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| DEATH THE NARCOLEPTIC YOUTH WAY.... Nihilism On The Prowl has always been a bit ghoulish in it's punk tastes. So when Californian punk rock outfit, the highly infectious Narcoleptic Youth unleashed their latest (unlucky for some)13 tracker... 'How To Fake Your Death', it became terminal! Inspired or just very nosey, the album left us with more questions than answers! So by the marvel of electronic mail and straight from outta suburban Corona, CA we caught up with the Youth's living, breathing microphone. Who takes us on a perilous journey through the making of this cursed but highly recommended suicidal release.... Peter Don't Care fired the blanks, Joey Bondage supplied the motives. PLEASE NOTE that the interview was with Joey Bondage only and the views expressed in this interview in no way reepresent the rest of the band, Pepsi Cola Bottling Company, or Krylon Paint Products. |
| Her mother mentioned something jokingly about her "kissing a truck" which REALLY freaked me out, because I've never heard anyone use that expression before and on our album there is a line that says, "You take one more step and you could kiss a bus". It was a very eerie moment for me. Also, our graphic designer spent months and months putting all the pieces of the cover together for the final layout and then his computer crashed and he lost it all............coincidence? I think not. If your CD players catch fire after playing the album......don't say we didn't warn you! haha. The albums focused on death and suicide is it like a lotta your songs based on personal experiences? "Yes, definitely. It really became one of those "concept albums" but that was total accident. We didn't set out to do that. Most of the songs were written by Binky (guitarist) and me. |
| Tell us about the dreaded 'curse' in the making of this latest album? "You may think it's a joke or publicity stunt, but it's not! 2 weeks after we put the finishing touches on the album, the recording studio went up in blazes. Two weeks after we did the cover photo shoot, the girl on the cover was hit by a truck and nearly died. Thank God, she's alive and well now. But she was SEVERELY injured. Huge bruise on her head, like the size of a baseball, broken pelvis, broken arm, broken leg, broken ankles, tons of other injuries. I can't remember them all, but I just know she was a MESS. When I went to visit her in the hospital, her family (who had already seen what the cover photo looked like) said when they found her in the street, the way she was laying looked EXACTLY like the cover of the album, only her head was facing the opposite direction. |
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| He was going through some bad personal/family stuff and I was dealing with some major stress anxiety... nervous breakdown stuff that not many people know about until now (see lyrics to RAW NERVE---If only they could see me now). Anyway, when you're writing songs during stuff like that, I suppose it's only natural for it to come out "dark". At the same time though, both he and I pulled out of that depression, so toward the end of the album process when we were doing the cover and all that we wanted to kind of put a bit of "tongue in cheekiness" to it....hence the name, "HOW TO FAKE YOUR DEATH" and all the surrealism on the foldout version of the album cover. I mean...come on...you can't take it TOO seriously...our roadie is EATING the girl on the cover's BRAINS in the back of the fold out poster cover! The album does not have a "pro-suicide" message. We love our fans and want to keep them around!!!! Obviously WE haven't killed ourselves! Why kill yourself when you can FAKE your death instead?! Much more fun!" |
| The albums dedicated to Dave Firebrand (RIP) was he a close friend of the band? "Yes. He was. A good fan of many many years. It was a tragedy. He never got his final wish....the ONLY thing he ever asked for and he never got it.... I don't want to talk too much about it. I feel somewhat responsible for what happened. We love you Dave......wherever you are." Who's ideas was it for the artwork for the cover shots? "Mine. Everybody kept asking..."What the hell are you doing?" I was out in Binky's apartment complex on the patio area, walking around with twine, marking off squares...for each foldout panel of the cover. They thought I had finally gone off the deep end and COMPLETELY lost my mind. Then when they saw how it all worked out...they were like, "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH. NOW I get it." haha. Funny stuff. We had fun shooting the cover. A few things were added in later, like our (2nd in command) drummer Mikey Void, drowning Johnny Cat Scabies in the pool. This stuff is all on the FOLDOUT POSTER version of the cover. The limited edition 300 copy covers just have the girl (Michelle) on the sidewalk." |
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| Have you an endless supply of punkettes ready to blow their brains out at the drop of a hat? "Well, we put out the offer on our website. We had a bunch of girls send in their pics. We feel bad, but we could only pick two. One for the front cover and then there was another nice young lady (Ashley) who was featured on the back. We had a lot of fun shooting the cover / back photo shots that day. The girls were great sports. Ashley brought down her brother and he is actually the person HOLDING THE ROPE that she is swinging from! Perfect...brotherly love 'eh?!" |
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| What's 2920 all about? "Binky wrote the music and told me what he wanted it to be about...so I hope I "translated his feelings well". I take it as he wanted to express the feelings of betrayal. 8 years of putting your heart and soul into something only to find out that you were being mislead. There is a deep mathematical formula involved as well. I've been informed by Buster Hymen of The Atomic Bombs that my calculations were in fact INcorrect and the song SHOULD be titled 2922. But I'm afraid the damage has been done and it's already on wax.............DAMN those blasted leap years!" |
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| Who's Dr Lori? "She was a shack up honey. Just an unpaid whore. There are some great pornographic pictures of her floating around on the net too. Spread eagle like a true tramp. She wouldn't allow you to eat dinner at her table though, because you've got blue hair...and therefore you must be evil. You could say, that she's America's version of Mary Whitehouse (see Adicts tune). The song is more about her FANS though, who don't know how to think for themselves, than it is about her." |
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| You gotta tell me who Suzy is? And where's the Malibu? "Suzy Kinn. She's just a head. That song is about getting a head. Getting ahead in life. My buddy Andre and I had a bet going. I told him that I could write a song about ANYTHING... so he said, FINE..prove it...write a song about THIS! And he threw this plastic head at me. Like the top of a mannequin head, only it's a "SuzyKinn" not a mannequin. One of these things that the girls practice on in the beauty school, cutting the hair in all different styles until they get down to things like mohawks and flat tops. You know, the "bull dyke" cuts! She was all scuffed up and had burn marks all over her. I asked him what he did to her and he said she was in the back of his Malibu for a year or two...just rolling........BACK AND FORTH and BACK AND FORTH. Then she was up in the top shelf of my closet for a while..she just sat there for about a year and then BAM!........wrote the song in like 20 minutes a year later. It just all came out of my brain and hit me at once a year later! It's one of my favorite songs off the album too. We had lots of fun recording that one....Me, Pep, and Johnny Cat.....there was lots of love in the room. Good memories. Happy Happy times." |
| 'Practicing For Suicide' is another big epic from the Bondage/Binky school of punk rock tell us how did that one materialize? "Originally the music was COMPLETELY different. Binky came up with most of the words on that one, and it went to a completely different tune....much faster, happy sounding and upbeat. I personally liked it and thought it was great, but when we came to Johnny Cat he didn't care for it much at all.........so it sat around for a while and we just kind of scrapped the song...... Then I came up with the MUSIC that is on the album while driving on the freeway. I wanted it to sound something like the music at the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. "Grim Grinning Ghosts Come Out To Socialize". I LOVE that song. Much slower, kind of a slow swing beat to it. I sat at the drumkit in the Batcave practice house and hummed the music in my head out to Binky...showing him how it went to the the rhythm of the drums. |
| Similar to The Adicts' "Hurt/Bad Boy". That was my "influence" on the rhythm along with the Haunted Mansion theme song. I took HIS WORDS and sort of BENT them to fit the new music that I came up with...hummed it out to him...and then together we showed the rest of the band how it went. Later we had JaySin put a little Keyboard bit in a blank section that was kind of flat...kind of a Pipe Organ sound to pick the song up a bit. I believe Binky said the lyrics are about a guy who keeps saying he's going to kill himself, but never really gets around to it. Like, why would you take vitamins if you're going to kill yourself next week? He's just doing all these "little steps" practicing for the big day and making up excuses along the way. The lyrics about life's short, but not short enough and kissing a bus are parts that I added on. The fast section at the end words/music was mine too (and I'm a wreck.....that part). Then we found out that it blended in PERFECTLY to the instrumental that Binky wrote called "Lather Rinse Repeat".......so we continued the bassline (single note) straight into that. It took us FOREVER to nail the instrumental section...strange timing count thing....there was a MAJOR celebration when they finally hit if perfectly from start to finish. Lots of jumping up and down, high fives, champaign, confetti, fireworks, strippers.......oh no wait...that was New Years. No really....big celebration though." And who's the infamous Jesse and his sister?...and more importantly does she know he's watching her videos? "I don't know, but I asked him if he liked the new album and his reply was that he liked it about as much as he liked licking a rat's nuts. SO I guess that means it was a big hit with him if he liked it that much! Jesse was a roadie for our friend's band "The Atomic Bombs". We used to tease each other all the time..."Taking the Piss" as you guys say right?... He'd heckle us from the crowd and we'd hurl abuse back at him...fun days. Yeah, and he really did watch his sister's porn flics. They (The Atomic Bombs and crew) SWEAR she used to strip to our cheeeezy song, "Michael Joined The Navy" down at the local strip club. Oh well...I guess our music is good for SOMETHING." THE END Well if those little snippets of evidence don't send your curiosity into overdrive I dunno what will? The review is below just to remind you what your missing so check out the album, the band and a feast of other punk rock goodies at www.narcolepticyouth.com I assure you, you won't be sent to sleep..... |
| NARCOLEPTIC YOUTH 'How To Fake Your Death' (LMR13813) CD Summer 2003 At long last the latest set of putdowns from these Corona, CA punks. A band who supply us with a sniff of the Dead Kennedy's, alongside the demented yuma of the Dickies in this their full on, energetic 2003 sound. Narcoleptic Youth have awoken from their 5 year sleep to bring us a well primed, wide awake new album. Lead singer Joey Bondage has slid into Biafra's vacant vocal slot with ease as they project 13 (unlucky for some) sonnets on killing yerself. Lawsuits look set to follow this album around like ambulance crews after a suicide bomb in Tel Aviv. 'Raw Nerve' gets us off to a ripping start on this anger management track before squeezing the brakes so Mr Bondage can inform us in his most snidey way..."She says I scare her when I act this way!" The geezer who supplies the inflammatory riffs is Binky and he knows how to create a song you'll remember. But this is a band effort, which songs like 'Visions Of Gun' proves, as it slyly borrows the riff from the Dickies 'Give It Back'. They slow it down a gear before turning it into a "crooked necktie" of a killer track that'll leave you squirming in the middle of the road at closing time. A lot of older punk vets reckon the new breed of punks today ain't got it! And I've been known to say it myself on more than one occasion, but with younger loose cannons like Narcoleptic Youth making a mess in the scene, that statement gets thrown off the nearest tower block!. Along with bags of energy NY have got an unhealthy supply of tunes to boost their use of props on stage!!! Props I hear you say?...brings to mind an element of show biz! Show biz being a cardinal sin in some devout hardcore punk circles, hmmmm they could be suspect? But ain't that what made punk fun and entertaining in the first place? So have no fear, coz NY adopt a slightly sinister vaudeville approach to their punk, leaving us with a deep-seated twisted kinda vibe. And for me that just adds to their appeal. They certainly don't bore ya to death with repetetive drones! 'Class Of 99' gets a reprise from their 2000 split 45 with another good outfit the Voids. This still sounds good, but comes with a bigger beefier feel and is way more streamline, as they sneer at the "blind leading the blind". You have to give Vet lead guitarist Binky another mention here, coz I can tell on this outing he's given the band a sound all of their own (despite some clever lifting here 'n' there). As 'Snot Nosed Brat' squirms into the playpen, a song aimed at the peers of the bands growing teenage punk audience. It could also be aimed at certain local club owners who have 'banned' em for attracting over enthusiastic audiences! Now c'mon, If a band brings in a crowd they're doin something good! Another snot nosed dose of punk is paraded on the bass driven 'Personnel Experience', that mirrors school shootings in subject matter. A song their younger audience can appreciate, but lets hope it ain't literally. 'Don't Belong' is the only filler track on this album, so much so even the band hate it and won't play it live ha! But although it lacks the presence of the other tracks some bands in the scene would be more than happy to have written it. However put alongside the superior 'Headcase' which is the killer track on this CD, there's a vast chasm. 'Headcase' features all the best elements of Narcoleptic Youth. It's got snotty vocals, sussed lyrics and some splendid arrangements..as we sit with Suzy in the back of the Malibu as she's rolling "back 'n' forth and back 'n' forth" guided by a riff that'll get ya sea sick if you ain't careful. Don'tcha just "love" songs about mad birds? Followed closely by the atmospheric 'Practicing For Suicide' showing the band can handle dynamics a lot better than depression. This stylish mid-paced anthem for the dejected is another reason to hear this set. They finally flip out and merge into the instrumental last track 'Leather Rinse Repeat', a track which has definite touches of the Subhumans (UK) when they go off on one of their epic guitar tangents...but wait there's one hidden 17 min. bonus track that sounds like they left the tape running in the studio as the band go into a major fuck around mode that has echoes of the Pistols/death metal/christian rock and rap. I won't spoil it for ya with the gritty details just get hold of a copy for yerself, only 300 in existence. But don't panic I hear more are coming soon. Come's complete with a side splitting cover and lyric sheet too. US CONTENDER www.narcolepticyouth.com |
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