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My name is Kyle and I'm a record collector and music nut from San Antonio, TX. I'm always on the lookout for new artists, so feel free to drop me a comment or send me an if you have any suggestions.
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Monday, August 24, 2009

Interview With John Ziegler of Brimstone Howl

KF: What are the orgins of Brimstone Howl?

JZ: Calvin and I were in high school and started a band during my last year at Palmer High School. That was almost eight years ago. We were not very good. Then we found Nicky, who was also from out west. Our first bass player as Brimstone Howl was Jeff Ankenbauer, who's now in the Dinks and the Shanks. We just played local shows until we started doing seven inch records on Speed! and Boomchick records. We are the first post-Crypt records garage rock band from Grand Island, probably forever, and our formation and continued existance are both statistical aberrations.

KF: Your record Guts of Steel was produced by Dan Auerbach. What was it like working with him?

JZ: It was difficult recording in that abandonded pie factory, because it was so cold we could see our breath, but working with the man himself was fun, and I consider it a privilege still, and a really great memory. Guts of Steel is sortave like our first real attempt and chance at reaching a big audience. Apparently, that album got panned by the inner-sanctum of the garage rock community, like Terminal Boredom and whoever and whatnot... but we've reviewed the album again recently and have found claims that the album is not good to be entirely baseless, not to mention skewed by changing garage web-board politics, and faddish looking-over-your-shoulder hyper-awareness that pretty much obviates the purpose of rock'n'roll in the first place.

KF: We Came In Peace is constantly spinning on my record player. Can you describe the writing process that took place for the songs on the album?

JZ: We recorded demos on a four-track cassette recorder and taught them to our bass player for that album, Chauncey Patton, my best friend in high school, not to mention our guitarist before Nicky, like right when Calvin and I started. Like all our albums, we have to demo it out and then listen to it on our own to basically memorize it, without vocals yet because I'm writing those on the van ride to the studio. We can't practice every day, because we need jobs to supplement the pittance that America has decided to compensate us for our talents, and we live scattered across the state of Nebraska.

KF: The cover of We Came In Peace is one of my all time favorites. Who is responsible for it?

JZ: Well, I just kindave mocked up some images from an old book by the same title that my dad owned as a kid. So the artists who put that together in the 1960's and the persons who photographed Mars and Earth (separately) are responsible.

KF: Who are your major musical influences?

JZ: The Gories, Oblivians, Radio Birdman, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Gun Club, Cramps, Roy Orbison, and the Scientists. And CCR and Neil Young, and Ramones.

KF: What does the future hold for Brimstone Howl?

JZ: We got a new album coming out recorded by Mike McHugh called "Big Deal. What's He Done Lately?" coming out later in 2009, and we are recording another record with Jim Diamond here in September, and we have songs for a possible release with Rob's Haus Records in Atlanta, Georgia, but that's still in the makings. These will all be full-lengths of whatever quality you have come to expect from us. Then we're going to record an entirely blown-out 4-track 8 song EP in Nicky's basement and call it just whatever the hell we want and release it on our own with minimal cost on a one sided LP, if, and only if, we have enough money. Otherwise, someone else will release it.

KF: Where can we go online to learn more about ya'll?

JZ: www.myspace.com/brimstonehowl and the Alive Records website

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