INTERVIEW OX Fanzine / April 2010

This is an absolutely new band. Les Hatepinks are over...
We, Irritones, have a first and brand new LP “Negative Dots” out on P-Trash. Also, we, Irritones, we have a split 25cm with the Shoemakers that should be out now on Wanda Records when you read this, blah blah blah...

We asked Ox for an interview just to do some promotion before we go on tour in Germany. It was just to play the little “normal” promotional game. The only answer we had was some masochist feedback asking us to list “5 clichés about Germany that are really true, as observed on various tours in this beautiful country”!

Lazy Schweine!
We should have asked Plastic Bomb. At least, they are punk.

How should we promote an new punk band by only listing un-punk things like : 1-they got bigger Würste, 2-they are so good at organizing things that should stay wild and chaotic, like : shows, clubs, labels, 3-they are still culpabilising about some shit the Big German Reich did some years ago, 4-they often have a moustache?...

We, Irritones, hope you know this great TV-show named Karambolage on Arte?
If you do, keep on looking at this program, because our list is not going to be similar : “Hey! In France it’s so much better when it comes to food/girls have shaved legs in France/In France we don’t use stupid bicycles/We are so suave in France...”
France is shit, but so is Germany. Only occidental under-USA countries...

But we have imperative : here is our TOP-5 list of things that we, Irritones, think are not only clichés, but also big differences in both underground cultures. Hey by the way, we, Irritones, are : Miguel and Rudy, from Aggravation, Olivier Gasoil, ex-Hatepinks and Sonic Polo; still in The Holy Curse) :

1- German records covers : ach Donnerwetter! so rock und Roll!
Put some dices, a pin-up, a hot-rod, add some flaming and you got it.

2- No drugs in German clubs
Where is all the nazi speed gone?

3- A lot of help from the state for the underground
Maybe it’s a mistake, but we always wonder to see such nice Jugendhäuser runed by ultra-punk guys with mohawks, or such a big and great squat-scene. In France the state tolerates no squats and Jugendhäuser are only for sportive kids and cooking courses Housewives.

4- Germans love logos
Look at the festivals posters, we have never seen a country with such an amount of logos. And logos not only for regular commercial companies, but even the small record shops, fanzines, the streetpunk-leopard-gothic boutiques, they all got logos! Everywhere!

5- German reactions to nazi humor
Some guy was talking about his love for Louis de Funes movies, especially Der Gendarm, telling us it was the best French film he knows. He then asked what is your favourite German film : “Nacht und Nebel”. The German guy went away.

Is this not a perfect marketing plan?
Don’t touch me. If you touch me with your product I’m sure I am going to die.