Frank Godla (Meek Is Murder)
SPB: What do you think of cassettes?
Frank: They will always have a special place in my heart. I started collecting music when cassettes were still the norm, and wound up with several hundred cassette and VHS tapes in my house. I’d even make my own mixtapes to carry around in my bag, equipped with a #2 pencil of course. Eventually I joined the tape trading scene which opened some doors to finding obscure bands I fell in love with from around the world. Some of my earliest memories in life also involved my dad playing cassettes from Metallica, Ozzy, Twisted Sister, Dokken, Scorpions, Skid Row, and many more. I guess you can say cassette tapes are the reason I found metal, and created the life I live today. That said, as someone who lived the experience of cassettes, I’ve been a little confused why they’re making a comeback. They truly were the most inconvenient and poorly made medium of music history, but ultimately if you’re rocking sweet tunes that’s all that matters.
Robert Cheeseman (Spirits – bass)
SPB: What is the best hardcore song, ever?
Robert: The best hardcore song? Hell if I know! One of my favorite hardcore bands though is Faded Grey. I remember downloading "The New Crusades" off of revhq sometime in late 2000 and it was definitely a gateway moment that led me to discover a lot of bands and labels I had not heard of at that point in my youth. Punk is hands down my “first love” when it comes to music but the handful of hardcore bands that I found thanks to that Faded Grey song is pretty astounding and it opened my eyes to a whole new sub-genre that I've grown to love just as much.
Brian Campeau
SPB: What is your favorite album cover of all time?
Brian: I'm a big fan of a photo which tells a story, whether or not you understand that story. By this I mean a photo that keeps you looking at it and the more you look at it the more you discover.
Hipgnosis (the guys who did the Pink Floyd album covers) were really good at this. Jeez, the more I think about it the harder this question becomes. So, screw it, I'll go with Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.
I bought this album when I was on a high school trip in Ireland. I had no idea who these guys were at the time, but the packaging made it so perfect. The cd came in a prescription medication box and you had to pop the cd out of a plastic thing with foil on it (like a Nurofen, but singular and way bigger). Also included was this paper which explained how the pill/CD should be consumed.
Why did I think this was so great? Because it totally explained what the music was about long before hearing it. After listening to the album and seeing how appropriate the cover and packaging were, I looked into who this band was. Fair enough, the singer, Jay Pierce, was previously in a band named Spacemen 3, who had released an album called Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To.
Perfect.
Other notable mentions:
Louvin Brothers - Satan Is Real
Leonard Cohen - New Skin for the Old Ceremony
Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power
Rage Against the Machine - Self Titled
Joshua Lozano (Fashion Week – guitar/vocals)
SPB: Rank your preferred listening formats: cd, vinyl, cassette, digital, (other?)
Joshua:
at home: vinyl
in the van : CD
running on the street: ipod.
in the ‘90s: Cassettes (mixtapes)
