In the mid to late 90s, Seinfeld was seeing its final days as one of the Larry David-driven pioneer sitcoms about minutiae. Seemingly riding off of its coattails, a much more twee series appeared right after its time slot, titled "Friends." While giving the show a chance at first and embracing the 90s, Linklater-esque "Do Nothing other than hang out" element to the show, the series instantly began to sour on me and I found myself firmly planted in camp "Friends Sucks!" from then on. As "Friends" diaries, coffee mugs, shirts and merch flooded the market and the show became heralded by many as their "all time favorite shows," news of Matt Perry, the actor who played the cloyingly "cute" character swiftly fell from grace and entered the land of tarnished celebrities like Robert Downey Jr. and Scott Weiland, all of whom had the resources for rehab but seemingly lacked the discipline to adhere to a healthy, non life wrecking lifestyle after each extensive stint. Support for Chandler seemed mixed and the tabloids had a run with him. While I pondered whether or not his charm would still affect the young woman smitten with him, sullied by the reputation of drug use and the inevitable correlation that he's flawed and not actually Chandler.As long as I've lived, I've grimaced at Friends VHS, DVD, Blu-ray box sets and recalled the words of my late mother "they should apologize for having made that show," and today will be the last time I make mention of my distaste for the series in such a flippant manner or scoff at Matt Perry, a man who suffered deeply and struggled with demons, who was unhappy, let down by fame, and struggled with what must have been a terrifying battle against addiction. Sorry Matt, I wasn't even an adult when I tossed all these considerations aside, and when I read your interviews and recounts of your travails, I only feel sadness. With disregard to the risk of "over emphasizing" a celebrity's death over the countless tragedies world-wide, a man who was once a caricature and point of ridicule for my friends and myself, to someone quickly forgotten, now seems as real as ever. Behind the grating character was a man, and within that man was a deep pain and problem that alienated others rather than encouraging support. Before you say "cry me a river" for a celebrity, let me assure you these sentiments apply to anyone struggling, and to leave you with the words of Warren Zevon: "Hey hey, my shit's fucked up, it has to happen to the best of us, the rich folk suffer like the rest of us, it'll happen to you."RIP Matt Perry.

Chandler from "Friends" is Dead as You Already Know

Vinyl Records, PVC, analogue music. It’s a format for listening to music that has existed since the dawn of man. Well, not really, it started with the phonograph in the late 19th century and moved onto 78rpm shellac records towards the end of the century. We didn’t see environmentally disastrous polyvinyl chloride record until way later. So while this hasn’t existed “since the days of the cave man” one could argue that the acoustics of taking in sound waves through the ear canal and ear drums from environmental noise was sort of of nature’s own “analogue music,” although that may be a stretch, so please feel free to provide email feedback if you object.Now that I’ve wasted your time with the opening paragraph to this important article, I’d like to skip over the 78rpm shellac stuff and get right into 12” 33rpm and 45rpm, 7” records as well as the rise and fall of the record from the time I pinpointed to in the first bullshit paragraph to 1979, when digital mastering became a thing and records were no longer guaranteed Analogue to Analogue to Analogue (AAA) presses and became ADA (not like an Assistant District Attorney, although ex ADA, VP Kamala Harris was spotted buying really expensive records, that I want but can't afford, in what looked like a pretty staged photo-op) or DDA (digital to digital to analogue) presses.Here's how to decode those three letter arcronyms: The first letter refers to the recording source (whether they used analogue tapes or digital sources which as well were pioneered and used by Moog collaborator and A Clockwork Orange composer Wendy Carlos in the 70s.) The second letter refers to the format of the master( reel-to-reel, DAT and so on.) The last letter refers to the format it is packaged and sold as (vinyl, CD, files like flac, etc). With those exceptions, the general rule of thumb is before 1979 = probably analogue in every stage, after that it varies.Some records put out in the 90s were AAA; you might be surprised (or not, if you’re cool) to know that rap legend and activist Tupac Shakur had broad tastes in music and enjoyed reel-to-reel as a listening format; also his top-grossing and critically acclaimed 2xLP All Eyez On Me’s first run was an AAA press. So was Nirvana’s Nevermind, and Rage Against the Machine’s self titled album. To quickly explain the general difference between analogue and digital, analogue is a continuous frequency that does not represent a binary value the same way digital frequencies do by varying voltages in the frequency current. What this means is that analogue requires less bandwidth and will naturally produce even harmonic distortion. This is the kind of “audio distortion” that sounds organic and pleasing to the ear. Digital on the other hand offers a higher decibel value of frequency range and is more precise, but is not a continuous signal in the same way analogue is considered to be, requires more bandwidth and the sort of harmonic distortion can range from odd harmonic (which sounds harsh) to even (which has that “warm” sound) to almost none (which will have a very precise and clinical sound) -- depending on the hardware used to decode that digital signal into an analogue output for the speakers.So why’d we do away with analogue? Well at first we moved onto magnetic cassette tapes which were less of a pain to deal with than records (I’m skipping over 8 tracks!) and you could pop them in your car or use them with walk men. That’s still technically an analogue format of media. Eventually the compact disc over took both in sales, offering the capacity for more audio detail at 16-bits and 44khz “red book” encoding — but most importantly, the ability to skip to whatever track you wanted: something which cassettes lacked entirely, and record players could accommodate in a more cumbersome and not at all portable fashion. So again, CD it became.While Vinyl never truly went out of fashion, record players in the 80s became an afterthought when incorporated into comprehensive stereo systems and the quality and design of turntable manufacturing plummeted. Even the famed Technics put out some of their worst turntables in the early to mid 80s, until they got their shit together with the "MK3" in 1989 again. In DJ culture -- largely hip-hop and house -- vinyl, reel-to-reel and cassette never died. Vinyl remained dominant for its acoustics and the popularity of 45 rpm breakbeat records, used with dual-table DJ setups that facilitated beat-matching and scratching with a DJ needle on a felt slip mat. For consumers, no less, it was history and cassette tapes were also on their way out.Still, vinyl became cool again and "indie" in the 90s when Eddie Vedder put out Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy on vinyl and encouraged his fans to buy the record over the cd. They even made the CD packaging look like a record gatefold.Then there’s the iconic scene in “The Rock” with Nicholas Cage where he’s boning his fiancee while rifling through presumably AAA Beatles presses he received, announcing to his balls deep partner that they sound better than CDs. He didn’t really explain how or why, but given that it was produced by Michael Bay, the explanation probably would have been “Didn’t you see what Eddie Vedder said?”Anyways, us Schroeder Zine nerds started buying vinyl around 1995 or so with our after school job income, at a store in NY tastelessly named Vinyl Solution. My first record was a direct metal, analogue pressing of Coltrane’s Blue Train which I was able to play on my mom’s 1979 turntable. Soon after that, beginning our zine, we would receive a flood of promotional punk presses in the mail at our PO Box and it went from there. Vinyl was not only a fun pastime, but in its used format, it was often cheaper than a CD; plus Nick Cage from the Rock had said it was good and so did Eddie Vedder's pal Neil Young.Blah blah blah, MP3 happened and then Y2K. 128kbit was considered good, 192 great, 320kbit a bit overkill for hard drive storage and download speeds. By 2005 or so, CD resale value was garbage and there was a growing detachment to physical media with piracy at large and MP3 players storing more music than possible in a CD binder (that may or may not have been stolen out of the back of your car in 2002.)Cheaper, larger storage options made collecting high-VBR or 320kbit mp3 and lossless codecs like "FLAC" more practical. The all time greatest music torrenting site, what.cd, an invite only tracker hosted so many releases catalogued by format, year of release, mastering job, and so forth that it may as well have been the library of congress. Records were dirt cheap, $1-$8 could get you a VG+ copy of an OG AAA press. Your digital could now sit on an MP3 player and the tangible, physical format of music that collectors have a fondness for could now be purchased cheaply and cherished as the beaten up, ring wear heavy, obscure press you’d bring home and dust off.For awhile, vinyl sales laid pretty dormant outside of metropolitan areas. There seemed to be less incentive to buy CDs when digital is just digital, the sound is affected by the playback hardware, not where you store it. Vinyl, on the other hand, was the only way outside of Reel to Reel and some cassettes to get an all-analogue experience. One has to be in a physical format, the other one can be in an iPod nano stuffed up your ass. See the difference?Things were gravy until the RIAA and Interpol squashed torrenting and what.cd was no more, much to Trent Reznor's, a frequent patron of oink's palace, what.cd and apparent fan of piracy, dismay.** Digital sales became infrequent and consumers shifted to the convenience of compressed digital streaming services played out of mediocre hardware components with mediocre ear buds (Mine were $7 panasonics.) Compared to that, a record played on a decent setup would be a massive breath of fresh air.So what am I getting at here? I need to wrap this up because no one is going to keep reading this as I’ve made a lot of rather boring points: vinyl is no longer a cheap listening solution. Physical media is extremely popular now, and there may be many reasons why. The sociological: In a post pandemic, accelerated culture of internet isolation, we are no longer as communal as we once were and the bonds we once shared within our communities have weakened and transformed. The ephemeral nature of digital for many only adds to the dissociative quality of living “in the cloud” and a growing desire for grounding, tangible objects has not only made records more appealing, but cassettes and even CDs. Whether this "grounding" technique works or only further engenders materialistic consumerism remains to be seen. Ultimately, this means that people will buy records mastered from compact discs that sound worse than the digital source, so they can have a pizza sized version of a badly mastered CD, to grip tightly for comfort. It’s understandable, but it’s also an RIAA cash grab and environmentally unfriendly.The technical: many people have had it with the shitty, tinny sound pumping out from Spotify into their earbuds and enjoy the even harmonic distortion and warmth that AAA vinyl or even modern, audiophile grade vinyl has to offer. They may even just prefer music from those older, pre 1980s eras. Even if a record is digitally sourced, the masters the lacquer is cut from can be so high bit rate and frequency responsive that the album would could be a terabyte, and then you’d still need the right hardware for it to sound right. That’s why you can look at MFSL presses, which often use analogue to digital to analogue, as large platters that play what would have been insanely huge files.The header graph demonstrates this steep rise in vinyl sales, which of course boosts the price due to good ole supply and demand (sadly, there's no time machine to go back and make Relatively Clean Rivers print more copies of their 1976 self titled record whose masters are now destroyed.) Online databases and marketplaces like discogs now dictate the fair market value of vinyl, which is 3x to 10x the price of what it in 2010. This is particularly true of those audiophile grade presses or the shrinking number of for sale, pre-1979 AAA pressings.Basically, it’s a bad time to collect vinyl from a cost basis -- as it seems like a bubble that could burst at any moment. Still: will finite, decreasingly available classics like an OG UK Pressing of Dark Side of the Moon diminish in value any time soon, vs say, an audiophile grade copy of The Smashing Pumpkin’s Siamese Dream? Time will tell.It is a strange time for audiophile culture to be booming so hard, not merely in terms of pricey records and expensive setups, but components for digital as well. Are the members of the "elite" audiophile community wealthy with disposable income, or going into debt over gear they can't afford, or simply looking for comfort? Likely all. As we face the precipice of economic collapse, global conflict and what seems like a somewhat stochastic but no less causality based chain of events leading us into darker and darker times, will that 1998, “500 copies printed” indie rock record still sell for $400 in a couple of years, or will people be spending the money on medical bills and just trying to survive in an ever harsh, reality-facing, nickel and dime economy?**Since the take down of what.cd in Nov 2016, locally stored music has been sidelined by streaming and diminished at a predictably accelerated rate. Just shy of 7 years later, much of it is considered "lost media." RIPs of compact discs, not the actual disc itself, will sell for $50 or higher -- piracy for profit; driven by desperation or greed -- the very antithesis of "community," which, in whatever achievable form, is something we need now.

The Rise In Popularity of Vinyl Records

Dicking with your brain chemistry is an age old practice going back to “soma” and other various discovered psychedelics used by our ancestors with some pretty good evolutionary results. The practice is currently available to the public in all manner of ways, be it prescribed on a notepad and then filled in a little orange bottle that has your name on it, or scored from a drug dealer like in the 90's. Or, off the deep web like all the despondent hapless younger millennials and zoomers with their agoraphobia, anhedonia and lethargy, do to kick up their tragically deformed and over-bombarded dopamine receptors (they didn't make this world, they just live in it) – apparently not inspired by Dennis from “It's always Sunny in Philadelphia” to score crack in an alley.Research Chems (RCs) once known as “designer drugs” are also a thing; the idea being that the molecular structure of a scheduled narcotic is now legal because they tweaked a covalent bond or something. The analogue act was designed to classify these knock-offs as still illegal, but the paper work can be arduous and painful to arthritic bureaucrats as they attempt to scribble “NO!” over the new diagrams of the molecule with their government issued sharpie.Now that I've gotten around to explaining some pretty sketch stuff, legal or illegal, we move into 2022 and enter the world of “nootropics,” which in simple terminology means a primarily cognitive performance enhancer: mental, physical, preferably both. It is a term that encompasses anything from single origin coffee, nicotine, eggs benedict, various legal mushroom extracts such as lions mane, microdosed psilocybin which has yet to be fully decriminalized but is frequently referenced in pop culture. Then, discontinued Russian or Belgian pharmaceuticals like racetams that potentiate glutamate, and other “legal” drugs that produce similar effects to GHB and opioids. (Fun fact: GHB was once sold legally at GNC. Was it because they were both three letter initialism starting with G, and someone in their sales department got the two confused? We'll never really know.)Is the opioid-like, Southeast Asian, pulverized leaf, powdered stimulant kratom a nootropic? Most people would agree “no,” at this point – but Joe Rogan and his wimpy little pal Tom Segura would tell you it's a great pre-workout while basically eschewing any explanation about it or its potential for debilitating withdrawal.Many consider phenibut a nootropic (GNC sold this too!), even though it is addicting, dependence forming and nearly impossible to detox from in a medical facility once psychosis has set in, due to its complex and poorly understood pharmacokinetics in the USA. You're honestly better off being addicted to heroin because at least doctors will know what to do (being addicted to heroin is not a good thing however, don't do that just because I said one thing was worse, ya jackass.)Finally we arrive at “noot stacks,” the most recent frontier of self-optimization as “no fap” lost traction. The stacks, among the reasonable public who don't want to dive deep into companies that sell or have discontinued the aforementioned pharmaceuticals, typically involve ingredients considered to be relatively harmless replacements for more serious ones. So, vitamin b-complex, choline (which is found in eggs,) caffeine, uridine, a-l-carnitine, DLPA and what have you: all isolated, enhanced, compounded, pill-pressed and packaged into bottles labeled “alpha brain” or “alpha mind,” so everyone can get that slight competitive edge and feel on par with every other optimized shithead out there. And still, we could just drink tea, meditate, exercise, eat healthy and not try to have god like powers to mitigate the damage from slouching in front of Reddit.

Nootropics, Sex and Rock'n'Roll

We caught up with Sledge after the Toasters came off stage at the NESF. Here is what our conversation sounded like.Tim: What did you think about the New England Ska Festival, was it fun?Sledge: It was very fun, it was good to see the kids out, having fun, dancing, Ska is alive.Tim: What do you think about playing with greats such as the Skatalites...Sledge:Aw, man, those guys (sarcastically) it’s nothing man. No, it’s really great, because we try to get around as much as possible, but with the scene really becoming popular it’s kinda hard to keep in contact, I mean, I’ve known the Skatalites for years, Jeff Baker and them, and the Pilfers and now that the scene is getting big and the bands are really, well it’s kinda hard for everyone to get together to see each other, but when we get the chance like this as a matter of fact there is Jeff Baker right there...Django: I love the way you play the saxophone.Sledge: Thank you, but I don’t play the saxophone you jerk off.Django: That’s not what I heard.Sledge: You heard wrong. GET OUT OF HERE.Django: I was talking to Rolff over there and he asked who was playing, I told him the Toasters and he said ‘That’s why I hear a good Trumpet’.Sledge: That’s cool.Tim: Any words of advice?Sledge: Whatever you are going to do do it, and do it to the best of your abilities. I don’t care what it is, whether it’s Ska-core, traditional, 2tone, 3rd wave, whatever it is, if you’re going to do it, do it well, don’t fuck around with it. If someone tells you ‘hey you can’t play ska-core because it’s not real ska’ play what you like to play. If it’s what you want to do, do it. Don’t listen to others, go for it.

Sledge from the Toasters

Tim: So, Rundown of band, what do they do.Django: Well there’s me, I sing and play trombone, then there is Mike McDermont, on drums who I picked up while I was in Murphy’s Law, Paul Ackerman on Bass, fomerly of the Pietasters & Regatta 69, Dave Hahn, on guitar, the famous Dave Hahn a.k.a. Hahn Solo, Mr. Rolph Langsjoen, on trumpet.Tim: Would you beat up Ronald McDonald for his boots and his afro?Django: Nope. If I saw him hit one of my friends then I’d beat the hell out of him or if he hit me first.Tim: What about if he stepped on you with those big ass shoes?Django: If he did it maliciously, if it was an attack rather than an accident.Tim: How many people have been in and out of Skinnerbox over the years?Django: A bunch, not as much as Murphy’s Law, but a bunch.Tim: As far as I can tell there is only one original member of Murphy’s Law in Murphy’s Law.Django: That’s right, Jimmy, he’s like me, I’m the only original member of Skinnerbox. Tim: Do you think that has been helpful for your sound as a whole?Django: Having people in and out? At times it hasn’t but at this point it has because the band is the most capable it has ever been and the most unified it has ever been as far as chemistry, everyone really gets along really well, there are two less of us, there are only five of us at the moment. I don’t know, things have just been a lot smoother everyone takes care of themselves and they take care of each other which is a big change because it used to be everyone out for themselves expecting me to take care of all their shit, now it’s like I just wander around in a daze and everyone takes care of their own shit which is a major improvement to me.Tim: Favorite band?Django: My favorite band is really hard to say because there is so much excellent music out there.Tim: Who influenced you the most?Django: Once again it is hard to say. I depends really. Different songs show different influences. Stubborn Allstars is obviously most influenced by the Skatalites, the Maytals, and Prince Buster, people like that. Skinnerbox is just where all of my influences really come out.Tim: Do you favor any style?Django: As long as I’m having fun it’s cool, I’ll go through phases where I’ll write, like lately I’ve been writing a lot of reggae stuff, most of the time when I write, that’s what comes out.Tim: So has the scene has changed a lot since you started?Django: Oh yeah, you couldn’t have done this (New England Ska Festival) in 1981, first off there weren’t any American Ska bands in ‘81, maybe a couple of bands in New York, and Some in Boston, but today you see so many different kinds of kids dressing up coming to shows, they’re into all different stuff, you see kids at ska shows wearing Phish T-shirts, which is really kinda wild, it’s cool, I like it. It’s really open-minded.Tim: Looking at songs such as “Judge Knotte” on the Stubborn Allstars record and “This A New York” on the new Skinnerbox record, it seems like you are really into getting back to the roots, what would you say to all those kids who think that the Bosstones invented skaDjango: If they think the Bosstones invented ska they are plainly just mis-informed, they should check out the roots, check out everything from the Specials, Madness, the Selector, early Selector, not new Selector, I’m not really happy with the new Selector, the original Bad Manners, and from there all the Jamaican stuff; Prince Buster, Desmond Dekker, Derrick Morgan, all that stuff, If it wasn’t for that there couldn’t be any of this. But I could see kids liking the Bosstones and totally hating all the old stuff, it’s different music. I think the new Bosstones record is great.Tim: Were you influenced alot by Skinhead Reggae?Django: I mean even before it was called that here, I was deep into it before I ever heard that phrase (Skinhead Reggae). One of my favorite records when I was in High School was a compilation on Trojan called Monkey Business it was a really great album. But I’m into alot of stuff from 40’s R&B and Jazz and Doo-Wop Classic Rock, theres all kinds of influences.Tim: Punk Rock influences?Django: Somewhat, the Clash and the Buzzcocks. I spent 2 and a half years in Murphy’s Law, and six weeks touring with Rancid so it’s kinda hard for it not to rub off on you.Tim: What was it like touring with Rancid and what would you say to all of those people who say that Rancid sold out?Django: I would say that, I don’t know what their motivation is (Rancid), but in general it’s just kids talking shit, and being jealous. I mean, you play music, you want people to hear it, and as many as possible, because that’s really your only reward, when you see kids dancing and diggin’ the music, that’s what you do it for. I think that any musician in the position where you can move forward and play in front of larger crowds you know anyone is going to do it. As long as no one comes up to you and says I’ll give you X amount of dollars to do this which is against your beliefs then fuck that, but if you are doing what you are doing, you might as well get paid for it, I don’t see anything wrong with it, you’re just lucky.Tim: Being on tour with Rancid and being on the Beavis & Butthead movie soundtrack with Rancid you guys have gained alot of exposure, have you noticed the impact of that?Django: I haven’t seen the impact of it. Stubborn Allstars have played about one show since then and I don’t think that people make the connection, yeah there are the die hards but they already know and they’ve already been there. Whatever, I’m cool, we went on tour and everywhere we went people were into us so we have a good time so whatever.Tim: Do you think that bands like the Specials and the Selector are capitalizing on the new revival of ska?Django: We went on tour with the Specials and they were definitely into it every night. Skinnerbox went on tour with them for about two weeks last year, and they’re just so professional we learned so much by just watching them, they’re totally into it. It’s amazing that they can still play those songs 20 years later and just be into every night, all night long. Sometimes I’m like ‘I don’t want to fucking sing this song again’, and they just rocked out every single night.Tim: (Rolph enters) Say hi Rolph.Rolph: Hi. Are you guys from CBS?Tim: CBS, no, I wish I was CBS, then I would make money.Rolph: Oh, O.K.Tim: Would you like life as a gigalo?Django: No.Tim: Favorite cartoon character.Django: Bobby. Some of the best advice I ever had, I got when I was a little kid basically, younger than you, and his name was Bucket, and he said to me, “Jeff, it is whatever you think it is”...Tim: Only in a British accent.Django: Yeah (saying the same thing impersonating Bucket), and I’ve always kept that in mind.Tim: What do you think it is?Django: It’s pretty fun.Tim: Words of advice for anyone starting bands?Django: Work your butt off! If you have a feeling that you know what you want to do do that as much as possible to the exclusion of all other things.

Skinnerbox

Basically give us a rundown of the band and what they do...Marcus: What, you want a lineup?Yeah.Marcus: Ok. My name is Marcus Geard, I play bass, TJ Scanlon plays rhythm guitar, Vic Rugierrio plays keyboards and sings, Marc Lynn Sings, Luis Zuluaga plays drums, Jeremy Mushlin plays trumpet, and Dave "disco" Hillyard play saxophone, and lately we have been accompanied by Dave Hahn on Guitar.What's the deal with Jeff Baker?Marcus: Jeff doesn't really play with us. He was playing with us for a while before he got busy and he played with us on the record. But he's been really busy and ever since then he's ben playing with all sorts of other people. So, he doesn't have time for peons like us anymore.When did you guys get started?Marcus: We started the band in September of 1991, I think.Since then what types of musical styles have you explored?Marcus: Well, when we first started we were kinda a two-tone and punk thing...Yeah, I heard some of your earlier stuff and it sounded kinda two-tone, how did the transition to more traditional kinda ska style come around?Marcus: Well, our favorite band was the Specials when we started so through that we started exploring the traditional Skatalites style ska and rocksteady and we picked up a rocksteady influence early on and we tried to do ska, but because we didn't have a horn section it never really gelled properly, we did it as traditionally as we could but it never really came together so then we started looking around trying to get a horn section together. We also had a strong R & B influence that was more pronounce back then and we wanted to do more R & B tunes too. We were more Mod influenced than punk, we were more of a ska-mod band than a ska-punk band and thats where our R & B influence came and expressed itself through.What about Jazz influences?Marcus: We all like Jazz, the serious Jazz influence comes from the horn section, Jermey and Dave are serious Jazz fans, but they love ska and rocksteady too, but they are big Jazz fans. Vic is a big Jazz fan too. Luis is into Jazz too, Luis is influence by Art Blakey and that whole school of Jazz drumming.What about Swing Jazz?Marcus: I must admit I'm a big swing Jazz fan.Swing Jazz is the coolest! Who is your favorite swing artist?Marcus: What's his face, the drummer, Buddy, (we suggest a couple) I don't know. You are confusing me boys, you are confusing me. I don't have a favorite swing artist I don't know them well enough.You guys are sort of set apart from the whole ska scene in the sense that you have your own original style, were you aiming to develop that?Marcus: Our only real intention was to be true to the roots of the music we strive to know what we are doing as far as knowing the music we play and if we start out to play a song or write a song we try to be distinct in our approach we'll feel it around and we'll try different genres and different venues of the genre of ska and we'll try it and say "Why don't we try it more rocksteady or a little more Traditional" and we work it around from there. And I think as a result of trying to adhere to the roots we ended up unintentionally with our own sound. These are pretty long winded dull answers.We've got some funny stuff to ask you. We've got some rebuttals we'd like to hear from you concerning a certain Pietasters interview that was done.Marcus: What did they say.We didn't put this in the interview, the other guy from Mind Toliet Magazine asked about it, but they said something like, well, I think you guys said something about the Pietasters having small...Marcus: (Laughing)And the Pietasters said something about you guys always saying that because you...Marcus: Aha, that's good! Well, I got that thing from the Pietasters from the keyboardist, Paul, who is due over here any moment now, and it's not like he mentioned this to me recently, he mentioned it to me a year and a half ago while we were both quite pissed, and I don't know if he was being funny or if he was telling the truth. I don't know, it's his option to speak these things in public should he wish to. Besides, maybe Steve was speaking solely... Well, you see, they didn't deny any of the mentioned charges, or come up with an excuse for how people would know this and since I know this is not the true and I know how the knowledge was gotten I can only assume that they are verifying the truth through their lack of denial.The Pietasters are a funny bunch of guys, they told us Paul was dead.Marcus: Yeah, I read that. No, I talked to Paul on the phone about an hour ago.So Paul is not dead!Marcus: No, and from what I understand he just did some work on the new Stubborn All-Stars record and will be playing bass, that's right, bass with Skinnerbox. So we'll be going out on tour with him shortly.Dave Hillyard used to be in Hepcat right?Marcus: This is true.He's not in Hepcat anymore is he?Marcus: Not technically, well, not really at all, but from what I understand he is probably going to be making a guest appearance on their next album.Who is your favorite Simpson's character?Marcus: That's tough, I love all the Simpson characters, Otto Parts is probably one of my favorite characters, and you've gotta love Bart, but then again I empathize with Homer so much.What are some of your favorite bands to tour with?Marcus: Well, we haven't toured with a lot of bands, we toured with Skinnerbox, actually that is pretty funny because you just asked me does Django play with us anymore and I said no and the last band we played with was Skinnerbox, we did a jaunt into the Mid-west, and he played with us all the time and a bunch of the Slackers played with Skinnerbox. We don't play together but he's so busy with his other projects that he doesn't play with us on a regular basis.Speaking of band members coming and going have you added a new guitar player?Marcus: Who, Dave Hahn? We'd like to add him, he also plays with Skinnerbox, I think his main band is Skinnerbox, but Jeff being so busy he had a lot of free time on his hands and he started playing with us a lot. He is one of our favorite musicians in New York and he is our #1 choice to have as accompaniment. We have a basic band of seven but we occasionally have other musicians play with us so you might go to a Slackers show and see a group of 10 or 8 on stage.Who wrote "Our Day Will Come"?Marcus: I don't know, we didn't.Who sang that on the album?Marcus: Doreen Schaeffer, she's the singer with the Skatalites. She was a friend of our manager at the time and she graciously agreed to sing for us, so it was cool, so they were kinda hanging out anyway so. It is not like anyone in the ska world is rich so you take work where ever and whenever you can get it.Aside from Jazz, Swing, Ska, and Punk what other stuff do you like?Marcus: I am a big R & B fan. I like the southern stuff better than the Motown stuff, not that I don't like the Motown stuff, I do, but the southern stuff has a much more twangy, harder, bluesier edge to it. I am also a big fan of rock-a-billy and surf music. Basically I listen to shitloads of Rocksteady and Jamaican Dub music, you know like King Tubby Augustus Pablo, Lee Perry is the man amongst men. That is really what I listen to most, Lee Perry's stuff.What is the band's favorite movie?Marcus: Hmmm... that's a tough one, It's hard to pick a favorite movie, you mean the one movie I could watch...over, and over, and over...Marcus: Well one of my favorite movies would have to be "A Clockwork Orange" but then again for sheer entertainment value I'd have to go for something really stupid like a nice Trauma film like "Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid" that was a great film.What about "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"?Marcus: Fine, fine film with an all star cast. I agree that that is a great and classic film. I saw a really good movie the other day, what was it, oh, "Robin Hood" the original "Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn, you know the 1930's version. It was so good, I mean, it made the Kevin Costner movie look sad in comparison.Well, the Kevin Costner movie was sad.Marcus: It was, it was a terrible movie, but here is a movie 50 years older with no special effects, and 1/20th the costuming budget but yet the film is a million times better, the characters are more interesting and more believable it was a good film. Yeah, put that down as one of my favorite films too "Robin Hood" that was a classic.What about "Garbage Pail Kids"? Yeah, right Dan! Marcus: Sorry, I missed that one. I'm not a big renter of videos so I don't get to see all the crappy movies I would see were I a big renter of videos. I'm a big fan of Russ Meyers' films, you guys ever see a Russ Meyers' film?No.Marcus: You are missing out there lads, you go rent yourself a Russ Meyers' film and have yourself a good time.What is your favorite club in NY to play?Marcus: That's an interesting call, of the places we've played I think I like Irving Plaza the best.Coke or Pepsi?Marcus: Pepsi, I like R.C. even better but Pepsi, definitely.Strawberry Quik or Chocolate Milk?Marcus: On a regular basis?Yep.Marcus: On a regular basis, chocolate milk, every now and then, Strawberry Quik.Favorite Disco Band?Marcus: Probably the Hughes Corporation, or KC and the Sunshine Band.Favorite Funk Band?Marcus: That's easy, Parliament.Favorite Alternative Band? Marcus: That's rough, there is a few of them, I will decline to answer that one on the grounds that it is too tough for me to make a decision.Favorite Techno Band?Marcus: I can't answer that one.Not a big fan of techno, huh?Marcus: Not that I don't like it, I just can't tell one band from the other.Favorite Robert DeNiro Film?Marcus: Taxi Driver. How about this. I want to know what people think, Upright or Electric Bass?Upright, Upright definitely (Dan says) like Charles Mingus.Marcus: Like Charles Mingus, well, let's not go too far I need to do something other than practice during my day. But I agree, Upright over Electric. Let's see what else, Singer's in tight leather pants.No way! I think that died with Jim Morrison!Marcus: Excellent a big vote for the No Singers in the Tight Leather Pants routine. I couldn't agree with you more, or English pop bands.Oh God, that's something we don't need more of.Marcus: Good Point, good point. Another good question, what don't we need more of? Bad American imitations of bad English Pop bands.Examples are?Marcus: Almost anything from the Seattle region. Another thing we could definitely do without is Marilyn Manson, definitely we do not need a re-hashing of the whole Goth thing. Ooo you're so scary you're wearing your mother's clothing, I don't need that.What's your take on the whole cult thing?Marcus: Very interesting the whole cult thing but my favorite quote from it was that "It is perfectly legal for an adult to disown all his/her worldly possessions and to break off all ties with people they know and love and go off and join a cult" I thought that was very funny, it was advocating the whole cult thing. It's like "yep, let's put that on National TV". I don't feel too sympathetic for these people, that is what they wanted to do. I don't understand it personally, but they did what they wanted to do and that is fine, I support their right to make stupid decisions. Stupid decisions are the basis of America.Marcus: I couldn't agree with you more. In a country where the supposedly intelligent and capable governing parties regularly agree that the American tax dollars would be best spent on museums for Lawrence Welch and...GUNS! We need more GUNS!Marcus: That's a good point, we live in a country $300 billion on defense and $28 billion on education and then can't figure out why their educational system is collapsing, excellent brilliant planning gentlemen!That is another thing we can deal without, Democrats and Republicans.Marcus: Yes very True.Which leads me to my next question, Democrat or Republican?Marcus: Can't vote, not a citizen.Not a citizen!?!Marcus: Yep, not a citizen.Where are you from?Marcus: I'm an Australian Citizen born in Tasmania in the city of Hobart.O.K. if you were a citizen would you vote Democrat or Republican?Marcus: Well, it would depend on the candidate, I would probably vote for Rudy Giuliani. There you go, that'll shock my leftist friends, but other than that I would probably vote Democrat. But I can't say that I'm a Democrat because they all too often run some schmuck who I could not in all good consciousness vote for no matter what, like Clinton. No way I could have voted for Bush, and no way I could have voted for Dole because he is a hopeless sell-out, but I did support Dole over Bush in the primaries in 1994, but then again, Dole changed his status over a while.And he keeps on saying his damn name.Marcus: Bob Dole, you gotta like that though.It's cool but it gets old after a while. Did you see the Visa commercial with Dole?Marcus: Yeah, that was funny man, American Politicians, the lowest of the low, no sooner did he lose the election that he is doing fucking national commercials. Ahh, terrible, how the mighty have fallen, it started with the collapse of the British royal family. That's what brought the whole thing on.Back to band questions. Which is your favorite song on the record?Marcus: I really dug the groove on "Our Day Will Come", my favorite song to listen to or play?Favorite one to play.Marcus: My favorite one to play is probably "Contemplation".That doesn't get played too often.Marcus: No, it doesn't get played too often, most of the songs off the album don't ever get played. We play a couple of them which are Runaway, Tonight, Pedophilia, Sarah, Treat me Good, Two-face, You don't Know.Sarah and Pedophilia seem to be pretty big audience hits, Do you agree with that?Marcus: Yeah, I think so too.Who writes most of the songs?Marcus: Predominantly Vic writes most of the songs. Generally speaking Vic will write the lyrics and either he or he and Dave will write a chord progression. Dave usually writes a song or two a record and Vic writes the rest.Did you enjoy doing the Oí/Skampilation?Marcus: We enjoyed the show, were you there?No, I couldn't make it.Marcus: It was a fun show, we did it wearing Bald head wigs. It was pretty humorous. But we only got one 1 minute track on the record which I thought was kinda lame, everyone else got two tracks and we got one track that was somebody else's song, I thought that was stupid. There was something wrong with the tape and when they went to get a Slackers tune the tape was all fucked up and they didn't have anything to choose from really. They only had the first minute which was before it became apparent that there was a problem with the recording, so that was all they could really use from that tape.When can we expect a new album?Marcus: You can expect new tunes on a profile compilation which'll be out fairly soon and the new record, we just finished recording it and I don't like how it's mixed so we have to re-mix it.Any word of advice?Marcus: Eat right and Exercise.

The Slackers

<ul><li>Well on the evening of August 9th I began to photocopy all of the issues of Schroeder ever! In total I copied about 250 zines. Now I know why I’d like to go to newsprint, photocopying sucks! Anyhow I was up until 4:30 in the morning photocopying those stupid things. I woke up around 10:00 got my friend Ted and trekked down to the Ska Zine convention. Boy was it fun, I got in for free, Ted had to pay $5. Sucks for Ted, especially since he carried the heavy bag with all the zines from Grand Central. We got there and set up shop downstairs on the large round table in the Wetlands. I’m not sure exactly who played. I’m certain that Mealticket played and so did the Executives, a nifty band out of Chicago, and Edna’sGoldfish. Anyhow, the atmosphere wasgreat, we all were wearing our ‘Hello,my name is...’ stickers and they really seemed to work. Some kids even got them ‘cause they felt left out. I have one thing to say to them, YOU HAVEN’TEARNED THE HELLO MY NAME IS STICKER. But it was cool anyhow. I met alot of really cool writer cats and hung out with them. There was even some guy from Montana out there. We ran arond like morons and collected peoples zines. We even had a pitch phrase to get rid of all of our free zines: “You get to have sex with Tim if you take our zine”. Needless to say it didn’t work too good. At one point I just began shoving my zine at people saying ‘here take it, it’ll give you something to do on the ride home’. I am pleased to say that there are 250 copies of various issues of Schroeder out there right now, Thanks Moon Ska! I kept in touch with some of the people from the convention via e-mail. I’m sure they really liked the fact that I remembered them (they are probably changing their e-mail right now). Anyway, it was great to see the support on the zine scene and it was great to see all the great and crappy zines out there. To everyone at the convention see you next year, and good luck!(See next page for listings of zines).
</li></ul>Zines featured at the convention<ul><li>The People's Ska Annual</li><li>Moon Skazette</li><li>Ska-Toons</li><li>Ford!</li><li>Easy Life</li><li>Boricuas Bestiales</li><li>Caution Zine</li><li>Journals of the Insane</li><li>In Whores We Trust</li><li>Underling</li><li>Mt. Stemming</li><li>Ska, Punk, & other Junk</li><li>Distant Voices Zine</li><li>Mind Toilet Magazine</li><li>File Under Ska</li><li>Ah Sookie</li><li>Total Culture Shock</li><li>Two Left Feet/Rudies For Rush</li><li>Vespa Magazine</li><li>Rather Be Dead Than Cool</li></ul>

The First Annual Moon Records Ska Zine Convention

On the morning of August 23rd I woke up at 5:45 to get ready to go to the New England Ska Festival. Now you are probably asking yourself, why the hell would you wake up at 5:45 to go to a show? Simple, the show was 4 hours away and started at 11:00 AM so I figured If I left by 7:00 I would get there on time. My co-writers didn’t like this idea so they didn’t leave until 9:00 but my brother, Nathaniel, and myself all left at 7:00. On the ride up we stopped to get some food and took some super pictures.The car ride up was interesting to say the least. Between our getting lost trying to catch a highway and us swirving to avoid hitting other avid ska fans we got to where we wanted to go, Westford, MA. It was in the boonies. The area was nice and the band lineup was even better. There were two stages and we were at the bottom of a ski slope. It was dusty so I woke up wit black boogers the next day. Aside from that the portapotties were gross (surprise surprise). At one point I was contemplating knocking one over while unfortunate fellow was taking a dump. But that would have been mean, so we bugged Dave Hahn instead. I don’t think that he appreciated our comments while he was setting up his equipment. Anyhow, I am not sure who went on first on the main stage, I then became aware that somebody was making some sort of noise on the second stage.  I shelled out the buck it cost for a program and realized that the Independents were next. Cool, death ska in daylight. I must say, they are a much different show in sunlight. They played wonderfully. I don’t know who played next on the second stage, but Spring Heeled Jack came on 3rd on the Main stage. The crowd was really into them and there was a really good vibe going around. People were dancing and helping each other out if some idiot decided to mosh. Spring Heeled Jack played really good, as usual, and played everything they could, however they were constrained to a 1/2 hour time limit, but it was O.K. because it was still fun. Johnny Too Bad & the Strikeouts came out 3rd on the 2nd stage, aw, too bad. Then on the Main Stage was Skavoovie & the Epitones. Wow! It seemed like they played more than the lame half hour slot they were given. In fact, that comment goes for the rest of the bands. I mean, sure it was hot and the sun was right down on the stage but I think that the Skatalites deserved more than a lame ass half hour. None the less, Skavoovie kicked ass. After Skavoovie on the second stage was Thumper. They were fun, they came out dressed as ninjas. I missed their show as I was interviewing Skavoovie. The Amazing Royal Crowns came out next on the main stage. Amazing, truly amazing how a rockabilly band can have such a big ska following. They were great. Skinnerbox was up next on the second stage. On the second stage, what the fuck?!?! Who put them on second stage, and then again, why the hell weren’t they headlining the second stage? Skinnerbox played about 6 songs. All of them good, one of them was a Stubborn Allstars song (Foolish You) and Django, Dave, Rolff, Mike, and Paul were all just playing incredibly. The fact that they only played for about 20 minutes really sucked. You can catch them for much less $$$ and get a much better show. The Toasters played next on the main stage, and they played the usual, Two Tone Army, and, well, I can’t really remember what they played, I am writing this two weeks later ya Know. The Pilfers went on headlining the second stage, I missed them for I was interviewing Skinnerbox. Then came the Jah-like Skatalites! They played James Bond, Eastern Standard Time, You’re Wondering Now, Phoenix City, Occupation dedicated to the memory of the great Don Drummond, and a few others. We left and went to McDonalds talking about how good the Skatalites played and how much we will be sad when they are gone. I drove home while Nathaniel and my brother slept. THE END.

The New England Ska Festival

First off I want to say respect to the NYC scene for supporting everything about the scene.There have been a lot of new ska bands sprouting up all around us the past few years. All of them original, and all of them good (in hindsight, that's a stretch). Let's start off close to home.New Jersey's favorite sons, Inspecter 7, are waiting on the release of their debut album. For a long time they went un-noticed. Now they are receiving the respect they deserve. The vast differences in the two singers and the killer rhythm and horn sections are what make this band extra powerful on stage. Their live show is a must and what they have released so far, a 7" on Moon records, is an excellent example of their skill. There is no doubt that they will be very prominent figures in the ska scene once their album is released.Speaking of aggressive ska, it would also be good to mention the Skoidats from Montana. The Skoidats' music is a blend of Oi and Ska which results in a loud, exciting show. Their new album on Moon Ska Records called "the Times" has catchy songs and it just gets you riled up, just like Inspecter 7. Speaking of which, I hear they are on tour together. Go see them.Last but not least is a band from Baltimore called the Smooths. The Smooths released their debut CD, "Very Own Vegas", by themselves and then proceeded to release a 7" called "Kiss the Carnage". The CD is fast paced and hard hitting. The ska is smooth and the (I hesitate to use this word) core is crisp and very arousing. The smooths will be re-releasing the CD soon, with help from 22 Jacks. Go get it, you'll like it.Any other bands we should know about? Write us.

The Up and Coming Ska Bands

Well, it was great to see the Star Wars trilogy in the theaters. I loved the first one and thought that Empire was great but what happened to the Return of the Jedi? It seems to me like they butchered it. Too much special effects and not enough of the plot. That singing bit in Jabba's palace was kinda stupid. The original song was fine. I liked how they showed Boba Fett more in all three of them but he didn't really do much. This leads me to the next question, what is so special about the Special Edition? Nothing, except for that it is on a big screen. The big screen makes the movie about 100% cooler. With the exceptions of the complete and utter assholes that think they are superior to younger people because they saw the originals in theaters the movies were great. I didn't see that guy at the opening of Jedi but still, buddy, if you are reading this (he wasn't) you had better not send any mail with a return address on it (he didn't) because I will hunt you down like the animal that you are... (no I would do no such thing - such a tough guy...) Thank you for wasting your time on this article.

Star Wars: The Special Edition

Who are the people in your band and what do they do?Mike: Steve Prisco plays rhythm guitar and sings, Mike Bifulco plays lead guitar does a little background vocals, Russ Sisto, our bass player does background vocals, and Allison Whitlesey plays keyboards and vocal, and Bill Grillo on drums, and me on vocals.You were in the Scofflaws, right?Mike: Yes.What did you play when you were in the Scofflaws?Mike: Baritone Sax.Why did you leave?Mike: Political Reasons, personal reasons, schedule conflicts, ideology conflicts, a lot of different reasons.The sound of the Bluebeats is completely different from the sound of the Scofflaws, were you looking to get away from that sound?Mike: What I was hoping to accomplish with the Scofflaws was successful to the extent of my ability to have input, it was conflicts with other band members, and like I said before politcal problems, as well as personal schedules, I just couldn't maintain the demand of the Scofflaws. As far as the sound of the Bluebeats versus the sound of the Scofflaws, it is hard to say that I wanted to break away from them to do this but when forming the Bluebeats I definitely had inmind to do something more oriented to Rocksteady.Did you intentionally leave horns out of the Bluebeats?Mike: Yes, definitely.I find that the music of the Bluebeats is very Ska and very rocksteady, but without horns, which is what most people look for in a Ska band.Mike: That's the reason why I decided not to still play the horn and look for other horn players. Everyone thinks, oh Ska, horns and it's not true, not to say that its not cool to have a horn section, it is, but everybody has got a horn section, and it is not necessary. There are so many great Ska songs from the 60's that did not have horns and we wanted to be able to show that not only rocksteady and early reggae, as well as Ska, that it is not a prerequisite to have a horn section.  You can put emphasis on other things and still make great music.Who are your influences?Mike: There are dozens. As far as the Bluebeats, Toots, Ken Booth, the Pioneers, the Ethiopians, the list goes on and on. But more than anyone else I'd have to say Toots, and Ken Booth.What clubs do you like to play most?Mike: I like the Cooler a lot, that is probably one of my favorite rooms in New York to play. The club is nice, the management's nice, and we usually get a good crowd over there. They have a decent sound system.What bands do you like to tour with?Mike: Well, we haven't toured, yet, but we have taken a couple of weekend tips out. We played with the Skatalites in Boston, and as far as on the toad we played Philadelphia with Ruder than You, but I really can't answer that question because we haven't gone on tour yet. But as far as bands we like to play with the Skatalltes, Ken Boothe, we did that rocksteady festival in Brooklyn summer before last, and it was just great.  Ken Boothe was there, Phyliss Dilon, and a whole bunch of classic rocksteady artists. It was incredible. We played for a 99% black and or Jamaican audience.  At first they didn't know what to make of us. They were like "what the hell are these guys doing here at this rocksteady festival?". They were looking at us with these puzzled looks on their faces until we started playing music, and then everyone turned to smiles and everyone started dancing, it was just a great experience.Do you like Benny Goodman and that old jazz stuff?Mike: Love it.Who's your favorite artist from that era?Mike: I would have to say Glen Miller. Glen Miller and Tommy Dorsey as far as the swing is concerned. I love all music really to one extent or another. As far as Jazz I like bee-bop but as far as swing Glen Miller is tops. My parents got me into that stuff, that was their music growing up.When did you first get into ska?Mike: When' first saw the advertisement for the Specials and Selector albums when they first came out. At this time I was into new wave punk, like the Clash, Devo and stuff like that. Then I saw this huge poster for the Selector and I said that this is fucking cool. So I bought it and then I bought the Specials and the Madness, I got into it from then and then went backwards realizing that this was not a music that began in 1979 but actually in the 60's in Jamaica.OK, now time for the silly questions.Mike: OK…If you were a muppet what would you be?Mike: If I was a muppet? I don't know (laughing) that is a silly questions, I'm too old for Muppets. I don't even know the Muppets to tell you the truth. I'm not too familiar with the Muppets.What is your favorite Heavy Metal song?Mike: Paranoid by Black Sabbath.Your favorite Beatle?Mike: John.Your favorite BeeGee?Mike: None of the Above.Which one is better, Pepsi or Coke?Mike: Coke.Fritos or Lays?Mike: Chips or Corn chips?Corn Chips.Mike: Fritos... Wait a minute, Fritos and Lays are the same company!Oh, that makes me feel kinda stupid.Mike: You just sounded like Butthead there.Energizer or Duracell?Mike: Whatever is on sale.What is your favorite movie?Mike: I don't have a favorite movie. "Lost in America" is one of my favorite movies.What’s your take on the new Star Wars?Mike: Very cool. I saw the first two. I saw them in a big theater, not a multiplex, the kind with the big screen and great sound. I took my kids to see them, they're into Stars Wars now so I'm experiencing vicariously through them, with the new toys, so it's pretty cool.Anything to add? Any advice?Mike: Dig rocksteady, I'm really surprised that this many people are diggin' us like they are. I thought that we'd be dismissed as "they don't have horns and they don’t play Ska" you know, that type of thing. I'm really glad that we are getting such great response as we are.Thus concludes our interview with Mike Drance of the Bluebeats. If you ever get a chance to see them play, go to the show. If you don't you can always go out and buy their album which is called "Dance With Me" and is on Moon Records. By all means check out the Bluebeats, they rock!

The Bluebeats

Who's in the band and what do they do?Nick: At this very moment there is me, Nick Martielli, and you can call me Spider Nick, and I am lead vocalist, tenor sax, I do a lot of the arranging, song writing, and pretty much run the band. Then there's, at this moment, Tyrone Jones, who's like a temporary man, who is really one of our founding members, but he's so busy with his life that we're going to have to use him as a sub for future work, but he's going to record with us. He plays the alto and he writes a couple of songs, does a little bit of back-up vocals. The other main guy in the band is Derrick Kornnish and he, me Derrick are both full time bonafide members, he plays the keyboards, He does lead vocals on the songs he writes. He also sings backup vocals. I do backup myself, so we all do backup. The other main guy in the band is Jay Hackett and he plays guitar. He's writing a couple of songs for us although we don't do them yet. Once he gets them finished we'll do that. On drums is his brother Glenn Hackett, and Glenn wrote a song for us that we do called "For You" and that's the only one so far that he's given to us but he says he's got more and he'll probably write a couple more and he's another full time bonafide member of the band and then there's Tom McGee, he is the trombone player and bass player. Now of course he can't do both at the same time, he was the trombone player for the last couple of months he was our original bass player (tape got cut off, static) and now he got other avenues that he's pursuing as of Friday, that is a very big, recent change, and Tyrone, the alto player, came back to sit in with us for our next four gigs. We consider him a full time member, hopefully he'll record with us, but you know he's really not, so let's see is there anything else. We usually call Tom McGee the bass playing trombone player, we call him Dr. Wonder, and the drummer we call Glenn "the Hammer" Hackett, the guitar player we call Jay "the Hatchet" Hackett, then there's Derrick Kornnish who is the VooDoo Witch Doctor, and I'm Spider, and Tyrone we call Tyrone T-bone Jones. I think that just about covers it.How long have you guys been playing for?Nick: We had our first show on St. Patricks Day of 1996 at Carrington's or Nostradomus in Long Island, whichever you prefer, and we've worked a lot since then, and we are very aggressive with our booking, we are aggressive with our playing, we try to play as much as possible up until like December and January because we are gearing up to record in February. Our first rehearsals were in January of 1996. We were founded on January 14th, 1996 which is basically my Birthday, and our first show was St. Patricks Day, March 17th there, that's about it.What is your favorite BeeGee's song?Nick: My favorite BeeGee's song, well, I guess if I had to pick one, well, you know there is nothing after 1975 by the BeeGee's that I like. Everything before, I didn't like much of it. But I guess "How can you mend a broken heart" is a pretty song and "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights" is kinda a cool tune. That was a kick ass tune. That would be my favorite. "How can you mend a broken Heart" would be the second one, the rest of them suck. I'm not a big BeeGee's fan.Disco just sucks in general.Nick: Oh yes, I'd say so. You know I grew up in 19.., well I was 16 in 1978 you know, so I waiting to hear something decent on the radio and I never, ever did. So, I turned to college radio immediately, and that's when I found some good music.When did you first get into Ska?Nick: I guess it must have been when I was 18, 1980, I was a big Buffalo Springfield, Doors, Neil Young, you know, Black Sabbath, kind of fan, you know what I mean, the Who, well I still like the Who. Even Punk Rock I didn't know that much about, but then I heard "Ghost Town" by the Specials, and "Message to you Rudy" by the Specials and that changed everything, my entire life changed from that moment on. That was it.What song would you most like to cover?Nick: Well, I cover all the songs I really would like to cover, I cover generally any song I want, but I like doing the ones we do we do the "Midnight Special", you know, the Credence Clearwater Revival arrangement, we do "Going up to the Country" you know, the Canned Heat version of that, most people don't know that that is an old, old song. "Ride Captain, Ride" by Blues Image, I was totally psyched to do that, so any song that I would most like to do I do. But there's something I am trying to do now, it's called "There ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" by Louis Jordan, but we will be covering that pretty soon. And "When you Rock 'N' Roll with Me" by David Bowie is one that I'd like to cover but we have to work on it. Ooo, and "Yasasine" by David Bowie too, that's another good one I wouldn't mind covering.So how did you wind up writing "Spider on My Bed" for the Scofflaws?Nick: Well, I was taking saxophone lessons from Richie Brooks, back in 1992, and I was doing some of my exercises and while I was doing my exercises this song just started comin' out of the saxophone, and I followed it where it led me, you know, just playing it, so I thought, "O.K. I've got these notes, let me put some words to the notes" so I thought about a funny story that happened to me when I was in College. I went out one night, got totally smashed and my roommate was using my bedroom so I used this other room and there was no, it was just a bare mattress. I emptied my pockets on the bed and flopped down with my suit and jacket on and my overcoat and fell asleep. I woke up and the room had no curtains and it was a really bright day around 11 o'clock in the morning in the middle of the winter kinda like today. I woke up and I opened my left eye and about an inch and a half in front of my eye was this spider, and it didn't flinch or react, it was just looking right at me because it was a jumping spider, they have this stereoscopic vision, they have these two big eyes right out front and I was looking at it and I just lifted my head a little and I just started blowing on it to see if it would back up and it just started bouncing up and down, it was really enjoying it. It made me kinda laugh and I just sat there and played with that spider for about 45 minutes and then I felt reasonable, you know I woke up and I was still drunk basically so I was fucking around with the spider and I got up and left it where it was and I guess, it's probably not alive anymore but one can still hope. So you know how the song goes, the whole story is true. I was writing the song and said why don't I write about a funny incident that happened to me. A lot of funny things have happened to me in my life, and the songs are coming. Like one time I had to jump off a roof onto a ledge, that's another good one. When I wrote "spider on my bed", back to your original question, I had the Scofflaws in mind, but Richie Brooks finds it hard to sing that fast and I don't so when I started the band I said let's do it the way we do it. But the Scofflaws are great they've always been great to us we love them so I was happy to make a song for them and they said that they were looking for songs and I said "Hey I got one" and Richie was so cool that he put it on the CD.You were in the Insteps, right?Nick: That is correct.When did you leave them?Nick: The Insteps and I parted ways because we had different views on how to run business, on how to run rehearsals, on how to behave at shows, on how to be professionals basically and I had a lot of different ideas than they did and there was a time, I mean, when I started with the Insteps they had about $200 saved, when I was done with the Insteps they had over $6000 saved and they just recently made a CD and they did what they did and they had a different vision of what they wanted to do and a different organizational theory than I believed in so I started giving up all the jobs I had. Like I said "I'm not going to do booking anymore" so I gave away all the numbers that I had and contacts to somebody else in the band, like Regina, whose no longer with the Insteps, Al Moon, the bass player, is no longer with the Insteps, so the Insteps have changed quite a bit since I was with them. But, I gave away all my booking information and all my phone numbers and then I said "I'm not going to carry around the P.A. anymore either, or load and unload, and take care of the equipment" so I gave that to somebody else in the band. I said "I'm not going to do the mailing list anymore" because to do the mailing list anymore" because I was responsible for the mailing list because they didn't have one and I told them that if they wanted to make money they should do this. I was right about how to make money. People can say what they like about making money and music but I feel that people sell out much more when they work for McDonalds, a company that destroys rain forests to grow beef, whereas if I'm selling out because I want to make money doing what I love well then Fuck You I'm a sell out I don't play that fucking game, all I want to do is have a job where all I do is play music, I'd rather have a job doing that than serving pieces of the rain forest to hungry American consumers. I like making money with music, and I don't think I'm making all that much frankly! I'll make more as a high school teacher, I am a high school teacher I just don't want to do that any more, because, teaching high school I look around and see these wonderful young children, all my students are fantastic human beings t sitting there watching the high school system fuck their heads up. It's not right and I don't think I can be part of a system that doesn't work, I'd rather be part of something cool and interesting like a band and make a living doing that, you know I have alot of high values in that regard and I don't want to waste my time doing this other thing, teaching high school is a wonderful profession but I'm not into it any more, it's a good way of making cash but that is selling out. Working these regular, stupid jobs that are right at the vanguard of destruction of the planet and the species, those are sell out jobs. Making money doing something like music is not a sell out job. That's the way I see it anyway. I like making money with the band but the Insteps didn't really know what they wanted to do when I was in there and I think maybe they are getting a clearer picture, they slowly are focusing on what it is they want to do. Now that they've made their CD I wish them all the luck in the world. That's basically it.Any words of Wisdom?Nick: My advice is don't get good grades in school, that doesn't really matter, but pay attention to every single thing that is going on around you. Be aware. Listen to everything that you can possibly, try to remember everything that somebody is trying to teach you because it will become useful at some point in the future. The other thing is, learn how to make shelter, to find water, and to build fire, with no steel or flint, just from wood, learn that, and learn how to find a forage for food, because we are going to need those skills in the next fifty years. Just be nice to each other, people are all right. Be cautious.

Spider Nick & the Maddogs

Steve: Pile on in.Cool, I never thought I'd be in the Pietasters' van.Steve: Well, what do you want to know?How did you guys get started?Steve: We all are from D.C., we all went to school together at a college called Virginia Tech, common friends we were in a band, we were all punks, skinheads, all kinds of different shit you know, like Ska and punk and everything played a bunch of different stuff and then we just settled in and started playing Ska and it just felt right so about seven years ago this coming Halloween was the first time we played. We've been playing Ska ever since, that's pretty much it, it just started out as a bunch of friends being drunk and having fun and that's the wayit'll always be.Have you ever urinated on a crowd?Steve: umm..., Not on the crowd, on other bandmembers and myself, yes, but not on the crowd because we respect and love our crowd.Have you ever gotten naked on stage?Steve: Oh, quite often, yes, we have quite a reputation for getting naked on stage, but that's also because we love everybody so much, we just want to share. Sometimes you can coax the girls into getting naked too so that's a good idea. Like this show we played in D.C...Where do you play in D.C.?Steve: Man, we play everywhere, I mean we play so many different places. Like this show in D.C... I got to let them out Todd, tell them to move out, I've got to back up to let them out, then I'll pull up again.Todd: Yeah, I know (outside in the distance)...Steve: Well, this particular show was at this place called the Nocturne and the fire department came and shut it down because there were all these naked girls running around there. That was fun, but that was a long time ago. There's this place called the Capitol Ballroom that we play in and the Black Cat club, and where ever really. The BossTones tour is going to put us in at the new Nine Thirty Club and that our home we played the old Nine Thirty Club and pretty much everything. That's where we come from.Do you like playing New York?Steve: Yeah, man, Fuck yeah, you saw everybody there tonight, how could we not like that? It was really cool, you know we had some cool opportunities to play cool places like the Roseland with theBossTones and Wetlands and a bunch of different places here so... We always have fun.How did you make the transition from Slug Tone to Moon?Steve: Well Slug Tone was just, at the time we,nobody else wanted to listen to us, you know howit is, you're a little band starting out and nobody wants to fucking listen to you and all and so we had a bunch of songs and we put it out on a CD and started our own label and went out on the road and played and played, and played some more, and played some more and finally Moon was like "O.K. they're fucking stupid enough to run around and play so they mine as well wanna put out more records". They were good to us, good guys.How did you decide to put out that big collector's pack thing?Steve: Well part of it was my old lady was talking about how when we were young there used to be a band called the Cynics and they put out the same kind of thing and she said that it was a pretty cool kind of deal because we had a lot of stuff that we were working on and it's probably going to be the type of stuff on the new record that comes out but it wasn't quite finished and ready to go out on record but we had some stuff and we knew that there would be people that wanted weird shit so we just put it all together and tried to keep the cost really low. It's limited and it's kinda exclusive for people who really want it. If you don't want it, that's cool, whatever, so, there's some pretty cool songs on there some of the stuff from the first couple of seven inches that are kinda hard to find so if you're really into that kind of thing you can get the stuff.Did you re-press your old album?Steve: Yeah, in fact we had some tonight you can write to us a P.O. Box 15624 Alexandria, VA that's Slug Tone records and we've got the first CD there and the Pietasters choice pack and T-Shirts.If we're going to write to you we need the zip code.Steve: 22309, sorry. P.O Box 15624 Alexandria, VA 22309 (in a real suave sports caster type voice)How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?Steve: Oh man, not tongue twisters, I've been awake since 5:00 this morning. I'm tired we have to drive back to D.C. tonight, so not a whole lot probably. He's kinda tired. I don't know what I'm talking about.Is it a lot of stress to tour?Steve: Yeah, but it's fun it's just as much work as any other job. It's not really super easy to do but hey you are fucking singing songs and drinking beer so how bad can it be.Is all the beer free?Steve: Not all the time in fact we have to buy our drinks in there (wetlands) so, that sucks.They're cheap!Steve: yeah...What's your favorite type of beer?Steve: Whatever's free... Free Beer. Ummm... we like Red Stripe, of course, and mostly alot of the macro variety, like Bud, whatever's cheap, we're not rich men. When we do have money for high priced stuff we buy liquor, gin and whiskey and stuff but otherwise the cheap barley keeps us going.Who wrote "Night Owl"?Steve: Oh, Fuck, what was their name?... Um, the ad.., no not the ad-libs, some soul girl group from the sixties and actually the version we cover is from '63 or something like that, you know, some Supremes kind of rip off. Then there is this really, really old version from '57, this old blues guy is doing it, it is super slow and really bluesy but some of the lyrics are the same but the melody line is really different. It's one of those old standards. It's just out there.All right, out of all of you guys who would you say is the biggest stud?Steve: Todd right there, Mr. Leisure, no him ->(laughing at some guy). Rob is a pretty big stud, that's our drummer. Hey, Todd, come here...Who's the biggest stud out of the band?Todd: It was Paul 'til he died of a heroin overdose.Steve: Paul our keyboard player 'til he died of a heroin overdose.Todd: I guess Al.Steve: Al's got a small…(LAUGHTER BY ALL) Don't tell him we told you.Closing statement, seeing as though you guys have to leave real soon.Steve: Thanks for listening to me babble I'm sorry the rest of the guys can't be here, it's kinda hectic we have to drive back to D.C. so I'm not looking forward to that. Those are our final words.Words of advice to anyone?Steve: Don't fucking give a shit about what anyone else says and drink some more beer. Have a drink, GET YOUR DRINK GOING! Todd, Get your drink on! We gotta get some champagne on the way out of town.Todd: Fuck Yeah.

The Pietasters

Hi, we are sitting here talking with Mike Pellegrino of Spring Heeled Jack, say hi Mike.Mike: How ya' doin'.Who are the members of the band and what do they do?Mike: Alright, I'm Mike and I sing and play guitar, Ron does the same, Rick plays bass, Dave plays drums, Chris plays trombone, Pete plays sax, Tyler plays trumpet, Chris also sings a bunch of songs.Your show was really good, when did you guys start?Mike: We started at 7:15 tonight but... We've been playing for about three and a half years, almost four, well, we've been together for that long. Our first show was February 27 of '92, so yeah, about four years.If you were some sort of food what would it be and why?Mike: Man, I'd probably have to be.... Baba Ganush.What is Baba Ganush?Mike: It's a Indian cuisine, with eggplant and I like eggplant because it is big and purple, it's a skateboard move, all in the same thing, ya' know?That is the most original answer I have ever heard (laughing)...Mike: Baba Ganush, It's really good, you can eat it with lettuce, tomato. I'm going to give a plug to Mamoons in New Haven, because they serve the best Indian cuisine and its really cheap so that's where I go.If you were a muppet, what muppet would you be?Mike: If I were a muppet, mm. I'm not going to say Animal because everyone likes Animal, so I'm going to have to be that guy that just has that big nose and goes Beep, Be-Beep, Beep. I don't know his name though. What's his name?Some Random Guy: Beep?Mike: Beep???Beaker?Everyone: Beaker!Mike: No, Beaker is the little computer nerd guy, it was someone else, the guy who makes alot of noises...What, the Honkers?Mike: He was one of them wasn't he? He looks like Kramer from Seinfeld.That's Beaker.Mike: Is it, oh, then that's the guy I like. Let’s move over here.Yeah, we're sitting in the men's room.Mike: People are pissing right over there ->What places do you love to play, like, your absolute favorite?Mike: Well, I love playing the Tune Inn in New Haven, that's kinda like our home court. I used to love playing the Boiler Room in New Britain, but that closed down. I used to love playing the American Legion Hall in West Hartford, but they don't have shows there anymore. I like playing Philadelphia, Chicago is really cool, and pretty much all of California.Well what places do you HATE playing?Mike: Places I hate playing, wow! Well, I shouldn't give names of clubs because that would be bad PR (Public Relations for everyone who doesn't know what that means), but, well, um, I don't think I liked Virginia at all, we stayed at a friend's house and that was terrific, but, the club completely screwed us over, we didn't even get to play ten minutes, it was the beginning of the tour and we weren't even on the bill, and they hated us. But I pretty much like playing anywhere. Panama City, Florida was a wacko place, we played at the Redneck Riviera! We played at this bar with a bunch of Rednecks, we played with this band called Fickone Dolce???, they made the night very good for us.What is your favorite band to open for?Mike: I like playing with Thumper, as far a local bands. They are an awesome band to watch, they are awesome people, they are carbon copies of all the personalities in our band, you say one word of Star Wars and they'll talk for three hours, just like half of us. They have this thing, it's like a tortilla, and they burnt into it the face of Obi-Wan-Kenobi, they got it laminated, and they have, like, a little shrine with candles. So they have a tortilla, laminated shrine of Obi-Wan-Kenobi. They carry around one of those and it is the coolest thing I've ever seen. So Thumper, they are terrific.What's the worst show you guys have ever played?Mike: Once we went to play at this Gazebo in Sommers, CT. and we got there and there were about fifteen people so we threw out tapes and stickers and said that we were going to do this and get out of there and hopefully some people will like us and some did. We also played this place in North Windsor or something like that, and we got there at six o'clock, and we had been practicing all day, and we went to play and they only let us play four songs and they told us we had to leave so we were like, O.K. and there was this priest who came out and started yelling at us so that was bad. We called it a night, that was horrible.Sounds bad! So, are you guys touring with the Toasters now or...Mike: No, we did a big tour in the summer, like, May 8th to June 10th we did a whole national tour. And we did another tour by ourselves in August, but we play with them alot, they like playing with us, we enjoy playing with them, they are great guys and we feed off of each other, they say that playing with us makes them feel fun again.You guys put on a great show, I mean, you've got a guy like Tyler who is a...Mike: Lunatic, thanks.Then you've got you guys who are like, yeah!!! (whatever that means).Mike: Well we have alot of fun playing and I think the reason is that we are all alot alike but in our musical ways we are really diverse, we all come in and do our thing and somehow it works, I don't know how and I don't know why. But we still have alot of fun playing with each other and feeding off of each other. If we didn't thrive off of each other as much as we do I don't think that we'd look like we were having as much fun as we do.O.K. I have a question but I forgot, oh well, in the meantime, word association.Mike: O.K.GreenMike: Money, cause I don't have any.GirlsMike: CoffeeCappuccinoMike: GirlsGirlsMike: I am drawing a blank here. That was fun, I've never really done that.It is fun, you sit around and drink and play word association.Mike: That's cool, what is your favorite kind of beer?I would have to say Guinness.Mike: Guinness Stout, good man, that is the band favorite.What about you?Mike: Guinness is my personal favorite, I like Corona, All the way whit and all the way black. I like, um, my favorite drink is a Vodka Collins. It's citron and a sour mix and it's really good, and it is refreshing and it is the only thing I can really drink after getting off stage other than water.Should we be expecting an album any time soon?Mike: Well, we are going to try to record in February, we have about seven songs done for the next album and you may see some stuff off of the demo, a whole bunch of new stuff, an instrumental or two, really different, this one we're looking to get a, It's not like we are looking for new listeners, it is more like we think that people will like this one more than the last two because it has a real good dance quality to it, you know, you can open alot of people up to it.Well you guys have such good energy that if people don't like you after seeing you guys then...Mike: Even if they don't like us I hope they enjoy the show, more like enjoying the atmosphere, you know, a lot of positive vibes. My favorite thing is when people come up and say that they've had the shittiest day and this happened to my car and I got a crappy grade on this test and I came to your show and I totally turned me around and put me in a good mood, I love to hear that.CT Ska has been greatly changed by you guys and you guys have seemed to pave the way for CT bands. Why did you guys decide "represent" CT?Mike: I don't know. CT has a scene but I don't think people know about it. There are so many good bands in CT and we've seen them all through high school, but nobody knows about them. Even in Massachusetts you ask have you ever heard of this band or this band, whatever. For Instance, Blind Justice, who was a real big CT band who never got out of CT, so many good bands, the Pist, an incredible punk band, who finally got noticed, a week before they broke up, so we called our first demo CT SKA in 92 and we put it out and we didn't know what to call it so we decided not to put our name on the front because no one would know us and so we figured put CT SKA or put Ska band from CT and it kinda caught on as a phrase you know, like a kind of band. That is what it has developed into, a kind of band, you know, CT SKA, has that high energy, not so much fast, but its got that energetic, well it has developed as a genre, not so much hard-edge, but hard-hitting.Yeah, it gives you that tingling in your loins.Mike: Yeah, like that band Spicy Gribblets, they came out ages ago, I don't know if they are doing anything now, but they were a good band and no one really knew about them, you know, so many bands come and go and a lot of talent go un-noticed.

Spring Heeled Jack

We are talking with Jim of Howitzer, say hi Jim.Jim: Hello.Jim is the Guitarist/Singer of Howitzer. Who would you say you sound most like.Jim: I have no idea.There you have it. What is your favorite thing to do on Halloween?Jim: I don't know, its been a long time since I've done it.What do you hate most about Halloween?Jim: I don't know, Halloween's cool I guess, you get to eat candy, Its been a long time.What was your favorite Halloween prank?Jim: Throwing Corn Cobs at people's houses.(stupidly) Corn Cobs, what are those?Jim: You don't know what a Corn Cob is?Oh, wait, you mean like Corn on the Cob.Jim: Well, have you ever seen those German grenades. Take off one end of the Corn on the Cob, kinda like you have a handle on it, it looks like one of those German grenades. One end is heavier so it flips over and over and it does some damage to houses.That's cool.Jim: But you've gotta have corn fields.You've done work on APKWIAB (A Punk Kid Walks Into A Bar), right?Jim: Very little, I had a hook up for the printing.Barclay, the bassist, does most of the work on that 'zine, right?Jim: Right.To date Howitzer has released Fat Math and that split 7" with SKEGS, what songs did you put on that 7"?Jim: 3rd Degree, and Sunday Boring Sunday.I understand that you are on Elevator Music, how did that come about?Jim: We played a show at Tune Inn in New Haven and the owner asked us to do a 7". But I believe it is partially the fault of Kevin Kane, who does the Lighter 'Zine. He was there at our first show (at the Tune Inn) and was totally wasted. Whenever we stopped playing he'd scream "HOWITZER!". I assume the owner of the club heard everybody screaming "HOWITZER!" and he thought that everybody liked us and so he put out our 7". I give Kevin all the credit for that.How did you guys meet up with SKEGS?Jim: We met them a Tune Inn in New Haven.So far you've played with The Ick, Skegs, Plow United...Jim: Doc Hopper, Naked Aggression, Murphy's Law...How was the Murphy's Law show?Jim: It was good but we didn't stick around for Murphy's Law, we left.Why? (laughing)Jim: I don't know there was too many people there, so we left.If there were one band you'd want to play with the most, who would it be?Jim: Probably Social Distortion, but probably the rest of the group wouldn't agree with that. Barclay doesn't like them.Is this your first interview?Jim: Well, we did an interview for a Pennsylvania 'zine. Barclay I think did an Interview for somebody else. This is my first official interview, I don't really talk during the interviews. I kinda think they're (interview) funny. See, you might just sit here and talk to me but now since you've got that stupid thing (tape recorder) I've gotta talk differently. It's not like I'm talking to you It's like I'm talking to whoever happens to be there.What is your favorite cover to do?Jim: I don't know, There is an Agent Orange song that I like, that we did, that was pretty cool. We want to play at Arch Street so if anybody can hook that up..., 'cause I don't know how to do that.Any future plans for a 7" or something?Jim: We just recorded ten new songs a couple of weeks ago, I don't know, maybe we just might do a tape or something.

Articles