OK...We're gearing up for our 2010 shows and preparing a new set list...what wonderful tunes would YOU like to see/hear on this new set list????????

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Hey ya'll...Ive just put up a new photo album called "BACK IN MY DAY" which features photos of bands that played Charlotte or the surrounding area back in the eighties pre-ANTiSEEN. I hope to dig up some of the earliest photos of ANTiSEEN's history as well...all stuff that was not shown in Destructo Maximus. So...ENJOY!!!!!
CLAYTON

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ANTiSEEN @ The Khyber, Philly 10 / 10 / 09

Headed down to this one solo, literally worrying about parking in ....Olde.. ..City.... for like a day before I actually went down. One loop around and found parking within a block of the Khyber. Yay! As I was heading in I saw Joe Young from Antiseen checking out the parking restriction signs on ....2nd street...., so I was stoked they made it and hoping they were not getting towed, etc. PPA Must Die! I was also happy the Phils/Rockies game was postponed, not that the Khyber is a bad place to watch a playoff game, but ya know. Strolling up the street I saw lots of inked up punker types outside smoking and holding court. I honestly have no idea how popular Antiseen are these days, they haven't played Philly in 5 years, so I was definitely stoked to see a crowd already hanging out. $$$!

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....Alas..... I was enjoying some Yuengling Porter at this point, but I had seen two sets of flashing lights pulling folks over on the drive down, so I was keeping it pretty much in check for this one. Saw Jeff from Antiseen and said howdy and commenced my deal of hanging outside, smoking cigarettes and watching the mess that is ....Olde.. ..City.... in the 21st Century. It really is pretty amazing, if you have been to any shows at Nick's back in the previous millennium, you know the deal. Used to be a ghost town, now I literally saw 4 bridal parties or whatever that shit is when the chicks wear crowns and get all drunk. So many short skirts and high heels, all having to walk/teeter between hulking skinhead looking types and lots of ink and leather and denim. Such a bizarre culture clash. Hilarious, but ya still want to drive a steamroller down the sidewalk sometimes (and I stole that line from the Cosmic Commander of Wrestling).

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Made my way up front for the Badwill Ambassadors themselves, the masters of disaster... and all that. Antiseen. The only punk band that matters. Sorry kids, keep trying. I had high hopes, I mean I haven't seen 'em in five years, they have a new bass player and drummer and they are one of my fave bands of all time, and live, they really have no equals. Some days I think all I need is Antiseen and ....Acid.. ..Mothers.. ..Temple..... And the Grateful Dead. Seriously.

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They blew up immediately, fucking perfect. A few old songs and lots of feedback, "Wifebeater" was great and all that jazz. The new songs they played were cool, too. They amaze me how they have a sound more or less and don't vary from it too often, but they continue to make insanely memorable songs that all stand out. If this was 1980 I would put them up against the Misfits as a perfect singles band. At this point I noticed long time drummer/Triple H lookalike Sir Barry Hannibal was on the drums, most awesome! Glad he is still playing with Joe and Jeff. New bassist was really awesome, he had a melodic sound that reminded me of whomever played bass on the NC Royalty EP. I was wedged up front on the left side of the stage and just as I was thinking "the crowd is kinda mellow" (though super into it, there were lots of sing alongs with the crew, haha) a bunch of fellas got all punky and started running around and jumping into each other. Of course this pile of male bonding wound up plowing into me and everyone else in the front. My knees were about stage level, a little higher and I was knocked over, but my knees stayed still, ground into the stage. Ouch. While I think some of these fellas were a little old to be running into each other all hyped up on suburban angst, perhaps I am a little old to be standing up front at an Antiseen show? Regardless, my knees are pretty bruised up and hurt a lot more the next day. A few brave chicks were in there mixing it up as well and one actually helped me up! Oh well.

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The band just kept right on trucking, a well oiled machine plowing through "Up All Night," "Funk U," and the always awesome Ramones cover "Today Your Love" into the 'Seen original "Stormtrooper." While I definitely missed them playing "Sabu" and I really, really wanted to hear "Run My World" and "FTK" I was quite alright with the setlist and the buzzsaw blitz that ended with the anthem "Fuck All Y'all." Around this time Thee Cosmic Commander of Wrestling arrived! Finally! He took the stage to harangue the audience a little and hype everyone for the encore and such. A cooking version of "Fornication" and great singalong of "Animals, Eat 'Em" was an amazing and exhausting finale. Fuck yeah. They do what they do and they keep it fresh and man... kudos to them. 25 years and counting. Awesome. I need this kind of cleansing/purging on a yearly basis, damn!

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After blabbing with Cosmo and watching the cops close down the streets as the bars all let out and the fights start (I didn't see any this time around, but my car was only a block away)I hit the road like an old man. My knees are still incredibly sore and bruised, but the Phils won and Antiseen are STILL the best punk band in the world!

My dear friend Alan King has a blog on Blogspot called "Black Teeth & Busted Dreams". This is what he had to say about "Southern Hostility". Alan is one of the best writers in the world...yeah....THE WORLD!!! So....please go to his blog and see what the GD King has to say.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

My Life in 20 Records...(part five)

16. SOUTHERN HOSTILITY - ANTiSEEN. Dear sweet jesus christ. This is THE album. You will never find an album meaner, dirtier, or uglier than this jagged load of brutality. To say it turned my world upside down would be an understatement. How could four guys from the Carolina hills go into a makeshift recording studio and emerge with this? How? In the canon of popular music, this album will one day be "lost" and then eventually rediscovered and rightfully heralded as one of the most important recordings of the twentieth century. The musicological world will clamor to find out more about the men who recorded this. Full blown mythologies will spring up around it. They will say that only the devil could have handed someone a sound like this. It will be like the second coming of Robert Johnson, and the world will feel the reverberations of this epic kill shot. It will be dissected and discussed and poorly imitated. Professors and "musicians" and scholars and other squares will make pilgrimages to the South in search of its roots. They will seek the gravesites of Jeff Clayton and Joe Young, and they will ramble on in magazine articles, collegiate treatises, and private journals about that which they know nothing, trying to make sense of it all.

It would be far too easy to say this is the best punk rock album ever recorded. It is only punk in the sense of the distribution avenues and poor categorization techniques that it was subject to upon its release. This album defies classification. It is the only album of its kind ever made. It is its own category. It is the proverbial lightning in a bottle. It could never be made again. It is the product of a singular moment in time where everything was perfectly aligned. Thank your gods that someone was there to capture this primal scream before it slipped into the ether, never able to be reproduced. It is grit and claustrophobia and frustration and sweat and the unbearable heat of the South etched into vinyl grooves, perhaps by the devil's own tail. Or at least that's what they'll say a couple hundred years from now.

Few recordings pack such a visceral punch. Robert Johnson - perhaps. Dock Boggs - maybe. Most desperate cries of this magnitude were let loose from the tops of mountains and the darkness of hollers as last attempts to appease sanity and curb the desperate urges that drive people to their fates . This album is that kind of dark night of the soul preserved for everyone's examination... Southern Gothic at ear-shattering decibel levels.

Interview with ANTiSEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1. First could you tell us a brief history of the band for those who do not know the legendary history of the group?  Well, we started back in 1983. The only two original members that are still here from the beginning is guitarist Joe Young and myself . The new guys are drummer Phil Keller and bassist Jon Bowman. They have been with us for a year now. We recorded with GG Allin in the early 90's and have toured the world several times. Here we are 26 years later and still going strong. 2.Could you give us your views on todays punk scene and well music in general at this point?  I never gave two shits about any "scene" (hint hint the name) and have never cared if we were accepted by any of the scenesters . We've seen 'em come and go and they just seem to get more disposable as time goes on. Or they simply join the punk rock retirement plan and slick whats left of their hair back and claim to be rock-a-billy. Silly. There are some good bands out there these days though. It's not dead like everybody who has outgrown it claims. 3.What albums are available at this point that fans can find and purchase?  Just about our whole album back catalog is still in print and available from us or from the record company websites like Steel Cage, TKO & Zodiac Killer. We have a two disc "best of" that will be hitting the streets ...again...this month that features 40 tracks from or first to latest lp plus lot of single and bside versions. Its available now from us and Steel Cage Records. 4.What were the main influences that formed the style and sound of the band originally?  Before we discovered the Ramones we listened to what was typical for that time (Joe & I did any way) like Aerosmith, Kiss, Ted Nugent, Black Oak Arkansas, Bob Dylan. I was also a BIG Alice Cooper fan. We listened to a lot of different music as well such as country, soul, r & b, bluegrass...of coarse alot of that developed later, but when we formed ANTiSEEN it was purely drawing influence first and foremost from the Ramones, later the Sex Pistols, Clash and the 80's hardcore groups like Fear & Black Flag. It was around this time we also discovered Motorhead so id say the biggest musical influences were The Ramones & Motorhead with all that other stuff sprinkled in there. 5.Are there any new underground artists you think deserve more recognition or you would suggest for your fans to check out and if so who are they?  Like I said earlier there are a ton of great bands out there. here is a list of some that we have played with and become friends with over the years. Check out their MySpace pages if you get a chance.....  Hammerlock, Rancid Vat, The Dead Kings (USA), Music Hates You, Before I Hang, KIFF, Polecat Boogie Revival, Buzzcrusher, 25 Minutes To Go, The Flat Tires, Joe Buck Yourself, .357 String Band, Blowfly, Brody's Militia, The Hookers, Mad Brother Ward, Self Made Monsters, Limecell, JB Beverley and the Wayward Drifters, The Bulemics, The Nerds, Rupture, and our old pals The Murder Junkies!!!  DAMN there are so many. This is a pretty diverse list. None of these bands sound like ANTiSEEN exactly so dont think its all the same ole same ole!!! 6.I myself being a huge GG Allin fan have to say I've noticed a sudden onslaught of GG influence in underground punk and scum bands and their live shows, what is your take on this is it a case of imitation or do you see it as carrying on the legacy of GG?  Im glad you bring that up. I dont quite know how to feel about all that. You see, the whole self abuse thing is what attracted us to GG and ask him to make his way down to the Carolinas. We (I) were not doing it as a tribute to him. TONS of band shave stolen what we do (did) and never gave credit where credit was due. Now they can just use the old "it's a tribute to GG' angle and all is forgiven.....well, Gary from Hank III's Assjack does it front of huge crowds every night now and makes us all look like johnny come latleys. So, is it carrying on what we and GG started??? Maybe to some. To others its just something to do to distract from their shitty "music". 7.What does the future hold for Antiseen, any new albums or shows you'd like to tell us about?  We are gonna be recording like crazy in the next year and hopefully we will make our way over to Japan or Australia. Either way, we will be doing a tour of the mid west this spring. We are recording a 10" split witha band call Holley 750 for Zodiac killer records that will be out around the first of the year and there are still tons of re-issues, dvds and all kinds out shit that'll make it's way out in 2010. 8.Finally thank you for taking the time to do this we appreciate it, and heres your chance if you have anything extra you want to add or hell just to rant about something go ahead?  Goddamn, thanks for a good interviewand I hope to see you and your readers at some of the shows next year. take care man.

Ron Asheton has died.

This probably doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot to most of you, and too bad. The Stooges were maybe the truest example of rock and roll you're ever likely to encounter. In this age of watered down tenth-generation Iron Maiden worship, the honor and respect due to those that practiced a more, shall we say direct method of rock and roll is becoming increasingly forgotten and lost. The complexities and finesse of hair-god metal riffage has tainted even the darkest recesses of punk rock simplicity - you can't find a guitarist who hasn't been in some way influenced or informed by the virtuosity and arrogance of ye olde Metal Gods.....

This makes the passing of Ron Asheton all the sadder.

Asheton was more than a mere guitarist. He was a wall of fucking THUNDER. As the driving sonic force of the Stooges, Asheton beat riffs out of a guitar like some drunken teenage thug pissed off at the world and hell-bent to prove... well, whatsitoya??? His approach to guitar was less about theory than threat. If one approaches the instrument for its precision and subtleties, Asheton tore out only it's brute strength - an imposing force of sneering, searing aggro that can't be taught, studied or copied. It was pure unadultrated punk-snot attitude lubed with the sweat and grease of acne pits and oily hair. Ya either gots it or ya dont.

And ya DONT.

'Raw Power' may be the more noted and respected of the Stooges recordings, but for my money, 'Funhouse' is where its happening. Sure, 'Raw Power' is great, but Asheton was regulated to bass on that album, almost as a backing musician, whereas the first two albums were of his construction (destruction?)... The Stooges invented the form, Ron Asheton the penultimate punk rock guitar player. His style burned the amalgamate of garage rock snarl, blues swagger and the ineptitude that yields only brilliance. It was the sound of teen angst Saturday night dead: sweaty t-shirts, dirty denim, a bottle of Boones, nowhere to go and nothing to do. 'No Fun'...

The 'Funhouse' album is a devestating testament to the audacious power and meaning of rock and roll. So much so its almost painful. Held next to the contemporaries of the day is laughable. Held to what passes as 'rock' today and its fucking pathetic. 'Funhouse' stands as an iconic abrasion to the face of mainstream music. It was created and performed by true hoodlum punks with little interest in politics, fashion or anything else. It is all at once rebellious, unifying, ugly, sexy, dark and blinding. It is crushing and direct. It says nothing yet means everything.

Rarely has bleak been so beautiful.

Ron Asheton has died.

I hope not in vain.

-Russell Ward, 1/06/09

This is from the STILLNOTDEAD.com website. Written by none other than.....Mad Brother Ward

Yeah, just the mere idea of those two bands sharing a stage is almost more than one can fathom... But it happened, and heres how it all went down:

First, it was PISSING  rain. I've never seen flooding as bad as it got in some spots of Charleston last night. Cars were half submerged in some places. Roads were blocked, traffic  snarled and tempers flared - and we weren't even close to the club. Somehow I just knew it wuz gonna be a loooong night.

We arrived to the club moments before the Dwarves themselves rolled in. We exchange a few pleasantries and leave them to their business. ANTiSEEN trudge in not long after, their rented trailer torn apart at the fender and tire dangerously low on air. Evidently they hit a phantom chuck-hole in the raging flood waters several blocks away from the club and simply said 'fuck it' and dragged the sorry thing on in.

We help load in and again meet up with Dwarves and crew. I was suspicious at first - the Dwarves are sorta the 'west coast' ying to A-SEEN's 'southern' yang - but it became clear right away these guys were ego-free and down to earth good folks. The two bands have long been friendly and I think were excited at finally being able to play together.

The Dwarves merch guy was an old-school Philly punk legend named Paul Bearer. I remember reading some hillarious interviews and letters to MRR and Flipside he did when I was a kid. His band the Serial Killers once released a 7"ep about the infamous Gary Heidnick which included a little bag of dirt from Heidnicks yard... He was and remains quite a character.

The Dwarves have yet again flipped their line-up, however Blag and He-Who-Cannot-Be Named  still front the band. Blag complied with a request to call a girl I know leaving a lascivious message on her voice mail. She probably didn't even believe it was him.

ANTiSEEN has rotated their line-up as well. This show was the American debut of bassist Jon Bowman and the first show of new drummer Phil Keller. Bowman was bassist in Self Made Monsters for a spell and used to front SFTM. Keller was drummer for badass Flat Tires, a fave local band of mine. I've known both guys for a number of years and couldn't be happier for them. They make a perfect fit.

With the severe weather and flooding I felt the turnout would be less than stellar, but soon after doors opened, people poured in by the dozens. They all shoe horned into the club eager for real punk rock by seasoned veterans of a seemingly dying art...

The 'SEEN take the stage and the place like... erupts. I mean, ULTRA ULTRA violence. Somebody had their nose damn near torn off their face inside the first song. ANTiSEEN pummel and pound their set without hardly catching breath, the new rhythm section really driving hard and strong. More people are carried out as other are thrown out. Clayton matches the bloodshed on  the floor with a nasty self-inflicted gash to his own head. It was a Carolina Bloodfeast! They raged thru the closing tune 'Fuck All Y'all' and promptly demolish everything on stage - Phil throws his drums up clean over his head and against the back wall and the amps hiss and  moan with feedback and static.

Alas, that was round one.

The Dwarves hit stage and the violence continued. A guy wandered out with a nasty gash to his forehead, more scuffles and fist fights. The band plays on as if encouraged by the violence. Blag thanks 'that cute little emo band ANTiSEEN!" and soon all is trash and blood. Cops show up and are placated only to arrive again later. I have no idea what for. House lights are turned on but the Dwarves ignore the action, as does most of the crowd. More violence ensues, hostility the name of the game.

It was great.

After the show people wandered around battered and dazed. People crowd merch booths for swag, pics and autographs. I even score a phone number from an attractive young lady - not a bad thing, this. The Dwarves show class by helping A-SEEN cover lost expense on the faulty trailer. Then, as the storm subsides, peace is regained and everyone makes their own way into the night....

We all live to fight another day.