Ithaca Underground’s Bubba Crumrine snags some time with Alex Nagle and Evan Lipson of Philadelphia’s nearly unclassifiable SATANIZED.  High-energy like punk, heavy like metal, blistering and deafening like noise, but still like none of them, well more than the sum of its parts, and capped off by one of the best live chaos this side of the Mason/Dixon -  this will be an experience to remember for those coming out to The Annex, on Tuesday, Feb 22nd to catch the STNZD men with Philly noise brethren DRUMSLIKEMACHINEGUNS, locals DAADs and Mike (A)!. Let’s get familiar shall we?

IU: What's the current line-up for the band?

AN:
-Gaspar, Andrew
-Klopfenstein, Vincent
-Lipson, Evan
-Nagle, Alex

IU: Give us a brief history of Satanized:

AN: I started Satanized in '05 with my drummer friend Matt and a revolving cast of bassists. This incarnation of the band never got it together enough to play shows and dissolved after a few months. Evan came into the picture shortly after. Since we worked well together in Flittermice of Eld and Normal Love, I asked him if he was interested in playing the first batch of Satanized songs and if he knew a suitable drummer. He agreed and got his friend Pete Angevine to play for us. At that point we needed a singer and after a period of searching, I met our first singer Natalie. The band's gestation was now over and we played our first show, auspiciously enough, on 06/06/06. At the end of the summer, Natalie left Philly for college and we replaced her with Andrew.

This first solid lineup played out locally a lot over the next year and in early ’07 we recorded the first CD. Some East Coast touring followed, as did new music. The long-delayed split with AIDS Wolf finally came out early in ’10 and Pete quit in the late spring. Vince took over for him in the fall and we played our debut show with the current lineup with AIDS Wolf’s Philly show in late October. We’re now preparing for tour with Drums Like Machine Guns which will happen in a few weeks!

IU: How did you guys each get into noise & extreme music?

AN: In short it's because I've been into extreme metal since I was a teenager and Relapse records put out a lot of Japanese noise in the 90s. I picked up an issue of Wire magazine because it had a cover story on Coil and that introduced me to a lot of other experimental and electronic music. Along with metal, I've concurrently been into free jazz, modern composition, etc. Another watershed moment for me was when my first real band, Thoughtstreams, played shows on tour with the Infection and Decline lineup of the Flying Luttenbachers. Weasel and my slightly older bandmate Forbes definitely turned me onto a lot of influential stuff I wouldn't have heard otherwise. I don't see Satanized as a noise band though.

EL: My initial exposure to noise also came via the 90's Japanese variety (specifically the work of Otomo Yoshihide and his band Ground Zero), although I never listened to any of the recordings that were put out by Relapse. By that point, I was also pretty steeped in a lot of modernist composition, free jazz, and other types of weird and experimental music, so it wasn't anything that seemed totally foreign or unrelated to me. Concurrently, there was also a burgeoning noise scene that was happening in Philadelphia, thanks largely in part to the efforts of Breathmint Record's label head, instigator, and impresario Mat Rademan (AKA Newton). Andrew was actually the one who was involved much more directly with this, but I can recall one particular instance that took place at The Fun-O-Rama (RIP) around Thanksgiving of '01, in which three future members of Satanized (Andrew, Pete, and myself) performed, in conjunction with Rademan, Wharton Tiers, Joe Lentini, an insanely feral coed, and some ragingly slow-lidded meathead, what was quite possibly the most egregiously reprehensible (and loudest) show of my life. I still feel that I owe Wharton Tiers a heartfelt apology for inviting him to take part in such a disaster. Subsequently, Philly has become quite a magnet for noise-niks in the past 5 or 6 years. To further elucidate what Alex said: although there are certainly 'noisy' and/or potentially chaotic-sounding aspects to our music, there's probably far too much pre-determined order, strategic rigor, coherent rhythms/meters, structural integrity, etc. going on for Satanized to be considered a noise band per se; CALL US ANYTHING BUT LATE FOR DINNER.

IU: How did the split with AIDS Wolf come about?


EL: We played a show with them in '07 (I believe their first in Philly) and seemed to have a shared affinity/sense of humor. The following year, our drummer at the time was recovering from a liver transplant and our current output wasn't terribly prolific, so we decided to do a split 7" and release the material that we did have with music from another band that we liked. We asked AIDS Wolf, they agreed to do it, and the record came out about two years later.

IU: How was 2010 for Satanized?

AN: Last year was marked by a few upheavals but we've responded to those constructively and are better off for it. Having Vince in the band has been great so far and his particular skill set has inspired me to write a bunch of faster, more punk/metal songs for the band.

IU: What's coming for 2011 from the band?

AN: This tour, the release of our 2nd LP, more new music and more touring.

EL: What Alex said + the return of the cape, a chorus pedal, and A LOT of musk. New jams = harder/faster/weirder.

IU: What's the best show you've ever played?

AN: We've had a lot of memorable shows. A few standouts were the shows we played at the Avant Gentlemen's Lodge in Philly with the Flying Luttenbachers and To Live And Shave In LA as well as our last Toronto show with AIDS Wolf.

EL: With this band, the best shows always seem to be the most violent and/or chaotic ones. At a certain point, shows were regularly starting to get a bit TOO out of hand for some of us. As a result, in a conscious effort to both alienate and mortify some of the more excessively aggro constituents of our audience, certain members of the band started dressing in a more stereotypically queer/flamboyant fashion. It's difficult to gauge if these tactics were actually effective in directly subduing the bloodbath, or if people simply became more passive and complacent in general (or both).... or maybe they just started to think that we were another chillwave band or something. Oddly enough, as soon as we stopped dressing in this manner, we immediately began to draw the attention of numerous bootlicking (literally) gay black men-- particularly when touring through the South. You're free to interpret all of this however you'd like. Your guess is as good as mine.

IU: Ever been to Ithaca, NY?

AN: This will be our first show in Ithaca although I think all of us have been there apart from Satanized.

EL: Once before with Normal Love via the ever fabulous Popcorn Youth. I have a lot of love for those ladyfinger lakes. We're psyched!

IU: Any last words for those planning to attend the show?

EL: In the dying words of Timothy Leary, "Why not? Yeah."

AN: No.

Catch SATANIZED, DRUMSLIKEMACHINEGUNS, DAADs, Mike (A)! at The GreenStar Annex, 700 W Buffalo St, Ithaca, NY 14850 on Tuesday, Feb 22nd 8PM $5 - all ages. 

To get there from Buffalo St - take road across the street from GreenStar Co-op Grocery between Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Joe's Take-out/Delivery... drive until you see Corks & More on your left... on your right you'll see a fenced in area w/ a warehouse marked Class Act Kitchen & Bath <-- that's it! Enter though the door marked "Showroom" 

From N. Fulton/RT 13 - You'll see the Class Act Kitchen & Bath sign as you reach the intersection with Court St - enter the lot and park. You're there!   Enter though the door marked "Showroom"