Silly Hornets was a concert-collective, a D.I.Y. association of HardCore-fans in Lyon, bringing north-american bands to their town and supporting local bands (first half of the 90s). The people involved were members of the “metal punkcore” band ‘Condense’ band (guitarist Varoujan Kestechian, singer Marc Prempain, drummer Sébastien Barcet, guitarist Wilfried ‘Wilo’ Siméan, bassist Fred Garcia => Fabrice ‘Bif’ Godet) and their mates (e.g. ‘Maïe’ Perraud – the band’s manager at the time).
Some of them were also involved in making a radio-programme (garage/punk/HC on Radio Canut) and doing a zine: Silly Hornets Tribune. Four issues were published. Number 2, 3 & 4 (each ca. 40/50 pages) are available on the www.
In #2 (’90) there’s columns (e.g. americanisation of European subcultures); talks with ‘The Tell-Tale Hearts’ (garage rock from San Diego), ‘Enterprize’ (association founded by the Paris punk band ‘Cosmic Wurst’), Tim Warren (Crypt recs), ‘All’ & ‘M.S.T.’; plus reviews & cartoons.
#3 (’91) has columns (e.g. macho behaviour, objective journalism, etc.); interviews with Econochrist, ‘D.I.’, ‘Plaid Retina’, ‘M.D.C.’, ‘Fugazi’, ‘Victims Family’, pro skateboarder Lance Mountain, ‘Shaking Dolls’ (garage band from Angers, Fra), ‘NoMeansNo’, ‘G.I. Love’ (psychedelic HC/punk band from Paris), ‘D.O.A.’, etc.; a presentation of The Crab Song (Paris distro); reviews; cartoons and news.
#4 (’92) starts of with the story of mid-60s punk; then there’s conversations with ‘The Brood’ (garagerock from Portland, Maine), ‘The Mono Men’ (garagepunk band from Bellingham, Wa), ‘Dead Moon’ (punk/garage from Portland, Or), skater Tom Knox, ‘Jawbox’ (indie rock from Washington D.C.), ‘Mudhoney’ (SubPop band from Seattle, Wa), etc. Furthermore a report about HC/punk in Latin-America, columns (e.g. ‘Maïe’ on Surfers Against Sewage) and reviews.
Brob
The right person to talk about the zine is Marc Prempain. I was more involved in organising concerts… You can add the name of Eric ‘Biloul’ Rageys, the sound-man; he recorded our demo-tapes.
‘Maïe’ Perraud
I was part of the association but didn’t take care of the fanzine.
Varoujan Kestechian
The fanzine was of indeed a collective effort. The two main ‘axes’ were the 60s garage and hardcore scenes. There was always a punk edge. The Anglo-Saxons have an expression that describes well what we wanted to do and it was nothing original: spreading the gospel…preaching the word. Everyone was a fan of punkrock and wanted to share their vision of it. Although everything had started with the English bands of 76/80 that we had only got to known with a delay of a few years, at that time our goal was really to make the scenes that I spoke about above known. The big rolemodels were MRR and to a lesser extent Flipside, and a few other lesser known beat/60s punk oriented mags. Since we were organising concerts in our city, it allowed us to do a few interviews and thus make connections or at least have a little more in-depth discussions with the bands. It also gave us the opportunity to put some things that were important to us on paper (opinions/columns). Looking back, there are some fairly simplistic articles but at the time it was liberating!
I’m not sure if I can say I learned from making a zine (or speak for others). However, the satisfaction of starting from nothing much to make something that you then hold in your hands, of which you take a certain pride and which will pass from hand to hand, is very real.
Marc Prempain
‘Plaid Retina’ was a HC/punk band from Visalia (near Fresno), California with Don Hudgens (drums), Matt Morris (guitar/vocals) and Travis Hernandez (bass/vocals). They were introduced to me through The Thing That Ate Floyd compilation double-LP (LookOut! recs; 1988)…
[Translation below]
WHEN YOU LISTEN TO THEIR FIRST EP AND THE ALBUM THEY RELEASED ON LOOKOUT IN 1989, YOU WONDER IF IT’S THE SAME BAND YOU’RE LISTENING TO. THEY’VE REACHED SUCH A LEVEL OF MATURITY IN A SHORT TIME, THAT IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO REMAIN INSENSITIVE TO WHAT THEY’RE DOING. THEY’RE OFTEN COMPARED TO ‘NOMEANSNO’ TO A POINT THAT THIS IS DOING THEM WRONG AND IT’S EVEN MORE A PITY THAT THEY DIDN’T KNOW ‘NOMEANSO’ AT THE TIME OF THE RECORDING OF THEIR LP.
I OFTEN FIND THAT CALIFORNIA HAS THE WIDEST VARIETY OF HARDCORE BANDS. ONE THING IS SURE: ‘PLAID RETINA’ AREN’T THERE FOR NOTHING! THIS WRITTEN INTERVIEW DATES FROM 1990. IT’S AT EVER SO FRESH…
WHAT ARE YOU UP TO RIGHT NOW?
We just came back from our second US tour which lasted 5 weeks; it was really good. We’re supposed to be recording our new album soon. That is also supposed to be released on CD (We’re all doing our best for that.) but no one seems to seriously want to release a ‘Plaid Retina’ CD.
HOW LONG HAS ‘PLAID RETINA’ BEEN AROUND?
We have been together for 6 years, 4 as ‘Plaid Retina’ and 2 with Travis.
WHAT DOES ‘PLAID RETINA’ MEAN?
“If you had a plaid retina, you’d see everything fucked?” That’s a remark that Matt (guitar/vocals) heard from a drunk guy during a concert.
DID YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH LABELS? ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH LOOKOUT! RECS?
Our biggest problem with labels is that we don’t stay in touch enough with the people who run these labels (with LookOut! Too [Lawrence Livermore]). We’re good friends with Dave Hayes [originally co-founder of LookOut! recs] of Very Small recs and we’ll probably do a record with him. I don’t think we’ll ever get to the point where a label likes us enough to hang out with us, come and see us rehearse, etc. It always seems like it’s up to us to get out of town every time we try to get a label’s attention.
DID YOU TOUR TO PROMOTE PINK EYE?
Yeah, twice. We sold quite a few too!
EXCEPT FOR THE PLAID RETINA EP AND THE PINK EYE LP, HAVE YOU RELEASED ANY OTHER RECORDS?
Yes, we did two more EPs. Rejection [1990], which was released in the USA on Duck Butter recs in Fresno, and Boxcar [1988] released in Germany by Musical Tradgedies [Florian Schück].
PINK EYE AND PLAID RETINA ARE VERY DIFFERENT MUSICALLY, DID YOU SEEK THIS EVOLUTION OR DID IT COME BY ITSELF?
If you heard Boxcar you’ll understand the bridge between our old songs and the new ones. It’s just a natural evolution.
THE MUSIC OF YOUR LATEST LP IS VERY RHYTHMIC, VERY TWISTED… HAVE YOU BEEN INFLUENCED BY OTHER MUSIC GENRES SUCH AS RAP FOR EXAMPLE?
Yeah, maybe not rap, but the three of us like a lot of different things. We have a very broad horizon…
DESPITE ITS ORIGINALITY, YOUR MUSIC SEEMS TO BELONG TO A CURRENT STYLE OF MUSIC: THE LAST ‘BAD BRAINS’, THE LAST ‘NOMEANSNO’; WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT?
Yes, they’re two great bands, but I hate it when people talk to us about ‘NoMeansNo’ because they think we sucked. Nothing could be further from the truth: we recorded Pink Eye before even listening to ‘NoMeansNo’.
HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE LYRICS OF YOUR SONGS TO YOU?
The words should be emotional as opposed to intellectual. There are a lot of good lyricists, Jello Biafra for example, but our band is more concerned with feelings.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF JELLO BIAFRA OR HENRY ROLLINS, WHO SOMETIMES DROPPED MUSIC TO CONVEY THEIR MESSAGE THROUGH POETRY OR SPOKEN WORD?
I think that’s really good! Henry Rollins has always been one of my favourite authors. It’s a good thing to know that people have other ways to express themselves besides music.
OUR FANZINE COVERS 60s PUNK AND HARDCORE. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF BANDS THAT MIX THE TWO? DO YOU LISTEN TO ANY 60s PUNK BANDS?
I think it’s very good for the people that are into it; the closest thing to 60s punk that I listen to are the ‘Ramones’ or Iggy Pop.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE BANDS?
I answer for everyone: ‘Blondie’, ‘King Crimson’, ‘Red Hot Chili Peppers’, ‘Rollins Band’, late ‘Black Flag’, ‘Firehose’, ‘Minutemen’, ‘23 More Minutes’ [cowboy-punk from Santa Fe, New Mexico], ‘Alice Donut’, ‘Bazooka Joe’ [punk-rock from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina], ‘Victims Family’, ‘Neurosis’, Julie Cruise, ‘Hoopla!’ [punk from Illinois], ‘Jawbox’, ‘Soundgarden’, ‘Pixies’, ‘Night Soil Man’ [indie-rock from California], ‘Gore’, Morrissey, ‘Jawbreaker’, Tom Knox’s band [pro skater; played drums for ‘Cacti Widders’], ‘Punkin’ Pie’ [California], ‘Drippy Drawers’ [California], live version of Heaven And Hell by ‘Black Sabbath’, late ‘Voivod’. Of course these are just a few examples.
DO YOU KNOW ANY FRENCH HARDCORE? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF IT?
No, I’m trying to take an interest in it. I’m also trying to to gert ‘Plaid Retina’ interested in it because we want to tour and play in France.
ANYTHING TO ADD?
Yes, we would like people to write to us from France. We don’t know how to speak French but we would like to correspond.
interview: Wilo Simean
Brob Tilt's zine-world 2 