Brandon Carlisle (Teenage Bottlerocket) Interview (September 2008)

This is another case of me thinking I posted this interview a long time ago but in reality, I didn't. Brandon was coming off working an all nighter so he was a bit groggy at first but eventually loosened up and it was a good chat. In fact after I turned the tape recorder off we ended up bullshitting for another hour or so just because. Super nice guy in a fantastic band.

Bill Molloy: How exactly does it feel to be so huge, at least in pop-punk terms? You guys were in Spin a couple months ago and the shows have gotten a lot bigger lately. There’s been a revival the last couple years, how do you feel about it?

Brandon Carlisle: (stammering) Wow, ha, I’m a deer in headlights. I think it’s great, it’s awesome. I wasn’t expecting it at all. It was pretty crazy, when we started the band in 2001, Ray and I were having conversations about what we’re doing now and it’s just amazing that it worked out. We weren’t expecting it. We feel pretty lucky about it. You have to be happy with what you’ve got and we definitely are. As far as pop punk, you can only go so far with that; I like to think of us as a good punk rock band, not just a pop punk band. We do play that specific genre but other people get into us that might not be into some of those other bands.

Bill: Earlier in the year, back in the Spring around March or so you played a pretty gigantic tour. How many shows in how many days was it? Do you know?

Brandon: Yeah I think it was 39 shows in 36 days.

Bill: How’d it end up working out, did everyone get through it alright?

Brandon: Yeah it was the best tour we’ve ever done and it was amazing. We played with a lot of cool bands, especially in Austin. We supported Dead To Me for the first five or six shows and it was great and then we headlined the rest. It was really good, better than we expected. Really fucking killer.

Bill: I was checking out your tour dates and it looks like you have some more stuff set up, and you just got back from Canada too. Is it feasible enough to make Teenage Bottlerocket your full-time thing now?

Brandon: Nope. I’m in Alaska working right now, working the graveyard shift. That’s why I missed your call earlier.

Bill: Oh, sorry about that.

Brandon: Yeah, it’s not a full time thing; we’re not getting rich off of this music or anything like that. We’re breaking even and that’s good enough for any band I think. For the first five years we were around we were dumping money into it because that’s what you do to keep it going; being in a band’s not free. We’ve just been lucky the last couple years to break even. We do better than breaking even sometimes but for the most part it’s not a thing that’s great financially. We don’t do it full time; if we wanted to it wouldn’t pay the bills.

Bill: You just put out a split 7” with Broadway Calls pretty recently and it came out on Adeline. How did you end up hooking up with Adeline Records?

Brandon: Adeline sent us an email that said “Toby from Red Scare is lucky to have us” and it blew us away because we’re big fans of the label and we’re always been big fans of Green Day. I’ve always wanted to hook up with those guys, maybe play a show or go get ice cream or something. When we got the email it was kind of sweet. “Green Day! Awesome!” It turns out that we didn’t get to meet Green Day or anything like that at all! (chuckle). It was cool to do though. When they emailed us saying that Toby was lucky to have us it was flattering so wrote them back and told them that we had a couple extra songs if you guys have anything in mind, and that’s where the 7” developed. It’s cool to put it out on Adeline because of the Green Day affiliation even though we didn’t get to meet them, it was the reason we did it. We’ve always loved those guys and just to have our little footprint on Planet Green Day was great. Also Broadway Calls are an amazing band; we really like them.

Bill: Were the extra songs recorded during the Warning Device sessions?

Brandon: Yeah, that’s what it was, just two songs that were from the Warning Device sessions. When we sat down to discuss what songs should go on the record and which ones shouldn’t, those were the two that got left off. It wasn’t unanimous with everyone saying “these two songs suck!” because they’re really good songs but after a lot of interchanging and hammering out, trying to make Warning Device it’s own thing and having those two songs be on their own is the way it panned out. We’re happy with the way those songs came out, for sure. And with a cover song it’s easier to put it out in a small quantity, you know. When you press a limited amount of 7”s it’s easier to pay the royalties to the original artist as opposed to when you put out large quantities like we did with Warning Device.

Bill: There’s a split 7” coming out with The Ergs! pretty soon too, right? Is there any more info or details you can give on that?

Brandon: Yeah, we recorded a Green Day song, haha!

Bill: Oh cool!

Brandon: I guess if you can’t tell yet, we like them. We did “Having A Blast” off of… well wait, back up, rewind the tape. It’s a split 7” on Suburban Home Records and it’s called Under The Influence and you’re supposed to do a cover song. When he told us about it we thought it was great and we do Ramones “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” pretty well so we were going to do that. Then we were on that big tour, the one we just talked about, someone mentioned that Green Day might make more sense because with the Ramones, we’ve established that we like the Ramones, it’s known. If we were to do that it would be more expected. So when someone mentioned Green Day we went “Fuck yeah, Green Day is just as big an influence on us as the Ramones ever were” so we did “Having A Blast” off of Dookie. It turned out really cool; Kody sings it. So that’s what that split 7” is about. I don’t know what song The Ergs! are doing. I just read that they broke up, or they’re breaking up?

Bill: Yeah they’re stopping in mid-November, which is a huge bummer.

Brandon: Yeah those guys are the best. Hopefully they’ll finish the 7”. Maybe I should call ‘em up. “Hey guys, I heard you’re breaking up, that’s really sad man, Um, well what about that split 7” stuff?” (chuckle). I don’t know what to do at this point so I guess we’ll just wait and see. Maybe we’ll do it with someone else, maybe Nothington or something.

Bill: That’d be a cool combination too. Do you know what Joel and Zach are up to, the former members?

Brandon: Joel we stay in touch with for sure. When Zach split that was in 2001 or 2002; he was only in the band for a few months so it was a real brief thing. He was sort of a stranger. He lived in Laramie while going to a trade school that was just a short nine month school; we met him right at the tail end of that. He was into punk rock and at that point in Laramie there weren’t many people listening to punk rock, or at least the kind of stuff we were digging on. We hooked up with him and he was into the Ramones, the US Bombs and a few other bands we liked so we started to play with him. Then he was like “ok, school is done, see ya guys later!” When he left we figured we wouldn’t stay in touch and we haven’t heard from him since. I guess it’s kind of weird but he just split. After that we got Joel, and Joel we had known for a long time. He’d played with The Fantastic Sams and we’d played with them and Kody’s old band The Lillingtons had played with them. Our old band The Homeless Wonders had played with The Fantastic Sams too. So when Zach moved out we said “let’s start jamming” and really got Teenage Bottlerocket rolling at that point. We got him a leather jacket and started playing more! He graduated school and moved to California; that’s the reason he left the band. We always talk to Joel and when we play in California he comes out and we have a good time.

Bill: How did Miguel end up joining?

Brandon: Well Miguel’s one of our oldest buddies. He’s a little bit younger than us but we’ve been running around with him as long as I can remember putting on shows in Laramie. (pause). We’d been doing shows in Laramie for a long time and he’d been coming out since somewhere in the 90s. He’s a kid that as he grew older was liking to the same stuff that Ray (Carlisle, guitar/vocals) and I were listening to so when we started Teenage Bottlerocket he was digging it. At that point he was still too young as far as considering him being in the band. By the time things started rolling with Toby, and getting Total out, I think Miguel was 20 and he had a van and we didn’t. We were going to go on tour and asked “hey, can we borrow your van?” and he was like “if I can go along!” So he came along and he was the merch guy selling our shirts, and he was playing in bands by that point too so we knew he played bass and guitar. So he was kind of a member of the band before he joined via being the merch guy and driving us around in his van. When Joel said he couldn’t do it Miguel was a natural choice.

Bill: When you’re coming back for Riot Fest, this will be the third time you’re playing Chicago in less than a year, right?

Brandon: Yup, that’s true? Is that bad?

Bill: No no no! It’s definitely not bad at all. Each time I see you guys here it’s been exponential growth from the time before. I remember seeing you in 2005 and there were only a few people paying attention and now the last two times you’ve sold out the shows. It’s almost like you’re a local band here.

Brandon: Yeah, we should move there! It’s the best city in the world; the shows there are always the best. All around Chicago rules and we always do great there, I can’t believe how well they go. It’s great, everyone’s singing along and they think the world of us. What more can I say, I love Chicago. We all do.

Bill: I was looking up some older tour dates, and you played with All a couple years back in Laramie?

Brandon: Yeah that was one of our first shows, that was in 2001. So that was way back what, seven years ago?

Bill: Oh wow. So you’ve worked with Bill Stevenson, recording a couple times with him. How do you feel about playing with All again?

Brandon: It’ll be awesome to play with All again. I kind of wish Chad Price was singing! (laugh) I shouldn’t be saying that, maybe we should erase that from the tape, back up back up!

Bill: (hearty chuckle)

Brandon: No, it’ll be great. Maybe they’ll watch us but probably not.

Bill: Have you started working on any follow up material to Warning Device yet?

Brandon: Yeah we’ve been writing as best we could lately. Right now we have… one song? (chuckle)

Bill: Still progress!

Brandon: So don’t worry the record should be out any day here!

Bill: Limited, one sided LP with the grooves spaced three inches apart!

Brandon: Yup. Maybe we’ll put the same song on 14 times and no one will notice. But yeah, Warning Device came out in January and we’re always writing songs and doing our best. Every time I try I fail miserably so it’s mostly up to Ray and Kody. We just let it happen naturally and not push it. It’s kind of weird, it’ll go “no songs, no songs, no songs” and then a month will come around where Ray will write two and Kody will write three. It’ll be “wow, we went three months with no new songs and then a ton pop up.” It’s interesting how that happens, no one knows.

Bill: Do they come in with fully formed songs?

Brandon: When Kody writes songs he writes a title first and then a lot of times he’ll do the lyrics and put the music to that. When Ray and I write songs we get together with a guitar and drums, we’ll write some chords and he’ll sing “blah blah blah,” some melodies with no words, melodies with just gibberish. Then the next time we jam we’ll bring it back and try it again and try it again until the melody becomes more defined. We do it a little different than Kody.

Bill: That’s interesting, I’ve never heard of people doing the melodies first and then trying to write the words around them. That’s pretty interesting.

Brandon: Yeah, that’s the way we’ve always done it. It’s just one of those things I guess.

Bill: Sort of a secret twin language.

Brandon: (laughter) Maybe! Yeah!

Bill: That’s really about it, that’s all that I’ve got. Do you have any last words or thoughts?

Brandon: (pause) Nope! (laughter)

Bill: Alright thanks for you time.

BONUS CONTENT!!!!
Check out this video from the Warning Device record release show last January. It's kind of nuts. Look for the asshole with the Dee Dee Ramone haircut and leather jacket diving around the 56 second mark. Give you two guesses as to who it is. Punk rock.

Pat McGowan (Reagan Youth) Interview (July 2008)

I really could have sworn I already posted this one a long time ago but I guess not. Here's Pat, the new singer of Reagan Youth giving some perspective on his role in the band. It's a good read, particularly the part about them playing an Oi! Fest a little while back.

Bill Molloy: What exactly was the impetus behind the band re-forming initially?

Pat McGowan: Basically… (pause) Uh, Paul would be the best person to answer that question but I can answer with what he says. He just wanted to get it together. It was supposed to be only for one show, when we originally got together, just to do it for the sake of it. It snowballed into more after that. Paul felt like he had more music to play and to make it a tribute to Dave Insurgent, his best friend since he was a little kid and doing the band. He felt it was the right time to come back because of the way things are in the world. All the songs have great messages and all of Dave’s lyrics are still poignant today so it was a good time to come back. It wasn’t meant to go on so long but people kept asking for more and now it’s snowballed into a new Reagan Youth album in the process.

Bill: Oh really?

Pat: Yeah, we’re working on the new album right now.

Bill: That’s awesome. That was actually one of the questions I had for you. I was reading some interviews and Paul mentioned he was working on new material but wasn’t sure what was coming of it. So you guys are actually working on them now?

Pat: Yeah yeah yeah, we just came back from Germany and at every show we played a new song. We played a couple of songs that are ready and some that are just half done, so we’re getting to work on that. We’ve kind of got our fingers on twenty different things; we want to play shows but we’re also trying to get the album written. Basically, the new album is coming together from all of us but Paul wants to do it about the life and times of Dave Insurgent, an album based on his life, with the way things went for him and all the phases of it. We’ll be playing new songs and probably by the time we come out to play the fest we’ll have a few new songs peppered into the set with all the old originals.

Bill: What was the crowd reaction to the new songs? Were they digging them or?

Pat: Yeah, basically. The one new song called “In the First of the Hour,” once or twice we didn’t mention it was a new song, and people thought it was an old Reagan Youth song they didn’t know. So people have been really getting into it on the first time hearing it, singing a long. It’s going to like the last Reagan Youth album where it’s all different styles, you know. There was never one consistent “This is the Reagan Youth sound” you know? There was just too much, their songs came from all over the place, all kinds of different inspiration. One song will sound like an old school Reagan Youth song, some will have the, you know (pause)

Bill: The weird acid vibe to it?

Pat: Ha, yeah, the weird acid sort of vibe. Some songs are slow, some songs are fast, some songs are in the middle, some songs are just grooves, you know?

Bill: That’s cool. This kind of going back to the first thing that I asked about, but did you the guys for a long time before they asked you to start singing with them?

Pat: No, basically Paul… wait, hold on a second.

Bill: Ok.

Pat: (indistinguishable chatter) What was I going to say? When I…

(Person outside says something)

Pat: (to the other person) Ha, I’m doing a phone interview for the band! I’m actually at a wake right now.

Bill: Oh shit! I’m sorry!

Pat: Yeah, it’s a friend of my girlfriend’s family.

Bill: Oh shit, if you need to call back later that’s fine.

Pat: No no no, it’s totally cool we’re just getting ready to go actually. What was I saying? Paul was still floating around in New York and he ran into a girl I’m friends with, and she became the manager and they were trying out singers. She called me and asked me if I wanted to try out so I went down and I sang for Paul. I’d been a Reagan Youth fan so I was like “oh my god” and thinking it was cool just to try out but they said “no, you sound great” so they took me in. Like I said it was supposed to be one show and then it kept going, so I had to step into Dave’s shoes and try to sing these songs the best I can. My reaction to it was shock at first. I was like “I don’t know if I want to do that!” you know? It’s such a massive thing. I’ve kind of adopted the songs and made them my own while at the same time making sure that people remember who was the original singer of this band, who wrote the lyrics, you know?

Bill: Yeah.

Pat: Does that answer the question?

Bill: Yeah, it does. Another thing I noticed with Al, Javier and Paul was that the three of them never played together in the original incarnation, but they were all in the band at various times. Were there any problems getting on the same page with that? Were you around for the initial rehearsals?

Pat: Well there have been a lot of people in Reagan Youth over the years.

Bill: Yeah, a ton.

Pat: The original lineup, if you want to go back to the real original, the guys they had when they got the band together in high school, it was always Dave and Paul and two other people. The thing about Al and Javier is Al played the bass on the first album and then Javier played the drums on the second album. So they were both there and wrote the songs. Like, Al wrote songs like “No Class” and “I Hate Hate,” he was a contributor to a lot of great songs. It wasn’t too hard, they both played a lot with the band, you know? There was never any friction or anything like that. It was natural, they both knew the people and the history of the band, and Al and Javier have become great friends through the band.

Bill: I was looking through some of the older tour dates on your website and one of the ones I noticed was that you guys played Oi! Fest in Allentown, PA, right?

Pat: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah. Yeah.

Bill: (laughter) I saw that and was just kind of surprised, because when you think of the typical oi! audience, bands, and the general feeling of it…

Pat: We were actually asked to play that! We were very surprised that they asked us to play and at first we were like “why are we going to go play an oi! fest? That’s not us.” At first we resisted and then they said we wanted us to play and we were like “well, maybe it would be interesting.” We knew there were going to be bands there that didn’t agree with our politics.

Bill: Ha, well yeah.

Pat: We sort of thought “why are we going to go play there. We wouldn’t want some of these bands to play a punk festival, why would we want a punk band to be playing their festival?” but then we thought “they want us to play, they asked us to play. We’re not forcing ourselves on it” and we thought it may be interesting to spread our message to people that didn’t like us. When we were playing there were some skinheads with their arms crossed standing around us, you know? But there was a big enough crowd of punks there to see us. There were some good punk bands on that show. The decision after that show was definitely to never play another oi! fest!

Bill: (laughter)

Pat: (laughter) It just didn’t fit, we didn’t fit. It was nice to do it and we got a great reaction from people that wanted to see us.

Bill: It’s one of those things you do just once.

Pat: Yeah, it just wasn’t our element. Why are we doing this? It wasn’t good for us to be there, for many reasons. The way we were handled, the way it was, so I don’t think we’ll ever do it again. The way Paul put it was “You have to go into the den of lions sometimes to spread your message.”

Bill: You mentioned a European tour earlier, how’d that go?

Pat: That one went great, we had an awesome time. It was the first time Reagan Youth was in Europe. We played in Belgium, Berlin… It was interesting playing in Germany, you know? One of the first places we went was Germany. The history of Germany played a lot into the imagery of Reagan Youth and the lyrics.

Bill: Did you run into any problems with that? I know that they have really strict Nazi memorabilia laws there still.

Pat: Yeah, it was funny, we did the song “Reagan Youth” there which has “Sieg Heil” in it and a lot of people told me up front that we shouldn’t do that song. Even the person that booked it said we shouldn’t do it. But we were just like “nah, we’re gonna do it.” It was interesting, right in the heart of Berlin singing that song. I made sure people knew why were singing it. People told us no, but we did it and it went over great. People know what Reagan Youth is about so it wasn’t anything (pause) Yeah people know what Reagan Youth is about so I don’t think anyone was going to have a problem with it, you know? We have the marching soldier on all the merch, a lot of people were buying it so I don’t know what they’re going to do! If they’re putting that on their cars or something, I don’t know. Were weren’t worried about the people as much as we were about bringing our merch through customs, having to declare it and having people open the boxes up and say “oh what is this! Nice, is this a little Nazi soldier on all your stuff?”

Bill: “It’s satire, I swear!”

Pat: It’s just with people who don’t know you or your politics.

Bill: That’s when you’re going to run into shit.

Pat: The lady who booked us told us that in some places no one would ever book us because of that but I’d still like to go there and perform.

Bill: Well it’s like the Oi! Fest thing, you just go in and do it

Pat: You know, it is like the Oi! Fest. We have a message, good music too but there’s a message there and I don’t care who is watching or where we’re playing, we’re going to say what we have to say. If there’s one thing that most of the people can get from it and what they can get behind is hatred is hatred of the American government. (chuckle)

Bill: (chuckle)

Pat: It’s President Bush so, you know? We talked to some German kids and I guess in school they’re taught to hate Bush, so it’s like, wow.

Bill: Jesus.

Pat: But it went over well, we played well. We played the first two shows with The Adolescents.

Bill: Oh cool.

Pat: It was great playing with those guys, you know? It was two old school punk bands, it was really fun. We also played with White Flag.

Bill: Huh, I didn’t even know they were still together.

Pat: The second day we played a festival with Reagan Youth, Adolescents, White Flag and… ah, brain fart. Angelic Upstarts, that’s who it was. That was a really fun show. Europe was really cool, we might be going back later this year to play Spain and Italy. It’s hard to do a long tour for us.

Bill: Yeah.

Pat: For me, no, but the other guys

Bill: The older guys.

Pat: Yeah, they’ve got day jobs and families to support so it’s hard to go there for a long period of time. We’re thinking we might after the new album is done, hopefully next year.

Bill: Yeah do you have any time frame on that? You said you had a couple songs completely done and a couple still in the writing stage. Is there any sort of, I don’t want to say deadline, but sort of a guesstimate on how long?

Pat: Guesstimate we’re hoping to have it done by next year, have it done and out by next year so we can go out and support it. The reason why it’s taking so long is that we’re scrutinizing the songs, you know?

Bill: Yeah, you don’t want to put out crap.

Pat: Yeah we definitely don’t want crap. If you ask Paul, he says over and over again “you know how bands get together after not doing anything for twenty years and they make an album and it sucks? We don’t want to do that and we will NOT do that. Reagan Youth never wrote a bad song and we never will.” I’m listening to the new songs and I feel like they will be great songs. I don’t know if people are necessarily looking for songs like the first album, like they’re looking for another “Degenerated” are going to find it here. Paul and the rest of the guys have become great musicians and it’s hard to go backwards to re-write a song you wrote in tenth grade.

Bill: You can’t.

Pat: You can try.

Bill: But that’s when you end up with the shitty reunion records.

Pat: Exactly. There’s a natural progression to the way they sound and the songs are good. They’re Reagan Youth songs. I don’t know what the initial reaction will be but I’m pretty sure once they hear it and get the album and listen to it a few times they’ll be into it. We’re hoping to have it done by next year, at least the way we’re going right now. It’s taking awhile because we’re all working and we have to pick a day during the week to get together to work on stuff, record it, all that stuff. It’ll probably be released on the label that the other stuff was on.

Bill: New Red Archives?

Pat: Yup.

Bill: That’s cool, I’m looking forward to hearing it.

Pat: The more we tell people we’re doing it the more we actually have to. (laughter) I say to Paul “you know Paul, you told everybody you’re doing a new Reagan Youth album and now you have to deliver.”

Bill: Just kind of resigned to fate that it’s going to happen.

Pat: Yeah you can’t go back on your promises.

Bill: At the shows do you mostly see older guys that were there the first time around or is it generally younger kids, or is it a decent mix?

Pat: It’s a mix, definitely a mix. You get a handful of people who saw the band back in the day and also a lot of people that never saw Reagan Youth the first time around. That’s one of the great things about the band getting back together, is the kids that never had a chance to see you. Reagan Youth got very big, a lot of their success… well I shouldn’t say success but a lot of their notoriety, how known they were, came after the band dissolved, so there were a lot of people who got into them and never thought they’d have a chance to see them in any way, shape or form. Even with the new singer, even with me singing it’s still got guys that wrote these songs.

Bill: Mmhmm.

Pat: Paul wrote these songs along with Dave and the other guys. It still has the spirit of it. No one plays these songs like Paul. They’ve been covered endlessly over the years but no one plays them the way that he does.

Bill: Well I’m just about out, you have any last words or thoughts?

Pat: Um… Uh…. Nope! (laughter) The eye is always watching.

Bill: Alright, cool, thank you very much for your time.

The Althea Era: Feature Stories

One of the reasons why I love Maximum Rocknroll and The Big Takeover is that they run straight Q & A's a lot. That is my favorite medium to read in all of music journalism because there's a minimal amount of bullshit involved; what is said is what you read and it's very hard to manipulate. Don't get me wrong, I love writing stories and reading them as well but my love of the Q & A format is no secret.

Well during The Althea Era all Q & A's were stopped. Completely. She didn't want 'em so we didn't run 'em. She even exerted fascistic control over the blog section. The. Blog. Section. Fuck my life.

I don't think a single idea that one of the four original staff made it onto the site without some sort of mutation first. Outside writers were brought in and we had no say in it. Something as innocent as wanting to post a story called "AirRaid Summer 2008 MixTape" literally led to three full days of bickering and infighting. Six months later I still can't even process that.

Timmy Hefner, the man behind the yearly Chaos In Tejas festival in Austin did Joe and I a huge solid by getting us on the list for all of the main shows in 2008. The intent for this was to talk to him and do a feature length story/interview on how Chaos In Tejas has grown into one of the largest punk rock festivals in the world yet still remained completely devoid of corporate sponsorship. That was what it was supposed to be, what it was before Althea came in and flat out told me that wasn't going to happen. "Why would we run a story about something that already happened?" she asked. Well, it wasn't just a wrap up because that could easily go into the live reviews portion. This was a profile piece and a damn interesting one I thought. Nope, not allowed! We had to water it down into a less than 500 word piece about "Punk Fest Trends." I had so much golden stuff in my interview with Timmy that it could have been a great piece. That was how it was going to go.

The Forgotten piece never even got a chance to run because by that time their album had been out for a whole month. A whole month! Never mind that once again Josh over at TKO Records had done me a favor and gotten me in contact with the guys and helped set stuff up, or the fact that the band had been on hiatus and gone through some turmoil in getting the new album recorded because THE RECORD HAD ALREADY BEEN OUT FOR A MONTH SO OBVIOUSLY NO ONE WAS GOING TO CARE WHAT THEY THOUGHT!!!!!!!!!!!

The DIY Comics thing came out alright in her eyes from start to finish because by that point I was so thoroughly defeated that I didn't give a flying fuck.

The Jack Rabid piece I originally wrote as a sophomore in college and had been on AirRaid for months by the time she came in. It was the only thing that survived her cleanse when she started. I'm not quite sure how to be honest but it did. I'm extremely proud of it and got an A+ when I handed it in.

Punk Fests

Organized Chaos

Bill Molloy & Joe Carson

Imagine walking down the pristine streets of downtown Austin, Texas on a cool night in mid-May. Just a few blocks away, past all the obvious tourist-trap novelty shops selling oversized mesh cowboy hats and “Fuck You I’m From Texas” T-shirts, sits a seething mass of people.

Upon closer inspection there is an overabundance of black shirts with stark images of war printed onto them, countless denim jackets covered in patches, and an as yet undiscovered body odor smells become apparent. Panic sets in. Frantically scurrying away to catch a cover band down the street tearing through its inspiring take on “Sweet Caroline” and slamming down $1.50 domestics, the harsh image of hundreds of dirty punks all but fades away. For now.

This is obviously not a University Of Texas nightclub scene; it’s Chaos in Tejas, one of the country’s largest annual punk rock festivals. It is not isolated either, as punk rock festivals around the country have collectively gained steam in the last couple years, with new ones popping up each year to challenge the old guard.

Inspired by fun and not profit, these fests are a reflection of the mastermind’s personal tastes more than the urge to profit off of the underground. Mike Petryshyn of Chicago’s Riot Fest simply states, “I wanted my favorite bands to play a show. All the bands that play our fests we generally all love.” Similarly, Derek Black of Dude Fest, which takes place in Indianapolis each June, says, “A lot of this fest flies in the face of what is ‘hip.’ It's mostly created in the vacuum that is my personal tastes and interests.”

One guy who is expanding the notion of what a punk rock fest can be is Timmy Hefner, the man behind Austin’s annual Chaos In Tejas fest. This past year’s incarnation, the fest’s fifth, featured none other than psychedelic garage pioneer Roky Erickson headlining alongside reunited Latino hardcore legends Los Crudos and England’s melodic punk kingpins Leatherface.

Hefner noted “Roky brought out new faces, a lot of older people and more just random hipsters.” Past years have had unconventional “punk” bands like Clockcleaner and Dead Moon stacked against numerous crust and hardcore bands. Hefner’s ambitions for diversity haven’t been quenched either: “I want to mix it up even more next year; more shows at different clubs.”

One of the more interesting things about punk fests versus most other corporate rock festivals is the dedication to traveling that fans have. People trek far and wide to see the odd combinations of bands in one concentrated setting, explore different towns and make new friends. “The amount of people from the local area interested that actually attend and are interested in this fest is usually dwarfed by the people that come and travel to it from many other places . . . The people willing to travel to the fest are very passionate and interested in the bands playing and it makes for an awesome time,” says Black.

More than anything else, these fests are done out of a love of the music, not a sense of obligation or higher purpose. When asked what the impact of his fest is, Heffner replies, “I doubt much more than everyone seeing all of their friends from all over the world, drinking and watching good bands with said friends; but that’s enough for me.”

The Forgotten
Rising From The Ashes
Bill Molloy

The cover art of the new self titled album from The Forgotten is fairly apropos, with a phoenix determinedly rising from a pit of fire, just about to start flying anew. 2008 signals a new starting point for The Forgotten, who have weathered lineup changes, marriages, record label switches, and overall realities of life, resulting in four years of inactivity. “No hiatus was planned,” guitarist Johnny Gregurich explains, “the cards were just dealt and we played ‘em the best we could.”

Vocalist Gordy Carbone chimes in “I had hit burnout too. There were like three years where I was touring 10-11 months out of the year. Usually that is nothing to complain about but I was really grinding myself down mentally without knowing it… in ‘05 I took time off and got married and recharged my batteries.”

Any fans showing up to see The Forgotten they remember from 2002 might be a bit confused. Founding guitarist Craig Fairbaugh left the group in 2003, prompting then bassist Johnny Gregurich to switch positions. Other personnel switches ensued over the years, with the current lineup playing its first show in December 2006.

Despite the musical chairs, Gordy remains optimistic: By hook or by crook, (The Forgotten) is better than it’s ever been and all the time off got us the right people with the right mindset”

With the new lineup finally intact, The Forgotten went back to the basics, rehearsing and crafting music slowly, demoing the new self titled album twice before heading into the studio. According to Johnny, “Although it delayed the album's release date quite a bit, I believe it had a huge factor in the success of the recording and quality of the songs. We're super proud of it and hope everyone enjoys it as much as we do.”

The result is The Forgotten, a record that combines the best elements of all the band’s previous LPs; it contains ’77 style rave ups, hardcore head smashers and anthemic rock shout alongs.

The new full length also sees the band moving back to their old stomping grounds of TKO Records. Johnny explains the split in saying “… with BYO Records, we signed a 1-record deal (2002’s Control Me) with an optional 2nd record. (They) decided to pass on our new material for whatever reason.” He then ads “We continue to stay in contact with BYO Records and consider Shawn Stern and Mark Stern life-long friends.”

Gordy philosophizes: I feel that everything happened for a reason with this album… (it) required a lot of personal attention from everyone, including the label, and I believe only TKO has the personal investment and history to really care as much as we wanted someone to care about this album.

Despite all the commotion in the world of The Forgotten over the last few years, don’t expect the band to stop any time soon. Gordy emphatically states: I guess if I had one thing to say it would be to my brother and sister punks out there; I know a lot of them are like me and don’t take their punk with milk nor sugar. I just want to say thank you to them. Every scene will have the tourists and the lifers. It’s the fucking lifers that make this shit go ‘round.

Underground Comics

Imagine funny pages that are actually funny

Bill Molloy

Getting bored with Garfield kicking Odie off of a kitchen table? Are Fantastic Four not so fantastic any more? If so, the ever growing world of underground and DIY comics awaits.

One of the more successful DIY comics in recent years is Multiplex by Gordon McAlpin, which he describes as “the infantile antics of a bunch of kids working at a movie theater.” Originally started as a fun offshoot of a more rigid web project, Gordon now publishes Multiplex twice a week on Multiplexcomic.com.

McAlpin’ vehicle of choice for getting his comics out is the internet. Outside of the obvious financial ease, he sees the internet as giving more artistic license as well. “I like that I don't need to think about space; if I need eight panels to do an idea, I make it eight panels. I don't need to try to squish down my idea into whatever little tiny box a newspaper has given me,” McAlpin continues “Another advantage is that you can take an idea and put it online in far less time than in print.”

Mike Conway of the zine Hot Food follows the same free-form muse, but has chosen a different model for distribution. Instead of simply making a blog, Conway painstakingly lays out, photocopies and re-produces several hundred copies of Hot Food to either sell or give away. Conway proudly proclaims “Print is the natural format for comics. Digital media is cool and everything… but I will resist it until the bitter end of the printed word.”

Born out of lazy nights watching TV and getting wasted with buddies, Hot Food, according to Conway, is drawing “tons and tons of pictures to… make a few of my friends crack up.” Hot Food follows no strict formatting rules, with single panel, non-sequitur drawings transitioning into stories that go on for several pages.

However, where others see limitations, Jason Swearingen sees opportunity. A staunch devotee of the daily newspaper format, Swearingen’s currently developing a project titled The Treehouse, which he explains as “a newspaper comic about a boy, his sister, a butterfly, a penguin, a squirrel/dog hybrid and the girls that live next door.”

Swearingen grew up idolizing the giants of newspaper comics like Bill Watterson and Gary Trudeau, and wants to bring meaning back to the dailies. He protests “the newspaper comic is one of the few art forms left that is this unexplored, yet it remains stagnant.” He laments that newspaper comics have been left to “…the likes of Cathy or, God help us, Frank and Ernest.”

Within this scene, the promise of hitting big acquires different reactions. When speaking about the possibility of doing traditional newspaper work, McAlpin deadpans “Not a four-panel strip like Garfield, no. I've never had any desire to be locked into the regular newspaper style format. There are plenty of people who do great work in that format, of course, but I would not be one of them… I like swear words way too much.” Swearingen, on the other hand would do it “in a second… as much as I love reading comics created with the vast freedom of self-publishing online, I relish in the restrictions of the newspaper genre”

Attempting to define the world of small cartoonists with blanket generalizations is slightly ignorant and ultimately impossible, as seen by the varying opinions and methods of McAlpin, Conway and Swearingen. If variety is the spice of life, then consider the world of DIY comics the curry on the industry’s stew.

Headline: Rabid Fervor

Subhead: Twenty-seven years of The Big Takeover

Journalist Profile: Jack Rabid

By: Bill Molloy

Jack Rabid is the editor, publisher, ad director and chief writer for The Big Takeover, a magazine born out of the DIY spirit of punk rock and based in New York City. Within the established journalism industry a fanzine like The Big Takeover is an anomaly. How can a magazine published only twice a year and with only 20,000 copies in distribution survive for so long? Simple; Jack Rabid cannot be contained by the confines a typical journalist. Rabid himself even admits that he would not be a very effective traditional news reporter. Almost every path to his current state separates him from the average online blogger or Rolling Stone reporter. From being around at the onset of DIY hardcore and starting a zine to doing multiple tours and albums as a musician, the figurehead of The Big Takeover is anything but typical.

Rabid along with friend Dave Stein started The Big Takeover in 1980 as a one page ode to their favorite local band The Stimulators. Jack and Dave took their one page zine and made one hundred copies at the public library, one dime at a time. These were then given away for free at local shows. Rabid claimed “this vital music needed coverage. There was no mainstream coverage of bands I loved like The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, or The Clash. At the time the popular bands were Fleetwood Mac, Boston and Foreigner. Great bands like The Weirdos and The Skulls were barely eking out singles. I wanted to say ‘this is important, pay attention to this, not the spoon fed celebrity garbage.’” Taking cues from older fanzines such as Search & Destroy and Slash, The Big Takeover began to widen its focus after the first issue into interviewing other bands and writing editorials. Dave Stein left soon afterwards and Jack took on his current role as the figurehead of The Big Takeover.

In its current formation The Big Takeover is published twice a year and has a print run of 20,000. The days of stapling together photocopied pieces of paper are long gone. An average issue of The Big Takeover now contains at least 250 pages and retails for six dollars. Rabid declares “I don’t feel very limited by the format. It’s not a news organization that needs information out now. He likens the size of the magazine to putting out a new book every six months instead of a typical music magazine.

Rabid went on to say “I still like reading books and magazines. A lot of the instantaneous news seems inaccurate so I’d rather not be instantaneous.” The average issue contains around ten to twelve feature articles that focus on one major band. The features generally begin with an introduction by the writer (most of the time it’s Rabid) and then, unlike other music magazines like Rolling Stone or Spin, a direct transcription of the interview. Many times the interviews are so long that they have to be broken up and published over two issues. Rabid, in sarcastic shock, exclaims “what, me talk for a long time? No!”

The internet has radically democratized the world of music journalism and Rabid is a bit skeptical, but hopeful. “Is it too easy now?” Rabid pondered when the subject of the internet came up. He continued “you might not be able to see the forest through the trees. It’s not just a town crier anymore; it’s anyone with a computer. But given the choice I’d take this one… I just hope the web does not make it too hard to find the good stuff.”

One more distinguishing trait is the reviews section. Because of the twice a year publishing schedule the backlog of reviews can get pretty large. Jack presents his “Top 40” of the last six months and the rest of his personal reviews, and then other writers tackle the rest. The reviews section regularly tops one hundred pages and takes up nearly half of the magazine.

Objectivity is difficult to achieve in music journalism. Jack says “most of what we do is subjective; one person is going to like something and someone else won’t.” One way that objectivity comes into play is in who gets covered in The Big Takeover. At a time when other fanzines like Maximum Rocknroll were tightening their coverage in an effort to maintain a ‘punker-than-thou’ attitude The Big Takeover actually expanded its coverage away from pure punk rock. Rabid exclaimed “I make the decisions, it’s my magazine. I can do it if I want. No one tells me what I can and can’t write.”

According to Rabid “you try to be an expert and tip people off. You see an article about Belle & Sebastian and then maybe they’ll find out about Left Banke from the same issue.” The only requirement to be covered in The Big Takeover is, per the slogan, to be “Music with Heart.” However, Jack is quick to add “I’m not going to cover the Red Hot Chili Peppers or the Smashing Pumpkins or other bull crap pop stuff.”

Another thing that sets The Big Takeover apart from other music magazines is the emphasis on editorials in the front section of every issue. Jack, who graduated from New York University in 1985 with an economics degree, hopes that they have an effect on the readers. The editorials have usually been more on the political/economical side rather than musical. “Punk rock reflects the real world,” Rabid says. “I never found an escape listening to a Clash record… as a journalist you try to make people tune in, not out. It’s an extension of the music, it makes you more interested.”

He continued “hopefully someone who bought it for the music won’t say ‘what’s this healthcare stuff?’… I hope what they get out of [the editorials] is to pay attention to things. You need to seize an issue and bring discussion.” Rabid adds that “[The editorials] can become politically partisan but these things are fact.” However, even if the readers skip over the editorials in favor of the music related articles, Rabid does not plan to stop writing them. He states that “the main thing is that it keeps me using my brain.”

One more differentiating factor about The Big Takeover is Jack Rabid’s musical background. He drummed for three different bands over the course of the last twenty-five years: Even Worse, Last Burning Embers, and Springhouse. He likens his position to that of a former baseball player who makes a second career in the broadcasting booth. Jack explains “You can’t help but have a different perspective, whether it’s good bad or indifferent.” Another colorful explanation revolves around the Wizard of Oz and the great Wizard himself. With his experience in the music industry as a band member Rabid has “gotten behind the curtain. I’ve seen the Wizard, and it’s a great show. It definitely makes me different. Most journalists haven’t done albums and tours. It’s a leg up for sure.” Rabid says that he has to use his experience otherwise “it won’t be interesting, it will just be another airhead opinion.”

The Big Takeover has hit several rough patches in its twenty six years of existence. One particular hard time came in 1995; Jack was unsure if he wanted to continue writing and working on the magazine and contemplated becoming a high school history teacher. Rabid recalls “as you get older you think ‘is music all that important?’” Thankfully the internet began to grow in popularity around the same time frame. According the Rabid the net “made it easier, made me take a look at the magazine again. Plus, teaching will always be there.” Ten years later another hit occurred, except this time it was not personal. Within the last few years several leading distributors have gone out of business and left smaller magazines in danger of financial ruin. The Big Takeover alone was never paid $14,000 it was due from its largest distributor for the spring and winter 2005 issues. According to Jack “the people pay for the magazine and you get nothing. Consignment is stupid. We’ve come back a little bit but it’s still hard. It’d be nice if I was on the New York Times staff but I’m not.”

Problems with distributors are only the tip of the iceberg though. In fact, Rabid goes as far as saying “contemporary journalism sucks. It’s set up to sell ads, not to tell the truth.” At this point George W. Bush and the Iraq War come into the discussion. Jack believes that the industry “…is failing people when it comes to the Iraq War. It’s their fault for not covering the dissent. They parroted the administration’s claims, even when they were wrong.” When this happens, Rabid simply states “humankind is disserved.”

At the end of every interview Jack asks if the subject has any last words or thoughts. When presented with a mirrored situation, he responded with “find things that inspire you. You’ll become and expert and inspire other people. An inquisitive mind is the best. I’m 44 and I’m still learning; that’s the way it should be.”