AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED
Premature Hallucination
By: Stacy Buchanan
Distorted guitars, five thousand hits of acid, a wood chipper and reflections of the Id. What do all these things have in common? They are ingredients to Agoraphobic Nosebleed's most recent violent purging, Altered States of America, a forced aural lashing with a twisted sense of American culture and the "destructive" knob set at '11' for the whole 100 songs (in approximately 21 minutes). The four deviants responsible for this debauchery contributed to some burning questions about Altered States... and what makes Agoraphobic Nosebleed tick. Since none of us will ever know the feeling of being ripped apart by a pack of hyenas on crack, here's the next best thing...
How did the idea for the 100 song 3-inch disc come about? Was it a goal in mind from the beginning, or something that eventually evolved into what it is now?
HULL: We were thinking about doing something much like our demo and first 7", which crammed 30 songs into 10 minutes or so. Originally, it was going to be a 40 song 7" on Deathstill records (UK), but Relapse has been cracking down a little on bands doing shit for other labels, but Matt offered to do something along those lines on Relapse. So, I had the hair-brained idea that a 100 song CD would rule, but would probably take too fucking long to do and be too shitty to listen to. Thus, it seemed like the 3" format, with its 20-minute time constraint and diminutive size seemed absurd in and of itself. Perfect. 100 tracks in 20 minutes. It winds up being perfect for other reasons because you pick the thing up and see the insane artwork, you see 100 song titles that barely fit on the back of the tray, you flip though the booklet which is a visual assault on its own... I mean you could have an aneurysm with those colors. Finally, after hacking though everything, you get to this little ridiculous rabbit turd of a CD. It's just plain dumb. Who the fuck would do such a thing? I know someone's going to accidentally swallow one... somewhere out there.
Songs on the new release are obviously extremely short, how did you determine who "sang" on which track? Was it every man for himself or...?
JOHNSON: Not every man for himself so much as a free-for-all, as in, "Do you want to take this one?" Or, "I think I can tackle that song". Or, "You should do one of your [insert vocal signature] things on that part of the song." That's one of the many fun things, doing the vocals. Chaos is a good time. It actually reminds me of something Bjork said in an interview, that she "enjoys doing the vocals in just one or two takes, freely," because she's so anal about the music.
RANDALL: Well, I recorded all my own vocals on the noise tracks at home in Springfield, so I'm pretty sure those are all mine. Plus, I did all the vocals on "The Twelve Days of Sodom" segment of disc. For the rest, we all piled in and out of the vox closet at Visceral... and that was just total chaos. I don't remember most of it. It eventually came down to whoever had a voice left. Like on the last record, JR Hayes did a couple and Pete Benumb pinched out some more phonecore vocals because Pete will just call you up and take a fat shit in your ear.
Since the length of songs influences what can be said, can you describe how it worked trying to fit an entire idea/concept within four to twenty seconds (approx)?
HULL: That's more a question for Jay, Carl, and Rich, but I know Jay had a lot of these lyrics for Frozen Corpse. In fact, ASOA is really the record Frozen should have been. In every sense, ASOA is FCSWD's shitty, greasy, sleazy cousin, which is why we used the same portrait shots. But conceptually, the lyrics aren't highly developed or anything. They're more like snapshots.
SCHULTZ: It wasn't all that bad really. Most of my and J's lyrics aren't more than a few lines anyways, so fitting ideas into short, grinding blasts is something that we're used to doing. Having said that, for some of the conjoined segments on Altered States... such as the "Aum Shinrikyo," "Twelve Days of Sodom" and "Altered States of America" tracks, we made sure that the overall theme adhered to some kind of general, twisted topic. ANb uses the "scum" vocal method (Note: reference to the vocal style used on Napalm Death's Scum CD where often lyrics were said so quickly or garbled that around every forth word from the lyrics was actually said - SB) a lot of the time too, meaning, in the booklet you may see that there's more to the actual 'lyric' than what you hear us yellin' at you... you can piece the full idea together by reading the full lyric(s) in the CD booklet.
Can you explain the title Altered States of America? Is there an overall concept to this album?
RANDALL: I came up with it on the train ride into Philly to meet Carl. I smoked a joint in New Haven, Connecticut while changing trains, rolled past the Bermuda Trade Towers, and I had the title a half an hour into New Jersey. I shopped it to Carl from Philly to Bethesda and we pitched it to Scott and Rich over a bowl-pack and a beer. It seems we all like movies about drugs that encourage drug use amongst people of intellect.
SCHULTZ: We had been bouncing other ideas off of each other for some time -- some worked better than others and some were just unusable, but hilarious. When Randall unleashed Altered States of America in my ride, I knew that had to be the title. Of course, it references the film Altered States -- which works on so many different levels -- but it also leaves room for any amount of interpretation, and that's something that's a big part of Agoraphobic. I told J, "We have to tell Scott - this has to be the title!" It's fucking perfect.
Does the artwork tie in with the album title and /or lyrics? How so?
RANDALL: Well, less with the title than the lyrics. Scott and Jeff Gaither had worked out the artwork for this record before it was actually titled. Jeff did add an American flag to the foreground, along with an unholy bulge in the priest's robe. I had the idea of the blotter sheet, which Gaither did for the CD -- I thought it helped tie in the artwork with the title. Every other song is about dropping acid or a priest with a boner, so it all fits like a hard-on in an alter boy's hand -- very uncomfortably.
SCHULTZ: We wanted to give grindcore fans something that would lodge itself in their brains and burn itself into their retinas. ANb Pharmaceuticals, Inc exists to deliver the best in mental and visual grind stimulation. A 100 song 3" CD with a 16 page pastel booklet smothered in arcane writings seemed like the perfect way to make a bull's eye of the mind while keeping us one step ahead of the game and moving ANb further away from the audio and visual cloning infesting today's grind scene.
Any particular tracks that you are fond of and why?
JOHNSON: Honestly I'm still trying to absorb the record, which is incredible because I've heard it so many times, going back to when we were doing the vocals. Recording on a song sort of puts you inside it, so I can't imagine how it must be for a listener who is hearing the record for the first time, standing outside of the record. I think the phrases used in the print ads for the record are pretty accurate in describing how much of a disorienting experience it will be for some people listening to this thing. I figure for the first several listens it will be difficult to say, "Oh, I like track 42 the best!"
SCHULTZ: My favorite track on the record is the 'first' track "Wonder Drug Wonderland" -- it's fucking soothing as hell and really sets up the first track while delivering a mindfuck right off the bat. Also, I can't get enough of the "Aum Shinrikyo" tracks that Randall put together (tracks 21-34). That guy fucking went to town on that portion of the disc... breaks things up well and is as extreme as anything you'll hear if you really sit down and think about what's attacking you via your speakers.
There are lots of drug references and concepts; do drugs play a role in the writing of your songs?
JOHNSON: Like many bands I think, yes. Definitely some of the lyrics and some of the noise pieces, but not the actual straight-up guitar and drums. That stuff is total brain-powered grind, not self-medicated grind.
RANDALL: I smoke weed till my Id gives all this bad information to me, and then I write it all out as a first person shooter. The Japanese version of Altered States... will have a second disc entitled Premature Hallucination, which contains all lyrics I hallucinated into a notebook while taking mushrooms at home the day before I flew down to do vocals for the Converge split. I was trying to pass it off to Scott as the lyrics for "Poacher Diary" since it was the only thing I had actually written for the record. We got a few lines out of it that people will probably recognize listening to the Altered States of Japan Premature Hallucination disc.
What does the future hold for ANb?
RANDALL: A fuckin' release schedule into 2005.
JOHNSON: Well, besides a picture disc EP, which is already finished but not yet out, we have a split with the band DATACLAST which hasn't been put together yet, a reissue of Honkey Reduction, -- which was the first ANb mini album for Relapse -- a PCP Torpedo digi-pack with bonus remixes, and a double CD discography. I don't know when any of these are going to come out, nor do I know what the new recordings are going to sound like. That depends on what Scott is into at the time!
HULL: What DOESN'T the future hold for ANb? I ask you. You know, I'm not sure. After three years, we shat out FCSWD and ASOA ass to ass. Not to mention, we have some other releases that were already in the works that are coming out... PCP Torpedo CD-EP on Hydrahead, split EP with Dataclast, Pic disc 7" on Reptilian, a two-CD ANb discography of all the old vinyl crap... possibly a DVD. We are thinking into 2005 already, although I believe civilization will most likely crumble before then.
What is the possibility of seeing ANb live? There have been rumors of possibly Dave Witte handling (or at least attempting to) drum duties...
HULL: Dave and I have talked about it for literally years. And now Teddy (Burnt By The Sun, ex-Human Remains) is lurking in the periphery for holding down the low end. Hopefully we'll be able to get like a 100 song set list together for the next Relapse fest next year. Don't hold me to it. Everything in this band is entirely subject to change. But I hear that Dave's getting a large caliber Gatling Gun installed on his Pork Pie percussion set for ANb. Jay's having his mouth replaced with an asshole.
Who do you admire in the world of metal lately?
JOHNSON: In metal... not too many contemporary bands. To be honest, I don't listen to a lot of metal that's come out lately, because there isn't a lot worth listening to. I'm more into the classic or older stuff, which is what I admire. These days there are plenty of bands that have metal influences or are hybrids of metal and something else that have interesting music to offer, though. Except "metalcore" and "nu-metal," that is. Those two are the worst.
What bands are you all currently listening to?
RANDALL: A ll blastbeat/speedcore stuff... no actual "bands."
JOHNSON: The last few records I've spun... just the first ones off the top of my head, are the first Suffocation EP, the last Smashing Pumpkins CD, Venom by Breach, Mandylion by The Gathering, Mick Harris and Bill Laswell's Somnific Flux, the new VOIVOD.
HULL: In the world of metal... Last Days Of Humanity, Inhume, World, Sore Throat, Murder Corporation, and Defleshed (they need a line for themselves). Other shit: Orthrelm, SUNN 0))), Earth, The Melvins, Thrones, The Fucking Champs, Goatsnake.
SCHULTZ: Amon Tobin, Khanate, Alio Die, Noism, Jet Jaguar KR3 Kill-Spree, Terminal Sound System, Mastodon, Slough.
Any parting words? Website to plug?
JOHNSON: Yes, thank you to ANb's listeners, and also those who have taken the time to write (even the weird ones). And we give thanks to the gods who, from on high, have delivered hard disk music recording technology to humankind, the most important advancement since the mastering of fire.
SCHULTZ: The ANb website is finally up! Check it out at
www.AGORAPHOBICNOSEBLEED.com. Cheers to all the ANb fans out there... there's much more to come.
RANDALL: You should wash your hands with hot water and an antibacterial soap after touching this and every other RESOUND you are sent in the future. Be sure to burn this when finished reading.
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