Keeping in theme with having as many live acts as they can, Urban Lounge continues to put in bands in their venue almost every night, including the hump day itself, Wednesday. So I decided to check in and see what the Lounge had to offer, and I was far from disappointed.

--- Kicking and screaming through their entire set, the band Heathen Ass Worship took fishnet and zebra stripes to a brand new level, harkening the sound of old grunge with the lyrics suited for Bloodhound Gang and a look that makes you think Twisted Sister had kids. But not to be shown up, hard rock took the stage afterward as SPÖRK made their presence known with hard rifts and drum solos that didn't seem to end. Fronted by City Weekly's own Bill Frost, the two man group closed out the night to a standing ovation from the small audience that attended. I took photos which you'll find here, and got interviews with both bands afterward.


Heathen Ass Worship (Pastor Sasha, Dirty Melissa, Litterbox of Gloryhole)

http://www.myspace.com/heathenassworship

Gavin:  So what did you think of the small turnout?

Sasha:  We like it.  The more of the fewer, the better.  We don't care, we just like to play.

Melissa:  We like to rape people's minds and souls.

Sasha:  If we're not offending somebody, we're not doing our job.

Litterbox:  We got some converts tonight, I think.  I don't care how many people turn out, we'll just keep doing what we do.

Gavin:  Awesome.  So how did you guys come together as a band?

Sasha:  Melissa and I were driving a semi through Idaho, looking for the legendary transvestite Crystal Methe.  In our search we stopped at a truck stop to get blown by a couple of truckers, we ended up by the dumpster, and there we found Litterbox drowning in a puddle of rocket sauce clutching her face and whimpering.  We tried to have sex and have a child, the three of us, but that didn't work out so we decided to form a band.

Gavin:  I honestly thought that would have turned out more like "We were in a Cure tribute band and we left because we thought we were more Misfits."  But I'm honestly not shocked by this one.  So what artists influenced you?

Sasha:  No one, really.  Just anal sex, drugs and rock & roll. 

Melissa:  And Satan.

Litterbox:  I wanna specify "anal leakage".

Gavin:  Fair enough.  What's your opinion on the local scene, both good and bad.

Sasha:  We love the local scene in Salt Lake, we just think it's unfortunate that so many bands take themselves so seriously.  That's why we're here, we like to show everyone that it's okay to smile and have fun. 

Litterbox:  And have lipstick on your teeth.

Melissa:  And other parts.

Gavin:  What's your opinion of the current music trends going strong today?

Sasha:  We don't listen to anything past 1980, so we couldn't tell you.  Everything we listen to is pre-1980.

Gavin:  Well with that said, what's your opinion of the industry as it is now?

Melissa:  It's crap. 

Sasha:  The industry is in a sad state in one aspect, in another it's great because you have bands like Radiohead releasing their albums completely online.  We are currently into the trend of bands disregarding their labels and releasing the work by themselves.  If you can't do it yourselves, no one's going to do it for you.

Gavin:  How do you feel about file sharing?  I know a lot of your stuff is online.

Sasha:  We're all for it because we don't make any money as it is.  Go ahead, you can steal our music online and we're cool about it. 

Litterbox:  What he meant to say was those of you who dare to steal it, don't be afraid of us.

Melissa:  And come to see us play.

Gavin:  So then with the work you have now, are you planning on working on an album?

Melissa:  We recorded a CD already but it was crap because the studio we were in sucked.  So we're going to record another one.

Sasha:  But for the moment we are a live band and anyone who's into the Temple of the Heathen Ass Worship needs to come listen to the service.  Joint he congregation, don't be afraid.

Gavin:  Any local acts you recommend?

Sasha:  We like a band called Mommy's Got A New Liver, Mothercity, Ol' Blue rules!  And of course, SPÖRK.

Gavin:  Now I know I'm going to get kicked if I don't ask this.  Where did you get the inflatable phallus?  It looked like something you bought from Trent Reznor's garage sale.

Sasha:  We actually got it from Mischevious and we're proud to give them a plug because they sell us lots of gear and we love those guys. 

Litterbox:  Yeah, where do you think we get all out fishnets?


SPÖRK (Bill Frost & C.J. Burton, AKA Billy Spork & C.J. Spork)

http://www.myspace.com/spork

Gavin: What did you think of the crowd tonight?

Bill: Oh it was dismill, and it's exactly what we expect on a weeknight. Most of our people are either sleeping one off or are in jail, so it's not wise for us to play on a hump day.

Gavin: Sounds like my friends. Tell us how SPÖRK came together.

Bill: Originally it was me and a different drummer. Rebecca Vernan, also known as Becca Spork, who is now part of SLUG Magazine and plays in a band called Subrosa. She eventually quit mostly either because of sexual tension or she had other more important project to do. So when tendered her resignation, I approached C.J. who was like "yeah, I could just play crazy stuff over that!" And it's worked like that from then on.

Gavin: Nice. Artists who influenced you?

Bill: Oh. We call ourselves the gray area between Black Sabbath and The White Stripes. But I'd say Sabbath, Queens Of The Stoneage, some of the more stoner metal stuff. Even though we're not stoners ourselves, we're more alcoholics. But we tend more towards that genre.

Gavin: What's your opinion of the local scene, both good and bad?

Bill: Local scene is pretty healthy. We're not really a part of it, but it's going good. We're more on the outside, along the perimeter of it as you can see tonight.

Gavin: And no regrets about it either.

Bill: Nah, not really. We're not cool, we're not pretty, we're just fine. And actually we prefer playing in Ogden than Salt Lake. We get a better response up there, we get paid up there, we get free pizza up there. We're thinking of just staying in Ogden and skipping Salt Lake altogether.

Gavin: Do you think that will alienate anyone?

Bill: I think our fans will endure and make the effort to see us if they want to.

Gavin: What do you think of the major trends right now in music?

Bill: Radio is horrible. You'll never get any good music from radio. It's a cesspool of nothingness. So if you're getting your music from radio, you're a soulless dead person and you should go die. Except for when they play us on KRCL at 3AM. But I'm thinking the next big trend in music will be J-Rock, which is Japanese Rock. I think it will take over the United States probably by the end of the year. I was in San Francisco recently reading through all the rock magazines from Japan, and they all look like anime characters. How can that not go over stateside? I think that will be the next big thing.

Gavin: Worked for Hello Kitty and Cowboy Bebop.

Bill: No kidding. But yeah, J-Rock, J-Pop, J-Hop. Whatever else they got. I think we'll tour Japan, they'll like us over there. We did sell come CD's in Europe, three or four. So we think that's justification to go to Europe and play those four places.

Gavin: I think Germany would eat you up.

Bill: I think so too.

Gavin: So what's your take on the industry in general?

Bill: The industry is screwed. They got way too big, they consolidated, now they're down to very few record companies. Like Warner Bros/Kentucky Fried Chicken. It's gotten so big, so bad, and I think it's all in the hands of the independent artists. We're living the life right now, we don't need a record company.

Gavin: So with that mindset, what's your opinion of file sharing?

Bill: I steal stuff all the time. I'm all for it. I'm all for guerrilla marketing, give it all away, take what you can, not a problem. We've sold enough of our CD's, it's gone double aluminum at last count. We don't need to be much more richer than we are. We've got the jet, we're fine.

Gavin: You mean the mini one you got at Radio Shack?

Bill: Yeah! We'll be taking a trip on it soon to South Salt Lake.

Gavin: You've got the one album out, are you working on anything new?

Bill: We have a lot of new material but haven't started working on a new CD yet. The first one was so amazing we thought "Should we just leave it at that? Do we top it?" But we have a lot of new material and we could do a new CD eventually. So we probably will when the demand swells. Gets to the point where we can't deny it and we'll have to make a new one. People cannot hold out for a new SPÖRK CD, I guess we'll have to make one.

Gavin: Any local artists you recommend?

Bill: Besides SPÖRK? Purbats, Ioda, Red Bunnies, Thunderfirst.And mostly what impresses me is the local hip-hop. I like hip-hop, rock's played out.