Teenage Time Killers had been the epic one-off punk-metal supergroup put collectively within the mid-2010s by My Spoil guitarist Mick Murphy and late Corrosion Of Conformity drummer Reed Mullin, and that includes contributions from everybody from Corey Taylor and Dave Grohl to ex-Useless Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra. In 2015, forward of the discharge of their one and solely studio album, Steel Hammer caught up with Mullin to seek out out the trick to protecting this all-star celebration on the rails.
Within the lengthy hall at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 in Los Angeles, Corrosion Of Conformity drummer Reed Mullin is quietly shedding his shit, not sure what to say. On the different finish of the hall stands 64-year-old American punk rock legend Lee Ving, fortunately recalling the time that his band Concern had been banned for all times from Saturday Night time Dwell. “Dude!” beams Reed, as if we haven’t seen. “It’s Lee Ving!”
Behind us, Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba is taking selfies with My Spoil’s Tairrie B and Mick Murphy, whereas Fireball Ministry’s Jim Rota chats to Samhain drummer London Might. In all, there are about 15 band members right here, all gathered for a photoshoot and to listen to the ultimate mixture of their new album, Biggest Hits Vol. 1, which is blasting from the studio. At present, we’re listening to Jello Biafra’s blistering rendition of the John Cleese poem Ode To Sean Hannity. And it’s not daily you get to listen to Monty Python-approved punk rock!
Make no mistake, that is no unusual album playback, the place you’ll be stuffed right into a joyless room with some humourless journalists, or, worse nonetheless, need to hearken to the report in entrance of the band, hoping to nod in all the suitable locations. As a substitute, Reed arms out beers and there’s a basic mingling about, and never a bit confusion about who’s really within the band, as a few of them have by no means really met earlier than. That is no unusual band, both. In all, there are 35 members (and counting), together with among the largest names in rock, reminiscent of Dave Grohl, Corey Taylor, Randy Blythe, Neil Fallon, Doyle Von Frankenstein and Nick Oliveri. The band known as Teenage Time Killers, a side-project to eclipse all others, and maybe we should always attempt to clarify the way it all occurred. This, in any case, was not the plan.
Our story begins about 30 years in the past, when a younger Reed Mullin was placing on punk exhibits in his dwelling city of Raleigh, North Carolina, and placing out data on his personal unbiased label. Amongst these he signed had been a Washington DC band known as Dain Bramage, whose lineup included none aside from future Foo Fighter Dave Grohl.
“He was a giant COC fan,” says Reed, “nonetheless is, and we’d performed together with his band. I bear in mind seeing him on the 9.30 Membership in Washington DC, and I had this little label, so I put his band out, and 30 years later he’s a giant rock star or no matter. We’ve been pals for years and beers, so he allow us to do an album right here [2012’s Corrosion Of Conformity], and I grew to become pals with the pinnacle engineer, this man named Lou [John ‘Lou’ Lousteau]. Lou was like, ‘When we’ve some free time on the studio, you’ve gotta come out and do some hardcore songs.’”
Evidently, it appeared like a cool concept and, good to his phrase, a yr later Lou known as to say that they had a free week within the studio. By this time Reed had written some materials, together with the aforementioned adaptation of the Cleese poem, and he known as up punk icon Jello Biafra to see if he needed to sing it.
“So I flew out and went into 606 with Lou and his buddy Mick [Murphy],” continues Reed. “And as an alternative of doing 5 tracks we did 12. Then I’m on the airport going dwelling and I see this man strolling previous as I’m going to my gate, sporting sun shades like he’s all hungover or one thing, and he’s sporting a Corrosion Of Conformity t-shirt. So once I walked by, I used to be like, ‘Hey, man, good shirt!’ like a dork. He pulled his glasses down and replied, ‘Reed?’ And it was Randy Blythe from Lamb Of God! I instructed him what I used to be doing and that I had Biafra singing, and he was like, ‘I wanna be on it!’ So it went from being 5 songs, with Jello singing a tune, to being 12 songs with Jello and Randy fronting the tracks.”
From there, it’s secure to say that issues might have spiralled uncontrolled. Dave Grohl in some way obtained wind and needed to be on the report, and was swiftly adopted by Pat Smear, Lee Ving, Minor Risk/Unhealthy Faith guitarist Brian Baker and Tommy Victor of Prong, and 5 tracks grew to become 21.
“There’s some fairly huge names,” grins Reed. “However just about everyone on the listing, I’ve identified without end. It form of jogs my memory of the previous days once I used to placed on punk rock exhibits in Raleigh, and I’d get my pals from Richmond or DC to return and play a present. The one man I didn’t know on this was Corey Taylor, however Lou from the studio is pals with him, and he was like, ‘I’ll do it subsequent week!’”
Surprisingly, Reed says that juggling 35 musicians for the recording course of was comparatively straightforward. Within the previous days it was all analogue tape, and folks must go to the studio in individual, however now there’s Professional-tools and the web, so Vic Bondi from Articles Of Religion did his vocal tracks in his dwelling studio, as did Neil Fallon from Clutch, and Mike Williams from Eyehategod [we told you it was a big roll-call]. It’s a far cry from the usual story of a daily band jamming in a rehearsal house (which might have been logistically inconceivable), however Reed insists that this didn’t mute the trade of concepts.
“I don’t assume so,” he gives, “as a result of the overwhelming majority of us have identified one another for therefore lengthy, and all of us went by way of the identical experiences within the punk rock days. However I do know what you imply, it’s definitely completely different from the previous days the place individuals would collect and write songs, like, ‘Hey, what do you consider this?’ I want it might’ve been that means, however plenty of the vocal tracks had been performed at 606, simply when individuals dropped by. There was additionally a few individuals I needed to be on there who had been , however it didn’t work out. [Black Flag’s] Keith Morris was speculated to be on there, and the tune that Phil Rind from Sacred Reich sings was speculated to be half Phil and half Max Cavalera, however Max was on the street. To be sincere, the factor that took the longest was the authorized stuff, coping with everyone’s report labels! All of the individuals concerned had been super-cool and enthusiastic, and it turned out actually good, it’s not only a novelty.”
This a lot is obvious from the primary playback; Biggest Hits Vol. 1 isn’t any fucking joke, both musically or lyrically. And Reed will not be far flawed when he compares the report to the traditional 1981 compilation Let Them Eat Jellybeans, which featured such legends as Black Flack, Useless Kennedys, Flipper and Unhealthy Brains.
“This album is kinda like that,” he says. “It has plenty of completely different flavours of punk rock and peculiar music. And the identical goes for the lyrics: there’s a tune known as Useless Hand, which is straight up Protest And Survive by Discharge… I completely ripped that off! The Useless Hand was this method that the Soviets had in place, when the Chilly Battle was happening, the place even when everyone over there was lifeless, they’d nonetheless ship their whole arsenal at us. It was known as The Useless Hand, however I wrote a tune about it that sounds quite a bit like Discharge. It’s fairly various in phrases of plenty of the completely different kinds of punk; there’s some American hardcore, some British- sounding GBH/Discharge form of stuff, however then the one which Corey Taylor sings feels like 1983 thrash steel or one thing, with an Iron Maiden intro! Man, there’s 21 songs, so it’s form of laborious to say, however there’s so many alternative flavours. There’s some stuff that sounds just like the New York Heartbreakers… all sorts of stuff.”
The identify of the band, Teenage Time Killerss, in case you’re questioning, was taken from a songtitle by legendary anarchist punk band Rudimentary Peni, a tune that’s lined on the album, with teenager Trenton Rogers on vocals. Reed even needed to get Peni’s Nick Blinko to do the sleeve art work, however was instructed “to not maintain [his] breath!” The album title, Biggest Hits Vol. 1, in the meantime, was lovingly pilfered from West Ham hooligans the Cockney Rejects. In a means, it’s a figuring out nod to the actual fact that punk rock nonetheless doesn’t fairly get the respect it deserves from the steel neighborhood, nonetheless the awkward cousin whose identify is a four-letter phrase. With out Discharge or GBH, there can be no thrash steel, easy as that. Funnily sufficient, Reed agrees. “No shit! I couldn’t agree extra,” he exclaims. It’s been stated, not with out some reality, that punk was the perfect factor to occur to steel, and that steel was the worst factor that occurred to punk. “That couldn’t be extra true!” agrees Reed, as soon as extra. It’s maybe becoming, then, that Teenage Time Killers goes some approach to redress that steadiness. It’s solely truthful,since COC had been one of many first to cross from punk to steel with out sucking!
“Yeah, from the get go we had been into Black Sabbath, however we couldn’t actually play Sabbath,” laughs Reed. “Certainly one of our songs, Redneck, was actually simply Symptom Of The Universe. We had been at all times into that, however extra for the music. Excluding Sabbath who at all times had good lyrics; heavy steel, for essentially the most half, had ridiculous lyrics.”
However we digress. You’ll hear the album quickly sufficient, and already there’s discuss of a follow- up, a Biggest Hits Vol. 2. Is Reed prepared for an additional spherical? Who does he keep in mind for the sequel?
“We’ve positively gotta get some English fuckers,” grins Reed. “Is [UK Subs frontman] Charlie Harper nonetheless alive? I believe we’ll positively do one other one, as this album was an excessive amount of enjoyable. Despite the fact that there wasn’t plenty of time for us within the studio, it was sufficient to be a very cool expertise.”
All of which ends up in the inevitable, and possibly silly, query… It’s at all times irritating when superior side-projects come collectively and nobody will get to see them stay. What are the probabilities of seeing Teenage Time Killers, given the spiderweb of commitments its members have to stick to?
“Properly, I suppose the core members are myself, Mick and Lou,” says Reed, “However I wish to take this out on the street. Perhaps we might do a present in LA or New York with as lots of the individuals as we will get collectively. I can simply see us doing a bit tour and a few huge exhibits, however among the bigger-name of us are kinda busy proper now. Corey needed to be right here for the photoshoot, however he’s on the street, and Neil from Clutch needed to be right here.”
Maybe it will work if you happen to had been all enjoying the identical pageant, like Obtain or one thing? Trace, trace…
“Really,” grins Reed, already forward of the curve, “we had been considering it may be cool to get as lots of the bands who’re on there and do a pageant of our personal later within the yr. You need one other beer?”
Fuck sure, on each counts!
Replace: Teenage Time Killers’ debut album, Biggest Hits Vol. 1, was launched on July 28, 2015. The band performed a one-off present on the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles in September 2015. Sadly, co-founder Reed Mullin handed away in 2020.
Initially revealed in Steel Hammer subject 267. Up to date June 2024