ILSA - INTOXICANTATIONS

Ilsa follows up their debut full-length Tutti il Colori del Buio with Intoxicantations, a ten-track odyssey into the dark heart of humanity. Retaining the dense, genre-defying sound on their previous records, Ilsa adds in a healthy dose of doom to create a truly terrifying work. An intro of spliced samples foreshadows the album's main themes: drugs, Satan, and the Occult. As the last sample fades away, the band unleashes “Foreign Lander” which within seconds bludgeons the listener. There is no respite, even during the title track where the pace turns into a menacing crawl. Even when Ilsa is at its slowest, the music is indescribably ominous.

“Man Made Monsters” is an absolute monster of a track. Clocking in at just under six-minutes Ilsa sends the listener through a scary sound-scape that blends together elements of doom, hardcore, and at times black metal. After a lengthy build-up, there's a brief respite – a moment of false security – before a bloodcurdling scream is unleashed. The last half of the track definitely picks up the speed and then other-worldly guitars close things out. The closer, “Skin And Bones” is another great example of how unpredictable – and great – Ilsa is. Likening the sound is difficult, but imagine a more hardcore oriented early Ramesses, where the feel is just immense. It's a track that you'll find yourself headbanging to, even involuntarily. And then as “Skin And Bones” comes to a close, a crescendo of noise and air-raid sirens creates a brutal atmosphere.

I really liked the injection of doom in this record; Tutti il Colori del Buio perhaps showed hints of it, but Intoxicantations  benefits from the change up. Another aspect I really liked was the track length in general. There were no dull moments or even unneeded passages. Every second was used beautifully to create a monster of a record, and a perfect follow up to Tutti il... 

Whilst I've talked about the music, I feel as if the artwork needs mentioning. Whether it was the Hooded Menace split or the debut full-length, the cover art always stood out. A digital file for iTunes doesn't do this justice. Just for starters, there is a tiger with an acid tab on its tongue, insects, and maggots - and even a heroin spoon tossed in for good measure. I cannot wait to hold this record in my hands and fully appreciate it.

A389 is starting pre-orders for Intoxicantations  fittingly on 10/31 along with the new Nothing record. I highly recommend checking out Ilsa. A389's bandcamp page has two tracks off Intoxicantations available for your listening pleasure – and whilst you're there, check out all the other cool releases there for free no less!

ILSA UNLEASHES "SAY YOU LOVE SATAN"

As Ilsa's sophomore record Intoxicantations is nearing its pre-order date, the band has unveiled a brand new track titled "Say You Love Satan" over at Cvlt Nation. All killer, no filler.

You can check out the song here. Pre-orders - along with Nothing's new 12" - start 10/31 over at A389 Records.

We Own The Night: An Interview With Neighborhood Brats

Neighborhood Brats has been a band on my radar ever since watching a live video of the band play at the Outsleazed fest. The lead singer Jenny rolled on the floor as the band roared behind her in a savage ear bending cacophony. I recently was able to get in touch with the guitarist George Rager (Who you might know from bands like Fix My Head and Kill Nine Nine) and he was kind enough to answer some questions.

TW: Can you please introduce yourself and the role you play in Neighborhood Brats?

I'm George. I write most of the music and play guitar in Neighborhood Brats. I also run Falsified Records, which just put out the "Ocean Beach Party" single.

TW: Before NB, you (as well as Jenny) played in a killer punk band called Roofie And The Night Stalker. First off, how did that name come about?

Jenny thought of it. We had been writing a lot of songs about living in SF at the time. We text song ideas and inside jokes back and forth on a pretty constant basis and that's where she first mentioned it back in 2009. SF has this seedy underbelly; if you take away the gentrification, hipsters, yuppies, tourists and the like, the less desirable neighborhoods feel like they were taken straight out of the book "Barbary Coast" and updated for modern times. A few days before our first show, Jenny was roofied at a bar in the Mission by some mod dude. That's probably the most ballsy thing a mod dude has ever done. Luckily, she had the wherewithall to catch a cab and got home before she lost it. That's where the name Roofie & the Nightstalker came from.

TW: Whilst the band was rather short lived, Rich Bitch did release a 7" single. Can you take us through how that record came about?

The Rich Bitch guys knew of Jenny from her LA band the Orphans. We had already recorded a 3-song demo and subsequently recorded over at Earhammer in Oakland to give them a single to put out. We also recorded 4 other tracks; two of which were going to be on a "Lurking the Loin" single on Modern Action. Roofie & the Nightstalker was playing out around SF and we made a couple of trips to LA and one to Reno, but the band really didn't get much attention outside of our friends or friends of friends. Recently, a lot of people have been asking us about it, but there really isn't much to say. The "GHB" single is a great single and I'm glad we did it, but that's really all I want to highlight about that band nowadays. I did a pretty substantial promo mailing for that release and some people got it, but some people didn't. One reviewer thought we were going for some white-trash-bikini-babe kinda schtick, but it was totally the opposite. We were trying to convey something that showed the sketchy and dangerous side of where we lived, practiced, worked and often hung out at the time.

TW: Neighborhood Brats have redone some of the Roofie tracks so I'm curious, do you prefer the originals or the NB versions and why.

Lead singer Jenny, formerly of The Orphans

I like them both, but I prefer the Neighborhood Brats versions. Neighborhood Brats recorded "Fast & Loose" and "Lurking the Loin" along with the other tracks on the first EP after only 4 or 5 practices. I can hear how stoked all four of us are to be playing together. The recording session for the Neighborhood Brats EP was very spontaneous, like we knew we needed to record and that was all the thought that went into it. I wrote the lyrics to "FTW" while sitting on the floor of the live room at Earhammer and I think we had only played that song together a few times. We had a blast during that session and there wasn't in-studio weirdness. All four of us in Neighborhood Brats are good friends, we respect eachother and everyone has their own role to fill and everyone pulls their own weight. I guess that might sound off-topic, but that's a big part of why I prefer the Neighborhood Brats versions: I can hear all of those things. We could be ourselves and not have to explain everything we were doing because Kirk and Jasmine complement us perfectly. Plus, the songs sound tighter and I like my guitar sound better, even though I used the same gear and basically did the exact same thing.

TW: Modern Action released Neighborhood Brats' debut in the form of a single-sided 12". Was there a specific reason to do it in that format as opposed to perhaps a 7"?

After Jenny and I quit Roofie & the Nightstalker, we cancelled the "Lurking the Loin" single that was about to come out on Modern Action. I promised Johnny from Modern Action that we would re-record those songs and that they would turn out awesome. At the same time, I felt like a total jerk for canceling a record. So, to try and make up for it, we gave them our entire debut recording session. In going back-and-forth with Johnny about different ideas, he came up with the one-sided 12". We all thought it was a super cool idea.

Also, at the time, I didn't necessarily want to do 7" EP. I didn't want to be one of those SF/Bay Area bands that would do a 7" and get lazy. Putting out a 7" isn't some kind of major accomplishment. Anyways, I'm stoked we did it that way. It kind of reminds me of the D.I. EP that ended up becoming the core of the Team Goon record (that wasn't a one-sided record, though... I have to point that out because my record collector nerd friends will try to call me out if I don't state that, which I am doing right now).

TW:  On the "We Own The Night" record, you guys do a rad VKTMS cover (100% White Girl). What made you cover that particular song and are there any plans to do any other covers?

When Roofie & the Nightstalker started, Jenny and I had initially wanted to cover the VKTMS song "No Long Goodbyes" but there is too much synthesizer in it, which we aren't set up to do live, or really at all. So, we went with "White Girl." Jenny sings it really well and adds her own style to it. Kirk was at a Roofie & the Nightstalker show in mid 2010, and he was way stoked we covered it. Hell, he was probably one of the only dudes there that knew the song. When we started Neighborhood Brats with him, we kept it going. I was almost hesitant to keep covering it because there was some chatter among a couple SF scenesters that we were covering a racist song to be ironic, but that's their misunderstanding and their problem - not mine.
Anyone who listens to the lyrics gets the point.

Right now, we are covering "Break Down the Walls" by Youth of Today. There's a video on YouTube of us playing it at Awesome Fest 6 in San Diego. You should totally link to it... it came out pretty awesome. I came up with that idea while driving down the street one morning and texted everyone else to see what they thought. I imagined Jenny singing like Ray Cappo and started laughing out loud because I thought it would be so rad. Once we started playing it, I felt like a fucking genius.

In the future, I'd like to cover "Trash" by the Doll, but it might be a pain in the ass and it's really long (like 3 minutes) so we'd have to shorten it. I think a lot of old songs would be good covers for us, but I try not to put too much thought into it. When we come up with ideas spontaneously, those ideas tend to be way better.

TW: Recently, Neighborhood Brats put out the "Ocean Beach Party" single. How would you describe it for someone who has yet to check it out?

"Ocean Beach Party" is a great single for us because it inadvertently lets our southern California influences show through without losing our own sound. I can hear (early) Red Kross, (early) 45 Grave/Consumers, Germs, the Stitches, etc, which you don't necessarily get on the first two records. It's also kind of a sound that maybe a lot of people didn't expect from us - we actually lean towards being more of a hardcore punk band a lot of the time. We definitely didn't plan that when we wrote those songs and recorded this record. 

Since the "Ocean Beach Party" sessions occurred before the "We Own the Night" session, it was totally one of those sessions that, looking back, it seems like we did for no reason. I'm glad we did, though. It's a snapshot as to what our band was like about 5 months after forming. I think I even remember Jenny saying "Why are we recording this? What's this for?" Her back was fucked up and she was complaining the whole time. I felt kinda bad because she was curled up in a fetal position while we tracked all of the instruments. Basically, we were on a roll, so I booked studio time. Anyways, this record is probably closer to how we play live than anything we had put out prior.

TW: I saw in a recent interview that many of the lyrics and themes revolve around inside jokes and sketchy experiences. What is the creative process like?

There are several ways this happens. I usually write all of the guitar riffs - sometimes in advance, sometimes on-the-spot, sometimes by trial and error. Then everyone else fills in their parts, makes changes, etc. Sometimes, I'll write everything including the basic lyrics at home. Sometimes, Jenny gets a lyric idea from whoever/wherever and she runs with it. When we have time, Jenny and I sit down and work on songs and try to come out with something 95% complete, ready for Kirk and Jasmine. Kirk and I have written a few songs in real time. As-in, we wrote the songs by playing them right the first time through before practice. Then, Jenny and Jasmine added their parts or made slight tweaks. However it comes about, everyone is free to try out their own ideas, reject songs, change shit, etc. Our sound really comes from a complete lack of experimentation. Since we all have been listening to punk and hardcore for most of our lives, we all come from the same place. It is an honest expression of whatever we are thinking about at that particular moment with little or no thought other than what is going on right then and there. 

Honestly though, we don't put much time into song writing. The faster we write the songs, the better they usually turn out. If something isn't cool enough, we throw it away. Usually the songs we spent the most time on aren't worth it... which means you'll never hear them. I tend not to practice too much at home unless I'm writing (or trying to learn a surf song) because it gums up the works, I get writer's block and end up writing crap.

TW: In that same interview that you're working on some new NB tracks, but is there anything else in the works like splits or wishfully thinking an East Coast tour?

We wanted to go back to the East Coast/Midwest this fall (2012), but Jenny is travelling for a bit and then moving back to LA (where I live as well). Jasmine has a US tour with No Babies going on right now. So, basically this fall was too jammed other than our recent LA/SD weekender. We are in the beginning stages of plotting out a European tour for next year, possibly with the Amoebas, but a few other things need to happen first. 

This fall, Kirk and I are going in to track his drums for some songs we wrote a while back, which the rest of us will finish this winter while he's busy working. I can't say for sure yet what this recording is going to go towards. Besides that, the plan is to write an LP of new material once Jenny is back in LA. Basically, we are in a holding pattern for a few more months for no reason other than we are all busy living our lives. You can't go all-out on a band like this if you want to keep doing it. You gotta live a little bit. It's a big world out there.

TW: Where can we keep up to date on Neighborhood Brats? And anything else to add?

Hit us up on FB to talk shit or whatever. You can buy/stream/download our records at neighborhoodbrats.bandcamp.com.

By the way, since none of us are going to be living in SF after November of this year, we aren't technically an SF band anymore. One chapter of the band's story is closing but another is opening. We're all stoked to see what happens next.

# All pictures belong to their respective owners, no infringement intended.