NICE FACE, GARBAGE HEAD

It's good when a band's name is an insult. My parents used to book a band called You Suck at their old nightclub. One night my uncle was there and asked who the band was and when some guy responded,"You suck," he got cheesed off. Incidentally You Suck's big stage move started with them saying "Any Requests?" and someone responding,"Yeah, get the fuck off the stage!" at which point they would perform a song called "Get the Fuck Off the Stage."

Nice Face sounds like

Livefastdie

, but much darker. There's more synths, echoes, and danger. Actually I meant to type "anger" but I'm going to stick with danger. Trying to spruce up your shitty band by spending some clams down at Ye Olde Echoes n' Pedals Shoppe is to this moment what recruiting a tubaist and becoming ska-core was to the 90s, but Nice Face has layers and layers of shit going on and the songs are all distinct and unformulaic. One song'll be like some dark garage-punk and then some other shit will be like punkish goth noise or whatever. Some songs are fast, while others are slow. You get my point here.

After putting out a handful of seven-inches and a 12-song cassette (fucking hate this cassette resurgence) there's finally a Nice Face full lenth. It's called

Immer Etwas

and it's out now on CD as well as standard LP and an extremely nice limited edition which has a hand silkscreened sleeve. This record is fucking gold. Nineteen amazing songs. There's nothing standard or phoned in on this mandatory disc. Ian's the main face in Nice Face and so he and I had a rap sesh to figure out why they aren't playing shows and what these indecipherable lyrics are about.

Vice: Who decided that the cover of the Exterminator single would be a giant dick? Is "Exterminator" a nickname you came up with for your dick? Ian:

Nah, that song's about Stalin. Me and this Aussie guy I used to work with would always draw dick pictures for each other, so I decided to use one of my masterpieces for the record cover. My one and only time as an actual artist. It's supposed to be a picture of my actual cock, but I think I fucked up cause I only see it from the one angle, you know?

Understandable. Where'd the name Nice Face come from?

It's just a classic retort along the same lines as "nice pants," "nice face," "nice attitude," etc. If whoever you're putting down is really annoying you can always add "nice face… can I fuck it?" But you have to be prepared to actually fuck their face if they give you lip after that.

I thought Immer Etwas was going to be some sort of goofy punk word game like "Sofa King Wee Todd Did" but when I googled it I saw it was German for "It's always something."

I'm never satisfied. I want more.

And I wanna know what these songs are about. What's "Beater" about?

Thai ladyboys waving their beaters about [audio: http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/blogs/en/files/2010/03/11-beater.mp3]

How about "Decipher."

It doesn't have lyrics--how can it be about anything?

You never know. What's "I Want Your Damage" about?

A specific girl who would talk about how much she wanted to be with me, but refused to actually hook up with me. Frustrating!

What's "A Minor Altercation" about?

About that relation-shit stage of a relationship when you don't even like each other anymore, but you stay together for another six months. Brutal.

What's "A Caping Gash" about?

What? It's "Gaping Gash," not "Caping Gash." Incidentally, it's NOT about a vagina.

If "Gaping Gash" isn't about a vagina than what's it about?

It's about having a shredded conscience, morality bleeding out. Loose vaginas can be pretty gross though.

What's "Invective" about?

About this girl I know who has an uncanny gift for being able to tear someone apart with words. "Vitriol is her vocation."

What's "Garbage Head" about?

My brain is full of shit and bad ideas. The song is about wading through that garbage. [audio: http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/blogs/en/files/2010/03/07-garbage-head.mp3]

What's "Blood in the Well" about?

I thought it would be brilliant to write a song about having sex with a girl while she was on her period, but making it really symbolic and metaphor-laden to the point that no one would really know what it was about. I'm neither smart nor talented enough to do that, so the song kind of became about this unquenchable thirst that I wake up with every morning and these crazy dreams I repeatedly have. I did keep the last line though… "I gotta pull out, cuz there's blood in the well"

What's "Had To Let U Know" about?

Pretty much all of my songs are about girls or being tortured by my brain. This one's about trying to hold onto a girl, but that only making the situation worse and worse. So it's a combination of the two.

What's "Selectron" about?

The Large Hadron Collider and

selectron

storms.

You've got Camero Werewolf of LFD playing guitar for you, which is rad. How do you know that buddy?

I've known Ethan for years. I was in a band called Some Action with him for five years. He is the best.

True. Tell me stories of Camero hijinks.

Actually, Ethan was the least crazy person in that band. He had to take care of all the business cause nobody else would, myself especially. We were just all about being drunk and having a good time, then somewhere along the way it stopped being fun. There are definitely plenty of retarded stories, but I only really remember my own. One time I wandered off and broke into an all-black university in Memphis and got caught by security. I also smashed a motel telephone on my face that night… I don't think Ethan was very psyched to be in a band with me on nights like that.

Ethan told me to ask you about your Legend amp.

Legend amps are amazing and made of wood, but mine is broke and stupid. Decent metaphor for me.

He also told me you have an affinity for tigers.

Totally! I got to pet a tiger when I was five years old at an Exxon outside of Baltimore. Tigers are awesome. solitary, smart killers. I watched a special about a guy who taught tigers to hunt in packs in Africa, since it was harder for them to catch prey on an open plain. So they're adaptable too!

Why aren't you playing shows?

For the same reason that I started recording all my music at home. It's a pain in the ass trying to get a bunch of people together to practice. It was so much easier when we were all young and didn't have jobs or girlfriends or reasons to live.

How old are you that you're too old to believe in nothing?

When did I say I believe in nothing? I remember being 23 and saying that I didn't give a fuck about anything. It was basically just an excuse for being a total asshole. Now I feel like I don't give a fuck in a more positive way, like "Here I am, let's see what happens. If it all goes to shit, so be it." I've got a job, I get to make music, and occasionally I get laid. Life is pretty OK. NICHOLAS GAZIN