In sad but I suppose somewhat not unexpected news, long-running indie-rock band Murder By Death have decided to hang up their spurs later this year. Originally hailing from Bloomington, Indiana, Adam Turla and Sara Baillet and company spent a quarter-century plying their unique “spooky Western” musical wares before deciding recently that it was time to […]
In sad but I suppose somewhat not unexpected news, long-running indie-rock band Murder By Death have decided to hang up their spurs later this year. Originally hailing from Bloomington, Indiana, Adam Turla and Sara Baillet and company spent a quarter-century plying their unique “spooky Western” musical wares before deciding recently that it was time to quit while they were ahead. Here’s an excerpt from band leader Turla’s statement:
We weren’t covered much in the press, we never had a song that had a lot of radio play, nothing ever went viral, we didn’t have a big social media presence, we never played a good festival spot where there was a sea of people in the audience, not once opened an arena or even a big shell auditorium show or tour. We constantly lost opportunities because of the band name and were somehow always treated like nobodies or yesterday’s news by most of the industry. But you, you gosh dang wonderful audience, managed to keep us growing, and we never had a career slump.
When we were our busiest — playing over 200 shows a year — we were chronically underpaid and always barely scraping by. But people kept writing us or telling us how much we mattered and kept showing up, and we started to believe it a little. And then over the years, we grew to a more manageable place and it seemed possible to carve out a niche in this massive, mean world of entertainment.
When I reflect on how good our career was and how lucky we were, I’m left with just gratitude for the small team of folks who have worked with the band and this grassroots fan following that has lifted us up the entire time. I feel like we owe any and all our success to you.
I never called us DIY — despite taking on much of the work ourselves — because there are always people behind the scenes helping: it takes a village. Thank you to the promoters, clubs, bands, managers, agents, artists, publishers, lawyers, publicists, crews, etc. etc. etc. who believed in us and everyone who made this work for so long. An enormous thank you to those of you who helped us through the many difficult periods.
Thank you for your relentless support, your passionate listening, and your generosity.
The band went on to say that they are presently working on a final album, and they also announced a fairly lengthy going-away tour that kicks off in Bloomington in June and wraps up in their newer hometown of Louisville, KY, in November. They’ll also continue on with their annual Cavern shows in Tennessee and the odd festival date down the road, so it’s not necessarily “good bye” good bye, but it’s pretty close, Dates and support acts are below and most tickets are now on sale.
06/07 — Bloomington, IN @ TBA 06/19 — Newport, KY @ Southgate House * 06/20 — Detroit, MI @ St. Andrew’s Hall * 06/21 — Toronto, ON @ The Axis Club * 06/22 — Montreal, QC @ Le Studio TD * 06/23 — Woodstock, NY @ Bearsville Theater * 06/25 — Norwalk CT @ District Music Hall * 06/26 — Portland, ME @ Portland House of Music * 06/27 — Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club * 06/28 — Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw * 06/29 — Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Lanes * 07/01 — Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop * 07/02 — Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop * 07/04 — Pelham, TN @ The Caverns ! 07/05 — Pelham, TN @ The Caverns * 07/10 — Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar * 07/11 — Washington, DC @ Black Cat * 07/12 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer * 07/13 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls * 07/15 — Grand Rapids, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme * 07/16 — Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall * 07/17 — Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall * 07/18 — Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre * 07/19 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue 07/20 — Maquoketa, IA @ Codfish Hollow Barnstormers * 09/27 — London, UK @ Islington Hall 10/15 — St. Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall ^ 10/16 — Lawrence, KS @ Liberty Hall ^ 10/17 — Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre ! 10/18 — Aspen, CO @ Belly Up ! 10/19 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Depot ! 10/21 — Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Hall ! 10/23 — Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile $ 10/24 — Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile ! 10/25 — Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall ! 10/26 — Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall $ 10/28 — Berkeley, CA @ UC Theatre ! 10/29 — Los Angeles, CA @ Regent ! 10/30 — Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up ! 10/31 — Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet’s ! 11/01 — Phoenix, AZ @ Van Buren ! 11/02 — Santa Fe, NM @ Tumbleroot ! 11/05 — Dallas, TX @ The Kessler Theater ! 11/06 — Austin, TX @ Mohawk ! 11/07 — Austin, TX @ Mohawk ! 11/08 — Houston, TX @ Heights Theater ! 11/10 — Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum 11/11 — Orlando, FL @ The Social # 11/13 — Charleston, SC @ Music Farm 11/14 — Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle# 11/15 — Louisville, KY @ Headliners
* w/ Laura Jane Grace ^ w/ William Elliott Whitmore ! w/ AJJ $ w/ Shawn James # w/ BJ Bahram
Washington DC’s own Celebration Summer is back with a follow-up to their critically loved full-length LP, Patience in Presence. Their new EP, A Little Less Numb, is four songs featuring the late 80s and early 90s sound Celebration Summer has spent time mastering for over five years now. All in under fifteen minutes. Opening with […]
Washington DC’s own Celebration Summer is back with a follow-up to their critically loved full-length LP, Patience in Presence. Their new EP, A Little Less Numb, is four songs featuring the late 80s and early 90s sound Celebration Summer has spent time mastering for over five years now. All in under fifteen minutes.
Opening with moderately tempo-ed “Sea Shanty,” Celebration Summer takes you for a ride. While all the songs move at a good pace, this is the closest the band gets to a mid-tempo bouncy song. Second track, “Cigarettes and Green Tea,” brings the energy and love in finding your place in this world and never wanting to leave. “Antidote” has one of the best breakdown-build-up-endings I’ve heard in years, almost completely stopping the song but coming back and finishing strong. Closing song “Mad World” recognizes the craziness of the world but puts the good and bad into perspective. Lyrically, A Little Less Numb is very reflective but optimistic—a great vibe to have when creating new music from older sounds.
Produced by scene veteran J. Robbins, everything about this album is fantastic. Dan Hauser and Nate Falger’s guitars work in tandem to give you some of the best melodic punk rock riffs in years. It’s been a minute since I’ve heard a drummer move around their set as much as Glenn Boysko, and it doesn’t go unnoticed. If you tap your hands, fingers, or feet to the drums, be warned: it will take a few listens to keep up. Greg Raelson’s bass gels perfectly with the other members and does more than just follow the rhythm guitar.
Celebration Summer is a four-cylinder engine running on equal parts Jawbreaker, Hüsker Dü, Rites of Spring, and Dag Nasty. They take the baton from these classic bands and keep their sounds relevant for the generation that may have missed them. This was my first Celebration Summer record, and it certainly will not be my last. Pick up A Little Less Numb on Den of Wax Records.
2024 marked the 50th anniversary of the legendary Stone Pony, the Asbury Park, New Jersey icon that has been the lifeblood of a region and of numerous music scenes since well before any of our regular readers were born (except probably my parents!…hi guys!). The venue closed out its 50to year anniversary celebration with the […]
2024 marked the 50th anniversary of the legendary Stone Pony, the Asbury Park, New Jersey icon that has been the lifeblood of a region and of numerous music scenes since well before any of our regular readers were born (except probably my parents!…hi guys!). The venue closed out its 50to year anniversary celebration with the return of another local institution that helped revitalize both the venue and the Asbury Park area itself: the Bouncing Souls Home For The Holidays celebration.
I will admit rather candidly that I love Asbury Park. I’m not “from there.” But I was raised in a house where music was ever-present and the music of Bruce Springsteen was probably the closest thing we realistically had to Gospel, so the myth and the lore of both the city as a whole and the Pony as a singular place have been part of my upbringing pretty much from the beginning. Some of my earliest family vacation memories were my parents loading my younger brother and I in the car for the six-hour drive from New Hampshire to my aunt and uncle’s house in one of the Brunswicks so that the adults could go see Bruce at what was then Giants Stadium.
You certainly don’t need me, very much an outsider, to explain to you the importance of the Stone Pony to Asbury Park and to the history of modern American rock music. That’s been done before by people smarter and more connected than I – check out Nick Corasaniti’s wonderful I Don’t Want To Go Home: An Oral History of The Stone Pony that came out last year and includes discussions from everyone from Springsteen and Southside Johnny and Steve Van Zandt to Brian Fallon and Geoff Rickly and Pete and Bryan from The Souls. But what I can tell you that 2024 being the Pony’s 50th anniversary was enough to get the Souls to resurrect their “Home For The Holidays” festivities for the first time in almost a decade. And what I can also tell you is that because of where it fell on the calendar and because of who was on the bill, it made sense to finally make the drive to Asbury in the Winter and to finally…FINALLY…see a show inside the friendly confines of 913 Ocean Avenue.
I’m a veteran of a few Bouncing Souls “Stoked For The Summer” festivals. They tend to be a highlight of any summer season. If you’ve not been, they take place on the Stone Pony Summer Stage, which is essentially an outdoor venue created in the lot immediately adjacent to the Pony. It’s a big, outdoor space that holds somewhere around 4500 people and it’s directly across the street from the Boardwalk and the beach and the Atlantic Ocean, and on the right day it’s just a perfect place to see a show. (Seriously…watching a sold-out hometown crowd sing the chorus to “Gone” in unison under a warm, mid-summer twilight sky is the type of memory that can make the hair stand up on the back of your next for years after.) The bonus is that the regular venue is open, so you can use the bar and merch area and bathrooms inside the venerated venue and take in the history and the weight of the place in comparative calm. It’s a pretty cool experience and you should do it.
But seeing a show inside the Pony itself – as yours truly finally for the middle night of this year’s HFTH – is different. The decor and the footprint have changed a few times and the audio and lighting rigs have been updated several times over, but for all intents and purposes, walking in under the awning at the corner of Ocean Ave and 2nd Ave feels much the way it has for five full decades. The venue is much wider than it is deep, so even if you’re in the back by the soundboard, you’re not super far from the stage. When the show is banged out – as was the case for all three nights of this year’s Home For The Holidays – it is really banged out. It’s a tightly packed venue that becomes a little hard to maneuver through, but when everyone is dancing and enjoying themselves, it very much feels less like a crowd and more like a living, breathing organism.
Seaside Caves kicked off the festivities on this particular evening. As memory serves, it was the New Jersey-based four-piece’s first show since before Covid, yet you’d never really know it. Their half-hour dark synth pop set was super enjoyable and took advantage of what seemed to be the venue’s surplus of smoke machines and chaotic lighting. The band also just put out a new album on bandcamp. Entitled drugless, it’s a collection of songs written and recorded over the course of the last four years. It’s fun and moody and it was recorded by Pete so it obviously sounds great. The Ratchets (pictured below) were up next. Aside from the Souls themselves, The Ratchets have probably been as synonymous with the Asbury Park punk scene as anyone over the last decade-plus. The Pirates Press stalwart four-piece ripped through a half-hour set of no-fuss, no-muss, straightforward street punk jams that included the recently released ripper “Hoist A New Flag.”
Dave Hause And The Mermaid occupied the direct support slot on this middle night of the weekend-long festivities. I’ve seen Dave solo, as a duo alongside his brother Tim, and fronting numerous iterations of The Mermaid for years now, but this was the first time I’d seen him on anything close to “home turf.” Yes, I know Dave and Tim are Philly guys, but Philly and Asbury Park are only just over an hour apart, and Dave spent years as a part of the Souls camp, recorded with Pete a few times, and has been a part of the scene for years; his first solo record, Resolutions, has a song about the old Lanes that name checks a great many of Asbury Park regulars (hey Christina!).
Hause and Co. took the stage accompanied by Tom Waits’ junkyard boot-stomper “God’s Away On Business,” a song that would have been particularly apropos in Asbury fifteen years ago, a spiritual kin to Springsteen’s “My City Of Ruins,” which, while it appeared on the latter’s post-9/11 ode to NYC The Rising album, was actually written about Asbury. But I digress. The band ripped immediately into “Pretty Good Year,” the first of two classic Loved Ones tunes that the band would perform on the evening. While they aren’t Hause solo songs per se, they do have a special place in his musical catalog, as the Loved Ones second album, 2008’s Build & Burn, was recorded by Pete and Bryan from the Souls right down the street at Little Eden. We did an oral history of that whole project a few years ago – read it here if you like.
Hause has employed numerous iterations of his backing band, The Mermaid, over the last decade or so, but the one that appeared on this night at The Pony is probably the tightest and highest energy, with longtime collaborator and Jersey native Kevin Conroy on drums, another Jersey native Mark Masefield on keys, Nashvillian Luke Preston on bass and Hause’s brother Tim on guitar and backing vocals. The band is a juggernaut and seeing them in this capacity at this venue accentuates the elder Hause’s ability to engage the crowd as in a way that draws heavy on his past life as a punk rock band frontman. A personal favorite in the set was “Autism Vaccine Blues,” and other highlights included “Damn Personal” and “Dirty Fucker” and set closer “The Ditch.”
And then it was time for the Souls. At 9:25pm promptly and accompanied by their longtime walkout music, Simple Minds’ 1985 classic “Don’t You Forget About Me,” the quartet took the stage and immediately vaulted into the singalong that is “Here We Go.” Granted every song in the Souls catalog turns into a singalong at some point, but if there were any audience members who weren’t already primed and ready to go based on the openers, they were immediately brought into the fold here. Frontman Greg Attonito sported a walking boot and a cane, the result of an injury suffered while he was playing soccer with his son. He stated from stage that he’s almost all healed, and he was still just about as energetic as ever, but there’s no doubt a joke to be made here about lacing up your Samba’s and kicking it about above a certain age.
What followed was a solid mix of longtime crowd favorites and more than a few “holy shit!”-inducing songs from the back catalog that keep the audience guessing. Near as yours truly can tell, this night marked the first time that “Serenity” had been played since pre-Covid and the first time that “Holiday Cocktail Lounge” had been played since before current drummer George Rebelo joined the band in 2013. The Bouncing Souls – Pete and Bryan and Greg and now George – have attained legendary status for a reason, and it was on full display on this night, as the band blew through two dozen songs in as tight and energetic and catharcit fashion as they ever have. They really do seem to be getting better and better with age. Oh, and speaking of drummers…old friend Michael McDermott, who was in town to play the following evening’s HFTH show with his new band The Kilograms, hopped behind the kit for “Gone.” Another fun moment was “Lean On, Sheena,” a song that was certainly popularized by the Souls but was initially written and recorded by The Kilograms‘ Joe Gittleman in his Avoid One Thing days (Gittleman would join the Souls on stage for it the following evening).
Sure the Souls got their start in the New Brunswick area in the late 1980s, but for all intents and purposes, they’ve been synonymous with the Asbury Park area for close to twenty-five years. They’ve started businesses there and raised families there and brought more friends and attracted more like-minded individuals that have helped shephard the Pony and the greater Asbury area through the resurgence it’s seen in the last decade. Obviously the Home For The Holidays long weekend is trickier to pull off now, what with only Pete and Bryan being locals nowadays (and George splitting his time with a little band called Hot Water Music). That just made this tenth (and final? maybe?) HFTH that much more special. Home For The Holidays is obviously more than just a punk rock show or three. It’s an art show and a flea market and an acoustic singalong and it features events at a variety of venues and it helps breathe life into a week that can be a little slow, what with a lot of folks traveling between the holidays. For those who do stick around – or in our case who make the journey – it can feel like Olde Home Week, with lots of friends and hugs and familiar faces that we see less and less frequently. To have all of it take place in such a storied venue in such a hallowed place seems nothing short of special. And sure it’s the last (?!?) Home For The Holidays, but the Souls aren’t going away. They’re recording as we speak, in fact. So they and their influence and certainly this weekend’s festivities are by no means in jeopardy of being forgotten any time soon.
Feature Illustration by Screeching Bottlerocket The wildfires that have ravaged the Southern California area this month have been harrowing to humans and animals. The fires have taken lives and homes. Many people and organizations around the United States and from other parts of the world have stepped up to help out with recovery efforts for […]
The wildfires that have ravaged the Southern California area this month have been harrowing to humans and animals. The fires have taken lives and homes. Many people and organizations around the United States and from other parts of the world have stepped up to help out with recovery efforts for the displaced and those who have suffered greatly. This includes many in the music community, raising funds and awareness.
Though I was not able to be at the Empty Bottle on the evening this show was recorded, I did cover LJG and Catbite together at Riot Fest 2024. It was an incredible set. This is a fantastic way to help out some great organizations.
There are resources and fundraisers of all sizes. MusicCares is an organization. dedicated to assisting music professionals. The organization lists eligibility requirements for those music professionals affected by the wildfires in order to receive $1,500 in financial assistance and a $500 grocery card. Those include documentation of work in music for at least three years or six commercially released recordings or singles.
According to Billboard magazine “MusiCares (which has pledged $1 million with the Recording Academy in aid for music professionals affected) is encouraging musicians affected by the fires to get in touch at musicaresrelief@musicares.org or 1-800-687-4227 for possible access to emergency funds.”
Donations can also be made to MusiCares via its main site.
Liar’s Club, in Chicago, is doing a two-part fundraiser. The venue will host an evening show on Friday, January 24th. Local H; Viceroy; and Tuff Sudz will perform.
Per Liar’s Club instagram account:
“TRYING TO HELP ANY WAY WE CAN FROM CHICAGO. LIAR’S CLUB PRESENTS: WILDFIRE RELIEF FOR VICTIMS OF THE GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, FEATURING LOCAL H, TUFF SUDZ, AND VICEROY! PROCEEDS WILL GO TO THE RED CROSS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES, MUSICARES, AND ANGEL CITY PIT BULLS. SPECIAL THANKS TO PABST BLUE RIBBON FOR DONATION MATCHING PROGRAM!“
The Friday night show sold out so fast that organizers added a second event, starting in the afternoon on Sunday, January 26. Bands and musicians performing include: The Handcuffs; John Langford (solo); Torch The Hive; Death and Memphis, and Ricky Liontones.
Pennywise jumped into action right away. The band designed a special t-shirt to raise funds. On his official Instagram account, Pennywise frontman Jim Lindberg announced “100% of proceeds go to wildfire victims relief. Go to Pennywisemerch.com to get this shirt and help those in need and support our fire response team.”
Dayton, Ohio’s Hawthorne Heights is showing love for friends, family, and fans on the west coast. The band, with friends, hosts “Because Our Heart Is In Los Angeles.” The January 23rd event took place at Garden Amp in Garden Grove, CA. Alll proceeds from the shows to go to Altadena Girls, MusiCares, and Altadena Rotary Club.
On Instagram, in response to a fan asking if a shirt or something else will be available for non-locals, the band noted that it is “working on this and other things for non locals. Stay tuned.”
These are just some of punks doing good this month. Even if not able to attend a show listed above, there are links to organizations needing donations. There are many organizations doing great work in response to the devastation, helping humans and animals, and working to rebuild the City of Angels.
A few of these organizations include The Pasadena Humane Society, which has been on the front lines to save animals displaced by the fires and working to reunite them with their families, if and when possible.
All of us at Dying Scene extend our love and hearts to all of those affected by the Wildfires in Los Angeles.
We also extend our gratitude to the first responders and volunteers, as well as the journalists bringing us the stories big and small and putting a human face to the devastation.
This year, Dying Scene is working to regularly spotlight those in the punk community doing good works for others. Whether it’s punk musicians and crews, fans, venues, or other related people and organizations, we want to make sure the good people are getting the proper shout-outs.
We also want to provide you, the DS followers, information as to how you can join in the efforts. There are tough times ahead, and while it may not always seem to be the case, there are, in fact, good people out there doing the right things. If you know of an organization or individual/group of individuals you feel should be celebrated for the good works they do in service of others please let us know. The best way is to drop a dm to me or Forrest.
If you’ve been in or around a Ben Nichols solo show (or I guess his Instagram) over the past year or so, you may have heard rumors that the Lucero frontman has been hard at work on a solo up. Details were obviously scarce, but you can find YouTube snippets of working versions of a […]
If you’ve been in or around a Ben Nichols solo show (or I guess his Instagram) over the past year or so, you may have heard rumors that the Lucero frontman has been hard at work on a solo up. Details were obviously scarce, but you can find YouTube snippets of working versions of a few tracks if you try hard enough. And so it may have come by surprise to some that the follow up to Lucero’s last studio record – 2023’s Should’ve Learned By Now – was not a new Nichols solo record and not a new original Lucero record, but a secret third option: an unplugged record that features a mix of classic Lucero tracks combined with some deep (and some SUPER deep) cuts, and starring not the full band but just Nichols and longtime Lucero sideman Rick Steff.
“Rick and I, we’ll do shows just the two of us from time to time, and they’re always so much fun,” Nichols told us over the phone in anticipation of this Lucero Unplugged release. “I’d had that in the back of my mind for a long time that I wanted to capture what me and Rick do at those shows and try to put it on a record. This is pretty close!“
Instead of committing one of those Ben and Rick shows to wax, however, Nichols and Steff opted for a slightly different approach. They convened at frequent collaborator Matt Ross-Spang‘s Southern Grooves Studio in Memphis – of course – and ripped through a few dozen tracks in minimalist fashion; just Nichols on guitar and vocals and Steff on the studio’s Baldwin F grand piano. “I wanted to keep it as simple as possible,” he explained. “We knew what we were getting. We knew the piano that was in Matt Ross-Spang’s studio. And Rick loves that piano. And so yeah, it was kind of the natural choice to just focus on that.“
When it came time to compile a setlist – er, tracklist – for this project, Nichols certainly had plenty to choose from. Lucero turns 27 years old in a couple of months and has put out eleven studio albums (the latest three – Among The Ghosts, When You Found Me and Should’ve Learned By Now – with Ross-Spang); twelve if you include 2000’s The Attic Tapes). If you’ve seen a Nichols/Steff duo show or if you’ve seen Nichols perform solo, say at a Bikeriders tour show or his annual one-off at Crossroads in New Jersey, you’re probably no doubt aware that, sure, there will be some crowd pleasers involved, and there will be a few b0sides, and then there might be a few REAL deep cuts. Such is the case on the new Unplugged record. “I wanted it to be an unplugged record. I wanted it to be a greatest hits record. I wanted it to have a couple of rarities and surprises, and I wanted it to be some of my favorites,” Nichols told us. “I think it walks all those lines.”
A quick scan of the album’s back jacket reveals tried and true staples like “Tears Don’t Matter Much” and “Nights Like These” and “Texas And Tennessee.” It also includes a few comparative deeper cuts that find new ways to shine in this stripped-down format. Songs like “Diamond State Heartbreak” and “In Lonesome Times.” And then there are the deep cuts. Like, REALLY deep cuts. Like “The Prayer” and “Tell Me What It Takes.” No, the latter is not a cover of the 1989 Aerosmith track, it is in fact an old Lucero original that appeared not on a studio record, but in a much more unlikely place: the soundtrack to season three of coming-of-age teen TV drama One Tree Hill. “The guy from One Tree Hill was a big fan. He named a bunch of the episodes after Lucero song titles. That was very nice,” Nichols laughs. “He actually asked us to write a song special for the soundtrack, and that was “Tell Me What It Takes.” We did it real quick,” he continues. “There was no budget. We did it in a friend’s studio, no producer, no nothing, and just kind of recorded it ourselves. That…is what we sent him.”
The result of both the song and the record itself is tremendous, a fun and engaging listening experience that gives the impression of a live show without the threat of the entire thing careening off the rails, which can be enjoyeable in the moment when you’re at the show but maybe doesn’t translate as well in recorded form. Inspired by the bright, twinkly sounds of the grand piano, Steff in particular is allowed to stretch his legs a little more than when he’s competing with horns or dueling guitars. Check the solo on “Diamond State Heartbreak” or the E Street Band-esque vibe of “That Much Further West” for prime examples. Not that his ability to adapt to this unique setup was going to be a challenge for a musician of Steff’s caliber. “It’s so funny,” Nichols laughs. “Bringing brand new songs to him…stuff he’s never heard a note of in his life. I’ll play the first few bars…and he just lays in on top of it like he’s played it a hundred times. He already knows how it goes. I think Rick had my number from the very get-go.”
Will there be duo shows this year to support the release of the Unplugged record? That’s the hope, sandwiched in between Lucero tours (like the upcoming Menzingers support run that runs May 8 to June 8 and covers a large swath of the US). There’s also that issue of a new Nichols solo record, which will be his first in more than fifteen years. “The only other solo album I’ve ever done was The Last Pale Light in the West,” he explains. “And that was when Rick was still kind of brand new back then, and Todd Beene was kind of brand new for me back then, so it made sense to do (that record) with those two guys, just to make it kind of separate.” The new record is essentially in the can, and it features a unique lineup: Cory Branan on guitar, the aforementioned Beene on pedal steel, and MorganEve Swain from The Huntress And Holder Of Hands on strings and backing vocals. Nichols hopes to have that album out this year as well (more on that later), and then, well, then it’s time to get to the next Lucero record.
Check out our full chat down below. Lots of goodies about the Unplugged record and the solo record and the evolution of the writing/recording process and how Covid messed with Lucero’s trajectory and much more. And, obviously, check out Ben Nichols & Rick Steff: Lucero Unplugged, officially released tomorrow (January 24th) on digital and double LP!
(Editor’s Note: The conversation below has been edited and condensed for content and clarity. You’re welcome.)
Dying Scene (Jay Stone): So congrats on this record. I’ve listened to it a bunch now. It’s really fun. And it’s not what I expected. I think because you had sort of talked about doing a solo thing for a while, I just kind of figured the next thing in the chute would be like the full Ben Nichols solo record. So to have you and Rick sort of re-imagining a bunch of songs is really fun. It was different.
Ben Nichols: And you’ve listened to all 20 songs, haven’t you? They sent you the whole thing?
Yeah. Yep.
That’s great. Yeah I do have the Ben Nichols solo record in the works. That’s what I was working on at the beginning of the month. But yeah, before that, I felt it was…I don’t know…I felt it was appropriate to go back and revisit the old stuff first. I’m glad it worked out that way. Rick and I, you know, we’ll do shows, just the two of us from time to time. And they’re always so much fun. I’d had that in the back of my mind for a long time that I wanted to capture what me and Rick do at those shows and try to put it on a record. So this is pretty close.
Yeah, it’s interesting you mentioned that because it sounds like, and it plays like, a live show. Obviously, it’s not a live show because you guys are in the studio. But like, the setlist seems like it’s put together, like, especially like one of your solo live shows.
It definitely was. And that was kind of intentional. On a piece of paper somewhere I’ve got the order that we recorded them in the studio. And it was probably pretty close to what ended up as the final arrangement of songs on the record. There’s five more out there that we did that just didn’t quite gel. Like if we would have had another day to go back in and, you know, do a couple more takes of things, there might have been a couple of different songs in place of some of these. But yeah, this functions, like you said, almost like a live set. And so kind of what we ended up with is what you get, just like at a live show.
I mean, obviously, there are some songs that if you’re putting together a live show, whether it’s you or the full band, there’s songs that are going to be there nine times out of 10, like “Tears Don’t Matter Much,” “Nights Like These,” stuff like that. But when it comes time to dig for some of the rarities… like, “Tell Me What It Takes,” for example. Is that from…I don’t remember that song, aside from fucking like One Tree Hill or something like that.
That’s exactly what it was from.
Is that right? Wow.
Yeah that was back in ’04 or something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, right whenever Rick joined the band. I think he’s on that original recording. I’m pretty sure that was whenever he joined up with us, so right around Nobody’s Darlings, Rebels, Rogues era. Yeah, the guy from One Tree Hill was a big fan. Like, he had named a bunch of the episodes, the TV episodes, after Lucero song titles. And that was very nice. That was cool. That was one of the first times Lucero had really been, I don’t know, used in television or anything. And yeah, he actually asked us to write a song special for the soundtrack. And that was “Tell Me What It Takes.” And we did real quick, you know, there was no budget. We did it in a friend’s studio, no producer, no nothing, and just kind of recorded it ourselves, basically. And that recording is what we sent him. And that’s out there somewhere.
Yeah, I feel like I’ve heard that song like twice, maybe.
Me too. (*both laugh*) Yeah, I haven’t heard it very often. But yeah, I was able to scrape up a copy somewhere. And I was like, “Oh, me and Rick, maybe we could do this justice.” And so yeah, I thought it was good enough to give it a second chance at life, or give it a second life. I think it came out really nice on the record. That’s one of my favorites on this unplugged album, actually.
Yeah, it’s a total like, out of left field sort of moment. And you don’t always get those when it’s an album…well, like this, right? Like, it’s not just quote, unquote, the hits. You kind of dug really deep.
I wanted this album to function as a little bit of everything. I wanted it to be an unplugged record. I wanted it to be a greatest hits record. I wanted it to have a couple of rarities and surprises. And I wanted it to be some of my favorites. And so yeah, it walks all those lines. There’s a little bit of each of those. I mean, obviously, the whole thing is unplugged; just guitar and grand piano. And then there’s a lot of hits on there, enough to make it a great live show if this was the setlist. And then yeah, you got “The Prayer” and “Tell Me What It Takes.” “Darby’s Song,” “When You Decided To Leave.” A couple of things that don’t get played very often with the full band. It’s nice to have those in there to kind of balance it out. And those are some of my favorites, too. So yeah, this record, it became real close to being all of those things for me.
Yeah, you even threw in like, “Hate and Jealousy,” I think is a song that I don’t know if I’ve ever heard live. Maybe once.
We’ve done it a few times recently. We did it at one of the New Year’s Eve shows actually, just the other day. So it pops up from time to time. We relearned it when That Much Further West came out on vinyl. And we did the whole That Much Further West show. It’s on there. So it’s in the arsenal again.
Which I’m glad about. I love that song. I love “Can’t Stand to Leave You.” I’m glad that that one sort of, in somewhat more recent years, like popped into set lists again. That’s such a cool song. And it’s a different song for Women & Work, too. It kind of sticks out.
I think when it was written, it might have been written before Women & Work, or at the very end of Women & Work. I think it was written before. It might have worked better on All a Man Should Do, or even 1372. But it ended up on Women & Work, just because that’s how it worked out. But that’s one of my favorites. I love the lyrics to that. And I just love the little guitar riff in it.
Yeah, so do I.
And I wish, I don’t know, in live shows, it seems too delicate sometimes. And I can’t find the right place to put it in the setlist. But I think I’ll try harder. I would like to play that one live more often.
With the full band? Or when you do your solo thing?
Both. I like it both ways.
Did you have to do much rehearsing? I mean, obviously you haven’t played some of these songs ever. But did you have to do much rehearsing, you and Rick? Or did you just kind of say, here’s what we’re going to play, figure it out? I mean, Rick feels like he could figure that stuff out with his left hand.
Yeah, luckily, Rick is that kind of musician. He’s just a top-tier musician. It’s so funny, like bringing brand new songs to him, stuff he’s never heard a note of in his life. And I’ll play the first few bars, and I’ll start singing. And he just lays in on top of it, like he’s played it a hundred times. Like, he already knows how it goes. He knows where I’m gonna go. I think I’m a pretty simple man. I’m a pretty simple songwriter. And I think Rick had my number from the very get-go.
So I think he could do it with almost anybody. But with me in particular, we’ve been playing together so long and he’s just so good. He knows what I’m going to do before I do sometimes. He knows the chord I’m going to pick and the vocal melody, and he knows how to complement those perfectly. So yeah, we did a couple of days, I guess, of rehearsal. Just a few hours of rehearsal, running through, especially some of those ones that we needed to kind of the prayer and tell me what it takes. We’re like, all right, how do we do these? But once we had those figured out, everything else came pretty naturally. So no, not a lot of rehearsal. We did a nice four-day run on the West Coast, just me and Rick. And so a lot of that, that run kind of functioned as the rehearsals for this album.
Yeah, it seems like you kind of let him go a few times, like took the leash off a few times, not that you keep Rick leashed necessarily, but I think in that sort of format, there’s a moment on that first Atlanta live record where you talk about just wanting to be home, drinking a whiskey and listening to Rick play the piano all night. It seems like there’s a few times in the studio where you’re just like, “just go, man.”
Yeah, yeah. And that’s just fun for me to hear him play like that. And yeah there’s something about just recording as a two-piece. There’s a lot of room for him to work in. And there’s a little more space and he can kind of stretch his legs a little bit. And I think just from the very start of the record from “In Lonesome Times” and “That Much Further West,” which are the first two singles released, you can just hear him just being able to focus on those piano parts and really let those kind of shine through. That was one of the special things about this album.
Yeah, he gets real twinkly at the end of “That Much Further West” like that. He’s sort of playing the horn parts that kind of got incorporated into that song over the years. And then he just goes off. I sent it to my dad and my brother and said “tell me that’s not such an E Street Band sound…” And it’s just the two of you!
Yeah, that’s I’m glad you hear that in it. Yeah, like this solo on “Texas and Tennessee.” The little solo on “Diamond State Heartbreak” right there. It’s real honky tonk, you know. And then I love this solo on “Buy A Little Time” as well. The piano solos really shine on this record. Because yeah, he is taking elements of maybe some of Brian’s guitar parts or some of the horn section and just kind of incorporating and covering all the basses that would be there with a full band. And he’s just doing them all himself. It’s just really fun to hear.
But he’s not doing it on like keys or synthesizer like he would live. Like that’s just him and a piano.
Yeah.
Like just a big grand piano.
Yeah, nothing’s plugged in. There’s just some microphones above the grand piano. So yeah, that’s just him and you know, the sustain pedal. You know, on the piano, built into the piano. And that’s the only effects that are on there. Yeah, it’s a pretty raw album.
So even Rick’s stuff sounds different on this because of just the way that it’s just on grand piano.
Yeah, I can see that. I hadn’t thought about that too much.
Was that the plan going in like to do grand piano? Or did you kind of get in the studio and realize now this is how it should be like as about as stripped down as it gets?
I think that’s what I wanted. Everybody’s like, “Oh, you’ll have him play an accordion.” No, not this time. Maybe later. I wanted to keep it real. Yeah, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. And we knew what we were getting. We knew the piano that was in Matt Ross-Spang’s studio. And Rick loves that piano. And so yeah, it was kind of the natural choice to just focus on that.
Yeah, if it would have been a different studio with a different piano, you would have gotten maybe a slightly different performance. But um, but yeah, I the whole kind of ‘it’s like a live show’ aspect. Yeah, like you get what you get from the day and the studio and the performances. It’s just kind of capturing a time and a place.
I know you’ve worked with Matt Ross-Spang before a bunch. But is this the first time you recorded in that studio? Or was Should’ve Learned By Now there too?
Should’ve Learned By Now was there. And yeah, and then…well, we did When You Found Me there as well, actually.
Oh, okay. I thought that was Sam Phillips with him.
No, Among the Ghosts was started at Sam Phillips. Maybe… wait, hold on. Maybe When You Found Me might have been started at Sam Phillips, but then we finished it at Southern Grooves. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened. We did Among the Ghosts at Sam Phillips.
That sounds right, yeah.
But then he was building the studio during the pandemic while we were all separated and I was writing When You Found Me in my basement. Yeah. And then we finally got in there and recorded When You Found Me. Yeah, I don’t know. Man, everything blurs together in my old age…
Well, yeah. And the pandemic fucked us all that way, too. Like there’s so much from those four years…
It really screwed with Lucero for sure. I feel like we were really hitting a stride. You know, 2018, 2019…2018 was our 20-year anniversary. That Lucero family block party was one of my favorite memories.
Mine too.
That was a great one. And I feel like we were really going strong. And then, yeah, COVID really took the wind out of us. Like we put out Among the Ghosts. And I think that’s still one of my favorite albums, favorite Lucero records. And then we all got locked down. And yeah, with When You Found Me and Should’ve Learned By Now, those are both COVID albums. One was kind of my deep dive into my basement synthesizers. (*both laugh*) And then the next one was supposed to be the exact opposite of that. And I think they’re both kind of… I don’t know, they both suffer from the isolation of me writing them completely by myself and not being around the band enough. Just in my opinion.
Yeah.
And so, so yeah, it was nice to go back into Southern Grooves with Matt Ross-Spang, with just me and Rick Steff and make everything very simple and play some songs that that I’m still a fan of from, you know, the back catalog. And so, so yeah, it was a really fun day back with Matt Ross-Spang in the studio. I feel good about that.
It also gave me sort of the vibe of, and I don’t mean this negatively, but like those COVID live streams that you would do in the studio, because like, you’d rip through a version of a song. And then like, when you play a song live normally, obviously, you’re feeding off the audience, they’re feeding off you, people are clapping and whatever. And then to just go like, stop, okay, on to the next song. Like, it kind of plays like that a little bit. Does that affect you? Like, when you play a song, like “Nights Like These” or “Tears Don’t Matter Much,” which are like, those are full band, full audience participation songs at this point. Is it sort of weird to play them theoretically live, but to like an engineer?
For some reason, to me, it was different in my brain, just because I knew that we were recording a record. A live-in-the-studio record, but still, I knew there was no one out there actually listening at the moment. I knew that they would be listening in the future. And for some reason, that made it just fine and not awkward, and not, I was playing them, you know, I was performing the songs for me and Rick. And knowing that if I thought the performance was good, that would probably translate onto the album. Whereas, yeah, during those COVID live streams, you know that the internet’s not working. (*both laugh*) And you know, there’s glitches. You’re freezing. And the audio is not matching up with the video. And as you’re playing a song, not only, do you not have that live interaction with the audience, you know, that it’s a shit show, and that everything is screwing up. And that yeah, those were terrible, horrible moments for me. (*both laugh*) I’m glad it helped. I’m glad we had some kind of connection with our audience.
Yeah, I wish it would have been a smoother, more polished connection. But those kept us alive; they kept us afloat. But those were not my preferred ways of doing things. I would rather have the full live show, 100% or this kind of live-in-the-studio album where by the time the audience hears it, we know that they’re gonna hear the right thing.
Yeah, I mean, I kind of liked both. I didn’t care. Like during COVID… if it’s glitchy, fine, it’s glitchy. If it’s good, because they recorded it ahead of time, fine. Good. Because we were just so starved for anything, you know? Like, sure, I could see it being frustrating on your end, absolutely. But like, we were just so starved for anything. And not just from you, but like, literally anything that anybody did… like, wherever you want to do a live stream in a barn, fine, do it. Like, here’s my 10 bucks.
Yeah, it was. I got to remember it was tough on everybody. It was tough on the audience, and the fans as well as the bands. Yeah, it was tough on me as a music fan. I mean, I’m with you. When Joey Kneiser or Cory Branan would do a live stream, someone I’m a big fan of, I’d want him to just play all night. I’m like, “don’t stop! Like, an hour is not enough.”
Yeah!
Just keep going. I don’t care. I was like, I don’t care if it’s a little glitchy. I don’t care if you’re a little drunk. Just keep going.
I’d rather watch that than Grey’s Anatomy or some shit. (*both laugh*)
No, I hear you. So yeah, that’s not necessarily a bad way to view this album. This is just like, the way I would have wanted it to sound with no glitches. That’s kind of what you’re getting here too.
I want to…I know we talked about him a little, but sort of give Rick his flowers a little bit. And I wonder if you could talk sort of about how now that you’ve been in a band with him like 18, 19 years, does that change the approach of how you write a song, knowing that you have like, that bullet in the chamber to go to all the time? Thinking about how Rick has got…even if you can’t necessarily quantify it, like knowing that, oh, Rick playing piano on this or whatever keys on this is going to sound a certain way. And does that change even how you write songs for your solo record? Like, do you hear stuff that’s like, ah, this, this one needs Rick, so that’s in the Lucero pile. Or this one needs Brian…
Right, right, sure. Yeah, that definitely has happened in the past, because I haven’t done that much solo work over the course of Lucero’s career. The only other solo album I’ve ever done was The Last Pale Light in the West. And that was, Rick was brand new still kind of back then. And Todd Beene was kind of brand new for me back then. And so it made sense to do (that record) with those two guys, just to make it kind of separate. And obviously, since those songs are based on a novel, it was easy to keep that batch of songs separate from the batch of Lucero songs. And yeah, since then, yeah, I’ve mainly just focused on Lucero. And so, yeah, the question about whether it changes the way I write, I don’t, I don’t know if it does. I think, as a writer, as a songwriter, everything’s so, what do you call it when it’s an accident, but it works out? Serendipitous. I just fumble around on a guitar, or I’m just tuning a guitar, and then I play a couple of random chords to see if it’s in tune. And sometimes those chords are like, “oh, wait, I haven’t played those chords in that order before.” And that’s where a new song starts. Everything is so unintentional with my songwriting, that I just kind of end up with what I end up with. And so I feel like the songwriting is going to be the same. I’m not smart enough to factor in Rick into the songwriting. (*both laugh*)
No, but you might be open-minded enough, right? Like, you might be open-minded enough so that if you bring it to him, and he’s like “no, put that there, like that chorus should be a bridge, or that chorus should be the verse, or it’s like… “
Right, right. And I do. I would take advice on that. One great example of something that really kind of altered the song was I’d written “Always Been You” off of Among the Ghosts. And, you know, I played it by myself, and the chords were nice. It’s an A minor, which is one of my favorite keys. And I took it to the band, and then Rick came up with his piano part. And we listened back. We actually kind of wrote a lot of Among the Ghosts in the studio. And so we listened back. And I really heard his piano part. And I was like, “oh, yeah, just take all the guitars out. Like, that’s, that’s the song, that piano part.” And so, so yeah, that song got kind of completely transformed. It was still the chord arrangement that I’d written out, and the vocal pattern was there. But the focus became the piano just because the part was so good.
And so when I’m writing, I don’t necessarily write with Rick’s parts in mind. But I’m always excited to take the songs to the band and see what Rick can surprise me with. And yeah, it’s funny. There’s some songs where, yeah, he’s not hearing it the same way I do. And sometimes it’s interesting to watch him struggle for a part, which is rare. But every now and again, watching his process of working through a problem, and it’s like, you know, kind of like doing a math problem and figuring out what the keys aren’t doing that the song needs, or vice versa, what the song’s not doing that the keys need. And so just as a musician and watching somebody that’s that good work, it’s actually kind of cool to watch it work, even when it’s not working. But like I said, that’s rare. Usually, he just sits down and plays it perfectly on the first take.
Do you miss that part of it? I know it’s not probably cost-effective to write in the studio now, and obviously Covid changed a lot of that too, but do you miss that part of it…
Oh man…I do. Sometimes I wish we could make every record like Among The Ghosts. On that one, we’d go into the studio at Sam Phillips, and we’d work for a week and just throw stuff at the wall. We’d just kind of record whatever parts I had. Maybe we’d get some rough mixes while we were out on the road and then we’d come back and do another three or four days, and then leave again. Over the course of ten months, we were in and out of the studio whenever we could get in there, and that gave me a lot of time to listen to rough mixes, think about song arrangements, think about lyrics. That might not work every time you wanted to record an album, but it worked really well for that album. I think it benefitted from that kind of unique recording situation. Most times, you’ve got a producer, you’ve got two weeks, maybe three weeks, whatever it is, to get in the studio and get everything down, and then once that’s done, you’re done. That’s how we did 1372 and Women & Work and All A Man Should Do, and I like those records too. It can work either way. But yeah, as times have changed, the band doesn’t hang out together as much as the band used to hang out. We’re all over 50 now, which is insane. (*both laugh*)
It’s a badge of honor for sure, but yeah that is crazy.
Yeah! And we do all have families and lives outside of the band, and we used to not. Very literally, the band was our only thing going in our lives. That’s not the case anymore, so things have to change because of that, and you adapt. You figure out the right way to make the next Lucero record…which I’m still figuring out.
You haven’t taken to emailing or Dropboxing song ideas and riffs to each other yet?
Not yet. Not yet.
That’s got to be such a weird process to get used to for bands that started before all that.
I guess we did that some with When You Found Me and Should’ve Learned By Now. We did it a little bit, because you’re trying to limit your time in the studio as much as possible, so you try to get as much work done outside the studio as you can. So we did some of that, but that’s not the best way for us necessarily. We might benefit from a nice balance, where maybe you start like that but then I’ve got to get to Memphis and we’ve got to get face to face and work in the rehearsal room, and then hope for a little bit of that serendipitous magic once again in the studio. But we’ll see. We recorded this unplugged record about a year ago. So I’ve been waiting for it to get mixed and then work out a deal for release and wait for release day to come. It’s such a long process. And now I have the solo record, which is a whole other beast. All of the songs are there, I’ve just gotta finish up mixing it and make a deal for that to get released.
I’m excited for that. I’m excited to see what you came up with. Obviously, I feel like I’ve seen you a few times occasionally play an idea for a new song – like in Garwood, which is the only place I’ve really seen you solo –
Yeah, you’ve heard a couple of snippets. There’s a couple of things floating around, some live clips of some of those. But final mixes are…I’m curious to see what people think. I think they’re real special. I recorded with Todd Beene on pedal steel, MorganEve Swain from The Huntress And Holder Of Hands on violin and backup vocals, and then Cory Branan on electric guitar and acoustic guitar. I’ve got a cool, acoustic-centric band put together. I’m real excited about that. I still don’t know who is going to release it or when it’ll be released, but I’m hoping this year. And then that means I can work all year on the new Lucero record. I’ve kind of gotten these acoustic things out of my system. I can’t wait for them to come out. I’m not sure how this year is going to pan out. I would love to do a lot of acoustic shows around the releases of these albums, but we’ll see…
I can imagine balancing five guys and a crew in a band that sort of rely on that, so then does that take a back seat or do you work double time? It’s tricky.
We’ll see what I can get away with. But then it’ll be time to make a new Lucero record. Maybe if I get a couple of songs together we can start working on those immediately and then maybe do it like Among The Ghosts, where we do a couple days here, a couple days there, and then go our separate ways or go on tour or whatever, then come back and do a few more days or a week. We’ll see. Still planning out the rest of the year. I’ve been living with these unplugged songs and these solo songs for so long; for the last year or year-and-a-half, that I’m ready for them to be out in the world and then focus on new Lucero.
I’m excited. The official release date is what, the 24th?
Yeah, January 24th. Another week or so, and then all twenty tracks will be out. I’m really stoked to see what people think about it. There’s some cool stuff on it. I want people to hear “Tell Me What It Takes.” I want them to hear Rick’s solo on “Diamond State Heartbreak.” And there might be some bonus stuff that pops up here and there. I’ve got a couple more videos to go with this stuff that we’ll post. It should be cool.
I think people are going to dig it. It’s a cool way to reimagine some of The Attic Tapes’ stuff. It’s a cool way to reimagine some of the Tennessee stuff, and some of the songs that, like I said, I’ve been around for a while and I’ve never heard them more than once or twice. It’s fun.
I’m hoping that it’s a stripped-down record that old-school fans will appreciate. But I’m also hoping that it’s maybe a different palette that might be appealing to new folks? Or to folks where Lucero might be a little too rough around the edges? Or a little too…whatever?
“Whatever” is a good word.
Yeah, whatever Lucero is. It’s still a little undefinable. (*both laugh*) Even to me. But they might find this more appealing. I’m hoping it’ll seep out into the world and maybe grow a few more Lucero fans.
I think it will. I mean, what do I know. (*both laugh*) But I think it will. I’m excited to hold the physical copy of it. I was excited to hold the physical copy of the calendar in the mail yesterday, because I have a picture in the calendar and that was a cool feather in my cap.
Oh hell yeah! Man, that’s great. I don’t have a calendar yet, I have to get one myself.
February is my month! I sent Brian a shit ton of pictures. It was sort of last-minute…
Everything we do is last minute…
And I love Brian. I love him to death. He was like “do you have anything we can use” and I was like “yeah, what’s your timeline?” and he’s like…”uh…how’s tomorrow?” (*both laugh*)
Sounds about right.
I sent him a big Google folder broken down by like year and city because I’m totally OCD about that. And then Brody was like “hey can we use this picture?” and it was totally not a picture I expected. I’ve taken probably 4000 pictures mostly of the whole band or of you and Brian because of where I tend to situate myself, and I have like 10 decent pictures of Roy because he’s always in the back and there’s not much of a riser and it’s dark…so February is a cool picture of Roy that I got. I thought that was cool.
This album pissed me off. Vampirates spent 2024 releasing monthly singles leading to the December 13th, 2024 album release of #trending, something every music marketer will tell you is necessary in the digital age. The album’s sardonic title holds up thematically to the lyrical content of this nearly 18-minute squall of Zappa-violence. The intro track […]
This album pissed me off. Vampirates spent 2024 releasing monthly singles leading to the December 13th, 2024 album release of #trending, something every music marketer will tell you is necessary in the digital age. The album’s sardonic title holds up thematically to the lyrical content of this nearly 18-minute squall of Zappa-violence.
The intro track “WTF?” shows the headspace the artists are working from, an introspective jab at being a creative that prioritizes riffs over substance in the punk community. The introspective deconstructing this album does in the lyrical content is extremely relatable in tracks like “So Cali Awkward” with lines like “I like going to shows and hearing all new bands, but try to talk to me? I don’t know what to do with my hands.”
There are some fun band-friendship songs like “Alluring Air” and “Good Time” that give me the same band guy touchy-feelies those old blink-182 documentaries used to give me. Those tracks are extremely catchy alongside the dank riffage that Vampirates are known for. We mix the introspection into those relationships we need in tracks like “The Breaks” and there’s a sense of difficulty in communicating the positive in your life.
“Party Line” bemoans the political divisions of the modern world. Even more poignant with this album dropping from a purple state during an election year. So you can imagine the reasoning behind many of this album’s hardest hitters like “Downfall Collective” and “Cancel Culture”, if you barely feel right in your own skin, how do you build a community in wasteland of consumption and self-destruction?
Empathy.
Vampirates managed to make an album so painfully close to home that I feel like they’re mad at me. That’s why this album pisses me off. Check it out!
The last time we caught up with Sammy Kay – like for real caught up, interview style, for the website – was a couple of years back. It was about his then-upcoming EP, Inanna. It was a half-dozen folk-inspired mostly acoustic tracks that grew out of a project to write sonnets. Twelve-to-sixteen lines, no repeating […]
The last time we caught up with Sammy Kay – like for real caught up, interview style, for the website – was a couple of years back. It was about his then-upcoming EP, Inanna. It was a half-dozen folk-inspired mostly acoustic tracks that grew out of a project to write sonnets. Twelve-to-sixteen lines, no repeating choruses, character-driven thought experiments. Backed by the likes of John Calvin Abney and Corey Tramontelli and produced by frequent collaborator J Duckworth, it was another journey down a road he’d been traveling for some time. “In my head, the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to chase fucking Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan,” explained Kay when we caught up again last week about his latest project’s newest release. The running joke for a while was that Kay, who grew up in punk rock and ska-inspired bands primarily in the NY/NJ area before trading in his Tele for a Harmony Buck Owens acoustic, would only pick up an electric again as a mid-life crisis. But Kay is now 35 years old and, as he put it in a manner that is so quintessentially Kay, “the world doesn’t need another fucking Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan.” Instead, Kay would come to realize; quickly – organically – magically; is that the world does need, a new project. A supergroup in the realest sense of the word. A band that will take queues from The Clash – both sonically and realistically. A band called The Kilograms.
Featuring Kay and punk rock legend Joe Gittleman (co-founder of Avoid One Thing and, you know, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones), the project initially started a little over a year ago as a one-off collaboration for the Black Sand Relief compilation to benefit a mutual friend, Michelle Ska, who lost everything in the Maui fires. “We got pulled into helping some friends do this comp just as like…I’m going to sound like a businessman…’consultants’,” explains Kay. “We were consulting with some buds on how to wrangle some bands for this thing for Michelle and we both were supposed to do some good.“
In addition to their consulting roles for the compilation (which includes tracks from Catbite and Westbound Train and Spring Heeled Jack and The Pilfers and The Slackers and a bunch more second- and third-wave faves), the duo teamed up for the track “Who Am I.” As mentioned above, they of course named their collaboration The Kilograms (Get it? Kay and Gittleman? Kg? Kilogram? Get it?). And what started as a one-time thing very quickly sparked in both a newer and deeper creative streak in the two longtime songwriters. Kay – originally an East Coaster who, after a few stints in California, has called the greater Cincinnati area home for the last handful of years – looped frequent collaborator and Cincy native J Duckworth (Newport Secret Six) into the fold and the two began woodshedding ideas, trading them back and forth with Gittleman, who was back home in the northeast. “I don’t know if it was the sabbatical or free time or whatever, but Joe just was ripping all summer,” Kay laughs. “There was a point where I told Joe to stop sending me songs because we were both so excited and I couldn’t keep up with his output!“
The Kilograms: L-R Kay, McDermott, Gorsline, Duckworth & Gittleman. Credit: James Walker. Solo Sammy picture in the cover credit: Kim Moenich
The creative output alone meant that the project was destined to graduate from a writing exercise to a live performing one. Craig Gorsline, an old-time collaborator of Kay’s from the Sammy Kay and the Fast Four days, hopped in the proverbial van on keys. For the first handful of dates, Dan Alfonsi from Flatfoot 56 manned the drumkit, keeping the seat warm for the veteran Michael McDermott (ex-Bouncing Souls) to finish a summer run providing the backbeat in the legendary Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Together, the band ripped through close to two dozen shows in the back half of the year, including a prime spot alongside Big D & The Kids Table at the latter’s annual Halloween show in their hometown of Boston.
In between shows, the band continued to write and record. The initial EP in February 2024 was followed by another EP in September. There was also plenty of work for their own outside projects in the queue. “The core of the Kilograms, right? All the members, we put out three fucking full lengths” last summer, explains Kay excitedly. “June, July, August – Newport Secret Six record (Rising Tide), my record (July 1960) and Joe’s record (Hold Up) this summer. On top of a 12-inch, on top of a 7-inch, on top of a comp, on top of a couple of digital singles that I did while working on a full length.”
Oh, about that full-length. The band continued to write and record ideas in their respective areas, trading tracks back and forth until they had enough for a legitimate full-length record. But it wasn’t quite right, yet. “We made the whole record remotely and it was OK. It was just fine,” explains Kay. “And then we had a couple of days off between some shows and it was like, well, let’s go to Pete’s. Let’s spend three days and set up a drum kit and a guitar and a bass amp. And me, Joe and McDermott ripped, I think we did 14 songs…” As is probably obvious, the “Pete” in question is the one-and-only Pete Steinkopf, who in addition to playing guitar for the iconic Bouncing Souls for thirty-five years, has been producing records at Little Eden Studio in Asbury Park for close to two decades. Wonderful records by the likes of The Loved Ones and Dave Hause and obviously the Souls and Space Cadet and, of course, Sammy Kay. “Me and Pete have been going for like twelve years now? This will be the fifth full-length record I’ve done with Pete, plus a bunch of other stuff and demos and a few splits that never came out.“
While Kay is certainly no stranger to the unique setting that is Little Eden – still owned by longtime Souls manager Kate Hiltz – it’s the first time he’s recorded there without being a local. “I’ve always made a record in my hometown or in my region,” Kay states. “(This time), we stayed at Kate’s upstairs, in the bunkhouse and it was just real nice to be able to like wake up, walk to Frank’s, walk to (Cafe) Volan, have a couple of smokes on the beach, walk back to Little Eden and just plug in the guitars, you know?”
Beliefs & Theives artwork by Joe Maiocco
The result of those sessions is Beliefs And Thieves, the band’s upcoming full-length debut. Due out in April on Rad Girlfriend Records and the band’s own Weights And Measures imprint, the album is ten tracks that run the full gamut of sounds that you might expect from a band that includes a Mighty Mighty Bosstone and a Bouncing Soul and, well, and Sammy and J and Craig. “I’m always leaning towards The Clash,” says Kay. “I think that if it was just a ska band, I would have been gone already. Like I would have done a 7-inch and the EP and said “okay, that was fun. We don’t need to do this.” Indeed, there are full Clash catalog references aplenty on Beliefs And Thieves. Case in point, on the song “Hard Lines.” “Hard Lines” was a completely different song that I ended up rewriting and we rearranged it in the studio. I got to say “trust me.” Sometimes when you say “trust me,” it works,” he declares rather emphatically. “Joe had a groove and it was OK, and I was like, “let’s lean Sandinista Clash, like “Junco Partner.” Just trust me.” And we did. And it’s really fucking cool. It’s really groovy.”
That trust is at the core of the relationship between the band’s core members (seven if you count Pete and Paul Kolderie, who mixed the record as he has with countless other brilliant releases and dozens if you count the band’s extended families, who’ve also become close in the year-or-so that the band has existed). “We’re all aligned in the sense of doing whatever we need to do as long as we leave the light on; as long as we leave the room a little brighter than we found it,” says Kay. “For the five of us to cannonball and just try and start a new project, and just be able to put out a seven-inch, let alone a seven-inch AND a fucking 12-inch EP AND a full length in a calendar year, and play twenty shows, that’s a fucking win.“
Check out the lead single, “Beliefs And Thieves,” and all of the available pre-order options, and keep on scrolling to check out our extensive Q&A with Kay, which goes in to great detail on the band’s process. There’s a lot about the growing Kilograms family (go ahead and maybe throw a few dollars in the pot and help Sammy’s partner Liz in her grueling battle with uterine cancer, yeah?) and an awful lot about what it’s like to be in a room writing music with not one but two punk rock legends. Here’s a hint from Kay himself: “There’s Gittleman and McDermott. Like, that shit’s a masterclass.“
(*Editor’s note: The conversation below has been edited and condensed for content and clarity. Yes, really.)
Dying Scene (Jay Stone): You’ve been releasing records for a long time now on your own. Does it feel different being a Kilograms full length?
Sammy Kay: Um, no. I just had someone ask me how the record was coming. I just got the master in, and they were like “are you stoked?” I’m like, “yeah, I’ll listen to it once.” And then I’ll make sure it’s good. I listen to it in the headphones, I’ll listen to it on the stereo in the house. I’ll listen to it in the car. And then when the test presses come, I’ll listen to it on like the junk record player, my record player. and then I’ll go to Jay’s. Jay (Duckworth, producer and fellow Kilogram) has like a nice system, you know? And if the test sounds good on all three, then we’re good. And then I don’t. I’ll listen to whatever song we never learn when it’s time to play a show.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I know already off the bat, like one song will never get played live. Or probably two. Like we’ll learn them, but they’ll never rotate in. There’s a little too much going on for that arrangement you know? But I’m also not mad about that either.
Are you at the point now where you’ll vary songs based on what the crowd is or what kind of lineup you’re on? Like if you’re on a ska show vs. a Dropkick show?
Yeah, absolutely. It seems like we’re about 20 shows deep now. We’re starting to figure out the right blocks, and we figured out the right blocks pretty quick. Figuring out where (the songs) live, you know? Like we just flipped a song that has been song five in the set to now be the second-to-last song. And it’s like, “oh yeah, that sits real good there and sets up the last song or the last two songs real well.” I’m just excited for us to learn all of them proper and start being one of those bands…None of us want to play the same set every day.
Yeah, right.
Your first block and your last block is usually always the same, but to be able to just totally flip-flop the middle is what I’m eager for, you know?
Totally. You recorded this with Pete, yeah?
We recorded this with Pete Steinkopf. The legend.
All together in the same room. Obviously we’ve talked quite a bit or texted quite a bit, so I sort of forget what you’ve talked about in interviews and what I just know, so some of this might be redundant to shit you’ve talked about. But was that really sort of around the first time that you all were all together?
In a studio, yeah. It was the first run of shows that McDermott was around for. We did this run last May, and then McDermott was out with Joan Jett all summer and he flew in and we started doing some shows. And we essentially made the record…this is technically the third time I’ve made this record.
I will say some of these songs sound like, wait, I’ve heard these, right?Wait, I don’t remember if I’ve heard this.
So we made the whole record remotely, and it was OK. It was just fine.So here’s how the Kilograms work. When we started, we did “Who Am I?” and then all of a sudden, me and Joe had nine songs right away. And then Jay threw a couple in the hat. I threw a bunch in the hat. Some things got removed. Joe was throwing a song in the hat every week that was done. And we were recording and then we kind of found ourselves with a record that was just OK. And no slight to us, it just needed to get done again. We started playing the songs. We found different little drum nuances or pattern changes or tempo changes. And it was like, “let’s do this right.” We had a couple of days off between some shows and it was like, “well, let’s go to Pete’s. Let’s spend three days and set up a drum kit and a guitar and a bass amp.” And me, Joe and McDermott ripped, I think we did 14 songs…We just hunkered down for three days, did drums, bass, guitar. We threw out all the guitar. It was just scratch just to get the bass locked in with Pete’s beautiful preamps. And then we went home and then me and Jay and Craig hunkered down for about a month, working three days a week and just built the songs.
So that wasn’t necessarily writing new material at that point. That was like rounding out the sound of the songs that existed or writing new?
We were still writing. There are like two songs we wrote in the studio because We hashed out in the room, “Beliefs and Thieves,” “Saddest Songs.” “Fireworks” was written pretty much on the fly. I had it in my notebook, but there wasn’t a demo besides just me yelling at my phone. “Lorelei,” and “Ya Ya,” we had demos done for, like ready mix things. “Lie To Me,” there was a working demo that was almost there that we hashed out. “Hard Lines” was a completely different song that I ended up rewriting and we rearranged it in the studio. I got to say “trust me.” Sometimes when you say “trust me,” it works. And Joe had a groove and it was OK, and I was like, “let’s lean Sandinista Clash, like “Junco Partner.” Just trust me.” And we did. And it’s really fucking cool. It’s really groovy. And then I ended up rewriting the lyrics post-leaving because the words just weren’t lining up with the new groove. So that wasn’t on the first round. “Hoodie Song” has been floating since like day two, since Jay really showed up and became a Kilogram. But like probably seven of the 11 songs are pretty new. We had already kind of cherry-picked the bangers. “America In Black and White” was written the same time. Those were all that initial batch. Like everything that’s out now, plus like “Lorelei.” So when we recorded, we knew we could get five songs done in an afternoon because we’ve been playing, and then we had two days to get weird. “Battles” was a song that’s been around for a while, but we’ve done I’ve three or four different variations of “Battles” since it showed up. Like, different drums. We tried a couple different ways. But having Pete being able to do that with…for me to be able to go back and work with Pete after five years…
Yeah, when was the last time previously? Did he do Civil/War?
Yes, he did Civil/War. Civil/War would be the last time I saw Pete in a room. And (this time) having Joe there with Pete and their long, long friendship and McDermott back in Little Eden where he would hide out (back in the day) I guess…it was just magic. Like, Little Eden is always magical, but it was just fucking magical.
I was going to say; all of you have been around for a long time, but that sort of amalgamation of all of you together and that location and Pete and like that seems like it must have felt special. I mean, it felt special to me and I’m like three levels removed from that.
And the coolest part was I’ve never like flown somewhere (to make a record). I’ve always made a record in my hometown or in my region. We stayed at the studio. We stayed at Kate’s like upstairs and in the bunkhouse and it was just real nice to be able to like wake up, walk to Frank’s, walk to (Cafe) Volan, have a couple of smokes on the beach, walk back to Little Eden and just plug in the guitars, you know? Like, “all right, cool, you guys are going to get lunch, I’m going to take a shower, then we’ll get back at it.” But also be away from life and home and kind of the like, “well, shit, like, all right, guys, I’m going to bail out for half a decade (*both laugh*) or I got to walk the dog, or I have to go to work, you know what I mean? It was real, real nice just to lock in and be there.
And I mean, aside from Pete’s, but that’s nobody’s home turf. So you’re all able to just kind of shut everything else off and work on this.
Yeah. And I think that was the magic of like being able to cut whatever, 13, 14 songs in three days and like writing and learning things on the fly.
It seems like this came together really quick. The whole band, I was trying to think back about, like, when you sort of told me that it might become a thing because it was sort of the joke, whether online or through text or whatever, that like that that mid-30s ska band thing, like, it’s like…
Like, it’s my midlife crisis.
Yeah, right.And that was sort of the joke, like, oh, I’m never going to play an electric guitar again or whatever. And then this kind of happened.
I have a midlife crisis tour van! I own a fucking piece of shit, 20-year-old fucking van with a tow hitch and a fucking broken TV in it. You know…Joe called me two Thanksgivings ago…so like 14 months ago.
So I was trying to think about this timeline, that show you played in Malden with Amy Griffin and whoever else. But Joe was there.
That was like the first time Joe came and hung out with me.
I remember talking to my brother after that once this band actually started, I was like, “I have to check with Sammy but I feel like I feel like we were there when this thing like happened. Like, I feel like we were sort of tangentially in the room.“
I’ve known Joe for a while in passing, and I’d always ping him and be like, “hey, man, like, let’s think about this.” It was always like an industry favor, like, “hey, man, like any chance you could link me with somebody at Side One Dummy?” Like, “I have this record. Do you have a label that you think might be into it? Or do you have a good publicist?” And then while we were doing July 1960, I was like, “what do you think of these songs? They’re like sonnets? I know you’re a songs guy.” And we started really rapping. And he was like, at one point, I wanted him to produce that record because he produced the first Chuck record. Los Feliz is a Gittleman production. And he had a big part in the next record, too. And those records… I mean “The Boat” is “THE BOAT”… the boat is the boat. I feel like every interview, it all goes to Chuck Ragan. (*both laugh*) But I wrote him about like coming to Boston and wanting to go to Wooly Mammoth Studios, which is like, we’re the dude that engineered the Replacements records. I was like “let’s go hang out and make a Replacements record. And he was like, “no.” He was like, “I would love to. I’ve been making my wife Angie live on my schedule for like 30 years now or 40 years. Like, if you book the time and I happen to be there…but I can’t promise it.” But then we played that show in Malden. He came down for the weekend and he went to see Amy and went to see me. And we hung out and bullshitted. And he had some really, really sweet, nice things to say. It was big hugs and it was it was fucking cool. And then we got roped into helping some friends do this comp just as like…I’m going to sound like a businessman…”consultants.” (*both laugh*) We were consulting with some buds on how to wrangle some bands for this thing for Michelle and we both were supposed to do some good. So he wrote me, he just posted on Instagram like a screen grab, like, “hey, can you help me finish this demo? And we’ll just be like Sammy and Joe” and “I was like, yeah, sure!” And I called Jay (Duckworth). “Jay, Gittleman from the Bosstones wants to do this thing. What are you doing tomorrow?” He’s like nothing! Let’s buy smokes and tacos…
Yeah, right.
You know, and then it just kind of spiraled out.
So when did you feel like this isn’t just like a fun little project, and this is a real band now. Is that when Jay or McDermott get involved or…?
Detroit. We played Detroit. We played Cincinnati and it was the first show. I was like, “oh, shit…ee just played 40 minutes with the music and we said, ‘Hi, ‘we’re the Kilograms!” And that was great. And then we played Detroit the next night and it was off the fucking chain. And it was like, “oh, yeah, this is the thing.” We did those shows just to see if we could do it if we wanted to do it. We had Supernova booked. And then McDermott was out with Joan Jett, so Danny from Flatfoot filled in on drums. That’s when Craig came into it. We did those shows and me and Joe felt something magical, something fierce. And then it was like, “let’s do this.” We knew there was like…magic. Like, when you announce a record and it sells out eight hours later, and (people) have never heard more than one song, there’s some kind of excitement or magic, at least for us. Like this is some cathartic shit. This is a means to create with folks that like I’m grateful for. I mean, I’m grateful for everybody I get to create with. Like I love Corey. I love Todd. I love John Calvin. Right? Mitch and Will, all the dudes, whether it’s like the Sammy punk rock band or the (Seasonal) Depression, like the folk thing. But to be able to like…dude, there was a point where I told Joe to stop sending me songs (*both laugh*) because we were both so excited and I couldn’t keep up with his output. He’s been on sabbatical. He just went back to school to teach again, so he had just been like sitting in the woods writing songs. And it’s been…like we could go and make – on paper – another full length tomorrow. There are enough demos for a second record. You give us two weeks, we can knock it out. It’s really beautiful and cathartic. And Liz came with me on the last run of shows and so did Joe’s wife and the two of them were real cute because we never met Joe’s wife until the other day. And the two of them were like…you know, Liz has gone to see us two or three times, and Joe’s wife hadn’t seen it. And they were in the room together laughing like “we can’t really be mad at these guys for like the amount of time they put in.”
Yeah, right.
It feels there’s something special here, at least for me and Joe and McDermott. McDermott is like…I’ll be like calling and bothering him about something like and he’s like “you know, I’m in this band, it’s really good. I have to practice the drums. Get off the fucking phone!” (*both laugh*). Even Jay is like one of my best friends. But even Jay gets like I’ve never seen Jay. I don’t think I’ve ever smiled this much playing music like on stage. I’m a stern motherfucker. I am like hating being on tour, always. Playing shows is my least favorite thing about the industry. I’m sorry, the 40 minutes I’m on stage telling stories and doing things (is the best). But everything that leads up to it.
The other 23 hours and 20 minutes.
Yeah. I’m 35. I should be out of this game. I should have been out of this game. Like buying a van and getting in the van is a young man’s sport. And my sport these days is framing fucking bathrooms, man, like…
It’s tangible, though. Like prior to that show with Big D here, I don’t think I had talked to McDermott or Joe two decades anyway, maybe longer. And it’s tangible, the sort of joy that they have in this band, too. And even Joe said that directly. I don’t think it’s telling stories out of school, but because obviously he put out his record last year and it’s great and it’s a Joe Gittleman record. But we sort of talked about it a little bit just that night. And he was like, “I don’t really want to do an awful lot else with it for now because I really like this band! Like I’m having too much fun doing this.“
Yeah, we legitimately opted to do a co-release on the record with Josh and Rad Girlfriend with the agreement that we are going to have our little label. We called it Weights and Measures. Myself, Joe, Jay, Craig, Dermo, whatever we want to do, we have the means to release. And have a conjoined mailing list and just have a little imprint that we can do whatever the fuck we want. Because at the end of the day, we’re just making music. And even if you look at the Gittleman record like this, I’m on a couple of songs, McDermott’s on a couple of songs. Jay engineered some stuff for some of it. Like we’re there, you know? You know, I engineered… engineer is a loose term, I hit record on a tape machine and line up a tape machine on Jay’s record. Me and Jay have collectively have released – between the Newport Secret Six and the Sammy whatever, 40 songs since I moved to Cincinnati.
That’s wild.
Like the core of the Kilograms, right? All the members, we put out three fucking full-lengths this summer. June, July, August. Newport Secret Six, my record, and Joe’s record. On top of a 12-inch, on top of a 7-inch, on top of a comp, on top of a couple of digital singles that I did while working on a full length. And there’s more done that didn’t make the record or that needs to get mixed. The output is the magical part of this band.
Did you ever have a conversation about what the band was going to sound like stylistically or what you were going to write about lyrically? I don’t know if you guys necessarily sing the songs that you write lyrically, but some of this sounds a little more like you said, sort of Clash-like, outward-facing, like social commentary versus the solo stuff. Did you ever actually have a conversation about what it’s going to be like, “what are we going to sound like?”
The only conversation we really had was that we wanted to have fun. In my head, the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to chase fucking Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan and the world doesn’t need another fucking Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan. They’re a dime a dozen. And I personally feel like my one thing was just, I want to take notes from The Clash and ultimately their full discography, all band members, all bands, right? I want to take from Big Audio Dynamite, Latino Rockabilly War, The Mescaleros. And like my two cuts on the record, all of the shit that I got to do on the record, all I really wanted to do was have Craig playing organ and me laying on a floor spinning delay pedals and reverbs and Mellotrons reverse delayed with like the weird shit. Like, I want to go and be like sneaking Cumbia into punky reggae. I talked to McDermott the other day, we both really love this band Soft Kill. I stumbled on them about the time McDermott got off the road with Joan Jett at the end of the summer and jumped in the band. And I listened to it a lot. We’ve been having discussions about how we can sneak 808s and fucking drum machines under his shit now. That’s the next move. Like, “how do we get a sample? Do you have a sample pad? Can we start doing 808 shit?” The only agreement we really had was that we were smiling and having fun, and if we weren’t smiling and having fun, we were going to change that really quick. I’m always leaning towards The Clash. I think that if it was just a ska band, I would have been gone already. Like I would have done a 7-inch and the EP and said “okay, that was fun. We don’t need to do this.” But the fact they support me opening my mouth every night and shouting about things that are important in my life. I have zero censorship. We censored one line in “America In Black And White.” Joe said “you should have it be this,” and we changed it and we finished it and we immediately regretted the censor. It was “do we say ‘from Palestine to Mexico’ or do we say ‘from East Berlin’?” in regards to building walls? In regards to genocide? That’s the only time that any of us have said “well, do you really want to say that?” After we heard the master, we said “yeah, we should have said Palestine.” They let me shout about trans youth and about affordable healthcare and about how Luigi is not a fucking terrorist and the hills that I want to die on with equal thoughts and equal sentiments. We’re all aligned in the sense of doing whatever we need to do as long as we leave the light on. As long as we leave the room a little brighter than we found it. As long as we are trying to help build an inclusive community for all. That’s what human nature should be, right?
That really gets to the core of what this scene has been about and should be about. Whether you look at The Clash or you look at Joe’s old band. Obviously I’m in my mid-40s and I’m from the Boston area, and as someone who grew up wanting to be a bass player, Joe Gittleman was THE GUY. And the Anti Racist Action stuff and the Food Not Bombs stuff that used to be so present at those shows…that was the thing. When they talk about “what radicalized you…”
Dude, Let’s Face It was my political awakening within records.
Question The Answers for me, but yeah.
As I got older I realized a lot of those songs were about addiction and recovery.
The scene got weird for a while and there’s been some negative element in and out, but I think it’s important to replant that flag every once in a while about this is why you’re here. This is why we’re here. This is why any of this shit matters.
Exactly. At the end of the day…at our shows, I’ve got a microphone. And I’ve got 45 fucking minutes. And we’re going to be reminding you that this is a community. And that community is important. And whatever my rants and rambles might be that day, every show we’ve played, a couple people come up to me and say “thanks for saying those things.” I got a text right before we started from the kid’s old fifth-grade teacher. They and their family came to see us at 9:30 two weeks ago, and was like “hey, what you said on stage really affected my nephew in a good way, and they’re thinking about things a little differently now.
So I’ve been told to ask about the song “Lorelei” because I live in a house of Gilmore Girls fans, and so I jokingly have to ask, is that written by like Christopher’s perspective or Luke’s perspective?
(*both laugh*) Um, my favorite thing about Joe Gittelman and Joe Gittelman’s writing is that these people exist. I haven’t met Lorelei, but I met Lorelei’s dad, who’s an old-school Bosstones guy. And in recent show folklore, I got to meet Josie Bee, who is the namesake in “Glimmer” on Joe’s record. Chad Price is that way too. They don’t change names if they’re writing about somebody. I think in Lorelei’s case – and apologies if I’m speaking outta hand – but he just loved the name and wrote it down. I’ve talked to both (Joe and Chad) about it and I started doing the same thing. Like if I, if there’s a name – like Jim on 1960 is a friend of mine. I started doing the same thing. If I’m going to write about a story or that involves you, I’m going to reference you so you know I appreciate you
I’m not just going to call you Mary, like a guy from Jersey.
And I did that for fucking a decade, right? And now, it’s all like, if you were important to me that I want to tell a story or our story, I’m going to use it, you know? I think that’s honest and it’s fucking cool. Like, I mean I was stoked to meet Josie Bee. Like I was stoked to meet Lorelei’s dad, you know? So the Lorelei story, and this might not be a hundred percent true, the show I played in Malden, two days later was the Bad Time tour and Lorelei loves Catbite and somehow Lorelei jumped up and sang with Catbite. Joe was there, and Joe saw his old friend, and the friend was like “Oh, that’s my kid!” Lorelei, I guess, is in a band and I’m assuming they’re, you know, 16, 17, but, uh, Lorelei has a version of “Lorelei” too. I haven’t heard it yet, but it’s done, and I guess Joe was like, “let’s put out ours and then you can put out yours.”
It is a good name. I mean, even for like songwriting, and especially for a bright sort of upbeat song like that.
Yeah. Banger. Super fun to play. Love that song. It’s later on the record, track eight maybe?
It’s nine in the list that I have.
Yeah, that, “Hoodie” and “Old Dog” at the end.
What’s the actual release timeline?
April 4th.
Quick turnaround for vinyl nowadays? Have things gotten back to normal?
Things are back to normal. Cutting takes about four weeks. Then it takes like two weeks to get test presses. And then it’s once the test presses go and you’re clear, it’s pretty quick. Most places are like about 10 weeks if you’re doing it in the States. There’s a little press in Northern Kentucky, right outside of Louisville that Josh likes that I’ve been using. He did the seven-inch. They’re doing the full length and they have a pretty quick turnaround. The cutting is the hardest part from what I understand. Once you start, once you get your plates made, you can knock out a thousand records in a day. It’s just getting the plates made, you know? Because there’s only so many guys that are cutting. There’s so many wonderful, like three or four men, small businesses, putting records down in the States that even with merch, I’m trying real hard to keep everything like… I don’t want to do die-cut pins because they’re all getting outsourced. It’s all brokers. And the only guys that were doing it, I won’t use because they did some fucked up shit with the union and like, once their crews unionized, they fired them all. So like, that’s why I don’t have die-cut pins. I haven’t found a guy that’s doing them in the States that’s solid. Our merch is, is all, you know… the cotton might be made outside of the States, but we’re using sweatshop-free certified companies. We’re getting some bandanas made, like I found a guy that’s doing them in New Jersey and not in wherever, you know? There’s power in the union. There’s power in the fucking workforce, you know? That’s important. These guys trying to do these little presses and put records out, good for them, you know? I will support you as much as I can.
Artwork is already done? Joe Maiocco I’m assuming?
Oh yeah. Joe Maiocco all day. He was the secret fifth Beatle of so many bands. James Walker did some stuff too. I love James Walker. But Joe did the full layout, inserts, whole nine. All the merch. Our buddy Josh (Jurk), who sings in School Drugs, did a shirt designed for Rad Girlfriend for us.
That’s a rad band. I’m not a hardcore kid, but that’s a rad band.
Oh, dude. I’ve known Josh since I was like 11 years old or something like that. We go back a very, very long time. Josh is the reason why I got a job at the (Asbury) Lanes.
Really?
Yeah. I would like cover for Josh when he had to go work at the Pony. I initially started filling in for Josh at Snack World at the Lanes. Josh is multi-talented and he’s always been that way. He’s like a great drummer, great guitar player, great songwriter, great graphic designer, great human being. But, uh, yeah, Joe did the art. It’s all done. I’m in shipping hell, you know, rates, figuring out rates and trying to figure out the projected rates are for three months from now. I’m excited. I just saw Joe texting me that “we already won!” Like Paul Kolderie mixed the record. He’s got more fucking Grammys nominations than I have teeth in my mouth.
I didn’t know that!
Oh yeah. Paul Kolderie is the only person that checked every box in my book. He produced and mixed all the Uncle Tupelo records. He also did like Devil’s Night Out and Let’s Face It and all those golden Bosstones records. He also fucking produced the Radiohead’s Creep.
Really?
Yeah, all the Pixies stuff. Hole’s Celebrity Skin? He fucking produced and mixed that shit. Massive catalog. And he did like the Toots and the Maytals record. He did like the third Bedouin Soundclash record, the “Walls Fall Down” one. Like okay, he can do ska, he can do punk, he can do shoegaze, he can do Americana, he can do weird. And I don’t really know about Grammys, but he’s definitely got more gold records than I have teeth in my mouth, you know? Which has been real epic because I’ve never worked with somebody like that. The closest I’ve worked with anybody like that is Jon Graber, who, you know, produced a NOFX record. He did a couple Fat Wreck records. He’s done a lot, but nothing of that caliber, you know? He didn’t do Kid A. And no disrespect to Jon. Jon taught me how to write songs. I thought I knew. And then I hung out with Jon for a little bit and my world got overturned, right? In the Sammy catalog, right? “Better/Worse” and “Methamphetamines” are Jon Graber’s production. That’s when the world opened up. Like, “oh, it doesn’t have to be electric guitars and drums and bass. Let’s put a marching snare and a fucking horn section on strings.” But me, Jay, Paul Kolderie, Joe, Dermo…we won. We made a cool record that we’re real proud of. So nothing else really fucking matters. I guess if we break even, then we’re happy. You know, we have to make back the investment on the press. That’s fucking fun. I was going to say, like, yeah, I hope people like it. I mean, sure, I do care, but I don’t care. We got to win. Gittleman sent me a cool guy sunglasses emoji three times and said, “yeah, this record’s pretty good. And then he said, “you know, we won, bud. We did the thing. And I was like, all right, cool. Cool guy emojis, sunglasses back, bud.
It’s good that you feel that way before people have even heard it, right? Before people can even pre-order it. Because it’s authentic internally.
Yeah, we already put this out. It exists. We won.
Whatever it does, it does. But the fact that you feel like it’s a win already is awesome.
Dude, the win already is the fact that I’m the youngest and I’m 35, right? Craig’s 37. Jay’s 40. Dermo and Gittleman are pushing 60, right? (*both laugh*) Dude, the win is that somebody like myself or Jay or Craig, we’ve never been in a bus. Like, Jay’s claim to fame is he opened for fucking Weezer at a casino in northern Kentucky 25 years ago, right? Like, lovingly, you know? And Craig and me did the Fast Four, you know, like, with Tim and Ben and Chris from Catbite. Like, the Fast Four was the three of them and Craig, pretty much. Like, we were happy and content, but the win is that, like, Dermo and fucking Joe were in a fucking van, loading in, with the utmost respect and they’re stoked. Like, dude, starting a band is hard. Writing a record is hard, even for the best. Doing the fucking thing and committing, cannonballing a new product is not an easy thing. And essentially, like, with love and admiration to Joe, and even myself, like, starting over, you know? I’ve never been—I haven’t been in a band that wasn’t “Sammy and the…” in the better part of 20 years, 15 years. For the five of us to cannonball and just try and start a new project, and just to be able to put out a seven-inch, let alone a seven-inch AND a fucking 12-inch EP and a full-length in a calendar year, and play 20 shows, that’s a fucking win.
I feel like, particularly because the way that you’re doing it is not—
And we don’t even live in the same state!
Well, that’s what I mean, right. Right, that like, you weren’t in the same room writing together. You weren’t in the same room jamming ideas back and forth to each other. And that seems like a thing that none of you had done independently before, so now you’re all trying to figure it out on the fly.
Dude, and on top of it, like, my childhood memory is listening to Let’s Face It with my dad, right? And the first time I saw The Bouncing Souls happened to be McDermott’s first show.
Oh, wow.
In a fucking skate park. And McDermott shows up, and the first show he plays with us is in a fucking skate park. Like, all of these little things are just fucking magical. And it’s just a fucking win. You and I have talked enough, on record and off record, that you know I don’t give a fuck. I don’t need to be doing this. Like, most days I don’t want to be doing this. Sorry, I always want to be doing this, but most days it’s a struggle just being 35, Liz being sick, having an 11-year-old in the house, navigating all that and having a deaf dog. Making ends meet, like, trying to cover fucking cancer meds. Like, that shit’s hard enough. I’m just stoked that, like, we have this little crew, down to the spouses. All of the spouses are friends, you know? Like Jay…it’s not ever just Jay, it’s Jay and Mel Fox. Always. Like, the kid doesn’t want to see Jay, they want to see Mel. When we go to a show or go get tacos every once in a while – just to have this kind of circle or this new little family, and to have this beautiful bond so quick…there’s something cathartic about doing this. Like, I love music again. I love it. I love electric guitars. I love delay pedals. I love screaming into a crowd. And now they’re starting to scream back and that’s really cool. I’m 35, I’ve been playing punk rock music in New Jersey since 2003. I had never played the Stone Pony, and I had never played with the Bouncing Souls. Just getting that call was huge, you know? Getting to do Big D on home turf in Boston? We have another Boston show coming up in March. We’re playing at the venue attached to fucking Fenway Park with the fucking Dropkick Murphys, and our first Boston show was at the venue attached to the Garden with Big D. Like, who the fuck can say that?
Out of the gate, too!
Out of the gate! Again, I’m 35. I’m no spring chicken.
And you’re the baby!
Yeah, I’m the baby. But if we’re talking baseball, I’m like coming back off of ACL surgery. (*both laugh*) I’m like Joey Votto right now – well, I’m not the greatest – but, in my head, I’m on the farewell tour. Like, I’ve played four shows as Sammy Kay in the last 18 months. Maybe five shows. And two of those, I got asked to play the day of because somebody had to drop off. I’m not fielding shows, I’m not actively chasing that. I put out a record, and bless Sell The Heart, I was like “I don’t wanna play shows” and they were like “that’s fine, the record is good enough, let’s break even and call it a day.” I’ll play shows on it eventually, but right now I don’t want to. I’m loving playing guitar, and creating music, and it doesn’t feel like work or a chore. And it did. Even with 1960, I went to Jay’s twice a week, religiously, and the second we finished that, it turned into Kilograms world and I was going there religiously and working and working and working. And now that things are done, it’s like “holy shit…this rules.” I’m in a band with Gittleman and McDermott and one of my oldest bandmates – me and him swore we were never going to get in a van together again; not in a bad way, just like “we’re not doing this anymore” – and Jay, who’s been not my longest collaborator, but me and Jay have probably done as much music together as me and Pete have. Me and Pete have been going for like twelve years now? This will be the fifth full-length record I’ve done with Pete, plus a bunch of other stuff and demos and a few splits that never came out. But me and Jay have probably cranked out as much music as me and Pete have, but in only like two-and-a-half years. And like, writing with Joe, is fucking wild. There’s this kind of wonderful respect for what each other does, and I think we’ve finally figured it out. Like, “Lorelei” is all Joe. I might have helped change a couple lines, and that was just guidance. And vice versa, like “Old Dog.” Or he guided “Beliefs And Thieves.” I had a lot of that in a notebook in different phases and I smushed it all together. But I didn’t write a lick of music on that song. He sent me a song that was called like “No Good Managers” and I was like “I don’t know about those words, can I try?” And I had the line “anarchy at the Flying J” in my notebook for years, and I knew I wanted to make fun of Morrissey and I knew I wanted to make a statement about the upcoming administration. And I had “I try and I try my best but I still just stand conceited/nobody wins when we all just stand defeated” line.
Yeah, that sounds like a Sammy line.
That’s been in my notebook since the day Trump got elected. I’ve been trying to write that song for a long time. There’s like ten versions of that song that all had “viva Los Reno” as the hook, and then I wrote down “beliefs and thieves,” and once I had that, it all poured out. But Joe was setting me up. Like “Faith And Love” he had this chorus, and he was like “go do the thing.” And my thing was to tell the story. It’s beautiful, because I think he’s understanding how I write a little more and setting me up even better. Like in “Faith And Love” – “a little faith, a little love, I’m just another kid from a long long line of breakdowns” … that’s such a Sammy line!
Oh absolutely.
I didn’t write that! (*both laugh*) He just handed me that and said “do the thing.” Like “innocense and shambles, you’re hanging by a thread / thoughts of ‘Hallelujah’ is the chorus in my head.” That’s some Sammy shit right there! I didn’t write that! “Fireworks” is another example. “Fireworks” was this whole song except for the pre-chorus. Like, “every whisper said just a little too loud each and every night.” And it was like the chorus. And I was like, “no, that’s not the chorus, that’s gotta be the pre-chorus.” You can set it up to be something and he’s like, go with it, you know? Just the grace of being able to co-write and everything’s on the table. Like, “yeah, fuck with what I gotta say,” you know? And vice versa. It’s real magical. A lot of the record, man, like “Hardlines.” “Hardlines” is a song called “Born to Run.” By me. “Hardlines” was this whole, like, the big ending, the “one more road to roam,” that was the whole song pretty much repeated. And there was some, like, doubles. And then we recorded it, we got the groove, we did it. I did the overdubs and the vocals weren’t laying. I was like, “yo, can I just try something?” And that just happened. “Born to Run” became, like, the verses, the “is it okay, is it alright.” And then, like, there was another song on an earlier day for the record that got split up over like six songs. Like, the third verse of “Hardlines” is the second verse of that song. The “rosary feelings” line. And the outro of “Old Dog” is the third verse of the old song. And it just got spread out. There’s a riff that came from it that got moved to something else. It’s really beautiful because everything’s fluid with what I’m saying. It’s like, “oh, that didn’t work, but that riff ruled, so let’s remember that, you know?”
Is that stuff you were doing when you were sending ideas back and forth, or is that, like, when you’re finally in a room together in the studio or whatever?
Sending back and forth, for the most part. Like, “Faith and Love” was done. We had the arrangement and we had GarageBand drums on it, you know? Like, we had the tempo set and we knew the gist of the song. “Battles” was like that. “Battles,” when we hit the studio, was like that. I think there’s three different, like, Jay iterations of it, you know? But for the most part, like, “Beliefs And Thieves,” like, the riff is there. Everything was almost note for note, the music. I don’t know if it was the sabbatical or free time or whatever, but Joe just was ripping all summer. And, like I said earlier, there’s probably another six Joe songs that have, with maybe an hour’s worth of work each, could be a full another record.
Have you talked to him about, like, what was his frame of reference with or his, I guess, level of knowledge of your music prior to this whole thing starting? I mean, did he have ideas like, “hey, that song or that particular album, let’s do something like that.” That seems like a huge leap of faith for somebody like Joe.
I think it was just a massive leap of faith for both of us. I’ve never really written with anybody. I knew he loved me. Like, we had played together a couple times. But I don’t know if he owned the records. I think it was just like, “oh, it’s Sammy. He’s writing a lot, I’m writing a lot.” You know, we had gotten a bunch of shows with friends of his. So I don’t know if Lenny (Lashley) had been like, “oh, Joe, do you know Sammy?” Or Big D. Like I’ve opened up for them for fucking almost 20 years now, you know? But, yeah, I’m not really sure how much of what I was doing came in. I don’t think it really mattered.
It feels like it was just destined to work. And I don’t know if that’s like New Agey or whatever, but it feels like it was just destined to work.
Yeah. Liz and Angie were saying that, like…there’s a picture of me and Joe that Liz or somebody took in the backstage of The Pony of us, like, after the set, sitting with our legs crossed, looking like we’ve been friends for 30 years, you know, like 20 years, like old friends.
Yeah!
That’s like the really beautiful, magical thing about this band is that, like, we all, like, locked in. Even Wes, who you met in Boston…Wes is now tour managing.
That’s great.
Because I got a lot on my plate and just trying to relieve a little stress for me. He got in the van just to fill in for fucking three shows and McDermott was like, “that’s a tour manager. He’s coming everywhere with us.”
That’s awesome.
Like, when you fucking find your people. Building a band or being in a band is no different than finding your wife. Like, you’re in. You know when you find your people, you find your claim.
Yeah, right.
I’ve said it a dozen times. There’s something fucking magical about this that, like, no matter what happens, we win. We did something really cool. We all are on the same page, like, doing the fucking thing. We’re doing something. We got a hill that we’re standing on together and, like, unified. If one person doesn’t want to do anything, we don’t fight it.
Right.
If it doesn’t make sense, let’s not do it. You know, you can challenge it. Like, I’ve said, “trust me” a couple of times. Jay said “trust me” on some mixes. Joe said “trust me”. Like, Dermo said “trust me.” But, like, if someone say “trust me,” you trust him and you see it through. You stand by your fucking crew. You know, you stand by and say, “all right, let’s fucking do this.” You know, even if it’s, like, dumb shit, like, “I want to do a shirt color that’s this color. I don’t know if it’ll sell, but, like, let’s try it.” And it works. It works, you know? You just gotta fucking do the thing. And it’s real great when there’s a crew that’s ready to go down with the shit, doing the same fucking thing, you know?
I’m glad you did it. It’s not just because I like the music and I like you and the guys, like, separately and collectively. But I’m glad you did it. Like, this project makes me happy for you, for the band, for the scene. Like, I’m glad you guys did this and are doing this. I’m glad you are doing it.
And selfishly, like, I love McDermot’s drumming in the Souls. I love it. I love it. And it’s nice to see Dermo, like, shredding on the drums, playing ska-punk and punk. And, dude, like, I’m sure Avoid One Thing will do another record or would have done another. I don’t know. Like, I’m just stoked that, like, there’s Gittleman music in the world.
Absolutely.
There’s Gittleman and McDermott. Like, that shit’s a masterclass. We don’t rehearse often. We usually rehearse for, like, two hours the night before we go play shows. But just sitting in that rehearsal, watching the two of them walk in and go. Like, first song is like, “all right, cool, we’re playing music.” Second song is like, “all right, there’s some cobwebs.” Third song is, they just become this well-oiled machine. And it’s just a fucking masterclass. Watching two people legitimately listen to each other while they’re playing and being able to work off of each other without fucking looking at each other, without cueing each other, just by hearing, like, “oh, Joe hit the A string, he’s about to hit a fucking shredder.” And Dermo will lay back and then immediately come back with a shred. Like, like a call and response. Or, you know, watching Jay, like…you know it’s starting to go when he starts spinning.
Yeah, right, right, right.
And God, I hate using the word frontman, because there’s not really frontman in this band. But as the guy that yells a lot, having the confidence with that rhythm section and with two old, old friends. The stage is split, right? I got two guys that I’ve been in the trenches with for a long time, and two guys that have rightfully earned their place in American history. Being able to just do what I like to think I’m okay at doing, and never have to worry is just fucking epic. At the end of the day, I think I’m the worst musician in that band. I’m the worst player, I’m the worst at music theory, I’m the worst at a lot of things in that band. But for some reason that shit doesn’t matter. You know?
Right.
Just because I have such a sturdy foundation to stand next to, you know? I’ll say it again, man. It’s just fucking magical. It’s a really beautiful. And if this shit lasts for a year, that’s cool. We got a year, you know? If we get another record out of this, fuck yeah. And if we don’t, like, that’s cool too. We did something cool. We did something that we’re fucking proud of. That we feel like we won. And that I, as both a fan of everybody in this band and their respective projects… The kids’ still got something to say. And I’m hoping the kids also want to hear what we got to say.
I mean, I have no concept of what people like and what they don’t, clearly. But I think people will dig it. I mean, Joe fans in and of themselves will dig it. And then, like, obviously, you and the rest of the guys expose that to a wider audience. But, like, Joe’s obviously got Joe fans. They’re gonna love it. I’m happy for you guys, man. I’m proud of you guys.
Nora Googled Joe, and was like, you understand you’re in a band with a guy that created a genre? Yeah?” And I was like, “I’m real grateful for that every day.” You know, that’s a cool fucking thing, man. Like, to be able to create with him and then create, like, the palm of my hand is the Bouncing Souls logo. (*both laugh*) You know, like, Derm did some solid work with them for a number of years, you know? It’s a pretty beautiful thing. It is a pretty fucking beautiful thing. Which is why I think I’m loving slinging a hammer as much as I am, because I’m creating. I’m really enjoying, like, staring at a deck or, like, I just saw a room that I framed it out and, like, demoed the whole thing; like, I took it down, reframed it, like, and there’s a bathroom sitting there. It’s like, that’s a finished product, you know? It’s a cool thing. Just to have something, you know?
Yeah, to have a tangible thing that, like, you created, whether you did it yourself or you helped other people and you created it together. There’s nothing else like that, I think.
There’s nothing else like that. That’s the ticket.
Canadian pop-punk veterans The Riptides have announced their new album Burn After Listening, due out March 7th on Pirates Press Records. Coinciding with the announcement, the band also premiered the music video for the lead single “End of the World” and launched pre-orders for the record today. Check out the music video below 👇 and […]
Canadian pop-punk veterans The Riptides have announced their new album Burn After Listening, due out March 7th on Pirates Press Records. Coinciding with the announcement, the band also premiered the music video for the lead single “End of the World” and launched pre-orders for the record today. Check out the music video below 👇 and head over to the Pirates Press store to grab the record on two bad ass color variants – Tide Pod Marble and Aqua Blue – limited to 250 copies each.
2017’s Canadian Graffiti is a hard act to follow but it’s safe to say the Riptides are up to the task! Recorded at the legendary Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO, Burn After Listening features Kody Templeman on guitar and his Teenage Bottlerocket bandmate Darren Chewka on drums, as well as a host of guest appearances from the likes of Mike Kennerty (Screeching Weasel, All-American Rejects), Heavy Kevy from The Apers, Merel Schaap of Dutch pop-punk band Lone Wolf (check out their awesome 2023 album Haze Wave!), and the inimitable Joe Queer.
Dying Scene’s top investigative journalists camped outside Riptides bassist Bob Goblin’s residence in Ottawa, Ontario this morning and asked the hard hitting questions you, loyal reader, deserve answers to:
Hey Bob! Can you tell us about the recording process for your new album?
The recording process was a mix of excitement and challenges. Exciting because we got to record at the legendary Blasting Room in Fort Collins- I’ve always been a fan of the level of quality recordings coming out of there, so the chance to work with Andrew Berlin and Jason Livermore was amazing. Then it was challenging because we really wanted to push ourselves as far as we could on this record. We hadn’t recorded in quite sometime and we try and make every record worth it- for us, as well as for people who might check out the record. When we go away and record records like this, we’re leaving our families, our jobs, our homes, our pets (you can’t forget the pets!) etc. and this one was right before Christmas, so we probably put extra pressure on ourselves to get it right.
How did Kody and Chewka from Teenage Bottlerocket end up playing on the record?
Unfortunately, a couple of guys couldn’t take the time off work or away from their families at the time we were scheduled to go out there. The Blasting Room’s schedule fills up fast and they just so happened to have an opening before Christmas Last year so we jumped on it. It was rad because Less Than Jake were there at the same time finishing up their record so we got to catch up with them. We’ve kept in touch with Kody & Chewka over the years and they offered to help us out which is so incredibly rad and kind of them. Like everyone, we love those guys, as people but obviously as well as what they bring to records so when they offered, it was a no-brainer. Working with those dudes was a dream come true and what they both brought to the record I think added a fresh dynamic to the songs while still fitting with our sound. I think people will dig it.
What was it like collaborating with guest artists like Mike Kennerty (All American Rejects, Screeching Weasel, etc.) and Joe Queer on this record?
It was so great. Each guest brought their own unique touch, and it really elevated the tracks in ways we hadn’t imagined. Instead of just having gratuitous guest spots though, we wanted the collaborations to be with our close friends and people we’re huge fans of and they all said ‘yes’! I got to write a few songs on this record with Mattias from DeeCracks/Jagger Holly who I’m a big fan of and the songs came out pretty cool I think. I always find it so much fun to work with other songwriters who might approach songwriting differently than myself. It challenges me to try and be a better writer and the results are always kinda new and exciting to my ears. Merel (Lone Wolf), Heavy Kevy (Insanity Alert, Sweatpants Party), Joe Queer and Mike Kennerty all brought fresh takes on their parts and absolutely killed it for us and we couldn’t be happier. I hope people will listen to the record in its entirety and hear how much fun we had making it 🙂
Greetings, and welcome to the Dying Scene Record Radar. If it’s your first time here, thank you for joining us! This is the weekly* column where we cover all things punk rock vinyl; new releases, reissues… you name it, we’ve probably got it. Kick off your shoes, pull up a chair, crack open a cold […]
Greetings, and welcome to the Dying Scene Record Radar. If it’s your first time here, thank you for joining us! This is the weekly* column where we cover all things punk rock vinyl; new releases, reissues… you name it, we’ve probably got it. Kick off your shoes, pull up a chair, crack open a cold one, and break out those wallets, because it’s go time. Let’s get into it!
Check out the video edition of this week’s Record Radar, presented by Punk Rock Radar:
H2O’s Faster Than The World is being reissued on a fuckload of color variants in honor of its 25th* anniversary (*this album was released in 1999 making this year its 26th birthday ☝🤓). Due out February 28th on Bridge Nine Records, this reissue comes with a second LP featuring a previously unreleased 17-song demo, produced by Tim Armstrong in 1998 and has now been remastered by Paul Miner. Links to all the places you can buy the many color variants can be found here.
Friends of the Record Radar (and friends of you!) Mom’s Basement Records are busy as ever with a ton of releases coming up soon, and the first domino to fall in 2025 is the 4-song debut 7″ from Spanish pop-punks The Crummies! Get it now on clear and translucent pink color variants on the Mom’s Basement store in the US and from I Buy Records in Europe.
Jacksonville, FL melodic punks The Softer Side have joined forces with Double Helix Records (US), High End Denim (Canada), and Pee Records (Australia) for the release of their new record Rise from the Deathbed. A combination of two EPs, 2013’s Rise from the Embers and last year’s Deathbed, the record is limited to 200 copies on translucent orange colored vinyl. Get it now from the label closest to you!
Fellow Floridians, Orlando’s Debt Neglector have announced their new album Kinda Rips! It’s due out April 4th on Smartpunk Records and you can listen to two tracks right now down below.
Debt Neglector – Kinda Rips color variants:
White & Clear Cornetto (100 copies) – Devil Dog Distro Black inside Lemonade (200 copies) – Smartpunk / People of Punk Rock Records Black vinyl – All of the above Black & Green Ghostly (200 copies / Band Exclusive)
Seattle’s Dead Bars new album All Dead Bars Go To Heaven is set to release on March 21st via Iodine Recordings. Check out the lead single “Give the Metalhead a Hug” down there 👇 and click 👉 this link 👈 to pre-order the record on Pink Ghost Splatter (150 copies), Pink/Black Smash (250 copies), and/or Black Metal (100 copies) vinyl. A classic maneuver making black vinyl the most limited to mind fuck my fellow collector nerds. Respectable!
The incredibly tiny catalog of the Sex Pistols continues to be milked for all it’s worth, with the latest utter squeeze resulting in three Sex Pistols Live in the U.S.A. 1978 records. Recorded in Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco, these three shows marked the end of the Sex Pistols remarkably short career. These live records are available individually on red, white, and blue colored vinyl for $29.99 each; smart(-ish) shoppers may opt for the CD box set with all three for $32.98. Be a good anarchist and buy them from Amazon.com!
Hey Suburbia Records is releasing a 17-song LP compiling all of Canadian pop-punk band BUM’s 7″ singles and previously unreleased tracks. Get Kidd Bits (& Glazed Rookeis) on white colored vinyl (ltd. 500 copies) right here. And if you haven’t already, grab Hey Suburbia’s 2022 reissue of BUM’s debut album Wanna Smash Sensation! while you’re at it.
And rounding out this week’s Record Radar, we’ve got some interesting (and very expensive) records from SBÄM Records. You’ve heard of records! Perhaps you’ve even heard of liquid! Now get ready for… liquid filled records! That’s right, you can now get Pulley’s The Golden Life, Mad Caddies’ Arrows Room 117, and DFL’s Grateful on new liquid filled vinyl variants from SBÄM Records for the going rate of $99! No further comment.
Well, that’s all, folks. Another Record Radar in the books. As always, thank you for tuning in. If there’s anything we missed (highly likely), or if you want to let everyone know about a new/upcoming vinyl release you’re excited about, leave us a comment below, or send us a message on Facebook or Instagram, and we’ll look into it. Enjoy your weekend, and don’t blow too much money on spinny discs (or do, I’m not your father). See ya next time!
Wanna catch up on all of our Record Radar posts? Click here and you’ll be taken to a page with all the past entries in the column. Magic!
On 22 December, Smash! Records hosted a killer book release party for author and owner Bill Sassenberger of Toxic Ranch Records. The evening consisted of a Q & A session with Bill about his book titled Toxic Shock Records: Assassin of Mediocrity – A Story of Love, Loss and Loud Music published by Fluke and […]
On 22 December, Smash! Records hosted a killer book release party for author and owner Bill Sassenberger of Toxic Ranch Records. The evening consisted of a Q & A session with Bill about his book titled Toxic Shock Records: Assassin of Mediocrity – A Story of Love, Loss and Loud Music published by Fluke and an incredible set by DC’s own female-fronted punk band, Bed Maker.
Fans, friends, and customers filled Smash! Records where it was warm. Bill introduced himself and his first book while recounting the memories of his past. The book delves into the love and the loss his wife, Julianna Towns of Hue And Cry, Moslem Birth, Peace Corpse, Skinner Box, Zimbo Chimps and the amazing connections with bands made through Toxic Shock Records. The book can purchased here.
Bed Maker is DC’s own punk band and includes Amanda MacKaye on vox, Jeff Barsky on guitar, Authur Noll on bass, and Vin Novara on drums. I have seen Bed Maker multiple times and I think they sounded amazing even though the space was tight. MacKaye’s killer angsty delivery was amazing, guitar, bass, and drums were all on point and the best I’ve heard since seeing them for the first time in summer 2024. Don’t get me wrong, they sounded great at every show but they’ve really set the bar. Find them here next.
