An interview with Zac Mayeux of Billy Raygun

I first met the members of Billy Raygun two years ago when they played the first show of their first ever tour in the basement of the house I had been living in. Some of the band members looked like they may not have been old enough to have driver’s licenses, let alone be spending the last few weeks of the summer driving down the East coast and playing shows in beer drenched punk houses, but as far as bands go they were wise beyond their years.

Formed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Billy Raygun has been around since 2006, and for the majority of that time has consisted of their current lineup of singer/guitarist Zac Mayeux, guitarist Nate Rubin, bassist Cakes and drummer David Solender. In the past year the youngest members of the band have graduated high school, and the oldest can now legally buy alcohol. After six years and four EPs, I’m surprised a band formed by 14 year olds is still around, but in Billy Raygun’s case the music’s really good, so why stop?

I talked to Zac as the band was on the verge of their latest tour, which will coincide with the release of their first full-length album

D: For a city of only 25,000 people, Portsmouth has had a surprising number of good music acts, from you guys, to The Queers, to The Guts, to The Lanterns, to The Bruisers, even Ronnie James Dio was originally from there. Why do you think this is the case?

Z: I have no idea how Ronnie James Dio could've come from here. That shit's just an anomaly.

D: Weirder things have happened, the singer from Anal Cunt (as well as Fat Mike) were from Newton, Massachusetts, a real wealthy suburb that's home to Boston College and a handful of other private colleges.

Z: Well as far as Portsmouth goes, through the 80's to the late 90's it always had a really solid music scene. I was way too young to have been any part of that, though. There was an all ages club called the Elvis Room that was pretty famous and lots of touring bands used to come through to play there after Boston, as well as local bands like The Queers and Jabbers. I guess I would attribute many of the acts you mentioned being from Portsmouth to the fact that the city used to be much more open to music and all ages venues. There's still a local music scene, but nothing really in the punk vein.

D: What happened to that club?

Z: From what I've gathered, it was shut down because of financial troubles, people doing too many drugs, underage drinking, and violence. I guess someone got stabbed? I don’t know. I was a baby at this time and used to get woken up all the time by punks drinking in the parking lot outside of our house because it was pretty close to the club.  Funny how that's all come full circle...

D: I've heard Portsmouth described as New Hampshire's hipster city, is that the case?

Z: I'd say it's somewhere between a hipster and yuppie city. It's a pleasant seaside city with a lot of history, definitely a good place to grow up and for tourists to visit.

D: How did you meet each other, and when did you start the band?

Z: I've known Cakes since I was 6 or so, and through playing guitar in the middle school jazz band, I met Nate (who was wearing a home made Descendents shirt!) and Calvin (our first drummer). I started jamming with Nate and Calvin shortly after that. I was the only one of us that had a bass, so I played that until Cakes joined us a week before our first show. This was after we had been a band for a year. 

D: Why did you take a year to play a show?

Z: We were just trying to find our sound and weren't really that interested in playing shows until we were good, and even by the first show we were still pretty awful. It was with The Guts, The Leftovers, For Science, and Project 27. I think seeing those bands and talking to them after the show really pushed us in a more pop punk direction afterwards.

D: How did you get onto that first show? Were you familiar with those other bands at the time?

Z: I used to go see The Guts a lot when I was younger, so I knew their guitarist Geoff Useless. He heard I had started a new band and asked us to play a show with them. I was a fan of The Guts and The Leftovers at the time, but I hadn't heard the other bands. Talking to some of the other guys in Project 27 and For Science made me a bit more aware of the other types of bands that were playing that type of music, like The Ergs!, The Steinways, etc.

I think it was at that show that someone actually mentioned the Pop Punk Message Bored to me. We actually met our current drummer through that site; he offered to put out our first 7" on his record label. He actually previously played in this local band we all liked called IAMJAPAN.

D: I read that at one point when your band started out you had a keyboard player. How long did they last?

Z: Haha, I had never really written songs before and had only been playing guitar for a little while when Billy Raygun first formed. We had a lot of initial growing pains trying to figure out what we were going to sound like. My friend Joe played keyboards for us for a few months and then we started moving in a more punk or pop punk direction, away from just making weird noisy shit. At that point we decided we didn't really want keys anymore.

D: So were you guys originally a noise rock band? Are there any recordings from this era?

Z: Imagine a bunch of little kids who were trying to sound like The Butthole Surfers and Pavement at the same time, while also not being very good at their instruments. That should paint a pretty good picture.  There are recordings, and they can be found on the internet if you search hard enough, but you really shouldn't

D: For songs written by a teenager, I’m surprised how good the lyrics are. Other than those noise songs, is there anything that you look back on and cringe at?

Z: Other than a few songs not coming out quite the way I had hoped recording wise, no.  Maybe in a few years I'll look back and think some of our stuff sucked, but for this being my first band I've got to say I'm really proud of our output so far.

D: Right now you’ve released a bunch of EPs, when will you make a full length?

Z: Well, this interview is happening in mid April and we're supposed to be recording one in early June. Hopefully by the time this interview is published we will have a full length of all new stuff available in some way!

D: Where's it being recorded?

Z: We're recording with Jay the Milky in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Jay’s the dude that did all The Credentials and Witches With Dicks stuff, and we're recording it mostly live like those bands did.

D: Will this summer be the furthest out you've toured?

Z: Yes, by far.  We've only toured twice.  It's hard to find time for touring because all of our schedules are pretty busy and don't always line up that great.  See also: practicing.  Also, we're really lazy and don't have any of our own equipment. 

D: Please tell me the story about the tour stop where the tweaked out manager locked you in the basement of his bar!

Z: We had just played this bar in Lexington, Kentucky called The Green Lantern. The manager came up to me and told me he really enjoyed our set. He asked how old we were and when I told him our ages he started acting weird. He was muttering things like, "not in my bar" and "how could this happen?" He then tells Cakes, Nate, our friend Amber and myself to follow him. He brings us down to the basement and proceeds to tell us we made a huge mistake, we never should have come to Lexington and if anyone finds out that he let us in his bar he’s going to kill our moms and bomb New Hampshire. That guy was definitely tweaking out on something crazy! Then he'd start yelling at us and snap out of it all of a sudden and say, “But please, have a great night! You guys played really great!”, and then start yelling at us again. He told us don't leave this basement and don't go in that room (pointing at a door in the basement). Cakes asked what was in the room, and he told us it was "none of our business", in a really mysterious and menacing way. It was probably either a dead body or a meth lab. Anyways, as soon as he left we hid in the car the rest of the night while we watched him pace around the club looking for us.

D: Billyraygun.com leads to a brand management company called Billy Raygun Design! Did you get your name from them?

Z: Haha, no. We thanked them in our split with Lipstick Homicide for not suing us yet. They didn't have any internet presence when we named our band so we had no idea. Oh well!

D: After graduating high school, and people inevitably facing different paths in life, has it been hard managing to keep the band together?

Z: While we've all graduated school, we're all still in the same area. Some of us are still at school, some of us are working jobs, some of us both.  The band will continue to keep playing together as long as we're geographically close enough to each other.

Charlie Don't Mosh: An interview with John Wayne Swayze of :Satch:

The CharlieCard is a plastic card that gets you into the subway, busses, and other forms of transportation that service the Greater Boston area. If you're unfamilair with this fact, the title of this post may not make sense (and it doesn't help that the accompanying artwork of the character on the card flailing his arms ala the Circle Jerks logo has yet to be finished). But I wanted to get this posted while the original story was still fresh; recently the Boston Herald posted an article about the Boston Police cracking down on moshing at shows, while citing the case of a college student who got concussed during a Flogging Molly set. Imagine my surprise when I found out that student was actually an acquaintance of mine who sings in a hardcore punk band called :Satch:, under the alias of John Wayne Swayze. After reading the Herald article, which cited a few quotes of his, I wanted to give him the oppurtunity to tell his entire side of the story, as well as giving a platform to talk about his band.

D: What happened exactly?

J: The whole night is a pretty big blur. I was pretty drunk when everything happened and then getting my fucking dome knocked screwy sure as shit didn't make the night more clear.

From what I remember, I was in the pit during Flogging Molly, and at some point my head went forward at the same time someone else's head went backward. He hits my forehead with the back of his head and I'm knocked silly. I just stumble, sort of fall backwards into the people standing at the edge of the pit, and they keep me from falling on my ass. The guy who hit me immediately realized how hard the collision was and turns to see if I'm alright, and the other people around me make sure there's nothing bad. I told them everything was fine. The guy apologizes and we have a wicked sexy man hug. I couldn't really see straight out of my right eye for at least a few songs afterwards, but I stayed in the pit, and was having a blast. Flogging Molly covered “The Times They Are A Changing”, which was fantastic and wicked cool to see live, but I really don't remember a ton else that happened during the show. I have no clue what was the booze and what was the concussion.

It's over a month later, and I'm still not recovered, it took a whole month before I could make it back to school. There were a couple weeks where I just couldn't really walk properly. One of the doctors I saw thinks that something was just fucked with the brain circuitry that controlled my legs. I still have to deal with near constant headaches and even this interview is making me a bit disoriented, like my head just ain't all there. But shit happens and hopefully everything will get better.

D: Is this the worst you've gotten injured at a show?

J: By far. I got a concussion at a Dropkick Murphys show a couple years back but that happened during spring break and I was back in class the week after. I'm riddled with stupid injuries from various shit, like tendonitis in my shoulder and a nerve problem in my back that flares up at shows, but nothing nearly as serious or as shitty as this concussion.

D: There are other stories about people getting hurt at shows and then suing the venue, which I assume you have no intention of doing. What would you say to someone like that kid in California who got damage at a Pour Habit show and is suing the venue?

J: I don't know the details, so I don't want to feel like a dick talking out of my ass, but if it was a situation like mine then it's just a bullshit lawsuit. Boston has laws against slam dancing, House of Blues let it happen, and I got hurt. That's an easy lawsuit right there, but it's also a fucking stupid lawsuit to pursue.

I want to slam dance and collide with people, it's fun. People choose to go in there and we do it because we like it. We all know that slamming into other people has risks. But if you're going to sue, get the fuck out. Just keep away from people who are slamming, I've never been to a show where it's impossible to get away from that.

D: How did the Boston Herald get in touch with you?

J: My brother showed me the initial article about Boston cracking down on slam dancing and I contacted David Wedge, the author of that article, with my story. I asked him to give people my perspective and he immediately emailed me back so we could do a phone interview. My injury wasn't reported to House of Blues or the Boston Police, so I guess they didn't even know someone got hurt there until that article came out. The crackdown really had absolutely nothing to do with me, it's just funny timing that it started at the same show.

D: I'm sure the Boston Herald just took a portion of what you said and printed that, so is there any full unabridged message you'd like to say to the city of Boston regarding this new enforcement?

J: There were a couple of things I wanted to stress that David Wedge left out. First off, the House of Blues staff never lets shit get out of hand. Seriously, it's the House of Blues and they got security right there in the crowd. What the fuck do the police expect to happen there? I've never seen a show get anywhere close to rowdy no matter how full, how tightly packed, or how obnoxious the people are. It's an all ages venues and it's legitimately safe for all ages. If they're gonna start cracking down then they definitely chose the dumbest place to start.

Second off, they have to be stupid if they think this is going to do anything positive for Boston. They're not going to stop people from slam dancing, moshing, or whatever the hell they're scared of. We want to be there. We choose to spend our money on a ticket and then walk right into that pit of people slamming their bodies into each other. So if we can't do it in Boston then we're just gonna do it somewhere else. No one is being saved by this, Boston is just asking people to stop pumping money into their clubs.

D: So what kind of dancing was going on exactly, because I feel like there's a big difference, and the Boston Herald article didn't clarify this, between the type of slamdancing you'd expect to see at a House of Blues show, and the fists flailing type of moshing that you'd see at a tough-guy hardcore show for a band like Blood for Blood, never mind shit like spin-kicking.

J: It was the usual type of slamdancing that always happens at the House of Blues. No fists or feet or elbows flying or anything that was actually violent. Probably a bit tamer than some shows can get there because security did try to keep the slamdancing down a little bit.

D: So do you see this resulting in bands (specifically ones with a relative level of popularity) just booking more shows in places like Cambridge, Worcester, Providence, etc?

J: They were trying to enforce it at the Flogging Molly show but they didn't try all that hard. So I have no idea how much effort they're going to put into it. The Herald said they were fining venues, and hitting clubs in the wallet will definitely get their attention. I have no idea how hard they'll enforce it or what will happen if clubs don't.

I definitely hope that bands and fans alike avoid playing in the city if it's fully enforced, at least any venue that cops will be watching. Hopefully basements stay safe even if clubs get fucked. I hate to see people avoid Boston but Boston could deserve it.

D: I can tell you it's not being enforced at the small clubs that I've been to recently. I went to a show on St. Patrick's Day, and there was lots of slam dancing, yet no one from the club telling everyone to stop, and also no one getting hurt. The one person who got way too aggressive, seemed to be a local college drunk in all green celebrating the holiday, rather than someone who goes to punk shows, and he was thrown out by the staff after being warned to cool it down and refusing. The actions they took resulted in people being able to dance, yet making sure no one got knocked out by a violent drunk, I think that's a good model to go by for the smaller clubs.

J: That's exactly how I think it should be handled. Let the venues decide how much they're willing to tolerate. I feel like most venues that are willing to host aggressive shows understand what they're getting.

D: At the same time, shouldn't the club be held responsible from a legal perspective, if that venue hadn't kicked that person out and people got their skulls smashed from him?

J: Probably. I assume that's how everywhere else does it, venues can allow moshing if they want, but the legal shit is on them if it leads to problems.

D: Have you been back to the House of Blues or any other larger clubs since the initial incident? Did they enforce the policy?

J: Nah, I haven't been back into any big Boston clubs since then. I had to lay low for a while and I'm still not really sure I feel like going back into a pit until my head is back to normal.

Part II

D: When did you join :Satch:?

J: Depends on how you look at it. I think I became the singer for :Satch: in spring of 2011, but even before that, they were all my friends and I was writing some stupidly awful lyrics for them. I never considered myself part of the band at that point but Tipp (the guitarist) said he pretty much always counted me as a member.

D: Had you sung in any bands before this?

J: Not at all. I'm not a singer, I'm the drunk guy with the microphone.

D: So who is doing what in the band now? The last time I saw :Satch: was as a three piece, right before you joined.

J: Hitman is our drummer, Tipp is the guitarist, and Solomon is the bassist. Same guys as always but with me added.

D: Why is the name spelt between colons?

J: I think it started out as like a joke about colons, like the part of an ass. I'm sure I've been told the story but my fucking memory has gone to shit between head injuries and narcotics.

D: How would you describe your music and stage performance to someone unfamiliar with the band?

J: It's like getting drunk, doing speed, and then fucking a stranger in the ass while his girlfriend tries to break down his door. I don't know a better way to describe it. It's fast, raw hardcore punk written by 4 assholes who are bored in general and bored with everyone else. We're not a political band with messages about anything, and we're not a group of artists getting together to play, just fun loving punks showing our balls and hoping someone has as much fun as we do.

D: I've always thought of the band as the Ramones on speed, because it's that same 1-2-3-4, break into song, 1-2-3-4, break right into next song routine. But it's also played so much faster, and the guitarist is running all over the place, and you're right, there's no message or politics to it at all. It reminds me a lot of what early 80s hardcore bands were doing in LA like Fear or The Germs, before hardcore had become so machismo and metal based.

J: Yeah, that's the sort of shit that we draw from.

D: Are there any plans for a new release?

J: Planning isn't really part of our process so no one really knows for sure. There's a chance we're going into the studio for something shortly. It'd be nice to get our new stuff recorded and get all our shit together on a single disc.

D: Did that ten songs in seven minutes recording you did ever get a physical release? I remember seeing a picture of artwork for it, I think it was something like a shower drained by lice-infected pubic hair.

J: It got as much of a release as anything we ever do, which is to say we burned copies then handed them out for free. That picture never got included but I don't think it was even made at the same time. If people want it, it's called the Crabs by Association EP, and it's available for free download at www.mediafire.com/?1lol3hsrvb648. Our follow-up demo is also free online, but I have no idea where that is. We just opened up a Bandcamp page (rubmysatch.bandcamp.com) so everything should be up there soon.


D: In addition to hurting yourself in the audience, don't you hurt yourself on stage, by doing things like slamming your head into the microphone? I've seen pictures from :Satch: shows where you look pretty bruised.

J: Oh yeah, although I gotta stop that for a while, it's something I just do when I'm really fucking into it. I'll do it when the crowd is too small or isn't really that into it and there is nothing to play off of but myself. I've also slammed my head into a door just getting pumped up, and I've made my chest bleed from a mic stand. I can't explain it. Same reason why I go around slamming my body into people, I guess. Maybe I just do it because I'm too dumb, drunk, and indifferent to do anything better.

D: Have you played any shows outside of New England, and do you have any plans to tour?

J: No, and I wouldn't count on it any time soon. We're so fucking poor to begin with and everyone else has other commitments that get in the way. Who knows for sure though? I'd love to go on tour, that'd be a great fucking time. We'll play anywhere for any reason, if we can, so maybe some time.

D: At this point, where's the farthest out you've played a show?

J: We've mostly just been playing greater Boston shows, like we just played at the Starlab in Somerville. Besides the immediate Boston area, I've only played with the band in Worcester and Lowell.

D: How is Lowell these days? I've heard it described as the college and then a slew of bad areas?

J: It's hard to describe it differently than you did but that's such an understatement. There's such a range of shit that doesn't seem to happen in most places. Just the mixing of college kids, the honest working class, and gang members from a million different cultural and ethnic backgrounds makes the city weird and oddly amusing. Definitely
a lot of bad areas and I sure as fuck wouldn't feel too safe getting lost here, but :Satch: was born in Lowell and I call the city home right now so I can't be too harsh.

D: That's funny you'd say that about Lowell, an old roommate of mine described Fitchburg (another Massachusetts city with a State University) as a bad mix between drunk College kids and local poverty. I think it's the same thing though, there are decent people and decent things that get overlooked for the crime.

J: Yeah, I've heard a lot of people describe Fitchburg the same way. Maybe that's why :Satch: was so well received and played their first couple shows there.



D: Why weren't the first shows in Lowell?

J: No idea, really. I wasn't involved with any booking at that point. I think it was a case of just playing the first places people offered. But those Fitchburg shows were good and well received, so fuck it, we're not too worried about where we're playing as long as we get to play.

D: Where can someone get in touch with you if they want to book you for a show?

J: Go to our Facebook page, facebook.com/pee.eye.ass.

House Boat Captain: An interview with Grath Madden

If 30 is the new 16, Grath Madden may be the poster child for his generation. The 33 year old perpetually under or un-employed temp worker with a bachelors degree that took him nowhere, passes his time smoking pot, reading comic books, and watching too much television. And much like the protagonists in his comic book collection, Grath has an alter ego of sorts. Moonlighting by playing in punk rock bands, or at least when he feels like it, he has written, sang, and played guitar on one of the best albums of 2011, but that’s not gonna help him one iota when he ends up in line to collect unemployment.

While he may be low man on the totem pole at his workplace, there's a subgroup of a subgroup of a subgroup that sees Grath Madden as somewhat legendary. He cut his chops fronting The Steinways, a hugely influential and revered part of New York's 2000s pop punk scene. After The Steinways imploded, Grath went from writing short cutesy Steinways songs without choruses or refrains, to short self-loathing songs for his new band House Boat (also without choruses and refrains).

Rounded out by legendary punk drummer Mikey Erg, former Off With Their Heads guitarist Zack Gontard, and Grath’s former Steinways band mate Azeem Sajid on bass, House Boat has carved their name among the list of best new punk rock bands going today. I spoke to Grath about his bands, his life and The Biggest Loser Australia.

D: Where are you originally from?

G: Born and raised in Baltimore.

D: Aren't the Madden brothers from Good Charlotte from that area? Do you have the misfortune of being related to them?

G: Haha, yeah, I think they are from somewhere in Maryland, thankfully no relation.

D: From reading the autobiographies of Robin Quivers and John Waters, I've got the idea that Baltimore was a seedy place for a kid to grow up in. Was that your experience?

G: I moved to Parkville, Maryland when I was 12, so my first hand shady Baltimore experience is pretty minimal. I never really looked at it as any shadier or sketchier than anywhere else. I mean, there are some awful, awful neighborhoods that I wouldn’t feel at all safe in, but I spent most of my time growing up sheltered in Catholic schools and all-boys private schools, surrounded by rich white pieces of shit.

D: I take it you must have hated Catholic school. Did you get in to trouble a lot for having a smart mouth?

G: Catholic school was way better than what came after. At least there were girls in Catholic school. I was a pretty enormous nerd, so I didn’t really start to get lippy with teachers until I was like 17 or so. But by that point, yeah, I was pretty fucking obnoxious. I got a detention for “casting a spell” on my English teacher.

D: Did you go to college, and if so what did you major in?

G: I went to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Majored in film. Now I’m a temp receptionist. I wonder if I made the right decision?

D: Did you work at all in any position of the film/television/commercial industry?

G: I did some production assistant work when I first moved to New York, and I hated it more than anything else I’ve ever done ever. It’s amazing to me how much bullshit people will put up with just so they can “work on a movie/TV show.”

Honestly, I didn’t really stick around long enough to deal with anything other than nothing to do and really shitty hours. But the tone for that shit is set right off the bat, “You are working on a television show, and you should feel HONORED to give up 16 hours of your day!” The magic of being a part of a British dating show wore off in about 4 minutes.

D: When did you first move to New York?

G: I moved back to Baltimore when I got out of college, then a room in an apartment full of friends of mine opened up in Queens about a year later, so I jumped on it. I really didn’t have a reason for coming here, but most of my college friends were here, and I was really into what was going on pop punk wise in New York/New Jersey (bands like The Ergs!, The Unlovables, Dirt Bike Annie, etc.), at the time.

D: Do you remember the first time you saw The Ergs! and met Mikey?

G: I either met Mikey at an Ergs! show in Kutztown, PA, or a Dirt Bike Annie show at North Six in Brooklyn. I can’t really remember which came first. The first time I saw The Ergs! was at that Kutztown show. I got their first 7” in the mail on my 21st birthday, and it was pretty much the most exciting thing I’d heard in a couple of years, so a few weeks later, I found myself driving through Pennsylvania to see them.

The first time I really remember hanging out with Mike was at a big show Eric Peabody put on a few months later. After smoking a billion joints with members of Dirt Bike Annie, I stayed up way too late nerding out on pop punk records with Eric and Mikey. I was like, “this fucker’s a bigger pop punk nerd than I am!” I’d always been pretty isolated, punk rock wise, so it was awesome to finally meet some folks around my age who were just as geeky about this shit.

D: How did you first meet the other members of The Steinways?

G: When I moved up to Queens, I knew that Jon Whoa Oh (founder of Whoa Oh Records) and Chris Grivet were nerdy pop punk dudes that lived in the neighborhood, so it wasn’t long before they were showing me around and taking me to Queers shows and what not. Michelle responded to a “hey, join my band” thing that I put up on a message board, and I was like “Whoa! A cute girl!” So yeah, she was immediately in.

The band was originally me on guitar, Grivet on drums, Michelle on guitar and Jon on bass. That was probably the line up for about a year, and man were we shitty. Something needed to change. Jon had the misfortune of not being a drummer or a really cute girl. Michelle switched to bass, and Azeem joined in 2005 or maybe the end of 2004. He had been in The Widows, who played their first ever show at The Steinways first ever show.


D: Were The Steinways the first band you were in?

G: I played in a band called The Kevins right before college in Baltimore and a band called Steve McQueen while I was in college. Neither were really “real” bands, more assemblages of friends who I’d begged to play music with me. Neither band recorded anything, and between the two, we probably played like 12 shows.

D: Was the first tour you did with The Steinways what you'd expected it to be?

G: The first one was great. We went with The Unlovables, Zack Gontard from Off With Their Heads filled in on guitar for them, it was a fun bunch of folks to be out with. The four of us that would eventually form House Boat spent most of the tour together in the “smoking car,” so that was cool.

D: You've said most of the low points of The Steinways revolved around alcohol. Can you elaborate at all?

G: Haha, did I say that? It’s 40,000% true. If you’ve seen The Steinways or House Boat or whatever bullshit I’ve done, you know that I like to talk on stage. That plus a massive amount of alcohol can lead to mistakes. I’ve said a lot of dumb stuff, and every once in a while I say some dumb stuff that makes someone upset.

D: Anything you'd care to repeat?

G: Not really!

D: When I was doing some research before this interview, I found The Steinways have a page on vh1.com of all places. It says you played a basement in Chicago where members of Screeching Weasel used to live. What's the story behind this?

G: I forget how it got set up, but the Chicago stop on The Unlovables/Steinways tour was Jughead’s basement. I think Dan Vapid was living there at the time too. It was pretty fun; we barbecued and hung out watching “Some Kind Of Monster” in the living room and then played a show that night. I forget if The Methadones played, but Even In Blackouts definitely did. There are clips on youtube of The Unlovables and us from that show.

D: What was everyone's opinion on Some Kind of Monster?

G: Well, it’s more or less the best movie of all time, so we’re obviously all very fond of it. I highly recommend the deleted scene with Ja Rule to anyone who’s foolish enough to have not checked it out already.

D: Yes the recording of "We Did It Again"! I love how when they're recording it, Ja Rule (or someone in his posse) says it's gonna be the next "We Are The Champions" and talks about how he sees it getting played every time the Lakers win a title. Metallica bopping their heads to show they're down with the rap part is great too.

G: Yeah, it’s easily the best song I’ve ever heard in my entire life.


D: Back to the subject of Screeching Weasel, The Steinways were joined on stage by Ben Weasel in 2007, how did he become aware of the band and meet you guys?

G: I don’t really know how he came across us, but he just kind of contacted me one day and asked if we’d maybe want to play some songs with him at Insub Fest. I definitely had to read the e-mail like five times before I really understood that, yes, the dude from Screeching Weasel wants my really shitty band to play my favorite songs ever with him. That whole thing was really fun and really awesome for all four of us.

D: At that point did you really feel The Steinways were "really shitty"?

G: I don’t think there was a point at which I DIDN’T think The Steinways were really shitty. That probably had something to do with how shitty we were. I was definitely nervous about playing with Ben because I never thought the four of us were particularly good at playing our instruments together at the same time.

D: Have you talked to Ben since then? Is the artwork of the new House Boat album a slap at him?

G: I haven’t talked to Ben in a while. I think it’s a major bummer that there’s been so much bullshit, gossip and nonsense surrounding him over the past few years, but it sort of seems like that’s what he’s after to a certain degree. I would’ve loved to do some more stuff with him, but we approach music from way different angles, so anything we’d talked about at first fizzled pretty quickly. He’s one of my favorite songwriters of all time though, and that definitely hasn’t changed.

The album art definitely isn’t supposed to be a big “fuck you” to Ben or anything. It was kind of just a dumb idea that grew out of some drunken conversations at a show we played in Philly a couple of years ago. When we recorded the record and came up with the artwork, all that South by Southwest bullshit hadn’t happened yet, and there was way less “controversy” surrounding Ben. I feel like the cover seems more pointed now that that shit’s happened, but, yeah, it’s just a dumb joke.














D: So there were talks about doing a band or album with him?

G: We talked real briefly about maybe doing something together, but never to the point that we even really figured out what that thing would be. I’m probably not well suited to be working with anyone whose musical career is an actual career.

D: Since The Steinways breakup in 2009 how many one offs has the band reunited for?

G: We did a set at a show in New York a few years ago that was the original Steinways (me, Michelle, Chris and Jonnie Whoa Oh), but the only real “reunions” we’ve done were Insub Fest 2010 and last year’s Don Giovanni showcase. We’ve been asked to do a couple of other things, but the Don Giovanni show was a train wreck, and I don’t think any of us are super eager to revisit that. Then again, next year is the 10th anniversary of the band….

D: You mentioned earlier that you thought The Steinways were shitty; do you consider House Boat shitty?

G: Nope, not really. We’re not much of a live band, but that’s more due to the fact that we play together like three times a year and have had two full band practices over the course of our existence. But this is pretty much my ideal scenario, band wise. I like our records, and I couldn’t pick better guys to play with.

D: Why use Zack, a guitar player from Minnesota, for a band from New York?

G: The whole point of House Boat, for me, was getting to play music with whomever I wanted to, and those people happened to be Mikey, Zack and Azeem. When the band started, Zack was more or less always on tour and Mikey was also living in Minnesota. I definitely never planned on us recording and playing as often as we have. I’m pretty happy with how it’s all worked out. Zack’s actually in Florida now, and Mikey floats back and forth between Jersey and Queens, so we’re actually geographically closer than we ever have been.


D: Do you know why Zack left Off With Their Heads?

G: I don’t really want to speak for him, but I can definitely say him leaving that band was amicable, un-dramatic and all that good stuff. I think he just wanted to not tour all the time and do more normal person stuff. He’s in school in Florida at the moment.

D: So if you could have the lifestyle of someone who squeaks by from constantly touring instead of working conventional jobs would you take it?

G: Nope. I kind of hate touring. Well, that’s not totally true, but I get really antsy and not stoked to be on the road after a week or so. I think doing it every night for a couple of months would suck all the fun out of it for me. Doing a week or so at a time once every year or so is pretty ideal for me.

D: A lot of House Boat songs deal with underemployment. Do you ever consider going back to school and getting a better degree?

G: I’ve been temping for like 8 years at this point. I’m either that or unemployed. At the moment, I work as a receptionist at a lab in Brooklyn. Come June, I will most likely not be working as a receptionist at a lab in Brooklyn.

That said, if I thought it made sense to go back and get a graduate degree in something, I would, but I’m pretty sure they don’t have masters programs for comic book reading, weed smoking or pop punk songwriting.

D: Do you write all of the House Boat lyrics?

G: For the most part, yeah. Other than like three lines, Azeem wrote all the lyrics for the ones he sings lead on.

D: House Boat’s lyrics often paint a narrative of depression and self-loathing. Do you write from an autobiographical perspective or from someone else's point of view?

G: I’m pretty self-obsessed, so they’re definitely all about me. I get pretty sad sometimes! The songs are where the bad feelings go. When you write a shitty song about how shitty you feel it makes you feel better. I think there are maybe two or three Steinways songs that are written from someone else’s point of view, but for the most part, I can’t write shit unless it’s about me, I’d guess that at least 90% of my songs start with the word “I.” Or at least an implied “I.”

D: What are the two or three songs you wrote from someone else's perspective?

G: Off the top of my head, “Diogo A Go Go” and “It All Went Wrong” by The Steinways are both supposed to be other people talking, but could just as easily be me.

D: A couple songs on the new House Boat album stick out as sounding different from anything you've previously done. They're actually the first and last tracks. The riff used throughout "Who Let The Dogs Out" (which I think is the best song off the album, despite the name) sounds like something meant to be played with a sitar. How did you come up with this and musically what is it exactly that gives it that sound?

Secondly, "Bug Out" seems almost too heartfelt to be written by you, I think it's a beautiful song, but there seems to be none of the irony or self-depreciation you usually use. Was this song written sincerely or is it tongue in cheek? I noticed the lyrics to Teenage Bottle Rocket's "Skate or Die" are in its place in the album's liner notes.

G: I wrote most of “Who Let The Dogs Out” while I was standing on the train platform waiting to go home one night. The riffy shit just kind of came up when I went home and started messing with it on garageband. It’s not really supposed to sound “different.” I mean it’s basically just “I Work On The 13th Floor” with a slightly modified riff and melody. But, yeah, I like that one too, so thanks!

“Bug Out” is a super sad song I wrote when I was desperate to get back together with a girl. I never really planned on using it for a record, but when we were putting songs together for this last full length, it seemed like it really fit and would be a nice closer.

D: Why do you rarely title your songs after lyrics in them?

G: If I wasn’t in my bands, and I picked up one of my bands’ records, I’d be like “Who the fuck does this guy think he is?” That said, I almost never give a song a title just because I think, “Oh, this is hilarious.” I don’t have a lot of songs with repetitive choruses, so it’s generally kind of hard to pick out a “refrain” to use as a title. If a title seems to not make any sense, odds are it’s just an inside joke between me and myself.

D: Have you really watched The Biggest Loser Australia as your song title suggests?

G: You better fucking believe I have, three seasons of that shit no less! One season of that show is literally about 80 episodes long, which is fucking nuts, so it’s on 4-6 times a week. I don’t know what’s wrong with Australians. I don’t know what’s wrong with me either. I actually resisted the temptation to start watching this season, so maybe I’m getting better.

D: How did you even become aware of the show? Any other shows of that vein that you've wasted too much time on?

G: I think the Amazing Race Asia was the first non-American reality show I accidentally stumbled upon. I was probably torrent searching the regular Amazing Race and that shit popped up. I’ve seen Biggest Loser Australia, MasterChef Australia, Junior MasterChef Australia, The Apprentice UK, The Junior Apprentice UK, The Apprentice New Zealand, Beauty and the Geek Australia, Amazing Race Asia, Biggest Loser UK, etc, etc, etc. Though many years later, I’m finally getting tired of all that shit. I haven’t watched any foreign reality television yet this year, and I may not at all. Though I will say that both Junior Apprentice UK (recently renamed “Young Apprentice”) and Junior MasterChef are fucking brilliant, and I will watch the shit out of both as soon as they’re back on.

D: Back to music, what does the future hold for you?

G: There will definitely be some more House Boat stuff this year. We have an EP of sorts coming out in a couple of months, and we’ve also got a song on that comp Larry Livermore put together for Adeline Records. We’re looking to record for a split that I’m really excited about in July. I won’t say who the band is, and it’s not like it’s someone that’s going to make people lose their minds or anything, but I really hope it works out. Past that, I’ve been trying to get a couple of non-House Boat things off the ground, one which involves all people I’ve played music with before and one that involved no people I’ve played music with before. Either those two things will happen, or I’ll just say fuck it and do another Barrakuda McMurder thing.

D: What is the lineup for Barrakuda McMurder?

G: Barrakuda McMurder is me and whoever else is around. So far “members” have included me, Chris Pierce, Matt Lame, Azeem, Chelsea Lacatena and Chris Grivet.

The stuff on the first Barrakuda McMurder 7” and the stuff on the first House Boat LP was all written at more or less the same time. At that point, House Boat didn’t exist, and it was looking like The Steinways would do a third LP. I wanted to record with other folks, so I just took 6 songs from what I had and went and recorded them with Chris Pierce playing drums and me playing more or less everything else. I definitely wish I’d saved a song or two from that for the first House Boat record.

Since then, the only other thing “we’ve” done is a free release that was just me and Azeem playing everything. Those songs were definitely more “throwaways” that House Boat was never going to record.

D: Alright one last question, and I want you to answer seriously, where do you see yourself in life in 2019 when you turn 40 years old?

G: I have no idea. I'd like to think that I won't still be splitting my time between temping and pining over unattainable women, but I think my discography might disagree with me. I'd settle for working someplace I don't totally hate, dating somebody I totally like and making records a couple of times a year with my friends. That's pretty much the sum of my life's ambitions at this point.

This Is Norway: An interview with Rene Og Sa Videre (Baesj 74)

I first encountered Rene Og Sa Videre, and his musical project, “Baesj 74”, a few years back via the Knock Knock Records message board. Most of the people online seemed to think that a person claiming to be from Norway, who idolized Blink-182, and produced (or lack there of) weird minimalist songs, consisting of Norwegian accented vocals, choppy guitar, and pots and pans for drums, was a fake persona. But as time went on Rene produced too much circumstantial evidence against being an America playing pretend behind a keyboard, and was indeed a Norwegian creating what I would best describe as outsider music that combines elements of punk, noise, and acoustic folk, under the moniker Baesj 74.

I initially contacted him when Screeching Weasel announced the tracklisting for their last album “First World Manifesto”, with the idea that he write and record songs off of the same titles, before hearing the original versions, and release his version of the album the same day. Rene nixed the idea, but later agreed to do the same concept for the songs of bands playing the 2011 Insubordination Fest, in an effort to release a free album that would be found via a url listed in the Insubordination Fest Zine (look for it at the at the end of the interview).

After combing through song titles we settled on ten songs, “Black Friday” (originally by Iron Chic), “Brain Scrambling Device” (originally by Kepi Ghoulie), “Feels Like Dying” (originally by The Jetty Boys), “French Perfume” (originally by New Creases), “Navigation Point” (originally by The Dopamines), “Pentagrams” (originally by The Copyrights), “Regan McNeil” (originally by Emily’s Army), “Tour Boyfriends” (originally by Karmella’s Game), “Punk Rock Boy” (originally by The Potatomen), and “Robot Girl” (originally by The Quarantines), with the latter two song titles being combined into “Punk Rock Boy, Robot Girl”.

As warped fate would have it, a lot of the album, including songs like Black Friday and Feels Like Dying, was recorded on Friday July 22, during the terrorist attacks on Norway. Parts of the recordings came out very dark, and it was split into two versions. I called one “The Black Friday EP”, which I remixed (in true poor production Baesj 74 spirit), and cut up not to include some of the less serious songs. The other was called “The White Thursday EP” which is the original version Rene recorded.

The following is the interview I did with Rene after the EPs were finished:

D: What does Baesj 74 mean?

R: Shit 74. It actually is a pretty embarrassing name. I think a lot of people remember it though.

D: Does the number 74 have any significance?

R: No, but I don't think Bæsj 75 would have sounded as good.

D: Have their ever been other members besides you?

R: It's always been a one-man project. Though on one song called "Different Frame" I have guest performers.

D: Were you ever in a band?

R: I'm in a band, but we don't practice much and we haven’t written many songs.

D: They don’t play Baesj 74 songs?

R: We have tried playing some, but we haven't practiced since 2008.

D: Wow you weren’t kidding you don’t practice much. Are the others still aware you consider the band active?

R: Yeah.

D: When was your last show?

R: We haven't even played shows.

D: What do you use to record Baesj74 songs?

R: I use pro-tools and a soundcard on most of the songs. Sometimes I just make an EP on the laptop mic and ironically they usually sound better.

D: Didn’t you once use pots and pans for drums?

R: I mostly use candy and cookie boxes and I still do even on the new song “Navigation Point”. I got he candy box when I was four years old and started beating on it so it's always been kind of a nostalgic thing.

D: Is there any artist you could compare your music to? I feel like your sort of doing a Wesley Willis thing, in that it’s uncharted territory.

R: I don't think there is much I usually compare myself to, I'm not very good at recording so that and the fact that I use the unusual percussion makes it sound weird. I do enjoy what I've heard of Wesley Willis.

D: Do you have a page where all your stuff can be downloaded?

R: Not all of it, but I think the best stuff is on the Baesj 74 myspace and bandcamp pages.

D: Has anyone ever offered to put out a physical copy of your stuff?

R: I haven't got actual offers, but people have mentioned it ever since 2004, I don't think they are being 100% serious.

D: Was your new song “Black Friday”, or the tone of it, based on the Norwegian terrorist attacks?

R: When I saw the title, I googled it and found out it meant Friday the 13th, and could also mean Fridays that are related to tragedies. I found examples so the song had each verse about different days known as "Black Friday", each seen from the point of view of someone experiencing it. It was recorded a few hours before the terrorist attack. Having recorded it did creep me out afterwards, and a part of me wanted to delete it, but I think the message in the song is stronger than ever.

D: Was it recorded before the tragedy, or just written beforehand?

R: It was written and recorded before the tragedy.

D: Wow. What about the other songs, were they written and recorded before it took place?

R: I was recording "Feels Like Dying" when I heard about the bomb and I wasn't sure about how serious it was. I just kept recording the songs and I felt like I was in a state of denial, and when I heard about the shootings I went into a shock and stopped recording. and saved the rest for later. I felt weird about finishing the two last songs the next day, which were “French Perfume” and “Navigation Point” as the themes were light-hearted.

D: I think the recordings as a whole mark a turning point for you, like when your favorite band Blink-182 did their self-titled album; it was darker and more mature.

R: I tried to write a lot of acoustic tracks as I've always felt that I sounded more mature doing them. I think the lyrics go from serious (“Black Friday”) to not that serious (“Tour Boyfriends”). Your mix of navigation point actually reminded me of the style of Blink’s self-titled album

D: Yeah, Navigation Point was sort of like the Blink-182 song “Violence”, with the drum beat at least. And Black Friday, thematically, reminded me of The Clash song “Straight to Hell” in the way it interweaves all those historical moments. One of them in your song was about the Nazi attack on Norway during WWII right?

R: What I gathered from it was it was an attack from the allies on German boats, but they missed and hit Norwegian boats, and the Germans could continue to move their attacks. The narrator in the song is someone who has lost his boat and understands that the Germans should be fought, but the fact that they missed, and boats are sinking, and people getting hurt, just showed the meaningless of war.

D: Content wise that’s a lot different from what was being sung about on the past Baesj 74 songs, how do you think people will react to this?

R: The song “.... And The Tale Continues” from my EP "The Masterpeas" is a similar song, but it's not based on real events. I've always had some serious songs and some not so serious songs. I think I’m most known for the not so serious ones so it might surprise people.

D: Any other comments on your new recordings?

R: I'd just like to say I wonder if the bands that have the same titles will check out the song and how they will feel about them.

D: Well next year I’ll try to get them to write songs based on your titles.

D: Do you vote Labour party (the party targeted in the terror attacks)?

R: I did vote for them in the last election. I'm kind of all over the place politically, I've always felt centrist (though other places might consider a Norwegian centrist very leftist), but to me it was more important to not get a conservative government.

D: Is it a parliamentary system?

R: Yeah, there’s a seven party parliament. Technically it's a monarchy, but the King is more for tradition, similar to how it is in Britain.

D: What do you think about Glenn beck's comments?

R: His recent comments?

D: Yeah, about the kids killed in the Labour Party being like the Hitler Youth.

R: I read an article about it. I wouldn't even expect someone like him to say that, it's a pretty disgusting thing.

D: Yeah Glenn Beck’s an irrationally paranoid person, he’s actually a former addict, and it’s pretty clear he’s burnt out. He’s been parading as a newsman, but even Fox News seems to have gotten sick of his act. Do people like that exist in Norway?

R: Not one that is famous or that appears regularly, but there are definitely people that share his opinions who write in newspapers and blogs.

D: But they don’t get the platform of a major TV or radio station?

R: Definitely not. They would probably get to speak, but I don't think TV or radio channels would hire them or want anything to do with them.

D: Are most of the channels owned by the same parent companies like they are in America, or is the media more diverse?

R: Well we don't have that many TV channels. While a lot of them are owned by the same company, some are sent from other countries and are owned by companies in those countries, however the biggest ones are owned by the state, similar to PBS in America, but from what I understand way bigger. A lot of people are against paying extra taxes for it, but I think it's good to have a commercial free alternative.

D: Other than what just happened is there much depression over there? It’s always ranked at the top of the happiest countries.

R: Well I think seeing a psychiatrist is more taboo in Norway. I think that we’re a spoiled country that in many ways suffers from boredom. We make lots of money on oil, but there isn't much going on.

D: But the government is giving the people a lot right? Like education, health care, etc…

R; Yeah, the problems we are facing with all those are lines to get into them, but I'm glad that we get that. I've never been into any kind of national pride, but I think the way that the leaders have dealt with what happened on Friday has been good, and I agree a lot with the "Norwegian ideals" related to the case and how people are handling it.

D: How long is the wait for those services?

R: I'm not sure on the exact statistics, but there is a lot of critique especially when it comes to old people. Society has gotten healthier so people live longer, and old age is increasing. I'm sure it’s similar in most countries.

D: Yeah that’s true here as well. Is there much poverty in Norway?

R: It might be a guess, but I'd say less than in other countries. I don't think there are a lot of filthy rich people here, and there aren't as many under the poverty line. Norway isn’t considered the richest country, but I think its number one in how good people have it.

D: What’s is your impression of America?

R: 90% of interesting things are from America: rock n roll music, movies, food and drinks, it makes me want to visit and I think if I did it would be a good trip. I also like the "rags to riches" idea and a lot of the values when it comes to freedom, but there are a lot of political aspects I disagree with. I do think a lot of Europeans have an unhealthy view and wrong stereotypes of Americans.

D: What sort of stereotypes?

Q: I think a lot of Europeans think Americans are rednecks who know nothing about the rest of the world, which is ironic because I don't think Europeans know much about the rest of the world either.

D: Do they differentiate between the North and South?

R: Some stereotype everyone; others view the southern states differently from the northern. Yet they still watch movies from America and listen to music from there.

D: Will you ever come over to America?

R: I've always wanted to, it'd be a trip that would take lots of planning though and I don't think I have time now, as I am still a student. I'd like to experience first hand how it's like and how the people are like, I have met a lot of Americans in Norway.

D: What parts of the country would you want to see?

R: I'd like to see New York, even though I've heard a lot about their pizza lately that I've found weird. I'd also like to see the Midwest, places like Minnesota where there are a lot of Norwegian-Americans, the southern states where rock n roll first started, and California.

D: What part of New York pizza is weird?

R: It seems to be less common to put on toppings other than cheese and sauce on the pizza.

D: I guess the whole idea is that the slice should be long and thinly crusted so you can taste the cheese and sauce, but you can still get toppings on it. Do you like Chicago style pizza better?

R: I haven't had it. I've had Pizza Hut and I like that style of pizza the best, but I love all pizza. I just find it weird to not have toppings on it. The fact that it's a concept with crust, cheese and sauce and you can put about anything on it has always been my favorite part of pizza. The fact that a lot of Americans and Germans don't like ketchup on hot dogs is also something that I've found weird

D: I think that’s a Midwest thing. The Chicago style hotdog is sort of weird.

R: I first heard about it on Weasel Radio.

D: Yeah it’s a regional thing. Do you think the Northeast or Midwest has better punk bands?

R: Musically, I think that there have been a lot of good bands lately from all around the world. When it comes to pop punk I've always enjoyed the 90's style the best, but I also do enjoy a lot of the newer styles. I think that when there is so many bands few stick, but I think The Steinways and The Ergs! have stood out as the best bands of the last ten years, so I'll have to say the Northeast. Though I still think the best bands from the U.S. have come from California.

D: Is it common for Norwegians to speak English well?

R: It's pretty common to at least know a normal amount of English. We start learning English at age six or seven. There's a theory that countries like Norway and Sweden that never had a plan to become a leading empire, don't find it insulting to have English as a common world language.

D: Ok final question and I’ll let you go, do they show the Maury Povich and Steve Wilkos shows in Norway?

R: I don't think so; I haven't seen them at least. They might air on satellite channels.

D: Ok thanks for your time.


The Black Friday EP can be downloaded at http://www.mediafire.com/#uplbc81jzxk34,1


The White Thursday EP can be downloaded at http://www.mediafire.com/#27lf2w4724v52,1

Okay, Enough Reminiscing II: Video interview with Mikey Erg

As a companion piece to the transcribed interview below, I've uploaded the video interview with Mikey Erg. Enjoy!

Okay, Enough Reminiscing: An interview with Mikey Erg

For those of you living under a rock, The Ergs! were one of the most influential punk bands of the last decade. Hailing from New Jersey and fronted by lead vocalist/drummer Mikey Erg, the band kicked around from 2000-2008 before the three members called it quits and went on to other projects.

Mikey currently plays drums for Star Fucking Hipsters, Ensign, House Boat, and a slew of other bands, as well as being a solo artist, which was the hat he was wearing when he played a bill at New Hampshire Punkhouse “Slaughter House 5”. The show also featured Hunchback and Black Wine, both bands consisting of the other former Ergs! members. The following interview took place afterwards:

D: Thanks Mike for taking the time for this.

M: Of course.

D: The last time I interviewed you The Ergs! had just broken up, and you said Psyched To Die was gonna be your main band, then a few months from that you moved to Minnesota.

M: (Laughs) that’s true.

D: During your set today you said that was a mistake. What was wrong?

M: It happens all the time where you think “this is where I need to be, this is what I need to do” and then it turns out it’s not what you need to do … don’t move anywhere for a girl.

D: (Laughs) was there a plan to start a band out there?

M: The plan was kind of like to not do bands for a while, to chill for a bit. But then it’s me, so I just was like “I can’t do that”. I immediately started a few bands.

D: What were the ones you started?

M: Well I started playing with The Slow Death. I started playing with Nato from Used Kids and Modern Machines, we started a band but then I stopped playing with them and started playing with The God Damn Doo Wop Band. I just started playing with any band that would have me out there (laughs). It became exactly what it was on the East Coast, but I can’t not play music.

D: Would you say you have a nomadic lifestyle?

M: At this point, yeah.

D: Where’s home, New Jersey?

M: Yeah I keep my stuff at my mom’s house and it’s just kind of like a storage.

D: How often do you stay there? Ever?

M: 2-3 weeks at a time, maybe 2-3 times a year, never all that much. She doesn’t mind and it’s not really like I’m living at home. All my stuff is there so it’s not like I have to pay for a storage space.

D: Exactly you’re saving money. So when was the last time you had a day job, you know a 9-5?

M: I worked for my dad for most of my life. He owned a recording studio and I worked there until that went under, which was the same year The Ergs! broke up.

D: Right when the recession started, right?

M: Yeah all that shit just happened at the same time. I was living at the studio, so I lost my job, my house, and my band (laughs). Everything just happened at the same time. It was late 2008, and then 2009 on I’ve just kind of been doing this touring thing.

D: Did you ever go to college?

M: I didn’t. I wanted to go to recording college, and my dad, owning a recording studio, kind of gave me shit about it. He was like “I can teach you everything you need to know”, and now I really wish I went to recording college because I would know a lot more then I learned being at my dad’s place.

D: At this point would you ever considering going back to school?

M: I think about it a lot. I mean I’m at the point where I can tour all year and that’s cool. But at certain points it would be nice to have a home base. I’m not there yet but pretty soon I’ll probably get there and go back to learning something.

D: But for punk rock you’ve sort of made it so to speak, you know? I mean so many people would love to have that sort of lifestyle.

M: Yeah, I’m very lucky to have made the connections I made, and to have done the things I’ve done. To be able to, with a bunch of different bands, tour most of the year, it’s good. I’m not making a crazy living, but I’m living and that’s awesome.

D: When you went to the Bay Area to record with Star Fucking Hipsters, I guess that was when you played Gilman with Mike Dirnt’s band. Who else was there? Fat Mike and Jello Biafra?

M: In the course of a week we recorded in Fat Mike’s studio so I met him, and then Mike Dirnt got us on a show with his other band The Frustrators. Then the next night we played at a club called The Parkside, and Jello was there because Jello put out the second Hipsters record. So in the course of a week I met Fat Mike, Mike Dirnt, and Jello Biafra.

Jello Biafra came up to me and said “Did you really only have one practice with the band?” and I said “yeah we practiced today for like 40 minutes” and he said “that’s the best drumming I’ve seen for any of Sturgeon’s bands ever.” I was like, “well you’re bullshitting me but that’s awesome!”

D: (Laughs)

M: I went up to him and introduced myself, I’m a huge fan, and he knew who I was from seeing me on stage. It was really weird and surreal, I wasn’t prepared for it.

D: I read an interview with Sturgeon where he said he didn’t vote. Do you know if that’s still true?

M: I don’t know. I don’t know much about him personally.

D: I know Jello, on his spoken word albums, has whole tracks about why he didn’t vote for years, and then why he was so gung-ho with the Punk Voter stuff and trying to get kids registered.

M: Sturgeon’s very political so it seems he would’ve done that, but I could see people being lazy and not registering.

D: What he was saying was no candidate really represents his views.

M: That totally could be true because his views are all over the place (laughs).

D: Right, though the whole argument that Biafra makes is that it’s not really the big races like Senate, or President, or what not, that matter, but the ballot questions. Here in Massachusetts… oh wait this is New Hampshire… where we live in Massachusetts, there’s always stuff you get to vote on directly. There’s some cool ones recently like banning dog racing, and there’s always Republican groups trying to get rid of taxes for all these state institutes that need it, and it’s quite fun to vote those down.

M: Yeah definitely. From what I know he’s all over the place, I don’t know where he actually is on any of that stuff.

D: Are those guys all vegetarians?

M: Yes.

D: You’re a big fast food junkie, right?

M: (Laughs) I am.

D: So wasn’t there some compromise they had with you?

M: Sturgeon’s very anti-corporate, so there was a lot of “These fast food restaurants are good because they do this for their employees…these restaurants are bad because they do this…” There was a lot of that, so I had to compromise and sneak things (laughs). He doesn’t drink Coke products, he doesn’t go to McDonalds, and that’s fine. It’s just, sometimes you’re at a rest stop and the only fucking thing there is McDonalds, so I eat McDonalds if that’s the case. I’ve gotten in trouble for that a couple times.

D: What’s funny is the first time I knew those guys were into you was when I saw them play, and one of the guys had an Ergs! Shirt on.

M: Yeah the guitar player Frank.

D: Yeah the guy from Ensign. I guess that was also in another photo of them they used for publicity, but then in the same picture one of them is holding a can of Coors, I think it was Nico, Sturgeon must have not liked that.

M: I mean we’ll drink Pabst. It’s more “if you can help it, don’t”. “If you can help it, don’t go to fucking McDonalds”, or “don’t do this”, or “don’t do that”. “Don’t go to Walmart, don’t go to whatever”, but if McDonalds is the only thing around that’s what I’m gonna eat because I’m starving.

D: Why did Nico leave the band? It seems like she just quit suddenly.

M: It’s not my place to say. She was there one day, and then one day I woke up in the hotel room and she wasn’t there anymore. I don’t really know what happened.

D: The new girl in the band, what band did she come from?

M: She’s in a band called "Chump Change” from the Bay Area.

D: So she moved out east?

M: No she’s still in the Bay Area. Our guitar player Frank moved out to the Bay Area too, so we’re kind of a bi-coastal thing at this point.

D: So you just meet up when you tour?

M: Yeah. Because the Nico stuff happened in Denver, and then we were going to the west coast, we played a few shows without her, and then we met up with Kelsey (the new singer). She flew up to Portland and we had a couple practices, and we toured down the west coast and then went to Australia. She just kind of jumped in because she was recommended by a friend of ours.

D: Which one of them is gonna be on the new record?

M: I haven’t heard any of the record. I believe they kept some of Nico’s stuff. We re-recorded all of Nico’s stuff before we left the studio. Sturgeon went back with Kelsey and a few other people, but I think there’s some Nico stuff, and I think there’s some Kelsey stuff. But I don’t know, I haven’t heard any of it.

D: Did you write any of the songs?

M: Me, Frank, and Sturgeon ended up basically writing the record. Sturgeon and Frank had stuff, and I contributed drum parts and stuff like that. There are a couple songs that we jammed in practice. There’s a song called “From The Dumpster To The Grave”, which is the title track for the record, Frank had a riff and I started playing, and Sturgeon started playing, and we put the whole thing together in half an hour. That song we’re all super proud of. It was the three of us “writing” but “writing” in a very loose term.

D: Is it gonna be more ska based?

M: Yeah, most of the record from what I gather. There’s a couple pop punk songs, and a bunch of ska punk.

D: Yeah I remember him saying when they played in Cambridge, “We have a new album coming out and it’s gonna be called Ska Fucking Hipsters!”

M: Yeah and that was forgotten by the time that we started working together. Then I, coming in as an outsider, was like “Ska Fucking Hipsters, it actually kind of became that.” He was like “Yeah, I guess we planned on that for a minute and then we forgot about that. Then with the lineup change this shit happened”. I came in and we were writing ska songs, which for me is awesome because I’ve never been in a ska band, and I’ve always liked that kind of music.

D: Were you in Star Fucking Hipsters with Frank, before you joined him in Ensign?

M: Yeah. I played the last Measure [sa] show, and I was walking offstage and the bass player from Ensign was like “Hey I need to talk to you! We need a drummer for these next few shows, can you do it?” I was like “I don’t really have a lot of time but give me the dates”. It turned out that the dates were in the places that I didn’t have anything to do. So I learned all their songs, and played a couple of shows, then we’re going to Europe for two weeks.

D: No plans to record with them or anything?

M: No, not for me, just because I’m so busy. I literally just had those couple weeks open, so I was like “yeah I can do this”.

D: You just mentioned The Measure [sa], when I talked to their frontwoman Lauren, she was saying how great of a basement scene New Jersey has. Can you talk about your experience with that?

M: I missed a lot of the Bouncing Souls stuff, a lot of the Lifetime stuff, a lot of that stuff that was happening in the mid to late 90s, I missed all of that. I was going to shows in New York City, bigger shows because I was into bigger bands like the Teen Idols or Chixdiggit!, the bands that would play the mid-sized 300-500 to maybe 750 capacity places. I wasn’t into the basement scene at all. I was aware of it, I knew about all of it, but I never went to New Brunswick alone to go see a basement show.

Then The Ergs! started, and one of the first shows we ever played was a basement show in New Brunswick, and I was like “Oh cool we’re playing a basement in New Brunswick”. It just kind of built up to the point where people were crediting us for starting this new revolution of basement shows in New Brunswick. Thursday, and Bouncing Souls, and Lifetime had all left, and we were the next thing, which I didn’t think of it as that. We were just playing shows at houses that would let us play. But I didn’t get to see any of the cool Thursday/Lifetime/Bouncing Souls house shows.

D: I don’t think you missed much with Thursday.

M: I agree.

D: (Laughs)

M: But with the Souls and Lifetime there was obviously a fucking thing going on that I didn’t know about. I saw Thursday play when Discount played their last show in New Brunswick, it was their last tour, and Thursday opened. I’d never heard anything like that and I wasn’t into it, I was just like, “I don’t get what’s going on here, this guy’s really putting it out there”. Later it got to where I could understand what he was doing, but at that point I was still young, I was in high school so I was probably 18. But everybody around me was totally all for it, and I’m like “I’m not in my element right now”. Then two years later, they were the biggest thing in the world.

D: Are a lot of those basements still around?

M: There are the legendary “This was the Lifetime basement” or “This was the Bouncing Souls basement” ones. I don’t think we ever played any of those places, but every time a new crop of college kids came through they were like “Oh we have a basement. Lets’ do shows!” The house that we always played was at the end of Hamilton Street. It was dubbed “The Parlor” after a Hunchback song. The Ergs! and Hunchback played there all the time, that was our home base. That was when the two of us were the New Brunswick thing of that later period. Fid from The Measure [sa], who was there from the Bouncing Souls/Lifetine days, said that was when it got good again, “When you guys came through, and you guys started going on tour, and you brought bands back”.

Apparently the Screaming Females were influenced by us, and they got it going again after us. It goes in cycles; if it’s true we were a part of that thing I’m glad that that happened.

D: How does it compare to places like here? Have you played any other houses in New England?

M: Yeah. We played… (thinking)….

D: The Ant Cellar in Lowell? Or any of the places in Boston?

M: The Used Kids played a basement in Boston, it might have still been when we were the Modern Machines. I know we played a basement in Boston, we’ve played basements in Philly, but this is great. I always heard about Slaughter House 5. I’d never played here until The Dopamines played outside of here and then someone wrote me an email, “Do you wanna do a solo show in our basement?” Absolutely. I walked down here and there were already tons of people down here waiting for me to start. That was the second solo show I’d ever played in my life and I was like “Wow people wanna hear this? That’s cool.” I played here later again with House Boat, and then played solo. This is just such a cool place. The Ergs! played venues in New Hampshire and Boston, and so forth, but we never played basement shows here.

D: These places are always better than the venues.

M: Yeah, if The Ergs! could have done it any other way we would have had our last show at one. I mean we played a “secret” show as our last basement show, but for our last show we wanted as many people that could’ve made it. People were flying out and shit, so we had it at a venue.

D: That must have been pretty flattering though, hearing people are coming in from out of the way.

M: It was, but honestly for me I remember the basement show more. I mean the last show was the last show and it was fucking awesome. The fact was Lemuria just happened to be in town and they needed a show, so we booked them a show, and we’re like “Okay it’s two days before our last show, we’re just gonna play it, we’re not gonna announce it”. But people kind of knew. It was at The Parlor, at the place we’d always played for years, we just got up and played, and it was so magical. Tonight was the first time I’d seen Hunchback in a basement since that show. Tonight for me, that was my perfect Hunchback show, I can’t even describe how amazing that felt.

D: Yeah, it was cool that the three of you were all here with different bands.

M: Yeah I’m glad too that we all could be here. I wish Night Birds could play, but it was so fucking rad to see that and not know if that’s gonna happen again. Just to see that and have that in my mind and in my heart, that’s what I wanted to see, and it’s fucking awesome.

D: There was that secret show and the official last one, then you did that cancer benefit last year, and didn’t you play someone’s wedding?

M: Yeah we’d already agreed to that before we’d decided that we were breaking up, so we did all the last show shit, and the guy wrote us, “So I guess you won’t be playing our wedding”, and we were like “No we said we were gonna do it, we’ll do it”. Our last show was our last show, this was as invited guests. We practiced a couple times for it, we played, and it was fun, it was great. It was really fun but it was an invited crowd, and people got video of it so if anybody didn’t get to see it they can see it on youtube or whatever.

Even the cancer benefit was just that we wanted to help out. We practiced for a few days and were like “It still sounds alright, and we’re not fucking things up by doing this.” We did it, and we honestly played like an hour and forty-five minutes or something, we played a long set. I don’t think it’s ever gonna happen again, well I don’t know if it’s ever gonna happen again, never say never, but we were kind of playing as if that was the last time it’s ever gonna happen. But it was good to do it and we helped immensely, more than I’d ever thought that any band I would’ve been in could have helped monetarily.

D: Was it that you helped in paying for the medical bills?

M: Yeah basically it was raising money for the medical bills.

D: Were you able to cover it?

M: Well it’s cancer, so you never know when it’s gonna stop, but we raised a lot of money, way more than I ever would have thought. It was really nice to be able to do that.

D: I’ve always wondered this, how many artists do you have in your itunes library?

M: That’s a good question. It’s in the thousands (laughs).

D: What would you guess five thousand? Or closer to three or two thousand?

M: I don’t even know, I never even thought to look actually. Probably in the two to three thousand range.

D: What album would people be most surprised to learn that you own?

M: That’s the thing with me; I like so much dumb shit. I mean there’s Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart, which is a classic record, but it’s an unlistenable record to a lot of people. There’s so many weird records that I like.

D: Do you have Kriss Kross or something like that?

M: Certainly when I was 12 years old I was listening to Kriss Kross, but I was also listening to Nevermind. Surprising in that way? I have the Right Said Fred record.

D: (Laughs) how are the songs besides “I’m Too Sexy”?

M: There’s I’m Too Sexy, and then there’s “Don’t Talk, Just Kiss”, then I don’t remember any of the rest of them.

One of the ones that always sticks out in my mind as a weird record that came out when I was young: Duran Duran’s Big Thing. It wasn’t like a big hit Duran Duran album, it wasn’t Rio, it was like their ’87 record. It’s a fucking great record. Then they came back with Duran Duran’s self titled album, that was with “Ordinary World”, in their early 90s hit period. But there was a record right in the middle of that called Big Thing, and I love that record.

D: Then you obviously got the Neurotic Outsiders album that the Duran Duran guy did with Steve Jones.

M: Yes! That was Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols, and the guys from Guns N’ Roses.

D: Duff and Matt.

M: It was the perfect melding of dumb shit that I liked throughout my life.

D: (Laughs)

M: It’s a shitty record. It’s not a good record, but “Nasty Ho” when you’re 12 years old is kind of a funny song.

I went and saw All once when I was in high school, I might have been out of high school actually, it might have been 2000 or 2001. This band opened up called Wretch Like Me, and they covered Nasty Ho. I was watching it and Stephen Egerton came out and played it with them. That was like the one song I knew from that band, and I was just rocking out. I was like “We should cover this song, it’s cool. Stephen Egerton from the Descendents knows it, so it’s cool.” So we covered it just because we thought it was funny.

Jeff and I both had that record, we were both into that band. Jeff’s younger than I am, but we both discovered it at the same ages. We decided to cover it, but it’s a dumb, fucking stupid, song.

D: It’s a fun song.

M: It’s a sexist piece of shit song, but it was funny at the time (laughs).

D: Did ABC No Rio ban you guys because you played that?

M: They banned us, and I assumed it was because of that. We had our lyrics printed on our website, and that’s the most sexist The Ergs! ever got besides “I love you, you’re cute” (laughs). Nasty Ho might have been the only sexist thing I ever sang.

D: And you never wrote that, Steve Jones wrote that.

M: But we got banned from ABC No Rio, and I was like “Was it because of Nasty Ho?” That’s the only thing I could think of that would’ve been a problem in our catalog. At that point, Dorkrock wasn’t out, The Ben Kweller EP wasn’t out, it was just our demos and seven inch. Nasty Ho came free with a seven inch. That’s the only song I can think of that has anything that could be misconstrued as sexist, which it is sexist, I’m not saying that we were right in covering it, but we were stupid fucking 20 year olds when we recorded it. I wanted to leave it off of Hindsight is 20/20, but it was out and we might as well put it on there.

D: There are some stuff missing from Hindsight, like That’s it Bye, I don’t know if that came out afterwards.

M: It came out afterwards. Anything that came out after was left off, but there will be a Hindsight 2.

D: Is that what it’s gonna be called?

M: I believe it’s gonna be Hindsight is 20/20 Volume 2: Okay Enough Reminiscing. It’s gonna be all Dirty Work references. It’ll be everything commercially released that’s not on Hindsight. The goal is, if you have Dorkrock, Upstairs/Downstairs, Ben Kweller EP, Jersey Best Prancers, and then the two singles collections, you’ll have everything we ever recorded.

D: I’m gonna go off topic, but you mentioned Dirty Work, are you an Artie Lange fan?

M: Oh yeah, absolutely.

D: Did you hear he was back on the radio for the first time in years?

M: I didn’t hear that. Not on Howard Stern right?

D: No.

M: Because I’ve been listening to Stern, I’m a huge fucking Stern fan.

D: He guest hosted one of those sports shows.

M: Like the Norm show?

DL No it was with Nick DiPalo, the comedian from Boston. It was The Tony Bruno Show.

M: I love Nick DiPalo too. I love that he’s Mr. Boston, he’s so fucking funny. I loved that he played a Boston cop in Beer League. It’s so great, that was the perfect role for him.

D: He hosted a radio show again. I’ll send you the link, they have a podcast version of it.

M: I’d love to hear it. Howard doesn’t want Artie on; he wants to make sure that he’s okay, because that’s gnarly shit that happened to him [Artie relapsed on heroin and tried to stab himself to death]. Howard doesn’t want anything to do with bringing him back at a time when he doesn’t need to be back in the spotlight. I think that Howard feels pretty responsible for the bullshit that happened with Artie, even though if you’re that fucked up, you’re that fucked up. Nothing’s gonna change it unless something drastic happens.

D: That show, for all the talk that it’s sexist or whatever, there’s been a lot of cool punk bands on it, like the Joey and Marky Ramone fight.

M: Stern rules, and anything that Richard Christy [drummer turned Stern show writer] does, Richard Christy is a drumming idol to me. Ever since I found out about him I was listening to him. He can fucking play the drums. I’ll never play like that.

D: If you had to name one drummer as your favorite, do you have one?

M: Bill Stevenson is obviously a huge influence, but from here, some New Hampshire/Maine/Boston pride, Chris Pierce from Sinkhole. Him and Duncan from Snuff, they’re the two people that made me realize I could play drums and sing at the same time, and they’re both incredible drummers, I owe a lot to both of them.

Chris Pierce happened to move to New Brunswick. The Ergs! half hazardly wrote to him, “Hey would you wanna record this dumb band we have?” And we recorded some shit with him, what ended up being Thrash Compactor, a couple comp tracks, and the country seven inch. We just went in and recorded a bunch of dumb shit with him, just to see if it sounded good, and it sounded great, so we went and did almost everything else we ever did with him. He’s a huge influence on me, and it was really hard to play and sing in front of him.

D: Could you name a favorite artist? Do you have one or would there just be too many?

M: Of all time? It’s tough.

D: What about five of them?

M: My favorite band in the world is probably XTC, because they’re so weird. They’re weird and poppy, the perfect mix of weird Beatle-esque pop and weird funky/new wavey kind of shit. Andy Partridge is a huge lyrical influence on me, in the same way that John Lennon and The Beatles are.

The Beatles were probably my first favorite band of all time. Apparently my first words were “yeah, yeah, yeah” from what my mom tells me. In the early 80s she would bring out her Beatles records. I always loved John Lennon’s wordplay, I always tried to copy that. Andy partridge had that too, and Elvis Costello was kind of influenced by John Lennon in that respect.

So Elvis Costello, John Lennon, The Beatles, XTC, and I love Joe Jackson. He’s in the same kind of vein of angry young man turned punk for a few years and then ventured out into other things. I like that you get into it from the punk thing, because that’s what you can understand, and then you realize you can expand upon that.

So those are probably my five favorites, The Beatles are probably number one, because that’s my first favorite bands. Not that I’m anywhere near as good as Elvis Costello, or The Beatles, or XTC, but those are my three favorite songwriting influences.

D: Do you listen to The Adam Carolla Podcast at all?

M: I have.

D: He’s always saying his favorite artists are Elvis Costello, and who’s the other guy you just mentioned?

M: Joe Jackson?

D: Yeah, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, The Pretenders, and some other guy I can’t remember.

M: Yeah, The Pretenders are awesome, Chrissie Hynde is great. That’s rad. I didn’t know that.

If I had three bands I’d say everybody should listen to it’d be XTC, Elvis Costello and The Attractions, and The Beatles. Then you go into other genres like punk: Black Flag, The Minutemen, there’s a ton of fucking bands out there that are worth listening to.

D: What about albums?

M: Well Minutemen’s Double Nickels On The Dime, that taught me you didn’t have to stick to a formula, your formula was you could be all over the place for eighty minutes and be awesome. XTC did those records too, they did English Settlement which is eighty minutes of every fucking thing you can throw at an audience. Then The Beatles did The White Album which was one of the first double albums ever, anything you could throw at anybody. They were like “Fuck it, we’re The Beatles! Listen to all this shit, fuck you!”

That’s kind of what The Ergs! did as a whole because we were all super influenced by everybody. On Upstairs/Downstairs we were like “Here’s a few pop punk songs, here’s a slow song, here’s a song that kind of sounds like Fugazi, here’s a song that kind of sounds like Johnny Cash, here’s a song that kind of sounds like this, here’s a song that’s eighteen minutes of noise.” We kind of tried to throw everything at the audience, I don’t know if it worked or not.