witch (foto: peter)
Kinda like the waaaay old days with Deep Wound, Mr. J Mascis returns to the drum kit with new band
Witch, a loud reminiscence of 70’s metal and warm psyched out Doom. Their 2008 release ‘Paralyzed’
also throws a bit of punk rock into the fuzzed up mix and strange hints of something seemingly indie.
Longtime friend (and fellow Canadian) Dave Sweetapple joins in on bass with Feathers members
Antoine Guerlain and Kyle Thomas.
Thomas told me that this record has faster material than previous due to Mascis’ hard hitting and
hardcore influence constantly speeding everything up (“even on the slow jams”). On a side note, Mascis
is rumored to be an enormously difficult interview, very untalkative and rude, bored to a laconic point.
[hint: read his parts in a nasally, dry, sarcastic tone - and because I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect
going into the thing, I ate a handful of mushrooms a few hours before I went to meet up with the band at
the Knaack Club in Berlin.
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Dave: Ok, enough about us. What are you doing here?
Jesua: That’s a good question, although there isn’t really an answer -
Kyle: Should we sit in a different position?
Jesua: No. I’d prefer things pretty informal, that’s why I wanted to go for a walk, I mean, I’ve
heard [pointing at Mascis] that you hate talking, so I just thought we’d keep this as low end
as possible !?!
J. Mascis [in a light nasally British accent]: I’ve heard you were boring and difficult.
Dave: "A difficult asshole".
Jesua: So, do you guys think that the world is
actually going to end in 2012?
Mascis: 2012 Mayan Prophecy I see fire…[singing in a metal voice - hand in the devil horns]
Kyle: I think it’s all just gonna start over…
Dave: Wait, I didn’t here about this - I thought it was all for like 2000 when everything would change.
Kyle: No man, 2012 is all about the Mayan calendar.
Jesua: Would you rather be able to fly or read minds?
Mascis: I’d rather fly.
Kyle: I’d get really depressed reading minds…
Dave: Board ze green bus to Berlin…[more laughing, this time leading into coughing] Does anyone have
an inhaler I can buy? Do you have any asthmatic friends?
Jesua: I could ask - you really need one?
Dave: UDerol.
Kyle: Yeah he needs it bad, he can’t breathe.
Dave: I bought the wrong one.
Jesua: Are you guys friends with any Masons or Scientologists?
Dave: He’s a mason [pointing at Antoine].
Jesua: Really?!
Antoine: Yeah- a Stone Mason.
Mascis: I know some Scientologists.
Jesua: Do you feel they have any insights for your life?
Mascis: Not really…I find it…[trails off]
Jesua: I heard L. Ron Hubbard is an understudy of Aleister Crowley, did you guys ever hear
that?
No’s go all around
Dave: Is L Ron Hubbard still alive?
I don’t know’s go all around.
Jesua: Did you ever hear about his recordings? He apparently got banned from every
country in the world, so he got this yacht and sailed all around and recorded music and there
are records pressed of it.
Whoa’s go all around.
Kyle: Is it lounge music? I bet it’s lounge music.
Jesua: How do you get banned from every country in the world?
Mascis: Well, the Germans certainly don’t like him. Scientology was banned in Germany.
Antoine: I know some people who are in a branch off of it…but I think Scientologists are encouraged to
join other groups and influence them…that’s part of being one, you have to spread into other groups
covertly.
Kyle: If you go to LA there’s that really creepy L. Ron Hubbard street…
Jesua: Yeah, L. Ron Hubbard Boulevard.
Kyle: There’s a very mysterious Mason house in the center of my town - nobody knows anything about it
though.
Jesua: J, who’s you worst enemy?
Dave: Lou Barlow.
Dave: Dude, you just fired that shit outta nowhere, what’s that about?
Jesua: I’m just going for it.
Mascis: I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
Jesua: Who are your favorite hero’s of fiction?
Mascis: Pete Cougar [in the meekest, nasal voice I’ve ever heard].
Jesua: Who’s that?
[Mascis looks at me like “Who’s Who?” and shrugs…]
Jesua: Who are your heroines of non-fiction?
Dave: Leni Riefenstahl. She was a photographer from Berlin, she did a lot of photography for the 3rd
Reich, and then she started doing a lot of nature and under water photography.
Kyle: I was listening to a lot of Alice Coltrane…like everything she’s done...
Mascis: What about Emily Dickenson? I live right down the road from her house…
[more laughter]
Kyle: Lindsay Mackaw…
Antoine: Ruth Garbis.
Kyle: Yeah, of course!
At this point Dave and J pick up my recorder and start making animal sounds into it whilst giggling like
schoolgirls so that I can’t hear a goddamm thing that Kyle is telling me about Ruth Garbis other than
the keywords “best friend” and “totally perverted”.
Jesua: Where can I find her stuff?
Kyle: We’re recording her album right now, so she doesn’t have anything yet, but…
Jesua: Hey J did you ever see the Bad Brains live?
Mascis: Yes I have.
Jesua: Tell me about it, where was it?
Mascis: A place called Mavericks in Boston, they showed up really late and it was all hardcore - no reggae
- and it was like 20 minutes long, it was awesome. Then I saw ‘em again later in Amherst after the SST
record and it wasn’t as good, but it was alrigh - backflips both times. That’s definitely one of the best
shows I have ever seen, one that was 20 minutes long. Sick.
The first one was the famous show where skinheads threw snowballs at Ric Ocasek when he came to see
the band.
Dave: Jesua, did you ever see the Bad Brains?
Jesua: Naw. Unfortunately it was ahead of my time.
Kyle: Just the Bad Brians [referring to the Bad Brains cover band].
Dave: My Dad took me to Alice Cooper when I was 6.
Jesua: What was your first show?
Mascis: Mick Ronson and Ian Hunter opening for J. Geils Band
Dave: You dick! You saw that?!
Kyle: Mine was Corrosion of Conformity.
Antoine: I think my parents went and saw 999 when my Mom was pregnant with me.
Dave: The Brains couldn’t get into Canada, so I had to go to Buffalo to see them. I still think of that as the
best show I’ve ever seen.
Antoine: My parents took me to see the Crash Test Dummies when I was young. The singer said he had 3
balls and that’s why he sang so low.
Mascis: My gym teacher had one ball. It got shot off in the war.
Dave: Is that the guy with no legs?
Mascis: No, it’s the guy with one ball.
Jesua: Ok, I have one last question. What are your earliest music memories?
Mascis: I remember bangin’ on pots and pans, setting ‘em up.
Dave: My Aunt and Uncle were babysitting me, and they had this blue Mustang, and I was 2 or 3 and I
remember laying in the backseat and this fucking song was going on and on and on, I was thinking
‘what the fuck is this?!’ And at that point I developed this hatred for what was playing on the radio and I
came to find out later that it was “Hey Jude” and since then I’ve hated the Beatles.
Jesua: I’m not a Beatles fan either.
Mascis [giving me a round of applause] Alright!
Kyle: That’s my favorite band.
Dave: You like the Stones?
Jesua: I love the Stones!
[Another round of applause, this time with cheering] I am amongst children here!
Jesua: Thank you for a lovely evening Witch. I am so glad you guys were completely rad.
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Witch/Paralyzed - out now on TeePee/Cargo.
