Track of the Day: Eruptors

Today’s Track Of The Day comes recommended by our very own Sleazegrinder. Come on in for your completely free track from Eruptors! Click here for previous Tracks Of The Day.

Alex Lee Hooker III, guitar player for London’s own Eruptors, is the only other guy I know who owns both of the Thunderstick records. Proudly, I mean.

“We’d love to do something with Thunderstick,” says Mr. Eruptor. “Play a gig, record, anything.”Thunderstick, of course, is the ex-Samson drummer who performed in studded mask and conducted interviews while chained to mattresses. Like the Eruptors, the Stick was a culture-vulture, a with-it weirdo who tossed a love of all things ghoulish and unhinged into his art. His art, turns out, was chuggling, post-NWOBHM glam-goth metal. The Eruptors, on the other hand, play sneering, metal-fried, shoot-the-hostages punk n’ roll. Otherwise, same deal.

The Eruptors  started up a few years back with the expressed interest in meeting porn stars. That occurred with relative ease, so they went ahead and started gigging and recording. In the past few years they’ve released a slew of demos and one well-received album, Bad Time to Be Having a Good Time (Maniac Squat Records), which only encouraged them. Just this month, their latest, Microwave Massacre, has hit the bins. It’s a mish-mosh of hits, misses, rarities and deep album curs that serves as a fine sampler of their dirty work. We’re going to celebrate it’s release with a free MP3, but first, let us get to know these villains a little better.

“The Eruptors” – is that some sort of sexual reference?
Well the name was actually inspired by a TV show about volcanoes, which made me think of the song ‘Eruption’ by Van Halen. Then I thought ‘Hey! Wouldn’t THE ERUPTORS be a great name for a band’.

You guys tend to write songs about horror movies a lot, which tells me that you’ve probably sat around talking about making an Eruptors splatter movie/video/comic book. What’s the premise, and how far have you gotten?
We had lots of great ideas for promo vids that are like mini sci-fi, horror, or b-movies, but finding anyone with technical expertise who shares our taste has so far proven difficult.  We’d love to get involved with the movies, though.  Maybe we could make ‘Stunt Rock 2′ and do the soundtrack album for it.  I seem to recall that when you reviewed our first album, you said it would be perfect for a remake of some ultra-violent biker movie.  We’re still liking that idea.

Yeah, Mad Foxes. We should look into that. What’s the girl/boy ratio at your average Eruptors gig? How easy/hard is it to get laid when the Eruptors are in town?
The audience girl/boy ratio is typically 50/50 and the music we play drives everyone into an insane sexual frenzy.  To the point of eruption, naturally!  I remember at one show I launched into the guitar solo of our song ‘Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!’ and two chicks stood at the front of the crowd and started making out right there and then.   I guess the odds of getting laid are pretty high at the typical Eruptors crowd.

Good to know. On a scale of 1-10, how Satanic are the Eruptors?
One of our favorite songs is ‘Hopkins (Witchfinder General)’ by Cathedral, so by default I think that makes us a zero.

What is the most ROCK thing that’s ever happened right in front of you eyes?
I saw a youtube clip of Thor bending iron bars and exploding hot water bottles with the strength of his own lungs by breathing into them.  Unfortunately nothing quite that ROCK has ever happened right in front of my eyes.

Gratuitous Thor reference! This is going swimmingly. Can you describe some sort of feat of strength or manly pursuit that you’ve accomplished to prove how ROCK you are?
I’m 6 foot 6 tall, Jeff our bassist/singer has half of his torso covered by a dragon tattoo, and our drummer, Gary de Niro, uses lead weights for drumsticks.  Okay, I lied about the last bit.  But I do have a story about one of the drummers from an early incarnation of The Eruptors, a guy by the name of Benny Fury.  In the practice room jamming away through our setlist, we stop after a few songs and I notice Benny Fury’s white T shirt has something red splattered all over it.  It turns out we were so loud that his eardrum had split, spraying blood everywhere.

Now that’s ROCK. Joan Jett or Lita Ford?
Good question.  Joan Jett has the better songs as a solo performer, but Lita Ford was married to Chris Holmes from W.A.S.P.   and W.A.S.P. are a musical influence of ours.

Confusing. So, any world domination plans?
Well, we’ve got Microwave Massacre out and plan to follow it up later in the year with our third, which will be called ‘Seduce & Destroy’.

Speaking of Microwave Massacres, what’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever put in a microwave?
Seeing as we have a song called ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ I feel some pressure to respond with an answer like ‘a severed head’ or something, but the truth is that the kitchen isn’t my natural environment and microwave ovens are way too high tech for me. I still prefer the old methods, fire!

Ah yes, Cannibal Holocaust. It’s an Italian gore movie. It’s gross, and slightly retarded. They wrote a song about it. And here it is, courtesy Fixing a Hole records, The Eruptors, and yours cruelly. ROCK!

Download the Eruptors track Cannibal Holocaust!

If you dig it, listen to more tracks on their Myspace Page.

PS: Alex’s groundbreaking interview with the mighty Thunderstick will soon be appearing on the Sleazerinder website. Where else?
www.Sleazegrinder.com

- Sleazegrinder

Click here for previous Tracks Of The Day.