by Erin Broadley

El-P is not a businessman by nature, but rather, by necessity. In a music industry smeared with artistic ultraviolence and held together by cobweb sutures, the Brooklyn, New York-based emcee decided to take matters into his own, deft hands and start an independent hip-hop label in 1999, calling it Definitive Jux Records. It wasn’t long before the label became one of the most legit and dynamic sources for underground hip-hop in the country. “The greatest thing that can ever happen for an artist is to make money off what he does for a living,” El-P says. “One of the worst things that can happen for an artist is to all of a sudden be this little guppy in a fish tank full of piranhas.”

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by Riley St. Clair

There are about a million reasons I should not like Mickey Avalon. He is perpetually shirtless, he wears more eyeliner than I do, and he has a single called ““My Dick.”” Oh yeah, and he used to have sex with dudes for money. In spite of the undeniable sleaze-factor, I can’t get his songs out of my head and, well, I rather like him. The embodiment of a rags-to-riches hip-hop fairytale, Avalon has managed to garner the attention of the music press, a bunch of young fans looking to get down and of course, a crapload of teenage girls. In between sound checks and after-parties, I got him on the phone shortly before his Lollapalooza gig.

Read our exclusive interview with Mickey Avalon on SuicideGirls.com.

by Jay Hathaway

MC Frontalot first coined the phrase “nerdcore hip-hop” in the late ‘’90s to describe tracks laid down over homemade beats, featuring lyrics about everything from Star Wars to Nigerian e-mail scams. This year, he’s been on tour with a full band in support of his second full-length album, Secrets from the Future. While on the road, he was the subject of a documentary film, also entitled Nerdcore Rising.

SG had the chance to talk with MC Frontalot about the life of a professional rapper and the growing buzz around nerdcore hip-hop.

Read our exclusive interview with MC Frontalot on SuicideGirls.com.

by Michael Marano

Paul Bettany is a BAFTA-nominated actor who has acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He’s a hard man to pin down, given the wide variety of roles he’s had in a wide variety of movies. He’s played: a young Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight’s Tale; a killer albino monk assassin in The Da Vinci Code; Russell Crowe’s “best friend” Charles in A Beautiful Mind and even Charles Darwin in Creation.

Scott Charles Stewart is a special effects expert who left George Lucas’ ILM to found his own company, The Orphanage, which contributed effects to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Iron Man, and maybe most notably, Korean director Joon-Ho Bong’s amazing monster movie The Host.

Stewart has recently started directing features, and with leading man Bettany has made a couple of religious themed action/horror films – Legion, about the Archangel Michael defending humanity from God’s wrath, and Priest, based very loosely on the Koreanmanhwa graphic novel series by Min-Woo Hyung, in which Catholic priests, who bear cross tattoos on their faces, have been trained to fight vampires.

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by Ryan Stewart

Despite the success of the Twilight franchise, real vampire movies are alive and well. I found out as much in November 2009, when, on behalf of SuicideGirls I took a drive up to Woodstock, NY, to visit the set of Stake Land, a low-budget horror film that eschews sparkly, boy-band vamps in favor of the more traditional, animalistic bloodsuckers we all know and love.

Writer/director Jim Mickle, who made the rounds a few years ago with his much talked-about indie-horror film Mulberry Street, is the brain behind the project, a road movie that takes place in a post-apocalyptic North America, years after a war between vampires and humans has left the entire continent in ruins and relegated survivors to a medieval existence, living hand-to-mouth and traveling together in tightly-formed, armed brigades.

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by Erin Broadley

Billy Morrison has always wanted to be part of a rock & roll circus. He may have forgone the greasy handlebar moustache, top hat and striped pantaloons, but with his new band Circus Diablo – quite literally “the devil’s circus” – Morrison seems to have found himself a group of misfit musicians that share his taste for all things sweaty, dirty and flashy…or in other words, all things rock & roll. “This band thrives when placed on a very thin tightrope,” Morrison says. “Fuck the safety nets.”

With a collective resume that includes bands The Cult, Fuel, the Almighty and Camp Freddy, the members of Circus Diablo know all about getting down and dirty with their music. Completed by Billy Duffy (guitar), Ricky Warwick (guitar), Brett Scallions (bass), and Charles Ruggiero (drums), the band released its self-titled debut on July 3rd and have kept busy touring the country and recruiting fans for what they’ve dubbed the “Church of Diablo.”

SuicideGirls caught up with Billy Morrison before a recent Ozzfest gig to chat…

Read our exclusive interview with Billy Morrison on SuicideGirls.com.

by Arlan Hamilton

I find the band Girl in a Coma fascinating for several reasons: First – lead singer/guitarist Nina Diaz has a voice that’s so powerful and seasoned, sometimes it’s easy to forget she’s only 19-years-old. Second – bassist Jenn Alva is an out and proud lesbian. And third – Phanie Diaz has a name that reads like “fanny” but sounds like “fawn-ie.” To say the ladies are charming is an understatement – they have beauty, brains and all the gumption one would expect from a sassy Texas trio. Still, it’s their music – loud and clear alternative rock that has been compared to The Smiths, The Pixies, and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs – that takes center stage.

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