is humor, but above all – it’s Deanna. It’s punk humanity at its core!
A lot of what I’ve loved so much about Sincere Engineer over the years is how much I relate to Belos and her music, how there are so many other emo punk girls who sought after an artist who captures their emotions as well as one who demonstrates how the scene is led by so many wicked female artists.
The first three released singles off the album, ‘Cooler,’ ‘Twist my Tongue,’ and ‘Fast Forward, Rewind,’ are quintessentially “Sincere Engineer.” ‘Cooler’ tackles anxiety, stress, and self-consciousness, but also touches on everyday inconveniences like getting a speeding ticket or picking up ice from the gas station. There’s a narrative here that Belos creates that is so ‘midwest emo’ in a way – it’s humorous, it’s relatable, and it weaves both of those things together to create something that will certainly remain on repeat for listeners.
Her second release, ‘Twist my Tongue,’ has a KILLER second chorus, along with background instrumentals that make me want to get up and dance immediately. It ends with sick overlapping vocals that make you feel like you’re surrounded by Sincere Engineer – and if you’ve ever been to a show, you’d know that feeling very well!
The last single released before the full album this Friday, entitled ‘Fast Forward, Rewind,’ is a quick-paced, electrifying song that satisfies punk enthusiasts’ need to go crazy and mosh wherever they can. This song is the epitome of young punk rockers! Swift, loud, and a spirit set ablaze to the melody of ‘Fast Forward, Rewind!”
The next three songs off the new album, ‘Pilot Light,’ ‘DNA,’ and ‘LOL,’ are absolutely saturated with the Sincere Engineer essence! ‘Pilot Light’ is one of the strongest off the albums for me, it starts off so quickly and with so much fury and gusto, followed by a small, lower-paced section after the 2-minute mark that creates a nice lull that builds up to the big finish at the end. ‘DNA’s’ opening line, “I didn’t know what I was thinking / pinched my nose and jumped in the deep end” reminds me a lot of ‘Shattering’s’ line “I’m gonna jump in Lake Michigan and swim out as far as I can” off of her first album, Rhombithian. After the first four songs, ‘LOL’ is so tranquil, so emotional, and very heartfelt in a way that works as a lovely break after its first few fast-paced tracks.
The next song, ‘Hallucinogenic,’ is SO quintessential emo. It’s screaming, it’s a loss of self, and the objects and people around you – it is ultimately an immaculate tribute to what it’s like to live in the real world with so many different mental obstacles. The song explains that Belos is seeing colors, people, and surroundings that aren’t real. It almost feels like a testament to how insane your mind can treat you and what it can make up. The song itself is upbeat, it’s hyped-up, it’s head-banging-inducing: you name it! ‘Hallucinogenic’ is a really lovely tribute to how the human brain can play tricks on you so many times, but you must persist!
The next 3, ‘Arbovitate Evergreen,’ ‘The Perfect Crime,’ and ‘Settle Up With Your Downfall,’ are slower paced, with the slowest being ‘Arbovitate Evergreen.’ In her last three albums, Belos combines those upbeat, high-paced songs with gutwrenchingly real lyrics – and the combination between those lyrics and those background instrumentals is the dictionary definition of what makes her type of Chicago punk so special. Over the course of these three songs, though different in their own ways, they all certainly have a commonality: rich, deep, and satisfyingly woven vocals with background music that supports the theme of each song. ‘Arbovitate Evergreen’ is slower paced, but the lyrics are unbearingly emotional. It’s the tearjerker of the album, hands down!
As for ‘The Perfect Crime,’ and ‘Settle Up With Your Downfall’, they both perform at a more medium pace, which gives you the chance to really appreciate the INSANE riffs and melodic choices made by Belos and her team. ‘Settle Up With Your Downfall’ is angry, it’s loud and it’s flooding with emotion. To me, it feels like it’s Belos reaching the point where she realizes that she cannot physically get through to this person, or people, that she refers to in this song. Allowing her the space to vent and make sure that she avoids the setups, like the metaphorical lyric, ‘The glass is half full, / but it’s poison.” The ending of this song will undoubtedly KILL when she debuts her live performance of Probable Claws in her upcoming tour named after the new record.
Lastly comes the song ‘Dynamite,’ which premieres a completely different type of style for Belos – one that is something truly special. Sincere Engineer has a very distinct sound, and has mastered how to write and perform those songs with the same gusto they were written with. This song is SO different from what we fans are used to, but the change in pace, the genre switch, and the loveliness of Belos’ vocals cannot be done justice in this review. This is an unequivocally, absolutely immaculate Sincere Engineer record – capturing new sounds, and no doubt new attention, and new support from all over the country for the band and all who contributed. This album is an absolute 5-star record and as of TODAY – Friday, June 26th – it is officially RELEASED ON ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS!
You can find Belos on Spotify as Sincere Engineer, on Bandcamp at this link, here on Apple Music, and last but not least, join their lovely Discord here. You can also find them on Instagram at @SincereEngineer! Support their newest record Probable Claws and find them on tour at this link: sincereengineer.com!
Flamingo Nosebleed frontman Jake Emissions will be releasing his brand new record Rocky Mountain Highs this Friday, June 26th on Mom’s Basement Records. The album sees the Fort Wayne, Indiana punk veteran backed by members of SACK, Shocktroopers, the Parasites and more. The Dying Scene Record Radar is stoked to bring you this exclusive first […]
Flamingo Nosebleed frontman Jake Emissions will be releasing his brand new record Rocky Mountain Highs this Friday, June 26th on Mom’s Basement Records. The album sees the Fort Wayne, Indiana punk veteran backed by members of SACK, Shocktroopers, the Parasites and more.
The Dying Scene Record Radar is stoked to bring you this exclusive first look at the color variants the LP will be available on. These are limited to 100 copies each and you can grab them from the Mom’s Basement webstore this Friday at noon eastern.
Feast your eyes on those beauties down below, and check out the music video for Jake Emissions’ bad ass new single “Lowdown, High Up!” while you’re down there.
Horror writer Steve Niles has made a career for himself by writing about things that go bump in the night for over thirty-five years. However, very few know that before this, Niles played in a punk rock band, Gray Matter. The band was a part of the well established Washington D.C. punk scene and even […]
Horror writer Steve Niles has made a career for himself by writing about things that go bump in the night for over thirty-five years. However, very few know that before this, Niles played in a punk rock band, Gray Matter. The band was a part of the well established Washington D.C. punk scene and even released records on Ian MacKaye’s Dischord Records throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Gray Matter has reunited several times since their disbandment, typically to celebrate the anniversary of the legendary rock club The Black Cat, owned by Gray Matter drummer Dante Ferrando.
For a while now, Steve Niles has had the itch to tell the story about his time in Gray Matter and the D.C. punk scene, along with some of the struggles he faced growing up. With his latest comic, Take it Back: Life, Anxiety, and Gray Matter, Niles chronicles these occasionally tumultuous times in his life. Illustrated by Brian Walsby, Steve’s journey through punk rock, comics, and mental health is a must-read. Below, Steve and Brian talk about what it was like to reconstruct Steve’s punk rock past into a graphic novel.
When you think about the D.C. scene, what made it feel like it was your scene?
STEVE NILES: You know, it was a really welcoming scene. I actually lived in the suburbs and would come into the city to visit my dad. I would go to Georgetown where all the punks hung out, and I was accepted pretty quickly. That’s one of my prevalent memories of being in the D.C. scene: how welcoming it was, which is, I think, uncommon. There’s a lot of gatekeeping that goes on in various scenes. I thought it was really exceptional that everybody was so nice. Everybody in the scene, like Ian (MacKaye) and all these guys, really early on, were always really cool.
Brian, what scene did you come from?
BRIAN WALSBY: It came primarily from the early to mid-1980s, a sort of letter-writing underground. The reason why I wouldn’t say solely punk is because there was a heavy metal underground that pretty much used almost the same tactics that the punk underground did. They had their own fanzines, and they had their own bands and demo tapes and that kind of stuff. They operated pretty much the same way that the “punk rock hardcore” underground operated during that time period, where you had to write letters and you had to sort of get involved. Obviously, it’s a lot different than what’s going on now. That’s definitely the world that I came out of, basically.
I saw what was going on with a few fanzines. I was blown away. I felt like I was sort of not… I guess out of step with what was going on, basically, in my peer group. I really resonated with discovering all this really cool music from both worlds: the punk underground and the heavy metal underground. It was pretty exciting. I guess because it was kind of small and it was something that you had to stumble into. It’s like the difference between loving the Beatles as a 10-year-old but knowing that the Beatles were always around. They’re just omnipresent. They’re great, but it’s something that you discover. I think that’s the difference. It felt like when you were discovering punk rock, it seemed easier to access because all you had to do was pay attention to it and write letters and read stuff.
It just seemed very natural to gravitate toward it because it really felt like it was your little thing that you discovered, your special little secret. I’m not trying to sound like a gatekeeper, but it was such a small thing back then that when you did see people out in the street wearing a Black Flag pin, that marked you. It’s okay to talk to that guy. He has something in common with me. Of course, these days it’s for the young people doing that now, that’s the same thing, but now you’ll see a person in a Black Flag shirt and you’ll go, I wonder if I have anything in common with that guy. It doesn’t have the same meaning, I guess.
Was there a moment that made you feel like you were part of the scene rather than just watching it?
STEVE NILES: I think probably the first time that I played in the band when the people that I grew up admiring were in the audience. That was really cool, I just remember that being a big moment where I really felt that I was part of something.
BRIAN WALSBY: I guess just being able to participate in it more. Maybe the first letter I got back from somebody was probably from someone that actually wrote me back and didn’t know how uncool I was, and it was okay. It was this guy named Drew Bernstein. He’s dead now. He started out being a hardcore punk kid. He was in a band called America’s Hardcore. They were huge letter writers, and they were very into all people that supported each other and wrote to each other and spread the word of America’s Hardcore, apparently. So I was pretty excited to get a letter back from somebody. I was like, oh, this is easy.
You just write to people, and if they’re interested, that’s all it took. Somebody wants to know about what I’m doing, so let me send back a bunch of stickers and write a little letter.He did that and it was like, “oh, wow, that’s really cool.” Okay, great. I had to wait until the end of 1983 to be able to go to a show because I couldn’t drive. I refused to drive, which was unusual for someone growing up in Southern California. You might as well cut off both your legs. You can’t really get around Los Angeles without a car.
What part of California are you from?
BRIAN WALSBY: I was born in Encino, and then my parents moved us to Ventura County when I was seven or whatever. So I spent 10 years there, and that’s it.
What came first for you: punk rock or comics?
STEVE NILES: Comics came into my life when I was a very little kid. I started with Creepy and Eerie and basically moved on to Marvel. I was a big Marvel kid. My peak was 1974, 1975. I was really into the Silver Age Marvel stuff. Punk rock came along pretty young. I was probably thirteen or fourteen. I have a sister who’s eight years older than me and was very into the punk rock scene. She turned me on to stuff like Buzzcocks, Ramones, all of those bands. Then I discovered the D.C. punk scene on my own and was very impressed with it.
BRIAN WALSBY: The way it went was I liked rock music. There was FM radio. There was this show called Dr. Demento. They liked rock music. They’re small kids. They discover the Dr. Demento show and for whatever reason, it leads into punk rock. I was really into Mad Magazine and I liked Charles Schultz’s Peanuts a lot and things like that. I never actually read comics until I was probably eighteen years old because my little brother started collecting them on his own.
I started reading things like X-Men during that time period, Chris Claremont, early ’80s kind of stuff, and I liked some of it. From Mad Magazine and Dr. Demento to punk rock, like when you hear the Ramones for the first time back then, and you’re like, “This is really different. It seems like a joke. It’s really funny. That seemed to be the order of appearance for all that stuff. Punk rock came slightly later.
Do you feel your time in Gray Matter fed your creative identity as a storyteller?
STEVE NILES: Oh yeah, if you’re a storyteller, I feel like anything does, any life experience feeds it. My band members were my only audience when I first started writing. I had Cal McDonald stories and other things that I’ve done since, but I was writing them back then, and band members were my readers, especially Mark. He read so much of my stuff. That was a really cool thing.
Brian, what drew you to Grey Matter’s story?
BRIAN WALSBY: I didn’t know what the story would be, to tell you the truth. I think when DiWulf got in contact with me, I hadn’t read it yet. I just thought it would be a really good opportunity. I always liked Grey Matter and grew up really liking the Washington D.C. scene and all the stuff that Dischord Records was putting out. The whole D.C. scene was very inspiring. I live in Raleigh, North Carolina, so it was kind of like the next serious epicenter of the whole punk rock scene. I liked Grey Matter very much, and I liked a lot of their peers: Scream, Minor Threat, Marginal Man. Pretty much almost everything that came out of there was really good. Faith/Void album, and then later Shudder to Think, stuff like that. I really liked everything that came out of Washington D.C.
Have either of you done any non-fiction before this?
STEVE NILES: Not really. I’ve done some shorts here and there, one-pagers, and some stuff for anthologies. Nothing that really sticks in mind. This was the first autobiographical nonfiction thing that I’ve written. It had been brewing for years. I had friends like Rick Remender and Eric Stephenson, who were really urging me to do it. They knew I had this history. My whole thing was I could never figure out a way in.
I could never figure out how to tell this story. Do I just go in and tell the story of Gray Matter? Then I came up with this idea that I did with Take It Back. It’s my life and it’s Gray Matter. I keep going back and forth between the two as everything converges. I thought it just made it more interesting than just a straightforward, in-order biography.
BRIAN WALSBY: There was that band, Die Kreuzen. They reissued one of their first records called Cows and Beer, which is a legendary seven-inch record. They wanted me to draw a little miniature comic book. It was like this six-page mini comic book that went with this reissue, but going from four pages or six pages to what ended up being a 100-page project. I mean, it’s kind of daunting.
How did you land on Brian as the artist?
STEVE NILES: I knew Brian from his T-shirt work. He had actually done a Gray Matter shirt that he sent us. We have a deal with a company called Shirt Killer, so we weren’t able to do it, but Brian stuck in my head. I had looked at three or four other artists, and the biggest problem I kept coming up with was that they were kind of superhero artists. It just didn’t work for me, but it was also, “Did they know the scene?”
Did they know the subtleties of the scene? A lot of times if you bring up punk rock with people, all of a sudden everybody’s got mohawks. DC was very relaxed that way. Finding somebody that knew the scene, and that was a good artist was a really tough thing to find. When we stumbled on Brian, it happened so fast we hired him right away.
BRIAN WALSBY: When I got the opportunity, I just signed on immediately because I just thought this is exactly the kind of thing I should be doing for sure. Luckily, they thought of me. I guess I was on a pretty short list apparently, so that’s also very flattering. At first, I was like, “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do this,” but they made an offer that allowed me to go, “Okay, well I can do this for sure.” I just thought whatever they had to say would be good. Plus, I had a little bit of experience.
Did you pitch to DiWulf first, or did you consider releasing it independently?
STEVE NILES: I tried to do it through Comix, and there really was no interest. They just didn’t seem to really get it. My wife, Monica, found DiWulf. I contacted Steven (DiLodovico). I didn’t even realize I had met him a year before and actually talked about doing a Gray Matter book and completely blanked on it. I just wrote to him and was like, “Are you interested in reading this script?” He read it and came back. It was an immediate, “Yes.”
They got it. They got the whole idea of it. For comics, they don’t really know the scene. They don’t know the music. It was a tough sell. I’m hoping now that DiWulf is doing it, I’ll be able to sneak some copies into the comic industry. We’ll see how that works out.
I love them. They definitely know the scene.
STEVE NILES: This is their first comic. They were really excited about it, and they’ve just been great to work with.
Were there people from the D.C. scene that you felt obligated to consult, or were you nervous to show this to?
STEVE NILES: I’m nervous to show it to everybody. You know, I’ve always hidden behind vampires and monsters and things like that. This is the first one… I was like, this is my life, and I’m putting it all out there. I checked in with all the guys in the band, made sure they’re all cool. I’ve been keeping them up to date on it. The only other person I checked in with was Ian McKaye. I checked in with him just because I’m like, “Look, I’m putting you in the book.” I think all the scenes he’s in show really how funny and charming he is. He was cool with it. Aside from that, I didn’t really have to ask anybody.
BRIAN WALSBY: It turned out that Steve had a pretty good story, for sure. His misadventures and issues, and putting it all out there along with the actual story of the band, that’s pretty brave. You’re kind of exposing yourself to people. It’s a good story, him going through what he went through, sorting out his head, going through therapy. I mean, that’s also something I’ve been doing recently, which has been really beneficial. There are a couple of panels of him talking to a psychiatrist or a therapist or whatever. I kind of like that angle of it. It’s something I can also relate to: trying to dig down and figure out what your deal is or your issues or that kind of thing.
Was there a way you handled the gap between how people remember the scene and how it actually was?
STEVE NILES: Well, that’s really tough because I only have how I remember it. My memory is pretty scattered at this point. I mean, this was thirty, forty years ago. Luckily, Dante, the drummer, who also owns the Black Cat, has a photographic memory. With his help, I put together a complete timeline. I was able to work my own life around that. He knew everything down to the month.
Wow. That’s insane.
STEVE NILES: Yeah. It really is because I’m like, “Really, did we do that?”
Did you find a way to balance nostalgia with honesty when depicting a scene that people feel protective of?
STEVE NILES: I think I did. If anything, I laid my own personal stuff on the line. I wasn’t too judgmental about the scene. I tried to just tell the story from my perspective of being there: the subtle changes in the scene and what was happening with the bands. I think I handled it well. I’m very curious to see how people respond to it.
Was there anything you chose not to include?
STEVE NILES: I tried to get everything I could in the scene. This is about the sixth draft that you’re reading right now. It used to have a lot more personal stuff in it, and then my life was sort of taking over the story, just talking about every relationship I’ve been in, this and that. I looked at it and I was like, “You know what? I’m squeezing the band out.” So I did a major cut in about the fourth or fifth version. I really pulled back on my own life and pushed the band stuff forward.
What was your workflow?
STEVE NILES: I have never worked with anybody who works as fast as Brian. It was literally like I was getting two or three pages a day. He works on a tablet, so he moves really fast on stuff. He was great and took notes really well. There were a few drastic changes to the artwork he was fine with. He would just redo it and send it right back. We were in almost constant, daily communication, but again, going back to what I was saying about somebody who knows the scene, Brian was a big fan and knows the scene.
The one thing I had to show him was architecture. He didn’t really know what DC looks like, and it has a very unique look to it. I’d supply him with some visuals, but other than that, he did great. He already knew everybody in the scene, so I would just write, “Rites of Spring was playing,” and then boom, I’d get a Rites of Spring live shot.
Brian, do you have any visual rules you set for yourself when you’re drawing a story rooted with real people in places?
BRIAN WALSBY: I don’t have a process. I just try to do a good job. It’s easier to do that these days. I’ve been drawing on a tablet with Procreate. That’s really different from what I would have done ten years ago, because I would have been on paper. I haven’t done that in a long time. I just tried to capture the vibe of the story. I tried to do what actual comic book illustrators do. I don’t have any training or anything like that. I just kind of visualize it like I’m sure a lot of those guys do. Then, I just looked at pictures for reference, because that’s a great tool. Not everybody can draw an old-fashioned telephone from the 80s. Stuff that nobody ever has to use anymore.
Which is weird, because when I hear “old-fashioned telephone,” I think of the one with the small earpiece you listen from and then talk into the receiver on the wall.
BRIAN WALSBY: It feels like a million fucking years ago.
Was there something Steve did creatively that surprised you?
BRIAN WALSBY: I don’t know Steve from his career after being a bass player. I’ve heard about the movie, 30 Days of Night. I don’t seem to see a lot of movies. I knew it came from a comic series that he wrote? I just know him from his young adult bass playing. I even saw Grey Matter once. They put out the double seven-inch when they got back together after they broke up the first time. I think that was like toward the end of the ’80s or early ’90s when that came out. That record surprised me. A lot of those bands that break up in D.C., they never really reform. It seemed like they were one of a pretty small amount of bands that did. I saw them in San Francisco and they just blew the socks off the place.
It was some bar somewhere. They played seven-inch records and songs from the first two albums. It was just fucking great. I don’t know if they surprised me, but I was just surprised that they were actually back together and pretty happy about how good they were, and they were just great live. I almost think that that double seven-inch is my favorite Grey Matter record, because I just wasn’t expecting them to get back together again.
What was the hardest part of shaping the real history into a narrative arc?
STEVE NILES: The hardest part, especially because I decided to tell the story out of order, was finding the right rhythm. The one thing I didn’t want it to be was confusing because it’s constantly shifting times and dates. I think the toughest part was just organizing, making sure that the story flowed. I wanted some kind of arc. The example I give is my relationship with my wife, Monica. I’ve known her since I was seventeen. The book ends with us married and living out in the country, but organizing it was the toughest part.
Named the comic after one of the albums from Grey Matter, Take It Back. Did the music shape the tone or the structure of the comic at all?
STEVE NILES: I really wanted to make sure the book had a lot of lyrics in it. I’m really trying to get across what the band was about by showing Geoff’s lyrics and the songs. I didn’t take too much from the music itself. The original title was going to be “Swann Street,” which is one of our songs, but it’s actually from when I was in another band called Three. It was Grey Matter with a different drummer. It was a Three song; Grey Matter ended up playing it, but it wasn’t really a Grey Matter song; that’s why I went with “Take It Back.” I thought that was a better title.
What do you think your scenes taught you that still shows up in your work?
STEVE NILES: It’s simple: do it yourself. Don’t sit around waiting for permission from people. If you want to put out music, or put on a show, or put out a comic book, there are ways to do it. You don’t have to solicit DC Comics or Marvel Comics to put out a comic. You can just do it yourself, and that was one of the biggest impressions of the D.C. scene that changed me so much. These were kids, and they were putting on their own shows, you know, putting out albums and singles, organizing tours, doing all this stuff completely on their own outside the system. I’m a big admirer of that, and I’ve tried to carry that with me into comics.
BRIAN WALSBY: Pretty much everything. I’ve always really liked the aspect of trying to be creative. I kind of feel like finding punk rock and hardcore and heavy metal and those underground scenes was the catalyst for my own creativity. So when I think of punk rock and “do it yourself,” I think of DIY a lot more these days. I think when you say DIY, that sort of references the attributes of punk rock without really calling it punk rock. I do associate punk rock with just doing stuff yourself because no one’s going to do it for you.
Trying to stay busy and build something. That’s what it was all about for people in the 80s: building up your own scene, trying to get people who want to be a part of it and believe in it, and becoming their friend. I knew people who used to drive around and pick up kids from other parts of town and bring them to the shows they were putting on, just so these kids could see them. There was this fervor of, “Have you heard this? Check this out.”
Then when you get love back from people, you’re surprised. I was always surprised that everybody didn’t just immediately love Black Flag or something like that. Like, “Oh, you don’t like this? I guess it’s weird.” It seemed like it was a huge affront to a lot of people back then. It scared them or whatever. It was always really exciting.
Has making this book pushed you towards any other non-fiction ideas?
STEVE NILES: Not yet. This one really took it out of me. Like I said, I want to see how people react. It’s very odd to put yourself out there personally. I kind of want to see what the reaction is, but I did have fun doing it. It was very fun and kind of liberating.
Do you think punk as a subculture still has the same power to form identity for young people today?
STEVE NILES: If they discover it, it sure does. I think it’s a great time for it. I’m sure stuff’s going on out there. We just don’t know about it. That’s the coolest thing about this stuff: I’m a sixty-year-old man now. I’m cut off. I don’t get the newsletter anymore.
BRIAN WALSBY: It’s hard to say because I’m not a young person today. I don’t know what their entry point would be. I think the basic motivation has to be the same. I guess it’s just surrounded by a different culture. It’s pretty obvious that discovering things in the world before social media and the internet happened is a little different than what’s going on now. It’s hard not to sound like you’re a million years old when you say that. I’m a million years old, what can I say? It’s going to be different.
It’s going to seem different to me, looking at how kids get into underground. I don’t know if you can even call it really “underground” because punk rock is so… I don’t want to say mainstream. It’s just been accepted and woven into the fabric of American society. It’s no longer this little cool treehouse that you get to climb where there’s nobody else in there, barely, except for a few people. All of a sudden now, it’s like everybody’s in the treehouse. You’ve got to make your own treehouse or whatever.
What would your younger punk self think of this book?
STEVE NILES: Oh, he’d be thrilled. I’ve been trying to put out comics since I was fourteen or fifteen. I’ve been, in one way or another, making little fanzines or short story collections or something like that. So I think I’d be pretty blown away that there was a comic out. I think I’d be pretty psyched.
Take It Back: Life, Anxiety, and Gray Matter written by Steve Niles and drawn by Brian Walsby is available for pre-order at DiWulf’s website. Check it out and the other punk rock books they publish.
When drummer Dave Masud isn’t slapping skins for the Vampirates, he’s busy making his own music. On May 1st, Dave released Three Quarter Life Crisis, his latest solo record. Dave has crafted a record that’s a visceral look at middle age as your body and the world breaks down around you. The songs are lyrically […]
When drummer Dave Masud isn’t slapping skins for the Vampirates, he’s busy making his own music. On May 1st, Dave released Three Quarter Life Crisis, his latest solo record. Dave has crafted a record that’s a visceral look at middle age as your body and the world breaks down around you. The songs are lyrically dark, but musically bright in more spots than you’d think. While the record mostly stays in punk rock mode, Masud sneaks in a bit of dub reggae with the cleverly named “DU(M)B,” but shines on songs like “Dead Friends Song” and “After the Storm.”
Check out the video below for After the Storm below:
If you like what you’ve heard, support Dave and his music. The record is available almost everywhere you can stream music, but you can buy it directly from Dave at his Bandcamp.
Cover photo credit: Brianna DiGioia Welcome to Four Records! Each episode, we feature one guest as they discuss the four records that helped shape them at four different times in their life. This week, Forrest speaks with Ben Haberland, singer and songwriter of the band Onesie. Their newest album, Way Thousand Bump To The Sky, […]
Welcome to Four Records! Each episode, we feature one guest as they discuss the four records that helped shape them at four different times in their life. This week, Forrest speaks with Ben Haberland, singer and songwriter of the band Onesie. Their newest album, Way Thousand Bump To The Sky, is out now on Sell the Heart Records. The band has a record relase show, join them if you are in the area:
SoCal pop-punks Moonraker have signed on with Punkerton Records for the release of their upcoming album Me and the Bells, recorded with and produced by Chris Fogal of The Gamits at Black in Bluhm in Denver, CO. We’re stoked to bring you the exclusive premiere of the brand new single “Find Your Fangs”. Check out […]
SoCal pop-punks Moonraker have signed on with Punkerton Records for the release of their upcoming album Me and the Bells, recorded with and produced by Chris Fogal of The Gamits at Black in Bluhm in Denver, CO. We’re stoked to bring you the exclusive premiere of the brand new single “Find Your Fangs”. Check out the music video below and stay tuned for more to come!
Here’s some background on the video, courtesy of Moonraker drummer David Green:
“We shot this using the backup cameras in our cars and a truck I borrowed from work. Shoutout to Raine for shooting it and to my coworker Aaron for working the lift gate on the truck while Matt ripped his solo. We all got crazy sun burnt making this. Turns out when you film in a parking lot all day, you should wear sunscreen. There’s a Beastie Boys video where they have famous actors play them (“Make Some Noise”). When asked about the filming of it, Danny McBride said, “Once you’re there, rapping into a fisheye lens, you realize you’ve been training for this your entire life.” He was right.”
This premiere is brought to you in part by Punk Rock Radar. If you’d like your band’s music video to be premiered by Dying Scene and Punk Rock Radar, go here and follow these instructions. You’ll be on your way to previously unimagined levels of fame and fortune in no time.
When AFI started playing music, they were a different-sounding band. Primarily a hardcore punk band, it’s evident that the trajectory of the band has been shaped by their evolving sound. However, for a lot of punk rock kids, their first couple of albums hit really hard. As they’ve evolved over the years, their fanbase has […]
When AFI started playing music, they were a different-sounding band. Primarily a hardcore punk band, it’s evident that the trajectory of the band has been shaped by their evolving sound. However, for a lot of punk rock kids, their first couple of albums hit really hard. As they’ve evolved over the years, their fanbase has fluctuated. For me personally, those first couple of albums hooked me until the first time the band made a drastic change with their sound. Geoff Kresge was an important contributor to the band’s early sound.
During our interview about Answer That And Stay Fashionable, Geoff had offered to talk about the record that followed, Very Proud of Ya. I immediately agreed. The story Geoff told was of a young band on the brink of success. As a kind of part two from that previous interview, we see a band keeping up with a scene that’s taking off while adjusting to their newfound success.
How long was there between the release of Answer That and Stay Fashionable and the recording of Very Proud of Ya?
That came out in July of ’95, and it was around November when we started recording some of the songs that later ended up on the album as a separate session. Basically, we just kind of stayed in writing mode for the duration. The recording began, I want to say it was in February of ’96. It would have probably been late February, early March when we started to do the tracking for the actual album. We did the mastering for Very Proud of Ya on April 1, 1996.
I think we were in the studio, maybe two days of tracking drums. It was maybe a day and a half of bass, a day and a half of guitars, and three days of vocals. We ended up tacking on an extra couple of days to do a couple of other songs in the session. It was pretty quick to have the answer out in July and then be in the studio, making the next album. By today’s standards, I guess it was a pretty quick jump.
Yeah. How long did you guys tour Answer That And Stay Fashionable?
That wasn’t very long. We started off doing a U.S. tour that, I want to say, was at the end of June ’95. We were on the road when Answer That and Stay Fashionable was officially released on July 4th. From there, we stayed on the road through the end of November to mid-December. That was the extent of touring for Answer That and Stay Fashionable. We kind of just stayed in writing mode because we were active, and it was kind of easy to just stay in that groove. We kind of just didn’t pump the brakes for that time.
How long does it take before Nitro Records comes in and starts talking to you guys?
Before Answer That and Stay Fashionable was actually released, we had sent a demo tape to several labels. Nitro was one of the labels that we sent the tape to. I think, a few months prior to recording Answer That, Nitro was kind of maybe a little already interested at that point. I guess we hadn’t really proven ourselves as far as being a touring band or anything like that. So they came into the picture. It would have been October, November of ’95, possibly December. We had just finished the bigger tour that we did that year. I think that maybe somebody put a bug in somebody’s ear to check us out. That’s what kind of sealed it for them.
Was Dexter involved in acquiring the bands and contracts and things like that? Would he go to the shows to check bands out, or was he just the name behind the label?
You know, I don’t remember if he came to see us play before or after we were signed to the label. All of everything that was done at a desk or whenever we were in an office, it was done directly with him. If The Offspring weren’t on the road, he was in the office Monday through Friday. He was reachable; if we needed to contact him for anything, it was fairly easy to get a call back and get whatever we needed taken care of.
Did Wingnut want to put out the next record?
Yes, they did. This recording session that I mentioned was happening in the fall of ’95. The owner of Wingnut Records came to the studio while we were in session and was kind of pressing me, “Are we ready to do a second album with them and all this?” It was a little overwhelming because it wasn’t really something that was intended, to make a second album that quickly. It just kind of happened that way. When Nitro became involved, they were ready for us to go like, now. So it was kind of a surprise, but while I was talking to the owner of Wingnut in the studio, he asked me, “Am I ready to do a second album with them?” My honest answer was that I didn’t know when there was going to be a second album. We were still in the process of writing and recording.
From my perspective, my thought was that we would do a couple of EPs and then maybe another album, say the following summer or whatever. As I said, once Nitro got involved, it really was kind of like getting on a roller coaster because they were ready for us to be in the studio right away and start getting the record out. Wingnut definitely was interested in doing another record with us.
You guys signed with Nitro, and we kind of talked about how you had to re-record some of the songs.
That’s the extra couple of days they got tacked on to the end of the session. Thirty years later, I still don’t see the point in doing it, but it was something that Mr. Holland insisted we do.
The witty song titles are still there, but the jokey lyrics were left behind. Was that how you guys were trying to make Very Proud of Ya different from Answer That?
It was a conscious effort to get away from that kind of stuff with the sort of cartoonish lyrics. It was something that when I was joining the band in ’92, they were already trying to distance themselves from. I thought it was fun. It was a cool element, but it also seemed like it was time to not do that. As far as the lyrics on Answer That and Stay Fashionable, there was a lot more shared lyric writing happening for that record. Whereas with Very Proud of Ya, it was more of a shift to where I personally took more of the reins of just writing and putting the music together, and allowed the lyrics to be written. Not like giving permission, but allowing everyone to just express their own way of making the songs and contributing in whatever way they wanted to contribute.
Answer That and Stay Fashionable was a little more controlled, but Very Proud of Ya is more of a band record. It was composed of older songs that the band had before I joined. Those were kind of like the more modernized versions of those songs. The songs that I’ve contributed to that album, musically or lyrically, are things that I was writing outside of before I had joined the band for the most part. Very Proud of Ya then sort of became more of a band effort where almost all of the songs were brand new, aside from the ones that were rerecorded. It was more of a band experience for everybody contributing their own part and allowing a producer to tell us how we sounded rather than us telling each other how we sounded.
That kind of contributed to that aspect of it. Anyway, to get back to the more mature lyrics, if you will, that was a conscious decision that was something they were trying to do before I joined the band, and it just kind of fell by the wayside. Everyone was a bit older. Those were the songs we had in our setlist, and we didn’t really consider taking time to rewrite them or write more new songs. We just jumped on it and went with what we had. I think that there was probably a sense of them thinking that it was a bit childish because it was written when they were in high school. They had all been going to college at this point. I think that it was probably less important for me that the lyrics became more serious than for whoever had to sing them.
I think that was probably the biggest part of it, not wanting to sing cartoony songs and be sort of taken more seriously. It was quite a serious effort that was being put into Nitro wanting to work with us. It was a big deal. Everybody kind of took it a lot more seriously than the previous record. It kind of went from there.
Was there any pushback from Nitro as to what kind of record you should make, or were they just like, “Go and do your thing”?
I think part of the reason why we did the demos for Very Proud of Ya was because they wanted to hear the songs. Also, we needed to record demo versions of the songs for the producer to make suggestions, or not make suggestions, or what have you. The only thing that I can say we were pressured to do is just to re-record those two songs. That was really the only pressure, aside from the time constraint, because we didn’t really have enough time. We didn’t manage our time as wisely as we would have had we known how involved the production aspect was of making the record.
Were you guys in a different studio, or did you record at the same place?
We were in a different studio, where all of the recordings we had done since regrouping took place. We had done all of that stuff, including the demo session that went to Nitro, as well as a couple of sessions afterward, all at the Art of Ears. We wanted to record Very Proud of Ya there also, but the producer wanted to record it elsewhere. It was weird for us because it was not really what we were used to. It was a little nerve-wracking because it was kind of tight quarters in there, and some of the gear was very pricey, high-end recording equipment. It was a little intimidating to even be in the same room as some of that stuff at that point.
Was there pushback from Nitro to make the same record or to make a different record?
No, no, there was no pushback whatsoever. All of the material that we submitted, they liked. They didn’t have any issues with anything. Literally, the only pushback at all was from us not wanting to rerecord the two songs that they wanted rerecorded. And that was the only issue with Nitro as far as pushback was involved. They were fans and were excited about the new songs and all that.
Are there any songs that didn’t make it onto Answer That and Stay Fashionable but made it onto Very Proud of Ya?
There were three extra songs on the vinyl that are not available on the CD. Having said that, the vinyl bonus tracks were songs we had also recorded versions of for Answer That And Stay Fashionable, but for whatever reason, we just weren’t feeling the performances or whatever. So we left them off of that record. The song “Charles Atlas,” which is track twelve on Very Proud of Ya, was originally going to be on Answer That And Stay Fashionable, but the chorus and the arrangement were different. We decided to try a little harder on that one to make it a better song.
I saw an interview with Adam and Davey where said there are about twelve to fourteen good songs on the album. Do you feel that’s accurate?
I would agree with that.
What were the ones played in the set?
Oh, as far as what was played in the set from Very Proud of Ya, we played all of that stuff. At one point or another, all of the songs on both albums had been on the set list at some point between ’92 and ’97, but I definitely would agree there’s some fat that could have been trimmed from what got released. I think it would have been better as a fifteen to sixteen track release, instead. Like I said, I think there were three songs that got added to the vinyl that are not available. So, twenty-three songs were released.
There are three really good songs that didn’t get finished and were supposed to be on the record. That would have definitely made it a more solid record. I think we would have had the time to record those three songs. My guess is that we would have cut four to six songs.
Is that four to six, including the ones rerecorded from Answer That, or on top of those?
Not including those. I would cut at least four more. It would definitely be a better record. Retrospectively, I think that if we had been able to self-edit a little bit more, we probably would have released a shorter, better album, and the recordings would be a little more complete than what they are. There had been a plan to do more with adding other guitar parts and such, but there just wasn’t enough time.
The producer’s work style was very different from what we were used to or what we expected. This is all pre-Pro Tools too, you know? So, everything was on analog tape. If you had to redo a part, it was kind of a tedious and very time-consuming process to do it the way we were doing it. I think that’s also partially a contributor to why some of the songs didn’t get the treatment that they were intended to have. As I say, a few of the songs on the record have guitar solos.
I think it would have been a better record if we had just not recorded half a dozen of those songs that really didn’t need to be recorded again and focused more on executing the new songs, making them the best they could be in retrospect at the time. I thought that all the songs were good, and some of them not as good as others, but they can’t all be winners, right?
What do you feel are the highlights of this album for you song-wise?
“He Who Laughs Last,” “File 13,” “Advances in Modern Technology,” “This Secret Ninja.”
This Secret Ninja has always been one of my favorites. When I first got into punk, I didn’t have a lot of money, so I was relying on bootlegs. I think I had the Snow Jam one. That’s the song that actually hooked me on you guys.
Oh, that’s cool. Right on. Thank you. That’s one of my favorite songs on the record. I also liked “Fishbowl” and still like that song quite a lot. I guess that’s my list as far as what I think are highlights, or the ones that I have a little more pride in. I suppose you would say, as far as where we were musically at that time, I think that if you were to take a cross-section of what we sounded like at the time, those songs would probably embody that the most.
Nice. So you said there were three songs that you guys didn’t really get to do, that were kind of left over. Did you keep any of that music, or did they use those on another record?
They’ve never been released in any form. I have the master reels from the demo session, but as far as any of it having been released or them rerecording any of it or anything like that? No. The music for those songs I had written, and had I continued in the band, those songs would either have become an EP later or they would have made it onto the third album, if there was going to be a third album. Were I still involved in the band, or whatever, those songs would probably have been on that record. They’ve never been released, and I haven’t even heard them for more than 20 years.
I’ve got them on a cassette somewhere. I’ve got the actual reels from the studio recording, the demo recordings of them, but I don’t exactly have the ability to play them back. I think we actually recorded the drums for them and maybe rough guitar and bass only in the Very Proud of Ya sessions, the actual album session. That’s only a maybe, but as far as anything having made it out of the demo phase of those three songs, that’s where they ended.
Was the Very Proud of Ya Tour bigger than the previous one?
There was definitely more of a wave, as far as being put on other tours. Going into Very Proud of Ya, we had a booking agent. Previously, we had been doing the bookings ourselves. That includes some of the touring for Answer That and Stay Fashionable; it was DIY booking. We had a label that had the resources to keep us on the road, help us get a new van and trailer, and to put us on other tours with other Nitro artists. It was a nice kind of push, you know what I mean? It was cool to do these sort of label-mate tours.
We did a couple of those, but the shows were bigger, the tours were longer, in bigger venues, et cetera. Everything just kind of leveled up. When Very Proud of Ya was basically hitting the streets, we already had some momentum behind us as far as continuing to be gigging and touring. We did a bunch of shows with other bands that were on Nitro, and did a tour with The Offspring. It was pretty cool to have those kinds of opportunities, and those only happened because we signed to Nitro. Those wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
I was going to ask you about the album art, you did the art for this album. How long had you been doing art at that point?
I started doing art when I was really young. I know, it probably sounds ridiculous, but I sold my first painting when I was five years old. I did a watercolor painting of a fish and some guy gave me five bucks for it. I’m sure that’s not an indicator of anything to come, but I have been interested in art my whole life. Since I was a little kid, my dad was very into drawing and painting and making things. I had an uncle that was also super creative. It was kind of already ingrained in me. As far as doing artwork for the band, I started doing artwork for the band as I was joining the band. It was kind of like, “Here’s what I got.” Mark, the guitar player, was also a really talented artist.
A couple of his things were used for graphics before I joined the band. We did keep his logo that’s on the CD of Very Proud of Ya. We called it the AFI ball logo. That was designed by Mark, but the majority of the other graphics up until I left the band, that was stuff that I did. There were a few pieces that we had other artists do, but most of it was done by me. The merchandising, the concept for the Fly in the Ointment EP, the art direction for Answer That And Stay Fashionable, I did the actual physical paste-up layouts for the three EPs that I put out on my label. From the beginning of me getting in the band, I was doing the graphics stuff.
You stayed with the band through 1997. Did Nitro re-release Answer That and Stay Fashionable while you were still in the band?
My last show with them was, I think, April 5th, 1997. I don’t remember the exact date of the re-release of Answer That And Stay Fashionable. I want to say that it was maybe May or June. I didn’t get actual copies of it from Nitro, aside from an advanced copy of the cassette version. I didn’t get a test pressing or anything from them. It definitely came out in the period when I had given notice that I was leaving the band at the end of the tour.
It came out sometime between that and when their next tour began. I don’t think they had a long period of time to work in a new bass player. It might’ve been a month or something like that. I think it was when they were on that tour. I had gone back to Art of Ears and remixed the record with Andy Ernst before release on Nitro.
It’s mixed differently, and we ended up cutting some parts out or adding other parts in. It is slightly different. It was in the process of being released while I was still in the band. I was still art directing. The artwork had to be redone because the files were lost. I oversaw that and approved all the layouts. The only physical thing that I got from Nitro regarding the actual releases is the advanced copy of the cassette with no artwork.
Oh, weird.
It just has the song titles printed in white on the tape, but there’s no J-card. It’s just a clear shell with clear tape with white print. That summer, I ended up buying a copy of it on vinyl that was reissued. I found it in the record store where I was living and bought it. So that’s the copy of it that I have.
Had you worked on any songs with the band before you quit that were going to be on a third album, or did you?
There were three that I previously mentioned that were left off Very Proud of Ya. There was one for which everything was worked out regarding how the song was written, and we had worked it out musically. We made a live soundcheck demo recording of it. I had lyrics for it and have a recording of the instrumental version. I don’t have a recording of the vocal version. That song definitely would have been on the third album.
Which is more of a shift towards what they ended up doing as the third album, anyway. I don’t know if you would say hardcore, but you could probably tell me musically how it shifted between Very Proud of Ya and the third album more than I could probably tell you. That particular song was more in line with that kind of a shift. I had somewhere between fourteen and eighteen songs already written for a third album. I did actually have a conversation with Mark during my last tour and said, “You know, I’ve got all these songs if you want to use them.”
He said, “No, thanks.” It was much more of a band record. It was kind of trusting that everybody was doing the right thing and what’s the best thing for the band. It’s cool that he declined. There were plenty of songs that were ready to be recorded for a third album. It would have definitely been a different record. It definitely would have been a different record. There’s definitely a pivot.
I was contributing two-thirds plus music that was being brought into the band. Then I was contributing zero percent, and Mark was doing one hundred percent. His writing style was very different from mine. I think that everybody’s tastes had changed from what we had tried to accomplish with Very Proud of Ya. Everybody was wanting something different for the third album, and one of the songs that would have ended up on the third album actually ended up on The Force’s record, the band that Hunter was in before.
“Star Destroyer” was a song for which I had written the music. We were going to do it with AFI, but when I decided to leave the band, I offered it to The Force, and they recorded it. That was another one of the songs that would have made it to the third record.
Did you guys play Star Destroyer in Viva Hate at some point?
Yeah, we actually did “Star Destroyer” in all of our live shows, just to kind of carry that over since Wedge (the Force singer) and I were actually in a band together. It was cool to get to play that together.
So in 1997 you quit AFI. What did you end up doing?
My plan was to be a full-time graphic designer. The second half of the tour, which started off with us opening for The Offspring, was with Sick Of It All. Pete Koller and I became friendly. We got to know each other a little bit on that tour, and he was telling me about how he had gone to school to be a graphic designer. I expressed to him that my plan was not to play music, but to do graphic design. He commissioned me to do three designs for Sick Of It All merchandise. That really jump-started me into doing that full-time, as well as screen printing and printmaking.
I joined Tiger Army in 1999, shortly before the album came out. The record wasn’t even finished being recorded yet, but I was already learning the songs for the first tour. I didn’t go directly to Tiger Army; I was in two bands between AFI and Tiger Army. Those weren’t really serious in terms of touring or anything, just a handful of shows here and there. I did some recording with one of those two bands. That’s when the Tiger Army opportunity happened, and I moved to LA.
Geoff has been putting up a lot of old artwork and flyers from this era. He also does tattoo work. For more info check out his Instagram.
New York’s The Velvet Underground left an impact not just on punk rock but on music in general. Consisting of Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker, they played music for four years and seemed to go unnoticed until Brian Eno pointed out that the few who had formed a band were fans […]
New York’s The Velvet Underground left an impact not just on punk rock but on music in general. Consisting of Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker, they played music for four years and seemed to go unnoticed until Brian Eno pointed out that the few who had formed a band were fans and had bought their record. Author Ritchie Unterberger has put out a massive book on the band with Do What You Fear Most: The History of the Velvet Underground, released by Omnibus Press. At over 800 pages, the book is the ultimate resource on The Velvet Underground’s lasting legacy.
The book starts with chapters on Lou Reed and John Cale, in relation to the page count they don’t spend long in their pre-Velvet Underground lives. It details Reed and Cale’s meeting at a party in NYC. While we don’t get a lot of info about their childhoods, we get an idea of their defiant views from their time in college and how it informed their music. There’s even a chapter on the pre-Velvet Underground band The Primitives that Reed and Cale played in after they met, but also proto-Velvet Underground collaborations, The Falling Spikes (also known as the Warlocks), and the additions of Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker to form the Velvet Underground.
Unterberger mostly sticks to the band members’ professional lives unless it applies to something in the band. The author is very meticulous about the info, even if the citation is decades after the event takes place. Some of the descriptions jump around in time a bit, as it allows connecting the earlier experiences and germinations of the songs to the versions of them we already know. Teases are sprinkled throughout the book about the band’s eventual releases and even the collaborations with Andy Warhol and their hesitant acceptance of taking Nico into the band. There’s this dichotomy that tethers the band to these people, almost making them the supporting cast in their own story. Unterberger can keep these grating moments bittersweet, but recognizes them as tentpoles.
The book is super detailed, but the prose moves fast. There has been so much written about the Velvet Underground that a lot of words are spent on particular subjects, such as recording sessions and gigs. There are numerous accounts of the song recordings, their differences, and what they evolved into, and where they would end up being released whether while the band was active or on a special edition. At such a high page count, it’s clear that there wasn’t much of a limit on how much Unterberger was able to pile on. The book gets a little too meta as it talks about the numerous sources it pulls from in the prose, but this is understandable with a book this massive. If you are a stickler for details, this book has it: shows, demo recordings, relationships, tension, and eventual disbandment.
Before the internet, many stories coming out of the scene seemed like myths. People could only get interviews and stories with bands from magazines or books, but there wasn’t nearly as much documentation as there is now. That’s not including whether the subject was willing to be interviewed or not and how cooperative they would be. Eventually, the internet made it easier to find and catalog these interviews, leading to where we are now. We get these giant books on the things we love, no matter how undesirable they may have been to the general public during their time. Unterberger’s undertaking and choice of the Velvet Underground as his subject reflect this shift and show how far the acceptance of this genre has come.
Do What You Fear Most: The History of the Velvet Underground. is the most comprehensive book covering the Velvet Underground, compiling almost every resource into one compendium. While the band’s trials and tribulations are on display, the book mostly focuses on the minutiae. While minutiae sometimes get a negative connotation, here it should be celebrated as much as the band itself. Unterberger’s research and Omnibus Press’s release of this book are proof that the Velvet Underground is still relevant in conversations about genre-defying music and its history.
You can pick up Do What You Fear Most: The History of the Velvet Underground by Richie Unterberger at you local bookstore or through Omnibus Press.
