If you're into NYHC, you gotta know this band. BCS has been around for years, dropping some new music every couple of years and never disappointing, playing a great mix of NYHC, hard moshing and fun. I saw them play a home match in the Pyramid NY last year, and believe me, show was off the hook.
Right before they came to Europe for their latest tour, I had a little talk with BCS:
- For those who don't know Billy Club Sandwich, introduce the band. Who are you? Where are you from? Since when have you been around? What do you stand for?
Glen: BCS is Martin on vocals, Tony Malone on guitar, Gary Muttley on Bass, and Glen on drums. We are all from in and around NYC. Currently, Gary and Martin are in the Bronx, Glen is in Harlem and Tony is in Westchester. The band started in late 1990 but we didn’t play our first show until May of 1996. More bands should take their time before they come out! Don’t embarrass yourselves! Haha What do we stand for? I guess, drinking, smoking, eating, playing hard music and having a good time…We’re not really a political band. We have some songs that are political but we don’t have a set agenda about anything you know? We just write about different shit that we see around us. We try to keep it light and fun. Music is a form of entertainment and there for should be entertaining, too many bands are just straight serious. What’s the fun in that?? This band’s music is hard but we still want to have a good time and we try to keep the shows more like a party. That’s why we kept such a crazy name: Billy Club Sandwich, it goes with all of that, it’s a hard name but it should still make you laugh.- BCS will release a new album, tell me what can we expect from it?Glen: The new cd "The Usual Suspects" just came out in the beginning of October on Dead City Records in the US and Rucktion Records in England. And it’s gonna be distro’d in Japan by Juke Boxxx Records. You can expect more of the same BCS craziness! New York Hardcore with a touch of Metal. There are some big sing-a-longs in these new songs. Really catchy shit. The production is dope! The layout is hysterical!! Our boy, Jimmy Dreadz, hooked up some crazy photoshop work for us and the cover is a cartoon of us by M40 that looks so much like us it’s just crazy! There are less samples on this record but there are some of the familiar BCS "extras" including an outro beat.
- What's up with the Charlie Brown shirt? Where does that come from?
Martin: Well I’ve seen a lot of shows over the years… I’ve seen great bands, but you know… smoking… drinking… I try to remember but it’s tough. So I decided to go with the Charlie Brown shirt… You may not remember the name of the band but you will remember a big brown Dominican wearing a Charlie Brown shirt!!!
Martin: Well I’ve seen a lot of shows over the years… I’ve seen great bands, but you know… smoking… drinking… I try to remember but it’s tough. So I decided to go with the Charlie Brown shirt… You may not remember the name of the band but you will remember a big brown Dominican wearing a Charlie Brown shirt!!!
- Something which I always thought to be really crazy, is the piano on "D.E.A" on the "…Hold The Bolgna" 7". What's the story behind that?
Glen: Well, first off, you have to understand that BCS has never had much money to record with. That’s why it’s usually taken us 3-4 years to put each release out!! Our demo, 7" and the split 7" we did with EGH, were all done at NYU when I was going to school there. They were all done as class projects for the classes I was taking=they were free. We didn’t pay for a recording until the "Superheroes At Leisure" CD. So, a class requirement when we were doing the 7" was that one of my classmates had to play on a recording so he could grade how I acted as an engineer. I was sitting there thinking, "This is a Hardcore recording! Who can I have play on this record? And play what?" No one in my class knew anything about this kind of music (of course- this was 1997). I started talking to kids and this one dude who played piano wanted me to play drums on his project. So in return I was like, "Okay, but then you gotta play piano on my project." He agreed and then I had to think where to try it! "D.E.A." with the funk parts and all the other crazy breaks just seemed like the best choice. I wish I had put the piano louder in the mix because it IS crazy but I didn’t know which way to go with it and we had limited time to mix it. But we’ve always been down to try different things, you know, add some production to certain songs, take things beyond "just Hardcore". "D.E.A." also had hand drums on it and we’ve always liked putting 808’s (Rap style kick drums) in songs (the new cd has plenty!) Actually on the 7" we didn’t have access to 808’s yet so I tried to fake them by playing big hand drums and recording just the low end! Some people give us shit for having samples, 808’s and everything but too many people in this scene are so closed-minded now, it’s pretty sad. This music was based on breaking the mold and doing your own thing but for at least 15 years now it’s like 98% of the bands out there just do the same, "safe" thing. And I guess, people from outside of NYC have a different view of Rap music, and since so many bands have already done such a terrible job of mixing Rap and Metal/HC that people just hate it, but you have to understand that Rap music came from NYC. We all grew up hearing it everywhere our entire lives! It didn’t "find" it’s way to us in the late 80’s/early 90’s like the rest of the world. We knew about it almost from the jump. Remember that two of the guys in this band are from the Bronx. The cradle of Hip Hop, so it HAS to effect our music. Wow, that was a great question! I’ve never been asked about that before! Thanks…
- You're coming back to Europe. What did you think of the previous shows, stoked to get back here?
Glen: Oh man, we had a great time in 2004! And had always wanted to go back but it’s the same for us as always, no money… We barely scrapped enough together to do THIS tour coming up. The shows were fun in ’04, we didn’t have any problems. We are starting in Paris on Oct. 16th. This time we are playing 9 shows in Europe. 8 of them with Onesta from France. And 4 of those shows are with Backfire also so I expect those to be really good! They are good friends of mine too so I know what a bunch of fucking maniacs they are!! It’s gonna get real messy with these two bands together in Holland! Haha And we are finishing up the tour headlining the "Running Riot Fest" (formerly "Ninjafest") in London on Saturday, Oct. 25th. When we played at the Underworld in 2004, it was our best show of the tour so we are hoping that people haven’t forgotten about us after all these years but with Rucktion putting out the new cd LBU and the rest of the peeps there should be ready for us!!
- You have songs in both English and Spanish, which works out really well, but it isn't done by too many bands. Why do you do this?
Glen: Well, Martin is Dominican and Puerto Rican, but growing up the Bronx, he speaks both languages and like I said, we always wanted to try to do something different so that was one instant way to do something very few bands were doing. Once again some people talk shit about it and we have run into some racial problems over the years because of it but what are you gonna do? Better to try and be different and stand out then just be "another band". It also works because some phrases just come out better in Spanish than in English. Also, you have to realize that while NYC has every kind of person living in it, it has A LOT of Hispanics- haha, so Spanish is all around us. The rest of BCS doesn’t speak much Spanish but you can’t help but pick up some words living around here. NYC is so bi-lingual that almost everyone calls a delicatessen a "bodega", you know, a small convenience store on the corner. In fact, that’s the title of the opening track on the new album, "Bodega". The song is about going to the store to buy some beer, condoms, or whatever it is you happen to need. That song has the most Spanish out of all of the new songs. A couple of the new songs are only in English but the mix is still there.
Check out the band:
