Wilt is bald. Wilt is also British. He is drying off under the eye-killing 7 am fluorescent lighting of the English institute cafeteria. We are well into our morning chain-smoking ritual. Mounted in the corner, TVN blares the images from outside – the rain logged Santiago city – rainwater torrents carry all that leafy trash [...]
Mario Carneiro or “Pogo” – one of the most influential, iconoclastic, and always controversial figures in the Latin American punk rock movement throughout the 80s and 90s, will be visiting the one year anniversary of the ‘Low Rent’ program on Santiago Radio tonight for a live interview between 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm. Pogo was [...]
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I attended my first rock concert when I was 13. On April 1 1984 my dad drove me downtown to Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto and stood with me in the lineup outside, behind a guy clinging to the stadium wall with vomit running down the front of his faded jeans and leather jacket. Bits [...]
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In the summer of 1994, for reasons too depressing to mention, I woke up on a piss-stained, cushionless sofa covered in cat hair in an anarchist squat house on Broadway Street in Vancouver. I’d spent previous days playing my guitar on the corner of Granville and Robinson. On this very same corner was a particularly [...]
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“These kids are totally consumed by consumerism, materialism and stupidism, and it’s our job to get the message to them.” – Mauro, Guitarist, Nada Nuevo Lucho’s taxi lurks into the early morning Santiago traffic leaving Pudahuel airport. The gringo in the back absorbs his first sights of downtown Santiago at Republica and the corner of [...]
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Everyone needs to get high. We are all hooked on making our spirits soar somehow and escape, if only for a few moments, what it feels like to be human – imperfect, defective and 99.9% full of shit. Sometimes it’s just so difficult to be still – to not chew on something, think incessantly, tinker [...]
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The invasion officially began on February 10th, 2007. Before this time, the Santiago Metro system provided me with a tranquil ride uptown from Santa Isabel station to Escuela Militar. During the morning rush hour I often bought a 200 peso coffee at Santa Isabel (sans lid) and proceeded with it down to the platform, finishing [...]
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There is a story from the 80′s about Jello Biafra (singer from the Dead Kennedys) from when the band was opening for an Exploited show in the UK. Biafra, slathered in the saliva of hundreds of appreciative fans, pointed a goober-dripping finger at the orange-mohawked punks and said something like… “Think you’re a bad ass [...]
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7:00 pm: The (very high-profile) band that I had invited for an interview leaves a message on my cell one hour before we were to go on air. “Sean – Unfortunately we can’t make it to the interview. We are in heavy rehearsals for an unexpected gig tomorrow at Club Mist…” With my veins full [...]
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Like most gringos (and gringitas) arriving to Chile for the first time, I was blown away by the beauty of the Andes. I was awestruck by the abundance and prices of slippery piles of fresh fish and bulging, ripe fruit in las ferias. I was warmed by the hospitality of the people. I could go [...]
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