The Powder Monkeys - another Interview and Review

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The Powder Monkeys (1992- ) :- Interviews/Articles

Colless, Michael, 1993?, 'Powder Monkeys', Lemon Fanzine, Issue 16, pp 21-23.
Powder Monkeys play loud gutsy raw guitar based R'n'R. They are Tim Hemensley (bass, vocals, songwriting), John Nolan (guitar), Jed Sayers (harmonica) and Timmy Jack Ray (drums).
    They were interviewed as follows: Tim, Lansdowne Hotel, Sydney, Saturday 7 November 1992; John (not taped) Greville Records, Melbourne, Friday 18 December '92 plus many phone calls Syd-Melb at varied times (not taped); Jed, Tote Hotel, Melbourne, Saturday 19 Dec '92 and Tim and John at a pub near Greville Records, Sun 20 Dec '92. I didn't manage to get a taped conversation with Timmy Jack.
Tim, Lansdowne (upstairs)
Mick: What's the first...
Tim: What's my favourite color?
Mick:How'd the band start?
Tim: Me and John were playing in Bored! and after about a year of doing that we did Europe. Even before we went to Europe we knew we were going to leave the band because it just sort of [there was] no communication really going on within the band and it just sort of got in a bit of a rut. We were playing all the time and it never really lived up to the potential it could've had... ah ...showed.
    Anyway, me and John got back from Europe and did pretty much nothing for about a year. John played with Hoss. I rang him up the first day he was jamming with Hoss.
    I thought, oh fuck, I've blown it, too late, he'll join them [so I] said we should get a band together 'cause we'd just been doing nothing for so long. Then we just jammed in these people's house where our drummer lived. We didn't even really know him that well... he just sat in on drums one day.
Mick: When was this?
Tim: About a year ago, just over a year [mid-late '91].
Mick: Drummer's from...
Tim: From a band called Surfin' Poobars, who are great.
Mick: Is he permanent in the Powder Monkeys?
Tim: Yeh, for sure. We always give first preference to the Poobars, cause that's who he's moved from Tassie with. That's where his real blood ties lie so we respect that.
Mick: Jed's playing harmonica?
Tim: Me and Jed went to high school together. We were in a band in 1986 called Morbid Dread, which was before God even.
Mick: Was that your first band?
Tim: Na, na, that was about my sixth band.
Mick: (laughing)6th band?
Tim: I've been playing since 1982. (A long listing and discussion on Tim's history ensues. See Lemon #15)
Mick: Do you have a description of the music, I mean, I find it very hard to ... ah ...other than R'n'R.
Tim: It's just sort of R'n'R. In a way, I reckon we're pretty old fashioned compared with a lot of bands. It's just pretty straight down the line sort of thing.
    We don't really associate with a lot of bands that are getting pushed around Melbourne. This whole indie scene... Just because bands are independent there's meant to be some sort of unity there which just doesn't exist. It's bullshit. We've got nothing to do with all those fucking bands.
Mick: Who do you align yourselves with?
Tim: Hoss, Freeloaders, Rats [Seminal Rats], Surfin' Poobars, White Elephants.
Mick: They still going?
Tim: They've got back together. (smiles)
Mick: Oh really?
Tim: Yeh, I saw them the other week - fucking great. Look I better get some stuff down [stairs to stage]. We can do more later.
Jed, Tote (beer garden)
Mick: It's Jed, right? Jed, J.E.D.?
Jed: Ted with a J.
Mick: Do you feel you're an integral part of Powder Monkeys? They say you are.
Jed: Yeh, yeh... I wanna get a new sort of sound together like an amp and harp mic and do a bit more squeally feedback. That sort of stuff.
Mick: Have got any other projects going at the moment?
Jed: Evil Dead (both laugh). He was in Morbid Dread [there's a M.D. track on a recent Shagpile/Shock compilation Cranked up really High, vinyl and CD; and on Greville Records compilation Eat your Head (1986?). There may be other releases] as well. Joel [from Hoss] is on guitar ... and Todd from Seminal Rats played drums [but at Evil Dead's only live gig Tim H. drummed.]
Mick: [So] being in Powder Monkeys is like...
Jed: The main thing... (calls out) Hey Tim, do you want to get us a beer as well. I'll give you the money.
Mick: (to Tim) I'm supposed to be getting him a beer but I'm talking to him. (to Jed) Anything else to say?... on the scene?
Jed: ... there should be more good bands and less shit bands.
Mick: Who's shit and who's not?
Jed: Oh, I can't say, I'll get in trouble.
Mick: OR, who's good?
Jed: Hoss, Splatterheads, Asteroid B.612
Mick: Powder Monkeys?
Jed: Of course.
Mick: Seminal Rats?
Jed: Seminal Rats are one of the bands in the world...
Mick: Absolutely.
Jed: ... and everything that Dave Laing [Mr Dog Meat Records.] does is great.
Mick: I agree, I agree. Warped?
Jed: Warped are great, I like Warped.
Mick: So who moves you totally?
Jed: Sonic Youth are great. Antiseen I like. Stuff like that... Dead Moon.
Mick: But Dead Moon didn't come to Australia, Dead Moon went to New Zealand.
Jed: I've only heard their records.
Mick: You know Dave Laing went to New Zealand to see Dead Moon?
Jed: Yeh, I heard him on the radio.
Mick: I would've gone if I'd known.
Jed: Well I would've gone even if I'd had the money. I'd go anywhere if I had the money.
Mick: I would've gone even if I didn't have the money... the last time Asteroid B.612 came down [from Sydney], Dave Laing fucked off to NZ, I was talking to Maree tonight ... Yeh Dead Moon are great. Dave's [Thomas] wearing a Dead Moon shirt tonight.
Mick: What influences?
Jed: Yeh, well my influences are blues.
Mick: Blues? Just came.
Jed: Just sorta came to me. My soul wanted to take in more. It was there and that was a short period of time.
Mick: (laughing) Been into Greville Records at all?.
Jed: Yeh, a lot of times.
Mick: I was there yesterday and it's blues, jazz, whatever... the whole day was a spiritual thing.
Jed: Also these days I'm getting into a lot of freaked out jazz-discovering Coltrane, Miles Davis and Sun Ra.
Mick: You don't know John Nolan do you?
Jed: No, I've never met him before in my life. But mainly... well I've got a record player again now to I'm getting more records.
Mick: Yeh, that's handy.
Jed: For a long time what I got into [in music] was live.
Mick: Asteroid B.612?
Jed: I really like their style. I reckon they're really sort of young and energetic. Fresh and...
Mick: What's your record collection?
Jed: Very small at the moment. I've sold a lot of my records.
Mick: SOLD THEM?
Jed: I was hungry! I sold a lot of my good records.
Mick: I can understand it but I couldn't do it myself.
Jed: Yeh, well I always said that myself but you 2 days without food and cigarettes you think well maybe I can do without 4 records.
(A Johnny Winter, Devil Dogs and Splatterheads appreciation society develops.)

John and Tim (munching chips and drinking beer in Prahran.)
Mick: What do you think Powder Monkeys sound like? [The name]conjures up an image. How do you see it from the inside
John and Tim: Ah... Ah... Ah.. I don't know (pauses etc.)
John: Honest. Stripped down. Songs, sorta real songs.
Tim: Yeh I guess we try and be realistic. Realistically aggressive. Yeh, we just try and ... it's a hard question to try and think about really.
Mick: Yeh, that's why I've asked it
Tim: Ah, good R'n'R.
John: Yeh, we don't think about it. We don't aim for a style. We just have the raw basic song and just play as individuals. Just playing a song and whatever turns out. It changes all the time.
Mick: Well, I find it very describe it but... if you like the history [of the band] you'll like ... or you've got a good chance of liking it?
John and Tim: For sure.
John: We've never been any different. We've never changed. We've gone through a lot of things in our time.
Tim: Got a bit fucked up over the years.
John: (smiling)Tim has.
Tim: Mutated a bit but never changed... the record that we're going to have out will pretty much be a good fellow up to Take it out on You in a way. A lot of the ideas and stuff we had in Bored! towards the end which never really got followed through... it's a logical sort of follow on... Fuck, we just play. We never really think about it.
John: I don't ever think about it.
Mick: Everytime I've seen Powder Monkeys play, which is 4 times now, I think, every gig seems different but significantly...
Tim: Mmmm..
John: Well that's the way it's meant to be cause like we aahh, we have basic songs set out..
Mick: It does seem like your jamming.
John: ... we're not a jazz band or anything like that.. but we like that attitude.
Tim: Yeh.
John: ... of however we feel at the time. Sometimes when we're all on speed, we really like playing like that. Sometimes when we're really laid back and mellowed out we play like that.
Mick: I thought it was me, like I was in a different mood...The show at the GB compared with the show you did at the Tote... seemed almost jazz and bluesy [but] like at a very low level...somgs seemed to a bit longer?
Tim: Oh yeh.
John: That's true.
Mick: At the Tote the other day it seemed to be pretty full on..
Tim: Yeh.
Mick: ...I don't like the word, I'm not going to use thrashy, it was faster and faster?
John: That's because we don't practice.
Tim: Yeh we never practice.
Mick: You don't. You never practice?
Tim: No.
John: Never, if we do practice it's to..
Tim: To get a song together?
Mick: How often would you get together?
John: In the last 5 months we've practiced once.
Mick: Right
Tim: And that was only for 2 hours.
John: And that was for like about an hour then we all sort of just ... (smiling and laughing)
Mick: Was that decided from the beginning or did it just happen that way?
John: No, just very slack.
Tim: Well, it's a mixture.. we got to the stage where we were playing a hell of a lot.. it's good to be tight but not to be sort of structural.
Mick: Tight but not too...
Tim: Yeh. I get the feeling with a lot of bands... that they're just too tight, place way too much importance...
John: People think that a good band is a tight band and that's just not the truth.
Tim: Yeh, it's a load of crap... There's a point where it gets so tight it seems to squeeze all the soul out it... Music should be an emotional thing you know... a communication... not fucking structured technique. It should be getting some sort of feeling across. So, yeh, if you're in a great full on mood it will be a great full on gig. By the token if you wake up or you haven't slept, you've gotta play, you feel completely fucked, you know, I'm not going to lie to audience, get up there in stage outfits and stuff, jumping and doing acrobatics and stuff.
John: (laughs)At the Tote, I didn't [get into it]... it was a weird gig 'cause.
Mick: You hadn't played there for two years of something?
John: Well, I've played there with Hoss... The stage is higher now and the PA seems to be less than what it was and the onstage sound sucked bad.
Tim: Yeh, it was shithouse [the sound].
John: ... It's just not our scene anymore, it's sort of shifted. It's more of an independent industry pub and we aren't associated with that at all. We have no management, we're not with the agencies, nothing really, we want the band to be... we play well live, we put out good records, people will like us, as simple as that. If we don't play well live, don't put out good records, then people...
Tim: Won't like us.
John: It's not going to have anything to do with like..
Tim: Connections.
John: ... or press releases or great photographs or t-shirt packs.
Tim: Yeh...I mean my attitude to the Tote now is still, you know, it's avenue that exists. I've got a functional point of view about it... [but] I'm not going to put people down that're there... they've talked about us into playing New Year's Eve, which I didn't even fucking barely remember saying to the guy the other night.
John: (laughs)
Mick: Who's that with?
Tim and John: Hoss and the Freeloaders.
Mick: Well that should be alright then.
Tim: That should be good.
John: Great gig.
Mick: (to Tim) Scotty from Asteroid wants to know where you get your bowling shoes from?
Tim: They're not fucking bowling shoes, they're creepers!
Mick: Favourite venue in Melbourne?
Tim: Great Britain, G.B.
John: G.B.
Mick: Right, everyone's said that. Timmy Jack said that and Jed said that as well.
John: Rockin' pub, good atmosphere. In the winter months when we were playing there's a big roaring fire. Free to get in, really cheap drinks, management there are great, look after ya, really nice guys.
Mick: Get a good rider there?
John: Yeh, get a good rider and it's just good, good people. The scumbags go to the G.B.
All: (laugh)

Mick: (to Tim) You were on the 22nd Sect tour and all that[Bored!, Splatterheads and 22nd Sect did a three state tour]?
John: That was the first tour Tim did with us.
Mick: (to Tim) Do you remember that?
Tim: Yeh, I remember that.
Mick: I can hardly remember it myself.
Tim: Playing at weird places... really good, (laughing) great tour.
John: Great drug tour that one.
Tim: Good times, great times.
John: Don't put anything really about drugs.
Mick: Nothing?
Tim and John: A little bit.
John: Just be discrete about it.
Mick: I don't mind.
John: We wouldn't want to mislead the kids.
Mick and Tim: (laughs)
John: Yeh say that we want to be good role models.
Mick: Do you remember the one [gig] at the Marquee in Sydney?
John: That was with the Celibate Rifles? No, that was with the Cosmic Psychos.
Tim: Oh, bad gigs, that was worst, the end of the line for us.
John: It was the end of the line.
Tim: We had good fun on that tour but it was...
John: All off the stage.
Mick: The cracks in...
John: The division in the band had been... was like severed at that stage. There was things said before even that tour about Europe that truly could never healed, things about Tim and stuff.
Mick: You don't won't to get into all that though?
Tim: What happened fucking happened and that's it. It's all I can say. I don't really carry a grudge... but I'll never forget.
John: Yeh, you see Tim's attitude is different to mine because I was the original member... The only thing that kept us 2 in that band the last 9 months was the fact that we we're going to Europe and still then Tim was doing his best to tear it down. And I had to just like "C'mon Timmy we got to go [to Europe]".
Tim: Oh but look at the situation I was in though... I was set up.
Mick: ... you don't want to discuss this do you.
Tim: Oh look, I don't give a fuck.
Mick: (to Tim) I've been talking to John about this jazz thing...
John: Don't mention it, people will think I'm a weirdo.
Tim: Mention it.
Mick: It's gotta be [mentioned] , it's actually in there. (to Tim) Can you see that there's jazz in there?
Tim: Umm?
John: Jazz, not as a form.
Mick: No, as an underlying thing.
John: All it means is improvising.
Tim: I think [we] take inspiration from a lot of jazz.
Mick: Warwick [Browm, Sunset Strip, Greville Records] said he saw a smidgeon of funk.
John: I'm the funkiest guy in probably. .. Australia. It's the truth, there's no man with funkier moves than me. My moves than me. My moves are down, I practice for hours on end.
Mick: James Brown? John Brown?
Tim: We fine him 10 bucks.
John: No they're not steps, not steps. He fines me, Tim fines me if I...
Tim: If he misses a move.
Mick and Tim: (laughing, rolling around etc.)
John: Some gigs I end up paying to play! Guys, you just chase the demon in music, chase the outer limit you know, don't [be] content with playing just a song. If I have any inspiration from jazz, it's that, just chase the edge, just chase a really dangerous edge - I make it like just about 50% of the time.
Mick: (to Tim) And you're along on this trip too?
Tim: Yeh, sure, yeh.
John: That's where the fun lies, at the very edge.
Tim: It's gotta be extreme, it's got to be out there.
John: Intense edge... All the jazz I listen [to isn't] all the slick dick sort of stuff - suit wearing guys.
Tim: ...there's things that bands have picked up on for the last sorta 20 years or so, rock bands, I'm not talking about jazz rock.
Mick: No, no.
John: (loud laugh)
Tim: Look at Funhouse, that's a real obvious example of it and that's not jazzy by any stretch of the imagination, but they picked up on that primal...
John: Energy, just energy level... I wouldn't say jazz, I wouldn't say funk, it's just the spirit of great black American music, to me anyway. I don't even listen to independent music. I never really have, the only bands I really... just the hardcore good full on punk music... Black Flag, Greg Ginn, just amazing.
Tim: Yeh, that's ours roots.
Mick: Do you guys want to say anything special?
John: I hope you've got a question that will lead me into hanging shit on the marketing of bands and the actual ahh.
Tim: (laughs)
Mick: Talk, talk, I don't have to ask you a question.
John: ... how all this mainstream record industry money is going into independent bands are now...
Tim: They are the mainstream.
John: ... the mainstream. Bands like Tumbleweed who I like, they're nice guys but you know the money that goes into them, into their promotion and marketing is mainstream, yet they're under the guise of an independent band, yet their true independent bands like us will never be able to compete with $20 t-shirt packs...
Tim: Exactly.
John: This stuff gets fobbed off as independent music nowadays, sort of spins me out a bit... fair enough you know, these guys they want to chase something but for me it just taints it a bit. Working in a record store you see it quite a bit.
Mick: I don't ss. So, yeh, if you're in a great full on mood it will be a great full on gig. By the same token if you wake up or you haven't slept, you've gotta play, you feel completely fucked, you know, I'm not going to lie to audience , get up there in stage outfits and stuff, jumping and doing acrobatics and stuff.
John: (laughs) At the Tote, I didn't [get into it] ... it was a weird gig 'cause...
Mick: You hadn't played there for two years or something?
John: ... Well, I've played there with Hoss... The stage is higher now and the PA seems to be less than what it was and the onstage sound sucked bad.
Tim: Yeh, it was shithouse [the sound].
John: ... it's just not our scene anymore, it's sort of shifted. It's more of an independent industry pub and we aren't associated in that at all. We have no management, we're not with the agencies, well live, we put out good records, people will like us, as simple as that. If we don't play well live, don't put out good records, then people...
Tim: Won't like us.
John: It's not going to have anything to do with like...
Tim: Connections.
John: ... or press releases or great photographs or t-shirt packs.
Tim: Yeh... I mean , my attitude to the Tote now is still, you know, it's a venue that exists. I've got a functional point of view about it... [but] I'm not going to put people down that are there... they've talked us into playing New Year's Eve, which I didn't even fucking barely remember saying to the guy the other night.
John: (laughs)
Mick: Who's that with?
Tim and John: Hoss and Freeloaders.
Mick: Well that should be alright then.
Tim: That should be good.
John: Great gig.
Mick: (to Tim) Scotty from Asteroid wants to know where you get your bowling shoes from?
Tim: They're not fucking bowling shoes, they're brothel creepers!
Mick: Favourite venue in Melbourne?
Tim: Great Britain, G.B.
John: G.B.
Mick: Right everyone's said that. Timmy Jack said that and Jed said as well.
John: Rockin' pub, good atmosphere. In the winter months when we were playing there's a bigs roaring fire. Free to get in, really cheap drinks, management are great, look after ya, really nice guys.
Mick: Get a good rider there?.
John: Yeh, get a good rider and it's just good, good people. The scumbags go to the G.B.
All: (laugh)
Mick: (to Tim) You were on the 22nd Sect tour and all [Bored!, Splatterheads and 22nd Sect did a three state tour]?
John: That was the first tour that Tim did with us.
Mick: (to Tim) Do you remember it?
Tim: Yeh, I remember that.
Mick: I can hardly remember it myself.
Tim: Playing at weird places... really good (laughing) great tour.
John: Good drug tour that one.
Tim: Good times, great times.
John: Don't put anything really about drugs.
Mick: Nothing?
Tim and John: A little bit.
John: Just be discrete about it.
Mick: I don't mind.
John: We wouldn't want to mislead the kids.
Mick and Tim: (laughs)
John: Yeh say that we want to be good role models.
Mick: Do you remember the one [gig] at the Marquee, Sydney?
John: That was with the Celibate Rifles? No that was with Cosmic Psychos.
Tim: Oh, bad gigs, that was the worst, the end of the line for us.
John: It was the end of the line.
Tim: We had good fun on that tour but it was...
John: All off the stage.
Tim: The cracks in...
John: The division in the band had been..was like severed at that stage. There was things said before even that tour of Europe that truly could never be healed, things about Tim and stuff.
Mick: You don't want to get into that though?
Tim: What happened fucking happened and that's it. It's all I can really say. I don't really carry a grudge... but I never forget.
John: Yeh, you see Tim's attitude is different to Tim's because I was the original member... The only thing that kept us 2 in that band the last 9 months was the fact that we were going to Europe and still then Tim was doing his best to tear it down. And I had to just like "Come on Timmy we got to go [to Europe]".
Tim: Oh but look at the situation I was in though... I was setup.
Mick: ...you don't want to discuss this do you?
Tim: Oh look, I don't give a fuck.
Mick: (to Tim) I've been talking to John about this jazz thing...
John: Don't mention it, people will think I'm a weirdo.
Tim: Mention it.
Mick: It's gotta be [mentioned], it's actually in there. (to Tim) Can you see that there's jazz in there?
Tim: Umm?
John: Jazz, not as a form.
Mick: No, as an underlying thing.
John: All it means is improvising.
Tim: I think [we] take inspiration from a lot of jazz.
Mick: Warwick [Browm, Sunset Strip, Greville Records] said he saw a smidgeon of funk.
John: I'm the funkiest guy in probably... Australia. It's the truth, there's no man with funkier moves than me. My moves are down, I practice for hours on end.
Mick: James Brown? John Brown?
Tim: We fine him 10 bucks.
John: No they're not steps, not steps. He fines me, Tim fines me if I...
Tim: If he misses a move.
Mick and Tim: (laughing, rolling around etc)
John: Some gigs I end up paying to play! Guys, you just chase the demon in music, chase the outer limit you know, don't be content with playing just a song. If I have any inspiration from jazz, it's that, just chase the edge, just chase a really dangerous edge - I make it like just about 50% of the time.
Mick: (to Tim) And you're along on this trip too?
Tim: Yeh, sure, yeh.
John: That's where the fun lies, at the very edge.
Tim: It's gotta be extreme, it's got to be out there.
John: ... intense edge. All the jazz I listen [to isn't] all the slick dick sort of stuff - suit wearing guys.
Tim: ... there's things that bands've picked up on for the last sorta 20 years or so, rock bands, I'm not talking about jazz rock.
Mick: No, no.
John: (loud laugh)
Tim: Look at Funhouse, that's a real obvious example of it and that's not jazzy by any stretch of the imagination, but they picked up on that primal...
John: Energy, just energy level... I wouldn't say jazz, I wouldn't say funk, it's just the spirit of great black American music, to me anyway. I don't even listen to independent music. I never really have, the only bands I really... just the hardcore good full on punk music. Black Flag, Greg Ginn, just amazing.
Tim: Yeh, that's our roots.
Mick: Do you guys want to say anything special?
John: I hope you've got a question that will lead me into hanging shit on the marketing of bands and the actual ahh...
Tim: (laughs)
Mick: Talk, talk, I don't have to ask a question.
John: ... how all this mainstream record industry money is going into independent bands and all these independent bands are now...
Tim: They are the mainstream.
John: ... the mainstream. Bands like Tumbleweed who I like, they're nice guys but you know the money that goes into them, into their promotion and marketing is mainstream, yet true independent bands like us will never be able to compete with $20 t-shirt packs...
Tim: Exactly.
John: This stuff gets fobbed off as independent music nowadays, sort of spins me out a bit... fair enough you know, these guys, they want to chase something but for me it just taints it a bit. Working in a record store you see quite a bit.
Mick: I don't need to work in a record store to see it, I see it all the time.
John: I'm NOT just singling out Tumbleweed... don't say anything bad about band, I'm using them as an example.
Mick: You qualify it yourself.
Tim: We got this call from rooArt wanting us to be on this fucking Youngblood compilation and I just said we're not interested, we've got a record coming out, we don't need your fucking help... In the old punk days and not even just the punk scene, just independent music generally, you never got a record out. No way, it was really hard, you'd get a tape out or try and get someone to do a flexi disc on something or giveaway ... like the first record I was on, Greville Records put up the money (Eat Your Head)...Dave Thomas is on it actually, I was in Royal Flush. These days it's so easy to get a record out - these guys aren't even trying, they're realising it's not the music that sells, it's the hype that goes around it. So all these guys, what they're chasing is bullshit as far as the music goes. There's nothing happening, nothing there.
John: Take Bored! as an example. When we were playing our reputation came from playing consistently good live gigs and putting out decent sounding records. We had no management behind us like ... in our first EP it's a bit of hit and all that sort of stuff and the single after that was a real hit it came about just by word of mouth.
    Nowadays that seems to be secondary to just the whole marketing thing. Those free magazines, these independent bands get all this massive coverage and the reason why they do is because their record labels will be buying advertsing space in the same magazine. They'll get a full page y'know, an article of the band, and a front cover and you think - Oh wow they must be a really happening band.
Mick: You don't have to be cynical, it's laid out for you.
John: It's getting really confused what is good and what is just like basically paid advertising. I gave it up, I gave it all up in Bored! - chasing it, you know we just wanna play, play live.
Mick: (to Tim) Do you go along with that?
Tim: Of course, yeh.
Mick: CDs (to John) You said the other day, you and Warwick don't consider a recording is released until it's on vinyl.
John: That's just a personal thing because I like vinyl and the old analog recordings.
Mick: (to Tim) Do you have any have any problem with CDs?
Tim: I hate fucking CDs.
Mick: Yeh, so do I... Do you agree that CDs sound different to vinyl?
Tim: Oh I think they sound shit. The CDs I've been on, God and Bored!, I sold them pretty much instantly.
John: It's the digital sound... Triple D CDs are really quite overwhelming but they still don't cut it like old analog recordings and old analog recordings to digital suck.
Tim: It seems to me that this sort of music that a lot of people are doing on CD now is not meant for CD... Things like Dead Boys on CD, (horrified) the Ramones on CD, (incredulously) Motorhead on CD. What's the fucking point? It's the sort of music you're not going to notice if there's a couple of flecks of dirt on your record or a little scratch.
John: But it's also like a marketing con. All these money men sat around saying - how the fuck can we make all this money? All these old LPs from the 60s and 70s, everyone owns them. Hey let's make a new format and then we can make them for a dollar and sell them for $28... The digital sampling rate wasn't up to scratch when they put out CDs, but they were rushed out. Now the true music freaks who I deal with in the shop (Greville Records) who actually have the $30,000 stereos and all that, they're all buying LPs because the digital sound quality is too hard, it cannot reproduce the natural valve sounds as well as the old analog sound does... In 5 or 10 years time all CDs are going to be obsolete 'cause they're going to redesign the whole parameter of CDs.
Mick: You've got a single and an album coming out on Dog Meat [the single is out now] and the single will be on vinyl, but will the album.
John and Tim: Yes.
Mick: (delighted) It will be? Have you insisted on that?,
John: Yes, we've insisted that it's on vinyl [as well].
Tim: None of us have got CD players.
John: I've got a CD player.
Tim: He hides it in his closet.
All: (laughs)
Mick: (to John) Do you want to slag off Radio Birdman fans? You told me on the phone...
John: No, I just said that they had some good live reputation. I've heard some great stories about them, but for me personally... I think all their records suck bad shit. Give me Black Sabbath anyday.
Mick: What about live? You've heard live tapes?
John: Cool, yeah cool. Those live videos they keep playing on Rage, they're great, but basically their records sound really dated. Sorry, I don't listen to it much.
Mick: (to Tim) Do you listen to it much?
Tim: Yeh, yeh, I do.
John: But I think the myth that's been built up around them outweighs what the band was really on about. They were just a good time rock band. Not like those R'N'R goddamn soldiers on missions from God.
Tim: Nah, that's all Kannis and Masuak and all those guys.
John: Building bullshit.
Mick: (to Tim) Do you want that printed?
Tim: Sure, that's the truth.
John: Yeh, hey man, I'm not into it. I lost a lot of cool friends by saying that.
Tim: But I still love a lot of it, I love Birdman, I even love The Doors - I've had to defend that for years.
Mick: Like Roky?
Tim: Oh yeh, we love him.
John: Oh fuck yeah.
Mick: Patti Smith?
Tim: Oh yeh.
John: Patti Smith's cooI.
Mick: Nunbait?
Tim: (blows raspberry)There used to be a Melbourne band called The Birthday Party...
Mick: Chris Wilson?
John: He's the sweetest guy.
Mick: Chris Bell?
John: Well I love the Big Star powerpop trip and those 3 albums... that is one of the greatest journeys of a band or a man self-destructing on record and to the point where the third Big Star album is like Alex Chilton's mental breakdown on record. For me, the magic in Big Star was Alex Chilton's songs.
Mick: (to Tim)Big Star?
Tim: Oh yeh.
Mick: That's about it. I've got to go to Geelong, I might even be too late. Can you get a train to Geelong.
John: On a Sunday its suss. Every 2 hours... Just another comment. When I was hanging shit on how mainstream record labels are infiltrating the independent scene... as an independent band [we] have to look differently at how we play now because of it. All I really see it [the Nirvana explosion] doing is ah making independent bands more full on... 'There's going to be an independent scene no matter what.
Mick: There's going to be you guys, Dog Meat stuff...
Tim: There'll be the diehards and the wannabes ... and we'll always be there.
John: We've got serious views of music but the bottom line with The Powder Monkeys is IT'S WHAT WE DO FOR FUN. This is what we do for our fun. And we might look like angst ridden tortured dudes...
Tim: (laughs)
John: ... but it's our fun. It's what we do.
Tim: It's how we get off.
John: It's how we get off, that's it!
Tim: Yeh, that'll do. (I never did find out what Tim's favourite colour was, but he loves Falafel rolls and that's grand!)

["The turning point in the history of Western Civilisation was reached with the invention of the Electric Guitar"- Leni Sinclair]

Gross, Glenn, 1993?, 'Powder Monkeys - Yin Yang', Lemon Fanzine, Issue 16, pp 35.
I swear this is the most totally Godhead band. I like the Powder Monkeys even more than I liked Bored!. Aggressive, stinkin', hot, ugly, MEAN, rock'n'roll. I like 'em so much I put them on the cover.

NB Readers of this article whom also have a copy of this issue of 'Lemon' may wonder about the page numbering, in the 'citation'; e.g. Gross, Glenn, 1993?, 'Powder Monkeys - Yin Yang', Lemon Fanzine, Issue 16, pp 35.
    This page numbering was calculated with pages filled with (useless) advertising discounted. Of course, it would seem strange not for an article in use for this home page, to have no page numbering for interviews and articles. This home page likes to see some order and organisation to it's contents. (Probably for no good reason!).
[The Australian Independent Music site that Leaping Larry L should see most of (maybe!?) - ed.]

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