On a label overrun with weird, loud, distorted, and provocative bands, none are more so than the Pain Teens. Formed in Houston, Texas in the late '80s by singer Bliss Blood and guitarist/noise terrorist Scott Ayers, the band's sound is a loud, noisy mix of psychoactive swamp blues, tape loops, bizarre instrumentation, and experimental sounds, often set to a thundering beat. With lyrics centered primarily around issues of control, fear, and dark sexuality, the band has a penchant for forcing you to think about things many people would prefer to ignore, and has cranked out several albums worth of an ongoing soundtrack to oblivion.

While the band is busy working on the CD release of their first album and an entirely new one as well, recently Bliss was generous enough to take time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions about the band-- past, present, and future. Here's what she had to say:

DEAD ANGEL GETS SINGED CONVERSING WITH PAIN TEENS:

DA: How and when did the band get started?

BLISS: Our first LP came out in 1988; before that, we spent a couple of years doing tapes at home and released them locally, and played them on KTRU [in Houston] just to see what the response would be. They were a success, thus the album.

DA: Did you have any particular goals in mind when you started?

BLISS: To get to the point where we had enough material to do an album, to be a real band.

DA: Which is your favorite and least favorite Pain Teens album?

BLISS: I don't have a favorite; I view them as a progression of ideas.

DA: Pain Teens have an interesting image-- in my opinion, it's one of the few bands that manages to be sexy and scary at the same time. Is that intentional, or just a byproduct of the subject matter?

BLISS: That's pretty subjective, really. Some people probably don't see us as particularly scary or sexy. It's pretty much whatever the listener associates with it.

DA: Sexuality and control are the big themes in the Pain Teens oevure. What do you think of S&M, B&D, and other control-oriented forms of "fringe" sexuality?

BLISS: That's an interesting question. I feel that those things will become more and more prevalent as women gain power in our culture. Women have been brainwashed to be subservient for so many centuries; it's only natural that as they gain economic and social power, they should symbolically also acquire more control (even total control in some people's fantasies) in the sexual arena. It's obvious from the very large percentage of submissive males and the shortage of female "tops" in the S&M scene that men are uncomfortable bearing the total weight of sexual power in the bedroom, and want to balance that out somehow.

DA: What are some of the more unusual forms of percussion/ backing tracks the band has used?

BLISS: You mean, what did we use to make the sounds? We have lots of sources; Scott's big thing is to process sounds with speed controls and delays to distort them beyond recognition. He can make a shoebox sound like a tympani, etc.

DA: A lot of rumors have been circulating about the band's lineup for a while now. What's been going on? Any lineup changes, or a halt in touring?

BLISS: The lineup of the band is Scott Ayers and Bliss Blood and whomever we choose to work with at any given time. We are recording a new LP by ourselves, and we will find suitable musicians to tour with us when the time comes. Frankly, we abhor touring and prefer to work in the studio. We only tour because we have to for promotional reasons.

DA: How was your tour with Fudge Tunnel and Season To Risk?

BLISS: We had some fantastic shows, like New York City at the Limelight, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, Cleveland, Lexington, Seattle, Portland, Austin, and San Francisco, and some bummer shows in other cities. The thing about touring is that you can't expect every show to be genius; no one has that in them to pound out every night (unless they do it so much the same that it becomes rote). We're realistic; we don't expect genius every night, although on this tour we just got tired of traveling with the same lineup and decided it would end with the last show of the tour, which it did.

DA: How was the earlier tour with Brutal Truth and the Boredoms?

BLISS: We headlined that tour because no one would book the Boredoms as a headliner one year ago. They were totally unknown to people at clubs because at that point they only had one U.S. release, SOUL DISCHARGE on Shimmy Disc, which came out several years before. It was hard to follow a band like that because they have two drummers, two singers, and they are just so totally physical, whereas our trip is a lot more cerebral. We had some really good shows; we were playing for interesting crowds because of Brutal Truth and their death metal following, and it was, all in all, a cool tour. I am really into grindcore and I enjoyed being a part of that scene as opposed to the geeky alternative and experimental scene. I enjoy hard, noisy, brutal music and it was great getting to hear both of those bands every night.

DA: What's your take on the Japanese noise scene?

BLISS: The only part I'm really intrested in is the hardcore/noise scene. The Japanese are a very repressed people, and noise music is a good outlet for them. We toured with Zeni Geva as well as the Boredoms, and they are both very aggressive, explosive, almost hostile-sounding bands, with screaming vocals. But offstage, they are the most soft-spoken, well-mannered people I have ever met. I think they think Americans talk too loud, whereas they save all their loudness for onstage.

DA: Have you read ANGRY WOMEN (ReSearch Publications)? If so, what was your reaction?

BLISS: I thought it was cool that the book was totally devoted to women's ideas; however, I thought it was a bit narrow in its scope. There are lots of interesting women besides just performance artist friends of Andrea Juno, whom it seemed limited to. It seemed like many of the women interviewed ragged on or blamed men for the world's or their own problems, and were not really offering many new ways to try to solve these same problems. ReSearch books always seemed very male-oriented prior to that book (except for the Wanda Von Sacher-Masoch reprint and interviews with Cosey [Fanni Tutti, of Throbbing Gristle and Chris and Cosey] and Johanna Went). I wonder if Andrea's breakup with Mark Pauline had anything to do with the shift in subject matter and the tone of ANGRY WOMEN. I think they should have interviewed more women writers like Wanda Coleman, who is awesome.

DA: How's your experience been with Trance?

BLISS: Great; we enjoy working with King, he really seems to appreciate the sort of music we do and cares about promoting it. Every album has done better than the one before it, and they are all still consistently selling.

DA: How popular are the cassette-only releases?

BLISS: You've got to understand, they are from before we were on Trance, and we are still making them available because people read in interviews that they were released and they are curious about them. Some of the material on them ended up in remixed or re-recorded forms on later albums. They're not million-sellers, if that's what you're asking.

DA: Any bands you're into lately?

BLISS: Terminal Cheesecake, Man is the Bastard, Eyehategod, Ed Hall, Caspar Brotzmann, Buzzoven, Mortician, Dakota Staton, Chet Baker, Art Ensemble, Astrud Gilberto, Combustible Edison, Dazzling Killmen, Zeni Geva, Brutal Truth, Carcass, Entombed, Billy Childish, Merline Johnson, Bernard Hermann, Yma Sumac, Perez Prado, the list could go on and on....

DA: How is the first LP reissue coming along?

BLISS: It should be out this fall, along with a new album we're working on now.