An interview with postpunk band Dekoder!

Dekoder hail from Montreal and cite Xmal Deustchland and Poison Girls as influences. I'll just quote the excellent blog Terminal Escape and their description of this very cool postpunk band: "Female fronted goth/post punk from Montreal, these songs sound instantly familiar and welcoming. Perhaps it's because this is descended from the same species of underground music that first pulled me away from pop music, but I felt an instant connection to this music, as if it had been in my life for years. The vocals drip with Siouxsie's influence and the guitars are ripped from the hands of grudgingly infectious bands like INTERPOL and returned to a circa 1979 Bernard Sumner, where they belong. Subdued and deliberate, calculated and penetrating, there are only four songs here, but DEKODER are nothing short of brilliant."

They have a Bandcamp page here and a Facebook page here.

Megan, the singer and guitarist, and Pete, the bassist, were interviewed by Oliver in May, 2012.

An interview with goth-punk band Dystopian Society!

Italy's Dystopian Society, like Germany's Tanzkommando Untergang, employ imagery and use a name that might make one think they were a political thrash band. But wait just a minute! Although the band do have a strong sense of political ethics, they're like New Model Army and Rubella Ballet in that they couple social observations with a compellingly gloomy postpunk sound. As the interview with singer Max Skam and Sara Red Hexe shows below, the goth-punk scene in Italy, as in much of Europe, is characterized by playing at squats, self-managed social centers, and other institutions of alternative political culture that simply have no parallel in the US, where being into underground music can be neatly divorced from anything political. Regardless of one's political stance, Dystopian Society make an extremely potent type of gloomy postpunk that incorporates (to my ears) the influences of Paralisis Permanente, Christian Death, and Shadow Project.

You can buy their killer new album/CD, Cages, here!

Interviewed by Oliver in May, 2012.

An interview with dark postpunk band The Spectres!

Vancouver, British Columbia's Spectres released one of the finest LPs of 2010, Last Days. Their 2007 "Cold War" EP opened a lot of eyes (and ears) at the time, and it is frankly stunning to think that that came out half a decade ago. The band play an especially well-made type of dark punk that magazines like Maximum Rock 'n Roll have likened to early Joy Division, Crisis, and early 80s UK peace punk like The Mob. They've been a favorite for awhile and I was more than stoked to hear that within the next few months (as of April, 2012) the band are releasing a new LP, Strange Weather! The band have a website here, a Facebook page here, and a Myspace page here.

Interview with Brian (singer) and Zach (guitarist) of The Spectres by Oliver in April, 2012.

No Doves interviews The Mob!

Okay so it's not everyone in The Mob but there's Mark, and the photo's too good not to use.

Here is an interview with The Mob, whose original run was from 1977 until 1983. Obviously our twice-per-month event night is named after the Mob song and EP "No Doves Fly Here." As a longtime Mob fan, I'm very excited to present this interview. The Mob, a power trio (heh) fronted by guitarist and vocalist Mark Mob, have recently been playing together again, and are coming to Austin, Texas, on May 31.

I'll let the late Lance Hahn, also of Austin, TX -- who was a writer as well as the frontman and songwriter of the band J-Church (who did a cover of The Mob's "No Doves Fly Here") -- introduce The Mob for me:

“No Doves Fly Here” is one of the most powerful musical statements to come out of what we’re calling anarcho punk and if you didn’t know any better you would have it all wrong. By traditional standards, it’s barely a punk song at all, dead slow in tempo with repetitive, hypnotic bass lines. In some ways, the music is gothic with roots in songs like “Hollow Hills” by Bauhaus. Lyrically, it’s poetic. [...] The Mob were hippie punks. But there was something dark and ominous about a lot of their music. They were death hippies, tripping on the apocalypse. (SOURCE.)

Mark Mob interviewed by Oliver in late March, 2012.

No Doves Fly Here interviews Alaric!

Oakland, California's Alaric have been long-time friends of No Doves Fly Here. They appeared (with their consent!) on the first No Doves Fly Here CD-R sampler that we gave out for free on November 16, 2011.

Featuring members of Cross-Stitched Eyes, Noothgrush, and Dead and Gone, Alaric have routinely cited deathrock bands like Part 1 and Rudimentary Peni as primary influences, and have recently played shows with Fangs on Fur and others in the deathrock scene. They produce an especially powerful, driving, and gloom-heavy type of postpunk that has been winning over many fans outside of their home on the West Coast. Their 2011 self-titled LP can be bought here.

Interviewed March 26, 2012 by Oliver (Death Church).

No Doves interviews Deathcharge!

Despite starting up around 1997, Portland's Deathcharge released their first full-length LP only a few months ago, in late 2011, on Unseen Forces (vinyl only; CD in Japan). The LP has garnered positive reviews and its first pressing sold out almost immediately. The LP is a gothic punk rocker in the vein of the first, self-titled Shadow Project LP, The Dark a la "Shattered Glass" or "The Masque," and Iron Mask-era Christian Death. Throw in a tinge of early Sisters of Mercy with a dash of Motorhead and you get one of the more compelling and driving deathrock LPs in recent memory.

As their name implies, Deathcharge -- who have a Facebook page HERE, and a Myspace page HERE --began as a Discharge-inspired discore band, evolving over the years to incorporate subtler postpunk and deathrock influences. The visual presentation of the band is a mix of Batcave and DIY crust: Big, colored hair in blues, reds, and whites, a la Xmal Deustchland; mesh shirts; lipstick, white face makeup, frock coats, and fog machines; homemade banners tacked up on the stage behind the drums -- and a sound that errs decidedly on the side of guitar-driven rock and roll, like Rozz Williams' Daucus Karota deathrock side project. They're one of the most exciting bands to watch in this area of music today.


Interview with Deathcharge singer Adam Nauseam February, 2012. Interview below the cut.

No Doves Fly Here: The Interviews (so far)

You all know No Doves is a twice-per-month event night where we play deathrock, postpunk, and gothic rock (for free). We all love old school positive punk, anarcho/peace-punk, and goth-punk, and we explore the overlaps between these niches in our playlists. We've so far put out one CD-R sampler and another one is coming up; our two stipulations when doing this is that we put only currently-extant bands on the CD-R, and we get their permission to do so. They're not mix CDs.

But you may not know that we also interview bands exclusively for this website, part of our building relationships with bands that we play at our event nights. These are some of the interviews we've done so far. More are on the way.


1. Interview with California dark punk band CIRIL.

2. Interview with LA deathrock band CHRIST VS WARHOL.

3. Interview with the singer of 80s UK goth-punk band PART 1.

4. Interview with LA deathrock band FANGS ON FUR.

5. Interview with Portland goth-punk band DEATHCHARGE.

6. Interview with deathrock DJs Johnny Bubonic (of Funeral Drive) and Ely Bat/Malediction (of 1313, deathrock Disko, etc.)

No Doves Interview with DJ Ely Bat/Malediction

This is part of a small series of interviews we're doing with DJs we consider to be important dark punk/deathrock/dark postpunk DJs. See our previous interview with DJ Johnny Bubonic (of the belated Funeral Drive in Dallas -- the weekly (!) deathrock night that ran from about 2001 'til 2004 in DFW), for example. 


Ely recently DJ-ed at the January 18, No Doves Fly Here.

NO DOVES FLY HERE: As far we are concerned, you are currently THE deathrock/dark postpunk DJ in Texas, bar none. You and DJ Munster bring it. I mean, you could be playing any type of music in the world as a DJ, like stuff that "packs the dance floor" in the most cynical and moneymaking way, i.e. dance-y stuff like Ke$ha -- or bad EBM, like Spock, bands and music that people and Djs at other clubs relentlessly try to promote and foist on people as being what they need to understand is great. So, in spite of that, why do you love and choose to play deathrock and dark postpunk, regardless of this?


ELY MALEDICTION: I grew up on metal and punk as a kid and quickly latched on to stuff like Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Misfits, Sex Pistols, and the Stooges. For me Deathrock has the dark element of some of the groups I loved as a kid, and it brings with it the kick in the teeth of punk rock. 

No Doves interviews Fangs on Fur

Fangs on Fur. Great current deathrock band? Or -- greatest? They now have Christ Vs Warhol's Steve James playing bass for them (see below). And yet we ALREADY interviewed Christ vs Warhol! But still --  this Fangs on Fur interview was still damn fun.

Fangs on Fur and Christ Vs Warhol are among the two best contemporary deathrock bands, period. Their official website and store is one place, here. They also have a Myspace page and a Facebook page. Additionally, they have a Bandcamp page.

Fangs on Fur interviewed January 8, 2012.

NO DOVES FLY HERE: I'll go ahead and ask a standard question first: Who came up with the name "Fangs on Fur," and what does it mean?

F-Boy: I did. I misheard what a friend was saying and I said, "FANGS ON FUR, THAT'S PERFECT!" My friend tried to correct me and before he could tell me what he meant to say, I told him never to tell me. I still don't know what he actually said.

F-Girl: At the time we were in another band. F-Boy said "Fangs on Fur," and I flipped out. I said, "This is going to be the name of our first album." That band broke up and F-boy and I started Fangs on Fur ten minutes later! As to what it means? It could mean anything. It could be violent when it needs to be, it could be sexual if it wants to be, and it could be defiant when it has to be.

Interview with PART 1 singer Jake Baker!

Part 1 is just the sort of band that No Doves Fly Here was started to play: Great, overlooked dark postpunk and deathrock. Call us hopelessly romantic champions of the underdog, but Part 1 to this day have never been given their day in the sun, mainly existing in Rudimentary Peni's shadow and generally referred to only in the context of the better-known "sister" band. Although Ian Glasper's The Day the Country Died devoted a whole chapter to interviewing Part 1, the band is still sort of the ultimate cult dark British postpunk band.


This is an interview with Jake Baker, the singer on all of Part 1's official releases.

NO DOVES FLY HERE: Jake, what years were were you in Part 1? How did you come to join the band or meet the other members of Part 1?


JAKE BAKER: I was fortunate enough to be in the band from its conception in 1980 until the the end of 83. We met at school and got together shortly after leaving and after a few garage bands and line up changes we created PART 1.

Interview with DJ Johnny Bubonic

Except for John Peel, DJs have had close to zero influence on the sort of music I like. Except for DJ Johnny Bubonic, that is, who DJ'd for several years the weekly(!) deathrock night in Dallas, Texas, that was Funeral Drive. This was at Spiderbabies (RIP), a uniquely deathrock-centric venue that lasted about 4 years in Deep Ellum. Bubonic and company provided a strategic response to the deluge of electronic-centered music that eventually won the war in Big D by way of the main establishment club in Dallas, The Church (Lizard Lounge), which mostly shoved aside deathrock and postpunk to play EBM, IDM, and techno-flavored "goth," a trend that continues to this day. Bubonic's posts (setlists and assorted rants) on deathrock.com and elsewhere had a big influence on my own ideas about music, and introduced me to many great bands that remain favorites to this day.

But I'll let him speak for himself. After the interview is a sample playlist from Funeral Drive from February, 2002, as well as a piece Bubonic wrote for Starvox. (Interviewed by Oliver in November, 2011.)

No Doves Fly Here interviews CIRIL!

Long Beach, California's Ciril have been around since 1995, have four LPs, at least one split record, and many 7 inch EPs out. The singer, songwriter, and sole constant member has been Darrin Jeffery Hall. Often compared to Rudimentary Peni, the band recently released the Sick Surreal LP. Below, Darrin opens up about what Ciril's music means, how Gitane Demone has been involved with the project, and what other deathrock and punk bands have inspired the band's manic, moody, frenetic, and splenetic sounds. Interviewed in late November, 2011.

NO DOVES FLY HERE:  Hey Darrin, the first question I usually ask a band is, "What does your name mean"? However, your band's name has an interesting story behind it. The premise behind Ciril is that all the releases go together as, in effect, concept albums, because the songs are about how an imaginary youth, whose name is Ciril, comes to see the world as he grows up. (Correct me if I'm wrong here.) How did you come up with the Ciril narrative concept?

DARRIN JEFFERY HALL: You are totally correct about the concept of an imaginary youth, but it's ironic how the character is not so imaginary. No matter how I try to write about imaginary characters, it always turns out to be about me and my struggles through life as a result of a fucked up, abusive childhood and how it affects me through my adult life. It's sort of like crying out a caterwaul with the hope someone will hear my trauma and relate and give me a cry back, telling me I'm not the only one, and share with me how to get through life with such a weight on our souls. Reaching out to others for help in life, and getting a response, has helped me a great deal. Being in a band and recording music has been the best cleansing tool. I am truly grateful I have been able to accomplish such a powerful medicine for the soul. It's such a relief when i communicate with others with similar issues.

No Doves interview with Christ Vs Warhol!

Christ vs Warhol have only one LP to their name so far -- Dissent -- but it's garnered tons of positive reviews. In large part a continuation of Scarlet's Remains, a band that Drop Dead Magazine in 2005 enthusiastically said "have been called the 45 Grave of the new millennium," Christ vs Warhol features the stand-out vocals of Eve Ghost, the deft guitar of Steven James, and the precision-perfect rhythm section of Marzia Rangel on bass and Geoff Bruce on drums. They have a Facebook page here, and a MySpace profile here. 


Along with Fangs on Fur, Ciril, and Alaric, the band are part of an exciting new resurgence in California deathrock. They have the guitar-driven postpunk sound of Scream-era Siouxsie, Rubella Ballet, or Lost Cherrees. Christ vs Warhol donated two songs for us to use on our No Doves free sampler CD that we gave away on our debut on October 19, and Eve Ghost and Steven were kind enough to be interviewed by myself (Oliver) in early November, 2011.


Interview below the cut.