Localized
Issue 205 / January 2006 More from this Issue
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BY "EEEEK EGAD!" ERIK LOPEZ
I happened to run into and talk to previous Localized writer, Camilla Taylor, who was briefly in town for the holidays. She gave me the following creamy truffles of wisdom for my first rugged expedition into interviewing local bands: "The first rule of Localized is to make the bands come to downtown Salt Lake City to do the interview. The second rule of Localized is to pick a comfortable place in your home turf within which to conduct said interview. They're in your country now..." Seeing as rules were meant to be broken, I decided to do neither of these things and make an attempt to find the people behind the music through the medium of voice reproduction technology, i.e. the polite and judicious telephone interview and the always classy e-mail inquiry. Localized will be vocally real this month on Friday, January 13th at the ineffable Urban Lounge. Salt City Greasers, Left for Dead and the Hellbound Saints will make you shit your pants in fright to ring in the New Year.
Left for Dead is (in no particular undead order):
Johnny Demonic: Vo-kills & rhythm guitar
Sam Hainus: Lead guitar, backing vox
Bucket: Bass guitar
Cordaver: Drums
Left for Dead was raised from the dead in the autumn of 2004, and after playing shows with such luminaries as the Misfits, the Independents, the Queers and the Michael Graves Band, they signed to Doctor Cyclops Records in September 2005. Now, after releasing their debut album It Begins ... this interview is about to begin. I interviewed Johnny Demonic through the cold confines of the Internet.
Their sound is a monster mash of many styles and genres as evidenced from the eclectic mix of influences. "Personally, my musical influences are pretty varied ... everything from the Beach Boys, Frankie Vallie, Johnny Cash and Elvis to Mtorhead... I think the biggest influences to our sound would be the Misfits, Ramones, Cramps, The Damned, Social Distortion, Black Sabbath ... our lyrics focus on the macabre ... B-flicks, horror movies, sci-fi, zombies and werewolves."
Furthermore, Left for Dead's lyrical content puts the "Ween" back in Halloween. Johnny replies: "Our sound is pretty straightforward. We keep it simple and creepy. We have big guitars and bigger drums, with lots of harmonies in the backing vocals. We try to write songs that will burrow into your brains... stuff that you'll be singing all day long. We want your co-workers to be like "what the hell is he singing about? Living abortion? What's up with that guy?" The newer stuff is a bit more experimental, with different structures and breakdowns and big build-ups into choruses. The stuff on our album is a lot of four-chord, down tempo (but not always) punk with heavy 50s overtones. We try not to take ourselves too seriously."
Finally, Johnny recalls the swashbuckling "bucket-o'-blood" live show that makes for good horror rock: "The Misfits crowd really dug us, 1500 kids were moshing it up and tearing down security fences during our set, but I like playing small shows best. 100 people packed into Burt's on a Saturday night, everybody up front, spilling beer and singing along. We have some fun with the stage show; creepy lighting, skulls, ghosts, fake blood and candy-filled jack-o-lanterns; every show for us is a Halloween show."
I happened to run into and talk to previous Localized writer, Camilla Taylor, who was briefly in town for the holidays. She gave me the following creamy truffles of wisdom for my first rugged expedition into interviewing local bands: "The first rule of Localized is to make the bands come to downtown Salt Lake City to do the interview. The second rule of Localized is to pick a comfortable place in your home turf within which to conduct said interview. They're in your country now..." Seeing as rules were meant to be broken, I decided to do neither of these things and make an attempt to find the people behind the music through the medium of voice reproduction technology, i.e. the polite and judicious telephone interview and the always classy e-mail inquiry. Localized will be vocally real this month on Friday, January 13th at the ineffable Urban Lounge. Salt City Greasers, Left for Dead and the Hellbound Saints will make you shit your pants in fright to ring in the New Year.
Left for Dead is (in no particular undead order): Johnny Demonic: Vo-kills & rhythm guitar
Sam Hainus: Lead guitar, backing vox
Bucket: Bass guitar
Cordaver: Drums
Left for Dead was raised from the dead in the autumn of 2004, and after playing shows with such luminaries as the Misfits, the Independents, the Queers and the Michael Graves Band, they signed to Doctor Cyclops Records in September 2005. Now, after releasing their debut album It Begins ... this interview is about to begin. I interviewed Johnny Demonic through the cold confines of the Internet.
Their sound is a monster mash of many styles and genres as evidenced from the eclectic mix of influences. "Personally, my musical influences are pretty varied ... everything from the Beach Boys, Frankie Vallie, Johnny Cash and Elvis to Mtorhead... I think the biggest influences to our sound would be the Misfits, Ramones, Cramps, The Damned, Social Distortion, Black Sabbath ... our lyrics focus on the macabre ... B-flicks, horror movies, sci-fi, zombies and werewolves."
Furthermore, Left for Dead's lyrical content puts the "Ween" back in Halloween. Johnny replies: "Our sound is pretty straightforward. We keep it simple and creepy. We have big guitars and bigger drums, with lots of harmonies in the backing vocals. We try to write songs that will burrow into your brains... stuff that you'll be singing all day long. We want your co-workers to be like "what the hell is he singing about? Living abortion? What's up with that guy?" The newer stuff is a bit more experimental, with different structures and breakdowns and big build-ups into choruses. The stuff on our album is a lot of four-chord, down tempo (but not always) punk with heavy 50s overtones. We try not to take ourselves too seriously."
Finally, Johnny recalls the swashbuckling "bucket-o'-blood" live show that makes for good horror rock: "The Misfits crowd really dug us, 1500 kids were moshing it up and tearing down security fences during our set, but I like playing small shows best. 100 people packed into Burt's on a Saturday night, everybody up front, spilling beer and singing along. We have some fun with the stage show; creepy lighting, skulls, ghosts, fake blood and candy-filled jack-o-lanterns; every show for us is a Halloween show."
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