Features
Bill Bondsmen
By Eric Allen
May 6, 2008, 11:19

Bill Bondsmen
Pissed Off State Of Mind

Punk rock has become acceptable. It’s a fact. The Buzzcocks are in car commercials, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines hock Iggy Pop’s heroin ridden “Lust For Life” and The Ramones are selling Doc Martens. As for hardcore punk? Not so much. Meet the last vestige of dangerous hardcore punk music, Billbondsmen.

Bursting their way onto the Detroit punk scene a half-decade ago, the Bondsmen specialize in extremely visceral music. Blending the sounds of Black Flag, The Adolescents and Die Kreuzen, the band has brought back the fury of local punk rock protogenerators The Stooges and MC5. This month, the band has released a new full-length, Swallowed By The World, which is being put out by Cleveland record label Deadbeat Records.

Sounding as pissed off as ever, the Billbondsmen have made an album that captures the feelings many of us are having with the disarray of Michigan’s economy. Real Detroit talked with the band’s lead singer, Tony “Gabby” Bevaque, about foreclosed homes, being pissed off and the state of punk rock.

I don’t think a lot of people really understand hardcore music. Why do you guys play hardcore punk and what makes it different than any other music?
To be honest, it’s something we just all grew up on. We all listen to other, different stuff, but it’s the one thing that we all just come back to. As for what makes it different? I would say it can be direct, it can be urgent and it can get the point across. I can’t imagine Nick Drake playing (Black Flag’s) “Nervous Breakdown.” There is just certain stuff that you can’t get across without taking it that way. It’s also been said a hundred times over that it’s the logical conclusion of rock ‘n’ roll that isn’t metal. It’s as far as you can push it without it turning into heavy metal.

Punk rock is so often thought of as a young man's thing. Do you guys ever feel weird being older and playing hardcore?
It’s only weird every once in awhile. Over in Europe, everyone was like late-20s or early-30s. It’s more long term over there. We’ve only felt that way a couple of times when we do all ages shows over here and we are the oldest people in a room of 18- year-olds.

My first reaction to the new record, which I’ve always kind of had with your stuff, is, "Wow these guys are pissed off." What are you pissed off about these days?
Well, sometimes it’s just a sonic thing in our music. But, the whole time I was writing this album I was looking out the window of my house at two foreclosed houses across the street and watching everyone lose their jobs. Basically, the whole album is about one person dealing with Michigan.

What about the state of punk rock and hardcore? Where is it at and where is it going?
To me it just continues to mutate and get even weirder. Bands like The Terrible Twos, could you imagine that existing in early 1990s Detroit? It just can turn into something different every time. People are just going back and getting to the roots of the sound. I think if we came out five years ago and tried to play a four and a half minute song, people just would not have had it.  | RDW

Bill Bondsmen • 5/10 • Smalls

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