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Home , Around the Fur, Blind Melon, Chino Moreno, JJ72, Jon Lee (drummer), Love Battery

FREE ISSUE 1 - SPRING 2000

THE BAND WHO STOLE YOUR HEART AND SOUL

PLUS... BUSH . THE JUNKET . HIM . . TWIST . SLIPKNOT

If you love you know what it’s like to live in an ALTERNATIVE dimension. When you listen to the records you LOVE, TIME becomes something you can fly back and forth through. The artists featured in CHILDREN OF GRAFFITI offer you a feeling of OMNIPRESENCE, a sense that something about the way we communicate is NOT TRANSITORY. This music is NOT DISPOSABLE. And neither is this magazine. Collect all 12 issues and use them as your doorway to an era when bands broke out of the backrooms and into your hearts. Contents

4. SAWYER SAYS Editorial. Rant. Diatribe. Discussion. Deep. Pointless. Call it what you want.

5. ALL TIME 1 Our retrospective review of ’s life-changing debut album ‘Ten’.

5. OOH... THIS IS NEW! Bush, The Junket, HIM and Deftones album reviews.

8. TIME OF OUR LIFE My Vitriol, Twist and Slipknot gig reports.

9. WHERE WE ARE Profile of our favourite pub - The Falcon.

10. it means everything Beautiful Chambers writing beautifully about his memories of Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’. 11. SHAMELESS SELF- PROMOTION A David’s-eye view of our song ‘The Lights Will Go Up’.

12. TOP 10 Songs that remind us of being tiny 13 year olds. SAWYER SAYS ALL TIME ALBUM ONE

Rock and Roll. I know den, before ending up at edgy Som Wardner in The PEARL JAM, TEN (EPIC) album in dedication to his head of the scene, you kids aren’t calling Shepherds Bush Empire in Water Rats or anywhere lost friend but no one in the Pearl Jam debut is it that these days but November. Okay, they were else around, he never much the outside world seems a defining moment in the that’s how I still like first on and the main act looks like he’s making the to care much. Nirvana have history of music. Vedder’s to think about it. Like a was Shack but singer Chris front covers of the weekly been to England and Alice bluesy lyrics and soulful rock through your green- Martin was quite the centre music papers. But he is. In Chains have been oddly vocals are essential to house of a life or a roll of attention at the bar Cheer up, dude. You’re billed on tour with , the record’s impact. He in the hay. Like a rock-et upstairs, record industry doing good. Megadeth and Anthrax but tells stories of abuse to the moon or a drive in types hovering all around you’re seriously crazy if and agony as if he’s lived a Rolls-Royce. Like a... him like he was a very I love living in the city. you think every kid who right through them. Hope- well, you get the point. delicious jam sandwich. I love the year 2000. lives for rock music is fully he hasn’t. There’s something in the soon going to be looking in Or maybe you don’t. ‘Cause January 2000 suggested air and writing this page awe at this rainy, buzz-saw Either way, the pain is it looked like you were things were really on gives me an excuse to of a place. transferrable and universal, going to need a micro- the up. I saw Twist play randomly throw myself in and married to some of the scope to find music that in The Falcon. After- the way of any band or But, then, Eddie Vedder’s most unforgettable guitar was going to make your wards, I spoke to the interesting person that in April 1991. only recently moved into lines ever written, it’s hair stand on end as the band and one of them crosses my path. “You The city of dreams? Not town and no one’s heard overwhelmingly tangible. Twentieth Century dropped told me about being at a are a God,” I told Robbie really. Andrew Wood, ‘Ten’ yet. With Stone Trying to pinpoint ‘Ten’’s its final curtain. And, festival, getting off her Williams when I saw him at peacocking frontman of Gossard and perfect moments is point- of course, the microscope head and ending up in a the Keith Moon bar. Which local stars-in-waiting from on less. It’s enough to observe would be in a box and is an odd thing to say, Mother Love Bone is dead. guitar and bass respec- that best known tracks the box was bound to be right? But what was Chris Cornell, his old tively and a singer soon ‘Alive’ and ‘Jeremy’ are not buried God knows where. he doing at an Incubus roommate has written an to be iconned as a figure- stand-out. They are typical. So you were going to “You are a God,” gig? Too weird. And pop need a map to locate stars freak me out. it, then a spade to I told Robbie Williams... What I like about my unearth it and then favourite musicians, OOH... THIS IS NEW! a key to get it open. and what I’m discov- Hell on Earth. I need toilet, thinking: “I am ering to be truer than I to have a lie-down just Doctor Who.” I giggled could have ever imagined It’s a ridiculous state of ‘Spacetravel’, on ‘Letting thinking about all that at everything the four when the city was only a BUSH, THE SCIENCE OF affairs. Bush’s debut long- The Cables Sleep’ are both effort. I thought that Rock Twist girls said and when place in my dreams, is THINGS (INTERSCOPE) player was an achievement distant like a mountain and Roll was easy. Like I went back to the boy I that they all hang out in ‘I memorise the basics,’ of monolithic proportions. view and close-up like a me. Kidding. Although I am was with, he glared at the same places as the sings as Second record ‘Razorblade memory you never realised lying down already, so... me. “I’m just doing stuff rest of us. They’re from ‘’, the opening Suitcase’, despite the you had. And there’s a fury for the Graffiti fanzine,” the same world. And so track on Bush’s third radio-conquering ‘Swal- on ‘Prize Fighter’ and ‘The Anyway, I moved to the I told him. My face was when I glanced across the album, explodes. lowed’, didn’t quite meet Disease Of The Dancing Cats’ city ‘cause I thought to flushed. Hell on Earth. downstairs room at The the same standard. But that actually makes sense of my post-sixth-form, small- Monarch the other week It’s an interesting opening ‘’ the grunge comparisons. town self: ‘There must Elsewhere in the city, at this dude with big, given that the band’s is a massive statement be more to this SUCKFEST Feeder headlined The red spiky hair, I liked detractors would say that’s of intent. Stadium-sized If ‘The Science Of Things’ than someone’s letting Astoria. I’ve being crazy that the first thought I all this group have ever yet introverted, it’s a proves anything, it’s that on.’ The winter of 1999 for them since they played had wasn’t: ‘Oh, it’s the done. Widely disdained, tapestry of ruthlessly Bush have soul. showed some promise. Nine The Falcon last year. singer from Muse.’ Instead, particularly in the UK melodic guitar playing and guys from Iowa dressed in Drummer Jon Lee was on I thought: ‘I recognise (only in the UK?) for consciously acute vocals. At once submerged and red boiler suits, jumping crutches back then and that guy from The Falcon.’ taking the blueprint of ‘’ fin-sharp, it’s a cusp-mil- off amp stacks and hitting such a sweetheart. “How grunge and then re-hashing is the noise of a band lennium record with each other around the head are you?” he asked me when That’s what it’s about. The it with no concern for its articulating the sound of added distortion and it with blunt instruments. we passed at the bottom of city isn’t just a city. It’s inherent essence, Bush are water – with ‘The Science glues the sound of falling Now That’s What I Call the stairs. I didn’t know a place where your favourite out on their own. Mainly, Of Things’, Bush have built Rome to the hopefulness of Music. At the other end what to say. My Vitriol songs turn into taxis and, those same cynics would a record that simulates a sunrise. of the scale, there was were on that Astoria whizzing around the streets, say, because that’s where the emergence of Atlantis little who only bill as well and could you can see life exactly how they deserve to be. Exiled. - whilst the emotions on recently played The Camden take a leaf out of cheery it’s meant to be. And it’s not Banished. Barred. ‘English Fire’, on Falcon, my local drinking Feeder’s book. If you see such a suckfest after all...

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DEFTONES, (MAVERICK) THE JUNKET, LUX SAFARI length debut with a is profoundly affecting. (LIME STREET) quivering twitchiness; That the theme of para- There was always something about the singers interweave lysing passions is Deftones. Frontman ’s silky like thread but invest continued throughout vocals meant the Sacramento quintet were ’59 Rope’ with a surround this record without ever immediately far more than just another sound that feels claustro- becoming wishy-washy is scene band. There was a sensuality to phobic and schizophrenic. HIM’s greatest achieve- early songs such as ‘Bored’ that wasn’t Bonus track ‘The King Of ment. Bruising guitars, evident in, say, ’s ‘Blind’. The Lettuce Line’ is an heart-piercing unexpected climax and one and an enchanting melo- That romantic streak was emphasised even that really sends this diousness all combine more potently on Deftones’ second album record over the edge and to make ‘Razorblade ‘’. Still, though, ‘White into the stratosphere. Romance’ a heavyweight Pony’ comes as something of a shock. Even Nirvana never sounded creation that bears the It’s truly a great album, one that so alienated or pissed off. weight of comparisons to people will talk about in ten, twenty, No question about it - ‘Lux Wuthering Heights. It’s thirty years’ time. Safari’ is the first essen- an endorphin rush of a The Junket have got a cool tial album of this century. record – some feat given Again, Moreno’s vocals do much of the record collection. We’re Ville’s Siren-like habit important work. It’s easy to imagine him sure of it. , The of encouraging listen- like a miniaturised miner, working with Pecadiloes, Pavement, HIM, RAZORBLADE ROMANCE (BMG) ers to: ‘die tonight a pick and excavating your heart, digging Smashing Pumpkins, Built for love’ (‘Join Me In for coal or oil or whatever it is that To Spill, Deus. There are Death’) and ‘witness it actually makes us human. You can liter- bits and pieces of all all go wrong’ (‘Death Is ally feel the singer hammering against these artists here. But, In Love With Us’). And your heart, resuscitating you – if it boy, this Kettering outfit the serotoninal results wasn’t for this album you might never have engineered their might appear somewhat have realised you weren’t properly alive influences with an integ- paradoxical considering to begin with. Such is the physicality of rity and a spirit that some of those lyrics but Deftones’ music. will make them YOUR NEW the rush actually makes FAVOURITE BAND. sense of HIM’s inten- The production here is key. It would have tion to highlight our been easy for the heavy, heavy guitars to ‘Night With Red’ sounds spiritual capacity. sound too aggressive; instead, though, like a racing car driven the rhythm section massages rather than by James Dean. It’s It’s as if HIM are mutilates. Even ‘Elite’ – which isn’t cartoonish but only in pushing us to the edge as much a song as some form of musical a way that reminds you , frontman of of reason so that we extermination - somehow never loses a how closely art mimics Finnish quartet HIM, is can uncover some hidden lullaby-ish essence. And ‘Change (In reality. And it’s only half Byron poem and half potential. And if that The House Of Flies)’ will be the track fantastical if you’ve Byron himself. Rock music all sounds a little maso- that turns Deftones into stars. An epic, already decided your has never been so chistic, there’s dramatic narrative, it’s a moment of imagination needs to be romantic and HIM’s second HIM are the kind of band true, inspired beauty. curbed by other people’s full-length album is the capable of attracting a rules or expectations. sound of Brontë’s Heath- fanbase utterly committed The rest of ‘White Pony’ may not be so cliff and Cathy being to embracing the Finnish accessible but that ‘easier’ song (posi- Ultimately, ‘Lux Safari’ reborn at the beginning outfit’s world view as a tioned carefully near the end of the changes every time you of the new millennium. lifestyle. Not that you album) should serve as a hint of the listen to it at a differ- have to. Just listen in rewards to be found beneath the surface ent volume and it’s ‘Poison Girl’ is as for 45 minutes, if that’s of this entire record should you take the actually verging on being captivating as anything all you want to do, and time to unearth them. seriously insane. Maybe here. ‘I did it all just indulge in the other- it’s the three vocals for her,’ sings Valo and worldly sound of Ville (of guitarist Rik Flynn, the sense of infatuation Valo tearing his body bassist Stevie Rees and – not just with a woman, apart in the hope of drummer Reu Humphries) but with the abstract finding his soul. Powerful. that cloak this full- concept of love itself –

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MY VITRIOL, CAMDEN FALCON you belong will never change. And that’s why it’s a place worth knowing about. They don’t come more hyped than My Real people hang out here. The glossy, Vitriol. How many gigs have the band neon world of the bright lights/big city played? More than five, less than ten. seems miles away and who knows how The However you add it up, that’s not many. Falcon managed to get left behind. Maybe And yet somehow the band - alongside because it couldn’t be bothered to follow Coldplay, JJ72 and Muse - find themselves the crowd – it was too drunk and there heralded as the saviours of British was too much rock ‘n’ roll to listen to. guitar music. Not a bad place to be Probably because it stuck its claws in considering only a handful of people have the ground, believed that one day guitar seen them play live. music would matter to people again and it was just a case of waiting it out. And Tonight, though, we do get that chance that’s what it feels like everyone’s been and when they perform ‘Always Your Way’ doing here. The door staff are part of and ‘Pieces’ from their debut Org issued SLIPKNOT, ASTORIA the fabric of the place, the bartenders double A-side, the crowd are hooked. are the same every night, the soundtrack You can tell Slipknot are coming long on the CD player is as diverse as the The attention thrust Som Wardner’s way before you see them. Stage lights like CAMDEN FALCON music that gets played on stage in the may fluster him a little and he looks torches, dry ice like dawn fog. The sick- back room. It looks a bit like a bunker nervous but My Vitriol’s songs never ening whir of nine light combat helicop- It’s May 1999 and there’s a massive in here and that makes sense. sound anything less than as big as ters. Sirens wail, phantomish air raid poster advertising Crocketts single an ocean. Which is about what you’d warnings pulsate. We are half-euphoric, ‘James Dean-esque’ on one wall of the In 2000, The Falcon would be well within expect from a band who manage to fuse half-exhausted, half-sick. Nothing quite pub. At the door there are piles of its rights to throw its arms in the air Foo Fighter-esque hooks with My Bloody adds up anymore. The onset of hypoxia. No infant magazine The Fly, and scattered and start yelling out the words to ‘We Valentine-inspired ‘nu-gaze’. ‘Am I one runs. We’ve arrived. Breathe. underfoot there are flyers for a perfor- Are The Champions’. Coldplay and that wasting your time?’ Wardner sings and the mance by a band called Muse upcoming at band Muse are spear-heading a fleet of answer is clearly: NO. Our hearts beat, beat, beat like tiny this venue next week. The floor is sticky, acts taking music that means something battery-powered toys. The smoke gets empty plastic glasses litter the top of back into the public consciousness – and TWIST, CAMDEN FALCON thicker until it’s a wall. We’ve fallen the battered pool table, and the sign it’s this back street platform which has into a 3D comic book. Into a war, into a to the Gents has been crossed out and given those artists a launchpad. Being a musician has seemed like such hard fairytale. Maybe this is the apocalypse. replaced with the title Cocks. The Ladies work in the last year or two. Worse than It sounds like it. Sirens still howl. has been adapted in a similar fashion. And because people have started to that, playing in a band has looked DULL. Nobody moves. Nobody. realise just that, this Camden pub gets There’s such little glitter, so little Amidst the selection of photos on the busier every night now. The word’s out energy and anyone picking up a guitar Then, through the choking mist, we see wall that detail the tiny venue’s pres- that this is the place to be. Some of us looks shy about it because what if all them. Nine soldiers emerging from the tigious history of discovering bands have known for much longer, of course. those people who say this kind of music is death zone. One by one, we count them. first, there’s a shot of singer Davey And if you were here the night Travis actually DEAD have got a point? They flicker like an old film. They are Crockett. Wild-eyed, and bleeding from handed out tapes of their first demo, or wearing masks. Our faces melt. Like a self-inflicted cut on his forehead, he when, at the beginning of last year, It’s a worry and on one hand it kind of candles. Flicker. stares down from the wall. In the other Feeder played an intimate show to launch makes sense that so many musicians are in corner of the room sits the real thing. the release of ‘Yesterday Went Too Soon’ a right mood. Most of the UK is listen- From Iowa to the front line. With songs He’s drinking Guinness, and the rest then you’ll know what I mean when I say ing to Oasis or dance music and hardly louder than bombs. It’s time to choose. of his band are kicking about too in The Camden Falcon is a magical place with anyone’s listening to the interesting You’re with them. Or not. Decide. various states of inebriation. This is music plastered into its very infra- bands which means they’ll be stuck playing The Camden Falcon. structure. There may be beer on the floor back rooms in pubs FOREVER. They are barbed wire. You are too. That’s and cigarette burns in the upholstery right. You. That was a little over half a year ago but these are the venue’s battle scars. One group who couldn’t give a hoot are – the first time I think I really appre- They’ve been well-earned. Birmingham’s Twist. They’re brash, smart This is hell. You’ve arrived. Welcome. ciated what I was part of. Some of the and they’ve got an English angularity posters will have changed since then. And which is both awkward and exhilarating. You ready? Right. there might be a different band – Rachel Tonight they are primal, pumping The Stamp maybe, Three Colours Red perhaps – Falcon full of life. Just maybe ROCK has “SPIT...” sitting in the corner. But the sensation a future after all... that, in The Falcon, you’re somewhere

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who handed me the Pearl depended on working out a it was ‘The Lights Will said there was a church on Jam album one morning. He Maths equation written in Go Up’ that brought this the edge of his hometown was a couple of classes hieroglyphics. to my attention. Carlito square and that’s where above me and he walked had been bugging me for he sets it – it could be around school, not like he On a more specific level, I don’t know how long to the narrative of any of a owned the place but like the detachment in my home hear the demo, and eventu- billion teenagers, right? he didn’t think it was life rationalised the ally I listened. And it feels so personal owned by anyone. He had immediacy of my relation- So, yeah, man, I heard because actually it is this way about him that ship with Pearl Jam and ‘The Lights Will Go Up’ that personal to any indi- made him seem detached pinpointed the stabbing I and I thought that these vidual who has ever looked from anyone else’s expec- felt in my gut when Eddie kids must have something through rose-tinted shades tations, as if getting Vedder repeated that same about them. And because at a life they think through life wasn’t hard question: ‘Why go home?’ they sang about Stand By they recognise from a for him at all. If you My domestic set-up wasn’t Me and Pearl Jam, I was Dirty Dancing movie. And, watched him carefully, a situation I killed willing to overlook the dude, who doesn’t want to though, you would notice myself over but somewhere Feeder reference. believe that life can feel that he had this nervous deep beneath the under- like a Brat Pack film? Or habit of rubbing his fore- standing that over-think- Obviously we recorded it that a mannequin can come finger over his eyebrow. ing it was pointless, I for about ten pence and to life and fall in love “You got to listen to guess a part of me still in about half a second, with you whilst a Starship this,” Junkie said to me needed the sanctuary that which is the kind of thing soundtrack plays in the and he held out a copy of ‘Ten’ offered. There was a that could drive Gandhi background? I’m a sucker ‘Ten’ on cassette. warmth to it. crazy, but even regard- for that jazz. And, as I less of that it would said, that’s half of what When I got home, I lay on Songs like ‘Black’ were have been hard to get sold me on these cats. my bedroom floor and put physical entities. They right. On one hand, it’s a my headphones on. Listen- stood up in front of me rousing, upbeat track – it But it wasn’t just that ing to those songs for the and I could feel the heat wants you to do what it these guys bought into first time was like meeting from them as surely as if tells you to do – ‘dance, that Lost Boys thing. It someone my age at last. I’d turned on a radiator. dance, dance’ - but at the was the fact that they And of course I was only And then there were those same time, it’s a pretty really believed that the thirteen years old so I riffs that personal song... ‘one for all and all for knew the singer – I looked inspired me to pick up a one’ stuff could actually up his name, Eddie Vedder, guitar. Never ostentatious Of course, JD wanted it be a part of their real in the inlay notes – was or over-blown, they suited to be both those things life. And, man, I guess not my age at all. But a band that managed to be at once. The same way deep inside of me (don’t his voice spoke to me as big and melodic without he wanted it to sound tell anyone) there was clearly as the voices of sacrificing integrity. exactly like Blind Melon still a dreamer who all my peers did not. ‘Ten’ made my life better. and Bush at the same time. believed that too. No I reckon that’s about all The fortunate end result doubt, he was a bit sick And it’s not like I had any you can ask from an album. is that it sounds like from smoking since the desire to hide a ‘16 gauge neither (more fortunate in age of ten, but he was under my clothes’ like the the latter case than the still alive. CHAMBERS ON ‘TEN’ boy in ‘Once’ did, but the DAVID ON ‘THE LIGHTS former). But that’s just way Vedder narrated that WILL GO UP’ luck, man. That kitten’s And I reckon that dreamer School didn’t make much character’s story connected on his own planet. still exists in everyone sense to me. It wasn’t with me. I could understand A cool thing about this – trapped in some kind that I felt older than how feeling like you were cut is its reference The thing is with this of stasis booth like Dave everyone in my year group on the outside of things points. I grew up in a song is we’ve all been Lister on Red Dwarf. So, – more that they seemed might turn to bitterness or different world to JD and there. And as much as ‘The Lights Will Go Up’, younger. I can see how anger. I didn’t feel that Chambers, and definitely to you can hear ‘The Lights I guess, is for your inner that might appear to way exactly – my disassoci- Sawyer, but it turns out Will Go Up’ and see JD Lister. Your inner Dave. amount to more or less the ation was much more passive we grew up watching the and Chambers cutting back Or something like that. same thing but it doesn’t. – but I did relate to the same movies and listening on the town hall steps It was a kid called Junkie sense that actual happiness to the same music. And or whatever – I think JD What was the question?

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SAWYER DAVID

1. PEARL JAM: JEREMY 1. MOTHER LOVE BONE: THIS IS SHANGRILA 2. TEMPLE OF THE DOG: HUNGER STRIKE 2. PIXIES: PLANET OF SOUND 3. COUNTING CROWS: MR JONES 3. LOVE BATTERY: ONE SMALL STEP 4. BUFFALO TOM: TAILLIGHTS FADE 4. TEMPLE OF THE DOG: REACH DOWN 5. BUSH: GLYCERINE 5. : GOD SMACK 6. NIRVANA: SOMETHING IN THE WAY 6. GREEN RIVER: THIS TOWN 7. BLIND MELON: 7. : TOUCH ME I’M SICK 8. FEEDER: HIGH 8. TEMPLE OF THE DOG: HUNGER STRIKE 9. NIRVANA: HEART-SHAPED BOX 9. MOTHER LOVE BONE: STARDOG CHAMPION 10. : FAR BEHIND 10. NIRVANA: LOVE BUZZ

CHAMBERS JD

1. BLIND MELON: CHANGE 1. NIRVANA: DUMB 2. CRANES: PARIS & ROME 2. MANIC STREET PREACHERS: ARCHIVES OF PAIN 3. ERIC’S TRIP: BEHIND THE GARAGE 3. RADIOHEAD: CREEP 4. SUEDE: STILL LIFE 4. BLIND MELON: 5. RED HOUSE PAINTERS: KATY SONG 5. VERVE: ALL IN THE MIND 6. MASSIVE ATTACK: UNFINISHED SYMPATHY 6. : SLUNK 7. PEARL JAM: BETTER MAN 7. SOUL ASYLUM: RUNAWAY TRAIN 8. SMASHING PUMPKINS: LANDSLIDE 8. SUEDE: THE ASPHALT WORLD 9. JAMES: OUT TO GET YOU 9. THE AFGHAN WHIGS: WHAT JAIL IS LIKE 10. ANGELO BADALAMENTI: TWIN PEAKS THEME 10. PEARL JAM: OCEANS

CHILDREN OF GRAFFITI HAS BEEN ADORINGLY ASSEMBLED BY SAWYER WITH THE HELP OF ROCK ‘N’ ROLL REVIEWER JD, CHILLED OUT, CLOSET OBSESSIVE CHAMBERS AND DROP-DEAD DEGENERATE DAVID. ALL FOUR OF THESE PEOPLE ARE ALSO IN A BAND CALLED CHILDREN OF GRAFFITI.

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