Drew Ailes (Brain Tumors)
1. What are your top five albums that were released in 2014? (In order 1-5)
- Lumpy and the Dumpers - Collection
- Inmates - LP
- Nudes - Stain EP
- Mongoloid - Birth of the Slam Pig
- Total Control - Typical System
2. What band did you discover in 2014 (can be a brand new band or an older band) that had an impact on your life? What made them significant?
Every year I am rediscovering Killing Joke since I saw them in, like, 2003. There was an album of theirs I had always skipped because I assumed it was a "best of" called Extremities, Dirt, and Various Repressed Emotions which I found out that I really love. It's also the only album of theirs which features Martin Atkins, who was the drummer for Public Image Ltd and Ministry and was also kind of a co-worker of mine at one point. He was a fucking dickhead. But so am I, I guess. But seriously, Killing Joke, man. One of the catchiest, most original, consistently outstanding bands ever. They're still putting out great records.
3. How will you remember 2014? (In terms of music)
I dunno man, I'm not really good with keeping track of dates and times and everything else. I'm one of those guys that just wakes up and goes, "Oh fuck, it's Saturday--I'm supposed to be at my friend's wedding and I have a date tonight and I forgot I booked this show and I need to take my car in to get fixed." So the idea of looking at a specified period of time and saying, "Yeah, that's what music was," requires me uprooting my fucking brain from the deep canal of my ass to even figure out what day it is.
4. What can we look forward to from you in 2015?
Well, I am a writer, which is a term I have avoided using for myself for my whole life. It's one of those labels that I feel like should be given to you by other people before you start using it yourself. But I will continue doing my stupid brand of antagonistic, angry list-making but I will likely start my own blog and maybe print some zines of some sort. It really fucking sucks to write something that gets like, a million hits, and realize you got $70 for it. As far as from my band, Brain Tumors, we're recording an LP and are hoping to do a pretty extensive of the whole country. It's hard to do this shit when you're older and you realize you have chipped teeth, chipped elbows, bulging vertebrae, and a bunch of scars on your head for the sake of art that most people aren't going to remember until they sell it on Discogs for $5 more than they paid in a few years.
I'm also going to start working with a friend to put out some records, using my student loan money.
5. What records are you looking forward to most in 2015?
Whatever my friends are doing. I am at a point in my life where almost all new shit I like I have some sort of direct or secondary connection to. And it's not because I know so many people or something-- it's just that the people you meet through touring and booking shows are the only people who give a fuck, basically. So they just naturally make better music, I figure. It's like when you learn a language, people tell you to go to a country and immerse yourself in it and you'll come out with a more natural grasp--same thing with music. Making weird, genuine, thoughtful (or in some cases, thoughtless) art becomes easy because that's what's constantly in your peripheral vision.
6. What trend will you forever associate with 2014 in music?
Uh, more white people with fingerless gloves talking about being mutants, or something. That mid-paced, reverb-laden, stompy style of punk that everyone has decided to start doing which I honestly dig but is starting to really run together. Also seems like everyone is suddenly into noise, which is kinda cool. Maybe that's not a trend. I don't know. It sucks that I can't hear the word "trend" without thinking of Phil Anselmo from Pantera.
