QUESTION: Is today’s music scene vapid and pointless? Is the youth culture pinned too much on commercialism, derivative uniformity and vacuous lyrics? Are we being short changed?
Do we yearn for something more substantial, something genuine, something with phenomenally hairy stinking bollocks that can scream so loud it rips the skin off your face and doesn’t really give a shit as long as it sounds right and the beer is flowing? I think so.
It seems that these days, people have forgotten the pure joy of drinking too much warm flat beer, of dancing like maniacs and sweating like cattle animals.
When hurling yourself around in the mosh pit, you need to look exhausted. You need to be covered in bruises, sweat and stale beer. You need to surrender yourself with wild abandon to the intense energy rush you get from vociferously head-banging right next to a ginormous bass amp that is cranked up to eleven.
Hard rocking muther truckers THE ZICO CHAIN are going to bring us back to the days when this wasn’t a far off dream. They are breathing life back into the myth.
Having just finished recording their debut album “Food” - produced by none other than Joe Baresi (of QOTSA fame) – The Zico Chain are about to embark on a 19 date tour of the UK alongside fellow sweaty rockers FLOOD OF RED and THE GHOST OF A THOUSAND. It promises to be an ear bleeding experience to say the least.
So in the midst of all the blood sweat and tears, Chris Glithero (vocals/bass) took time out to chat to W&H about all things music, and also how Madonna should really stick to what she knows best and avoid guitars. Especially when trying to save Planet Earth (Ed – in reference to the recent diabolical Live Earth concert).
The album “Food” is raw and bloody, like steak – crammed with healthy amounts of boiling anger, with a sprinkling of irony and some fantastic tunes to boot. But there is a lot more to Zico Chain’s lyrics than your average Clearasyl-inspired teenage angst.
As Gilthero explains: “We write about anything really, it could be something that’s on your iPod, something that you read. We try to deal with social awareness, you know, it’s what bothers you. Some people write about school or their girlfriends, well I’m not interested in that.”
“We definitely get really angry about stuff, you know, we have real issues with ignorance. We sit around talking shit for ages and get really wound up, and a song can come out of that.”
In the past they have been accused by the press of being overtly influenced by the likes of Kurt Cobain, something that drew a weary sigh from Glithero. “The mad thing is,” he said, “we got tagged with it [Nirvana] right at the start in the industry, and any comparison to Nirvana in the industry is a bad thing.”
“But we grew up in the grunge scene, and we did it! We were into Maiden, Guns ‘n’ Roses and Sabbath. You know, we were as much influenced by bands like that as we were with Kurt Cobain.”
It’s easy to see where he is coming from. Listen to Zico Chain’s new album it's fair to say there are the obvious comparisons to Cobain at points, inasmuch as there are comparisons to QOTSA, Stone Temple Pilots, and Guns ‘n’ Roses - amongst others. Most bands stand on the shoulders of giants, Zico Chain are merely giving a sincere nod of appreciation to the bands they know and love. And frankly, since when did a comparison to Nirvana become a bad thing?
“Yeah, we’re really proud of it!” he said, “You know, if a kid comes up to us and compares us to Nirvana, they have a big grin on their face, it’s great.”
So we have loud throbbing music? Check. We have angry lyrics fuelled by a growing frustration about society at large and the vapidity of the UK music scene? Check. It’s looking great so far.
Like an out of control juggernaut, The Zico Chain have been trailblazing their way across the US and UK, leaving an impressive back-catalogue of insanely amazing gigs, strings of accolades, and probably thousands of exhausted/exhilarated fans.
Their recent excursion involved a road trip around New Mexico with the NME, which by all accounts was a bit like the film ‘Almost Famous”, minus the I-Am-A-Golden-God pool scene no doubt. They opened at the recent Donnington Festival, played the recent Oxygen festival in Ireland, they played with Metalica in Bibao, the list goes on... And now their debut album ‘Food’ is about to be released.
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“Yeah man, we’re really stoked! And we can’t wait to get this one out. The good thing is that we had a little writing burst before we went, so it was all really new. We did the whole thing in three weeks.”
“Recording with Joe Baresi was great. He fucks around with all the songs, like he puts secret triangles on all the records, half the bands don’t know about it! We found ours on ‘Would You Rather’, but we quizzed him a lot.”
The thing with Zico Chain's music, it that the songs are hard, but they're also accesible without losing the edge.
As Glithero explained: “Everything we grew up on was based on songs. It seems to be something bands are forgetting, it’s either based on riffs or image. We keep choruses in our songs, and if people think that’s cheesy then that’s fine, we want to be cheesy!”
But how 'cheesy' is cheesy? Glithero kindly obliged by scouring his CD collection for guilty secrets. "Erm, well I've got a Shed 7 album here, I'm not proud of that, but I've got a big thing about what's cool and what's not. I listen to shitloads of music, I've got the Carpenters on my iPod as well as Slipknot."
"And Slipknot, they've got tunes man. I mean, I don't know how they manage to get choruses into music like that, I guess that's why they became big!"
But let’s face it, you can hardly accuse Zico Chain of wandering into the realms of ‘The Darkness’, they’re a seriously loud band – brain-damagingly so. ‘We don’t try to sound like anything, we just play as hard and as fast as we can,” Glithero says, which by all accounts is pretty fucking speedy.
The Zico Chain have gathered a solid fan base at both ends of the Atlantic, they’re pretty revved up about Slash raving over their music on TV in the US, and it looks as though they’re really snowballing their way to stardom.
“It’s amazing,” raved Glithero, “We just had to pinch ourselves to check it’s still happening. There’s never been a turning point, I guess when you look back and see the videos then it hits you. I mean, Donnington, that was amazing, but it was over really quickly. And playing with Metalica, that was massive!"
“But we still feel like we’re jamming in our basement, I guess it’ll feel like we’ve made it when we’ve sold out Wembley twice!” Presumably as long as it doesn’t involve a tribute to Princess Di or a half baked effort to save planet Earth via the medium of song and dance? “Yeah, that was fucking awful. I was watching Madonna fudging it on that guitar. I mean, she can do whatever she wants, but man that just hurt…”
Have the Zico Chain had any favourite moments over the past few years? “I dunno, I can’t remember, it’s all a blur. We just enjoy ourselves, partying and playing, that’s what it’s all about.” Sing Hosanna, finally a band that has got it right! So have they been keeping a diary of the out-takes for the DVD?
“We got loads of little moments,” he laughed, “but we’re saving that for the rockumentory.”
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