Listen: Flabmag Podcast #10 - Sonny Kay

This week’s guest on Flab Magazine’s podcast series  was is multi-media artist/singer/entrepreneur/art director and all around inspiring guy Sonny Kay, who is perhaps best known for starting indie label, Gold Standard Laboratories. Before closing it’s doors in 2007 the label was home of some of the most genre bending punk rock acts of my time including a number of bands that Sonny was a member of like Angel Hair, the VSS, Year Future, Savalas, Subpoena the Past and more. Sonny’s time now days is spent working on some of the best photo collage art works gracing LP covers today.

Sonny Kay – “Accidental Math” 2010 Photo Collage

In the hour and forty minute discussion Sonny talks about his career as a lover and performer of punk rock, a trip down memory lane on life in Boulder, Colorado circa the 90s, the rise of ‘mainstream punk rock” as compared to the rawer sound of GSL, his relationship with Omar from the Mars Volta, the transition from music to visual arts and much more. 

LISTEN HERE.

The VSS Reunite

Finally a reunion I can get excited about! Boulder’s VSS have announced their intention to play a batch of reunion shows in celebration of the release of Nervous Circuits on vinyl and a forthcoming compilation LP that collects their previous 7" material (21:51). "The VSS began in Colorado in January of 1995 before calling it quits in July of 1997. In that time the band relocated to San Francisco, toured the U.S. and Europe/UK, released a series of 7-inch EPs and issued Nervous Circuits, the only proper full length album from the band. The VSS are the pioneers in the underground punk genre having introduced sci-fi keyboards, angular guitars, unusual rhythmic shifts and vocal effects that come together for the bands distinctive sound.  I personally love this band and have praised them in the past, so far no word on dates, cities, etc.

Members of The VSS went on to join bands like The Slaves, Pleasure Forever, Red Sparowes, Rabbits, Year Future and more. They are better than 99% of the punk/hardcore acts that ever existed, past or present, and forgo easy traps like medley and chorus'.

Video Bonanza: Sonny Kay

Sonny Kay is a legend is some circles, he almost single handedly defined the sound, community and aesthetic of an entire era in "extreme" music with his bands Savalas, Angel Hair, The VSS,  Subpoena the Past, Year Future and Optional Body. Sonny's influence went well beyond the music he released with his own bands as the label he started GSL(Gold Standard Laboratories) was not only home to some of my personal favorite artists ever but also some of the most unforgettable including The Locust, The Mars Volta, !!!, Arab on Radar, Get Hustle, JR Ewing, Le Shok, Melt Banana, Mohinder, The Faint, The Rapture, Chromatics and many many more. Sonny's influence on punk rock would be ever present in the 90's and on with his unique twisted vocal delivery and the heavy use of keyboards in a genre that otherwise has shunned the instrument entirely. Sonny's music and art is still as frightening, invigorating and original as it was 15 years ago and for this reason and more I have chosen him to be my first entry in a segment I hope will become a regular feature.

Enjoy...