Keith Levene (P.I.L., The Clash)

Keith Levene has one of the greatest resumes in punk rock. He was an early member of the Clash and actually drafted Joe Strummer into the band. After that, he was in the Flowers of Romance with Sid Vicious. After that, he formed P.I.L. with John Lydon, and in doing so, helped create (or maybe even created) post-punk with his distant, frenetic, unstable guitar tones.

But, as with many bands, there was friction. While recording what would be P.I.L.’s fourth album, he split with Lydon and headed to America. There, on his own, he released the unfinished album as Commercial Zone. Meanwhile, P.I.L. released This is What You Want… This is What You Get using Levene’s compositions, but new sound recordings with new musicians. The result is an album that exists in two forms, but is complete in neither.

Now, Levene is raising funds to release a completed version of the album through an Indie Go Go campaign. Because Levene is working on a new version of that mysterious release, features Editor John Gentile spoke to him about what broke up P.I.L. in the first place, the new release, how Levene is hand-making the cover art and some classic punk rock history.

Christian Holden (The Hotelier)

The Hotelier just finished a seven-week-long tour across the United States supporting an album that'll likely be in a lot of Top Ten lists for 2014, Home, Like No Place Is There. It's their debut release on Tiny Engines and their first time trekking across the country. The dudes went from a wild show in Boise, Idaho into Denver, where Punknews Copy Editor Britt Reiser was able to catch up with vocalist Christian Holden in the basement of a DIY venue called Seventh Circle Music Collective.

We chatted about the usual things, like perception of the new album, tour and the relatively new name change from The Hotel Year to The Hotelier (which includes a Punknews commenter shout out!), to the completely unexpected and insanely interesting twist of un-schooling and the entire movement around not going to school. You know the drill, read the full, winding and turning interview underneath Read More.

Atom Willard (Against Me!)

For the close to 25 years Atom Willard has been drumming, he’s kept the beat for a number of impressive names in rock and roll, including Rocket From The Crypt, Social Distortion, The Offspring, Angels and Airwaves, theHELL, Danko Jones and now, Against Me!

During a break in touring for Transgender Dysphoria Blues, punk rock’s most cultured (or most promiscuous) drummer spoke to Punknews interviewer Gen Handley about who has inspired him over the years, why he has moved around a lot and how he finally found a home with Against Me!

Steve Drain (Westboro Baptist Church)

The Westboro Baptist Church. You know 'em. They're the collection of 40 or so people that wave those rainbow colored "God Hates Fags" posters and protest the funerals of deceased servicemen and women. Sheesh.

But, did you know, that since the ousting of founder and former leader Fred Phelps, the church has been led by Steve Drain, a guy with a PhD in Philosophy? Here's where things get weird -- in contrast to the shouting maniacs you see on TV, Drain is well spoken, measured and even amiable. Here's were things get weirder -- he used to be in a rock band called Boneyard that had moderate local success in Kansas City, and he has a healthy command of the Ramones, Green Day and even the Sex Pistols. In fact, the WBC has posted a parody of Green Day's "Wake Me When September Ends" called "Coming Soon" and one of "American Idiot" called "American Sodomite?"

And here's where things get even weirder -- some of the topics of classic punk songs, such as the end of the world, being against foreign conflict and churches being money driven, are shared by the WBC. Sheesh.

Because there is a bizarre Venn diagram where punk rock and the WBC seem to cross, we talked to Drain about this unsettling intersection and his opinions on classic punk tunes. Also, we asked him about the Dwarves because that is a hilarious thing to do.

Ken Cheppaikode (Dirtnap Records)

You may not know Ken Cheppaikode's name, but you're listening to all the records he's putting out. The man behind Dirtnap Records has had a hand in making bands like The Marked Men, Mean Jeans and Sonic Avenues into household names -- at least in punk rock households. Punknews editor Adam Eisenberg caught up with Cheppaikode to talk about what goes into to running a punk rock record label, learn about Dirtnap's signature sound and find out why he doesn't want your demo, but you might want to send it in anyway.

James Williamson (The Stooges)

Get this. James Williamson of the Stooges is a nerd. Like, he's a huge, colossal, gigantic nerd. The man who resurrected the Stooges, the man who wrote the nasty, nasty licks for Raw Power, the man who ran with the wildest, most drugged-out band ever, the man who plays riffs that can cut a car in half, is a Pointdexter.

Do you know why Williamson's music record is blank from about 1980 through 2009? It's because after the colossal drug trips and catastrophes that were Raw Power and Kill City, Williamson did a little production work for Iggy and then moved to California, went to college, and got a job right away at a computer company in the Silicon Valley.

And then, do you know what he did after that? He was so good at computers that he worked his way up to being Vice President of Technical Standards for Sony. That's right, the man who stood next to Iggy as he got his ass kicked by rednecks on Metallic K.O. eventually became one of the most important guys in the tech field, meaning that not only is he perhaps rock's most important guitarist, but he's also one of the computer industry's most important computer guys. Because Williamson mastered both the rock and computers field, making us all look like lazy slackers, features editor John Gentile called up Williamson for the story on how he transitioned from the stage to the computer age.

Dwid Hellion (Psywarfare/Integrity)

In 1993, the Federal Government blasted high volume, cacophonous, screeching noises at a compound in Waco, Texas in order to drive gun toting Branch Davidians out from their barricade. Dwid Hellion heard a clip of those wretched, painful, abject sounds on CNN and thought to himself, "I could do better than that."

Despite also fronting metal legends Integrity, Hellion immediately created the Psywarfare project, a mostly studio affair which found Hellion pushing sound to oppressive extremes for the purpose of selling the recordings to the government to use as psychological weapons against fortified targets. Although Hellion didn't end up making a sale, he continued with Psywarfare and every so few years, massive, bizarre sound recordings would appear in the underground trading circuit.

This Record Store Day, Hellion is releasing The Exotic Sounds of Psywarfare on A389 records, which finds him merging his own dark, ominous sounds with the organic music of the Pacific rim. Recently, features editor John Gentile spoke with Hellion about Psywarfare, the abstract attributes of homemade instruments and "how" to listen to noise music.

Brody Dalle

Unbeknownst to many fans, this interviewer included, there was a point when The Distillers almost recorded new music.

"I love The Distillers - I grew up in that band," says lead singer Brody Dalle. "But I also tried to resurrect it and I got Greg Ginn from Black Flag to try and produce some songs with me and Andy (Granelli, drummer) and Tony (Bevilacqua, guitarist) and it just…it just didn't work."

What do you mean it didn't work?

"There wasn't anything there," she recalls. "It didn't feel right…it was like putting a used condom on or something. That's a really crass thing for me to say, but it felt done. There wasn't really anymore for us to do or anymore ideas to share."

And so the band continued to be no more and Dalle continued to create and sing, eventually resulting in her upcoming solo album Diploid Love, coming out on April 28.

Just before rehearsal at an L.A. studio, Dalle spoke to Punknews interviewer Gen Handley about the reunion that almost was, her diverse new album and what's changed with motherhood.

Tom May (Menzingers)

How you interpret the title of the new Menzingers album, Rented World, is something co-vocalist and guitarist Tom May hopes will be vary from ear to ear.

I'm going to leave the onerous responsibility to the receiver on that one," he says with a nervous laugh, a month before the big release. "I hope they take from it what they want to take from it and I hope it's different.

But to me, it speaks a lot to the socioeconomic state we've been in for several years. I can't speak for everybody in the band about the meaning of the title, but it speaks a lot to the idea of being born into the world that already exists and you don't own any of it.

He might not feel that he has true ownership of the world around him, but his band has certainly made its mark on it with three reputable albums released and a very solid fourth coming out on April 22, 2014 via Epitaph Records.

While at home in Philadelphia, enjoying the "calm before the storm," (the storm in this case being the intense, full-on touring that May says he loves), the 27-year-old Menzinger spoke to Punknews interviewer Gen Handley about the new record and the impact that unavoidable adulthood had on its songs.

Russ Rankin (Only Crime)

Just over a month away from the release of Only Crime's third album, Pursuance, lead singer Russ Rankin sounds really happy with a record that wasn't the easiest to make.

"Some of the best albums, I think, are sort of complete thoughts and we somehow managed to pull that off with this Only Crime record even though what a gnarly experience it was trying to get it done," Rankin says. "When somebody listens to it, they're not going to have any idea that was the case - the record's going to hit them in the face repeatedly and they're going to be stoked to go back for more."

During his 30-minute drive to work ("I'm on hands-free so it's legit"), Rankin spoke to Punknews interviewer Gen Handley about the new album, Bill Stevenson's surprising vocal range, and recording a new Good Riddance record in the fall.

George Hirsch (Blacklisted)

Without trying to sound like a Terror record, Blacklisted frontman George Hirsch has overcome a great amount of personal struggle over the years. While followers of the band will be familiar with their defeated and hopeless lyrics - it was all a very dark reality for George, as things recently took a turn for the worse.

Punknews interviewer Faye Turnbull took a trip to Helsinki, Finland, where Blacklisted conveniently stopped by during their European tour and talked to George about the events leading up to his suicidal state, how This Is Hardcore promoter Joe Hardcore stepped up to help, and explained that it's ok to dislike 'banana bands'.