Nuggets: Divebomb Fanzine #1 Edition (Tom Capone + the Occult)

Guitar-centric corezine replete with gear talk and even guitar tabs (!!!). I suckled the teet of the mainstream print mag for many a moon before hipping to this thang of ours called hardcore, and I think this zine is just swell.

Writing the song "Baphomet," that lead is so creepy and catchy. Take me to that moment. 

I wrote it on a Jackson guitar, it had a tremolo bar but it was missing so I just used my wrist to push up/down on the bridge to make it sound whiny. We played it live and Walter would make up lyrics or use lyrics from The Kinks on top of it because we weren't sure if we wanted to have vocals or not. On the album it ended up being instrumental. I was big on Tri-Tonal sounds. The name has to do with the dark side. The rest of the guys in Quicksand weren't into Satanism, but I dabbled with the occult. As a whole it just came off tongue in cheek.

Are you still into the occult now?

Not really now, but I was for a portion of my life, totally into it. I used it to help shape the sound of the music. At the time, I believed in the philosophy that any energy you put into something has magical effects or can change it. So we used to do a lot of meditation to inspire us. As a band we didn't sing about it, but it was just what we did on our own to help us with writing. 

Q is for Quicksand

An open letter to short sleeve hoodie-wearers

Please forgive me for taking a cop-out in choosing “Quicksand” for “Q.” The letter Q is kind of difficult to dig up stuff on. I mean, I was going to do the Bad Brains album The Quickness. Not because I like it (I hate it), but because it starts with Q. These letters (I’m thinking Z will have a similar effect) make you start settling for weirdness and undercutting your abilities. That ain’t what I’m about.

Quicksand really need no introduction. They played on Jimmy Fallon fer Pete’s sake. I saw them last year in Los Angeles, and though I was excited to see them, I was somehow more distracted by seeing Dinosaur Jr and wasn’t as hyped as I could’ve been..but then they blew me away. I’ve never seen a band that tight before. Just in-the-pocket greatness. Jordan Cooper from Revelation, along with some others, were all on the stage behind the amps with their kids dancing around in Youth of Today onesies and such. Say what will you will about that stuff, but it was hard to be upset at seeing so many people having fun. I distinctly remember some doofus yelling out “Play a Gorilla Biscuits song!” and Schriefels laughed him off. 

But this isn’t about me and my dumb summer. This is about how many left of center videos Beavis and Butthead would watch/comment on. In my mind, nothing touches their commentary on the Grim Reaper video, or the Pantera video for “This Love.” This is pretty funny right off the bat though, cuz Walter is immediately compared to Lloyd Christmas. That’s funny.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find this video without foreign (Russian) overdubs, so you’re gonna have to deal with it. Not sure if this video ever appeared on one of the DVD collections that got released...

Quicksand - "Tell Them Anything (demo)" (Dylan's Dumb iPod #7)

As far as I know, this song never saw a proper release. I got it from some blog that had a whole bunch of B-Sides and rarities assembled. Normally I don't dig B-sides. They didn't make it to the
"real" album for a reason, and only annoying dorks go into histrionics over B-sides. (Overzealous Alkaline Trio and Hot Water Music fans, take note). Still, I'm a huge Quicksand fan, and they have a discography that's small enough to fully digest without too many problems. Like Nirvana...or a fast food meal. I can dig it.

A few thoughts:

A) I'm not sure what year this song is from, but probably 1998 or 1999 since they broke up in '99. I'm guessing this is a scrapped demo session for the new album that was to come out when they decided to reform for a bit.

B) For a demo session, it sounds pretty much like standard Quicksand studio material. Chunky riffs, Sergio Vega's grinding bass, a little o' that "Loud Quiet Loud" dynamic. It could have fit pretty easily on Manic Compression.c) These unreleased songs sound a little more hurt, a little bit more "brooding" than other material. Just a dorky observation on my part.
D) Walter Shriefels is an incredible musician and all of his bands are great.
There aren't any vids of this song, but here's a link to that B-Sides and Rarities comp that I found.