a new week brings us some cranked up rock n roll. From Detroit we have ,The Deadly Vipers. I’m picturing a crowd bouncing up and down , a little bit of fun pushing and some big amps to make the sound felt down to your bones..The vocals add a very cool punk attitude to the screaming guitar solos,and the drums are kicking. LOVE the screaming. Cool stuff, give a listen to The Deadly Vipers and see them live if you get the chance. this is from their Bandcamp bio.
A bunch of degenerates smushed together to form a riotous concoction of psychedelia and punk that lingers in the depths of outer space. The Deadly Vipers carry their crusade through waves of thundering beats performed by a group of kick ass chicks who are intensely dedicated to the sound. Prepare yourself for an ensemble that spills heavy jams and rambunctious pandemonium
Hi our name is The Deadly Vipers
Our sound is basically a combination of psychedelic, punk, garage, and surf rock. It’s a weird sludge-infested, grimy type of music that incorporates some of our greater influences, such as The Stooges and Black Sabbath while still channeling something that’s entirely our own.
We are… Zoe Edwards, Kate Derringer, Kerrigan Pearce, and Ava East
We’re all from different areas on Detroit’s east side
Influences… All of us grew up on bands like MC5 and The Stooges, so it’s easy for us to draw influence from them. We also like Black Sabbath, Richard Hell, Blondie, Led Zeppelin, Gang of Four, Bikini Kill, and Rocket from the Tombs, to name a few. Kate, our bassist, is really into Charles Mingus’ bass playing. Ava looks to Bowie and Hendrix, Zoe draws from Patti Smith and Debbie Harry, and Kerrigan’s into Bonham, Moe Tucker, and Ginger Baker.
Age/what we play- Kate Derringer has been playing bass since she was 12, Ava East picked up guitar when she was 13, and Zoe Edwards always sang but didn’t take it seriously until the band formed in 2013. Kerrigan Pearce started playing drums at 17.
Song writing process- Kate, Ava, and Kerrigan work out the music. It almost always starts off with a single instrument; a creepy riff, a steady bass line, or a drum beat. We then incorporate the rest of the instruments and we work together to create several interesting parts for the song and hash out a general structure. Once we have all the parts we want we usually add in a few transitioning parts depending on if it’s sounding too rough. When the instrumentals are all finished up Zoe and Ava create the lyrics, then Zoe comes in with the vocals. As for putting our songs out, live shows are vital to us. We sound so much better live than any recording we’ve got. Unfortunately, not everyone can see us live so there is a dependence on digital and vinyl releases. With our first LP, “Ouroboros”, we did a digital release online just to get it out there. Our next release will be a four song EP called “Cataclysmic Events” that has a much more definitive and coordinated sound throughout the record than our previous release. Our song writing, in general, has really improved. The EP is to be release on cassette tape via King Pizza Records and we’re having our release show on Friday, July 17th at Don Pedro in Brooklyn (the tape is available for preorder right now!!!). It is also scheduled to be released on vinyl by a record label based in Paris, France called Mauvaise Foi Records. The official vinyl release date is yet to be announced, but we have two of the songs available as a sneak preview on soundcloud right now.
Challenges- Most of our problems as a band are because of our age. It’s easy for people to assume that we don’t know what we’re doing because we’re young female musicians. It can also be hard to book shows at bars outside of Detroit because we’re underage, but we prefer DIY shows anyways. We don’t have any issues like that in Detroit so its definitely the best place for us to be right now. No one cares how old you are. Everyone’s just trying to listen to music, eat timmys tacos, and get a 75 cent beer.
First rock show– Ava’s been going to shows from the womb to the tomb. Kerrigan saw Mexican Knives play at the magic stick when she was 15. Zoe went to Detroit Rock Symphony Orchestras’ Led Zeppelin Tribute show when she was 7, and Kate saw Green Day (haha) at 14.
Coolest Band Shirt– Ava’s David Bowie ‘Man who sold the world’ shirt, Kate’s white light white heat, Zoe’s favorite shirt is The Morons (local Chicago band), and Kerrigans is Flesh Panthers (also from Chicago).
Craziest show--Hands down the craziest show we ever played was this festival called Panic in Hamtramck, run by Timmy Vulgar, at The Painted Lady. We played with NOTS out of Memphis (Goner Records), and Human Eye (if you know anything about Detroit punk you know Human Eye). Timmy, the front man, put a giant squid over his head and poured green goop into both eyes and into his mouth, then spit all over the crowd. Basically, it was raining green in the painted lady. People were going nuts, as they usually do at a Human Eye show. They don’t play often but when they do Timmy puts on a good show, visually and musically. It’s still insane to us that we got the chance to play with such a legendary and vital part of Detroit’s music scene.
Who we’d open for– If we could cure Kathleen Hanna then we’d love to open for Bikini Kill. One important aspect of our band as a whole is to raise the number of female musicians. Its such a male dominated field and I think Bikini Kill really helped in changing that.
Advice for son– We know how it goes trying to be a part of music at a young age, and we’ve learned that you’ve got to be persistent, ruthless, and confident. People will feel superior to you and make assumptions about your skill level based off your age. Just remember that at 13 you’ve got the leg up on those assholes! You’ll have many years of music and experience over them in the long run.
Rock n’ Roll in 2015- A lot of the more modern music is all sounding the same, I mean it’s pretty difficult to do something new when everything’s been done before. That being said, there are a lot of bands that see that as an incentive to create something unique, so there are some groups that are channeling their own sound which is awesome when you come across it.
Our Plans– After we get the EP, “Cataclysmic Events’, out on vinyl we’re planning on doing a live record, possibly at The Painted Lady in Hamtramck. We’ve been wanting to put out something live and we have a few really solid new songs that would be perfect for it. Once that’s recorded we plan to start contacting some bigger labels and hope that we can get someone to put it out for us. We also want to tour a lot more, probably in November and December. We’ve got a short tour coming up this Friday, but we don’t have any other tours booked for the rest of the year. We’re hoping to get a booking agent so that, come april, we can do month long tours.
listen to this excellent album…
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Kerrigan, I am friend of Brian’s!!! How are you? Sandy