BILLIE HOLIDAY represents many different things to many different people…To me, she was the originator of a vocal style that could make you feel the pain of all of the downtrodden souls around you. She was an independent woman who waved her freak flag high and did not give a fuck what people thought. BILLIE HOLIDAY was willing to put her life on the line and sing against the injustice of the lynching that was taking place all over the south. Even to this day, when I hear her sing “Strange Fruit” my heart turns black! Anything I write would never be enough to describe the impact this woman had on humanity! In my book, BILLIE HOLIDAY was the voice of doom before there was doom…Downtuned music is all about the blues, and this was pure blues…So check out this kick ass documentary about BILLIE HOLIDAY now!

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Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats have been at the forefront of enigmatic psych-rock for a couple of years now and with their new release Mind Control consuming the senses and their recent appearance at Roadburn, the band are destined for great things. Just don’t ask for their picture, ok.

Hi…Uncle Acid…..Mr Acid….Bob? How should we refer to you for the purposes of this impersonal conversation?

Mr. Starrs would be nice!

Obviously Blood Lust was a huge success, both commercially and critically – did you feel any pressure going in to Mind Control and if so, how did you seek to overcome that? Was it necessary to even do so?

No. There was no pressure because we don’t seek out to impress anyone or live up to anyone else’s expectations. I’m not in a band to be hugely successful or to get praise from others. I do it because I want to record my music. If people like it then thats great obviously.

What was the impetus to follow this path of occult-laced rock?

I’m not sure it really is occult-laced. It’s more based on my appreciation of horror and B movies. People have been trying to put us into this occult rock box so that they have something to write about. Its nonsense.

The extreme mystery of the band and yourself whilst the hype was building around Blood Lust was often a reason for people to check out the music, are you worried now that you’re a little more out there in terms of being in the public eye (giving interviews such as these) that the people who built you up are now going to turn their backs?

It doesn’t bother me. It should only be about the music, but I know theres plenty of those underground hipsters that only listened to us because we were the new thing that no one else knew about. The kind of people that go on about how they were the first to hear about us and now it kills them inside that so many others are enjoying our music too.

In terms of the mystery, it was simply a case of me not wanting to ‘play the game’ and have pictures taken. I don’t see the importance of pictures. We wanted the focus to be on the music and the concepts rather than on the musicians behind it. Everything is based on image now days and it’s disgusting. We wanted to show that its not important. We got our music out there without any pictures or over the top self promotion. Our albums were selling out everywhere but magazines would not feature us, or review our music because we refused to provide promo shots. I couldn’t believe it. We ended up doing a couple of promo shots in the end because our label had been good to us and I felt we were making it too difficult for them to promote the album. If someone is good to me, its only right to be good to them back. So, sometimes you have to compromise on certain things to maintain the balance, but the general idea is still there; We have no image to offer you. Just music.

Photos: Luana Magalhães
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Why is is this awesome? Because NEGATIVE STANDARDS are the shit!!! Check out this full set of their most recent show filmed by Kevin Hobbs. Make sure to give their last album VI-XI a good listen and you will recognize that this band is special…NEGATIVE STANDARDS RULE!

On April 26th it all went down at our 2nd Anniversary show that featured some of the most amazing bands in California. Honestly, the event was a huge success with truck loads of positive energy. All of the bands performed to the highest levels of gnarlyness and you could hear their passion in every note! Just as important as the bands that took the stage, CVLT Nation would like to salute everyone who came out and showed support. We would like to shout out Gehenna, Seven Sisters of Sleep, Youth Code, Children of God, Stoic Violence, Whip Hand and Unit B for an awesome fucking night. The night’s festivities were caught on film by our comrade in photography Adam Murray – good looking out homie! Without Crash the Clubs and Lace Pickups we would not have been able to pull this off, thank you for you support and hard work. It was cool to be able to connect with people outside of the internet. That being said, we really appreciate everyone who makes this webzine a destination every day! Now it’s time for the pictures to do the talking – check out these unreal flicks from CVLT Nation’s 2nd Anniversary and SSOS record release party (they fucking killed it – make sure to check them out on their upcoming tour with Full of Hell).

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Straight up and down, I totally dig when a wife & husband team unify to create art. This is just the case with Lux Interior and Poison Ivy, who together were the foundation of The CRAMPS. They created so of the sickest tunes of their plus gave some of the most exciting performances of their peers. The CRAMPS were than just a group, they were art in every sense of the word. I could spend hours watching videos of them perform. This why today our favorite tumblr this moment is Poison Ivy The CRAMPS. This page is full of rare photos and a whole lot more goo goo muck. For all those feeling out of your mind right now, check them out live at the Napa State Mental Hospital!

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There’s probably not much that we can say about Kylesa that you haven’t already heard a thousand times before – whether that’s the fact they go all out with two drummers, they know how to write a monstrous fucking riff, or (now brace yourselves) there’s a woman in their ranks – but we aren’t ones to back down from a challenge and thus, we take on the heavy charms of the Savannah based band and their sixth full length album – Ultraviolet.

Following on from 2010s Spiral Shadow, Ultraviolet continues in the vein of the Kylesa sound we all know and love (heavy rocking sludged out noise) but picks up a few neat tricks along the way. Laura Pleasants’ voice takes on a little more of the vocal weight, tripped out nuances filter through the wonder of “Exhale” and the traded vocals between Pleasants and fellow guitarist Phillip Cope here are a joy to behold, and massive choruses throw themselves at you with wild abandon.

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So what do we have here? An on-point live download from SWANS. This is a great recording form their 2012 show in Dachstock Bern Switzerland…The SEER…enjoy and download!

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SWANS Live Dachstock Bern Switzerland DOWNLOAD LINK HERE!

All photos & text by Luana Magalhães

Fell Voices
Their microphone-less screaming alone would have been enough to consider them one of the bands of the weekend, as those inhuman howls could be heard from the hallway outside. The fact that their black metal fury even outclasses what can be heard on their records helps, too.

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All photos & text by Luana Magalhães

Amenra
Arguably the most intense, harrowing performance of the whole festival, Amenra were pure catharsis – the outpouring of pain and anguish was evident in each blood-curding Colin Eeckhout scream and every resounding note of their instruments. Most massive sound of the weekend too – the soundcheck before the show alone was enough to nearly rearrange internal organs.

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