Jim Jarmusch, director of cult hits like Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Dead Man, and Only Lovers Left Alive, has produced what looks to be a powerful, great documentary on Iggy Pop and the Stooges – arguably the greatest rock band of all time. The documentary, Gimme Danger, premieres October 28th on Amazon, and the first trailer already makes it look like essential viewing.
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I’m a Gen X’er, which means I grew up in the 1980’s, and I was among the first and last true punk rockers at East Noble High School. I was in a garage band (Stranger Yet) and spent my Sunday nights at a punk rock club (after which this blog is named) in a dive bar attached to a seedy hotel on the east edge of Fort Wayne, Indiana. So, the Early Indiana Punk and New Wave: The Crazy Al’s Year(s) compilation is right up my alley.
It’s a stunning collection of rare singles and live cuts from bands that mostly played in the Bloomington, Indiana area (the location of the short-lived club Crazy Al’s). Where Time Change Records found some of these cuts is beyond me, but I’m guessing they had a lot of friends involved in the punk and new wave scenes back then who contributed some of the recordings. I’m also guessing Time Change Records employs some of the best crate diggers of all time.
The two-disc set has many standouts. The Jetsons’ “Genetically Stupid” sums up how many people felt about us punk freaks back then, and Dow Jones and the Industrials’ “Can’t Stand the Midwest” sums up how us punk freaks felt about everyone else back then. Your Grocer’s Freezer’s “We’re All Gonna Die” is a perfect example of the nihilism that was always on the edge of the scene, especially when we all thought nuclear war was coming any second.
Want pure punk? Repellents have two solid punk cuts on the collection – “Technorama” and “AFC!” – and the Slammies’ “P-U-S” is another good choice. Cheeses from France’s “Heart of Gold” is wonderfully weird and almost a krautrock track. The Gizmos proudly display their love of the New York Dolls on “Mean Screen” and “Mommy’s in the Kitchen.” Joint Chiefs’ “I Hate Pretty Girls” is an anthem for awkward guys who were spurned or insulted by the cute girls in school.
It wouldn’t be an Indiana punk collection without the Zero Boys, and they have two fine tracks here – “Commies” and “I’m Absent.” We’re Jimmy Hoffa were a punk band that loved John Carpenter movie soundtracks, and their song “Rock ‘n Roll” is something you’d expect to hear at a club in Carpenter’s future NYC as Snake Plissken cracks heads on the dance floor.
I can’t help but think that the parents of the lead singer of the Panics were laughing as he sang “I Wanna Kill My Mom,” because the song is pure snotty punk hilarity. Dancing Cigarettes’ “Pop Doormat” sounds like the Kinks if the Kinks decided to become a new wave band. Last Four (5) Digits bring in a goth touch on “Don’t Move” that is somewhere between Bauhaus and early Wall of Voodoo. Cast of Thousands brings an angry Brit-punk sound on “War Maker.”
Amoebas in Chaos bring back the fun with “Have You Slugged Your Kid Today?” and “Ronald Reggae” (which is live punk chaos with saxophone and plenty of guitar feedback). E-in Brino’s “Watch Alarm” is fine post-punk with heavy synths and and near-frantic vocals. Vibrato Fetish rounds out disc 1 with the rocking “Surf Bandits.”
Yes, all that’s just on the first disc.
There are plenty of prime cuts on disc two. The New Avengers’ “Mary’s in a Coma” is a lost 1980’s track you swear you’ve heard before and is even better than you remember it. The Positions’ “Follower of the Space Race” is great new wave, sounding like a mix of Devo and the B-52’s. Your Parents’ “Whiplash” is heavy post-punk, and “No Substitutions” shows their Ramones influence. The Race Records’ “Baby Take Me Back” brings rockabilly into the mix.
Lip Service’s cover of “Money (That’s What I Want)” is full of skronky guitar and peppy organ, and MX-80 Sound’s cover of “Paint It Black” is a slick instrumental. The Obvious’ “Feelings of Love” sounds like an early Blondie track. Hugo Smooth’s “Won’t Play Bumpum Cars” is so new wave that it wanders into a jazz lounge hosted by Frank Zappa. Club Pressure’s “Slinkin’” is fine punk-reggae, and the Shouts’ cover of “Gloria” (which seems to have always secretly been a punk song) is outstanding.
It’s an essential mix of Midwest punk and new wave acts, and God bless Time Change Records for putting it out there for us old schoolers and new fans alike.
Keep your mind open.
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Post-punk legends Public Image Ltd. are offering impressive “super deluxe” sets of two of their classic albums – Metal Box and Album – through a PledgeMusic campaign.
Both records are available on either CD or vinyl and include remastered versions of the albums, a live record, unreleased tracks, art prints or posters (depending on which version you get), B-sides, BBC session cuts, and a lot more.
Metal Box was first released in 1979 as three 12″ singles in one package (a literal circular metal box) that made up the entire album. Album came out seven years later (and, full disclosure, is one of my favorite albums of all time).
The signed versions of these deluxe sets sold out on September 20th, so don’t wait to get an unsigned copy if you want one.
Keep your mind open.
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Buzzcocks make things better.
I’d planned to make it to Chicago an hour before show time so I’d have a chance to meet with a friend and grab a leisurely bite to eat with her. That plan was dashed, however, when the Lowe’s appliance delivery service showed up nearly two hours late with our new washer and dryer. My wife had to come home from work early so I could leave for the show.
On the way to Chicago, I chose the slowest moving toll road booth lane nearly every time. Once on Sheffield and near the Vic Theatre, I thought my luck had taken a good turn when I found a sweet parking spot just a block from the venue. I then discovered it was only for people with the “383 permit sticker” on their cars. That wasn’t me, so I ended up parking eight blocks away. I walked to the venue and was turned away by security due to me having a digital voice recorder I’d brought in case I had a chance to interview Buzzcocks before (if the delivery drivers had arrived on time) or after the show. I had to walk back to my car to leave the recorder in it. Of course, there is a voice recorder app on my cell phone and every other cell phone in the building, but apparently security didn’t realize or care about that.
I managed to grab a sandwich before the show and breezed into security without issue. I walked in and immediately spotted the merchandise table. A wavering drunken man was looking at the shirts with his buddy. I heard the woman behind the table ask the drunk guy, “So you came to see a band you hate?”
“I didn’t always hate them,” he said. “I liked them before they sold out.”
I chuckled. Buzzcocks have never sold out, no matter how you define that.
I met up with my friend and we got a nice spot on the main floor about five bodies back from the front of the stage. Buzzcocks came out and immediately broke into one of their fastest, hardest hits – “Boredom.” The show was anything but boring, as it turned out.
They tore through classic cuts like “Fast Cars” (a personal favorite), “Totally from the Heart,” and “I Don’t Mind,” and cuts from their newest album, The Way, like “People Are Strange Machines” and “Virtual Reality.” Unfortunately, some of these songs were drowned out by the bass mix being too loud, but the sound board guys corrected it by the time Buzzcocks got to “Why She’s a Girl from the Chainstore.”
This was also about the time two girls tried to get a mosh pit going. They finally succeeded, bringing in two people, then four, then six, and finally up to about ten or twelve. This was about the time someone made a bad decision.
An old school British punk rocker, probably in his 60’s, decided to walk from one side of the main floor to the other, along the edge of the mosh pit, with a full cup of beer in each hand. He was surprised and angry when a young man in the pit accidentally bumped into him and caused him to spill half of each beer on his shirt. Again, why he thought something like this wouldn’t happen at a punk rock show is beyond me.
The old schooler was instantly pissed. He chugged one half-cup and poured the other on top of the young guy’s head (who thought that was great). The old schooler then stepped to the back of the pit and waited, right fist balled up and ready. This poor guy missed Buzzcocks tearing through fun cuts like “Last to Know,” “Unthinkable,” “Autonomy,” and “Breakdown” while he waited to get within arm’s reach of the young guy. He eventually slugged him (a glancing blow) and four of us pulled them apart. The old schooler kept yelling about his shirt being ruined as he walked away from the pit. Security never showed up. It was up to us to break it up and keep the pit civil. That’s a punk rock show for you.
I got in the pit for the finale, which included “Orgasm Addict,” “What Do I Get,” “Ever Fallen in Love?,” and “Harmony in My Head.” I was the oldest guy in there, and I was able to keep up with the young’uns.
Buzzcocks were more than able to keep up with them, too. They played hard, fast, and loud. They reminded everyone there that they haven’t sold out. I hope that wavering drunk was paying attention.
Keep your mind open.
[Thanks to John for setting up my press credentials for the show.]
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I’m a big fan of L7, so you’d think I’d already owned their second album, Smell the Magic, for years. It turns out I didn’t, but I thought I did because I own so many of the songs on it in other forms. It’s an early 1990’s classic, and needs to be in your collection if you’re any fan of any kind of rock.
Opener “Shove” (which I already owned on the Tank Girl soundtrack) is a fist-pumping anthem as Suzi Gardner (guitar, vocals) rants about bill collectors, the mailman, the neighbors, smog, and the political landscape of 1991. Dee Plakas’ (drums) beginning to “Fast and Frightening” (which I have on at least one other recording somewhere) are like a Gatling gun and Donita Sparks’ (guitar, vocals) vocals are as rabid as the song’s title. It also has one of the most punk rock lyrics of all time, “Got so much clit she don’t need no balls.” Play this if you ever need to start a mosh pit.
“(Right on) Thru” has some of the best guitar work from Gardner and Sparks, and I love how Plakas’ drums keep you guessing if the song’s going to take off or stop short. “Deathwish” (which I had as a live cut on another record) is a personal favorite. Jennifer Finch (bass, vocals) puts down one of her heaviest riffs that drives the song like a Sherman tank across a battlefield. The song isn’t particularly fast, but it grinds along with unrelenting power.
“’Till the Wheels Fall Off” is appropriately titled, because it tears through at breakneck speed. “Broomstick” is a Blondie tune if Blondie decided to be a punk band instead of a post-punk band. “Packin’ a Rod” is more angry punk. Hell, the first line is “All fucked up and I’m mad as hell, violate your daughter and your son as well.” Sparks is carrying a gun just for you, so you might want to steer clear of her. I love the crunchy, yet shredding guitar solo on “Just Like Me.”
The record closes with “American Society,” a cover of the song by the great underground band Eddie and the Subtitles that’s all about being sick of television, the rat race, the homogenization of radio airwaves, and the lure of materialism and quick riches. It was a perfect song to start the 1990’s, because everyone was sick of this stuff…and we still are.
Smell the Magic still shreds and is still relevant. Give it a whiff.
Keep your mind open.
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“Fea” is Latino slang for an ugly girl, but Fea the band (Letty – vocals, Aaron – guitar, Jenn – drums, Phanie – bass) means riot grrl post-punk (or “Fuck ‘Em All,” according to the video below).
Opening with “Mujer Moderna,” the band comes out with chugging guitars and vocals that sound like a Be Your Own Pet B-side. The song is a slug across the jaw to those who blame sexual assault victims for the crime. “Feminazi” is a fast, fun, and fierce call for both sexes to “meet in the middle” and for everyone to know that feminism isn’t fascism.
“You Can’t Change Me” has some of Phanie’s hardest bass as Letty sings about being out and proud and not giving a damn what you think. “Tragedias” will get you moving, because Jenn’s beats will boot your booty out of your chair. Be careful if you’re listening to this while driving. Don’t blame Fea (or me) for any speeding tickets you might get as a result. “Dead End” reminds me of Lunachicks, and that’s a good thing.
“No Hablo Español” might be the loudest cut on the record, because every lyric seems shouted to the streets. “Beat It Out” warns us against succumbing to the pressures of mainstream culture, white noise TV, and crummy relationships. Aaron’s guitar work cooks on it. “Sister K” is a funny story and middle finger to a mean nun Letty had to deal with in school.
“Stuck Like You” changes up the pace a bit with a softer chorus than most of the other tracks, and it works quite well. The riffs on “Poor Little Rich Girl” are outstanding, as are Letty’s Spanglish vocals. It’s some of her best work on the record. “Veins” is a little over three minutes long, but it only seems like half that because the track is so fast. “La Llorona” (“The Crying Woman” – a legendary ghost in Latin American culture) is suitably haunting. Aaron’s guitar sounds like he dipped it in a swamp before playing it and Jenn’s drums are like a funeral dirge at first.
It’s a sharp debut and I hope it leads to more records. Punk rock needed Fea. They’re like a shot of adrenaline to the genre. I didn’t know I needed Spanglish angry Latina punk until I heard this record, and now I want more of it.
Keep your mind open.
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Does the current political landscape have you bummed? Has work turned into rote activity you’d rather turn over to a highly intelligent simian? Are you sick of TV and big budget blockbuster flops at the box office? Are you in need of a jolt to break you out of a summer funk? Why not save the money you’d spend on a couple fancy schmancy frozen coffee drinks and pick up Welcome the Worms by Bleached instead? This pop-punk album will make you far happier than any overpriced, super sweet, high fat drink you’ll regret when the sugar coma it provides makes you fall asleep at the wheel.
Bleached are sisters Jennifer and Jessica Clavin (lead vocals and guitar, respectively), Micayla Grace (bass), and Nick Pilot (drums). Welcome the Worms is a middle finger to living in L.A. when you’re not a movie star, bad relationships, and those who turn their backs on people who live on the fringe.
“Keep On Keepin’ On” bursts off the line with a cool psychedelic sound mixed with Sleater-Kinney anger. Jennifer Clavin throws down fierce vocals while Grace seems to be playing slap bass on a bass guitar. Jessica Clavin’s guitar sounds a bit like a warning siren at times, and Pilot kills it on the first song.
“Trying to Lose Myself Again” is about wanting to disappear in the chaos that is Los Angeles. “I’ve been hanging around this ugly town trying to find myself again…I’ve been getting high every night trying to lose myself again,” Jennifer Clavin sings. The glamour of L.A. hides misery for many, but Jessica Clavin’s guitar work is anything but miserable. It’s scorching.
“Sleepwalking” is a perfect metaphor for most of us shuffling around big cities in the daily grind. Jessica Clavin again shreds while Grace and Pilot seem to be racing each other throughout the track. “Wednesday Night Melody” is a great power-pop track that Weezer and Metric wish they could still produce.
“Wasted on You” is about the perils of dating musicians and has some of the snappiest beats from Pilot. “Chemical Air” reminds me of early New Pornographers with its bold vocals and big sound (especially Jessica Clavin’s cosmic guitar work). “Sour Candy” is reminiscent of early “bad girl” rock from the 1950’s in Jennifer Clavin’s vocals.
“Desolate Town” has appropriately desolate bass from Grace and slightly distorted vocals as Jennifer Clavin sings about the wasteland L.A. can be for those working in the non-glamorous jobs there. “I’m All Over the Place (Mystic Mama)” is part-trippy psych and part-post punk as Jennifer Clavin mourns a break-up (“I’m all over the place without you…”). It sounds like a rare Fuzzbox single.
“Hollywood, We Did It All Wrong” is the closer, and I’m not sure if Bleached thinks they screwed up living in Hollywood, or if they mean the whole town screwed up what could’ve been a cool thing. It’s a fun track either way.
It’s a fun record, too, even with some of the dark subject matter. The title comes from a weird religious pamphlet the band picked up in L.A. The title might refer to impending death, but at least Bleached is exorcising demons and having fun before they check out of here.
Keep your mind open.
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The closest I came to seeing L7 in their first heyday was when they were on the 1994 when they were on the Lollapalooza tour. We got to what was then known as Deer Creek Music Center (and is now know as Klipsch Music Center) in Noblesville, Indian a bit late and we could hear L7 wrapping up their set with “Pretend We’re Dead” from the parking lot.
I wouldn’t have the chance to see them again for another 22 years. They played a sold out show at Chicago’s Metro (one of my top favorite venues in the city) on August 06, 2016, and it was definitely worth the wait.
Punk trio Radkey opened the show with a damn fine (and prompt – 8pm sharp) set that sounded like a combination of the Damned and the Misfits. The crowd was appreciative and they got everyone geared up for more heavy rock.
L7 came out to a packed house of punks, Gen X’ers, MILFs, DILFs, gays, straights, and at least one woman in her 70’s I saw heading up to the balcony to watch the show. They opened with “Deathwish,” and immediately proved they haven’t lost a thing since that Lollapalooza gig.
Donita Sparks belted out the “Deathwish” lyrics and everyone in the packed, hot crowd was in the band’s hands within seconds. Suzi Gardner then bellowed “Andres” and Jennifer Finch knocked out “Everglade.” They came out swinging with three hard rockers and everyone was on their heels with joy and dizziness.
“Monster” (with Dee Plakas‘ much-beloved cowbell in full effect) and “Scrap” had everyone grinning. “Fuel My Fire” had everyone jumping, and it’s easy to forget how heavy “One More Thing,” “I Need,” and “Slide” are until you hear them live.
There’s no mistaking “Crackpot Baby” for anything but a fist to the face, especially with Sparks singing so loud that I’m sure people in the SmartBar downstairs could hear her. Two cuts from The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum followed – “Must Have More” and the always-excellent “Drama.”
The rest of the crowd and I were happy to chant and pump our fists to “Shove,” and “Freak Magnet” was a nice lead-in to my favorite surprise of the night – Finch (rocking age 50 and a Misfits-logo bass) and crew performing her song “Shirley” (a great tune off Hungry for Stink about NHRA drag racing champ Shirley “Cha-Cha” Muldowney).
They closed with, of course, “Shitlist,” which had everyone completely batshit by this point.
The encore was “American Society” (another great rare cut), “Pretend We’re Dead,” and the (finally!) mosh pit-inducing “Fast and Frightening” (which, if you didn’t know, has perhaps the most rock lyric of all time).
It was a great show with a great crowd. The Metro blasted Dee-Lite’s “Groove Is in the Heart” after the encore and nearly everyone was dancing on top of crushed plastic cups and spilled beer (myself included).
Thanks, L7, for reuniting and giving us these shows. We needed them, and I hope it won’t take me another two decades to see you again.
Keep your mind open.
[Thanks to Robert Fagan for getting me a press pass to the show, the lady working the press table at the Metro for being so helpful, and to Hannah – my +1 for the night. I’m glad to have met you and that you had a good time.]
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Ty Segall, not content to be involved in at least three bands, has joined / started a fourth – Goggs (Charles Moothart – guitar, bass, drums, Ty Segall – guitar, bass, drums, Chris Shaw – vocals). Their first album is a bonkers rock ride not unlike an old wooden roller coaster that thrills and beats you up at the same time.
“Falling In” has a great Stooges feel to it in the bass and drums and a Sham 69 (or should I say Cult, since Shaw is the ex-Cult vocalist?) feel to the vocals. “Shotgun Shooter” has bass so loud, fuzzy, and heavy that Lightning Bolt will be envious. “She Got Harder” is snotty punk, both in the instrumentation but especially in the vocals. The way Shaw belts out the lyrics while his guitar shreds and Segall destroys his kit is great.
Speaking of drums, they’re even crazier on “Smoke the Wurm.” The self-titled track starts off weird and quirky and then turns into angry goth-punk. “Assassinate the Doctor” is just as odd. It’s almost a meltdown. “Needle Trade Off,” is back to the angry post-punk with fierce bass and lyrics practically spat into the microphone. “Future Nothing” is so old school punk that it even sounds like it was recorded in 1981.
“Final Notice” adds what sounds like old video game noises to the ritualistic beats and bizarre screams and chants. It’s a weird (mostly) instrumental that goes into the closer – “Glendale Junkyard,” which hits hard and loud before fading out with snare drum taps and distorted guitar fuzz.
This is easily the most punk record I’ve heard so far this year. It’s crazy, loud, squeaky, weird, and just what you need to drown out the noise of an election year.
Keep your mind open.
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Many thanks to Screaming Females who were kind enough to invite me into their tour van for this interview before their June 26, 2016 show at the Brass Rail in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
7th Level Music: Is this your first time in Fort Wayne?
Jarrett Dougherty (drums): Yeah.
7LM: You’ve got one more gig to go before the end of the tour. How’s it been?
Mike Abbatte (bass): Pretty good.
Marissa Paternoster (vocals, guitar): Smooth.
JD: Yeah, it’s been pretty easy. We did three weeks, and then the two weeks off, and then this is the end of another two weeks after that. We went down to Florida and then back up the coast over the three weeks, so the drives were really easy, and then we just went through Canada for a few days, and then Michigan, Wisconsin, and Chicago, and now we’re here. It’s all been pretty easy.
7LM: You’re off to Pittsburgh next?
JD: Yeah.
7LM: Where are you playing there?
JD: It’s a venue we haven’t been to yet. Cattivo.
7LM: If you can get to the Warhol Museum there, it’s amazing.
MP: We got a tour of it the last time we were there from…Andy’s nephew?
7LM: Oh, right on.
JD: Yeah, Donald Warholia.
MA: Warhola.
JD: Warhola.
MP: It was awesome. There was so much stuff to look at, it was overwhelming.
7LM: Weren’t you in Australia earlier this year, or maybe last fall?
JD: We’re going for the first time. It’s at the end of our summer, so it’s the end of their winter.
7LM: You get there in time for the good weather, then.
JD: Yeah, they said it’ll be a little cold when we first get there, but by the end of the trip spring will be kicking in.
7LM: I imagine that’s hard to change your logistics of planning for packing and moving all your gear.
MA: I have not thought about packing.
MP: Yeah, I haven’t thought about it.
MA: This is the first I’m thinking about it.
7LM: Oh, I’m sorry to plant that seed of panic in your head.
JD: Mainly the panic’s been about how long the plane ride is to get there. Marissa doesn’t really like planes, Mike doesn’t like that he has trouble fitting in the seats, and then I just get really bored, but that’s not nearly as bad as compared to what they’re going through…but at the same time I don’t want to be bored.
MA: I’m a giant so I’ll end up sitting like this (turns sideways in the driver’s seat of the van).
MP: And I’m crazy, so I’ll be having a nervous breakdown.
7LM: Have there been any countries where you were surprised to discover how popular you are? Have you ever heard from fans from some place where you never imagined we’d get played there?
MA: Florida.
MP: (laughing) I wish it was another country.
JD: Well, yeah, other than Miami, already for the Australia stuff, it’s pretty amazing. We’ve already been getting all these e-mails from people who are like, “I can’t believe you guys are coming here.” We’ve done a number of tours in Europe, and there we have really good experiences and a lot of the shows are really good, but it’s a lot of promoters who are just good at having people that come out to shows regardless if they know the bands or not because the promoter’s like, “Everybody should show up for this one.” But, already for Australia it seems like there are people who are excited about us getting there. We did a bunch of interviews the other day for Australian things, and people were like, “Oh, yeah, I saw your band at South by Southwest one time. I’ve been waiting for you guys to get here for years.”
7LM: That’s fantastic.
JD: Yeah, so that’s pretty exciting already. I feel like the number of people who said they were excited about our band is equal to all the people in Europe who know who we are.
7LM: I was wondering about your songwriting process. Grooves first or lyrics first? Or does it depend on the song?
JD: Always grooves first. Yeah, for sure.
(Marissa and Mike bump fists.)
JD: Occasionally, Marissa will come in with a song that’s pretty formed already, lyrically. For the songs we’re working on coming up, eventually it will be a new album, but we’re just writing the songs right now, Mike brought in a song like that as well. But the vast majority of stuff is us getting together and just playing music together.
7LM: One of the things I love so much about the stuff you guys play is how you’ll sometimes go from a song that’s quiet and just heartbreaking and then you’ll make this right turn and it’s like a punch in the gut and you’re hitting so hard and knocking walls down. I wondered if there were songs on the new record or ones you can think of where you came in thinking, “Okay, this is going to be kind of a mellow heartbreaker,” but then one of you thought, “You know what? This just needs to be like a kick in the junk, or vice versa.”
MA: (laughing) With the new stuff that we’re currently writing, it all has just come together naturally.
MP: Yeah.
MA: There hasn’t been a song where we went into it thinking one thing and then it turned out completely different – that I can think of.
JD: The one I can think of that most dramatically represents that is on Ugly. The song is “Expire.” When Marissa first made a demo of that, it had this very…
MP: (chuckling) It was like a merengue.
JD: Yeah, it had a very arpeggiated Latin acoustic guitar feel, and then it turned into something entirely different by the time we were done.
MP: (laughing) That’s probably a good thing.
MA: I don’t remember that at all. “Hopeless” (from Rose Mountain) had a bit more of an Americana vibe to it and then we took that and made it more straight-ahead. We turned it into like a Weezer song.
JD: We had a couple ideas about that one, too, that included thinking about the beginning of Stop Making Sense. David Byrne comes out to do “Psycho Killer” with just the boom box and that idea stuck in my head, that you could do a song in that fashion. So when we were working out “Hopeless,” I was thinking about playing very robotically, like a drum machine. We even tried to drop a drum machine in on that first part of that track to see if it would work, but we couldn’t get one work that mixed with the vibes of the instruments. So we left the drums, but I was trying to play like a drum machine.
7LM: Nice. I know on Chalk Tape you three basically wrote the stuff out on a chalkboard and kind of went with “First thought, best thought,” kind of thing?
JD: Absolutely.
7LM: Did any of that carry over into Rose Mountain at all on any of the tracks?
MP: Chalk Tape was like a vacation away from overthinking things, and then we revisited overthinking everything when we got to Rose Mountain – which is not something we necessarily dislike doing, I think.
MA: Wait, Chalk Tape was before Rose Mountain?
Everyone else: Yeah.
(Laughter fills the van.)
MP: Because Ugly was such a big project and there were so many songs, and we demoed everything five thousand times. We demoed songs at different speeds. We like doing stuff like that.
MA: It’s true.
MP: I mean, I do. It’s fun for me. So Chalk Tape was like a little bit break from that and we threw caution to the wind and just had fun. Demoing stuff is fun for me. With Rose Mountain we definitely were very focused on melodies and songwriting and analyzing our demos and getting rid of things that we were like, “This is extraneous, and that’s unnecessary. It doesn’t benefit the song in any way.”
7LM: What are your favorite misheard lyrics? Do you have any that just crack you up?
MA: We have a couple.
MP: One I can’t say.
7LM: No, you can say it.
JD: About our band? (Looking at Marissa) You like those misheard lyrics about the Fall Out Boy video.
MP: Yeah, it’s just “don-don-don-loora-loora.”
MA: Yeah, it’s like “Ooo-lee-ooo-rah.”
JD: We watch that video a lot because they attempt to animate what they think these nonsense words mean and it’s really, really good.
MP: Misheard lyrics from other songs?
7LM: Or from yours.
MP: There’s this one song we have called “Pretty Okay,” and I say, “You make me feel so enlightened,” and our friends in a posthumous band called Full of Fancy thought I said, “You make me feel like Steve Martin,” which I think is a better lyric.
MA: The next line is “A lady found God in her purse,” and another friend of ours said it sounded like “A lady found God in her puss.”
MP: It’s a little risqué.
JD: We didn’t say it! They just thought we said it.
MA: I just said it. It just came out of my mouth.
MP: I think Full of Fancy did that, too. It was always them.
MA: No, it was probably (producer Steve) Albini.
7LM: It wouldn’t surprise me. Are there any bands that have inspired you that you fans might be surprised by?
MA: (no hesitation) Fall Out Boy. We love Fall Out Boy.
MP: (laughing) Yeah, we love Fall Out Boy.
JP: Just the one album, though.
MP: I celebrate two albums.
JD: I mean, collectively, we like the one album.
MP: Yeah, that’s true.
JD: I love a lot of hip hop. I don’t know if people think that’s weird, but it definitely doesn’t seem like it’s attached to Screaming Females. In high school I listened to a lot of world music and jazz and stuff, but I think a lot of that comes out in my playing, and I think people who are familiar with music like Fela Kuti and Gangstarr, could hear that I play drums more like what those artists think of rhythms like instead a punk band.
7LM: Are there any bands you’ve played with on this tour that you think your fans should hear more of?
MP: The first night of tour we played with two of the coolest bands I’d seen in a long time.
MA: Chipped Nails. They were cool as hell.
MP: Chipped Nails from Montreal. It was like their second show ever. They were so good, I wanted them to play forever. They played for, like, ten minutes.
JD: They played this really hypnotically repetitive, slightly funky groovin’ music that was completely atonal and nonsensical, and it was amazing.
MP: They were really good.
7LM: I’m all over that.
MP: They don’t have any Internet presence yet.
MA: They have no music. It was their second show.
JD: Everybody in the crowd, their jaws dropped like, “I don’t know what I’m witnessing.” They were bopping their heads. It was the grooviest show of all time.
MA: We did a couple shows with our friends in this band called Vacation who are really, really good.
JD: Yeah, they’re from Ohio.
7LM: I’ve heard of them somewhere.
JD: Yeah, they’re on Don Giovanni, which is the same label that has been putting out stuff for a long time. They’re from Cincinnati and Columbus and have been playing shows for years and years.
7LM: I go to Columbus a lot, so that’s probably where I heard of them.
JD: Have you ever been to Ace of Cups?
7LM: No.
JD: Okay, it’s a cool venue there. Our friend, Evan, who plays in Vacation is usually working the door. So, if you ever end up there, you’ll probably meet Evan.
7LM: Finally, I thought this would be fun to ask you – Who are your favorite scream queens?
MA: What?
7LM: Your favorite Hollywood scream queens.
MA: What’s that?
7LM: Horror movie stars. Screaming females, literally.
JD: Jamie Lee Curtis from Halloween is the classic.
7LM: Oh yeah, of course.
MA: I don’t do movies. I can’t sit still that long.
JD: (looking at Marissa) Green Room?
MA: Maeby from Arrested Development? I don’t even know what her name is.
MP: Yeah, me either (Alia Shawkat). I’m not much of a movie buff. I don’t know too much. I like Hellraiser, that’s a movie I enjoy. There’s two female characters in there. I don’t know either of their names. The woman who’s seducing the men and bringing them to the guy’s room so he can reanimate them. She’s cool. I don’t know what her name is (Julia – played by Claire Higgins), but I like her style. She’s ruthless. She doesn’t give a good damn. Yeah, I think that might be my favorite horror movie. I haven’t seen the others, but I do really like the first Hellraiser.
7LM: Once I was at a horror movie convention and saw Doug Bradley, who plays Pinhead, and Robert England, who plays Freddy Krueger having lunch together.
JP: Whoa!
MP: My girlfriend at the time really wanted to get into the franchise, and I think we got up to the third one and I was like, “I can’t watch these, they’re so bad.”
7LM: They get progressively worse.
MP: The first one’s so cool, and the second one was okay, and by the third one I was like, “What’s happening?” But my friend, Mark Bronzino, who plays in this metal band called Iron Reagan, he was like, “Yo, Marissa, Hellraiser 14 is pretty good, you should go see it.” And I was like, “I’m not gonna see it.”
7LM: Well, they’re remaking it.
MP: The first one?
JD: The fourteenth one.
7LM: They probably are.
MP: I don’t know, apparently it’s pretty good.
7LM: Thanks again. Is there anything you want fans to look up, or anything you want to plug?
JD: Screamingfemales.com is the easiest place to find our real tour dates, because now there are tour date aggregators out there all over the Internet that put up tour dates from five years ago. That’s the best place to find information about us, but we’re pretty easy to get in touch with. You can literally e-mail us and one of us will probably answer you.
7LM: And you’re all on Twitter and Facebook for sure.
JD: Yeah, so if you’ve ever encountered the Internet, you can probably find us.
Keep your mind open.
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