Kalistani Major History

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Python Trio Ultrafuss brings Noise Alternative back to the Mainstream
Debut EP Opium is a "dissonant masterpiece"
Sulari, Duchy of Suldanor
April 2, 5550


Ultrafuzz' debut EP Opium creates narcoleptic, opiated fever dream soundscape

A lot of modern music is pretty straight forward: There hasn't been a solid noise alternative band hit the charts in decades. But Ultrafuzz, a trio from Python, Duchy of Vrassa, have kicked open the doors once more for loud, crunchy guitar rock, and have signed a development deal with ARC in Sulari. The band consists of singer, songwriter and guitarist Megan Rogers, Bassist Brad North and percussionist Alvin Colleen. All three members grew up in the relatively quiet of Python Underground music scene and formed the band five years ago.

"We all met at Python (Musical and Arts Academy)," said Rogers. "We were maybe originally like four people, and then their guitarist quit and Brad heard me playing in a coffee shop there, and thought I would be a good person to be the guitarist and then the lead singer, this chick name Jane (Bratton, who has since formed the band The Show) quit. The guys said she was too interested in singing like that pop sh-t that all the stupid teeneyboppers are into and so I said 'Yeah you know I can sing a little bit...' and they let me sing some of her songs and at first the lead guitarist (George Moses, now in Python's Cold Water Drain) was all like 'you're singing too slow, like what's your problem you f--kin junkie' and then they like kicked that dude out of the band too and so we like changed our name to Ultrafuzz because that's what the guys wanted the, you know, the sound to be like this fuzzy distortion stuff... it was real art rock, and I was totally into it. So I mean, yeah..."

Convoluted origin stories aside, the band's first single, "You're Gonna Pay Me With your Life", which came out before their Debut EP was released has been hailed as the year's first great hit song. The single hit number 35 on the Radio 1 Hot 200 Singles Poll, and the strength of the debut single drove the EP into the Top 20 on the Albums Poll. "Its a dissonant masterpiece," said music reviewer Tasha Jeffries for Kalistani Rawk Monthly, of the single. "The EP's title really says it all for these songs, but that one especially sounds like they are actually making it while smoking. Its the kind of music a narcoleptic opium addict would make. It drags and is so slow and fat and the guitars are so massive while Meg hardly sounds like she's awake. You almost don't have to take any drugs listening to it--the music does that for you."

Megan Rogers was upfront about the chemicals she uses. "Yes. Opium, I think maybe, um, maybe I don't know like a few times--somedays it kinda blends together you know, but I think this is really kind of a good thing, like these are the sounds you hear when that stuff is swirling around in the room--you like get the sense that things, like everyone should just kinda take it easy and really just make as loud of music as we possibly can. It's kind of good that ARC gave us a decent deal. The money I made from that EP is gone already, of course. We always have some around. It makes the days fly by. And you know, then before you even know it, the record was done and we were like, man when did we do that?" She says the dissonance and volume of her band's noise alternative serves a purpose. "When you chase the dragon, so to speak, you know, you have to play loud, or the other guys can't really hear you."

Asked what it is like to be in a band with such a heavy narcotics user like Megan Rogers is apparently, bassist North said, "She uses drugs? I don't think that's true. Did she tell you that?" Alvin Colleen added, "hey, remember that time we were eating all that L and smoking herb and she brought this stuff that was like this white crystal stuff and was just gonna smoke it herself and and we were like oh man, what's that? and she said it was synthetic opium, and we were like what the heck? and then we saw those Indralan soldiers out in the parking lot? What? That night was wild!"

Despite their self reported issues with continuity, the record's producer, Victor Sutter with ARC said the band was "one of the easiest bands I ever recorded, hands down. First: they had these songs down. At first they were so kind of all over the place. We one take, and it just sounded like they were playing riffs and this down tempo really sludgy stuff, and like they were totally making it up on the spot. So I thought, yeah, there's no way these guys had these songs coming in here. They just made this stuff up in the studio, so I had them do a second take, and it was virtually identical. And later I went back and listened to their demos, and the demo was more or less exactly what we just recorded. They play these songs like they are just taking dictation. It's so weird."

"Oh yeah, they are drug addicts... real junkies, all three of them," said Sutter. "I could get maybe 4 hours of work out of them in a day, but those four hours were so easy that we actually did almost a song a day for the EP. They knew what they wanted to do, and part of that time was them trying to explain the sound they had in their head to me, so I could do it. If they just laid off the tar long enough to learn sound engineering and production, they could've made this record themselves. They were so good and their whole goal was to make the loudest record a three piece band could make." The album was completed in three weeks from start to finish, much of that time was spent waiting for new equipment to arrive from Python, because the band accidentally set fire to the recording space at ARC, and their road crew back in Python were unreliable. Ultimately, ARC spent more than 45,000 Rubles replacing the equipment that the band accidentally burned up.

"After that, we had to ban smoking in the studio," said Sutter. "And really it was for our own good: The production team always got a little too high during the sessions, and you can hear it on the record. If we could turn the gain up on a lot of those songs, we did. You could always see on Meg's face when she realized that we had turned her guitar up--she got this big grin. When we were mastering then, we were like 'god this is too loud. It's gonna kill the speakers in people's cars and they aren't gonna play it on the radio.' So we had to turn it back down. I don't think the band knows it yet."

"They did what?!" said North. "I mean it sounds good, but why? Why did they do that? Next time I swear they better not do that. We're still gonna play it loud live anyway. Whatever."

What the future holds for this band is anyone's guess, but for now, they are the sound of Alternative Radio. Rogers said, "I think they want to do a record, I mean the label, I mean a full LP you know, with like 14 songs on it. Yeah, that might be kind of fun, but really, we gotta see what this one does first. ARC signed us to a development deal, meaning, I think they want us to use this to get some more exposure and see if you know like there's a market." Colleen added, "So much of the stuff on the radio is this pop and b stuff, which is fine, but there's no sharp edges to it. We want our music to sound like the guitars are being played by a blender with like knives attached to it, like we're pulling on it and contorting it. The drums are so heavy, the bassline is so thick, and the guitar sounds like I'm breaking it half the time. Its noise. And I guess some people dig it, so we'll see what comes next I guess."

Rogers then ended the interview abruptly with "I'm finna take off, cool?" And then she just left... The band followed her and that was it.

Easy to record, really shivers-producing and exciting to listen to, and impossible to interview, Ultrafuzz' new EP Opium is in stores all across the Empire, and their video for "You're Gonna Pay Me with your Life" has just entered heavy rotation on M7. Our best advice is, listen to it in the correct frame of mind, and at top volume to get the full effect. Here's the video, which at 3 minutes and 46 seconds is an apropos truncation of the full single that clocks in at five minutes and 17 seconds, but feels like its actually 8 and a half minutes long. Opium by Python's Ultrafuzz is recorded on ARC records in Sulari.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCPfYcLuYkk]