IN THIS ISSUE - (Scroll down to see full stories)

THE ALIEN SEX FIEND SURVEY PRIZE DRAW WINNERS
- The 2 prize winners are announced

FIENDISH STUDIO BLOG
- News from the fiendish recording studio NEW! Updated - 16 Jan 2010

DEMON PREACHER SONG ON COMPILATION CD
- from Nik's pre-Alien Sex Fiend days

MESSAGE FROM NIK FIEND
- "I don't know why but I HAVE to do this.... "

HEE HAW DEPT
- silly stuff from around the planet

BLUE CRUMB TRUCK ONLINE STORE
- NEW fiendish mug

GET CONNECTED
- Places where you can connect with ASF & fellow fiend fans

SITE UPDATES
- News Archive updated

The perception from some media, etc, is that everyone is only interested in downloads nowadays...& only listen to music on their ipods or mp3s on their computers.... etc, etc, your answers have shown us that - at least for Alien Sex Fiend fans - this is definitely NOT the case for the overwhelming majority of you. It is music (!) to our ears - like us, ASF fans are free thinkers - you make your own minds up, regardless of what "they" are telling you.

Whilst there's nothing wrong with digital - after all some of you newer fans have initially discovered us thru downloads, & it makes deleted titles available, AND we all know that storing CDs / vinyl takes up way more space, so downloads are more "convenient" in that respect - it is great that you perceive ASF releases to be more valuable & more of an "art form" (for want of a better phrase) - both in terms of the music as well as the cover art.

Some of you still do appreciate the finer sound qualities of vinyl... & those people aren't always the older fans either! Although there were a lot of votes for every format, in general CD came out on top & least-voted-for was downloads. Only a tiny percentage of respondees are into downloads ONLY, most of you do want to OWN a physical Alien Sex Fiend recording, whether vinyl or CD, cos it means more to you, thank you! - though one of those people admitted he was into downloads simply because he'd burnt his ears out by spending too much time in underground clubs (yes Marc in Berlin, it's you!) so that now he can't tell the difference any more! Ooops!

Great to hear how much you love Nik's artwork on the covers / booklets.... & that you "will buy anything, regardless of format, just cos it's Alien Sex Fiend" - that's wonderful, it's so great that you think that way - you are THE BEST fans & we love YOU too!

Special mentions go to - Jesse in Canada, who was brief, to the point & made us laugh with his statement "Vinyl is awesome. Fuck downloads. You guys rock." From Andrew in London - "Downloads for ASF? Somehow that's too disposable. ASF are too important..." & from Greg in the US with "You know what? I want Nik and Mrs. Fiend to release their album/s and single/s however they damn well please! I'll buy it no matter what, you can be certain of this."

Of course we haven't been able to contact every single fiend fan around the world to get every person's opinion - but at least the survey gives us some indication of where your heads are at...

The thing is, downloads can be done anyway - other than considerable form filling, they don't really cost us to set 'em up... yes it would be lovely to do every format that's going but this would cost too much in money & time with mastering, setting up different artworks, etc & we wouldn't get the album released - which is the main thing - for months and months if we attempt to do too many formats ...AND we want to get out there & play some LIVE SHOWS for you as soon as we possibly can... So! now we will go do some sums & work out what we CAN do.... we don't need to tell you that it's tough economically at the moment so we've gotta be careful cos we don't wanna become a defunkt record label!

UPDATE 15 January 2010 - Mrs Fiend writes :
Blimey Nik - that blog of yours (18 December) made it sound like you're just lying abaht while I was doing damn near everything!!... (no "typical male/female" jokes p-lease!) hahaha.... so just to put it straight - as well as doing vocals, Nik has been playing loads of guitar, creating loops (yeah ok I check the timings cos he can be a bit erratic!), sampling stuff up, not to mention MOST of the engineering.... so there! Oh & a humungous amount of tea consumption!!

UPDATE 13 January 2010 - We know we wished you all a "Cool Yule" but not a f-f-f-freezing one! & not continuing into the New Year! Aaargh!... greetings from a very cold n snowy UK

UPDATE 07 January 2010 - Gaps in this blog don't mean we're not doing something, we're so busy doing wot we're doing we keep forgetting about it!

UPDATE 05 January 2010 - Took a break for a while over Christmas/New Year - time to re-energise brains & ear'oles was much needed!

UPDATE 18 December 2009 - Nik Fiend writes :
Now working on the last coupla songs... hope to nail 'em down by the New Year (ish)... touch wood. Dunno if u realise wot an awesome woman Mrs Fiend is? If she's not drumming, she's on the keyboards & if she's not doing that she's playing percussion, or programming, or doing engineering, or making space ship & zombie noises... It's well exciting, with the end of the recording in sight. But we've gotta compile it, master it etc etc & tho I've been working on artwork in between the sesssions, that's all gotta be sorted out, so we are AT IT!!

UPDATE 14 December 2009 - Taking a break from recording - ears & brains are fried - but in a good way !! Catching up with other stuff that's been building up for the last week or so...

UPDATE 07 December 2009 - Started recording another track yesterday..... finishing that off today / tomorrow..

UPDATE 03 December 2009 - Actually we don't need to be totally off our bongos on "substance of choice" - the music does that for us anyway! It IS indeedy usually a cup of tea that fuels the fiendish wheels. But for clearing the ol' vocal chords n throat JD is the best we've found - for us anyway - so it really was "medicinal" type purpose! (honest guv!)

UPDATE 02 December 2009 - Note! The JD was for vocal lubrication ONLY - we are doing the engineering ourselves n playing, singing & everything else - we wouldn't get very far by getting TOO wrecked!

UPDATE 01 December 2009 - In the studio recording some backing vocals with vocal lubrication courtesy of Mr Jack Daniels - yum!

UPDATE 25 November 2009 - Nik Fiend writes :
I've finally come up for air... from the darkest depths of the studio of terror. I'm well braindead at the mo, totally in zombie mode, I've bin burning the candle at both ends, hammering away wiv recording and mixing... Mrs.Fiend and I are finally mixing "One Way Ticket", we'd had all types of technical nightmares with the initial recording - really frustrating, but the track is now ON FIRE !!! I nearly fried my brain working on that song, I woz possessed and lovin' IT, but I had bin at IT non-stop so Mrs.Fiend took over in the driving seat for a while & now she's zombiefied herself 2!!!. This Album is gonna be well trippy, yet Hard + Twisted n'all ! Lots of "IT" Nik Fiend

UPDATE 11 November 2009 - Mrs Fiend writes :
Nik & I have just completed a mammoth session in the recording studio.... we reckon we've got 4 tracks finished now, 2 others need a bit more overdubbing & mixing, another song is still in its early stages so that'll take a while yet... Gonzo came along to put down some extra wig city guitar ... we hadn't seen him for some weeks cos Nik & I were busy working on the other tracks.... it's amazing but do you realise that Gonzo has worked with Alien Sex Fiend on & off for over 14 years now? He's the longest serving fiendish henchman by a long shot.... reckon that makes him as crazee as we are!

UPDATE 26 October 2009 - Mrs Fiend writes :
Yes we are still recording - which is why I was very busy last web update & handed the reins over to Nik cos he was waiting for me to finish some bits off before he could mix the track - it's all going really well right now & we're allowing ourselves to start getting very excited about it.... We reckon it's gonna be a monster, with something for everyone - whether you are an old skool fiend from the early days or whether you are a newer convert with albums like Information Overload... we think this will cause wonderful damage to yer lug 'oles & a much needed brain clear out whilst simultaneously removing yer wig! - heck some of the tracks have even scared US!! heeeeee... it's been a tough road getting this far along - we've had a number of interruptions along the way - but we've stuck at IT & now there's light at the end of the tunnel - yaaay! BUT I heard someone say the other day that "the light at the end of the tunnel usually means that a train is fast approaching" (HA!) thank you, you negative f***! So we ain't counting our squawking chickens just yet... suffice to say that we feel that we're not far off now... & tho we've still got artwork & all that to sort out even after the recording's done so we daren't give yer a release date just yet - keep IT all crossed for us, & with yer collective good will, we can unleash the bugger on you lot as soon as is fiendishly possible!

Released by the Hyped To Death label, The Messthetics compilations concentrate on rare, DIY, independent , undiscovered punk & post-punk bands around the UK & US from 1977 to 1984 -  "Music realised & released by any means necessary".

The Messthetics #107 CD is a collection of 23 tracks (plus 7 bonus mp3s), focusing on London based bands between the years 1978 to 1981 & includes the track "Royal Northern" by Demon Preacher. As you may already know this was Nik Fiend's earlier band, (& later The Demons) which at one time included Razzle, later to drum for Hanoi Rocks. The 4 track "Royal Northern EP" released on the Illegal Pressings label was Demon Preacher's first single. Record Collector (May 2006) had it listed as selling for £80 a copy in their Top 100 Punk Rarities !

After spending all of his spare cash to record the tracks, Nik borrowed the money from his boss at work to get the records pressed, & - in true punk stylee - he photocopied, sellotaped & hand numbered all the sleeves himself . The record caught the late, great John Peel's ear and eye and sold out quickly enough for Nik to re-pay his boss & for Small Wonder to offer a record deal for a follow-up, the infamous 'Little Miss Perfect' which hit #3 in the indie charts back in 1978.

Messthetics #107 has been receiving airplay on a number of radio stations worldwide, including in the UK the BBC6 "Freak Zone" show. It's #1 on the University of Michigan radio station in Ann Arbor (where Jimmy Osterberg, later known as Iggy Pop, formed his high-school band, the Iguanas). Reviews are already appearing - such as in the current issue of Record Collector (by Kris Needs), the next issue of Sound Projector ( by Ed Pinsent, proclaiming it "equally thrilling from start to finish".

Nik is also mentioned in "The Better Man" (Episode 7, Season 4) of the Venture Brothers cartoon. This is an American animated action/comedy TV series which chronicles the advenures of 2 dopey yet well meaning teenage boys, Hank & Dean Venture. In this episode, amongst references to various films, Marvel comics characters, Batman & Doctor Strange, one character called "The Alchemist" says that he used to visit the Batcave while musician Nik Fiend was still the doorman there. Please note! Nik was never a doorman, he managed the Batcave club for some weeks in 1983.