Lebenden Toten - State Laughter (Feral Ward)

It is sux when you spill half of your cider all over your 4-track. It's bad enough when your mate Tix falls asleep with a smoke in his fingers and almost burns down your goddamn brown sofa, your copy of Swankys-control and them Nuclear Addicts back patches what vez done; but lubricating your 4-track, shit, how are you going to record your piss-raw, sub-demo quality records?Lebenden Toten seems to have mastered the above on their “State Laughter” record. A collection of releases by these PDX filf-kickers; it has all the characteristics of confuse and disorder, albeit, without a fraction of the hooks that made those bands stand out from the plethora of the rararas, the murmur murmur murmurs, and the rattatatats of similar outfits. The atonal nature of the guitars provides some truly grating moments that even rival watching your grandmother trying to operate a VCR in ‘’get me the fuck outta here’’ levels. The Oscar the Grouch drum sound is more akin to a piece of sheet metal being continuously dropped in a factory environment than an actual Moon the Loon swift-one. A decapitated Yardbird with bound feet provides the vocal delivery whilst trying to navigate an ice skating rink. The bass rumbles out some chaotic, shitstorm lines, however, nothing of the rhythmic devastation of say ‘’No War No Nukes’’.Ultimately, this has a pretty decent taste. Perhaps if one owned the records themselves, one could properly digest these chunks in generous, yet chewable portions. However, this is a bloody Hungry jacks upgrade, minus the meat, with a thirty cent cone and a side of onion rings! And whilst I enjoy a Bacon Deluxe now and then, I can’t quite iron guts an upgrade like I used to be able to. Oh and by the way, Tix is alright, he just burnt his home-made knuckle tatts a bit.

Rupture Interview

INTERVIEW WITH ZOMBO FROM RUPTURE.

29/11/2006.

1-Firstly, Im curious as to how a lad in the suburbs of perth discovered punk rock? Why not Chisel?

I was at a Barnesy concert mate, when I heard working Class Man and suddenly got inspired to start writing songs for Rupture. Also I didn't discover punk rock - I invented it. My first real band was Zitbastard which was basically a hate band directed at one individual. their "music" was inspired by the likes of SOD, Wehrmacht, Septic Death and Mental Abuse, among others. Andrew/Gus from Rupture was also in that band, which is where we first met, and we also recruited Stumbles some years later. Ancient history!

2- How did the band meet and at what age did you all become friends/decide to form a band? What were you listening to at the time? I hear alot of Napalm, righteous pigs (etc) in the ''Forceps'' sound?

Well you'd be pretty on the money there - we loved Napalm and Righteous Pig's first albums - a huge inspiration at the time. Unfortunately we decided to record that ep while the singer was off partying in Sydney, what a pile of horse shit it turned out to be. Righteous Fuck was the first "real" Rupture record for me.

3- It's well documented that early rupture was alot more politically motivated at the time than lets say, ''Gamma 693'', ''The Golden Showers Of Sinbad '' or ''Brotherhood Of Sea Cucumbers''. At which point did you decide to drop the faux-politics and opt for what appears to be, a more honest and indentifiably rupture-esque approach.

All the political stuff was written by the singer. I guess he just had no other ideas at the time. When we did Righteous Fuck we started to encourage some more honesty and intelligence from his lyric writing, and that's when he started to blossom, and when me and Stumbles became involved. By the time we were ready to do Corrupture we'd pretty much found our mojo. I don't knock that early shit - it's a bunch of kids without a direction, but with a bit of a clue.

4- What are some of your favorite rupture songs, song titles and lyrics? Please explain the meaning behind some of the more bizzare, hillarious, ambiguous and obscure numbers?

I'll explain the ones you mentioned - Gamma 693 was my baby which was inspired by the film Night of the Zombies. I callled it Gamma 693 which turned out to be another zombie type movie. The song was written in fun. Golden Showers of Sinbad was me and Gus having a laugh over a bottle of bourbon and throwing lines in here and there. It means nothing - it made us laugh then, and makes people laugh now. Not sure about Brotherhood - Gus or Stumbles wrote that. Once again it means very little. Obscure in-jokes were our way of communicating most of the time, and thats what you see in the songs. Outsiders simply can't grasp a lot of it.


5- Explain your artwork. Your process, inspiration, favorite artists...

Er, well that's a tough question because I don't have many favourite artists, I love most of what I see at galleries etc. I'm no expert. I started drawing as a child, I used to draw the best dinosaurs in my school. In high school I drew gore and monsters. At 17 I decided to start making murals. I'm 34 now and on my 15th mural, so it takes a long time. It's a lifelong oddessey(did I spell that write?). I make art for myself, not for any market or to please anybody else. The obsession with horror and stuff has pretty much run it's course and now I'm just making purely abstract images. My medium is pens and pencils.

6- What drugs were you guys into at the time? Obviously pot played a big part in the earl;y, ''smoke weed, play fast'' rupture years. Any good drug/alcohol related stories?

Uh, well we smoked a lot of dope when we were hanging around in Zitbastard, then when we formed Rupture we discovered all sort of things like magic mushrooms, acid trips, esctasy, and speed which became my drug of choice. And alcohol. (Lots of it.)I've never touched heroin. Now, I'm pretty much not doing any of that hard shit, just drink and smoke the occasional weed when I'm in the rehearsal room with my boys. Most of the people who keep doing it end up dead by 30. I have a long, long list of people my age who arn't here any more.

7- Despite the backlash to what was percieved to be the ''moronic'' lyrical content of the band, you guys seemed to grow in popularity and notoriety (albiet:outside of perth). You must have recieved alot of interesting letters at the time. Anything of note come to mind?

I've never read much letters and correspondence because most of that was handled by the other guys. I"ve always been aware that we were pissing people off, and it's always tickled me pink. I don't know why exactly - I guess I've always got this weird kick out of fucking with people's heads.

8- Due to the reputation the band had, it is obvious that it was diffeicult for the band to play live in perth at this time. Was this the catalyst for moving east, or were there other reasons?

We moved because we were trying to escape each other mainly. But we ended up back together. It's odd isn't it? All Gus needed was a good stay in rehab, and perhaps what we all could have done with is some psychological help! Some relationships are like that, and so are some bands - you drive each other up the wall.

9- The band eventually moved towards a more Killed by Death, Bloodstains sound. What are your favorite KBD records?

I don't have any.

10- Around this time, the band appeared to become alot more confrontational and deliberatly antagonistic as far as ''right-wing undertones'', racism, nazi-imagery (etc) on the records. Please explain the reasoning behind this? It seemed to alienate a large portion of your audience, however, the band still remained prolific.

The Soapfarm material was purely for shock value, it's simple really. This may disappoint but I'm liberal minded. I don't dig fascism, nazi or otherwise. Race? Couldn't care less (unless your from Perth). Everyone's a fuckhead right(except me). It's OK to blow up a church, a mosque, a synagogue etc, if for fun, not for a cause or any serious "issue". Anarchy foreva! Free love too. We all die - why not do it in style? The suicide bombers have totally got it wrong, I pity them. Suicide is way too personal to waste on a "cause". The same with murder. The same with music!

11- Why did you leave rupture? What was it like to be an outsider looking in on a band that you had been a part of for so many years?

It was the only thing left for me to do - the band had totally gone to shit. We should have split a good 3,4 years earlier. I just didn't have the confidence that I'd be able to start something worthwhile with other people.

12- Obviously the band came to an end with Andrew's passing. This must have come as a great shock.

Yes it sucked. For me, it wasn't totally unexpected. But it's a waste. He was a pretty fuckin funny dude,when he wasn't being a cunt.

13- What have you been doing since the band? What are your future plans? Do you hold any great hope for humanity? Will you eventually join a commune?

I've been playing music. It's what I wanna do until the planet burns up.