Punish Yourself Interview

 

Punish Yourself
“fresh fruits, sex, tae-kwon-do, tarot reading, and much more…”Punish Yourself is one of the coolest things to come out of France.
They play awesome live shows and they glow in the dark!! (fucking cool!!)
I’ve been a fan for a while now, so I’m glad I got to send in an interview.

  

1) If the world was ending tonight, would you play a show till the last second?
Sure! That would be the best possible celebration of our music. Fuck, we’re playing apocalyptic rock, and we would stop for armaggedon ? Good old TS Eliot wrote the world would end “not with a bang but a whimper”, we fucking want it to end with a big drumroll !

2) If Punish Yourself could pick any band(s) to play a show with, which band(s) would it be?
First, Hawkwind, I’m a huge Hawkwind fiend. Then, in no particular order : Motorhead, Sheep On Drugs, The Lords Of  Acid, Foetus… We were lucky enough to play a lot with bands that we really love, like The Young Gods, but we miss playing with these.

3) What are a couple of bands you cant stand or hate?
I’m not sure I hate Lady Gaga, but it’s pretty close to, at least… But who cares about hating or loving Lady Gaga anyway, it’s like loving/hating Coca Cola or any industrial product. Actually, there are bands I sure dislike, but I wouldn’t say I hate’em. Even Deathstars, who are ridiculous posers – having to hear their whole set while we were preparing to play was just… painful. And, oh, VNV Nation, I really can’t stand VNV Nation, either. That singer guy as the same charisma as a can of spam.

4) I’m curious about how your very first songs sound like, and along what genre did you guys begin with?
We first played batcave stuff, with a strong harcore-punk-edge ; we used no electronics at all (even tho we listened to a lot of electronic stuff !). We sounded a bit like Amebix, actually… We were very unfocused, and didn’t really play in tune or time at all. It was all about energy but without any sense of musical “correctness” – we really were barbarians. I remember a gig where the bass player – who actually the only one who had some musicianship -  was so drunk he played complete rubbish so we had to stop, we really couldn’t play if he didn’t play a bit straight ; we apologized for what had happened ; then some friends came and told us we had played like never before, that that was our best gig ever. Really strange feeling.

5) When Punish Yourself are not making music or playing shows, what are they up to?
Well, I play music or care about music most of the time. But I do watch some movies, read some books, do some sport, spend time with my girlfriend  (actually I also produce music with her) and care ‘bout my children. I suppose I should reply we’re partying all of the day and all of the night taking strange drugs and drinking truckloads of vodka ; that would fit into rock’n’roll romanticism better. Sorry, guys ! Actually, I’m not saying we never behaved like that, and I’m not saying we stopped partying; we can still be pretty wild, probably even wilder than we used too, at times. But we’re not teenagers anymore, awwww fuck.

6) What inspired your glow in the dark super cool image?
We had no idea of how that thing would turn when we first tried – neon UV, glow-in-the-dark paint, we were just experimenting, we liked visual stuff, dressing up ; Alien Sex Fiend, Alice Cooper, Skinny Puppy… But we had no plans. The first try blew our minds out, then the image slowly evolved, with some guidelines – classic superhero comics, b-movies, tribal symbols… There is no real concept ; it’s just efficient. When we turn on the lights, the audience knows we’re inviting them into another world. This world has no name and no rules, it depends on how the audience reacts, on how we act… The “glow-in-the-dark” thing, in a way, is some kind of ritual tool.

7) Best Show? Worst Show? Weirdest Show?
That’s a difficult question ! We played something like 600 shows, now, so… Lots of them were really great, some were very bad, and LOTS were very weird ! We seem to attract weird people, I don’t know why. I could write a whole book about our tour stories. It would include drugs, snow-storms, alcohol, fresh fruits, sex, tae-kwon-do, tarot reading, and much more…

8) Some of the band’s favorite movies?
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Night Of The Hunter, Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, Sin City, Doom Generation, The Quattermass series, From Dusk Till Dawn… And also a lot of French comedies no one knows about outside French borders. But these days, seems we’ve moved into TV series, like everyone seems to do. I’m a big Doctor Who fan, while other members of the band seem to prefer Dexter or Lost.

9) Any comments on 2012?
Fuck them Aztecs. I don’t believe in anything like predictions. We’re big enough to destroy ourselves without any need for a deadline.

10) Anything else you would like to add?
Well… There would be millions of things I’d like to say! Just picking one: “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. There is no conspiracy, but people are stupid.”

 

Check out some of their songs on their Myspace. 

-Carlow

It’s Freezing in Eugene!

It’s barely fall but the weather feels like early winter here in Eugene, OR. I’m glad to have packed some warmish clothes with me when I moved into my new dorm. Oregon weather is bi-polar, it can be in the 30′s in the morning then up in the 70′s by maybe mid to late afternoon and then cold again at night. It can be cloudy and raining during a 10 minute commute to campus and then beautiful and sunny while you’re stuck in a 2 hour class and then cloudy and rainy again once you step foot outside. It always keeps me amused.

I think band t-shirts and pencil skirts look great together, especially with a big, chunky belt to hold it together.

The week before school started up for me it had been like late summer weather, sunny with a high of maybe 89. It was pretty damn hot. Then on the first day of school it was unexpectedly cold and rainy. What. It was still warm this time last year in Eugene which was how I assumed it would be this year as well, so I didn’t pack much cold weather clothes with me. So now I’m borrowing sweaters from my friends and layering what clothes I do have with me, in a Fruits inspired fashion.

Here’s what I’m doing to keep warm:

If you're the type of girl to wear sweaters with shorts in cold weather, at least throw on some nylons under your shorts because otherwise you will be freezing. I assure you.

• Photos of me were taken by the lovely Dorothy Siemens. Please take a  look at her gallery!
• Also, have a look at the Fruits magazine website for awesome ideas on layering clothes for the cold weather!

-Nuclear

ATLAP

Hello Space Cats, this is ATLAP’s first blog post! Uhhh aye-tee-el-aye-pee?? Yeah, that’s “All That’s Left Are Pineapples.” Why is that? Because we’re brain-fried and not very creative.

We are 3 college kids with hobbies and interests we’d like to share all around. This Fashion/Music/Art/Cool stuff blog will feature coverage by Carlow from Los Angeles(ish), CA; Nuclear, who is schooling in Eugene, OR but is actually from the Portland Metro area; Ace from Pheonix, AZ. And uhhhh something something, please STAAAAAY TUNED!