by Michael Hill

For over a decade, Pelican have been navigating the changing tides of a musical movement that they, along with one-time label mates Isis, helped to create. Where most bands tended toward hyperbole in their song structures, Pelican's music has a sense of immediacy that set them apart from the legion of carbon-copy bands that favored the "loud-soft-loud-crescendo" formula. Pelican added a more apocalyptic sensibility to the epic musings.

A few years ago, my band Tombs had the opportunity to tour with them. We unanimously thought this was a good thing because Pelican, aside from gaining a high standing with critics, had also garnered a very devoted following. It was one of the easiest tours I've ever done; everyone was cool, professional and totally about the music, but it was at a Denny's in San Antonio that we solidified our friendship. Or was it the white-knuckle drive across the Midwest during a freak snow storm that we did together that made us road-brothers. Either way, I feel honored to call them my friends.

Call it synchronicity, but Trevor de Brauw would be in Los Angeles on the same weekend that Tombs was scheduled to play with Exhumed as part of a Scion / Relapse showcase. I met up with Trevor and drummer Larry Herweg after our set to discuss the forthcoming EP Ataraxia / Taraxis (due via Southern Lord on 4/10), the creative process, working in a band with members living in two cities and the normal jack-assery that results when three friends get together on a warm Saturday afternoon...

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intro by BBG, interview by Mike Hill

Last night, June 23rd, marked the final Isis show ever in Montreal. And here is Part Two of our discussion with Aaron Turner of Isis (check out part one). Mike Hill cornered the guitarist and Hydrahead Records owner on one of their last ever dates on the west coast in early June (they played MHOW and Webster this past weekend). The Isis frontman reflects on his time with the group, band democracy, the writing process, House of Low Culture/Old Man Gloom and so much more. The results are below...

Continue reading "an interview with Aaron Turner of Isis by Mike Hill (part 2) "

by Mike Hill

Aaron Turner of Isis

I received a phone call from Isis guitarist Mike Gallagher one night back in March asking if my band, Tombs, would be available to support Isis on a short run of dates on the West Coast. The Mayhem tour, which we were supposed to be on, had just been cancelled, we were eager to get back on the road so the answer was emphatically "yes". Furthermore, touring with Isis is one of the easiest tours you could ever be on. Aside from the shows being packed, the band and their crew are some of the warmest and most professional people I've ever known.

During the months leading up to the tour, it was announced that this would be the final Isis tour, ending a nearly 13 year career. To me it was an end of an era, both personally and as a fan of extreme music. I had witnessed the formation of the band back in Boston during the late 90's at most of their early shows. It was clear to me that the band was on a trajectory that would take them past their murky, D.I.Y. roots and propel them into a realm that most bands aspire to but few actually reach.

[ED: Make sure and catch the band at their last NYC shows this weekend! Tonight's show at Webster Hall (6/18) is soldout, but MHOW tomorrow (6/19) is still available]

Their contribution to the world of music is undeniable as most of their imitators would attest to. Within the decade plus that the band existed, they continued to challenge themselves and their fans with an ever expanding palette of creative textures and moods, yet always maintaining a common thread running through each release that would identify them as the originators.

During the week that would be their final West Coast shows, I had the opportunity to sit with Aaron Turner and reflect of the past, present and future.

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MIKE HILL: We're a couple of days into this tour, how is it going so far? Is everyone having a good time?

AARON TURNER: I think everybody's having a good time. There's a lot of mixed feelings I think. Everybody in the band going into this knowing this is the last tour colors their perception of the experience quite a bit. I can't really say what it's like for those guys, but I was expecting some sort of cathartic feeling out of the process but it really, at the moment, just feels like another tour; which is not to say that I'm cynical about it because with almost every show I've ever played with Isis, I've tried to put myself into it as much as I possibly can so that still holds true. There is a thought that's crossed my mind at times, during each set, knowing that this is the last time that we'll ever play as Isis in this particular city...I don't really know how I feel about it yet, I feel like it's going to take me a while to process it and I feel like it's not going to actually feel like the final shows until we're at the end on the east coast and there's like two shows left.

But everything is going pretty good, I mean...we've toured with so many bands, I've gotten to see how other bands interact and I feel very lucky with how well we get along even if we're deciding to call it quits and there's some weird stuff that comes up with that, for the most part we get along really awesome.

continued below...

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interview by Mike Hill, intro by BBG

Thou at Scion Rock Fest 2010 (more by Christopher Mumma)

You may know Mike Hill from one of his many escapades as an axeslinger, or as head maniac at Black Box Recordings. The former Anodyne frontman is currently going full steam ahead with his latest project Tombs, who released their critically acclaimed Winter Hours early last year. I liked it. A lot. Since touring the US relentlessly and taking a stop down to SXSW to play the Relapse official showcase, Mike sat down to speak with the Louisiana juggernaut known as Thou on the eve of their tour to the east coast. That tour comes to NYC at ABC No Rio on 4/10 with From The Depths, Stockade, and Wulfkrieg (get there!). The results from his conversation are below...

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interview by Black Bubblegum, photos by Toby Tenenbaum

DOWNLOAD: Tombs - "Gossamer" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: King Generator - "Tell Me Why" (M4A)
DOWNLOAD: King Generator - "Plagues" (M4A)
DOWNLOAD: Tombs - "Course Of Empire" (M4A)
DOWNLOAD: Tombs - "Darker Than Your Nights" (M4A)
DOWNLOAD: Versoma - "Symbols & Abbreviations" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Versoma - "The Black Train" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Sino Basila - "Draconian" (MP3)

Recently I was talking to a record label owner about Tombs which quickly moved to a discussion about Tombs frontman Mike Hill. The label owner responded:
"He's a lifer."
It's evident by Hill's years slugging away in the metal underground, his many projects, recordings, and his label Black Box Recordings that Hill most definitely IS.

Mike Hill came up as a member of Anodyne, the noise-hardcore band formed in the fertile scene of Boston in the 1990s, a scene that also gave birth to Converge, Isis, Disrupt, Grief, and countless others. Over the course of eight years, two cities (Boston & NYC), two LPs, two EPs, and three 7-inches, Anodyne toured the world until finally dissolving in 2005. Hill's next project, the short-lived Versoma with Jamie Getz of Lickgoldensky, was a sharp left turn from Anodyne, but nonetheless lead to the critically-lauded EP, Life During Wartime. Jamie Getz went on to form Gods & Queens.

Outside from his time on stage, Mike Hill also stayed involved behind the scenes as owner of Black Box Recordings and as an engineer/producer. With Brian McTernan (Battery), Mike Hill co-founded Salad Days Studios which lead to a string of production/engineering work in multiple studios for a veritiable who's who of the hardcore underground including Isis, Premonitions of War, American Nightmare, Hot Cross, Burnt By The Sun, Lickgoldensky, and many others. As Anodyne came to a close, Mike Hill kicked off his Black Box Recordings imprint with The First Four Years: Discography Vol 1, a compilation of Anodyne's recorded output, eventually releasing records by Engineer, ASRA, The Wayward, and a retrospective by the late, great Black Army Jacket.

Which brings us to Tombs, Mike Hill's latest undertaking with Andrew Hernandez (ex-ASRA) and Carson James, who are readying their second LP and Relapse debut entitled Winter Hours. A tour de force of jaw-clenching hardcore, frosty black metal, and swirling shoegaze psychedelia, Winter Hours is one of the few records to stand head and shoulders above the pack in this young new year. We sat down to talk with Mike Hill about the new record, his collaboration with Dave Witte (Discordance Axis, Municipal Waste, others) as King Generator, his time in Versoma, and who he feels is a truly unsung band from the heavy underground.

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Winter Hours is very powerful... not just in a "killer riffs" sense, but more importantly, in an emotive sense. That said, do you care to share your thought process on or where you were (emotionally/personally/spiritually) when you were writing "Merrimack"? Seems to me to be a very cathartic track.

It's about choosing the wrong path with someone and completely destroying something that could have been beautiful. Basically, the character in the song gave into selfishness, ego and immaturity and ended up alone at the end of it; it's similar to gambling, thinking that you can achieve more than you need and losing it all.

continued below...

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