THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS TRANSMISSION: MTV EXCLUSIVE

This Week
The string of shows continue as Thirty Seconds To Mars returned
to Germany for Ringlokschuppen, then traveling to Switzerland for the
Open Air Festival, and stopping in the Netherlands for the TMF Awards.
Yesterday, Mars played Rock A Field in Luxembourg, and will head to
France this week for two nights before heading to Belgium and Italy for
two additional festivals!
Don't forget: Mars will be returning to the
international front for a series of shows this fall late November/early
December. See what dates have been added for the UK and Germany by
visiting the official Tour Page today! For more information or to
purchase available Golden Ticket To Mars Packages, click here.
Use
Facebook? Remember to "RSVP" for each event you plan on attending on
the official Thirty Seconds To Mars Facebook Events Page by clicking here.
Watch the new video for Closer To The Edge


Tues, June 29 – France (Toulouse, Bikini)
Weds, June 30 – France (La Cooperative de Mai)
Fri, July 2 – Werchter, Belgium (Rock Werchter Festival )
Sun, July 4 – Venice, Italy (Heineken Jammin Festival)



Am I turning into a European???
The water tastes normal. The food is great. The people don't even have accents anymore! Things are getting weird...but I like it.
After a very pagan like bombastic and beautiful set in the trees at Provinsirock in Finland (where the sun actually went down and came up again during out set), we took planes, trains, buses, cars, and finally our feet to get to... Gothenburg, Sweden.

I walked all over town, a place from another time, and incredibly, a perfect rainbow came out as I was heading towards the even older part of the city. Awwwww aint it purty...


I've been on a mission to find the best food in each city. And I have been getting pretty damn lucky. Whoever talks sheet about the food in europe doesn't know what they r talking about! In Gothenburg Sweden I went to an amazing restaurant called Sjo Baren (Sea Bar) and the next day I found an another gem called Happy Monkey. Damn that monkey was sweet. On the road good food=sanity.



Pier Pressure was a crazy night. Midnight madness reigns so theirs something in the air. I went and watched The Sounds for a bit. Great band and the singer Maja is the real Mccoy. Saw them yeeeaars ago in vegas in front of 30 people and they were explosive. Still are.

Day off in Copenhagen the next day. Did lots of work but also got a chance to walk around a different part of the city than I had before. Some of the guys checked out a bohemian area called Christiania but I stuck to the art galleries. Was wandering around late night looking for food and after find about 10 places closed for the night I stumbled this second floor den hidden away called Oeback Restaurant. We forced our way inside and literally begged them to serve us. Ended up eating some of the best grub I've ever had. Lars, the chef, is a bespeckled genius and every dish was amazing.


Bielefeld, was our last headlining show in Germany for a while all. Sad but true. But the good news is we are Oberhausen arena in December! The place holds 15 thousand people or something crazy. Surreal.
The German soccer team won their game that same night and the sound on the streets was deafening...they sure do love their 'futbol' here. Europe is on mthrfkn fire for these games!

Made a pit stop in Halle and Cologne for some intimate acoustic sets and now I am on the bus in Switzerland writing this after a incredible night at the Open Air festival. Shared the stage with The Strokes, LCD soundsystem and just around the corner Paramore played. Fun day. Besides being park 30 feet from the waste and water recycling plant its a beautiful night.

P.S. Met Julian from The Strokes and Haley from Paramore. What a nice guy...and she's even more beautiful in person.
See you soon...
-j


This
was taken in the city of Copenhagen on my day off, beautiful spot with
resturaunts on either side. Had a great dinner there! Touring continues
to be exciting pushing ourselfs more and more! -Shannon


Germany
is such an amazing place. We have been here over 7 times on this trip
alone, and it never seems to get old. Slowly but surely we are becoming a
German band!

I took this quick snapshot from the balcony of the 1Live Radio station
in Cologne Germany, and was very quickly reminded once again how amazing
our family of friends and weirdos out there really is. We were doing an
acoustic performance at the station on this day and all of these people
came together and organized themselves to create this enormous triad!
So cool looking from up high so I had to grab a shot.
Its
nice to be surrounded by people who are just as strange as you are,
thanks echelon!  ;) -Tomo
 

 

Here's a
shot direct from Brad of Canada, who sports this duo-toned hawk. Do YOU
have a MarsHawk? Send your photo, name, and location to themarshawk@gmail.com
for a chance to be featured in the next installment of Transmission!

Echelon
of Spain recently gathered together to take part in their very own
version of The Ride appropriately titled, "The White Ride", sporting
white gear and Triad flags while biking through their city.

Meanwhile... Echelon of Sweden used Official printable flyers
to spread the word about forthcoming Mars shows in their country. Thank
you all!

Weekly Picks from
the Band

Book of the Week

Naked in
Dangerous Places details the
successes and failures of author Cash Peters after his experience as the
host of a reality television program Stranded, and has been
described to illustrate "...one hilarious descent into madness after
another."

Movie
of the Week

It's Complicated is a 2009 
American romantic comedy film written and directed by Nancy Meyers,
starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, and tells the
story of Jane, a self-reliant divorcée who owns a successful bakery in
Santa Barbara, California. After 10 years of separation and three grown
children, she finally
achieves a good relationship with her ex-husband Jake, a successful
attorney who's now married to a much-younger woman.

Album
of the Week

All Things to All People is the second
album from Danish electronic rock band Carpark North. The name "Carpark
North" was created from the electro and rock genres: "Carpark" stands
for car parks, edges, roughness, metal - the rock part, and "North"
stands for northern lights, stars ethereal electronics.

Website
of the Week

Nearly 20,000 foster care teens "age-out" of the foster
care system each year. Once they reach 18, their state and foster
families are no longer required to give them assistance. They are left
to fend for themselves. The mission of the Stay Off
The Streets Fund is to support youth charities which provide
structured programs for foster care teenagers transitioning into
adulthood.

Join
Thirty Seconds To Mars Online




 
Want
to see past Transmissions?
All previous Transmissions can be found in the Transmission
Archive!
 

Copyright (C) 2010 Virgin
Records 150 5th Avenue New York, NY 10011

THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS TRANSMISSION: MTV EXCLUSIVE

This Week
Last weekend, Thirty Seconds To Mars rocked Download Festival's 30th Anniversary in the United Kingdom down at Donington Park, then heading to Germany for two nights of shows in Dortmund and Leipzig. After arriving in Finland for Provinssirock Festival, the Band hardly slows down as they then prepare to head to Sweden for Sunday's Gothenburg Pier Festival.
Just Announced: Mars will be returning to the international front for a series of shows this fall late November/early December. To see what dates have been added for the UK and Germany, visit the official Tour Page today!
For more information or to purchase Pre-Sale tickets or Golden Ticket To Mars Packages, click here. General sales for all newly announced shows begin Friday, June 18 at 9AM.
Heading to a show? Be sure to "RSVP" for each event you plan on attending on the official Thirty Seconds To Mars Facebook Events Page by clicking here. See below for the forthcoming week of shows, possibly near you!
Watch the new video for Closer To The Edge


Fri Jun 18 - Finland (Provinssirock Festival)
Sun Jun 20 - Sweden (Gothenburg Pier Festival)
Tues Jun 22 - Bielefeld, Germany (Ringlokschuppen)
Fri Jun 25 - St. Gallen, Switzerland (Open Air Festival)


After a sleepless night we left Paris (and a sweaty hotel room courtesy of a broken ac) and headed to neutral Switzerland to the beautiful Caribana Festival. It's situated right on a lake between France and Switzerland and boats were moored right by the stage.

We actually did some interviews on one of the sail boats that afternoon and Shannon even took a ride to the middle of the lake. Still not sure where he commandeered that vessel...The sun went down right before we played and it started pouring rain which made it even an even more chaotic show. We all went nuts together singing nonstop and drenched or not it was perfect.
We headed to the UK after Switzerland to play Download Festival. This was one of the first big festivals we ever played (in 2007) so we have really fond memories of it. We were playing on the Ronnie James Dio stage (I wore my Sabbath shirt in tribute) and were greeted by none other than the legendary Tommy Iommi when we were walking up to stage. It was an honor to meet him and see him side of stage right before we went on. We played at the same time as Rage Against the Machine (we must be out of our heads) but somehow people stayed and it was incredible. I couldn't even begin to image how many people were watching but thanks to all who did. You blew our minds.

Sang happy B to our friend Nichola (of Kerrang fame) and our good friend Chino from Deftones came out and sang The Kill and surprised the already raukus crowd. He nailed it again and I got a chance to publicly thank him and his band for making such inspiring music all these years. Thanks again Chino.

After the UK, we went to back to Germany, which is feeling more and more like another home. We love the people and the shows are always crazy energy and insane - We played Dortmund on the Tuesday night - Leipzig on Wednesday. Both magical.

PS. We announced a brand new show in Germany at oberhaussen in december. Can't wait.
I had actually been to Leipzig once before but I didn't realize just how beautiful it is. I took a walk around when I first woke up and got to enjoy a quiet moment in the park with some sunshine, a busy little family of raher large otters, some granola and soy milk, and a few fans who were about and about getting ready for the festivities.

Hopped off a plane this morning and am now in Finland for Provinssirock. Stays light outside till 1am. Midsummer madness they call it... I got a chance to get some great finnish food at a place called JUURI and now I'm back to life and ready to work all night. 
I'll sleep when I'm dead.
-jared



A barely standing building from world war 2 in Leipzig, Germany...there was a gate surrounding the property so I had to jump it to get this photo. Pretty amazing what we all humans had to go through to get to where we are today. Lives lost and and many a born to help carve today's society.



I also went into a church in the town center where in 1989 a secret meeting was formed to start the beginning discussions of the destruction of the Berlin wall...it began with a few people and ended up growing to over 100,000 protesters, basically the size of the crowd at the Download festival in England where we performed! Have a great week and enjoy the moments of this short life we have!!! -Shannon


Waking up at 4am for ferries to cross the english channel use to really annoy me.  Although, when you look out over the horizon and see views like this one it becomes quite difficult to be angry at the opportunity to see something like this.

I often imagine what it was like 300-400 years ago when crossing these waters were much less peaceful than this.  What has become a routine trek from the UK to France was once quite a perilous journey.  Its easy to forget the history here, and I believe it is important to remember that no privilege we enjoy anywhere on this earth came without the ultimate price from so many people.  Nothing in this world comes easily and this luxury is no exception... -Tomo
 

Jesse sent us this shot from Nebraska, USA—he's been rocking the hawk for four years now! Do YOU have a MarsHawk? Send your photo, name, and location to themarshawk@gmail.com for a chance to be featured in the next installment of Transmission!

This week's group shot comes from Echelon Italy, shown below at one of many historical monuments in Turin. Learn more about the Mission by clicking here, or click the image to see other recent submissions from fans around the world.

Echelon Italy also hit up the streets to promote with self-made materials for This Is War and Thirty Seconds To Mars. Great job, Echelon!

Weekly Picks from the Band
Book of the Week

Preacher is a comic book series created by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon, published by the American comic book label Vertigo imprint of DC Comics, with painted covers by Glenn Fabry. The series consists of 75 issues in total, telling the story of Jesse Custer, a down-and-out preacher in the small Texas town of Annville, who was accidentally possessed by the supernatural creature named Genesis in an incident which killed his entire congregation and flattened his church.

Movie of the Week
Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film follows a sullen ten-year-old girl who is in the process of moving to a new town (presumably in the countryside) with her family, and chronicles her adventures in a world of spirits and monsters.
Album of the Week
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II is the second self-titled studio album by the electronic music band from Ontario, Canada. Despite an early mix leak and no record label promotion, the band's album reached #1 on various electronic music charts worldwide. Produced by Ethan Kath (in various places including a church in Iceland, a self built cabin in northern Ontario, as well as an abandoned convenience store garage in Detroit Michigan), the record also features 2 songs recorded in the London studio of Paul "Phones" Epworth.

Website of the Week

Monterey Bay Aquarium, whose commitment to advancing ocean conservation has been demonstrated through the aquarium and far beyond, provides Seafood Watch Pocket Guides online. By carrying the pocket guide that’s right for your region, it helps you choose ocean-friendly seafood wherever you live or travel. Access all of the available Pocket Guides by clicking here.

Join Thirty Seconds To Mars Online




 
Want to see past Transmissions?
All previous Transmissions can be found in the Transmission Archive!

Copyright (C) 2010 Virgin Records 150 5th Avenue New York, NY 10011

THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS TRANSMISSION: MTV EXCLUSIVE

This Week
After one stop in the Netherlands and a day off in France, Thirty Seconds To Mars headed to beautiful Switzerland to play at Caribana Festival. This weekend, the Band will be playing Download Festival in the United Kingdom, rocking the Ronnie James Dio Stage in Donington Park. Click here for the complete festival line-up, or visit the Band's info page here.
Heading to a show? Be sure to "RSVP" for each event you plan on attending on the official Thirty Seconds To Mars Facebook Events Page by clicking here. See below for the forthcoming week of shows, possibly near you!

Weds Jun 16 - Leipzig, Germany (Haus Auensee)
Fri Jun 18 - Finland (Provinssirock Festival)
Sun Jun 20 - Sweden (Gothenburg Pier Festival)
Tues Jun 22 - Bielefeld, Germany (Ringlokschuppen)
 

JARED

After an EPIC weekend at Rock Im Park and then Rock Am Ring we headed away from Germany to the city of bikes and canals... Amsterdam.


The city is so beautiful - delicate buildings leaning on one another, impossibly crooked, cobblestone streets and winding waterways.
Spent most of the time editing the new video but snuck out and went on a late night walk. Wandered through the red light district, met up with my friends including Remco from G Star. Was great to see familiar faces. Made friends with some fish and saw the worlds smallest starfish. The weirdest part was when the rats stormed the restaurant we were eating at. Not exactly dessert but... ugh.
Had a show in Tilburg the next day. First time we've played on that side of the country and the show was incredible. Thanks so much to everyone who organized and participated in "light night". It was a beautiful sight to look out onto from stage and be floating in that sea of neon.

After Tilburg, we headed to Paris and were locked down in a studio just outside the city all day. I left at 530am, had a quick bite to eat at a place called 'aux pied de cochon' or 'I peed on your croutons'. Wandered through the streets. Paris is an incredible city at any hour but in the early morning light it's eerily quiet and empty and a great time to discover things about it that you've never noticed before.

After 2 hours sleep, I'm now on a train to Geneva to headline the Caribana Festival. Looking forward to seeing all our Swiss friends again. The train ride is beautiful and I love Europe.

We've only been here for a week but I feel right at home again.
See you soon.
-Jared

SHANNON


Just got off the stage at the Caribanna Festival in Switzerland and it was epic! Energy was sick!
Day started off with me waking up on the bus and walking out of it to find a huge lake with mountains in the distance covered with snow. Nice vision first thing in the morning. I ended up getting on a speed boat and taking a ride around this pond with France on my right and Switzerland on my left, pretty relaxing being out there.
Here's a pic, till next time!

TOMO

Here we are in Switzerland! What an amazingly beautiful place! Sometimes while touring around the world, you forget to stop and just enjoy the scenery. This photo is of the marina at the Caribana Festival here in Switzerland and I was just sitting here forever just enjoying the view. Feels good to take a minute to yourself and just enjoy the surroundings. Looking forward to Download Festival!!!

Alannah of Australia sent us a great profile shot of her brightly-tipped MarsHawk. Sporting a MarsHawk? Send your photo, name, and location to themarshawk@gmail.com for a chance to be featured in the next installment of Transmission!

Echelon of Peru sent in this great group shot with their very own crafted Mars Banner, complete and fully equipped with Triad Flags. Learn more about the Mission by clicking here.

Belgium Echelon submitted this picture of their self-created promo for not only This Is War, but also the recent show in Tilburg, Netherlands at the 013. Thanks for helping spread the word!

Weekly Picks from the Band

Book of the Week
God Explained In A Taxi Ride by advertising and design legend Paul Arden takes an exciting, visually creative, and thoroughly digestible approach to a subject of enormous proven interest and relevance. Using a series of poignant, contemporary vignettes, God Explained in a Taxi Ride analyzes and explores the questions that have persisted since mankind’s earliest days. This brilliant little gem of a book compels readers to scratch their heads as it examines man’s relationship to the divine—all within the length of a taxi ride.
Movie of the Week
Princess Mononoke is a 1997 Japanese animated historical fantasy feature film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli. A period drama set specifically in the late Muromachi period of Japan but with numerous fantastic elements, the film concentrates on the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans who consume its resources as seen by the outsider Ashitaka. "Mononoke" is not a name, but a general term in the Japanese language for a spirit or monster.

Album of the Week
Deftones - Diamond Eyes is the sixth studio album by American rock band, featuring singles "Rocket Skates" as well as title track, "Diamond Eyes", landing at #6 on the Billboard 200 in it's first week.
 
Website of the Week

Save Tigers Now is a global campaign by WWF that runs during the Chinese Year of the Tiger, 2010. Their goal is to build political and public support to double the number of wild tigers by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.

Join Thirty Seconds To Mars Online




 
Want to see past Transmissions?
All previous Transmissions can be found in the Transmission Archive!
 

Band in a box

This Week

Thirty Seconds To Mars played for huge crowds in Germany, including one hundred and twenty thousand who came out for the 25th Anniversary of Rock Am Ring.

This coming week, the Band will travel to and thru Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and back into Germany. Heading to a show? Be sure to "RSVP" for each event you plan on attending on Facebook by clicking here.

Thurs, June 10 – Switzerland (Caribanna Festival)
Sat, June 12 - Donington Park, UK (Download Festival)

Tues, June 15 - Dortmund, GER (Westfalenhalle)
Weds, June 16 - Leipzig, GER (Haus Auensee)
 

Our last sunset in America

After one of the best tours of our entire lives, we jetted back to Europe to begin our summer festival run.

First stop: DEUTSCHLAND!
 

What u lookin at

Germany is an epic place to play shows.

First stop was two sold-out shows at the Batschkapp in Frankfurt. They were intimate shows. Part warm up. Part a chance for us to get up close and personal with the echelon. Thanks to everyone who came out.

Rock Am Ring crowd

The first fesival show was the gargantuam ROCK AM RING. If you haven't heard of it before, it's the biggest rock festival in Germany and hundreds of thousands of people go to both Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park for 4 days and camp and watch bands play. I can't describe what it's like to step out in front of a crowd and not be able to see where it ends.

The show was pure madness. Unforgettable and impossible to really put into words.

We played at sunset. The weather was perfect. The crowd was on fire. Everything came together. Quite possibly the best festival show we've ever played.

We look forward to seeing everyone on this tour across Europe and can't wait to share this adventure with you.

-jared

This week has been incredible! It started with 2 small shows in Frankfurt, the energy was amazing! Then we went to Rock Am Ring and played at 8:50 PM as the sun was going down.... The feeling was indescribable with 85,000 thousand bodies moving to our music!

-Shannon
 

Walking through the streets of Frankfurt and came across this little skatepark under the bridge.  Why couldn't stuff like this exist when I was a younger!  I would have killed to have this place somewhere near where I lived...  Oh well, in another life.  For now, I'll just enjoy it through these kids.  :)

-Tomo
 

Mars will be rocking the Ronnie James Dio Stage at this year's Download Festival in Donington Park. Click here for the complete festival line-up, or visit the Band's info page here.

 

Talk about MarsHawk! Ans of the Netherlands sent in this epic shot, sporting the first Mars glyphic and all. Incredible! Got a MarsHawk? Send your photo, name, and location to themarshawk@gmail.com for a chance to be featured in the next installment of Transmission!

Don't forget about the Triad Global Assault Mission!

Check out this double-action shot from Echelon in the United Kingdom! They produced a giant Triad located in Bristol, strategically placed to reflect for multiple exposure. Awesome!

Learn more about the Mission by clicking here, or submit YOUR photos by visiting the Official Triad Global Assault Flickr pool by clicking here.

 

Help us spread the word about Thirty Seconds To Mars and the new album, This Is War. Below are the 12 Steps to Mars which you can use on a daily basis to help. Click Here to Read NOW!

Here are some tools you can print out on your own!
Flyers •  Mars Stencil • Full Size Poster

 

Echelon Italy recently did their own promo work on Via del Corso, equipped with self-printed flyers to help them spread the word!

If you have pictures or video from your own street team missions, please send links to thisisthehive@gmail.com.
 

Follow @30SECONDSTOMARS on Twitter

@jaredleto • @ShannonLeto • @tomofromearth

And remember to use/find related information with these Mars related hashtags: #MARS, #THEWARISCOMING, #THISISWAR, and #KINGSANDQUEENS.
 

Weekly Picks From the Band
Book of the Week
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel published in 1960. Instantly successful and a classic of modern American literature, the plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with serious issues of rape and racial inequality.

Movie of the Week

The Outsiders is a 1983 American drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, an adaptation of the 1967 novel of the same name by S. E. Hinton. Jo Ellen Misakian, a librarian at Lone Star Elementary School in Fresno, California, and her students inspired Coppola to make the film. The story describes a gang conflict in Tulsa, Oklahoma, between the Socs, rich bullies from Tulsa's affluent Eastside neighborhood, and the Greasers, boys from poor families who live on the west side of the railroad tracks.

Album of the Week

Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde is the seventh studio album from the American singer-songwriter, released May 1966. The album is believed to be the first significant double album in rock music, its length forcing it to two LPs. It is notable for injecting Dylan's brand of blues rock, fully established on Highway 61 Revisited, with a more eclectic sound and even more surreal lyrics. It also marked the end of an era for Dylan, who would soon be involved in a motorcycle accident, significantly changing his musical approach.

Website of the Week
The mission of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.
 

Want to see past Transmissions? A list of all previous Transmissions can be found in the Transmission Archive!

Join us online!

UPCOMING

TOUR DATES

Thurs 6/10/2010
Switzerland
Caribanna Festival
Sat 6/12/2010

Donington Park, UK
Download Festival
Tues 6/15/2010
Dortmund, Germany
Westfalenhalle
Weds 6/16/2010

Leipzig, Germany
Haus Auensee
Fri 6/18/2010
Finland
Provinssirock Festival
Sun 6/20/2010

Sweden
Gothenburg Pier Festival
Tues 6/22/2010
Bielefeld, Germany
Ringlokschuppen

Fri 6/25/2010
St. Gallen, Switzerland
Open Air Festival
Sun 6/27/2010
Luxembourg
Rock A Field

Tues 6/29/2010
France
Toulouse, Bikini
Weds 6/30/2010
France
La Cooperative de Mai

Fri 7/2/2010
Werchter, Belgium
Rock Werchter Festival
Sun 7/4/2010
Venice, Italy

Heineken Jammin Festival
Weds 7/7/2010
Sweden
Hultsfred Festival
Sat 7/10/2010
Scotland

T in the Park
Sun 7/11/2010
Ireland
Oxygen Festival
Sat 7/24/2010
Perth, Australia

Challenge Stadium
Weds 7/28/2010
Melbourne, Australia
Festival Hall
Fri 7/30/2010
Sydney, Australia

Hordern Pavillion

Tues 8/3/2010
Auckland, New Zealand
Logan Campbell Stadium
Sat 8/7/2010

Tokyo, Japan
Summer Sonic Festival
Sun 8/8/2010
Osaka, Japan
Summer Sonic Festival
Weds 8/18/2010

Tel-Aviv, Israel
Bitan 1
Fri 8/20/2010
Krakow, Poland
Coke Live Festival
Sat 8/21/2010

St. Polten, Austria
Frequency Festival
Sun 8/22/2010
Biddinghuizen, Holland
Lowlands Festival

Copyright (C) 2010 Virgin Records 150 5th Avenue New York, NY 10011

At this years Supersonic I not only had the pleasure of embracing beads of sweat from three of the hairiest and energetic men in show business but I also got to meet them and talk umbrellas, burgers and hair conditioner…Ladies and Gentle Men, I present to you, Monotonix.

Olivia: My first question to Monotonix right now, where were you when it happened?

Ami: Heathrow, meeting with Naomi Campbell, yeah, looking for our bags. With Naomi Campbell. We hit her with a Gucci, we hit her with a Gucci.

Olivia: Do you carry a Gucci bag?

Ami: Just to hit people. Only for bathroom products and shower products. Conditioners…

Olivia: I am sure, everybody says to you, when you perform your crazy. I want to ask you about your music. When you write your music what inspires you, and when you get together and your like ok we’re going to write a song, what’s happening in your head when your doing that?

Ami: You should ask him (point to drummer)

Yonatan: I wanna know too actually. What’s going on in your head when your writing a song?

Haggai: We decide on some certain stuff, yeah, like….

Yonatan: His going to change his mind in two minutes, its ok.

Haggai: What a build up, what a build up. Then we start, and then afterwards I forget everything, I forget everything and then let the body do whatever, and him also and him also, let the flow, let the flow go and then some like, what the fuck are you doing, what the fuck are you doing and then like a few wake up, a few wakes up and then the show finishes.

Ami: ….the food involved and what I am going to do tonight, its hot today, oh, I’m thirsty, should I shower tonight..

Haggai: I am worried about my hair, most of the time.

Olivia: Your hair is amazing, I have to say, I love, love hair. Hair is very important..

Ami: Smell this (they offer me their hair)

Olivia: Oh! Wait, herbal essence

Yonatan: No, Sebastian conditioner

Haggai: Hairy…

Olivia: Ok, second question, when you perform live and you have got all these people in your face, does it stop you from being your natural form, when you have lots of people up front does it help, or does it make it difficult?

Haggai: Difficult, people drink beer, their breath on you and you have to…

Yonatan: I think because we are sweating so much at the show, we might give them the same adventure

Ami: It’s vice versa adventure

Yonatan: It’s called a symbiotic relationship in biology

Olivia: You recorded your album in Louisiana, is that right? No, no, San Francisco, ok. You wrote it in Louisiana, ok, did that have any effect on what you were writing? Did it make any difference to how you wrote your songs or what you were inspired by?

Yonatan: I think it just ruined our personal lives but it never had an effect on the music at all.

Olivia: In what way?

Yonatan: It’s a very intense city, its great but its cursed. Maybe visiting there can be pleasant but being there for a while, for me at least its pretty intense.

Olivia: And how long were you there for?

Yonatan: Two months almost

Olivia: Two months too long?

Yonatan: Maybe a few weeks too long yeah.

Olivia: Obviously your live shows are energetic and raucous, how do you translate that when you get into the studio and your recording an album, and you want to bring that energy to your recordings, do you have something you do in the studio..

Ami: I have no idea

Yonatan: We try to be natural and just play the songs. We played a lot of shows I guess..

Ami: What are you doing?

Haggai: What am I doing? I am trying to play the best that I can and eat some burgers cos it really helps me.

Yonatan: Cow, cow meat

Olivia: Alligators

Yonatan: We had in New Orleans everyday, turtles and alligators. I had turtles,it was good.

Olivia: Are you guys about to do a UK tour? Is that right? Are you excited?

Ami: Yes

Olivia: How do you think the British people are going to embrace Montonix?

Ami: The one million pound question.

Olivia: I think they need you.

Yonatan: We like palying here, I think the audience here is fun.

Olivia: I think they need loosening up, definitely.

Yonatan: to take the stick out of their ass.

Olivia: and the broom

Yonatan: and where to put it afterwards?

Ami: In England, it is not a stick it is the umbrella.

Olivia: Cos its always raining.

Yonatan: What do they do without those umbrellas when they take it out of their ass? What are we going to do with those umbrellas when we come home cos there’s no rain in Israel.

Olivia: Hopefully they are going to get wet, cos when they get dry they are going to get frizzy hair just like you guys and that’s going to be good….not frizzy sorry, I mean beautiful…

Yonatan: I think she just suggested that our hair is frizzly.

My midlands adventure began in the tearooms with sonic sculptors Growing.
Their performance tonight would be the last of their UK tour and they were wondering if they would clear the room. I very much doubted it.

Surrounded by teacakes and muffins I quickly became enamoured by the Brooklyn threesome as they began to reveal how they were bored of being categorised by the drone heads and journo’s who were desperate to label their music. For a newcomer to this world, this was music to my ears. I suddenly fell in love with the attitude and individuality of Growing and their plight to stay true to their sound and produce music that didn’t do want it said on the tin.

With third member Sadie turning the original duo into a magic three, Kevin and Joe revealed how they were keen to introduce more vocals and get their sound as crazy and interesting as possible. When asked how they thought people would react to this, I fell in love a little more. They didn’t care if they didn’t fit the categories and were more content with moving forward with their sound and vision than they were satisfying or defining the drone/ambient stereotype.

That evening when I lost myself to the music of Growing, it seemed quite obvious that Sadie was bringing something extra to the experience I was enveloped in. With more layers and soundscapes to travel on, the dynamics of the sound felt greater and freer than before. And when I noticed her rainbow coloured psychedelic DM’s, it really did seem that the shoes were starting to fit.

Sunn Oh... Oh, oh... Yes!

Written By Joe McCabe

At just £15 for such an exciting, eclectic and generous offering, tickets for Friday night were sold out weeks in advance, with thousands eager to catch promoter Capsule's 10th Supersonic Festival first night line-up. On the Outside Stage, an incredible opening set saw Custard Factory stalwart, DJ Scotch Egg, along with cohorts hailing from the likes of Trencher and Boredoms, present their own blend of electro-stoner trip-hop and noisy psychedelic jazz through project, Drum Eyes. These multifarious-minded miscreants of music set the tone of the night which was as tight and well put together as it was diverse, innovative and interesting. There was 'something for everyone', from the shouty hardcore of Army of Flying Robots and the riff-pulverising Taint, to the dubsteping sounds of Scorn, the home-grown blend of PCM's drum and bass and the glitch-tastic breaks and samples of Venetian Snares. It seems inevitable that such a mingled assortment of acts would at times polarise opinion and whilst there was 'something for everyone', with each of the acts mentioned above, at times it looked as though at least half the crowd were left feeling confused and alienated by the unfamiliar spectacle they were observing. Perhaps it should be obvious that this esoteric dilemma is inherent whenever 'art', attempting to be radical, pioneering and multiform, is 'mass-marketed' to an audience which has such wide-ranging but individual tastes?
This being said, none would divide opinion on the night as much as my personal highlight, the mighty and ever so slightly ridiculous, Sunn O))). These warlocks of drone were, quite simply, the most terrifying and most probably the silliest performers of the night (narrowly beating Best Name Award winner Kylie Minoise, whose insane noise-drenched writhing-around-on-the-floor-like-a-lunatic routine came a close second). Friday night on the Outside Stage was a rare opportunity to witness Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson exclusively, without collaborators, perform material from their debut touring album, The GrimmRobe demos (a choice which to many may have appeared like a retroactive contradiction of the band's progress over the last decade and indeed their most recent release, Monoliths & Dimensions). As the two hooded heathens of heavy emerged through thick layers of dry ice to the sounds of haunting Gregorian chants I half expected a Spinal Tap-esque miniature model of Stonehenge to lower itself into the midst of this most serious of ceremonies. The proceedings' bathos continued to amuse as I found myself beard-stroking in austere thoughtfulness at this incredible spectacle whilst simultaneously breaking out in occasional fits of hysterical laughter at how farcically theatrical it all was. Could I really guffaw in the face of an awesome force so powerful, it actually rattles your ribcage and bruises your internal organs with its sonic assault!?
The answer to this question, I came to discover was, “Yes”. The monolithic power of Sunn O)))'s sound in its purest, most brutal, stripped-down, 2-guitar form, has the profound primeval ability to simultaneously evoke all extremes of human emotion, from happiness and sadness, to pleasure and pain. Through this visceral exploration of the human animal all are equal, reduced to their basest level and all are connected in the strength of their various reactions to the brutal onslaught of noise against them. Even if the reaction were, as it was for some, an overwhelming urge to go next door and dance to the Industrial Dub of Scorn instead! Here we see the fantastic organisation of the festival working to create a balanced harmony, offering the spectrum of punters a choice of seemingly dichotic yet equally innovative niche-interest performers to enjoy. So there really was 'something for everyone' as long as you made the 'right' choices. The moment I became almost certain I had made the 'right' choice with Sunn O))) was when, sat in front of centre stage at the end of the set, I believe I may well have experienced the indulgent delights of Anderson and O'Malley reaching, what Dr. Roger Schwenke et al might describe as the orgasm inducing 'Pink Note'! However, I think they may well have dropped the infamous 'Brown Note' in there too at the same time, which I must say was a bit of an anticlimax!

The Kooks
Empress Ballroom, Blackpool, 08-12-08

A gig that can be summed up in one simple word: unexpected. Okay, so maybe not so simple but I’ll endeavour to explain. It was like a bedroom full of perspiration and big tits (courtesy of Jackie). There were multi-coloured lights, strobes, dripping drapes. It was a basically a bloody great show.

The Empress Ballroom is hidden and when you find it, beautiful. Decked out in gold, cream and red, the black-sheeted backdrop and metallic rig juxtapose with the Victorian building, the chandeliers and the canopied balconies. It’s definitely fit for kings…

Those kings? The Kooks. After a surprise support by Mystery Jets, Luke Pritchard comes out onto the stage and boy is he a tiny guy. He thanks the crowd for coming and listening to them play in this “beautiful building” and the show gets kick-started with a John Wayne Western-style intro.

First single, ‘Always Where I Need To Be’ off latest album ‘Konk’, goes down a storm. At one point the floorboards were actually bowing underfoot. It was manic. The heat gets turned up with ‘Do You Wanna’ and as Pritchard creeps over the crowd, drummer Garred grits his teeth and Denton showcases his intricate finger work. It’s a bravura display of stamina and energy and the bass seeps into our blood streams.

‘Shine’ provided us with the reggae influences we have become accustomed to, while old classics, ‘Naïve’ and ‘She Moves In Her Own Way’ brought a bounce and some rather big cheers. As one girl put it, The Kooks are the “accessible” band. I suggest everyone access them, immediately.

Adam Mallaby