Possibly one of the highlights of my life period. Interviewing the reunited for 48 hours only Sleep lineup of Matt Pike, Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius backstage after their second show at the May 2009 ATP vs The Fans Festival with Rayner.
PROCEEDS THE WEEDIAN, NAZARETH! (BEFORE STOPPING AGAIN FOREVER)
After Fifteen Years Sleep Come Out Slugging For 48 Hours Only
A little while back I remember sitting idly talking about dream reformations with a friend on iChat after it had been announced that some nah-man-it’ll-never-happen-I-hate-that-motherfuckers-fucking-guts-I-can’t-stand-to-be-in-the-same-room-as-him band or other reformed. I can’t even remember who. In a world where every band is happy to jump through a blazing hoop and onto a festival stage for a buck or 70,000 it’s hard to keep count. Just you watch, the Stone Roses, The Smiths and for all I know the fucking Beatles will have reformed to play Glastopollooza ’09 bought to you by HMV and Carling before I’ve finished typing this sentence. But, back to that iChat conversation. My friend and I decided that the reformation to blow every other reformation out of the water, hook line and sinker would be Sleep.
No dead members, no missing presumed dead members, no members who had started playing avant-jazz clash nose flute spirituals. Nope. All three members of the band who had cut Jeruslam/Dopesmoker and Sleep’s Holy Mountain (arguably the definitive stoner rock articles) were all alive, well and playing brilliant music that took the constituent elements of Sleep and drove them as far down their divergent paths to logical end points as possible. Juts imagine them together playing those songs again…
But it was always too much to ask. At that point the split that had driven guitarist Matt Pike to High On Fire and the rhythm section of bassist Al Cisneros and drummer and Chris Hakius to Om hade taken place years previous and to compound this it had more recently been announced that Hakius had walked away from Om. With the bands founding trinity cast asunder it seemed unimaginable that a few short months later all three would step on stage together and play the most devastatingly perfect pair of shows I will probably ever see at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in the UK on the 9th and 10th of May.
Somehow we made it back stage to ask them: whowhatwherewhenwhatthefuck?
Vice: How did it feel playing those songs after almost a decade and a half?
Matt Pike (guitar): It was really emotional, and really got out a bunch of stuff. It’s been a really long time since we’ve done that together. It was good and I think that was the experience for all three of us and probably our fans and anyone who heard it tonight too. But whatever, it was pretty deep for me anyway.
Did you play the songs informed by what you’ve all been doing since or just go back and play them as they were when you left them?
Al Cisneros (bass): When I had my first rehearsal with these guys after such a long time, I wanted to do things in the old Sleep songs that I would do now if we wrote them, but they didn’t belong there. So I just went back to the complete mindset of 1992, and really spent time going into that space.
Chris Hakius (drums): The body has a may of remembering what it has done before. The muscles and memory cells remember the methods.
Al: And everything else just happened
In terms of equipment did you go back to what you were using then?
Matt: I was suing the nine string guitar I use in High On Fire but we had the Orange Matamp out there tonight so compared to High On Fire you are talking apples and oranges.
Al: And Toni Iommi’s key which really made a difference tonight but it was actually, pretty close.
You’ve said this is it but is it something that you would possibly do again?
Matt: Whatever the Universe tells us to do we will listen.
Al: We had talked about it in August at my wedding, when all three of us were together for the first time in a long time and we decided that all three of us were interested and once we’d decided to do it a call came through the next week so it was suddenly like “wow, we’re doing this”. The whole thing has been blessed from the start.
Chris: It felt like the time was right and as he says the universe spoke to us so we listened.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Vice v7n5 Record Reviews
What with this being The Brazilian Issue and all we decided to get a real life Brazilian lady to review the CD’s for us. Meet Andrea Villas. She used to live in Rio but left to study bio-mechanical engineering in Italy before following Pete Doherty to London because she “really, really wanted to be a groupie”. But don’t hold that against her. These days she mainly likes Of Montreal and electro-house. Interesting combo. Let’s see what she makes of this months pop parade. Valeu!
Leona Naess
Thirteens
Kid Gloves
Vice: Apparently Leona used to be Ryan Adams’ girlfriend.
Andrea Villas: Oh really, I like his music. She sounds very new age though. Very zen. Not like Ryan Adams. I don’t like it.
Why not?
Lot’s of people have a voice like this. It is just boring. I think she is probably into Kabbalah. Enough.
OK, you’re the boss.
Sizzla
Ghetto-Youth-Ology
Greensleeves
If you met Sizzla in the street what do you think you would talk about?
Weed? I like smoking. This is good weed smoking music. I like it.
If you and Sizzla had a competition to see who could roll the best joint who would win?
Him. In fact maybe I’d have a chance, he looks like he’d just smoke a pipe. And maybe he would be already stoned. So, maybe me.
Is reggae popular in Brazil?
Yes, but the people who listen to it don’t have dreadlocks. People in Brazil are very clean. They would just think that if you had dreadlocks you were dirty.
Sonic Youth
The Eternal
Matador
Next up: Sonic Youth!
I love Sonic Youth!
Don’t you think they’re a little old to still be jamming out like they’re 16 these days?
I have never seen a photo of them.
You love then but you have no idea what they look like?
It is not important. I love that song of theirs “Superstar”.
This record has a song on it called “Anti Orgasm”. Do you think it will be as good as “Superstar”
I get obsessed by certain bands and this sounds amazing so maybe I will become obsessed by Sonic Youth again. I love it.
Church Of Misery
Houses Of The Unholy
Rise Above
Are you a big fan of Japanese doom-metal?
Not really. Most metal in Brazil just sounds like Sepultura and I never liked them. Did you know that Igor the drummer from Sepultura runs a very big clothing label in Brazil?
You learn a new thing everyday.
This just sounds like traffic to me. Traffic in a very busy city. Maybe New York. The guys in this band look like they are trying to be John Lennon and Paul McCartney all at once too. I don’t like it.
Sexbeat Vol 2
Self-released
This one is a compilation of a bunch of lo-fi bands with names like Haunted Fucking and Winter Drones.
I like it very much. It is very psychedelic.
Psychedelic? Would you like to listen to this on mushrooms? It would bum me out I think.
I remember the first time I did mushrooms and listened to music. I thought that the woman who was singing was just screaming and she was singing just about Satanism and I felt like I was in the film Star Wars. It was by the Thames and it was scary. This music is nice though. It would be a good vibe.
British Sea Power
Man Of Aran
Rough Trade
This is definitely creepy.
Yes this is scary, in a good way though. It sounds like a soundtrack.
Good spot, it is indeed a soundtrack that British Sea Power did for the classic 1934 film Man Of Aran. This band are very keen bird watchers.
Really? I like parakeets. Not parrots though. My uncle had one and it just imitated the neighbour who shouted at his dog. So with the nieghbour shouting about his dog and the parrot shouting about the nieghbour shouting about his dog it was very loud.
Mika Miko
We Be Xuxa
Post Present Medium
Why does it say We Be Xuxa?
I don’t know why.
Xuxa was a children’s TV presenter. She was huge in Brazil. Everyone knows her.
Like Michela Strachan?
I don’t know her. She was as big as Cheryl Cole. An icon. Everyone loved her. She had an affair with Pele and that just made her more popular.
Do you think this album is about her?
I don’t think so. I like this though, it is like punk rock music. They sound very angry.
Greg Kowalsky
Tape Chants
Kranky
This guy makes all of his stuff by looping cassette tapes and changing the amplitude to make a wall of sound.
This is it?
For about half an hour per track yes.
Hmm, I could get into I think. I might jog to it.
Jog to it? It is just a half hour of tape looped drone!
Maybe do the cooking or cleaning then. I like it. It is like the beginning bit of Pink Floyd, Live at Pompeii. But going on forever.
Kissy Sell Out
Youth
Marakesh Records
I don’t think I can get past this guys haircut.
Oh, I have seen him lots of times. I like this very much. Two thumbs up.
Would you go on a date with Mr Sell Out?
Yes. I think he is handsome.
Wow. Where would you go?
To The Dorchester. And I would have a brie and proscuito sandwich. That is my favourite.
Shitmat
One Foot In The Rave
Planet Mu
How would you dance to this?
This is proper rave music. I can imagine listening to this on a beach in Goa.
Do you think this would go down well in Brazil?
Maybe at a bailie funk yes. They are kind of set in their music there though. If you could get it on the soundsystem then they would probably dance to it all night all night, you’d just need to get this on there.
How do they all dance all night?
Do you mean drugs? You’d be surprised there is not that much cocaine or ecstasy there. There is more in London. Just lots of weed and Cachaca.
Kap Bambino
Blacklist
Because
This one makes me ears hurt a bit.
I love it. I love electronic music like this. I have a special dance for music like this.
How does it go?
It is a bit like a robot dance but at the end I swing my hair around. I did it to my boss’s daughter the other day and now she always asks my boss if auntie Andrea can come around and do the funny dance.
Do you think that Kap would be into your dance?
Yes.
Graffiti Island
The Graffiti Island 7”
House Anxiety
This guy has a funny voice huh?
Yes, I like it though. It is interesting. I think this one is psychedelic too.
Really? I guess the lyrics are pretty weird.
It sounds very dusty.
Dusty?
Like, not very clear sounding.
I think that’s on purpose. They call it lo-fi.
Lee Harris Meets River Styx
Angel Headed Hip Hop
Arkadia
I think Lee Harris is a big deal on the UK counter-culture scene. Which means that unless you subscribe to High Times you may well not have heard of him.
I have not heard of him. I like this though it is very relaxing.
I can almost smell the patchouli oil and dream catchers.
Is he the old guy or the rapper.
I think Lee Harris is the old, sage–like Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout voice and River Styx is the rapper. I don’t think that River Styx is his real name.
Ebony Bones
Bone Of My Bones
Sunday Best
The first track is called “W.A.R.R.I.O.R.”, who’s your favourite warrior of all time? Excluding Mel Gibson in Braveheart because that is the default answer to this question.
That is really weird I was going to say Braveheart and I don’t even really like him.
I don’t know why but everyone say that.
Can I choose Obelix?
He isn’t real but I guess he is better than Mel Gibson pretending to be Scottish.
Stuart Murdoch
God Help The Girl
Rough Trade
Talking about Scots have you listened to much Belle & Sebastian?
Of course, this sounds quite like them but with a girl singing.
I think the idea was that Murdoch wanted to write the music and just have a load of different girls sing the tracks. Maybe he was after an advanced speed dating program like that movie Audition. But without the grizzly ending.
I have not seen that film. I quite like this but I prefer the full band I think. Next!
Man Like Me
s/t
Our Time Records
I love it!
Wow, that much?
Yes, it is really fun. I think I have heard this before actually.
I think “Oh My Gosh” has been around a while yep. It sure seems to have you dancing.
Yes it is one of my favourites so far. Two thumbs up. I think he would be what you call a ‘cheeky chappy’.
That description is probably used in every review of this guy ever and even when we get a Brazilian in he still gets lumped with it! Sorry Johnny.
Akron/Family
Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free
Crammed Discs
I always thought Akron/Family was a folk band but this sounds really clunky and all over the place.
It is good though, it sounds like a peacock pecking at the ground.
Do you think it sounds like any other bands as opposed to animals?
Maybe this is the first one that sounds like Of Montreal? Or maybe Animal Collective? 9.5 out of 10!
Lindstrom & Prins Thomas
II
Eskimo
This record actually has 99 tracks on it but they are all about 10 seconds long and it is split into 8 parts.
This is like that tape music we heard before. I would like to listen to this when I was cleaning. I have a lot of people staying at my house right now, a lot of family and it is very stressful but I could put this on and relax.
How do you decide who gets a bed when you have lots of family round?
It is my flat so I get a bed and my mum is a mother so she has priority too, after that it is chaos.
Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest
Warp
Where do you think these guys are from?
Perhaps from Serbia?
What makes you think that?
The instruments, they sound quite eastern.
Do you think that they sound anything like a grizzly bear?
No, but I love bears. They are great. I don’t like turtles though, have you seen them having sex? Watch it on YouTube, it’s disgusting.
Double Dagger
More
Thrill Jockey
This sounds a little like what the soundtrack would be to a death scene in Twin Peaks. How would you like to die?
I think I will get knocked over by a car because I am always walking across the street listening to music and almost getting hit.
But is that how you would like to go?
No, just how I probably will. Erm, maybe the lethal injection would be OK? Or in space. Yes in space, if you were there you would be there for a good reason.
Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
Dracula Boots
In The Red
As well as having the best name of all time this guy has played in The Gun Club, The Cramps and The Bad Seeds, pretty good going.
I really like this one. It’s one of the best so far. More thumbs up. It sounds really old but in a good way.
This track is called “I Found A Peanut”. Where is the best place you have ever found a peanut?
I don’t eat many peanuts but I eat cashew nuts. I found a cashew nut in my hair once after it had been stuck in my hairbrush.
The Heads/White Hills
Collisions Vol 1
Rocket Records
This album just has two tracks. One from each band.
It sounds like Led Zeppelin but slower. I think it would be good music for a vampire film.
Have you ever seen a vampire?
No. But once my next-door neighbour had a party because her son got married and I looked down in the street where they were all having the party and they all looked like vampires. They all had white skin and red mouths.
Maybe they just like staying indoors and eating lots of raspberries?
No they looked really weird. I have a photo, I will show you.
Wooden Sjips
Dos
Holy Mountain
This band are called Wooden Ships except they spell it Wooden Sjips. Do you fine English spelling strange?
Yes it is fairly difficult but I mainly just have to speak it. I had to learn English and Italian and Portuguese as well in Brazil.
Why Italian?
I lived there and was studying and that was when I ran away to follow Pete Doherty.
What was it about Pete that made you run away from your studies?
I just loved the idea of being a groupie and I loved the music and it seemed like more fun than studying bio-mechanics.
Have you seen him lately?
No, I am going to see him with my mum in a few days, the showdown!
Yikes!
Isis
Wavering Radiant
Conspiracy
This one sounds like Sepultura too. His voice is very low. Like he has a sore throat.
When would you listen to this?
I don’t know. Maybe if I was really angry. Or trying to annoy someone.
Isis was an Egyptian deity, have you ever been to Egypt?
No but I would like to. The Nile and the pyramids. It is not at the top of the list but it would be nice. Not like this band, they do not sound nice. I do not like it at all.
Au Revoir Simone
Still Night, Still Light
Moshi Moshi
Can you speak French as well?
Not really, I like French cheese though, especially Brie.
It’s OK, they don’t actually sing in French. They just have a silly name.
I might listen to this on my day off. I hate waking up, it is like being born, or ripped from the womb. On my day off I do not get up until midday. I could get up and listen to this. It would make me happy. I bet the girls aren’t as saintly as they sound though.
Why not? Their voices are super angelic,
You know nothing about girls. It is always the girls who look like goodie goodies who are total sluts.
So you think Au Revoir Simone are sluts?
Yes,
Hey! Tonal
“Hey! Tonal”
Africantape
I love the artwork!
It looks like it might give you an epileptic fit if you weren’t careful.
I like it. It is crazy!
This song is called “If Flash Gordon Was A Sk8r”. Who is your favourite superhero?
I don’t know. I don’t know too many superheroes. Maybe the singer in this band. I really, really like it.
Willie Isz
Georgiavania
Lex
How do you feel about hip-hop?
I know nothing about hip hop but this doesn’t sound much like hip-hop to me. It just sounds a bit depressing.
So you don’t like it?
No, I can’t stand depressing music. I liked Interpol and Radiohead but if I listen to anything like that for too long it makes me really down and I have to stop.
I wonder if Willie ISZ would be into being compared to Radiohead and Interpol?
Savath & Savalas
La Llama
Stones Throw
I thought this was going to be a hip-hop recod but it appears not.
I hope this has no female choruses.
What, like a Lauryn Hill bit?
Yes! I hate Lauren Hill. Why does everyone like her? She annoys me so much that I can’t talk about it. It is the kind of music guys would play when they are trying to sleep with you. It makes me run for the door or out of the window.
You have run out of a window?
Yes, it is easy, you just have to pretend you are going to the loo or going to the off license and then you just leave.
Leona Naess
Thirteens
Kid Gloves
Vice: Apparently Leona used to be Ryan Adams’ girlfriend.
Andrea Villas: Oh really, I like his music. She sounds very new age though. Very zen. Not like Ryan Adams. I don’t like it.
Why not?
Lot’s of people have a voice like this. It is just boring. I think she is probably into Kabbalah. Enough.
OK, you’re the boss.
Sizzla
Ghetto-Youth-Ology
Greensleeves
If you met Sizzla in the street what do you think you would talk about?
Weed? I like smoking. This is good weed smoking music. I like it.
If you and Sizzla had a competition to see who could roll the best joint who would win?
Him. In fact maybe I’d have a chance, he looks like he’d just smoke a pipe. And maybe he would be already stoned. So, maybe me.
Is reggae popular in Brazil?
Yes, but the people who listen to it don’t have dreadlocks. People in Brazil are very clean. They would just think that if you had dreadlocks you were dirty.
Sonic Youth
The Eternal
Matador
Next up: Sonic Youth!
I love Sonic Youth!
Don’t you think they’re a little old to still be jamming out like they’re 16 these days?
I have never seen a photo of them.
You love then but you have no idea what they look like?
It is not important. I love that song of theirs “Superstar”.
This record has a song on it called “Anti Orgasm”. Do you think it will be as good as “Superstar”
I get obsessed by certain bands and this sounds amazing so maybe I will become obsessed by Sonic Youth again. I love it.
Church Of Misery
Houses Of The Unholy
Rise Above
Are you a big fan of Japanese doom-metal?
Not really. Most metal in Brazil just sounds like Sepultura and I never liked them. Did you know that Igor the drummer from Sepultura runs a very big clothing label in Brazil?
You learn a new thing everyday.
This just sounds like traffic to me. Traffic in a very busy city. Maybe New York. The guys in this band look like they are trying to be John Lennon and Paul McCartney all at once too. I don’t like it.
Sexbeat Vol 2
Self-released
This one is a compilation of a bunch of lo-fi bands with names like Haunted Fucking and Winter Drones.
I like it very much. It is very psychedelic.
Psychedelic? Would you like to listen to this on mushrooms? It would bum me out I think.
I remember the first time I did mushrooms and listened to music. I thought that the woman who was singing was just screaming and she was singing just about Satanism and I felt like I was in the film Star Wars. It was by the Thames and it was scary. This music is nice though. It would be a good vibe.
British Sea Power
Man Of Aran
Rough Trade
This is definitely creepy.
Yes this is scary, in a good way though. It sounds like a soundtrack.
Good spot, it is indeed a soundtrack that British Sea Power did for the classic 1934 film Man Of Aran. This band are very keen bird watchers.
Really? I like parakeets. Not parrots though. My uncle had one and it just imitated the neighbour who shouted at his dog. So with the nieghbour shouting about his dog and the parrot shouting about the nieghbour shouting about his dog it was very loud.
Mika Miko
We Be Xuxa
Post Present Medium
Why does it say We Be Xuxa?
I don’t know why.
Xuxa was a children’s TV presenter. She was huge in Brazil. Everyone knows her.
Like Michela Strachan?
I don’t know her. She was as big as Cheryl Cole. An icon. Everyone loved her. She had an affair with Pele and that just made her more popular.
Do you think this album is about her?
I don’t think so. I like this though, it is like punk rock music. They sound very angry.
Greg Kowalsky
Tape Chants
Kranky
This guy makes all of his stuff by looping cassette tapes and changing the amplitude to make a wall of sound.
This is it?
For about half an hour per track yes.
Hmm, I could get into I think. I might jog to it.
Jog to it? It is just a half hour of tape looped drone!
Maybe do the cooking or cleaning then. I like it. It is like the beginning bit of Pink Floyd, Live at Pompeii. But going on forever.
Kissy Sell Out
Youth
Marakesh Records
I don’t think I can get past this guys haircut.
Oh, I have seen him lots of times. I like this very much. Two thumbs up.
Would you go on a date with Mr Sell Out?
Yes. I think he is handsome.
Wow. Where would you go?
To The Dorchester. And I would have a brie and proscuito sandwich. That is my favourite.
Shitmat
One Foot In The Rave
Planet Mu
How would you dance to this?
This is proper rave music. I can imagine listening to this on a beach in Goa.
Do you think this would go down well in Brazil?
Maybe at a bailie funk yes. They are kind of set in their music there though. If you could get it on the soundsystem then they would probably dance to it all night all night, you’d just need to get this on there.
How do they all dance all night?
Do you mean drugs? You’d be surprised there is not that much cocaine or ecstasy there. There is more in London. Just lots of weed and Cachaca.
Kap Bambino
Blacklist
Because
This one makes me ears hurt a bit.
I love it. I love electronic music like this. I have a special dance for music like this.
How does it go?
It is a bit like a robot dance but at the end I swing my hair around. I did it to my boss’s daughter the other day and now she always asks my boss if auntie Andrea can come around and do the funny dance.
Do you think that Kap would be into your dance?
Yes.
Graffiti Island
The Graffiti Island 7”
House Anxiety
This guy has a funny voice huh?
Yes, I like it though. It is interesting. I think this one is psychedelic too.
Really? I guess the lyrics are pretty weird.
It sounds very dusty.
Dusty?
Like, not very clear sounding.
I think that’s on purpose. They call it lo-fi.
Lee Harris Meets River Styx
Angel Headed Hip Hop
Arkadia
I think Lee Harris is a big deal on the UK counter-culture scene. Which means that unless you subscribe to High Times you may well not have heard of him.
I have not heard of him. I like this though it is very relaxing.
I can almost smell the patchouli oil and dream catchers.
Is he the old guy or the rapper.
I think Lee Harris is the old, sage–like Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout voice and River Styx is the rapper. I don’t think that River Styx is his real name.
Ebony Bones
Bone Of My Bones
Sunday Best
The first track is called “W.A.R.R.I.O.R.”, who’s your favourite warrior of all time? Excluding Mel Gibson in Braveheart because that is the default answer to this question.
That is really weird I was going to say Braveheart and I don’t even really like him.
I don’t know why but everyone say that.
Can I choose Obelix?
He isn’t real but I guess he is better than Mel Gibson pretending to be Scottish.
Stuart Murdoch
God Help The Girl
Rough Trade
Talking about Scots have you listened to much Belle & Sebastian?
Of course, this sounds quite like them but with a girl singing.
I think the idea was that Murdoch wanted to write the music and just have a load of different girls sing the tracks. Maybe he was after an advanced speed dating program like that movie Audition. But without the grizzly ending.
I have not seen that film. I quite like this but I prefer the full band I think. Next!
Man Like Me
s/t
Our Time Records
I love it!
Wow, that much?
Yes, it is really fun. I think I have heard this before actually.
I think “Oh My Gosh” has been around a while yep. It sure seems to have you dancing.
Yes it is one of my favourites so far. Two thumbs up. I think he would be what you call a ‘cheeky chappy’.
That description is probably used in every review of this guy ever and even when we get a Brazilian in he still gets lumped with it! Sorry Johnny.
Akron/Family
Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free
Crammed Discs
I always thought Akron/Family was a folk band but this sounds really clunky and all over the place.
It is good though, it sounds like a peacock pecking at the ground.
Do you think it sounds like any other bands as opposed to animals?
Maybe this is the first one that sounds like Of Montreal? Or maybe Animal Collective? 9.5 out of 10!
Lindstrom & Prins Thomas
II
Eskimo
This record actually has 99 tracks on it but they are all about 10 seconds long and it is split into 8 parts.
This is like that tape music we heard before. I would like to listen to this when I was cleaning. I have a lot of people staying at my house right now, a lot of family and it is very stressful but I could put this on and relax.
How do you decide who gets a bed when you have lots of family round?
It is my flat so I get a bed and my mum is a mother so she has priority too, after that it is chaos.
Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest
Warp
Where do you think these guys are from?
Perhaps from Serbia?
What makes you think that?
The instruments, they sound quite eastern.
Do you think that they sound anything like a grizzly bear?
No, but I love bears. They are great. I don’t like turtles though, have you seen them having sex? Watch it on YouTube, it’s disgusting.
Double Dagger
More
Thrill Jockey
This sounds a little like what the soundtrack would be to a death scene in Twin Peaks. How would you like to die?
I think I will get knocked over by a car because I am always walking across the street listening to music and almost getting hit.
But is that how you would like to go?
No, just how I probably will. Erm, maybe the lethal injection would be OK? Or in space. Yes in space, if you were there you would be there for a good reason.
Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
Dracula Boots
In The Red
As well as having the best name of all time this guy has played in The Gun Club, The Cramps and The Bad Seeds, pretty good going.
I really like this one. It’s one of the best so far. More thumbs up. It sounds really old but in a good way.
This track is called “I Found A Peanut”. Where is the best place you have ever found a peanut?
I don’t eat many peanuts but I eat cashew nuts. I found a cashew nut in my hair once after it had been stuck in my hairbrush.
The Heads/White Hills
Collisions Vol 1
Rocket Records
This album just has two tracks. One from each band.
It sounds like Led Zeppelin but slower. I think it would be good music for a vampire film.
Have you ever seen a vampire?
No. But once my next-door neighbour had a party because her son got married and I looked down in the street where they were all having the party and they all looked like vampires. They all had white skin and red mouths.
Maybe they just like staying indoors and eating lots of raspberries?
No they looked really weird. I have a photo, I will show you.
Wooden Sjips
Dos
Holy Mountain
This band are called Wooden Ships except they spell it Wooden Sjips. Do you fine English spelling strange?
Yes it is fairly difficult but I mainly just have to speak it. I had to learn English and Italian and Portuguese as well in Brazil.
Why Italian?
I lived there and was studying and that was when I ran away to follow Pete Doherty.
What was it about Pete that made you run away from your studies?
I just loved the idea of being a groupie and I loved the music and it seemed like more fun than studying bio-mechanics.
Have you seen him lately?
No, I am going to see him with my mum in a few days, the showdown!
Yikes!
Isis
Wavering Radiant
Conspiracy
This one sounds like Sepultura too. His voice is very low. Like he has a sore throat.
When would you listen to this?
I don’t know. Maybe if I was really angry. Or trying to annoy someone.
Isis was an Egyptian deity, have you ever been to Egypt?
No but I would like to. The Nile and the pyramids. It is not at the top of the list but it would be nice. Not like this band, they do not sound nice. I do not like it at all.
Au Revoir Simone
Still Night, Still Light
Moshi Moshi
Can you speak French as well?
Not really, I like French cheese though, especially Brie.
It’s OK, they don’t actually sing in French. They just have a silly name.
I might listen to this on my day off. I hate waking up, it is like being born, or ripped from the womb. On my day off I do not get up until midday. I could get up and listen to this. It would make me happy. I bet the girls aren’t as saintly as they sound though.
Why not? Their voices are super angelic,
You know nothing about girls. It is always the girls who look like goodie goodies who are total sluts.
So you think Au Revoir Simone are sluts?
Yes,
Hey! Tonal
“Hey! Tonal”
Africantape
I love the artwork!
It looks like it might give you an epileptic fit if you weren’t careful.
I like it. It is crazy!
This song is called “If Flash Gordon Was A Sk8r”. Who is your favourite superhero?
I don’t know. I don’t know too many superheroes. Maybe the singer in this band. I really, really like it.
Willie Isz
Georgiavania
Lex
How do you feel about hip-hop?
I know nothing about hip hop but this doesn’t sound much like hip-hop to me. It just sounds a bit depressing.
So you don’t like it?
No, I can’t stand depressing music. I liked Interpol and Radiohead but if I listen to anything like that for too long it makes me really down and I have to stop.
I wonder if Willie ISZ would be into being compared to Radiohead and Interpol?
Savath & Savalas
La Llama
Stones Throw
I thought this was going to be a hip-hop recod but it appears not.
I hope this has no female choruses.
What, like a Lauryn Hill bit?
Yes! I hate Lauren Hill. Why does everyone like her? She annoys me so much that I can’t talk about it. It is the kind of music guys would play when they are trying to sleep with you. It makes me run for the door or out of the window.
You have run out of a window?
Yes, it is easy, you just have to pretend you are going to the loo or going to the off license and then you just leave.
Vice v7n5 Literary Reviews
THE PLEASURE AND SORROWS OF WORK
Alain De Boton
Penguin
I am not going to sit here and lie to you. I have not read this. Nor will I ever read it. You want to know why? OK, here’s why: I dislike the guy. Dislike is in fact perhaps, far too light a word for my feelings towards Alain de Boton. It would be easy to take pot shots. His first name is kind of an airy fairy version of a good solid name that works well for you average sheet metalworker and his surname sounds like, well, you get the idea. Plus he’s bald and baldies are always funny right? Wrong. All of those things are obviously not funny in any way to anyone beyond the age of 11. If you were agreeing with me a sentence ago I don’t like you either. Nope, it’s not his name or his appearance. Both of those things I’m actually a little envious of. And therein lies my dislike for the guy. He inherits millions from his dad which he never touches, he has a sparkling academic career, shits books every couple of years like it aint no thing and has a nice family, pretty cool looking house and, oh yeah, he can distil complex concepts about the very meaning of life, the universe and everything into easy to swallow lumps that would even make my alzheimers ridden granddad stop and go: “hmm, this guys onto summat”. Yep, I admit it. I want to be Alain de Boton. And for that I hate myself. And thanks to being the cause of this self loathing de Boton is not getting a minute more of my reading time.
penguin.co.uk
ON’T ROAD 11
Self-released
I have this friend called Tom Lamb and every time I went round to his house as a kid and go get some milk or whatever from the fridge I’d giggle like a little girl at this postcard that seemed to be stuck on there forever. It was just a photo of a sign somewhere in the countryside that said: “Beware. Lamb’s On’t Road”. Since then, every time I’ve drive around Yorkshire I’ve kept my eyes peeled for a similar sign. I’ve never found one. And then I turn up to work one day and this is staring at me. I don’t even know where it came from. If you gave it to me can you let me know? Just email: james@viceuk.com OK, so it may be missing the whole Lamb bit but it is full of stuff about two of my favourite things: punk rock music and traveling. If you like either of those things this comes highly recommended, even if only for the spot on Wanky’s review.
Ska1ska@yahoo.com
UNLOVEABLE
Esther Pearl Watson
Fantagraphics Books
Hopefully you remember Esther Pearl Watson as the co-author of Watcha Mean, What’s A Zine? If not, then all you need to know is that she is an artist, writer and illustrator from Fort Worth who allegedly moved around a lot as a kid because her dad had a habit of making giant UFO sculptures out of salvaged car parts which pissed the neighbours off. And everything she does is amazing to the power of a googleplex. All the moving around must have had a great effect on Esther because she really does make some of the best comics out there. This one is wholly based around the diary of a girl called Tammy Pierce who was a high school student in 1988 and for some reason left her diary in petrol station bathroom. Esther found the diary and drew it’s contents. Unloveable goes from split-your-sides funny to just-a-bit-of-dust-in-my-eye sad in a hairs breath. I wonder if Tammy and Esther have met since?
fantagraphics.com
SQUINX! 1
Self-released
This little sheaf of stapled fun is bought to you by the never less than constantly debauched Squallyoaks gang. You may know them from such other interesting outlets as everyone’s favourite disco for girls who like other girls: Girlcore, or being readily available as human installations for various Mathew Stone related thingies or for bands like Cupucabara or even just for living in a big squat in South London that is almost certainly a health and safety hazard to the whole surrounding area. All things considered it is a miracle this thing ever made it into being. That it is a great read in places and limited to the fairly bizarre figure of 276 makes it all the more so.
squinxzine@gmail.com
THE UNHOLY HAND 2
Self-released
When the first one came out I was blowing around all manner “best ‘zine in the UK” maxims but guess what? This one might just be a notch up from the debut. Sure, it took Nathan a while to get it together but how are you going to argue with a handmade, hardbound cover, interviews with Pulling Teeth, the excellent (and overlooked) Mentally Challenged and Mike fucking Williams from Eyehategod as well as a short story about pigeons, an introduction to savant metal, an essay on the image of the goat in black magic, a bit on Blood On Satan’s Claws and a heap of tastefully twisted illustrations? I’m not sure that you can. Go. Buy. Now.
myspace.com/theunholyhandfanzine
COLUMBINE
David Cullen
Old Street Publishing
Remember? The thing Micheal Moore got all riled up about? “Marilyn Manson did it!” All that kind of stuff. Believe it or not it has somehow been a whole ten years since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into their high school killed twelve of their fellow pupils, hurt twenty three more and then turned the tools on themselves. If you really want to feel like you know every agonizing detail of the personal trauma that led to the spree then here it is in under 500 pages. The detail will give you goose bumbs and at points you might want to look away but I defy anyone to not gorge on this in a single sitting. Makes Moore look like he was preaching to 4 year olds.
oldstreetpublishing.co.uk
Alain De Boton
Penguin
I am not going to sit here and lie to you. I have not read this. Nor will I ever read it. You want to know why? OK, here’s why: I dislike the guy. Dislike is in fact perhaps, far too light a word for my feelings towards Alain de Boton. It would be easy to take pot shots. His first name is kind of an airy fairy version of a good solid name that works well for you average sheet metalworker and his surname sounds like, well, you get the idea. Plus he’s bald and baldies are always funny right? Wrong. All of those things are obviously not funny in any way to anyone beyond the age of 11. If you were agreeing with me a sentence ago I don’t like you either. Nope, it’s not his name or his appearance. Both of those things I’m actually a little envious of. And therein lies my dislike for the guy. He inherits millions from his dad which he never touches, he has a sparkling academic career, shits books every couple of years like it aint no thing and has a nice family, pretty cool looking house and, oh yeah, he can distil complex concepts about the very meaning of life, the universe and everything into easy to swallow lumps that would even make my alzheimers ridden granddad stop and go: “hmm, this guys onto summat”. Yep, I admit it. I want to be Alain de Boton. And for that I hate myself. And thanks to being the cause of this self loathing de Boton is not getting a minute more of my reading time.
penguin.co.uk
ON’T ROAD 11
Self-released
I have this friend called Tom Lamb and every time I went round to his house as a kid and go get some milk or whatever from the fridge I’d giggle like a little girl at this postcard that seemed to be stuck on there forever. It was just a photo of a sign somewhere in the countryside that said: “Beware. Lamb’s On’t Road”. Since then, every time I’ve drive around Yorkshire I’ve kept my eyes peeled for a similar sign. I’ve never found one. And then I turn up to work one day and this is staring at me. I don’t even know where it came from. If you gave it to me can you let me know? Just email: james@viceuk.com OK, so it may be missing the whole Lamb bit but it is full of stuff about two of my favourite things: punk rock music and traveling. If you like either of those things this comes highly recommended, even if only for the spot on Wanky’s review.
Ska1ska@yahoo.com
UNLOVEABLE
Esther Pearl Watson
Fantagraphics Books
Hopefully you remember Esther Pearl Watson as the co-author of Watcha Mean, What’s A Zine? If not, then all you need to know is that she is an artist, writer and illustrator from Fort Worth who allegedly moved around a lot as a kid because her dad had a habit of making giant UFO sculptures out of salvaged car parts which pissed the neighbours off. And everything she does is amazing to the power of a googleplex. All the moving around must have had a great effect on Esther because she really does make some of the best comics out there. This one is wholly based around the diary of a girl called Tammy Pierce who was a high school student in 1988 and for some reason left her diary in petrol station bathroom. Esther found the diary and drew it’s contents. Unloveable goes from split-your-sides funny to just-a-bit-of-dust-in-my-eye sad in a hairs breath. I wonder if Tammy and Esther have met since?
fantagraphics.com
SQUINX! 1
Self-released
This little sheaf of stapled fun is bought to you by the never less than constantly debauched Squallyoaks gang. You may know them from such other interesting outlets as everyone’s favourite disco for girls who like other girls: Girlcore, or being readily available as human installations for various Mathew Stone related thingies or for bands like Cupucabara or even just for living in a big squat in South London that is almost certainly a health and safety hazard to the whole surrounding area. All things considered it is a miracle this thing ever made it into being. That it is a great read in places and limited to the fairly bizarre figure of 276 makes it all the more so.
squinxzine@gmail.com
THE UNHOLY HAND 2
Self-released
When the first one came out I was blowing around all manner “best ‘zine in the UK” maxims but guess what? This one might just be a notch up from the debut. Sure, it took Nathan a while to get it together but how are you going to argue with a handmade, hardbound cover, interviews with Pulling Teeth, the excellent (and overlooked) Mentally Challenged and Mike fucking Williams from Eyehategod as well as a short story about pigeons, an introduction to savant metal, an essay on the image of the goat in black magic, a bit on Blood On Satan’s Claws and a heap of tastefully twisted illustrations? I’m not sure that you can. Go. Buy. Now.
myspace.com/theunholyhandfanzine
COLUMBINE
David Cullen
Old Street Publishing
Remember? The thing Micheal Moore got all riled up about? “Marilyn Manson did it!” All that kind of stuff. Believe it or not it has somehow been a whole ten years since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into their high school killed twelve of their fellow pupils, hurt twenty three more and then turned the tools on themselves. If you really want to feel like you know every agonizing detail of the personal trauma that led to the spree then here it is in under 500 pages. The detail will give you goose bumbs and at points you might want to look away but I defy anyone to not gorge on this in a single sitting. Makes Moore look like he was preaching to 4 year olds.
oldstreetpublishing.co.uk
Vice Interview: Bob Nadkarni
Here is an amazing interview that my friend Max Bartram did for Vice v7n5, The Brazil Issue. It is very interesting and I did an edit of it that I hope did the material justice.
SLUM LORD
How An English Gentleman Reclaimed A Favela From The Police & Thieves
30 years ago an English film producer called Bob Nadkarni decided that he’d had more than enough of London so he packed his suitcases and headed to South America. Eventually, he settled in Tavaref Daftos, one of Rio de Janeiro's drug-lorded favelas. Not only did he decide to make an impoverished, shack-filled slope his home, he also managed to almost single -handedly clean the place up, chase out the machine gun toting dealers and build an art gallery to live in that slowly became a hotel.
Bob’s building became known as The Maze and now contains bars, swimming pools, monthly music nights and a guest list that include Snoop, Tim Roth, Edward Norton and, erm Gary Lineker. Due to the relatively low chances of getting randomly gunned down in an argument over the price of a wrap Bob’s favela has also become the primary location for just about every film that needs a shanty setting to have come out of Brazil in the last decade.
Vice: What made you up and leave London to head for a new life in South America?
Bob Nadkarni: I had a reasonably successful film career in England, but my marriage to a girl from art school who became a model didn't stand a chance because we barely even managed to cross paths at the airport. The break-up hit me pretty hard and I ended up in Southampton, forgot one of my cases on the dockside and get on the first ship going anywhere, which, as it happened, was Guayaquil in Equador.
That sounds pretty exotic but how did you end up in Rio?
Engine trouble coming down the coast of Brazil forced the boat to pull in for an 8-day repair in the port of Salvador. I took a taxi at the foot of the gangplank for a look-around and almost immediately got surrounded by seemingly crazed transvestites, one of whom opened the right door and drenched me with a bucket of water, followed by the left door through which a petite and topless girl was projected. Skipping a few sordid details, the ship sailed away with my other case and I, in my one pair of jeans and a T-shirt discovered that Brazil was cheaper, more efficient and more fun than psychotherapy.
So you stayed?
After two months I bussed down to Rio where I stayed out the year until I was visited by the military regime and escorted straight to a ship bound for Southampton. I picked up my life in commercials in England working with directors like Adrian Lyne, but despite being on an extradition list I was determined to get back to Rio. I decided to train myself as a newsman as it was the only job that scared the hell out of the Brazilian military. As I spoke Portuguese, I got a job for NBC covering the 1974 Portuguese revolution and then covered Beirut until 1978. I returned to Rio at the beginning of 1979 as a UPITN correspondent and spent 3 years crucifying the Junta. Which was fun.
What was it that possessed you to want to live in a favela?
At the beginning of 1981 I went with my maid Creuza to her favela home and the view from her window staggered me. I had always considered my job as temporary, planning a return to painting by the age of 50. So I built my studio up here amongst 500 people huddling in precarious shacks.
An old, white, English guy who is into painting doesn’t really sound like a your average favela tenant.
Naturally there's always someone trying to rip you off. In my case a guy called Antonio Hilario tried to sell me a house which turned out to belong to a couple spending a few months back in the North-East. I smelled a rat and steered clear of him, but I subsequently discovered that he was a killer when his rage turned on me. Antonio caused me enormous headaches and stole constantly from me, almost daring me to confront him. In the end I didn't have to. People like Antonio go around making enemies everywhere and one day he picked on someone who shot him dead.
How did you end up building The Maze?
A local community leader proposed that if I build a social centre I could put whatever I like on top. When I started building the road stopped three hundred yards down the hill. I had to carry every 50 kilo sack of cement, sand and crushed stone on my back. I had to earn my respect. But in less than year I had it running with dances, parties, adult literacy classes and a pre-natal clinic. I had to return to Beirut for a few months in 1982, which was so mentally stressful that, on my return I withdrew from the city and moved into the beginnings of my favela studio and got my permanent residence visa.
What about all the running gun battles that tend to go on in a favela, doesn’t sound like ideal retirement conditions?
When I first came to the hillside, there was one guy, unarmed, selling marijuana. Soon though the hillside was under constant attack from bigger gangs and it wasn’t long before we had gun battles in the streets. Since 1985, when I started at the BBC, I could use my status as a weapon. A corrupt cop refused to believe that a foreigner in a favela wasn't a drug lord and threatened me and my family. I recorded it all and caught my first cop.
You bribed a cop?
Extorted a cop. Every Thursday the police came up to collect their percentage of the drug traffic. I hid a wireless microphone on one of the local drug gang, and filmed it all. That put my second cop in prison.
The dealers must have loved you.
Because I never used drugs some of the younger traffickers wanted to eliminate me but their mistrust stopped after a young guy called Henrique, from a family who I’d sheltered years before, became the gang's executioner and declared himself my protector. I made it clear I was asking for nothing and my views on drugs remained the same. Soon after someone threatened me with a knife. He was found in the rubbish tip riddled with 78 bullet holes the next day. As dictates the law of the favela: everyone knows, but nobody speaks. I will never know for sure, but there is little doub. As with all young men involved with the drugs trade, Henrique died too young to either confirm or deny what actually happened.
How did you manage to clear the gangsters out?
20 years ago it had become obvious to me that the violence could only escalate, and that the gangs from other favelas would outgun the boys from our hill. We had a gigantic abandoned casino in our favela and I proposed that the State Government turn it into the Rio police force's Elite Squad HQ. Unlike the regular police the Elite Squad are uncorruptable. Once they moved into the favela the drug gangs fled.
How did the favela become so popular for film-making?
Even during the drugs era we had shot clips up in the favela. Snoop's signature is still somewhere under the pebbledash on my living room wall. Encouraged by this I started to put ads in media journals abroad and soon people like Pharell were turning up to shoot stuff. "Shoot without being shot" was our motto. They even did the Incredible Hulk here. Having Charlotte Rampling, Fisher Stevens and Irene Jacob here was nice and finally at the age of 65 I’ve made it to the other side of the camera and started acting myself.
Looking back what have you have been proudest of doing here?
Probably the freedom that everyone has gained up here. Before nobody would come up the hill. We couldn’t have opened hairdressers or vegetable shops. The bars were always here of course but within months of The BOPE joining us, we had opened a ballet school and now, eight year later we’ve placed five students in the Municipal Ballet School. There are art classes, a football school, 40 kids from the favela are in the Petrobras Child Orchestra and another 40 are in the local samba drum band.
Max Bartram
SLUM LORD
How An English Gentleman Reclaimed A Favela From The Police & Thieves
30 years ago an English film producer called Bob Nadkarni decided that he’d had more than enough of London so he packed his suitcases and headed to South America. Eventually, he settled in Tavaref Daftos, one of Rio de Janeiro's drug-lorded favelas. Not only did he decide to make an impoverished, shack-filled slope his home, he also managed to almost single -handedly clean the place up, chase out the machine gun toting dealers and build an art gallery to live in that slowly became a hotel.
Bob’s building became known as The Maze and now contains bars, swimming pools, monthly music nights and a guest list that include Snoop, Tim Roth, Edward Norton and, erm Gary Lineker. Due to the relatively low chances of getting randomly gunned down in an argument over the price of a wrap Bob’s favela has also become the primary location for just about every film that needs a shanty setting to have come out of Brazil in the last decade.
Vice: What made you up and leave London to head for a new life in South America?
Bob Nadkarni: I had a reasonably successful film career in England, but my marriage to a girl from art school who became a model didn't stand a chance because we barely even managed to cross paths at the airport. The break-up hit me pretty hard and I ended up in Southampton, forgot one of my cases on the dockside and get on the first ship going anywhere, which, as it happened, was Guayaquil in Equador.
That sounds pretty exotic but how did you end up in Rio?
Engine trouble coming down the coast of Brazil forced the boat to pull in for an 8-day repair in the port of Salvador. I took a taxi at the foot of the gangplank for a look-around and almost immediately got surrounded by seemingly crazed transvestites, one of whom opened the right door and drenched me with a bucket of water, followed by the left door through which a petite and topless girl was projected. Skipping a few sordid details, the ship sailed away with my other case and I, in my one pair of jeans and a T-shirt discovered that Brazil was cheaper, more efficient and more fun than psychotherapy.
So you stayed?
After two months I bussed down to Rio where I stayed out the year until I was visited by the military regime and escorted straight to a ship bound for Southampton. I picked up my life in commercials in England working with directors like Adrian Lyne, but despite being on an extradition list I was determined to get back to Rio. I decided to train myself as a newsman as it was the only job that scared the hell out of the Brazilian military. As I spoke Portuguese, I got a job for NBC covering the 1974 Portuguese revolution and then covered Beirut until 1978. I returned to Rio at the beginning of 1979 as a UPITN correspondent and spent 3 years crucifying the Junta. Which was fun.
What was it that possessed you to want to live in a favela?
At the beginning of 1981 I went with my maid Creuza to her favela home and the view from her window staggered me. I had always considered my job as temporary, planning a return to painting by the age of 50. So I built my studio up here amongst 500 people huddling in precarious shacks.
An old, white, English guy who is into painting doesn’t really sound like a your average favela tenant.
Naturally there's always someone trying to rip you off. In my case a guy called Antonio Hilario tried to sell me a house which turned out to belong to a couple spending a few months back in the North-East. I smelled a rat and steered clear of him, but I subsequently discovered that he was a killer when his rage turned on me. Antonio caused me enormous headaches and stole constantly from me, almost daring me to confront him. In the end I didn't have to. People like Antonio go around making enemies everywhere and one day he picked on someone who shot him dead.
How did you end up building The Maze?
A local community leader proposed that if I build a social centre I could put whatever I like on top. When I started building the road stopped three hundred yards down the hill. I had to carry every 50 kilo sack of cement, sand and crushed stone on my back. I had to earn my respect. But in less than year I had it running with dances, parties, adult literacy classes and a pre-natal clinic. I had to return to Beirut for a few months in 1982, which was so mentally stressful that, on my return I withdrew from the city and moved into the beginnings of my favela studio and got my permanent residence visa.
What about all the running gun battles that tend to go on in a favela, doesn’t sound like ideal retirement conditions?
When I first came to the hillside, there was one guy, unarmed, selling marijuana. Soon though the hillside was under constant attack from bigger gangs and it wasn’t long before we had gun battles in the streets. Since 1985, when I started at the BBC, I could use my status as a weapon. A corrupt cop refused to believe that a foreigner in a favela wasn't a drug lord and threatened me and my family. I recorded it all and caught my first cop.
You bribed a cop?
Extorted a cop. Every Thursday the police came up to collect their percentage of the drug traffic. I hid a wireless microphone on one of the local drug gang, and filmed it all. That put my second cop in prison.
The dealers must have loved you.
Because I never used drugs some of the younger traffickers wanted to eliminate me but their mistrust stopped after a young guy called Henrique, from a family who I’d sheltered years before, became the gang's executioner and declared himself my protector. I made it clear I was asking for nothing and my views on drugs remained the same. Soon after someone threatened me with a knife. He was found in the rubbish tip riddled with 78 bullet holes the next day. As dictates the law of the favela: everyone knows, but nobody speaks. I will never know for sure, but there is little doub. As with all young men involved with the drugs trade, Henrique died too young to either confirm or deny what actually happened.
How did you manage to clear the gangsters out?
20 years ago it had become obvious to me that the violence could only escalate, and that the gangs from other favelas would outgun the boys from our hill. We had a gigantic abandoned casino in our favela and I proposed that the State Government turn it into the Rio police force's Elite Squad HQ. Unlike the regular police the Elite Squad are uncorruptable. Once they moved into the favela the drug gangs fled.
How did the favela become so popular for film-making?
Even during the drugs era we had shot clips up in the favela. Snoop's signature is still somewhere under the pebbledash on my living room wall. Encouraged by this I started to put ads in media journals abroad and soon people like Pharell were turning up to shoot stuff. "Shoot without being shot" was our motto. They even did the Incredible Hulk here. Having Charlotte Rampling, Fisher Stevens and Irene Jacob here was nice and finally at the age of 65 I’ve made it to the other side of the camera and started acting myself.
Looking back what have you have been proudest of doing here?
Probably the freedom that everyone has gained up here. Before nobody would come up the hill. We couldn’t have opened hairdressers or vegetable shops. The bars were always here of course but within months of The BOPE joining us, we had opened a ballet school and now, eight year later we’ve placed five students in the Municipal Ballet School. There are art classes, a football school, 40 kids from the favela are in the Petrobras Child Orchestra and another 40 are in the local samba drum band.
Max Bartram
Vice Guide: Things To See In Europe That Won’t Make You Fall Asleep And Wish You Were Back Home
Here is a Guide that myself and Bruno Bayley knocked up with help from our European buddies of strange and interesting places to go if ever you find yourself in Europe. It was written for the 2009 Vice Student Guide.
Things To See In Europe That Won’t Make You Fall Asleep And Wish You Were Back Home
At some point or other in your three years of minimal activity and maximum sloth you will snap, and want to explore the wider world. This will be an urge stronger in those who didn’t spend a year dicking about it South East Asia after their A-levels. For all those who want to recreate the Grand Tour or pretend they are George Orwell for a spell in the Easter break here are a few of the less obvious attractions that the wonderful continental lands have to offer.
ITALY
The Forte Prenestino, Rome
Though the idea of travelling all the way to the home of Roman civilization to see a squat may seem a bit odd, you have to take into account that this is the biggest squat in Europe, and therefore of interest. If you are into squats. The Germans think they have the whole squatting thing on lock with their organic beer made from grass and their violin toting punks who do interpretive ballet set to Wagner but The Forte Prenestino is the real deal. The Italians call squats ‘centro sociali’, which sounds far more whimsical than plain old ‘squat’, but the same thing that goes on in abandoned warehouses in Peckham goes on here on a grander and more generally productive scale. Think an old fort full of people putting on parties, concerts and exhibitions of such volume and frequency that it makes London’s anarcho crusty sit-ins look pretty half arsed.
The Vittoriale Degli Italiani. Gardone Riviera
Imagine if, in the early 20th century, the state gave almost unlimited funds to a daredevil fascist poet, allowing him to expand his lakeside villa at will, just in order to keep him from interfering with the government. Well that is exactly what the Italian Government actually did. Those crazy wops huh? The fascist poet Gabriele d'Annunzio's monumental folly on Lake Garda, in northern Italy was built to insane proportions, and successfully kept the busy body poet out of the way. His work is widely credited with inspiring Mussolini and Italian fascism. Oh, and his house has a battleship in the garden.
The ancient abandoned city of Ragusa Ibla
Rgusa Ibla is a perfectly preserved gothic baroque style town in the hills above the modern city of Ragusa, Sicily. It's huge, amazing and practically empty aside from the few old people who never moved to the new town. So if you have a thing for creepy, haunted towns and lonely old women, go check it out.
AUSTRIA
Narrenturm, Vienna
Not a million miles away from London’s Huntarian Museum, the Narrenturm offers strange biological samples and a cornucopia of repellent human anomalies. It is far less well known than the Huntarian though so you will be able to enjoy its unnerving exhibits without a family with three five year olds crying next to you. It was the building where Vienna’s mentally ill were housed in the ninteenth century so it will make for a sure-fire jolly stop on your tour of merry Austria.
Fucking, Tarsdorf
Fucking is a village in Upper Austria. There is absolutely nothing interesting about the town apart from the fact that it has a rude name. The town nearly changed its name in 2004 in an effort to stem the flow of public funds that were being used to replace stolen municipal signage. There are now CCTV cameras around the town’s welcome sign to prevent people from nabbing it, so don’t bother unless you are so broke that you could so with a nice rest up in Austrian jail. If you can get away with nicking it though you will have a real gem to set off that wall of traffic cones that you spent all of last year decorating your front room with.
FRANCE
The Mascaret Bore, Bordeaux
Have you ever wanted to see a French man waist deep in shit and sewage? At the confluence of the Atlantic ocean and the Dordogne River you can find just that. Here, when the conditions are right, surfers line up to catch a wave made of effluence. An occasional phenomenon occurring when the oceanic waves are so strong that they rush up the river and carry with them all the crap built up over the previous year. Charming non? Leopoldine, the favorite child of Victor Hugo, drowned on a big wave of shit caused by this very natural wonder.
Le Palais Idéal de Ferdinand Cheval, Hauterives
A postman from a remote province of southern France, Ferdinand Cheval, spent 33 years around the turn of the century creating an "ideal palace", made from stones he gathered on his daily 32km postal round. Poorly educated and with no knowledge of architecture, he shaped his surreal palace from daydreams, without help. Though all his local contemporaries thought he was a raving lunatic, surrealist artists and modern artists look upon his palace as a high point of “naïve architecture”, which sounds rude, but isn’t, and is a lot more interesting than the Eiffel Tower.
Demeure du Chaos, Lyon
As you are students you wont have had to try and get planning permission for anything yet, but rest assured it’s a fucking nightmare. Seriously, you can’t paint your door red in most of London without giving Boris a handjob. That’s why Thierry Erhmann, a French internet millionaire, is such a swell guy. The ‘artwork’ his home, which he has named “The Abode of Chaos”, has become is based around the transformation of a pretty 17th century building into a replica war zone, including a burned out helicopter in the garden and an imitation oil platform on the roof. Thierry has been battling lawsuits for a while now and this is probably the only fun thing about Lyon, so well worth a look if before they bring the bulldozers in if you ever find yourself there.
GERMANY
Obersalzberg, Bavaria
The Obersalzberg one of the oldest tourist hot spots in Germany. It’s got loads of really pretty mountains and things that make you glad you aren’t in a city. So much so that the area was Hitler’s favorite spot to hang out in his free time. It is in fact the setting of the infamous Eagle’s Nest. Though the Bavarian government have been doing their best to bury the region’s National Socialist past you can still see remnants of buildings and fortifications, some of which have become museums or hotels so that you can have an Appletizer while reflecting on one of Europe’s top mass murders.
Spreepark, Berlin
The Spreepark, also known as Cultural Park Plänterwald, is a Coney Island-esque creepy abandoned theme park with overtones of Chernobyl. Only without Coney Island’s hobo armies or Chernobyl’s lethal radiation. The park was the only permanent fun fair in Berlin at the time of the unification, but went into insolvency in 2002 after the park’s owner and his entourage did a runner to Peru with six of the key attractions. As an interesting side note: the park’s owner was later caught attempting to smuggle 180 kg of cocaine back from Peru to Germany in the masts of the park’s flying carpet ride.
Frauenhofer Schoppenstube, Munich
If you have been traveling wearily around Germany and need a good feed, our German office assures us that this place is great. It’s small and informal, but a great place to get insanely drunk and eat the best fleichpflanzerl (meatballs) in the whole of Deutschland. Go trough.
SWEDEN
Truckstop Alaska, Gothenburg
This is the seediest bar in Sweden and, quite possibly, the world. It's run by anarcho-feminists and we are not totally sure it's legal. Last time we went there two different people fell over and landed on our table, and the band on stage chanted "våldtäkt, våldtäkt, våldtäkt". That means "rape, rape, rape" in Swedish. Not for the faint hearted.
Studio Andromeda, Saltsjö-Boo
The girls in our Stockholm office are friends with the guy who runs the studio which we featured in our recent Technology Issue. They assure us that a request for a guided tour of the studio to +46(0)8-55660099 will result in a fascinating trip, as long as you are happy to either pay the guy some money, or buy some of his records.
The Apple Capital of Sweden, Kivik
Maybe this will sound a bit wet and whimsical compared to Czech sanatoriums and Italian fascists, but this is the region where all of Sweden’s apples are grown. There are little B&Bs everywhere, the hills are covered in wonky looking apple trees, and kids line up along the roads selling fresh apples and "must" (think cider) along the roads. If you want a taste of quaint old time Sweden, go here, but make sure it’s apple season or it will be a total waste of time.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Sanatorium Bohnice, Prague
While you can traipse around an ex-sanatorium in Austria, Prague offers the real thing, with live inmates and all. You are literally free to walk around the mad house. It is probably a bit like walking around Bedlam in its heyday, though hopefully they have stopped putting cages on peoples heads and making them have sex for the visitors. There's even a pub where patients cook and serve you beer. Fun, if potentially unnerving.
Sedlec Ossuary, Sedlec
This is like a Czech version of the Santa Maria Della Concezione Dei Cappuccini chapel in Rome. A small chapel decorated lavishly with a huge number of human bones. It’s not an interior design choice you see a lot of, but it looks pretty great. Sedlec is a suburb of Kutná Hora. The bones of tens of thousands people are buried in the grounds of the chapel, and a lot of them are arranged around the place in creepy, macarbre decorative layouts: pyramids of skulls, chains of hip bones, butterflies made from shoulder blades, fruit baskets made of knuckles and, well, you get the idea.
NETHERLANDS
Studio 80, Amesterdam
A club which lies on the Rembrandt Square aka the worst, most tourist-y bit of the whole of Amsterdam. But, tucked right inbetween the Escape which might just be the worst club in the worst, most tourist-y bit of the whole of Amsterdam and an Irish pub that doubles as an all-you-can-eat spare ribs joint is Studio 80. It is the club with the nondescript entrance and it is home to some of the best dance parties the city has to offer. It’s a bit like an ornate Fabrege egg wedged between two steaming turds.
Tilburg
About 99% of people who travel to Holland end up getting an Easyjet flight to Amsrerdam, smoking too much weed, throwing up in a canal and slobbering through a plate glass window at some haggard hookers thrusting their labia’s around like opiated ostriches. However, as it wouldn’t take a genius let alone someone of your higher educated mind to work out, there is more to the low country than Amsetrdam. Tilburg is the Netherlands’ hidden gem of a city with its gothic cathedrals and rolling countryside. As well as being the growing up place of some painter guy who got pissy and cut his own ear off it features the biggest fun fair in Benelux which goes on for a whole ten days. It is also home to the Roadburn festival which is great if you are into things like ogling Kerry King guitar solos.
The Efteling, Kaatsheuvel
One of the oldest theme parks on the planet and the one place every kid in Holland knows about. It’s kind of everything that you wanted Euro Disney to be when you were five but scripted by the Brothers Grimm. As well as popular freaks like Langnek the long-necked dwarf and a tonne of haunted castles and mazes you can also ride on the pant-filling Flying Dutchman. Think being trapped in that David Bowie film Labryinthe minus the annoying girl who thinks she can escape by marking an escape path in lipstick and you’re not a million miles off.
Things To See In Europe That Won’t Make You Fall Asleep And Wish You Were Back Home
At some point or other in your three years of minimal activity and maximum sloth you will snap, and want to explore the wider world. This will be an urge stronger in those who didn’t spend a year dicking about it South East Asia after their A-levels. For all those who want to recreate the Grand Tour or pretend they are George Orwell for a spell in the Easter break here are a few of the less obvious attractions that the wonderful continental lands have to offer.
ITALY
The Forte Prenestino, Rome
Though the idea of travelling all the way to the home of Roman civilization to see a squat may seem a bit odd, you have to take into account that this is the biggest squat in Europe, and therefore of interest. If you are into squats. The Germans think they have the whole squatting thing on lock with their organic beer made from grass and their violin toting punks who do interpretive ballet set to Wagner but The Forte Prenestino is the real deal. The Italians call squats ‘centro sociali’, which sounds far more whimsical than plain old ‘squat’, but the same thing that goes on in abandoned warehouses in Peckham goes on here on a grander and more generally productive scale. Think an old fort full of people putting on parties, concerts and exhibitions of such volume and frequency that it makes London’s anarcho crusty sit-ins look pretty half arsed.
The Vittoriale Degli Italiani. Gardone Riviera
Imagine if, in the early 20th century, the state gave almost unlimited funds to a daredevil fascist poet, allowing him to expand his lakeside villa at will, just in order to keep him from interfering with the government. Well that is exactly what the Italian Government actually did. Those crazy wops huh? The fascist poet Gabriele d'Annunzio's monumental folly on Lake Garda, in northern Italy was built to insane proportions, and successfully kept the busy body poet out of the way. His work is widely credited with inspiring Mussolini and Italian fascism. Oh, and his house has a battleship in the garden.
The ancient abandoned city of Ragusa Ibla
Rgusa Ibla is a perfectly preserved gothic baroque style town in the hills above the modern city of Ragusa, Sicily. It's huge, amazing and practically empty aside from the few old people who never moved to the new town. So if you have a thing for creepy, haunted towns and lonely old women, go check it out.
AUSTRIA
Narrenturm, Vienna
Not a million miles away from London’s Huntarian Museum, the Narrenturm offers strange biological samples and a cornucopia of repellent human anomalies. It is far less well known than the Huntarian though so you will be able to enjoy its unnerving exhibits without a family with three five year olds crying next to you. It was the building where Vienna’s mentally ill were housed in the ninteenth century so it will make for a sure-fire jolly stop on your tour of merry Austria.
Fucking, Tarsdorf
Fucking is a village in Upper Austria. There is absolutely nothing interesting about the town apart from the fact that it has a rude name. The town nearly changed its name in 2004 in an effort to stem the flow of public funds that were being used to replace stolen municipal signage. There are now CCTV cameras around the town’s welcome sign to prevent people from nabbing it, so don’t bother unless you are so broke that you could so with a nice rest up in Austrian jail. If you can get away with nicking it though you will have a real gem to set off that wall of traffic cones that you spent all of last year decorating your front room with.
FRANCE
The Mascaret Bore, Bordeaux
Have you ever wanted to see a French man waist deep in shit and sewage? At the confluence of the Atlantic ocean and the Dordogne River you can find just that. Here, when the conditions are right, surfers line up to catch a wave made of effluence. An occasional phenomenon occurring when the oceanic waves are so strong that they rush up the river and carry with them all the crap built up over the previous year. Charming non? Leopoldine, the favorite child of Victor Hugo, drowned on a big wave of shit caused by this very natural wonder.
Le Palais Idéal de Ferdinand Cheval, Hauterives
A postman from a remote province of southern France, Ferdinand Cheval, spent 33 years around the turn of the century creating an "ideal palace", made from stones he gathered on his daily 32km postal round. Poorly educated and with no knowledge of architecture, he shaped his surreal palace from daydreams, without help. Though all his local contemporaries thought he was a raving lunatic, surrealist artists and modern artists look upon his palace as a high point of “naïve architecture”, which sounds rude, but isn’t, and is a lot more interesting than the Eiffel Tower.
Demeure du Chaos, Lyon
As you are students you wont have had to try and get planning permission for anything yet, but rest assured it’s a fucking nightmare. Seriously, you can’t paint your door red in most of London without giving Boris a handjob. That’s why Thierry Erhmann, a French internet millionaire, is such a swell guy. The ‘artwork’ his home, which he has named “The Abode of Chaos”, has become is based around the transformation of a pretty 17th century building into a replica war zone, including a burned out helicopter in the garden and an imitation oil platform on the roof. Thierry has been battling lawsuits for a while now and this is probably the only fun thing about Lyon, so well worth a look if before they bring the bulldozers in if you ever find yourself there.
GERMANY
Obersalzberg, Bavaria
The Obersalzberg one of the oldest tourist hot spots in Germany. It’s got loads of really pretty mountains and things that make you glad you aren’t in a city. So much so that the area was Hitler’s favorite spot to hang out in his free time. It is in fact the setting of the infamous Eagle’s Nest. Though the Bavarian government have been doing their best to bury the region’s National Socialist past you can still see remnants of buildings and fortifications, some of which have become museums or hotels so that you can have an Appletizer while reflecting on one of Europe’s top mass murders.
Spreepark, Berlin
The Spreepark, also known as Cultural Park Plänterwald, is a Coney Island-esque creepy abandoned theme park with overtones of Chernobyl. Only without Coney Island’s hobo armies or Chernobyl’s lethal radiation. The park was the only permanent fun fair in Berlin at the time of the unification, but went into insolvency in 2002 after the park’s owner and his entourage did a runner to Peru with six of the key attractions. As an interesting side note: the park’s owner was later caught attempting to smuggle 180 kg of cocaine back from Peru to Germany in the masts of the park’s flying carpet ride.
Frauenhofer Schoppenstube, Munich
If you have been traveling wearily around Germany and need a good feed, our German office assures us that this place is great. It’s small and informal, but a great place to get insanely drunk and eat the best fleichpflanzerl (meatballs) in the whole of Deutschland. Go trough.
SWEDEN
Truckstop Alaska, Gothenburg
This is the seediest bar in Sweden and, quite possibly, the world. It's run by anarcho-feminists and we are not totally sure it's legal. Last time we went there two different people fell over and landed on our table, and the band on stage chanted "våldtäkt, våldtäkt, våldtäkt". That means "rape, rape, rape" in Swedish. Not for the faint hearted.
Studio Andromeda, Saltsjö-Boo
The girls in our Stockholm office are friends with the guy who runs the studio which we featured in our recent Technology Issue. They assure us that a request for a guided tour of the studio to +46(0)8-55660099 will result in a fascinating trip, as long as you are happy to either pay the guy some money, or buy some of his records.
The Apple Capital of Sweden, Kivik
Maybe this will sound a bit wet and whimsical compared to Czech sanatoriums and Italian fascists, but this is the region where all of Sweden’s apples are grown. There are little B&Bs everywhere, the hills are covered in wonky looking apple trees, and kids line up along the roads selling fresh apples and "must" (think cider) along the roads. If you want a taste of quaint old time Sweden, go here, but make sure it’s apple season or it will be a total waste of time.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Sanatorium Bohnice, Prague
While you can traipse around an ex-sanatorium in Austria, Prague offers the real thing, with live inmates and all. You are literally free to walk around the mad house. It is probably a bit like walking around Bedlam in its heyday, though hopefully they have stopped putting cages on peoples heads and making them have sex for the visitors. There's even a pub where patients cook and serve you beer. Fun, if potentially unnerving.
Sedlec Ossuary, Sedlec
This is like a Czech version of the Santa Maria Della Concezione Dei Cappuccini chapel in Rome. A small chapel decorated lavishly with a huge number of human bones. It’s not an interior design choice you see a lot of, but it looks pretty great. Sedlec is a suburb of Kutná Hora. The bones of tens of thousands people are buried in the grounds of the chapel, and a lot of them are arranged around the place in creepy, macarbre decorative layouts: pyramids of skulls, chains of hip bones, butterflies made from shoulder blades, fruit baskets made of knuckles and, well, you get the idea.
NETHERLANDS
Studio 80, Amesterdam
A club which lies on the Rembrandt Square aka the worst, most tourist-y bit of the whole of Amsterdam. But, tucked right inbetween the Escape which might just be the worst club in the worst, most tourist-y bit of the whole of Amsterdam and an Irish pub that doubles as an all-you-can-eat spare ribs joint is Studio 80. It is the club with the nondescript entrance and it is home to some of the best dance parties the city has to offer. It’s a bit like an ornate Fabrege egg wedged between two steaming turds.
Tilburg
About 99% of people who travel to Holland end up getting an Easyjet flight to Amsrerdam, smoking too much weed, throwing up in a canal and slobbering through a plate glass window at some haggard hookers thrusting their labia’s around like opiated ostriches. However, as it wouldn’t take a genius let alone someone of your higher educated mind to work out, there is more to the low country than Amsetrdam. Tilburg is the Netherlands’ hidden gem of a city with its gothic cathedrals and rolling countryside. As well as being the growing up place of some painter guy who got pissy and cut his own ear off it features the biggest fun fair in Benelux which goes on for a whole ten days. It is also home to the Roadburn festival which is great if you are into things like ogling Kerry King guitar solos.
The Efteling, Kaatsheuvel
One of the oldest theme parks on the planet and the one place every kid in Holland knows about. It’s kind of everything that you wanted Euro Disney to be when you were five but scripted by the Brothers Grimm. As well as popular freaks like Langnek the long-necked dwarf and a tonne of haunted castles and mazes you can also ride on the pant-filling Flying Dutchman. Think being trapped in that David Bowie film Labryinthe minus the annoying girl who thinks she can escape by marking an escape path in lipstick and you’re not a million miles off.
Vice Interview: Cold Cave
Another interview originally intended for the mag that ended up on the blog over at Viceland.com.
Preface: We know everyone loves Cold Cave now but we actually wrote this approximately one million years ago – well, back in May when they played The Luminaire with Ariel Pink. (What happened to that guy, by the way? I thought he was some kooky off-the-wall sound collager. He just sounded like Flower Travellin' Band that night.) Anyway, we were listening to the Cold Cave record in the office and I remembered we had this sitting on my desktop gathering dust. The album is great so read this, then go listen to them.
Preface: We know everyone loves Cold Cave now but we actually wrote this approximately one million years ago – well, back in May when they played The Luminaire with Ariel Pink. (What happened to that guy, by the way? I thought he was some kooky off-the-wall sound collager. He just sounded like Flower Travellin' Band that night.) Anyway, we were listening to the Cold Cave record in the office and I remembered we had this sitting on my desktop gathering dust. The album is great so read this, then go listen to them.
Vice Interview: Crocodiles
Here is an interview with the band Crocodiles that was intended for the mag and ended up on Viceland.com.
Just like that Cold Cave piece that we put up the other day, this one is from the archives and found itself yellowing and fraying at the edges and crying out to be read. So we heeded its plea and here it is. If you aren't familiar with Crocodiles yet, you must have been locked in cave in Llandudno for the last 12 months and you should go and listen to their shimmering downer hit "Summer of Hate" right now.
Just like that Cold Cave piece that we put up the other day, this one is from the archives and found itself yellowing and fraying at the edges and crying out to be read. So we heeded its plea and here it is. If you aren't familiar with Crocodiles yet, you must have been locked in cave in Llandudno for the last 12 months and you should go and listen to their shimmering downer hit "Summer of Hate" right now.
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