Beyond all reason, I am attached to the idea of true love and the idea that there is someone in the world that you are meant to be with. You know, “the one”. Maybe you already know that person, or maybe you have a connection waiting to be discovered, whatever, that person is somewhere in this world.
It's a kinda crazy and overwhelming prospect. What are the chances that while you're going about your daily life and normal routine, you will find someone who totally gives you THAT feeling?
It's not something that just happens all the time, so when it does, it totally sets your world on fire and makes your heart feel alive. All of a sudden, it's hard to imagine a life worth living without that person in it. You feel absolutely convinced that those feelings will never die, in fact, they will keep growing deeper and deeper with time.
But. What happens when you think you've found that person, but the timing and circumstances are all wrong?
Like, for starters, what are the chances you that the other person will immediately get the same feeling from you? And that you, or they, won't have just ended some messy relationship and be all fucked-up and heartbroken? And that you, or they, despite your best intentions, won't be all hurt and bitter from general past heartbreaks?
And that neither of you will be just about to leave town or move away? And that you, and they, actually feel ready for some sort of “all-consuming thing”?
What if the circumstances simply don't allow for you to be together? What if the timing is just all wrong?
Do you accept the idea that there may never be a chance to ever be together? Do you just keep moving forward, with a heart that has some bitter regrets about missed opportunities and stupid timing?
Even if that other person finds someone else, do you let it go?
Or do you remain ever hopeful and eternally delusional? In love with the idea that everything will work out and be perfect in the end. I mean, you don't want to settle for your second choice, right?
I always kinda wrote off the Descendents as being a bunch of adolescent suburban punk boys, teeming with juvenile sentiments and, I suspected, probably renowned for charmingly dumb teenage antics.
But in the last few years, Chris has almost always played them on the 4ZZZ Punk Show, and finally, I get it. I get them. And shit, I gotta give some play to a band that is considered to be somewhat pioneering in the pop punk genre. And if I was to put them in a further sub-genre it would be “eternally-heartsick-but-forever-hopeful-if-not-somewhat-naive-about-matters-of-the-heart pop-punk”.
I mean, that song “I'm The One”...woah. Who doesn't wish that they wrote that? And of course, “Hope”. Which is the reason why we're here today:
My day will come/
I know someday/
I'll be the only one
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Why I was the one worth leaving
Frank Turner covering "The District Sleeps Alone" and breaking my heart over-and-over again.
I texted my best-friend Lucy to tell her I'd just listened to this song on repeat *at least 10 times* and she instructed me to stop it immediately. She is one of the people who understands how I subject myself to melancholy heartbreaking music like this and potentially wallow in it forever. I almost make myself feel worse, but it also makes me feel so much better too. So I might just sneak in one more listen today.
There's something about Frank Turner that is an affirmation for me. Even if he doesn't always explicitly spell-it-out lyrically, his songs give me this feeling that is hard to describe, but important for me to try and understand. Something about unfinished lives still in progress, people that haven't got it all sorted out yet and are still fucking-up and starting from scratch and trying again and again and again. Like you could let your painful failures and heartbreaks crush you, but you can also remember that the world is full of people starting over their lives from scratch every day.
I'm in good company (or at least, lots of it) even when I think I'm struggling alone with all this stuff.
Also, aforementioned best-friend Lucy is responsible for this sentiment, some words that I thoroughly endorse:
"I don't believe in staying in touch, it's for boring people who are dead inside. for people like us we just fall right back into things when we see each other."
And I'll add to that a few more things, like that I don't care about romanticising the old-days or school-days as the best time of my life, and I don't want to "catch up" or look back and reminisce, I really am more interested in moving on and more interested in now.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Royal Headache
Tonight it would appear to be the case that every single person in Melbourne has gone to see Melt Banana, but I'm home alone, working on my zine and updating my blog and eating Tofutti Cuties. Which has its own charm, I guess. And listening to Royal Headache, which definitely has a whole bunch of charm about it.
They are pretty awesome. My friend Dave recommended them to me and said he was sure I would love them. Which is totally the case. I can't believe they played in Melbourne not long ago and I didn't even go see them. Fail. But I will fix this sad state-of-affairs, and hopefully see them somewhere soon.
This band!
They are pretty awesome. My friend Dave recommended them to me and said he was sure I would love them. Which is totally the case. I can't believe they played in Melbourne not long ago and I didn't even go see them. Fail. But I will fix this sad state-of-affairs, and hopefully see them somewhere soon.
This band!
Confused (to shift the focus)
Age is a band that is totally significant and special for me and it reminds me of a lot of different things, starting in the summer of 1999 and up to 2003 when I was in Berlin.
(In the summer of 1999) While I was on the train going across town from my hostel near Warsauer Strasse to a sorta ex-squatted art venue called Tacheles I was intriguedly (is that a word?) looking at the guy opposite me reading a zine, who was wearing a Muff Potter shirt and had a Spitboy tattoo on his leg. We kept exchanging glances but I felt too shy to talk and that was without the whole language barrier inhibition thing.
That night I met up with my one internet punk contact in Berlin, Thomas, out the front of the Converge show at Tommy Weisbecker Haus. He said I couldn’t stay at his place cos it was tiny and he had someone else staying, but he’d arranged for me to stay with some friends of his and said he’d introduce me to...to the guy from the subway! Whose name was Phillipe!!!
The next couple of weeks involved staying at Phillipe’s house with a constant soundtrack of Ivich, Jasemine, Vanilla, Age, Muff Potter, all that dreamy euro emo stuff. And that slightly-famous-in-an-underground-way anarchist pop band from Luxembourg that Phillipe’s other houseguest was the "manager" for, but I cannot ever remember their name.
I always meant to get an Age record, but never actually did, apart from having some songs on a tape (with other bands like Headache and Zorn) from my pal Donat in Berlin.
Cut to early 2003 in Brisbane when my friend Sanne's boyfriend in Germany sent a mixtape with Age on it, so I finally got to hear them again. A couple of months later, I was leaving to go to Europe and I made a mixtape for my travels that included my favourite Age song of all time “Confused (to shift the focus)” as well as “Wolf” and maybe one other song of theirs, and a bunch of Billy Bragg and Hot Water Music and Le Tigre and Epoxies and Rumbleseat and whatever.
Skip to July 2003, me and Sophie hitching just before nightfall on the edge of Dresden holding a sign to get to the Czech Republic. We'd gotten dropped off there by a nice guy who had just finished working on a film-set, he was one of those great “down for the count” kinda people and I was totally enjoying talking to him and felt a little sad when we had to get out of the car.
But on the upside, he assured us he was dropping us at an amazing hitching spot. As cars whizzed by and nightfall started approaching, I started to have some doubts though, and was getting panicked visions of sleeping in the nearby bushes or an abandoned haunted church or something.
Finally a car stopped and as we ran up to it, I noticed there was a "Dance Tonight, Revolution Tomorrow” sticker on the back window. It was two guys, Tristan and Ramon, who said hi and checked where we were going and then we fell into separate conversations cos it was kinda hard to hear from the backseat, and well also sometimes it's just a little awkward when you get into a stranger's car, not to mention the language barrier.
Then Tristan asked if there we had any music we wanted to play, so I passed over what I’d just been listening to in my walkman and the track-listings. He put on the music and then read the track-listings and said incredulously “you know Age?!?!?!?!” In complete disbelief. Because the guy driving the car was the bassplayer in Age.
They were laughing because they said that me and Sophie didn’t look like punks (I think we were looking particularly clean-cut and normal to help our hitching efforts nicely along), so they didn’t expect us to be on a similar page at all.
In fact, they thought we were going to a rave because we had said we were going to a festival, which amused us no end. It turned out we were all going to the same emo/hardcore/punk/straightedge/indie fest starting in Plzen (yep, I bet you know the one).
Holy shit, I almost can’t comprehend the random individual situations across hemispheres and years that lead to this particular moment. Of all the cars that could stop by the side of the road, it was that one. With those people! Who asked me that question at that moment and we discovered that connection. Makes me smile at how sometimes life can be like that, and it reminds me that there are secret beautiful coincidental worlds still hidden within this mundane boring routine one.
http://www.myspace.com/ageuberalles (but "Confused" cuts out before the end of the song, at least on my computer, which sorta sucks)
(In the summer of 1999) While I was on the train going across town from my hostel near Warsauer Strasse to a sorta ex-squatted art venue called Tacheles I was intriguedly (is that a word?) looking at the guy opposite me reading a zine, who was wearing a Muff Potter shirt and had a Spitboy tattoo on his leg. We kept exchanging glances but I felt too shy to talk and that was without the whole language barrier inhibition thing.
That night I met up with my one internet punk contact in Berlin, Thomas, out the front of the Converge show at Tommy Weisbecker Haus. He said I couldn’t stay at his place cos it was tiny and he had someone else staying, but he’d arranged for me to stay with some friends of his and said he’d introduce me to...to the guy from the subway! Whose name was Phillipe!!!
The next couple of weeks involved staying at Phillipe’s house with a constant soundtrack of Ivich, Jasemine, Vanilla, Age, Muff Potter, all that dreamy euro emo stuff. And that slightly-famous-in-an-underground-way anarchist pop band from Luxembourg that Phillipe’s other houseguest was the "manager" for, but I cannot ever remember their name.
I always meant to get an Age record, but never actually did, apart from having some songs on a tape (with other bands like Headache and Zorn) from my pal Donat in Berlin.
Cut to early 2003 in Brisbane when my friend Sanne's boyfriend in Germany sent a mixtape with Age on it, so I finally got to hear them again. A couple of months later, I was leaving to go to Europe and I made a mixtape for my travels that included my favourite Age song of all time “Confused (to shift the focus)” as well as “Wolf” and maybe one other song of theirs, and a bunch of Billy Bragg and Hot Water Music and Le Tigre and Epoxies and Rumbleseat and whatever.
Skip to July 2003, me and Sophie hitching just before nightfall on the edge of Dresden holding a sign to get to the Czech Republic. We'd gotten dropped off there by a nice guy who had just finished working on a film-set, he was one of those great “down for the count” kinda people and I was totally enjoying talking to him and felt a little sad when we had to get out of the car.
But on the upside, he assured us he was dropping us at an amazing hitching spot. As cars whizzed by and nightfall started approaching, I started to have some doubts though, and was getting panicked visions of sleeping in the nearby bushes or an abandoned haunted church or something.
Finally a car stopped and as we ran up to it, I noticed there was a "Dance Tonight, Revolution Tomorrow” sticker on the back window. It was two guys, Tristan and Ramon, who said hi and checked where we were going and then we fell into separate conversations cos it was kinda hard to hear from the backseat, and well also sometimes it's just a little awkward when you get into a stranger's car, not to mention the language barrier.
Then Tristan asked if there we had any music we wanted to play, so I passed over what I’d just been listening to in my walkman and the track-listings. He put on the music and then read the track-listings and said incredulously “you know Age?!?!?!?!” In complete disbelief. Because the guy driving the car was the bassplayer in Age.
They were laughing because they said that me and Sophie didn’t look like punks (I think we were looking particularly clean-cut and normal to help our hitching efforts nicely along), so they didn’t expect us to be on a similar page at all.
In fact, they thought we were going to a rave because we had said we were going to a festival, which amused us no end. It turned out we were all going to the same emo/hardcore/punk/straightedge/indie fest starting in Plzen (yep, I bet you know the one).
Holy shit, I almost can’t comprehend the random individual situations across hemispheres and years that lead to this particular moment. Of all the cars that could stop by the side of the road, it was that one. With those people! Who asked me that question at that moment and we discovered that connection. Makes me smile at how sometimes life can be like that, and it reminds me that there are secret beautiful coincidental worlds still hidden within this mundane boring routine one.
http://www.myspace.com/ageuberalles (but "Confused" cuts out before the end of the song, at least on my computer, which sorta sucks)
Dance Song 97
Whenever I listen to Sleater Kinney “Dance Song 97” I am instantly transported back to London in 1999. Me and Tex, inseparable and intertwined partners-in-crime forever or until we are separated by forces external to us.
It’s breakfast and we’re dancing on the table in the kitchen and we’re ecstatic because this is our song and it is the soundtrack for our life (which hasn’t really been an easy one lately), cos we can never imagine what it would be like not to know each other and it feels like we have always known each other anyway.
But actually we've only known each other for a couple of months, it just was a case of accelerated friendship time. And it’s also special because it’s just about the only music we both like and can share with each other
Now I hear "Dance Song" and I look back on that time as one of those rare moments where I was totally in the present and totally appreciated it, and could look back on it so fondly after Tex died a couple of months later. We used to share a room and fall asleep almost every night listening to Portishead (I still can't really listen to anything by them because it makes my heart ache too much)
At the start of 2009, I started getting rid of old letters and bits-and-pieces and ditching the artefacts of my past ready to move from Brisbane to Melbourne. I found all my old Tex letters and reading over them made me miss having someone in my life who I adored and looked up to and admired so much.
Admired, as in, I respected the shit out of the way he lived his everyday life, his ability to transform a room within seconds, the way he could totally change and uplift the mood, his total loving kindness in everyday moments. The kind of person I would always want to have by my side in life
The total honour it was for me to be sharing daily life with someone like him, not to mention someone with a true I-don’t-give-a-fuck-what-people-think attitude, seeing him sob and weep and laugh and live his life out in full plain view of anyone who was around.
I never knew anyone like him before. It was also the first time I remember having a friend who loved me so fiercely and intensely and constantly told me so. This is a reminder for when all those letters are thrown away and gone forever
It’s breakfast and we’re dancing on the table in the kitchen and we’re ecstatic because this is our song and it is the soundtrack for our life (which hasn’t really been an easy one lately), cos we can never imagine what it would be like not to know each other and it feels like we have always known each other anyway.
But actually we've only known each other for a couple of months, it just was a case of accelerated friendship time. And it’s also special because it’s just about the only music we both like and can share with each other
Now I hear "Dance Song" and I look back on that time as one of those rare moments where I was totally in the present and totally appreciated it, and could look back on it so fondly after Tex died a couple of months later. We used to share a room and fall asleep almost every night listening to Portishead (I still can't really listen to anything by them because it makes my heart ache too much)
At the start of 2009, I started getting rid of old letters and bits-and-pieces and ditching the artefacts of my past ready to move from Brisbane to Melbourne. I found all my old Tex letters and reading over them made me miss having someone in my life who I adored and looked up to and admired so much.
Admired, as in, I respected the shit out of the way he lived his everyday life, his ability to transform a room within seconds, the way he could totally change and uplift the mood, his total loving kindness in everyday moments. The kind of person I would always want to have by my side in life
The total honour it was for me to be sharing daily life with someone like him, not to mention someone with a true I-don’t-give-a-fuck-what-people-think attitude, seeing him sob and weep and laugh and live his life out in full plain view of anyone who was around.
I never knew anyone like him before. It was also the first time I remember having a friend who loved me so fiercely and intensely and constantly told me so. This is a reminder for when all those letters are thrown away and gone forever
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Republic of Heaven
can't write too much as I'm VERY busy researching vegan desserts at the moment. I am committed to making vegan white chocolate mousse for my dear pal Fiyona's birthday on Friday, but am still searching for the perfect recipe.
so this is a whirlwind post to say that you should listen to Fall of Efafra, Hank Williams, Dead Moon, Pierced Arrows, Chamberlain, Heartless Bastards, Battle of Wolf 359...
...and of course Melbourne/Ireland's crustlord-superstar band THE MOOR (they played a couple of awesome shows, they recorded, and then Eric -of Easpa Measa fame- left Melbourne and went back to Ireland so they are kaput/finito/over/etc. but yeah, they did definitely record and will have a release pretty quicksmart, according to my sources).
but my greatest love is SEDATIVES. SEDATIVES SEDATIVES SEDATIVES, why are you so good? and how did I not discover you until very recently?
I don't even have any of their records yet (yeah I'm a poser like that), all I can do is go to their myspace page and play "Slip Away", "Cannot Calm Down" or "Same Mistakes" over-and-over again, and dream that I was seeing them at a houseshow somewhere in Canada. also in the dream, it would be summer. just saying.
I heard there's gonna be a new Mission of Burma album, so I'm excited but in that slightly nervous way, I'm crossing my fingers that they haven't, you know, jumped the shark.
And Samiam are touring here in September, so I have an impending revolution summer to look forward to. Actually scratch that, more like teenage melodramatic melodic pop-punk summer to look forward to. Glory days hopefully await.
PS. you should listen to these bands while eating Soyatoo vegan whipped creme from the Radical Grocery in Brunswick and $3 Vietnamese tofu sandwiches purchased in Melbourne's western suburbs eg. Sunshine or St Albans or Footscray.
PSS. Vegan Brunch is now at the top of my vegan cookbook must-get list. And it's an Isa book, so you know it's gonna be good. Word on the street (or the vegan blog-world, more accurately), however, is that the Babycakes cookbook comes not so recommended.
PSS. Watch this youtube video and weep about the fact that you weren't raised in Portland by parents who were probably in the Wipers or Poison Idea, and aunties and uncles who were probably in Tragedy or Red Dons or Harum Scarum or something equally punkrock cool
so this is a whirlwind post to say that you should listen to Fall of Efafra, Hank Williams, Dead Moon, Pierced Arrows, Chamberlain, Heartless Bastards, Battle of Wolf 359...
...and of course Melbourne/Ireland's crustlord-superstar band THE MOOR (they played a couple of awesome shows, they recorded, and then Eric -of Easpa Measa fame- left Melbourne and went back to Ireland so they are kaput/finito/over/etc. but yeah, they did definitely record and will have a release pretty quicksmart, according to my sources).
but my greatest love is SEDATIVES. SEDATIVES SEDATIVES SEDATIVES, why are you so good? and how did I not discover you until very recently?
I don't even have any of their records yet (yeah I'm a poser like that), all I can do is go to their myspace page and play "Slip Away", "Cannot Calm Down" or "Same Mistakes" over-and-over again, and dream that I was seeing them at a houseshow somewhere in Canada. also in the dream, it would be summer. just saying.
I heard there's gonna be a new Mission of Burma album, so I'm excited but in that slightly nervous way, I'm crossing my fingers that they haven't, you know, jumped the shark.
And Samiam are touring here in September, so I have an impending revolution summer to look forward to. Actually scratch that, more like teenage melodramatic melodic pop-punk summer to look forward to. Glory days hopefully await.
PS. you should listen to these bands while eating Soyatoo vegan whipped creme from the Radical Grocery in Brunswick and $3 Vietnamese tofu sandwiches purchased in Melbourne's western suburbs eg. Sunshine or St Albans or Footscray.
PSS. Vegan Brunch is now at the top of my vegan cookbook must-get list. And it's an Isa book, so you know it's gonna be good. Word on the street (or the vegan blog-world, more accurately), however, is that the Babycakes cookbook comes not so recommended.
PSS. Watch this youtube video and weep about the fact that you weren't raised in Portland by parents who were probably in the Wipers or Poison Idea, and aunties and uncles who were probably in Tragedy or Red Dons or Harum Scarum or something equally punkrock cool
Thursday, April 23, 2009
trash talk
A little int with Sam Bosson from Trash Talk. Gavin from Dead Nation Records is putting on their Australian tour and it's about to start any day now...I don't want to alarm you, but if the idea of seeing Trash Talk aaaand Extortion isn't appealing, yr probs close to death. If you're not close to death, read on.
Well um actually if you're like me, you probably don't get excited about much in the realm of "hardcore", but if you do like stuff like Ceremony and Have Heart (I can see some record-store dude hand-writing it on the recommendation label on their CD now "if you like Ceremony and Have Heart, give Trash Talk a listen").
Oh yeah and all the up-to-date tour details are at the Dead Nation myspace: www.myspace.com/deadnationrecords, check it
also take a peek at: www.trashtalkhc.com
Only The Sad Songs: Who are the members of Trash Talk? For those people in Australia who haven't heard you yet, how would you describe your sound (you know, some useful buzzwords)?
Sam: Hey there. My name is Sam Bosson and I play drums, Garrett Stevenson plays guitar. Lee Spielman yells and Spencer Pollard plays bass and also yells. I guess I could describe Trash Talk as a hardcore punk band that has some powerviolence and grind influences. We just like to play really hard and really fast I guess. hah.
Only The Sad Songs: From what I can tell, Trash Talk seems to self-release a lot of records and be out on a pretty endless tour. Would you say that at this point, Trash Talk is "what you do"? I mean, I'm guessing there's not much room for day-jobs and other kinds of everyday things like apartments/houses?
Sam: You pretty much hit the nail on the head. We have all pretty much dropped our previous lives and made Trash Talk our life, but we wouldnt have it any other way. We feel like if we are going to do this, we have to do it 100%. Trash Talk is definately all we do. Some of us hold down side jobs when we are home for whatever amount of time, but none of us have "real" jobs. Trash Talk is our job.
Only The Sad Songs: So you guys are out on tour with The Bronx right now, yeah? What are some of the highlights of the tour so far? I'm also interested in what are the little things that are the "highlights" for you right now? Like, little daily routines that you have while you're on tour that give you some structure and keep you kinda sane?
Sam: There are a few things that have happened on this tour that I'm not sure I should be repeating here, but I will tell you that The Bronx are the best dudes and we are so siked to be spending this time with them. Especially since they kill it every night.
There are some things I personally like to do while I'm on the road.. like, I have gotten into the habit of obsessively washing my hands on this tour. I don't know why, I'm definitely not the world's cleanest guy but I've turned into a real germ freak on this tour.
I also like to make sure my Ipod is charged for whatever drive we are doing, listening to music allows me to just close my eyes and escape the van for a little bit. It's very important to have your personal space.
Only The Sad Songs: You're about to head to Australia on tour...Are you in the loop with many current bands from Australia and/or are you familiar with any Australian bands from the semi-recent hardcore/punkrock past?
Sam: Personally I am beyond stoked to be heading out with Extortion. That band is fucking amazing. Hopefully I run into some of my friends in Miles Away and Carpathian while I'm there!
Only The Sad Songs: Whether it is the individualised self-liberation approach with a focus on straight-edge, veganism and other personal choices.. Or whether it's just a general awareness of what's wrong with the world..hardcore is a pretty angry and "political" kind of music, usually for a good reason. In terms of the "political" side of hardcore, what personally have you taken the most influence from?
Sam: I guess punk music has for sure shaped my political view of the world. I am vegan and I identify with the politics of bands like Crass, Flux of Pink Indians, Infest and Napalm Death. So I guess its safe to say that punk has definitely shaped my view of the world and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Only The Sad Songs: Lastly can I get a Top 5 music list from you - it could be top 5 heartbreak songs, top 5 roadtrip songs, top 5 songs of today, top 5 classic hardcore songs, top 5 non-hardcore-related songs...totally up to you!
Sam: Here's five random songs that come up when I put my Itunes on shuffle:
1. The Lurker - Yaphet Kotto
2. Poison Corporations - Aus Rotten
3. Fool - Swans
4. Fight To Live - Blitz
5. Circus Man - Daniel Johnston
Thanks! See you soon. Sam
TRASH TALK AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND TOUR 2009
April 27th - Nightlife, Gold Coast (All-ages)
W/Ghost Town, Die Go Die
April 30th - The Bald Faced Stag, Sydney (Lic.All-ages)
W/Extortion, A.V.O, Homewrecker
May 1st - Majura Community Centre, Canberra (All-ages)
W/Extortion, Slowburn, Eye Gouge & Silverback
May 2nd - The Arthouse, Melbourne (18+)
W/Extortion, Cut Sick, Ire & Rort
May 3rd - The Crib, Melbourne (All-ages)
W/Extortion, Iron Mind & Collapsed
May 5th - The Transmission Room, Auckland (Lic.All-ages)
W/Brick Vs. Face, Bad Medicine, Entrails, Buzzkill
May 7th - Enigma Bar, Adelaide (18+)
W/Craterface, Infection, Thrush
May 8th - Hyde Park Hotel, Perth (18+)
W/Extortion, Battletruk, Blkout, Suffer, No Shelter
May 9th - YMCA HQ, Perth (All-ages)
W/Extortion, Miles Away, Blkout, Bridge the Gap
(Tickets for all shows avaliable on the door)
Well um actually if you're like me, you probably don't get excited about much in the realm of "hardcore", but if you do like stuff like Ceremony and Have Heart (I can see some record-store dude hand-writing it on the recommendation label on their CD now "if you like Ceremony and Have Heart, give Trash Talk a listen").
Oh yeah and all the up-to-date tour details are at the Dead Nation myspace: www.myspace.com/deadnationrecords, check it
also take a peek at: www.trashtalkhc.com
Only The Sad Songs: Who are the members of Trash Talk? For those people in Australia who haven't heard you yet, how would you describe your sound (you know, some useful buzzwords)?
Sam: Hey there. My name is Sam Bosson and I play drums, Garrett Stevenson plays guitar. Lee Spielman yells and Spencer Pollard plays bass and also yells. I guess I could describe Trash Talk as a hardcore punk band that has some powerviolence and grind influences. We just like to play really hard and really fast I guess. hah.
Only The Sad Songs: From what I can tell, Trash Talk seems to self-release a lot of records and be out on a pretty endless tour. Would you say that at this point, Trash Talk is "what you do"? I mean, I'm guessing there's not much room for day-jobs and other kinds of everyday things like apartments/houses?
Sam: You pretty much hit the nail on the head. We have all pretty much dropped our previous lives and made Trash Talk our life, but we wouldnt have it any other way. We feel like if we are going to do this, we have to do it 100%. Trash Talk is definately all we do. Some of us hold down side jobs when we are home for whatever amount of time, but none of us have "real" jobs. Trash Talk is our job.
Only The Sad Songs: So you guys are out on tour with The Bronx right now, yeah? What are some of the highlights of the tour so far? I'm also interested in what are the little things that are the "highlights" for you right now? Like, little daily routines that you have while you're on tour that give you some structure and keep you kinda sane?
Sam: There are a few things that have happened on this tour that I'm not sure I should be repeating here, but I will tell you that The Bronx are the best dudes and we are so siked to be spending this time with them. Especially since they kill it every night.
There are some things I personally like to do while I'm on the road.. like, I have gotten into the habit of obsessively washing my hands on this tour. I don't know why, I'm definitely not the world's cleanest guy but I've turned into a real germ freak on this tour.
I also like to make sure my Ipod is charged for whatever drive we are doing, listening to music allows me to just close my eyes and escape the van for a little bit. It's very important to have your personal space.
Only The Sad Songs: You're about to head to Australia on tour...Are you in the loop with many current bands from Australia and/or are you familiar with any Australian bands from the semi-recent hardcore/punkrock past?
Sam: Personally I am beyond stoked to be heading out with Extortion. That band is fucking amazing. Hopefully I run into some of my friends in Miles Away and Carpathian while I'm there!
Only The Sad Songs: Whether it is the individualised self-liberation approach with a focus on straight-edge, veganism and other personal choices.. Or whether it's just a general awareness of what's wrong with the world..hardcore is a pretty angry and "political" kind of music, usually for a good reason. In terms of the "political" side of hardcore, what personally have you taken the most influence from?
Sam: I guess punk music has for sure shaped my political view of the world. I am vegan and I identify with the politics of bands like Crass, Flux of Pink Indians, Infest and Napalm Death. So I guess its safe to say that punk has definitely shaped my view of the world and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Only The Sad Songs: Lastly can I get a Top 5 music list from you - it could be top 5 heartbreak songs, top 5 roadtrip songs, top 5 songs of today, top 5 classic hardcore songs, top 5 non-hardcore-related songs...totally up to you!
Sam: Here's five random songs that come up when I put my Itunes on shuffle:
1. The Lurker - Yaphet Kotto
2. Poison Corporations - Aus Rotten
3. Fool - Swans
4. Fight To Live - Blitz
5. Circus Man - Daniel Johnston
Thanks! See you soon. Sam
TRASH TALK AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND TOUR 2009
April 27th - Nightlife, Gold Coast (All-ages)
W/Ghost Town, Die Go Die
April 30th - The Bald Faced Stag, Sydney (Lic.All-ages)
W/Extortion, A.V.O, Homewrecker
May 1st - Majura Community Centre, Canberra (All-ages)
W/Extortion, Slowburn, Eye Gouge & Silverback
May 2nd - The Arthouse, Melbourne (18+)
W/Extortion, Cut Sick, Ire & Rort
May 3rd - The Crib, Melbourne (All-ages)
W/Extortion, Iron Mind & Collapsed
May 5th - The Transmission Room, Auckland (Lic.All-ages)
W/Brick Vs. Face, Bad Medicine, Entrails, Buzzkill
May 7th - Enigma Bar, Adelaide (18+)
W/Craterface, Infection, Thrush
May 8th - Hyde Park Hotel, Perth (18+)
W/Extortion, Battletruk, Blkout, Suffer, No Shelter
May 9th - YMCA HQ, Perth (All-ages)
W/Extortion, Miles Away, Blkout, Bridge the Gap
(Tickets for all shows avaliable on the door)
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