Music is awesome, isn’t it? Whether intentional or not, music is a big part of everyone’s lives. It’s all around us: on TV, in ads, in our headphones and earbuds attached to our smart phones with streaming audio. Chances are if you’re reading Submerge, you love music too. Even though there is more great music being made than ever and access to it is becoming easier and easier, it’s still sometimes hard to know where to look to discover new tunes. Enter Submerge’s annual year-end best-of list! In 2013 there were so many amazing albums released that we actually expanded this story to feature the top 30 instead of the top 20. You’ll notice that a lot of this list, approximately 50 percent, is local. That’s not by mistake. That’s not because we tried to include local albums just to round out our list. No, we just have that much talent right here in our own city.
Compiled by all of our contributing writers and staff, we hope this list will help you discover something new. And because all of our attention spans are so short nowadays (are you still with us?), we kept our reviews to 140 characters or less, because we all know that reading someone’s short, to-the-point Twitter post is a helluva lot better than reading someone’s four-paragraph-long Facebook rant. Now, set forth and discover some new jams! Who knows, your new favorite band/album may be waiting for you somewhere on this list.
30.
Danny Brown
Old
Fool’s Gold
What can you say about Danny Brown? He’s rap’s Jim Morrison, The Lizard King. Old has been on repeat since the day I got it. And will be.
29.
Run the Jewels
Run the Jewels
Fool’s Gold
As dope as promised, it gets no better than this. Killer Mike is at his best, and El-P provides the perfect sonic-scape for destruction.
28.
Biosexual
The Window Wants the Bedroom
Debacle
Fantastically produced debut album of avant-garde supergroup featuring the great Jocelyn of ALAK, brother Michael RJ Saalman and Zac Nelson.
27.
Paper Pistols
Deliver Us From Chemicals
Self-released
2 can do it all. Skinner & Lydell are all binary: beard/belle; drum/voice; age/youth; decadent/austere; beautiful/music.
26.
EGG
Overly Easy
Self-released
If Cake and Phish had a baby? Close, but doesn’t quite describe this amazing band. An infectious sound that makes you wanna get up and GO.
25.
M.I.A.
Matangi
N.E.E.T.
M.I.A. is pissed off, and still fresh as ever, rapping over aggressive beats and keeping the Sri Lankan sound alive.
24.
The Men
New Moon
Sacred Bones
Brooklyn noise punks retreat to a rural cabin, finding a balance between a Mudhoney dustup and a Grateful Dead peace-in.
23.
Gauntlet Hair
Stills
Dead Oceans
Gauntlet Hair dropped the dopest, weirdest album we’ve heard in a minute and then immediately broke up. Spacey, strange, with a dash of pop.
22.
Jacuzzi Boys
Jacuzzi Boys
Hardly Art
The Miami trio switched things up with a more polished than pure garage sound. Still playful and infectious, just adding new dimensions.
21.
Gap Dream
Shine Your Light
Burger
Mid-tempo sex appeal born of psychedelic melancholy and rock ‘n’ roll disco; drugs, dance, drugs, booze, dance, fuck.
20.
Miley Cyrus
Bangerz
RCA
Crying cats ftw! The most dissed/discussed AoY; w/ hits by Dr. Luke, Pharrell & Mike WiLL, twerk! This is Miley’s year.
19.
Chuuwee
Thrill
Self-released
With rap albums you usually either get bangin’ trap beats OR real lyricism. On Thrill you get both. One of Sac’s best in top form.
18.
Century Got Bars & Bru Lei
Midtown Marauders
Self-released
A flawless Tribe tribute and audible tour of this fair city’s nucleus. If you’ve spent more than five seconds in Midtown, you want this.
17.
David Bowie
The Next Day
RCA
Charming, confidently progressive with kick-ass guitar solos. It’s classic Bowie with a modern, enthusiastically suspended twist.
16.
Black Sabbath
13
Vertigo/Universal
Pure smokin’ stoner doom rock at its finest! Timeless lyrics and riffs. This album picks up where the band left off with Ozzy 30 years ago.
15.
Nails
Abandon All Life
Southern Lord
Yeah, it’s a light version of Unsilent Death (the most brutal album ever), but it’s still hard and evil enough to kill your grandma.
14.
Bombino
Nomad
Nonesuch
A perfect album for trekking the Sahara. Blues guitar, smooth Tuareg vox, steady rhythm. Produced by Dan Auerbach (of The Black Keys).
13.
Meat Puppets
Rat Farm
Megaforce Records
Return to form for desert-baked Brothers Kirkwood. Simple, honest, catchy… Bare bones and poignant. May the Puppets live forever.
12.
Foals
Holy Fire
Transgressive
With Holy Fire, these British boys delivered their most focused (and heaviest) album to date, bringing a new meaning to “modern rock.”
11.
City of Vain
Back Against the Wall
Self-released
Sacto punkers bring forth one of the best punk rock records of the year, not just locally, but globally. Warm tones and classic style!
10.
Middle Class Rut
Pick Up Your Head
Bright Antenna
More fierce rock ‘n’ roll from Sac’s Dynamic Duo…and we <3 it! Grimy grooves and distorted chaos mark MC Rut’s best album to date.
09.
Horseneck
The Worst People Ever
Artery
Booze-fueled bone-breaking sludge metal with a sense of humor. This EP gives Sac’s heavy music fans something to smile about.
08.
Tel Cairo
Voice of Reason
Illicit Artists
Tel Cairo is the best kind of weird. If Kurt Cobain made hip-hop music in space it would sound like Tel Cairo’s Voice of Reason.
07.
Foxygen
We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic
Jagjaguwar
Flamboyantly lilting pop with occasional Jagger twists; creates proneness for nymph-like prancing, sometimes mincing.
06.
Death Grips
Government Plates
Self-released
A dizzying mix of poetry, yelling and other stuff people hate. But in the eloquent words of MC Ride, “Fuck your idols/ Suck my dick.”
05.
Screature
Screature
Ethel Scull
A solid debut by the Sacramento quartet. Guttural lyrical torrents coalesce with shadowy, rhythmic tones, blending into a dynamic framework of sound.
04.
!!!
THR!!!ER
Warp Records
Your favorite dance-punk band is back again with more rump shaking, baby making, all-night-party-inducing tunes. Instant classic!
03.
Cove
Candles
Self-released
It’s an insightful album. An emotional excavation replete with lyrical fluidity, melodic flirtations and a groovy aftertaste.
02.
Doombird
Cygnus
Eightmaps
Vivid percussive landscapes seen through a celestial-tinged lens. Spacey harmonies embedded within hypnotic textures and bright timbres.
01.
Chelsea Wolfe
Pain Is Beauty
Sargent House
A beautifully haunting album. Wolfe’s ghostly vocals, layered with cascading guitars, violins and synths, will put you in a trance.
If Sacramento’s City of Vain looks like they’re having the times of their lives, that’s because they are
Words by Danny Secretion • Photos by Nicholas Wray
At the risk of sounding like one of those guys who hasn’t been to a local show since 1989, regales in days of yore and constantly reminds “the kids” about how shows were better back in the day at some venue that closed during the Reagan administration, I’ve seen a lot of bands from our local punk scene. Some good. Some not so good. When a band leaves you in such awe of what they present with both their live show and their music that it inspires you to the point of doing something you’ve never dreamed of doing (say, write your very first article for a magazine), that band is beyond good. That band is great. The band I speak of is City of Vain.
In late 2011, I started to see flyers (not just Facebook posts) that had a grainy image of a handgun along with the band’s name all over town. I took notice of the buzz they were creating at venues like The Press Club and Blue Lamp and decided to see what they were all about. I remember coming home that night and excitedly telling my wife about this amazing band that completely blew me away.
Since then, City of Vain has played and toured with some of the hardest working bands in punk rock, co-headlined a successful all-locals show at Ace of Spades and played in front of 6000-plus people at the 2012 Concerts in the Park. An added bonus for me is that its band members also happen to be some of the most gracious and down-to-earth musicians I have ever encountered. I’m honored to call them colleagues. I’m humbled to call them friends. Fast forward to Spring 2013, the band is adding the finishing touches to Shaking Hands With Yourself, the seven-song follow up to 2011’s American Nightmare recorded at the legendary Pus Cavern studios with master engineer Joe Johnston at the helm. I had the opportunity to sit down with Steve Ross, Minh Quan, and Newell Dunn, who along with Drew Boyce, Mario Maynor and Andy Simpson make up City of Vain.
Just spending two hours with half of this band left me feeling rejuvenated and hopeful. The gratitude I have for them is immeasurable. Before this interview, I was fortunate enough to listen to rough mixes in Steve’s car. Set list standards like “New Helvetia,” “To You My Friends” and “Stuck Here With You” are delivered with all the power and glory of their live performances. Newer songs like “Moving Up Moving Forward,” “Out on an Island,” “Lessons in Social Class” and “Backs Against the Wall” will more than satisfy those of us who have been listening to this band for nearly two years. Fans of The Clash, Rancid, Bouncing Souls or The Specials who have yet to see this band perform live should hang their heads in shame. Your penance is to pick up two copies of Shaking Hands With Yourself and get your ass out to a show.
Your band consists of musicians from a variety of groups. What was it about this band that you wanted to do differently from your past music projects?
Newell Dunn: For me it was enjoyment. I wanted to have fun. After my last band, I had a long hiatus, so I was itching to play.
Steve Ross: I’m with Newell on that. I’d gone through relationships, had children and I realized I hadn’t done this [play music] in a while and that was my life’s blood before all that.
So did you approach music differently this time around than you did when you were younger?
SR: I appreciate it more!
ND: I appreciate that I get to play music again. I’m still playing music.
SR: I feel like to be able to get up there and for people to give you 30 minutes of their time regardless of where you’re at and who they are, to sit there and even sit through a song is still a privilege to me.
How did the different facets of our local music scene (the hardcore scene, the street punk scene, the pop-punk scene) react to you initially?
ND: I’ve played in hardcore bands and street punk bands before, and everyone I knew in this town from the hardcore scene were like, “You’re doing that? It’s so outside what you’ve done before.” But they all liked it. It was all positive. As far as the street punk scene, I played an early demo for Kenny Beasley [of Pressure Point] way before we even played a show, and he really liked it.
SR: Kenny is one of the most supportive people. He’s an icon that we hold dear. I’m blown away that he’s interested in what we’re doing.
ND: There’s a wide range of people who come to our shows. I’ve seen metal heads, hardcore kids, punks, people you look at and say, “normal.”
SR: I don’t think we ever stopped to think about who was coming to the shows. We were just extremely fortunate. Our first show was one of our best-attended shows, and we were just surrounded by good friends who were excited to see us up there and were intrigued because they hadn’t heard it. To this day, that show is ingrained in my mind as one of my most favorite times ever playing.
Because of the message you send through your music and live performances, I’m not alone in saying City of Vain is one of the must-see bands in Sacramento. Did you ever feel like you were on to something special and unique when you started playing bigger shows?
Minh Quan: I felt so, but it wasn’t because of the size of the show. We could play for one person or 1000 people, but for me it’s that I love playing the music and I’m up on stage with five of my best friends.
SR: When we go up there, we go up there as a unit. I make it a point to outwardly exude the fact that we are a family. You’re watching friends that hang out outside of this. We go out to shows together, because that’s just what we would do even if we weren’t in a band. If it looks like we’re having fun onstage, it’s because we’re genuinely are having fun.
ND: Having so much fun! I love it!
You’ve toured with bands that aren’t even from the same time zone as us. What’s your reasoning for touring with bands from across the Atlantic?
SR: Mike Bolado from the band Old Glory has done more for us than we’ve done for us. He’s quite possibly the seventh member of our band. He sees something in us that we often don’t even get, but he’s willing to go out there and book all these tours; he’s forged these relationships overseas with these bands. It’s honestly the best vacation you could ever spend going out with somebody from another country who is just as intrigued in your culture as you would be going over there.
Explain your experience in touring with this band. What are some of the more challenging aspects
of touring?
SR: 11 people in a van.
ND: Who is going to stay sober to drive.
MQ: Sitting between two huge guys, being wedged between Drew and Mike Bolado in the heat of the summer with a barely functioning A/C in Arizona. But it’s my high school dream to be in a band like this, to be able to tour and make good music and be with five other guys who are just as passionate as me. Honestly, the hardest thing about tour is jobs. Every time I would come back to a new job in a new place.
What’s something you think our local music scene has over other scenes you’ve experienced through touring?
ND: Passion. Heart.
SR: When we go out, we let it be known that Sacramento is where we’re from. We may malign our city sometimes, but we’re definitely proud to be from here. There’s an inherent amount of respect we get from people in other cities because of some of the bands that have come out of here.
What’s something you think needs to improve with the local music scene?
ND: Venue accessibility and more all-ages venues. When some of these bigger bands come through, I think some of these local venues need to step up to the plate and say, “We want to do this show, but we need to put some locals on.” Sacramento has its own amazing music scene that needs to be exposed to these bigger bands.
SR: You look at a promoter like Sean Hills [Punch and Pie Productions], who really has his ear to the ground experiencing what this city has to offer. He brings touring bands in and makes it a point to put them with quality bands from Sacramento. It boosts the Sacramento bands’ reputations and gives them an opportunity to roll out the red carpet for the touring bands, and in return have those bands reciprocate when our bands come through their towns.
Let’s talk about the new music. Your past music has been heavy on melody, positivity and accessibility without losing any musical aggression. What can people expect from new City of Vain?
MQ: More of the same…it’s just better. We put in more time and a greater effort. I think Steve’s songwriting is even better than before.
How did the musicianship of your band members inspire your songwriting for this album?
SR: This record was written after the decision to bring in Minh full-time. I’m extremely privileged to be in a band where everyone has the ability to contribute to make the songs better. As a songwriter, I can listen to other styles of music and hear something that intrigues me and then incorporate that into our songs because we have the keyboard, the two different guitar styles and that backbone of a strong rhythm section. It doesn’t take long for a song to take shape when everyone is open to collaborate.
How did the songwriting for the new album influence your musicianship?
MQ: Keyboards aren’t traditionally in punk rock. I had to do my research to figure out what’s right to play in the music. It’s definitely influenced the way I play a lot.
ND: It’s pushed me to play better because I enjoy it more. I’m able to “let go” and “have fun.” With Steve’s songwriting, we have a solid foundation from the get-go. I believe in this music like it’s my first band.
What style of music inspired this album?
SR: We all have our staples that we go to. The Clash is obviously a huge influence for me. The Specials were my favorite band from junior high to this day. That goes back to having keyboards in this band which links us to having the ability to do things like that in this band.
Tell me about two of the new songs, “Lessons in Social Class” and “Backs Against the Wall.”
SR: It’s all stuff that’s important to me that I wouldn’t hesitate to have a conversation with someone about. The goal is to provoke thought, not to propagate or profess any sort of stance or make people choose. There’s two sides to every story and if you’re intelligent enough to question something and make an educated decision, that’s what this country is supposed to be about. It’s not about hating or dismissing someone because they don’t agree with you, but really celebrating that fact. Also, telling both extremes to fuck off. You guys are on opposite ends of the spectrum, but you’ve gone so far one way or the other that you’ve forgotten the rest of us right here.
If this new music doesn’t get over with your fan base, what will keep you positive?
SR: We love doing what we do. There’s always going to be the critics, but I won’t lose any sleep over it.
If this new music takes off and sends this band to the next level, what will keep you grounded?
ND: Each other. We feed off each other as a group.
SR: We built this band on honesty and being genuine. To do an about-face would just be suicide. None of us would let the other person do that. This is about the six of us and the people who really enjoy this music.
It’s a safe assessment to say that 50 percent of the audience of any local punk show consists of your colleagues; many of them younger musicians in their first bands. What I’m trying to say is…Do you have any words of advice for the kids?
ND: Keep going! If you love it and you’re passionate, keep going.
MQ: Keep doing what you love.
ND: That’s the biggest paycheck right there.
SR: Learn from every experience you have. If you’re not having fun, you need to take a step back and not be afraid of having that open line of communication.
What about words of advice for musicians in their twenties, thirties, forties or beyond who are struggling with finding the joy that you have in playing music?
MQ: If they’re in their fifties and playing Eagles cover songs, they can go fuck off [much laughter].
OK, favorite song on the new album?
ND: “Backs Against the Wall.”
MQ: My favorite song on the record is “Lessons In Social Class,” but my favorite song to play live is “Stuck Here With You.”
SR: It’s tough for me because I’m critical of them all. I think lyrically I base it on that. I’m most proud of the lyrics on “Stuck Here With You” and “Backs Against the Wall.”
City of Vain’s release show for Shaking Hands With Yourself is on Thursday, June 13, 2013 at The Press Club. Crashed Out, Old Glory and Union Hearts will also perform. For more information on City of Vain, look them up on Reverbnation or on Facebook.
Sacramento rock band Killdevil is releasing a new five-song EP titled For Survival at a huge blowout at Ace of Spades on Saturday, April 14, 2012. Two of their new tracks, “Psychic Medium” and “Rusted Dream,” will be released on 7-inch vinyl available at the show. It will also come with a download card giving access to all five songs. Also on the bill will be Kill the Precedent, City of Vain, Giant Squid, The Secretions and Black Mackerel. That is a seriously rockin’ lineup. Doors open for this all ages show at 6:30 p.m. and it’s $8 in advance, $10 at the door. Go to http://aceofspadessac.com/ for more details. Advance tickets are available Phono Select Records in Midtown.
Submerge has got your first look at the lineup for this year’s Friday Night Concerts in the Park series. The 13-week shindig kicks off on May 4, 2012 at 5 p.m. at Cesar Chavez Park in downtown Sacramento. You can see the entire lineup right here. Major brownie points to anyone who can name all of the artists that have been on the cover of and/or featured in the pages of Submerge (hint: there’s a lot of them).
May 4
Arden Park Roots (reggae/rock)
Island of Black and White (acoustic/blues/reggae/rock)
The Storytellers (roots/reggae/ska)
Shaun Slaughter (indie/electro/pop)
May 11
Middle Class Rut (rock)
Lite Brite (rock)
Horseneck (rock)
DJ Whores (electro/indie/dub step/alt)
May 18
Nickel Slots (alt-country/Americana)
Infamous Swanks (rockabilly)
Blackeyed Dempseys (Irish rock)
DJ Adam J (indie/dance/alt)
May 25
ZuhG (funk/reggae/jam)
Element of Soul (acoustic/jam rock)
Playboy School (electronic indie/pop)
DJ X’GVNR (pop/top 40/electro/dance/dub step/house)
June 1
Oleander (rock)
Allinaday (rock)
Trackfighter (rock)
Verdugo Brothers (house/top 40)
June 8
Mumbo Gumbo (zydeco/roots/dance)
Todd Morgan and the Emblems (blues/rock/jazz)
DJ Mikey Likes It (top 40/‘80s/‘90s/party groove)
June 15
Relic 45 (blues/rock)
Out of Place (acoustic/alternative/rock)
Sexrat (alternative/rock)
Reggie Ginn (pop)
Shaun Slaughter (indie/electro/pop)
June 22
7 Seconds (punk)
Bastards of Young (punk)
City of Vain (punk)
DJ Whores (electro/indie/dub step/alt)
June 29
The Nibblers (funk)
The Coalition (world beat)
Diva Kings (folk/pop rock)
DJ Fedi
July 6
Full Blown Stone (reggae rock)
Dogfood (alternative rock)
Street Urchinz (reggae/rock)
DJ Nate D
July 13
Another Damn Disappointment (ADD) (punk)
Walking Dead (punk)
A Single Second (punk)
The Left Hand (punk)
DJ Blackheart (house/electro/punk/indie)
July 20
Walking Spanish (blues/indie rock)
Jack and White (alternative/pop rock)
Autumn Sky (folk/pop)
CrookOne (soul/pop/hip-hop/Motown/indie)
July 27
The Brodys (pop/rock)
Early States (pop/rock)
Hero’s Last Mission (pop)
Chaotic Fusion (DJ Oasis & !nkDup) (rock/top 40/dance/mash-ups)
As you probably know by now, this year’s lineup was not booked by longtime promoter Jerry Perry, but instead by a committee of local promoters, musicians and music enthusiasts that go by the name Play Big Sacramento. One committee member, Andy Hawk, who works at Entercom radio stations and promotes Wednesday night shows at Powerhouse Pub in Folsom, recently told Submerge of this year’s lineup, “As a committee we worked with venues, clubs, bookers and musicians in an effort to create a lineup of the best Sacramento has to offer. We have 13 weeks of shows filled with the biggest headliners in town, and have added the most talented DJs in Sacramento to play in the beer garden. Friday Night Concerts in the Park this year will truly be the centerpiece of entertainment in Sacramento this summer.”
If there has ever been a show I’ve written about in the past that I thought was important and that I urged you to attend, it more than likely paled in comparison to this one. On Friday, Oct. 7 at Blue Lamp, there will be a benefit show for a young woman named Alicea Peet (Mikey Hood from the band HOODS’ lady), who recently suffered from a kidney failure and had to have a transplant. As you can imagine, the medical bills are insane, so the benefit show (which features some of Alicea’s favorite bands in Kill the Precedent, Black Mackerel, City of Vain and Muderlicious) is aimed to help take a chunk out of those bills, as well as to raise awareness of how important organ donors are. Doors open at 8 p.m., 21-and-over only and it’s $10 at the door.
There are also cool T-shirts available for $20 donations that say Peet’s name and the words “Love Life.” You can send donations via Paypal to Hoods916@hotmail.com. Include size, mailing address and mark the payment as a “gift,” but most of all, come to the show at Blue Lamp and support! You can also make a donation securely at Alicealoveslife.bbnow.org.
Kill the Precedent load up with a new EP
Industrial metal might conjure images of military-like precision with perhaps a totalitarian-style frontman at its controls. Kill the Precedent certainly evokes those images with their music. Thundering beats–both live and electronic–blast behind thrashing riffs and the two-pronged vocal attack of Twig the Exfoliator and The Ugly American. However, speaking with the two vocalists in a recent interview, the guys seemed jovial, bordering on jolly. For instance, if you were to call The Ugly American’s cell phone, you might hear The Dead Kennedys’ classic “California Uber Alles” playing while you waited for him to answer your phone. He said that since Jerry Brown was re-elected as governor, it seemed appropriate. “It’s such a fucking mess out here,” he quipped. “I thought it was pretty damn funny. At least it’s not an actor.” If KTP was indeed an army, in demeanor, they’d be more akin to the cool jokesters from Stripes than the cold-blooded killers of Full Metal Jacket.
Make no mistake, though; the band’s music is a no-holds-barred aural assault. KTP is ready to release a new EP, Stories of Science and Fantasy, which will consist of six original songs and two covers (The Smiths’ “Death of a Disco Dancer” and Jessica Lea Mayfield’s “We’ve Never Lied,” which Twig says was recorded in a hotel room in Oakland). Evoking the days when bands like Ministry and KMFDM crashed mainstream rock’s party, songs such as “Questions for Weapons” wield an imposing arsenal or metal riffs and huge beats, courtesy of electronic beatsmith/guitarist Hamburger, guitarist Killsbury and drummer Sgt. Pepper, while “Free Reign” is a throbbing, almost dance-y track highlighted by Jon the Jew’s pummeling bass line and an underlying, monolithic electronic groove.
Members of the band are no strangers to the Sacramento rock scene. They have played in bands such as Red Tape, Diseptikons and Rivithead in the past, but Kill the Precedent started as a side project of The Ugly American and Hamburger.
“Hamburger and I got together in 2006 and started screwing around with the drum machine,” The Ugly American explained. “We were kind of doing a little Big Black kind of deal, just having some fun. We recorded some music and got a hold of Twig, and I said, ‘I got to record some vocals, can you come down and help me out?’ We recorded vocals. Twig and I had been friends for many years, and he was giving me this blank stare, so I was like, ‘OK, you didn’t like it, but thanks for coming down and recording.’ And he said, ‘No, I want in. I’m fucking in.’ He took over from there.”
Twig’s introduction to the band was through the song “Cop Out,” which will appear on Stories of Science and Fantasy. More songs were started, but Twig said they were left unfinished. As each new member of the band became a permanent fixture, the songs began to flesh out.
“I wanted Killsbury to put a guitar riff over that–just that one song [“Cop Out”],” Twig said. “I’ve been in bands with all these other people in Red Tape and Diseptikons, and I was like just do this one song, but then it became do this song and that song…and eventually that’s how each member has come to be in the band.”
For The Ugly American, Kill the Precedent became a way of rediscovering the music he loved to make in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s with bands such as Rivithead and Battalion 53 after years of playing in punk bands.
“It dawned on me that I really missed that shit,” he said. “It was powerful, it was fun, it was endless. You could do whatever you want and get away with a hell of a lot more.”
In the following interview, KTP’s two vocalists fill us in on the making of the forthcoming EP and what draws them to making this kind of music. We find out that the reason why the harsh-sounding vocalists are so jovial is because they’re playing music they actually love.
It seems like industrial is a genre of music that’s gone back underground. Is that part of the excitement of revisiting it?
The Ugly American: Kind of, but not really. There’s no denying that those bands have had an influence. It’s obvious–and it should. It’s fucking awesome music… I can just say I missed the power of it.
Twig the Exfoliator: I liked the freedom of it. When we first started jamming around, with Jeremy from the Snobs, the bass player, was doing a bunch of electronic beats and me and [Ugly] would sing over it. It wasn’t hip-hop singing, but it was like a Fugazi overlay over dance music. I definitely wanted to not do just Ministry type stuff, but I wanted some melody in there to make it a bit different.
Listening to the music, you can definitely hear that sort of punk-type melodies.
Twig: Whatever [Hamburger] makes up beatwise and gives to us, half of them could be more on the dance side, some of them are more hard and fast, or slow and driving. If we hear something that we like, we’ll get working on that. Part of the reason why I wanted to do this was because I didn’t want to work with drummers anymore [laughs]. I was mad at all the drummers I’ve ever played with, and they take too long to set up. I was sick of loading all their shit into my van. That was the original idea, “Oh, we do whatever. We don’t need a drummer. Be like a hip-hop band, just plug in an iPod and do it like that.” That’s the way I wanted to do it. I wanted to put on a big production of a show, but within our budget.
Ugly: When Twig was on tour with Hoods–I think they were in Europe. He was adamant about it. He was like, “No drummers. I don’t want any fucking drummers.” Before we even put a drummer in there, I wanted one, because I wanted to add to the power and the beats and make it sound as large as we could. But he was all, “Hell no, we’re not doing it.” So, he goes to Europe and we grabbed our old buddy [Sgt.] Pepper. We brought him in to practice while Twig was gone. When he got back, he showed up for practice, and we were like, “Oh look, it’s…Pepper.” He was like, “You dick.” [Laughs.]
Twig: [Laughs] But it worked out.
Twig, you said you came in and did the middle section of “Cop Out,” but after doing that you wanted in. What drew you to this project?
Twig: I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do drum machines and just sample stuff by myself, but I’m completely computer illiterate. I don’t know how to do any of that stuff, and I couldn’t get anyone to do it. I talked to [Ugly], and they were already doing it for a couple of months, so I went in to record with them. The beats were big and huge, and it was something different. Since he let me even try something, and I could overlay a couple different vocal layers, and me and Sean could go back and forth instead of having to write a song’s lyrics all by ourselves–and you know, run out of breath–it made it better that we could share the vocal part. I liked that. I liked who he was working with, because I had known [Hamburger] from Rivithead and Battalion 53. We were also working with Evan at that point, Tha Fruitbat.
It seems like everyone who has come into the project has left their own stamp on it. Is that how the songwriting goes or do you start with the beats and go on from there?
Twig: Hamburger does all the beats and stuff. He’ll do two different parts with maybe some guitar, because he plays guitar too. He’ll just send us two-minute loops so we can get an idea about it. Then usually we will come up with singing structures, and then we’ll leave it alone. We won’t finish anything, and then we’ll bring it to practice and everyone else will listen to it and have their input. We start arranging the songs from there, cutting out parts, changing the drum beats, adding different parts, then we actually start writing the songs, the lyrics and stuff.
Ugly: It goes in reverse. It’s not the typical way you write a song, but it’s totally working for us.
Twig: Everyone’s really busy, so it’s all sent over the computer. Hamburger will send the beats to us, and we’ll pick the ones we like–the whole band will. And we’ll just work on it from there.
A lot of the bands we were talking about as influences before are largely associated with one guy, like Al Jourgensen for example, but it sounds like you guys actually play the songs to write them, which I think is kind of interesting for industrial music.
Twig: It’s like any other band. We’ll start arguing…but it all works out in the end as long as no one’s picky and tries to be the highlight of the song. Everyone knows their place.
Ugly: There are no egos, arrogance or bullshit. I know this sounds hokey, but it’s a completely collective effort. Everyone has their say. Like Twig says, we’ll argue to friggin’ death over it, but everybody’s got their two cents, and it just keeps piling things on without making it too much. It’s one cool idea after the other. It’s fun. I think the biggest thing is just that it’s a hell of a lot of fun.
I’ve seen that you guys have had girls in costume dancing at the shows, people covered in blood, synching up videos to your songs. Is that something you get together and collaborate on?
Twig: [Killsbury] handles most of the video stuff. He takes a while to get it with the beats and intros to every song. Except for [Hamburger], none of us are that great with computers. To do all that is a bit of a learning experience. And we don’t do it the way we should. We’re rolling into shows with DVD players and stuff, and a projector from like 1992.
Ugly: We try to change it up every time if we can. We did a good run, if you don’t mind me saying, at Blue Lamp. We called it “Cocaine Drug Dealers” or “Colombian Drug Dealers.” Everyone in the band was dressed up in cammo and we were dressed up in white suits. I filled up a bunch of baggies with flour. It was a great show, but it was the stupidest thing I ever did. Twig and I started throwing these bags of flour out into the audience and hit a fan. It went everywhere. Everyone was covered. I got off stage, and the guy was like, “It’s going to be $450 to clean up the place.”
Twig: It’s kind of like having sheet rock down or something. You can’t get rid of it… All the bottles were covered. We were like, “$450? No, we’ll come in tomorrow.” So we were hung-over as shit, and we had to be there at noon the next day. He was waiting for us with the mops, and he’s like, “Here you go.” Of course he opened the bar, and we got drunk and cleaned that place for four or five hours, and I can say it’s the cleanest it’s ever been [laughs]. It’s the cleanest club in Sacramento.
Kill the Precedent will play an EP release show at Harlow’s on Aug. 6, 2011 with Will Haven, The Snobs and City of Vain. Tickets are just $10 and can be purchased through Harlows.com. For more information on KTP, like them why don’t you at Facebook.com/killtheprecedent.
