2324: Intense Mutilation were one of the original "shock" bands at the time of their inception (the only preceding bands who could compare being GG and the Mentors), when exactly did this insanity start and could you give my readers a brief history?
PV: IM's concept was bon in December of 1984. The tape trading scene in that era was begging for a band to blow away all limits and boundaries to good taste and excessive music. We decided that we were going to be that band. We were going to be the musical equivalent of the Coyote finally catching that Roadrunner and delivering a piledriver though three stacked banquet tables.
2324: How many cassettes did you guys release yourselves before the "Safe Sex" LP?
PV: "Poser Sacrifice" started the insanity. To quote Metal Forces Magazine "this demo, to use a kind phrase, is dogshit". The final product only sounded like "shit". We ran it through a few sound distorters to reach the desired level of "dogshit". "Express Yourselves" was next. This 15 song monstrosity yielded a vast array of compleatly tasteless penned classics. That bullett-bra wearing human sperm bank Madonna DID rip off the title and used it for one of her songs. "In Tenths Mutilation" was the last of the demos that was recorded using the unique recording process that has been in our family for over 50 years. "Bands Who Inspired Us" and "Son of Bands Who Inspired Us" were two compilation tapes featuring recordings that other bands made, including covers that other bands made of IM classics and original songs written about IM. "Intense Mutilation - Live at CBGBs" caught us in a natural environment without the benefits of post-production sound enhancers such as large empty metal ashcans holding 57 plastic vibrators at full throttle to add that unique 'humm' only available in a studio setting. "Intense Mutilation's Greatest Shits" was a climax of all the efforts we had thrusted over the years. It was an audio money shot.
2324: I have a copy of the "Greatest Shits" cassette, which I got through tape trading - the tape also has a 'dedication' of sorts to tape traders - did you acquire a lot of your fans through this network? PV: "Greatest Shits" has been tough to come by. Lots of people have traded for IM material. We sold other merchandise, so we recorded our address onto the tape in the top ten fave "Our Address". It's hard to trade for IM tshirts or the autographed solidified puke that we used to sell. So, we gave lowlives the opportunity to purchase merchandise from us AFTER they traded for the tape. Errrr.. we DON'T have YOU listed as a purchaser of any IM tshirts there Russ...(Unfortunately, I did pass up this incredible opportunity...-2324)
2324: For those unfortunate enough not to be familiar with you guys, why don't you give a brief introduction to each band member?
PV: People had said that when it came to playing music, we didn't know Jack Shit. To disprove the statement, we recruited a drummer. His name? Jack Shit. Fetus, a former fetiophile, hammered the bass and was responsible for 50% of the lyrics. I strummed the six tampon strings of Mrs Tinman and was responsible for the balance of the lyrical contribution.
2324: Did you guys play out a lot live? Play with any semi-famous bands?
PV: We did shows with Nuclear Assault, the Psychos (Billy Milano of SOD/MOD fame's earlier band if I am remembering correctly - 2324) , YDL and tons of other bands. Bloodfeast, a labelmate, was another band we played with twice. We played CB's, we played Animal Hall in Brooklyn where beer was sold out of a coffin (containing dry ice) for $1/can. We played Lamour's in Brooklyn and we played at a "Hardcore/Poetry Spoken Word Show" with Demo Moe - an IM favorite. We also enlightened the crowd with some of our own unique brand of poetry. We got shot by someone holding a french fry maker. Potatoes got into my shorts that night. When I got home, I was pulling spud after spud from my pud.
2324: You guys finally got an LP released with actual national distribution, how exactly did that happen?
PV: The kind folks at New Renaissance Records appreciated what we brought to the table from a quantitative perspective. We gave you more repulsion, distortion and excretion than any of our musical colleagues in that era. New Renaissance (and SPV in Europe) gave us a five LP deal which we eventually reduced down to two records. Jeannie, Brenda and Ann at NRR were the only thing of class that IM had ever been associated with.
2324: How was the reaction to the LP? It wasn't exactly standard New Renaissance Records fare. Any idea how many were made?
PV: Some number less than 10,000 worldwide - both for SPV and New Renaissance. There were a small hanful of CDs that SPV printed up. The band activly collects the CD printings.
2324: Was anyone extremely offended by the release? I remember a friend's parent actually smashing the record with a hammer in front of him, after reading every song title to him aloud. Anything like that happen of a more significant nature?
PV: When my grandmother read the track listing and noticed that we left off "Reeking With Green Pus" from the LP, she raked the LP through the hand-held cheese grater that she had in her apartment.
2324: After the LP was released, it seems like you guys fell off the face of the earth, and the number of people who have heard of you guys has seemed to fall off through the years. Only just recently has the official Intense Mutilation website sprung up, where have you been hiding all these years?
PV: The last song on the first LP was the last time IM ever collaborated on a musical product - both live and in the studio. Lyrically, the legend that is IM will be unmatched. Sure, this can be open for debate. In fact, Pee Wee Herman and George Michael want to open it to mass debate, but we feel that our lyrics have withstood the testicle of time. Like a festering boil, we could not be lanced and our lyrics have now spewed forth into the medium we call the internet.
2324: Are you still in contact with Jack Shit or Fetus? Does the band still exist in some form?
PV: Lyrics are occasionally published under the IM banner. When called for, there are events that take place that call for IM's interpretation of the facts - our own spin doctoring, if you wheel... Fetus and I are still in touch. Jack and I are practically brothers.
2324: I remember reading an interview with you guys (in MRR I think of all places) that mentioned the upcoming release of a second LP entitled "Fetal Attraction", whatever happened with that?
PV: Our second LP was supposed to be "Sgt. Lepers Falling Parts Club Band". The cover, which was somehow ripped off by the Beatles twenty years before we produced it, remains in the IM archives. Efforts are being investigated to scan this masterpiece into the website.
2324: A lot of Intense Mutilation songs have bizarre topics to say the least (ie "Vacuum Cleaner Love", "Horizontal Butter Churning"), were any of these songs actually based on people you knew (or yourselves!)?
PV: "Vaccuum Cleaner Love" was inspired after we had heard that a friend-of-a-friend had used Mom's Filter Queen to make him cream. "Horizontal Butter Churning" was an ode to our porno pundint putz pounding pal, Hands Rands. He enlightened us to such movies as "Pumping Irene" and "Two Wongs Make a White" featuring two Oriental women and a Caucasian male. As sick as our material is, it is only a reflection of the sickest aspects of our society.
2324: Why not share the craziest story you can think of regarding Intense Mutilation? I'm sure there has to be quite a few.
PV: To use this as a forun to elaborate a story that is referenced on our web page, Fetus once hosed down a group of females who had a dissenting opinion on IM at our record release party. The apparatus that he used for the hosing was his ample-sized rubber phallus, which, when he retired the Fetus character, he had melted and converted to two snow tires for his 4X4. There was enough rubber left over to make an Iron Sheik wrestling doll.
2324: Your website features lyrics to a bunch of unreleased Intense Mutilation songs such as "E3 - The Extra Testicle", was this stuff ever recorded and do you think it will ever see the light of day?
PV: E3 is a song that I'm proud of. We have music to go with that. If ever one song were to be recorded by IM, that would be the one. We have about 70 or so unreleased songs. Some appear on the website http://www.oocities.org/TheTropics/Shores/4139/intense.html
2324: I heard that that was an IM reunion show a couple years back, any plans for something like that to happen again, or even better a full-scale IM reunion. With all of the PC shit going on the 90s, it sure would be refreshing to have you guys active again.
PV: IM never reunited in the 1990's. We probed the situation and found out it was Chilli Milli Vanilli masquerading as IM. Milli and Vanilli were both famous for their pasT faux pas. Chilli was none other than major league ballplayer Chilli Davis. The people are the ones who will determine if an IM reunion is justified.
2324: Do you have any merchandise (LP, tapes, etc) still available? I actually tried looking for the "Safe Sex" LP, it is not easy to find, I never found it and I actually looked at a record show which did have most of the New Renaissance stuff.
PV: If enough interest is shown to us at the website or to New Renaissance (who has recently re-opened for business on the net), I'm sure that some of the few reamining gems could be made available. The LA riots burned down the warehouse that held our stuff. 2324: Any current bands that you'd recommend to Intense Mutilation fans? Any bands from the past for that matter too.
PV: IM was more about insanity than it was about music. To that end, I heartily endorse Extreme Championship Wrestling as a vehicle for maximum insanity. From the past, Intense Mutilation has dubbed the "Gallons Of Bile" rehersal tape "a Best Buy" for the fifth year in a row.
2324: I read an article on your website where Bill from Relapse Records admited being an Intense Mutilation fan, any other fans go on to any sort of fame that you know of?
PV: Pete from TON (Pete Steele - Type O Negative/Ex-Carnivore - 2324) was one of the few people who was at most of our shows. We've lost touch and we'd like to hook up with him. We feel that his decision to appear in Playgirl was inspired by Fetus' unabashed display of public Phallic-waving during the IM heyday.
2324: A lot of your old songs were based around bizarre news stories ("Rent A Placenta", "Duck Fuck"), any news happen recently that caught your eye as being a possible IM song? It seems like Intense Mutilation would be the band to tackle a serious song about the whole OJ thing.
PV: Actually, the Mike Tyson saga was something that we were thinking of converting to a Yes-like 26 minute epic. Once we compleated the song, we went off and bit Holyfield's ear. We realized that we could not write a sonG about Tyson until he passed away because we would be revising it once every few years.
2324: Any other thoughts you'd like to share with our readers?
PV: SOme of you may be reading about IM for the first time. As I sit here sounding like your Grandfather saying "sonny boy, back in MY day, the bands were SICK, DEMENTED and A FEW FRENCH FRIES SHORT OF A HAPPY MEAL", all I have to say is listen to your incontenance-ridden Grandpa of sickness when I way that it is true. Nothing compares to the collective level of Mayhem and Insanity that was displayed by Intense Mutilation. On a quantitative scale, history will show that Intense Mutilation had no equal.
Well, there you have it. Be sure to check out the Intense Mutilation and New Renaissance Records websites as listed in the article. And bug them to make some IM stuff available to the general public once again. Hopefully, the "Safe Sex" LP won't be the last thing we hear from these sick fucks after all.
More Apt. 2324 E-zine #2
Mentors Interview
REO Speedealer Interview
Russ' Skatopia Disaster
A Look Back At The Plague
Record Reviews
Live Reviews
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