Slackers Unite: CCBB Interview

Hello to the new indifferent world and our current population of mental breakdown cases out on sick leave with a handful of Xanax. I always thought people should spend more time making music and hanging out in record stores instead of chasing “job opportunity”. Careers, strategic relationships, and retirement plans are fleeting in nature, creating the perfect distraction from actually having to live your life. By living, I don’t mean the drudgery of career building. I’m talking real life shit, things that inspire and compel you to take part in your most absurd dreams.
With that in mind, I recently had the awesome opportunity to interview Nate Mitchell from Cars Can Be Blue from Athens, Georgia. I reviewed their awesome new release a few weeks back and needed to see what the deal was with these garage-punk noisemakers. Some amazing insight and scathing observations are here for your reading enjoyment. This is an excellent overview of what’s taking place throughout the underground music community and American culture in general. - Kevin

Cars Can Be Blue Interview with Nate Mitchell

Your latest release is more musically aggressive than in the past, what got the band so worked up to crank out this new full length of garage punk hysteria?

Well, I think the musical aggression actually increased more between album #1 (“All the Stuff We Do”) and album #2 (“Doubly Unbeatable”). The first album was written & recorded when Becky and I were listening to stuff like Tullycraft & Dressy Bessy & Go Sailor, so it definitely had more of a classic indie-pop feel to it, but with plenty of dick jokes and Moldy Peaches/Dead Milkmen-type “funny” songs. The second album was less twee and generally faster and more punked up, but still catchy & poppy, even though it’s kind of a “break-up” type album. So, to me, the new album (“Trace the Tension”) is more a continuation of the last one, but with only one hilarious dick joke song (“I am a Slut”) to prove we haven’t totally sold out on the funny stuff.
The song I sing (“Should Be Begging”) on the new album was a 21-gun salute to the music of Mr. Billy Childish and is probably the most overtly “garage punk” song on the record, but Becky doesn’t really care for that scene. A lot of times we’re writing songs with two completely different sensibilities clashing and that tension is what drives the band forward.
We bicker and argue constantly like a goddamn old married couple.

Your lyrical topics range from serious, I would say interpersonal dilemmas, to the everyday absurdities of life. What compels you to write the lyrics and is there a “heavy” underlying meaning?

I think right from the start of CCBB, it was firmly established that our stock in trade was singing foul/bleak/depressing lyrics over the simplest chords and catchiest possible melody and that the words had to be “real talk”, not pretentious cryptic poetry.
I would say that there is a lot of bile-venting going on, which I think is in accordance with the punk tradition, being negative and spiteful, but also giving you a great, catchy, sing-along tune. Right now, pop-punk is kind of a pejorative term, but isn’t that what the Buzzcocks and Ramones were?
Anyway, to answer your question, yeah, I’d say there is definitely some “heavy” shit going on in the lyrics department….depression, alcoholism, waking up everyday next to someone you can’t stand and wishing they would just drop dead, etc. and it all comes from a very real place, but we sugar-coat it with catchy melodies for your listening pleasure.

How does the current economy affect the outlook of the band in regards to selling records and playing shows?

Well, we’ve basically stopped doing both of those things. Athens, GA is a wage-slave paradise where literally everyone you know is struggling financially because they work a minimum wage shit job in a bar or restaurant or whatever. Our song “Poor For Life” sums up the general attitude of our peer group here in town. It’s pretty defeatist. CCBB can’t tour because we can’t afford to take time off from our crappy jobs, so we have boxes of records at home that will probably never sell.

What’s the scene like in Athens, GA? Do you ever tire of the city always being mentioned with REM and the B-52s?

I’m aware that Athens spawned The B-52’s & REM and I think that’s cool, so it doesn’t bother me at all…you can’t fuck with those first two B-52’s albums! I’ve heard recordings of the fourth REM show ever and they are tight as hell, the songs were catchy & great & they kicked ass live & paid serious dues playing total shitholes, so mucho respect for early REM.
I’m actually more encouraged by Athens’ music scene in the last couple years than I have been in a long time, even though the highest profile stuff is generally not my cup of tea. Athens is musically supersaturated with Americana crap, bland “indie” stuff that sounds like a composite of Pitchfork Best New Music bands, bad jam-band/fratty shit, weak dance-pop crap, paint-by-numbers thrashy hardcore and cliché-ridden stoner metal, but if you dig a little deeper, there’s a nice little pocket of good stuff. Bands I would encourage folks out there to check out would be The Humms, Mother The Car, The Cryptides, Timmy & the Tumblers, Axxa/Abraxas, New Sound of Numbers, The Rodney Kings, Sex BBQ, Monsoon, The V.G. Minus, The Fuzzlers, and I guess I will shamelessly plug the other bands I play in: Free Associates, Swag Dick Cats, The DeLux Interiors (Cramps cover band where I imitate Lux) and the band where I write & sing all the songs, which is Nate & the Nightmares.

How did each member get started in music and how did the band meet?

Becky pretty much failed everything in high school except for chorus. She has a really good voice and put a lot of effort into developing those vocal techniques back in the day. We met in the summer of 2000 at the place she was working, Video headquarters in Keene, New Hampshire, when I was renting the GG Allin documentary “Hated” and she pointed out that it was one of her employee picks. She basically picked up the guitar right before CCBB started, so all of the early CCBB songs are the first ones Becky ever wrote. I had played drums in some shitty high school bands, but hadn’t played for about five years until CCBB officially started in September of 2002.

How many releases have you put out so far and which is your favorite?

CCBB has three full-length albums. I don’t know exactly why, but Becky was never much interested in making seven-inch singles. Completists might like to know that we have a split single with the All Girl Summer Fun Band and an upcoming single on the UK label Oddbox Records.
Right now, the first album sounds too wimpy compared to the other two. The second one probably has two songs too many on it. The third one was probably thought about too much, but it’s the right length and has a good mix of songs. Maybe someday we will re-record some old songs and put together a career retrospective “greatest hits”-type package and that will probably be my favorite album of ours.

Do you swear by vinyl, cassette, CD, or none of the above?

I work at Wuxtry Records here in the heart of downtown Athens, GA, so I encourage the kids out there to keep buying vinyl, if only for my own job security.

What are some things that bother you in everyday life and in the music scene?

Oh jesus…where to begin? Becky and I are both crabby people, perhaps downright anti-social…not like violent, but prefer to avoid the masses as much as possible. At the same time, I tend to over-analyze everything, especially “scene politics” and observe a lot of regrettable behavior that transpires in a hipster mecca like Athens.
For one thing, I’m older than most of the UGA/Gen Y/20-somethings here and tend to agree with folks like Doug Stanhope who say that this generation is the first to be significantly less hardcore than their parents were. I don’t think kids really have any clear-cut thing to rebel against anymore. Any legit youth movement is cannibalized by marketing departments, you can dress as ridiculous as you want, tattoo & pierce yourself silly and it’s fine. Nobody cares. “Cool” really has no meaning anymore, cuz you have the internet making everything accessible & easy, but also making people and culture more self-conscious. Drugs are mainstream and ubiquitous and there’s so much pleasant-but-vapid music that reflects that, chillwave/shoegaze-type stuff that just sounds like Xanax and anti-depressants. Like, back when everything was hair metal & spandexed out, a boring band like Galaxie 500 really stood out, but now you got a whole generation that grew up on the internet and know that Galaxie 500 and MBV and Slowdive are “cool” and ape that sound, but it’s hollow because the cultural climate is totally different. It’s a copy of a copy and it’s tasteful and restrained and perfectly graphic designed, but it’s just more shit coming down the pipe with no genuine personality attached.
I hate how careerist bands are these days, although I guess it’s really the only way to claw yourself above the fray: hire a hotshot publicist, boost your numbers on Facebook, amass a Twitter following, etc. etc.
Sometimes a band like White Mystery will come along where I can tell that their hard work & dedication is finally paying off and they’re awesome folks, but most of the time it’s just your generic bunch of bespectacled dipshits with tousled hair.
I could go on and on for hours, but I’ll spare you.

What are your thoughts on the distinctions between punk, garage, and indie rock?

Well, “indie” is a fairly nebulous term, but to me it means Pitchfork Best New Music and a full decade of bands that sound like they are consciously aiming for that accolade and will fit in nicely on the in-store playlist at Urban Outfitters.
Punk is too fractured. I hate the current crop of hardcore bands who are just cookie-cuttering all the classic ‘80s-era stuff, especially preachy P.C./political stuff, but also crust punk/thrash/grind stuff that you typically find featured in MRR. I hate Warped Tour/Fat Wreck/Epitaph-type shit, I hate street punk, fashion punk, whatever you wanna call it.
I grew up in NH, so I saw The Queers play a lot when I was just out of high school and they would bring a lot of bands through town when it was kind of the golden era of the Lookout Records roster: Groovie Ghoulies, Mr. T Experience, The Nobodys, The Hi-Fives, The Parasites, so I do have a soft spot for pop-punk of that era. I like a short, fast, catchy tune with decent lyrics & a good melody, either that or a total fucking mess of genuine antisocial weirdos like GG Allin or the electric eels, who are the punkest band of all time.
Garage rock as a local scene was something that I didn’t really experience until I moved to the south, right when the Black Lips were starting to really blow up and I thought they were great!
There were a few bands like Mr. Airplane Man that would play in the Boston area that I liked, but I didn’t make a connection with a garage scene until I started going to shows in Atlanta and found people who dug ‘60s Back From the Grave-type stuff, but also ‘90s bands like Supercharger and Thee Headcoats. Maybe that scene existed up north, but I just never knew about it.
We played shows with The Coathangers when they were still just starting and those shows were always a blast. Atlanta bands like Baby Dinosaurs Vs. Extinction were folks I felt we had a lot more in common with than the vast majority of Athens groups.
There’s a lot of sameyness in the garage scene, a lot of stuff that’s pretty played-out, like the whole pizza party/beach bum/beer bong aesthetic, but I’ll take a fun, sloppy party band over some boring, mopey, indie band any day.

What does the band have in store for the summer and are you working on a new release?

I don’t really know what’s going on with us. I think we’re on hiatus or something right now. We’re not practicing or writing new songs or playing shows or touring, so right now I think it’s safe to say we ain’t doin’ shit. Becky’s in beauty school and that’s her main thing. I play in all those bands I mentioned earlier, so I’m hoping to have some stuff come out soon with some of them, tapes, a seven-inch, something before this summer. If you liked the song “You Should Be Begging” on the new CCBB album, you’ll probably dig the Nate & the Nightmares stuff.

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NEW 7" REVIEW: CHAIN LETTERS

I’m a little late to the party on this one so let me get caught up. Many years ago, I was staying with my friend Jami from the Sleazies in Providence, Rhode Island. I was sleeping, drinking, and entertaining in the band’s small merch room located on the second floor. I didn’t have many belongings and remember using Jaime’s old cell phone as an alarm clock. I guess I was in a constant of recklessness where time and day of the week or year didn’t seem to really matter that much to me. I would always hear him blasting the latest CDs from Rapid Pulse Records. He was their site designer. During the time, I had some of the most memorable blackouts of my life, if that’s possible. It was a rock n roll free for all in which I could hang out with the Sleazies and Midnight Creeps in a world surrounded by punk ferocity and passion 24/7. Not to mention I was writing a record there and learning some cool guitar tricks from everyone around me. I felt like a little kid in a candy store and highly recommend visiting the city if you’re looking for something memorable in your next getaway.

A band on constant rotation was Young People With Faces. I was totally floored the first time I heard their recording and thought it was a lost artifact from 1978. The snotty female vocals combined with raw melody and a crude band delivered the required aural sucker punch to implant these tunes in my head permanently. Turns out that the band was coming into the area for a few shows… That blistering hot summer had a lot of wild times and unpredictable silences wrapped in vivacious music and personality. The band eventually came into town; I hung out in the “band” van with them drinking relentlessly waiting for their time slot to come up. As always, the cops showed up and shut the show down before they had a chance to play, underage age drinking, permits, blah blah... While hanging out with the drummer and her Dad, this was also my first meeting with their singer Sophia Dilley, who had this cool aloofness going on with her friendly demeanor.

Cancel the band’s performance? No way, the crew took the show to the” basement” back at the house and the band kicked ass. They fiendishly rumbled through their set with such perfect ease I was jealous. Jump to the future…It is now March 2014 and I came across a review of a band called “Chain Letters” that claimed it had members of YPWF. Sure enough, it’s the unmistakable vocals of Sophia Dilley. I immediately had to initiate contact and it turns out that she is currently in Los Angeles. Strange how these things happen. This two-song vinyl masterpiece is one of those singles you will keep playing on your turntable until the grooves are worn out. With an airtight backing band and the electric guitar mastery of Chris Parker, we have 2 explosive gems in the vein of Dangerhouse Records and those cool BOMP releases, harnessing the perfect blend of pop sensibility and punk rock fury.

The band is tighter and more influenced by moody power pop like the Nerves and certain Weirdos tracks. Sophia’s vocals have progressed into a bittersweet blend of Jennifer Miro and Josie Cotton. “Bad Reflection” is the instant hit off the single with its infectious verse and chorus that has these subtle vocal nuances that turn into hefty hooks after repeated listens. Now that’s songwriting if you ask me. The B-Side “Boulevard Girls” is a sickly sophisticated mix of the Buzzcocks and Blondie power/punk style. Actually, I’m getting addicted to the “Boulevard Girls” as I can’t seem to stop listening to this track. If you’re looking for seriously good influences of real punk rock in your power-pop collection, you need to get this. I think it’s sold out. I need to know when the album is coming out. This is one badass record with no apologies for its style that outsmarts others trying to mine the same vein. Unlike those wannabe’s, this doesn’t suck one single bit. Get with it and listen to the tracks below, I’m also including YPWF to make my point. Until next time….





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Fear and Loathing in Long Beach- K.M.
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The Dwarves: Interview with Blag

(F&L) At this point in the game, who is currently in the Dwarves? What can we expect on the new album you are recording?

(Blag) Hello Long Beach! There are more Dwarves than you can shake a stick at. The new record is coming together as we speak, celebrating three decades of sickness and sonic skullduggery.

My name is Blag Dahlia- Rock Legend. I’m joined on this ninth full length record by what can only be described as the greatest rock n roll band of all time. Long Beach native Josh Freese is on there, as is SWAT Team King Nick Oliveri, the Fresh Prince of Darkness, Chip Fracture, Gregory Pecker and Andy Now are joined by punk heroes like Dexter Holland and Spike Slawson. It’s the record other punk bands would make, if they didn’t suck!

Kids today are going back to definitive bands such as the Dwarves and swearing off new music. As a songwriter, author, and producer, where has modern rock n roll dropped the ball Blag Dahlia? Why does it suck so badly?

I’m not very nostalgic. There has been sorry shite ever since I’ve been playing music. Often it comes and goes without making much of a dent. Sometimes, it achieved great success by mining that gold that collects in the middle of the road. The good shit stands out in bold relief to the wack.

“Blood Guts & Pussy” was a landmark album. In the late 80s to early 90s, music in the punk world was underwhelming and bland. I heard “Back Seat of My Car” and knew it was my calling! From your garage/surf beginnings, at what point did you go GG Allin on your musical assault?

We first heard GG around 1987 or so. He was an influence for sure. We visited him in federal prison where he was doing time for assault. He shaved his head in patches so the black inmates would think he had AIDS. What a kook!

I always liked real rock n roll more than the punk version to listen to. Live it was the other way around. Rockabilly and 60s folks sucked live, but punk bands were fun. It took the Dwarves to combine them.

Which GG album do you consider his best?

The double LP Dirty Love Songs had most of his good stuff on it, lots of mid period singles and eps. The Eat My Fuc album was great, but someone stole mine!

On such classic tracks such as “Demonica”, “Detention Girl”, and “Dairy Queen”, who is the girl and what pleasing toxicity does she represent?

Detention Girl is a chaotic fuck up. Demonica is a prepubescent wonder girl. Dairy Queen is mostly tits and sugar.

What types of girls do the Dwarves attract?
Gluttons for punishment.

With self-mutilation, on stage sex, and hardcore drugs rampant in the band’s résumé, how much is true and why do you think other bands avoid going for the jugular?

Most bands pre censor themselves just by being boring. We just never shrunk from the excesses of being a rock band and the honesty of being a punk band.

What’s your favorite Dwarves recording from the last two decades? Is there any album that didn’t produce the results you wanted?

I was really happy with the Dwarves Must Die. It was an attempt to conquer every genre of hard rock and it worked. Most punk bands struggle in the studio, but we got really great records working with Eric Valentine and Andy Carpenter and a bunch of people who could actually produce. How To Win Friends has cool recordings, but most of them came out in earlier versions, so that one is for completists I guess.

There has been a resurgence of interest in the Sub Pop label and its 90s output, what do you think of the label and how did SFTRI differ in their handling of the Dwarves?

Sub/Pop put out lots of slow boring records by people with long hair. Why people called it punk grunge or anything besides mid tempo rock is beyond me. Sub/.Pop gives mediocrity a bad name.

Sympathy is one of the coolest labels ever. No contracts, no giving up your masters, no marketing, no staff. It’s the label of the future!

On the Dwarves Must Die and Born Again, there’s some intensely fucking cool production going on, are you producing your own records and is there a Zappa influence anywhere?

Eric Valentine was a huge help in production. We lucked out meeting him. And we have really good songwriters and players, which is where good production starts. My first rock concert was Frank Zappa at the Uptown Theater in Chicago 1980. He’s an inspiration.

Who are the biggest enemies of the Dwarves?
People who have never heard of us.

What’s your opinion on Queens of the Stone Age?

If Donald Trump played bad guitar and had bingo flaps he’d be that guy.

What’s the key to keeping your world alive? (Fucking shit up, getting high, and the continuous worship of sluts…)

I just keep abusing myself and folks keep cheering me on.
Thoughts on religion and Satan?

No and Yes.

Your opinion of Southern California?
Attractive folks, cool cars, retarded people.

-Kevin McGovern, 2014
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Poor For Life: Cars Can Be Blue - World Premiere

Modern rock n rollers are running for cover in abandoned warehouses, crash pads, and under the boardwalk (usually a friend’s apartment). Hipster clogged social scenes, personality tests for low wage jobs, and online dating sites (credit check included) totally rule the day. You wanna know what I figured out? It’s a lot easier and way more fun to stay “Poor for Life”, like the latest video from Cars Can Be Blue says. With its snotty and treasonous sophistication, this mesmerizing train wreck of the Waitresses and Angry Samoans is ready to get under your skin. Hotwired jolts of punkified garage-pop deliver a new anthem for bombshell slackers and barstool poets across the globe.

Their new album Trace the Tension fiendishly smiles while destroying all stereotypes of the musical genres it fuses together for its rabid auditory assault. Memorable choruses, fuzzy chord slamming, and a punchy poisoned candy beat keep this maniacal whirlwind of hooks rolling at the speed of light. Tracks such as You Gave Me, You Should be Begging, Don’t Tell Me, and I am a Slut knock you upside the head with punk prowess, scathing lyrics, and eccentric syncopation.

This outfit from Athens, Georgia gives us the uniquely smokin’ vocals of Becky Brooks. She nails the tracks with an aloof confidence that never second-guesses itself. A nice spattering of gritty hard-core male vocal tracks compliment this perfect album of punk infused indie garage. From the land of the B-52’s and indie pop as we know it, comes a brutal and conniving force of intelligent and obscene punk hipness.

I’ve been asking for new music that doesn’t suck in 2014 and finally found it. This album is very fucking cool. Keeping reality in perspective, the lyrics make keen observations of the absurd and sometimes dismal world we all inhabit. I give this tightly wound bottle of mayhem five out of five stars, and I don’t even have a star rating system. Word…

Kevin McGovern, F&L LB 2014
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J.D. Wilkes, Dirt Daubers, and a Wild Moon

I used to know this girl... she traveled with our loosely knit gang of party crashers. Everyone was mismatched, bored, and distracted. All of us would hit the dive bar/show scene and eventually exit back to someone’s place for afterhours binging. The two of us would anticipate the end of the night when everyone else would pass out, go home, or just give up. We always kept a hidden stash of prime candy for the “real horror show” at 3 a.m. We would lay on the floor in a corner with a tiny stereo and listen to Bo Diddley’s “Mona” and Iggy’s “Dog Food”. Both of us were seeing other people but we preferred the cagey rendezvous instead of traditional “dating”, which seemed so lame. Those after-midnight lo-fi sounds echoed our infatuation and amoral purity with a particular black magic, the kind that recklessly drives the primal swamp hip shake of J.D. Wilkes and the Dirt Daubers in their latest offering of “Wild Moon".

The album blasts off with “French Harp Hustle”, a rollicking firestorm that features Wilkes wailing on the harmonica like a man possessed. A masterful hustling of insane garage-swing is unleashed. Rolling rockabilly drumming with evil blues guitar, frenzied harmonica, and gritty male/female vocals hijack your eardrums with endless manic energy. The tracks “Wild Moon” and “Drive” display Wilkes uncanny ability to spike moody garage punk with sophisticated vocal melody. If that wasn’t enough to get your heart beating faster, Jessica Wilkes smoky vocals provide the ultimate compliment to this country punk free for all.

Like a cross between Wanda Jackson and Exene Cervenka, her voice has a bite to it that I’ve never heard before. Tracks like “You Know I Love You” and my personal favorite “No Rest for the Wicked”, rumble and shake like an apocalypse of the finest caliber. “No More My Love” is a bluesy ballad with that sad feeling of watching the sun come up while trying to hold onto the night that just happened. “Wild Moon” is a necessary listen for wild and haunted spirits everywhere. By the way, Cheetah Chrome produced and released this on his hot new label, Plowboy Records. J.D. and The Daubers are hitting Los Angeles and Long Beach this weekend. Check out the dates and following interview I just did with J.D. a few days ago.

Jan 18 Redwood Bar & Grill Los Angeles, CA
Jan 19 Alex's bar Long Beach, CA

(F&L) Manic blues grinding, the supernatural, and LAMF gusto collide into one perfect explosion for the new video/single Wild Moon. What influenced the erotic riffs and video imagery of this contagious Dirt Daubers tune?

(JDW) "Wild Moon" is about a tragic event that took place a few years back, one involving a flood that swept away a buggy full of Amish children.
It's odd that "erotic" would be used to describe anything Amish, but I'll take it! I guess our guitarist has a knack for making any kind of song "sexy."...

What was it like collaborating with legendary Dead Boy Cheetah Chrome for the Wild Moon album? Did the band tap into unknown areas of its “possessed” prowess?

Cheetah is a legendary punk rock star, so he helped keep the tunes edgy and raw throughout the entire process. Although he lives in Nashville now, he definitely is the antithesis of the slick sound that comes out of Music Row these days.

As leader of the infamous country punk troublemakers The Legendary Shack Shakers, you toured with artists ranging from Rancid to Hank Williams III. How would you describe your experience in the swamp of underground rock n roll?

The Shack Shakers helped forge a new genre that mixes all the dark, edgy sub-genres of American music into one. It was fun to play around with blues, rockabilly, polka and bluegrass and discover the common elements that make crowds go wild.

Your frontman style evokes the ghosts of Iggy Pop and Screamin Jay Hawkins, what inspired you to take the stage early on in your career and create the man known as J.D. Wilkes?

I have been playing in bars since I was a teenager, but after seeing Mojo Nixon and Jim Heath perform roots music in an edgy way I knew I wanted to take it further. Since then I have become more of a student of American roots music and am playing catch-up to inform myself and others of the wealth of old-time talent still among us today.

You’ve received mention as a favorite of Stephen King and your song Swampblood was featured in the insanely popular True Blood. What is the connection between your self-expression and art that embraces horror and the paranormal?

Having been raised in the church and educated at a holy-roller private school I have witnessed firsthand the supernatural power of music and faith. I believe the missing element in much of what qualifies as "southern gothic" are the subjects of faith and folklore.There's something to be said for our shared cultural "blood memory" and the arcane ways the Unknown expresses itself.

You play harmonica the same way Robert Johnson twisted a fret board. Your style is hypnotic on Dirt Daubers tunes such as Wake Up Sinners, one of my all-time favorites. How did you learn to harness the wild energy of blues harp?

I overdosed on Sonny Boy Williamson and Paul Butterfield as a kid. I remember the sensation of the first note I "bent" on a harmonica. It almost seemed to scratch an itch in my brain! I listened to lots of styles of music and tried to absorb it all. From blues to Dixieland jazz to beer commercials. It was all up for grabs.

With the latest Dirt Daubers record, you moved away from a demonic, honky-tonk acoustic approach to a guitar heavy landslide of hip grinding rock n roll. What was the catalyst to go back into a style somewhat similar to The Legendary Shack Shakers?

Jessica and I share more musical common ground in our mutual love of blues and classic R&B. My heart is still in old-time music but the current DD sound allows for a wider range of sonic possibilities, from rockabilly to blues to hot jazz and swamp rock.

As an author, could you tell us a little about your latest book Barn Dance & Jamborees Across Kentucky?

I made it my mission to travel from one end of my state to the other to chronicle the last throes of our indigenous musical culture. I fear regional American cultures are in danger of disappearing with each passing year. This is just my little way of giving back...a small valentine to the old-time music of Kentucky and the "Greatest Generation" that play it from a more honest and experienced place in their hearts.

As a filmmaker, actor, author, and musician, do you find these different forms of expression to be different dimensions of your personality?

I actually see them all as the same part of my personality, just expressed differently. All art forms follow the same story arc... A sort of "bell curve" dynamic that hooks you in, ramps up, then down, and crescendos to a climactic finale. Learning the methods of each craft is the more daunting challenge, but I'm always up for new things.

I find it really cool that you share the Dirt Daubers with your wife Jessica. In some instances, a marriage can cause an artist to “settle down” for lack of a better term. Your marriage seems to ignite the music of the Dirt Daubers in a unique fashion with your sharing of vocal duties. How did you two meet and what is it like touring together?

We met through a mutual friend in Chicago. We bonded over a shared love of comics but then discovered we had musical aspirations in common too. I think Jessica is a star waiting to happen. She writes from a more accessible place (while I write songs about Amish people!) and looks and sounds great on stage. She's also easy going on the road, moreso than many male bandmates I've had the misfortune of touring with in the past. I'm very proud of her.

What does 2014 hold in store for the Dirt Daubers and what are you looking to achieve with your latest album and other unique creations?

If we can make a living recording and performing honest music coast-to-coast and worldwide, drawing comics and writing stories about cool stuff that matters, making short films and not getting day jobs... then THAT is our Grammy Award

Kevin P McGovern, 2014
Fear and Loathing in Long Beach
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INTERVIEW:GENERATION X AND EMPIRE 'S DERWOOD ANDREWS

Bob Derwood Andrews is the legendary guitar player on the explosive Generation X debut from 1978 and its polarizing follow-up, Valley of the Dolls. Required listening is Andrew’s amazing band Empire and the “Expensive Sound” LP, which influenced many bands to come in the following decades. His latest solo outings in the Tone Poet Volumes are worthy listens of a master guitar player in his prime. Enjoy…

I wanted to let you know that since I bought my first Generation X album in 1986 during grade school, your guitar style and solos to this day get my adrenaline rushing. In my opinion, it was Hendrix and Townshend for a new generation of disenfranchised youth. When did you start playing and what were the early influences that helped shaped your style?

Well thanks, my elder Cousin first showed me some chords when I was about nine. His elder Brother was in the Canterbury scene as a bass player with bands like Caravan ect. As a kid it was cool to hang out with players and then when I saw Chuck Berry on TV it blew me away, also a band called The Nice was on TV and seeing them smash their shit up stuck with me…
At that young age I began to discover that raucous playing along with racing motorcycles was a simi-lar rush. At the age of sixteen I was faced with a choice of professional Speedway or jamming in my room with my mates. I chose music, but will never forget the feeling of seeing my motorcycle, leath-ers, helmet and trailer leaving my house forever and walking back into the house to look at my young decision, a Japanese Tele and Orange combo. My personal guitar influences are (in no or-der), Jimi Hendrix, Bo Diddley, Ritchie Black-more, Rory Gallagher, Robin Trower, Wilko Johnson, Mick Ronson, Buddy Guy, and many more but top of the list is Paul Kossoff, why? Passion and minimal...

The guitar solo at the end of “Youth, Youth, Youth” was listed as one of the greatest all time rock solos, I used to lift the needle off of the vinyl to repeat the ending part and air guitar to it over and over again. What was that track like to record in the studio, was it done in one take?

We used to jump on my mates bed with tennis rackets to the Who's 'Young Man Blues' and trash his pillows in suburban Streatham too. 'Youth Youth Youth' is certainly not a great technical solo but, it WAS done in one take with a couple of pints of beer and a magic attitude of youthful angst.

“Running with the Boss Sound” was a track you penned for the Valley of the Dolls LP, I’ve heard so many punk bands try to emulate the opening guitar intro, the album itself was a perfect mixture of glam and raw punk. How had your style changed in the band by the time you were doing album number two?

I no more 'penned' that track than any other, but for some reason I got a writing credit. The style changed in as much as we had a famous 'rock-star' producer in Ian Hunter, a bigger budget, more time and a wider gap between the two older guys and me and Laff. It was actually heartbreaking for Mark Laff to be told by Ian, Billy and Tony that he was not going to play on this album and for him to choose a replacement drummer. He chose Clive Bunker from Jethro Tull and whilst teaching him the parts with two kits set up it was decided it sounded great with two drummers. If I took to long tuning up for an overdub I could see Tony James through the studio glass calling Chris Spedding! It wasn't the same camaraderie as the first album.

What were the best and worst memories of Generation X’s quick rise to the top during those days? How did your leaving of the band morph into the beginnings of the now legendary Empire?

The best memories were delivering the musical goods against violence and pure hatred from our peers and competition. And the worst memories were to watch what happened to people I considered good friends. I believed something way different from the actual situation, and was pretty much stunted and ignored. My job was to play great guitar, but the gap became so great between Billy, who after three years I couldn't stand the desperate sadness of, and Tony who was losing his position of visionary. When I was told it's NOT your band it's ours and don't play such good guitar and we don't want to hear your songs, I had to leave for my own sanity…

I love EMPIRE”S “Expensive Sound”, the track “Hot Seat” has the coolest guitar riff, were the compositions for EMPIRE intended for Gen X or originally written as a solo outing?

I actually think Expensive Sound was Generation X's fourth album after we fired Billy and Tony.

With your take on lead vocals for the LP, was it a new experience and do you prefer taking vocals or guitar on a project?

I get very little pleasure singing, but it's a case of would you rather teach someone else to sing your songs and be disappointed, or be disappointed with yourself…I'd take the latter.

I always thought Mark Laff was the new Keith Moon, do the two of you collaborate anymore?

I love Mark Laff dearly, we will always be in the same boat…with a leak!

Do you play out in California ever and are you working on any new projects?

I just re-released my first solo CD called 'Tone Poet V1'. It was made some 7 years ago from loose ends. But I am working on Volume 2 at the moment, it's all done on Lapsteel guitar on my own with me singing. I play at bars and churches and it's the loudest thing I've ever played...

Any plans in the future to reunite with any of the bands you’ve been in?

Not really, what's done is done and then move on somewhere else musically.

Looking back over your career, how do you think it changed you as an individual in your view of the world.

I think growing into being a unique individual, as we all are, is way more important than a career, and being proud of your past work is a bonus.

What made you decide on calling California home?

The love of a good woman and the weather…

Any last comments or thoughts?

I love Long Beach, I've been shot at through the restaurant window eating sushi, I spread a good friend’s ashes on the beach, seen a good few bands at Alex's and of course Gawd bless The Queen Mary. Thanks for the interest.

Kevin P McGovern, 2013
Fear and Loathing in Long Beach
F&L LB Facebook

random thoughts...

Music is a seductive creature, capable of arousing, angering, and inducing various states of consciousness. It always attacks me the same way a vivid memory does. The perfect song seems to place itself in the perfect memory, that one night you were looking for where the action was at, and you finally found it. You spend the rest of your life trying to reconstruct this thing but you’re never quite there, because the people, spaces, and dramatics cannot be duplicated. At best, you find something similar, maybe somewhere else, far away in an unknown time zone. Then just for a moment, you get to touch it and it runs away from you at a speed so fast you realize you’re just talking to yourself. Life twists its residents into a constant flux of fucking the past, attempting to fuck the present, and inducing fear of what will be fucking us over in the future.

So let us give thanks for being fucked-up strangers in a fucked-up new world crashing into each other. Blasphemy breeds independence and noncompliance gives premature birth to pretty creatures. The gift of rummaging through the dumpster makes us consume the failure of superficiality while collecting the remnants of unused genius. Treat yourself to a brisk walk afterwards, take a left at the next corner, and stroll down memory lane. Maybe you’ll see a new face there, one you’ve never seen before. You might find an unknown someone to help you chase “that thing” and realize it never left you.


Kevin P McGovern, November 2013

Fear and Loathing in Long Beach