Jack Terricloth (World/Inferno Friendship Society) Speaks on TYS!

Hey everybody, my name is Jack Terricloth. I sing and am occasionally forced to play various  instruments in the popular World/Inferno Friendship Society, a gang of musical girls and boys (mostly girls at the moment actually) from Brooklyn NY! I’m here today to answer questions posed from someone I’ve never met from somewhere I’ve never been; Greece! Let’s see what he wants to know!

- Can you tell us a few things about the recording of the new album “The Anarchy and The Ecstasy”?

Sure my friendly unknown interlocutor!  We Recorded our 13th offering here in Brooklyn at Vibromonk Studios with producer Dan Shatzky who is well known for his work with many well known or at least well regarded acts, many of whom straddle the world music/rock line.  I’d list them for you but I really don’t like other bands.  They muddy up the market share and steal my musicians.  Plus I don’t want you to think that I think you are a lazy journalist and wouldn’t Google the man yourself such is my respect for your profession.  For any of our shared listeners in the know- it is also the same studio we recorded our 2^nd album ‘Just the Best Party’ ten years ago.

- What are your main musical influences?

The desire to swing, swing freely and quickly, with really loud drums and a piano skiing down a high alpine slope, with a horn section on top of the piano, chasing a remarkably good looking pair of singers who are holding hands and kicking 2 electric guitars in front of them, and the guitars are feeding back . . .

- What is special about the new album so that people have to hear it?

Ok if that’s not enough, it’s a really talented drummer, a baby grand piano, it’s the Matterhorn, the horn section are all people you would know if you googled them, the two singers are making out and I stole the guitars.

- How would you describe your sound?

YOU WOULD LIKE IT!

- You incorporate a lot of anarchy talk into WIFS.

I just gotta be me.

- What does anarchy mean to you today?

That it’s Sunday and I’m drinking in a bar doing an interview.

- And how does it translate into everyday life in the big city (or elsewhere)?

Oh that. OK, that you examine your situation, decide what is the fairest thing to do for yourself, your community that will cause the least amount of hurt or sorrow then act on it. To not be constrained by so called common sense. Believe the impossible can come true. Never give up the joke, never fall down the stairs.  Give a Hobo a quarter if you have one.

- How is working with Chunskaah?

Working with Chunksaah is like going to a Bad Brains show with the sexy substitute teacher when you are 17 and all your friends seeing you at the show with her.

- What business advice do you have to give to kids trying to become musicians on their own terms?

Don’t wait! Don’t wait for a label or a manager or anyone to tell you are good! Get your stuff out there anyway you can! No one is going to do it for you and most people will want to stop you.  Also, there is no point starting if you don’t love the whole process- touring, recording, rehearsing.  If you want to make money it would probably take less effort to become a dentist.

- Do you tour a lot?

We tour about 6 months a year, though we did take last year off to record “The Anarchy and The Ecstasy”.  We are back on the tour cycle right now.

- What are the things you hate / love about touring?

I love touring.  It is where I get to do everyday the thing I excel at.  I don’t even mind the bus- at least I’m suffering for a purpose.  ‘We share everything’ a friend of mine once wrote me about a tour she was on, ‘the sickness, the filth and the drugs’. It is like being in the perfect army in a just and kind war.

- Do you have any plans for touring Europe at any point?

Yes we do, middle of July through end of August.  www.worldinferno.com do not think we are getting to Greece sadly but there is still time.  How you guys doing over there anyway? Heard a lot about riots over in the states.

- What are your creative plans individually and musically for the remaining of 2011?

Like I said, on tour forever.  Doing some solo shows during the brief period we are home.  Not losing my apartment would be cool-you’d be surprised how creative I need to get about that. In my negligible free time I’m working on a second novel (yes, I wrote a first one. Why not look at www.jackterricloth.net ?)

- What is the message you are trying to convey with your career as an artist?

Act on impulse, don’t be cowed, don’t quit.

- I would like for you to choose a topic that you feel strongly about and tell us a few things about it. It can be music, scene, social or whatever else related! Thanks for the interview and like we said, the last words are yours.

I don’t mean this to be a cop out but you choose the topic when you invited me to talk about The World/Inferno Friendship Society. Thank you for the interest and the opportunity.

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A note from the editor: Thanks to Talia for this interview, thanks to Jack for his time and awesome answers, thanks to you for reading this. Pics stolen from all over the web, if you happen to be the owner and want your name mentioned or something, then let us know! You can check the TYS review for WIFS's latest album here.

The World/Inferno Friendship Society - "The Anarchy and the Ecstasy" (Review)

And now for something completely different... WIFS have created a record that crosses the borders of punk rock as we know it, wandering far into different musical territories that will broaden the horizons of the unsuspecting listener. It is just great when bands take the punk ethos and run with it unconfined by the dictating music boundaries. WIFS seem to do just that in their new record (their 13th record to date), as they deliver a lovely concotion of punk, folk, rock, soul, ska and something else that is totally their own.

Frontman Jack Terricloth and co have assembled to create a masterpiece of modern revolutionary rock that might not be very heavy, but it is Revolutionary and it is Rock for sure, and therefore will go down very well with fans of later DOA, The Clash etc. In fact, we could say that the WIFS is a modern-day reincarnation of a Joe Strummer inspired ghost. The players are all skilled and throw in their solos, musical ideas etc just perfectly in order to create that amalgam of bittersweet, cynical and sometimes melancholic piece of modern rock n roll music. There are guitars, basslines, trumbets, trombones, xylophones, and a sweet back up female voice that will inevitably warm even the coldest of hearts out there!

WIFS: Embracing the Chaos

I am glad to see independent music like this coming out in these 'by the book' times. I mean, when you're faced with such a piece of innovative music, there comes a point you just can't resist and you get into it even though if it's more rock than punk and doesn't fit into any specific music category or lifestyle choice. Another last thing I wanted to mention about this exceptional record is that even though it creates a pretty emotional and personal relationship with the listener, it does it in a subtle and friendly way.  Therefore, it an be enjoyed over and over without becoming something too emotionally charged that you can only play under specific circumstances (like maybe The Pogues, Social Distortion etc). This is real music for all times, from the Friday night mayhem to the quietness of your living room and the morning after.

Congrats to Chunksaah Records (run by Bouncing Souls members) for putting out this pieceof 'chilled anarchy' molotov cocktail of lyrical and musical ideas!

Absinthe Rose/HUMANWINE- Split CD (2010)

Well I knew Rodent Popsicle Records for putting out good HC/punk records of the crusty variety; what I didn't know is that they also put out quality folk punk. Yes! It may come as a surprise to read a folk punk review in a blog about hardcore but trust me, this is good. After all, we all want to occasionally listen to something lighter and unwind; this will do just fine cause it has the punk foundation to back it up.

Split out now on Rodent Popsicle

Anyways, so this is a split release between two bands, Absinthe Rose and HUMANWINE. Absinthe Rose starts the record  with some quality and straightforward acoustic/electric folk punk. It wouldn't be unfair to say that AR stick to the roots of Americana folk and go the extra mile by coating their sound with some punk/folk instrumentation. Yes--this is definitely more country than punk. What makes it punk though is the mind-frame behind the whole music, which is totally DIY punk, of course. The band promotes 'DIY awareness and skepticism' with incendiary political lyrics, which many will love and sing to howling at the moon on their drunken or tea-soaked nights. If you like to find your punk somewhere at the outdoors, in an old house in the woods or by the railroad tracks next to empty sticky bottles, this is for you!

Kimbo Rose forgets the lyrics again

HUMANWINE (always written in capital letters) is a different story. This band is much more experimental within their acoustic folk, drawing influences from everything ranging from Nick Drake to Matt Elliot, even fucking Tiger Lilies (which I hate). Just experimental acoustic folk sung by both male and female voices. These two take the whole indie-DIY punk mentality to a different level, and it's not necessarily based on music. On the contrary, they use music in order to transmit images, words and thoughts, like a primitive stream of thought into the minds of the civilized. The music is 'fluid and changing'. So sometimes it's mellow/sweet, some others discomforting, sometimes just plain weird. HUMANWINE needs a fair few listens before anyone can actually say they 'get them', but if it's your thing you should definitely catch on to them as they're a must for primitivist punk ethos!

HUMANWINE: back from the wild side 

So that's all new and different for Rodent Popsicle Records, I know for a fact that there are many out there who dig the anarcho primitive punk style, we got many such fans right here in Greece, so I hope they will discover the wondrous & mysterious punk world of Absinthe Rose and Humanwine. Salute!