Scott Ayers is, to say the least, an
important figure in Houston rock history. In the late 80s and early
90s, Ayers was the driving creative force behind experimental rock
act Pain Teens. The band combined the sultry singing of female
vocalist Bliss Blood with Ayers' scorching math-rock guitar riffs
(and his handmade tape loops). The noisy echoes of Ayers' influence
are easy to hear in many contemporary local bands, like Indian
Jewelry and Balaclavas.
In November, the band played their
first reunion show in years -presumably their first official date
since the Pain Teens' 1995 breakup. They headlined the first half of
a two-night Axiom reunion extravaganza, joined by the likes of
Houston veterans Toto Ehio, Poor Dumb Bastards and The Anarchitex (of
which Ayers is also founding member). They followed this performance
up with another date in Austin, playing with former Trance Syndicate
label-mates, Ed Hall and Crust; and fortunately, there have been a
few dates added, since, and it looks like there are more to come.
I met Scott at Antidote, few weeks ago,
to discuss his legacy, what he's working on now and what the future
holds for the Pain Teens and his other musical endeavors.
Really it was see all The Dead Links
shows on Space City Rock that inspired me to interview you and ask
you what you've been doing lately. Can you talk about The Dead Links
a little?
It's just something that started off
with me and this singer. Basically I'm making all these demos, with
no vocals. Some of them are rock songs, some of them are ambient,
some of them are noise- or whatever. But I met this guy - my
ex-wife's roommate - and he had been on a major label a few years
back with this band called Twenty Mondays. So I gave him some tracks
and he picked the ones he liked and wrote words for some of them.
You've only played about two shows so
far, according to Space City Rock. Where do you see it going?
I don't know exactly where it's going
to go. We've been wanting to put this album out and it's
really..refined. It's different than what I've done before. There's
singing and harmonies and it's something that sounds kind of like
Pink Floyd or something.
That's good because
last time you guys played, at the Axiom reunion show, I feel like not
enough people knew about it. A lot of people I spoke to said they had
no idea. Do you see yourselves doing more reunion shows or is this
more of a one off thing that just happened a second time?
Well, I would like
to do a few shows a year, if people can come through with the money.
Yeah, because Bliss
lives in another part of the country now.
Yeah, she has to
fly in from New York and that's an extra 500 bucks.
What is it about
Houston that makes it a fertile place for bands like Balaclavas and
Indian Jewlery and Pain Teens with all the darkness. And Pain Teens
wasn't all doom and gloom but there was definitely that dark depth to
it. Do you think it's something about the city?
For us, it was more
of a rebellion against any kind of sing-songy pop. And then later we
were doing some self-parody and stuff but yeah, it was a rebellion
against the “alternative” band where everything was all
singer/songwriter. We were very independent-minded.
You did some pretty
progressive stuff during Pain Teens, as far as tape manipulation and
loops, without, I would imagine, a lot of computers or digital
equipment. Was that a lot of work to get it to sound that way
-compared to what it would be like now?
Yeah maybe, but tape is kind of
forgiving in a way. We definitely didn't do anything according to any
rules. Stuff would get recorded badly, like really badly but we'd
make it work.
Some of the tape stuff you did kind of
reminded me of that guy from Mission of Burma, you know, Marvin
Swope, with the tape effects. They came to Fitzgerald's a few months
ago and they were good but that guy wasn't there and that was a
little disappointing.
Yeah, I mean I would even tape sections
of tape together to create a loop. The part where they met you can
hear it slip.
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