ACADEMY MORTICIANS
c1995
Punk / Progressive
Simon Mastrantone – guitar and vocals Dan McKee – bass and vocals
Steve White – drums Tom Wise – guitar
4 Releases –
Forbidden Curriculum
Shadow Permanence
Consumerism is a STD
What Happened
Academy of Morticians on My Space (now deleted)
Tracks – What Are You Doing / There Must be More Than This To Life / Our Friends (RIP) / Local Neighbourhood Capitalist / Profitganda / What Happened / Acceptable / Junk Food News / Welcome to England (TM) / Playing for Air (Live) /
Pete Chambers tells us in Godiva Rocks –
” The band are from Balsall Common in Cov. Derived from the covers band Sovereign, they went on to become Who Killed Culture 3 then Dongle and finally Academy Of Mortcians.”
From Wikipedia (Now deleted)
” This band were key players in the late 90’s UK punk rock scene. During their 6 year career the Academy Morticians released two full length albums and two EP’s.
Early years
Formed in 1997, the Academy Morticians played their first few gigs in their school canteen at nights they promoted themselves. Inspired by DIY punk bands from the USA such as The Dead Kennedys and Bad Religion, they self financed and released their first EP “The Forbidden Curriculum” in 1998. The limited run of 50 copies sold out quickly with notably, one copy going to horror author Stephen King and another ending up in the hands of Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra which would come in useful at a later date. The EP was recorded across three sessions with Mckee and Mastrantone doing the bulk of the performing. Drummer Christian Rot played drums on three of the tracks with Mastrantone playing drums on the rest. Encouraged by favourable press from the UK underground, the band recorded their first album “Shallow Permanence” in summer of 1998, this time sharing the release between their own imprint Cursed, and small independent Welsh label Smokin’ Troll. With a title borrowed from the poem No More Hiroshimas by James Kirkup, the album was 14 tracks long and recorded in three days. Due to a last minute walk out by Rot, Mastrantone was forced to play drums and once more the bulk of the musicianship was done by Mastrantone and Mckee. One notable addition to the line up was Tim Cadman who guested on the track “Malleable”; Cadman would later join the band on second guitar.
The album was released in 1999 and it was at this stage that the band began its bond with the influential fanzine Fracture, who reviewed Shallow Permanence with the words “a band this country would not be the same without.” Both musically innovative with its blending of influences and lyrically ambitious with its interlinking songs themes, the album is considered by most fans to be their most consistent and entertaining. It was also well received by the UK underground press.
“ACADEMY MORTICIANS, THE – Description: One of the hardest working bands, this spritely Jello Biafra recommended lot play politically charged punk/indie with plenty of melody and quirks. Latest release details: A 7” on CRACKLE! Records called “Consumerism is an std” for $5 ppd from Crackle Records, PO Box 7, Otley, LS21 1YB, UK or direct in the USA from pshaw, PO Box 2246, Minneapolis, MN 55402-0246, USA or mutant pop, 5010 NW Shasta, Corvallis, OR, 97330, USA Also from those addresses the Crackle Records 29 track CD sampler featuring an exclusive A.M. track for a stupidly cheap $7 or lower. Also a 14 song album for $11 (cash only) direct from them (see address) Address: 86 Kelsey Lane, Balsall Common, Coventry, CV7 7GT, UK. Web: /TheAcademyMorticians.htm Email: profitganda@hotmail.com “
” Academy Morticians are actually a pretty new band to me – I read about them in the hallowed pages of Suspect Device in either 2001 or 2002 I think, and got the Consumerism Is An STD 7″ . I thought since it was on Crackle, it would be punk-pop and nothing more, though obviously I was aware of the political message, that’s why I got the thing! I was taken aback a bit, and not since the days when I listened to Chokeword, Active Minds, the Clash and Crass non-stop did I feel a need to be an active anti-capitalist, or anarcho. I was going to write to them, intending an interview for F.O.D. 2, but then I saw that they were in Fracture, so I ignored it for a while. Then DaN, singer and bassist, left a message on my guestbook and asked why I claimed to interview AM, on this very page, when I hadn’t! So I thought up some insanely-worded questions and DaN answered promptly. Thanks to DaN and AM!
Bry: What is the current line-up of the band? How long has it been together? How many records have you got out? Is everything OK between you and Simon now, so there’ll be no more hiatuses?
Dan: Things between me and Simon are fine nowadays, in fact we’re meeting up at the anti-war march in London this weekend and he’s staying with me in Cardiff the next week to see my improvisational comedy group perform. We basically had a lot of unresolved issues from our growing up together that have now been resolved after a brief but brutal band break-up and so now we’re back, bigger and better than before.
The band has been together (save for the aforementioned break-up for a year) since 1995 with a variety of line-ups that centred around Simon and me and nowadays we have our best, or “classic” line-up of myself on bass and vocals as per usual, Simon on guitar and vocals also as per usual, and on guitar, Tom Wise, and drums, Steve White.
We first released a self-released ep called “The Forbidden Curriculum” of a very limited run of 70 back at school in about ’96 or something, but such luminaries to own one include Jello Biafra and Stephen King! Then we recorded a full length album called “Shallow Permanence” in about ’98-’99 that was released by Smokin’ Troll. Next we had the 7” on Crackle!, “Consumerism is an STD” in 2000, the joke there was supposed to be that it’s a Socially Transmitted Disease, but few people bothered to read that gem of wit inside the actual inlay so no one got it!
Then we went on to record the album What Happened? which has just come out now in 2003 on Iron Man and my own label, Who Killed Culture? Records. We started recording it in late 2000 but this CD was the most cursed release ever, from sky-high recording bills to evil record labels screwing us around and lying to us repeatedly, it took fucking two and a half years to finally get it out there (hence the title!). To set the scene of how cursed the release of this record was, you should know that the 2000 Bush “election” happened at the same time we were first finishing the recording and I am convinced that the two tragedies are related in some clusterfucked karmic way!
OK, not really, but now it is finally out, I’m really fucking proud of it for lasting the ride and still sounding as kick-ass as it did when we started on it!Bry: Obviously you’re an intelligent punk-pop (I know, it’s a shit description, but you don’t sound like Discharge or anything…so it’s the best one I can come up with at this moment in time!) band – do you see that there is a distinct lack of political or sensible punk-pop bands? Dan: Yes, I really do. We have got a lot of heat in punk rock circles for not conforming to expectations and playing poppier punk rock with melodies and four part harmonies, yet singing about serious issues. I really respect Crackle! Records for taking a chance on us back in 2000 with our ep because often pop-punk fans find us too political or some such bullshit, even though they like our music.
Saying that, it’s not that I think all bands should be serious and political etc, and I love bubblegum pop-punk about girls/boys and beer as much as the next man (and I don’t even drink!). I have a side project with Paul Raggity called The Whining Maggots and we do Screeching Weasel/Ramonesy pop-punk about love, life etc…no politics at all really and it’s a lot of fun.
What I hate is stupid closed-mindedness so that you have to sing about a certain thing if you sing a certain kind of music. I want more political pop-punk bands and more bubblegum crust bands!
We just write the music we like and sing the songs we want to sing about. Simon and I are deeply involved in political thought (I’m doing a fucking degree in politics and philosophy!) so that’s what we sing about…but we love good, tuneful music too, so we write what we write!
It’s not like we’re even always political! “Never” on the EP wasn’t political, nor was “Rebekah” or “Detta To Beth” on Shallow Permanence? Just like how my other band, Bullet of Diplomacy (which is Academy Morticians without Simon) has a love song called “Intangible Entities Don’t Leave Explanations” on our demo. We just write what comes to us, and when you’re socially aware in the world today a lot of that is going to be political unless you have your head in the sand, but we’re not going to limit ourselves to people’s small circles of expectation and their preconceptions of what a band who sound like we do should sing about!
Our debut EP, “We Are The Rascal Multitude” should be released by now. I run the label because no one has the balls to put out our stuff(Decline Records would!!! – Bry). The AM album is £7.50 and the B.O.D EP is £5, all prices are post-paid. Send orders (cheques payable to Dan McKee) care of 86 Kelsey Lane, Balsall Common, Coventry, CV7 7GT, UK. If you want to get in touch, my e-mail is whokilledculture@yahoo.co.uk and the band website is http://www.geocities.com/whokilledculture/1.html Cheers for the interview, Bry!
From their My Space –
” Academy Morticians.. oh what to say. Quirky, inventive, ahead of their time, unique, geddy lee(??)… What do other people reckon… “Wow! And I mean that in the fullest sense of the word, in that I’m pleasantly surprised at the quirky sound of the Academy Morticians. Imagine a disturbed young kid growing up with parents that constantly play Queen & Dead Kennedys records all the time and you might understand what he sounds like. The tracks ‘Welcome To England’ and ‘It’s Not a Small World’ actually demonstrate this pretty well with bizarre melodies that include Bad Religion/ Queen style vocal harmonies with that DK punk rock backbone which makes you realise this is no ordinary band… Probably one of the quirkiest punk bands in the UK right now so definitely worth seeing live if you get the chance. ” – Drowned in Sound “It could so easily be alienating, yet like their forebears the razorblades are wrapped up in sweet candy: three-part harmonies, dive-bombing guitars and hailstorm drumming combining to vigorous effect. The production run of their DIY debut EP stretched to a mere seventy copies, yet both Jello Biafra and Stephen King have copies, which is a recommendation only a halfwit could ignore.” – LOGO magazine “A band this country would not be the same without” -FRACTURE
When Flowers Grow Fangs – Academy Morticians
Never / Capitalism Sucks – Academy Morticians
ACADEMY MORTICIANS – PROFITGANDA (LIVE!) July 4th, 2009
