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"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
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PODCAST 125 : MIKE HILL POST TOUR EPISODE
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I'm back from tour, thanks to any of you that might have come out to any of the shows. It's been a trip and I'm just getting back into the day-to-day of normal life. Most of this episode is a rundown of various issues and new items. Brought to you by Savage Gold Coffee
NECROMANIACS 019
Mike and Mike tackle Autopsy of Jane Doe, the Mexican extreme gore film Atroz and the Cronenberg classic The Brood.
PODCAST 124 : CHRIS GRIGG (WOE)
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Chris Grigg of Woe joins us on this episode. We talk about the new Woe record Hope Attrition, the trials of being in a band, AI and the future of homo sapiens on this planet. Outro: "Drown us with Greatness" - Woe Brought to you by Savage Gold Coffee #staygold
PODCAST 123 : MIKE HILL (TOMBS / SAVAGE GOLD COFFEE)
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I'm kicking this solo. A lot has been going on these past few weeks. The work I've been doing over the past few months has been manifested on the new Tombs record. By the time this gets to you, the record will be out of my hands and in the capable hands of Metal Blade Records. I riff on that, the upcoming tour and also spewed a little Donald Trump hate. Brought to you by Savage Gold Coffee #staygold
PODCAST 122 : MIKE HILL (TOMBS, SAVAGE GOLD COFFEE)
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After a short break, I'm back with a solo episode. I go into you typical year ends lists for best records and movies, talk about Tombs stuff and go off on the election a little
NECROMANIACS - 018
Happy Holidays! To celebrate the Yule Time, we're covering Kramus. the 2015 horror comedy based on the the Euorpean "Shadow of Saint Nicholas" Krause Von Krampus. We also cover the slow burn thriller The Invitation and the gore-soaked anthology Mexico Barbaaro
TRANSMISSION 12.6.2016 : NOVEMBER 2016 TOUR JOURNAL
11.7.2016 Chapel Hill, NC I’m chilling in the green room above the venue. It was a long trip down here for the first show, but I’m ready to rock and roll. Earlier on, we hit the same burrito place that I normally go to when I’m in Chapel Hill. This is our third time playing at Local 506; it’s a pretty cool spot, hopefully we can get some people to show up tonight. It seems pretty quiet down there. I remember playing the Cat’s Cradle with Isis, which is technically in Carrboro, but is only about 4 blocks away from here. When we first started doing gigs at Local 506, I didn’t realize that we were in the same town. None of the guys in the band were present when we did the tours with Isis. Those were good times. I sat in as a guest on Danny’s podcast, Ascending the Holy Mountain tonight. It was cool, we talked about the band, the upcoming election and life on the road. The only thing left to do is play the set. 11.8.2016 Chapel Hill, NC We stayed with Charlie’s in-laws last night after the show. They live in a beautiful house in a safe neighborhood. It can be stressful at times, staying with people on tour. I’m always worried about the van being broken into. It’s better to get a room at Red Roof Inn of some place like that. There’s secure parking and the hard check-out time is a good motivator for getting on the road at a decent time. Nonetheless, it’s cool here. The first set is in the books. The show was small but I’ll take it. We played some new material for the first time live. It’s always a little rough, but by the end of the tour, those songs will be part of the muscle memory. You can feel the tension building up over the election tonight. It feels like that we are observing history, that either way, whoever gets elected, will have a profound legacy on the future of this country. Both Clinton and Trump can possibly be facing criminal charges; what kind of message does that send to the world. I cast my absentee ballot for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. Do I believe in him? Hell no. Do I think he has a chance on getting elected? Hell no. I hate that we really only have two choices, the Democrat or the Republican. It’s uncomfortable and I’ll be relieved when this is all over with. The reality is that I would have voted for Bernie Sanders if he hadn’t been railroaded into dropping out. Even the Primaries were controversial over who actually won. 11.9.2016 Atlanta, GA The vibe of the show last night was pretty heavy. No one really came out. When I went to settle up with the promoter, he blamed the election and the general intensity of the situation for the poor turnout. I can see his point, but Atlanta has never really been our town. Our set ended around midnight. As we were playing the last song, I thought about how the election was over. Everyone was glued to their phones, tv screens and whatever way you can get news, tracking the back and forth struggle between the two candidates. Trump slowly gained on Hillary and secured the electoral vote. Clinton won the popular vote by a narrow margin. The fact that this is the system we work with is troubling to me. I can go on and on about the issues with the Electoral College, but there are better qualified people out there that can use more eloquent language. The fact that Donald Trump was elected president is sad and embarrassing to me. He has no experience in government and has pandered to the ignorance of our general population to stack up support from the under-educated, disenfranchised white people that make up a large part of the US; that and old people that are detached from the reality of a modern society. Unfortunately, I lace my parents and some of my family members in this category. Politics and family are hard subjects. I love my family, but you can’t control how people feel about things like politics. In general, my family fit the profile of the typical middle class Republican. It’s always perplexed me that poor and middle class people back Republicans, but it’s a manipulation. It’s like using chicks in bikinis to sell cheap beer. My family are “religious” in the sense that they identify as Christian, Catholics actually and the is a big tool that the Republicans use to manipulate people. My dad, though he has led a successful life, been able to raise a family, own a home and live comfortably, is not wealthy. I think that guys in his situation will always identify with the rich upper class because they see that as a possibility, the potential to improve your economic sanding is an idea that was a reality for most of his generation, but has become a real challenge for people in my generation. The Republicans unabashedly are about making money, big business and maintaining the upper echelons of economic society. Their plan rarely includes solid middle class people like my Dad. This is going to be an interesting run across this country. I feel like this will be a big point of conversation. 11.10.2016 New Orleans, LA When I saw that we were playing at Siberia, I knew that it was going to be a long night. We would go on late and there won’t be a lot of people at the show. A handful of familiar faces showed up, which is always really cool. I met Fedya’s brother Misha; we ended up crashing at his place last night. He used to compete in a variety of different martial arts, so it was cool talking to him about Jiu Jitsu and training in general. I like to think that I know about martial arts and training, but this dude is the real deal. The overall vibe is pretty heavy. The Trump thing is fucking with everyone. The most intense thing that I’ve observed is how may people of color live in these states. I’ve always been aware of that, but under the current circumstances, it takes on a deeper meaning. These states are the Trump strongholds. How does it feel to be a black man living in Georgia knowing that most of your state voted for a racist? 11.11.2016 Houston, TX Tonight is another night where you know that no one is coming out to your show. There’s something about the venue that makes me feel like no one comes here. There’s a bar filled with nice white people downstairs drinking and eating. It doesn’t compute that there would be a bunch of bands playing the kind of music we play doing a gig up here. Maybe I’ll be wrong. Now that the first few shows are out of the way, I feel like we’re playing the songs well. The new material fits in with the old songs pretty well. We’ll be recording these songs in January for the new record. I still have a lot of work to do on the lyrics and hours of rehearsal ahead of me before I’ll be ready. Rutan is a perfectionist to a degree that I’ve never experienced before; it’s a good thing, I appreciate that level of diligence. The Savage Gold recording session was a real learning experience, so maybe this time around will go a little smoother because I know what to expect. You only get the opportunity to record your LP once, it comes up every couple of years and you only get one shot at getting it right. 11.12.2016 Austin, TX We crashed with Morgan and Natalie last night after the show. It feels like my Austin home, I’ve been taking advantage of their hospitality for the last five years at least. It’s quiet, safe and I can park the van in a secure place. The van we got from the rental company is pretty right on; normally, we get an Econoline but this time around, they gave us a Transit. It doesn’t even feel like you’re driving a van. I got to see JL Beaulieu yesterday. He recently moved back to Austin, so I made it a point to catch up with him. The show was good; some folks came out. Barracuda used to be called Red 7, a venue we’ve played many times. The new, renovated version of the club is cool, but I felt nostalgic for the dilapidated, broken down era of the venue. I get like that sometimes, in a way, I don’t like when things change too much. Chris from Woe appeared last night wearing a suit. It’s always a pleasure seeing Chris Grigg. When people that are out of context show up in random cities on tour, it takes me a minute to connect the dots. Coincidentally, he was in Austin for a wedding. We have a short drive up to Dallas today. We’ll probably get lunch at a nice place today and have a chill morning. Tonight we’re playing on the Superjoint show. It should be interesting. Earlier this year, Phil Anselmo got into some trouble when someone caught him on video sieg heiling and yelling “White Power” at a gig. The internet went buck wild and their were people coming out of the wood-work to throw him under the bus and accused him of being a racist. Everyone has a voice in this modern age. One of the more douche-chilling things was the singer of Machine Head’s unsolicited 11-minute Youtube clip where he fulfilled his duty as a social justice warrior and indicts Anselmo. I’m not defending him, but the clip of him throwing up the Hitler salute speaks for itself. It’s embarrassing; I’m not sure how much of an impact Anselmo has on younger people these days, so aside from not being a supporter of White Power, I don’t know how much perspective I have on any of this. I’ll let guys like the singer for Machine Head sort it out. 11.13.2016 Dallas, TX The show last night was interesting. The gig goes down as one of the most professional and friendly show I’ve ever played. We normally don’t get to experience this level of professionalism down in the trenches, so I’ll take it when I can get it. It was one of those shows where, if you wanted to, you could just sit in a room before your set, watch TV, play your set and go back to your room without ever interacting with anyone else. There were several different green rooms backstage. Us and Wolvhammer share a room, the other bands on the bill had their rooms, and somewhere in the labyrinth of the venue, Phil and Superjoint had a room. The venue was huge; earlier in the day, there was a monster truck show there, that’s how big this place was. Max told me they showed up early and the place was packed with monster truck enthusiasts and women dressed up in rockabilly attire, tattooed, most likely a lot of cleavage was being displayed. After load-in, we kicked it in the green room, ordered our meal and dug in. It didn’t even feel like we were at a show. There was a flat-screen TV showing random Mexican shows. There was some kind of music award show on. The first thing I noticed was how attractive the women were. They were strong-looking olive skinned beauties with brown eyes; healthy, not like the Hollywood chicks you normally see on American TV. Those women look like they had been cutting weight for a wrestling match, dehydrated, depleted and way too skinny. They had a full-on video system rocking at the venue’s stage setup so the idea came up that if we had the backdrop video that we used at Roadburn last year, we would be able to project it behind us during our set. Lately, I’ve been backing up my files on a series of external drives so I can free up space on my laptop so there was a good chance that I didn’t have the video. Fortunately, I had the video stored on a thumb drive that I randomly had in my bag. The drive had been living in my bag since the European tour last year. It was a bit of a tough crowd. During our line check, some guy in the front was yelling at us to hurry up. Tough crowd. I wanted to tell the guy that it wasn’t really up to us on how long the line check was taking. It felt good to play the set; I’m not sure how many people got into it, but for me it was a good night. I’m not very familiar with the various bands that Phil Anselmo has. I own Cowboys from Hell and Power Metal, the first record that he sang on. I have the first Down record and dig it. We listened to Superjoint Ritual on the way up to Dallas and it seemed like some hardcore influenced metal. Jimmy Bower is in the band and I have ultimate respect for him and Eyehategod. I watched a little bit of their set from the merch area. After the show, I settled up with the promoter, no issues and totally pro. 11.14.2016 San Antonio, TX We enter the wasteland today. It’s a long, boring drive through ultimate desolation out to El Paso. I’m gearing up for a lot of consecutive hours behind the wheel. We played in the basement of the Korova last night. It was the yin to the yang of opening for Superjoint. It was a throwback to the countless shows I’ve played in basements and makeshift venues over my lifetime. Not much to be said about it. We played, load out and move on. I love eating a Denny’s when I’m on the road. It’s a solid place for a simple meal and mediocre coffee. After the show, we checked into the motel and hit Denny’s. We were the only patrons in the entire restaurant. There were two dudes working there; they were smoking cigarettes outside when we rolled up. It was a cool night, sitting there in an empty restaurant. 11.15.2016 El Paso, TX This is a rough part of the country to tour in, primarily because of the long drives. We’re facing another long drive today out to Albuquerque. A few of these in a row can really chew you up. The show last night was a rough one. There was a huge accident on the highway that runs through El Paso and the opening band couldn’t make it to the show. I got some intel from the promoter that someone was killed and they shut the highway down. Wolvhammer bailed on the show, so it was just us and another band. I think 5 people were there when we played our set. You can look into Mexico from El Paso. This is my first time here; I’ve driven through here many times on the way to somewhere else. I’ve always wanted to do a gig here so now, at the very least, I can check that box off. 11.16.2016 Albuquerque, NM We stayed at a very sketchy-looking motel a few blocks from the venue. When we pulled into the parking lot, a lot of undesirable-types were lurking around, checking out the van and generally projecting a shady vibe. It felt like something horrible had happened there. I’m tripping out on how many people must pass through these places over the years. I wonder if anyone died there. Tim Schmoyer came out to the show last night. He loved out here a few months ago and it was really cool to see him. It was good to see a familiar face. I’ve known Tim for two decades, we’ve been through a lot together over he years. He’s one of those friends where even if you haven’t seen them in several months, you pick up where you left off. We played well. The set is dialed in pretty good, the new songs sit in there comfortably and it’s all systems go. There was a small crowd, but I’ll take it. After the set, this guy told me that we were better live than he expected. I’m not sure if it was a compliment or an insult. I tried to assess where he was coming from by looking at his expression but I couldn’t get a read. People and the things they choose to say trip me out sometimes. We have another long drive today. 11.17.2016 Phoenix, AZ I woke up and didn’t know where I was. I thought that I was home at my apartment and it took a few moments to realize that I was in a motel room sleeping in a bed with Ben. Not much of a recollection of the show last night. We played a show in Scottsdale; there were people there, we did an interview in the van. There’s not much else to say about the show. 11.18.2016 Los Angeles, CA It’s good to be out of the desert. I love southern California. I always think about James Ellroy novels and Charles Manson when I’m in LA. The desert is beautiful, but I’m a coastal kind of guy. We met up with Mark Vieira earlier, did a quick photo shoot for Metal Blade and had dinner. The show was good, I dug the venue. I was reminded by Jeff Caxide that many years ago, Anodyne played there and the only people that showed were him, Turner, Aaron Harris and some of the Hydrahead people. MGR opened the show. It was awesome seeing Mike and J playing up there. They did a great set. I saw the Isis mosquito stenciled on Mike’s road case and it made me a little emotional. I’m turning into a sentimental old man, I suppose. Those were good times, though a lot of dark personal stuff was going on at the time. It was an end of an era when Isis broke up. It saddens me to think that I won’t be able to see all of those guys together in that context ever again. Man, time flies on broken wings. I met some of the Metal Blade people. Up until now, only Mark has been interacting with them. Outside of a few emails with their PR, I haven’t had any contact with them at all. We’re kicking back at this loft in the downtown area. I was told that Vincent Gallo lives in this building. 11.19.2016 San Diego, CA The high point of the night was hanging out with Bobby Ferry. It was a good set at a strange venue. We’ve only ever played at the Casbah. This place was out in a really nice part of town. Based on my observations, I speculated that it was the gay part of town. Bobby confirmed this observation. San Diego is a strange city. There’s a really conservative vibe here. Maybe it’s because there’s a strong military presence here. I haven’t been able to talk to my parents. Usually, my Mom emails me a lot when I’m out here. I have a lot of work to do with respect to reconciling with the fact that they both voted for Donald Trump. It’s a heavy feeling; in the past they’ve always voted Republican but it didn’t have as much weight until now. It’s hard. It’s made me question a lot about our relationship. This really ugly thought has lodged itself in my brain. What if my Dad thinks I’m an asshole? This election has really drawn lines and created an “us and them” vibe in the country. There are people saying that they want to leave the country, there’s been a spike in racially driven crime, it’s a mess. 11.20.2016 Ventura, CA I wondered why we were booked here but going through some old emails, I saw that originally we were originally intended to play Sacramento. It was a rowing the boat night. We played, got paid and shipped out. 11.22.2016 Winnemucca, NV Today is a travel day. We drove out of Cali and across Nevada; there are still a significant number of miles left. The show in San Francisco was cool. It was in the small room at the DNA Lounge where we played earlier this year with 1349. Andrew came out. It was good to see him. There are times that I wish he was still playing in the band. Wolvhammer didn’t play. I got word that their van crapped out in Ventura. I don’t think we’ll be seeing those guys again. That’s a hard obstacle to overcome. When we checked into the motel, we got some vouchers for a meal at the diner across the street. I think it’s time to motivate everyone and eat. 11.23.2016 Salt Lake City, UT We hit Denny’s last night after the show. Our waiter was one of the smoothest dudes ever, really soft-spoken and polite. We played a good set; the show was uneventful. My old friend Kelly Green came out and gave us a box of vegan baked goods. 11.24.2016 Nebraska Today is Thanksgiving so there is no show tonight. There was no show last night either because the promoter saw some Facebook posts made my one of the Wolvhammer guys about their van being out of commission and decided to cancel the show. For some reason there wasn’t any local bands on the bill, just us and Wolvhammer. In my opinion, that’s lazy booking. If there was a local band, the show would probably still have happened. That’s what we did in San Francisco and Salt Lake City and that’s what we’re probably going to be doing on the rest of the dates. I made my phone calls this morning. I spoke briefly with my Mom. Ever since I discovered that they were going vote for Trump, I’ve felt this wedge between us. When Trump actually won, I began feeling distant from them. I didn’t come out of left field, my Father has always voted Republican and my Mom just follows. Deep down, I knew that they would blindly follow that madman, but until I heard it from my Father’s mouth that he was voting for Trump, I entertained the hope that they would see reason. My Father has always been one of those Middle Class people that identifies with the Upper Class; I think that this phenomenon is common. From his standpoint, the American Death Machine seemed to work, he was the last generation to enjoy the fruits of his labor, to support a comfortable lifestyle with only one income, two cars, pension. His America is different than the cash-and-carry world I live in. Add Trump’s rhetoric and empty promises and I can see how my Father would fall for the ruse. I’m on coffee cup #2. It’s good, bad coffee at the Quality Inn today. I’m not sure what the name of this town is. We drove all day and pulled off the road around 21:00. It was an exhausting run across the high country, beautiful but hard to appreciate under the circumstances. All of that empty space makes me feel lonely. I bet that country hasn’t changed much in hundreds of years. Being on the west coast has made me soft; I got used to the warm weather and now it feels cold. I noticed it when I stepped out of the hotel room into the hallway. 11.26.2016 Indianapolis, IN Last night was a good night; the last time we came through wasn’t so good. Indy has always had a lot of weight for me. There have always been allies out here. I thought about Jared and McCash a lot yesterday. Losing those guys hit me really hard. Jared was going to join the band back then before he spiraled off. He came out to New York for practice a few times but things started growing difficult. McCash’s death came out of nowhere. I suppose that is a testament to how out of touch we were at the time. I remember getting the news that he had died the morning after and being shocked. I didn’t know how deep he had sunk or what his situation was. The only interactions we had were about a musical project that we were planning on doing; it seemed like a positive thing, like something to live for. At times it seems like both of those guys are still here, but that’s an illusion. Wolvhammer made it for these last two shows. Apparently, they had to buy a new van. Something like that can completely crush a band on the road. I met Luke from Kuma’s Corner last night. He shot some video of us talking for a documentary piece about extreme music and the food industry. It was a really good talk and he’s a cool guy. 11.27.2016 Dayton, OH It’s over. It was a rough one and now it’s time to drive home. Dayton is kind of an anticlimactic city to end a tour in, but it is what it is.
PODCAST 121 : JACI RAIA (KVLT : THE LEFT HAND PATH) AND ZEV DEANS
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Jaci Raia, author of KVLT, THE LEFT HAND PATH stops by along with Zev Deans. KVLT is a resource for independent, creative professionals who usually are great at the creative part but fall short on the business side. Brought to you by SAVAGE GOLD COFFEE #staygold
NECROMANIACS 017 - HALLOWEEN EPISODE
Welcome to our Halloween episode. We hit three new movies in this episode. Rob Zombie's 31, Nicolas Winding Refn's NEON DEMON and Adam Wingard's entry into the Blair Witch canon with his aptly named THE BLAIR WITCH.
PODCAST 120 : CHRIS GRAMLICH (ANCRESS)
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I've known Chris Gramlich for the better part of ten years (at least). This episode is kind of s fun experiment. In addition to talking about Chris's new band ANCRESS, Chris put together a cool Mixtape. You can check it out below: https://www.mixcloud.com/EVERYTHINGWENTBLACK/everything-went-black-podcast-episode-120-companion-chris-gramlich-mixtape/
PODCAST 119 : MIKE HILL SOLO
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Hey all, it's another solo episode. I actually have a lot of fun doing these. I break down quitting by job, training at the PCC, the Fight Club Instagram misunderstanding and the upcoming Tombs tours and recording session. BROUGHT TO YOU BY SAVAGE GOLD COFFEE #staygold
PODCAST 118 : FRED PESSARO (CLRVYNT) and JUSTIN PEARSON (RETOX / THE LOCUST / HEAD WOUND CITY / DEAD CROSS)
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Fred Pessaro joined us to talk about his newly-launched site CLRVYNT. Fred was formerlly the editor at Noisey, Brooklyn Vegan and Invisible Oranges as well as being a prominent figure in putting on shows in the NYC underground metal and punk scene. Late in the episode, Justin Pearson of RETOX / DEAD CROSS joined us to liven things up a bit. Brought to you by Savage Gold Coffee #staygold
PODCAST 117 : MARY SPIRO (SHADOW WOODS FESTIVAL)
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Fellow podcaster, Mary Spiro (Metallomusikum) joins me for an episode. For the past several months Mary has been working tirelessly on organizing Shadow Woods Festival 2, a muti-day, outdoor camping festival featuring metal, good food, beer and a ton of really cool stuff. Brought to you by Savage Gold Coffee #staygold #blackcoffeeblues
PODCAST : MIXTAPE EPISODE W/ RANDY LARSEN (CABLE)
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This is an experimental episode, a fun departure that may lead into a cool new style of episode that I'd like to continue doing in the future. Randy and I got together, listened to music and talked about it. It's our first attempt at this kind of thing, so the technical aspects are evolving as we go. Brought to you by SAVAGE GOLD COFFEE #staygold
NECROMANIACS 016
We do another skype episode, so apologies for the iffy sound quality. We have another great episode featuring a set of diverse movies: thriller THE GREEN ROOM, horror shock movie FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY and sci-fi horror Necro-fave HARDWARE.
The Hands-On Approach of Chainsaw Safety Records - Interview with Will Tarrant and Tom O’Hagen
“Back then, independent music was not a spectator sport, you had to be involved somehow.” As Will Tarrant said, in the halcyon days of the early 90’s, it was common for people involved in the scene to be hands on in their approach. Often times, the same person would be a guitarist in a band, a show promoter, run a label, do a ‘zine or layout record covers. It was full-contact. This philosophy led Will Tarrant and Tom O’Hagan to found Queens, NY-based Chainsaw Safety Records, a hardcore label that spanned two decades, releasing records by an eclectic roster of bands that included Rorschach, Black Army Jacket, Pulling Teeth and Sick of Talk among others. See the full discography listed below. THE EARLY YEARS Will Tarrant: I say this all the time: Rorschach is my favorite band. That band is the most singular impact on my life, musically and personally. During the summer of 1992, I was on tour in Europe with them. Charles Maggio, their singer, had just started his label, Gern Blandsten and was distributing his first release, the ONE BLOOD LP. Being on that tour, spending all that time with those guys, and watching them play every night had completely blown me away. I began talking to Charles about doing a label. I was playing in a band called Medicine Man with Tom O’Hagan and Dave Wilentz. Dave was running a label called Thrashing Mad; I talked to him about the three of us working together on the label so for two years, from 92 to 94, Tom and I worked with Dave Valence on Thrashing Mad Records. Together, we put out the Medicine Man 7-in and the Doc Hoper 7-in. Tom O’Hagan: Will and I met in high school and became friends due to our love of comic books and metal. We both gravitated toward punk and hardcore eventually. We played in a band called Medicine Man and our guitarist was running a label called Thrashing Mad. We wanted to do a 7-in for our band, Thrashing Mad had no financial backing so Will and I decided to pool our resources and get involved. That was our first record, then we moved on to put out the Doc Hopper 7-in. Will Tarrant: Eventually, the three of us weren’t seeing eye to eye on what we wanted to do with the label or the bands we wanted to work with. Dave was more into traditional punk and garage rock while Tom and I were interested in more of the heavier hardcore and metal stuff. On July 10, 1994 we started Chainsaw Safety Records. The name of the label is name of the last Medicine Man song. The band had just broken up as well, so Tom and I had the idea that the next creative endeavor would be the name of the last creative endeavor that we worked on. We never had this master, plan but we wanted to maintain some level of continuity, something to bridge the gap. Tom O’Hagan: There’s a story behind the actual name “Chainsaw Safety.” The name, taken from a Medicine Man song, started out as an inside joke between Will and I. My brother and I were watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre and during the final scene he dryly said “Leatherface has obviously never taken a Chainsaw Safety Class. FLAGSHIP RELEASE: RORSCHACH / 1.6 BAND Will Tarrant: Tom and I talked about how we wanted to do the label; how we wanted to run it, what we wanted to achieve. At the time, it fell into our lap that Rorschach had the “My War” cover done and 1.6 Band had “Trying”, the Dag Nasty cover. Those two songs were in the can and were kind of lying around. The split was a great way to start Chainsaw Safety because we were all friends, which is how we continued to approach the label; we always wanted to make sure that everyone involved with the records were part of a circle of friends. It all started with the Rorschach / 1.6 Band split. Tom O’Hagan: We did the Rorschach / 1.6 Band split as our first release. It was a three-label project involving us, Troubleman Unlimited and Carnage (this was the only record Carnage ever release - ED). It came together after that. We never had a real game plan, the mindset was to work with people that we like. Will Tarrant: The Rorschach / 1.6 Band Split was one of the infamous record folding parties that we had. We pressed 5000 copies of that record. To stuff 5000 copies of a record is kind of involved so we had a bunch of people coming over. Andrew Orlando, who went on to do Reservoir Records (and Black Army Jacket) shortly after came over and helped. It was possibly his first exposure to doing record folding on that scale. It was an awesome event; I was still living with my parents at the time, so it was a bunch of guys coming over stuffing records in the basement and just being jerks to each other. We continued that for a bunch of releases. When Andrew started Reservoir, I would go to his place and help him stuff records, it was just this awesome time. It was this reciprocal thing, we were all starting; there was no sense of competition, no A&R guys saying “we have to sign this band before someone else does.” We all literally stuffed each other records so it was like we all put the records out. I’d help out Freddie (Alva) with Wardance; if Charles called me to help with a Gern Blandsten record, I’d be at his house in a heartbeat. We were all kind of into slightly different things, but we allhelped out, we all traded copies of our records with each other. With Andrew Orlando, there was the proximity thing. With any show that we were going toeither we’d pick him up or he’d pick us up and with shove a bunch of records from both labels into the trunk to sell at the shows; we’d always end up at the same diner afterwards. It was just a great time. Freddie Alva was definitely an influence, but he was getting into some different things at the time. Everybody was fans and friends. AHEAD OF THE CURVE Tom O’Hagan: We went from Rorschach / 1.6 Band to the La Gritona 7-in, a band that wasn’t necessarily connected to the hardcore scene then on to Only Living Witness, a metal band. The connection wasn’t obvious. It wasn’t like we had an identity crisis, but I imagine most people wondered what the logic was behind this. We just wanted to put out records by people we liked musically. When we saw La Gritona play, Will and I looked at each other and were blown away. This was around 1994 or so and we felt like what they were doing then was what Deadguy and Kiss It Goodbye would be doing a few years later; I’m proud that we were ahead of the curve a little. Will and I always had that metal background so we were ahead of thecurve when it came to the metal influence on hardcore. We didn’t know them as friends, so we approached them because we respected their music. Will Tarrant: It was January 1995. We drove up with Garden Variety in Boston where they were opening up for Only Living Witness at TT The Bears. I was bullshitting with the Garden Variety guys when Tom walked into the back room and said " You need to come out here and see this right now". I saw four guys playing intensely but it didn’t seem like they were playing together, but then, in a matter of seconds they locked into a groove and they completely had me captivated. They finished their set 20 minutes later. I think Tom and I just nodded at each other and then approached the band to do a record. There was no need to talk about what we could do for them, it was just a matter of documenting what they were already achieving: complete fucking annhiliation. THE TAKE AWAY Will Tarrant: Younger people still come up to me and tell me that they bought their first punk rock records from us when we used to distro out on Long Island or at the various shows around the Tri-State Area. They would say something like you didn’t intimidate me, you saw the shirt I was wearing and would suggest some records that I should check out; when I saw you again you asked me how they were, it was kind of cool. We made a conscious effort to not have a pigeonholed sound. Tom and I were both huge fans of music; we both grew up on a steady diet of metal; we were both heavily into tape trading, we were into the early death metal scene. We were really involved in that. The criteria was: “would we buy this record if someone else put it out?” We always wanted to get to know the people we worked with, were they on the same wavelength? We wanted to get a god idea of what they were about. Any time we deviated from that, we always had problems. One of the coolest memories is putting out the Deathcycle record. I gave a copy to Ron, the singer, who is also one of my oldest friends and it was the only record he had recorded. That was a really important moment of my life. When I picked up Anodyne on Easter Sunday from their first European Tour I was like “Anodyne? First European Tour? Fuck Yeah, I’ll pick you up.” It was three awesome dudes, three superior musicians coming back from their first European tour and it was just me, I felt like one lucky sonovabitch. I remember being on tour with Pulling Teeth Spring 2008, They did a US tour, went to Japan, went up into Canada; I was sitting in the Triple Rock in Minneapolis, MN and I had royalties for them! It was the tour for their second LP “Mortal”. In 14 years of doing the label this is what I had always wanted to do: I had a band that was on a world tour, they were dear friends of mine and I had money for them. I felt like I could end it now because I had achieved everything I wanted to achieve. This was exactly how I had wanted it to happen. One of the bands that I’m most proud to have worked with was Black Army Jacket. When you think of Powerviolence, it’s a West Coast phenomenon, it’s a West Coast sound. The only East Coast band people mention from that scene is Black Army Jacket and we did their records. I remember when we got the demo, I had heard it and was totally floored. I put it on for Tom and he was like Christ, we have to do this!” He asked me who it was and I had a big smile on my face when I told him it was Andrew Orlando’s band! Within a week we were setting up time with Alap Momin to record the records. It’s really cool when it comes together like that. The Black Hand record: They were being courted by Relapse and Victory and they turned down both labels because they preferred to work with us, knowing that we couldn’t match their resources or their money. They didn’t want to be on a label just for business, we wanted to put out a record with a bunch of dudes that were our friends. Another crazy thing is that we got Away from Voivod to do the record cover. That was our metal fantasy come true! You can’t replace that with anything else. Tom O’Hagan: We did the Black Army Jacket, 7-in and the LP. They were good friends, but they were also doing some great music. It was a collaborative effort, we wanted to put their music out and they wanted to work with us. We really gelled with those guys. They were one of the few bands that we had a relationship with past on seven inch. The Black Hand Record stands out as one of the more professional things we’ve done. That was around 2002; the band treated the whole process professionally, from the recording to the artwork, everything. The Deathcycle record really typified what I wanted to do with the label. All member of the band were old friends of mine, especially Ron Grimaldi the singer; Mike Hill produced it and Ryan Patterson did the artwork. We all knew each other and now we all have this bond. Ryan didn’t really know those guys well before but now we’re all tied to this on artistic endeavor we all worked on together. That’s what I remember most about the label: pulling all these crazy resources together and having it all turn out so well. I was in a band, I was an adequate drummer but I learned quickly that my skill set was more organizational, more behind the scenes operational stuff. Tom was pretty much the same way. We wanted to contribute back to the scene. Doing the label was our way of keeping ourselves active and keep things going, it was out obligation to keep putting out records. We felt like it was our obligation to put out records by bands we believed in for the sake of having this music out there; we never thought we were going to make a million dollars at it. We were going to exploit anyone; we wanted to work with bands as friends. As much as music meant to us, it was never this desperate thing. Also, with both Tom and I, we had so much other stuff going on that doing the label was never an all or nothing thing, we had achieved success in lives both professionally and personally, music was definitely an outlet and we met so many awesome people we weren’t willing to claw our way to the top. My ultimate goal was Global Domination, meaning that I wanted to dominate my own world, I want to get the most out of it personally that I could. I toured constantly, I met tons of people around the world who I’m still friends with now. I’ve been tight with people long after the music’s over. It was like having this passport with Punk Rock, I was able to travel all over the world and meet everybody. And most importantly, we've all stayed friends. We all still keep in touch on a regular basis and have been involved in significant parts of our lives. Our kids play together now. We all said this was the rest of our lies and we've all kept true to it. We just didn’t know where our lives would take us. I never wanted to make a dime off of anyone, I needed the label to sustain itself, but I want to grad school to become a social worker, I have a proud career doing it, I never wanted to quit my job to do the label for a living. I ultimately didn’t have the time or the resources to commit to the label that I should. At this stage, I have other endeavors in my life. In addition to being happily married and a father, I’m getting ready to be a father again. At the end of the day it’s a young person’s game and I just don’t have the time or energy to devote to it. I feel like I’ve achieved what I set out to do. I also just don’t feel as motivated to put out music. I still love music and I’m impressed by bands coming along, I just don’t feel the urge to reach out and work with them as I once did. I fee like I started it so I get to pull the plug when I want; there’s no investor, there’s no other money involved. Things have run their course, I put out a lot of great records, I’m really proud of what we’ve done.
PODCAST 115 : UFC 202 DIAZ VS MCGREGOR 2
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Andrew and I dive into the UFC 202 Fight Card, go over some MMA news and give our predictions. Brought to you by Savage Gold Coffee #staygold