by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The Milky Ways sport members of the Spaceshits, Del-Gators, les Sexareenos and CPC Gangbangs, but their debut record just may pack in more raunchy rock ’n’ roll than all of their previous bands combined. The Mirror reached these stellar rockers via satellite dish for dirty details and cosmic wisdom.

Mirror: Who are the Milky Ways and what do you want?

Choyce (guitar): We are all electroshock addicts who have visited space through psychedelic freakouts. We want free drinks and spiritual elevation.

Coco Khan (keyboards): The Milky Ways have an interplanetary itinerary. We’ve just recovered from a weekend of moon-tanning, popping galactic clusters and making out with M22 in Sagittarius.

Oily Chi (guitar): We want you to know Uranus is a really swell place that just has a bad rep.

M: What’s with the lo-fi sound? Did you choose to go this route, or was it lack of financing?

C: When I was younger, I got sick of the state of music. I started to listen to a lot of lo-fi punk. It was more abrasive, and closer to the spirit of what I believed punk and rock ’n’ roll to be. On the Milky Ways album, we used lo-fi to capture the loose feel of the jams. Recording on the four-track with our own microphones was the simplest and most fun way to do it—and despite its limitations, it gave us the most creative control.

CK: All the songs are so animalistic, primal and mangled, and we wanted the album to reflect the true essence of the Milky Ways, not some polished version of it.

OC: Our recordings are designed to expose the skin puppets roaming our beloved planet. They have an aversion to fuzz and shrivel up like maggots in Clorox when it touches their snout lobes.

M: How did you get signed to Alive/Bomp Records?

CK: By fluke. Oily Chi and I found ourselves living a stone’s throw away from the Bomp office in Los Angeles, so I went over there with the Milky Ways stuff. They listened to it on the spot and wept with joy, watching their warehouse rats spontaneously combust.

OC: It was great—they really loved the album, so they placed it in the next available production slot and gave us a release date within a week of having heard it. They worked faster than a Dutch hooker and gave us four times the pleasure. I’ve never seen anything like it.

C: When we recorded the album, we had a few labels in mind, but definitely not Alive/Bomp. It’s fucking awesome to be on the same label as MC5 and the Germs.

M: What’s it like to work with people like Choyce and [drummer] Dan Pedro, who play in several bands?

CK: It’s like dating a slut. Thrilling, but heartbreaking.

M: What can people expect at the record launch this Thursday?

C: Stroke-inducing projections and hypnotic trances previously used to control sex slaves by the CIA for Project Monarch. There will also be some space limbo and Earth beer.

OC: The Jet Five will kick off a night of guaranteed gyration with their wild breed of desperate rock ’n’ roll, and then it’s frequency freakout with the Milky Ways. Count on losing your mind in the folds of the multiverse.

CK: It’s a night to leave your black hole behind.

CD launch with the Jet Five at Zoobizarre tonight,
Thursday, June 15, 9 p.m., $5

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