Prior
to the formal, Mark and Reali-D caught a beer:
Reali-D:
Do we know what happened out there?
Mark:
Something bad. Something, I don’t know if you want to
record that shit. One of our friends is in danger of being
arrested, that’s all I have to say.
Reali-D:
That’s hardcore!
Mark:
And he’s a long way from home so I don’t want
to see him fucking get fucked up.
Reali-D:
Care if I do this? (I turned the recorder back on as we switched
to the topic to Chicago PD)
Mark:
Nah, it’s cool. I know a CPD guy and I know a guy that
was sheriff, a county sheriff, for another town and Cops are
like regular guys; they’re like your fucking friends...and
if your friends will fight for you in a bar so will cops,
so you just gotta watch out for that shit. Make sure that’s
not a cop your beating up, ‘cuz they got more friends
than you got.
All
right here’s the real IV for real. We set up shop in
a side room ideal for puffin’! And let’s just
say it wasn’t quiet and C...RAP was not alone with the
Killer. Most of Chicago Hardcore was in that piece!
Luke:
If anyone says fag or pussy I
don’t want it on there!
Reali-D:
Lets get it started. We are with The Killer at the Bottom
Lounge Chicago, the record release show. Better to be..................
The
Killer: Judged by Twelve Than Carried By
Six.
Reali-D:
What does that mean?
Luke:
It’s from an Ice Cube song.
Reali-D:
What does it mean? What does it mean to you?
Luke:
Kill or be killed... better to...if I gotta kill somebody....hahah
I’m too stoned for this. (whole room erupts
and laughs with Luke)
Domincanedge:
We’re getting real close to you bro, but it’s
all right, its all love.
Reali-D:
Shane, new record, Better to be...
Shane:
Judged By Twelve Than Carried By Six. What does it mean? (to
Luke) Why did you skirt this man? You’re the one that
named the record.
Shane
with The Killer all chiming in slow and somewhat
sarcastic: Its
better to be judged by a group of 12 jurors than carried by
6 pallbearers.
Mark:
I already told you what it meant. I said that, “we’re
The Killer so its better to be you than be us.”
Laughter
all day and someone says, “cuz we will kill you.”
Shane:
Wait, it’s worse to be you than us!
Mark:
Yeah right, right!
Everyone
agrees.
Reali-D:
Chicago scene, what’s up?
Shane:
It’s bigger now than it’s been in recent years
for sure.
Someone
chimes in: “Thanks to Shane Merrill!”
Shane:
Not thanks to me, but...
Luke:
But then again so are burlesque shows!
Laughter
all day.
Luke:
It’s much better now than it has ever been in the whole
time I have been going to shows, which is like 8 years.
Shane:
It’s bigger now than it’s been in probably...I
have been into hardcore since like 1996. When I first got
into it in like ’96, ’97 Chicago was the haven
for Straight Edge and Earth Crisis and shit
like that was real big; real big. And after that there was
a big lull for awhile and hardcore, well not the straight
edge aspect of it...
Laughter
all day as Shane takes a pull on his beer.
Dominicanedge:
As he sips a brew!
More
laughter.
Shane:
Hardcore is bigger than its been, but its kind of...its half
good and half bad ‘cuz the bad part is its getting picked
up by Hot Topic and major labels and shit like that. There’s
always going to be a contingent of real loyal people and just
because your band gets signed to a major label or a bigger
label doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not real.
Like I know those guys in Killswitch Engage,
they’re all really down to earth like totally down guys.
Reali-D:
Sounds like we got some open minded people up in Chicago?
Shane:
Yeah I am open-minded. Just because there is more people around
it doesn’t mean that everyone’s got good intentions
and it doesn’t mean everyone knows what hardcore is
supposed to be about.
Luke:
The scene is so over saturated.
Shane
agrees: It’s over saturated and you’ve
got a lot of people, and I have noticed this from booking
tours, a lot of people doing a lot of empty promising wanting
to better themselves more than help out like their supposed
too. Promoting shows I come into all the time, “yeah,
if you hook our band that no one cares about or likes in Chicago,
we’ll hook you up when you come to our town.”
And then 3 months later when I need a show in their town they’re
like, “I totally I forgot that offered you that ‘cuz
now I am going to back out and not help you at all.”
Shane:
Remis has something to say.
Remis
aka Botchy Vasquez: I probably have a more pessimistic
approach to the scene where I am at a point now where I walk
into a show and barely know anybody in the fucking club or
in the venue or wherever it is. And then try to get to know
anybody and 6 months, a year down the line I have to do the
whole cycle all over again because of the over saturation
of the music and the media making people want to be involved
with every fucking bullshit thing they see on MTV. The bands
that are responsible for it are the bands that do that, that
go on MTV, that go on major music media, major labels, radio
stations and that has nothing to do with punk rock! That has
nothing to do with hardcore! It should be a much more intimate,
a more one on one situation. We’re going to bring that
shit back.
Dominicanedge:
That’s part of the scene as well that people kind of
go in and out.
Remis:
10 years ago when it was 5 or 6 kids going in and out real
fast because of whatever they “grew up” and you
can put the quotes around that and got their fucking real
jobs or their real deals or whatever. But now it’s like
50, 60, 100, 200 kids doing that rotation.
Shane:
Because of MTV the kids who like New Found Glory today will
be rocking KSE in 6 months.
Shane:
It’s because of Orange County. Burn Orange County!
This is an open invitation to any band that’s from Orange
County, “ Come to Chicago and let make us make Chicago
where your nightmares came true motherfuckers!”
Dominicanedge:
Tell me how you really feel. What do you think of all these
bands, the big trend is all these bands are claiming to be
hardcore, when they have nothing to do with it, because hardcore
more than anything is a lifestyle. Its not all about the music
its about everything that goes with it. All these bands are
claiming hardcore and they have nothing to do with it. How
do you feel about that?
Mark:
I think that hardcore has divided itself into different clicks.
You have guys that are thug hardcore, then you have the pretty
guys, and then you have the EMO kids or whatever. What hardcore
should be about is all these bands playing together and getting
everyone together at one show, but if people want to fight
each other that’s not going to happen.
Dominicanedge:
But how do you think we lost it because back in the day bands
like Motorhead would be playing with the Cro-Mags, Leeway
would be playing with like Bad Brains, playing with Slayer.
Kids were into the music, nowadays it seems like kids aren’t
doing that.
Shane:
I think there is still, on a larger more mainstream scale,
there is still the mixing of styles on the bigger metal tours.
Today it’s Slayer and Hatebreed playing again together
and 15 years ago it was Slayer and Cro-Mags or whatever.
Remis:
The biggest problem with the music and hardcore, and I hate
to say industry or anything like, but the fact that it is
a lot easier than it was to do 5 or 10 years ago. So you get
these fucking douche bags that are just in it for like a minute
and all of a sudden there like, “we can go make money,
we can go fucking play on the road and do all this shit.”
And they’re not like legit dudes. They’re not
dudes that have fucking poured there hearts into it and actually
had to work for anything in their life.
Reali-D:
Just ‘cuz you can do it yourself doesn’t mean
you should.
Remis:
Because they don’t do it for them selves, they aren’t
doing it on their own. They’re not putting up with the
things even we had to put up with 10 years ago. And the guys
that came before us had to put up with 20 years ago.
Reali-D:
All right I am going to get specific about the record. The
track Vatican, I see an asterisk
and a note on the record. Talk!
Luke:
It says everything on the record that there is to say about
the song.
Remis:
We’re a band that has had different religious and political
views in our past and have probably more recently converged
upon a more common belief, religions, and in philosophies.
A guy who was fronting our band, at one point, considered
himself a Catholic or a Christian and now doesn’t want
to relate himself to the church at all.
Luke:
Pretty much what I meant about it is like...I mean everyone
has faith in something, everyone in the band believes in something,
its not necessarily the same thing, we’re not talking
about what we believe in. We all don’t believe in the
Catholic Church. We all recognize the fact that there’s
corruption and it’s a business. And there are a billion
things wrong with it and that’s the one thing we agree
on so...Religion is a man made institution and anything that
is made by man is destined to fail! If you believe in God
like I do, that’s fine....
Shane:
Wait. Wasn’t beer made
by man? (laughs and cries)
Dominicanedge:
Isn’t weed from the earth?
Shane:
Beer was made by man therefore not everything made by man
is destined to fail.
Reali-D:
Hardcore was made by man.
Luke:
Hardcore failed a long ago! (laughs all day)
Dominicanedge:
It’s a failed model. What do you think; did the Internet
kill hardcore?
Remis:
The Internet is killing
hardcore
Shane:
(the Internet) It made it more accessible if anything.
Charlie:
It made it more accessible to people which made it bigger.
Dominicanedge:
Do you think it was detrimental to the scene whereas kids
jump in and out a lot easier without ever being seen; where
people are faceless? When you would go to shows you would
hang out.
Shane:
I think if you see the cons in it you also have to see the
positives of it. There are positives like the promotion of
shows; the ability to go post about a show and then kids can
see it. Before the Internet kids would have to go to a record
store or a show to get a flyer and now they can just hop on
line and get a flyer. The con is every kid that would be afraid
to say something to somebody’s face could go on line
and say it. In turn the people that are being talked about
are just as guilty because we shouldn’t usually be offended
as much by something that just said over the computer because
it’s trivial. It does definitely ignite a lot of fires
I think among people.
Reali-D:
A few token c..rap questions.
Dominicanedge:
What bands you think that are going now that you guys are
feeling, and we talked about all the bands we fucking hate
and think are shit…. what bands are going on now are
really doing something and pioneering something for music?
Shane:
Mastodon
Luke:
Tragedy, Mastodon. I am really into straight
forward hardcore. Madball is my favorite
band of all time. Terror is amazing.
Remis:
Coliseum is one of my favorite bands right
now. For sure, fucking amazing. Bryan Patterson who is the
front guy in the band is the most honest, purest, sweetest
dudes on the face of the earth.
Luke:
Sweetest dude? (laughter all over)
Dominicanedge:
That’s sensitive, that’s screamo.
Shane:
I don’t know…Motorhead has a new record out that’s
pretty good.
Probot!
Shane:
Probot sucks.
Luke:
I know no one likes Blood for Blood but I do.
Dominicanedge:
There is not much of a presence for you guys on the east coast,
but you definitely have that style that a lot of kids out
there would be into, what’s the plan? You going to try
to get out there?
Luke:
We’re trying to reach out. People gotta understand if
you are from a coast it’s a lot easier ‘cuz you
can go out and play a 3 day weekend. When we go out and play
a 3 or 4 day weekend, we’re driving 15 hours home and
working the next day. It’s like, when we get to the
point where we feel like we can do it and pay rent with money,
we’re gonna leave and never come home.
Dominicanedge:
What’s the first show you ever went too? What was the
first show that actually affected you?
Luke:
The first hardcore show I ever went too…
Dominicanedge:
First show, doesn’t have to be hardcore…
Luke:
A band called Strong Arm. I think in like
1993 or something. (Refers with friends about year and show.)
All right that was a Christian hardcore show. Strong Arm,
still one of my favorite bands.
Luke:
The show that changed my life was Earth Crisis, Damnation
A.D., at the Chicago Film Makers Society in 1996 I think.
Shane:
Speaking of Christian bands this is actually interesting because
this ties directly into a band that’s changing things
right now. It’s a band form Norway called Extol, fucking
insane like tech Jesus metal hardcore that rules. And also
the first show I ever went to was September 1992 Faith
No More and Helmet at the Aragon
ballroom and it ruled. I was a metal head at the time, I grew
up a metal head, in HS I was a metal head, and I refused to
like Helmet because as much as I loved their riffs they all
had short hair so I just couldn’t like them.
Reali-D:
Wasn’t Rob from Rest In Pieces in the
band at that time?
Shane:
Yes he was. I didn’t like RIPs though because back them
I was PC and I didn’t like the way Armand was singing
about “faggot this” and stuff, but now it’s
cool.
Luke:
I challenge anyone from C…RAP here to a METAL–OFF
with my friend Shane here.
Dominicanedge:
Right here! Done!
Luke:
Any metal question Shane will school you in.
Shane:
How old are you?
Dominicanedge:
32 and you want to know what my first show was? Megadeth at
L’Amour for the Peace Sells tour where they filmed the
video.
Shane:
Ok let the record show this guy is 7 years older than me,
I do have my work cut out for me, but I will make a valiant
effort.
Luke:
His area of expertise is the Killer Dwarfs.
Dominicanedge:
uuuggghhh, The Killer Dwarfs!
Reali-D:
(STOOPID METAL QUESTION TIME) Speaking of
L’Amour Brooklyn, who sang a song about the wrong
side of the tracks?
Shane:
Biohazard c’mon!
Dominicanedge:
What did the original drummer from Biohazard wear as a jewelry
piece?
Luke:
Razor Blades?
Shane:
A Swastika?
All
laughing
Dominicanedge:
No he wore a thick rope gold chain with a Mohawk dude.
What was
the color of the demo?
Shane:
Is this the racist demo?
Dominicanedge:
Yes, the one with Skinhead Nazi Pride on it.
Shane:
and White Working Class.
Dominicanedge:
The Orange demo.
Shane:
Of course its orange like all their other records.
Shane:
What’s the best metal slash hardcore band from Brooklyn?
Dominicanedge:
Biohazard dude.
Some one
says: Sub Zero.
Shane:
Life of Agony!
Everyone
freaks: Life of Agony?
Reali-D:
That’s hair metal for girls.
Dominicanedge:
That has nothing to do with hardcore!
Shane:
River Runs Red.
Dominicanedge:
That ain’t even a part of hardcore. That was a joke,
great record, but a joke.
Remis:
What member from the band The Killer took guitar lessons from
the original guitarist of Manowar
Shane:
It wasn’t the original guitarist of Manowar,
it was the second guitarist of Manowar and that would be me
thank you. Yeah Dave Shanko who played guitar for Manowar
from 1989- 1994 taught me how to play guitar.
Dominicanedge:
What do you think is missing from today’s hardcore bands
that aren’t drawing kids in?
Luke:
Sincerity. People need to realize every kid who plays guitar
should not be in a band.
Reali-D:
I know I am covering it again, but I have been to enough shows
and been here a mere year and a half; something is going on
in Chicago, tell us what that is.
Luke:
We got a good vibe going down at our shows. The energy is
high. I have never seen...I don’t know what to say...kids
are just into it. Our scene is not as big as scenes on the
East Coast and West Coast it just.....
Dominicanedge:
Tonight is a testament too! This room is full; this is what
it used to be like. In NY now this is not happening, like
a real show.
Shane:
The East Coast is having problems, when I try to
book shows out there; there is a lot of talent that will just
not do shows anymore.
Dominicanedge:
No hardcore shows.
Shane:
No hardcore shows, yeah.
Shane:
We got good people behind the scene in Chicago, people that
understand hardcore and care about hardcore and aren’t
going to pull the plug on it just because a window gets broken
out at a club or something like that. We got people doing
the shows that understand the shows and I am not talking about
myself necessarily, myself included, but people like Brian
Peterson too. Even though he didn’t give us any beer
tonight, he does understand hardcore.
Luke
yells: Fuck you!
Shane:
He does understand hardcore and he’s been around forever
and it helps when the primary clubs in the city your doing
shows in have people running them that understand what hardcore
and punk rock is all about. And we have that advantage in
Chicago currently and I hope it never goes away.
Dominicanedge:
So at the end of the day what’s next for the Killer?
Shane:
A tour with Lynard Skynard if I have my way.
Luke:
We have about a 2 week tour in the end of August, the last
2 weeks of august, going up and down the west coast, through
Texas, back up here. After that we are taking what comes to
us. Take us on tour with you! I’ll tell you this when
the right break happens we ‘re leaving home and never
coming back. That’s it.
Reali-D:
Last words.
Dominicanedge:
Shout out to your peoples.
Mark:
Everyone should start getting along and coming to shows.
Luke:
FSU!
The
metal off went on and on all night, there was no clear victor
as no one could see clearly!
The Killer
Organized
Crime Records
|
