Punk Outlaw

Exclusive Video Interview with Moscow’s Tarakany!

// March 10th, 2013 // 1 Comment » // Videos

Finally! Coming to the Americas (north and south) is the legendary punk band from Moscow Russia, who’ve been rocking their comrades since just before the end of the cold war. That my friends, was Ronald Reagan – Mikhail Gorbachev days.

I have always been fascinated by Reagan’s so called “Evil Empire” so I went over to Moscow & St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) in 201o (if you missed it, just type “Russia” in the search bar upper right hand corner to see the many videos and posts) and found something more akin to Sting’s “The Russians Love Their Children Too” lyrics.  Good people trying to make a living. I mean I’m not sure what I expected, but I still have a place in my heart for the Russian people.

On that trip is when I met the guys from Tarakany! and taped them for “Punktology.. The Worldwide Influence of Punk ” (AKA the documentary with the ever changing tag line). Not knowing Tarakany! was really that big, I noticed when they guys gave me some CDs it was like toting back an entire section of music from your local CD store (when you had local CD stores). It was a massive collection.

Then in 2012 when I moved to the west coast and hired a couple of Russian interns (Tim & Snik), and their jaws dropped a bit when I told them about my interview with Tarakany!. it was then that I realized just how big these guys are. They compared them to the “Offspring” of Russia.. and as you’ll see by the interview with the guys that we are debuting today, they compare themselves to “Green Day of Russia”.

Well, here is the thing.. I like Offspring and Green Day but I certainly like Tarakany! music better than Green Day. Notice I didn’t say Offspring… so this is not just hyperbole or anything…it’s the truth. After Tim & Snik told me about Tarakany! I began meticulously listening to ALL their material, and it’s a bunch, as I mentioned below. There were a good 20 or so tracks that I would simply listen to over and over and over.. and finally I said, you know what we gotta put their music out in North America & South America. And we are, coming in November an eclectic mix of English songs from Tarakany! featuring incredible guest artists ranging from Frank Turner, members of Anti-Flag and Useless I.D. plus some more talented mofos from Russia.

I’ve heard the rough cuts and let me tell you, November can’t get here soon enough!

We haven’t announced it yet, but we will but you my dear friends, are always the first to know. So here ya go.

Thanks to Tim & Snik for helping put this video together.

 

TARAKANY!

 

(Biography / English)

 Tarakany! (Cockroaches!) is one of the most well known and longest running punk-rock bands in Russia, no small feat in the largest country in the world where western influenced music, media and fashion were outlawed up until just 2 years prior to the band’s formation in 1991.

Like Russia, this popular Moscow band has gone through some changes, but Tarakany! has stayed true to their roots, performing energetic punk and rock’n’ roll in the tradition of legendary bands like The Ramones, Social Distortion, Rancid, Motorhead and Bad Religion.

Tarakany’s lyrics run the gamut from political themes such as human rights, discrimination, inequality and corruption to lighter fare such as sex, partying and clueless music critics. No matter the topic, there is almost always a dose of irreverence and clever wordplay.

The band’s frontman Dmitry Spirin, proclaims their unique world view from stages scattered all over the world where Tarakany!’s fans are a mix of the expected and the unexpected. Their shows are popular among all levels of Russian society from the blue collar punk youth, upscale university students, internet geeks and football hooligans to respected authors, journalists and film laureates.

For over the last 20+ years Tarakany! has travelled all over Russia, Eastern and Western Europe and parts of Asia playing venues ranging from tiny hole-in-the- wall clubs to massive sold out stadiums and popular music festivals in front of tens of thousands of fans. They’ve shared the stage with legendary bands such as NOFX, Toy Dolls, Agnostic Front, Anti-Flag, Misfits, MxPx, Skatalites, MC5, Monster Magnet, Offspring, Exploited, Stranglers and many more. Tarakany! also had the honor of opening for the only Sex Pistols show in Moscow and in Europe they toured with legendary drummer Marky Ramone of The Ramones, first performing their own material and then playing a set of The Ramones’ immortal songs with Marky as drummer.

Tarakany! has released almost a dozen full length studio albums, numerous splits, concert albums, compilations and bootlegs and Tarakany! was Russia’s first punk-rock band to feature music videos shot by some of Russia’s top directors. Always careful to nurture up and coming punk & rock bands, Tarakany! works hard to help other bands from all over the world break into the huge Russian market.

With their forthcoming release from U.S. based Punk Outlaw Records, Tarakany is re-recording several songs from their massive catalog specifically for the North & South American markets for the first time. Contributors on the new release includes members of the legendary U.S. bands Anti-Flag, Useless I.D., Frank Turner as well as Russian guest artists as well, making this a truly international, collaborative punk effort.

The label and band are planning a special effort to continue global awareness and outrage over the fate of the unjustly imprisoned members of the female Russian punk band “Pussy Riot”. Their To Be Titled debut release for Punk Outlaw Records is due out November 2013.

Stay tuned to www.Tarakanyband.com for more information and updates.

 

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Lima – Exclusive Interview with Narcosis

// August 31st, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Videos

So I’m in cloudy, chilly Lima Peru in the dead of winter. Now you’d think I”d be depressed about this fact, being a warm blooded guy who bitches about the cold, but I’m not. I’m happy as hell to be here (ok, ok I did cheat a little bit with a little fun in the sun in the beach town of Mancora on the north coast).

Lima is huge (over 8.5 million souls) and in many spots (like Miraflores), very modern. There are so many gringos here in Miraflores I thought I was in Delaware or Maine .. actually, that’s unfair, I’ve never been to those places (does Rhode Island count?), but you get the picture. Peru is a major tourist draw and for good reason. It’s August, so there are lots of people from North America, Europe and all over the world visiting.

But mostly I’m fired up about being in Lima because this town has such a legendary rock and punk history. Now I’m not going to get into details about the surf/punk band Los Saicos in the 1960s, who some say was the very first punk band ever. Not yet. But, never fear my fearless one, I will.

What I will get into now is the legendary 80s punk band Narcosis. I was able to catch up with George “Pelo” Madueño, the drummer (and now very successful musician and producer) for “Narcosis” last week.

Now if you don’t know about Narcosis or the 80s punk scene in Lima, well join the club.

I’m still learning as I go along here (and not being able to read Spanish fluently doesn’t help with my research) but here is what I’ve learned so far in speaking with George and others in the punk scene here.

Narcosis and Leusemia were two of the first punk bands in Peru in the 1980s, what some consider to be the 2nd wave of punk in Lima (thanks to above mentioned pioneers Los Saicos in the 1960s).

Due to space, time, knowledge and reader attention restraints, here is a ridiculously oversimplified explanation of what was happening at the time.

There were lots of social issues in Lima in the 1980s. The Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) were at their peak, spreading terrorism and fear. The Peruvian government at the time, one of the most corrupt ever, used this as an excuse to kill countless peasants in the countryside and basically it was a very dark period for the country.

Out of this sprung Punk music including the band Narcosis. Narcosis was short lived having been only active for a little over a year and only put out one tape (back then it was a tape not CD youngsters). But that tape was so good, so influential, that Narcosis is still asked to play together today in parts of Peru.They do so from time to time.

I had first heard of Narcosis when in Medellin, where the band played just a few years ago (their only tour outside of Peru). Uncharacteristically (at least in my recent experiences there) things got out of hand, the police came in riot gear and got aggressive with the crowd and one person was actually killed. Beyond this, I don’t know many details.

But suffice it to say that Narcosis still is, amazingly when you consider how short of a time they were actually together, a very influential punk band, in Latin Ameria and beyond.

Now rather than me tell you all about it, I thought I’d try something new and post a little raw (unedited) video clip of my interview with George for you to see. 

I’ve also posted a you tube video so you can get a taste of this band’s music. This one is called “Sucio Policia” (Dirty Police).

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Thanks to George (Pelo) for taking the time for the interview and for graciously agreeing to be interviewed in English.

And stay tuned, just getting started here in Lima, Peru.. and I think I actually saw a glimpse of the sun yesterday. Things are looking up.

 

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Quito’s DMTR… Fast, Furious and Fertile!

// May 21st, 2011 // 2 Comments » // Photos, Videos

Our first official day of shooting in Quito, Ecuador and we had a date with DMTR at the famous local rock bar “The Garage Bar”. In case your wondering, DMTR stands for Demeter and refers to the God of Fertility.

Now, I had done my research on these guys before hand and though there was not a ton of info on them, I had already previewed their music on Myspace, really dug it and really wanted to feature them.

So I sent about a dozen emails via myspace to no avail and finally, tracked them down on their facebook profile and tadah.. they answered back and we were all set.

We arrived to The Garage a little early and after we set up for our 3 camera shoot, the guys ripped through their two recorded songs “No Balas Sin Fronteras” (No Bullets Without Borders) and “Mentira” (Lie) for our cameras and a small entourage of friends, managers and girlfriends.

The music was fast, furious and melodic (and yes, fertile too). To me, it had a distinct U.S. west coast punk flavor and by the 2nd performance I was hooked on DMTR.

Afterwards we had a short interview for Raw Travel and the documentary Punktology.

The guys from DMTR are eager to record more of their songs and tour outside of Ecuador, including possibly Colombia and the U.S. No matter where you live, if they come to a town near you, trust me, you will want to check em out.

In the meantime, enjoy this clip from their performance of “No Balas Sin Fronteras” from one of our cameras at the shoot.

For more info on the band be sure and check out their Myspace Page or Facebook profile.

Also if your ever in Quito be sure and look up the Garage Bar for good live rock and punk Music every Thursday, Friday and Saturday (this is not a paid endorsement, just a bit of advice, you punk cynic you).

Disfruta (enjoy) the vid and see if you don’t think this is some fine ass punk music regardless of language, location or whatever!

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Last Night in Moscow – Video of Betty Boop Lovers

// November 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Videos

MOSCOW, RUSSIA:

My final night in Moscow was a Saturday night and I was to head to St. Petersburg the following day. I hadn’t planned enough time in Moscow and I ran out of time before I ran out of interviewees.

I had a few interviews that I really wanted to get including one of the old punk legends from the Moscow scene “Zhaber Punk” . “Zhaber Punk” and I had a communication issue with my Russian being non existent and he not speaking English, but mainly it was a time issue. I just didn’t have enough time in Moscow to secure an interpreter and garner the interview.

Also Vladimyr, a music writer for the Moscow Times and punk fan who wrote an excellent English language article about Russian Punk Music scene you can read from my previous post HERE. Unfortunately, Vladimyr and I made contact after I had already left Moscow.

And then there was Dmitry from the Moscow punk band (Eorsi). Same as Vladimyr we also made contact after I’d already left Moscow. But I did get the chance to listen to Dmitry’s band at their Last FM web page and fell in love with their music, especially a couple of songs called “About Punk” and “Black Flag”. Give em a listen if you get a chance.

Eorsi has been around for 7 years and Dimitry told me they even had a “grenade get dropped” at one of their shows to which the Russian press completely ignored. Now that is punk! Maybe a little too punk?

Next time I’m in Moscow will definitely profile these guys for you. I’ll be sure to wear my flap jacket though. Keep up the good music guys!

In the meantime, my last night in Moscow, my new rockabilly friend Viktor (AKA DJ Spaceman) took me to this cool little bar called “The Real McCoy” that was decorated like a speak easy from the U.S. in 1920s prohibition era and I might add, make a mean chicken burrito (not surprisingly, the only Mexican food I had while in Russia).

On this particular Saturday night the bar featured a bop inspired rockabilly band called “Betty Boop Lovers” . I was able to interview the guys in between sets and shoot some video of their performance which featured mostly covers but did include a performance of a catchy original called “I Can’t Touch” that I really dug.

Here is some video from my last night in Moscow at the Real McCoy with my friend Viktor tearing up the dance floor to the Betty Boop Lovers. Enjoy!

STAY TUNED: Tonight is the long awaited return of Social Distortion here in New York City so look for photos and videos tomorrow! And then, FINALLY, I’ll feature some pics and videos as I made my way to St. Petersburg, Russia!

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Russia – A Punk Preview

// October 18th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Photos

As you may know I’m heading to Russia later this week to try and find out a little of the lowdown on the punk, rockabilly and psychobilly scene.  Russia is a BIG country (the world’s largest with 6.6 million square miles), I have a short time (8 days) and have just limited myself to the two largest cities (Moscow & St. Petersburg).

If you live in the U.S. you know how New York City is NOTHING like the rest of the country. Nor is Los Angeles or Las Vegas or Miami or any number of places a traveler who only has 8 days might spend in the U.S. In Colombia, the same could be said of the differences between Bogota, Medellin and Cartagena, really like visiting 3 different countries.

So I know I’m missing a lot of what Russia is about but as I said, I have 8 days not 8 years, so I am going to do the best I can.

Luckily, the response from Russia has been incredible with people emailing me and offering to show me around Moscow and St. Petersburg and eager to participate in the documentary “Punktology” so I hope by later this week, there will be some first hand photos, video and reports from Moscow.

In the meantime, I’ve made contact with a few punk rockers who don’t live any where near Moscow and St. Petersburg and I really wanted to try to at least get some of their point of view.

Now granted I can only really communicate with people who speak at least some English and this is not to be representative of the entire Punk culture in Russia by a long, long shot. This is just meant to help me prepare for my trip and my interviews and I thought might be cool to share with you.

So here goes. Sophia is a punk rocker that lives in Perm, Russia, a city of around 1 million or so located in the European part of Russia. She’s an English teacher (hence her excellent English skills) and a punk musician, having played in no less than FIVE punk and ska bands.

Sophia agreed to answer a few preliminary questions I had about Russian punk and they are below for your (and mine) reading enjoyment! Thanks to Sophia for taking the time.

As for me, I’m busy getting ready for what Russia has to offer. So wish me luck!

P.S. The ??????? are where Sophia is naming Russian bands using the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. The blog software won’t accept the names for some reason and turns it into ???? My apologies on this technical difficulty. I’ll try figure this out and fix.

PO: HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INTO PUNK MUSIC?

SOPHIA: Well I was about 13 years old, and the first band I heard was Green Day. Then I went with Ramones and Sex Pistols, and some Russian bands like Purgen and NAIVE, I also listened to ????????? ??????, ????????, ????????? ????.

Discovering punk-music was kinda revelation for me, I started to search and listen to anything that people can call “punk” I knew this was MY cup of tea. And after like a year of being involved into punk I met my named brother Ramon and we decided to arrange our first band called HandGrAnade

PO: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS?

SOPHIA: Nowadays among all the kinds of punk music my favorites are oi! and California punk (Green Day surely, Yellow Card’s “Ocean Avenue”, Blink 182, Offspring, anti-flag, Captain Everything!, Rancid, NoFX, MxPx, early works of A.F.I. etc & Cock Sparrer, Sham 69, Dropkick Murphys, Brigada Flores Magon and so on). But there are some other bands to my liking not connected with these genres, like Misfits, Mad Sin, Nekromanticks, The Cramps, Bloodhound Gang, Buzzcocks, Tiger Army, Dead Kennedys, Rollins Band (btw being a Henry Rollins fan now I translate his Black Coffee Blues into Russian)

PO: TELL ME ABOUT SOME OF THE BANDS YOU’VE PLAYED IN?

SOPHIA: As I already said my first band was called HandGrAnade (the mistake is made deliberately as there should be the anarchy symbol instead of the wrong letter “a”). Actually it consisted of Ramon playing the guitar and me singing. That’s what I started with, to tell the truth it was not really serious, Ramon and me arranged about two more bands and after that he became interested in the hippie culture, got involved into “Beatles” and things like that, as far as I know now he deals with psychedelic rock.

So when he left punk I stayed alone in my musical aspirations, but fortunately two more friends were near me that time and the last punk-band I organized with them was called “St. Patrick’s Days”, we even gave one concert and I still have the shittiest record ever taken there I can’t help mentioning that we played two covers on Rancid there, “Roots Radicals” and “Radio”. And if in the first bands all the lyrics was russian, for S.P.D. I started to write songs in English and working with music now I still prefer to write in english as I consider the language to be more preferable  for expressing the thoughts, though now I deal with music which is closer to ska and reggae.

PO: ARE THERE A LOT OF FEMALE PUNKS IN PERM, RUSSIA?

SOPHIA: Ha ha ha well, there are plenty of them I think, but in perm (and generally in Russia) people are not used to express their opinion really freely (it’s the consequence of mentality formed in the soviet time, it works subconsciously), so it wouldn’t be easy for you to find a girl with a mohawk in perm a guy – possible, a girl – I don’t think so. What is more Perm’s equivalent of punk culture is closer to the English variant of culture, than to the American. So our punk is connected with ska and indie better than with rockabilly or psychobilly, as far as I know we don’t have a single psycho/rockabilly band here (it’s for the question #9), so girls here (as the majority of the guys) prefer to look more casual as English traditional skinheads and mods did. It’s pretty and at the same time points out your belonging to a certain group of people.

PO: WHAT IS THE PUNK SCENE LIKE IN PERM? IS IT BIG? IS IT GROWING?

SOPHIA: Punk scene in Perm ha ha ha ha ha ha ha well, it’s one of not so easy questions, in no way it’s growing D: unfortunately, even local punk-bands perform very seldom here, they prefer to play in other cities instead. The problem is local again. In Russia the issue of the opposition of fascists and antifascists is very very sharp and it prevents music from developing. As for Perm, once upon a time all the punk-musicians were just labeled as antifa and all the music here almost died, because of constant derangement of the concerts!!!

First punk-bands appeared here in the beginning of the 2000s, the boom of punk fell on 2005-2007 when all our “legends” appear “Pretty Green”, “Linoleum”, “Frenzied Kids”, “Pleentoos”, “Grey Sunset”. After that the culture almost died away because of the “ideological issue”.

Nowadays we have three best punk-bands of Perm, they are like the punk-image of the city: “Linoleum” (punk/ska/core), “Pleentoos” (fast melodic punk) and “???????, ???” (punk-rock). If you want I can send you their CDs, or something. But they play only on some important punk-events in Perm, for instance when some bands from abroad come, as in 2008 “The Useless ID” visited us and all the three bands played with them, this year french band HOGWASH is coming and they are playing with them too. Frenzied Kids, a legendary punk/hardcore band doesn’t exist anymore, but everybody still remembers them. And one more local band deserves to be mentioned it’s Wild Rover it’s kinda punk’n'roll in English traditions and they play pretty often in the small clubs always creating cozy and friendly atmosphere, so their performances for local old punk-company are a sort of family reunion.

PO: DO PEOPLE DISCRIMINATE AGAINST PUNKS? (TREAT PUNKS BADLY?)

SOPHIA: This question refers us to the previous ones, #4 and #5 in particular. Cause as I said in #4 punks here look pretty casual, so ordinary people pay almost no attention to local punk-culture, but there’s an ideological problem. I can answer the next question too by saying that here the society doesn’t need to fight the youth cultures. They do it themselves. Dividing into different groups, for example fascists and antifascist, as I mentioned before. The most of punks disappeared here because one day everything got divided into black & white, left & right, fa & antifa. And lots of free guys had to make their choice. Cause if you are in the middle you’ll be hated by both. I personally had friends in both, left and right sides I just needed to be in contact with a lot of people as I wanted to develop my musical skills and I wanted to communicate with as many music lovers as possible. And surely I was hated by both. Right now the tension seem to go down in a way, but there are still a lot of problems connected with intolerance and irresistible carving of young people for destroying each other, being guided by some prejudice and double standards – the things that are naturally opposite to the punk itself.

PO: WHAT ABOUT THE POLICE, DO THEY EVER HASSLE THE PUNKS?

SOPHIA: Not really

PO: WHAT DOES YOUR FAMILY THINK ABOUT YOU BEING A PUNK ROCKERS?

SOPHIA: Hahahahah well my mom doesn’t pay much attention to it already (at first she was really scared) but she still hopes that I’ll forget it some day But I don’t think so, punk is not an image, it’s the way of life, the way of thinking so to speak, how can I refuse one day anything that makes me the person that I am

PO: IS THERE A BIG ROCKABILLY OR PSYCHOBILLY SCENE IN PERM?

SOPHIA: Unfortunately no There was only one band Catafalque Riders, but they performed long ago only once, and even no records are left after them.

PO:  WHY DO YOU THINK PUNK MUSIC IS SO BIG IN RUSSIA?

SOPHIA: Is it? Hahahahaha Well actually I think it depends, I personally wouldn’t say punk-music is big in Russia, among the famous punk-bands the best is NAIVE, nowadays they don’t play anymore, but Radio ???? are their worthy successors. These are relly well-known bands, speaking about the rest, even more or less known Moscow and St. Petersburg bands, well, you know Russia is a big country and I’m sure there are millions of punk-bands here, but there’s no punk movement, there are few guys with mohawks, there are few bands who play well. There is a try to copy foreign music, but there’s no really thoughtful background. It’s not enough at least.

PO: DO YOU THINK PUNK MUSIC CAN HELP THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE?

SOPHIA: Sure. What people need is to open their mind and let punk make them THINK.

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Exclusive Video Interview with Italy’s “Evil Devil”

// September 29th, 2010 // No Comments » // Videos

Back in May, I got the chance to interview an Italian psychobilly supergroup “Evil Devil” fresh off their play date at the big Black Cat 10th Anniversary Psychobilly show in Hollywood, California. The show was packed, the interview went great and after a crazy summer, we finally got the segment edited, so here you go!

The guys from “Evil Devil” really do a great job speaking to me in English, not their first language of course, but my Italian is worse than my Spanish which is to say, non existent. So I appreciate the guys breaking down some of the differences between the psychobilly and punk scenes in Europe compared to the U.S. in English for us all.

A “manager” on a power trip @ the Henry Fonda Theater stopped me filming with the big high def camera so I had to capture b-roll with the small handheld flip cam (where there’s a will there’s a way) which has pretty bad audio capture at concerts, so I suggest you hit EVIL DEVIL’S MY SPACE PAGE to get a better sample their music.

Thanks to the Evil Devil cats who are really cool. I hope I get to Italy for the documentary and can take in a local show of theirs. Also thanks to my buddy Rich from Black Cat Entertainment for helping me line up the interview. And last but not least, my LA buddy Francisco Romero who captured some of the flipcam footage that night.

Enjoy!

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Punkabilly Heads South With Rudos Wild

// April 12th, 2010 // No Comments » // Videos

You may have noticed by now that I’m very high on Uruguayan rockabilly band “Rudos Wild”. It’s not just their music that is infectious, it’s their personality, their love for their craft and their willingness to do whatever it takes to be able to perform.

That is, in my opinion, the truest definition of artistry and the punk rock philosophy. But don’t take my word for it, check them out in this exclusive interview we taped with them down in Montevideo, Uruguay in February. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

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Our good friends the Casualties help us out..

// November 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Videos

We got a chance to go backstage and see the Casualties the other night at the Nokia show when they were opening for Less Than Jake.

The Casualties and Lewis over at Powerchord productions put toghether a nice promo for my amigo Jorge from ColombianPunk.com for the upcoming concert in Bogota and Medellin in December. We’ll be shooting the concert and sharing photos and pics of this first time event for the Casualties.

From what I hear from Jorge who is in NYC Colombian punks are super excited and I think the crowd will be nutz!

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Exclusive Segment: Hard Rockers KHZ w/ Dave Navarro

// October 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Videos

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Exclusive Segment: Punk Legends NOFX on Punk Outlaw

// October 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Videos

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