When I came from Lagos (Nigeria) to San Francisco (Bilbao)
life was tough here or there.
I did not mind, I had a purpose in my life:
to fight the system that fucks up everyday of our life. Back in my
hometown,
I was an unknown songwriter
but, as soon as I arrived to the streets of Bilbao, I discovered Punk
Rock.
It had energy and attitude and was exactly what I needed.
Next thing was to get a band.
I found out the most primitive drummer in Bilbao, Alberto Lopez
(ex-La Secta, ex-Yogur, ex-Atom-Rhumba), and the noisiest
guitarrist around, Mattin. The band was formed under my
name, it could not have been any other way.
These songs go beyond what rock and roll is and what it could be, in
fact they are
the degenereation of Rock&Roll against the regeneration
of Bilbao.
Billy Bao
Bilbao Dec 2004
BILLY BAO NEW WEBSITE
A
This is a Fucking Pop Song
Give Them Virus
B
Bilbo's
Incinerator
This is a Fucking Pop Song
when you listen to the rhythm
when you listen to the beat
don't you realize
you can not do anything in between
you can not dance like an spastic fuck
people are laughing at you
this is a fucking dictatorship
this is a fucking dictatorship
this is a fucking dictatorship
do you understand?
Give Them Virus
get to know their systems
get to know their needs
give them all the pleasure
until they are on their knees
and then
fuck fuck fuck them
give them virus
Bilbo's Incinerator
how many days?
will this city last?
while you
you can say what you want to say
when you
this city is getting so clean
same as your mind
you are getting brainwashed
what are you going to do about it?
they are taking your eyes
they are taking your mind
your desires are made
cleaner and cleaner
cleaner and cleaner
cleaner and cleaner
just to make you fit in
this new city-gallery
recorded in 3 hours at Chockabloc Studios
(Bilbao) by Mikel Biffs. 13th January 2004
Reviews:
The Wire
Issue 258, August 2005
Bilbo's Incinerator (w.m.o/r 17) by Billy
Bao is gorgeously noisy rock-aktion
by a Nigierian expatriate and two
Spaniards (with connection to the great la Secta). Guitar, drums ans
vocals create a most primitively disturbed, overtly political kind of
punked-out spectrum-dodge that will appeal to anyone who is interested
in what Billy calls '' the degeneration of rack 'n' roll''. The sound
here (especially on the title track) is classic- in the direct
line of
high level scumbos everywhere. There's feedback, scuzz and insane
trumping and screaming for all. You'd have to place this on a virtual
level with The Afflicted Man, and that's one heckuva magnificent
achievement.
Byron Coley
Dusted Magazine
Billy Bao
Bilbo’s Incinerator 7”
(w.m.o/r)
An essay on the back cover of this EP gives a few clues as to what’s at
stake: Bao, a Nigerian vocalist, traveled to Bilboa, a touristy
location in the Basque region of Spain. Experiencing the same feelings
of oppression he felt in Lagos, Bao found an out through punk rock,
quickly assembled a trio of drums and guitar, and spent three hours in
a studio channeling his rage. The results are on this 7”, and it is
punishingly prescient. Lyrics deal with state control of expression, a
horrifying metaphor for what the third-world disenfranchised might like
to do to people of privilege (“Give Them Virus”), and gentrification’s
effects on those it pushes out. Ugly, atonal, and pounding, these three
primitive rock songs slug their way through outbursts of power
electronic noise, jackhammer rhythms, and thrashy, repetitive guitar.
Vocals sound like the second coming of Kickboy Face, and this as a
whole comes off as a terrifyingly real example of what human beings are
capable of if pushed far enough. The real world equivalent to the
Pissed Jeans 7”. An important record.
Ruta
66
Mayo 2005, n.216
El
vinilo-single del mes se va para la propuesta ruidosa,
extrema y de vanguardia civil de
Billy Bao, o, que es lo
mismo, los creadores
artísticos Mattin y Mancisidor junto
al tupé impertubable del
bateria tribal Alberto Lopez
(Secta, Yogur, Rhumba) que
jamás anduvo en proyecto tan
osado. <<Bilbo's
Incinerator>> (w.m.o/r) es una odisea
troyana de agresividad estruendosa
grabada en tres horas,
que te carga las pilas. Primero te
quedas con la efimera
descarga <<Give Them
Virus>>, para acabar comulgando con el
latigazo que titula la obra. La
deconstrucción-rock es esto.
There's A New Sheriff In Gravecity.....Billy
Bao's 'Bilbo's Incinerator' 7"
I
know I'm preachin to the choir when I say that there is singers, bands
'n records within the unhinged canon of Punk that's so sick &
twisted in effort 'n production that they cannot be topped. You find'em
on the Killed By Death, Bloodstains & Back To Front comps pretty
easily & I bet there's fellers here in blogland readin this what's
got a list of favorites. I can see it now (in no particular order);
Freestone, Detention, Tampax, Mad Virgins, etc. And bein as how such a
thing'd be totally subjective, it's possible that none of them bands'd
make it on some goober's entry, which's okay, but if said thinkpad
didn't offer up Bobby Soxx, it'd be hard to take seriously. Let's face
it, the "Learn To Hate in the 80's' 7" sits at the contorted,
unconditional apex of the genre. Nobody spit it out quite like that,
the bile 'n menace couldn't have been more provocative or challenging.
Never heard it? Your loss friend. The deceptively simple recipe is as
follows; take a basic beat, pummel it, mix in a sparse, raw sound &
glaze it w/a throatful of grackled rasp. Many have tried & the
results have been estimable, at times notoriously so (Kilsug anyone?),
but nobody on my watch has plunged to the depths of exuberant barbarism
& gargled Hell like Bobby Soxx.
That is until Billy Bao showed up.
Unfamiliar?
Well bud, hopefully not for long, cause Billy Bao has a 7" (&
cd/ep) that's of today & it erupts like fissures of primordial ash
'n pumice from a toxic lava of Punk Brut that is most refreshing &
revelatory. No stone is left unturned, ie., Billy Bao & his
mission; formerly an unknown songwriter from Nigeria who emigrated to
Bilbao, he discovered Punk Rock & has channeled it to "fight the
system that fucks up everyday of our life". When he screams out "You
can not dance like an spastic fuck"!, who are we to question? Teaming
up w/"the most primitive drummer" & "noisiest guitarrist" in
Bilbao, he formed the band under his own name & it is such a rare,
goddamn thing of pure, discordant ecstasy that even ol' Doc Marten
& Chuck Taylor are willing to hug it out for an erstwhile detente.
And as I mentioned earlier, there's a 4 song cd that takes up-Stickmen
With Rayguns like-where the 7" leaves off. If this is what a steady
diet of Bacalo & Rioja gets you these days.....well, it beats the
livin shit outta Texas Tommy's 'n Lone Star Beer. And only by a mile're
two. He might not wallow in the same cesspool as Bobby Soxx, but Billy
Bao has the shine & ain't that the why of it all in the end? Too
bad there ain't any real distribution for his stuff or you'd know what
your missin out on. Write to
http://www.mattin.org/
& see if you agree.
posted by Siltblog at 7:51 AM
http://artforspastics.blogspot.com/
Billy Bao is Nigeria’s answer to
Stickmen With Rayguns-era
Bobby Soxx.
On the back cover of his debut 7”, Billy describes his journey,
beginning in Lagos where he was an ignored songwriter and soloist
looking for a creative spark and outlet. It was in San Francisco,
Spain, in the Basque area of Bilbao, that Billy discovered punk rock’s
primal energy, and he became inspired to make this abhorrent pummeling
scuzzrock that is so extremely harrowing. He hooked up with the drummer
of
La Secta and other local SOB’s and made this three-song EP
of unbridled anger and despair which was released about a year ago, but
is only finally starting to get distributed to the States. A
full-length CD also came out a few months ago, and I’m anxious to hear
it, too. This stuff is as scathing, violent, and agonizing as the
Brainbombs.
Diskunion
(Japan)
実はコレ、バスクのクール・ガイことマッティンのバンドなんですヨ!! マッティンとそのバンドによるただれたガレージ・パンク、…いゃ、ノイズ・
ス
トゥージーズともいえる、ポップ・ミュージックへのアジテーション・ソング。少々値が張りますがあなたの怪盤コレクションに加わること間違いなしのクレイ
ジーっぷり!!
シビレた--------ッ!!
Back
