JERSEY BEAT CONFIDENTIAL An Electronic Fanzine An Interim Report From The Greater New York

***************************************************************** JERSEY BEAT CONFIDENTIAL An Electronic Fanzine An Interim Report From The Greater New York Underground ***************************************************************** Editor - Jim Testa Staff - The Usual Gang of Idiots If you like any of what you read here, You are ENCOURAGED to send $2.00 for a complete hard copy edition of Jersey Beat, the fanzine. Issue #36 contains interviews with Kurt Ralske of the 4AD sensation Ultra Vivid Scene, NJ locals Crocodile Shop and Stetz, hardcore, metal, pop, punk, and lots more, 40 pages of non- stop fun for only two bucks to: Jim Testa, 418 Gregory Avenue, Weehawken, NJ 07087. ***************************************************************** CICCONE YOUTH The Whitey Album Blast First!/Enigma Sonic Youthmania? How else to explain their phenomenal output over the last year - the "Master Dik" Ep on SST, the Daydream Nation double-lp on Blast First!, the "Touch Me I'm Sick" 45 with Mudhoney on Subpop, the re-release of the "Sonic Death" cassette on a remastered CD, about a half dozen compilation and fanzine flexi-disc tracks, and now Ciccone Youth. This project began a few years ago when Thurston Moore started threatening to record the entire Beatles "White Album." That project never got off the ground (for one thing, Pussy Galore beat them to it by releasing their version of Exile On Main Street). Somehow, the Sonic Youths got together with Mike Watt of fIREHOSE and came up with The Whitey Album instead. The majority of tracks here are just filler - hip hop, hot mix experiments, spoken word thangs, goofing around in the studio (like most of "Master Dik," in fact). What will you want to keep? Mike Watt's original 4-track demo of "Burnin' Up," (a different version appeared on the Ciccone Youth 45), the original Ciccone Youth version of Madonna's "Into The Groove" (redubbed "Into The Groovy" and sonicked up a bit), a burning sexy Kim Gordon reading of Robert Palmer's "Addicted To Love," and maybe Thurston Moore's goofy "Tuff Titty Rap." That's four tracks out of a 15-cut album. Obviously the economics of releasing this as an EP didn't pan out. Whether you want to pay for 11 tracks of filler, noise, and foolin' around will probably depend on whether you're just a casual fan or a fanatic. If I had paid $8.98 for this, I'd be plenty pissed. - Jim Testa *********** * records * *********** BHOPAL STIFFS "E.P.A." EP Roadkill, Box 37, Prospect Hts., IL 60070 A fantastic debut 12" that's served piping hot from start to finish. Superb catchy melodic music. When I first heard it, it brought the image of the Doughboys and Life Sentence mixed together. Just great music filled with hooks, tight playing, and lots of energy. This is worth every red cent you pay. - Tom Angelli GIANT SAND The Love Songs, LP Homestead How do you review a record like this one? Do you bullshit people by using a lot of big college words and pretend to like it just to score a few points with Gerry? I say no. Just do yourself a favor and be honest by lumping this load of horseshit into the category Ben Weasel spoke about in his MRR letter (reprinted on the "Master Dik" liner notes). By now, you must know the type: Boring "arty" rock stuff where nobody can understand what the fuck the lyrics are about. Although I am partial to Sonic Youth, this is real nothingness. Giant Sand can get all the rave reviews and Meat Puppet comaprisons in the world. I couldn't give a shit, 'cos I like rock, real `punk' rock, like Bad Religion, Government Issue, and White Flag. Bands that don't beat around the bush by playing some mediocre artsy crap. Listen to this record and you'll realize that you don't like American roots. You'll also take note that "electro folk" is a dependable cure for insomnia. The 1st 500 copies of this come with a pillow! - John Lisa GANG GREEN I81B4U, LP Roadracer I'm not familar with their older material (like their last lp, which even the band considered a shot at the metal/crossover market), but this isn't a metal record at all. The music has a basic mid-tempo hardcore feel to it with some metal overtones (like "Bartender," and the solos). "Lost Chapter" is the best song while the rest don't have me interested. Lyrics are aimed at the Male Party Animal type, with songs about putting her on top tonight, drinking beer, and hating rent. The title is the best thing about the 12" (the drug-free message on the back turned me off). - Tom Angelli THE MEATMEN We're The Meatmen...And You Still Suck! LP Caroline Nothing, and I mean nothing that this band has done will come close to the original We're The Meatmen...And You Suck lp, and that's that. But I'll tell you what really sucks - the fact that Tesco Vee constantly defied all his fans for a good three albums or so by putting out retarded metal shit (complete with ex-Minor Threat guitarist Lyle Preslar taking guitar leads so long and boring you'd think he was in competition with Junkyard's newfound metal god, Brian Baker). And the jokes may be funny but you need a dictionary to understand half of them, and the other half are either sung too fast to catch or inaudible because of all the metal noise. This is progress? But I guess it's all just history now, since this was recorded in early 1988 during the Meatmen's final tour. The days of crass, raw guitar blasting trashy noise over twisted, sour but simple humor are gone. The few highlights on this record are the timeless classics "Tooling For Anus," "Meatmen Stomp," "Camel Jockeys Suck" (a cheap ripoff of "Crippled Children Suck"), and maybe "Abba, God and Me." These days you can find Tesco on the back of Chemical People records (worth the investment) doing spoken word pieces, funnier than anything he's done in years. And as for Lyle, you'd think he'd have done something better with his life after leaving Minor Threat. Life goes on. - John Lisa THE CHILLS The Lost EP, Homestead Weird but great echoey pop from New Zealand. There's some really good guitar work in this EP, recorded in 1984-85. Although there are some shades of early 60's pop as well as a slight noise aspect, this is very original-sounding, at times resembling Pink Floyd a bit. It's more psychedelic than noisy but none of the tunes get too self-indulgent; mostly, the Chills keep things short & sweet, with innocent undertones. Classic tunes you'll love to listen to while tripping include "Dream By Dream" and "This Is The Way." Good use of distortion, slide, and perfect keyboard mix. They put on a great live show too. One of the driving factors is in the octave vocals - perfectly dubbed, coordinated, and sung with a great deal of emotion. Good show for a pretty wholesome bunch of guys. - John Lisa ***************************************************************** LIVE ***************************************************************** ALEKA'S ATTIC/THE PUSSY WILLOWS/WORLD FAMOUS BLUE JAYS Maxwells, Hoboken, NJ - Feb. 17 Surprise, surprise, Aleka's Attic turns out to be none other than teen idol/Oscar nominee River Phoenix' band, trying out their show here in a small room, unadvertised, before debuting before a much tougher crowd in the much larger Palladium the next night at some big benefit. Well, it certain wasn't what you'd expect, assuming you'd expect the usual teen-dream bubblegum rock 'n roll. Phoenix is a very serious young man (with, apparently, a very serious Sting fixation). His movie star good looks were subdued behind long, straight hair parted in the middle, round wire-rim glasses, drab brown sportjacket over a black teeshirt. River's voice reminded me a lot of Al "Year Of The Cat" Stewart - thin, reedy, sweet. Phoenix played acoustic guitar, backed by electric violin, bass, drums, and his kid sister Rainbow on backup vocals. The music was a sort of reggae-ized folk, nothing faster than ballad tempo, and nothing remotely resembling rock 'n roll. Given the melodies, his voice, and the instrumentation, this music might have worked had it been light & airy, but it came across as leaden and ponderous. None of it was helped by River's air of studied seriousness - it he weren't only 18, I'd use the word pretentious. And the drummer played too heavy and too loud for the light, loping reggae-ish rhythms. Wow, an Oscar nomination and a gig at Maxwells in one week. Some guys have all the luck. The Pussy Willows were playing their first-ever live gig. At Maxwells on a Friday night, you ask? How did that happen? Well, they just happen to be on the record label owned and run by the guy who books the club.That helps a little, y'know? Okay, so imagine 3 dowdy twentyish girls singing bad garage covers out of key in 3-part almost-harmony and you get an idea of how awful this was. They were backed by what appeared to be a pickup trio - two Raunchhands and a World Famous Blue Jay. Way to go, Todd. The World Famous Blue Jays are a shitty bar band that plays the sort of roadhouse rock 'n roll that you'd think would be laughed off the stage at an infamously hip venue like Maxwells. Well, a lot of people cleared out of the room, but hey, the guy who books this place likes them, so whatcha gonna do about it? Ironic part is there's a bar a block away called The Elysian Cafe that books this sort of rootsy blue collar bar band music all the time, but when one of those bands tries to get a date at Maxwells, they're met with a cold shoulder at best and a derisive sneer. Who said life was fair? ***************************************************************** LOCAL STUFF ***************************************************************** THE PENETRATORS Kings Of Basement Rock, LP Freds Records (Venus Distribution) Dirty trash rock recorded between '76-'78, but that doesn't make it good. In fact, it's very mediocre - and the recording quality doesn't help. Don't be fooled by the cover sticker, these are no "rare unreleased gems." They're average tunes recorded by 3 guys who look like my dad (except for the drummer) back in te 70's and were found by some guy who works at Venus Records as an excuse to start a label. The Penetrators didnt break any ground back then and their recordings are dull today. Out of the basement - and into the trash. - John Lisa Various Artists Today Brooklyn, Tomorrow The World" Compilation LP Brooklyn Beat, 335 Prospect Ave., Brooklyn, NY It would be unfair to review this lp as a whole, so I'll summarize each band in 10 words or less: (1)Franks Museum - Repetitious downbeat sleeper. (2) The Original Rays - Progressive pop punk, and the best cut on the album. (3) Squirrels From Hell - Reminds me of the Minutemen, nice guitarwork. (4) Chemical Wedding - Clean, strange guitars, gets bland very quickly. (5) Formaldehyde Blues Train - The title says it all. (6) Medicine Sunday - English-sounding, echoey, engaging pop rock. 2nd best cut. (7) The Fields - Good production, pretty tune, Top 10 material, nothing alternative. (8) When People Were Shorter & Lived Near The Water - Shimmydisc hipness, sludgefestival of scummy ratrock. (9) Woodpecker - BLLLLAAACCCHHHHH! Pecker is a better name. (10) The Moe - Shit kickin' country boy gets loaded again. If you're one of those people who hate distortion pedals, run right out and purchase this laidback pop comp, and then hide in shame as the rest of the world does some real rockin'! - John L. ** DISCORDS - An Electronic Column ******************************* *************************************** by Howard Wuelfing ******* VOIVOD Dimension Hatross, LP Noise International A whorling mass of gelatinized steel wool, Canada's VoiVod shifts gears on tempo, key and riffage as rapidly as a Village trendy changes lifestyles - and with as much apparent rhyme 'n reason. But in Voivod's case, the result is an exultant, liberating sense of anarchy & stylistic spontaneity. Event- windows rush by too quickly to lock into much more than sensations of pure speed and raw power - perhaps an overall impression of aggressive percussive assault. A lot is made of this outfit's art-punk and prog influences. To make a long convulted argument short - they extract a vastly different effect from these elements in this context: there's less scope, breadth, and creative intimation here. On the other hand, a lot of folks, including me, have probably prayed to have those scant seconds of incendiary bombast clipped out of their Mahavishnu records and pasted together for the pure demolitionary kick of it. Black Flag were moving in this direction but aborted the mission before reaching escape velocity. Voivod are already on Mars on a recon mission. **** 7 Seconds Interview ****************** by Jim Testa 7 Seconds really needs no introduction to anyone even remotely interested in today's punk scene. One of the original "positive" hardcore bands, 7 Seconds - led by their charismatic lead singer and chief songwriter, Kevin Marvelli, aka Kevin Seconds - has been moving toward a more melodic, softer sound in recent years. Kevin has also been at the forefront of those speaking out against the inherent violence of "the pit." Although I've been a fan for quite a few years, Kevin and I had never spoken. This New York-to-California conversation by phone revealed that we had a lot in common beyond Italian surnames, and was conducted last fall, shortly after the release of Oursevlves, the band's first lp for their new label, Restless Records. Q: Let's start with the band's musical direction first. You've taken a lot of criticism from your old fans for going soft, for sounding like U2, for losing that hardcore crunch. Kevin: The thing is that ever since New Wind (1986), we wanted to be able to do more musically and branch out. And I've wanted to do more than just scream. And as much as we all love our old stuff, we just felt that we really wanted to try new things. And the fact that everyone in the band can play fairly well, we've been experimenting in rehearsals and trying to do new things. It's not a conscious effort to try and alienate our hardcore following or anything like that. We (the band) turned 9 years old in January and we feel like we want to do new things. Q: Does that mean the song "7 Years" is two years old already? Kevin: Yeah, actually. And we debated before putting it on the new album if we should change some of the lyrics. But the whole point of that song was that it was the pivot point for us. We would go out on the road and we started to see that the tours, each time we went out, were so similar, and we'd go out and there'd be the fighting and the slamdancing, and that wasn't part of anything that we wanted to have anything to do with. We want to be involved with music. We live it. This is what we're doing with our lives. This is what we're about. Q: The tour you did with Verbal Assault a few years ago was the first time, in the Greater New York area, where you got to play clubs like Maxwells and nighttime shows, and your tours seem to have been moving in that direction ever since. .pa� Kevin: Our whole thing is that we enjoy playing for everybody. I could care less if people come out and slam to our music, because we've been really fed up with that for a really long time. And if people just get off on the music and just enjoy it, that's what we're really about. We're not there just to play the fastest music so people can bust their heads or start fights or whatever. I'm so sick of talking about that it's just ridiculous. "Seven Years" is just about doing what we've been doing, and the last thing on our minds is to travel 200 miles just to see people beat the shit out of one another. That's not what it's about for us. I'm not 17 years old, I'm 27 years old. I don't look at it as aggro anymore. I may have once but that's not what it's about anymore. Q: There's a real note of finality about the lyrics to "Seven Years," as if you're finally saying goodbye to the whole hardcore thing. Kevin: That's basically what it is. We still have the same ideals and we still believe in what we've always talked about. We just feel that there's so much more to it and people haven't picked up on it. People can criticize us, they can say whatever. And our goal isn't consciously to wimp our or whatever. We're just sick of going to shows and seeing blood on the floor, or finding out that the last time you played this club the owner got sued because some kid got hurt... We've done it other people's way for a long time and now we're doing it our way. Q: What thing I always get from your shows, no matter who shows up, is that you really love performing. Kevin: Oh yeah. Definitely. I could be totally sick and not have a voice at all, and as soon as I get up there, I see the energy and I just go. In fact, now, when I'm not doing it, it's harder to come back to a place called home. I love to be out touring. Because it's just the greatest feeling. Even when there's the problems, I feel like, if we can go out there and change something... I like to look at peoples' faces, I like to talk to them afterward. It's not a job for me. I wish that I could go out and do it for nothing, but obviously that's not reality. But it's hard to come back and sit around, even if you're sitting around and writing new material. I forget I have this personal part of my life and I let that go to hell, just so we can get back out there and play. .pa� Q: What's it like doing some Over-18 shows now and some all-ages shows. Is the reaction very different? Kevin: It depends. The tour we did (in 1988) with the Circle Jerks, we did a bunch of shows where we'd play in the afternoon all-ages and then do an Over 18 show at night. In Montreal, the second show we did was better, even though it was an older, drinking crowd, but they were just so cool and so into. I almost hated to admit to myself, but I enjoyed that show more than the first show, with all the craziness and stuff. A few of those shows have been really cool. Then again, we played New Orleans and it was and Over 18 show, and it was clear to me that the crowd really didn't know too much about the band, and it was extra work just to get them going. You get spoiled after so many years of, you know, like your name is on everybody's skateboard and their shirts and they know all the lyrics. We want to be able to appeal to a huge range of people, not just the 16 and 17 year old skater kids, even though those kids are great too. Q: That's the next big step, then, breaking that college-radio age audience. I guess moving to Restless is a big part of that, since that's their audience. Kevin: I would think so. So far, it's too early to tell. But that's the direction it seems to be going in. They did...well, Restless sent out these promo copies, you probably saw them, and they had these big stickers on the records that said `Walking & Rocking On The Straight Edge,' and we just said, `No, no, cringe, cringe.' Because whether we did it ourselves or it was done to us, we've been pigeonholed into this straight edge thing. I have nothing against the positive hardcore scene, and I think a lot of it is really cool, but the whole militant thing I'm really not into. I don't believe that's the way I would do it. A lot of these bands list us as an influence, but they're so intense about shoving all this down people's throats that I want to tell them that I think they've really missed the point. We acknowledge our punk rock roots, our hardcore roots, or whatever, but that doesn't mean that that's what we're going to be for all time. Q: Did you ever think of just changing the name of the band and starting from scratch? Kevin: Yeah, we did talk about that. It was right after my brother Steve the bass player left the band. With him gone, we just didn't feel right, we didn't think it was the right thing to do [to keep calling the band 7 Seconds]. But unfortunately we listened to somebody who was in a position to give us advice, and we stuck it out, and it was such an empty feeling that it almost killed the whole thing. But then Steve came back to the band, and since the core of the band has been Steve, Troy, and I, it felt better. At this point [if we changed the name] it would have to be this thing where we'd completely change direction and refuse to do any new material, and I don't see that happening. � Q: Hardcore as a genre seems to have become very conservative, very resistant to change. I think a lot of the reviews you've gotten from the hardcore fanzines reflect that. Kevin: It definitely seems to be that way. And we've really struggled with that. We ask ourselves, are we really wimping out? But when it comes down to it, you have to go with how you feel. We could've come out with another record like "Walk Together" or "The Crew" and sold tons of copies and done a really good tour, and everybody would have dug it, but it wouldn't have been satisfying to us. And I'd rather, these days, go and play a place like Maxwells or even a place where there's only 30 people, but where they're really into the music and into the idea of what's behind it, instead of going to a place that's really packed but then after the show you find out from the promoter that there were 10 kids carried out on a stretcher. And that's not an exaggeration. We've played L.A. where they have the gangs come in, and you never know what's going to happen. We've had kids get carried out, kids get stabbed at shows. Q: What's the status now of Positive Force? Kevin: It's not out of business. My ex-girlfriend and I had tried to run it, and I'd do the work when I came back from tour but basically she tried to run it, and she decided to go back to school fulltime in South Carolina. And we decided that since she had the time and I didn't, we decided that she'd have the label. And we did the distribution deal with Giant/Dutch East. For me, admittedly, I'm terrible at business and I have so many things going on... Q: I knew some of the bands on the label, like Pagan Babies and a few others, and none of them had many kind words for the way things were run. Kevin: And I don't blame them one bit. I've never told one of the bands not to take another offer. We've had problems from day one because there's never been a fulltime staff to run things and answer mail. I finally just said I have to stop and give this to someone who can do it. Q: A lot of people saw the quality of the records that were coming out and just assumed there was an office and a factory and a warehouse somewhere, like a real label, and didn't realize that the whole thing was being run from your kitchen table. Kevin: That's just it. And then especially when we started to work with Dutch East, they had so many things going and they'd have to get in touch me, and I was on tour and couldn't be reached, and the bands were screaming at me... It got totally out of control, so I realized that I had to get out of it and give it to someone I trusted who could do the job. .pa� Q: Are there any Positive Force projects in the works? Kevin: Quite a few. There's this band called Division from Reno, Nevada, and this Illinois band called War On The Saints. Both are really cool bands. And Bedlam Hour is working on their second album for Positive Force, which is nice. Because all the other bands that we did the first albums with went somewhere else to do their second. Not that I blame them in the least. And I was always very honest with them, I told them if they could get a better deal to go for it. Q: Going back to the band, do you think you'll try and change the way you tour, to avoid a lot of small hardcore clubs and all-ages shows? Kevin�� That'� wha� we'r� doin� now� makin� thos� plans� W� ha� a� problem last year because we knew the album wasn't going to be out in time for us to do a headline tour of our own, and then our booking agency, FBI, said that the Circle Jerks wanted us to tour with them. At first we didnt want to do it because we thought, oh no, punk rock city, everything we were against. But it actually turned out pretty cool. And for the first time in years, we didn't have any problems with skinheads on the whole tour, because that's been a major problem with us with the last tours. When we do our tours, we've always liked to play with more diverse acts, even back when we were doing all fast stuff we felt that way. So we really don't want to do another tour where we wind up on a bill with four or five other hardcore bands that all sound the same. Our booking agency now thinks we just go out and open for a bigger band so we'd be exposed to a whole new audience. Q: An R.E.M. type of band. Not R.E.M., but... Kevin: Exactly. Something like that. But this time, we really want to concentrate on the new stuff and just play the old songs that still have it. At one point, I felt we were just playing a Greatest Hits type set, and we didn't like, we just felt it wasn't right. So right now, we'd like to go out on the road with a bigger band, who has their own audience, and we can benefit from that maybe. .pa� Q: I wanted to ask you about writing songs. You have a great ear for melody, but you don't write traditional "pop" lyrics - the words don't rhyme, the lines don't scan rhythmically, a lot of times you seem to cram a lot more words into a line that fit the music. Kevin�� It'� no� somethin� � d� o� purpose�� bu� othe� peopl� � ��hav� brough� i� u� before�� jus� sor� o� writ� it�� Whe� ɠ g� � ��int� th� studio�� it'� th� wors� tim� fo� me�� I'v� neve� bee� � ��comfortabl� i� th� studio�� ca� g� ou� i� fron� o� ton� o� � ��peopl� an� sin� an� mak� � foo� o� myself�� an� � lov� it� bu� � � ��ge�� int� � studi� an� � ge� rea� tense�� I� � don'�� los� m� � ��voice�� the� ɠ figh� wit� everybod� an� ɠ chang� lyrics� � ��Ther� wer� time� � remembe� gettin� int� th� studio� eve� fo� � ��Ne� Wind� an� I'� ge� s� jump� tha� i� anybod� wa� eve� lookin� � ��a� m� throug� th� glas� � ha� the� leave�� tol� th� enginee� � ��eve� no� t� loo� a� me�� ge� s� self-conscious�� It'� prett� � ��bad� really� becaus� i� take� u� s� much time. Q: On the last few records, the way you've mixed the guitars has really puzzled me. They're so far back in the mix and they almost have this buzzing sound. Kevin: You're talking about Ourselves and Praise? On Praise, we went into the studio with Steve Fjelstad (Husker Du's engineer) because we really liked the work he'd done with other bands. The idea was we'd spend about a week recording some songs but it just happened at the time we were finishing a tour. And it turned out we only had two days. And it was done so quickly. But even the cassettes we got from the mix sounded alright, the guitars were real distinct and everything. But the minute we got the test pressings of the vinyl, it was just like, `Oh my god, what is this?' So we recut it and everything, and it just ended up bad. I can't even listen to that record. I think the songs are really good songs, but... I think it sounds like the guitars are underwater. And my voice was just gone because of the tour. It was really just a mistake, we pushed something that we should have just waited on and done right. .pa� Q: I noticed on Ourselves there's a producer's credit, and then there's another credit that says, Mixed by. Kevin: That album was originally recorded with this guy in Sacramento who's a friend of ours. Then we went on the road and toured and came back to it, and none of us were really happy with it. So we thought we might look for somebody who could help us re-mix it. And we were steered toward this guy Brad Gilderman, who was really into our music. He wasn't crazy about coming into the project so late and more or less just cleaning up somebody else's mess, but he did it. I think if we had done the whole project with him it would have been perfect. I never think of any of our records as being perfect. After they're done, there are always a million things I could pick on. The main thing is we didn't want to put out a really wimpy sounding record, so hopefully we at least accomplished that. I always say `Don't even bother buying the records, just come and see us live.' Of course everybody like my manager and the record company will hate me for that, but it's too bad. Sometimes I wish I didn't even have to make records in a studio, that I could just go out and play live. Q: Do you write lyrics first, and then try to fit them to a melody? Kevin: Sometimes, yes. I carry around a book with me, I have for the past ten, twelve years, and I just write everything down that comes to me. Most of the stuff written for "Walk Together" was written in a taxicab, because I used to drive a cab in Reno. I have this thing, too, where I'll have a tune in my head, and I carry it around humming it, and I can't wait to get home with the acoustic guitar and jam with it. Lately, Steve and Bobby, our guitar player, have been writing more of the music, which is nice for me because in the past, I wrote so much of the stuff. It's nice because musically they can do more, they are more diverse, and there's always somewhat of a melodic edge to it. Q: The thing before, though, about the lines not scanning or writing, is the sort of thing that'll keep you off the radio, for instance. Do you see your style changing as you try to reach a broader audience? Kevin: No, I'll just keep doing what's best for me. Even if people look at me funny and say, why would you do that?, it feels good to me. I don't know if I'm just off on some whole different thing when I'm doing it or what, but it doesn't feel awkward when I'm doing it. Hopefully it doesn't sound too painful when you listen to it. As long as I've been singing, I've always had problems with my voice, and when I just used to sing fast and just screaming, it was easier almost. Even though I still had to sing in key, it was easier. Now, I really want to do more with my voice, I really want to excel as a singer. It's very hard for me now to sing that fast and still breathe right and not hyperventilate or whatever. � Q: What have you been listening to lately? Kevin: I've been listening to the new Jane's Addiction a lot. I listen to a lot of R.E.M., I like New Model Army. I like a lot of stuff that probably wouldn't be considered too cool with the straightedge positive crowd, but I like even stuff on major labels like Midnight Oil. I like anything with a lot of melody that still has an edge to it. The taste in this band is pretty wide, everybody listens to everything. For me, I can listen to Bob Marley and then listen to Motorhead and it seems right to me. 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