Jerkstore have released their tape "Language Barrier". I picked this up on Saturday, but I haven't listened to it yet. That was at Electric Lake, which I think you could say was a great success.

There was a great turnout in the amphiteatre of Commonwealth Park, it was a really nice relaxing day with a great variety of bands. It was a perfectly sunny day, but then the clouds came over, early in Voss' set, the sky broke and it started to rain. I left at about that time, not sure what happened for the rest of the day.

Talking Tapes w/Jerkstore

This was a pretty weird interview. I think it's the fact I did it with some guys that I knew pretty well, it was just an off the cuff thing, I was hanging around my local shops and Julian came by, he said the rest of the band were having a meeting, I suggest the idea of a zine interview.

We ended up talking for ages but it didn't come out that well. What I've put into the zine was mainly a lot of talk we got into about tapes. Jerkstore are putting out a tape in the UK.

We did the interview in Tilley's, inside. There was so much noise around, so in the tape you couldn't always here what was going on.

I wrote down some of the ideas that came across:

Dan: What's the plans for Jerkstore coming up?

Julian: Some band from Adelaide wants us to come and play with them...so maybe we'll go to Adelaide.

This bloke Chaz, he's from The Midlands in the UK. He's going to put out this tape over there. There's going to be 100 copies made.

When's the tape launch tour?

J: Doesn't look like we will manage a tour from the cassette sales.

Sean: Maybe one of us could go on a hype tour, just go around and play the tapes.

Pete K: We could just go to everyone's house that buys it, give them a personal launch.

We're going to do a slit 7 inch with Marathon sometime.

We're going to play Electric Lake. It's Warwick's thing. It should be good. I like playing outside. It's in the park, where punk in the park was. We're at the bottom of the lineup though. There's bands that have never played before above us.

You guys got any other bands going?

J: I might be doing something with Morgan (Dead Kings/4 Dead) and Alex (Hard Luck). Fast hardcore. Morgan wants it to sound like xfilesx

S: I'm in this pop punk supergroup. And Loveshy...we're doing a demo tape. We might to a launch show of the tape.

J: You can't launch a demo. That's not on.

Have you guys been in any other zines before?

We're having a track on a compilation in the next Nerf Jihad, Issue 10. I guess we've been mentioned a couple of times. The Hollow said they like us I think. We got a mention in that zine about Marathon. This is the first interview though. It's one word, Jerkstore.

Do you think tape is making a big comeback?

P: There's definitely something about it. There's that whole nostalgia thing.

My friend...funnily enough, he lives in Adelaide now...that's how I got into music. He played me a tape of TLC- Waterfalls. I later bought the tape off him because of the memories attached to it.

J: I was a bit young for buying tapes. I guess my first tape was a My Disco tape or something. Maybe this band called Rubber Baron, they were ok I guess. Oh, once my friend and I made a tape for my parents for Christmas. He played guitar, three power chords, I sung in this high pitched voice.

P: On a tape, it's a bit more forgiving. The bias kind of covers up a lot of little errors that might come out a lot clearer on CD. We did a cover for the UK tape...it actually sounds horrible on CD, all the errors come out loud and clear. The tapes a bit more forgiving.

Maybe we should do a Radio Birdman cover for the Australian version.

Naomi: My first tape was probably a Straight Jacket one or something.

That's a bit cool for a first tape. Mine was 100% Hits of 1996

Actually, I got a Savage Garden tape back when I was young, that would have been my first.

S: I once taped Spiderbait- Grand Slam and Regurgitator- Unit which I borrowed from the library.

I had those two on tape as well.

That's all that I wrote in the zine, I've added a few more parts that came to mind as I was typing.

I mentioned in my last post that I have been working on a project for my Dad's 50th birthday.

I have received some great stories about the inner city Sydney punk rock scene in the late 1970s, mainly the bands which formed after the demise of the mighty Radio Birdman. Some of these will be appearing in my next issue.

One of the main bands talked about was The Hitmen.

I was looking for some pictures and came across this interview, done in the mid 90s, with their lead singer Jonny Kannis.

I also did an interview with Jerkstore today. It came about in a bit of a strange way actually. I was down at Lyneham shops playing Footbag, it's a good place for me to play because it's near my house and sometimes people get interested and wonder what I'm doing.

So anyway, Julian came by and I asked what he was up to. He said they were having a band meeting. I suggested that was not punk. Later Pete K argued that maybe they are not a punk band, so it doesn't matter.

We talked about tapes, as Jerkstore are doing a tape release in the UK. I think tapes are making a comeback in a pretty strong way. The nostalgia value seems to really be getting the tape thing happening.

It was a pretty weird interview actually, but I think I will be able to get something out of it. We did talk for 25 minutes, but a lot of that was not quality interviewing.

The Capital Eyes organisation is now renowned for its quality in previous publications though...standards, etc. It's DIY, it doesn't matter.

I was going to do the new issue tonight, but I think I will wait and put a bit more work into the layout of the zine.

It's going to have interviews with Ruiner, To The North, Jerkstore and that 70's punk rock piece.

I begin my first assignment for BMA tomorrow, with an interview with Shihad.