Rettsounds - Brain Slug

(Photo by Arion Toles)

Long Island’s Brain Slug touched down into my conscious sometime in the hotter months of last year when they shoved a demo tape in my mailbox while I was groping cantaloupes down on John's Farms. I’ve happily rolled the thing around in the tape deck more than a few times since then and hailed them to my cats as the epitome of what a hardcore band should be in this year of the end of forever. No hyperbole really needs to be dished out here. Basically, if you’ve got half a brain and are pissed off by the idea of having to breathe in and out, then Brain Slug is the band for you. No overly studied laptop derived muddy recording…no doe-eyed longing for ’82 pit action…no trust funded squatting… just that legitimate rage and timeless desperation us social retards long for.

I met up with them to talk about their new five-song 7-inch, Distort New York, on the German Hardware label and the release party that’s happening tonight at Stolen Sleeves. I also wanted to chat about their upcoming east coast tour as well. But we just ended up just bitching about Long Island and Pink.

VICE: Give me a general idea of how Brain Slug started.
Fuck Face (guitar):I had originally met Jack when I played in a band called Turncoat. He helped put out our tape and we started to become friends through that. I then filled in for a band that Jack and Gore had started called Youth Violence. I didn’t write any of the material that they had recorded so when I was playing with them I was trying to write stuff for the band but we ended up breaking up right after.
Jack Wiley Mitchell (drums): When that went down the tubes we all did some other shit to keep busy musically. After a while Fuck Face and I were looking to start a new hardcore band, something really stripped down and basic. It took us a minute to get back together to write shit but we finally started sending each other riffs. When we had what felt like a solid grouping of songs, the three of us recorded a demo. Around the same time I had bumped into Tony at 538, and his band just went on a hiatus of sorts. I asked him if he'd be interested in playing bass with us and that was that. We all sort of knew each other from crossing paths at shows on Long Island, where we all had grown up in different towns.

You mention Long Island, let’s talk some junk about this crap hole, the most elitist and racist place I’ve had the pleasure of living in.
Tony Toupee (bass):I guess it was always like that. I grew up in Levittown, which was the first mass produced suburb, and it was also exclusively rented to whites up until the 1960s, I think. All the first-generation residents were WWII vets so it had this really patriotic, Americana vibe, judging by old photos. Now it’s all people who own or have become successful in construction jobs or office management. It has this weird feeling of entitlement because they are busting their ass as if they are true blue-collar workers but they are getting paid too much to really know the deal. So at least in my town that’s where I imagine the elitist/entitlement feelings to come from. A feeling of “Where’s my slice?” when you already ate the whole fucking pie.

Levittown is also predominantly white and has been since its inception, which creates a lot of racial tension just out of fear and ignorance. Growing up, I had a friend who was Salvadoran and his father was kidnapped and killed by self-proclaimed skinheads. Me and my friends were chased by this other skinhead from my town once just for walking in front of his house. And still to this day the census shows that the town is close to 98% white. I don’t know why they fear so much…. I can’t exactly pinpoint where everyone gets their scared shitty attitudes from but at least there are some decent people trying to make it better. JWM: Let me say that Long Island sucks nuts in a major way. I never liked growing up out there for various reasons, but the lack of diversity is one of the biggest turn-offs. I was sort of split through a few different towns as a kid, but I started out in Brentwood. My school life and neighborhood friends were very mixed, so that was what I was first exposed to, that was my view of what life is like in the world. Then I moved out to Patchogue where it's predominately white. There's always been a big Latino/Hispanic/or whatever word is PC community too, but I think the racial tension has gotten so much more intense in the past ten years and it wasn't always like that. Perhaps you heard about the stabbing of an innocent Ecuadorian man by a bunch of high school students?  The underlying conservativeness and blanketed racism ABSOLUTELY made me the angry young man I am today. Fuck that place.

You guys are gearing up for a small east coast tour. What are you looking forward to out there?
TT:When we go to Philly I want to eat at Pats for breakfast lunch and dinner.

The lyrics to your song “Gag Reflex” show some sort of indifference towards passive-aggressive behavior in the “scene.” Am I comin' correct in this assumption?
M.Gore (vocals):As far as "indifference" goes… not so much.  I hate people who want to be everyone's friend so they never say anything negative that could jeopardize their social standing.  People should concentrate more on fewer, closer, stronger friendships because those few people are the only ones who matter in the long run.  Fuck everybody else; if they don't like you, then they can step off.  As far as what fuels the kind of behavior I am against?  I'm no Sigmund Freud, but I'd wager those kinds of people are really desperate for some love so they're constantly looking to get it the quickest and easiest way possible, which is to agree with the consensus of the mob surrounding you.  Either that or they've just got some daddy issues.

So where does hardcore stand in 2012? Is it still a movement or is it just a genre?
TT: I think it’s where it has always has been: basements, houses, squats, shitty clubs, dive bars. Maybe more branched out now than what it used to be, but I am just assuming. I personally think of it as a genre that has the ability to be a powerful vehicle for whatever message you want to project onto the world. So I think it’s cool when people are political and progressive and talking about cool shit, but there have been revolutions, uprisings, and worker’s strikes in this country and all around the world where they did not have a soundtrack of Discharge or GG or Agnostic Front, as much as I wished that were the case.
FF: I think hardcore is definitely more of a genre than a movement nowadays or at least compared to how it seemed in the late 70s and 80s; its concerns are a bit different now. Not for all bands, obviously, but you see it in certain ones. My only gripe with hardcore would probably be that people don’t push as many boundaries as I’d like to see, but as of late there’s been a lot of great stuff coming out, especially in New York, which is exciting.

Back to your songs, in "Distort New York" you talk about giving the city back to the rats. After that happens, where would you go?
M.G: I personally wanna chill in either the Himalayan Mountains eating goji berries, or the frozen wilderness of Northern Europe, eating dark riffs, because I don't believe human beings were ever meant to live in cities.  I'd rather live with rats than 99% of the people in New York City.  Rats are noble creatures; they're ambitious and hardworking, they're incredibly smart and calculating, they're survivors and they'll be around long after us.

What do you guys do besides play in Brain Slug?
FF:I was a custodian throughout the whole time Brain Slug started. Never really thought about it, but just the everyday things that happen to us definitely affect how we perceive things. I think the best song that helps explain that is “Crunch Time.” When Gore wrote those lyrics it was like he read my mind. People who talk down to you, or more specifically, people with that tone in their voice like their shit don’t stink--I can’t stand that. Rich, poor, young, or old, I couldn’t care less who you are, that shit doesn’t fly with me.
TT: I work in social services. I think what I do with music would not mesh well with my job. I need to keep them separate in order to be productive in each. Hardcore is an outlet for my frustrations in the real world.
MG: I manage a health food store, practice yoga, and commune with pagan gods… some of that seeps in lyrically, I guess.

Who are some bands you really despise?
MG: I hate Title Fight's music a lot but they seem like decent gents, and Stick Together is an ill band.  Mentioning a band like Trash Talk is just unnecessary and redundant.  I hate that band Punch for having a horrible name.  I don't even know what they sound like, actually.  I hate Creem for being better at being a hardcore band than we are.  I could go on and on. I hate this one song I hear on the radio at work every day for stealing a New Order bass line and every single song P!nk sings is fucking garbage.   There's just so much horseshit out there right now that I tune most of it out and keep jamming my Godflesh LPs. Any pop punk from Long Island sucks too, I guess.

When you say every song P!nk sings stinks…do you even mean “Get the Party Started”?I mean, c’mon, that song’s great!
MG: That shit blows!  If you want some banging pop music check out the song “Bulletproof” by La Roux, the illest dance track I've ever heard.
FF: Rihanna’s my girl. That song “S&M” is harder than anything Pink’s ever put out.

After the touring and all that, where is Brain Slug gonna go from here?
JWM:We're gonna record a song or two for Burn Books' NY Rules 2 compilation, then try to record a slew of new shit for a second 7-inch or something. Hopefully get out and play some more cities that we don't live in.

Finally, where does Jackson Browne stand on the Brain Slug scale of good music?
TT:I only know the song “These Days,”but I'd be willing to fuck with some of his other stuff.
MG: I've liked everything I've heard, but I'm not gonna try to act like I'm a fan of his.  When I need some singer-songwriter jams I go with Elliott Smith or Nick Drake. If I want it to be about my non-existent vagina, I'll kick some PJ Harvey.  Songs from the City, Songs from the Sea is one hard record.
F.F: He wrote “These Days” when he was 16! I LOVE that song. I had only heard the Nico version, but in college I took Arabic classes and as a final project I wanted to translate/play that song in front of my class but I totally wussed out.

Huh…I was expecting you guys to say he sucked, and then I’d get mad and kick you out, making for a fun ending to the interview. But you’ve screwed that all up by being well-rounded young men. Touché!

Purchase a copy of Brain Slug’s debut 7-inch here.

BRAIN SLUG TOUR DATES:

1/20 – Brooklyn, NY  w/Crazy Spirit, CREEM & Goosebumps @ Stolen Sleeves
1/22 - New Paltz, NY w/It's Not Night It's Space, Nailed Shut & More TBA @ Snug's
1/23 - New Brunswick, N.J.  w/Secret Lives, Wet Witch & Altered Boys @ The Alamo
1/24 – Philadelphia, Pa.  w/Heathen Reign, This Is Jazz @ Silk City
1/25 – Baltimore Md. w/Housedress & More TBA @ The Bell Foundry
1/26 – Washington DC w/Gash, Human Waste, Lotus Fucker & Mind As Prison @ Wasted Dream

Previously - New Breed