Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Spazz/ 3 Wheel Motion/DJ Eons One #59

 

What's up everyone this week I have a good one I interview one of the dudes from Spazz... well originally, I was going to interview another member but this works  for me shit!! Im pretty Stoked on this one check out and enjoy!! 

State your name what band were you in?


Dan Lactose. I've been in a ton of bands/projects but most people would know me as a member of Spazz.

How are you doing? 

I'm good. Just stealing time from one thing to do another thing.

How did you get into punk? 

Through skateboarding. Looking at what shirts people were wearing and stickers. Making mental notes of bands to look for.

How did Spazz get Started?? 

Skateboarding again. Max and I were skating together and talking about bands we were really into at the time like Infest, Crossed Out, Ringworm, etc. He turned me onto stuff like Larm and NYC Mayhem. We wanted to try to do a project that reflected those influences. 

What was the line up? 

Max on drums and me on guitar. 

Were you guys going for the high and low vox??

Originally we were looking to have a vocalist. We asked a couple of our friends but no one wanted to make the commitment. Dan Hogan did sing on 2 songs on the 1st 7". That was all we could get out of him haha. 

How did you guys get the name Spazz? 

We needed a name to put on the reel in the studio. Spasm was suggested and then Chris came up with Spazz.

How did Chris Dodge joined Spazz??

Chris read an interview with Max in Atmosfear zine where Max was talking about our project and Chris got in touch with him.

What was the best or Tour you guys  played?? 

Our trip to Japan in 98 was unforgettable. We played Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

What was Spazz last show like? 

It was uncomfortably crowded.

How did you guys get Kool Keith on a track?
We recorded our 2nd album, "La Revancha", in 1997 which had a drop by Kool Keith on it. It totally bugged everyone out at the time (including myself) and I'm constantly asked to tell the story how it all came about so I figured I'd write it up here and give you all the real deal.

Spazz was heavily inspired by the underground hip hop explosion of the 90's. Hirax Max (drums) and I were avid listeners of college radio mix shows and I was DJing and collecting hip hop 12 inches and making beats much to the chagrin of some die hard punks. If you check out our lyrics there's tons of references to old hip hop tracks and we even named our 3rd album "Crush Kill Destroy" as an homage to Organized Konfusion homaging the MC's Ultra. I can safely say I was listening to a lot more hip hop than hardcore while we were doing the band.
Our friend Neil was a childhood friend of Dan The Automator and had met Keith with took a trip with Dan out to NY. Neil told of Keith's infamous peep show and video arcade route and told us Keith's pockets were bulging with change ready to begin the trek. He even brought Max back a signed promo poster for the "Four Horsemen" LP. I was jealous. One night, Max calls me up and says Neil had just called him to see if we wanted to meet Kool Keith up in SF. Max had school or something so he called me and said I should call Neil back ASAP. I called Neil, got directions and in my haste grabbed my recently purchased "Basement Tapes" LP that happened to be sitting out Keith was in town recording the Dr. Octagon LP at Dan's parent's house. I drove up to SF, met Neil in front of the house and we ended up chillin' in Dan's room while they were working on "Girl Let Me Touch You", waiting for them to take a break. The finished their take and emerged Keith emerged from the makeshift vocal booth. We chopped it up a bit and I showed him the "Basement Tapes" LP and he got pretty bummed. He asked where I got it and he said Ced was doing all sorts of shit with their material and he had no say in any of it. I told him where I picked it up and he asked Dan if they could go there tomorrow so he could buy one. Then he reached down beside Dan's bed and pulled out this huge blue duffle bag. "Do you like Max Hardcore?" he asked as he unzipped the bag which was stuffed full of VHS porno tapes. He started pulling out different tapes and talking about him. We talked porn for a minute. Somehow we started talking about metal bands (I think Neil told Keith he should check out Spazz or something). "Do you like Gorefest?" he asked. I told him they were alright "Do you like Autopsy?" I told him of course and that I knew one of those dudes. Keith was pumped. I told him I had a tape of the record we were working on and The Automator threw it in so we could check it out. Keith was bugging out on it. He asked if I could do that same guitar sound on the record they were working on. I said no problem and told him I would get in touch with them tomorrow. I asked Keith if he could do a shout out for us and we would put it on the record. Automator flipped the tape over and recorded Keith's drop that you hear on "La Revancha".

The next day I called the phone number Automator had given me to figure out if and when I could go back up to the studio and do some guitar. I never got through and they never called me back. "Andy Boy" is credited as playing guitar on the track and while I cannot confirm or deny it, Neil told me it was Andy from Attitude Adjustment. I was happy enough to chill with Keith and get that drop. To this day, it has to be one of the most bonkers hardcore / hip hop crossovers in the history of music. The Judgement Night soundtrack has nothin' on this!
A few days later Neil called and told us that Keith had mentioned Spazz in one of his new rhymes. What the fuck??? We never thought it would see the light of day until we heard "I'm Destructive". Holy shit! The line taken almost word for word from the conversation Keith and I had that night. And then Dr. Octagon drops and completely blows up, etc, etc. I'm not sure how many people who were listening to Spazz were also listening to Ultramagnetic at the time. but it seemed that EVERYONE was listening to the Dr. Octagon LP. A lot of people were catching the Spazz reference and asking us about it. I'm not sure if Keith ever got a copy of "La Revancha" (I'm still holding one for you, man), but I hope someone has played it for him at some point. It's one of my favorite records we recorded and I'm stoked to have a hip hop legend on it. Yeah, I know that this post is on some fanboy ish, but it's Poppa Large; the one, Rhythm X; KOOL MOTHERFUCKIN' KEITH!!

Dr. Octagon - I'm Destructive (Dreamworks, 1996)

Kool Keith - I'm Fuckin' Flippin' (Tuff City,1994)


what was the reason you guys broke up? 

Chris was relocating to LA and we felt at that point that the band had pretty much run its course.

How did you get into Hip Hop?? 

Literally found someone's pause mix cassette on the ground while playing baseball in elementary school. Totally changed my life.

How did you get into Deejaying and your Dj name?? 

At some point I had 2 mismatched belt drive turntables and hooked them up to a Radio Shack mixer I already had. Started messing around and buying more gear. I was listening to local mix shows on the radio and started buying 12 inches. 


how did you get the band 3 wheel motion?  not alot of people know bout this band? 

That was something we came up with when Mark and Jon from Charles Bronson were visiting me. We came up with the concept and wrote most of the lyrics on a drive from Reno to San Francisco. Over the next day we wrote some riffs and tried to arrange it and then recorded it the next day. There was a small tape release of it and then it kinda faded into obscurity. 


That split with Healer is sick how did you link up with them? 

Justin from Warthog Speak hit me up because he was releasing the demo on a 7" and he wanted to know if I was down to send him some beats for the other side.I've known Tony for a long time and wanted to do something cooler than just send in some random beats so I came up with the concept for Dank Goblins and hit up some homies to see if they were down to help record it.

Do you have any future Projects?

I have a track on the new There's No More Room In Hell compilation which comes out next month. New Grand Invincible LP/cassette on Iron Lung sometime soon. Everything has been submitted but all the plants are so backed up records are taking forever to come out. Also split instrumental tape with a homie on a new label (not sure if I can announce the details yet). Working on an EP with Big Sammy and some new GI stuff. Working on the cover art for a new Yegg War release as well.

Any shoutout you want to give?

Thanks for the interview Marco. Shout out to all my Doomryderz West Bay Koalition family. RIP Stinkweed RIP Big Boy

Last question will there be a Spazz reunion?? 

Nope.


Thanks for your time Dan Spazz forever!!!!
https://spazzbandcamp.bandcamp.com/

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Chimpowa/Elephant Mace #58

What's up everyone here another interview from the homies that are from Rose Park and they say there side of the story here is the interview with the Rose Park heroes.. enjoy 

State your name what bands were you in? 

Nick Childers I played in Elephant Mace and Chimpowa, fillers for other projects but mainly created for the two. 
Isaac Morales
Elephant Mace & Chimpowa

How you been?? 
Issac: Been chillin'! Working and living that family life! 
Nick:I've been well staying busy. Going out to the forest as much as I can these days. 

How did you get into punk?
N: as for exposure to punk I'd say it was early. I have family members that had local music on cassettes and on wax. Stuff like Heavy Artillery, Cruda, ill repute, Rudimentary Peni things like that

how did get into punk? 
I got in to punk through my uncle. He took me to my first show and I got thrown in the pit. I Think I was in seventh grade. After that I was hooked with going to shows. I started  listening to a bunch of punk music, whatever I could get my hands on. Burnt CDs, found friends that were getting into punk too.


how did Elephant Mace start as a band?
N: Elephant mace started as a band when we found a singer id say. Alex and Isaac lived next to me growing up and we've practically learned our instruments together. We had written the instrumentals for rotting soul when we had Marcus over and it all clicked 

I: Shieeet...Possum, Nick and I were always having Jam sessions. We knew Marcus from high school and starting hanging out more with him I think our Freshman year in college. One day Marcus came over while we were jamming out  and jumped on some vocals. Then someone said we should start a band since Marcus was down to get on the mic. Haha I think that's how it went down.


What was the line up?

N: All we needed was a bassist after that. So we wrote religion destroyer with Crazy D, enjoyed the collab and that lineup seemed to stick for a while 

Alex - drums / vocals
Isaac- lead guitar
Nick- rhythm 
Crazy D- bass
Marcus - Vocals

What were some of the influences for Elephant Mace? 
N: We had a big thing of bringing our influences in. We all generally liked the same music. So meshing our ideas was always the fun part of writing in this project. That and like I said earlier we all learned together. Easy example of this is say Alex is feeling a bit creative and we run with it. At the core he's Punk as fuck so we ran with it and out comes " tired of your shit" Great way to deal with writers block as well. We would do this for every member. Id say our biggest influences to get back on topic was everyone playing around us at the time. Nardcore was big and kind of had its own bubble. We all vibed off each other. 

I:Damn, for Elephant Mace...well for me I would say a mix of all kinds of music. Early Nardcore, punk, power violence, hip hop groovy shit and definitely local bands that we would go see at shows. A lot of our friends were in other bands too and I just wanted to make music that we liked and hopefully our friends would like. Too many bands, friends and influences to list. Haha fuck it, Spazz, Infest, ILL Repute, Decimus *Decimator, XmalcomX, El Mariachi, Full Blown Aids, SOAD, mostly wanting to play shows alongside the homies.
How did you guys get the name Elephant Mace?
It was just an inside joke we had, where we practiced there was some bear mace I think Marcus left. It stayed there and around our first few shows we needed a name and the idea of what could be harder than bear mace happened. Good weed, good people, and funny ass convo led to it mainly 

How did Elephant Mace end and How did Chimpowa start as a band? 
I: When we ended Elephant Mace, We just wanted to go for a different sound. Possum and I were always jamming out and making up new songs. I knew he always wanted to get on vocals too and I was down as well. Just liked matching vocals in my head to the riffs I was making. It could have been handled better when we got everyone together. I was koo with everyone, Marcus is a cool dude. I know he was upset. I had fun playing with Elephant Mace, mad memories. Like our first show being at that ridiculous house party in Ventura and Marcus screaming his fucking lungs out cuz the PA went down! That shit will always be the dopest! Hahaha
I: Chimpowa started after Elephant Mace. It was 3 of us from EM, Nick, Possum and myself. We wanted to play faster and we wanted to try out vocals. Like I was saying Possum and I were always jamming out putting shit together and always changing shit up. Back then it was always us 3 kicking it going everywhere and jamming out together.

N: It was just availability over time. Crazy D and Marcus had other shit going on and we just kept playing. Kinda just turned into Chimpowa naturally 

how did u guys get the name chimpowa?
N: Hahah that was all Alex hahah he was on a wild one and just kept saying it a trance! 
I: 
Hahaha yeah the story behind the name is ridiculous. Back when Possum and I would hit each other up to have a smoke sesh we would ask "Hey you wanna get high?" In a hood ass accent. Haha and each time we called we would slur it more and more until it stopped sounding anything like that. Eventually one of us said "Ay Chimpowa?" And then that just became the code word for sesh. Then we just named the band Chimpowa.
what was the best show you guys played in either band?? 
I: I think the best show we played was at that Ventura house party that got completely trashed! Backyard shows and living room shows were always the best! 
N: Mmm best show prabally varies depending on who you ask. But one that stood out for me was this show we played out in OC with Sordo. We went out together and it was just a badass day, get there and we met Bridge and tons of other local greats at that time. Isolated warehouse show where everyone that was there played in a project. That's what it was about for me haha 

How long was Chimpowa a band and how did the band end?? 
N:And it ended how it started really. Availability. We all branched out and did our own things. We never lost touch! 
I:Idk how long we played in Chimpowa for to be honest. And I couldn't remember what our last show was. I don't think our last show was supposed to be a last show, I just remember that we were going to take a break. I had a kid on the way and I started working a lot and didn't really have time to practice or jam. Possum started  other projects and Nick was doing his thing too.
Do you have any projects in the works? 
I: I haven't had any projects or anything. I know Possum had a few. I did want to get everyone together, get some legit recording, play another show and finish some songs that we never got to finish. 
Any shoutout you want to give?
N: Shout out to Isaac Morales, Alex Topete, Matt and Marcus Urango, Albert Mesa, Ferna, Fuckin Fabian, Tones- gracia for the chat!, Angel C,  Sordo - Gerry you the shit! , Perkins Rd, and anyone who appreciates local talent. Get off the fuckin internet and make some shit! 
I:Shout out to all the friends that would go to our shows, Angel Castillo was always a big part with helping us out. With the art work, Elephant Mace Demo CDs, rides. Eddy Cahue for the dope ass recordings, Halfbreed, Jimmy, The Rosepark homies, Decimator, WoodPushers, Sordo for sure, Urango Bros., Bands we used to play with. 
Thanks for your time