The two excellent 45s released last year by Charlotte, North Carolina’s Brain Flannel have caused many a record-collecting shithead to sweat buckets over where to file them. Are they garage? Punk? Weird punk? Dumb punk? Sambacore? What the hell are they?Anyone worth their weight in empties will tell you Brain Flannel is simply the sound of that moment when the booze and whatever else takes over and you just wanna rage, slobber, and maybe even spin around a few times for good measure. I caught up with them right before they left for a little US tour, and here’s what the whippersnappers had to spout.
VICE: You’re just about to leave on a little tour. What are you looking forward to most on this jaunt?
Swimming, having our record label guy see us for the first time, hanging with Whatever Brains, and we’re also looking forward to playing with Whatever Brains. We’re looking forward to playing with Foreign Objects, too. We really wanna go to the changing of the Milk Stone in New York City.Good luck with that. So how did you guys start playing music together?
Three of us lived together and wanted to do this, and Eddie got in because the rest of Charlotte like him. Also, we needed someone to make Das EFX jokes and he has the best tattoos.
Howcome you throw that equal sign with the slash through it at the end of your band's name? I don’t have that key on my laptop! What am I supposed to do?
We all have macs. Are you on a Dell or something? It’s to match our tattoos. Seriously, though, we needed shorthand for “lannel.” It’s way cheaper to get that symbol tattooed.
Where does Brain Flannel stand sonically? Are you garage? Hardcore? Straight up punkers? What’s the deal?
We’re all of those. We operate as punks, but we just make what this sounds like. We like some of the garage turkeys and ladies, we like Termbros, we like Lebenden Toten shirts, and we like people that like us, unless they’re creeps.Would you rather play to a basement full of kids or a bar? Or do you give a shit?
Basement full of kids as long as they buy beers. It depends on what the bar is and how much the stuff at the bar is, you know? If this is in New York, we’d rather play 538 Johnson.So what’s the deal with the LP, has it been recorded yet?
You’re behind, man! We’ll have them on tour with us. It’ll be out a couple weeks into August on Grave Mistake and Sorry State. Then later this year it will be released on the Murdoch-owned Static Shock Records for the Euros.Tell me some embarrassing stuff about the people in Brain Flannel.
Bobby’s dick is named Eddie Murphy. Nick’s password to everything is clinthoward69. Elise dated an ecstasy dealer/rave DJ in Miami. Eddie is embarrassed all the fuckin’ time.Now say something embarrassing about me.
I don’t know…you’ve seen the Meatmen and enjoyed it?Fair enough.TONY RETTMANCheck out a sneak listen to a track from Brain Flannel’s debut LP ‘Sleep Rough’ here.BRAIN FLANNEL TOUR DATES
JUL 29 Atlanta @ 529 w/ WHATEVER BRAINS, WYMYNS PRYSYN, WAX MUSEUMS, BAD SPORTS
JUL 30 Charlotte @ The Milestone w/ WHATEVER BRAINS
JUL 31 Boone @ Black Cat w/ WHATEVER BRAINS
AUG 1 Raleigh @ Berkeley Cafe w/ RATIONAL ANIMALS, STRIPMINES, WASTED EFFORT
AUG 2 Richmond @ Sprout AUG 3 Baltimore @ Golden West w/ DEEP SLEEP, a guy from ALL
AUG 4 Brooklyn @ 538 Johnson w/ THE MEN, NOMOS, ONLY THE MESSENGER
AUG 5 Boston @ Frat Cave w/ FOREIGN OBJECTS, ANCIENT FILTH, DRAIZE (OK, it's actually Waltham)
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Swimming, having our record label guy see us for the first time, hanging with Whatever Brains, and we’re also looking forward to playing with Whatever Brains. We’re looking forward to playing with Foreign Objects, too. We really wanna go to the changing of the Milk Stone in New York City.Good luck with that. So how did you guys start playing music together?
Three of us lived together and wanted to do this, and Eddie got in because the rest of Charlotte like him. Also, we needed someone to make Das EFX jokes and he has the best tattoos.
We all have macs. Are you on a Dell or something? It’s to match our tattoos. Seriously, though, we needed shorthand for “lannel.” It’s way cheaper to get that symbol tattooed.
Where does Brain Flannel stand sonically? Are you garage? Hardcore? Straight up punkers? What’s the deal?
We’re all of those. We operate as punks, but we just make what this sounds like. We like some of the garage turkeys and ladies, we like Termbros, we like Lebenden Toten shirts, and we like people that like us, unless they’re creeps.Would you rather play to a basement full of kids or a bar? Or do you give a shit?
Basement full of kids as long as they buy beers. It depends on what the bar is and how much the stuff at the bar is, you know? If this is in New York, we’d rather play 538 Johnson.
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You’re behind, man! We’ll have them on tour with us. It’ll be out a couple weeks into August on Grave Mistake and Sorry State. Then later this year it will be released on the Murdoch-owned Static Shock Records for the Euros.Tell me some embarrassing stuff about the people in Brain Flannel.
Bobby’s dick is named Eddie Murphy. Nick’s password to everything is clinthoward69. Elise dated an ecstasy dealer/rave DJ in Miami. Eddie is embarrassed all the fuckin’ time.Now say something embarrassing about me.
I don’t know…you’ve seen the Meatmen and enjoyed it?Fair enough.TONY RETTMANCheck out a sneak listen to a track from Brain Flannel’s debut LP ‘Sleep Rough’ here.BRAIN FLANNEL TOUR DATES
JUL 29 Atlanta @ 529 w/ WHATEVER BRAINS, WYMYNS PRYSYN, WAX MUSEUMS, BAD SPORTS
JUL 30 Charlotte @ The Milestone w/ WHATEVER BRAINS
JUL 31 Boone @ Black Cat w/ WHATEVER BRAINS
AUG 1 Raleigh @ Berkeley Cafe w/ RATIONAL ANIMALS, STRIPMINES, WASTED EFFORT
AUG 2 Richmond @ Sprout AUG 3 Baltimore @ Golden West w/ DEEP SLEEP, a guy from ALL
AUG 4 Brooklyn @ 538 Johnson w/ THE MEN, NOMOS, ONLY THE MESSENGER
AUG 5 Boston @ Frat Cave w/ FOREIGN OBJECTS, ANCIENT FILTH, DRAIZE (OK, it's actually Waltham)