"If you have to live with a group of three other men for 10 months out of the year, they tend to drive you crazy. Nerves can get frayed, but so far no-ones gotten killed. it's gotten close on several occasions though."

It's perhaps a relief then that Girls Against Boys have only one more date to play on this, their final tour for Touch and Go Records. Much has been made of their move from the Chicago indie to the giant Geffen corporation - the deal struck was rumoured to be the largest for an ''unbroken band' - but right now that doesn't concern Eli Janney as he prepares for the bands show in London. The band have been on the road since the release of their latest album, 'House Of GVSB', in March of this year. The album is Girls Against Boys at their peak, described in Kerrang! as 'a fabulously filthy soundtrack to big city thrills, spills and pills', described here as suave, sexy, sinister, sleazy and satanic.

One More Time With Feeling.
First a little history. Girls Against Boys started back in 1988 in a small basement just outside Washington DC. Eli Janney and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty recorded three songs and got Scott McCloud to come in and sing on them. They called the project Girls Against Boys to fuck with the 'boys club' mentality of the punk scene in DC at the time. They released their first EP, 'Nineties Vs Eighties' in 1990 and the following year they relocated to New York City, no longer a project, but a fully fledged band. Their first album, 'Tropic Of Scorpio', was released on Jeff Nelson's Adult Swim label in the spring of 1992 and they went out on the road for the first time, visiting USA and Europe. After meeting Touch and Go owner Corey Rusk at a Chicago gig, the band signed to the label in the autumn of 1992. Since then the band have released three albums on the highly influential Chicago label.

One More Time With Style.
Girls Against Boys are just one of a number of American bands that show their sorry British counter-parts a thing or two about style, both sartorial and musical, something sadly missing from today's rock scene. Following in the footsteps of The Nation Of Ulysses, GVSB, together with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Delta 72, The Make-Up and Brainiac, have released records this year rightly described elsewhere as 'Sex music'. Last March, Girls Against Boys and Brainiac hit these shores on one of the tours of the year. If the music didn't excite you, the bodies on stage surely would. Was there any competition in the fashion stakes? "Of course," says Eli laughing, "We always critique each others style. It's a daily event." Who came out on top? "We had some good competition from Tyler (Trent, Brainiac's drummer and wearer of bunny earmuffs) he would always wear the most outrageous thing he could find." "I love playing with them. They're really inspiring. There was a good healthy competition, because we tried to outplay each other every night." What did you think of Belfast when you played there last March? "I liked it a lot, it was crazy. I mean, I don't know if it's always like that or if it was just that night, but it was a really big party."

I Think I'm Gonna Crash It.
The band's final release for Touch and Go is the single, 'Disco Six Six Six', one of this year's finest pieces of rock 'n' roll noise. It wasn't without its problem though. There were problems mastering the tapes, the original mastered versions got ruined somehow, so they had to be done over again. When they were eventually done, they were sent to the pressing plant, where they were pressed, tested and then sent out. By the time they reached the shops none of the CDs worked. The artwork, designed in America, had to be sent over electronically from America, but it kept getting destroyed or crashing the computer it was sent to. Satanic interference perhaps? "I think it was cursed," laughs Eli, "I don't know about satanic interference though, it was more holy punishment. I'm surprised it's even in the shops." What is 'Disc Six Six Six' about? "It's just about how music and its culture can create a fear in some people. It's kind of a joke in a way. 'Disco Six Six Six'. it's not the reality that some people think it is." Singer Scott McCloud described the additional tracks on the single as being; "kinda raw and quite possibly the nastiest stuff we have ever done." Eli says of the new songs; "They were recorded at a really strange time, between when the album was finished and when it came out. They done all in one day, without a producer and we just went in there and blasted them off. At first it was just recorded for us, it wasn't set to be released, but then we liked the style and the feeling so much that we decided to put it out."

All Good Things Are In Season.
There have been rumours that the band's deal with Geffen will net them a lot of money. After much discussion, GVSB turned down more lucrative deals for one that offered the most control. Eli has mixed feelings about leaving the security of Touch and Go for the relative unknown of a major corporation. Bands who have moved from indie labels to majors and done so successfully are the exception rather than the rule. The prospect of the greater exposure and resources that come with signing with Geffen, is balanced with the pressure to do things they don't want to do. However, Eli remains "cynically optimistic" about the move. "You know, the net worth of the deal may seem high, but a lot of that will pay for the record, the recording and everything. We have to pay everyone out of that. That's also for a multiple of records. After you divide it all out and pay everyone and then divide it by four, we're probably making a little bit more than if we have a job at a video shop," says Eli laughing. "It's kind of ridiculous actually and we got a good deal, so I feel sorry for all the bands that signed a regular deal and probably didn't get any money."

This Song Is So Hip Right Now I'm Going Deaf.
What do you think of the current state of the American underground? "I think actually it's doing pretty good. I think that the major labels signed all their 'alternative' bands and many of them were just regular pop bands, that just had loud guitars. So I think that people have lost interest in that kind of music, but there's always going to be an underground. There's always going to be new kinds of music coming up. You know, there's always new bands like The Delta 72 and The Make-Up, stuff like that, there's always cool underground bands. I'm glad it's still like that." Eli, himself, remains one of the busiest musicians / producers / engineers on the scene. This year alone has seen him produce albums for the likes of The Delta 72, Brainiac and Elevate, as well as the album from American MTV comedy crew The State. Recently, he has turned his creative hand to re-mixing and has re-mixed records for Ruby and The Sneaker Pimps, something he hopes to do more of in the future.

Hey Maestro, Where's My Martini?
GVSB's link up with Geffen means that 1998 could be their year. Although it's been a year since GVSB recorded the songs for the 'Disco Six Six Six' single, the band already have a few ideas about what their next record will be like. "We have all kinds of new ideas and different influences. I think in a way that single, we want to have that spirit in a song, but we've also been listening to a lot more electronic music, so there might be some of that in there." Tonight, at the King's College in London, Eli promises GVSB will "rock the fucking house". "This is our last show for Touch and Go, so that's kind of sad, but we're going to have a big celebration afterwards. It's an end of an era in a way, but we can't wait until next year!" Look out for Satan's sexiest sons next year, they're going to be red hot.

Tropic Of Scorpio. (Adult Swim) July 1992.
Wildly experimental first album, containing diamonds and paste in equal measure.
"Tropic Of Scorpio was recorded over a series of weekends and put together here and there. It was a very experimental time for us, because the band hadn't really played out live and we were just trying different things. I still like a lot of songs from that. I think 'My Night Of Pleasure' is probably the best, the most fully realised."

Venus Luxure No.1 Baby. (Touch and Go) September 1993.
Working with Fugazi's producer Ted Nicely on their first album for Touch and Go, the menacing GVSB sound became more focused.
"I think Venus Luxure was really when the band sound started to come together. We had toured a lot after Tropic Of Scorpio came out and we started to realise what we wanted to do more live. That album was really more of a recording of what we were doing live. A much more aggressive, very straightforward sound. That's a really cool record, because the recording came out really well, as far as that aggression coming out clear on record. We still play a lot of songs off that album, so that's always a good gauge to see what we like. We played 'Learned It' last night. It's still a nice, powerful song."

Cruise Yourself. (Touch and Go) October 1994.
Considered by some as GVSB on 'cruise control' following Venus, Cruise Yourself is still mean, moody and menacing as fuck.
"With Cruise Yourself, we started to try and get a little more experimental. I think we probably spent the least amount of time writing it. At the time we were excited about it, so we went in and did it. I think that there's a lot of cool things going on there, but perhaps some of them aren't as fully realised as they are on House Of GVSB, because we had a lot more time on House Of GVSB, both to write it and record it. I really like 'Tucked In' actually. It's just a really cool song, the way it changes in the middle."

House Of GVSB. (Touch and Go) March 1995.
Third album with 'security blanket' Ted Nicely, is GVSB at their most seedy and claustrophobic. House oozes desire and menace from every pore.
"House Of GVSB is the album I'm most pleased with out of all of them, as far as having an idea of what we wanted to do and then achieving it. We had the longest time to write it probably and also the longest time to record it. We definitely approached it like once we were in the studio it didn't really matter how long it took to make the album. We just wanted to make the album as good as we could and we're pretty pleased with it. 'X-Rated Car' is probably my favourite off that, but there's a lot of really cool songs on that."