Pennywise

By John B. Moore

The Hermosa Beach punk band Pennywise has been faced with the break up question before.

In 1996 when founding bassist Jason Thirsk committed suicide they had to decide whether to keep the band together or call it a day. They opted for the former, bringing in bassist Randy Bradbury and turned in some of their biggest albums to date.

So when singer Jim Lindberg decided to leave the group in 2009, citing a desire to spend more time off the road and with his family, the other guys in Pennywise already knew they would soldier on without him. They hired Ignite front man Zoli Teglas a few months later and got to work on All or Nothing, their 10^th record.

With the new album finally on the merch table and a summer full of tours ahead, Bradbury spoke recently about Lindberg's decision to leave and the band's decision to brush it off and start over. 

***

How did you end up finding Zoli? Did you audition other singers?
 
We had toured with Ignite, and we were also fans of Ignite before we even knew Zoli. I had always thought from the first time I saw Ignite, back in 1996 that Zoli would be a great replacement for Jim, if Jim were to quit. Jim was always threatening to quit, even back then. So Zoli was always on our radar, but after Jim quit we wanted to be sure that we had at least tried out some other people, to make sure we were making the right choice. We tried out quite a few others, and got demo tapes from even more people. In the end there was a lot of good stuff coming from everyone that tried out, but Zoli just fit like a glove.

 
So at any point when Jim left, did you guys think of calling it quits or even recording under a different name?
 
Not at all. We never considered quitting or changing the name. Jim didn't like being in the band. We like being in Pennywise and we like playing Pennywise songs to Pennywise fans. Fletcher (Dragge) and Jason (Thirsk, former bassist who passed away in 1996) started the band, it's Fletcher's band. We aren't going to quit because Jim says so. Not taking anything away from the amazing accomplishments that we achieved with Jim, and not taking away from Jim's great song writing, and his voice... But still, we didn't think his quitting was warranted. We felt like his desire to quit was based on his perspective alone, a perspective that the rest of us don't believe was completely legitimate (at least from the way he tried to explain it to us). The success that Pennywise has been gifted is extremely fortunate. This success deserves the ultimate respect, and our fans deserve the ultimate respect for supporting us. Quitting, in my opinion, is a slap in the face to this gift of success. That's how I see it.... I have a family also; I have four beautiful children that I love more than life itself. We all have families. Pennywise has always done minimal touring so that we can be at home as much as possible with our families. It's the best of both worlds, why would we give up on a lifetime of work, a dream come true, that has taken two decades to build? It just wouldn't make sense for the rest of us to quit just because one dude is over it.

 
From the Punk Rock Dads documentary it seemed like the split was not as contentious as it was made out to be online. Was everyone pretty ok when Jim left?
 
No, we were not ok with Jim leaving. Jim was awesome when he had enthusiasm for the band. Jim was a great songwriter, a great performer, a fun guy to be around when he was happy. We wanted Jim to stay in the band. We tried very hard to make things comfortable for him. We limited our touring, we tried to be non-confrontational, and we tried to include songs that he wanted to play. We even offered to pay for a nanny for his children when we were on the road. Jim was a great singer and songwriter, the last thing we wanted was for him to leave the band. But once he decided to go, I think I got a little bitter that he didn't put the same value on being in Pennywise that I did, so now there is this trail of shit left in the wake.

 
When did you start work on All or Nothing?
 
I started writing songs for All or Nothing the day we got out of the studio for Reason to Believe. We didn't know the title, or what the future had in store, but I always write music. But, I would say we conscientiously started writing All or Nothing, with Zoli, about two years ago. There was a lot of getting used to each other's styles and finding the right way to express ourselves musically with a new singer in the band, and we didn't want to fuck up. So we took our time with this album, and we are really happy with the results. Zoli is such a great singer and he has adapted his style to fit our music so well, all the hard work and trials that we've gone through all seem worth it now.

 
Was the writing of the music different when you add Zoli to the mix?
 
Well, we could write in a higher registers because Zoli has a higher vocal range than Jim did. We all had input on every single song. We were able to experiment more with every song until we all felt that we had done as much as we could to make it the best we could. I think we just worked harder and more like a team on this record. It reminded me of back when we did Full Circle.

 
Was there any kind of initiation he had to go through?
 
Fletcher has been hazing Zoli pretty much constantly, but I think Zoli actually likes it. Zoli can dish it back pretty damn good. They are pretty evenly matched when it comes to playing the dozens. All in all, Zoli is like a long lost brother, he fits in Pennywise so good. I love having him around, he's a fun guy.

 There seems to be a lot of songs about standing up for yourself. Was there meant to be a general theme to these songs?
 
It's kind of a general theme. These songs are written post 9-11, post George Bush, current Obama, the president of NON change. There is so much corruption in the world and so many lies being fed to us by the liars in charge, it's hard for us to not write songs suggesting you stand up for yourself and take the power back. I know it gets a little repetitive, but repetition is how you get things to stick in people's heads... The real overall theme though, is to get people to think for themselves. Don't fall for the bullshit that the media dumps on you, that's fed to them by the power elite in order to make us, the common peasants, easier to control. The theme is to think for yourself and try to make this world a better place. These songs are just meant to be eye openers, and stir up the thought processes of anyone that is interested in the message. These songs are not intended as a blueprint, just as a motivator to start thinking.
 

D.Y.S.

By John B. Moore

As part of the legendary "Boston Crew," the highly influential 1980's hardcore scene that also included bands like Jerry's Kids, Gang Green and Negative FX, D.Y.S. provided an East Coast alternative to the slew of Cali bands that were dominating punk zines at the time.

Though their initial sound was pretty simpatico with their peers, the band ultimately broke through the hardcore clutter and committed an unwritten taboo at the time with their self-titled second record, by changing their tuning and mixing in metal influences creating a new sound. While that thrash influenced punk rock has become fairly standard with today's metal core bands, in 1984 it was unheard of and caused chaos in the Boston scene, pissing off a lot of punk rockers that, ironically, had become very rules-focused in their scene.          

That record was the swan song for the band for the next couple of decades, with co-founders Dave Smalley and Jonathan Anastas moving on to play in a number of other punk bands including Dag Nasty, Slapshot, ALL and Down By Law.

A reunion in 2010 seemed to rekindle something in the band. Smalley and Anastas, who had remained close throughout the years, put together a new line that included Franz Stahl, from the legendary D.C. band Scream, Powerman 5000's Al Pahanish, Jr. and Adam Porris, formerly with Far From Finished.

The band, now signed to Boston-based Bridge 9 Records (appropriately enough), are in the middle of a musical experiment, releasing a single a month for 12 months and playing live when they can. Smalley and Anastas spoke recently about the break up, the reunion and why metal pissed off some many skinheads in the 80's.  

What was it that finally got the band to reunite? 

 Smalley: The motivating factors for a D.Y.S. reunion were actually the best reasons of all: friendship and loyalty. Those are two of the most important qualities in life, you know.  We had been asked many times to do something and it hadn't been right, for whatever reason.  But when two of our friends from back in the day in Boston - Duane Lucia from Gallery East, where D.Y.S. played some wicked shows and Drew Stone from the Mighty COs and Antidote - were making a film about the Boston hardcore scene, and asked us to headline a show to help them to promote their documentary, we all instantly said we would be glad to help. That was one of the best things about the Boston crew, the loyalty and mutual help we would give each other, whether it was in the pit or in a fight or whatever. And it was really, really good to see each other again. And while I think honestly it sounded rusty as hell at the beginning, it gelled surprisingly quickly, which is a tribute to those players.

        One of the things that struck me during rehearsals was how D.Y.S. had become a complicated band in terms of song structures, the second album stuff. Not freeform jazz oD.Y.S.sey weird, but on some songs, unique arrangements and lines per verse, that kind of thing. So it was interesting to rehearse these songs and see them in a new light, and actually tweak a few of them here and there. And then when we played the big show with all our friends there, and it honestly sounded really powerful, it seemed really a bummer to not play together again. So we kept the torch lit instead of dousing it without reason. So it has been very musically honest.

Had you all stayed in contact since splitting up?

Smalley: Jonathan (Anastas) and I have been friends since 1981. So that's a great bond and we always keep each other posted on life and love and rock. And he is really good at staying knowledgeable about where people are. I'd had occasional contact with the other guys too, but he really made it all happen. There has to be friendship or a band won't have a certain kind of spark and chemistry. D.Y.S. always had that.

Franz, Al (Pahanish, Jr., Powerman 5000) and Adam (Porris, Far From Finished) are now part of the lineup. How did they get involved?

Anastas: For our initial reunion, Ross Luongo (our original lead guitar player) had already been playing in a band with Bobbie and Jack called Automatic.  The three of them had great musical interplay.  Leveraging that into what we thought would be a one-off D.Y.S. reunion show and movie shoot made a lot of sense and you can hear the power of that line-up on our Bridge Nine live album More than Fashion: Live from the Gallery East Reunion.  Almost immediately after the show, Ross got transferred to the UK as part of his work so that specific chemistry changed. As the future plans for D.Y.S. became more ambitious, it was clear that we needed players with a closer geography and the time to write, record, tour, etc. I had known drummer Al Pahanish Jr. since DreamWorks relocated his old band - Powerman 5000 - to L.A. from Boston and I had a ton of respect for his playing.  Dave and I had also recorded with Al on a sort of (still unreleased) "punk rock supergroup" project (Dave on vocals, Jamie Sciarappa from SSD on bass, Al on drums, I played rhythm guitar and Johnny Rock from the Boston Band Half Cocked played lead guitar) and we were impressed even more.  D.Y.S. and Franz's band Scream go all the way back to early hardcore together.  After many years of being out of touch, it turned out that Franz and his family lived in the same neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills that I did and we became close socially.  I had been looking for a way to play music with Franz for a long time.  Adam - like Al - went to Berklee School of music in Boston and has amazing chops.  Right after we met, I searched on YouTube for his work with Far From Finished and was impressed by this young kid who had a real confidence on stage.  His leads were like a young Billy Duffy where he'd just naturally take two steps to the spotlight and dig into that Les Paul. I'm clearly the weak link musically, and those three guys have upped the game on the new songs - and the old ones - more than I ever imagined.  

When you played those reunion shows in 2010, did you know at the time you were going to write new music or did that evolve over time?

Smalley: Well, as I said, it was only a one-off thing, but the show was so powerful, and the reactions so strong, and the emotional feeling onstage was so real, that when it was done, it seemed crazy to let that not take root and grow. I don't think we had specific plans, like "let's rehearse next Tuesday" or whatever, but it was more like "that was amazing, let's see if anything else happens."Then our friends in the Bosstones (Dickey Barret was and forever will be a cherished member of the original Wolfpack and of the Boston Crew; he drew the first D.Y.S. album cover) asked us to play with them at the House of Blues in Boston, we said sure and really enjoyed that. Then we got asked to play in New York, and it just started taking off from there and musically we got tighter and tighter, plus Jonathan gave me some lyrics - to songs like "Wild Card", "Sound of Our Town" and "Unloaded" among others - that are just great. I wrote some music for them and they came out with their own sound. I didn't try to make it hardcore, or make it metal, or punk or whatever, I just wrote what I thought the lyrics were demanding. It was a very honest and organic and powerful process. D.Y.S. was never afraid to break musical walls.  We're a punk rock band that will always be hardcore and metal influenced, and will always have it be heavy and powerful.

So why do a single a month vs. just putting out a traditional full length?

Anastas: The music business has clearly changed in the last 10 years and that's changed how fans want and consume their content.  Fan's desire for physical albums has been largely replaced by a singles mentality.   It's been a long time since D.Y.S. was last an active band, and it was important to re-introduce ourselves in the language of today. Monthly singles also give us a chance to stay in the musical conversation over a longer period of time, versus the old-school "album cycle."  It's also been fun to create so many images, one for each song, rather than just one album cover. That said we do plan to release all the new music into a collection - in both digital and physical formats - at some point in 2012.

For the singles project do you already have the songs written and recorded or are you doing it as you go along, month by month?

Anastas: We're sort of mixing those two ideas.  We recorded basic tracks for the first five songs over the course of a couple weekends in late 2011. Since then, we've been adding one or two songs each time the whole band is together in Los Angeles. The way we write these days is I start with lyrics and send them to Dave. He writes the basic song structures, vocal melodies, etc.  Then he brings them to LA and the band polishes those frameworks up collaboratively in rehearsal spaces and the studio.  Our producer, Mudrock, has a strong voice in the final versions we record.  He's really a legend with all kinds of heavy music and also shares that Boston music history with us.

D.Y.S. is obviously known for being one of the first hardcore bands to add a strong metal influence to your sound- which is actually the norm now. Were you surprised at all how some people reacted negatively to that? 

Anastas: At the time, we were simply striving to play the music in our heads, our version of the music that was influencing our own lives, our friends, the other bands we knew.  All our peers were evolving in the same direction.  And, living in that bubble, we didn't see the backlash coming. In hindsight, that negative reaction makes sense.  Hardcore felt special to the community, something unique and pure that they owned.  I'm sure it was surprising and troubling to see the bands they love head into a different musical direction, something they thought was more commercial. And we gave them a lot to react against.  In one fell swoop, we de-tuned to drop D, a metal tuning; Dave sang a full octave higher.  Songs went from (a minute and a half) to six minutes, they had multiple solos. The record had digital drum samples on it. We even recorded a power ballad.  It was a huge shift to take place in one release. However, their perception that this move to Metal was a "sell-out" or a move to get cash wasn't true.  We were simply as inspired by this new sound as we were the first time we heard punk or hardcore.  Hardcore had ironically become as rigid, as much of a formula as the music it initially rebelled against.  And we were straining against the limitations of the genre. When we first met Metallica, they were living as DIY, as hand to mouth as any punk band we knew.  And when we first saw them live, damn, it was powerful, powerful stuff, as angry and as aggressive as hardcore, but with way more chops and one would argue more power. And that backlash and sense of rigid scenes cut both ways.  A record executive told us flat out "you can't look like this and play metal, you need to wear spandex and studs or you need to go back to playing hardcore."  We didn't fit in either world. Of course, as you point out, that changed. From the Cro Mags to the later Victory bands like Earth Crisis, the sound we tried on first really did become the kicker that helped hardcore "break" in the 90s.  By that time, D.Y.S. was long gone.

So what's next for the band?

Smalley: I think just to keep producing new stuff, playing in front of as many people as possible, keep the creativity and the power strong. And always do it honestly. I love playing with Al, Franz and Adam, and really respect them as people and musicians. And I'm so appreciative of the reactions from our old and new fans. So it's going to be something that continues to grow. The future is unwritten for everyone in life, but it should always include an electric guitar, raging drums, thundering bass and a heartfelt scream.

La Dispute

By John B. Moore

Post-hardcore rockers La Dispute could have easily churned out a paint-by-numbers collection of distorted guitars and aggressive vocals for their second full length and chalked it up to the clichéd sophomore slump. But in the three years between their debut full length (Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair) and Wildlife, the band faced a slew of life changes.

They managed to fill the three year gap with a handful of EPs, 7 inches and splits (seven in all), but quickly realized their next proper follow up would have to be more than just a collection of disparate songs. And it is.

The complex Wildlife has a conceptual theme that connects the songs together and rather than screwing it up with my own half-assed explanation, La Dispute vocalist Jordan Dreyer was kind enough to explain it to me, along with answering a few other questions about these Grand Rapids, MI-based punk band.

Can you talk a little bit about the concept behind the new record?

Wildlife is set-up as a collection of sort of stories/poems annotated by the author and split into thematic sections by four monologues. The idea was to find a way to discuss a more diverse range of topics than we have in the past while still maintaining a personal emotional narrative throughout--with those topics being what's addressed in the stories and the annotations/monologues that personal connection. At the same time, we wanted to write a record that was in a way conceptual, but didn't necessarily need to be thought in that context. Oftentimes, I think records with a linear narrative narrow the ways in which a person can enjoy it, and not everyone wants to sit down and listen to something front to back. Weaving that linear narrative throughout a set of somewhat separate songs/stories/whatever kept it open to listening to it both as an album-length story and as a collection of totally different and unrelated-if-you-want-them-to-be songs. At least that was the intention. 

When did you get the idea for this?

The initial idea came up pretty early on after our previous full length but really didn't fully materialize for quite awhile. Shortly after Somewhere... I decided that I wanted to branch out more from what I'd discussed on previous releases lyrically but wasn't quite sure exactly how to do that without straying too far from whatever niche we'd carved out. Part of that was I felt some of the stronger and more rewarding songs on that record were the ones that weren't about my own life and relationships, and part of it was that I, over time, became witness to some pretty astounding stories, either from a chance meeting or from just being in close proximity to something. On top of that, and on a more general note, we were at a different point in our lives; three years older and being confronted by a different set of questions and challenges. In a way I think the older you get the more complex things become, and the record is indicative of that. But I'm rambling, as always. Essentially, we had all these stories and we needed a vessel to house them. The book/annotations idea gave us that and gave us the thematic diversity to accomplish all the things we wanted to musically, which was quite a bit. Three years time didn't just give us new experiences and stories; it gave us a whole new understanding of who we are as individual musicians and as a group. We wanted to cover all of that musically and setting the record up the way we did allowed for that. Going back to the idea developing over time, the initial conversation about the idea snowballed every time we all sat down together. In a way, the idea got the wheels turning and writing the music finished the job; kind of transformed the idea into a whole new entity. I don't know. It's kind of a strange birthing process. 

This is pretty ambitious for a second full length. Any idea how you're going to follow it up?

I don't know, to be honest. We don't really think about it that way. Like I said before we were at a different point in our lives both as individuals and as a group as we were when writing Somewhere... and I'm certain we'll be at a different point in our life when another idea presents itself. Writing and recording an album for us is essentially just taking a picture of that time, so using a previous work as a measuring stick is kind of worthless. We'll have to see what happens.

What's the music scene in Grand Rapids like right now?

Grand Rapids has a fantastic music scene and we are forever in its debt. Really. There are so many phenomenal people writing incredible music, running amazing spaces for shows, and in general taking care of the arts there that I will eternally be proud to call it home. There's an arts cooperative that is communally run for shows and art showings and the like, a great bar with a 400 capacity venue run by some really good friends of ours, and a bunch of awesome bands. Jowls, Radiator Hospital, Procession, Damages, Cain Marko, etc. Look into it if you're reading this.

So what's next for the band?

Right now, vacation. We have the rest of the year off to recuperate from the first 10 months of it and we're all enjoying the down time. Of course, you never really shut it off, and even now we've started the ball rolling on some things we're all pretty excited about. None of which is concrete enough to announce at this point but you'll know as soon as it is. As for tour, we'll be heading to Europe and Australian sometime in the near future, and we're starting to formulate plans for a headlining tour in the States come spring or so. We'll let you know.

Bomb the Music Industry! Interview

By John B. Moore

For a whole generation of punks, the phrase "DIY" is little more than a t-shirt slogan hanging on the wall at Hot Topic down the street at the mall.

It's refreshing then to see a music collective like Bomb the Music Industry! not only understand the meaning of Do It Yourself, but have that concept as the band's ethos. DIY and fairness to fans have been part of BTMI! Since the group's beginnings in 2004. From spray-painting stenciled t-shirts to fans behind show venues (free of charge, of course) to playing only all-ages shows that agree to cap ticket prices at $10, this New York collection of punk rockers, led by founder Jeff Rosenstock, have a reputation even the guys in Fugazi would envy.

The band - using the term loosely as dozen of musicians come and go at any given time - is also behind the label Quote Unquote Records, which has been offering "name your own price" downloads long before Radiohead made headlines with the same business model.

Bomb the Music Industry! is out with a new full length, Vacation, and about spend the remainder of the summer taking the songs to (all age) venues across the country. Rosenstock was kind enough to answer a few questions recently about the band, the label and the true nature of DIY.

For those not familiar with the band, can you talk a little bit about the band's philosophy when it comes to DIY?

Bomb the Music Industry! basically started after my old band broke up. I moved back in with my parents, and I tried writing and recording songs on my own in my old bedroom. A lot of the idea was that if I figure out how to do all that stuff on my own, then I don't have to spend any money recording records, and then won't have to sell anyone anything, which after being in a band that did a bunch of Warped Tour, support shows and stuff like that, man was I sick of going to a punk show and it turning out to be just another store. It always seemed to me that a punk show should be a safe haven from commercialism. So as we grew into a real band, we approached things in the same way. After dozens of permutations involving sponges, paints, screens, stencils and paintbrushes, we settled on making stencils out of old cardboard, buying spray paint, and people bringing their own shirts to shows to get official Bomb the Music Industry! shirts. We used to have a stack of CD-R's with all of our songs on it at shows which were available to trade for another blank CD-R that we could later turn into a Bomb CD-R. As it grew, we had a handful of opportunities, for example putting out a vinyl record which I've always wanted to do, and at this point we do sell shirts and records. But we still have all of that stuff available for free, we still do everything pretty much ourselves or at the very least with friends. I even started up a record label with my friend Dave to put out the newest Bomb record. We still operate as far outside of the weird system that's set up for punk bands to sell themselves as we can. 

What made you decide to start Quote Unquote Records?

Basically, Bomb the Music Industry! had (and still has) a revolving door policy, meaning that if you couldn't tour full time, you could still be in the band. I didn't want this to be something anyone was counting on to make money, so obviously we all had to work, and if you couldn't get off of work I didn't want there to be any drama. Of course, when I went to book our second tour with The Rick Johnson Rock and Roll Machine, all twelve members were like "um, no, I've gotta work." Instead of canceling the tour, Rick said he'd play bass for me, I could play guitar for him, and we'd play to our programmed sequences that were on the record. Immediately on that tour, I was surprised how easy it was to just be one person doing his thing. A few days into the tour, we played with The Matt Kurz One and our minds were so blown that we just called up all the promoters and said "put this guy on the show please." The tour went really, really well, and a lot of it was due to the notoriety Bomb had gotten from putting out free music. I told Matt I wanted to do the same thing with his next record, but I felt kind of bad just saying "hey, I want to give away your music entirely for free!" so I set up a really non-intrusive option to donate for the record. People responded really well to it, so I ended putting out a couple of other friends records and it snowballed from there.

What surprised you the most about running your own label?

Not a whole lot to be perfectly honest. The great thing about Quote Unquote is that it is ridiculously cheap and easy to operate, so there hasn't been any big wrenches thrown in the works or anything. I'm not terribly surprised at the good response bands on Quote Unquote have been getting ‘cause I think those bands are great and should be getting good responses or else I never would have worked with them in the first place. It was surprising when years later "Pay What You Can" became a business model buzz word, but it was also extremely rewarding when I saw a handful of other labels get started with a donation-based digital model and give props to us. 

Is it still a solely donation-based model?

Yes and no. Quote Unquote records will always be a donation-based business model, but most of our artists press records and CD's, and we put links to that on our site if you want to buy it. Again, we try to keep it non-intrusive. The new label, Really Records, is not donation-based at all. That's more of a stressful and terrifying trip down the road of distribution, promotion, radio, sales and so on. The idea is to hopefully get people who are not necessarily part of the punk rock scene to hear some of the bands that we think are under-heard and also to create a place for all of us nerdy, friendly weirdo punks to put out records that may not sound like punk records.

Let's talk about the new record. What can you tell me about it?

I can tell you that it's a really long one for us. Our first record over forty minutes! I like it. Lyrically, it's still a lot about the fears of getting older and not finding your place in life, but it's more so about realizing that, okay, EVERYBODY is going through that and that shouldn't make me a jaded asshole. There's still a lot of great stuff and great people out there, and so what if everyone dies someday or it's hard to pay rent. Worrying isn't gonna fix that. 

Who joined you in recording this album?

Well the five of us who have been on tour together for the past three or so years made the record together. We recorded it in our guitar player Tom's practice/recording space, as well as in my apartment. Some buddies from Andrew Jackson Jihad, The Wild and Chotto Ghetto e-mailed over some parts of theirs. I was super excited that Ginger Alford (Good Luck), Chris Farren (Fake Problems) and Steve Ciolek and Matt Scheuermann (The Sidekicks) were into contributing those crazy Beach Boys-ish harmonies on a bunch of the songs. They all have such great voices and I was glad to waste their talents on my record. I was also excited about getting to record Aidan Kohler on violin... I've worked with her on a handful of Laura Stevenson and the Cans' recordings that I did and she is totally the ace up our collective sleeve. Anything she plays on immediately sounds better. It was also pretty cool to have my old band mate Dave Renz from ASOB sing harmonies on a few tracks. He walked into my apartment, it was like old times and I think he literally finished all of his parts in one take. We're gonna hopefully get all these folks to be regulars on Bomb records.

Is Sara Crow still working on a documentary about the band?

Yes she is! She told me she has her narrative arc now, although I have no idea what that might be. It's very strange when someone, who has now become a friend, is observing your life from a different perspective and can apparently kind of see what's going to happen with it? Sometimes I wish she'd just fuck up the documentary a little bit and let me know if all this shit I'm trying is going to work out, 'cause I have no fucking idea if it is!

Countless bands have proven that you don't need the backing of a label to be heard. Do you think a traditional record label still makes sense for most bands?

I don't know what makes sense for us, let alone other bands. I think the idea of having a ton of money up front to make a record and go on tour is definitely enticing, and the idea of a label getting people excited about records and making people aware that these records are coming out is also super important. I don't think it's necessary to be "heard" anymore though. I think you just have to put out good music. So many bands have started out, and sometimes continued, doing stuff on their own that have become me and my friends' favorite bands. And people go to their shows just as much if not more than whatever punk whatever thing that a major label is pushing. So, no, I don't think having the backing of a label has been necessary since high-speed internet has become widely available, but I can't imagine it hurts to have a support team that you trust.

You talked earlier about stenciling band t-shirts for fans. What made you decide to finally start selling t-shirts on the last tour?

 Since we started stenciling t-shirts, there were people coming to our shows that after finding out we HAD no shirts to sell were like "Well, that's cool... but I still wish I could buy a shirt and support you." After a while there were more and more people that felt that way and eventually it seemed like we were bumming more people out by not having that option than we wanted to. I think we waited until we were at the right level to start selling stuff like that, because the first tour we did with shirts we ran out of them and came home with rent money. Every other band I've been in had lost a shit ton on merch and stuff like that. So that's pretty cool for us, although a large part of me still wonders where this project would be had we never sold a single thing. 

What's next for the band?

We go on tour for the rest of the summer and see if anyone likes our new record. 

Steve Ignorant Interview (formerly with Crass)

By John B. Moore

Since this interview was conducted, Steve Ignorant and his band mates have had to reschedule their much-anticipated shows in the U.S. and Canada after failing to secure Visas to enter the countries. Originally slated for March, the tour now starts in April. According to a press statement: "As of  (March 7^th), the band had not been issued US entry visas, despite months of preparation and despite having delivered all of their documents to their visa agent well in advance of usual guidelines. With only 3 days to go to the first show and no hope left of getting the visas in time, the only decision that could be made was to let the fans know and move the shows."

***

British anarcho-punks Crass certainly never stressed out over skinny jeans and asymmetrical haircuts, nor did they go around comparing ironic tattoos like many of today's punk rockers.

Instead they spent the late 70's up to their inevitable implosion in 1984, creating in-your-face political rants set to abrasive sound collages and pretty much taunting Thatcher and her conservative minions. The highly influential, but often overlooked punk band set out a template for everyone from The Dead Kennedys to Anti-Flag.

Having vowed to never again reunite, band co-founder and front man Steve Ignorant has decided to give fans one last chance to hear the songs of Crass before he officially nails the coffin shut and encases it in cement. Just don't call it a reunion.  

Let's start off with The Last Supper Tour. Can you tell me a little bit about the concept behind it?

It all really started with the Feeding of 5000 shows in 2007. I got a lot of phone calls from people wanting me to repeat that show across the world. I had to explain to them that the whole idea of the Feeding 5000 was just a one-off show, never to be repeated and I couldn't go back on that. As time went on it became apparent that a lot of people couldn't get to those shows and were desperate to see them live. It took me a long time, but spoke to some people and thought long and hard about it and thought why not. Why shouldn't I for one last time perform Crass songs live and I won't just do Feeding 5000, because to repeat that would be just jumping on a bandwagon.  I asked people on the Web site what they'd want to hear and they sent in suggestions and that's how it sort of comes about really. I called it the Last Supper because I want to make it apparent because this will be the last time it happens. When I do the last show in England, I will never every perform these songs live again. That's a promise I have made to not only people, but myself.

And why is that? Obviously having been a part of this movement you have a strong identity to these songs. Do you just want to put them to rest?

Partly that. You see it so many times that someone will say "this is the last tour," and of course they come out again. The Sex Pistols have been guilty of this and so has Jimmy Pursey from Sham 69.

They realize there's still money left on the table?

Absolutely and I don't want to be seen like that. I've shot myself in the foot because there's no way I can do it now. I have to finish. I can't go back on my word and I won't. If it is going to be your last tour, make it your last tour. You know as well as I do that in three years time I could come out with The Last Supper: Second Sitting. What a sellout that would be on my part. My conscious just won't let me. It's a time for one last big celebration. It's also a chance for people who never got to hear those songs to hear them live. And after the show in November I'll take some time off and start work on the next project I want to do.

You seem to make a point on your web site and in all press materials of not calling this a reunion. It's you and other musicians playing Crass songs. At any point did you consider bringing in other Crass band members to make it a reunion?

No and for no other reason that if only I do it, it's Steve Ignorant playing Crass songs and not a reunion. I know there's been some stuff in the states over there saying "Steve Ignorant/Crass". If anyone is being duped by this thinking it's a Crass show, it's just wrong. Crass are not reforming and never will. This is just me. If anyone is out there buying tickets to see Crass, you won't. You'll just see me, so if you don't want that I suggest you take your ticket and get your money back because I wouldn't want anyone to come under false pretenses.  That (reunion) rumor is not being started by us. When I get to the states, I'm going to find out who's been starting this and there shall be a little discussion.

Does that seem to be an American phenomenon - show promoters trying to play this up as Crass, instead of you playing Crass songs?

There was one attempt somewhere in Germany where someone tried this and we had to put an end to it. I don't think it's just an American thing, I just think it's someone trying to make more money.

As an American punk fan, I was cognizant of the fact that you never got to play many shows ever here. Do you see this tour as a way to make up for it? You're playing more than just NY and LA.

Absolutely. Crass didn't really play in many countries and I think it's only right on this tour that I go where I can. Go wherever people are willing to come. It gives me an opportunity to meet people and gives them an opportunity to meet me...  The tour so far has been quite emotional, because they are getting to see me play these songs and are just happy that we're hitting so many different places. It's just really, really emotional. It's wonderful.

You're hitting some mid-size markets that a lot of bands from overseas tend to ignore like Atlanta and Baltimore.

Yeah, someone had to explain to me that America is a really big place. I thought fuck it. This is the last time it's going to happen, why not? If people are prepared to come out, we might add in another date here and there.

 A lot has been written over the years about the band being very thought out from the beginning, with a clear path of when the band would break up. Did you ever anticipate that three decades later people would still be talking about Crass and still be talking about punk in general?

No, not at all. I have to say I know that Penny has said that it was planned when we would break up, but I don't remember that being the case at all. I remember having the conversation about the (catalogue) numbers on the records and I remember saying "what happens when we get to 1984? And they said never mind, We'll sort that out." (Editor's note:  Many have speculated that the releases were numbered in such a way as to represent a countdown to the year 1984, when the band would split up. For the record, they did call it quits that year). So, no, I certainly didn't think we had plans to break up ahead of time.

The thing that really separated the Crass from others is that it always seemed like more than just a band. You certainly weren't shy about your politics and there was a lot of performance art as well, from the spray painting around London, to the faked taped conversations supposedly between Thatcher and Reagan. Did that stuff just happen or did you set out to more than just a punk band?

No, it was really just us wanting to start a band. We thought we'd just be playing pubs. We had no idea we would be doing so much. That just sort of came along. But we very quickly went from seeing ourselves as a band to seeing ourselves more as an information Center. We started handing out leaflets telling people what to do if you are arrested by the police; what you're rights are. A lot of other bands then started doing that as well. No, we didn't start out doing that, but change just came along and once she (Thatcher) came into power, we started thinking of way to get up her nose.

You may have had Thatcher, but we had Reagan at the same time...

You know I felt so sorry for you guys.     

The thing that surprises me is how he has become a hero to so many. It's as if everyone collectively agreed to forget about anything bad he ever did for this county.

I am shocked at younger kids who think the same thing about Thatcher. I'm completely beside myself... I've always told people that once she dies, the drinks are on me. If that woman achieved anything it's that she taught me how to hate.

Do you still listen to punk music? Do you listen to some of the newer punk bands?

No, I'm afraid I don't. Once I hit middle age I mellowed out. I listened to some Reggae, but now I listen to a lot of the classic Soul and Motown. And I've been getting into a lot of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. I'm cool man; I'm getting hip.

I know you've started re-releasing some of the Crass albums. Were the rest of the band members involved in that as well? Does everyone have to sign off on it?

No, no. Some of the ex-members of Crass didn't agree to it, so we did it the way we always agreed to do things: let's put it to a vote and it was 4-to3, so we released them. I won't mention names, but someone threatened us with court proceedings, so we sort of stuck our two fingers up and went ahead. So, who knows, maybe I'll see you in the Klink.

An Interview with The Adicts' Pete Dee Davison.

By John B. Moore

Believe it or not, it took a lot to get noticed in the burgeoning UK punk scene in the late 70's.

When every other punk is putting a safety pin through his ear and sporting a swastika arm band, it's going to take a lot more than ripped jeans and a spray painted anarchy symbol on your shirt to stand out.

Based out of Ipswitch, Suffolk, England, The Adicts had stellar punk anthems with sing-along choruses that stuck in your head for days, but it was their stage clothes that first got them noticed: reminiscent of a Clockwork Orange, they dressed in all white, with black boots, bowler hats and singer Keith "Monkey" Warrens sported joker makeup night after night.

Formed in 1975, The Adicts are officially the longest running punk band still playing with its original members.

Earlier this year, the band released their latest Life Goes On, their ninth record (not counting live albums and comps). Band co-founder and guitarist Pete Dee Davison put down his cup of tea recently to talk about punk (he doesn't think it has ever been accepted into the mainstream), staying together (for the record, they did NOT break up in the 80's) and hip hop (he's clearly not a fan).

***

The Adicts have been together longer than most kids in punk bands have been alive. How have you guys managed to stay together for so long?

 
I think we have stayed together so long because we really enjoy what we do and each other. Also contributing factors are we write what we want to and don't copy trends or fashion. We are who we are and that's about it really.

Have there been any lineup changes over the years?

Yeah,  when we first started we were a four piece and then we tried bass players who were pretty shite over all and Mel was shite on guitar so we threw him on bass and he's still shite. Now we have Scruff, his brother, on rhythm guitar and he is great. We have had a couple of dodgy keyboard players we really didn't like at all  - one had the smallest dick we have ever seen, so we can't have that in a band now can we?  Now we have Dan on keys and Violin and we kind of like him a bit. Mel's not too well at the moment so we have Shahen on bass. He is great; fits in good and we don't have to Baby him like we do Mel.

Are you surprised to see that punk music is still around and now pretty accepted by the main stream?

 I don't agree its gone mainstream at all. Only a handful of bands have had some success and that's not representational of punk rock is it?  I am not surprised it's still around at all. Its street music, it rocks and fuck anything is better than the shit R&B Rap crap that's around. The problem is the industry itself: it's full of twats. Fuck the lot of them I say. I can't remember when we had a record air played during the day on any mainstream radio station. They are just as prejudiced now than they ever were against anything different or clever. Instead we have bollocks that ram the airwaves and MTV. It needs a good enema, I recommend it if you're reading this, you boys and girls who think you know it all.

Punk, as a genre, has been popular at times and then moved underground at times. What years were the hardest for the band to find audiences?

       I think the 90's were difficult as it had almost been pushed into the cemetery. I don't think punk has ever been popular at all.

Are you fans of any of the newer punk bands?

 Yeah, of course.  The Cute Lepers are one of my favorite bands out there. They write catchy songs and have good melodies.

What can you tell me about your new record, Life Goes On?

 It's our latest album and it's fucking great! Diverse, interesting, sounds awesome, gives one something to think about at times and even has a track on it you can shag to. It's the Adicts! I enjoyed working with Earle Mankey again on the album and hope to work on the next one with him too. When we record we have to record everything because we don't practice, due to living far away from each other so it's all done real and honest, spontaneously and I love it. We all do, so we just knock it out.

The band took some time off in the mid-80's. What happened during that period? Did the band ever officially break up?

 Every band takes some time off, we did what we had to. We were playing all over the place getting pissed off with each other and touring, we needed a break from all the bad things that come with being young and touring; like drugs and drink. We never broke up or had any inclination of doing so, we just needed to get our shit together and we did. I think we took a year without even talking to each other. It was that bad, then we did a gig or two, realized we still weren't ready to tour so we wrote some songs, got back into hanging out at the pub and liking each other again and then we hit the road again. Just to clear the record we have NEVER broken up  or we wouldn't still be here. Saying that I wouldn't mind having a reunion gig.

You are currently playing all over the world. Have you noticed a difference in the audiences from one country to the next

They are all different colors and speak different languages but they are all Adicts fans and we love them all. I think we are very humbled and grateful to have this huge worldwide following. That is our success. We have reached places even Heineken hasn't reached so that's something in itself. It's refreshing for a band who refuses to make an MTV video. We have done it the hard way and we love meeting our fans everywhere we go. It's still a beautiful world and we help make it so.

What has changed the most about the music business from the mid 70's to now?

Technology and wankers who think they can make music. One thing that boils my water is the c-rap scene. Fucking rubbish it is. Morons the lot of them. I can't understand a word and don't really want to. Once and  awhile a good record comes out. But really, the music industry has gone to the lowest form of life and they call us Punk. Well it's all gone to shit to be honest. We need instruments and musicians just like we need proper artists again who can paint. Fuck me anyone can lay a pile of  bricks  down and gets a grant for it is a genius really, come on. We need to get back some common sense here. I like art and music but somehow we are not using the capacity of our brains or knowledge or even either these days. Maybe I'm a dinosaur and if I am then who cares ‘cause I don't. It's easy, I just switch it off and don't bother with it, but when I see the kids out there... retardos.  Everyone's a rapper from the crapper. I just don't get it and don't want to. Thank God I don't.

Any advice you have for bands just starting out?

Yeah, write some good songs with good tunes and lyrics. Take control of your music from day one or you will be eaten by hungry bastards who will rape you and destroy your soul. Enjoy your music and love what you do. It will reward you.

An Interview with Stephen Egerton

The Descendents/ALL guitarist cuts a solo record.

By John B. Moore

In the world of pop punk, Stephen Egerton is practically royalty, lining up there right next to Joe Queer, Screeching Weasel's Ben Weasel and The Vandal's Joe Escalante.

The guitarist for The Descendents and their offshoot ALL, Egerton has helped influence a slew of younger punk rockers from Anti-Flag to The Copyrights.

Though both The Descendents and All are still somewhat active, Egerton has carved out a whole new career recently as recording studio owner and occasional producer. 

Between working with bands like MXPX and Lagwagon, Egerton booked some time recently for himself to record a solo album, Seven Degrees of Stephen Egerton. Along with writing all of the songs, Egerton played every instrument and recorded every piece of music, before sending the demos off to a slew of friends to lend their vocals. Among those who took him up on the offer were Chris DeMakes (Less Than Jake), Jon Snodgrass (Drag The River), Chad Price (ALL/Drag The River), Scott Reynolds (ALL/Steaming Beast) and John Speck (The Fags).

Egerton spoke recently about the project, the logistics and who he couldn't get this time around.

So how long have you wanted to put together an album like this?

I always thought it would be fun to make a record where I played all the instruments... just as a challenge. I've played drums and bass as long as guitar, and since I have a recording studio, and no regular people to make music with where I live, it seemed like a good time to take a crack at it. 

Did you know right away who you wanted to sing on this album?

No, that part took a while. I had already recorded the songs before my wife had the idea of having my friends sing on it (anyone who's heard me sing knows how great an idea it really was), so I would just listen to the song, and imagine different friend's voices singing the melodies. Fortunately, I have a lot of VERY talented friends. 

Anyone you wanted to bring in to sing, but was unavailable?

Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio) and George Reagan (Hagfish) were each going to do one, but got too busy with other things, and had to postpone. Hopefully that will happen sometime in the future. Ginger Walls from The Wildhearts too. 

How long did it take to record and how did you handle the logistics?

The whole project took about a year to complete. I did all the music over a couple of months then spent a couple of months figuring out who would sound best on what song. I only recorded one of the singers. Each guy did their song at a friend's place, or by themselves. Fortunately vocals can be recorded pretty easily, so I got lucky.

Any plans to put together another record like this one?

I'd like to do another record. I've still got a lot of songs. After the dust settles from this one, I'll start listening to what I have, and thinking about who might sound good on each song. 

Obviously it would be tough to tour, but any plans to play shows with any of the vocalists?

I did do a couple release party shows in April with five of the singers. I'd like to do that a few more times. We had a blast!

So any more reunion shows planned for ALL?

I expect ALL will do some more shows. We've had a great time at the one's we've done recently. We'll see if anyone asks!

Also wanted to ask you about the recording studio you own. What types of bands do you work with?

Mostly punk rock bands, but some alt country and occasionally metal bands. Over the last couple years, I've done more mixing and mastering than recording, but I've got several full length recording projects coming up in the next few months. I stay very busy with the studio. I really enjoy mixing, and since recording budgets are pretty small these days, it works well for a lot of bands to record locally, then send me the music to mix and/or master. 

So what's next for you?

Just forging ahead with making music and recordings. I've recorded some instrumental music of my own, as well as with the band Slorder, and I'll be releasing that as well as a record I played drums on with a fantastic Tulsa band called John Moreland and the Black Gold Band. John sang one of the songs on my record, and is one of my favorite singers and songwriters. Other than that, taking care of my family. I'm a very busy man!

A brief conversation with the Foo Fighters' Chris Shiflett, who is unveiling his Americana project the Dead Peasants.

By John B. Moore

Chris Shiflett is obviously best known as the guitarist for the phenomenally successful Foo Fighters, but to aging punk rockers like myself, he will always be known as the one time guitarist for the goofy San Jose-based pop punk band No Use for a Name, and more importantly as a founding member of the world's greatest cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.

Not really one to sit around and count the platinum records on his wall during down times, Shiflett balances his guitar duties with the Foos and the Gimme Gimmes, fronting the band Jackson United and playing in Viva Death. So in the remaining few hours left in each day - the ones most of us would simply waste away by sleeping - Shiflett has devoted to his new project: Chris Shiflett and the Dead Peasants. An Americana act with plenty of pedal steel guitar, the Dead Peasants sounds like nothing the guitarist has recorded to date. Featuring a revolving cast of backing musicians, the music is part Replacements, part Hank Williams.

Knowing Shiflett has little time on his hands following is a very brief interview with the hardest working man in pop punk (and rock... and tribute bands... and Americana).    

First of all, you've got a shitload of projects going on (Foo Fighters, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Jackson United), why start another band?

We've been on a two year hiatus from Foo Fighter activities so I had lots of time on my hands and I didn't think of it as starting a proper "band."  It was me and my friend Lou arranging a bunch of my songs and then calling in different people to play different parts.

Obviously the sound of this new record is a little different from what people expect to hear from you. How long have you wanted to write a country-tinged album?

I've been a fan of this kind of music for a long, long time so it felt like a natural progression for me to do this.

What musicians make up the Dead Peasants?

The album is a mish mash of a bunch of different people, but for the tour I've got my friend Luke Tierney on bass, Eric Skodis on drums and Derek Silverman on keyboards.  I think we're gonna bring a pedal steel player too.

It's also, nice to see you nabbed Audra Mae to help with vocals. How did you first meet her?

A good friend of mine is her manager and I'm also friends with the guys who put out her records (SideOne Dummy Records) so I had heard her music and loved her voice. I was stoked she came in to sing on a couple of songs. It really took 'em to a different place.

Do you plan on touring with these same musicians?

Nope.  The Dead Peasants are whoever I can corral at any given time to do some shows or whatever.

 So is this a one-off project or do you plan on doing more records like this one?

I hope I can do more records like this!

What inspired the song "An Atheists Prayer"?

Lyrically, it was inspired by a person I knew who killed himself.

As a fan growing up of No Use For a Name, I was bummed when you left the group, but certainly understand why. What was the biggest change about joining Foo Fighters?

When I joined Foos they were about to put out their third record so it was a crazy time. We immediately went out on a "promo" tour so I just sat there and listened to them give interviews all day, every day. It was kind of like Foo Fighter School.  My head was spinning.

So is Me First and the Gimme Gimmes working on anything new?

Not yet but its way overdue.

Show him the MONEY: it's Swedish rocker Moneybrother.

By John B. Moore

Old punk rockers don't die they just pick up acoustic guitars and go the singer songwriter route.

Unless you're Swedish and then, apparently,  you finally give in to your R&B jones, rechristen yourself Moneybrother and record a fantastic hybrid of blues, soul and rock-a-billy with a little bit of left over punk rock rebellion.

In 2003, not long after his put his band Monster to sleep, Anders Wendin decided to go it alone under the moniker Moneybrother. He churned out record after record of fantastic white boy soul in Europe while over here in the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, we just had to make do with pirated YouTube clips of the songs that were never being released in the U.S.

That is until Bladen County Records decided to finally take pity and toss a bone to America with the State-side release of Moneybrother's latest "Real Control."

On the eve of his first U.S. tour, Wendin was kind enough to answer a handful of questions over e-mail, discussing his decision to ditch punk rock, entertaining the umpteenth comparison to Joe Strummer (including mine) and slagging Coldplay for good measure.       

So you started out in punk rock bands. Do you ever miss playing that type of music?

Yes. Screaming at the top of your lungs for an hour is good for therapeutic reasons. But, and with big love to all punk bands out there, I decided a live show could be more interesting if you threw a little of everything in there. Like screaming one song, whispering the next. This sounds pretty basic, but think about it; very few artists work that way. To me a good record or a good show should not be like an hour of aerobics.

Is your approach to songwriting different now versus when you write more punk records?

No, basically it is the same way of writing songs. It is pretty much just a matter of using less guitars and maybe slow it down a little from time to time.

You've had a lot of success in Europe. How excited are you that your music is finally being released in the U.S.

Very much. You know, I read the books and saw the movie, now I get to go myself. All my friends that are in Swedish bands have been over here. Me, I stayed at home and did hard work there. Now it is time to get over here and continue working. For me music is a great tool of meeting friends. When people like my stuff, most of the time we got something in common. I'm excited to see how people in the U.S. are gonna react to my music. In my opinion, and I know every single artist says this, I got my own thing going. You might think it sounds like a bunch of other stuff when you are listening to Moneybrother, but if you want to pick up something like it from any other artist that is recording and touring this year it is gonna be a lot harder than if you wanna pick up something that sounds and looks like...hmmm... Coldplay.

So that answers my next question about whether you plan to tour the U.S. when this record comes out.

Yep. Doing a few weeks tour with Against Me! in April, and hoping to keep touring here all year. Will have to do a bunch of festivals in Europe this summer though. 

Are there plans to release your previous records in the States?

No, I think for business reasons it is gonna be hard. My label in Europe was never very interested in releasing in the States, and now they closed down.  

Your vocals sound amazingly like Joe Strummer on some tracks. Were you a fan?

Of course! Who's not? I love him, but he is not the greatest singer I know. If I could choose, I much rather sing like Ray Charles. I heard people comparing me to Strummer for years. It used to bother me a little, but nowadays I'm not bothered.

My apologies then. When Monster broke up, why did you decide to go solo rather than just putting another band together?

If you know exactly what kind of music you wanna play it is a waste of time having some bass player telling you which direction he thinks you should go. A band is a great thing.  You get a dynamic that is bigger than just yourself and you always have the guys there to tell you when you suck, but I decided I'd let myself suck if I wanted to. 

What's next for you?

Oh, this American release is keeping me occupied for the rest of the year. My goal is to make tomorrow a little bit different then today. That is my focus.

Dropkick Murphys are as magically delicious as ever. And don't forget The Claddagh Fund which they recently established. Happy Saint Paddy's Day, everybody!

Bu John B. Moore

Aside from maybe The Pogues and The Chieftans, no other band is more closely associated with St. Patrick's Day in the U.S. than Boston's Dropkick Murphys.

According to singer and bassist Ken Casey, the Celtic punk rock band was never really supposed to leave the basement of the barbershop where they screwed around blending bagpipes with distorted guitars.  So it's as much a surprise to the band as anyone else that 15 years later they are spending the week leading up to St. Patty's Day playing night after night to sold out crowds (seven night in all) at Boston's House of Blues.

For those not able to make the pilgrimage this year to Mecca for the Guinness crowd, The Dropkick Murphys are releasing a live record (culled from last year's shows) and DVD this week.

Casey, quite possibly the nicest guy in punk rock, spoke recently about the band, jamming with the hippies at Bonnaroo and the group's newly minted charity.   

***

Congratulations on the new record and DVD. I'm interested in why you wanted to put out another live record.

I think the main reason is because we did the first live album after we had three studio releases and we have since done three more studio albums and occasionally we would look at the track list of the live album and go "Wow,  there's a lot of songs that we play now that aren't on here." And what I'm most proud of about the whole new album is that it's a completely different track listing than the first one. One song, "Forever", is on both, but it's a completely different version. I know some of my favorite bands growing up, I bought every single live album they put out - Live in London, Live in Belfast, Live in Germany - but it was the same songs over and over again. I thought it was pretty cool that we had enough material to span two live records.

Because you guys have so many songs you've done as a band, do you ever have a problem putting together a set list every night?

Yeah, absolutely. You want to make it different, but you want to give people the songs they definitely want to hear and some times, between playing the standards and wanting to change it up from the last time you were in town, we end up playing 28 songs a night. There are only 20 on the album, because that's all that would fit on the CD. It also goes to show that our songs are getting longer... We go to a great deal of effort in changing it up. We save our set lists, so we can see what we played last time we were in town and make sure they get a different set the next time. I'd say that's probably one of the most burdensome things with this band. I spend hours every day looking over the set list a thousand times and trying to write it so it gives people their money's worth.

So have you come to the acceptance yet that you're pretty much going to be playing a show every single St. Patrick's Day for the rest of your life?

Well I guess if you don't want to do that you should start a different type of band then what we started. The whole Boston thing has become a little tradition. When you're in a touring band, you're away a lot of the year and you don't get to catch up with as many people as you like. Honestly, over St. Patrick's Day there are so many people in town it's like a convention almost. Backstage we get to catch up with all our friends and family. It's something we look forward to every year, so it's not like a burden to us.

You guys are playing Bonnaroo later this year. Do you know what you're in for, what to expect?

I looked at the line up and it's pretty diverse. But we play that stuff in Europe in the summer time - just massively diverse festivals - so I think even though we haven't done the Coachellas and Bonnaroos in America, we're very much accustomed to doing those types of shows and I think our music is suited for festivals and just being party music to a degree. We do very well in that setting in Europe and I imagine it will be a good time. I don't know if I'm supposed to say because they haven't announced it yet, but they're putting some other punk rock bands on the bill on that day with us.

It certainly had that reputation of being just for hippie jam bands, but I know they've been broadening the line up a bit with Bruce Springsteen playing last year.

If it's good enough for Bruce, it's good enough for us.

You guys got to play with him recently didn't you?

Yeah, twice last year. That all came about because we've become friendly with Bruce through his son turning Bruce on to the music. We've been backstage when he was doing two nights at the Garden and on the first night he said "When are you going to do a song with me?" and I said. "Whenever you want." He said, "How about tomorrow night?" So obviously we were there the next night and this past summer, he came back and was down at Great Woods (in Massachusetts) and me and my wife were in the audience just watching the show and all of a sudden during the show I get a text from the tour manager "Bruce just told me he wants you up here for the encore." Honestly, talk about inspirational, I've met a lot of musicians that I look up to and 90 percent of them have kind of somewhat let me down with their personality or how they've carried themselves in a business way, but he's just a class act through and through. Here you are up on stage singing with, in my opinion,  the greatest rock band in the world and you feel like you're singing with your buddy's band in a bar because they make you feel that comfortable and at home.

It's seems like it would be tough for guys in bands who spend a lot of time on the road, being away from family and friends. But you have a few kids and a wife and you guys spend a ton of time touring the globe. How difficult is that?

Yeah, it's very, very hard and it's probably the toughest on me because when it's the day to go to the airport I always feel like it's the first day of school. You just don't want to leave. "My wife will call me from the car and say "(the kids) started bawling, but 30 seconds down the road they stopped." You just got to make the most of the time you're together. Right now we're on a ski trip up in New Hampshire. I just have to make sure that when I am home I make up for it. If it all came out in the wash, I probably have more time at home with my kids then the guys on my street that are leaving for work at 7 in the morning to beat rush hour and are not going to be home until 6 o' clock at night. When I am home, I'm taking them to school and all the sports and stuff like that, so I get to be around to catch a lot of the stuff other dads miss. I get to take the good with the bad and realize that I'm very fortunate to have had the opportunities that I've had in this band and to be able to provide for my family. If going away for a bit is what it takes, I always say I could be going to Iraq or Afghanistan, so I'm very fortunate. We've also brought the kids on some of the trips, so they've seen the world, so it's just very cool.

It's also got to be pretty cool for the kids on career day to say "My dad is a rock star."

My eight year old is just now getting that, cause she's on the new DVD step dancing. There's just a little clip of her, but she understands. Before I had three kids, she used to come on tour a lot with my wife and I. My wife would take her to bed in the back (of the tour bus) when we were on stage and after the show when we all came back to the front of the bus, my wife would be asleep and my two-year-old daughter would wake up and come up to see us. On the same token, I really don't think they think I'm cooler than anybody.

Another thing I wanted to ask you about is the foundation you started, the Claddagh Fund.

We've had some great opportunities through the success of the band to be able to help different people, whether it's sending out tickets to shows or signed CDs for auction items to lending the band's name and sometimes playing at charity events. It's just become something that over the years we've become more and more involved in over the years. As we did things for other causes, I always felt as great as this was we were missing the potential to tap into our fan base - who are the most generous fans in the world. The few times we have gone to them in a public way or via the Web site to help a cause, the response has been overwhelming. It makes me very proud to say that. As we started the Claddagh Fund we've done several events. We did a skate at Fenway Park when the Winter Classic ice was down; We just did a celebrity bartending night at McGreevy's and what we're getting ready to launch - which is kind of the end goal of The Claddagh Fund - is the Friends of the Claddagh Fund, where basically people can pledge their help to raise funds in other cities. Kind of almost satellite chapters of the fund. When you think about the potential, if a kid takes on that role in Seattle or Sydney, Australia, you have an army of people raising money and at that point, you're talking raising millions of dollars for good causes rather than $100,000. I'm really excited about this and to see the response of fans.

When did you start the Fund?

We started in late November and did our first event in mid December, so who needs six months to plan an event?   

Are there specific criteria for where the money goes?

Yeah, the mission statement is obviously about community and friendship and helping each other out and those are the attributes of the Claddagh: Friendship, Love and Loyalty. As far as who we directly help, the three causes we mainly focus on, are children's issues - whether its financial or medical or just things like a Boys and Girls Club, Anything that aids in easing their hardship in any way. The second was veteran's issue s and third was alcohol and substance abuse, because unfortunately that has affected many people in my life. As of right now, with the first event we gave to eight local charities, from Boys and Girls Club to the Franciscan Children's Hospital to Boston Family Services to the Fisher House, which is a place where family of veterans can stay when the veterans are receiving treatment in Boston. The last event we did, the celebrity bartending, was for Haitian orphans. At the moment it seems bizarre to not be doing something to help out when there is such a tragedy so close to home. We'll always try to focus on things close to home and pick some national charities as well.

Have you guys started working on any new songs yet for the next album?

Yeah, we're about six, seven songs into it and the goal, depending on what the touring schedule does to us, is to be in the studio by the end of the summer. We're excited about that prospect. By the time an album does come out this will probably be the longest time between records... It seems like maybe waiting a bit will get people excited. Either that or they'll forget about us and move on to someone else. I guess we'll see.

Photo Credit: Kerry Brett. The new Dropkick Murphys album, Live on Lansdowne, is released today, March 16, on the band's own Born & Bred label. Details on it, tour dates, and more at their MySpace page.

Motion City Soundtrack leaves venerable punk label and winds up making its punkest album ever.

By John B. Moore

There are a lot of assumptions when it comes to Motion City Soundtrack.

The Minneapolis band started churning out records during emo rock's peak so they were lumped in with the eyeliner and skinny jeans crowd, despite having more in common with bands like Cheap Trick and Superchunk; they signed to the indie punk rock label Epitaph, but they were certainly not a punk rock band. While the scene kids were busy trying to figure out just where these guys fit in, the band was diligently putting out some of the best synth-backed pop albums since The Cars.

Their latest effort - and first for Columbia Records - My Dinosaur Life is probably their best to date. Ironically, it wasn't until they left Epitaph that they put out their most punk-inspired album.

Justin Pierre (vocals/guitar) talked recently about the new album and the band's contradictions.    

***

Lyrically, the new album seems a little more personal than some of your pervious ones. Were you worried at all that you were sharing too much?

Nope. I tend to write what I know. And being as self obsessed as I am, that is not difficult. I don't think it's that much different from any of the previous endeavors, but I'm not the best one to ask as I am in the middle of the thing being created and not able to look at it from any other angle.

This record also seemed a little more rock focused than past efforts. Was there a conscious decision to change the sound or was that simply an evolution?

That was the only thing we consciously talked about doing; making a rock record.  As far as how we went about doing it, that part was no different than previous efforts.  We just wrote whatever came to mind and worked out as many ideas as we could, finally coming up with around 25-30 ideas/songs.  Then once we got together with Mark (Hoppus. The Blink 182 co-founder produced the record), he helped us choose the final 18-20, of which we recorded 15.  Twelve made the album.

Were you guys listening to anything in particular while writing or recording that had a strong influence on the songs?

For the first time I can say that there was nothing in particular I was listening to while writing this record.

So what else can you tell me about the record?

I am always excited about each of our records when they come out, but this one is by far my favorite.  Everything from the artwork to the order of the songs to the songs themselves to the Producer, Engineer and Mixer is straight up solid gold.  I think of all our records, we came really close to hitting the mark with this one.

You mentioned that you recorded with Mark Hoppus, who you've worked with in the past. What is he like to record with?

He creates a truly relaxed environment within which you are not afraid to try things and fail. Not only is he a musical genius, but he's a patient man and knows how to get great performances out of the bands he works with. I feel that if you listen to the bands he's produced, they tend to sound much more like themselves on that particular endeavor than on any other outing.

Was it a tough decision to leave Epitaph? 

Yes and No.  Our deal was up and Brett (Gurewitz, label founder and Bad Religion guitarist) gave us his blessing, but it was still hard. I hate goodbyes. Luckily for us Columbia has been amazingly into everything that we've wanted to do. It doesn't feel that different from an artist friendly perspective, which is the most important thing to me.

Epitaph is obviously known more for punk bands. Did you ever feel out of place with them?

I think we were one of the first signings that was a little left of the dial and I think there was some backlash from fans of the label, but Brett started signing country acts, hip hop acts, Tom Waits and many truly diverse bands (on his sister label Anti- Records).  That, in my opinion, is the most punk rock thing you could do; something that no one is expecting.

How is the current headlining tour going? Any interesting tour stories yet?

The tour with The Swellers, This Providence and Set Your Goals was amazing. All the bands were completely wonderful humans and a pleasure to watch. I tend to hibernate between shows, so I have no good stories from the road. We did brave the worst snowstorm of the year on the east coast. Unfortunately This Providence and The Swellers did not make it through the snowy cloud of chaos.

What is the thing that has surprised you the most about the music business?

I am surprised that CD sales are going extinct and vinyl sales are rising. This is very interesting to me.  Most people listen to music on an mp3 device of some sort, which is easier than carrying a case of CD's around.

What's next for the band?

Tour, tour, tour.

I'm out of questions, anything else you want to add?

I am currently full of caffeine.

[Photo Credit: Peter Yang]

A Decade of Punk Rock - the Good AND the Bad

By John B. Moore

With apologizes to my fellow Blurt writers, I loathe End of the Year/End of the Decade music lists.

They just seem like a useless game of one-upmanship that gives critics the excuse to trot out their pretentious musical tastes and try to outdo each other with obscure sub-indie references to bands that only dubbed a dozen cassettes of their warbling and handed out to their friends and "Oh, oh I have a copy and realize how brilliant they are". I put it right up there with militant vegans, former smokers and people who claim that they "don't even own a TV".  

... But deep down, I'm a pretentious twit myself (though I love red meat and watch as much TV as possible,) so two weeks into the New Year, here's my list of bands that nearly killed punk rock this decade.... And those that saved it.

Five albums that almost killed punk rock...

• Boys Like Girls - Boys like Girls (2007) Over the past decade, major record labels, not content to just screw up every other genre, decided that they could give a band instant credibility by tacking the suffix "punk" at the end of "pop" on any band's bio. One of the most obvious examples is the Boston top 40 pop band Girls Like Boys. The name isn't the only thing unoriginal about this glorified boy band, last seen lip-synching in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade last month. This four piece was the Trojan horse that helped smuggle in equally pitiful acts like Cute is What We Aim For and Breathe Caroline - not one who ever owned a Clash or Ramones album.
• Good Charlotte - The Chronicles of Life & Death (2004) I pity the real punk rockers with neck tattoos. Thanks to these light weight twins from Maryland who equate ink with street cred, the guys in Rancid and Dropkick Murphys now have to spend the next year getting their tattoos lasered off lest anyone equate them with Good Charlotte. These guys could almost be excused for their Hot Topic brand of bubble gum punk if they had stopped at The Young and Hopeless, but then they had to try and become artists on their third album. The result was a dozen faux serious, whiny odes to being a teenager. Next stop double dates with Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie. Long live punk rawk!
• Powerspace - The Kicks of Passion (2007) Powerspace came to represent just how low the once promising indie punk label Fueled By Ramen had fallen in the 00's. Once the breeding ground for bands like The Pietasters and Jimmy Eat World, the label devolved into mindless drek like this keyboard-fused excuse for pop-punk. Equally mind boggling is the fact that FBR had to compete with other labels to sign this band.
• A Static Lullaby - A Static Lullaby (2006) OK, maybe it's not fair to single out this band in particular, but the Chico Hills-based A Static Lullaby represent a crappy metal/hardcore/scream-o hybrid that had no business associating itself with punk rock. Cookie Monster vocals and mediocre metal riffs equals nothing more than noise from over-privileged suburban kids desperate for attention.
• Cobra Starship - While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets (2006) Labeled as pop-punk, this band wrote a song for the movie Snake on a Plane, which goes to show just how bottom of the barrel scrapping desperate this group was even at the beginning of their existence. Started by former Midtown bassist/singer Gabe Saporta, the group has a freakin' keytar player for Christ sake, going to show that tweens have an extreme level of tolerance for obvious irony... as well as crappy pop-punk.

And 5 albums that saved it.

• Bad Religion -The Empire Strikes First (2004) George W. Bush may have been the worst president in history, but he was great for punk rock. Exhibit A is The Empire Strikes First, a baker's dozen of brilliant angry political punk anthems. Songs like "Los Angeles is Burning" and "Let Them Eat War" stand up against anything the band put out in the 80's and 90's.
• Green Day - American Idiot (2004) And Exhibit B is American Idiot, Green Day's best album in an already decent career. A raised middle finger to Bush and the status quo, this radio-friendly record also showed that there was still a little life left in the rock opera.
• Flogging Molly - Float (2008) With Flogging Molly, The Pogues have finally found someone worthy enough to pick up their Celtic punk rock banner. The LA, by way of Dublin rockers have regularly turned out stellar albums, but Float raised the bar to its highest level with destined to be classic Celtic punk gems like "Requiem for a Dying Song" and "Between a Man and a Woman."
• Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound (2008) Punk rockers have always had a crush on Springsteen, but with New Jersey-based Gaslight Anthem's second full length, the band finally came out and fess up to their devotion. The '59 Sound, also drawing inspiration from influences as varied as Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, is as close as one can come to a flawless record.
• Bouncing Souls - The Gold Record (2006) Fifteen years into an already impressive career, Jersey punks The Bouncing Souls turned in their most evolved album to date with this fantastic record. Sweeping anthems, topped off with surprisingly personal lyrics, The Gold Record is the ultimate sonic promise that was hinted at with the band's five previous releases. Pardon the pun, but pure gold.

When Naked Raygun frontman Jeff Pezzati put together his post NR band The Bomb, he was undoubtedly under a massive amount of scrutiny.

Like a punk rock Paul McCartney moving on to Wings or Johnny Rotten starting PIL - comparisons to his beloved and highly influential first band were inevitable.

The Bomb is clearly nobody's version of Wings.

For about a decade now the Chicago band, comprised of Pezzati, guitarist Jeff Dean (The Story So Far, Tomorrows Gone), bassist Pete Mittler and drummer Mike Soucy (both from The Methadones), have been churning out amazing punk rock. The latest Speed is Everything may just be their best record yet in an already impressive career.

Guitarist Jeff Dean was kind enough to put up with a handful of questions about the new record, working with J. Robbins and punk rock supergroups.

So you guys are in a number of different bands. Does that make The Bomb a supergroup? A side project? Or a full-fleged band?
I don't know if you would call us a "supergroup", but we are a full on band. (Jeff) Pezzati started the band in 1999, and with the exception of us taking a break for about a year, the band has been active since it started.

So do your other bands get jealous when you spend time with another group?
No way! We are all good friends, and I think we all manage our time wisely. I have a lot more time on my hands to work with than the other guys, so I'm able to play in more bands than everyone else, but there is never any jealousy or anything like that.

What was J.Robbins like to work with?

J. has recorded our last two records, so when we were getting ready to record our previous record "Indecision" there was a lot of talk about who we wanted to do it. I've always been a fan of J's bands as well as his producing/recording. Pezzati and J have been friends since when NR (Naked Raygun) and GI (Government Issue) played shows together back in the 80's, so it just made sense to get him on board. I gave him a call and he was really into the idea. J. is hands down my favorite engineer I've ever recorded with. When we were recording "Indecision", all of us got along so well, and he could understand where we were coming from with ideas, etc. We just clicked. So, that is why J will be the only one to record our albums as long as we are a band. At this point, he almost feels like the 5th member! Ha, ha!

Who else is on the album?
This record was a real collaboration between all of us. I still write the majority of the music, with Pezzati writing most of the lyrics. But, this time everyone in the band contributed, as did J. He wrote the music for one of the songs on the record. J also did backups on a lot of the songs too. Dan Yemin (Paint it Black, Lifetime) did vocals on one of the songs, as did Bob Nanna (Braid).

How long did it take to record Speed is Everything?
We recorded all of the music and most of the vocals in about six days here in Chicago at a studio owned by my friend Andy Gerber called Million Yen. Then about a month later, Pezzati and I flew out to Baltimore to mix it and add some additional vocals at J.'s studio Magpie Cage. I think we were there for five days.

Anything else you want to add?
I guess that I hope people check out the new record Speed is Everything. All of us are really proud of it, and if you are a fan of our band or Naked Raygun or whatever, I think you will enjoy it.

The name Star Fucking Hipsters may put off a few folks -- like the merchandise managers at the big box retailers -- but there are worse things they could be called.  Like a side project, for one.

SFH founder Scott Sturgeon (aka Stza) was so bothered by that label that he had the band record a full album's worth of songs just weeks after they finished touring behind their last record. Mainly to prove that SFH was a committed band.

Recorded primarily in his New York apartment and engineered on a laptop, "Never Rest in Peace" manages to sounds even better than the band's studio-produced debut. The songs are tighter, the lyrics clearer and more importantly the band is finally safe from being called a side project.

We recently caught up with Sturgeon long enough for him to answer a few questions:
 
Any lineup changes since the last record?
Yes, we now have Chris Portier from Dread Fabrik and Big Attack! On bass and drummers Alex Charpentier and P.Nut who also plays with Degenerics and Ensign. We still have Yula (Beeri on) bass and Ara (Babajian) on drums. They are very busy and interesting people, but they know that they always have a place in the band. S.F.H. has at least 10 members at this point and no bad feelings. My only thing is that I absolutely need Nico (de Gaillo) and Frank (Piegaro) to be there. They've even played a couple of shows without me, which I am proud to admit.
 
Did anyone ever try and talk you out of the name?
No, I started the band, I deal with almost every aspect of what we do when we're off-stage, so I get to name it whatever the hell I want. I understand that I have a habit of shooting myself in the foot "commercially" but then again, that's exactly why I do name my band something Fucking Something or naming a record Fuck World Trade. Although it may not be very shocking, it definitely keeps our albums out of places like Target or Best Buy; places that I would never want to support financially anyways and I suggest that people find alternatives to these huge global corporations that are bleeding you dry while you think you're saving cash ‘cuz Wal-Mart has a smiley face discount. These stores will decimate your town, steal its money and then they'll leave you in economic crisis.
 
You had a bunch of guests on the last record. Any guests on this one?       
Not quite as many as we were very pressed for time, but we did manage to get Dick Lucas from Subhumans and his band mate in Citizen Fish and Culture Shock Jasper to sing on two of the songs as well as having Bryan (Kienlen) from the Bouncing Souls sing and plays bass on a track and Miguel (Reyes) from Oakland/Citizen Fish plays a horn on "The Civilization Show", a very Citizen Fishy song in my opinion. And we had a bunch of friends sing back-ups from various NYC bands. It's in the liner notes.

You put out "Until We're Dead", toured like crazy, then immediately recorded this new record. Did you have any down time?
I had a bout a month and a half last winter to travel around Central America. I've been slowly learning Spanish over the last eight years. I can speak it enough to get by, I suppose. Other than that, no, I've really not had more than two days off from band business of some sort. I'm planning on taking it easy this winter as much as possible.

Why the rush to put this record out?
We really felt the need to put together a catalog of songs to cement the fact that we are not a side project, but an actual band. Plus we just had so many new songs and we knew we could make a better record than "Until We're Dead", so we figured why the hell wait, let's get this thing out there and break out of the side-project category for real. We will definitely be waiting a bit longer to do our third record tentatively titled "Ska Fucking Hipsters".

Where did you record "Never Rest in Peace"?
Myself and Nico live on the fifth floor of a fairly infamous building in Alphabet City called C-Squat or See-Skwat, depending on who you talk to. We rehearsed there a few times and it turns out that our apartment has a really great sound so we demoed and recorded a bit in a bedroom at P.Nut's house in New Brunswick, NJ, but the record was almost entirely recorded and mixed in three of the rooms on the fifth floor of our place by a fellow named Ryan Jones (myspace.com/ryandjonesengeneering) who is a live soundman that happens to be an amazing recording engineer. He just had a laptop and two little monitor speakers. After we'd record a song take, it would already be mixed by him, he's that good.

Any big inspiration for the songs that make up "Never Rest in Peace"?
Every song has its own separate inspiration. For example my first lyrics on the song "The Civilization Show" were inspired by the events that transpired on the Oakland BART platform last New Year's where a police officer shot a kid in the back of the head while he was hand-cuffed laying on his stomach in front of a lot of civilian witnesses on their way home from their New Year's parties. Later, the officer claimed that the victim was making fun of his mom or some such nonsense, my theory was that the cop was coked out of his mind when he publicly executed the young man.

Can you talk about the song "Banned from the Land"?
That song is about the subjugation of the native "American" tribes when our ancestors committed what amounted to an indigenous genocide and how this is stolen occupied territory.

There's a whole generation of little punk rockers that would put Green Day and Blink 182 on their Mt. Rushmore of punk rock.

But there's a whole slew of stellar punk rock vets out there that paved the way for today's spiky haired rebels. One of the most important, but underrated of that group, is Southern California's Channel 3.

Founded by Mike Magrann and Kimm Gardener in 1980, the band found a way to mesh both hardcore and the more melodic punk rock of bands like The Ramones and The Clash.

After a number of releases in the 80's - including the song "You Make Me Feel Cheap" - the band kept a low profile for most of the 90's. Thanks to a new documentary on the band, a release of their early demos and some recent touring, the group is back.

Magrann was kind enough to put up with some questions recently.
 
Let's start from the beginning. What inspired you guys to start a punk band in the early 80's?
 Well, the old cliché' about hearing The Ramones and deciding, "Hey! We could do that!" It's true. We grew up listening to all those nutty 70's mega groups and the live music experience was about sitting a half mile away from a stadium stage.  So to be able to finally see a band close up, in a club or garage, inspired us to pick up the guitars as well.

You've guys saw a lot of prejudice from being punk rockers. You talk about that a bit in the documentary.
Yeah, honestly I am surprised. It was a violent, underground thing that seemed to burn out after the late eighties, but the Internet and teen cash changed all that. A lot of guys will rewrite their history and say, "Hey screw that man!  Punk never died, look at all these poseur kids now, we've been in the squat the whole time, blah blah..." But we never had a chance to play proper shows and tours, and get paid a fair amount from what the clubs were making off us.  So, yeah, pleasantly surprised at the chance to play the music for people that would've written us off before.
 
So what are your thoughts on the contemporary punk rock scene?
You can really make or take the scene in any way you care to, really.  Some kids identify themselves as punkers, and think Blink and Green Day is old school hardcore. Some kids are full on crusties that know their Crass history way better than we do!  I guess the blessing and the curse of the instant information age is that all things are available to all people.
 
TKO just put out your early demos. How long have you talked about doing that?
I'd have to give Mark Rainey at TKO and Kimm credit for the idea--I would've never thought there would be much interest in hearing the stuff we did so long ago.  I mean, this stuff was written and recorded before we hit drinking age, and before the Posh Boy hit making machine took over. But we are getting some really nice responses to it.

You kind of kept a low profile through most of the 90's. Did you officially break up or just take some time off?
We did take a bit of time off after the whole bloated five piece thing fell apart in the late eighties... But Kimm and I got back to the four piece structure pretty quick and kept playing in the garage for laughs... venture out now and then for a little gig.  It was really the CD reissues and Web site launch (www.chthree.com) that brought us back to a full time touring outfit again.
 
How many original members are still in the band?
Just me and Kimm, that's all you really need right there.  We've always had a pretty high turnaround rate with drummers and bass players, so it's nice now that we have the longest lasting and hopefully last lineup in place!  Alf Silva's been on the drums for years now, same with Anthony Thompson on bass. 
 
Have you been working on new music? Any plans to record again soon?
Yeah, we always have some new tracks floating around, though it's hard to figure out what to do with them, you know?  We just did a cover of the Nils' "Scratches and Needles" for the BYO anniversary compilation, and have a lot of loose tracks out there, so might be time to wrap up an album's worth and throw it out there, eh?
 
How did the documentary come about?
Seems like you have to have some video presence on the market, but we really weren't interested in just doing a stock concert DVD.  We met Erik Carreon, the director of the DVD, and he was really interested in the story of Kimm and me growing up together and staying pals against the backdrop of the So Ca hardcore scene.  There's a lot of in depth stuff about what it takes to stay in a band when you're growing ever older, but lots of rockin' in there too!

One of the best punk labels around  has been resurrected. Sailor's Grave Records - the sister label to hardcore label Thorp - has been hibernating for the last year or so, coming to life only once or twice to put out Mark Lind's (Ducky Boys) latest or give an update on Roger Miret.

Over the past month though, label founder Andy King has announced four new records SGR is putting out:  STITCH HOPELESS AND THE SEA LEGS, BURNING STREETS, MOUTHGUARD and BEANTOWN BOOZEHOUNDS - all great street punk bands, not too far from the sound of bands that have also called Sailor's Grave home at one time or another (The Welch Boys, Mad Sin and Born to Lose, among others).  Even better is news that the label will be putting out a new album from Boston horn-heavy, punk/R&B band THE KINGS OF NUTHIN.  Almost makes up for year or two of silence from the label.

Twenty years together in a band is pretty damn impressive.  Twenty years together for a punk band is a fucking miracle.

For two decades now, the guys in Simi Valley-based punk band Strung Out have been churning out record after record of politically-tinged melodic punk rock, spiked with a bit of hardcore.  Strung Out is also one of the few punk bands that happen to find itself in the record collection of black-shirt clad metal kids as well.   Having just released Agents of the Underground, their seventh album, the band is about to gas up the bus and heard out on tour.
 
Frontman Jason Cruz was kind enough to talk to Blurt this week about keeping the band together, Hank William Sr. and Scandinavian hookers. 

Congratulations on 20 years. Ever have any idea when you were starting the band that you'd be around this long?
Fat Mike once told me it takes about 10 years to "make it" at whatever you set out to do... Hmmm have I made it yet? If I have where the fuck am I and somebody please save me!

Why do you think you guys have been able to make it for so long when so many other punk bands break up after just a few years?
Because they're pussies and they never really wanted rock up their ass in the first place, that's why. If you are doing this, you really have to get a shitty little job to sustain yourself for a bit. Sell your girlfriend and the dog and get to it!

Got to admit, I'm impressed that the band has done so well with little airplay and no absolutely no help from MTV and the like. Why do you think your music resonates so well with people?
I believe it's because we look so damn goofy and un-cool. I mean who will believe a word the gorgeous kid with Motley Crue hairdo says anyway?

 Is there a theme to the songs on Agents of the Underground, your new record?
The theme would have to be of loss and the certainty of re-birth. Loss is a fact of life we seem to be so afraid of and to confront that fact is not always an easy thing to do. The things you do not let go will be ripped away type thing.

Do you still get approached by younger bands who mention that they grew up with your music? Is that ever weird?
Yes (and) it's weird and I may not have a fat sack sittin' in a fat car parked in my fat pad but I gots respect and to me that'll sink ships any day brotha.

So over the past 20 years, did the band ever come close to splitting up?
Twelve times! Each time had to do with a Scandinavian hooker we all loved at one time or another. She played us and left us for the boys in Avenged Sevenfold ...Good luck boys!

Any regrets with the band?
I don't really regret a single thing with this band; it all happened for one reason or another and led me here. I am healthy, I am strong, and I love the new record. Shit like that don't last so I'm going with it.

In two decade, obviously, you've hit some major milestones. As a band, is there anything else you want to be able to accomplish?   
Big fat royalty checks when I'm seventy?


 

Damn! BYO Records turns 25

Pete Wentz wasn't even wearing eyeliner when brothers Shawn and Mark Stern decided to start BYO (Better Youth Organization) Records 25 years ago. The label, which put out releases by Youth Brigade - the Brothers Stern's own punk band - went on to put out seminal punk releases from bands like Leatherface and 7 Seconds.

To quote the band, BYO was founded as "part political movement, part business venture that began as a way to organize punks to take positive action to help sustain their scene and their way of life."

To commemorate their 25th anniversary - not bad considering how many other labels have come and gone during that time - BYO is putting out a 31-song box set, featuring a who's who of American punk rock. Groups like Bad Religion, Dropkick Murphys, NOFX, Anti-Flag and the Bouncing Souls all took turns covering BYO bands. The set also comes with the documentary Let Them Know, which looks at the influence of the label through interviews with Ian MacKaye (Fugazi, Minor Threat, founder of Dischord Records), Fat Mike (NOFX, Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, founder of Fat Wreck Chords) and Steve Soto (Adolescents, Manic Hispanic), among others.

Shawn Stern, in the middle of a Youth Brigade tour, took some time recently to answer questions about the label, the band and punk rockin' as a 40-something.

Are you surprised that the label is still up and running 25 years later?
I'm surprised that we were able to put out one record, let alone nearly 120! When we started I never thought I'd be playing music in my 30's let alone my 40's and approaching 50. For us to last this long is kind of amazing to us and we feel extremely lucky.

So how do you think you've able to keep it going for so long when so many others have folded?
Pure luck! (laughs) Well, I think we just put out good music that we like and people seem to respond well. We never did this to make money; we never had any business plan or really any plan at all. We put out records ‘cause we had a band and we put out other bands' records ‘cause we liked the band, the music and what they had to say. I guess we're doing something right, otherwise we wouldn't have survived.

Do you think its easier running a business with your brothers or ultimately harder?
My brothers and I are all very close, so I think it's really easy to work together. I mean we've been doing it all our lives, so it's pretty natural. We can argue - and we do - but we don't take it personally, we just go eat lunch or go have a drink after.

Ever get into any Kinks style fist fights over the band or the label?
Nah, our punching each other out ended in our teens. Screaming arguments once in awhile that we usually end up laughing about is the extent of it.

Have you always had a defining principle or set of principles that BYO was founded on?
Well, like I said, we never had a plan we just did things as they came up. The principles have always been those that our parents and grandparents instilled in us as kids, think for yourself, life is about learning and giving back, helping people. From that we devised our own ideals about what punk rock is to us, that one should question everything and decide for yourself what makes sense. Don't be a sheep, don't follow anyone. I was heavily influenced in my senior year in high school by an existential lit class I took. I read Dostoyevsky, Kierkegaard, Sartre and Camus and the next semester I had an entire class on Herman Hesse. They all had a profound effect, but Albert Camus' "The Stranger" and the "Myth Of Sysiphus" were almost life changing for me. I think those ideals will always stick with me.

What was always the deciding factor in putting out a band's music?
We put out bands that we like as people, whose music we like and believe in and we feel we can help them. There's lots of bands that we like and would like to work with over the years but for one reason or another it just didn't work out.

Do you get a sense of enjoyment of watching major labels falter and grasp to stay relevant?
Hmm, I'm not really someone that takes pleasure in other people's failure. I don't really worry about other labels, it's not something I can control or be a part of. But I'm not gonna lose sleep over the fact that a multi-national corporation leaves the music business, because in my view they only look at music as nothing more than a way to make money and I think that is not good for anyone. So the more of them that leave music, the better it is for music and all of us.

Was it difficult deciding who would be on the album that comes with the box set? More important, was there a fight between bands to cover "California is Sinking"?
We just asked all the bands we like and they all said sure. Now getting them to actually get in the studio and record, well that's another story. Everyone is busy, when they are recording a new record they are concentrating on that and putting together a cover sometimes isn't at the top of their list of things to do. Picking songs was up to the band, there were a few that wanted to do a certain song but someone had already picked it, but there were no "fights." Worked out really well I think. Well, I guess everyone can listen to the record and decide for themselves, but it's a pretty amazing record.

A lot of folks cite you guys as influences in starting their own labels. Did you really have anyone to emulate or learn from when you were starting BYO records?
No, there were very few labels at the time doing punk rock on the level we did it when we started. Slash and Dangerhouse were about it in L.A. but we just sort of figured it out on our own. Ask questions, call around, talk to the guys at the pressing plant about how to do things ‘cause they had been in the record business for years and they knew the basics. A lot of it was just logic, go around to stores and ask them to take the record. That was our early distribution.

Why did the band ultimately decide to call it quits?
Adam had left the band to go back to school in '84, we got Bob Gnarly in the band and changed the name to The Brigade and our sound got a little more "poppy" I guess you could say. The punk scene was dying, the hair bands were taking over the sunset strip and we were burnt so we just decided it wasn't fun anymore.

So was it an easy decision to get the band back together and tour?
Yeah, we were all playing music again in different bands. I had a band, That's It and my brothers had all started the band Royal Crown Revue and met up on tour in Germany. People had been asking about Youth Brigade on both our tours, so we talked about doing a "reunion" and I said if we wrote new songs and make a record then I would do it. We all agreed, it was pretty easy and we've been going strong ever since.

Did you find that you missed playing together?
I think we found that we had fun playing together. Mark (Stern) and Adam (Stern) and our other brother Jamie were all playing together for a few years in Royal Crown Revue and having fun. That's the bottom line, it has to be fun. Otherwise what's the point!?

Was it surreal participating in the documentary?

No, not surreal. We put it together but we tried to not involve ourselves too much in the planning. We wanted to let the film makers make the movie, not us. We told them people they should talk to and gave them a chronological line of what/how things happened, but we let them put it together. I think they did an amazing job.

Listening to the interviews, were you surprised at how influential the band was to so many?
I'm flattered. I don't know if I'm so much surprised ‘cause I think there was only a handful of bands in the punk scene that have lasted all these years and odds are they have lasted because people like the music and that's ‘gonna influence bands that are coming after.

Any chance you'll revive the BYO split series?
Oh it isn't dead, just been on hiatus. The box set was such a huge undertaking, the biggest project we've ever done, so it took up nearly three years of our time. We've had quite a few bands interested, just haven't managed to work it out. But we will hopefully soon.

I hate Led Zeppelin. That's not true. I don't hate them; I just don't buy into all the hype.
I've tried to fit in... especially in high school. I had a couple tapes though never really listened to them. Just kept them around for appearances. I even drew the ZOSO symbols from their fourth album on the white rubber part of my Chuck Taylors in 9th grade. I chalk that one up to peer pressure.
Robert Plant has a cool voice; Agreed. Jimmy Page is a great guitar player; No argument here. John Bonham kicked ass on the drums; No doubt. Individually they are brilliant. But put them all together and you've got a rock decent band, with a jones for old blues songs, but not THE defining moment in rock. They are pretty much the Blue Oyster Cult with better PR.
What most Zeppelin fans won't ever admit (regardless of how often these deep dark thoughts creep into their sweaty little heads) is that the idea of Led Zeppelin, the legend behind the band - everything from the wild groupie sex stories to the rumors of Satan worship - is far, far greater than the band's actually musical contribution.  
Name a song that you can't possible live without. "Stairway to Heaven"?  "Whole Lotta Love"?  "Rock and Roll"?  I'll take a Replacement's song any day of the week.

Every year, Jesus People USA (yup, that's the group's real name) puts on the annual Cornerstone Music Festival outside of Chicago. The event boasts six days(!) of Christian Punk, Christian Metal, Christian Rap and Christian Hardcore... and I can only assume Christina Ska and Christian Rockabilly. 

Call it the born again's answer to Lollapalooza.

In honor of this year's festival line up, what follows is a run down two of my two favorite 90's bands that Jesus took away from me.

THE SMOKING POPES

Though they are now back together, the reason the Smoking Popes broke up in ‘99 was because singer Josh Caterer decided to embrace Christianity. Not just show up at church every now and then, but the "I'm-going-to-quit-rock-and-everything-it-stands-for, turning- my-back-on-everything-I've-created-fuck-the-fans" kind of embrace. A great band cut down way too early. A couple years ago, the band decided to get back together to play a handful of shows and record a live album. In an interview around those shows I asked Josh about the whole God thing and he said he simply wasn't happy with all the drugs and drinking that surrounded the band. He became born again and quit rock music all together for awhile, focusing solely on uplifting religious tunes. Crater slowly got back into rock through a new band Duvall, then finally realized God probably doesn't necessarily hate good music and got the band back together. I caught one of their comeback shows at The Masquerade in Atlanta and they were amazing (though Josh did take the opportunity to preach a few times from the mic, making the others in the band visibly squirm). The Smoking Popes had a decent comeback record last year, but still not quite as stellar as their earlier efforts.

SUPERDRAG

OK, this one took me by surprise. The Knoxville power pop band turned out a slew of brilliant records in the 90's and early 2000's. (Though "Sucked Out" is still the only song people remember.) I found out, like the Smoking Popes, were doing a series of reunion tours last year (which, by the way makes me feel old as shit when bands I dig are now qualify for reunion shows). In doing research for an interview, I discovered front man John Davis had another one of those spiritual awakenings that seem to be going around, again thanks to booze. Copying off of Josh's paper, he also started working exclusively on Christian songs. I finally spoke with Davis in 2008 and he was super cool, but I chickened out and didn't ask him about God (so no big answers for you. Sorry). Like the Smoking Popes, they also had a decent, but not great comeback record out this year.

AND HERE'S A FEW YOU HE CAN KEEP...

Former Korn guitarist Brian Welch

In his case, I think he's just using his sudden conversion to Christianity (I think it's Christianity) and cult-like new life as an easy excuse to walk away from a truly crappy band.

Alice Cooper

The same guy who used to guillotine himself on stage in the 70's is now a golfer, PTA dad and (gulp) Republican. He's also found Jesus. Again, in this case, I think he woke up one day and realized that he was a washed up irrelevant former rocker whose biggest accomplishment was playing "School's Out" on an episode of the Muppet show.

So after given this a little thought, I'm left with two separate conclusions to the question of why rockers turn to Jesus:

1.     Years of hard partying and meaningless groupie sex makes you search for a deeper meaning.

2.   God is actually a roadie, converting the masses, one musician at a time.

Punk rock and a rainbow flag: a conversation with Pansy Division founder Jon Ginoli

Since the late 70's there have been endless debates about what is and what is not Punk Rock.

You could certainly argue that Punk Rock IS being openly gay in an all gay band in the early 90's and playing clubs through the South and Midwest, singing songs about hooking up with dudes. In comparison, putting on a dog collar and playing songs of rebellion inside NY's CBGBs doesn't seem all that dangerous.

For nearly 20 years, Jon Ginoli, founder of the world's first gay pop punk band Pansy Division, has been waving the punk rock flag high. The band has just finished a documentary ("Life in a Gay Rock Band") and released their sixth album "That's So Gay," both on Alternative Tentacles. Ginoli also just wrapped up a book tour supporting his memoir Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division, a frank and often laugh-out-loud look at the band's early days.

Ginoli took some time recently to answer a few questions, talking about everything from bad decisions to never fully being embraced by the gay community.

So what made you decide to finally write a book about your experience?
The realization that a lot of what seemed to be visible in the 90s was now becoming invisible and forgotten.
 
You touched on this a bit in the book, but looking back, what are your biggest regrets about the band and decisions you guys made?
When we stopped touring, we weren't making enough money to continue. I wished we had made the effort to get a new booking agent and tried to play more colleges, which paid better. It might have made it easier, but on the other hand it might have made us breakup. Who knows?
 
In the book, you mentioned the rainbow flag sticker you keep on you van, saying "even though we're not big fans of what the flag has become." Can you explain that a little?
There was a time, before the mid 90s, when companies and corporations were afraid of being associated with gay events. Since then, they'll slap the rainbow flag to promote anything. So it's an acknowledgment that progress is a double-edged sword.
 
You also talked about not feeling fully embraced by the gay community because you didn't listen to bad disco and Whitney Houston. Do you think the gay community has finally started to listen to better music?
Hell no!

If you were just now starting Pansy Division, how do you think the band would be received by the fans and the music business?
If we were starting just now it would be at a time when there were already lots of out queer musicians, so it would be completely different.
 
You talked a lot about the generosity of bands like Green Day. Do you still keep in touch with them?
 No, not directly, but I know how to get a message to them if I need to.
 
I know you just got back home, but what's next for the band?
We just did a tour of the East Coast and Midwest, and are doing the West Coast in September. At some point we'll start looking at songs for the next album. Since all four members live in four different cities on both coasts, it's a process.
 
       
So you just finished the tour and the book, what's next for you specifically?
Good question! I quit my job to do months of my book tour and band tours, so I have to figure that out soon. What we do isn't a living; it's just a bit of money now and then.
 
So what have you been listening to lately?
 Jarvis Cocker, Bratmobile, Bruce Springsteen, The Shoes, Nick Cave, some old country, The dB's, ‘60s soul compilations, ‘60s-era Bee Gees (pre-disco!), The Wave Pictures, Bunker Hill, Vampire Weekend, The Wipers. Among other things.



 

Yesterday's Ring

The divide between hardcore punk bands and acoustic cradling country crooners is growing narrower nowadays.  Avail's Tim Barry, Hot Water Music's Chuck Ragan and even Social Distortion's Mike Ness have all added a little Highwaymen outlaw vibe to their solo records of late.

Yesterday's Ring, comprised of a handful of members from Montreal's hardcore heroes the Sainte Catherines, prove even Canadian's aren't immune to power of the twang and a good drinking song.

Yesterday's Ring, lead by singer Hugo Mudie have just released their third full length (and first for Suburban Home Records) "Diamonds in the Ditch".
Hugo was kind enough to answer some questions recently about the new record, the future of the Sainte Catherines and why punk rockers can't say no to country records.

Prior to this band, you were known more for a harder punk rock sound. What made you decide to play alternative country?
We still play in our punk band the Sainte Catherines. We started to enjoy listening to softer music while on the road with the Sainte Catherines. Our old drummer really liked country and he kind of turned us on to it. It was perfect for driving through the south of the states.
 
So you haven't always had country music influences?
No I think it started around the year 2000 while on tour with the Sainte Catherines. But growing up my mom was a big fan of Kenny Rogers and John Denver and my dad was a into Springsteen and Dylan...I guess I got it from them also.


Do you approach writing songs for Yesterday's Ring any differently than the way you write and record Sainte Catherines' records? 
Yes, definitely. The Sainte Catherines is more of a collaborative effort. Yesterday's Ring is a band, but it's written more in the songwriter tradition, where someone from the band comes up with a song and we work around it.

There are actually a lot of punk rockers who have started writing more country and folk-influenced records (Tim Barry, Chuck Reagan, Frank Turner, etc.). What is so appealing about this type of music that it attracts so many former punks?
It's simple and heartfelt like punk rock but it's not so fucking loud (ha).


Are the audiences any different or the same punks who came to see you with the Sainte Catherines?
There are more girls at Yesterday's Ring shows and more NOFX fans at Sainte Catherines shows.

Do you still plan on writing and recording more albums with the Sainte Catherines?
We just started writing a new record for the Sainte Catherines. We are really excited about it. I think it's gonna be a lot catchier and rock than previous records.

What music have you been listening to lately?
Colin Moore, John Prine, K'Naan, Steve Earle, Dirty Tricks, Koriass and Lake Of Stew.


 

There is something impressive about a band that's managed to stay together for two decades, without the help of radio airplay, a single MTV appearance or even a crummy 30-second ipod commercial.

New Jersey's Bouncing Souls, along with a handful of brethren on both coasts, helped punk rock bridge the lean times between the late 80's, through the pop-punk explosion of the mid-90's and up to the current state of the genre. The band has always been fiercely independent, holding true to the DIY ethics of the movement's founding fathers, but has still managed to record some of the catchiest punk rock songs since the Ramones. 

Front man Greg Attonito took some time recently to entertain a handful of questions about the band's legacy, the occasional thoughts of splitting up and what's next for the Bouncing Souls.

So 20 years. How have you guys been able to stay together for so long?

It's been hell, man. Those guys never shower! Just kidding. We love the music, we love performing, we love to get people stoked on music and life, and we love the adventure. Those things always outweighed whatever difficulties we have had to face.

During that time, did the band ever think about calling it quits?

I have thought about it. More seriously sometimes than others. I think I somehow realized that I will always be a Bouncing Soul whether I like it or not. Ha! So, it was a matter of making things work personally and with the whole situation at any given time in those 20 years. Constant adjustments need to be made and sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's not so easy.

Do you have plans to make the 20th anniversary series of singles you've been releasing all year available on one complete CD?

Yes. We are talking about how and when we will release it now. We will let the world know when we know. It will be coming out on Chunksaah (Records).  It's just a matter of when.

You're playing Warped again this summer - how many times does that make it for you?

This is always fun: part of ‘97, ‘98, all of ‘99, ‘01, ‘04, ‘06 and ‘08... whew! 

What's the best and worst thing about playing Warped?

The best thing is spending some quality time with a broad scope of people and musicians that are on the tour. We are an extended family on the Warped tour so it is kind of like going to a summer camp/family BBQ where everybody knows you and is looking forward to seeing you. The worst thing about is when you are on the entire tour. It's a long, long tour, but this year we are on it for 16 shows...ah perfect.

I'm assuming you get slipped CDs all the time by young bands. Do you listen to them? Have you ever discovered any great bands that way?

I listen to them sometimes. I have not been blown away by any that I can remember.  

Have your musical influences changed much in the past 20 years?

They have broadened. I'm open to more and more music all the time and the way I listen to music has changed. Shanti, my wife, bought a two dollar record set in a thrift store that is amazing. It is a four record set that was made for radio stations to play in 1977. It's the top 50 number one songs of 1977 complete with Casey Kasem's voice introducing the songs with little anecdotes etc. To me, it was incredible to listen to because it was like I was instantly transported to the shotgun seat of my Dad's Monte Carlo in 1977. But now all those songs sound totally different to me. I hear all the instruments, the performances, and the production quality of them. It's really cool...so yes musical influences are always changing and evolving with new music I hear and music from the past.

. 

An Interview With Punk Legends Cock Sparrer

Thirty-five years ago - long before you could buy an entire punk rock persona at your local mall - a few guys from London's working class East End were bashing together songs that would eventually help define punk music.

Though bands like the The Sex Pistols and The Clash got most of the ink, the guys in Cock Sparrer were just as vital to defining the sounds of London youth beginning in the mid-70's, and helped to found the grittier street punk and Oi! subgenres  of punk rock. It's fairly safe to say groups like Rancid and the Dropkick Murphys would likely never have existed without Cock Sparrer first putting together the blue print. 

The band has been on-again, off-again for the past three decades, but is thankfully back on-again... for now. San Francisco's Pirate Press recently made their latest record, the phenomenal "Here We Stand," available in the U.S. and Cock Sparrer is promising a handful of dates later this year in Chicago, San Francisco and Texas (not a typo, apparently the thirst for Oi! Music in the Lone Star state is unquenchable).

Band founder Colin McFaull and newcomer Daryl Smith (new by the band's standards. He actually started playing with Cock Sparrer in 1992), were patient enough to sit down to an e-mail interview this week.

***

What was the band doing in the 10 yrs. between the last two records?

Colin: Not a lot really. We played a few select gigs and started to write the songs for "Here We Stand". The thing about Sparrer is that we exist as mates outside of the band, so even when we're not playing we still get together for a few beers and a night out.

Daryl: I was playing quite a bit with other bands (Argy Bargy, The Crack, etc.) and was still very much part of the live punk scene in Europe. I noticed how things had started to change and gigs were becoming safer, more fun and a really healthy scene was growing. Being part of that meant that I could let the band know which promoters/venues, etc. were ok to do. We played about 10 times between 1997 and 2007 but each gig became an event and it was great that we could play without the fear of trouble, etc. Finally punks, skins, hardcore kids etc. could all come along and enjoy the music without any other agenda. It's this atmosphere and the fact that we're all mates that has made us continue. It's great that the scene realises that no-one else likes us and this is all we've got, so lets not fuck it up by smashing a venue up or something stupid like that. There's a lot more common sense now than there was 20 years ago. It really feels like a big family.

So there are legendary rumors about why you guys didn't sign with Sex Pistols puppet master Malcolm McLarem in the 70's (you wouldn't cut your hair; he wouldn't buy you a round; etc.). Why did you decided not to sign with him? Ever regret that decision?

Colin: It's one thing that we definitely don't regret. We certainly wouldn't be the same band today if we'd taken that particular path. We may not even be mates today or alive. Burge and one of our roadies went to see him in the shop that he and Vivian Westwood had on The Kings Road, Chelsea and persuaded him to travel across to East London to watch us rehearse above a small pub in East London. To our surprise he turned up the following week. It was pretty obvious from the outset that we wouldn't get on - bondage trousers meet Doctor Martens. He listened to a few songs, made a few suggestions (which went down well!!) and offered us a gig supporting The Pistols somewhere. We declined his kind offer and our paths never crossed again.

"Here We Stand" is a fantastic album. How was it to work on?

Colin: We enjoyed making the album. The whole process took about a year from the writing, to rehearsing and arranging the songs to finally recording them. Some of the songs changed quite a bit from their original shape but it was great to finally get in the studio and record them. We were lucky in being able to use Pat Collier to put the tracks down and his studio in Perry Vale was ideal for what we needed. Daryl had worked with him before and he had a pretty good idea of what we were trying to achieve. I think that this was the first time that we actually used the money that we had been given to record an album on the actual recording and not down the pub. We still had the odd disagreement but nothing ever came to blows. Having a great label like Captain Oi in the UK behind the album made us all work a little bit harder and having Pat behind the desk made it a pleasure.

Daryl: Personally, I couldn't wait to get involved with recording a new album. I've only been in the band 17 years, so didn't appear on the older albums! The thing that frustrates me is that although the songs are great, the production always sounds weak next to more modern CDs. So this was a chance to record something that we were not only proud of songwise, but would also SOUND great - without being ‘over produced'. Lars Frederiksen (from Rancid) had always said that if we ever recorded another album, he would love to produce it. He also encouraged us to get off our backsides and do a new album. Unfortunately, he was not around to come and produce it, so we did it ourselves. The way it worked out was great as we probably know ourselves better than anyone else. So Here We Stand is a true Sparrer album. However, we sent it over to the U.S. for Lars to mix. That was a great decision as we could get on with doing what we do best (write, record and produce the songs) and Lars could fill the gap that had always let us down and that was making it SOUND great. I recorded the songs as we went along at rehearsals and so we had a chance to live with them and improve them over the months. By the time we hit the studio, we knew the songs pretty well and knocked the album out in two weeks.

With" Here We Stand" finally being released in the U.S., is this a sign that the band is back for good? Will you be releasing more records?

Colin: The band has never been away. We've just chosen not to do stuff at certain times. We had the opportunity to record albums in the 10 years between "Two Monkeys" and "Here We Stand" but didn't feel as though the songs were strong enough. We'll certainly do another album if the materials there and someone's willing to fund it.

Daryl: If we record an album next year (2010), the band would have had albums out in five decades!! So that would be a cool achievement. But we wouldn't do it for the sake of it. As Col says, we had the opportunity to record in the past, but if we don't feel that the material is good enough we just wouldn't do it. Also, the music industry needs to change and find its feet again. Physical releases such as CDs and Vinyl just aren't selling like they used to and although everyone is downloading etc.; no one seems to be paying for it. Great if you're a consumer but how are the labels going to afford to put bands in a studio in the future if they're not selling anything? It could work out well and put the focus back onto live music and the D.I.Y aspect but at the moment it's hard to fund the record that a band would WANT to make against a record a label can AFFORD to make. Gonna be interesting how it all works out in the end...

Do you plan to tour the U.S. when the record comes out?

Colin: We're coming over three times in 2009. Texas in May, Chicago in October and San Francisco in November. Because of everyone's work commitments, (we all still have real jobs) undertaking a three month promotional tour is really a non-starter but we'll come back whenever we can.

Daryl: Speak for yourself! I don't have a real job! I play in punk bands, put out punk records and do graphic design for punk labels. That's not a job - that's fun! We'll be back in the US whenever we can although it's the logistics that make it difficult.

Obviously there's an entire generation of Oi! bands that are influences by you. What were your influences when you were first starting the group?

Colin: I was 16 when I first joined up with the rest of the boys and like all young school bands you're influenced by what's in the charts at the time, what records your brothers have bought that week and the stuff you read in the music papers. Both of my brothers were "old school" Mods and therefore our house was always full of Tamla and Stax records, as well as the British stuff like The Small Faces and The Who. When Cock Sparrer started we didn't write our own stuff straight away and covered songs by the likes of Slade, The Small Faces and Alice Cooper.

Daryl: Obviously they're all a bit older than me (which makes conversations difficult - my mates are still talking football, drinking and fighting, the band are talking about golf and their pensions!) So my influences were early punk (Pistols / Clash, etc.) the Oi! scene (Business / 4 Skins etc) but I grew up with 2-Tone so bands like The Specials and Madness were a big influence. Outside of the scene I listened to Rose Tattoo and Heavy Metal Kids a lot. But ironically, a lot of my influences on song writing came from Cock Sparrer when I was younger. Never thought I'd end up in the band and looking after the old boys! I'm fortunate to have met and count as friends most of the Oi bands that were influences to me when I was younger.

What are your thoughts of the current punk scene versus what it was like the late 70's and early 80's?

Colin: I think the scene today is very healthy even though it could be considered underground. It gets very little media coverage except for from dedicated magazines and it does seem that while of all the current popular genres, Metal, Rap, Indie, etc. gets loads of press, unless you're Green Day, "Punk" gets little or no attention. But while that can be frustrating it's also great to be part of something that so few people actually "get". One of the things that caused Punk to implode in the 80's and fortunately aided the advent of Oi! was the perceived need to spend thousands of pounds on "Punk" clothes to look the part. Today it's more a case of DIY and who gives a shit what others think about the way you look. Much more how it was intended to be in 1977.

Daryl: There's probably more need for the attitude of the original Punk movement now than at any other time. Economically, politically, socially and musically. Plus we're in a stronger position now because the trendy fashion element that was ripe in 1977 is not so prominent. We've also got the Internet, access to music sharing, etc. that makes the scene more DIY than it ever has been. Unfortunately, kids seem to be more interested in playing computer games than starting a revolution! There's always been a youth movement, Teddy Boys, Mods, Rockers, Hippies, Glam Rockers, Punks, Skinheads etc but since the dance/rave/hip hop scenes there doesn't appear to have been any identifiable youth culture that has any chance of making a difference. It's all so watered down. So whilst I think that we COULD have a better scene than the ‘70's, I don't think we will because there's too much apathy. That said, we don't need mass media coverage and I'm happy playing to the fans we've got and enjoying our own little scene.

Any new Oi! bands that have impressed you lately?

Colin: There are loads of good young bands coming through at the moment. One of my favourites is a band from Blackburn in England called Middle Finger Salute. They're all about 18 and write good songs. They've been on our bill a few times and thanks to the good boys from Rancid are doing the East Coast leg of this year's Warped Tour.

Daryl: There are a few young punk bands that I like, Middle Finger Salute, The Exposed, Vas Deferans. There's not too many new Oi! bands around at the moment. There are a few that I rate that weren't part of the original scene like Discipline, The Agitators, Stomper 98, etc.

Anything else you want to add?

Colin: Just wanna say a big thanks to Skippy and his fellow Pirates for giving us the chance to get "Here We Stand" out in the US. We hope you like it and maybe we'll see you soon.

Daryl: Thanks to all the promoters and labels such as Captain Oi, TKO, Pirates Press, etc. that continue to support us. It's a team effort and that includes the fans. If we all work together and behave ourselves we can continue to get to see the music we love being played in a bar/club in a town somewhere near you soon. - Cheers

[Photo Credit: Samantha Bruce]

I have two big music regrets in my life.

The first: in 1994, I blew off a buddy who wanted to go check out this new punk band from California playing a tiny show in Pittsburgh. Despite the fact that it was a couple of guys from Operation Ivy and he ended up drinking with them all night, I turned down the chance to see an early version of Rancid to cover a show for my college paper. The band I opted for? Hootie and the f-ing Blowfish. Awesome!

The second: I had a crush on a girl that lasted all of about three weeks and opted to go see The B-52s ("Love Shack" era) and Ziggy Marley with her and some friends, rather than watch The Replacements and Tom Petty play. The Replacements turned out a couple more albums than decided to call it a day, ensuring I would likely never see them perform live. The B-52's however, play just about every outdoor festival imaginable. I wouldn't be surprised if they were playing at the park down the street when I take my daughter over there later tonight.

Which brings me to reunions. It's the summer music festival season. The time when concert promoters throw truck loads of money at fractured bands in the hopes they can get them to put aside years of bitter feelings and online feuds long enough to run through a few classics on stage, before heading over to the bank.

Despite constant rumors that The Smiths would be getting back together for a set at Coachella this year, they didn't.  Apparently Morrissey remembered that he once said something about rather eating his own testicles than reforming the group. Those who have reunited recently - though no word on whether eating testicles was part of the deal - inc

lude Faith No More, The Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus Lizard and Blur.

Christ, even bands like Creed, No Doubt and Blink-182-who have each been broken up, what a few years? - are getting back together. At least give us a chance to decide whether or not we want to miss you before you come barging back into our lives.

Even the New York Dolls managed to bury the hatchet in 2004, after a 27-year break, and ha ve kept it together beyond traditional reunion tour cash grab and have turned out a couple of new albums, including the just released  "'Cause I Sez So." That still leaves a slew of punk bands who have yet to reform.

* Top of the list is The Replacements. Guitarist Bob Stinson died in 1995 and longtime/original drummer Chris Mars left before the band officially called it quits and has sworn on several occasions that he would not be part of a reunion. Paul Westerberg and bassists Tommy Stinson however have each hinted at the idea of at least one more show.

* The Clash. Sadly not an option since Joe Strummer died in 2002 of a congenital heart defect. If surviving members Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon did ever decide to resurrect the band with some half-assed Joe Strummer sound-alike (kinda like the 20^th Century Doors) expect rioting in the streets that would make the '99 WTO protests seem like a middle school dance in comparison.

* Black Flag. A reunion of Black Flag is actually not that unrealistic. The band got together for a few benefit shows in 2003 and Henry Rollins has been in some unbelievably crappy movies since leaving the band, proving he'd be up for anything (Anyone see "Jack Frost" or "Wrong Turn 2: Dead End"?) But does anyone really want to see a bunch of 50-somethings playing classic Black Flag songs? Yeah, I probably do too.

* Operation Ivy. With only one full length to their name, Op Ivy managed to influence a whole generation of punks. Though Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman went on to form Rancid, the fact that both have managed to find time for solo records and side projects, and the lack of any real acrimony between band members makes an Operation Ivy reunion a possibility. Though front man Jesse Michaels dismissed reunion rumors two years ago, citing logistics and a vague reference to lawyers.

* The Sex Pistols. Reunion? They won't go away! The band had one proper album (fantastic as it was,) and imploded. But Johnny Rotten - when not appearing on celebrity realty shows or in butter commercials - still manages to round up the lot for the occasional bank heist... I mean reunion tours (1996, 2002-2003, 2007 and any day now).

Music worth listening to this week:

Electric Owls - Ain't Too Bright

Chris Wollard and the Ship Thieves - self titled

Ten-year Old Kids with Mohawks

You know what's cool about a 10-year-old kid sporting a Mohawk?

Not a damn thing.

At the risk of coming off like a 30-something Andy Rooney, I'm going to start off this blog with a rant and a final plea to save punk rock. The argument I'm putting forward is certainly not new, but worth being made at least one last time.

I was at an outdoor festival in Atlanta this weekend and lost count of how many pre-teens I saw walking around with Mohawks and Ramones shirts. When did punk become just another accessory for the Sponge Bob set? Mohawks and anarchy symbols used to scare the crap out of parents, now they're just another cute look for little Dylan and Kara, by couples desperate to be thought of as the cool parents (and don't think I haven't been there. I have two little girls and my wife was the only voice of reason that kept me from buying Sex Pistols onsies off of Ebay). And putting a Clash sticker on the back of your minivan doesn't make it any more cool to be seen in (again, I speak from experience).

 Trust me; it's safe for old punks to age gracefully. Not all of us can tour the world in shitty vans and make great music. Leave that to your heroes. Keep rocking the boat in your chinos and changing the system from the inside, but don't try and turn your kids into a punk rock mannequin to prove how cool you still are. 

Which brings me to my second rant... as a freelancer punk writer, I am about to throw my hands up in defeat. Born in the early 70's and coming of age in quite possibly the worst time in the history for music (hair metal anyone?), I withstood the auditory assault of bands like Danger Danger and Pretty Boy Floyd for years before finding salvation in the music of Bad Religion, The Buzzcocks and The Clash. For the past two decades or so I've kept up with the evolving music scene, watching punk move from basement shows and VFW halls to arenas (not necessarily a bad thing). What once was a mail order business is now neatly packaged and priced inside your local Hot Topics (again, not the end of the world. Punk rockers deserve to make money too). You used to discover new punk bands thanks to poorly dubbed tapes passed on from a friend; Now you can hear "punk rock" on The Hills (ok, nothing good can come of that).  The most jarring change, however, is what is currently being peddled as punk rock. I am certainly open to all genres of music (I, for one, am lobbying for Willie Nelson be added to Mount Rushmore), but I have a problem with the bait and switch tactics being perpetrated by publicists and record labels lately.

If you make pop music, be proud of it and call yourself a pop band. Punk rock was a reaction to crappy, bloated corporate rock of the 70's (Styx, Journey, etc.). It railed against oppressive authority figures, racism, sexism and homophobia. It was not 12 mediocre songs about high school crushes on your self-titled debut, with liberal use of Auto-tune , currently being peddled under the guise of "pop-punk". It was about rebelling against the status quo, wearing homemade clothes with hand-painted messages of defiance, not wearing those tacky neon-logoed t-shirts and hoodies you picked up at the mall and pair with matching Ray Bans.

That's not to say there is not legitimate punk rock being made right now. Anti-Flag is still fighting the good fight (with a new record out soon) and the Teenage Bottlerockets might actually be The Ramones reincarnated.

Here's the deal, if you play punk music, play it loud and play it proud. If you play pop music, call it what it is, make a ton of money and be happy.

I've admittedly strayed a bit from my general thesis, but here's a recap: Aging hipsters, you're getting older, so deal with it. Don't try and turn your kid into Lil' Johnny Rotten just because you're getting fatter and losing your hair. Blare NOFX as loud as you want in the minivan, just keep the windows rolled up at the stop lights. And kids, don't try and pass yourself off as the next Joe Strummer when your punk rock influences go back no further than Blink 182's third CD.  You're in a pop band, no matter what the guy in the fancy suit tries to tell you. Rock on pop star!   

Music worth listening to this week:

Left Alone‘s self-titled record (http://www.myspace.com/leftalonepunx) and Ninja Gun's "Restless Rubes" (http://www.myspace.com/ninjagun).