READY TO FIGHTVancouver Punks White Lung Are Prepared to Kill
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Photo by Michelle Ford
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Hardcore is just about the gayest form of music around. Electroclash? At least those guys had the balls to come out with it and dress like women. Italo-disco? Those guys can all take ten times the drugs you could. Hardcore, on the other hand, is full of rippling, topless, sweaty, repressed guys groping each other to bands with names that sound like they were made up by an insecure four-year-old with a tough-guy complex.
All of a sudden, though, a group of four mouthy girls from Vancouver have turned up to save the day and show all the dickless boy-wonders how it’s done. White Lung combine the feral energy of the Germs with the taut, wiry dynamics of the Wipers and have released a string of singles that keep improving in a bewilderingly exponential fashion. In fact, they are this repressed hardcore kid’s favourite new punk band as of right now. Vice: What is a “white lung”? It sounds like a black lung gone nuclear.
Natasha Reich (guitar): An eight-legged ball of fury. Grady Mackintosh (bass): Isn’t it a degenerative disease associated with long-term asbestos exposure? Mish Way (vocals): No! A “white lung” is the slang term for a disease that bakers get from inhaling flour. Our friend Steven worked at a bakery and suggested we call the band White Lung. We had a show coming up and we were still nameless but they needed to make posters and White Lung worked. It sounded pure but intrinsically disgusting. I liked it immediately. You list “fighting with taxi drivers” as an influence. How often do you find yourselves trading blows with cabbies?
Natasha: It’s pretty hard to find a cab driver that will pick up four people equipped with amps and guitars. Usually we end up having to get one person to stand up the road a bit and flag one down then while they’re distracting the driver we all run up with the equipment and throw it in. Mish: I wish you’d asked how “hot teenagers” influenced our music instead. You guys might just be the first punk band ever to have a song about ketamine. Over here it’s mainly a drug that squat kids who listen to psy-trance take.
Mish: That’s hilarious that you associate ketamine with psy-trance kids. One of my ex-boyfriends befriended another ex-boyfriend of mine when they both lived in Berlin. It broke my jealous little heart. They partied a lot together and one used to feed the other ketamine. The song is just an excuse for me to be a resentful hag through shitty symbolism. Do you ever get shit being a band of laydees in the sweaty, macho, male world of punk?
Natasha: Once a guy walked up to me while we were playing and broke my guitar in half, chucked it at some innocent girl, and told us to get punk or get out. So I killed him with my bare hands.
CIRCLE JAMS White Lung’s “Magazine” seven-inch is available now on Deranged Records. myspace.com/whitelungwhitelung
See all articles by this contributor Anonymous, on Oct 1, 2009 wrote:
Anonymous is the worst thing to happen to the internet. "Hardcore is just about the gayest form of music around." hahaha, that’s silly. Fight Pit’s do suck terribly though, as oppose to circle, twist, or party pit’s, which rule. | | Anonymous, on Sep 4, 2009 wrote:
okay so their music sucks but they are "cool people with the perfect amount of self awareness" so it’s okay to like them | | Anonymous, on Jul 19, 2009 wrote:
remember when NOFX had that song about Ketamine in the 90’s? | | Anonymous, on Jul 19, 2009 wrote:
whoever wrote this doesn’t listen to music | | Anonymous, on Jul 19, 2009 wrote:
Fuck your shitty hipster magazine. Hardcore will still be here long after these four wenches have od’ed on coke, and everyone forgot about the "string of singles" they put out. | | Anonymous, on Jul 18, 2009 wrote:
this shit is actually pretty sick...
it might be the best party music ever | | Anonymous, on Jul 8, 2009 wrote:
rock and roll needs to die. I don’t care if the song-writing is "down". you’re all so intentionally stupid it’s making me feel stupid. get over it. rock and roll needs to die. it’s the flipping 21st century. enough of this first wave industrial nonsense, music can go by eons just as much as eras.
most of you will be grandmas with long tits playing music that only you still thinks is raucous and edgy, the new kids of the millenia are into some crazy shit and we’re leaving you behind in the dust. living skeletons, you all are. statues soon to crumble. | |
| | | Anonymous, on Mar 16, 2009 wrote:
yeah, this music is fucking top! ordered the 7’ today! | | Anonymous, on Mar 16, 2009 wrote:
"Say what you want, but the riffs and song structure of this band are unprecedented in the pacific northwest"
uumm if it was supposed to be a jab, it was a really lame one. who cares where the fucking music is written or whether that type of music was popular in that scene before? the music is awesome! that comment was probably written by some slightly overweight, failed musician with a greasy side-part and patchy rock and roll beard who secretly resents anyone else’s band succeeding. shit, he probably writes the same kind of music. | | Anonymous, on Mar 16, 2009 wrote:
"Say what you want, but the riffs and song structure of this band are unprecedented in the pacific northwest"
I’m guessing this is supposed to be a jab, but not all bands have to be completely original. Look at 95% of the bands around right now. You can still be formulaic and be good. | | Anonymous, on Mar 14, 2009 wrote:
which one’s Mish? This photo fucking sux. | | Anonymous, on Mar 14, 2009 wrote:
I like the singers voice for this style of music. The songwriting is pretty dope. These ladies are great players, too. How the fuck old are these chicks. They all look in early 20’s. If they are then they are even more impressive musically. It’s rare to find chick bands that don’t sound like fucking Veruca Salt fucking Elastica or some shit like that. I saw on their page that their openin for Vivianne Girls. Wish I could go to that show. Come to the fucking U.S. already Ladies. Jake. | | Anonymous, on Mar 14, 2009 wrote:
ya the vocalist isn’t really ’singer’ but it totally fits music. she lucky tho the musics good. really like the guitar and bass. in songs ’amy-white-out’ and therapy espeically. | | Anonymous, on Mar 14, 2009 wrote:
Say what you want, but the riffs and song structure of this band are unprecedented in the pacific northwest | | Anonymous, on Mar 13, 2009 wrote:
her voice fits the music. what were you expecting, sade? | | Anonymous, on Mar 13, 2009 wrote:
mish can’t sing. | | Anonymous, on Mar 13, 2009 wrote:
i like magazines better...but i think local garbage is fantastic too... | | Anonymous, on Mar 12, 2009 wrote:
this article fails to mention their epic debut seven inch, "local garbage". look it up...even better than the "magazine" one. | | Anonymous, on Mar 11, 2009 wrote:
sounds sweet to me. who the fuck called them hardcore? the dude said that HE was a hardcore kid who loved the band. get the fuck over it already. | | Anonymous, on Mar 11, 2009 wrote:
Saw these Ladies open for The Kills in van and the place was fucking packed 1/2 before they even took the stage. I. AM. IN. LOVE. | |
| donaghy, on Mar 11, 2009 wrote:
why are you complaining? nothing’s worse than an oversold sold-out show with college freshmen hooting and hollering in your ear for the band to play the one song they know. i’m pro-slim crowds unless it’s my friends playing. | | Anonymous, on Mar 11, 2009 wrote:
sounds allright, but why on earth are you calling it hardcore? | | Anonymous, on Mar 10, 2009 wrote:
my buddy went to the fucked up show that White Lung played and said that even when Fucked Up went on there were no more than 50 people there, so like the other dude said, you can’t blame an opening band for the turnout...plus no one even knew about the show. Shitty Promoter. This is hands down my favourite Vancouver band right now. | |
| bad news brown, on Mar 9, 2009 wrote:
man, talk about the whole package. i was listening to them all of yesterday. great music, pretty faces, tattoos and punk. oh and did i mention, their band name kicks fucking ass? | | Anonymous, on Mar 9, 2009 wrote:
you can’t blame a lack of crowd on the opening band, blame fucked up. stills seems odd that no one would show up for that. not a bad bill. | | Anonymous, on Mar 9, 2009 wrote:
They opened for Fucked Up in Vancouver. Not many people were at that show. | | Anonymous, on Mar 7, 2009 wrote:
The last hardcore show in Van I went to, we crowd surfed completely naked guys and accidentally got our fingers up their butts... | | Anonymous, on Mar 6, 2009 wrote:
HA!! I’ve you’ve ever been to Vancouver you’d know that everyone and their dogs wear chuck taylors,, don’t think it was in an attempt to be HARDCORE...don’t worry ladies, these dickbirds are just jealous you can likely play better than they could ever even attempt to. Keep it us, you fuckin rock! P.S. Your guitar player slays! | | Anonymous, on Mar 6, 2009 wrote:
Wow, I really like this band. "Lack of ferocity"??? Seriously? I totally don’t agree. They are absolutely not hardcore, but looking on their myspace and other articles on them, I don’t think they’ve ever been called hardcore...even in this interview he didn’t call them hardcore, he called them punk. I really like it. And all four of them are fucking hot!! | | | Next 30 comments > |
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