Korova Were Laughed at by the Engineer on ‘Another Happy Customer’

Birmingham, Ala.'s Korova take their name from the milk bar in 'A Clockwork Orange' (book or film, pick your preference). Milk is innocent -- as is the understanding -- but in the tale drugs are added in per request. Actions like that are unadulterated attacks in an adolescent celebration; a true fitting name for a band wrapped in Black Flag riffs and intensity from a hardcore scene free of eyeliner and breakdowns.

"We used to call ourselves 'generic anti-core' because of our reaction to the scene, and the way people were so passively involved in hardcore," frontman Ian Wise told Noisecreep of the band's early sub-moniker. "We were somehow under the impression that things used to be different. I've been involved in this subculture for a while now and have met a lot of people that were around in the '80s and early '90s -- the 'glory days' of hardcore -- and from all the stories I've been told, the scene has pretty much always been petty and fickle. We're just under the impression for some reason that hardcore used to be really cool and unified or something."

Whether you're pro-hardcore from way back, in the '90s or now, it's undeniable that the scene of it is not what anyone thought it would grow up to be. "I think hardcore is in a really interesting place right now, because it's sort of socially acceptable to be into hardcore. So bands now are afforded the opportunity to tone down their sound and try to get some sort of commercial success, and I do see a lot of bands playing a very safe version of hardcore. And that really bums me out," Wise admitted.

"On the other hand, I'm stoked that a lot of bands are rejecting that compromise without losing focus of what reach they might have. I honestly don't really have a problem with bands finding commercial success if they stick to their guns while doing it."

There are many that don't get the mix of the band (harsh music set over calculating lyrics). In fact, one who didn't was the engineer of their debut full-length, 'Another Happy Customer,' who laughed as the band recorded.

"Well, believe it or not, the guy who engineered our album is actually an Emmy winner. Actually I think he won an Emmy and was nominated for another one. Maybe he won two. I don't know. Anyway, the point is that he's pretty opinionated and thought our record was sort of pretentious at times. I think that's pretty funny, because he's recorded some really, really pompous s--- before.

"Anyway, he laughed at the spoken word stuff, and he thought the noise rock stuff was a waste of time. Then when we were mixing the record he made some comment about how he liked the record because it reminded him of the Wrangler Brutes but it must have been pretty easy to write the album because most of the songs were so short. Not that I care. I like the dude OK, so it's whatever."