Destroy Before Listening

DBL#12 Justin Greaves

Justin has been active playing music since the 80s, from drummer for hire to guitarist in his own group Crippled Black Phoenix. Whether it's in a Jethro Tull covers band with his Dad, or playing the musical saw on a track with Nick Cave and Debbie Harry he's been all over so many different things. Starting out in hardcore bands like Hard to Swallow then the infamous sludge of Iron Monkey, to the doom of Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine (with Lee Dorian and Sunn members) and Electric Wizard's 'We Live' album of 2004.

Switching to guitar he formed the musically diverse group Crippled Black Phoenix in 2004 and has now recorded their thirteenth studio album to date this year. Releasing on Invada, Clearview and Season of Mist they have toured extensively with varying lineups and players.

The conversation also takes in the CBP choice of cover versions like their 'Horrific Honorifics' album and the Jeffrey Lee Pierce sessions project. Justin also discusses his love of film scoring having provided music for 'The Devil's Business' (2011)  and 'Future Shock (2014). A very open and honest look back at his time playing music over the decades. 

A highly recommended listen!

Outro:

Crippled Black Phoenix - 'Victory'

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DBL#11 Jim Rushby and Steve Watson from Iron Monkey

The band were formed in Nottingham in 1994 and were made up of members who had played in various punk and hardcore bands. They created a unique musical mix in the UK at that point in time, using the term 'sludge'.

Over the course of their original five year run they experienced several line up changes but released a highly regarded self-titled debut CD, a full length album ‘Our Problem’ on Earache and a split with Church of Misery on Man's Ruin Records.

With a seemingly nihilistic attitude to both audience and press the band ploughed their own furrow in the UK scene until announcing their demise via a press release in 1999. Tragically in 2002 Iron Monkey frontman Johnny Morrow died of an unexpected heart attack.

In 2016 founding members Jim and Steve restarted the band with Jim doing both guitar and vocals. They released the album 9/13 on Relapse Records in 2017. 
During the hiatus between albums they have secured a devout fanbase which has steadily grown during these intervening years. You can follow on Instagram @ironmonkeysludge or their Facebook page

Here's the link for Steve's Venom story 

Big thanks to Graham Thompson who had a large hand in helping this episode come together.

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DBL#10 Andrew Nolan

I've been familiar with Andrew's bands since seeing Ebola & Sawn Off play at most of the early hardcore gigs I saw in Newcastle in the mid 90s. That energy and idea of hardcore was definitely fresh and inspirational for me at the time.

His early background in Leeds pirate radio gave him exposure to hip hop  which has now come full circle 30 years later with the project Wolfagram. This is the name he goes by for hip hop production which is another expression of his prolific musical output.

The conversation discusses his time and experiences in early 90s Newcastle from the beginnings of the band Sawn Off to then joining Ebola, who went on to tour more widely in Europe.

On moving to Glasgow in the later half of the 90s he formed the band Shank who managed to play as far afield as Australia and America. At the same time he was producing noise and experimental work as Joshua Norton Cabal. This stemmed from his early love of strange sounds and the tape trading scene.

In 2003 he moved to Toronto, Canada where he quickly formed the Endless Blockade recording a demo in 2004. That band ran until 2010 when he then went on to form Column of Heaven shortly afterwards. Both groups crossed a number of genres such as hardcore, power violence, grindcore, death metal, industrial and noise.

After that group's ending Intensive Care began and have been active since 2016. Working as a two piece has provided more flexibility as a band with regard to DIY recording and their freedom in the music produced.

Andrew's label Survivalist is also discussed and the importance in having a strong graphic identity to represent the music you create. Also how time can change your opinion on the music you were involved with many years ago.

Outro: 

Intensive Care - 'Taxonomy of Rats' (Closed Casket Activities)

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DBL#9  Chay Lawrence 

Chay was a founding member of the band Tribute and came in as 2nd guitarist for Bob Tilton,  playing on their second 7" and first album 'Crescent'. He stayed with the band for around four years and left before their second album was released in 1999. 

In 2012, after he'd lived in America for a number of years, Chay played bass in the band Coffin Pricks. That group was short lived and featured D.C. legend Chris Thomson (Ignition, Circus Lupus, Monorchid, Skull Kontrol) and Jeff Rice (Ottawa, Calvary, .NEMA).  A number of songs were unfortunately never recorded but you can hear them via that link above. 

This conversation covers the scene in the 90s moving from straight edge bands to the mid decade heyday of UK hardcore. It's impossible to not mention the term 'emo' when talking about this stuff but the music definitely became more melodic. Both the stories of Tribute and Bob Tilton are intertwined and are talked about in depth. Chay's experiences with writing, recording &  playing gigs are all mentioned and are a must hear for anyone interested in this era of music! 

The track at the end is Tribute 'Hitherto' from their final release, a split 7" with Beacon (Spread records, 1997).

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DBL#8 JOHN HANNON 
John Hannon has been involved in various musical endeavours over the past 30 years. 
This began with uksxe band  Stand off which morphed into  Understand who took a more serious musical approach which resulted in their signing with a major label. Probably making them the first uk hardcore band to take that step in the mid 90s. There are some great stories here like recording with Don Fury in NYC, touring with bands like Jawbox and Helmet and where they signed their major label deal. 
John also explains how he moved into making much more experimental music with Woe in the early 2000s and then the group Liberez who released their last album in 2018 on Alter records. Also discussed is his career as a recording engineer and owning his own NO studios near Southend.
The track at the end is by Stirling a noisy garage rock band he played guitar in also during  the mid 90s who had a 7" of unearthed material released last year. 
Really enjoyed this chat and as you can tell this is just scratching the surface. There is another podcast he was on called Then and Now about the Essex hardcore scene where he talks specifically about Understand which I would highly recommend to anyone wanting more. 

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DBL#7 JOE THOMPSON 
Joe is best known as the bass player in Hey Colossus a 6 piece band formed in the London area in 2003. They are quite prolific at this point having released a number of albums and splits on a variety of different labels. 

Their sound incorporates many heavy elements drawing from noise rock, post punk, krautrock & psychedelic music. The track at the end of the interview is a 16 minute long piece which demonstrates this kind  of diversity. It is also from their new album 'Dances/Curses' which was released on Wrong Speed Records Joe's new label which he set up last year. He also wrote a book published  by Pomona in 2019 detailing his life and experiences of being in a smaller independent rock band.

Hey Colossus are a group I don't know that much about so it was good to hear the details about their background and how they work. Also Joe's perspective in particular on the points previously mentioned.

Conversation recorded in December of 2020.

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DBL #6 - NICK LOARING

Some people may remember him as Nick Enslaved if they bought records from his label/distro back in the 90s or saw him doing vocals for the bands Ebola or Boxed In. 

He now runs The Print Project workshop in Shipley near Bradford where he operates a bunch of printing presses and has made print his business for the past ten years. Nick's artwork is very bold, geometric and colourful. You can buy this work directly or if you are local to the Newcastle area visit Northern Print for a look in person. Here is a cool short video where he explains the methods used to make these prints.

His first gig doing vocals in a hardcore band was for Ebola supporting Los Crudos here in Newcastle at the Broken Doll, 1996. This was an important show for me and also for Nick because it was his vocal debut which he mentions later on in the conversation.

He also did some sleeve printing nearly 20 years ago now for a record I was involved in making. I remember asking if he could print the sleeve as cheaply as possible and still have it look good. He did both no problem... I'd always been grateful for that.

There's lots of information here and it was great to get in depth and hear him talk so enthusiastically about skateboarding, the 90s UK h/c scene and printmaking amongst other things...

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Music:

Intro

Solanki - 'Bureaucracy'

Outro

Ebola - 'Bring me the head of Mike Brinson'

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DBL #5 Mike Vest. Mike has been involved with numerous projects over the years but is most famous for playing guitar in the band BONG since its formation in 2005.

He's also played in 11 Paranoias, Melting Hand, Drunk in Hell & countless other projects. He has also been doing more remote recordings over the past few years with Oblivion Reptilian, OZO & the most recent grouping Mienakunaru. 

Mike and I went to the same school together although he was 2 years below and Lee Culver 2 years ahead. I didn't actually know either until maybe 3/4 years after leaving? There were more than a handful of kids from Whickham born around 77-82 that went on to be involved in music and bands thinking about it now. 

I first met Mike via Rob Woodcock around 2003? then more at early Bong gigs. Just hanging out and smoking weed. The conversation was a bit longer than the 50 minutes here but there were a few rambling tangents trimmed out that nobody really needs to hear. Anyway, enjoy!

You can check out lots of music Mike's involved with via his personal bandcamp page

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Music:

Intro

Solanki - 'Bureaucracy'

Outro

Corpsefuckers - 'Pure and total nihilism'

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DBL#4 Martin SHIFT. When I'd initially thought of the idea to speak about the DIY attitude within music I didn't want to stick to one genre in particular. That said it usually goes hand in hand with punk rock, although not really the case here. 

Martin conceived the industrial/power electronics project SHIFT in Sweden in 1997 and moved it to the UK for nearly 20 years before returning back home again.

I first met him via the  doom-metal message boards in the early/mid 2000s. At this point it was the only real meeting place for people into extreme music forms. The Southern Lord forum in particular attracted lots of people from the UK (specifically the NE). We'd made friends because of his label Unrest productions who I'd help out with in 07/08. Lots of phone calls over various logistics were made and he was definitely a part of things that were happening during that period.

Martin is very straight ahead and intense about his music but he's always had my respect with what he's achieved and his uncompromising do it yourself mentality. We hadn't spoken in some years and it was my first time ever interviewing but it turned out great and really interesting hearing his perspective. 

Interview recorded back in May while he was in rural Sweden and didn't have a proper internet connection. Either way it's a great insight for anyone involved in the noisier more experimental UK scene in the 2000s.

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Music:

Intro

Solanki - 'Bureaucracy'

Outro

Shift - 'Circling Raptor'

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DBL#3: Steve Strode has been a great supporter of North East underground music for nearly two decades now. He was one half of Distraction records with Daz Hubbard in the 2000s and also helped in gig promotions like their notorious weekend fests. One day was always the chance to put on some really unique performances by local underground groups. Distraction also promoted the third and final time Whitehouse played Newcastle in 2004 as well.

Steve went solo with Cruel Nature records in the 2010s which has grown through an ever expanding Bandcamp page. He also plays guitar in the usually instrumental band Fret! with Rob Woodcock and Cath Tyler.

Always supportive of new projects and ideas from local groups it was good to hear his perspective on this evolution. Reet up!

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Music:

Intro

Solanki - 'Bureaucracy'

Outro

Fret! - 'SUSD'

You can listen via any usual podcast platforms like iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Deezer or directly through  Simplecast. 
Alternatively you can use the RSS feed if needed. Just copy it into your podcast platform search:
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