Eat Skull are an absolutely awesome band from Portland. This year’s record, Wild and Inside, is a highly recommended purchase. It will be available from the Siltbreeze website, I presume. Open another window and listen to them on their MySpace while you read this interview.

Vice: Hiya, what are your top five records that relate to the music you make with Eat Skull, and in particular to your great new record, Wild and Inside?

Eat Skull: Glad you like the new record! I don’t know how to answer this question so I will instead list five records that I can think of off the top of my head today that I love.

Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home

Duh.

Neil Young - American Stars and Bars

I especially like side two. Although I like the coked-out LA honky-tonk shit on side one as well.

Grateful Dead - American Beauty

Duh.

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

Insidious and evil. “Don’t Believe in Yourself…” Love it.

Hall and Oates - Abandoned Luncheonette

Relaxing Sunday morning music. Stupid and smooth.

What are your top five recent bands that you’re into?

Kurt Vile. It’s my favourite thing to drive to with a beer in my hand while wearing sunglasses lately. And the Violators kill live.

The Hunches. Not exactly recent, but their new album, Exit Dreams, is not a meaningless genre exercise or empty ironic gesture at all, which is refreshing to hear these days from a punk type band. It’s very rare. Actually, none of these bands are like that, but the Hunches are a truly great band and have been for years and they will be missed.

The Whines. A young band from Portland who are honest, hypnotic and beautiful.

Mayyors. Best party band I’ve seen ever (probably). Inspiring for how masterfully they play their music, and how they refuse to whore themselves out to others. Tightly contained and controlled. LOUD.

Black Dice. Not exactly recent either, but they are still extremely gnarly and fucked up. Sounds like hell, aka our world. Bad ass.

Some of you have been in bands together before. How did those projects end, and how did Eat Skull come about?

Rod and I played in the Hospitals separately and together, and did Hairdryer Peace with Adam and Chris. After the last Hospitals European tour I moved to Portland to play music with him.

You’re based in Portland; is it a good place for a band like yours?

There are lots of bars and houses to play shows at, and it’s easy to jam and record in your basement or house here. It’s easy to avoid the more negative aspects of the music scene here and just focus on doing your own thing at home.

What do you miss most when you go on tour?

Touring can be a blast and sometimes you meet the greatest people and are treated so well by the nicest hosts, but it’s easy to get sick of sleeping on hard cold floors and waking up next to dog shit and stuff… and then eating at Taco Bell. After years of those kind of hi-jinks it stops being such an adventure. Usually I end up missing my sanity.

Yeah, Taco Bell kind of sucks after a while. If there was one thing you could change about the music industry, what would it be?

There should be less bands, less records, less music and more quality. Then maybe bands and records would be able to be heard by a wider audience without having to be dumbed down into a sugar pill. More meat, less candy. Where’s the beef?

Good question. What are your ambitions besides making music?

Living in the country somewhere where the weather is nice. Having a meaningful life.

Who or what inspired you to start making music when you were young?

Working backwards from crummy industrial music to Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle and the Residents gave me and my friends growing up the impetus to make crazy music and not worry about things too much. Just press record on a boombox and go nuts on a Casio, pans, broken guitar, recorder, flute and whatever else was around. The shitty local punk scene was probably responsible for brainwashing me into an idiot servant for life. Now I will probably never stop.

What are your top five band from the UK? Of all time and recent times.

David Bowie
The Kinks
Throbbing Gristle
Television Personalities
Mark Perry

Finally, have you any plans to release a record and tour over in Europe and the UK?

We have a 7″ coming out on Upset the Rhythm in a little bit. I guess we’ll play it by ear from there!

JOEL WRIGHT