Fur Real: David Yow & the Art of Cats

When most underground music fans think of David Yow, they typically envision a drunken, often-unclothed madman slurring to the heavens with The Jesus Lizard, Qui or Scratch Acid. But as of a few weeks ago, he is also the man behind Copycat: And a Litter of Other Cats, a hardcover art book of cat puns.

Yes, cat puns. Check these out:

"Cat Burglar" by David Yow (courtesy of Akashic Books)

"Catatonic" by David Yow (courtesy of Akashic Books)

"Alley Cat" by David Yow (courtesy of Akashic Books)

Billed as “a very important book by David Yow,” Copycat was published in August by Brooklyn-based Akashic Books, who also put out the Jesus Lizard retrospective BOOK earlier this year. As discussed in this site's feature on BOOK, Yow's relationship with Akashic is based on the singer's longtime friendship with company founder Johnny Temple, formerly a member of frequent Jesus Lizard tourmates Girls Against Boys. The idea to turn Yow's cat art into a full-fledged book took shape shortly after the Jesus Lizard tome neared the finish line.

“I don't think [Johnny] did the Copycat book as a favor simply because of the amount of work I put into the Jesus Lizard book, but I think there was a little bit of leverage for that,” remembers Yow. “I think he might not have been 100-percent thrilled about doing a goofy-ass cat cartoon pun book, but I think he got a kick out of it, and the other people at Akashic got a kick out of it.”

Naturally, Copycat has found an audience unfamiliar with Yow's past musical exploits.

“That's definitely something I was hoping for,” he offers. “I think that if it was limited to an audience who gave a crap about the music I've done, I don't think we'd sell a whole lot of those books.”

Unsurprisingly, cats have always been a major part of Yow's life. Born in Las Vegas in 1960, Yow was still a toddler when his Air Force pilot father moved the family to Tripoli in Libya on the Mediterranean Coast.

“When we lived off-base, my sister and I found this kitten,” he recalls. “We asked if we could keep it, and my dad was very adamant that he didn't like cats; he was a dog person. My sister and I cried for a whole day until he gave in and said, 'Okay.'” My father was very clever; he said, 'We can keep the cat, but we've got to name it 'Me Yow.' That'll be the only cat in the world that could say her own name.'”

Fast-forward to 2014, and Yow and his girlfriend are loving owners of three cats - Little Buddy, Penny and Nico. At 20 pounds, the long-haired Little Buddy is the image of regality.

Little Buddy (courtesy of Akashic Books)

“He's so handsome, so striking and so cool that you think he's not afraid of anything,” Yow says. “But – and I hope he can't hear me – he gets really spooked really easily. If you'll drop a pencil, he runs away. But he's such a gentleman. When [my girlfriend and I] moved in together, he had pretty much never seen another cat, and neither had the girls. We figured that because he was so large that he'd be the alpha cat and rule the roost, but instead the girls are just fuckin' bitches to him. They hiss at him, swat at him and growl at him. For quite some time, probably three years or so, he was just like this pacifistic Gandhi-like creature. He would just lie down on his back and look at the girls while they're hissing and growling at him. He'd offer his tummy and be as sweet a gentleman as he could be. That's pretty amazing, I think.”

Penny (courtesy of Akashic Books)

According to Yow, the black-and-white Penny is “really special...like, retarded.” The singer is convinced that she has The Carl Stalling Project playing in her head the whole time. Nico, who is the smallest at nine pounds, is described by Yow as “just a little lady, very prim and proper.” At the time of this conversation, Yow said he and his girlfriend were toying around with the idea of getting a kitten, “almost just to see what these three cats' reactions would be like.”

Nico (courtesy of Akashic Books)

Those who enjoy Yow's art have an opportunity to own some of it thanks to GetFaced.net, the custom portrait site he launched in 2012. As of this writing, he has produced roughly 120 portraits of people and animals, all based on photos from customers looking for an artistic experience they won't find anywhere else. To achieve GetFaced's unique results, Yow tends to work with as little outside direction as possible.

“Sometimes, I'll ask questions,” he says. “If somebody sends in a picture of their dog and they don't say anything about it, I'll ask them what the dog's name is, what their favorite toy was and stuff like that. There have been a few times when people would say, 'I like this kind of color palette,' and I kind of don't care. I say on the website, 'I won't print this until I'm proud of it. You have no idea what this is going to look like, but I promise you I won't send it to you until I'm proud of it.'”

On the musical front, Yow made waves last year with the release of his first-ever solo album, Tonight You Look Like A Spider. Yow's ventures into solitary recording began shortly after The Jesus Lizard's breakup, when old friend Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten) showed him the rudiments of ProTools.

“It was kind of retarded stuff,” says Yow of his early noise experiments. “I really liked it, but the analogy I like to make is that the music that I was making was sort of the way children draw. There are no rules and almost no parameters.”

Yow began thinking about releasing a solo record as far back as 1998, when Mike Patton (Faith No More/Tomahawk) expressed an interest in putting it out on his Ipecac label. However, Yow's work moved slowly as the years carried on. By the next decade, the idea had lost momentum.

“I think around 2006 or 2007, I just blew it off,” he remembers. “Ipecac quit releasing stuff unless it was The Melvins or Tomahawk. I figured, 'Well, okay, it'll never come out. I don't care.' It didn't seem that important to me.”

That was until Yow crossed paths with Indiana-based label Joyful Noise Recordings, who released his friend Adam Harding's extraordinary Dumb Numbers album last year. Partnering with the label, Yow put together a collection of his years-in-progress recordings as Tonight You Look Like A Spider in June 2013. The album was made available in both a standard vinyl edition and a long-sold-out “Monolith” edition (limited to 50) that was crafted by Yow himself and included an actual cement vinyl-displaying sculpture created from the same mold pictured on the front cover.

 

In addition to presenting a very cool argument against illegal downloading, the Monolith edition is in line with Joyful Noise's penchant for odd and memorable packaging. (For example, this writer's copy of Tonight... was boxed with a strip of Laffy Taffy.)

“They're pretty cool about packing up goofy little special treats and hand-written notes and stuff like that,” Yow says.

Away from art and music, Yow has maintained a steady schedule as an actor. Recently, he filmed the role of “a party host who hangs out in a shower cap and [his] underwear” for the upcoming film Entertainment, which will also feature such heavyweights as John C. Reilly, Dean Stockwell, Michael Cera and Greg Turkington (otherwise known as Neil Hamburger). At the time of our chat, he was planning to travel to England to shoot his first lead role – “a New York hitman who fucks up a job and has to get out of the country” – in a movie called A New York Story.

Of course, interested parties can also experience Yow's thespianic skills on the Cooking With Yow segments on the brilliant (not-just-for) children's show, Pancake Mountain. Joined by co-host “Rufus Leaking” (voiced by Pancake Mountain co-creative director JR Soldano), Yow (in varying states of coherence) offers tips on cooking things like “Pizza Cake” (get it?) and coconut macaroons while the often-bewildered Rufus looks on. Cooking With Yow is great fun, even if the episodes rarely (if ever) feature any actual food or cooking – a fact that impresses Yow's girlfriend, a behind-the-scenes veteran of reality cooking shows like Chefs vs. City and Cupcake Wars.

“She thinks that Pancake Mountain has done for cooking shows what Breaking Bad has done for regular television,” he laughs. “Nobody in the past who was on a cooking show would ever think of not showing the food!”

With his acting schedule getting heavier by the day, Yow is committed to developing his craft as much as possible.

“I want to get to the point where I can do paintings or something if I want to, or sing on a friend's record, but mostly I want to just keep busy with acting,” he says. “That's the most rewarding, challenging and interesting thing to me right now.”

From pouring cement to create his album's packaging to putting out a book of cat jokes, David Yow has made a life out of being as unconventional as possible. Lord knows what he's going to come up with next, but you can be sure that whatever it is will be worth your time and interest.

Order Copycat: And a Litter of Other Cats

Order Tonight You Look Like A Spider

GetFaced.net

David Yow's Acting Website

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Symphony of Survival: Inside Annie Haslam's Artistic Renaissance

Courtesy of Leighton Media

Having a conversation with Annie Haslam, frontwoman of veteran Symphonic Rock act Renaissance, is an absolute pleasure.

Throughout our 90-minute chat, it was clear that this music industry veteran looks on the bright side of life. A wonderful conversationalist with a penchant for playful laughter, Haslam spoke from her Pennsylvania home about everything from her artwork to her upcoming touring plans. At 67, her infectious love of life is as impressive as her five-octave vocal range. And considering what it took her to get to this position in life, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Change and challenge have been major elements of the Renaissance story for more than four decades. After all, just charting their evolution in personnel over the years would probably require three times the length of this feature. Here’s the short version: The UK band’s often-rocky story dates back to 1969, when former Yardbirds members Keith Relf and Jim McCarty put together the first incarnation of the group with Relf’s sister Jane on co-lead vocals, pianist John Hawken (later of Spooky Tooth) and bassist Louis Cennamo. Although the band’s lineage (as well as the strong single “Island”) helped Renaissance’s self-titled 1969 album score considerable attention from the masses, McCarty and both Relfs were out of the picture by the time the sophomore release, Illusion (featuring the debut of Renaissance mainstay Michael “Micky” Dunford on guitar) hit the shelves in 1971. After a brief stint with American singer Anne-Marie “Binky” Cullum, Renaissance recruited the operatically trained Haslam for 1972’s Prologue. From 1973 to 1980, the band’s “classic lineup” included Haslam, Dunford, keyboardist John Tout, bassist Jon Camp and drummer Terry Sullivan. This configuration produced the 1978 UK Top 10 hit “Northern Nights” and a series of classic albums including Turn Of The Cards, Scheherazade and Other Stories and A Song For All Seasons. Reduced to a trio of Haslam, Dunford and Camp at the start of the next decade, Renaissance released two New Wave-flavored albums (1981’s Camera Camera and 1983’s Time-Line) before calling it a day in 1987. The ’90s saw separate albums by both Haslam and Dunford under the Renaissance name until the duo (along with Tout and Sullivan) reunited for 2001’s Tuscany. Fast-forward to 2009, and Haslam gets a call from her old friend.

“I knew exactly what Micky was going to say, because over the years he’d ask me if I wanted to get the band back together,” she recalls. “I just didn’t want to do it because my life is different. I started painting, and I’ve got my solo projects. I didn’t know whether I wanted to go back into the past. [The “classic” lineup members] were all older, and everybody’s different. I’m very different in the fact that I’m a lot stronger as far as doing the business side of things, which in the early days I never even thought of and never got involved in. I just sang and followed everybody else; I had no interest in going there. So I was a little concerned about the strength I had built up myself as a person…In the ’70s, it used to be Jon Camp and Michael Dunford who really did the business part of the band...I don’t know why I said it, [but] I said to Mick, ‘I’ll do it if [legendary east coast concert promoter and former Renaissance manager] John Scher would be interested in taking this on.’ I didn’t think he’d be interested in a second, because John’s a very well-known promoter and he’s done a lot of things on Broadway recently as well in the last few years. I thought, ‘He’s going to be too busy; he won’t be interested.’ He said yes! I could have fell over!”

Before long, the remaining members of the band's classic ’70s lineup signed on for an extensive 40th Anniversary Tour. Unfortunately, the reunited band wouldn’t stick together for long.

“Jon Camp had something that he couldn’t cancel,” Haslam says. “John Scher said, ‘This is the tour; I’ve worked on it. This is what it’s going to be, or nothing.’ We decided to carry on. Jon didn’t do it, then Terry backed out and then John Tout backed out, so it was just the two of us.”

Michael Dunford and Annie Haslam (courtesy of Leighton Media)

Haslam and Dunford quickly recruited previous Tuscany touring members Rave Tesar (keyboards) and David J. Keys (bass) and new members Tom Brislin (keyboards, best known for his work with Yes) and drummer Frank Pagano. Despite the initial personnel woes, the 40th Anniversary Tour soon became an overwhelming success.

“We were worried that people would say, ‘Well, it’s not the original band.’ But you know what? Very, very few people said anything,” Haslam recalls. “They were so in praise of the band we had that it didn’t matter. I don’t want to take anything away from the other guys, because they’re brilliant as well. But with the technology that we have now – and these musicians – it was fantastic.”

The tour led to subsequent trips to Japan and Korea (with Rufus Wainwright keyboardist Jason Hart filling in for Brislin), a three-song EP entitled The Mystic And The Muse and the release of the 2011 DVD Renaissance Tour 2011 – Turn of the Cards and Scheherazade & Other Stories Live In Concert. With Renaissance fully back in action, the band decided it was time to release a full-length album. Like an ever-growing number of artists, they turned to Kickstarter to get the funding necessary to commit new sounds to disc. Incentives offered to pledgers included everything from Haslam's personal copy of the first Renaissance album (which she used to learn songs for her audition in 1971) to the dress she wore for the band’s performance of “Northern Lights” on Top of the Pops in 1978. Initially setting their Kickstarter goal at $44,000, the band ended up raising an astonishing $92,531.

Songs for the new project included the gorgeous “Symphony Of Light,” a lush 12-minute number inspired by the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci, who of course was known as “the Renaissance Man.”

“I looked around on the Web to see if anyone had written a serious piece of music or song about him, and I could not find anything,” Haslam shares. “I just thought, ‘Gosh, this music is perfect for it!’”

As the recording of the new album moved on, the band brought in guest musicians for the first time in their career. Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson contributes his trademark flute to “Cry To The World,” while Haslam’s close friend John Wetton (King Crimson/Asia), who filled in on bass for four Renaissance shows in the ’70s including the Reading Festival, added vocals to “Blood Silver Like Moonlight.”

In September 2012, Haslam and Tesar were busy mixing the album when the singer started experiencing strange pains in her back.

“I thought that maybe it was because I had been sitting in the wrong position in the studio, which was true,” she recalls. “But it got really bad, and I went to see somebody. It ended up that I had a compression in a vertebra on my spine. We had to cancel three quarters of the [then-upcoming] tour, and we were just building momentum up…It was so devastating.”

In addition to being advised by her doctor not to fly or travel by automobile for more than two or three hours, Haslam wore a metal brace on her back every day for nine straight months, even when singing. Naturally, this situation had a chilling effect on the band’s booking schedule. Although Renaissance’s planned tour was reduced to a handful of shows on the east coast, she soldiered on. Then, the life of this hard-fighting woman (who survived breast cancer in the early ’90s) became even cloudier.

“I’d go onstage and when those lights hit, it started up this thing in my left eye,” she remembers. “Everything went foggy and hot around the eye. Every light had a rainbow around it, wherever I looked.”

The odd phenomenon ended up being acute angle-closure glaucoma, yet another obstacle to hit Haslam’s road to rebuilding the Renaissance name.

“My God, it was a challenge, but I sang really, really well,” she says. “I sang my heart out. Sometimes, you do your best work in times of sadness or pain. The human spirit comes through.”

Sadly, Renaissance’s troubled year was about to take an even darker turn. After performing a show at Collingswood, NJ, the band was alerted that Hurricane Sandy was about the hit the area. Luckily, Dunford was able to catch the very last flight home to England, while the rest of Renaissance (augmented on this particular tour by fill-in drummer Joe Goldberger) accepted the fact that the next show wouldn’t happen (resulting in a considerable financial loss) and braced themselves for what was about to come. Thankfully, Dunford made it home safely, while Haslam’s Sandy woes were confined to a phone outage and a damaged maple tree in her front yard.

Considering the ups and downs that defined the previous months, it appeared that the remainder of 2012 would be quiet. Tragically, that serenity was shattered on November 19, when Dunford’s wife called Haslam with the news that he had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. The next day, he was gone.

“That was the biggest shock of all,” Haslam says. “I’ll never forget that day as long as I live...It was very strange year full of so much joy and happiness, and then completely the opposite...disaster and devastation...I wasn’t sure whether I would carry on, but I know that Micky would have wanted us to, plus the fact that we just worked on this beautiful album that everybody needed to hear [and] also needed to experience live with the band.”

As Haslam began to pick up the pieces and carry on after Dunford’s death, it became apparent that he wasn’t ready to say goodbye just yet. According to her, Dunford’s children began seeing white feathers – an occurrence commonly interpreted as a message from the dead. Haslam soon had her own experience with this during the soundcheck for her first Renaissance show after the guitarist’s passing.

“I’m very particular about how things look, particularly since I’ve been painting,” she remembers. “Everything’s got to be symmetrical and it’s just got to look right. I go out and say, ‘Right. Let’s move those guitars over there’...I went down to the front, and everything was great on the stage. I go back on the stage, and right in front of my microphone was a pink feather on the floor. I knew that was him, and I knew he made it pink because he knew it would make me laugh.”

(Unfortunately, Dunford’s death wasn’t the only significant parting to affect the reformed band: Lyricist Betty Thatcher, who had worked with Renaissance since the Relf days, passed away in 2011.)

In addition to more touring for Haslam and company (with guitarist Rych Chlanda joining the ranks), 2013 finally saw the release of the Kickstarter-funded album Grandine il Vento on the Renaissance website. Earlier this year, the album was re-released to a wider audience as Symphony of Light with three bonus tracks (including “Renaissance Man,” a tribute to Dunford) on New York’s Red River Entertainment.

Shortly before Symphony Of Light’s release, Renaissance took part in Cruise to the Edge, a jaunt from Miami to parts of Honduras and Mexico with a vast array of artists including Yes (naturally), UK, Marillion, Queensryche and former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. But with another Renaissance undertaking came another example of Murphy’s Law: During the band’s first show in the indoor theater, the boat was ht by a storm and began rocking from side to side.

“I had to hold myself tightly to the microphone stand most to the show because I could have fallen over!” laughs the singer. “The show went fantastic, but that was really a trial in a way.”

Two days later, the band played poolside – with 60-mph gale force winds adding to the festivities. Haslam knew before she even hit the stage that the dress she picked out for the show wasn’t going to make it.

“I had to walk back to my cabin and change into a black outfit; it really wasn’t a stage outfit, but it was all I had,” she says. “I had a painted hat that I was going to put in the auction on the cruise. I put that on and pinned my hair up and pinned the cap onto my head. The wind was so strong that I had to hold the cap down for an hour and 15 minutes while I was singing. (laughs) I had to cup my right hand around the microphone so that the wind didn’t go into my mouth and blow me up like a balloon! I had these visions of being blown up like a balloon and drifting off to Brazil! (laughs)

“You could barely stand up,” she adds. “You know that advert for Memorex with the guy from Bauhaus [Peter Murphy] sitting in the armchair? That’s what the keyboard player in Renaissance looked like!”

In her time away from Renaissance, Haslam keeps busy working on her impressive artwork. Her works include the covers for Grandine il Vento and Symphony Of Light. A special lithograph of the latter is available through the Renaissance website (see below).

After overcoming hardships that would have easily defeated other bands, the rejuvenated Renaissance shows no signs of slowing down. East coast dates are set for late October/early November, while Haslam hopes to bring the band to Europe next year.

“I feel that there’s more life for this band yet,” she says. “As long as I feel that, I’ve got the desire to keep it going.”

Photo by Esa Ahola

Renaissance and Annie Haslam online:

www.renaissancetouring.com

www.facebook.com/renaissancetouring

www.anniehaslam.com

www.facebook.com/AnnieHaslamArt

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A New Break-up Soundtrack: Jack Grisham Resurrects The Joykiller

TSOL. Tender Fury. The Joykiller. Cathedral Of Tears. Some of the music made by these bands changed lives. All of this music featured the vocals of Mr. Jack Grisham.

Whether he's fronting the current incarnation of TSOL (boasting most of their original '80s lineup since 1999) or indulging in a variety of extracurricular projects both musical (including the extraordinary Songs For An Up Day by The Manic Low and last year's release of archival Vicious Circle recordings) and literary (including 2011's An American Demon: A Memoir), Grisham consistently delivers the goods. This is especially true of Grisham's involvement in what this writer believes are two absolutely flawless albums: TSOL's Beneath The Shadows and Tender Fury's If Anger Were Soul, I'd Be James Brown. Now, he is working to resurrect the recorded life of his mid '90s act, The Joykiller.

Signed to Epitaph Records, The Joykiller released three studio albums (The Joykiller, Static and Three) from 1995 to 1997 and a compilation called Ready Sexed Go! in 2003. As with everything else Grisham has done musically, The Joykiller presented an intriguing mix of street-level danger and undeniable Pop sensibilities. If you've never heard them, you need to make the investment in their albums. They were one hell of a band.

Recently, Grisham uncovered a number of forgotten Joykiller rehearsal tapes of unreleased material. Inspired by what he heard on them, he decided to get the band together again to record these tunes for a new album tentatively titled Music for Break-ups. The band currently has an Indiegogo campaign going until September 9 to raise funds to complete the project. Rewards include everything from test pressings to a turntable to use to play the album. To make the deal even cooler, the album will be produced by Paul Roessler, the man responsible for the best album of 2013.

There is no way Music for Break-ups is going to suck.

Go here to learn more about the project and donate money towards the album's creation.  

UPDATE: Just received word from Paul Roessler that the great Rikk Agnew (Christian Death/Adolescents) will be contributing guitar to the recording. Amazing...

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Twins of Voodoo: A Conversation with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge: Part 3 of 3

Cover of the forthcoming Psychic TV album, Snakes (photo courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/psychictvptv3)

In Parts 1 and 2 of this conversation, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge discussed h/er work in Psychic TV, efforts to share h/er experience in pandrogyny with others and some of h/er past exploits in '60s and '70s England. In this third and final part of our extensive conversation, Gen discusses h/er recent explorations into Voodoo – a journey that has been extensively documented in the upcoming film Bight Of The Twin by Hazel Hill McCarthy III.

It has been a great pleasure presenting this multi-part interview on this site, and I wish Gen nothing but the greatest happiness and success moving forward.

You're 64 now. In this stage of your evolution, what gives you the most joy?

Here's a letter somebody sent me from Canada: Currently, I'm busy making some major changes to my life. I spent most of last year recovering from a rather troubling depression. I thought it was time to take your example to heart and get on with living the life I've always wanted. So I will be quitting my job at the end of the year, possibly sooner, and starting my own business, with the added advantage that I will be able to work without having to stay in a permanent location. A big thank you goes to you for giving me the courage to do this. I'm actually scared shitless, which I believe is a sign I'm on the right path.

Isn't that sweet? That's when we feel some joy.

Obviously, my little dog, Musty Dagger [gives us joy]. She's a Pekingese, and she's absolutely wonderful. She's a rescue, of course; all of our dogs have been rescue dogs. Jaye always said she didn't want babies, but if she got the urge to have a baby around, she would always adopt.

We got a hell of a lot of joy from going to Africa...A friend of mine, Hazel Hill McCarthy III, lives in Los Angeles. A few years ago when I had a bit more money than usual, we took her with me as a companion to Kathmandu in the Himalayas and had a really beautiful time there. In the autumn last year, she came over to visit and showed me these photos she'd come across online of this festival that happens every seven years in Benin in Africa. We were both blown away by the costumes. I said, 'God, wouldn't it be great to go there and film that?' She took that to heart and actually found out how to do that, and bought me a ticket to go. I said, 'Well, you can’t do that.' She goes, 'You took me away somewhere amazing. Now, it's my turn to take you.' She and her husband Douglas, and Drew and Lewis – some friends of hers – came. We had a crew of four people with really high-end cameras, a still photographer and two people doing sound, and we went to Benin, which is just next door to Nigeria. It's the only country in the world where the state religion is Voodoo. We went thinking we'd film this festival, but we got there 10 days early. Our translator-cum-fixer Emmanuel took us on the second night to meet his father in his little compound. It's nighttime where there's no electricity, so there's some candles. His father –whose name was really long, but we called him 'Dah' - was sitting there, and he's wearing all these necklaces. Having studied Santeria and other disciplines, we knew it meant it was a priest...We realized that he was someone important, but not how important.

We're all just talking and drinking. He looks at me and points and goes, 'You had a twin who died, and she needs to have her soul and spirit joined with yours. Would you be prepared to do a ceremony so that we can have her linked with you?' Everyone went really quiet, because they knew all about Jaye, but he didn't. We went, 'Yeah!' Suddenly, this documentary film becomes Benin and Voodoo interacting with Gen! (laughs) Jaye used to call that, 'the Of Course Factor.' 'Well, of course they knew that you had a twin; of course it ended up like that.' That's how she would explain it. It was amazing, and we came back so energized and so rewarded with a magical view of the universe.

It's not the title of the documentary, but my running title is, “Voodoo: A Religion of Kindness.” They were so kind, so generous. They have nothing; to have a chicken is a big deal. Those people reconfirmed my belief in the possibility of humanity to still become something amazingly beautiful. All of it – not one bit or the other bit, not the ones who have this god or that god – but just humanity. No gangs, no cliches, no dogma, no better than yours. Just all of us loving what's possible.

Where is the documentary in terms of production at this point?

Hazel's made a trailer. There's no budget; she used her own money to get us there. As far as we understand it, the plan is to get the trailer as perfect as possible and then look for people to help sponsor it becoming a full-length documentary.

They allowed us to film everything – [things] that have never been filmed before. We have two ceremonies that we filmed. The five heads of the five cults of Voodoo met us in a sacred grove and said, 'You can ask any question you want. We'll answer.' No one's ever had that access before – and what they say is so different to that stupid Hollywood version of Voodoo. That's why we thought using the word 'kindness' could be so important, because it immediately shifts your mind from your pre-conceptions and stereotypes and sensational versions of what you've been told. It was nothing like that; it was just so embracing and loving and kind. At 64, to have another amazing adventure and another spiritual explosion of hope...that's what we live for.

Official Genesis Breyer P-Orridge Website

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Do Not Panic!: Hawkwind Unleash a New Sonic Attack

Now this is interesting...

On August 15, UK legends Hawkwind announced the imminent release of a new digital single – an updated version of their 1973 classic “Sonic Attack” with none other than legendary British actor Brian Blessed delivering the song's infamous dystopian broadcast.

Here's the official announcement from the band's website:

It’s the musical collaboration we never knew we needed, until now! Legendary space rockers HAWKWIND have teamed up with kingly thespian Brian Blessed for a brand new single version of ‘Sonic Attack!’

When Hawkwind decided to recreate their classic Space Ritual show of 1972, for one night only, at the London’s Shepherds Bush Empire in February 2014, the venerable group donated all proceeds to animal charities including Team Badger – of which Brian Blessed is a patron. It was a gig that set the wheels in motion for a storming new partnership.

The accompanying video was created by longtime Hawkwind artist Martin McGuiness.

This powerful addition to the Hawkwind canon is available from 1^st September 2014.

Prince Vultan of the Hawkmen fronting Hawkwind? How amazing is that?!

As a longtime Hawkwind fan, I'm thrilled to hear the band bring “Sonic Attack” into the present tense. As a lifelong Brian Blessed fan (thanks to my British father's insistence on raising me on Blackadder and Flash Gordon), I'm excited to hear that classic booming voice read Michael Moorcock's brilliant words in 2014. Welcome to the Single of the Year!

This revamped third version of “Sonic Attack” (which was first redone in 1981 for the Sonic Attack album) comes less than a year after the band's last release (the compilation Spacehawks) and is the latest music produced by one of the most stable lineups in Hawkwind history. Although the band has gone through dozens of members over the years, this current incarnation of the group clearly has staying power.

As sole original Hawkwind member Dave Brock told me last year, “We all get on well. We've got [Dead] Fred now playing keyboards; he used to play with us in the '80s. Of course, Tim Blake played with us in the '70s, '80s and then '90s. Richard [Chadwick], our drummer, has been with us 25 years – or even longer now. The two new boys...Dibs has been playing with us seven years, so he's not really a new boy at all. (laughs) Unfortunately, a few years ago, we lost our keyboard player Jason [Stuart, who died in 2008], and the we had Niall [Hone] come in and take his place. Niall was playing guitar at the time; he switched to playing bass. So we had two bass players, and Dibs switches from bass to electric cello. It makes life interesting; that's the whole thing with music. As long as you can actually keep on changing and moving forward rather than going backwards. (laughs) That's what we try to do.”

Nearly 45 years since the release of their debut album, Hawkwind continues to survive thanks to a deeply loyal community of supporters. While other bands have fans, Hawkwind have kin.

“We do our own festivals, and it's fantastic because we have loads of kids there and it's family-oriented,” remarked Brock (who turns 73 today) during our chat in 2013. “People bring all their kids, and it's a safe environment. Of course, we get to know loads of people. It becomes a giant family on quite a large scale. It's really quite important, and it's a great honor in a way to actually have all that. That's why we have to keep going.”

Pre-order the new version of “Sonic Attack” at the links below:

Amazon US 

iTunes US

Amazon UK

iTunes UK


View the official video for the new version of “Sonic Attack” below:



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