Mondo Gecko
Awesome thrashcore from Israel. Got in contact with them by email, when Nadav (voc.) asked me to set up a show for them - the fastest band from the middle east, as he wrote. So I have checked their myspace and replyed with 'YES, come to play a gig here!' They were so great live, fast and wild, crazy as fuck and out of any bullshit pose. It was fun. According to their latest news they will tour this part of the world again this summer '09, check 'em! And check their CD as well. Here's the interview with Nadav.
Hi Nadav, so how’s the life going on for you right now in Israel? Here we just have our typical pre-Christmas stress everywhere … what about your holiday over there? Are you preparing some party with the band and punks or something?
Shalom rado,my man! first of all we would like to thank you for hooking us up with christian and getting us the gig in banska bystrica. it was a pleasure! what we had in israel is called 'hannukah', which is the jewish version of christmas. i think the only connection punks got with this holiday is vegan strawberry-jam stuffed cakes which are mass produced for this holiday only! lots of it to dumpter ... there were shows for new-years' eve though,but like every year it ended with the "chaos punks" doing trouble.
Tell us about your band, like when and why you have started, what were you listenning to back then and explain a bit the present sound of Mondo Gecko to someone, who haven’t hear your band yet.
well,it started out as an idea of doing a very fast hardcore punk band like the almighty KORO. but still having a thrashy edge somewhat like early-DRI, cryptic slaughter, early-C.O.C. you could feel those influences clearly on our debut album. but now,after listening to a lot of Infest,we have a bit more aggressive and heavy attitude with the music. we started as a band in the begining of 2006,but went through so many things untill we had a steady line-up. our actual first rehersal was let's say around may 2007.
So you call yourself the fastest hardcore punk in the middle east, right? I wonder Who’s second?
well, right now you got our good buddies D9 which is raw and heavy powerviolence/grindcore. i would say the fastest hardcore band ever in israel was BAR-MINAN.
What have you been doing with the band since the end of your tour? Lot of rehearsals, new recordings, good shows ...?
well,we took a month to relax all our muscles and went on to perform a 'comeback' show. people were nearly dying from what went on in the pit!! shows in israel could be very intense and uplifting,as oppose to the snobby germans that don't move...haha. what will happen in the next months also,is a split between us and the local D9. so beware! we do rehersals once a week,since we got other side-bands, day-jobs, studies and crap like that. but we are working on new stuff. think about sounds of the end of the world in hardcore punk!
Now let’s talk about your first musical trip outside of the country, it was like that right? How all this started, was it hard to plan all the shows, how long have you been saving money for this … and why you have decided to tour mainly East Europe?
A:For me personally it's the second time with a band. the first time was a tour for another band of mine and there was where i met so many great people that were willing to help my other band a year later. it was hard due the amount of shows (28) we wanted to book, and the fact we are totally unknown made it hard and we had to take anything we were offered. even if there was absolutly no food or money for bands. it took us a whole year to save money in shitjobs for the tour. but it was totally,100% worth it! with eastern europe we knew it's a sure lose of money. but we heard how people actually need the noise straight into there blood! so we came and gave it to them,and i hope they liked it. it was also a good chance to meet people of cultures we don't hear of oftenly, and see amazing places we never heard of such as the small village of andrejova in the middle of the mountains. where our good friend Fero lives. and ofcourse,nonstop drinking all over the east!
What was better and what was worse in the out-of-Israel punk world than you have expected? How did people treat you and how they react on your music? What was the highlight of the tour for you?
i think it's all about how the place you live in effects you. israel is a stressed out and messed up place,and so are the punks and everyone.in europe it was much more organized and professional to play a show in most cases, also walking in a clean and shiny street and see people not getting excited from what yo do, from the simple reason they have seen almost any band alive today in what you do. some people didn't connect to our music,which was probably too 'old school' for them. some wanted to know what kind of speed our drummer took before the show, and some were kind enough to jump around like maniacs when we were doing our set! overall,people were fantastic. we did have one incident of a POLITICALLY CORRECT OVERDOSE. in the e.k.h squat in vienna. we were joking around saying rude things in german, and some girls took it to the wrong direction and tried to make us feel like stupid macho losers. in israel,most people are not bored enough to bug you for joking,even if it's not nice. but on the other hand,it's just very funny ... the HIGHLIGHT is one night which started as an arrival to a tiny neighbourhood pub in chomutov,czech republic.called the HU-HU bar. then a band called P.S.M from teplice kicked our asses with dual vocals grindcore. then kicked our asses with tons of weed. we kicked there asses double and got the whole town in one big pile. what a fucked up night that was...bands,go to chomutov!!
Special question about your show here, I remember you were talking something about 'gipsy circlepit' and wanted us to shout something in your language … what it was and is there something special behind all this?
hahaha! very good question! the thing is,i was asking a group of drunk crusties if they are gipsy,and they started fooling around at our show so i asked them to do a gipsy-pit. but that's becuase i'm stupid! i just noticed many gipsy people in the middle of the road in slovakia, and i was wondering if they go to punk shows and stuff. do they? and this word was 'zain ba ayin'. which means 'dick in the eye'. it's a very rude and un-nice expression here in israel,and it was brought up when i was touring the first time in europe with my old band,Brutal Assault. back then we were just wondering how awsome it could be if 100 drunk europeans shout it loud together! we discovered it is a major success!
Now tell us something about hc/punk scene in your town and country, are there more fast and pissed young bands that are worth a word? Maybe zines or record labels, distributions? Are possibilities for punk shows good over there? Are Dir Yassin gods for you all, haha?
Honestly, bands could get treated very good but they shouldn't come with the wrong snobby attitude. israel is a small country,with a tiny DIY punk rock scene. we aren't welcome everywhere, but we got a fucking great selection of vegan cooks and bands to play with. D9 (powerviolence/grindcore), shaked maalima misim (street punk,good shit) mitaan (dual female vocal anarcho punk,former DIR YASSIN members) makhleket haniknot shotrim (sloppy KBD punk rock), friday night sissy fight (washington style HC,from haifa city!) the main source for hardcore punk in israel right now is Urban Decay records,which is a label/distro. great selction of local and international punk/hardcore/grindcore!! and about DIR YASSIN i could say one thing: any punk rocker/hardcore kid/street punk/etc. in israel that does not think dir yassin was the best thing to come of here,is a true idiot. any person that is not one of the things i typed above, will live with his mother untill he dies!
Who are the biggest troublemakers for punks in Israel? I mean, you probably have no skinheads (even if I’ve heard some stories about the incomming russian nazis to make troubles in your country), but maybe some rednecks or too religious people? Any fights on shows over there? Police?
Well,those nazi dudes aren't around anymore and they knew that if they would come to a punk show they are doomed. they were a few messed up boys taking it too far,and now they are in jail/back in russia. there are some zionist skinheads though,but not many of them and ofcourse they are really not interesting! it's mostly the fashion for them and how the english skinheads were trying to be. whatever it is. i would say there is not respect between the street-punks and the hardcore kids. we don't do shows together oftenly or anything together from the simple fact we look for fun, and they want to get violent and fuck shit up a lot mostly. if they are around,police usually comes but they deal with the bloody mess they did, and usually get into more trouble with the police. in would say in most cases at hardcore shows, police comes when there are shows in some illegal place where it's allowed to do noise. not always though. i think religious people don't even know what's punk rock! so they are safe and sound with god,wherever they think he is. the main problem is this hidden conflict between street-punks and hardcore kids. also beacuse they all think we are just left-wing, straight edge, vegan and gay. and ofcourse, those are all wrong for the perfect punk stereotype!
You told me you are naturaly born american Nadav, right? And if I remember correctly you with your family moved from NY to Israel when you were a small child. Can we know why, are you or your family very religious? What about other guys … I’m asking this to have an idea how it is for young people to live in Izrael, especialy when they play in hardcore band, my and probably many other people's from here idea of Israel is, that it's very religious place and thats doesn't go with punk well. Are there any religious hardcore/punk or maybe metal bands over there? How you deal with them?
that is correct my friend! infact my parents were israeli immegrants to usa, and they came to give me a wonderful life in wonderful israel when i was 6 (not serious,ofcourse) we are not religious at all,i was raised in a jewish religious school though. that's only because in New york the jewish community is more strict than judaism in israel sometimes. so i had to do that crap.religion is a strong thing in israel for sure. bit the thing is that israel is a western country. so like most western countries there is no respect towardsbasic national ideals such as religion,culture,history. not that i have any respect to anything national. but still,the majority of israel is not religious.although a big part of seculars in israel do have certain connections to jewish traditions, but it doesn't effect the daily life of anyone and it's personal stuff a person decides to go by. there are all sorts of types for religious people here ,there are those which accept other people not being religious or jewish and they are usually nice and have bands and no one minds them to do whatever they want to. the radicals have their own areas where they live in there own bubbles and don't mind anyone from the outside world. it sounds crazy but it's mostly like this. i could talk for days about religious people here!
Something about your lyrics ... to be honest I’m a bit confused, are those true stories ('Urban Stefan'), real places ('Speed city', 'Sorrow city' )? Sometimes it all looks like comics story to me, the other moment I feel like there is a message behind it all … Please can you explain a bit what are your lyrics about, is there any concept in it, what part of that is fun what is serious …
o.k rado. sorry for getting you confused! it's on purpose. what i wrote there are actually imaginary versions to true stories. sorrow city,is haifa and it's a big boring city where i was raised. speed city, is tel-aviv and it's a big highway city where we all live now. i was just fooling around too much with my imagination i guess. what our lyrics deal with are all the things that get us nervous,stressed,anxious. and afraid in our current invoirment. i try to fool around and not use too many complicated words, because i belive punk-rock is all about fun and creativity. urban stefan,for example is about a guy i was in school with for 3-4 years. at some point he went to be a serious troublemaker and his last incident was robbing an old lady in her house and torturing her for a few hours with 2 friends. he ended up doing 13 years in jail for this!isn't teenage crime a subject worth talking about?
If you want to cover some band which one it would be and what song? And yeah, why?
well, it's a bit not fair for the other guys since i'm only answering the interview. but this song: Los Crudos - assesinos. although i don't know spanish at all. i love los crudos and i think it's because this song talks about one of the things i hate most - dictators.
OK, so … thanks for this interview and thanks for coming here to play really great show (seriously it was, even if most of the people didn’t react. I liked it a lot.) Now it looks like you are ready to lose more money next year in Eastern Europe again, right? Be free to ask for some help here or spread a message …
No problem rado,thanks again for a great time in BB and zvolen,and i will see you next year! it was a pleasure losing money to gas stations and polish drivers,and meeting you and seeing your awsome country! SHALOM!