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By: Richard Collins
Oozing Wound are a thrash band from Chicago whose stonkingly good second album Earth Suck is due out October 20th via Thrill Jockey. Think Municipal Waste having a bar brawl with Big Business, these out and out nutters are just about take over the world. Richard Collins asked vocalist/guitarist Zack Weil a bunch of questions.
(((o))): How the fuck are you?
Zack: Am I what?
(((o))): How the hell did you guys meet?
Zack: It’s a story old as time. Star crossed band mates with families that won’t let us rock together. A lot of nonsense in iambic pentameter and someone cast John Leguizomo as Tybalt? Yadda yadda yadda, 2 albums later I’m pregnant and we love each other.
(((o))): What’s the worst wound you’ve ever had?
Zack: Once when I was 8, I was rollerblading down a huge hill that I was woefully unprepared for. I eventually Springsteened my way down the hill on my knees. It hurt and it smelled bad for a long time. Wow, this is really not very impressive.
(((o))): Does your name have anything to do with vaginas?
Zack: No, but our art guy, Sam Nigrosh (who did the album artwork for Earth Suck and Retrash) tries to sneak vaginas into our logo and shit. I like vaginas too much to refer to them as oozing wounds.
(((o))): You play thrash, whenever I listen to modern thrash bands it feels tired as hell, but that doesn’t happen with you. How do you take it to the next level?
Zack: I dunno, bands that try to sound like Nirvana end up sounding like Bush. Can’t aim directly at what you wanna be, cha know? We’re not really fans of how modern metal sounds, or the rules in place about what metal is supposed to be. It’s bullshit and it’s pointless. It’s not that hard to ignore it, which is all you have to do. Fuck everyone else, just play shit that’s awesome.
(((o))): What’s the music scene in Chicago like?
Zack: Kyle has a label called Rotted Tooth, everything on there is amazing. Toupee, Lil Tits, Melk Belly, Basic Cable, Ryley Walker, Rectal Hygienics, Running, Heavy Times, Lord Mantis… this list could be about 100 names longer, but I am done thinking now.
(((o))): You named your album Earth Suck, does it have anything to do with the band Earth? We hope not as we love Earth at Ech(((o)))es and Dust and their new album is the absolute tits.
Zack: Aw hell no. Dylan Carlson’s got nothing to worry about from us. Think of the Earth Suck as the neverending fucking tug downwards of life. Circling the drain, bloated, dead on a toilet seat. Noticing the moments of your time that you treasured are long gone. The ever-widening gaping maw that is the endless nothing of never. The black hole-esque gravity well that shits us down the drain. Uh, you know, like total bummer stuff. It also sounds cool.
(((o))): The last 2 minutes and 45 seconds of Earth Suck is the best thing I’ve ever heard in my life, care to comment?
Zack: Man, you write a lil riff mambo and you think that shit’s gonna be a short ripper, but there it is. That song came together in pieces. I wrote that first punk bit thinking I had a 2 and a half minuter, but it clearly needed 6 more minutes to be complete. I know I had that ending riff, but I have no idea how it got to be that ending. Kinda better that way. That is more or less what we sound like jamming. Specifically in that case on something good.
(((o))): Who is the best band you have ever shared the stage with?
Zack: High on Fire. So fucking rad. Oh, and of course, Brian Chippendale.
(((o))): Name 3 bands which the Oozing Wound think fucking rock…
Zack: Uh I have been rocking these bands, I think Kevin and Kyle are down with em:
- Big Star/Chris Bell
- Sparks
- Blue Oyster Cult (first three albums)
(((o))): If Oozing Wound was an animal, what would it be?
Zack: Probably like a slug or something, right? Gross lil daddy pup.
(((o))): What’s next for Oozing Wound?
Zack: If we had our way we’d be appearing in Wayne’s World 3. Apparently we’re going to Europe in March. Don’t touch that dial!
