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NerveSpeak
Amerindie, approximately
"And when the Rusks feel they are too old to be putting out Butthole Surfers records, says Lisa, 'We want to settle down and run a pet store.'"
NERVE: How do you hear new music? Do you listen to the radio or just pick up stuff or what?
"Which leaves Big Black and their ubiquitous leader Steve Albini: the monstrous 'Crack Up' for sure grabs your attention, but less so than Schoolly-D, who works within a format Albini refuses to acknowledge. Too bad, because Schoolly-D hates rock 'n' roll just as much as Albini--they could probably kill an hour making fun of Led Zeppelin."
"Hey, it's rock and roll. Look in the dictionary, next to rock and roll you'll see my picture."
"There's a punk rock magazine called Flipside and I get voted Asshole of the Year every year. I was thinking maybe I present these people with themselves and they don't like what they see. I guess they have me to blame. I don't go to their house, I don't shoot them, I don't shit on their heads. I don't understand. But I do say fuck you if they say fuck you."
Canada, unfortunately?
"'We get a lot of mail from Canada. This one lad who writes is a 'self-styled professor' of like Trivial Metaphysics.'
JON SPENCER: So you're up in Canada, right?
NICK CAVE: I'd make a brilliant actor. If anyone's interested in me acting in their next film...where is this, L.A.?
"The prostitute in front of the cheap lakefront motels make everything a bit sinister, like some cornball Mickey Spillane novel. But this is Etobicoke, right?"
JULIA CAFRITZ: Do you drink a lot of beer?
Intrusions from Ed
"Rat At Rat R is more than a band, more than a way of life. It's an umbilical cord connected to the barren womb of the universe, the afterbirth of a new age, an erect nipple glistening with the spittle of rabid gods. [I know what you mean, I used to feel that way about Genesis--Ed.]"
"So is this 'classic' rock 'n' roll? I doubt it, but 'Strange Things Happen' is close--pure noise, and you can't hear a damn word he's saying. It's terrible, but it's wonderful. [Good point--Ed.]"
"It's the 1980s, and we've come a long way from believing that outright displays of desperation are ennobling or effective; they're just demeaning--better to act level-headed and save any tears for when no one's around. [Thanks for the tip, Tim-bop. Do you write poetry, too?--Ed.]"
Dave Rave, totally out of control
"Paul Hardcastle: sounds like a butch TV detective/swell guy, right? He's tough. He's uncompromising. He's a force to be reckoned with. He'll risk his Christmas bonus to get the baddies. He's get every Mike Oldfield album on compact disc, and he's seen Apocalypse Now in sunshade 3 times without looking away when it got to the gross bits. He's a man's man."
"I don't think Plato would've liked Frankie."
"Exciting industrialists Einsturzonk Numbottom diliberately mispeled there name on the adventurous new album, Five On the Open-Ended Richter Scale. Interesting, eh? Reports have the German drug-users 'toning down the demolition' on this disc. Bloody health freaks."
"Speaking of road gore, damn you too, Ian Astbury. As a sex symbol, you'd make a good coat rack...As a lyricist, your pencil and your wit need substantial sharpening. As it happens, your face disagrees with my stomach. As an antidote, I suggest the Fall."
"I hate to be the one to lay it on you, man, but there's already a Skinny Puppy spin-off band. Featuring the enormous talents of Puppy's Kevin Crompton and the other guy (not the singer), and legendary Legendary Pink Dots pink dot Edward Ka'spell, the band Thick Squid has jut released their debut album on Nettwerk Records. Nettwerk releases many other albums this month, none of which I can remember at this time."
"Famous Canadians Skinny Puppy are officially 'in the studio' with famous Tackheadonist, Adrian Sherwood. I have no idea what they're doing in there either, I just give you the facts."
"Did you know there was already a Skinny Puppy Satan lesbian motorcycle club comic book...oh, forget it."
Pleased to be me
"Our imitators are always a watered-down version. It doesn't have the same soul that we do, doesn't have the same bluesy feel or commitment to it. Suicide and myself have been ripped off notoriously: Sigue Sigue Sputnik, the Jesus and Mary Chain, some of the Cars stuff, Soft Cell--you want me to go down the list of hundreds of bands?"
"It takes a large sort of intelligence to deal with the life of a rock star. You make the records you wanna make, and you have a responsibility to yourself, to the group, and to those records to play the game. I think I've played the game well up to now. It's a dangerous game, and there are times when I've overstepped the mark. If you believe the gossip columns in the British daily papers, I'm the new Wild Man of Rock. I don't much feel like a wild man of rock."
"I could really make SSS sound great, I know it. If they gave me total control and didn't touch a dial, didn't touch anything--not even be there, I'd throw them out--then I could do my thing with the knobs and make them sound great. But why? Then I give it away again. Do they deserve it?"
Flip Yoür Wig "Grand Funk Railroad; the red album. Without question, the all-time best Loud White Noise. The worst drummer in the world, the loudest and simplest bassist in the world, and an absolute moron of a guitar player who relished his stinging one-note solos. These guys made a quick killing out of Flint, Michigan because of their 'producer,' Terry Knight; decades before Malcolm McLaren. This record is so pitiful at attempts to swing, it manages to achieve greatness. Certainly more inspiring than the all Venom/Ratt/Twisted Sister clown antics of today."
"Well, the popcorn really did pop, and the thing of it is I don't actually like popcorn, so I put it in a bowl and left a note saying 'Please eat this' and went out. When I came back it was gone, so that was all fine. Then I took some pictures of one of my roomates holding the record and then I thought maybe I should listen to it."
"Hank's first song he wrote was called 'Teenagers On a Joy Ride Straight to Hell,' which he strums for me as we sit at the kitchen table. Later that day, he will have written out the chords and the lyrics so I can use it if I ever need money to get on the streetcar late at night."
"Henry is poetic. He has six books available, including the celebrated Pissing in the Gene Pool. Life Time has some of His best writing, but being semi-literate, I find it difficult to evaluate it all."
"J is absolutely out there. My favourite line here is 'The common house fly is your friend,' but all of it is eminently quotable."
"And when Julia 'Juicy' Cafritz sings ('Spin Out'), man, she sounds like some red-hot righteous mama swinging her battleship bulk to clear the path to HEAVEN. I think I wet my pants, it's so good."
"If your heart's in the garage, your ears should be listening to Pagan Fest-A-Go-Go. Bonus: The cassette was recorded in the high fidelity of mono, for that wonderful flat sound we all love."
"Have you ever felt that lurking around the edges of the most innocuous late-60s pop lay genuinely psychotic impulses? That Bobby Sherman, Gary Puckett, and the Cowsills were really subterfuge conjured up by the White House to distract from their actions in Viet Nam? Or that Charles Manson's
favourite record next to the White Album may have been 'Sugar, Sugar'? No? Neither have I."
"The really weird thing is that 'Speed Demon' became a real nightmare later that night. While sulking in my room, I heard some car outside revving its engine and blaring some AM radio (a Sunday night oldies show, I think). This was strange because this neighbourhood is silent at night (save for when I can't resist blasting 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You' while staring in my mirror). I honestly thought someone was after me. I crouched on top of my desk, looked out the window (fearing a gun--maybe one of the neighbourhood girls' boyfriends saw me smiling at his girl), and saw the chillingest sight: a small car, parked in front of the dead end, with ELVIS written in big letters on the back windshield. The guy kept getting in and out of the car. I was frightened, so I woke up my roommate, and we peered out his window (a better view) and got scared together."
"O'Neal finished with the explosive 'Fake,' a number-one black hit just now crossing over into pop, and even I started waving my hands in tiny little semi-circles at my side--got down, so to speak, plaid lumberjack shirt and all."
"As long as McDonald's hamburger cows, mass-bred in Guatemala, remain a fact of life, the Smiths will very resolutely remain the Smiths and there will always be a place, whether defiled or sacred or, most probably both, in the critical conscience and consciousness of being in Brit pop."
"I've had enough. This is it. I've had enough. This is it. I've had enough...
"It's a terrible thing when one of your heroes lets you down. I think I will go out and kick some little children now."
Face to Face NERVE: I missed Kiss in Toronto in 1976 and it affected me deeply. It's a scar I carry.
NERVE: Don't you play harmonica?
NERVE: Do you want to say anything to promote your upcoming show at Larry's here in Toronto?
NERVE: You once reviewed Echo and the Bunnymen and compared them [to] the Doors.
Dave Rave, Nancy Lanthier, Peter Goddard. Photo by Chris Buck, 1985.] In and Out of Fashion "And for you metal virgins out there, remember this music industry proverb: metal is never in fashion, so it's never out of fashion."
"Popular appreciation of truckin' culture peaked in the mid-seventies, with the Burt Reynolds classic film Smokey and the Bandit and the blockbuster chart hit 'Convoy' (included here). It seemed every kid dreamed of getting a C.B. for Christmas and coming up with some cool handle like 'Adolf Hitler.'"
"When [Carole Pope] grabbed her crotch near the end of the set, it was more than perfunctory; she was fighting to maintain interest. 'This song sums up the philosophy behind Rough Trade's existence. It's called Decadence.'"
"Fashion was their image and now they're out of fashion. They've gone the way of stirrup pants and intelligible record reviews."
"Elaborate packaging is a plus: clear vinyl in a gatefold sleeve adorned with phallic objects including a fanged skeleton whose penis resembles a satanic grinning pit bull."
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