The Murder City Devils are one of the few bands making some noise, kicking some ass, and still managing to have as much fun as possible while they do it, in a rock climate that can currently be rather boring. The group recently came to down to drive the lucky locals in attendance into a mad frenzy at the Troubador in Hollywood. Known for their ability to tear the roof off the “mother-bleeper” and deliver the rock, those in attendance were anything but let down. To make a short story shorter, the kids definitely “lost their shit”, plenty of beer spitting and crowd-shout-a-longs on stage included. Before the rock show, Buddyhead parked it at the club’s bar while Nate and Spencer told us what was new and old while they also threw a few “early ones” back.  Interview by Aaron Icarus. Photos by Travis Keller.

buddyhead – so tell us your names and what you do in the devils.

nate – i’m nate and i play guitar.

spencer – my name is spencer and i sing.

buddyhead – ok… maybe it was a couple years ago when josh from behead the prophet told me that he is actually the person that came up with your band name. is this true?

nate – yes, it is true. there was a band called the murder city devils in olympia. josh wasn’t in it, he just named it. quitty was in it, who is also in behead the prophet and now the tight bro’s, and…

spencer – larry.

nate – yeah, larry from the rickets was in it too. they were around for just a little while. they only played a couple of shows. it was probably a year and a half or two years later when we were starting up and needed a name, so we called them up and asked them if we could use it. so, we had their blessing.

spencer – yes. josh is the master of coming up with band names. he’s come up with shit that’s amazing. he has a whole list of them.

buddyhead – well yeah, just look at his bands’ names. also, cece from subpop said something about some of you guys backing duffs band in japan?

nate – yeah, cody and dan were gonna play in a band with duff and go to japan to play some big festival. it ended up getting canceled though. they actually only did one guns n roses song though.

spencer – it was also kim from the fastbacks playing in it.

nate – yeah, they practiced in our practice space, and dan has a soldano head that duff just left there for a long time. duff just leaves his stuff all over the place. so, we started using duffs’ head at shows, and dan liked it better than his head. then, when we recorded our last album, duff left one of his amps at the studio we were recording at, so i used his amp to record all the tracks with it.

spencer – it was awesome. the amp in our practice space didn’t say anything on it except on the front in sharpie marker, it just said DUFF.

buddyhead – awesome. were you guys ever guns n roses fans?

nate – huge.

spencer – yes, all of us. we’ve played with other bands duff has been in too, and hanging out in a backstage area with duff is such a funny thing. it just seems so ridiculous.

nate – yeah, it’s like, “you were in the biggest band in the world, what are you doing back here?” he’s a really cool guy.

buddyhead – is it cool for you guys to play hollywood in a place like this where there is so much rock history? like, izzy from guns n roses pissed on the bar right here once.

nate – it’s awesome.

spencer – i’m mostly stoked that neil diamond played the troubadour.

nate – i like all the rock n roll stuff down here, it’s totally different than any other place in the country.

buddyhead – did you follow the hollywood rock stuff in the 80′s?

nate – in a way. i mean, i wasn’t into poison or anything. the bands that lasted through that period were like motley crue… and then guns n roses was sooo separate from that.

buddyhead – yeah, totally.

spencer – none of us were like heshers or anything, but we did really love guns n roses growing up, and still now really love them. being in l.a. is fun cos it’s just so ridiculous in so many ways. i wouldn’t want to live here, but visiting is great.

buddyhead – why wouldn’t you want to live here?

spencer – well… everything is so spread out, and you’d have to own a car, and it seems like such a pain in the ass. it’s real dirty and seems like it would be depressing after awhile.

buddyhead – that’s funny you’d say that coming from the northwest where everybody is depressed and offing themselves.

spencer – it’s just so easy to get into trouble here. there’s just too much temptation.

nate – we met rick james last night.

buddyhead – really?

spencer – haha, speaking of temptation…

nate – he was at our hotel. we were checking in and i was standing in front by the valet spot, and i heard this singing all souled out, and all these people were clapping, and i was like, “what the hell is going on up there?” so then, rick james comes strutting down the stairs hanging out with all these ho’s. i was just like, “woah, it’s rick james!”

spencer – then cody and dan came up just as he was getting into his limo, and they were like, “mr. james! mr. james!” so he rolled down his window and he signed the piece of paper they gave him, “to the murder city devils, peace and sex, rick james.”

nate – it’s the most valuable thing any of us have now.

spencer – we’re totally gonna frame it. the irony of it, besides peace and sex is so…

nate – or kidnap someone and burn them with crackpipes.

buddyhead – hahaha! so you say it’s easy to get into trouble here, have you ever gotten into trouble here?

spencer – (quickly) no! haha.

buddyhead – ohhh, c’mon.

nate – no, you just end up running around and staying out too late and go… places…

buddyhead – what kind of “places”?

nate – uhhhh, after hours bars or whatever. you just end up getting really drunk and we always stay at the same hotel, and we always get kicked out of the hot tub in the middle of the night, and the security always comes to tell us to quiet down…

buddyhead – what hotel do you stay at?

nate – we stay at the roosevelt. we just come down here and have a rocknroll time.

buddyhead – do you guys ever get into any fights?

nate – naw. one time this guy who was hanging out with us got his face busted up at a denny’s. as a band we don’t fight with each other, and we don’t get into fights with other people.

buddyhead – i would think that since maybe your band leans towards the brasher side of things sometimes, that you might fall into a few altercations resulting from that maybe?

spencer – um, i think that people get that we’re not tough guys looking for trouble. we’re just into drinking beer and having fun and stuff…

nate – we may get into trouble because we get really drunk and run around…

spencer – it’s not like aggressive though, it’s just having fun.

buddyhead – so when you started the band, was that what you wanted to do, just have fun? where did you originally want to go with this band?

spencer – we were all in punk bands.

buddyhead – what bands were you in?

nate – i was in the unabombers and this band called the black eyes. derek and dan were in a band called the death wish kids, and spencer was in a band called area 51 with derek and dan as well.

spencer – so we were all in these hardcore bands, and we just wanted to play rocknroll. when we started we thought we were, we were really trying, but really we were just playing more punk music. we started wanting to play older rocknroll punk stuff.

nate – and to really not be limited by, “hey that’s not fast enough or hardcore enough” or whatever. we just tried to take it back so we had more options as a band to write different types of songs and just play whatever we wanted to play.

buddyhead – were there any bands that were particular influences?

spencer – there’s more obvious stuff like iggy pop or the new york dolls or whatever.

nate – mudhoney.

spencer – yeah, also mudhoney as well. now it’s so broad, we kinda have our own thing.

nate – in the beginning we were more enthusiastic about claiming influences, but now i feel what we’re doing doesn’t really relate to where we originally started.

buddyhead – so what’s the story with the new album?

nate – we just finished the record in december, so it should be out in june. now we’re just starting to tour for it.

buddyhead – what kind of sound does it have compared to your earlier work?

nate – it still sounds like us i think. the difference between the first and second album was really big. the difference between the second and third is equally as big, yet it still sounds like us from the first.

spencer – i really like the first record, but i don’t think we were really that good. we weren’t as good at playing music and writing songs and executing them. we didn’t really know what we were doing as much. i think we’re better now and broader. we have more room to figure out what we want to do with things.

nate – also, we know how to write our own songs now. we were able to go into recording this album with a clearer definition of ourselves.

buddyhead – what have you guys been listening to lately?

nate – i’ve been listening to a lot of nick cave and soundtracks actually… like western stuff like “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” a lot of blues stuff as well and old jazz.

spencer – i’ve been listening to lee hazelwood, nancy sinatra… and neil diamond, and also nick cave quite a bit. the “folkways smithsonian ballads” cd is what i’ve been listening to a lot too.

buddyhead – have you heard the stooges “fun house” box set yet?

nate – yeah, i want to hear that really bad.

spencer – isn’t it all the complete sessions? like every take?

buddyhead – yeah, it’s awesome.

spencer – do you have it? it’s really expensive isn’t it?

buddyhead – yes. it’s awesome. it cost me 140 bucks.

spencer – that seems like it would be worth it though. it seems like the kind of thing where you’d actually want to study it more than anything.

buddyhead – exactly. it’s like, you’ve heard that album a million times, and there’s so many questions you’re left with, and it’s great to have all of them answered.

nate – i heard about that when we were recording and i wanted to hear it because i was thinking about recording so much.

spencer – does he change the lyrics?

buddyhead – yeah, he changes it up the whole way through.

spencer – that has been one of the most important inspirations to me. iggy pop and the way he… like how the lyrics i write are mine and i don’t have to do it one way all the time. like when we play live, i can change it and do it different every time and he totally justifies that.

buddyhead – how do you guys feel about the overwhelming amount of “rock” bands after you guys have now had a big part of popularizing it in the underground or whatever?

nate – it seems like the bands that are jumping on the bandwagon or whatever, are following more of the ac/dc and mc5 kind of thing. i don’t think we sound

like any of those types of bands. i think the bands that are doing that aren’t defining themselves as their own band as much.

spencer – we don’t have a formula where we’re like, ok we’re gonna be like mc5 or whatever. obviously those are bands that we love…

nate – i can’t play guitar like wayne kramer or angus young. when people ask, “how do you define yourself?” i say, “well you take bands people say we sound like, but you put them through us as a filter.”

spencer – as far as i’m concerned, every song we write is a response to music we listen to. it’s not so much trying to sound like another band, it’s trying to respond to another band. as far as rocknroll being the cool thing now, there’s always that 10 year circle of trends coming back. it doesn’t have anything to do with us. we’re a rock band and our influences are pretty much rock.

nate – when we started this band, we wanted it to be fun to go to a show again. we wanted to write songs that weren’t about anything but whatever… spencer – we kinda also wanted to just get on stage and be like, “yeah, check us out we’re awesome! we’re having fun, this rules.”

nate – kicking your ass.

spencer – yeah, that’s what we felt was missing from music.

nate – bands were being apologetic about being up there. like, “sorry you have to listen to this.” well then get the fuck off there, we’ll kick your ass.

spencer – we just wanted to do something that wasn’t boring.

buddyhead – anything else interesting besides meeting rick james happen this trip?

nate – well, the first show was in lake tahoe, and we drove all night to get there and showed up at about 11 in the morning. we started drinking then and then drank all day until 4 in the morning and everybody was pickled drunk. gabe got lost trying to find the house we were staying at, and the girl we were with got arrested trying to pick him up cos she was driving drunk trying to find gabe.

spencer – this girl ended up in jail… she owned this bar and let us drink as much as we wanted. we were all doing shots together.

nate – we were too drunk for our own good. it was just one of those things where you can’t be that drunk for that long without something going wrong.

nate – we bailed her out the next morning… oh well.

buddyhead – so the new record comes out when?

nate – june 6th. we’re also probably going to europe with zeke for 5 weeks, then back in time for the album to come out and then off to tour in support of that.

buddyhead – ok. thanks guys.

Interview by Aaron North. Photos by Travis Keller.

Buddyhead encountered Piebald one lovely autumn night at Koo’s Cafe in Santa Ana, California. They played to a packed house of excited sweaty wuss-rock kids, and from the smiles on the kids faces, gave them a show to remember. On the interview tip, Aaron and Travis did the questioning and coincidentally, the 2 piebald members we cornered and harassed were Aaron and Travis as well. Afterward, Travis photographically captured Piebald letting out their homosexual tendencies, remembering their dead homies, and Aaron getting his pants taken off. The kids dig these guys, naked or not.

buddyhead – so aaron, what do you do in piebald?

aaron – i play guitar and sing a little.

buddyhead – tell us what piebald likes to do.

aaron – piebald likes to go to strip clubs. piebald likes to have sex. piebald likes to smoke weed. piebald likes to drink beer.

buddyhead – can you say motley crue?

aaron – our drummer is actually very motley crue, he’s slept with like 8 girls on this tour so far.

buddyhead – what towns can you get laid easiest in?

aaron – to be honest, i don’t do that shit. i actually just flew in my girlfriend to l.a. today. travis, help me out here, i’m fuckin this up real bad.

buddyhead – how long have you been a band?

travis – 6 years.

aaron – hey travis, this guys name is aaron, and that guys name is travis isn’t that weird?

buddyhead – what do you do in the band travis?

travis – i sing.

buddyhead – to be flying in girlfriends and whatnot, you guys must be makin bank. what label is givin you all this cash?

travis – big wheel recreation.

buddyhead – are you happy with your deal with big wheel?

travis – we don’t even have a deal with them.

aaron – all we do is write music, record it and get lots of money.

buddyhead – what are some other boston bands you guys feel are good?

travis – 6 going on 7, in my eyes, garrison, fastbreak.

buddyhead – is there a “scene” or whatever in boston?

travis – there’s an awesome scene in boston cuz everybody for the most part is friends.

buddyhead – i don’t like boston.

aaron – dude, i don’t like you. motherfucker.

travis – you guys have the same name. be nice.

buddyhead – if you could play with any band, who would it be?

aaron – i don’t care. i think every band sucks. including us. but tonight was the best show. everybody went nuts.

travis – i’d play with the beatles.

buddyhead – good answer. what about you aaron?

aaron – probably third eye blind…

buddyhead – third eye blind is a good fuckin band.

aaron – no shit! them and marilyn manson.

buddyhead – well they suck.

travis – he forces us to listen to that everyday.

buddyhead – how old are you guys?

aaron – how old are you? you can’t have my name cuz i’m older. i’m 20.

buddyhead – when is your birthday?

aaron – december 19.

buddyhead – see, i’m older than you fucker. i’m 20 and my birthday was in march.

aaron – ok, i’m done with this shit. this interview is over. [pulls out his brass knuckles and punches the wall]

travis – hahaha, as aaron pulls out his brass knuckles. i’m 22.

buddyhead – wow and our travis is 22 as well. weird. where’s your favorite place to play?

aaron – where are we?

buddyhead – santa ana.

aaron – yeah, santa ana is my favorite place to play.

buddyhead – you guys on tour by yourself?

aaron – we’re on tour with lazy cain. they’re the best band.

buddyhead – oh, we were busy seeing the foo fighters, so we missed them.

aaron – oh, the foo fighters are better than us.

buddyhead – they had a new guitar player, the guy from no use for a name. he had a sick of it all shirt on. norm from texas is the reason and shaun from far and the guy from white zombie auditioned for it and they gave it to that guy.

travis – haha, how embarrassing. yeah, the foo fighters rule.

buddyhead – so what bands don’t you like? who sucks?

travis – oh, we can’t say that kind of stuff. people will get bummed out.

buddyhead – what are you talking about! you just said you do drugs and fuck chicks, what could be worse?

aaron – we have a lot of enemies already.

buddyhead – like who?

aaron – the enkindels. they are definitely enemies.

buddyhead – yeah! fuck the enkindels! those guys are awful.

aaron – dude, they fucking unplugged our p.a. while we were playing.

travis – if people are shitheads to us, we’re shitheads to them.

buddyhead – so what do you want to do next with piebald?

aaron – we want to go on tour on motorcycles. we’ll get chicks to drive the van with the equipment, then we’ll show up to the clubs on motorcycles.

buddyhead – ehhhh chicks on tour. you gotta girlfriend travis?

travis – yeah. tour is about being on tour though. if i didn’t have a girlfriend, i’d probably try to have sex with girls. people have sex ya know? you try to have sex when you’re at home, so you try to have sex when you’re on tour. it’s the way it works. but, i don’t cheat on my girlfriend.

buddyhead – you’re pretty drunk travis.

travis – lets take some photos!

Every once in a while we stumble across a band that just blows the doors off all of our preconceived notions of them with a simple chaotic swipe of a guitar and a harmonized shriek into a mic. Planes Mistaken for Stars happens to be on that inadvertently short list. The night that we spent with these lads was nothing short of an escapade. After their unexpectedly intense performance, we all found our way to an abandoned couch around back of the venue and shot the shit about everything from bands that sound like modern day versions of a-ha to just not letting life pass you by. All this while everyone took turns pissing on the wall. The conversation was soon concluded in a nearby diner where the tales relayed to us left us nothing less than completely open mouthed. When the inescapable and reoccurring topic of Danzig popped up, including the exact location of his house, a field trip immediately ensued. Upon arrival at the domain of the “Dark Lord” a spontaneous photo shoot took place to prove attendance. Afterwards, goodbyes and promises to hang out soon were made with our newest of friends, as they all piled into their touring machine and headed toward their next destination of destruction. The following interview was one of the most entertaining and insane story relaying experiences we’ve ever been a part of. Do yourself a favor and don’t stop reading until you’ve reached the end. If you are a smidge prude, you may not want to head that far though.

Interview by Aaron & Travis. Photos by Travis.

Buddyhead: What are your names and what instruments do you play in the band?

Mike: My name is Mike Ricketts and I play the drums.

Matt: My name is Matt Bellinger and I play guitar and scream.

Jamie: My name is Jamie Drier and I play bass.

Gared: Gared O’Donnell, I play guitar and sing.

Buddyhead: How old are all you guys?

Gared: All like 22, 23, 23, 24.

Buddyhead: You guys are from Colorado correct?

Jamie: We’re originally from Peoria, Illinois, but now we’re from Denver.

Buddyhead: Why did you guys move?

Jamie: Peoria is just a dead little town. It’s really rough living there, a lot of our friends were dying and stuff, getting into really heavy shit. It’s just really lethargic there. It sucks. I don’t really know how to explain it. There’s a lot of rad people there. It’s really hard to do what you want to do. We were all born and raised there and I never really felt welcome there, and that’s where I’m from. Also touring wise… we just want to tour as much as we can, so geographically we were looking for something more convenient and Denver is right in the middle of the U.S. We can get to the West Coast that much easier because the drives were so long to get to the West Coast before, and we can drive out to the East Coast because there are lots of places to play in between. It’s kind of isolated so we can call our own shots and do what we want to do.

Buddyhead: Do you guys like it there?

Gared: Yeah, it’s beautiful. There’s no predominant scene or anything like that.

Buddyhead: What kind of bands are from there?

Gared: Angelhair was from there, they rule. Acrobat Down, Ice Pool, No Place for a Hero. No Place for a Hero is like Fifteen mixed with Hotwater, they’re real good. Acrobat Down are like, imagine if The Get Up Kids were good. (laughs) If The Get Up Kids were good and they weren’t so sickening. If the Get Up Kids had balls. Guts and balls.

Buddyhead: What is your take on all the current contrived/pandering/emo/wuss rock parody stuff?

Gared: Wuss rock? Cute-boy rock? The thing is, if I wanted to listen to that, I have Ah-ha records at home. I have fucking all those records, The Cars, all that is great shit and some of those bands are pretty kick-ass. I’m not trying to de-validate their merit as musicians, they can all obviously write good pop songs, but it bores me. I’ve heard it a million times before. And it’s not like we’re so innovative because they can say the same thing about us like, “oh we’ve heard three-chord punk rock before” ya know? The image is just sort of bleah, it’s not really the band’s fault. It sort of nauseates me.

Buddyhead: How do you guys react to people saying, “oh that’s that band that was on that Emo Diaries comp, they must be like one of those bands”?

Gared: Well, we get that a lot. We do get that and it’s kind of good because a lot of people write us off, they expect us to be like, “oh, my soul is broken, I love life and I hate myself.” They think that’s what we’re going to be about, all the jingle-jangle and then we just blow the roof off the place. Not that we’re so great or anything, we’ll spit on each other and be like arghh! We’re just rockers, we’re rippers man. I think it’s worked to our advantage in a sense because if kids came to the show and they thought we were going to be like that, that’s just what they’d leave remembering, “oh, I was right.” But if they come to the show with these preconceptions and then we just fucking rock out and it’s the exact opposite of what they think, then they’ll remember that because they were surprised. Their preconceptions were blown.

Buddyhead: Were you guys surprised when that record came out? Did you know it was going to be called that?

Gared: No, we knew it was going to be called that and I was familiar with, I think the first one. In fact I bought the first one a long time ago because there was a Samiam song on there that was unreleased and I’m really into Samiam’s older stuff. He wanted us to be on it and I was just kind of like, “ahhh,” and this was right at the same time he was re-releasing our self-titled, ep that we put out ourselves so I was like, “ok.” It was really cool because we got e-mails and letters from Japan and Australia, this and that. Not everybody’s born with Los Crudos patches on their ass. The thing is that it’s just fucking great that however cheesy it comes off, kids will pick it up and be like, “whoa.” I’ve said this before, I bought my first punk rock records at Sam Goody. Not everybody’s that cool when they’re starting out and that’s the thing· it was really good because it reached a wider audience. If that draws kids into our thing and they can hang with it, that’s fucking beautiful.

Buddyhead: I kind of got a weird vibe when I called your label. I was like, “yeah this band we’re interested in doing an interview with is coming out and they’re on your label, we were wondering if we could arrange some time?” And they were like, “Oh, ah, yeah, I think they’re on tour, we haven’t really talked to them… we don’t know. We don’t know how to get a hold of them, if you talk to them, tell them to call us cos we haven’t heard from them.”

Gared: (laughing) That label is just John, he has one guy that works for him, he’s an intern that just started working there. We’re not really irresponsible, but we’re all space-cases. We’re all over the place. I don’t even know half the time where we’re playing the next day. Usually whenever any of us talk to John, we just want to talk to him about whatever bullshit· I mean it’s definitely a label-band relationship, a working relationship, but when we call him up we’re not like, “How many units have you moved?” I call him up and will be crackin’ up and talking shit. Like, calling his answering machine at four in the morning and sing him songs. It’s just like how you deal with your friends. He fucks with us and we fuck with him. He’s a beautiful guy.

Buddyhead: Are you happy with your label situation? Like usual, it’s seems like people want to talk shit about a label like yours because there’s nothing better to do.

Gared: People are just chumps man. All the kids who talk shit, like real shit about bands. I mean, we’re bullshit, we just get up there and sing. But we’re just being facetious. All the kids who talk all this shit and start all these rumors, they’re usually fucking nerds. They don’t do anything but sit in front of the computer all day and say, “oh my God, can you believe that one of the guys from whatever band said boobie!” Who gives a fuck what label we’re on? You either like our music or don’t like our music. Who fucking cares? Our record should stand alone. If you hate it, you hate it, throw bottles at it. If you love it, then fucking dance, sing along and have a good time. The music we play and write is for us. We’d keep on doing it if every person on the fucking planet hated us. But at the same time it makes it that much better and the work much more to us if people can relate. If they can hang with it and it touches them, then that’s fucking great. As far as kids talking shit about us, fuck Îem. What label doesn’t get talked about? In the long run, what label is cool and what label isn’t cool? There really isn’t. There’s no difference. All the labels that are on this level are generally the same. All the labels that are on the next level are most generally the same. I’ve heard of people gettting ripped off by Bob’s Garage records, ya’ know, some kid who is just working out of his house and ripping people off. And I’ve heard of big labels ripping off people. John just puts out music that he likes, regardless of whether we like all the bands on the label or not, it’s honestly stuff that he likes and moves him. And he was fucking stoked on us enough to wanna put out our record and that just fucking makes us happy that he cares enough about what we were doing to help us out. He stands behind all of his releases and that’s great. I mean, I can’t say that I fucking love every record on the label, but there’s not one label on earth that I love every record on. It just doesn’t work that way. I love lots of the guys in the bands on the labels, they’re fucking some of the greatest people I’ve ever met. John’s a kick-ass guy and all I can say is for all those chumps who have nothing to say, go start a band.

Jamie: Do something constructive. If you don’t like a label then go start your own label. If you don’t like the bands on the label, then go start your own band. Quit talking shit because that doesn’t mean anything. That’s just words and words are totally inconsequential. Do something. Show us a sign that you’re alive, that you’ve got something to say and something to do. Even if it’s fucking anger. Get all that shit out. If you have something to say, then fucking start a band, say it into the fucking microphone. Or step up to people and say it to their face.

Buddyhead: Are there any bands right now that you guys like?

Matt: Oh, there’s a fucking shitload. Open Hand was good, they’re super good. No Place for a Hero, Sorry About the Fire, there’s a lot of bands. I could go on for an hour, This Machine Kills, whatever, there’s a fucking million bands.

Buddyhead: How would you guys describe what you’re about?

Gared: We’re just fucking rock dude, I don’t know. You can’t think too much about how you want your band to be perceived because then you’re bullshit. You become contrived. If you think about it too much, you’ll stretch yourself out and pop a gasket. I want to be perceived as “bullshit freak.” That’s why there are so many bands that I love, not even necessarily because of their music, but just their whole attitudes. Like Avail, I’ve always had a lot of respect for them because they’re seamless and they’re timeless, you can’t lock them into anything. Same thing with Jawbreaker, same thing with Hotwater.

Buddyhead: I think I saw a Jawbreaker tattoo on you didn’t I?

Jamie: Yeah. There are so many bands that are so fucking good right now, I forgot the question. What I want out of it the most is to be able to rock out with these three dudes and be able to travel as much as I can. And other people will get into it and like it and that stokes us out. It just makes us happy and blush. Just as long as I can keep playing music with these guys and hopefully other people will appreciate it.

Buddyhead: You said Avail and Jawbreaker were not associated with one specific scene, it seems like you guys are kind of similar to that.

Gared: Yeah, that’s one thing we almost try to do. When we moved to Denver, and it’s this way everywhere, we noticed there was a lot of segregation in the community, and so we were getting on bills with all kinds of different bands. Like the Messyhairs, they have a different following than other bands would in Denver, and are just trying to play a bunch of different shows. And we were noticing that the kids at all those different shows like us and they dig what we’re doing, so then hopefully that can just bring more people together, because that’s how it should be anyway. I don’t think that we are premeditated as far as us saying, “let’s sound this way, let’s do this and let’s not do that.” We just kind of took the natural route of what we were comfortable with as long as it was anything on our terms. A lot of people were really flipped out because of the fact that we moved out of the Midwest because that was like the “ultra hot-spot” or something for “emo” music, or whatever that crap is. I don’t know, we just didn’t like what was there. There was even people who wrote, I saw something in some guest book or something, who said that we moved to Denver so that we could be a part of that scene there. At the time, when we got there, we were like, “what scene?” It wasn’t anything like that. We don’t even concern ourselves with that bullshit. People just crack me up.

Jamie: We’re just all close friends who have been hanging out for a really long time. This is the only thing that we can do that feels valid and honest and it keeps each other alive. We don’t give a fuck about scenes or any of that crap. We just want to come meet as many people as we can, and anybody that wants to fucking join in and give us part of their life and we give them a part of ours, then that’s fucking beautiful. We just want to expand and network and bring as many people together as we can and make sure we don’t ever get a big head about anything. I think a lot of people do that, and they just become assholes and pricks and that’s not what fucking punk rock is about. Like we said, it’s about meeting people. I’ve talked to bands and it’s like what do they think, they’re Christ with a guitar? Fuck Îem. They’re the same as they ever were.

Gared: There are a few people who I’ve met who are more established or whatever, who I get a little bit nervous around… not because I think, “oh my God, this is the Messiah of rock,” it’s nothing like that, it’s because I’ve thought about them a bunch. I’ve learned about them through their records and their lyrics and their hotlinks, whatever, I’ve thought about them. And you go out there, and you have an idea of who they are and they have no idea who you are, so you’ve got this conversation piece stuck in your head so you’re spouting out shit. But, fuck people who think they’re the shit. As soon as you separate yourself from the audience, then you’re just a fucking turd. There’s not one person who holds any more weight than another in this whole fucking world. There’s people who are a little bit more enlightened, thank God, I mean it’s fucking great to meet people who you can fucking bro down with and not have to worry about whatever, but there’s people who are a little bit more enlightened and a little bit smarter in this world, but nobody’s worth any more than the next guy.

Buddyhead: Speaking of meeting people and stuff, how is this tour treating you guys?

Matt: There’s a lot of dumb stuff that has bummed us out, like van problems, money problems, this and that, but as far as people, I don’t know… maybe every band has this happen to them, but I feel like we’ve had an amazing stroke of luck in meeting people who genuinely care about us. They put us up, feed us and get bummed when we leave and vice versa. And that’s the best feeling. We’ve gotten extremely lucky, we’ve been meeting very cool people. We were just here a few months ago and it’s really nice to see familiar faces and go some places and see more kids come out than came out last time, and some it’s not as many. And it’s really cool too, the people who come out, it’s rad, they’re there to see us. That’s really insane to me, I think it’s like anyone else, I mean the fact that anyone would care about what we’re doing as much, well, not as much as we care about it, but the fact that they care at all. The fact that they’ll spend their time hanging out with us, pay to get into a show, or buy our cd or our record, that’s just cool. That’s just really cool. It’s really cool too because so far we’ve booked all of our own tours and you get to talk to people before you go there and you get a feeling of how it’s going to be. And there’s always a few spots that don’t really turn out the way you wanted them to, but you learn lessons from it. We just won’t go back there the next time.

Gared: It seems like for us the smaller towns, they’re just so much better. For us, we’ve dealt with a lot of assholes in bigger towns who don’t care as much because they’re spoiled on so many bands coming through. So when we go to a smaller city, they’re excited, they want to do it, they want to have a good time. And that’s the atmosphere we come from, coming from Peoria, so it just fits better. The kids who are in the bigger places seem a little bit more apathetic and more like, “oh, impress me” and have attitudes· and when we go to the small towns, people are like, “whoa” and they go ape-shit because they’re stoked that anyone would even bother to come to their town because it’s perceived as a shithole… and those are the places that we’ve been best. (laughs) At the shitholes.

Buddyhead: You guys seem really loyal to your “fans”.

Gared: We have this thing called the “Fucking Fight Club”. It’s just like this thing, they send us $20 and then we send everything we put out and all the limited vinyl we have, like our new record we have 50 of them on white vinyl with white covers that we hand screened and splattered red paint… it looks like blood all over them. And whatever, we send out newsletters and shit. And also our website headquarters, www.headqrtrs.com … it’s like, our band and all of our friend’s projects and lots of whatever…

Buddyhead: Do you guys have a full-length album out?

Gared: No.

Buddyhead: Are you going to do one of those soon?

Jamie: We’re going to try. We’re going to be touring until June 24th and then we’ll probably take a week or two away from each other, we’re all going to live with each other, so probably not too far away from each other, but we’ll keep our distance. Just calm down and then start writing.

Buddyhead: So, an album by the end of this year?

Gared: End of this year, early next year. Maybe even a 7″ or two before that. Who knows.

Buddyhead: Did I hear an Unbroken cover or something like that on your cd?

Jamie: Yeah, it’s a hidden track on our newest ep.

Buddyhead: What possessed you guys to do that?

Gared: Three of us really grew up listening to that band and they just meant a lot to us and that 7″ is fucking awesome and I got a tattoo from this little business card thing that they had inside of it. And then when Eric Allen died it just sucked. We didn’t know that guy but their band meant a lot to us. They were one main reason that we wanted to start a band. And around the same time one of our best friends had just overdosed and we just bummed out and it just seemed fitting for us to do that, do it as a hidden track.

Jamie: I didn’t know the guy, but you hear that story a lot and it just sucks when it happens to anybody, especially in this community. It sucks, it’s kind of like a tribute to our friends and a tribute to anybody that’s still fucking kicking. Because the thing is, that guy had so much fucking talent and he was such a fucking brilliant musician. Everything he did was fucking extra good. For me, these guys (in the pmfs) were always way more into Unbroken than anything. I was so into doing it because it meant a lot at the time. It was kind of like a testament to staying alive and a reminder to people, ya’ know? Everybody’s got a fucking gift, regardless of what it is, that’s just humanity. Everybody can fucking do something, whether it’s fucking brighten somebody’s day, or put out a fucking kick ass record, or whether it’s fucking whatever, painting a pretty picture. Everybody’s got something and you shouldn’t squander that, you shouldn’t throw it away because we’re only on this rock for so long. And that song just fucking hits it right on the head, lyrically it’s just fucking amazing.

Buddyhead: Is there anything that you want to tell people who might not know what you’re about?

Gared: Send us your Leatherface records.

Jamie: Yeah, like… people should remember that if they’re going to stay involved in all of this, they should always stay involved. Do more than wear a fucking backpack and go to a show. Do more than just stand there, don’t let your life pass you by. I just remember when I was a kid going to shows, it was like, that was what you do, you meet up with all these like-minded people and you converse and exchange ideas and you just fucking dance, move to the music and support your friends. It seems like lately, in the last few years, things have gotten really lethargic as far as shows, like there’s a real separation between band and audience and that makes me kind of sad. I remember going to shows and people surrounded bands and everybody danced and didn’t give a fuck. Now everybody’s all worried about what kind of shoes you have on and if their friends are going to make fun of you for looking silly. We’re all fucking stupid. We’re all human and there’s nothing you can do about it and everyone’s a dork and everyone’s whatever, just fucking be yourselves. When you go see bands, try to be emotionally involved, if you don’t like them, then fucking tell them. People just need to remember to put forth some energy and step to people. Remember that it doesn’t have to be lethargic. In any other scene, like the Hip-Hop scene or anything, everybody goes to shows and that’s where family comes together. It’s all people wanting to be together and they dance and have a good time and they get out all their frustrations; and that’s how you build. That’s how you feel better about yourself, meeting other people who let you know you’re okay and it’s okay to be how you are. Punk rock shows, it’s supposed to be punk rock! It’s supposed to be fucking challenging things and scaring people, not in a bad way, but it’s supposed to be a positive eye-opening experience. A change from the rest of mediocre society and the shit that you’re forced to do. And it seems like people forgot about that because it’s turned into this weird fashion thing and everybody talks shit about each other. If they would just cut loose and let down some of those barriers and dance and have a good time, complacency is completely fucking unnatural. We’re human beings, we’re always in constant motion and the minute you just fucking stand still, I don’t mean you have to go ape-shit every time a band plays, but the minute you fucking stand still and only think about your fucking self, is the minute you fucking die.

Gared: Like the lyric on “Fucking Fight”, the last line is, “where’s the life in living if only to breathe?” Basically the whole premise of that song, so many people tell you how life is supposed to be, so many people have these answers that they think are fucking concrete, like the other line goes, “and everyone knows how to smooth through their days.” But that’s fucking bullshit, the minute you stop learning is the minute you fucking die. The minute you stop moving is the minute you die. And nobody can tell you, not me, not you, not the fucking, President of the U.S., not your fucking favorite punk rock hero, nobody can tell you how to live your life. What you’ve got to do is keep on moving and keep on fucking learning and figure it out for yourself. As soon as you stop thinking, as soon as you stop trying to fucking grow, then you’re fucking dead. You might as well dig your own grave, ooohh I got all heavy. And always remember big brother is watching.

Buddyhead: So we hear that you guys have the most insane tour stories ever. Tell us about that one incident…

Matt: We were in Nashville, and we were getting ready to play in Murphy’s burrow which is right near there. Our friends live there in a really nice apartment complex, it was me, Jamie and my cousin Josh. Everybody else was out shopping and eating and stuff and we were out on the public balcony where you can smoke. This dude comes out there, he looks twenty I guess and he is pretty heavy set, bigger than all of us, normal looking guy but sort of Fred Flintstone-ish. He was asking us what we were doing there and we were telling him we were on tour blah, blah, blah and that we had nothing to do for the day. So this guy is like “why don’t you come up to my room on the 17th floor and we’ll make some drinks” and we’re like “alright, whatever”. In the elevator he was telling us how he just won close to a million dollars on this settlement from Lucid technologies because they fired him for age discrimination, so he just sued them and won. We’re like “yeah whatever” taking it for whatever it’s worth… we get up there and there is this total white trash chick from like, a trailer in Alabama and this other tall dude and he is just flaming, just flaming out the ass, it was so obvious. They were all being pretty nice and he made us these drinks that were like blue and they glow in the daylight, we had no idea what was in them. So we’re sipping it pretty slowly and they are talking about how they are going to go to all these crazy places like “tonight we are going to go to Brazil” and all this traveling they were going to do. So the main dude is talking to the girl and he is like “why don’t you go get my money out of the room” so she comes back and she has $1000 dollars in her hand and he is like “who is the most open minded here out of all you guys?” and I’m like “well, that would probably be Jamie” just being retarded or whatever and he is like “come with me” so they go in this guy’s bedroom and it is in the back on the 17th floor, they were only gone for five minutes and they come back… the guy looks at me and is like “hey Jamie, you think Matt would be down with that too? You think Matt is as open minded as you are?” and Jamie is like “probably, but you’d have to ask him” so the guy says “come with me”, we go out on his balcony, it is like 17 floors up and I am pretty tripped out and he says “what wouldn’t you do for a lot of money?” and I was like “well, I wouldn’t kill anybody and I wouldn’t let anybody stick it in my ass” and he’s all “would you let me suck your dick?” and I’m thinking “if you’re going to pay me to suck my dick, FUCK YEAH! I’m poor, I am hungry, I’m on tour” so I’m all “okay lets get it on” he was all “okay but your friends have to leave”. I’m like, that’s kind of scary, but whatever. We go out to the other room and they leave and we go back in his room and he goes “take your clothes off and get on the bed”. So I’m taking my clothes off and I am just like “oh my god! This is really fucking happening!!” It was just too unreal… I lay on his bed and he is all “man, you’re hot… you got a big dick… don’t be nervous” and I’m like “as long as you’re nothing like Jeffery Dahmer, this will be alright”. So he starts fondling me and he is like “are you okay?” and I said “I just feel like I am in “My own Private Idaho” right now, but it’s cool, do what you gotta do and get it over with”. So he starts sucking me off and stuff and jerking me off… he was doing that for a while, I was getting hard and I had my eyes shut trying to think about anything else I possibly can, and there was a point where I might have been able to cum, but he was like “don’t cum, don’t cum dude!” and I was like (with his index finger pointing up then suddenly falling forward) “bloop” just totally limp. Then he starts eating my asshole out and all this other shit… but he like, flipped me over and I was all “oh no man, this guy’s bigger than me”… he kept rubbing his dick on me and rubbing it in my crack and stuff and I’m like “no dude!, I don’t want it in there” and he’s like “I won’t, I won’t, just relax·count to ten” and I’m all “no dude!, I’m not counting to anything! Just quit it!” So finally he is like “okay” so he wanted me to sit on his chest and jerk off in his mouth, so I’m like totally limp trying to jerk off in his mouth·he was like “can I cum on you?” I was like “hell no!” so he gets off me and he said he was going to give Jamie $200 but he was all “but you’re really fucking hot, so here’s $300… would you be interested in moving in with me? I’d pay you $1000 bucks a week to live with me, I’d pay all your band mates rent in Denver and you can drive my Lexus anywhere you want, we could go to any country you want… tour, travel, whatever you want”. I’m all “no thanks dude, I have got plenty of other plans with my life than to be your personal whore”. So I said thanks for the money… I went downstairs and got Jamie and told him it was his turn to go up there… (Jamie walks in from outside)

Jamie: So all our friends were gone, but right after he left to go up there, they came back and I didn’t want to tell them what he was doing because they would have tried to stop it just because they would have thought something bad was going to happen and I was like “no it isn’t, just fucking do it”. So I go up there and Matt told you about the two tweakers that were there right? Well they figured out what was going on with him so they got all sketched out by it… so the three of them all go into the bedroom to talk about it and I have no idea what’s going on. I’m just sitting in their living room by myself just like “I’m totally fucked” I thought they were going to come out and kill me or whatever, I thought something bad was going to happen. They came out and we had to talk about the situation and basically what it boiled down to was, I didn’t give a fuck. I think it’s hilarious, I need the money, I don’t know you, I don’t give a fuck. So we headed to the bedroom.

Matt: Meanwhile, I am in the bathroom wiping saliva and pre cum out of my ass.

Jamie: So as soon as I get in there, as soon as the door shuts he turns into instant flame. So I take off my clothes and he starts talking about how Matt has the biggest cock and just totally going off talking about how he is so in love with Matt. Basically, he does the same things to me in the same exact order that he did to Matt, he totally starts sucking my cock, fuckin’ eating out my asshole, rubbing his dick on me trying to put it in my ass. I’m sitting there getting nudged from behind gagging you know? He freaked out on both of us and was like “don’t cum! don’t cum!” so I basically went totally limp… there was nothing. So finally after all of this he was like “sit on my chest and jerk off in my mouth”. So I’m going at it and over on his nightstand is this big, huge marble ashtray. It was totally two separate situations but me and Matt both thought the same thing, like we could totally brain this guy and steal the whole $1000 dollars. But he was being cool, he did what he said he was going to do and he didn’t get forceful or anything so I was cool about it. He wanted to cum on me and I was like “no way, cum on your sock or whatever”. I didn’t understand… he must have been so into it because he came like twice in a row and I don’t know how the fuck he did it. Matt: He liked me a lot as it is, but if he couldn’t get in my ass, he was going to get in Jamie’s ass. Jamie: I think if either one of us let him get us in the ass he would have given us the whole $1000 or at least $500 or something. But what it boiled down to was that he told me that he gave Matt a tip, but he didn’t really tell me how much… so the original deal was $200 and he gave me $220, he really liked Matt but whatever. We made $520 dollars for about a half hours worth of work.

Matt: Before we even left they were all like “where’s Jamie?” so I was like “he’s having a drink with this dude, I’ll go get him”. I went up there and I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t want to knock on the door, finally I knocked and his friends let me in and they were all upset and the flaming guy was like “I wish we met under different circumstances, I would have hit on you and it would have been great.” I was like “thanks dude” so I grab Jamie and we get out of there.

Jamie: So we were cruising and we were keeping it to ourselves and nobody was saying shit. We pull out all this money, $500 and were like “hey guys, we made all this extra money for tour”. They look back and we had all this fat cash and they were like “what the fuck, where the hell is that from?!” So we unloaded the whole story on them and they were just rolling dude…

Gared: Before that we were in the parking lot loading up the van, skating around and I see this dude all Barney Rubble/Fred Flinstone like, just real stocky but young looking… he was like, yelling Matt’s name. Matt: I was on a skateboard and I just got the fuck out of there because I didn’t want anything to do with him. Jamie: I think what he was trying to do, since he was with his friends and they were all upset he was trying to make it look like he was going to get in touch with us again, so he asked for our number, and I totally could of given him a fake one, but I thought it was kinda funny so I gave him my real number. He never got in touch with us or anything like that.

Matt: So if anyone wants to give us money for anything, we’re total whores… we got a van.

Buddyhead: Were you guys like gagging the whole time?

Matt: No man, we were cracking up! We were freaking out because it was actually happening.

Jamie: I mean that is the kind of situation where you sit around with your friends and you’re like “dude, would you let someone suck your dick for $500?” and I was the kid who was always like, no way! But it actually came up and we were like “fuck yeah!”

Matt: Now we just fuck with our friends and Jamie will like, suck my dick in a room full of people… it’s fucking great! Especially around people you don’t know.

Jamie: We just don’t give a fuck dude.

Matt: He’ll totally suck my dick, hold my balls and rub all up on my shit… we don’t care.

Jamie: One time I was sitting in my room totally jamming out with headphones on, and he just comes in and sticks his dick in my mouth and I’m totally playing guitar sucking his cock and all these people are like “what the fuck?!” We just don’t care ya know? We’re friends, we gotta get past that shit… I mean, who better to be sucking your dick than your friends?

Introduction: Travis Keller

Interview: Sam Velde,  Travis Keller, Tom Apostolopoulos

Band photos: Travis Keller

Pleasure Forever are a modern day Rock N’ Roll band. This band does everything right as far as I’m concerned. They put on a great live show, they write great lyrics, make great artwork for their records (the best this year), have great attitude, great imagery, they’re really good people, and most importantly· great songs. Quite simply, they rock. Pleasure Forever are pure rock lust and they know it, as well as anyone does, how to rock the fuck out of you. They live for that sole purpose, to rock you. And with songs about drugs, orgies, and more drugs, you can’t really go wrong. Can you? We’re usually pretty bad at organizing interviews, but this one takes the cake. Never before have we blown it this bad. No, we didn’t forget to interview them, we actually interviewed Pleasure Forever twice, without even realizing it. First, Sam and Travis sat down with the band over some fine Mexican food in the City of Angels. Then a week later, Tom conducted his interview via email (cuz he didn’t want to drive his purple sports car to the west coast) from the East side of our fine nation. Both of the interviews were so good, (what other band is gonna talk about gay orgies with us?) we decided to combine them into one giant mesh of questions and answers. Hopefully after reading it you’ll realize that you simply need to get down with this sound.

Buddyhead: I’m sure you’ve been asked plenty questions about your past efforts: the VSS and Slaves, and I might want to get into that later, but I want to start off by getting the idea, concept, and explanation of your name, including the reason you changed your name from Slaves to present moniker Pleasure Forever.

Dave: The initial reason for calling the band Slaves was that I thought of it to be used as a side project band name during the time I was in the VSS. It was based on the concept as an artist you’re trying to control all the aspects of the environment that you’re in. You’re creating something that’s coming from all over the room and everyone in the audience are Slaves to it!

Buddyhead: Why would they be Slaves to it?

Dave: Well, you are controlling the way people react to what you are doing. You’re attempting to do that and hoping they’re going to respond in a certain way. It’s a cynical thought. We ended up taking that name after the VSS split because it had a lot of connotations and could be an interesting concept… but we never felt like it really fit. It seemed limited and the connotations seemed to be missed. People sort of took it as the band was called “The Slaves,” it seemed banal and ridiculous.

Andy: Yeah, the VSS would be on tour and we would try to evoke some sort of passion upon people, which is a very hard thing to do, something very difficult to pull out of an audience, instead of just standing there or bobbing their heads. So the name is also a reaction to that obstacle, to the difficulties of that.

Dave: Someone recently said “Wow! It’s such a big jump to go from Slaves to Pleasure Forever.” They were suggesting that was somehow a huge dichotomy, but both names are about paradox, so the idea of Pleasure Forever is something that is Utopian and not a possible kind of ‘thing’, but that’s the poetry of human will. That people want to live life to the fullest and we never really can. That’s beautiful to me, the tragedy.

Andy: Tears of a clown!

Dave: That’s all part of our ‘thing’. Andy’s lyrics tend to lean towards that idea. Plus it sounds like a ‘bumper sticker’ of sorts. A declaration, a slogan if you will!

Buddyhead: It reminds me of a graveyard in here in Los Angeles called “Hollywood Forever” with the infinity symbol underneath it.

Josh: Yeah, we took pictures there.

Andy: For me when we finished the record it just didn’t seem like a SLAVES record. It had similar things happening, but it felt new.

Josh: We had been talking about changing the name for the last year and the opportunity hadn’t arisen.

Andy: It got old having to explain this concept of “slavery.” A lot of people took it too literally.

Josh: Now no one sticks a “The” in front of PLEASURE FOREVER.

Buddyhead: Weren’t there some legal reasons to the name change as well? Didn’t Sub Pop want you to change, because there was some other band that already owned the name?

Dave: Yeah, there was some punk band from Los Angeles called “The Slaves.” And other bands were using it too. Realizing that, it just seemed prosaic. We figured it was high time to come up with something better.

Buddyhead: You don’t have a bass player live, is there a reason for that?

Dave: Andy played bass on a couple of songs. We have the little notations of who did what in the cd booklet with the lyrics. So everyone can follow along with the home game. We just have never been able to find the right person for the job, and Andy plays great bass lines on his keyboard. However, I would really like to have a bass player, because it helps the drummer out so much. I don’t think it’s as much of a concern to the other guys as it is for me. Ideally, I’d like to have Martin from Sunshine play with us. He’s fits our program to a ‘T’.

Buddyhead: There seemed to be a dormant time for you guys. From the last Slaves EP to the Pleasure Forever LP, and in that time there is a real evident growth in sound and song writing. The name change seems to fit that time period perfectly. Slave to infinite pleasure!

Josh: A lot of it was timing. We didn’t live in the same city for the first two Slaves records. The first one we recorded in our practice space to be used as a demo, but we ended up putting out 4 of the songs. The second one we sort of wrote and recorded that one in about a week. They were experiments so to speak. With the new record we were able to write a bunch of songs and play them for a long time. Half the songs we’ve been playing on tour for the last two or three years. We’ve finally had a chance to get in the studio and take our time. Well, relatively speaking compared to the other records.

Buddyhead: What made you want to record with Tim Green, other than he’s your friend?

Dave: He has a good knack for what he’s doing, his rates are cheap, and he’s really easy to work with. That’s our main reason. He has input, but he’s not a producer or anything like that. He knows where we’re coming from.

Josh: He pulls really good performances out of us.

Andy: He doesn’t let us get away with some bullshit! If it’s not up to par he can tell and that definitely helps. And he isn’t too heavy handed either, and on top of that he has great ideas. I’m a big fan of his music anyway. He played on our record too.

Buddyhead: Did he have a lot of input on the new songs on the album? Arrangements, that sort of thing?

Andy: From an engineering standpoint, yes. But, we arranged everything.

Josh: A lot of his suggestions pertained mostly to vocals and over-dubbing stuff. We would go through the song, he would critique the performance. When we would do extra stuff, we were generally improvising or we would have an idea of what we wanted to do and he’d say ‘that sounds good” or “maybe you should do something else”. It’s like having an outsider there that knows where you are coming from and can give you helpful suggestions.

Buddyhead: And he’s a fan and friend right? So he knew exactly what was happening. Haven’t you toured with The Champs before?

Dave: Yeah, we’ve done some shows with em. We’re talking about doing some shows with em in Europe for the first part of our tour over there. They’re great, even if our music is different.

Josh: But I think they’re on the same wave length with what were doing. We’re both drawing from all these influences of these bands we’re really into and making music that we like out of it. We both sound very different, but we’re both coming from the same place.

Buddyhead: Everything from the artwork on the record to the name to the quotes inside the record: speaking of orgies and what not: are suggesting something. What’s the word from the horses mouth on that?

Dave: Well, I didn’t actually formulate any explanation for the cover until just recently. I started to notice records, artwork, etc. that seemed to have more of a conceptual feeling. There’s an architecture to the design. There’s certain records I appreciate on different levels than other things where the cover art is in a room. The main thing I was thinking about was that there are plenty of records throughout history that have been interesting to me at a concept level where the songs are all about a time period, a mood, etc. The artwork creates this architecture around the music and there’s something about having the ‘depth of field’ on a record where you can see an image and there’s activity and it’s occurring in a space that becomes interesting. There’s lots of older records that have been interesting on those terms to me. What we were going for, with the artwork, was to evoke baccanalia. To have those kinds of ideas explaining what’s going on with the music: themes and what not. Giving something odd and unusual to invited people to spend time looking at it and think about it. When I was growing up, I was really into staring at the cover of a record while listening to it, and try to find stuff that was going on there.

Andy: “Hotel California” a classic!

Buddyhead: Subhumans “The Day The Country Died”, I used to stare at that for days!

Dave: There’s lots of records that are so much fun to look at. As far as what I wanted to do was create something that had a lot going on and had interesting things happening.

Josh: We also wanted to do something that was over the top! Something bigger than ourselves. Bigger than a band in our position, with our budget could possibly do. Just make the best record cover we could. Regardless what it cost… which goes with the music. There are limitations with time and money but we pushed it as far as it could go.

Andy: The quotes reflect the lyrical themes of reaching for decadence and the sides of the coin: both sides of the coin in reaching for decadence. A lot of it is things I noticed around me. What people were doing around me. Very 20′s like behavior. But seeing the 30′s looming… in a historical perspective. Just knowing there’s going to be a crash… and that people can’t substantiate themselves on dust for too long, before it gets out of control. But at the same time not looking down at people who are reaching for decadence. You know what I mean? Almost just being a part of that process in some ways, and exploring those things.

Buddyhead: We’ve known each other for some time and I remember you speaking of the lyrical content of observing San Francisco, your friends, and the group household you live in.

Josh: In a way the music, the cover, all of it, are a celebration of all that. Even though it’s “dangerous.”

Dave: That’s what we do or try to do or find interesting is the ‘teetering’ of all that! Like a glass teetering at the edge of a table… is it going to stay or fall??

Andy: But it’s not interesting when people fall into “the abyss!”. The longer people teeter on the precipice, the more inspirational they are to our band! And even trying to evoke that type of behavior in my life… pushing it but not pushing it to the point where·

Buddyhead: So are you voyeurs?

Andy: Not me. Some of the themes on the record are definitely autobiographical. Observing my own behavior while participating at the same time. A lot of times in a heavy, heady situation… like “okay, what am I doing?” watching myself interact with people. Being able separate out more.

Buddyhead: You want to get specific?

Andy: No, any kind of excessive activity.

Buddyhead: Like what? Lets make things interesting here. Let’s talk about it!

Andy: Like doing drugs, conversations, sex, you know?

Buddyhead: Yeah I know, but not everyone else knows. Explain.

Andy: Just pushing the boundaries.

Buddyhead: You’re talking about some of the themes, lyrics, etc. being autobiographical? Let’s hear about it!

Andy: Well like the song “Bullets” is about me doing drugs and knowing that there had to be a point where it was getting out of hand. The song “Tomorrow Forever” is about my best friend who I’ve observed over the years getting wrapped up in drugs. “Goodnight” is about sexual boundaries, sexual limits, falling in love and wanting to fuck for hours on end! And seeking out people you know? I like to fuck you know. I think that should be expressed in music. I’m sick of bands that deny sexuality. Also trying to be as colorful and creative with it. San Francisco really fosters sexual creativity. It’s a very sexually creative town. That was a big influence on my thoughts, actions, writings and observations.

Buddyhead: It’s good to hear sexual music in a “scene” where many of our peers and contemporaries, have come from or evolved from so to speak… so much of it is so shallow, superficial, retro, and boring. Not much of it has a sexual feel or appeal to it. To me music like jazz and rock n’ roll is sexual music. Not just music that effects a person from the waist up, but from the feet up! The whole body. That’s what I get from Pleasure Forever music· from and for the libido and beyond!

Dave: Jerry Lee Lewis! Elvis Presley!

Josh: For us it’s about art. Music as art. I would consider us artists. A lot of bands are like “hey lets start a band because you know we wanna play songs!” for us it’s an extension of all of us coming together, it’s an emotional thing.

Andy: And conversely a lot of artists don’t consider music to be art and I think that’s bullshit! And I think that there’s so many people in fucking art schools who have so much pretentious crap crammed into their heads over the years that they’re limited. People who go to art school go to be taught how to be fucking creative. If you don’t have it you’ll never have it, trust me!

Buddyhead: I couldn’t agree with you 100% more.

Dave: It’s really interesting, it’s really neat there’s a reaction to our record and our band that people say that its “sensual” music. Cuz I don’t know if we think about it, but a lot of reviews and people have been saying there’s a “sex theme” happening. I don’t know if that’s cuz of the artwork, or lyrics or what. It seems as if one of those weird things, cuz you can’t deliberately do that. It just comes out of what we do which is why the name is appropriate much more so than Slaves.

Andy: I think it’s something that naturally comes from us. I don’t think it’s like “let’s make a sex band or whatever.” I’ve played shows that were visceral and not very sexual and people are like “that was so sexual” or like “you guys are so sexual” maybe that’s just us.

Buddyhead: You’re talking about being a sexual person and your art being an extension of yourself… so it makes sense that people would get that out of your music!

Dave: My art is pornography. Haha. People are masturbating on my bread and butter!

Andy: I hope. I hope someone does masturbate to our record!

Buddyhead: Getting back to the “sex thing” have any of you guys ever been in an orgy?

Dave: Been in one? No. I’ve always wanted to be. That’s another thing, for me growing up in the 70′s and observing that kind of culture was very interesting cuz I’ve always thought how amazing it was. I’m a product of the tail end of the “sexual revolution”. I guess more like the beginning of it and then growing up through all that and those times. It seems as if you’d lose a sense of things. There’s a lot of ego involved in sex, where people need to be expressing themselves and considering themselves as something that’s going on. So an orgy setting is pretty strange to be in because you’re not one of two, you are in this big deal. It seems like an interesting challenge. I’ve always been into the idea of possibly transcending yourself and where you are…

Andy: Transcending your boundaries.

Dave: That was the thing with the VSS that we were working on. The beginning of that. Realizing that we could try and do something that was an out of yourself experience. Getting into those trance moments. That was one of the first things we focused on with Slaves. Songs that had more repetition to them and trance like elements, droning, etc. I think we’ve honed things a bit and worked on other angles of interesting matter. So anyway, as far as an orgy, it’s an interesting concept but I’m sure a lot of people like to talk about it but…

Josh: It seems really contrived!

Andy: I’ve had an impromptu orgy of the fact that more than 2 people having sex in the same room at the same time and it was not that big of deal really.

Dave: It’s like junior high.

Andy: Seriously, junior high school sex is totally orgiastic! Cuz you and your friend would be fucking girls in some room, some where… Dave: In a car.

Buddyhead: No, we’re talking about sharing the sexual pleasure with more than one person at the same time. No “square pegs” shit!

Andy: But there would be swapping… swapping out!

Josh: But it used to be more a part of culture. Something that happened. Now it seems like a lot of the people that are really interested in it are goofballs.

Andy: That is such a goofy fetish scene. It’s bullshit. There is a place in San Francisco called “The Powerhouse” where you can watch people fuck. And people go there to fuck in front of people.

Dave: That’s all the people working in cubicle jobs and things. Boring people searching for outside things to make their lives interesting.

Josh: I think if it happened or it just “popped up” it would be fun. But to try and put it together when its not a thing that goes on would be kinda dumb.

Andy: Impromptu is definitely more interesting, more natural.

Josh: Cuz you know once you’re having sex you can get into a lot of stuff you know? Haha. Once things get going you can be talked into shit. But to like plan on it ahead of time is bullshit. It’s more about the moment.

Buddyhead: We weren’t talking about planning it! We were talking about if you’ve ever been involved in an orgy or orgies?????

Andy: There needs to be a distinction made between contrived things and things occurring naturally as well. And for me that’s an important thing. Spontaneity. That’s what makes it exciting.

Buddyhead: Speaking of spontaneity, how do you guys write your songs? Are they taken out of “jamming”?

Andy: I get a lot of ideas when I’m having sex. No, I do only spontaneous sex.

Buddyhead: So sex acts as a muse? So when you’re “gettin humpy” you come up with ideas and parts for songs? Haha! “Stay right there… I got a really good idea for a bass part… No wait don’t move”… Haha!

Andy: Sometimes when you’re laying there and you’ve just had sex, your thoughts are really… it’s like crowley… the method of divination through tantric sex.

Buddyhead: So she’s like “what are you thinking about” and you reply “a guitar part baby”?

Andy: I get a lot of ideas like melodies and parts in my head and I’ve trained myself to remember them so that when I do have a chance to actually make the song happen I can do it. But that is definitely a time when ideas flow forth for me.

Buddyhead: I know for me that after sex there’s always a moment of clarity that invites thought.

Andy: Yeah, it’s that opening of a window for even a minute. It’s clear and easy, more than taking drugs , more than anything for me.

Buddyhead: Do you guys collaborate on songs or is there a main writer? What are the nuts and bolts of the process?

Josh: We all sort of write our own parts. We all bring in ideas. Sometimes we start jamming and things will come out that we like. Or we’ll work something in that we wrote while jamming. It just sort of works organically. There’s some songs that Andy has come in with that are worked out completely.

Dave: We work on all those things for a while. It takes a long time to write songs for us.

Josh: We all get pretty involved in all the aspects of writing the songs.

Andy: A lot of marination. Like the song “Bullets” is one of the first songs we had written and it’s just coming out now.

Josh: This is the third time we have recorded it.

Andy: We are constantly reworking things.

Buddyhead: Do you think Sonic Youth influenced your playing in bands like the VSS and Pleasure Forever, that are a bit non-conventional?

Josh: Definitely. Sonic Youth introduced me to tuning the guitar different from the standard tuning. I don’t currently, but on one Slaves tour I tuned with my guitar in some made up tuning of mine: lot’s of double strings tuned to the same note a la Sonic Youth. They are also really into the percussive sounds you can get out of guitars, and I’m into that.

Buddyhead: It seems when most people hear Pleasure Forever, they hear obscure rock bands from Germany or some shit, I hear the Doors… now the Doors did some crazy shit in their day, do you have anything that you guys have done that can stand up to Morrison and Co.?

Josh: One time in Denver, I got so drunk I passed out before the show and they had to wake me up. I could barely stand up and couldn’t play any songs. Dave screamed at me from behind the drum set. I lifted my effects pedals up by the cord and couldn’t figure out what they were. I turned my amp on and off and continually unplugged myself. Someone thought it was performance art.

Buddyhead: What about as far as ethics and attitude, even on a mainstream level, Sonic Youth has always done things very much the way they wanted to. What affect did seeing that at an early stage have on you?

Josh: I feel I can relate to them, the way they operate, and I’m not necessarily into a lot of their records and projects now. I don’t know if I’ve consciously or subconsciously drawn from their attitudes and actions to form my own, but I see them as smart people and artists operating in a context and an industry that’s not necessarily filled with the brightest bulbs, and they are using that to their advantage: aligning themselves with similarly-minded people and working within the mainstream to put out an alternative product. It’s awesome.

Buddyhead: This question is a little off the subject, but how did the Sub Pop ep/single come about? Was that recorded at the same time as the album?

Josh: The same time as the LP. It was a way to release a single and alert people of the name change before we went on tour. Something to sell on tour too. It’s a limited ep. We went on tour and sometimes we were slated as Slaves and sometimes Pleasure Forever. We just wanted something to get people in tune with what we were up to now. So when the record came out people weren’t “who is Pleasure Forever?”

Buddyhead: I got a question for you Dave. You were formerly a guitar player before the VSS correct?

Dave: Yes.

Buddyhead: How long had you been playing before joining the VSS? When did you start playing drums? When you joined the VSS or years before? Clarify.

Dave: About a week maybe? In this practice space that I had been using, just playing with some people, before there was a drum set and I’d just go and play. That’s how I knew Andy was so good, because he’d come and played with us a few times. We’d just make up stuff. Switch instruments. I thought that playing the drums was really fun and guitar had gotten boring for me. I’d played for about 10 years and it just wasn’t the right release.

Josh: Dave didn’t even have a drum set until we started the VSS.

Dave: Yeah, I just went out and bought one that week. Angel Hair broke up cuz the drummer had moved and then we were all talking and said “Lets start a new band”. It needed a drummer and I said “I’ll do it!”. It’s been a learning process and I’m really glad that everyone has been patient with that too. It’s a pretty hard thing to learn.

Buddyhead: All the lyrical content, is that just you Andy?

Andy: Yes. Pretty much.

Buddyhead: Rock superstardom, as in MTV, and Volkswagen commercials… do you think that the mainstream public could “get” a band like yours?

Josh: Well, I’ve thought about this. I believe the only way we can get huge is by a shift in the public consciousness: someone just needs to decide that hey, this is the kind of music to listen to. I know we’re a good band and that we have a good record, but that’s just not what it’s about at the superstardom level. But really, my future plan for the band is a new great record, a long-form video, lots of touring. Keep on keepin’ on.

Buddyhead: What’s next for you guys. Tour, tour, tour?

Dave: Two months in the US. 2 months in Europe. Then hopefully Japan, Australia and if Paul Drake gets his way, South America… and everywhere else he wants to go, hahahaha. It’s really great he’s so into us. We’ve known him for a long time. He toured with the VSS, we know him from Colorado. He used to put on shows there, etc. really cool guy. He’s just like “I wanna go here and here and here”… it’s funny.

Josh: He’s really taken us under his wing.

Dave: He’s working on shows in Russia, Poland, Iceland, you name it.

Josh: We’ve always gotten along with him and he really likes the record. So it’s great for us. And he does a really good job!

Dave: Oh and we’re gonna play with Bluebird this fall in San Francisco.

Buddyhead: I like to close interviews with this question because I loved reading interviews when I was younger and bands would tell what other bands they liked, current or older. What have you guys been listening to lately?

Josh: Queens of the Stone Age.

Andy: Aphex Twin. I finally broke down. I resisted electronic music for years. It’s everywhere in San Francisco and it’s so in your face.

Dave: I like the White Stripes.

Josh: Yeah the new record is really good.

Dave: They’re hitting a saturation point though.

Josh: We’ve been listening to a lot of Mark Lanegan in the van. The last Primal Scream record. I’ve been dropping a lot of money on music lately.

Dave: There is always Flipper and Black Flag too.

Buddyhead: Any bands on tour you’ve seen and liked a lot?

Josh: Love Life.

Andy: Soiled Doves. They used to be the Vogue from Seattle.

Dave: Hey I found a book called “soiled doves”. I figured it out.

Josh: Yeah it was an “old west” term for hookers.

Dave: 16 horsepower.

Buddyhead: Another last question… what’s your take on the internet?

Andy: I use it for half an hour a day at the library. I limit my time on it! I use it for email· get in touch with people, and internet pornography!

Josh: I’ve seen people printing pornography at the library.

Andy: I’m pretty loose about it.

Dave: The best thing is when people make fun of the internet. They make fun of technology. It’s pretty stupid.

Andy: There’s a weird backlash happening. People that want to remain antiquated.

Josh: It’s a tool, use it for whatever works.

Andy: What do we think about Buddyhead being an online mag? It’s good. You can reach more people and save more resources. Like with magazines. I don’t keep them around.

Dave: It’s interesting because it’s a medium that hasn’t found it sole purpose. People always think with new media it’s gonna be one thing, but it doesn’t usually end up that way. People thought television was going to be the home education device. Obviously it didn’t’ fulfill that promise. As far as the internet is concerned, it’s main use is for immediate communication… to talk to people and for people to leave their own mark. That’s why web boards are really useful· even though it’s a narcissistic avenue.

Josh: It’s screwed because we live in San Francisco, a huge city. It’s different if you live in the middle of nowhere. We have more direct options.

Buddyhead: Ok, real last question… what’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever done… and don’t say this interview… because I’m not hammered anymore.

Josh: Say to a Mormon, “Like those crazy Mormons!”

Buddyhead: Did the Mormon get pissed?

Josh: He said, “I’m a Mormon,” and I said, “Sure, right.”

Buddyhead: Did the Mormon kick your ass?

Josh: Are you kidding? Have you seen me? I’m six-foot-three and weigh two hundred pounds. Plus it was during class in ninth-grade English.

Buddyhead: Yeah, but Mormons travel in packs don’t they? Like, if you’re a Mormon Father, you have like 14 wives right?· and probably another 29 kids… so that’s a lot of people. That’s a couple of football teams of Mormons ready to kick your ass… Am I thinking of someone other than mormons?

Josh: I don’t know anything about the Mormons. And, yes you are, you’re thinking about Mormons.

Buddyhead: OK, that’s a nice way to end it I think.

Josh: Tell that to the Mormons.

Buddyhead: I still think they’d kick your ass, there are just too many of them.

In late 1997, Sweden’s REFUSED recorded one of the most defining and influetial punk/hardcore records of the decade. Without warning, the group disbanded soon after the record’s release. Many questions were left unanswered. Buddyhead was able to track down Kristofer Steen, who played guitar in the band. Kristofer currently resides in Orange County while he attends film school. We didn’t leave him alone until all of our questions were answered and more. Interview by Aaron Icarus and Travis Keller.

buddyhead: when did the band break up officially? weren’t you here in the u.s.?

kristofer: we were on tour here with frodus. we broke up for good in atlanta. our other guitar player, jon, decided he couldn’t handle touring anymore. so we had this huge fight and ended it.

buddyhead: some people assumed you guys had it planned beforehand that you were going to break up when you did. is that accurate?

kristofer: haha. that’s kind of a rumor. i don’t want mr. brett to come and beat me up haha.

buddyhead: nobody at epitaph was mad you guys broke up or anything were they?

kristofer: naw, i met brett (owner of epitaph) while my friends band, milencolin, was recording their record in hollywood with him. i talked to him briefly and he was just excited to finally meet a member of refused. he said something about how we were like operation ivy how we just put out 1 record and then broke up, and i was like ehhhhhhh yeah.

buddyhead: hahaha. you mean you have never even been over to epitaph?

kristofer: no. i called over there once to get somebody from milencolin’s phone number and they were like, “who are you” and i was like, oh i think you guys put out one of my band’s albums, ya-know refused? and they were like “what!” i don’t think they knew we actually existed. haha.

buddyhead: yeah it’s really funny how nobody over there seems to know anything about you guys except that they put out your record and they have a video of you guys goin crazy.

kristofer: haha, i think it’s better that way. we’re just kind of a mystery. isn’t that better?

buddyhead: yeah perhaps. i bet half the people at epitaph don’t even know you guys broke up. but seriously, you guys didn’t know when you were going to break up?

kristofer: haha, i better talk to my lawyer before i answer that. no, when we left for that last tour of the u.s., we knew it was going to happen at some point. after the u.s. we wanted to do europe and maybe a couple of tours at the beginning of this year. but we had to break up at some point so whatever.

buddyhead: did you guys not get along anymore?

kristofer: it was nothing unusual. just 4 guys that were beginning to not stand each other anymore. there was basically a big rift between the singer and the whole band. we actually recorded a whole other album without the vocalist. it’s being mixed at the moment. i don’t know if it’s going to be called a refused album or something else. we recorded it right before the american tour.

buddyhead: does it sound like “shape”?

kristofer: no. no. haha.

buddyhead: what does it sound like?

kristofer: haha. well everybody kinda did their own thing. david (the drummer) did a long dub and reggae epic. it was like 15 minutes long. hehe. it has like a gospel choir with it. jon (guitarist/samplist) did like a 45 minute long dub song with his friend who does a lecture on torture over it. it’s funny. i’m not exactly sure it’s even any good.

buddyhead: what did you do?

kristofer: well i had a really ambitious idea. i recorded 4 separate parts, but could never figure out how to combine them. haha. they ended up editing it and i have no idea what it sounds like.

buddyhead: so there’e no singer or anything on it?

kristofer: well david sings. other than that it’s mostly instrumental. i wanted to do like a cheesy r&b acapella thing, but like in a brutal, screamy hardcore style.

buddyhead: do you know what label that’s going to be on?

kristofer: probably on a small label in sweden. we let labels hear it, and they were like “no” hahahaha. it’s just too far out there.

buddyhead: so you guys were always shown as a 4 piece band in all your pictures, videos and on the last album. you never seemed to have a permanent bass player. why was that?

kristofer: well magnus played bass for refused from the beginning on like everything. he played bass on “shape” too but he is just such a lazy bastard he didn’t want to tour. on “shape” i had to play all the bass parts he didn’t learn.

buddyhead: yeah like on the video for new noise, the first thing i noticed was that there was no bass player in the video. you guys were a 4 piece.

kristofer: yeah we were just like “fuck the bass player” that was always such an issue. we had like a team of bass players. like 10 people. we would just call one up and tell them we needed one for a show or something. we knew we were never going to find one we liked. so for the video we were just like “let’s not have a bass player!” it looks better anyway. haha. we auditioned don devore from ink and dagger to play bass. that was in like january of 98 right after we finished the album. he convinced us he was the right man for the job. in his own words he said “i got what you need” so he flew out to sweden. i thought he was a pretty cool guy, i’m sure he still is. it just didn’t work out.

buddyhead: why didn’t magnus just commit to the band?

kristofer: he’s strange. i remember when we were on tour with earth crisis and snapcase in europe, he would like disappear into the woods writing poetry and we would be like, “where the fuck is he we need to soundcheck!” he’s a

really cool guy though. he’s in a band called cobolt.

buddyhead: oh yeah i have one of their 7″s. it’s a split with kevlar.

kristofer: yeah. wow, i’m surprised you’ve heard of that.

buddyhead: so you joined the band right before the “everlasting” e.p. right?

kristofer: yeah, just before in like 94.

buddyhead: who was in refused then?

kristofer: god, nobody knew who was in the band at the time. there was a couple of guys who got kicked out at the same time. it would be like a guy who got his first girlfriend or something at the time. you know how that works. same old story.

buddyhead: it seemed like every refused release was totally different and you guys constantly evolved. where do you think the musical progression came from?

kristofer: we were just really ambitious. we really listen to a lot of music. i mean we are really respectful towards music history and stuff like that. i mean respectful and disrespectful at the same time.

buddyhead: i mean you go from “songs to fan…” to “shape” and it’s totally different. was there a transitional period in between? did you know how different you wanted “shape” to be?

kristofer: we wanted it to be really eclectic. i remember the moment we knew things had to change. it was the end of 96. it was like the last show of tour. we were supporting milencolin and it was really good. then the last 2 weeks we toured by ourselves with this funk/metal band called mindjive. it was like winter in germany and we were so miserable. everyone hated it. we like never wanted to be on tour again. we just had to do something different. then the first song we wrote was “new noise” it kind of went from there. nobody even liked it at first. i was kind of bummed cuz i wrote most of the song.

buddyhead: who did the programming on the record?

kristofer: the other guitar player, jon. he didn’t even really do much guitar playing on the album, he just did all that stuff. that is what he does full time nowadays. he is really, really talented. he was pretty good then, but he was just starting out. i mean he’s incredible now. he’s become a really great dj.

buddyhead: so nobody had any objections to him doing his thing on the record?

kristofer: no everybody was totally into it.

buddyhead: how did you mix those elements into the songs themselves?

kristofer: i remember he’d just hear space in the songs and be like, “we gotta put something in there” we were supposed to record the whole album in 3 weeks, but it took us 6. dennis took a lot of time because he couldn’t sing in time. we had to cut every single word with a computer and put it in time.

buddyhead: oh with like pro tools?

kristofer: yeah. like every single word was manipulated. it’s so common too. like every hardcore band does it that way. i mean dennis is a punk guy and just couldn’t deal with it. he was just all over the place.

buddyhead: haha. was there a backlash from like hardcore kids who didn’t think the band was very hardcore anymore?

kristofer: not really. that whole hardcore scene had kind of diminished anyway.

buddyhead: after you finished the album, how did the video come about?

kristofer: a friend of ours shot it. burning heart gave us like 15,000 dollars to do it. that’s kind of standard. it looks good. it’s cut with the music really well. it was shot on 16milimeter. it was just good because it captured how we were live.

buddyhead: where was it shot?

kristofer: at a big studio complex outside of stockholm where most of the major swedish movies are shot.

buddyhead: where did you get that wall of marshall stacks to put in the video?

kristofer: this one long haired guy owned all of them. one day of filming we were just screwing around running all over the place and i just tackled the marshall wall and it just fell apart. and there were heads on top of the cabinets too and i was just like “shit!”

buddyhead: hahahahaha. was it weird to you guys when epitaph bought 51 percent of burning heart so your record would basically be on epitaph?

kristofer: not really. i mean they were still an independent label. they run their shit right not like victory records or anything.

buddyhead: victory didn’t pay you guys or something for “songs to fan…”?

kristofer: not a fucking dime. fuck those bastards. tony brummel wanted to do “shape” as well. the rumor though was that he heard it and thought it sucked so he didn’t want to do it. but we wouldn’t have done it with them anyway.

buddyhead: what about equal vision? did they pay you for “everlasting”?

kristofer: not a penny. having a record on epitaph is such a relief in knowing that you’re atleast going to get paid what you deserve. i mean, we were just kids playing hardcore getting screwed up our ass.

buddyhead: how old are all you guys?

kristofer: well i’m not a kid anymore. i’m 25. dennis is 27. david is 24. jon is 22. that’s the thing with hardcore is it’s such a youth thing. we didn’t want to grow old playing this kind of stuff.

buddyhead: what bands did you like when you were younger that still are relevant to you today?

kristofer: born against is really good. anything that is provocative. i still like the misfits too…

buddyhead: so where was the last show?

kristofer: we played our last show in virginia in this kids basement.

buddyhead: where did everyone go after that last show?

kristofer: dennis went home to start another band in like 2 weeks. literally. i came here to work, well work is not the proper word, more like destroyed revelation records due to my complete incompetence. haha. me and david both actually. jon went home too. that was a fucked situation as well. jon went home and all his equipment was lost. we’re talkin like 3 thousand bucks of guitar equipment. and you know how the airlines pay you if they lose your stuff?

buddyhead: oh yeah, you get paid by the weight.

kristofer: yeah, and it didn’t weigh shit cuz it’s just like wood. so they gave him like 200 bucks. he could have had a bag of bricks and gotten more money.

buddyhead: ohhhhh man.

kristofer: yeah, then when he got home he got dumped by his girlfriend. haha.

buddyhead: so what did dennis start when he got back?

kristofer: he started 2 things. his solo thing with an acoustic guitar. he’s recording an album of that right now. then the international noise conspiracy which is kinda retro. they actually toured china.

buddyhead: i heard about that. so after you did the album you recorded a couple of songs for that 4 song e.p. right?

kristofer: yeah, one song was on the e.p. the other song was on a burning heart compilation. it’s the most ridiculous song you’ve ever heard. it’s an old leftover riff from “songs to fan…” hahaha. like a slayer rip off riff. it was really really bad. and the lyrics dennis wrote were about how everyone in the band started drinking. everyone but him that is. the lyrics were somewhere along the lines of, “this has turned into a one man crusade… blah blah blah”

buddyhead: so dennis still doesn’t drink or do anything?

kristofer: fuck no, he would never do that.

buddyhead: so there aren’t any other songs that were never released?

kristofer: we had this one song based on this depeche mode riff or something. it was the most abominable thing.

buddyhead: do you feel like you guys are missing out when people say how your last record is one of the most defining hardcore/punk records of the 90′s and you aren’t around to benefit from it’s success because the band is no more?

kristofer: no. i think it was the best thing that could happen. in reality, people don’t want you to continue. you should quit on top.

buddyhead: have you guys ever thought of getting it back together?

kristofer: yeah. with dennis i don’t know about. i don’t really talk to him anymore. i talk to the other guys, but not with dennis. we don’t really have anything in common.

buddyhead: so what are you up to lately?

kristofer: i’m just going to school out here and then i want to make movies. i’ll probably move back to sweden next year. i don’t like garden grove. it’s a cesspool. haha.

After a few weeks of playing phone tag with some record company big-wigs at Maverick, and waiting for the band to return from their short trip to Japan, we managed to finally catch up with the Rentals’ indescribable Matt Sharp. As I drove out of Hollywood and up the hill into Laurel Canyon (which is only a few blocks north of Sunset Blvd.), I noticed how secluded it was up there. No wonder everyone wants to live here. It’s only a short distance from the hustle and bustle known as Hollywood, yet you can barely hear the traffic through the trees. I felt like I was at some mountain resort as I sat down with Matt over some orange juice at the “country market,” where we discussed Japanese freak outs, fights with Weezer, and the new Rentals record.

Buddyhead: What do you think inspired the evolution of the Rentals from the first record, which gives off one basic vibe, to “seven more minutes” which, is very much eclectic and diverse?

Matt Sharp: I think the main difference between the two records is that we let the songs go wherever they wanted to go on the new record ["seven more minutes"]. We didn’t put up any borders or restrictions like we did on the first record. If one song wanted to be a country song, we let it be a country song. If one song wanted to be really new-wave song, or even a more aggressive song, or whatever, we let to it go wherever it wanted to go. So it wasn’t like we had to fit all these songs into one mold or the exact same format of production.

BH: The lyrics on the new record seem to tell a story. They read much like a personal journal, do they reflect what your experiences were during that time?

MS: Some of the songs are right on. It depends on the song I guess. A lot of them were written truly in the moment of when things were going on. I would just write whenever I thought about it. In a club, in a taxi, in a bathroom, wherever. I had a tape recorder with me most of the time, so I’d just record the ideas and not get back to them for months and months. And I was never thinking, “oh, I’ll make something nice from this”. More like “oh cool here is an idea. And here’s another one”, and just letting it flow, just not editing yourself.

BH: What was the time frame that this record was recorded in? When did it start or was there even a definite start?

MS: I dunno. It’s hard to say. It started somewhere on our last tour for the first record, while we were in europe. we started writing it then and it ended about a year ago.

BH: The look and the imagery of this “newer Rentals”, I guess you could call it that, is much more relaxed and positive. The suits are gone, and this is much more of a free-spirited look to it and the sound of it is a little loser, more of a good time record. Was the change a conscious effort?

MS: The photos in the record were taken at the same time I was writing the record. I don’t think we tried to conjure up specific image. What came out was just kind of what was happening at the time. It’s pretty straight up honest I think all the way around. The photos were taken at the places that the songs are about and of the people that the songs are influenced by. My friends and their positive impact on the record. I think it’s definitely a bit looser, but at the same time there is a much more honest approach to the whole record. I am just trying to get to that place, that’s why I recorded it while we were moving from place to place, in the room with whoever that the songs are about. I tried to cut through the bullshit to get to what it’s really all about.

BH: How did the song “we have a technical” with Damon from Blur come about?

MS: That was a long time ago. While we were doing the Weezer shows in europe for the first record, we used to open the shows with an instrumental gary newman song. And this guy who put the compilation together was at one of the shows and he asked me about it. He later became a fan of the Rentals and asked me if we’d do it. The Rentals couldn’t do it because everyone was split up all over the place. So while I was in england, I called damon to see if he would come down and do it with me. We’re old friends from tour.

BH: You’ve stated before that the Rentals aren’t a traditional type of band, as far as members. This record has quite a few “guests” appearing on it, how did that come about? Did it just fall into place or did you seek some of the musicians out? Like “hey I want to work with this guy…”

MS: Not really. It’s all very random. The record was written and photographed in the same way, which is sort doing a whole bunch of ideas, and later going through it and picking out what seems to hit the mark the most. I took a shit load of photos and recorded and wrote a bunch of ideas. Later I went back and sifted through it all and tried to see what ideas kinda gravitated toward each other. The singers were people that just happened to be around or I was sleeping on their couches or they were in the studio next door to us or people we ran into while we were walking the streets in London. We didn’t go to London to do any of those collaborations, but its cool cuz it turned out to me much better than the record was originally written, with all the energy from the people that were around the record.

BH: What did you want your listeners to get out of this record? And what does it mean to you?

MS: We just got back from Japan, and that was the first time we actually got to play the songs in front of an audience. It seems to me that was the purpose of the whole thing in the first place, is to have an excuse to get together with your friends and just get off your heads and have a great time. We had such a freak out over there. We were our own opening band while we were there. We came out and did about 45 minutes of music. Really mellow music, piano, and I played acoustic. It was really subdued. They were all really quite, so quite that at times all you could hear was the air conditioning on the other side of the venue. There is the most incredible amount of tension in the room when you have a thousand people being that quiet, then we’d leave and come out about fifteen minutes later and play about an hours worth of the most aggressive stuff. It was amazing, everybody sang along to everything. Lots of crowd participation, we just put on as big of show as we could. We unleashed our inner David Lee Roth.

BH: Was there a big contrast from the shows in japan to the shows you’ve played in LA. The Opium Den show was a fun show, people were singing along and stuff, but I meant like typical LA, where the kids are scared to dance and not sure if they want to sing out loud.

MS: That last show at the Opium Den was awesome. Really fun. But japan was a different league, the shows were unreal. Then after the shows, we’d go out to these big raves. And once we got there it was almost like putting on another show because I knew all the dj’s and they would announce we were there and they would all follow our lead. We’d get em to get down really low and get up. Tokyo was a definite dream. For the shows we were trying to do, it was the only place the crowds would get that quite when we wanted to get quite and that loud when we wanted to get loud. It worked out much better than I ever could have imagined it.

BH: When can people in la and the rest of the country expect to see you guys? Any plans for a US tour?

MS: Not soon. Not in this year. We are gonna go record for a while. And do some writing. I’m going to nashville and just mellow out for a while. In January I think we will play some more shows. It’s just that we are a really big band and it’s expensive to deal with us. But whenever we have the chance we are gonna do it. I think we may go to iceland soon. Whenever there is a really weird prospect I am usually up for it.

BH: Different members are always showing up on record and on stage for the Rentals. How is that handled?

MS: It’s always left open. I’ve been working with this new guitar player a lot. And also the bass player from the last tour. I haven’t figured out what everybody’s role is yet. Especially with this group, this is really fresh. We played the la show and two weeks in japan and we worked really well together. This Rentals worked much better than the last band and we had much less time to deal with it. I think everyone is a bit surprised when they see us, how much more aggressive in general the shows are as opposed to what they are expecting. I think everyone still expects us to be this real automaton new-wave thing still, I think that will stay with us for a long time. It’s a hard thing to shake once you start it. Everybody freaked out. My friends had no idea that’s what it was about. And the shows in the japan they came ready to freak out, and it was really mellow, everyone was confused for awhile, it was great. Then we’d come back out and we’d make them go nuts.

BH: What’s the writing process now?

MS: The new process of writing is more of a collaborative effect. Just trying to be right there in the moment even more. Coming up with a really loose skeleton of what it’s about and then just ranting over it. I haven’t been caring the tape recorder around too much. Unless I’m traveling. I have a total shit memory, I can’t remember anything. Five seconds later and it’s gone. It’s not an artistic choice, more of like a necessity.

BH: What’s the idea behind the title for the record?

MS: The title means a bunch of different things to different people. It especially means something that is really close to me. But in general it’s the amount of time on a snooze for an alarm. When you don’t want to leave a certain place you just keep hitting the snooze button over and over. Seven more minutes.

BH: Where exactly was it recorded? Was it most in London?

MS: Where exactly? That’s a lot. There are about five studios in London we did it at. There is a studio here where we recorded it at, that was just for really small things, fixing little bits. And some of it was mixed in Noston. Sean and paul work there, I really like the work they’ve done. They did “the bends” [radiohead] and they ruled that record. So that had a lot to do with the reasoning for going to Boston. I have tons of respect for them. and the way they work is something totally different from what I’m used to, so it was great. But the majority of it was recorded in London.

BH: How were you able to detach yourself from basically everything over here that has anything to do with the record industry, travel overseas and become so nomadic and free? And was your label, Maverick, supportive the whole time you were over there writing and recording this record?

MS: Probably up until the last couple months they were. They let me do whatever I want to do. They are really good about that. I’m used to just working on my own and then handing it over to people. that’s how I did the first Rentals record. We did it, made the video, the artwork, and gave it to them. so I’m used to having complete control over everything. I really like mavrick, but I really dislike red tape. You wanna go do one thing for a day and you have to swim through an incredible amount of bullshit to get the simplest thing done. And this isn’t just with them. we just gave a b-side to “heal the bay”, a compilation record, and it took so long for them to complete that. From the record company to the publishing company to the record company that is doing the comp. I just said “yeah take the song, whatever, use it.” Then a week later I get another letter saying “we need you to sign so we can clear this”. “Ok cool”, then a week later I have to sign something else. It’s just an enormous amount of paperwork for a benefit record. But mavrick knew what they were signing when they signed me. I just want to do things the way I want to do them. but if they have something to say about it I don’t mind. Their involvement is welcome. But they were cool about me just leaving. They knew what they were getting into. It was the only way I could have made this record.

BH: Did the success of the first Rentals record take you by surprise at all? Where did that record take you that you had never imagined it would?

MS: It definitely got us some interesting places, in the literal sense. Got us to parts of the world we hadn’t been to before, and engaged us in adventures. It was in the midst of that whole Weezer thing, which was so surreal thing anyways. I don’t know if I can separate the Weezer thing from that, it seems to just be one big period of time to me.

BH: Did the other members of Weezer get bummed on that? Or were they excited and supportive of you?

MS: Well Pat was on the record, so he was pretty supportive of it. I don’t remember, we argued about a lot of stuff back then. I’m not really sure what was in the arguments. It was very up and down with us, everyday was either we got along really well or it was just plain shitty.

BH: Was there a period where you didn’t speak for a while or there was bad blood?

MS: Yes, it was like that every other week. Every week was a different guy. Somebody was the fall person more than not as why things weren’t working. It just switched every week, somebody else got the blame. I probably got it more than most people. But then there was the last three months, that was the most amazing time of touring for me ever was with those guys. Then we did this whole opening for no doubt thing, we went to japan and Thailand. Every show was an amazing experience, and we were all getting along great. So it wasn’t all shit at all.

BH: What was the last straw? Was the Rentals the reason you left?

I didn’t really leave. It just dissipated. You turn around one day and you aren’t working together. I don’t think anyone knows how we started or how we ended it out.

BH: How did the song “my head is in the sun” with Rivers come about?

I was living at his house in Boston, and he was out here trying out people to replace me. He came back for a weekend. We sat around and sang songs, played his songs and my songs, other peoples songs. I had been stuck on that song for a really long time. I just couldn’t figure out how to finish it up, and it had taken me like three years to write that song. It’s one of the only ones that took a long time, and I had basically just given up on it all together. So I played it for him and he sort of worked on it with me. It was cool and relaxed. It was the first time we got to truly collaborate on something.

BH: Do you think you will collaborate with him in the future?

MS: We’re talking about it all the way around, even as a group. For me, I don’t see what the purpose of putting absolutes on anything. So we’re talking about it. We are gonna try and write some stuff together, but at this point I don’t think he is in a space for writing.

BH: When you say working together, do you mean as “Weezer”?

MS: Possibly. It’s really hard to say. I really wouldn’t mind either way. I don’t know if I can dedicate my life to it 24 hours a day. But all those guys are like family to me.

BH: What have you been listening or watching lately? What inspires you?

MS: This Japanese guy just gave me this CD called “The Voices of Harlem” which is some collection of gospel funk. It’s just amazing sounding vocally. Talk about having a lot of freedom in expression of music, it’s really amazing. I’ve been listening to that the last few days, and it flipped me out. I’ve been in a really mellow headspace lately, so I’ve also been listening to a lot of nick drake. I saw Spike Jonze’s new film. That was great. I went to see it in a room full of suits, some special screening thing, a couple weeks ago. You kind of always hold spike to this incredibly high standard, so it’s tough to be him I think. He’s very inspirational.

BH: What’s in the future for the Rentals?

MS: Possible shows in January or February. We will most likely record sometime in there too. There is so much I want to do right now. I’m gonna be doing a solo record at some point, something really subdued. And a new Rentals sometime around February. We played one of the songs at the show you were at in LA. One of the new ones. All the songs that we’ve been working on for the new record I just improvise all the words. I’ve just been really enjoying making up everything on the spot except for like a couple key words. And it’s been getting worse. When we started out, we were improvising shit and it was just perfectly landing every night, everything was coming together. Then the more we did it the improving got worse, I actually rhymed “rad” with “bad” the other night. If you aren’t in the right headspace to make things up, it’s just gonna get messy.

Interview by: Aaron

Photos by: Travis

With everybody trying to jump on the big “rock resurgence” bandwagon these days, nobody still comes close to touching Rocket From The Crypt. Buddyhead had a lot to ask these guys, so before one of their shows in L.A., Aaron and Travis cornered founding member Speedo in the corner of the kitchen in the back of the club. Besides Aaron having to hold back Travis while Speedo shit talked Axl, things went pretty smoothly.

buddyhead: hey, how ya doing?

speedo: great.

buddyhead: why don’t you tell everybody your name and what you do in rftc.

speedo: my name is speedo. some people call me john cos that’s the name my parents gave me. i sing and play guitar in the band called rocket from the crypt.

buddyhead: cool. so your new cd out is called “all systems go 2″ and it’s on your brand new label correct?

speedo: yes, the label is called swami.

buddyhead: ok, and you started it with john from sympathy right?

speedo: yeah, it’s long gone john and myself.

buddyhead: what motivated you to start your own label?

speedo: um, i had a lot of free time this year and it basically stems from the fact that i like making records and i made records with other bands as far as producing them and helping them record and it’s just something i’ve kinda always been into. it also came down to the fact that we were struggling to get off our label and it was just the right thing to do at the right time. just put our records out ourselves and do it in a manner which we feel comfortable doing. i’m really fortunate to have a record like “all systems go 2″ to be my first release. all the guys in the band are real proud of it. it’s all songs that have been released in various formats over the last 8 years, so it’s cool to get everything out there.

buddyhead: it couldn’t possibly be everything though could it?

speedo: no, basically everything we record doesn’t necessarily see the light of day. even the songs that do, if they’re not on an album, they’re scattered on compilations, or european only things, asian only releases etc. so that kinda makes it hard for people to ever hear these songs without paying exorbitant amounts of money for import prices and that’s nothing that anybody in the band is really into. we like our stuff to be available.

buddyhead: do you have any intentions of releasing any stuff from different artists on the label besides rftc?

speedo: yeah, in february, the second record we’re putting out is by a band called hot snakes. after that we’re gonna do a couple more rocket things. we’re going to re-release the “hot charity” album we did in 95. it was a vinyl only release, so we’re gonna put it on cd finally. there’s a couple other rocket things planned after that. then i’m gonna do a swinging neckbreakers live record. they’re this amazing rocknroll band from trenton, new jersey. i’m gonna do a compilation of san diego bands that is going to be the ultimate compilation to end all compilations of san diego bands.

buddyhead: what kind of bands do you have planned for that?

speedo: it’s going to be a good cross section, but it will be the cream of the crop from san diego. it’ll be rocket, hot snakes, the locust, run for your fucking life, hopefully we’ll get a track from gogogo but their bass player is out of the country for a couple months. it’s what i feel are some of the greatest bands from san diego now.

buddyhead: so you think the san diego scene is pretty strong now?

speedo: it’s awesome. san diego is a really weird city because it’s always like alive and barely kicking. it’s a city that always has one foot in the grave in a sense that there isn’t a tremendous amount of support and the support that is there is basically people in other bands or… y’know what i’m saying?

buddyhead: totally.

speedo: and it’s not necessarily a close knit scene, cos there’s so many different kinds of bands, but it’s good. i think there’s a lot more good music in san diego than in los angeles right now. there’s just more diversity. and without having a real music industry, you tend not to have bands that are trying to base their sound or what they’re doing based on any kind of commercial aspirations. it seems to be a lot more grass roots and low key and casual.

buddyhead: so i heard you guys have totally severed your ties with interscope, is this true?

speedo: yeah, since february we’ve been trying to work on an agreement so that we can get off the label.

buddyhead: i heard that maybe on the last record, they weren’t satisfied with the album the way you guys turned it in.

speedo: y’know, i really don’t have anything bad to say about it. we’re off and we’re grateful that they let us off. they didn’t treat us poorly, we just felt that we would be better off doing something else. there wasn’t any conflict other than the fact that we didn’t feel the situation was ideal for us. i didn’t think we were ever given a fair shot.

buddyhead: did it feel like it was a totally different label compared to when you originally signed with them?

speedo: it definitely is. maybe that’s part of the problem.

buddyhead: you didn’t have to deal with fred durst or whoever it is new that works over there now did you?

speedo: no, but if i did have to deal with that guy, i’d probably put a bullet in my head.

buddyhead: did you ever see dre over there?

speedo: never saw dre, i could tell you who i did see. gerardo, remember gerardo? i don’t know what his position is, but he always walks around without his shirt on, even behind his desk. i bumped into him in the restroom, literally, and he wasn’t wearing a shirt. i saw shaquille o’neal there too.

buddyhead: haha, did they put out any of his records?

speedo: maybe one of them. yeah, he’s a real musical genius.

buddyhead: speaking of major labels, what is your reaction to current mainstream music?

speedo: i think mainstream music, like always, is just plagued with so much crap. i don’t want to be negative… none of it relates to me. it just seems like a whole different universe that i am not a part of. a lot of the stuff i hear is just repellent to me. i don’t want to sound like a grumpy old fart but… when somethings bad it’s not offensive, but it’s when it’s being shoved down your throat, that’s when hatred begins. you’ll have a band like korn, which i think is terrible, and you’ll think they’re the worst thing you’ve ever heard until they spawn 800 bands. then it’s like, “woah you thought that shit was bad, check out the bands that were inspired by them.”

buddyhead: for awhile when we saw a little bit of rocket on mtv or on tour with big bands, it seemed you guys could appeal to the mainstream. do you see that happening ever?

speedo: well… what we do is really based on pop structure. it’s not rocket  science. i think what we do is very immediate. with that, i wouldn’t rule the  possibility out. but people have to come to us, we’re not going to them. the  majority of people in the world don’t go out looking under rocks for cool bands. it has to smack them in the middle of the head, not once but maybe 20 times before they get the hint it might be cool. i kinda doubt it to tell you the truth, it’s not what we’re going for.

buddyhead: will you guys sign with another major or put out your records yourself now or what?

speedo: i dunno what’s up right now. we just put out a 12 inch e.p. on our friend max’s label, we’re recording new stuff, the majority of the set tonight is all new songs… y’know that kinda thing.

buddyhead: i’ve also heard talk that drive like jehu still owes interscope one more album before they’ve finished their agreement with the label. mark told me he doesn’t even own a drumset anymore, so is that even possible if it were true?

speedo: no, it’s not true. jehu is over. the only thing even jehu related anymore is me and the singer, rick, are doing the hot snakes. it’s rick, myself, jason from delta 72, and gar wood who was in tanner. that record will be out in february. we’re gonna do a little tour in late february/march and that’s about it. the other jehu guys…mark is an awesome record producer. him not owning a drum set anymore is kinda gross though. mike is an awesome chemist and has a new band called corrugated which is in a similar vein as jehu. it’s just like dissonant guitar, angular, thudding bass lines, it’s really cool.

buddyhead: what kind of stuff have you been listening to lately?

speedo: right now all i’ve been listening to for the past couple months is this ethiopian music. there’s this series of compilations called “ethiopics” and it’s up to like volume 7 and it’s very soul and r&b influenced music.  it’s just like crazy vocals and scales with a very primal and raw soul thing goin on. kinda like james brown mixed with african music, but unlike most other african music, it’s more mideast sounding. other than that, swinging neckbreakers, as far as rocknroll goes, few do it as good as them. detroit cobras released an amazing record this year. i really dig royal trux, blonde redhead, those are some new things i like.

buddyhead: do you have any plans for when y2k goes down?

speedo: i’m going to mexico. just lay low with some friends.

buddyhead: do you have any weird opinions about that whole thing?

speedo: yeah, i just know that people love the opportunity to freak out.  with all the paranoia, i wish all those people would just go freak out somewhere else. i  don’t think it’s a wise idea to go out partying that night. it’s not that i think  anything wrong is going to happen, i just think there’s gonna be so many fuckin idiots and morons that it’s gonna be the worst case of amateur night you’ve ever seen.

buddyhead: if you thought the world was going to end on january 1st, what would you do?

speedo: i guess i’d just be depressed.

buddyhead: have you ever been arrested?

speedo: hehe, it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. it doesn’t give you any credibility that’s for sure.

buddyhead: why did you get arrested?

speedo: it was a few different times all for stupid, innocent stuff… urinating in public, indecent exposure, that was during the same time. once for ice block sliding which is when you get on a big block of ice and slide down a hill. i got arrested for that. let’s see… disturbing the peace, i was at a party that got broken up so… oh, i was arrested in arizona for cutting a guys finger off.

buddyhead: what?!

speedo: it was on accident. rocket was playing phoenix, and some dude was just flipping me off all night long. i kept saying, “hey, hey, you gotta stop.” so whenever i would look his way, he would turn his middle finger into a peace sign. then as soon as i would look away, he’d give me the bird again. i saw this happening, so finally i told him if he didn’t put the finger away, i was gonna cut it off. i had just bought this switchblade in tijuana and i thought it’d be funny if i broke it out. so i break it out and grab his hand. he turned away, but as he turned away, he jerked it towards me. the top part just went, “shhhhck” and came right off on the stage.

buddyhead: ohhh man! damn kids, don’t fuck with rocket.

speedo: yeah, all the arrests happened before i was 25 so…

buddyhead: how old are you now?

speedo: i’m 30.

buddyhead: i know you’re bored answering the tattoo questions, but i always wondered if you guys really did get everybody in with a rftc tattoo, and can you still do that when you play a larger show or big festival?

speedo: not all the shows, but like 80 percent of them. places where the band doesn’t have a say with what goes on, no.

buddyhead: do you have one?

speedo: yeah, everybody in the band has one. somewhere.

buddyhead: on your website, you guys have pictures of all the really good rftc tattoos. i was wondering if you ever see just really bad rocket tattoos?

speedo: oh, the worst are the better in my opinion. this guy barry in philly who is a friend of ours has the best rocket tattoo in the entire universe. he had it done at 3 in the morning, completely by himself, with a tattoo gun he borrowed. the  guy only gave him 5 minutes to do it. it’s all a single line, like a really bad rocket outline kinda crooked. he thought that maybe people wouldn’t know what it was, so he wrote in his own handwriting underneath it, “rocket”

buddyhead: don’t you feel a little bit guilty about that?

speedo: no it’s awesome man. but y’know, i thought gg allen had the best tattoos in the world.

buddyhead: what do you think of canadians?

speedo: they’re cool cos they have really funky hair usually. it’s like the canadian fro. i love canada actually. i think toronto is a super progressive city, i think montreal is kinda weird and cool, i think vancouver is beautiful and one of the finest cities in the northwest. the whole middle of it though is like one big dead zone.

buddyhead: i dunno, it’s a weird question. we just get a weird vibe there and were wondering how you felt.

speedo: try the vibe in saskatoon sometime. you think the mullet is only an american phenomenon?

buddyhead: do you guys do well up there?

speedo: we don’t go there very much, but whenever we do, we do really good.  they like to rocknroll up there.

buddyhead: i heard one place you do well is europe. does that mean all the groupies are hairy?

speedo: i dunno. i don’t really get with the chicks y’know? i’ve been married for awhile. i don’t think people are in this band to get laid. i’m not saying there’s a  puritan element, but it’s not a priority.

buddyhead: didn’t you take wesley willis on tour once?

speedo: yeah.

buddyhead: did he head-butt you?

speedo: yeah, he butts everybody in the head.

buddyhead: did he write a song about you guys?

speedo: yes. he wrote it before we took him on tour. we were so awestruck that somebody wrote a song about us but at the time we didn’t know that he wrote a song about the shit he took in the morning or walking to the store y’know?

buddyhead: are you backin any of the new guns n roses stuff?

speedo: i hated them when they were around the first time. i thought they were the  worst piece of fuckin crap i’ve ever heard, why would i want more? it’s like goin through a smorgasbord, gettin the shits, then saying, “lets go get a second helping.” fuck no. they were terrible. axl rose sounds like somebody squeezing the air out of a dead, rotting cat. when he came out with the backwards baseball cap and the bandana and singin about “niggers and faggots” i mean, fuck that asshole.  any guy who needs a massage before going on stage and then contemplating whether he’s going to play or not is a fuckin rock  star, cock suckin, son of a bitch whether it’s him or marilyn manson.

Walter Schreifels of New York’s fine rock group, Rival Schools, really surprised us. For those not in “the know”, Walter has been in tons of bands including: Gorilla Biscuits, Quicksand, Youth Of Today etc. etc. When Aaron and Travis encountered him after his newest band, Rivals Schools, rocked the El Rey, he kicked the interview off by screaming the old Project X song “Dance Floor Justice” into our mic, and then proclaimed it as, “one of the hardest jams I’ve ever written· sick breakdown part dude”. In Tom’s encounter, he found Walter equally interested in gash and local L.A. gay hardcore heroes Gayrilla Biscuits. In all our dealings with Walter though, the conclusion was the same: Walter is one of the coolest and most down to earth guys we’ve ever interviewed, and Rival Schools rocks.

[media][website]

Interview by Aaron Icarus, Tom Apostolopoulos, and Travis Keller. Photo by somebody who got paid by their label. Yeah we know, using press shots is lame but we were lazy this month.

Buddyhead: Let’s start this thing. There are a lot of chicks at your shows now. You’re not married or anything right?

Walter: No, I’m not married.

Buddyhead: You must be getting gash by the second. Mad “trap” brah.

Walter: I don’t know man, not that much. I guess I’ve been so busy with the music and getting into that, I haven’t gotten into the gash yet.

Buddyhead: Don’t you know what the purpose of music is?

Walter: Oh yeah, it’s to get gash, but what I’m saying is that I’m building it. I don’t want to jump into the gash the first chance I get. I want to make sure there’s a gigantic vagina to dive my whole body into, and there’s no way I can miss.

Buddyhead: I think you’re influenced by Gayrilla Biscuits a bit too much.

Walter: Yeah, I’m overcompensating right now.

Buddyhead: Let’s go way back. Tell us first off, when you decided you didn’t just want to play guitar in a band anymore, and you wanted to sing as well.

Walter: In Gorilla Biscuits, I just got tired of showing Civ how to sing the songs. If I was going to go through the struggle of showing him how to do it, I might as well have just done it myself. Not that I don’t appreciate the work Civ did, which is why I collaborated on the Civ record. It was nice to be the behind the scenes guy in Civ, cos if it sucked I wouldn’t be blamed for it. It wasn’t called WALTER. I really like the first Civ record. I don’t know about the second one, I didn’t write that one.

Buddyhead: Of the 2 Quicksand albums, which do you prefer?

Walter: I like the songs on the second one better cos I was reacting to the first album which I thought was maybe sort of a “sell out”. But on the first album, the songs that hinted at the really “dreamy” British stuff I was into at the time, I really appreciate those. That album was a really big struggle.

Buddyhead: You talked before about starting Quicksand, cos in some way you were over the whole “straight edge hardcore” scene or whatever, explain.

Walter: I just think the “scene” became a parody. It was too satirical. It became too easy to pinpoint. I thought Sonic Youth was cool, I thought My Bloody Valentine was cool, and the “scene” was stale. The reason I’m a musician is because I’m into music on so many different levels, and I thought that “scene” had been great, you know, early Bad Brains, Cro Mags, whatever, but it was just so past its prime by that point. Quicksand was about moving forward and doing something different.

Buddyhead: So tell us what happened after Quicksand with Worlds Fastest Car. Tell us how that band ended and how Rival Schools began.

Walter: Well, Worlds Fastest Car was kind of an ambitious idea, but I never really got the guys together to make it happen. I can’t really blame the people that I was playing with, because I didn’t really put everything into it to make it happen. So it ended up being a lot of demos, and we played one tour in Japan, which was fucking awesome. I remember we played one show in the U.S. in Philadelphia, and it was like the fucking worst show you can ever fucking imagine. It was so bad in the way that, we could not physically play the songs. We were so bad. It really turned my head inside out, because I can play fucking songs, ya know? I mean I have good songs, bad songs, etc. But I can play a fucking guitar and sing, and all of the sudden I wasn’t able to do that. And that really kind of fucked me up mentally. I had to replace dudes. All different sorts of fucked up characters. So basically it didn’t work out. So there was this point where I was like, “fuck dude, I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, I’m playing with too many different people, etc.” So it got to where people were saying, “why don’t you just get Quicksand back together, everybody loves Quicksand, it’ll be wonderful”. So the Deftones asked us to go on tour, and that was even more enticement. So I was like, “o.k., let’s try this”, and I started to feel like all of the sudden I’m twenty-something years old and I feel like I’m an oldies show. It didn’t feel cool. I felt like, “wow, this is cool that people appreciate it, but I don’t feel driven and that’s wack”. Because, if I do something, I feel like even if it sucks, I hope it sucks really fucking bad and offensively in a way that I want it to suck. I want to feel what I’m doing, and feel vital. So after that Deftones tour, I was like, “Dude, I love being on tour, but this isn’t a positive situation.” So I took it from there, and started at grass roots. I didn’t have anyone to play with, and at the time Civ was deteriorating so I played with Sam because we were at the same rehearsal space. We played for months just him and I. Then I built a little confidence to get Cache involved. We played for a while and then it was like “Wizard of Oz”, the next dude is there, and now we have this team and we started to write some songs. Some of the songs we played tonight, we had written then. We’ve written almost two albums full of shit. It’s just been like, from that path in Worlds Fastest Car when I felt like I understood everything about music, and that I knew exactly what I was doing, to being like, “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing”, to now getting back to roots shit· finding chemistry, finding inspiration. To write a song with lyrics is intense, because you have to sing it, and it has to be good. When this album was finished, I was like, “maybe this album sucks, I don’t know.” I have no idea, but I tried my fucking hardest and this is what I got. That’s the shortest version of it.

Buddyhead: I’ve heard newer Quicksand recordings that never came out, what was that about?

Walter: Well, we did that Deftones tour, and did a recording session as well, and it was just dark man. It was just not where I wanted to be. I saw a recent video tape that was taken on that tour, and I look like I’m a hundred years old.

Buddyhead: What is Rival Schools about?

Walter: This band is way more personal than previous ones. I’m a grown man now.

Buddyhead: How old are you now?

Walter: I’m 33. I’ve been through a lot of shit. Quicksand was more personal, like ripping through on a psychological level, heady, more cynicism to it. Gorilla Biscuits was more positive, almost like a “self help” kind of thing. I think this band is a little bit of both, somewhere in the middle.

Buddyhead: It seems like you went from being in bands because you’re driven and inspired, to being in bands because “oh Walter should be in a band”…

Walter: I didn’t know, it got to the point where I was like, “I started when I was 16 and now I’m in my 20′s, is this what I am? Am I a guy in a band?” I thought that I was going to do this for a while and then become a school teacher, and now all of the sudden I’m in my mid 20′s, and it’s like, “who am I?” It took me a little while to say, “this is what I am, I’m a creative person, and I’m not going to stop until I have to.”

Buddyhead: Because you spoke about chemistry before, let me ask you this: Have the different musicians you’ve played with affected your writing at all?

Walter: Absolutely. In this group quite a bit, Quicksand as well. Gorilla Biscuits was really just kind of “my show”, which was awesome because everyone was down with that. In Quicksand, I was kind of the dictator of the band. There was always this dynamic of me telling everyone what to do, and so I was always trying to force that. Of course I would always let the people shine, because I would recognize their ability, but I would work really hard to control it. In this band I’ve worked hard to not control. I’ve worked hard to let people go as far as they can, unless they are fucking up the central theme of the music. Basically, I want these dudes to be awesome and feel awesome. They are really good players, so they inspire me in return.

Buddyhead: How have your goals changed from band to band, like your final point of destination, with regards to how far you want to take it and the means necessary.

Walter: It’s been for me kind of what’s right there in front of my face. I think about it now more, because I’m older and I go to therapy and stuff. I think, “why do I do what I do, and where am I at”. I think through music I figure shit out. I get through situations. With this band, I just needed to create something that was real and tangible. So I put every bit of energy I had into that, and even when I felt that we suck, the show sucked, I suck, my songs suck, we’re terrible, etc., I never quit. Finishing the record was my goal. Having the record come out was my next goal. Getting through this show tonight was my most recent goal. I’m looking forward to a time when I’m not even thinking about it. I would like this record to sell like a million records, but that’s also going to freak me out, because if I sell a million records my life is going to be really different, and I’m kind of afraid of that. So, I’m going with it, but I try not to think about it one way or the other. If it fails, whatever. If it succeeds, I have to be careful to keep my head on straight, because you look at some people who succeed and some people are awesome and some people freak out.

Buddyhead: Just do the drugs.

Walter: That’s what I’m saying, I’m not getting into the gash right now. That’s a little bit later.

Buddyhead: Yeah, it gets to the point where all the snatch is like, the same.

Walter: Exactly, when you’re like in the Eddie Murphy category and you’ve fucked like every girl that you can possibly get with, you just start going with men and transvestites because you’re just sick of hot women. You start having sex with women who you don’t even find attractive. You just bug out.

Buddyhead: Ehhh, right, right. One thing that we noticed tonight is how happy and at ease you look on stage. The whole vibe is so much more upbeat than bands that people are used to seeing you in.

Walter: There’s always a dark side to my character I guess. I think Rival Schools is way more like Gorilla Biscuits than Quicksand, and there is a certain consciousness to that. Gorilla Biscuits was like embracing community and hopefulness, while Quicksand was like going through the darkness within myself. I got into Bob Dylan recently, and I think that Bob Dylan is one of the best lyricists ever. His shit is dark and cutting, and he’s this cynical guy, and I think that Quicksand was a lot like that in some sense. So with this band I was like, “what can I provide people with?”, and the answer is: a good time. The song that we wrote “Good Things” is borderline ridiculous, in terms of everything being possible, just pick yourself up, etc. And that in its essence is as corny as it is true.

Buddyhead: Do you ever think about what Quicksand “could have been” if you’d stuck it out longer or approached it slightly differently?

Walter: I always thought Quicksand was doomed to fail. I thought that it was always going to be good etc., but that we’d never succeed in that way. Quicksand never got a piece in Spin or on the cover of CMJ, and I don’t think this band will either. I don’t care. I have three other guys that I love, and we talk, and we’re sort of “adults” and that’s cool, and it’s going to get me through this. Because for example, like tonight, I felt like we kind of sucked, but when I looked over at one of the other guys, he smiled at me. It was like, “who gives a shit, we’re at Maxwells, and people are out here having fun.”

Buddyhead: You definitely seem a lot more comfortable on stage. Even when we were fucking with you up there, you just kind of laughed it off.

Walter: I feel like it’s more my trip now. With Rival Schools, I feel like these people out there are my friends. If you’re in the room, you’re my friend. So I should feel comfortable with my friends, and they’re going to forgive me if I’m bad or I suck. So if someone yells something at me, I know they mean it out of jest or out of love. And if they mean it in a bad way, well I don’t care.

Buddyhead: So let’s actually talk about the band, and who’s in it, etc.

Walter: Sam is the first guy that was in it. I met Sam when he was 12 years old. He had a skinhead earring, a Circle Jerks jacket, and combat boots. I’ve known him forever. He played drums for Judge, Youth of Today, and he played with Gorilla Biscuits, but we kicked him out. Ha ha. He forgave me. He was in Civ, and I was in the Civ thing. Cache, I saw him playing stand up bass when Quicksand played with Iceburn years ago. He was a little kid with a surfer cut, and he made an impression on me…

(Interrupted by 2 girls who knock on the window smiling and asking if we want to get stoned)

Walter: Do you guys know them?

Buddyhead: No dude, that’s all you.

Walter: No, you guys know them right?

Buddyhead: No dude… that’s your gash. They want to bang you.

Walter: Dude, they’re hot. Wow. Fuck, I’m losing my train of thought here…

Buddyhead: Fuck, we can talk about gash instead if you really want. Oh, no, we should talk about the new record shouldn’t we? Island might get pissed if we don’t. Why are you still on Island, didn’t they drop everyone?

Walter: Island has held onto my contract since Quicksand broke up. I don’t know why, but they did.

Buddyhead: Are you happy on Island?

Walter: Well, at first, I really felt strangled by being on a major. You can’t just put out a single and test the waters, there is this intense element to it. Another thing is the music business has changed. When I first got signed, bands like Nirvana and Sonic Youth could sell a million records. Now they don’t take chances. They’re very tight with creative control. So there’s that constant fight and it gets tiring.

Buddyhead: Did you feel that on this record?

Walter: Yeah, absolutely.

Buddyhead: In what sense?

Walter: In the sense of, “how would I like to do it if it was all up to me?”

Buddyhead: It wasn’t all up to you in the end though?

Walter: Every aspect of it wasn’t up to me. There’s a discussion starting with your band, and then there is a group of people working on it, and it’s a big fucking company, and it’s like, if we’re the three of us working together, and I talk to you about it and we agree on this, then it’s like “cool, you do this, I’ll do this”. With this, working with a large label, you start to feel like, “fuck I don’t want to listen to these dicks, what if I’m not into it?” It’s all part of the struggle. At first I felt like, fuck it, I’d rather do this myself, because this is a lot of hoops to run through. But the reality of it is the rewards are worth it, because now we’re going on tour in a bus, people at the record label are really excited to do this record, they’re excited about it etc. I mean, people who work at record labels work there because they love music, so they’re psyched.

Buddyhead: Did you get that thing where the labels say, “Well it’s up to you how to do this record, but we don’t really like it”? Do you feel the pressure of being able to do what you want, but the label not supporting it in the end?

Walter: There’s politics to be played, but I have to say that I’ve been on this label forever, and they’re really good right now. I kind of had to go to that place during the recording of this record where I said, “I don’t know everything, and maybe I should listen more to people, and get their opinion, and have more openness to that synergy.” I’m never going to do something that I feel stupid doing. I have this super power to throw a wrench into some programs. If I don’t like something, I can make sure everything comes to a halt. But we got through it. I mean, they record albums on computers now. I didn’t know about that shit. All that shit was like, “alright, you want to record it on a computer, it’s your money, I’m going to do my thing. I’ll sing and play guitar and we’ll take it from there.” In the end, what comes through is the spirit of the thing. I think people with music, the spirit that you put into that, the closer it is to who you are as a person and your finer qualities, like if I’m funny, and I can play guitar kind of funny and make that humor come through, then that’s fucking amazing, and that’s fucking real. The closer it is to who you are as a person, the better it is. A great song is about spirit. It seems like people who really are music listeners are complaining about that these days.

Buddyhead: Totally. It seems like that’s the case in so many genres right now, where there are a lot of bands that sound alike, but the one band that is the standout is the one with the aura of being real and honest.

Walter: Exactly, that’s what I’m saying. When I was doing everything, I was really trying to hold on to that, and this is all a real struggle to me. Like tonight was a real struggle to me. I was like, “dude, I don’t know the next fucking chord in this song, I feel like a fucking asshole. The president of my label is in the room, and I don’t know the chord to my song, and he’s paying for my fucking tour bus.” I felt like, “I just gotta get through this”.

Buddyhead: What do you think about the state of music currently, and where this is all heading?

Walter: Well, I look back on the Gorilla Biscuits days as “The shit”. When that was happening in New York, and hip-hop was happening at the same time, and Sonic Youth was happening. The late 80′s in New York was on fucking fire. It was insane. That time was dope, but that time was also when, if you watched MTV where everything was wack, but if you looked in the underground world, there was shit going on that was great, and you could be intimate with it. There wasn’t even the internet, just fanzines, so if you found that shit, it was like “dude cool, I’m different”. Then the Nirvana time was awesome, because they blew shit open, and any friend of yours could be like the next famous dude. I think now it’s sort of back to the “Warrant days”. (some road crew guy interrupts) Sorry, Neil what’s up?

Neil: blah blah

Walter: I’ll be ready in like 10 minutes dude.

Buddyhead: Is that the bus driver or the masseuse?

Walter: That dude is like, “the man”. He’s amazing. He’s going to come out on this tour. Speaking of Gayrilla Biscuits, he’s begging dude.

Buddyhead: Begging for cock?

Walter: I’m worried that he’s begging for mine. You could tell how he looked at me, but I don’t want him to get with me, I want him to get with someone else. I love him dude.

Buddyhead: You dudes are going to bang.

Walter: So anyway, I think that now, and maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but I feel like people in their early 20′s are feeling ripped off· that their pop culture is really easy to figure out. There’s no substance at all.

Buddyhead: I think the industry knows that too, they just have to keep the money coming in.

Walter: Totally. There’s a target and as long as that target keeps coming up with a million in sales, then they’ll keep at it.

(at this point the bus driver/masseuse guy comes back)

Buddyhead: Hey dude, Sebastian wants you.

Walter: Sebastian? Oh Neil. Dude, you just gayified his name so much. (haha)

Buddyhead: Are you scared of Gayrilla Biscuits?

Walter: I just think it’s cool…

Buddyhead: …to be gay?!

Walter: Well, yeah, if you’re gay it’s the best thing in the whole world. If you’re gay, you’re psyched because, well…

Buddyhead: …dudes just want to bang?

Walter: Exactly.

There aren’t very many interesting and vital rock bands out there today, but Philadelphia’s Burning Brides is definitely one of them. The 3 piece’s debut album “Fall Of The Plastic Empireä was one of the few gems that 2001 produced. We had such a good time with them on the U.S. tour with Cave In, that we decided to invite them to join us on The Icarus Line’s recent U.K. tour. The only thing that got old on that tour was eating fish and chips every day· experiencing “the Bridesä every night definitely did not. This interview took place with the band’s singer, Dimitri Coats, one very late December evening in Philadelphia after a show. We came back to the band’s house and Dimitri and myself sat in the basement where the band practices, discussing rock n’ roll into the wee hours of the morning.

Interview by Aaron North

BUDDYHEAD: Ok, tell us your name, the name of your band, and what else is new.

Dimitri: My name is Dimitri and I play in a band called the Burning Brides. What is new is tonight· our band along with the Icarus Line played the TLA here in Philly. You know, I don’t know how you guys would react to this, but we’re from Philadelphia· we come to play our hometown and the people who are doing the sound didn’t know what they were doing· they’re new, so it just fucked everything up. But everyone that works there are like friends of mine· so I didn’t know how to handle the situation. And then there is this whole other world where what you’re hearing on stage isn’t what the audience is hearing, and so you think you’re like blowing it and they’re hearing this incredible sound. But I just feel like when you’re feeling so disconnected from everything else you’re hearing, it’s hard to go to· that place. To really fucking ride that wave through the whole show and make an effect on people.

BUDDYHEAD: So it’s like you’re cheating yourself, like you’re only going half the distance, you’re running on half your pistons.

Dimitri: Exactly. You feel like it was a missed opportunity to turn on X amount of people to your band. What I want to ask you, I wish there could be another camera so they could see you too, but we’ll get to that as things grow around our bands and I’d like to talk more about that because I think you guys, the Icarus Line, are easily one of the best newer bands that are coming out that I just got turned onto in the last three days. And it was just extremely uplifting to have a fucking camaraderie with a band for a change.

BUDDYHEAD: Likewise. Your band has a really interesting story you were telling me earlier, about how you met Melanie, the bass player in Burning Brides, and the decision you made when you were like, “No, I think what I want to do with my life is music.” It took you a while, you bounced around, you didn’t know where you wanted to make your home base· so let’s talk about the beginning. Did you play in bands when you were younger?

Dimitri: I was just a kid that loved playing electric guitar. I’d play in stupid cover bands when I was in junior high school, but I was never in a proper band. I’m more of a fan… this is my first band. I was like a closet rock star, wannabe, now I’m trying to get out there and trying to be really bold about the songs I have written and make people fucking feel something these days the way rock and roll used to make me feel. The way that I want to give back to kids these days would help make my life infinitely better. That’s it.

BUDDYHEAD: This is your first real band ever?

Dimitri: Yeah.

BUDDYHEAD: Amazing.

Dimitri: It’s not that amazing, really. When something works it’s like, look at Guided by Voices· who would have thought that that equation would have turned into what it is? Sometimes oddball combinations can make the pages in the rock and roll history book turn, you know?

BUDDYHEAD: So you grew up in Massachusetts?

Dimitri: Yeah, but dude, I’ll tell ya man, hanging out in LA, just playing it a couple times· before I ever went there I had this monster vision of it, and then when I got there it was like· sometimes opposites attract. I’m not a LA kind of person, maybe that’s why it’s like this surreal thing that I enjoy about it.

BUDDYHEAD: Even though you’re not a very LA type of person, you were telling me earlier that one of your first aspirations, what you wanted to do, was to be an actor.

Dimitri: That’s what I was doing before this. It was something that was enjoyable to me at one point in my life that gave me a high the way this does now. But I don’t know man· I don’t know what to tell you. I was doing well at it and I was getting to the point where I was getting really close to getting some roles in some major films, some decent parts and stuff. And I just knew, I could see this vision of if I ever wanted to form a rock band, no one would ever take it seriously. I would be this dude acting in this film. I had this career ready to go in my hand and I just dumped it for the good of rock and roll and I think I made the right decision.

BUDDYHEAD: Well, I agree. Is there anything out there like indie films or anything like that with you in it?

Dimitri: No, never. Luckily, I didn’t do it, because that was the fear. And this means way more to me. This is my first love. This is who I am. I’m not playing a character. It’s like trying to magnify who you are, to be brave enough to be yourself a hundred fold. I learn more about myself doing this, writing songs, being vulnerable in front of an audience.

BUDDYHEAD: So how did you end up in the New York area?

Dimitri: From getting accepted to schools out there.

BUDDYHEAD: What did you go to school for?

Dimitri: Acting.

BUDDYHEAD: And then somewhere along the line in New York you met Melanie?

Dimitri: Yeah, we went to the same school. I quit after two years, she stayed for the whole four years and we didn’t really know each other then. I left for a couple years and just fucked around, traveling around the country, tried living in places like California.

BUDDYHEAD: What did you do when you were traveling around?

Dimitri: I don’t even know. I was young and I just wanted to do that whole Jack Kerouac thing, got in a fucking car, went out there, met strangers and figured out how to survive a little bit. And just got away from the whole thing I was in.

BUDDYHEAD: In New York, how did you end up finally meeting Melanie?

Dimitri: I came back to New York and then I decided, “Hey maybe if I try to do this professionally instead of being in school, if I’m making money from it, maybe it won’t be such a bad job to have, you know?” So all this time I was starting to write songs.

BUDDYHEAD: Did it sound like the stuff you guys are playing now?

Dimitri: The real early stuff is not like this stuff, but it quickly turned into this stuff. I was very much a young songwriter. So we met when I came back to New York and tried to act professionally· like I said, I did really well, and I had to make a decision. I just wasn’t happy. It’s like looking in the mirror and you’re wearing a suit and everybody says, “Hey, it looks good on you, man.” And then, one day, you look in the mirror and you’re like, “I look like a fucking loser! It’s not me.” So anyway, she was graduating. Obviously, having come from the same school, we had a lot of mutual friends. We met through these mutual friends, fell in love very quickly. She moved in very quickly and we’ve pretty much been inseparable ever since. And then she gravitated toward the music I was turning her onto. She was drawn to the bass instinctively. It was a no-brainer.

BUDDYHEAD: Tell us a little bit about her background too, because that’s kind of interesting.

Dimitri: She went to school for modern dance. She’s an absolutely gorgeous dancer. I’ve seen her dance. I’ve seen her come on stage by herself in front of a crowd twice as big as the one we played to tonight and dance to a beautiful cello piece and that’s it. The reaction was intense. The people were really into it. Gripping. She’s a very talented performer.

BUDDYHEAD: It obviously took a lot. Did you guys kind of decide, “Well, I really want to start a band?” She had just started picking up the bass and she still had lots of learning to do. In that period, what was going on? Were you just writing songs?

Dimitri: Yeah, that’s when I continued to write songs. I’d catalog riffs· catalog interesting things I’d play when I’d get stoned and start playing, realizing that while she’s learning the bass, I’ll do that and the pieces will just fit together and that’s the way it worked out.

BUDDYHEAD: And then when was it that you decided that you would be Burning Brides? Was that the first band name you decided on?

Dimitri: We were called The Brides for three shows, and one day a friend of mine was looking on the internet and she goes, “Oooh, you’re in trouble, Dimitri.” And I said, “What?” She said, “There’s a band called The Brides.” So then I just thought that I liked names like Rolling Stones or Flaming Lips and I just thought I’ll add some alliteration in there, have the two B’s, and rock ‘n roll is often about fire starting way back with Chuck Berry, so I thought it would fit. I love it.

BUDDYHEAD: It’s cool.

Dimitri: Melanie looks on the internet to see if that name’s been taken and all these sites pop up because it’s this thing that happens in India.

BUDDYHEAD: I noticed that you keep all the strings you take off your guitar, what’s that all about?

Dimitri: I’ll probably make some kind of a wire sculpture or do something with them. Maybe if you hooked it up to something with a frequency in it and you waved it around like a whip, it would make some cool sound. You can relate to that, you noise-making motherfucker!

BUDDYHEAD: Where was the first Burning Brides show? Where did you guys start? You moved around a bit back from New York, right?

Dimitri: We finally found a drummer in Boston after being all over the place. Melanie and I left New York and we realized we wanted to be in a place where we could live and play. Like right now, we’re in our basement, and this is where we play and it’s like $750 bucks a month, three bedrooms· it’s an awesome situation and we were looking for that. We tried Portland, Oregon and that didn’t work out. We came back east and tried Boston, which is where I’m originally from, that didn’t work out and we were running out of ideas. I had a theater friend who moved here and I came to visit her. Then I was looking at places like this and realizing, “Holy shit, it’s only like two hours from New York. Everybody I met was really friendly.” So we moved here. We moved here with a drummer that we found in Boston but we never played a show. We moved here with him. He turned me onto some shit, man. His name was Gus and I have a lot of love for him because he turned me onto some cool shit.

BUDDYHEAD: Like what kind of stuff?

Dimitri: Believe it or not, I didn’t know that much about Slayer for some fucking reason. And he turned me onto Slayer in a big way and it’s become a big part of this band. Along with hopefully, a lot of other things, that’s one of the things. He added a color to my pallet by turning me onto that and his attitude ruled. He was just a very lazy drummer, you know? He didn’t want to practice and he originally started as a guitar player. He was a fucking awesome guitar player, he probably could have gone to Berkeley or something. I think he did go to Berkeley for a semester. He just wanted to switch and play drums· whatever. So we came here and I was just bummed out because he wasn’t practicing. It was like, “You aren’t that good yet. Your instincts are awesome. You get it?” God, if I was trying to form a good rock band and I was new to my instrument, I would be addicted to it. And it bummed me out. So we basically, as things weren’t working out, were approached by Mike, who heard about what we were doing and it sounded interesting to him. So we sort of lined him up and we told Gus, “Look, I’m sorry, but this is not going to work.” I felt horrible because I really loved that kid. As a person, he’s just awesome, but there are priorities as a band you want to have. Sometimes, peoples’ feelings get hurt.

BUDDYHEAD: Yeah.

Dimitri: So we found Mike and he came down to this basement right here and the fucking place just exploded in sound the way we’ve never heard it. I just realized that although our tastes are very different; there was just that connection. He’s a very talented drummer, he can do whatever he wants, and it’s just incredible to have that kind of a drummer. I like drums. I’m usually air drumming for some weird reason when I’m listening to music.

BUDDYHEAD: So you never played a show with that Gus guy? Where did you guys start playing?

Dimitri: We got a set together, and my roommate heard the sound of us playing together down here, and he walked down to a really good local club and told them about us. He went right up to the people that he knew could make this happen and said, “You’ve got to give these guys a really good show. They’re fucking good· this is the real deal.” So our first show we headlined on a Tuesday night. I made a big deal about it, we all did. We were in peoples’ faces like, “Our band is good, we really are. Come out!” And people did. It was awesome. From that night on, we had a fan base in Philly and we just branched it out from there.

BUDDYHEAD: That’s rad. Did you do any demo recordings or anything like that?

Dimitri: Yeah, we did our demo, four songs, all of which are on the record, but just something to get us going.

BUDDYHEAD: How did it come about, the situation with File 13?

Dimitri: We got sick of waiting around for labels to give us the right offer. We were talking to Matador, and I really wanted that to work out because I’m a fan of the label. More of a fan back a few years ago, but still. And also, the guy I was dealing with over there, one of the owners, we just really hit it off and it seemed like it was really going to be this amazing thing. But we really couldn’t negotiate what needed to happen and we realized we’d be better off just putting it out ourselves. So we went ahead and recorded, went into the hole, put jack shit up on credit cards. Fuck it, we’re going to make the record we would have made on Matador or Sub Pop. Matt Worth, one of the main guys from File 13, heard a clip of it while we were working in the studio and he was just like, “Look, I wanted to ask you this anyway, but I want to put out this record.” We sort of talked about it. He’s another guy we just hit it off with really well· he turned into a dear friend. He just offered us a really awesome deal. It was just distribution through Mordam. It was Philly. It just made sense. It got us started. We had a record, we could tour. It worked out fucking great.

BUDDYHEAD: What were some of those early tours and experiences like? Who did you play with?

Dimitri: Our first tour was with The White Stripes and Delta 72. It was only about four or five shows around the northeast. That was our first tour. And then, we’ve done tours with Rocket from the Crypt, J. Mascis, Nebula, Mike Watt, a little stint with Zen Guerilla, a little thing with Royal Trux, played with The Melvins, that kind of thing.

BUDDYHEAD: What do you think about rock music now, not only on an independent level, but like in general, from your perspective, do you listen to mainstream radio ever or do you ever watch MTV?

Dimitri: No, I don’t listen to the radio. I usually watch VH1 as opposed to MTV. I’ve given up on M2, it’s turned into what I thought it wasn’t going to be.

BUDDYHEAD: Do you think there are good bands right now?

Dimitri: No. There are definitely a few, but not in the mainstream. I guess. I don’t want to get into who I like or dislike in the mainstream. It’s not a very interesting conversation. Maybe it is, I don’t know. I’d like to use the time to talk about bands that I like that don’t get any attention like Cherry Valence or Terminal Crash. There are definitely others: Need New Body, Stinking Lizavetta, there’s great stuff in this town. This is what I know. This is where I live. Then I play with bands on tour.

BUDDYHEAD: Tell me about Philly· it’s a really cheesy question, but do you feel like there’s some Philly in the band, like the way the band sounds?

Dimitri: People tell me that we sound very Philly. I’ve written many songs here in Philadelphia and we play them so I guess that’s a reflection of what I’m looking at.

BUDDYHEAD: What do you think of the crowds, or the people that are into rock music in Philly?

Dimitri: When people get excited in Philly, man, there’s no greater audience to play to. They can also be a tough crowd. When you’re more of the underdog, they can really fucking make you feel great and then when you start doing well, then sometimes a few people turn their head to you. But who knows, man. I’ve never had so many friends. I’ve never met so many cool people and I’ve never had a city embrace me the way Philadelphia has and I’m in it for the long haul, unless a certain somebody can persuade me to move to California! It’s all palm trees and lizards and the surfing and the Mexican food and the-

BUDDYHEAD: -the weather.

Dimitri: Yes. The weather.

BUDDYHEAD: If someone asked you what Burning Brides was all about, what would you say?

Dimitri: Honestly, an aggressive assault, being brave enough to show off your total self, to be vulnerable, to write great songs that will stand the test of time, hopefully to somebody.

BUDDYHEAD: What do you find yourself writing about? The songs, what are they about?

Dimitri: They tend to be kind of… I sort of take it line by line. The important thing is how the lines sound, how the vowels sound. Are they the appropriate ones for this particular part? And then I fill in the lyrics, sort of going off of the sounds that I want to hear, trying to make a tasty image out of that. That’s about it. It’s very stream of conscience, and I’m getting more and more into it. To be honest with you, I’m starting to get really into lyrics. I didn’t think they were as important but now I’m realizing that they are.

BUDDYHEAD: Cool.

Dimitri: But I also think that lyrics, see in rock ‘n roll, lyrics like, “Well I’m starting to sweat/You know my shirt’s all wet/What a feeling” by the MC5 (Kick out the Jams), it’s not very deep but it is to me. It’s celebrating in the world of rock ‘n roll, and I like to write lyrics like that and I like to write lyrics about personal shit, just whatever.

BUDDYHEAD: We were talking earlier today about rock music, what it is now, the state that it’s in, how difficult it can be for independent bands right now who are actually good to gain any kind of exposure. There’s a lot of crap right now. There are a lot of bands, there’s a shitload of bands, but there aren’t a lot of good bands.

Dimitri: There’s a lot of scared kids out there· I guess I’d be terrified if I were a kid right now.

BUDDYHEAD: What do you think of all the mediocrity? There’s so much mediocre rock music.

Dimitri: People are scared and they’re not willing to step up to the plate and to have a sense of sexuality in their music, but not in a cheesy way like a fucking Creed or some cock-rock bullshit, but to just celebrate in the world of rock ‘n roll. Not think, but feel and have it be from the heart as well. That’s just been lacking man. Since Nirvana, I haven’t really been into a big band.

BUDDYHEAD: Understood.

Dimitri: I wish there was a strong movement in the underground, the way there was in the 80′s. In fact, it’s really similar to the way it was in the 80′s, the way it is right now kinda, except there’s not as strong of an underground movement! Haha!

BUDDYHEAD: How long was your tour that you just did?

Dimitri: It was six weeks.

BUDDYHEAD: What was your conclusion after that?

Dimitri: My conclusion was that at the very end I got to play with a really great band that I want to tour with, that was my conclusion. As far as the whole thing, it was not an easy time to go out and tour, that’s for sure with all the shit that’s going on. It was incredible for us. It was just awesome, a great time. I learned a lot about myself and the fucking country we live in.

BUDDYHEAD: Is this the longest tour you’ve done?

Dimitri: Yeah.

BUDDYHEAD: What were the difficulties you had to face that you didn’t think were going to pop up? Was it harder than you thought or was it easier?

Dimitri: Easier, way easier. Part of it was the weather. It’s like what the fuck is going on right now with the weather? It’s December 1st, and I could go outside in a t-shirt in Philadelphia. Something’s a little weird with that.

BUDDYHEAD: Were there any interesting stories?

Dimitri: Weird, weird times.

BUDDYHEAD: Yeah, it is weird times. You were saying earlier about that San Francisco show where you were getting shocked really bad. Tell us that story too.

Dimitri: During sound check, I was getting shocked and I was like, “Dude, can you help me out here? I’m getting shocked.” He’s telling me it’s my problem with my equipment. I’ve been in that situation before where a sound guy’s gone, “Oh, I know what to do.” This guy didn’t know what to do and his solution to the problem was to put a fucking foam piece over the mic so I wouldn’t be in direct contact. He was like, “Well, you’re on in five minutes. That’s the best I can do.” So we started playing and things were going all right. The vocals sounded a little bit underwater because I got a goddamn fucking foam piece over it and three songs into it I started sweating up a storm. I did like a headbang type of thing and my hair just contacts the metal of the mic and blew sparks, just shot out and the first five rows of people just go, “Whoa.” And I got thrown back hard and I stopped the show, and I never stop a Brides show. You better have a damn good reason. I was like, “Look dude, what the fuck?” The place was very crowded and it just turned into this intense thing where we’re like talking to each other and he’s throwing his arms up, and everybody in the room is just like, “That sound guy is an asshole!” So I had to end up singing far away from the mic and I was just pissed off and just looking at him and just singing at him. People dug it on some weird level but it’s like I was telling you we experienced, it’s like a missed opportunity, a fucking bummer. I was on tour for four fucking weeks not getting shocked. Don’t tell me it’s my fucking equipment. I didn’t get shocked after that.

BUDDYHEAD: You said you threw a guitar at some girl, where was that?

Dimitri: Yeah, way back in the early days. We played a show in Philly. It was an early show. It was probably our sixth or seventh show, and at the end of the set, at the end of the show, I got excited. I just thought that if I threw my guitar out in the audience, someone would catch it and start making sounds with it and that’s how the show would end. It was just an impulse. I threw it and this girl wasn’t paying attention, and it just cracked her in the fucking head. She almost had to go to the hospital. She wasn’t bleeding or anything like that but she seemed, you know, like weird for a while. Basically, through trying to make sure she’s okay, Mike our drummer, and she sort of hit it off, this is back before Mike had a girlfriend, just to set the record straight. And they had a night together. So it’s like a very weird way of hooking up with somebody.

BUDDYHEAD: Any other interesting stories that happened this summer? Anything that sticks out?

Dimitri: Yeah, I guess having the Oasis brothers mistake me for being in The Strokes. That was kind of entertaining for about half an hour.

BUDDYHEAD: What happened? You were at The Strokes’ show and–

Dimitri:  I was checking out The Strokes. They did a residency here in Philly and I wanted to go check them out. They were on the front cover of NME, let’s check ‘em out, right? They [the Gallagher brothers] show up and I had just seen them play with The Black Crowes that night. I was in the bathroom, going to take a piss, and Noel, the guy that writes the songs, he just puts his arm around me and starts telling me all the great things we’re going to do when we play shows together in England and fucking tells me what drugs we’re going to do. I just went along with it. I felt strange, you know, but I went along with it for a long time and then at the end of the night I told him, and he had a good sense of humor about it.

BUDDYHEAD: That’s awesome.

Dimitri: Yeah, it was pretty funny.

A few months ago while I was working for my friend, Shepard Fairey, I had the chance to not only meet one of my most influential childhood idols but also interview him. Glen E. Friedman is for photography like Black Flag is to my friends who picked up a guitar after realizing that they themselves could “do that too!”

I saw what Glen was doing… just basically shooting his friends skateboarding, making art, having fun, making music and documenting all the cool shit that was happening around him… and that no one else was documenting either… and I figured I could do the same thing with a 1980 35mm Canon A-1 hand-me-down camera (which I still use to this day). Just so happens that Glen’s friends included Minor Threat (and later Fugazi), Black Flag, Beastie Boys, Ice-T, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, The Misfits, Bad Brains, Run-D.M.C., KRS-One, Public Enemy as well as Tony Alva, Jay Adams, Alan Gelfand, Duane Peters, and Stacy Peralta just to drop a few names on your lap.

But Glen is more than just a great photographer and artist, he’s a great personality with  a biting opinion about pretty much everything, a father and now a pretty damn good friend (email) of mine. He’s one swell dude. Well, enough rambling by me… let’s let Glen take over in that department. Enjoy!

And make sure to check out Glen’s bran new BLOG @ http://idealistpropaganda.blogspot.com/

Glen from BUDDYHEAD on Vimeo.

Check out this “interview” Travis did (kinda) with Darker My Love… together they talk about people knocking LA, tour, garage band and there’s even a few uncomfortable silences to boot! It’s hands down the worst interview ever posted on Buddyhead (due to Travis not having any questions not cuz of you dudes in the band). But hey, can you name another interview where the band asks “Do you want me to recite the questions most people ask us?” We doubt it. Plus, Outto from The Simpsons is in the video. Click on the video above and watch Travis sink… Yes, we only bring you the best here at Buddyhead. Enjoy the suck.

Buddyhead presents Filthy Goldberg going perv-to-perv with Jared Swilley and Cole Alexander from the Black Lips.

Seeing a Black Lips show is like watching a band of gypsy witches gang-bang a daycare for autistic homosexuals. And wait till you hear them talk.

Let Dr. Jared and Prof. Cole tutor you on:

• Funerals for condoms
• Semen-beasts
• The art of Wang-fu
• Hookers that get hit
• Hookers that clean and cook
• Hookers from Iceland

Someone get these kids some helmets.

Since Buddyhead has been offline, we found out about this thing called the internet. Apparently, we can stream music. And since we don’t care to ask relevant questions, the Black Lips didn’t get to plug their album, 200-Million-Thousand out on Vice. So we’ll let you listen to it here at no cost. No sign-up jive. No limited-listen jive. Shit is free.

Buddyhead is tired of watching boring-homos with shitty camera crews talking ROCK N’ ROLL like its a community college assignment. So we are stepping up some big game on that end.

BUDDYHEAD is comin’ BACK and won’t do you no wrong, children.

Check out Huxtable’s talk with Murs, L.A.s President-elect of Hip-hop.

Murs is an acronym for Making Underground Raw Shit and thats what he’s been doing for years, initially as a member of The Living Legends and now on his own. This emcee has come a long way from selling tapes and weed out of a backpack. Now at Warner Bros. Records, Murs is working with names like Snoop and 9th Wonder. This rapper has become a major player in the push for creativity in hip-hop and has one hell of an intellect.

In fact, Murs is quick to declare himself the fifth most intelligent rapper and the number-one smartest black rapper. We can’t really comment on that; KRS-ONE seems smarter than God and Ludacris invented the “hozone layer,” so we’ll leave that call to the qualified. That said, Murs is an intelligent dude. He knows what a shirt is and doesn’t make personal gain by promising poor kids diamonds if they kill their friends and smoke rock. He’s doing positive hip-hop and he’s doing it with skill.

He is also a gigantic geek. Dude reads like 32 comic books a week and wants to kick Brian Wood’s ass. You probably don’t know who that is. Well, Brian Wood, he writes comics. And Murs is going to fuck him up. Tell us:

If you looked like this…

…and wrote comic books for a living, would you screw with a rapper? Dork has it coming.

Your boy Murs is doing good things. Listen to MURS For President here, at no cost, and then buy it with your preferred currency. Go see his show, too. He rips live.

In closing, I’m too small a man to resist telling you that Murs admitted (off-camera) that he cried during Star Wars Episode 1.

John Darnielle might be a pussy, but he ain’t no poseur. So don’t worry yourself with leaving comments about how he’s a pussy; we all know he goes to bed at 8 o’clock. What’s important here is that John is a rad dude that keeps it real.

Do we listen to his music? Gods, no! But neither does he. John’s too busy being a professor of metal. In fact, this idol to the nerds recently wrote an entire book on Black Sabbath! Travis really wants someone to read it to him every night as he lays down for bed, his hopes are set on the author.

Anyway, when I told John Darnielle I was with Buddyhead, his face lit up and you could practically see pussies getting nuked in his eyes. [Editors note: Chip is the closest things Buddyhead has to Kim Jong-il, cept instead of dropping H-bombs on America like Kim Jong wants to, Chip focuses on dropping the Buddyhead name on nerds in bands and any chick with a laptop, job and wireless connection - Hey man, we don't blame him. Take what you can get champ!]

Anyhow… Mountain Goats love Buddyhead! But he’s still a dork and so we were going to publish his phone number and home address. It only took one look at his creepy message boards to forget about that idea. Mountain Goats fans only live in diaries and the deepest, darkest parts of the internet, but one of them could figure out how to come into the real world and John wouldn’t last an hour. Those would be some nasty murder-suicide reports. And the surviving fans would be after Buddyhead in revenge.

NO, THANK YOU!

So, instead of incurring the wrath of the world’s most dangerous dorks, we’ll just call it Family Night here at Buddyhead and let you watch Huxxxtable interview John Darnielle.

Just over one week ago, the legendary Oblivians, with the Gories in tow, reunited to burn Memphis to the ground and I was there to bother the shit out of them.

Despite having broken up in 1999, the Oblivians remain a representation of Rock & Roll at its most fundamental. These cretins and lowlifes are often said to be progenitors of the garage-punk movement. And true as that may be, it does not do justice. The Oblivians are best described as a gospel band. Not only because they covered traditional gospel songs, but rather on account of how they embraced the unapologetic soul of that music. The Oblivians are among the best bands to realize the spirit of Rock & Roll is a thing belonging to the black and Baptist. Hell, the Oblivians are among the best bands, period.

A gospel-punk band probably sounds like a disaster. And in the hands of anyone else, it probably would be. But gospel music is purposed for setting the spirit loose in Holy release. Traditionally, this has been done in the name of the Lord. The Oblivians, inspired by that pure, powerful music, took what began as a joke band, and started a Rock & Roll religion exalting drugs, sex, violence, and yes, the Lord. The Oblivians rip with a baseness and honesty that is truly a thing to behold. Greg and co. might be getting really old, but they haven’t aged. The Brothers-O shouted about faggots and sex and drugs and hitting women like it was the first time. This was not a reunion, it was a revival.

And seeing the Gories GO OFF just made the whole weekend that much better! We met our new friend the Ice Cream Man at the show and ate his ice cream. He gets WEIRD for the Gories! And his camera guys were actually allowed to go inside the Hi-Tone without harassing Eric O.! Ice Cream Man’s got you covered on those Gories.

My spirit has been lifted:

Now, I would like to take a moment to air my grievances with several members of the Oblivians’ audience. I say the following with the understanding that I am the dick with the camera. But I am this sort of dick for a productive purpose. And I really do try to stay out of the way. Given that the dude who normally operates the second camera couldn’t make it to Memphis, I was stuck with a tough shoot. Most of the audience actually helped me out, but the following idiots BLOW:

1: He-who-blots-out-the-sun. You know the nine-foot tall dumb ass that decides someone with his dimensions should be RIGHT AT THE FRONT OF THE STAGE? He’s gotten worse. Now he has a huge afro and looks like the mongoloid from Coheed and Cambria. And just in case someone, somewhere, could see around his titatnic ass, he constantly shook his retarded fro back n’ forth for good measure.

2: Shirtless e-freak. You can see him rolling in, oh, ALL of my shots. On account of no one wanting to get anywhere near him, this slimy wiener had a ton of stage-side real estate to keep touching himself in. He spent the rest of his time scutteling on stage like a desperate lizard to guzzle whatever beer was left in Eric O.’s discarded bottles. You’re a freak. Take your pills at home and stay there.

3: White girl dreads. If there was one thing I thought I could avoid at an Oblivians show, it was white girl dreads. No luck there. I got slapped in the face by some of these garbage ropes and the stink still won’t come out. That isn’t hair, sister; it’s a putrid, yellow disease.

4: Rock-a-billy pervert: I have no idea why this elderly-looking guy was humping a table when he thought no one was watching. Yes, it looked just like it sounds.

5: Will-call tickets: So, the first night, Vishal was explaining to me the merits of will-call tickets. He’s a dork and so I tuned out. We got up to the front of the line and guess what? Yep– “NO VISHAL ON THE LIST, SIR!” Guess, what happened the next night with my lady’s ticket? Guess who had to go to the A.T.M for another 23 big ones? Oblivians/Gories Shakedown ’09!! WOO!!!

Now with that out of the way, let’s rap about Greg Cartwright and the Oblivians.

I was stoked to be interviewing Greg Cartwright. He is an artist whose work I very much admire. In all seriousness, this man is a contender for best musician working. He is also a terribly nice guy. No matter the band, Cartwright’s music is unflinchingly honest and always spiritual. You would be hard-pressed to see the performance of a musician more connected with his own work. The Reigning Sound begs on bended knees and the Oblivians fuck you all night long, but it’s always Greg Cartwright doin’ his thang. And with his heroes mostly dead, there is no one doing it better.

In person, Greg Cartwright is a lot like his songs. He’s modest, laughs frequently, and is stoic as a western. When I met up with Greg at Goner records, he was wearing shorts and old man sandals while listening intently to records in a corner. Just after saying hello, the family man received a call from his wife. I heard the apologetic stutters and saw the fear of God in his eyes and knew this was going to be a brief interview. He had to hang out with his grandma, you see. By our count, Greg’s grandma cannot be less than 142 years old.

After the interview, homeboy dropped nearly $700 on vinyl, like a damn rapper. “It’s a disease!” he says. In addition to the two rooms in his home already filled with discs, Greg has had to build an additional garage to support his habit. No wonder Mrs. Cartwright is pissed. His taxman helps him write the addiction off. “Research!” he says.

Digging information out of Greg is a chore (he doesn’t remember what songs are on his upcoming albums– or the release date), but I can tell you that his current band, the great Reigning Sound, is releasing Love And Curses on In The Red Records come August 11th. If you’re not an idiot, you will buy it. He also let slip that the Reigning Sound has an acoustic album in the works. He didn’t know any of the songs on that one either.

I should also spend a few words on Eric Friedl and Jack-O. Eric Oblivian, who owns and operates Goner Records, is probably too nice a guy. I pestered this dude something fierce. But I don’t feel bad about it, because he’s from Hawaii which is kind of weird. Eric’s record shop is everything a music store should be. The dudes working there are friendly and were actively rushing about helping customers like it was a damn Wal-Mart. It’s nice to know that one of the best record stores still going is run by guys who aren’t dicks. I guess it should be expected from the fellow who wrote “Guitar Shop Asshole.”

I can also report that Jack-O. is as bomb as I suspected him to be. This Oblivian was carting around a hot little thing that couldn’t be half his age. He also got the hell away from me. Smart man. You still need to buy his latest record, The Disco Outlaw.

Hopefully, I can catch up with both Greg Cartwright and Jack-O. this September when a reunited Compulsive Gamblers play Goner Fest.

Until then, you should buy the web-only, Oblivians live LP, Barristers Ninetyfive. It was recorded in 1995 and kills the rest of your crappy records. You can probably find it here. Garage-punk labels seem to prefer their sites looking like anglefire and tripod web-fossils. Sell all the buttons and denim and buy a web-designer, dorks. You too, Eric O.

If you’re a filthy, undeserving European, you can still see the Oblivians and Gories here:

03-Jul El Sol – Madrid Spain
04-Jul Kafe Antzokia – Bilboa Spain
05-Jul Venue tba -Barcelona Spain
06-Jul BT59- Bordeaux France
07-Jul Maroquineri -Paris France
08-Jul Vera – Groningen Netherlands
09-Jul Brussel or Gent Belgium
10-Jul Blast Off- Nottingham UK
11-Jul Paradiso – Amsterdam
12-Jul Sjock – Gierle Belgium
14-Jul Gleis 22 – Munster Germany
15-Jul Festsaal – Berlin Germany
16-Jul 59 to 1- Munchen Germany

Here’s a quick interview I did with Steve Turner (left) and Mark Arm (right) of the rock n’ roll band Mudhoney before they played a show @ the El Rey Theatre in Hollywood on November 14th, 2008. Mudhoney has been one of my favorite bands now for about 15 years and just like fine wine, they get better (and funnier) with age. The best part was not only did Mark and Steve make me laugh and let me ask em a bunch of dumb questions about their band, newest record “The Lucky Ones” (on Sub Pop), hot 60 year olds, “Manzilians”, moving on and how bad texting sucks, but I also got to DJ in between bands (Japanese Motors and Model/Actress also played). Can someone please explain to me why it’s so fun to simply play “Sex Bomb” by Flipper and “Dehumanized” by Void really loud through a PA? Mudhoney opened the show with “The Money Will Roll Right In”, as usual kicked some serious ass and for about an hour or so there it felt like everything was ok (and it was 1991 again). A big thank you goes out to Bill McShane for once again making my shitty camera work look a little more presentable with his fancy editing work. The dude is good like that I tell ya. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the interview – stream or DOWNLOAD NOW BRO.

- Travis Keller

Mudhoney VS Buddyhead (Interviewed by Travis November 14th, 2008) ) from BUDDYHEAD

This kid is really weird.

Full disclosure:

We shot this interview with Bradford Cox, front man of Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, the day prior to our rad interview with Brad’s buddies, The Black Lips. But that was not the first time we’ve encountered this character.

Earlier this year, Buddyhead hanged with both Brad and Deerhunter’s bassist, Josh Fauver. Given that we are not remotely “The Press,” we had zero questions worth asking, and so resorted to instigating an argument over Weezer. Shit got heated and afterward, Brad requested that we not post the interview. And we haven’t. And that’s fine, because this is one is way… better?

For anyone curious about what went on in the “lost” interview, I’ll give you the score:

Josh thinks Weezer’s fully wack, and wouldn’t stand in the same arena as a song playing from the Green album. Bradford doesn’t, and would.

Josh told us to publish the full, unedited Weezer-nuking interview. Bradford, he said “Don’t.”

Well, actually Brad made the specific request that we refrain from relaying the bits about Josh wanting to use 14-year-old, sweatshop Koreans laced with cocaine to bait Rivers Cuomo into a gas chamber. Or something to that effect. Josh goes off. But that was apparently not an image Brad wanted associated with Deerhunter. He was fine, however, with advising that meeting Mark E. Smith will ruin your love for music. (We can’t wait! Mark- it’s our turn, cousin! Fire us from The Fall!)

Brad also rightly said, “The Arcade Fire is soooooo gay” and admitted to buying a Hendrix “signature model” fuzz pedal that same day. No productive conversation took place beyond that point, because we wouldn’t shut up about Gary Glitter. We never shut up about Gary Glitter. It’s a wonder that nerds in bands keep letting us waste their time.

At any rate, our dialogue with Deerhunter has been congenial, and most likely because a) homeboy wasn’t wearing his sister’s dress when we talked to him and b) the Deerhunter guys are friendly fellows with good taste. Yep- Deerhunter is a class act. Bradford might screw with journalists and he sure talks some weird shit on stage, but that’s rock & roll, right? He’s a sweetheart, otherwise. And judging from what I’ve seen, both he and Josh are very appreciative of their goofy fans. I watched these guys respond to compliments from big, enthusiastic girls with replies like, “Oh, that’s very sweet! Thank you so much!” Complete gentlemen, right? As friendly as they are, these perverts are sure to have all sorts of nasty weird lurking in their bedroom closets. Don’t go into a Deerhunter closet.

Anyway, since I’ve just defeated the purpose of not publishing the original video, please consider all of this as hearsay and speculation…that happens to be gospel truth.

To make up for the valuable time we wasted by talking about child molesters, we met up with Bradford a while later so he could get his chance to yammer about boring bullshit and ask you- our ever-faithful readership of greasy, Dennys cooks – to buy his dorky records. But that didn’t happen.

Instead of that jive, we filmed the fruitcake licking psychedelic toads for an hour. Best night of Brad’s life. He was crawling up walls like a goddamn gecko. Shit freaked us the fuck OUT! I tried to stop the interview eight times, out of concern for everyone’s safety, but homeboy was not about to throw in that nasty towel.

Okay, we haven’t really made Deerhunter suck on drug frogs (yet).

Truth is, Brad got silly with swine flu and we exploited it shamelessly. Apparently, homie’s evolved some auto-immune defense that sets him off tripping HARD when he gets sick. (So hard in fact, that Travis is determined to snort the weirdo’s next flu like it’s his life’s work. And it might as well be: He’s a fucking DJ.)

Watch the video. And stay to the end, folks: this thing gets weird.

Afterward, listen to Deerhunter’s new EP, Rainwater Cassette Exchange, right here. It’s rad and Brad’s rad, so buy it.

And don’t forget about the new Atlas Sound album, Logos, that drops 10/20 on Kranky. The man is working hard.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Welcome our newest writer, Rahawa Haile. Her articles are best read if you imagine she has a British accent, because she does (occasionally, it's more of a twang when she sings, really).]

If you’ve yet to hear Crystal Antlers, I can’t say I blame you. The “crystal” prefix was 2008′s alias for “Shitty McShit Shit And His Shitstorm Band.” Rest assured, however, the Antlers are solid. Maybe even supersolid. Their songs are well-crafted and gut-wrenching in the best possible way, and let’s be honest — it’s refreshing to see a soulful, noisy band use their abundance of technical proficiency as something other than a masturbatory aide.

We caught up with lead singer/bassist Jonny Bell last week as he waxed poetic about chimney sweep attire, his stance on illegally downloaded music, and the non-psychedelic aspects of his (arguably psychedelic) band. Guitarist Errol Davis makes a brief appearance, takes 30 seconds to derive the perfect noodling:non-noodling ratio for musicians.

There’s some acid involved. And clouds. And chicks. (No one gets laid.)

Buddyhead: So what’s on your plate these days?

Jonny Bell: Just got off chimney sweep duty. On my way to band practice. We’re back in California now. Have a week to ourselves and then off to Europe for about a month. Lots of festivals. Looking forward to playing with Health and Deerhunter and Black Lips.

BH: Still with the chimney sweep business?

JB: I’m still with the chimney sweep business. Get to wear a top hat and everything.

BH: How very Dick Van Dyke.

JB: You have no idea. It gets very hot up there. Sometimes we even have to sing for the customers, or things like that. Seriously. Sometimes if it’s an old lady or something and they really want us to do it we’ll sing. We occasionally work together.

BH: It’s funny you should mention playing with Health and Black Lips; they’re slated to play one of the Williamsburg Pool Parties together. You definitely would have fit in much better there than you did last week with the Dirty Projectors and Magnolia Electric Co.

JB: Tell me about it.

BH: Speaking of which, I noticed you had a different organist at the pool party. Where’s Victor [Rodriguez] (the original organist).

JB: We played with Victor for a few years, but he had…other…priorities. He also wasn’t a US citizen, which caused a lot of problems for us traveling overseas. So we found someone else that was a good fit — Cora Foxx, our new organist.

BH: Do you think your music more fitting for darker venues or outdoor shows?

JB: I prefer playing dark venues, but i think playing big shows will be a good chance to get a lot of exposure in Europe. It’s nice playing festivals because we get to see a lot of our friends in other bands. A good chance to catch up with people. It’ll be our third time in Europe. The U.K. was a bit mundane last time around because it felt like we were playing the same show every day, but we love playing in the U.K..

BH: You called Crystal Antlers “more punk than psychedelic” in an earlier interview. Were you mincing words because a lot of what we refer to as garage rock or garage psych today used to be called punk in the late 1960s and early 70s?

JB:I don’t call us anything, really. We used to all be in punk bands, we operate kind of like a punk band. I don’t think we’re a psychedelic band.

BH: One of your bandmates calls himself “Sexual Chocolate….”

JB: He doesn’t go by that anymore.

BH: You guys are often on the road. Where does most of your songwriting take place?

JB: I write the songs everywhere. In the van. On the road. In the middle of Iowa sometimes. Parts of “Andrew” were written in the middle of Iowa. Some of the stuff I’ll write at home in Long Beach. Because we’re traveling so much we just have to write wherever we are. I just need a guitar, or Casio keyboard or something. And a boombox.

BH: A boombox?

JB: I record everything onto a boombox. I have cassette tapes of my entire life.

BH: Like memoirs? Chord progressions?

JB: Yes, audio memoirs, in a way, but mostly notes to myself and notes for songs.

BH: As a result of these notations, do the lyrics frequently come first or the music?

JB: Sometimes a little of each. It’s usually best when written at once, you know? “A Thousand Eyes” was all written at once.

BH: I always got that impression from “Parting Song for the Sky” off your EP.

JB: Actually, that was the first recording we ever did. It was a remix of our first single. We recorded that when Errol was 17, sort of before we even started the band. Three piece. Errol, Kevin, and me. Everyone else came in bits and pieces. Victor came a little while after that was recorded. Errol left to move to Thailand about 1.5 years ago and that’s when Andrew joined the band. Then Errol came back. Now we’re us. We all grew up together, played together. That kind of thing.

BH: Are there any special circumstances that allow you to do what you do? Clearly driving around in a vegetable-oil-guzzling van with considerable mileage helps. Anything else?

JB: It’s been a real struggle; basically everyone lost their jobs because we started going on tour a lot and as a result they lost their apartments as well and everything. So we had to pull together, and we’re all spread pretty thin. But all we care about is playing music together. I guess because everyone is so committed to this we’ve somehow been able to make it work. Even now. I’m still working every day I can, and then going to work on music.

BH: You toured with the Cold War Kids…why? Were you received well?

JB: We were received OK. Good exposure. Depended on the city. I think we’re maybe too abrasive or too confusing for some of their fans.

BH: It doesn’t take much, not for their fans.

JB: There were some shows where it sort of came off very well and we were able to make it work. It was nice to play with those guys, they’re also from the same town, and we didn’t know them before the tour but it was cool that they were really big fans and wanted to take us out on the road. Interesting looking at the mainstream.

BH: How so?

JB: They had a giant tour bus, everything seemed very sterile, you know?

BH: Is that in line with your aspirations?

JB: I don’t think so. The way we’ve been touring now is great. Doing everything on our own without tour managers, driving ourselves, doing the vegetable oil bus thing.

BH: Tell me more about Michael Reich, the guy who directed your “Andrew” video. You’re scoring some film for him?

JB: Michael Reich has a website called Videothing. He’s been doing this target video style, short videos of bands, and it’s really cool what he does. Now his video performances include live editing, switching between five different TVs at once of five different bands. Says something about his attention span….

BH: You beat me to it.

JB: He went on tour with us in Europe and performed.

BH: And the “Andrew” video?

JB: Andrew was filmed almost entirely in the van on our first European tour by Michael, and also during that time we were working on a feature-length film. He scripted this film about us going on our first European tour. He would write scenes for different people. Anyway, we’re going to do the soundtrack.

BH: For this scripted film of your band on tour when your band was on tour?

JB: Yeah! Should be out early next year. We’re writing new music for it.

BH: How does the score sound?

JB: It’s a lot of music we’ve worked on that didn’t really fit on the album, more ethereal, instrumental type stuff that would work better with a movie score situation.

BH: Is the soundtrack collaborative?

JB: It’s collaborative, but i write most of the music. I’ll usually write lyrics and chords and then we’ll sort of work on arrangements and details.

BH: Are you happy with your latest LP, Tentacles?

JB: Look, all we wanted to do was make an honest record. Thought the best way to do that was put ourselves in a really intense situation, so we recorded the entire album in a week.

BH: You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

JB: Really. We mixed everything at this studio called Closer in San Francisco but not with Ikey Owens (Mars Volta keyboardist/producer of Crystal Antlers’ EP) due to conflicting schedules. Tentacles wasn’t produced at all. It’s just us playing our songs and our friend Joe recording them.

BH: There appears to be a lot of despair toward the end of Tentacles, particularly with the last three tracks, “Your Spears,” “Swollen Sky” and the gargantuan “Several Tongues.”

JB: It’s pretty despair-ridden, I guess. “Swollen Sky” is about a friend of mine that was killed by the police. He was my first roommate. It was a really unfortunate situation where he got shot by the police and killed right in front of his parents. So that song is about that and abusive authority and how sad the whole situation was. “Several Tongues” was about everything we were trying to make that record, and also a little bit about Native American culture and language.

BH: Which aspects of Native American culture?

JB: Errol and I study South American and North American culture a lot, particularly as it relates to Native American history. All of our songs sort of had a certain meaning when I wrote them, but they always kind of change. I’ll notice certain things when I’m playing. Like in the middle of a show, I’ll notice connections that weren’t there or the meaning is different.

BH: That happens to me when I listen to “Andrew.”

JB: Exactly. Like on the song “Andrew,” I’m always noticing how it relates to things in my life. When I wrote it it was sort of about someone else I knew who had also died at that time.

BH: Another death?

JB: Yeah, but as we were playing/touring I was sort of thinking about how “Andrew” related to what we were going through, struggling through to play music. Then Andrew [King], one of our guitarists, was showing us this Daniel Johnston song he really liked, “Pot Head,” and I was thinking about how the lyrics were getting at the same thing.

BH: Do you have a favorite song to play or sing?

JB: “A Thousand Eyes.” I like to play it a lot. I really enjoyed writing that song and that whole process. I really like the lyrics and the vocal melodies and stuff, and it’s also not too difficult for me to sing. Even if I lost my voice I could still sing it. Some songs are really difficult for me to sing. “Swollen Sky,” for example. Part 2. I’ve lost my voice a few times, and it’s something I’m always battling on tour, but Ive learned a lot of different ways to make my voice last longer.

BH: Like health-related choices?

JB: Well, I had to quit smoking, for starters, and I don’t drink at all when I’m on tour. I do a lot of vocal warmups and stuff. I studied choir in college and high school and Baroque singing, so I do all those warmups and things. It helps me sing in my very improper way for Crystal Antlers.

BH: Wait. You sang Baroque music?

JB: For years.

BH: You sang Baroque music, and now you sweep chimneys when you aren’t howling on stage?

JB: I’m destined for the black lung. I saw a story about us once, where they were saying that I was a liar because we weren’t really chimney sweeps or something like that.

BH: Did you spit soot in their face?

JB: I would’ve. I should, if I ever see them.

BH: So what’s next? Do you have a home/label now that Touch and Go is a thing of a past?

JB: We’re sort of homeless, but we were homeless before Touch and Go and we were just fine. Right now we’re going to continue doing all the things we’re planning to do. Like working on the movie with Michael, and working on our next record, and another 7″ to put out. We may work with another label, or we may just do it on our own.

BH: I heard you guys were practically Luddites when it came to computers. Do you even own one?

JB: I caved in and got one, yeah. But the Internet is the problem. The Internet is the reason why people can download anything they want for free. They have a choice of whether they want to pay for music or not. But the Internet is also the solution, because there aren’t enough people buying records to support the middleman anymore. Maybe enough people will buy records directly from the bands so maybe the bands can survive. We sell stuff, everything sells pretty well, but at the same time, in the whole record industry people aren’t buying music anymore, not the way they used to.

BH: So are you for or against downloading music, illegally or otherwise?

JB: I’ve never really downloaded music illegally much myself. I think illegal downloading is just the inevitable scenario. There’s nothing to be done about it, but the record industry — everything about it was this old model screwing every artist over. In a way, downloading is sort of putting the power back in the hands of the bands and consumers. The bands can put their music up for free if they want. We also sell just as many records as we do CDs, but vinyl is so expensive to make that the markup is half of what you make on CDs…but i would definitely prefer to have vinyl most of the time, and it’s clearly what our fans want.

BH: Who’s behind your album art?

JB: Janet Beeler, our friend. She lives in Philly, but she used to live in Long Beach. When we went on tour in Philly we went to her house and stayed with her, and I never knew she was an artist, but we saw all this beautiful artwork all over her house and she had part of the cover of tentacles lying around. She had this big paint thing she was doing. The thing on the cover is actually six feet tall; it’s huge, and it’s just dried pieces of paint. I’m not sure how she did it exactly, but I think she painted the rest of the background and pieced it together somehow. We sent her the music and told her to come up with something, and we got the Tentacles cover.

BH: Do you read your own reviews?

JB: I never read our reviews. Maybe if we’re sitting at someone’s house somewhere, maybe I’ll take a look at one. I try not to look. I just don’t want to know what people think about us, I can find out based on how people react to how we were playing, but I don’t want to change anything based on what someone says in a review.

BH: Did you enjoy performing at the Williamsburg Pool Party?

JB: Our manager reads reviews, and everything he read about that show is positive about us, but everyone was saying it was a super hipster event and that everyone seemed like they didn’t care.

BH: It was. They didn’t.

JB: But we’ve had lots of really great shows there before. It was fun, and we were able to be there. It’s such a treat when we get to fly out just to go to a show for a weekend. It’s actually kind of like a vacation.

BH: Do you have any significant “touring band” gripes?

JB: A lot. I don’t know if i really want to get into it. It’s frustrating how fickle everyone is, you know? And the way everything works is just so…high school all over again.

BH: I fucking hated high school.

JB: Yeah, me too. And everyone is full of shit. I remember when we first started playing and we were talking with Owens, and he said this is just like high school. There aren’t as many bands and people as you think there are, and before you know it you’ll know everyone. A bunch of social groups. The more we play around and the more we meet people in the music industry the more I realize how true that is.

BH: So this band manager….

JB: Yeah, our manager is our friend Phil. He booked a show for us once and he really liked us. He kept getting calls from people trying to book us for other shows. And we set up shows a few times before he was just like, “Do you want me to help you guys?” And he’s like the same age as us and he’d never managed any bands before, so we just worked together for a really long time trying to figure out how to book a tour and everything. It’s cool because a lot of people we’ve worked with were kind of just getting started.

BH: Even Owens.

JB: Owens, when he produced us, had only produced a few bands before. That EP was one of his first projects. Phil is just out of college and working a regular job, but now he actually knows what he’s doing being a manger. So far we’ve paid him the same as a band member, basically. We’re all just doing this thing together. It’s a really interesting time for us musically, especially with having a new member and a new energy in the band and having a sort of open-ended opportunity for another record label.

BH: Well thanks, Jonny –

JB: Wait, I just ran into Cora and Errol [Davis] (guitarist). Are you on acid, Errol? Yes?

BH: At band practice? Are we still going with the whole “not a psych band” thing, because –

JB: No, I’m at the park. Hold on.

(hands phone to Errol)

Errol Davis: Hello?

BH: Hi, Errol.

ED: Did we meet?

BH: Yes.

ED: Were you cool? One of the cool kids?

BH: Definitely not.

ED: Good…I think I remember you.

BH: Is this how your practices usually go, lying in the field? Tripping?

ED: No, it isn’t practice unless we can look for shapes in the clouds.

BH: No clouds today?

ED: It’s actually a pretty clear day right now, so no. No clouds. But you know what? It’s nicer in Long Beach than it was in New York.

BH: Too hot?

ED: So fucking hot.

ED: So…Hey, let’s talk about something fun.

BH: OK. Like chicks and stuff?

ED: Totally! Let’s talk about chicks.

(awkward silence)

ED: Yeah, I like that about them, too.

BH: I didn’t say anything.

ED: What?

BH: So tell me, as a guitarist, about how you approach these songs.

ED: I try to string everything together and add a little bit of emotion. A noodle here, a noodle there.

BH: A-ha! So you’re the noodler on the album!

ED: I try not to noodle too much! Maybe a 1:2 ratio of noodling to not noodling. It took me a while to figure out, but now I think that’s the perfect ratio for us. It’s interesting every once a while to hear people do that.

BH: Do you also carry a boombox around with you when it comes to writing new material?

ED: It’s a lot easier to write when I’m at home than when we’re on tour because there’s all this monotony to deal with every day. Like getting to the venue. Sound checking. Eating. Well not eating. I love eating.

BH: Do you have a favorite guitar?

ED: Actually, I want to send a shout-out to the guitar that got stolen and the guy who stole it. Our gear got stolen right before the start of the last tour. We had our stuff at Damian’s house and someone broke and took all the guitars, amps, and some other stuff. It was a Fender Jaguar. At least we got to travel.

BH: And now? Excited about your upcoming European tour?

ED: I’m really excited to go to Poland. I think I have distant relatives there. I’m going to try to find them. I don’t know how big Poland is…but I’m going to look for them.

Buddyhead proudly presents: The Way To Titty City: Buddyhead VS GZA

It weren’t easy to get.

Before the Genius arrived, we got busy bugging Inspectah Deck about setting up an interview after the show, to which his only response was, “The GZA’s gonna be hungry.” At that point, Inspectah took J. Bongwoo to a tent and smoked him the fuck OUT. We didn’t see either of them for the rest of the night. All we know, is that J.B. couldn’t move for a week afterward. And ever since, it seems as though he’s had to strain when reading. We’ll catch you next time Inspectah.

Huxxxtable and I, on the other hand, got to work devising a rapper trap. And, as you can see, we netted us some Wu-Tang. (In fact, we also scored time with Kool Keith. And Dr.Doom don’t do interviews. Which means we rule.) I didn’t particularly think this interview was going to go down when the GZA walked up. He had a swarm of white people yipping at his ankles like dogs, and was screaming, “NO CAMERAS! NO CAMERAS! NO VIDEO!” He made it clear that he didn’t like Youtube during his set, and apparently he was serious. Thankfully, as he got closer, he switched up his shouting to, “THREE MINUTES! THREE MINUTES! YA’LL HAVE THREE MINUTES!”

We got about five.

And there’s boobs in it.

Unfortunately, they’re attached to a sub-human white girl that was making donkey noises throughout the interview. Now, it’s a FACT that the GZA has seen pretty much everything that can be seen in relation to white girls; and yet, this particular girl’s whale moaning actually tripped the Genius up off his game. This means it’s high-time for this freak to put the shirt ON, and the pills DOWN.

First person to tell us what the hell that thing’s trying to say gets the “too hot for video hosting” uncensored version. Don’t get too excited.

And, yes, you actually get to hear the GZA say, “It’s titty city.”

You’re welcome.

Eugene Robinson is a singer for one of the best bands on the planet.  Eugene Robinson is an author, who takes “write from experience” very seriously.  Eugene Robinson is an enigma.  A mid-forties, highly educated, charming, seemingly “nice” guy who will whip his dick out in front of an audience, and beat the fuck out of you, if you heckle him for it.  Everything he produces has an underlying of rage and resentment that make a good segment of the population wilt into unease, all while he signs emails with chipper little phrases like  “okey dokey” and “cheers”.  We shot some questions his way, and he answered them, kind of exactly how we expected him too… keep reading…

Interview by Tom Apostolopoulos

Oxbow – “30 Miles”

Oxbow – “Down A Stair Backward“

You’re a Stanford educated black man who might strip down to his underwear while playing live and either choke the life out of someone or make out with someone.  Really how awesome is life?
I am glad in your world this constitutes awesome. I guess in my world it constitutes awesome as well. But the difference is that these moments of unbridled awesomeness, enjoyed by you and me briefly, are drowning in my personal sea of pointless visits to shopping malls, endless hours in gas stations, aimless grocery store wandering, fights with the post office, fights with women over “what you said” and fights with men over “what she said you said.” and through it all thems with half as much talent get their cocks sucked by… well, by just about everybody.

Now I know EVERYBODY must endure the same ordure and that moments of awesomeness experienced even briefly should be ENOUGH but, my friend, it really isn’t.

So yes. Life IS awesome. it is also brief and brutal.  And brutally brief.

What’s the sketchiest thing you’ve done for money?
You can’t really expect me to answer this honestly can you?

I was hoping I caught you at a weak moment.  Does your membership in Ox Bow ever preclude your continued progress as a writer?
My membership in Oxbow at this point has made it exceedingly difficult to maintain daily full time employ. Well that and Google. Well that, Google and my past propensity to answer questions like the last one honestly.

Your vocal delivery can be at times “all over the place”, a la Nick Cave Birthday Party era, can you describe your preparation for recording with Ox Bow, specifically in regards to lyrics and their phrasing.
Well I write the lyrics and only on very rare occasions will I ever sing anyone else’s. Part of this is artistic. The other part is financial. The more lyrics I write, the more I get paid for writing lyrics that are subsequently performed and BMI and other performing rights organizations overseas seem to take this seriously. BUT you incorrectly identify my vocals as “all over the place.” it might seem that way to YOU but typically however long it has been between records is how long I’ve been listening to the music that’s been written to my lyrics and trying to figure out what the song wants and what I need. so I go to every practice but refuse to sing until we’re recording. so the song at that point has only existed for me at the nexus of thought and feeling. What I think it means to me and how I feel about what I think. and given the fact that lyrically it closely documents my own life the issue is always: are these the right touch stones for me/to me to tell the story OF me. And if you listen to all of our records in order you will see an orderly progression from one type of singing and vocalizing to another.

You’ve become a pretty respected MMA writer, first you write the book  “Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You’d Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking”, and now you write for Real Fighter magazine, which gifts you with the unenviable pleasure of getting your head bashed in by some of the best fighters in the world, or maybe even get one over on them.  The main question is “what’s the attraction?”
At this point? Well while I learn A LOT from these beatings about how to be a better fighter… a better fighter and therefore possibly a better human. As they have gotten hairier and hairier and I get closer and closer to getting SERIOUSLY injured I have to ask myself if this is recompense enough, and this is an answer I don’t have yet. I mean I like the money, the access and underneath it all I really believe I CAN win, but you know the real dirty secret I’ve found: lots of professional, possibly like lots of professional ANYTHING, are sick of their jobs and would really rather do almost anything else.  This certainly de-romanticizes MY involvement and causes me to say: well while THIS is a BETTER thing to do today than to…hang around 7-11…it’s probably not better than just doing nothing at all in Monaco.

Describe in detail the worst ass kicking you’ve ever gotten?
Well the one that hospitalized me that I write about in the FIGHT book SEEMED bad but i certainly was not in the grips of terror when it happened. The beating by Brian “The Fury” Johnston that I write about in the FIGHT book? This had me in the grips of terror.

Fedor Emilianenko vs. Brock Lesnar, who wins?  Why does Brock have a dick tattooed on his chest?
I do a radio show on www.combatmusicradio.com and I could go on for hours on just this alone but I give it to Fedor anytime in the next 365 days. After that? Who knows? And Brock’s ill-advised tattoo?  Hey….you know…one man’s meat is another man’s? um…meat?

Ox Bow has been a band for a decade…
Oxbow has been a band for 20 years.

Gotcha…You’ve had some big gaps in between releases…
We have consistent averages of about 4 years between records.

And your touring has been kind of off and on..
We will tour in 2009. We toured in 2008 and 2007 and 2006 and 2005…www.theoxbow.com….the tour diaries tell it all.

Well in spite of all that,  you have a pretty strong cult like following in the U.S. and  U.K.,  The Narcotic Story came out in 2007, and you’re ready to release 2 more records this year, and you have some shows planned for the next few months,  are we going to see a more “full time” Ox Bow? What’s the live schedule going to be like?
Well our schedule has to work around our lives, our side projects, our jobs…so when you do it like this you end up with an Oxbow schedule. People always write me and say “I will have to miss you guys this time…but NEXT time…” you know what?  There’s going to come a time when there is no next time. Car crashes, food poisoning, shootings and suicides….something will claim us all. So see us NOW regardless of what I say our live schedule is going to be like.

Well our record label won’t release stuff unless we play and so…..away we go.

I also will do another book tour…this time on my upcoming novel A LONG SLOW SCREW [which is going to be released October 23rd]…this will be in 2010…so yes….While Rome burns around us, we tour more because we have run out of any OTHER way to make any money.

Describe heaven…
The continued and perpetual existence of my ego.

Is Ox Bow a better band live or recorded?
On record we are consistently brilliant. Live we are consistently truthful. Which is “better” depends totally on your perspective.

Someone said to me that Lady GaGa is the new Donna Summer.  Explain your current rage?
Good of you to save this question for last. The former part of your gambit…the whole “Lady GaGa = Donna Summer” thing is baffling when placed against the construct of my “current rage.” because while Lady GaGa is a slightly vapid but catchy songstress and Donna Summer is a vapidly slight but catchy songstress, neither of them have anything to do with my rage, which is deep and unquenchable.

Oxbow is set to release:
Sept 15th: FUCKFEST reissue. CD and Vinyl.
Nov 4th: SONGS FOR THE FRENCH. CD and Vinyl. all new songs + live stuff from all over the world.
www.facebook.com/eugenerobinson
www.theoxbow.com
www.eugeneSrobinson.com

The video cannot be shown dickfore at the moment. Please try again later.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.