New tunes, all time classics, Edinburgh dungeon clubs and New York watering holes with US maniacs Spank Rock.

2006 saw the emergence of US stars Spank Rock with their debut ‘YoYoYoYoYo’ catching the ear of just about anyone. With an imaginative sound that no one else can quite touch: combining hip hop with the bass-driven sound of Baltimore house, filtering filthy raps into deep electro, as well as the odd guilty pleasure to boot, Spank Rock are undoubtedly riding high. And now they’ve just put together a fabulous new mix for Fabric.

Urban Planet caught up with Alex Epton aka Armani XXXChange at his Brooklyn base as the group prepare to cross the pond to play Fabric over the Easter Weekend.

What are your favourite new tracks of the moment?

Daterape by MAPAI is really good. Clubaction by Yo Majesty. Both tracks are really fast with crazy shit with rapping on it. Its cool.

What are your favourite all time tracks?

A couple of the tracks on the Fabric mix are among my all time favourite tracks actually.
Kano I’m Ready is a big one and the Miss Kittin and the Hacker track is another favourite of mine.

How does playing in the UK differ to the US?

It doesn’t really differ for me. We just have to play slightly different music. You can’t get away with playing too much classic rock in the UK. People tend to get pissed off or too restless or something by it, I don’t know. But then you can play a lot more dance music. In the US you have to pay a lot more rap music.

Most memorable gig?

The home town gigs are always good. Those have been getting better too, which is nice. Edinburgh was really fun too. We played in some weird dungeon cavern type place, it was weird but lots and lots of fun. It was a real small show but everyone was really excited and we had a great time.

How did the Fabric Live mix come about?

We originally went to Fabric as part of our first European tour and I think someone there had heard one of our earlier mix tapes or something. I think a lot of people in the UK got excited about the first mix because rough trade had some nice things to say about it.
And then we were asked if we wanted to do the mix-tape and we gladly accepted.

When you’re not performing do you ever still just go out clubbing with your mates?

Not so much really, no. We all went out last night though and ended up getting really drunk. We ended up at a place called Lit, which is your typical New York shit hole, but it was a good night.

Do you prefer the dungier places to the glamorous venues?

Yeah, I prefer the smaller venues really. I’m not so into the big dance clubs, but Fabric in London is of course a big exception.

Have you come into contact with any celebs while on your travels?

Well we went on tour with Beck last year. He was cool, a real nice guy and a great entertainer. I think he was the most well known person we’ve toured with actually. We’ve headlined a lot more this year.

So what bands have supported you on your headline gigs? Anyone worth checking out?

Oh definitely. Everyone should check out BestFwends (www.myspace.com/bestfwends) they are really good and are based in Austin, Texas. Their sound is similar to ourselves but a little more spazzy and more weird, but very good. Another good one are Juicebox. And everyone should love Japanther (www.japanther.com). They never opened for us, but they are really good.

You all hail from Baltimore, just in case any Urban Planet users ever make in that direction where do you recommend they go?

There’s a couple of cool places. There’s the Otto Bar, which is the place where everyone just hangs out and has a good time and the Talking Head is the best place to go for shows. It’s really small and really crappy. We have the Spank Rock Christmas Party there every year. The capacity is only about 100-150. It’s a small little place to party.

Based in Brooklyn hey, have you heard of ProjectJennyProjectJan – we’ve been championing these guys for a while to the British crowd. (Read More: ProjectJennyProjectJan).

Oh yeah, you know those guys? They’re really awesome. I know them; they did that Chinatown Bus song. My friend was in a bar and the DJ was playing that song and he was like freaking out and saying, ‘oh what is this song man’ because we all travel on the Chinatown bus and the DJ just gave them the CD and it said ProjectJenny ProjectJan on the cover.

Spank Rock play at Fabric over Easter. More info at: www.fabriclondon.com/club/listings

Find out more about Spank Rock at: www.myspace.com/spankrock