Birdland
High-energy British buzz pop and chaotic live shows
make Birdland more than just a group of blond-
haired, mop-topped guitar smashers. During their first
tour of the States, Brian Brannon caught up with bass
player Simon Reynolds prior to a rousing gig at the
Beam in San Francisco
Do you remember any especially rowdy moments
from this tour?
There've been quite a few Lee split his head open last
night, he whacked the back of his head with his guitar.
The audience wanted a fucking freak show, which pisses
us off. We want to play music; we're not a freakshow
That happened to Jimi Hendrix. People wanted him to
bum his guitar, he just wanted to play the blues. He didn't
want to be this big sex god with a big dick. We're not liv
ing up to anybody's expectations. If people expect us to
jump up and down and smash our guitars, they might as
well not come to the show. That can happen, though
What might make you smash your instruments?
Boredom. Technical problems. Frustrations
What are some of your songs about?
The song "See No Evil" didn't end up on the album, but in
the studio I split my head open, so that song reminds me of
bleeding While we were
recording, I got my foot
caught in a guitar stand
and it shot up in the air
and smacked me straight in the forehead and split the front of my head open
just stopped playing and everybody else carried on I ended up in a hospital
in the middle of nowhere. There's these two kids next to me and one had this
fishhook stuck up his nose and the other had a pebble stuck up his nose. That
was a bit weird. "Shoot You Down" is a three-chord song about how stupid the
gun is, how available the gun is and how much power the gun has, as well. Our
music will change, but it's still going to keep that thing we had in the beginning
We're maturing. We're seeing more of the world and getting better on our
instruments. We're playing better venues and meeting more people, broadening
horizons. You should take something off everybody you meet
Would you say you've got a punk influence?
Yeah, but we've got a psychedelic influence as well. We pull on a lot of stuff. You
can tell the bands that only admire three bands. Punk rock is a real influence, but
we're really pissed off at this Sex Pistols comparison. Somebody said, "You're very
much like the Sex Pistols," and we said, "Yeah, we're not." And they said, "What
about the energy live?" Well, the Sex Pistols didn't do anything live, they fell about
the stage and looked pissed and stupid. They did have some classic records and that
but you can see it's just Malcolm McLaren's dream. Look back on The Clash and you
can see that was politically motivated and more honest.
Is there anything else you'd like to say?
At least you didn't ask us why we all have blond hair
Silverfish
Grandmaster Flash, Dolly Parton and
Morrissey all occupy warm spots in the
heart of English noise/hairball band Sil-
verfish. Ripsaw teardown shows have made
them British music press darlings, but don't
hold that against them. Silverfish generates
sweat and energy between all those deci-
bels. Drummer Stuart, bassist Chris and gui-
tarist Fuzz were in a club drinking and won-
dering where they were going to find a
singer when they saw this girl screaming at
the top of her lungs while beating up some
guy. Lesley joined them and they soon.
released their first Ep entitled Dolly Parton.
The follow-up single was TFA (Total Fucking
Asshole), which Stuart personally feels is
about the former Smiths vocalist. Punchy
rhythms and massive guitar overdrive compli-
ment Lesley's singing, which sounds like a
combination of Perry Farrell and AC/DC's Brian
Johnson having a high-stress day. Their first
album for Touch And Go, Fat Axl, is the perfect
thing for high speed excursions on board, bike
or street dragster. Whether it's the opening roar
of "Pink And Lovely" or the maximum heavy
cover of Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines," Sil-
verfish isn't noise for the sake of noise, they are a
great cocktail of burning shoe leather and
blown-up amplifiers. "That's why we started the
band," explains Fuzz, "Just to get onstage and
make a lot of noise."
-Mike Lavella
66TH MAGAZINE
799999
Pearl
Big Chief
There's something massive and horrible about the
way Big Chief folds musical space. The Ann Arbor,
Michigan, band has made a name for itself scraping the ugly under-
side of the American Midwest's damaged psyche with a clutch of
highly collectable singles and an Lp entitled Drive It Off. Big Chief's
big-grooves and bigger noise is the product of a wicked Detroit
area litany; drummer Mike Danner was in The Laughing Hyenas,
and guitarist Mark Dancey played in the deranged Born Without A
Face. Old-timers will recall Barry Henssler's erstwhile outfit The
Necros, who called it a day in early 1988, a year before the Chief
first came together. "We got sick of being labelled "hardcore"
when we weren't part of any scene," recalls Barry. "We could have
whipped out acoustic guitars and people still would have called
us 'hardcore. We just wanted to be a loud rock band." Big Chief
flirts with mutant funk-grinds frayed with edges of pure volume
and distortion. "It's got as much to do with Black Sabbath as it
does with Blue Cheer, Funkadelic or cartoon music," he laughs.
The funny thing is that you can still shake your ass to it."
-Mike Gitter