Tokyo Sex Destruction
- Catalan revolutionary punk rock'n'rollers blitz Cph.

Barcelonese punk rock'n'rollers are on something like their 2nd or 3rd album, their latest offering being the incredible "5th Avenue South", by far the best I've heard from them yet, as well as some of the best I've heard in their specific corner of the genre: Although they'll fervently deny affiliation, most would put them alongside such bands as The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Nation Of Ulysses, and The Make-Up; taking the energy and politics of 80's hard core and mixing it with 60's garage and its message of luv. The result: A revolution you can't help dancing to.

When they blitzed Cph in September to play a poorly attended, but no less furious, gig at Lades Kælder, in some ironic way quite appropriately just off the main shopping street Strøget, I caught hold of their singer and spiritual advisor Raul a.k.a. RJ Sinclair who was freezing his ass off due to the newly arrived Scandinavian autumn winds.

by Jon A

LowCut: Welcome to Denmark, it's good to finally see you here! I know you planned to come up here already last spring, but nothing came of it.

Raul: No, it's really difficult when you don't have any distribution in the country; it's hard to get people to come to the shows then. A guy from Oslo was interested, but I don't know what's gonna happen with that. Also, it's not something BCore, our label, is working hard at, getting licenses.

LowCut: It's also my impression, also from talking to other Spanish bands and labels, that it's hard for them get recognition outside Spain; that few bands get to play outside Spain?

Raul: I don't know about that, I think what you're referring to is much more the bands from Madrid, because for us, being from Barcelona, we've always been playing outside Spain, you know, it's one and a half hour, then we're in France. So we've played a lot in France, actually even more than in Madrid, because it's the natural thing for us to do. We've never really toured Spain, more France and the US. Usually it's, like, France, Germany, Switzerland, the places where we have distribution, and then we always attempt to make a detour to somewhere else as well, like Hungary, Slovenia, Belgium, Holland, and thus we're now in Denmark. And it's curious, because Anderz from Gearbox has got us in his roster, even though we have no distribution here, and normally it's the other way around, that we have an agent in a country that we can contact to hear if there's a possibility to play there if we're in the vicinity of the country.

LowCut: It's a pity, because it appears to me that there are a lot of other good bands on BCore.

Raul: Sure. Thing is, before, they were much more active in getting stuff out outside Spain, whereas now it seems like they're sitting back, focusing more on building a thing within Spain. But I think it's that BCore started out as a hardcore label, and somehow it's within the nature of hardcore to be more transnational, you know, with the distribution networks and all. Even so, all the groups in BCore have toured Europe.

LowCut: How about you? Are you also spawned of the hard core scene?

Raul: Not me. Because we come from a small city some 40 kms outside Barcelona, so we were never part of that scene. Of course we had friends in the hardcore scene, but we were more into garage, more 60's inspired. The thing is, we all grew up during the 90's, so of course we were inspired by the bands we saw during that time, a lot of indie, but also the American bands that came to play, bands like Fugazi, and of course that was an influence on us, but not as much as the whole Washington, DC scene has had on some of the other bands on BCore.

LowCut: Your records are also produced by Santi of No More Lies.

Raul: Well, that's common ground for all BCore bands: If you're n BCore, you're going to record with Santi, also because it's very familiar and there's a good vibe there.

LowCut: And he does a really good job of it.

Raul: Yeah, sure! That's also why a lot of groups from all over Europe are going to him, and he's also going to record some American band soon, Karaoke.

LowCut: Well, I'm asking about the hardcore background, because your music to me appears to be part of a wave of more political garage bands, like The (International) Noise Conspiracy, that are more based in punk and that whole attitude than what we've typically seen as garage, with bands like Hellacopters, that are much more party-hardy. How do you feel about this association?

Raul: Well, I don't see us as a political group. Lyrics wise, I write about my surroundings and what I see as being wrong. It's a critique of that, it's not supposed to convince others that what I think is the correct way of seeing things. As for T(I)NC, they're not much of an influence to us, I mean, we played together at last year's Festimad [alternative two-day festival south of Madrid], and I was on the side of the stage watching them play, but I don't really see a connection between what they do and what we do, and I'm not too sure I understand the direction in which they're taking their music, what it is they're trying to do.
For us, with each record we're focusing more on the music, not just on writing good songs, but in taking our influences and mixing them together into something special. I mean, we're not in any way original! We're aware of that, and we know our limitations, but what we do like is to mix our influences, experiment a bit that way. And if people listen to our lyrics and feel they can identify with them, well, that's perfect - and if they listen to them and they think they're shit, but they like the music, well, that's perfect, too. As for Hellacopters, we played together, and I don't know, to me they seem to be about a lot more than just beering and partying, they seem like cool guys with a lot of opinions as well, and very professional.

LowCut: You don't want to see yourselves as part of a movement?

Raul: No, not really. I think that a lot of these movements, at least within garage rock, are created by the English music press to sell magazines. I mean, garage rock might be fashionable to them at the moment, but it's not like it's gonna disappear once they stop covering it, you know, there'll always be some young guys, who don't necessarily know much about playing, who'll be getting into this kind of music, wanting to play garage, or punk, for that sake. Personally, I see us, rather than being a rock group, as punk. The whole way of doing it, finding your own path, standing in opposition to the system, rebel against the establishment. Believe in what you believe in, point out what you think is good and bad, have respect for others. And of course, that'll be political to someone -

LowCut: Exactly!

Raul: -yeah, but I don't see it as something political, I see it as something very basic.

LowCut: I understand you, I understand you. Well, I'm not gonna keep you much longer, you also have to prepare for the show.

Raul: Well, yeah, we have to catch a ferry afterwards. We don't have a place to sleep here, just played in Hamburg last night, and we're playing in Berlin tomorrow at the Popkomm, so we're going directly tonight. We're just blitzing Denmark, quick in, quick out!

"5th Avenue South", reviewed elsewhere in this issue, is out now on BCore Discs. http://www.bcorediscs.com
Over the summer, TSD have been recording new tracks with Santi García, which they are looking into releasing as 7"s on a series of small labels.
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