Listen to the Teeth Of The Sea influences Spotify playlist here

“I really despise Pat Metheny”

“Rigour has its place. If you’re going to stand around in a wolf mask twatting a tree branch, know your reasons.”

It’s always been a matter of paramount importance for Teeth of the Sea to find a boozer they feel comfortable with, the better to set the world to rights before making a racket in one scuzzy practice room or another. Since we moved our operations to Manor House, The Oakdale Arms on Hermitage Road has become a firm favourite. In many ways, we can’t believe our luck stumbling across this place. A variety of tanks are all around its homely and very slightly ramshackle interior, containing lizards of a variety of shapes and sizes. The jukebox has got Accept. W.A.S.P, and loads of Queen on it. An 80s Doctor Who pinball machine flashes with ghost-train-esque illustrations of the first seven timelords in the corner. And Old Rosie cider is less than three quid. Which in some cases, means that pontificating may occasionally take precedence over the actual making of music.

BOOK OF LEGENDS No.1: HAWKWIND

For driving a spaceship made out of cider bottles and rusty old lawnmower parts. For being, as Martin Popoff put it, "the world’s only three-chord progressive rock band" And for that amazing vinyl sleeve to Warrior On the Edge Of Time that folds out into an enormous shield.

Topics covered in pub conversation, 02/02/10

a) Antonin Artaud, his opposition to gnosticism, and how this relates to nebulous ideas of ‘transcendence’.
b) Whether every member of a band should have an imaginary solo project in their heads at all times, and how this relates to dealing with oneself in the abstract.
c) Whether the bacon bites in the pub are superior to Frazzles or not, with regard to density, shrinkage and sharpness of flavour.

BOOK OF LEGENDS No.2: EARL BRUTUS

For bringing a welcome sense of absurdity and unpleasantness to an all-too-often dour post-Britpop milieu. For that member of the band whose sole job it was to headbang and shout disorientating nonsense until well past the point where the audience thought it was funny. And for that large floral tribute at the Reading Festival that read ‘FUCK OFF’.

Talk also turns to ‘manifestos’ and whether bands should have them. Eventually, though, we come to the conclusion that despite the best efforts of The Nation Of Ulysses, the two most obvious bands to have a manifesto in recent rock history were The Clash and The Manic Street Preachers, bands who at best could be said to elicit mixed feeling from Teeth... Trying to impose some kind of morality onto your art doesn’t necessarily make it more satisfying, or you a better person. Especially when you find yourself letting your song be used in an Australian tourist board ad, a few years after you’ve sworn that’s the last thing you’d ever do.

BOOK OF LEGENDS No.3: GNOD

For taking their pirate ship of reckless excess all the way from Manchester to hitherto uncharted astral nebulae, creating their own worlds of scruffy enlightenment in the process. For having that Slayer-esque effect of making bands fear following them onstage. And for that 70s disco set-up they hammer out the likes of Butthole Surfers and Nurse With Wound on, as the flash of its lights summon eldritch memories of school Christmas dos. GNOD's myspace.

BOOK OF LEGENDS No.4: CAMEO

‘Nuff said

Notes scribbled in my notebook while I was at the bar, No.1

“The creative process is like trying to drink clockwork from a clamshell at the best of times. Trying to bring that to bear in a pub conversation is like trying to hypnotize a rock.”

BOOK OF LEGENDS No.5: IRON MAIDEN

Above and beyond life-affirming music, for sheer stubbornness, and a heroic disinclination to compromise over anything over the course of thirty-five years. Yet also for the chutzpah to write a fourteen-minute song based on Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, for still somehow being ordinary fellas despite provoking incedible displays of near-religious devotion around the globe, as chronicled on Flight 666. And for the line "This can’t go on, I must inform the law" in the context of being confronted by Beelzebub himself.

Notes scribbled in my notebook while I was at the bar No.2

“Group activity should be a constant dialogue with the third mind. That doesn’t mean the fucker’s always right.”

Hypnoticon is out now via Rocket Recordings. More TOTS Lovecraftism at their myspace page.

Join the band, The Quietus and boisterous others at The Mucky Pup on Saturday 6th Feb from 8pm until late.