A Personal Account
(as well as varied ramblings about Carnivore)

DISCLAIMER: I wrote this before I found out Phil Anselmo ain’t much of a Jew fan.

The day before Ozzfest, I was e-mailing back and forth with ex-Stone of Tears guitarist Yonatan Harold about the Spiderman 2 game he had just beaten within a day or two of getting it. He told me to have fun at Ozzfest tomorrow. I had completely forgotten about it. So the next day I scrambled all over Times Square looking for tickets. I couldn’t find anyplace that sold Ozzfest tickets. Only Broadway shows. So I figured I’d try my luck at the concert itself. That was an hour and something train ride to Jones Beach, Long Island.

I made my way to Penn Station. After buying my train/bus tickets, I see a metalhead couple chatting. It was obvious they were going to Ozzfest too. A few minutes later when I got on the train, they were sitting a few rows in front of me. I heard the man asking the conductor which bus he needed to take to get to Jones Beach. He didn’t really know. So being the helpful dosit that I am I offered my advice.

We started talking. He told me, “I’m playing tonight.�?

I didn’t believe him at first, but then his friend, a tattoo artist named Rachel, held out a magazine centerfold of Superjoint Ritual with his autograph on it.

“Whoa!�? I say. “Out in Israel, people really love you!�?

I asked him if I could interview him. He told me that he just had to make one phone call. It was to his momma. He spoke to her in his slow Southern drawl for a while like a good loving son and when he was done…

INTERVIEW WITH NOT-REALLY-SOUR JIM BOWER – (sorry the interview ain’t word for word but all I had was a notebook on me).

Jimmy Bower is hailed as the godfather of sludge (by Roey from Breorn at least). Currently he is the rhythm guitarist for Superjoint Ritual, a band he formed with Joe Fazzio and Phil Anselmo back in 1993. SR had to be put on hold for a while due to Pantera and other projects, like Bower’s own Eyehategod and Down. Down, another Anselmo collaboration in which Bower plays drums, actually came out with its debut in 1991. On and off over the years, Down also engaged in heavy touring, including with System of a Down and Meshuggah (an awesome show I had the privilege of seeing).

But Superjoint Ritual could no longer be chained by circumstance. In January of 2003 the band started touring nonstop to promote their new release, “A Lethal Dose of American Hatred�?.

“We get out there,�? Bower smiles. He’s been a professional musician for the past fifteen years. “By the time I was a teenager I knew what I wanted to do,�? he recalls. He’s known his fellow New Orleans native Phil Anselmo from playing in bars since they were both fifteen (they’re now 36). He prefers playing guitar over drums at this point, simply because he is playing a lot more guitar lately.

And in his red Ozzfest windbreaker, long gnarly facial hair and piercings, he definitely looks like a rock star. But he sure doesn’t put on the act. He seems really down to earth and respectful, like someone you would actually feel a little guilty about stealing from if you burned his CDs (and hell, he was riding the train, right?). “If you’d a told me as a kid I’d be playing Ozzfest I’d a freaked,�? he says with a grin. According to the Ozzfest stage set-up, “I’m the little guy all the way on the left with the guitar.�?

Bower, with his New York City hardcore roots, proves that you don’t have to be an asshole to be a real punk. Mentioning Peter Steele’s pre-Type O Negative Carnivore first when asked what bands he loves, he also mentioned classic NYHC and other acts such as Agnostic Front, Sheer Terror, Black Flag, the Melvins (by whom he is greatly influenced), Witchfinder General (which he says is Pete Steele’s favorite band) and Black Sabbath, of course.

CARNIVORE

But back to the Carnivore thing – I used to be a major Carnivore fan and I still know many if not all of their songs by heart. Their songs “Jesus Hitler�? and “Race War�? aren’t as bad as they sound. But some of their songs like “God Is Dead�? and “Thermonuclear Warrior�? illustrate ideologies the Nazis spewed but aren’t specifically Nazi, such as eugenics (killing all the retarded/disabled), being a human animal and the Superman ideal, as well as general Catholic angst.

No one really knew what to make of Carnivore and their overgrown frontman. That led to a lot of discomfort. Discomfort led to dislike, to say the least. In the late 80’s/early 90’s, posters with Peter’s face on it bearing the caption “Kill On Sight�? circulated around Europe. This was against the backdrop of a time when the Berlin Wall was coming down and everyone had their panties in a bunch, politically speaking. And the bailegan around Peter Steele’s purported views would one day serve as inspiration for Type O’s track ‘We Hate Everyone’ on the Bloody Kisses release.

A three-pronged kind of thing often mistaken for a swastika, Carnivore guitarist Marc told me that Peter had chosen the triskelion logo to symbolize one branch for each of the band members. And that they were surprised when one day, they looked into the New York Times to see that it was a symbol of a pro-apartheid South African hate group. I’ve met the drummer, Louie, as well. He’s currently a bus dispatcher for the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City. I asked him what was up with the B11 bus schedule. The B11 runs from Boro Park to Flatbush in Brooklyn, NY. Louie said, “Yeh, yeh, I know,�? and Peter interrupted to make some correlation between the abysmal bus service and the Jews’ being at blame because of the way they drive. He also mentioned that they should put cattle horns on the buses in that area.

Turns out Jimmy Bower was at the same Carnivore show I was at the now-defunct (for very stupid reasons) landmark club L’amour in 1994 (L’amour has currently reopened under the moniker Brooklyn Music Terminal). The show opened with the strains of Wagner blaring. Peter came out and gave warning that he’s going to dump a bucket of blood over the people closest to the stage. Many thought it was fake, but it turned out to be real. I got my six-month long eye infection cause I was stupid enough to stand there while he was doing it. And people were cutting open a deer carcass and playing football with its head. The guy I’d been hanging out with that night cut out its eyeball and gave it to me. Then I gave it to Peter to say ‘I have my eye on you.’ Then he chased some other girl with it. Nebach.

It was also the show I made friends with the girl who, a year later, would end up posing with Peter in Playgirl. And where I met someone who brought me to his brother’s house in affluent Westwood, NJ to surprise me with swastikas and Hitler pictures all over his walls. At this show, I also met someone who wanted to rip out his jaw and rewire it so it would move like a true carnivore’s mouth, and/or the guy who did the first version of Type O Negative’s Christian Woman video (which was a hell of a lot cooler than the second). In any case, Jimmy said someone got stabbed that night, but I didn’t remember that. So back to Jimmy Bower, the man, the fan.

BOWER

Bower recounted, “I was smoking a joint. And the bus pulled up to the arena. Standing in front…it was Bill Ward (Black Sabbath drummer). I was like, ‘buhbuhbuhbuh,’�? – he waves his arms – “totally starstruck!!�?

When asked if Superjoint would ever head out to Israel, he replied, “I would love to head out to Israel. It’s just for Americans and the lyrical content of our album, I don’t really think it would be wise…it’s not that we’re scared. Terrorism is a serious thing. We have a lot of work to do here that we can do that we’d rather stay here and do.�?

Bower’s tattoo artist friend was interesting. I have a feeling she was Jewish because when we started talking about tattoos and Jewish law, she was getting pissed at me in a way someone who didn’t care wouldn’t. But that could be total speculation. In any case, we got into a conversation about Danzig.

I personally love Danzig’s music. But I’d heard a nasty rumor that Glenn Danzig, an Italian from Lodi, NJ, named himself Danzig because it was a Polish town where the Nazis wiped out the entire Jewish population. I didn’t necessarily believe this when I’d first heard it a few months ago. But the day before Ozzfest, my grandma (the lady I love most in the world) told me that her mom, ten year old sister and many of her aunts, uncles and cousins were all gassed and cremated in a town called Danzig –

“Have you ever heard of it?�? she asks me.

So if that shit was true, I wanted to know. Cause that would put a painful yet necessary dent upon my listening habits.

At first she thought I was just looking for something to fight about. She indignantly said, “No, I know Glenn! He’s – “ and then she stopped and kinda smiled, thinking things I probably didn’t want to know. Then she asked me a question reeking of truth. “Is the music about destruction, or isn’t it?�?

I answered, “There’s a difference between destruction in general and destruction against me, personally.�?

When we got off the train, we went together towards the bus stop. The blind leading the blinder, myself leading the way, feeling all cool, all of us hoping we’re on the right track.

Jimmy was nervous because he had to get there in time for the record signing at 3:00. It was nice to see that he actually cared about making people wait.

They were deciding whether or not to take a taxi, but the taxi would take almost the same amount of time as the bus and would cost ten times as much. We got to the bus stop and saw a kid wearing a Warzone T-shirt. Someone is selling tickets, so I get a ticket that cost 67.50 for 49 dollars. It would have been fifty but the bus came and I only had four singles on me. After, I was really paranoid that it was a fake, but both Jimmy and this kid, John, assured me that it was the real deal.

ON THE BUS

Jimmy took his windbreaker off to reveal a Bad Brains T-shirt and arms tattooed with a million stories’ worth of ink, including the four bars of Black Flag’s “My War.�? I’d asked him what it was cause I’m not familiar with Black Flag.

He was like, “What? You should really get into them,�? and he launched into a whole conversation about the band’s former singers and Damaged, speaking like a true fan. In the midst of the conversation he goes “Politics and music don’t blend. If anything it’s like putting rice on a barbecue.�?

Then I said, “Dude, what are you talking about? (I should have been a little more respectful). Everything you listen to is politics. All these hardcore bands. Look at Carnivore.�?

He said, “Yeh, but that’s in your face fuck you kind of politics.�? Kind of like Superjoint Ritual themselves.

As we drove up to the beach, Jimmy was all excited, like a big kid, looking out of the window at a view he’d never seen before. The land around us was green and flat, surrounded by a lot of water and hazy sky. A motorboat sped by and Jimmy yelled, “That’s a baaaaaaaaad boat.�? He said that the ride into Jones Beach looks a lot like Louisiana swamp.

When I asked him if there’s anything he wants everyone to know he states simply, “We’re the most brutal band in the world,” as well as the following: “Kids shouldn’t think that Hatebreed was the first hardcore band. Nothing against Hatebreed, but it would be a lot cooler if people were influenced by the earlier bands.”