Feral! That's a good one word description when trying toexplain England's BLACK TIME. Hissing! Clawing itself free and scratching outeyes. Like getting whacked upside the head with a garbage can by a gang of ratsthe size of a surly bouncer at a dingy bar who's jukebox is stacked withnothing but Link Wray, the Fall, Swell Maps and those who follow them like acult and all the partons chain smoke and wear dark glasses-interview by DaleBand history to start...Isn't there a Hot Wires and/or an Action Time connection to the Black Time?
Lemmy Caution: Yeah, the Action Time was my youthful attemptat mod-punk/girl group stylings – I was listening to a lot of motown andEnglish punk rock in the ATV/Subway Sect/Pop Rivets vein.. I didn’t really havethe know-how at the time to get the right sound for the vision and most of therecords are watered-down versions of what it was supposed to be. The Hotwires was my last attempt at a band inthe romantic sense of the word and totally fucking wasted about 3 years of mylife as a result.
What do you recommend for getting blood stains off a carpet?
Janie Too Bad: Red carpets.Mister Stix: What do you wanna take it off the carpet for?LC: Scrape it off with over-priced bootleg of obscureeuro-punk.
Speaking of "collector" records-Did ya wonder what the hell Peter P.Trash was talking about when hesaid he'd have artwork silkscreened onto the vinyl itself?
LC: I didn't have a clue what the fuck he was on about! I thought maybe something was getting lost inthe german/english translation - "I'm going to silkscreen thevinyl!!" "You mean thelabels?" "No, thevinyl!!!" "Er, yeah OKmate..." The only thing Icould imagine it was going to be like was one of those Def Leppard type picturediscs. I was really bowled over with the results when I finally got the recordsin the post - even MORE beautiful than a Def Leppard picture disc - thoughobviously we're gonna have to work on the songs and Stix might have to lose anarm.
What's your take on all that collector type stuff? Do you have a bunch of stuff like that (completist/comicbook geek type stuff) or do you just buy one copy to rock out too?
LC: Well personally I'm a vinyl junkie 'cos CDs suck but notat the expense of just owning the music - I'll happily have a vinyl repress ofsomething if it sounds decent rather than shell out £££s for the original. Ultimately I just wanna be able to listen tothe track on my fave format - I don't collect records in a completist/investmentway 'cos it's not really entering into the spirit. Records are meant to be loaned out/notreturned/taken round people's house for parties/get beer split on them/frayededges/those sexy circles you get on the sleeve when you've played it a thousandtimes etc...they're ultimately ephemeral objects of fun to dance, drink, fuckto etc.. I know a lot ofpeople were bummed about the price of the p trash 12 it was really expensivebut then it cost Peter a shitload to make it - I don't think he's making loadsof money out of putting out Black Time and Manikins records y'know? I like the idea of Black Flag and MinorThreat keeping their back cat in stock for ever at a cheap price but there'snowhere that level of demand for our stuff... the fact is if we do a fewhundred copies of a record almost everyone that really wants it will be able toget a copy. I think Peter's planning on doing a 'normal' press of 'new vaguethemes' at some point for all the non-c.scum as well.
What's the saddest song in the world?
MS: True by Spandau BalletJTB: The saddest song in the world is "Friends ofMine" by The Zombies. Actually even sadder than that is I Got Knocked Down(But I'll Get Up) by Joey Ramone. Now I feel awful, thanks a lot. LC: The theme tune to Sesame Street - they're singing aboutsunny days and happy days but with the kind of melancholy minor-key wistfulnessthat convinces you all the kids are the victims of horrible systematic abuse bytheir parents and teachers.
My 6 year old son, Nolan, makes me play the "Crawlin'" single at least once a day. He always says "This song is gonna freak out in a couple seconds." Is it okay to let him freak out when the part he is talking about starts? Can I hold you responsible for any subversion that may take place later?
MS: Blacktime accept no responsibility for kids freaking outand going retarded there's enough of us(why are we mutants?) in blacktime forstarters. I suggest for safety reasonsyou should get your kid into contemporary 80's jazz and teach him to gingerly taphis foot.
Do you blame that on society?
MS: Being Mutants? No I blame it on the blacktime genepool. Freaking out yea ADHD or whateverit is called is a crock of crap.LC: Being English I blame it on the weather.
Bob Dylan-Genius or fool?
MS: Robert Zimmerman thats his nameJTB: Genius for pissing off hippie purists.LC: Old people's musicWhat's your favorite song by the Fall.
MS: The cover of "Jerusalem" hands down for meJTB: Totally Wired. It's kind of an obvious choice but you can't deny how great this song is and it just makes you want to dance all over the place to show how totally wired you feel. I'm usuallymore Totally Tired though, but that doesn't make such a great song. Being from California I also relate sentimentally to anyone using the word totally repetitively. To-tal-ly.LC: "Neighbourhood Of Infinity" - "Used tolisten to Link Wray, used to play him every Saturday, god bless Saturday". Fucking great.
Do you like the Brix era much? It's some of my favorite stuff by them but I've heard some call it their "sell out years".
LC: A lot of the Brix era is really good, especially thefirst few albums and singles of that phase. Even something like "Dead Beat Descendent" which is from nearthe end of the Brix era - killer riff.
So In The Red is doing a CD version of "Blackout". What type of demands did you make to give Mr Hardy the honor the re-releasing it?
MS: Demands were eating an English breakfast every morningfor a month explaining the offside rule in football to us and reciting who’swho in the football leagueLC: Yeah Larry’s had to shell out for a triple heart bypass‘cos of all the greasy food. He’s doingOK I hear but he’s still got to do his major in cockney rhyming slang beforewe’ll let him do another record.
What should people expect with your second album?
MS: Blacktime football songsLC: Sensitive acoustic ballads
Silk or Satin?
JTB: Silk nighties are the way to a girl's heart. Satin willalso work.LC: 10 Silk Cut behind the bike sheds.MS: Nights in white satin sheets with silky chicks.
Ya ever slid off of a bed with satin sheets?
MS: No but once rolled over and hit my head on the wall.
When's the last time you were spotted outside wearing something that wasn't black?
LC: What do you mean go outside??!!! MS A few days ago a navy blue i love French girls t-shirt inFrench. JTB: I had to wear purple eyeliner at our last gig becausethe black one disappeared, a formal apology to the good people of Nottingham.
Nottingham? Did you run into Robin Hood?
JTB: No Robin Hood per se, however there was a drunkenwhimsical Robin Hood-esque character dancing like crazy during our set as therest of the crowd quietly moved towards the back of the venue, and exited outthe back door. But we're happy to please just one misguided drunkard a nightbecause it's far more fans than we had before.MS: Blacktime ran into a lot of feedback whilst lost and disillusion driving down Maid Marian way...no Shit.LC: Yeah we got pulled over by the cops for unsteady drivingin our fully load mini metro. We wereall bouncing along to Screamin' Jay Hawkins like in 'Stranger Than Paradise'and it must of caused some swerving.
When was the last time you got in trouble?
JTB: I tried to sneak into a Adobe Illustrator course andnot pay for it, because I thought it was 120 pounds. I got caught and the manin charge escorted me out the class and demaned I paid up. I tried to escapebut then he told me it was only 30 pounds and I felt really stupid. So uhhh, Iam a bit of a rebel for higher learning!LC: When we were on tour in France and Janie couldn't eatanything 'cos of a stomach ulcer, and I sat opposite during a delicious mealthe promoter had cooked us and accidentally blurted out "ohmygod, this isthe best meal I've ever had in my life!". If looks could kill... You alwaysget really great food when you play in mainland Europe - it's like being onholiday. I think the UK is more like what I've heard playing in the US islike - you play your set and then the promoter clips you round the ear andtells you to fuck off out of his venue.MS: Drinking got into trouble with my liver
So, Black Time are kindred spirits with the Real Losers I hear...Ya ever had a barbeque together?
MS: We've got drunk on a boat together and discussed theimportance of booger in revenge of the nerdsJTB: We have a picture with The Hand and a huge bowl ofmushrooms, that kind of looks as if we were about to do some kind of barbeque.But we just were posing with some huge bowl of mushrooms for some reason.LC: No BBQ yet, but when I first met the Real Losers theyshowed me their party trick, which was C-Shake dropping his trousers (sorry,that's 'pants' to you guys) and Hot Dog shoving a beer bottle up his arse(sorry, ass). I was all downhill fromthere... The Real Losers are basically the greatest rocknroll band in the worldright now - they just get better and better. I'm just some schmuck (hey, I'm picking up the lingo now)who works in an office and messes around with my little punk rock project whenI'm not getting wasted, but the Real Losers are THEE real deal.
I'm just starting to get into french films. Can you give me a quick crash course in what I should check out?
LC: Any early Godard is good (he gets a bit more heavilyinto experimentation and Marxism as the 60s go on, so the later films can bequite hard work) but yeah check out A BOUT DE SOUFFLE aka BREATHLESS,ALPHAVILLE (which Bladerunner ripped quite a bit off), MASCULIN FEMININ or UNEFEMME EST UNE FEMME are all great and really watchable. Haven't seen much Truffaut except SHOOT THEPIANIST and THE 400 BLOWS but they are both amazing. I really like this guy Jean-Pierre Melvillewho isn't really part of the New Wave scene of 60s french film makers but hemade loads of great moody existential crime movies like UN FLIC and LaSAMOURAI - Tarantino was definitely taking notes. There's some great films from the 40s and 50sas well like Jean Renoir's LA GRANDE ILLUSION (great dissection of war and theclass divide) and 50s film noirs like LES DIABOLIQUES and RIFIFI. I don't know that much about modern frenchcinema - a lot of it seems to be tastefully shot bourgeois melodrama whichlives me a bit cold, but I like some of Claire Denis' stuff like BEAU TRAVAIL(anything with Denis Lavant is usually good actually) and the vampire film shedid TROUBLE EVERY DAY.
Vincent Price or Christopher Lee?LC: Christopher Lee for looking so suave and evil in 'BeatGirl'
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