BLURTING WITH… Paul Mahern/Zero Boys
Mar 06, 2009
From 1979 to 1983, Indianapolis' Zero Boys hoisted the hardcore torch high.
BY FRED MILLS
From straight outta nowhere - the Midwest - they came, these Zero Boys, putting the lie to the notion that you had to be based on the east coast (NYC, D.C.) or the west coast (L.A., San Fran) to wield a meaningful roar. It was tuneful, too, brimming with concise melodies and subtle deployment of harmonies amid the buzzsaw riffing and ratatat rhythmic assault.
"We listened to a lot of rock radio growing up in the Midwest," says vocalist Paul Mahern, back then known as Paul Z. "We grew up on hooks and riffs." And indeed, on their lone full-length, 1982's Vicious Circle, the Zero Boys confidently took their place alongside punk's crème du rawk - including the Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, the Delinquents, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, D.O.A., the Subhumans and the Bad Brains - while staking their claim as one of the smartest and most sonically accessible young bands of the era.
The evidence is presented anew on Secretly Canadian's recently remastered reissue of Vicious Circle (originally released by the Nimrod label and reviewed by Blurt HERE). From the revved-up title track (all 40 seconds of it!) and the zig-zag barre-chord whomp of "New Generation" to the sneering, Heartbreakers-like punk metal of "Livin' in the ‘80s" and the Dead Boys-meets-Dead Kennedys swagger of "Forced Entry," the ZBs' notion of the loud-fast-rules agenda is less an aesthetic and more a goddam imprimatur. Throughout, the band takes on the requisite early-eighties woes, foes and sacred cows, including drug abuse (key songtitles: "Amphetamine Addiction," "Drug Free Youth") and Reagan-era generational malaise ("Livin' in the ‘80s," "Forced Entry," "Civilization's Dying"), and even if those lyric topics weren't exactly unique for the time, with the Zero Boy's relentless assault and Mahern's forceful delivery, they could still make a disciple outta you. Up on the mount: Mahern, drummer Mark Cutsinger, guitarist Terry Hollywood and bassist David "Tufty" Clough (replacing original bassist John Mitchell, who'd appeared on the group's earlier Livin' in the ‘80s five-song EP).
As veteran journalist and Big Takeover publisher Jack Rabid outlines in his detailed booklet notes, the Zero Boys came together in '79 in the vacuum of the nonexistent Indianapolis punk scene, fueled on CREEM magazine and Ramones and Sex Pistols records, eventually streamlining their sound until it was more closely aligned with the west coast hardcore bands that had begun emerging. And despite their relative geographic isolation, the ZBs were able to tour through networking with likeminded outfits, the ascent of college radio and the release of their LP additionally helping raise their profile. Just the same, it was tough making any commercial headway, and by '83 a broke and disillusioned Zero Boys were ready to call it quits. After recording a brace of material for a projected second album, Pay Back is Hell, they did just that.
(The Hell sessions were subsequently collected on the cassette-only History Of, released by Mahern on his own Affirmation label in 1984. Secretly Canadian has also reissued that on CD as History Of, with the five songs from the Livin' in the ‘80s EP along with some '81 and '82 demos included as bonus tracks. Longtime Indiana scenester and archivist Eric Weddle provides insightful liners.)
The former Zero Boys all went on to assorted outfits - Toxic Reasons, Dandelion Abortion, Datura Seeds, and others. Then in the late ‘80s three of the members got back together, and with new guitarist Vess Ruhtenberg toured successfully and recorded two LPs, 1991's Make It Stop and 1993's The Heimlich Maneuver, before splitting in 1994. The ZBs reunited yet again in 2000 and have continued to perform. As Mahern himself put it succinctly in a recent interview with BLURT, "We utilize our energy much more efficiently."
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BLURT: Briefly outline how the band came together, what it was like to be a punk in Indianapolis and to make connections with other regional scenes - the thank-yous on the Vicious Circle sleeve practically amount to a punk/hardcore Hall of Fame roster!
PAUL MAHERN: We formed in 1979. Mark and Terry saw my high school band play at a party and asked me to join what would become the Zero Boys. I was 17 at the time and the other guys were in their early twenties. The American Hardcore scene was pretty small and we had many friends in bands that we met at gigs. We did a west coast tour in 1982. Our second stop on the tour was a residency gig at the Calgarian Hotel on Calgary Canada. They had some odd law that stated that you could only have strippers in a club if you also had live music. So we were the band that would open up for the ladies. Later on that same tour we played with the Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, and MDC at the Barn in Torrance, California. That was the first time I ever witnessed hundreds of punks going nuts and stage diving.
Critics have noted that the Zero Boys were at times smarter, poppier and more musically proficient that a lot of other bands at the time. What do YOU think set the ZBs apart from their contemporaries?
Well, the musicians in the Zero Boys were all seasoned professionals before they got into punk. They could really play their instruments. When we started out we were greatly influenced by the Stooges, the Dictators, and the Ramones. When we heard the faster stuff coming out the west coast we knew we had found the sound we were looking for. The Circle Jerks' Group Sex album was a big influence on us. I think what set us apart was geographic. We listened to a lot of rock radio growing up in the Midwest. We grew up on hooks and riffs.
Listening to Vicious Circle now, what do you hear that's unique?
I love the sound of that record and it was very easy to make. I wish all bands I worked with were as well-rehearsed as the ZB's were going in to record Vicious Circle.
Trouser Press cited Vicious Circle as an "example of how U.S. hardcore seemed to peak coast to coast in '82." True? Was it downhill after that?
Well, if you look at the early American Hardcore Bands Minor Threat, Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, and The Germs, you see a wide variety of sounds and each band has their own take on fast and loud music. The next generation seemed to have a narrower focus. It all started to sound the same to me after a while.
Why did the band split up in '83?
We were broke and alone. It was hard to make a go of it with out some sort of fan base. We had a great time playing but we started to feel like no one was listening. We got back together in the late ‘80s because people started to be interested in seeing the band. We did three European tours between ‘88 and ‘91
And then the band got back together again in 2000 and is still performing. What's different about being a Zero Boy then and now?
We are a better live band now. We utilize our energy much more efficiently. When we were younger it was all spazz and now it is tough and well paced.
Barbara Walters Question: If you could meet your young self, a 17-year old Paul Z, what would you want to say to him?
"Older folks are not as clueless as you think they are."
Lastly, I'm advised that you're a certified instructor of Kundalini Yoga and you have some intriguing thoughts on similarities between yoga and hardcore...
When I started to do Kundalini Yoga I stopped drinking and smoking and I returned to the concept of getting high on life. Each moment seemed fresh and new. I started to feel like I could do anything again. That is the way I felt in the early days of the punk hardcore movement. The idea that we could make it on our own, that we didn't need any help from the outside to put on shows or put out records.
Yoga is all about learning about you. As my teacher Yogi Bhajan says, "Everything you need in the world you were born with." Yoga is a great way to connect to your infinite self through group consciousness, and I feel the same way about playing this aggressive music live. At a punk rock concert the lines between the audience and the band are blurred. It becomes one fantastic and focused group experience, an analogy that we are all one.
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