Young Gods
by Jan Wom
Swiss sonic brutalists the Young Gods are undeni
ably innovative, yet aside from their drummer Üse,
they've never played an original note. The band's
skowed soundscapes are created entirely by stringing
together riffs from artists ranging from Igor Stravinsky
to the Stooges.
These abrasive snippets are so short in duration,
they're almost unrecognizable, and therefore, open to
renewed interpretation, to be shuffed and intertwined
at will Young Gods are one of the only bands that use
the sampler as a true instrument, not an expensive
tape recorder. "I don't know why so many bands use
the sampler just to play other people's riffs," says
vocalis lyricist Franz Reise. "It's such a great machine.
You can do anything with it. It's much more exciting
than just picking up a guitar and trying to make
melodies. The idea of what we do is jump to any music
at any period of time as a crazy tribute to music itself,
not to have a gadget to repeat other people's stuff."
Purveyors of the deranged and disarranged, the
Young Gods are true fatalists. Franz, Üse, and Al
Mono (samplor), have little faith in order, turning
instead to upheaval as life's guiding force. They're as
bleakly existentialist as Nietzsche, viewing the human
condition as ittle more than a big cosmic joke. "What
we're doing is a tribute to chaos, but not chaos just to
be destructive chaos as a rule-a way of life. Life is
just a momentary organization of chaos. We have no
Del
By Any Linden
(continued on page 60
tha
"You know how lite kids think? They don't worry about
sht, it's like they're high all the time. That's how I was, unti
reality slapped me in the face. I just got to think on a certain
lovel now, like that everything is an opinion and nothing is
really true. I think so much my head hurts! I never used to
do that shit
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien's slammin' debut / Wish My
Brother George Was Heve is proving that you can be dope
without being lame. At 18, he's written for Yo Yo and Ice
Cube (co-producer of the disc and his cuz). The album
Funkee
rocks with a bass heavy, fuel injected back beat and a loopy
East Bay, what-me-worry attitude that makes it both fierce
and groovy. Everything is pretty straight-forward, I try not to
be too cryptic," says Del. "Anybody can write a sentence
that rhymes and just say it over a beat. But if you said it
hela clever and it hella rhymes and it all makes sense and
intertwines, then it's dope."
Del's association with Ice Cube has gotten him a bit of
play, although one listen to Def's disc shows that the two
have very litle in common tonically or philosophically. 1 am
behind Cube 100%. Del says slowly, "as far as him being
BEASTIE
Interview by Miles Orkin
On a muggy Thursday night in February, Mike Diamond (Mike D-Key-
board Water Mike, bom in the year of the sleep), Adam Horowitz (King Ad
Rock, sign: Don't Walk, livin' large in 92) and Adam Yauch (MCA, sign of
the monkey) hit the stage at the I-Beam in SF to resurrect a musical behe-
moth some thought (and others hoped) was gone forever: the Beastie
Boys. The capacity crowd that had shoehomed into the club was eclectic
In a two-dimensional kind of way: a heady mix of schmooze-blooded record
"people" in town for the Gavin Convention and fanatical (primarily cau-
casian) b-boys in faded Licensed to t-shirts. Common questions that pro-
vailed in all the alcohol-addled brains were; Are they really back? And,
can they stil rock the house?
After their meteoric rise to popularity, fans and detractors alike expect
the Beasties to be a three-man living definition of the word obnoxious.
BOYS
Police riot squads go on tactical alert, parents groups go into a Folgers-driven frenzy, hell, the entire British parliament has
labeled them a threat to moral fiber and human decency.
Backstage before the show, however, the boys are calm and fairly tranquil. Contrary to the popular belief that the band
subsists solely on hops and barley, no beer is present. Each Beastle sips from his individual bottle of Evian.
WHAT'S YOUR LIFE STORY IN THIRTY SECONDS? Yauch: That would be you, Mike. Mike D.: Early on I was a child circus prodi-
gy. I was riding the unicycle on the tightrope and playing beats. But then the child labor laws changed. I was underage and
that ruined my career. So I went back to school for a while, then I got into punk rock at about age twelve or thirteen. Then
I met up with these guys, formed the Beastie Boys, put out Pollywog Stew, put out Cookie Puss, then boom, boom, boom.
WHO ARE SOME SIGNIFICANT MUSICAL INFLUENCES? Ad Rock: Eddie Harris, 20th Century Steel Band, RJ's Latest Arrival, Oak-
town 357, the Go-Gos, the Minuteman, Dr. Rock, the Mob and Abba. Mike D.: And Eugene McDaniels. He's the last rev-
(continued оn page 64)
LIBER
BLAMED
doesn't play what's trendy or what's cool, they
play punk rock. "You have to be stupid and pre-
tentious to play cool music," says singer/bassist
songwriter Fat Mike. "You have to have an at-
tude to play what's hip, and I have no atitude."
In their eight years, NOFX have captured a flag
on the Stratego board of punk. 1988's Liberal Ani-
mation Lp put them on the map, followed by S&M
Airlines Lp and then Robed, a punk masterpiece
of hard, fast music with sarcastic, bring wit. The
Longest Line Ep is the most eclectic NOFX
release to dale and will be followed by Liza and
Louise. Punk ideals are upheld (and sometimes
destroyed) in NOFX's famous-for-being-goofy.
lyrics. "I did a lot of stupid things." Mike offers,
bear bongs, getting crabs, whatever. Where I
come from punk was uncool and that's what I
loved about it. I try to make my lyrics ambiguous
because it's harder to write songs that give differ-
ent meanings to different people. It's easy to be
stupid, and I ran out of stupid things to say."
-Mike Lavola
Homosapien
able to say what he wants. Now, as far as his beliefs, it's just
opinion, so why even sweat him for saying anything when
it's just that? You need to block out as many headaches as
you can. I've learned that. There's a definite good and bad
force at work here, but the more people leam to have know-
ledge of self, the more they will be able to distinguish
between them," he laughs
That's all it takes. I mean there are a lot of phonies too,
that's almost the point of my album I clown phony fools
throughout the album. That's what fucks up everything." Del
pauses. "You're supposed to tell the truth."
L7
by Mike LaVela
LA's queens of grunge have
rocked their way into hearts and
cnto turntables since their first Lp.
Released in 1988, L7 bridged the
punk-metal gap and set new stan
dards for women bands every-
where. In 1990, Smell the Magic
Ep increased the fan base a thou-
sand fold with the rebellious teen
anthem "Shove." Through hard
work and touring. L7 have proved they aren't simply "girls
that can rock as hard as guys." Guitarist/vocalists Suzi
Gardner and Donita Sparks, bassist Jennifer Finch, and
drummer Dee Plakas are out to rock the world. The latest
release, Bricks are Heavy, could easily lead to better
things. "We are going to get so big, Nirvana are will be our
house boys," exclaims Donita. But Jennifer takes a more
serious tone, "The right to safe and legal abortion could be
overturned in 1992. L7 and some folks in the LA music
community have formed Rock For Choice.' We encour
age people to vote, because if you don't make decisions
for yourself, others will make them for you."
MWU
by Rap Lady G
Digital Underground, the Oakland, Califor
nia, based hip-hop band that skyrocketed to
tame two years ago with "Humpty Dance," is
best described as a concept group of artists
who share similar ideals of musical accom
plishment. Several members have recently
embarked on solo careers while remaining
part of the core group. Last year, 2PAC made
his acting debut in Juice and later released a
solo album. Gold Money just cut his first pro-
ject, and Money B and DJ Fuze are making
quite a bit of noise on the hip-hop scene as
Raw Fusion
Live From The Styleetron, Raw Fusion's
debut album, mixes traditional turntable
effects (old school scratching, obscure beats,
funky samples) with crazy theatrics, urban
stories, and pop effects. And what exactly is
styleetron? According to its inventors, it's a
converted cyclotron. A particle accelerator
used by NASA to split atoms, the cyclotron is
a mile-long structure nestled in the hills of
Northern Califomia. It was acquired so DJ
Fuze, the "bio-styles technician," and Money
B, the "stylee control input engineer," could
experiment with it. Fuze explains. "Like the
cyclotron splits atoms, we altered it to spit
musical styles and ideals, and then fuse them
back together."
Money B and DJ Fuze have made major
contributions to the DU sound, lending their
writing and production skills to such hits as
"Same Song," and "Freaks of the Industry."
On Live From The Styleetron, the two came
up with their own sound, a minimalist
melange built on rap's basics. "The songs on
this album are harder than what we've done
in the past," says Money B. Combining soul,
reggae, and an altered industrial flavor, Live
From The Stylectron serves as a reminder
that the Oaktown sound is more than Too
Short's gangsta beats, or Hammer's watered-
down pop jams.
JUS
FUSION
SOUNDGARDEN
by Jon Stak
The music of Soundgarden skigs the stom
ach and feeds the head. It appeals to all types
of ears-the metal crowd, the artsy fartsies,
the new-wave punkers, and even the now-
wave punker-biker crowd. "Our original fans
were 'musios,' fellow musicians, art students
and college students," says guitarist Kim
Thayil, who holds a philosophy degree from
the University of Washington.
"We started out doing all-age shows, and
got the stage-diving skateboarders flocking to
see us, along with people dressed in black
from head to toe, and their faces looked like
oatmeal. Gradually, metal kids showed up with
a bunch of military guys. It was funny, we
played where Hells' Angels ran security, and
they said they really liked us, which freaked
me out. Then again, a fratboy told me his fra-
temily voted Soundgarden the coolest band in
Seattle. So, our fans are a varied group.
We've got a lot of loners as fans, people that
hang with themselves, the individualists"
Touring and working at their music for over
seven years, Soundgarden knows the paris of
life on the road. Tve seen some crazy things,"
says Thayil. "Some stuff that scared me and
some stuff that made me laugh. One of the
first tours we did out of our van. And every city
we went to, we saw something violent, so we
called it, "The Tour of Violence." We saw this
guy get shot, these guys fighting in the street
with chains, a girl who cut her wrists because
of her boyfriend, and this guy we nicknamed,
King of the Freeway," who we saw in Oregon
on the interstate. He had long hair and a
beard and no shirt on, wearing these really
freaky sunglasses. He walks out into traffic on
the freeway, and stuck his hand forward stop-
ping traffic dead. All these trucks and car's just
slopped. He must have been tripping or some-
thing. It's really weird, you live in a city your
entire life, and you never see shit like that. But
then you go on tour, and every city you get to,
there is something violent going on. I mean we
saw some really weird shit on that tour."
54 THRASHER MAGAZINE