The Barbaras interview! LP on the horizon!

The Barbaras! New In the Red LP on the way.
photo by Don "Bullyrook" Perry

By Rich Tupica
richtupica@hotmail.com

Since The Barbaras used a laptop to record a brilliant debut 7-inch on Goner Records in 2008, the Memphis natives have been laying low.
The brilliant "Summertime Road" single sounded like it was recorded under water in a tin garbage can, yet is surprisingly easy on the ears. The tunes were poppy and trashed-out, a perfect combination.
The band's previous endeavor, The Boston Chinks, released two singles in 2007, then quickly moved on and formed The Barbaras. Since then, the members have kept busy, but not so much with their own band.
Two of the band members have been backing Jay Reatard on his never ending tour across the world, putting The Barbaras on a forced hiatus.
Though there is a light at the end of the Reatarded tunnel, the band has an upcoming (Reatard produced) full length on In the Red. While there is no release date yet, Jay did confirm he has been recording the debut LP. He said he had been simultaneously recording "Watch Me Fall" (his new Matador LP) and the upcoming Barbaras record.
I was hoping the band would stay true to its Brian Wilson-high-on-Whippets-sound. However, according to Reatard, the sound has been somewhat altered for the new record.
"It’s a lot different," Reatard said. "Their singles are kind of just like a wall. With the production I tried to put everything in its own space."
"It’s a lot more dry, it’s more … not punk sounding, but more of a Beach Boys and Urinals thing rather than just a Beach Boys-garage-reverb-blown out thing," he added.
For more news on what the band is up to and how they got started, read the interview below.


When did you first start playing music and what inspired you to start?
Billie - When I was about 8 or 9 years old I started playing drums, I was inspired by the White Zombie song “More Human than Human” - I was in the fourth grade. I didn't start singing until this band started a year or so ago. I was always reluctant to sing because I thought people would think I sounded stupid, but then one day I realized that music itself is pretty stupid and fear of being terrible doesn't seem to stop anyone else. I have Home Blitz to thank for alleviating some of my performance anxiety.

Bennett - I wanted to play guitar like my dad.

Will - I think subconsciously I wanted to be on that VH1 show "Behind the Music," or on TRL, but it's hard to say when I actually started playing. I didn't even own any practical instruments the first few times me and Billy tried to form bands in high school, but eventually I benefited from other people's instruments getting left at my parents house and lots of days with nothing to do but play around with them.

Al - I started playing bass in middle school to join my friend's nu-metal band. That didn't last too long, but I kept playing for some reason. I picked up guitar by just watching friends I was in bands with and slowly learning along the way.





What was the first band you played in? What type of music was it?
Bennett - Mutant Space Bats of Doom, it was pop.

Billie - The first band I was in was a high school pop-punk band that sounded like a middle school pop-punk band. I’m not going to give the name because I think people would be tempted to look it up and that would be way too embarrassing for me to handle.

Will - Me and Billie tried a few things together that didn't get off the ground. Alex and Stephen had a high school "party band" where Stephen sang, Al played bass and this guy called Donacock played guitar. Me and Billie met them just in time for Billie to play drums for them at a talent show. I joined after that, along with everyone else we knew who played music, which wasn't many people at the time.
But we had enough to have at least four guitars and two keyboards, in most incarnations, all playing the same three chords. We only played once a summer for a few years because we tried to compensate for our lack of musical ability by throwing hundreds of dollars into props and things for our stage show, all just to play for like 10 kids in a garage somewhere.

Al - Mutz was my first band I played shows with. It was basically how Will described it. We won the "most entertaining" award at my high school talent show. I think the shows with that band were the inspiration for the Barbaras' over the top live setup.





What type of kid were you in high school and what kind of music did you dig back in your formative years?
Billie - I was an extremely body conscious, depressed loser who listened to the Misfits and Minor Threat and cried all of the time. I was mostly driven to play music as an outlet for my painful social anxiety. I went from being the "I hope nobody sees me" type, to the, "Oh, that guy’s naked and covered in body glitter" type just recently.

Will - I was pretty self conscious because I was in a wheelchair in high school. Stephen was like the "weird, funny" kid at his school that a lot of people liked. But we all went to different schools except me and Billie. I don't think any of us felt like we fit anywhere until we met each other two or three years into it. After that we had a really great social group that was completely disconnected from school, and also probably the outside world in general. As for music, I was obsessed with My Bloody Valentine and Top 40.

Bennett - No girlfriends. Some nerd friends and some black friends. I liked The Strokes and XTC and I always bought bootleg Three Six Mafia CDs from kids at school. I liked hip music because my dad was a hipster. I was super confused. Now I'm way hipper than him!

Alex - I went to an all boys prep school and didn't have many friends until I met the other Barbaras. I was really into bad hardcore and indie rock.


How did The Barbaras first meet each other?
Billie - I knew Will from seventh and eighth grade because he would wait for the bus and I would wait for my mom to pick me up and he always had on a Beastie Boys T-shirt and I’d be like, "cool shirt" and he'd be like, "thanks." I think that was the majority of our relationship until high school. I think we first spoke over AIM when we were like 15 and he was a total dick so we got along pretty well.

Will - I solicited Alex's bass playing through an online dating site and he introduced us to Stephen, who he knew since second grade when they used to make short films together which they later realized were vaguely homoerotic. Me and Billie fell in love with them at first sight. When I first started college I met a guy named Chris who was a guitar wizard, so I introduced him to Billie and they started writing songs together. Stephen recorded their first demos and taught himself how to play guitar to join the band, forming the Boston Chinks. We met Bennett shortly after that, through our new friend Cole, when they recruited Billie and Alex for their Psych/Folk band Kazalok. We simultaneously formed a million short-lived bands with different combinations of the people mentioned above, plus a few other characters, until The Barbaras stuck.

Al - Stephen and I went to elementary school together. I met Will and Billie through a pre-MySpace social networking website. Bennett and I played in Kazalok together. We have all been in love ever since.


What is a typical Saturday night for The Barbaras?
Billie - Either getting wasted for almost no reason whatsoever or playing music. Sometimes the two combined and we get mental diarrhea, which can result in something beautiful or something really embarrassing.

Bennett - There’s nothing typical about our Saturdays.


Any of you guys going to college?
Will - Alex just finished a degree in Urban Studies at Rhodes. The rest of us dropped out of the University of Memphis after a year or two.





I've heard about you guys getting freak-nasty on stage, what is one of the more memorable shows you guys have had?
Will - Anyone can get nasty on stage, and our shows frequently come to that, but we prefer to emphasize the "freak" part. My favorite Barbaras show was one with Digital Leather that we didn't know we'd be playing until a few hours beforehand, so each of our costumes were as complex as we could make them in the time available but had no overlying theme.
The best was Stephen's "Cannibalistic Tinker-Pan" costume, complete with fake blood and a sword made of cardboard and tin foil, which he used to battle the audience for the duration of the show instead of playing music. The sound guy kept putting insane delay and chipmunk effects on the vocals between songs, and halfway through the set two guys wearing black suits came in carrying a coffin over their heads. Stephen spent the rest of the show either trying to put audience members into the coffin, or getting stuffed into the coffin by the audience. There were only 10 or 15 people in the audience. It was awesome.


Who writes the songs for The Barbaras?
Bennett - We all write songs and then we stay up all night recording together. The song goes through changes and is usually 100 times better after we record it.

Will - A lot of songs start with vocal hooks, and then chords from someone else, but recording is definitely our biggest writing tool because that's where we lock ourselves away and go crazy messing with the arrangements, making millions of overdubs and tweaking everything about it. Bennett is a background vocal mad scientist.

Al - Someone will usually have a very basic song idea and we all throw in our ideas during the recording sessions. We have had some failures, but when it works out it is really exciting.


How do you make time to practice and write when you are always touring with Jay Reatard?
Billie - It's really hard to make time for it. I’m about to be home from Tard-touring for about a month solid, so we hope to write and record a few more singles while I’m in town and slather the mid-south and beyond in glittery cum as well.

Bennett - You just got to be hyper-active.





How have the recent tours with Jay been? You guys are playing some bigger shows these days.
Billie - The tours have been fine, I'm really tired of being compared to Garth from Wayne's World. Also I’ve noticed that if you look a bit freakier than your average person, people think they have the right to come up and molest you. I've been trying to educate people on this tour - just because I look funny doesn't mean that I'm not going to kill you. A girl in Soho, London yesterday grabbed me by the hair and yanked and asked in an obnoxious chirp, "Is that a bloody wig?" - so I grabbed her by her own mop, and asked, "Do you usually yank the hair of total strangers, you stupid fucking bitch?" I’m just trying to spread the gospel of don't fuck with freaksiology.


What are you doing when you're not playing music?
Billie - I’m on tour more than half the year, so my hobbies are pretty lazy ones when I’m home. Eating, buying records, sleeping, bongin' - you know.

Bennett - I clean for money, collect trash to wear, take drugs and read.


Is The Barbaras upcoming LP on In the Red going to sound similar to the Goner single and the demos?
Bennett - No, it sounds like Jay Reatard.

Will - It's not quite as lo-fi, and ‘the studio’ has been our main instrument before so it's weird to have someone else in charge of it, but we record all the songs ourselves first so we can make sure nothing gets lost when we re-record it with Jay. He knows what he's doing so I'm excited.


The Barbaras are:
Al - Guitar and vocals
Bennett - Guitar, bass & vocals
Billie - Lead vocals & drums
Stephen - Bass
Will - Keyboard & guitar

Links:
Barbaras:
http://www.myspace.com/thebarbaras
Jay:
http://www.myspace.com/jayreatard
Goner Records:
http://www.goner-records.com
In the Red Records:
http://www.intheredrecords.com/


Barbaras influences:
"Joe Meek, Jan and Dean, R. Stevie Moore, Sid and Marty Krofft shows, Phil Spector and other weirdos. Beach Boys inferiority complex. Mental retardation. Whatever we're getting each other into any given week." - Will


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
For permission to use quotes or text please: email richtupica@hotmail.com

NOBUNNY interview

Nobunny! "Love Visions" LP cover


By: Rich Tupica
richtupica@hotmail.com
(This first appeared in Maximum Rock N Roll, Nov. 2008 issue)
http://www.maximumrocknroll.com/


Armed with only a furry, white bunny mask, a pair of pink panties, and set of knee-pads, Tucson, Arizona's own Nobunny delivers catchy bubblegum punk with a smile and a whole set of spastic dance moves.
Nobunny is a seven-year-old jackalope/human that isn't afraid to mingle with the crowd while letting his genitals bounce to the music, which is what he has been doing since his first gig in 2001.
Some reports have claimed that Nobunny is actually an alter ego of Justin Champlin, 31, of Okmoniks and Sneaky Pinks fame, though that is yet to be confirmed.
When asked about his identity, Nobunny commented, "I have a stupid human mask that I wear sometimes before I go onstage — so I don't get mobbed."
While the mystery of his genetics still looms, the music of Nobunny is clearly a pop majesty that could make the Ramones dance in their graves.
Non-stop touring and an already classic LP later, Nobunny shows no signs of slowing down.


How would you describe yourself?
I'm that fool in the alley laughing. I'm that body sleeping in the park. I'm a skateboard and a tallboy.


What city did you grow up in? What did you do to keep busy as a young lad?
I was born in the desert about 45 minutes outside of Tucson, Arizona, on March 3, 2001. Momma was a jackalope and daddy was a human. People think the desert is all death, when in fact there is a lot of life — jackrabbits, wild dogs, rattlers, scorpions, coyotes, and the moon. The moon is my other mother. I used to set up drums in the desert under a full moon and get weird. My childhood ... my sister mainly raised me. She fed me peyote and taught me how to kill.



Photo: Rob Karlic


According to the Chinese proverb, "A sly rabbit will have three openings to its den." Tell us about your den.
My den is groady to the max. I never learned how to take care of myself. I'm surrounded by my own bodily fluids in bottles and cans, on tissues and shirts, on the floor, on plates, on my sheets. The windows are always open, and I do little there other than sleep and creep. I have always had an aversion to home and a need to roam. I'm not a stay-in and watch TV kind of guy. I don't like to speak indoors. Outsider, all the way. The libraries and public parks are my dens.


When did you first start playing music? What inspired you to get started with the rocking?
I was born an Elvis impersonator. I quickly got bored with the formula and started writing my own songs. The first was "No Bunny Blues." I performed on the street in the big city of Tucson, but my first official show was on Easter 2001 in Chicago. It was the day Joey Ramone died, which was a bummer, but the show had to go on. I did a few originals and covers of the Dictators, Bobbyteens, and the Electric Eels.



Photo: Rob Karlic


What influences make up Nobunny?
Girls. Girls. Girls. The elements: air, earth, water, and fire. Love. Truth, The moon. As far as music: Hasil Adkins, Lil Bunnies, Albert Ayler, Elvis Presley, the Cramps, Gentleman Jesse, John Battles and ELO.


Did you ever go to college?
I went for three days. I'm not sure how that happened as I'm only seven and I hate school. It makes me nauseous. To each their own.


What is a typical day like for you?
I spend most of my time in libraries and public parks. I'm a pretty social fool, but I do spend most of my time alone, either reading, drinking, or sleeping. Or designing my BJ machine.




Photo: Rob Karlic


What are some records you have been jamming lately?
I only have about twelve records and I never listen to them. I really love music, but I'm really poor and stupid. I almost never listen to music. I don't have a record player, CD player, or even a tape deck. That said, lately I love Cheap Time, Thin Lizzy, and Dreamdate.


Do you plan to keep playing music? Or do you have other aspirations?
I love playing music, and I don't plan on stopping. I wouldn't say I "need to do it," but it would seem silly to stop. I also love goin' to the bone yard with female humans.



Photo: Bullyrook


How did your debut LP, "Love Visions" (1-2-3-4 Go Records), come to be?
The songs were all home-recorded—some with people, but mostly by myself. I'm really touched that people like it at all. I've had a lot of people asking to put out records, and while I certainly want to put out more it takes me awhile because I'm picky about songs and stuff. I'm pretty burnt on bands that put out a billion records a year with only a few good songs between 'em. That said, look for more Nobunny records coming your way soon.
Hopefully I can put out some quality as opposed to quantity.



Photo: Canderson


How has this recent tour been going for you?
Touring has been awesome. It's all I really want to do lately. Touring and porkin'. Touring and porkin' and getting high. Touring and porkin' and getting high and eating pizza and pork. I've been on three tours in the last few months and they keep getting better and better. Each one has been crazier than the last. I've had a different lineup each trip. With So Cow I had a band that included Mr. So Cow, Jason Testasecca, and Trent "Dirt Turd" Purdy. When I was out with the Okmoniks I played by myself. On this last tour with the Wax Museums, they backed me up every night. It was so punk you could puke.


Is there a groupie scene for Nobunny?
Groupies? Sadly, no, but people sure like to grab at my bits and throw spanks at my butt when I'm performing. The closest thing to groupies is probably some fat dudes in Goner shirts. Bless their greasy lil' hearts. Next time I play Portland I've agreed to perform with Dave and Teri's (Slip Its, Tie Reds) new band, the Stuffed Animals, so hopefully we can get some furverts out to that one.



Photo: Dan Lang


Being a jackalope, was it harder to get a record released? Is there a Nobunny fan club yet?
Well, I'm not fully a jackalope. I'm not really anything when it comes down to it. The only real trouble I've had as far as releasing records is my inability to send people recordings. I have a bunch of fun projects lined up, but I have a serious self sabotage problem. I could have a bunch of records out already, but I'm real picky, which, honestly, I wish more bands were. While I don't think what I've put out is all that hot, at least I don't put out a half-baked 7" a month.
Part of me wants to because I realize that these things come and go in phases, and that a year down the line no one will care about me, but I still don't want to just put out any ol' turd. Just golden turds, or at least bronze — shit, what am I talking about? The Nobunny fan club doesn't actually 100 percent exist, but I'd like it to. I got some awesome friends and fans out there.


Are there any other jackalope/humans that you have encountered? If not, how do you plan to procreate?
While I'm not 100 percent of their exact heritage, there are a whole mess of bunny jerks on this big blue marble. You got your Lil Bunnies, The Rhythm Chicken, and Bun E. Carlos, to name a few. While I think kids are cool, cool, cool, and I love, love, love to love, love, love the ladies, I have no, no, no plans to have this bloodline continue.



Photo: Canderson


Have you ever encountered any prejudice?
People think I'm a gimmick, a joke, a pig in the poke. I guess I am, but not any more than most of these other jerks in these other jerky bands. You can still be passionate and express yourself without taking yourself real seriously. I'm quite often too honest and open with people, not in the sense of being mean, but more being honest about what I'm like, which is apparently not for everyone.
Deep down, I'm a good person, or I try to be and deep down I'm not, or, shit, no, I don't know… I just know that some fools like me and some sure don't. That's okay though, be it prejudice or not. I get called a "fag" here and there, but I don't really care. Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke. They are the joke. They are the enemy. I am the cookie monster. Only I'm more like the sex monster, the drunk-sex monster, the drunk-sex monster in your closet, the drunk-sex monster in your closet breathing to the beat. I live the life I love, and I love the life I live, c'mon.


What is Nobunny's ultimate goal in life?
Endless Summer. Ultimate Scummer. No Bummers. But seriously folks, I'd just like to keep touring and playing for peeps, playing for keeps. Know what I mean? Tour, tour, tour.

Hop on over to these NOBUNNY links:
Nobunny on MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/nobunnylovesyou
BUY the NOBUNNY LP!
http://www.myspace.com/1234gorecords
Sneaky Pinks:
http://www.myspace.com/sneakypinks
Okmoniks:
http://www.myspace.com/okmoniks
Visit Maximum Rock N Roll!
www.maximumrocknroll.com

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
Copyright: Maximum Rock N Roll.

Jay Reatard! New Interview!

Photo by kirstiecat
Jay Reatard sporting an Oblivians t-shirt at the 2008 Pitchfork Festival

By Rich Tupica
richtupica@hotmail.com
After thirteen years of evolution, Jay Reatard’s brand of obnoxious drunken-punk has transformed into a tight explosion of effects, feedback and pop harmonies.
His life is vastly different today than it was back in 1997, when Goner Records released “Get Real Stupid,” his sloppy debut 7” single.
From his troubled “Teenage Hate” days in Memphis to his upcoming, twee-inspired album, he is now playing festivals in front of thousands of people and gigging with Beck.
In recent years, Jay hasn’t stopped touring for more than a few weeks at a time — though his hard work is paying off in the form of a multi record deal with Matador and coverage in national magazines.
After a successful series of Matador singles and a sudden burst of attention, is Jay happy with his life? Nope.
To find out why he isn’t satisfied and details on his new “wimpy” album, which he plans to finish recording by January 2009, read on.

What’s up with your next full length album?
I’ve recorded half of my new album already and I’ve got about 20 songs written. When we go home from this tour, I think we have like ten days off before we go to the UK, I’m going to try to finish a couple more songs. Then in November, after the UK tour, I think we have two months off, so I’ll just finish my entire record in that two months.

Will your new album sound similar to the Matador singles?
I think more so, I’m going to go even wimpier.

What styles of music have been influencing your new songs?
I guess some people would call it twee music, more wimpy stuff. I really like that style. I’ve really been wrapping my head around it and trying to interpret it. I’m trying to inject that style with more energy.

What is your new album going to sound like?
My whole thing now is I’m trying to write songs that sound cheery, but obviously aren’t. I don’t know, this next record is going more in that direction.

Will it have a bigger production than your previous records?
It has a lot more auxiliary instruments. It’s got organ, some mandolins, a cello, a lot more back-ups and harmonies. It’s big-small. I like putting all these things that could make it sound really big, but it still sounds small and not like orchestral-pop music. I don’t think I’m Phil Spector or anything. The stuff I’m working on now has melodies intertwining in-and-out of each other, but live that is never going to come across. I just approach live shows differently. I just want it to be like an assault live, and softer on records.

Jay on Matador: http://www.matadorrecords.com/jay_reatard/

Are you satisfied with where you are at in your life right now?
I can’t ever allow myself to be satisfied. I can’t ever allow myself to be content with the situations I’m in or I’ll lose my ambition. A while back I was getting a little too content with the lifestyle and being financially comfortable for the first time in my entire life. As far as my music being to a point where I envisioned as a kid, where I wanted it to be - honestly it doesn’t feel any different from the first show I ever played. I always got this hole in my stomach that makes me want something more than what I have. Not Lamborghinis and fucking HD TVs or anything, I don’t know what it is, but it’s something that keeps me driving. I tend to beat myself up so I don’t get lazy.

How is it working with a bigger label? Is it different than dealing with In the Red Records?
Yeah, they operate differently as far as their strategies on how to sell records. In the Red is a label ran by one guy, Larry - he’s doing everything himself, so a lot of times records on his label have to be real word of mouth, a real grass roots thing. Matador has the man power and funds to try to expose you to a crowd that wouldn’t normally stumble upon you. They can expose you to, dare I say, more normal people, who might discover your records, aside from the hip indie kid or punk rock guys.

Photo by Brian Jenner
Jay playing a show in Toronto on Oct. 3

How is it playing to bigger crowds?
It all usually feels the same. The only time it feels weird is when there is a huge barrier. I did a tour with the Black Keys where every night there was an eight foot barrier between the stage and the audience — that was a bummer.

Why did you decide to put out a 7” singles collection with Matador rather than just an LP?
I was talking to five or six different labels. So in the mean time I wanted to light a fire under all of their asses. Everyone was dragging ass to get offers in to put out our LP, so what better of a way to scare major label dickheads than to do six records with one of the bigger indie labels in the world. It kind of confused them all. Eventually I ended up digging the Matador dudes and decided to work with them permanently or at least for the next five years or so.

Now that you’re with Matador, will you ever do any singles with other smaller labels?
I could do singles with other labels, but I don’t really see what purpose it would serve. Unless there was a label I really wanted to maybe help get some exposure, I’d maybe do a single for them. Otherwise, Matador probably has some of the best distribution out of all the indie labels in America. They work really hard on Matador Direct, where they sell direct to 250 mom-and-pop stores. They carry everything from Goner Records and In the Red releases and sell those direct to these stores as well. So basically, if I was to do a record on a smaller label, Matador would likely order it and sell it for them anyway.

Have you made a video for any of the Matador singles?
Yeah we made a video. It’s still being edited so I have no idea how it’s going to turn out. I think that anybody in the post-Devo world who tries to match up images with their music is going to fail miserably. I think everything Devo did was just perfect.

Did you try to make your video similar to something Devo would have done?
No, our band doesn’t really have such the message that Devo has, that comes across with their images in their music - they are just perfect at tying stuff together. I just don’t like videos, I don’t even like watching them. Basically, for the video, we just got drunk, goofed off and had a film crew film it.

Does touring constantly stress you out — do you need a vacation?
I could feel stressed out if I was on the fucking beach with nothing to do, you know? I was just wired that way.There is no ‘on or off’ anymore, it’s cruise control pretty much. Everyday I wake up and have to work on something. If I stop I get so far behind. There is just no reason to take a vacation, because when I do, it’s just two weeks of work building up. Then when I get home all the relaxation I got in is just negated by how much stress I have to deal with to catch back up.

What does your family think about you being in national magazines and so on?
My parents borrow money from me now, instead of the other way around. I figured they spent a lot of money on me when I was a kid, so it’s cool to give back, actually.

How has your music evolved in the past two years?
Live, it’s getting more and noisier I think. I have started adding too many effects pedals, to the point where I am tap dancing now. I don’t want to add extra people to the band, we are going to avoid that as much as possible, but I think we are going to add another guy next year just to play organ, acoustic guitar and back-up vocals. I keep hearing something bigger in my head, sound wise. There is no way to do that except now, on stage, I have to pre-record all these parts on stage (with guitar pedals) and turn them on with my feet.

What are some common misconceptions about music?
I think 99 percent of my media profile, for lack of better expression, is based on bullshit and completely off. It doesn’t bother me, I don’t let it. The last thing I should do is sit around and cry over blogs or whatever, you know, like, ‘This Brooklyn vegan thinks I’m a butthead,’ or whatever. The misconceptions come in where people try to figure out if its punk rock, indie or whatever. I don’t know, man, it’s really weird in this post modern world, no one knows what to do when they’re not told what something is.

So you think a lot of people only like what they hear is hip?
People have to be told what something is because their whole personality is based on what they are being told. How can they be an indie rocker if they are not told, ‘That’s indie rock!’ Their identities are created by what they consume. We could be playing the same exact songs, but if you tell some dude with a mohawk we’re an indie band he’d call us pussies - if you tell an indie rocker dude that we are punk, then he thinks we suck.It’s just all labels. I just think its noisy pop music. I’ve got influences from the 50s to the 80s — even the 90s.

How do you approach lyric writing?
I always think about lines. I came from The Ramones school of lyrics. I’m not into storytelling lyrics or anything like that. If I convey a message it’s more of a mood or something. I try to get a mood across and normally it’s a pretty negative one.

Are you going to continue doing smaller tours, or would you consider doing a huge tour as an opener?
We’re starting to play more and more big festivals, we’re flying out to play a show with Beck in a couple months. Just doing random stuff like that. I don’t know if I would ever want to play for an arena band or anything like that, but I haven’t done it, so I can’t really knock it either.

I hear you are producing and recording your band mates other band, The Barbaras, new album (In the Red), how is that coming along?
It’s about half way done. It will probably wrap-up around the same time I finish my album. We have been working on both albums at the same time. We will probably correlate the release times. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I tour so much The Barbaras don’t get to do much, so I think correlating will really help people hear that band too.

Will the album sound like The Barbaras singles?
It’s a lot different. Their singles are kind of just like a wall. With the production I tried to put everything in its own space. It’s a lot more dry, it’s more … not punk sounding, but more of a Beach Boys and Urinals thing rather than just a Beach Boys-garage-reverb-blown out thing.

Will you ever play with any of your past bands again, like Terror Visions, Persuaders or Final Solutions?
I don’t really have a desire to. I think with this band I’ve been able to explore and take everything I’ve liked about every other band I’ve been in and properly use it. I’d just feel like I was going backwards if I worked on anything else. This is a band, it has my name on it. I feel a lot more freedom as a solo person to just do what I want to do, sound wise. I think I’ve started to achieve the goal I’ve always wanted since I started playing music, which was to break the genre mold.


Jay Reatard 2007 Turn it Down Interview (#1)
http://turnit-down.blogspot.com/2007/10/jay-reatard-interview.html


Reatarded Links:
Jay Reatard on MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/jayreatard
Jay Reatard's blog
http://jayreatard.blogspot.com/
The Barbaras on MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/thebarbaras
Matador on MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/matadorrecords
Goner Records
http://www.goner-records.com/
http://www.myspace.com/gonerrecords

In the Red Records
http://www.myspace.com/intheredrecords

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
For permission to use quotes or text please: email richtupica@hotmail.com

Haunted George and the Mohave Interview!

Steven George Pallow, aka Haunted George

By: Rich Tupica
richtupica@hotmail.com

Often times, a person's final home is the hot, dry desert because their body was dumped there after something horrible happened to them ... Haunted George is a man who prefers to live there - where he writes songs about caskets, piles of meat and being buried alive.
Steven “Haunted George” Pallow, 40, moved to the Mohave desert in Llano Del Rio, California because he “wanted away from people.” Since then he has been surrounded by Joshua trees and cactuses while penning songs that reflect the rugged terrain he calls home.
While recently he has made a name for himself as a one-man band, George has been balls-deep in fuzzy, primitive rock bands for over 20 years.
The Beguiled and The Necessary Evils, his previous bands, kept George busy during the late ‘80s and '90s - releasing albums on both Crypt and In the Red Records.
Larry Hardy, owner of In the Red, met George in the late ’90s at a Cheater Slicks show in Costa Mesa while George and James Arthur (former Fireworks) were forming The Necessary Evils.
Today, Hardy said Haunted George’s upcoming album (to be released on In the Red) has songs that beat-out his already impressive body of work.
“I've heard the rough mixes, it's not finished yet" Hardy said. "It definitely has some of the best songs he has ever written.”
“This one was recorded in a studio rather than George's home 8-track,” Hardy added. “You can expect it to be heavier, darker and gnarlier than his previous albums.” The new LP may be released on Halloween, but Hardy said it may be delayed until early 2009.

What city did you grow up in? What was it like?
I didn’t grow up in a city. I grew up in Santa Ana, California - it is a city about 35 minutes south of Los Angeles but it is geographically a huge area. The part of it that I grew up in is suburbs. Compared to what it’s like now though I feel like I grew up in the country. The cow pastures and orange, lemon, and avocado groves weren’t that far away. We used to play in them all the time and I’d see owls and California quail. That’s all gone now. It’s all built up with homes. It really depresses me whenever I go down there.


What music did you dig during your formative years?
My oldest brother was a Beatles, Doors and Rolling Stones fan so that was some of the first music that I was exposed to. In grade school on my own I started listening to KRLA (1110 am) a legendary Los Angeles rock'n'roll/oldies station that played nothing but rock‘n’roll and rhythm ‘n’ blues from the early 1950’s to the early 70’s. They had all these great DJs like The Real Don Steele, Emperor Hudson and Johnny Hayes.

Catacombs: Haunted George in Paris.

What about in high school?
By the time I started high school I had already heard a little from cool bands that my older brother turned me on to like the New York Dolls, The Stooges, The Ramones, Black Flag, and The Adolescents. He had known of The Adolescents early on because he went to high school with one of them. There was also a group of guys a few years older than me that turned me on to other bands like The Damned, Agent Orange, Fear, TSOL, and Stiff Little Fingers. Through another group of friends I discovered 45 Grave, Angry Samoans, X, Flipper and The Dead Boys. I would go over to other guys' houses and they would let me make tapes from stuff in their collections. We swapped records and taped each other’s stuff. Then later they could say, “Man, you didn’t even know about The Damned until I told you about them.” They could lord that over you in certain circles. I’ve found there has always been a sense of one-upmanship between music fans that you just have to deal with. Someone always has to show you that they are cooler and know more about music than you do. Music messages boards are rife with that shit.


What kind of punk did you like best?
I really liked the punk rock that had its roots in early rock ‘n’ roll. A friend of mine had this really sexy sister who seemed way older than us but was probably only 16 or 17 at the time. She was an ex-punk gone rockabilly. She gave us tapes of the Stray Cats, The Blasters but more importantly those King and Federal original 50’s rockabilly compilations. Those records floored me. I thought “Granddaddy’s Rockin’” by Mac Curtis was as punk as anything I had ever heard. The Charlie Feathers cuts were just so weird and otherworldly sounding. That’s when I jumped head first into rockabilly. Elvis’ Sun Sessions was something I listened to hundreds of times. Jerry Lee Lewis was like a god to me. I actually had a little shrine to him in the corner of my room with all these pictures of him that I had collected. I wasn’t into neo-rockabilly, just the original 50’s stuff. The newer bands never seemed to get that vibe that the original generation had - some did but it was few and far between.

The Beguiled!

How did you find out about The Cramps?
One day when I was 14 years-old I was with these six guys jammed into a VW bug yelling and being stupid and I heard this music on their tape deck. I started yelling over them, “Hey, Shut Up! What is this?” It was “Human Fly” by The Cramps and it just blew my mind because it was a marriage of all this stuff that I was into but that the people in scenes kept separated. You see, back then if you were a punk you listened to GBH, or you were a mod and you listened to The English Beat or something, or you were a rockabilly and you listened to The Stray Cats, or you were something called a New Romantic and were gay but most people didn’t jump around between scenes.
I’m sure there were a lot of people that did but for the most part you were either one or the other. The Cramps didn’t seem to be following that rule. I remember driving around with these guys and everybody asking, “What do you want to do?” and I said, “Let’s go to the record store!” That day I bought two records; 'Songs the Lord Taught Us' and 'Gravest Hits.' That changed my whole attitude and from then on I just considered myself a rock ‘n’ roller.





What else were you digging back then?
Shortly after that I saw the 1967 movie "Riot on Sunset Strip" and that opened me up to 60’s punk and psychedelic bands like The Chocolate Watchband, The Seeds, The Standells and The 13th Floor Elevators. I began collecting surf instrumental 45s and LPs too. I liked the hit surf instrumentals I’d heard on KRLA and Agent Orange, who I had already seen a few times, mixed surf into their music; they did covers of “Pipeline”, “Miserlou” and “Mr. Moto”. Original surf records were still fairly easy to find being how Southern California was the epicenter for that scene in the early 1960’s. If you looked you could still find plenty of stuff by Dick Dale and the Deltones, the Chantays, and The Lively Ones. I started collecting records in thrift stores, used record stores and garage sales. I just started digging deeper and deeper into more obscure music.

So were you were getting bored with just punk?

Punk was starting to suck. When “Institutionalized” by Suicidal Tendencies came out all the hard-core bands jumped on this trend of playing real slow, dirgy and Sabbathy and then going real fast. All these jock-surfer guys that people now call “dude-bros” were into it. You’d go to a show and eight guys would beat up one guy because he looked different and wasn’t wearing the proper “punk” uniform. I was saying to myself, “Well, this is fucking gay.”… And it was. I remember getting together with “punker-girls” that dressed the part; they had Mohawks or Chelsea haircuts, safety-pin earrings and bondage pants. At their house I’d start digging through their tapes and records and seeing shit like The Cocteau Twins and Depeche Mode.
Most of the older punk guys that I hung out with that used to go to shows at the Masque and Florentine Gardens were embarrassed by it and would say, "Oh man, it didn’t used to be like this.” They all got into old American Blues, Country and Jamaican reggae. Around this time I got a whole stack of my Grandpa’s 78’s. Ernest Tubb’s “Nails in my Coffin,” his version of “Thirty Days” and the Hank Williams records got me into Country Music. I got really into the Blues too. That was the big common denominator when we started The Beguiled - we were all big fans of Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Little Walter. That’s the first stuff we started playing. The Beguiled started while we were all still in high school. We sounded like the 1963 version of The Rolling Stones in the beginning.

Necessary Evils!


You live in a "remote area", describe the landscape and why did you pick that location?
The landscape? On the front cover of the “Pile O’ Meat” record I’m standing next to some Joshua trees with my Silvertone guitar. That picture was taken by my wife, on my property, with her back to our house. That’s what my property looks like; Joshua trees, Juniper trees, Cholla cactus. We chose to live out there because I’ve always loved the desert. My Great Grand parents moved out here in their teens. They homesteaded property in the Mojave Desert in the 1930’s. Since I was a baby visiting Grandma and Grandpa meant going out to the desert. I just always loved it and wanted to live in it. I’ve lived all over different parts of the Los Angeles area - Hollywood, Long Beach, Burbank, Van Nuys. I had enough of the cities. I wanted away from people.


How often do you write music? What inspires you to pick up the guitar or write lyrics?
It varies a bit. I usually go through spurts with song writing. I write lyrics first. I carry a notebook with me and write down lyrics in verse form as if it is poetry. Later I sit down with my guitar and just play. I might record myself doing that and when I listen back to it I find parts that I like and then match it up with some lyrics. I really don’t know what it is that inspires or motivates me. If I did I’d focus on it and write more stuff. Hiking around and being by myself in nature for several hours works sometimes, but it usually happens after some kind of extreme emotional experience whether good or bad. When I get into a writing spurt now I try and take advantage of it and milk all I can out of it because I really can’t force myself to write stuff when I’m in a dry spell.


What are you doing when you're not dealing with music? Any other hobbies?
If I had twice the amount of hours in a day I’d still be busy from when I got up until I went to bed. I work and that means, now at least, that I commute into the city. So that right there takes up the majority of my hours in a week. Other than that I like to paint and draw when I have the time. I like to hike and camp. I rock hound - collect rocks- and have been dabbling in taxidermy. I like to black powder shoot. I have some replica 1860’s pistols and they’re fun to shoot off. I have an old ’58 Chevy truck that I work on and a 1947 Plymouth Business Coupe that is in pieces that I want to get running one day.


So, you are also working on a film, too?
In the last six months I’ve been working on and off on a movie I’ve been shooting on a mini-DV camera. It started as this little five minute short and now it’s at 45 minutes and I keep adding to it. I’m shooting it without a script so I keep coming up with ideas and tagging them on to the story. I’ve been making it with my wife. It’s just the two of us doing everything. I’ll make costumes and props, set up a shot, tell her what I want to do, then she shoots it and I walk around in the scene doing whatever. I edit it at work when nothing is going on. The movie was taking up a lot of my extra time… so much so that I was actually putting music stuff on the back burner. I’ve had to stop the movie so that I can focus more on the music.


Who are you pulling for in the US presidential race and why?
Politics? I hate it when I hear musicians give their opinions on politics. I can’t stand hearing from people who most of the time can’t even hold a shitty job tell me how they think the world should be run … my own opinion included. You asked and I dodged the question. I think that all three are big “One-Worlders” so I’m not for any of them. If I had to pick the lesser of the three evils I would go with John McCain because I think he wouldn’t take away my gun rights and raise my taxes as quickly as the other two are just dying to do.


Would you say you are Republican?
I’m really not a Republican because I don’t think America should be “spreading freedom” around the world; it just gets us in these messes and we blow a bunch of money. I also think if people want to smoke weed or shoot dope then I don’t think the government should be there to protect them from themselves. I think a lot of Republicans are so business oriented that they don’t look at the U.S. as a country of people, but as a market. Their allegiance isn’t to the flag or the country but to the dollar and when if the buck craps out hard enough, like it’s doing, then where will their allegiance go?

I take it you are definitely not a Democrat!
I am definitely not a Democrat! If I wanted to go along - just to get along and have people like me, I would just call myself a “progressive” and be another guy for “peace.” No one would give me any shit about it. Peace? Saying that you are for “peace” is like saying you’re for “goodness”… What the hell does it mean? I work in Hollywood now and everybody is some NPR listening dickhead. They love to talk about how “compassionate” they are but no group in the world is more viciously cutthroat when it comes to business than the people in Hollywood.
All my life I’ve been preached to by leftwing pains-in-the-ass; teachers, bosses, television and movies, musicians - It has never stopped no matter where I go or work. I swear they are worse than the most preachey born again Christians you will ever meet. All these old hippies constantly proselytize to me or these guys I work with ask me, “Dude, did you watch the Daily Show last night?” and I’ve told them a million times that I don't get any channels. I only use my TV to watch DVDs. The Daily Show? These people think he’s some cutting edge outsider. No one has their nose jammed up Hollywood’s asshole more than that guy; he fucking hosts the Academy Awards!


So, what do you want from the government?
I just want the government to leave me alone: pave the roads, kill the crooks and put out fires. I don’t think I should have to pay taxes for schools. I don’t have any kids. If the people that chose to have them didn’t care enough to get the money to educate them why should I care? If you care about them so much then you can go pony up the money. I won’t stop you. “But then all the people would grow up and become criminals…” In Los Angeles they already do and isn’t that why God made the gas chamber anyway? All this socialism is much more about taking power and keeping people down than it is about “helping out your fellow man”. It’s Christian morality repackaged by these people that say they want religion out of politics. They want your and my money for the same reason the most crooked and creepy preacher does; for themselves and their friends. They’re actually worse because they do it at gunpoint and can put you in jail if you don’t comply. These people don’t have altruistic goals. I think the government run school system in California actually has very nefarious intentions. I think that they are intentionally trying to dumb-down the next generations in order to make a permanent lower class of ignorant consumer worker-bees.
Maybe I’m just reacting to all the people immediately around me; I do a lot of hippie-friendly things like hiking and shopping at Trader Joes. I do have some hippie in me and I let it shine. When I hike I always carry a trash bag and pick up trash. I recycle. This last Spring Equinox I even found myself in the mountains in a natural hot-spring full of naked hippies chanting mantras in the light of a full moon. I joined in and was cool with it. I’m OK with socialism just not forced at gunpoint. Where I live there used to be a Socialist community that existed from the teens to the 1930’s called “Llano Del Rio”. Everybody that belonged to it volunteered like a co-op and had a little duty that they would do for the good of the group. It eventually fell apart because of infighting. My problem with socialism is that I’m sure that there were some guys that busted their ass from sun-up till sundown wading through shit fixing toilets while there were other guys that said, “My job is to be the camp bard; I’ll wake up late, play the guitar, make funny jokes and screw your girlfriend while you fix toilets.” Fuck that.


What do you think about Obama?
Obama scares me because all the wrong people are cheerleading for him and he seems like a snobby asshole. At least if he wins it will be interesting and shake things up. I heard his spiritual advisor/guru/astrologer say that whites and blacks have different brains. White people dance on the 1st and 3rd beat while blacks dance on the 2nd on 4th beat! I guess if you’re “progressive” then black racism is good racism. May we all live in interesting times.

Can you tell the readers about Snuff Maximus?
Snuff Maximus is this alter-ego, side project that I have been doing since the early 1990s. It’s more abstract-sound track and experimental kind of stuff. I used to team up with Mike Ball (guitarist from the Beguiled) and we used to do stuff together on thrift store bought tape recorders. I stopped doing it for a while after he died - but in last eight years or so I’ve been doing a lot more of it. Originally the Hook or Crook LPs that came out were going to have Snuff Maximus CDs included with them but for budgetary reasons the idea got scrapped.


Is there any Snuff for sale?
I still haven’t officially released any Snuff Maximus stuff except for a couple of cuts on some my Haunted George records. In the last couple of months I’ve made about five hours worth of Snuff Maximus stuff; a four CD set of just meditation sounds for my wife. She was looking for some records to just zone-out and meditate to and I said, “Wait, I’ll make you some.” So I made these gigantic tracks based on the rhythm of the human heartbeat. It slows down a little bit every few minutes. I did another one based on the rhythm of meditative breathing. This was different for me because it was the first time that I was making “music” - if you can call it that - that had a very specific purpose to it. James Arthur (guitarist from the Necessary Evils & Fireworks) has jumped into this kind of stuff too in the last couple of years. He made of really wild sounding atmospheres for my little movie that I was talking about earlier. There is some of his stuff will make you literally sick to your stomach. Somewhere he found these old recordings that hunters use to attract larger prey; the sounds of small animals suffering. He’s incorporated these into his soundtrack recordings for me and it has worked out nicely because my movie is kind of a psychedelic horror movie.


On tour, is it nice being a one-man band (with a 2nd guitarist) rather than traveling with a full band, like you used to?
Yes and no. It’s easier but with a bigger band there are more people to talk to, help haul equipment around, watch the crap you might be selling and there are more guys if ugly things start to happen. On the other hand, a smaller group has less people to track down when you need to get going, there’s more room in the vehicle, people will be more likely to put you up and feed you and you can save a lot of gas money using a smaller car. Jimmy and I have done trips up to San Francisco in a sedan.


What is a typical day like for you?
For a little while now I’ve been working down in Los Angeles so it’s like this - I usually get up at 6:30, feed my critters, make coffee, drive down to LA, work on some movie project doing either picture or sound work, walk around at lunch either to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery or Amoeba Records, come back, do more Avid or Pro-Tools stuff, then I might go over to Jimmy Hole’s place and practice music or go home, practice music, eat some food, then go to bed and fall asleep in front of a DVD or book around 11:30 or so. On the weekends I try to go hiking or something that involves being outdoors. When I worked for the State Parks I was up at 5:30 and home by 2:30 because my work was only 15 minutes from me. Then I had way more time to paint, hike, or play music during the middle of the week. I miss that.


What is next for Haunted George? I hear there is a new LP on the way.
I am leaving to go to Europe with the Lamps in about a week. When I come back I will record the next LP with Jimmy Hole. This will be my first LP that has somebody else on it other than just me. I am pretty excited to start it. I wanted to wait till after we got back from Europe to record this. I’ve already got more than enough material for the new record written and Jimmy and I plan on playing those songs live first so that they will be nice and tight when we come back to the States.


How did you hook up with Hook or Crook, In the Red and the other labels you have worked with? How did your songs get from the desert to those labels?
James Arthur originally started Hook or Crook as a partnership with Chris Owen. I didn’t really know Chris at the time but now I consider him a good friend. James doesn’t really deal with Hook or Crook anymore. It’s Chris’s label now. James wanted me to do a Snuff Maximus record for Hook or Crook but then he heard the Haunted George stuff and wanted to do that instead. That was “Panther Howl”. By the time the second record, “Pile O’ Meat” was ready, Chris and I had gotten to know each other and were friends and so I went with him again. He’s been great and I have nothing but good things to say about Hook or Crook. I’d love to do more stuff with Chris but I’m going to do the next record with In the Red because Larry asked and was so good to me during the Necessary Evils days. Other labels have just contacted me and we’ve worked something out.


Where do you record your music?
I record the stuff in my garage, pick out the choice cuts, then run them though an equalizer and send them to whoever is putting it out to master. I’ve been pretty easy about doing singles. In fact, I haven’t turned down anybody that’s asked me yet. I just have one provision - it’s got to be a jukebox single… meaning a 7” single with the big hole in the center, running at 45 rpm. It has to be able to play in an old jukebox and if it doesn’t have those three things then it’s no good. That’s my rule but I’ve bent it a couple times when push came to shove.


Since you have the name "Haunted" in your name, do you believe in the paranormal? If so why?
I do actually believe in the paranormal. I think 99.9 percent of the time that you hear someone claiming to have had a supernatural experience it’s totally bullshit wishful thinking on their part or they are maybe insane. That being said I believe that there are things out there. I don’t have an explanation for them myself but I have been exploring it for most of my life in one way or another either through religion or what people call the occult sciences.


Have you ever seen anything suspicious with your own eyes?
I’ve had two very real experiences involving what could be called ghosts or spirits; one that I won’t go into detail with here was with a group of people in an abandoned house at night. We all saw and heard the same thing lasting close to a minute and then the house suddenly started swarming thick with flies. The other event also involved another person; I had a vivid dream where a friend of mine that had recently died visited me. It was very realistic. He sat there and talked with me for what seemed like several minutes. I asked him questions and he answered them. Then he told me that he had to go but that he was fine and not to worry. I just thought it was a dream but a few weeks later one of my friends told me that while experiencing a 102-degree fever he had a vision that was bothering him. What he described to me was exactly what I had seen in my dream with this mutual friend of ours sitting down, talking and saying many of the exact same things that I had heard him say. That could be a coincidence.


What about UFOs?
I’ve had two experiences with UFOs. Now, I’m not saying that these were flying saucers with aliens from another planet, I’m saying that they unidentifiable flying objects. First; my wife and I saw this huge fireball that buzzed by our car on the freeway one night and then disappeared. We both shot up and said, “What the Hell was that?” The second event was by myself. I again saw a fireball shooting through the sky while driving on the 101 Freeway through the Cahuenga Pass… not quite flying saucers over Hollywood. It must have lasted six or seven seconds. I even time to roll down my window to get a better look.
Now all those things I just described could be explained rationally in one way or another I’m sure but really I choose to believe in it just the same way an atheist chooses to not to believe. William S. Burroughs used to claim that he had sex with daemonic entities and he said -I found the exact quote here - “If we are going to investigate incubi and succubi - daemonic entities with sexual intentions - seriously, I really feel that we must begin by admitting that psychiatrists have no more objective proof that they come from our imaginations than priests have that they come from the devil…”- that is my attitude. Plus a lot of atheists that I’ve met are really humorless uninteresting people.


I hear you have a crystal ball, how do you use that?
I have a crystal ball that I practice scrying into - meaning I am trying to see visions in it. The other day I took it to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and went to the Cathedral Mausoleum that houses the Valentino Shrine. Out of nowhere I saw a witch riding on a broom and a demonic laughing face. The witch was straight out of a comic book. It was so weird. It was a classic comic book witch almost exactly like the one on the back of the “Pile O’ Meat” record. The laughing demon face looked like something from an old B&W 1930’s Popeye cartoon. I watched both of these visions, lasting about three or four seconds each and then jumped back and realized what had just happened. I tried for several more minutes to do it again and couldn’t get it to happen. Again, these things could be explained as things happening inside my head or a waking dream but even if that is just the case then it is still happening in my reality and is real to me isn’t it?


LINKS:

Haunted MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/hauntedgeorge
Haunted blog:
http://butchersfloor.blogspot.com/
Snuff Maximus!
http://www.myspace.com/snuffmaximus
Hook or Crook
http://www.myspace.com/hookorcrook
In the Red
http://www.myspace.com/intheredrecords

Three albums that influenced the sound of Haunted George
1.) Jack Starr “Born Petrified” (Norton Records)
2.) Link Wray and his Ray Men “Jack the Ripper” (Swan)
3.) Louise Huebner with Louis & Bebe Barron
“Seduction Through Witchcraft” (Warner Bros.-Seven Arts)

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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Please write for permission to use any text.

King Khan voodoo INTERVIEW!

Devil not in disguise: Khan signs to Vice, takes over world!
photo: Christian Kock


By: Rich Tupica
richtupica@hotmail.com

King Khan has been an eccentric figure in the garage-punk scene for over a decade.
While he may be notorious for wild (often nude) live shows, he has a catalog of records under his belt that prove he is more than a great showman.
The Canadian born Khan got his start in music alongside his longtime friend Mark “BBQ” Sultan, as a member of one of Montréal’s best garage bands, The Spaceshits, who mixed punk and true rock’n’roll. Since then he has expanded his sound and toured non-stop with either the doo-wop laced King Khan & BBQ Show, or the psychedelic-soul inspired King Khan & The Shrines.
The Shrines are currently on the road and working on new material. Khan describes it as a "mix of '60s psychedelic punk, old school R&B, 60's New Orleans funk and a bit of Sun Ra freak-out," he said. "I usually like to describe it as a Japanese animation monster tearing things up with eight dicks."
To find out about more about Khan's recent deal with Vice Records, progress on a new album with BBQ and his upbringing in voodoo, check out the interview below.

I hear you grew in a musical family, can you tell me about that?
Well apparently my great grandfather was a sitar player who was not so successful and became addicted to opium. My father also attempted to play sitar when I was a kid and actually smashed one, no joke! He had a very bad temper. Poor sitar. Poor me. My little brother, little sister and I started playing instruments when we were pretty young, I was around the age of 12. We actually have been recording songs together for the past eight years. My sister played electric piano in the Del Gators and is now busy making babies and her solo project called Cocobeurre. My little brother has kind of this Lou Reed meets Mississippi John Hurt thing going for him. I hope to put out the “Best of Moon Studios” this year which will have lots of their stuff.

Quiet time: Khan poses sexy for Theresa K!
photo: www.punkturns30.com

I hear you are interested in voodoo, how did that come about?
I remember my grandma telling me stories about Indian witches who could steal your soul with owl meat when I was a kid. Since then I was pretty interested in it. The first real voodoo stuff started happening to me when my wife and I bought some Chango candles. We bought them because they smelled good and had a really cool print on them, we had no idea what we were getting into. So my wife started lighting these candles whenever I would go away on tour. This was an old German sailor’s wife tradition whenever the sailor went away. After a while we started noticing that bad stuff would happen when she would forget to light the candles. Anyways I basically let the spirit of Chango into my life and became more aware of signs and hocus pocus.

Have you ever actually practiced voodoo?
When BBQ and I went to Brazil that was also a totally huge learning experience. I was on this quest where I would dress up like the devil and do tarot cards hoping to be the voice of the devil. I went to a big voodoo church and asked if this was okay and they told me it was very dangerous, but if anything bad happened I could be cleansed there. So I did it, and it was fun and scary. Every time I read someone’s cards the devil card would pop up, every time! Cole from the Black Lips and I used to play this game where you spread the cards and try and find the devil. The first tour we did in the south together he managed to pull out the devil card every morning on his first try - he is a pretty magical guy.
The trip to brazil was really amazing. I was hoping to really get scared and see some kind of scary black demon but instead we went on a camping trip in the jungle and wound up in Dr. Mengele's backyard. So in some way I found the devil's hideout but he was white, German and long gone, thank god.



Khan looking unbeweavable! photo: Funny.Cars

How is it touring with 12 Shrines?
It makes my life an endless rollercoaster but as the song goes - I live the life I love and I love the life I live. I support my family with my music and am very proud of that. The constant touring can be painful sometimes, but it’s the only thing I want to do. The best part is obviously playing intense chaotic shows, watching people go ballistic and joining them. Actually even better then that is the feeling of coming home and having my girls freak out when I open the door. The worst part is road ass and food that has been cooked with no love.

What was the first band you ever played in? What type of music did you play?
My first band was called The Krishnas and I dressed up like an Indian woman for it ... I was about 12 years-old. My best friend from childhood would come over with his little brother and we made a very embarrassing movie about it. We played our own type of "Indian music" with a sitar, Tablas and a harmonium. It was more like musical comedy than a band. What’s even funnier is that my buddy who was in that band is now inventing adult toys and has a revolutionary new dildo that will open the gates for the next big sexual revolution, unfortunately I am not permitted to divulge any more information about this subject.My first real band was with Danny from the Spaceshits (CPC Gangbangs, Del Gators) we went to kindergarten together and started playing music together when we were like 17 years-old. It was called the Maury Povitch 3 and it was some kind of indie rock - punk stuff. Then I joined the Spaceshits and my life was saved by rock ‘n’ roll.

On the air: Khan on 106 FM Jerusalem photo: 106fm

Why did you move away from Canada?
I fell in love, made babies, and started a new life in Germany.

How is living in Germany? How is the vibe there?
The people are wonderful and open minded. The beer is amazing and plentiful and the hot dog was invented here I think. What more props can you give to a country? I also like saying that I became a father in the fatherland.


How often do you write music? What inspires your music?
Inspiration comes in spurts like all of the most wonderful things in life. I am generally quite lazy so I can never really sit down and write stuff - it usually starts with a gut feeling and then flush!

Goners: Khan with BBQ at Goner Fest 2005! photo: Canderson

I hear you have children, what do they think of your music?
I have two daughters and they love it. “Teenage Feotus” is Saba Lou's favorite song. Bella's favorite is “Why Don't You Lie.” Saba Lou just put out her first single on Die Slaughterhaus Records. They make me very certain that the future will be okay for rock ‘n’ roll.


What has been your proudest moment as a musician?
There have been many, among the top ones I would say playing in San Paolo and watching my friend give head to her boyfriend on stage while me and BBQ played; hanging out with the Sun Ra Arkestra in their hotel room for three nights -they let me crash on the couch - recording the Black Lips “Let It Bloom” in my living room; and basically every time I record a song with my family.

Now that you're on Vice Records, what is next for you and The Shrines? Any plans with the label yet?
Since none of The Shrines’ records were ever officially released in the U.S., we made the “Supreme Genius” compilation. The next album will also be on Vice Records. The plans haven’t changed since we started - just plain and simple world domination.

Aside from music, what are some leisurely hobbies that you partake in?
Laziness, painting, rolling up boogers, being the tooth fairy, cooking, eating, making love, eating hot sauce ‘til it hurts and making booties shake.

Are you and BBQ going to put out another King Khan & BBQ album? Any plans of that in the near future?
We have just recorded about seven new songs at Moon Studios here in Berlin and will finish the rest of the songs in Montreal this summer - so I think by early next year we should have a new record. With The Shrines the process is a bit longer but I hope sometime next year there should be a new record.

What else are you currently working on?
Besides my abs, I am preparing for The Shrines U.S. invasion in July. I have also been recording some new songs here and there with my daughters. Summertime is here finally and it is time to take a trip.

LINKS:
Check out ALL the hits and more....
King Khan & the Shrines
http://www.myspace.com/kingkhantheshrines
KK & BBQ Show
http://www.myspace.com/thekingkhanbbqshow
Haramazda
http://www.myspace.com/haramzada
Cocobeurre
www.myspace.com/cocobeurre (Khan’s sister)
Moon Studios -Berlin
http://www.myspace.com/moonstudiosberlin

King Khan recommends three albums:
MF Doom - “MM..Food?” (Rhymesayers)
“The Instant & Minit Story” - Various (Charly)
“Ethiopian Modern Instrumental Hits” LP - Various, (L arome Productions)

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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Please write for permission to use any text.

The BirdDogs - Interview! Pontiac blues-punk!

photo: Daniel Throesch

The BirdDogs - stick to the roots.


By: Rich Tupica
richtupica@hotmail.com

If Led Zeppelin were in the final stages of rabies during their prime they likely would have sounded much like the Detroit-via-Pontiac band The BirdDogs. The band’s first release, 2007’s ‘The Great Baptist Witch Hunt’, is stocked with dark-blues riffs, guitar solos, shouts and lyrics that in no way paint a picture of love or understanding. Rusty sharp objects, killing people, the devil and going fucking crazy is what Robbie Buxton, 29, lead vocalist and guitarist, preaches while kicking out three chord punk, followed by Stones tinged American roots tunes.
The band is currently recording their second full length record at their home studio and are always gigging around Detroit.
Be sure to check out one of their shows before Buxton follows through with some of the demented shit he howls about.
Here is what he recently had to say, read on.

Full name, age, hometown?
Robbie Buxton, 29, born and raised in Pontiac, Michigan.

When did you first start playing music?
"I didn't pick up a guitar until after high school. I had little to no musical talent at that point. The only thing that really existed was a love for rock & roll. At a very young age I would sneak into my aunts bedroom and listen to vinyl - things like T-Rex, Zeppelin, Nugent and Beefheart. I always dreamed of playing guitar but it wasn't something I was too ambitious about. I suppose I was 19 or 20 when I really got into it. My folks had this old acoustic sitting around. The strings must have been an inch off the frets. I took it home and played the thing every night after work. I remember sitting on the floor of my bedroom listening to Hendrix and The Yardbirds, trying to pluck out something that sounded right. Once i developed my knowledge of the guitar i got into
the banjo and mandolin a bit as well.

Young dude: Robbie jamming out many moons ago.

Were you in any bands before The BirdDogs?
"For the longest time I played alone. Other than picking up some chords from an instructional book I was completely self taught. I was pretty wrapped up in my own little world musically. One day I purchased a four-track cassette recorder. I started goofing around with that and it wasn't long after that I started thinking about how cool it would be to have a band to record. I put out some fliers at music stores and I formed a band called Out By Fall. We played one show. It was pretty bad. The only thing that came of that mess was our drummer Jarvis, who wasn't a drummer at the time. He played bass."

How did the BirdDogs form? How long have you been together?
"We formed in late 2005. We had two guitar players in Out By Fall. It was decided that my writing and playing were too 'bombastic' and that it just wasn't going to work out. Everybody went separate ways. I was really bummed but I went right back to work with my four-track with some new ideas. A few months later Jarvis called me out of nowhere. I invited him over and he brought me a bag of tomatoes from his garden. I showed him what I had been up to with my four-track. He wanted in on it. He was the first person who really believed in what I was doing. I remember seeing an old drum kit at his house and I asked him if he'd be interested in playing drums instead of bass. He had very minimal training on drums but we both had the patience to help one another develop. I had access to this run down carlot in Pontiac. We set up our equipment there and played just about every day over the next year. We added Ben on bass in late 2006. He is a longtime friend of mine. He was sick of the bands he was playing in. He came out to one of our first shows as a two piece. It wasn't long after that he joined the band. Recently we added a tambourine player. He deems himself as Mr. Nicely."

Where was your first show? What do you recall about it?
"Our first show was at this bar north of Clarkston called The Deer Lake Inn. It was horrible. At this point we had a handful of originals, a couple souped up Big Bill Broonzy covers and I believe we also covered something off the Soledad Brothers' self titled. There were only about seven people there. They hated us. The bartender kept coming over telling us to turn down. We sold one of our demos for a few bucks. We were both so broke. I remember taking that money, buying a couple 40s."

photo: Daniel Throesch
BirdDogs: (left-right) Jarvis Logan, Ben Littles, Robbie Buxton.

How would you describe your band's sound?
"I'm not sure what we sound like. We're still figuring that out. It's hard to pin us. We have so many different influences. Our first full length was sort of a blend of everything. You can hear blues, punk and country in there, it's quite an interesting mix. We even threw in an old hymn I remember hearing often in church as a child. These days we are much more focused in our endeavors. The next record is really shaping into something we are all very proud of. We are more comfortable with each other. I am really growing as a songwriter and we're all starting to understand the concept of recording a good record."

What are some other Detroit area bands you are digging?
"Right now I'm recording and co-producing a tripped out record for Friends of Dennis Wilson. I'm really into their music. They are so fucking intense. They put so much into what they do. I also dig stuff like Heroes and Villains as well as some of the other X! Records stuff. I've been listening to my Blanche records as well. There's too much to list really."

How many shows have you guys played so far? Any tours or records you guys have planned?
"As for shows, it would be difficult to count. We spent a lot of time playing to nobody starting off. It's nice to see folks coming out to shows now. As for a tour, it's in the air that we might head out west this fall. We're playing the Deep Blues Festival out in Wisconsin again this summer, we'll probably add a few dates to that trip. We are currently working on our second full length that we are calling 'The Satanic Troubadours Audio Almanac'. We're all very excited about our work in the studio."

Have you been following the presidential race? If so, who are you rooting for?
"I follow what's going on but it's hard for me to pick or choose. It's all so very rotten and corrupt."

photo: James Thomas
Goodnight!: BirdDogs at The Belmont

What are you doing when you're not playing music?
"I've built my own 16-track analog recording studio. I record a lot of Detroit Bands when I'm not recording my own. Aside from that I'm painfully boring. I won't burden you with details."

The BirdDogs go from minimal to bluesy rock within the same tune, what are some bands that helped to influence that sound?
"When we first started recording I remember sitting around the studio listening to a lot of Fat Possum vinyl, stuff like Junior Kimbrough, RL Burnside, Robert Belfour and T-Model Ford, whom we will have the privilege of sharing a stage with at the Deep Blues Festival this year. I fell in love with the simplicity and rawness of those recordings. That's just those guys being who they are. That's really what we want to capture with our recordings. We want you to know who we are when we're recording. We will continue recording in such a manner but we're growing. Our sound is constantly changing. The next record will be a bit more complex. We've really started studying music. Going into record this time around we've all been listening to records like 'Their Satanic Majesties Request' by the Stones and a lot of The Beatles albums. We're now adding instruments like dulcimers to our work now. We're anxious to get it out."

Who writes the songs in the band?
"I write the songs. I'll come up with a ditty on the guitar or a few chords, then comes a few lyrics that I later construct into a full song. If the idea is solid I take it to the band at rehearsal. If it feels good we go with it, if it doesn't then we move on. We used to record songs pretty quick after their conception. Nowadays we're spending more time breaking things down, trying different things, building things up and tearing them down. Ben and Jarvis have much more input with the song structure now."

Why are you called The BirdDogs? Is there a story behind the name?
" We just wanted something that sounded old. Gene Vincent has a song that I love called 'Bird Doggin'. That's where the initial idea came to me."

Are you guys going to college?
"None of us currently attend college. I went to school for a couple years studying architecture and construction technology, prior to that I attended seminary school for a short period of time. Currently I play guitar and sing in a rock'n'roll band, I also work in a junk yard - go figure."

photo: Rebecca Solano
BirdDogs: Mr. Nicely is center!

You guys self-released a record. Who recorded it and how can people get it?
"We recorded it. We have a 16-track reel to reel. Ben and I did the majority of the recording, engineering and mixing work. We sent it out to Saff Mastering down in Chicago for the final touches. We began recording immediately after adding Ben to the lineup so what you hear on the record is basically us getting to know one another. We tried a lot of different things as we had no real pressure in the comforts of our own studio. There's a minimalistic feel to it yet we did things like reversing the tape to lay down a few backwards guitar tracks. If folks are interested in obtaining a copy of 'The Great Baptist Witch Hunt' they only need to contact us on MySpace."

What is a goal the band is working on right now?
"We'd like to get out on tour more often. We always have a huge response when we play out of state. We've also just started recording a new record. We'd like to have it out by late summer."

The BirdDogs are:
Jarvis Logan - Drums
Robbie Buxton - Guitar, Vocals
Ben Littles - Bass
Mr. Nicely - Tambourine, Yelps & Howls

Link:
http://www.myspace.com/thebirddogs

Upcoming BirdDogs Shows:
Jun 21 2008, 6:00pm
The Bohemian Nation Home
Detroit, Michigan

Jul 18 2008, 12:00 (noon)
Deep Blues Music & Film Festival
Lake Elmo, Minnesota

Jul 19 2008, 11:00pm
4th Street Fair
Detroit, Michigan

Jul 25 2008, 9:00pm
The Lager House
Detroit, Michigan

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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Please write for permission to use any text.

The Dial Tones - Interview!

The Dial Tones!

By: Rich Tupica

richtupica@hotmail.com

Rock’n’Roll in Detroit seems to have switched gears in recent years. Where organ driven garage bands like The Hentchmen left off, a new wave of more odd and noisy sounding bands like Tyvek and Terrible Twos have formed. The Clone Defects are finished, but Timmy Vulgar has continued making noise with the weird-synth driven Human Eye.The Dial Tones have decided to stick to the influences they grew up on, the late ’90s, early 2000’s batch of bands who were more Captain Beefheart than Devo. Their ‘oldies’ are The Sonics, Keggs and The Gories.
They have a batch of songs recorded by Detroit fixture Jim Diamond and are hoping to get them pressed on a record in the near future.
Lead singer and guitarist Eric Allen, 22, recently dropped some knowledge about his band The Dial Tones, read on.

What is there to know about Eric?
"Well, my name is Eric Allen. I’m the oldest and, therefore, the dad of the band. Hence, my nickname being 'dad.' I’m 22 and I sing lead vocals and do a slight bit of strumming. I was just singing but everyone got tired of my incessant use of the cowbell and tambourine. Next are Nick Knight and Kyle Schanta who are both 19. Nick plays drums, wags his tongue a lot and is into the coolest shit. Schanta sings vocals as well, plays a mean lead guitar and writes the best songs. Then, last but not least, we have the kids of the band, Darrell Haas Party, Kyle Danger Davis and Muskrat, who are all 18 years young. Darrell is a classically trained pianist that we gave a couple of Hentchmen records to and told him to forget everything he knew before and learn this stuff. He’s a man/boy genius. Kyle Davis plays lead guitar and sings a lot of vocals too. He is our resident blues aficionado and is also an amazing songwriter. Muskrat is Muskrat. That’s all there is to know. He’s a great kid and I’m really glad he’s in our band and not someone else’s. He is the quiet backbone of The Dial Tones."

What's your hometown?
"My hometown is vastly different from the rest of the guys in the band. I’m from Royal Oak so I’ve kind of always been exposed to Detroit and all of its glories since it's only about 4 miles down the road from me. I’m sure you know about Royal Oak. It’s the town everyone wants to live in unless you live here. It used to be cool when stores like Repeat The Beat, Wendell’s, Cinderella’s Attic and Dave’s Comics were around, but now it’s kind of just like a coffee shop and restaurant mecca. As for everyone else, they are from New Baltimore, which means a trip east on I-94. It’s pretty much a cultureless vacuum up there. There isn’t much to do except hang out at Wendy’s or this park on the water. That or you go play your guitar, piano, drums in your basement and become phenomenal at them. So I’m kind of lucky in that I’m so fortunate to have amazing musicians in the band. I got too distracted by beer and other things to ever become that good."

The Dial Tones in the early days - 2007.

How did The Dial Tones meet?
"It’s kind of weird that someone from Royal Oak would make it out to New Baltimore - Chesterfield to jam with some kids, but I guess it's some sort of musical cross-pollination. I played in a punk band when I was like 18 with a mutual friend of Nick's and when we would play shows all these weird kids would come down from New Baltimore and hang out. So I have known the guys since - shit since they were probably 12 years-old.
Nick and I just became best friends really because I was over punk at 16 and he was starting to get into a lot of the bands I loved. We started playing together about a year and a half ago, banging out The Sonic’s 'The Witch' as a two-piece. He was also jamming with Muskrat and Kyle Davis separately and we decided to combine it all together. That incarnation of The Dial Tones lasted for about six months and we added Darrell as an organ player in June of last year.
It kind of changed the sound a bit from more like Chuck Berry and powerpop to what our original intentions were to be a 1960s garage band like The Sonics, JuJus, Count Five, Keggs and all that fun shit. Topping it off we brought Schanta in because he’s the nicest guy in the world and he was always hanging around anyways. It turned out to be a smart move because he’s a fantastic songwriter as well."

The Dial Tones with Nikki Corvette


What do you plan to do with the Jim Diamond recordings the band recently finished?
"The plan is to release them as soon as we can. I’ve been talking with a lot of labels, pestering Ben Blackwell and others looking for some sort of a deal or help. In such tight economic times it's rough to ask someone you know to dump 700 dollars into a vinyl 7 inch, but I’ve made some headway in the past few weeks and I think you can count on something being out before the end of summer. If no labels come through I can see ourselves putting it out this summer. We’re no strangers to D.I.Y."

You guys have a lot of Detroit influences, what else inspires your tunes?
"I’ve never really been out of Detroit, save a trip to Ireland and a few other small things, and I kind of don’t really want to know what else goes on outside of my city. I guess that sounds kind of close-minded, but as far as I’m concerned Detroit has always been our biggest inspiration. Seeing The Fondas made Nick and I start this band. The Terrible Twos, The Muldoons and The Go make us want to be so much better.
I remember I took the guys to see The Go at Cityfest last year. They had never seen them before since they are a lot younger and I remember looking at their faces when The Go were playing. It was priceless. We haven’t been the same band since. I remember when we went and saw The Terrible Twos open for The Black Lips a few months ago. The guys - their faces just all lit up with the hugest smiles and it pushes us that much more to be better. People like that and Mick Collins, Ed Gillis, Dan Kroha and Jack White just continuously make us want to push it out farther and farther. As for what inspires the tunes besides the aforementioned bands, it’s -surprise- things in Detroit.
I’m constantly looking around when I’m driving for things to write about. We have a new song called 'Al Wallace is a Black KKK Rat' because I have seen that written on walls all around the city. Another new one is called 'Ghetto Bird' which is a loving homage to Ice Cube’s song of the same name and the copters that constantly fly over my apartment. We have another new song called 'Alleged Party' which is about Kwame inviting The Dial Tones over for a party at the Manoogian."

Eric Allen, wearing Gucci.

What are you guys up to when you're not playing music?
"We all work jobs and, except for myself, go to school. Haas is going to State this summer and currently works at Petco last time I checked. Nick is going to Grand Valley soon and works at a Chinese restaurant that Kyle Davis worked at a few days before he was let go. Davis hangs out with his girlfriend a lot, rakes leaves and saves bunnies for money. Muskrat just lost his job due to hard economic times and is looking for a job. Hire him he’s a good kid if you have a job.
Kyle Schanta goes to Wayne State and makes pizza at Pizza Hut and has a nice girlfriend Taylor he likes a lot. As for myself, I work full time at Real Detroit Weekly as an editor and writer and put a lot of time into that. When I’m not there I’m usually hanging out with my wonderful girlfriend, playing my free Xbox 360 or drinking a fine beverage from Bells, Kuhnhenn’s or Motor City Brewing Works. Do I get my free beer now?"

How many shows have you guys played? Any plans to play outside of Michigan?
"We have played a lot of things that are loosely considered shows. We’ve done a lot of glorified practices in basements, parks and shit like that. All together I’d say we’ve probably done 25 shows in like a year of existing. I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in the last year alone and I think it can only go up from here. We’ve got a ton of stuff coming up, we just played with The Black Hollies, which was probably our best show yet. We are also playing with Mike from Hentch’s new band Speedy Greasy and some of the dudes from Rocket 455 in June at Northern Lights.
As for playing out of town, we’ve gotten a lot offers to play out of state from people willing to put us up and stuff. It will eventually happen someday I’m sure, maybe just weekend trips or something, but my job is demanding in that I can’t really be away that long. We are also all kinds of poor. Right now though we are more concerned with getting better local shows, opening for our heroes and doing some headlining stuff with bands we dig."

Do you follow politics? Do you have a choice for president and why?
"It’s funny someone was just telling me that The Dial Tones, White Panther thing - some of us wear their pins, John Sinclair is a hero of mine and I guess our strong resemblance sound wise to the MC5, has really turned them off about us. In all honesty, our songs have absolutely nothing to do with politics. I guess some of the new songs have a political tinge since two of them are about cops and one is about Kwame Kilpatrick. Regardless, we aren’t the MC5 or The Clash. We aren’t going to shove anything down anyone’s throat.
I don’t really know what everyone thinks politically in the band. I think its safe to say that none of us are exactly happy with what is going on in the world. I follow politics pretty closely, although not as much I should. I graduated from school with a minor in political science so I’m interested in all that shit. In the upcoming election, I will vote for Barack Obama because not only does he best represent my views out of all the candidates, but he seems genuinely concerned with changing the establishment of Washington D.C. This is something that has been apparent for a long time and I’m excited that a main party canidate is trumpeting such change. I will probably kill myself if John McCain wins, that is if he doesn’t die first, which is quite possible because he’s older than dirt."

What is a typical day like for you or you and the Dial Tones?
"I’ll try not to dwell on myself for to long, but a typical day for me is to go to work at Real Detroit where I write about bands, businesses and people. I get a lot of free stuff because people apparently care about my opinion. It is nice to spotlight music that I think is good and I’ve been able to talk to a lot of awesome musicians like BBQ, The Black Lips, Eddie Gillis, Against Me!, AIDS Wolf, The Kills, Jay Reatard and so on and so on.
I think I’ve touched on everyone else’s jobs in other questions and they pretty much all do their work and school thing and then go wreak havoc on New Baltimore. We all go to a lot of local shows and hang out together when we get a chance. We all are pretty big record nerds so we spend a lot of time on that stuff and way too much money as well."

What is a pet-peeve of yours?
"I can generally say we don’t like people who aren’t modest. We have aspirations for this band, but we aren’t willing to take a Machiavellian approach to it and burn bridges in the process. There are some people we know that just really have a problem with this. It’s always their way or the highway. I don’t think any of us have the time or patience for that kind of attitude. This modesty 'situation' that is considered our 'pet peeve' really showcases the best thing about our band.
We have this kind of gang element to us in that we were best friends before we were in this band together and we are willing to do anything for each other. So situations arise with someone who doesn’t know their place and we feel like we have to show them where it is. I just made us sound like Agnostic Front or something, but it’s true. We would do anything for anyone in our band."

Who do you think is better, Elvis or The Beatles?
"I really don’t know - The Stooges - nah, I won’t be a dick. I think we would all probably agree on The Beatles. Although they both pretty much stole from black people. The Beatles eventually went on to make really interesting music of their own after their obsession with Chuck Berry was over. Elvis never really got over that and plus he never gave credit where credit was due."

Link:
http://www.myspace.com/detroitdialtones

The Dial Tones are:
Kyle Davis, 18 - Lead Guitar and vocals
Kyle Schanta, 19 - Lead Guitar and vocals
Eric Allen, 22 - Rhythm guitar and vocals
Muksrat, 18 -Bass and vocals
Nick Knight, 19 - Drums
Darrell Haas, 18 - Organ and Piano

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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Please write for permission to use any text.