OC Music Awards 2012: Death Hymn Number Nine Use Thrash-Punk To Fight For Equal Zombie Rights

Photo by Michelle Kelley

[Photos] OC Music Awards Showcase Series…

“ We swore to a witch doctor to never disclose where our name comes from...Our last two percussionists, Blind Whitey and Slimey Blime, suffered a 3rd degree moon burn curse administered by the witch doctor for telling people about our name.
” Death Hymn Number Nine Celebrating its 11th anniversary, the OC Music Awards kicks off on January 3rd with seven weeks of free showcases at different venues across the county. 35 local artists will compete for the titles of Best Live Band or Best Live Acoustic and a performance slot at the 2012 OC Music Awards, March 3 at the Grove of Anaheim. And, the voting is open now!

Haitian tenets of voodoo. Time-tested folkloric beliefs. Brain-killing pharmaceuticals. The blind following of social or political doctrine. Whatever apparently creates a zombie can be debated, but what creates a killer (this time literally?) rock band cannot: hyper-specific branding, wild stage antics, crazed guitars, and skull-bashing personas that shun kitsch for some horror fanatic’s rock ‘n roll erotic dream.

Thrash-psychobilly “zombie” band, Death Hymn Number Nine from Orange County, don’t care if you are dead or undead. As long as your brain is ripe for the licking or you’re a “street-walking girl.” And they’ll never tell you where they got their name from.

“We swore to a witch doctor to never disclose where our name comes from,” said Death Hymn Number Nine. “Our last two percussionists, Blind Whitey and Slimey Blime, suffered a 3rd degree moon burn curse administered by the witch doctor for telling people about our name.”

Sticking to their “characters,” the band answered a few interview questions over e-mail, which was a shocking revelation: We didn’t know zombies had internet access. It must be hard for them to not get their post-mortem body fluids all over the keyboard, but that certainly explains half of the “people” on Twitter. 

(Note: Death Hymn Number Nine took to their Facebook and voiced their hate about the term “psychobilly.” “Can’t think of a style of music that we hate more than psychobilly other than rockabilly. A bunch of dated retards who chase fat girls around in leopard print skirts with sh*tty haircuts.”)

“ Being the greatest band in the universe. The only thing to be influenced these days is ourselves.
” Whether this happened before the zombie conversion or not, Death Hymn Number Nine takes aesthetic cues from artists like Hasil Adkins and the Cramps while delivering their body-pilfering tunes in an in-your-face thrash-metal package.

When asked how they define thrash, the band answered: “verb (used with object)1. to beat thoroughly. “verb (used without object)2. to toss about wildly,” which is certainly what you can look forward to at a Death Hymn Number Nine show.

“Being the greatest band in the universe. The only thing to be influenced these days is ourselves,” responded these undead music makers when asked what their influences are, but they conceded to divulge some of their other influences–which we appreciate since we know thinking beyond a few words is hard for zombies.

“Pizza, black girlz booties, young frankenstein, lagoons,” replied Death Hymn Number Nine. “Quicksand, gremlins, the eyes of marmots, black and white Batman cartoons, Bad Girls Club, Grambo & ginger, pool parties, fat Elvis, sleeping anacondas, David Bowie’s dress socks, camel lights, David Lee Roth and Chuck Norris’s high kicks, dead banana farmers, astronaut monkeys.”